Post by Zuyuri on Jul 25, 2017 22:44:29 GMT
The few songs at the charity concert were still rocking hard. If there was one thing Shadow could admit, it was that, for once, the town wasn't going on a murderous rampage. Thrax was still out there, but Pitch would be busy tracking him. The Elemental Gang was still on the loose as well, and despite coming across various clues, they had always appeared to be one step ahead of him. Point being, crime, for now, was on the down low. Nothing would be upsetting...
A chill went down Shadow's spine. Odd. There wasn't any hint that there would be a cold front this night. No one else seemed to be feeling it. He looked at Sunshine, who was standing a few feet away, eyes locked onto the stage still. He'd explain later. For now, he had to get away and figure out what got him tingling.
He started brisk walking away. The brisk way turned into a light jog, until he was back at his regular high speed. He sped through the streets of Bellerouge, careful to avoid cars or pedestrians. Anyone who felt the wind he left behind in his wake would just assume it had been a slight breeze. The chill was growing, becoming winter in the mountains cold. This wasn't because of the him gaining momentum either. Just as he left the city line, he coasted to a stop.
He had wound up running all the way from Bellerouge to an uninhabited part of wetland. The water was ankle deep mush. The trees were twisted, shaded, unidentifiable points. Mold and rotting wood was the poppourri for the evening. The worst part was the silence; not even cicadas were buzzing in this part of the swamp. He glanced every which way, looking for any kind of sign of whatever summoned him...or whoever. He took one step...
A jab in his brain forced him to stop. The jab was the equivalent of someone drilling through his brain...and the drill was made of shard of broken glass. He brought a hand to his head, wincing loudly. In his shut eyes, it began again...
The impact made by the escape pod shooting into the bayou was anything but pleasant. Shadow had braced himself for impact, gritting his teeth as the shaking and rumbling stopped. A landslide had been caused by the descent off the cliffside. He was no longer in the lab...and...
Maria.
Maria was gone. She had slumped just as she had pulled the very lever which sent him careening into the muck. She had been shot by...
By them.
Shadow shook in his pod. Maria did nothing wrong. Why did she have to pay the price of someone else? His foot went up to meet the plexiglass of his pod. The jets in his boots sputtered, and the glass thunked. He added a punch along with a kick. The material began to chip, a crack widening. He kicked again. This time,
the plexiglass exploded and he was able to crawl out. As he did, shards had cut into his hand and forearm. He bit his lip and cradled the injury.
How ever much time had passed as he wandered through the muck. The night sky was shifting to a blurred lavender haze. The sun was rising. The blackness turned into greenery. Between the wounds, both physical and mental, Shadow was lacking any will to keep walking. But he had to. He had to find the men who did this. They killed Maria. They did nothing wrong...
Humans, he thought with disgust, don't deserve to have this world. They don't value life. They take whatever they want, or turn something that they find necessary and twist it into something that would later become useless, at least they would deem it useless. Eventually, their stupidity would be their downfall. They were all going to pay. Pay for their stupidity, their selfishness. A fire began to rise within Shadow's body. He let it grow. He might as well let it spread, spread to the people of the city. The humans had better start praying. He would avenge Maria's death...
On that day, the sky in Bellerouge went from blue to red. In that red haze, they waited, the red and black creatures. With a wave of his claw, they descended into Bellerouge. .
That red sky was still there as Shadow paused. Apparently in his zombie-wandering, he had continued walking through the marsh. This must have been where he had come from when Maria let him go. Where...
A blast of an almost white fire engulfed him. "What the-?" Shadow cried out. The fire swirled around, but it didn't burn him. The bayou was replaced by a red and black void. He couldn't tell where it ended, or even where it began. The red patches uncannily looked...looked like eyes. A din of quiet, eerie voices began whispering his name.
'Shadow...Shadow..."
Shadow raised his fists. He didn't have his gun, but he could at least use his powers. He punched forward, firing chaos spear after chaos spear. The taunting calls of his name were replaced by shrieks. Messy blobs of red and black scurried away from the sharp points of light.
Shadow...you've kept me waiting...
It couldn't be. He shot his eye in Laveau. It had to be a trick.
It is me.
The hairs on Shadow's neck stood on end. The cold presence from the concert was back. A cold that mixed with a searing heat, somehow becoming hot and cold at the same time. He had never seen Disparion in the flesh, not counting his eye. Despite all hesitation, all wanting to punch him in the face in run, Shadow knew he couldn't. Very slowly, he turned.
Disparion was just as hideous as he imagined him. Three fingers hands hung from a legless, tattered robe. Chains looped along the neck. The skin was wrinkled and flabbed, complete without a mouth. The worst, terrifying part was the skin was red and black...like Shadow. Even down to the red streaking. One red eye, though, had a scar running down through the bumps. That must have been the eye Shadow had shot and it had healed...by some miracle.
"How?!" Shadow demanded.
"It takes more than a shotgun to stop me." " Disparion answered.
A humorless laugh escaped Shadow's voice. "So this is your way of getting back at me? Showing me the cesspool you call home? If you ask me, I'm not impressed. Can't you hang a picture or something?"
I am showing you how it will look on the day of my return. I will be there and you will make it happen. You opened the portal once before, you can do it again...
Shadow shook his head. "You're wrong. I never..."
My little gift didn't remind you? The day Bellerouge's sky turned red and has stayed red for ten years...that was your doing. Your wrath opened that portal. Perhaps it's best to compare past and present...
The sharp pain came back, and now instead of Hell, Shadow recognized the venue despite the...artistic approach. If Garcon Perdu didn't look like shit enough, it sure as heck looked like it now. The asphalt was cracked and risen into craigs. Glowing red...something...was shining along the cracks. Cars were overturned or gutted out. Flakes of ash were floating from unknown sources. A din of a low sound echoed, and Shadow didn't like it. From that din came a holler. A very unmistakable holler.
"Yang!"
She was charging towards Thrax, who was smiling wickedly, his pointed finger poised and glowing red. Shadow tried to rush towards her, but he was blocked by a wall of black shifting...sand. No. Why were Pitch's nightmares holding him back. He rushed to get past the ones blocking his path. They cut in front of him again. Shadow began punching and kicking the nightmares. The whinnies of them dissipating blended with a scream of pain. Yang was falling one away, her arm another. Thrax was grinning evilly.
You couldn't help her, could you? While you were confronting your own nightmares, she was failing...
Yang's one armed body began swirling in a strange blob. Shadow squinted to make out the shape. The blonde hair was shortening, and in place of Yang was Maria. The grinning Thrax was replaced by Disparion, gesturing to her corpse.
This will remind you of what was stolen from you. Poor Yang Xiao Long, poor Maria Gerald...poor Sunshine Seddon.
Shadow gritted his teeth. His wrists were itching, and he had to get his inhibitor rings off. But every muscle in his body began freezing into place. The movements were stopped and jerked. Shadow fought with the stiffness, but ended up falling to his knees; correction, forced down by the invisible force pushing him down. "Stop!" he cried out. Maria's corpse suddenly opened her eyes and weakly smiled. But this time it wasn't Maria; it was Sunshine.
Look at you...the ultimate lifeform...weakened by the sight of humans suffering...the very humans you vowed to destroy...
Shadow winced as he pressed upon again. In the pressing, he glared up at the red eye, and asked something that had bothered him since the notes were recovered. The professor would have in no way allied with the devil to make something meant to be good. Anna may have just thought the notes were a different kind of demon. "Just...tell me the truth...am I really a part of you? Or did you just do that to...plant a memory so I could be your puppet?"
By some miracle the pressure stopped. Shadow was able to stand. The blonde haired hallucination vanished. Disparion and Shadow were glaring at one another, red eye to red eye. Finally, the devil answered, It is true. You are a part of me. You are my greatest weapon to coming to the world.
Well, so much for it being a false theory. It also explained the rage Anna had felt, aside from the feral instincts of her serum. Shadow looked down at where the figures of Yang, Maria, and Sunshine had been. All three of them had something in common, besides being blonde. They had all given him something worth fighting for, something worth taking up the badge of becoming a police officer. Disparion could threaten to hurt them all he wanted, but the ones that were still with him were getting stronger every day. Yang was rebounding from Thrax's attack and being trained by Shadow and Ralph. Sunshine was overcoming her fears of the night from Dorian's gift. He placed a hand over the inhibitor rings.
"You may have created me, but you will never be my father." He clutched one of the inhibitor rings, where it broke off in a gleam of yellow. "Fathers raise and protect you. Fathers guide you." The other inhibitor ring glowed and fell. "I failed to do that for Maria, so I will do it for Yang. I'll do it for Sunshine, and I will do it for my city. You can't control me with my past mistakes anymore."
A flash of yellow thus shot through hell that day. Demons and hoardes were thrown off course by the speeding red and black creation that the devil himself had failed to control. That burst of yellow shot through the earth's crust, erupting up and back to the marsh of Bellerouge.
Shadow panted as he looked back from where he had emerged. Overgrown by greenery and caked with mud was the very capsule he had descended from. He brushed a section of plexiglass, sighing in relief when he saw the red stains of blood. His blood. Disparion's blood. Blood from the past...which was where it would always be. Pitch could have his stupid memories, Shadow didn't need them to know who he was. He started this whole mess, as a research experiment having gone deadly wrong, and now he was going to make it right. His inhibitor rings appeared from the mud, and he slipped them on, walking back towards the glittering light that was the hint towards civilization.
A chill went down Shadow's spine. Odd. There wasn't any hint that there would be a cold front this night. No one else seemed to be feeling it. He looked at Sunshine, who was standing a few feet away, eyes locked onto the stage still. He'd explain later. For now, he had to get away and figure out what got him tingling.
He started brisk walking away. The brisk way turned into a light jog, until he was back at his regular high speed. He sped through the streets of Bellerouge, careful to avoid cars or pedestrians. Anyone who felt the wind he left behind in his wake would just assume it had been a slight breeze. The chill was growing, becoming winter in the mountains cold. This wasn't because of the him gaining momentum either. Just as he left the city line, he coasted to a stop.
He had wound up running all the way from Bellerouge to an uninhabited part of wetland. The water was ankle deep mush. The trees were twisted, shaded, unidentifiable points. Mold and rotting wood was the poppourri for the evening. The worst part was the silence; not even cicadas were buzzing in this part of the swamp. He glanced every which way, looking for any kind of sign of whatever summoned him...or whoever. He took one step...
A jab in his brain forced him to stop. The jab was the equivalent of someone drilling through his brain...and the drill was made of shard of broken glass. He brought a hand to his head, wincing loudly. In his shut eyes, it began again...
The impact made by the escape pod shooting into the bayou was anything but pleasant. Shadow had braced himself for impact, gritting his teeth as the shaking and rumbling stopped. A landslide had been caused by the descent off the cliffside. He was no longer in the lab...and...
Maria.
Maria was gone. She had slumped just as she had pulled the very lever which sent him careening into the muck. She had been shot by...
By them.
Shadow shook in his pod. Maria did nothing wrong. Why did she have to pay the price of someone else? His foot went up to meet the plexiglass of his pod. The jets in his boots sputtered, and the glass thunked. He added a punch along with a kick. The material began to chip, a crack widening. He kicked again. This time,
the plexiglass exploded and he was able to crawl out. As he did, shards had cut into his hand and forearm. He bit his lip and cradled the injury.
How ever much time had passed as he wandered through the muck. The night sky was shifting to a blurred lavender haze. The sun was rising. The blackness turned into greenery. Between the wounds, both physical and mental, Shadow was lacking any will to keep walking. But he had to. He had to find the men who did this. They killed Maria. They did nothing wrong...
Humans, he thought with disgust, don't deserve to have this world. They don't value life. They take whatever they want, or turn something that they find necessary and twist it into something that would later become useless, at least they would deem it useless. Eventually, their stupidity would be their downfall. They were all going to pay. Pay for their stupidity, their selfishness. A fire began to rise within Shadow's body. He let it grow. He might as well let it spread, spread to the people of the city. The humans had better start praying. He would avenge Maria's death...
On that day, the sky in Bellerouge went from blue to red. In that red haze, they waited, the red and black creatures. With a wave of his claw, they descended into Bellerouge. .
That red sky was still there as Shadow paused. Apparently in his zombie-wandering, he had continued walking through the marsh. This must have been where he had come from when Maria let him go. Where...
A blast of an almost white fire engulfed him. "What the-?" Shadow cried out. The fire swirled around, but it didn't burn him. The bayou was replaced by a red and black void. He couldn't tell where it ended, or even where it began. The red patches uncannily looked...looked like eyes. A din of quiet, eerie voices began whispering his name.
'Shadow...Shadow..."
Shadow raised his fists. He didn't have his gun, but he could at least use his powers. He punched forward, firing chaos spear after chaos spear. The taunting calls of his name were replaced by shrieks. Messy blobs of red and black scurried away from the sharp points of light.
Shadow...you've kept me waiting...
It couldn't be. He shot his eye in Laveau. It had to be a trick.
It is me.
The hairs on Shadow's neck stood on end. The cold presence from the concert was back. A cold that mixed with a searing heat, somehow becoming hot and cold at the same time. He had never seen Disparion in the flesh, not counting his eye. Despite all hesitation, all wanting to punch him in the face in run, Shadow knew he couldn't. Very slowly, he turned.
Disparion was just as hideous as he imagined him. Three fingers hands hung from a legless, tattered robe. Chains looped along the neck. The skin was wrinkled and flabbed, complete without a mouth. The worst, terrifying part was the skin was red and black...like Shadow. Even down to the red streaking. One red eye, though, had a scar running down through the bumps. That must have been the eye Shadow had shot and it had healed...by some miracle.
"How?!" Shadow demanded.
"It takes more than a shotgun to stop me." " Disparion answered.
A humorless laugh escaped Shadow's voice. "So this is your way of getting back at me? Showing me the cesspool you call home? If you ask me, I'm not impressed. Can't you hang a picture or something?"
I am showing you how it will look on the day of my return. I will be there and you will make it happen. You opened the portal once before, you can do it again...
Shadow shook his head. "You're wrong. I never..."
My little gift didn't remind you? The day Bellerouge's sky turned red and has stayed red for ten years...that was your doing. Your wrath opened that portal. Perhaps it's best to compare past and present...
The sharp pain came back, and now instead of Hell, Shadow recognized the venue despite the...artistic approach. If Garcon Perdu didn't look like shit enough, it sure as heck looked like it now. The asphalt was cracked and risen into craigs. Glowing red...something...was shining along the cracks. Cars were overturned or gutted out. Flakes of ash were floating from unknown sources. A din of a low sound echoed, and Shadow didn't like it. From that din came a holler. A very unmistakable holler.
"Yang!"
She was charging towards Thrax, who was smiling wickedly, his pointed finger poised and glowing red. Shadow tried to rush towards her, but he was blocked by a wall of black shifting...sand. No. Why were Pitch's nightmares holding him back. He rushed to get past the ones blocking his path. They cut in front of him again. Shadow began punching and kicking the nightmares. The whinnies of them dissipating blended with a scream of pain. Yang was falling one away, her arm another. Thrax was grinning evilly.
You couldn't help her, could you? While you were confronting your own nightmares, she was failing...
Yang's one armed body began swirling in a strange blob. Shadow squinted to make out the shape. The blonde hair was shortening, and in place of Yang was Maria. The grinning Thrax was replaced by Disparion, gesturing to her corpse.
This will remind you of what was stolen from you. Poor Yang Xiao Long, poor Maria Gerald...poor Sunshine Seddon.
Shadow gritted his teeth. His wrists were itching, and he had to get his inhibitor rings off. But every muscle in his body began freezing into place. The movements were stopped and jerked. Shadow fought with the stiffness, but ended up falling to his knees; correction, forced down by the invisible force pushing him down. "Stop!" he cried out. Maria's corpse suddenly opened her eyes and weakly smiled. But this time it wasn't Maria; it was Sunshine.
Look at you...the ultimate lifeform...weakened by the sight of humans suffering...the very humans you vowed to destroy...
Shadow winced as he pressed upon again. In the pressing, he glared up at the red eye, and asked something that had bothered him since the notes were recovered. The professor would have in no way allied with the devil to make something meant to be good. Anna may have just thought the notes were a different kind of demon. "Just...tell me the truth...am I really a part of you? Or did you just do that to...plant a memory so I could be your puppet?"
By some miracle the pressure stopped. Shadow was able to stand. The blonde haired hallucination vanished. Disparion and Shadow were glaring at one another, red eye to red eye. Finally, the devil answered, It is true. You are a part of me. You are my greatest weapon to coming to the world.
Well, so much for it being a false theory. It also explained the rage Anna had felt, aside from the feral instincts of her serum. Shadow looked down at where the figures of Yang, Maria, and Sunshine had been. All three of them had something in common, besides being blonde. They had all given him something worth fighting for, something worth taking up the badge of becoming a police officer. Disparion could threaten to hurt them all he wanted, but the ones that were still with him were getting stronger every day. Yang was rebounding from Thrax's attack and being trained by Shadow and Ralph. Sunshine was overcoming her fears of the night from Dorian's gift. He placed a hand over the inhibitor rings.
"You may have created me, but you will never be my father." He clutched one of the inhibitor rings, where it broke off in a gleam of yellow. "Fathers raise and protect you. Fathers guide you." The other inhibitor ring glowed and fell. "I failed to do that for Maria, so I will do it for Yang. I'll do it for Sunshine, and I will do it for my city. You can't control me with my past mistakes anymore."
A flash of yellow thus shot through hell that day. Demons and hoardes were thrown off course by the speeding red and black creation that the devil himself had failed to control. That burst of yellow shot through the earth's crust, erupting up and back to the marsh of Bellerouge.
Shadow panted as he looked back from where he had emerged. Overgrown by greenery and caked with mud was the very capsule he had descended from. He brushed a section of plexiglass, sighing in relief when he saw the red stains of blood. His blood. Disparion's blood. Blood from the past...which was where it would always be. Pitch could have his stupid memories, Shadow didn't need them to know who he was. He started this whole mess, as a research experiment having gone deadly wrong, and now he was going to make it right. His inhibitor rings appeared from the mud, and he slipped them on, walking back towards the glittering light that was the hint towards civilization.
