Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 56 - Apocalypse Part 1

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.
The Keyblade & other Kingdom Hearts elements are (c) Disney & Square-Enix.
Moogles are (c) Square-Enix.


"On that day, when the sky fell away,
Our world came to an end.
In our eyes, did a fading sun rise in the dark,
Glimmering shadows..." - Lifelight, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate


Previously on GeneX…
Knuckles' search for the Chaos Emeralds led him to Demon Island, where with Violet and Rouge, he faced a monstrous version of Howler in a final showdown. After that, Apocalos set his Lost Ones on them, and they were forced to leave without the broken pieces of the Master Emerald. They briefly met up with Punchy before witnessing Aurora vanishing from existence due to her timeline being erased.
Tails, Fera and Skye had used time travel to try and stop the Lost Ones from ever gaining this much power, but Apocalos had predicted their plan, and transported Infinite to the one point in time they could go; the Time Collision on Sonic's birthday. They fought Infinite, and the jackal sliced off one of Tails' tails. Skye sacrificed himself to send his father and Fera back to the present, but they still saw Infinite kill him before the time portal closed behind them.
Lucky had been traveling with Sonic's group, but after Juice and Junior vanished, Sonic took off on a separate journey, which ended with him battling himself in the form of the Doomsayer. Ultimately, the Doomsayer declared Sonic's efforts to be too late, as he pointed out Demon Island floating over his home... Green Hill Zone!
Now, our tale continues...


Tails and Fera made their way to an area on the edge of the island, where they found Lucky and Whisk wandering about. Knuckles and Violet came running up as well, gland to find some familiar faces. "Tails! Watch out, it's Fera!!" Violet shouted. "Whoa, whoa whoa! She's on our side!" Tails said hurriedly. "What did I ever even do to you?" the wolf asked Violet, "...Oh, your sister's wedding. Sorry..." she sighed. Lucky and Whisk couldn't help noticing Tails' injury. "What happened? Tails?" Lucky asked with concern. The fox sighed. "Thanks to Infinite and Apocalos, I think it's just Miles now..." he told them. Knuckles placed a hand on his shoulder. "No way. You'll always be Tails to me! Now point me in those jerk's direction! I'll tear some of their slimy limbs off!" he growled. Lucky nodded. "We gotta pay them back for our kids, too! They all vanished!" he told the group. Knuckles gasped. "Wha... all of them? No! L-lara!! I JUST met her!!" he stammered. Fera growled softly. "They murdered Skye the old-fashioned way, too. I think they've officially replaced Gunner on my hit list. So, how do we find their boss and end this?" she asked. Whisk quickly cast a spell with her wand. "Discovereva!" And with that, a guiding light appeared. "Follow that light! It'll lead us to... Apocalos?" she asked. "Meee-yow! How can you find him if you don't even know who you're looking for!?" Lucky asked. Whisk chuckled softly. "The spell is looking for the Lost Ones' leader. Hey, if you had to know everything it wouldn't be a great spell." she babbled. Knuckles and Fera pushed past the bantering cats and looked out over the edge of the island where the light was going. "Hey, that place look familiar down there?" Knuckles asked as Tails stepped over to look as well. "Green Hill... Why are we here?" he wondered.


Speeding off on his own, Sonic raced away from Scrap Brain Zone, passing many familiar locales swiftly on his way to Green Hill. He didn't have time to reminisce about the Labyrinth or the Spring Yard, he had to get to that island and do whatever he could to stop the Lost Ones before it was too late! Being the fastest thing alive did have its advantages, though; Sonic must have set a new record for traversing South Island as he arrived in Green Hill, and approached the imposing structure of a massive loop that Demon Island was floating above. Atop the loop stood Apocalos, holding the Scepter of Despair up for Sonic to see. "I knew you wouldn't keep me waiting, hedgehog! It is ever our destiny to meet at the end! But this time, there is no Zodiac Council to repair the timeline... And no one in present-time can stop me! My recreation of Mephiles the Dark has gathered countless souls for me, and trapped their energy in this scepter... You may know some of those souls... An ancient echidna, a foolish police officer..." he said with a sneer. Sonic stomped his foot and pointed up threateningly. "Let those souls free! I won't ask again!!" he shouted. Apocalos chuckled softly, releasing the scepter and watching it rise into the sky. "Those souls will feed Demon Island, and empower the beast within. Then, it will smash through the Gaia Wellsprings' barriers, and feast on the life of the WORLD!!" he roared, snapping his fingers. In response to his snap, a portal emerged in front of Sonic, and out flew Lospecter, followed by Loskeletor, Losipher and Loscream! "Here we are! Your four horsemen of Apocalos!!" Lospecter proclaimed, bowing as he shut the portal with his key, "And we're ready for war!!" the spirit smirked.

Loskeletor pointed the Chaos Sword at Sonic. "Any final words, knave?" he asked. Sonic's ear twitched and he smirked. "Knave? Ha!" he took off, a blue blur speeding among the four fiends as Loscream and Losipher each tried to grab him in their tentacled grips! Sonic caused Loskeletor's head to spin around dizzily, and he snatched the Chaos Sword from his bony hand, slicing the tentacles reaching for him before leaping back to where he started to taunt them! "I'm the Knight of the Wind!" he declared, twirling the sword expertly in his hand! "Nighty knight, then!" Lospecter chuckled from behind him, surprising Sonic by creating a portal at his feet, dropping him right into Loscream's vines! As Sonic struggled, the pumpkin had a sadistic grin on his carved face. "At last, a feast I've waited for..." Loscream bellowed. "Gonna have to keep waitin!" shouted Knuckles as he dropped down from above, slashing the vines with the Chaos Claws to free Sonic on the way! Whisk flew by above them, having given Knuckles the ride, and behind Lospecter some dark portals brought Fera and Violet, along with Lucky and Tails! "We've got your back, Sonic!" Tails cried. Lucky summoned his Keyblade and took up a fighting stance, "Yeah, try and stop me now!" he shouted. Losipher glared at them, snarling. "More suffering, then... More death!!"

Knuckles stayed to battle Loscream while Sonic dashed to deal with the big gun, Losipher. In fact, most of the group was heading that way, but Tails could see that Loskeletor wasn't one to turn one's back on, either, so he ran for the skeleton, materializing the laser cannon over his arm as he approached. Loskeletor laughed and fired a beam from his eyes at the fox's feet. "Why Bard, you doth appear more pitiful than last I laid eye socket upon you!" he mocked. Tails stood firm, aiming for his skull. "No idea what that means, but somebody's about to pay for Skye!" he growled, firing his laser only for Loskeletor's laser to meet it, resulting in an explosion that threw him back! Whisk caught him in her arms and flew him into the air as Loskeletor fired repeatedly at them! "I gotcha! You just worry about blastin'!" she smirked. Meanwhile, Knuckles was slashing Loscream's vines furiously as the pumpkin tried to grab for him. "Grrraaah!! Why won't you die!?" the pumpkin snarled. Knuckles grunted with annoyance. "I'd like to ask you the same thing... Didn't I leave you splattered in the castle?" he questioned. Indeed, thanks to Apocalos, this battle might not matter in the long run...

Lospecter floated around, taunting Fera and Violet and goading them into portals, which then dropped them into Losipher's tentacles, only for them to warp out of his grip. "Slippery vermin... But darkness won't do me harm! You cannot kill death itself!" Losipher declared. Sonic bounced into his face, making him groan in rage while the hedgehog landed close by and examined the lack of damage. "He's a chunky one. Guess I should try the sword..." he murmured as Losipher contorted his face into a terrifying fang-filled visage, roaring at him as he clashed his own flaming blade against Sonic's! Lucky added his Keyblade to the mix, helping Sonic to knock his blade back! "Now we got him!!" he smirked, only to fall down a portal and start plummeting towards Losipher from high above. "MEEEE-YOOOOW!!" he wailed, caught by Violet as she warped up to him, and them warped him back down, holding the cat in her arms. "We need to get that key from him..." she sighed. Fera smirked. "We're on it..." she said, glancing to Sonic. She hurled a blast of darkness at Losipher's face to distract him while Sonic sped to her, leaving the Chaos Sword in her hands as he sped away again. "Now..." she warped herself above Losipher, raising the sword to strike! "Let's see how he likes this!!" But a portal opened under her, causing Fera to plunge the sword into the earth in front of Losipher instead! Lospecter chuckled and twirled the key, only for Sonic to leap through him from behind in a ball, knocking the Chaos Key a distance across the grassy green hills!

Fera struggled to pull the Chaos Sword free, and was forced to warp away without it as Losipher grabbed for her. The Lost Ones were regrouping, banding together as the heroes mostly did the same, but Lucky tripped over the Chaos Key. "Huh?" he murmured, glancing at it. Watching above, Apocalos changed the weather, making it rain a bit heavier. "Lospecter!! The time has come!" he shouted. "Whoop!" the spirit yelped, floating off into the loop and pulling out his Chaos Card. "Here we go! Time for my trump card!! Watch closely!!" he announced, activating the card to summon forth in a brilliant light, an Eggman Capsule! The fighting had stopped for the moment, and Sonic recognized the capsule. "Hey... I saw that in that ruined world!" he realized. Lospecter snickered, and phased through the capsule, humming to himself. "That eggy doctor... Made the capsule special for us... But nobody knew why except the boss! Eureka!!" he laughed as he managed to open the capsule from the inside! Within could be seen what appeared to be the Chaos Relics...but they were radiating dark energy! Lightning struck as Apocalos gave a wide, toothy grin. "You didn't think ours was the only world in the multiverse with Chaos Relics? Out there... We found Dark Chaos Relics... Ones more suited to obey a Lost One! Take up the key, Lospecter! It is time for our full force to join us... and crush Sonic the Hedgehog and his friends once and for all time!!" he commanded, more lightning crashing around him!

Losipher, Loscream and Loskeletor proved effective at blocking the heroes from chasing as Lospecter picked up the Dark Key, pointing it out through the loop. "If you thought it was impressive back at the Security Tower, getta load-a this!" the ghost snickered, a massive black beam shooting from the key out into the distance, opening up a tremendous portal behind where Demon Island was floating. It was a portal so large it could have consumed the island itself, and out of it, ALL Lost Ones started to march forth, aside from some that came dropping down from Demon Island above, seeming to sense that now was the time to gather! Every variety was swarming out, slimy losol, smaller loslimes, massive golems, loskels, loskulls, losolanterns, ghastly losohsts, Losohst Knights and lospirits, arachnid lospides, batlike losoars, losharks swimming into Green Hill's rivers, lostalker zombies, a Lospirit Lord, and naturally an army of Eggman's possessed robots as well! They seemed to be chasing one single person who wasn't a Lost One yet, Dark Spiny. "They ate everyone!! Everyone!! They're monsters I tell you! Don't be fooled by their capacity for speech!! Aaaaahh!!" Before he could get far, though, the horrific, slimy form of Hydrasmo swooped in and chomped on the porcupine, mauling him a bit before tossing his body aside to be possessed by losol! The other Darks seemed to be joining Darkosmo, except for Punky, Xezek and Raven. Vanitas, Thrash and Zapp arrived in slimy skeletal forms, while Mephiles, Soleil and Aries marched in seeming perfectly normal...but they had come from Apocalos to begin with. It got worse, too, as Lost Zombies of the Coconut Crew, the Battle Bird Armada, and the Covenant of Despair marched out of the portal, led by the slimy forms of Infinite, Howler and Batte Lord Kukku. Losipher also did a little dividing of his own body, releasing slimy copies of Zazz, Zik, Zor, Zeena and Zomom to help block the heroes path. Ophiuchus led Lost One versions of his Zodiac Council through the portal, Nova and Tabitha shambled out, and even a loskel with a familiar gun attached to its arm crept through, roaring in agony! Apocalos laughed in triumph as his army gathered. "I had to go across dimensions to regain some of these familiar faces, since you destroyed some of them... But now they are eternal... Eternally Lost! And your world will join them!!" he proclaimed!

On a far off plateau ideally situated to overlook the action, the Doomsayer stood. As harsh thunderstorm stretched across the island from his position to Apocalos', and it threatened to consume all of South Island. A tear dropped from the golden eyes concealed under his hood, and he clenched his fists, leaping off the plateau...

Despite the odds, Sonic had leapt into action and charged up to Apocalos' perch, trying to take the fight directly to him! "It doesn't matter how many you have! If I stop you, it ends!" he shouted, launching into a homing attack toward the undead hedgehog-tyrannosaur hybrid! Apocalos' body erupted in sparks, and as he raised his arms, bolts of lightning seared directly from him into Sonic! "I am the literal end!! You are nothing against me, nothing!! Your golden-eyed look alike got lucky gaining the power to survive this far!!" he roared as Sonic was electrocuted, screaming in pain before falling backward towards the earth below, caught in Whisk's arms before he could fall into the clutches of any Lost Ones. As she tried to return to the others, though, Apocalos brought down a bolt of lightning onto her back, and she shrieked as she and Sonic fell in a smoking heap amongst Tails, Knuckles, Fera, Violet and Lucky. Violet was on her knees, looking at the force gathered against them with dismay. "They've been toying with us this whole time... We never had a chance..." she choked. Tails helped Whisk up, handing her the wand she dropped. "Agh... Cura, Cura!!" the divine stammered, using healing magic on herself and Sonic as fast as she could. Knuckles looked at the ground, not wanting to quit but not seeing a way. Fera offered a hand to Sonic. "I guess we're going out together after all..." she sighed. "We haven't had our last fist bump yet, buddy!" he said, though his expression was grim. Lucky watched them, and nodded. "You're right... We can't let it be over..." he said. Apocalos grinned widely, letting out a sadistic laugh. "Finish them!!" he roared, setting his army to surround them!

The Doomsayer stopped his approach, seeing the last force of good becoming surrounded by insurmountable evil. "...and so it ends. This was my last run. Doomsday...has passed." he sighed, hanging his head...

Lucky saw his friends forming up around him, preparing to fight for their lives as the Lost Ones surrounded them. There was no time to waste. Lucky took up the Chaos Key, and held it in one hand while holding the Keyblade in the other, turning in the opposite direction to point both keys. "May my heart be my guiding key..." he whispered, "...our hearts... Yeah! Just try and tear us apart, try and overpower us... you can't stop the power of our hearts' connections!!" he cried, dashing forward with the keys held out! Lospecter saw him, and scoffed, flying up over the heroes in his path to chase after Lucky. "You think you can do the same as me? Your friends are scattered everywhere! Also, I'm about to feast on your soul!!" he shouted, only to be startled by a round object crashing down into the dirt in front of him! It looked kind of like a bumper, but flat. Lospecter examined it and chuckled, picking it up. "Someone thinks they can stop me with a frisbee?" Suddenly, the "frisbee" jolted him with an electric shock, causing him to shout in alarm and release the disc, which rose up to the one who threw it, who was standing on the wing of a familiar ship... the Galestrom! "He's got his friends right here!" shouted Miles, as the shield attached to its magnetic handle and he waved down to Lucky! Winston the Moogle was piloting, and aimed the ship's guns right at Lospecter. "Sorry we're late, kupo!" he shouted. Lucky laughed cheerfully, and Whisk waved up at Miles. "Hey, thanks for the phones!!" she cried. "Huh...?" Miles asked. "Oh...I guess you haven't technically built them yet, hehe!" she giggled. Lucky's focus stayed on the keys, which started to glow with power. "It doesn't matter where our friends are... How long we're apart... If we keep them in our hearts, then our hearts connect us! Now follow that connection!! Everyone...we need you, now!!" The Keyblade and Chaos Key's beams shot out, twisting and combining, and then scattered into dozens, possibly hundreds of separate beams, opening a multitude of portals, following every connection Lucky's heart could find, even if it had to jump from his friends to theirs! Lospecter's eyes widened to see it, as did Sonic and their allies. "What...is that?" Knuckles asked. Sonic smirked. "It's a REAL party!"

"Every soul contains a whisper of light,
growing louder as it calls to unite!
From the distance sings a chorus of souls,
rising slowly, stirring heat from the coals.

Colors weave into a spire of flame!
Distant sparks call to a past still unnamed!
Bear this torch against the cold of the night!
Light will guide you, on your way to the ultimate fight!"

Out of the portals, everyone started to emerge. First, Rainbow, who glanced back into her portal and waved her arm. "C'mon! Follow me!!" she shouted as Punchy leapt out to join her, followed up by Heather and Illusi, and then Guard soaring into the air! "Been lookin' for these creeps!!" Punchy shouted. Heather's hands caught fire as she nodded. "Looks like we're not a moment too soon!" she added. From another portal floated Silver, carrying Blaze in his arms with Marine holding on! "Land ho!!" the raccoon yelled. "The Lost Ones...all of 'em!" Silver gasped. Blaze jumped out of his arms, landing in the grass. "Now's our chance to really settle this!!" she huffed.

From Resistance HQ, another group arrived. Bunnie Rabbot, covered by Antoine D'coolette, led the way. "Alright, roll 'em out, Charles!" she shouted. Uncle Chuck came out, guiding some heavy objects as they were being pushed through the portal by Dulcy, Mighty, and the combined effort of Patch & Daisy. They appeared to be huge Wispon-like cannons. Ray came gliding out, cheering them on. "One-two-push!! Go go go!!" he cried. "Y-you could be h-helping..." Daisy huffed. "I'll get it, don't worry!" Dulcy smiled. "Gird yourselves, Resistance!" Chuck told them, "Cannons or no cannons, this'll be the fight of our lives!"

More experiments emerged from Demon Island, Crash charged ahead with Vortex following, Talon and Zipp flying above, and Gideon stepping out apprehensively, taking the form of a hedgehog. Through a fairly close by portal, Eggman Nega flew in on his recovered Egg Mobile, Sonata and Bolt holding on to the sides of it. "Alright, I took you back to your friends. Consider us even for the help recovering my vehicle!" Nega grunted. Assessing the situation before him, though, Nega wasn't fleeing as hastily as one might think. "There's not really anywhere to run, is there?" he sighed. Conan flew out of a portal above via the Chaos Wing, carrying Emily in his arms. "This feels like a mistake..." he said. "Don't worry... I'll watch your back!" Emily grinned, holding up a Chaos Card.

One of the portals, surprisingly, started off with a Los Tails leaping out, giving crazed laughter at the notion that he'd infiltrated the heroes' ranks. "Lord Apocalos! I'm here, hehehe!!" he cackled. Then, with a howl, Sonic the Werehog leapt out of the portal and grabbed the zombified fox in his claws, hurling him forcefully to the ground! Behind him, another Sonic and Tails followed, firing on the zonbified Tails with their PCD weapons! Dusk the hare and Cupie the mouse of BIT Squad followed behind them. "Wow! Gator was right, it's nuts over here!" Cupie gasped. "It's been nuts everywhere... Sure lucky that portal just randomly opened for us..." Dusk murmured, "Well, Happy Halloween, folks..." the hare yawned. Booster the reindeer flew by from somewhere at the same moment. "Don't forget Merry Christmas!!" he cried.

Indeed, everyone was arriving, no matter how far, be they across the sea or across dimensions. Previously stranded in the destroyed world that the Eggman Capsule came from, Nack the Weasel led Bean and Bark through a portal, set to get revenge on the creatures that abandoned them. From another portal, Sonia and Manic from the Sonic Underground appeared, touching their medallions to summon their magical instruments. Even more surprising, coming from a very far dimension was Super Mario himself, giving an impressive leap out of his Mushroom Kingdom portal! "It's-a go time!" he shouted. No one was gonna mess with his Olympic sparring buddies! No copyright law in the multiverse would stop him!

Another Demon Island portal led Copter and Gemini to join the fray. Behind them, Libra, Timothy, Adam and Evelyn leapt through! Less enthusiastically, Dr. Nammad followed them. "I'm, uh, not cut out for this..." he stammered. "Well, tough, you're in this!" Adam told him. Gemini looked a bit shaken to see the massive force of Lost Ones. "Can we...do this?" she asked. Copter grit his teeth and took on a fighting stance. "Just bring me Apocalos!! No one poofs my kid!!" he shouted, ready to kick some tail no matter the odds!

A bolt of lightning struck at one of the portals, and Gator yelped on the way through. "Gwaaa!! Wait! I forgot my umbrella!" he stammered, turning to go back. "Hooold it... We got work to do..." said a familiar voice. Out of the portal stepped 2BIT, wearing his old helmet so you knew he meant business. Following behind him was yet another version of Tails, and then the rest of BIT Squad, including Stripes the tiger, Blocky the digi-fox, Vixy the fox, Zed the Zebra and Dogson the...dog. They all looked pretty terrified, and 2BIT turned to address them. "Yeah, our powers are gone. But c'mon, I got a plan!" he told them, "...It's a very good plan! ...I have no plan." he whispered nervously.

Carrie floated out of one portal, followed by Kosmo and Rouge both soaring on bat wings, and then Omega dropping into the dirt with a heavy thud! Shadow popped out of Chaos Control in front of him, opening his eyes slowly and surveying the scene. "Ready for the ultimate battle?" he asked the group. Kosmo landed beside him. "For Starr and Ozzie... I'm gonna blow these creeps right off the map!" he shouted. Shadow nodded, and reached for his restraint rings. "...No holding back." he said.

There were a couple more portals from Demon Island, there having been so many of their friends scattered throughout the island. Firstly, Sally Acorn led Rotor Walrus and Shade the Echidna out of their portal. She held up her handheld computer anxiously as Raven stealthily flew by behind them. "Nicole, analysis, quickly!" she requested. "Power is being fed to Demon Island, Sally. This is likely for the purpose of penetrating the Gaia Wellspring barriers." the computer reported. Out of a nearby portal, Cream strained to fly Big safely to the ground! "Whoooa!!" Once she placed Big, she started to fall from exhaustion! She was caught by Amy, who had dashed out of a portal from Scrap Brain Zone not too far away. "I got ya, Cream! Don't overdo it!" she smiled, yelping as missiles whizzed past them from the Scrap Brain Portal, Dr. Eggman emerging from it aboard his Egg Mobile! "I'm here to tender my resignation from your so-called organization, Apocalos!" the doctor sneered, as he was followed by Metal Sonic, Firepaw, Orbot and Cubot. "Aaaah, wait, we forgot to lock the gate!" Cubot stammered. Orbot grabbed his arm and sighed. "No getting out of this one, chum..." he murmured.

Exactly where Zeke, Zim and Spiny were when their portal opened was a bit uncertain, but they seemed to be having a bit of a "tea party" in a deep forest. Zim threw off the strange top hat he was wearing and jumped through the portal. "Who dares summon ZIM!?" he shouted. Zeke and Spiny reluctantly followed him. "We went to the tea party to avoid exactly this, I want to point out..." Spiny grumbled. "RAWR!! Now that I see it, I realize they NEED me!! Lemme at 'em!!" Zeke roared. The trio were startled when a large, mostly red figure slammed down in front of them. Zim's eyes went wide. "M-m-master...Zavok!!" he stammered. Zavok was wearing an eye patch, but had otherwise escaped Losipher unscathed. "Zim... Come, we avenge our brethren, now!!" he growled, clenching his fists. They charged ahead together, while Zeke and Spiny took off in another direction.

Cosmo the Seedrian looked angry as she stepped through a portal from Tails' Workshop. "What happened to Melody...do you know, monsters!?" she shouted, holding a laser in each hand! Chief Paynson and Dave the Intern found themselves following her. "I'm not cut out for this, man. I'm goin' back..." Dave whimpered. Paynson stopped him, handing him a gun. "We've run from these bullies long enough. There comes a time one must stand his ground!" he told him as Dave gulped uncertainly.

A portal opened at Darkegg Fortress as well, but Hoover refused to go through it. "Uh-uh, no way! I don't deploy fer no battles!" he protested. Terra stomped past him to the portal, his legs repaired. "New directive; Assist Eggman!" he stated. Slash, Sting, Clucky and Borrowbot emerged to join him in his journey through the portal, while Char and his family flitted over, observing the scene. "A battle? Hmm... Grrr, let's get 'em!!" the red Chao cried. Alpha suddenly landed next to him, doing a graceful twirl! "I am the dance messiah!! I challenge them to a cook-off!" he shouted. "Hahahaha!! Whaddaya say, Alphie? One more team-up, for old time's sake?" Char giggled, joining the charge through the portal along with all the Chao from Darkegg Island! Hoover sighed, resolute in staying, and BAS sighed as well. "Think Char shoulda brought that robo-suit?" the alarm system asked. "Shut it, I ain't goin!" Hoover insisted.

From the office building in Station Square, Espio, Charmy and Vector charged out, followed by Max Acorn and Professor Pickle. "You guys sure you don't wanna stay at the office?" Charmy asked. Pickle shook his head. "I've been in a scrape or two in my day, don't you concern yourself with me!" he told them. Max was wearing some sort of high-tech gloves that whirred with energy. "My daughter's out there... The office can go to Hell for today!" he shouted. Espio nodded with a smirk, and Vector cracked his knuckles. "We're workin' overtime, boys! Let's show 'em what happens when ya mess with Team Chaotix!" he shouted. Close by, a portal to Wisp Mine appeared, and Yacker led his Wisp friends out into Green Hill, shouting in his alien language as Omochao whizzed by, having arrived through some portal or other. "Whoa! This puts my tournament to shame!" the robot observed.

One of the portals was up in the sky, and quite impressive in size. Coming out of it first was Jet, Wave and Storm, leading the way for what would follow their Extreme Gear boards. "Ohhh, it's payback time, freaks!" Jet squawked, as behind him flew Rick and an army of other growling gargoyles formerly of the mob, all of them surrounding a GUN Warship! Beetles and other robots flew out along with them. GUN had arrived! Inside the ship, the Commander surveyed the scene with a grim expression. "Let's find a place to land this bird..." he ordered the crew. Riley "Spy" Spizzweld was close by, along with Agent 77 (or "Steven"), and they appeared confused. "Uh, w-wouldn't it be safer to blast 'em from up here?" Riley asked. The Commander motioned outside, directing their gaze to the Galestrom, which was being chased off by intense lightning strikes. "I'd be careful bringing any large aircraft into that. There are a few small vehicles we were able to recover, however..." he mused. The President was on the bridge as well, and made an announcement over the PA, listened to by the passengers, which included Zooey the fox, Vanilla the rabbit, Katie the coyote, Chet the cheetah, Mia the cat, Bill & Bob the hedgehogs, Ridley the coati and Tommy the porcupine, among other refugees. "Ahead is the army that forced us from our homes, ravaged our lands, and stole our families from us. I know many of you are scared, but Sonic and his band of heroes have been fighting with all they have for us, for our world... Now, it's our time to step up, and repay their efforts with our aid! Prepare yourselves...this is where we make our stand!"

Just when it seemed that everyone had arrived, even more reinforcements charged through various portals! Every former rookie that once fought alongside the Resistance now rejoined the battle! From the Gaia Remnants, Dark Gaia's Nightmares emerged, siding with the heroes, a gift from Chip, possibly. Alternate versions of friends from numerous dimensions appeared, including Classic Sonic, Classic Tails, Classic Knuckles and Classic Amy! But the biggest surprise came when out of one of the portals created by Lucky came none other than Lucky Junior, dropping into Green Hill with two Keyblades in hand, the legendary Oathkeeper and Oblivion Keyblades! He slung the Oblivion over his shoulder and pointed the Oathkeeper at the enemy army. "We heard our parents in this dimension needed our help... We felt it, in our hearts!" he shouted. Then, joining him at his side, Juice bounced down, followed by Skye propelling in with two tails, and Chopper speeding past him with his three tails! "No worries!" Juice smirked. "We brought plenty of backup!" Skye smirked. "C'mon, guys! Charge!!" Chopper yelled. Following them, Lara glided out, and then Melody flipped out, taking the form of a Mongoose in this dimension! Casey flew in on Starr's back as she roared in the form of a dragon, and Pepper and Minnie flew in behind them while Venice floated down from above! Last but not least, Argyle leapt into the grass, carrying Aurora on his shoulders! She was holding a bazooka, and using the boost Argyle provided to take aim. "Who wants some?!" she shouted. They weren't the same kids their parents had come to know, but even they were more than eager to help!

This impressive army had all assembled very quickly, all before the portals could fade and vanish! Even Lucky was beside himself, tearing up to see the support rushing to their side. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles smiled widely and nodded to each other, turning toward the Lost Ones defiantly, as Apocalos glared down at them with hate. "Our army still dwarfs yours! Our forces made up of countless consumed worlds! Who do you think you are to stand so brazenly against us?!" the villain bellowed. Sonic waggled his finger at Apocalos with a smirk on his face. "We're Sonic Heroes!!" he declared.

And with that, an all-out Apocalyptic War would begin.

To be continued...

"Every soul contains a whisper of light,
growing louder as it calls to unite!
From the distance sings a chorus of souls,
rising slowly, stirring heat from the coals.

Colors weave into a spire of flame!
Distant sparks call to a past still unnamed!
Bear this torch against the cold of the night!
Light will guide you, on your way to the ultimate fight!" - Lifelight, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Super Mario (c) Nintendo