Darkness. Darkness and the bitter cold were the first things to become apparent to the man laying on a bed of pine needles on the outskirts of Westchester, New York. As all the other senses came back slowly, the man (who for now we shall call John) drew a shaky cold breath in as he waited for the world to stop spinning. After a few minutes John staggered to his feet and began to take in his surroundings. He was in a small clearing of a very thick forest. However, to the right John could make out bright lights from a distant city.
"How did I get here? The last thing I remember was walking to go meet Moe" he thought. With a small smile John shook his head and muttered "so much for being on time today. Although its not like Uncle Wagonwright will be worried." With that John set off towards the light. After a few minutes John finally broke through the forest into the city. As John continued to walk along he noticed a welcome to Westchester sign. "What? Westchester? I know I've woken up in some strange places before, but never in a different city. This is ridiculous." John frowned as the oddity of the situation began to dawn on him. If someone had been looking at John at that moment they would have noticed a dark assembly of shadows converge around John, as if the night itself had at that moment wrapped itself around John like a blanket, pushing away any light which had previously made John visible. That person looking might have thought they were mistaken, because as quickly as this occurred, John returned to normal just as quickly.
The next morning John woke up with a small groan. He had fallen asleep under a tree in the park as soon as he realized something fantastic had occurred last night. After stumbling upon several funny looking cars and some oddly dressed people, he had decided the best thing to do was call it a night and try to find a phone to call Moe in the morning. Unfortunatly during the course of whatever had happened to him, John had somehow lost his wallet. Thus, the prestige accommodations which he now found himself sharing with a squirrel had been acquired. He slowly got up with great difficulty. His knees ached with the lingering grasp of the cold night.
Now John was a tall man. He had a sort of dark visage about him, which was what kept any opportune thieves from disturbing him. As his blue calculating eyes surveyed his surrounding, the lines of confusion only deepened around his eyes and mouth as the latter became a frown. "Well I guess that way is a good place to start. First things first I need to find a phone and then I can worry about finding food later." With that thought he began to walk along the sidewalk that separated the park and the city that he now found himself in. He stiffened as a roaring machine whizzed by his tall form and left a smoky haze in its wake. The man thought, "my God that thing almost killed me. The drivers here are worse than Moe," which was saying something as Moe was a cabbie that made race car drivers look like student drivers on the their first day behind the wheel. As John continued to wander along the edges of the park he absentmindedly twisted a large opal ring that sat prominently on his middle finger. To the casual observer it would seem very out of place. In that the John was dressed in a long black cloak, with a well-fitting black suit adorning his tall figure. On his head, the John wore a black fedora which partially hid his striking blue gaze. In contrast to the dark attire of its owner, the opal ring was brightly colored; a deep red-orange color which is best described as the orange of a sunset, right as the day has finally begun to yawn its last yawn, and the night is itching to take over.
As John continued to ponder his strange surroundings, he was shaken from his thoughts by the sound of a high-pitched scream. John leapt into action as if on instinct and began to run towards the terrified cry. As he rounded the corner of a tall shabby convenience store, he saw a little boy being chased by a large rabid dog. The dog had a kind of wild look to it and seemed mad in its pursuit of the small child. In its madness, the dog ran into a pole, but the pain did not seem to register as its snapping jaws began to close in on the frightened child. It was at that moment that John's blue eyes seemed to become lost as a black inky color drowned out the formerly clear blue eyes. With this change a loud reverberating laugh began to echo off of the walls of the alley the child had run into. The child froze as he heard the deep laughter surrounding him. He frightenedly asked, "whose there?" As he began to shake from the fear of the dog chasing him and the possible new arrival of more trouble. The mad laughter only got louder with the question of the small child. The laughter seemed to snap the dog out of its madness, but only for a second. However, that second was enough for the man to barrel out of the shadows and grab the small child out of the reach of the crazed animal. As the man grabbed the child, he spoke in a deep and soothing voice to the child: "don't be afraid the shadow will protect you." The man then melted into the shadows with the child. Leaving the dog seemingly alone in the alley. With the disappearance of the man and the child, the dog suddenly snapped once more out of its former crazed madness as it looked around its surroundings and then wandered off.
Elsewhere, a lone figure watching from a nearby roof top growled in frustration. He almost had the child. That child that was the key to his masters plans to further the mutant agenda. As he contemplated the failure of his first mission, he realized using that dog had been a mistake. He should have used a person, but he was still getting the hang of his powers and he didn't want to risk exposing himself. "This wasn't a complete failure", he thought. "Magneto will be interested to learn about this strange new mutant that screwed up my mission." And with that the man ran off to report this interesting development to his new master.
Elsewhere, Charles Xavier was searching the new area for mutants as had become his habit as of late. He knew Magneto was up to something, and that his new plan required a mutant that had been evading both his X-Men and the Brotherhood for weeks now. However, it was at that moment that the childhad been saved from the dog by the dark eyed man. Charles gasped in surprise and fear with the arrival of this strange mutant. The man who saved the child carried a dark presence around him, which translated to the powerful telepath and made him shudder. He immediately sent a mental message to his students, Scott and Jean. "Scott, Jean I need you to ready the team and the blackbird immediately."
Jean sensed the urgency in the professor's voice and worriedly asked "what is it professor?"
"It seems a powerful new mutant has emerged, and it is vital that we find him before Magneto does. I sense a great and growing darkness within this person and if we don't hurry, I fear the darkness will consume him and set him down a path that will undo all of the work we have put into keeping mutants a secret."
"Understood professor, we'll have the team ready in ten," Jean and Scott mentally answered.
Back in another alley away from prying eyes, the man and child materialized out of the darkness. The man gently set the child down, fixed his cloak, and began to regard the child with a quizzical look. There was something off about this child, but any further musings on the subject were interrupted as a small voice squeaked "who are you?" As the child stared wide eyed into the inky black eyes of his rescuer, the man smiled. However, the young mutant did not see this as the man's mouth was covered by a red bandana. No longer was the man dressed in a simple suit. His suit was now obscured by a back-trench coat which seemed to ooze the darkness of the night. Additionally, his face was darkened by the shadows cast from his now wide brimmed black hat. The man regarded the child and replied with a deep rumbling voice that caused any hardened criminal to shudder in fear, "I am the Shadow." With this he gave another hearty laugh which reverberated around the alley. This unsettled the child, but as he could see this man had saved him he reasoned he meant him no harm despite the little hairs on the back of his neck telling him otherwise.
"Thank you for saving me ah Mr. Shadow, but I think I will be on my way now" the child croaked as he began to back away. However, at that moment the Shadow grasped his head and doubled over in pain. As he continued to grasp his head, now on his knees, the dark visage slowly left him and as he looked up into the scared face of the child his eyes became a piercing blue once more. His last worry of revealing his identity to the child was snuffed out by the pain which overcame his senses and plunged his consciousness into darkness.