When the Changeling swarm had awoken, there was nothing that could truly stop it. Hundreds upon thousands, possibly even millions of man sized 'hornets' charging out from what appeared to be every possible anger in the most ravenous of manners was not something anyone could possibly prepare for - but it wasn't in Omega's programming to simply give up and die. It was fortunate for Team Dark that he was a machine - he had neither DNA nor 'emotions' for the Changelings to drain, leaving their core abilities practically useless against him. Instead they were forced to fixate on getting close and clawing, even trying to use their stingers at his metallic body, leaving themselves more than open to the assortment of weapons at his disposal.

With a wide variety of missiles, gun turrets and laser beams the robot was easily able to tear his way through each Changeling that dared to approach him, dropping so many of them from the air that it was as if they were flying directly into the ferocious blades of a woodchipper.

The same could be said however, for Rouge and Oliver.

It wasn't for lack of skill; they certainly put up a fight against them. Though without a heavy hitter like Shadow and with Omega fully occupied, they were more than easily separated from the robots' immediate vicinity and overwhelmed by the sheer number of foes they were faced with. The entire chamber was echoing out the sounds of their screeches as well as the buzzing of their wings, more than enough to induce migraines or headaches.

Rouge's martial arts prowess and Oliver's arrows could only do so much before eventually the two were grabbed. Oliver while on the ground, having jumped himself over to one of the platforms after a few of his explosive arrows appeared to be effective. He turned around to shoot at one of the beasts unaware that another was just about to pounce on his back.

"Gah!" he grunted, shouting, "Get off me you piece of-" he couldn't even finish his sentence before it had opened its mouth wide enough to reveal a true horror. Using it's mandibles to hold it's target in place it extended its already horrific mouth to reveal what appeared to be a second mouth, one with more mammalian appearing teeth - namely the inclusion of two notable long fanged teeth. The mouth shot out like a chameleon's tongue onto Oliver's neck as the fangs promptly sank themselves in deep. The blonde man let out a pained groan as he soon could feel as though his emotions were being drained directly from him; not merely the negative ones such as the anger he was feeling towards this monster, but any positive emotion as well. By the time he was being carried off to the path from which the swarm had charged at the group for he was completely without emotion - his entire body falling limp and making no resistance, a look of utter boredom as well as weakness from a significant drainage of blood taking over him as his captor took him off to where it had come from.

By the time she was able to witness this, Rouge was already in the air using her own martial arts kicks and aerial maneuvers to evade and keep at bay the Changeling swarm around her. She was far too occupied to immediately assist Oliver, though once she saw him being taken away by one of the beasts she let out a concerned shout:

"O-Oliver!" she immediately tried to fly after the Changeling which carried him away, though in doing so left herself open. One of them swooped in from above her with intent on stinging her directly through her back. Thankfully she was able to turn and avoid this, though she wasn't so lucky when another one managed to whack her directly in the face with one of its arms, sending her into the waiting clutches of another.

As she soon panicked and struggled within its grasp, she too was met with the same fate as Oliver:

"Ngh! Ah!" she yelled, "Get off of me, you disgusting-" her yells and screams soon trailed off once the fangs were sunk into her skin, draining her of all her emotions. Of her anger, fear, hope, love, avarice, love, compassion, and perhaps most importantly in this situation her willpower. By the time it was done not only was she weak from having a portion of her blood so rapidly drained, but she was also emotionally numb and practically zombified, also offering no resistance as the beast carried her off to where it was that it came from.

This did not go unnoticed from Omega however, quite the contrary actually. While still blasting away at the swarm around him with both rapid-fire machine gun cannons as well as lock-on laser shoots from the barrels of his arms he was easily able to detect and witness the capture of both Oliver and Rouge. He would have immediately made moves to prevent it had he been able to bare witness to it sooner, though instead he had to adjust his priorities after the fact:

"New Top Priority Acquired: Rescue Oliver Queen and Rouge the Bat. Confirmed."

While it was true that Omega was unfortunately too slow to keep sight of Rouge or Oliver, he also wasted no time in following after the Changelings that took them immediately; marching and firing his way through the swarm around him like that of an unstoppable tank.

Try as they may, the Changelings were unable to come close to destroying Omega. Between rapidly swinging his entire torso around to knock enough of them loose, emitting electric discharges when he ran the risk of being lifted into the air, and all of his other previously utilized weaponry it was abundantly clear that they would have to use things other than brute force to deal with the machine - even so, like any swarm acting in defense of queen and hive, they didn't seem to be so keen to change their strategy so quickly just yet.

If Rouge and Omega still retained any of their emotions, they would be hoping dearly that Omega would reach them in time.

Some are haunted by the tolling bells….

Some by the fiery pits of Hell….

But what haunts me is what we did see….

When we entered the larder of...

They didn't know how much time had passed, but what they did come to know was that they sincerely regretted opening their eyes at all.

The first thing that they noticed was that they were together inside of a damp, stone cell. Rather crudely placed against the hard walls, they noticed there were no chains yet to keep them restrained, the only thing keeping them in being the bars along the entrance to their room of imprisonment. Looking around, they could soon see walls and floor were without anything to make them particularly distinct, aside from the dried blood that painted it all a gruesome dark red.

They could only assume that the blood belonged to the skeletons that served as their cellmates. They could make out at least 3 skulls, though not only were they entirely without flesh but their rib cages were all ripped open, their arms detached from their shoulders and the rest of their bodies beneath their chest destroyed - littering the floor room like the remains of a holiday feast along the table.

Little did they know that the remains of these souls were but the beginning of the horrors they were going to witness within the center of the hive.

What alerted them to the fact that there was more than meets the eye here was when a most horrid stench hit their nostrils. It was so foul that it made them cough and practically vomit as they realized just how strong of a smell it actually was; it was the terrible smell of death, the putrid odor of decaying flesh, and the closer they ebbed towards the honeycomb shaped frame that served as their cell's entrance. They could feel their bodies struggling to keep themselves from churning back up the contents of their stomach, and it was nigh impossible for them to do so once they saw the full extent of where they had been taken to.

As they had already figured, they were within what was best described as a dungeon. They were on but one level of a cascading underground tower, with rectangular floor housing rows of cells as they ran downward for miles - well into what appeared to be yet another pitch black abyss of utter darkness. All of it being accented by pillars, platforms and general growths across each balcony, wall, floor and ceiling of what appeared to be a combination of paper or papyrus -like material with the general appearance of ruthlessly expanding fungal growths. That was the best way to possibly describe what the actual 'hive' renovations looked like. Speaking of which, during this horrible experience the only ambient sounds being heard were the buzzing of countless wings, and hisses from the beasts which lived here as they worked tirelessly to do what it was they felt needed to be done.

Of the floors that they could see lit by candles along the wall, the work being done was far from pretty.

Many of the unoccupied cells did not have their evidently retracting bars visible, and as such the contents of these small chambers were revealed.

Corpses. Fresh corpses.

Hundreds, if not perhaps thousands or even millions.

Humans and anthros alike lay dead within the cells of the changeling hive, the vast majority of them either spread across the floor or sitting up against the damp, blood drenched walls. Their bodies pale and drained of blood, while their faces drained of any emotion; locked in cold numbness. Their bodies though being well torn asunder. What happened to their arms and legs varied from individual, though the constant seemed to be that their torsos were split clean open - their internal organs removed, more than likely having been devoured. This naturally not only blood but also scraps and pieces of these body parts strewn across the room; at times the creatures ate even the bones, at other times they seemed to settle for mere dismemberment.

It seemed to matter not who or what they were - there were just as many Bialyan citizens as there were ill-fated foreign soldiers. The only difference being that the former were often dressed in widely varying styles of civilian clothes, while the latter were in their combat uniforms. It would appear as though prisoners of war were quite a popular treat, or at least a relatively recent one, for the drones to enjoy. There were various soldiers, from troops of the United Federation to those of nearby nations with a more similar culture. It didn't matter where they came from or what war they had been a part of anymore, as far as the changelings were concerned they were merely food.

Most popular by far however seemed to be the civilians of Bialya itself, who made up the bulk of the prisoner population. Men, women, perhaps in some dark recesses of the dungeon even children who did as little as get caught stealing. Many of the unfortunate women still had their hijabs worn over their heads, though it wasn't unheard of to see a few who had holes and tears in the fabric of theirs - usually of course accompanied by large gaping holes in their heads. The men didn't have traditionally unique clothing, save for some of them who had turbans on prior to their final demise - though in many cells could be seen husband laid out directly beside wife, though it was unclear which perished at which time.

All of these victims had one thing in common: lack of emotion. All of them had the blankest of looks to their faces, to their eyes even, as they sat or laid there with their fate clear for all to see. Not even a grotesque smile of enjoyment or a single look of horror - merely complete numb neutrality in the face of such a horrific demise.

As if to add insult to injury, the changelings seemed to be taking the forms of the freshest victims - those who had been killed so recently that their bodies weren't yet contributing to the grizzly odor of rot. It didn't even seem as though their DNA was required for this process, as drones who merely passed by these cells at times performed the shifting. Where these individuals went off to was anyone's guess, though whatever it was it no doubt was what her majesty demanded.

While this brought to immediate question as to what the purpose of sucking out DNA alongside the emotional capacity of any given victim was, though that question was one some would likely view as having likely answered itself upon being asked.

Even this was not all however, for what the two of them saw on more fresh bodies was that the gaping holes in their torso were filled with what first appeared to be pulsating tumors growing from inside of them - adding the sounds of disgusting squirms and squishes to the orchestra of wings, hisses and screeches echoing from both above and below. These were not actually tumors of course, as Oliver soon took notice of. He looked at the ceiling of each cell - including their own, and noticed there was a series of pipes and machinery at the top right in the center of the ceiling. It seemed to be a thin though long mechanical arm of sorts, albeit theirs was currently folded and inactive. It's hand however seemed to be a clear glass tube tube - though it was one that was covered in and leaked small amounts of mucus-like slime onto the floor where they stood. Looking at this and then back at those unfortunate bodies with those growths inside of them drew out confusion - though upon closer, more focused inspection he could see within the bulbous growths what appeared to be the silhouettes of slug-like insect larvae churning inside of each individual tumorous growth. It was then that no questions needed to be asked.

"Dear fucking God...their eggs are inside of them…"

Rouge herself was holding back still a discharge of her stomach contents as well as tears from the horror she was seeing, shaking her head as she let out:

"What are these things?!"

Realizing what fate potentially had in store for them should they do nothing, Rouge and Oliver immediately made moves to break out of the cells they were in. However, with there not being any ventilation shafts to be seen, all they could do is desperately beat on the metallic bars. Rouge with her feet, Oliver with his bow.

However, filling the area with the sounds of their desperate clanging and thrashing against those iron bars was perhaps not the best move that the two could have made.

The sounds of the metallic bars being struck echoed throughout the dungeon and it's many floors, and seeing as how active the area was it was a mere matter of time until they greeted with unpleasant company. Unfortunately for the two of them, that matter of time was only a meager amount of seconds.

While yes the bars of their cell vanished within mere seconds, disappearing right into the floor and ceiling - it was nigh immediately followed by the cruel arms of a Changeling whacking Oliver right into the wall behind him, the blonde man having so little time to react that all he could do is let out a shrill grunt as he impacted the stones with his back before sliding onto the floor.

With the the beast then proceeding to approach him as it screeched out it's horrifying call, soon getting on top of him and preparing to yet again assault him with it's second set of jaws, Oliver had little time to respond; however, he used his bow again this time jamming it in between the creature's mandibles in order to prevent it from yet again latching onto him with his jaws. In the ensuing struggle as it tried to break through this defense and follow through with what it wanted to do, lunging it's body toward him while using its claws to attempt stabbing and grabbing at his body. He could feel their sharp points piercing and cutting into his skin, though as painful as it was he had more than enough adrenaline pumping through him to continue fighting back, even rearing up his legs and pushing back by kicking at the creature's 'chest' while keeping his bow sturdy as his only line of defense against its jaws.

As Oliver struggled for his life, Rouge was most unfortunately not able to immediately rush to his aid. As to be expected, there was more than merely one changeling attracted to the noises they had been making.

Rather than be instantly faced with one of them in their true appearance however, she was instead charged at by what appeared to be a clone of herself - which was of course to say one of the beasts having taken her form. There were at least four of them approaching her at once from what she could see, though she didn't precisely have time to make sure there weren't more; the only thing to be noticed was that these four 'copies' of her did not sport the same grayscale coloring as the ones from before and instead looked like Rouge herself without any flaws in their copying at all.

However, they could copy her body all they wanted - they couldn't copy her experience.

They matched her skill level decently at first as they put her on the defensive with their attacks - clashing heels, fists and knees as she had to desperately block attacks from multiple directions; though they fought with next to no actual tactics - mostly settling for merely rushing at her and trying to mimic the martial arts kicks she did with her legs while also overwhelming her with superior numbers. Having had years of training both under herself and with G.U.N., this wasn't precisely something she couldn't handle.

Once she had gotten over the initial shock of fighting 'herself' and had enough time for the adrenaline to pump through her veins, her heart beating fast as she could feel her back yet again up against the stone wall of the cell, the tables began to be turned.

Just as one of them tried to kick her in the head and the other her stomach, Rouge made a swift duck to the floor and did a low lying kangaroo kick to their shins - knocking of both of these opponents to the ground as she got back onto her feet on the other side of them. With those two on the ground, the third one attempted to fly in the air directly at Rouge. With the real one having been facing her however, she braced herself for this mood and with mere seconds to spare grabbed her doppleganger's wrists and used the velocity of her flight to fling her directly towards the changeling that was harassing Oliver.

There was thankfully enough force in the impact to dislodge the changeling from it's position, allowing Oliver a few moments to catch his breath. There was still hardly enough time for him or Rouge to converse though, as the archer's focus was on grabbing his bow and launching an electric arrow at his aggressor before it could back on its feet again. His arrow landing directly into one of the creature's eyes, it succeeded in generating not only an electrocute pulse but also making both the exposed changeling and the one disguised as Rouge emit ear piercing as they were shocked to their death.

"Maybe disarm me first, asshole" Oliver remarked as he watched the monster die, immediately turning his attention to the direction where he had last seen Rouge afterwards.

With the distraction that Oliver had provided by shooting one of the Changelings in the eye, Rogue picked this moment to strike and attack. Flaring her wings outwards she took to the air and moved to attack, moving to deliver a jump kick, clashing with Changeling's copy of herself before continuing her assault. Blocking and dodging the copy, Rogue retaliates with her own attacks, sending the copy skidding backwards. Not wanting to give it any chance of recovery she moved in to deliver a sweep toward her copies legs. When her copy moved to dodge she knew she had them, as she used her strength to push up and spun up in the air with her leg extended. Rogue delivers multiple spin kicks in a tornado-like fashion, trapping and bouncing them around in the vortex before knocking them back.

Landing on the ground, Rogue wasted no time in between her attacks. Cartwheeling multiple times in one jump, the female agents' legs became vertiabale fan blades as multiple kicks slammed into the copies of herself. Six. Eight. Ten. Twelve. Twelve rapid kicks with great succession and power all slammed into them knocking them back and sending them flying.

However, one of the Changelings moved behind her in a blind spot and attempted to strike her form behind, this proved to be a mistake as Rogue's ears twitched making her smirk as she spun around on her heel rotating completely around and swinging his leg up in a full spinning high kick that was followed up with a spinning side kick right to the chest sending it flying back and crashing into the wall, embedding itself right into it.

"These ears of mine aren't just for show, just so you know."

She taunted the Changeling, a coy smile gracing her face as she saw the tides of the battle were once more in her favor. Hearing another one coming, she smiled once more and this time performed a jumping, back kick. Her boot catching this one in the face, the changelings face rippling as it was sent spiraling through the air crashing head first into another one, two more tried to attack her from both sides but she had a plan for this. By supporting her body with her arm, Rouge swung her body to deliver a powerful spinning kick.

Managing to hit both of her targets, she easily sent the hapless changelings to the walls and onto their backs, giving her as much breathing room as the confined space allowed for.

However, there were certainly more where those had come from; for there was an entire hive's worth of changelings for the duo to potentially fight through - especially if the countless buzzing and screeching echoing throughout the dungeon was anything to go by. It wasn't long until more of them began arriving on the scene in droves - at least five of which were sporting Oliver's form and even equipped with bows with arrows just like his, as well as a group of reinforcements that were sporting their true forms rather than utilizing any shifting.

Blocking the path out of the cell, the Oliver changelings opened their fire on the two prisoners immediately with a barrage of basic arrows, though they themselves remained still as they fired them out.

"Is that the best you got?!" Oliver exclaimed, making moves along with to evade the arrows through well experienced dodging maneuvers, even remarking "I can do so much better than that!"

After most narrowly avoiding the initial barrage of arrows, Oliver used their pause for reloading as a time to launch his own attack - firing at each of them a set of flame arrows which set the beasts on fire the moment impact with their bodies were made, successfully preventing them from firing their next arrows as well as reducing them to bodies of flame that were aimlessly running around, screaming their heads off before dropping and flailing on the floor. This in turn allowed a provision that allowed Rouge and Oliver to make their way past these ill-fated insects and out of their still open cell.

However, all they had really proven to the changelings is that as these two sported no serious meta powers, using their forms in overwhelming numbers were rather fruitless in combat. As such, the moment they were out of the cell they were facing the swarm of strictly base form changelings.

Seeing as how there were no stairs between the levels of the dungeon, Rouge had no choice but to grab Oliver by one of his hands and carry him into the air in an attempt to locate a way - any way at all - out of this terrible place. Having no choice but to fly into where the swarm was raging though, also meant having no choice but to be out in the open.

As could honestly be expected, this left them easy pickings for such a massive swarm.

With one of his arms being occupied, held by Rouge, Oliver wasn't able to use his bow or arrows as the swarm flew around them to and fro, buzzing and hissing madly until one of them swooped in for a direct hit - brandishing it's stinger in an attempt to attack the spot where Rouge's hands were holding up Oliver. Seeing this and not being fast enough to outfly it, Rouge panicked and released her grip from Oliver while flying up.

While Oliver promptly fell down the chamber screaming, Rouge naturally had to immediately fly downward towards him after dodging that initial changeling. However, at least seven of them followed her down, their wings carrying them just as fast as her adrenaline boosted flight - if not faster if given enough time.

"Hang on, Ollie!" Rouge exclaimed as she reached a hand out towards the rapidly falling man, "I've got you!"

"You dropped me in the first place!" Oliver couldn't help but reply with that as he fell down, saying it swiftly in between his screaming.

Rouge had come nearly a centimeter's length away from grabbing Oliver's hand when both of them were yanked away from each other - grabbed by changelings at a speed that they only narrowly avoided their necks snapping from the sudden whiplash. Though they struggled - kicking and thrashing away at the hellish insects that were holding them so firmly in the air, there was nothing they could do. They could feel serrated parts of their claws cutting into their skin, drawing blood with the might of their grips as other changelings began to fly towards them, sadistically grabbing hold of their arms and legs; at first to seemingly stop the pair from struggling anymore, though once it appeared as though the creatures were beginning to instead stretch the pair out by their arms and legs instead it became all too clear what they were trying to do.

As Rouge and Oliver screamed in their grasp, feeling immense pain as they fought back against what it was these monsters were trying to do, it had become apparent that their lack of meta powers and escape attempt made them be viewed as a lability by their captors - who know wanted to as such, dispose of them.

Feeling the harsh sensation of their muscles and even bones being stretched out about as far they could, all while their wretched screeching blared so painfully into their ears. Rouge and Oliver the whole time could do nothing but holler and cry out in agony - knowing exactly what was soon going to happen.

It was only a matter of time, a short one at that.

Though the wait was ultimately not for what they had fearfully been expecting:

First it was a crashing boom from far below, but like a complete and utter defiance of fate itself it swiftly evolved into all of the changelings holding Rouge and Oliver bursting to pieces as a group of homing laser shots struck them directly in their torsos - exploding them from the center of their bodies. This of course did send Rouge and Oliver yet again falling down the steep shaft of the chamber, though with a vast hail of missiles and gunfire from below now serving as cover she was easily able to use her wings to catch herself; then of course swiftly diving downward to save Oliver from his own freefall.

Descending onto what was the nearest floor for them to land on, the two immediately took to the railing, looking down to try seeing what or who exactly had come to their aid.

At first, all they could see was the barrage of bullets, laser shots and missiles flowing out from the black abyss above - it being too dark for them to witness the source of these firearms. Within a short few moments though, a familiar red robot sprang up from the darkness while discharging a barrage of homing rockets at several of the thousands of changelings flying and screeching around the scene, all while soon after shifting his arms back to their base state so that he could use his hands to grab hold of the two changelings which latched onto him - pulling them off of his metallic body before violently swirling his torso around 180 degrees as he sent them off to the wall; shifting his hands back to weapons he finished them off with a round of explosive rounds directly to their chests.

Oliver and Rouge gained faces of complete relief as they witnessed Omega successfully laying waste to the changeling horde, with Oliver even remarking:

"About time the cavalry showed up!"

Rouge also called out to Omega; "Destroy all of them, Omega!" to which the robot quickly replied:

"Affirmative!" right as he punched a changeling that tried to sneak up on him, grabbing it as it descended and using it like an aerial bowling ball to slam both it and another one into the chamber walls before deploying twin rounds of ballistic cannon shots to swiftly dispose of them. "All changelings must be annihilated!"

As Omega continued to lay waste to the swarm from the center of the hive chamber, it was all too easy for Rouge and Oliver to forget just how many changelings there were. It was true that Omega was powerful enough to so easily dispose of them, though the two of themselves weren't precisely built to deal with them; as such, when a group of four arrived from behind them in a surprise attack amidst the chaos, it not only caught them off guard but also left them with not much they could do besides Oliver priming his arrow as Rouge prepared for another hard battle.

While Oliver did indeed launch a few arrows towards them, this time his arrows were not quite effective as they managed to slap them away just as fast as he fired them - defiantly screeching at the archer as they did so.

"Of course" he remarked sadly, "They're capable of learning."

With the monsters continuing to approach them, the two were increasingly unsure of what they could do. That was, until a few shots from Omega's ballistic cannons reduced them to splattering pieces coated with the smoke and dust of accompanying explosions. With the robot proceeding to make his landing right before the two of them, finally they yet again could let out sighs of relief.

"Thanks, Omega!" Rouge replied, a smile yet again on her face. Omega though, gave a response that confused her.

"Get down."

"Huh?"

"Get down."

Rouge and Oliver, in their moment of confusion, turned around to notice that a group of twenty if not even fifty changelings were charging the three of them at once - all of them screeching with extreme ferocity as their wings buzzed ever so viciously. Knowing now what Omega had meant, the two of them immediately ducked to the ground - allowing Omega to unleash a torrent of fire from the barrels of his arms, having shifted them into flamethrowers more than capable of spewing out enough flame to not only illuminate his vicinity with the orange-red light of the roaring fire while lighting up both the entire charging group and any more changelings who decided it was a good idea to join in on the effort - all of them being charred to the color of black ash before dropping what was perhaps several hundred feet down into the abyss below.

While looking at the changeling horde practically throwing itself at Omega's 'wall' of flame was certainly satisfying after all they had experienced, there was still a certain point which prompted Rouge to exclaim aloud:

"So when and how are we going to get out of here, exactly?!"

Without saying a single word, Omega deactivated one of his flamethrowers so that he could aim that arm as a laser cannon at one of the walls. After a scan of the walls themselves, he fired a single zeta energy blast at the wall - Rouge and Oliver shielding their eyes as the bright light was soon all they could see. Once the dust and rubble cleared, the two could see that the laser beam had successfully exposed a hallway that had been situated behind the wall - one which extended out. Though he was still fixated on setting fire to the swarm, Omega directed his speaking at Rouge and Oliver:

"Rouge, Oliver. You two go first, I will follow."

Nodding in agreement with his plan, Rouge and Oliver proceeded to make a dash directly for the now exposed hall - covered from any following changelings by both Oliver's arrows and by Omega using his free arm for ballistic cannon shots again while the other remained maintaining the fire at least until he confirmed the other two were out of the hive chamber.

With Rouge and Omega having finally gotten out of the hive, Omega deactivated his flamethrowers and made his own mad dash for where they were. As fast as he was, the changelings were more than able to keep up with him as they very rapidly formed a nightmarish cloud of at least a few hundred that charged at the robot and his two organic partners.

Omega had been ready for this though, turning his torso around as he used his propulsion systems to continue rushing towards Oliver and Rouge as he aimed his weapons not at the crowd of screaming, howling insects but instead at the ceiling above them. With not much time to spare he let loose a barrage of ballistic cannon shots and missiles alike at the ceiling, destabilizing it within a short matter of seconds. As it began to rapidly collapse down onto both the changelings and the floor around him, Omega tactically shot a missile blast at the ground beneath him while also initiating a jump to give himself just enough enough additionally propulsion to reach Oliver & Rouge before the mess of debris, rubble and dust had fallen onto him.

As the sound of falling stone as well as the aforementioned clouds of dust died down along with the sound of the raging changelings, Rouge and Oliver were finally able to catch their breaths as an overwhelming sensation of relief took them over:

"Oh thank God!" Oliver loudly exclaimed after a deep breath, "We would've been goners if it wasn't for you back there, tin man!"

"Yeah!" Rouge said between her own pants and huffs, "You really were a savior back there, Omega."

"It was my immediate top priority to rescue you" Omega answered back as his own way of saying 'no problem', "No member of Team Dark will be left behind."

"Speaking of which" Rouge interjected, suddenly remembering a certain black hedgehog who had ran off on his own some time ago, "We still need to regroup with Shadow and get the hell out of here!"

"With the path leading back the way we arrived being not viable even if it was not sealed off" Omega responded while gesturing towards the collapsed path leading into the hive chamber, "There is only one viable way to travel along." - and with that he was of course gesturing towards the hallway they were currently in, which headed out in only one direction; that of course being straight ahead of them.

"Well" Oliver commented, "Seeing as how our options are either yes or yes…"

There wasn't precisely any disagreeing with Oliver's statement, instead they got around immediately to doing rather than talking. Racing down the candle-lit stone hall, the group of what was now yet again three could only hope that they would by chance happen upon Shadow. Preferably of course the real Shadow rather than yet another horrifying pretender.

Luckily for the trio, their nightmare was in fact ending.

Without any way to openly check what time it was, the trio did not precisely know how long their trek down the hallway actually took. It could have been anywhere from merely a few minutes to at the most an hour.

Either way they soon reached a crossroads, as to their right was a tall flight of wide, stone stairs that led to a chamber they could not yet see. To their left was a similar set of steps heading downward, and ahead of them was merely a continuation of the hall they were already in. Left with the challenge of deciding which pathway to take, Rouge and Oliver ultimately yet again turned to Omega as Rouge herself said to him:

"Which way should we go, Omega?"

Stopping in the center of this crossroads, Omega took the time to carefully look around all that there was to see - scanning the area to see what was the most viable path to continue down along. The scan itself did not take very long at all, though what Omega was originally going to announce was interrupted ahead of time by something he deemed more pertinent, especially seeing as how immediately before he picked up on it there was the echoing sound of another chamber of the ruins collapsing in on itself, almost as though there was yet another swarm which had to be stopped:

"Emergency; two lifeforms rapidly approaching. Vital scenes do not match those of changelings, though identity can still not yet be confirmed."

WIthout needing any further explanation, Rouge and Oliver prepared for what was potentially yet another battle for the three of them. Omega himself also prepared his weapon systems as the two lifeform signatures approached ever rapidly, though once these two figures came into view on the other end of the hallway it was seen well that one of them was Shadow himself. However, the other one immediately beside him was Barda. Having not witnessed the confession of Barda's true intention, her presence was the reason the trio did not leave their battle stances so swiftly - and in fact they were confused as to why Shadow wasn't trying to destroy her as they approached.

Already taking aim with his arms shifting to gatling guns, Omega made his point clear as the two stopped right in front of them:

"Shadow, clear the area, preparing to annihilate the enemy."

"Omega, stand down!" Shadow swiftly exclaimed as she stood between both Barda and Omega, "Barda is with us!"

"Um...excuse me?" Rouge replied, "Since when?"

Barda, with a sharp tongue, was quick to speak for herself:

"Since Mephiles tossed my first love into another dimension and had Granny Goodness torture me until I was deemed obedient enough to resume my leadership of the Furies."

With how serious her tone of voice was, it was enough to - albeit a bit awkwardly, making Rouge, Oliver and Omega get out of their battle formations. It definitely got the point across, though none of them at first had any idea of how to respond; Oliver could only let out of his mouth a most awkwardly delivered:

"Oh….well, welcome to the team then, I guess."

"I'm not expecting any of you to trust me entirely so quickly" Barda admitted with a sigh, "But we really don't have the time to deal with that right now" she then pointed to the elongated stairway to the left, heading downwards into what appeared to be a black abyss alit only by slowly dimming candles, "Mephiles and his elite are having their meeting this way, follow me!"

With Barda taking off down the stairs into the darkness they led to, the rest of the team looked to each other silently, exchanging nods before agreeing that following her was the best option - all five knowing well that after this point, there was no turning back.