Sonic GeneX: Doomsday
Chapter 4 - The Office of Eggman
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 began searching the city for any sign of their missing friends.
Now, our tale continues...


The green echidna and the fiery phoenix were looking through the city, but what they were seeing was mainly a ghost town. The Lost Ones had either chased away of consumed seemingly everyone in the city, leaving nothing but a ghastly ruin behind. "How did they pull this off... Did they always have these numbers?" Heather asked, looking around with alarm at the devastation. A voice nearby caught Punchy off guard. "The Lost Ones have been busy building their army in other worlds." As Punchy looked for the source of the voice, a car in the street vanished, Illusi the shrew standing in its place, his blue cape blowing gently in the breeze. Behind him stood a green female echidna with a few multi-colored quills, about 20 years of age. She wore a blue jacket and tan khaki pants. "What the heck, Illusi!? Trying to give me a heart attack!?" Punchy shouted. The shrew glanced at the female echidna. "Somehow he never gets used to me." he muttered. Heather looked from the girl to Punchy. "Whoa... Uhhh… Who's the girl?" she asked. The girl crossed her arms. "Name's Aurora. I just wanted to let you know that mom's alright, dad... I'll watch over her." she said. Punchy looked at her, getting a good look at Aurora's blue eyes. "Good lord!" he gasped, "You're a baby but here you are all grown up... Your mother's eyes don't lie." he said. Illusi nodded. "Time travel. Rainbow said she told you, remember? There's something more pressing, Punchy." he stated. Punchy rubbed his chin. "What happened to 'Dark One,' Illusi?" he asked. The shew sighed. "The darkness no longer resides within you. Focus!! We need the Chaos Emeralds, and you're a treasure hunter, aren't you?" he said, his tone making him sound rather pressed for time. Punchy darted his eyes back and forth. "Sometimes..." he muttered. Aurora sighed. "I wish I could do more to help you, but if anything happens to mom while she's taking care of me in the past...I'm kinda done for." she said. Realizing this, Punchy bent down and started to pull off the Chaos Boots. "Do me a favor, zip over home with these and fetch my old shoes... And then you use these to protect your mom!" Punchy said. "Is that sanitary?" Heather whispered. Illusi looked bewildered as Punchy placed the boots in Aurora's hands. "Punchy! You were chosen - and trained - to use those! You can't just give them away! Chosen one! Tikal's prophecy!" he babbled. Punchy shrugged. "Prophecy shmophecy. Doomsayer says something different. I say we make our own fate!" he grinned, winking at his daughter. Aurora smiled. "Right... I'll, uh... find your shoes." she chuckled.

So, with his old orange and blue sneakers back on his feet, Punchy parted ways with Aurora and Illusi, setting off with Heather to try and find a Chaos Emerald and maybe Guard. They weren't sure exactly where to look, but as they passed by the burger shop, Punchy decided to head in. "I'm hungry... I just hope the Lost Ones didn't slime all the food." he muttered. As they started inside the shop though, Punchy was hit in the face with a broom. "Get away, monsters!! We don't serve your kind here!" It was the burger shop's manager, Dave, swinging the broom with his eyes shut tight. "I'm not a monster, I'm a customer!" Punchy shouted. Heather walked in behind him, and gasped softly. "Survivors! Fantastic!" she said with relief. There were a few people taking shelter in the burger shop, most of them just random humans that Punchy and Heather didn't know. Libra was crying softly at the counter. She'd seen things. At this point Dave had opened his eyes, too. "Great, more loiterers. Upper management isn't going to give me a good performance review this week..." he sighed. As he returned behind the counter, Punchy sat down and looked at the menu while Whisk observed the people. They all seemed quite scared. Except for one. Whisk the divine approached her from amongst the group. "Hey, I know you! From Soleanna...and Demon Island! Wow, you turn up everywhere things go bad!" the angelic feline commented in an oddly cheerful tone, "But, hey, uh... You wouldn't happen to have seen Lucky around, would ya? Black cat? Cute as a button?" Punchy gagged a bit on his soda as Whisk described Lucky. Heather shook her head sadly. "No, no sign of Lucky." she said, "We're looking for the Chaos Emeralds ourselves." she murmured. Libra lifted her head, her ears perking at he idea. "Yes...yes... The Chaos Emeralds... That's how we avenge everyone. The Lost Ones can't stand Chaos energy!" she stated. Punchy took a bag of fries from Dave and turned to the trio of girls. "Why do I get the feeling you're all coming with me...?" he murmured, munching slowly. Whisk produced a magic wand similar to Gemini's and twirled it. "Because! I can use a spell to hunt down an emerald for you! Thank Gemini for teaching it to me, hehe!" she giggled. Heather's eyes lit up. "That's great! Hey, can you use that spell to find anything? Anyone?" she asked. Before Whisk could get into it, a loud crash rocked the building, and Eggman's voice was heard over a speaker outside. "Don't panic, citizens of Station Square! Your savior, the illustrious Dr. Eggman, has finally arrived!! Ho ho ho ho ho!!" Punchy couldn't help gagging again. "Ughhh!! The timing on this guy!" he groaned.

Outside, they found that Eggman's machines had apparently damaged a nearby building. The chubby doctor sat in his floating Egg Mobile, watching as his robots were busily reconstructing the building into something better suited to his purposes. "You know, I think I used this very building in a hostage situation, back when it was just a construction site. Ahh, so many memories in this city..." Eggman mused. Punchy growled softly as he witnessed this scene. "He's gonna draw the Lost One's attention back here... Or drop half the building on someone! Either way, what's he thinking? This is just mindless mayhem, even for him!" he grumbled. Whisk was ignoring him and cast her search spell, which sent a light shooting from her wand and zipping straight across the street...into the building Eggman was repurposing. "Good news, guys! The nearest Chaos Emerald is right there...oh." she said, pointing and then frowning as she noticed Eggman. Heather and Libra both sighed. "It figures." they said at once. Punchy rolled up his imaginary sleeves and started stomping towards Eggman. "Stand back, ladies! I'll handle this!" he grunted. Libra scoffed, crossing her arms. "Oh, will he? This oughta be good." she huffed. "Hey, Eggman!!" Punchy shouted as he approached. The doctor turned with a wide grin. "Ah, Punchy! Nice to see you survived! And where is that charming wife of yours?" he asked. "Can it! I'm chasing you and your bots outta town!" Punchy shouted. Eggman stroked his moustache and sat back in his seat. "Now, Punchy, how can I possibly help you defeat the Lost Ones if you treat me like that? I need an outpost close to the action so that I can study what makes those creatures tick and find their weaknesses." he stated. Punchy crossed his arms. "And the Chaos Emerald?" he asked in an interrogative manner. Eggman perked up suddenly. "Chaos Emerald? What Chaos Emerald? There's a Chaos Emerald!? Um... E-excuse me, Punchy!" he babbled, turning his Egg Mobile quickly and flying into the building through a hole in the wall. Punchy stood there with a dumbfounded look as the girls walked up to him. "Good job. You told him about the Chaos Emerald." Heather said sarcastically. "Hey, Eggman's usually on top of these things!" Punchy protested. "Well, we better head inside and try to get it from him." Whisk sighed, "Why couldn't he be like Moebius Eggman?" she murmured.

They ran into the building, and at the entrance, they found Charmy bee getting chased in circles by a couple of bumbling robots, Clucky and Burrowbot. "Get back here, you little twerp! We won't hurt ya!" Clucky yelled. "Huh? We won't?" Burrowbot murmured, looking confused. "Idiot, of course we will!" Clucky snapped, smacking him upside the head. Seeing Punchy, Charmy stopped and waved. "Hey, there, Knuckles!" This got Punchy riled up. "You know I'm not Knuckles, cut it out!" he shouted. "Should we...help him?" Libra wondered. Those robots didn't look exactly competent. Heather wasn't willing to let it go, though. She quickly tossed some fireballs at the pesky bots, causing them to break into a heap of jumbled parts! "D'oh, argh! You shoulda warned me, digger-nose!" Clucky shouted. "Me? You're the birdbrain with the plans!" Burrowbot complained. Charmy flew over to Heather and shook her hand. "Thanks! Now I can get back to tracking that Chaos Emerald!" he grinned. Punchy looked thoughtful. "You're looking for the emerald, too?" he asked. Charmy hovered up in the air, nodding. "Yeah, Vector and Espio tracked one here. They've got other missions though, so I'm looking for it alone. Those Lost Ones are so freaky and scary, it's gonna take a lot of overtime to take 'em out, Vector said!" he explained, moving his hands about in a very animated fashion as he described how Vector spoke to him. Heather nodded and looked around. "Well, there's enough of us, and the building seems fairly big. Maybe we should split up?" she suggested. Punchy shrugged. "Fine by me... Can I go alone?" he asked. Charmy patted his head. "Aww, don't be silly! I know you've missed goin' on adventures with your best bee buddy! C'mon, let's smash those bots!" he cheered. Punchy rolled his eyes, but then chuckled softly. "Whatever... Hopefully they're all as dumb as these yo-yos." he said. "We can still hear you!" Burrowbot groaned. "Show some respect for the busted!" Clucky chimed in.

Whisk and Libra hopped in an elevator, leaving Punchy, Heather and Charmy to take the stairs as they explored the building. Punchy scratched his head as they neared the top of the first flight of stairs. "Wait, Whisk can teleport. How come she got the elevator and we got stuck with the stairs like a bunch of suckers?" he questioned. "Because you're too slow to think of that!" Charmy teased. "Shh, who knows what's waiting for us..." Heather warned as they opened a door and proceded... into an office space. It didn't look like the area had really been converted to Eggman's purposes yet. "Honestly..." Punchy murmured as he stepped past a stuffy, post-it covered cubicle, "This is scarier than one of Eggman's bases." he murmured. Suddenly, the computer screens in the cubicles flickered on, and the trio jumped with alarm as each of them displayed the Eggman Empire logo. The voice of the Base Alarm System; BAS; came over the speakers. "This building and its technology is now under Eggman control! We seeee you!" the familiar voice teased. Charmy looked around and shrugged. "It's just computers, though. It's not like Eggman's gonna be able to take over a stapler and staple us to death!" he pointed out. A light drew Heather's attention, and she walked over to a copy machine to check what was printing. "Please don't be Eggman's butt..." she winced. It was a single line repeated over and over. "All work and no play makes BAS a dull boy..." Punchy looked it over. "Is it me, or is BAS sounding a bit out of whack?" he murmured. "YAAAAAAHH!!" shrieked Charmy, and as Punchy and Heather looked, they saw him tugged into an office cubicle! "...I don't wanna die in an office!" Punchy gulped, "You go! You can't die!" he said, shoving Heather. "Way to kill the dramatic tension!" BAS complained. They heard some struggling from inside the cubicle, and suddenly an explosion, followed by a head rolling onto the floor! "Yaaaaaaaaaah!!" Punchy and Heather yelled. Charmy flew out and glanced at the Egg Pawn head on the ground. "We're dealing with Eggman. Why are you guys so jumpy?" he asked. Punchy and Heather glanced at each other with annoyance, but couldn't say anything as more Pawns started to emerge from the cubicles! "Just another day at the office..." Punchy grunted, cracking his knuckles.


As Whisk and Libra rode the elevator, it suddenly stalled. "Lift service out of order!" BAS announced. Libra anxiously pressed the elevator's buttons repeatedly. "Agh! Why didn't we take the stairs?!" she stammered. Whisk looked around. "Well... I could teleport us out, and we could get stuck in a wall..." she murmured. "Come on! Didn't Zodiac teach you any useful magic??" Libra shouted, tearing up a little as the fate of the Zodiac Council flashed back to her mind. Whisk was surprised. She'd never seen Libra's face while Zodiac was teaching her magic...her Deathbringer hood always hid it. "Wait...you were...? But I guess you don't have powers anymore..." Whisk sighed. It was true, Libra didn't even have wings any longer. She was an ordinary fennec again. Whisk looked up and saw a hatch at the top of the elevator. "I can fly us through there." she stated. Libra wiped her eyes. "Thanks, yeah. Let's get out of this box..." she sniffled. The hatch was too narrow for both of them at once, but Whisk helped Libra up into the elevator shaft before she joined her. Looking up the shaft, they saw elevator doors open above them, and Egg Pawns with construction hats peering down at them! "Elevator's closed!" Libra shouted up. The robots pulled their heads back in. "Huh... Did they...listen?" Whisk wondered. However, the bots returned with bombs in hand, dropping them down the elevator shaft! Whisk quickly grabbed on to Libra and started to fly them both up as the bombs crashed below them, causing the elevator to break and go hurtling down to the bottom of the shaft! As they flew upward, another bomb struck the wall near them, and the explosion nearly tossed them down the shaft, but they both grabbed on to the elevator cables! "Maybe getting stuck in a wall wouldn't be so bad!" Libra cried. Whisk grabbed her hand nervously. "Guess we need luck on our side..." she gulped as both of their bodies glowed, and she teleported them away! They emerged in a hallway, a few feet off the ground, and fell onto their behinds! "Ugh, well, at least this can't get worse..." Libra murmured, only to look up and find Egg Pawns surrounding them. "Splitting up was dumb..." Whisk grumbled.


Punchy, Heather and Charmy fought their way out of the cubicles and found their way to what apparently used to be a break room. Eggman's robots had cleared out a lot of the furniture, all that was really left was a vending machine that Char the Chao was trying to get a snack from. The red Chao kicked the machine in a fit. "Darn it! Why don't you take rings?" he complained. "Aw, no, it's the evil Chao." Charmy remarked. Char looked at the bee and shook his little arms at him. "I'm not evil this machine is evil!!" he yelled. A door at the other side of the room opened and Eggman himself stepped in. "No sugar, Char! You get too hyper! Gah! Punchy! Why didn't you take the elevator??" he babbled, "I had a trap waiting and everything!" Punchy glanced at Heather worriedly. "Our friends better be okay!" Heather warned. The doctor backed toward the door. "I don't see why we must be enemies. I only want this little outpost to study the Lost Ones for weaknesses...to help!" he stated. Punchy nodded. "And to conquer the city from." he added. "Exactly! Eh, wa-wait! Ohhh... Who am I kidding. You've grown apart from Knuckles, that's for sure." he said, suddenly breaking into a run back through the door he came from! "Wow, he's quick..." Heather murmured. Punchy started to chase after the doctor, but as he reached the door, an explosion blew it open, throwing him backward! A familiar purple and black E-X series robot stood in the doorway, its red eyes glaring at Punchy as he climbed back up. "Oh for the love of... 'Course it's you, Terra!" the echidna growled. Behind Terra, his orange and pink counterpart, Firma, was approaching. "Yuck, the ugly girl-bot, too!" Charmy remarked. The two robots raised their clawed fists. "You will not interfere in Dr. Eggman's plans..." Firma said calmly. "At last, my chance has come!! I WILL ANNIHILATE YOU, EXPERIMENT 1!!" Terra roared. Punchy raised his own fists into a fighting stance as well. "Some things just never change... Can't say I'm sorry Rainbow has to miss this reunion!" he smirked.

Char watched the tense situation unfolding and gulped hard. "Uhhh... Suddenly I'm not so hungry. I think I'll go somewhere... else." he murmured, flying out of the room hastily. Charmy landed on top of the snack machine and started to watch. "I'll referee! I, uh, have some experience with that, hehe." the bee smirked. Punchy rolled his eyes and charged at Terra, only to get a fist to the face from Firma! "Ooof!! I've been relying on those Chaos Boots for too long... Gotta remember I'm not fast anymore." he grumbled, rubbing his jaw. Heather threw fireballs at Firma's eyes, forcing the robot back. "Come on! We've got to get past these bots, find out if the others are okay, and find that emerald!" she said urgently. Punchy glanced at her and nodded. "Well, when you put it that way... Chaos Avalanche!!" This was quite a risky move for Punchy to make inside the building. Chaos Avalanche pulled chunks of the floor up with Chaos energy and hurled them at Terra and Firma, making the ground unstable in the process. The robots smashed through the projectiles with their mighty metal arms, and then retracted their claws, replacing them with laser cannons. "Create distance between us with an unstable floor...we will still OBLITERATE you!!" Terra shouted, firing shots at Punchy wildly while Firma took aim at Heather! Charmy hummed to himself from his safe perch, until a stray laser blasted the snack machine out from under him! "Waaah!! Hey!! That's a foul!!" the bee yelled. He was forced to take cover as more shots came his way, though. Frustrated, Heather used her power to create a dome of fire around her friends, blocking the laser fire! "Ahh! H-heather... Don't burn us up here!" Punchy stammered. As Terra kept up the laser fire, Firma stopped and changed up her weapons. "The phoenix is the true threat... Prepare to eliminate..." she said calmly. A hose nozzle popped out of her wrist, and water sprayed over the dome of fire, thinning out the flames and allowing Terra to get a shot through, hitting Heather in the stomach! "Agggh!! N-nooo!!" she gasped, falling to the floor! "Heather!!" Charmy gasped, jumping as he watched her body burst into flames! Enraged, Punchy charged forward. He leapt across the holes in the floor, right at Firma! "Enough!!" he cried, his fist crashing into the robot's head with tremendous force! Firma began sparking, and Terra backed away, alarmed. "No... NOOOOO!!" the purple robot roared as Firma began to explode! "...farewell...brother..." she managed to say before collapsing into a heap of broken parts!

Heather sat up, rising from her own ashes. "Ughhh… What happened?" she groaned. "You died and now I'm mentally scarred!" Charmy remarked. Heather looked at him with an unconvinced expression. "You're in Station Square not too long after the Lost Ones devastated the city and this is what scars you?" she murmured. Their attention turned to Punchy and Terra as the two were violently exchanging blows. "MURDERER!!!" Terra roared, slamming his fist into Punchy's chest as Punchy tried to land a solid hit in return. "You're robots!" he growled. Terra backed up, swinging his fist and glaring at Punchy with genuine hate. "We were created using GeneX power... Creation energy. We are no mere robots. We have souls!" he declared, aiming a laser at Punchy's head, "And my soul is now filled... WITH VENGEANCE!!" he roared. However, Punchy easily evaded his shot. Then, an alarm started to blare through the base. "All robots, to the twelfth floor! All bots, to the twelfth floor! This is not a drill!" BAS announced. Terra glared at Punchy, but started to run away through the door in order to answer the call. "I will return for your head!! YOU WILL BE CRUSHED BY MY HAND!!" Terra shouted back as he left. Punchy thought to go after him, but he decided to check on Heather instead. The Phoenix was fine, in fact she appeared unharmed whatsoever. "No wonder Howler wanted your power back when Despair was a bigger thing..." Punchy mused. Heather sighed. "I'd rather we don't bring up those times. Sometimes I wish I could give up this power... So many fiends have come after me just to use it." she sighed. Charmy nodded. "Got that right! How many now? Vector's trying to keep a list, these things can come in handy. Let's see... There was Howler, the Battle Birds...and, and, uhhh..." he murmured. Heather growled softly at the bee dredging this up despite her protests. "Mephiles, it was Mephiles." she stated. There wasn't much of a pause before a deep voice called to them. "Did I just hear...my name?"

Punchy took on a defensive stance and Heather's eyes widened as a familiar black, crystalline hedgehog floated into the room. It was Mephiles...but something was off about him. His coloring was a bit more greenish than Heather remembered. "How long it's been... Though, time for some of us is relative..." the Dark stated, floating across the room slowly. "You're the goon that messed up the world with the Time Eater's power! I thought Hyper Sonic finished you off!" Punchy shouted. Mephiles didn't even look at him. "So afraid of me, Heather. I wonder, which version of your memory does this fear stem from? I seem to recall this version of you being oh so willing to join with me... But memory, like time, is so very fickle. Who's to say what is real... Who's to say who is real?" he said cryptically as he floated slowly towards the broken remains of Firma. Charmy hid behind Punchy nervously. "Go on, stop him before he starts transforming into Razor or Tails or a big scary monster!" he murmured, recalling how Mephiles used to steal forms and powers by diving into peoples' shadows. Mephiles chuckled softly. "That was another me. Another age. I have been brought to this time with new purpose..." he said, holding his hand over Firma's remains, "A broken soul, just like mine... Perfect fuel to fan the flames... That will burn a path of ruin across this world!" With a flash of light, a ghostly image of Firma appeared over the spare parts, which then formed into a small spirit ball that fit snugly into Mephiles' hand! "Hey! Th-that looks like the light... Like Tikal!" Punchy babbled. Heather growled softly. "Firma's soul. Mephiles is stealing souls!" she realized. Mephiles looked at them with wide eyes, one eye green, one purple. "Enjoy your souls while you can... You all are quickly running out of time!" he said with a sinister laugh before his body transformed into a shadow, swiftly escaping with Firma's soul! Punchy watched this with disbelief. "So...is Terra right? Am I a...murderer?" he asked. Heather patted him on the back. "No time to think like that. Whisk and Libra might be in trouble!" She had a point. At any rate, the twelfth floor seemed like a place to start. They had a lot of stairs to climb...

To be continued...