Within a room, that looked more like some media exaggerated image of a conspiracy theorists room, stood a woman. She was tall, standing at just a few inches short of six feet, and she was beautiful, not in a hot way that most people thought of beauty, but in a classical elegant way. She had long auburn hair that cascaded down her back in curled tresses, even being dressed in a tank top and sweats, unquestionably casual attire, could detract nothing from her elegance and beauty. She was a Princess, a rarity certainly, even rarer would be that in the Country she is from, she actually holds some amount of power.
Things would have been very different had she not met him, 8 years ago, things would have been very different indeed. It happened at a ball, well the equivalent of one, she was young at the time, and she had only just turned 20. She had been standing idly in a corner, gazing at all the lavishly dressed fools gallivanting about like peacocks. Though she was a Princess, the only one in fact, she had tried to distance herself as much as she could from matters at Court. The whirring of a helicopter overtook the sounds of revelry, and a silence emerged.
Though many guests had arrived in a similar manner, none of them were so disrespectful as to arrive so unfashionably late. When the chopper became closer, the crowd became froze with fear, as missiles left the chopper and cleanly destroyed the nearest guard outpost to the event. Soon enough other choppers emerged and dozens of armed assailants sprang from them. The remaining guards put up a valiant effort but it was no use, though they were well armed and well trained, their opponents were more so.
Even worse, they were Juicers, the street term for those who gained powers from repeated use of a certain serum. Not every serum was the same, most low level street varieties lasted a short time and many were mixed with addictive drugs. What they did, was temporarily awakened the powers of the Super Gene, and could permanently awaken them in some rare cases, though most Juicers powers were tied to the Serum, so they would be relatively useless without it.
The intruders made short work of guards, though a few broke off from the main bunch to loot the partygoers, the vast majority were following a largely built imposing man. They were going from person to person, pushing most aside, but killing a select few. As they came closer and closer, the Princess realized what they were doing, though it seemed relatively random, they were weeding out those in line for succession of the Throne, even as far down as the 56th in line.
As that unfortunate man fell to the ground, blood leaking from his crushed form, they approached her vicinity. They did not even need to observe or check her, to see who she was; her appearance was rather well known. She had not hidden, mostly due to being frozen with fear; she was still in the corner of the room, where she had been for most of the ball. The apparent leader was largely built, extremely so, not even the bulky armor everyone wore could disguise that fact.
He like most of his men had a set of vials strapped to their waists in protective casings first designed back in WW2 when Serums were first invented. As the leader approached her the others with him broke off and started to round up everyone. Soon enough the only individuals standing were the intruders and the Princess. The larger man gazed at her for a time, ad appraised her, soon enough he opened his mouth and spoke.
“Dear Princess, I have been wanting to meet you for quite some time. My name is Victor Armstrong, and unfortunately I am going to have to be the one to end your life today. Do not get me wrong, I was once an avid supporter of yours, unfortunately, your lack of enthusiasm and involvement concerning affairs of Court, have led to this Purging. Do not appear so disheartened and guilty, this would have happened regardless. Unfortunately it is time.”
As the man finished speaking he gave a somewhat sad sounding sigh before he backed up. The Princess looked on in fear as the man raised a palm towards her before clenching it. She cried out in pain and terror as she felt herself be lifted off of her feet and a force started pressing against her body. It was then that something truly strange happened, a fog rolled in. It was readily apparent that is was no natural fog however, simply by its color alone. The fog was darkness, not just an inky blackness, but an actual darkness that flowed over and clung to all it touched.
The intruders nearest to it pivoted and fired on it, with their firearms and their powers, none risked moving into it or within melee distance. A near silence emerged as the men with weapons started reloading; it was then that the fog exploded into action. It flowed over those that had tried attacking it, more gunfire could be heard, but that was silenced soon enough. As the fog flowed forward the unconscious bodies and dismantled weapons of the intruders were revealed as the fog of darkness released them.
The leader of the group turned around, but not before using his power to toss the Princess at a wall. As her form impacted against the wall, she crumpled and fell, semi-conscious to the floor, the leader watched this before turning around to get a bearing on the situation.
“Damnit.” He exclaimed “It’s Shade the fuck somehow tracked us down, EVERYONE ATTACK, JEFFREYS, GET THE SUPPRESSORS IN PLACE.”
After yelling orders to his men, he faced the mass of fog, no, Shade. He raised an arm towards it, and used his power, as he did Shade and the fog moved forward. Several holes and gaps appeared in the writhing mass of fog, as a result of Armstrong’s power. Inside the fog, a dark figure literally oozing darkness was fighting skillfully with the poor souls his fog drew in. The fog would billow out from his form to fill the holes made by Armstrong.
As the figure fought and disabled most of the attackers, it bought time for the second in command, Jeffreys, to set up their trump card for dealing with other superhumans. Suppressors were the closest thing to a nullifier that existed, true nullifiers were impossible, and any facsimiles were faulty at best. The minute the suppressors were activated, the mass of fog started to be compressed. Soon enough, the figured that could be glimpsed inside the fog was revealed. Shade was tall, over six feet at least, but not taller than Armstrong, he was nowhere near as muscular, but still had a toned build, from what could be seen. Shade turned towards the leader, who was in front of the remaining intruders and spoke.
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“Hello Armstrong, surprise seeing you here.” He gave a chuckle before continuing. “Ok, that was a lie, we both know why I am here. You made a mistake robbing the Merchant, you might have gotten away with this whole foolish endeavor, but I owed them a favor. Anyways, let just get this over with.”
Following his words, Shade exploded into motion, though his powers were lessened by the Suppresors, they were still present. He took out Jeffreys and his team, not bothering to mess with the Suppressors they had set up not long ago. Even without the use of his fog, he made relatively short work of most of those present. Soon enough every combatant except for Armstrong and Shade, was either dead, unconscious, lying broken on the ground, or incapacitated in some way.
Shade was breathing evenly, while Armstrong, though unharmed, was in a much less composed state. He was seething with rage and incredulity, though he like most that were a part of the Superhuman world had heard rumors of Shade. It was said that when he was young, someone had captured him when he first started out as a Villain. That man subsequently vanished, as did the organization behind him. Shade came back after that, changed, he was more powerful than he had been, and swiftly established himself in the super-powered community as a villain everyone wanted to hire.
With a bellow Armstrong launched himself at the smaller darkness clad man. The already impressive punches and kicks exhibited by is physique was being further enhanced by the use of his power. He sent a flurry of jabs and kicks at Shade, which the other man dodged with ease. Though he was stronger and more powerful physically, Shade was even more so. He dodged most moves, and those that hit her parried with a skill beyond the years of most people who have not trained for a lifetime.
They went about fighting for a relatively long period of time, the moves of Shade that connected, were absorbed by Armstrong’s power. The stalemate ended when Armstrong delivered a particularly devastating right hook. Had it connected it was possible that the fight could have ended for Shade, it didn’t however, so the fight went the other way. Shade did a swift roll backwards, the absence of Shade caused the momentum to carry Armstrong forward, into Shade as he rose from his roll. He grabbed Armstrong’s arm and rolled back, in a motion similar to a throw or jackknife maneuver.
Shade didn’t let go however, instead most of his body, twisted and flowed, in a way a human shouldn’t be able to. Only Shade’s arms remained solid, the rest of him flowed and moved until his form solidified and Armstrong’s arm was pinned behind his back and wrenched upwards. Usually such a casually done move would only cause pain in its recipient, here however, an audible crack could be heard and those present all winced. Shade gave a forceful push, causing Armstrong to stumble forward, the arm dangling lifelessly at his side.
Before Armstrong could react Shade gave a leg sweep knocking the large man to the ground. A cheer from the crowd resounded, with a few of the bolder ones retrieving their personal effects from the fallen intruders. During all this, Shade approached the fallen Princess, his footsteps calm and even. She jolted into a more conscious state as a voice emerged. It was pleasant and soothing, though still deep and gravelly as it was when Shade had spoken earlier.
“Hey Princess, ah, you are still conscious? Surprising. I am about to heal you, you are probably about to experience a pain greater than any you have ever felt, but you will live, so please, bear with it if you can.”
Moments after his words faded, tendrils of darkness impacted against her. They wrapped her in a cocoon of fluid darkness, always moving, though that was difficult to see. At first she felt nothing; any noise made was smothered by the void she was in. She could not move, nor speak, even if she wished to, but she didn’t, she was too preoccupied with the pain she was experiencing. It wasn’t just a pain of the body, no; it was a mind and soul searing pain that eclipsed everything else.
She could feel things one does not normally feel, she could feel her individual cells pop, burst, scatter, then reform. This could be felt throughout her body, things bursting, and then reforming, from her cells to the constructs they formed. Her skin peeled and blistered, before healing and reforming, leaving behind a smoother pristine skin than had been there previously. As her body was repaired, a soothing warmth was left behind.
Her body was not just repaired, made whole, it was made better. Her muscles became capable of greater strength, tendons and joints gained greater flexibility. Similar changes were occurring throughout her body, Shade’s ‘healing’ was not healing, in the truest sense. What it did, was returned things to the state they should have been in if they were not sullied by impurities. Though she would not be a superhuman, when this was over she would be better than most non Superhumans could ever hope to be, and her build would stay the same, just improved.
Soon enough she returned to consciousness, this was highlighted by the signals her body was getting as the cocoon surrounding her melted away. Her reborn body was more sensitive, and what normally would only be unpleasant was rather painful. As she came to terms with the changes somewhat, and the stimulus lessened, she heard the same calming voice.
“You’re welcome Princess. Do not think of me as a hero, I was here due to less than virtuous intentions. You should be okay, be careful though, the healing process had some effects that you might have some trouble coming to terms with.”
As more friendly personnel and choppers could be heard arriving, her savior, Shade left in a flash of black, his remaining fog dissipating slowly. The authorities and their assistants checked over the remaining guests, the Princess included. After they finished checking her out, the Princess gazed off into the horizon. Though most people would think she was in shock, the truth was she was planning. She would find her savior, she would meet him again, no matter what it took. She had access to the resources of an entire country after all, she just had not used them at all up to that point.
As the Princess broke out of her reminiscence she gazed at the map in front of her, and circled a City, the City of Cross Timber, on the shores of Lake Eyrie. She broke out into a pleased grin and spoke to herself. “I have found you, my Shade, soon enough we will meet properly.”