"I know one thing, cowering behind crates isn't going to get us anywhere!" Jazz said to Shadow, after his mother was finally done with him.
Shadow nodded, in complete agreement. Staying here like sitting ducks was not helping, but if they moved they would be shot instantly, or blown to pieces.
A noise to the north of the hangar, in the ceiling just above Cobalt's machine, and they looked up. A grate was popping out, it fell and clattered. The fox turned his guns upward, but not fast enough. A green hedgehog popped out and became a blur as he sped around the room.
"It's Omar, but this speed is beyond what he had before. He's faster, probably by Cobalt's own doing." Meiou said as they watched.
The blur attracted all of the crazed fox's attention, the wild bullets and missiles now aimed at one target, one they could not hit. The hedgehog sped about the room, keeping away from where the rest were hiding, and finally jumping onto the creature's giant weapon itself.
The fox switched tactics, and began trying to grab at the green hedgehog with his four clawed arms, intending to obviously rip him to shreds.
"Slow down, my toy! I SAID SLOW DOWN!" Cobalt grabbed crazily, but was unable to catch him. Finally, he put the machine down to set on all six limbs, making it shake like a wet dog in an attempt to dislodge the pest.
Bucking and heaving about, the machine began to climb on the walls like a giant insect all the while with Omar holding on.
"He's looking for a port to dismantle it's wiring." Jazz said, his hawk eyes coming in handy to see so far up the ceiling.
It was apparent that Omar was taking a beating being banged against the hard hull of the machine, but he continued to climb about on it, whether it was upside-down or side-ways. Finally, he popped a hatch on one of the upper left shoulders open, and yanked out a mess of wires. The arm's whose wire's he'd ripped out suddenly ceased to working, and there was a jolt as the machine seemed it was going to fall as it lost balance momentarily.
The fox leveled the machine out, though the arm continued to stay broken, and he fought harder to throw the speedy hedgehog off.
Omar crawled over the arm that he'd disabled, to the underbelly of the craft, and the fox smiled. Foolish, he would smash his foe against the wall!
Cobalt bashed himself against the wall, but the hedgehog had moved to the back again, and it damaged the machine's computer that controlled the ammunition related weapons, the rocket launchers and machine guns. Now the fox had to rely completely on crushing his opponent, and the others were more free to move about to find an exit, though they still had to be wary in case Cobalt came after them.
The party moved about the blocked exits, trying to find one that was less blocked then they had originally foresaw. It was bad enough that they were trapped inside with Cobalt, but now the crazed fox they were trapped with had had his base taken away.
There was a blast at one of the openings, and the rubble rushed forward, rocks and steel cleared within moments. A laser flew past them, bright blue. Through the mess, came Abyss and Copper. The voice from the speaker was no where to be found, they were alone. Abyss was hefting a large weapon attached to her as a backpack, with a huge laser gun coming out of the back of it to fire over her head. The weasel was carrying an even larger machine gun, but like the rabbit's weapon, it also fired lasers.
"Come on, it's time to get our ass' out of here!" Abyss yelled at them.
They didn't need to be told twice, and took off down the hallway. Except Jazz, and Foxbeast even did a double take, though her and Shade were about to collapse from exhaustion. Though they were mutants and had been filled with enormous amounts of power, they had taken such a beating, partially from themselves, that they had no energy left to fight. The green hedge-fox stopped at the entrance, and looked from the hallway, back to Omar.
"I can't…" Jazz ran back into the room, towards Cobalt and his father. He wasn't about to lose him again. He had lost a lot of blood and energy in being attacked by Shade before, but he wasn't finished fighting.
Shadow turned and saw his nephew heading back into the room. The ebon hedgehog shook his head in irritation and followed him, Meiou would have to lead the rest out.
Jazz attached himself to the machine as his father was, giving him a smirk. Omar glared at him for following him in such a dangerous situation, then smiled back before going back to work on slowly dismantling the machine. The arms of the machine's right side had been completely disabled, forcing Cobalt to stay on the floor to balance the machine upright again.
Shadow jumped onto the machine as well, and Cobalt grinned in his insanity, three targets were easier then one alone. But he still was having trouble getting at them, but no worries he thought, one of them would eventually make a slip, long before his machine stopped running, for they were beginning to tire.
The hedge-fox tore open a panel on the giant weapon's back, revealing it's power source, a Chaos Emerald. Shadow moved him out of the way, yanking Jazz and Omar and throwing them off the machine. Stupidely, Cobalt did as the hedgehog had wanted him to do, and ran away from the others, trying to cut his opponent off from aid. Shadow placed a hand on the Chaos Emerald, and power surged from him, blasting the machine to pieces, and Cobalt across the room, fire burning in his fur and on his two tails.
"CHAOS BLAST!" Shadow yelled as the power exploded, red light filling the room.
Omar grabbed Jazz and sped to the hallway, behind the rocks and rubble. The wave of power flew past, the steel shielding them from it.
The light died down, and Shadow stood with the Chaos Emerald now in his hand. Cobalt was writhing on the floor across the room, still trying to put out the fire as it scalded him.
Shadow walked over to Omar and Jazz, Cobalt was finished. Now the only foe left was the strange voice that had came from the machine's speakers before it was destroyed.
Abyss, Meiou and Copper led the rest to a somewhat safer place in the base, and the two explained what had happened. Apparently while with Moku, they had won the vile pink rabbit's affection, or at least Abyss had. When Moku and Cobalt had been busy arguing, the two had plotted their escape from him, while grabbing some weapons.
The perverted rabbit had overridden Cobalt's codes and fixed the doors, but as soon as they were open, Copper and Abyss had disappeared. They had waited long enough, they were tired of not being able to do anything to save their friends. They had found the rest of the tortured ones, and sent them throught the portal, all the rest of the captives were now safe, now they had to escape after finding the others. It hadn't taken them long to find the room with the fox, he had been yelling and making so much noise it was quite easy.
As Shadow, Jazz, and Omar ran to catch up with the rest of the team, they heard screams of pain coming from behind them, the crazed fox no doubt. They continued on without a thought, coming to yet another open room in which Silver had fallen behind to wait for them, he more then trusted the others and mutants to protect Blaze.
The two hedgehogs and hedge-fox were getting exhausted, Silver knew they would need some protection now. Again the banging began, and they looked back. Cobalt couldn't have survived, and even if he had, how had he recooperated so quickly?!
The wall in which the doorway had been where they had come from exploded, and it was Cobalt again. The fox had the same machine he had had before, except now it was more heavily armored, and had extra little arms attached to the four arms already on it.
"Did you truly think that was my last one?!" The fox boasted in a singsong voice. He had healed himself and restored his burnt fur, his eyes were glowing red, no doubt he had experimented on himself.
The hedgehog's and hedge-fox glanced at him and took off running in the other direction, they had no energy left to battle this creature.
Cobalt lumbered after them, attempting once again to dig through steel to get to them as they ran through the tunnels.
They finally caught up with the rest of the team, only to find them halted again. They had finally made it out of the base, and were now standing in the grounds outside. It was Moku this time, his hands on his hips as his coat blew in the wind. He swaggered wildly around, laughing crazily.
"I'm beyond that of which Cobalt's insanity rates! Normally I would have crushed creatures like you, save for that lovely black rabbit of course, but my foxling did need to be taught a lesson, isn't that right Fiona?" The pink rabbit turned to his left, and from behind some of the grounded ships came another fox and hedgehog. Fiona and Scourge.
"Yes my master, Cobalt was getting out of hand…. Hahahhaha!" The red-pink fox laughed low and darkly, as Scourge followed her example behind her.
The green scarred hedgehog stepped forward, carrying a set of leashes, at which Foxbeast and Shade immediately hid behind the rest of the party, cowering.
"Oh come now, I thought we were having so much fun earlier!" He errupted in fits of crazed laughing as his other two allies came forward as well.
"You'll hear from us again, Cobalt as well now doubt, but perhaps we can allow you to leave. For now. I mean after all, I wouldn't want to cause that beautiful black-thorned rose of yours any anguish in seeing what we would do to you." Moku said, much to Fiona and Scourge's surprise. The two began to argue, but were silenced by a look from the rabbit.
The perverted rabbit pressed a switch, allowing the gates open behind him. He stepped out of the way, and nodded towards it. His lackeys turned and grumpily sped off around the base and into it, no doubt to inform the white fox of this.
As the party began to leave, Moku closed the gates behind them, all the locks and wire sealing back into place.
"The white fox will be better to know his superiors the next time around, and you will know our wrath as well, for I will not hold back, even for the means of punishment to the fox, next time." The rabbit cackled.
They ignored him, and fled to the hills.
They all reached the portal they had come from without incident, they traveled quickly, they didn't want the insane pink rabbit to change his mind on them. Once through it, they came to a city of cheer, sending Mina and Ash back, the two had figured out how to return the altered ones to their original state. Everyone that had been captured was returned to normal.
Shadow was pleased at this, if they were able to be turned back, it wouldn't be long before Foxbeast and Shade were back to their old selves. He wasn't sure about Omar though, the green hedgehog had gone through so much in the past few days, he doubted that his friend could even face his family again.
While the rest of the team were awaiting patiently for the two to be returned to normal, Omar came to Shadow.
"Good that they'll be back to normal." The ebon hedgehog said to him.
Omar nodded, but didn't look at him, nor did he say anything at first.
"She'll forgive you, she always has." Shadow told him. He still wasn't looking at him.
"I'm leaving." Omar said.
Shadow looked at him, the green hedgehog had scars all over him now, and was still trying to heal from being beaten so badly.
"I… I might come back… But I'm done… I can't handle it. I've not only hurt her, but lost all my memories of us and the past. I don't even remember who she is now… I know we had something together, but it's lost now…"
"You don't remember anything? Not even flashes?" Shadow asked.
"Nothing… I have no feelings for her now either, other then caring like anyone else." He said.
"Then how did you know…?"
"The way she looked at me before they took her to return her to normal. She looked at no one else, just me… And those two that kept following me around, they look like her, but me… I have figured out who they are… But I still can't stay."
There was a pause, as Shadow took this in. Finally he broke the silence again.
"When will you be leaving?" He asked the green hedgehog.
"In a few minutes. I didn't want to take the kids from her, but they won't leave me alone. They keep following me around, they know what I'm going to do. They're going to try to come with me…" He replied.
"Let them. Foxbeast will understand. I'll explain it to her. It's for the best." Shadow told him.
" I know I should face her… But I can't. After all this. Will she understand that I have lost all feeling towards her, with my memory wiped?" He wondered.
"She will."
"If… When… I do come back… I hope she still understands that…" Omar turned to walk away.
"Don't worry… I'll take care of her…" Shadow said.
Omar's ears drooped, but he continued walking away.
"I hope she finds someone else for her… Someone who she can really trust."
The black hedgehog turned to reassure him that he had done all he could for her, and that he was trustworthy, but his friend was already gone. Shadow shook his head. This was going to be a difficult thing to explain to his sister, why her kids and her now ex had left her for the unknown.