One Year after the attack.
Shadow watched as everyone made preparations to leave the Quicktails' city. It had been nearly a year since they had first arrived there, seeking protection and aid in rescuing their family stolen from Cobalt, the insane scientist fox.
So much had changed in the year. They had lost some, and gained new allies. Brove told them as they went to leave that they would be welcome to return at any time, in time of need or just a visit. The two-tailed fox who was king now trusted them, after risking so much for their kind, and his own.
Articzlar, Crimzone, and Shade had returned to their status as leaders of the Rubetieau and Doralien, even after their experience of being mutalated and experimented on. They were their old selves again, as were all the rest who had been captured. Even Foxbeast and Shade were starting to get back to their old selves, though the hedge-fox seemed to have more sadness in her these days.
Demon, the hedge-bat came up to him, now wearing a brown suit for a uniform and shoes that matched. In the year, he had had a sudden age boost, it was a delayed reaction to his genes, as his daughter Maria was having at the moment. Demon had already reached the age of 14, and Maria was now 12.
"Shadow, our bases and homes have been completely destroyed, caved in from when the fox had originally attacked. It's unlivable." The young hedge-bat replied.
Shadow nodded at him, his own brown uniform, with an added cloak swirling in the wind.
"I'll inform the two of that. There may be a place to stay besides there. We can't rely on the hospitality of the Quicktails or even the Organization 0 for so long. It isn't right. And we do need a place that is safe, with Moku and his two crazed fox's out there still." The ebon hedgehog said as he left.
One his way to see Articzlar and Crimzone, Shadow picked up Foxbeast on the way. The purple hedge-fox had been keeping busy during the year, taking care of Maria and helping Atlantis and Shade with Oracle. For such a convincing argument, he would need her.
The blue penguin and red cat were already waiting for the, Demon and Darkerz next to them. The hedge-bat had apparently decided to inform them of the situation himself. They did not look happy, and were already arguing.
"Shut the hell up you four!" Shadow told them, for Demon had the knack of getting into the arguments he wasn't supposed to be in.
"There is no where for us to go! We can't return to our homes, the ones we worked so hard to build… Where else can we go?!" Articzlar was saying.
"There must be a place, we cannot stay here! And we most certainly can't be nomads wandering aimlessly until we find somewhere to stay!" Crimzone the cat countered.
"There is a place, we can live and wait until we find somewhere." Shadow said, wondering if that would get their attention.
They immediately turned to him, surprised he'd come up with a solution so quickly.
"What?!" They all said.
The hedge-fox next to the ebon hedgehog nodded, catching on quickly.
"The ARK."
"The ARK? Are you mad? That's in the human dimension! They'll find us within minutes of us arriving, and you know what they'll do to us all!" Shade said, his fearful side coming out. As tough as the Shadow look-a-like was, save for the black circle emblazoned on his forehead stripe, his worst fear was human experimentation. He had heard it was the worst of all. Rumors started easy among them, and after their abduction of Shadow and Maria… He wasn't about to trust them.
"The humans are intelligent, but not powerful enough to get to the ARK. Not after what I've done to it. We can avoid them long enough to get to the ARK. Trust me, they're not omni-gods, and they most certainly can't read minds. They won't know we're coming." Shadow said.
"We'll have to consult about this, with more then just us. Gather some of the others." Crimzone told Shade, who reluctantly turned to do so, before shaking his head at Shadow.
Within the hour the decision had been made, they were to go to the ARK. It surprised Shadow that they would trust him enough to believe him that the humans wouldn't be smart enough to try anything. As they made even more preparations to make an even further journey, one that would require to go to the human world and manuever through it to reach a workable portal that lead to the ARK itself. The ebon hedgehog had known better then to leave more then one working portal turned on, and this one was hidden deep within a cave system. The humans wouldn't find it if they searched for generations.
Organization 0 had left many months ago, they unlike the Rubeteiau and Doralien, had had no young ones, all them had remained behind, so they recooperation was faster, and they didn't dawdle about.
Silver and Blaze had decided to return with Shadow and the rest, it was high time for them to leave as well, and seek new opportunities. Silver had since been making frequent visits to the Knuckles tribe, to report on Spike's very busy babysitting status. The gaurdian of the Master Emerald himself, Knuckles, had made a visit to help Sonic and Tails before the three left for the human world again. They were needed elsewhere, no doubt Dr. Eggman was causing trouble again.