Chapter 2: Capture

A short distance away from the city, Shadow stood the hint of a smile on his face. He is holding a
small device with several buttons on it, the remote operating device for the Nightstalker. A short while
later, the suit lands on the small field in front of its owner. In bird mode, the mobile suit looks like a raven
with engines. Contrary to that is its robot mode, in which it looks like an ancient warrior, decked out with
the full kit of sword, shield and quarterstaff, with the addition of small head-cannons, leg and shoulder-
mounted missile racks and the large energy rifle. The suit and all of its accessories were made of
gundanium armor coated with onyx and obsidian, to reflect and focus enemy attacks. It is quite an
impressive sight, even to Shadow, and had cost more money than some countries have in their treasury.
Walking over to the hatch cover, Shadow threw it open to find the two would-be thieves fast
asleep, and the cockpit stinking of the sleeping gas. After removing Raja and Kaado from Nightstalker, and
tying them up, Shadow woke the pair up with a bucket of ice-cold water and started questioning them
intensely.
"Who are you? What business do you have with me?"
"My name is Kaado, and this is my companion Raja. We will tell you nothing."
Raja remained silent, with the handkerchief still over his face.
"Do you really wish to make this that much harder upon yourself, Kaado?" Shadow asked, gazing
intently at the boy's face.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"I am psychic, I can extract the information out of you if you will not tell me what I want to know,
and I assure you, it will be painful."
Raja, who until this point had remained silent, spoke up. "Don't harm him, Lance. I will tell you
what you want to know."
"Is that the voice of my old thieving partner, Rigel Gunnerson, I hear? At least you have not lost
your sense. Who are you working for?" When Raja did not answer immediately, Shadow grew stern.
"Quick, now, I don't have all day."
"Aye, that was my name. I go by Raja now."
Kaado whispered to Raja, "You know this man personally? Why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want you to know. You are yet too young to fully understand," was the whispered reply.
Shadow nudged Raja with the toe of his boot. "Who you are working for, tell me now, or will I
have to get mean?"
"I work for a man named Scythe, Kai Scythe."
"Thank you. Now why did you steal the Nightstalker?"
Kaado piped up, "Scythe was looking to sell it on the black market, and make a fortune off of it.
Other than that, we aren't allowed to tell you anything else."
"Now, now, it's not nice to keep secrets, let me hear it. What have you got to say?"
This time Raja spoke. "Scythe wanted to get back at you for what you did to him, all those years
ago. He hasn't forgotten, and still wears his anger like a cloak."
"I have done nothing to him, I have only just heard of the man. Stop accusing me, and answer my
questions."
"Does the name Akima Portal strike your memory? He took another name after the 'work
accident' you caused. It was too much for him to bear, being outcast from the entire colony."
"Raja, I thought this was behind us. How did he survive? The explosion alone was enough to kill a
man, not to mention the radiation."
"He was in the supply room when the bomb went off, and ran as soon as he could. He was lucky."
Kaado, by now thoroughly confused, started to complain of his wrists, moaning loudly. Raja
pleaded with Shadow to untie them to finish the interrogation. Shadow relented, but got his pistol out of his
shoulder bag first. "If either of you even think of running away, you will find yourself shot by alpha
particles. They hurt much more than a bullet, for those of us who haven't had the pleasure of such an
experience," he warned, addressing Kaado with the last sentence.
"Hey, don't worry about me. I won't run away."
"Good," Shadow spoke in a smooth, comforting tone, a change from his previous menacing growl.
"I don't want to hurt you, but I will if I have to. Now then Kaado, the reason Raja and I can talk of your
employer so fondly is it was the two of us, together, that ruined his life. However, I took the blame for all
of it, as your partner Raja, here, is a coward without honor, and refused to accept any responsibility for the
crime. I would have done the same, but someone saw me place the device that caused the meltdown."
Kaado cut in, rude and blunt as usual. "So you are a coward without honor as well?" With that,
Shadow leaned down and slapped Kaado across the face with the back of his hand.
"Do not ever call me a coward. I have faced things worse than you could ever dream up. Next
time, I will kill you.
"The next time I saw him, I had been in prison for a few months, and he bailed me out. We then
parted ways, and I haven't seen him since."
Raja said, "I don't mean to be rude, but we do have a meeting with another client, so if you don't
mind," gesturing at the gun, then the road.
"Very well, I suppose I should let you go, being former partners and all. Go on then." And with
that, Shadow turned the gun away from them, and stepped aside.
As they were leaving, Raja called back, "Thank you Shadow, and good deals to you!" using their
former employer's traditional parting line.
Shadow watched them go, and wished that he could go with them. Sighing, he turned to his
mobile suit, and entered the cockpit, closing it behind him. Slowly it rose, turning as the engines powered
up, then shot off to the heavens, bound for another place, another job.
* * *
Walking slowly, and enjoying the afternoon sun, the two would-be thieves headed towards the city
of Callo. Talking about nothing in particular, the conversation soon turned to the man once known as Lance
Songwind, but now known by many names, and to some as Shadow.
"So, Raja, how did you meet, um… did you call him Lance?" Kaado asked nonchalantly.
"We both went to the Academy on Earth, and studied in the same class. Our interests were similar,
so we saw each other often. Eventually, we became friends, though he always seemed a little stand-offish
and refused to participate in some things that, by all rights, he should have enjoyed. A very strange
character, that one." Raja seemed to be fond of this memory, and become more free with sharing his
feelings than Kaado had ever seem him.
"So, after you graduated you started to work together?" Kaado tried to take advantage of Raja's
freedom of information.
"No. A year or so after we graduated from the Academy, I needed help on a project, the one
involving the armed uprising on the L-7 Colony, and called him in to help plan some of our tactics, and
assist in leading the riot-control troops. We then started to travel together, and get jobs as a pair, a team.
Our names were known across the system as brilliant military leaders, and at only 13 years old! It was quite
amazing never mind that we were enrolled at the Academy before we were two."
"So, what exactly is the Academy? You refer to it all the time, but have never told me exactly
what it is."
"The Academy is not really a school. The Academy is our name for the institute we were placed
in, because of our intelligence and information absorption abilities. The same man, the famous Shia
Blanchard, taught at Harvard and Northridge by the best military geniuses available instructed Shadow and
me. He trained us to be perfect soldiers, those who can do the job of one hundred men in mobile suits,
alone and unsuited. We, as well as a few others, were to be the next Alexander the Great, the next
Napoleon, each in our own field. Mine was small team operations; his was stealth and covert operations.
We worked together very well."
"So why did you not take any blame for the explosion? Partner, if I can't trust you to take your
share of the blame, them this is where we part company."
"If I had taken partial blame, the prison sentence would have been much longer," Raja snapped,
looking at Kaado with the most vile, dangerous expression he had ever seen. "Shadow just wanted me to
share the punishment for his clumsiness."
"Okay, forget I asked. I'm sorry."