insanity runs in the family (Red, Alpha)

Breathe, that’s what he needed to do, breathe. Why did he need to breathe? Why was he afraid? Shadow couldn’t answer these questions and he was the one that asked them. All he knew was that he was alone, in a dark corridor that never ended. Continually he would walk forward only to pass where he started next to. The painting of himself and each time he passed it would change. From his normal self to a slowly degrading monster, skin peeled back, fire melting skin and his eyes, blank and uncaring and while at first he would call this monster a handsome future, Shadow began to worry, worry about what would become of his cheerful personality if this was to happen. A few more trips resulted in a change, the painting no longer existed but on the other hand however, it was replaced by a door and upon opening this door he was greeted by none other than two of him, two constructs in fact made of fire and shadows. These two constructs were in the middle of a heated argument from the looks of it, only no noise could be heard, no sound of voice. Like they were in a bubble of their own, which was until they both turned to Shadow and he took a step back. It was at that moment he knew who these constructs were, they were two people he hated most and one he thought was dead. “Well if it isn’t the two dimwits in a bag.” The retort however was quickly countered by Dark holding a hand up.

“The Revenant can’t talk yet, I can barely understand him from the mental link w e all share but..”   The demon was quickly cut off by Shadow who laughed hard at the commit. Mental connection? That sounded as stupid as their existence.  But there was one thing that annoyed him; he called the human a Revenant.

“What does that mean, mental connection?”  Shadow still had to ask, they were bound by soul, Human, Revenant and Demon. What else could be possibly going on, Shadow waited but realised he wasn’t going to get an answer but he did get a ticket out, in the form of a fireball created by Marcus. As the ball exploded against his chest, Shadow would awake from the dream, or was it. Maybe it was an internal affair of soul and soul. All he knew was that he was the one that had current control and it would stay like that forever, no matter how hard they tried. He wasn’t done yet. Feeling his chest, he would find no burnt clothes, boy how he had to buy new clothes to not seem too feral in the midst of the public. Made finding him harder too but still he didn’t know how many people knew the human by face rather than mask.
Soon after, Shadow had found himself at peace, his mask on, a man currently begging for his life as he was being hanged by the legs upside down on the edge of the building they were currently on. Shadow himself was lying down and thinking, enjoying the sun and as he closed his eyes he would take note the sun’s heat had been replaced, something was covering it.  “Damn clouds.”

You can't harm someones family and get away with it. That's a general rule everyone unfortunately doesn't live by. Hell, Lucius had killed family members just to spite someone before as well, but he liked to think he wasn't like that anymore, even if it wasn't true. He had seen the error in his ways, but he was prepared to take the backlash for all he had done. After all, you reap what you sow. However, this wasn't about Lucius really. It was about his son, and someone that had hurt him, badly, just to get a reaction out of Lucius. This had burned him to his very core, it had happened before, and he swore he would never let it happen again, but then it did. The psychotic little bastard tried to get under his skin, and he did. For that, he would pay the price. Shadow was someone Lucius couldn't help but straight up murder, the look on Lucas' face had insured that. So what was he going to do? Well, he was going to get rid of this orgy of personalities once and for all. He no longer felt sorry for him, he only felt hatred. He was sick of the contractions, sick of the games, and sick of the crazy actions of this person. So he was going to kill him, or do his best to try.

He had been doing a lot of research on demons as of late, getting a few items he figured would help him. Before he would have considered this all bullshit, but he had seen things, and had faith they would work against this smudge on the earths face. Firstly, he had used his connections and vast resources to get his hands on a small piece of the true cross, which he imbued in his blade, Cora Zen. It likely wouldn't stay that way, but for the purposes of this fight he wanted everything he could get on his side. Secondly, he got water from the river Jordan, said to be blessed by Saint Benedict himself. This he also but into his blade, or rather, it's energy. He didn't know if it would get him anywhere, but it was worth trying. And, of course, he plated the blade with silver. Countless stories and folklore couldn't be wrong about that one.

Tracking Shadow down wouldn't be hard, so Lucius got together with Alpha, explaining what had happened and telling him what needed to be done, and the two would presumably move out. In no time they would teleport to the roof of the building Shadow was staying at, and from there the confrontation would likely begin. Lucius saw Shadow standing across from him, he wanted to immediately get to the whole death and despair thing, but he held back, drawing his sword.

"You know why i'm here? Or did another personality take control since our last encounter? Either way, it doesn't matter, I'm done." Lucius asked, anger radiating from his voice. This was going to get ugly fast, but Lucius had beaten Shadow once, he could do it again, Alpha was just icing on the metaphorical death cake.

Alpha had looked over the file compiled multiple times until the information had sunk into his head and rooted there. Not too much was known about this unknown metahuman, but their powerset was known at least. Umbrakinesis, a strange form of pyrokinesis, and various shadow related abilities and even regeneration. Alpha had faced him before but their powers then had been far less than they were now. This suggested they had managed to evolve, or maybe they weren’t using their full measure of powers back then. Either way they had done something that was not so easily forgiven by someone like him, and that was daring to harm one of his children. Sure, it may have not been entirely his fault, but then again they were the one that had done the actual damage so they would pay either way. Considering that it had been a child created with the use of Lucius’ DNA, well he had a shared ally within this revenge of theirs.

Not that he would let the take their vengeance alone, otherwise anyone would think they could cross him and walk away with nothing happening to them. No Alpha would not simply allowed to go unpunished, and this time he could likely actually go through with it. Lucius had seemingly prepared for this, though he was so kind as to share his information on the things weaknesses, or what he assumed they were. In the end it was all superstitious nonsense to be sure, but then again he would trust Lucius’ judgement for now. So he had armed himself with a belt laden with throwing stars form of silver, or at the very least rimmed with silver to allow the cutting edges to do their things, and manipulating them with telekinesis would make things so much easier really. Not that he had anything along the lines of holy water like Lucius did, but then again Alpha was not one to put stock in blessings.

He left the tracking to Lucius while he prepared a few other things incase he needed them. Dozens of small spheres wrapped around his right left as well as his right arm, unremarkable save for small buttons settled upon them, though their purpose would not be revealed until it was time. Then it came down to finding them and setting up the little battle in question. That was the hard part, though that meaning it was hard in comparison to everything else so it was not very hard at all. Dressed up in usual apparel save for what he had brought with him , he would let Lucius talk as he so enjoyed doing, of course he would let Lucius make the first move.

Shadow had felt like dropping the man he had in his shadows in annoyance from the clouds taking his sunlight but then he heard a voice, Lucius's voice and the surprise made him take a step back while opening his eyes to see two figures in-front of him. Shadow didn't know who the other man was but his eyes focused on Lucius and his weapon, all in all he kinda looked holy and Shadow had to fight to stifle a small giggle from the looks and manged to quiet himself down when Lucius's spoke. His words annoyed him much like Dark's words did.

"Personality's? Honey it's all demon in here but if you must know. Yes it's me, the guy who fought your child monster slave that I don't know, who did more damage. Me or you?" Shadow would ask before sitting down and dropping the man he had, hearing a scream before a thud. "And who's this pretty princess. You gonna make him fight me so you can watch from afar and see another one of your minions get hurt? Hmmm?" Shadow would try to taught before sighing, knowing that Lucius would most likely attack then retort and so he felt prepared. Their were two of them, so two attacks at the same time and they didn't look like they would be fighting each other any time soon. He had his hand filled to the brim and seemingly out of luck, maybe he should have kept the body to throw at them.

Lucius just couldn't help but chuckle at the kid. He really wore that demon tag proudly didn't he? It wasn't like that was exactly honorable, but perhaps demons liked being demons. Though this one seemed to just eat people all day. Did all demons do that? Lucius doubted it. They had to be a little smarter then that right? Do something else, it seemed this demon was just really, really trying to let everyone know how evil and diabolical it was. Well he could kick the dog all he wanted, Lucius only saw a sad sad excuse for life in front of him.

"You're even more annoying then i remembered. Honestly i wouldn't be able to decipher your words between those of a whiny five year old desperately trying to insult someone who hurt their feelings. But I'm not here to banter, I'm here to send you and everyone else in there back to hell." Lucius said. It was at this point a thin, none visible layer of red energy formed around most of Lucius' sword. Using this to manipulate the blade, he seemingly launched it outward telekinetically. Its vibration function would activate, and it fired out at shadows head with immense speed. If the male dodged, well the blade would continued to swing at him as it floated. If he tried to blast it with shadow or fire, it would just cut right through as it was quite indestructible as well as vibrating at a rate no material could withstand. The speed and friction of the blade was far to much for even the strongest of barriers to shield against, it would barrel right through anything shadow could throw at it.

Demon or not, this man was unduly overconfident. Already Alpha could tell he would enjoy ripping them apart, anything to shut that annoying mouth of theirs. Not that goading him by calling him a princess would do anything beyond annoy Alpha, but then again that might have been a good thing in the end. Lucius appeared to be more annoyed with this than he was, not that Alpha could really blame him. Having to hear this annoying psuedo demon talk would have made anyone else furious really, but then again Lucius was also known for having a poor handle on his emotions compared to Alpha. In fact the red energy manipulating metahuman would make the first move, flinging their blade with what appeared to be the use of telekinesis. However, that did not seem right considering they had not shown the ability to use telekinesis, meaning that it was likely just an application of his energy.

Putting himself into the next portion of the fight, a few of the throwing stars would unclasp themselves from their holsters and fly in an erratic fashion, meant to distract shadow from the attacks that Lucius was throwing his way or using them as a distraction to actually hit.

Shadow's eye's moved from one to the other, and then Lucius spoke which was a bedazzlement. Even if it wasn't the right meaning, the word sounded like the situation. Maybe in the end he had still gotten into Lucius's head. If it was Shadow in his position then he would have outright attacked when the man wasn't ready. So why speak, was it to clear a conscious, to have final words on a being he seemed to consider pitiful, would it be because he was annoyed? It didn't seem like the man to be annoyed by one he considered a demon in mind and revenge. Shadow wasn't able to think about it anymore when he saw Lucius's sword start flying at him and The pretty Princess had also thrown small star shaped blades.

Rather then attacking or defending, Shadow would wait a bit before looking towards the spot that these two stood so confidently. It was simple, seemed these two would together, be a problem but one on one Shadow had the advantage and he planned to try and use that. With the thought in mind, Shadow would explode into a array of shadows before suddenly appearing in-front of the two, still sitting down but close enough that he appeared to have his right hand, extended, open palmed and inches away from Lucius's chest and his left hand the same but facing The Princess.

As soon as he would appear like this, Shadow would send a extending solid rectangle like tendril at Red's chest to try to push him off the building with a large amount of force and just as quickly he would release a torrent of hellfire at the pretty princess, they may have opened with the first attack but this was what Shadow like to think of as the surprise counter... Or the Wa-bam. He needed to find better words. A mental note for later.

How predictable. Of course Shadow was going to use his ability to meld into a shadow. It seemed to be what he lead with most of the time, at least defensively. Lucius knew that whenever someone teleported or otherwise used an ability that made them temporarily undetectable that they would either go behind their target, or in front of them. It was a basic attack pattern people rarely veered from, unless of course they were trained by Lucius. As soon as Hector's scanners picked up on the fact Shadow was using his shadow form, Lucius was notified instantly. That combined with his superb reaction time made this attack seem slow and all around child's play. All Lucius had to do was put up a field of red energy, which the tendril hit, doing little all around damage as it seemed to just be to push Lucius off but all it ended up doing was pushing against the constructed energy shield.

After the tendril dispersed or ceased, it was go time. Lucius didn't care about being cautious right now, he was pissed off, but a determined pissed off. Though it could be exploited, Lucius felt it wouldn't matter. He wanted to cut loose, he hadn't done so in a long while. So, Lucius turned the energy field into a blast and sent it outward at shadow, point blank, and then pressed forward to keep close to shadow as he would likely be sent falling back if he were hit by the blast. Next his sonic emitter floated off his belt on it's own accord, being lifted by a solidified energy field just as Lucius' sword was. After that it floated toward shadow and dropped on the ground before activating, sending out that horrible screeching sound that would inhibit any kind of thought and thus power activation itself. Hopefully Alpha would recognize the device and plug his ears, if Lucius remembered correctly it did a number on him last time he used it.

From there, well four bombs floated from Lucius' belt, unclasping from their high tech containers before flying at shadow. These were powerful enough to level a convenient store, each. Once they got close enough they would activate and blow up, one after the other, in a bright fiery inferno. Lucius himself continued to walk forward, his repulsive field fully visible as it sputtered at the damages it was taking, but he himself was fine. Lucius didn't know if shadow would shadow port while in the center of what was essentially a giant light bulb, but if he did Hector would track the shadows he turned into and would tell Lucius instantly where he would go, and then Lucius would send his sword flying blade first toward that point, after which it would fly back to it's sheath. He really didn't care right now, he was ready to be reckless and brutal, he didn't even care if he took damage in his pursuit of the demon.

Within a manner of a second the demon was gone, and time around Alpha seemed to slow to a crawl as his perception would pick up the pace really. For him a second would stretch out into an eternity, as they would materialize before him within a burst of shadows with each hand directed towards one of them. He could see the fire spark to life within their hands and he knew where that was doing, so Alpha made a counter to that within an instant even if the time between then felt like forever. What he would do was exert a minute telekinetic pressure upon Shadows arm, forcing it to veer off course to the point that it would release the flames in a direction where Alpha nor Lucius was standing. Considering how close they were, simply blocking it would have been impossible and that gave him leeway for his next move as the blades themselves were still within his control.

With his perception still kicked into overdrive, he would let the stars fly around and come in from shadows sides with exceptional speed without Alpha having to do anything really. Part of his attention shot towards Lucius removing a very familiar object, one that would have likely ruined him had he not thought of a way to get around such a dangerous method. All it took really was to oscillate the air around his body, producing a faint shield that would prevent the sound waves from reaching him. In a sense it would protect him from the attack, but Shadow on the other hand likely did not have such protection against it. Lucius would release a few bombs and with a loud boom they exploded, releasing flames across the room as they danced around his telekinetic barrier which had formed from the soundproofing that Alpha had done.

Releasing a few spheres from their claps, Alpha let them settle between his fingers. The throwing stars that had been flying around were reduced to slag but then again he had more than that to help him out within this fight. Two more would release from their clasps and fly towards wherever shadow formed.

Shadow felt pressure on his shadow pole and his flame moving into different directions, seemed these two were far quicker then the normal man. Frontal attacks wouldn't work. Then he realized he was being pushed back by the extending pole and and was dragged along the ground, making a small distance away from the two. A blast coming from Red, Shadow would raise a wall of darkness that connected with the blast and made both pop into nothing. Standing, he began to pump out the mist to better get some ground but was stopped from a searing pain in his side. Looking he would find a few star things lodged in his skin and they burnt like hell. But it didn't stop their, the next moment came, a loud screeching sound that took his brain a moment to register as painful and not wanting this thing to annoy him he grabbed at the retreating mist and formed spikes along his hand before stabbing them into his ear's. The noise monumentally gone and allowed for better focus which was directed to the four objects that Lucius had flying at him and with the first exploding, Shadow gave a thought and he melded to a shadow.

As all three explosions would end, Shadow would appear before them, still in his shadow form and he watched as the sword came and went. Watched as the small stars fell from his body, all melted and bloody and slowly he would walk towards the pretty princess planning on making contact with him until all of a sudden his form unmelded and he was a physical, taking two more stars that lodged themselves in his skin. A bit of his skin and clothes were red and burnt from the first explosion but started to healed along with his ears. All but the small lacerations made by the small stars, the wounds were taking their time to start healing. "Ok. Which one of you brought me out of that. I just wanted to give the pretty princess a hug." Shadow would groan in his demonic voice as he looked around for someone, trying to pull the stars from wherever they landed. Seemed Lucius was rushing his attack's and the princess waited.