Alex
hastily excused himself from the group of politicians and answered his phone.
Any reason to get away was welcomed after the day he’d had, or so he thought.
The call was quick, frantic, and cut short. Something had gone wrong at the research
facility, and the Electric Eagle was needed.
Alex
pushed his way into the research facility after forcing a path through the
fleeing mob of scientists and civilians. The scene before him was a disaster
and it looked as if the entire facility had been hit by a tornado. Tables,
equipment, supplies, and even the occasional body lay strewn across the open
area. Millions of dollars worth of damage, yet the most horrific sight to Alex
was not the monetary loss but the humanoid shadow that was causing the chaos.
It
stood no taller than a normal man, but it was composed entirely of shadow
energy. Alex had seen with his own eyes, and even fought with this own fists,
shadow energy in the past, and knew that the new, mysterious energy was not
something to take lightly. He had no answers to the multitude of questions in
his mind and his only course of action at the moment was to stop this
monstrosity from further hurting people and damaging the facility.
Alex
ran towards the shadow thing, his fists sparking with electricity. Though he
didn’t have his gauntlets, that didn’t mean he was powerless. The advanced
gauntlets let Alex amplify and use his electricity easier, but he was still
very dangerous without them. About twenty feet away, the shadow figure noticed
Alex and turned to face him. Alex was unsure how, but a terrible roar erupted
from the shadow and it charged at Alex, vicious claws taking form on what counted
as hands.
Alex knew, despite being
composed of the equivalent of shadows, that those claws could tear through skin
with no problem. He checked his speed and dodged to the side, letting the claws
swipe the air where he once stood. The shadow was still within Alex’s reach
though, and he struck with all his might, hoping the body was as solid as the
hands. His punch collided with the shadow, and electricity ripped through its
body. The humanoid let out a painful shriek and shrank back from Alex, who
stood ready to attack again.
The shadow looked to be having a
hard time keeping itself solid after Alex’s electric attack. Shadow energy was
slowly dissolving, giving it the appearance of constantly smoldering. Alex took
this time to figure out whether this creature could be reasoned with or not.
“Any way we can talk this out?
Or am I going to have to put you down for good?” Alex sounded confident,
although he would have felt more so if he had answers.
To Alex’s surprise, the shadow
started laughing. “Talk?” The voice was distorted, but Alex thought he
recognized it.
“Yes, talk. Can you do that
without hurting or breaking anything else?”
The shadow cackled again, “You
have talked far too much, Alexander Jackson! Now I will show them all what kind
of fool you really are!” The shadow roared again, prepping to attack once more.
But in that moment, Alex
recognized the voice. “Dr. Muahitl?”
The shadow had taken a step
forward but stopped, and Alex saw a face try to form. It was blank, with the
exception of a malicious smile the split the head in two. “Good,” Dr. Arjun
Muahitl hissed, pleased that he was recognized, “I was worried you would die
before knowing whose hands were around your neck.”
Dr. Muahitl dove for Alex, but
he was ready for the attack. Alex pivoted and countered after Muahitl’s attack
missed, driving another punch into the shadow man’s gut. Though the punch hit
something with the consistency of molasses, Alex released a burst of
electricity, shocking Muahitl and causing him to drop to the floor.
As Muahitl struggled to keep his
body from dissolving, Alex took a step back but never took his eyes off the
shadowy form by his feet. “I don’t know what you did to yourself doctor, but
it’s obliviously caused you to lose your sanity. Let our scientists help you.
They can help restore you to a more normal state.
“Normal?” Arjun laughed as he
climbed to his knees. “What makes you think I want to go back to being normal?”
Arjun managed to form the shadows into a crude image of his face. “I have
become a being of pure shadow energy. You cannot understand the power I now
have!”
“I thought we released all of
the shadow energy weeks ago?” Alex was stalling, still hoping he wouldn’t have
to kill what used to be his most intelligent scientist.
“You are a fool, Alexander. And
no fool could run the Eagle without running it into the ground.”
“That is enough, Dr. Muahitl!”
Alex commanded, his fists sparking again. Despite respecting Dr. Muahitl’s
intelligence and expertise in the scientific fields, Alex realized he could not
hesitate to destroy him if it was necessary to save the Eagle.
“Arjun Muahitl is no more,
Alexander.” The face disappeared and was replaced by nothing but a gigantic
cavernous mouth that was pulled into a hideous smile. “I will forever be known
as Abyss!”
“So be it,” Alex said and sent a
blast of electricity at the villain, intent on destroying any trace of the
shadow energy. But before the blast could strike its main body, Abyss dissolved
into a cloud of shadow energy and flew towards a broken window.
“I will destroy your world!”
Abyss screeched from a dozen floating mouths before flying out of the facility.
By that time, an Eagle Squadron
had arrived and was assisting the injured scientists. Alex left the crowd
control to them as he pulled out his cell phone. After a few rings, John
answered.
“What the hell is going on,
Alex? The reports aren’t making any sense.”
“How’s Damien?”
John stopped and was relieved
that was the first thing out of Alex’s mouth. “He’s fine, Alex. Clean bill of
health and we’re already back home. He just fell asleep. Now what’s this I’m
hearing about shadow energy?”
Alex quickly briefed John on
what had happened. At the end, “You need to wake Damien and get him out of
there. I have no idea what that madman will do, but I can’t risk you two
getting hurt.”
“I’ll get right on it. I’ll keep
him safe, you just deal with the mad scientist turned monster.”
They hung up, and Alex pulled a
member of the Eagle Squad aside. “I need you to send a squadron to the main
engine and protect it from whatever that thing might do.”
The Eagleman nodded and made the
call before returning to help the scientists. Alex made to leave, but was
stopped by a lone scientist.
“Sir, can I have a moment?”
“You may have one, but
unfortunately that’s all I can offer right now.”
The scientist nodded. “Then I’ll
cut to the chase. I’ve developed a working anti-gravity engine.”
Alex was floored. “You, you did
it? And it’ll work?”
“Absolutely, sir. It’s only a
small one, but we can scale it up to as large as we need. I just finished
testing it minutes before all this happened.”
“That is outstanding! Put it
into production immediately. Use whatever help or resources you need, just
build those engines!” With that, Alex ran out of the facility. The engine
problem was fixed. Now to stop Abyss.
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