GeneX - Knuckles the Echidna
Chapter 39 - The Depths of Despair
Stage 22(Dark 11) - Despair Depths
Minor Boss 18 - Illusi

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:
Kosmo, Copter, Punchy and others journeyed to the Hidden Ruins beneath Station Square, hoping to rescue Rainbow and stop the Covenant of Despair's scheme. Unfortunately, Ridley had turned to Despair's side, and bought the Darkseeker enough time to open the door to the Chaos Crystal, the "controller" of the Chaos Relics that Rainbow was meant to be guarding.
As Demon Island hangs ominously over Station Square, Knuckles joined Bucky aboard Shadow Arcangel and attempted to defend the ship with the help of Dr. Eggman. However, it all proved to be a trap set by Eggman so he could steal the 5 Chaos Emeralds Bucky had collected, as well as Bucky himself, all as bargaining chips to deal with Despair!
Next, all heroes must make their stand on Demon Island!
Now, on to the next chapter!


Demon Island was well defended. Dr. Eggman had bordered the island with his Cloud Carnival fleet, and that was the least of it. Dr. Nammad had been planning to go over to Despair's side for some time, and he'd sabotaged several GUN Warships during his time in Central City, so now he could call them to the island via remote, and add them to the blockade. Arriving to meet this mighty wall of battleships was a small, blue biplane. The Tornado, piloted by Tails, was occupied by SPOT, with Sonic and Amy standing atop the wings. Eggman observed their approach from his Egg Mobile. "Hehe... Blow them out of the sky!!" he called to his fleet. A torrent of bullets came at the Tornado, but then, these shots were blown aside by Chaos Whirlwind! Copter arrived, piloting the Hurricane, with Punchy, Rainbow and Heather holding on to the wings for dear life. Hoover's voice came over the plane's radio. "Uh... Copter... Yer not doin' anything reckless wit mah baby... Right?" he stammered. Copter chuckled nervously as the Tornado and the Hurricane dodged and weaved their way toward the blockade. Bringing up the rear was Mia's flying Taxicab, which was a bit crowded with people wanting a ride to Demon Island. Razor, Silver, Cream, Cheese and Illusi were all squeezed into the cab. "Nobody sneeze, or I might spin outta control..." Mia grumbled. The GUN Warships started joining Eggman's fleet in shooting at them, but a great, purple eagle flew past their radar, tearing at their gun turrets one by one! "Kosmo made it through! Never thought I'd be glad to see him..." Amy sighed. Rouge and Guard flew over to some of the other warships and joined the assault, but their efforts weren't doing much good, even with Tails and Copter attempting to shoot back with their planes. Fortunately, more help arrived quickly. Shadow Arcangel once again blotted out the sun over Station Square, but this time, it was under Chaotix control. "Everybody in position? Aim and fire!!" Vector shouted, prompting Shadow, Knuckles and Gemini to fire the Arcangel's turrets rapidly, obliterating some of the Cloud Carnival cruisers with ease! This wasn't all, either! A massive, blue GUN Warship made its way to the battle from the direction of Central City. "Steal our Warships, will you!!?" Col. Gunner roared over a loudspeaker, "Well, face the wrath of the GUN Assault Carrier, then! YOU FREAKS ARE FINISHED!!" Dozens of fighter planes launched from the Assault Carrier, turning the skies above Station Square into a real warzone. "Well... I think they have their hands full. Let's land on the island!" Punchy suggested. "GET US OUTTA HERE!!!" Razor pleaded to Mia, seeing that she was driving the only vehicle without weapons. The heroes gradually slipped their way past the blockade, leaving Eggman to contend with Gunner for the time being.

Demon Island was being heavily guarded by this time. Every agent of the Covenant of Despair had been pulled out of the field and posted as guards everywhere. The vehicles had to be hidden in the forested area around the edge of the island. While Sonic, Copter, Razor and the others took a moment to rest from their trip, they watched Shadow Arcangel attempt to land on the island as well, while any Despair agents patrolling the area under it fled for dear life! In the shadows, a certain trio was also watching Shadow Arc's landing. "Ssssuch a clumsssy landing... The massster isss not in command." Vortex realized. "Um... What does that mean?" Crash gulped. Knuckles and Shadow exited the Arcangel and joined Sonic, Tails, Team Rose, Copter, Punchy and Kosmo. Rouge and Omega greeted Shadow as well. "How exactly did YOU get here, Omega? You don't fit on any of those planes." Shadow realized. "I procured transport with Col. Gunner." the robot explained. Tails addressed the group urgently. "According to SPOT, there are enemy forces ALL OVER this island. Eggman's thrown his robots into the mix as well." he said. "Yeah, his fleet was kind of a dead giveaway that there'd be robots here." Copter pointed out. "Well, they've got all the advantages for now... So the best thing to do is probably to split up." Sonic suggested. Knuckles nodded. "The ol' divide and conquer. If they're too fortified in one direction, chances are our other groups will find a way through!" he said. Team GeneX approached them, having overheard enough. "Hey... Why isn't Bucky part of this party?" Zipp asked. Knuckles and Shadow exchanged glances. "...Eggman took him. No idea why." Knuckles frowned. While everyone else was making plans to storm Demon Island, Illusi had snuck away, and found Fera waiting at the edge of the road to Despair Castle. "The Sonic Heroes are on your doorstep, along with some furious GeneX Experiments. But it's not yet too late... You must return the Chaos Key to me." he urged her. Fera scoffed. "...You're wrong, old rodent... It IS too late. Nothing can stop the Covenant of Despair now. You would do well to leave, while you can!" she said, warping away with her dark magic. "...I will do what I must..." Illusi sighed.

Punchy started exploring the island on his own. "According to Tails, the Master Emerald is here somewhere. I can make things right and nab the emerald to boot, but... Can I do it without slipping into darkness again?" he sighed, "Just in case, I should stay away from everyone. Rainbow, especially." Suddenly, a familiar bright light passed in front of him, hovering in the air! "Huh!? What's with that... weird ball of light...? Hey, I've seen it before!" Punchy gasped, watching as it hovered through the air, heading for a cavern hidden in the woods. He started to follow it. "I think... It wants me to go that way..." he muttered. "HEY, ONE!!" Punchy was suddenly startled as Rainbow came running up to him. "Where do you think you're going without us!?" she shouted. "Wha... Us?" he mumbled, glancing behind her to see Copter and Heather slowly catching up. "We're all eager to get some payback on the covenant, Punch, but goin' off on your own's just nuts." Copter said. "Actually, I have mixed feelings. They brought me back to life, but they're hurting what few friends I have. It's crazy." Heather sighed. "Obviously, they wanted to use you for something. Like they used Rainbow and her sister." Copter reasoned. Punchy sighed and pointed into the cave. "Hey, look! I found something!" he interrupted. They peered into the dark cavern, but noticed there were faint lights here and there. "Creepy... Could be a secret entrance to their base?" Rainbow said thoughtfully. "Well, everyone else is gonna check around outside, so let's try in here." Punchy suggested. "Right! Hang on, Viola! Follow me, everyone!" Rainbow said valiantly. As they headed into the cavern, SPOT crept along behind them, its nose to the ground almost like a real dog. "...Chaos Emerald detected... Plotting course to retrieve Chaos Emerald." flashed on its monitor. After a moment, SPOT started into the cavern. The robo-puppy wasn't the only unexpected guest that had found the cave, either. Zipp poked his head out of the bushes, pressing a button on his helmet to speak to his teammates. "Hey, Vortex... I may have found something..." he said.

The dark cavern was vast, seeming to tunnel through much of the lower portion of the island. It was also dangerous, full of deep, expansive chasms. Sometimes, the only way across these chasms was to pass a narrow bridge of stone. It was while they were crossing one of these bridges that they saw it. Enemies on the other side, heading their way. "Great... Despair has the cave guarded, too. Well, that figures." Copter grunted. "Umm... There's something off about those guys." Heather noticed. The various Covenant of Despair agents' eyes were glowing red, and their bodies were totally black, as if they were in fact composed of shadows. "Well... You did say this was DEMON Island..." Punchy gulped. They hurried across the bridge as the shadowy figures started to attack them with dark magic! From their position, mounting a counterattack would be difficult. Heather jumped to the front and used her flames to shield them, but this was a temporary solution. Fortunately, they weren't the first ones to find the cave. A Chao and a hammer bashed a couple of the creatures, and then a barrage of rocks knocked the others down the nearby chasm! Rainbow pushed past Punchy to greet their new allies. "Shiny! Great to see you again!" she smiled. Silver, Amy and Cream, united as Team Rose, had beaten them to the cavern. "We were here first, experiments! We're gonna take out Despair real quick, and I'll impress Sonic!" Amy bragged. "Uh... sure... Tell you what, we'll tag along, and you can take all the credit. We're mostly in this to rescue Rainbow's sister." Copter said. "...Oh..." Amy said awkwardly, a bit ashamed of her selfishness. "Thanks for the help, by the way." Heather said. Silver nodded. "Those demons... They're not really Despair agents. They were created from the dark energy collected in the island, which Despair's mages use. That's why some of the demons look like them..." he explained. "...Some?" Punchy muttered. "This place is REAL scary..." Cream shuddered. They shrugged it off and kept moving. "Don't worry, Hoppy. No demons can stop all of us!" Rainbow said cheerfully. 

Of course, since only "some" of the demons resembled Despair agents, it wouldn't be long before the group encountered other varieties of the demons. The demons also took the shape of the Beecon drones that Copter and Punchy had faced the last time they were on the island, and some took shapes that were decidedly not of their world. As long as the demons were small, the combined forces of Team Rose, Copter, Punchy and Heather were more than enough to keep them at bay, even with Rainbow essentially unable to defend herself. Soon, however, much larger, lizardlike demons started to appear, and while Silver and Amy were busy battling them on one side of the cave, Copter and Punchy stood between a big, snarling demon and Rainbow. "I got him... Chaos Avalanche!!" Punchy shouted, dropping some stones from the roof directly on the demon's head! This was not as great an idea as it seemed, because the demon started flailing around dizzily, and knocked the surprised Punchy across the cavern into a distracted Cream! They started to tumble over a chasm, so Copter leapt in after them! "Hold on, guys!!" he shouted in a panic. Rainbow glared at the dizzy demon and pushed it down another chasm. "How do YOU like it!" she shouted before running to the pit that Copter, Punchy and Cream had just fallen into. "O-one!? Please be alive!!" she called, unable to see in the darkness deep below. "We...We're okay!!" he called back, panting. Copter had managed to slow their fall, but now they were stuck on a much lower level of the cave, with Copter too exhausted to attempt flying back up, much less carry anyone. "There's a path down here!" Copter called up, "We'll try to meet up with you guys later!" Rainbow had a look of concern, but Silver kept a serious expression. "The best way to help them for now is to keep ourselves safe. Let's go..." he reasoned. Partway down the chasm Punchy and the others had just fallen down, there was a hole where a tunnel ended. Vortex and Crash peered down from the hole. "They've been sssplit up. That lowersss their chancesss." Vortex hissed. "What should we do?" Crash wondered. Vortex glanced back the way they came. "...Keep ssssearching. If there'sss any chance thisss cave will lead usss to the massster, we mussst invessstigate it." he said.

It was quiet for a bit after the lizard demons were defeated, so Amy decided to chat with Rainbow. "So... I see you got away after being kidnapped..." she said. "...No, I didn't." Rainbow frowned, "They didn't need me anymore." Amy looked at the ground for a moment, then put a hand on Rainbow's shoulder. "I'm sorry... I can't imagine what you've been through." she said. "I can. Shortly after being brought back from the DEAD, GUN tried to turn me into a doomsday weapon." Heather grumbled. "...Whaddya want, a medal?" Amy snapped. Silver stopped them suddenly. "More demons... Talk later!" he shouted.

Team GeneX was exploring elsewhere. Zipp's helmet could detect a "strange energy" that manifested when the larger demons were on the move, but they had no means of detecting or evading the smaller demons. Crash was charging ahead, ramming through the demons shaped like Despair agents, while Vortex and Zipp shot at the Beecon demons with Zipp's guns. "You're a lousy shot, 'Tex!" Zipp complained. "Jussst keep usss away from thossse giantsss." he hissed. "Do we HAVE to save Bucky? I mean, I bet we'd do fine without him." Zipp grumbled. Vortex grabbed him by the collar. "Don't even joke about that..." he snarled. Crash rubbed his head after he finished a charge. "I'm neutral, really... I mean, the boss DID kinda get us into all this by joining up with Despair in the first place, even if it was a covert thing..." he said. Vortex groaned. "Thisss isss why I'm in charge." he scowled.

Punchy led the way in the lower caverns, while Cream walked close to Copter. Cheese had fluttered down to join them, of course, and Cream held him tightly for security when they weren't battling demons. Copter was a bit uneasy about how close she was keeping to him. "Uhhh... Cream... Could you gimme...some room to breathe?" he mumbled. "Huh?" Cream said, blushing a bit, "It's just... You remind me so much of Tails... I feel better in this darkness when I'm close to you." she said. Punchy snickered at this. "Guess you got a girlfriend, Copter. You two sure are cute!" he joked, earning him a tail whip in the back. "Ooof!" Suddenly, they were blinded by a headlight! "Whazzuh!?" Copter gasped. "Tails detected!!" The robotic voice was very familiar to them. "Hey, that's SPOT!" Cream said, shielding her eyes. The robo-puppy walked over to Copter and sat as though at its master's feet. Punchy glanced at it, rubbing his chin. "Hey, uh, 'Tails', you don't suppose that confused bot can fly?" he asked. SPOT hopped into the air, hovering with its jet-paws. "...Looks like we've got a way up!" Copter said.

Arriving at the upper sections of the cavern again, Punchy and company didn't get very far before they found the way forward barred by a wall of Wrongos! "Oh dear... That guy from the mountain again..." Cream murmured. "...Illusi?" Copter muttered, looking around for him. The shrew stepped through the wall of Wrongos to meet them. "I let you go to rescue your friend, Dark One... but now I'll finish what I started!" he declared, rising into the air and taking a pair of Wrongos by their centers, spikes erupting from their circular bodies as he held them! "I'm sick of this, Illusi!! Would you just tell me WHY in the heck you decided to kill me after all that time you spent helping me before!?" Punchy shouted. Illusi looked away from him. "I will not speak of the future I saw... And I will not allow it to come to pass!" he yelled, swaying his hand to cast an illusion that made the surrounding area even darker than it was already. Copter and Cream backed away to see that it was like a dome of darkness, meant to deter them from interfering in the battle. "Uhhh... Hey, SPOT, get any readings on this?" Copter asked. "Specify target." SPOT's text replied. "...The BIG wall of BLACKNESS right IN FRONT of us!!" he growled. "...Might I suggest a CAT scan?" SPOT replied. "This is bad... Punchy's trapped in there..." Cream realized. "Yeah... And I can't just run in there and leave you alone..." Copter sighed.

Punchy rubbed his eyes in the darkness. "The same trick you tried on me when we first met!? Great, but don't you think I've learned a thing or two since then?" he taunted. Illusi hurled one of the spiked Wrongos at him, giving him a painful smack in the chest before it boomeranged back to the shrew. "GAH!! That stings!!" Punchy growled. "This is not a test this time! You will not leave this darkness alive!" Illusi yelled, flipping in midair and tossing both spiked Wrongos! Punchy jumped to the side, knowing that he had to at least move. Illusi exerted control over the Wrongos as they flew, sending them arcing in Punchy's direction, but they were still creatures, and they kept jabbering Wrongo-speak as they flew. "Chaos Avalanche!" Punchy pulled up some chunks of the ground near him and used them to block, causing the Wrongos' spikes to get stuck in the stone! "Clever... I suppose I'm done toying with you." Illusi said, splitting off into duplicates of himself as he'd done at Troblusk Plateau. The hands of the duplicates sparked with lightning. "You call yourself 'Punchy.' So it is fitting you die by the fist!" his duplicates declared in unison, along with the real Illusi! They charged at him, giving him jolting jabs from their lightning-charged fists. Despite knowing that these were illusions, it didn't seem to lessen the pain of the assault. "Aaaaarrrgh!! ILLUSI!!" Punchy tried to fight back, blindly throwing his fists about, but he could only see the duplicates just before they went to strike him! If this kept up, he'd be dead in minutes. "Ch-CHAOS...AVALANCHE!!!" Blind to his enemy, and surrounded, Punchy decided to go for a last-ditch attack, pulling a large portion of the ceiling straight down around himself! Rocks started falling all around, crushing the duplicates of Illusi and forcing Copter, Cream and SPOT to fall back from where they were awaiting the outcome of the battle. The dome of darkness started to dissipate, and Illusi stood over a partially buried Punchy. "...You seem much weaker than last time... Yet I fear the darkness remains dormant in you... This must end now!" he said, raising an illusionary blade!

"Mousy, STOP!!" The distracted Illusi suddenly found himself socked in the side of the face by Rainbow, of all people. "Back off! ...Oh, no..." he said, noticing that Heather, Silver and Amy were with her, and Copter and Cream were starting toward him as well. "I'll help you up, One..." Rainbow whimpered, kneeling down to work on digging him out. Illusi glared around at the group surrounding him and sighed in defeat. "You'll never understand... Very well. I must retrieve what Despair took from me. Then... my odds of completing this task will improve..." he grumbled, pushing past Silver and Heather and stomping off into the darkness. Some clapping was heard in the shadows as Punchy was dug out of the rocks, and Vortex emerged with Zipp and Crash. "Nice work. That noissse brought everyone here." he said. "What're YOU doing in here?" Copter grumbled. "Despair doesn't return our calls since they kidnapped Bucky." Zipp sighed. "So... You're saying you're here to help us? That hasn't worked out well before... At least with the hornet." Silver grumbled. "Well, we DID find the door to the castle." Crash said, "We can take you there, but it's locked. We need to find a key." Amy shrugged. "Well, it stinks, but I guess we need your help. Just remember, if you turn on us, Sonic'll fix you!" Amy warned. "Oh, don't tempt me! I always wanted to try my hand shootin' speedsters!" Zipp chuckled. Most of them rolled their eyes, and they all started further into the cavern together. Punchy limped at the back, needing to take it easy for a bit. "You just relax, One. We'll watch out for ya until you're rested up." Rainbow said before rushing up to the front of the group as always. Once no one was looking, Punchy's fur flickered black for a few instants, and Punchy grunted as he forced himself back to normal. "What... What was that...? All the dark energy... In this cave... I feel it doing something... to me..." he thought, "Dark Punchy... He's coming back! I'm gonna have to be careful, or everyone here is gonna be in serious danger!" 

To be continued...