Sonic GeneX - The Series
Episode 9 - The Twin

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 on Sonic GeneX...
Dr. Eggman returned to Darkegg Fortress, where Copter, Punchy, Rainbow and Gemini have been staying.
Sonic has been on the run for months, due to a bounty placed on his head by Col. Gunner.
There was recently an eventful day at Neon Tavern; see previous chapter.
Now, let us begin today's story...


Copter yawned loudly as he lumbered into the control room of Darkegg Fortress. Dr. Eggman had kept him awake for days, laughing maniacally as he invented the interdimensional portal machine that had led to such a crisis just the day before. On the plus side, after being defeated, Eggman had fallen very silent, sleeping off his failures deep in the fortress. This meant the control room was free, and Copter thought he would watch TV over the monitors inside. Instead, he found Gemini using Eggman's computer. "Hey... You're looking busy...and rested." he grumbled, glancing at the monitor to see that she was busy typing something. "Sleep spell." she smirked, "I'm sending an email to a friend... Someone I met during my first year in...Station Square." she said hesitantly. Copter nodded drowsily. "Anyone I know? ...We're not getting ANOTHER roommate, are we?" he groaned. Gemini shook her head. "It's another fennec named Libra. She kept in touch with me all this time because she thinks I'm her long-lost sister... There's a good reason why that's preposterous and yet... We understand each other really well. It's weird... Anyway, she wants to meet up again now..." she explained. Copter nodded. "Gemini... Libra... Zodiac signs. I get it. Maybe you are related." he muttered, leaning against the chair she was sitting in with a drowsy yawn. Gemini looked thoughtful. "Maybe..." she muttered. "Maybe an ancestor?" she thought curiously. Copter started snoring, and she nudged him to get his attention again. "Huh? Wha?? I didn't take Hoover's screwdriver!" he babbled. Gemini frowned. "Pay attention, will you! Even though me and Libra seem to have a lot in common, you can only know so much from talking to someone over the internet. If I go to meet her, could you...could you come with me? Please?" she asked, apparently feeling too awkward to go alone. Copter nodded sleepily. "Sure, sure... Whatever you want... Just lemme nap in that chair, first..." he mumbled. Gemini finished her message quickly and sent it before vacating to let Copter rest. "...Thanks..." she whispered, heading off to get ready.


In the meantime, Sonic was out on a run in a frigid zone well out of any city limits. The snowy climate wasn't his ideal Summer vacation spot, but he was honestly quite tired of being hunted by folks hoping to win his speed from Gunner. While running along a high cliff overlooking a snow-capped woodland, he came across the last person he ever expected to find in this icy clime. Heather the phoenix, wearing a fluffy orange coat instead of her usual black one, was sitting on the ledge and gazing out over the frozen landscape. "Bit chilly for a firebird, isn't it?" Sonic asked. Heather sighed. "The pardon for the Experiments didn't extend to me... I found that out the hard way. So I guess I'm here for much the same reason you are." she said, glancing at the hedgehog as he sat down next to her. "Don't you have anyone to take you in? ...What about Copter and his pals?" he wondered. Heather shrugged. "They don't need my troubles... Especially now that GUN's finally off their tail." she stated. As they sat and looked out at the cold woods below them, a loud crunching of snow could be heard behind them! They got up quickly to find some of GUN's Hunter robots approaching them, accompanied by the blue-sunglasses wearing Agent 64 and the green-sunglasses wearing Agent 32! "We've got you cornered! Both of you are under arrest!!" Agent 32 snarled. "Yeah! So, uh... Freeze?" Agent 64 added. Sonic rolled his eyes. "Freeze? Really?" he sighed. With the assumption that Sonic and Heather wouldn't surrender, the robots quickly started shooting. Sonic was quicker, and leapt into a series of homing attacks that made quick work of the robots on his side. Meanwhile, Heather sidestepped the lasers fired at her and tossed some fireballs at the other group of robots, leaving the two agents on their own. "...This was your idea!" Agent 64 growled to Agent 32. Sonic snickered and sped off, with Heather jumping down the ledge and into the woods to escape. While the agents stood with awkward looks on their faces, their expressions quickly turned to panic as more loud snow crunching was heard behind them! They turned to find Sergeant Drol leading a huge robot to the ledge. "...You imbeciles were supposed to keep an eye on them until I got here! Where are the targets?!" he growled. Agent 32 pointed to Agent 64 frantically. "He made us do it! He wanted the credit for the capture!!" he shouted. "What?? Me?? I don't even want to capture Sonic at all!!" Agent 64 protested. Drol groaned in annoyance. "You can report your incompetence to Gunner... I doubt it will shock him as much as myself..." he said, turning to leave with a scowl.


Copter and Gemini soon arrived at Neon Tavern in Troblusk City, which was still missing a few chairs after the bar brawl a few weeks before. Bill chuckled as they walked in together. "Look, it's Mr. and Mrs. Not-A-Couple!" he teased. "Aw, shut up..." Copter growled, sitting across from Gemini at a table. Moments later, a fennec approached them. "Ah... Gemini!" she said cheerfully. Copter looked over to see someone who looked very much like Gemini, only with light blue fur in place of Gemini's white fur, gray fur in place of Gemini's light blue fur, and darker tufts of blue fur on the ends of her ears. She had yellow eyes, wore black jeans and a brighter pink sweater than Gemini's. Copter blinked a few times with his mouth agape. "You're twins!" he stammered. The new fennec, obviously Libra, chuckled. "See? Your friend thinks so, too!" she grinned. Gemini stood up and shook hands with Libra. "It's good to see you again. So, where should we go?" she asked. Libra looked around the bar, noticing the bartender hedgehogs watching them with amused grins. "Right, this place is um... Yeah. Why don't we go to my house?" Libra suggested, leading the other foxes to the door. "Aw, no, don't mind us! Really! ...Dang it's boring around here..." Bill sighed as they left. The three foxes chatted a bit as they walked, discussing for Copter's benefit how Gemini and Libra had met mostly. "Gemini was a mess when I found her. She was living off the streets for some reason... I wanted to let her move in with me, but she 'couldn't impose.'" Libra said, imitating Gemini a little. Gemini had an awkward look as they discussed it. "Well, I mean, you put an awful lot of stock in just a resemblance..." she sighed. Libra chuckled a little. "Maybe... So I gave her some money so she could at least get a hotel for a while." Libra finished. Copter glanced at Gemini knowingly. "You stretched that cash pretty well..." he said. "...It was more than I wanted to accept." Gemini told him. The trio passed what was left of Eggman's Eggtopia base as they walked. The neon sign was dark, and the paint was peeling from the walls. However, someone still watched them from the darkness of the open doorway, unbeknownst to them...

Libra's house was a block or so away from Eggtopia, a quaint and much better-kept building than most in Troblusk City. Libra led them to the living room, where the two near-identical fennecs sat down on the couch, each crossing their legs in an identical fashion. It weirded Copter out a little, but he sat on a chair across from them, smiling politely. "You have a lovely home, Libra. I actually could see living here..." Gemini said, looking around at the tidiness of their surroundings, a welcome change from Eggman's tower. "Yeah, but I get you... You never wanna impose!" Libra chuckled. Copter stared at them smugly. "Heh, imagine that..." he muttered. "I still wanna get a DNA test, though. My mother always said I had a twin sister somewhere..." Libra continued. Gemini chuckled softly. "I never did know my mother..." she sighed, looking a little sad. Copter nodded as he listened, then jumped. "Errr... Got a bathroom I can use?" he said suddenly. Libra pointed to a stairway across from the door, and Copter hurried up quickly. "...So, what about your father?" Gemini asked Libra.

Copter sighed with relief as he exited the bathroom, and glanced around. A door, likely leading to Libra's bedroom, was nearby. "Hmmm... I shouldn't. But what do I know about this girl?" he said to himself. As he stepped into the room, everything appeared normal enough, or at least what Copter figured was normal. Her bedroom was messier than the rest of the house, the bed wasn't made and dirty clothes were scattered about. She had video games hooked up across from the bed. "She's actually cool... Maybe I should move in with her." he chuckled, stepping to her closet and casually opening it. As he looked through her wardrobe, he stopped suddenly with a gasp. Tucked away at the far end of her closet was a familiar black garment, featuring a thirteen-pointed red star. A look of dismay came over Copter's face. "Poor Gemini... Her 'sis' is a member of the Covenant of Despair!" he thought.

"What are you doing!?" Copter jumped as he heard Libra's voice behind him. He grabbed the uniform without thinking and showed her what he'd found. "Explain." he grunted. She grabbed the uniform out of his hands and scowled at him. "You should explain why I wouldn't have you arrested!" she snapped, "I'm ex-Despair. I was with them for a total of one mission before I realized how crazy they were... Don't you dare mention this to Gemini!" she warned. Copter shrugged. "Why? If you're not with them anymore, it shouldn't be an issue." he said suspiciously. Suddenly, the house was rocked by an explosion, making them both jump! Copter started toward the door quickly. "Aha!! This was a trap! You drew us in so Despair could attack us!" he growled, rushing to find Gemini. "What?? And blow up MY HOUSE!?" Libra shouted in protest. Heading past the wrecked front door, they found Gemini standing in front of a large robot being piloted by Cubot. It was similar to the Egg Breaker, but more yellow in color and possessing a grenade launcher on one arm with a wrecking ball attached to the other arm. Gemini's wand was knocked away in the initial attack, and Libra found it at her feet as she stepped outside. "Okay... I'm sorry." Copter said. Cubot's eyes were glowing various colors, and he didn't seem quite right. "You can't fool me, Cubot! I know it's you! You're gonna pay for what you did to Cubot!!" the robot babbled, pointing from Gemini to Copter to Libra. "Well, someone's managing to sound less coherent than Alpha..." Copter muttered. Gemini glanced back at him impatiently. "If it's not too much trouble... HELP!! Before Libra's house becomes a smoking crater!!" she shouted. Copter nodded and started after Cubot, only to have to leap into the air to avoid the hurled wrecking ball! "Yeah, house is probably getting wrecked. Dang, I KNEW we were getting another room mate!!" Copter groaned. Libra looked at Gemini's wand curiously. "Maybe I can use this... Gemini did say she had powers, and I sure saw things with the covenant..." she muttered, thinking about what to do next.

Cubot fired the grenade launcher at Gemini, and without her wand, this meant she'd be in trouble, so Copter flew her way and grabbed her arm quickly, pulling her to safety! Meanwhile, Libra tried waving the wand a bit and pointing it at Cubot's mech. "Uhhh... Abra-ka-zappa!!" she said awkwardly. The wand did respond, but all it responded with were some useless magical sparks flying from the gemstone at the tip. "Uhh... That's pretty, but I was expecting more zapping." Libra stammered. Suddenly, she was struck by the flailing wrecking ball, falling to the floor and letting go of the wand, which went flying in the opposite direction! "Libra!!" Gemini cried, rushing to her wand while looking at her friend with concern. Libra looked up from the floor weakly. "I think I'll be fine... Go zap that thing, sis!" she panted. Gemini nodded, turning to join Copter in battling Cubot. However, Libra was in worse shape than she thought, and she dropped out of consciousness in a few seconds, barely noticing some footsteps heading her way as she shut her eyes. Copter and Gemini were too focused on Cubot to notice Libra's condition, however. "You fellas really need to hold still! You're TERRIBLE at this whole getting-smashed thing! Bad Cubots!!" Cubot said, flailing the giant robot's wrecking ball toward Gemini while firing grenades at Copter! Gemini pointed her wand at the ball and cast a spell. "Miniatina!" she cried, covering the ball in magical energy that caused it to shrink down until it bounced off Gemini's chest harmlessly, now the size of a gumball. Meanwhile, Copter blew the grenades back into the launcher with Chaos Whirlwind. "Hey... I expected them to explode in the barrel!!" he shouted. A few seconds later, a chain reaction occurred, starting in the grenade launcher and leading the entire robot to be blasted to pieces! "...Efficient... But I get more style points." Gemini smirked. "What is this, a dance-off?" Copter retorted. Cubot fell out of what was left of the robot's cockpit, ranting angrily, when his red-colored counterpart Orbot arrived on the scene. "I thought I'd find you at that explosion! Oh, my, look what you've done to the doctor's mech..." Orbot sighed, opening a hatch on Cubot's head and working on repairing any crossed wires. "Sorry for the trouble!" Orbot told Copter & Gemini, "He malfunctioned and escaped the tower. I guess he headed for an old base, saw you, and... I don't honestly know what his logic process was from there..." he admitted. "...Wait, did he follow us all the way from Darkegg Fortress??" Copter stammered, "I'm losin' my edge..." he groaned.

At this point, Copter and Gemini returned to check on Libra, but she was nowhere to be found. Copter checked inside her house quickly, but had no luck locating her. "She must've took off. Might be making new living arrangements after this mess..." he said. Gemini stared at him. "What do you mean? The damage isn't that bad!" she pointed out. Copter sighed. "No, but... I may have screwed things up... I found out she had a Covenant of Despair uniform in her closet. Maybe... she reeeeeally didn't want anyone to know about that." he said nervously. Gemini frowned. "Oh, no... Does she think I'd judge her harshly? She looks at me like her sister and all... And now she must think I'll hate her... Well, I'm sure she'll be back home once things have cooled down... Maybe then I'll show up and have a talk with her." she sighed, sounding a little disappointed. Copter nodded. "I'll stay behind next time... I think I've messed things up enough." he said, "...Your sister's cute, though." he added casually. Gemini elbowed him. "Not my sister!" she insisted. "Ow! She looks EXACTLY like you! In fact, I take it back. She's not cute!" Copter retorted teasingly, resulting in a wand whacking his head. Orbot and Cubot watched them leave. "It's times like these I'm glad I'm a robot, and not burdened by complex emotions." Orbot said. "Thanks for comin' for me, Orbot! Y-you're the best bro a bot ever had!! Waaaaah!!" Cubot said, hugging Orbot and sobbing.


Libra sat in a dark room, with only dim blue light illuminating the shadows. She still wasn't conscious. A voice in the shadows spoke out. "You have done well to bring the twin. If Leo refuses to return Gemini home, drastic measures must be taken." it said. A sea-green albatross stepped out of the shadows beside Libra, a pair of like-colored wings folded behind his back. "As you say, master... but won't this impact the timeline even further?" he asked. His shadowy master paused before answering. "If young Libra here is given proper instruction, Aquarius... then the benefits far outweigh the risks." the voice stated. Libra started to stir, and quickly spotted Aquarius beside her. "Wh-where am I? Who are you??" she gasped. It was the voice in the shadows who responded to her. "Welcome, Libra. We have chosen you. You'll help us to defend our world, won't you...?"

To be continued...