Now that their party numbered a low three, a drastic reduction to their starting number of ten, Meiou was more cautious in leading them through the dark corridors, which suddenly became even darker, the power flickering on and off, and sparks beginning to fizz from random walls all around them. On the speakers, they heard the maniac fox screaming in terror, then rage, and finally silence. None of them had a clue what was happening, but something had gone drastically wrong, even more then them entering the base.
"That could be Shadow, Jazz, or even Omar's doing, but let's not get our hopes up, we have to keep going." The red bunny said to the other two.
Silver and Blaze were having no trouble keeping up, but they were both growing more alert then they had been. Many robots had crossed their paths, fighter bots, and workers, all they had quickly destroyed with the rabbit's sword or the hedgehog's telekenetic powers. The cat healed them of the minor injuries they sustained, scratches, bruises, but they had to always guard her, she could not be hit.
As the three continued on, more and more horrendous things began to appear, as they headed downward into the base. Mutated creatures that apparently had completely lost their minds, far beyond what they had previously seen, they had to destroy, or be killed themselves. These creatures, many of them were fused with others, body parts all tangled and mutilated.
Finally after some time, a blur appeared in front of them, they saw a quick glance of it, it could be Shadow, or Shade, or even Darkerz, some black hedgehog. It didn't stop to speak to them, instead it weaved between Silver and Meiou, grabbing the healer cat by the wrist and shooting off down the hallway it came.
"BLAZE!" Silver yelled and ran after her. The white hedgehog had nearly lost her once, he wasn't about to lose her again.
Meiou followed the psychic, knowing full well that if they lost the purple cat the two most definitely wouldn't make it out alive. There were too many dangers, and the worst was yet to come.
Abyss sighed, now that Rouge was safely through the portal and being cared for, she had grabbed Copper for a team mate, and they were on their way again. The black rabbit knew it was dangerous to run about the base without a healer, but there weren't any to spare now that the Organization slaves were being taken care of, and Copper had demanded to come back, he had to find Fang, and finish him.
The rabbit and weasel were about 4 feet out of the portal when they saw someone step from the darkness. At first, they thought it was Meiou, but after a better look, they saw that was not the case.
The creature that stood before them was indeed a rabbit, though taller then their friend, and a bright pink color, with darker pink markings and shocking purple hair that hung to his shoulders. He wore a long jacket that split in the back and was buttoned only once at his neck, and white sandals and shorts.
"Hello there…. Who might you be…?" He gave them a disarming smile of sureness, as if there was nothing wrong at all.
"What are you talking about?! Who the hell are you? Are you some experiment that escaped? If so…" Abyss started. Copper hung behind her, watching with an alarmed caution.
"An experiment, oh god woman, no of course not! But so kind of you to ask, dear. If you like, I know this place like my own two ears, I would love to show a lovely creature like yourself around, the weasel slave could come as well, just keep him quiet, please."
Copper glared and sniffed at the term 'weasel slave', and Abyss stared in disbelief. Who was this guy?!
"Again, I repeat the question, Pinky, who the hell are you?!" She said, now starting to suspect him as a foe.
"Of course I am deeply sorry, where are my manners?" The pink rabbit gave her a bow. "I'm Moku, I am Cobalt's, you could call it, mentor perhaps? I found him, when he was being schooled by another, fool. I taught him there were better ways, more ways to delve into science, especially the art of disguise. Tis why I have free reign of this place. I helped him overthrow that ridiculous hedgehog, and establish this base." The pink rabbit finished, with a dark smirk on his face.
Copper was about to rush at Moku, ready to rip him to shreds, he was responsible for all this?! Abyss lifted an arm in front of him as he moved forward, and then hit him squarely between the ears.
"Stop jumping to conclusions, Grub! Can't you see that this gentleman is being gracious enough to show us his home? Why, those Quicktails were not nearly as so, removing us from their land and all that." Abyss said to him, showing him a wink that the foe didn't catch.
The weasel didn't even risk nodding, though he understood what his friend was planning. "Forgive me, milady…" He bowed his head low, and backed farther behind her.
"Ah so you are interested! How nice, the only other two that I had fun showing around were Scourge and Fiona, and then Cobalt ruined my fun by deciding to involve them in his experiments. And he thinks he can train the fox in ways similar to how I trained him. One thing he did remember is, not to treat the apprentice to all the tricks in the master's book. How silly of me, I rant, milady! Come, come!" The pink rabbit beckoned to her, ignoring Copper.
Abyss followed him as he showed her all the different tunnels and such through a swift transport somewhat like a version of the sled they had been using for the supplies on getting to the base, but smaller, and more efficient. It hovered, and flew, and stopped on a dime, it must have been something that the fox had made personally for the pink rabbit.
Cobalt sat behind the two rabbits, and kept quiet, all the while watching and observing. This was a grand opportunity they had been presented with. If the two could convince this creature and the insane fox that they were separate from the others and would like to join them, they would have an astounding advantage.
Moku kept the sled cruising through mostly open areas, high places, showing off the bases intricate mechanical systems, multiple lift transports, and slaves and robots working to repair and put things together. All the while making jaunty movements, and appearing to be attracted to Abyss.
It was all the black rabbit could not stomping the witty pervert to the floor of the sled. She knew that she would have to deal with it though, but she wasn't sure if she could keep her cool if he went further.
Blaze was about to start throwing fire balls at her kidnapper, but stopped. If it were Shadow, he had a good reason for this, if it were Darkerz the same applied, though she doubted if it were him. If it were Shade, she didn't want to see the look on his fathers face if he found out the cat had burned him to death even in self defense.
She heard Silver shout her name, and start after her with Meiou, but also knew there was no way the two would be able to catch them, regardless of which of the three it was.
It didn't take long before they had sped through so many halls, doorways and rooms that she lost track of where they were. Within ten minutes though, they had arrived at apparently the room that her companion wanted her. He set her down, and she saw it was indeed Shadow.
Looking around the room, she saw Jazz in one corner of the room, it looked like he been dragged around brutally by the neck of his jacket, before being set down in the spot where he lay with his face to the floor.
There was no sign of anyone else, all was quiet. Blaze glanced at the hedgehog, questioningly, before setting to work, such a wound was not exactly easy to heal.
The black hedgehog watched with worry, and then turned as a series of loud crashes came from the room next over. The sound of snarling and fighting, screaming and barking came from it, along with flashes of light and sparks. Suddenly thrown out of the room, two monstrous beings came running towards them.
Following them in a slow, but steady pace, was Cobalt. He had blood dripping from wounds on him, but none too serious, and was armed to the teeth with armor not only on himself, but from the machine he was sitting in. It reminded the hedgehog of Tails' Tornado, but also of the GUN Dogs, except this one was enormous, and walking on multi-jointed legs, it clanked about heavily, forcing the hallway larger as it ripped into the walls with it four arms that were equipped with many sets of claws. The claws were not it's only weapon though, as it had multiple machine guns, and what appeared to be rocket launchers coming from it's waist area.
Shadow turned to Blaze, she was healing the hedge-fox as quickly as she could, and had gotten him out of the danger zone it seemed, moving him was risky, but they didn't have a choice. The hedgehog picked Jazz up, then took Blazes hand and placed it on his arm, she immediately understood and held on tight.
They took off running again, as the crazed fox began firing rounds off at them, and Shadow realized that the two mutants, Shade and Foxbeast, were also following them, running hurriedly on the walls and grabbing at any hand hold they could find to speed them up on all fours.
Finally making it back into a larger area, the hangar place where Sentinel the hyena mutant still lay dead and rotting on the floor, Shadow turned round and round trying to find an exit. The filthy fox had sealed them off, and not with just walls, but lasers and rocks, things that would take not too long for one person to get through, but carrying his two passengers…
The mutants caught up with them, and stood next to them, their tails wagging and transformed heads looking around in agitation. But they didn't attack. For a moment, they both looked into Shadow's eyes. The intelligent look had returned, they had their minds back, if not their natural bodies.
"Now what?!" Blaze asked the hedgehog with a sense of controlled urgency, she was not one to fall to pieces.
Out of the corner of the room, they saw Meiou and Silver approaching cautiously, watching Shade and Foxbeast.
Blaze let go of Shadow and stood with Silver, quickly explaining, the banging and crashing noises were getting louder. Cobalt's powerful machine may have to tear his way through metal the entire way to get to them, but he was getting closer, and time was running out.
Meiou filled Shadow in on the situation with the party, and why it had been reduced so low, all the while keeping a wary eye on the mutants.
Blaze continued her healing with Jazz as Silver, who was not really disturbed by the mutants at all, went around with the two creatures and began looking for any sort of exit. It was worse then they had originally thought, even with his telekenetic powers, the fox had been smart, and had blocked off all the doorways with over ten feet of steel and titanium. He wasn't about to let them go.
A crash suddenly sounded, and the white hedgehog and mutants quickly regrouped with the rest, Cobalt had finally made his way into the room. Here, he had plenty of room to maneuver his machine, and to attack.
The crazed fox laughed at them, as he pushed buttons and began to move his machine about in preperation.
"Time to play with him new toys, how fun!"
"COBALT!!"
The fox halted, and stared at the speakers in his machine, growling.
"I dare say! Why have you locked all the doors in the base?! I have a lovely black thorn flower of a rabbit here, I was showing her around, and suddenly we're locked in the containment room! We were only passing through it, it's quite rude to expect her or even or weasel slave for that matter to look at all these dirty, scum-ridden creatures in cages howling at us for so long!" The voice started up, with a lofty and angry air about it.
Shadow glanced at Meiou, black rabbit and weasel, it was most likely Abyss and Cobalt, but who were they with that could speak to the fox like that? And what were they up to?
"I'm dealing with… Some broken toys at the moment. I had to lock the doors to keep them from ruining the rest. It'll be over shortly!" The fox pouted into the communicator.
"Fix the doors now." The voice had suddenly become a low hiss, the anger seeming to quiver in the tone, about to explode.
"Five minutes, old one." The fox replied.
"How dare you, fox. If it weren't for me you'd still be under that ridiculous red rabbit fool! I think it's time I take my share of the work you have created. All of it!" The voice clicked off the link abruptly, the silence more disturbing to the fox then when the voice had been present.
"He wouldn't dare… These slave toys are mine!" The fox's machine began to stomp around in a tempertantrum, beginning to shoot off rockets and bullets randomly in all directions.
The party leapt behind some of the titanium cargo boxes, the weapons bouncing off and flying elsewhere.
Shadow turned to the rest, glancing at Jazz, who was being held by Silver and being watched closely by Foxbeast. He was still out cold, they would have to drag him out of the base, if they could get out at all. The black hedgehog looked back out at Cobalt, who was still blasting everything he saw insanely.
"Where are you toys?! Come out and play with Cobalt!" He screamed as the lights in the base began to flicker more, and shots of electricity began to fly about from the machines in the room.
"How to get out of this one… Our weapons won't be enough to take him out, and we'd be hit before we could reach him even if we could!" Meiou said.
"And he has a block on it, my telekenesis won't work on something like that." Silver followed.
Jazz began to stir, blinking and then giving a low moan. He winced and went to touch his neck, where the gash was healing, and the cat stopped him.
"Let it heal, kid!" She said.
Foxbeast gave a growling purr, it sounded more like a threat then a gesture of concern. Jazz looked up at her, then towards Shade. The mutated hedgehog looked away, acting as if Jazz was still unconcious.
Blaze let go of the young hedge-fox, who didn't seem to mind that his mother had become an strange mutated monster. He let her paw at his fur and lick his face, though he did make an irritated face at it.
"I'm not a kid, mom! Dammit, I'm fine!" He didn't stop her though, seeming to be secretly relieved she had her right mind back.
Shadow watched them for a moment, then again looked. The fox was NOT calming down at all. The only one of their party missing was Omar, and who knows where he had gone.