Shift teleports to the abandoned house. Roof old and worn with withered windows. Fences bent and broken.
"You sure know how to pick a spot. Creepy level at 1000 right now" Shift says to himself in disgust.
He notices a window and teleports into the property. While inside he begins shouting
"You wanted my attention? Well here I am!
Suddenly 3 spiked pillars come flying out the shadows on the floor intersecting into each other trying to pierce Shift. Thanks to his heightened senses he manages to react jumping up doing a backflip.
While Shift in mid air , another spike appears shooting down from the ceiling , however Shift narrowly escapes by teleporting himself without the portal. It looked like he phased through it
"You have to do better than that" Shift says smugly
Suddenly the figure in black appears behind him. Finally showing himself. He goes in for a stab towards Shift's back , with a blade made of darkness.
The shadowy figure says
"What are you going to do about it? Besides we already learnt that you can't even touch me."
In that split second—
Shift remembers the conversation he had with Jamie about trying to change his properties to light. He imagines a light so pure and powerful that no darkness can escape or penetrate it…
Suddenly, a blinding blue light explodes. Illuminating the dark abandoned room. Umbra gets pushed backwards as the force destroys the roof of the building exposing the pure white moonlight pierce through.
Shift appears standing on a platform of blue hard light formed from his powers , with an aura of blue light around him. Brighter than he has ever been before. The moon behind him looming over like a guardian.
"What the hell is that bright light? It's like my darkness can't even get close"
He shoot dark sword projectiles at Shift as they shatter upon contact of his hand , shrouded in this new light
"Woah Jamie was right , I didn't think it would actually work…however it burns a lot of energy whenever I use an imagination to this extent!" Shift thinks to himself
"Anyways now that I can hit you…I think it's time to beat the sense back into you" Shift says as gets into his fighting pose that he has done ever since he was little.
He raises his hand in a familiar way. A quick flashback occurs to them as kids doing a pose as they sparred back in the past… However, Shift doesn't waste any time. He teleport and appears behind him and punches him upwards through the whole in roof that he made earlier into the outside
It's a busy Saturday night. Wind blowing calmly. Suddenly you see the shadowy figure fly upwards and manage to recover by floating.
"What the hell. He can actually hit me now? and why was that pose so familiar"
Before he has time to gather himself , Shift is already teleported creating multiple portals around entering and exiting them unpredictably. Each time gaining more speed. He punches him, continues using the momentum into another portal and appears to him out of another. Shift does it several times at a rapid pace!
Shift shouts with every strike, "WHY!… WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR DREAMS OF BECOMING HEROES! PLAYING HEROES TOGETHER WITH EVERYONE! SO WHY TELL ME WHY O'NEIL"
Piece of the dark figures mask breaks off from the impact. Revealing O'Neil's shocked face
"Huh? Did he just say my name? Now that you mention it…the annoying fighting style and that pose earlier…" O'Neil thinks to himself
As O'Neil notices he utters the name "K-Kaleb?"
Before he could finish his sentence, Shift has already lost himself in the battle , his anger and grief. He has created a hard piece of his power for footing and explosively pounces at O'Neil punching him as hard as he can
"WAKE UP!!" He shouts passionately
The punch connected! Right in the face knocking him flying downwards to the ground. Creating a big hole.
O'Neil manages to get up to his feet and rubs the debris off himself then locks on to Shift
His power spikes. Pieces of rubble begin floating around him.
"WHY? YOU ASK WHY? EVERYTHING IS NOT SO BLACK AND WHITE , GOOD OR EVIL! YOU KNOW NOTHING! HOW CAN YOU KNOW" he shouts back
Suddenly, a huge pillar of black energy shoots out of the hole where O'Neil is. He floats out gracefully. His form seems to have changed, becoming more menacing . Wielding a pitch black scythe that he can control at will.
"YOU KNOW NOTHING THAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME SINCE I MOVED"
He lifts up his scythe and slashes three times sending three projectiles at Shift at incredible speeds. He dodges all three just barely thanks to a feeling he feels faintly.
"I guess that form isn't just looks , that speed was crazy"
Suddenly O'Neil—Umbra teleports behind him using the slashes of darkness that Shift dodged as a place to teleport out from , Umbra continues.
"I DON'T WANT TO BE DOING THIS BUT I HAVE NO CHOICE! I HAVE TO PROTECT AT LEAST HER!" He slashes the scythe, which has grown double in size reacting to his emotions.
"Protect who? I won't know anything unless you tell me and you know that wont hit me" as Shift says
However the scythe lands hitting him hard without shattering like before and sends him flying into multiple buildings. Umbra teleports to him using a dark spot on the ground. He begins punching Shift, over and over with his hand encased in darkness charging it with every hit.
"YOU WOULDN'T UNDERSTAND! I'VE SEEN THINGS AND IF I DIDN'T DO THINGS HE WOULD DO THE SAME TO ME AND MY MUM! I WONT ALLOW IT"
Umbra getting ready to release a massive punch charged up with immense energy.
'Argh if this lands it'll be fatal and I don't have long left using this 'Absolute light' Shift thinks to himself
"ENOUGH!!" Shift shouts charges up his energy and explodes violently , catching him off guard sending Umbra flying backwards
Jamie, through the comms tries to warn Shift "you're using too much energy. You need to calm down"
Shift ignores him and teleports into the air and creates a footing in the air of pure hard light. He charges it up and makes it explode giving him immense speed and power. Shift now charging towards Umbra at full speed , going in to punch him. Counter. They go back and forth using their martial arts mid air thanks to Shift's platform. Shift has the upper hand as some attacks get through his defence
"YOU SAY I WOULDNT UNDERSTAND?!… I LOST MY AUNT! MY BEST FRIEND AND I COULDNT SAVE HER! SO I UNDERSTAND DOING WHAT YOU MUST TO SAVE THOSE YOU LOVE. I WOULD DO THE SAME FOR HER" Shift shouts as his hands charge up with blue energy. He uppercuts him creating a sonic boom
Umbra violently flying further into the air. Nothing but sky and clouds around him. Shift jumps up into a portal and explodes out of another one creating a shockwave. Flying straight towards him punching him at high speed.
Shift keeping the momentum continues going past him into another portal and repeats the move hitting him over and over again at the speed of light. Each portal was placed carefully around him in the shape of a sphere!
The sphere-like object in the sky shined almost as bright as the sun lighting up Kalos for a few seconds confusing everyone below.
"BUT YOU'RE GOING ABOUT IT WRONG! THERE'S ALWAYS A BETTER WAY. SO INSTEAD OF BEING A HARD HEADED IDIOT , YOU'LL COME BACK TO US AND ASK YOUR FRIENDS FOR HELP"
Shift lands the direct blow to the face knocking him out as his punch creates a wave of air pushing the clouds. Umbra unconscious , free falling through the sky.
The victory was short-lived…as Shift goes to teleport to save Umbra he notices he has used up all his energy and they both begin to fall through the sky.
"J-Jamie! we're in trouble! I used too much energy and can't do anything right now!" Shift says shouting in a panic
Luckily, Jamie knew something like this would happen and has come flying in with his suit grabbing both Shift and Umbra
"I told you not to use all that energy but you don't listen and I hope you know what you're doing with O'Neil"
"Thanks for the assist. Don't worry I know him" Shift responds weakly with a thumbs up.
Back to The Sanctuary.
Kaleb and Jamie are conversing and O'Neil wakes up in a shock
"Huh! Where am I?! Where's that guy" O'Neil says jumping up
Kaleb walks out and says
"Here I am. You're finally awake bro?"
"Huh! So wait…that portal maniac is actually you!! I thought I went insane" O'Neil replies
"Yeah pretty much , also there's Jamie! You remember him right…wait maniac?"
He says while pointing over at Jamie
Jamie lifts his right hand , holding a screwdriver in the air
"What's up?" Then continues back to work
Ignoring Kaleb about the maniac comment O'Neil says
"Yeah of course I remember him! What's up man"
"Anyway what is this place and since when did you become a hero" O'Neil adds
"Well during the world experiment things got weird. I got powers and since then I put my dreams from back then into action…which now gets to my question"
His tone shifted. They both notice it
"When you got your powers, when did you change from wanting to be a hero to a thief?"
There's a short pause. A moment of silence.
O'Neil looks shocked and a little disheartened as he knows the severity of the question especially as it's being asked by Kaleb…the two of them dreamt of becoming heroes together since they were as little as 5!
Both fighting crimes together. Keeping the streets safe but somewhere down the line it changed…
"Look! Around the time of the experiment things got weird for me too. Not just for me but a lot of people" O'Neil replies
He pauses for a split second…
"One of them being a crazy bastard who doesn't care about others! If people don't contribute to him he makes a point out of them! One day , right in front of me he just killed a close friend!…It all happened so fast. All I saw was a flash of light and in that instant my friend was impaled" O'Neil expressed emotionally holding back his tears and anger
"Woah. That's intense, did you not call the police? Kaleb asks
O'Neil scoffs , "The police? What is the police going to do when he has them in his pocket?" He says sarcastically
"They just looked the other way! Said it was a 'freak incident'" he adds
Kaleb who really loves justice gets angry slamming his fist in the table
"It shouldn't be that way!… You were after me on the order of this guy right?"
O'Neil replies
"Yeah, his name is Solaris…but whatever you have planned I doubt it would work. Especially that his power is literally strongest against mine"
Jamie quickly buts in
"Actually…in your case , I believe it's not!
"What? What do you mean?" O'Neil asks confused
"From your battle with Kaleb earlier. I've managed to run some tests on your power and your 'darkness'. It isn't just any normal darkness!"
He says while swinging the monitor around so the others can see.
On the screen , Sage has brought up all the necessary results.
Jamie continues controlling the screen via sage technopathically
"Earlier we learnt that your power is from an ancient power source. With further tests I've managed to get a little bit closer. Your power is basically godly…or well it comes from some sort of 'god/goddess' of the dark. Which one? I don't know"
"Well that was a lot of information, you're saying the power source for my powers might be from some ancient god? O'Neil asks
"Yeah pretty much. So no 'normal' light would be able to just wipe out your darkness. Unless you subconsciously limit yourself" Jamie explains
"I mean when I used 'Absolute light' your darkness managed to match it. Especially when you turned into some sort of 'Grim Reaper' thing. Wielding that scythe" Shift says mockingly as he generates a scythe with his powers
"So just remember that feeling and bring that out again…On that note it's time for 'operation payback!" Shift adds bursting with excitement.
'I don't even know the plan yet " Jamie says
"Same here" O'Neil agreeing with Jamie.
"Don't you worry! I know what I'm doing" Kaleb assures everyone.