NexGen: GeneX Epilogue
Part 1: GeneX Village
Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA.
NexGen, GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
The world, and countless worlds beyond, had been saved from certain doom. Chosen ones had banded together, and with their powers combined, defeated and cured the legion of Lost Ones, restoring natural life to the multiverse. In the aftermath, the heroes had all gone their separate ways and returned to their lives. Arthur Prower, better known as Copter, was one of those heroes. A black twin-tailed fox with spiky-ended tails and blue goggles upon his head, Copter set out with his girlfriend Gemini the fennec and her twin sister Libra to see the world. The twins both dressed much the same, wearing pink sweaters and jeans. Gemini was white furred primarily; Libra was light blue. The trio had attempted to enjoy their vacation, but as they stepped out of the doors to the Spagonia airport, their hearts sank as they noticed a gathering of the press awaiting them. "Fourth time since we started our trip! Thanks, Katie, for telling the media that we were involved in fighting the Lost Ones..." Copter groaned. If they were to get spotted, they'd be mobbed with questions they didn't feel like answering...again! Gemini whipped out her magic wand, growling softly. "I know it's tempting to vaporize them, but just hide us..." Libra suggested. Gemini nodded. "Morphikadabra!" she cast, turning the three of them into humans that vaguely resembled their Mobian forms. It was easy to stroll past the media when they looked like an entirely different species. Still, Copter found it quite unpleasant. "Can't you magic me a shirt, while you're at it? I feel all exposed without fur..." he grumbled. At least he had pants...
They headed for one place they knew would be pretty much safe, Professor Pickle's lab. After turning back to their true forms, the professor welcomed them and showed them around briefly, but he had work to do, and couldn't stay to chat. Libra sighed and slumped into a chair. "Some vacation, huh? How long do you think it'll be until the media moves on?" she murmured. Gemini shrugged. "Not long. But it might be long enough to be very...annoying." she stated. Copter growled. "It's already annoying. Let's ragequit already. Where do we go?" he asked. "Home?" Libra questioned, "Um... Do we even have a home after Punchy left Raisol Sanctuary?" she added. The trio glanced at each other awkwardly. Libra had lost her house some time ago, and Eggman's Darkegg Fortress base where Copter used to stay was also gone. "Well, maybe we're not going home, either. Any ideas, Gemini? 'cuz I'm not spending my vacation as a human... No offense if anyone in the hall's listening in!" Copter grunted. Gemini wasn't keen on spending her vacation as any species other than herself, either. "Hmm... Why don't we call some of the others? Maybe our friends can give us some ideas." she suggested. Copter reached into his pocket and produced a ProwerPhone, which he held onto after the events of the Lost One war. "Hope this thing can call long-distance. Who do we start with? Hmmm..." On a whim, he called up Punchy first. "Aurora!! Get off that counter!! Gahh!! Rainbow, help!!" was the first thing they heard Punchy say as he picked up, "Guys, can you call back? Yeesh, if this is my kid at one, I am NOT ready for the terrible twos!" he gulped, quickly hanging up. Copter glanced at Gemini with an awkward chuckle. "Let's not have our kid too soon, yeah?" he murmured.
They tried calling some other friends. Kosmo had spent a fair bit of his life in hiding, so they began with the morph. "You try faking your death? That gets people off your tail pretty well." he suggested. Libra frowned. "And what happens when we want to...live again?" she asked. Kosmo chuckled softly. "You figure it out. By the way, you wouldn't have any intel on a crashed spaceship, would ya?" he asked. Copter hung up without answering, and they moved on to the next call. "Wha? I have a phone??" Knuckles stammered upon answering. "I brought it here..." Shade could be heard in the background. "What other changes are you plannin' to make up here??" Knuckles snapped, the echidna's voice going silent as he hung up without letting Copter speak. "Yeaaah... They're still adjusting to living together..." he murmured. They explained the situation to Guard the gargoyle next...or Garen, as he was now known. "Grrr... If you feel threatened, GUN could take you into protective custody..." the gargoyle grunted. "No way!!" Copter shouted quickly, "Why'd we call Guard, anyway??" Copter had spent time in a GUN cell before, and going back wasn't an option. Next on their list was Tails, who didn't seem to see the problem. "You could just...do an interview? Pretty sure they'd leave you alone if you just did one." he stated. Gemini chuckled awkwardly. "I don't want to be in the spotlight at all. How do I answer questions if my past comes up? My past is the future!" she stated. Tails didn't know what to tell them. Finally, they made a last-ditch call to Vortex the chameleon. "You could ssstay with usss for a while." he told them. Copter scratched his head. "Hey, where are you guys living now? Shadow Arcangel is rubble!" he realized. Vortex hissed softly. "We've got ssssome property on an island. I'll sssend you the coordinatesss... Don't be followed." he said a bit ominously. Copter glanced to the twins, and they shrugged. "Might as well check it out..." Gemini said.
Following the coordinates, Copter flew his plane, the Hurricane, to a largely untamed tropical island, with Gemini and Libra riding along. The island was dominated by a small mountain, with lush forests surrounding it. Along the coastline, they found a small village, which was apparently fairly new. There was a sign at the edge of town that read "GeneX Village." Copter nodded upon seeing it. "This must be the place... Did Vortex and them build this whole village?" Copter wondered. "Look there... Looks like a garage." Libra pointed out. There was a building with a small runway behind it. Copter took advantage and landed on the runway. He was surprised by who met them there. "Well, well... Finally brought my plane back ta me, eh? 'Bout dang time!" The beaver robot, Hoover, was walking out of the garage. "Heeey... Sonic said Eggman retired. Decommissioned his robots and everything!" Gemini said. Hoover grunted, munching on a used soda can. "I ain't run on no animals, so I can do as I please! 'Sides, you'd be hopeless witout me!" he said. Copter jumped out of the plane and looked around. "That's cool, uhh... But Eggman isn't here, right? It's just you?" he asked. Hoover shrugged. "Ain't no one know where the doc disappeared to. He might be retired, but that don't mean all's forgiven, so he can't very well keep his location very public." he explained. Gemini and Libra hopped out of the plane next. "I guess Vortex needed this guy's help to build the town..." Libra concluded. Hoover chuckled. "Well, there's still plenty work ta be done, but we been doin' a pretty good lob if'n I says so myself. Even got a place all set fer ya." he announced. Copter raised an eyebrow. "Really? Planned for us to show up, eh? Hm, might as well look around town..." he murmured.
The town was pretty bare-bones for now, with the garage being the most modern building there, barring a building at the back that was clearly Vortex's lab. The other buildings were essentially wood cabins, and there were enough buildings for all 19 experiments plus some friends to potentially stay there, as long as they didn't bring too many friends. It wasn't a very crowded town, for sure. Copter found Talon the griffin, Sonata the unicorn and Bolt the creature just outside the garage, ready to greet them. "Hey, I was starting to doubt anyone was gonna join us here!" Talon waved. "Vortex tried to invite the other Experiments, but most of them have other stuff going on." Sonata stated. Of course, Copter was Experiment 2, hence his invite. Bolt backed away from the newcomers slowly. "I-I'm honestly glad it's not too crowded here..." he admitted shyly. Gemini took in a deep breath of that seaside air. "I think I agree with ya. This'll be a good place to spend our vacation... Or live forever..." she said cheerfully. Copter nodded, waving to the trio of experiments. "Well, we're gonna explore a bit. Catch ya later..." he said. Talon waved back. "Well, ya won't get lost, anyway..." he said. As the foxes headed further into town, Zipp the hornet flew out and pounced on Copter, shaking him. "Didn't we tell you to make sure not to get followed??" he shouted. "Don't touch me, you psycho!!" Copter growled, shoving him off, "We weren't followed! ...Right?" he added, glancing at Gemini and Libra, who both shrugged. An explosion was heard at the entrance to town, the sign Copter had noticed on the way over being broken into pieces! Zipp grabbed a gun from his jacket pocket. "Not followed, eh? What's that, then!?" he snapped. Copter started to follow him toward the explosion. If this was in any way his fault, he'd do his best to set it right!
Copter arrived to find Zipp taking cover with Emily the squirrel behind a building. They were taking cover from incoming shots fired by robots, but not Eggman's, and not GUN's. They looked a lot like GUN robots, but were painted in a red and black color scheme, a different logo displayed on their metal bodies, with the word "BOMB" written across it. "Chaos Whirlwind!!" Copter was quick to blow some of the robots back with his chaotic wind power, giving Zipp an opening to fire some shots back at the robots. "Who the heck are these guys??" Copter shouted. "Who do ya think? Gunner supporters!" Zipp shouted. Richard Gunner was a vile man who briefly took over both GUN and the government before the Lost Ones crashed his civil war and started a war of their own. At the end of it all, Gunner was arrested, but his former allies that helped him take over GUN were still around, and apparently formed their own organization. Some Hunter-looking robots turned their guns on Copter, but before they could fire on him, Gemini appeared and zapped them with blasts of magic, blowing them to pieces! "Why are we ALWAYS fighting GUN??" she grumbled. "Not GUN, BOMB." Emily said, stepping out from her cover, "I've seen them online. 'Band of Mobian-Blasters.' They're true believers in Gunner's philosophy that everything terrible that's happened to our world lately is the fault of Mobians, especially those with powers." she explained. Copter looked at her in confusion. "Shouldn't you be, uh... With Conan?" he asked. Emily sighed. "He's serving time in prison for his crimes. We'll be reunited in a few years. Until then, I've no place else to stay... I kind of lost all my assets being dead for so long." she said. "Talk later! The bots aren't finished!" Zipp shouted.
Fortunately, Vortex the chameleon and Crash the rhino were arriving on the scene, ready to assist in taking on the swarm of robots. The rhino charged horn-first toward some small tank-like robots, with Vortex covering him with carefully aimed Chaos Inferno blasts. "Tch, what sort of idiot thought attacking a village of US would end well?" Copter wondered as he stood back and watched the trio known as "Team GeneX" do their work. Gemini was more inclined to help, shooting down some BOMB-ified beetle robots with some well placed spells. "My question is more, 'how could anyone support Gunner?'" she said to Copter. The black fox shrugged, and as a BOMB hunter dropped down in front of him, he quickly evaded its laser and swatted it with his tails. "Eh, world's full of people willing to follow anybody. Just so long as they don't gotta think for themself." he concluded. Crash and Vortex backed to the area where Copter, Gemini and Zipp were taking cover, as a large mech approached. "Thisss mussst be the bossss..." the chameleon hissed. "Still not all that original. Looks like a regular Bigfoot mech..." Crash murmured. As the mech landed, hatches opened on the sides to reveal many more missiles ready to launch than a typical Bigfoot mech would possess. "Oooh, I want one!" Zipp said excitedly. Before attacking, a voice rang out from a speaker in the mech. "GeneX Experiments! Your reign of terror is ending soon!" The group glanced at each other awkwardly. "Do we know that voice? Can't place him..." Copter asked. "Honestly, he kinda sounds like Zipp..." Gemini babbled. "Hey! I'm right here!!" the hornet snapped. The speaker let out a frustrated groan. "Come on, guys! You remember... Agent 32? Worked under Sergeant Drol? Green shades?" The group shrugged. No one remembered this stooge.
At any rate, Agent 32 had his speech to finish. "Richard Gunner was right about you freaks all along! You may have fooled half the world just by cleaning up your own freakish messes, but you can't fool me! You caused that whole monster infestation!" he shouted. Copter rolled his eyes. "Who wants to take this guy? I mean, I've had enough of this delusion outta Gunner to last a lifetime..." he grumbled. "We are not delusional! Now, you face the wrath of me, Doug Stone!" Agent 32 declared. The Mobians blinked, and Zipp laughed at him. "Shoulda stuck with a number, Dougie." the hornet mocked. Doug growled, and his mech stomped toward them. "You won't be laughing in a sec... Fire!!" he snarled, only to gasp as bullets pelted the back of his mech. "Who??" he snapped, turning the mech around. The Tornado was flying overhead, shooting down at the mech only to find its armor too tough. "There must be a weak spot!" Tails shouted. Sonic stood on the plane's wing, and gave Tails a thumb's up before leaping down! Not wanting to wait for the hedgehog's move, Doug fired the mech's missiles, dozens of little rockets racing towards the falling hedgehog! Tails shot at a couple of the missiles, exploding them! The smoke of the explosions obscured Sonic for a moment, but he then came barreling out of the smoke in a ball, and crashed through the mech's head, causing it to blow up and leave a heap of scrap! Sonic emerged from that explosion unscathed, and a small drone passed by, through which Doug addressed him. "You'll regret interfering Sonic! You're on our list, too!" he shouted. Tails shot down the drone as he passed by, heading for the runway by Hoover's garage. Sonic turned and waved at the Mobians nearby. "Heya, long time no see!" he smirked.
Tails soon met up with them, and Cream the rabbit was with him. Copter looked at them with a smug grin. "What happened to just doing an interview and letting 'em move on?" he teased. Tails chuckled softly. "Well... We thought a vacation sounded nice, anyway." he said. Vortex, Zipp and Crash had gone to assess the damage to the village, and Emily went on her way as well, leaving just Copter and the fennec twins to greet Sonic and his friends. "This is some island. Looks like there's a lot to explore here." Sonic smiled, looking up at the mountain looming over the village and forest. "I'm just glad the robots are gone so Tails and I can relax on the beach together." Cream said, holding her boyfriend's hand. Gemini nodded. "Yeah...but are we sure they won't come back?" she wondered. Copter shrugged and started walking towards the beach. "Y'know, who cares? If a few measly robots from Gunner's old underlings are all we got to worry about, I think we got it made." he said. It had been so many years with greater, often apocalyptic threats hanging over them. Copter was just glad to, at last, not be in the midst of some epic quest. Not watching his step, Copter bumped into someone near the beach. "Oop! Sor... Violet??" he stammered. Violet the echidna, Punchy's sister-in-law and one of Copter's ex girlfriends, was standing there in a blue bikini, clearly set for a good time at the beach, too. "Hey... So, I'm not the only one who needed to get away..." she said with an awkward chuckle. Copter gulped and nodded, trying not to stare at her too much. "Your little niece drive ya nuts?" he said politely. Violet nodded, and breaking the tension, Silver Blaze and Marine raced past them, each carrying surfboards! "Last one in's a rotten Eggman!" Silver laughed. "'Oi! You take that back, mate!" Marine shouted. Watching them, Copter let out a sigh. "Guess this place ain't gonna be so quiet after all..."
Later, Vortex stopped by the village entrance to see how the repairs were going. He had his own work to do, so Crash, Zipp and a couple others were fixing the damage. The entry sign seemed fixed, but something also seemed a bit off from behind. Vortex stepped around front and stammered in disbelief. "H-hey! Who put thisss together??" he shouted. Zipp flew over to him quickly. "Rush job. Why, what could be wrong with it?" he asked. Vortex rubbed his head and groaned. "Ssssome of the piecesss are backward." he said, pointing. Instead of GeneX Village, the sign read, "neXGen Village," half of the letter N being on either side. "Uh huh... NexGen... You know, that kinda sounds better. Sounds like the future or something!" Zipp stated. Vortex let out a soft groan, and Crash stepped over to chime in. "I think our creator would approve. He'd want us to keep our eyes on the future, and not dwell on the mistakes of the past anymore." he stated. Vortex nodded slowly. "Alright, whatever. GeneX, NexGen, doesssn't matter. All that mattersss isss building a future that will lassst. It'sss the bessst way to honor our massster...and father'sss, legacy." With that decided, the book was officially closed on the story of "GeneX." It was indeed time to look to the future. For now, the future held some well-earned rest for our heroes. Beyond that, who could say? Tomorrow is always a brand new day...
To be continued...
