Beastfire-Thank you! I hope that you enjoy this chapter, too!

Chapter 14

Antuari activated his claws and jumped at the shadow creature. He slashed it across its chest area, and the creature grunted slightly. Antuari jumped at it again, but this time, he was caught and pumped with dark energy, knocking him out immediately. Gibson used his Spin Shocker and Sprx the Magna Tingler Blast, but both seemed to wash over the creature without doing any damage.

"For a shadow, that thing sure is solid!" said Sprx. The shadow shot a blast of energy, sending Sprx into a wall, which collapsed onto him. It then grabbed Gibson and twisted his neck; Gibson's body went limp. Nova used her fists to attack, but the shadow creature dodged by floating upwards and responded with sphere of dark energy. Otto tried to use his saws, but it was as if he was trying to use a butter knife on diamond. Before the shadow could attack him, however, Otto got out of the way.

Ivy began to throw fireballs at the shadow, but they seemed to stop in midair. The shadow mentally reached out and grabbed her, pulling her towards it.

"Dear girl, I have been jamming your powers since the beginning. Do you really think that they'll affect me now?" hissed the shadow. Suddenly, a wave of golden energy crashed into it. The shadow beast turned around to see Frus, who was charging for another blast.

The shadow creature began to charge its own energy to fire a blast at Frus, when it saw Adriana going over to Antuari to heal him. It fired at her, instead. However, she seemed to begin to glow, and the energy didn't reach her. However, the creature simply warped its energy and created an energy cage around her. Then, he was hit by the blast Frus was charging, followed by a Monkey Fu from Chiro.

The shadow creature began to fire small blasts at Frus and Chiro, who jumped and dodged. Then, a dark blast hit Frus and the shadow followed up with a larger blast. When Frus hit the ground, however, the shadow noticed that Frus wasn't carrying his sword. The shadow turned around, just in time to see Ivy use Gaia, which was glowing with golden energy, to slash through its neck. The golden energy seemed to radiate out from the cut to the rest of its body, but suddenly, it stopped. The creature lifted its head from its body, shook it, and replaced it.

"Brilliant tactic, but futile," said the shadow. It began to advance when it was hit with repeated attacks from Chiro. The creature grabbed him and slammed him against the ground. But as it was doing that, Otto landed on its back.

"Little monkey, have you forgotten that your attacks are useless?" asked the shadow. It was quite surprised when Otto's saws, now glowing golden, burst through its chest. Suddenly, the shadow doubled in size and fell backwards. When it got up, Otto was still on the ground.

Ivy tried to attack again, but the shadow creature shot a blast of energy to stop her.

"Now, you have no hope! All I have to do is finish you all with one final BLAST!" the shadow beast lifted its hands and began to charge energy for a giant blast of energy. Suddenly, a hand reached up and rapped around the beast's neck. As it began to choke, it lost the energy it had been charging. Then, it wrenched away from its assailant's grip and turned to see that it was, in fact, Saga. His left hand was glowing with a strange gray energy.

"You-how did you-" began the creature.

"You didn't give me all of my power," responded Saga. The shadow creature started to attack with an energy blast, but it did minimal damage to Saga. Apparently Saga had gained a resistance to dark attacks while he was one with dark energy.

"I will kill you!" yelled the shadow creature. Saga laughed.

"You? You've already lost. There's just one thing left to do," said Saga. His right hand began to glow golden. Otto, his hands back to normal, gave Saga a thumbs-up. Then, Saga rushed forwards and grabbed the shadow with both hands. All of its wounds from the battle began to glow, and it exploded. When the dust cleared, Saga lay on the ground.

The dark energy around Adriana vanished, and she looked over at Saga. She began to walk over to help him, but Saga turned his head in her direction and lifted his right hand, signaling that he was alright.

"Go heal the others first," said Saga. Adriana did so; Ivy was able to heal herself now that the shadow creature was gone and she went to help Frus. Once everyone else was okay, Adriana went over to where Saga had been. However, he was gone. This time, however, he had not faded into the shadows. He stood atop a building and he watched the team, then began to run, off to who knows where. He will return some day, but when that is, even I don't know. One thing is certain. Even if he can't be considered a hero, he is definitely not pure evil.

THE END

Now, a note about powers. I'm not sure what to do about that golden energy, but since it has served its purpose, it's pretty much gone. I might let Frus summon those wings once in a while, though. As for Saga, he doesn't have his dark energy anymore, but it has been replaced by gray energy. He can still transform, but he has to stay at pretty much the same size now. Also, he doesn't just turn into anything. He has a few set forms: A regular-sized lindorm, his normal form, that human form he developed, he'll probably have a gray monkey form, and there are a few more forms that we'll see later.

Now, another note: An anomaly made Saga the robot much more powerful and intelligent than she had ever planned on. That is why Skeleton King reprogrammed him to serve him instead, and chose him as the shadow's vessel. Morgue's spell messed with that arrangement. With the shadow being already possessing him when he first became flesh, the dark energy became more a part of him than if he had been possessed in any other way. That's why he didn't just join the good guys and why his energy only became bright enough to be gray. You know the rest.