2 Genesis (1/2)

”Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!”

While shouting furiously at himself, a man ran through what he felt to be an endless labyrinth of pristine white metallic corridors. As one would expect from the architecture of this era, the halls consisted of pure white walls, flooring and ceiling with the only noticeable features being the occasional slits for air ventilation.

”Damn it all!”

However, such details were trivial to the man as he grasped the collar-like object that grasped his neck. It was a 'psionic restrainer' which as its name would imply, is able to restrain the psionic capabilities of any psionic.

This psionic restrainer combined with the facts that he was running through a maze of hallways while at the same time being pursued by his newly formed enemies placed him in a rather precarious situation.

Or would it be better to say that his 'newly formed enemies' were always his enemies? It was just that they were his enemies that hid under the guise of being 'friends.'

Regardless, of what the truth actually was, they were still traitors and there's no denying that fact.

And if the man was being honest with himself, he wasn't really surprised by their betrayal.

But that didn't mean that he felt nothing.

He didn't know why exactly, but he felt disappointed.

Disappointed that once again, humanity has proven to him how untrustworthy and greedy they can be.

How hard can it be for a man like him to find some actually trustworthy people in his life?

Every single person he befriended eventually tried to stick a knife in his back.

Emphasis on the word 'tried.'

However, the man wasn't given much time to dwell on his thoughts as he saw a group of figures appear ahead of him as he turned a corner, causing him to slow down to a halt.

On the other side of the hall, he saw a young woman who seemed to not even be in her twenties and was surrounded by five humanoid figures. Although the humanoid figures had silhouette's similar to that of human beings, their featureless and metallic appearance told the man that they were in fact droids.

But to the man's surprise, it would seem that the woman hasn't noticed him yet. Instead she continued to expose her back to the man as she pointed at the droids and threw needlessly abusive commands at them.

”Useless tin cans! What do you mean by 'target's psionic energy cannot be detected'?! You're droids! You're supposed to have perfect memory and logical thinking! Explain to me how the psionic energy of someone like him could just disappear!?”

Although the man knew that this was no time to be standing around, he also knew that there was another, much larger group of pursuers right behind him. While they may not know where he is right now, running back the way he came would surely lead to him encountering the previous pursuing group.

On the other hand, this smaller group would definitely be a lot easier to deal with, especially if he was given even a few seconds to prepare himself.

With that in mind, the man took advantage of his currently undetected status as he placed his hands behind his back before proceeding to gather whatever psionic energy he could into said hands.

While the psionic restrainer may restrain his psionic capabilities, that doesn't necessarily mean that he can't use them.

However, he wasn't given as much time as he would have liked.

”Apologies ma'am, no psionic energy could be detected and no logical reason was able to be determined. However, the target was detected.”

Within a few seconds, the droids all simultaneously lifted their arms before pointing their fingers at the man, the only feature on their head, their 'eye' which constituted of a slit which revealed a single blue light quickly transformed into a single red light.

Within moments, the woman turned around in what seemed to be shock as she laid her eyes upon the man.

However, contrary to what the man expected, the woman carried herself in a rather peculiar manner.

While she took a cautious stance as she faced off against the man, he was able to see that underlying her posture and red-black exosuit, there were some glints of insecurity. Especially in her eyes, for in that pair of light blue eyes was undoubtedly fear.

With those fearful eyes the woman stuttered herself in just a loud enough manner that the man could hear her.

”I... I don't be-believe it. Why... why the hell does it have to be me that finds you? There's no... no way... no way I can match up to an S-class psionic...”

She was scared.

She was scared of him.

However, her fearful mutters was soon overwhelmed by her own laughter.

”Ahah... AHAHAHAHAHAA!”

The fearful glint in her eye was instead replaced with mockery as she pointed at the man's neck.

”But wait... What's that? Is that a psionic restrainer that I spot on you?! Now I understand why the droids couldn't detect your psionic energy! It's because you no longer have any! You're powerless now! I don't have to be afraid of you!”

With a solemn sigh, the man kept his hands behind his back as he replied to the woman's shouts and laughter.

”You know, I almost feel sorry for you. Really, I do. If you actually believe what you just said then I feel so sorry for you that I could almost give you a hug.”

As the man spoke, his mouth slowly started to twist upwards into a smile. After all, instead of attacking, the idiot instead chose to mock him.

He wasn't lying.

He did feel sorry for her.

And that was because those precious few moments that she just wasted allowed him to fully prepare his psionic attack. With mockery in his own voice, the man prepared to attack as he continued speaking to the woman.

”But here's the thing. Just because my power is being restricted, that doesn't mean that I'm as weak as you lot are. Do you really think that I've fallen that far?! Huh!”

As soon as the man said this, he flicked his right hand forward from his behind his back, his two fingers pointed at his target. Not even half a second passed as as lightning bolt ejected itself from those two finger tips.

This was the man's unique psionic attack that separated him from the other psionics.

His signature lightning that no other form of psionic attack can never hope to match in speed or power.

His green lightning.

In less than a second, his green lightning arced around around the woman as she braced herself for the impact, instead 'missing' her entirely and hitting the droid to her left before systematically jumping from each droid to the other.

Soon, each of the droids were hit by the green lightning, promptly frying their circuits before they fell over. Their once glowing red eye disappeared entirely as they lay 'dead' on the floor.

When the woman realised what had just happened, her jaw dropped open while her eyes widened in shock. Her arms fell by her side as she appeared to have lost the will to fight. Instead all she did was mutter whatever words seemed to be on her mind.

”How the... how the hell? How the hell did you do that?”

Soon that shock was replaced by frustration as the woman replaced her mutters with shouts.