ORIGIN

Brother!!

    Finally, Ezrith approached Zynnis. The space station had some damage and was surrounded by scattered shrapnel from an earlier explosion. When Ezrith's ship got close to the point of recognition, the space station opened up and his ship entered the prison/psych ward through a landing dock packed with many ships.

    After all of the prisoners had been freed by Shellshock, he and the Darksiders took over the entire space station. Most of the guards and other personnel had been killed or thrown into cells. But some of them joined the Darksiders out of fear for their lives.    

    After dragging him out of his ship at gunpoint, some Brigade agents from Baino's starfleet threw a sack over Ezrith's head and took him to Shellshock. Finally, they reached the warden's chamber where Shellshock was sitting at the warden's desk as if presiding over the prison himself. He had on a black space suit that made him look like a knight. He took his mask off and started to speak.

    "Well, well, well...if it isn't Ezzy! Hey, bro'!" Shellshock said to Ezrith with a wicked smile. Where are Akira and uncle Max??" Ezrith asked when one of Shellshock's men took the sack off his head. When Ezrith looked at his twin, it was like looking into a travesty mirror. Shellshock answered Ezrith: "I threw them in the hole." 

    Shellshock grabbed Ezrith and threw him into an empty cell. After that Shellshock left that part of the prison, perhaps to handle another matter. That's when the sirens went off again, signaling some type of security breach. It was the Shinobi Nobles infiltrating the space station, killing any Darksider who put up any resistance against their supreme combat style of noble fist. Anybody who wasn't armed or in a cell was either being killed or about to be.

    Shimoto had on a space suit with a mask that resembled a lion's face. The suit had many features, like a ghost cloak and a ghost cast which allowed him to disappear and make multiple holograms of himself.

    Coincidentally, Shellshock and Shimoto bumped into each other on the space station. But Shimoto thought that Shellshock was Ezrith since he had never seen Shellshock but had seen Ezrith. Shimoto said to him: "The honest cowboy! The Chronesian who defiled Akira with his seed. We meet again! But it is not you I seek to kill. It is the man who calls himself Shellshock." "Oh!  Well, allow me to take you to him. I know just where he is!" Shellshock said, cunningly using Shimoto's mistaking him as his twin to his sheer advantage. As they started going down a dark corridor, clutching the handle of his plasma blaster, Shellshock planned to kill Shimoto just as soon as the nearest opportunity approached. But Shimoto discretely activated a certain feature built into his mask, which signaled extreme deception in Shellshock. Lagging behind Shellshock a little, Shimoto slowly reached for something as well. Before Shellshock could turn around, Shimoto activated his ghost cast and hid around the corner behind him. Shellshock turned around blasting his gun, which fired bright streaks of purple energy. But each round merely went through the hologram of Shimoto, only distorting it. From around the corner, Shimoto threw a couple of target-seeking throwing stars that turned the corner, hitting Shellshock once in the shoulder and once in the abdomen. Still around the corner, Shimoto activated his ghost cloak and blasted a few of Shellshock's men who had rushed him from behind.  Clutching his right shoulder, Shellshock fell to his knees, one at a time. Appearing in front of him, Shimoto looked down at him and said: "Know that if you were dead by now, it would be without honor. Now, tell me! Where is Shellshock? "I...I am shellshock!" Shellshock cried out, still clutching his shoulder. The truth serum that the throwing stars were laced with had already set in. "And where is Ato?" Shimoto asked him in a calmer voice. "He's in tank B9 on the lower deck." "Good, now take me to my apprentice. And, oh yeah...the stars that hit you were laced with a truth serum, which will also give you 3 hours to live. That way, you can at least die an honest man." Laughing, Shimoto grabbed Shellshock by his neck and dragged him along the corridor. He put a long blade to his neck so that if any of Shellshock's men would approach he could use him as a hostage. Minutes later, they approached the cell Ato was being held in. Shellshock could now clearly see that he had underestimated the Shinobi Nobles.

    When Ato saw Shimoto approaching his cell, he had a disappointed look on his face. He was hoping someone had killed Shimoto during all of the melee. Truthfully, he rather have been locked up in that dark, rusty cell until his demise rather than go back to that dreaded moon, Volcrim, where the pollution was so thick it affected how the food tasted. He hated Volcrim. He hated being a slave. He hated what Shimoto had done to Akira.

    When Ato's cell opened, Shimoto shoved Shellshock to the floor and approached Ato. Reluctantly, Ato bowed at his sensei's feet. Rising back up with a different look on his face, Ato said to Shimoto: "Your slave boy has a request; a request for freedom: Born in, death out, with most honor."  Shimoto looked extremely appalled at what he had just heard Ato say. But Shimoto knew that the boy's loyalty to him had already been tarnished. So, over his wrist gadget, Shimoto consulted his sensei - The Laughing Shadow - about Ato's honorable request to be set free by way of a death battle. Knowing that Shimoto would most likely kill Ato, Laughing Shadow nonchalantly consented to the request.

    Meanwhile, after learning that Shellshock was humiliated by Shimoto, WarFace was furious. And to add to his anger, since most of the Darksiders had been killed in Zynnis, he had to eventually recruit another band of outlaws, which was a command given to him by his and every other biozoid's master - the machine god known as Alpha Maximus.

    Alpha Maximus knew that the truth of his existence would gradually spread more and more throughout Plumorita. So he ordered a bounty on Ezrith's and Storm's heads, but not just any bounty. It was given to WarFace himself. And if he failed, Maximus said that he would immediately terminate WarFace. But if he was successful, WarFace would receive upgrades.

    Meanwhile, Ato and Shimoto were preparing to engage in battle. Not knowing if he would see his demise or not because of the deadly truth serum, Shellshock struggled to make his way to Ezrith's cell. He collapsed in front of his brother, who he could see had pity in his eyes. Trying his hardest not to show it, Ezrith felt so sorry for his twin. He nearly came to tears as Ezron pleaded for forgiveness, saying to him: "You must understand why I became a slave to WarFace. He was our father. After they changed him, he no longer recognized me as his son. But all I still wanted was...to be the favorite one like you always were. He made me his slave! I had to do all that I was told because he'd kill me otherwise. Those were Shellshock's last words to Ezrith, just before he was dragged away from Ezrith's cell. After that, Ato approached the laser pistol Shellshock left on the floor and discreetly slid it between the bars of Ezrith's cell with his foot, and then he winked at Ezrith.