27 Mind Manipulation

As S7 looked at the visible Davis that reappeared behind S8's sprawled form with disbelief in his eyes, he didn't waste any more time as he grabbed a gun from his upholstery, aimed at Davis's unsuspecting back with expertise and pulled the trigger.

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When the quad heard the loud boom that sounded like the impact of two powerful forces colliding into each other, they felt their hearts make way to their throats.

Penny was the most frightened of all as she, Timmy and Avi immediately started for the entrance of the cornerpath to see if Mr Davis was still alright. They were just few feet away from the entrance when the figures of the three mutants that chased after them came into their view.

They stopped at once again, for fear of being caught and taken back to where they just escaped from. Penny on the other hand, wanted to damn all consequences and kept on going but was luckily stopped by Cyrus in time who convinced her and the others to see how things turned out barging in. He didn't want their emotions to get the better of them.

They couldn't see the whole thing as Mr Davis was not in their field of vision but judging by the facial expressions of the mutants, they could deduce that he was currently having a confrontation with those men.

Meanwhile, Penny squinted her eyes at the entrance, trying to see what she could make out from the blurred images. That's when she and the rest of the group saw that on the spur of the moment, one of the mutants left his spot beside his colleagues and shot forward.

They didn't know what was going on but the next thing they heard was someone yelling, 'Simon are you nuts?! Get back!' followed by the sound of a falling tree hitting the ground.

Still trying to process the situation as she still couldn't see clearly and could feel her vision getting more hazy by the minute, Penny squeezed her eyes shut tight attempting to expel the fog from her eyes when the sonance of consecutive gunshots rang in her ears.

"No!" Avi exclaimed quietly with her palm over her mouth while the boys had a look of terror on their faces. They had seen the mutant shooting at where Mr Davis was currently standing.

Hearing the sound of the gunshot, Penny snapped her eyes open and Cyrus who turned to look at her reaction, noticed that her already blood shot eyes were shaking with fear.

She had just taken a step forward when Cyrus grabbed her arm, turned her around and hugged her tightly.

"Penny listen, we can't go in there now, we might just get in the way. Remember how they got Sir T to surrender? They used US as hostages. So please I know it's hard, but let's wait just a little longer!" he whispered into her ears, caressing her silver hair gently while Timmy and Avi watched their interaction solemnly.

Penny struggled for a few seconds but the headache and exhaustion was already taking its toll on her so she dropped her arms and rested on Cyrus's chest when Timmy and Avi suddenly exclaimed excitedly.

"Whoa! That was so cool!" Avi said with smiling eyes.

"Cy! Penny! You guys need to see this!" Timmy voiced, his eyes still on the entrance. Their urging caused Penny and Cyrus to look towards the entrance again curiously.

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Expertly handling different kinds of weapons with skilled hands was what got S7 unto his spot in S8's Elite team.

Though he didn't get to meet Davis when he was younger like S6 & 8, he was pretty much aware of how 'dangerous' he was, Mr Dev told him all about his psychotic actions many years back so he didn't miss the opportunity to make use of Davis's lack of concentration and sent a barrage of bullets to his back, hoping to make him drop on the ground.

'There's no way he can dodge all these bullets, no matter how fast he is', he thought.

But to his surprise, all he could see was the wasted bullets piercing through the air and falling on S8 and the leaves of the fallen tree, no man.

Stiffening in alert, he turned around with a whish and whipped his head left and right in order to catch sight of Davis's figure when he felt himself being thrown sideways. After he found himself back on land, he wanted to rise up again to prevent himself from being open to any attack, that's when he felt it.

He couldn't move!

It was like his energy was completely drawn from his body and all he could move were his eyeballs. 'Did S6 mistakenly use his Energy absorption on me? Why did he do that?' he thought while trying to find S6's location with his eyes when he heard a deep chuckle.

"I wasn't late, right Davis?" Thomas's carefree voice was what S7 heard next in the forest. Following the sound of the voice with his eyes, S7 saw both the limp bodies of S6 & 8 on the ground right by Thomas's feet causing him to gulp in fear.

'Both devils are here?! How did they escape?!' S7 thought.

"Hmm...so what were you waiting for earlier?," was the only thing Davis asked in response as he glanced at the 3 men sprawled on the floor causing Thomas to break into a cold sweat.

'I thought the 'hero jumps in to save the day' scenario would make him less mad at me but I guess not' Thomas thought in silence as he remembered how he quickly ran to catch up with Davis.

He had gotten here a while ago and heard what transpired between him and S8. How S8 called him ignorant and tried to attack him with a strength that could kill an elephant in one strike.

He knew Davis didn't need any help with S8 so he only swooped in when S7 wanted to shoot at Davis with his back turned. So when Davis threw S7 to the side, he absorbed all their energies just like he did to S3, thus 'saving the day'. He had hidden well among the trees or he thought he did but Davis still managed to find him still, thus ruining his 'perfect' plan.

'I'm completely toast now, aren't I?' he thought to himself before releasing a sigh.

"Okay, I'm sorry! I forgot to turn on the protection barrier beam at the borders! I know it's all my fault and I'll accept any form of punishment you deem fit so please don't be mad at me anymore!"

'.... it's killing me! Literally!' Thomas added in his thoughts as he begged Davis earnestly.

While everyone was having fun at the festival, Vonna had come to report that Davis and Jeremy's attention was needed at the basement of the lab, saying something was malfunctioning there or whatnot.

He didn't really understand the technical terms she was spewing out of her mouth but what was of major concern was that Davis had told him specifically to activate the protection barrier beam immediately he left for the basement.

However, before he could take a step to do just that, someone suddenly came and suggested that he should view the Northern Lights with him and so he got carried away by the lights that he totally forgot to switch on the beam which contributed a huge factor to the raid on Platinum Valleys.

Cause if the beam was on, they'd have detected the presence of the raiders at least 500m away and would have stopped them before they could see the borderline of Platinum Valleys.

As Thomas wallowed in self blame, Davis's gaze calmly and silently fell on him. He knew Thomas wasn't totally at fault, it was all planned out by the person helping Dev from inside Platinum Valleys. It was pretty neat for a strategy but there were so many loopholes, too amateurish infact. He thought as he peered down at the limp forms of Dev's so called Elite team.

Dev sent in people that were just like him, too emotional and those emotions were used against them. Take S8 for example, he let rage cloud his mind so much that he didn't think before he moved to strike making him land heavily on the trunk of a palm tree, falling it in the process.

Ah, now that he remembered, he would need to collect that debt from S8 later. For now,

"I don't know what you were going on about me being a traitor and whatnot but...," Davis said, completely ignoring Thomas that was about to drown in his guilt.

Thomas: "...."

"Where are the kids you chased here? And the rest of my people?" Davis's tone suddenly turned serious as he addressed the men lying defenceless on the ground.

S6 & 7 just gazed up at him wordlessly while S8 glared at him as he thought, 'We can't speak! Take a hint, you dumbo!'

"Ah, I forgot you can't speak for now, well that's a problem," Davis sighed as he raised his hands to ruffle his black hair as realization dawned on him.

"Let's do it my way then. Thomas!" he continued with a smile on his face as he approached them causing S6 to widen his eyes in fear.

Apart from speed and absolute strength, Davis had another ability that S7 & 8 didn't know about.

Mind Manipulation.

It was an ability that caused the victim see their greatest fears causing them to become delirious and spill all their innermost secrets. Davis didn't really use it at the training centre but when he did his opponents would be put into a state of hysteria.

It was a form of psychological torture and he didn't know if he or his colleagues could take it.

Meanwhile, Thomas who was feeling guilty awhile ago had already got into action and unfortunately grabbed S6 who was just thinking how he'd survive the psychological torture.

As Thomas lifted him up effortlessly, and sat him down on the ground directly in front of Davis, S6 thought, 'Why am I so unlucky today?'

Davis peered down at the boy in front of him and raised his hands to place on his head that was currently lowered in defeat. He just wanted to see through his mind, unlike before, he could control his ability well now so S6 wouldn't have a nervous breakdown.

He had just placed his hands on S6's striking red hair when....

"Dad!"