Shade and his companions exited the elevator shaft they had been in for the past five minutes. The door had revealed a vast forest on the outside of St. Petersburg. Shade could see explosions over the city. "Uncle has begun," he said simply. They marched through the forest and found themselves over a ridge overlooking St. Petersburg. Shade looked below them to see marching Arms with massive cannons and what looked tanks. He looked up into the sky to see a large winged figure being silhouetted in the moon light. A laugh rolled through the battlefield. Shade shivered at the laugh as its cold grip pierced his heart. A hand flowed its way into his and he griped tightly. He didn't have to look back to know who it was who was holding his hand. He knew the moment she touched him. He also knew that his face was probably red as blood, but thankfully it was so dark and the action below him, no one would've noticed.
"Shade," said the soft voice of the owner of the hand he now held in his.
"Hmm," he replied.
"I know your strong, but," she stuttered a bit, he could hear her fear and feel everyone else's, "h-how do w-we take down that." Her free hand bought up a trembling finger to the silhouetted monster.
Shade griped her hand tighter as if in some protective gesture. "Don't worry," he said reassuringly though in his mind he had no clue, "Black Doom could be killed, so I'm sure that his son can be killed." He felt himself choke on his own words. There were two sons of Black Doom. If Umbra could be killed, that meant . . . Shadow could be killed too.
Umbra stood atop a spire of the Church of the Savior on Blood. With this spot he didn't have to waste energy flying and he could easily have a tremendous vantage spot for the entire siege. He enjoyed being back in his real body for a change. All that white skin instead of his glorious scales that could rip some of that skin off a human with just one rub. Flat teeth instead of his daggers which were his teeth. A bare back instead of his godly wings of which he could soar and be freer than any human. And flat feet instead of his double-jointed ones that allowed him to slip by any unwanted guest. And his staff with its own gem that gave it power, like a Chaos Emerald with so much power, but it could not produce that much power. Yet still, the gem in his staff could supply him with more than enough power to deal with these simple humans. But it did not suffice to power the Eclipse Ray. That would need something with a bit more kick: a Chaos Emerald. But not just one. He would need all of them to take what he wanted. He knew that one was held in a vault in an old Soviet Armory that had been locked down for years, at least that's what people thought. During his time as Robert, Umbra found the location of every Chaos emerald except the Master Emerald. Six of the Emeralds were on this planet, and the last one, the red one was safely secured aboard the Black Comet.
Thankfully, that annoying brother of his was finally out of the way. He should have gotten rid of him all those years ago, but he had needed to mix Shadow's blood and his own to try and revive his father. Unfortunately, Shadow's full power had been locked by losing one of his golden bracelets at the factory and blocking his power behind a wall of thick stone. So he could not complete the process of returning the Overlord of the Black Arms to glory.
Of course, it was too bad Shade and Crystal had to go up in the explosion along with the rest of Prower Command. Umbra knew they escaped the White House for he felt the Chaos energy radiating from the place. But no such surge had been felt again from Prower Command. No, it would be impossible even for that idiotic brother of his to survive one of these human's nuclear weapons, let alone his children. Bu they could have been useful. An epiphany of usefulness.
Umbra felt a tug at his mind; he looked down to see some Russians holding their stand with their new AK-89s. They were decapitating his Black Arms infantry with their weapons and their artillery was also proving a strategic annoyance. He lifted his staff and let energy from the gem at the top and let the energy flow into his other hand. Lightning crackled in his hand and pointed it down toward to the Russian infantry. "I hope they installed that set of lightning rods I told them about," he said smiling a sly smile. The lightning arched from his hand to the ground where it did not disperse as normal lightning does, for since this town had just experienced a rather nasty rain fall and the streets were full of water.
The Russian contingent was struck dead with the thousand bolts of electricity. But that was only a small squad. The entire force of the Russian military that was here was vast. And there was no telling when Russia's allies and GUN would arrive to aid the assaulted nation. He needed to find some clue of where exactly in the city the Amory was so he could move on and find the other—
What's this? he inquired. He looked all around. He knew that feeling. It was the unconscious tug of half Black Arm at the mind link. He had felt that whenever he was around Shadow or his children. WHAT? How could this be? That blasted nuke had detonated right above Prower Command which is what it programmed to do. Nothing could have survived the blast which he had even modified the missile so no counterattack could take it down. There was no where a flaw in his plan. He had been preparing it for fifteen years. And yet he could feel the familiar tug at his mind. As the humans say, his blood was at it boiling point. All that time and energy wasted to design a program that would block earth radar from being able to find and track the missile. Now, as once again he felt that abominable presence in his mind. How dare they survive! It took me fifteen years on this #&(# planet to design this plan! How Dare they! I will take a less subtle approach now. And a Russian officer on the ground saw a large bat like creature soaring from the top of the Church.
The New Freedom Fighters sped through St. Petersburg. Now Shade and the younger Fighters saw the true atrocities of war. The city was decimated by the continus assault of the Arms all that they could here was fire, machine gun fire, roars and screeches of the Black Arms, the sound of lightning and men screaming. What sort of monster would do this to this beautiful city? Of course he knew they answer. Only one such as Umbra could take such pleasure in laying waste to the proud city. But what is he looking for?That was the question that plagued both Sonic and Shade. Black Arms tactics showed that they preferred fast warfare where they would attack and destroy a city and then quickly move on. The pattern quickly repeated all over the world. However, Umbra had his troops stationed hear to not only defeat the humans who controlled the city but fully take the city. This was unlike what they had faced before. This place did not place a strategic position like the Prison Island that was a cover for the Eclipse Ray. A normal Earth would want St. Petersburg for the harbor, but The Black Arms wouldn't need the harbor. They were a space fearing race. They had no need for it.
Shade looked to the left to see his sister with one of Prower command robot rifles in her hands. Even going at the speed he, his sister and Uncle were traveling at, they had to keep a sharp I out. A Black Arms could be around any corner, ready to shot them and kill them. The group spilt into two factions. Sonic lead the one Shade was in as well as the entire group, Lucas had Whirl, Emily, and Storm and two robotic GERALD class sentries. Shade was secretly glad that Lucas was leading Emily. As soon as Umbra discovered his and Crystal presence in St. Petersburg he would use all his power to destroy them. He could not allow himself to be cause of something that could have her hurt. He knew that probably only Uncle Sonic had a chance of facing Umbra. Shadow had barley been able to beat him but that really couldn't be considered a win since Shadow was captured. Umbra could kill them all. No Shade would not be the cause of any harm that could come to her.
"Shade!" yelled Sonic. "Fire to your left." Without thinking, Shade positioned the gun he held and fired without even looking. The resonance laser shot reverberated in the stone walkways of St. Petersburg. It was like an voice echoing a cave and wouldn't stop. If they didn't want attract unwanted attention, they really suck.
The clang of laser fire was alerted to his sensitive ears. The humans preferred their old projectile weaponry so that couldn't have been fired by some of the Russian Contingent. Prower. That was the only answer. Prower rifles were the only answer for that was not the discharge of a Black Arms weapon. This must be dealt with.
Shade ran and ran. He had dropped his rifle when had realized that he had just given away his position. He didn't even say anything to Crystal or Uncle Sonic. He just ran.
Through doing so, he say the real extensive damage that had been done to the city. Black Arms artillery had blasted huge holes into building the size of which he could fit two Big the Cats into each. The strange fruit things that mom had talked about covered the city. He never wanted to find out what these things were they could be eggs for all he knew and little Black Arms could jump out and try to kill him. The Russian Contingent, though outnumbered by the Arms, were putting up a fierce fight. They were pulling all their resources to combat the monsters. They had C-4 planted in places that would attract the Arms, like the city square and the hospitals (which had been evacuated) so they couldn't use the medical equipment and so they would become mass graves for the Arms.
Shade ran as fast as he could not noticing the thin wires in front of him. He hit the wires and fly forward screaming like a little girl and hit the ground. "Grr . . ." he managed to put out after flying fifty feet. "What happened?"
A slick voice as cold as death answered him, "You lost your balance."
Shade turned so fast you could of sworn he had two faces. "YOU!" he yelled. When last he had seen Umbra he had been frightened.
Now he was angry.
Angry that he was related to this monster.
Angry that Umbra had tortured his father.
Angry that he allowed himself to be afraid.
Angry that he didn't have his gun.
Shade mentally kicked himself. How could drop his gun in a war zone. That was the stupidest thing he had ever done. Even more stupid than when he had lost his 50 year old copy of Treasure Island at school and had searched the entire place only to realize that he had left it on his bedside table.
Now before him stood his bastard uncle who had tried to kill him and his family. HE NEEDED TO DIE!
"You think you can come up to me and act all come for what you did!" Shade screamed at the alien; it wasn't a question. You took my father away from me before I was even born! Now I'm gonna take you life away from you!"
Shade charged at the scaled monster with every drop of his speed. He charged an pulled his fist up ready to punch the thing blood called uncle. He was within a foot of Umbra, he pushed his fist forward to punch the beast when . . . Umbra vanished!
Shade put on the breaks as fast as he could. He turned around to she the Black Arms Overlord flipping a coin. "You really should work on your aim," Umbra said with lighter tugging at his face. "I am disappointed in you, my boy. I had really hoped, by now, my own nephew would be able to land a hit on me. Seriously, I'd figure by now you should at least now how to perform Chaos Control, but I guess that's just a sad dream." That tugging soon gave way and Umbra Eclipse soon burst into furious burst of laughter. And in a flash, he was gone.
Shade searched frantically for the winged monstrosity. He could be anywhere. Shade was in unlighted street in a war zone. That thing could be anywhere. The fur on the back of Shade's neck pricked up when he looked into the blackest parts of the alleyway. An echo ran through the alleyway, "You know, I don't think you got your father's calmness of mind. I mean, for thirteen years my men tortured him and he never screamed whined, or shivered in fright. All this together, he never gave me a bit of information. Now, you on the other hand, are like a frightened kitten. You are letting your anger get the best of you and then you are a frightened child. Your father would have given me the fight of a lifetime. But instead I get a brat that isn't even dry behind the ears yet."
"I can take you!" Shade screamed into the darkness. He defiantly sounded braver than he felt. His voice was full of anger and hate. Yet his insides were churning with fear and doubt. "I'll kill you for the crimes you have committed!"
Shade fell to the ground as he felt a clawed fist impact with his face. She yelled in pain. He looked back to see a dark red liquid coking out of his back. "What crimes?" said the alien who leaned down to look Shade in the eye. "I am out of your world jurisdiction. I am my own being. You can say that I committed crimes against Antroanity, but I am not an Antro so those rules don't apply. However," the Black Arms Overlord said with a cenacle smile, "this position is rather fitting. If you oppose me, this is where you shall end up. Beneath me and my army. But if you come with me you shall be a grand leader and all your desires will become reality."
He tried to lifted himself up but the gash in his back was really putting a strain on him. He got up but was breathing heavily. He stood before Umbra trying to look as unntimidated as he could. "I'll never join you, bastard!"
Even as he spoke, the wound on his back began to clean itself, and seal. Shade did not notice. Instead he was looking at the creature that dared call himself Shade's uncle. "My father will kill you for you what you did to him and I'm going to make sure that you never harm any of my family again!"
Umbra could only laugh at his nephew statements. "You are so pathetic now. What makes you think you can defeat me? I am the Alpha and the Omega. I could kill you with the slightest thought. But you can be useful." Umbra pulled a small card out of his robes. It was pure white but was thinner than a normal playing card. The edges looked sharp enough to slice open flesh.
In a flash of light Umbra disappeared and on Shade's left arm a small cut appeared. A slight gasp escaped his lips before he could stop it. Umbra appeared again with the same card in hand or tongue for it was wrapped in his tongue that was at least three feet long. There on the card was dark red liquid and Umbra soaking it all up into his tongue. "Ah, such a lovely snack.
Shade immediately felt very dizzy. He could see Umbra but there were at least four of him. He passed out on to the hard ground of St. Petersburg. And he knew no more.