I continued going out and saving people. I felt that I had a responsibility to protect the people of New York City. I felt like I could use my abilities for the greater good. I also liked the fact that people were talking about my hero side. I would hear people on the streets talking about how there was female hero going around and helping people. I felt proud that "Shadow" was being recognized as a hero...but there were some people who thought there was no need for a vigilante. Obviously they had no idea what happened at night.

I silently ran through the shadows, blending in. So far, no one needed any help so I was just doing a little patrolling around the neighborhood. I scanned the streets from the rooftops. I didn't see any trouble, but I did see a familiar girl with orange hair. I smiled and decided that I would go say hi. It didn't hurt to check up on people.

I jumped down from the roof into an alley. I peeked around the corner to see if April was coming and she was. I smiled with excitement as she got closer. I waited until she passed before I called out to her.

"April!"

April jumped when she heard her name and turned around quickly. She looked scared and I felt a little bad that I scared her. I slowly walked out from the shadows of the alley into the light so April could see that I wasn't a threat. She seemed relieved and smiled as she walked closer.

"Hi, Shadow. What are you doing here? I'm obviously not in any trouble so i don't see a reason why you are here?"

"I was just doing some patrolling and I saw you walking down the street. I figured I would come say hi and see how you were doing."

April smiled and nodded before replying. "I was just on my way to visit my friends. I told you about them when you saved me from the thugs who were crowding me. They saw all the news reports about you on TV. They seem a little curious about you."

I was interested in what April said and wanted to know more, but we were interrupted. A white truck screeched to a stop and four identical men jumped out of the back. The second they touched the pavement, all four men started shooting at us, but their guns didn't shoot bullets. Blasts of purple laser beams were shot at us. I had no clue what to do and just stood there until April grabbed my wrist.

"Come on! We gotta get out of here!"

I would have just flown away, but I just went with April. We ran down a few streets, the men following. At one point a laser bullet hit me in the arm. Pain immediately followed and I fell clutching my arm. April had to pull me to my feet and pull me behind her. Taking my hand away from my wound, I saw that it was covered in blood. A quick look at my injury showed me that a curved indent had been carved out of my skin and was now bleeding heavily. I covered my wound as best I could, hoping no blood was falling and leaving a trail.

April and I had ran for what felt like forever before April pulled me into an alley. April seemed like she knew what she was doing, but I panicked. We were trapped and the guys were gonna kill us with their lasers. I started to think about abandoning April and flying away when I heard a noise behind me. April was lifting the cover to the sewer. She looked at me with a frantic look.

"We have to get down into the sewer. We'll be safe."

"Are you crazy. Don't you think the guys are going to realized that we went down into the sewer? There is no other way out of here."

April looked annoyed, but she didn't give in."You have to trust me on this."

I stared at her in dumbfoundment before going down into the sewer. I had no other choice and I wasn't going to abandon April. After securing the lid back in place, April led me through the tunnels of the sewer. I followed her reluctantly while still holding my bleeding arm.

"Where are we going?"

"We're almost there. Donnie will patch you and you can rest for a little bit. Plus, Mikey got pizza so we can have dinner with them."

I had no clue what she was talking about. "Who are you talking about?"

April seemed to realize that she didn't explain what she was talking about and laughed a little. "My friends live down here."

"The ones you told me about?"

April nodded before walking forward again. I followed her and after a little we came to a set of railroad tracks. April walked down like there was nothing to worry about, but I stopped at the edge. April noticed that I didn't follow her and seemed to know what I was thinking.

"It's okay. These tracks are abandoned. No trains use them anymore."

I stared at her for a few seconds before deciding that she was telling the truth. I followed April down the tracks, staring at the ground but watching April's feet so I knew where to go. I didn't really pay attention to the surroundings for a little bit but a bump into April told that we were at the destination April was headed for.

"Here we are."

I looked up and saw that we were in an abandoned subway station, but it had been transformed into someone's home. A TV was on showing some sort of cartoon show and there were various objects around that suggested that teenagers lived here. April seemed calm and used to the place as she called out.

"Hey guys. I brought a friend with me but she needs help. The kraang were after us and a laser hit her. She's bleeding badly."

Nothing happened at first but four green beings walked out into the room. I stared in shock as I realized that I was staring at the green beings from before. They stared back at me with almost the same amount of shock. I looked around at each of the green beings until my eyes landed on the one with the red mask. Bright green eyes met bright green eyes. It almost seemed like something passed between the two of us in that moment, but the moment ended as I was consumed by a wave of dizziness. Everything went black as I fell to the floor. I must have lost more blood than I thought. Worried voices filled my ears. The last thing I remembered was being lifted off the ground by the red masked being.

I woke up a little while later, groggy and confused. My vision was blurry so I couldn't quite see my surroundings, but my vision cleared up and I could see that I was in some sort of lab. It looked like a science lab. There were beakers and test tubes and computers with various things on them...but the thing that caught my attention was the container of mutagen. I saw it a few times at the facility so I knew what it could do. All at once, flashes of memories rushed into my mind. Beatings and abuse and the tests the scientists made me do flooded my mind, causing me to cry out. I must have been really loud because I heard footsteps running into the lab. The thought that it was the scientists coming to punish me made me scared. I didn't know where to go so I just ran into the farthest corner I could find and curled myself into a ball on the floor. The people who came into the room found me and circled me. I didn't look out of fear that I would look into the faces of the scientists.

"Please don't hurt me again. I promise I'll be good this time. I swear."

Confused murmurs passed between the people around me. One voice sounded familiar, but in my state of panic I wasn't sure.

"Shadow, we're not going to hurt you. You're safe here. Please calm down."

After the familiar voice, an unfamiliar one followed.

"Dude, she's totally flipping out. What'd you do to her, Donnie?"

"I didn't do anything to her except clean her wound, Mikey. She must be remembering something that happened to her. If that's the case, I wonder what happened that's causing her to freak out like this?"

I started to realize that the voices didn't belong to any of the scientists I remembered. I then remembered the events of the night. I met up with April and we were chased by identical looking guys with laser guns. I was hit and then April brought me down into the sewers and into an abandoned subway station that was the home to four green beings. I then remembered looking into the face of the being that wore the red mask before passing out. I started to calm down and uncurl myself. The others seemed to see that I was starting to calm down and seemed a little less worried.

"Shadow? Are you ok now? Do you want to talk about what made you so scared?"

I looked at April and saw that she was worried for me. I saw that even though we barely knew each other, she cared about my well-being. I wiped away my tears and smiled at her.

"Yeah. I think I do want to talk about it."

I got up from the floor and allowed April to escort me from the lab to the living-room like area. I walked by the green beings who seemed relieved that I was fine,but as I passed the red masked being, I saw something in his eyes that suggested that he was worried the most about me. It was almost like he had feelings for me that were deeper than everyone else.