ORIGIN

Brother!!

When they got settled in, Ezrith was contacted by Max on his wrist gadget. Ratch was messing around with some weapons in another room. He was working on what he called a "G-bomb", which was some type of weapon designed to implode instead of explode to possibly create a black hole. Bio was scrupulously cleaning two machine guns at one time with all four of his arms. 

    Looking at Max on his wrist gadget, Ezrith waited for him to say something, but he just looked at him with a very troubled look in his eyes. "What's wrong?" Ezrith asked him, starting to expect terrible news. After a long pause, in a distressing tone, Max said: "Akira, her brother Ato, and I are in Zynnis. The darksiders are holding everyone hostage. Your Brother...."  That's when, suddenly, Shellshock himself appeared online, saying: "Long time no see, brother! Look, I would love to prolong this little family reunion, but, after hearing the news of it himself, pops told me to blast all of them, including the love of your life, Akira, and whatever she's got cookin' for you in her womb. And trust me, bro'...this ain't no bluff. I've been given a direct order from WarFace, aka pops, and believe me, he's not at all interested in pleas or negotiations accompanied by the irritant of sentiment or emotion. He's a highly intelligent cybernetic organism without fear or remorse. But...there's one thing you can do to save them: I'm giving you one Solarian day to hand yourself over to the Plumoritan Star Brigade, or... I'll have to torture and kill all of them, with pleasure, of course, starting with Akira. You have six hours to meet me and Baino's men at Zynnis. Out." After that, Ezrith's wrist gadget went blank. Ezrith didn't know what to do other than comply with the demands of his adversary-slash-long-lost twin brother and his diabolical father, who he wished was dead. Their deaths would've been easier to swallow than knowing they existed in the forms they were in.

    After about thirty minutes of contemplating his decision, Ezrith and his men decided that he should turn himself in. But neither of them wanted him to go alone. But he told them that he wanted to. He insisted on it. So after making sure that Xenonia's location hadn't been traced through his wrist gadget, the Xenonians let him go. But they let him take one of their advanced ships.

    A couple of ghost agents reassured him that they would watch over his men, contact Storm, and have his back in all possible ways. After that, Ezrith got into the ship and blasted off toward the stars.

    Thinking that they were dead all those years, he never thought he would see his twin and father again, especially in these circumstances.

    When he and his twin Ezron were much younger, they would play  "villains and space rangers ". Ezron would always choose to be the villain. But Ezrith would usually win the game. Ezron always wanted to be an outlaw but, ironically, their father was the restraint on that. Rebellious, Ezron would get into trouble a lot. Ezron associated with hovercraft thieves and petty cyber-crooks. He also indulged in cybernetic-enhanced drugs which, in Ezrith's opinion, distorted his mind more than a little. Ezron only learned all he knew about weapons by playing virtual reality games that he tried to emulate to perfection in reality. But, unlike Ezrith, Ezron was never really a true leader. He never had the courage to go against the grain of peer pressure. It seemed to be in his nature to conform.

    Ezrith was Kengi's favorite, and Ezron always knew it. That was the underlying issue of the tension between them throughout the few years they spent together.  Ezron became Shellshock because that was the name of the avatar he created for a popular virtual reality game called "World Enders".

    No matter how much blood covered his hands, no matter how many weapons he sold around the galaxy, no matter how many planetary wars he was the cause of, under that mask and high-tech armor he was only Ezron. He never looked anyone he killed in the eyes. He hid behind the trigger. All Ezrith had in common with his twin brother were looks. Ezrith wasn't frightened by facades. He knew the real "Shellshock".