"Now this won't do at all."

Both Jugo and Alex were startled by a third voice in the room. Jugo's shadow extended itself until it made contact with the shadow of the big clock hand. Both shadows became darker as if they had been inked over. Snow moved behind Jugo but otherwise went absolutely ballistic, barking and growling at the unnatural darkness.

Rising out of the shadows was a thin man with pale features and oily black hair. The shadow man had a thin smile with a look reflected in his eyes that reminded Jugo of a serial killer you would see on the national news.

"Dear Alex, I'm afraid you've pushed your luck for the last time." The words seemed to ooze out of the shadow man's mouth, but now that the shock factor had passed, Jugo recognized him. He looked like a serial killer because he is a serial killer! This man was, unlike Jugo, a self-proclaimed supervillain who enjoyed killing for the thrill of it. He calls himself The Shade.

Alex turned sharply to Jugo, but didn't take his eyes off the new threat.

"Did you know he was here? Have you been working with him the whole time!?"

The Shade barked out a laugh before Jugo could get a word out edge wise.

"Silly little hero. Of course the poor boy didn't know!" The Shade made a bunch of overly dramatic hand gestures as he spoke. "I think we both know why I'm here."

"Are you saying you're working for Thomas Holloway?" Alex pulled his side arm from its holster, but The Shade didn't seem perturbed.

"Bingo!" the villain rasped out.

"I was under the impression you were just a stone cold killer, so when did you get promoted to some rich man's lackey?"

"Mr. Holloway pays very well, and promises much more in return for my expert services." The Shade took a bow like he was on a stage. "Speaking of my expertise, I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you now. Mr. Holloway tolerated your presence, but gave me permission to end you if you became a nuisance. But before I get to that..."

The killer shifted his lazy gaze to Jugo. That look sent a chill up his spine that was exactly the same as the chills he'd been feeling for several days now. The killer's gaze was sinister enough to silence Snow's barking, scaring her into retreating under the bed in the corner.

"I've been watching you, Mr. Darkwing," The Shade flashed him a crooked smile. "Huge fan of your work, by the way. Now, it is to my understanding - at least from what I could glean by listening in from your shadow - that our nosy hero over there has offered you a deal. Allow me to make a counter proposal.

"Forget your deal with the hero, and I'll get Mr. Holloway to make a new deal with you. You see, Mr. Holloway has taken an interest in you not because of your unique power - believe me, he comes by plenty of extraordinary abilities - but because of your potential. Mr. Holloway has grown to trust his daughter's judgement, and so he trusts you as she does. More than that, the reason he approves of your relationship is because he wants you to protect her! After all, if he can't depend on a ruthless fighter, such as yourself, with the ability to adapt to ANYTHING, then who can he count on to protect his little girl?"

"Don't listen to him, Jugo!" Alex pleaded as he kept his pistol aimed at The Shade. "He's trying to manipulate you, it's a specialty of psychopaths like him. Whatever Thomas Holloway's interest in you stems from, it isn't what he claims it to be. Holloway will use you, and throw you away when he's lost interest, regardless of how Lady Elena feels."

Jugo wasn't sure who to believe. The logical choice would be to take Alex's side, but the problem is that he's a superhero. Deal or not, superheroes are self-righteous bastards who will spout nonsense to achieve their goal; said goals usually involve helping the many while leaving the few in the dust. And while Jugo was, technically, a villain, teaming up with The Shade didn't appeal to him at all. The Shade certainly offered a better deal, all things considered, but taking the side of someone as twisted as him left Jugo's stomach in knots.

"I can see the hesitation on your face," The Shade spoke-up. He made a creepy snake-like motion with his tongue. "I don't understand why you find killing Mr. Waypoint here so appalling, but don't worry about it. Just step aside and allow me to take care of business. Then we can go off to visit Mr. Holloway together."

That was all Jugo needed to hear, so he stepped aside.

"Good boy," The Shade chuckled as he began taking steps towards Alex.

Alex responded by firing three rounds from his pistol, but they phased through The Shade's body harmlessly. The Shade's power allowed him to manipulate shadows. This included the ability to make his body as intangible as a shadow. Alex might as well have been shooting a ghost.

Dark ink-like constructs pooled up from the shadows at The Shade's feet. It was the serial killer villain's signature trick. He had no need for carrying around weapons because he could make makeshift weapons from the darkness around him.

And then Jugo socked him in the jaw. The Shade's scrawny body was lifted off its feet and sent flying into the clock face. The Shade's body was caught on the metal framework as the glass of the clock face shattered.

"Sorry, but no deal. Alex got here first and while I may be a villain, I still have standards. Besides, you creep me the Hell out!" Truth is, Jugo had no intention of taking The Shade's offer. While he may not admire heroes, Jugo didn't consider himself a fan of other villains, either. I only stepped aside to make sure I could get a clear shot.

The Shade wasn't known for being exceptionally strong, fast, or skilled for that matter. The killer depended on fear, and his powers to get the drop of unsuspecting victims. The only reason the flimsy man didn't go flying through the clock face was because Jugo pulled his punch. If I didn't hold back, I might have spray painted the side walk a dozen blocks over with red.

The Shade grunted, then, like something out of a horror movie, pulled himself out of the clock's framework. He hopped gracefully back onto the floor before popping his dislocated jaw back into place.

"Disappointing, but I should have expected as much," the villain said. Jugo's punch had given him split lip that bled a little. The Shade slurped the miniscule amounts of blood up with a savage grin on his face. Disappearing in a blur of darkness, the villain returned the favor to Jugo then manifested a shadow hand that pressed Jugo through the floor of the loft.

Without skipping a beat, The Shade twisted to attack Alex. He brought his shadow blades down, intending to rend the hero's torso. However, Alex proved himself to be much more adept that he first appeared. The rescue hero whipped out a pair of extendable steel batons just in time to block The Shade's deadly weapons.

At first surprised by the sudden resistance, The Shade understood and was even thrilled by the sudden revelation.

"Ah, I see you've been trained in the spiritual arts as well!" the killer spouted with glee.

The Shade slammed the edge of his shadow blade into the ground, sending a wave of dark slashes across the loft. Alex narrowly avoided them as they went on to tear apart the furniture behind him.

Noticing at some point that Snow had run out from under the bed, she stood close to the edge of the hole in the floor that Jugo had been sent through. Moving fast, Alex grabbed the puppy then jumped through the hole himself. Instead of falling to the library below, Alex used his SuperHuman power to transport Snow to a waypoint he left in the Holloway penthouse. Thomas Holloway was out of town, but Elena was home so he could trust her to watch the dog in the meantime.

Returning to a waypoint he placed in the library earlier, he found Jugo leaning against the library desk trying to catch his breath.

"Jugo, we need to go or The Shade will kill us both," Alex urged him.

"Since when was that bastard so strong?" Jugo questioned. "He knocked the wind out of me!"

"I'll explain his unnatural strength later, but for now we've got to go!"

Grabbing Jugo's shoulder, Alex transported them to a waypoint he left on top of a building several blocks away from the library. The teleportation left Jugo with a feeling of weightlessness similar to the feeling he had when he was teleported out of the sea monster's stomach.

"Ugh, don't do that again without warning me first," Jugo groaned, feeling like he was going to hurl.

"Sorry," Alex apologized. "But there really wasn't much time to discuss it."

"Why does it feel like I got pulled apart and put back together?" Jugo questioned.

"My power disassembles your body, turning you into photons. It would be impossible for the human body to move at those speeds as they are... Or at least it should be."

Not knowing or caring what Alex meant by that, Jugo turned his gaze back towards the library's direction. I hope to God Mr. Sinclair wasn't still in the building. If The Shade kills him, it'll be my fault. The Shade wasn't known for being picky about the demographic of his victims. Jugo didn't see him when he fell through the loft floor into the library's main area, which hopefully meant the caretaker had already gone home for the evening.

"Wait! Aw, damn it! We left Snow behind!" Jugo was about to make a mad dash back towards the library when Alex stopped him.

"It's okay, I teleported her to a safe location before going back for you."

Jugo gave Alex an odd look.

"I'm a rescue hero, remember? Quick evacuations are my specialty." The hero reassured Jugo with a friendly, if humble, smile.

"Oh, well, thanks," Jugo nodded lamely. Thanking a hero, huh? I guess I really am turning over a new leaf.

"Look out!"

Moving on instinct, Jugo and Alex avoided being skewered by a pair of shadow daggers than rained from the sky. Looking up, they both saw a bird overhead. The Shade appeared out of the bird's shadow with dark blades in both hands. Wasting now time, the killer went on the attack. He swung his shadow swords and moved his thin body with more grace than Jugo would have expected.

Alex used his steel batons to parry the shadow swords while Jugo was forced to summon the gauntlets of his armor to protect himself. Even as The Shade's swords bounced off Jugo's gauntlets, he saw that the edges left thin scratches in the metal. As thick as Jugo's skin was, these blades were sharp enough, and swung with enough force to tear right through it.

While Jugo had no time to consciously analyze The Shade's movements, his adaptation power went to work doing it for him. It became clear that The Shade had been trained in some capacity. His movements indicated style, and were calculated to make the most opportunistic strikes. His speed, strength, and apparent durability were all far higher than Jugo had known them to be.

Is it Spontaneous Power Combustion? It has to be, that's the only way to explain it!

"Darkwings-!"

Before Jugo could manifest the rest of his armor, The Shade swung for his face. Jugo ducked, but just barely. As he leaned back to limbo away from the inky black blade, the tip of it passed a mere inch over his eyes.

"No no no," The Shade taunted. "Using that armor of yours is cheating!"

The whole rooftop became a solid abyss of darkness. Three figures clawed out of the shadows. These things had grotesque, twisted faces and body's that were undoubtedly deceptively frail looking. They each had misshapen weapons at the ends of their arms as opposed to hands.

"Play with my pets while I deal with Mr. Waypoint!"

The shadow monsters charged Jugo with raspy howls. They couldn't have been as mindless as they looked, or sounded because they attacked in a coordinated effort. One would take a swipe at him and as he dodged away, another would be waiting for him to follow up. One of them managed to club Jugo over the shoulder. It hurt but thankfully these things weren't as strong as The Shade was.

On the other side of the roof, The Shade pursued Alex. The two fought back and forth with their weapons. Sparks would fly as the shadow swords clashed with the steel batons. Alex was on the defensive, but seemed to be holding his own fairly well. While Jugo couldn't focus on their fight without forfeiting his own life, he couldn't help but marvel at how well the hero was doing against the villain in the back of his mind.

"You've been trained well, but it is clear which of us has the superior Aura!" The Shade shouted amidst their clashes.

Jugo didn't have time to ponder what that meant. The shadow monsters weren't giving him any breathing room to put on his armor, much less counter attack. When Jugo finally did manage to land a hit on one of them, he thought he'd broken its neck because of the odd angle its head was bent at. Unfortunately, the punch only seemed to stagger it for a second before it resumed attacking. And unlike The Shade, these things didn't have a style he could track. They didn't just look like monsters, but fought like them too. The shadows were unpredictable in their movements, and relentless in their attacks. They apparently couldn't die by conventional methods, and didn't seem to feel pain either. 

They've got to have some sort of weakness, but what is it? Think! What is something these things have in common with The Shade's powers?

Jugo reflected on all the times he'd seen The Shade use his powers. First, he manifested from inside Jugo's own shadow. The bastard must have been in there since I left Holloway's private island.

The Shade could spread his shadow's influence across a small distance and create constructs from within it. The swords were pulled from his own shadow. The massive shadow hand sprouted from his body. The daggers had been thrown from within the bird's shadow. And lastly, the killer turned the entire roof into an inky black pool before summoning these creatures.

I've got it!

His revelation had come too late. The monsters had him trapped and they all came at him at once. All of a sudden, Jugo felt a shift in the dynamic of his powers. It was like his rapid adaptation realized what kind of trouble he was in, so it gave him a little something extra.

"Go with the wind!" Feeling the air around him, Jugo raised his palm, summoning a torrent of rising wind to carry the shadow monsters into the air. As he suspected, the monsters shrieked as they faded into the setting sun's light. The creature's needed to be connected with the shadowy pool The Shade had laid out for them, or else they would disappear in the light.

Jugo turned to blast The Shade next. To his surprise, the killer didn't look displeased by the defeat of his pet monsters. And to his concern, the killer didn't seemed worried that Alex had gained the upper hand. As the hero went to deliver a blow to The Shade's head with his steel batons he was blindsided. A contorted blob of the three shadow monsters sprang out from the shadows to deliver a clubbing blow to the right side of Alex's body. The surprise attack was launched with such speed and strength that it sent the hero careening off the rooftop.