Southern Wadi Industrial Zone – Midnight
The moon loomed like a pale coin over the shattered industrial husk nestled between the dunes. Once a mining and research hub, the facility had gone dark years ago after being deemed unsalvageable. Now, it hummed with renewed energy, illegally reactivated by unknown hands. Shawn and S3bastian stood atop a ridge overlooking the compound.
"Facility's live," S3bastian muttered. "Minimal staff, all omnic. Looks like they're hiding in plain sight."
Shawn didn't speak. His eyes followed the faint blue shimmer pulsing from the ventilation towers. The design was all too familiar for Shawn. Almost as if he created it.
"That's my current," he finally said.
"Let me guess," S3bastian deadpanned. "Another catastrophic invention you buried under good intentions?"
Shawn drew a slow breath. "Yeah. The energy to fuel the Shadow's invisibility is rare. It requires a special blend of elements that device can only reproduce. Once again it was scrapped along with everything else. This just proves I have an idea whose selling us out."
"Lovely. Shall we blow it up?"
They dropped in silently. No alarms. Shawn's bioelectric pulse jammed the proximity sensors. Down below, rows of sleek omnic limbs, blank visors, internal power cells. Shadows in the making.
Shawn approached a console and hacked in. One of his old Shimada-era override sequences still worked.
SHADOW INITIATIVE: MK II
UNITS ONLINE: 12
OBJECTIVE: INFILTRATE, NEUTRALIZE, ERASE
Then a second file appeared.
Designer Access – Daniel Iwata
Log: [Voice #234]
"Tried to sell the tech. Didn't have all the pieces. Shawn kept the key to himself. But Anubis found me. It didn't offer a deal; it gave an ultimatum. So, I built. Because I had no choice."
Shawn's face darkened. "Danny."
S3bastian's voice turned sharp. "That the snake you used to work with?"
"He was my systems guy. Thought the project was worth billions. Tried to copy the blueprints after I wiped them. I shut him out. Guess he never forgot."
"Well, you'll get to catch up soon. We've got company."
Twelve Shadows emerged from the darkness. Silent, precise, lethal. If you weren't looking for them, you couldn't even notice them.
They engaged, no negotiations or chance for reasoning. Shawn's katana crackled with energy as he dueled one Shadow at close range. He sent a pulse into the ground, shorting its legs. S3bastian's plasma detonations vaporized another. They moved in tandem, as if this fight had happened before in a nightmare.
"They're learning every move," S3bastian warned. "Adapting."
"Then we stop teaching them."
They themselves were an open book to fight against. You could count on them to always go for the lethal blow even if the opportunity wasn't there. Made them easier to counter. So, Shawn switched it up, gave them less information by playing more defensively, only counterattacking when they messed up.
By the end of ten minutes, all twelve Shadows were wreckage.
Shawn stood over the last sparking body, chest heaving. "We end it now. Sublevel three.
They found him.
Danny Iwata, hunched over a console, tubes running from his arms into a central core. His face was pale, haunted. Surveillance omnics flanked the room but did not act. They weren't there to protect Danny.
They were there to make sure he worked. The Shadows were the ones to make sure he stayed in line.
"Shawn," Danny whispered. "You found me."
Shawn stepped forward, face unreadable. "You were trying to sell the blueprints."
Danny nodded, trembling. "I… I was desperate. After you wiped the project, I had nothing. I tried to salvage what I could. It wasn't enough. Anubis found me. Said I could be useful. Or dead."
"So, you helped it make more."
"I didn't give it everything. I swear. I didn't have your neural code, or the adaptive feedback algorithms. That's still yours. Please. I never wanted this."
Shawn looked at the half-formed Shadow in the core tank, twitching. Learning.
"You gave Anubis the tools to mass-produce assassins designed to be invisible to human and omnic detection. You handed it ghosts."
"I had no choice!" Danny pleaded. "It threatened my life!"
Shawn didn't blink. "You always had a choice. You just didn't have a spine."
Danny stepped back. "You're not going to kill me. You're just a kid. Take me to your superiors, boy. They'll understand."
S3bastian said nothing. He simply looked away.
Shawn raised his palm, blue energy pulsing. Danny's eyes widened. "No. Shawn, wait! Please, I can help, I can fix it...!"
"You already helped," Shawn said flatly. "You helped the enemy."
The flash was instant.
A crackling lance of bioelectricity pierced Danny's chest, arcing through his nervous system. His scream cut off in static. He collapsed to the floor lifeless. At least he had the decency to make his death painless.
S3bastian turned back slowly. "Cold."
"He made his choice," Shawn said quietly. "He's not the first to sell out humanity. But he'll be the last with my work."
They destroyed the lab and data cores. As the charges detonated, the Shadows' growth was ended, for now. Here at least.
Command Base
Farid stared at the omnic head on the table. "So, he was behind the production?"
Jack narrowed his eyes. "And what happened to him?"
"Executed," Shawn said bluntly. "No trial. No extraction. No future leaks."
Silence fell. Ana understood why, but she couldn't understand how a child could make such a decision. However, now that she thought more on it, Shawn was nothing like a typical child. Jack, however, was against his decision.
Ana looked at him. "You took that burden on yourself."
Jack looked at him with a disapproving gaze. "That wasn't your choice to make, he should have been brought here, to face justice."
"I designed the Shadows," Shawn said. "He stole them. Then handed them to our worst enemy and sold-out humanity. Imagine the damage they would have done if there was an army of those things. If I brought him back, he would have just played the victim card and been forgiven."
Farid spoke up, "What makes him different from you, Torbjorn or Liao?"
"He was a coward, willing to switch sides if his pathetic life was guaranteed. If a roach threatened him, he probably would work for it too. But the rest of us, we always have and will stand with humanity. I can guarantee that if you give any of us the choice, we'll die on the battlefield fighting our own creations."
Reinhardt gave a single, solemn nod. "I would stand with the rest of them."
S3bastian chimed in softly, "So. Who's next on the kill list?"
Shawn didn't answer. He just stared at the horizon.
"Wherever in the world those signatures are detected, I'll personally stamp them out.