Sonic GeneX - The Series: Countdown to Doomsday
Mini Episode - Ch. 3.8 - Phantom Thieves

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.


Previously - Dr. Eggman perfected his Phantom Ruby to create the ultimate Death Egg Robot. It was a ruby so perfect, it was able to duplicate itself, granting Infinite his own Phantom Ruby to fight with. However, Eggman and Infinite were both defeated, and the two Phantom Rubies went missing along with Infinite himself.
One of the Phantom Rubies was found by Shadow Chaos, who sealed himself inside the ruby to be at rest.
Much more recently, General Gunner's GUN unit found the Phantom Ruby while on a mission to locate missing prisoners. The ruby was transported to a facility for safekeeping...



The Hopebringer Center had seen more hopeful days. Since Eggman's invasion of the world had caused the guards to leave their posts, the inmates escaped and trashed the place on the way out. In the reconstruction, the building had become something of a hybrid of the two facilities it was previously, the other being Death Row. Security had been upped, and the building looked like a cross between a hospital and a military compound now. This was where the Phantom Ruby was being held. Naturally, as word of this spread, thieves would come looking. Three boards whizzed overhead, flying to the top of the center, near where Copter's old cell would have been. Wave the Swallow stepped off her board and approached a console on the wall, pulling a screwdriver from her pocket to remove the cover blocking access. "Once I disable the security, this should be a piece of cake." she said. Jet the Hawk landed behind her. "Pah! We're wasting time! Let's just speed in and out! No security can catch me!" he said cockily. Wave rolled her eyes. "This facility was designed to contain Sonic! You think they'd be unprepared for someone speedy?" she snapped. "Contain, not capture!" Jet squawked. Storm the Albatross had landed nearby, and stepped between them. "Do you two have to argue? Let's just do the job so that the gargoyle mob can auction off the stone, and we can all be rich!" he said before glancing at Jet nervously, realizing who he was talking back to, "Errr... R-right boss?" he stammered. Jet smirked. "You forgot the step where we steal it back. Can't have someone going all Infinite on us." he grinned. Seemed like a good plan to him. However, the alarm suddenly went off! As red lights flashed around them, Jet growled in aggravation. "Wave!!" he yelled. "This wasn't me... Someone else is here, I think." Wave said, hacking the security panel to get access to the camera feeds via a small monitor atop the panel. They could see people in familiar uniforms storming into the front door. "That's those, uhh... Coffin of Despair dudes!" Storm babbled. "Covenant of Despair, Storm." Wave corrected. Jet grabbed his board and hopped on. "No way! I'm not letting those has-beens beat us to the Phantom Ruby! Come on, they'll make a good diversion!" he smirked. "The cameras will still see us, Jet... JET!!" Wave shouted, but he was already leaving. Storm looked at the monitor. "Are those Battle Birds with them?" he asked. "Who cares. We'd better help Jet..." Wave sighed.

Much of the facility's defenses were indeed occupied rushing after the intruding agents of Despair, so Jet got to have a few cocky laughs as the trio flew past the prison blocks, including a particular cell where a certain hyena was contained, surrounded by power dampening devices and wrapped in a straightjacket. "Eee hee... Hey, birds, help a guy out?" Eddie the hyena asked with a chuckle. "No time for you, crazy guy!" Storm grunted as he followed Jet and Wave past the cell. Eddie just sat back with a smirk. "Suit yourselves. Eee hee... Karma comes around..." he snickered. The Rogues continued heading deeper into the facility, closing in on the laboratory. A few GUN Hornets hovered in their path, and sent their bombs down the hall after them! Wave pulled out a large wrench and sped ahead, weaving between the bombs until she could whack the nearest robot with that wrench! Jet soon cruised past her and leapt from his board, kicking the next robot before gracefully landing back onto his board! Wave clobbered one more Hornet with her wrench, and glanced back, seeing their bombs detonate with the robots gone. Storm flew past the explosions and sighed. "I'm nothin' but a huge target in these little hallways..." he complained. "I could have disabled the robots along with the security..." Wave sighed. "Relax, we've got this..." Jet smirked, pushing open the door. He jumped back as a gun shot off in his direction. "I won't go down without a, uhh, fight! You Despair dogs!" Dr. Nammad shouted, adjusting his glasses and aiming his firearm again. "We're not Despair or dogs! Put that thing down!" Jet shouted. Nammad lowered the gun briefly as Wave and Storm entered the lab behind Jet. "Wait... Even so, uhh, you're still intruders! And I won't just give you the, uhh, Phantom Ruby!" he warned. "So, it's in here?" Wave smirked. Dr. Nammad chuckled. "What, you don't see it? Aaaah, I'm not falling for, uh, that!" he said, moving his gun from Jet to Wave nervously. Storm looked around and scratched his head. "No, we don't see it. Was it supposed to be on that table there, with all that equipment?" he asked. Nammad had set up a bit of equipment to experiment on the Ruby, but it was nowhere in sight. "I said I'm not falling for that! It couldn't, uh, get up and walk away the second my back was turned!" the scientist stammered. Jet looked behind him on the ground, and noticed the ruby. Then, he gasped as black liquid surrounded the ruby, and Shadow Chaos emerged, standing behind Dr. Nammad with the Phantom Ruby stuck in his belly! "Uhhh, doc..." he said, pointing. Nammad tilted his head in confusion, and turned around to see Shadow Chaos rushing for the door on the other side of the lab! "Impossible! Uhh, unthinkable!!" he shouted, but was silenced by Wave knocking him over the head with her wrench. "Shut up..." she grumbled. With Nammad unconscious, the Rogues took off after Shadow Chaos!

During the commotion of the Rogues and Despair invading the facility, one particular agent of Despair broke away from the pack. Finding his way to the prison area, the red-eyed hound stopped at Eddie's cell. "I should leave you rot here, traitor. Or would you prefer to be called Scorpio?" Basker said to Eddie smugly. The hyena snickered. "Eee hee, some of us just aren't built for robotisization..." he grinned. Basker stepped out of the shadows to reveal that his eyes were robotic now, along with his ears and left hand. He'd been partially robotisized, but escaped somehow. "Can you contain Shadow Chaos for us?" he asked. Eddie chuckled and nodded, so Basker glanced at the lock for his cell, and fired lasers from his eyes, smashing it and freeing him! "We've hacked the cameras. Shadow Chaos has possessed the Phantom Ruby. Go fetch." Basker ordered. An illusory blade appeared in Eddie's hand, which he used to slice his way out of the straightjacket. "Eeee hee hee hee! I missed you too, Sherlock!" he smirked. "Everyone calls me Basker, idiot..." the hound growled.

Shadow Chaos slithered into the vents, leaving the Rogues stuck fighting Despair a bit before they could search. Wave found herself clanging her wrench against Daisy the skunk's katana. "What are you thieves doing here??" Daisy shouted. "We were here first!" Wave growled as she used her board to maintain a height advantage in the battle. Storm found himself grappling against Bark the polar bear while Bean sat nearby munching on popcorn. "Rah rah rah! You can do it, Bark! Toss that seagull on his tailfeathers!" the duck cheered. Bark just grunted while Storm fired up his board, using its momentum to push Bark into the wall hard! "Hah!! Child's play!" he growled. Jet was busy dodging bombs from minions of the Battle Bird Armada. "Hey, guys, were't we friends before? Cut it out!" he shouted. Nova the morph took advantage of his distraction to liquify his arm and extend it to Jet's board, yanking it out from under him! "Yaaahh!! Ooof!!" Jet yelled as he tumbled. "What good are you without this, bird brain?" Nova grinned, tossing the board aside. Jet stood up with a grin. "Well, I'm still a world-class thief... Look what I snatched!" he said, holding up a bomb he'd grabbed from the Battle Birds! Nova's eyes widened as the bomb was tossed his way, the explosion splattering his watery body all over! It would take a moment for him to pull himself back together, enough time for Jet to recover his board. "Enough of this! Rogues! Let's finish this...!" Jet shouted, but it was too late. Eddie stepped in, cackling hysterically, and with a wave of his hand, the vents crashed out of the wall, knocked out by an illusionary wrecking ball on the other side! Shadow Chaos splashed out, only to be caught in an impenetrable shell created by Eddie! As the hyena carried Shadow Chaos and the Phantom Ruby away with his illusion, he winked at Storm. "Toodle-ooo..." he chuckled. "After him!" Jet squawked, but at that moment, Basker stepped in, using his fear-inducing powers to paralyze Jet, Wave and Storm with terror! "Let's go... We have a new fortress to settle into..." Basker told the agents of Despair.

By the time the Rogues recovered, Despair had escaped with the Phantom Ruby. They hurried out of the Hopebringer Center before GUN could capture them, and each groaned in frustration as they flew away from the island the center was contained on. "What do we tell those mobsters now?" Storm muttered. "Well, whatever we tell them, let's do it over the phone..." Wave murmured. Jet grinded his beak angrily. "The Covenant of Despair will pay for this... No one messes with the Babylon Rogues!" It may not be practical for three bird racers to take on the whole covenant by themselves, but if the opportunity ever arose, Jet would be sure to get back at those creeps someday...

To be continued...