SHADOW CHRONICLES:  “SHADOW Beyond”

 

 

            Shadow was sitting by the lake in the “out of space/out of time” dimension where she stayed and spent her time between training with her teachers and training sessions the Guardian of the Crossroads took her on.  She had just finished off her third six-pack of the day.  However, unlike her pattern before now, she just kept on drowning out her misery, rather than get drunk the first day back and then continue to train in her refurnished gravity room/gym mastering whatever skills that she just learned from her friends and teachers.

            Sighing, Shadow lay there in the drunken misery that she had been in for the entire past day.  When she had returned from her last training session, escorted by the Guardian no less.  When she had first discovered the drink, she was more than pleased with the side effects that drunken stupors provided in distracting her from the pain of being alone.  Always alone.

            As the years past and when the point always, inevitably, came that she had to move on from her teachers, who after the time spent with them became more than just her teachers, they became her friends.  And weren’t people supposed to have friends?  Wasn’t that the point of even living?

            It was at times like these that she remembered that it had been her choice and at her insistence that she now walked the lonely and treacherous road of the Universal Savior.  No, she could have gone down the path of the Warrior, but no, she chose the Universal Savior.

            Shadow’s time in her home between worlds, and training, was often indiscriminate, sometimes a day or two depending on how difficult the last teacher was, and at least one time before now where she had been left here for a whole three weeks.  It had been little more than three days since the Guardian had brought her back here, away from friends that she had earned in their personal battles.  And as it would happen, on the third day, the Guardian showed back up.

            “Hello Guardian,” Shadow whispered to the figure that had appeared out of nowhere behind her.  She was currently just sitting by her lake, waiting for the person who had just arrived.

            “Hello Shadow,” the Guardian of the Crossroads greeted.  “I see that you’ve come to expect me, or at the best sense my presence when I come to gather you for another teacher.”

            Shadow smirked, the best, under the circumstances and her mood, that she could offer in the way of a smile.  She stood and shook her head as she turned to face the Guardian.  “Neither.  I saw your reflection in the lake as you appeared behind me.”

            The beautiful Guardian smiled and laughed merrily at the joke.  “Perhaps this teacher might not have so much to teach you, as show you how to use what you’ve already got.” She commented as Shadow walked behind her to prepare whatever she might need.

            “What is that supposed to mean?” Shadow asked as she disappeared inside of her “home”.

            “You next teacher already has a student, but it is because of this that you will go to him when you will.  It is a few years farther into the future than you’ve been used to visiting, and the technology level is only slightly more advanced.  Also, he lives and resides within a city, called ‘Gotham’.  His name is Bruce Wayne.  He will teach you about and how to be a detective.” The Guardian explained as Shadow prepared.

            Walking back out, dressed in a black jumpsuit that she had received from her Top Gun instructor, AKA Maverick, Shadow asked, her expression briefly confused.  “Why do I need to learn to be a…‘detective’?” she asked.  The Guardian smiled at her choice of outfit.  Yes, she would fit in very nicely at the Wayne Manor.

            “Well, in order to fight the evil of the universe and to be it’s Savior, you must first learn how to find the evil.  This man, when he was younger, was the greatest detective of the human race.  Even greater than the mythical Sherlock Holmes.  You will meet him later in his life, because age has only increased his wisdom and because of his latest student, increased his patience.” The Guardian explained.

            Shadow nodded, understanding.  “What will I need?” she asked.

            “Not much,” the Guardian answered.  “Mr. Wayne, or Bruce as he may or may not insist that you call him, will provide all that you need.  In addition to being the world’s greatest detective, he is also the owner of a multi-national conglomerate corporation, “Wayne/Powers Industries”.  Making him one of the richest men as well.  Do you have any more questions?”

            “How shall I approach him?” Shadow asked after a minute of consideration.  “Each teacher I have had has required a different approach.  Do I just walk up to his doorstep and ask him if he’ll take me as his student, or must I take a more roundabout fashion of contacting Mr. Wayne?”

            The Guardian carefully considered the problem.  Finally she answered, “I will leave you in a position to contact his current student.  You won’t miss him.  He goes under the guise of a masked vigilante, Batman.  Bruce, in his prime also went under the guise, so Terry McGinnis, his student, also took the name.  It may help if you help him.  Could get him on your side.”

            “What do you…?” Shadow was cut off as she realized that she had already left the Shadow Zone, and the Guardian of the Crossroads was nowhere to be seen.

            Currently, she was standing on the roof of, looking over the edge, a very tall skyscraper.  Looking about, Shadow saw that she was actually standing on the top of what, in this city anyway, could be considered one of the shortest buildings.  There were also numerous flying vehicles flitting about the sky like so many insects.  Flying vehicles were certainly not unfamiliar to Shadow, since the first world after coming back to life she was on was the world where the Z fighters resided.  Thanks mostly in part to the Capsule Corporation on that world, flying cars and air travel were extremely easy to come across.  But never before had Shadow seen so many crammed into such a small air space as this.

            “Amazing they don’t all crash into each other and the surrounding buildings,” Shadow commented to herself as she watched an interesting pair of hover-vehicles.

            Suddenly, the building she was standing on was rocked by the sound of an explosion.  Running to the edge, Shadow gazed down the side from where all she could see was a smoking hole in the structure.  Quirking an eyebrow, Shadow figured that she had better investigate, if only to make sure that nothing was worse was going to happen where it might endanger innocent lives.

            Taking to the air, Shadow made sure to shroud her ki and stuck to the dark areas as she floated down to the smoldering hole in the building.  As she stepped inside, she was surprised to hear so much noise.  Only part of it was conversation though, not to mention even possibly being made by humans.  Some sounds, like falling debris, metal grinding, and an engine running were familiar to her.  Others, such as an unexplainable high-pitched whine, she couldn’t identify.

            There was also a great deal of dust hanging in the air, left over from the explosion no doubt, but Shadow could still distinctly identify at least thirteen other bodies in the room with her.

            Finally deciding to make her presence known, Shadow stepped out of the dark place she was standing in, to the middle of the room where anybody who so chose could see her.  Once the dust had settled enough, it took another minute and a half before anybody noticed her.  She finally got their attention by coughing slightly.

            So startled were the intruders that they turned and held her at gunpoint.  Though a style of the weapon she had never before seen.  That wasn’t saying much though.  Ten of the intruders were oddly dressed and mismatched, some wearing a bizarre combination of make-up on their faces, while others wore masks.  They all however bore garments that could be classified as nothing but silly in Shadow’s book.

            The other three however were a stark contradiction to the others though.  One, a woman, a very large woman, the largest that Shadow had ever seen, (though remarkably similar in size to the Ox King, Chi Chi’s father).  Then a man equal in height to the large woman, but decidedly less in mass.  He had a crop of red hair directly on top of his head, the sides shaven, and was wearing blue overalls and a white dress shirt.  The third was less than half the height of the other two, and shorter even than the other ten people in the room, and wore red coveralls, a red hat that barely held in check a mane of black hair, and large glass goggles that obscured the image of his eyes.  He was also bent over from having a large tank on his back, to which he held a hose that connected to it.

            “Who are you?” the large woman, who was dressed in a frilly pink dress, asked in a Southern accent if Shadow guessed correctly.

            Shadow decided now was a time for truth and tact rather than being shady about anything.  “My name is Shadow.  I noticed the explosion from the roof.  I was wondering if everything was alright, or if there were any injured that needed to be taken to the hospital.  I see that that may not be the case.”

            At her bold statement, the rest of the room started to snicker, eventually developing into wholehearted laughter.  Shadow scowled some.  She did not like being laughed at.  Especially by criminals.  “Now it is my turn to ask a question,” she said above the laughter and noise of the room.  They quieted, but more an annoyed silence rather than one of respect.  “Who are all of you and what is your business here?”

            The criminals, as she had no doubt now of what they were, burst out into laughter again.

            Shadow struggled briefly to control and maintain her temper.  She did not like being laughed at.  Especially by creatures that were so far beneath her in strength and wisdom that she could be considered an honest to heaven angel in comparison.

            Finally, the criminal element in the room gathered their composure and stopped laughing.  The large pink-dressed lady stepped forward some and answered Shadow’s question.  “You know, dearie, I really don’t think that is any of your business.  In fact, we should be the ones asking the question of what you’re doing here, and how you got in!”

            Shadow shifted her gaze over to the strange weapons the clown-faces were carrying.  The big lady saw what she was looking at and crossed her arms.  Shadow just arched an eyebrow and mimicked the gesture.  Finally, one of the clowns couldn’t stand the wait any longer and shouted out, “Aw forget this bitch lady!  I’m gonna smoke her ass!”  Then he brought up his strange weapon, aimed it straight at Shadow, and activated it.

            Shadow was ready the moment the clown-face moved his weapon.  When it flashed briefly before emitting a long beam of orange/red energy, Shadow had already jumped and was moving at Divine Speed along the path of the beam to it’s source.  When she reached the criminal, she didn’t even hesitate to deck him solidly across the right of his jaw.  Just enough to knock him into unconsciousness and disable his weapon, but not enough to kill him.

            The beam stopped firing less than a single second after it had started, and standing in the place of the Joker, who had fired it, was the mysterious black-cloaked woman.  The offending gang member was currently slumped against the bottom of the far wall, just to the right of the hole they had blasted into the side of the building.  All of the Jokerz in the room, along with the large red haired giant were left blinking their eyes in disbelief and a few felt the need to voice comments such as, “What the…?!”  “How’d she…?” “NO way man!”

            The mousy creep in the overalls and goggles was just staring interestingly at her, absentmindedly point his strange weapon at her as well.  The large pink lady was just staring in an unimpressed fashion and looked genuinely “ticked” at Shadow for her efforts to defend herself.  It was proven in the next second that Shadow and the large woman would not be friends as the latter ordered, “Kill her.”

            None, still standing, in the room hesitated bringing forth their guns and firing off hundreds of rounds in attempts to kill Shadow.  Moving at the highest Divine Speed Shadow could move without translating into Supreme Divine Speed, the darkly dressed woman dodged around their attempts almost enjoying the workout.  She tried to make sure that they did not hit one another, nor could any ricochets bounce off and kill somebody accidentally.

            Getting bored, as the criminals seemed to be falling into a pattern of trying to shoot her and it, in her humble opinion, was getting too easy to keep dodging, Shadow started knocking them all out one by one.  Until only the red-haired giant and the mousy man and the large pink lady were the only ones left shooting at her.  Just as the large woman was about to repeat her order no doubt, Shadow, smirking, powered up, her red ki lighting up the room.  With little more communication than that, Shadow attacked.

 

15 seconds later…

            Terry McGinnis, aka the new Batman, was flying as fast as the Batmobile allowed him to where Bruce Wayne, aka the old Batman, had heard of a robbery in progress.  He let the hover arsenal car in park above the building and dropped down out of the bottom hatch, extending his red flight wings as he lowered himself to the still smoking hole in the side of the Thirtieth National Bank of Gotham building.

            Dropping down through the blasted hole, Terry was ready for anything.  Guns firing at him the second he landed, shouts, Jokerz or whatever type henchmen were there to rush him and try to tackle of beat him, anything.  Except for what he actually saw.

            “What the…” were the first words out of his mouth as he stared at the chaos before him.  Ma Mayhem, her two sons, and somewhere between twelve and twenty Jokerz were all unconscious and tied together, judging from the striped gun casings on the floor, with the wiring from their own guns.

            For the first few seconds, all Batman could do was stare in amazement and disbelief.  “Are you getting this?” he hoarsely whispered to the air, speaking to Bruce Wayne, who was monitoring from the suit’s vid-link back at the Batcave.

            Seeing the transmitted images before him on the computer screen, Bruce replied back over the link, “Yes.  Keep on your guard.  Whoever was there ahead of you might still be around and probably won’t like the competition.” The old man warned.

            “Right,” Batman replied unnecessarily, nodding his head slightly.  He scanned the room, but it was soon proved moot as the next movement in the room was a shadow moving forward to greet him.

            Dropping automatically into a defensive position, Batman shot out the question without having to think of it, “Who are you?”  The shadow stopped moving briefly, before coming into the light, revealing a rather attractive young woman, about Terry’s height, with shoulder length black hair, dressed all in black.

            “My name is Shadow,” she answered in a calm voice, with traces of an accent that Terry didn’t know.

            Keeping his guard up, but lowering his posture in a non-threatening way, Batman stepped forward some.  “Shadow?  Appropriate.  What are you doing here?  I take it that you are the one that did this?” He gestured to the incapacitated villains.  Shadow nodded silently, staring at him, studying him he realized.

            “Why?” he then asked, wanting to know her reasons, to see if she was a threat herself.

            Shadow shrugged and answered without hesitation, “They blew a hole in the side of this building.  I asked them what they were doing here and if anyone were hurt, in the case that it was an accident and anyone would need transportation to a hospital.  When they started shooting at me, I was convinced that they were criminals.  So I incapacitated them.”

            Batman blinked.  “Uh…ok.  You do this often…Shadow?”

            Shadow blinked back.  Then shook her head.  “No.  I spend most of my time training.  You are Batman, correct?”  The black-cowled figure nodded the affirmative.  Shadow stepped a bit closer and whispered so that only Terry (and Bruce) would hear, “Your name is also Terry McGinnis, yes?”

            Bruce froze at the consul.  Never had anybody figured out who he was by the first time he met them.  Whoever this “Shadow” was must have been investigating him thoroughly, and following Terry, or at the very least knew Terry to know his true identity.  Bruce was just about to shout out to his protégé to get out of there as fast as possible, but the next question froze him once again.

            “Bruce Wayne, the first Batman, is your teacher?  I would like you to take me to him.” Shadow said.

            Too stunned to speak for a few seconds, Batman finally gained enough common sense and balance to reply, “Why should I do that?” in a harsh tone.  Yet Shadow was undeterred.  “Because I wish to ask him to train me, as he is training you.  He is the world’s greatest detective, I need him to train me to be also.”

            Batman just stared at her, his thoughts, for the moment, his own.  Bruce Wayne also stared at her with a similar expression through the vid-link.  They both were thinking the same thing, though they’d never admit it to each other.  ‘Is this some kind of trick?’

            Finally Bruce came to a very dangerous decision.  Activating the speaker on the suit so that this “Shadow” could hear him as well.  “How do you know that name?” he asked.

            Shadow was surprised; though she didn’t show it that easily, to be hearing a voice other than the one she had spoke to come from the dark figure standing before her.  Terry just stood there, equally surprised, but for different reasons.  Shadow answered the voice with as much neutrality as she could produce.

            “I was told by the Guardian of the Crossroads that he is the greatest detective on Earth.  I am traveling the path of the Universal Saviour and I was brought here so that Bruce Wayne, once called Batman, could train me to seek the evil that I am to fight and destroy.  To quote her, ‘in order to fight the evil of the universe and to be it’s Savior, you must first learn how to find the evil.’  She also mentioned something about him not really teaching me anything as showing me how to use what I’ve already got?”

            The obvious confusion in Shadow’s voice was too much for Terry and he couldn’t hold in his chuckles.  Both ignored him as Bruce asked his next question through the link, “So you don’t know anything about the Wayne-Powers Company or Bruce Wayne’s prestige and overall value?”

            The confusion increased on Shadow’s face, as she asked, “No.  But why should I care about that?  He is to teach me to be a detective.  And I have no use of money.  Usually anyway.  Unfortunately, it is most often the rest of the world that requires money.  I however am more than willing to procure a job to support myself during the training.”

            They were suddenly interrupted by the sound of sirens nearby.  “Look we can talk about this later.  Right now, let’s get out of here so the police don’t arrest us along with the bad guys there,” Terry urged.

            Shadow nodded and followed him to the hole.  When Batman turned and gave her a look, she couldn’t help saying, “What?”  “How’d you get in here anyway?” he asked.  Shadow shrugged as she answered, “I was already on the roof.  It was simple to jump down into the hole after they blasted it into the building.”  “Oh”

            Extending his wings and activating his rockets, Batman launched out of the hole and hovered just above the roof, waiting to see what Shadow would do.  Giving him a funny look, and shrugging herself, Shadow jumped up into the air, and flew up next to him!  “How…?” Terry started.  “Your flying,” Shadow pointed out.  “Are we supposed to be going somewhere?”

            “Uh, yeah,” Batman flew the rest of the way up to the Batmobile.  Shadow chose to remain outside.

            When she tapped on the window, Batman started a little.  He opened the canopy and she gave him a serious stare and asked, “Is it safe to assume that I may follow you?”

            Bruce disabled the speakers and contacted Terry privately through the link, “Go to some place neutral.  We’ll continue this conversation elsewhere.  I hope you don’t mind playing the middle man for a while longer,” Bruce added with a slight touch of humor.

            Batman closed the canopy, after a quick nod to Shadow, before answering.  “I’ve never minded before.”

 

Two miles down the coast from Wayne Manor:

 

            In an isolated clearing, next to a cliff where the Batmobile was parked, Batman and Shadow stood in the middle of said clearing, apparently waiting for something.  Bored with the silence, Batman turned to Shadow and asked the one question on his mind.

            “How did you do that?”

            “Do what?” Shadow asked, confused about what he was referring to.

            “Fly,” he answered.  “Are you some kind of alien or super being?”

            Shadow shook her head.  “I am human.  Apparently, a great deal of time ago, I died.  But I escaped the Guardian of the Ghost Roads somehow.  She is the one responsible for making sure that souls go where they are meant to.  I found myself on the Crossroads.  There I met the Guardian of the Crossroads.  She told me that I had to choose which road to travel, which path to follow.  I had no memory of who I had been when I was alive, a shadow of myself as it were.  So I chose the name Shadow.  The Guardian said since I had no memory of who I was, that I must have been dead a long time.  Perhaps thousands of years.  I let the Guardian take me through the many levels of the Crossroads, and only two felt like anything I would wish to spend eternity doing.  The first, the path of the Warrior.  And then the one that I am on, the Path of the Universal Saviour.”

            “An interesting story,” a dark voice spoke from the night.  “If it were at all believable.  I commend you for your imagination and deduction skills however.  Now what’s your real name and how did you find out about Batman and Bruce Wayne?”

            Shadow turned and looked directly at a dark portion of the forest.  “I already told you.  The Guardian of the Crossroads brought me here for you to teach me to be a detective Mr. Wayne.  I assume that you are Mr. Wayne?” Shadow spoke intimidatingly.  A feeble looking white-haired man stepped out of the darkness, as though he had actually been apart of the shadows.  His intimidating glare made Terry want to run and cower.  Shadow just stood her ground and glared back, insulted that he would accuse her of lying about her life.  “And my name, as far as I can remember, is Shadow.  Do not insult me by accusing me of lying…Mr. Wayne.”

            “I never said you were lying,” Wayne corrected.  Shadow relaxed one hair.  “I said you were delusional.  Give me five good reasons to even continue this conversation, and one of them had better be how you found out, and from where, about Batman.”

            Shadow squinted her eyes in anger.

            “If you’re too old to hear my words than perhaps I should speak louder.  Or do your batteries need to be changed?” Shadow growled out.  Both old warriors heard Terry mutter, “Uh oh” but ignored it, favoring the staring match between the two of them for the moment.

            “What was that?” Bruce growled back with twice as much venom.

            “I said…” Shadow was about to insult.  She was interrupted by what Terry had said “Uh oh” over.

            “Enough Shadow!” the Guardian of the Crossroads shouted, stepping between the two.  Shadow immediately stepped back and held her tongue, her anger disappearing as quickly as the Guardian’s appearance.

            “Who the hell are you?” Wayne snapped out.

            The Guardian smiled gently and took a step or two in Bruce’s direction, but came no closer.  “Hell has very little to do with this Mister Wayne, I can assure you of that.” she corrected in a lyrical voice.  “I am the Guardian of the Crossroads.  I am the guide for this soul, Shadow, on her path of the Universal Saviour, as she has claimed.  And you, Bruce Wayne, are shareholder of the nearly corrupt of Wayne-Powers Industries.  You were, once upon a time, the Batman.  A member of the Justice League, and hero to many, and enemy of criminals everywhere.  Before then, you traveled your own path of a saviour, traveling all over the world, learning, training, doing everything that your fortune could grant you, to avenge your parent’s murder, at the hands of Jack Napier, who later, after you accidentally let him drop into a vat of acid, became the insanity called the Joker.  He then did something truly terrible.  Thankfully you were not the one that killed him.”

            The Guardian’s words were having a visible effect on the elderly man, and because they were obviously very disturbing, Shadow did not comment, remaining safely silent.  Terry, knowing most of the story, also remained silent, but ready in case this strange, beautiful, glowing and floating lady tried anything.  The Guardian was aware of this, but chose to ignore it, focusing her attention on Bruce Wayne for the moment.

            “How do you know this?” trembled the elderly man’s voice.  Shadow thought he looked ready to collapse.  The Guardian merely stayed where she was and quietly answered the hero’s question.  “For those of us on a higher plane, one can find out many things, if you know where to look for them.”

            At this answer, Bruce seemed to gain strength as he stood straight and walked straight past the Guardian to inspect Shadow.  “And tell me why I must train this girl.  It would appear that she has skills of her own.  Why, in your humble opinion, Guardian, do I even need to train her?” Bruce asked, stressing the words.

            The Guardian turned so that she too was facing Shadow and answered the Batman’s questions.  “Yes, it is true that Shadow has many skills.  And she might not need your help in learning to fight or be a super hero, but in developing and learning how to use her skills, most in particular her skills of deduction and logic, she needs much guidance.  As I have already said, Shadow’s skills are impressive and numerous, but if she didn’t need help from the very best, then she would not be here.”

            Terry chuckled from where he was standing, drawing all attention to him.  Rather than let it intimidate him, he chose to joke about it.  “Sounds like their trying to get on your good side Bruce.  Should I tell them, or should you, that you don’t have a good side.”

            Shadow and the Guardian bore an identical expression of estranged, humorous confusion, while Bruce’s was safely, and intimidatingly neutral.  “It took me stealing the suit and begging for your help before you agreed to train me,” Terry pointed out.  A trace of a grin appeared on Wayne’s face as he remembered the events of two years previous.  “True,” he admitted through his slight grin.

            Shadow decided to add something to the argument herself by saying, “Mr. Wayne.  In my own defense, I would like to point out that I do not lie, and unlike other students, I hold great respect for all of my teachers.  So if it is your wish for me to leave, then I’m sure that the Guardian can take me elsewhere.  Possibly where this, what was it?  Mythical Sherlock Holmes?  Where he could train me instead.”

            At Wayne’s resulting chuckle, the Guardian glared hard at him, and then tweaked her eyebrow, almost as though saying “Well?  What about it?”  He stopped chuckling when he realized that maybe, just maybe, Sherlock Holmes was real.  Well, damned if he would let a character of fiction outdo him.

            Smothering the grin beneath an air of superiority and ferocity, Bruce turned to Shadow and said two words that sent chills up even the Guardian of the Crossroads spine.  “We’ll see.  We’ll see.”

 

            One week later saw Shadow living, discreetly, at the Wayne Manor and more or less helping Terry with his “assistant” responsibilities.  Since Bruce Wayne had lived alone since his friend and butler Alfred had died, and the only people he ever had over were Terry and his dog Ace, Shadow was allowed to remain there without fear of reprisal from the media or the need to go into hiding.

            Though Shadow did not want to intrude on Bruce’s privacy or leech off of him like she knew many would, and she was more than willing to find employment to rent her own private apartment, Bruce beat her down with logic, saying that if she did that, then she’d have to come over anyway for training, and at some point she might be followed and the whole media circus following such at thing…  Shadow agreed to stay at Wayne Manor.

            However, Shadow could be just as stubborn and logical as Bruce, which she proved very true when she claimed that she would “take over” Alfred’s former duties to more or less pay for Bruce’s hospitality.  So the first week was spent in getting Shadow settled in, and then feeling her out.  To see what aspects of her knowledge and powers of deduction Bruce needed her to focus on.  Then, after the rather loud argument over Shadow being Bruce’s new live-in maid, the rest of the week was spent in Shadow learning her new duties in maintaining the Wayne Manor.

            After that first week, things seemed to fall into a pleasant, enough, routine for Shadow.  She would wake up around 5 AM, dress and shower and prepare herself for the day within 20 minutes.  Then she would go through the large house, quickly determining her chores for the day.  Most often all she had to do was dust or clean some room or mess that had been left by either Terry, Bruce, or Ace.  Most often she could finish her chores within one to two hours of waking.  After that she would go out to the back yard and begin her daily training, doing katas, strength training, endurance exercises, and practicing her less than flashy ki techniques.  She still had yet to master the infamous Direct Flow techniques.

            After training, Bruce would often wake up around 10 o’clock, or at least that was when he let her know that he was awake, and she would prepare breakfast for the three of them; Shadow, Bruce, and Ace.  After that, Bruce would take her down to the Batcave and put her through what she always called a “rigorous” workout.  Terry called it the calisthenics of hell.

            While Terry was in school, and when Mr. Wayne didn’t have any appointments in Gotham, Shadow spent the remainder of the day in the Batcave absorbing the information on Bruce’s computer about all of the criminals he and Terry had helped to capture, and all of the case files that “Batman” had ever been involved with.  Shadow, despite seeing all that she has seen in her life to this point, was amazed at many of the things she read in these files.

            Yet when she came to the files on the insane sociopath dubbed the “Joker”, she was surprised to find them to be heavily encrypted.  She thought of pointing it out to Bruce, or even Terry, but when she saw the preliminary files on the “insanity” as the Guardian had called him, she understood that it would be best to leave it be for the time being.

            Other than the former Jack made Joker, Batman seemed to encounter only one other as often as that dreaded nemesis.  An immortal calling himself Raisch A’Gul.  A man who had seemingly found the secret to eternal youth, and was just as intelligent as Bruce Wayne, as was proved each time that they faced off against one another.  Shadow couldn’t stop the smile coming to her face when she read the last entry on what had happened to Raisch.

            After studying the case files, Shadow would then often help Terry patrol the city, taking one half while he took the other, both connected to Bruce back at the Batcave.  It did not often happen that Shadow would need assistance or need to call in Terry to come and help her.  In fact it was more often than not the other way around, Terry needing Shadow’s help in dealing with a larger than normal problem.  Shadow, sticking true to her name, struck as such in these circumstances.  In order to maintain Batman’s secret identity, not to mention the urban legend, Shadow’s assistance could never be learned of by the criminal element, and when she was forced to intervene, she stayed in the darkness and masked her voice and claimed to be Batman.  Despite the man aspect, she was telling the truth as she was continuing the legend and the responsibility of being Batman.

            Then, one night, things changed.

 

Six Weeks After Shadow arrived, US Army base outside of Gotham:

 

            “Can ya believe how slow it is?” John Peters asked his partner as he watched the security monitors he was assigned and paid to watch.  From 5 pm to 7 am.

            Bernard Tanner turned and gave John an incredulous look that said “Are you crazy?”  He followed it up with a statement of fact, “In case you hadn’t noticed, John its always this ‘slow’.  We watch nuclear missile silo complex on an army base that is less than ten miles outside of the most crime-infested city on the planet, which is supposedly protected by the mythical vigilante Batman.  John, if we ever actually anything more than ‘slow’ as you put it, you’d be wetting your pants and crying like a baby.”

            John just snorted and leaned back in his chair, keeping his eyes on the monitors.

            Yet just five seconds after Bernard had finished his lecture, John noticed something that made him think his partner might actually be right.  On the monitor watching the north quadrant corner fence, a sight that John couldn’t have believed in a lifetime unless he had seen it himself was being transmitted from the north gate.  A glowing skeleton was walking up to the fence and when he got to it, he just touched it and it melted in his hands until it was little else but liquid on the ground.

            Too stunned to react at first, John finally snapped out of his trance and hit the base alert button and activated the security intercom.  “Alert!  Alert!” he shouted into the mike.  “We have an intruder at the North quadrant gate.  It has breached outer security fence and is to be considered extremely dangerous, treat with extreme prejudice!”

            “What the hell!” Bernard shouted at his partner.  Then he saw the abomination on the monitors heading for the primary bunker, where the warheads were kept.  “Fucking shit!” he cursed before he picked up the phone that connected him to the primary base commander.

            “Sir, we have a situation…” he spoke into the phone.

 

Downtown Gotham

 

            Shadow was watching a group of teenage friends play a game of night basketball on a public court.  She sometimes wondered what it would be like to have friends that you could just go and play basketball on a whim.  She watched the game with a half-interest, keeping more an eye out for the criminal element, but still the game held minor attraction for her.  To have friends like that…

            Shadow was interrupted from her musings by Bruce’s voice in her earpiece.  “Shadow, are you there?” he asked over the link.  She shook herself, making sure that no one could easily see her or was looking at her, she touched the communications device in her ear, touching the button that allowed her to speak to Bruce back at the cave.

            “Yes Bruce, what is the problem?” she responded.

            “I really wish you wouldn’t say my name out loud like that,” he grumbled.

            Shadow hid her smile as she answered, “Would you prefer that I call you Batman?  Or maybe ‘the Old Guy’, like Terry and his friend Maxine does?”

            They had this conversation every time that Shadow was on patrol while Terry often had a date or something, taking nights off now that Shadow was there to take a good deal of the weight off of him.  And Shadow always won it seemed.  So Bruce skipped right to the emergency.

            “There’s a break in at the Army base outside of Gotham.  The entire base is on alert.  I’m still trying to determine who the intruder might be, but if they got past the outer defenses, then chances are that they mean business.  I think you’d better get over there, even if you might not need to do anything, just keep an eye out.”

            “I understand, I’m on my way,” Shadow closed the link as she took off into the air in the direction of the Army base.  Bruce had her memorize a map of Gotham and the surrounding areas.  Including the sewer system.

            Flying at Divine Speed, pacing herself almost, Shadow made it to the base within ten minutes.  Fortunately she didn’t break any windows this time.  She often had a problem with the sound barrier when it came to flying in the city, though where and when she had learned to fly that never had been a problem.  However once she reached the base that was hardly the foremost thing on her mind.

            The base, or what was left of it anyway, was completely destroyed, and what wasn’t was either on fire of about to be.  Shadow activated the link.  “Bruce, if the Army has not done so already, send emergency services to the base.  It has been nearly completely wiped out and is on fire.  There are undoubtedly wounded.  I will attempt to extricate them, but they must hurry!”

            Shadow didn’t have time to hear Bruce’s reply, but she did leave the link open as she flew down to the base at Supreme Divine Speed and tried to locate any survivors of this devastation.  Instead she found the apparent source of the destruction surrounding her.

            Walking along the road, heading for the north gate, was a glowing…thing.  It was glowing a strange sickly greenish yellow color, but its bones, which were similar to humans, were blackened/shadowed by the intense glow.  In both its arms, it carried two large gray metallic devices that Shadow could not immediately identify, though because it was hefting them on its shoulders then they must have been heavy.

            Preparing, Shadow got in the Supreme Dive pose, and then she dove at sonic speeds for the glowing skeleton.  He was obviously not expecting an attack from the sky, so Shadow caught him completely off guard.  He was knocked back to the ground, dropping the two devices he had been carrying.  When he got back up, groaning, Shadow knew he was male.  Partly of his tattered clothing’s appearance, as well as his very bone structure.  His deep male vocals only confirmed it.

            “Who the hell are you?” he growled out.

            “That is really none of your business,” Shadow answered cryptically as she wondered why it was suddenly so hot on such a cold night.  “Now drop whatever those devices are and explain what it is you are doing.  The police will be here shortly to arrest you.”

            The glowing skeleton, with no visible eyelids it was hard to tell exactly, gave her an incredulous look before bending down, setting down one of the devices and then raising back up with his arm extended towards her.  “Fool,” he muttered as he shot a beam of the green-yellow energy he was made of, shooting the black-haired amazon back at least thirty feet.  Then he picked up the device and continued on his way.

            Shadow sat dazed where she landed for thirty seconds or so.  She didn’t know what had happened to her.  That certainly wasn’t any ki blast or energy attack she had ever felt before.  And seeing that it came from a glowing skeleton that had just destroyed an army base and stole two devices that she still had no idea the purpose for, she doubted that she could convince him to teach her how to do it.  What’s more is that her skin felt strange, like it was burning though she could see no outward injury nor flames.

            Unconsciously groaning only slightly, Shadow stood to her feet and looked for the culprit.  He still hadn’t reached the gate, and she deduced that the emergency crews wouldn’t be there for several more minutes.  Shadow figured that since he had blasted at her, she had just as much right to do the same.  Raising her left hand out at a 90° angle from her body, palm flat and aimed at the glow monster, Shadow smiled as she shouted three words at him.  “BIG BANG ATTACK!!”

            The yellow energy beam flew straight and accurate, until it got to within ten feet of the monster.  Shadow didn’t know what was happening.  One second the blast had been heading straight on to atomize the monster, the next it began to droop and falter and in general look like the blast itself was sick.  Yet fortunate for her, enough force still followed through to hit it in the back and knock it down and ten feet forward.

            He screamed at the sudden pain in his back, feeling as if he were being burned with a flamethrower at point blank range.  He fell forward, dropping his prizes and then was left for several moments to collect himself.

            Shadow stopped after her initial attack, confused.  That sort of thing had never happened before.  She assumed it might have something to do with the creature itself, but she would wait to make certain of that.  Stepping towards her opponent, she considered just obliterating him from this distance.  Such a beast was clearly a threat to humanity and would be better off dead, but the choice was soon ripped away from her.

            Shadow was just taking another step when a wave of such intense dizziness swam over her mind, making her actually falter on the step.  She tried to shake it off, but that only made it worse as she took another step.  By the third step, she was on her knees and finding it very difficult to breath.  Also she felt distantly cold and her skin was blotted with sweat.  When she looked at where the glow monsters attack had hit her, Shadow was greatly distressed, to put it mildly, to see inflamed red skin and welt marks beginning to show.

            Fighting to stay conscious and get back to her feet, Shadow managed to crawl another few feet with one hand before the darkness finally, fully consumed her.  “Bruce…” Shadow could barely whisper, “…help……me…………”

            She then lost to the darkness, faintly hearing a voice in her ear saying, “Shadow!  Shadow!  Answer me!  Shadow!!”

 

Wayne Manor, the Bat Cave, Three hours later

 

            When Shadow came around, she was surprised to find herself on the medical area of the Cave, a place she had only ever seen when stocking it.  Slowly, letting the throbbing and the pure queasiness in her body ebb away, Shadow sat herself up to get a better look at her situation.