It was a sound, subtle and out of place in the sleeping neighborhood. The slow crunch of tires on gravel.
The muffled purr of a hybrid engine running idle.
I turned my gaze down the street. Fifty yards away, parked under the heavy canopy of an ancient oak tree, was a dark sedan. Its headlights were off, but the engine was running.
Enhanced Senses (Tier 2)
I focused on my hearing. Through the glass and metal of the car, I heard a heartbeat. It was fast and erratic. Spiking with adrenaline and sheer terror.
I zoomed my vision, piercing the gloom and the tinted windshield.
Sitting in the driver's seat, her hands gripping the steering wheel so tightly her knuckles were white, was a young woman.
Her face was pale, bathed in the faint glow of the dashboard instruments. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, her chest heaving with silent sobs.
It was Annabeth Moreau.
I froze, calculating the implications.
In the canon timeline of events, Annabeth and Marie were entirely estranged.
Annabeth refused to speak to her sister, terrified of the girl who had accidentally killed their parents.
And she had no logical reason to be parked outside Marie's transition house in the middle of the night.
Unless.
Precognition (Tier 2).
The realization clicked into place like a chambered round. Her power was emotion based. What greater emotional trigger could there be than the impending murder of her only living relative?
My sheer intent to kill Marie had sent a shockwave into the future and Annabeth's precognition had caught the echo. She had seen her sister die.
She had driven here in a state of absolute panic, not knowing what to do, trapped between her fear of her sister and her terror of the vision.
She was a loose thread that could unravel the flawless tapestry I was weaving.
I shifted my mental anchor from Marie's bedroom window to the passenger seat of the idling sedan.
Snap.
The crisp night air was instantly replaced by the warm scent of the car's interior… a mix of cheap vanilla air freshener and cold sweat.
I was standing on the leather upholstery of the passenger seat, a 0.1 inch speck of absolute lethality.
Annabeth was still crying, staring fixedly at the house down the street. She didn't notice the microscopic displacement of air. She didn't hear my arrival over the sound of her own frantic heartbeat.
"I'm sorry," she was whispering to herself, her voice cracking. "I don't know what to do. I'm sorry, Marie. He's coming, he's coming, he's coming..."
She knew.
I felt no pity. Pity was an emotion for men who played by the rules of morality. I was operating on the physics of survival.
I engaged my powers simultaneously.
I needed to eliminate her instantly, silently and without leaving a trace of physical trauma or a messy crime scene that would draw unnecessary attention.
I focused my will on the air surrounding Annabeth's body.
Cryokinesis (Tier 1).
The temperature inside the driver's seat plummeted from seventy degrees to absolute zero in a fraction of a microsecond.
Her neurons froze before the pain signals could travel from her skin to her brain. The water in her cells, her blood, the moisture in her eyes… it all crystallized instantaneously.
An eerie crackle filled the cabin, like the sound of a fragile glass ornament cooling too quickly.
She became an immaculate statue of frosted flesh. Her tears froze as solid tracks of ice on her cheeks. The condensation from her aborted breath fell to her lap as a shower of diamond hard snow.
The leather of the steering wheel beneath her hands grew brittle and pale, but the car itself remained undamaged. The absolute zero field was hyper localized, wrapped around her body like a second skin.
It was a perfectly silent and a perfectly clean execution.
A holographic interface materialized in the empty space above the dashboard, visible only to my eyes.
[Supe Neutralized: Annabeth Moreau.]
[Power Detected: Precognition (Tier 2).]
[Choose Option: Retain or Convert?]
I stared at the glowing text, analyzing the strategic value of the asset.
Precognition was an incredible tool. Knowing the future, sensing ambushes, predicting stock markets… the applications were limitless.
But power required focus and it required integration. A Tier 2 power would be a persistent hum in the back of my mind.
Furthermore, relying on precognition often bred complacency. If you always knew what was coming, your reflexes dulled.
I relied on my intellect, my memory of the canon and my overwhelming physical superiority.
More importantly, I was about to plunder a veritable treasure trove of Tier 1 abilities from her sister.
Convert.
[Converting Power: Precognition (Tier 2)...]
[Conversion Complete. You have gained 3,000 XP.]
I turned my attention back to the target house. It was time for the main event.
I recalibrated my spatial coordinates. I locked onto the faint glow of the second story window.
Snap.
I materialized on the carpeted floor of Marie Moreau's bedroom.
I was still 0.1 inches tall. The fibers of the carpet rose around me like a beige jungle.
Before my eyes had even fully adjusted to the new lighting, I engaged my ultimate trump card.
Super Speed (Tier 1).
The world... stopped.
The shift to Mach 30 processing speeds was a violent transition. The low hum of the house's air conditioning stretched into an unrecognizable bass note. A speck of dust, illuminated by the bedside lamp, hung suspended in the air, motionless.
I returned to my normal size.
Because I was moving at a speed that defied physics, the displacement of air that accompanied my growth did not create a shockwave or a sound.
The air molecules were pushed aside in slow motion, rolling away from me in thick ripples. I stood at my full height in the center of the bedroom.
Marie Moreau was standing by her bed.
She was a portrait of mundane stillness. She was holding a neatly folded crimson t-shirt, her arms mid motion as she prepared to place it into an open canvas duffel bag sitting on her mattress.
The bag was half full of jeans, socks and books. She was packing for Godolkin University.
Her face was relaxed, an absentminded smile playing on her lips.
But If she blinked, if she registered in my presence, her heart rate would spike. Fear would flood her endocrine system. The adrenaline would act as the key, unlocking her Tier 1 potential.
Her blood would become harder than steel and sharper than monomolecular wire.
Her Biokinesis would kick in, rendering her practically immortal, capable of healing any physical trauma I inflicted as fast as I dealt it.
And with Tier 1 Resurrection lying dormant in her cells, even killing her might only be a temporary inconvenience.
She was the apex predator of this generation.
But an apex predator cannot fight what it cannot perceive.
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