Egg Pawn were whooping and pumping their fists as they shot at people and buildings, clearly enjoying themselves. Thankfully, no buildings had been knocked down, since the Egg Pawns had short attention spans and wanted to shoot at everything they could. Egg Gunners, Egg Fights, and EggRobos were marching down the streets. The number of robots attacking Westopolis seemed to keep getting bigger and showed no signs of stopping.

Shadow was looking down on the attack from the top of a skyscraper. He ran his fingers through the spikes on his head as he tried to hold back his fear.

The attack's too big, he thought. I… I… can't do this.

He pictured the first time he met his grandfather, Gerald. He remembered what the professor said when he told Matthew who he really was: Those pictures! Look at them! That's what you looked like when you first came out of your mother's womb! Shadow remembered those pictures, and how disgusting he looked in them.

Your father was a creature known as Black Doom, a member of the Black Arms. He's an alien. Shadow wondered what this Black Doom looked like. Did he and Shadow look alike?

Matthew, I have something I think you'll like. Shadow looked at his Inhibitor Rings. They helped him control his power. They prevented him from going completely insane.

Now, the media has a pretty bad image on you. I suggest you change that. Shadow looked from his Inhibitors to the city. His breathing became loud, and the irises of his eyes began to glow. He would not give up.

Three people—two women and a man—ran into an alley for cover. They had been running from the strange robots for what felt like eternity, always going from one place to the next. Every bit of them knew that this was the end. All of them had had tough lives living in the city. They were poor, and previously had struggled endlessly to keep the roofs over their heads. What little home they had left had been destroyed in the attack. Now they had nothing. This attack had destroyed their lives.

They found a tight corner in the alley and huddled into it, hoping it would at least protect them a little. All three of them were scared for their life. They huddled closer as they heard the tops of building explode. Small specs of debris fell on top of them. An explosion they felt broke out, and a box fell in front of them. The man noted that it looked like a package, and moved away from the girls to see what was inside. He took the small blade inside his coat pocket and cut the tape off it.

He opened the box. Inside was a hoard of strangely designed fireworks. He took one out and looked at it curiously. He wondered what these were for. It wasn't July yet, and the box came from nowhere. He felt the ground quiver below him as part of the street near them exploded. He put the rocket pack in the box and returned to his spot with the two women.

Fyoooooooom! The group looked up and saw a missile aimed straight at them. They joined hands as the missile closed in on them and blew them up… and destroyed the package of fireworks.

Without the bottom to support it, the building began to topple over. It was the first one to do so during the attack. It crashed into its neighboring building as it fell over. It had not been built well, so it was quickly reduced to a pile of rubble and dust. Any people on the sidewalk or street scrambled to get out of the way.

The tool that was supposed to save Westopolis was gone.

An Egg Fighter swung its buzz-saw forward, landing a clean hit on Shadow. It was a powerful hit that sent Shadow reeling. He crashed through the window of a diner and slammed into a counter. He picked himself up, effortlessly grabbed one of the tables, and threw it at the Fighter. It hit the robot with perfect aim and sliced it in half, making it explode. The table he threw flew into another building. Shadow leaped out of the diner and brought his fist down on an EggRobo. His fist was shoved into it, but it was still functional. It flailed its gun arms around and tried to get Shadow off, but he threw his fist downward, destroying the robot. He jumped into the air and closed his eyes. His body started glowing yellow, and numerous Chaos Spears formed around him. He opened his eyes and released them all around the area, destroying robots occupying the street or Egg Pawn ships taking over the sky. Flames burst out of Shadow's Hover Shoes as he flew to another area. He had missed one of the Egg Pawns ships, and it fired a powerful shot at him, knocking him to the ground like a fly.

He quickly got up and fired some Beam Vision at the ship, but it deftly evaded and fired another shot at the hedgehog. The shot exploded as it hit him and sent him flying. Shadow stopped himself in midair. Curling up his body into a ball, he launched himself at the small ship, but fired once again, yet again hurling Shadow to the ground. It didn't wait for him to get up and fired again. Shadow yelled as his body helplessly collided into a dump truck. The Egg Pawn ship started to charge for another shot. Shadow had no time to think; he decided to just let himself get hit again. However, the ship exploded just before it was ready to fire. Shadow watched in amazement as pieces of the ship fell to the ground. Did someone save him? Did the ship just get too hot and self-destructed?

A pleased smirk came on his face as a figure emerged from the smoke and flames.

"Omega, you came back."

"Of course I did," the robot said as it walked toward Shadow. It was carrying two large, silver-colored guns that resembled revolves, but were much more… alien. "I could not just leave you to fight this war yourself."

Shadow peeled himself off the dump truck and tiredly flopped on the ground. "Ugh… Eggman said that the city has to set off some firework in order for him to call off the attack. Do you… know where they are?"

Omega hesitated, then beeped. "Negative."

Shadow pulled himself up by using the hood of another car for support. "Well, that's great. Do you think they might've gotten lost?"

"I am not for certain," Omega said. "Matthew, there is a situation…"

Shadow took a deep breath. "…That doesn't sound good."

"It isn't. When Dr. Robotnik hijacked the airways, he—well, exposed my systems."

"Uh-huh…?"

"Yes. When I was able to come back online, the Chaos Emeralds were…"

"Gone," Shadow finished.

"That is correct," Omega said solemnly.

Shadow grabbed his head in disbelief and started pacing around. "Are you f- Are you kidding me?!" He stopped walking around an looked at Omega. "What's the lab like?"

Omega paused. "Nearly destroyed."

Trying to keep in his anger, Shadow pursed his lips and closed his eyes. It only worked for a short time. He yelled and threw a truck at a nearby supermarket. He turned to Omega as the shop exploded behind him.

"Eggman. Is going. To pay," he said firmly.

"Matthew, I must remind you that he is your uncle."

"You think I don't know that?!" roared Shadow. "That's what's getting to me, the fact that my uncle is doing this! I've looked up to him my whole life, and now he's committing genocide! What about when he decides to show his face, huh? What if the only way to stop him is to kill him? Every part of me just wants to run away right now, but I don't. because I love this goddamn city! I see something in it that most others don't. I see a glimmer of hope, and I need to save Westopolis before it goes away!"

Omega robotically pointed its two guns toward the sky. "I understand that, Matthew, and I'm going to help you."