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(Occurs after Trading Sides)

Although he was told specifically by Cold Steel not to sneak around the mansion in order to protect him from being discovered by the other members of the X-men, Shade had to break his orders, just this once. It was too risky for him to return to the Sanctuary without first getting at least some intelligence about what was going on behind those golden doors. Therefore, Shade had to talk to a certain little redhead. She was the only other Sanctuary resident in the mansion.

It was late, very late. Young girls were not supposed to be up at this time. They needed their rest that they could grow up big and strong. Yet, there were two girls in the mansion that were up at this hour. The first girl had very pale skin, almost the same color as Shade's skin. The other was the specific redhead that he was after. Shade was glad that they were up at this time of the night. It suited his mutation perfectly. Using the cover of night, the shadow mutant could move unseen wherever he pleased. He only had to wait for the two girls to separate so he could talk to Kaitlyn alone.

The only problem was that they were always together. They rarely left each other's sides. It seemed like an impossible task to separate them. For hours, the two girls played and watched television and did all those things that little girls do. With dawn approaching, Shade thought that he might have to brave the unknown and return to the Sanctuary without any information. However, with the last few hours of night remaining, the two young mutants returned to their room. Shade thought about leaving then, but the pale mutant left a moment later, without Kaitlyn. The shadow mutant saw his chance, and he took it. Reaching out with his sixth sense, Shade grabbed hold of a shadow and 'jumped' into Kaitlyn's room.

"Kaitlyn... Shade whispered into the darkness.

Lenna, that was what I was thinking too. The Order has been doing so much preparation that when the X-men strike, the Order is able to defeat them. I think it was good too if some of the X-men are "destroyed". Everyone thinks that those X-men are dead, but they are just in hiding. That gives them a slight advantage to use against the Order later.

Thinking about future plots after this, it might be important for the Order, or at least the upper chain of command, to work through a fake organization or puppet that looks like the leader of the movement, but it is the Order that is pulling the strings. This protects the Order/ upper chain of command from being discovered when the X-men finally take back the city.

My idea is that the Order in charge for an extended period of time, like a year or so. While they are in charge, every day life in New York City is completely changed. Humans stay hidden for the most part, going outside only when absolutely necessary. All humans in any positions of power are removed with force. The police force is disbanded and replaced with a ruthless gang of anti-human mutants. Etc. I didn't really have a set idea for this except that things would be completely different. The idea was that the entire site for be sudo-effected by the Order's rule.

I hope this helps to clarify some things.

So the ice brain had jokes. Kindness turned to mockery. Cold Steel blanantly left Shade out of the picture, failing to mention that the shadow mutant had snuck into the mansion singlehandedly or the fact that he was one of the only Order members to ever kill an X-men. Shade should have expected something like this.

Anger swelled in his chest, and Shade made another attempt to stand. But he was too weak. He was only a shadow of his former self. And a shadow of a shadow was not much of anything. Instead, Shade broke into laughter. It was a hysterical laughter, bordering on insane. When he finally stopped, there were tears in his eyes. He wiped them away as his laughter fell into a chuckle.

"No, no. I never saw a sonic roar mutant for as long as I was there. Two musical twins, but nothing like you described." Shade replied before grabbing another slice of pizza and wolfing it down. He licked the grease off his fingers before taking a large gulp of his beer. His eyes then fell back on Cold Steel.

"What kind of retribution are you planning?" Shade asked, offhandedly.

"No reason to eat." Shade replied before taking another large swig from his beer, draining it to halfway. Seeing Cold Steel take a slice of pizza, the shadow mutant took that as an unspoken invitation and grabbed one for himself. The first bite was pure heaven. The perfect combination of cheese, toppings, and tomato sauce filled Shade's mouth with favor and his body with joy. He savored the taste for a moment before devouring the rest of the slice in record time. To wash it down, Shade drained the rest of his beer. He let go a belch before helping himself to another of Cold Steel's beers.

"Boring." Shade said, popping the top of the beer. "Something to distract myself would help. A newspaper would be nice, too. How are things on the outside? Anything interesting happening? And don't get me started on the light."

Shade laughed at his own joke before taking another large drink from the beer. If the ice mutant had hoped to get Shade drunk to help loosen his tongue, the idea was working. Thirty pounds lighter and without alcohol for a year, Shade's body was already feeling the effects of the alcohol even if his mind had not realized it yet.

Shade had managed to put some distance between him and the Adapted, almost at the edge of her aura, when Lenna spoke. Showing her the tiniest bit of respect, the shadow mutant stopped and cast his gaze back at her words.

"Well at least on that point, we can agree. You get in my way, expect the same." Shade replied. He walked two more steps forward before he finally escaped that dreaded aura. His abilities switched on, and he disappeared into a shadow.

Well, things were supposed to be cooling down on my deployment. However, if you have been watching the news, then you know why we were suddenly extended. Hopefully, it will only last a month or so but no one knows for sure.

I will continue to try to post, but there is little time in the day with all this work. Please excuse my absence. Hopefully, things will cool down and I will be back soon.

Sincerely,
Shade/ Cole

The man that had once been known as Shade was where he always was nowadays. He was lying on his small bed inside his prison cell of light while he waited for the X-men to decide what to do with him. The once-strong Orderling was in a sad state. His honed muscles had left him, deteriorated to almost nothing. Shade's once clean shaven face had months of untrimmed growth sprouting from his chin. His pale blonde hair had grown several inches longer and was in tangles. He was in a bad need of a bath and a change of clothes as he smelled like he was homeless. Not to mention, Shade was feeling like he might have been going slightly insane, confided for months in his small cell. He kept seeing shadows, where there were no shadows. Therefore, Shade knew it was only a matter of time before he cracked. What he hadn't expected was how he would finally crack.

The husk of a man that had been Shade was sleeping peacefully in his bed when he was awakened by a slight thump! At first, the old Orderling thought it was his silent caretaker, coming to bring him his daily ration of food. However, when Shade looked to the invisible wall, all he saw was a mirror. It looked as if someone had painted a reflective covering over the entire surface, causing it reflect the small room back on itself. Shade raised himself from his bed and made his way towards his own reflection in the mirror. By the time he made it to the mirror, his weak body was already exhausted, And when he looked in the mirror, Shade did not recognize the face of the man staring back at him.

It was his own face, but he had not seen it since they had placed him inside his cell. Cautiously, he lifted his hands to examine the long beard and hair that was growing from the top of his head. The hair felt brittle and wiry when it had been soft and strong. His eyes had sunken dark into his head, with the sockets dark around them. All the available fat and muscle had been removed from his head as well. His jawbone was pronounced along with the sides of his temple, making his head look almost like a skull. Reaching up, Shade traced the bones with his hands.

However, as he was moving his hands along his bones, his reflection suddenly stopped. Shade stopped his examination and stared at the image in the mirror as the man lifted a hand and curled a bony finger towards himself, beckoning Shade closer to the mirror. Thinking that he had finally lost it, the shadow mutant gave a maniac's laugh before inchinching towards the mirror. He stopped only two feet from it. The entity in the mirror matched him step for step. When he was close enough, his copy in the mirror stepped aside and revealed a black hole behind him in the wall.

"Shadow." The word left Shade's patched lips in a stranger's voice. The shadow mutant immediately looked behind him to find the wall was still solid. There was no hole in it. Turning back to the mirror, Shade could still see the hole with it's much needed shadow in the reflection of the wall. The image of Shade in the mirror wiggled its bony finger at Shade, telling him that it was not outside the mirror. Inside the mirror, the image of Shade was telling him as he curled his finger again, beckoning Shade onwards. With his wits at their ends, the shadow mutant followed his own image's instructions and pushed at the glass of the mirror. However, there was no glass separating the two halves of the room. There was only another room, perfectly like his own, except in the exact opposite. Shade's own image took a hold of Shade's hand and led him towards the cool darkness that awaited him. As Shade entered the hole, he took a glimpse back at his one-time prison. Were those white rabbit ears pocking out from underneath his bed? However, Shade never got a chance to see as his own image suddenly shoved him backwards into the hole in the wall. And suddenly, he was falling...

For how long he was falling, Shade did not know. However, as the ground approached him, the shadow mutant was able to twist his spine, landing on his feet...on all four of his feet. He had landed on a pile of hay. There was a stone floor beneath him, torches were burning on the walls. He appeared to be in some kind of dungeon. How he had fallen straight through the brick ceiling Shade never considered, because he was more concerned about how he was suddenly a cat.

At least, he thought he was a cat. He must have been a rather big cat from his perceptive. His hands had been replaced with paws, paws with claws, sharp claws. He still felt scrawny, but there was power in his muscles again, power that he had never felt before, like he could leap ten feet in the air without aid. Something twitched behind him. Shade craned his neck back, discovering that he had a tail. A twitching tail that snapped this way and that when he moved. And fur. His fur was ghost white. If Shade had a mirror again, he would have seen that his white fur covered his entire body, except for a darker grey that hung around his light blue eyes.

Suddenly, Shade remembered that he was suppose to be looking for a girl. Or was it girls? Why would he be looking for a girl anyways? Well, maybe he would remember when he found her, whoever she was. Spotting a shadow nearby, Shade disappeared as he stepped into it. The relief of entering the cool shadow after months of light felt euphoric. Grinning a Cheshire smile, the shadow cat 'jumped' out of the dungeon.