by <unknown>
John hesitated for a moment and asked, "Who are you?"
"Just get in, the FBI is almost here!"
The woman's voice was anxious. "If you still stand there, both of us are going to get caught!"
John clenched his teeth and sprinted into the car. The drumming of the muscle engine echoed across the alleyway as the car took off into the distance...
After they drove away from the previous area and were in the clear, John finally allowed himself a moment to calm down. He looked at the driver and saw her very minimal make-up, then he sensed that she exuded a fierce atmosphere around her. It was like looking at a thorned rose, so captivating and yet so dangerous.
"Who are you?"
John probed cautiously.
"I'm a part of Blackwatch."
The driver held up an identification card. "The company has had its eyes on you for some time now."
"Blackwatch?"
John was not expecting to hear the name of the world-renowned mega-corporation. He immediately connected it to his superpower discovery last month and asked, "Does this mean that you guys are aware of what happened to me?"
"Of course."
The Blackwatch agent nodded and handed her identification to John. "The company has been aware of your existence since the day you've awoken your 'psionic' powers. But don't worry, we don't come with any hostile intentions."
John was unsure of what to make of this. He carefully took the identification card and saw the label "Black Security Service" printed on it. He jogged his memory and was sure he had never heard of this unfamiliar phrase before.
"The mission our department is tasked with is to get in touch with psionicists like you who have recently awoken your powers. We want to recruit you into our organization. If you join us, we can take care of the previous incident involving you killing an FBI agent."
"Psionicist..."
John tasted the syllable on his lips then asked, "Does this term refer to the power that I've obtained?"
"Of course."
There was a subtle smirk on the BSS agent's lips. "'Psionicist' is the universal term for anyone who has awoken their psionic abilities. I'm sure you've also heard of others branding people such as yourself as superpower users. The reason you have come to possess these powers is due to your previous contact with the deadly virus. I'm sure you remember that as well."
"Is that so?"
John immediately connected the dots. Half a year ago, the world was struck with an odd and dangerous virus that caused the infected to fuse into a disgusting monstrosity. At the time, nobody knew what was happening. After everything was wrapped up, only then did the details become public knowledge. The entire mess was taken care of when the Earth Federation and Blackwatch combined their efforts to find an apt solution and rescue mankind from the brink of death.
"That means everyone who has contracted the virus has obtained this power as well?"
John raised another question.
"Of course not."
The BSS agent quickly shook her head. "Only an extreme minority managed to awaken these powers. Based on what we've discovered so far, the psionic powers awoken vary from person to person. Yours is an especially peculiar sort."
With that, she pressed "play" on a recorder and the previous footage of John's confrontation with the FBI agent immediately played on the screen built into the infotainment system in the car.
That was when John realized that this car had been trailing him the entire time during his escape. Only he did not notice it since his mind was occupied with running.
John paid close attention to the display and saw the FBI aiming a gun at himself in the footage. Then, he saw his eyes glowing bright red with an ever-growing intensity that made his appearance resemble the Devil.
"Swoosh!"
In an instant, John saw two beams of light shooting out of his eyes. It instantly pierced through the gun and penetrated the chest of the FBI agent!
John gasped. He could not believe that something like that was summoned from his eyes. The sheer idea of it was baffling!
"Everyone has different psionic power manifestations."
The BSS agent explained, "At the moment of their psionic awakening, it's usually manifested as common telekinesis abilities. However, as time passes, the psionic potential in each individual will slowly develop and undergo changes. That's when it manifests into different forms...
"Some people gain the ability to fly, some gain superhuman strength... The manifestation of your psionic power is known as optic blast. We haven't discovered any other psionic manifestation so far.
"However, based on the data we've collected, psionicists aren't restricted to only one psionic manifestation..."
By this point of their conversation, they had arrived at Blackwatch's New York branch office building. They entered the underground parking lot of the building...
Chapter 570: Shocking |
Just like that, John was taken by his mysterious savior to Blackwatch's New York branch office building. They arrived at a large banquet hall in the building where he saw many new faces.
The demographic was vastly diversified. There were black people and Caucasians, middle-aged men, and youths who looked like they could not have been older than fifteen years old. This gathering was not particularly well behaved. They were causing a loud commotion in the middle of the banquet wall.
"Joey, you insolent brat, you better watch out before I break your neck!"
"Hahaha, bring it on, Robert! Let's see if your psionic strength holds up to mine!"
"Hey Jenny, give me another round of beer, I want more beer!"
"Drink up! Is a large pint good enough for you or do you want two pints?"
"That's more than enough, thank you, Jenny! Jenny is the best!"
"Could you people shut up and at least show some class? Hey f*** you!"
John looked at the frenzied group then shot a confused look at the BSS lady. "These people are...?"
"Just like yourself, they're the psionicists we've gathered from all over Northern America."
The BSS lady stepped into the banquet hall, announcing her proud presence with her high-heeled leather boots clicking loudly against the marble floor while she informed John, "You're the last one on our list."
John surveyed the banquet hall vigilantly and noticed that many of the others were looking in his direction. Some of them even whistled loudly when they saw the BSS lady who accompanied John into the banquet hall. There was a frivolous look in their eyes.
"Hey, so when are you going to tell us why Blackwatch gathered all of us here?"
A large, drunk man approached with another comrade whose both rows of teeth took on a horrid-looking yellow texture trailing after him. The drunken man reeked of alcohol and he audaciously stumbled into the BSS lady's path, then boldly put his hands on her shoulder.
The BSS lady glowered almost instantly upon feeling the touch of the drunken man on her shoulders. She took a short step backward and produced a dagger that seemed to appear out of nowhere, which she flung at full force to her side. The piercing scream of the drunken man immediately resounded across the banquet hall!
"Ah! My hand, my hand!"
The drunken man wailed in pain. His hand was nailed into a section of the wall by the sharp tip of the dagger!
"You crazy woman!"
The drunken man's comrade was immediately enraged by this aggression and charged at the BSS lady. Everything happened in a flash, so quickly that John could hardly register the fluidity of the BSS lady's actions.
This time, a chrome pistol was produced out of nowhere and the barrel of the gun was stuffed into the mouth of the yellow-toothed man.
"Please don't kill me!"
The yellow-toothed man raised his hands in the air and gestured for surrender.
"Hmmph, pathetic!"
The BSS lady put the chrome pistol back into her holster. Then, she held her hands up and clapped twice. Upon receiving the signal, the main entrance o
pened and dozens of soldiers wearing black combat suits and armed with live ammunition marched into the room. They assumed their positions in an extremely trained and disciplined manner. The hall was immediately surrounded by soldiers before John and the rest could realize what was happening.
Everyone fell silent and slowly rose to their feet as they eyed the surrounding soldiers cautiously.
"Psionicists."
The BSS lady broke the silence. She rested her hands behind her back, slightly above the hips, and slowly strutted to the center of the banquet hall like a field commander. Then, she turned to face the gathered group. "I'll put it bluntly. As far as I'm concerned, all of you are garbage."
This quick, insulting remark certainly had its intended effect. Several members of the crowd were riled up by this but they decided against doing anything rash since they were surrounded by live ammunition.
"With that said, there may still be hope for garbage like you lot."
The BSS lady stated coldly, "You people are the lucky bunch because Blackwatch has noticed your potential and is willing to polish you into viable tools."
"I didn't come here to be degraded as mere garbage!"
It seemed like her repeated insulting remarks had upset several psionicists. One of them, who was a large, stocky man covered in tattoos shouted, "If this is how Blackwatch is going to treat me, we're better off joining the FBI, let's go!"
With that note, the man gestured for two of his comrades to follow him. The three of them quickly stormed out of the venue.
Upon seeing this reaction, a subtle wipe of a smile appeared on the BSS lady's lips. "Did I ever give you permission to leave?"
At the end of her note, the tattooed man heard the sound of gusts of wind whistling past his ears. He felt a subtle breeze caressing his cheeks, immediately followed by two sickening "pop", then felt a splatter of wet substance washing over him!
The tattooed man looked stupefied by what just happened. He quickly turned around and saw that both of his comrades had their heads cleanly popped off with pulse rifles.
"Ah!!"
The crowd descended into panic upon seeing this. Many of them tried to flee from the scene but were quickly shepherded back to their original positions by the surrounding soldiers!
"Do you have any idea what you just did?"
The tattooed man immediately realized the severity of the situation and glared at the BSS lady in utter disbelief. His instincts were telling him that these people were not going to let him leave this place alive!
To escape, the man would have to take down their boss first!
After having decided this, the man charged at the BSS lady like a football quarterback. In an instant, whisks of flames appeared on every part of his body and burned his clothes into fine crisps! His entire figure transformed into an enormous ball of flame as he continued accelerating toward the center of the banquet hall.
However, the BSS lady seemed unfazed by this ludicrous display and only flashed a mocking smile at him. The man's vision suddenly jolted, then he caught the faint silhouette of the BSS lady suddenly appearing beside him. She kicked on the ground with the back of her heel which immediately deployed a sharp dagger at the tips of her heel!
"Swish!"
The tattooed man felt a sharp pain radiating from his legs. He lost his balance and tumbled onto the ground!
"Hiss…"
Due to the velocity of the man's fall, his burning knees scraped against the marble floor and left a charred trail!
"Ah! My leg, my leg!"
After collapsing onto the floor, the man winced in pain. The flames on his body began to extinguish as well!
"You've led a pathetic life. Even if you acquire psionic powers, it won't change the fact that you're worthless."
The BSS lady stepped in front of the defeated combatant and grabbed him by the hair to expose his neck, then made a clean slice at the artery with a knife on another hand!
"Swish!"
Hot, steaming blood poured out between folds of torn skin. The man's eyes immediately became frozen with lifelessness.
"Ah..!"
The others did what they could to muffle their screams as much as possible. They stepped away as far as they could from the BSS lady as if they were afraid of upsetting her with their puny presence.
The BSS lady stood beside the pool of blood and looked back at them. At this moment, her presence seemed to take on the form of a blood-red rose blooming amid a lake of blood. They would forever have this devilish sight imprinted in the back of their minds.
"My name is Sarah. I'm the deputy director of Blackwatch's Black Security Service."
Sarah licked the blood that splattered onto the corner of her lips and smiled menacingly. "But I prefer going by my codename. My codename is 'Blood Rose' and I'll be your coach for you psionicists."
John could hardly recognize Sarah who took on a one-eighty transformation from when she picked him up from the alley. That was when he realized that these people were serious.
A small part of him felt like it would have been better to surrender to the FBI.
"Why are you killing people ruthlessly, what are you going to do with us?"
Somebody in the crowd collected the courage to ask.
"To train you all, of course."
Sarah replied, "Do you think that the Earth Federation will simply adopt you psionicist freaks into regular society? The answer is no. You have two choices. One is to join us and the other is to join the officials and see what they do with you. There are no third options.
"And about the killing? I'm afraid that the training involves a certain risk of death. My best advice if you don't want to die is to put in your best effort to survive in the upcoming training sessions!"
With that, Sarah gave another signal and the soldiers immediately stepped forward and began escorting everyone to another area.
Left without a choice, John followed obediently as well. They left the banquet hall in an agitated state and slowly went to the rooftop helipad...
...
"Sir Godfather, the fifteen psionicists in Northern America have departed. Estimated time of arrival at Eco Science City should be around ten o'clock tomorrow morning."
On the top floor of the Blacklight building, Little X went beside Chen Chen and reported faithfully.
"Fifteen?"
Chen Chen was perplexed by this. "I remember there were eighteen, wasn't it?"
"Three of them were killed to send a message to the rest of them."
Little X pouted. "Sarah killed them."
Chen Chen only replied with a short "Oh.", followed with an understanding nod. "Alright then."
After that, Chen Chen redirected back to the virtual display.
Three figures were shown on the virtual display. They were Lane, Hodge, and Brooke, the past members of the now-defunct BHB Combative Police Force.
The footage showed the three of them in a training room, honing their newly acquired abilities. When Lane made a short wave with his hand, a bolt of lightning appeared from the tip of his finger and hit a target nearly fifty meters away, obliterating it instantly.
Meanwhile, Hodge displayed his abilities by staring at a caged chimpanzee in front of him. Within moments, the chimpanzee began making a series of complex movements, mimicking the behavior of a regular person.
As for Blake... Chen Chen saw a bizarre sight of articles of clothing floating in the air, the opening around the cuffs of the shirt and pants were empty.
Lane, lightning manipulation.
Hodge, organism manipulation.
Blake, invisibility and steel body fortification.
These were the awakened psionic abilities of the trio.
Chen Chen never foresaw something like this happening. All along, he was under the impression that these psionic powers in his mind operated under a fixed set of rules. However, it began assuming various sorts of transformation after the extracted L compound was injected into others, allowing them to obtain
different abilities.
However, regardless of the forms these psionic abilities took on when applied on others, when they inevitably return to Chen Chen and fuse with his base psionic potential, they would still revert to their primordial form.
This was what Chen Chen discovered when experimenting with the Delta-level subjects in the Spire.
This meant that at its core, all these variations of psionic manifestation were still the original, primordial psionic power at the end of the day. These manifestations were merely another form that they were represented in different individuals.
Chen Chen found himself in awe as he watched their training sessions. He remembered that when he first acquired Field, his power was barely noticeable at all. He had a hard time even lifting objects of several hundred grams alone. The early psionic potential shown by the trio was several magnitudes greater than his in the past.
However, it should be noted that there was a difference between Field and psionic powers. The explosiveness and potential of Field greatly could not be compared to that of psionic powers.
Field was a manipulation of electromagnetic force at its core. Its range entailed both macroscopic or microscopic and altered both gaseous and solid substances. Since electromagnetic force was present in all particles, it could be said that the potential of Field was unlimited!
"I didn't expect the psionic power to manifest into all these different forms."
Chen Chen pondered. "Judging by this, I'm sure that there are many more secrets to psionic powers that I haven't discovered yet. I doubt that the Consciousness Stealer's usage of it to absorb the consciousness of other humans to fuel its resurrection is the extent of these power's capabilities...
"Field has greater potential and broader uses, but its growth is significantly slower..."
Little X stated, "Meanwhile, psionic powers can grow rapidly in the initial phases and may manifest into thousands of different forms. It's directly connected to the user's mental psyche and inner conscience, but its overall strength doesn't match up to Field... I suppose this is the general difference between the two?"
