The Vampiric Virus

**The Vampiric Virus** is the second episode of the spinoff series Shard's Journey.

## Characters

* Miles "Tails" Prower (Mentioned)
* Shard the Hedgehog
* NICOLE
* Vector the Crocodile
* Saffron Bee
* Charmy Bee
* Espio the Chameleon
* Mina Mongoose (Mentioned)
* Manic the Hedgehog (Mentioned)
* Sonia the Hedgehog (Mentioned)
* Jules Hedgehog
* Queen Aleena Hedgehog/Bernadette Hedgehog
* Chaos (Mentioned)
* Hope Kintobor
* Doctor Eggman (Not named, mentioned)
* E-09 Vempire (First appearance)

## Plot

Shard is taking a walk in the moonlight, listening to the crickets chirping. In his peaceful mind, he doesn't see a robot sneaking up behind him and biting the neck of a poor deer and causing it to shudder violently.

While that was going on, NICOLE, Jules, and some of the Chaotix were still looking for Shard. Vector wonders why it's so hard to find a black hedgehog at night, but, then realized the situation was trickier than it sounds. After a quick scan and realizing Shard was nowhere in the area - much to Charmy's annoyance - Espio suggests everyone get some rest. Jules says that he and NICOLE will keep looking and Saffron tells them if they need more assistance to let them know.

Next day, "Bernadette" wakes up to find NICOLE and Jules return to the Thorndyke Mansion with no luck. NICOLE starts feeling hungry and the trio head to the dining room. There, they find Hope working on an Upgrade Item for NICOLE which will allow her to create an augmented reality. Jules offers some donuts to NICOLE and he comments that she rather likes them, to which Hope replies it's not surprising due to the fact that it was the first food she's eaten and NICOLE also finds her digestion helpful to plants with compost. Hope asks Jules if he misses eating and he says he does, but, he's learned to live with it. Hope then tells Jules and "Bernadette" that her uncle has released Chaos last night. "Bernadette" says that Shard would be a massive help in stopping Chaos and his power surpasses her own in his Robian state. Hope also tells the hedgehogs that she made lots of Upgrade Items as a contingency plan and put a fail safe on them so Eggman wouldn't be able to use them. Hope then gets a message about Mina finding her Heart Song and tells her that she can use Echo Reveal to reveal hidden paths while singing high notes and notes that Tails found his Jet Anklets last week. Next, Manic finds his Gripper Brace to use the Rescue Grapple to collect items from a distance. Lastly, Sonia finds her Opera Gloves, which allows her to use her Keyboard Attack to play notes to attack enemies. Jules and "Bernadette" are surprised the three found their first Upgrade Items so soon, but, Hope explains they were in the same place for convenience.

While that was happening, Shard wonders why he's thinking about NICOLE so much and is worried about what she'd think of him now. Suddenly, he sees Moto-Bug Badniks attacking the deer from last night. Shard quickly dispatches them and the deer flinches from him. When Shard tries to get close, the deer reveals fangs and Shard tries to dodge it. He notices it's avoiding the sunlight and pulls it in to experiment, telling the deer to please forgive him. Upon seeing the deer explode into flames with only the ashes remaining, Shard is utterly shocked and wonders what could have caused it. The robot curses to itself before seeing Vector, Espio, and the two bees heading his way. The quartet are feeling more confident they'd find Shard in broad daylight and they are well rested before they see a well dressed human man standing in the middle of the forest. Vector wonders if they should ask him, but, Espio has suspicions about why a man this well dressed would be in the middle of the forest. The man reveals his fangs and bites Vector's arm, causing him to yell in pain. The man turns into the bat robot from the previous night and reveals himself to be E-09 Vempire and that he's Vector's master. Vector almost attacks Charmy, but, stops himself as well as save himself from facing the sunlight. Espio throws a smoke bomb and grabs a blood sample from Vector before he and the bees make a retreat, Saffron promising they'll be back for him. Vector tells Vempire he wouldn't get away with this and he won't hurt Shard, but, Vempire insists that's his job and Vector's his bait. Vector tries to stand firm, but, Vempire tries to push him into the sunlight and he reluctantly gives in to the blackmail.

Espio, Charmy and Saffron arrive at the Thorndyke Mansion and give Hope the blood sample, explaining what happened to Vector. After running some tests, Hope deduces that it's a sentient bacteria and making a cure for it would be tricky to make a cure for, but, Saffron insists that trying is all they ask.

Meanwhile, Shard is analyzing the blood that dropped when the deer died and reaches the same conclusion Hope does and is curious as to where it came from. He hears Vector shouting for help, though it was actually a trap set by Vempire and more vampiric creatures surround Vector. They then attack Shard, except for Vector who resists and tells Shard that Vempire bit him and the robot says he'll do the same to Shard. At that moment, Hope, NICOLE, Espio, Charmy, and Saffron arrive, but, Charmy lands in the grass face first when he trips. Vector was tossed aside and Vempire tries to bite Hope, but, she uses her EMP. An unfortunate blue jay gets bitten by Vempire while he's immobilized and bursts into flames, much to Charmy's horror. Hope realizes vampires are weak to sunlight and NICOLE gets herself bitten on purpose. She realizes that because of her inorganic state, she is immune to the virus and upon Shard also being bitten, NICOLE realizes his immune as well thanks to his Robian physiology. Shard throws Vempire off and he bites a bear already effected by the virus. The bear turns to normal and rushes off, most confused. Realizing the venom is a cure as much as it is the cause of the virus, Shard turns into his Robian state - which Charmy comments as being "cool" - ,breaks off a fang from Vempire, and tosses him into the sunlight, which causes him to explode. He gives NICOLE the fang before disappearing. Charmy worries he got away, but, Hope reminds them to cure the victims. NICOLE agrees and wonders why Shard isn't ready to talk yet. Shard worries Espio, Charmy, and Saffron had seen him in his Robian form and they won't appreciate him.

## Trivia

* This takes place between the ending of episode 27 and the bulk of episode 28 of the main series.
* Vector avoiding to attack Charmy and him being bitten is an unintentional reference to how he and Charmy got the Metal Virus in the IDW comics.
* In fact, the whole plot itself seems to be an abridged version of the Metal Virus arc from IDW comics Issues 12-30. However, the plot is actually inspired by The Terrifying Bat Man.