Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 48 - Return to Despair Castle
Stage 23 - Despair Castle

Note: Sonic the Hedgehog and related characters are (c) SEGA. You knew that, right?
GeneX and related OCs are (c) 2BIT (TheGreatGator), the author.


"Our castle is a massive force,
A stronghold of power.
My armor stays unbreakable,
In battle every hour." - Knight of the Wind, Sonic and the Black Knight


Previously on GeneX…
Knuckles and Violet teamed up with their friends to find Chaos Emeralds in Giant Jungle. They were attacked by Losipher and the Deadly Six, but they were rescued by Shadow warping them away. Knuckles still hasn't found all seven Chaos Emeralds, but he is carrying the Master Emerald with him.
Howler took one of those Chaos Emeralds back at Wisp Mine, along with a capsule full of Wisps to experiment on...
Now, our tale continues...


Knuckles, Violet and their allies ended up at the old Resistance HQ, where Sally Acorn was holding the line with the Freedom Fighters. Shade had made it there as well, and everyone was relieved to see each other okay. "If anyone needs rest, Bunnie has prepared the barracks." Sally told them as they gathered in the main war room. Ray and Daisy both yawned. "Show me a bed, I'm ready to pass out..." the skunk sighed. "Could someone carry me?" Ray mumbled. Mighty lifted the squirrel up to sit on his shoulders. "Come on, let's get settled." he smiled. Patch followed the trio, skipping energetically. "Hee hee! You babies! I could go for hours!" he laughed. Once they had left, Knuckles looked to Sally. "Any chance we can get a report on the situation? We've been out looking for the Chaos Emeralds." he said. Sally nodded, waving in Uncle Chuck from the next room. "We've been monitoring the Gaia Wellsprings. If the Lost Ones get hold of them, our world dies." she explained. Chuck nodded. "Apparently, a spirit named Tikal placed a powerful protection on the Wellsprings, but it won't last forever. Our intel shows the barriers are weakening as we speak." he said. Rouge and Omega were standing behind Knuckles, having joined up with his group after losing track of Shadow. "Should we head out to defend these Wellsprings, then?" she asked. Chuck frowned. "We'd never be able to defend all seven of them. No, we need a solution to the problem of the Lost Ones. If we can defeat them, all of them, then the Wellsprings will be safe/" he stated. "Oh, you make it sound so easy..." Violet groaned. Shade nodded in agreement. "Guess we really need those Chaos Emeralds..." she figured. "Oui! We have great needings of emeralds!" announced Antoine at the doorway, accompanied by Bunnie and Rotor. "Good to see ya made it, Knuckles..." Rotor smiled.

It was time to recap what they knew about the locations of the Chaos Emeralds. Knuckles held up the two he'd managed to recover, the blue and yellow emeralds. Rouge held the white emerald, admiring it. "Shadow had procured the fourth emerald before we parted ways." Omega told the group. Shade nodded. "I happened to run into a girl named Lara... She wanted me to inform you that Tails has an emerald, too. I guess we can trust her, she was with one of Santa's reindeer of all things..." she stated. Lara was looking for her allies from her own time, but she knew her father was out searching for the Chaos Emeralds, too. She made it her business to know. At any rate, Uncle Chuck had more information. "The green emerald was in Station Square. Eggman had it at first, but I think it's in the Lost Ones' clutches now." he stated. Rotor folded his arms. "I checked out the mine before I left. Aside from a bunch of Wisps being missing, I also found residual energy from a second Chaos Emerald, separate from the one you guys found..." he told Knuckles. The echidnas glanced at one another knowingly. "Howler must've taken them. Which means the Lost Ones have the rest of the missing Chaos Emeralds!" Knuckles concluded. Sally held up her handheld computer. "Nicole, bring up our intel on Demon Island..." she asked. "Projecting, Sally..." Nicole replied, displaying a hologram of the reformed island for all to see. "Ugh, not this eyesore!" Rouge groaned. "Those creepy Lost buggers are holed up in there." Bunnie reported. "We would be launching the attack, but, uhhh... I am thinking we have no way up there!" Antoine said with a sheepish shrug. Violet stared at the projection of her former home, an intense look in her eyes. "I can get us in... So, who's going?" she asked.

Patch and Daisy were a bit more shaken up by losing Mitch than they'd care to admit, and Mighty and Ray were worn out in their own way, so they wouldn't be going. Most of the Freedom Fighters had to remain to defend the base, as well. They had to keep hold of whatever strongholds they could get. Rouge and Omega were quite willing to go to Demon Island, though. "I'm sure my boss would want me to check it out..." Rouge had said. "And this has NOTHING to do with hunting the Chaos Emeralds, of course?" Knuckles replied smugly. Shade was joining them as well. She seemed pretty attached to Knuckles, Violet had noticed it back at the mines. Sally and Rotor also volunteered to go. "My princess, what will we do without you to be leading us?" Antoine asked her. "I wish you'd stop calling me that..." Sally sighed, "While I'm gone, Sir Charles is in charge. Help him with his important research, Antoine, Bunnie." she asked them. "Make sure to wake up Dulcy now and then, too. She's not the best lookout..." Rotor mumbled. With the group determined, prepped and ready, Violet led them all outside. It was fortunate for them that Demon Island had altered its course, and was now passing over the city. "Well, you're the expert. How do we get up there?" Shade asked. Violet grabbed her and Knuckles by the hands. "First, everyone join hands...and then let me concentrate..." she stated. Their hands all linked, Knuckles feeling kind of silly as he stood there looking up at the island. "We gonna start singing?" he grumbled. "Shush!" Violet snapped, focusing her energy. A darkness surrounded the seven of them, and they all vanished, reappearing in the forest of Demon Island. "Recalibrating sensors!" Omega babbled. "That was a lot of ceremony for a simple teleport!" Rouge scoffed. "If you think it's easy, you do it next time!" Violet grumbled. "I'll pass..." Rouge murmured, taking a walk to look around.

By now, they were far from the only ones on Demon Island. Their group's point of arrival just missed being in the path of Punchy as his group fled Lost One pursuit, meaning Violet missed out on a reunion with her sister. Sonic and Lucky were unfortunately on the other side of the island, and also unavailable to help them. Shadow and Silver were also in the vicinity of the island, but like the other groups, one could argue they were "lost." Knuckles did come across Copter and Gemini, however. The pair had left their group alone at Fred's grave for the time being, and were trying to assess their situation. And maybe just be alone together for a bit. Sally was the first to call out to them. "Gemini and Aries?? Ophiuchus isn't here, is he?" she asked nervously. The snake had controlled her before, making her serve as Virgo. "Ahh... No, Ophi's gone. Toast." Copter reported, "And don't call me Aries..." he added. Gemini waved to Knuckles. "Hey there... Glad to see you're hanging on. We were just thinking about storming the castle, but... Kinda been through an emotional and physical wringer..." she said. Violet noted how Copter and Gemini were holding hands. "Hmm... You two, huh?" she said with crossed arms, giving Copter an intense look, "...You better treat her right!" she warned. Copter blushed and nodded, while Sally and Rotor exchanged confused glances. "They used to date..." Rouge informed them. Violet found herself blushing at that fact being broadcast. "Alright, alright! We're gonna storm the castle ourselves, right, Knuckles??" she asked. "Uhh, yeah. These two love birds can take it easy for now!" the echidna teased. "Everything's not about us dating!" Copter groaned. As most of the group started toward the castle, Omega stayed back. "Sensors detect emerald energy in the island exterior. It could be Shadow." he stated. Rouge looked back at him and nodded. "Send him our support, Omega!" she smiled. The robot started off on his own, hoping to find their missing friend. Gemini stood up at the same time. "Alright, better get back to the others. Before rumors start spreading..." she sighed. Copter nodded in agreement. "How long have our friends secretly been shipping us, anyway?" he grumbled.

Violet led the group to Despair Castle, the most likely place to find Howler. Hoping to take their enemies by surprise, Violet led them to a secret entrance to the castle, a side passage that was less likely to be guarded. "Never thought I'd be back here again... It's kind of surreal." Violet said as they started into the dark passageway, the castle walls cracked and water damaged but otherwise quite familiar. "Don't get the warm fuzzies for the bad guys now..." Rouge told her, sounding a bit condescending. "She's had a couple years to rejoin Despair and she hasn't, lay off Rouge!" Knuckles pointed out. "I find it hard to imagine anyone feeling nostalgic for this place..." Sally added, looking around with a shiver as they made their way through the castle's creepy, lonely halls. Violet ignored all this talk, and pushed open the hidden door at the end of the secret passage. They found themselves within the training maze that Despair's new recruits used to have to navigate while evading hostile instructors. "Oh...shoot..." she murmured. "Did you actually get lost??" Shade asked. "We'll see. Never did spend a lot of time in this maze..." Violet murmured. The telltale voices of Lost Ones could be heard among the winding corridors of the maze. Sally turned to Rotor. "Wispon, please!" she requested, the walrus handing her a red one. Knuckles and Shade got equipped with their Chaos Relics in preparation as well. "Well, nobody was expecting this to be easy..." Knuckles sighed. "I can make it easy. Those walls don't go all the way to the ceiling..." Rouge smirked, flapping her wings and flying up out of the maze! "...She's coming back to tell us the way out, right?" Rotor asked. Knuckles shook his head. "She's probably trying to find the emeralds for herself..." he said with a sigh.

The Chaos Relics generally would lessen the threat of the Lost Ones considerably. However, the maze soon turned around their group, and most of them found themselves trying to find the others again, alone. Only Sally and Rotor managed to stick together, and the pair kept each other covered as they proceeded back-to-back through the maze. Any time some slimy creature would pop around a corner, either Sally would toast it with fire from her Wispon, or Rotor would pelt it with small meteor projectiles from his. "How are we gonna find the others, Sal?" Rotor gulped. Sally held Nicole to the wall, the small computer producing a tiny laser that left a precise mark. "First off, we avoid getting lost..." she murmured. Elsewhere in the maze, Shade was being menaced by creatures dashing from hall to hall, avoiding her sight and her Chaos Gauntlets. "I know you're here... Quit hiding!" she warned. There was raspy chuckling, taunting her. She turned towards the voices, and was suddenly overtaken by fear as she gazed into the burning red eyes of a skeletal canine...the remains of Basker! Violet was in a similar situation not too far away, screaming as Eddie the hyena and Anubis the jackal's skeletal Lost One forms approached her from either side! "I never knew you guys could get more terrifying!" she gasped, watching Eddie's skull rattle as he let out a hissing laugh! Violet tossed some dark flames at the skeletons, but it only seemed to cause them to ignite with Ghost Fire! "Oh no!" she gasped. It was then that shining bolts whizzed through the hall and struck Eddie and Anubis, causing their bony bodies to collapse! Violet saw Shade pointing the Chaos Gauntlets at them, a bit of a rattled expression on her face. "Come on, let's find the others fast!" she panted, Violet nodding and leaping over the burning bones to join her!

Knuckles decided that if Rouge could cheat, so could he, and using his Chaos Claws, he climbed over the walls and quickly found the exit. Waiting for him at the exit was a nightmarish mass of vines, growing from the frightful gourd known as Loscream. The pumpkin's face was lit ominously in the dark, a wide jagged grin menacing the echidna. "There you are... I see you!" Loscream bellowed in a singsong manner. Knuckles raised his claws fists, glaring at the Lost One. "Guess I'm gonna have to do some gardening before I find the castle's master!" he shouted. The vines started snaking around the area, slowly covering the room completely. "Those are my claws... How did you overcome my curse? Ahh, Astra, that devious witch..." Loscream grumbled, both of them recalling back when Gemini braved the Lost One Hive to recover a piece of Loscream's body to enable the older fennec to synthesize a cure for the curse. A curse which was driving Knuckles a bit mad for a while, but he was now fully freed from. "You were responsible for that, huh? All the more reason for me to carve ya a new face with these claws!" Knuckles yelled. He then felt something wrap around his ankle, and yelped as he was lifted upside down by the vines! Loscream laughed at him, his hollow face burning with ghostly blue flames! "Claws or no claws, you are my next feast! Your soul will be delectable!" Loscream cackled. Knuckles struggled a bit, looking at the flaming pumpkin below. "Yeah, that's gonna be a hard pass!" he grunted, swinging himself up and swiping the claws at the vine holding his ankle, cutting himself free and gliding off in search of a safe spot to stand! "Poor mortal... You can't escape me!" Loscream snarled!

As soon as Knuckles landed on the ground, he was forced to swat and slice more vines as they attempted to grab hold of him! "Back off, ya big weed!" he growled, trying to cut himself some breathing room. "This is what it's come to? Now we're fighting vegetables?" sighed Rouge as she flew close to the scene. "I thought pumpkins were fruit??" Knuckles murmured, "I mean- You gonna watch or help?!" Rouge seemed to just kick back in the sky for a moment, earning a frustrated groan from Knuckles. "Alright, alright. If I must!" Rouge said a bit jokingly, flying over and lifting Knuckles by his left arm. "Alright, now get me over to the pumpkin head!" he told her. Loscream responded by blowing blue flames in their direction, forcing Rouge to back off! "Are you sure its even safe to attack this thing?!" she grunted, straining to both carry him and avoid the vines trying to grab for them! Fortunately, they wouldn't have to fly too long, as Sally arrived and burned away a mass of vines on the floor with her Wispon! "Over here, quick!" she called. Knuckles and Rouge both dropped onto the safe spot, but Loscream's vines were growing back fast! "Gotta get to the root of the problem, I guess..." Rotor murmured. Violet emerged next, teleporting herself and Shade into the area with dark magic. Loscream just smiled at this. "Good, more souls to devour..." he sneered, quickly grabbing the unprepared Violet and Shade! "Aaahh!! Who put this here!?" Violet cried. Sally and Knuckles quickly took out the vines holding them, and then Shade pointed her Chaos Gauntlets at the pumpkin! "I'm not your lunch!" she growled, blasting him with bolts from the gauntlets! Loscream groaned and recoiled, stunned enough for the others to charge forward! Sally's flamethrowing Wispon cleared the vines, while Rouge lifted Knuckles into the air, enabling him to go into a glide and slam claws-first into the pumpkin while Shade continued to pelt him with bolts of energy!

Through teamwork, and the combined power of two Chaos Relics, Loscream's ghostly fire was extinguished and his body was reduced to what was best described as pumpkin guts. They all took a brief moment to catch their breath. "Well, if this hero business doesn't work out, maybe we could still get work as paranormal exterminators." Sally said with a slight smirk. "No thanks..." Rouge groaned. Violet pointed to the door Loscream had been blocking. "We'd better keep moving! Those emeralds aren't gonna recover themselves!" she stated. Knuckles nodded. "At least Howler's unlikely to be any worse than this..." he murmured. Not long after the group left the training area, Lospecter floated over to the mass of gooey pumpkin remains. "Well, that's unfortunate..." he shrugged. Apocalos emerged from the shadows of the room and stood over the remains as well. "Unfortunate that these petty souls persist in resisting..." he said, raising a hand toward the remains as slime streamed from his feet and fed into the pumpkin guts. A shape started to form, and at first the slime molded to resemble Luna, the wolf who fought against the Doomlings with other heroes so many centuries ago. "R-rex..." she pleaded, "Please, put an end to this! Release the souls you have taken! Y-you have to..." Rather than listen, Apocalos balled his fist, and Luna screamed as the slime swallowed her, reshaping her back into a massive pumpkin as her former allies watched. Lospecter patted the top of the pumpkin head as it finished reforming. "Good as new! Loony Luna!" he snickered. Loscream swatted his vines at the ghost in irritation, while Apocalos turned away, a serious look in his glowing eyes. "It's too late, Luna... Much, much too late..." he sighed.


Somewhere in the castle, Howler stood with the two Chaos Emeralds in each hand. In front of him was a machine, attached to the Wisp Capsule he'd taken from the mines. One Wisp was funneled from the capsule into a smaller capsule as Howler inserted the Chaos Emeralds into slots on the machine, and placed his hand on a switch. "You may not belong in this world... But we'll see if you can be of use..." he smirked. A dark furred rabbit in a lab coat stood behind him, observing nervously. "Please, sir, I need more time on the machine! It may not be safe!" the scientist warned skittishly. Howler glanced back and grinned as he threw the switch. "I hope it isn't. Besides, time is a commodity we do not posses." he grunted, stepping back from the machine to observe the show. Sparks flew from the Chaos Emeralds as their energy was fed to the capsule holding the lone Wisp, supercharging it with power! Its single eye seemed to bulge in its socket, and its tentacles flailed wildly as it screeched in an alien language! The scientist looked on in horror, backing away as the Wisp railed against its prison, cracking the glass of the capsule! The light of the emeralds soon faded, and Howler stepped over, detaching the capsule from the machine to examine its contents. "The alien is alive, you see?" he sneered. The scientist let out a relieved sigh, but then gasped as Howler held the capsule toward him! "Now, let the experiment really begin!" the wolf cackled, popping open the capsule and setting the supercharged Wisp loose! It charged at the scientist, who screamed in fear as Chaos and Hyper-go-on energy both filled him at once, and Howler dropped the capsule callously on the ground, folding his arms and watching the transformation with a sadistic smirk...

To be continued...