The 3 men waited in anticipation for the moment that Stanley walked in. They were ready with their guns and sword.

Then Stanley entered the room.

Except, he didn’t take the door.

He burst through the wall to the side that connected to the room on the right and arrived there.

Time immediately slowed down for him the moment he entered as he took note of where everyone was.

He saw the guard who was responsible for attacking a restaurant closest to him and the one that belonged to a drug cartel on the other side.

David was on the bed, trying to block the debris that flew out from the broken wall.

Finally, Stanley looked for the girl who was huddled up on the floor and once he saw her, he got to work.

He grabbed one of the flying pieces of rock and tossed it in the direction of the guard on the far side. At the same time, he took out his gun and pointed it at the guard closest to him.

His gun lingered for a moment in the air as he saw the visions of the yellow shield flickering in the future while he attacked.

He waited for the future when the bullet did go through the man’s shield and shot it.

Having hit both guards, he arrived next to David and stole the gun from his hand before pointing it back in his direction.

Time slowed back to normal and the chaos of the whole situation became apparent in the instant. "Don’t move!" he told the man a few seconds later, touching the large gun to the side of his head.

David slowly raised his hands. "Don’t... don’t kill me," he said.

"I won’t. As long as you cooperate," Stanley said before looking at the girl on the floor. "Miss, are you okay?"

The girl nodded quickly, worried that she was going to be killed too.

Stanley finally sighed and tapped the side of his ear to activate the earpiece that was in his ears the whole time.

"I’m done here," he said.

"Good job," Reena’s voice came in from the other side. "Cuff up David and you can leave." 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Stanley nodded. He was about to cuff up David when a voice spoke in his ear again.

"Are you sure you’re done?" Gray asked in a teasing manner. "Never be sure of something until you’ve made sure everyone is dead."

"Huh?" Stanley quickly looked around to see what he had missed. The guard that he had shot had died clearly, but the one that he hit with the piece of rock was still alive... somehow.

"How?" he couldn’t help but question. "I was super fast when I hit him with the rock. That should’ve killed him."

"Hehe, it’s a beginner’s mistake to assume," Gray said. "Just cuff up David, kill the other man, and leave."

"Okay," Stanley said and pulled out the cuffs he had brought with him.

"Who are you? Tell me!" the man asked. "What have I done to you that you’ve attacked me?"

Stanley didn’t say anything. He simply moved to cuff him up. He placed the cuff on David’s left wrist and was about to put it on his right wrist when he saw something.

At the same time, the man that was still alive was getting back up with ferocious fervor in his eyes.

"Shit!" Stanley shouted into his earpiece as he looked toward David who no longer looked scared at all. His smile turned creepy as he too had noticed what Stanley had noticed as well.

"What’s wrong?" Reena asked.

"David isn’t here," he said to her, quickly grabbing David’s hands which were flaking off, showing that they were made up of dirt.

He crushed his hands, turning them all back into dirt.

"Hehee, gotcha!" David said and his entire body turned into dirt as it all fell off.

"Reena, you didn’t tell me that David could make a dirt body of himself," Stanley said.

"What?" Reena shouted in surprise. "No, that’s not his power. He can only make small puppets out of dirt that are barely humanoid at all. His power isn’t enough to make an entire body of himself."

"But he did," Stanley said.

The guard slowly looked for Stanley, the only one of his group of four that was still alive, and came for him.

"Focus on the man," Gray’s voice filled Stanley’s earpiece. "I will see if I can find David."

The moment Gray stopped speaking, the guard rushed at Stanley to kill him.

Stanley hadn’t bothered to care much for the man. He was alive, but so what? He could easily kill him if he just got another good hit in.

He dodged the swing of the glowing red sword and gave a punch to the man that sent him flying away.

The man struck the door and fell into the hallway. However, he still didn’t die. He only groaned and got back up.

"Hmm?" Stanley looked surprised. How was he still coming back after being hit like that?

"Sorry, what was this guy’s powers again exactly?" Stanley asked. "The guard with the goatee."

"Uhh... it’s Kinetic absorption," Reena answered.

"Okay," Stanley said. "And what exactly does that mean in simple terms again?"

"It means that he can absorb a large portion of the physical attack you deal to him," Reena said. "And he collects it in his body, making himself stronger."

"Okay, that makes sense why he is coming back then," Stanley said and dodged again as the sword swung right next to him. He punched the man again, but this time nothing happened to him at all.

He didn’t go flying at all this time around. Instead, he seemed to get stronger.

He swung his blade again, the red plasma glow from it heating up the air it passed through.

Stanley attacked a few times before realizing that wasn’t working.

He could only bring out his sword in return.

He swung his sword to block the incoming attack before pushing the man back with his shoulder. At the same time, he readied his sword and hit the man from the side to cleave him apart in one go.

The sword struck the man but it barely got an inch deep into him. All the rest of the force from his sword was swallowed up by the man.

’What the hell?’ Stanley thought.

The man’s eyes lost focus. He started attacking him, swinging his sword in a pattern that wasn’t there at all. He was just swinging it around randomly.

Stanley stepped back and the man continued swinging his sword through the air, as if unable to see where Stanley really was.

Stanley looked at the man and realized that he had lost himself. He had lost his mind, possibly an effect of his powers that didn’t seem to have a ritual to awaken it. Or perhaps more likely, losing one’s mind was the ritual. He had learned that there were many types of that.

The man in his mindless rage attacked the ground, sending a bunch of rock flying behind him, some of which hit the girl on the floor.

"Aaah!" the girl shouted when she was hit.

The man stopped and looked around before immediately going for her.

"Alright," Stanley said. "I don’t have time to waste on you."

He brought his sword forward and flipped it so that the side with the red gem was on top. He slammed his fit onto the gem, which was a button to activate the sword.

It was made with him in mind and so it required a lot of force to push it to activate it. The moment it was active, a layer of plasma surrounded the sword, glowing red hot.

Then, Stanley moved forward.

The ground cracked beneath his legs as he moved forward with such a speed that everything looked like a blur to him. He broke through the sound barrier in an instant as he arrived next to the man.

At the last moment, he slowed down time and things started becoming clearer again. He could see the man bringing up his sword to attack, so Stanley swung before he could.

The attack landed on the man’s right arm and the plasma started doing its thing. Even as the sword landed, the hot plasma was already burning his body.

The man could absorb a lot of kinetic energy, but not all of it. That was evident from him being thrown away and the cut that appeared on his left arm.

So, if Stanley managed to produce a strength far more than the man could contain, he would win.

Past the plasma, sword hit the man’s arm finally, and it easily cut through it. It went deeper and cut the man’s chest, while burning it and appeared out of the other side where he was completely cleaved through the man.

Time flowed back to normal and the man’s body was sent to the side, hitting the wall with a force that was not ordinary in the least. He was dead without a doubt and Stanley finally sighed in relief seeing that the man was dead.

He looked toward the girl who was cowering underneath her sheet and was about to ask her about David when Gray spoke through his earpiece.

"I found David," he remarked. "But... there are three of them. Two of them are going downtown and one is going toward the mountains. I’ll need you to take care of that one, Stanley."

Stanley looked toward the girl and after making sure that she was okay, he left.