Shadow and Shade continued on, until they got to a semi-large cave with buildings built into the rock. Instead of there being water every where, there was fire, flames, and lava. Shadow noticed however that these large pools of hellish substances were covered with force-fields, so that the heat wasn't too extreme.
He followed his son up the craggy steps into the tiny village here, and saw small, dark creatures running all about, many without supervision. Or so it appeared at first. Without warning a red and black streak of lighting zipped about and gathered them up, pulling them into a nearby building, including the mischievous Demon.
"That would be Darkerz. Hmpth, must be their dinnertime or something." Shade laughed to himself for a moment. Suddenly, he stopped, and looked up sharply to an opening high above in the cave wall, another tunnel. He glared at it for a moment, then crossed his arms over his chest. "Him again." Shadow stared at the blank spot for a moment, confused.
"What?" He asked. Shade turned to him, and pulled out the crystal that they had found onboard the ARK years ago. "You should take this back, you're going to need it." His father took the crimson gem, still uncertain. "You found out what it's for then?" He asked. Shade didn't answer, he just started walking again.
After showing Shadow some more of the Rubien side of the tunneling, Shade finally began to tell his father what had happened earlier. "That was Omar. If you remember that twitching moron. Prefers to stay on the surface with HER instead of down here, with his people." He said, with apparent dislike. The older hedgehog was surprised at Shade's tone; he had used to get along so well with the green hedgehog.
"I didn't see him… Is that one of the uses of these crystals? And by 'her' I suppose you mean Foxy?" His son nodded, and made a disgusted face.
"The Gemahoura, the race that Aunt Foxbeast comes from, are in the middle of a war, and she is their leader. She and Omar insist on keeping Jazz and Julie up there with them, to teach them, instead of allowing them to come down here where it's safer. The Fallen Race is not truly here, but they are controlling the Black Arms, and they in their stead have come to attack us." Shadow blinked then sighed.
"Have you asked the twins where they would like to be? They're definitely old enough to decide for themselves by now." He asked.
Shade was about to answer, when again, he tensed up. His ears began twitching back and forth, and he was looking around frantically, a look of fear on his face. "It couldn't be!" He exclaimed, taking off down a tunnel. His father followed him, or tried.
With a couple of turns, he was lost, and came out into another open cave, this one quite different from the last. It was filled with dragons, and all of them were wounded, being treated by nurses and doctors. He spotted a familiar face in the lot, Rouge.
She was in the corner, standing by a desk and talking to one of the doctors. They appeared to be arguing, and it seemed that the bat had lost, because she swung her leg up and kicked the young wolf in the shin. He yelped, and limped off, head and tail hung low in defeat. Shadow walked cautiously up to her, knowing how touchy she was in a mood like this.
Rouge noticed, and immediately ran up to him and wrapped him in a crushing hug. "Shadow! Tell that bastard to let me go home already Dammit, I can't spend any more days here!!" She began sobbing on him, and then as he watched she stood up straight and began chasing the doctor again, starting to scream again. The poor doctor took off again, whimpering and yelling that he had changed his mind and she could leave. Rouge walked back up to Shadow again.
"They don't get it; I want to go home… Take me home, please!!" She started begging him. The ebon hedgehog nodded, and followed her down a tunnel, shocked at how quick her behavior was changing. One moment she was mad, and the next a whining child.
"Are you alright?" He asked her.
"Do I look fine, my make up is smearing from this heat, DAMMIT!!" She yelled at him as they walked on. He followed her back to the cave he had seen Darkerz in, and to the exact building he had scooped up all the children in.
Darkerz stepped out to meet them, and let Rouge go in before looking pleadingly at Shadow. "No." He said before the desperate hedgehog could ask. "Why is she acting…?" Shadow was interrupted by loud banging and yelling in the building, which Darkerz chose to ignore for a moment.
"She's pregnant again, and she gets emotional." He explained before running back inside.
Well, that would explain it, Shadow wondered in surprise. Looking around, he still didn't see Shade anywhere. "Great." He muttered to himself.
It was then that a rather strange creature came to him. It was a rabbit that was plain to see, but dressed in strange medieval clothing, unlike any of the others here. A tank top, pants, and boots, with a rather large backpack on was what he wore. His red hair was also tied into a ponytail, and his face was only a shade darker then that, with a white muzzle.
"Hello. You seem rather lost, need some help?" He asked, his ears twitching, eyes watching closely.
"Have you seen Shade? He's my son and it appears even I couldn't keep up with him." Shadow said to him.
The rabbit seemed to think for a moment, then nodded. "I know how to find him, by the way, I'm Meiou. Pardon me though, I haven't seen you before."
"Shade only just brought me here. It's all really interesting this place is, very different from the world with humans." Shadow explained as he followed him.
The rabbit led him to a rather strange device in the wall. It appeared to be a round gate of some sort; the center was a bright swirl of purples, blacks, and whites. Meiou began pressing buttons on a panel nearby, humming to himself.
"This is a portal I have created; it goes to all the halls of the Rubieteau, and the one main hall of the Doraliens. Shade is often running through all of them, so you'll catch him in one of these rooms eventually. Otherwise you'd have to wait for him to come to you." He explained, his long ears drooping over his face a bit.
The ebon hedgehog looked at it skeptically, until another rabbit came up and ran right through it without question or second-thought. Shadow walked up to it, glancing at the rabbit, who only tilted his head in interest. He leapt in.
Through the dizzying swirling colors, the hedgehog was spinning, then suddenly thrown out without warning onto the ground on the other side. He stood up slowly, his stomach churning. Obviously that would take some getting used to. Looking around, he saw he was again on the Dora side.
"Hahahaa! You look like a sick fish!" Oracle was pointing and giggling madly. Maria stood beside her, hands over her mouth trying not to laugh. She failed in the next moment, and burst with it, giggling as hard as her friend.
Shadow could only smile. He loved seeing her happy, and if she thought he was funny he must be.
Finally regaining his equilibrium he went over to them. "Have either of you seen Shade? I can't seem to find him."
Oracle nodded, still laughing. "He came by to check on us, then headed to the surface. There's been another attack, so he went to help. It's over with by now I think, he should be coming back soon to check again."
An attack, he wondered, had the Black Arms truly found them again? It was at that moment his son returned, and he didn't look pleased.
"Sorry I had to run off, but there was an attack, and it wasn't a normal one either." He said, shaking his head.
"Why?" His father asked.
"They wanted one of us. To use. And… it was him…" Shade shuddered, and looked at Oracle. "Oracle, go bring your mother, now."
Oracle left without a word, sensing her father's serious tone that no jokes were to be made. She was swift, and returned within just a few minutes, not even making a face when she was dismissed with Maria to go play.
"It was Bujin. Or what's left of him. The Black Arms have taken his soul and melded it with a whole new being of monstrosity. It fits his dark heart well, he's even uglier then Black Doom was…" He started.
Shadow and Atlantis both growled at the mention of the name. He was a complete evil, that hedgehog had been when he was alone. With the help of Eggman he had been worse, but with the Black Arms at hand, who knew what he was capable of?
"He took Omar, no one else. He was one of the main targets. Foxy's a complete reck, and the kids… We haven't been able to get a word out of them, they were of course nearly taken as well, if it hadn't been for Omar. Without him we'd have lost them for sure. They witnessed it all, the kids. We don't know what to tell them…" Shade paused for a moment, shaking his head again.
"We have to free him immediately, before that bastard does anything to him, though it may even now be too late. We're going to need help on this one, and the Gemahoura are unable to aid, they've been blockaded out, and all portals besides the planetary transport systems have been destroyed through impulse shock." The younger black hedgehog lead them off to the same portal that Shadow had used earlier.
Once again in the dark heated lava caves, they quickly ran off, though Shade was sure that Shadow was able to keep up. He didn't truly need to though, as his father was now getting quite used to this.
They arrived at the obvious destination, a rather large building, for the Rubien side anyway. It was a large warehouse, cracked and dilapidated, unmatching to the other buildings as it was made of metal rather then stone. Shade knocked on the side of a blank wall to it a few times in rhythm.
Within a minute, the same rabbit that Shadow had seen earlier appeared out of a window one story above them. "Yes?" He asked, smiling at shadow for a moment before turning to look at Shade and Atlantis.
"It's time for you to show us this masking skill you have." Shade said.
"Hmmmmm…" The rabbit hopped down. "Really? I thought you didn't need any help, accept for the portals."
"It seems I was wrong about that." The younger hedgehog muttered.
Shadow looked back and forth at them. They must have had a dispute about something before, because they didn't seem very please to be talking to each other. Must have never been resolved, he thought to himself.
The two continued to glare at each other, Shade frowning angrily, and Meiou smiling because he knew he was needed.
"So, what can I do for you?" The amber-eyed rabbit asked, turning to Shadow.
Shade glared harder at being ignored, but didn't say anything. Action had to be taken, and quickly. Arguing was no way to get anything done, he could settle this later.
Shadow, still not having any idea for the reason of his son's anger, didn't judge at the moment. "The Black Arms have taken a hostage for experimentation, we must retrieve him."
"Understood. And he'd obviously be the one that didn't look like the aliens, but I'll take a description anyway. This will be an interesting mission."