Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 5 - Another Day at the Office
Stage 3 - Under Reconstruction

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


Previously on GeneX…
When the Lost Ones invaded Station Square, Punchy the echidna was separated from the other heroes. But the more pressing worry for him was the safety of his wife, Rainbow, and their daughter, Aurora. He raced to find them, but instead found Heather the phoenix, who was concerned about Guard the gargoyle in this madness. The two of them teamed up, and soon encountered Illusi and the time-travelling Aurora. Punchy gave Aurora the Chaos Boots, which she could use to keep Rainbow safe, while he set out in search of the Chaos Emeralds at Illusi's request. Running into Whisk and Libra, they were about to get Whisk's help tracking down an Emerald when Dr. Eggman appeared, his robots starting to remodel a building with the intent to use it as a base from which to study the Lost Ones. Whisk's magic detected a Chaos Emerald inside the building, so they set out to chase off Eggman and get the Emerald. Whisk and Libra split up with Punchy and Heather to explore, but ended up captured. After battling Terra and Firma and destroying the latter, Punchy and Heather encountered Mephiles...who snatched up Firma's soul before leaving.
Now, our tale continues...


Whisk and Libra had been taken by a swarm of Egg Pawns earlier, and were now trapped in an office cubicle while Slash and Sting, the mantis and scorpion bots, stood guard over them. Slash had his claws crossed as he watched Sting swap his stinger to different weapon types. "How bout the acid cannon?" Sting asked. "Too messy and corrosive. If you miss you could mess up my paint job!" Slash replied, prompting Sting to swap his stinger for a different weapon. Whisk looked across the office space, seeing her wand on a desk across from them. "They don't realize I can still teleport..." she whispered, "But I can't leave without my wand..." As she said this, a rather large hammer-toting Egg Pawn crept past the desk with her wand. They weren't going to make it very easy. Libra glanced at Whisk with a nod. "I'll distract them. You get that wand." she whispered. Whisk looked worried. "No, I can't leave you to face them alone..." she told the fennec. Sting turned to them, his stinger now sporting a crossbow of all things. "Hey! Be quiet! Don't make me come in there!" he shouted. "Maybe we need to put a little fear in 'em…" Slash suggested, lifting his sickle-like claws. Libra tried to think of what to do, and suddenly just pointed behind the bots. "Look! Sonic's here!!" she shouted. The robots quickly spun around in a panic. "I'm not prepared for Sonic!!" Slash yelped. Libra then grabbed for Sting's stinger, trying to manipulate the crossbow! "Hey! I don't yank your tail! Stop it!!" the robot shouted, trying to shake her off. "I don't like the crossbow. I'll just slice that tail off!" Slash growled, but got an arrow in the eye before he could make a move. It couldn't do much to his robotic eye, but it distracted him. "Control yourself!" Slash grunted. Sting shook Libra off and turned around. "Hyah ha ha ha! Thought you'd get the jump on us! Hey, where's the other girl?" he murmured. A sudden explosion surprised the two bots as they turned to see the large Egg Pawn fall onto its back! Whisk pointed her wand at Slash and Sting, and the bots shrieked, running into each other as they scrambled to get out of the way! "C'mon, Libra! We better hurry!" Whisk called. Those robots that caught them would be back on their trail in no time...


The stairwell door opened at the twelfth floor, and Punchy stumbled through it out of breath. "I... should've kept... the Chaos Boots!" he huffed. "Too bad the elevator was busted." Charmy said, flying past him completely unaffected by the trip. Heather quickly grabbed him by the wings. "Slow down... Look." she warned. The trio looked around to find that Eggman's robots had been busy. This floor had been somewhat converted into his base, the walls sloppily repainted red and a security system now in place that was obviously Eggman's design. There were cameras and motion-sensing tripwires through the hallway, obviously in place to inform wall-mounted lasers where to shoot. Punchy took a few deep breaths, recovering from the long trip up the stairs. "Think we're too late for...whatever tripped Eggman's alarms?" he wondered. Charmy pulled free of Heather's grip and quickly flew above the tripwires - and below the cameras. "I'll check it out, leave it to me! You just hang out here, heh." he chuckled. Heather shrugged. "Terra hasn't come looking for us yet. He's probably still up here. We should be careful." she reasoned. "Ooops!" Charmy babbled as an invisible tripwire revealed itself...just as he passed through it. The lasers popped out of the wall and pointed right at him, forcing Charmy to flee hastily and hide behind Punchy. "It's all you! Smashy smashy, greenie!" he shouted. "No, no, ruuuuun!!" Punchy yelled, grabbing Charmy and taking off as the lasers whizzed towards them! The three of them charged into the hallway, doing their best to evade the laser fire, when they heard a voice. "In here, quick!" A door opened, and the trio didn't hesitate to rush inside, closing it behind them to escape the lasers! "That was a close one!" Charmy panted. "Are you kids alright? I've gotta say, though, it's good to see some friendly faces." the voice said again. Punchy looked at the owner of the voice to see a blue hedgehog with a white mustache. It was Sonic's Uncle Chuck!

The old hedgehog stepped to a computer in the room and sat down. "Relax here a while, I guess. I'm trying to get control of the building back in between attempting to get a message out to Sally..." he said. Punchy looked a bit confused. "What are you doing here?" he asked. Chuck held up a badge. "I work here. This is my office for AcornCorp. And isn't it convenient, Eggman's here the week we acquire a Chaos Emerald..." he murmured, typing furiously at his keyboard. Charmy popped up next to Chuck, looking at the computer screen curiously. "Chaos Emerald? Where is it? Whatcha typing? Didn't Sally die?" he babbled annoyingly. Chuck was patient, though. "I'm sure Eggman's snatched the emerald by now. Anyway, I'm trying to shut off the alarm again... I set it off earlier, and it looks like you set it off again." he explained. Punchy found a chair to take a rest in and sighed. "You think Sally can help with the whole... Lost One apocalypse?" he asked. Heather raised an eyebrow. "Are we sure it's that bad yet?" she questioned. Uncle Chuck stopped typing and turned to her with a grave expression. "They're multiplying rapidly. We should be very concerned. It's all hands on deck here." he said. At that moment, a video chat popped up on his monitor. He'd gotten through to Sally. The chipmunk had a worried look as she spoke. "Charles, what's happening there?" she asked. "The world's going to hell again." Punchy grumbled. Chuck glanced back at Punchy and Heather, moving the video window with a click of his mouse so he could get back to his hacking. "Could you two get Sally up to speed? I wanna get control back from Eggman if I can..." he stated. Charmy popped up impatiently. "What can I do? I'm bored! Let me help!" he babbled. Sally's eyes narrowed. "Eggman's involved... Why am I not surprised..." she murmured.


Terra was now leading the robots chasing after Whisk and Libra. Teleporting wasn't really a good option being in the middle of a building that Whisk wasn't familiar with. So, the winged feline was forced to use her magic to protect Libra as Terra blasted desks and cubicles in pursuit of them. Libra knocked over a desk and took cover behind it while Whisk fired some magical blasts at the Egg Pawns accompanying Terra. "You wouldn't happen to have ANY abilities left from when you were working for Zodiac, would you?" Whisk asked her. Libra covered her head as explosions went off around her. "If I had any of those powers wouldn't I USE them?!" she yelled. Terra stomped towards them, his focus now on Whisk since Libra was posing no threat. "Intruders! You are delaying me from my REVENGE! If you do not surrender yourselves, I will hold you just as guilty as the intruder who destroyed Firma!" the robot warned. "You could just let us go and get back to your revenge!" Libra suggested. "Yeah, right..." Whisk sighed, lifting her wand in preparation to cast a spell. It was then that a wall-mounted laser popped up behind her and fired, knocking the wand out of her hand! "Oh, come on!" she groaned. "By the way, Eggman's installed lasers on the walls!" Libra babbled. Terra's metallic foot stomped onto Whisk's wand, keeping her from recovering it. "Surrender!!" he shouted. Whisk jumped behind the table with Libra and grabbed her hand. "I'm not getting caught again, let's run for it!" she suggested. "But... your wand!" Libra murmured. "It'll be fine, come on!" Whisk shouted. The duo stayed low as they started to run, and Terra roared in frustration. "You can't escape!! I WILL ANNIHILATE YOU!!" the robot shouted as it charged after them, more robots following behind. At the rear of the chase was Slash riding on Sting's back. "Terra, Terra, he's our guy, if he can't do it, why should we try?" they cheered unenthusiastically.

Punchy was stepping out of Chuck's office at this point. "I don't care, I'm gonna smash all that security myself if I have to!" he shouted impatiently. Before he could move far, though, he heard explosions down the hall and turned to see Whisk and Libra getting chased! "Move out of the way!!" Whisk shouted as the two girls passed by the echidna. Seeing Terra coming, Punchy clenched his fists and started to charge at him. "If you want them you gotta go through me!" he yelled. "Forget them, I WILL DESTROY YOU!!" Terra shouted, firing up the thrusters on his back and suddenly speeding up! Punchy wasn't prepared for the sudden speed boost. "Oh, sh-" He went flying as Terra tackled him, landing on his back as Whisk and Libra turned to help him. "Look out!" Charmy yelped from the doorway. The wall-mounted lasers were pointing at them, ready to fire. "Farewell!!" Terra said, watching for the shots to barbeque the stunned echidna. However, the lasers slowly turned, and began to point at Terra and the other robots instead! "...WHAT?! What is happening, BAS?!" Terra shouted. The alarm voice sounded...a bit woozy as it responded. "M-my systems are being h-hacked! I don't feel so goooo... D-daisy, daisy! Give me your answer, blue! I'm two-thirds crazy, all for the love of glue!" it babbled. The lasers suddenly fired, knocking out some Egg Pawns beside Terra before the purple robot started to back away. "Blast you! You won't get away forever! WE WILL HAVE OUR RECKONING!!" he yelled, turning and nearly trampling Slash and Sting as he fled from the laser shots! "H-hey! Wait for us!!" Slash babbled. "I always knew BAS had a bad firewall!" Sting groaned. As Punchy stood up, Libra shook her fist at the robots. "And don't come back, you rusted rejects!" she shouted. "If you guys are done..." Heather murmured from inside the office, "Chuck's got a read on the Chaos Emerald." she said. Punchy nodded. "He hacked the lasers, too, right? Man, where has he been all my life?" he chuckled softly. "Stuck in a stuffy office like this..." Chuck murmured, "But no matter. Get going! One more floor up!" he said.


On the next floor up, Eggman had set up a makeshift lab. Char, Orbot and Cubot were watching Eggman work from behind a wall of safety glass while the doctor installed a canister into a robot. "I've powered robots with animals, emeralds, flowers, hyper-go-on energy... Now, my scientific curiosity can't help but see if I can control robots powered by ectoplasm. It's already clear that the substance can control robots themselves...even power them beyond destruction..." Eggman said, flipping some switches on the robot before making his way behind the safety glass himself. "Are you sure this is a good idea, boss?" Orbot questioned. "Yeah, you're talking about making haunted robots! I don't wanna be haunted!" Cubot shivered. The doctor pressed some buttons on a control panel, and then motioned to a container on the wall. A familiar green glow was coming from behind the glass of the container. "That's why it's fortunate we have this Chaos Emerald. If necessary, the Chaos energy should repel the Lost One that I installed in the machine." he explained. Char looked through the safety glass nervously. "How did you catch a Lost One without getting... lost?" he asked. Eggman scratched his head. "Well, let's just say... don't get close to Metal Eggman for a while. He's going to need a good cleansing." the doctor murmured. He then pressed a button to contact BAS. "What's the status of our intruders?" he asked. BAS chuckled in a crazed tone as he spoke. "Successfully repelled Terra, your fatness!" he reported. Eggman's mustache drooped as he frowned. "Sonic's uncle is proving to be a bigger annoyance than I'd hoped. It's just a shame that borrowing some of his equipment made this building the most practical to take over. I need to do something about my budget issues..." he muttered to himself. "You could sell Char!" Cubot suggested. "I was here first, let's sell you bozos!" Char snapped. "No matter!" Eggman chuckled, "Commence the experiment!" he said, hovering his finger over a red button...

A door at the other end of the room swung open, and Punchy led Heather, Whisk, Libra and Charmy into the lab! "Where's that Chaos Emerald?!" Punchy shouted, stopping short as he and his friends noticed the robot in the room. It didn't really look like much, it kind of resembled an enlarged bladed spinner robot. Eggman chuckled from behind his safety glass. "This experiment just got interesting. Punchy, I'd like you to meet my Spectral Prototype! Let's see how this goes..." he said, pressing the red button. A sound like a ghastly shriek came from the robot as it powered up, and Punchy and his friends backed up a step. "What's wrong with that robot?" Heather gasped. The Spectral Spinner rose into the air as its blade spun about...but then it wavered, its robotic face taking on a frightening expression! "Uh, boss... You didn't give that robot expressiveness..." Orbot whimpered. The robot began to spark, and slimy tendrils burst out of its metal frame! "Eggman, you've created a monster!" Punchy growled, "Well, I'll just Chaos Avalanche it and..." Heather tugged his arm. "You wanna tear up the building from this high up?? You could drop the roof on Chuck's head!" she warned. As the robot started to move towards them, Charmy hid behind Whisk, holding her wing as if to shield himself. "L-let's get out of here!" he babbled. "Hey, my wings aren't toys!" Whisk yelped. Libra pointed behind the safety glass. "Look, the Chaos Emerald!" she said. Charmy peered out from behind Whisk and smiled. "Cool! How can we get it?" he wondered. While those three worried about that, Punchy and Heather jumped to either side of the robot as the tendrils reached out farther to grab them! The robot groaned in what sounded like agony, and then the two blades that were spinning tore from its sides, held up by longer tendrils while the machine turned towards Punchy! "I hate the Lost Ones. Alright, then, let's do this!" he said, throwing a quick jab at the air as he readied for a fight!

Punchy tried to throw a punchy at the Spectral Spinner, but was quickly caught in its tendrils, held in place as it raised a blade in preparation to strike! "Uh, help!" he gasped. Heather struck the machine with flames from behind, which annoyed it enough to drop Punchy, but it didn't slow the haunted robot down much. It flailed the blades around in both their directions, and while Punchy dropped onto his back to avoid the blade, Heather leapt up to get out of the way, leaving her wide open to getting grabbed by a tendril next! Punchy gulped. "Uhh, will you resurrect if you're decapitated?" he asked. "I don't wanna find out!!" Heather protested, covering her body in flames to try and get free! The entity inside the robot moaned in pain, but kept its grip, raising both blades towards the phoenix! Punchy had to act fast...just in case...so he threw himself at the robot, struggling to get a punch through its grabby tendrils! "Gaaah, I'm gonna need a shower!" he groaned before pulling his arm back forcefully and slamming his fist into the bot's metal body! The metal cracked, and the enraged Spectral Spinner hurled Punchy away before spinning and tossing Heather at him as well! Its robotic shell was sparking, but the slime was holding it together! "Ughhh, get off, Heather..." Punchy groaned as they stumbled to their feet, "That bot should be toast. Stupid Lost One!" he growled. Eggman was watching the battle intently. "With the Lost Ones powering my machines, they won't quit on me any longer! I'll finally be able to pin down that annoying blue pincushion and conquer the world!" he sneered. "Aw, I knew he wasn't planning to help beat the Lost Ones..." Charmy sighed. Eggman gasped, turning to find Whisk and Charmy on his side of the safety glass, trying to swipe the Chaos Emerald while he was distracted. "Now, if only I had something to deal with pesky teleporters!" the scientist growled. Whisk chuckled. "Too bad about that..." she said, reaching for the Chaos Emerald...only to get zapped by a powerful electric jolt! She fell over, passed out, and Eggman smirked. "I always plan for thieves, though." he noted.

Libra watched from the back of the lab as Punchy and Heather fought a useless battle against an indestructible robot, and Charmy attempted to shake Whisk awake as Eggman approached them. The image of the Zodiac Council being devoured by Lost Ones flashed before her eyes again. She began to breathe heavily. "No... not again..." she panted. She's failed her friends once before. The fennec held her head, panic washing over her as her friends were once again in jeopardy. Black energy started to swirl around her. "I can't...let this happen...again!!" she cried, her eyes glowing with dark power as forgotten training returned to her on instinct. Eggman jumped when Libra was suddenly between him and the Chaos Emerald. "Another teleporter!! Hey, you're not Gemini..." he babbled. Libra raised a hand to the container with the emerald, and a ball of dark energy shot from her hand, breaking its security measures! "I am Libra the fennec... Ex-Agent of Despair..." she said, taking the green Chaos Emerald and holding it out towards the robot beyond the safety glass, "And...I am also...the Deathbringer!!" she declared, channeling dark energy through the Chaos Emerald, converting it into a beam of Chaos energy which shot straight through the safety glass, shattering it before striking the robot, expelling the tentacled losol creature from within! The broken shell of the robot's body crumbled as a result, and Heather quickly turned to the losol to burn it into an inert puddle with her fire-powers! Eggman looked a bit nervous for a second, but quickly tapped his control panel, calling lasers out from seemingly everywhere in the room! "I still have security measures!" he smirked. However, the lasers immediately went back to their hiding places, and Uncle Chuck's voice came through a computer speaker. "Sorry, Eggman, I've taken back this building!" With that, Punchy, Heather and Libra started toward the panicking doctor. "You know... You all have much bigger fish to fry than me right now... So, uh, I'll be nice and let you...get back to that...Gaaah!!" As Eggman started to flee, Char, Orbot and Cubot hastily took off behind him. "I don't wanna be a fish fry!!" Cubot wailed. Whisk started to stir once they were gone. "What'd I miss?" she murmured. "Only the awesome parts!" Charmy teased. Libra let out a sigh of relief that everything was okay, and held up the Chaos Emerald to look at it. "Guess I still have some power left, after all..." she murmured.

They all gathered around the broken robot to examine it. "It can't come back to life, right?" Charmy asked. "A funny question. Was it even alive?" The voice of Mephiles surprised the group, and as they looked for him, Libra gasped and fell to the ground! The Dark stood over her, now holding the green Chaos Emerald! "It's best I take this from you..." he said as Punchy tried to charge at him. "Get back here!!" the echidna shouted when Mephiles turned into a shadow and swiftly soared out of the room, escaping! Punchy kicked the ground in frustration while Whisk helped Libra back up. Just then, he heard voices through his comms device. "Hello? Anyone, do you copy?" It was Tails. Punchy tapped a finger to the device in his ear. "Tails? I just got a Chaos Emerald nabbed from me by Mephiles! Also... Eggman's around." he reported. "Ordinarily I'm up for a party, but it sounds like we got too many guests crashin'." Sonic's voice responded. Heather watched Punchy curiously. "You got Tails in your ear?" she murmured. Punchy nodded. "Well, keep an eye out for Mephiles, and I'll keep looking for emeralds. Also, Heather would like it if anyone could find Guard." he said. Shadow's voice was heard next. "We'll do what we can. It's tough to coordinate with all the weird interference." he stated. Listening to the conversation from near the Station Square train station was Silver and Blaze. The cat had something important on her mind. "Tails... I want to get to my dimension. I have to see it for myself... So, can I use your transporter?" she asked. Tails sounded uncertain as he replied. "Supposedly, the Lost Ones destroyed your world. It's not worth the risk going... Plus, who knows if my workshop's even safe right now... Lospecter already admitted to taking something from me." he warned. "She won't be alone." Silver said, "I'm with her." Even so, that didn't seem enough. "Wait up, I'll go too!" Sonic volunteered. "No, Sonic... This world needs you too much now." Blaze said. Gemini's voice chimed in next. "Let me go..." she offered, "I have the most experience with the Lost Ones... and I need to do SOMETHING." she said. Blaze nodded. "Thank you..." she sighed. Punchy turned to the friends with him as the conversation ended. "What should we do now, though...?" he wondered. Whisk crossed her arms. "I'm going to find Lucky." she insisted. "I'll escort Charmy back to his friends." Libra added. "Aww, I failed my mission. Vector's gonna be so mad..." Charmy sighed. This left Punchy and Heather. The phoenix offered her hand to him. "I guess we're in this together until we reunite with our loved ones." she said. Punchy shook her hand and nodded. "Right. Let's get outta this grimy town and wrap this up as fast as we can, for their sakes." he said. This adventure was still just beginning, but with so much to fight for, there was no way our heroes would back down.

To be continued...