Return of Gerlad's Legacy

Chapter 18: CCCP-2853

Shadow's ears were ringing. That happens when his wife had yelled at him over his cell phone. Not that he had done anything wrong. It was just that she didn't give him time to hand the phone to guilty parties. You may think that Shadow has a temper, you should see or hear his wife when she hears that her two children decided to head up to the surface to fight their insane uncle and his alien army. Nice plan except for the fact that they were outnumbered seven-thousand to 1/2. Next he had the rings of Russian syllables. He had told the Russian President that Umbra wants something from the old Soviet armory CCCP-2853. Immediately the man had burst into a rage that knuckles would be proud of. Not only was against the idea of going after the item but he was adamantly against telling Shadow what was in 2853.

He ran through he city. His blue doppelganger beside him and his children running behind them. The thing that worried him was not the Soviet vault. It was that cut. The nick on Shade's arm. It had healed by the time the conversation with Umbra had subsided, which Umbra had soon vanished with the energy bubble in a flash of black light.

That cut, though small, must have been made by Black Arms technology. And through experience, Shadow had learned that those wounds take long periods of time to heal naturally and even some extended strands of time with medical attention. Umbra wouldn't have made it just for ideal chit-chat. He wanted something out of it to grow. Something far to cynical for Shadow's taste. He had faced Black Doom, and he had been a 'guest' on Umbra's flagship. He knew too well the things that Black Arms wanted: food, destruction, control, and genetic dominance. That's how they were so varied. They had the ability to assimilate other races into their own via the usage of the Blood of Black Doom. Shadow had learned this upon one of his extended stays aboard the ARK. But he hadn't left the data there. He downloaded the entire mainframe and put it a secret vault that only he knew the location of.

They hadn't run into much trouble. A stray Black Hawk here and there, that was pretty much it. Most likely Umbra had ordered all his troops to pull back from the Armory. That wouldn't stop the Russian Contingent from trying to completely obliterate the slimy foes.

Why most my life be just 'one more fight'? thought Shadow as he speed through St. Petersburg. All I want is peace. Peace, love, and to see me children grow up and have children of their own. But every time I get close to achieving this, something from my past decides to surface and torment me again. First GUN, then the Doctor, then Black Doom, and Umbra has been my foe longer than any of them. When we free those kids, I'm gonna rip his black heart out of his horrid body. And I hope he burns in Hell!

They approached the old armories. Most of them were just doors that led down into the real armories underground. They all lead into the same tunnel system, but many of the tunnels were cut off that way if one armory was taken, the intruder couldn't get into all of them the same way.

2793 . . . .2820 . . . 2837 . . . 2850 . . "2853," said Shadow to the blue one.

"What do you think old scale face wants with old AK-47s?" Sonic looked up at the concrete door with the crude paint that said CCCP-2853. Mostly likely that had filled these Armories over to protect them from intruders.

"He doesn't," Shadow said simply. He placed his hand on the door and shouted, "CHAOS FIRE!" A blast of red energy came forth from his hand and plowed through the concrete. What remained of the concrete was only rumble and could be easily walked through. Now their was a just a fully carved out tunnel meant for people to walk through. "He wants something out of this." Shadow turned around to see five of the larger Prower Command robots, (CHAOS class for your information), one of them handed Shadow, Shade and Crystal an fully automatic machine gun. They attempted to hand Sonic one, but he declined. "You'll most likely need one, Faker."

Sonic smiled. "You'll never catch me dead with one of those things." Shadow held in a sad smile. In one of the fake truths that Umbra had tortured Shadow's mind with. Sonia had committed suicide when Sonic was in the room and he had shot himself for failing to stop her.

The CHAOS Bots took up position as guards outside in case the Black Arms came to break up the party. Shadow turned on the flash light on the front of the gun and others did the same. The marched forward into the darkness that somewhere held what Umbra wanted.

Not only had this armory had been abandoned, but it stunk. If you took gym socks, skunk spray, dirty diapers, rotting corpses, and a couple decades of wet dogs running ramped you might get close. They had already descended into the full area of the tunnel. Shadow wondered if someone had said that it couldn't get any worse when they found themselves knee-deep in sewer water. Apparently the sewer ran nearby and the concrete had cracked. Now Crystal was muttering complaints about the sewer water. Typical. That's just what Shadow needed on this mission. Whining females. Thankfully a blunt stare from her brother was able to get her to shut up.

Shadow kept on trying to think what Umbra could want. None of the Soviet equipment could be worth anything. Unless, they had some form of Black Arms technology that was vital to Umbra's campaign and they stashed it in this armory. Or it was possible . . . He must have taken the red one. The Russians may have gotten hold of one. It was possible. The Eclipse Cannon had needed all seven of them to fire. So Umbra might need them for his Eclipse ray.

The Russian's had not only put up more concrete walls, but also automated turrets, laser, floor motion detectors, and steel doors. Shadow and his children took little time to disable each of these defenses. He noticed that with every shot, Shade seemed to become more adept. Unnaturally so. He was become more agile, his strength, his aim, everything. Yet his sister, who had received the exact same amount of training, was still the same as when they had been training. It wasn't right.

Only one wall stood in their way. But this one wasn't just a simple door. It had a keypad. Shadow put his fingers up to the keypad and punched the 5 button. Immediately a jolt of electricity bolted through Shadow's hand. "Oww!"

He jumped back from the shock of being attacked by an immobile object. Shade and Crystal both tried to punch other buttons with similar results.

"What the?" Shade exclaimed as he held his hand. The jolt had knocked it completely numb.

Shadow looked at the buttons closely. He could see faint markings. They were look like some sort of old code. What made them harder to decipher was they were in Russian. Dark . . moon . . .Arms! Of course. The Russians would make sure the enemy couldn't get through the door. He put his ear to the steel door. He could her oil rushing and the sound of electric jolts. They had set the door up so no one with any form of Black Arms DNA could open the door let alone blow the door up. The sounds inside the door meant that there was some form of booby trap inside and he was no booby.

"Sonic," the blue hedgehog looked up as he name was called, "punch in the code :540172." Sonic cast his brother-in-law a weary look, but did as he was told. He pressed his fingers on the keypad, but no shock came to hinder the blue speedster. Shadow slightly smiled. This would get him passed the Russian security, but this would Umbra one step closer to his ultimate goal.

The door slid open as Sonic finished the code. They all stepped inside. What they saw was a glowing blue gem cut so perfectly you would have thought you were dreaming. It glowed with such radiance. It could only be one thing.

Umbra would get the Blue Chaos Emerald.