Within The Shadows Storyline

### The Experiments

Within The Shadows is set in 2022. Alexander (Xander) Reed is the founder and CEO of BioTech Labs. In 2012, Reed began experimenting with energy fragments exported from a Supernova (Black Hole) in outer space from a trip NASA had taken a few weeks earlier. After testing and developing his newfound discovery for two years, VOID was born. His original plan was to utilize his newly created specimen as a source of power for machines, vehicles, and other high-tech devices. In the world of technology, his new invention was going to be revolutionary, and he was ready to test it out.

### The Incident

It's 2014, and NASA plans to launch another spacecraft in the near future. Dr. Reed takes this chance to convince them to use VOID to power the spacecraft. It takes him an excessive amount of time to convince NASA to accept VOID as a donation, but eventually, they accept his offer.

The launch day has arrived, and Dr. Reed faces his moment of truth. Moments after taking off, the ship explodes just before leaving the atmosphere. As the only change in the spacecraft was the addition of the VOID energy, Dr. Reed is responsible for the explosion and deaths of the astronauts involved in this launch. As a result, Dr. Reed faces heavy charges and a half-year in prison.

### The Lab Rat

After six months in prison, Dr. Reed is released. After returning to his company and regaining his position, he struggles to reestablish his reputation. It takes months of agonizing confusion to figure out what specifically went wrong, and VOID's instability is soon identified. It was dangerous, highly flammable, and had a broken nature to it. As opposed to giving up entirely, he decided to continue researching VOID by fixing the broken chemical components, in an attempt to make it safer.

Soon, he decides VOID needs another purpose. Seeing as VOID is an energy based chemical designed to "enhance" what it comes into contact with, he decides to discover what exactly it could do for living things instead.

He begins the test on a small hamster who is deadly sick and is suffering terribly. He starts by inserting a small portion of VOID into the hamster's veins and waits an hour for any changes. He monitors the hamster for two days and nothing has changed. Eventually, the hamster becomes more and more active as the days go on. He checks its vital signs and notices nothing is wrong with it and it has made a full recovery as if nothing was wrong with it to begin with. He checks its DNA makeup and notices a huge difference from before. Not only did he cure its pain and sickness, but its DNA has completely altered. He re-examines the hamster to notice its eye color and small portions of its fur have changed color.

Days go by and Dr. Reed begins to notice other-worldly things about the test subject. The hamster begins to phase in and out of existence. Invisible one second, and visible the other. Having no idea what he was witnessing, Dr. Reed was left in utter shock. He soon concluded that he might have just created a cure to many illnesses around the world but also something supernatural. Something he couldn't quite comprehend.

Wanting to continue this project, he decides to keep it hidden from the public for the time being. Thinking he finally perfected VOID, he decides to reignite his previous experiment on using it to ultra-power technology.

However, reality hits when two weeks later, the hamster succumbs to a terrible death and almost withers away. Due to this, he gives up on using it for curing illnesses. If VOID was this dangerous to humans, who knew what would happen if anyone came in contact with it. Instead of giving up on VOID entirely, he takes an extended amount of time to truly figure out what exactly was wrong with it. Break it down, and build it back up again. He wasn't ready to give up yet. He was dedicated, and he wasn't ready to let this experiment go. The nagging feeling that he could crack this would keep him up nights on end. But he knew, this wasn't the end.

### A Terrible Mistake

Another two years of hard work and dedication have put Dr. Reed right back where he used to be. Forgetting about his previous experiment with the hamster, he has spent his time with his elite team of scientists developing a way to make VOID less fatal to humans (if anyone ever came into contact with it) and less flammable but enough to keep it generating into machines and other high-power technology. His next big step was fueling the city's power plant with VOID. Allowing things to last longer, and become faster and more advanced than before. He was faithful, dedicated, and certain that this time nothing would go wrong. With this best team at his side, he knew he would take this experiment to the next level and redeem himself for the last incident.

The day has finally arrived for Dr. Reed to present VOID to New Jersey's power plant, and soon, the world. It's the biggest event in years and Reed is ready. Hundreds of people are invited to see the big event go down. Its time. VOID has been set into the systems of the power plant and Dr. Reed does the honors and repowers the city. A huge round of applause goes his way. He is given a reward from the city for his new discovery and the celebration begins. Soon, the power plant shuts off and and everything goes quiet. The employees of the power plant check the readings and see high-temperature levels are rising beyond their control and set the power plant into evacuation for emergencies. This causes panic and everyone inside begins to rush out of the building and escape the area as soon as possible. All the guests evacuate the area and moments later, the entire power plant explodes to ashes. Feeling the guilt of the NASA incident along with today's, Reed drops to the ground in utter disbelief. What went wrong? News reporters surround the area and the people of the city are left in shock. Reed is soon taken in for questioning but is later released.

The police and fire department arrive to investigate the scene. All seems well until it is reported that the bodies of two kids were discovered on the site. They were surprisingly still alive with little to no injuries. The questions remained, however, who were these boys and how exactly did they survive?

### Dialogue

Dr. Reed - "Be sure to watch your surroundings while you're out there, you never know when he'll appear out of nowhere"

Military Officer - "But its like you said earlier, he's practically a *Ghost,* so I'm not gonna see him"

Dr. Reed - "Exactly. Because by the time you see him it'll already be too late..."