S2, Chapter 3: Nightmares

Zorbak turned around as he heard the door to his private study open. The tiny moglin screamed when he saw three horribly deformed shadow beings.

“Mr. Z....our enemy.” one of them said.

“Who are you?” he demanded hitting the panic button.

“We used to pilot the Shadow Gundams...but now we are something entirely different.” another said.

“We are the nightmares.” said the third one.

The guards arrived and pointed there weapons at the three shadow creatures. They fired their energy blasters and found the energy just went through the creatures.

“Once long ago that would have harmed us. But no longer.” said one of them. It jumped down the stairs and grabbed two guards. Spikes emerged from its body of shadow and its eyes glowed red as it began to take a more humanoid form. The other two joined it in fighting and as they fought they began to take more human forms.

Mr. Z looked in horror at the three creatures. They looked like shadows of humans with red eyes and claws and they were unlike anything the moglin had seen. They jumped up to face him.

“You may call us by the names of the machines we used to pilot. I am Slayer.” said the first one.

“And I am Abyssal Flare.”

“And I, Charon.”

“That doesn’t really help since you all look and sound the same...now tell me, are you the shadows that were lurking in our system?”

“Yes.” Slayer said smiling revealing sharp teeth. “We used your mirror to return to life. Quite an interesting piece of technology.”

“It is actually magical.” Mr. Z said trying to think of a way to strike up a deal with them. “Now are you here to kill me?”

“Not anymore.” Slayer said, apparently speaking for the other Nightmares. “We need something..we need Gundams.”

Mr. Z smiled. “That I can provide you with. Until they are ready...would you mind causing some havoc on Loreon?” he continued on in a sinister mood, already making plans.

“I think that would make us very happy.” Abyssal Flare said.

“Shall we depart now, Slayer?” Charon asked.

“Yes.” he said. They all melted into a pool of shadow that moved into the dark corners of the move and disappeared. Mr. Z happily returned to his work when he heard another noise. The door opened again this time to reveal three beings of light.

“I’m sorry, since when did my PRIVATE study become open to all these shadow and light beings?”

“I’m sorry Zorbak the Traitor.” Mika said angrily. “We heard everything.”

“Are you going to kill me?” he asked.

“Yes.” Mika said preparing to attack.

“No, don’t do that Mika!” Omicron advised. “He is part of the Galactic Alliance, if he is killed we will all be intergalactic criminals. And that would not help in stopping the Nightmares and repairing reality.”

Ryukai stepped forward. “He is right. As much as I would love to rip that moglin’s head off it would just continue to harm us. We’ve worked very hard to get back, lets not ruin it.”

“I can’t stand being right here, able to kill him. Excuse me while I leave.” Mika said with her fists clenched about to walk away.

“Stop right there, Mika.” Mr. Z commanded. She turned around and he smiled. “I’d like to know why you hate me so much.

Mika could barely contain her anger as she thought about her past. EbilCorp had been the primary enemy in her life. Ever since she was a child on New Vega. “EbilCorp took everything from me. It took away who I was.”

Zorbak smiled. “Excellent. I would love to hear the story during our next encounter. Until then.” he said as his body disappeared.

“What?” Ryukai said shocked.

“He was a hologram? I’ve never seen one so realistic...this corporation really has made major advances in technology.” Omicron said just as surprised.

“Let’s get to Loreon and stop those Nightmares now.” Mika said feeling as if their time had just been terribly wasted.

“Hold on Mika,” Ryukai said forming a plan. “Me and Omicron can take on the Nightmares. Why don’t you snoop around EbilCorp? With Mr. Z gone...you can do anything you want.”

Mika smiled a bit. “If you are sure...I will gladly accept.”

Omicron and Ryukai exploded into light and left the station and teleported to Loreon. They arrived in Soluna City and found nothing was wrong. They used their ability to travel at the speed of light to search everywhere but found nothing.

“Where could they be?” Omicron asked.

“You checked Starbuck’s house right?”

“Yes. James and Lisa were safe, nothing wrong.”

“Hmm...wait.” Ryukai said as a horrible thought came to his mind. “What about Marcus...the baby?”

The two searched the house and found no trace of the child. They appeared in front of the couple who had not yet noticed.

“Omicron! Ryukai!” they exclaimed.

“We don’t have any time.” Ryukai said frantically. “Your son has been kidnapped.” “What?” Lisa said as she got up and ran to his room to check.

“What happened?” James asked the two light beings.

“The pilots of the Shadow Gundams...they came back into this world as we did. They are different...shadowy creatures. They call themselves the Nightmares.” Omicron explained.

“And Slayer wants his revenge on you.” Ryukai added.

Lisa ran back into the room panicking. “We have to get him back! Where would they go?”

“The first place we battled.” the Admiral thought. “Just outside of Soluna Plaza.”

Next Time on Gundam: Shadow....New Management! Mr. Z is at his meeting at "EbilCorp HQ" and things will not go well. Zorbak made a mistake that is going to anger the other leaders. This meeting will change his life forever.