Shadow

Monday, August 24

"What are you gonna do, Shadow? Glare at me?" a man with a particularly smooth face taunted. He had black eyes, smug features, and was the tallest man around. He was dressed in nice black dress pants, a white button-up shirt, and a black vest. His wrists were adorned with gold watches and bracelets. It all felt too cliché to The Shadow. Then again, with a codename like The Shadow, what could he expect?

"Yeah, it's three against one so I'd scram!" a second man said. His face wasn't quite as smooth as the first, but he wore the same attire and his eyes seemed to be even darker.

The famous Shadow merely glared at the three, making no move either way. I would double check those odds if I were you, Shadow seemed to be saying. Thugs across Normsville knew to fear the vigilante. Whoever he was, he seemed to have popped up about a year or two ago. No one knew who he was or where he came from, but they knew he was a real threat. There were various bedtime stories with him as the villain, each one portraying him as more brutal and deadly than the last.

Those stories were all false.

But, that doesn't mean that he hasn't killed before.

"Drop your weapons, and no one gets hurt," the third man said, while the other two seemed to have a dark brown hair color, this man looked exactly like the second - except for the fact that he had hair as black as the night itself.

Looks like a matching set! their enemy thought wryly.

"Y'know, I could say the same thing about you," a gruff voice answered. It was obvious that the hero was using a voice-altering device, no one could muster so strong a voice.

Taking a step back, the first man spoke to the third, who was obviously the leader. "I thought you said he was a mute?"

The third, with an expression equally as surprised as his colleagues, gulped. "Looks like he ain't mute no more! Get him!"

As quickly as their shaking hands could muster, the trio reached for their weapons. The two who reached for their guns were unconscious before they knew what had hit them. The one who was sensible to realize that this would be a hand-to-hand fight lasted just a bit longer. Well, if you could even call it a fight. All it consisted of was an easily dodged swipe to the abdomen and a bone-shattering kick to the wrist before the man backed down.

Frozen in fear, he gave his opponent no trouble when he moved to tie him down to his friends. The last thing he could recall before things went black was a warning, or perhaps a threat, from Shadow. "I'm coming for you - all of you."

This took place just before daybreak.

π

"What does 'Vidi, vini, veci' mean?" Mrs. Davis said with a sly smile. She was so sure that she had finally stumped the resident history genius.

"I came, I saw, I conquered."

Her smiled faded. "Who said it?"

"Julius Ceasar."

"What does Augustus mean?"

"Exalted one."

"Who declared himself Augustus?"

"C'mon, Mrs. Davis! Give me hard one."

"Answer the question."

"Ceasar Augustus."

"Without tittles!"

"Octavian."

"Admit it, Mrs. D! No one can out-history Kage Hanta!" a teenage boy grinned. Kage rolled her eyes at her classmate's remark. The boy was the only person who rivaled Kage in intellect, although he did not stand a chance against her in history. His strong suit was science. He had dirty blond hair and hazel eyes to contrast Kage's black hair and eyes. While his skin held a bit of a tan, Kage's looked like it belonged to Snow White, herself.

"Who was accredited with creating Judaism?" Mrs. Davis said, ignoring Ray Shades's remark.

"Abraham."

"What was I before I was a teacher?"

"You owned a bakery."

The teacher chuckled, admitting defeat. "You win Kage."

"Cool, thanks for the warm-up," Kage smiled.

"Very funny, Ms. Hunters," the teacher said, dryly.

"Well, Kage. What do you think?" Ray asked his associate during passing period.

"I think you portray me as a show-off know-it-all," the female responded instantly. Kage was a small girl with near-black short hair, cut just below her chin. Her cheeks were covered with freckles, diluting the terror one would behold in her black eyes. Her eyes seemed to carry their own aura of menance about them, even though everyone knew that the shy girl had never needed her steely glare. Everyone also knew that the girl was a genius when it came to memorization and literature. She wasn't just good; she excelled. It was her thing.

Her associate, Ray, on the other hand, was a different story. He understood science and math to the greatest extent, and everyone seemed to think it was weird for him to hang out in Kage's company. He was peppy and talkative while Kage...Well, Kage was Kage. Even their physical appearance was off. He was tall and slightly built. She was small and scrawny-looking. He was an open person, and she wrote everything down in journals.

At first, people thought her constant writing was freaky, but it eventually grew on them, and everyone accepted it as a fact of life. Grass was green. Kage wrote nonsense all the time. That was all there was to it.

"But, Kage, this fiction is about what life here at Normsville High would be like if you were, you know?" Ray left the sentence hanging. He knew that there was something different about the girl - he figured that was why she separated herself from everyone else. He had long ago deemed it his mission to find out what that was, but to no avail.

"What? Normal? Gee, thanks," Kage said in full monotone. Ray had come to know her monotone side as her sarcastic side and found her to be quite amusing when she found herself particularly derisive. She mock stormed off as she walked to her locker.

Ray chuckled as he debated on following her. He had to get to class. "See you later, Kagey!"

"Don't call me that!" she grumbled back in her usual response to the lame nickname.