Chapter 7

The electronic door to the Resistance headquarters underground opened as Mustapha10, the Rookie and Shadow walked inside. "Zay!" Mustapha cried in enthusiasm as he walked up to Zay.

The resistance members just let him have a few moments to himself and decided not to speak a word until then. "I was so worried! I thought you were..." Zay interrupted Mustapha and said, "There's no need to, see? I'm perfectly fine!" That's when Zay turned to Shadow, standing right beside the Rookie when his smile disappeared from his face into anger and the demand for an immediate answer. Back then, Zay was brainwashed into believing Shadow left DCP for the trio of Ice Warriors, Pirates and Redemption Force.

"What are you doing here?" He asked. What Zay wasn't able to realize for so long was that the cryptic aura he saw meant that the Shadow he saw was only a fake copy, but with no heart and soul. However, this copy was still as powerful as the real life form. For example, if you were to make a fake copy of Dark Gaia with the Phantom Ruby, it would be just as powerful as the original. "I know you've had questions for a while, but just listen to me." He said, raising his hands a little as one of the Resistance members, TheMightyA, pointed a white Wispon at him.

While they convinced him to calm down, Shadow continued on his purpose of being there. "There was a cryptic aura you missed on that fake copy of me. That means he was recreated by something, not controlled. And he had a different eye color. If you looked closely, you would've noticed the difference." Zay's expression of anger started to fade and began believing his brother at last.

"Continue," he allowed. "That monster, known as Blackheart, was creating fake copies of himself and OUR greatest foes all along. That means if we beat the first round, Blackheart can just continue grinding out more as long as the Phantom Ruby has a power source." Shadow ended as everyone nodded their heads and whispered to each other. "I hate to butt in on this conversation but we have a prisoner still left on the Death Iceball!" Goddess Marie interrupted.

Everyone turned their eyes to the large scale screen that showed a map of the globe before switching to a satellite camera of the Death Iceball. "Apparently, there is a member of the Resistance, a Major Lieutenant, known as Africa. We gotta help her." Everyone nodded as Viv turned to Shadow and requested that he should go to the space station to initiate an immediate rescue mission.

"Understood," he said. "Oh, and before you go, is there anybody you plan on taking?" Rah questioned Shadow before he walked out, as everyone (even Zay) shook their heads "No" lightly. "I'll go on my own. I'm more than enough." He walked out through the civilian city right at the edge of the land. Everyone was slowly starting to move back to normal life in Summit, yet a lot more of the globe was to be taken back.

Shadow stepped inside of the space shuttle that remained parked on the outside of the headquarters. It was large but luxurious; it had leather chairs to fit twelve passengers and had state-of-the-art A/C and heating systems. As the engine started, the pipes outside and underneath the baseplate of the shuttle puffed exhaust smoke until it slowly raised up, and soon enough, Shadow was traveling into space. It went up into the sky and above the clouds as the sky grew darker and darker into nothing but stars and planets.

Once Shadow reached the Thermosphere, he set the auto-pilot to fly directly to Death Iceball: Shuttle Gate A. While it was usually the quietest in traffic, business was busy there and had to ensure no trespassers were trying to get inside. DCP didn't change the exterior paint of red and black but decked out the interior. There was a personal gaming setup, for the members of the Resistance to recruit on CPO. And there was a pantry full of snacks and drinks, in case anybody wanted to relax or take a nap on the leather seats or the comfy couches of citrus orange color or mostly...a Dorito.

Shadow grabbed a Monster Energy from the mini-fridge that was right next to the gaming setup and sat on the leather chair in front of the large scale TV to relax. He popped the soda can open and took a sip. "So this is the life I've been missing for six months? I shouldn't have stayed on the ARK, then." Shadow said and joked to himself. He looked around the shuttle interior lit with violet purple LED lights all around. Posters of Doritos of CPO were hung all around, including memes that Zay and the others made, clearly mocking the leaders of Dark Warriors and Ice Warriors.

But DW was another army they taught a lesson, making sure they would never think about invading their capital again. Just as Shadow got lost into his thoughts, the shuttle system announcer called on the PA intercom that sprung to life and said, "Attention. Now arriving at the Death Iceball." Shadow finished the last of his Monster Energy and threw it away in the trash can, where above it was a paper that pointed down at it.

Above the arrow read, "Ice Warriors go here." still intended on mocking the leaders. Shadow got to the driver's seat and prepared to meet the gate guard who apparently was a robot. "Hi there, friend! Welcome to the-" Shadow interrupted the robot and threw a boomerang at him, beheading the robot into scrap. The boomerang tore through and reflected back as it hit a green button which indicated he was granted entrance into the Death Iceball.

Shadow accelerated directly to the landing area of the shuttles. That's when he forgot a simple thing: an Ice Warrior outfit. In fact, all the prisoners were forced to wear light and dark blue prison jumpsuits, whether they want to or not. That's what got Africa and another mysterious member of the Resistance into solitary confinement, isolated away from the main cells when they considered them dangerous for fighting other inmates and guards.

Once Shadow landed, he ensured to lock the shuttle and somehow needed to convince the Ice Warriors there that it was reserved for him by Andrew24's order. Or, he could do something else. The shuttle door opened as the folding stairs folded out, allowing Shadow to secretly land. He hid around the shuttle when he saw Ice Warriors coming close to see who was there. That's when Shadow remembered a power he held: shape shifting.

So Shadow grabbed his wrist close up to the tuft of fur on his chest, just below his chin, and disguised himself as none other than Radkon. He went around the front of the shuttle and started speaking in the same tone that Radkon held. "I'm just here to pick up a few prisoners. Now scram along before I send you into space like that blasted jackal Zay." The soldiers who originally approached him turned to each other and shrugged before returning to work.

Their advisor asked which cell block Radkon was looking for. "Take me to Cell Block B, now." He demanded as the advisor replied back. "Right this way, sir." So Shadow, still disguised as Radkon walked down the prison hall peacefully. "Why do you need these prisoners, sir?" He asked Shadow. The more questions he asked, Shadow knew they would get harder.

So he had to be very careful of how he answered. "Test subjects now that I'm going back to experimenting." Radkon, or Shadow, replied in a serious tone. "I thought you were not going to do so, sir?" The advisor asked in reply, as if he knew what Shadow was up to and attempted to get to the bottom of his act. "Now with my creation Blackheart wiping out the enemy, I figured I should prepare for the final two days the Resistance will have together before I drop the sun on them. Which reminds me, didn't you run into Zay as he escaped?"

Radkon asked the advisor as if he wanted to socialize as they turned left at the end of the hallway. "Yes, but he didn't take any of our plans while he was breaching the facility with his Resistance team. But we were quicker than them on setting the station on high alert." The conversation ended as they both reached the Cell Block. "Which prisoners are you referring to if I may ask?" The advisor asked.

Now Shadow had to be careful of how he answered. "There's two that I heard are in solitary confinement?" Shadow asked in his disguise as Radkon. "Are you referring to Inmate 6263 and Inmate 6271?" The advisor asked. "Yes, now we move on to their cells?" Shadow rushed. "Sir, I believe there is something wrong. Is everything alright?" Shadow only quietly nodded as they walked over to the Solitary Confinement cells.

"This is it right here." The advisor pointed. "Thanks a million," Shadow said in his disguise but out of tone. "W-what do you mean, sir?" He asked in fear as Shadow quickly warped out of the disguise and spin dashed himself into the advisor, knocking him across the metallic pathway and forcing him to run. Shadow unlocked the prison cells and told the two, "I'm from DCP, and this is my mission to rescue you!" Africa hesitated for a quick second before scurrying out of the prison cell.

"B-but what about her?" She pointed to her friend who was also an inmate. "We're bringing her, too." Shadow replied as he warped back into his disguise as Radkon. Once he was near the main shuttle exit, they ran over to their transport when an Ice Warrior stopped them. "Hang on a hot minute, Radkon. We just need to check your shuttle." He said.

Shadow didn't have anything else to say so Africa stepped in and said, "We're being test subjects. It's important." The guard looked puzzled directly at the three but decided to cancel the inspection. The door unlocked as the three stepped inside as Shadow removed his disguise at the last second. "Hey, that's a DCP! And, one of the inmates has the key that unlocks Solaris from the dead; the Scepter of Darkness!"

Shadow listened closely to the Ice Warrior alerting the others when somebody was swinging through the hangar with a Burst Wispon. The guards started fleeing for shelter or tried fighting back but she was therefore too powerful for them. She was a dark red anthropomorphic wolf who had long, pointy ears and orange eyes.

She grappled around as she landed on her green army boots and clenched her fists in green army gloves. That's when she grabbed something from the yellow utility belt on her waist which was unknown but appeared to flash the guards as she ran over to the shuttle that was close to taking off and demanded Shadow to unlock the door.

He did what he was told and the mysterious escaping inmate climbed in as the shuttle took off not long before the inmate threw something over to a shuttle engine. As the shuttle flew out of the Death Iceball, an explosion grew all around the metallic space station until it blew up into oblivion. The other stations around however remained standing. "So, wanna know what I'm doing here?" The girl who just blew up one of Radkon's greatest weapons asked. "My only mission was to save those two, Africa and Katie. Nothing more."

Shadow replied in the low tone he was born with, setting the shuttle to auto-pilot and walked over to the soft lounger chair sitting right in front of the large scale TV and gaming setup. "Anyway, where is this hunk of junk headed?" Africa asked. She was a mercenary who looked a bit normal at first blush but was sassy, seductive and smart. And she always got what she wanted and knew how to.