The Shadow Man

One

Hastings Nebraska
1 Year After Reptilian Uprising

"Who was he?" Asks a soft voice.
A brisk wind whips across my face causing me to shiver lightly in my leather jacket.
"He was a hero." I answer.
The park is quiet.
Aside from the occasional dog barking or child laughing, it's completely silent.
Naked trees whistle in the cold winter air.
"I've heard stories about him. About, Them." She says.
Memories of my lost friends flash through my mind like the a strike of lightning.
"I wouldn't know. I was in a coma at the time. I missed out on the whole, Apocalypse thing, ya know?"
I don't answer, sensing the joking sarcasm in her voice.
My breathing Peaks into a sigh as I lean against the railing of the monument.
It's cold metal is warded off by the sleeves of my jacket.
"What happened to him?" She asks.
I turn to her.
"After the war he kind of just, Vanished. The Empowered are still roaming around destroying and killing.
He hasn't done a thing to stop them."
She sees the hesitation in my eyes, and knows she's getting closer to an answer.
"Where is he now? That's the question the world is asking.
Where is the Shift?"
She asks.
I look away, keeping the promise I made to my dear friend.
I'm not going to let this woman break his peace.
He deserves this.
"What happened to the rest of the Hazard Opperatives?"
She asks.
"Those days are over, Miss Baker. The world doesn't need them anymore."
I say.
"How can you say that? The world lies in fear, knowing creatures like that exist. People are afraid because any one of them could be carrying a deadly virus that causes them to go insane with power. The world vary much needs that FireTeam right about now,
Captain Rone."
I pull the hat down over my forehead.
"I told you ma'am, those days are over."
I take on last look at the statue, before turning to walk away.
"What happened that day, Rone? Tell me, and I promise I will stop following you."
She says.
After the fight was over, and the dust cleared, I was left to mourn the loss of my friends.
The only family I ever had.
I had to put myself back together.
And I had to do it alone.
Seeing someone you watched grow, trained, taught.
Seeing someone like that die, and having to see it over and over, that is enough to shatter a man.
"You have a safe flight home."
I say, before walking away.
She tries her best to hide it, but I know she's following me at a distance.
The statue of the staff stands 10 feet tall, with glowing blue symbols etched into its black surface, just like the real thing.
Each symbol means something, only pure Nolites can understand.
And that means Donnie is the only one on this planet, capable of reading its inscriptions.
That is Our monument.
That's what we got in return for our bravery.
She wraps her arm around a mine as we walk, and gently nudges me towards a small coffee shop in the corner.
I sigh, knowing I'm not going to get rid of her.
"Just a few answers, that's all I need."

I sit at a cafe, waiting for my coffee to go.
The woman comes and sits across from me.
"Are you ready to talk?" She asks.
I don't reply.
"I only have a week to get this story, Jackson. Please."
I think for a moment before sighing deeply.
"What do you want to know?"
I ask. She smiles, pulling out a pen and a small note pad.
"Start with the Shift. Right after the fight, just before Hazard split up, what happened to him?"
Would he want me to share this?
"He made me promise him something.
He wanted to stay hidden, at least for a while. He just wants a normal life, away from the spotlight. The same can be said for the rest of Hazard."
She quickly jots it down in her notes.
"Do you have any plans of reuniting?" She asks.
"I often wonder that too, Miss Baker."
I grab my coffee from the counter and walk out the door.
What happened to us?
Every day I get a new reminder of the Team I used to be a part of.
Each and every day, I see a newspaper article, or a segment in the news about us.
People often ask me who I am.
They ask me if I'm the guy they saw in the news.
I often lie, and say no.
Lying comes easier.
Especially when they ask me if there is something else out there.
Something stronger than Dāku.
Something more ferocious than the G'hunawae.
Something worse than the darkness.
But a lie will only take you so far.
Janice Baker is right.
This is not over.
I have a feeling that before this is all over, we will all have to Reunite again.

"Contact."
Says a voice.
I look up.
"Is that him?"
I ask.
The man in the black leather jacket looks up from under his hood.
"Yes, Rone take him out."
I nod at my sniper, moving in.
I adjust my collar as our shoulders collide.
Our eyes meet. Flecks of orange crystalline flicker in his eyes.
His look changes from a look of concern to a look of fear.
The blood drains from his face as he turns to run. I tackle him to the ground.
He struggles in a flurry of attempts to get back to us feet.
"Hey, hey hey it's okay I'm not going to hurt you!"
I say, trying to calm him down.
He slips from my grip, and turns back to me.
"I can't let you take me in!"
He says, kicking me in the chest.
He runs off, leaving me on my back.
"Take the shot."
Says the voice in the coms.
I look up at the rifleman, who readies his gun.
"Get down!"
I shout.
People all around us duck behind trees and brush.
The target keeps right on going.
"Rone what are you doing?"
Asks my superior.
"I injected him with a sedative when we brushed shoulders, he'll go down any minute now. There's no need for you to shoot him."
I say.
"You'd better be right about this."
The man trips over his feet and falls to the ground.
I walk over to the man laying on the ground. He looks up at me through fearful eyes, trying to stay awake.
"Why are you hunting us?"
He asks.
His question grips my throat, leaving me unable to choke out an answer.
"Lets get him back to base."
Says Ayla.
I look up at him.
"Good work, Rone."
He says.

Larson leads me down a hall.
One of the old SCO facilities. 
After the war, the government decided we needed the SCO, to keep the public safe from things like that.
With Larson at its helm, it is no longer the secret organization it once was.
It's now a place where the Empowered are taken, and studied to find a cure.
A place where the left over Reps are kept, and taken care of.
They have been tasked with cleaning up after the battles with the Empowered, as well as any Enhanced we may encounter.
He hired me to work along side him, knowing that I'd have all the expertise in this area.
His focus lately has been finding Keepers.
But Keepers has been alive for over 700 years, he knows how to disappear.
He's smart, and that makes him more dangerous than anything we've encountered. Not to mention he built this foundation by talking his way up to it.
The Collapse was always his ultimate goal, but now that that's over, who knows what he will do.
"Since the gate opened, there has been a spike in the Nolite Crucible activity.
They've been more active since then and that worries me."
Explains Larson, his joking immature demeanor has since left him.
"What do you mean, Activity? What are they doing?"
I ask.
"When they were built, they needed large amounts of Nolite energy to stay active, that's what killed off most of the Nolites in the first place.
Dāku, housed so much of that energy, that when he died, all of that residual
Energy went strait into the crucibles. I think he did that on purpose in hopes the Crucibles would stay open long enough for the rest of his legion to come through."
"Is that bad?"
I ask.
"That allows us to kind of, locate the currently living Nolites."
He says, hesitantly.
I'm stunned.
"There's more of them?"
I ask.
He dodges me.
"The energy held by the Crucibles releases a kind of, pulse every 8 hours. That pulse reflects on the energy levels shown by the Nolites."
"And that pulse is strong enough to reach them, wherever they are?" I ask.
"Apparently. But that's not what worries me."
I look at the holographic table before us showing a model of the earth. 47 little dots are shown spread across the planet.
"What worries me, is the Number of Nolites on the earth. It's grown since the Collapse."
"How many was there before?"
I ask.
"4." He answers.
"43 of them appeared after the opening of the gates. They came with Dāku, Rone. And they were probably sent into Asylum for a reason."