Jazz had been listening intently to all that had been going on but wasn't about to get happy that they had new allies. He had wanted to tell Meiou and Shadow badly, but was afraid that he could be wrong. He truly didn't believe that Omar had killed his mother. There was something wrong with the whole thing. He hadn't heard her speak before she died, there had only been a body, and it was… different though it did look like her.
He decided to keep the information quiet for the moment. If he was wrong and his mother truly was dead, it would cause only more tears to tell them she was alive. He had to be absolutely certain first.
The furry, green hedge-fox waited for the meeting to be over, their talking was wasting time! They needed to act, fast… There had been another creature down there besides Bujin, Colbalt, and Omar… This one… He couldn't quite place it but it had a vague feeling to it… Though… It had moved so fast it was terrifying, and it definitely had not been trying to save them. Did Snicket know about this rogue creature?
Too much ran through the young hedgehog's mind, and he tried to shake it off, the meeting was ending. Tails, Shadow and the rest were walking towards him.
"Jazz… I know it must be hard for you… But we need to know what Omar is completely capable of. Tell us everything you saw." Tails asked him.
Jazz readjusted his black jacket, not surprised they were asking him. Perhaps he would tell… There was no reason to hope.
"He's faster. Stronger. And he's learned that dressing as someone else thing. Didn't know he could voice and act like that… He must have learned ta control his accent. And of course Bujin's telling him what ta do. Now that Julie can walk teh scientist seems more interested in her." Jazz became quiet, there was little more he could say.
"All right then…"
"But 'Dad' isn't teh only one ya need ta worry about. Neither is Colbalt in teh scientist… There's another…"
They turned back to look at him, he was shaking his head.
"What do you mean?" Shadow asked.
"There was another creature down there… It looked like… A dog of some sort." The hedge-fox said. "But it was… Different… It wasn't as fast as Omar… But it WAS stronger… By far…"
"Really? But I didn't think there were any others truly in the service of the crazed fox. There haven't been any reports…" Tails stopped, for Ash and Mina were conversing in hushed tones. "What? You know about this?" The two tailed fox asked them.
Mina looked at her boyfriend, nodding, her purple hair blowing in the wind now that they had walked outside.
"Yes, we don't know his name… Only that he's a blue dog. He never was part of our division. We asked him to join of course, but he refused. In fact… No one that has tried to battle him has lived… We tend to try to avoid him." The tattooed mongoose said, glancing toward his girlfriend.
"We have to report this to Snicket…" Without further word the two mongeese were off, running through the towns to find the leader of Organization 0.
Tails was pulled away by Brove, who wanted more answers to questions, curious and angered by his brother's actions. It wasn't long before Shadow and Jazz lost sight of them.
"Shadow."
The black hedgehog turned to Jazz, who wore a serious look on his face, yet a small smile as well.
"He didn't kill her."
"What do you mean? Foxbeast…"
"Mother lives. But she's in Bujin's 'care'. Teh body I buried was not hers. It looked like her, but teh scent was different. I understand now… Though he's turned and become nearly completely evil, insane, and is controlled by teh scientist… He didn't do it. It was one of Meiou's suits and masks. Teh smell of teh creature was that of someone that had been dead for a time already. He must have made it look like her…" The green hedge-fox was quite torn apart by this. Though, in a way… Happy… Perhaps his father could be saved from this madness after all…
"You mean… But… Hmm…" Shadow couldn't think of what to say about this, he had learned earlier that she was dead, and had accepted that fact. Now he was being told she was alive again…
"There isn't nothin' we can really do right now though. Come on, let's go find Snicket. See what this phantom dog is or whatever." Jazz said, breaking the silence.
It took them a few hours to locate the Organization's new temporary camp; they had set it on the outskirts of the city gates. They were pleased though, to find the foxes more then accommodating and the urge to want to repair the hovercrafts and ships was welcomed.
Jazz and Shadow came upon them bickering, the Organization apparently was VERY familiar with this rogue creature.
"…If he's working for that monster's money, there's no way in hell we out buy him! We don't have anyone who can face off against someone like that…"
"With that green hedgehog thing helping him, and Colbalt… This job is suicide!"
Snicket was trying to maintain a control over everyone's thoughts, but they were all in a frenzy, now that they knew that this person, whoever he was, was against them.
"Snicket! Snicket!" Jazz called through the crowds.
The ermine came to them, apparently very worried himself.
"Heya, how nice to see ya, it is it is… Uh… How fast ARE you really, really are you fast?" The white creature asked Jazz and Shadow.
"Of course we're fast, but why…" Shadow started.
"You think you can beat someone that's a rogue ninja, most powerful of a clan, beat him that is?!" The ermine's hair was a mess, he was just as worked up as the rest of his team.
"Most powerful of a clan? Are you serious?" Jazz asked, trying to believe they were joking. Creatures as such were kept quite secret by most clans.
"Naw, the Toothfairy, YES I'M SERIOUS, SERIOUS I AM!"
"Um… Well, perhaps we could, we've never fought one before I don't think…" Shadow said to him.
"Okay… Okay… Okay…!"
"Calm down, buddeh…! Just explain!"
Snicket looked at the two, shaking his head. Calling to Mina and Ash, he had the couple come over to them.
"This creature… You spoke of down there… We know him… Oh yes we do, we do. He does everything for the highest of prices, like us, but solitary. Like said, we asked him to work with us we did, so we did. But of course he refused he did. In fact… He's worked against us before, he did, yes…And he's very lazy. " The ermine said.
"And what happened?" Shadow asked.
"There used to be nearly seven times this number of us. Just one attack… That's all it took to push us away. Then a fury of more hellfire, and he was gone. He had taken our prize and stopped us all at once… The look of his red eyes…" Mina said, trailing off.
"Strangely, we know that he spared us that day… He could have annihilated us all. But for some reason he left all of us alive. We haven't figured that one out. But even so, we can't fight him. It'll just end up like before!" Ash said.
"That's why we want YOU to fight him. Not us, us we can't do so, do so we can't!" Snicket continued for his advisors.
"Us? And why do you think we can defeat him? Or at least hold him off right?"
"Hold him off no! You have to completely destroy him! So we don't have to deal with him anymore!" Snicket told them.
"Wait a second… So he's never really killed any of you without one of you all trying to shoot him then? So then why should we kill him? Holding him down seems fine." Shadow said.
"Well… If you CAN hold him that is…." The ermine muttered.
Suddenly a brown and rather good-looking weasel walked up to them. Carrying a slingshot and with a scar on his snout, he reminded them of Nack a bit.
"I'm sorry to disturb your wonderful meeting and all, but wouldn't it be of some intelligence to look to the sky?" He said to them in a nasily voice.
"What is it, Copper, it's not like we're under… attack…" Mina's voice trailed off as they looked to the sky, like he had suggested. It was black instead of the normal blue of this world.
All was quite it seemed, there were no sounds except the wind blowing through the trees, the birds and insects had quieted completely.
"No… It must be another attack…" Jazz said.
"We can't defend ourselves here, we have to get to the Quicktails, we must go to them, yes! Defend better inside walls we can, we can!" Snicket quickly ordered his teams to pack up and head for the fox's gates.
Within minutes they were within the cities walls, but the sky had only gotten darker, and the wind harder. The was beginning to grow cold, like ice. The assorted mongeese, weasel's and ermine had lined themselves up by the entrance to the city, guns, bombs, and weapons at the ready, though the look on their faces showed fear.
Shadow and Jazz looked to the one called Copper, who had walked in on them earlier. He looked at the now dark woods with apprehension.
"There's no doubt he's with them…" The weasel said, shaking his head.
"They have it here, we must see to our own as well." The black hedgehog said to Jazz, who nodded.
The pair took off through the city as the cold wind came faster, the smell of death seemingly on the air. It didn't take them long to get to the imperial courts, where Tail's was informing Brove of the soon to be attack. Atlantis, Maria, Oracle, and Spike were with them.
"As vast as our army is, we will only just be able to keep an attack by these beings back. Is there anything else we need to watch for?" The two-tailed fox of royalty was saying.
"Yeah, a rogue ninja, the strongest of a clan, and who know's how many of our own Bujin has turned as well?!" Shadow said to him, the heat of battle coming to him. It was time to make the scientist pay.
Brove nodded. "We've moved as many as we could to the boats on the other side of the city, if we're breached, they'll immediately set off with all civilians. Cobalt must not take more alive to manipulate. I suspect… That though Bujin may seem head of the operation, my brother may be the one we're truly after now."
The fire of guns and lasers broke out in the distance, and they all turned to look to the gates. The battle had once again begun.