GeneX - Soleanna Struggle
Chapter 15 - Six Stone Showdown
Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related fanchars are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
"I must play this game by my rules.
I will conquer the world with my tools.
All my machines are made for destruction.
I will build my empire!" - e.g.g.m.a.n., Sonic Adventure 2
Fera led Punchy and Rainbow into a hidden underwater facility, the purpose of which was unknown to them. "This is Aquatic Base." Fera explained, "A long time ago, at least ten years, the ruler of Soleanna was performing experiments here. Dangerous experiments, apparently, since he died after they went bad." The floor of the room they had entered through was covered in a strange, silver-colored substance, which seemed like liquid, but was safe to walk on. Small orbs that appeared to be made of the same material floated in the air. "I bet they had fun tossing these balls around..." Rainbow said, reaching for one, but for safety's sake, not touching it. Fera tapped her foot on the floor loudly and impatiently to get Punchy and Rainbow's attention. She pointed to a door at the end of the room. "That way. Those annoying birds are meeting their benefactor in that general direction. Punch 'em in the beaks a couple times for me." she said seriously. Punchy looked at her with disappointment. "You're not coming with us? But this place is so huge we could be lost for hours!" he groaned. Fera's expression remained ever serious. "I have confidence in you. Besides, I have my own things to deal with. I HAVE to leave. Don't like it? Tough!" she growled. Rainbow waved to Fera as she began to run ahead. "Well, thanks for your help, Wolfie! We'll be fine, I'll lead the way! Follow me, One!" Punchy rushed to catch up with Rainbow. "Slow down, Rainbow! You'll scare those birds away!" he shouted, stopping briefly to wave good-bye to Fera. Once they were out of the room, Fera slowly walked to the door. "Those fools may just prove useful... This could prove easier than I expected!" she thought, slowly and stealthily following Punchy and Rainbow as they began to search the underwater base.
Punchy and Rainbow found themselves wandering down a long hallway, where laser defenses flickered on and off intermittently to block their path. It was particularly annoying since they were in a hurry. "C'mon, stupid lasers! We have to catch up with those darn thieves before they move on!" Punchy grumbled as they waited for a set of lasers to turn off. "Don't worry, One! I'm sure those birdies were slowed down just as much as us!" Rainbow said. As the lasers turned off, they quickly darted past them and continued until they reached the end of the hall. Fera, who remained a fair distance behind them, would simply use her dark powers to warp past the lasers whenever they blocked her path. The hallway ended at a large room with a round pillar in the center. A balcony encircled the pillar halfway to the roof, but it seemed impossible to get to. The room was shaped like an octagon, but there was only a single exit on the other side. Unfortunately, there were also monsters in the room! Punchy and Rainbow backed away a few steps upon entering, hoping they weren't spotted. Much to their relief, the monsters were too preoccupied to notice them. On closer observation, Punchy and Rainbow saw a squad of black Egg Pawns fighting with the monsters! These Pawns seemed stronger and more agile than normal red ones, but just as stupid. The monsters kept them on the run for the most part. "Why are Tubby's robots fighting with future-monsters?" Rainbow asked loudly, trying to talk over the noise of the battle. Punchy grabbed her and covered her mouth, but it was too late. Both the monsters and the Egg Pawns stopped abruptly and glared at the two echidnas. Punchy released Rainbow and backed away slowly. "Now you've done it! Don't you have any common sense!?" Punchy grumbled. The robots and monsters seemed to be calling a temporary truce to attack Punchy and Rainbow, and right away they were in trouble! Punchy quickly thought up a plan. "Rainbow, see if you can get up to that balcony there! Try to get these jerks to chase you!" he said. Rainbow looked around. It seemed like a dumb idea, but she decided to try it anyway. She dashed directly towards the enemies, startling them for a moment, and then jumped over their heads and began gliding towards the wall! Most of the enemies immediately began chasing after her, and Punchy easily trounced the robots and monsters that stayed to come after him! In a moment, Rainbow managed to get up to the balcony, but since there were no flying enemies present, they could only stand under the balcony and try to climb the pillar. "Perfect! Get ready to jump, Rainbow!" Punchy shouted. He began concentrating on the balcony next. "Chaos Avalanche!!" he shouted, causing the balcony to break off the pillar and begin falling on the helpless enemies below! Rainbow had jumped down and landed at the exit, where Punchy met her moments later. "Let's hurry up! I don't know if that balcony was heavy enough to destroy them, so they might climb out any second!" he shouted, running through the door. Rainbow stopped to stick out her tongue at the bad guys before quickly running ahead of Punchy.
They continued exploring the base for a while, finding that monsters appeared to be mostly in one area of the base while robots patrolled the other. "Y'know... I'll just bet that those birds are working for Eggman. That'd explain all those robots wandering around." Punchy said after a while. Rainbow didn't look so sure. "Tubby's more interested in those gems, isn't he? Would he really chase after the Time Rocks, too?" she wondered. Punchy seemed quite sure of himself. "There's monsters and robots here. I doubt they're working for the monsters! So, I say we follow the trail of robots and see where it leads us!" he suggested. They had come to a crossroads by now. On one side, the hall was patrolled by the black Egg Pawns, while the other side was infested with purple monsters. Rainbow scratched her head. "Could there possibly be a third option? Those halls don't look so friendly." she said. Punchy pointed to the hall on the left, the Egg Pawn path. "The robots don't seem as dangerous as the monsters, Rainbow." he reminded her. With that, Rainbow began leading the way into the path of robots. "All right, One! Let's get a move on, then! Tubby's not gonna wait for us!" she said excitedly. As Punchy followed her into the hallway, Fera walked into the area. She glanced down both halls, her eyes lingering on the hall of monsters. "Those monsters...." she muttered, recalling something. She smiled as she thought of what this could mean. "Mephiles... I wonder if he's here..." she said. As curious as she was, though, she had other reasons for being here. "Rotten timing. I can't change my plans now... Better just keep moving..." Without further hesitation, she turned and entered the path with the Egg Pawns...
Egg Pawns are among the simplest of the robots that Eggman has ever assembled. While they come in many variations, with various different weapons, the simple fact is that they are not quite as dangerous as other robots. Even Rainbow managed to knock out a few of the robots as she and Punchy made their way to wherever the robots were coming from. More dangerous were the lasers and other defenses they encountered along the way. Things got really chaotic when they began fighting in a room with the same floating balls they'd encountered at the entrance. They and the robots would occasionally smack one of the balls, and they'd begin bouncing around like the room was a pinball machine! As the balls bounced around, they'd smack Punchy and the robots, making things rather difficult for both sides! "Lousy mad scientists and their stupid super balls! Why do they have to keep hitting me in the head!? I'm getting a migraine!" Punchy grumbled. Rainbow was much more nimble than he was, and remained generally untouched. "Tee hee! This is like dodge ball! Take this, rusties!" she giggled, slapping a ball into a robot! The balls might have been an annoyance, but they did provide some help, and soon the robots were all destroyed. As Punchy smashed the last one, something shiny flew out of its hands and landed on the floor! Rainbow picked the shiny purple object up. "Hey, it's another Time Rock!" she said, bringing it over to Punchy. He grabbed it from her hands and looked over it. "Yeah, seems like it. I guess we could take this one and go after that Mephiles character Illusi was talking about..." he said. Rainbow looked back the way they came, and then in the direction they had been heading. "Hmmm... What about the birdies? Should we just forget about them?" she wondered. Punchy thought about it. "Good point. If we leave them alone, they'll just swipe this Time Stone from us, too. I guess we should go pay Eggman a visit and make him call off his scavenger birds!" he decided. Rainbow agreed. "Yeah, it's getting old chasing those birds around! Let's get 'em!" she shouted, taking off towards the next hallway, with Punchy close behind!
After a while, Punchy and Rainbow found their way to a room that looked quite different from the others. The first thing they noticed was that much of what was in the room appeared to have been destroyed. There were shattered windows around the room, machinery knocked over, and parts of the walls seemed to have been burned at one time. It quickly became apparent to Punchy where they were. "This must be the lab Fera was talking about... Where the king of Soleanna died working on those experiments..." he said, looking around. Rainbow shivered at the thought. "Creepy... His ghost could be hanging around here!" she said. Punchy looked at the remains of the device in the center of the room. "I wonder what this was used for..." he muttered, trying to imagine the device before its destruction. Fera grinned as she snuck into the room while Punchy and Rainbow's backs were turned. She knew what had happened here. "This is where Mephiles was born... Extracted from the Flames of Disaster..." she thought, "We're almost there... Just need to open the path..." She made sure to keep out of sight as she crept carefully towards a machine that wasn't wrecked. In fact, the device looked fairly new. Fera pressed a button on the device, and then quickly warped away. The device buzzed and beeped to life, catching Punchy and Rainbow's attention. "What's that!?" Punchy said, puzzled. In a few moments, the device carried out its function, and a hidden door opened up across from where Punchy and Rainbow entered the room! Some Egg Pawns quickly dashed into the room and looked around in confusion for a moment before chasing after Punchy and Rainbow! There were five of them, and Punchy quickly took them out with a few simple yet swift punches! "That was weird... I don't think those robots opened that door on purpose..." Rainbow said. Punchy nodded. "Yeah, this is awfully suspicious... But then again, we could've stepped on some secret switch in the floor by accident. Either way, I think we're almost there!" he said, heading for the new exit. Fera was hiding in the shadows, watching from the broken windows above. "Now, those fools should make a nice distraction while I find out just how many of the Time Stones have been collected..." she chuckled, jumping back into the room and starting to follow them...
A short hallway separated the lab from a new area that was apparently redecorated recently. Eggman symbols could be seen stamped on the walls, and a large, mechanical object was lying on the ground on the far side of the room. As Punchy and Rainbow entered, they knew they had reached their destination. "All right, crooks! We know you gotta be around here somewhere! Let's settle this!" Punchy shouted as he stomped to the center of the room. "As you wish!" came a taunting voice above him, which belonged to Jet! The three Babylon Rogues dropped from above and grabbed the purple Time Stone from Punchy's hand before he could react, laughing and taunting him as they flew to the machine in front of Punchy. "You've been a very profitable patsy, slowpoke! Now, we've got six Time Stones for our client!" Jet squawked. Punchy and Rainbow both shook their fists at them. "Scavengers! You better give those back, right now!!" Punchy shouted. Wave wagged her finger at him. "Don't talk to us like that! We're not scavengers! At least, not in this case!" she said. Rainbow nodded in agreement. "That's true. You're not scavengers. You're just thieves!" she said matter-of-factly. Storm chuckled at them. "Well, whatcha gonna do about it? You can't even catch us!" he said. "We're businessbirds today! We made a very lucrative deal with someone, and with just one more of those silly stones, we'll get a king's ransom!" Jet added. Punchy growled at them a little. "You're making me mad! You won't like me when I'm mad!" he said. All three of the Rogues started laughing at him. "We already don't like you that much! What, you think you scare us?" Storm said. Rainbow grabbed Punchy by the arm. "Don't let 'em get to you, One! We'll get those rocks back!" she said. Punchy smiled a moment, but the smile vanished when the Rogues spoke again. "That's not gonna happen, kids. You're already too late!" Wave said. "Yeah, our boss will be here any second!" Jet added. Punchy started running after the birds. "I'll just have to make this quick, then!" he shouted. Suddenly, Eggman's voice echoed through the room. "Step away from the merchandise!"
A part of the roof opened up, allowing an Egg Mobile to drop into the room. However, it wasn't the same Egg Mobile that Punchy and Rainbow recognized! The man at the controls did resemble Dr. Eggman, though, so Punchy felt sure that was who it was. "Eggman!" he shouted. "Tubby!!" Rainbow shouted. The Eggman doppelganger frowned at her. "Tubby? How very rude. I would much prefer that you call me "Doctor." Dr. Eggman Nega, to be precise!" the Eggman of the future said with unusual politeness. Punchy and Rainbow backed away from him slightly to get a better view. "You do LOOK a bit different... But I bet you just disguised yourself to make fun of how I look like Knuckles! That's pretty immature, doc!" Punchy shouted, feeling a bit offended. Eggman Nega raised a hand, calling for silence. "If you please, I would like to share my story with someone. The only contact I've had with others for a while has been with the Babylon Rogues. You see, I came from the future! Quite by accident, too. A bunch of ruffians had wandered into my secret base, and a fennec that was with them had a Time Stone! She accidentally brought me back with her when she traveled back in time. Lucky for me, I got away with her Time Stone. These little beauties were thought to be lost after this time's Eggman failed to successfully use them. But it would seem Sonic collected them, and subsequently lost them." he explained. Punchy had no idea what he was talking about. "Look, I'm fairly new around here, so I don't know much about Sonic or Eggman's history. Why don't you just get to the point already!" he shouted. Eggman Nega shushed him. "Don't interrupt me. The Eggman of this time still wishes to control time, so he's going after Princess Elise. He's going to fail, but I won't! With the seven Time Stones, I will rule over time instead! And, thanks to you, I know that the Solaris Prototype that this time's Eggman is making, holds no power over the Time Stones!" As Nega finished his story, Punchy came to a realization. "It was you! You sent Rainbow, Gemini and me to the future! You'll pay for that!" he threatened. Nega ignored the threat and turned to Jet. "My friend, go and fetch the final Time Stone for me, will you? Bring it to my base. I will deal with these miscreants. When this is all over, you'll get your reward!" he said. Jet saluted him. "Aye, aye, Eggman 2! Let's go!" As the Rogues headed for the exit, Fera hid in the shadows, and after they passed her, she began following them. "Those birds will lead me where I want to go!" she thought.
Eggman Nega pressed some buttons on his Egg Mobile, and the machinery behind him sprung to life! As it rose up, Punchy realized that it was what appeared to be a giant black Egg Pawn with a jet pack! There were slots on each of its arms and legs, and a seventh slot on its chest. Eggman Nega tossed the purple Time Stone into the last empty slot on the limbs, leaving only the slot in the robots chest vacant. Next, his Egg Mobile hovered over the robot and locked into the top of it, completing the contraption. "What you see before you is my latest stroke of genius. Composed entirely of recycled parts from my counterpart in this time! I call it... the Egg Timer! OK, so it's very similar to the Egg Emperor, but there are a few key differences. The biggest is that the Egg Timer can control time! The more Time Stones it has, the more powerful it is, and it already has six! With one more, I will mold all of time into my own Empire of Ages!" he proclaimed. Rainbow let out an impressed whistle. "He's about as good at tinkering as Tubby... But he sure is a copycat. Everything about him is ripped off from Tubby." she observed. Eggman Nega ignored that remark as well. "You know, I've been observing you every chance I got. I have to say, you two have... potential. And you've worked for the other Eggman once. Could there be a possibility that you two might wish to join me?" he asked. Punchy looked thoughtful for a moment, as though he was considering it. "You HAVE proved to be a worthy foe so far... But then again, that was the birds, not you. But if you were to succeed, I guess it would be good to be in the employ of your 'empire'... However, I don't think you'll succeed!" he said. Eggman Nega raised an eyebrow. "You think there's a flaw in my plan! Ridiculous! But... I suppose I'll hear you out... If only for amusement." he said. Punchy paced back and forth as he explained his reasoning. "First off, you're a total Eggman wannabe. I mean, what kinda weirdo fixes himself up to look almost identical to his ancestor? But, that's not why you'll fail. Your plan is too dangerous. If you do succeed, you'll probably screw up time so much that you'll destroy it, and if that happens... There won't be any 'Empire of Ages!'" he said. Eggman Nega finally appeared to be getting angry. "You think I'm capable of such a foolish miscalculation? You think I would do something as stupid as accidentally destroy the world!? If I destroy the world, it will be on purpose! But I suppose your weak mind simply can't fathom genius such as mine... Allow me to end the strain of your poor brain!"
Nega's Egg Timer was all prepped for battle, and it already took off after Punchy, bashing him with its giant fists! Punchy was hurled into the air, and the robot kicked him away before he hit the ground! Punchy picked himself up after landing. That hurt, but he could recall worse. "Is that your best? I'll show you a REAL fist fight!" he said, charging fist first at the robot! Nega attempted to hit him, but Punchy was ready this time. A quick dodge, and he was all set to start smacking away at the robot! However, its armor was pretty tough, and the Egg Timer swatted him away before he could cause much damage. "Don't worry, One! I'll help fight him, too!" Rainbow shouted, occupying the robot by outrunning its attacks. "Hold still, you gaudy pin cushion!" Nega growled. Punchy thought to use the distraction to get an easy hit on the Egg Timer, but Nega wasn't about to be fooled! Just before Punchy could launch an attack, Nega spun the robot around and kicked Punchy away! Rainbow attempted to fight back, but he swiftly swatted her aside as well! "Please! You think a strategy as mundane as double teaming is going to work on me? I'm not your time's primitive Eggman!" Punchy grinned at Nega as his robot approached him. "'Course not, future fatty. But this might work! Chaos Avalanche!!" Punchy used the power of Chaos in an attempt to bring the roof crashing down on the Egg Timer, but Nega simply had his robot run out of the way, faster than it had moved so far in the battle! "You are rather slow-witted, aren't you? Didn't I say I've been watching you? I know all of your abilities!" Nega said, grinning menacingly. Punchy frowned at him. "That's the trouble with jerks like you. You think you can determine everything about someone simply from a little bit of observation! Well, I bet you won't see this coming!" he shouted. Nega started to move the Egg Timer towards Punchy to prepare for whatever he was planning, when Rainbow suddenly landed on top of the Egg Timer behind Nega and covered his eyes with her hands! "Guess who, Tubby 2!" she said, chuckling. Nega struggled in his seat to push her away. "Unhand me, you stupid--" he shouted until Rainbow jumped away. "That's better! Now--" Before Eggman Nega could do anything else, the rubble created by Chaos Avalanche was tossed back at the Egg Timer thanks to another Chaos Avalanche attack from Punchy! The Egg Timer stumbled around for a moment before crashing to the floor! Punchy and Rainbow met up in front of the robot and began making faces to taunt Eggman Nega. "You think you've beaten me? Observe, the power of the Time Stones!!" Eggman Nega shouted, pressing a button on his controls to in order to fire a beam of bright light at Punchy and Rainbow...
Punchy and Rainbow had no time to comprehend what had happened. The second they opened their eyes, they found themselves underwater! Acting on instinct rather than their own thoughts, they quickly swam for the nearest source of air, not paying any attention to where they were going. Once they got out of that mess and regained their senses, they found themselves still inside Aquatic Base, but something was clearly different. After some wandering, they found themselves back at the exit from Aquatic Base to Soleanna's Castle Town, but they instantly knew they weren't in Soleanna anymore. "Nega... That jerk! He sent us back to the future!" Punchy realized. Rainbow looked around. "Aww, this is Crisis City again... And we don't have a Time Rock OR a gem! Now what?" she said worriedly. Punchy looked thoughtful. "Well... First we should try to figure out what time we're at exactly. Did the past versions of us get here yet, or did they... we... already leave?" he said. Rainbow held her head like it was hurting. "Oh, this is so confusing! C'mon, One! Let's try that place with Wanda's friends! Follow me!" she said, running off in the direction she believed the Freedom Fighter headquarters was located. Punchy looked extremely worried. "Yeah... I hope they're still alive... And at the end of all of this, I hope I'M still alive!"
To be continued...
