GeneX Generations
Chapter 5 - Escape the Ice
Stage - Launch Base, Ice Cap - Sonic the Hedgehog 3

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

"Never, never give up! Never give up the fight!
Never, never give up! Never give up the fight!
No matter how tough it gets for us,
I know we can make it through.
Long as we keep standing tall, working together, oh!" - Never Give Up, Sonic Underground


Sonic, Tails, Copter and Dimentime had arrived at Launch Base Zone, a headquarters built by Dr. Robotnik on Angel Island in the past which had apparently been pulled into the white space by the monster, much like the other places. The base was centered around a massive structure, which was actually a battleship, or possibly a space station. They all stood there gawking at the ship for a moment. "No way! I never thought I'd see THAT again!" Sonic remarked. "It's the Death Egg! Could Eggman have rebuilt it?" Tails wondered. As Sonic and Tails discussed the situation, Copter and Dimentime turned around and talked amongst themselves. "This is worse than I thought. Who knew Eggman was capable of such a monstrosity?" Copter whispered. "Well, I've heard stories. His grandfather made one heck of a super weapon, too. It must run in his family." Dimentime said. Suddenly, a large shadow was cast over them, and they heard a fiendish chuckle. "Welcome... I've been expecting you!" Dr. Robotnik had found them, and he was piloting a machine with giant arms attached and spikes protecting its roof! "Care to shake hands with Big Arm? Maybe you'd like a high five for blowing up my Chemical Plant! Now I need a new source of power before my Death Egg can launch! But I see the mere sight of it has Sonic and Tails distracted..." he chuckled deviously. Copter and Dimentime gasped with alarm and glanced back at Sonic and Tails, who were still gawking at the Death Egg, Sonic even throwing rocks at it. "Sonic! Eggman!!" Copter shouted, but it was too late! Big Arm came swinging its giant arm at them, slapping the entire group high into the air and far into the distance with a single slap! "So long, friends! Send me a post card from wherever you wind up!" Robotnik chuckled. However, some rapidly approaching footsteps suddenly caught his attention. Turning around, he saw Classic Sonic arrive! The younger hedgehog waved to him and then winked smugly. "S-s-sonic!? Errr... Right... Sonic. I don't have time for you, you pest! Good bye!" he said, taking off for the Death Egg in a hurry, seeming to realize that this wasn't the same Sonic he'd just flung away. Classic Sonic shrugged and sped after him, eager to mess up Robotnik's plans yet again! "Grr... Sting! Launch the Death Egg! We'll have to make do with what power we have! I've got company, and I'd like to ditch him if possible..." Robotnik shouted over Big Arm's communicator.

Sonic, Tails, Copter, and Dimentime were knocked far, far into the distance. Robotnik had even knocked them clear out of Launch Base Zone, and they found themselves hurtling towards another place with its color partially drained! As they screamed and shouted, they plummeted into the middle of this new area, landing in a pile of snow! "Ooof!! Tails... Did you get the license number...?" Sonic mumbled after he pulled his head out of the snow. Copter and Dimentime groaned and looked around as they climbed out of the snow. "Uhhh... Tails?" Copter muttered. Dimentime looked thoughtful. "It appears he landed somewhere else." he said. Sonic frowned and looked around. They had landed in an area that appeared to be completely walled off, except for a cave, the only apparent exit. "I'd better find him quick, then! There's no telling what kinda trouble he might have landed in!" he said, dashing for the cave entrance too fast for the others to follow. "Hey! Wait for us!" Copter yelled. Sonic ignored him, but stopped suddenly as a blast of icy air blew down from the roof of the cave! "Whoa!! Hey... This seems familiar..." he muttered with irritation, looking up. There was a device on the ceiling poised to freeze anyone who might enter, and more were positioned throughout the cave. Copter and Dimentime spotted them as they caught up. "We'll have to move slowly and carefully around them." Dimentime suggested. Sonic groaned. "Great. My favorite activity..." he said sarcastically. As they were entering the cave, someone was watching them from the top of the walls surrounding the area they landed in. It was a young, red echidna. "Hmmm... Trespassers... How'd they get down there!? Well, one of them looks like Sonic... He might have sped in without me noticing..." he said to himself thoughtfully, "I've never seen those other two before. They don't look trustworthy. I'd better catch them and see if they know anything about how all the color is disappearing from Angel Island, or why I can't get to parts of the island..." He jumped down and grabbed the wall, quickly climbing to the bottom so he could follow them. "I'll catch them or drive them off. This island is MY responsibility, and outsiders have no business here!"

Sonic had soon realized that they had been thrown to Ice Cap Zone, another area of Angel Island. It was a system of icy caves and the snowy areas outside them, but despite all the cold, they still managed to find a lake of unfrozen water to block their way. There were some blocks of ice floating in the water that they could use to cross, but round robots surrounded by spiky chunks of ice rotating around them were hovering over the lake. These robots were called Star Pointers, and although they were slow, they were hovering in places that would make it difficult to jump between the ice blocks. Copter dipped a finger into the water and shivered. "Well, swimming's out..." he muttered. Sonic stared at him. "Uh, yeah... I'll say." he muttered, not bothering to mention the fact that he couldn't even swim at all. Dimentime shrugged. "Just use the platforms. Maybe Chaos Whirlwind will take care of the robots..." he suggested. Copter tried it on the nearest Star Pointer, but it quickly rearranged its icy spikes to block the wind, protecting itself! Sonic frowned. "Seriously? Geez, why'd Eggman stop using these, they work better than what he has now..." he remarked. So, they had no choice but to cross the water with the Star Pointers there, and as they stepped on the ice blocks, they started to sink under their weight, so they had to move fast to avoid falling in the freezing water! Sonic provided some help, taking out the Star Pointers through any gaps that would arise in their defense using his homing attack. However, not far away, the echidna was approaching a switch concealed behind an icy boulder. "I'll fish those intruders out of the water! Ha! This should take the fight out of them!" he said, stepping on the switch. This caused a tremor in the cave. Looking up, Dimentime saw that the large icicles on the ceiling were starting to fall towards them! "Look out!!" he shouted. Copter yelped and took to the air, flying out of the path of the icicles and the Star Pointers, while Sonic jumped up and bounced off the sides of the icicles as they approached, using them to speed up his trip to the other side of the lake! Dimentime calmly jumped from ice block to ice block, evading the obstacles as he went. The icicles ended up mostly hitting the Star Pointers, destroying them and enabling Copter and Dimentime to reach the other side with ease. The echidna watched this and growled with frustration. "That wasn't supposed to happen!! Oh, well... Those robots were a menace, anyway..." he muttered.

On the other side, they found a bunch of Penguinator robots, which were blue penguin robots that usually attacked by sliding on their bellies. Sonic shrugged. "OK, these guys should be no problem." he said. However, before they could do anything about the robots, the black shadow Copter had seen at the Chemical Plant flew onto the scene! It immediately started attacking the Penguinators, sending them into a panic, dropping onto their bellies and flailing wildly in a futile effort to escape! Sonic watched this and growled. "I know I was gonna trash the robots myself... But there's something about this shadow that I just don't like! Hold it right there!" he shouted, running at the shadow and launching a homing attack at it! The shadow chuckled and took the attack, but somehow repelled it, sending Sonic flying backwards! "Whooooa-ooof!!" Sonic landed on his back and lied there, dazed, while the black shadow started to escape! "Oh, no ya don't!" Copter shouted as he and Dimentime took off after it, ignoring the robots and traps along the way as the black shadow led them to a whited out portion of Ice Cap. "Where do you think you're going, creepy?" Copter growled, jumping after the shadow as he neared it, but failing to catch it and falling over. The shadow stopped at a white statue. It was someone who had been frozen, just like Bucky, Razor and Amy. Dimentime raised his staff threateningly. "Back away from the statue. I'm warning you..." he said. The shadow chuckled, and then spoke! "Exactly how are you planning to stop me? Fool..." Dimentime gasped and backed away as the shadow dove into the statue's shadow, laughing manically before fading away! Copter stood up and glanced at Dimentime, scratching his head. "What's with you? You look like you've seen a ghost." he said. Dimentime looked at Copter and then at the statue. "Errr, uh... Is... Is that Punchy over there?" he said hurriedly. Copter turned to face the statue. Sure enough, Punchy the Echidna was frozen in a colorless state. "Well, well. Here he is on Angel Island. Figures." Copter smirked.

Before they could free Punchy, the red echidna emerged from the direction they had come from. "All right! That's enough, foxes! I want some answers!" he growled. Copter glanced at him with surprise. "Hey... Is that Knuckles...?" he said in bewilderment. Dimentime nodded. "It appears to be his younger self." he pointed out. Classic Knuckles paid no attention to what they were saying. "Listen up! I watch over this island, and I've been watching you. You look like troublemakers to me, and I bet you know something about what's happening to this island! So, you're gonna tell me! Right now!" he insisted. Copter rolled his eyes. "We don't have time for this! Mind your own business!" he snapped. Dimentime shook his head. "I don't think it'll help to aggravate him..." he sighed. Knuckles raised his fists in preparation for a fight, but stopped as he heard footsteps rapidly approaching. "Huh... You got reinforcements... Grrr..." Classic Knuckles quickly jumped up and started gliding away, escaping from sight just as Sonic arrived. The hedgehog stopped in front of Copter and Dimentime. "Hey... Where's that shadow? Did it get away?" he asked, looking around. Dimentime nodded. "It vanished... But we found someone." he said, pointing at Punchy. Sonic frowned and shrugged. "Ugh... Even grouchier version of Knuckles... Maybe I should go the rest of the way by myself..." he grumbled. Copter chuckled. "Maybe I should, too... But we better unfreeze him anyway." Sonic and Copter approached the statue, and it quickly came to life, Punchy's fur regaining its bright green color! Punchy groaned and stretched out his arms. "Argh... I feel so stiff... Who did this to me!? Let's get him!!" he growled. Copter and Sonic jokingly pointed at each other, and Dimentime bonked Copter over the head with his staff. "Don't joke around! He may be very much confused at the moment." he said. Punchy stared dumbfoundedly at Dimentime. "Uhhhh... Must be a long story... Just give me the latest update..." he muttered. "We're lookin' for Tails and a way outta here." Sonic said, glancing around for the way forward. Copter took Punchy aside. "You might see a mini Knuckles around here, too. Time travel." he whispered. Punchy groaned. "My head hurts... Let's get outta here fast." he said. Sonic pointed up at some platforms leading up the side of the wall. "We'll go up and out! Maybe Tails is outside the cave! Try to keep up!" he said, jumping up from platform to platform quickly! Dimentime was right behind him, while Copter and Punchy proceeded a bit slower. "Sheesh, I only just got reanimated! But no big deal, right?" Punchy grumbled.

They all caught up at an area where the next platform was across a long chasm. There was a platform in front of them too high to get on top of, with large icicles hanging from it. On the other side of the chasm, Slash and Sting were waiting for them. "Nya nya nya-nya nya! You can't get us!" Sting teased them. "But we can get you!" Slash shouted. Sonic scratched his head. "Do I know those robots? They look kinda familiar, but then they don't..." he muttered. Copter groaned. "If it isn't dumb and dumber... Sonic, could you smash them, please?" he asked. Sting suddenly started shooting a laser at them from across the chasm, while Slash began tossing his sickle arms at them, which would come back to him like boomerangs so he could toss them again! Punchy growled as he dodged a laser blast. "How are we going to get over there?" he groaned. Sonic smirked and jumped at an icicle, grabbing it and shimmying around in order to position himself to jump and grab another icicle! Copter, Punchy and Dimentime stared at him with their mouths hanging open. "Sure, you can do that and survive. WE aren't fast enough!" Copter protested. Dimentime frowned. "We'll have to try. At least we can fly." he said. Punchy groaned. "I can't even glide! I missed that day in echidna school!" he whined. "Actually, that's normal for echidnas, I think!" Dimentime said as he jumped on to an icicle. As they jumped from icicle to icicle and desperately attempted to dodge Slash and Sting, a new problem arose. Slash started aiming for the icicles with his sickles, which was damaging them and making them loose! As Copter grabbed on to a loose icicle, it broke and started to fall! "Aaaack!!" Copter quickly let go and started flying, grabbing on to the next stable icicle and gasping to catch his breath. "I'll kill those bots!" he whimpered. Even worse, there was someone on the platform above them. Classic Knuckles was there, and he was fully aware of their situation. "This'll either soften them up for capture, or chase them off the island... Going down!!" he said, moving around and punching at the ground hard in an effort to knock the icicles below loose! Some of the icicles did start to shake, and they realized something had to be done fast, before they all ended up plummeting!

Punchy had had enough, and jumped towards the edge of the platform with the icicles so that he could climb on top of it. Once there, he spotted Classic Knuckles punching the ground. "Hey, red! Cut it out!" he shouted. Knuckles glanced at him with surprise. "Huh!? Wha... An echidna!? But... I'm the last echidna... Aren't I?" he muttered. Punchy raised an eyebrow. "You need to get out more." he said. Knuckles shook his head. "Never mind! It's my duty to protect this island, and I'll protect it from ALL intruders!" he shouted. Punchy nodded. "Uh huh... While I protect the Master Emerald, right?" he smirked. Knuckles gasped. "Wha... You're after the Master Emerald!? Grr, I should have known! Take this!!" he shouted, hurling a punch at Punchy! It took Punchy off guard and knocked him back a bit, but Knuckles's younger self wasn't as strong as he would be in the future. "Bah, calm down before you hurt yourself. I just... uh..." Punchy realized that picking a fight with a past version of someone might be bad for history, but now he was in a predicament. As Knuckles hit him again, he instinctively tried to punch back, but the younger Knuckles was more nimble, and dodged him! Punchy grew frustrated and swung at him again, only to be counterattacked! "Ooof!! Darn you! Cut it out! I'm not here to take the Master Emerald!! Errr... I said protect!" he said, trying to talk Knuckles down. Knuckles scoffed. "Yeah, right. Protect it from what?" he asked. Suddenly, Slash and Sting ran by, screaming. "Sonic's gonna smash us!! Heeeeelp!!" they whined. Punchy grinned and pointed at them hastily. "Them! They're the goons who're after the Master Emerald!" he shouted. Knuckles glanced at them as they passed. "Dr. Robotnik's robots! He might be telling the truth! Hey you bots! Come back here!!" he yelled, chasing after the robots! As Knuckles and the robots disappeared deeper into the cave, Sonic, Copter and Dimentime reached the platform. "Well, we made it! Um... What were you doing here, Punchy?" Sonic asked. Punchy shrugged. "Bridging the generation gap with the locals. Now what's next?" he asked. Suddenly, they heard a sound coming from deeper in the cave. It sounded like Tails's voice, and it sounded like he was shouting! Sonic glanced in the direction of his voice. "Hang on, buddy! I'm coming!" he said, taking off! Copter, Punchy and Dimentime were right behind him.

As they headed through the cave, they came to an area where pillars of ice were crashing up and down against the ground over and over. There were more robots around as well, so the area was pretty dangerous. "What's up with those pillars?" Copter wondered. Sonic shrugged. "Must be traps set by Knuckles. He used to REALLY hate visitors..." he remembered. Punchy nodded. "He's as bad as Eggman. In a primitive way." he said. They made their way through the cave, carefully timing the crashing ice pillars, then taking on the robots. The penguinators were no problem, and Punchy's Chaos Avalanche easily took care of the Star Pointers as well, though not before some of them tossed their spiky ice chunks at them! However, the ice chunks seemed to defy gravity, moving incredibly slowly through the air, and were rather easy to dodge. "I take it back... These guys stink." Sonic muttered as he watched an ice chunk inch through the air. They soon came to an ice block at the beginning of a steep slope, which seemed to lead to a dead end. "Well, now what?" Punchy groaned. Sonic chuckled. "All aboard the ice cube express!" he said, motioning for everyone to hop on the ice block. Punchy shrugged and hopped on, followed by Dimentime, but Copter hesitated. "Are you all nuts!? Don't you see where he's going with this! He'll kill us!!" he shouted. Punchy shrugged. "When has he been wrong?" he said. Copter growled a little. "Weeeell..." he started to speak, but Sonic shoved him onto the ice block. "Don't answer that! Just keep your arms and legs in the block at all times! Away we goooo!" he shouted, giving the block a push and starting it down the slope at high speed, quickly boarding it along with the others! They started to scream as it neared the wall, but when it struck, the wall crumbled, and they rode the block further down the slope out of the cave before tumbling into a snow bank! As Sonic struggled to pull himself out of the deep snow, someone reached out and offered his hand. "I gotcha, Sonic!" Looking up, Sonic could see that it was Tails!

Once everyone climbed out of the snow, they learned why Tails was shouting. "I was bouncing on these crazy trampoline-like platforms... You remember, Sonic? They're platforms held up by loose chains or something like that... It can be scary because it sends you really high..." he said. Copter shrugged. "Well, we just sledded through a solid wall. How's that for scary?" he grumbled. Sonic chuckled. "Well, anyway, I think it's time we got outta here. We owe somebody for smacking us into here!" he said. The five of them set out right away, and soon started crossing an icy bridge. However, Slash and Sting were waiting for them there. "Hold it you! You guys think you can terrorize us and get away with it!?" Slash buzzed. Tails scratched his head. "Uh... Do we know you?" he asked. "Don't play dumb! Now we're gonna get you! We brought backup! Hyah ha ha!!" Sting laughed. Behind Slash and Sting, a big, round robot with two electrodes by its head and one on its underside was floating in the air. It had a gray body, and a face somewhat resembling a snowman's. The electrodes soon started buzzing, causing a number of balls of ice to float over and rotate around the robot! Sonic scratched his head, looking somewhat annoyed. "Yeah, this definitely looks familiar..." he said. Punchy raised his fists. "Big deal! We've got you outnumbered! That thing doesn't stand a chance!" he said. Not far away, on the other side of the bridge, Classic Knuckles was watching them. "Now I've got you all! I don't trust a single one of you, and this should fix you all, or at least take the fight out of you so I can toss you off the island myself! Ha ha ha!" he chuckled, pressing a nearby switch which seemed to cause all of Ice Cap Zone to start shaking! Looking around, Sonic and the others on the bridge noticed that they were positioned below the slope of a mountain, and the mountain was rumbling violently! What was worse, the bridge suddenly started collapsing! "Waaaah!! Save us, backup!!" Slash and Sting whined as they fell along with Sonic, Tails, Copter, Punchy and Dimentime!

They landed in the canyon below the bridge, and found five snowboards waiting for them. "This is all TOO convenient..." Copter muttered. Dimentime quickly grabbed one of the boards. "Don't bother questioning it! An avalanche is about to start!" he shouted. "Don't look at me! Not my fault!" Punchy said as he grabbed a board. Sonic chuckled and jumped right on to a board as the avalanche began! "Woo hoo!! Meet you at the bottom guys!!" he shouted. Slash screamed and jumped on Sting's back. "Do something!! Anything!!" he yelped. Sting retracted his legs and started to function as a snowboard, making Slash sigh in relief. "That's good, but turn around!" he buzzed, flipping Sting over and using his stinger cannon to aim at Sonic and the others as they snowboarded down the mountain. "We can still blast those pests!" They started by firing at Tails, but he was fairly experienced at snowboarding, too, and he dodged the blast with ease! "You gotta do better than that! Ha ha!" he teased. However, Slash and Sting weren't on their own. The ice robot they had brought as backup sped on to the scene, and started hurling its ice balls at the boarders! Dimentime in particular found himself having trouble. He blocked the ice balls with his staff, but he wasn't doing well with his board, being the least experienced boarder there. Tails moved over and swatted some of the ice balls aside with his tails, defending Dimentime. "We've gotta stop that robot!" he shouted. "Way ahead of ya! Chaos Avalanche!" Punchy shouted, tossing balls of snow at the robot using the power of chaos. It slowed the robot down a little, but it kept coming! However, it had dropped its ice balls and needed time to gather more! "Uh, oh... Slash! We gotta defend our backup!" Sting shouted. While Slash and Sting attempted to shoot at them, Copter moved in, evading their shots and skillfully jumping and giving the robot a tail whip, knocking it back a bit more before landing on his board again! "Heh... I sure learned a lot at the Winter Olympics!" he chuckled. Sonic slowed his descent next, cutting in front of Slash and Sting and causing them to wipe out! "Whaaaaa!!! I hate that hedgehog!" Slash yelped. Sonic then jumped and gave the larger robot a homing attack, sending it crashing into the avalanche! With the robots out of commission, the five snowboarders hurried to the bottom of the slope, escaping the avalanche and reaching the exit of Ice Cap Zone. As they left the pile of snow created by the avalanche behind, however, two metal heads popped out of the snow. "Oooooohhh... We made it..." Sting groaned. "You wanna tell the boss Sonic got away? I don't feel so good..." Slash whined.

With the exit in sight, Sonic and Tails were ready to go. "C'mon! Let's get to a warmer climate!" Sonic said. Tails nodded. "I'm eager to find out what exactly sent us here in the first place..." he said. The others were about to follow, but Punchy hesitated, seeing movement out of the corner of his eye. Classic Knuckles had seen them escape, and was heading for a wall in the mountain. He pressed a seemingly normal spot on the wall, and a secret passage opened up! "Hey, guys... Where's he going?" Punchy said, getting Copter and Dimentime's attention. Copter shrugged. "Who cares? He can't really get anywhere without going through the white space, can he?" he figured. Punchy glanced at him. "Pretend I don't know anything about what's going on. Because I don't. Anyway, maybe we should follow him. He knows Angel Island better than anyone. Maybe he'd lead us somewhere useful." he suggested. Dimentime sighed. "It would be futile, and we don't have time. We really must be going." he said. Copter groaned. "Where?! Back to the place where we got slapped by Eggman!? That was part of Angel Island anyway, so maybe Punchy has a point!" he said. Dimentime shook his head. "Copter, the Death Egg..." he said. "Is just a diversion! You know the big picture, don't you? What about that black shadow? Why won't you tell me about it? Hm? Give me some answers, already!!" Copter snapped. Dimentime backed away slightly. "So... you don't trust me?" he asked. Copter crossed his arms and glanced at Punchy. "Hmmm... Let's go. Maybe we'll find more of our friends along the way. Following this Doomsayer wannabe is just gonna get us both killed." he decided, taking off in the direction of the secret passage. Punchy nodded. "Never trust a guy in a cloak..." he grumbled. Dimentime glared at them. "Fine! But whatever happens to your time is on your head! I'll try to handle this myself!" he said, stepping out of Ice Cap Zone and into white space. Looking around, he saw another part of Angel Island a distance away, one that was normally high in the clouds. "That might be the way to go... Hopefully Copter comes to his senses before it's too late!"

To be continued...