Chapter 22

"WHAT! You have three pairs of wings?" Emperion roared with surprise.

"Yes." Shadow flinched when Jay stroked his feathers. He turned back around and sat down, embarrassed. "Please don't, it's awkward..."

"Why didn't you tell me you had more than one pair of wings?" Emperion grumbled.

"You never asked." Shadow countered.

"I insulted you about having one wing, who knows how many times, and you didn't correct me once."

"I never acknowledged it either." Emperion opened his mouth to object but he closed his mouth again without answering.

"So, when are you going to tell Silver? He's bound to find out at some point before the entrance exam." Emperion inquired, changing the subject.

"He'll find out soon. Like real soon." Just as he said that, the doorbell rang. "That's Silver. I'll go get it." Shadow stood up and thumped down the stairs. He opened the door just as he got to it. Behind it, Silver was standing there, a small box in his hand.

"Hey, Shadow! I got today's lunchtime off so I could help you and Emperion train for the exam." he explained.

"Great, come on in. I was just about to raise the sealing pressure to level six." Shadow turned to lead Silver inside when he felt a hand touching some of the feathers on his left wing. He spun around, holding his wing and crouching protectively over it.

"God, can't you people keep your paws to yourself?" he complained. Silver blushed and pulled his hand back immediately.

"S-Sorry! It's just, they reminded me of Scaldris' feathers, which are always so rough, so I wanted to see if your feathers were the same." he stammered. Shadow slid away with a suspicious look on his face.

"Hey, wait! I swear I didn't mean to!" Silver pleaded. Shadow started laughing and stood up straight again.

"I know, I know. I'm just teasing." Shadow assured. "Come on." He beckoned to Silver to follow him. They walked up into the training room and sat with the rest of the group. Together, they all munched on their lunches in silence.

"So why didn't you reveal how many wings you had when I first asked you too." Silver wondered. Shadow gave a weirded out look.

"We just met! That's like having a stranger walk up to you and ask you 'how many knives are you hiding under your coat?' I'm not just gonna reveal how much firepower I have to some demon I know nothing about that may or may not have ill intent towards me." he exclaimed.

"Yeah, it's not like I saved your life or anything." Silver pouted.

"I wasn't going to die, I was going to prison." Shadow countered.

"Fair point. Even so, wouldn't it have been better to lie about having more power instead of having less power?" Silver questioned.

"That's what I said!" Emperion agreed.

"If I had wanted to cause you harm, I would've picked you out as the weakest and target you, but if you had shown me all of your wings, I might've chosen somebody else." Silver started. "Using that logic, why would you want to pretend to be weak?"

"I never pretended to be anything. You simply didn't think to ask if I had more wings than I was showing. I'm glad to hear that you trust me but you shouldn't be too trusting." A moment of silence followed. "Also it's embarrassing to be caught by a human when I have three wings worth of power." he admitted. Silver nodded in understanding while Emperion just snickered and Jay sighed.

"Now! Back to training!" Shadow exclaimed, clapping his hands together. Jay walked outside of the door while Emperion moved to the center of the room. Shadow turned the dial up to level five, then turned back to Emperion.

"How well can you move right now?" Shadow asked.

"Hmm? Pretty easily." he said, moving around like it was nothing. "It feels like moving around while holding weights, just without holding anything."

"And to think just last night you could hardly move under this much pressure." Shadow smiled. He turned the dial up to level six. "You progress quickly." Shadow grabbed the target that was still floating against the wall and placed it a yard away from Emperion again. They trained for the rest of the day. Jay disappeared without a word after watching for a few minutes and Silver had to leave not long after. So the day passed with only Shadow and Emperion in the training space. They trained all the way until ten at night before they went to sleep.

~ * ~

It was dusk. Shadow had just ended Emperion's training for the day and Jay was just coming back from work. 

"So, I know this doesn't really include you, but we wanted to ask if you wanted to go visit a friend with us today." Shadow invited. Emperion just stared back at him.

"Is this what you were talking about when you said you might die, yesterday?"

"Yes."

"Sure, I'll come. I want to see who it is that's so dangerous you could die!" Emperion exclaimed, excited.

"Alright!" Shadow motioned to Jay. He walked over to Shadow and hung onto him. Shadow then turned to Emperion and reached out to him.

"I'm not going to hug you." he resisted.

"You don't have to, just hold my hand for a second." Shadow instructed.

"No!"

"Do you want to meet my friend or not!" Shadow yelled.

"Ok, ok, jeez. Stop yelling." he complained. Emperion grabbed his outstretched hand. Shadow yanked him into a hug and teleported before he could complain again. Once they were in Shiro's apartment living room, Emperion pushed himself away from Shadow and growled before looking around. Shadow just snickered.

"Not what you expected, was it?" Shadow smiled, letting go of Jay.

"It looks like any other dusty old apartment. Your friend really lives here?" Emperion stated.

"What, did you expect, some giant mansion or something?" Shadow asked through a mouthful of raw bacon. He was already crouching in front of the fridge, door open.

"I just thought- What's with the bacon?" Emperion asked with a confused look.

"M'friend's a bacon hoarder." he explained. Just then, Shiro burst through her bedroom door in her pajamas, making everyone flinch and Shadow nearly spit out his bacon.

"God damnit, Korro! That's the fifth time you've broken into my house! Stop it!" she roared. She noticed the bacon dangling from his mouth and yanked it out. "And stop eating my bacon! You already owe me from the last time you broke into my house. Not to mention you're eating it raw again!"

"Ok, I get it! Stop yelling so loud or you're going to wake up everyone from here to the forest!" Shadow insisted, hopping up, hands in the air. It was just then that she noticed Emperion staring at her with a weird look.

"And what's with you and bringing strangers into my house?"

"He's a friend of mine." Shiro raised an eyebrow. "Actually he's more of a boy version of you. You're both loud, you both like to pick on me, you both question everything I do." he listed.

"Your friend is a girl?" Emperion asked with scorn. Shiro turned her death glare towards Emperion.

"I never told you?" Shadow looked over her shoulder at him.

"No. I thought they were going to be someone dangerous."

"Dude, she nearly broke my hand the last time we met." Shadow whined.

"So how many wings does she have?"

"Wings?" Shiro echoed.

"Shiro's a human." Shadow replied.

"WHAT?" he roared.

"Stop yelling, it's too late at night for that!" Jay whispered. Just then, a knock sounded on the door.

"Everyone hide!" Shadow whispered, urgently. Jay dove underneath the couch while Shadow pushed Emperion into the closet in Shiro's room. He turned and nodded to Shiro to open the door, then hid behind the TV. The knock sounded again and Shiro opened the door.

"Where are they?" Theo sounded from the door. Shadow flinched from the anger in his voice.

"Where are who?" Shiro asked, playing dumb.

"The demons that're in here. I know they are here. I know you've been hiding him." he demanded. He pushed Shiro aside and stomped into the room. Shadow squatted down and peeked out in between the TV and TV stand. Theo was looking around wildly, his eyes filled with hatred. The look startled him and scared him, but Shadow couldn't look away. He bit his lower lip and continued to watch.

"What are you talking about, Theo? If Korro was here, he would've shown himself already. He still thinks of you as a friend." Shiro insisted. "He doesn't want to hate you, even after you called the DMA on him."

"That thing isn't capable of feeling things." Theo spat. Shadow flinched again. He continued to stomp around the room, searching for Shadow. Shiro grabbed Theo by the sleeve and tried to drag him out the door, which was left open.

"Just go already Theo! I don't want you here!" Shiro complained. He fought back for a while before she managed to push him outside. She slammed the door shut behind him and pressed her ear against the door before signaling that it was ok to come out. Shadow hesitantly peeked out from behind the TV before stepping out and looking under the couch. He beckoned to Jay and Shiro and led them into Shiro's bedroom. He closed the door behind them and let out a sigh of relief, letting himself slide down the door. Emperion poked his head out of the closet.

"Who was that?" he exclaimed, breaking the silence.

"That was Theo, the person who ratted me to the DMA and, unfortunately, a former friend of mine." Shadow explained.

"He was scary." Jay shivered. Shiro gave him a sideways hug of comfort.

"Are you sure he was your friend to begin with? Didn't you hear the trash he was spewing about you?" Emperion demanded.

"Yeah. That's how I remember it anyway." He looked up at Shiro. "Does he come by often?"

"He never misses a day." she sighed. "I've been thinking about reporting him to the police and having him arrested. But enough about me, how have you been holding up lately, Korro? Aside from the past few minutes." Shadow stood up and leaned against the door.

"I found a place to settle. It wasn't on the next continent over like I had hoped but it is a demon friendly place. It's called Demon City and the people there even built me my own house! Everyone, including the humans, are really nice and polite to me. I don't need to hide my wings." he explained with glee. "Ja- I mean, Nura got a job as a florist. And me and Emperion are going to take an exam to get into the special attack force in about a month."

"Emperion?" Shiro tilted her head.

"That doofus." Shadow pointed at Emperion

"Eh-! Hey!" he bonked Shadow on the head.

"So you're going to be fighting?" Shiro asked, worried.

"That's only if they pass the exam and get accepted into a squad! And they might not get to fight anyway." Jay assured.

"I hope I get to fight. I have some personal business with some of the punks over at the DMA." Emperion growled.

"I would like to fight Robin again. I want to pay him back for nearly killing all the people in Timberford."

"Not for taking your right wing?" Shiro asked.

"Nah. If I lost a wing I just wasn't strong enough to keep it so there's no point in revenge for that." Shadow swiped the air, dismissing the thought. He paused for a moment. "Hey, Shiro. If Theo keeps bothering you, I can take you with me back to Demon City." he offered.

"I would love to get away from Theo but this place is the place I grew up in. I still like it here." she closed her eyes. Shadow nodded in acknowledgement.

"This is nice and all, but aren't we forgetting there's a 'me' to talk about here?" Emperion butted in, crossing his arms.

"You mean you want to talk about that time I showed you up during our training? You were whining so much about not being treated as an equal then I go and hit the target you missed." Shadow teased. Shiro and Jay started laughing and Emperion blushed.

"I-It's hard when I'm under literal pressure!" he stuttered.

"It was a half a foot away from you!" Shadow laughed.

"Why you little..!" Just then, the door swung open, making Shadow fall back. Theo stood in the doorway, towering over him. Shadow stared up, stunned for a second, before he put on a fake face of joy.

"Yo, Theo! It's been awhile! I haven't seen you in ages!" he lied. He was straining to keep a smile on his face as Theo looked down at him with pure disgust. Shiro had a horrified expression on her face and Jay was trembling, clinging onto Shiro's arm. Emperion stood, cautiously in front of the closet. Theo placed a foot on top of Shadow's forehead.

"Could you kindly remove your shoe from my face?" Shadow asked, trying to sound nice.

"Shut up, worthless scum." He pulled out six wing clamps and dropped them next to Shadow.

"What are those?" Shadow asked, cluelessly.

"Put them on." Shadow reached for the clamps and put them, one by one, onto his wings.

"What do I do with this one?" he asked, holding up the remaining clamp.

"Put it on."

"Where?"

"Your wing." Theo was starting to sound irritated.

"But I don't have enough wings to put on all six." Theo stared down at him. His expression didn't change but his eyes betrayed his surprise.

"Leave it then."

"'K."

"Now, you are going to come with me and turn yourself into the DMA, got that?" he asked, pushing his foot into Shadow's forehead.

"Why would I do that?" Theo removed his foot and pulled a pistol out of his belt, pointing it directly at the center of Shadow's forehead.

"Because they'll give you a chance to live."