The Story of a Minifigure: Strange Odd Shadow (Old Version)

**The Story of a Minifigure:**

**Strange Odd Shadow**

This is the story of a minifigure named Strange Odd Shadow.

Chapter 1 Part 1

Strange Odd Shadow was thinking of what had happened. Venture Explorer has been destroyed. "Now, how Katie, M.F. Monkey and Sara will come." he thought. "And that's not only that. I didn't reach Nimbus Station. I was in another world named Avant Gardens. It seems that FFFFF team won't be recruited by Nexus Force." Deep in his thoughts S.O. Shadow didn't realise that someone approached him. Someone dangerous... Beware of  the shadows because I might be there

Chapter 1 Part 2

The minifigure had the colours of black and purple. It looked wildly at S.O. Shadow and then it attacked. He would have been smashed if someone didn't come and save him. Then, S.O. Shadow dragged out of his thoughts and looked at the person that have come. He was wearing grey clothes and  had red spiky hair. His hands had a purple aura really familiar; the aura of the infected brick.

Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 1 Part 3 Then he yelled to him "Are you out of your mind? Didn't you see that stromling coming? And why don't you have any gear or at least a weapon?"
S.O.
Shadow, being upset and nervous because he couldn't understand what has
happened, said "Well, I was travelling on Venture Explorer but it was
hit by the maelstrom and I left with a rocket and went to the nearest
world".

Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 1 Part 4   Watching the minifig's expression changing from angry to
scared was strange but he had grown up with the strange. His world was
strange. He was strange.
"Venture Explorer was hit. What happened to the others" said and he sound terrified.
"I don't know. I didn't watch the others. I had my own problems." he responded.

Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 1 Part 5
"Oh, sorry. So, you were going to be recruited" he said to change the
subject. "I'll send you to Epsilon to give you a weapon so you will be
able to pass through the battlefield without danger so you can reach the
launchpad and go to Nimbus Station"
When he heard that, S.O. Shadow exulted in no time. "So, I can still go to Nimbus Station!" he told happily.

Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 1 Part 6
"Of course.Why not? Actually it's the nearest world to AG.Now go" the other answered.
"Wait!Something else. What's your name?" he asked.
"Wisp Lee" he responded and left leaving S.O. Shadow alone.
Chapter 2 Part 1

Reaching to Epsilon wasn't easy. He had to avoid the infected minifigs and when they were noticing him he had to run away so when they lost him he was at a totally different place. However he finally found someone who could be Epsilon. Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 2 Part 2    I looked at him. He was wearing a blue uniform and blue helm and a jet pack. "Umm, sir, are you Epsilon?" he asked.
"Actually, I'm Epsilon Starcracker, but yes.Since when strangers use - name?" he answered.
"Well, I was sent to you by Wisp Lee to give me a weapon but he didn't mention your last name,sir" S.O. Shadow responded.
"Uh, okay. He mentioned that someone would come to take a weapon. So, what do you prefer?A sword, a pike or a hammer?"he said.

Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Part 3

He looked at the weapons he showed to him. In the end he decided.
"I'll take the hammer" he said.
"Are you sure?"Starcracker asked.
"Absoletely" he answered
"Okay. Take it. Now let's see what can you do with it. Go and smash 15 stromlings" he told so S.O. Shadow left.
"So the infected minifigures are named stromlings" he thought while he was leaving.   Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 2 Part 4    Smashing stromlings was pretty easy with his weapon. There were infected robots except from infected minifigures. Other minifigures wre fighting too. At some point, one of them came to him. He was wearing an orange outfit. Some other minifigures were wearing similar gear.
"Hi. I'm Quantum Solar Asteroid but you can call me Quantum" he said.
"I'm Strange Odd Shadow" he replied.
"You fight very well for someone who fight for the first time" Quantum told.

Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 2 Part 5    "Well, it's not the first time. My team and I were fighting half-infected minifigures in my world" he speaked.
"Really!That's good. So,where's your team?" Quantum asked.
"The spaceship with which I was travelling was hit by the maelstrom. My team would come after me. That won't happen" he answered sadly.
"Oh, sorry.I didn't know" Quantum said.
"It's okay" he replied.
Quantum helped him smash a few stromlings and then they started the road to Epsilon Starcracker.  Beware of the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 3  Part 1 Factions    He reported to Starcracker and he sent S.O. Shadow to a minifig named Beck Strongheart to tell him about the Venture Explorer.
"So, Strongheart" Quantum said while we were leaving "He will ask you to show him your salute, so be ready. Actually, he is obsessed with salutes".
"Thanks for the information" he answered.

Beware of the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 3 Part 2

We went to a place that Quantum said it was the Sentinel Camp. It was protected by
some guards. A lot of minifigs were passing from there. The only ones
who didn't leave were a minifig behind a stall, some minifigs in front
of the stall, a ninja, the guards and a person with a breastplate.
We went to the guy with the breastplate while Quantum was whispering that this was Strongheart.       Beware of the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 3 Part 3    "Hello sir! I am Strange Odd Shadow" He said while he was doing a salute.
"That's a man; he knows when to do a salute" he told to himself "Well, hello. What brings you here Strange Odd Shadow ?"
"Epsilon Starcracker sent me to report you about what happened to Venture Explorer" he answered and then said to Strongheart what happened.
"Thank you. Now, could you bring me some armour polish from the vendor over there" he asked while showing the minifig behind the stall.       Beware of the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 3 Part 4    S.O. Shadow and Quantum went to the vendor and bought some Armour polish. They returned to Strongheart and gave it to him. As a reward Strongheart gave him a helmet. Strongheart sent him to other missions too. Each time he reported the other gave him a reward.
They where returning from the battlefield after smashing some stromling mechs when a minifigure which was wearing blue samurai gear started yelling to Quantum "OH, SO YOU'RE HERE!!!"

Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 3  Part 5    "ARE YOU INSANE? MINTYLEMON AND I ALMOST DIED WAITING FOR YOU! AND NOW SPIDERLINGS KNOW OUR HIDEOUT!!!" he yelled.
"Oh, men. I completely forgot that we would meet to smash spiderlings. Sorry Platinum" he told and then whispered to S.O. Shadow "This is Platinum Dimond Tiger. You better go. You don't want to see him mad"
So, he left but he was still hearing Platinum's yells. Beware of  the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 3 Part 6 S.O. Shadow went to Strongheart to report about my mission. After telling him, Strongheart gave him his reward and then said "The Sentinels approves you to be in the Nexus Force but you will need the Paradox approval, too. Go to Starcracker he will send you to the right Paradox guy".
"Okay" S.O. Shadow answered and then left. Just in time Quantum and Platinum came. "Lemon went to Ninjago Monastery because he was bored waiting" Platinum said to Quantum still a little angrily.
"Oh, hi S.O. Shadow. Platinum will stay with us 'till we reach Nimbus Station" Quantum said.
"Where are we going?" Platinum asked.
"To Epsilon Starcracker" S.O. Shadow answered "But there's something else I want to ask. Strongheart mentioned something about Sentnels and Paradox. What are they?"
"You want to become a Nexus Force member but you don't know about the factions" Platinum said like S.O. Shadow have told that he doesn't know what a hand is.
"They are two of the four factions in which Nexus Force is seperated. The Assembly faction which consists of construction specialists and critical thinkers who drive back the power of the Maelstorm through problem solving and creative building, the Sentinels who are in their element in the thick of a fight;armed with inventive weaponry, they are renowned for using their wits, creative fighting moves and team skills to battle those who wish to destroy imagination, the Paradox whose members closely study the Maelstrom power in an effort to find the evil within it; they believe that the battlefield is no place for honor and use whatever means are necessary to achieve victory and the Venture League whose members are a composition of adventurers, daredevils and explorers who want to get to the bottom of all of the mysteries filling up the Universe.
The name of the Venture League brought back a memory of when he was ten years old:
It was summer and he was running to his house. He had just learnt that his mother had returned from her journey. Three months ago she had left to join an organisation named Nexus Force. He reached his house. His parents were at the garden discussing about something. He heard his mother saying "...Nexus Force is awesome. There are four factions. I'm in Venture League, Nexus Force' explorers..."
"S.O. Shadow, are you okay?" Quantum asked.
"What?"he answered while he was dragging out of his thoughts.
"You were looking at nowhere for one minute. Are you okay?" he responded.
"Yes, I'm fine I was just thinking of something" he said. Beware of the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 4 Part 1: Shadow Starcracker sent them to Wisp Lee who, after some missions, sent them to a girl, Melodie Foxtrot. When he saw her, S.O.Shadow thought that she was younger than him. She then borrowed to S.O.Shadow Nexus Force gear. He chose the Venture League gear. The mission Foxtrot gave him was to smash five Spiderlings. So they went into the cave where Quantum said that the many Spiderlings were.
S.O.Shadow wore the gear he felt that it was very powerful but he felt a strange feeling ,too. Like it didn't belong to him.
Learning how to use the gear wasn't easy. Actually, he hit Quantum once and Platinum twice. After being smashed six times, he had learnt how to use it and it was way to easier.
When he was done he called Quantum and Platinum to go.
"S.O.Shadow, where are you? I can't see you" Quantum asked.
"I am next to the stairs" he answered.
"Oh, yeah! This green thing without head! Over there Quantum" Platinum said with enthusiasm for what was happening to S.O.Shadow. Quantum and Platinum went to him and then Quantum asked "What is happening with your head? Where did it go".
"Well, it's something I discovered last year" he said nervously"I don't know if you'll believe me but I have an ability. A strange one. You see I'm kinda like a shadow. I can camuflage when I'm in the shade"

Chapter 4 Part 2 Platinum was so curius for my power that he decided to stay with me when we would go to NS. On the other hand Quantum wasn't so excited.
"That can't be true. I mean super powers doesn't exist" he said.
"Then how do you explain that he doesn't have a head" Platinum answered.
"You're right. It's just very surprising. I can't find another explanation" he responded.
"Good. You guys took it very well for some people who know me for such a little" S.O.Shadow said.
They then leaved while talking about it. However, S.O.Shadow didn't know that while telling to his friends that he turned someone's attention to him.
"I found you. I finally found you" the minifig said and then laughed.The minifig was the Darkitect... Beware of the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 5: Rusty Steele S.O. Shadow never had never expected to find the man he hated the most. When he saw him he was so surprised that almost fell down. He, Quantum and Platinum had passed through the cave and now they then had looked at the monument. However, the one who turned his attention to him was the man in front of the monument.
"Rusty Steele" he whispered.
"What?" Platinum asked.
"Nothing. I just saw a known of me" he answered.
He wasn't able to withstand and he advanced to Steele.
"What are you doing here?" he said.
"John..." Steele started to say but he was interrupted by S.O. Shadow.
"THAT'S NOT MY NAME ANYMORE. YOU KNOW VERY WELL THAT MY NAME NOW IS STRANGE ODD SHADOW"
"Whatever, you shouldn't talk to me like that. And I am the builder of the Monument. It's my job to be here" Steele said.
"I thought that you run away after what you did, but you did something worse. YOU HID AT THE NEXUS FORCE" he told and then left.
" S.O. Shadow, do you know Rusty?" Quantum asked.
"Please don't call him like that but yes I know him from Yorkanton City" Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 6 part 1: A new weapon    "What is Yorkanton City?" Platinum asked.
"It's my world. I'm not surprised that you don't know it. It's the furthest world from Nimbus System" S.O. Shadow answered.

Bewαre of  the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 6 part 2

They were
mounting on the monument. In a few minutes they were on Bob's shoulder.
They jumped on a fan which sent them to another fan whivh sent them to a
road. They started walking and reached to the launch pad area. That was
even more crowded than the sentinel camp. Minifigures were coming with
from the sky and were going to launch pads or the road.

Chapter 6 part 3

"What are we doing now?" S.O. Shadow asked.
"Well,
I'm going to buy some armour polish from the vendor over there and then
we launch to your future property" Quantum said.
"I'm coming with you. I need to change my weapon" S.O. Shadow told and looked at his hammer which had scratches all over "I'll need a better one to fiight the Spider Queen". S.O. Shadow had learnt most of the things he should know about Nexus Force and the Maelstrom.

Chapter 6 part 4 "Calm down, they will borrow you nexus gear again to fight her" Platinum spoke.
"However, I still want a new weapon" S.O. Shadow answered.
So, they went to the vendor and S.O.
Shadow looked at the weapons. In the end he found one he liked. It was
the imroved ice saw. He asked the vendor how much did it cost and bought
it. Before they left, the vendor said "Strange, very strange. This was
Overbuild's first weapon"...

Chapter 7: Overbuild's successor "What do you mean?" S.O. Shadow asked.
"Five years ago Overbuild came to me and gave me his first and favorite weapon. He told me to show it as a normal imroved ice saw. Only the one who would choose this weapon wihout knowing its value would be his successor. John you are going to become a very strong and important minifigure" he answered.
"How do you know my old name? Nobody calls me like that anymore. And even if someone did you don't know me" S.O. Shadow said.
"There are lots of things I know" he told and then he disappeared.
"Who was this old mysterious vendor?" S.O. Shadow asked after a while.
"I don't know. Usually there's another vendor there" Quantum answered. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 8: Spider Queen They went and talked to a minifig named Crash Helmut. He sent them to fight the Spider Queen. S.O. Shadow put his rocket on the launchpad and he got into it. He then started flying. He could handle it better than the first time but it still had the same feeling. It maked him to want to puke. After a while he saw Quantum and Platinum on their rockets but then something purple appeared in front of them.
"On, brick! No, space maelstrom" Quantum said.
"What's this?" S.O. Shadow asked.
"It's maelstrom which lives at the space. It looks like jelly but it's too strong. It can't be killed. If you hit it will just smash into smaller parts. So, the best thing to do is to avoid it. And don't let it cover you" Platinum answered.
When he got near to the space maelstrom he saw that it really looked like jelly. He started avoiding them but after a while he couldn't see his friends, so he looked back and he saw that some space maelstrom wason their rockets which were reeking smoke.
"Keep going, we will be okay" Platinum said.
So, S.O. Shadow kept going and reached at Block yard with a very damaged rocket.
"Oh, my brick. I'm glad it ended" he said. He then saw a minifig which approached him and said "Good, you're here. I was waiting for Crash to send someone for two weeks. I'm Vance Bulwark and you are the one who is going to defeat this monster over there".
S.O. Shadow then started running and he raised his weapon while Bulwark was yelling "Wait you didn't borrow your gear".
However, S.O. Shadow didn't return and he attacked to the Spider Queen. He hit her a lot of times but after a while he was so injured he hid behind a rock. The SQ kept attacking. Then the rock smashed. S.O. Shadow thought that he would die but then a liquid from the rock fell on him. It healed his injuries and it repaired his armour. Then S.O. Shadow knew what he had to do. He attacked again and when he was too injured he hid again and smashed another rock. He kept doing that until SQ was smashed. He then returned to Bulwark.
"That was impressive. You might be a very good Sentinel" he said.
"I don't think so. I'm more interested in Assembly" S.O. Shadow answered.
"Well, okay. This property is yours. Now, let me give you my knowledge" Bulwark told.
Somewhere far away from there a minifig with black clothes appeared in front of a purple minifig.
"My lord, S.O. Shadow makes the one achievment after the other. He took Overbuild's first weapon and he just beat a SQ without any gear" he said.
"Good, he will be a very good recruit. Keep watching him" Darkitect said... Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 9: A Great Builder Quantum and Platinum didn't die. Next morning they reached at Block Yard with two too damaged rockets. Their clothes was black at a lot of spots. However, they didn't mind about that when they looked around. StrangeOddShadow had built a lab, an office, a house and some walls around them. However, the most spectacular was the tower in the middle. It had the shape of a capital F and it was at least 50 meters high.
"So, do you like it?" S.O. Shadow asked enthusiastically.
"Yes, but where did you find all those bricks and models?" Quantum said.
"I used to make bricks at Yorkanton City" he answered.
"How did you built all those things in one night?" Platinum asked.
"Well, I don't know. It seems I'm good at it" S.O. Shadow replied.
"You must have from the good thinking hats" Quantum said.
"I lost my thinking hat when I left from Venture Explorer"... Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 10: Who's that guy?! (part 1) After guiding Quantum and Platinum, S.O. Shadow and the others left for Avant Gardens. They talked to some minifigs who sent them to Nimbus Station. This travel hadn't any battle but still S.O. Shadow didn't like it.
When they reached at Nimbus Station he was very happy. His dream would come true. But he then remembered his friends. It was their dream, too.
He didn't have time to think because a guy with weird clothes started yelling.
"Quickly, you have to go to the past and smash Murgle Botch!!!Now!!!".
"We can't now, Wenn. We have a new recruit" Quantum said. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 10 part 2 "Okay, but come back when you're ready" Wenn Wuzzit said.
"This was Wenn Wuzzit. He's a time traveler. Maelstrom just came in NS in his era and he has bacome a little crazy about that" Platinum said.
"Some more victums of the Blood-drinking Vampire Dracula" someone said with rumanian accent. Then, a figure ran to Platinum without knowing that S.O. Shadow was there who punched him. The minifig fell down and said "You needn't to punch me so hard"
"But you were going to bite my friend. You excrpted me not to do anything?" S.O. Shadow said.
"Actually, yes" he answered. "Everyone knows that I'm a loser and that I can't bite anyone. I don't have the courage to do it. My father would ashame for me. I mean, he had biten so much people. He actually would be more proud of my brother who hasn't ever tried to bite anyone and he have become a vendor" Then, he started crying.
"Oh, come on. I'm sure that your father would be very proud of you. And I think that not biting the others is very nice of you" S.O. Shadow answered.
"You think?" B.V.D. asked sadly.
"Of course!" he answered.
"S.O. Shadow are you coming for a second?" Quantum said.
"Okay" he told and followed Quantum and Platinum.
"What are you doing?" Platinum asked.
"I don't think he's an enemy and even if he is here's a saying: Keep your friends close and your enemies even closer". Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 10 part 3 S.O. Shadow catched a coin, which looked a little like a pound, in his pocket. One of his friends had given this to him. He was doing that a lot after his travel on Venure Explorer.
He then remembered something. He searched in his backpack and finally found three things like cell phones but with some other buttons. He gave them to Quantum, Platinum and B.V.D. and said "These are the F-phones. I use them to communicate with other FFFFF members. I want you to take them. Of course that means that you become member of the team"
"FFFFF? What kind of name is that?" Platinum asked.
"The F is from Fantasia which is imagination in greek and five is my favourite number. It can mean everything you like supposing it starts with F" he answered.
"And what are these buttons?" Quatum asked.
"Well, this F is to call another member of the team. The em. is for emergencies. Map is to see where the other F-phones are"
"Is this SOS to say Save Our Lives" B.V.D. asked.
"Of course not; it is from Strange Odd Shadow. It is to call me but if you push it with emergency it means that you're in an emergency that I surely have to come. So, will you become FFFFF members?..." Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 10 Part 4 They didn't have time to answer because a minifigure appeared and said "Shadow, what are you doing here?! I thought you were at Gnarled Forest!"
"Who are you and how do you know my name, especially the one with which my friends from Yorkanton call me?" S.O.Shadow said and then he turned to the others "Who's that guy?!"
"He is Nexus Jay, the recruiter of Nexus Force" Quantum said.
"Exactly, don't you remember me we met at the battle for Nimbus Station" Nexus Jay said.
"Oh, that's what happened!" Platinum said "Wenn Wuzzit sends minifigures about in the same time, whatever time you came, so you met S.O. Shadow from future. I suppose. Oh, and yes I want to become an FFFFF member"
"Me, too" Quantum said. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter11: Faction Nexus Jay sent him to Mardolf the Orange who was a little surprised by how easily he built a rocket (without a thinking hat). After that Nexus Jay sent him to Johny Thunder who got him to find three floating chests. That took him three days and meanwhile Platinum had left. Then he turned back to Nexus Jay who told him "Now, Shadow, you have to choose your Faction. I know that this is a very important decision, so if you want some time..." "I already know which I want to be my Faction" S.O.S. answered "Assembly"
Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 12: Why do I have to change weapon?    S.O. Shadow chose the engineer kit but he then thought that he didn't want to change weapon.
"Why do I have to change weapon?" he asked.
"Faction weapons are stronger and use purer imagination than simple weapons" Nexus Jay said.
S.O. Shadow wondered what he could do. He then found a solution and started running back to the launch pad.
"Where are you going?" Quantum asked.
"To my property. I want to do something. Do whatever you want"  S.O. Shadow answered. Bewαre of  the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 13: Overbuild's weapon: Revised S.O. Shadow went to Avant Gardens and then to his Block Yard property. He went immediately to his lab and started working. He studied the weapon that Nexus Jay gave him and when he knew how it worked he started milling Ovebuild's weapon. He needed a week to finish but it worthed. Now, Ovebuild's weapon could do everything that his other weapon could do.
He then used the map of his F-phone to see where Quantum was. Its F-phone had a different drawing so you could understand who was who. He looked at his old friends' drawings. They were in Maelstrom fields at Yorkanton City. He realised that he was touching the coin in his pocket. He surely missed his friends... Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 14: A lemon for a friend S.O. Shadow went where Quantum was to show him his weapon. Another minifigure, which was wearing summoner gear, was with him.
"Hi, Quantum! Who's your friend?" he said.
"Hello! This is Ace Minty Lemon but you can call him Lemon. He is friend of Platinum and mine. Lemon, this S.O. Shadow" Quantum answered "So, what do you want me?"
"I want to show you what did I do this week" he said and showed him his weapon which now had some shiny light blue lines.
"Wow! What happened to it?" Quantum asked.
" I revised it so it can do everything a rank 1 engineer wrench can do"
"Awesome! This might be illegal but it's awesome" Lemon said.
And that's how he became friend of a lemon. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 15: Meeting Strange Odd Shadow
Quantum, Lemon and S.O.Shadow decided to go to the battle of Nimbus Station.
"Oh, so you're back. Everyone is back" Wenn Wuzzit said when he saw us coming "This is great. I'll send you this date but five years ago" It was the third of November.
Battle of Nimbus Station was great fun but when Murgle Botch appeared it got wierd. First of all, Murgle Botch left from the battlefield. Then, S.O. Shadow ignoring the voices of the others he followed him. However, he couldn't catch him. Then, he saw some kind of mirror which should be magic because his reflection had a start of beard. And then it talked "Ah, Shadow you will never change. You always ignore the others' advice and you do whatever you want"
Even though he was used to wierd things, due to he had grown up in Yorkanton City, he was terrified.
"No, this is not a Maelstrom trick" the reflection said like he could read his mind " And yes, this is not a mirror. I'm just you from the future. Wuzzit sent us to the same date"
S.O. Shadow didn't have time to think because someone yelled " Shadow what are you doing here?" but the minifigure answered to his own question "Oh yeah, Murgle Botch!"
Then, a third S.O. Shadow appeared. He didn't have a beard.
"What is happening here?" the present one said.
" I was also sent to the third of November. Wuzzit is a maniac with this day because all the seven leaders appeared. Now, Shadow I have to advise you to be careful. Someone, is chasing you" the third one said.
"Shadow, you're not supposed to say what happens or what you learn in the future" the second one told " You are from my future you should know that"
"Well, sorry. At least I didn't say who chases him. Now, I have to go. There are two more riders to smash" the third one said and left.
" I have to leave, too" the second one said and also left.
So, S.O. Shadow stayed alone thinking of what happened. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 16: The strange vendor Strange Odd Shadow started walking back to the others. He was walking about one minute when he realised that he was lost. He kept walking thinking that he might find his way back. After twenty minutes he saw someone running. Being curius he followed him. In the end he reached a destroyed house. Suddenly, Murgle Botch appeared and attacked him. S.O. Shadow stroke back but didn't smash him. He hit some more times until M.B. was smashed.
Then, someone said "Shadow thank brick you're alive!". The strange old vendor, who had given him Overbuild's weapon, appeared.
"Who are you?" was the only thing S.O. Shadow managed to say.
"I don't have time to explain but there is someone in that house that has the ability to smash you just touching you. You must leave now but promise me that you will try to control your power and make it stronger" he said.
"I promise" S.O. Shadow answered.
"Ok! You are very close to the battlefield. Just go left!" the vendor said and went in the house.
S.O. Shadow started running to the way the vendor suggested.After some minutes he reached the battlefield. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 17: The Decision "ARE YOU INSANE?! YOU COULD HAVE DIED THERE! THAT'S WHY THERE ARE BOUNDS!" Quantum yelled as soon as he saw S.O. Shadow.
"I'm sorry" he said
"Calm down Quantum. He's alive. This is what counts" Lemon said and then told to S.O. Shadow "He was really worried about you. I have never seen him angry and now he is furious. You must be a very good friend"
After going back to the future and doing some missions S.O. Shadow went to Gnarled Forest and after that to Forbidden Valley. He stayed at these worlds for about half month but there's nothing remarkable to say except from what he learnt. Firstly, he learnt to never try again to fight Maelstom Horsemen wearing rank 1 gear and secondly, he realised that he didn't like wearing the same gear with others.
So, after he bought a rank 2 engineer helmet, he thought "I need to create new gear". Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

hapter 18: The FFFFF gear S.O. Shadow went back to his Block Yard Property. There he started designing his own gear. After that he started making the gear. After two weeks he was done.
S.O. Shadow wore his gear which was consisted by τhe following:
A rank 2 helmet whose only difference was that it had a glass in front of the eyes, green cape and shirt, a red shield, green and orange trousers and a crossbow which was made of his old weapon (imagine an ice saw with a bow in its edge). The cape, the shield, the trousers, and the start of the sleeves (where the shoulders are) had blue Fs. The colours were carefully picked so they would represent that FFFFF gear doesn't belong to any Faction.
When he returned to Nimbus Station he saw that his gear's special feature was working. It was also camouflaging at the shade...

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 19: The Return  As S.O. Shadow started thinking that he couldn't control his power someone yelled "S.O. Shadow, is that you?"  He turned around and saw Platinum and another minifigure and then said  "Hello, Platinum"  Then, Platinum approached him and said "Oh, my god! Look how much you have changed. You have new gear, which I have never seen again! And you also have a start of a beard!"  As Shadow looked at them more carefully he realised that their gear needed instant repair and that they were wounded wherever you looked.  "Really, I haven't noticed it. I was too busy creating my gear" Shadow answered.  "You mean that you made it?!" the minifigure asked.  "Well, yes. And what's your name?" Shadow responded.  "I am Glittery Honered Seahorse but you can call me Glittery" she said. Glittery was wearing bat lord gear so Shadow wasn't able to understand which was her faction.  "Do you know where Quantum is? I want to inform him that I'm back" Platinum asked.  "I think he's in Crux Prime with Lemon" Shadow answered.  "So, you met Lemon. Well, before we go there I would like to go to the battle of Nimbus Station" Platinum said.  "Are you crazy? After all that you want to fight?" Glittery told.  "I'm a Sentinel. I can't change that"  Shadow didn't understand but he didn't ask.  Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 20: Meeting Strange Odd Shadow(Again?)  Shadow, Platinum and Glittery were at the battle for Nimbus Station. Shadow had just smashed Kinga Hurl (his gear was awesome!) when he thought something. What about going to the destroyed house he had found the other time. Whatever was there he surely could smash it with his new gear.  So, he approached the bounds and when the others didn't look he crossed them. After walking a little he heard someone running. He tried to hide but the only thing he had enough time to do was changing gear to his old one. Then, Shadow from the past appeared. Shadow tried to move like his past self but he knew that Shadow was too smart to be fulled like that. You know what happens next: they start talking, a third one appears, he warns the past one, the future one leaves and the present one leaves, too. Then, Shadow started walking and he finally found the house. He hid and waited until the strange vendor got into the ruins of the house. He got out and made for the house. However, when he reached the door the house exploded. . .  Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 21: Nexus Tower  Shadow checked his map that was appearing on the glass of his helmet to see where Quantum was.  "Yeah, he has left from here. He is in Nexus Tower" he said. He, Platinum and Glittery were at Crux Prime.  They went to the launch pad but two guards were there.  "Who are they?" Shadow asked.  "Don't worry, they just check if you have Maelstrom with you" Glittery said.  "Please, take your maelstrom bricks and samples out of your backpacks" one of them said. Shadow didn't do anything because he had forgot his backpack.  Then, the guards checked them with a rod and then let them go.  Flying with the rocket was as unpleasant as it always was. However, it worthed it. Shadow felt stronger than ever. He was imagining a different thing per second. And then he saw it. It was just a light blue shining stripe but Nexus was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.  A strange thing was that he smelled lemon.  "Do you smell lemon, too?" he asked.  "It probably is the Nexus. When minifigs are close to it they sense things that there aren't there. They usually are our favorite things. For instance right now I feel like drinking brick-shake" a known voice said.  "Hello Quantum" Platinum said as he turned around.  Nexus Tower was like an earthly heaven.  Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 22: Dr. Overbuild  After walking around a little (actually a lot; you can't imagine how many minifigures there are there) in Nexus Tower Quantum said "Shadow, do you want to meet the brilliant minifig that invented the Assembly Faction?"  "Dr. Overbuild? I was looking forward for that moment!" Shadow answered.  "Oh, Overbuild is so boring. I'm going to the sentinel area" Platinum said.  "I will look for Mr. Ree" Glittery said.  "Follow me" Quantum told.  They entered the Assembly area and then they saw Overbuild talking to about twenty minifigures. Shadow and Quantum waited until the rest of the minifigures left.  "Hello, Quantum. Who's your friend?" Dr. Overbuild said looking at some designs one of the minifigures had given to him.  "My name is Strange Odd Shadow Dr." Shadow told.  "Oh, yeah. Nexus Jay has talked to me about you. Nice gear! I suppose you made it. Great job! I wish all the minifigs had your spirit" Dr. Overbuild said and looked at him. He then came closer and asked "Where did you find that?". He was showing Shadow's weapon.  "A vendor gave it to me. He said that it was your first weapon you have given it to him to give it to the successor of yours" Shadow answered.  Quantum was looking at them surprised but he wasn't the only to be surprised. Overbuild took the weapon and said " Although it has the symbol of my family it can't be it. I have this weapon right here". He showed the weapon which his mechanical arm was holding. It was exactly the same with the one that Shadow had purchased from the old vendor. Also, they both have the same symbol: a brick whose studs instead of LEGO were writing a capital N (Nexus) in a circle. . .  Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 23: The Dream  Unfortunately, Shadow and the others didn't find a solution to their problem so Dr. Overbuild left because he had work to do. Shadow decided to rent a room and go to sleep because he was exhausted.  While sleeping Shadow saw a very strange but also terrifying dream. In the start he saw some minifigures at Avant Gardens. They seemed very happy but then everything disappeared and the onlt thing that existed was mist in a black background. Then, two spheres of light appeared. The one was purple and the other light blue. The two spheres clashed illuminating the whole place. However, the purple light conquered the light blue one. When the light left Shadow saw Avant Gardens again but there were some minifigures that had only eyes on their face and seemed to consist of Maelstrom who were walking and bringing chaos everywhere. Then, he saw himself on a throne. He was like a king. However, his eyes were looking evilly around. When the fake Shadow saw the real one he talked but with a cold and treacherous voice "Help me, Shadow, to make this real. You will be a king. Come with me"  "Never! I don't want to bring chaos or to be a king!" Shadow answered.  "What about seeing your friends again?" the fake him asked.  Shadow didn't answered. He just stared at the fake him hesitating.  "I wait your answer, Shadow" he told and disappeared in a sparkle of purple.  Then, Shadow woke up sweating. . .  Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 24: Avant Gardens Attack!!!  Shadow got up immediately and wore his gear. He started running until he found Quantum.  "Avant... Gard...ens in... dan...ger!" was the only thing he managed to say. Then, he made for the launchpad. He in the end reached Avant Gardens and made for the Sentinel Camp.  He then saw something terrible. Wounded, half-infected and whole-infected minifigures were everywhere.  "What happened here?!" Shadow said.  "An explosion at the Survival! Now, all the Maelstrom that was there is here!" someone answered.  He went to the battlefield and saw its chaos. Maelstrom of most of the known kinds were there and the minifigures had a hard time to smash them. He threw some arrows to the spiderlings and then decided to test one of his special moves. He aimed his crossbow to the sky and threw ten arrows.  "Rain of arrows" he whispered. After a while the arrows fell in several points and smashed some maelstrom apes and pirates.  Suddenly, ten Spider Queens, twenty Maelstom Apes and thirty Maelstrom Horsemen attacked him. It was a trap.  Shadow tried to defend himself but they were just too many for him. They hit him and he fell. He didn't have more energy to block the attacks of his enemies. He would die if a minifigure with α robe a hood didn't come and throw something that smashed the half of them and made the rest of them to reatreat. . .  Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chaprer 25: The Four-Faced -Guy  The minifigure picked Shadow up.  "Thank you! What's your name?" Shadow said.  "I have many names but right now I'm mostly known as the Four-Faced-Guy" he answered. Shadow looked at his his face but instead of it he saw a creepy angry white mask.  "Why do you have this name?" Shadow asked.  F-F-G decided to show and not talk. Then, his mask started turning and instead of the angry mask he now had a happy one.  "I have four different masks who change in proportion with my feelings" F-F-G said.  "What was that you threw at the Maelstrom beings?" Shadow asked.  "It was sorcery" he responded shortly.  "Wow, you must have great power. Do you want to become a member of my team FFFFF?" Shadow told.  "Why not?" he answered.  And that's how one of the creepiest minifigures of the universe became an FFFFF member.  Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 26: Anniversary! Something I didn't tell you is that Shadow as everybody else was in a very bad mood. That was so neither because of the dream nor because of the fight but because of something very deeper than these.
After the arrival of F-F-G the Maelstrom didn't go very well, so it lost after a little.
"Do you feel so sad, too?" Shadow asked.
"Yes. I suppose that you don't know what it is today" F-F-G answered.
"No, I don't. What is it?" Shadow said.
"It is the fourteenth of December. Exactly seventeen years ago Nexus Imagination was corrupted. Just in the rememberance of this event all the creatures that have imagination feel terrible. It is the day that Maelstrom is the strongest it can be" F-F-G responded. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 27: Vacations Shadow started going to the launchpad with F-F-G. However, when they were at the monument he heard a voice saying "Shadow, there you are! Will you ever stop leaving without us?".
It was Quantum, Platinum and Glittery who had finally reached them.
"I don't think I can get rid of this habit" Shadow said.
"Anyways, will you go to Nexus Tower again?" Platinum said.
"No, it is some days away and my vacation starts tommorow and I want to go to Frostburg" Shadow answered.
It was usual that minifigures should do whatever mission they were given. However in some special occasions like Christmas minifigures could do whatever they wanted.
"Awesome, I have gone to Frostburg only once" Glittery said.
"And I think Lemon will be there, too" Quantum said.
"So, we agree. Tommorow we're going to Frostburg" Shadow told. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 28: Sky Lane After Shadow suggested F-F-G to the others they made for the launch pad area. When they reached there Shadow noticed a new launch pad.
"Wait here" said Shadow.
He approached it and saw that Sky Lane was in front of it!
"Sky Lane! I thought you died as most of the crew of Venture Explorer!" told Shadow.
"As you can see I didn't. The fight didn't end, yet at least. That's why I'm here. To send minifigs to help" answered Sky Lane.
"So, there are still still chances that we will win and that my friends will come!" said Shadow.
"Not many but yes. And don't even think to help us. It is only for Rank 3" she told.
Shadow was too happy to disagree although he knew that his gear was better even from rank 3 one. He was thinking meeting with his old friends again. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 29: FFFFFriends Shadow and the others left with their rockets (I want to puke!!!). They would stay at Nimbus Station for the night. After two hours of flying they reached Nimbus Station. Shadow pushed a diacritical button on his helmet and map appeared on the glass of his helmet (he had fitted his F-phone in the helmet). As he checked it, to see where Lemon was, he yelled "No way!". Then, he looked at three minifigures. The first one was Sorcerer, the second was Knight and the third was Bucaneer.
Shadow approached them and as he saw the face of the knight he said "Guys, what are you doing here?!"
"Shadow?!" they answered all together. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 29 Part 2 The bucaneer hugged Shadow and said "We missed you Shadow!". As she (she was a woman) hugged him Shadow smelled lemon like when he was near to the Nexus!
"Shadow who are these guys?" Platinum asked.
"My name is Magical Fire Monkey. You have my sword" the knight said.
"Yeah, right you give your sword to everyone!" the sorcerer told "I am Sarah Darkon".
"Do you want me to smash you?" Magical said angrily.
"Guys, stop fighting! I am Katie Pirate. Nice to meet you" the bucaneer told.
"They are my friends from Yorkanton City. And these are Quantum Solar Asteroid, Platinum Diamond Tiger, Glittery Honoured Seahorse and Four-Faced-Guy" Shadow said "Now, tell me how did you reach Nimbus Station".
"It's a long story. Everything starts with some minifigures that left from Venture Explorer with a mini-spaceship" Magical responded "They travelled from world to world to refill fuel and in the end they reached at Yorkanton City (actually, this is very dangerous because most of the worlds aren't friendly to Nexus Force. The only spaceship that can travel far away is Venture Explorer because it travels very fast so it doesn't have to stop to refill fuel. That's why Shadow was so concerned after the Venture Explorer was attacked). After that they found us and realised that they had left from the wrong side. Then, when they left they took us together and here we are".
"Interesting! I was sure that you would become a Sentinel if you ever came here, Magical" Shadow said.
"Is that gear yours?" Sarah asked.
"Of course!" Quantum answered instead of Shadow "Your friend has incredible taalent at building. And he's very good at fighting".
The answer of the others was laughing.
"Shadow... good at fight!!! HA! If Shadow is good at fighting then I am a kangaroo! Look at my arm!" Magical said afer a while and rose his sleeve so the others could see some scars.
"These scars are made by arrows that Shadow threw. At least at the ranged weapons he is the worst fighter I know!"
"Is that true?" Glittery asked.
"Actually, my weapon has auto-aiming" Shadow answered. He then pushed a weapon on his crossbow and tried to throw it to a tree but he hit a minifigure three metres away.
Everyone laughed except for F-F-G who was quiet all the time. Only in the end he raised his arm like he said something to it. Only Sarah saw that but she didn't tell anything to the others. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

hapter 30: Meeting Strange Odd Shadow (how many times will this happen?!) "Well, who's for a little fighting in the past?" Magical asked.
"Oh, the only think you think about is fighting! Is there anything in your head?" Sarah said.
"I don't know about my head but yours surely is empty." Magical answered.
"Do they always fight like this?" F-F-G told after a lot of time.
"Yes, but I don't think that they truely hate each other" Shadow said "But I would like to go, too"
"See! I'm not the only who wants to fight" Magical told.
"Whatever, if you want it so much I will come" Sarah said wearily.
Everyone agreed, so they went to Wenn Wuzzit and time travelled. This time Shadow had aim to smash the four riders. However, he knew what else would happen.
All of his friends from Yorkanton had a very strange style of fighting but this was natural because everything is strange in Yorkanton City whose another name is Strangeville. Actually, Shadow had also a strange style of fighting. However, the most strange style was Magical's one. He was so tall (about a head taller than a normal minifigure) and muscular that even the Maelstrom beings were afraid of him. That moment he had left his weapons and was chasing some spiderlings to smash them with his fists.
But then the four riders appeared and Shadow so he was distracted by them. He threw one arrow that started taking off some bricks. The bricks created a cage where one of the four riders occluded. Then, the bricks started moving towards inside pushing the rider and in the end smashing him.
"How did you make this?" Quantum said.
"You have no idea what I can make" Shadow said smiling.
After that he threw an arrow to a rider that was making for him. The arrow made him fall from his horse. Then, he started dilating and in the end he blew up. The remaining riders running away with fear.
"You're an evil genious" Platinum said smiling but feeling also awe.
"One of my best advantages" Shadow said also smiling.
He then get on the horse of the blown up rider to chase the remaining ones. After some time he found the one and threw a disinfecting arrow. One minute later the only thing left was a panoply and the skeleton of a horse. However, Shadow was sure that he heard someone saying thank you.
After that, he heard two minifigures talking and he prepared to meet himself. You know what happens next; I don't have to say it again. The important thing is after the Shadows' meeting.
It didn't take him long to find the last rider. He used a blowing up arrow and the rider was smashed. Then, he realised he was outside of a cave. He got into and he found the three of the four riders. They looked like ghosts. Even more than the usual. Despite of that he could smash them and so he did except for one that escaped.
Once he was out again he saw a sign that he didn't notice before. It was writing "The cave of Chaos Recreating. This cave was found by Jane Phonus".
This was the name of his mother . . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 31: Frostburgh Shadow remembered the last time he had seen his mother. He felt sadness because of what had happened to her and anger because he remembered Rusty Steele. He really hated him.
When he returned no one yelled at him because they were all used to the fact that he was leaving all the time. He didn't tell to the others what happened. He wasn't at a very good mood which affected everybody else, too. So, after they watched F-F-G creating a raven and making it to attack the maelstrom beings they left (F-F-G took the raven with him). They stayed at Quantum's property for the night.
The following day they returned to Nimbus Station and set off for Frostburgh. They used some special rockets where you could sleep. Frostburgh was about twenty hours away. Although you could sleep the travel was very tiring so when they reached they went to a hotel to sleep.
When Shadow woke up at ten o'clock he had a very good mood. He went to the kitchen where he found Magical, Quantum, F-F-G, Lemon, Sarah and Glittery having breakfast. He took a toast and started eating.
By twelve o'clock everone was gathered.
"Who wants to play snowballing?" Magical said enthusiastically.
"I wonder where he finds so much enthusiasm" Sarah whispered to Katie who laughed.
"Actually, I would love to play. It hasn't snowed at Yorkanton for seven years" she responded.
"No; snowballing is for little children!" F-F-G told.
"I disagree. Snowballing is for all ages" Shadow said.
After Shadow agreed everone except for F-F-G, who started feeding his raven, agreed. Ηe had much influence to them.
"Listen, the teams are Shadow, me, Katie and Sarah and Quantum, Platinum, Lemon and Glittery. Do you agree?" Magical said once they were out.
"We agree!" Lemon answered.
"Lemon! Now, that they have Shadow they will surely win!" Quantum said.
"I'm sorry" Lemon apologised.
Quantum was right. In the first ten minutes Shadow had built a gun that was throwing snowballs in a very high speed. That made them win. Ιn that way one week passed without they realised. Meanwhile:
Darkitect was in a big, dark, cold and purple room. He looked at the Ghost-rider and thought about what he had just said.
"So, Shadow found the Cave of Chaos Recreating? He is much more clever than I thought" Darkitect said with his cold voice. The ghost-rider whispered him something.
"WHAT?! BRING THE LEADER OF THE OUTER RING" Darkitect yelled angrily.
He waited for a little and then a maelstrom captain got into the room.
"Tell me, did I said to you to keep Shadow's friends away from here?" Darkitect asked calmly.
"Yes, sir" the other answered.
"THEN, WHY ARE THEY HERE" Darkitect yelled again and then smashed the captain with a lightning.
"Now, how will I make him work for me?"
"Sir, allow me to say my opinion. You could use his mother. This helps us in two ways" a minifigure in the shade said. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 32: Bored not building In the seventh day in Frostburgh Shadow said to the others "You know, Frostburgh is great but I'm a little bored not building anything".
"Come on Shadow, we have holidays. Just relax. Besides you made the snow-thrower 1.0 and 2.0" Glittery answered.
"It seems you don't understand assembly and especially me. Building is my life. I cannot live without that" Shadow answered.
"I would like to have my gear. That would be incredible" Magical said enthusiastically.
"Yeah and what are you going to do with it. You always leave your weapons and fight with your fists" Sarah said.
"That's not a bad idea. This could also be something like the symbol of the FFFFF team" Katie told.
"I can make gear for you but there is one term: You have to design it on your own. Also, I need my lab" Shadow said smiling "There's no other way that it could be really yours".
"That's okay. I totally agree" Katie answered. Shadow felt happy she agreed.
"I think I will just stay here and relax" Lemon said "I'm not going to ruin my vacations"
"I'm sorry guys but I think that Lemon is right. We all need a break and one week is not enough" Platinum told.
"I think that it would be nice to have my gear. However, I'm not going to travel for twenty hours just for this" Quantum said.
"Whatever, If the dumb one takes his gear then I want, too" Sarah said and pointed to Magical.
"You will some day pay for all these insults, you stupid!" Magical answered "I will never understand why she is in the team!" And they started fighing(as always)
"SO, WE FOUR GO TO THE FFFFF BASE AND YOU FIVE STAY HERE" Shadow yelled trying to be heard.
"Wait! I want to come, too. However, I don't want any gear" F-F-G said "Plus, I can teleport you there in a second"
"Okay!" Shadow answered cheerfully.
"Shadow, F-F-G really gives me the creeps. Do we have to have him in the team?" Katie whispered.
"I know, he gives me the creeps, too but he is very powerful. It's better to have him in our team" Shadow answered.
So, after ten minutes the five friends gathered and they teleported. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 33: At the FFFFF Base Shadow and his friends were at the FFFFF Base. Teleporting was even worse from using a rocket. It was like you were becoming dust and then again a minifigure just in another place."Awesome! Let's do this again!" Magical said.
"You find everything awesome, you dump" Sarah said.
"OH! Is this going to be happening all the time?" F-F-G asked.
"Actually, they were fighting much more at Yorkanton City" Katie informed him.
"So, let's get to business. It's time you drew your gear. You better use your thinking hat" Shadow said and then sat on a sofa and started reading a magazine about the Evolution of Technology. After twenty minutes Katie came and gave him a paper with the drawing of a minifigures and some notes explaining what the weapons could do.
"Well I'd better get started" he said happily that he would start with Katie's gear.
"Can I have your thinking hat? I want to be quicker and I have lost mine" Shadow asked.
"Sure!" Katie answered.
Shadow went to his lab and started building. His hands were moving so fast that you almost couldn't see them. Half an hour later everyone had put their designs on a table. Th better drawing was the one of Sarah's which was very scientific and the worst was Magical's which was most like a smudge.
Shadow was rying many things. For instance he was mixing several chemicals (creating a lot of explosions) to put in the weapons. Actually, he was so busy building that he wasn't leaving even for lunch. So, Sarah who was the best cook of the three of them used to cook. However, the fifth day he heard an explosion coming from upstairs. He quickly went there and saw smoke coming from the kitchen.
"What happened here? Ususally the explosiond occur at the rooms where I am!" Shadow said. He then heard Katie telling "I just wanted to help you to cook! I'm so sorry!".
"WELL, I HAVE NEVER SEEN MINIFIGURE COOKING SO BAD. EVEN MAGICAL COOKS BETTER THAN YOU!" Sarah yelled.
"Did she just said what I heard?" Magical told. After that Shadow took an extuinguisher and tried to burn out the fire.
Except from that there wasn't any other remarkable event. So, after a week Shadow had finished and called the others. It was time for them to see their gear. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 34: More FFFFF gear Shadow's friends came immediately and they took their gear. The first that wore his gear was Magical. His gear included his two old swords but improved so they had several light blue shining lines, an ancient greek helmet and shoulderpads which had a green F each. The panoply was mostly blue and grey.
"This rocks!" he said and put his swords in their carriages which was on his back creating an X.
After him Katie came. She had mostly green gear, a hat which looked like the one of the rank 3 bucaneer (without the mask), a flame-thrower, a cape with a blue F and a pirate gun.
"I used hygropyr for the flame-thrower. Hygropyr is a greek word and accurately means liquid fire but I would translate it as water fire. It has this name because it doesn't burn off when it's in water" Shadow mentioned.
"Cool!" Katie answered and Shadow was glad.
Then, Sarah came in. She was wearing a shinobi-rank-3-like hat, a purple cape with a blue F and red and black gear. She had a ninja sword with a purple aura but some light blue sparkles whipped once in a while.
"Your gear is very stupid, dump one" she said to Magical.
"I'm not the one with the infected sword" He answered.
"IT'S NOT INFECTED, YOU STUPID! IT JUST USES MAELSTROM ENERGY!" Sarah yelled at him.
"Whatever" he told.
"So, it's time we went to Frostburgh!" Shadow announced happily. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 35: To Frostburgh (or not?) "So, let's go!" Magical said. They all caught F-F-G's hands and got ready to teleport. However, Shadow heard a noise that he hadn't heard a lot of times before. It sounded like a little bell and it meant that someone was calling to his F-phone.
"Sorry, I have to answer that" he said and pushed a button n his helmet "Hello, this is Strange Odd Shadow. Who's there?"
"Hello Shadow, it's Nexus Jay. I'm sorry that I disturb your holidays but I have a very serious mission and you are the only one whom I can trust!" the voice of Nexus Jay said from the F-phone.
"What is it?" Shadow answered.
"A spaceship crashed on the Gnarled Forest. It had about thirty minifigs and some crates with some very strong weapons. The ship right now is out of the bounds, so we want you to go help the minifigs leave and take the weapons or at least destroy them, so the Maelstrom won't take them. If you want take some friends with you. Do you think you can do this?" Nexus Jay said.
"Of course!" Shadow responded and then pushed a button on his helmet to stop talking.
"Guys, we have a change of plans! We go to Gnarled Forest. If you agree at least".
"Okay!" Magical said "I would go everywhere with my buddy".
"Why?" Sarah asked shortly.
Shadow explained them the situation and everyone agreed. After that Shadow phoned Quantum to say that they would be a little late. Then, they were ready to go.
"Shall we teleport" F-F-G asked.
"I'd rather not. Gnarled Forest is only ten minutes away so we could use rockets" Katie said "I love that feeling when you travel on them"
"I actually hate it but I hate teleporting even more" Shadow told.
"Ok then" F-F-G said.
They went on the launch pad and set off. After nine minutes they approached the jungle-covered world but then suddenly Katie's rocket exploded. Shadow made for her so she could jump on his rocket but then his one exploded, too. He started falling. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 36: At Gnarled Forest Shadow's rocket was falling. His fear had made him unable to move. Everything was happening too fast and he could do nothing. Then the sound of Magical's rocket which also exploded woke him up.
"Jump on my rocket!" Sarah yelled but then her rocket exploded, too.
In the end everyone jumped on F-F-G's rocket. They had almost reached the terrain when that rocket exploded, too. They waited till the last minute and then they jumped so they wouldn't crash.
"It was a set up!" Magical said.
"The problem is that we can't know who put the bombs on our rockets" Sarah told puffing.
"That's right! However, we must go to our mission" Shadow said.
"I will stay here to fix the rockets, so when you come back you will be able to leave right away" F-F-G told.
They consumed as all of their consumables that could heal but even then then they were a little injured. Shadow, then, pushed a button on his helmet to see the map of the Gnarled Forest. Nexus Jay had sent him the location of the spaceship.
"We're going to the North!" he said.
They started walking and after an hour they reached the boundaries. They had barely met any maelstrom till there.
"The hard part starts now, so be careful" Shadow said and looked at Katie. It had started happening again.
The maelstrom was more there but even then they didn't met much. After a lot of walking and some smashing they reached a vertical mountain.
"Tell me that we don't have to climb that" Sarah told.
"I'm afraid that we have to" Shadow answered looking to the map.
"It's okay; this will be very easy" Katie told and started climbing.
"But it's at least 1 km high" Sarah said naggingly.
"Oh, come on. Stop nagging" Magical responded and also started climbing.
Shadow took a machine that looked like the mechanical hands of Dr. Overbuild. He wore it on his back and started climbing with it. He then took another machine like that and he threw it to Sarah.
"You're lucky that I have a second one" he said.
The first one that climbed the mountain was Katie. Being a Venture League member she was the best at climbing of the four of them. When she went up she yelled awe-ispiringly "WOW! THIS IS AMAZING!". When the other climbed, too they saw the spaceship that had crashed. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 37: Trap! They stayed fo a little still to rest and then ate a quiclsicle each. It had the taste of a tire and Shadow felt full with energy. He started running and he felt the wind on his face. He actually didn't realise when he reached the spaceship but then he understood that something was wrong.
When everybody had reached there Shadow said them to stay where they were. He then tried to touch the spaceship but his hand just penerated it.
"Just as I have expected. It's a hologram. This is a trap. Go away from the spaceship" he said calmly.
They started making for the cliff but just a second later an explosion happened where the hologram was. They all fell onto the ground harmed.
"How did you know?" Magical asked.
"It just didn't seem real. About the explosion, I wasn't sure but I suspected that they would want to smash us. So, be careful. If we smash here we won't rebuilded" Shadow answered.
They stood up and started fending off when some maelstrom pirates and captains attacked them. They fought them and it was easy, especially for Magical whose strength and virtuosity was incredible. However, the more they were smashing the more maelstrom beings were coming. The worst started when the Spider Boss appeared.
"That monster!" Shadow whispered.
He attacked to it right away but it was way stronger and bigger than the queens. Magical came to help and he climbed on its leg to tack his swords on its head.
After ten minutes of fighting they were all exhausted but the enemies hadn't been defeated. And most of all the Spider Boss which actually seemed to have become stronger. Then, Shadow felt something rolling around his leg. He looked and saw something like infected branch. Then, the branch pulled him and he fell. He started feeling a little dizzy but he was able to look to the others before he was hit on ground again. The same happened to them. Then, he passed out. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 38: The one he is gonna hate Shadow woke up in a dark(however he couldn't camouflage) cold and big room. He was tied on a chair. He saw a minifigure in front of him. All of his body except for his head was black. Although there was few light you could see that his head was purple and that his eyes and mouth were shining red.
"At last, you're awake. I waited two hours for you to wake up. However your friends weren't as lucky as you" the minifigure said. His voice sounded gentle but it actually was cruel and cold.
"What are you talking about? Who are you? What happened to my friends?" Shadow asked as still being dizzy.
"Oh, it seems that you don't know who I am. Actually, no one gave me a name because I wasn't born as everyone else. However, some call me Darkitect, although they don't know if I really exist" the minifigure answerd "About your friends, I haven't harm them. Yet, at least".
"Release me!" Shadow told Darkitect angrily as he totally woke up.
"Oh, no! I cannot do that! Not before you help me. There's a place I want to find and it's a little difficult. So, what I want you to do is just give me what you have in your backpack and if you and your friends want to be of further assistance you can. As a pay back I can give you back your mother, Shadow. Actually, you just have to rebuild her-there are some people that can do that such as Dr. Overbuild- and I will do the rest. Do you agree?" Darkitect responded.
"I would never agree with a maelstrom being!" Shadow replied.
"I was almost sure that you would say that, so..." Darkitect said and then raised his hand to the height of his shoulders. A purple lightning went out his hands and hit Shadow. Shadow had never felst so much pain in his life.
This torture lasted about ten minutes bbut it seemed like a century to Shadow. Then, Darkitect asked "So, did you change your mind?".
"NEVER!" Shadow yelled.
Darkitect started again and about an hour later he decided that Shadow would never give in.
"You may can bear this torture but what about another one" Darkitect. Then, a light turned on and Shadow saw Sarah.
"Don't give in, Shadow. Ι'm a hard nut" she said.
"SILENCE!" Darkitect yelled and then started torturing her.
Shadow couldn't watch that or to hear Sarah's screams. He loved his friendss too much to be able to let them be tortured like that.
"Stop!" he told Darkitect.
"Oh, wait! There's more!" Darkitect answered and suddenly another light turned on, so Shadow could see Katie being tortured. She also had a serous wound on her rib.
"NOOOOOOO!!!" Shadow yelled.
This should be over. Shadow had got very angry. He managed to camouflage, so Darkitect couldn't see him.
He then tried to take a knife from his backpack and he succeeded after a minute. After that he cut the ropes with wich he was tied. He left from the chair before Darkitect could notice. He made for Darkitect and he spiked him with his knife. Darkitect wouldn't have been hurt by this if Shadow didn't spike till the edge of the handle. Shadow then punched him on the face and kicked him on the leg.
When he was sure that Darkitect wouldn't catch him he made for Katie. He cut the ropes that tied her and took her on his shoulder. Normally, he couldn't lift her but this was a special occasion. After that he went to Sarah and did the same except for the lifting because she could stand, walk and run normally. He searched for Magical but he didn't find him anywhere.
"WHAT DO YOU WAIT?! CATCH THEM!!!" Darkitect yelled and suddenly countless maelstrom beings appeared. They were doomed. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 39: The escape Shadow touched Sarah and although he didn't know how he did that he made her and Katie shadows like himself. He then threw some big ones and other explosives to smash as many maelstrom beings as he could. They then started running to the door. Shadow couldn't open it so he put a bomb that he had made on it. It exploded and they passed through the hole that was created.
They kept running and then heard the voice of Darkitect saying "You can hide but you cannot run, Shadow! There's no way to leave from here!". Although Darkitect didn't yell Shadow was sure that everyone in and around that place could hear him.
That place was like a labyrinth. There were million of corridors there. Shadow didn't know where he was going; they were just running and smashing whenever they found any maelstrom being. In the end Shadow saw a minifigure that wasn't infected. They made for him and saw that it was...
"Magical?!" both Shadow and Sarah said.
"Shadow, I don't have time to explain how I escaped but you must come with me! There are some minifigs imprisoned here! We must save them!" Magical said quickly. However, Shadow just smashed him and his pieces turned into maelstrom ones.
"How did you know?" Sarah asked.
"Magical would never do the mistake to say the word minifig in front of me" Shadow answered while he started running again.
"Oh, yeah! Your love for the word minifigure. If you have just said that to me. It would be great to smash something that had the face ogf that stupid guy" Sarah said following him.
Actually, although many would think that it would be dangerous in the lair of Darkitect, it was difficult for the maelstrom beings to find them, so they passed through them very easily. However, it was like they were running for a century. Then, they heard an explosion.
"Shall we go there?" Shadow asked Sarah pointing where they heard the explosion happening.
"We don't have anything to lose" she answered.
Shadow put a bomb on the wall to pass through it. In that way thay would reach the place where the explosion happened more quickly. After putting a fourth bomb and passing through the smokes of the mini-explosion they created light made them close their eyes. They had finally reached a place where they could leave from.
Magical was hanging on a rope with his legs on the outer side of the wall next to the hole that was created by the explosion.
"What day did we learn about my power?" Shadow asked him.
"Ehhh! At your 19th birthday" Magical answered.
"Correct! You're the real one! So, let's get out of here!" Shadow said and gave him Katie. . . Meanwhile at the room where Darkitect was:
"Release as many beings as it is needed. Just catch them, don't let them leave from Gnarled Forest!" Darkitect said to a Maelstrom Admiral that actually was the leader in Gnarled Forest.
"Yes sir" he said. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 40: The Vampire Shadow was sad to not hold Katie anymore but he was exhausted. He actually thought that after they would go to Nexus Force he would stop thinking about her. However, that wasn't true he was still in love with Katie!
Magical gave them their weapons and said "I found these in the battlefield". However, he didn't have the energy shield of Sarah. He then started climbing down the rope. Darkitect's lair must have been in the middle of the cliff they had climbed before.
After Magical, Sarah started going down and after her, Shadow. However, when Shadow was in the middle a Maelstrom Pirate appeared in the hole from the explosion and then... cut the rope. The others had already reached the terrain. He was the only who was falling.
Shadow moved very quickly: He raised his crossbow picked a special arrow and then threw it. This arrow had a rope tied in its edge, so when it was pinned on the "wall" it held Shadow. He actually didn't δοθβτ about his plan but he was very relieved that it held him.
When Shadow reached the ground it was night. They then started running and when they had gone far away Shadow asked Magical "How did you escape and then returned for us?"
"I never was caught to escape. Ι managed to cut the branch that had caught me. Then, I followed track that you had left. and found out that you were taken into the terrain. I started climbing down the cliff and put several bombs till a hole was created. After a little you came. By the way I couldn't find your energy shield, cone-headed" Magical answered.
"It's okay. It was destroyed in the battle" Sarah told him and then pushed a little button on the handle of her sword which made it double "I can use it as a two-handed weapon".
"What happened to you guys?" Magical asked.
Shadow explained him while he was taking care of Katie's wound.
"At least you learnt how to control your power. So, what do you have in your backpack that Darkitect wanted so much" Magical asked when Shadow finished his story.
"Welll. I'm not sure but I think he wanted my... my mother's hand" Shadow answered.
"Shadow!!! You have something like that in your backpack!" Magical almost yelled.
"What's wrong with that?" someone asked.
They all (except of course for Katie who is asleep) turned and saw Blood-drinkind Vampire Dracula.
"Who are you?!" Sarah said.
"Guys, don't worry he's a friend. Actually, he's an FFFFF member" Shadow told them.
"I'm Blood-drinking Vampire Dracula!" Dracula said.
"Shadow! You took a vampire in the team!" Magical asked worried.
"Yes, but don't worry he is not bad at all"
"Be quiet!" Dracula told them "Maelstrom is everywhere around. They might hear you"
"Then, how are we going to leave?" Sarah said still doubting about him.
"Don't worry. I know a secret path that neither Maelstrom nor Nexus Force knows" Dracula told.
"Show us" Shadow said although he knew that the others wouldn't agree.
They followed Dracula where he was taking them. All the kinds of Maelstrom, even dragons, were around them. They fought a little but their walk was mostly quiet. In the end they reached a door made of stone.
"This is the path or actually tunnel. In the other side of it it's the first launch pad. However, I cannot come with you. I have some troubles with Nexus Force" Dracula told them.
They opened the door and got in. They were walking for about an hour when they found another door. They got out and they were in front of the launch pad. They had surely escaped. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 41: Travelling
Shadow and the others saw their rockets. On Shadow's one there was a note that was saying "Shadow, I went to fight some maelstrom. Leave without me. Four-Faced-Guy".
"Okay, guys! We live without F-F-G" Shadow said.
They set off and started travelling again. After fifteen minutes Shadow told the others "Shouldn't we be at Nimbus Station by now?".
"That's what I was just thinking!" Magicsal answered through a microphone that his all the rockets had.
Shadow checked his map to see where they were. They actually were to a totally different place than Nimbus Station. However, when Shadow tried to turn around his rocket it actually started flying faster and going to exactly the opposite place wanted to go. As many times he tried to change direction his rocket didn't do what he wanted.
"It seems that F-F-G doesn't know how to fix a rocket" he thought.
After some more hours and unfortunately meeting Space Maelstrom they approached a big world.
"Look!" Sarah said to her microphone and pointed to the world.
However, when they landed they realised that the world was just a huge desert. . . Beware of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 42: Deadly Desert “Great! Now, we are stuck in a huge desert!” Magical growled.
“Don’t worry. I think I can build a launch pad, so we can leave” Magical responded.
“You better can cuz I don’t think we will be able to survive here for too long” Sarah said “Especially her”. She pointed to Katie who was still asleep in Sarah’s rocket.
Shadow stared for a little at her and encouraged by the thought of saving his friends and especially Katie he started working, actually with great speed. Eventually, he had almost built a launch pad but then he yelled in desperation “NOOOOOOO!!!” .
It was one of the few times that Shadow lost his temper.
“What happened?” asked Magical worried.
“There’s one brick missing; the most important one!” Shadow answered ruffled “NOW WE’RE GOING TO DIE! AND IT’S ALL MY FAULT!!!”
“Shadow, calm down. It’s not your fault” Magical replied calmly.
“If I hadn’t taken you with me in the miss-” Shadow started saying but was interrupted by Sarah “If you hadn’t taken with you, you would be dead and we wouldn’t have our leader!”.
Then, silence prevailed but there was tense in the atmosphere.
“Have you tried to call the others?” Magical said after a while trying to change the subject.
“No, good idea” Shadow replied. He hadn’t fully calm down but he wasn’t that angry as before.
Shadow phoned Quantum but he didn’t answer. He did the same with Platinum, Lemon and Glittery but the results were the same.
“We must be too far, so there’s no signal” Shadow told to himself.
“Try to phone F-F-G. We may be closer to him” Sarah suggested.
“I would but his F-phone is probably turned off. I can’t locate him in the map” Shadow answered.
They all sat and started thinking about what to do. After a little they started feeling the scorching hot. Then, suddenly something that looked like a maelstrom scorpion but was in minifigure size attacked to Magical. It made him fall down and then hit him with its claws. However, Magical managed to lift it and throw it away. Then, before it could strike back he cut its tail and claws. After that he spiked it until after ten minutes it was smashed.
“What was that?!” Shadow wondered.
“I don’t know but it surely was tough. Actually, I was lucky to defeat it” Magical answered panting.
“Ehh! Guys, we have problem!” Sarah told the others “There are more coming!”. Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 43: Τired and hot "Great! Just great!" Shadow said dismally.
The Maelstrom Scorpions weren't very close but it wouldn't tale them more than an hour to reach where they were. Shadow took his crossbowand threw some special arrows that managed to reach the Scorpions. These arrows weren't supposed to hit the Scorpions but to circle them. When they did that some blue lines made of light connected them with each other.
"We must go! This will hold them the most for an hour!" Shadow told the others.
"Okay! Besides, we may find the brick you need" Magical answered.
He, then, lifted Katie on his shoulder and Sarah put her rocket into her backpack. After that they started walking.
They walked all the day and the night they slept for six hours and then got up.
The same happened the next day,
and the next day,
and the next day,
and the next day,
and the next day,
and the next day.
However, the 8th day wind started blowing and the scorhing hot was getting hotter and hotter probably due to the fact they were getting more tired and more tired, thirstier and thirstier, hungrier and hungrier.
The 9th day the wind got really strong and Shadow told the others trying to be heard despite of the wind and to conquer his tiredness"THERE'S...GOING...TO... BE...A ...STORM!!!".
The 10th day the wind got even stronger and the water ended. It was like they needed all the energy of the world to make just one step.
"MUST...SHELTER...STORM...TODAY!!!" was the only thing that Shadow could say, although everyone understood what he was trying to say: We must find shelter from the storm today.
Then, when noon came they reached a cliff. And below it you could see a temple. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 44: To the temple Shadow recognised the design of the temple from pictures of the First Builders' Temple that he had seen in Nexus Tower. It must had been built by the First Builders, too.
All of them, empowered and encouraged by their findings, run till the edge of the cliff. Then, Shadow threw an arrow with a rope tied on its edge. When Shadow was sure that his construction wouldn't collapsed Sarah using another smaller rope started getting down the big rope. Then, Magical with Katie on his shoulder followed Sarah and Shadow went last.
However, when they reached down they realised that the temple was farther than they thought. They started walking but soon the heat and thirst started reducing the power they had taken and eventually Magical yelled "LOOK! AN OASIS!". Then, throwing Katie down he made for a place that surely wasn't oasis. Shadow followed him and eventually managed to catch him a second before he would jump in a pit full with infected snakes.
They waited for a moment and then Magical said "Shadow, would you have the kindness to pull me, so I won't fall if you let me".
"You're welcome!" Shadow answered briskly trying unsuccessfully to hide his anger.
"Why are you angry, Shadow?!" Magical asked "It wasn't my fault that I saw a delusion!".
In fact, Shadow had got angry not because Magical had almost jumped into a pit full with Maelstrom Snakes but because he had threw Katie down.
"I will carry her from now on" Shadow said pointing to Katie.
"Oh,so that's what it is!" Magical told him.
"By the way we must hurry. The Maelstrom Scorpions will be here by the next half hour" Shadow talked ignoring Magical.
"Too late!" Sarah told the others and showed them the base of the cliff where you could see smoke in the air.
"RUN!" Shadow yelled.
He then threw three arrows that exploded and started running himself. Every three minutes he was turning around and was throwing three arrows. In the end they had almost reached the temple when he turned around ans saw a Scorpion right behind him!
Shadow took one of his knives from his backpack and started spiking it in several places and when he saw that it wouldn't smash he took an arrow and spiked on the ground. Immediately a brick wall was released from it on which the Scorpion crashed.
Shadow kept running and felt the sweat on his body to be like rivers. Then, suddenly Katie fell from his shoulder. Shadow crouched to lift her again but the Scorpion reached him and hit him with its nail on the chest sending him away. The Maelstrom Scorpion got ready to eat Katie but then Shadow threw an arrow at it. After that the Scorpion, angry with Shadow, approached him and hit him again, so he couldn't resist. Then Shadow accepted death, closed his eyes and waited...
But he waited for too long and then opened his eyes. He saw Sarah cutting the Scorpion in the middle.
"Come on! Get up! Ya ain't gonna die today! Don't forget that ya have friends!" Sarah told him.
Shadow got up, Sarah took Katie and thay made for the temple which was some metres away. They, then, reached and got into the temple. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 45: Inside the temple Shadow was glad they had reached their destination. Actually, he felt stronger inside the temple. Like Imagination was more in there than in usual places.
Magical started searching the temple hoping he would find the brick they needed (Shadow had shown them a hologram of it). Sarah put Katie next to the opening where the gate should be and started searching, too. Shadow stood in front of the opening, so he would throw arrows to the Maelstrom Scorpions.
However, this wasn't nessecary because after ten minutes the storm started and due to a tornado all the Scorpions were smashed. Shadow started searching and actually saw the interior of the temple for the first time. As the exterior, it was exactly the same with the pictures he had seen with the exception of not having the Imagination Nexus. Shadow went to the centre of the temple and saw a circle. When he looked better he realised that it was somrthing like a map of the whole Lego Universe. However, it must have been old because in the centre of the map you could see a planet with the shape of cube.
"Crux" Shadow whispered.
Shadow continued his search and then he heard Magical shouting "I FOUND IT! I FOUND IT!!!". He, then, immediately made for him and saw that it was the right brick.
"YEEEEEEEEESSSSSS!!!" Shadow yelled enthusiastically.
"Let's go build that Launch Pad!!!" Sarah suggested with the same enthusiasm in her voice.
"We can't. We must wait the storm to stop" Shadow answered still with the smile on his face.
They waited for two hours until the storm blew over. Then, they went out but then a cold voice said "Not so far, Shadow!". Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 46: Outside the temple Shadow turned around and saw Darkitect. Now, he was in light Shadow could see what he was wearing. Actually, his clothes were the same with Baron Typhonus' clothes with the exceptions that his clothes were completely black, that he was wearing gloves and that the gem on his staff was purple.
"Not you again!" Shadow said surprised, annoyed but also afraid.
"It wasn't very kind of you to leave from the party, before it ended, at Gnarled Forest" Darkitect told them with his cruel, cold, vicious and fakely gentle voice "SURROUND THEM! I want to make sure you won't leave early this time".
Several Maelstrom Horsemen, some Dark Ronins and a lot of Maelstrom Scorpions and Snakes surrounded them. One Horseman who stood next to the Darkitect seemed to be in charge.
"So, Darkitect! Can I ask you something? Why are you wearing gloves? Is the Great Darkitect afriad of his hands being dirty" Shadow teased him trying to hide his fear.
"You asked!" Darkitect said furious and then approached Shadow.
He then grabbed him from his neck. This was even worse from the maelstrom lightning. The pain was aweful. Shadow felt his skin being totally destroyed and his Imagination being drawn. However, the torchery didn't last for long. After some seconds Shadow managed to take one of his deadliest arrows. It contained the most deadly poison that he had ever made.
After that he spiked his enemy with it on his stomach. Darkitect immediately let him and suddenly Magical started hitting him on his chest with both his swords. Then, Shadow opened Darkitect's mouth and put a bomb on it. As soon as he closed his mouth, he and Magical left him. Watching their leader's head exploding, the several maelsreom beings started doing whatever they wanted, mostly fighting with each other. Chaos prevailed. The chief of the area tried to stop them but he was smashed by a blast of maelstrom energy sent by Sarah.
Shadow lifted Katie and they started running. When they were away enough Shadow turned around and threw a gas bomb. As soon as the bomb touched the ground it exploded revealing a gas.
"What is that?!" Magical asked.
"Carbon Monoxide! Poisonus!" Shadow answered.
When they reached even farther Shadow took the launch pad from his backpack and put the last piece. Sarah and Magical went first and then Shadow put his rocket on the launch pad. He placed Katie on it and then got into it himself.
However, at the same time Darkitect got out of the fog created from the gas. He released a lightning from his staff which almost hit Shadow's rocket. Shadow looked back and saw him. Frightened he took off but when he reached some metres above the ground his rocket was hit by another lightning making it lose height. Shadow in the end managed to save it from crashing pushing several buttons. And then he flew away. However, he was able to hear Darkitect yelling "NOOOOOO!!!!!!!". . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 47: Castle Kingdom They were far enough from Deadly Desert to not be afraid and Shadow had just told the others about Darkitect.
"Wait a sec! He was spiked, poisoned, his head exploded and he is still alive! How's that even possible?!" Magical exclaimed surprised.
"I know! He must be very strong" Shadow answered.
Then, they saw another world and Sarah told others "Let's land there!".
"Are you sure you want to go there? Do you remember what happened the last time we went to a random world?!" Magical answered.
"We don't have a choice! There's no other place to go!" Shadow replied.
"Ok!" Μagical said condesendingly.
They approached the world but when they were close enough to land they saw they were above a Castle. However, it was taken by the Maelstrom. It was full of Maelstrom Catapults and Knights. The Catapults launched maelstrom spheres but with several maneuvers Shadow and his two friends managed to avoid them.
They left but they had to travel for about an hour to reach another Castle. Shadow learnt after some time that this world was huge; bigger than Deadly Desert and actually it had the size of North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa together.
The other Castle was bigger than the other but it was being sieged by the Maelstrom. It had several towers but one of them (the central one) had the double height. When they approached some Maelstrom Catapults attacked but they went higher. The time they were safe they also reached the height of the tall tower. It was probably so tall, so the Catapults couldn't attack the landing rockets. It was used as the launch pad area.
Shadow looked for a little back and saw the Maelstrom. It could be seen very big, probably because it was very close. Shadow terrified continued and reached the tower. He got into from a window and landed. The others came after him. At the same time another minifigure arrived.
"Hello! My name is Magical Heroic Dragon! What's your name?" the minifigure said.
"I am Strange Odd Shadow! This is Magical Fire Monkey, Sarah Darkon and Katie Pirate!" Shadow answered showing first Magical, then Sarah and in the end Katie, whom Magical was holding "You can call me Shadow!".
"Great! Welcome to the Castle Kingdom!". . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 48: The Secret World "I'll wait at the stairs!" Magical Heroic Dragon said.
He then went to a minifigure who was standing in front of a door.
"Hello Dragon!" the minifigure exclaimed when he saw him.
"Hello John!" Dragon answered while showing him something. Then, the minifigure who was named John opened the door and let him pass.
Shadow, Magical and Sarah followed Dragon and when John saw them he said "Names?".
"Strange Odd Shadow, Magical Fire Monkey, Sarah Darkon and Katie Pirate" Shadow answered.
John searched a list and told them "You're not in my list. Do you have a Castle Kingdom Card?".
That probably was what Dargon had shown him to pass.
"No, we haven't got one" Magical replied.
"You cannot pass without it or special permission" John explained. Then, he pushed a button on his helmet and a microphone appeared in front of his mouth.
"Hey, Cyborg! We have a Green Code Situation!".
A voice coming from a headset said "Ok. I'm coming".
They had to wait for ten minutes and then a minifigure with rank 3 Space Ranger gear came.
"Hi, Cyborg! These four there" John said showing the four friends "Do you have permission to take them inside?".
"Yes, I have. That's why I was late" the one who was called Cyborg answered seriously.
He then went to the FFFFF fellowship.
"Hello. I am Saber Jetpack Cyborg. Come with me" he said strictly.
They followed him beyond the door where Dragon was still waiting.
"He came for you?!" Dragon exclaimed surprised.
Shadow nodded positively. Then approaching Dragon, he whispered "Is he always so strict".
"Always!" Dragon answered whispering.
"Don't whisper, you two! Magical Heroic Dragon, you can go" Cyborg told them.
"No, I think I'll come with you" Dragon answered.
It was obvious that Cyborg got angry but he didn't say anything.
"So, why are you keeping this place secret from the others?" Sarah asked.
"Castle Kingdom is very dangerous. Due to the small distance to the Maelstrom and the strong kinds of Maelstrom beings Maelstrom is very strong here. In addition to the fact that you can be smashed very easily, the minifigures cannot be rebuilded. The machines that do that job cannot find enough Imagination in the atmosphere and they stop working, so the Leaders reveale that world only to the best of Nexus Force" Dragon answered.
By the time Dragon finished talking they had went out of the tower. Until then no one cared about their appearance but now everyone was looking to their ripped clothes which were full of dust and blood and their wounds and injuries.
Then, a known voice said "It's okay Cyborg. I'll take them now".
Shadow turned around and saw Platinum. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 49: Platinum's biggest secret "PLATINUM!!!" Shadow, Sarah and Magical yelled simultaneously.
"Okay! Just take them to the room -24" Cyborg responded ignoring to the others' yells.
" To the room -24?!Why so deep?" Platinum asked.
"General doesn't want them to be close to the battle" Cyborg answered.
Then, Cyborg left them alone with Platinum. Shadow opened his mouth to ask him why he was there but Platinum talked first: "Shadow, I think I should ask first. You are the ones that vanished and then appeared where they shouldn't be. So, what happened?".
As they started walking, Shadow narrated their story from the moment Nexus Jay- the fake one- put them their mission. When he was finished Platinum and Dragon were very surprised.
"The Darkitect?!..." Platinum said.
"You have a superpower?!..." Dragon told.
"Yes. It might be hard to believe but yes. About the power, I'll show you later. Now, it's my turn to ask. What are you doing here? Why didn't you tell us about here?"
"As you probably already know this place needs the best. I was tested and they told me that I was good enough for the Castle Kingdom. About your second question, this place is secret because if people that aren't good enough to survive here- for a long time- knew for that place they would request to be allowed to come and they would create trouble. So, the leaders decided not to tell them. That's why I couldn't tell you" Platinum replied.
"So, this is the place where you were when you left! And that's why you and Glittery were in so bad condition when you returned!" Shadow exclaimed.
"That's true!" Platinum answered.
At that time they reached an elevator and got into it. Platinum pushed a button that was writing -2. They were going underground. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 50: The room underground and the new neighbour "Why are we going underground?!" Shadow asked.
"As Cyborg said, they want to keep you away from the battle" Platinum answered.
"What!!! We are at the perfect place for battle and we won't fight at all!!!" Magical exclaimed.
"I know that you are very good fighters but explain that to the council. I'm sorry" Platinum responded.
They reached their floor and got out ofthe elevator. Platinum led them to the fourth room at the aisle. The aisle was almost completely dark. The only light source was a small lamp at the end of the aisle.
They passed the door, Platinum said that he would come back in an hour and he left with Dragon. The room was big enough for them and a fifth person. It had five beds, five chairs, one table, two desks, one fridge, one sofa and one television. Magical sat on the sofa disaffected. Shadow, as soon as he had placed Katie on a bed, took a chair to one of the desks, sat on it and started building something. Sarah sat on a bed and turned on the TV.
Ten minutes passed and suddenly someone opened the door.
"I was waiting for that moment three months! And finally I have neighbours. Hello, my name is Turt Wig Train and I'm your new neighbour! I live in room -23! What are your names?" said enthusiastically a minifigure that came in.
"Well, my name is Strange Odd Shadow but you can call me Shadow" Shadow told him awkwardly.
"Ι'm Sarah Darkon"
"I am Magical Fire Monkey and she is Katie Pirate" Magical said pointing to Katie.
"Great! Did you hear that some minifigs found that place without telling them!" Turt asked them.
"Yeah, actually that minifigures are us" Shadow replied.
"OOOH! So, I guess they don't want you to be at the surface?" Turt said.
"Yes" Magical answered.
"Then, who wants to go upstairs secretly" Turt told them with a mischievous smile. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 51: Iron Riders They were at the Square of the Knight, the busiest place of the Castle. Around the Square there were many stores and stalls where minifigures where selling parts of panoplies, bricks, books and other things. The castle had a round shape and was seperated by two vertical with each other walls in four sections: the northern, the southern, the eastern and the western. Square of the Knight was in the western section.
All of them except for Turt were wearing cloaks and hoods, so they wouldn't recognise. When Sarah had asked if this would not seem odd to others, Turt had answered that a lot of people had adapted this style, so it wouldn't be something odd.
Turt had also explained them that there were seven (known) Castles in the world. The biggest Castle was the one in which they were and the central one. Six Castles were around this one. Two of them belonged to the Nexus Force and the three were infected by the Maelstrom.
"What happened to the last one?" Shadow had asked when Turt had stopped talking.
"Oh, yeah! There are only abandoned ruins there. We don't know why the Maelstrom hasn't infected it but as far Nexus Force is concerned, we cannot reach it because Maelstrom is between our Castles and the ruined one" had been Turt's answer.
At that time they were staring at a huge statue of a knight which was in the centre of the square. As he kept looking at it, Shadow started walking but he came across someone and stumbled on him.
"I'm so sorry! It's all my-" Shadow started saying but was interrupted: "Shadow!".
It was Dragon...
"What are you doing here?! You shouldn't be here!" he exclaimed.
"Turt brought us" Magical replied.
Dragon opened his mouth to say something but he didn't manage to because the sound of some bells was heard. Although Shadow hadn't ever heard that bells before, he knew what it meant: it was an alarm for battle...
"Great!!! A fight!" Magical said loudly.
"You don't understand! It's dangerous! You must go to your room!" Dragon exclaimed.
Suddenly, a loud voice was heard all over the Castle: "ALL THE IRON RIDERS, GATHER TO THE NORTHWESTERN TOWER!"
"What are the Iron Riders?" Sarah wondered.
"They are the elite of the Castle Kingdom. There are 20 of them: 13 Sentinels, 4 Venture League, 3 Paradox and none Assembly. The panoply of these Knights-Riders and of their horses is made of Imagination Iron, a compound of Iron and Imagination. This material is one of these few that cannot be infected and is very difficult to be damaged" Dragon responded as he changed panoply to a silver shining one and started walking towards the Northwestern Tower.
"Are you an Iron Rider?" Shadow asked.
"Actually, I'm their leader!" Dragon answered and then left running. . . P.S.: For those who have read the few chapters of "The last battle for Ninjago": I was the one that came up with the idea of the Iron Riders. My friend just liked the idea and put it to his story, too. For the record my friend is Magical Heroic Dragon. Beware of the shadows because I might be there.

Chapter 52: The Nexus HQ As they watched Dragon leaving, Magical said "So, are we just going to sit here or are we going to the battle?".
Shadow, who was still surprised by the fact that Dragon was the leader of the Iron Riders, looked at him and answered with one word "Battle".
"YESSS!!!" Magical exclaimed.
They followed Turt who agreed to take them with him.
"The bells that are ringing are from the Northwestern Tower, so the battle must be somewhere close to it" he explained.
As soon as they passed the wall and came to the Northern part of the Castle, they started hearing the sounds of the battle. Then, suddenly, Shadow told "Finally!".
"What happened?" Sarah asked.
"Have you ever heard of the Nexus HQ?" Shadow replied with a question.
"Yes! It's a database that gathers all the information about Nexus Force, Imagination and the Maelstrom" Turt said.
"Exactly! Well, when I was making my gear I hacked it and put all the information in the F-phone I have embodied in my helm. When I start-" Shadow explained but was cut by Turt: "What you hacked the Nexus HQ?! Do you know that this is illegal?! What will happen if they catch you?!".
"They won't!" Shadow continued "I'm a very good hacker. And you didn't let me finish. When I started searching the information, I realised that there was a secret part that needed a password to search it and finally after so many days I found the password! The most weird thing is that the password is For a better future. Let's see what creatures we can find here: Maelstrom Knights... Maelstrom Riders... Maelstrom Catapults... Maelstrom Archers... Dark Knights... Maelstrom Dragons... and Maelstrom Warlocks. That's interesting!". . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 53: Time for battle "Let's go!" Magical exclaimed "I can't wait!".
They approached the outer wall and the closer they got the louder the sounds of the battle sounded. They reached a stairway which they immediately started climbing. When they arrived at the edge of the staircase the sounds were louder than ever.
Almost immediately, they were attacked by dozens of maelstrom arrows. Shadow sticked his shield out and Magical blocked them with his swords. Turt just dodged them while Sarah went behind Shadow.
Shadow didn't wait any second to strike back. While he kept his crossbow under the protecton of his cloak, he started launching arrows to the archers.
Then, a wooden ladder appeared in front of Magical. He, although he usually wasn't very clever, during battles he was acted like a genious. He waited until the Maelstrom Knights had climbed to the edge of the ladder and then pushed it, so when the ladder crashed all the knights smashed.
Meanwhile Sarah was smashing knights with blasts from her sword. As she looked down she could see thousands of soldiers, so she wasn't throwing to anyone special. Turt, following the steps of Magical, was throwing ladders to the ground.
They were all going very well until the catapults were put ino action. Bombs were falling around them creating craters and shaking the wall making them lose their balance and falling. Shadow put some very special arrows in his crossbow that as soon as they touched the catapults, they were put in fire.
"Wow!" Turt admired.
Then, something weird happened. A silver shining triangular shape went out of the wall and started smashing the Knights, Archers and Catapults that were in its way. When Shadow looked better he realised that they were the Iron Riders. Shadow realised why those Knights were the elite of Castle Kingdom. Their power and virtuosity was incredible. Even Magical wouldn't be able to defeat one of them.
Afterwards, one minifigure appeared near to them that made Shadow to worry. He pushed Magical at his arm and pointed discretely to the minifigure.
"Cyborg!!!" he exclaimed but Shadow quickly closed his mouth.
They told it to Sarah, too and they agreed to leave slowly but when they tried to materialize their plan the wall cracked into two where Magical was standing making him fall. However, the last second he grabbed from an overhang. Shadow threw him a rope and with the help of Sarah and another minifiure he didn't know, they pulled him up.
However, by the time Magical was saved Maelstrom Knights had invaded the wall and the one leading was huge. Magical immediately emerged towards the huge knight although he was shorter than him. He grabbed him, lifted him and with superhuman strength threw him away. After that he started slicing the rest of the Knights. Soon reinsforments arrived and helped the hero. Between of those who came was Cyborg. Suddenly, a Knight emerged towards him but Shadow got in his way and smash him. However, while he jumped to save Cyborg his hood left from his head revealing his identity. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there

Chapter 54: Imprisoned! Shadow was staring at Katie angry. They were at their room locked. Cyborg instead of thanking him for saving his life, had yelled at him and had sent them to their room where he had locked them. Turt had been put to availability because of breaking the rules.
Shadow was staring at Katie sitting on a chair in front of a desk and hoped she would wake up soon. He then continued building what he was building before still staring at Katie. When he finished what he was doing he put it at the side and started building something else.
This continued for long days. A minifigure with Rank 3 Inventor gear was coming every six hours to bring food. His name was Rad Laser Lava and he sometimes was staying and talked with them a little.
"You know, we could take your friend to the sanitarium, so she gets better more quickly" he said once.
"You mean Katie. No! I want her with me" Shadow answered curtly and coldly.
"Oh, come on! Some of the best members of the Building Squad are there. You can trust them!".
"I haven't heard of it" Shadow continued talking coldly.
"You haven't heard of it!!! It's the most important, popular and the knownest Squad of all. I am a member of it and as I can see you could join it, too!" Rad told him watching his hands which were working really fast.
"No, thank you! I am part of a team and as I can see it could become a squad itself" Shadow replied.
"It's not that easy, boy!" Rad said "The founder of this Squad needed a year to persuade the leaders to make the Building Squad; and he was one of their best friends!".
Shadow smiled for the first time after a lot of days.
"I bet all of my unused bricks that by the end of the year my team will have become a Squad and by the time I get 30 years old it will have become more popular than yours" Shadow responded.
"Okay, see ya in one year" Rad told him and then left. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 55: The Awakening Some more days passed and Shadow started making holes in one wall. When two big holes were ready he put one of what he was building all these days in each of the holes. Τhen, he did something with a remote he had built.
Then, Magical who was worried about him asked Shadow "Ehh! Shadow, what are you doing?".
"Wait and see!" Shadow answered enthusiastically.
Magical, who was surprised that Shadow was happy, looked at Sarah who pried her shoulders showing her ignorance.
Afterwards Shadow put conected a wire to the television shouted "It's ready!!!" and Sarah asked "What's ready?".
"My fighting shouters" Shadow explained "I built some shouters, so we can fight even though we are here".
"Well, that explains a lot" Magical said "However, how can we see what happens in the battle?".
"I connected them with the television" Shadow replied.
"Awesome!" Magical exclaimed and opened the TV. Shadow gave him the remote and expalined him how to use it. On the screen, which was seperated into two, they could see the battlefield where several knights, Nexus Force and Maelstrom, were fighting.
Then, suddenly, Shadow heard a weak voice which made him really happy and that he had to hear a lot of days saying "I want to play with it". Katie was awake. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 56: Not alone Shadow had just narrated to Katie their story after the trap in Gnarled Forest.
"He is really evil!" said Katie with her weak voice.
"Yeah!" answered Shadow, who was staring at her all the time with a silly happy grimace and smelling the aroma of lemons which was coming from her. Now he knew why he had smelt lemon when he was near the Imagination Shard.
"And you don't remember anythng from the moment you passed out and after?" asked Sarah with an unusual enthusiasm in her voice. A kind of enthusiasm you feel when you discover a new mystery.
"Actually, I remember a moment when I was almost awake and I felt a really strong pain" started saying Katie "Like a lightning was hitting me and even worse. Then, I remember feeling someone lifting me and taking me away. It must have been when Darkitect captured us".
"Yes, it probably was. And the one that lifted you was me" told her Shadow.
"Really?!" exclaimed Katie "I thought it was Magical!".
While she was saying that, her cheeks and ears became red and her eyes looked towards Shadow worriedly. However, Shadow didn't see that because at the same time he looked at Magical, who all that time was smashing Maelstrom Knights through the shouters Shadow had built, with angry eyes. That happened because he unconsciously felt that Magical was stealing the girl he loved.
However, Sarah noticed everything and to break the awkward silence that ensued, she said "So, Katie do you want anything to feel more comfortable?".
"Wait!" exclaimed Katie worried that they wouldn't let her do what she really wanted "I didn't finish my story!".
"What else?" asked Magical, who had stopped fighting after he realised what had happened.
"When I was sleeping I saw a dream with Darkitect" started she "I was in a cave and Shadow was holding me on his shoulder (now that makes more sense than before). He then let me down and a Maelstrom branch caught him from the neck. Then, Darkitect appeared and said 'Hello, Katie! You know that you can help me with your... with your power\*. And you will do this if you want him to live. I need to find something...', then fog filled the cave and the dream ended".
"What kind of power?" said Shadow trying to stay calm and feeling a mixture of enthusiasm that there was someone else that had a power, fear, because he realised that there might have existed a lot more than the two of them out there and curiosity about her power.
"Hide something, so I have no idea where it is and I'll show you" was her response.
Shadow did as Katie said and then told her to open her eyes, which she had closed, and that he had hidden the coin she had given to him some years ago. Afterwards, she just concentrated to the coin and Shadow could see her murmuring his words. Then, suddenly,the iris of her eyes glowed green.
For a second it was like there was no gravity around her because it seemed to Shadow that all the things around Katie, including herself, flought.
However, whatever flought, fell immediately and Katie's eyes stopped glowing.
"It is in the left hole behind the sofa you put on the northern wall to hide the two holes. Do you want me to tell you its geographical coordinates? By the way, I am surprised you kept it after so many years" said Katie.
Shadow stayed with his mouth open. She had found its exact location. . .

* It was Katie who hesitated to talk about her power, not Darkitect.

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 57: The wrong use "Incedible!!!" Shadow exclaimed.
"Do you realise that we can find anything?! A-NY-THING!" Magical said enthusiastically.
"Like Darkitect" Sarah suggested.
"Ohh! First time you said something clever!" Magical answered sarcastically but approving her idea.
"Wait a minute! Isn't the Darkitect who tries to catch us? Why should we try to find him?" Shadow asked.
"Well, it's good to know where your enemies are" Sarah responded with a strangely mischievous and kind of evil smile.
"Okay, but only if Katie agrees. Katie, what's your opinion?" Shadow told them.
"It sounds logical" she replied.
Then, she started concentrating and the same happened. Her eyes glowed and things started floating above the ground. This time, Shadow was sure because it lasted more. Among the flying objects was Katie whose hair rose, too.
However, everything changed when Katie vellicated and yelled "NOOOO!!!". Afterwards the colour of the shine changed from green to purple. She continued vellicating and started yelling.
Shadow was the first to run close to her. However, he stopped quickly because the floating objects around her started moving in circles like they were parts of a twister.
"WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO?" Magical shouted, so he could be heard over the gale-force winds that were created by the procession of the floating objects.
"I KNOW!!!" Shadow answered.
He, then, took his crossbow and threw an arrow with a rope to one of the the objects. Then, he pulled it back with the object which was a sofa. He kept doing this with all the objects.
"NOOOT THEEEE TVVVV!!!!!!!!!!" Magical shouted when Shadow threw an arrow to the television.
"I'LL FIX IT LATER!!!" Shadow replied.
When all the objects were taken away, Sarah approached Katie, jumped to reach her and slapped her on the cheek.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” Shadow yelled not because of the winds since they had died down but because now he was angry.
“I thought it would bring her back!” Sarah answered.
“Well, it didn’t, so step away!” Shadow told her sharply.
Shadow came close, too. Sarah got angry but obeyed and went next to Magical.
“You must stop now” Shadow whispered calmly in Katie’s ear.
She, for the first time, stopped screaming and whispered to Shadow “But he will-” but was cut by Shadow who responded, still whispering, “I won’t let him hurt you. You must now stop” and then he caught her hand making her descend. Eventually, her eyes stopped glowing and Katie woke up.
“It was horrible!” she exclaimed immediately “He got in my mind and instead of finding him he found me! It was like he was infecting my mind!”
“Is that even possible?!” Magical wondered.
“I believe it is” Shadow answered “A minifigure consists of three parts: the body, the soul and the mind. Our body can be infected and our soul can be corrupted, so probably our mind can be infected or corrupted, too”
“Aren’t those two the same thing: infection and corruption” Katie asked with a weak voice.
“Corruption is the process when someone or something turns into evil. Infection, as we use the word, is the process when you become a maelstrom being” Shadow explained.
“Well, smart guy, explain something else” Sarah told him “Isn’t Imagination the only thing that can be corrupted and all the others can only be infected?”
“Our soul is Imagination”
“What?!” Sarah exclaimed.
“That’s right! Isn’t Imagination from which ideas come?” Shadow answered “Well, in a minifigure level, the soul is the one that comes up with the ideas. The mind is the one that expresses these ideas and the body is the one that gives them life. This is the Process of Creation. Mardolf the Orange was the first to express this theory. He’s the second more important Assembly after Dr. Overbuild”
“How do you know all these things?!” Magical wondered jaw-dropping.
“First of all, I have the Nexus HQ in this” Shadow answered showing his helm “And secondly, when I was in Forbidden Valley I discovered a secret library in the Great Tree”
Before anyone could reply, the door opened and Rad got in saying “You have permission to leave; you will be transferred to Nexus Tower”. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 58: The Vow "Come wi... What happened here?!" said Rad seeing the mess that had been created.
"We had an accident" answered Shadow worried that Rad wouldn't believe him.
"Well...okay..." he told him awkwardly "You must come with me τo swear that you won't tell anything".
So, they followed Rad although Shadow didn't think good about this. They got into the elevator where an awkward silence prevailed. The relationship between the four friends and the Building Squad member weren't exactly friendly, so none of them felt comfortably.
Finally, after some seconds they reached surface where the loud sounds of the people celebrating covered the awkwardness. In addition, Shadow's curiosity conquered his not so friendly feelings about Rad, which originated from the fact that Shadow met him when he was full of anger.
"What are they celebrating?" exclaimed Shadow loudly, so he could be heard over the cries of the others.
"Our win against the Maelstrom" responded Platinum who appeared from nowhere.
When Rad looked at him with his wondering face, Platinum replied to his wonder "I heard that they are going to do the vow. Are you sure it's a good idea. Shadow it's a little cranky".
"Tell this to the council" was Rad's answer.
"So, they didn't just gave the responsibility to Cyborg?" asked Platinum, as they passed a statue.
"Are you kidding me?! Even Panagis was involved to the case" responded Rad surprising Platinum.
"Who's Panagis?" wondered Magical.
"President of the Castle Kingdom's Council!" said Rad and Platinum simultaneously and then Rad continued: "You'll meet him right away!"
They had now reached the central building and Shadow looked at the huge tower which was above them and seemed like continuing forever. They got into the building where after walking along a hallway they entered a round room which had two semicircular tables. Ten minifigures were sitting on chairs and another one was standing in the middle.
As soon as the oaken double doors were closed by two guards, the man in the middle said “Hello, Strange Odd Shadow and co. I am Panagis McInterest, President of the Castle Kingdom Council, Leader of the Fighting Squad, 3rd Rank in Imagination Order, 4th Rank in Building Squad. You know Strange you and your friends caused a lot of trouble”.
“Actually, friends call me Shadow not Strange and you are not a friend Mr. McInterest. I barely know you” Shadow answered smiling “However, I think I know what kind of person you are. You remind me someone else I know. He is the Mayor of Yorkanton City. He is a self-seeker, who tries to gain any kind of power, although there isn’t a lot of power to gain there. Your only difference is that he is a little preservative”
“Okay, Smart pants! If you want play like this! I tried to be kind with you but there are some limits!” Panagis exclaimed angrily.
“What? I thought I was completely kind” Shadow responded with a ‘gentle’ voice smiling sarcastically.
“Sir, Shadow is a little cranky. Don’t you-” Platinum started saying but Panagis interrupted him: “Don’t care Platinum Diamond Tiger. I just want them to do the Vow and leave! Bring Mardolf the Orange!”
Then, from another door like the one they had got in the room Mardolf the Orange got inside saying to a guard: “… repeatedly said that I refuse to do such magic! I dislike it as the Maelstrom!”
“It’s only for once, Mardolf! Come on! You know that all the other wizards and sorcerers of the castle have left to chase the remaining Maelstrom Knights from the previous battle!” Panagis exclaimed desperately.
“Oh, Panagis! I expected that you would be behind all these” Mardolf replied trying to stay calm “What do they leaders say about that?”
“I haven’t asked them. They are very busy. We must not give them more worries”
“I knew that you wouldn’t have. Okay, I’ll do it. But only this time. If you ask me to do it again I won’t do it”
“WAIT!” Shadow shouted “Don’t you think you forgot something?!”
“What?!” a lot of people wondered.
“We didn’t agree to do this!”
“Come on, Shadow! Being in the best place for fighting unable however to battle, is the worst torture for me!” Magical complained.
“Yes, Shadow. We want to go back!” Sarah completed.
“OK! If you insist I’ll do it!” Shadow said condescendingly.
“Great! Let’s carry on! We have other things to do” Panagis told them happy they were almost over.
Magical went first. He caught Mardolf’s hand. Mardolf, who was holding a wand with his other hand and touched with it Magical’s hand, said “Magical, do you promise to keep this place secret?”
“Yes” Magical answered and a blue flame lighted up which was coming from the edge of the wand and made a circle around their hands to end up to the edge of the wand again.
“Do you promise that you will tell anything about this place under no circumstances?”
“Yes”
Another flame lighted up which also made a circle in a way that the two circles created two Xs where they connected.
“Do you promise that you will try to stop anyone from learning about the place, unless you are told to act differently?”
“Yes”
A third flame appeared which passed from the points, where the other two flames were connecting, creating a circle, too.
Sarah and Katie followed and in the end Strange Odd Shadow did the Vow, although he didn’t want to. When they were finished, Mardolf took him aside and told him “Shadow, as Imagination, Magic to be used right needs all the parts of a minifigure to agree to that. This time all the bodies and minds agreed to that. However, there were two hearts that didn’t want this to happen”
Shadow didn’t understand and even when they started walking away to leave, he hadn’t realized what the old man was trying to say to him.
“I’ll be watching you, Strange Odd Shadow” Panagis said a little before they went out of the room. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there

Chapter 59: With the Venture Traveller "So, are we going with rockets?" Katie asked when they were ou again.
"WAIT!" Shadow exclaimed as he looked around seeing it was night "When we came, it was day! Does Castle Kingdom have a rotation?! The only world I know that has a rotation is Yorkanton City!"
"Actually yes! I don't understand why the Assembly members are so excited about that!" Platinum answered.
"Returning to the other question, no you will travel with a spaceship" Rad replied to Katie's question.
"Great, I always wanted to travel with a regular spaceship!" Katie cheered.
The fellowship went to the southern area of the castle and got into a special big building. There, they found three spaceships. They approached the smallest one, which however was still big.
"Guys, I introduce you the Venture Traveller. This spaceship has served us for loads of years. It's the only that has survived from the old ones of the Castle Kingdom" Rad said.
The spaceship had dozens of weapons, of all the kinds. It also was green and brown and had the symbol of the Venture League.
"WOW!" Shadow admired when they got into it "It's totally different technology from Venture Explorer!"
"Yeah! Actually, no one knows who built Venture Explorer or how old it is. Until now we know it's at least 500 years old" Rad explained like he was a tour guide.
"This is awesome!" Katie exclaimed.
"I can't understand why they like it so much!" Magical said his thoughts out loud.
"Finally, we agree!" Sarah responded.
After 15 minutes they had permission to leave and took off. Venture Traveller was fast, although not as fast as Venture Explorer. After an hour they reached Nexus Tower. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 60: Back to Nexus Tower "Here! Take your mother's hand! This makes me sick!" said Sarah shortly. Shadow had given her his mother's hand to she would put it among her infected bricks (she had a lot), so the guards of Nexus Tower wouldn't see he had an infected brick.

They were in front of the last Imagination Shard and were admiring that little line light blue light. Shadow was feeling stronger than ever again as the previous time he was in Nexus Tower. His body was so active at that time that he didn't just feel his remaining injuries being slowly healed but also himself, his hair and even his nails growing bigger (of course very slowly).
The combination of the Imagination's illusion and Katie's smell, who was right next to him, was making it impossible for Shadow to avoid smelling the aroma of lemon.
"Do you also hear the clang of swords?" Magical asked a little after.
"No, I'm not and I suppose the others don't, too" Shadoew answered "It's probably the Imagination Illusion. When we're very close to Imagination it makes us feel things that don't really exist. Usually, they are our favourite things".
Rad, who until then was talkling with another minifigure, approached them and told them "The leaders will see you now. Follow me". . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 61: The Four Leaders Shadow and his fellowship followed Rad to one of the countless elevators. When they all were in, Rad pushed some buttons with letters and then the button with the number 71.
"Ain't floors from 60 and higher blocked to most minifigures?" Sarah asked.
"Yes, that's why I had to write the code first" Rad answered.
The elevator was going very fast, so after a minute they reached the floor 71 and a female voice was heard saying "Level 71: Sessions". Shadow had never heard the voice before but he was sure it was Nexus Naomi's, the programm that was controlling a lot of the hardware of Nexus Tower. In addition, with the shape of a woman's hologram, she was a tour guide and the leaders' secretary, she was assisting minifigures if they had any problem and was giving permission to spaceships to land or take off.
As the silver door opened, Shadow saw a big circular room with light blue and walls. In the centre there was a round big table around which four minifigures were sitting. The one was Dr. Overbuild with his mechanical arms hanging from his back and his goggles to seem like they examine everything i the room. The second was a woman with a red ninja outfit, excluding the hood, and black hair, although one tuft of hers was purple. Srangely enough, she had totally black eyes. The third minifigure was a smiling cunning-faced pirate with green-and-brown clothes, long brown hair, brown eyes and a start of a beard. The last person was a tall knight with blue clothes under his panoply, blond hair and blue eyes. He was the only that had his weapon, which was a sword in the shape of the Nexus Force's sign and a shield with the sentinel sign. Respectively, the unknown to Shadow minifigures were probably Vanda Darkflame, the former assistant of Baron Typhonus, the man who was responsible for the corruption of the Imagination, and leader of the Paradox Faction, Hael Storm, a space pirare who was the leader of the Venture League Faction and Duke Exeter, leader of the Sentiels.
Dr. Overbuild seemed to have curiosity on his face but you couldn't tell with the light blue goggles in front of his eyes. However, this probably was the permanent face of Overbuild, so you could always tell that he was curious about the things around him. Vanda Darkflame looked serious neither smiling nor being angry, not showing any feeling. Hael Storm had a cunning but also joyful smile. On the contrary, Duke Exeter looked really angry.
“Thank you, Rad! You can go now!” Dr. Overbuild thanked Rad.
Once the elevator's door closed with Rad behind it, Exeter started talking “Strange Odd Shadow, Magical Fire Monkey, Katie Pirate and Sarah Darkon, do you avow that you went to Castle Kingdom without permission and without knowing its existence?”
“Yes” answered Shadow axiously.
Shadow saw Hael Storm raising his thumbers up and saying with his lips without the use of his voice “Good job!”.
“Do you avow that you disobeyed your orders, left your room and went to the battle?” Exeter continued.
“Yes”
“Do you confess that you totally destroyed the room you stayed at?” said at last Duke Exeter sharply.
“Actually, that was an accident...” Shadow started speaking but the Duke interrupted him “AN ACCIDENT! The room was totally destroyed!!! Only a Storm could such a thing!!!”.
Shadow and the otrhers looked at each other thiking that something similar had happened.
“We should give you a considerable punishment like baishing you from Nexus Tower!”
Shadow gulped in the idea of not being able to come to Nexus Tower, one of his favourite places in whole the universe.
“Wait a minute, Exeter!” said Vanda and from the way she talked you could figure out that their relationship wasn't friendly yet, although they had met years ago “You forget something! They saved one of the best axiomatics of Castle Kingdom – I forget his whole name, but I remember how they call him: Cyborg”.
“That's right, Arthur!” Dr. Overbuild talked with a markedly more friendly way. “I've never seen such equipment. And I'm prety sure that all of it was made by that particular minifig” he continued talking about their gear and pointing at Shadow “I'm telling you I've never seen such amount of Imagination concerned in one minifig! He may have more Imagination even from me!”.
“But that's impossible!Arrrgh!” exclaimed Hael Storm with his pirate accent “I also have to say yourrr wizarrrds made a lot of efforrrt to hide this worrrld. Arrrgh! They must be capable of many things to find Castle Kingdom! Arrrgh!”.
“We cannot banish such talent from Nexus Tower!” Overbuild said.
“Okay! I'll let you go. But only this time!” Exeter responded condescedingly “Call Rad to take them away”. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 62: The Nightmare Sarah was in her room that she was sharing with Katie. After the session was over, Rad had come and had led them to the rooms he had rented for them. Katie was already sleeping and Sarah decided to go to bed, too. After she changed clothes, she fell on the bed fell asleep almost immediately, due to the fatigue she felt. She had to sleep for hours.
During the night she saw some dreams. They started with just being weird, like the one in which she was in Crux Prime and was chasing a bunny which she loved or the one in which she was flying through space to several worlds and hat for pets some Space Maelstrom. However, after a little the silly weird dreams turned to a nightmare.
Now, she was at Castle Kingdom. It was night. She didn't feel like herself aymore. She looked at her hands and when she saw armoured hands with purple aura she sfigured out that, somehow, she had turned into a Maelstrom Knight. Looking around her she saw other Maesltrom Knights as well as archers. They headed for something that looked like a huge wall, but before they approached too much an alarm was heard and soon some Nexus Knights appeared.
Sarah tried to contol herself but she couldn't help it but attack the Knights. Their enemies were smashed with great speed but then some Knights with very shiny panoply came: The Iron Riders.
The Maelstrom Knights fought them as they could but they started being pushed away. However, this exactly was the trap. Before the Iron Riders could do understand it, they found themselves surrounded by dozens of Maelstrom Kmights and Archers and each one seperated by the others. In that way, their enemies lost their biggest advantage, the fact that they fought together.
Sarah was in the team that fought the leader. Magical Heroic Dragon fought with whatever he had. He was blocking attacks with his sword and shield, he was dodging arrows and was doing whatever he could to survive. But then when Dragon attacked a Knight Sarah noticed an insecured spot and attacked. A second later Dragon fell on the ground spiked on the chest.
After that more Nexus Knights arrived and started winning but Sarah didn't care because of the feeling she felt once she hit Dragon. Then, suddenly someone smashed her and Sarah woke up screamig. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 63: Sarah's secret Sarah looked around. It was morning and Katie was missing. Sarah went out and visited the Magical and Shadow's room. However, there was o one there. She returned to her room and looked around more carefully for something tohelp her know 'where the brick Katie was' as she was thinking at the moment. Then, she found a note on Katie's bed which she probably didn't see before because of her hurry and worry. She took it and read:
"Sarah, Shadow came while you were asleep and we went to do some tests. If you look for us we are at the lab 33. Magical went to the Sentinel Area. Lots of love,
Katie"
Sarah dashed off her room and ran to an interactive map in the corner of the hallway with the note still in her hands. Once she knew where lab 33 was she ran to the elavator and went some floors higher.
"Welcome to the first laboratory level" Nexus Naomi said when the elevator stopped for her. She went out and looked for lab 33. Once she found it she got in and found Shadow and Katie, who was full with some electrodes. Shadow was working on a computer and Katie was saying "That's tickling me!".
As Sarah watched that she shouted "THE NIGHTMARES ARE BACK!!!"
"WHAT?!" Shadow answered surprised "Don't you have the medicine the doctor had given to you?!"
"I took the last the previous weekend. That dream was even more real and without any blur!"
Shadow thought of that story he had almost forgotten. Since she was 13 years old, Sarah had been seeing some dreams that were so real, they sometimes thought they were visions. After some years when she went to a doctor he had given her a medicine and the dreams started reducing and then stopped. The last time she had seen a dream was two years ago.
"Tell me what you saw at youe dream" Shadow asked her.
Sarah explained what happened in her dream and Shadow heard while he was thinking about it.
When she was finished, Shadow wanted to comfort her but the only thing he could find to say was "Come on! I'm sure Dragon is okay!". However, that was a lie and Sarah knew that. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 64: Ganium and Gunium Unable to think a solution to Sarah's problem and saying that he couldn't just sit and don't do anything but think, Shadow continued making tests on Katie.
"You are officially a Superian!" said Shadow after a while, cheerfully without having forgotten of Sarah.
As she was putting the electrodes off of her, Katie asked "What's that 'Superion' thing?!"
"Superian. It's a term that Ganaz invented-" Shadow started but was interrupted by Sarah "Ganaz again! You are totally fond of him!"
"Why not?! He's one of the best scientists of the universe's history!" Shadow replied while he was putting the elctrodes on himself "Anyway, Ganaz discovered a new chromosome in beings' brick-cells. That chromosome, the Supernatural Chromosome, mostly consisted of a chemical compound made of two chemical elements. Those two elements, also discovered by Ganaz, were Ganium and Gunium. Ganium is the subastance from which Imagination is made and what makes people think, have abilities and use Imagination. Gunium is the substance from which Maelstrom consists and what makes people become chaoic and corrupted even in the lowest levels. Each compound of a normal minifigure has 1 Gunium Atom and 4 Ganium Atoms. However, some people have another number of Ganium Atoms. Minifiugures with disabilities, genetic problems or some other illnesses usually have only 3 Ganium Atoms. Except for them, there are some minifigures that for some reason have subjected some kind of mutation. Those minifigures have 5 Ganium Atoms and are called Superians"
As he finished explaining, he had put all the electrodes on himself and started making the tests on himself.
"What do these electrodes do?" Sarah asked.
"They send some ideas to my body and then see how I respond to them. The results are shown in that screen" Shadow answered showing a screen which looked like a cardiogram.
"That's brilliant! Who built it?" Katie exclaimed.
"Actually, me" Shadow responded "Ganaz... is not the scientist you would call... recognised... and he also came from Yorkanton City, which we all know has been isolated from the rest Universe for centuries. So, how could anyone here have a machine based on his theories?"
"Can't anyone remove his Gunium Atoms, so he can be pure?" Sarah wondered.
"No, because if you do, you'll die"
Then, while thinking of all these, the cardiogram-like thing started making some things, the lines on it blasted off, then the screen exploded and the lights went off. Almost immediately, the lights went on again and everyone looked at the others with a surprised, confused and frightened look.
"Well... let's... take a sample of my brick-cells to study my Supernatural Chromosomes with another way" Shadow told them as he put the electrodes off of him.
Afterwards, Shadow dragged a little tool on his arm. Then, he put the tool under a microscope and after making some settings, he looked through it. Some minutes later he shouted "IMPOSSIBLE!!!"
"WHAT?!" the two girls shouted back.
"My c...c...compounds h...h...have not 3, n...n...not 4 but neither 5 Ganium Atoms!"
"Then, how many?!"
"TEN!!!". . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 65: Another Superian "WOW!!!" Katie exclaimed "You must have a strong power!"
"And a lot of Imagination!" Sarah completed "That explains why you are so creative, imaginative and intelligent!"
"It's still a surprise to m-" Shadow started and then said "Wait! I have an idea!"
He took another tool like the one he had used to take the sample of his cells and dragged it on Sarah's hand.
"What are you doing?!" Sarah asked surprised.
"Wait!" was Shadow's answer.
He replaced the first 'cell-taker' with the second in the microscope and then looked through it again and after some minutes he told Sarah "Sarah, I have a solution to your problem"
"What?! You were thinking of this all this time and it wasn't distracting you?" Sarah wondered.
"Of course! Sometimes, I even think of 33 different things at a time. Anyway, I know what happens with your problem. It's not a problem. It's a power"
"WHAT?!"
"Yes, you are a telepath". . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 66: Back to the spaceship "What?!" Sarah and Katie said like one person.
"It seems that when you are asleep your consiousness is more free and gets connected with the consiousness of someone else and see what he or she sees" Shadow explained "But if you manage to control your power, you won't have to see any other of those dreams. Not without wanting it"
"Wait, that means... Dragon is in danger!" Sarah told him.
"Right! We must leave immediately! Go to the Venture Traveller and I will bring Magical!"
The two girls left but Shadow heard Sarah complaining that they didn't rally need Magical. Shadow just smiled and left towards the Sentinel War Room. When he reached his destination, he looked around to find Magical. He saw him talknig to a Rank 3 Sentinel Knight and to a Bat Lord who was wearing Rank 3 Paradox Space Marauder Shoulderpads.
Shadow approached and told Magical "Come, we must leave. I'll explain you while going to the spaceship!" Then, he grabbed Magical's hand and dragged him through the room.
"Wait! I'm having great fun here! That Knight was telling me about techniques I've never heard of!"
"It's important!"
As thry kept walking, Shadow explained the situation to Magical and before they realized it, they reached the Venture Traveller.
"So, I'm the only without po-" Magical was saying when Sarah and Katie arrived.
"They won't let us board!" Katie complained.
"Don't worry" Shadow answered calmly.
He went close to the guard of the spaceship and started talking "Hello sir, my friends and I would like to-" Then, he punched him knocking him down and then yelled "COME ON! QUICKLY!". . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 67: Taking over and off Shadow and the others boarded on the spaceship and searched for the cockpit. A minifigure with Rank 3 Assembly Inventor gear saw them and asked them "Who are you? What do you want?"
"Do you know where the cockpit is?" Shadow answered.
"Yes, it's over there" he said showing a door at the edge of the room "However, you can't go-"
Before he finished Shadow punched him, too.
"Thank you!"
They didn't meet any other minifigure until the cockpit. Probably, the Inventor was just guarding the spaceship. They reached the door for the cockpit and Katie opened it.
Inside they found a room much smaller than the other, which couldn't be something different from a cockpit. It had two chairs, many buttons and some levers.
A minifgure was sitting on one of the chairs. He wore Rank 2 Venture League Daredevil gear except for the helmet, which was a pilot one. Shadow assumed he was the pilot.
"Who are you?! Who let you here?!" the pilot asked surprised and annoyed once he noticed them.
Magical was faster than Shadow and punched the pilot before he did.
"Don't you think we should stop punching people?" said Sarah a little worried.
"What can happen?" Shadow replied "Besides, in the worst case we will just change names!"
Sarah looked at him surprised with the ease that he said what he said.
Shadow pushed a button on his hemet and a USB wire got out of it. With this, he connected his helmet with the spaceship's computer. Then, he browsed the information of the computer and found where it was saying how to fly it.
Afterwards, Shadow pushed some buttons and then talked "Nexus Naomi, open the gates, so my spaceship can take off". He waited a minute and then Naomi's voice was heard "I am sorry but your request was declined"
"You misunderstood me! I didn't request it, I ordered it. I will blow it up if it's needed. So, why don't we solve this peacefully" Shadow answered with a calm voice.
"Oh, if it is so..." Naomi started and completed her sentence by opening the gate in front of the Venture Traveller.
Shadow started pushing buttons and pulling levers and the spaceship started moving. However, as soon as the spaceship left the ground, an alarm was heard throughout the Nexus Tower and Nexus Naomi said something Shadow wasn't able to hear.
"Shadow! Quickly!" Katie exclaimed since from a window she saw people running towards the Venture Traveller.
Shadow pushed some more buttons and pulled one lever. Suddenly, the spaceship speeded up and they left towards the space. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 68: Space Battle They were flying through space with Venture Traveller. Magical had tied up the pilot and the other minifigure. They were about in the middle of the voyage and everyone was enjoying themselves. Katie was driving; Magical was blowing up every meteor he saw with the spaceship's gun; Sarah was studyig a hologram of a spiderling; Shadow was navigating through the Nexus HQ. Sometimes he stopped and said an order like 'Turn 30 degrees' or 'Pass through these two worlds'
About then it was when the travel was ruined. A purple dot was seen in a distance. While Shadow was wondering what it was Katie exclaimed "MAELSTROM SPACESHIP AHEAD- 30 KILOMETRES AWAY!!!" Everyone roused oneselves instantly. Shadow started yelling orders to the others.
"MAGICAL THE GUNS! DESTROY ITS WEAPONS FIRST IF YOU CAN!!! KATIE KEEP DRIVING!!! SARAH PUT THE PILOT AND THE OTHER IN A SAFE PLACE!!!COMPUTER DO WE HAVE MISSILES OR BOMBS?!!!"
"4 Bombs and 6 Missiles" a voice answered.
Now, the Maelstrom Spaceship was a huge purple figure in front of them. It had the usual design of a Nexus Force Spaceship but had also purple aura. It started launching lasers towards them. At the same time Magical started firing. The Maelstrom lasers were stronger but theirs were faster.
"Send two missiles on the Maesltrom Spaceship!" Shadow commanded the computer.
As requested, two missiles flew and hit the enemy spaceship at the left side. That made it change direction to the right. Suddenly, the Traveller was shaken by an explosion that must have occurred somewhere in the middle of it.
For a second they thought that they would win easily but then they saw their opponent's next move. The spaceship was now next to their right side but it turned towards left; towards them! The Maelstrom didn't care about the loss as soon as it destroyed its target!
For an endless and horrible second nothing happened and then suddenly the whole spaceship shook. As the spaceship kept moving it destroyed bigger part of the Traveller. Then, the sound of medal that is crashing and rubbing with medal stopped as the Traveller left the other spaceship behind. While Shadow and Sarah were running to see the damage they heard a huge explosion that came from outside. The other spaceship was now destroyed... Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 69: The Return The damage that the battle created was big, but not unfixable. Putting down the fire, stoping the infection and rebuilding the walls wasn't an easy job. So, after two hours of work, both Sarah and Shadow were exhausted. Katie was driving as fast as she could, so they would reach Castle Kingdom more quickly. Magical stayed where he was, so he would strike back quickly if another spaceship attacked.
Now they had done more than the three quarters of the distance. While Shadow was hoping that they would reach their destination without any further trouble, they saw a huge world that had nothing more than golden sand.
“Deadly Desert!” Shadow whispered calling the world with the name they had decided that fitted to it “We are close!” he continued loudly now. They flew above it but did not go very close, afraid of what could be there. As they left it behind, Shadow heaved a sigh of relief.
“OH! The pilot and the other woke up and started screaming and trying to free themselves” Sarah told them as she entered the cockpit “They won't stop for anything”
They kept travelling and finally they saw a gigantic world approaching them. It was bigger even than Deadly Desert; surely the biggest world in Crux System. Castle Kingdom was just as they left it. After flying above some valleys and a forest they reached a valley they knew that hid the seven Castles that were in war. As they continued, they passed above a Maelstrom Castle and through all their bombs on it. The Maelstrom Catapults answered to the attack but when they did this, it was already late. The rest of the travel was peaceful until they reached the central circular castle with the huge tower rising in its center.
“Katie, do you know how to land?” Shadow asked then.
“No, idea!” Katie answered without a milimetre of her face showing the least panic. Before Shadow could respond or even scream, the spaceship started losing height. Shadow closed his eyes and after a minute the whole spaceship was shaken as it hit the ground...
Shadow fell down and he felt warm blood streaming on his face. The sound of medal creeping on the ground and colliding with buildings showed that the spaceship was still moving. Afraid that he would fall again he stayed on the floor. He had still closed eyes when he heard an explosion. He didn't know where it had occured because he had lost his bearings. After that he heard more explosions around him and he realized that it didn't matter where they occured because they just occured everywhere.
Now, the speed of the Venture Explorer was very slow and a little after it stopped moving. Shadow opened his eyes, got up, and looked around to figure out what the damage was. With the first glance it was sure that the spaceship was too destroyed to be repaired. The roof and the walls had collapsed in many places, the floor had holes, fire was everywhere around and pieces of rock and of medal had smashed the Contol Board and other parts of the Traveller.
Shadow had a cut on his right cheek and a couple of bruises on his hands, but otherwise he was okay. The others hadn't his luck. Katie had many cuts and bruises on her face and a piece of the roof had fallen on her left foot. Magical had bruises all over his body and his arm was a little burnt. Sarah had also bruises and a deep long cut on her leg.
As they looked at each other and at the spaceship screams were heard from outside and then a loud voice “No! This will stop now! Who's in there? Who dared to come here that way and destroy all those buildings?!”
Shadow recognised the voice. It belonged to Panagis. Instead of an answer, he walked towards the hole that was the closest to the place where Panagis was heard and got out from it. Knights with spears had surrounded the spaceship. Panagis was standing between two of them and was looking at the several holes waiting someone to get out of them.
“YOU!” he said as soon as he noticed Shadow with his eyes looking at him with hate.
“Me” answered Shadow calmly.
“Why did you do this?” asked Panagis still angrily.
“Our sources informed us that Dragon was seriously injured in a battle”
“'Us'?! Who else is with you?! And did you have to destroy the half of the castle just so you can meet a friend of yours?! Are you crazy?!”
As an answer to his first question Shadow's fellows appeared behind him. Sarah was supporting Katie whose ankle must had been broken by the piece of medal that had fell on it.
“That's your answer, Panagis. About the destruction of the castle, I can't say we're the best at landing a spaceship. And no, sir we're not crazy. Now if you excuse us we have other jobs to do” Shadow responded and with that he passed through the knights with the spears who didn't attack him because they waited orders from their leader who was speechless. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 70: At the Sanitarium Shadow and his friends were at the Sanitarium. They had had some of their healing consumables, so their injuries were just a bad dream. They were standing around a bed where Magical Heroic Dragon was lying. They had just explained him their story after they arrived Nexus Tower.
"You didn't have to destroy the half castle just to see an injured minifig!" he was saying.
"Well, I couldn't let one of my friends being in danger and me being away" Shadow answered. He then put his hand in his backpack and searched for something. After a minute his hand appeared again holding something like a cellphone. It was an F-phone.
"I know, but you put you lives in danger and made Panagis very angry. And you'd better not make him your enemy. He has a way to beat any of his enemies" retorted Dragon.
"Well, he shall find his master, if he opposes me. And besides, rules are to be broken; if it for a good aim of course!" Shadow reretorted.
"You have to admit it's difficult to beat Shadow" said Magical "Don't forget that he has achieved to escape from the Darkitect twice already!"
At that time the subject changed and they started talking about the Darkitect and the Maelstrom.
"...Yes, they've become stronger than before" told Dragon after an hour "For instance, yesterday we attacked a team of Maelstrom Knights believing that we could beat them easily, but suddenly we found ourselves seperated and almost beaten. I think they're smarter, too. Thank god that that minifig, Myrror came and saved us. It is said that he is the apprentice of Mardolf the Orange..."
Then, they talked about wizards and magic and the subject kept changing like that. They talked until a nurse came and said they should leave. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 71: The Spy 'The Fellowship of the Five Fs' was in its room sleeping. They were using the same room as the previous time they came to the Castle Kingdom.
They all were dreaming except for Katie. Shadow was dreaming of strange machines that no one else could understand how they worked or what they did, so it wouldn't be interesting since we wouldn't understand what was happening. Magical was dreaming of him being between two huge dragons in a cave. However, this dream was out of topic, so we won't talk about it.
On the other hand, Sarah's dream was both interesting and not out of topic. It began as a regular weird dream. Magical told her that she had splotched his favourite sword and now it was useless. Then, Katie and Shadow magically appeared and Katie said that Sarah owed him something and she suggested to give him two thousand ice saws.
"But I don't have any ice saws!" exclaimed Sarah confused.
"I can give you the ice saws," Shadow told her "but you will have to find me a Maelstrom part of my mother" He, then, showed her his mother's infected hand.
And as Sarah looked at it started growing like her eyes were zooming in. After a minute the only thing she could see was the flame-like aura of the hand. And suddenly Sarah was in it... She felt like she was passing through walls and suddenly she was in the shade.
When her eyes got used to the darkness, she noticed that she could see pretty well although everything was slightly blurred. She was in a circular big room which seemed to be purple. The only thing in the room was a throne αt the opposite of hers. A man with a black tuxedo was siting on it. He had a staff; his red eyes and his purple face were shining- his face just slighly but his eyes a lot more. He was the Darkitect... In front of him there was another person that was stooping. The only thing that made her notice him was that his black robes, cape and hood were even darker than the rest of the room. Next to her was standing a Stromling Admiral. The Admiral and she seemed to guard a door that was between them. Nobody attacked her. Actually, nobody seemed to notice her. Not like she was invisible; they just didn't care about her.
The dark minifigure was saying something. Sarah stretched her ears to hear.
"...gdom, today. I think we could chase them there. Your forces are very strong there, Master" Sarah heard him saying with a voice that seemed familiar to her.
"And what makes you think that this time we will be successful. Your traps at the Gnarled Forest and the Huge Desert didn't work and my forces are strong there, too" the Darkitect ansered angrily.
"This time it will be different. I'll be there, too" the minifigure replied with some fear in his voice.
"This does changes the things, but I'm still not s-" the Darkitect started saying but stopped. He was looking at Sarah "Tetraprosopus, it seems we have a visitor" His voice wasn't angry anymore, it had a sarcastic tune.
Sarah knew that this was a dream, but she was terrified by the idea that the Darkitect had discovered her. The dark minifigure turned around to see her and Sarah figured out why she thought that his voice was familiar. Instead of a face he had a white creepy mask that had a terrified look. However, the mask vanished and a smiling version of it replaced it.
"Are you playing, Sarah?" he said and then a purple flash covered everything and she woke up with a great pain in her head. For a second she thought that she was still dreaming because the white grinning mask was still watching her. Then, she realised that she was back in the castle and that the Darkitect's servant had just followed her.
"Sleep" he whispered with an authoritative tune and Sarah did so, because she couldn't resist to his magic "Tommorow, when you will wake up you will not remember any of these" Afterwards, the Four-Faced Guy disappeared leaving just a little black smoke. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 72: The Darkitect's Servant's Arrival The next day, when they woke up, Sarah didn't remember anything about her dream. However, the magical appearance of the Darkitect's Servant wasn't unnoticed by the rest of the people. It seems that the magicians of the world had put a spell on the castle, so no magical invasions happened. Once F-F-G appeared an alarm sounded.
The myserious night event was the only thing that everyone, from the gate guards to the vendors, talked about all the next day. However, that was not the only surprise for the four friends. The second surprise came about the noon. Shadow and Magical were at the top of the Northern Tower and were watching the Maelstrom Forces that were reconstituting after the battle of the day before yesterday. They were still far and few but Shadow believed they would be below the wall with a great army. That was what always happened. At that time someone put his hand on Shadow's shoulder and said happily "Shadow! Magical! What are you doing here?!"
Shadow and Magical turned around and found themselves in front of a smiling white creepy mask.
"Four-Faced Guy! We came here to see a friend, but what are you doing here?" Shadow answered enthusiastically.
"Have you ever heard of the Black Knight Castle?" he asked and then continued without expecting an answer "It's the castle that's now ruined. Well, the Maelstrom for some reason doesn't go even close to its ruins although this was what destroyed it. I want to learn what keeps them out of it, because we could use it to defeat the Maelstrom or at least banish it to somewhere else. I'm going to go there today. Would you like to come?"
"Of course!" Shadow replied, who was excited with the idea, without however suspecting that this could be a deadly trap. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 73: Among the Ruins Part 1 Sarah growled. They were waiting at the Southern Tower for the Four-Faced Guy. Shadow and Magical had told the girls about his plan and they had found it exciting, too, although Sarah wasn't very excited about the arrival of F-F-G for reasons unknown even for her.
"Shadow! We've been waiting here for over than an hour! F-F-G is not going to come! Shall we leave?" complained Sarah.
"He will come, Sarah! Something must have happened. Just wait!" Shadow tried to reassure her.
Shadow started thinking of the possibilities of what could have happened and he looked around. The sun was about to set although it was just 6 o'clock. The reason for that was that the Vortex of the Maelstrom was at the West, so the sun was hidden behind it a lot before it would normally.
As Shadow looked at the Vortex, he started thinking of the Maelstrom. He thought of the fact that when people said people they could mean the Force of Maelstrom, the Vortex of its and just the Maelstrom beings. 'However,' he said to himself 'those may not be so different'. He, then looked at the middle of the Maelstrom, where the two evil angry eyes were located. They looked like they were looking for something and their glance seemed to be looking at the Castle Kingdom. They reminded Shadow something and then he realized they were exactly like the Darkitect's eyes, except for being purple.
When Shadow tried to look somewhere else, he realized he couldn't take his eyes from it. And as he was staring at the eyes, a great fear came and sat in his heart. He lost all his hope that they would beat their enemy and he became miserable. A sudden desire to hide somewhere where those evil eyes wouldn't be able to find him came upon him and he would have screamed if he wasn't frozen from terror.
And suddenly an unexpectable voice came and made him to cohere from a terror that he thought he would never conquer. It was the voice of Katie and it seemed to be heard from far far away or like something very fat was between them, so in the start he didn't notice it. But when he did, he realized it was frustrated.
"SHADOW! WILL YOU EVER WAKE UP?! SHADOW!" she was saying.
"WHAT?!" Shadow shouted surprised and still afraid of what happened before.
"Shadow! I've been shouting for a minute before you wake up. You were looking at the Maelstrom with a very frightened face! What happened?" In the start Katie sounded a little angry, but when she finished talking her voice had a little fear.
"I just looked at it. And then I just could not take my eyes off of it. Then, a great fear came upon me and I froze" was Shadow's explanation about what happened.
"Well, then we shall not look at it, so this doesn't happen to us, too" Magical talked "Can we eat something? Waiting here made me hungry"
"Here, have an Imagination-Enriched Sandwich. Your hunger will vanish at a second" Shadow offered and took a sandwich from his backpack.
Silence prevailed again and Shadow looked around once more, but trying to avoid the Maelstrom. He gazed at Katie and a silly smile formed on his face. A force, greater even than the Maelstrom’s one, drew his glance to her. Sarah looked towards him and Shadow tried to hide it, but it was too late. Now the smiling one was Sarah.
At that time F-F-G appeared at the door next to Magical and said “I’m so sorry that I’m late, but the guards here don’t like me very much” Sarah opened her mouth to say something, but Shadow gave her one of the strict looks he rarely gave, but no one wanted to see it, so she changed her mind.
“How are we going to go there?” he asked.
“We will teleport” the Darkitect’s Servant answered sharply.
“If we have to” Shadow said disappointed.
They all gathered around F-F-G and grabbed his hands. They waited for some seconds and then suddenly they disappeared leaving only some black smoke.

They found themselves surrounded by black ruins. They looked around and saw that everything was built of the same black stone. There were many buildings that had been built by great architectures in an era that had passed. The buildings had domes on their roofs and pillars around them, the streets were paved and in the centre there was a palace that had domes, pillars, deformations, statues and a surrounding protective wall. It was all beautiful, but it was destroyed. The domes had holes, the pillars had broken in the middle, the cobblestone was cracked, the statues were headless and the walls were ruined.
“Wow! Nigrium! It’s a pity that this place was destroyed! It must have been very beautiful in the ages of its acme” Shadow sighed.
“Yeah, it can be found only here” F-F-G replied referring to the black stone, Nigrium.
“Isn’t it weird that the Maelstrom destroyed it, but now it doesn’t even come close?” Magical wondered out loud.
“Yeah, it is beautiful but it’s also depressing with all this black” Sarah ignored him.
They walked for a little. In some places, flowers and grass were growing through the cracks of the plaques of the flagstone.
“We will go to the palace. I believe what we are looking for will be there. It is barely damaged” F-F-G announced. And it was true. The main damage of it was a big hole at the biggest dome of it. The others agreed and they kept walking until they reached the Inner Wall that surrounded the palace. They passed through a crack and came into the yard of the palace. A huge staircase was there and leaded to a metallic two-ply gate. However, the one ply was kinked and fallen. Shadow counted 2053 steps till the top. They passed the ruined Gate and found out that the interior of the palace was a maze made of hallways and rooms. They searched in many rooms, but they didn’t find anything interesting. In the end, after some hours they found another gate just like the other, but not ruined, at the end of the hallway that started at the first gate. Shadow felt that something strong was in there. He had felt the same feeling twice more when he was close to the Last Shard of Imagination Nexus, but at those circumstances it was more weakened.
They pushed the plies of the Gate and it opened overly easily. Inside they found a big circular room. Although there was a big hole at the dome that was used as a roof, the place was pretty dark. There were three more gates, which together with the fourth one they entered from created a thinkable cross. The room was completely empty except for a little podium with a small table on it in the centre.
On the table there was a sphere made of crystal. It seemed to absorb and create light at the same time. It seemed to be clear and transparent, although you couldn’t see through it. It seemed to have great depths in it, but it was about the size of a minifigure. When they saw it, everyone knew it was what they had came for.
“Let’s take it and leave” F-F-G told them with a greed in his voice that they didn’t recognize.
“And what will happen to this place?” Shadow asked him “The Maelstrom will destroy it!”
“Who cares? It’s already ruined! However, if we take it we will be able to win this war!!!” F-F-G responded.
“Wait!” Magical exclaimed “Someone’s coming” He, then, run to the Gate that was opposite to the one they had entered from and put all his weight on it like he was trying to stop someone from opening it. Then, a sound was heard like someone hit the gate and at the same time the plies opened and Magical flew at the other side of the room. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 74: The Story of the Black Knight Part 1

A minifigure got inside from the now opened gate. He was wearing the black panoply of a knight which was made of Nigrium, too. He was a Black Knight. The Knight drew his sword and jibed its blade towards them as he was mumbling “I‘ve been expecting that someone greedy would come to steal the Power within the Crystal. And they brought the Traitor of the Knights with them”

“Who are you and what do you ask, Black Knight?” Shadow asked him with imposing voice.

“The question is who are you, thief? However, I’ll say that: I’m the Black Knight or the Last of the Black Knights. The name that was given to me when I was born doesn’t matter anymore. It has no meaning that could represent the truth anymore. So, my name now is Nigerequitemultimum\*. That is my answer to your question” the Black Knight spoke with a weird accent.

“Hello, Nigerequitemultimum, Last of the Black Knights” greeted Shadow “My name is Strange Odd Shadow. We have not come to steal anything from here. Even if some of us may have been charmed by the power of some things here” He looked at F-F-G “the aim of our trip was to discover what kept the Maelstrom out of here. And I think we’ve found it!” he showed the sphere in the centre.

“Hello, minifigure who calls himself Impar Alienos Umbra\*. Your words are well put together and it seems you know how to talk gently. And I would have believed you, Umbra if you didn’t bring the Traitor of the Knights with you. However, it’s true that you’ve found what you were looking for. It’s called the Power within the Crystal, or The Neutral Sphere, or The Orb of Neutrality, or the One that Nigerequitemultimum won’t let the thieves take” the Knight talked and then moved, reached the centre and reached out his hands protectively, in front of the table.

[\*Nigerequitemultimum= The last of the Black Knights (Latin) Impar Alienos Umbra= Strange Odd Shadow]

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 74 Part 2

“It’s interesting to learn what this sphere is, but you Nigerequitemultimum referred to a traitor and said that he is one of us. Tell us who you that is a traitor and why. Because I can’t answer to your words without knowing all the facts” Shadow replied.

“The Traitor of the Knights is the one with the white mask and the black robes” Nigerequitemultimum started “I call him The Traitor of the Knights now, but in the past he was the Black-Robed-Man. The Black-Robed-Man used to be friend of all the Kingdoms of this place. He helped them, although he never gave an advantage to one of them, so it could win that war that started long before we were born. My father was the Nigerrex\*, the King of the Black Knights, so he was one of the few that had access to this room on which you are now. One day he showed this room and what it contains to him, because he trusted him very much. The Black Knights were supposed to protect the Neutral Sphere, not use it. However, the Traitor wanted to use it. ‘To end this war forever’ he said, but Nigerrex disagreed. The Black-Robed-Man left that day and didn’t return until the very black days, when the planet cracked and exploded and the Maelstrom came. That was the first time that all the Kingdoms decided to make peace, so they could fight a common enemy together. All except for us. The Black Knights were always very proud and never made alliances with others. One day, our spies informed us that a huge Maelstrom Army was coming to destroy us. The Nigerrex sent 4000 Knights and he went with them. That day our forces collided with theirs. 1000 Riders came from the Kingdom of Viridi\*, our enemy from very old times. At that battle both kings fell and 4999 Knights were leaded to death or infection. Only one Knight of ours survived because he was sent by the Nigerrex to the Castle, so he would inform of what happened. The next night the Maelstrom arrived in front of the Outer Wall and the battle here started. Their army had variety, but it was mostly made of Infected Knights. There were Infected Black Knights, too, those who are call Dark Knights now. At that time the Traitor appeared again. In the start he helped and managed to stop the first waves of their forces. However, when they broke the third Wall and got into the Castle and our Captain retreated with the alive Knights, women, children and elderly in the Palace where the Inner Wall protected them. There he transformed in a raven when he was in front of a window and three arrows were coming towards him and they hit the Captain instead. Then, he abandoned us. After a little they broke the Western Gate of the Palace and got in. When I heard that news, I instantly ran to the Room of the Sphere. Surely, the Maelstrom would like to have the Power within the Crystal. However, they never came. A bomb hit the dome and made a big part of it to collapse, so I watched the battle through the hole. I expected them to come but after some hours I noticed they were leaving. They were not retreating; they were just leaving after they destroyed the force of the Black Knights. And I was the Last Survivor of them, just because I tried to protect the only thing the Maesltrom was afraid of”. . .

[\*Nigerrex= The Black King (title-Latin)

Viridi= Green (The Southern Kingdom of the Knights)]

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 75: Three times happened, three times bad Part 1

While Shadow and Nigerequitemultimum were talking, the others were just hearing and waited to see what would happen. However, they woke up from their ‘lethargy’, when suddenly F-F-G shouted “That’s ridiculous! I would never do such thing!”

“Your anger only shows that you would do this” the Black Knight said calmly “And I know more about you, Traitor of the Knights. You have betrayed all of the Fallen Kingdoms of the Knights”

“F-F-G, what is the meaning of this?” Magical asked. His face looked horrified, but also confused “Did you bring us here to kill us?”

Before the Black-Robed-Man could talk, something really unexpected happened. The Knight, who was standing in front of the hole of the dome, was suddenly hit by a purple lightning. He fell down and passed out. Shadow, terrified of what could have happened, ran at the hole, put his shield on the front and looked down. Through it, he saw a figure standing in the darkness of the night at the yard of the Palace. The figure was wearing black clothes, and his face was purple. The Darkitect had found them again…

The Darkitect raised his staff and launched a Maelstrom Lightning from it. The lightning hit his shield, which left his hand and flew into the room until it hit the wall. Shadow yelled, threw an arrow that hit his enemy and exploded and then he jumped.

Shadow landed on the grass with his feet and his left hand barely feeling any pain. He pushed a button on his crossbow and its bow parts folded and got into the ice saw part. His weapon was an Ice Saw again. With it he charged at the smoke from the explosion from which the Architect of the Dark appeared. Their weapons collided and purple and light blue sparkles came out of them. Shadow and his nemesis kept fighting like that. Shadow managed to hit the Darkitect on his leg, but he hit him on the stomach and the head. After the second hit Shadow fell on the ground; he wasn’t built for the battle. Shadow closed his eyes and got ready for the third, and possibly the last, hit. However, the only thing that happened was to hear a clang. He opened his eyes and saw Magical having connected his two swords into an X protecting Shadow from the Darkitect’s hit. Behind them, Sarah and Katie were fighting with the Darkitect’s Servant, who was holding a scythe with black handle, and silver blade.

Shadow got himself up and attacked to the Darkitect to help Magical. As their enemy tried to hit Magical on the arm and Magical blocked, Shadow hit him on the head before he could avoid it. Shadow hit again, but this time he dodged the attack. However, Magical spiked him on the stomach with both his swords, throwing him on the ground. They then both tried to hit him, but when their weapons touched him they were electrocuted and flew away. Shadow fell on the wall of the Palace and hit his back.

“You idiots think you can beat me!” the Darkitect said “I’ll show you now” he then raised his hands at the height of his shoulders and threw lightnings to them. Shadow knew that the lightning that came from the staff, which hit him, would be stronger. And it really was; Shadow remembered the pain that he had felt in Gnarled Forest, when he was captured by the very same person. Compared to the pain he felt that time, it was nothing.

Chapter 75 Part 2

In the meantime, the girls were doing better. In the start, Sarah was fighting with her ninja sword and Katie with her pirate pistol. However, the Four-Faced Guy was dodging both the hits of Sarah and the bullets of Katie. However, the things changed when Sarah grabbed F-F-G’s scythe and managed to hit him at the eye, through the eye-hole in his mask. After that Sarah passed out hit from the secret charms of the Scythe and her enemy let his scythe to fall from the pain. Then, Katie found the chance to hit him with two bullets and afterwards being angry she pushed a button on her pistol and it threw a big bullet. About in the middle of the distance it got very slow, so that you could see that it had a skull on it.

“So, that’s the super feature of your weapon” F-F-G, who had taken his scythe again, laughed at her.

Then, suddenly the bullet became fast again and before the Black-Robed-Man could do anything he was hit by it. The bullet exploded, so his robes caught fire. “Careful, next time” Katie answered. Then, she got closer and took her fire-thrower from her backpack and threw him green fire on his mask “I always hated this mask!” The Darkitect’s Servant yelled and then disappeared leaving only some black smoke.

Katie ran at Sarah and tried to wake her up. Sarah opened her eyes, but didn’t stand up. At that time Katie noticed that the Darkitect was torturing her two friends. When she saw that she got pissed off.

“Let them, Darkitect!” she shouted. Darkitect turned around smiling, but before he could even laugh, he caught fire, too. After that three poisoned bullets passed through his body and he fell down, seemingly unconscious. Katie ran to Shadow afraid of the worst. Shadow was awake although he was panting and said “I’m okay. Go… look… how’s… Magical” Katie left him without really wanting it and went to Magical.

Magical was okay, too if you forgot that he was tortured. Katie helped him to go where Shadow had just built a launch pad. “After the Deadly Desert, I made sure to buy much of those bricks that we needed to build a launch pad he told them. Katie brought Sarah, too and then they took off leaving the Darkitect there.

Then, suddenly the Architect of the Dark stood up and he shouted “You may leave now! But there won’t be place to hide when I corrupt the Mythrans!!!”. . .

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 76: The Pieces of the First Builders’ Temple Part 1

“But there won’t be place to hide when I corrupt the Mythrans” Shadow thought “That’s what the Darkitect had shouted before they left” He was in his rocket and he felt that he would throw up. He and his fellows were flying above the green valleys of the Castle Kingdom. They saw a Castle far in front of them. It was built on a hill and seemed to be well-protected by its Wall and its Trench, which were on the base of the hill. However, it had been taken over by the Maelstrom.

“That must be the Castle of Viridi. We must turn to avoid it. I don’t want any more fight with the Maelstrom. No! Not anymore” Shadow told the others through his F-phone.

“But Shadow you were the one who persuaded us seven years ago to fight the Maelstrom! And without you what are we going to do?” Katie replied.

“I don’t know! I’m just tired. Tired of this chase from the Darkitect; tired of the Maelstrom” Shadow answered.

“I don’t think that all these are optional. Now that the Darkitect wants you so much, you can’t stop him, unless you kill him” Sarah mentioned.

“I have to agree. I don’t think that anyone has ever beaten him three times except for you” Magical got in the conversation, too.

“You mean us. But you are right, next time we have to finish this; finish him” Shadow agreed “Land over there at the valley”

“Why?”

“I’ll explain you as soon as we land. Right now I feel like I will throw up!” Shadow responded.

Chapter 76 Part 2

They started to descend and to slow down until they landed. They could still see the Viridi Castle if they looked back and in front of them, there were some small mountains.

“The Darkitect wants to corrupt the Mythrans. We have to do something about that. I believe that the Mythrans are gathered all together in one place. In my opinion that place is where the biggest part of the Imagination Nexus is. And this place is the pieces of the First Builders’ Temple. If my theory is right they will be gathered in the piece with the biggest part of the corrupted Nexus. Because although it’s corrupted, it’s still the Nexus and the Mythrans have to protect it” Shadow explained them his theory “So, Kate would you like to search for it, so we can go there and protect the Mythrans”

“Of course! I’d do anything for you!” Katie answered and then closed her eyes. They waited for some seconds and then she opened her eyes. However, now a green light was coming from them and her feet left the ground. Slowly, everything around Katie even her friends started flying and floating. This didn’t stop after a minute or two. Actually, Katie closed her eyes again about ten minutes later and when she opened them they were normal again. At the same time everyone fell on the ground without even a warning. “I found it!” she said enthusiastically. Then, she wrote the coordinates on a paper and gave it to Shadow, who exclaimed “On your rockets!” and thought “I have to create some way to travel without wanting to throw up or having to have a crew to help me travel”

The coordinates showed a place that wasn’t too far. However, the map didn’t show anything. That was possibly because it was even closer to the Maelstrom, so minifigures were afraid to explore such an area. They were travelling for about 15 minutes and everyone was becoming more and more afraid. However, when they passed over a dry world they saw something beautiful and also sad. It was the triangular Temple of the First Builders. However, it was divided into four parts that had not connected although they had got close to each other. They were the Pieces of the First Builders’ Temple.

The four minifigures got closer admiring the structure and got inside through the broken walls. They landed and they looked around. Mythrans were gazing at them from all over around. The Protectors of the Nexus looked kind and pure. However, you could see pain, fear and sadness in their eyes. And as that was happening the Darkitect’s Servant suddenly appeared, caught Shadow and said “Thank you!” Then, he disappeared with Shadow, too. . .

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 77: General Berrergodd Part 1 All three of them just stayed there staring at the place F-F-G had disappeared with their leader. They couldn't believe it after all these they had been split again and Shadow would probably be dying. In the end Katie broke the silence: “We will save him! If there's even the least possibility that he is still alive we will find him and save him!” Although, she felt terrible she also felt determined. There was a force that made her want to destroy the Darkitect's Servant.
The others didn't talk they just looked at Katie with sadness, but when they saw her determined face, her determination was transferred to them. Katie put Shadow's rocket in her backpack and got in her own. “Let's go!” she said when the others were ready, too. And that's how their first visit at the Pieces of the First Builders' Temple.
“Where shall we go?” Sarah asked.
“At the Gnarled Forest. It's the only lair of the Darkitect we know and I don't think trying to find anything that's in his lair is a good idea. You remember what happened when I tried to find the Darkitect. We don't have another choice” Katie answered.
“She's right!” Magical agreed “The only thing we can do is to hope that he will be there”
As Magical was saying that, everything got dark. Of course the space is always black, but that doesn't mean that the sun stops shining. However, now they couldn't see the sun. They looked up; something was surely above them, but they couldn't make out what it was. Then, suddenly something opened in the thing above them and light came from it. Then, they realized it was a spaceship, a huge one. However, it was a Maelstrom one.
“We must leave!” Magical shouted, but it was already late. The spaceship was drawing them and they got in it from the opening. After that the opening closed and they were trapped. They looked around. The fellowship found itself surrounded by infected sailors that seemed like the sailors of the 18th century. They had muskets and were aiming them. “Wait” Katie whispered. She slowly put her hand in her backpack and took a Big One. She slowly took her hand out of it with the Big One and then before the Stromling Sailors could notice it she threw it at the ones behind her. Their enemies who didn't expect any explosion lost their focus and before they could realize it they were shot, stabbed or burnt.
“We must take over the ship” Katie told them “We can't escape with our rockets, but we can smash the Maesltrom Beings inside it”
They searched around and found a door, but it was locked. “What are we going to do?” Magical wondered and Katie replied “That”. Then, she shot the lock. They passed the door and found more sailors there, but they didn't have much luck just like the others. They passed through a lot of doors and found many rooms. They met Stromling Sailors in all of them and Stromling Sailor Inavders, Stromling Pirates and Stromling Admirals. In the end they found a room full of Stromling Admirals. They started fighting, but they were too many to be beaten that easily. Even when Katie threw some bricks that were turning around and were throwing fire, they couldn't win.

Chapter 77 Part 2 Now, it was Sarah's turn to save them. She stabbed some Admiral Invaders with her sword and they suddenly started fighting the rest of the Maelstrom Beings.
“Wow! That's a good trick!” Katie admired.
“Yes, it is, but it doesn't last, so we will have to leave now” Sarah replied. They ran towards the door and no one noticed that they left. When they passed the door they got in the bridge. A tall minifigure was standing there with his back towards them. He looked like a captain of the 18th century and had his hands on his back.
“Take their weapons!” he ordered. The door behind them closed and some Stromling Sailors they hadn't seen, caught them and took their weapons and backpacks “You exceeded my expectations” the minifigure told them “I didn't expect you to reach me” as he said that he tuned around and they were able to see his face. Although, his suit was normal, his face was infected and his eyes were red “I am General Berrergodd, General of the Crux System and I am taking you to the Maelstrom Lair, so you can be punished for your crimes”
“Even if you lock in the highest room of you highest tower or in the deepest room of your deepest catacomb we will manage to escape” Katie answered.
“My girl, look from the window! Look where we are going!” the General told her. Katie looked and her determination was lost in a second. “That's right! Right at the centre of the Maelstrom. There's no escape from the Maelstrom Lair!”
Then, suddenly a great anger was born inside her and she wanted to strangle the General. Although, one of the sailors was holding her, she managed to jump drawing the Sailor with her. As she was in the air she made a somersault and landed upside down. She walked with her hands until the sailor fell and then with one more somersault she got in a normal stance. She ran to the Sailor with their weapons and backpacks, but Berrergodd caught her before she could reach him.
“Impressive!” he indorsed “However, you'll need something better than that to beat the General Berrergodd”
“ How about that?!” Magical responded and stabbed him with his swords. As Katie was running, Magical had punched the sailor that was holding him and had also run. When Berrergodd was busy catching Katie he had punched the one with the weapons and had taken his.
“Not even close” he answered and tried to free himself from Magical's swords. However, Magical didn't let him and he raised the swords until his neck. The malicious look of the General was lost.
“Not even close, ha?” Magical mocked him.
“You'll regret this!” he answered weakly. Then, he exploded and no one saw him again. Magical flew away from the force of it and he hit on the wall just like everyone else in the bridge. However, the explosion caused much manage to the ship and it started falling. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 78: The Maelstrom Lair

They were falling! Katie was trying to control the spaceship while Sarah was trying to wake Magical up. The Maelstrom Beings were all smashed. Katie looked from the windows and saw that they must have been actually very close to their destination, because she could see a nondescript blurb of purple in front of them very close. However, since the spaceship was moving uncontrollably, she couldn't be sure. She was pushing many buttons and was pulling levers trying to control the spaceship. She was thanking her luck that the spaceship used to be of Nexus Force because it was the only kind she knew how to fly. However, although she was doing everything right, the ship was just not responding.
And then suddenly everything became darkness. There was no light; something stopped the sun's rays to come into the ship, but also all the lights in the spaceship went off. Then, after a minute the light returned. However, it was not the regular white and warm light, but a purple unnatural, cold light that made them bristle. Katie looked back and saw the cause of the darkness. Some thick purple clouds were there, cutting the place off the rest of the world. Then, before they could realize it the spaceship crashed!
It was like they were at Castle Kingdom again and were crashing with the Venture Traveller. The spaceship split into two and after a little it stopped. The damage was even worse than the one of the Venture Traveller. It had holes all over its surface. The biggest part of the roof had collapsed. Cracks were divining its floor. Fires were everywhere. However, this time the fellows hadn't been that injured as the other time. They got out of the destroyed spaceship and looked around.
They were in a place that they hadn't dreamt even in their worst nightmares. It was the Maelstrom Lair that the General Berrergodd had referred. The Maelstrom Lair was really at the centre of the Maelstrom. If you looked at the West you could see it. The world was in front of the place between the Maelstrom's two eyes. And it was now that they realized how big the Maelstrom really was. Each one of its eyes was bigger than the average world. The reason that the light was purple was that at the West the Maelstrom and at the East the clouds covered all the sky, so the only light came from the Maelstrom. Everything except for the air was infected. Even the ground, although it didn't have the Maelstrom Aura that the infected objects usually had, it was purple.
They were in a valley surrounded by mountains that had only one opening at the west. The three minifigures made for there. However, it was like the air was solid and was trying to stop them from moving. Every step was as tiring as a hundred. They were walking really slowly, because every step was pain and the closer they got to the opening the heavier they felt their bodies. However, the worst thing was that they felt like they had a growing weight in their heart.
The three friends made about three hours to reach the opening, although the distance wasn't more than 500 metres. By that time they felt exhausted. However, they continued and after a little they realized that the feeling was becoming weaker. In the end, it almost disappeared, although they still felt their hearts heavy. They passed a little stream and then found a sign that was writing:
“Welcome to your doom! Your catastrophe awaits!” The sign had an arrow that was showing the other side of the path between the mountains. They continued, but now they were terrified.
The path was growing bigger and in the end it became a big road. After the path became a road they had to walk only a little and then, the mountains around them disappeared. They had left them behind and now they found themselves in a city made of skyscrapers. Although, it seemed to have been built with art, it now seemed abandoned and many of the buildings had collapsed. They kept walking that road, which seemed to be the central one.
Then, they saw what was surely their destination: A tower taller than any of the skyscrapers in the end of the town. It was exactly like the Nexus Tower or maybe exactly like its Maelstrom version. The only thing that was missing, so the two towers were completely identical excluding the fact that the one was infected, was Imagination coming out of its top. Although, the Maelstrom would like it too much, it had never managed to take a Corrupted Shard of the Imagination Nexus. The road they were walking leaded there, so they didn't have to turn anywhere. In the end after half an hour they reached the tower's base. There was a gate there and above it a sign saying:
“Badcome to the Maelstrom Tower! Your pain hasn't even started!” The three minifigures gulped and then passed the gate that opened easily. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 79: The Darkitect's End Part 1 Until then, they had seen no Maelstrom Beings, because, although they didn't know, the Darkitect had ordered them not to get close to the three “People with Imagination”. However, when they entered the Tower they found a circular room full of Maelstrom Beings, both known and unknown. They didn't attack them, but they prevented them from passing any of the doors, except for one. It would probably be a trap, but they knew it was the only way to go; the only way that could lead them Shadow.
They walked and opened the door. They passed it and found themselves in the room that Sarah had seen in her dream and then she remembered all about it. However, the room was empty. Behind the throne of the Darkitect in the other side of the room, there was a door. They walked to it and tried to open it, but this one was locked. They tried shooting the lock, but it didn't work. However, it wasn't needed. The sound of an explosion was heard and the wall next to the door was destroyed. From the hole, Shadow appeared. He looked at them and then shouted:
“What are you three idiots doing here?!”.
“We're here to save you!” Magical answered.
“Well, you can see that I was escaping on my own and that you don't have to help me” Shadow replied. However, before they could respond, the Darkitect came out of the hole.
“Am I interrupting something?” he said mockingly “I see your friends managed to escape from my General and come here to save you, Shadow. What a pity! There's no way you can escape from here. I don't know if you noticed, but the Maelstrom is slowly absorbing your Imagination. That's how everything ends here, so close to the Maelstrom. You die from low levels of Imagination or you are infected”
Shadow charged at him with his ice saw and hit him on the head with it. A normal enemy would have died from such a hit. But the Darkitect wasn't normal. He just laughed.
“Shadow, don't you get it?” he asked “You are in my field now. You can't beat me. Think of it like when you are close to the Imagination Nexus or at least a shard of it. However, I am impressed. You are here for hours and you can still fight me. Normally, minifigures die in less time, without fighting me. However, I should expect this from you” Then, he moved his staff and Shadow flew away like he was hit by an invisible weapon. “It's the last time you, the FFFFF Team, will annoy me. You will now be infected, so I can take your powers. That's the reason I chased you in the first power” Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 79: The Darkitect's End Part 2 “To take our powers?” Katie said confused.
“Of course you little stupid girl. I am a Superian, just like you four. And actually, I am the best Superian of all; I am the only one that when he was born had two powers. The one power is to take the other Superians' powers when I infect them and the other is to locate the other Superians” the Darkitect explained with a mocking smile on his face “Now, it's time for the last hit. The one that will destroy you all!”
He raised his staff and aimed it towards Shadow and then he lowered it. Nothing happened for some seconds, and then suddenly Shadow fell down yelling from pain.
“WHAAAAT?!!!!!!!! IIIIIS?!!!!!!!!! HAPPEN...AAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!!!!!” he tried to say.
“It's very simple, my friend” the Architect of the Dark told him coldly and with cruelty “I made you feel all the pain that I have ever procured to you, to your family, to your friends, to the minifigures, to the living beings” The Darkitect walked as the others were watching their friend's torture without being able to do anything about it. Shadow's Nemesis moved his left arm towards his his right hand to take off his glove. However, just before he touched the glove, Shadow's hand grabbed his hand.
“NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!” he shouted, but now from anger.
The Darkitect had thought that by making Shadow feel such pain he would be weakened. However, instead of that Shadow, realizing for the first time the real chaos that the Malstrom had brought, got pissed of. And a pissed of Shadow was someone you should never try to fight with. Suddenly, light blue fires lighted up all over his body. They were not burning him, but they were coming from him. The walls cracked and a big part of the roof collapsed. Shadow stood up, took his ice saw, which was incurred by electricity, and hit with it the Darkitect, who caught fire and was electrocuted. He yelled and tried to burn the blue fire out, but had no success. He yelled one more time and then his body became just purple ash. His staff, which was the only thing that remained from him, cracked in the middle from the top to its down edge. The Darkitect was smashed. . .

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 80: Arrival at the Temple “Shadow!” Magical, Katie and Sarah exclaimed together “You smashed the Darkitect! He won't chase us anymore”
“No, he's not dead. His spirit stays alive as long as the Maelstrom exists. That's why I have to go to the Pieces of the First Builders' Temple. If I am right his plan is the Maelstrom Vortex to throw Corrupting Lightnings at there. There's a crack at the Temple's western side from which the lightnings can pass. So, I will go there and stop them, if I can” Shadow told them.
“We will come with you!” Magical answered.
“No, you shall not!” Shadow disagreed Once when I was at the Battle of Nimbus Station I found a cave. The cave was called 'The cave of Chaos Recreation'. I searched for it in the Nexus HQ and found out that this is the place where some very strong Maelstrom Beings, such as the named ones, are recreated. The room next to this is another cave like that one. I'm sure that the Darkitect will appear in one of those two. When they first appear at the caves, the Maelstrom Beings are in a weaker form that looks like a ghost of the Being. If you smash it, at that form it will never be recreated again. Sarah and Magical stay in that one. Katie, go to the Castle Kingdom take Dragon with you and go to Nimbus Station. Search in your F-phone's map for its location. Once you have smashed him, send help. I don't know if I will be able to stop the Maelstrom on my own. If my calculations are right he will be recreated in about two hours. Good luck”
“Ok” they all agreed, although they didn't want to leave Shadow alone.
Shadow pushed a button on his ice saw handle and it became a crossbow again. He threw an arrow with a rope on the room above, so that he and Katie would climb there, because they were sure they wouldn't be able to pass through the hall again. They climbed the rope and went upstairs. They found a window and jumped out of it. They fell out of the Maelstrom Tower, but didn't hurt themselves. They took their rockets and after Shadow built a Launch Pad they took off.
They passed through the clouds and kept flying. They were going as fast as they could and after half an hour they reached the Pieces of the First Builders' Temple. They said “Good Luck” simultaneously and then Katie left. However, before Shadow got in a Maesltrom Lightning came and passed through a crack. Shadow passed through another and saw what was happening.
The lightning would normally fall into space and would not corrupt anything. However, to prevent this F-F-G was there and was directing the lightning. He had already corrupted a lot of Mythrans. Shadow took his back up shield and landed.
“Four-Faced Guy, stop this madness!” Shadow shouted.
However, F-F-G just moved his hand and Shadow flew away and hit a wall. Shadow didn't know what to do, apparently the Darkitect's Servant wouldn't let him even to approach him. Then, suddenly all his pain left. Something was touching him on the forehead. He looked up and saw a Mythran. Pictures were passing before his eyes, but they were like a language. And it was saying:
“I am sorry, Strange Odd Shadow that I can't talk to you to your language, but Mythrans do not speak any language. They just use pictures. Shadow, you are our hope. We, Mythrans, have power, but we can't use them to fight, because fighting is a kind of chaos. However, you can! Unfortunately, sometimes the only way to fight chaos is with chaos. This is one of the minifigures' role. Protect the Imagination, protect us, protect the Universe”
The Mythran stopped and went to his “seat” and waited there. However, F-F-G had seen that. So, while Shadow was standing up he directed the lightning towards him. However, when the Mythran had touched him, he had given him Imagination, as it always happens if a Mythran touches you. So, when Shadow, dizzy by the too much Imagination, raised his arms the lightning chnaged direction and hit the Black-Robed-Man. That was his end.
However, this wasn't the only result of Shadow's too much Imagination. As he had raised his hands the pieces of the temple started to connect with each other until it was like the Temple was never split. However, the lightning of the Maelstrom that was still coming hit what used to cover the Corrupted Imagination Nexus, destroying it and uncovering the Corruped Imagination. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there

Chapter 81: At the Cave of Chaos Recreation Part 1 “Do you want to fight the Darkitect?”
“What?!” Dragon asked confused.
Katie had just arrived in the Castle Kingdom and had found Magical Heroic Dragon.
“Just tell me, do you want to or not?” Katie responded fast.
“Ok, but I do not understand what's happening. Will you explain me what-” Dragon answered.
“There's no time! I'll explain you later! What's the fastest way to travel from here to the Nimbus Station? Can it take us there in an hour?” Katie continued.
“It's the Assembly Lightning. I think that if we are lucky and try much we can manage that. But I don't think it will happen” Dragon said.
“We will use it!”
The Assembly Lightning was a small spaceship with the colours and the symbol of the Assembly. It was built by the Assembly to be quick and not to be good for searching and adventures. That was why it was called the Assembly Lightning and not the Venture Lightning. Dragon's axiom, as the leader of the Iron Riders, helped them to take permission to take the spaceship. Actually, Dragon was using the spaceship often to go to the Nexus Tower or the Nimbus Station.
Most of the trip was quiet. Only one time a Maelstrom Spaceship approached them. At that time Katie had forced the crew to launch all the missiles, so they wouldn't be late. And really, an hour after they began they flew above the Nimbus Station. However, Katie was anxious, because they were already a little late. Dragon and Katie left the Lightning with their rockets and landed where Katie's F-phone showed.
“Where did you find this?” Dragon asked curiously showing the F-phone of hers.
“If you join our team, Shadow will make you one” Katie answered with her thoughts at the cave she had just seen “That's where we must go!”
They made for it, but before they reached the cave a ghost-like Murgle Blotch got out of it. Before Katie realized what happened, he was stabbed and smashed by Dragon. They got into the cave and then, they heard a voice “Well, hello! I was waiting for you!” Suddenly, they saw Darkitect appearing from the depths of the Cave. He looked like a ghost, too and he didn't have his staff “I expected that Shadow would send some of your nice fellowship here to stop me, but I surely didn't except your tinny friend”
Dragon, pissed of, charged at him. However, the fact that he didn't have his staff didn't make him weak. He opened his mouth and Maelstrom Fire came out of it. Imagination Iron, however, wasn't harmed by such attacks and Dragon's panoply was made completely of it.
“Figorsidir\*! Clever! However, let's see if it can stand something stronger than fire” the Darkitect said. He raised his hands and some kind of Maelstrom Mist came out of them. Dragon put his shield in front of him protectively, but when the Mist touched the shield, it melted. After that Dragon got back, so that he wasn't melted himself.
“I hope this thing can be burnt” Katie whispered and then threw fire with her weapon at the Mist. For good or for bad, the Mist caught fire creating an explosion. Katie and Dragon were hit, but the Darkitect stayed where he was. Then, before they stood up, he threw lightning on Dragon thinking that he was a bigger danger. That was because of his false theory that a healthy man was always more dangerous then a woman. However, Katie stood up and started shooting him with her pistol. Her bullets did many tricks; some rebounded; some worked like boomerangs; some hit you more than one times; some exploded; some were split in more bullets; some did all those things. With all this variety, it was difficult for the Darkitect to guess what Katie would do and prevent it. Meanwhile, Dragon approached him while he was trying to avoid Katie's bullets and stabbed him-although, he looked like a ghost he could still be touched by objects.

* Figorsidir= Imagination Iron (Language of First Builders)

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 81: At the Cave of Chaos Recreation Part 2 “ENOUGH!!!” he shouted and with one move of his hands Dragon flew away. Then, some rocks left the ceiling, floated in the air for a moment and then moved towards them. Both of them smashed incoming rocks each one with his weapon, but one managed to hit Katie throwing her on the floor. She tried to stand up, but didn't manage to do it. Those rocks were something more than just rocks. She looked up and saw the Darkitect above her. He was smiling evilly. Katie couldn't see Dragon around, but she hoped, he would come. But, he didn't come and the Darkitect, after taking off his glove, touched her on the neck. It was just terrible, feeling her cells being destroyed. She couldn't do anything and she would probably smash in a minute. Then, her neck started being infected. This made things even worse. Before the Darkitect's touch was too hot, but now due to the infection she felt both like she was being burnt and like she was buried in snow. Afterwards she felt she was fading. She felt her mind starting to sleep and her soul being reduced. Her heartbeats were becoming more slow. She closed her eyes. She was leaving this universe forever...
Then, suddenly her pain stopped. Her mind woke up, her soul became normal, her heart beat normally. She opened her eyes ans, although everything was blurred, she realized that two humans were above her.
“Dragon?” she whispered weakly.
“No, I'm not Dragon, but I can help, too” someone with a bass voice answered.
Suddenly, her sight became normal again. Saber Jetpack Cyborg was standing there. His sword was colliding with a purple sword that the Darkitect was holding. Katie tried to stand up once more, but was unsuccessful again. Cyborg was having difficulties to block the Darkitect's attacks. She searched for her weapons and found out that her flamethrower was close enough to grab it, as she did. As Katie was launching fire more Knights emerged. However, it was still difficult to beat him. The Darkitect kicked Katie and her weapon left her hand. He threw up fire once more and two Knights caught fire. Then, he released some more of the Maelstrom Mist which caught fire from the two Knights creating an explosion, too. This caused the ceiling to collapse at several places. Some rocks fell on the Darkitect, but they just smashed leaving him as he was. Then, Admiral Flogmore and Butterscorch, the Dragon appeared from the depths of the cave. Most Knights went to the Butterscorch thinking it was more dangerous than the Darkitect.
“Things can't go worse” Katie thought. However, she couldn't be more wrong. The ceiling, the walls and the ground cracked and purple lava came out of the cracks. Most Knights, being terrified, left the cave. “We're doomed” Katie thought and closed her eyes again.
She kept hearing the sound of the battle until suddenly she heard the roars of the Butterscorch. Thinking, because of the echo, that the Dragon Invader was next to her she opened her eyes. What she saw was far different from what she expected to see. Magical Heroic Dragon had returned and he had just stabbed Butterscorch on the neck just behind the head. Flogmore was escaping. Cyborg's left hand was infected, but he was okay and still was fighting with the Darkitect. No other Knight was in sight.
Dragon approached them because Butterscorch had passed out. “Sorry I'm late!” he said and then did the weirdest thing that anyone could imagine he would do: he hugged the Darkitect. Katie stared at him, with bulging eyes. Then, she felt the desire to laugh, but at that time the Darkitect screamed from pain. The Imagination Iron was hurting because it was containing Ganium while he was made of Gunium. He, then, was stabbed by both Knights a lot of times.
“If you though that a snake could beat me, you're really mistaken. Even if it was huge” Dragon said.
“You will regret this!!!” the Darkitect responded “I'll punish you!!!”
“How will this happen if you are smashed!” Dragon laughed at him.
“I won't stay that way for long!!!” That was the Darkitect's last words before he was turned into dust. . .

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 82: The battle of the Temple

Things were bad. Just when the Corrupted Imagination was released, Maelstrom Beings of all the kinds came out of it. Shadow shot lots of them with his crossbow, but until he smashed one, ten more had appeared, so that soon the temple was full of them. The normal Mythrans were stopping the Beings from leaving, but couldn’t do anything else. The Beings reached Shadow, so he used the Ice Saw version of his weapon.

He smashed two Stromlings with one move, but three Stromling Pirates appeared. Shadow hit them with his Saw, but weren’t smashed. Before he could hit them again, two Maelstrom Scorpions appeared and one Maeltorm Snake coiled around his leg. Knowing he couldn’t beat them all with the saw he threw a Huge One, a mini-bomb like the Big One, but better. Only the Snake survived from those beings and Shadow cut his head with his saw, although not before it bit him. Some Dark Ronins came and they hit him on the head. Shadow kicked the one throwing it on the ground, spiked two of them and disinfected the rest with a Disinfecting Grenade.

More creatures came. Shadow fought many kinds of them. Some Admirals hit his arm with their hammers. Some Maelstrom Knights stabbed him at the stomach. He smashed some Horsemen and Riders. An Ape hit a Mythran trying to escape, but the only thing that happened was to be disinfected. Some Stromling Gorillas (they’re like Stromling Apes, but twice as big) threw him some Hammer Stromlings, breaking some of his ribs.

Suddenly, the Maelstrom Beings all screamed. They panicked and started running chaotically. If they crashed one of the Beings would smash the other. At that time Shadow found the chance to smash many of them with arrows, because it was like they forgot him. He knew what had made this happen. It was their leader’s end that made them panick.

“Thank brick, at least we won’t see him again, but I don’t think they’ll see me again either” Shadow said, because the Beings had started calming down.

Then, a big Maelstrom Dragon appeared and roared.

“Oh, brick!”

The Dragon flew and landed in front of Shadow. The other creatures afraid of it didn’t approach. The Dragon opened its mouth and purple fire came out of it. Shadow protected himself with his shield, but from the great heat, he almost threw it. The Dragon charged at him and bit almost ate his leg.

“NO!” Shadow yelled and when it opened its mouth wanting to eat his leg, Shadow threw a poisonous arrow on its eye. The Dragon raised quickly its head belching fire. Shadow launched more arrows, but the flakes of the Dragon were like armour made of steel.

In the meantime a Dragon even bigger than the first one came out of the Corrupted Imagination. This one attacked with its breath of fire the Mythrans. It managed to make a passage through them and left. A lot of the other Beings followed it, before the passage was closed once more.

As the Dragon was moving uncontrollably Shadow hit it on the stomach where there were no flakes. Furious the Dragon attacked at his left hand with its mouth. Shadow heard it chewing his shield. He felt warm blood scrolling on his left arm and great pain. However, he had no time to have a look at it. The crazy Dragon was attacking again with purple fire. He caught fire on the shoulder.

Then, Shadow did the only thing he could do. He put a special arrow on his crossbow. At the one side it had a light blue sign of the Nexus Force and from the other a green capital F. Both signs were shining. As the Dragon opened its mouth again, Shadow threw the arrow in it. A huge explosion of light blue, purple and green fires occurred. The flames reached him and then nothing. . .

Chapter 83: At the Hospital

Shadow woke up. He felt his whole body aching. He could hear something coming from far. He thought it was like singing, but he couldn’t hear well. He opened his eyes. Everything was blurred. He could see two green and two shining light blue little circles above him.

“What’s that sound?” he asked weakly as he saw that.

“SHADOW! You are awake! I’m so happy! All this time we thought that you might die!” he heard Katie’s voice talking.

“Kate, are those two little green spots your eyes?” Shadow asked.

“What?! Yes!” Katie answered “Shadow, we did it! We smashed the Darkitect! We would have smashed, but Cyborg, who suspected that we were doing something wrong, followed us and saved us! Maybe we should consider to put him in the team. When he is not so strict he is a good guy”

“Kate, don’t talk that fast. You’re making me dizzy! More than I am normally at least” Shadow told her.

“Sorry!”

“What’s that sound?” Shadow asked again.

“What sound? Oh, that! They’re Christmas songs! It’s Christmas! Did you know?! After all those days I had really forgotten the date. Then, yesterday when I brought you here I saw all the decoration and realized what day it was” Katie said.

The facts of the previous day started coming to Shadow’s mind and then suddenly “The Mythrans! The Temple! What happened?!”

“Calm down, Strange Odd Shadow. Everything is under control” another calm voice said “The explosion you created contained Maelstrom, Imagination and another kind of power I don’t know what it was. It created the separation of the temple, the disinfection of the Mythrans and the smash of the Maelstrom Beings. I have to say that you were lucky that your friends were there when the explosion occurred. You would have died if it weren’t for them”

“Dr. Overbuild!” Shadow exclaimed “What are you doing here?!”

“I’m assuring you and your friends are okay!” Overbuild said “I have to say that your friend Kate was the less injured although, she had a curse. And when you came here you were a mess, the worst of all”

“My friends!” Shadow remembered “What happened to Sarah and Magical?!”

“We’re okay, Shadow! And I wondered when you would remember us!” Sarah’s bored voice said.

At that time Shadow’s eyesight got better and he noticed that Sarah and Magical were behind Kate and Dr. Overbuild. Sarah’s hand was infected and Magical had scratches and cuts all over his body. They were wearing white clothes of the hospital and so did Katie.

“Sarah! Your hand is infected!” Shadow exclaimed.

“Look at your own mess, Shadow! Besides I was pretty worse when I came here. Almost half my body was infected. The Disinfecters did what they could, but the Infection in my hand was so deep that it will always have a Maelstrom Aura. However, don’t worry! It’s Infection of zero grade. It has no infecting power. Your hand, however, is worse than mine!” Sarah explained.

Shadow looked at his left hand and saw something he wasn’t expecting: “It’s missing! Where’s my hand?!” he exclaimed

“It was already missing when we found you” Katie said.

“Oh my brick! The Dragon must have eaten it with my shield!” Shadow realized “That’s why I felt blood scrolling after it attacked me!”

“That’s something strange to happen!” Magical said

“Well, if you remember I have grown up with the strange. I’ll get used to it” Shadow told him “So, what happened to you at the cave”

“Well, Shadow you left us at the best place!” Magical started “Kinga Hurl, the General, two Giants and many more. After some time more Maelstrom Beings came from the hole at the wall. It was the best fight of my life. It was great!”

“Great! You say that great! We could have died there!!!” Sarah disagreed. At that time Sarah and Magical started fighting with each other. Then, a nurse came and kicked them out saying “One deep cut on the forehead, a cut hand, three broken ribs and 32 burns won’t be healed with all of you here flustering him”. . .

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 84: Explanations “Miss Pops, could I stay a little more?” Dr. Overbuild asked the nurse “I want to talk with Shadow”
“Ok, Dr. but only a little!” the nurse answered “Strange Odd Shadow has to rest”
“Thank you!” Dr. Overbuild said and then turned to Shadow “Shadow, I am sorry all this was my fault!”
“Doctor, how was this your fault?” Shadow asked “You had nothing to do with it!”
“Actually, I had, Shadow!” Overbuild told him “You see, the first year after the Corruption of the Imagination Nexus the other leaders and I were travelling at the worlds of the Crux System. Once we travelled so far that we reached a world named Yorkanton City. It was the strangest place I had ever seen. However, we stayed there for a month trying to persuade the people to fight the Maelstrom, but only few were persuaded. Among them there was a couple. They were named Jane Phonus and Rusty Steele. Those two had a son named John Steele. It was you, Shadow”
Shadow stayed speechless for some seconds. He had tried as he could to seal his relationship with Rusty Steele, but it seemed that Overbuild, one of the four leaders, knew all along.
“I don't understand. I mean, okay you met my... parents. How does this makes things different?” Shadow replied afterwards.
“Listen to the whole story, Shadow” Overbuild continued “A that time you were six years old, so I don't think you remember me, since you saw me only once. However, this time was enough for me to remember you forever. You see, I didn't need any machine or device to realize that your Imagination levels were high. Minifigures do not only receive Imagination, but they also radiate it. At people like you and me the radiation is so high that a practiced person can sense it very well. However, I couldn't study you any more, because we were chased by your mayor. And then suddenly after so many years you appeared in front of me with my weapon in your hands and the name Strange Odd Shadow. Of course you had changed a lot, but the Imagination you radiated was the same was exactly the same, so you couldn't be anyone else. I was sure that the Maelstrom would chase you, because it had always chased people like you. And usually it caught them. However, I didn't do anything, because I believed that it would never dare to chase you in our territory. But, you started going at the unexplored areas of the Gnarled Forest, at the Deadly Desert, the Castle Kingdom and even in the Maelstrom Lair. So, it was my fault that all this happened, because I didn't stopped you from going to such places”
“Doctor, let me say that even if I stayed in the safest place of the Nexus Tower, the Darkitect would find me. In addition, banning me to go somewhere would be the best way to make me go there. It's in my personality to break all the rules that annoy me. At last I must admit that it is better that this happened. Now both the Darkitect and his servant have been smashed” Shadow responded.
“Well, it relieves me that you say that, but I will never forgive myself for exposing you and your friends to such danger” Dr. Overbuild said and started walking to leave, but then like he remembered something he had forgotten he turned around “By the way your friend Magical has divining powers. We did at him the tests that you created to see if someone is a Superian” After that he left Shadow thinking. . . Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 85: The Voice Shadow stayed as he was for one minute and thought. However, something suddenly interrupted his thoughts. It was a voice. A cruel cold horrible voice that made you shudder. And the voice said: “Strange Odd Shadow! You might have destroyed my body, but I am still alive, because I am the Maelstrom and the Maelstrom is me. As long as it is alive, I am alive! I will be back and then you will feel the pain of revenge!!!”
The thunderous voice was heard in all the Nimbus System and out of it. It had to pass much time before the minifigures that heard the Darkitect's terrible voice forgot the name Strange Odd Shadow. However, some of them didn't forget it and when they heard it again and saw who it belonged to, they instantly knew who he really was. But this happened lots of years later, so we won't speak of it now.
Once the voice stopped talking, panic prevailed. Shadow heard people screaming and running. They thought that the last day of the Universe had come. Actually, that became a joke and when people overreacted about a bad situation the others used to say “You act like the Day of the Voice came!”. However, it certainly wasn't the end. On the contrary it was just the start of much pain and danger and many adventures. From the words of the Darkitect the Nexus Forcers figured out many things, like that the Darkitect had been smashed. That's why since then many people celebrated the 24th of Endecember\* as the Day of the Darkitect's End. However, Shadow didn't celebrate that day, because he knew that the Darkitect had not been smashed forever. . .

* Endecember= The 13th month of the Crux' calendar. The Crux System and the Crux Planet before it exploded had a calendar with 13 month. Each month had 28 days, except for September, which had 29, for unknown reasons. Every leap year, August had also 29 days. In Crux they celebrated Christmas at the 25th of Endecember instead of the 25th of December. That's why the incidents of those chapters are happening at the Endecember instead of December.

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 86: A Reward

Shadow stayed at the Nexus Tower’s Hospital for two weeks. At that time his friends visited him much. When they weren’t there, Shadow spent his time reading books, because the doctor didn’t let him build until the last few days he spent there. At his 10th day in the hospital Magical visited him in the morning while he was building something. On his bedside there were some very little bricks of many kinds. Some bricks like them were connected to his cut arm where his hand should be; they looked like the part of a hand. Shadow had his right hand above his creation and the little bricks from the commode were flying to be connected with the others.

“What are you building?” Magical asked looking at Shadow’s creation.

“A new hand” Shadow told him without looking at him “I have connected it with my nerves, so it will respond to my commands. It uses Imagination as an energy source”

“Wow! Shadow! You realize that you have just discovered a way to make bionic parts. You could become rich!”

“No, I don’t think I am going to sell it. I do not like to earn money from my creations” Shadow said.

“What?!” Magical exclaimed “Are you insane?”

“No” Shadow answered and looked at him, because he had finished the hand which had a metallic colour.

“Holy brick!” exclaimed “Shadow, I thought your eyes were brown! Why are they light blue now?! And why are they shining?!” He was now afraid. Shadow took a mirror from his backpack and looked at it. He managed to see the shining eyes only for one second, because at the time he looked his eyes got back to normal. The only explanation that Shadow later managed to give was that it was a side-effect of the Mythran’s Touch. In addition he assumed that it happened every time he used Imagination conscientiously. However, Shadow had new ideas very usually, so his eyes usually were shining.

But let’s get back to our time. Magical, afraid of what was happening, started fending off.

“Magical, you don’t have to be afraid. It’s light blue, the colour of Imagination. It’s probably a good thing” Shadow tried to calm him down.

“Okay! You must be right. I will now leave” Magical said with his voice trembling.

“Could you say to Kate to come here? I want to talk to her about something” Shadow told him, just the time he got out of the door.

Shadow took a book and read until someone knocked the close door and Katie got inside. Shadow put his book on his commode and looked at her.

“Hello!” he said “I’m glad you came! I have something very important to tell you!”

“You know your eyes are shining, right?” was Katie’s answer. She was looking at him curiously.

“Yes” Shadow replied and continued “You see, when the Darkitect did that thing with the pain to me, back at the Maelstrom Lair, I saw many pictures of people suffering. Just some minutes ago I realized that a girl, who was being kept in the Maelstrom Tower, was your sister”

Katie remained silent for many minutes and Shadow knowing what that meant for her didn’t break the silence. After a lot of minutes, she said:

“I’ll go back there. I will go and free her. However, I don’t think this can happen right now. We will have to wait until the right time”

Shadow was glad, she didn’t do anything rush without thinking of it.

“You’ve grown up, Kate!” Shadow told her and she smiled a little, but her smile was lost after a second “There’s one more thing I’d like to add” However, what he wanted to say now was more difficult even from saying that someone’s sister is in captivity “You… see… AAAA… AAAAA… I… llll…” However, before he could finish what he was trying to say, Kate interrupted him.

“I think I know what you want to say. I’ve been thinking you might say something like that since the first time we went to the Castle Kingdom. And the answer is me too” she said. Then, she quickly made all the distance that was between them and kissed him. Before Shadow could realize what had happened, she had left. . .

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 87: The Rebuild

More days passed and the last day of Shadow’s stay at the hospital came. Neither Shadow nor Kate said anything about their kiss, but they kept looking at each other with a dump smile on their face. However, the nurse was always eventually kicking them out “so that the patient can sleep”. At that last day Shadow asked the nurse “How did you disinfect Sarah, when she was infected?”

The nurse looked at him with her face showing that she wondered about something “We use a substance that mostly contains water enriched with Imagination. But you should ask the Disinfecters for more information. I am just a Healer”

The Disinfecters were some Nexus-Forcers, usually Paradox Members, who were specialized to disinfect people. Healers were those who used Imagination to heal minifigures. They were usually from Assembly.

“Could I have some? I want to make some experiments” Shadow wondered.

The nurse now looked at him suspiciously “Usually Paradox Members do such experiments. Not Assembly”

“Can’t anyone have a hobby?!” Shadow answered her with his voice being a little louder.

“Okay! Okay! I’ll ask for some from the Disinfecters! Don’t get angry!” she told him.

“Thank you!” Shadow said and then took a book, with the name ‘Corruption, Infection and Disinfection’. No one knew where he got his books from, but this must have been about the 20th book he was reading.

After some minutes the nurse came back with a little bottle. Its light blue content was glowing.

“Don’t spill any of it! Its disinfecting abilities aren’t very high. Such an amount can hardly disinfect the leg of a minifigure” she advised him and then left again.

“Let’s see if I can correct this” Shadow said with a mischievous smile.

He poured the substance into a bigger bottle. Then, he took another bottle, which had a green glowing substance. He poured some of it into the other bottle. The result was a blue-green liquid that was still shining. Then, Shadow took a jar made of crystal from his backpack. It had his mother’s hand in it. Crystal was a material that was infected very slowly, but eventually it was infected, too. That had happened to this one, too. So, Shadow grabbed it with his mechanical hand, which contained gold, the only known material, except for Imagination Iron, that couldn’t be infected.

Shadow looked at it. He knew a lot of time that he could do this. He remembered some of the Darkitect’s words: “As a payback I can give you back your mother, Shadow. Actually, you just have to rebuild her-there are some people that can do that such as Dr. Overbuild- and I will do the rest” That’s what the Darkitect had said and he was right. Dr. Overbuild had rebuilt Duke Exeter after he was smashed by the Corrupted Imagination.

He opened the jar and took the hand out of it. Then, after he had worn his Imagination Helmet, he concentrated on the rebuilding of this piece with the rest that could create his mother, just as he did when he built anything else. The only difference was that simple constructions took really few time and concentration; while this time he had to wait more than fifteen minutes. However, he didn’t stop, because he believed in what he was doing. And then suddenly something broke the window and a minifigure started rebuilding in front of him. A machine started making a sound like an alarm and Shadow started panting. However, he was successful. The minifigure in front of him was partly infected. Its right leg, left arm and body, right shoulder and right side of her head was infected. The minifigure in front of him was Jane Phonus, Shadow’s mother. . .

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 88: Confusion Part 1

Shadow quickly threw the substance he had made to his mother, before she could realize what had happened and attack him. Fortunately, he watched the Maelstrom Aura disappearing once touched by the liquid. And in front of him now was standing his mother as he knew her. Shadow looked at her happily and she looked at him confused.

Suddenly, someone opened the door making Shadow jump from surprise. It was the nurse who looked at him critically and said “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” Shadow replied with the tune of an offended person “Just my mother visited me! Is that bad?!”

“No, but you can’t lose 80 Imagination Orbs from one minute to another!” she responded looking at the screen of the machine that was making the noise. She pushed a button on it and the noise stopped. “You must have done something!”

“Miss Pops, could you leave us please?” Dr. Overbuild’s calm voice came from the doorway.

“Alright, but I am doing this only for you!” and she made for the door murmuring something about uncontrollable patients.

“Shadow, what did you do?” Overbuild asked once the nurse had left.

“Well, I created a better disinfecting substance” Shadow answered with an innocent face.

“There’s something more than that, Shadow!” Overbuild said and then he noticed Jane Phonus “I thought your mother had been infected”

“Partly infected Dr., but yes she had. She was also smashed, but I rebuilt her and disinfected her” Shadow replied. Overbuild smiled, but before he could say what he wanted the door was opened once more. Shadow’s three friends got inside with a worried look.

“Shadow we heard the alarm! Did anything happen?” Magical said what they all wanted to say.

“No! Nothing. I just rebuilt and disinfected my mother”

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 88: Confusion Part 2

The others looked at him without speaking with a dump look. However, a voice interrupted their silent-dump-looking: “SHADOW! We’ve been waiting for you and your friends in Frostburgh for three weeks. Then, we started looking for you, but we still couldn’t find you! What could this bricky mission could be, so that you could miss that long without even contacting us!!!” It was Quantum, with Lemon and Glittery that had passed through the open door and talked. Shadow looked at them, remained silent for some seconds and then started laughing.

“WHAT’S SO FUNNY?!” Quantum asked even angrier. He had said to Shadow that he wouldn’t like to see Platinum angry, but he was even worse if he went mad.

“I had… really… forgotten… about… you” was Shadow’s answer, which was interrupted by his laughter.

“AND WHY IS THIS FUNNY???!!!” Quantum asked even angrier.

“You see… when the Darkitect is chasing you… when you go to endless deserts… when you go to places full… of knights and when you… got to the Lair of the Darkitect himself… it’s a little difficult to remember your friends!” he replied panting from his laughter.

“What?!” Quantum asked forgetting his anger “That was what the Maelsrom Voice meant!”

“I told you there would be some explanation, pal!” Lemon told him.

“We are so sorry for all this!” Glittery apologized instead of Quantum.

“You don’t have to apolo-” Shadow started saying, but a new visitor came and interrupted him: “Kate informed me that something wrong was happening, so I came as fast as I could” It was Dragon.

Before Shadow could tell him that nothing had happened the deep voice of Cyborg came from the hallway “Dragon why did you leave from Castle Kingdom? I searched at the whole Iron Castle! I have a message for you from Panagis!” Then, the muscular Cyborg got inside and with Dragon following him, he got at the side of the room where they started whispering about something no one else could hear.

“Wait a sec!” Sarah exclaimed “How did ya, Shadow, tell to Quantum about you-know-where? I thought you had done the Vow”

“I did, but-” Shadow was interrupted again: “What?! You broke the Vow?! How did you do that?!” It was Turt that was talking and Rad the one following him.

Shadow remembered the words of Mardolf the Orange: “Shadow, as Imagination, Magic to be used right needs all the parts of a minifigure to agree to that. This time all the bodies and minds agreed to that. However, there were two hearts that didn’t want this to happen”

“I think I-” Shadow started saying, but was interrupted for the third time, this time from Rad.

“You first stole the Venture Traveller and then destroyed it! What kind of monster are you?!” he exclaimed freaked from what had happened.

“Wow! I had forgotten about that! It seems like it happened in another life! Well, you see-” Shadow remembered and as you understand he was interrupted for the fourth time: “Did I miss the party? Why wasn’t I invited?” Platinum entered the room.

At that time the room was full of people talking to each other and Shadow was pissed off. Dr. Overbuild was explaining to the confused Jane Phonus what had happened all those years. Dragon and Cyborg were talking about the secret plans of the Knights. Quantum was trying to learn from Sarah and Turt what were that you-know-where and that Vow. Glittery and Lemon were discussing about what the Darkitect’s Voice had said. Magical and Kate were talking about the possibilities of building. Rad was trying to understand why Shadow and his friends had stolen the Venture Traveller and Platinum was trying to justify their acts. Finally, Shadow was just looking around trying not to start yelling. Then, suddenly the nurse came in and started yelling to get them out of the room. . .

I hope you liked that!

Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there.

Chapter 89: The end of an adventure but not of a story

The next day Shadow got his discharge note and left the hospital. He still had a scratch on the forehead and his left arm was still aching, but the Healers believed he was ready to go. So, Shadow, wanting to spend some time on his own, got out of the Nexus Tower. There you could find an area full of grass and other plants. From the one side of it there was a cliff where the world was ending, although before the Crux’ explosion Nexus City was there. From the other side was the Crux Prime, where the first battle with the Maelstrom had been done and where hard fighting was still occurring.

Shadow gazed at the sky for a long time thinking of his adventures. He thought that they were enough for his whole life, although he knew that they wouldn’t be the only. Deep in his thoughts Shadow didn’t realize that someone approached him. Just like when he had reached Avant Gardens. However, this time it wasn’t someone dangerous.

“Hello, John!” the voice of an old man said dragging Shadow out of his thoughts “I’m glad you recovered and that the Darkitect didn’t catch you! However, I must insist you exercise on using your powers”

Shadow looked at him and saw it was the vendor who had sold him the Ice saw, and said “Sir, I appreciate your concern, but I really don’t know you and I would also like to call me Strange Odd Shadow or just Shadow. That’s my name since a lot of time ago”

The vendor stepped back. His face took a scared look and murmured to himself “I now understand! I understand it all! Shadow you will have to solve the mystery of my identity on your own!” Then, he turned around and left running.

Shadow never saw him again or at least that’s what he thought for much time. Thinking of what had just happened Shadow looked at the sky again. He suddenly found an imperfection at it. It was a purple spot. Realizing it was the Maelstrom Shadow asked himself why he was afraid of it when he was looking at it in Castle Kingdom and Maelstrom Lair. He thought that it couldn’t harm anyone and pushed by the courage of the moment he said like the Maelstrom could hear:

“Bewαre of the shαdows becαuse I might be there”

**THE END**