Shade: Unbound

Outside a repurposed office building, a group of thugs sat around a table, drinking and laughing as they cheered on their fellow gang members racing back and forth in their stolen cars.

But in the next moment, they saw a four-legged figure jump into the sky from a distance. Its silhouette covered the moon before it came down again. When it hit the ground, a cloud of dust rose into the air. The thugs rushed to pick up their weapons and alert their leaders of this intruder.

Man-sized chunks of asphalt flew out of the dust cloud and clobbered two guys in the front, then floated up again and took down two more.

The remaining thugs scattered, some firing their guns wildly in the direction of the dust cloud, others fleeing in terror. One of them reached for a nearby phone and called out for backup. A jet of water emerged from the dust cloud and shot it out of his hand.

In just a few seconds, the thugs had been reduced to little more than a bunch of imbeciles running around like headless chickens.

From the clearing dust emerged a man dressed in military gear who wasted no time taking down the remaining grunts, sprinting and knocking them around with blasts of pressurized water.

A three meter tall sphinx followed him, and unlike the man, this beast sauntered through the group, letting their bullets bounce off her hide while telekinetically disarming them.

Within the first minute, most of the lackeys had been taken out already, but then someone else came out of the building. He was dressed rather oddly, wearing a fur coat that reached down to his calves and a boar mask on his face. The sphinx tried to launch a projectile at him, but then the guy raised a hand and a set of bone spikes emerged from the ground and cracked the pavement in front of the sphinx. The man in military gear charged forward, using his water blasts to keep the boar-masked man at bay.

But the boar-masked man was not alone. From behind him materialized another figure, this one dressed in a sleek black suit and wearing a featureless white mask. The black-suited figure twisted his hands and suddenly the air around them began to warp, creating a vortex that drew Maelstrom towards them.

Sphinx screamed and charged forward, but the black-suited figure merely thrust a hand forward and sent Sphinx flying backwards with a burst of wind. The boar-masked man laughed, sending a wave of bone spikes towards Maelstrom.

But just as the spikes were about to hit, Maelstrom conjured a blade of rushing water to cut through them and then jetted himself backwards. The black-suited figure was undeterred and continued to manipulate the air around them, creating a powerful gust of wind that sent debris flying towards the military man.

One half was destroyed by jets of water and the other was lifted out of the way by the sphinx and sent towards the guy with the boar mask, starting the battle in earnest.

Finn watched on from the sidelines, in silent awe at the spectacle before focusing on the task and sneaking into the building. The entrance was unguarded now, and he and Moonflower were able to slip through unnoticed.

The tremors, slashes and shocks of battle raged on outside. In Finn's opinion, this "small-time" gang was plenty strong. But he knew the bigger gangs had more people, influence, and power at their disposal.

Surprisingly, there was no one on the first floor. Perhaps Razorback, the leader who was currently fighting Maelstrom and Sphinx, had ordered them to evacuate. Understandable, Finn thought. His lackeys would only get in the way if they tried to participate in that fight.

Inside, Finn and Moonflower made their way through the darkened corridors. They were on a mission to retrieve a stolen item that the gang had taken from the nearby museum.

As they turned a corner, they saw a pair of thugs guarding a door. Moonflower, now wearing only a black mask and goggles, glanced at him for a moment, then started climbing up the wall. It took Finn a moment to realize she was using a gadget from the Aegis store to make her hands and feet stick.

She crawled over the ceiling and held a hand out. On her fingertips, Finn could see two translucent purple petals forming on them with a soft glow. She brought her mouth close and whispered something at them before letting them fall on the pair of thugs.

When the fluttering petals landed on top of the guards’ heads, a bizarre sequence played out. They both got a misty look in their eyes. They stood still for a few seconds, followed by one grunt standing offering no resistance as the other choked him unconscious. With his buddy asleep, the thug tossed both their guns across the hallway and took himself to la-la land as well. Moonflower jumped down and handcuffed them.

Finn took it all in, wide-eyed. This was his first time working with other heroes, and he was beginning to question whether that was an accurate label in this case. He knew she was a psionic, but he hadn’t seen such a sinister ability in action before.

Usually, psionics with mind control capabilities created a mental force construct with specific conditions that had to be met before affecting the target's brain in some way.

If he were in Moonflower’s shoes, he would also want to improve his stealth. The better she was at sneaking up on people, the more easily she could use her power on them.

They opened the door and found a room full of duffel bags. It seemed they had found the money stash, but that wasn’t their goal.

Moving farther into the building, they encountered more thugs moving supplies out of the different rooms. Moonflower made extensive use of her power while Finn dealt with the few guys she couldn’t reach. She had let Finn borrow her collapsible baton which also had an electric shock function. Needless to say, that made Finn's job much easier.

As they made their way through, Finn was beginning to appreciate just how little people ever looked up.

When they encountered a larger group of grunts carrying giant boxes down the stairway, Moonflower used her power on five of them to make them start fighting their sane lucid companions. This obviously caused a huge commotion, but the two heroes had used that opportunity to pass them by, and soon enough, they reached the top floor.

For a gang called the Beastlords, Finn found them strangely organized. Razorback and Deft were outside. That left one of their villains unaccounted for.

Finn and Moonflower cautiously made their way onto the top floor, scanning the area for any signs of the missing Beastlord member. Finn had been hoping that he would be absent today, but no such luck. The massive man was sitting right there on the floor next to a painting.

He wore one of those old tiki masks over a white robe which did nothing to hide his muscular physique. His greasy hair peeked out from beneath his hood, and Finn could see him crumpling a bag of potato chips between his thick fingers.

“Frenzy! Frenzy! We need your help,” one of the grunts came running up the stairs, panting.

“Whaddya want this time?” Frenzy drawled.

“A bunch of our guys just started spacing out and fighting us out of nowhere! It's a mess down there.”

Frenzy stiffened. “Lead the way,” he said firmly, dusting off his white robe.

Just as he reached the stairway, a purple petal fell on his head. He stared blankly ahead of himself before grabbing the lackey next to him and smashing him into the wall. The poor guy collapsed like a sack of bricks. But Frenzy didn't wait, already bounding down the stairs to make his wrath known to his other subordinates.

Moonflower took that as her cue and sprinted across the hallway to get to the painting. Finn picked it up and started taking it down the opposite staircase, using his power to hide it and himself from sight. Briefly, Finn wanted to suggest they take the elevator, then realized how stupid that would be. Couldn't alert anyone of their position. And how did this building have running electricity?

“Why do they even steal these things?” Moonflower asked at one point. “It's not like they can sell stolen paintings, so if they can't get rid of 'em, why bother?”

“Immunity,” Gridlock said over Finn's earphone. “A lot of criminals throughout history would steal prized art pieces from museums and hide them somewhere so that, if they ever got arrested, they could try to leverage a lighter sentence for themselves in exchange for the location of the stolen art piece, which they typically hid in some remote location.”

Moonflower obviously couldn't hear him, so Finn relayed the information to her. She tilted her head. “Makes sense. I guess they were planning to bury this one later. Good thing we got here in time.”

Inwardly, Finn was impressed with how knowledgeable Jack was becoming. In the time Finn spent practicing, his friend hadn’t been standing still.

The duo was a couple of floors down when they heard a thunderous crash from above, followed by a roar. It sounded like a primebeast. Moonflower froze. “How did he…” But it was too late. Frenzy was headed straight for them, and he was pissed.

Knowing they had no hope of outrunning him, they exited the stairway into one of the floors and saw no one was present. The walls were lined with office cubicles. Finn motioned for Moonflower to hide behind one of the cubicles while he positioned himself at the other end of the row, putting the painting by the door. They could hear Frenzy's heavy footsteps coming closer.

He didn’t bother checking the floors above them, as if he knew they had gone here, somehow. Finn grabbed his baton and waited, trying to slow his rapid heartbeats.

Frenzy burst through the door, his eyes bloodshot and his breaths coming out in short gasps. Finn braced himself, ready for the attack.

One by one, Frenzy checked and smashed the cubicles. Finn knew he would find Moonflower first, so he decided now was a good time to flashbang Frenzy. He signaled his team member to shield her eyes, and tossed it over the floor at their adversary.

Running up behind the staggering Beastlord, Finn activated the shock function on his baton and hit the man with it. Frenzy spasmed and fell to one knee. Moonflower came in and dropped a petal on his head. For a second, it seemed to have worked, but then Frenzy swung an arm at Finn. Pain exploded from his side as he got sent flying into a cubicle near the other end of the room.

Moonflower hid in the time it took Frenzy to recover. Finn groaned, trying to get an elbow under him and failing. Gridlock was shouting something at him, but he hardly registered it. To his horror, Frenzy was already sprinting in his direction.

During the past few days, Finn had managed to extend the range of his power somewhat. He had worked especially hard on shifting colors without making contact first. Now, he was able to black out the nearest lights on the ceiling.

That alone wouldn’t have been enough to throw Frenzy off, but combined with his camouflage, he was able to roll away and buy himself some time to catch his breath.

Frenzy looked left and right but was unable to find Finn before receiving another shock to the back. Except this time, he barely flinched as he was being electrocuted.

Finn barely danced out of the way of Frenzy’s grasping hand, feeling the wind rush over his face. If this guy managed to get his hands on him, he was dead.

Closing the distance, Moonflower used her power on him again, but Frenzy shrugged that off too and swatted her away. Finn tried to knock him off his feet with a shoulder check and failed miserably; he wasn’t that tall while this guy had to be over two meters. The difference in weight class was too great.

The Beastlord barely stumbled before Finn threw a punch at his face. To Finn’s surprise, his head snapped back.

Frenzy threw overhand right back but Finn disappeared from sight. He tried to switch his focus to Moonflower, but she was already in his face with a dose of pepper spray. Finn chose that moment to tag in again, throwing another punch. This time, Frenzy didn’t budge.

“Shade,” he heard Gridlock say. “Listen. I think I’ve figured out this guy’s power.”

“Just tell me,” Finn breathed while splashing some black water in his opponent’s face.

“Right, so besides super strength, this guy is getting better and better at resisting certain types of attacks as you’re fighting him. I think his power is adaptation.”

Finn understood. They were facing a warrior type: someone with an enhanced physique and some other ability to supplement it. “So how do I beat it?”

“Well, that’s the thing. You need to hit him with a lot of different types of attacks at once, or a single very potent one.”

“I can’t defeat him then?”

“Not by yourself.”

Finn and Moonflower continued to fight Frenzy, throwing everything they had at him. Finn tried to use his power to change colors rapidly and disorient him, but Frenzy seemed to be adapting to that too. Moonflower tried various combinations of her powers, but they had little effect on him.

“Please tell me you can buy me a few seconds, Shade,” Moonflower spoke, raising a hand into the air as she did so.

“Easier said than done,” was what Finn responded with, but he immediately began distracting Frenzy.

He started with one of his personal favorites. He recolored the ground black while creating a pattern resembling broken concrete around it to make it seem like there was a hole in the floor. It wasn’t overly convincing. It didn’t fool Frenzy for more than a split second. But it bought him enough time to increase the distance again.

Frenzy smashed his fist into Finn’s raised arms so hard it cracked his forearm and made him bounce off the floor. The Beastlord followed it up with a shin to the gut, leaving Finn winded and once again being sent flying. Was it just him or were the blows getting stronger?

With the help of adrenaline, he endured the excruciating pain in his stomach and fished around his backpack for what he needed. Frenzy ran at Moonflower, but Finn covered her by shifting the colors of the room as he ran across the room. Frenzy started shouting threats involving the neutralization of Finn’s reproductive organs at this point, exasperated from being played over and over.

This time, Frenzy was smart. The moment Finn used camouflage, he tossed some sawdust from the devastated cubicles to not lose track of his location. Finn wasn’t able to apply his power to the dust in time, so Frenzy came straight for him.

Only to lose his balance and fall over.

Finn had taken some thread out of his backpack and tied it around two separate ends of the room, then baited Frenzy into chasing him so he would trip over the thread made invisible by Finn’s power.

And that was all Moonflower needed to come in one final time and press all five of the petals on her fingertips into his head. Frenzy gasped as his eyes glowed purple and his body froze.

“Come on!” Moonflower panted, taking rushed steps forward. “I don’t wanna find out how long it takes him to get out of this.”

Finn grabbed the painting sprinted out of the building, hearing Gridlock cheer and cackle all the while. They saw the whole place was empty now. No one else was present. Finn figured the desertion had something to do with a certain rampaging villain.

Outside, they met up with Maelstrom and Sphinx and saw Razorback on the ground, defeated. Police officers swarmed the surrounding area, apprehending some stray thugs.

“Where’s the other guy?” Moonflower asked as she walked up to them.

“Double-crossed his boss and booked it,” Sphinx’s voice boomed. She shook her giant head, mane swaying in the wind.

“You secured the painting?” Maelstrom asked.

Finn nodded, holding it up with one arm.

Maelstrom sighed with relief. “I will be honest. I was somewhat worried when I saw all the rank and file flooding out of the building earlier. But you completed the objective, and that’s all that matters.”

Finn’s chest swelled with pride at those words. For years, he had wanted to receive a power to go out there and prove himself, and now he was actually doing it. Step by step, he was getting strong enough to reach his goal.

He looked at the painting in his hands, feeling a sense of satisfaction that they had completed the mission without anyone getting seriously hurt. Besides himself, perhaps

Finn let out a shaky breath, feeling the adrenaline wearing off and the pain from his injuries starting to set in. He was pretty sure he had some fractured bones and extensive bruising all over his torso. But still. He had finally done it. He had fought a villain and won. Sort of.

He glanced over at Razorback, who was now being handcuffed by some nearby police officers. Frenzy was also being dragged out of the building, unconscious. Finn glanced at Moonflower, who noticed his limp.

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“I’ll live,” Finn replied, gritting his teeth.

Maelstrom approached him, prodding for injuries. “We should get you to a hospital. You took quite a beating.”

Maelstrom asked two of the officers to give Finn a ride to the hospital, and they agreed.

Sphinx took the painting from Finn’s tired arm, hovering it over her shoulder. Then she left with Maelstrom to bring it back to their client.

Ten minutes later, left in the backseat of a police car, he had a talk with Jack about the mission before Jack asked, “Has your credit balance updated yet?”

Finn checked his Aegis app, and his jaw dropped at the number he saw.

Credits: 4418

He showed Jack over the action cam, and the other boy had a more vulgar reaction. He hadn’t known how much the painting would net him, but the mission to drive out the Beastlords had been worth 2000 credits and split among four people, meaning he had received 3500 credits for retrieving the painting in good condition, netting him 4000 in a single night.

“But who’s that message from?” Jack asked after he was done cursing.

“Hm? Oh.” Finn noticed someone had sent him a direct message on the Aegis forums, and it wasn’t anyone he knew. It was from one Calliope, detailing how they would like to meet him. Jack seemed rather excited at the prospect of being approached this way.

Finn frowned as he read the message, feeling skeptical about this mysterious person who wanted to work with him. He didn't even know their power, and they were being awfully vague about what they wanted him to do.

Finn voiced his suspicions, and Jack replied, "Maybe they're shy. Or maybe they just want to keep things low-key. Either way, I think it's worth checking out. We could use the extra credits, right? We can set the terms of the meeting."

Finn nodded slowly, still feeling uncertain but willing to hear the person out. He sent a reply to the message, asking for more details and suggesting a public place for the meeting.

As they waited for a response, Finn thought back to the events of the night. It had been intense and scary, but also exhilarating. He had never felt so alive.

Wasn’t that contradictory? He had almost died, and he had certainly been afraid, but if given the opportunity to do it again, he would say yes every time. He winced when he thought about the heart attack his mother would have if she ever heard him say that.

“We’re here,” the officer said, and Finn got out of the car with a nod. It was time to assess the damage he had taken tonight. Hopefully it wasn’t too bad.