Post by Zuyuri on Oct 7, 2017 6:52:13 GMT
Feeble coughs from Professor Edgar's lab made him pause in typing out his formula. He knew that the serum would be ready, it just needed to be stable. More importantly, he had to be stable. For the one person he was doing this project for. A project that would cost him his job, his life...he had already lost his daughter and son in law to the same disease that was inflicting the blonde haired girl slouched in the corner, coughing into her hands. She braced one side of the wall to scoot up, asking
"Grandpa, are you ready?"
Professor Gerald looked at the formula. He had done it. The calculations were done. Months of studying creatures outside of biology. To think, before, his team had been constructing experiments around lizards and earthworms. Then their discovery of a grayish thing that they could only call a demon had given them countless answers. Answers to the very thing the scientists were searching for, covered as medicial research.
Immortality.
Well, it was a half-truth. The secret to immortality was technically medicine. Countless attempts of exercise-diet combinations were rendered too slow, and the scientists had banded together to consider making a serum for eternal life. The problem was, no creature in all scientific discovery had shared immortality. There were long lifespans, but none were known to live for eons. They had discovered beings only written about in horror stories. Some weren't even horror at all, but in a twilight that knew neither good nor bad. All of them had varying strengths, and if the professor could find just the perfect bind, his research would be done. But he had to stop to spend weekends and one day of her choice to spend time with her. It was Friday, 2:55. It was a good place to stop. He saved the formula on his private computer, scribbled it in his journal, and walked to meet her at the door.
'Where would you like to go today?"
Because of her illness, she couldn't venture outside the metal and glass that was his laboratory. Fluorescent lights made the silver and white of the metal beams and tiles brighter. Through the glass windows, the city of Bellerouge twinkled below in whites and tans against the green of the bayou. Sometimes his scientists came to work with takeout from in the city. She had actually had beignets fresh from the bakery from one scientist. To make up for her inability to go outside, Gerald had created a virtual reality chamber. With just a push of a button, he could re-create places in the city for her to explore.
Maria cleared her throat. Had it been a cough, she would have stumbled again. No, instead she was walking straighter. Her ankles were shaky, but she managed to retain a proper standing position. The professor bit back a sigh. It amazed him how much of his own daughter she reminded him of. With his balding head and mustache, he was a walrus compared to the little sea nymph walking next to him. Those sea-colored eyes, big and blue, looked at him in earnest.
"I want to go to the French Quarter today," she beamed.
Professor Gerald nodded. They paused outside of a door laden with white roses, Maria's favorite flower. He had the only key to this door, and never took off the flower chain on which it hung. He scanned the code, and she entered the room, eager to type in the location. She dialed it in quickly. As she hit the green start button, the white walls and floors rippled. Scents of cinnamon, seafood seasoning, and fresh blooming magnolias wafted through the air. The French Quarter came into view. The French-Spanish buildings were decorating for Halloween and fall with garlands of fake leaves and orange and black bolts of cloth. Maria and Gerald gaped at the surroundings. They were outside Magnolia Road, where people were laughing and talking about different things for sale. Nearby, Maria gasped at the small display.
A pet vendor sat with a clear box. Scurrying in them were tiny mammals covered in black and white pinpricks. Some were rolling into tight balls and making noises similar to sneezes, pulsing. The owner called it 'huffle-puffing'. Their black noses wriggled when they did show their faces. Rodent-like, with big black eyes, they continued to scuffle around.
"Now, be careful, Maria," the scientist warned the girl, who was staring at the small animals. "We don't want you to get hurt."
"They're hedgehogs, Grandpa!" Maria exclaimed. "Oh, I forgot how cute they were." One hedgehog wrinkled his nose at her, and she returned the favor. Sometimes, just watching her do something so childish such as be delighted by cute animals, made him forget that she was dying. Years were narrowing to months, which were narrowing to days. Who knew when she would leave this world? The professor tried to shake the thought away, banish it to another realm. The realm where the demon had come from. Then he looked at a hedgehog unfurling itself from a ball. It had protected itself from harm, and given their mammal nature, were capable of social connections, shown by it coming to bump noses with another.
The professor had found a missing component to his formula.
________________________________
Getting the DNA of a hedgehog had been easy. He had gone down to a pet store in the French Quarter, studying the animals. One had unfurled, exposing its soft furry underbelly. One pet and a few stray hairs had come into his gloved hands. Discretely, Professor Gerald had wrapped them in a sterile storage before returning to the lab.
He placed one hair below the bright red dropper. The formula had been one part vampire DNA, one part were DNA, one part Seelie, one part Unseelie, and mostly demon. The droplet fell. The mixing chamber, which was filled with bright green bubbling fluid, started to churn. The process of development was rapid, like watching a sped up video of a chicken in an egg. A blob started forming. Two small bumps became arms. Flanges, clawed at the end, were creeping. The same thing happened with feet, which formed to be part animal but the bone joints showed potential human. A brain had formed, and in place of fur was wrinkled pink skin. Given hedgehog development, the quills would come eventually. The professor stepped back to witness growth. Its eyes were closed, but spikes started to protrude through the skin, black and white. The development process was complete.
The bonding had worked. The professor had created a successful bond using mammal DNA. The Seelie-Unseelie segments had allowed the heart and brain to evolve and apply logic and reason, perhaps to talk like humans. The vampire genes and were genes would give accelerated healing. The demon genes would make it capable to defenses beyond hedgehog reflexes.
The eyes of the creature were almost human, but the irises and pupils were black. It stared at the professor before the solution was drained. Very carefully, the professor looked at the being. It made noises of communication before it spoke an incoherent series of babbles.
"Don't be afraid," Gerald murmured. "I'm not going to hurt you." The creature reached a clawed hand forward to reach at the professor. No sooner had it taken a first few steps that it collasped. The thud was awful. Gerald didn't need other things to know it was dead.
____________________________________
"Weakened system was what it was," Gerald muttered.
His team had uncovered new secrets in regards to the demon's biology. From studies, demons were weak to beyrl cyrstals. Emerald killed them, aquamarine weakened them. The DNA had been from a killed demon, which was why his first bonding had been so weak. The challenge now was finding aways to make his creature survive. Sunlight was an obvious weakness, but he had designed the formula so the sun and moon weakness was counteracted by the seelie-unseelie DNA. The other problem was a skeletail structure.
"Grandpa," Maria rushed over with his tool box. "I brought everything you needed. But why do you need all this metal?"
"Because," Gerald said, "your new friend has to have strong bones. Drinking milk won't cut it."
The metal wouldn't be for the skeleton of the creature. The weakest components, from studying the corpse of the failed lifeform, had been the foot structure. If he could keep the being upright, it would be able to walk without a problem. Perhaps even more, giving the natural speed of vampires and weres. With this formula, including the robotic feet, it could perhaps reach supersonic speeds.
Maria's blue eyes were wide. Friend? Her grandfather's experiment was going to be her friend? She had been locked up here ever since she was a little girl. Her mother and father had died. Grandpa Gerald, luckily, had his laboratory not too far from the city. She could still look at it, and imagine going down and being in the streets, not just in his device. She had learned the hard way the dangers of going outside during a rebellious day where, just by sneaking out an open window, she had been seized inwardly and had begun coughing irregularly and her heartbeat began rapidly. Had it not been for her grandfather, she wouldn't have made it. There were no children that stayed in the laboratory like she was. Some scientists brought their children to meet her and talk and play games, but she never had a friend to really talk to.
"You mean it, Grandpa?" she asked, "I'm going to have a friend?"
'Soon, Maria," Gerald promised, hugging his granddaughter. "Soon."
___________________________________________________________________
He knew he was getting closer. The design of the rocketed skates had succesfully replaced the feet of the second and third hybrids he had created. The challenge, though, was finding a demon that hadn't been weakened from the accelerated states or had enough DNA to make half of the serum. He looked over at the clock. It would be midnight soon. 11:30. It was Halloween, and he had sent all of his employees home. He had done a terrible thing early that day, but Maria's convulsions earlier that morning had made him realize he was getting this close to losing her. There was only one demon who could assist. The professor sighed nervously.
On his work table lay salt and black candles. His hands shook as he struck the match. He was doing this for Maria. For Maria. He lit the candles, smelling sandalwood and dried herbs. The candles had been a voodoo item, and he recited a prayer backwards. At first, he thought he had failed. But then, like a camera shutter, one flame blinked. That blink became a massive red and yellow eye with a slit pupil. It was attached to a red and black horned head, with a cloaked body attached.
You stand before Disparion, the lord of demons. Speak your desire.
The professor swallowed his fear. He knelt before the creature, a hand outward. "My lord...I have summoned you for a small request. My granddaughter, Maria, she's dying. If she just goes outside, she'll die. I have to complete a lifeform to provide a cure. All I need is a sample of your blood. Just one drop, and my Maria will be alive.
The demon lord hovered silently. A clawed hand pressed against his own wrinkled black wrist. Gerald grabbed a test tube so as not to spill any of the precious DNA.
Do not be so brash. I have one request. My return to this world had been hindered countless times. My blood will support you, but even in spilling, it will support me. Your creature will bear my mark, sparing you from becoming damned. In so doing, it will let me in on the alotted time with its rage...".
Gerald's brow furrowed. Elotted time? Too many apocalypses had been written. Did he mean the famous 666? No, that time had passed. 2012? Perhaps. Regardless of the return date, there was still time to develop a way to work around this deal. Making contact with Disparion would come with a price, he knew that, but he had not intended his creation to be the end of humanity. He chose to keep this information to himself. He gave a nod, stroking his white beard. The demon made a grim chuckle and nod, and pressed a sharp nail deep. Jet black ooze, almost like pitch, welled into the test tube. The professor took it, and after blwoing out the candles, Disparion was gone.
The professor set the rocket skates into the chamber one last time. He turned the chamber on. The green fluid began to flood the tank. The professor took the red serum of Other DNA, minus the demon this time, and settled the black blood into the set. This time, he didn't bother watching the creation unfold. Now, he had to think of a way to keep Disparion's return from being permanent. The only option he had was using the lifeform against him. He could teach his being of his true purpose, and deny him any conscience of being tied to Disparion by blood. The creature had a heart and brain of humanoid beings, meaning it would be able to think like a human. Human reason and ability to learn would allow it to absorb information quickly. And by hopefully bonding with Maria through friendship, anger and wrath would be an after thought..
Of course. Love. That was what would defeat Disparion, keep him back. The professor would let his creation learn to love.
But keeping a powerful emotion like anger bottled would be dangerous. The lifeform needed to express it, but how so without releasing the dangerous energy built up from demonic power? Perhaps there was a way to keep power in tact. Iron was out of the question. He looked at the design of the two rings he had set into the rocket skates. The rings were made from a metal alloy that held back the most powerful parts of a magic attack with the benefit of being harmless to the wearer. Gerald rushed to recreate the inhibitor rings.
While he was out, the lifeform had finished its development. It slept in the green fluid. The black nose was long. The skin was not pink, but black streaked with red. The quills fanned out like hair, continuing the red and black pattern. A patch of white fur sat below the chin.
____________________________________________________-
Midnight, October 31st, ten years from the present day.
Professor Gerald very carefully slipped the inhibitor rings onto the still sleeping lifeform. He had surgically attached the bionic skates with much success. The red and black lifeform had a more human-hedgehog look, and this was a larger success than his first attempt. He had replaced the scientific useless hands with bionics as well. They would still react to the nerves, but it would move. It was the moment of truth.
He pressed the button.
The green fluid drained. With hissing servos, the containment vessel went upward. A spark of electricity went through. In the glass, the professor saw the creation open its eyes, set into a pernament glare. The eyes were not black or brown. Instead, they were bright red. Red like blood.
"I've done it," the professor murmured, "I have created the ultimate life form." It will give me the secrets to eternal life. It will befriend Maria. He had so much hope for it. "I have completed Project Shadow."
"Shadow?"
The voice didn't belong to him. It belonged to the creature sitting in the test tube, almost patiently waiting to be released. The professor pushed a final button, and the creature walked, not stumbled but walked, to meet him. Judging from the voice and the way it held itself, this was a male. He spoke with eloquence, fitting given the Seelie-Unseelie DNA. He looked at the professor with red eyes, saying, "It's fitting. Is that what I'm called, Professor?"
The professor contemplated this. The name for the project had been chosen because the secrets to immortality were as unknown as a shadow. Yet, after months and months of studying, he had done it. The ultimate lifeform was speaking to him like an old friend would. It had genes capable of curing the deathly ill, could heal rapidly, possessed speed and stregnth along with strong defense. Had the professor been working on a living weapon, he would have succeeded as well. Yet with the rings, the likelihood of it becoming evil would be rare. In a way, this being was like a shadow in a different sense. He seemed eager to use his heart and brain to protect amid the elusive nature.
"Yes. Welcome to your new life, Shadow."
"Grandpa, are you ready?"
Professor Gerald looked at the formula. He had done it. The calculations were done. Months of studying creatures outside of biology. To think, before, his team had been constructing experiments around lizards and earthworms. Then their discovery of a grayish thing that they could only call a demon had given them countless answers. Answers to the very thing the scientists were searching for, covered as medicial research.
Immortality.
Well, it was a half-truth. The secret to immortality was technically medicine. Countless attempts of exercise-diet combinations were rendered too slow, and the scientists had banded together to consider making a serum for eternal life. The problem was, no creature in all scientific discovery had shared immortality. There were long lifespans, but none were known to live for eons. They had discovered beings only written about in horror stories. Some weren't even horror at all, but in a twilight that knew neither good nor bad. All of them had varying strengths, and if the professor could find just the perfect bind, his research would be done. But he had to stop to spend weekends and one day of her choice to spend time with her. It was Friday, 2:55. It was a good place to stop. He saved the formula on his private computer, scribbled it in his journal, and walked to meet her at the door.
'Where would you like to go today?"
Because of her illness, she couldn't venture outside the metal and glass that was his laboratory. Fluorescent lights made the silver and white of the metal beams and tiles brighter. Through the glass windows, the city of Bellerouge twinkled below in whites and tans against the green of the bayou. Sometimes his scientists came to work with takeout from in the city. She had actually had beignets fresh from the bakery from one scientist. To make up for her inability to go outside, Gerald had created a virtual reality chamber. With just a push of a button, he could re-create places in the city for her to explore.
Maria cleared her throat. Had it been a cough, she would have stumbled again. No, instead she was walking straighter. Her ankles were shaky, but she managed to retain a proper standing position. The professor bit back a sigh. It amazed him how much of his own daughter she reminded him of. With his balding head and mustache, he was a walrus compared to the little sea nymph walking next to him. Those sea-colored eyes, big and blue, looked at him in earnest.
"I want to go to the French Quarter today," she beamed.
Professor Gerald nodded. They paused outside of a door laden with white roses, Maria's favorite flower. He had the only key to this door, and never took off the flower chain on which it hung. He scanned the code, and she entered the room, eager to type in the location. She dialed it in quickly. As she hit the green start button, the white walls and floors rippled. Scents of cinnamon, seafood seasoning, and fresh blooming magnolias wafted through the air. The French Quarter came into view. The French-Spanish buildings were decorating for Halloween and fall with garlands of fake leaves and orange and black bolts of cloth. Maria and Gerald gaped at the surroundings. They were outside Magnolia Road, where people were laughing and talking about different things for sale. Nearby, Maria gasped at the small display.
A pet vendor sat with a clear box. Scurrying in them were tiny mammals covered in black and white pinpricks. Some were rolling into tight balls and making noises similar to sneezes, pulsing. The owner called it 'huffle-puffing'. Their black noses wriggled when they did show their faces. Rodent-like, with big black eyes, they continued to scuffle around.
"Now, be careful, Maria," the scientist warned the girl, who was staring at the small animals. "We don't want you to get hurt."
"They're hedgehogs, Grandpa!" Maria exclaimed. "Oh, I forgot how cute they were." One hedgehog wrinkled his nose at her, and she returned the favor. Sometimes, just watching her do something so childish such as be delighted by cute animals, made him forget that she was dying. Years were narrowing to months, which were narrowing to days. Who knew when she would leave this world? The professor tried to shake the thought away, banish it to another realm. The realm where the demon had come from. Then he looked at a hedgehog unfurling itself from a ball. It had protected itself from harm, and given their mammal nature, were capable of social connections, shown by it coming to bump noses with another.
The professor had found a missing component to his formula.
________________________________
Getting the DNA of a hedgehog had been easy. He had gone down to a pet store in the French Quarter, studying the animals. One had unfurled, exposing its soft furry underbelly. One pet and a few stray hairs had come into his gloved hands. Discretely, Professor Gerald had wrapped them in a sterile storage before returning to the lab.
He placed one hair below the bright red dropper. The formula had been one part vampire DNA, one part were DNA, one part Seelie, one part Unseelie, and mostly demon. The droplet fell. The mixing chamber, which was filled with bright green bubbling fluid, started to churn. The process of development was rapid, like watching a sped up video of a chicken in an egg. A blob started forming. Two small bumps became arms. Flanges, clawed at the end, were creeping. The same thing happened with feet, which formed to be part animal but the bone joints showed potential human. A brain had formed, and in place of fur was wrinkled pink skin. Given hedgehog development, the quills would come eventually. The professor stepped back to witness growth. Its eyes were closed, but spikes started to protrude through the skin, black and white. The development process was complete.
The bonding had worked. The professor had created a successful bond using mammal DNA. The Seelie-Unseelie segments had allowed the heart and brain to evolve and apply logic and reason, perhaps to talk like humans. The vampire genes and were genes would give accelerated healing. The demon genes would make it capable to defenses beyond hedgehog reflexes.
The eyes of the creature were almost human, but the irises and pupils were black. It stared at the professor before the solution was drained. Very carefully, the professor looked at the being. It made noises of communication before it spoke an incoherent series of babbles.
"Don't be afraid," Gerald murmured. "I'm not going to hurt you." The creature reached a clawed hand forward to reach at the professor. No sooner had it taken a first few steps that it collasped. The thud was awful. Gerald didn't need other things to know it was dead.
____________________________________
"Weakened system was what it was," Gerald muttered.
His team had uncovered new secrets in regards to the demon's biology. From studies, demons were weak to beyrl cyrstals. Emerald killed them, aquamarine weakened them. The DNA had been from a killed demon, which was why his first bonding had been so weak. The challenge now was finding aways to make his creature survive. Sunlight was an obvious weakness, but he had designed the formula so the sun and moon weakness was counteracted by the seelie-unseelie DNA. The other problem was a skeletail structure.
"Grandpa," Maria rushed over with his tool box. "I brought everything you needed. But why do you need all this metal?"
"Because," Gerald said, "your new friend has to have strong bones. Drinking milk won't cut it."
The metal wouldn't be for the skeleton of the creature. The weakest components, from studying the corpse of the failed lifeform, had been the foot structure. If he could keep the being upright, it would be able to walk without a problem. Perhaps even more, giving the natural speed of vampires and weres. With this formula, including the robotic feet, it could perhaps reach supersonic speeds.
Maria's blue eyes were wide. Friend? Her grandfather's experiment was going to be her friend? She had been locked up here ever since she was a little girl. Her mother and father had died. Grandpa Gerald, luckily, had his laboratory not too far from the city. She could still look at it, and imagine going down and being in the streets, not just in his device. She had learned the hard way the dangers of going outside during a rebellious day where, just by sneaking out an open window, she had been seized inwardly and had begun coughing irregularly and her heartbeat began rapidly. Had it not been for her grandfather, she wouldn't have made it. There were no children that stayed in the laboratory like she was. Some scientists brought their children to meet her and talk and play games, but she never had a friend to really talk to.
"You mean it, Grandpa?" she asked, "I'm going to have a friend?"
'Soon, Maria," Gerald promised, hugging his granddaughter. "Soon."
___________________________________________________________________
He knew he was getting closer. The design of the rocketed skates had succesfully replaced the feet of the second and third hybrids he had created. The challenge, though, was finding a demon that hadn't been weakened from the accelerated states or had enough DNA to make half of the serum. He looked over at the clock. It would be midnight soon. 11:30. It was Halloween, and he had sent all of his employees home. He had done a terrible thing early that day, but Maria's convulsions earlier that morning had made him realize he was getting this close to losing her. There was only one demon who could assist. The professor sighed nervously.
On his work table lay salt and black candles. His hands shook as he struck the match. He was doing this for Maria. For Maria. He lit the candles, smelling sandalwood and dried herbs. The candles had been a voodoo item, and he recited a prayer backwards. At first, he thought he had failed. But then, like a camera shutter, one flame blinked. That blink became a massive red and yellow eye with a slit pupil. It was attached to a red and black horned head, with a cloaked body attached.
You stand before Disparion, the lord of demons. Speak your desire.
The professor swallowed his fear. He knelt before the creature, a hand outward. "My lord...I have summoned you for a small request. My granddaughter, Maria, she's dying. If she just goes outside, she'll die. I have to complete a lifeform to provide a cure. All I need is a sample of your blood. Just one drop, and my Maria will be alive.
The demon lord hovered silently. A clawed hand pressed against his own wrinkled black wrist. Gerald grabbed a test tube so as not to spill any of the precious DNA.
Do not be so brash. I have one request. My return to this world had been hindered countless times. My blood will support you, but even in spilling, it will support me. Your creature will bear my mark, sparing you from becoming damned. In so doing, it will let me in on the alotted time with its rage...".
Gerald's brow furrowed. Elotted time? Too many apocalypses had been written. Did he mean the famous 666? No, that time had passed. 2012? Perhaps. Regardless of the return date, there was still time to develop a way to work around this deal. Making contact with Disparion would come with a price, he knew that, but he had not intended his creation to be the end of humanity. He chose to keep this information to himself. He gave a nod, stroking his white beard. The demon made a grim chuckle and nod, and pressed a sharp nail deep. Jet black ooze, almost like pitch, welled into the test tube. The professor took it, and after blwoing out the candles, Disparion was gone.
The professor set the rocket skates into the chamber one last time. He turned the chamber on. The green fluid began to flood the tank. The professor took the red serum of Other DNA, minus the demon this time, and settled the black blood into the set. This time, he didn't bother watching the creation unfold. Now, he had to think of a way to keep Disparion's return from being permanent. The only option he had was using the lifeform against him. He could teach his being of his true purpose, and deny him any conscience of being tied to Disparion by blood. The creature had a heart and brain of humanoid beings, meaning it would be able to think like a human. Human reason and ability to learn would allow it to absorb information quickly. And by hopefully bonding with Maria through friendship, anger and wrath would be an after thought..
Of course. Love. That was what would defeat Disparion, keep him back. The professor would let his creation learn to love.
But keeping a powerful emotion like anger bottled would be dangerous. The lifeform needed to express it, but how so without releasing the dangerous energy built up from demonic power? Perhaps there was a way to keep power in tact. Iron was out of the question. He looked at the design of the two rings he had set into the rocket skates. The rings were made from a metal alloy that held back the most powerful parts of a magic attack with the benefit of being harmless to the wearer. Gerald rushed to recreate the inhibitor rings.
While he was out, the lifeform had finished its development. It slept in the green fluid. The black nose was long. The skin was not pink, but black streaked with red. The quills fanned out like hair, continuing the red and black pattern. A patch of white fur sat below the chin.
____________________________________________________-
Midnight, October 31st, ten years from the present day.
Professor Gerald very carefully slipped the inhibitor rings onto the still sleeping lifeform. He had surgically attached the bionic skates with much success. The red and black lifeform had a more human-hedgehog look, and this was a larger success than his first attempt. He had replaced the scientific useless hands with bionics as well. They would still react to the nerves, but it would move. It was the moment of truth.
He pressed the button.
The green fluid drained. With hissing servos, the containment vessel went upward. A spark of electricity went through. In the glass, the professor saw the creation open its eyes, set into a pernament glare. The eyes were not black or brown. Instead, they were bright red. Red like blood.
"I've done it," the professor murmured, "I have created the ultimate life form." It will give me the secrets to eternal life. It will befriend Maria. He had so much hope for it. "I have completed Project Shadow."
"Shadow?"
The voice didn't belong to him. It belonged to the creature sitting in the test tube, almost patiently waiting to be released. The professor pushed a final button, and the creature walked, not stumbled but walked, to meet him. Judging from the voice and the way it held itself, this was a male. He spoke with eloquence, fitting given the Seelie-Unseelie DNA. He looked at the professor with red eyes, saying, "It's fitting. Is that what I'm called, Professor?"
The professor contemplated this. The name for the project had been chosen because the secrets to immortality were as unknown as a shadow. Yet, after months and months of studying, he had done it. The ultimate lifeform was speaking to him like an old friend would. It had genes capable of curing the deathly ill, could heal rapidly, possessed speed and stregnth along with strong defense. Had the professor been working on a living weapon, he would have succeeded as well. Yet with the rings, the likelihood of it becoming evil would be rare. In a way, this being was like a shadow in a different sense. He seemed eager to use his heart and brain to protect amid the elusive nature.
"Yes. Welcome to your new life, Shadow."