The digital clock read ‘2:45am’ as Jon rolled over to his other side facing the a wall. It had been a while since Jon had time to sleep but thinking about what the next plan or strategy when running a full scale resistance didn’t help him sleep. ‘How long has it been since I last slept?’ wondered Jon as a loud knocking was sounded on the door. “Finally” thought Jon as he got up from his bed and walked over to the door. “Who is it?” Jon called out to his small team of body guards.

“Ares Urgent news from Giant’s Bane’s team”

Jon opened the door without hesitation, “Did they run into trouble?” asked Jon trying to sound calm but having little luck. Jon’s thoughts immediately thought of the worst-case scenario and frowned, ‘why did I send on a mission like that? I should have sent him on the bodyguard detail, despite the fact that he had something between him and Erica and despite the fact that he knew Syn.’ Thought Jon as he looked at his guards waiting for a response. ‘Bacchus is to strong to be captured unless they have the adapted…’

“At 2:30am we received a distress signal from Bane’s watch stating his partners were down, so as the order you have given us we directed him to leave them behind, unfortunately at 2:40am we received another distress signal meaning capture, and as of now we are awaiting orders on what to do next!”

Jon’s faced frowned even more as he looked at the guard relaying the message. ‘Useless peon’ thought Jon as he said, “Bacchus is far two important to leave behind, knowing the enemy they will most likely torture for information… that being said I want you to inform all of the generals about he situation, I want that shipyard wiped off of the map.” Jon whipped his hands over his face as he continued, “I want it to be down discreetly, no mutant casualties what so ever, and contact Gunner and inform him of the situation I want to see if Syn can has any ideas of her own on how to help of the situation…” Jon then nodded to the one that was speaking and then said, “Bacchus has been my best friend for a long time and one of the best generals I have, if the enemy can get any information from him we will have to rework all of my plans and strategies.”

Once the guard left to inform everyone what was going to happen Jon closed his do and turned the lights on in his war room and walked to the phone, “Those Adapted are becoming a nuisance.” Said Jon to himself with all the disgust he could muster.

Picking up the phone he called the Smith, his father, “Hey dad, do you have Bacchus’s new two ready?” Jon paused for an answer then smiled, “Excellent I’ll send some people to pick it up as soon as possible.” Jon hung up the phone and smiled, “Now all we need is Bacchus and we can say good by to those pesky Adapts.” Jon walked over to his maps and started coming up with Strategies just incase Bacchus can’t hold up under the torture.

‘Am I alive or dead…’ came the single thought from Bacchus as he felt his head swimming with pain. The smell of blood had been with him for hours maybe even days, and the taste of copper always remained on his lips, even when they gave him water to wash the taste from his mouth it still lingered like a foul plague that wouldn’t die out. It just remained and endured what ever was thrown at it. There was no cure for the taste no escape...

“Mutant Scum…Gahhh…. Talk Damn It!” came the voice of a disgruntled adapted as kicked the mutant that was lying down on the ground no longer moving. He wasn’t dead far from it, playing opossum maybe but not dead. He and his partners had been beating the living hell out of this mutant scum for hours upon hours asking for information and every time they asked the mutant responded the same way, by spitting the blood that accumulated in his mouth at them.

A sharp pain could be felt in his side again. ‘Just let me die damn it…’ thought Bacchus as he remained motionless hoping they would tire out and leave him like they did so many times before. They had a knack for beating Bacchus for hours at a time, and with them being adapts and him having the shockers holding him down Bacchus could do much if he wanted to.

‘Bitter sweet victory’ thought Bacchus as he felt one final kick in his ribs as the adapted walked outside the door signaling they were done for the night. Normally this would be when Bacchus would try to bust out but seeing how they left him alone in a cell. But after the first attempt they tossed to adapts by the doors on the outside of the cells armed with tranqs potent enough to take down a bull elephant.

Bacchus blinked with his right eye and sat up trying not to move too much, the left eye was swollen shut from getting hit so many times in the face, other than that a few bruises on his cheek bone two fat lips and a welt on the back of his head the size of a ping pong ball his head was fine, it was the rest of his body he was worried about.

After sitting and leaning against the wall Bacchus sighed and winced noting the sever pains that filled his sides, tracing his fingers up on his bare chest Bacchus felt five of his ribs were either cracked of broken. “Hate stealth missions…” muttered Bacchus as he looked at his cuffs that were pressure sensitive.

It was the same as always and by his count it had been two days, forty-eight hours of them walking into the room and playing piñata with Bacchus till he stopped moving. Then let him recover slightly just to do it again. Despite the pain Bacchus was exhausted, and started nodding off only lowering his head and shutting his right eye.

Several hundred yards of bare ground surrounded the remains of an ancient fortress, protected by nearly twenty foot stone walls. Huge .50 caliber machine nests rested on top of the walls, numerous guard towers equipped with massive spotlights and some of the world's best snipers rose up from behind the wall, and behind that were explosive surface to surface and surface to air missles capable of blowing a Bowing 747 out of the air let alone any mutants that decided to test their luck against this fortress. All this hardware when hooked up to an advanced surveillance system modified from old Stalker hardware provided the leadership of the human resistance in Australia an ideal place to command from. Combine that with the fact they were hidden away in the mountains of the Outback and that they had enough food and ammo to last for over a year of assault assured them that no mutant army could ever take this facility.

Shade had to admit he was impressed. With all this fire power, the shadow mutant had to make absolutely sure that he did not get spotted before he absolutely wanted to. Throw in the fact, that there were many Adapted running through the halls, and Shade was almost frightened. Almost being the key word there. A spot light flashed over the tree he was hiding behind as the invisible mutant took one deep breath to calm his growing anticipation. He needed to focus, every move had to be precise. Before the spot light returned, Shade had vanished from the spot.

The gap was too far to jump, even for his power. Plus, he had extremely more precision when he jumped to a closer target. Landing halfway in the middle of the field, Shade's eyes widened as he saw a spotlight suddenly shift position and begin to head straight for him. He made a diving leap forward as the light barely missed his coat tails. Rolling, he dodged left around another light then took one more step forward. Okay, close enough.

The next second Shade was on top of one of the guard towers, looking down into the complex. Next trick, find Giant's Bane in this mass.

From his vantage point on top of the guard tower's roof, Shade could see almost the entire facility, well at least the parts of it that were above ground. He would hate to have to guess how much of the complex was below the surface. If the outside that been hard to navigate, the inside looked near impossible. There must have been an entire army stationed inside the fortress with countless numbers of patrols zig-zagging through the complex, every entrance to a building was guarded by no less than five guards, and numerous machine nests lining what seemed to be the streets in the complex. Of course when you were invisible and could teleport, all those guards didn't really cause a problem.

One building in particular caught Shade's attention. Besides the standard amount of guards, this one also had massive .50 caliber machine guns in front of the doors, one was pointing outward and another pointing directly at the door. Sand bags surrounded the two machine guns, in which at least five more guards were stationed. Also, on the four corners of the roof sat four more huge machine gun nests for additional firepower.This seemed as good enough place as any for Shade to start his search.

"Jumping" into the center of the darken roof, Shade moved silently toward the roof door to descend into the building. Approaching the door, Shade tried to teleport inside. However, it didn't work! He felt the darkened hallway, but for some reason, he just couldn't teleport in there. Then his invisibility suddenly snapped. Shade's eyes widened with fear. There was only one reason this could happen. Adapted!

Diving to the right side of the door, Shade landed slightly harder than he would have liked. Luckily the scraping of an opening door masked his landing. Sliding around the back side of the roof entrance, Shade felt painfully exposed as he tried to make himself disappear by pressing as hard as he could into the wall. He was trapped with two machine gun nests on either side of him, and an Adapted less than ten feet away. Suddenly, the cool feeling of invisibility again moved over his body. The Adapted must have moved further away from the door. Taking his chance, Shade "jumped" to the stairwell, a story down. Breathing a sigh of relief, Shade quickly began to make his way to the bottom floor. He was positive that was where they were holding the mutants.

Several minutes and three avoided patrols later, Shade stepped onto the final floor. He knew Adapts had to be on this floor. He just had to find a way around them. Finding a pocket of darkness that he could sprout from, Shade allowed just his head to go through. An audible gasp escaped his lips as he quickly pulled his head back through. There had to be no less than ten Adapted on this floor. There was no way Shade could fight through that mess. He had to become inventive.

Drawing a large, Bowie knife that he now always carried in his boot after his first encounter with an Adapt. Shade gingerly tapped on the door before hiding in the shadows of a corner. Soon, the shadowy mutant felt the sense of invisibility leave him as an Adapted entered through the door.

"Hello....hello...is there a new mutant prisoner?" The Adapted said, as he walked through the door. As the door shut, Shade sprang from the shadows. The foolish Adapts tried to pull his machine gun up to shoot the shadow mutant. However, it wasn't quick enough as the knife sliced through the Adapt's throat, silencing any hope of a call for help. Working quickly, Shade dragged the dead body underneath the stairs and quickly donned the man's uniform. Now, it was time for the infiltration. Shade knocked on the door again. This time with force. Before a guard could move, he wretched open the heavy steel door and stepped inside. Taking use of the Adapts' mutant cancelling ability, Shade immediately appeared as he stepped into the room.

"We got a problem upstairs! A new mutant killed his Adadpted guards and they need us up there immediately!" Shade shouted at the Adapted. The other guards reacted quickly, all storming through the door and up the stairs. One guard remained so the other mutants couldn't escape. After the last of the attacking guards moved away, Shade approached the remainin guard.

"Well, I guess it is just you and me now. You go over there to make sure those mutants don't get there powers back." Shade said to the young looking Adapted. The newbie gave a nervous nod before turning around. The next second the Adapted had a knife through his lungs and a severed aorta as he collasped in confusion before his heart stopped. Instantly, Shade vanished in the darkness. Stealing the dropped Adapted's keys, the shadow mutant searched until he found his target. Opening the door, the invisible Shade glazed at the bloodied mutant.

"You ready to get out of here or what?"

Another day another beating Bacchus winced from the pain as he laid on the floor it had been two days since he could weasel his way over to the wall which he found so comfortable once upon a time Bacchus looked over at the small winger nail marks that once gave him a small inkling of how long he had been there but as it was now one of his eyes had swelled up and he couldn’t read the markings that were marked on the wall because of all the blood that was painted on the wall.

A smell of copper lingered in the room not knowing anymore if it was his or someone else’s it didn’t matter to much blood smelled the same and looked the same. Red was red and it clogged the air with a smell that could not leave him or a taste that would vanish.

A small smirk appeared on his face as he did what he noticed he had been doing a lot as of late, flashbacks to booze and movies. Something that he did on a regular occasion before this incident happened. He would go out with who ever was free grabbed a large amount of booze got drunk and watched some movies his favorite on was Pulp Fiction and Boondock Saint’s, sure those movies were old school very old school but the way they portrayed life and death made him think of his current situation not so bad.

A small muttering voice came from Bacchus as he recited a quote from the movie, “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon thee.” He let a small laugh noticeable from his voice when someone opened the door and walked in.

"You ready to get out of here or what?"

Not even moving he let out a sigh, “You going to finish it this time or puss out before I die?” Bacchus asked as he tried to turn his body which was covered in bruises and blood. Letting out a small grunt when he turned Bacchus let out a small robotic laugh, “Shit, can’t be shade, I must be dead, haven’t seen that bloke in a long time.”

"Who else do you think they would send to save your sorry butt?" Shade said, grining the entire time. A sharp snap from the stairwell caught the shadow mutant's attention. The Adapted must have found out that they weren't actually needed upstairs, and by the sound\ of it, there were coming back rather angrily. Focusing back on the recently rescued Australian, Shade again cracked a grin.

"You think you could make a nice pile of rumble from that staircase?Because I sure as hell don't want to be stuck with you for the rest of my life."