2024, In An Old Factory. Lagos Stats
" Phantom! You have to stop!"
A man wearing a sleek skin tight black combat armoured suit, having a full face mask with a hood covering his figure, and boots. A waist belt with two pitch black guns sheathed by his sides yelled.
He ran towards Phantom, a masked man who wore a purple and black designed suit, having a pitch black cape and raised collars, black full face mask, clawed gauntlets, and boots.
"You can't stop me, Shadow!"
Phantom threw a barrel at Shadow, but he slid on the ground as the barrel passed over him.
Shadow took out one of his guns and began shooting at Phantom.
But, the Phantom caught him by his neck, gave him a great punch in the guts before tying Shadow to a pillar.
"Arrgghhhhhh! Don't do this!"
Shadow struggled to free himself while Phantom left and stood in front of a large monitor and began typing in some codes and configurations.
"Raaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!"
Shadow gave out as he cut himself lose, breaking the wires that held him bound.
"Kill him!"
From the order of Phantom, thugs came forth and began shooting at Shadow.
["Don't kill Shadow, don't kill."]
Shadow then sheathed his guns back and ran towards the thugs.
He kicked an henchman away, and punched another.
He dodged the spray of bullets that came at him.
Shadow landed on his feet, and took a running stance.
"Now you, Phantom."
Phantom seeing the wreck jumped out through a window unto his bike—
Which has smooth black tires, with trails of circuits which glow with a violet light as the bike pulsed with energy.
Phantom rode away as Shadow followed in pursuit.
Shadow ran on and off roofs, jumping from one to the other.
Seeing he was losing Phantom, he then leaped off a building, and shot his grappling hook from his right wrist.
He began swinging with the use of the hooks shooting out and retracting back into his wrists. And this time he was catching up to the Phantom.
"Shit! He's catching up to me."
Shadow then brought out his right gun while swinging on his left hook, then aimed at Phantom.
He shot the tyres of Phantom's energy bike—
CRASH!
The bike somersaulted tossing Phantom out of it, then as he landed on the ground, the bike came and crashed on him—
BOOM! BOOM!!
SomeHoursLater
Phantom dripping with blood profusely, suit damaged and torn crawled towards the wall of a building.
He then made a call.
"Shadow got to me, but I believe you'll make him join me soon. When it's time, he shall finish my work for me. G-G-Give me a proper burial."
Phantom breathed his last breath.
Four weeks later, Shadow was killed. His body was found with his guts open and his limbs removed.
Same as Phantom, whose body was lined up next to Shadow's.
So the city believed both killed themselves brutally in an intense battle.
And this led to an increase in crime rate.
The hero who protects the civilians and the villain who keeps command of the bad guys, both are gone and the city lot control.
***
12YearsLater
LagosState, Nigeria. 2036
"Mary, are you ready?!"
A young brown skinned guy, in his early 20s, blonde dyed hair, average height called out
"Yes, I'm coming down in a second Jason!"
Younger than him, black haired, 18 years and an average height girl responded as she came down the stairs to join her brother.
They both entered Jason's car and drove off to her college, The Lagos State University.
"I will come pick you up later."
Driving back home, Jason decided to go get some food stuff.
He parked at home, and strolled to a grocery store. Putting on his headphones and moving to the song he listened to.
PIM! PIM! PIM! PIM!
A car honked at Jason non stop who had trailed onto the road, but wasn't aware.
Just as the car was about to run him over, Jason suddenly opened his eyes and leaped, flipping backwards as the car drove past beneath him.
He then landed on his left knee and right hand.
["What the! How did I do that?!"]
Avoiding the attention of the people in the streets, he quickly went to the grocery store, got what he wanted and returned home.
Jason decided to take a nap before preparing food for Mary when she comes back home.
In his mind, different thoughts raced through—
["I remember back in the day. Dad usually tells me about 'The Tales of Shadow'... I sometimes wondered if it was true or not. I always used to think of it as a movie or comic that was his favourite—
["But… there was something strange now that I think of it. Dad talked about Shadow as if he knew him personally—
["Or was dad Shadow? A mystery."]
After Jason had the nap, he cooked and went to pick Mary up.
But on getting there, he spotted a boy trying to hit on her, even though she refused and was trying to resist.
"Hey, leave her alone!"
Racing out of the car, Jason headed for them. But as he got close the boy pushed Mary aside and threw a punch.
But, something strange happened—
"Huh!"
Jason exclaimed as he looked and to him for juya few seconds, the boy's hand was moving slowly.
["Did he get slower or I became faster? How?"]
Jason after hesitation, caught the boy's hand, and gave him a nice uppercut as he fell on the ground.
Jason and Mary left and headed home, while they discussed what happened between her and the boy, how it all started, and what led to that in the first place.
Questions from Jason were screaming—
"Did you know him from anywhere?"
"Is this the first time this is happening?"
"Don't you have friends who can stand up for you?"
They argued about it for a while, until Japan decided to give it a rest.
"Don't worry lil sis, I'll always be there to protect you, even if I have to lay down my life for you. That's a promise Mary."
They got home, ate and rested.