AN: Wow... its been awhile. To make a long story short, the last few months... well, lets just say life can be cruel. Now where was I, ah yes, Shadow skydiving without a chute. Lets see how that works out shall we?

Sly 5:

Return of the Thievious Racconus

Ch16 OPERATION PHEONIX

Part 3

Duel of the Swordsmen

Shadow's POV: As I came hurtling closer to the fortress, the flames began to coalesce together. They began to form my full armor suit over the skin suit, by molecule. Long bulky plates, black and neon green, covered the suit everywhere but the joints, the skin suit still visible underneath. A new helmet formed over my face looking like the Impulse that Sly had fought earlier, a guard fully covering my lower face, and a green visor covered my eyes. Two sheaths formed on my back with sword grips jutting out from them, and a rifle was now slung across my back as well as my pistol appearing on my hips.

The fortress was still getting closer, but I made no move to slow my fall.

"BGM Select... Dead or Alive, JAM Project." As the guitar began I turned, feet first towards the nearest Zaku.

"DYNAMIC ENTRY!" Both feet went clear through the Zaku and the one behind it before the armored hull of the fortress stopped me. Skidding along with what force I had left, I reached back and unsheathed on of my katanas and turned the black blade toward my foes, a few hundred mooks.

"Who's first?" About seventy GOOF ARMORs came at me, heat swords ready. Music still blaring in my ears, I leveled my sword at them. On flick and the air moving towards them cut the first one into ribbons. They stopped, AIs trying to figure out what had happened to their point man. The delay was all I needed, rushing at the group. They reacted, throwing a easily dodged wall of 75mm cannon fire at me as I rolled and span through the group. Coming out the other side, I sheathed my sword and let the GOOFs fall to pieces behind me.

"Next!"

Li's CIC

Li's eyes were glued to a monitor showing the new arrival. She had quickly changed into her combat gear, an armored lab coat with a huge purple bazooka labeled BESSY slung across her back.

"So, he is here with his new toy to get back his precious experiment, is he? But why, it doesn't work. Unless it works off of-" She was cut of my a call from Terry.

"Mistress, the corridor to the SRW is blocked on this way, the whole corridor is slag! It will take far to long to reach it from here!"

"Terry, head out to try and head him off at the nearby hanger! You should have enough room to maneuver! Go all out, hold nothing back!"

"Yes mistress".

With that, Li's eyes went back to the monitor. To here horror, Shadow was no longer using one of the swords he had to deal with the horde that had surrounded him, instead using a full size GOOF as a club.

"That thing weighs over 75 tons! There is no way a suit of powered armor that small could be able to do that, not even with his innate abilities. Unless he has actually managed to tune THAT down, but still, the risks... the last time he used that it wiped out a planet! And if I were to get it, all his work would be for naught! I must get that armor, if it truly is what I think."

Meanwhile, back to Terry

Terry's POV: "Stop him she says. Easier said then done!" Said Terry. "Still, I have a few advantages." Looking around at the hanger, he did have a few things in his favor. The numerous gantries and launch bays gave him plenty of foot holds, while limiting his foe's cover. And the plas-cannon he had would make short work of his foe. Nothing that small could take a directed fusion beam! Even if all he had is a few seconds before the barrel melts clear off the cannon, he would only need milliseconds. I could hear footsteps rushing down the hall to my position. Readying the plas-cannon, I fired as soon as the door opened to admit my foe. The force of a sun greeted him, vaporizing everything within 10ft of the force field focused beam, save the hyper armor the the bulkhead the door was built into. Nothing could survive that blast.

CIC

Li's POV: Li was awestruck. He couldn't be that stupid, or else she wouldn't have been hounded by him for years! But why wou- no! HE COULDN"T!

Hanger

Shadows POV: I couldn't resist it. "Temperature of bulkhead, 70,000F. Good heat resistance." I called out. "Me however? Surface temperature of Chogokin plates 98F, hot summer day back home. Internal, 60.0000000001F, my you raised it by a fraction of a degree!" I couldn't see anything at the moment due to my face plate still being polarized, but I could definitely hear the shock in my foes voice.

"How, what... I JUST SHOT YOU WITH A HYDROGEN BOMB! YOU CANT BE ALIVE!"

"Didn't anyone tell you about me?" I called out, drawing the sword I used earlier. "My name is Shadow. I am you mistress worst nightmare. I am that which hounds her at every step. I am the avenging angel that seeks to right that which she has wronged by any means. Am I a brave hearted hero, or a black hearted evil? I am all of those and more. I am that which haunts the shadows that you seek to rule, the Shadow that strikes at its foes." I couldn't tell if this was creeping him out, but I liked where my mind was going, and glad I was recording this. "But as for you? I am your worst nightmare, for you are in my way!"

A nervous chuckle greeted my words. "Well, two can play at this game. Allow me to introduce myself. I am a dictator of ancient ice covered lands lands, trapped in a prison of ice by my subjects for all eternity, till these foolish men of science unleashed my from my tomb. I was hounded across this new world, till I was offered a job to help rule this world. I owe that woman my life, and I will repay her and her allies with it if I must!" I could hear a sword drawn, and my regained visuals confirmed it. "My name is Terry, ruler of forsaken lands! You shall not pass, no as long as I draw breath! Now ready yourself, for you face the greatest warrior of this world!"

We both charged head on at each other, and it was my turn to be surprised. He had no visible power armor, nor could I detect any enhancement to the Terror Bird, but he was matching my speed. And as out swords struck, I got new surprise. Even though my sword I was using was nothing special, it was made of the same metal, albeit of lower quality, that my skin suit was made of, and the blade shattered where his sword had struck.

"Surprised oh cocky one? This is no ordinary sword! It was designed using the same alloy, that this Flying Fortress is armored with made of! You just saw what an H-Bomb did to it, it isn't even scorched! Not so confident now are we.?"

I lurched back and a grin formed. "Oh, a challenge at last. I wondered where the elites were. Your in for a treat Mr. Terry. I haven't used this in quite awhile," I turned to the nearest camera," don't you agree Li?"

CIC

No... he wouldn't... he couldn't he cant HE IS!

Back to Shadow's POV

I placed my hands together palm to palm, and began to recite a password that I hadn't used n over a year. "Having determined that the enemy is a class A foe and that current armament is insufficient to engage, I hereby invoke the breaking of the first seal I have place upon myself for the duration of the engagement." A aura of green fire began to surround me, the same as summoned by my guitar, but coming directly from me. "Confirmation phrase: The Sword That Smites Evil". The flames flashed over me, covering be from Terry's gaze and momentarily blinding him and Li's camera's (not that she was watching them while having a mild panic attack) As they receded from me, withdrawing to their source, nothing seemed to change about me. The only difference was that the green of my armor was glowing, like the embers left over after a blaze.

"Is that all you got, bigmouth, a little magic trick and a new paint job? I could do more than that with the technology of my day!"

"Oh no," came a completely new voice from inside the armor, which sent Li running for her nearest mech lab. Where as the previous voice had sounded much younger, like a man in his early twenties, this was older, echoing through the room even with its sound absorbing tiles and horrible acoustics. "That isn't all that it did. After all, I couldn't get this before." I stretched out my left hand and a shaft of the green flames again forming, bending to my will to form a ring of fire. The center began to glow, and a black hilt slid through. Grabbing it with my right hand, I drew he blade from the portal. Grabbing it with both hands when it cleared and the portal closed. "Behold, the Sword That Smites Evil! Its name... ZANTANKOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"The name came out as a war-cry as I readied the blade. It looked no different from the other, black hilt capable of fitting both hands, bronze pommel and hilt, and a midnight black blade, save for a it's name etched into the the length of the blade in scarlet.

"Oh, another sword and a fancy draw, I am so scared. I've faced thousands of challenges, and that has to be the most overglor-"

The rest of his sentence was drowned out as I screamed out my attack.

"CALAMITY SSSSSSWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRDDDDDDDDDDDD!" The blade erupted into flames, growing to the height of the massive hanger, yet weighing nothing more. I charge headlong as before, and brought the blade down behind my foe, carving though the ceiling and floor as if it weren't even there. The shear energy leaking from the blade energized the matter it had passed through. Electrons scattered to meet new atoms, electrons met nucleus, fission began. And the whole room behind me erupted into atomic fire encasing me in it.

The hanger, that which was not converted into expanding energy, turned to plasma, burning away at the hyper armor. And while it had withstood much greater heat earlier, the armor had been shattered below me. This being a hanger, and on the surface (on the lower end of the sphere) the armor was much thicker here than elsewhere. Thus, it vented out of the nearest breach, and down into the ground below. It the plasma dissipated before it could harm the ground below, leaving just the ruble that it had picked up to fall to the surface as I stood there before the destruction and uttered the rest of the cry.

"Entrance level technique."

And seeing no further opposition, I answered the call from Sly I was getting. A small window appeared on my hud.

"Shadow, what was that rumble? Felt like an earthquake."

Huh, guess she did put some new shock absorbers in. "Just ran into a bit of a problem Sly, should be there momentarily. We shouldn't have any problems from here.

Deep inside the fortress's

Li's POV: I was standing before my newest project, the sum of my current acquisitions.

"It isn't ready yet, I still haven't be able to recreate it... but most of it is ready... Epsilon should be able to defeat him. And I have st the charges on 01 and the agent ready... very well then." I lowered myself into the controls of the mech. "SRA EPSILON, HASHIN!"

Down on the ground

In a pile of blazing hot rubble, fresh from the ship, a hand encased in a fed glow shot out.

AN: Well... I can explain. See, I started this back in April, after exams, the reason for the first two month delay, as I had no time to spare. I got to about the third page, then... well, a funeral, vacation, mild depression, lack of internet for a few days, and general writers block all around will keep a guy from writing. Indeed, this was a total rewrite from what I had already written, so, I hope you all enjoy. I should be back a little sooner next time. Oh, that reminds me, feel free to look up the song shadow mentioned in the beginning, just a personal favorite that I thought could go well with the chapter, if not in lyrics then in music. And If you got the references that the phrase and sword were from, give yourself a cookie. Fanus, signing off once more!