A Flood of Emotion Points

Russell listened to the system's pleasant notifications in his mind, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

Facing the hail of bullets bearing down on him, he raised his left hand and extended one finger.

Just one effortless gesture.

Time seemed to stop.

A pigeon startled by the gunfire happened to fly beside him. Its wings hung spread in mid-flap, suspended in midair.

The bullets—hundreds of them, trailing streaks of heat—stopped several yards from his body.

Some were still spinning, stirring faint currents of air, but they could not advance another inch.

It was as if someone had pressed pause on the entire space.

[Fear +1]

[Fear +1]

[Fear +1]

"Hello! Hello! What's happening? Respond if you copy!"

Flint's urgent shout came over the radio, but his voice seemed to drift in from far away, muffled by an invisible barrier until it scarcely sounded real.

Several seconds passed—perhaps ten, perhaps longer—before a soldier snapped out of the frozen scene.

He moved the finger curled around his trigger and found his hand shaking badly.

Time had not stopped.

The bullets they had fired had been fixed in midair by a power they could not comprehend.

That, together with a shock so immense it threatened to shatter everything they thought they knew, had given them the illusion that time stood still.

"Oh... my God..." a soldier murmured, his voice as faint as if he were dreaming. "Is this really someone we can capture?"

"Fuck," another soldier swore, his voice close to breaking. "The intel was wrong... This isn't what fighting a Level Three Mutant looks like..."

"Install the electronic pulse, and do it faster, damn it. Stop hesitating." Lieutenant Tang Wei kicked the soldier who had been dragging his feet.

"Sir, we can't install it... Once we do, we'll all drown."

No one answered him. The electromagnetic pulse Tang Wei had taken over suddenly exploded. He looked toward Russell and met the man's gaze.

We're finished!

Only one thought remained in everyone's minds: pray.

Because the man moved again.

He lowered his finger and gave a gentle wave.

The pigeon flapped away, racing into the sky without looking back, as though it had just woken from a nightmare.

And the bullets suspended in midair—that metal storm capable of tearing an entire company apart—turned a precise hundred and eighty degrees.

Back where they came from.

"Oh, Jesus..."

"Oh, God..."

"Oh, Holy Mary..."

Those were the soldiers' last prayers.

"Hello! Hello! Why hasn't the pulse been installed? Can anyone hear me?! This is Flint! What the hell is happening on-site?!"

Major Flint paced like a caged Beast.

Sweat covered his forehead, his uniform collar hung open, and the radio creaked in his grip.

"Oh... Major Flint..." A voice finally came over the radio, broken and carrying a calm that sounded almost like relief.

"This is Lieutenant Tang Wei... It's all over... You should do what we did... Pr—"

Crackle—

The signal died.

"Hello? Hello? Lieutenant Tang Wei, finish what you were fucking saying!"

Flint roared into the radio, his voice rising out of control. Only harsh static answered him.

Rumble—

A string of muffled explosions sounded from deep within the slum. Flint jerked his head up and saw plumes of gray-white smoke rising between the buildings, spreading through the morning light like flowers blooming too late.

Ten squads.

More than a hundred elite soldiers.

Equipped with specially developed weapons designed to fight Mutants.

Wiped out.

"Impossible..." Flint muttered. He stamped his right foot against the ground once, twice, three times, as though struggling against the earth—or against a fear he dared not admit.

He did not care about the soldiers. America might lack many things, but people were not among them.

If one batch died, hundreds or thousands of young men were already lined up outside recruitment offices to take their places.

What mattered was the mission. It was the first assignment General Darian had entrusted to him, and before leaving, Flint had thumped his chest and guaranteed he could handle it.

If he failed, he was finished. Not demoted. Not disciplined. Finished.

"Wait..." Something occurred to him. He spun around, his gaze landing on the enormous shapes beneath camouflage tarps behind the military trucks. His eyes lit up like a drowning man catching hold of driftwood.

"I still have the Hound and Sentry..."

Beside a military truck, Victor Marshall had noticed the strange sight in the sky. He had only just climbed out and had yet to find his footing when he saw Flint running toward him.

He hurriedly put on a smile, but before he could speak, Flint unleashed a torrent of furious shouting.

Victor froze. His gaze slid past Flint to the still-smoking ruins, and his heart skipped a beat.

Something had gone terribly wrong.

At the center of the ruins, the smoke had yet to clear.

Russell stood where he was and swept his gaze around him.

Severed limbs lay everywhere. Scraps of black combat uniforms mingled with crimson blood, the morning light lending the carnage the brutal texture of an oil painting.

Expressionless, he walked past the wounded soldiers who were still moaning and flicked a finger. One strike each, and it was over.

It took no effort at all. He considered himself a kind man.

He even drew a stream of water down through the air to extinguish the flames the explosions had started.

If he was going to do a good deed, he might as well see it through.

Inside the house, Felicity glimpsed the scene through a gap in the window and stood rooted to the spot.

Her hand still rested on Laura's shoulder, her knuckles faintly white from the pressure. After a long while, she managed a barely audible whisper:

"So this is... Lord Russell's power?"

Her pupils contracted slightly.

Russell had no idea what Felicity was thinking.

His attention was fixed on the virtual panel before him. His emotion points were climbing visibly—shock, fear, awe. Each notification sounded like coins dropping into his purse. Music to his ears.

A faint smile touched his lips.

After this battle, he was sure he could unlock a new skill.

Molecular-level Psychic Telekinesis.

It brought to mind that nearly omnipotent being from the comics: Molecule Man.