Shadow Episode 1: A Shadow is born.

Our story begins in the city that never rest, New York city. It was a quiet night for once. Outside of a hospital, you could hear the painful screams of a woman. Inside one of the rooms was a woman, she had half-long hair black as night, and eyes blue as the sea, lying on a hospital bed, her legs were placed in stirrups and a doctor was in front of her, and some nurses was standing behind him. The woman was screaming on the top off her lungs, her face showed she was in alot of pain. The doctor was yelling things like '' C'mon Mary, you can do it, just a little more to go, come on push, push push!''. Beside the woman, who's name was propably Mary, was a man sitting in a chair, it was her husband John, he had short dark brown hair, and jade eyes. He was holding her hand, cheering her on, and Mary was squeezing his hand, hard, everyrime she screamed. Mary breathed in and pushed with all of her might.

'' It's out! It's a boy!'' The doctor yelled happily as he lifted the the baby up in the air, a cry was heard from the baby. Mary collapseed on her bed and closed her eyes. The doctor handed the boy to a nurse to be cleaned and wrapped up. John smiled at the boy, he looked back at Mary.

'' You did it Mary... Mary?'' John saw that she wasn't moving, or breathing. He began shaking her. '' Mary! Mary wake up. Please wake up.'' The doctor ran over and checked her pulse, a sad looked appeared on his face.

''... She's dead.'' He said. A shocked looke appeared on John's face, he wanted to cry, but he couldn't. '' At least we got the baby out alive.'' John didn't reply, he just stared at his dead wife. Then a nurse came into the room, with the boy wrapped in a towel. John looked up and saw his son, and smiled again. He was about to take the boy, the boy had stopped screaming, when the lights in the room flickered. Then the lights went out, leaving the room in total darkness. Then the doctor, the nurse, and John saw something glowing in the ceiling, they looked up and all of them gasped. Up in the ceiling was a dark blue pentagram glowing. The pentagram got smaller, and smaller, till it was a small dark blue glowing orb, it lowered itself down to the bou and went into his mouth. Next thing that happened was, out of the boy came an enormous shockwave. The shockwave went all around New York, every electronic device in the city was shut down, even the lights, leaving the city in total darkness. 5 minutes later, the hospital's emergency light kicked in. Light was back in the room. The nurse, the doctor and John all stared at the little boy, who was now sleeping. The nurse handed him to John . He looked at his son in his armäs. The doctor asked. '' What will you call him?'' John thought for a little while, then he remembered what just happened.

''... i will call him... Shadow.''

When there's trouble you know who to call

Teen Titans!

From their tower, they can see it all.

Teen Titans!
Never met a villain that they liked.

1,2,3,4 Teen Titans

6 Years later

Down the sidewalk walked a 6 year old Shadow. On his way home from school, he had short black hair, like his mom, and jade green eyes, like his dad. He lived with his dad in a big house, by the church, and since it wasn't too far to school, he always walked to school, and back. Under the past 6 years, not much things had happened, the other kids at school thought his name was a little weird, but what do you expect when your name is Shadow, but he had made alot of riends. Since he was 5, Shadow had discovered, he could do things, he could never imagine. He had learned he could stay, invicible, when he was in the dark, that he could control shadows, read people's minds and some other things. He had also discovered he was good at hunting. One time his dad had taken him out on hunting, and he let him shoot something, Shadow shot a mountain lion, right in the head, when it was invicible in the bushes. Anyway Shadow reached his house, used his key to open the door. He took off his bag and put it by the door.

'' Dad, i'm home!'' He yelled, no reply. He shrugged, figured, his dad was on the couch in the living room, sleeping, after a hard days work, his dad was the owner of , one of the best resturants in town. He went out into the living room, no his dad wasn't there,. He heard something from the kitchen. He went out into the kitchen, and his calm look was replaced with a shocked one, on the kitchen floor, in a lake of blood, laid his dad, his throat was literally sliced. Shadow fell to his knees. He looked down, in front of him was a necklace, with a red gem, with a symbol carved into it. Shadow picked it up and looked at it. Then his fist clenched around the gem, while tears fell from his eyes. Then he looked up at his dead dad and his eyes narrowed. He jumped up to his feet and ran out of the kitchen, out of the hall and out the door. He didn't know where he was running, but he just kept running. When he was on the other side of New York, he stumbled into an ally and collapsed in an ally, his back to a brick wall. He sat there for hours, or what felt like hours to him, then it started to rain. Then he saw someone enter the ally. It was a tall man, he was wearing a black trench coat, and a hat that covered his face. He went over to Crow and kneeled beside him.

'' Hey what are you doing her little guy?'' He said, the voice sounded very kind.

''...i'm running.'' Shadow said.

'' From what?'' The man took off his hat and put it on Shadow's head, to keep the rain from falling on his head. The man looked like about 50-60, he had long dark brown hair, and a little beard. Then Shadow told him the whole story. From then and tthere, the man, who's name Shadow leared was Alfred, took care off him. Turn's out Alfred was a bounty hunter, Alfred teached Shadow how to use every kind of weapon, and some martial arts styles, he learned how to be a master at bounty hunting, teaching him every secret, every move he knew. When Alfred found out about Shadow's powers he trained him to use his powers, and improve them, his power got so strong, there was no limits of what he could do. He took care of him till Crow turned 14. The day he turned 14, Alfred died, of age. From that day Shadow began to build his own career in bounty hunting, and in 1 year, today, everyone had given him the title, the Universe's greatest bounty hunter, and he really lived up to the title, he could take out anyone, for the right price. But one day, he didn't know that the world, and himself, would change forever.

New York 15th August 2007 20:32

It was a loud night, thunder and lightning was heard and seen in the sky. On top off New York's oldest church, sitting by the gargoyles, his silhouette looked like a gargoyle. The man wore a dark blue and black outfit, that you could hardly see the difference in the night. The suit utself, that was black, shone dark blue in the light, in the chest of the suit was a dark blue pentagram. On his hands he wore a pair of dark blue gloves, and dark blue boots as well. Around his waist was a grey belt. That had a black pentagram on the belt buckle, around the pentagram was different words written, in some foreign language, the words were in the colors, red, blue, white, Yellow and green. A long cape, that was ripped at the bottom, was draped around his body, it was black on the outside, and dark blue on the inside. Over his head was a black mask, with, white and dark blue, glass eyes, allowing him to see through, butt don't let anyone else see through, from the outside, like sunglasses, ( ) Then he heard a voice from the small communicator he had built into the side of the mask, by his ear.

'' Shadow?... Shadow are you there?'' It was a girl's voice, she sounded hald worried and half serious. He pressed a button on the hidden communicator by his ear.

'' I'm here Lily.'' Shadow replied.

'' Sheesh! Answer me next time! You scared me half to death!'' Lily, on the other line yelled.

'' Aaww i didn't know you cared.'' Shadow said in a smug voice.

''Anyway, i got the target.'' She said. Shadow stood up.

'' Oh yeah? Who is it?'' He asked. He could hear tapping of keys, to a computer keyboard on the other end.

'' Alexander Loehan, he's Bruce Wayne's personal assistant. ''

'' Wait, hold on, THE Bruce Wayne?''

'' Yeah, so this guy is pretty locked up tight. He's in the '' Bruce Industries'' building a few blocks away. There's no way in, but there's a ventilation shaft on the west side of the building, i think you can get through there.'' She said, and Shadow heard more tapping. Shadow was quiet for a while.

'' ...Lily?...'' He finally said.

'' Yes?''

''... Would you marry me?'' He asked jockingly. ( word?)

'' Oh shut up and do your work.''

'' Aww now you hurt my feelings.'' Shadow said, pretending to sound hurt.

'' Sshadow!''

'' Alright, alright i'm going, i'm going.'' Shadow said and looked over the edge of the church roof. Down on the street were cars, stuck in traffic, and on the side walk was people walking, filling the whole sidewalks. He stepped backwards a little, getting ready to jump. Then he ran over to the edge and jumped, he jumped right over to the building next to the church and landed on top off the roof. Then he ran on, reached the edge of the building and jumped to another building nearby, while looking down on the streets below.

'' I think i'm gonna be sick.'' Lily said, as she looked on a screen that showed what Shadow saw. She started to look green when she saw how high up he was.

'' Then look away from the screen then.'' Shadow said, teasing her. He jumped down from the rooftop he was on, heading for the street, before he hit the ground, a yellow cab passed by and he landed on top of it. He stayed on the cab for a moment, till he saw a building that was larger than most of the buildings. On it, with big red letters on the top, it said '' Wayne Industries''. Then he decided it was now to leave the cab. He thrust his arm forward, his palm was aiming on a roof top. Then suddenly, out of the palm of the suit, came out an iron wire, with a grappling hook at the end at the end, heading for the building, the hook grapped a hold of the edge of the building. Shadow used the iron wire to swing from the cab and up on the roof top, as soon as he was up, the grappling hook and the wire retracted themselves back into the palm of the suit. Then he began to run again, heading for '' Wayne industries''. Then he said '' The grappling hook you invented me works perfectly Lily, you're the best.'' On the other end of the Line, Lily blushed.

''...uh..thanks.'' She said. Shadow reached the last building before he was at the building, he jumped over the last street, heading straight for a wall of '' Wayne Industries'' . Before he made contact with the wall, claw like things shot out of the fingers of his gloves. He used them to stick to the wall and climb along the wal. He climbed over to the west side of the building, after a little searching, he found the ventilation shaft. He tore the hatch of the shaft away from it's place and crawled inside, te claws dissappearing into the gloves again.

'' Alright Lily, i'm inside. Now what?'' Shadow asked, he crawled through the shaft while he talked.

'' Well according to my heat scans of the building, he should be in his office, on the seventh floor, which floor are you on?'' She asked

'' Fifth i think. I'm on my way there.'' He said and continued to crawl through the shaft till he found the elevator, or the inside of the elevator. He saw a ladder to his right and began to climb it. On the way he saw the number of the floor written above the inside of the elevator doors. Then he spotted number 7. Then he noticced that the elevator was by the 9th floor door, and was on it's way down. Now Shadow quickened his pace up the later and crawled into another shaft, by the 7th elevator door, before the elevator hit him. He breathed out, and craled through the shaft, till he found another hatch that was by the floor. He punched it open and crawled outside and stood up. This floor only had halls, with lots of doors. So he started to look. He stopped by a door that had the name ''Alexander Loehan'' written on it. He smirked from under his mask. He knocked on the door. A voice inside replied.

'' Who is it?'' Shadow only said one word.

'' Pizza'' He heard the man inside stand up, and heard him say .

'' Finaly, one minute more and it would've been free.'' The man opened the door and as soon as he did he got a punch in the face, the man stumbled backwards, and then fell, he landed on his back on the floor. The man looked to be 70, he had a black coat, a red tie and white shirt underneath. He wore black pants, and black, polished, shoes. He had short white hair and golden eyes. He rubbed his head and looked up, and saw Shadow.

'' Hello there.'' Shadow said and chuckled evilly. The man stood up and began backing away, towards his desk. '' Did you really think you could run and hide and then live happily ever after? There's no one who can hide from me.'' He began to walk towards him. '' You have murdered men, wimen and children and for what? Because you felt like it!? That's not a good reason old man.''

'' I- i've tried to stop but i can't, i can't stop killing.'' He had reached his desk and began to pen one of the drawers slowly.

'' Then, the only thing to do to stop you , is to kill you.'' Shadow said calmly, reaching behind him, inside of his cape.

'' Not of i kill you first!'' Alexanderopened the drawer fully and pulled out a gun and fired 3 shots at Shadow jumped to the side, 1 of the shots missed, but the other two hit him in the shoulder, but Shadow didn't make a noise. When he landed on the ground he rolled more to the side, while he pulled out something from inside from his cape. He threw the object at the circuit breaker in the room. The object hit it and stuck to to it. Then the whole room fell into darkness. The man looked at where Shadow had been seconds ago, but now he was gone. He looked at the circuit breaker, he barely saw it, but it was a sai blade that was stuck to it. It had a dark blue blade and had black cloth winded around the handle. Then Alexander hear something to the side of him, he spun around and fired at the spot where the noise came from. Then he heard the noise again behind him, he spun around again and fired. Then again, he heard it behind him, he spun around, but when he was about to fire, thenelt that his hand was cut of his arm. He let out a painful scream and fell to his knees. Then the light came back on. He looked at his right arm, sure was, his hand was cut off, it laid on the floor in front of him, still holding the gun. He looked at his arm, blood was pouring out from where his hand once were, and forming a puddle of blood underneath him. He looked up and saw Shadow in front of him, in his right hand he held another sai, similar to the other one, it was covered in blood. '' W-who...w-what are you?'' The pain made it hard for Alexander to speak. Shadow cleaned the blade of and put it back into his belt. Then he picked up Alexander by the collar. He looked at him straight in the eye.

'' You can call me... Shadow!'' Shadow yelled and threw Alexander at the big windows that was behind his desk. The exact moment he hit them, head first, the glass broke and he fell right through, peices of glass sunk into his skull. He watched with wide eyes as the streets below him got bigger and bigger, before he hit the ground he screamed. All of the poeple walking, or driving nearby looked up, and saw with horrific eyes as Alexander hit the street, crushing every bone in his body, next the peices of glass came snowing over the dead Alexander. Everyone in the cars stepped out of them and gathered around Alexander, so did the people on the side walk. One of the people that gathered around the body was a cop, he looked up, he saw the broken window on the 7th floor, the room was lit, he saw a figure by the broken window and an angry look appeared on his face, he kneww who it was.

'' SHADOW!! YOU MURDERER!!'' He yelled waving his fist in the air. All of the people looked up and saw the figure as well. Then they saw that Shadow jumped out of the window and dove, towards the people, gathered on the street. Before he hit the pavement, he thrust his palm upwards, the iron wire shot up and stuck to the side of a building, and he swung out of harm's way, then he just dissappeared out of sight.

New York 8:00

Shadow sat up in a bed and let out a yawn. He opened his eyes and looked around him. He was in a normal hotel room, just a simple room, with a TV, small closet, 2 bed and a small bathroom. He looked beside him and saw a naked girl, about 15, laying beside him. She had long blonde hair, and a smile on her face. He got a little confused, till he noticed he either didn't have any clothes on him, then he remembered the night before. He met this girl at the beach, after he escaped from the crime scene, and he had used his charm to make it rest of the way. He saw his pants, a pair of jeans, lying over the edge of the bed. He reached into one of the pockets and pulled out 200 bucks. He placed the cash in the girl's hand.

'' Keep the change cutie.'' He said, cupping her cheek. She only turned over, her back to him´. Then he noticed a tatto on her lower back, it was a Chineese symbol for love. He smiled and ran his hand along her curves before he stood up and put his clothes on. A black T-shirt, a pair of jeans, and a pair of sunglasses. He went into the bathroom and looked at himself in the mirror, his black, half long hair, was flat, thanks to the mask. Luckily, he was prepared fror that, he had brought some hair wax with him into the bathroom. He used the wax to have his hair nessy on the top, and flat anywhere else . He went back into the other room and kneeled in front of a steel suitcase. He unlocked it and opened it, inside laid his outfit. Now he knew it was still there, he closed it and locked it. He stood up, with the suitcase in his hand, and exited the room. He rode the elevator down to the bottom floor, went through the loby and exited the hotel. He took a cab, the man, who drove the cab, drove him to his destination. He paid the man, and stepped out of the cab. Before him was a fancy apartement building, in the colors blue and green. He walked up to the door, and used a key to open it. He walked inside and took the elevator to the highest floor. He stepped out of the elevator. Walked up to a door that said '' Jack Adesh, Lily Marianne'' He used his key to open the door, he stepped into a hall. He closed the door and took his shoes off. He walked down the hall and came into big fancy living room. In the middle of the room was a black leather couch, in front of it was a large glass table, and on the wall, above a fireplace, was a giant plasma TV. On the far end of the wall was a big book shelf, filled with books, beside it was a set of stairs that led up to a small balcony, inside the living room, two halls beside it, one on each side. On top of the balcony was another big bookshelf. Around the living room was different kinds of potraits. '' Home sweet home.'' He said. Then he noticed lots of plastic bowls on the glass table, some half filled with popcorn, some candy and some chips, plus a few bottles of Coke. '' Guess Lily's shows was on last night.'' He said and chuckled to himself. He went into another room. It was the kitchen, it was just a normal, expenssive, kitchen. He noticed Lily was sitting at the kitchen table, eating Toast, scrambled eggs and cereals, while reading the newspaper. Lily was about 15, she had dark brown hair, that reached all the way down to her shoulder blades, she had eyes blue as the sea, and one of the prettiest faces Shadow had ever seen, and one of the hottest body's too, and he got suprised when she had told him she had been bullied back in school. She was only dressed in a blue bathrobe, it was a little too small, so it barely reached down to her knees. Lily looked up from her newspaper and saw Shadow. She took a bite of her toast and asked, with her mouth full.

'' (chew) Hey, where were you last night.'' She swallowed. Shadow sat down in a chair, opposite from her.

'' Had some business to attend to.'' He said and took off his sunglasses.

'' You had a laid again, didn't you? '' Lily said in a teasing voice. Shadow raised an eye brow at her.

'' How could you tell?''

'' Uuhh duh! You've had a laid every night for the past month now, silly!'' She said with a big grin and continued to eat her breakfast. Now there was one thing i forgot to mention, Lily was a really happy soul, almost too happy Shadow thought sometimes. But don't let her attitude fool ya, she was one of the smartest people in the world, to prove that one time when she had done an IQ test, when the test was checked by computer, the computer had exploded, and it was not because there was something wrong with the thing. She invented all of Shadow's gadgets, looked up information about Shadow's targets. She also found the customers that needed Shadow. She also took care of the bills, cleaning, washing and any other housework. Shadow always asked her if she needed help, but she turned him down everytime. She never wanted help with her work. Especially not with cleaning.

'' Well what can i say? It's the only way to get me to sleep without the nightmares.'' Shadow shrugged.

'' You know, those nightmares have really become an issue, wanna talk about it?'' Lily asked, she finished her breakfast and put her plate and bowl in the sink.

'' Thanks, but there ain't much to talk about, i don't remember much of them.'' Lily sat down in her chair again.

'' Well what do you remember?''

'' Well, i was in a big, ball room of some sort, everyone was dancing in fancy outfits, and everyone was faceless except for 5. It's really hard to remember them, but i remember their faces. One of them, he had black hair that he had in spikes, and he had a mask over his eyes, i'm telling ya, those spikes looked like you could carve out somebody's eyes with. Another, was a girl, she had red long hair, green eyes, and her skin was.. orange. Another was an african american, half of his face were normal, but the other half was a robot, like christmans at the circus. Next was another girl, she had perfectly curved face, short violet hair, violet eyes and to top it all, she was kinnda pale. Then the last, his whole face was green, so was his hair which was quite messy, he had green eyes, and pointy ears, like an car sick elf. Then i just saw a knife getting stabbed into someone's stomach, blood spilling out of it then, nothing. '' Shadow said. Lily looked strangely at him, he just shrugged. She stood up and headed out of the kitchen so did Shadow, talking all the while.

'' Well, that dream doesn't seem to make any sense.''

'' Yeah i know, let's just forget it, and continue on withour lives.'' Shadow said, as they walked up the stairs, on to the small balcony, they walked down the hall to the right then, both went into a door on the right. This was Lily's room. It looked any other room, a bed, a closet, a dresser, a bookshelf, a desk. But by the big desk, there was many unfinished inventions, along with some tools, electrical devices. Beside that desk, there was another desk with a huge, highly advanced super computer, with an offices chair by it, on the chair laid a headset with a microphone. Shadow went over to the bed and laid down on it. He saw that Lily began to undo her bathrobe, he placed his hand over his eyes, giving his friend some privacy. When Lily was done changing into her usual clothes, which was a black T-shirt, with a pair of tight jeans, she signaled to Shadow, he took away his hand. Lily sat by her work desk.

'' By the way, i've got some new inventions for you Shadow.'' Hearing this, Shadow was at his feet, and by the desk, in a fraction of a second. She picked up something from her desk, Shadow looked over her shoulder, that looked like a binocular, but it had some buttons here and there, and it was flat at the top. She held it in front of him. '' This is the G-4611 Target finder, it can see things from up to 800 metres, just push the zoom in button ... '' She pointed at a blue button. '' If you press this button, it will get an X-Ray vision, that can see through anything...'' Shadow raised his finger, to ask something. Lily gave him an irritaded look. '' Yes Shadow, that also mean through girl's clothes that you're gonna watch from their apartement from a safe distance.'' Shadow just shrugged. Lily rolled her eyes. She pointed at a green button button '' Anyway, this is for nightvision..'' She turned the flat top to Shadow, turn's out on the flat top, there was a radar screen. '' A radar, so you can see where you're enemies henchmen are.'' She gave the '' Target finder'' to Shadow, and he put it in his belt.

'' This will come in handy. Thanks Lily.'' Shadow said.

Then Lily pulled up an exact identical mask, Shadow already had. '' Alright, this is your improved mask. It has all functions your last one had, except.. '' She pointed at the eyes of the mask. ''.. i imporved the glass eyes with an invention i call the Z-E5 Personal scanner. If you push this hidden button, that is hidden, near your left eye, your eyes will get a vision, that if you look at people, the eyes will scan them and there will appear a text beside them, it shows, if they wear any weapons, bombs, or anything like that, it will show you information about that person, that comes directly from any avaliable source in the world, if there's not enough information there, i'll look it up, and it also shows you if they have any bounty on their heads, i'll load the mask with a chip every once in a while, the chips contains new bounties. You with me?'' Lily gave the mask to Shadow, who put it in his pocket.

'' It's perfect Lily.'' Shadow said and smiled at her. Lily didn't reply, she was lost within his eyes, she'd never seen eyes like his before, a perfect mix with sea blue and jade green, she thought they were a mystery, as Shadow himself was. Then she snapped back to reality.

'' Oh right, sorry. Wait, there's still one more thing.'' She said and looked under her desk, then she pulled out a metal breafcase, she could barely hold it up though, it was kinnda heavy, from the looks of it. When she managed to lift it up on her desk, she wiped away a little sweat from her forhead. She opened the breifcase. Inside was a gun, a big one, it looked like a 44 Magnum Colt Anacond but with a longer barrel, and slightly bigger scope. A wicked grin appeared on Shadows face. '' This is the '' Sniper Colt'' it is like a usual Colt but better. The special bullets, i designed, can go farther than any Sniper bullet can, the scope can see the target from 900 metres if nedded, beleive me when i say, une bullet out of this baby, and the target will be dead before he hits the ground.'' Lily grinned as she gave it to Shadow. Shadow took the gun, he held up his arm, about chest height, and put the barrel on his arm, while aiming at the window. Then he put it in his belt.

'' Looks like i got my christmas present early.'' He said, another wicked grin.

'' Right, now when you have your toys, can we get back to work?''

'' Be my guest. Do we have any new costumers?'' Lily rolledher chair over to her computer, she tapped a few buttons before saying.

'' Actually yes, whoever this guy is he's paying loads to get rid of this guy.'' Shadow put on his sunglasses again.

'' How much?''

'' 40 000 $'' Shadow whistled

'' That's nice, what does this guy call himself when he mailed you?'' Lily looked at the computer screen, then back at Shadow.

'' He calls himself... Deathstroke.''

'' Cool name. Anyway where is this bounty?''

'' He's in a city quite far from here, Jump City.'' An evil grin appeared on Shadows face, showing his sharp teeth, he'd got because God knows why, and his eyes glowed a little black.

'' Well ok..'' Shadow pulled out the Colt from his belt and spinned it on his finger, then he stopped and held the gun, with the gun barrel resting on his shoulder. '' Let's go.

TO BE CONTINUED