Shades of Justice Page 49

It took some convincing but Dante was able to get Sonya into a hover chair and take her into the kitchen area.

Kelly had made tea, coffee, and cocoa. Warren was working on eggs and toast when Dante moved Sonya into the room.

Gordon pulled a soda from the fridge and opened it. "Warren what were you saying about drones earlier?" he asked.

Warren swapped toast for bread in the toaster and pressed the lever down. "Ever since Kyle cut that doorway into the command center storage, I've been going through it to see what all there is." He flipped the eggs in the pan. "And there's a lot. I asked Technarious about it all and apparently while Blinding Light is rebuilt every few years, there is a huge arsenal of weapons and technology that just sit in storage until they are needed again." he plated the first two eggs next to his toast and cracked two more eggs into the pan. "The drones look like they're at least a decade old but if there are any issues the system can repair them just like the system repairs Blinding Light." Warren finished.

Sonya nodded. "We understand that the drones exist, what did you want to do with them?" She asked.

Warren handed the spatula to Kelly grabbed the plate of eggs and toast and brought it over to Sonya. "I think we could use them to scout the mood base. We can map the entire place out including population movement before we ever step foot on the moon." He smiled proudly.

Sonya was halfway into a slice of toast. "When can they be ready to go? What happens if they are detected or destroyed? How long will it take to get the information we need, assuming they aren't detected or destroyed?" She asked each question between bites of toast.

Warren walked back to the toaster and pulled fresh toast from it. "The drones have cloaking technology. It should keep them almost completely invisible." he said putting the fresh toast in front of Sonya.

"Almost completely?"Gordon asked.

Warren nodded. "Nothing is ever 100% guaranteed. There are thirty two of the drones. So we can lose a few before we're in real trouble." Kelly waved him away from the stove, so he sat down at the table.

"How many is 'a few'?" Dante asked.

Warren shrugged. "Ten? Maybe half? The fewer we have the longer it will take to complete the survey." He explained.

Sonya nodded. "And we can't go and defend them because the reason we're sending them in the first place is so we know what were walking into down there." Warren nodded. "Well then." Sonya sighed. "Only one question remains." Everyone looked at her. "Do we have any sriracha for the eggs?" She asked with a smile.

Shades of Justice: Page 48

Technarious had given them a week. A seven day vacation from the mess their lives had become.

Dante never left. Kelly returned the morning of the fourth day to check on Sonya. Gordon arrived not long after. Warren was the last to arrive, shortly before noon.

He teleported into the command center in mid sentence. " - narious, couldn't we use the drones  - " He looked up from his tablet to see the others looking at him. "Oh, you all came back early." He smiled. Then stopped in confusion. "Why?" He asked.

"Because" Sonya mumbled quietly from the med bed. Everyone turned their attention to her in excitement. Dante shut off the containment field and helped her sit up. "five days ago we were just a bunch of kids with some training, a planet to defend, and a robot to defend it with." She started.

Kelly nodded. "I'm tired of being just a kid barely surviving the world." She added.

"I've finally found something worth really fighting for." Gordon offered.

"This is where I can do the most good." Dante added.

"We've all seen just how hard it is to make it as individuals, we weren't ready to depend on each other, to need each other, but now, we're ready to become a team." Sonya finished.

Technarious nodded. "You telling me or yourselves?" he asked.

Sonya shook her head. "I'm not telling, I'm warning, anyone who gets in our way. We were barely five and oh, thanks to dumb luck, pinch hitters, suicide saves, and really, really dumb luck. All that changes, right now."

"You think the enemies of earth are that afraid of a bunch of kids in a robot?" Mark asked.
Sonya shook her head. "I know they're not, but they're damn well going to fear The Shades of Justice." She stood up on her own two feet.

Technarious nodded again. "Then lets get to work."

Shades of Justice: Page 47

Kelly was a great swimmer. She was good at sprints but better at distance. She had absolutely shattered school records and been a dependable scorer since she was a freshman. The other girls called her a work horse, her coach called her “hey you!” or “The quiet one.” She was not a star player, never one of the favorites. She was in all ways, exceptionally invisible.

And she liked it that way.

She had only touched the pool once since becoming a Shade and it had been forty minutes of pure bliss. This time she told herself she didn’t even need to swim. She could just relax, float, and let her ear plugs join forces with the water and make her functionally deaf to the world.

She didn’t even notice she had started laps until she was in the middle of her third turn. STOP! a part of her brain demanded. You can’t run away from this! It warned. There is no lap number, no yardage that will give you enough distance to make a clean get away!

She swam until her arms and legs were screaming louder than her mind.

When she stopped she was almost eight thousand yards away from where she had started, but when she pulled her goggles off and her earplugs out she was still in the same pool, the same school, the same life, with the same problems.

Her arms were pillars of flaming jello but she still pulled herself up out of the water and onto the deck. She rolled over onto her back and let the rush of oxygen from her huge chest raising breaths artificially lighten her mood.

“Did you make it?” Gordon asked.

Kelly opened her eyes. Gordon was looking down at her. She sat up slowly. “Nope. I got seventy eight hundred yards in before I realized I was still here.” She sighed.

He sat next to her. “There are more efficient ways to escape.” He pointed out.

She nodded. “Escape from what? I can go anywhere I want, when ever I want.” She admitted.

He nodded. “But your still stuck inside your own head.” He admitted looking at the school record board on the far side of the pool.

She looked at him for a second. “Why are you here?” She asked.

He shrugged and then met her gaze. “If I have to be stuck in this prison.” He tapped his head. “The least I can do is get to know the people in the other cells.” He smiled.

They both went back to looking at the scoreboard.

The surface of the pool had long ago gone flat like glass before she realized they were holding hands.

Shades of Justice: Page 46

Dante slept hard and woke up tossing and turning. It took him a moment to realize where he was and what had been happening before his nightmares. He wiped sweat from his brow and Sat up, instantly feeling the wear and tear from the last few days in his shoulders. He yawned so deeply his jaw popped. He got up off the bed and slid his shoes back on. Near the door he smelled coffee.

Further down the hall he found a large room that looked more like an office building break room than a futuristic command center. There was a coffee pot on the counter that was almost full and bubbling happily. He opened cabinets until he found a mug and grabbed the coffee pot to fill it.

He was alone at a table over a half drunk mug when Mark walked into the room. "Good morning." He offered, grabbing his own mug from the cupboard. "You snore like a demon, by the way." he said with a smile. "So I hope you slept well, because I didn't" He took his full mug and sat at the table with Dante.

Dante was dazed, and still half awake. "Nightmare's." He grunted. "Feels less like I slept and more like I was dead for a few hours." He sipped from his cup. "Did I miss anything?" He asked.

Mark shook his head. "No, I would have waken you for anything important." He assured. 

They sat in silence drinking coffee for a few moments. Waking reality was starting to seep back into Dante's mind. He got up and started to pace slowly. "How long do you think she'll be unconscious?" He asked.

Mark shrugged. "I dunno, I'm not a doctor." He said with little comfort.

Dante kept moving. "I should have gone instead of her." He told mostly himself.

Mark "Oh sure, That's why there are five of you. So the other four can beat themselves up every time one of you makes a dangerous decision. It's fun, you'll see. The bad guys aren't the real danger, it's the ulcers from guilt that'll really kill you." He finished and drank his coffee.

Dante stopped pacing. "Look I appreciate everything you've done for us, really I do, but are you our boss? the sixth member of the team? the Obi-Wan to our five lukes?" Dante asked.

Mark tried not to smile. "Why do you ask?" He asked.

Dante shrugged. "Because if she weren't on that med bay I wouldn't stick around here any longer than I physically had to and I can't think of a reason that anyone would. So why'd you stay?" He asked.

Mark thought about it for a second, sipped his coffee and set it down on the table softly. "Shakespeare" He finally replied.

Dante was thrown for a loop. "Excuse me?" He asked.

Mark smiled. "Plenty and peace breeds cowards, hardness ever of hardiness is mother." He clarified.

Dante was still lost. "You say that like it makes sense." He pointed out.

Mark "There is a mindset among a certain type of person, that there is an inherent horribleness in the universe that travels by way of osmosis. More easily infecting and thus destroying anyone who has known an easy and carefree life. That only constant preparation and holding watch against evils both great and terrible can successfully prepare a person to repel such evils should the need arise, and that a society that sees no need in such a preparation is not only destined for destruction but unworthy of the lofty position previous hardened souls lifted it too in the first place." He stopped to take a drink.

Dante "And this is what you believe?" He asked.

Mark shook his head. "The exact opposite in fact." He smiled. "I believe that we have an unfortunate addiction to believing our narrative is the central and singular reason for the existence of the universe, and that to believe such a thing regardless of all the evidence to the contrary is to turn a blind eye to the incomprehensibly vast and impossibly chaotic universe."

Dante nodded "So you do believe that peace breeds weakness." He circled back around.

Mark shook his head. "No I believe that ignorance does, but the human mind can only focus on so much at any one moment. And if keeping the peace for my friends and family and everyone else on earth means my life is focused on the villainy of extra-terrestrial chaos, then so be it. I will be the hardness ever of hardiness that breeds the plenty and peace."

Dante swirled the last bit of coffee in his mug. "What about the cowards?" He asked.

Mark finished his coffee. "That's what Shakespeare and every other doomsday preper got wrong. Peace doesn't breed cowards. Cowards just are and always will be. There is no amount of hardness that can breed out fear, nor breed it in any deeper than it already is." He stood up and smiled at Dante. "I stay because this seems like the best place for me to do the most good I know how to do. And that helps me sleep at night." He shut off the coffee maker. "Now come on, let's go check on Sonya." He finished.

Shades of Justice: Page 45

After six hours of sleep, six sodas and six toaster pastries, Warren found himself on the bus headed to QQPewPew. He didn't really know what else to do with his free time.

He entered the mall through the food court and made his way down the hall to QQPewPew. He could see from a ways off that most of the screens were running the same match of the same game, which mean that there was a tournament of something playing. He got closer to the store and realized it was Heroes Guard. A team based, field control, character focused, First Person Shooter.

He walked into the store and move around and in between the audience, he stopped at Arthur's desk where Arthur was uncharacteristically watching the match rather than playing on his Gameboy. 

Arthur held his fist out and Warren bumped it. "Who's playing?" Warren asked.

"Scrubkings versus Fat Sami" Arthur replied without looking away from the match. 

Warren watched the match for a moment. The commentator camera was floating above the center of the arena and Turtle Soup was on a three kill streak effectively blocking the choke point allowing Falsetto to gain much needed distance to the goal.

Arthur pointed to the father and son that Warren had introduced himself to the last time he had been at the store. "You're friends are sitting right there. if you feel like saying hi after this point I'm sure they'd enjoy seeing you." He waved Warren off as Falsetto scored the point for his team and the match field reset to cheers and groans from the audience.

Warren made is way through the crowd over to the chairs where the father and son were sitting, kneeling down behind them as the commentators laid out the current game state. "Hey Frankie" Warren said almost had to shout. Frankie and his father turned around. "Who's winning?" He asked with a smile.

Frankie's eyes got wide and he smiled from ear to ear. "Warren!" he shouted into Warren's face.

"With the rest timer hitting ten seconds, it's looking more and more like this is Fat Sami's game to win unless the Scrubkings can figure out a way to neutralize Turtle Soup who has been playing at the top of his game today John." The first announcers voice oppressively filled the room.

"Don't count Scrubkings out yet Tory, Duster and Burnt Toast are both clutch players that have incredible records coming from behind to win not just matches, but entire tournaments for the Scubkings. These guys didn't make it to worlds on accident."

"Absolutely John, Well ladies and gentlemen the round has reset and we've gotten green lights from both Scrubkings and Fat Sami to begin round four."

The screen flashed from the commentators to the game area again as Warren, Frankie and his dad turned their attention to the match.

After the game had finished the three of them decided to have lunch in the food court before the afternoon matches got started. Frankie was almost coming out of his skin he was so excited. "How did you get started as a pro gamer?" he asked.

His father leaned over a little. "Frankie you don't need to bombard him with questions all the time." 

Frankie nodded. "Sorry."

Warren shook his head. "It's fine, I promise." He said with a smile. "I actually got really sick the summer before last and had a long recovery time. I was playing MS a lot because my parents cause it had been a birthday present. The end of that summer there was a pro qualifier tournament and I got notice that my player score was high enough to go. I told my mom that I wanted to at least try and so I basically took over my parents computer and practiced like crazy. My parents took me to the tournament and I came in somewhere in the low twenties out of the almost two hundred that showed up for the event. I even played a match that was streamed online. I made about three hundred for my placement and had my entry into fall qualifiers covered by the company. just like everyone else in the top fifty. I was hooked. Placed 8th at fall qualifiers, my parents wanted their computer back so I used part of my prize money to buy myself a laptop and never looked back." Warren explained.

Frankie nodded. and poked at his hot dog. "So why'd you quit?" He asked nervously.

Warren wiggled the straw in his drink for a second. "Because as much as I love gaming, I had some responsibilities come up that were more important. and unfortunately taking care of those responsibilities mean I had to put my gaming career on pause for a little while." He said sadly.

Frankie nodded again. "But you want to come back?" He asked.

Warren nodded. "Very much so, I hope when I do come back that the game hasn't passed me by yet." He said.

Frankie lit up."You're so good though! can't you keep practicing in your free time?" He almost shouted.

Warren smiled. "We'll see about that." he pointed at Frankie. "What about you? You going to stay a spectator or do you want to be a player?" he asked with a grin.

Frankie blushed and nodded to his dad. "I'm not nearly good enough." He replied.

His dad rustled his hair. "He's good enough to beat the pants off of me in every single game we've ever played. He's said he'd like to try for Heroes Guard when he gets old enough." His dad added.

Frankie looked shocked. "You said only if I kept my grades up, when I actually got to a grade that gave grades." He laughed.

His father nodded. "And that's still true. If trying out for a pro spot is something you want to do and you can balance it with school then I'll do what ever I can to help you son." His father smiled.

Warren finished his soda. smiling at the pair across the table from him. "Thanks for having lunch with me today." He thank them.

Frankie laughed. "You're thanking us!" He said in shock. "My friends at school still won't believe that I've meet you!" He couldn't keep his voice down.

Warren laughed and pulled his phone out of his pocket. "How about a picture then?" He said.

Frankie was forcing himself not to vibrate into a different universe in excitement. "DAD, DAD, DAD," He shoved his own phone into his dad's fumbling hands as he jumped out of his chair and scrambled around the table. "take the picture dad!" He laughed as he stood next to Warren and they fist bumped and his father took awkwardly framed photo after awkwardly framed photo.

 

Shades of Justice: Page 44

Gordon arrived in the kitchen of his parents home. his phone said it was about ten in the morning on Tuesday but he was so tired that it didn't mean anything to his mind. He heated up two toaster waffles and ate them without thinking about it. withing fifteen minutes of getting home had kicked off his shoes and passed on on his bed.

He shot awake like a gun had gone off. His room was dark. the glasses in the pocket of his Letterman jacket were dark as well and had no messages waiting for him when he put them on. His phone said it was 5:30pm. He went downstairs and found his parents already home and going about their usual evening routines.

His mother was in the kitchen making something sweet for one charity or another. She had changed out of her business attire into old sweats and gotten right back to work. She saw him out of corner of her eye as she was pouring melted chocolate from a pot into a pan to cool. "Gordon, Your coach called today, he says you quit football." She said with most of her attention on the chocolate.

Gordon nodded. "I uh, I don't know, school's gotten pretty intense this year and football just isn't as fulfilling as it used to be, I guess." He fumbled.

His father came into the kitchen. "School and your grades is the most important thing son, but you also made a commitment to your team, and you don't learn anything about personal responsibility when you just give up on a commitment you've made because its no longer fun or entertaining. The coach and your teammates need to know they can count on you son." 

His father's lecture got under his skin. "And who am I supposed to count on Dad? And why does anyone have to count on anyone, it's a below average high school sport in a below average town, full of below average nobodies. It's not war Dad, its sports and in the long run if high school football is the reason I learned the be accountable for my commitments then you were pretty shitty parents." He snapped as he stomped out the kitchen and then the front door of the house.

He wandered for almost an hour and found himself led by the sounds of the football game being played at the high school. he was on the far side of the perimeter fence. His old team was ahead by a touchdown. He sat and watched the rest of the game, an easy victory, he never would have even stepped on the field had he still been on the team.

As everyone filed out of the stadium he made his way around to the entrance and slowly fought through the crowds. Once he was inside he made his way back to the locker room and ran into the coach as he was leaving the locker room having just given his post game speech.  He didn't seem surprised or angry. "Mr. Jones. Good to see you." He offered.

Gordon nodded. "I just wanted to come by and thank you for checking up on me with my parents. I know it wasn't the best way to quit the team but I gotta focus on school this year." He explained.

The coach nodded. "You know that excuse is only gonna fly until your report card comes out, the D's and F's are gonna knock it right out of the sky." He sighed. "You wanna maybe try the truth this time?" he asked. Gordon shook his head. "Is it drugs?" The coach asked. Gordon shook his head again. "Peer pressure?" he tried again. "You running with a dangerous crowd?" He dug a little deeper. 

Gordon looked down the hall at the patch of field he could see. "Maybe, but their dangerous for the right reason's." He explained.

The coach nodded. "Your parents ok with bailing you out of jail?" he asked again, no coldly, not judgmentally, just asking sincerely. 

Gordon shook his head.  "No, but jail is the last place I'll end up." he said flatly with huff.

The coach nodded. "The coffin is worse." He offered.

Gordon nodded. "How come you're so calm about this?" he asked.

The coach leaned against the cement block wall. "Because after seventeen years I've learned to spot the determined ones. I rarely know what their determined to do, but determination always looks the same, you guys wear your honor stapled to your chest and run breast first into the world like you're immortal." He sighed. "Once I spot the determined ones, its just a matter of clearing the road ahead for them as best I can before their gone." he got up off the wall. "So, you need the road cleared, you just let me know. You may not be on the team, but as long as you're a student, I'm your teacher." he said before patting him heavily on the shoulder and heading out to the field.

Shades of Justice: page 43

Mark saw the weariness in the other Shades, looked to Sonya on the bed with Dante at her side. He cleared his throat. "Technarious, these kids have been fighting for weeks now with little to no training. No other team has done more with less than they have. I think they need a break." He pointed out.

Technarious looked at each of them and realized Mark was right. He nodded. "You have all been doing the very best that you could given your circumstances. You've fought hard and the Earth has fared well under your protection." They all stood a little taller despite their weariness. "You've won some big victories, but we've got a long way left to go, and we're not getting their with you guys soul weary and bone tired." They all nodded quietly. "Take what time you can. Barring emergencies I'll see you all in a week for training." several of them moved to protest. "Don't even start. Your next mission is defeating exhaustion, no go!" He demanded. Everyone but Dante, Sonya and Mark nodded and teleported out of the command center.

Mark look to Dante. "You can get going too. She's going to be there for a while." He assured him,

Dante shook his head. "I'm staying here. I haven't been very supportive since this whole mess got started, she's going to see me here when she wakes up." He declared.

Mark nodded. "Admirable. but she's going to be out for at least another day or two based on the sedatives, when was the last time you slept?" He asked.

Dante shrugged. "What day is it?" He asked. Looking around the command center at the lack of clocks, calendars, and windows.

Mark nodded. "It's Dante takes a nap day." Mark said with a soft smile. "Ask your glasses to lead you to the bunks, get some sleep. I'll call you if there's any change." He assured Dante.

Dante nodded and put his glasses on. "take me to the bunks." He said mostly to himself. and followed the directions that popped up on his lenses.

Technarious was busy at a computer console catching up on the status of the command center. "Did you really have to cut a door into the wall?" He asked.

Mark shrugged. "You should be glad this place is still standing. These kids have had a raw run so far, and your memret wasn't as smooth or efficient as either of us hoped, took a while for it to kick in." He explained. "Considering the circumstances I think things are going better than we could reasonably hope for." He pointed out.

Technarious nodded. "Never under estimate the power of sheer dumb luck." He said.

Mark nodded. "But don't depend on it either." He added.

They bumped fists. Technarious went back to his work. "I hope they enjoy their time off." He said.

Shades of Justice: Page 42

The install wasn't what Mark would call easy. On top of the memories from the subcon memret flooding back into his conscious mind there were safety systems and security measures on top of security measures in Technarious' head.

He caught himself laughing at one pint. The symmetry of working on Technarious' 'mind' after Technarious had worked on his was funny. The others did not see the humor and he didn't have time to explain why he was laughing.

Once the consciousness unit had been removed a warning popped up in his mind. "I need a containment field around Technarious' old body!" The words came out of his mouth unconsciously. Technarious' old body began to crackle and spark heavily. The containment field popped up just before the entire thing fried itself into useless junk.

Mark began to move as if he held the world record for speed solving a Rubiks Cube. "I can't tell if there's any degradation of the unit until we get it plugged in, and there is every possibility that its already garbage based on the fact that it might have already wiped itself as a 'safety measure'." He explained as he worked.

It was a tense couple minutes but when he was done he felt like he had been successful. He and the rest of the Shades waited with baited breath as the back of Technarious' new head closed up. After an eternal three second wait Technarious' eyes blinked on and off. There was nothing for a few more eternal seconds. and then, the smallest of movements.

"Oh that sucked!" Technarious groaned as he sat up to several sighs of relief. He took stock of the body they had picked for him. "Well, I would have gone for the blue one next but such is life." He said with a smile. He got off the table and onto his feet. "You've all done incredibly well considering the circumstances." He congratulated the room of smiling faces. "But we've got a lot more work to do ." He finished.

Kelly stepped up. "Technarious do you know where Lumarion is?" She asked.

Technarious nodded. "Raptarus invaded the command center, He's got a shard of darkness in his left eye socket. He trapped Lumarion in it." He explained.

Warren shook his head. "We already killed that guy once. What do we have to do?" He groaned.

Technarious's gave a razor thin glare. "Kill him again, and make it stick this time. Then destroy the shard." He growled.

Gordon scoffed. "So no big deal then." he said sarcastically.

Shades of Justice: page 41

The beach brought a piece of mind that Mark had been missing. He slept on the sand, kept time with the sun, and company with the ocean. It was a simple life, but it made him happier than he could ever remember being.

One year to the day after their victory was the next time the glasses lit up. He put them on without thinking and teleported to the command center. It was the first time since that day that he had been summoned rather than just showing up on his own.

He arrived in the command center alone. Tehcnarious and Lumarion greeted him. "What's the situation?" He asked as he took off his glasses.

"You may relax Eric, there is no emergency." Lumarion reassured him.

Eric had gotten tense and tried to let it go. He felt his shoulders relax. "So why the call then?" he asked.

"It has been a year without incident here." Lumarion started. "It is time to retire your team and begin training a new one." his colors dimmed and then brightened again. "But between now and the end of their training is not your responsibility." The color wall darkened for a second before it lit up again. "Unless you want it to be." He continued. "Your original oath has been fulfilled. You are free to turn your shades in and return to your normal life." Lumarion got brighter.

Mark looked at the silver shades in his hand. Then back at Lumarion. "What did the other's say?" He asked.

"That I cannot tell you. This is a choice each of you must make freely, without external pressure." Lumarion's colors were neutral tones and average brightness "You must do what is right for you, and you alone." Lumarion finished.

Mark looked back at his shades. "And it's only until the new team is ready?" he asked. Technarious nodded. Mark pocketed his shades. "I'll stay on until then." he answered looking at Lumarion.

Technarious set the open shade case down so that Mark couldn't see the inside and stepped forward. "I'm glad you're staying Mark. First things first, we need to get you prepped for Subcon Memret implementation." Technarious rattled the worlds off like they meant something to Mark.

"Subcon Memret?" Mark asked,

Technarious nodded. "Subconscious Memory Retrieval." He started. "We're going to place some very important data in your mind in case of emergencies. It can be retrieved through the use of certain key words. That way as long as you are alive, the next team will have an emergency backup plan, and access to resources, even in the worse case scenario." Technarious explained.

Mark hesistated. "So your going to fill my head with information that I won't remember unless its keyword activated?" He clarified.

Technarious nodded. "Yup, best to think of yourself as a last resort treasure map." He replied.

Mark nodded slowly. "That doesn't sound as good as you think it does." He snapped.

Technarious led Mark out of the main command center hall and into a lab. "I'm a robot not a writer." He replied.

"Is this going to hurt?" Mark asked.

Technarious shook his head. "You'll be asleep having the best dreams ever, and you won't even remember it happened." He answered.

In the glasses case sat all but the silver shades.

Shades of Justice: Page 40

The breach between universes was closed.

The hand of Tha'ral Da had been destroyed.

The Earth had been saved.

Mark and the other Shades of Justice had won. Two entire universes still existed because of their victory against the darkness.

Cassie and Gwen got married. Arthur gave the best man speech. Mark sat in the back at the open bar with a neglected scotch and watched sadly as his friends shared their love with their friends and family. People who could never know what they had done, didn't want to know what they had done.

Eli started his own business and went public within a year. He moved to Seattle and the stock reports on cable news became his preferred form of communication.

Without Dale around Mark felt lost. The funeral had been small. His parents had been simple, quiet, sad people and the loss of their son only amplified the quiet, sad, simplicity of their lives. The fact that they would never know that he was one of Earth's greatest heroes burned in Marks chest like a tiny sun.

Mark went to college. Lumarion paid for everything. In fact the Shades wanted for nothing now. Compensation for two hard years of service. Years that Mark missed.

He checked in with Technarious and Lumarion regularly. Even as word from the others became increasingly infrequent. At first it was an act of duty, but as the months became years it became an act of self preservation. A constant reminder that he wasn't crazy and had once been a part of something very important.

Carrie and Gwen invited everyone to Hawaii. Mark politely declined and when Technarious found out he teleported Mark straight to the resort instantly.

Mark had seen the ocean before. A family vacation to California when he was in the fourth grade. He didn't remember it being anything special. This ocean was different, or perhaps this Mark was different.

The seven day trip passed like a dream. He learned to surf, they went hiking and explore the island, they played games and sunbathed, he spent as much time as he could justify on the beach alone with the ocean. He flew home from Hawaii closer to some semblance of peace than he could ever remember being before.

Ten days later he was back, and did not leave for a long time.

Shades of Justice: Page 39

Technarious's new body was laid on the table. The old was was sitting on the floor, leaned up against the side of the table like a forgotten toy.

The Shades stood around the table. Each looking from the old body, to the new body, and then around to the other Shades. Everyone was waiting for someone else to take the lead. It was Gordon who broke the silence. "Soooo, now what?" he asked fidgeting nervously with his glasses.

Warren shrugged. "Computer, are there any files or instructions in your system that explain how to transfer Technarious' consciousness unit from one body to another?" He asked.

There was slight pause. "Searching." The computer finally replied.

The tense silence returned. Mark was pacing, Dante was still sitting by Sonya's bed. Her hand was cradled in his. Mark was pacing quickly, muttering to himself.

The computer chimed in again. "There are no references to Technarious that include anything relating to mind, consciousness, or body transfer, I am sorry." The computer finished.

Mark stopped pacing and looked as if he had been struck by lightening. "It's not in the computer!" He almost shouted. Before he practically ran over to the shattered light wall. He carefully reached out and the others watched as he was able to slowly wedge his hand behind the shattered wall of crystals.


"What are you doing?" Kelly asked.

Mark gritted his teeth as he carefully felt around for what ever he was looking for. "Got it!" He shouted. He pulled the manual lever and a piece of the wall right next to his shoulders slid open. He pulled his hand out and looked inside the tiny area. The others ran over to join him. There was nothing inside the little hidden area except a book titled. 'Maintenance And Repair Manual.' Mark grabbed the book and flipped it open to the index. He ran his finger down the list until he found 'Memory unit.' and flipped to the page that was listed. He scanned the page for a second and then closed the book around his finger. Ran over to the old Technarious body. "Lift this up and place it over a console so the back of his head is up towards us." he instructed.

 Warren and Gordon grabbed the body and gently laid it over the nearest console. With his free hand Mark felt the edge of the back of Technarious' head until he found a numb, slid his pinky finger under it and was able to press a button.

From the back first, Techanious' head opened like the most intricate and detailed Tackle box ever created. layers upon layers of hardware and circuitry were exposed one layer at a time. Once the head was completely open Mark and the rest of the Shades looked inside at what they had discovered.

Warren looked to Mark. "You sure about this?" He asked.

Mark looked from the head back to the instruction manual and took a deep breath.

Shades of Justic: Page 38

They finished cutting themselves a door and Gordon summoned his suit, activated his boots and kicked the section of wall in, letting light flood into the pitch black of the storage area.

They each turned the spot lights in their glasses on to see what they were looking at. Warren came to a large wall and put his hand on it. ‘Great another wall.” He grumbled.

Mark shook his head. “Not a wall.” They looked at him as he pointed up. The group followed his finger and realized there were standing at the feet of a mecha that wasn’t Blinding Light.

Warren took a step back. “How many of them are there?” He asked in surprise.

Mark shrugged. “Don’t know, never asked.” He admitted.

Kelly squinted at the head of the mecha in front of them. “Any idea what this one is called?” She asked.

Dante stepped away from the feet of the unknown mecha. “Look as cool as this is, we’ve got one friend in critical condition and one in total shutdown, let’s take care of them and take the underground tour later.” He commanded.

The others followed his lead. When they were passing the fourth mecha Gordon finally spoke up. “How are we supposed to find Technarious’ spare parts?” He asked.

Mark put his glasses on. “Quicksilver search and display the location of any Fabristeel. He commanded. “Woah.” He said in surprise.

The others looked at him. “Woah, what?” Gordon asked.

Mark pointed the lights on his glasses toward a far wall in the distance. “There is  a LOT of fabristeel about a hundred yards in that direction.

They carefully moved as a group with Mark in the lead. He led them to another wall they had to cut through. Once Kelly and Warren had cut through the wall, Gordon kicked it down to reveal a room filled with easily a dozen different bodies for Technarious. From bodies with jet packs, heavily armored bodies, bodies that had propeller feet for transport under water there were back up bodies for every situation.

They spread out to find the most basic one. Kelly found one that was nearly identical. “Guy’s” She called out. “Let’s take this one.” She said.

The others joined her and inspected the clasps holding the body to the wall. 

Shades of Justice: Page 37

Mark walked over to an empty section of the command center wall. He reached out and pressed his hand against the wall and waited for a second. Nothing happened. “That’s what I was afraid of.” He grumbled. “Computer, voice recognition Quicksilver, access storage facility.” He asked the command center computer.

The others waited with baited breath. “The storage facility mainframe is not responding.” The machine replied.

Gordon threw his hands up. “Of course it’s not. How long until power is restored to the storage facility?” He asked.

“The storage facility power level status is unknown, the mainframe is not responding.” The computer replied.

Warren ran his hands through is hair in frustration. “Ok so now what?” He asked.

Mark shrugged. “We break through the wall.” He offered.

Gordon pointed at the wall section. “Any idea what we’re going to need to break through that?” he asked.

Kelly threw her glasses on. “Blacklight Sabers!” She held out her hands as she spoke the command and the hilts to her swords materialized. She turned one on and sunk the blade in the wall. It went slowly but she was able to bury the blade in the wall. She slowly began to pull the blade upwards beginning the tedious process of cutting a door for the team to get through. She tossed her second sword to Warren and he started on the other side of the door.

Shades of Justice: Page 36

Mark teleported into the command center. He had been spending the last few months in Hawaii surfing on every wave he could catch. So when he appeared in board shorts and a Hawaiian shirt the others were surprised. “What’s up kids?” He asked taking off his silver sunglasses.

Gordon took in the garish outfit quickly “Aloha I guess, sorry to call you back so soon but were in a bit of a situation.” He started.

Mark nodded. “Par for the course wouldn’t you say?” He replied with a smile.

Gordon nodded. “The good news is, we got Technarious back, the bad news is, Sonya almost died to make it happen and Technarious isn’t functional and we don’t know if he can be fixed, what we would fix, or how to fix it if we knew.” He explained walking over to the platform where Technarious was laid out.

Mark looked him over. “First of all, congratulations on getting Technarious back, is Sonya going to be ok?” He asked.

“She’s already starting to recover thanks to the command centers medical systems and Spark.” Kelly added.

Mark turned around to reply to her. “Who or what is Spark?” He asked.

Lumarion’s wall light up. “I’m Spark. These guys thought there were going to rescue Lumarion and found me instead.” He explained.

Mark nodded. “So you found a different Shimmeron, you have Technarious back, and the command center is still standing, you guys are doing all right.” He smiled and put his glasses on. “Computer, give me a full body structural scan of Technarious compare it to his last fully functional scan on file.” The others stood in silence and Mark looked over the information that was coming through his glasses. He snapped his fingers. “Computer, display discrepancies on the center holoprojector.” As soon as he finished the command he took his glasses off and two holographic three dimensional representations of Technarious appeared in the center of the room.

The left one was dimmer than the right one and there were several area’s that were lit with red light instead of green. Gordon reached out and pointed at one of the red sections. “I’m assuming the red sections are the area’s that are damaged and in need of repair or replacement?” He asked.

Mark nodded. “Exactly, now all we have to do is break into the storage facility underneath the command center.

Warren sighed. “Of course, why didn’t we think of that?” He said sarcastically.

Mark shrugged his shoulders. “I know you guys are new, but where did you think Blinding Light went when you weren’t fighting giant monsters?” He asked.

Warren held up a finger, realized it was a decent question and then shrugged. “Fair point.” He admitted.

Shades of Justice: Page 35

Sonya was unconscious the medical platform had her incased in a field that was monitoring her condition. Her Heart beat was slow but steady. Dante had pulled a chair over to the platform and was sitting vigil over Sonya. Gordon had summoned up another platform and they had laid Technarious’ lifeless body on it.

Gordon, Kelly, and Warren were inspecting the damage. Shined a light into the hole in Technarious’ abdomen. Kelly shook her head. “We don’t even know if we did enough damage to him to shut him down, or if Sonya was successful in destroying his internal power supply.” She griped.

The command station computer pinged. “Technarious’ power supply has sustained enough damage to halt his functionality.” The computer pinged again.

Gordon snapped his fingers and worked through the half an idea forming in his mind. “Computer, is there, um, uh, extra parts! For Technarious?” He asked.

The computer pinged. “Technarious is a mechanically based artificial life form, he is not unique, and replacement parts do exist.” The computer pinged.

Gordon rolled his eyes and growled in frustration. “Are there parts in this command center?” he asked.

The computer pinged. “Unkown.” The computer pinged.

“Oh come on!” Kelly snapped. “You can scan the entire planet for Lumarion, but you can’t scan this room for Technarious’ spare parts?” She yelled.

The computer pinged. “Technarious’ is made up of over one million individual pieces. A full search of this command center for all one point two million parts will take four days.” The computer pinged.

Warren clenched his fists. “We don’t even know which parts to tell the computer to search for.” He pointed out.

Kelly shrugged. “Computer, which parts of Technarious have failed?” she asked.

The computer pinged. “Technarious is not powered and completely non-functional. There is no way to discern which parts have failed without disassembling him.” The computer pinged.

Dante stood up. “Well then, unless one of you got your P.H.D in sentient robot engineering in the last two week, there’s only one person I know of who might be able to help us.” He said.

Warren shook his head. “There’s absolutely no guarantee that Mark will know anything about how to fix Technarious.

Dante nodded. “You got a better idea?” he asked. The others were stone silent. Dante nodded again and put his shades on. “That’s what I thought.” He finalized.

Shades of Justice: Page 34

The Shades appeared in the command center. Dante was carrying Sonya’s unconscious body and her abdomen was a mess of torn fabric, and dripping blood. “Spark Sonya’s hurt bad, what do we do?” Kelly shouted.

“Initiate emergency medical systems.” Spark commanded the base. A Platform rose out of the ground for Dante to set Sonya on. Once she was on the bed a holographic overlay of her physiology appeared just above her. They could see her already slowing and erratic heartbeat, getting weaker. An appendage emerged from the side of the medical platform and the metal casing opened to reveal a laser. Which aimed at Sonya’s wound and began to fire short bursts of energy. As it worked faster and faster to close her wound her heart beat got slower until it flat lined. Kelly buried her face into Warrens shoulder.

Gordon kicked the bed. “DO SOMETHING!” He shouted in futility.

w

Another appendage came out of the platform, its head rose barely above Sonya’s chest and the head quickly split into two haves and gave off pulses that made the heart monitor pulse for a beat and then flat line again. After six attempts the arm closed up and returned to the platform.

Dante ran over to Lumarion’s wall. “If there’s anything you can do, do it now. One of us basically saved your life, if you can, it’s time to return the favor.” He demanded.

Spark blinked a few times. “What I can do is forbidden for my race to do, it goes against the  na -“

“I DON’T FUCKING CARE!” Dante exploded. “DO IT NOW!” He punched the already cracked wall and cracked it worse, shredding the gloves of his suit and cutting the skin of his knuckles. 

Sparks light became brighter. “Whatever you say boss.” He blinked, before exiting the wall and in near instant beam of light shot straight into Sonya’s chest.

She raised up like she was possessed. Her eyes and mouth opened and pure white light poured from them light explosive fissures. She began to claw at her stomach and Gordon grabbed her wrists to keep her from damaging her newly repaired wound. Spark shot back to the broken wall and went dark.

Dante ran over to Sonya and she hugged him with all the energy she had left and she began to bawl hysterically. Dante looked at the wall as she cried. “Thank you.” He said.

The wall lit up slowly. “Swear to me that the five of you will NEVER mention this to Lumarion when we get him back.” Spark demanded.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 33

Tokyo was a shattered flaming mess. Technarious was firing jets of flame from his hands and turning the city into a funeral pyre. Blinding light trying to get back on its feet as it crawled awkwardly out the rubble that used to be an entire city block of sky scrapers.

Inside Blinding Light’s command center the shades were in bad shape. Technarious was facing away from them and was about let loose another jet of flame from his left hand on the as yet untouched Port of Tokyo. The four of them reacted together instantly. Blinding Light shot forward and locked Technarious up in a hold that forced his hands high into the sky. They shoved a knee up into Technarious’ back and pushed the entire weight of the mecha forward knocking Technarious off his feet and into the shallow water of the port.

They braced for Technarious’ counter attack but none came. They turned his head but the lights in his eyes were dark. Dante pushed a button on his console to check on Sonya. Kelly and The others got Blinding Light back to his feet. “Sonya, did you disable the power supply? That was great timing.” There was nothing on the line but silence. “Sonya?” He asked again.

The communication channel was taken over by Raptarus. “Oh, well done Shades! But I only see four of you. Where oh were could Grayscale be? Hopefully she gets back soon, because in ten seconds Technarious will shrink back to his normal size and she won’t want to miss that!” He laughed until the channel closed cutting him off.

Dante stood up. “Blinding Light transport me to Sonya’s location.” He commanded.

“That action is not,” The computer started.

“NOW!” Dante shouted. He teleported

The room with the power supply was filled with smoke and warped debris. He saw Sonya through the smoke and grabbed her by her shoulders. The power supply room was already starting to shrink. “Transport now!” he shouted as they disappeared just before the room crushed them.

They reappeared back in the command center and Dante set Sonya in her Chair. Kelly immediately saw the blood on Dante’s arm where he had held Sonya. They say Technarious through the viewscreen as he returned to normal size.

Blinding light reached into the water and cradled Technarious in its right hand and lifted him out of the water. Then in a flash of light Blinding Light was gone.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 32

Sonya looked down the shaft again. She looked up for anything she might be able to use to climb down the shaft with. She saw a metal loop protruding from wall but had nothing to repel down with. “Computer, suit thing?” She said out loud.

The readout in her visor responded. [GRAYSCALE ONLINE] it flashed.

Technarious rocked violently and she held tightly onto the wall. “I need a way to repel about a hundred feet” She requested.

There was a pause as the suit went through the available options. [CALL FOR SCALING ARM] The visor flashed.

Sonya held out her left hand. “Scaling arm!” she commanded.

A reasonably sized gadget with a clasping hook at the end of it appeared around her left arm. She reached up and clasped the hook onto the loop above her. She looked down one more time and took a deep breath. “Here goes nothing.” She lept over the edge and the hook held her weight. Even with Technarious moving chaotically fighting Blinding Light she only bounced around a little as she walked backwards down the shaft as quickly as she dared.

She got to the bottom of the shaft and stepped into the next hallway. “How do I get this off my arm.” She asked her suit.

[COMMAND: RELEASE] The visor instructed.

She looked down at her arm. “Release” She commanded and the contraption opened like shuttle bay doors and dropped off her arm. Hung for a second in the air and then disappeared. She turned and ran the last little bit of hallway until she came to the room where the power core and the backup energy systems for Technarious were.

The room was filled with neon blinking lights, cords that had blue light running through them, and the main power cell which was a giant red monolith in the middle of the room.

Her visor showed her where the backup power was and once she had destroyed the connectors to all three Technarious began to shudder violently.

She was thrown against the wall but kept her eyes on the red monolith power supply. She made her way up the now slight incline to reach the power supply. She tried to lift it out of its slot but it would not budge. “Guys I can’t get the power supply out of its socket!” She updated the rest of the shades.

There was silence for a second before she Heard Kelly’s voice. “You have to destroy it Sonya. We’re getting killed up here and the city is in ruins!” she said over explosions and static.

Sonya groaned. “I’m sorry Technarious. Comedy and Tragedy!” She commanded her weapons into her hands.

Shades of Justice: chapter 31

Technarious was now back on his feet. His eyes were red and while there was visible damage on his body he was still very much in fighting shape. He opened his mouth and fired an energy beam at Blinding Light.

Blinding Light reached up with its right hand and the beam hit the bracer armor and hit the street several stories below, destroying everything in a twenty foot radius.

Blinding Light Reached its left hand to the sky and a lightning Bolt delivered the Lightning blade to its grip. The Lightening Blade was a massive two handed sword that crackled with electricity. Blinding light dropped into a defensive stance.

Technarious laughed. “Oh my little baby shades, we both know you don’t have the guts to kill me.” Technarious kicked what remained of a destroyed building. “You’re pathetic.” He shouted. “I could destroy this entire city and you’d still be frozen in indecisive terror!” He clenched his left fist and a long blade extended out from the outer part of this bicep. He swung his arm at the nearest undamaged building and just before the blade hit Blinding light dashed forward and blocked his swing. He looked at the robot and smiled. “Well now. Looks like there’s still some life in you yet.” He said as they wrestled over the fate of the building.

Deep inside Technarious Sonya was running as fast as she could down hallways of piping and cables. Following the digital path in her visor. She came to a gap small enough to jump and took it without evening thinking. The path showed that she had almost two hundred feet before she reached his power core.

Blinding light had pushed Technarious’ swing back far enough to save the building. He stepped back but didn’t appear shaken. “Not bat little babies. That might even be your first real success as a team.” He sarcastically gave them a slow clap. Blinding Light lunged forward with the lightning blade and Technarious parried easily. “Now, now. Just because you saved a building doesn’t mean the day is won children.” He took a retaliatory swing and cut deeply into Blinding Lights left leg. Sparks and fire exploded out from the wound.

In Blinding light’s command center The shades were looking at a read out of their status. It showed their energy reserves down by a third. “Sonya what’s your status?” Dante asked.

Inside Technarious Sonya was standing at the edge of what looked like an elevator shaft. Her map readout showed that the next hundred feet went straight down the shaft. “I need more time.” She replied.

Shades of Justice: Chapter 30

Techarious was rampaging through Tokyo, smashing his giant fists into buildings, knocking one sky scraper into another. Then suddenly an electric blue teleport beam flashed and Blinding Light was standing several blocks away. Technarious and Blinding light squared off and ran at each other. They smashed into each other and entangled their arms.

In the command center of blinding light Gordon pressed the command for the chest beam which hit Technarious full force in the chest. He lost the grapple and fell backwards, decimating the street below. Sonya pulled up the status read out of Technarious.

Dante looked over at the readout. “Ok boss, what’s the plan?” He asked as Warren stepped on Technarious’ prone body.

Sonya zoomed in on the damage they had caused to the chest. “Compter, where are Technarious’ power systems located?” She asked. A series of components inside Technarious on the status readout lit up with an orange outline. Can you get to that area from the crack in his chest?” She asked. In response a bright orange line led from the crack to the power system. “Transfer that pathway to my helmet.” She said as she stood up.

Dante and Kelly stood up as well. “Are you out of your mind?” Kelly shouted.

Sonya shook her head. “No, Warren can command the other leg from his station. We need to disable Technarious without killing him, and I’ll give everyone three seconds to come up with a better plan.” The other shades looked at each other. “Computer teleport.” She said, instantly disappearing.

Kelly and Dante looked at each other. “Should have seen that one coming.” Dante said as they sat back at their stations.

Sonya appeared in the crack of Technarious’ chest and dropped down into the inside of his body, carefully making her way around damaged cords and sparking machinery. She came to a small fire that was on her side of a gap that was easily eight feet wide. “Fire extinguisher!” she commanded as white suppressant exploded from her right hand. As soon as the fire was out she closed her fist shutting off the suppressant spray. She then looked down the gap which looked like it went for twenty or more feet. “Great idea Sonya.” She chastised herself as she checked the nearest wall for hand and footholds to use to make it across. Suddenly there was an incredible amount of movement and Technarious was getting back to his feet. Sonya held on for dear life.