Chapter 5: A Quick Scavenge
After a little help from Oswald, Tails had perfected his latest, temporary creation: A regulator that would use Sonic's speed to destroy the wall to the Time Blotter, and bring it down into the Internet, though not for long. How it worked was beyond anybody, but all they really needed to know was their next step.
And it was pretty obvious to them all: they needed to find the Chaos Emeralds. Mickey, understandably, had no idea what they were, so thanks to the Sonic crew, he managed to grasp the unbelievable power it could grant them. That in itself sounded like a gamechanger to him, so hearing that it could turn them into an indestructible form that would definitely win them the war was enough to send his spirits back to normal.
Oswald wasn't saying anything, and was just nodding, because he was busy thinking about two things. He was firstly considering how powerful these emeralds were, because not long ago in Wasteland, he'd made a machine that could increase the power of anything tenfold. In fact, he'd told Gus to go and get it for him in Wasteland and come back here. And that led to the second thing he was worried about.
He'd sent the faithful gremlin back to Wasteland to collect two important items. One for the battle, and one for himself. Because if he was going to fight, he wanted his sweetheart near him.
As Sonic and Tails ran off, taking up the search for the Chaos Emeralds, the sky started fading ever so slightly. If you squinted your eyes, dear reader, you may have seen a dark, inky and smog-filled sky above, and a creature just above leading the operation. It was becoming clearer every few minutes, and an inky shadow was being cast over the last world still intact. Maybe it was because of its size, or the fact that it was just the hardest to wipe out completely, but it was standing. Shaky, admittedly, but standing.
As Shadow and the brothers stood waiting (to Shadow's annoyance), the Gremlin appeared out of nowhere. Oswald turned around and saw him, gasping quietly. The other two were busy searching for anything in the rubble that was of use, so he slipped away from them and met up with Gus just a few paces away.
He stared at the lifeless statue of Ortensia, frozen in a position of terror he desperately wished he could remove.
"You… brought her here." He tried to smile at the gremlin, but he was trapped in that all-too-familiar sea of regret. Gus put a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
"Of course I did! I got to the castle safely and came back here safely too. But Wasteland… It's all… inert now. Everybody is frozen, and the land is white. Even with the monster gone, time and space have been destroyed. I'm lucky it wasn't attacking our dimension anymore. But it won't go back to normal unless we can find that energy the monster sucked up." He shook his head sadly. "What's the plan?"
Oswald's voice changed into something more serious. "We're waiting for Sonic and Tails to bring some items of immense power… If they aren't already gone. But… er, can you take Ortensia away for now? Hide her somewhere near the Sonic statues, I don't know. Just stay with her, and make sure she doesn't get hurt."
Gus nodded. He took the machine he'd been ordered to bring out of his pocket, and handed it to the rabbit, who thanked him. The gremlin grabbed Ortensia, and saluted Oswald, before teleporting to who knew where.
Oswald ran up to the group. Unbeknown to him, during the scavenge, Shadow had managed to find two Chaos Emeralds already. One was hidden in a dented statue of him, which he only had to put his gloved hand on to reveal itself. The other was found inside a small box which Mickey had to thin out before claiming. Mickey gave his one to the hedgehog for safekeeping, fearing he might accidentally destroy them with Thinner, to which Shadow agreed.
The yellow and purple hues sparkled, illuminating the rest of the rubble ahead of them. All the once vibrant, neon blue buildings were appealing to nobody here. Add the eerie silence in, a pinch of the creepy, unmoving statues, and a massive monstrous presence, and the recipe for something surprisingly creepy was made.
But the fate of the worlds hung by a thread. They were in control of it.
Oswald walked up to the pair, in a fake jolly mood, and congratulated them. "Wow, guys! You already found two of them! Great work."
Shadow immediately could tell this mood was fake, but chose to say nothing.
Mickey sighed. "Well, I don't think the rest of 'em are here. We'll have to wait for the others to retu– Argh!"
The 'Argh!' was not intended, as from the sky, a black-purple tentacle slammed down extremely close to the trio. Mickey managed to jump out of the way in time, with Oswald missing being hit by an ear, and Shadow teleporting away to a higher point on a building. Mickey and Oswald climbed and jumped their way to the top. The mouse had half a mind to ask him if he would fly him up, but dared not risk his anger returning, or worse.
WIthin a few minutes, they were finally at the top; the cartoon mouse exhausted after using the emergency exit staircase; the rabbit barely breaking a sweat. After walking a few paces, Shadow raised a hand for them to stop without even turning around, then pointed to the ground. They got closer, and observed the land below.
All around were sloppy, black tubes, with gears of all sizes along it, turning. They were connecting the ground to above the dimension right to the Time Blotter. A purple smoke billowed from it on the ground, and the land was turning grey from those points. There must have been around ten of them, but they were working quite quickly. The building was the last safe spot… for now.
"Oh no," whispered the lucky rabbit.
"We're in trouble," agreed the red and black hedgehog.
"Please come fast, guys," begged the mouse.
A/N: To make up for the gap I left last week, I'm uploading 4 at once. We're getting towards the end... :( But I hope this is giving everyone out there something to enjoy!