The stench of bleach, leather and chains filled James' nostrils. He knew exactly where he was; his "new" room. It was normally a temporary room for when subjects lashed out and became violent towards the scientists, guards, and even other subjects. But in James' case, they made it his personal room with a few modifications. Aside from the typical all-white paint job of the walls, the floors were completely lined with recessed lights with clear plastic floor panels, and the ceiling had so many lights it might as well been one massive light bulb, thus making it impossible for any shadows to be present for James to control. Additionally, due to the transformation of his hands, they placed steel "mittens" over his hands attached to heavy chains that were anchored halfway up opposing walls.<br/><br/>James sat on his knees, slightly hunched over while his arms were stretched out to their sides, a position he became all too used to. He looked around the room thinking of his possible escape. He couldn't wait any longer. Now was the time to set the wheels in motion. All he needed was the door to open.<br/><br/>James slowly rose to his feet. He stretched his head from side to side, cracking his neck to make it feel more comfortable and loose. He flexed and began trying to bring his hands together, attempting to stretch the chains out. He knew he couldn't break them by just pulling them, but he had to test their durability, and they were strong. James pulled some more hoping they might give a little and loosen up. Although he was lean, James had worked up some muscle, and the radiation seemed to offer a slight increase in strength as well. He had yet to truly test it out.<br/><br/>James began to squat down still pulling on the chains. After building up sufficient tension James shot up and jumped as high as he could, flipping forward in the air. Upon landing in a crouched position on one knee, James yanked as hard as he could on the chains. A loud "clank" rang out into the hallway just outside his cell. James looked at the walls and could see the force from his pull loosened the chains from the wall greatly.<br/><br/>"One more should do it..." he spoke quietly to himself. Slowly pulling on the chains again, he assumed the position and jumped back into the air, landing exactly how he did before but this time with greater success. The right chain flew out of the wall and the left loosened up significantly. A brief sigh of relief escaped James' lips but it was soon turned back into focus as he heard the guards gathering outside the door. He quickly ran towards the door and pressed himself against the wall next to it. Just as the door slid open, three guards stormed the room, tranquilizer guns armed and ready. James smiled then with a quick swing of his right arm, he sent the free chain forward, wrapping around the neck of the guard closest to him and yanked him down. The guard landed so hard he cracked the plastic flooring that covered the floor lights and it caused him to fire his weapon. The tranq-dart went right into one of the ceiling lights, knocking it out. That was all James needed. He quickly darted forward lifting up the downed guard by his shoulders, surprising the other two guards and snapping them out of their initial shock of how quickly this was all happening, They opened fire but were only hitting the guard James was using as a shield. James looked down at the cracked floor and stomped his foot down hard, breaking the rest of it and the lights under his foot. He now had a shadow and without wasting anymore time he flung the tranquilized guard at the other two, knocking them back against the wall.<br/><br/>"Hope you two aren't afraid of the dark..." James stood with a menacing look. With the simple raise of his still enclosed hands, the shadow on the floor spread, breaking all the lights in the floor and then quickly shot up towards the ceiling, knocking out all of those lights as well. The room was now dead silent and completely pitch black, save for the light from the hallway coming through the open doorway. The guards stood still against the back wall, waiting for the next move. Their breath was the only sound and it echoed in the room loudly. Suddenly they heard two loud metal bangs and chains piling up on the floor. They knew exactly what had happened. James somehow managed to get the metal mittens off. The moment that followed was filled with bloody screams of pain that echoed down the hallways of the basement. Then there was silence.<br/><br/>James stood looking down at the bloody mess of the guards in the darkness. His eyesight was more than perfect now. The light in the hallway still bothered him a bit when he glanced in that direction. James quickly knelt down and took a set of goggles off of one of the guards. Now was his moment. Now was the time. James bolted out of the room making a quick right and ran as fast as he could down the hallway only skidding to a halt when he saw two guards patrolling the next hallway. He leaned up against the wall and glanced up to see an air duct. It didn't take long for James to climb inside right as the guards rounded the corner.<br/><br/>James crawled around the air ducts for sometime before he came to a spot where he had heard voices. But they weren't Guards or Coats. They were other subjects. Looking through the vent he could see one male and two females for sure. The other...thing could be a female but James wasn't sure. Her ghoulish appearance was slightly unsettling and just a testament to what these scientists were willing to do to someone to achieve their goals. James glanced down at his own hands as a reminder of that.  Regardless they were test subjects like him and it was just a matter of time before they would wither and die from the experiments. It wasn't just him that had to escape this place; James had to get as many as he could. He could see it in their eyes that they felt like nothing more than lab rats. This was no way to live and James knew that. But before he could exit the air duct to say anything the other male spoke up. James smirked. At least someone else felt the way he did. Time to see what the others thought<br/><br/>Suddenly the duct began to creak, and then eventually it gave way to James' weight. He had lingered too long in one spot and a section of the duct came crashing down on top of the refrigerator and James came tumbling out of it. He looked up at the startled faces of the other subjects and quickly rose to his feet. His smoking black eyes quickly glanced at the three of them and his fingers twitched. James realized this is the first time anyone besides the scientists and guards have seen him. When he had first arrived he had a healthy skin tone, short hair and was a bit on the skinny side. Now his skin was pale, his hair was a bit greasy and came down to his shoulders, his chin had a small two days growth of hair forming, his white jogging pants and white sleeveless shirt were torn and dirty from crawling around the air ducts, his physique became more lean and muscular and the most obvious difference, and possibly the most frightening, were his smoking black eyes and black clawed hands.<br/><br/>Suddenly James heard heavy footsteps coming from down the hallway. Some radio chatter followed and James knew it was a guard. He quickly ran up and pressed himself up against the wall near the entrance of the kitchen.<br/><br/>"I heard voices. I'm checking the kitchen." A guard turned the corner and stood at the kitchen entrance, pointing his tranquilizer gun at the others. "Kitchen is clear. No sign of the Shadow Subject. I'm going to check the..." James interrupted the guard by lunging forward and shoving him against the wall. The guard quickly retaliated with a knee to James' torso but it wasn't enough. James landed an unbelievably strong right hook across the guards face that about knocked him out. James took a step back and raised his hand, commanding the guards own shadow to lift and hold him by the throat against the wall. James turned back towards the others, keeping his hand aimed at the guard.<br/><br/>"I'm getting out of here; either come with or stay here and suffer. Your choice." His voice was cold but his tone wasn't threatening. Meanwhile the guard was still squirming against his own shadow so James clenched his upturned palm into a fist and the shadow changed to a solid spike of obsidian substance. The guard died instantly, impaled at the throat and pinned against the wall a mere two feet above the ground. "What's it going to be?"