Interlude: The Black Clothed Man

The diner was warm, with the sweet aroma of freshly brewed coffee and freshly cooked meals wafting through the air.

It was sparsely populated, homely decorated, just how I liked it, and it had a peaceful ambiance with only the occasional clinks and clangs of cutlery and the quiet chatter of the dining customers resounding all over.

Seated alone at the edge of the diner, my hands spread on the black polished surface of the table, I smiled derisively as I scrutinized the place and the people in it.

Humans...a weak, fragile, and interesting species that bullied its way to planetary domination.

A race that believed it was the overlord of the planet with no predators that could challenge its supremacy.

...Oh how wrong they were. If only they knew that dwelling among them was a new superior species that could kill them as easily as a man trampling on an ant.

If only they knew...

My smile broadened at the thought as I sipped on my warm coffee, my gaze shifting from my surroundings to a diner's counter.

A pretty and slim young woman with light long brown hair, an oval face, and small bright brown eyes walked over from behind the counter with two plates in her hands to a table occupied by two policemen.

She was dressed casually in a pink blouse with a red apron tied around her waist to settle beneath her torso. and blue jeans that hugged her figure comfortably.

With a warm smile on her face, she exchanged a few words with the policemen who were all smiles, and then proceeded from there to take the orders of some of the seated customers.

Her name was Charlie and despite how normal she looked, she was anything but. She was just like me...someone special and one of the people who were part of the next step of human evolution.

My newest target...

"Everything working good guys?" She asked with a smile, with a southern accent, as she stopped at a table occupied by two...Japanese young men, about two steps away from me.

One of them, the slightly pudgy one wearing glasses, and a blue jacket underneath a white shirt, looked up from his menu and flashed her an idiotic smile.

"...Everything-a, good-o lookinga." He replied with broken English and a heavily accented voice.

"Wow, you guys are a long way from home," She nodded lightly with a smile. "We don't get a lotta tourists out here."

"How...do you know we tourist-o?" He asked with raised eyebrows.

"...Just an educated guess." She chuckled, glanced at the other guy who was staring at her, a little awestruck, and then looked back at the jacket of 'four eyes'. "What's that? Bachigai...that means I don't belong here right?"

The two Japanese guys became wide-eyed in surprise, "You know Japanese?" Four eyes asked excitedly.

"No, not really," She shook her head. "Someone gave me a Japanese phrasebook for my birthday and I started poking through it last week."

She paused and then with a little difficulty, said a phrase in perfect Japanese to the vivid excitement of the two guys.

Four eyes even started clapping, exclaiming 'Amazing' in Japanese to the embarrassment of his companion.

Elated, she talked about how it had always been her dream to visit Tokyo and that one day, it'd be her next stop when she traveled abroad.

The yellow jacket-wearing and handsome-looking Japanese guy opened his mouth in surprise, "...You learned all that in just one week?" He muttered in perfect English, his voice a little accented.

"You have good-o memoryyy!" Four eyes exclaimed like a child to her amusement.

"Yeah, I remember lots and lots. It's something that my brain started doing lately. Whether I want it to or not...," She chuckled dryly and then cleared her throat softly. "Anyways, what can I get for you guys?" She smiled professionally.

"...You pick-o. Something deli-cias for me and for my friend, he needs food for fato-fato." Four eyes said with a grin, making Charlie laugh while his friend, looked at him in horror.

"I've got just the thing. One chilli-keyleys and one cheese plate coming right up." She said with a jovial smile as she jotted something down in her notebook and then turned to leave.

Her eyes glanced at me and she smiled, nodding in greeting.

I returned the favor and tipped my black cap to her with a friendly smile on my face and she nodded, heading back to behind the counter.

I wore my cap back, the smile still on my face as my eyes watched her go, and stealthily, I beckoned my cup of coffee that was a few inches away from my mind.

It slid in my outstretched hand...

I'd been observing her since I rolled into this small insignificant town and this auspicious little diner early morning.

Imagine my surprise when I detected the familiar clock ticking sound from her head when she came close to me to take my order, riling from within me that beastly hunger that only awakened when I was close to a member of my kind.

It nearly consumed me, the voices telling me to kill her there and then but I calmed my impulses. It wasn't the right time...

From what I'd observed so far, her power gave her a photographic memory. A weak ability but particularly useful in the grand scheme of things.

It would complement my current powerset very well. She didn't deserve it...

『No wonder everyone in America is fat. All they eat are fatty meals.』The yellow jacket guy commented in Japanese as he held up his menu.

『Don't complain. You've forgotten we need our strength to help Peter Petrelli save Xander.』Four eyes said with a smile, making his friend grumble lightly.

『Yeah, yeah...』Yellow Jacket said in a low voice and looked down to continue reading the menu, ending their conversation.

Smiling, I shook my head as I got bored of eavesdropping their conversation and tuned out their voices as I sipped on my coffee, throwing my attention to Charlie who was standing behind the counter, relaxing in my seat.

This was just one application of my main power, understanding all languages. I didn't understand even a single word in Japanese, even right now, I didn't know the words they were saying.

But instinctively and intuitively, my mind could pick out the intent and meaning behind every single word and translate it to words I can understand just by observing them closely.

My power allowed me to understand how things worked. It didn't sound like much but when you read into it carefully, you'd realize how horrifyingly powerful it was.

The applications were almost endless. AMD one of them, the most important of them all, enabled me to get my hands on the abilities of others.

All I had to do was find a superpowered person, trap them, cut off the top of their heads to expose their brain, and then read or scrutinize the portion of the brain that controlled our powers to understand how it...ticked or functioned.

It was, like I said earlier, a very horrifyingly powerful ability...one that would make me all-powerful in time...

Suddenly, my ears perked up when I heard Yellow Jacket restart the conversation.

『Anyways, what's the big deal about this Xander guy anyway? The way Peter talked about him, it was like he's the most important person in the universe.』He asked and said curiously as he lowered the menu to look at Four Eyes face.

『Well according to him, he's the one who has the power to save the world or New York. He thinks, maybe, he has the most powerful superpower.』Four Eyes explained with an excited smile and my eyes widened in surprise.

A superpower? The most powerful superpower?

If anyone who understood Japanese heard what he said, they'd either think they were insane or just playing around but I knew better...

These guys knew about us and they knew about someone who was theorized to be the most powerful of us all. The most powerful superpower...

My fists clenched in excitement, my lips spreading into a broad grin and I could feel the hunger stirring up within me as greed flared up in my heart.

...That power, whatever it was, I had to get it. No, I needed it. I was the only one, the only one, who deserved to be called the most powerful. The only one...

『Hm? But I think you a—Never mind. If that is true, then we have to speed up our journey to Odessa, Texas. We can't let the bad guy get to him first.』Yellow Jacket said and nodded seriously, making Four Eyes also nod with the same intensity.

『Exactly. This is our sacred mission, Ando. Failure is not an option. 』Four Eyes intoned, with a serious face.

But then the next moment, it broke down into an awkward smile as he rubbed his belly.

『...Uhm, I think I need to use the bathroom. If the food comes, start eating without me.』He instructed and then without waiting for a response, strode hurriedly to the bathroom at the end of the room.

My grin widened as he entered the room. These idiots didn't know they had just they had doomed someone's life.

They'd given me all the information I needed to increase my power and possibly be the most powerful being on the planet without me needing to raise a single finger.

Today must've been my lucky day...

Charlie came out of the counter with two plates in hand and skipped to the duo's table to serve them.

Then, after saying a few words to Yellow Jacket, she left but this time, she walked into the storage room.

Almost immediately after that, three customers left the diner, leaving only four people in the diner, including me.

The rest were busy chomping down their food, their attention nowhere else. It was the perfect time to act.

Standing up, I called upon my Telekinesis and used it to wrap every inch of my body. Then, stealthily like an assassin, I slipped my hands into the pockets of my black trenchcoat and strode towards the storage room silently with no sound of my footsteps.

Easily, I walked past the tables of those present, unseen or unnoticed like a ghost, and casually stepped into the room.

I saw Charlie standing in front of a table, with her back facing me, using a can opener to slice open the round top of a large can of tomatoes, surrounded by tall metal shelves, humming a country music tune.

Taking slow steps towards her, I stopped an arm's length away, and just as she was about to turn, I extended my Telekinetic force to her body, making her freeze.

A dark and sadistic smile crawled on my face and I extended my left index finger at her head, using it as a focal point of my power.

Compressing my Telekinetic force into a thin beam or line, I slowly started tracing it along the circumference of the top part of her head, making blood spew out as it started slicing.

She let out muffled sounds of pain, like she was choking, as the cutting followed the motion of my finger, copious blood leaking out like tears, drenching the place in the lovely smell of iron.

After a few seconds, I stopped as the circle was complete, and immediately, her body tumbled down like a block of Legos but silently.

With a wave of my finger, the top part of her head flew away in the shape of a bowl, exposing the entirety of her bloody brain as blood mixed with brain fluid swam out of her head, rippling all over the stone floor.

I stood over her body, ignoring her dead brown eyes widened in terror and disbelief, shifted her brain to the side using my finger, and then smirked as I saw the thing I was looking for, the tick-tack sound of a clock echoing in my head.

Immediately, I could feel my brain heating as gradually I began to understand the inner workings of her ability and after a few seconds, the tick-tack sound died and the heating stopped.

It was done. I had her ability now...

Happy, I took one last look at her beautiful face as blood snaked down from her head and then left quickly left the room.

Not stopping a single second, I continued and then walked out of the diner using the front door.

Outside, the sun was slowly dipping beneath the horizon, painting the sky orange and I smiled innocently as the cold air hugged my body.

...Now that I was done 'collecting' my prize. My next stop was Odessa. I had a bigger prize to win.

It had been a fruitful day and I had a feeling it was going to be an even more fruitful evening...