Shadow couldn't tell if it was only his foes blood, obvious some of it was, with the mutated, dead hyena lying on the center of the floor, or if it belonged to his allies as well.
No one was to be seen, but sounds echoed from the hallways across the room. They must be there. The hedgehog moved quickly, Jazz didn't have a long time that he could wait with a wound so serious, and besides, he new that Foxbeast wouldn't kill him, but Shade was another story.
Entering the hallway, there was more blood, but much less then the other room, and it had a stopping trail, the healers must be doing their job, Shadow thought as he continued on.
A few more hallways and there was another room, about the same size as the hangar bay, but built with multiple portals in it. Only one of the portals was active, the rest it looked like a tank had gone through.
Abyss and Meiou led the rest of the party as their mutated companions followed them, there was no sign of Sentinel or Fang, they had seen where the weasel had gone, but the hyena… It remained a mystery, as Kight was missing as well. Little interfered with them, aside from Cobalt tripping and having to have Mina heal his leg for a moment's stop. It didn't take long before they had found the room with the trasportation portals in it, all of them located down a large room, shaped rectangular.
"Here! This one!" The red rabbit said to them, pointing to one of the glowing walls, the colors swirling in a circular motion. The tech itself appeared to be powered by a single Chaos emerald, located in the ceiling of the room, it emitted a powerful blue radiance.
As they began to fool the now somewhat mindless beings into leaping in to the portal, they heard a maniacle laugh seeming to come from everywhere. They all looked up to see who it was, except Meiou, who looked up in recognization.
"Do you all think it will be that easy? Just because you can get them away from me now makes no difference, I'll get them back later, and when I do, I'll still have you to play with in the meantime!"
The white, crazed fox, appeared on a large screen on the opposite wall, far side from them. He was cackling madly.
"Now, before I catch you really, I would love to play with you first, my new toys, I have something I would like for you to test out for me." The fox snickered, appearing to push a button on the screen.
On the other side of the room to their left, all the way near the door way about 100 or so meters away, the floor seemed to be lowering into a pit. It stopped, and lifted back up, revealing a giant two legged mechanical monstrosity, similar to the GUN Dog units, but with more rocket launchers and machine guns then they could have even imagined. And it was much larger, much.
"This… may be a problem." Copper said, his machine gun was no match, and no doubt the others wouldn't be able to stop this thing, for it was apparent it had shields.
The last of the captives had disappeared through the portal, though they knew it wasn't all of them, there were bound to be more in other areas of the base, Meiou kept it turned on. They couldn't allow something like that through the portal, Brove already had enough on his hands with the insane slaves they had sent through, but they might need it in case of a quick getaway from the machine.
The party began to back away, toward the door they had come through, but it sealed shut.
"We could really use that dog right about now, but looks to me he's had enough, and took off. Leaving us here to rot, how typical." Ash muttered, standing in front of Mina to guard her.
"Now, destroy them, my machine, or at least maim them, I still need something left to play with now don't I?!" The fox's laughter was beyond sanity now, as he writhed about in his own glee.
The machine didn't move.
The fox stopped for a moment and stared. "I said attack!" He appeared to push more buttons.
It still didn't move.
Cobalt now appeared to be having a tempertantrum.
A dark creature appeared out of the hallway, and without a word to any, leapt into the machine. Within minutes it disappeared.
The party looked on, and Meiou finally turned the portal off. They looked to the screen with Cobalt on it.
"This isn't over, someone may have stolen my prototype, but they haven't taken everything, with the ultimate lifeform no longer at the ark to guard it, I had free reign to all of the professor's research. And yes, I used it." The screen went blank, and the party looked at each other.
"We had better get going, no doubt that was all of them, though that seemed to be most of the captives from Organization 0, there were none there from Rubieteau, and Doralien." Meiou said, the rabbit leaping from where he'd been sitting on top of the portal.
"Agreed, we have to hurry at that, he's pissed off now, very. He could be doing anything to them now." Abyss told the party.
"Wait. Mina, Ash, Copper. This fight isn't yours, it's ours. Your people have been rescued, and they will need you. You have the advantage, you've seen some of the things in here, and that may help find a way to cure them. The other Organization members, Snicket and them, they've no clue what they're dealing with. You need to go back." Blaze said, Silver close to her, still waiting for danger to pop out of no where. He wasn't about to let anyone attack her.
The red rabbit turned the portal back on, and the three went through it, after which Meiou promptly turned it off. They're party had been lessened, but under necessity. The three had had to go back, someone had to help Brove and survive knowing what was in the base.
"Now, we can go. No time to waste." Silver said. The team formed a circle of protection around Blaze as they left the room, she was their last healer, if she went down, all could be lost.
Shadow the hedgehog looked about, this room, with the portals, it had not been easy to force the door to it open, and through the one portal still looked operable, it was off. Where were they?! He had to find them, and quickly, Jazz had no time.
Running through the room and out the door on the other side, he could tell that the others had been through here. At least he was on the right track. He would catch up to them, he was faster, and he wasn't stopping, they had been.
The team finally made it to a newer area, but this was the worst of the rooms they had encountered so far. It appeared to be an experimentation room. Tubes were mounted on the walls, tables with tools around them, cages, and lifts to transport the cages…
Robots were forcing new soon-to-be experiments from the cages towards the tubes and tables, in preperation for their master to 'play' with them. Rouge the bat was one of them. Already she was halfway into the tube, which had been laid on its side for easier access. The robots were fastening her arms and legs down with straps, though having trouble from her kicking and fighting. Her screaming had no effect on machines however.
Abyss quickly leapt forward ahead of the group and attacked the machines, her long legs and heavy steel-toed boots having a great effect in smashing them to shreds. Silver and Meiou followed in her lead, the hedgehog using his psychic powers to crush the robots, and Meiou pulling out his sword, using that to dismember his foes.
Once all the bots in the room were destroyed, for they were simple bots with only one program, to encase prisoners, not to destroy them, the team turned to freeing the captives. They were all relatively new, none had had the time to be experimented on, though some were in the tubes already. Rouge, now very angry at being captured, was about to have a fit when she felt something.
"You did mention you had a portal going back to somewhere didn't you? Well you had better show it to me, looks like I'm about to have my baby early again!" The bat started yelling at the party.
Meiou knew better then to argue with a pregnant woman, even more so Rouge. He nodded to Abyss.
The black rabbit and white bat took off down the way they had came, Abyss having to help her from the pain.
"How's Darkerz? Any word? Was he captured? What about all my other babies, he was supposed to watch them! And Demon?!" The bat demanded as they went.
"They're fine, all of them. Darkerz kept them safe, and got them to the safehold." The rabbit explained to her.
"Good. I don't blame him for losing track of me, he can barely keep track of Demon! Besides for the one only time, I should have listened to him, usually he's wrong. But that's men for you."
Abyss nodded, trying to listen to the rantings of a bat in labor with patience.
They turned down the last hallway, a black blur almost running into them. It stopped for a moment in front of them.
"Rouge! Are you alright?" Shadow asked, for he was the blur, though he seemed distracted and disappointed that Blaze wasn't with them.
"Fine, now move out of my way!" The bat demanded.
"Don't ask." Abyss muttered, as they rushed onward.
Shadow continued on his way, if those two were here, he had to be close, the rest of the party couldn't be too far ahead. Just a little longer, Jazz, just hold to life a little while longer. He hadn't been able to help Maria all those years ago, when he had first been brought into the world by the professor, but he would Jazz.