Sweet, I got this Chapter done before finals *dances* :D

Anyway, for the reviews...*looks at the review tab* Huh, what do you know, no anonymous reviews.

I usually get to those that review me by pm. But if I haven't gotten to you yet, I apologize. Rest assured, I will soon. :D Still, thank you all for reviewing. :D

Now, here is Chapter 42.

Enjoy :D

Chapter 42: Carrying On

Narrator: None, third person format.

"Figures. Tails gives us one rule to follow and Crash manages to break it on the first day." Zephyr muttered as he looked around below his Extreme Gear for the meerkat.

"It's not his fault." Gale defended.

Truly it wasn't, the poor guy always had a knack for getting himself into these situations. Now they had to backtrack and hope that something bad didn't happen to him. Zephyr had calculated that the last they heard from Crash was at least 1,000 miles back…that was a lot of ground to cover, considering they were flying at the speed of sound just a few moments ago.

Gale was worried, Crash didn't answer his communicator either. Zephyr reassured her and told her that he probably dropped it or something, but she still couldn't help it. "I hope he's okay."

"Eh, I'm sure he just got sidetracked or something. We'll find him-"

Suddenly, before Zephyr could finish, something dashed in from behind them and smacked the back of Zephyr's head, causing him to fly right off of his Extreme Gear. "Gah! "WHAHAHA!"

As soon as he hit the ground, he barrel rolled, trying to avoid being impaled by his own Extreme Gear.

"Zeph! You okay?"

Out of habit, the hawk yelled. "Crash, you idiot!"

"Um…that wasn't Crash."

As soon as he heard that, the hawk looked around him to see if there was someone else around. Hearing the familiar sound of Extreme Gear flying, the two Mobians looked up and saw another Extreme Gear rider.

Unfortunately, the jade hawk was all too familiar to Zephyr. "Great…It's the old man. This day just keeps getting better."

Suddenly, another fast moving object dashed by…it was an Exus Fiend, a jet like robot.

"Zeph, he's in trouble. We have to help him."

The hawk scoffed as he picked himself off the ground and dusted himself off. "Pfft, Yeah right. When pigs fly."

Another Extreme Gear rider flew right by. "Hold on Boss! I'm comin'!"

Both Gale and Zephyr looked at each other.

"Okay, that was a Guinea Pig, that doesn't count."

"Zeph, they can't take that Exus Fiend by themselves."

"If you want to have at it, go right ahead." The hawk then tried to pry his Extreme Gear out of the ground.

Seeing the Exus robot catching up to Jet, the young sugar glider suddenly yelled. "Ah! If you don't help him, you're no better than he is!"

That statement was such a shock to Zephyr that his grip slipped on the Extreme Gear and he fell back ward, landing on his rear. As Gale took off, the bewildered hawk watched her. Did she really just say that?

The young glider caught up to them in nothing flat. She was coming right up behind the guinea pig when she recognized who had caught up to her.

"Zephyr!"

"Yeah, yeah, I can tell you you're right later. Lets just get this over with."

The two picked up speed and caught up to the guinea pig Extreme Gear rider.

"It's alright, we're here to help!" Gale yelled over the wind.

As Gale was convincing the rider that her and Zeph were on their side, Zephyr took off ahead to catch up to the Exus Fiend.

"Hey! Two-bit rust-bucket!"

The robot scanned behind it, its eye lights pivoted to the back of its head. Realizing that the teenage hawk gaining on it was a priority target, the robot suddenly slowed down.

Zephyr didn't stop, but picked up speed. He then pushed a button on his Extreme Gear with his foot, allowing sharp, wing-shaped blades to come out on either side of the hover board.

"This is our turf!"

The sound of metal hitting metal rang out through the air as the two passed each other. Not even waiting for the robot to recover, Zephyr pulled the Extreme Gear upward, causing it to flip…

"You got that?" …and fly straight down at an angle and slice the robot again. The robot then chased after the teenage hawk.

Recognizing the voice behind him, Jet gave a shocked look and slid his Extreme Gear to a stop, allowing it hover.

It was an insane dog fight. Both Zephyr and the Exus Fiend were fighting so close, it would make any fighter pilot shiver. It was an epic display of aerodynamic prowess, but it was also extremely dangerous. One wrong move and Zephyr would be dead.

Jet and his comrade were shocked that Zephyr and Gale would even help them. Not only that, they didn't know if it was a good idea to try and intervene or even assist Zephyr in a fight like this. There was too much room for error if something went wrong.

As quickly as that thought came to them, Zephyr broke from the conflict and then took off, the Exus right on his tail. He had just found out that the Exus Fiend had regenerating capabilities, so what he was trying to accomplish in that dog fight was getting him no where. If he was going to take this robot out, he had to think of something else.

Gale raced after them, staying right on the Exus Fiend's tail.

Zephyr acknowledged his teammate's presence over the communicator. "Gale, we're going to plan 'B'."

"Copy that, I'm right it's tail."

The hawk pulled his Extreme Gear hard to the right. He looked out his peripherals to see if he was far enough away from the robot. Come on you stupid metal head, give me some space here.

Zephyr tried slaloming back and forth to shake the Exus Fiend off his tail, but the stubborn robot didn't break the formation. Damn it, looks like I gotta try something new…but what? I've tried everything except-…Shit.

At that moment, Zephyr knew there was one way to loose this robot so that Gale could get a clear shot…but he absolutely hated the idea. Well…beggars can't be choosers.

"Gale, I can't shake it. Look, no matter what happens, take it out, that's an order."

"Wait! Zeph, what are you doing?"

Here it goes.

He slammed his foot onto the on and off switch for the anti gravity jets. The jets turned off and the Extreme Gear stalled and began to fall out of the sky with Zephyr still on it. The Exus Fiend's blade like wings just barely missed the top of Zephyr's head as it passed over.

Gale stayed on the Exus Fiend's tail as ordered, but she still hesitated for a second. A part of her was screaming to dive after Zephyr, but another part of her remembered what Zephyr had said…he planned this. She realized that the hawk knew what he was doing and needed her to do her part. With a heavy heart, the sugar glider continued after the Exus Fiend. She only had a small window of time before the robot would turn itself around and go after her or Zephyr, who was unable to defend himself.

Zephyr quickly tried to start his Extreme Gear again, but he already knew this was going to be difficult. It was a major safety rule to never turn off the Extreme Gear's engines while in flight. Each time the Extreme Gear is turned off, it takes time to recharge…time that Zephyr didn't have.

"Come on…Come on, work!"

He could hear the jets whirl, like they wanted to restart, but no longer had the strength.

"Come on!"

The hawk stomped on the button one last time and closed his eyes. He was so close to the ground now, he knew he was either going to be saved, or dead…

The familiar sound of the Extreme Gear's engines filled his ears. He risked opening one of his eyes and look down. It worked. The Extreme Gear had saved him…just four feet from the ground. The hawk's legs shook from the sudden adrenaline rush and he collapsed on his board.

Zephyr breathed a huge sigh of relief. "Thank Mobius…whew…note to self, find a backup system so that doesn't happen again."

The hawk looked up and saw Gale chasing after the Exus Fiend. She had it lined up right where she wanted it. The nine year old sugar glider flew like a pro as she closed in on her target.

You got it Gale, take it out.

At that moment, she hit a button with her foot and a missile launched out from an access port on bottom of the Extreme Gear. The missile hit it's mark and broke on impact. An ice like substance began to cover the robot's engines and it began to fall out of the sky. The ice crept it's way from the engines until the robot was completely encased.

Zephyr quickly flew up to meet it. Once he was close enough, he pushed a button on his Extreme Gear. A missile shot out and hit the robot dead on, but instead of freezing the robot or blowing it up, the missile engulfed it in flames, causing the strange ice to melt into the cracks in the robot's armor. As soon as the fire snuffed itself out, the ice cooled quickly, turning itself into a metal like substance that fused itself with the robot's structure. The hunk of metal crashed into the ground, creating a small crater.

"Ha! It worked!" Zephyr shouted in triumph. "Tails is gonna be psyched to hear that."

The two young Extreme Riders came in for a landing and touched down on the ground.

Gale excitedly ran to Zephyr. "Zeph, we did it! We totally mopped the floor with that-" She suddenly stopped short and hid behind the hawk as Jet and the other Extreme Gear rider landed nearby. "Eep."

The older hawk walked toward the kids. "Zephyr."

The teenage hawk stood in front of Gale and gave a defiant look. "Jet."

"Gale! Zephyr!"

The young sugar glider turned in the direction where she heard her name. Zephyr on the other hand, remained focused on his father in front of him.

Familiar blue and gold comets streamed into view and slowed down when they reached their two comrades. Nikki spoke first. "We came as soon I heard about-"

She suddenly stopped short when she saw Zephyr and Jet at a stare down. "Uh oh."

The midnight hedgehog focused on the unfamiliar hawk. "Want me to take care of it?"

"No, better let them settle it on their own." Nikki reassured. It had been a while since Zephyr had seen his father and she had remembered that the two didn't part ways on good terms. But, it was nothing to get overly worried about…as long as no one got hurt that is.

Gale ran over to Nikki and hid behind her.

Jet's eyes narrowed. "This is Rogue territory, you and your team are not welcome here."

"Ha, figures that's the kind of gratitude we get for saving your ass." Zephyr retorted.

"I didn't need any help, I had that Fiend where I wanted it."

Zephyr laughed from disbelief. "Seriously? Are you that thick headed to admit you were in trouble?"

"Feather-brained idiot!"

Zephyr shot back. "Self-centered buzzard!"

"Okay, this is getting out of hand." Nikki darted in-between the two hawks, who just about at each other's throats. "Alright, that's enough."

At that same moment, Jet's teammate came in and held Jet back as well. "Sir, we need to get out of here. The Exus will send reinforcements."

Jet broke free from his subordinate's grip, but didn't advance in Zephyr's direction. Instead, he sighed and then shot the teenagers a look. "I better not catch any of you on my turf again." The two then turned around, grabbed their Extreme Gears and took off.

Zephyr's temper wasn't subsiding in the least. "That's the last time I save your sorry butt!"

"Zephyr, lets go. We need to find Crash." Nikki reminded him not only as a fact, but to keep him from taking off after Jet.

As soon as the teenage hawk remembered his clumsy comrade, he face palmed himself. "Ugh, you're right. Let's go find him."

"So how do we do this if we can't split up?" Gale asked.

Seeing Dark roll his eyes then walking in the opposite direction, Nikki's eyes widened. "Um Dark, where are you going?"

"Finding Crash."

"Um hello, weren't you listening?" Zephyr shot is his teammate a confusing look. "Tails said no one goes off on their own anymore."

"I'll keep in touch with Nikki."

"Are you sure?" Nikki asked.

The midnight hedgehog crossed his arms. "Don't trust that I can take care of myself?"

"Oh no, I trust you Dark. It's those Sleeper creeps that I don't trust. What if one of them gets a hold of you?"

"That's what telepathy is for." Dark reminded.

"Oh…right. I keep forgetting you can do that."

"He can do what?" The hawk face palmed himself. "Geesh, doesn't anyone tell me anything anymore?"

"Zeph, you keep hitting your head like that, you'll look like a Christmas Tree."

Gale couldn't help but laugh at Nikki's comment.

"Catch you later then." With that, Dark took off in the other direction.

"Unbelievable." Zephyr said as he rolled his eyes. "The guy takes out one Sleeper and thinks he's invincible."

"Well, for our sake, I hope Jodi can come up with that…what ever she's working on. I can't stand second guessing who's not a puppet." The female hedgehog then turned to her two comrades. "Okay, so Dark and I will take the land route. Zeph, you and Gale search by air. Stay within sight though, alright?"

"Pfft, yes Mom." Zeph mocked as he rolled his eyes.

"We're on it, Nikki. Come on, Zeph." Gale then grabbed her Extreme Gear and took to the air.

As soon as the last two of her comrades took off, the female hedgehog face palmed herself. "Ugh, this is why I hate being in charge. I'm too kick back for this drama crap."

As much as Nikki was a natural leader, today she was still drained from the events of yesterday. She did do a good job hiding it from the others and keeping a level head, but right now, she wanted nothing more than to just fall asleep.

Honestly, I have no idea how Tails does it. I'm beat.

She quickly put her own problems aside and ran off toward the east. Alright Crash, where did you…well… 'crash' into?

The blue blur soared, keeping her eyes open for any sign of her friend. Come on Crash, where are you?

After searching her grid in that short amount of time, she contacted the others. "You guys find anything yet?"

"Nope, nada." Zephyr's voice sounded on the other line. "You neither?"

"Nu uh." Nikki answered, still glancing around.

"Wow…that kid's really done it this time." Zephyr added.

"I don't see him either." Gale answered.

"Dark, how about you?"

Nikki waited for an answer…it wasn't what she was looking for. "Negative. No sign of him anywhere."

"You mean you can't sense him?" This wasn't good. If Dark couldn't sense where Crash was, that could mean one thing…and Nikki didn't like it.

Frustrated and worried, she called out. "Crash!"

Suddenly, Nikki heard the sound of metal moving and she whipped around, her spikes extended and standing on end. What she saw surprised her for minute. The noise had been a hatch that opened underground, and guess who was peeking his head out of the hole in the ground?

"Nikki? Was that you?"

"What?…" Nikki was completely confused for a second, she then yelled. "Crash, what the heck? We've been looking everywhere for you and you're in the-!"

She then stopped and her confused look returned when another realization came to her. "Where does that go?"

"Oh, I stumbled in here to get away from an Exus bot after crashing my board about-" The meerkat stopped and looked around a second at his surroundings, as if he had no idea where he was until he got his bearings. He then pointed behind him. "About fifteen miles back thata' way."

Nikki gave a slight look of disgust. "Please tell me that's not the sewer."

"What? Eww gross no." Crash replied with the same look.

Suddenly, a call interrupted. "Nikki, I found him, he's-"

"Yeah Dark, I know he's-" Her eyes widened. "Wait, you can sense him now?"

"Yes, that would be why I called you."

"That's weird…huh." The hedgehog came up with an idea, but she had to check and see if her hunch was correct. "Crash, go back down there and shut the hatch."

"Um, okay…but I don't see why I need to-"

"Just do it, Crash."

"Kay." the young meerkat climbed down the ladder and closed the hatch.

Nikki contacted Dark again. "Okay, how about now?"

"…he's gone."

"Kay Crash, climb back up!" She hollered so that Crash could hear her.

The meerkat obeyed her and reopened the hatch.

"And now?"

"He's back. Nikki, what is going on over there?"

"I don't get it, what are you guys doing?" Zephyr chimed in.

"Guys, get over here. I think Crash found something you might wanna look at."

Dark arrived there in nothing flat, but paused a moment when he saw where Crash was. He then turned to Nikki. "He's not in a sewer access, is he?"

"Oh come on!" Crash yelled. "Do I look the kind of guy that would be walking around in the sewer?"

Dark was about to say something, but predicting it, Nikki interrupted. "Don't."

"Ah come on, it's perfect."

His female comrade shook her head. "Don't do it."

"Whoa, what is this place?" Nikki couldn't help but say that after she had climbed down and was looking around her.

The rest of the group were just as surprised by the tunnel they were now in. It was truly massive, big enough for the X Tornado 2 to easily fly in.

"Dude, it's huge." The hawk looked up at the tunnel's ceiling. "How the heck could someone hide this down here?"

"This isn't all of it. There's more tunnels branching from the center structure." Dark answered after he scanned around him.

Zephyr shot him a slightly confused look. "Have you been down here before?"

"Zeph, Dark is psychic." Nikki reminded. "Didn't you get that from the whole telepathy thing?"

The hawk crossed his arms. "Well, how come he couldn't see this when we were top side?"

"Maybe it has some kind of frequency jamming device…" Gale guessed as she took a closer look at the walls. She was quite smart for her age, similar to Tails in fact. "Or maybe it's the metal it's made of…"

"Don't touch anything."

The instant Dark said that, Gale pulled her hand away from the wall and gave a small yelp. "Eep!"

The midnight hedgehog then continued. "We don't know if there's any defense systems in here. It's obvious this was a base of some sort. We don't want to set anything off."

"Yeah, good point." Nikki agreed.

Crash thought for a second. "Well, I didn't run into anything like that. But I did see this big door."

"Big door?" Nikki asked.

"Yeah, it had this huge "G" on it." The meerkat added.

Dark and Nikki looked at each other.

"Sounds like a G.U.N. base to me."

"Yeah, totally fit's the usual." Nikki agreed. She then turned to the meerkat. "Crash, do you think you can take us to that door?"

"Sure thing." The meerkat pointed down the tunnel behind them. "It's this way."

Nikki gave a determined glance in that said direction. "Right then, lets check this out."

"Here it is." The meerkat pointed out once the door came into view.

It certainly was a long run to get there, even though Dark and Nikki could've easily ran ahead and would've been there in a short few seconds, they thought it was best to stay with Zephyr, Gale and Crash. They still didn't know if there were any traps or security settings in the old base, so they decided not to risk it.

Zephyr whistled. "Wow, that is one big door."

"I told you." Crash nodded.

The group slowly walked toward the goliath door. It was made of a black metal, similar to the kind that Nikki had seen on her mission to Cat Country that the portable roboticizers were made of. The G.U.N. symbol was right in the center, a single "G" with a four pointed diamond surrounding the logo.

"Looks like one of G.U.N.'s more recent projects." Nikki deduced. "That logo is the one they used two years before the Exus took over."

Nikki looked curiously at the door as she recognized the metal. "Huh, that's weird."

"What's weird?" Gale asked.

"This metal…I've seen it before…That mission in Cat Country."

"Oh yeah, I remember that one." Crash chimed in. "But, I don't remember seeing anything like this. I was in the city though, so that happened where you and Stealth were at, right?"

"Yeah. It's the same metal as those shipping crate roboticizers." The blue hedgehog added.

"So how do we get in…or…do even want to try and get in?" Zephyr debated.

Dark stepped forward, he was about to scan the door when a red beam of light shot out from the top of the door. The whole group jumped out of the way instinctively as the beam fanned out and hit the floor. The midnight hedgehog looked at the beam of light curiously.

"Hey! What are you doing? That could burn you or something!" Zephyr nearly squawked.

The midnight hedgehog raised one of his eyebrows as he looked back at the hawk. He then returned his gaze to the beam. Then, without warning, Dark placed his hand in the beam. The rest of the group stepped back, thinking that Dark was either going to burst into flame or turned into metal…but none of that happened. Instead, the beam moved to toward Dark's arm, then stopped at the ring on his wrist.

The beam disappeared and a female mechanical voice was heard. "Access Granted."

The massive door began to open, but worn from unforgiving time and lack of upkeep, the door stopped about a two feet from the floor.

"Really? All that and we get a two foot entrance?"

"No one's been here for years Zeph, what do you expect?" Gale answered.

"I expect something to work…for once."

"Alright, lets have a look." Without hesitation, the blue hedgehog rolled inside. The group then heard her voice from the other side. "Whoa…Guys, you gotta see this."

Dark went through first, followed by Crash then Gale. Zephyr rolled his eyes and then followed suit.

"Oh…Chaos." The hawk said in awe.

Massive didn't even begin to describe the size of the base. In fact it didn't look too much like a base at all…it looked more like…

"A bomb shelter." Dark said as he scanned the room. "G.U.N. must've built it in case of an invasion."

"But…why didn't they use it?"

"Probably didn't have time to." Nikki answered, there was a light hint of sorrow to her voice. "The Exus attacked all of their bases at once…leaving no reinforcements."

The hawk was lost for words for a moment after hearing Nikki's small description of what happened nine years ago. "Damn…I heard it was bad…but…damn." He then looked around. "I mean seriously, this place is huge. A whole town could live down here."

"It certainly would do well for a base of operations, or a safe house." Dark analyzed. "We should look around. See if there's anything we can use."

Nikki came to a curious thought. "Or…we could use the base ourselves."

"Say what now?" Zephyr asked in confusion.

"Think about it. This base is insanely huge and Dark couldn't sense it. And judging by the fact that the door wasn't messed with, no one else knows about this base but us."

"Not to mention it's right in between the three other Freedom Fighter's bases." Dark added. "I think you might be onto something here."

"We should tell the others about this. I'll go back top side and try and get a hold of Tails."

Dark nodded.

Before she left, Nikki stopped just shy of the door and looked back to her comrades. "Oh, Crash."

"Yeah?" The meerkat asked curiously.

The female blue hedgehog gave him a thumbs up. "Good job finding this place." She then quickly rolled under the door and then dashed toward the base exit.

Author's Note: Sweet, this looks promising. :D

So thanks to Crash, the Freedom Fighters found a new base of operations.

Next time, the young Freedom Fighters find their place as a group in their own right. But will they be able to handle this new responsibility? And Jodi's solution for the anti-mech shows a surprising, yet all too familiar result to Tails. Find out in the next chapter.

Oh, and I moved Marcus' findings to the next chapter as well. Sorry about that. ^^;

For update information, check Profile. :D