Shade: Unbound

“You just blew your previous record out of the water!” Gridlock exclaimed.

“That comes with the ability to swing from rooftops,” Finn replied, but inwardly, he was excited too. He leapt off the wall with confidence, no longer fearing a potential neck injury from a missed ledge. He finally had the chance to test his parkour skills to the fullest.

Due to the doctor’s healing, he had recovered in a fraction of the time it would have otherwise taken. The bruising still made him sore, but his movement was no longer inhibited.

“Come on, just because you’re a natural chameleon doesn’t mean you can’t celebrate with me,” his friend bantered.

“I’m not a chameleon.”

"Yes, you are. You go invisible, you climb up trees, and you’re always waiting to catch your prey off-guard.”

“How do you explain the grappling hook, then?” Finn challenged.

“That’s your tongue.”

“...Shut up.”

Jack laughed.

Finn rolled his eyes, but he couldn't help but smile. It felt good to be back out here, even if he had to endure Jack's teasing. His fingers grasped the roof of another building, and he hoisted himself up and kept running. It was amazing what a little bit of healing power could do.

Finn was unsure which of his latest purchases he liked the most. The grappling hook was extremely durable, but it also wasn’t always a hook. It was more of a fastening mechanism with different modes that would automatically be deployed depending on what type of surface it made contact with. It was also portable, its cable being stored in a small disk he could stick anywhere on his person. And as if that wasn’t enough, he could also dissemble the gadget and make two separate grappling hooks.

The adhesive gloves and boots were similarly durable, and no matter how hard he tried, he hadn’t been able to break their hold on any solid surface when the adhesion was toggled on. If he ever missed a step or fell, he would just grab onto a wall and hold himself there. He could even climb ceilings, like Moonflower had.

His armor hadn’t been tested against a real weapon yet, but it was supposed to be able to defend him against bullets. Right now, he was appreciative of how comfortable it was to move around in. It was made of a stretching fabric. The vital areas had some tougher plating over them, which allowed him to make harder landings with dives and rolls without getting hurt.

While he would have liked to maintain his invisibility during his run, that might have been too much to ask. He was simply going too fast for his control to keep up with all the shifting images in his environment. He even spotted a kid pulling his mom’s sleeve and pointing Finn’s way.

Keeping his grappling hook invisible was easier, but hard nonetheless. He was still getting used to its speed and efficiency.

On his way to the meeting with Calliope, he’d decided to circle the surrounding area in order to make sure they weren’t setting any traps. It had absolutely nothing to do with his enjoyment of the run.

His grappling hook spooled him up the last building and threw him into the air. He landed with a roll and looked around. The person he assumed to be Calliope was already there, and it was a woman, going by the subtle curves on her figure. She wore a sparrow mask and loose black clothes.

She pushed herself off the wall she’d been leaning on. “Your eyes are different,” she remarked in a strange, vibrating voice. As if she was talking through a fan.

She must have been referring to his night vision technique, but he didn’t remember her. “Do I know you?” Finn asked, a hand hovering over his wrench. He really needed a better weapon.

Calliope raised her hands. “I don’t want to start a fight. And... no, I wouldn’t go that far. But we have met before.”

Finn remained silent.

The girl continued. “I want to show you something, but I need to be sure it’s you. Can you use your power, please?”

“You should already know what my power is,” he said, his mind racing with potential candidates for who this could be. She was too tall to be Moonflower, and he doubted the stealthy heroine would go for such baggy clothing.

Finn watched this Calliope closely, trying to read any clues in her body language. She seemed nervous but determined, her eyes darting around as if checking for any potential threats. Was she a runaway member of the Beastlords? He couldn't shake the feeling that he was walking into a trap, but his curiosity was getting the better of him.

She nodded. “You can turn yourself into the color of objects, right?”

Broader than that, but close enough. He blinked, and in an instant, his eyes had changed from completely black to stark white. Calliope gasped.

“You wanted to meet me,” Finn stated.

“I did,” she said. She took a deep breath. “Okay… here goes,” she exhaled, taking her mask off. Finn’s brows receded. He hadn’t been expecting that.

Finn was staring at a teenager around his own age with chin-length brown hair. She looked to be of Asian descent, and she had dark circles under her eyes. She seemed exhausted. But also familiar, though he couldn’t place where from.

“I don’t have my makeup on,” she was saying, now in her normal voice, “so if you don’t recognize me, I understand. I dyed my hair, too.”

Then it clicked. “You’re that girl,” Finn said. Nice and descriptive. He elaborated. “You were in that abandoned residential area when the Venin gangsters came in.”

Her face lit up. “You remember me?”

“It’s coming back to me now. But I never learned your name.”

“Uh, yeah, I never told you. It’s Lyra,” she stepped closer.

Finn straightened. “Then why didn’t you say it was you from the start? I would have made time for you sooner.” A bold-faced lie. He wouldn’t have gone anywhere when his ribs were broken, but it sounded professional.

“I didn’t trust the Aegis forums with that kind of information. Like I said before, I couldn’t guarantee it was you,” she scratched her head sheepishly.

“Then why didn’t you give me a hint, send me something only I would know?”

Calliope—or Lyra—opened her mouth, then closed it again. “Maybe I’m not cut out for this hidden identity thing. The lies, the deception, the double meanings, the…” she sighed, shoulders slumping. “It’s hard keeping yourself a secret,” she said softly.

He could relate to that, and he supposed her inexperience made sense. “If nothing else, you’re the first person to show me this much trust so soon after meeting me. That’s a good sign.” That trusting nature could also get her killed, but he didn’t want to kick her while she was down.

Lyra perked up at that. “Thank you, but… I might have come here to ask you something else, if you don’t mind?”

“Sure.”

“I was hoping you would maybe want to team up,” she blurted the words so fast, as if they were burning her tongue to get out.

“Same as us,” Gridlock chimed in.

“Same as you?” Lyra’s head reared back.

“YOU CAN HEAR ME!?”

Finn might have winced if his earphone didn’t have auto noise dampening. Or if he was paying attention to Jack at all. His gaze had snapped back to the girl the moment she said that, and he spoke in a low voice. “What is your power, Calliope?”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to, it’s just become a habit after tracking down so many criminals,” she hastily clarified. “I have the power to shape sound, but range is super important, and I can’t hold a single sound for very long, and some frequencies are impossible for me to work with.”

“Holy shit,” Gridlock muttered.

Lyra was fidgeting now. “It’s really not that impressive.”

Though invasive, it was an extremely useful power. And while Finn wanted to trust her, knowing Lyra had that sort of weapon at her fingertips, he remained on guard. “What else can you do with it?” he asked instead, more to give himself time to think than anything.

“Not that much, just a few things, like making small shock waves or listening to sounds coming from far away.”

“Does that mean you can hear the drones?” Gridlock asked her.

“Is that what’s causing the buzzing?”

“No way. Point to where they are.”

She did so.

“Holy shit,” Gridlock repeated. “Shade…”

“I know,” Finn asserted. “By ‘team up,’” he said to Lyra, “you mean a long-term partnership, as in for more than one mission?”

“If it's okay with you,” she stressed.

Finn was well aware that he needed allies to get to where he needed to be. Even if his goal couldn't be accomplished with other people, he would need help working his way up to it.

Gridlock had shown him that having a support system was invaluable. And Calliope here could turn out to be a helpful asset. But she needed to prove it.

“We'll go on a mission,” he declared.

She blanched. “Right now? Does that mean you’ll have me?” Her eyes widened and she covered her mouth with a hand. “I mean, does that mean I can be on your team?”

“That depends,” Finn turned and jumped off the building, over to the next.

He looked back to see how she would follow and caught her doing a running start. She threw her hands down at the ground and rocketed through the air in an arc. She windmilled her arms, but she made it with barely a stumble.

With his new equipment, Finn was faster, but he was impressed with how well she was able to use her power to travel, even if it wasn't at the level of Maelstrom or Sphinx.

The mission Finn had in mind wasn't huge, but also not what he would call small. Valued at a few hundred credits, it asked them to protect a shipment as it passed through the district. It was coming in a truck, but it wasn't so important as to attract any of the big names.

They also had an advantage. With Jack's drones, they would be forewarned of any incoming threats, and Finn could use his power to make the driver steer clear of danger.

When they made it to the edge of the district, Lyra had donned her mask again. Jack explained the mission to her as they waited.

Headlights in the distance were the starting sign of their job. After informing her of what was about to happen, Finn grabbed Lyra by the waist and jumped off the building. To his surprise, she didn't scream.

She silenced their landing on the back of the truck, surprising him a second time. If he could combine this power with his invisibility…

He refocused on the task at hand. “Have you seen anything yet, Gridlock?”

“Nope, we're still in the clear.”

And it seemed they would be for most of the ride. For a moment, Finn let himself think they had a chance at some free credits today. A foolish mistake, that turned out to be.

Because halfway through the district, they were alerted that a group of motorcycles was approaching their location from a side street. On top of that, Jack spotted a car driving up closer. It had apparently been taking the same turns as the truck. Finn used his power to instruct the driver to take a turn, then looked at his first target.

He didn't want to wait for his opponents to come to him. He would bring the fight to them first.

When he picked up Lyra for the second time, he was coming to regret his choice of missions. Carrying another person while swinging from building to building was tiresome, particularly if they were taller. But he managed it.

His grappling hook was split in two, with one disk on his hip and one on his arm. Having both on one side was disorienting at first, then he got the hang of it. He just needed to use his arm to course correct.

The car rolled down its window and bullets went flying. Finn pushed off a building with both feet and swung in front of the car's windshield. They didn't shoot through it. Not because they didn't want to, but because they couldn't see him. He had used his power to black out all their other windows, and it swerved, braking and crashing into a lamp post. Not at life threatening speeds, but they were out of the fight.

“Can you deal with a few bikers?” Finn asked over the rushing wind.

“If you get me behind them, maybe?” Lyra responded, clinging to him tightly.

That had been the plan either way, but he was curious to see her deal with them. He made his way around to the other road and showed up behind the thugs. They were carrying firearms, which was already against Apexian law even if they weren't trying to steal from a truck. He also saw them whooping and doing wheelies, blocking the whole road and leaving no room for other traffic to come near. Clearly a procession of well-mannered gentlemen up for a friendly chat.

Finn would have liked to just deal with all of them by blacking out the visors on their helmets, but he couldn't for two reasons. The first was, not all of them wore helmets. The second was that his power wouldn't allow it.

Lyra clapped, but it made no sound. She cupped both hands around an invisible ball and tossed it between the group.

A third of them lost control of their vehicle and fell off their bikes, and some of those bikes and men went sailing into their buddies, which caused a small domino effect. Lyra used her power to cushion their fall, making use of the loud sounds from the crash.

Less than half were left, and the remaining bikers finally noticed them. They honked their horns and slowed down, changing formation. Not that it mattered.

One of them was still fumbling for his gun when Finn kicked him off his bike with both feet into another one, though that guy dodged this time. He tried to shoot as well, but he couldn't get a lock on Finn's abrupt accelerations.

Wanting to try something new, Finn used his glove and boots to stick to the side of a building. Angling his grappling hook towards one of the biker's guns, he fired it. It missed, but it did latch onto the biker himself. The man got yanked off his motorcycle and went flying towards Finn.

Seeing the speed of his chord, Finn slowed his reeling in and kicked the thug in the stomach once he was near. His feedback was a wheeze that may have been a soul leaving a body. Jack made his approval known then.

Finn dropped the biker from a reasonable height and saw the last few bikers almost getting away. He rushed to catch up and kicked most of them down, but the last guy kept shooting his gun.

Instead of getting close enough for the guy to get a clear shot at them, Finn went over to the road ahead of his adversary, using his ability on the road. It was his new and improved hole-in-the-ground technique.

It still wasn't perfect, but definitely enough to fool someone wearing a helmet while driving. Finn made sure to make it too large to just drive around and too close to break for in time. If the guy were fully focused and in position, maybe he would have beaten the odds, but he wasn't. He was steering with one hand and looking up, until it was too late. The biker swerved out of balance, his vehicle clattering on the ground and sending him tumbling over the asphalt.

Finn was already tracing the route back to the truck, but he knew Jack would have warned him if there were other people coming at it.

And as it turned out, there were. Two more groups, though these were smaller. One was a set of cars who turned and drove away as soon as they saw him. The other, Lyra managed to deal with pretty well, throwing three of her shock waves, one of which hit dead center.

Honestly, Finn was surprised Jack hadn’t been more vocal throughout this whole ordeal, but he supposed he shouldn’t have been. They were both aware of how someone would listen in on their conversation.

They landed back on top of the truck when it was halfway out of their district, this time not muted. Finn signaled with his power to the driver that they didn’t mean any harm, and looked at Lyra. She was breathing heavily and swaying on her feet.

“Are you alright?” Finn asked when the truck stopped for a red light. He paused for a moment, mentally noting how he’d asked the same thing the night they first met.

“My… you…”

Finn waited for her to get the words out.

“So much… so many times,” she panted. “Please don't flip my stomach again so many times in one night.”

“What's your daily stomach-flipping quota? If you tell me the exact number, I can take it into account next time,” Finn said while he confirmed the mission in his Aegis app.

Jack chuckled, but Lyra just leaned forward. “Next time? I passed?”

Finn dipped his head in acknowledgement. “I don't know where you live, but I could take you there if you can handle some more stomach flips,” he said, looking up at her. “You'll want to be well rested tomorrow. There's a lot of work to do.”