Chapter 1 - Home Sweet Fortress

GeneX - The Series
Episode 1 - Home Sweet Fortress


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.


The story thus far:
Copter had gone to Soleanna in the hope of helping Experiment 7, Heather the Phoenix. When he got there, he found himself faced with a dire threat when the evil Mephiles fused with Heather, forming Solenix. With the help of the mysterious Dimentime, who turned out to be Copter from another timeline, Heather's free will broke through Mephiles's control, and Solenix was destroyed. Dimentime vanished, and Copter soon returned home to the United Federation and Station Square.
Now, on to the chapter!


Copter the fox was having a bad day. It was one of those days when he wondered if he should have stayed in Soleanna. Ever since he'd returned a few weeks ago, he was quickly remembering why he so willingly left the only home he'd ever known in the first place. Sergeant Gunner still had him and the other Experiments on his most wanted list, and the police would frantically chase after him every chance they got! Today was one of those days, and Copter found himself fleeing via a stolen police car one more time, using its siren coupled with his crazed driving to frighten civilians out of his way! "Come on, dummies! Clear the roads! I'm not as good a driver as my survival rate would have you believe!!" Copter yelled, looking for a good opportunity to ditch the vehicle and try to escape. Police motorcycles were pulling up alongside him, and driving one of them was a familiar green porcupine: Razor. "ARE... YOU... INSANE!? Pull over before someone gets KILLED!!" he shouted, horrified at Copter's complete disregard for safe driving practices. "You pull over! Then I'll try to stop this crazy thing!" Copter shouted. Razor whimpered. "Are you telling me you don't even know how to drive!?" he yelled. Copter scoffed. "No, look! I'm driving! I just don't know how to stop!" he smirked, not even watching the road. Razor bit his lip. "All units, try to lure the stolen squad car towards... um... Emerald Coast!" Copter looked around while he drove and started to get worried. "Hey... How am I gonna get outta this one? Well, I don't wanna go where they're leading me..." he muttered, making a sharp turn past Officer Razor and through a barricade the police had set up, hoping to stop him! "Whoa!!! You shoulda blocked him with cars!!" Razor shouted. "He stole my car..." the officer by the barricade grumbled, causing Razor to groan.

As Copter was driving, he heard a tap on his window. Rolling it down, he saw none other than Sonic the Hedgehog running next to the car. "Takin' a little joyride, Copter..." Sonic said suspiciously. Copter chuckled awkwardly. "There were cops everywhere and the keys were in the ignition. C'mon, you know Gunner's vendetta against me is bogus!" he grumbled. Sonic frowned. "And the innocents you put in danger?" he asked. Copter whimpered. "I'd love to stop, but I don't really know how this thing works!" he stammered. Sonic rolled his eyes and pulled open the car door. "Move over!" he said, shoving Copter into the passenger seat and jumping into the driver's seat before the car could loose control. "Whoa! So that's what seatbelts are for..." Copter groaned as he fell over in the passenger seat. Sonic pulled over and parked the car, and Copter stumbled out onto the sidewalk. "FINALLY!! LAND!!" he cried. Sonic got out shaking his head. "You're a piece of work, Copter... Later!" he said before speeding off. Copter looked around and found a familiar sewer cover. "I wonder if Punchy's home..." he muttered.

Copter dropped down and found his way into the hidden underground ruins where Rainbow the echidna lived and Punchy the echidna hid from GUN. He found Punchy wandering around outside the buildings, and he glanced at Copter grouchily when he noticed him. "Oh, brother. Here we go again. Let me guess, you just ducked down here to lose the cops again, didn't you?" he groaned, walking past Copter and looking around tensely. "Um... 'sup, Punchy?" Copter muttered. Rainbow ran out and waved to Copter. "Hey, Two! You hidin' out again?" she asked. Copter sighed. This was becoming annoyingly routine. Punchy turned to him when he was confident the coast was clear, and then bonked Copter on the head! "What are you tryin' to do!? Lead the cops down here!? You keep ducking down here and eventually they'll follow you! This is the fourth time this week!" he shouted. Copter rubbed his head and growled. "HEY! Watch it, Punch! You're not exactly paying rent down here, either!" he pointed out. Rainbow frowned. "Hey! Cool it! There's plenty of room down here for both of you! Quit fighting!" she shouted. Punchy rubbed his forehead. "Yeah... but Copter don't wanna hang out down here... (not that I blame him) If he leads people down here, they'll... well, they'll trash the place!" he grumbled. Rainbow crossed her arms. "Geez... You have a real vivid imagination, One..." she muttered. Copter rolled his eyes. "Know what... You're right! I'm outta here! Three's a crowd and all that. Have a nice life Punchy... Aloooone... with Rainbow!" he grumbled, stomping off towards the exit. Punchy's eyes widened as Rainbow sighed grouchily. "Now see what you did, One? You chased him off. You better apologize the next time you see Two!" she said before turning and walking away. Punchy stared after Copter and frowned. "Can I go with you...?" he mumbled.

At the very least, the police were off his tail, so Copter enjoyed a calm walk down the road for a bit. He took a walk around the block, past the peaceful buildings and the calmly setting sun, past a few people walking along the sidewalk who actually didn't know who he was, past the police car he'd left unattended, and that more police were finally showing up to investigate... "Oh, Flickies!! Why didn't I think of that!?" he growled. "Because the crook ALWAYS returns to the scene of the crime! Freeze!!" shouted Razor, who along with a group of officers quickly had him surrounded. Copter had to think of something fast. He reached around for something. Anything. "I said FREEZE!!" Razor yelled, only to stop short as Copter pulled out his Hurricane remote! "AHA!! Look what I got! I got a remote! What do you suppose this does, hm...?" he grinned. Razor looked a bit nervous, and motioned for the officers to stand down. "I don't know, guys... Call the chief. We may need the bomb squad or something..." he stammered. Copter chuckled. "Not so big now, huh, copper? Why I could just push this little button at any moment and..." A cop tried to approach Copter from behind, but Copter caught wind of it and spun around, knocking him away with his tails! "Aha!! You sneaky little donut eaters! You asked for it!" he said, pushing the button to call the Hurricane and making the startled cops jump for cover in case a bomb was about to detonate nearby! The Hurricane didn't show up right away, and Copter was left standing there looking quite stupid for a moment. "Ummm... The explosion um... will commence in 5 seconds?" he stammered. Razor slowly got up and growled. "Something's fishy here..." he mumbled. Just then, the sound of the Hurricane's engines could be heard, and as the plane approached, Razor attempted to take a shot at Copter! "Whoa!! Sorry about the little joke, officer... It was just so practical!" Copter shouted as he flew up out of the way of Razor's bullets and boarded the Hurricane as it flew by, prompting Razor to throw his hat to the ground angrily as he escaped. "What a day!! Dang it... I really could use a donut about now..." he groaned.

Copter looked over the readings and dials displayed on the Hurricane's cockpit as he started gaining altitude. "Been a while, old pal... Say, is this... the... gas gauge...?" he muttered, looking at an arrow pointing dangerously close to a red letter E. "Eh heh... It's one of those days I guess..." he whimpered. Suddenly, a voice came from the Hurricane. "Fuel tank low. Autopilot engaged. Proceeding to nearest refueling stop." it said. "Huh?? Wha?! Wait!! What if that's the police gas station or something!? Don't I get a say in this!! Bad Hurricaaaaane!!" Copter yelled as the plane took him away, locking the controls so he couldn't change course. He could do nothing but sit back and watch where the plane was taking him, hoping it wasn't anywhere dangerous. He got a bit nervous as it soared out over the ocean. "Hey, dummy! We're going AWAY from society!" he complained, only to soon realize where they were going. In the distance, an island with a familiar foreboding tower came into view. "...Darkegg Fortress... Of course. But... Eggman's not there anymore. R-right...?" Copter mumbled. The dark, menacing structure was Copter's first home after escaping GUN imprisonment, and after Eggman abandoned it, naturally GUN tried to investigate the tower for anything sinister the doctor might have left behind, but they were driven away under mysterious circumstances. Copter had some ideas about what might have driven them off, one such idea being the Lost Ones that had infested the upper levels of the tower before Eggman abandoned it. Thinking about that, he started to worry about the idea of going back. "Bad plane! Let me off!!" he groaned as they neared one of the exterior balconies of the tower. The plane came to a landing at a runway that was apparently specially designed for it, and parked itself in Eggman's garage. "Great... Well... Honey, I'm hoooome." Copter sighed. He looked around and saw a few small flying robots, a couple spare Egg Mobiles, spare part racks and the like, but no sign of any Lost Ones. He slowly climbed down from the plane, and was startled by a light clanking noise. "Gwaaaa!! Eggman's robot!! Get back! I am in no mood for stupidness!!" he yelled, only to see a rather diminutive robot cowering in front of him. "I'll thank you kindly to keep yer mitts offa me! I'm here to perform maintenance on the EE-006 Hurricane Biplane-drone." the robot yelped. Copter glanced at it. It looked like a small, red and brown metal beaver, with slightly expressive robotic eyes, rod shaped arms that might be quite bendable at the joints, and Eggman's familiar symbol on its chest and the back of its tail, which seemed to have some sort of slot in it. Copter blinked a couple times. "Uhhh... Yeah, sure... Hey, if you're in charge of my plane, how come I've never met you before?" he asked. The beaver robot crossed its arms. "Excuse me, but it's Dr. Eggman's plane, fella. Oh well, not my job to bother the pilot. I just fix 'er up. I'm E-505, designation Hoover." he said before looking over the plane, "Sweet potater's ghost! What'd you do to the old girl!?" Hoover gasped. Copter looked at the plane and scratched his head. "What...? Oh, the dings? I guess I had a little trouble when I had that dogfight with Tails a while ago... I kinda forgot about that." he said. Hoover thumped his tail angrily. "You left this sit!? OK, OK... You go wait somewhere... I gotta operate!" he said, his tail whirring before a wrench suddenly popped partway out, similar to a tool emerging from a Swiss army knife! Hoover then bent his arm around and grabbed the wrench, pulling it out of his tail so he could work. Copter stared at him awkwardly for a moment, then walked off. "Sometimes I wonder about Eggman..." he thought.

He decided to wander the tower for a while and see just how safe it was. He needed a place to hide out once in a while, and he definitely could use a good place to park the Hurricane. Eggman wasn't using the tower anymore, so why not? He just didn't want any Lost Ones chomping on him when he let his guard down. He found his way back to the old control room after a while. The holographic projection of the Chaos Emeralds was no longer running, but there was something still turned on to greet him. "Attention! You are no longer authorized to be in here, fox face! Dr. Eggman does not appreciate you stealing his space shuttles!" said BAS, the Base Alarm System. Copter crossed his arms. "Heeeey... I distinctly remember you helping me. In fact, you did the driving! ...Most of it." he pointed out. "Ummm..." BAS muttered, "Yeeeesss... Tell you what, since Dr. Eggman isn't home, I'll overlook it." he said. Copter nodded. "Ummm... By the way, computer... Would you know if those slimy creatures are still hanging around the tower?" he asked. "Slimy creatures... Processing... Error 404. File not found. Contact system administrator." BAS replied. Copter groaned, but then he heard another voice. "You want to know what happened after Eggman left...?" Copter looked around, but he couldn't spot the source of the voice at first. "Y-yeah... Um... Who's there...?" he muttered. "Me. I'm the only one... Safe..." said the voice in a sad tone. Copter looked behind the holographic projector and found a Chao peering around it at him! It was a somewhat large Chao, but otherwise normal looking. "A... talking Chao... Are you any relation to Char?" Copter wondered. The Chao nodded. "He's my little brother. I'm Chuck, part of Char's Chao colony. We lived on this island before Eggman decided to build his base here. Char bargained with Eggman to have him build us a home inside the tower." the Chao said. Copter nodded. "I've passed the Chao Garden before. It's pretty big." he said. Chuck nodded. "It seemed like a good idea at the time. Then, Eggman left. The monsters went loose. It got scary, so we Chao hid. Not sure how long we were hiding, but the guys with weapons came then..." he said. Copter frowned. "GUN... They came to check the place out." he muttered. Chuck continued. "Monsters chase people away... Then they left. The monsters never noticed us Chao, so I guess they got bored. Then we were left alone... Or so we thought. We were playing one day when... It got mad! It took all the Chao away! I'm the only one left!" Chuck cried, and started sobbing. Copter looked thoughtful. "'It'... Hey, computer. Where are the Chao?" he asked. "Processing..." BAS said. Copter frowned. "You're not gonna tell me you don't know what a Chao is... I can make things VERY uncomfortable for you!" he growled, walking over to the base's control panel and hovering his fingers over the buttons. "EEEEK!! Very well!! I'll talk!! They're somewhere in the garage!!" BAS whimpered. Copter's eyes went wide. "The garage... So... All that time alone made you crazy, did it Hoover?" he muttered, rushing out of the control room with Chuck in tow.

Copter stomped back into the garage, with Chuck nervously flying behind him. "OK, beaver-bot! Where'd you stash all the Chao!?" he shouted. Various gadgets sprung from Hoover's tail as he jumped with a start. "Dad-gum!! Do you have any mode other than agitated??" the robot grumbled. "Fess up! BAS told us the Chao are in here!" Copter said. Hoover reached back and slid his gadgets back into his tail, taking only a bar of iron, which he proceeded to munch on like a candy bar. "What in the heck would I want wit a buncha noisy, fussy Chao? Get in the way of work, wouldn't they?" he said. Copter nodded. "So, maybe you stashed them somewhere out of your way!" he growled, picking up the robot threateningly. "H-hey!! I'm warnin' you! I... I can spray motor oil from my tail! Stinks fer days, it does. Fortunately I don't have scent receptors." Hoover growled. Suddenly, Chuck yelped loudly. "L-look out! It's here!!" he shouted. Copter glanced at Hoover. "You mean... This guy's not 'it'...?" he mumbled. Looking up, he saw what appeared to be a Shadow android standing on the wing of the Hurricane. It was clearly an android, though, because part of its face and upper body had its deceptive coating melted off, revealing the robotic skeleton underneath! It's red robotic eye seemed to telescope a bit, giving it better targeting capabilities than normal Shadow androids, and it was equipped with a jetpack that had creepy black wings extending from its sides, making him appear demonic. His metallic arm concealed weapons in its frame that would likely pop out of the skeleton in order to shoot at a target. "Intruders located... Assessing danger level..." the android said, glancing at Copter, who was still clutching Hoover. "Hostile detected. Guardian Android, begin destruction protocols!" the android declared. Copter dropped Hoover and gulped. "I'm not hostile! I'm friendly! Friendly!" he protested. Hoover scrambled for the Hurricane hastily. "Now yer in for it! Nice knowin' ya!" he yelped. Copter glanced at Chuck. "Stay back!" he suggested.

The Guardian Android launched from the wing of the Hurricane, flying at Copter with its jetpack! "Target acquired..." it said. Copter spun his tails and flew up out of the way as the android whizzed past him! "Target NOT acquired!" he growled. A weapon popped out of a hatch on the android's skeletal arm, and a red light from the gun started trailing around the room, making Hoover scramble away from it until the light was pointed at Copter's forehead. "Huh...? Oh, this can't be good..." Copter grumbled. "Farewell..." the android muttered, firing a big, fearsome looking red laser straight at Copter's head! He quickly dropped out of the sky to avoid it, and the blast narrowly missed the Hurricane and blew up an Egg Mobile sitting behind it! "Aaaagh!! Not old Betsy!!" Hoover whined. "You need to get out more..." Copter muttered. Suddenly, the light from the Guardian Android's laser was pointed at Copter's chest. "You're no better than the other invaders. You will either run away like a coward or be destroyed." it declared. Copter stared at the android. "Other invaders... YOU chased off GUN? By yourself? Did you get rid of the Lost Ones, too...?" he murmured. The android clasped at its scarred face. "They tried to resist at first... But all intruders will be driven out, no matter what!" he said, firing his laser at Copter! The black fox jumped backwards, knocked away as the blast exploded against the ground! "Arrrgh!! Wait! The Chao! What'd you do to the Chao!?" he shouted. The Shadow Android dropped down and grabbed Copter by the throat with its metallic hand. "Pathetic creature... How foolish of you to come in here..." it said, squeezing the fox's neck in his grip! Chuck could take no more and flew over, kicking the robotic head of the android! "Let him go, you freak! Stop it!!" he shouted. Hoover ran over as well, pulling a carpenter's hammer out of his tail and walloping the Guardian Android in the back! "You wrecked old Betsy, ya stupid ninny! I used ta take 'er joyridin'! Errr... Don't tell Dr. Eggman..." he grumbled before slinking away. The Guardian Android glared at the Chao. "Second hostile detected. I will deal with you, too..." it growled. Copter's eyes went wide, and he struggled in the android's grip. "N-no... you won't! Chuck... back... away!" he grunted, kicking at the android to make it loosen its grip on his throat! Chuck flew back as Copter growled fiercely at the android. "Chaos... Blast!!!" he shouted, releasing a chaotic explosion that engulfed the robot! When it faded, Copter was free from its grip, but it wasn't quite over. The Guardian Android had lost all of its deceptive coating, and now appeared as a robotic hedgehog skeleton! "You infernal creature! Prepare to die!" the android roared, its voice crackling. Copter shook his head. "There's only one Shadow. And his skeleton ain't metal. Say good night, faker!" As the android aimed its weapons at Copter, he jumped at it and spun his tails, his tailband glowing as he tapped into its power! With a mighty crash, the android was smashed into pieces, and Darkegg Fortress was now safe... for all intents and purposes.

Looking around for a bit, they found a prototype of the Hurricane sitting around. It had a more primarily red color scheme, probably left unused due to how closely it resembled the original Tornado. "This is the EE-001 Egg Stormer. It eventually led to 'your' plane." Hoover explained. Copter looked it over, and then heard frightened squeaks coming from it. "Hey... Is that...?" he muttered. Chuck flew up to the cockpit and gasped. "Guys!!" In a moment, dozens of Chao came flying out of hiding in the cockpit, and even more were emerging from other hiding places around the garage! Hoover glanced around in shock. "You're kiddin' me?? They were hidin' out in here the whole time!?" he mumbled. Copter stared around in awe at how many Chao there were. Char's family was huge, and Eggman had them all living in his tower. "To think... That crazy doctor left you guys with that monster... Still, it doesn't look like it hurt any of you." he said. Hoover nodded. "The Guardian Android is only 'sposed to harm hostile intruders. Dunno why. Sounds kinda like a softy move on the doc's part..." he said. Copter smiled and nodded. "Even Eggman didn't want to hurt the Chao... There may be hope for him yet." Chuck smiled and waved at Copter. "Thanks for your help! I'm gonna get everybody back to the garden!" he said. Copter nodded. "Good... Maybe I'll visit later to check up on ya..." he replied, "Hey, um... Hoover... How's my plane?" he asked. Hoover looked at him and crossed his arms. "It's Dr. Eggman's plane!" he insisted, "...But... well, I guess ya can use it fer a spell. It's all purtied up and fueled and ready to fly!" he reported. Copter smirked as he and Hoover headed towards his plane. This place might just do for a semblance of a home... or a base... or something. "Well, thanks for the help, bot. Sorry about... y'know... threatening ya." Copter said. Hoover shrugged. "Aw, heck. I'm an Eggman robot. Just don't be such a stranger, hear? Else that plane'll fall ta pieces." he said, reaching back and grabbing an iron bar from his Swiss army tail to munch on. "Care fer a bite?" he offered. Copter scratched his head. "Umm... I'll pass..." he sighed, "...robots..."

He wouldn't stay long, but whenever he needed to get away from the dangers of life on the run from GUN, he'd fly the Hurricane back to Darkegg Fortress, and check in with Hoover, Chuck, and the Chao.


Episode End!

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