Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 8 - Infiltrating the City
Stage 5 - City Escape Act III
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
"Follow me, set me free,
Trust me and we will escape from the city.
I'll make it through.
Follow me, set me free,
Trust me and we will escape from the city.
I'll make it through, prove it to you.
Follow me!" - Escape From the City; Sonic Adventure 2
Previously on GeneX…
During the assault on the Security Tower, Guard attempted to defect from Gunner's side, but Gunner had him incapacitated and ordered Spy to take him for reprogramming. However...Spy had his own change of heart.
Station Square was lost when the Lost Ones invaded, and even now many of Sonic's friends are missing in action. They had lost contact with the GUN Commander as well.
During a trip back to her own world, Blaze suffered a number of losses, including the loss of the Chaos Crown and several Sol Emeralds.
Lucky the Cat is stranded with his future son, Lucky Jr. They are searching for their friends and trying to figure a way to help stop the Lost Ones.
Now, our tale continues...
It wasn't an easy trip by any means, but Spy, aka Riley, had managed to reach his house in Central City while dragging the wounded Guard along with him. Now, he had Guard resting on his couch and a news report on the TV going on about an invasion like it was the end of the world. "We've lost touch with our Station Square correspondent, Katie the Coyote. By all accounts, Sonic the hedgehog and GUN are missing. The people of our world pray for their safety. This is Scarlett Garcia, cowering in a bunker!" the report concluded before going to commercial. Riley let out a miserable sigh before poking Guard with his remote. "Wake up, dude... I wanna get outta town and I can't carry you everywhere..." he murmured. Guard let out a loud grunt, and Riley jumped in surprise. "Rrrr… Why are you...helping me?" he sighed. Riley adjusted his sunglasses and smiled. "You're not the only one who can rise above his programming." he said. Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door. Startled and panicked, Riley ran around, grabbing a blanket to cover up Guard before racing to the door. "This better not be the monsters! Uh, who is it?" he asked nervously. A laser blast knocked out his doorknob, and the door swung open to reveal Richard Gunner and Ivan Nammad! "I don't have time to wait around for you, Spy!" Gunner snarled, marching right into the room. "Where's the, uh, bathroom??" Nammad asked anxiously. Riley glanced outside, seeing Techno Sonic collapsed on the side of the road. "W-wait a minute! You can't just barge into my house!" Riley shouted, rushing in front of Gunner in an attempt to block him. He responded by pointing his gun arm at him. "I need to regroup somewhere. Seems my followers have all been eaten by rabid monsters. And before you put this on me, how was I to know they had an army waiting in another dimension!?" he shouted, going to sit on the couch, but stopping to remove the blanket. Riley covered his eyes and groaned pathetically. "Well, well. We were wondering where you got to, Guard. Nammad, fix his brain!" Gunner shouted. "Grraahh, n-noo!!" Guard protested. Nammad did a little panicked dance, looking around for the bathroom. "These facilities are not, uh, ideal... I don't think you appreciate how, uh, difficult brain reprogramming is!" he babbled. Gunner fired his laser into the ceiling. "Do what I say!" he shouted. Riley gulped. This was the last thing he wanted. Now he was stuck with Gunner again...
Sonic found Knuckles and Violet near one of the entrances to Raisol Sanctuary in Station Square. Violet had wanted to check on her sister, but Illusi had already moved Rainbow to a safer place, so she wasn't there. "We've been looking all over for the others..." Knuckles reported, "There's no sign of Shade, thanks a lot Kosmo, no sign of Amy or Cream..." he grumbled, punching his fist into a wall in frustration. Sonic sighed. "No sign of that kid who said he was my son..." he murmured, scratching his head. Violet placed a hand on each of their shoulders, looking at them with dead seriousness. "We can't find them standing around like this. So, what do we do now?" she asked. Sonic looked around the more or less deserted city with a sigh. "Blaze is off to gather the Sol Emeralds. The rest of us should keep an eye out for the Chaos Emeralds, and the missing Chaos Relics." he stated. Knuckles nodded. "Right, right... That pesky ghost has the Chaos Key! And Conan's got a few of the relics, too! Where do you think he is?" he wondered. There was a bit of static on their comms devices for a moment, and then of all voices, they heard Bucky the rat. "Sonic? You there?" he asked. Knuckles groaned. "Who gave you a communicator!? I don't want you in my ear!" he complained. "...I'm here!" Sonic reported, tapping the device in his ear and turning away from Knuckles, "Where's Tails?" he questioned. "I'm borrowing his comm device really quick." Bucky explained, "I want to suggest that you head over to Central City. Sonic, Station Square is lost. Other cities need to be alerted. Evacuated. Before the Lost Ones spread too far to contain." he warned. Knuckles nodded. "Good point. I'll go with ya. TAXI!!" he shouted, "What? I'm not taking the train in this mess." he murmured as Sonic and Violet stared at him. To their surprise, a taxi actually pulled up, and Mia the cat poked her furry blue head out. "You're lucky you caught me, I was about to bail! Where to?" she asked. "Uhh… Central City..." Violet babbled, "You're alone?" she questioned. "Well, one hopes that Katie is safe with her boyfriend. Razor's probably with Tommy. No one's seen Guard... I don't really have anyone else." the cat shrugged. Knuckles hopped into the cab while Sonic started to speed off on his own. "Meet ya there!" he shouted. "If I had the Chaos Boots..." Knuckles growled.
They were, it would seem, a little too late. Lost Ones were already swarming Central City, and the police force was being pushed back in their attempts to repel them. The chubby Chief Paynson could be seen taking cover behind his squad car. Apparently the Troblusk PD had been called in to assist. The officer poked his head up, fired a couple times at an approaching losohst, and backed away a step. "Oh, no! Our weapons are useless!" he cried out. However, Ridley the coati leapt onto his squad car, tossing aside his gun and instead gesturing to the ghostly creature. "Chaos Splash!" he cried, tossing a Chaos-infused ball of water at the losohst, knocking it back a bit! Seeing the police in trouble, Sonic sped onto the scene. Homing attacks wouldn't do much against non-corporeal Lost Ones, so he pulled an old move out of his bag of tricks. "Sonic wind!!" He sped about, leaving whirlwinds in his wake that stunned the creatures long enough for Knuckles to leap in and slash them with the Chaos Claws, thrashing them into inert puddles of slime! "Hah! That's what I call teamwork!" Knuckles cheered. "On your right!" Violet shouted, blasting an incoming losohst with a dark energy ball quickly to stop it before it could grab the red echidna. Paynson watched in bewilderment, lifting his hat to wipe the sweat from his brow. "To think, I was bigoted against Mobians once..." he muttered under his breath. "What's that, chief?" Sonic asked, resting on the hood of his car with his hands held behind his head, looking oddly relaxed. "S-sonic! It's such a relief to see you! The media has been assuming you were dead!" Paynson huffed. "They have a habit of that lately." Sonic sighed, thinking back to his six-month confinement not too long ago. Mia stepped out of her cab and waved to Ridley. "Hey, you seen Razor around?" she asked. The orange raccoon-like mobian shrugged. "He didn't make it here. I hope they didn't get him in Station Square..." he murmured. Knuckles looked around curiously. There weren't any other people in sight. "Officers, are you...all that's left?" he asked nervously. Paynson shook his head. "There's a transport. GUN is preparing to evacuate all civilians who reach it. Sonic, I'm certain having you as an escort would increase their chance of survival considerably." he stated. Violet crossed her arms. "Not just scared to go yourself, are you?" she murmured. Paynson's droopy mustache drooped further as he frowned. "You saw us here. We're helpless. The best we can do is search for stragglers and try to get them to safety, too." he said. Sonic sat up. "Alright, where's this transport?" he asked. Ridley stepped over to a police bike parked nearby. "I'll take you to it." he volunteered. With that settled, Mia headed back for her cab, while Knuckles and Violet stayed on foot. "We got Chaos Emeralds to find, too. Let's not rush too fast..." Knuckles murmured.
The police split up with Sonic, Knuckles, Violet, Mia and Ridley. Knowing they couldn't beat the Lost Ones, the officers would attempt to out-drive them, stopping only to let endangered citizens into their cars. This was all they could do. Hopefully most of the survivors had reached the GUN transport. This thought was foremost in Sonic's mind as he moved alongside Ridley's cycle, keeping his speed low enough that the coati and his friends could keep up. Knuckles seemed a bit distracted as they walked. "Hey..." Violet said, snapping her fingers, "You with us?" she asked. "I'm using my senses to feel for Chaos Emeralds... I spend so much time around the Master Emerald, it's actually mildly unsettling if I can't feel emerald energy." he stated, "Unfortunately, that's how it is. Those Chaos Emeralds could be anywhere; Maybe we need a backup plan." he added. The echidnas stopped short as they passed by the house Shade had settled in within the city. Knuckles felt a lump in his throat. They had no idea where Shade was, if she was alright, or anything. She had the Chaos Gauntlets so she should be fine, but Knuckles still couldn't help worrying. "Excuse me a minute, guys. Shade had a bunch of sensitive stuff in her house..." he said, stepping inside to take a look. The place looked to have been ransacked. All Knuckles found inside of the objects Shade had been looking after was a broken Scepter of Darkness. He took it out with him. "Anyone recognize this thing?" he asked curiously. Sonic was tapping his foot impatiently as he stood beside Ridley's parked motorcycle. They both shrugged. "Looks like a broken wand. Pretty fancy compared to Gemini's." Sonic murmured. "Shade also had some kinda conch in there..." Ridley noted, "I did the police report when that mask was stolen from here." he added. Sonic frowned at the mention of a conch. "Where'd she get this stuff?" he asked nervously. "...Eggman." Knuckles said, clutching the scepter tightly.
As Knuckles loaded the scepter into Mia's trunk, some terrified screams somewhere in the city caught their attention. Sonic was quick to race into action. "Meet ya at the action, guys!" he shouted, rushing ahead down the long roads, eventually speeding through a loop and finding himself running down a wall. He swore he'd done this twice before. Why was it constructed this way? It only made sense for him to use. Leaping off the wall near the ground, he dashed toward the source of the screams and found a number of civilians cornered by...GUN robots? Hunters and beetles were closing in on humans and Mobians alike, so Sonic worked fast, launching into several homing attacks to give those tin cans a good rattling. But he only succeeded in denting the beetles and knocking the limbs loose on the hunters...as well as catching their attention! "Sturdy fellas, aren't ya?" Sonic murmured, dashing to draw their attention further away from the civilians, sticking his tongue out at them. A ghostly shape popped out of the head of one of the Hunters before slipping back inside the robot, and Sonic realized what was going on. "Undead robots. I feel like callin' ya Zombots… Naaah." he murmured as Knuckles and Violet were catching up. The echidna went into a glide and tore claws-first into a beetle, coming out the other side covered in - thankfully inert due to the Chaos Claws - slime. He latched on to the nearby wall and froze, groaning. "Tell me you didn't know I'd be slimed, Sonic..." he grunted. "Can't talk, saving people!" Sonic shouted as he was busy taking citizens into his arms and rushing them back to Mia's cab one by one, all while Violet warped around the robots, zapping them with sparks of dark energy! Not to be left out, Knuckles shook off the slime as best he could and dropped to the ground, charging at an abandoned car nearby with his Chaos Claws! He stabbed into the door, yanking it loose and jolting it with the claws' energy. "Here's the last thing I learned in training! Enjoy this!" he shouted, winding up his arms and hurtling the energized car door at the nearest Hunter! There was something of a mini Chaos Blast on impact, and slime rained down from the explosion, landing on Violet as she warped nearby. "Thanks, Knuckles. I'm gonna tell sis you slimed me." she growled. "So? ...I'm not Punchy!!" Knuckles shouted, feeling like Violet was forgetting that detail. Meanwhile, Sonic had guided the last citizen to Ridley's cycle, since Mia's cab was full. "Just hold on, ma'am." Ridley sighed. "Least you won't get billed for the ride!" Sonic smirked. "I wouldn't take advantage!" Mia shouted, looking a bit flustered.
With GUN robots possessed by Lost Ones, they worried about the GUN transports. So, they hurried there, following Ridley to the President's office where there were a number of GUN trucks parked. Seeing them, Sonic flashed back to the times when such trucks chased him through the streets and chuckled to himself softly. "This takes me back..." he murmured. The President himself was talking to the GUN Commander at the front of the convoy, but he was struck speechless when he saw Sonic leading a police cycle and a full taxicab to them. "Sonic... He made it." he sighed in relief. The hedgehog skidded to a halt in front of the humans. "Hey, Commander, why the radio silence?" he asked. The GUN Commander watched Knuckles and Violet run to catch up before speaking. "Well... We couldn't get a signal through to your comms devices. Remember, you're on a different frequency from us. Also, we've been distracted here. With Gunner out of the way, we easily seized control of GUN Headquarters back. However, then those creatures attacked. I haven't felt this pinned down since the Black Arms invaded." he said with a distressed expression. Mia walked over holding the Scepter of Darkness while people emptied out of her cab. "Anybody at GUN know what this is?" she questioned. "My word! Is that a Scepter of Darkness from Soleanna??" a familiar elderly elderly voice caught their attention, and they turned to see Professor Pickle hobbling over. "Huh...? What are you doing here?" Sonic asked, surprised. The professor took the Scepter and examined it. "Hmm... Broken. Ah, yes, Sonic. Well met! I've been sticking around after the defeat of the Covenant of Despair, looking into the history of the Chaos Relics. Quite fascinating. You know, actually, I have a theory that the Chaos Relics have something to do with Light Gaia, oddly enough. Perhaps when you have time, we can discuss my theory over a bit of...err...rations. No cucumbers available, I'm afraid, though." he sighed. Knuckles rubbed his head in annoyance. "Yeah, better we focus on getting everyone out of town, first." he grumbled. "Ah, right. I do think my information could prove helpful, though..." Pickle stated, shuffling toward the back of the transport, planning to board it. "That old guy never changes..." Sonic said with a chuckle.
Before they could get going, who should find them but Gunner. He stood before them, with Nammad and Riley trailing behind, and glared at Sonic and the Commander. "Look at you! Running like cowards! I warned you for years, old man! The freaks will be our ruin! Well, what do you call those monsters!?" Gunner shouted. "Old man...?" Violet murmured, "Isn't he older?" she questioned. He wasn't. He just looked it. The Commander glanced at the President. "Get in the truck." he stated, placing a hand on his holster in preparation to deal with Gunner. Sonic looked between the humans and raised his hands up between them. "Hey, hey, look! This isn't the time to be fighting each other! We can hash this out when the Lost Ones have been dealt with!" he shouted, hoping to defuse the situation and get this escape convoy moving. Gunner snapped his fingers, and Guard swooped down from the sky, his scythe swinging toward the Commander! Reacting fast, Knuckles blocked the blade with the Chaos Claws, pushing back against him with a growl. "You're on HIS side?!" he shouted. Guard only growled, a vacant expression on his face. Dr. Nammad smirked. "Quite a good bit of, uh, work, I must say. Considering I had little more than paper clips to reprogram him with!" he said, adjusting his tiny glasses. Sonic placed a hand on his forehead and let out a groan. "We're sitting ducks here, we gotta move!" he murmured. "How do we stop Guard? He's not in his right mind!" Ridley questioned, stepping next to Knuckles as Guard backed away from him, growling and pointing his scythe threateningly. "Just clear a path for us, and we'll get moving!" the Commander said, running for the driver's seat of the front truck. Gunner fired the laser from his gun arm into the air. "You think it's just Guard? You think I'm toothless?! Spy! Go get them!" he ordered. Riley gulped. "But I..." Gunner pointed his gun at Riley, and the timid agent stepped forward. "Sorry..." he whimpered, and ran after the only one he could hope to fight in the bunch; Mia.
Guard flapped up into the air, swinging his special scythe to hurl beams of red energy down at Sonic, Knuckles and Ridley! "Chaos Wave!" Ridley shouted, summoning a thin wave of water up to block the beams somewhat. Knuckles cut down the water wall with his Chaos Claws and stomped forward. "You think you can hide from me up there? Hah!" the echidna laughed, digging the Chaos Claws into thin air and using their power to climb up after the gargoyle! Sonic sped around behind Guard to cut off his escape. "Remember, Knux, we gotta restrain him! He's been brainwashed!" he shouted. "I don't hold back for anyone!!" Knuckles retorted. Guard was flying at the echidna now, and as the gargoyle neared, Knuckles swung his body, kicking against the long handle of that scythe as Guard blocked him! Suddenly, Violet warped onto his back! "This'll be for your own good, devil dog..." she murmured. However, before she could do anything, a shot from Gunner's arm cannon knocked her off the gargoyle! "Aw, no!" Sonic gasped, dashing to catch her as she fell! She groaned as Sonic skidded to a stop with her in his arms. "Just a glancing blow... Ugh... But I think I'm out of it. Damn Gunner..." she winced. Sonic turned his head as he heard a furious growl from Guard, and he saw Knuckles dropping down to his feet from above. "I never knew that Frank-an-droid was so tough." he grumbled. Fortunately, Ridley was now keeping Gunner and Nammad occupied so that they wouldn't interfere anymore. It was just Sonic, Knuckles and Guard. Sonic left Violet to rest and leapt up at the gargoyle. "I'll hit 'em high, you hit him low!" he shouted, launching a homing attack at the airborne gargoyle! Guard turned quickly and swatted Sonic with the side of his scythe, but Sonic quickly landed, dashed around and leapt up again! "Grrraaaahh!!" Frustrated, Guard tossed his scythe up and let his body spark with the same red energy that typically channeled through said scythe! This way, Sonic was repelled even as he was knocked out of the air! Sonic landed on his back as Guard stumbled onto a knee, his scythe blade clanging onto the street between them. He and Knuckles both ran for the blade as Sonic got to his feet. However, Mia suddenly jumped in front of them, blocking the way. "Enough, Guard!!" she shouted.
Riley was licking his wounds by the cab. Not that his heart had really been in fighting the cat-girl anyway. Now that girl was standing between Guard and his scythe, staring him down with a stern look as he stepped toward her, sparking with red energy. "You've gotta stop, Guard... You have to still be in there! They can mess with your programming, but they can't delete your soul!" she shouted. "Mia, get back!" Knuckles warned, trying to push Guard back only to be repelled by the red energy and knocked on his back! Guard kept marching forward, snarling in rage, but Mia stood her ground. "I won't give up on you... You didn't give up on me... So...so snap out of it, ya goon!" she cried, her eyes tearing a little as she shut them tight. The sight of his friend so desperate seemed to give Guard pause. "Grah… N-no... I..." The sparking intensified, and he started to reach for Mia, a crazed look in his eyes. "I know you're a hero...Garen…" Mia sniffled. Guard's eyes widened, and he grabbed his head, howling, the energy shooting out into the air suddenly! "Graaaaaaaahhh!! I-I refuse!!!" he roared, falling backward as the red energy faded from his body! The sound of a car engine surprised everyone as Mia's cab suddenly pulled away! Riley was driving while Gunner and Nammad piled into the back seat. "This isn't over, freaks! I'll kill you all! Somehow!!" Gunner shouted as the cab drove off, leaving Mia to look on in bewilderment for a moment before bending down to check on Guard. "Shouldn't have left the keys in the damn thing, but at least he's gone. Now, wake up, ya lug!" she said, shaking the gargoyle. Guard let out an oddly calm growl. "Androids don't sleep..." he said wryly. Sonic stepped over to Knuckles as the echidna stood up, giving him a smile. "Well, that worked out!" he said, flashing a thumbs up. At that moment, Professor Pickle hobbled over to them again. "Good, that drama's over. I was thinking while I waited, and I really do want to suggest, while I have you here, that someone should check out the site where any of the Temples of Gaia once stood. Those temples held a deep connection to the Chaos Emeralds and Light Gaia, and I have a strong feeling that we may find an important clue still lingering around there." he said. Knuckles let out a sigh. "I guess I'll set out to check that out. Or try to get in touch with someone else that can, after I see to Violet..." he murmured, heading over to where she was resting. He lifted her into his arms. "I don't think I'm that bad off..." she muttered. "Punchy would be a pain in my tail again if I let anything happen to you." Knuckles grunted. She was Punchy's sister-in-law, after all. As Knuckles carried her off, Sonic realized he was more or less on his own to protect the GUN transports. Unless... "Hey, Guard... Think you can stand? The real GUN could use you!" he smiled. The gargoyle sat up. "Grrr… What's the mission?" he asked.
Meanwhile, Lucky the cat and Lucky Junior were arriving in Central City together. They'd seen Sonic leaving Station Square, and thought it might be a good idea to follow him. But they were very much outran. Looking around the city, Lucky had quite a sad expression. He stood in front of Tails' Central City workshop and sighed. "This city was where I first teamed up with Whisk and Tails against Zeke. It wasn't the same Tails that we adventured with later, but still..." he heaved a heavy sigh, "Seeing the city ravaged by those creatures like this, it's hard." he said. Junior patted him on the back. "We'll do something about this. Just gotta figure out which way to go..." he said, rubbing his chin as he thought about it. Suddenly, with two bright lights, a pair of Divine felines appeared in front of them! "Meee-yooow!!" both of them yelped, but Junior didn't jump with as much surprise as his dad. "Don't do that! Ugh, sisters!" he groaned. "S-sisters??" Lucky babbled, blinking a couple times. Before him stood twin girls, clearly older than Junior, and resembling Whisk quite a bit. One had yellow and green fur, a purple shirt with red pants, and black wings. Her name was Minnie. The other had grey and light blue fur, white wings, a red shirt and blue pants. She was Pepper. Both of them had matching blue collars. "Oh, wow, Daddy really does look just like L.J." Minnie giggled. Pepper crossed her arms and shook her head. "We're not here to catch up. You forgot your ProwerPhone." she said, tossing Junior a yellow tablet made out of a certain otherworldly material. "Aaah! Sorry, sis... I had to make sure Dad was alive!" Junior murmured, catching the gizmo. "That looks like something Miles would make..." Lucky murmured. "Yeah, in the future, hehe!" Minnie winked. Lucky smiled. "Good to know Miles is there for you kids... But, but... Whisk and I have THREE kids!?" he babbled, blushing. Pepper and Minnie glanced at each other awkwardly. "Uhhh, yeah, at least..." Pepper muttered. "Whaddaya mean AT LEAST?! C'mon, tell me!" Lucky babbled. "You shouldn't know too much!" Pepper groaned. Suddenly, the ProwerPhone began to chime. "Me-yah! Someone's calling!" Junior gasped. He quickly fumbled with the device and answered it. A red female echidna came onscreen. "Good, they found you." she sighed. "Ahh! Lara! What's up?" Junior asked as Lucky peered over his shoulder. "Is that Knuckles' daughter?? Who's her mom?" he asked. "Shush!" Pepper snapped. On the screen, Lara wore a serious expression. "There's trouble. Listen to me very carefully..."
To be continued...
