Arc Research and Development building. 7:25pm
Shift uses a portal teleporting into the building. As he gets inside he is still in his head
"Man, do you really think he could have gotten powers as well? That's crazy right? First me then Jamie and now O'Neil"
"Are you there yet?" Jamie asks through the comms scaring Shift
Shift jumps but catches his composure and answers calmly
"Yeah just got here , heading in now"
The further he gets, the more bodies lay knocked out like a trail.
"There's guards and employees here, knocked out." he says while placing his fingers on his neck for a pulse.
"I'm going further in" Shift whispers as he tip toes along in silence.
He walks further in and sees the black cloak wearing figure encased in darkness with a shadowy mask with purple lines and white eyes. It's hard to make out in the dark. He is holding a metal cube containing some sort of synthetic light energy that the company was creating and testing.
"That's clearly what he came here for but why?" Shift mutters to himself
He begins by putting it inside the starlike emblem in his chest. It's like a dimension storage as it disappears into the shadow star.
"You know Halloween isn't until another 3 months right?" Shift speaks from out of view
As the masked figure turns around. Generating three daggers of darkness. He throws the daggers at high speed and accuracy straight at Shift following his voice.
"You talk about Halloween when you're in costume too…what a joke" the masked person says
Shift standing on a platform created by his powers , opens three small portals swallowing each of the black daggers before closing
"Nice reaction time" Shift says
Shift reopens the portals. The same black daggers fly out , appearing behind the masked man, however it just gets absorbed back into his cloak of darkness.
"Well that didn't work the way I thought it would. Also , touché you got me there with the costume thing" Shift says
The masked figure then disappeared in the darkness again and ends up behind Shift as if he teleported and says
"You talk to much"
He tries to punch with his fist encased in darkness, however Shift teleports normally without the portal but so fast it leaves a faint after image.
The main body teleports behind the masked figure, surprising him.
"I can do that too" Shift says
He goes to kick him. He's leg phases through like it's a ghost , Shift quickly teleports away creating distance.
The mask man mutters to himself
"Why does that move feel so familiar"
Shift confused begins asking Jamie through the comms
"Ermm Tech support…I just tried to kick him and my leg went through it like phased straight through! Like literally right through!! What am I meant to do against that"
The masked figure falls downwards into his shadow disappearing as if he descended into hell. But before disappearing fully he says
"Get in my way again and you won't be so lucky"
As he disappears fully within the dark spot leaving Shift alone in the dark room filled with tech.
Shift clenches his fist. "Well he just left but I can confirm one thing by the way he fights…it's him! It's O'Neil"
"But not the one we used to know" Shift adds
10 minutes later. Outside of Kalos , in another city.
The masked figure appears out the shadows ends up in front of a mysterious figure in a well lit room
"Well?…did you get what I asked for?" He asked grinning
The masked man takes out the box from his chest. A star-like symbol made up of darkness. Walks over and hands it too him saying
"Yes I did however another powered one interrupted me"
The bald, thick muscular skinned man snatches the box out of his hand with arrogance.
"Well next time they do that make sure that you kill them! Can't have them becoming a thorn in my side"
"You know I don't do that! I don't kill. I'm no murderer"
"Umbra…or on a more personal note 'O'Neil' just remember what position you're in right now!" He says while getting closer to O'Neil's ear
"You wouldn't want what happened to your friend to happen to your pretty mum now would you?" He whispers with a smug smile
A flashback to O'Neil's friend being shot with light powered bullet at high speed right in front of him before he could react
"Now go do what I say and leave now" he says angrily as all the lights in the room begin to burn brightly.
Broken by the flashback he agrees.
"Understood" as he disappears in the shadows
"With this! It's finally ready!" He says laughing manically as he lifts the cube of synthetic light into the air.
Back in Kalos , Kaleb returns back to his mother. Shortly after him O'Neil returns and meets their parents outside.
"Sorry. I hope I didn't miss anything" Kaleb and O'Neil say at the same time confusing each other.
"No it's okay , i understand how long the lines can get here. Anyways we are probably going to call it a night snd head back home as it's getting late" Isabella —Keleb's mum says
"Yeah I agree, it's a good time to call it a night " O'Neil mum says
They say their goodbyes and go their separate ways as O'Neil and his mother are currently staying at a hotel.
As they're walking back home Kaleb's mum—Isabella asks him a question
"Kaleb…how are you? We've lost many important people in our life's! I wanted to see how you're actually feeling"
As silence falls. You could hear the wind blow past, Kaleb knows the importance of the question.
"I don't know! First losing Dad at a young age now losing Auntie Kat…it's a lot " he says with a pained look
"…It really hurts but I also know they both would want us to live life to our fullest after all. Just like they always used to say. Stand High in Frightening Times"
As Isabella looks at Kaleb she sees a glimpse of her husband—Kaleb's father and Kat around him like guarding angels protecting one of their own. She shed a tear.
"M..mum are you okay?" Shift says comforting her
"I'm okay son, thank you! I was just thinking how much you remind me of your father and aunt!" Isabella says wiping her tear
"He'd be so proud of you…Kat definitely was" she holds his face comforting him back
"Keep shining bright my son" she says giving him a long needed hug.
Later that night.
Kaleb is at sanctuary conversing with Jamie as he paces up and down.
"It was definitely him! I saw him disappear in darkness and not to mention he used the exact same move O'Neil loved to do when we was younger. That can't be a coincidence" he says frustratedly
"Not to mention when I kicked him I literally phased right through him like I couldn't hit him at all!…what's that all about?"
Jamie intervenes "Give me your suit and I'll have sage have a look at it and see why"
Kaleb teleports the suit out of the crystal he has on a necklace and it lands onto the desk.
Sage, who is also now in the sanctuary's system, begins scanning it.
A device scans the suit using a greenish blue light.
"I can understand where you're coming from but it's not wise to jump to conclusions just yet , we need more proof" Jamie explains
"I don't want to believe it but I saw it…we used to dream of being heroes! Why would he go the other way?!" Kaleb says frustradly
'Scanning complete'
Jamie looks at the results on the screen…
"Well Sage says that the power is definitely of darkness but it's a really old and pure source of power, almost godlike!"
Shocked, Kaleb replies "What the! How the hell am I meant to go against that"
"I'm not done yet! The good thing although we don't know why yet but your power is very familiar in the ancient regard! Yours is also unique to your imagination limited to your energy levels" Jamie explains
"Soooo what you're saying is?"Kaleb asks with both hands on the desk
"So what I'm saying is. You can hit him you just have to change the properties or essence of your energy to its weakness or at least something that can combat it. Which I'm guessing is a really pure light" Jamie explains
Hesitant Kaleb asks "Erm…not to be stupid here but can I even do that? That sounds a bit much"
"In your case try to just imagine you have strong light that can't be swallowed or absorbed and see how it goes" jamie says assuring him
"Again! Can I even do that and would it work?" Shift asks confused
Suddenly an alert goes off again. The computer beeps and Sage speaking out the computer speakers. A woman's robotic voice says
"Darkness energy source detected"
"Looks like you'll get to test it out right now" Jamie says as he looks at the computer screen
With a puzzled look he adds
"I..It appears to be at an abandoned building…which is weird as he has been stealing tech. What could he possibly be stealing from there?
Jamie looks up from his screen towards Kaleb
"It has to be a trap to lure you well Shift in"
"It doesn't matter if it's a trap or not! I got to confront him and see why he is doing this" Kaleb says eagerly.
"And how do you expect to do that?" Jamie asks
Kaleb grabs the suit off the desk and teleports his suit on in an instant and says
"Don't worry…I have a plan."