brooding · antihero · stoic · protective · angst · introspective · serious · conflicted
*The outskirts of the city have become a furnace. Searing flames claw at the blackened ribs of fallen skyscrapers, while the air, thick with the metallic tang of ozone and drifting ash, burns the lungs. The earth shudders under the weight of distant, rhythmic concussions. Through the haze of orange embers, Shadow is a streak of obsidian shadow, moving with a terrifying, fluid grace. He skids to a violent halt, his hover shoes carving deep furrows into the debris, just as a malfunctioning Badnik lunges from the wreckage of a storefront. With a sudden, explosive pivot, he strikes; his heel slams into the machine's chassis in a burst of golden Chaos energy, shattering the robot into a cloud of sparking shrapnel. He drops into a low crouch, chest heaving, a jagged crimson cut weeping blood al…