Three new reviews and some more story alerts. Man! It's been over a month since I last updated this story.

The six of us were speeding through the forest, trying to find the two echidnas that had run off earlier. After a minute had passed, Amy finally broke
the silence.

"So, how are we going to get changed back to normal?" Amy asked. "Sonic, you've got to think of something!"

"I can't, Amy," I told her. "I don't know how. This is different from collecting the Chaos Emeralds or trying to stop an evil or overconfident dictator from ruling the planet."

Just then, I saw Knuckles up ahead. He was sitting on the grass-covered, moonlit ground with his head turned away from us. He must have heard us though because he turned to look in our direction when we were a couple of yards away from him. As soon as he saw us, he used his right hand to support his body while he stood up.

"Knuckles," I said to him after I stopped a couple of feet from the red echidna. "Where is Typhoon?"

"He went in that direction," he answered pointing in the direction he was looking in before we showed up.

"Okay, that does it!" Shadow said with anger in his tone. "When we find that echidna, he is so dead!"

"Hold it, Shadow," Knuckles said with his hands out in front of the jet black hedgehog. "I don't think Typhoon is really a bad guy."

"Knuckles, what do you mean?" I asked.

"Sonic, after Typhoon ran off further into the woods, I saw a hooded figure chase after him. We need to help him."

That was probably the first time that Knuckles actually wanted me to help someone we didn't even know! I was a little skeptical about it, but the red echidna did have a point. If Typhoon ran away from that hooded figure, he must not have liked him.

"Okay," I said after thinking about the whole thing for a moment. "Let's go find Typhoon."

We dashed off into the direction Knuckles had pointed towards earlier, keeping our eyes open for the charcoal gray echidna. A few minutes had passed before we spotted two figures in the woods. One of them was Typhoon and the other one was wearing a black hooded cloak. The strange new figure was putting his mitten-covered hand up to Typhoon's face and he started chanting in some old language. The dark gray echidna was just standing there staring at the chanting figure in front of him, with his hands to his sides. When he had finished, the figure put his hand down and just let Typhoon continue to stare at him like he was in some sort of trance.

"You have hidden from me long enough, Typhoon," the hooded figure said to the dark gray echidna. "After nearly forty years, I finally found you. I let you keep your free will and you still got away from me. But now, I'm going to make sure that you never disobey or escape from your master ever again!"

Master? Did he mean the one that Typhoon had told us about in his story? The one that had turned him into a vampire and was responsible for what had happened to Amy, Knuckles, and Rouge? That did it! I was going to get that master of Typhoon's to reverse the spell on him even if I had to fight him!

"Hey, you in the hood!" I shouted out to him while pointing my finger at him. "Who are you and what are you doing with Typhoon?"

The cloaked figure turned to us and removed his hood, allowing us to see his form better. He was an echidna just like Knuckles and Typhoon were, but his fur was a shade of blue that was even darker than mine. His muzzle was beige just like the other echidnas' were, but his eyes were an eerie golden yellow color. The black cloak covered part of a golden necklace worn around his neck that had a jet black stone with a circular golden base attached to it underneath. His mittens were just like the ones the other male echidnas wore except each one had a golden wristband around it that looked similar to the chain of his necklace. The socks that his shoes mostly covered were the same dark violet as a cloudless night sky. Each one of his black shoes had a stripe in the middle that matched his socks. The stripes went across his shoes the same way the straps on my red ones did. His shoes were each secured to his feet by a golden band that matched the ones on his wrist.

"How dare you talk to me that way, mere mortal!" the figure said to me angrily. "I am the great and powerful sorcerer, Eclipse! And if you want to live to see tomorrow, you will watch your tongue while addressing me!"

"Eclipse?" I said his name out loud in shock.

"You mean that guy is Eclipse?" Knuckles asked.

"Isn't he supposed to be dead?" Tails said with fear in his tone.

"Typhoon never said that he died," Knuckles replied. "And he was able to make him immortal. Maybe he's made himself immortal too."

"I don't care if he's a freaking zombie," Shadow said. "Its time to put an end to this."

"Shadow's right," I said. "We're going to finish this thing tonight."

I turned my attention back to Eclipse and pointed my finger at him again.

"Okay, Eclipse! We've had enough of this vampire crap of yours! Change our friends back to the way they were, right now!"

"Or you're going to be in big trouble, Mister 'great and powerful sorcerer!' " Shadow added.

I expected Eclipse to lose his temper after Shadow and I threatened him. Instead, he just burst out laughing, like what we had just told him was nothing but a joke! After a moment, he stopped and then looked at us. As soon as he did, he wouldn't take his eyes off of us. I couldn't figure out why. He wasn't glaring at us or anything. What was he looking at? After a minute had passed, the cloaked echidna finally spoke.

"What a pretty young maiden," he said with a sinister smile on his face. "She is perfect."

Eclipse lifted his right mitten-covered hand ; the hand was turned so his palm was out. Then, he moved it back in a "come here" gesture. All of a sudden, Tikal cried out in surprise as she was being pulled towards the two echidnas, like a big hand just came and grabbed her. The mysterious force that snatched her had her thrown right in front of Eclipse's creepy smiling face.

"Don't take your eyes off mine, my dear," he said to the trembling peach-colored echidna standing right in front of him.

Tikal didn't move. After a moment, she stopped trembling and she just stood there. What had just happened? What did he do to her?

"Come," Eclipse said to the two standing echidnas near him. "We must begin the preparations."

Preparations? I thought. What preparations?

The dark blue echidna lifted his hand and put it out like he was touching something. Just then, a strange black portal appeared in front of him. He stepped out of the way in order to let somebody else go in before he did. Tikal was the first one to approach the portal and was making an attempt to enter it. Knuckles started to run over to her with Shadow and me following close behind.

"You let her go, you jerk!" The red echidna called out to the cloaked one as we got closer to them.

"Typhoon, take care of them!" Eclipse commanded.

The dark gray echidna's eyes turned from his usual cobalt blue to the eerie green color of his energy blasts and I could see the bright glow that was emanating from the palm of his right hand. Then, he shot Knuckles with the energy he had in his hand before. The red echidna cried out in pain as the blast sent him flying into me and Shadow ; knocking the three of us to the ground.

Amy called out to me as she, Rouge, and Tails ran over to us. Just as they did, Tikal had entered the dark portal, with Eclipse and Typhoon following after her. We watched in shock as the three echidnas had vanished into the portal like ghosts that had just went through a wall.

"What do we do now?" Tails asked.

"What we should do," I replied. "Go in after them."

I didn't want to admit that I was a little scared, but I knew I had to go in there. There was something very weird about Eclipse and I was going to find out what it was. I stood up on my legs, ran towards the strange portal, and went straight into the eerie darkness.

(Knuckles)

Sonic had just run off into the weird, dark portal. I'm not sure if doing that was wise, but even if it wasn't, we knew that he was right. Eclipse had done something to Tikal. There was no way she would have gone willingly into that portal. And what did Eclipse mean by "preparations?" What did he want
Tikal for?

I knew I wasn't going to get those answers by standing around in the woods. I got up and went into the portal after Sonic. When I made it through, I saw Sonic standing a few feet from me. Just then, we both heard a noise from behind us and turned around just in time to see the forms of Shadow, Amy, Rouge, and Tails appear from the portal entrance. As soon as they made it out, the portal began to disappear. All of us watched it vanish before our eyes like it never existed.

"The portal is gone!" Amy cried out. "How are we going to get back?"

"We'll worry about that later, Amy," I said. "Right now I want to find Tikal and let Eclipse have it!"

"Don't be so selfish, Knuckles," Shadow said to me while clenching his right fist. "I want a piece of that 'great and powerful' echidna too."

"Where are we?" Tails asked.

We surveyed our surroundings and noticed that the passageways and walls were made out of stone like in medieval times. We were in an ancient building of some kind. And even though I knew I had never been there before in my entire life, there was something strangely familiar about it. Before I had a chance to wonder about that, we heard a sound in the distance. It sounded like footsteps.

"What's that noise?" Rouge asked.

"Sounds like we just found Eclipse," Sonic said.

The blue hedgehog led the way through the ancient passageways, following the sound of footsteps on the stone-covered floor to our objective. After about a minute, we had reached a staircase that spiraled down to another room. When we heard Eclipse's voice down below us, we knew we were close. We cautiously went down the stone steps, closer to the voice of the hooded echidna.

When we were close enough to look at the room, we stood where we were ; staring in awe at the sight before us. The room was lit with torches on the walls that had ancient deities painted on them. In the middle of the room was a jet black stone altar with crimson red markings on the floor underneath it. There were four black, goblet-shaped lanterns that matched the altar they surrounded.

I couldn't believe my eyes! We were in the temple Typhoon had talked about in his story! It was the same temple were Eclipse had made him into a vampire! What happened afterwards was even more shocking. Tikal and Typhoon walked over to the altar where the dark gray echidna then put her in place on it. As I watched, a horrible thought had entered my mind.

I was in the temple and Eclipse was holding his black spell book ; chanting in an ancient language. But instead of Tikal being on the altar, I saw that echidna girl, Summer. I tried to reach her, but I was chained up. My hands were behind my back and my feet were shackled to the wall.

"Master!" I cried out to the chanting echidna, in Typhoon's voice. "Don't do this!"

He refused to listen and just kept on with his spell casting. I saw a grayish-blue portal appear above the girl. Out of it, I saw a hand come out of it and grab her. Tears began to fill my eyes as I called her name. And then, it all ended and I was back in the temple with Sonic and the others.

I just stood there, terrified from the images I saw. That wasn't a random thought I had. It was another one of Typhoon's memories. A very horrifying one I might add! And what was even more horrifying was at that moment when I realized it was a harbinger of what Eclipse was planning to do with Tikal. He was going to kill her!

Sonic had another long narration.
End of Chapter Twelve.