It was a cloudy day, the last rain of this year would most likely fall down today. Red City was silent. Few cars passed by, all of the police. The lord had called a curfew for the entire day. Traffic lights worked as normal with an empty road and the central pavilion was filled for the first time after the upheaval. They were fully armed, over thirty military Acronyms standing in a neat circle around the statue of the hero. The lord, of course, was interrogated. The emergency entrance was revealed. The Red Comets could see that from the camera placed in the hero statue’s eye, and they were the opposite of calm.

Elisa’s parents were sitting next to them on the table as the Red Comets discussed their next action. Richard, being the best planner, took on that role. Clinton was operating on the computer, checking the video feed of several cameras. It was slightly suspicious that they had access to more cameras than the police did, but Damian could live with it.

All of them were in uniform. Clinton in his black attire, Elisa in her Comet outfit without the helmet, Damian wearing his clothes with the D on his chest also without the helmet. Richard wore a black bodysuit much like everyone else’s, but without any marks on there. However, he had a matching black mask with three white circles on it: two for eyes and one big circle for a mouth that let his lips be seen through it. Olivia was also in the same bodysuit, and was wearing Elisa’s helmet with her hair tied in a ponytail.

“As you see, the villain is on the loose and has taken control of civilians and police alike. Since the lord called a curfew for the entire day, it is highly suspected that he is one of his minions as well. There is simply no one we can trust. My uncle, as a precaution or pure chance, has went away to Dresden, to meet father. That means we can get help if things turn south.” Richard said. His charisma was truly something. He managed to persuade Elisa’s parents from making a big deal of it and just go with the flow.

“Clinton. You’re the only one who’s been controlled by him before. What is it like?” Elisa asked. With her parents here, she was a tad bit calmer and might have forgiven Damian about the beatdown.

“I lost consciousness for the first few hours and then I was fully conscious. I was doing exactly what I would do, or thought was the best course of action. Simply put, we act as if we’re his loyal subordinates. I was even ready to throw away my own life and resort to dirty means.” Clinton said.

“Then there’s the fact that he made me do something even without hypnotizing me. He asked me if I could sit down and my body obeyed. We can also say half-truths to buy time. I could say Clinton’s hero identity instead of his name before he asked me to clarify.” Damian said, and Richard nodded.

“So it’s safe to assume he can use wordplay to make us do things we didn’t think possible. Can he ask us to kill ourselves, or can he only make his minions do that? That’s the largest question we have. The fact that he didn’t outright ask Clinton or Damian might be the reason why, but the problem is he was extracting information. That means that there is no concrete fact. What do you think, Mr. Harper? You’re a doctor for the gifted, aren’t you?” Richard asked.

“No gift should be able to affect this many people.” Said Elisa’s father with a scowl.

“Excuse me?” Richard asked.

“Gifts are first of all, just that, gifts. They aren’t supposed to be too strong. It can affect fifty people, yeah, that’s possible, and is the maximum for a psychic. But to fill the central pavilion? I don’t think so.” Said Mr. Harper.

“Then what the hell is that white haired brat?!” Damian shouted. There were Barry, Simon and Adam in there. He just knew it.

“I reckon they called it Awakened. When I was young, I didn’t have the funds to buy myself out of the army and I worked as a medic in the Gloryhounds. There were those white haired people at the Dynasty border guard. We got some of them in the army, but they were executed on the ground. No execution dock, no sentence, just a blade through their neck.” Said Mr. Harper.

“Awakened?” Richard raised an eyebrow.

“Yes. Awakened. It’s a national secret, but the situation calls.” Mr. Harper said. “You said he was white-haired, didn’t you? Then he must be an Awakened. No, he is an Awakened. There’s no way for a gifted’s body or brain to even function in such a way.”

“What’s the difference. We just beat him up and we win.” Said Damian with a shrug.

“You don’t get it, do you? Awakened are far stronger than you gifted, let alone school children. Even the Gloryhounds had trouble fending off three of them, with their number of twenty. They don’t follow logic. Even their existence is a glitch in the universe!” Mr. Harper shouted. “You might have taken out the Smithy. That’s great, but they were only human.”

“Honey, you’re being a little too pessimistic. They’re gifted, specifically selected to form a team. They can do it.” Ms. Harper said.

“Clara, you haven’t seen what those things are capable of. They’re terrifying. You just haven’t seen them.” Said Mr. Harper said shakily.

“A-awakened means that they awaken, i-instead of being born. D-doesn’t that mean he is newly awakened? It only started recently.” Olivia asked, stuttering. She was either shy, or very unconfident in herself.

“Great point, Crash! Is that right, Mr. Harper?” Richard boomed.

“That is possible. But I’ll request assistance from the military. You cannot simply handle them all alone, without adults.” Said Mr. Harper.

“Please do so, Mr. Harper. As for our defense mechanisms, the only way they can come in is with the emergency entrance, isn’t that right? It should be fine if we block it. Clinton, Elisa, please put those gym utensils at the door. It opens inside, thankfully. We’ll be able to keep our ground until help comes. That’s the plan. If things do go south, we’ll escape through the sewers or the hole. The door has locks on both sides, so we shouldn’t worry much about being tailed.” Richard said. As much as Damian thought he was an evil piece of shit, he was smart. Or he wouldn’t have hit him with that beam before. That was strategy on his part.

As Mr. Harper looked at his phone for several long minutes while they blocked the entrance, he paled and spoke again. “I can’t reach them.”

“The reception should be fine in here. I called my friend some time ago.” Damian said, and pointed at his own phone. The reception was blank. Mr. Harper brows furrowed and he fixed his glasses.

“Jamming. Every lord has one for quarantines. They’ve got the lord.” Said Mr. Harper.

“Jamming?” Damian exclaimed.

“J-jamming is interfering with, with wireless communications.” Olivia said, looking down in a guilty manner.

“So that’s why.” Damian nodded his head, and looked toward Richard. “What do we do?”

He was grinning like a fool.

“I’ve got an idea. We can beat him. If he uses words, we can also use words.” Said Richard with a maniacal laughter, drawing everyone’s attention. “We’ll use words to defeat words. That’s the one weakness he has. It’s some sort of psychological brainwashing thingy where he can give us commands. If we use a twisted logic to answer him, this effect might be nullified. Sort of like how truth serums don’t say it’s a lie if the said person thinks it’s a truth, but is actually a lie.”

“Words?” Mr. Harper looked at him as if looking at someone one sandwich short of a picnic.

“Yes. Let’s say someone awakened to an impossibly strong brute. What could he do against someone who didn’t care about that impact like Dreadnought over there.” Said Richard, pointing at Damian. “That boy might be weak against words since he uses words, just as people who have armor are weak against armor. That comparison… didn’t work quite right.”

“What the bloody hell does that even mean?!” Shouted Elisa. She was scared, easy to spot with her strange temper tantrums all the time.

“Then ask me to stay put, kneel, or even anything. I’ll show how we can possibly negate it… This is a wild guess, but it’s better than anything we have at the moment. We have to be the immovable object to their unstoppable momentum. We have to be idiots on which no words work on.” Richard said, grabbing her by the shoulders.

“I’ll do it. I’ve seen what he’s capable of.” Damian said, patting him on the shoulder.

“Go on ahead. I can deal with it.” Richard said, still smiling.

“Would you be as kind to sit down?” Damian asked.

“If only I wasn’t looking at the person I hate the most, and there was a chair under me, I’d sit down.” Richard said, showing his teeth in a ferocious grin.

“Could you slit your throat?” Damian asked once again.

“Of course, I want to die but I’m too afraid to do so. If you could help me, I’d gladly do that.” Richard said, still grinning.

“Could you tell me what your plan is?” Damian asked, more frustrated at losing the brain game than happy with the countermeasure.

“I’d like to, but sadly, I don’t remember much of it. All I remember is us beating you down in a creative way.” Richard said, and turned to the others. “Say cryptic answers with half-truths. They don’t count as no, and as they say, half a truth is the best lie. I’ll test it out. There is also another way. Plugging our ears. It’s dangerous because we can’t hear anything, but that’s not big a disadvantage. Maybe even better than my guess just now. Put an headphone on your ears and listen to music as we fight. That could work.”

The sound of a drawing blade sounded out and Richard’s head slid to the ground, blood pouring from his open neck. Behind him stood Clinton, expressionless. He shook his blade clean and pointed behind him with his thumb. Behind him were two beheaded bodies, both Mr. and Ms. Harper lying on the ground. Elisa screamed out in anger and her eyes shone a bright red. It was unlike Damian’s chaotic one, but more a machine’s headlight.

She grabbed Clinton’s head and smashed it down into the hard concrete floor. His hand bent the wrong way and swung his blade for the last time at Elisa. It didn’t draw blood, and his hand went limp to the ground. However, Elisa wasn’t done. Tears streamed down her crimson eyes as she slammed her hands into Clinton’s head continuously, reducing it into nothing more than a mush of bones and brain.

Olivia fell to the ground and the contents of her stomach emptied itself on the ground. Afterwards, she tried to vomit several times over, but there was nothing left in it. Damian could only scowl in distaste and look around the room. It was impossible for the boy to have entered the room. The hypnosis had worn off at 1o’clock before. There was no way he’d be doing that if he couldn’t answer another question.

Then he noticed it. A cellphone lying on the table. Damian instantly knew the cause of Clinton’s hypnosis. It was the cellphone. He ought to have picked it up and spoke, or there was the possibility of a much more worse truth than that. Clearly enough, there was no call that came into it in the past day. It had to be a message.

And if any message of his had that effect, it was simply terrifying to even think that he could do that. Damian didn’t read the message. He might be hypnotized by it as well. That was the thing he wanted the least. He had to be smart and take down the brat. Or Olivia would just run away and Elisa would act irrationally. He was the only one who could take care of this situation.

Damian wanted to say something to her, to make her stop, but no voice left his mouth. Her parents had died. He didn’t understand it, but that ought to be painful. There was nothing he could do to ease her pain. He wasn’t as charismatic as Richard. Like Richard… If he had to be like the type of person he hated the most to defeat one of them, so be it.

A smile appeared on Damian’s face. Richard was always smiling. He was the villain that Damian knew best, so he’d adapt that. He was also an arrogant prick. He’d also adapt that. He was charismatic, so he’d try to adapt that. He was a master schemer. That was one thing Damian couldn’t copy. At least for now, until this brat was defeated, he’d be a hateful bastard. Just for a little while.

“Hitting a corpse for a day won’t solve your problems, but hitting a white-haired boy once sure will.” Damian said, still forcing a smile on his face. “Olivia, get yourself together. If you’re so guilty about smashing into someone innocent, then run over a thousand bad people. That ought to solve your problems, no?”

“WHAT DO YOU KNOW!!!” Shouted Elisa, and glared at him.

“Stop using caps lock. Turn it off. And I also know you can’t beat me, so listen to me.” Damian said, and pointed at the ceiling. “The one you can beat is up there, so let’s get revenge for everyone.”

Olivia nodded her head and for the first time, Damian noticed her looking straight at him instead of down or evading eye contact. She clutched her hands and her body straightened. Elisa’s eyes still shone bright and clear. She cleaned off her tears with her wrists. Then she grimaced.

“I’ll murder that shit!” She said.

“What’s your hero name, Olivia?” Asked Damian as he pushed away the heavy gym utensils out of the door’s way.

“Runaway.” She said. “Call me Runaway.”

“Well then, Comet, Runaway, let’s go. We’ll win and show that boy hell, definitely.” Said Damian and kicked the door open, pointing at the large hole leading toward the hero statue. “Let’s show them what we’re made of.”

After some looking around, he found the switch. It was a small white button, a stark contrast to the black walls of the room. The ceiling opened up, and Elisa grabbed both of them and flew upward. She left the two of them on the ground and flew onward even higher. Then true to her name, she descended toward the edge of the pavilion.

The Acronyms held large swords in hand that Damian had fought one of before, but some had crossbows. None of them were a problem for him.

“Runaway, go help Comet.” Damian said and she zigzagged through them as if they were slower than snails. He grabbed the sword of one of the Acronyms and smashed his hand through its head. Several crossbow bolts reached his body, all to no avail. None of them could penetrate his armor let alone his skin. But they charged him alright. The headless one fell, without its central control system, it was a metal junk.

Dreadnought then unleashed his power on another one of the Acronyms. It raised its sword to defend itself, but his punch was too strong. His fist cracked right through the sword and reached its head, blowing it to smithereens. The force of several shots, each concentrated to a single point charged him far more than a dull sword’s slash.

His eyes tinted with red and released it instantly. Nothing they threw at him could even hurt him, and he slaughtered the mechanical humanoids easily. Within merely ten minutes, they had turned to large slabs of metal littering the ground, and Damian’s glare turned toward the horde of zombie-like humans rushing at him. Thankfully, Comet grabbed him much like a bird would its prey and flew toward the glass skyscraper next to the pavilion. She then placed him on the roof next to Runaway, huffing and poofing.

“What happened?” Damian asked.

“The boy isn’t here. Only his minions.” She said.

“What do we do? Those are like zombies, but smarter and stronger. They’ll try to kill us. One of them even made Elisa fall with a bump. It’s dangerous.” Damian said.

“We can follow them at 1 in the morning.” Olivia said. Behind her mask, Damian could guess there was a confident look on her face, but he couldn’t be sure what lied behind the mask.