This one is longer then the others, thanks for waiting, I had a couple last minute changes to make. To tell you the truth, I hated MR4. So I refuse to add any of the stuff that happened in the 4th to my fic. Was it me, or did Fang seem REALLY OOC in the 4th?
Chapter 10: Shadows
"What is going on! Fang?" I asked Fang, finally losing patience. I was going to get answers, and I would get them soon.
Fang finally looked away from Scorch, and looked at me, considering if he was going to tell me.
"Max, it's a long story…" Fang said.
"Well, we've got time if this guy is your friend." I said, raising my eyebrows at Scorch. "But I don't trust him." I added.
Fang finally made up his mind. "Fine. I'll tell you the story." Fang said.
Fang's POV
I thought quickly were I was going to start this. I guess I'll start this from were I got captured. I cleared my throat, and told her the entire story.
Flashback
3 years back
Well here goes #15. 15 Itex plants successfully destroyed. This is some kind of an anniversary. Go me.
I ran through the mental checklist I had stuck permanently into my head. I've done this 15 times, all had been very easy, what's different about this time?
Break in, use shadow to advantage.
Stalk around the halls.
Check to make sure there are no other large masses of mutants worth saving. If there is, find a smart leader to get them out of there.
Give the leader the following instructions: Call ( 949) 745-8451 as soon as the coast is clear. They will ask for a password, it's Shadow. Follow the instructions the person on the phone tells them. She can be trusted.
Find the building's parking lot, or anything else that has flammable fuel.
Light match, catch fuel on fire.
Cover ears, and prepare for explosion while flying like hell.
Barely escape with your life.
Find a tree to take a breather, and plan where you will go next.
Ok, Fang. Showtime, here comes a whitecoat heading up to the door…
Oh wait. I never told you. Do you wonder about the whole step 1, the "use shadow to advantage," Part? Well… I got a new power. And it fit my personality quite fittingly.
I can hide in the shadows; literally. I basically am the shadow when I go into shadow form. I can take the shape and form of any shadow that belongs to something, like a white coat's shadow for instance. When I find a desired shadow, I stare at it and consentrate. Then I become part of it. I am the shadow. I move exactly like any other shadow would, without any thought. It's weird being 2-D.
That's my secret. The reason I have been able to sneak in so easily. I have been hiding in a white coat's shadow that's entering an Itex plant mostly. Sometimes I will take the form of a vehicle's shadow as they drive into a desired place. One time I hid in the shadow of a bird flying over an Itex school.
When I enter the shadow of someone or something, I basically am along for the ride, until I chose to exit. It's so easy to just hang out in shadow form, I could even fall asleep. Actually I did do that once… but it wasn't on a mission.
The hard part is, going into someone's shadow without them noticing. You have to be within 4 feet to be able to morph into someone's shadow. To get within 4 feet of someone without them noticing is pretty dang hard, even for me. You can't move from shadow to shadow, you have to be in human form before you morph. You have to have a clear view of a shadow, or it just doesn't work.
That's what made things so hard, I'm not a freaking mouse that no one sees. If you think that a freakishly tall, muscular mutant, that towers over you, is not noticeable, then you need a reality check. 'Cuz I stick out really badly.
Well, one way or another, I'd manage. I had done this 15 times, and I could do it again. My main goal was to cripple Itex as much as I could. But If I found any mutants, I always tried to get them out before I blew up the place.
I sent them to my friend, another mutant just like me, 98 human 2 bird. Her name is Mandi. She is a lot like me, quiet, shy, a shadow come to life. But more importantly she was a lot like Max. Just seeing her made my heart ache for Max, but I would never cave and try to find her. I needed to destroy Itex first. Then, somehow, I would find Max and the flock, maybe Mandi could live with us.
I first met Mandi when the flock and I broke into the institute, the night Max "killed" Ari. While Max was fighting with Ari; Me, Mandi, and the flock lead all of the mutants out of there. I told her we would need to wait for Max to continue. She wouldn't do it, and was desperate to get out of the dark underground. (I was too, but I needed to wait for Max.) Before she moved out, I asked her what her name was. "Mandi." Was the only word she said to me. But somehow, I knew that the mutants were safe in her hands. I would see her again, later in my life. But that's not important right now. I need to get back to how I met Conner.
I planned where the whitecoat was walking to, so I sunk into the shadows of a tree nearby. (not literally.) The positive to wearing so much dark clothes is that it's so hard to see me in the shadows. I crept up to the white coat, and out of the safety of darkness. That was when it happened.
An alarm sounded, followed by red flashing lights on the outside of the school. The white coat whipped around, looking for the intruder. He saw me, his eyes widened, and he gasped. He didn't know who I was, but he knew I wasn't a friend. I was about to knock him out and run, when I felt something pierce the skin in my neck.
Within two seconds I felt loopy, and reached my hand up to feel there was a dart sticking in my neck. My instincts told me to pull it out and run, that I should be afraid, but I ignored it. I pulled it out and laughed at the dart like it was the funniest thing I had ever seen. I remember losing my balance and falling, then after that, everything just went blank.
I woke up laying facedown in a dog crate. I groaned and rolled over on my back, taking in were I was. I knew it was the school, but the question is, where in it? I sat up so I was sitting down with my back against the side of the crate.
What just happened…all I remember is that I got hit from behind. My muscles felt really weak, like rubber. Not because it hurt, but because they felt wimpy and useless. I checked myself to make sure I didn't have anything to be worried about. I found nothing but a couple bruises from the last couple of missions. Must be one of the after effects of those darts… I thought.
I shivered, and gathered my clothes around me as best I could. It was really cold in here. Were exactly is here anyways? I looked around and saw dozens of other cages, and various other mutants. None of which looked like failures. They all looked fairly healthy, if you dismissed the bruises and cuts. In fact, they all looked like they would be a challenge if we were to be in a fight.
Across from me there was a guy that was rocking back and forth on his back, moaning. He was defiantly in pain, and it looked like he had been crying. His strawberry blonde hair was matted and dirty, and his dark eyes shone strangely. They looked like they were reflecting the light coming off a wildfire.
I wonder what mix he is? I thought. He almost looks normal, except for his eyes. They look different.
The male continued moaning, and I felt bad for him and all, but I was getting really annoyed with the noise he was making.
I took off my jacket, and used it as a pillow, and I tried to sleep. I could always just morph into the shadow of something outside, but my shadow ability was my edge. The one thing that no one else knew about, it was the way I sneaked in all of those plants. I couldn't risk anyone finding that out. If they did, I would have a hard time figuring out how to sneak in. I would find a way out another way.
I gave up using my jacket as a pillow, and put it back on. It was seriously freezing in here.
I closed my eyes. If I was going to get out, I would need rest. To tell you the truth, I wasn't worried at all. I knew I would get out soon. If not, Mandi would figure out I got captured after I hadn't contacted her in two weeks. And if the whitecoats decided to kill me, I would just go into shadow form before they could do anything. I was covered, but I wasn't particularly thrilled about being here. But it would be useful to have me inside this place, maybe get some information.
I was about to drift asleep, when a piercing male scream filled the air. I stood up quickly, almost banging my head on the top of my cage. I saw right away who was screaming. It was the guy right across from me. I didn't blame him for screaming at all.
The guy was completely on fire.
How the hell did that happen? People don't just burst into flames magically! I was wondering whether I should go into shadow form and get him help, but decided against it. It would ruin my entire edge.
The door opened and a whitecoat ran into the room. "Oh my god! It actually worked!" the whitecoat exclaimed. Why was he excited about a mutant bursting into flames! Wouldn't that be a bad thing?
He scurried out of the room yelling "Jane, Jane! Come here! It works! Experiment 003456 works! He can actually catch himself on fire!! It actually worked!" I looked in astonishment at Scorch right across from me. He was still on fire, but he didn't look in pain at all, he just looked shocked.
I starred at him in amazement and decided to let a little emotion out. "Dude, that's cool." I informed him almost jealously. I'm pretty sure he smiled; it's kind of hard to tell through flames.
"Yeah well, right now I'm not really paying attention to how cool I look. I'm just trying to figure out how I caught myself on fire. I remember this painful tingling sensation, then bam." He said, examining his fingers and arm.
"Jane! Jane! Look! See! I did it! It actually worked! That is amazing!" The first whitecoat exclaimed. He ran down the isle, pulling another female by the arm. They stood in front of "experiment 003456's" cage, and blocked my view.
The woman whitecoat gasped, obliviously seeing fireboy. "We have to do some tests on it! Imagine the capabilities it has! The things it could do!" She cried, rubbing her hands together. Optimistic little bugger. I thought snidely.
The whitecoats continued talking excitedly to each other. I lost interest, so I leaned up against the side of my cage. I sighed and closed my eyes, trying to go to sleep, but couldn't because the whitecoats were talking too loud. After a while, one of them ran off, and returned with a set of keys.
They then made a big show of trying to get fireboy out of the cage without burning themselves. They weren't the sharpest tools in the shed I guess you could say.
I couldn't suppress a snigger when the guy whitecoat caught a sleeve on fire. Thus began an even bigger show of him running up and down the halls with a sleeve on fire, shrieking like a girl. The whitecoat named Jane finally put the sleeve's fire out. I caught a glimpse of fireboy laughing his head off at the two whitecoats. I gave him a very small (barely noticeable) smile and a look that said whitecoats-are-freaking-idiots. He understood, and smiled with me.
Finally the white coats left, deciding maybe they shouldn't pick something up that's on fire. Took them long enough. "Way to piss the whitecoats off. Good job." I told him honestly.
The guy looked pretty thrilled with himself, but he shrugged modestly. "I'm just glad that whitecoat got what he deserved." He said while wearing a grin. All of the sudden, the fire that covered him just stopped coming.
"Awwe man! I hoped that would stay longer. I wasn't cold when I was on fire." The guy mumbled.
I exchanged a glance with him, and without saying anything, he seemed to understand what I was saying. We both sighed, and there was a two minute silence.
"By the way, my name's Scorch." Scorch said, breaking the silence.
"Fang." I said in return. I sighed and leaned against the back of my cage, he did the same. We could both still see each others face.
"So I guess this makes us school buddies." Scorch said.
End Flashback.
I told Max everything. The shadow part, Mandi, The dart, Scorch and his ability, all that stuff. When I was done, Max looked stunned.
Max's POV
Wait, this guy can catch on fire? And it didn't hurt. That's really weird.
And Fang. Fang could literally hide in the shadows. That one fit him nicely. He must have hid in the shadows this morning when he snuck up on me. He didn't come from the hallway after all! I wasn't deaf!
"So, you two met in the school?" I asked him calmly.
"Not the one in California, but a school. Yeah." Fang responded.
"And you guys are friends?"
Fang looked at Scorch, and he looked back. "Well, we were. But it looks like he went to the dark side." Fang said, and he narrowed his eyes slightly.
"Dude, don't blame me. They forced me to. I have come to find that the dark side is a lot more enjoyable then the good side." Scorch said. His eye was twitching slightly, and seemed to be trying to communicate silently with me. I bet it was my paranoid imagination.
"Look Fang, you got 24 hours. Either you hand Max over peacefully, or we take her forcefully. Your decision, but I would do the first choice if I were you." Scorch said. He placed his right hand inconspicuously on his right leg, and crossed his fingers. He shot us a meaningful glance, and turned to walk away.
When he had taken two steps, he stopped. While his back was still facing us, he said in a flirty tone "Oh, and Maxie…" He turned his body slightly, so we could see he had an expression that would suit someone who was full-on flirting. It disappeared right when he was directly facing us, and changed to a wide-eyed terrified boy's distress call. He mouthed "Help me," He put on a smug face as he turned back around, and stalked out of the room.
Scorch was obviously in trouble, major trouble.
But nothing compared to the trouble we were in right now.
I love ending chapters in a dramatic fashion. I have been tortured by many TV shows doing that, so I have learned the art of it, so now I can torture you guys. Yey for you!!