Shadow Needleman was given a second chance to complete the task. After he was busted out of prison, and after having soothe sayers and Maggie's maids visited and ministered to his finer things for him, as such instructions were given by the boss. After all, he was, (at the time,) still their best agent. The very best person for the job to call all the pearly lots back into the regiment, so they thought, at the very least. But he had to turn his attention back to the original task: the one he was sent out to do at first. That was, to go find and return the original Genodes pellets and the scanners home to the kingdom and the house.

All of them preferably, or at least, seven of them, including the BEACON. "That would have been enough," they said to me, for them to be able to reset and restart the process of the day. But Shadow wanted them all, he was never known as one to be settling for less than the very best outcome on any call,no matter what he was to be found doing at any time as given. Was that what led to his undoing and the fall? Probably mi fren, leave him with the ball.

The BEACON, (as you already know,) is the lead one, somewhat like, the chief pellet among the Genodes. With it, one may be able to; trace, track, and attract other lost or missing Genode back to the place. But without it, one can do almost nothing. Oh sheet, what's this; more warm dumplings? Yes. Unless such a one should have all of the other twelve Genodes all together in one place. This is not the case now, as you can see from the writing on his face, wow! Then, such a person must also know the code as to how to arrange and manipulate those twelve Genodes to draw in the thirteenth, (the BEACON.)

Or to spot its signals from wherever in the universe that it may be at the time, asking for the lying ginnal, I mean, the blind general. And then, such a person must also know how to go about getting it into his pockets and get it home to them. So, he will need to go out into the far reaches of the universe searching, to try and find at least six of the other Genodes to go along with the BEACON on his purse-string before he can return home. "Home?" have you ever heard of such a place, my good gnome? Oh boy! He was almost ready to cry as seen from the tears on his face, no joy.

He started a new search where he'd already have a leg up. Shad's first quest from that place was to visit the North Pole and stand there from sunrise to sunset. Which could last up to six months in humanoid time measures as you had guessed, depending on what season of the year it may be when one gets there, yes. He could even be there a whole year if he's not very careful, I guess. But then again, Shadow Needleman was not to be planning on leaving things up to mere chances. He was still very busy on some other fronts doing cross-species dances. Grazing on bunny bumps, even. While still there scanning through undocumented nuances and breeding among heathens.

But now, he must move on to other regions where the Genodes might be circulating. Just waiting there to be retrieved by someone like him, not Katelyn. But then came the entrance of those girls, again. The girls of the earthling kind would have ridden in and all over him, my friends, and upset the apple cart yet some more before he could get the job done for them and be gone for sure. Or more like, they were the ones there preventing him from getting the job done, before...

"Am I the living, or the dead?" He was heard asking this from the open in his head. "Who is it that has returned in me?" he asked. But then again, he still knew enough to know that there was yet more work to be done and that he had to get a move on. To go on and accomplish the task that was still very much at hand. So, he started from there, slowly, just following a path as it was laid out in front of him my dear Leigh. Where? There, look and listen on.

"Have you ever seen anything like this before?" he wondered out loud from behind the bore. From the backside of speaking out loud you know. Yes, the flip-flopping door, that one even, and more. It was like someone had carved a path out of the landscape and laid it down there on the wilderness floor, "straight." According to the way my countrymen would have said it back home at the gate. So, the Shadow man followed that path and walked on in the direction as it was to lead him through the park, from there onward. Yes, that part, homeward, as he'd thought.

This was to be the entrance into yet more humanoid worldly mess and trouble than he'd bargained for as you might have guessed, mi boss, so, look. He's out of the wilderness now and walking. He's walking on the very road that is about to lead him into a whole myriad of other troubles, who's asking?

"Me.

"Yes, I'm sure it's she," some from which he would not recover. At least not without another trip back to base. Back home for a refresher course, some refueling, and a Cekko shower too to chase. Such as might be more than needed in this case of iced tea, and at the final hour for him and you, not me.

Picture this. A dark wilderness with a column of smoke billowing upward into the skies. Imagine that you're standing afar off and looking out over this mountain range on the heights. You can surely see the mountain range. The smoky column, too, is rising over the range and pointing to the skies, true. But you're not able to tell from where you're standing what may be going on there among the trees and on the wilderness floor. Now picture this too, a little bit more.

Coming at you from a different point of view, than before. Toady the toad is hopping around on the wilderness floor and spying in. He's there on a mission, eyeing him. He's out on a mission to track and keep a watchful eye on the activities of the agents who might be there at any time as given. Toady was sent out there to disrupt and manipulate whatever the agents may be seeing of the pellets, and what they might be doing at any given time, and to report back to the chief agent and the ranger at the palace near the base of the shrines.

Those glistening marble pillars that they say could leave someone like me and you blind. Picture further: Picture Shadow, the super-agent sent down below, he's now there on that same wilderness floor. He doesn't know about the toady agent yet, I'm sure, but Toady knows him, everything about him and a whole lot more. Now, the toad is programmed to favor night travel over all else. For him to avoid certain things you know, and like, like overall hell.

Toady was commissioned to avoid the lights of the day. Working under the cover of the night one might say. But then again, that was the very thing that would lead him headlong into other things and people. The Shadow Man even. Toady knew how to hop around town, it would have seemed. How to hide too and run on steam. Even racehorses know how to do that, and they do it well I mean. So, what the hell! Where's the fun? Come on in, hop into the van I'm in, take me home.

This story is told from a Carib-Jamericanadian perspective, with a twisted comedic edge. Presented (sometimes) in richly blended language mix of, nonsense talk, sensational spelling, double entendre, and Jamaican patois inserted here and there throughout, as may be found fitting. Yeah man, a Jamaica yaad mi cum fram. Sorry, I meant to say, I'm Jamaican-born and bred, okay? Yes, wordplay is the order of the day around here. Please join us again tomorrow for more.