Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 34 - Prisoners of the ARK
Stage 18 - The ARK
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
"Head straight for your goal by any means.
There is a door that you've never opened.
There is a window with a view you have never seen.
Get there, no matter how long it takes.
Oh dark, the darkness that dozes in the dusk,
Throw it all away!
No-one can break you, nobody can tear you.
You live an endless life forever." - Throw it All Away; Sonic Adventure 2
Previously on GeneX…
Shadow and Kosmo returned from the Gaia Remnants to find a chaotic situation unfolding in Giant Jungle. The Lost Ones and the Deadly Six were there, hunting the Chaos Emeralds while menacing Knuckles and friends. It culminated in a climactic showdown with Losipher, during which the Cacophonic Conch was destroyed, freeing the Deadly Six to join the fight. However, the Lost Ones were poised to overwhelm the group with Losipher there, so Shadow used Chaos Control to warp Losipher and the Deadly Six away with himself, leaving Kosmo, Rouge and Omega behind.
Now, our tale continues...
Though disconnected from the river of slime, Losipher still retained the massive imposing form that he had changed into, and he still had most of the Deadly Six coiled up in his tentacles as Shadow and Zavok struggled to free them. "It was a miscalculation to transport us away. Now your demise is assured!" Losipher snarled, drawing the tentacles holding Zor and Zazz close to him. "Oh, well. At least I told ya so..." Zor sighed. "You said NOTHIN about a giant slime monster!! Get me outta this, boss!! GAAAHH!!" Zazz screamed, railing against his fate. But it was useless. They were pulled into Losipher's slimy body, doomed to lose their souls to him. "You...bastard!!" Zavok shouted, punching forcefully at Losipher with his powerful fists, trying to bore his way back to his friends! Shadow was backing up to take in his surroundings, trying to calculate a winning strategy. That was when he heard friendly voices. "There he is! Good tracking, Omega!" said Rouge, swooping onto the scene with Omega and Kosmo following behind! "Chances of victory still low." the robot said grimly, "Opponent is resistant to light Chaos energy." More to the point, the Deadly Six were rapidly dying. "N-nooo!! I love me too much to die!!" Zeena cried. "Hah! Eat me if you want, but you'll get sick!" Zomom laughed unconvincingly. "D-destroy this...monster!" Zik strained to say. Zavok saw each of his allies sucked in, and rage burned in his eyes. "Spit them out, or you'll be eating souls through a straw!!" he warned. It was around this point that Lospecter flew in through the trees. "Seriously? These guys are still alive? You gotta be kiddin' me! Well, time's up, Gunny! Rexy wants ya elsewhere!" he reported, pointing the Chaos Key and using it to summon a portal behind Losipher. "If I must..." the demon growled, turning and heading into the portal as Zavok leapt in after him! "Don't turn your back on me!!" he yelled. Shadow and Kosmo started after them. "Wait! Let them go!" Rouge stammered. Lospecter dropped in front of the pair as they ran. "See ya around!!" the ghost cackled, turning the Chaos Key to open a portal directly in front of them, leaving Shadow and Kosmo no time to change course before running through it! Lospecter closed the portal behind them, gave a salute to Rouge, and took off through the first portal before it, too, vanished. "Wh-what just happened??" Rouge stammered. "Readings of the portal indicate that Shadow has been sent...home." Omega reported.
Shadow looked around, and his eyes briefly widened, then narrowed. Kosmo turned back to see the portal closed behind him. "I feel like we actually should have seen that coming... So, where are we now?" the morph wondered. "It's the Space Colony ARK." Shadow said blankly, pointing out a nearby window. Kosmo looked to see twinkling stars, and the Earth down below. The blue planet had a bit of a sickly look to it, dark clouds covering large areas and some of the blue turned a bit pale green. "I have so many concerns, but now I guess we should think about getting back down." Kosmo said awkwardly. Shadow crossed his arms. "Lospecter put us here to get us out of the way. The chances of finding a spacecraft to take us back aren't good. I mean, this is near the Space Prison. I imagine the only reason he didn't dump us directly in there is that he must already have a prisoner there." he reasoned. Kosmo raised an eyebrow. "A prison? What exactly was this colony for?" he questioned. Shadow started walking towards the prison itself, Kosmo following. "I was born here. This was a science colony. Gunner refurbished an area to use as a prison for Dr. Stein; His sick joke since Stein used to work here." Shadow explained. "Bucky... Huh, he was caged up himself. Kind of poetic..." Kosmo mused, "But alright, let's say you're right... Who would Lospecter wanna lock in the prison more than us?" he wondered. Shadow shrugged. He was silent as he walked through these somber, abandoned halls. He thought he'd left this behind him, but here he was back again. Kosmo scratched his head, thinking it over. "Well, guess I should be glad we're not at the Sun. I'll assume Lospecter's dumping major threats to the Lost Ones' plans up here." he figured.
Elsewhere in the Space Colony was Starr. She had been transported by Lospecter as well, and she wasn't pleased by it. "Why me of all people?" she grumbled, to be startled as a trash bin by one of the doorways suddenly glowed and transformed! "Who, what!?" she yelped, calming only when she saw that it was Ozzie. "Hey, sis..." he yawned, stretching. Starr crossed her arms and tapped her foot. "I ain't your sis and that wasn't funny. What are you doing here, besides being trash?" she remarked. Ozzie cracked his knuckles and looked around. "Aw, nuts, it wasn't a dream. Well, ghost boy put me here. Said he wants all the morphs to fight to the death or somethin'. Nothing like that's gonna happen unless Nova's up here, though." he chuckled. Starr bit her lip. "You idiot! Nova probably IS up here, along with my dad! I mean, if that was the ghost's plan. I've gotta find dad!" she said, turning to leave. "Or, we could find Nova first and get the jump on him." Ozzie suggested, "Keep daddy dearest out of the line of fire?" he smiled. Starr rubbed her chin like she was considering it. "Uhhh, no. Three against one will be better odds. Or do you WANT to not have a future? Y'know, 'cuz future you disappeared?" she said, pointing at him as she proved her point. Ozzie shrugged. "Impossible to argue with that logic, but let's just see who we find first. Neither of us know our way around this hunk of space debris." he pointed out. "Space debris?" Starr questioned as she and Ozzie headed out a door together, only to see the vast expanse of stars through a large window beyond. Starr's eyes near popped out of her head. "I thought we were just LOST, not LOST in SPACE!!" she shouted, a bit freaked out. "No big deal. You got the immortality crown, right?" Ozzie asked. Starr looked at him without a change in her freaked expression. She'd put the Chaos Crown away...stashed for safekeeping.
Apparently, during Gunner's short tenure in office, he'd refreshed the supply of guard robots in the space colony. He was likely planning to reuse the Space Prison. As a result, Shadow and Kosmo found quite a few androids patrolling their path to the cell. Shadow angrily tore through a few androids of himself with a violent spin dash. "I cannot begin to describe how fed up with fakers I am..." he growled. Kosmo was caught between androids of Vortex and Crash. "Hey, this is just therapeutic for me..." the morph said, shifting into the form of Copter and flying up above as "Crash" charged at him, crashing horn-first into "Vortex" and resulting in an explosion. "Well, guess they're slightly dumber than the real deal..." Kosmo murmured, landing on the ground only to feel the barrel of a gun against his head! A Zipp android was behind him, ready to blow him away! "L-look out!!" a voice cried, "Zipp" suddenly being grabbed by psychic energy and forcefully flung across the hall, smashed against the wall! Kosmo looked around to see Carrie appear out of nowhere. She'd been with them, invisible! "Heeey... How long have you been here?" Kosmo questioned. The fork-tailed girl looked at the ground awkwardly. "I've been following you since the jungle. I was ashamed to admit, I uh... I chickened out on going back! All those Lost Ones... I've always been a bit of a coward. Letting Talon show off while I let him pretend he had my powers. Never wanted to be in the line of fire..." she murmured. Kosmo raised an eyebrow and Shadow scoffed. "I knew she was here the whole time. Let's keep moving." the hedgehog grunted. "But you followed me up here into space?" Kosmo questioned. Carrie started following after Shadow. "Yeah, yeah, don't let it go to your head, Kosmo." she said with a soft chuckle. The morph smiled as he changed back to his normal form and followed after her. "Good to have ya back..."
There wasn't much any androids could do to stop the three of them, and before long they'd arrived at the prison itself, with its cell that was covered in rubber to block Bucky's electrical powers. That wasn't the strangest thing in the room, though. Mephiles the Dark and Infinite the Jackal were squaring off, apparently ready for a fight with one another! "Okay, what the heck?" Carrie exclaimed. The villains glanced at the intruders briefly. "Lospecter put us up here, the same as you." Infinite stated, adjusting his mask. "There's no time for our dance of darkness today, Shadow. But if you seek to interfere as I settle things with this pitiful follower, we have something to keep you occupied..." Mephiles stated, motioning to a trio of LoShadow ghosts at the back of the room! Shadow clenched his fists, ready to charge in, but Kosmo placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him. "No need to take 'em all on at once. Let's see how this plays out." he said calmly. Shadow glanced at him and nodded. Mephiles and Infinite could both be a great deal of trouble on their own, much less together. But if they fought one another first, both of them may be weakened and easier to dispatch. Infinite scoffed at Mephiles. "If I'm a follower, than what are you? Slave to the Lost Ones! But your Time-Eating powers won't work against the Phantom Ruby!" he shouted. Mephiles floated up in the air. "All I need is mere darkness to triumph over a weakling like you." he said matter-of-factly. This set Infinite off. "I am NOT weak!! RRRRRAAAAGHH!!" With the Phantom Ruby and Mephiles' dark powers both going active, the room started to fill with red energy and pools of darkness. "I think I'll be in the hallway..." Carrie squeaked, going invisible while Shadow and Kosmo backed away from the sinister energies.
The enraged Infinite surrounded Mephiles with a dozen or so phantom laser cannons, while the Dark summoned a small swarm of mini-Mephiles minions from the darkness, which quickly blocked the laser blasts. "Childish..." Mephiles scoffed, hurling orbs of dark energy from his claws towards Infinite! The jackal held his mask on his face as he endured the hits. "Is that all you have?" he scoffed. His Ruby whirred, and then he changed into a warped giant, his body snake-like and his arms ending in broad clawed hands. "Huh, like Operation: Big Wave... but he can only go so big in here..." Kosmo murmured. The warped Infinite tried to catch Mephiles in his giant hands, but he dove into the darkness, laughing as he vanished. "I'm one with the shadows. You can't even harm me." he mocked as hulking purplish-black beasts started to rise from the pools of darkness! They surrounded Infinite, but he quickly set to work swatting them down while they charged energy in their single purple eyes. One managed to finish charging and fired a laser, which went through Infinite's illusion, his true self flying out of the large mask as it faded! "Your toys are useless!" the jackal shouted, using the Phantom Ruby to cause spikes to erupt from all around the beast, skewering and destroying it! Mephiles popped out of the darkness behind Infinite. "My power is still far beyond yours!" he sneered, raising his hand to fire a massive beam of energy towards the jackal! Infinite spun around and responded with a similar beam erupting straight from the Phantom Ruby, clashing with Mephiles' shot! They strained, and rather than overpowering one another, the beams shot out in a different direction as they turned away, striking the cell and blasting it open! When the smoke started to settle, who should step out of the cell but the witch, Tabitha the Cat!
Tabitha held an orb of green magical energy in her hand. "Good timing. My little payback spell for you fools is complete. Enjoy settling this in the vacuum of space!" she cackled, tossing the spell in the direction of the distracted Mephiles and Infinite! Though no one could see, the pair reappeared outside the Space Colony, but neither seemed troubled by the lack of air or gravity. The flew at one another, eager to finish their showdown...but this left Shadow, Kosmo and Carrie with Tabitha at the cell. "Oh, look who it is. Guess the blue guy's here, too..." Carrie realized. Tabitha nodded. "The spirit thought sending me into space would keep me from rising up and overtaking the Lost Ones as the true mistress of evil! But I've merely been biding my time in that cell... This is a minor setback, and even without Nova or his mask, I'm more than a match for you feeble mortals!" she announced, twirling her broomstick before mounting it. The LoShadows were assessing the situation, and started hissing angrily, glaring at Shadow at the same time as Tabitha was rising into the air on her broom. "Tell me, why did we come here again?" Carrie questioned. "Just in case someone we LIKED was in the cell..." Kosmo replied, "In retrospect, there had to be a better way to find out." he murmured, glancing around for any sign of cameras in the room. Shadow cracked his knuckles and grinned at Tabitha. "For someone putting herself above the Lost Ones, you don't seem to have qualms using them as backup right now." he mocked. The witch cackled softly as she watched the LoShadows approach him. "Why dirty my hands if they'll take care of you for me? I can eliminate any Lost One with the greatest of ease once I need to..." she smirked. Kosmo and Carrie stood with Shadow, ready for a fight!
As the LoShadows charged at them, Carrie vanished once again, attempting to move without being noticed. Kosmo shifted his form into that of Vortex the Chameleon. "I may not like the guy, but he's sure got good Chaos powers." he muttered, "Come at me, ghosts!" Carrie emerged near the debris of the cell doors, using her psychokinesis to lift the pieces as Kosmo started firing lasers of Chaos energy from his hands. Those two would be enough to occupy the ghosts for now, so Shadow leapt up at Tabitha. "Chaos Spear!!" The witch waved her hands, and a barrier of orange energy surrounded and protected her. "So very impatient!" she smirked. Shadow glared up at her as he landed. "I don't trust you to just wait on the sidelines." he huffed. Tabitha started casting some smoky green spells in her hands. "It doesn't matter. I've seen you and your friends killed before in my original world, and I've only held back so far out of caution after my own near-demise! Now, meet your doom!" she cried, cackling as she poured the green smoke down onto the ground below, the spell spreading through the room as a wave of fire, which Shadow, Kosmo and Carrie each had to jump quickly! Tabitha then flew her broom at Shadow in the distraction, kicking him forcefully as she passed! She then hurtled a sparking red spell towards him, but Shadow warped out of the way, and the spell exploded uselessly against the floor! "Such a pest! Where are you?" the witch growled, laughing as she heard a strike against her shield from behind. "Forgot you can't get me!" she laughed, turning and shooting purple lightning from her fingers at her attacker, only to hit debris held up by Carrie's powers! "What!?" she snarled as she felt someone land on her broom. "Need to open the shield to attack, hm? Hey, something about this feels familiar, too..." Kosmo said, smirking as he sat beside her.
Tabitha groaned as she was knocked off her broom and crashed down to the ground below. She looked to see Shadow busily occupying the LoShadows, warping around them and hitting them with spears as much as he could. "The old 'switch partners' routine? You're dealing with the mistress of nightmares!! I'm far from finished!" she shouted, holding another green spell above her head and tossing it skyward, sending balls of fire raining throughout the room! Carrie hurried to block with the pieces of the door, while Kosmo struggled to control Tabitha's broom, swerving away from the fire only to get tossed to the ground! Shadow headed away from the ghosts, dashing past the fireballs towards Tabitha. "Alright, then... Let's finish this on the ground!" he shouted as Tabitha's hands started glowing once again. Before either launched an attack, however, an alarm started to blare out through the Space Colony! Shadow leapt over Tabitha in his surprise, and she tossed her spell at the LoShadows that were following behind him, vaporizing them with ease! The alarm was followed by a screen turning on over the exit to the room. It showed a certain recording of Gerald Robotnik, Shadow's creator. "I p-plan to give you a t-taste of my revenge... O-once all the seven Chaos Emeralds are co-collected. Once I initiate this pro-program, it cannot be disabled. All-all of you ungrateful humans, who to-took everything away from me, w-will feel my loss and despair!" The recording sounded distorted these days, but it was clear that Gerald's revenge program had been activated again somehow. Tabitha summoned her broom to her side. "Nova! What have you done?" she grumbled, mounting the broom and hastily flying out of the room! Kosmo and Carrie looked at one another before looking at Shadow. "She says Nova did what??" Carrie questioned. Shadow stared at the screen in surprise. "It's impossible... The Chaos Emeralds aren't here. How could he?" he questioned, "How could he activate the Eclipse Cannon??"
Starr and Ozzie happened to see Gerald's message on a screen as well. "Okay, sure, that's not ominous at all..." Starr murmured. Ozzie nodded. "Guy looks like old man Eggman... Doesn't bode well." he agreed, "So, what now?" That was a good question, seeing as they were still lost. Starr jumped as her ProwerPhone started ringing. "What the?? Can we get a signal all the way up here!?" she stammered, picking it up and answering the call. "You guys won't believe where I am!" she said, only to get static in response. "...re you? ....me mach... Hurry!!" The voice sounded like it was Lucky Jr. to her, but she couldn't make heads or tails of his words. "Hey, it's impressive you can even connect." Ozzie chuckled. "C'mon, we gotta get back to Earth! They could be in trouble!" Starr said with concern.
Once again, Mephiles and Infinite had their powerful beams clashing. Now they were on solid ground, settling things on the normally peaceful backdrop of Green Hill. Infinite grunted his last defiance. "No!! M-my Ruby!! I c-could win this, damn it!!" Sadly for him, there was only one way this could end, as the Phantom Ruby's power was once again running out. The jackal took a dive to avoid Mephiles' beam as his power left him, his mask clattering to the ground a few feet away. Mephiles floated towards him as he frantically clawed for the mask, only to find the dark holding it down with his foot. "You don't lose because your power is limited... You lose because you lack conviction. I will see everything ended no matter the cost...but look at you, clawing at vanity. Pitiful." he said, kicking the mask over to the jackal. Infinite looked at the mask, and then looked up at Mephiles with his scarred face. "I...lack conviction? You think I will falter when the time comes?! You think I'm that weak!!" he shouted, climbing swiftly to his feet, "I will crush all who oppose me beneath me feet!" he shouted, stomping the mask and shattering it under him! Mephiles stared at him with his soul-less eyes, but laughed softly. "Perhaps you still have use to us, then... I look forward to seeing that rage directed properly." he said, floating up and turning into smoke before flying off into the distance. Infinite looked down at the broken mask and growled. "All who see this face...will suffer..." he vowed.
To be continued...
