Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 53 - Return to the Labyrinth of Eras
Stage 24x - Time Collision

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


"I wanna fly high,
So I can reach the highest of all the heavens.
Somebody will be,
Waiting for me so I have gotta fly higher.
Gotta keep going!
Everything is a brand new challenge for me.
I will believe in myself!
This is the only start for me." - Believe in Myself, Sonic Adventure

Previously on GeneX…
After rescuing Emily from Darkosmo, Tails and Fera left Conan and Emily behind and found Skye elsewhere in the Chemical Plant.
He'd found the time machine, broken by the Lost Ones. However, the genius fox used Alpha's parts to repair it, turning Alpha into a walking time machine controlled by ProwerPhone!
There was only one point in time our heroes could go to warn their past selves of the Lost Ones' plans and not draw the Zodiac Council's attention; The point in time where many eras were mashed together: the Time Collision!
Now, our tale continues...


Before our tale continues, we briefly return to the destroyed world that Sonic and a few friends were trapped in, and escaped from. Exactly when this scene is taking place, who can say, but between some crumbling buildings walks the Doomsayer, bringing the rain with him as he goes. He meets an impatient Lospecter, tossing the Chaos Key in one hand while twirling his single Chaos Card in the other. "What are we doing back in this dusty place, anyway?" the ghost asks as the Doomsayer removes his hood, revealing himself as Apocalos. The villain smirks wide, looking behind Lospecter to see an Eggman Capsule, the kind that typically housed animals inside. This one was custom built with a special lock, and it appeared that the likes of Sonic wouldn't be able to open it merely by jumping on it. Apocalos stepped over and tapped the capsule, lightning striking the crumbling buildings behind him as he did. "You didn't peek, did you?" he asked Lospecter. The ghost shrugged. "Should I have? Is there something interesting in this package?" he asked. Apocalos chuckled softly. "I am leaving nothing to chance. Our plans should be unstoppable, but should those so-called heroes manage to gain an advantage on us, I'll need you to recover this capsule." he told him. Lospecter laughed softly. "If they gain an advantage, it'll be because they took my key and I can't pull back the capsule!" he said, tapping the key with the card. Apocalos looked at him with a lightly frustrated sneer. "You seem to have forgotten the powers of the relics. It isn't the key's power to summon, now is it? You're just exploiting the key's unlocking power to its maximum potential." he said, starting to walk away. "...You'll figure it out. Right now, I have somewhen to be..." the hooded Lost One sighed. Lospecter chuckled to himself. "Sure, what's one more job! ...Somewhen?" 


Skye set the destination time using the ProwerPhone, and Alpha was compelled to fire a special beam from his laser hand, but this wasn't a laser. The beam opened a time portal, not unlike the ones created by double Chaos Control or by Chronokadabra. "I guess you'd better come with us, Alpha...or else we won't be able to get back!" Tails murmured. "Get back what?" the robot asked. Shrugging, the quartet proceeded through the portal, which should have taken them to the Time Collision, the point in time when Temporal Emperor Mephiles created a labyrinth out of various locations torn from across time and space. Fera had no memory of this incident; This was most likely during her Felicia choir girl days of amnesia. But she trusted Tails by now, and she followed his lead, which apparently landed them aboard the Death Egg. "Huh, I don't remember the Death Egg being in the maze... Also is this the first Death Egg or the one Sonic was held prisoner in?" Tails murmured. It actually resembled the latter more. How would Mephiles even know to take locations from the future? Fera looked around, some flashes of Felicia's memory coming to her from when she raced to free Sonic from his cell. She shook her head. Now wasn't the time to reminisce. "So, how do we change the future from here? Keep in mind, if you stop the Lost Ones from the past, we'll likely go back to being adversaries." she pointed out. Alpha gasped. "Don't say adveries! This game is rated E for Everyone! Or, um... M for Mobians?" the robot babbled, confusing itself. Skye scratched his head. "Ahhh, I didn't think this far into the plan. Aren't you in this time somewhere, dad?" he asked. Tails nodded. It was just a matter of recalling where he'd be, and how to get there...if any of that were even possible.

As they searched for a way out of the Death Egg, they noticed droplets of water falling from above. "...Coolant leak?" Skye asked. Tails shook his head. "...Rain." he realized, as an automatic door opened in front of them, revealing the Doomsayer! He stepped forward, removing his hood, and making Tails gasp to see that it was Sonic. "Escaping to the past won't change your fate... And I'm afraid I can no longer protect you." the hedgehog said, his voice still raspy and creepy. Alpha skipped around, pointing his laser at Sonic. "My blue kitty sounds sick! Let's put him down! On the ceiling!" the robot babbled. Fera yanked Alpha's arm, stopping his movement. "Not now, you metal...child!" she grunted. Tails stared at Sonic, slowly putting things together in his mind. "Right, it makes sense. You saved me before because you're Sonic. You couldn't actually want the world destroyed!" he said, stepping toward the Doomsayer only for Skye to tug his hand. "Uh, dad? When I saw him take off his hood, he was the leader of the Lost Ones!" he pointed out, remembering the encounter at the Clock Tower. Sonic nodded. "When I started time traveling, I took the Doomsayer's name. I couldn't be Sonic, there was already a Sonic in the past...and I wasn't him anymore..." he said, a twinge of melancholy in his voice. Fera glanced around the room slowly, noticing shadows moving amongst the machinery. "Tails, we'd better get past this guy, quickly..." she warned. "Sensors detect ouchies." Alpha added. Tails looked around as well, and then looked at Sonic with shock. "You...set a trap for us??" he stammered. Sonic looked at the ground. "The world is doomed to die. I can't save you... It's best everything ends in one quick day, rather than slowly and painfully..." he said.

As a variety of Lost Ones began to crawl out of the shadows, Apocalos approached the group from behind, letting out a sinister laugh. "Your friend didn't have to sell you out. Your plan was obvious, your destination predictable. There are so few points in history you can go where the Zodiac Council won't notice your meddling... Myself, I chose a date after the fall of Zodiac, where their planned history was altered and events were beyond their sight... Particularly a day when you fools would be distracted with a far more feeble threat." the more sinister Doomsayer explained while the group turned to look his way. "Yeah, that's the one I remember..." Skye gulped. Tails grit his teeth. Apocalos was right, the plan was a bit obvious in hindsight. They should have been better prepared for a trap. "It doesn't matter! We'll still stop you!" he snapped. Apocalos crossed his arms. "Is that really your choice of final words? Pathetic..." he sighed. Fera scoffed at him. "If everything we do is so obvious, this part should be more obvious, too!" she shouted, pulling Alpha into a close huddle with the others before using her dark powers to warp them away! Sonic quickly sped off as well, leaving Apocalos alone with his minions. "Oh, dear child, it is perfectly obvious. Which is why I didn't come alone..." Apocalos said to himself, a wicked smile crossing his fanged face. Elsewhere in the Death Egg, Fera, the foxes and Alpha emerged. Fortunately, an escape hatch was close by, too. After Alpha blew it open, Fera gasped upon seeing the absolute chaos outside. They were indeed within the Time Collision, as Eggman ships, ancient ruins, fiery future cities and other temporally displaced locales were mashed up into a tangle around Green Hill. The closest thing to land on for the moment was a massive uprooted tree stump from Giant Jungle, so Tails spun his namesakes and started to lead the way. "And if you see a Chaos Emerald, leave it!" he said. Past-Sonic would need it.

So, they needed to find someone to tell all the crazy things they knew were going to happen. Someone who could relay the information to everyone else and then, between them, they could make a plan to prevent it all. Save SPOT, save Razor, save the future, and the world. The problem was that neither Tails nor Alpha recognized the part of the labyrinth they were in at all. Alpha probably wouldn't anyway, but that still didn't help find anyone. They found themselves running along a strange cylindrical landmass with beach sand, grass and water. It was part of Lost Hex's Tropical Coast area, something Tails definitely didn't recall seeing in the labyrinth last time. Above them loomed a Bingo Highway pinball table, and in between were flying robots from both eras, as well as bits of debris from other zones. Alpha fired up at some buzzbombers as he followed the others. "I hate beach bees! By all known laws of graviation, a beach should not be able to fly!" the robot shouted. "...I weirdly agree." Skye murmured. Tails flew up on top of a palm tree to look around while Fera glared at an approaching crabmeat robot. "That doctor, always trapping animals..." she growled. "Wait! Heed me! I am Cancer, and I am trying to understand this strange time anomaly!" the robot shouted. Fera smashed it with a dark energy blast anyway, freeing a Flicky trapped inside. "We don't need anyone with a Zodiac sign for a name poking around..." she murmured. Tails hurried down from the palm tree as Egg Flappers from Bingo Highway chased after him, firing lasers! "We can't find anyone like this!" he shouted, leading those robots on a chase to a geyser, where they foolishly crashed into the water as it shot upwards! "Let's just keep moving. Better than letting the Lost Ones find us..." Skye murmured.

The labyrinth was tricky to navigate, and took them across a variety of locales from throughout time and space. Eventually, they found themselves running along one of the walkways surrounding the Eggman Empire Fortress, the tower base that the doctor had used when he'd conquered the world, and the amnesiac Felicia had joined the Resistance to defeat him. Fera groaned at their arrival in this place. "Obviously, we won't find anyone we need here. Nobody got any spoilers from traversing this maze, did they?" she asked Tails. "Yeah, somehow they avoided seeing anything they shouldn't...or maybe seeing someplace like this just didn't mean anything to anyone back then." he murmured. Suddenly, a familiar whirring noise sounded out, and a phantom creature smashed through the wall of the fortress! It was a large black shadow with clawed hands and a head resembling a mask. "Infinite!?" Tails gasped, moving back along with Skye and Alpha. Within the shadow, Infinite's laugh could be heard. "Traveling in time? I suppose we all would like a do-over. I know I would like the opportunity to tear you limb from limb properly!" he sneered, the Phantom Ruby flashing inside the shadowy phantom as its power started to manipulate the maze, creating a space to battle that was made up of pieces of several other zones! Tails, Fera and the others were forced to leap for this floating arena as the ground beneath their feet started to crumble, giving Infinite a true home field advantage. The jackal left behind that phantom shadow, letting it dissolve as he floated high above his adversaries. His maskless, scarred face glared at them. "The Lost Ones have facilitated this reunion, and all they want in return is the same thing I want...for your time in this world to end!" Using the Ruby's power, Infinite created a pair of long, glowing red blades that attached to his forearms, "It will be my pleasure to be your executioner!" he snarled.

Tails and Fera were both still wearing a Chaos Tailband from their earlier fight with Darkosmo. There wouldn't be time to give Tails the second one and turn him Super, as Infinite charged them with those blades straight away! They each dodged in an opposite direction, while Skye took cover behind Alpha. Infinite scoffed at the hiding fox. "I don't need to attack you. Once I kill your father, you'll just vanish from history." he pointed out. "Oh, no! History go boom!" Alpha gasped, suddenly running around and hiding behind Skye! Infinite grunted suddenly as Tails zapped him in the back with his laser-cannon, having materialized it around his hand. "Stop scaring my son!" he warned. Infinite turned towards him. "I'll give you a fright instead..." he said, the Phantom Ruby flashing before a shadowy version of his mask emerged from it, zooming towards Tails like a projectile! The fox leapt up and started to fly away as the mask chased him, so Fera stepped in to take on Infinite for a moment. Seeing her coming, the jackal motioned with his clawed hand, and using the Ruby to manipulate the environment, caused a pillar of checkered earth to rise up beneath Fera's feet, shaking her off-balance as he rose up to meet her! "You have no prototype Ruby to stop me now! How would you like a trip to the Sun?!" he growled, creating a small ball of fire in the sky above the pillar! Fera shielded her eye, smirking at him. "I prefer the shadows under the moon..." Cloaking herself in shadows, she warped off the pillar and behind Infinite, smacking him with a strike from her Relic-powered tail! Infinite crashed into the pillar, which crumbled at his touch! He emerged to find Tails flying towards him. He blocked the fox's path with glowing red cubes, which burst into several spikes! Tails dropped down to the platform below, letting the phantom mask crash into the spikes instead. "You both will have to do better... With Eggman's fortress close by, my Ruby can draw power from it! You can't wait me out this time!!"

Infinite rose up above the platform, and then the Phantom Ruby whirred, its power grabbing hold of and debris close by and hurtling it down onto the group on the platform below! A broken, ancient-looking statue from Death Chamber, an old-timey projector from Studiopolis, seemingly the same subway train Tails was stuck in earlier that day, the rain of projectiles were as random as they were dangerous, and they were tearing apart the platform as well, as Tails desperately flew and leapt between objects to find a steady foothold, Fera warped about, and Skye rode on Alpha's back as the robot hovered above the chaos! The platform was soon whittled to a small, unstable space, but Tails and Fera landed there safely, and looked around for Infinite. "Where are you hiding?! Did your theory prove wrong and your Ruby run out of juice after all??" Fera growled. Tails glanced toward Fera, and gasped to see Infinite charging her from behind. "Watch out!!" he shouted, diving into her, trying to knock her out of the path of the phantom blades attached to the jackal's arms as they slashed across the space where she stood! Fera gasped, underneath the fox, whom she heard scream in agony! "T-tails??" she stammered, looking down. Her eye widened as she saw something truly horrifying. The tail that hadn't been protected by the tailband...was now limp on the ground, several feet removed from his body. Tails held the stumpy remains of that tail, rolling off of Fera and shedding pained tears. "A-are you...okay...Fera?" he choked through the pain. Infinite stood over them, pointing a blade at each of them. "Your heads are next..." he said plainly. Fera grit her teeth, tears flowing from both eye sockets. "You...bastard!! You'll PAY!!" she shouted, striking at the jackal with dark lightning in a furious rage!

Skye could hardly process what he was seeing, but the sharp pain he felt in his gut forced him to process it. "D-dad!! No!" he gasped, knowing that this sudden pain meant his future existence was being threatened. "Sensors detect ouchies again..." Alpha added, and Skye looked around to see flying Lost Ones closing in on their position. "I have to...do something!" Skye gasped. Down below, Fera was pouring all she had into the dark lightning she was striking Infinite with, but the jackal fought back with his own red lightning, the two forces clashing and pushing against one another, each trying to overwhelm the other! "Shame, I like this feisty version of you so much better... But I owe you a reckoning for standing against me!" Infinite snarled. "Oh, you'll get a reckoning!!" Fera snapped back, but her words were only words in this case. The Phantom Ruby was beating her. Tails struggled to his feet, determined to push through the pain and find a way to help, but he fell to his knee. "Aaaahh!!" His wound was overpowering. It was like losing a limb...it WAS losing a limb. Skye and Alpha landed beside him, and hopping off the robot's back, Skye used the ProwerPhone to activate his time travel features. "You have to go back, Dad! Take Fera, too!" he shouted, handing the phone to his father. "What? Wait... Skye, don't!!" he shouted, realizing what he was going to do. "I don't belong here... But you and Fera...you can help save the future for everyone! Go!!" he shouted, throwing himself between Fera and Infinite suddenly, shrieking as their lightning struck him! Fera stopped immediately, gasping. "Y-you fool!!" she stammered, growling before turning to help Tails to the time portal. She was a soldier. She knew when to cut her losses. "No, Skye!!" Tails cried as Fera carried him to the portal. The last Tails saw of his son, was Infinite running the shocked boy through with the same blade that severed his tail. Fera, Tails and Alpha vanished into the portal, while the Lost Ones surrounded the platform, Apocalos landing from above next to Infinite. "Will this Prower's death suffice?" the jackal asked, looking at the body on the ground dispassionately. Apocalos nodded slowly. "Yes..." Then, he grasped Infinite by the throat with one claw, pulling away the Phantom Ruby with the other! "Wh-what!? B-but I served you...well!" Infinite gagged. "You can now serve me...with your soul!" Apocalos sneered.

Alpha, always the distractible one, abandoned Tails and Fera just outside the Chemical Plant. Fera took some time to bandage up the fox's wound, and then sat beside him on the ground, placing an arm around him as he started to sob for his son. Once Fera might have berated him for such sentimentality. Today, however, she found herself gripping him tightly with that arm, resting her head against his shoulder. "Let it out..." If anyone deserved a moment to cry right now, they were among them.

As Sonic chased Eggman, a time portal opened in front of him, halting his pursuit. Out of the portal, Skye's body was tossed, and then Apocalos slowly stepped out behind him, a low, sinister laugh rising in his throat. "S-skye... No..." Sonic gasped, dropping down beside the body and cradling him in his arms. "Skye!" he cried. Apocalos' laughs intensified. A tear dropped from Sonic's cheek down to Skye's nose, and the hedgehog slowly looked up at his enemy, rage burning in his green eyes. "He's just a kid!!" he shouted. Apocalos grinned wide, his tyrannosaur fangs sticking out. "He was the key... The prophecy is now fulfilled. You and your friends' resolve is sufficiently broken, and the world will end...giving rise to my Lost World! To a multiverse of Lost Worlds!!" he declared, thunder crashing around him as he laughed! Eggman observed the scene from the shadows behind, and turned his Egg Mobile away, flying into the woods with an anxious expression. Sonic placed Skye on the ground tenderly and stood up, glaring at Apocalos. "You made up the prophecy! It's just your mind game, and I can put a stop to it!" he shouted. "Can you, though? I'd check in on your own child, if I were you!" Apocalos laughed, lightning striking around him again to cover his disappearance. Eggman could wait. Sonic turned around, suddenly worried for his family...

To be continued...