GeneX - The Series
Episode 8 - Another New Beginning

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:
Pursued by GUN forces after his defeat at the hands of Tails and Copter, Kosmo the Morph was aided in his escape by Shadow the Hedgehog. Seeing a bit of himself in Kosmo, Shadow poised an important question to this wayward soul, "With all your power, Kosmo, what will you fight for?" Pondering this question, Kosmo keeps out of the world's sight, knowing that they would hate and fear him.
Of course, it wouldn't be long before the incident at Shadow Arcangel would catch up with him, and the other experiments. As Copter's world seems to be crashing down around him, Kosmo's answer to Shadow's question may be more important than ever...
Now, on to the episode!


"And now, it's time for an important SSTV News Bulletin!" Kosmo was walking by an electronics store with TVs in the window when the news came on. He didn't like always being transformed into another shape, so he was hidden by a brown trench coat instead. "Argh, must they have their merchandise so noisy?" he muttered, hearing Katie the Coyote's report through the glass separating him from the TVs. "Today, the military has released a list of dangerous fugitives that are loose here in the United Federation. The list was compiled by GUN's very own Sergeant Richard Jackson Gunner, who is here with us to provide further details." Katie reported, prompting Kosmo to double back, his yellow eyes becoming glued to one of the flat screens. Sure enough, the hateful face of Gunner soon emerged onscreen. "Him...! That slime..." Kosmo growled. Spy was standing behind Gunner, holding up a sign that read "Hi Mom!" The sergeant cleared his throat and began speaking, each word making Kosmo feel sick. "Citizens of the United Federation. I come today with a dire warning. In the past few weeks, a terrible threat has been unleashed on our great nation. The most sinister manifestation of which was the giant dragon that nearly destroyed Station Square recently." he began. Kosmo growled angrily. "That is taken completely out of context! He forgot to mention how he was the one who drove me so mad!" his snarls fell on deaf ears, and Gunner continued. "Shortly prior to that, similar forces, led by one who escaped military custody, stole the Chaos Emeralds, which were used to release that abomination!" Kosmo snarled louder. "Abomination?? Look who's talking!!" Now people were curiously gathering around him, but Kosmo didn't notice. "These six menaces have been known to work with the notorious Dr. Eggman, and are to be considered a great threat. Therefore, I beseech each and every one of you out there watching; If you happen to see any of the five GeneX Experiments or their sinister creator, call the police immediately. I fear to think what would happen if they were left to accomplish their dark, malicious goals..." As Gunner's speech concluded and the camera returned to Katie, Kosmo couldn't watch anymore. "He... he's not just coming for me. For the other experiments as well?" he stammered. The people gathered around Kosmo saw his face as he turned from the TV. "Aaaaaugh!! A monster!!" several of them yelled! Kosmo grunted and morphed into a gargoyle, smashing through the window of the store and breaking one of the TVs with a lashing of his powerful whiplike tail! "The monster's at GUN! And he'll pay for this!" Kosmo growled, flying off.

He wanted to head straight for Gunner and tear him limb from limb! But it occurred to Kosmo that he had no idea where he was. So the best thing he could do was find someone who might. He flew around for a little while until he found a police car, which wasn't hard after the fuss he kicked up at the store. He then crashed down onto the hood of the car, forcing the officer to make a sudden stop! Kosmo shifted his hands into large hammers to smash the windshield, then changed them back to pull the scrawny police officer out of his seat! "Yaaaah!! Wh-what do you want!?" the officer yelled. "Tell me where I can find GUN!!" Kosmo yelled back. The officer looked around nervously. "G-gun? You want a gun? You can have mine, just don't shoot me!!" he whimpered. Kosmo groaned. "Not A gun!! GUN, you ninny!! That military bastard is gonna get what's coming to him!!" he growled. The officer shook nervously in Kosmo's grip. "I... I'm just a cop! I dunno nothin' about GUN's secret military bases!!" he stammered. Kosmo morphed his face into a fearsome dragon's to intimidate the officer. "TELL ME WHAT YOU KNOW!!!" he roared. "Chaos Spear!" A single bolt of Chaos energy smacked Kosmo's hand, making him drop the officer and spin around. "Huh? Shadow!?" he grunted. The officer scampered back into his car and nervously locked the car doors. Shadow was standing nearby, staring up at Kosmo seriously. "I understand your rage. All too well... But attacking innocent people is not the answer." he said. Kosmo growled. "How else am I gonna find that scumbag!?" he yelled. Shadow shrugged. "Who says you have to? He's just made five other enemies." he pointed out, turning to leave. Before going, he stopped to consider something. "I'm taking a little trip. It'll take me all the way to Soleanna. If you'd like, I'll bring you there... You'd be safe, away from GUN." he offered. Kosmo hopped off the police car. "Thanks but no thanks, Shadow. I'm hiding enough already. Gunner's not going to dictate where I'm allowed to live!" he said. Shadow nodded. "Good answer... See you around." With that, Shadow was on his way.

Kosmo left the freaked out police officer behind, who was busy mumbling about how he should have been a dentist. Unsure of what to do and where to go, he started to wander the city aimlessly, flying swiftly between the buildings, avoiding getting caught more than getting seen. In a short while, he came across the building where the news was filmed, and found a GUN patrol getting ready to leave! Before he could be spotted, he dropped down and ducked behind a dumpster. "Hey... This could actually be where Gunner is RIGHT NOW..." Kosmo realized, "...I've got to get over there!" Glancing around the edge of the dumpster at the GUN patrol, he realized there were too many of them for him to approach without causing a commotion that would put numerous innocents in the city in danger. "Dang, your way is complicated, Shadow... But I guess if I put more innocents in danger, someone else will come after me for that, and I'll just keep having to fight endlessly... Sounds exhausting." he murmured. Thinking it over, he morphed his body to mimic the GUN agents. Only he had purple hair and glowing yellow eyes. "I've seen humans with all sorts of weird hair, so that's no problem... If I can just get ahold of one of those guys' blackened glasses..." He tried morphing his own sunglasses, but they glowed, too! "Yeah... Need real ones..." he grumbled.

He decided to sneak his way to the fancy looking black car at the front of the patrol, avoiding eye contact with the GUN agents as best he could along the way. He had to get past an armored truck first, which seemed to be crawling with guys in black suits or military gear. Kosmo's disguise was a black suit so that he wouldn't get pulled away for any crazy military drills or nonsense like that. All he figured he had to worry about was his eyes getting noticed. He started to creep past the truck, glancing away from the vehicle and the TV station as much as possible to keep the glow of his eyes out of sight. As he cleared the truck, however, one of the GUN agents walked over and patted him on the back! "Phil!! I didn't know you were here! Where have you been hiding? Did you... ride with the Sarge??" the agent asked. Kosmo froze. He was clearly caught. The agent frowned at his silence, but then chuckled. "Okay, sorry. 'Agent 16!' Some of us are so touchy when we're on duty... I guess old big-nose Gunner could put anyone on edge, huh?" he joked. Then, he stepped in front of Kosmo and saw his eyes. "Holy... You gotta see a doctor about those--" Kosmo promptly punched him in the face hard, careful not to hit his glasses. "I'll take that under advisement!" he grumbled, swiping his sunglasses and covering his glowing eyes. "Agent 16, huh? Guess I have an alias." he mumbled as he hurried to the black car.

As he reached the car, he saw that Sergeant Gunner and Spy were exiting the building and heading for that very car at that moment. They were busily talking about something, and Kosmo stopped to listen. "Those experiments have made a fool of me for the last time. Now we see who has the last laugh!" Gunner sneered. "Well, I'm glad we're putting someone besides me in the line of fire for once, sir." Spy sighed. Gunner nodded. "I thought you'd appreciate that, you sniveling coward..." he said. Spy opened his cell phone, having received a text message. "Well, it's all good news! Those wanted posters are working like a charm! The police are already chasing one of the experiments right here in Station Square!" he smiled. Kosmo jumped in alarm upon hearing this, while Gunner laughed. "It's like I said, Spy! Broaden our search, broaden our manpower, and this'll be over in an instant! Those experiments are finished!" he snarled. Kosmo growled a bit. "The other experiments... Gunner's after them... just like me... He has no right to do this! I will not allow it!" he thought. Yet Gunner was right there. Kosmo could stop him once and for all... couldn't he? "Grrr... There's no telling how much trouble that experiment's in... If I waste time with Gunner, I may be too late to save it... I... I have to choose...!" Kosmo made a fist, glaring at Gunner. He wanted so much to end that miserable man right there... but, "You'll still be around for me to thrash when I'm finished... And I promise you, one day I will finish this!" Kosmo snarled.

In a sudden flash of light, Kosmo had become a falcon, and began flying off at high speed! However, Gunner saw this, and despite his shock, he composed himself quickly and called to his patrol. "E-experiment 3!!! That FREAK is HERE!! Deploy robots NOW!! After him, you incompetent NINNIES!! Someone WILL get fired over this!!" he roared. In moments, Kosmo was being pursued by several bomb-covered hornet robots, which seemed to be specially customized for Gunner's use. They were fast, and they were hurling bombs recklessly in an effort to vaporize Kosmo quickly! As he attempted to avoid the bombs, Kosmo noticed that they were exploding against nearby buildings, causing collateral damage and surely endangering the people. "Where's your regard for lives, GUN?! If you're the good guys, and I'm the bad guy, why is it I'm more concerned with the safety of the people than YOU are!?" he growled, barely dodging another volley of bombs! This time, they blew the side of a building open, and some people were clearly hurt in the blast! One woman even fell out of the building! "What!? No!!" Seeing this, Kosmo swooped down to chase the falling woman. As he did, the robots started to fire lasers at him, another modification made for Gunner's hornets. Kosmo evaded the laser fire as much as he could, but his falcon wings got singed a bit. He quickly caught the falling woman and dropped her off on the ground. "Y-you... saved me...?? Eeeek!! Look out!!" the woman shrieked as lasers came at Kosmo! He hurried out of the way, now growing enraged. "You asked for it, bots... You're all goners..." Kosmo glowed brightly, and anything the robots threw at him seemed to bounce off uselessly as he transformed! With a terrifying roar, Kosmo had once again become the mighty dragon known as the Kosmogon! Without anything to power the transformation, it was smaller, but it was still quite fearsome, and Kosmo quickly eradicated the robots with some explosive blasts from his eyes! "Kosmos might be overkill for you guys, but I think you earned it..." he growled.

Officer Razor the Porcupine had had a heck of a chase, and now he'd cornered Copter the Fox on a bridge. Copter had crashed the motorcycle he'd stolen, barely avoided plummeting to his doom, and simply didn't have any energy left to resist arrest anymore. As Kosmo arrived, Razor was about to slap the cuffs on him. "It's... Experiment 2. Copter. The one who... stopped me..." he gasped, feeling a bit conflicted. However, he smirked and blew a jet of flame to get their attention anyway! When the two of them looked up, Kosmo quickly flew under the bridge! Kosmo heard Razor rushing to look for him at the other side, so he morphed into gargoyle form and slipped back the way he came to sneak up on them. Upon landing on the bridge, he reverted to his normal form. "Run for it, Copter. I'll distract him!" he whispered. Copter nodded, "Just don't hurt anyone. You don't want me to have to kick your rear again!" he said. "Hmph... I'm definitely over that..." Kosmo thought, pointing away from the area. "Just get going! Don't make me reconsider this!" As Copter began to run away, Razor spun around and aimed his gun at him, then at Kosmo once he noticed him. "Freeze, monster!" he growled, having decided Kosmo was the greater threat. Kosmo held out his arms. "All right. Cuff me, officer, I've been baaaaad..." he said. Razor slowly stepped over to Kosmo and cuffed him, when Kosmo suddenly transformed into a bee! "Whoops, they don't fit me!" Kosmo chuckled, tossing the cuffs aside. "Aw well, better luck next time, constable!" Before Razor could fire a shot, Kosmo flew off over the bridge! Razor tried, but couldn't manage to hit the morph. He was further frustrated by the realization that Copter was long gone now. He tossed his now empty gun to the ground in frustration. "They're gonna love this back at the station..." he muttered. Leaving them behind, Kosmo hurried back to the TV station as fast as dragon wings could carry him, but Gunner was long gone by the time he got there. "Blast! Now that he knows I'm here, Gunner will be out of town, I bet..." he realized. Another realization dawned on him as he hovered in the air dejectedly. "With everyone looking for me... I'll have to find a place to hide. I can't stay here... Too many people could get hurt. I may not care for the people who would call me a freak, but there may be some, like Shadow and Copter... who are not so bad. And they don't deserve to be caught in my battles..."

Kosmo left Station Square. It wasn't hard to exit the city disguised as Agent 16. He traveled around for a time, and eventually came upon a place called Troblusk City. It was a dark place where dark beings could easily hide out and thrive. Even Dr. Eggman was busy constructing a small base there when Kosmo arrived. On the outskirts of the city, he found an old mansion that seemed to be abandoned. The grounds around it were like a dreary swamp with lots of dead and dying trees. It was a very creepy place, but Kosmo felt strangely at ease here. The sign on the door read "Hollow Manor." Kosmo reached into his shoe and pulled out the strange, gold coin he'd found the night he met Shadow and started to flip it in his hand. "How about that. An empty mansion far away from people? Too good to be true. Must have rats or something. Well, at least I'll have company." he said to himself, opening the door and taking his first step inside. "Ah... Home, sweet home... Look all you want, Gunner. I'll be sure to find you first!" he growled, "I'll never be free as long as that human still lives, so though I'm safe for now, I can't rest too long. I must find Gunner, and take revenge for all the experiments!"

Episode End!