GeneX - Knuckles the Echidna
Chapter 11 - Into the Clouds
Stage 8(Dark 4) - Cloud Carnival
Minor Boss 4 - E-5X Jolt

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.

The story thus far:
After rescuing Copter from GUN forces, Kosmo found his hideout at Hollow Manor crawling with robots and Lost Ones. He decided to pack up his things and leave, and Copter tagged along. During the trip, they met Patch the fox and Basker the hound, Covenant of Despair agents who were searching the manor for something. After Kosmo recovered his mysterious, ancient coin from his room, Shadow Chaos appeared and attacked them! After they fought, Shadow Chaos fled as Basker and Patch arrived! They offered to bring Kosmo to Despair's stronghold, and having nowhere in particular to go, Kosmo decided to take them up on the offer. Wanting to keep an eye on Kosmo, Copter went along, too. They found Bucky at the castle, and were about to leave in disgust when the Covenant of Despair's leader, the Darkseeker appeared...
Now, on to the next chapter!


The Darkseeker was not a character you just say "no" to, so Copter and Kosmo found themselves settling in their new, somewhat cramped quarters when Patch came in announcing it was time for their first mission. They headed out of their room and went to the castle's main entrance hall, a large area full of uniformed animals going this way and that, heading down various hallways to other parts of the castle. A certain purple echidna was there, along with a pink skunk with blue eyes and a uniform with a green star instead of the usual red. The skunk spotted Copter and gasped. "Vy... Look who it is!" she said, pointing. Copter gulped and hid behind Kosmo. "Oh, shoot! I didn't even think of them!" he groaned. "Someone you know?" Kosmo stammered. "Hey, you! What are YOU doing here!?" shouted the skunk angrily. Copter stepped out from behind Kosmo sheepishly. "Uh, heeeeeeey, if it isn't Daisy and uh... Violet! How long has it been?" he chuckled nervously. Violet the echidna glared at him. "Save it, freak! What are you DOING here?" she snapped. "I've been wondering that myself..." Copter sighed. Kosmo looked back and forth between them. "What's going on...?" he wondered. Violet crossed her arms. "Did you actually JOIN the Covenant of Despair?" she growled. "Well..." Copter said, rubbing his head awkwardly. "And who's the weirdo you're hiding behind?" Daisy asked. Kosmo raised an eyebrow. "Weirdo?" he grunted. Copter chuckled awkwardly. "This is Kosmo. Trust me, you don't wanna mess with him." he warned. Violet shrugged. "Fine, but we've got a bone to pick with you! Why are you stalking us!?" she shouted. Copter was flabbergasted. "S-stalking!? Are you crazy!?" he shouted. Just then, Infin the weasel came up to them. "Come on, girls. It's time for your next mission..." he announced. Violet pointed at Copter. "But, Mitch... It's that fox!" she said. Infin jumped angrily. "Use my code name, dang it! How hard... Wha-- YOU!?" he roared upon noticing Copter. "Hey, if it isn't 'Mitch.' I see you got a new foot." Copter chuckled, pointing at Infin's robotic foot. "You little punk! How dare you show your face here!" Infin growled. "New foot? Copter, is there something you want to tell me?" Kosmo muttered. Copter grinned. "Well, now I know how that all ended up... Hehe..." he snickered. Infin drew a gun and pointed it at Copter. "It ain't funny, you punk! Ya know what? I'm gonna kill ya right now!!" he yelled. Kosmo growled at him. "Hey! He's with me!" he warned. "Mitch! Why are you loitering around down here!?" said Fera, who just arrived on the scene. "That fox has gotta die! He's against us!" Infin growled. "Not at the moment he's not. Our leader has deemed him worthy to join. Now get to work!" Fera ordered. Infin sighed, slowly lowering his gun. "Yes, ma'am. Come on, girls!" he yelled, heading off. "Don't worry, Infin. I'll totally kick his butt later." Daisy said. Violet hesitated. "If you hurt my friends, I swear I'll make you pay." she said to both Copter and Kosmo before leaving. "How do I find these wackos?" Copter sighed.

Fera called Copter and Kosmo over. "I've got your mission details. Listen up, because this is important. Infin has located the Chaos Boots." she said. Kosmo nodded. "Uh-huh... And what are those?" he asked. "Never mind that. We need them. That is all you need to know." Fera replied, "They are being held at Cloud Carnival, a traveling tourist attraction that is currently near Station Square." she said. Kosmo frowned. "Collect some boots from a carnival? Don't you have anything harder?" he wondered. Fera looked serious. "You can get in and out faster than our other agents." she explained. Kosmo nodded. "I guess it's important, then..." he muttered. "We can't fly you there ourselves. You'll need to procure your own transport." Fera informed them. Copter shrugged. "Sounds like a job for the Hurricane." he said. With their orders received, they started toward the door, but Bucky ran up to them in a hurry! "Kosmo!" he shouted. "Beat it, old man!" he replied. "They haven't told you everything about this mission. Why don't you allow me to accompany you?" Bucky offered. Kosmo kept walking. "I prefer Copter's little plane to my old cell, thanks!" he growled. "Yeah, go make yourself a bride, if you're bored." Copter added. Bucky stopped short. "I... I am not meant to have a bride..." he whispered solemnly. As Kosmo and Copter left, Zipp flew up to Bucky. "Boss?" he muttered. "Go get Zeke and follow Kosmo." Bucky said. "Okay! Um, why?" Zipp replied. "Kosmo's emotional state is a fragile thing. I'd hate for him to get out of control again." he explained. Zipp nodded. "So, uh..." he mumbled. "If he should become dangerous, kill him." Bucky ordered. Zipp smiled. "I love you. You really should make a bride!" he said. "Go... now..." Bucky growled. Zipp saluted and flew off to find Zeke, while Bucky stood with a tear in his eye. "Some men are not meant for happiness......" he sighed.

It was a bit of a trip to Station Square from the Covenant of Despair's base, and Copter couldn't get through to his plane due to interference, so they ended up taking a train from the Mystic Ruins to arrive in the city. Upon exiting the station, a dramatic scene unfolded before their eyes! Katie the Coyote was face to face with Sergeant Drol and Agent 32, who were accompanied by a couple of armed GUN Beetles. "It is time you came with me, madam. I have some important questions for you." Drol beckoned. "I told you, I don't know anything!" Katie protested. "You dare lie to Sergeant Drol?!" Agent 32 yelled. Copter stared in bewilderment. "Looks like that's Gunner's replacement. What's he want with Katie?" he muttered. "Well, if you want to know, we can sit here and listen." Kosmo shrugged. "Enough! I saw you poking around those ruins! You WILL tell me all you know!" Drol shouted, apparently having seen Katie at the ice ruins near Blue Ridge Zone. The beetles approached Katie, making her scream in fear! "You will accompany us to the Cloud Carnival. We have some business there." Drol said. "Keep yourselves locked on to the prisoner, beetles! She's coming with us!" Agent 32 ordered. Suddenly, Chet the cheetah arrived and stood beside Katie! "Hey, are you all right?!" he asked. "This guy's trying to kidnap me!" Katie shouted. "Stay away from my girl, you creep!" he growled. Drol frowned. "Creep? Watch your tongue, knave!" he said. Copter had had enough. "You heard him! Let her go!" Copter shouted, running down the steps of the train station! Kosmo joined him. "You've got something more important to worry about now! Like me!" he said. Drol took some ear plugs out of his pocket and started to insert them. "Peasants are nothing to fret about. Beetles, use your Shock Screech!" he commanded. The beetles started to make an intense, ear-splitting noise, which was so painful to hear that all of them collapsed onto the ground, clasping their ears! "Gah!! C-can't move!!" Chet whimpered. "I... hate GUN!!" Copter and Kosmo shouted at once. "Take that, pests!" Agent 32 said with his fingers inserted in his ears. "You peasants WILL learn your place! And the Covenant of Despair will fall to my guns!" Drol announced as the beetles silenced. He lifted Katie into his arms, carrying her off while the others writhed on the floor, paralyzed from the "Shock Screech!" "Chet!! Copter!! Help me!!" Katie called, making Chet force himself to his feet. "I'll save you!! Hang on!!" he grunted, hurrying off! Copter climbed to his feet slowly. "They're going to Cloud Carnival? They must be after the Chaos Boots, too!" he realized. "We'd better hurry...If... If we want to save her." Kosmo said, standing up. Copter nodded and brought out the Hurricane Remote. "Hoover, send the plane!" he said. The robotic beaver's voice could be heard through the remote. "You better not bring 'er back wit dings agin! I can bite, y'know!" he warned.

Once the Hurricane arrived, they took off high into the clouds. Among the clouds, there seemed to be an amusement park simply hovering in midair! A closer look made them realize that this was a fleet of ships camouflaged as clouds! They landed the plane on one of these cloud ships and hopped out, taking a moment to look around. "Roller coasters, slot machines, and loads of balloons... It's like a theme park sitting on top of cotton candy." Copter mused. Dr. Eggman's voice boomed over a PA system. "Step right up! Welcome to Cloud Carnival! Remember: No outside food or drink is permitted!" he announced. Copter stared up in surprise. "No way... But then, why am I surprised? High tech cloud ships. Who else?" he groaned. "Well, well. I guess this tourist trap really IS a trap." Kosmo joked. The PA system came on once again. "This carnival is in no way affiliated with the Eggman Empire. Um... I'm not even Dr. Eggman! I just sound like him!" he lied. "You can't fool me!" Kosmo shouted. "You know he can't hear you, right?" Copter pointed out. "Errr... Yeah, I did." Kosmo mumbled. "If you'll excuse me, I'm gonna have a chat with the management about the lack of parking." Copter grumbled, stomping off on his own. Kosmo nodded. "Good idea. We can cover more ground this way." he said. "If you see Katie, give me a holler!" Copter added as he headed off. Kosmo looked around at the flashing lights and cool rides of the carnival, and caught himself smiling. "Odd... This place gets me feeling excited for some reason... I never have been to a carnival." he realized as he started to explore. Even the rings in the park were more festive than usual, they were shiny red rings designed for use only within the park. Kosmo walked over to check them out, but his attention was drawn to some noise up ahead. "That shouting... I think I've found Copter's friend already!" he realized.

Sgt. Drol and Agent 32 were standing beside the remains of their beetle robots. E-5X Jolt was in front of them, accompanied by several fancy purple Egg Pawns carrying what appeared to be trumpets. Katie was standing behind Drol, but Agent 32 wasn't letting her out of his sight. Chet was there, too, and as Kosmo walked up, he also noticed a whitish hedgehog with funny-looking head spines. It was Silver, and he was looking from the robots to the GUN agents curiously. "Hey, what's going on here?" he asked. Jolt jumped upon noticing Kosmo and Silver. "You sneaky intruders, sneaking up here in your sneakers! All of ya! Don't think you're gonna get away with this!" he shouted, glancing back at Drol. "I'm pretty sure I'll get away with whatever I want, even though our robots were destroyed by yours." Drol said. "How do you figure?" Jolt wondered. Drol glanced at Chet. "Are you listening, lowlife? If you ever want to see your friend alive again, you'll cover our escape!" he sneered. Chet grinded his teeth in rage. "WHAT?! You scummy little..." Agent 32 grabbed Katie and pulled out his pistol. "Watch it! If we don't escape soon, I'll pull this trigger and lighten our load!" he warned. "Y-you wouldn't!" Katie gasped. Silver raised his hand threateningly. "Right! I won't let you!" he shouted. "This doesn't concern you. Back off, before I lose my temper!" Drol snapped. Kosmo stepped forward. "Well, maybe it concerns me!" he said. "You again?" Drol gasped. Jolt glanced at Kosmo a little more directly this time. "Huh? Whoa! It's Experiment 3! Better call the boss, quick! Before he causes the kinda trouble Experiment 1 caused at the Tree Fort!" he babbled. Kosmo glared at the robot. "Hey! I wasn't bothering you!" he shouted. Drol decided to take the diversion as a chance to escape. "Very well, hedgehog. I won't harm the prisoner, so long as we are not followed..." he said, running off with Agent 32 forcing Katie to follow. Chet started after them, but hesitated. "Katie!! ...What do I do now?" he whimpered, not wanting to get her shot. "I should've yanked the gun from his hand..." Silver sighed. Jolt pointed at him. "Hey, you're Silver! Dr. Eggman has us programmed to look out for you, too!" he yelled. "He does?" Silver wondered. "Why, who is he?" Kosmo muttered. Jolt jumped angrily. "C'mon, Carnival Pawns! Let's get all three of 'em!" he shouted. Chet looked over with alarm. "Three of 'em? That means me, too! Why you stinkin' robots!" he growled.

The Carnival Pawns bounded forward and blew their horns, which emitted a powerful shockwave that Kosmo and Chet quickly dodged, but Silver was taken by surprise and knocked back! "Damaging sound blasts? Okay... I'll have to find something to throw back." he grunted. Jolt hopped into the air and started circling above them with his jetpack. "Look out! I'm electrifying!! Ha ha ha ha!" he laughed, sparks flying from his hands! They ignored him and went for the Carnival Pawns, Chet speeding ahead with his claws bared. Being the fastest of the group, he could get past the pawns before they could trumpet-blast him, and swipe his claws at them with all his might! However, the robot's armor proved too strong for him, and he was forced to run as it turned and fired at him again! Kosmo tried to follow his example, though, and morphed into Sonic's form in order to speed past the robots' attacks. However, Jolt fired several bolts of electricity at him as he ran, and he had to change direction! "Oh, so the little yellow toy has some tricks?" he said. "I'm not little!! My color just doesn't stand out like the other pawns!" Jolt shouted. Kosmo shifted into a somewhat larger Egg Pawn with a jetpack like Jolt's. "No, you're short. And I'm coming up there to say it to your face!" he said, taking off after the yellow pawn! Meanwhile, Silver looked for something to use as a projectile for his psychokinesis, but all he could find were balloons. "Oh, well. Guess I'll try 'em..." he decided, his hand starting to glow as he held it up towards a bright red balloon. "Take this!!" he shouted, psychically flinging the balloon at a nearby robot! The balloon bumped into the front of the pawn's trumpet, blocking it as it tried to blow out a shockwave! This caused it to backfire, blowing up the robot! "Huh...? Why didn't the shockwave pop the balloon? Never mind, I'll take it." Silver shrugged, grabbing the busted remains of the robot to fling at the others while Chet was distracting them! In the sky, Jolt was firing bolt after bolt at Kosmo, and he shot back with a generic laser he was able to copy from robots he'd seen before. However, after taking a hit from Jolt and feeling the metal frame of this form shocked throughout, Kosmo shifted into a smaller Chao form. "Now I'm gonna show you why you shouldn't whine about being short. Smaller target, harder to hit!" he yelled, charging at Jolt with high speed, tackling him again and again before he could get a lock on him! "Hey! Stop! That tickles!! ...OK, that doesn't! NOOOOO!!!" Jolt screamed, freaking out.

Jolt dropped to the ground, and seeing that Silver had destroyed the Carnival Pawns, seemed to get nervous. "Heh heh heh... I appear to be outnumbered..." he whimpered, suddenly flying off for another cloud-shaped ship! "Blastooooooff!!! Hey, Eggman! Intruders!!" he shouted. "Good riddance! Too bad he got away, though." Chet panted. Kosmo morphed back into his true form and looked around. "Drol's long gone. Guess I'd better get back to my own mission." he sighed. Chet looked at him with alarm. "Wait, you're not here to help me??" he said. Silver shrugged. "I'd like to help, but if I don't change the future, we'll all be in real trouble!" he muttered. Kosmo glanced at him. "The future? Get outta here..." he scoffed. Chet let out a frustrated sigh. "Well, if you really are Experiment 3, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Fine! I'll go save Katie myself!" he said, rushing away. Silver glanced at Kosmo. "You sure you couldn't help him?" he asked. "You sure YOU couldn't?" Kosmo retorted. Suddenly, a bright flash of light erupted from Kosmo's shoe! "Gah!" he gasped, pulling out his mysterious coin, which was glowing again! Silver looked at it curiously as Kosmo slipped it back into his shoe. "Dunno what the deal with that is..." he muttered. Silver nodded. "Know what? I think I'll go with you for a while..." he said. Kosmo shrugged. "It's a free carnival..." he said. Ironically, they soon found out that it was NOT a free carnival. Hanging out near the starting point of a large roller coaster was Copter, who seemed agitated about something. "Hey Kosmo... Did you find anything? I can't find Eggman or Katie or any stupid boots anywhere!" Copter grumbled. "I caught up to that GUN sergeant. But he got away." Kosmo reported. Copter nodded. "Figures. Hey, Silver. Good to really meet ya. Heard about you when that onyx-y island appeared. Tails says you're psycho or somethin'" he muttered. "Um... Psychokinetic." Silver replied. "Gazundheit. Bad news, guys. In order to operate the rides and stuff to make getting around the carnival easier, we need those red Park Rings. Normal rings don't cut it." he grumbled, "And if we try to fly around the coaster, we'll get shot at." Silver looked around and pointed to a bridge between ships. "Maybe we can cross that for free?" he wondered. "Might as well, but the coaster seems to lead to more places." Copter noted. "We can come back..." Kosmo reasoned, leading the way to the bridge.

Crossing the bridge to a smaller cloud ship, they found a giant slot machine sitting in the center of the platform, surrounded with fancy neon signs. Copter looked at it in bewilderment. "Hey... Rouletar!?" he stammered. "What's a Rouletar?" Kosmo muttered. Copter shook his head and shrugged. "It WAS an Eggman battle-bot. Looks like its scrap has been repurposed." he said. In front of Rouletar was a winged feline with light blue fur and green eyes. Her whiskers and ears were yellow, and she had a long, light blue and yellow striped tail. She wore a suit that was blue from the waist up and green from the waist down, and wore blue shoes. It was Whisk the Divine, though Copter seemed not to recognize her. She looked at the slot machine awkwardly. "Hmmm... How do you play it?" she wondered. Kosmo stepped over and pulled on the robot's arm, which now seemed to be a slot lever. "This should start it going..." he muttered. The slot reels started to spin, and Rouletar's eyes opened. "Welcome, game fans! Get three in a row and win fabulous prizes! Where I stop, nobody knows!" the robot announced. Kosmo backed away a step. "Copter, did I just do something dumb?" he asked. "Probably, but maybe he'll pay out park rings." he said. Whisk flew back a ways to get a safe view of the action. "Ooooh, I wonder what we'll win!" she said. The reels stopped on three thunder shields. "Hey, that should be useful for gathering rings!" Silver said. Rouletar chuckled. "You win a thunder jolt! Try again!" The neon signs suddenly lit up brighter and fired bursts of electricity at the group! Silver, thinking fast, grabbed some balloons hovering in the air with his psychokinesis and blocked the electricity with their rubber! "Hey... That was good, I was getting ready to fly us outta here!" Copter said in surprise. Kosmo shrugged and pulled Rouletar's arm again. "I saw rings in those reels! He's gotta be able to pay off!" he said as Copter covered his eyes. "Go, go, go! Let's see something awesome!" Whisk cheered, seeming oblivious to the potential danger. Rouletar laughed as the reels landed on three bumper symbols. "Time for a knockout!" he taunted, spitting several crablike robots called Crawls out of his mouth! The Crawls had bumper-like shields, which they held in front of them as they soared towards Kosmo and the others! Copter tried to smack them with his tails, but was bounced back and ended up spinning around uncontrollably as Whisk laughed at him. Silver caught the Crawls that came towards him, while Kosmo simply morphed into something too heavy to be bounced, Big the cat. He then stomped over to Rouletar and bounced on top of the robot several times with Big's huge belly, busting up the machine and causing it to spit out a few park rings before exploding! "Enjoy...your...daaay..." Rouletar buzzed. "Sorry, pal. We don't got time for games." Kosmo grumbled. "Awww, you broke my toy!" Whisk sighed, flying off, "Meanies!" Copter picked up the park rings and sighed. "Not many... I bet that's all Eggman put in the bot, too..." he grumbled. The trio sighed heavily and wandered away from the wrecked slot machine, realizing they'd have to search elsewhere for more rings.

They came across an area crowded with balloons, so much so that it was hard to see. However, as a light breeze blew some of the balloons away, they heard a voice grunting dizzily among them. "Scram, helium bags, before I blast you to shreds!" said a frustrated Zipp, whom Copter and Kosmo approached suspiciously. "Ahem!" Kosmo grunted. "Eeep! Uhhh... Fancy meeting you here!" Zipp stammered, hiding a rifle behind his back pathetically. "What are the odds of you showing up here..." Copter said sarcastically. "Don't be silly. I'm just playing carnival games. Like, target practice!" Zipp lied. "Bucky sent you, didn't he?" Kosmo growled. Zipp backed away slowly. "Don't be silly! Next you'll be saying he asked me to assassinate you!" he chuckled. Kosmo glared at him, while Copter motioned for Silver to step back. "Oh, yeah? What makes you think you can even hurt me, bug!?" he snarled. "Nice knowin' ya, Zipp!" Copter waved. Silver looked nervous. "What is that child doing with a rifle?" he muttered. Zipp pulled out his rifle and pointed it at Silver. "Child!? I'm a hornet, ignorant!" he yelled. Kosmo morphed into his gargoyle form, his eyes glowing bright with rage! "We'll see who assassinates who! Here I come, bug!" he shouted, taking to the sky! Zipp promptly dropped his rifle and started to flee, fumbling to unholster his much more maneuverable pistols. "Kozzie, calm it down a minute, pal! You... you REALLY must curb that tendency to overreact!" he babbled, utterly panicked as he sped into the cluster of balloons to hide! Kosmo's eyes glowed brighter as he prepared an attack. "Eat Kosmosis, bug!" he shouted, firing beams from his eyes that popped several of the balloons, forcing Zipp to fly out and shoot back with his pistols! "You don't scare me, transformer! I only fear zombies and clowns!" Hearing that, Kosmo altered his form to appear zombified and to be wearing clown makeup. This made Zipp shudder. "That's not funny!! I need my rifle back!!" he whined, flying off through the balloons. Kosmo morphed back into a normal gargoyle to give chase, exchanging Kosmosis shots as Zipp fired his pistol back at him.

As their chase brought them back over the cloud ship where they started, Copter fired Zipp's rifle into the air to get their attention! Then, Silver grabbed the distracted Zipp and pulled him down with his psychokinesis! "Lemme go!! If you recall, I actually implied that me being here to assassinate anybody was SILLY!" he whined, struggling against seemingly nothing. "By the way, what's got me?" he asked. "My mind!" Silver said. "...Some trick..." Zipp muttered. Kosmo landed nearby and morphed back to normal. "What'll we do with him, guys?" he wondered. Copter crossed his arms. "I say we toss him over the side of the ship and test the anti-air guns. See if we can't actually fly to the next area." he grinned. Zipp frowned. "That doesn't sound good... Wait! Truce! I can help you guys!" he shouted. Silver smiled a little. "That's what I want to hear. Now, what can you do for us?" he asked. "I WAS playing the carnival games! I won tons of park rings! Check my pockets! There's enough for the roller coaster and everything!" he said. Kosmo frowned. "We should at least confiscate his guns." he reasoned. Zipp shook his head. "No way! I can be of use with those guns! Let me put them to work FOR you! ...Unless you're scared of harmless little me..." he grinned. Kosmo scoffed. "Please, of course I'm not scared of you!" he said. Copter sighed. "Well, I am..." However, Silver released Zipp from his grip, allowing him to grab his rifle back from Copter. "You guys won't regret this! We'll make an excellent team!" he chuckled. "I already regret it..." Copter groaned. "Well, c'mon, let's go. The sooner we get those dumb boots, the sooner we can ditch Zipp." Kosmo said, heading off towards the roller coaster. Zipp nodded. "Yeeees... And I can keep my eyes peeled for Zeke along the way..." he muttered to himself.

To be continued...