Chapter 1
A Living Shadow
Shade stepped off of the bus and started walking the rest of the way home. He sighed. The first day of his senior year of highschool had been much like his other years: horrible. As he walked, he thought about what happened, and he didn't see the dark cloud come from an explosion behind him. A few seconds after it appeared, Shade was knocked to the ground by the force of the boom.
He looked back and saw the oppressive cloud quickly gaining on him. Shade put his hood on and ran to hide in the alleyway at the end of the street. As soon as he had ducked into the alley, a bolt of electricity flowed through him, courtesy of the man behind him with a taser. The man took Shade's wallet and ran out of the alley, directly into the dark cloud.
The cloud rushed into the alley, into the electrified Shade, and the denseness caused him to black out instantly. The sound of sirens could be heard, and a fireman ran in and carried him away, into clear air.
Later, in the hospital, Shade woke up in a brightly lit room with doctors frantically hurrying all around him. He sat up and saw that his skin looked like a living shadow. His panic rising, he asked, "Umm… What happened to my skin?"
A scholarly looking fellow walked up to him and answered, "The electricity in the taser that you were shot with was able to conduct and absorb the particles of the dark cloud caused by my failed experiment. That, young man, is what then transformed you into what you are now. It's magnificent, if you think about it."
It took Shade a moment to realize what the man had said, "Wait, you created that cloud? You caused this? What could you have possibly been working on that was so important? I had my life all planned out, but now it's ruined, all thanks to you and your stupid project!"
The man looked genuinely surprised, "First of all," he readjusted his spectacles, "That was not purposeful. Everyone makes mistakes. Second, that accident cost me my closest friend. Lastly, the 'stupid project that I was working on,' as you put it, was creating superhumans, and it appears as if I've done just that!"
The man appeared as if he was going to continue talking, but the doctors moved him away so they could perform their tests on Shade.