clearing, he climbed up one of the old beams and hid inside a hole in the wall that he figured used to be a vent system when the mine was really up and running.

As he closed his eyes Shade found himself back in the training dojo with his panda father who had a smile on his face. “You showed good judgment today my son, you knew that it would take a long time for you to make it back to the city and returned to fight, you disabled your enemies weapons and are now resting so that you have the upper hand when the time comes to face them, so that is why we are going to practice here.” with that the scenery changed and Shade found himself back in the mine. “As you once explained to young Cloudkicker this is only a memory so with what little information we have on the area, we will train and use images of the very men you are going to fight as your training partners.” with that Shade nodded and started to move around. “You know the rules of training no tricks, only hand to hand will be aloud.”

“I understand father.”

“Good, now begin.” As day came and left Shade slept in his hiding spot, mentally running through countless drills preparing for the coming fight, it wasn’t until Shade was woken up by a child screaming that the training stopped. As he moved slowly from his hiding spot he found Bobby on the ground holding his arm up in a defensive manor as one of the guards held the strap in the air about to bring it down on the him.

“Say that just one more time you little brat and I’ll beat you black and blue before I throw you in the box.” the young bobcat sniffled as he looked at the guard, but then gulped.

“He’s coming, and he’ll get you. The Ghost is going to come to are rescue one day and he’s going to make you sorry.” Bobby said, only to see his words irritate the man.

“Not as sorry as your about to be you little….” The guard didn’t finish his words as he toppled forwards landing just beside the whimpering Bobby who looked up and smiled as he saw The Ghost standing in front of his hiding place. As Shade made his way to Bobby he made sure that he was alright before a smile crossed his face.

“I think it’s about time the guards learn this mine is haunted.” As Bobby looked at Shade a smile crossed his face. When it came time for shift change the nightshift guards of the mine waited for the elevator to come up with a group of kids, but as time passed and no one arrived one of them went down only to find that the garden was destroyed and abandoned.

“THE CROPS BEEN DESTROYED!!!” the guard yelled, up the shaft and word soon spread in a heart beat the children for the nightshift where locked up in the labor cabin and ever guard in the camp went down armed with guns.

“WHERE ARE THOSE WORTHLESS GUARDS!!” Seymour demanded as the men started to move out. “If those brats think they’re going to get away with this, they’re sadly mistaken, I’m going to take away their food, have them work double shift, beaten before they go to bed at night and the first thing when they wake up. Oh they’re going to be sorry they ever did this they’re going to be….” Seymour stopped with his ranting when he entered one part of the mine to find three of the dayshift guards almost cocooned to the wall by a thick sticky substance. “What is this mess.” Seymour said, as he touched it only to find it to be like a thick paste like substance. Just then from another part of the mine came screams from another group of guards, as all the teams ran in the location of the screams they found that three of the guards where hanging upside down covered in the same sticky substance. “ALRIGHT YOU BRATS SHOW YOURSELFS OR SO HELP ME I’LL PUT YOU IN THE GROUND LIKE THAT LAST GROUP OF KIDS THAT THOUGHT THEY COULD GET AWAY WITH THIS!!” The words rang through the mine and Shade’s ears perked slightly. As he made his way through the shadows he returned to the area that the dayshift workers where hiding.

“They’ve killed?” Shade asked, and the kids that had been there the longest explained a tale of a few kids that got together and tried to make a break for it through the mine. As they told their tale Shade clinched his fist as he listened to what happened to them when they got caught. The children were not shown any kind of mercy, even when they pleaded for their lives. “Alright.” Shade’s voice was calm not raised, no sign of emotion could be detected as he turned his back to the children. A darkness started to fill his heart towards these men, as he made his way through the mine, as he found himself in this new dark place of the mind, body, and soul he knew that he had to be careful, it was the warning that his father always told him about the Shadow skills, the more he used it the easier it got, but also the more corrupt his own spirit could become until finally he could turn into the very thing he hated. Else where Seymour and a few guards were still searching one part of the mine while other groups went different way.

“When I get a hold of these brats I’m going to.” before Seymour finished the first screams rang out from another part of the mine, they ran to try and see if they could at least get one of the children that though were behind this trouble but only wound up finding their fellow guards knocked out, their faces beaten with their own guns.

“Hey boss look at this.” one of the guards said, as he pointed to a sharpened cock stuck inside one of the support beams. “They got weapons boss.”

“Don’t be an idiot, we have guns and I don’t care how good they can throw, they can’t out run bullets.” just then a sharpened cog stuck into Seymour’s left leg causing him to scream out in pain. As he looked in the direction that the cog came from he could see in the pail light the rough outline of a figure standing at the end of the tunnel. “Oh your going to pay for that you little brat.” with that Seymour pulled his gun and pulled the trigger, only to hear it go click. “What.” As he looked at the gun he through it to the ground and looked at the guards. “WELL DON’T JUST STAND THERE SHOOT HIM!!” the guards pointed their guns only to have the same thing happen. Seymour looked at his men then watched as two of them fell to their knees when multiple object stuck into their legs.

“You might need those.” Shade said, as he started to walk towards the group. Seymour looked down to see the firing pins from the guns stuck into the guards legs.

“Stop him.” Seymour ordered another guard as he got up and started to hobble away. As the remaining guard walked forward he picked up a chain laying near by and started to swing it around with a tooth grin on his face.

“I don’t know who you think you are but I’m going make you sorry that you were ever born.” As soon as Shade stepped into the light the guard’s cocky smile vanished as he found himself looking at the Ghost. “You know if I take out the Ghost I’ll be a legend in the city.” the guard said, as the smile started to come back.

“I’ve heard that before.” with that the guard brought the chain down only to have Shade block it with his wrist and let it wrap around. “You really shouldn’t play with snakes.”

“Snakes?” at the sound of a hissing the guard looked down and found a Snake looking up and hissing at him. The guard let go of his end of the chain Shade spun around and used the chain like a whip wrapping it around the guard feet and pulling hard causing the grown man to loose his balance and fall backwards hitting hit head on the old mining tacks knocking him out.

“One to go.” As Shade walked past the guards he had just hurt he threw several small orbs onto the ground, and breaking them, as a liquid flew from them and landed on the guards, it slowly started to spread and cover them in the same sticky substance that had trapped the others. Seymour was running for his life he could hear the ghost behind him taunting him. “Seymour, you’ve been a bad boy Seymour, it’s time to pay for what you did Seymour.” as he kept running he got lost in the tunnels, he didn’t know which way to go and soon found him self at a dead end, but this wasn’t the place he wanted to be, he didn’t want to be in this one section of the mine, not at this time, not with what was following him. In the small clearing of the dead end was 5 markers indicating shallow graves, Seymour gulped as he looked at the markers, he feared that he would soon share the fate of the children that lay in those graves, as he turned to leave he found himself looking at the Ghost standing at the only exit.

“Please, let me go… I give you anything you want.” Shade didn’t say anything, his head slowly looked at the grave markers and Seymour turned his head to look at what Shade was looking at. “Please not that, I’ll do anything you want, please I’ll make a mends, I’ll treat the kids right, I’ll turn my self in just please don’t kill me.” Seymour pleaded again, as he looked at Shade their eyes locked for a minutes and Seymour could only see two black voids looking back at him.

“I am unable to take your life Seymour, because I made a deal with the chief of police that I wouldn’t.”

“Oh thank my lucky stars.”

“But I never said they couldn’t.” Shade said, as he pointed at the graves and Seymour turned and found him self looking at a