Shade: Unbound

For the second time in two days, Finn found himself running away from one of the most dangerous men in the district. Or trying to, really.

In the brief instant after they spotted each other, Trooper had already retracted that deadly grappling hook—which was much larger, sharper, and sturdier than his own—and aimed it in the place where Finn was going to be.

Given that he preferred his organs inside his body, he had to dodge, but he couldn’t just dive out of the way because he had no leverage in midair. Instead, he quickly shot his second hook downward to connect to another window on the opposite building and narrowly avoided getting his head turned into strawberry jam.

His hand moved instinctively to cover his face when Trooper’s hook brutally smashed through the window and sent shards of glass flying everywhere. He knew the man would be following right behind, and he also knew that he was still holding the rifle he’d picked up earlier.

Without hesitation, he shot straight at Bodkin’s right hand man. Part of him had expected it to shoot blanks or for it to be out of ammo, but that wasn’t the case. The bullets ripped out of it so wildly that Finn almost lost his unwieldy one-handed grip on it. They hit Trooper’s arm.

And bounced right off.

Of course, he’d never expected it to actually finish the job. He was aware that Trooper had a warrior-type ability, but the fact that a gun couldn’t even trigger his complementary power was… frustrating.

None of that was going to slow him down though, he couldn’t afford to let it. The moment he did, he was dead. He dropped the gun to have his hands free again, jumping off the building to create as much distance as possible.

Trooper, for his part, didn’t look to be taking this seriously at all. As a matter of fact, none of his body language betrayed anything other than immaculate form. This man was extremely well-trained. He was undeterred.

This was the point where Finn was starting to realize the consequences of what he’d just done. Not only had they just kicked the hornet’s nest that was the Venin, he had now picked a fight with Homeland as well. And he wasn’t affiliated with the DHD. He didn’t have the government’s resources. He was some kid with no backing that had nothing to protect him against two giant supervillain organizations, both of which had ample motivation to end his life.

He didn’t even have his team to watch his back right now. No Lyra, no Jack. It was only him, with a trained killer hot on his heels. He might have succeeded in saving his mother, but the universe seemed intent on letting him know how hard he’d jinxed it thinking Bodkin’s departure made things easy.

And if he had to create a bigger gap, the building Homeland had taken over would fall out of his range, leaving them free to do whatever it was they had come there to do. Unless the DHD heroes managed to solve that whole thing.

Either way, it was out of his hands now. He’d even planned on staying just to maintain the cover of having come there to save the people, and in a way, he was still doing that. He was dividing their forces by drawing away one of their top executives. Considering the fact that Trooper had single-handedly defeated half the Junior Aces not too long ago, they probably weren’t complaining that he was out of their hair.

Besides, it was too late for takebacks. He had already decided in favor of getting out in the open rather than getting trapped in a room with a stronger enemy.

With the benefit of hindsight, he was realizing that might not have been an optimal decision, seeing as Trooper was drawing a ranged weapon of his own. A bulky firearm with what Finn assumed was a huge loading chamber.

It was a good thing he didn’t have to keep looking over his shoulder to see where the weapon was being aimed, thanks to his very recently acquired sensory ability. Sprinting off another ledge, he dove away from the line of fire, quickly latching into the next roof and pulling himself in that direction.

A glowing red sphere sailed past him, right onto the path Finn had been about to take. It erupted in flames, cutting off his escape. The only other way was back, but Trooper was sure to cut him off there.

But he had an answer for this.

One flex of his power was all it took for the fire to go unnaturally black and die down in a matter of moments, leaving Finn free to sprint through and jump away again. It would be wishful thinking to imagine this sudden reversal would buy him much time, and he wasn’t about to put it to the test.

His stomach lurched from yet another jump as he sensed Trooper produce a gun, this time trained straight on him. He fired the second grappling hook which he’d been keeping handy in case he needed to shift courses. Like now.

The white-hot laser that came out of Trooper’s weapon scorched a deep furrow of molten stone in the wall. Finn had to push away from a wall with his staff to dodge, but it still grazed his shoulder. Underneath his mask, his face contorted in a grimace at the feeling of his skin being seared off.

Finn gritted his teeth against the pain, adrenaline pumping through his veins as he swung away from the lethal beam. The building beside him cracked and sizzled from the intense heat. He needed cover.

This time shooting his grappling hook lower, He zigzagged between the different structures around them in an attempt to get some breathing room.

His camouflage had been active the entire time, and while he couldn’t use it to maximum effectiveness, it should have made a difference whenever he managed to get out of sight to change direction.

The only explanation was that the villain wasn’t relying on normal vision to track him. Still, he tried to shake his pursuer as best he could.

But Trooper wasn’t having it. He targeted Finn’s hook. Or rather, its cable.

That was bad.

It only took half a second to snap under the relentless heat, causing Finn to plummet with his remaining momentum. He recovered in a breath, shooting down his other hook at the road below and landing in a roll.

His opponent dropped straight to the ground, showing not even a hint of strain from the thirty-meter drop. The road cracked underneath his boots, and the two of them faced off.

Bystanders either scattered or pulled out phones to get some exclusive footage. In this brief moment of respite, Finn tried to get as much air in his lungs as possible.

Normally, this was where a conversation would take place between the two sides, be it to negotiate terms or for pure showmanship. But Finn wasn’t very talkative with his enemies. And based on all media coverage, neither was the person in front of him.

Without warning, the fight was back on. Trooper bounded toward Finn, sending chunks of asphalt flying in his wake. From his wrist, a translucent purple blade materialized, emitting a dangerous hum as it slashed horizontally.

Finn’s life almost ended right then and there. The reason it hadn’t was because Finn had unleashed the kinetic build-up in his staff at the ground below them. This had created a small crater, made invisible by his power. Not enough to be a threat, but sufficient to throw off Trooper’s footing on the last step.

As a result, the blade had not touched any of his vital organs. It did leave a nasty cut on his thigh, though. The fact that his movement wasn’t impaired was a small consolation.

Not wanting to miss the opening, Finn used his glove to hit Trooper with an ineffectual electric shock, backing out immediately after doing so. That was his best shot at making it out of a close-range confrontation alive. As Jack had told him, dealing with warrior types as someone with baseline human physicality could only be done by staying ahead, preventing oneself from getting caught in an exchange that was bound to end in defeat.

So instead of reacting to Trooper, which was impossible, Finn guessed where the attacks were going to land and dodged accordingly, trying to widen the gap between them. However, even that much would have ended in him getting bisected if his grappling hook didn’t pull him away at the last second.

He reoriented himself and landed on his feet near the side of the road. In the periphery, Finn could see the passersby looking on in shock and awe. Ignoring them, he used his power to apply his hole-in-the-ground technique despite knowing Trooper wouldn’t fall for it; he was really just doing the reverse of what he’d pulled earlier.

In fact, Trooper stopped running altogether. Retracting his blade, he skewered a car with his grappling hook, sending sparks flying as he tugged on the chord and tossed the vehicle right at Finn.

Under any other circumstance, he would have dodged that by traveling up a building with his remaining hook, but doing that would mean death. Not for him, but for a recording girl staring dumbly at her impending doom over there on the sidewalk.

She was too far away for him to reach her without traveling backwards, so he shot his hook at a door behind her and yanked himself over. He kicked the girl out of the way as he passed her, but he didn’t see her reaction.

The car slammed into him, and even with the blunt force absorbent underlayer he was wearing, even while traveling with the momentum of the impact, it still hurt like crazy. He crashed straight through a window in a rain of glass, tumbling end over end across a wooden floor, into a… rack of blazers?

It was at that point he realized he was in a clothing store. He winced and forced his protesting body to get up before it was too late. Glancing to the side, he saw an employee gawking at him with wide eyes. “Run,” he commanded. She didn’t need to be told twice.

To his dismay, he could see Trooper coming through the entrance. In preparation, he built up the energy in his staff again, though he had no idea how he was going to land another hit.

His taciturn would-be executioner unclasped the laser cannon once more, leveling it at him. This was it. Nowhere to run or hide. If he didn’t think of something here and now, he was dead.

Then it hit him. He raised a hand.

From an outside perspective, it would’ve looked like Finn was gesturing for mercy. But that could not be further from the truth. In reality, he was applying his power where he knew it would be effective.

It was only a day prior that he had learned of his ability to affect the color of people's weapons. And all that time spent learning about reflectivity hadn’t gone to waste, as he now knew the internal structure of Trooper’s weapon would be using reflective surfaces to fire the laser. He could sense as much too.

Figuring out how to disrupt that process was easy. He simply had to stop those surfaces from reflecting light, which took nothing more than a simple application of black, at maximum intensity.

Trooper pulled the trigger. The cannon blew up in his face.

Finn sprinted forward, knowing he wouldn’t be getting another opportunity like this. With full force, he bashed the staff into Trooper’s visor and activated the kinetic charge. There was an audible crack.

Spurts of blood came from the smoke, but Finn didn’t stay to see how much damage he’d done. He needed to get out of here, fast.

Belatedly, he noticed his camouflage had come undone on its own. He reactivated it and dashed out of the store, his leg protesting as he did so. He wasn’t sure how many of his bones were broken. Maybe none, but he was definitely feeling some bruising in his side.

His hook carried him to a rooftop, and a loud crash from below told him Trooper was ready for another round. Because why wouldn’t he be? His power, in addition to his strong physique, was that of hyper-regeneration. He had a fitting name, honestly. Beside his varied arsenal and extensive combat experience, he was known to be able to get up from just about anything. The latest entry on that list of feats was taking a hit to the skull from a metal staff with enough force to shatter concrete.

That was the reason Finn had been so certain this fight was unwinnable for him. He simply didn’t have the firepower to put this juggernaut down.

That was also the reason dealing damage hadn’t been his goal to begin with. No, his real aim had been to destroy the visual equipment Trooper was using to keep him in sight.

And when Trooper ascended another building and looked around, that seemed to have worked. Finn was already running away again, not wanting to waste time. He was confident Trooper would have redundancies, but if those were even a little bit less efficient than the original method, he had an advantage.

Sure enough, Trooper now had some sort of watch-like device on his wrist. But what he might have lacked in accuracy, he was now making up for in area of effect. Before Finn knew it, Trooper had cast a massive net over the building he was jumping over.

Knowing he couldn’t get caught, he looped around and just out of its range.

Into a blast of concussive force.

He recovered a beat later, starting to alternate between high and low to make himself more unpredictable. Trooper kept firing more of those shock waves, each of them corralling Finn closer to the villain’s line of sight.

This was not going well. He knew that. He’d long since known victory was impossible, but to be unable to escape? It was embarrassing beyond measure. His expression hardened, and he kept going.

When he went for another leap, he saw a white bird in the sky circling above him, red markings covering its feathers. He squinted. Was that a primebeast?

Then, miraculously, a voice started speaking, the words unintelligible. It sounded like it was coming from right next to him, but there wasn’t anyone close besides the man chasing him.

The voice spoke again.

‘Shade?’