Chapter 2: A Different Angle

Whilst the mouse dealt with his own crisis, Tails brought out a small E.C.S. (Electric Cutting Saw) and attached it to the side of the Time Blotter's chest, flying down to do so. He turned it on, but nothing happened.

Frustrated, he repeatedly pressed the 'on' button, getting irritated, until he realised he'd forgotten to clamp it on him. Speedily whilst its head was turned, the fox He tried again after doing so, and it worked, albeit slowly, due to the large amount of ink and smoke it had to cut through.

The fox flew back up to the left shoulder, and gave a thumbs up to Oswald. He nodded, and tapped a bracelet on his hand twice.

All of a sudden, his arm started growing, fast. After a minute, it was double the original size. After three minutes, it looked like a cannon. And at eight minutes, it stopped, and was about the size of a street, and his fist was the size of a house. He detached his arm and got under it.

Before it could fall and squash him into a black and blue puddle, he tapped the bracelet on his other arm, with his nose, and grabbed the arm. Thrusting it up into the air effortlessly, Oswald flew backwards, and then charged, yelling, "Take… THIS!"

The arm collided with his chest again, but this time, nothing separated. However, the monster fell backwards in pain, letting out a ghostly howl. As it crash landed, it hit the side of the building Shadow was on, causing a massive chunk of the wall to slide to the floor.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Shadow searched under the hundredth couch, trying his absolute best to not explode the building with anger, when he heard a rumbling sound. It echoed through the hall, and he could feel the vibration in his own shoes. Were it not for the current position he was in, now would have been the perfect time for a tactical retreat.

He quickly withdrew his hand from underneath the surprisingly clear bottom of the couch, and stood up. Searching in his quills, he took out a Chaos Emerald, and was about to teleport out of the building, when the ground broke from beneath his feet. Jumping over to the other side of the room, he managed to avoid the chunk of brick now hurtling down the building. Everything shook again. A few pictures fell off the walls, and some pots tipped over, spilling soil. Shadow steadied himself, but another tremor stuck, shaking everything.

As the floor tilted to the left of the room, sinking, a gleaming white jewel bounced into an open water dispenser. Shadow wanted to hit somebody really badly now.

He skated over to the gem, and jumped over the broken items lying on the floor. Quickly, the hedgehog took the gem out of the dispenser, and, after a few seconds, relaxed.

Yet again, the ground shook, but this time, the floor underneath him fell completely. He was left soaring downwards, but his focus was unwavering. Shadow narrowed his eyes, and followed the only surface he could rest on. It wasn't stopping though and was breaking all the floors underneath it. Debris was sent towards the hedgehog, but he swiftly dodged every last piece, until eventually, he was at the base of the building.

It was a wonder how the brick floor had not broken, but now, with a final sigh, it collided with the base of the tower, exploding into a million white pieces. Dust was sent everywhere, clouding the hedgehog's vision momentarily. He rubbed his eyes and coughed. If there was one thing he loathed, it was these moments, as shortly afterwards, he landedhardon the floor, scattering a few rings around him.

He hated it when this happened.

Everything was dark for a few seconds. He couldn't feel anything. But he felt his eyelids open, and saw the state of the room he was now in. Groaning, he propped himself up with his hands. He clutched his head, then realised… where was the Emerald? He ran around, searching through the remains of his surroundings. Was it under the rock pile? Nope. Was it in the broken ceramics? Nope, not there either. Was it on that old couch? No. Was it behind the counter? As it turned out, yes.

Two glittering white Emeralds were in front of him. He was confused for a few seconds. How did this get here?... Then he remembered.

When he was leaving to go through the portal, he packed a bag with everything he needed. The bag had disappeared when he went through the portal, but he had his Chaos Emerald in his hand. The Chaos Emerald was white. It must have been with him this whole time. Where it was with him, he didn't know. But it was here now.

Shadow grabbed the pair of them, and teleported out.

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

After a whole ten minutes of worry, Sonic looked up for the umpteenth time to see if Shadow was alive. Admittedly, he wasn't sure that he was dead, since taking him down was hard enough for even Black Doom, but this was an ink monster combined with the Time Eater. Probably the hardest thing they'd ever faced. It could do a massive amount of damage to him, and it wasn't unlikely he was gone.

But, relievingly, a flash of light appeared over the monster that was lying flat on the ground. Sonic had to shield his eyes, but it took barely any time for the light to clear up. And you could see Shadow standing on the monster's head, holding not one, buttwowhite Chaos Emeralds.

Tails shouted gleefully, "Shadow! You found it!"

Oswald said, "Why have you got two?!" Mickey gave him a thumbs up, as did Sonic.

Shadow threw one of the Emeralds to Mickey, who caught it, and started to throw the other to Sonic, when the Time Blotter roared. Being right on its head, Shadow slipped, and tumbled towards the mouth of it.

"Careful, Shadow!" cried Sonic, as he got close to its mouth. Thankfully, Shadow managed to grip onto the edge of the creature's lip and somersault over the gap completely.

But sometimes, everything that looks like it went perfectly, may not have been so. In this case, the hedgehog had accidentally dropped the white gem. Into its mouth.

The monster's belly started rumbling, before it leapt up with no warning at all, knocking Shadow off his throat. It soared back up into the air, and the rumbling of the clouds overhead sounded like laughter.

Mickey gasped, "Oh no."