Sonic GeneX - The Series: Countdown to Doomsday
Mini Episode - Ch. 3.5 - Home is where the Heartache is

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 - After several adventures amongst various worlds, Lucky and Whisk landed on the home world of their Tails companion. There, he betrayed them, calling himself Miles and helping Scourge the hedgehog to claim the keyblade from Lucky. Despite the betrayal, Whisk still believes there is good in Miles. However, needing to regroup, Lucky and Whisk return home to the world of GeneX Prime...



Lucky and Whisk weren't sure where to go or what to do upon arriving back in their home world. They stopped off at Shadow Arcangel, where they got to meet the latest additions to the Experiment family, Bolt the turtle-thing and Experiment 18 the unicorn. Whisk stared at Eighteen as he stood polishing his white horn. "Why light blue? Am I being replaced?" she asked. "No, no, of course not. Geez, nobody ever asked me why I went with black several times..." Bucky complained. Lucky looked at the bolts in Bolt's bat-shaped head. "Now I really feel... lucky..." he murmured. "Why? ...Stop staring!!" Bolt grimaced. Eighteen stopped polishing his horn and patted Bolt on the head. "Easy, there, it's alright... Hey, could you two help me come up with a name for myself?" he asked in his sweet, lyrical voice. Lucky scratched his head. "Umm... Actually, I think we need a quiet place to think things over." he stated. "Is this about your missing otherworldly Tails friend?" Bucky asked. They nodded, and Bucky nodded back. "If you want to know anything about Tails, why not ask him? He's likely at his workshop." the rat stated. Lucky glanced at Whisk. "Hmm... I'm not sure he could help us." she said, "But it's worth a shot." Before they could go, however, Vortex burst into the room with a small handful of flowers. "Whisssk! I... I heard you were back!" he said loudly, blushing. Zipp and Crash stepped to the door behind him, snickering as they watched Vortex hand her the flowers. "It hasss been ssso dark and gloomy here without you..." he said. "It's always dark and gloomy here. This ship is dark...and gloomy." Lucky babbled. Vortex hissed at him briefly before fixing his attention on Whisk. "I have been working to change my waysss... Pleassse sssay you'll remain here with me..." he said, taking her hands in his and dropping to his knees. "Mee-yow! Is he gonna propose!?" Lucky gasped. Whisk looked rather flabbergasted. "Vortex... I'm sorry, but my memory only takes hold after what we'd been through. I only vaguely remember us ever being a thing... And... I kinda..." she glanced at Lucky with a blush, and Eighteen gasped. "Ooooh my gosh! I'm so sorry, Vortex..." he said offering the chameleon a hug. Vortex looked confused. "Wha?" Then Zipp chuckled. "Whisk loves Lucky! Whisk loves Lucky!" he teased. Lucky turned red with embarrasment, but not as much as Vortex. "I... I..." he stammered. "You've always got unicorn-girl." Lucky said. "I'm a boy..." Eighteen sighed. Lucky then grabbed Whisk's hand. "Teleport!! Teleport!!" he shouted. They vanished in a flash, and Bucky patted Vortex's back. "Plenty of fish in the sea..." he said. "I'm not hungry..." Vortex retorted.

So, the next stop for Lucky and Whisk was Tails' Workshop. He was on break from training, luckily, but was instead occupied trying to teach Copter to play his bass guitar, since he'd shown an interest. The noise nearly scared Lucky away, and when they pressed past it, the sight of Tails gave them butterflies in their stomachs, but his cheery demeanor quickly calmed them. Before long, they'd told him everything that had happened, and how Miles had betrayed them. "Hmm... This other Tails sounds more like me..." Copter said at the end. Tails rubbed his chin. "I don't know about that, Copter. He still has my tech smarts." he pointed out. "Ouch..." Copter muttered. Lucky observed both of them and realized that Miles was kind of like a combination of the two. "Huh... Well, anyway, do you have anything you can tell us, Tails? Why'd ya do it!? ...Sorry..." he said awkwardly. Tails chuckled softly, sitting back in a chair by his work bench. "Well... Miles and I are technically not the same person, even if we look the same and have a lot in common, so I can't really tell you his reasons." he said. "They're no more the same than Tails and I are." Copter pointed out. Whisk nodded. "Fair enough... We just hoped you could help us..." she said. Tails gave a small smile. "I can try guessing... If he's anything like me, Sonic will have found him at a time in his life when he really needed a friend. This Scourge may not have been a good influence like Sonic, but Miles is probably still loyal to him because Scourge was the first person to treat him like he mattered..." he said. Lucky sighed. "Does that mean that Scourge makes him evil and there's nothing we can do?" he asked. Tails stood up. "No way! I refuse to believe any version of me could be evil! And if all the stories you just told me are true... then there's no way Miles doesn't feel in his heart that you're his friends, too! He's conflicted right now, but there must be a way to get through to him!" he said. Lucky and Whisk smiled. "Wow, Tails, you're not bad with words. Maybe you could come with us?" Whisk asked. Copter shook his head. "Bad idea. It would just look to Miles like you'd replaced him." he pointed out. "Oh... No, but we could never... Ahh, but I guess coming here, maybe we were trying to after all... Does that make us bad friends?" he asked. Tails shook his head. "You miss him. That makes you good friends. Now, come on. Let's do something about your lack of a weapon..." he said, heading for a box he had in the corner and starting to rummage through it...

Lucky was soon standing outside, holding what appeared to be a glass sword. "What good is this?" he asked. "It's an Artificial Chaos Sword, which I confiscated from GUN during the war with Despair...or was it Infinite? All these wars are starting to blend together..." Tails said, rubbing his head. Gemini had been called over, and was standing next to Whisk. "So, the Zodiac Council gave you a wand like mine. But you've been using it for basic, all-worlds magic? Maybe I could show you some Divine spells while you're here..." she said. Copter carried SPOT in his arms and ran around in front of Lucky, a shield erected around him thanks to SPOT. "Alright, kid! This is training! Hit me with that sword!" he challenged. "Huh? I don't want to hit you, Copter!" Lucky said, waving the sword in another direction and accidentally firing a bolt from the blade towards Tails, who flew up quickly to avoid it! "Yaaah! Careful! Like the Chaos Sword, your AC Sword can shoot bolts of energy. It's not quite a Chaos Spear, but it's better than nothing." he said. Lucky looked at the sword and nodded. "Ahh... Okay. Any thoughts on how we'll find Tails-err-Miles, though?" Lucky asked as he ran after Copter, firing bolts from his sword at SPOT's shield. Gemini smiled. "I'll teach you a spell that can help. First, think about the guitar, which I've hidden to keep Copter from playing it..." Gemini said. "Wha? Hey!" Copter babbled. Whisk giggled and nodded. Gemini held up her wand. "Wave your wand up like this... And speak the magic word, 'Discovereva' while tapping into the magical energy of your wings..." she instructed. Whisk gave it a try, but her wings spread out, glowed, and kicked up a magical wind! "Aaaah, too much focus on your wings!" Gemini gasped. "Sorry..." Whisk said sheepishly, "D-discovereva!" she said, trying again. A light emitted from her wand. It flew off in a direction, and Whisk and Gemini followed it. Before long, they came to a patch of dirt where something had been freshly buried. "Terralifta!" Gemini said, swishing her wand over the dirt to reveal the guitar! "HEY!! How could you do that to my guitar, Gemini!?" Tails stammered. Gemini chuckled softly. "Don't worry... It'll be good as new after a little magical TLC..." she said apologetically. Lucky and Whisk smiled. "Can you guys teach us anything else? We wanna be ready when we find Scourge..." Lucky said. Gemini smiled wide. For the first time, she was feeling like an effective teacher. "Why don't you two join our training group for a day or two?" she asked. Lucky and Whisk nodded. They didn't know where they'd find Miles out there among the worlds, but they wouldn't give up hope that they could free him from Scourge's control. And if they couldn't...they'd try to be prepared for that, too. But could one ever really be prepared to fight a friend?

To be continued...