Sonic GeneX - The Series
Episode 7 - Date Night
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related fanchars are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
Previously on Sonic GeneX...
Col. Gunner has promised Sonic's speed to whomever captures him, and now even Sonic's allies have begun trying to catch him occasionally.
During the final battle with the Covenant of Despair, Chet the Cheetah sacrificed his life to defend his friends from the Darkseeker, his body assumed to have been left on the sunken Demon Island.
With the Covenant of Despair's leader gone, its former commanders compete to take leadership of what remains. So far, though, Despair has been largely in hiding...
Now, let us begin today's story...
Gemini the Fennec had tracked Sonic to the desert region where Eggman's old pyramid base was falling apart due to neglect. "If I catch him, his speed will surely allow me to finish my mission...quickly..." she thought, scanning the sandy landscape for the speedy hedgehog. A cloud of kicked-up sand heading in her general direction told her she'd located him. "All right... This should be a piece of cake... Proplasmar!!" she shouted, waving her wand to erect a magical barrier in Sonic's path. The sand-cloud stopped quickly, then started up in another direction without even giving her a good glimpse of the blue blur. "Errr... Just testing his reflexes! Plan B..." she said. The next time she got a shot at Sonic, she tried a different spell. "Aeroft!!" she said, stopping Sonic and levitating him into the air! "Got ya!" she smirked. Sonic crossed his arms as he floated in midair. "Nice trick... But sooner or later you'll have to put me down." he said. Gemini frowned. Yes, she could float him a long way, but sooner or later she would indeed have to put him down, and then he'd run off. "Wait, I know! Morphicadabra!!" she said, transforming Sonic into a blue turtle wearing red sneakers! "Now you ought to be slow! Ha!" she said, dropping him back down on the ground. Suddenly, Sonic leapt into the air, curled into his shell, and launched a harder-hitting homing attack at the spellcasting fennec! "Owww!!" she yelped, falling over while Sonic angrily ran circles around her! "Turn me back right now or I'll give YOU to GUN!! We already know they're interested in your magic!" he yelled. Gemini sighed and waved her wand to turn him back into a hedgehog. However, this had given her an idea. For the next plan, she transformed back into her old dragon form. "Now when I catch him, I can just carry him..." she said. When Sonic arrived, she attempted to cut off his escape by blowing fire and then grab him, but he kept speeding out of the way. After a few tries at this, she turned with a growl. "You guys could HELP you know!!" she shouted. Copter was sitting on a beach chair watching her nearby, chuckling to himself. Beside him was Tails, holding a bag of popcorn. "When is everyone gonna learn that they can't catch Sonic?" Tails sighed. "I hope never. This is what I call entertainment! Pass the popcorn!" Copter grinned.
While the saga of Sonic's life of the run continued, Katie the Coyote was resigned to another Saturday alone at home, sitting quietly on her couch and paging through a photo album. She stared at the pictures of her and Chet, still consumed with sadness and a certain regret: She'd never gotten to say goodbye. So long had she been doing this, that she wasn't about to be left alone with her sorrow this Saturday. A knock at the door got her attention, and she answered to hear Mia the cat yell "Intervention!!" The blue feline was accompanied by a certain green police porcupine, Razor. "This was completely her idea..." he said, "But we are worried about you." Katie tried to stop them, but they barged right into her house and sat down. "I don't need an intervention!" she protested. "This album says otherwise..." Mia said, looking through it. "It's been a long time, Katie. You scarcely go out, except to work. I know it's tough, but you have to move on..." Razor sighed. Katie looked at the ground, nodding slowly. "I-I know you're right, guys... But I just..." she groaned uncertainly. "No getting out of it!" Mia interrupted, "I already found you a date!" she smirked. Katie looked up with wide eyes. "A d-d-date??" she stammered. "Can we come in now?" came a voice outside. Espio the Chameleon and Vector the Crocodile stepped to the doorway, struggling a bit as they attempted to enter at the same time. "Lose some weight, Vector!" Espio growled. Katie stood with a stupefied expression, and Mia elbowed her lightly. "Speechless, I see! Double date time! You're with Mr. Espio there, and Vector... he's mine..." she said with a wide grin. Vector blushed a bit while Espio walked over to the dark-furred coyote and shook her hand. "Uhhh... I had flowers, but Vector sat on them in the cab... I'm deeply sorry for your loss." he said. "Hey! What did I say about bringing that up??" Mia grunted. Razor looked a tad flummoxed by this. "I'm not sure this is a good idea..." he muttered. "Don't worry, pops, they're in good hands!" Vector said, patting him on the back. "...Pops??" Razor muttered. Katie gulped and stared at her date. "Well, uh... Where are we going, then?" she sighed.
The group went to a diner in Troblusk City, where each couple sat side by side and tried to get to know each other a bit. While Mia was quite chatty, and Vector politely responded to her, Espio and Katie had a hard time even starting a conversation. "...So... How much is Mia paying you for this...?" Katie sighed. Espio stared across the table at the cat. "Was that an option...?" he grumbled, and then quickly turned back to Katie with an awkward smile, "Errr, of course, it is a pleasure to spend an evening with you, madam!!" he stammered. Katie rolled her eyes and nodded. "Right... This is in no way a pity date..." she mumbled, staring across the restaurant and daydreaming a bit as Mia and Vector chatted away. As she stared into space, she swore she could see some familiar orange fur out the window. She focused on it, and swore a certain face was watching her. "Chet...??" she mumbled, "L-look over there!!" she said, turning and pointing. However, once others were looking, all they could see were strangers standing around outside. "Errrm... You okay?" Vector asked. Katie blinked a couple times. "Ummm... Yeah... Just gotta... Use the bathroom..." she said, getting up and walking off. "Right... Hey, CAN I get you to pay me for this?" Espio whispered to Mia as she left. Katie searched around for a bathroom, catching that orange color out of the corner of her eye as she looked again. "Keep it together, girl... Keep it together!!" she said, rushing into the bathroom and running the faucet, splashing her face a couple times. "Wash those eyes good, lady..." grumbled a male voice, making her turn red with embarrassment. "S-sorry..." she said, stumbling out of the men's room and panting to catch her breath. She felt like she was losing her mind. She then looked around for their table, and caught sight of a cheetah sitting with a menu in front of his face at the back of the restaurant. "No way..." she muttered, hurrying back to the others and pointing frantically. "Chet!! Chet's right there!!" she shouted. As they looked over, they saw Mighty the Armadillo sitting at the table instead. "Hey, 'sup, Mighty!" Vector called out. Mia scratched her head. "Maybe you're NOT ready for this..." she sighed. Katie shook her head. "I'm seeing him all over! He's alive!!" she shouted. "I was there. He's dead, honey." Mia sighed. Vector rubbed his chin and smirked. "You know what this means, Espio?" he said. "Oh, no..." Espio groaned. "We've got a case! Don't worry, miss, we'll get to the bottom of this!" Vector promised.
Within moments, Vector had bothered everyone in the diner and gotten their group thrown out. "Well, if someone's stalking you, I don't think he was in there anymore..." he concluded. Mia and Espio both looked utterly exasperated. "No one was stalking her..." Mia grumbled, "Katie, I'm afraid your mind was playing tricks on you." she said. "And Vector's obsession with solving things isn't helping... Accept my apologies." Espio added. Katie sighed sadly. "Maybe I am going crazy..." she whimpered. "Hold on, this case isn't closed yet!" Vector shouted, "You said you saw this guy outside, too? Show me where!" he suggested. "Stop it, she's seeing dead people! This isn't what she needs right now!" Mia snapped. "Oooooh, dead people, huh?? Sounds cool!!" just then, Charmy Bee flew up to them, apparently having been called by Vector sometime between annoying the diner patrons and getting thrown out. "Errr... Charmy... could you trouble Mighty to send us out some food? We didn't get to eat..." Espio frowned. "Not now! We're gonna go over this whole area in order to find whoever Katie's been seeing! I don't believe in seeing things that aren't there!" Vector proclaimed. "But you do it all the time!" Charmy teased. Katie shrugged and started to lead them to where she saw Chet peering through the window, but of course when they got there, he wasn't there. "Hmmm... This guy's like a ghost..." Vector muttered. "A g-ghost...? Hey, cut it out, Vector... This place is too lit up for ghosts." Charmy said nervously. Katie's ears drooped and she looked back toward the parking lot. "Let's just go... I really wasn't ready for this..." she sniffled. Vector shook his head. "No, no, there's gotta be a clue here... Hey, you! Across the street! You see anyone lurking around here lately!?" he shouted. "Just you!" came the reply. Mia groaned and took Katie by the arm. "C'mon, I'll take you to the cab." she sighed. Espio crossed his arms. "I think your date's a disaster." he muttered, to which Vector looked genuinely crestfallen. "I was... just tryin' to help..." he muttered. "No ghost? Lame. Shoulda stayed home and played video games." Charmy sighed.
The group was on their way through the parking lot to Mia's cab, resigned to return home in complete disappointment. It seemed things couldn't get worse, but before they could reach the cab, trouble found them. With a burst of smoke, a blue hyena appeared in front of them, wearing a Covenant of Despair uniform! It was Eddie, and he was quickly joined by several other uniformed animals that had apparently stalked the group through the parking lot. This included Patch the multicolored fox and a certain reddish brown weasel in an expensive looking suit: Infin. "You guys... What do you want??" Mia growled. Eddie snarled a bit. "You're friends with that officer... Eee hee... He's been more trouble than GUN and Sonic put together lately..." he said. Patch giggled. "Yeah, hee hee! It's like he's the only one that still cares about us!" he told them. "Maybe if we rough ya up a bit, he'll get offa our backs..." Infin growled, raising a gun. Vector was busy chewing, and quickly blew a big bubble of gum right into the weasel, which splattered all over his weapon! "Gah!! Beat 'em, boys!!" he shouted. "Honorless thugs! You will not lay a finger on my date!" Espio shouted, rushing to Katie's defense as several uniformed animals came at her! She watched him in shock. "I... uh... wow, and here I was all hung up on Chet..." she gasped, feeling bad that she hadn't given him a chance. Charmy flew around Patch, evading his nunchucks and taunting him. "Hey!! Hee hee... Slow down! Bad bug! I gotta squish you!!" he yelled. "Sorry, yer stung!!" Charmy taunted, sticking him in the behind. "Yoooow!! Owchie!! I miss Fera..." Patch whined. Vector and Mia teamed up to take on the rest of the agents, Mia having apparently been taking self-defense classes since her last run in with Despair. "Yeah, you're a tough one... But can you do this?" Vector grinned, producing a microphone and singing unintelligibly, making most of the uniformed animals fall over in pain while Katie and Mia covered their ears! "...Why??" Mia mumbled. Eddie chuckled, unaffected by the noise, and created duplicates of himself with his illusion powers! "Eeee hee... Heck, I'll just kill you all..." he chuckled, each of his copies firing jolts of lightning from their hands, easily incapacitating the group!
The Eddies then produced illusory blades in their hands. "Eeee hee... I always like the irony of killing people with nothing... Illusions are so fun!" he chortled sinisterly. Espio and Vector tried to get up, but the previous jolt had weakened them quite a bit. Eddie was getting closer, ready to finish them. Suddenly, however, an orange blur charged into the parking lot, smacking each illusion out of existence before knocking Eddie on his tail and then speeding out of sight! "Eeeeeeeek!! What the...?! Come out, Sonic!!" Eddie yelped, flailing on his back. Police sirens blared, heading in their direction, and Eddie's fellow agents started fleeing. "I'll send a nice cake to your prison cell! Hee hee!" Patch chuckled as he fled. Katie, Mia and Team Chaotix started to return to their feet as Razor got out of his car and handcuffed Eddie. "Not sure what just happened here, but it's about time I caught you, you sick bastard!" he growled. Katie hurried over to Razor, flustered. "I-it was Chet! He saved us... I'm sure of it!" she told him. Razor stared at her. "Chet...? Uh... I'm sorry, but that's impossible, Katie. Maybe it was Ridley you saw. He's orange, too, and he recently started working with my investigation into the Covenant of Despair. He called us over...here he comes." he said, pointing at the orange coati with the blue ringed tail as he approached. "I could just poof out of these cuffs you know." Eddie grinned. "I bet you'd like that. That's why we have these nice power-suppressing cuffs, courtesy of Stein Enterprises!" Razor informed him. Eddie's eyes went wide as he was shoved into the back seat of the cop car. "Eeeeeeyaaaaaaaaahhhh!!!" he roared. Ridley chuckled at Eddie's reaction. "This is priceless... No more of your missions of death for me!" he grinned. Vector frowned. "Guess that closes this case...it was the raccoon-guy." he sighed. "It was fun while it lasted." Charmy said wryly. Mia took Vector by the arm. "C'mon, let's try to redeem this date." she said with a wink. Vector blushed and left with her, while Espio patted Katie on the back. "I'm sorry you had to go through this..." he said. Katie shrugged. "It's ok... There's no way Ridley could run like that. Chet's out there... I don't know how, or why he won't show himself, but he is..." she sighed, leaning over and kissing Espio on the cheek. "That's for protecting me." she smiled, while Espio's body turned red. "Ahem, well... Shall I escort you home?" he asked. Katie nodded, and they headed home together.
Bucky the Rat stood atop Troblusk Plateau, watching as an orange blur sped up the cliffs toward him. "It would appear the handcuffs have had a successful field test." he stated as the speeding creature stopped in the shadows. "Another for the blasted 'Hopebringer' facility, I fear... My efforts to vindicate myself might be creating quite a situation..." he murmured, "But enough of that. I applaud your bravado, Experiment 16... but I still have tests to run on you... and more to the point, I'm not sure the world is ready for the implications of your existence..." he said sternly. Experiment 16 stepped out of the shadows, revealing an orange cheetah wearing a tattered red coat, which couldn't be zipped closed any longer, making it possible to see a large scar across his chest. "I don't want the world to see me anyway... I just want to keep her safe." he sighed, "...And my name... is Chet!"
Episode End!
