V1-025

Instead, he needed to touch the person physically to acquire their factor, limiting his Ability to acquire new factors as easily as I could.

In contrast, though, his method was much safer than mine; it was just more disadvantageous.

The second I heard my younger brother's loud, annoyed laughter, I knew what his next move would be, so I did the only thing I could, spun my mental pentagram to Conduit, and absorbed the incoming Imperium of the Psychokinetic variety.

Once acquired, I then set it as my active Ability. I had used it many times and knew exactly how to cancel out the effects of another Telepath, or PsychoKinetic, as their Ability name states.

As such, it was relatively easy for me to use it and free Renton's mind along with my own.

Feeling the suppressive and sharp pain in his mind lessen, a twisted grin spread across my brother's face.

Menacingly and with a significant amount of "fake" strain, I watched as Renton stood up; and my eyes met the Elders across the room from me; they were all shocked at the events unfolding in front of them.

They had no clue how someone under their control could break free; however, it wasn't necessarily that Renton had dispelled the effects of their mental assault; instead, it was me doing it for him.

"Not so cocky now, are yah? Oh, and before you try using my brother against me," he leaned down and gripped my shoulder, creating a circuit between us, allowing him access to the Telepath Factor.

But, there was a greater meaning to his actions. Aside from getting the factor for himself, Renton also acted out a one-man show for his audience.

From the way he presented things, it appeared as if he had the PsychoKinetic Ability himself, which is how Renton got rid of the Elders' influence on his mind, and when my brother stepped to my side, he put on the façade of saving me from them as well.

With this façade established, the Elders had no clue about my being a Conduit until our subsequent action caught the entire room off guard.

As I stood up, all eight of the guards aimed their guns at us, and as if in sync, Renton and I extended our hands toward the two clusters of guards and dropped them to the floor using our joint PsychoKinetic Ability.

With the guards all incapacitated, we walked into the Council Chambers and closed the door behind us.

"Now that we have your attention," I started the conversation first,

"We would like to continue the negotiations that were started earlier," and Renton finished my statement.

Invisibly to the word, a thin line of Imperium connected us, allowing our minds to think in perfect synchronicity.

This thin thread was on the floor and joined my right foot to his left, so even if someone could see Imperium, we had disguised it enough that it would be hard to notice.

It was almost like we were sharing one mind and were speaking with it, which reminded me of two characters who fused with earrings or a strange dance from a TV show Renton and I watched growing up.

Thanks to our newly acquired factor, we could hear the fearful thoughts of the Council of Elders. One word kept flashing through all 5 of their minds. *Conduits,* and upon hearing this word spamming on repeat in their heads, Renton and I frowned.

Gritting my teeth, thousands of thoughts flashed between Renton and me until I finally decided the jig was up, and if I wanted this alliance to be solid, I would need to give away some of our secrets.

"Yes, you are correct; my brother and I are both Conduits. Very few know of this, and as of now, we have only allowed our inner circle to find out." Steeling my resolve, I spoke first.

"And now you five to know this fact, so if negotiations break down, the only option we have left is to kill you all." Renton finished our statement with a fierce glare, causing the five Elders to recoil in fear.

Stepping forward in unison, Renton and I looked disdainfully at the eight unconscious guards before Renton spoke up.

"We have taken the liberty of removing all memories of the past ten minutes from all eight guards outside these chambers." He stated as if it was a matter of fact that this was the result.

"Honestly, those eight are quite lucky. If it was any other time, I do not doubt that Renton would unhesitantly kill them all the second they pointed a weapon at him." The two of us shrugged our shoulders and stopped a few feet from the five massive thrones.

"I can't be blamed; I'm not very fond of having guns of any type pointed in my direction, not friendly, and certainly not by those with hostile intentions." He said while uttering an aggressive grunt.

Observing the inside of the hall, I noticed a certain gangly teenager kneeling on the ground and trembling like a leaf.

Hearing someone approaching, Nile looked over his shoulder, and upon seeing it was Renton and me, the trembling ceased, and a look of calm spread over his face.

Walking over to the young man, I tapped his shoulder, freeing him from the suppression established by the Elders, and nodded at him, a signal for the young man to stand behind us.

Neither Renton nor I gazed inside Nile's mind; he was a friend, and we wouldn't invade him like one of the guards. Sure, we were aggressive people, but when it came to those we trusted, we would never turn our Abilities against them unless given a proper reason to.

Unfortunately, one person had abused this kindness we show, and it had nearly cost My and Renton's lives on more than one occasion, and that was Chase.

"We take it they declined our initial offer for a renegotiation, but since we've shown our talents and that we aren't some weak saps that can be bullied, they have evaluated our offer and will hear us out," I said aloud, since I wanted to avoid talking directly into Nile's mind, or else I may accidentally peek inside his head.

Standing behind Renton and me, Nile's head bobbed up and down in understanding; unlike the five oldies sitting on their false thrones, he wasn't scared of us.

There was no reason for him to be either; if anything, he knew he was safer now that we were here, as with our presence, the five geezers on the thrones couldn't hurt him, let alone us with their powers.

With Nile out of harm's way, our attention was drawn to an empty set of three throne-like chairs that sat about 20 feet away and faced the Elders, so Renton and I moved to them and took our seats before the Council.

After taking a seat on the not-so-comfortable marble chairs, I motioned for Nile to join us, and he stood to my left; Renton sat to my right, and just like that, we had our audience with the Infamous Outlanders Council of Elders.

Once the three of us were in place, our eyes met the three old men and two old women, who appeared to be in their late 70s. Their eyes sparkled with strange silver light, indicating they were Silver Rankers, which caused Renton to snort loudly upon spotting.

'Knock it off,' I said through our Telepathic connection.

'I don't like being gazed at like a zoo animal Dean; you know that. Especially by people weaker than us, it's the same look those bastards had in the past when they found out about our Ability, but we both remember how that ended.' Replying with an arrogant tone and a gruff chuckle, Renton glared at the five Elders with such ferocity they flinched.

'Sigh, always so belligerent, Renton; in a second, the Elders are going to push into my mind to find out what happened in the meeting room, so don't freak out and panic when you see it happen.' Feeling that I needed to expand on my statement, I quickly added…

'You know how this works; I will be in a daze as I direct the proper memories to them, so don't kill anyone while I do so.'

Before I could get his response, I felt a soft tug at my consciousness and understood what it was, so against my better judgment, I relaxed the mental barriers I had erected upon obtaining the Telepathy Factor, allowing the Council to invade my mind to gather all the facts about what had transpired today between Jimmy, Balto, Kris, and me.

The process took less than five minutes, but by its conclusion, the Five Elders fully verified the information obtained from Nile's memories since he was present for most of the events.

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