The journey to the portal of course was uneventful, as was half of the trip to Cobalt's base on the other side. But all cannot go smoothly. Shadow of course had teken the lead of the party, as was his nature, he felt responsible for all the others, even if most of them were seasoned fighters.
Occasionally he'd glance back, catching someone's eye, most often it was Jazz, who was not too far behind him but far enough, staring at him, and the green hedge-fox would quickly look away. He'd already gotten on his uncle's bad side, he didn't want to go farther and start a fight, a fight he doubted he would win.
Copper had teken to walking with Jazz as everyone else had grouped up, and seeminly left him alone, the weasel knew how that felt, and wouldn't be surprised if he saw more of his kind in the future, hired by the fox. Though his attempts at chat were not rewarded with talk, he did receive a smile now and then, to know the hedge-fox was grateful.
Meiou and Abyss were just behind them, riding on the supply wagon, a specialized hovercraft that Tails had built for the Quicktails previously. It was a thick heavy craft, but carried a lot, and was armored like a tank. The two were in deep hushed conversation, obviously they were making extra plans in case things went wrong.
In the back left the mongeese and dog to protect the rear of the group, Ash, Mina, and Kight. Ash and Kight were busy arguing, while Mina just stared back and forth, each on the either side of her, each holding one of her hands. Both the males had insisted on carrying her two medical bags, and though Mina had known Ash for quite a long time, she had to admit that Kight was the one winning her heart at the moment.
"Shouldn't you two be paying attention in case someone attacks from behind the group?" Mina asked the two.
Ash looked slightly ashamed of himself and let go of her hand, while the ninja saw this as an opportunity.
"I can multitask, now as I was saying, your eyes are just beautiful in this dark light and..."
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They were nearly halfway there, when Shadow stopped in his tracks, his ears flicking back and forth, as Jazz did a second later after him. Both the hedgehog's had super hearing, it didn't take much for them to notice something was not quite right, even in a world so strange.
The monsters of the world were leaving them alone, because they were an armored caravan, or at least that's what they thought, that or one of their party were giving off a very powerful predator scent, but if that was so then who?
But again, even with the monsters leaving them alone, someone, or something was nearing them.
Jazz sniffed the air, it smelling familiar, but somehow alien, it did not fit to this world. He glanced at his uncle, and nodded slightly, whatever this was they weren't going to take a chance at it being an enemy.
Shadow made a leap at them as the two forms came out of the bushes, knocking both down under him. The ebon hedgehog glared at them for a minute, then let them up, shaking his head. They already had enough people to worry about, now an extra cat and hedgehog?
The two were not strangers to him, but to the others yes. The strangely dressed pair, in brown robes and boots were Silver the hedgehog and Blaze the cat. Silver wore sunglasses, and had tattoos that the Knuckles Tribe had given him when he had visited them on his quills.
The white hedgehog smiled nervously at the group, disturbed by Shadow's glare. Blaze sighed and smiled as well, Jazz was wearing a small grin behind his black jacket, he had gotten used to his uncle's reaction to people.
"What do you want?" Shadow asked them.
"We were going to contact you, but it seems that your transmitters are being blocked, someon obviously knowns you're coming. But anyway, Brove seemed to think it important to have more than one healer in your group, what if Mina becomes injured, she'll need back up." The purple cat said.
"And you?" Shadow turned to Silver.
"I'm here to protect Blaze of course!" He answered, his smile leaving as Shadow's hard stare remained.
"Whatever." Shadow continued walking, and the rest followed, the two newcomers falling in place behind Jazz and Copper.
This changes nothing, the black hedgehog thought, we already figured he knew we were coming. It's our only choice, though it's just stupid to walk into this trap, but with no other way... Shade... Foxy... and even Rouge. Shadow's thoughts wandered and he shook his head, he couldn't think the worst of things, if he did what was to become of him...?
The weather had been fair for the planet they were on, no rain, though as always the sky remained dark, and the wind was beginning to blow harshly, endlessly.
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According to a maps that Tails and Flick had made for them, they were nearly there, and as they made it to the top of a rocky hill, they saw what it overlooked. The facility, Shadow realized, was not unlike Bujin's. But if the same was true to this monster's mentor, with this big of a facility on the surface, the underground part of the building must be enormous. The crazed hedgehog's underground lab had been nearly seven times the size of his above ground hangers, which had been about the size of a small human gas station. This seeable building, was about the size of four large hospitals, towers and all. The buildings were white colored, bright, searchlights, metal gates, armored vehicles, huge robotic guards, and non robotic slaves, all were busy working and carrying out the insane fox's will.
Shadow pulled out his binoculars, as did the rest of the group, and watched as the hug robotic creatures that they had seen previously burning and taking captives at their home were still not completely emptied and sort though, as Cobalt's slaves were taking the last of them out to be put in cells and await their torture no doubt.
Jazz pointed and Shadow turned his attention to one. None of the captives were recognizable to him, accept this one, Rouge. She was kicking and screaming and putting up a fight as the robot slaves pulled her out and cuffed her, then stuck something in her too small to be seen, a needle most likely. She immediatly stopped fighting, falling into a sleep, and the robots dragged her inside.
The giant ships closed up, the bat having been the last of their captives, and using a propulsion system, flew over the buildings and to the other sides, what appeared to be a docking bay. The robot guards went back to their original posts, awaiting more orders.
Putting the binoculars down, Shadow continued to stare at the massive buildings, memories of his previous torture by the deceased Bujin coming to his head. Jazz put a hand on his shoulder and shook him, and he glared at his nephew.
"Sit'n and stare'n like that, for nearly ten minutes now. Come on we gotta go!" The young green hedge-fox said.
Shadow nodded, but then shrugged the boy's hand off him. He still hadn't forgiven him for letting Omar go.
Then, Jazz pointed again, to the other side of the canyon that the facilities were housed in. There was a light in the cliffs, and not a natural one. It was too far from the base to be one of the crazed fox's. The light flickered back and forth, on and off. Jazz ran to the back of the party and pulled the dog up to the front.
He stared at the light for a moment, then pulled out a shuriken, and aimed it against the sky, shining the light back in a reflect.
The light on the other side stopped flickering, and then after a moment, went out completely. Jazz took out his binoculars again, looking back down to the base's entrance. A green furred hedgehog stood there now, and as guards opened the gate for him, he turned on them and tore them to shreds, using his sword nearly the same size, though differently styled, then Dante's. It was Omar.
After taking care of the robots, the hedgehog turned and looked up to them briefly, nodding. Omar then proceeded to pull out the gate's functional systems, leaving it open as he began to race up and down the buildings, disabling the firing systems and more robots.
Jazz looked away from his binoculars and at Shadow, who had also been watching like he.
"I still don't trust him. Let's go." The black hedgehog started down the hill-like mountain as fast pace.
Jazz attached himself to the supply wagon, and pulled it down, if the hill hadn't been at such an incline he wouldn't have had the strength to do it, while everyone else rode on top of it. When they got to the near bottom, he realized they were going far too fast.
Silver, who was busy holding on for dear life, let loose a blast of his psychic powers, slowing them down, and at the same time leveling them out, though they were still going fast enough to just barely keep up with Shadow, who had by now reached the gates.
They halted there for the moment, as Omar sped up to them, or just to Jazz more it seemed. The green hedgehog was keeping a respectable distance from Shadow. He knew his brother-in-law had a temper, and was not about to catch the bad side of it.
"Teh automatic attack systems are all down, as are most of teh gates. But there is much ta fear beyond robotic weapons. Half beings, experiments, gene manipulated creatures, part of teh fox's slaves are all under his control. This one is more intelligent than Bujin." Omar said. He glanced at Shadow with a somewhat frightened look, then pulled Jazz close and whispered in his ear. The hedge-fox couldn't betray his emotions as his eyes became wide, and then nodded at his father.
Omar took a last glance at his son and Shadow, then sped off, back into the building, before any of the could stop him.
Shadow turned and glared at Jazz, who appeared stricken for a moment, then met his eyes. Instead of asking, the ebon hedgehog turned back to the gate entrance.
"Something has already happened to them both, I see, though you won't tell it to me, as Omar wouldn't." He paused for a moment then took off into the base.