Mutagen

Day 4 – 7:07 AM – Firenze Townhouse Complex Subdivision Main Gates, La Joya St., Buhay na Tubig, Imus Cavite

"Amazing! Bro really pulled it off."

Carlo said as he stared at the monitor at the back of the vehicle.

Everyone in the vehicle was watching what was happening at the gates of the subdivision on the monitor. Since they could not get close enough to watch the situation without getting involved with it accidentally, they launched the same drone they used to recon the area around the City Hall yesterday. The drone was being controlled by Mei who dutifully kept the focus of the camera on Mark as he did everything.

Since the start, from the time Mark was observing the situation to the time Mark killed the leader of the gang and even the current situation, they all saw it clearly. They watched the inhuman abilities Mark had as he jumped up and down the roofs of the houses and ran around like a specter haunting the despairing members of the gang. However, they could not understand why or how the mood around the members of the gang changed too sudden.

At first, they were full of vigor as their faces told what their intents were. Nevertheless, they suddenly fell into disarray after Mark started attacking. Furthermore, they wanted to know how he was able to evade the sight of the enemies and whittle their numbers little by little. With that many people, it was impossible that none of them were able to see Mark as there were times that he shot on plain sight.

As no one of them could think of the possible answer, the only way to know was to ask Mark directly. With the situation coming into closure, Odelina drove towards the gates.

No one noticed however, Mei's face looked worried while she stared at her Gege's figure on the monitor.

***

At the moment, they could see the police take the remaining members of the gang into custody. Among the gang members who were lying down on the street, not all of them were dead as Mark prioritized on killing those who saw him and the others were just secondary targets.

Mark's plan involved the utilization of his new ability and worked successfully. It was just he needed to create a seed of the needed emotion into their subconscious for his ability to work perfectly. He noticed that he could not plant a non-existent emotion on the minds of his target unconditionally. There should be at least a tiny sliver of the emotion he wanted and make it bloom. That led him to do all those troublesome things with acting like a specter for example.

Furthermore, he might be able to just throw grenades at them but Mark got interested at the weapons of these guys. The person who saw him first and shot him when he was at the roof actually had a sniper rifle. It was fortunate that he had the ability to detect the killing intent targeting him and dodged or else, he might be a cold corpse already. Getting shot by a sniper rifle was something anyone should not joke about.

One thing however was bugging him at the moment.

It was because he felt nothing in the face of death. That shot almost killed him and yet, he felt that it was just like passing air.

'Maybe… because of that isn't it?'

Mark thought as he picked up several of the weapons scattered in the middle of the street. There were several things bugging him at the moment and one of those was the reason he knew how to use this new ability on the get go. He might know it from instinct but that was not enough for him to understand this much even if it was his own ability. After all, he had just gotten it after he woke up.

Mark approached the vehicle used by the gang members and pulled the trunk open. There, he found several bags of ammunition and other things. There was a lot. What he found were two HK PSG-1 sniper rifles, three USC Sub-machine guns, an SP5K machine pistol, three M4A1 Assault Rifles and a few more guns like AKs. There was even an M79 Grenade Launcher.

While Mark was storing the firearms he picked up one of the large empty bag from the trunk, two Policemen approached him.

"I'm Senior Inspector Tarongoy and this is SPO4 Herrera. We like to thank you for your help. If you didn't come, we're probably still in a serious situation and more of our men would die."

The older policeman spoke introducing himself and pointed at the younger policeman before saying their gratitude.

"You guys don't have to thank me about this. I'll be taking some of these as payment."

Mark replied without even looking at the two and raised a hunting rifle from a bag in front of him. The two frowned. Mark might have helped them but he should still show respect to them. None of the two voiced their annoyance however. Despite the fact that the gang members could not see anything when Mark attacked, the policemen managed to get some glimpse of his movements. And to say, they were nothing of a human's. They would never think that a human could jump about three meters high unless, the person in front of them was the same of their Acting Leader.

"Can you introduce yourself? I don't recognize you among the survivors we gathered."

"If you don't know, just ask the congresswoman about it. I'm kinda busy here."

Mark continued to check the contents of the bags not wanting to get disturbed. One of the things he hated to do was to introduce himself to other people. If it was not really necessary, he would rather not do it. Furthermore, he had no idea about the details of their entry since he was unconscious at that time. Another thing was that he wanted to leave the place as early as possible and they already got delayed because of this situation. He did not want to spend more time for other things like chatting with these people he did not even know. He already helped them with their predicament and that was already enough.

Still, what he said would sure be taken negatively by anyone. Like the two policemen who frowned even more.

It was then that two black armored vehicles drove towards the gates. The MB Sprinter stopped beside the sidewalk in front of Mark while the TYT Cadillac stopped in front of the policemen.

"Madam!"

The policemen who were dealing with the dead bodies and the remaining gang members immediately saluted as Madam Lanie stepped out of her vehicle.

"Don't mind me. Go back to your work."

Madam Lanie said as she signaled the policemen with her hand. Afterwards, she walked towards Mark.

"Madam!"

Senior Inspector Tarongoy and SP04 Herrera saluted as Madam Lanie approached.

On the other hand, Abbygale, Carlo, Charm and Mei had already went out of their vehicle and encircled around Mark.

"Bro, you're amazing!"

"Just so-so."

Mark gave a short reply and handed several large bags towards the others.

"Get these into the car. We'll have to hurry and leave since it's already late."

Carlo received the bag and almost fell down because he did not expect that the bag would be too heavy.

There was someone behaving strange however. Mei just stood behind the group staring at Mark as if she was analyzing him with a slight frown.

Looking at how lively Mark's group was, the policemen around were speechless. There were a lot of dead bodies around but it looked like that the people around the person who helped them did not even care. Furthermore, their group looked like they were just going on an outing. There was no trace of fatigue and fear on their faces unlike most of the survivors they had seen before.

"Mark. Thank you for helping us again."

Madam Lanie said after she approached.

"It's fine. I already got my payment."

Mark glanced at Madam Lanie and pointed at the bags they were already loading into their vehicle.

"You're group is leaving already?"

"We are. We need to find other people and their families if we are able to. We don't have much time to rest until then."

Hearing his reply, Madam Lanie nodded.

"I was hoping that your group could at least stay for a day."

"Why?"

"We're planning on a small banquet. It won't be a lavish one but we wanted to at least raise the morale of the people here. It won't be good if the current state of the people here remained like this in the long run."

"Are you guys sure with that?"

Mark asked and then looked at the dead bodies of the dead policemen. Seeing where he was looking at, Madam Lanie could only smile bitterly. That was right. The banquet they were planning to do would be likely to be cancelled because of what happened just now.

"If that's all, then we're going."

Mark then walked away. He really could not stand it. Talking to these people was too exhausting for him.

"Madam, are we just letting them take those firearms and ammunition?"

Senior Inspector Tarongoy asked the congresswoman with a frown as they watched Mark walked away.

"You already heard him. Those are his fees for helping us."

Madam Lanie shrugged her shoulders.

"But Madam."

"Then, what do you want to do? As if we could stand against their group if we tried to."

With that, the Senior Inspector shut up. They had been oriented about the things happening and about Mark's group when Madam Lanie's group arrived yesterday. He just did not expect that the man who helped them was actually Mark. If they would talk about firepower, their men would have the advantage but Mutators were people who could not be gauged by normal means. Going against them without knowing anything was just suicide at the current state.

***

When Mark walked towards the vehicle following Carlo and the others who loaded the bags into the car, Mei suddenly blocked his way.

"Mei'er, is something wrong?"

"Gege, can we talk for a minute?"

Mei asked with a serious face making Mark nod involuntarily.

Then, under everyone's gaze, Mei pulled Mark quite a distance away.

"What's going on?"

Carlo voiced his thoughts.

"Who knows?"

Charmaine replied.

Abbygale on the other hand wanted to follow the two but the little girl was caught by Odelina.

The people in the car could only watch the two who were talking quite a distance away. Unfortunately, they would not be able to hear what they were talking about.

***

"Is there something going on?"

Mark asked with a frown. He could feel that something was bugging Mei. He could not guess what it was though.

"Gege… Not me. You're the one that had something going on right?"

Mei said while looking straight at his eyes. She then continued.

"Since last night, you looked irritated. You also went out without telling us after you woke up. Then now, you went to deal with this on your own. I don't think you will do all this without a deep reason."

Mark looked at Mei incredulously. This was the first time he saw her too serious. However, he could not refute what she said. His guilt even made him avert his eyes and turn his face away. However…

"Gege, just look at me."

Mei held his face and made him look at her.

Looking at her serious face, Mark gave up with a sigh.

"I'm fine. I just had a bad dream yesterday. I'm just agitated because of it."

"Really?"

Mei seemed doubtful.

"Yeah, really."

Seeing that he did not seem to be lying, Mei finally felt relieved. She thought that it was something serious.

Since Mei finally calmed down, Mark patted her head. The two then walked back.

What Mark said to her was true. However, that was not all.

Right at this moment, there was an intent brimming inside him.

'I need to get stronger.'

Mark looked at Mei who was walking beside him. He needed to get stronger to protect her, no, not only her but also Abbygale and the other members of his group.

It was because what he saw during the time he was unconscious was not just a simple dream.

It was a premonition.

That was one of the reasons Mark wanted to leave as soon as possible. It was to look for opportunities to make himself and the members of his group stronger, also, to find stronger and more reliable people to join them. The effects of the Mutagen that started to changed his body opened his path to be stronger. Mutators and Evolvers alike had the possibility to grow stronger.

Yes, he preferred to be alone. He was a loner. However, that premonition told him what he needed in the future. It was reliable companions.

With all those thoughts, he arrived back at the vehicle. After saying a few more pleasantries to the congresswoman, she told him that they were welcome to return anytime, Mark decided to leave.

Nevertheless, it seemed that they would not be able to yet…

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