Chapter Twelve: Shadows

Adam’s eyes rolled open, the ceiling was cracked and misshapen, and that was one of his first thoughts upon waking up. His pupils shortened in width as a bright light flickered in the room. He knew he had to get up; he needed to watch the one match of the day that was on every pilot’s mind, Rebel358. The pilot has created a following of pilots, they either love him or fear him, his swagger, no pilot has seen a pilot who held onto such skill and remained as calm as he did. He had an eerie presence, something was unique about him but no one could put their finger on it. His MF Shadow wasn’t anything special, but the way he handled it, the way he used its speed and weaponry was unparalleled. As Adam rolled over swatting the alarm clock that blinked the digits, 6:30 Sharon stood staring. Her delicate hands grazed his cheek only to feel the heat that was emanating from within his body. He was burning up, his body tried to remedy this by sweating but to no avail. She jumped back in shock, she couldn’t understand what had happened; he seemed perfectly healthy the night before.

“Adam you’re burning up!” Sharon blurted out. Adam shrugged it off and slowly stood up from the bed. The ivory sheets tumbled off his body as he stumbled to the ground. His dark brown hair swayed in the hair dripping with sweat, he tried to smile but his muscles were numb. As his feet began to move forward he felt his legs became numb and he collapsed towards Sharon’s bed. She wanted to catch him but she knew she couldn’t catch him, her arms quickly reached out for him as his chin bounced off the edge of her mattress. He rested on the rugged carpet breathing heavily.

“ADAM!” She screamed, her knees fell to the ground as she placed her arms around his chest. He was still steaming with heat and sweat, he sighed.

“I need to get going.” He mumbled under his faint breath as his arms tried to rise. As his body moved upwards Sharon tried to guide him with her arms on his chest and his back.

“You’re not going anywhere, not in this condition.”

“I’m fine…(no…no I’m not fine…what’s going on with me? I can barely move, is it because I’m scared? Am I scared of this Rebel?)” The fact was that ever since his practice bout against Rebel358 the MF, Shadow haunted his dreams, more so than Chimera ever did. He knew there was something special with Rebel and his MF but he couldn’t figure out what it was. A smile slowly managed to gleam across his face as Sharon returned with a glass of cold water.

“Thanks…” He managed to mutter as he took a massive gulp. Sharon then reclined on the floor leaning against her mattress. Her arms rest over her elevated knees, while her mahogany hair flowed over her alluring face.

“You can’t be sick; if you were then it wouldn’t just happen out of no where like this. You’re stressing out over something….care to talk about it?”
Adam just glared back, he knew what she was trying to do and he did appreciate it. But this wasn’t something he wanted to discuss; he didn’t want her to know that he was scared. He managed to stagger up from the poorly designed carpet. Sharon’s eyes followed his movements as he stood up.

“I have to get going. The first match starts in 5 minutes. I can’t afford to miss it. I have my phone, I’ll call you once it’s done and we’ll get lunch at the food court.” Adam said as he zipped up his denims.

“Adam…”

“I’ll be fine. Don’t worry…sorry I really need to get going.” Adam said one final time as he ran over kissing her on the forehead and then headed out the door. She just loomed on the carpet with her head hidden under her arms while leaning forward.

            Nearly every man, woman and child woke up early in order to watch the live feed of the first match of Section ‘C’. A young attractive woman stood cheerfully in front of the dome in Prosperity, her charcoal long hair flapped through the brisk air conditioned wind. Her right hand covering her ear so she could hear the information being fed to her from the speaker, she then nodded, it was time.

“Hi and welcome back to the live television feed of the Azure Cup Tournament brought to you by GNT. I am Stephanie Star and I have to tell you this first match of the Section ‘C’ first round has been surrounded in the most buzz so far. Pilots all over have been saying that this pilot, Rebel358 is going to be the one to take the tournament. So it’s only natural for every pilot registered to be here to watch his phenomenal man pilot his MF, Shadow. I got the chance earlier this morning to talk with his opponent, Crimson and he is shaken up. He is one of the pilots who feel strongly about Rebel’s skills and wish that he didn’t have to face him in the first round. So stay tuned, the first match of Section ‘C’ is underway!” As her voice left the audio it was replaced by a humming sound that excreted from the boosters on both MFs. Crimson’s MF was the first to be seen, it was a mid-weight red and purple MF wielding a machine gun and an energy trident while its secondary weapons was a quadruple cannon resting on its back. Shadow lingered on the opposite side holding onto its plasma rifle and energy saber, Rebel358 remained calmly strapped into his seat awaiting the green light.
Crimson’s body was quivering at an unbelievable rate, his hands couldn’t remain on the throttles; they would just slide of the side. He tried to calm himself down, his right hand slapped down hard onto the left but his body was still trembling. His helmet was engulfed in dense fog created from the repetitive open-mouthed breathing.

“….*huff* what’s happening *huff* to me *huff*…I can’t control…*huff* myself…*huff* *huff*…wait a minute…I need more ….*huff*…” Crimson glanced to the side of his control panel and grabbed a syringe that was wrapped in a protective covering. He elongated needle tossed in his sweat ridden hands, after a few seconds he finally managed to get a steady grip.

“Finally…*huff*…” He ripped the sealing off the needle and without second guessing his actions, stuck the needle into a vein palpitating in his forearm. As the liquid slowly flowed into his circulatory system, his breathing became stabilized and his body slowly calmed down. For a brief second everything was quiet, but then his body jerked abruptly, his muscles began to tightened and his heart race. As his body became accustomed to the steroid his pupils dissolved leaving nothing more than a translucent brown gradient. His hands wrapped around the throttles tightly, his feet flexed preparing to hit the accelerators. Then it happened, the moment everyone had been waiting for…

            READY?! GO!

Crimson pounded onto the accelerator, the massive outburst of energy exploded sending his MF, Abolition into the depth of space. Rebel glanced to the right not even bothering to pay attention to the rampaging MF that was closing in on him. Just as Abolition appeared in front of Shadow Crimson jerked the controls sending his MF to the right side, he was trying to get around Shadow in order to strike it from behind. The energy trident flared with an intense flame of lime energy. The left arm of Abolition quickly swung down guiding the trident to hit Shadow’s left arm. All of a sudden there was silence, the crowd standing at attention refused to blink; their mouths gaping wide. In a blink of an eye Shadow appeared behind Abolition with the crimson MF’s left arm planted into the energy blade. No one bothered to look at the severely damaged Abolition; they just say Shadow in its glory raising the energy saber up high with his opponent’s limb dangling from the tip of the blade.
Adam’s fist clutched to the side of his torso quivering, whether it was in fear or frustration he didn’t even know. He stood in the middle of the stairs leading to the bottom of the dome where the massive LCD stood. He soon felt a hand touch his back.

“Having second thoughts?” Stephen asked.

“I…I don’t know.”

“He’s going to be in the finals you know that. If you intend on winning this you’re going to need to be able to conquer him.”

“I don’t care about the tournament Stephen. I want to know what the hell Genesis is doing.” Adam replied.

“I know…but I know you. And I know you want to be the one to defeat that pilot.” Stephen replied.

Adam was about to reply but Shadow once again demanded his attention. A quick flash of light streaked across the arena and that was it; the match was over. Abolition burst out into a dozen of pieces, the cockpit floated in space surrounded by perfectly cut limbs of his MF. The incisions were precise, that was amazing by itself, but the speed at which they were done was what made it simply breath-taking. In no more than 20 seconds Rebel358 advanced to the second round. Adam had hoped for a chance to analyze Rebel’s fighting tactics some more, but Crimson didn’t help by blindly rushing in giving Rebel even more of an advantage. He sneered quietly and walked out of the dome leaving Stephen standing in the midst of an overwhelmed crowd.

“Damn it Adam…”

            Tons of reporters waited for Rebel358 to arrive back in the hanger. His performance was impressive, not one person was able to follow his movements; he was a sure win for the tournament. As Shadow floated safely back into the hanger he reclined back into his chair, his arms firmly tucked under his armpits.
“The game has begun…I’ve made my move Novus…what is your counter?” He said to himself as his eyelids became heavy and shut tightly sealing him in a world of utter darkness. He was sealed, hidden beneath the shadows of his existence.

            The matches following Rebel’s didn’t stand a chance. No other pilot had any significant chance at capturing the crowd in the way that Rebel did. They were mediocre and riddled down with simplistic tactics and conservative piloting. No one cared though, people were just happy the first round was winding down, everyone waited for the next chance to see Rebel in action once again. Adam remained secluded from his friends for the following 2 days, no one knew where exactly he went, but they figured after seeing Rebel’s performance that he needed time alone, to think, and to plan. The ‘C’ Section and the ‘D’ section came to a close at the end of the day. The pilots who were lucky enough to move ahead were announced while the war at home continued to drag.

‘C-1’

Rebel358
            Rebel358
Crimson

Dyne
            Solar
Solar

Flux
            Flux
Marcus

Tim
            Colin
Colin

‘C-2’

Shawn
            Vincent
Vincent

Snake
            Snake
Leon

Templar
            Rogue
Rogue

Jose
            Jose
Francis

‘D-1’

Masked
            Ruby
Ruby

Jack X
            Death
Death

Desire
            Archangel
Archangel

Famine
            Pestilence
Pestilence

‘D-2’

Pride
            Pride
Sydney

Shane
            Diablos
Diablos

Sapphire
            Greed
Greed

Envy
            Envy
Anima

            The next day called for the first round of Section ‘E’, Adam was the first match of the day. His opponent Wrath was another one of the “unknowns” in the tournament, he was neither from the TA or the EAP, just another pilot who showed up to participate in the tournament. No one knew what to expect from Adam when he would go out into space for his match. But they knew it would probably be a way for him to find the answers he had been so desperately searching for these past weeks.
Sharon carefully entered the dismal place that was known to most as the MF hanger. She wasn’t sure what she hoped to find, maybe it was Adam, maybe it was nothing. Her hair suddenly began to flap wildly as the hanger wall opened allowing a blue MF to reenter Prosperity. Her lips began to thin as she smiled; it was Adam. Adam noticed Sharon standing at the edge of the concrete hanger, he sighed he knew what she wanted. He had avoided his friends for about 2 days now, even though he knew it wasn’t with malicious intent, they didn’t know. As Blue Dragon docked into place the gravity generator was disabled and Sharon quickly jumped into the air heading towards his cockpit. As the cockpit opened Adam’s eyes widened at the abrupt appearance of Sharon floating in front of him.

“Hey…” He mumbled.

“Hey.” She replied. They were short and sharp their responses. They knew they each had a lot on their minds and didn’t want to sound especially rude at the wrong time.

“Are you ok? I mean everyone has been worried about you.” Sharon said. Her tone of voice changed, she was determined and confident in her words.

“I’m fine, I just needed to get away from everything for awhile….you know just sit and think.”

“You’re scared of that Rebel guy aren’t you?”

Adam wasn’t the least bit shocked that she was able to figure that out. She did know him better than most.

“I was…” Adam replied.

“You were? What happened? Why are you now not intimidated?”

“Because….because I know you’re here with me.”