Shade Wield/The Word Wars
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
The Word Wars
Contents |
Introduction
It all started with some witty jokes. The two met each other in Pocket D; and as usual, Enerix looked down upon him, trying her best to humiliate the "Australian ninja”. However something was different, Shade Wield was a worthy challenge in her little manipulation game. Shade seemed to know exactly what Scarlet’s intentions were, it was obvious that she can easily manipulate men and he had no dellusion she was doing anything different to him. He told himself that he was befriending her just to assemble a dossier on how to defeat her in needed (something he has indeed done). What began as a simple exercise in flirty comments and banter became something much more.
For Scarlet, this was a test of Shade. She wanted to find out how 'worthy' he really was (after all, an unworthy pet would be a useless tool for her). She wanted to push Shade’s limits, measuring how much he can resist her charm. She wanted to see if Shade was “just another goon”. Shade was trying to test himself as well, he needed to prove to himself that he could refuse a beautiful woman. It wasn't until much later that he found out she was far more then just a beautiful woman.
Initial encounters
During their early encounters, Shade began collecting small samples of the pleasant chemical Enerix secreted into the air. He later analysed this chemical numerous times, trying to find a resistance for it. Later on, he openly told Enerix what he was trying to do. She of course found this highly amusing, as he was nowhere close to finding a vaccine against its effects. In the end, Shade had to resort to the powerful filtration system built into his mask in order to block the chemicals; however, this also meant that he could not enjoy a drink when he was around Enerix, amusing her further. At this point, Enerix was confident that even if Shade was indeed “just another goon”, he would make an effective servant.
In the next few days, Scarlet began trying to provide Shade with a false sense of security around her. This was the early stages in her plan to turn Shade into one of her “cute toys”. To her surprise this part of her plan was rather successful and Shade did begin to feel at ease in her presence; that is until the night in which all of Shade’s feeling of safely was shattered. He was totally caught off guard when she simply breathed a rather powerful dosage of her chemicals into his mask. The dose was so severe that even with multiple layers of the filtration system in place, much of it passed through. In order to save himself from being affected by the toxins, he had to inject himself with a virus of his own creation; a virus that targeted any toxins not native to his blood and eradicated them. However, the virus had the side effect of disabling his powers for a short time as it worked. It was this simple exchange of breaths that made Shade realize that his safety was indeed compromised and that his untrained engineering skills were not enough, making him turn to a greater mind for assistance.
Shade's protection
Dr. Forkenshpoon was a friend of Shade’s, happy to help him, and even happier for the payment. With the help of Shade’s analysis of Scarlet’s chemicals, Forkenshpoon devised a small device which was to be breathed in, where it lodged into the throat and prevented the specific chemical from passing through, while allowing other things (especially alcohol). Sadly, it was not very ideal for Shade: when it collected enough of the chemical, it would start blocking the airway, so it had to be coughed up and swallowed (with a refreshing taste of cinnamon).
However, for another scheme that Shade was working on, he needed a very strong sample of Scarlet’s scent. He began to slowly collect her aroma through a special, passive absorption device. Later on, he casually mentioned to Enerix his little scheme; which really didn’t involve Scarlet. Enerix took this opportunity to make a little deal with him. She decided to give him a direct, liquefied, and concentrated sample of her chemicals in exchange for a payment; and for payment, she gave him three options. The first option was for Shade to simply kneel in front of her, which she knew would not happen. The second option was for him to give her a simple kiss without any filters or third-party gadgets getting in the way; something Shade simply laughed at for obvious reasons. As for the third option, she asked him to give her one of those throat filters; enabling Enerix to have someone reverse-engineer and provide a solution for bypassing them. To Shade, he really did not have a lot of options. Hence, he resorted to giving her two throat filters, being the generous gentleman that he is. In return, Scarlet simply breathed into her empty cocktail glass, having her poisonous breath condense around the walls of the glass, forming a thick, radiant, and bright red liquid at the bottom of it.
Unfortunately, Enerix’s little plan for finding a solution against Shade’s filters failed due to Shade overhearing her conversation with Dr. Forkenshpoon regarding the filters. Shade, who was rather entertained by this and couldn't resist a chance to gloat, told Enerix about his knowledge of her ‘deal’ with Forkenshpoon. Scarlet, who was shocked and impressed at the same time, decided to abort her plan. She returned the throat filters back to Shade with a simple kiss (for reasons he would not understand until later). After all, holding on to the filters no longer was an advantage for Enerix; she needed something much stronger, something that would really bring Shade to his knees.
It was finally time for Enerix to use Shade as a guinea pig for her recently-discovered powers. She decided to poison Shade with negative energy, channelling it through his mouth. As a result, during a night in Pocket D, she lured Shade into yet another kiss (something she had become quite proficient at). Shade, who was confident with his filters, gave in. However, during the kiss, Enerix changed into her demonic form, enabling herself to emit negative energy, poisoning Shade with it. Contrary to her expectations, the negative energy reacted rather differently with a man who'd been exposed to it since conception, simply leaving his mouth numb. Even with the minor effect, Shade began to believe that he had possibly gotten in over his head in this game.
Near death experience
Several weeks passed and the two acted like friends; although Scarlet usually freaked Shade out by toying with the idea that they were married and are preparing for a wedding ceremony. This mostly scared Shade so much because of his phobia about commitment. In the meantime, Enerix was planning an even greater scheme regarding Shade. So far, he passed all her tests, and this was the ultimate challenge for him if it ever succeeded. She decided to seek for help from someone she knew would not play little games with her: someone like Dr Von Dread. With the help of “the good doctor”, she managed to get her hands on a special serum that masked her chemicals. She knew that Shade could perfectly breathe air when he had his throat filters on. Using this knowledge, she asked the doctor for a substance that would change the chemical signature of her toxins to that of oxygen for a short period. The doctor easily came up with a serum that she could inject into herself, rendering her toxins harmless for a brief period. However, the serum reacted with organic fluids inside the body and unmasked the toxins as soon as they entered the victim, a process which meant they would completely bypass any of his throat filters.
Enerix’s plan came to it's conclusion during a night the two met outside Pocket D. Her plan involved restraining Shade with invisible bonds of energy without his knowledge and poisoning him, claiming victory in this 'Friendly War' that grew between them. However, the plan did not work as she intended. She easily managed to lure Shade into kissing her by toying with him, and telling him that she has always liked Shade and that she could not confess that she has actually developed feelings for him; not that the whole thing was too far from the actual reality. Of course, she easily restrained Shade without him having the slightest clue (she was a good kisser, after all); and by the time he did find out that he cannot move, it was too late. However, her plan resulted in an odd outcome. No one could have predicted the result of mixing Enerix's chemical, Von Dread's masking agent, and Shade's inhuman physique. This caused Shade to have a seizure and nearly die. Of course, at the beginning, Scarlet did not notice Shade was in severe danger; thus, she went on to celebrate her victory and forced Shade to kneel before her, even though he was shaking uncontrollably (still restrained by the force bonds), unable to respond. It was during this sad celebration that Scarlet realized what she has really done. The jokes were over. The game was ending. She was worried in losing Shade; yet she could not do anything but shed a single tear as she yelled out his name, looking for the slightest hint of guaranteed life in him. No one knew Scarlet would ever cry; at least not over a man.
The True war begins
No one knows why Shade decided then and there to turn this into a full scale war. Some think it was simple revenge, others believe he wanted to remove a potential threat to his well being in the future (either by killing her, or convincing her he’s too dangerous to be worth the while). The truth of the matter is that he needed to do this for the sake of his ego. In Shade’s mind, he is a cunning, intelligent man. To be deceived by a trick that was, in hind sight, quite obvious, was a major blow to his self esteem. He had to ‘beat’ her, just to prove to himself that he was capable of it.
To achieve his goal, he needed further assistance. He contacted a close friend of his, Ms. Exquisite Agony, who had told him she had started to work in a company capable of creating almost exact replicas of individuals. After parting with a quite sizable amount of his now more-limited funds, he was the new owner of four exact robotic replicas of himself. There were two oddities to the order, however: in one of the robots, its stomach was to be hollow, and he specified that there was to be a security leak in the company, causing Enerix to be informed of the number of automations ordered. He later acquired a high yield explosive made of a hybrid of Rikti and Human technology, and a short distance temporary Emergency Force Field Emitter; the kind used to seal off sections of Paragon during emergencies.
His plan was rather smart. Even Enerix could not refuse that fact. In the opening stages, the first robot was sent after Enerix as an attempted assassination and failed miserably, proving to be slower than Shade by a considerable amount and easily defeated. The second and third were sent off at the same time, and were also easily defeated by the hands of Enerix. After all, Scarlet herself was a true artist when it came to ambush attacks. However, the second assault was more notable, as it was ‘revealed’ that the copies were not able to copy Shade’s speech, and when one of them spoke, it was through the air of an audio recorder. Shade was later accused of being somewhat wasteful when he later described his plans, since he was effectively throwing away hundreds of thousands of dollars with these suicidal attacks. Shade vigorously denied this claim, saying that it was essential to give Enerix the impression that 'his plan' to cause her harm with waves of robotic attacks was failing miserably, drawing her into a false sense of security.
Enerix decided to try and counter Shade’s attacks by purchasing two of the same robots from Ms. Ex. However, she insisted that the robots must be able to produce a gas into the air; especially the organic toxins of Enerix. Furthermore, she paid Ms. Ex double the money she required as payment, just to keep quiet about the order. Ms. Exquisite Agony, however, ‘carelessly’ left a copy of the order form easily found in the company’s dumpster, and then even more carelessly left Shade a voicemail, saying there was something interesting in the dumpster. Upon finding out about Enerix’s little plan, he fitted one his outfit’s hoods with a three minute tank of oxygen and air mask. He was forced to use it when he was ambushed by one of his copies, which emitted Enerix’s familiar fragrance into the air before it was defeated.
Final strike
The final assault came a day later. Enerix stumbled upon a silent, less agile Shade Wield and easily defeated him, causing him to land on his front with robotic parts spilling out of his hood. The ‘real’ Shade Wield walked around the corner into her sight, clapped and complimented her for how easily she defeated them all. Scarlet, who really did not care for his compliments, decided to make sure the ‘robot’ she just defeated did not rise behind her and did not attempt any underhanded trick. She kicked the robot in the chest, both to guarantee his disability in combat, and to show her disgust in Shade’s poorly designed plan; at least as far as she knew. The ‘real’ Shade then went on giving her a false sense of security, telling her that he fully expected to die that day, as he wouldn’t rest until he would defeat her; and he was sincerely in doubt of being able to do that. Scarlet decided to tell him the truth. She decided to tell him that she never meant to harm him in the way he was harmed. However, her talks fell on deaf ears at first; although later, he dropped his fighting stance and walked over to her, resting his hand on her shoulder. At this point, Scarlet could not help but to feel a hint of regret springing up in her heart...
It was then that the ten square foot Emergency Force Field was turned on, trapping them both together. Enerix immediately trapped the ‘real’ Shade in her own kinetic barriers, effectively preventing either of their escapes from the force field.
“Oh Shade, you really think you can win this, don't you?” Scarlet said as she let out a small chuckle. “You're hopeless. You have no clue who you are dealing with. Never, ever think you can deceive me.”
It was only then, that the ‘fake’ Shade rose to his feet just outside of the barrier, the 'real' Shade inside the barrier with her now acting like the lifeless replica it was.
“Damn,” said Shade while rubbing his chest with one hand, “I think you broke a rib...”
“I guess you did manage to deceive me after all”, said Scarlet as she realized what just happened. A surprised, yet impressed smirk sat on her face. “So...what’s next?”
“This”, said Shade as he pulled out a small hand-held device out of his belt, pressing the red thumb-sized button on its top. Suddenly, the special bomb he planted inside the cavity of the robot (alongside the force field generator) exploded. Its heat and force was severely magnified by the small space Enerix and the replica were trapped in. The force was enough to tear through Scarlet’s defences, rendering her unconscious with severe wounds, and effectively atomised the replica. Her wounds healed up rather quickly as expected; however she simply laid there, motionless on the ground...
It is not known why, instead of turning her in to the Zig for medical attention and arrest, Shade took her back to his own base. The cellular regenerator he’d recently taken possession of proved to be rather ineffective in helping her recover. No one other than Shade and Enerix know what happened in that lab. However, it is known that after recovering, Enerix was gone from his base within a matter of minutes, and the two seemed more at ease. One would think it is finally over between the two of them.
The truth is, this war has just begun.
