GeneX - Shatterverse
Chapter 2 - The Eggpire
Sonic & related characters (c) Sega
GeneX-related OCs (c) 2BIT
Doyle, or "Marv's" cab pulled up to a building on the outskirts of town. Looking around, Copter realized that this was roughly where Hollow Manor would have been in his own world. Instead, a more modernized facility was there in its place. "Where'd you take me?" Copter asked. "I was asked to take any guys lookin' as lost as you to this place." Marv said. The cabbie gave Copter his card before driving off and leaving him there. He shrugged and stepped inside, where he found an empty reception area. He found a bell on the desk, and rang it to see if anyone would come. Emerging from the nearby door was Ridley the coati, who was out of uniform so Copter assumed he was an alternate version of him. However, the coati gave him a salute. "Officer Prower! Good work, finding me!" he said. Copter gave a sigh of relief. "Oh, good, it's you. Chet here, too?" he asked. Instead of Chet, Tommy the porcupine poked his head out of the door. "Copter? You're here, too!" he said a bit excitedly. Ridley smiled and led him out. "As you can see, seems the missing Mobians were sent here!" he announced. "But where is here?" Copter questioned. "You're in a NEW WORLD!!" someone shouted, slamming his hands down on the front desk and startling Copter. What really startled him, however, was the fact that the person behind the desk...was Bucky! "...Dad??" Copter whimpered. Bucky looked at him. "Huh... S-son?" he stammered. They both stared at one another and pointed, each saying the same thing at once. "Y-you're dead!" Ridley nodded. "Yes, yes, you're both dead. Why don't we take this to the lab, where we have a whiteboard and a water cooler..." he suggested. After all, there was explaining to be done.
Copter explained the details about Bucky's death, which was quite a long story. The rat followed up by explaining how Copter died. "Well, you see...there was an explosion..." he began. "Yeah, you blew me up in my world, too." Copter said, arms crossed, "The Doomsayer brought me back." Bucky raised an eyebrow. "Me? Eggman blew you up. He always resented how my research overshadowed his grandfather's..." he stated. With further discussion, Copter came to understand that Bucky was a respected scientist in this world, and had never been a fugitive. He detected a burst of strange energy each time someone was transported to this world, and so he enlisted Marv to help guide these displaced people to his lab, but only Copter, Tommy and Ridley had been found thus far. "Alright, this has all been pretty...interesting; But we need to get back home. Can your science do that?" Copter asked. Zipp flew into the lab in a panic at this point. "Th-the Eggpire is here! The bots are back to collect!" he babbled. "Huh? Eggpire?? ...collect?" Copter asked. Bucky pulled some guns out of a cabinet. "I need another sample of your dimension's wavelength. Find your friend, bring him here. I'll also need Tails to help with construction of the device we need." Bucky stated, "Meanwhile, Eggman's here to collect his taxes. We pay up, he leaves our city alone...in theory. Doesn't always work that way..." he added, tossing a gun to Zipp. "Shouldn't Sonic stop him?" Tommy asked. "Ask him about that if you see him..." Zipp sighed, "But he'll tell ya, he retired." Copter did a facepalm. "Eggman was the one to retire in our world... Why is this opposite-land??" he grumbled, heading for the door. "Hey! You should take a gun!" Bucky shouted. Copter laughed. "Don't need it! Don't worry... I won't end up like your Copter!" he said confidently.
There was one problem; Copter had no idea how to find Chet or Tails in this topsy-turvy world. He split up with Ridley to search, and unfortunately they both had to search on foot, as "Marv" had driven off for actual paying customers. So, Copter found himself bearing witness to tax-collecting robots bullying people at their homes. They seemed a bit more intimidating than Eggman's usual Egg Pawns, too, so the fox felt a need to keep a low profile despite feeling in his gut like he had to help the people. Besides, Razor was actually there. It disheartened Copter to see him, though, as the porcupine was mediating the tax collections. Rather than putting a stop to it, he was simply there to minimize conflict between the people and the bots. Copter stayed out of sight, flying from rooftop to rooftop, but he stopped when he heard a child cry out. Looking, he saw that negotiations with one family were going poorly, a robot lifting up one of the kids threateningly. "Now, now, there's no need for that! You'll get your money...put the kid down!" Razor yelled. Copter couldn't take it. He dropped down and smacked away the other tax-bots with his tails! "You heard the officer! Put the kid down!" he growled. The robot threw the child at Razor, who caught him while Copter fled the robot's laser shots. He probably should have thought this through, because now all the robots on the street were coming after him! Fortunately, Razor's bike was close by. Copter leapt onto it and sped off, leaving the porcupine dumbfounded. "H-hey! You idiot! You'll get people killed!" he shouted. Copter was aware of the danger, and attempted to lead the robots away from the residential area. But no matter how fast he went, he couldn't shake the robots...until he passed by a building surrounded by barbed wire, where several blasts sniped the robots from the roof of the fenced-off building. Copter looked, and gasped to see who'd helped him. There was Tails, holding a custom sniper-rifle. He wore a black hoodie, and also had streaked his bangs with black dye, as well as his tails. "...This world is SO weird..." Copter mumbled as he parked the motorcycle close by.
Tails flew down to meet Copter, and led the black fox to his backyard where Sonic was snoozing in a hammock. They awoke him, but Sonic just laid there drowsily as Copter explained the situation quickly. "I'd say that's quite a story, but we've seen crazier. I can't help you, though... beyond giving you a dimensional energy scanner. It should let you find your friend due to your dimension having slightly different energy signatures than ours." he said, rushing into the workshop to fetch the gizmo. Copter groaned. "Bucky wanted him to help build a device to send us HOME. Can you talk to him, Sonic?" he asked. Sonic rolled over in the hammock to look away from him. "He's done with all that. Try watching your kids die in front of you and see how heroic you feel after that." he said. Copter crossed his arms. "But he DID see his future-kid die in my world, and he kept going anyway. What's different here?" he questioned. Sonic answered with a snore, and Copter sighed as Tails returned with a Miles Electric device. "Here... Sorry I can't help more..." he murmured. Copter accepted it with a sigh, and was going to leave when out of nowhere, Tails was struck with a blast of rainbow-colored energy! Sonic jumped in his hammock, looking along with Copter as Tails transformed before their eyes...into a robot! Copter growled, looking in the direction the blast had come from to see a girl in a robe hovering in the air, the same colorful energy running through her body like it was a part of her. "I am known a Sage... And this reality shall be altered... for the glory of the Eggman Empire!" she declared as the robotic Tails aimed his twin tails at Sonic and Copter, the tops popping open to reveal missiles inside, ready to fire!
To be continued...
Egg Memo X2
Whatever Sage puts her processing power to, the results are always impressive. Quite the chip off the old block!
Using my technology and her skill in gathering data, we have already observed into the far reaches of space! There is a lot of data to parse through, but one of our observations proved quite interesting. There was a portal that appeared... Strange creatures going to and from a desolate, destroyed world. They appeared to hide something there...something contained inside one of MY capsules! How could my technology exist so far away? I don't recall visiting the far reaches of space...
