Danger Squad Legends: The Shadow

Austin woke up in darkness.

He was tied to a wall. His arms and legs kept locked tight vy incredibly tough chains.

As his eyes opened, he bore witness to the two lanky figures before him. Then like a flash of lightning, accompanied by a brief picture of his closest friends massacred before him, he quickly realized what was going on...

And the two beings before him.

His oldest friend turned subject of his revenge, his most trusted allies in a time far forgotten, and the receiver of the love and admiration of his unrequited lover, Kara, better known as the Blur...

Ace!

Beside him was the Danger Squad's oldest foe Mr E. However, Austin's attention was solely on Ace. Much to the annoyance of Mr E once he noticed.

"You're probably wondering why you're here."

Austin responded with silence .

"Lemme cut straight to the point. You're in my secret base right outside Empire City. Why are you here? So you and your team cant impede on my plans."

Austin was still completely silent. But now, his eyes where transfixed on Ace.

Mr E was furious that he was be ignored but tried his damned best to hide it. He was sure to get this fool interested eventually.

"What plans? Could it be world domination? World unification? Well, I afraid they go much deeper than such surface level desires. I simply want to evolve man further."

Austin continued the silence with nothing but a blank expression on his currently unmasked face staring deeply at Ace who only looked away.

His bloodlust was unmatched.

"You see, mankind has always had the capability of evolution, but they impede their progress by their continued reliance on ideologies involving religion and morality. This impedes them. Morality is a cancer which is slowly killing the human race! Just look! One nation, our nation, The Commonwealth, stands above all else but smaller nations still exist! What of the muman nation as well eh? The Strange Society?! Why not fight them? Why not see who comes out on top to continue the evolution of man? Morality! That is why! Now I'll make it my mission to eliminate this disgusting morality! With the help of my special weapon the..."

"Oh blah blah blah!" Austin shouts unexpectedly alerting Ace and especially Mr E.

"Do you ever stop talking? I couldn't give a rats ass about your little scheme. That part of me died a long time ago. Killed by the fucker standing behind you." Austin says with intense anger creeping through his young yet gruff voice.

Hehe.. then what are you gonna do about it eh? Your chains are made of Advantagem, one of the strongest metals in the world! Stolen all the way from the land of Mecha! Even known to hold Captain Rocket down!" Mr E says in annoyance over the realization that he isn't the central focus here.

Oh simple. I just have to remember, I'm not Captain Rocket." Austin says blankly and immediately frees himself from his restraints.

H..how did you..?" Mr E asks preparing for battle by running to his giant supercomputer at the opposite end of the room and pressing a special combination of buttons.

Pretty easy. My muman ability allows me to manipulate my artificial feathers anyway I want. Whether it be forming indestructible bird based armor or weapons... Or with enough time and concentration, breaking down any restraints I'm put it on a molecular level. I am not someone you fuck with." Austin reveals as his whole body is enveloped by his red and blue battle armor and he charges with immense bloodlust at the target of his revenge.

Mr E prepares to attack immediately realises he isn't the target.

Ace is.

Austin prepares his armored fist to punch Ace to death by spawning a giant bird themed gauntlet from his feathers, but once jis fist lands, it feels like hitting a brick wall.

That's when he sees it wasn't Ace he hit, but rather a blond teenage boy wearing a gold and black shirt with yellow baggy pants and seemed to be too muscular for his age.

Before Austin could process anything, the boy unloaded a devastating punch to Austins chest which sent him flying right through the wall into the adjacent training room nearby.

Once Austin lands, he quickly regains his composure and assesses the situation.

That attack...why is it so familiar... Why does it remind me so much of...?"

"You like that Hawk knight?" Mr E taunts while flying into the base with a pair of bat wings and Ace following suit with his insane acrobatic prowess.

I made sure to get all Captain Rocket's traits to a "T"! Allow me to show you, Captain Rocket version two, Kal Jordan!"

Kal appears from the hole he made from Austins body and slams into the immensely large and white training room. He stares at Austin with a robotic look in his eye.

One that frightens Austin to his core. Not just because of the look, but because the boy looked exactly like Rocket in his teen years.

The years where they first met...

As the boy gets into a fighting stance, Austin smirks at Mr E.

"If you wanted my attention, you could've asked instead of pulling cheap tricks like making a damn clone!" Austin says with very clear anger.

Oh now where's the fun in that? Bringing all your dead friends back to life before your eyes is a fine way to get your attention!"

W..what? Isn't this just a clone of Captain Rocket?" Austin says with slight horror in his voice.

"Oh..well why don't you find out?"

And just like that, Kal begins to glow yellow...

No.." Austin mutters as realization hits him like a train.

Kal charges towards Austin using super speed identical to Jake, the new Blur and the original Blur, Kara Strong, and the battle begins.

Ace looks on in shame at what one bad decision of his had led to. But there's no going back now.

It was for her after all.

However, Mr E tapped his shoulder after sniffing a faint but foreign scent in the air.

It seems I've sniffed up some intruders. Watch the fight. And if the boys fails, you know what to do." Mr E tells him with a cheeky grin behind his four eyed mask and disappears into the hole.

Ace continues to look on at the ongoing battle and his eyes meet Austin's for a split second.

Although it was only a fraction of a second, the one look made everything clear.

"Once im done with this fake shit, you're mine traitor."

But could he really be a traitor? Or was there something else at play here.

A few minutes earlier however...

So this is Mr E's base huh?" Jake said, staring at the large inconspicuous island just outside Empire City from the docks with Stacya on all fours sniffing the air by his side.

Yes. I can detect Austin and Zack in there. We must hurry. I've learned Mr E is a sadistic human... If he can still be called that. And we must be careful. It feels strange to say, but dark times are ahead of us." Stacy said as a cold sweat ran down her face to her neck in an instant. Rhis was, die to her background, a foreign experience for her.

This was fear.

But as the fesr grew within her, Jake snuffed it out in an instant.

Hey now! No need to worry, we'll get through this together. Now come on! Lets go save our friends and stop this letter loving prick." Jake said, gripping her shoulder.

Stacya's heart didn't calm down however, as it was bombarded with a new feeling.

Another one foreign to her.

It wasn't admiration...

It was bravery...

What was it?

Before she could think further, Jake activates his Super speed and runs on the water to get on the island only to lose his balance and sink pretty quickly.

Stacya jumps in the rescue him and as quickly as he nearly drowned, he was saved. She brought him to the beach of the island but needed to wait for him to recover.

"Cough* Cough* Hehe.. Didn't think I was so slow. Pretty stupid of me. Guess i need to do better huh?"

He looked into her eyes and suddenly the same feeling she had before returned without warning.

D..do not despair friend Jake. I heard Kara, the original Blur, took a whole six months before she was fast enough to run on water. I believe this takes time." Stacya said, trying her best not to look into his suddenly mesmerizing eyes.

What was this sudden feeling enveloping her?

Hehe.. I guess you're right. I should beat myself up over it. I still got a lot to learn. But enough about that. We got friends to save and a bad guy to take down. Lets move."

They locked eyes again, much to the simultaneous joy and annoyance of Stacya. To make matters worse, Jake grabs her by the hand and the feeling intensifies within her.

However a sudden voice interrupts them...

"W..who are you people?" A large bald black man holding a little boy most likely to be his son says to the two.

"Oh, we are supers ready to..." Stacya says quickly but she is soon silenced by...

No. We're just two mumans ready to help. Now please explain what you're doing here." Jake says, much to Stacya's confusion.

Ah.. friend Jake? Are we not supers?"

No. That title is fake Stacya. We're re just people willing to help. Now c'mon sir. What's going on?" Jake says with full control over his voice. Stacya had no idea Jake had that opinion of Supers...

What other secrets was he hiding?

W..we were kidnapped by some lunatic in a four eyed mask called Mr E. He wanted to experiment on us and turn us into freaks but we escaped." The man said with a tense hint of fear in his voice.

Yeah! My dad and I somehow m..managed to..to get out.. uh.. Im so glad you guys came to... No! Im sorry dad! I cant do this! I..."

The boy was quickly silenced by his father and held back.

Hey what's that about?" Jake asked as he approached the two.

N.. nothing. The boy is scared. That's all!"

"Yeah.. sure. I wanna hear that from him. Let him go."

I.. I'm afraid i cant man. Just please don't make this.. difficult.

The boy was crying and struggling. Jake's suspicion was through the roof at this point but just before he began to glow blue...

Stacya realized they weren't wearing masks or costumes. Considering the fact that they're suits we're still in Hawk Knight's Nest at the time of its total destruction. She quickly pulled him back to talk.

Uh Jake... You cant use your ability now! We d..do not have any cover!" Stacya points out.

Yeah. I know." Jale says flatly. This brings Stacya to pull him farther away from the man and his son.

W..what do you mean you know?!"

Well I really don't care. Secret identities like that are for Supers and I'm not one of them. I only wore that suit because Captain Rocket wanted me to. Now enough about that. Im getting the feeling there's something more sinister going on here."

Jake walks over to the man and son but soon the man makes a mad dash toward the nearby forest and Jake begins to follow them. Stacya watches on in immense confusion.

Who was this this strange human?

What drove this strange mindset?

Why did he remind her of Captain Rocket so much?

What were these feelings she had when she looked at him?

And why was everything going dark?

Before Stacya knew it, a strange green gas enveloped the whole beach and the man and his son collapsed. Jake emerged from the forest trembling on the verge of collapsing.

"Stacy...a r..run!"

Jake tried to resist but he fell just like the others.

And just like that, looking into Jake's bright blue eyes, she fell too.

To be continued...