Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 3 - Double Doom
Stage 2 - Fallen Angel
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
"A common mission, an epic quest,
Until journey's end, we shall not rest!
And with our power joined... darkness shall not win...
And I'll sing a song of victory! Now it's time we begin!"
- Song of Fellowship, Sonic GeneX: the Series; Zodiac in Time
Previously on GeneX…
Distracted with a mission to take down the power-mad Richard Gunner, our heroes were unprepared for a sudden invasion by the Lost Ones. Summoning their forces through a portal created by the Chaos Key, the Lost Ones swarmed Station Square, destroying the Security Tower, scattering our heroes, and beginning to feed on the population and turn them into Lost Ones. Tails was trapped back at the Security Tower behind enemy lines, but joined by Fera the wolf, he made his way to the fallen Shadow Arcangel, which Shadow and Kosmo had also arrived at. While Bucky was attending to the injured aboard the ship, Tails agreed to see to repairs...and quickly found help in his children from the future, Skye and Melody, who had traveled back after detecting an anomaly which threatened the existence of their future. The Lost Ones attacked the ship as they attempted repairs, and Lospecter soon kidnapped Skye, expecting Tails to bring his Chaos Tailbands in exchange for his life...
Now, our tale continues...
Shadow, Kosmo and Starr were still on the outside of the ship while Melody was working on repairs. Shadow growled softly as Tails shut off his communicator before he could talk him out of going directly to Lospecter. "I have to stop that kid from walking straight into a trap... But I can't leave the other kid alone, so I guess you're babysitting, Kosmo…" he said as he started to head for an entrance to Shadow Arcangel. Kosmo crossed his arms grouchily. "Oh, I work for you people now? Why don't I go inside and you babysit?" he asked. "None of those kids are mine!" Shadow shouted back. He had a point. Kosmo sighed and glanced back at where Melody was working. "How's it coming?" he asked. The rabbit shrugged. "This is weird tech. It's like, ancient and modern at the same time. It's taking me a bit to figure it out." she said. Once again, Kosmo was seemingly ignoring his daughter, Starr. She fiddled with one of her ponytails and walked over, clearing her throat. "Well, uhh… You mind if I ask you some questions?" she murmured. Kosmo winced. "I'm not sure what you could possibly ask me..." he grumbled. Skye had already established for them that most of the parents were dead in the future, and the kids had to pretty much make do without them. "Well... I want to know what you were like!" Starr babbled. Kosmo shrugged. "I'm like this." He wasn't in any kind of mood to suddenly be a father. It was a bit frustrating for Starr, but she took a breath and tried again. "Well, um... Hey! Could you tell me anything about your home planet!? I've never been!" she asked with a grin. Kosmo raised an eyebrow and finally looked at her, quite a bit puzzled. "Home planet? Is that a joke?" he asked. Starr frowned. "Huh? How's it a joke, everyone knows you came to Earth from another planet, morphs aren't native to this planet..." she mumbled. Kosmo turned around, took a deep breath, and yelled, "BUCKYYYYY!!!"
Tails was heading deep down into the bowels of the ship, joined by Fera. Argyle had gone to rejoin Melody and Starr, not being quite brave enough to walk into a trap. They found a stairway leading down below any area of the ship either of them had seen before. These corridors were quite dark, even for Shadow Arcangel, but not so dark that they couldn't see the losol watching them as they explored. The creatures were only watching, and not approaching. Their wispy voices were unsettling, though. "They're just making sure we're going the right way, aren't they?" Tails murmured, looking around worriedly. Fera nodded. "There's no need for them to attack us right now. Apparently the beasts aren't mindless." she observed, stopping and placing a hand on her hip, "We need a plan or this will not end well for us." she told him. Tails slowed his steps and glanced back at her. "Somehow I doubt Lospecter's going to let us sit here and think about it..." he murmured. Indeed, some of the Lost Ones behind them were stirring, moving to block their way back. Fera resumed walking alongside Tails. "Leave it to me. I've had to work under pressure before... Just do as I say when the time comes. Think of me as your commander." she said, rubbing his shoulder and then patting it gently. Tails was starting to worry that maybe he'd been too hasty, but now he had little choice but to trust Fera to help him. She could easily just warp to safety if things went bad, though, and leave him for dead. At any rate, they kept moving until they found a bridge that usually spanned across the underside of the ship while in midair. The bridge had broken in the crash...but they were on the ground. "Last chance to run away..." Fera told him. Tails carefully stepped around the rubble of the broken bridge. "What kind of father am I if I leave my son like this?" he asked. Fera rolled her eye. "He's not yours. You haven't had a child yet." she argued. It didn't matter. They were going anyway.
Shadow returned to Bucky's lab, where Gideon was wrapping up Emily's medical treatment. Bucky was checking Talon's eyes...for some reason, and Shadow also found SPOT there. Tails had left the robo-puppy behind in case anyone needed it for anything. "Hey, robot! Tails hung up on me. Can you re-establish communications?" he asked. The robot looked up at him. His robotic eyes darted back and forth. "I can't do that, Shadow. The boss doesn't want to talk to you..." SPOT said, his voice filled with more personality than ever before. Seemed Tails had given him an upgrade in that department. Shadow wasn't impressed with it, though. "Your boss is going to kill himself!" he snapped. Just then, Kosmo's voice came through his comms device. "Shadow! You near Bucky? Put him on! I need a word with that rat!" The hedgehog growled softly. "Fine, fine. Looks like this thing won't help me anyway..." he grumbled, taking the comm device from his ear and giving it to Bucky. "...Hello?" the rat murmured. Talon shielded his eyes as Bucky continued to hold a light in his face. "Can I go now??" he groaned. Bucky didn't answer him as Kosmo spoke. "Hey, rat boy... My uh...daughter...is telling me some cockamamie story about me not being from this planet. Like it's a known fact in the future. Talk." he said with a grouchy tone. Bucky took the light out of Talon's face and turned away. "Ohh… I suppose I never should have kept it from you. Kosmo… I didn't create you." the rat said casually. "What, you can't just drop a bomb like that over the phone!!" Talon gasped. Bucky ignored him. "You see, after the Black Arms invasion, I happened to find a downed spacecraft not far from my lab. You were inside...dead. You became my first experiment in reanimating dead tissue...something your shapeshifting form was more receptive to than beings of this world. But it was valuable experience for the future..." he explained, glancing at Emily as he spoke. She looked at him uncomfortably. It was unclear how much she knew about her own circumstances to most of those in the room. At any rate, Kosmo had this to process now. "So, I am a freak, just not the kind you told me I was... I wonder if the Black Arms shot down my ship... Or..." Kosmo's voice trailed off before he continued, "...maybe Nova's not as crazy as I think when he claims to know me..."
Tails and Fera soon arrived at the deepest dungeon within the ancient temple-like flying fortress. Or, perhaps vault would be a more apt description of the room, as the pair of them found a horde of glittering gold and jewels...the treasure of the dragon tribe that used to reside within Shadow Arcangel! Both of them looked around in awe. "Wait, does Bucky know about this room?! This treasure looks like it's been untouched for hundreds of years!" Tails gasped. Fera nodded. There were golden dragon sculptures, jeweled eggs...it was quite a sight. Her eye fixed on a sarcophagus at the back, possibly depicting the ancient ruler of the dragons on the front. "Is this where we're supposed to be?" she wondered. Suddenly, a banging was heard from inside the sarcophagus! "I'm in here! Help! I-it's dark!!" Skye shouted fearfully. Lospecter popped through the sarcophagus and waggled his finger at them. "Uh-uh! Tailbands first, please!" he demanded. He also waved to Fera. "By the way, you wouldn't happen to have gotten my cards back, would ya, wolfie? Myself... I'm a few cards short of a deck!" he chuckled, holding up just a single gold-backed Chaos Card, "Ah, but I guess this'll have to be my trump card, then." Fera crossed her arms, glancing around the room intently. "Funny, I would think you'd just warp over and snatch the tailbands. Why don't you, Lospecter?" she asked. Lospecter chuckled. "I give the pop quizzes here, lady!" he said, hiding the card up his glove. Fera smirked. "You're playing to win, I'm pretty sure, so there's no reason to hold back. So, the answer must be...you can't. There must be a limit to how many relics your slimy hands can safely hold..." she stated. "Oh! That's a good point!" Tails realized. Lospecter juggled the Chaos Key in his hand. "Lospecter's Quiz Mania time! What did I do very recently that could easily solve that problem? Can you think of the answer?" he snickered. Before they could say anything, a pair of dark figures stepped out from behind some of the golden statues. One greatly resembled Shadow... Dark Spiny! The other was...Kosmo? "We meet again...the natural-born freak who wrecked my revenge!! Go on, hit me with those bands again! This time, you don't have a second super form to save you!" Kosmo's voice was a bit distorted... "Are you... Dark Kosmo?!" Tails gasped. Lospecter smirked. "Think they can hold the bands for me?" he asked.
Rather than wait for a response from Tails, Dark Spiny ran ahead and gave him a swift kick to the chest, knocking him back into a pile of gold coins in the corner of the room! Fera reacted by zapping the porcupine with dark lightning, but it didn't seem to bother a being of pure darkness too much. "That tickled. Maybe it'd hurt a hedgehog..." he scoffed, hurling a Chaos Spear at Fera and forcing her to jump backward! While the two of them began fighting, Tails climbed out of the pile of gold, only to find Dark Kosmo standing over him. The morph grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up. "I didn't think revenge would be quite this easy..." he sneered. "I-it's not!" Tails choked, a flash of light coming from his tails as he suddenly vanished before Darkosmo's eyes! He was surprised, and that gave the invisible fox a chance to kick him while his guard was down and cause the morph to drop him! "Coward! Hiding from me like a wimp! You know you can't win!" he snarled, morphing his body into a bat and starting to fly around in search of the fox. In the meantime, Fera was evading Dark Spiny's Chaos Spears, looking for an opening to hit him with brute force since her dark magic wouldn't work on him. "You really don't have anything on your other self but a darkness immunity, huh? No originality?" the wolf taunted. Dark Spiny growled. "Why are you jerks always comparing me to other rodents?! STOP THAT!!!" he roared, firing dozens of spears from his hands in a rapid-fire manner as Fera smirked and warped herself out of the way. "Hotheaded baby, just like the real deal..." she said, appearing behind him and giving him a solid punch to the head! Meanwhile, Darkosmo had located Tails using his bat form's echolocation. "You can't hide from me!" he sneered, lunging at the fox! Tails smacked him with a tail whip as he approached. "Yeah, you can transform into anything, I know that." he said. The morph rubbed his head and then morphed into the form of Sonic. "Well, we all know one form you can't beat!" However, at this point Lospecter yawned loudly. "Why don't I just kill the kid?" he suggested, stopping Tails' resistance instantly. "That's right, you remember why you're here..." the ghost snickered.
Tails reached for his tailbands. "Don't hurt him. I...I'll give you the tailbands..." he sighed, feeling he had no choice. Fera kicked Dark Spiny away and quickly warped over to Tails. "Sorry, but this isn't an option..." she grunted, grabbing the bands away from Tails quickly. "Wait, stop!" he gasped. "If you hand them over now, we'll have nothing keeping them from killing both of you!" Fera told him, tossing the bands up into the air before sending a blast of dark energy upward, warping the bands out of the room to a place only she knew. Lospecter floated over to Darkosmo and slapped him in the back of the head. "Way to STOP her, genius!" he complained. The morph growled. "I guess we kill the kid, then." he said with a smirk. Fera shook her head. "If you lay a hand on any of us, you'll never find those pretty little rings again. So, now we'll see just how much you want them." she grinned. Tails looked from her to Lospecter worriedly. The ghost was rubbing his chin, thinking it over. "Well, you know, if I have all of you killed, I suppose no one will know where those silly bands are, and it's one less two-tailed twit who can use them against us. Not really a very tough decision, hehehe..." he chuckled, snapping his fingers to signal for the losol in the hall to start slithering into the room, surrounding them. Dark Kosmo and Spiny stepped towards them as well, dark smirks on their faces as they contemplated how they would end the canine's lives. Fera grabbed Tails' arm, starting to glow with dark energy. "Time to go, kid..." she said. Tails pulled away. "We can't leave Skye to die!" he told her. Fera quickly shot some dark flames from her hands at the enemies approaching them from either sides. "They've got the advantage on us, don't be an idiot!" she shouted. Darkosmo started to glow in order to transform. "It's too late for petty arguing. Now, die already!!" he snarled.
"Tails detected!" SPOT's robotic voice was heard down the hall. A second later, a Chaos Blast scattered the losol at the entrance to the room, and Shadow the hedgehog leapt in, quickly smacking the Dark beings with swift homing attacks and stalling Darkosmo's transformation! "Good timing." Fera sighed. "Shadow! They've got Skye in that coffin!" Tails shouted. However, Lospecter had opened the sarcophagus during the distraction, and was pulling the young fox out by the tail. "Ow, ow! Let go!!" Skye yelped. "Nah, new idea. Listen up, Tailsy-wailsy. You can keep knocking about the land of the living for a bit, and hang on to those tailbands too..." Lospecter said, turning the Chaos Key to open a portal, "Buuut, if I catch wind of you actually using those tailbands, well... Skye here might lose some parts. Maybe his soul! Hehehehe! Oh, and Shadow! We'll be in touch... We've got an experiment going with these lovely blood samples we happened to get our hands on while everyone was distracted with Eggman and Infinite for a few months. Byeeee!" he said, tossing Skye into the portal and following after him. Dark Spiny and Kosmo followed after, the morph glancing at Tails hatefully before leaving. "I look forward to your grisly demise. I hear it's written in the stars... Farewell!" With that, the portal vanished. Tails was busy processing what happened, but Shadow grabbed him by the "collar" and shook him a little. "Is Lospecter right? You lost the Ultimate Life blood samples I entrusted you with!? That's the last of Professor Gerald's work!" he shouted. Tails stammered a bit. "W-we were a little busy with the Resistance!!" he babbled. Shadow threw him away, and he fell into Fera's arms. "You should have told me. Now I have this on top of everything else!" Shadow grumbled. Fera placed the fox on his feet and crossed her arms. "That ghost was never going to give up his hostage. But for now, the kid's being kept alive. Maybe we can figure out how to save him." she said, "...Not that I care. Come on, let's get out of this pit." she scoffed. Tails walked over to SPOT and patted the robo-puppy. "Get me in touch with Sonic, SPOT. I'm gonna need a friendly voice..." he sighed.
Between Melody and Vortex, the repairs to the ship had finally been completed. They were ready to take off, so everyone returned inside the ship and regrouped at the control room. Bucky was there, preparing for a tricky takeoff from the middle of the forest. Tails was still trying to contact Sonic, Fera was contemplating what her next move should be, and Argyle was explaining what had happened to Skye to Melody and Starr. Observing everyone, Shadow nodded to himself and turned to leave. "You all should stick together. I'm going to head out and try to regain contact with the Commander and GUN proper." he said. Kosmo started to follow him. "I don't wanna hang around this ship, I might as well join you." he said. Shadow shrugged. "You really don't want to get to know your future daughter, do you?" he murmured. Kosmo scoffed. "My future will be my own. Nothing's going to decide it but me." he said bluntly. Nodding, Shadow left with Kosmo following. "Don't let the door hit ya on the way out!" Zipp shouted, "Seriously, this dump is falling apart." Melody glanced at him. "I did my best. I can take a look at anything else that needs repairs...if you'll help save my brother." she said. "Why, Tails, you've raised an extortionist!" Zipp commented. Tails rolled his eyes at the hornet, and Bucky cleared his throat loudly. "Let's try to get along, here. We may need one another for a while. Vortex, take the controls. Sonny, Bolt, patrol the halls." the rat ordered. Bolt glanced at Sonata. "I thought they forgot about us..." he muttered to the unicorn. "They have much on their minds. Their emotions are all over the place..." the empathic Sonata stated. While everyone was preparing for takeoff, Fera handed the tailbands back to Tails. "Here... Sorry, I had to. They would have killed you both." she said matter-of-factly. Tails didn't take the bands. "I can't use them. If Lospecter knows, he'll kill Skye anyway... But do you really care? You're Fera, not Felicia, remember?" he sighed, taking SPOT and heading out of the control room, looking to be alone.
Shadow Arcangel had to knock down a few trees, but it rose back into the air once again. From the sky above, they could see the extent of the damage to Station Square. "Holy Chaos..." Crash gasped, looking out the window, "Were the Lost Ones always capable of this?" Emily and Gideon approached the window to peer down as well. "Awful... Is there...anything we can do?" Emily wondered. Bucky nodded. "You'll have your chance..." he mused. Gideon shivered, looking at the slimy creatures running rampant through the streets below. "We have to...save them..." it whispered.
In the hall, Tails had finally gotten through to Sonic. He was explaining what happened, when Fera approached. "What does Sonic have to say?" she asked. Tails glanced at her questioningly. The wolf sighed. "You...are all I have now. I'd be a fool to betray you." she said. Thinking on that, Tails opened a hatch on SPOT's body and pulled out an extra comm device. "Here, you are hereby back in the Resistance." he said. Fera put on the device and heard Sonic's voice. "Good to have ya back. We'll figure out how to get Tails' kid back, too. Never thought I'd say that sentence..." he murmured. "The Lost Ones will likely target the other Chaos Relics, too." Fera stated, "We should warn whoever has them." Tails nodded in agreement, and then yelped as a drop of water struck his head. "A leak?" No, it was starting to rain within the ship. Down in the city, it was starting to rain around Sonic's location, too. "Shoot, Tails, I think the Doomsayer's here..." he murmured. "Can't be, he's up...here..." Tails babbled, both he and Fera stepping back as the Doomsayer entered the hall. His golden eyes narrowed. "And of course, we know one could never be in two places at once..." The Doomsayer's voice was both in the room, but also came over the comm device. Tails' eyes widened, realizing what Sonic was seeing. A second Doomsayer stood before Sonic at the same time, down in the city! "Sonic, running for everyone's life as always. When are you going to realize that there is no outrunning this world's fate?" the Doomsayer on the ground asked. Sonic was busy processing what was going on. "Th-there's two of you??" he babbled. The second Doomsayer spoke to Tails. "I told you a Prower will die to complete my prophecy. I never said which Prower. Will it be you? Will it be your poor, captured, time-displaced child? Do you wish to hear my prediction?" the hooded being asked. Tails growled softly. "We won't let anyone die!" he shouted. "As if you have that level of control. Time is like a breaking dam. You can patch a leak here or there, but there is no stopping the force of destiny." the Doomsayer warned. "Indeed. Sonic, once the Prower fox dies, it won't be long before you fall as well. Rage against this fate if you must, but know that there is no changing it." the other Doomsayer added. Sonic clenched his fists. "Maybe the first step is to pull off that hood and see who you really are!" he said, but before he could attempt it, an icy wind blew fiercely from behind the Doomsayer, knocking Sonic over as the hooded one vanished! On the ship, the Doomsayer also vanished in a sudden burst of fog! Coughing and climbing to his feet, Sonic tapped his finger to the comm device to get Tails back. "You okay up there?" he asked. "He's gone. How can there be two of him?" Tails asked. "I dunno, bro. Add that mystery to the pile. For now, we gotta figure out our next move. Where do you suppose everyone else is?" Sonic wondered.
Punchy the echidna was on his way through the ruined streets of Station Square, looking for the sewer entrance to the Raisol Sanctuary. He was also trying to get into contact with someone, anyone, via his comm device. "Is this thing busted? Hello!? Anyone there?!" he shouted. A garbage can lid rustled, startling the green echidna. "Yaaah!? Who?!" he gasped. Out of the can popped Heather the phoenix, to his surprise. "I'm here, you looking for me?" she asked. Punchy tilted his head. "Uhhhhhh... What are you doing in the trash?" he asked. Heather started to climb out, and yelped as the can fell over. "Ooof! Ugh... I thought this would be a good place to take cover from that weird storm of monsters..." she told him, "Smart move, wearing brown pants. No one will ever know if those freaks made you-" Punchy didn't wait for her to finish that thought. "Errr, good to know you're alive, Heather, but I got a wife to find...and seeing as I have the Chaos Boots, I have no idea why I'm waiting around here! I'll be right back for you." he said, zooming off at high speed with the power of the winged shoes while Heather climbed to her feet. He was back a moment later with a panicked look. "She's not home! There's no sign of her or our daughter! What if... what if... WHAT IF!?" he babbled. Heather slapped him across the face. "Thanks, I needed that..." Punchy sighed. Heather took his hand. "We'll find them, Punchy. I've got to find Garen, too... Did you...happen to see where he was when this mess happened?" she asked. Punchy tilted his head again. "Garen...? Oh, oh, Guard, yeah someone said you named him. Didn't anyone tell you about naming strays?" he chuckled. Heather frowned, looking at the ground a bit insecurely. "...I'm the stray..." she sighed. Punchy crossed his arms and shook his head. He had no idea where Guard was. "Well, I guess we're in this together. Come with me, Tweety." he said, motioning for her to follow as he started in a random direction. They weren't sure how to find their friends, but they had to start somewhere...
To be continued...
Gator's Crazy Adventure!!
Sailing across the sea, our costumed human arrived at Darkegg Fortress. Surely Dr. Eggman had left some treasure behind on this island base. Nope, Gator wasn't about to help Big find Froggy. But we'll try to keep him in mind for later. At any rate, Gator was accosted by Alpha upon entering the base. "Doctor! You lost weight! And you grew hair! And you changed DNA!!" the kooky robot babbled. "I did? I'm sorry!" Gator gasped. Couple of real geniuses we're dealing with here. Alpha hugged Gator and then went flying away. "Daddy's home! When will mommy come home??" the robot babbled. Gator smiled and headed for the main elevator. "What a good kid. Now...which floor do I want... Oooh, eight!" he murmured. The voice of BAS, the Base Announcement System, spoke to him while he was in the elevator. "Who the devil? Well, I've got a place for you! Goin' uuuup!" the voice announced. Gator jumped in protest. "Wait, treasure would be buried!! Go down!!" he shouted. "No." BAS retorted. Gator started kicking the elevator doors in frustration, and then stumbled out when they opened! The chittering of Chao surrounded him as he stood up and looked around. "Welcome to the Chao Chambers!" BAS announced, "Feed the Chao for us, wouldja?" At the notion of food, several of the Chao fluttered over to Gator excitedly. "Hey, hold on! I don't have any pie, I mean, food! I have no food!" Gator babbled. "Hey, mister, whya dressed like that?" one of the Chao spoke. It was one of Char's brother's, Chip. "What do you mean, I'm a gator, I don't wear anything!" Gator babbled. "Hey, have you seen our brother...or Copter? They haven't been around in a while." asked Chuck, Char's other brother. "What am I, the answer man?" Gator stammered. Suddenly, the Chao charged him, swarming the costumed man before flying off with confiscated slices of pie! "Hey!! My pie!! You hooligans!!" Gator shouted, shaking his fists. "Thank you for visiting Chao Chambers. Please leave now." said BAS, opening the elevator doors. Gator groaned in disappointment. "...I wanna stay and pet the little fairy-monkeys..." he whined.
Will Gator's adventures have any purpose? ...Uh, who knows?
