He hadn't started it. Henry the Bigwig at the orphanage had mocked Jason for dying his hair a silly color. Jason  tired of explaining to people that Bright red was his natural color ignored them. Henry was used to attention, he had his own set of lackeys that doted over every word he said, the clergy and staff at the orphanage thought that he was the model child , so no he didn't like To be ignored. 

He tried to grab a strand  of hair from Jason's eyebrows and ended poking Jason's eyes. Jason retaliated with a punch and that's how the fight began.

A group of nuns passing by broke up the fight. Since most of the crowd were under Henry's thumb.

"What happened here?". Sister Mary Clement asked. Sister Mary Clement was the Nun in charge.  Sister Mary wore a permanent scowl on her face, she was a no-nonsense person and rumor had it that she had served at the Vietnam war, were she had sustained a limo in her left leg in "Service to the Lord". How true that was nobody knew and nobody bothered to ask. Everyone was scared of being called into her office. So when the ring of her cane echoed in the halls, A shiver went through everyone. 

Jason tried to explain what had happened but he might as well have been talking to a rock for all the attention she gave him. When he was done she turned to Henry.

"Henry, what happened? Remember that lying is a sin, as grievous as fighting". Henry proceeded to give a totally inaccurate story of what had happened. In Henry's version he and his clique had been busy contemplating the goodness of the Lord when Jason attacked them for some offense  that they had no idea of. The story was the most ridiculous thing Jason had heard, only someone with cotton for brains would believe something like that. Well it seemed like most of the nuns at Sancta Maria because not only had they believed Henry they had locked him in the disused Utility shed to "think about his sins and plead for God's mercy".

He probably fallen asleep because when he woke up the shed was ablaze. He had been moved to another home the very next day.

"Nice drawing". Jason started and hit his head on his bunk. Standing next to him was Kevin.

"Guy, what the fuck? How did you even get here?".

"Your window was open" . He said that casually the way someone would have said " the weather is cold".

"So you just happened to be passing by and decided to drop in?".

" No we need to talk. Meet me at Greens". With that Kevin walked to the window and jumped down. Jason rushed to the window and looked down only to see Kevin walking away normally, no limp. Jason was mildly disappointed. Jason grabbed his denim jacket and walked down the stairs like a normal person.

     *                                   *                                  *

Green's memorial park hadn't always been a park, it had once belonged to a rich business tycoon. He had died and donated the piece of land to a group of environmentalists. They had then proceeded to plant flowers over it, but lately it had been neglected and overgrown with weeds. Of course Jason didn't know about the park's colorful history, so to him it just looked like an overgrown park.

He met Kevin sitting on a bench, he sat next to him.

"What did you want to talk about?".

"Haven't you heard about the fire some building down at charles went up in flames. Seventeen people burnt up so bad That only their bones were left. The fire department couldn't meet up on time because they were busy fighting a forest fire".

" And your telling me this because? ".

" Even though the fire department were late it doesn't add up. The damage was too much".

" Are you trying to say that I'm involved?". Jason was suddenly angry, who did this guy think he was accusing him of something like that. Kevin must have heard the anger in his voice because he  faced him and chuckled like Jason's anger was amusing.

"Not necessarily you. It's whether whatever caused that fire is something like us or an arsonist".

" Were are you getting at".

" Me and the others have already come to a conclusion. We're going to investigate. School doesn't start until a few days, so I guess you'll be free tomorrow".

     *                                  *                                    *

The building was burnt up and charred so bad that they couldn't get a concrete forensic report. The fire department had guessed that the fire was caused by some drunk (whether they meant a resident or some passerby nobody knew) and instead of helping to put it out had bailed.

The five of them stood outside feeling like adventurers stepping into uncharted land. Alex had been smart enough to bring gloves for everyone.

"So where first boss?". It was Mia who asked, he still found the fact that she didn't have a shadow weird, but there was never a dull moment around her. Besides she had just said something that had been on Jason's mind all along. Kevin was the boss, that should have been obvious all along. The guy was a control freak and an attention lover. Everything he did from his dramatic entrances even to the way he spoke made it clear.

"The fire was believed to have started from the ground floor, that's were we're going".

They entered the building feeling like detectives. An hour an a half later everyone was covered with soot and pissed off. They hadn't known what to expect but it was clear they had thought they would just walk in and discover some ground breaking evidence. 

Jason was in a room, or what was left of it walking around looking for some clue to jump out at him. They made this seem so much easier in crime shows. He felt a tap on his shoulder, turned and saw Jessica standing behind him. She had tied her hair in a ponytail but it was still covered in soot.

"So I never got the chance to thank you for what you did back there at school".

" Well I'm the one who started so it's basically my fault". He realized he was scratching his head so he stopped.

" Well you saved me and Alex so that cancels it out, hopefully".

" Yeah, hopefully".

" And besides the old B block was ugly, I heard the principal is going all out with the new one". Jason laughed. It was true the old B block was terribly ugly, it was built like a cube.

"I never got your name" Jessica said.

"It's Jason, and your Jessica right?".

"I prefer Jess".

" Well how's Alex doing anyway". Her face immediately turned serious.

"We haven't talked much since then".

"Oh sorry". An awkward silence descended upon them. Thankfully someone shouted.

"Hey guys I found something". They met Kevin in the corridor he was pointing at something. It turned Out to be a dent in the floorboards.

"It was burnt in". Alex pointed out.

"Exactly". Kevin dusted the soot around the dent. It was a footprint.

" This was burnt in. This isn't any old arsonist, whoever did this is someone like us". 

" The fire department couldn't make it because they were busy with a forest fire right?". Alex asked.

" Yeah".

" Two huge fires in one day, whatever started this one started the other".

" That means that they're probably more clues over there". Jess said.

" Wait a sec". Jason said, they were all moving too fast for him. " We're talking about a forest fire here, we could be searching for miles".

"Not us". Mia faced a dark corner and frowned. Jason could see sweat rolling off her face.  A man crawled out of the shadow and stood there, on closer look it wasn't a man. The being was humanoid but he looked like a 3D shadow. He had toes and fingers but he had no facial features or any other features at that. Oh and he was black, midnight black. Looking at him was like looking into a deep dark well, just black tangible darkness.

"This is my shadow, I call him shadow. He doesn't get tired or hungry and distance is nothing to him so he's the perfect person for the Job". Shadow waved.

Jason suddenly needed to sit down, setting things on fire and lighting bulbs were totally different from waving shadows. Just then Jason realized how much this had changed his life. 

*                                         *                           *

They were back at the dojo, or more accurately under it. Jason, Mia and Jess were sitting in the lounge. Alex and Kevin had walked off saying they wanted to 'shower' and left Jason wondering how far the dojo went underground. Mia sat with her feet folded underneath her, her eyes were closed and she seemed deep in thought. 

"Mia?". She opened only one eye and stared at Jason.

"I don't want to seem rude but are you Japanese or Chinese?".

"A bit of both" .

"Oh".

"My grandfather from my mom's Side was Japanese he got married to a Chinese lady. Oh and I'm also American, so I guess I'm a bit of both". And Alien too, let's not forget that.

" That thing with your shadow how did you do it".

" I didn't do it. It's kind of heridatary. My ancestor, the alien one made him and somehow bound him to his lineage". He's always been there from when I was a kid, imagine being a six year old and seeing your shadow moving on it's own". She laughed as if there was a little personal joke hidden in it. Jason tried to imagine it decided it was too much stress and stopped".

" It must have been difficult". She had conducted this whole conversation with one eye shut

" You can't imagine. I need to concentrate. Shadow is smart but he sees things differently from us, if I don't keep an eye on Him he could let a clue slide by".

"Or  her". Jess said, " shadow could be a 'She' ".

" More like an it". With that Mia closed her eye. Jason mused over an icebreaker and decided to just wing it.

"You know shadow could also be a 'He'."

"Your just judging by appearances. What if deep down he was a feminine lady searching for love".

" Or what if he was a hermaphrodite". Jess clasped her hands over her mouth in surprise shock.

"That would be a shocking plot twist".

"Not as shocking as this" he said waving around the room.

" True".

" How deep does this thing even go?".

" The only person who knows that is Mr Pierce. I know their lots of rooms for lots of different stuff but we don't know what they do, and by we I mean everyone except for Pierce".

" It seems like Mr Pierce like keeping secrets".

" I don't think its really like that, most of the knowledge of those things were passed down were passed down and we don't know how accurate they are. I think he just wants us to be ready". Jason mused over that, but he didn't know what to say to that, luckily Jess continued talking.

"Though I don't think how he does it is good. He's probably your only living relative and he wasn't there for you when he needed you. No offense if I'm touching sensitive spots". 

" None taken". Jason meant what he said. At first whenever he had thought he had been overcome with anger now all he felt was a kind of dull indifference.

" Mia and Alex have known their abilities like forever, Kevin got his early last year. That's why we argued, he never told me. He knew about mine but he never told his, he left me feeling alone". Jason kept quiet he knew how it felt alone. At first you hated it and tried hard to avoid it, you tried to be friends with everyone and you tried your best not to be alone, because when You Were alone your  mind went to work and the mind was a scary place.

"I don't know why he did it, maybe he was scared we'll never know if he doesn't tell. But I guess tried his best to be there for you in his own way". Jess appeared to be thinking about It, she was about to say something when Mia interrupted.

"We've found something".

"What did you guys see?". Jess asked.

"You guys aren't going to believe it".