GeneX - Tails the Fox
Chapter 36 - Enter Darkegg Fortress
Stage 19 - Metal Heights
Boss 25 - E-2X Alpha

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA and 
Sonic Team. You knew that, right?

Extra Note: The Great Gator is 2BIT's mascot. Had to get him into the story somehow...

In order to reach Darkegg Fortress, Sonic and Amy needed a boat. After a bit of a search, they found that no one could help them. Sonic began to think that maybe they should look for Tails after all, when suddenly, a ship passed by the shoreline! It was a pirate ship, with... green sails? "Aha! I'm not too late!" said a voice behind Sonic. He turned around and saw no one. "Over here!" Turning around again, he saw a young man in an alligator costume. "Hello, there! I'm called the Great Gator! The writer of this story, 2BIT, has asked me to take you to Darkegg Fortress. Why me? OK, we'll be honest, we have no idea how you're supposed to get to a faraway island with the Tornado gone and all that fruitcake!" Sonic scratched his head, completely confused, when Amy took his arm. "Who cares why! We won a free cruise! Let's go!!!"

Upon boarding Gator's ship, the S.S. Everglades, they were greeted by the strangest crew you could imagine, including a skeleton, a bumbling ninja, and a few other miscellaneous characters, but since it really isn't important, we won't go into it. "Okie dokey! Hoist anchor, mateys, walk the plank, and all that rubbish!" Gator said to his crew. "Fire up the engines and bring me some pie!"

"Engines?" Sonic thought. "This ship looks too old to have engines..." Looking over the side to the back of the ship proved otherwise, and the engines sent the ship speeding on its way in no time! "Byeeee, Station Square!" Gator said from the crow's nest, waving. "What have we gotten ourselves into?" Sonic said to himself, questioning the sanity of the writer.

Once they were well under way, Gator spotted Sonic looking out at the sea, a somewhat nervous expression on his face. "Hey, what's the matter, blue? You don't get seasick, do ya? Yikes! Mr. Skul, get the mop!" As Gator jumped around in a panicky frenzy, Amy yanked his "tail" to get his attention. "He's not seasick! He just doesn't like the water." she said. Gator still looked upset. "Get the mop, anyway. I just remembered I get seasick... Urp..." Just then, the ninja stumbled over to them. "Ahoy, captain! Um, we found land! And with that, my job is done! Now, I shall disappear, mysteriously, as is my way!" the ninja tossed some smoke bombs in front of him, and as the smoke covered him, he ran out coughing and stumbled over the side of the ship. "Not agaiiiiiiin!!!" he shouted. Gator smiled. "That Mr. Black is a genious. I can't figure how he always manages to disappear like that.... Oh! Land ho!!"

Darkegg Fortress was a large tower, reaching high into the heavens. The tower's color scheme was similar to the Egg Carrier, mostly red and yellow, but it was so dark on the island that it seemed black. There were balconies twisting all around the tower, and at the very top of the tower another large balcony surrounded the base's power plant. "Wow, when was the last time Eggman built such a large base that couldn't fly?" Amy said, gazing up in awe. Sonic spotted Espio and Charmy near the entrance to the tower, and ran ahead to talk to them. "Hey, guys! Where's Vector?" Charmy gazed up the tower. "He went inside. He's looking for clues in Eggman's base!" Espio pointed out to sea, where GUN's Warship was floating after the crash. "One of Eggman's agents took the power source for the Warship over there. It was a Chaos Emerald. We tried to call you and tell you where Eggman was, but there wasn't much backup power. It's good to see you got enough information after all." Sonic looked around to find Amy looking out over the ocean, admiring its beauty. "I don't want her involved in this. It's too dangerous. Could you watch over her? I need to go stop Eggman!" Espio looked over at Amy. "I guess that shouldn't be a problem. We'll handle it. Good luck Son--" Before he finished, Espio realized Sonic was already gone. "Always on the run..." he muttered.

It wasn't long before Sonic found Vector in a section of the base with several platforms suspended high in the air. Trails of rings led from platform to platform, and each platform was guarded by a variety of Eggman's most vicious robots. "There's no way I can get through this..." Vector muttered. "I can't fly!" Sonic looked down over the edge, and the pit seemed to go on forever. "Looks like I'll need to use the Light Speed Dash." Sonic said, getting Vector's attention. "Aha! About time you got here, Sonic!" he said. "We lost your signal, Vector. We thought you were in trouble!" Sonic informed him. "Well, I'm in trouble now..." Vector sighed. "How am I supposed to get across this?" Sonic pointed to a few bee robots buzzing around. "Stepping stones, genious." he said. Vector looked at the robots. "Uh, I would've figured it out myself eventually..." he said sheepishly.


Meanwhile, up in Eggman's control room, a very angry Eggman was worrying over his recent failure. "That plan didn't go over well... BAS! Status report!" he demanded. "Sonic has been spotted in the base, sir!" BAS responded. "Yes, I know that. Go on." Eggman said. "All seven Chaos Emeralds have been detected in the vicinity as well." BAS added. Eggman looked over his radar screen in disbelief. Yes, even accounting for the fake emeralds, all seven real ones were present! "Things couldn't have gone better! Soon, the Eggman Empire will finally reign supreme!" Eggman said gleefully, following it up with his usual insane laughter.


Sonic and Vector made their way through the platforms. Vector wasn't exactly used to jumping from robot to robot, but he managed to make it. Sonic, who had kept his Light Speed Shoes with him since the time Shadow first appeared, fared much better. One must wonder how the ring trails are so mysteriously and strategically hovering in paths between platforms in so many places Sonic visits. Sonic and Vector were somewhat used to such trecherous journeys now, so it didn't take long to reach the next area of Darkegg Fortress. It was an area that somwhat resembled the robot training facility on Final Egg, Eggman's former Mystic Ruins base. Targets were placed throughout the area, and not just Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles targets. It appeared that Eggman was also training his robots to fight Shadow, Copter, and Punchy. "I guess Eggman doesn't trust those experiments after all..." Sonic observed. The area was mostly empty, except for a few familiar faces halfway through the facility. Sargent Gunner and Spy were confronting Char and a upgraded Alpha, who now had a more speed friendly design and a pair of wings to go with its jetpack. "All right, why have you been following me!?" Gunner demanded. "Because I'm your lackey." Spy said. Gunner shot Spy a dirty look. "Not you, you idiot!" He turned to Char and Alpha, continuing in a very frustrated tone. "I mean this little animal and this robot!!" Char put his hands on his hips. "What's that? You break into our base, and you look at me like I'M the bad guy?!" he said, somewhat sarcastic. Gunner took it very seriously, though. "You ARE the bad guy! You work for Dr. Robotnik!" he growled. Char laughed in response. "No one calls him Robotnik anymore!"

Sonic and Vector came up behind Alpha. "Hello, there, Alpha!" Sonic shouted, startling the robot. "Sneak attack!! Enter defensive mode!" Alpha shouted. Gunner pointed an accusing finger at Sonic. "You again! I knew I'd find you here!" he yelled. "Hey, it's Mr. Weirdo again!" Sonic chuckled. Gunner, furious with the way this day had been going, just wanted to hurt something. "Spy! Let's get him!" he ordered. "With what weapon?" Spy inquired. Gunner, realizing he had a point, stomped off furiously. "I'll find a weapon somewhere!!" Spy, just standing there, bewildered, quickly found Alpha targeting him. "So, what are you gonna do, crook?" Char questioned. Spy, coward that he is, ran away crying. "I want my mommy!!!!"

"Must determine course of action." Alpha said. Char turned to Sonic, laughing playfully. "We'll catch up with Gunner later! Let's go clobber Sonic! That's what Dr. Eggman would say!" Alpha saluted Char. "Yes, sir!" then turned to Sonic. "This time, you will be eliminated!" Without further hesitation, Alpha took to the air and began firing missiles at Sonic and Vector, mostly at Sonic. Vector scrambled to get out of the line of fire and come up with a plan, while Sonic ran about avoiding the shots. This time, however, it was apparent that Alpha had improved, and since the robot was firing missiles rapidly, Sonic soon found himself in trouble. A few blasts threw the blue hedgehog in one direction, then more blasts threw him in another, until it seemed that Alpha had him caught in a deadly juggling act. Eventually, Sonic managed to jump off a wall, but this only served to allow Alpha to hit him directly! The firing ceased for a moment, and Sonic fell to the floor, struggling to get up. "How could he have improved so drastically?" he muttered. Char giggled at that. "I helped design Alpha's upgrade! His missiles are designed not to outrun you, but to catch you, no matter what! It's brilliant, he could fire at the training targets backwards and still hit them! Ha ha!" Char's explanation gave Sonic an idea. "Hey, Vector!" he shouted. "Way ahead of ya!" the croc replied before running off into the training facility. Char laughed some more. "Runnin' scared? Fine then. We'll just have more fun with Sonic, right, Alpha?"

Sonic jumped at Alpha and gave him a good smack, taking advantage of Vector's diversion. Alpha, surprised by the hit, found itself flying into the roof, then falling to the ground, where Sonic gave it another good hit. Alpha recovered quickly, though, and took to the air once more, firing more missiles at Sonic. This time, Sonic ran away from the direction the missiles were coming from, making it harder for them to catch up. Alpha and Char followed, keeping up as well as they could, until the missiles suddenly started flying off in different directions! "What the hey?" Char said, confused, until he looked around. Vector had gathered several Sonic dolls from the training area and spread them around, and the missiles had become confused as a result. Free from the missiles pursuing him, Sonic leapt at Alpha and gave the robot a swift kick in the head, knocking it to the floor with extreme force! Apparently, the force of the impact was a bit too rough on the robot, but not rough enough to destroy it. "ERROR!! Data scrambled!!" the robot yelped, rising shakily to its feet. "CRAZINESS!!! All the world is blue!!" it shouted in an insane robot voice. Sonic and Vector's eyes went wide. "Whoa! He needs help!" Sonic observed. "Alpha! Get ahold of yourself!" Char shouted, flying over to the robot. Alpha gazed at Char like a wounded child. "I am cold. May I have a blankie, mommy?" it said in an innocent voice. Char looked back at Alpha with a dazed expression. "Wha... Mommy?" he muttered in disbelief. Sonic and Vector chuckled at this turn of events as they passed by. "Looks like you got your work cut out for you here, little Chao. See ya!" Sonic said, trying to contain his laughter.

As Sonic and Vector exited the training area, Vector looked worried about something. "Uh, Sonic? I gotta go now..." he said. Sonic winked at him. "Fine with me, detective! Go finish up your case!" Vector's jaw dropped. "Eh, how'd you know about that!?" he stammered. "It's supposed to be a secret!! D'ohhh, when I get my hands on that Espio and Charmy..." he mumbled, and continued mumbling as he and Sonic went down different paths. "Guess I'm on my own." Sonic thought. "Eh, who cares! I can take it from here! I'd better follow that crazy military guy and see what he's up to!" Suddenly, he came to a place with several different hallways going in different directions. "Umm... Which way did he go? Aw, rats!" It appeared that this would end up being more difficult than he thought. Thus, Sonic's difficult search for Sargent Gunner and Dr. Eggman began!

To be continued...