Front Lines: Shade's Shadow

Shade's Shadow is a short story by Chappy2 and edited by Telos. It is a prequel to Front Lines.
==Prologue: Bad Name==
For too long had Scott Marshal hung in the web of his parent's shadow, for too long had he rotted in a police holding cell, and for far too long had he been ashamed of the name Marshal. So that is why at the age of 19 when the CIA approached him he did not resist... I shall start his story from the beginning.
Growing up Scott had always been the darling in his parents life, him, and thousand dollar jewels. You see Scott's parents were major league criminals who ran a martial arts club by day and a gang of criminals by night. But Scott didn't find out about this until he was twelve and at that age these sort of things would give a child a rush of excitement as is what happened with Scott. He begged his parents to take him with them on their escapades but alas they declined him and he gradually lost interest in what his parents did and didn't do. That was until they were arrested...
Scott stood with a tear running down his face as he saw the police car streak away with his parents inside. They had been sentenced to 30 years for burglary, shop-lifting, possession of firearms, armed robbery and a load of other charges but still, they were his parents and even when he was ashamed of them he couldn't help but love them.
But Scott was young and was easily influenced by his parents addiction to crime and by the time he was 19 he had robbed three banks, seriously injured four men and burgled over 20 homes. When asked how, he answered "All from my parents mate. They taught me everything I need to know about crime". What he didn't tell them was that as a young boy he had always had a flare for close combat and how gracefully they could deliver pain, Scott can remember very vividly of how at the age of 9 he had broken a friend's ribcage when they were playing Dragon Ball Z and unfortunately he was the villain. 
And so on every day of his parents martial arts club he had trained and trained to the extent where he took out three men at once in a training session. One day Scott's talents really shined. On September 12th 1994 in a crime club Scott insulted one of the local "Kings of Crime" thugs calling him a "dumb piece of $h#%!". The man turned around slipping a hand inside his jeans and pulling a knife and as if a signal to the others around the table they all pulled out their own assortments of vicious weaponry from broken bottles to a vintage golf club. The man with the knife made a clumsy lunge at Scott who knocked him cold with a two-footed slammer. Two more men rushed him. They came slowly compared to Scott's agile speed. He grabbed both their heads and bashed them together like percussion instruments. As five more men came towards him in a circle Scott lashed out with his hand and smacked the five down. One final member of the gang took a stab at Scott who grabbed his arm and exposed the sickening sound of bone tearing human flesh.
As the man backed away clutching his bloody arm, he slipped a gun out of his jacket with his good arm and raised it to Scott's head. Scott started to sweat as a sinister grin seeped across the man's pale face. A gun shot rippled through the air as the man in front of Scott collapsed revealing a man dressed in black with a smoking pistol behind him. 
"Scott Marshall you are under arrest. Put your hands in the air!" obediently Scot raised his hands as he was led to the back of a van behind a pub. "Cuff him," gestured the man as Scott sat down in the back with the CIA agent.
"So what have I been nicked for?" probed Scott.
"I am not allowed to speak to you, Mr Marshall." replied the CIA agent.
"NEVER EVER CALL THAT I AM NOTHING LIKE MY FOOLISH FATHER!!!" Scott screamed.
"Mr Marshall please resume your seat!!!!" boomed the agent.
But still Scott screamed as the CIA agent pulled a police taser out of his jacket. Scott spotted it and said
"C'mon! Try me ya big lump of lard!" Unfortuntly these were the last words he said before his mind decended into darkness......
Scot awoke in a cell no different to the twenty four he'd been in before, graffiti stained walls, piss covered corners and a bed like two blocks of concrete. 2 hours later someone rapped on his door.
"Oi! Marshall, the big man want's to see you!" said the man,
"What is this? Thug inc?" joked Scott then instantly regretted it as the man burst through the door and grabbed him by the shoulders,
" If you struggle i take out the taser." He said brutally so that Scott would shut his trap.
Scott was blinded by light as he stepped into a office with over a dozed light bulbs, at a desk in the middle of the room was a man drumming his fingers across the desk with a surprising grin across his face.
"Scott my good man take a seat!" smiled the man getting up to sake his hand, Scott shook it uneasily
"Ummmm...... thank you sir I-"
"Alexander, call me Alexander." Said Alexander cutting him off,
"Okay, Alexander, I don't think I'm sure what is going on, I mean shouldn't i be rotting in a jail cell by now?" 
'
"Well you see," Alexander began "We have been keeping tabs on you since you've been 10 years old and we find your skills martial arts to be quite impressive." Scott stood still gawping at what Alexander was saying "You see, we want you to work for us. for years now the USA government has been trying to devise this squad called RIDAG, we already have 3 other operatives that are going through the intensive training. Quite Frankly we have 3 that have already been filled, number 1 is a sniper, his name in Andrew becket also known as Scope, 2 is an explosives expert Trent Williams also known as Timer, 3 is a weapons man Robert Gray also known as Rapid. And we were hoping that you would be kind enough to be out martial artist accepting the persona of Shade. But may i remind you that this is a one sided matter, if you say no we can easily throw you in a jail just like mommy an daddy."
"One question before i make up my mind? asked Scott
"Shoot"
" Why would i need to undergo training i mean i can take down 5 guys at once how much more do you guys want?" spoke Scott
" A good question with a complicated answer," explained Alexander starting to lose his patients "When we send you on mission we hope and expect that you will be able to take out 30 armed men without breaking a sweat!.
"How the hell am i supposed to do that?!?" yelled Scott 
"THATS WHAT THE TRAINING'S FOR MORON!!!!!!" bellowed Alexander finally losing his cool
Startled by Alexanders sudden outburst of rage Scott cowered into his chair
"What i mean to say is that this isn't just you robbing someone's house this is you practically saving millions of lives. This is you being proud of the name Marshall..." At this Scot shot out of his seat
" I'll do it!" yelled Scott
"Okay!" said Alexander calling out into the hallway "Lou, get the injections ready!"
"Injections?" whimpered Scott
==7 years later==
In his mind Scott could still remember the 7 grueling years of government training, the cuts, the bruises and the snapped bones. But finally Scott had earned the right to call himself Shade, but most of all he was now proud to be a Marshall. It had only been an hour since he had been let out of the government training estate so he had only had time to shave and put some clean clothes on so he still reeked. He had been called into Alexanders private office for some unknown reason.
As he entered Alexanders office he was surprised to see 3 other men in there, one brandishing a 50 barret sniper stood up to shake his hand
"You must be Scott," he said
"Whats it to you?" replied Scott
"I'm Scope the sniper, this is Timer the explosives man," said Scope pointing to a man holding a highly unstable stick of dynamite "This is Rapid the weapons man," he said nodding to a bulky man with what looked like a machine gun with a bayonet hanging behind.
"And you," said Alexander from behind his desk "are Shade, our martial artist and reconnaissance agent." "Now," continued Alexander "Onto your first mission,"
but by the time Alexander said this Scott was halfway out the door, 
"Shade! Where do you think your going?"
"I may be a skilled government agent, but I'm still human and i stink!!!" yelled Shade from halfway down the hall
"This is the beginning of a good friendship." said Timer
"No Timer, this is the beginning of Operation: Front Lines..."
Read on to the Front Lines: The First Mission to find out what the team get up to, or read the prequels of the other three agents, Timer, Scope and Rapid!
Category:Front Lines