The Return Of Shade

 

            Sparow did not fear death; in some ways he welcomed it. Sparow closed his eyes, anticipating the death that would surely come from above.

            ‘Bring it on death, I’m not afraid of you,’ Sparow silently thought.

 

            ‘Sparow is nut!’

            That was the first thing Silver thought as he watched his half brother stand in the center of the room, close his eyes, and outstretch hi arms, as if he was welcoming death about to fall upon them. The next thoughts immediately raced to how to avoid the same disaster.

            Blue Flare? No that was useless against falling objects.

            Twin Dragon? No not even the dragons were powerful enough to destroy the entire floor about to fall on them.

            Running? No, no time!

            That was it, nothing left to do.

            Silver closed his eyes, cursing himself his time had come so soon.

            “Father, I’ll see you soon.”

 

            Seconds passed by like an eternity. Slowly Silver opened his eyes to see why they weren’t crushed yet.

            “What the?” Silver stared up in disbelief.

            Above, and all around them was a transparent blue dome. The rubble from the floor above had already fallen away from the dom. They were saved!

            “You should never give up,” a somewhat familiar voice said. “Never accept death so easily.”

            Slowly the dome faded away. Into the center of the pile of rubble slowly walked a figure. He wore a long blue cloak that concealed hi features. He looked vaguely familiar to a man Silver only met briefly about a year ago.

            “Shade?” Silver questioned the man.

            “You may call me that,” the man answered.

            “I met you about a year ago…”

            “You can say that…”

            Silver had a feeling he could have asked a million more questions and still not get a straight answer from Shade, so he gave up.

            “Darn, I was hoping that would have finished you two brats off,” a new voice said, not far away.

            Sparow was the first to recognize the new voice, “New Samurai, I’ve been waiting to get my hands on you.”

            Silver turned to see Sparow was right, standing not far away was the man known as New Samurai. Unlike Nightmare, New Samurai still looked to be in his prime, despite being a has been in many peoples eyes. He still eerily looked like Silver’s father; he wore a black outfit similar to Silver’s father, and had long black hair again like silver’s father. However the most disturbing feature of all were New Samurai’s eyes, they were jet black, staring into them reminded you of staring into a void. New Samurai was very much the same way, lacking all basic emotion, but one, hatred, pure hatred for one man, Silver’s father. Trying to figure out that hatred was nearly impossible, it was as if New Samurai was born to hate Silver’s father.

            “I’m not like your psycho parents, I do not wish death upon you two,” New Samurai smiled wickedly. “But if you insist on destroying my headquarters, I have no choice but to destroy you.”

            “You can thank your wife, Emerald for destroying you headquarters,” Silver retorted.

            “Don’t be silly, that girl is not stupid enough to destroy my headquarters.”

            Emerald was an expert in earth magic; she’s the only one who could have created such a big earthquake. If it wasn’t her, who could it has possibly been?

            “Enough talk, time for him to pay for how he treated me,” Sparow charged towards New Samurai.

            Silver was about to rush after Sparow, to prevent him from doing anything stupid, when Shade extended his arm, stopping Silver from moving.

            “Black Fireball Rain!”

            It was New Samurai’s trademark attack. From the heavens above the clouds opened up and black fireballs rained down onto the battlefield. As if on cue, the blue dome returned protecting Silver and Shade.

            Sparow, outside of the protective dome, skillfully dodged the raining fireballs. Once Sparow was in striking distance, he drew his sword and leaped at New Samurai.

            “Not bad,” New Samurai batted Sparow away as if he was nothing more then a fly. “But just like your life, a complete failure.”

            “Damn him,” Silver cursed under his breath.

            Silver pushed his way past Shade, and rushed out from under the protective blue dome, so he had a clear shot. “Twin Dragons!”

            New Samurai simply drew his sword as he stared at the two fire dragons rushing towards him. “Flame Wave!”

            It was another one of New Samurai’s trademark attack, with a horizontal slash of his sword, a large arching stream of black fire towards the twin fire dragons. The black fire swallowed up both the dragons with ease. The black fire then continued till it hit Silver head on. The blast was intense for Silver; even with his natural resistance to fire the blast was enough the knock the wind out of Silver.

            “Now then, New Samurai turned his attention to the fallen Sparow, who was out cold from his fall. “Since you seem to have a death wish, I will be kind enough to grant it for you.”

            New Samurai switched his sword to a downward striking position. With one last cold look at Sparow, New Samurai plunged his sword towards Sparow’s heart.

            “Down boy.”

            A sphere of blue magical energy hit new Samurai in the side, causing his blow to go wide, missing Sparow by inches.

            “I will not allow you to harm him,” Shade said as he walked into Silver’s vision.

            “You dare attack me?” New Samurai switched his attention to Shade. “Do you think you can beat me?”

            Before Shade could answer, New Samurai charged, sword in striking position.

            “Think?” Another smaller blue dome appeared to block New Samurai’s sword, “No, I know I can beat you.”

            The dome expanded around Shade, knocking new Samurai to the ground.

            “I suggest you stay down,” another ball of blue magical energy was forming in Shade’s hand.

            New Samurai, paying little attention to the warning, quickly got back to his feet. New Samurai’s anger was apparent as his sword was engulfed in black fire. New Samurai charged Shade for a second time.

            “I found her, I found,” Sapphire rushed up to the group, skidding to a stop in between New Samurai and Shade. Sapphire took a quick a quick glance around to see herself surrounded by New Samurai and Shade. “Oh hi New Samurai, hi person I don’t know.”

            New Samurai looked down on Sapphire with a confused look on his face; he slowly withdrew his sword, but said nothing.

            “I had to twist her arm a little, but sis agreed to help. She on her way to White Phantom’s house now.” Ruby joined the group and quickly glanced around only to find Sparow laid prone not far away, “Sparow!”

            Sparow was already getting back on his feet and shooed his concerned wife away. “Relax I’m fine,” Sparow brushed himself off. “I was just playing possum.”

            Silver couldn’t help but wonder if that was the truth, or if Sparow was lying to save face from being knocked out so easily.

            Sapphire giggled, “Ruby I think you did more then twist sis’ arm, I thought heard bones breaking.”

            Ruby scowled at her sister, “I wasn’t that rough.”

            “Where’s that scum of a samurai?” Sparow questioned.

            A quick look around revealed New Samurai indeed had vanished as mysteriously as he had appeared.

            “What I don’t get,’ Silver was thinking out loud. “If Emerald didn’t attack us, who did?

            The girls looked confused, but no one was able to offer an answer.

            “I’ll take my leave now,” Shade suddenly announced.

            “Leaving so soon,” Silver questioned. “We haven’t even gotten a chance to thank you yet.”

            “Fool!” Shade raised his voice for the first time, “If I was not here, both you and your brother be dead. I won’t always be here to save you.”

            Silver opened his mouth to protest, but Shade turned his back.

            “You still have a lot of learning to do,” Shade lowered his voice to a somber tone. “The best advice I can give you is ‘Never give up’.”

             Shade took his leave.

            Silver was left speechless.

            “Come on,” Sapphire cheerful tone was a welcome change. “Let’s go see if sis found a cure yet.”

            Sparow and Ruby took the lead as Sapphire held onto Silver’s arm, preventing him from moving. “You got to tell me what that was all about,” she whispered in Silver’s ear.

            Silver shook his head, “I’m not sure if I know myself.”

 

                                                                                                            To be continued…

 

            Is this the last time we see Shade, or just the first? What kind of growing up did Shade mean? Perhaps the most important thing to worry about right now is will Emerald be able to cure Forgotten One?