GeneX - Knuckles the Echidna
Chapter 31 - Assault on White Base
Stage 18(Hero 10) - White Base
Minor Boss 14 - Dr. Eggman & Col. Gunner

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:
On Sonic's return to Eggtopia, he learned that Eggman was plotting to take over the Security Tower in Station Square. During the trip through the tower, Amy formed a new Team Rose with Cream and Silver, fed up with Sonic's apparent uncaring attitude toward her. At the top of the tower, Sonic confronted Eggman's forces, led by Metal Eggman and Freeze. However, this was all a diversion while Eggman set up a sneak attack on Central City! As a timer counted down the destruction of the roof of the tower, Sonic was distracted by a vision from Tikal showing the creation of Shadow Chaos, who emerged from the Master Emerald after Chaos was sealed. When Sonic awoke, Team Rose was missing, and SPOT had been damaged. Tails went off to find Knuckles, leaving Sonic to head for Central City to stop Eggman on his own! Little did he realize that Eggman was the least of Central City's worries...
Now, on to the next chapter!


Sonic arrived to find Central City in chaos. Knowing they were up there, Sonic quickly picked out Eggman's Cloud Cruisers in the sky. They weren't hard to spot, really, since they were the clouds that were ejecting robots down into the streets below. GUN had mobilized to attempt to restore order, but there weren't that many of them out in the streets. They were preoccupied elsewhere, though Sonic couldn't imagine what could be more important right now. The Covenant of Despair had also seen fit to take advantage of GUN's apparent moment of weakness, and their agents were busy creating havoc through the streets as well. On top of all that, Sonic could swear he could see Lospirits flying around amidst the robots in the sky. "It's like a bad guy convention... Guess I'd better crash it!" Charging straight into the mayhem, it wasn't long before Sonic heard someone call out to him. "Yo!! About time you showed up, hero!" Sonic stopped short and noticed Kosmo staring at him from across the street, calmly flicking his tail at an Egg Pawn as it approached him, somehow slicing it in two. Sonic approached the morph cautiously. "Funny place to run into you, Kosmo..." he said. "Never mind that. You'll want to know this. Those freaky monsters made off with the President." Kosmo informed him. Sonic looked around worriedly. "Freaky monsters... You mean... Aw, shoot. That's what Lospecter was talkin' about!" he realized. Kosmo sighed. "Well, I've had enough good deeds for today. They've been pretty thankless so far. See ya!" he said, rushing off. "Hey, wait! ...Thank...you." Sonic muttered, somewhat concerned about the situation. "Wish he'd have stuck around. I could use help, even from a crazy guy... I don't even know where to start looking for the Prez." he grumbled, glancing around. The President's luxurious home-slash-office-slash-private bunker could be seen on the other side of the city, a landmark that really sticks out. The Black Arms had blown it up once, but it had been rebuilt, good as new. "Guess I'll start by knockin' at home. If anything, some GUN agents are probably there that I could ask a few questions..." Sonic figured.

Sonic sped through the streets on his way to the President's house, but a certain angry voice made him stop short. "Sonic!!!" growled Amy, leading Silver and Cream down the street toward the startled blue hedgehog. Silver calmly pushed aside any opposition that came their way with his powers, so no robots or creatures bothered them. "Oh, hey Amy! Good to see you're okay--" Sonic said, only to get walloped by her Piko Piko Hammer anyway. "OWW! HEY!!" he yelped. "You dirty, no good jerk! Abandoning the three of us atop an exploding building!!" Amy screeched. "To be fair, only the top of the building exploded..." Sonic said weakly. "Toss him to the sun, Silver!" Amy snarled, but Silver wasn't paying attention. "I... I think there's somewhere… more important I should be right now..." he said, taking off hastily. "I'll help you!" Cream said, chasing after him, probably more out of a desire to stay out of Sonic and Amy's latest fight. Sonic sighed. "I would've gotten you out, but I...passed out. Ask Tails." he said. Amy pouted, wanting to stay mad, but she couldn't help wondering and worrying about why he would pass out. "Well, where are you going, anyway?" she grunted. "Save the President. Monsters got him." Sonic said quickly, resuming his sprint to the President's house. "Wait For ME!!" Amy yelled. Both of them stopped short again when they heard a yell coming in their direction. "Leave me alone, Mr. Toad!!" came the voice of Rainbow the echidna, who was being chased by a certain Despair-uniformed frog named Corky. "You gotta pay, lass! And I'm the one ta make ya pay!" he snarled as he hopped after her. Sonic rolled his eyes. "Am I ever gonna get where I'm goin?" he sighed, dashing at Corky and swiftly knocking him onto his back before he knew what was happening! "Oi!! Who threw that whatever it was at me!?" he shouted, struggling to get back up. "Don't get up, that was just a speeding hedgehog!" Sonic called back as he and Amy resumed their sprint to their destination. Rainbow started to follow them. "Wait up, Speedy! I could use a bodyguard until I find One again!" she said, "Those black suit people are mad at me because of that stuff that happened at the pyramid!" she added.

Like the rest of the city, the President's house was under attack. Some rather massive Egg Pawns were in a shootout with GUN troops at the entrance. Sonic watched them for a moment, and then glanced at Amy and Rainbow. "Any chance you two would be willing to wait out here?" he asked. Amy glared at him, and he chuckled softly. "Well, we could always look for a way around the explosions..." he said. They started sneaking around the side of the building, and they soon noticed some people busily smashing through the wall to make their own entrance! One of them happened to be Vector. "Since when is breaking and entering in your job description?" Sonic asked, making him jump. "SHHH! You wanna draw attention to us!? Seems like every bad guy in the country's around!" he snapped. The other person with Vector, Crash the Rhino, poked his head out from inside the hole in the wall and looked around. "What's the hold up? Hm? Are you coming, hedgehog?" he asked. "Um... Who's that??" Sonic wondered. "Experiment 8. He's here lookin' for somethin' for Bucky. Thought I'd tag along while I try to figure out what happened to the President." Vector explained. "Hey, Eight!" Rainbow waved to Crash. Amy stomped through the hole in the wall ahead of the others. "Whatever! I'll figure all this out AND chase away all the bad guys to boot! Maybe then Sonic will respect me!" she growled. As the others followed her in, Vector chuckled at Sonic. "Lady trouble, huh, Sonic?" he said. "Just stay out of it..." he grumbled. "Maybe you're not being sensitive enough..." Crash suggested, causing Sonic and Vector to stare at him. "...What? Oh, stay out of it..." he mumbled. They hadn't gone too far from the hole Vector and Crash had made before another hole got blasted down the hall in front of them! Some Covenant of Despair agents started to flood the hallway, led by Zeke the dragon! "Hey! What're you doing here!?" Crash shouted. "Attacking human twerps. What're you doing here?" Zeke replied, "...with SONIC??" he growled. "Hi again, Ten!" Rainbow waved. Zeke rolled his eyes. "That's it! GET 'EM! RAWR!!"

Patch the fox and Daisy the skunk were part of the group Zeke was leading, and they charged straight at the five non-uniformed animals before them. Amy quickly blocked Daisy's katana with her hammer. "Out of our way!" she yelled. "What the... Did you just block me with a toy!?" Daisy stammered. Patch came cartwheeling down the hall before taking out his nunchucks, but then Crash stomped over to him. "Hey, you little brat. You remember how things went back at Pumpkin Hill?" he snorted. Patch then backed away a bit, and Crash started chasing him around the hallway! Sonic started speeding down the hall as well, smacking random Despair agents as he went just to soften them up while Vector squared off against Zeke. "I'm gonna fry yo-" while Zeke was threatening him, Vector blew a big bubble from the gum he was chewing, and ejected it right into Zeke's face! "ACK!! ...EEEWWWWWW!!" he screamed. Vector then unwrapped another stick and started chewing again. "Now what were you sayin', chump?" he smirked. Still, this brawl could go on for a while if nothing interrupted it. Fortunately, Guard the gargoyle soon made his way down the hall, leading a squad of GUN's Hunter robots behind him. "Grrr!! There's the intruders! You thought you could blow a hole in this building and not be detected!?" he growled. Seeing this, Sonic ran over to grab Amy and then slip out the other side of the hallway while things were starting to get really chaotic. "Good luck, Vector! We gotta move!" he said. "Aw, nuts..." Vector sighed. Sonic and Amy soon made it to the base proper, but they stopped short as they entered the next corridor. Metal Sonic was right in front of them! "Oh, great..." Sonic mumbled. However, a couple gunshots ricocheted off the robot's metal body. "Push him back, boys!" Infin the weasel was leading a group of Despair agents in battle against Metal Sonic, and the robot quickly retaliated against them with an electrical charge that knocked several of them over! "Robo-Speedy's busy! Let's go!" said Rainbow, startling Sonic and Amy. "How'd you catch up so fast!?" Sonic asked. "...You stopped." she muttered.

Sneaking past Metal Sonic and Infin, Sonic sighed and chuckled. "Lucky for us they're all so keen on fighting each other." he said. "...Are we maybe losing focus, Sonic?" Amy muttered. Sonic scratched his head, then frowned. "Aw, I came here to see if GUN could help find the President. Well, can't be helped now. Gotta clear out the riff-raff. Better start with Eggman." he reasoned. Opening a door and heading into the next room, they found their path heavily blocked. Laser grids kept the way to the next area of the base pretty well defended. Of course, the base was already on alert, but some weapons mounted on the walls seemed to indicate that these laser sensors were not simply for monitoring the area, but stopping the threat entirely. On top of that, the room was full of robots. Eggman's robots and GUN's robots were busy brawling, but when Sonic, Amy and Rainbow stepped into the room, they stopped what they were doing and turned to glare at them. "Ah, so you're ALL programmed to target me first? Great, we found a squad of Gunner's robots." Sonic groaned. Someone else suddenly arrived at the doorway behind them. "Laser grids! Oh, wonderful!" Rainbow's eyes widened at the sound of the female voice behind her. "...Viola?" she said, turning slowly. Violet was there, dressed in her Despair uniform. "R-rainbow... I told you to return home!" she stammered. "You KNOW each other?!" Amy gasped. Meanwhile, Sonic was busy evading lasers and bullets from various robots. "That's nice, girls... Anyone wanna lend a hand!?!?" he shouted. Violet groaned and looked around the room. "You and I are going to have a very serious talk when I get a chance... But right now I need those robots kept busy while I disable those lasers." she said. Amy and Rainbow both nodded. "You got it, sis!" Rainbow said. "Sonic can handle it." Amy added. "I'M SURROUNDED IN A TINY ROOM WHERE I CAN BARELY RUN!!" he protested. "What's that, Sonic? I can't hear you. I'm way over here looking for something 'more important' than you to deal with." she grumbled. "...Why did you tag along?!" Sonic shouted back, taking out his frustration on a few Egg Pawns by violently bouncing back and forth between them until they were a pile of frayed wires.

A stray laser struck near Amy's feet, so she grabbed her hammer and charged in. "No one shoots at ME and gets away with it!!" she yelled. Rainbow wasn't exactly the combat type, so she casually walked over to where Violet was busy fiddling with the wiring connected to the laser grid. "You know... I've been looking all over for you." she said. Violet groaned. "I'm FINE. I know how it must look to you, but I need to be with the Covenant. You... You should KNOW why!" she hissed. Rainbow's eyes softened. "You know... Revenge won't bring them back..." she said. Violet stayed focused on what she was doing. "I have work to do..." she insisted. Rainbow wiped her eyes and growled softly. "I won't rest until you're back home safe, Viola!" she said. Violet ignored her, and Rainbow began to grow frustrated. "You can't just do whatever you want! I may be your little sister, but I'm the only family you've got, so you're gonna listen to what I say!!" she growled. Growling a little herself, Violet simply pulled out the wires she was tampering with and turned to Rainbow. "I promise I'll come back for a visit... But only if you get BACK to the underground ruins and stay out of danger!" she said, turning to help finish off the robots with a few dark magic blasts. With its power source cut off, the laser grids had deactivated, and it didn't take much work to eliminate the remaining robots in the room. "Hey, thanks. Your sister's handy, Rainbow." Sonic said. Amy smacked him with her hammer again. "She's the enemy! She's got one of those uniforms and everything! And how about a thank you to me!?" she yelled. "Um... Thanks for... the concussion..." Sonic mumbled as Amy stomped to the next hallway. Rainbow glanced at Violet as they started to move on. "I'll go back home after this... But you'd better keep your word!" she said. Violet stared at her. "Why would you think I wouldn't keep my word? Has it really been THAT long?" she asked. Sonic walked a bit slower so he could talk to the echidnas. "So, I gotta ask... Either of you got any advice for dealing with an angry Amy?" he said. "Maybe a football helmet." Violet suggested. "Ha...ha..." Sonic sighed.

As they came to a fork in the hallways, they saw Crash come smashing through some Egg Pawns down the hall in front of them. "...Oh, you guys again." he muttered as he approached the group. "Um... Hey... you there. Seen the others?" Violet asked, apparently recognizing Crash, but not knowing his name. "Gah, they're all over the place." he said. "...Good to know..." Sonic sighed. They all turned and headed for the room at the end of the next hall. The doors were labeled "War Room." Inside was a room full of maps and a projector that the President could use to go over military strategy with. Also, Dr. Eggman and Col. Gunner were seated at the table, having a coffee together. "Ah-HAH!! The military conspiring with Dr. Eggman! Proof that you humans are NO GOOD!!" Violet yelled. "Aw, this is old news, Viola. Tubby and Gramps are old buddies." Rainbow sighed. "The young echidnas today... So disrespectful." Eggman mumbled. "Dr. Eggman was just telling me all about how you were aiding the Covenant of Despair, Sonic, and now look! Here's the proof!" Gunner snarled. Sonic rolled his eyes. "Are you sure you didn't tell Eggman that? Sounds like something you'd come up with." he groaned. "Enough! Ivo and I have decided to call a temporary truce in order to eliminate you pests once and for all! And we have just the machines to do it with!" Gunner said, snapping his fingers. Suddenly, the table in the center of the room exploded, revealing a horde of androids hiding underneath! These androids resembled various Covenant of Despair members, but since so many looked alike, it was clear they were robots. "And don't forget this!" Eggman grinned, snapping his fingers as well. Something blew a hole in the roof, and a menacing, wolflike robot hovered down through it. "Say hello to Techno Fera and the Despair Androids!" Gunner smirked. "GUN's been stealing my designs so much, I'm not sure which I made anymore..." Eggman sighed. Sonic shook his head and chuckled. "I think you guys are takin' this 'war room' a bit literally. Well, at least this is less confusing than 3 different armies..." he grinned.

The Despair androids went on the attack, each with robotic equivalents of their copied selves abilities. Androids of Despair's dark mages, like Violet, would fire lasers rather than use darkness. Androids of winged Despair agents flew about with jetpacks. Some spewed fire or shot missiles. Rainbow was taken aback by a Corky android, complete with a robotic frog tongue. "Ick!! You guys are out of your minds!" she yelped, jumping away as the android chased her. As things started getting chaotic, Violet initially covered her hands in dark energy, ready to fight with the others. However, the door creaked open behind them, and Violet shivered as Basker peeked his red eyes into the room. "Violet... and Crash. What are you two doing? These fools are not our objective." he stated darkly. Violet stammered a bit, but Crash grunted. "I didn't come with the covenant in the first place! I answer only to Bucky!!" he growled. Basker's vacant expression didn't change. "You will rejoin us, Violet. Now!" he insisted before turning back through the door. "Vy... You have to help us...!" Rainbow pleaded. However, Violet shivered at the idea of disobeying Basker. "I... I can't!!" she whimpered, taking off to rejoin the Covenant of Despair. "V-viola...!" Rainbow stammered in shock. Some androids were about to corner her, but they were suddenly smashed into the wall by a charging rhino! "I've been yearning to thrash those Despair scumbags... Now Eggman's given me just the venue to vent!!" he snarled, taking off through the room and bashing his horn through the androids one by one! This made it much easier for Amy and Rainbow to manage the stragglers, so Sonic stepped to Techno Fera.

The robotic wolf definitely looked like an Eggman creation, with the Despair star emblazoned across its chest. Techno Fera glowed with black energy as Sonic approached. "Hehe... With this robot I managed to harness the power of shadow energy! It won't be so easy stopping her, Sonic!" Eggman grinned. "That's what you always say!" Sonic snickered. Techno Fera then charged at him, covered in a ball of black energy! Sonic sped out of the way, but the robot quickly turned his way and fired off the dark energy as several black bolts! Sonic tucked himself into a ball and rolled along, evading the dark bolts and spin dashing right into the robot's chest! The robot retaliated by jolting Sonic with dark lightning from its hands, but the attack didn't last long. Techno Fera needed to charge up more dark energy! "What are you doing, robot! Finish him while he's stunned!" Gunner yelled. Sonic got up quickly and ran a few circles around the robot, grabbing its metal tail along the way. "Robots, robots, robots... When are they gonna get over their low battery issues?" Sonic sighed, hurling the dizzy robot away before jumping up and giving it a huge whack with a homing attack! Techno Fera buzzed a bit before exploding! While Sonic was taking a bow and the others were relaxing a bit since Crash had easily disposed of the androids, Gunner pointed a gun at the hedgehog's back. "Just stay right there..." he muttered. However, Amy emerged next to him and whacked the gun to the ground with her hammer! "You sore loser!" she shouted, while Eggman hid his own blaster behind his back. "Yeah, seriously, Richard..." he said awkwardly. "Oh... Uh... Nice save, Amy." Sonic said, blushing with embarrassment. Suddenly, hordes of Lospirits and Losohsts swooped into the war room from the hole Techno Fera had left in the roof, led by Lospecter! "Ah, so HERE'S the party! Okay, spooks... Sic 'em!" Lospecter smirked. Gunner banged a specific small country on the map behind him, and the wall flipped around, carrying him and Eggman to safety through a secret passage! "How does he ALWAYS know how to get away!?" Rainbow wondered. Sonic and Amy backed away slowly, uniting with Crash and Rainbow. "So... Now we got what, FOUR armies in here? Any other craziness I don't know about?" Sonic whimpered. "Oh, you needn't worry. You won't be burdened by thinking brains when I'm through with you..." Lospecter grinned.

To be continued...