As the heavy prison doors clanged shut behind Shadow, Scourge's maniacal laughter erupted, bouncing off the cold, unforgiving walls of his cell. His ice-blue eyes, wild with unbridled glee, fixated on the small golden band in his palm—Shadow's inhibitor ring.
"Oh, Stripes," Scourge whispered, his sharp teeth gleaming in the dim light. "You've just handed me the keys to the kingdom!"
He sprang up, pacing his cell like a caged animal, crackling with newfound energy. The ring pulsed against his skin, a beacon of chaos in this stagnant pit of order.
For years, Scourge had been nothing more than a shadow of his former self, his chaos powers reduced to a pitiful spark by the prison's energy-dampening fields. The inhibitor rings were designed to limit Shadow's immense power, but to Scourge, they represented something else entirely—a conduit to the outside world's chaos energy, unaffected by the prison's safeguards. It was a key that could unlock the door to his former glory.
"Come to papa," he purred, caressing the ring. Suddenly, he slammed his fist against the wall, leaving a small crack.
With each passing second, Scourge could feel his connection to chaos growing stronger. It was like a drug, and he was an addict getting his first hit after years of forced sobriety. It was a slow process, but he had nothing but time. Days, weeks, months—it didn't matter. He would patiently nurture this spark until it became a raging inferno.
"Oh, I've missed this," he growled, his voice thick with dark pleasure. "Shadow, buddy, pal, you have no idea what you've done. But you will. Oh, you all will."
As Shadow walked into his new life, blissfully unaware, Scourge was already plotting his grand return. The inhibitor ring was just the beginning—a spark that would ignite an inferno of chaos across dimensions.
"Tick-tock, Stripes," Scourge grinned, his eyes blazing with anticipation. "Your little taste of freedom is just the calm before my storm. And when I break out of here—because I will—I'm going to paint every world in every dimension Scourge green!"
His laughter echoed through the prison corridors, a chilling promise of the mayhem to come. The game had changed, and Scourge was holding the winning hand. It was only a matter of time before he'd unleash a tidal wave of chaos that would make even Shadow's ultimate power look like child's play.
The King of Chaos was rising again, and no force would be able to stop the reign of destruction he was about to unleash.