Chapter 30: Trap
Adrian parted with Quill, quietly calmly walking towards his house. With his sensory ability, he had already discovered the teen following him, and through the vision, discovered that the teen had enslaved someone else and clearly intended to target him in particular, which slightly surprised him.
However, Adrian didn't show any signs of being aware of himself being stalked. As he walked ahead, he reached a part of the street where the street lights were not functional. In front of Adrian, a muscular man who had seen before stood expressionless.
"You?" Adrian asked loudly in shock. "How did you escape!"
The muscular thief, the clone of the teen, did not reply. He directly rushed towards Adrian, blazing with killing intent from his electrically charged and bruised body.
Adrian refused to hesitate for even a moment and rushed into a side alley between two buildings, where the large fellow followed him. Strengthening ability flared up and he rushed towards Adrian like a meteor, the punch looking to destroy him directly.
Adrian's eyes narrowed, as he suddenly changed from his flailing stance to one of serious combat. His reflexes worked into overdrive, as his head dodged diagonally, and he flung a punch toward's his opponent, but a muscular hand blocked the trajectory of the punch. Adrian felt pain from his hand hitting a concrete like muscle, after all his strength was still within human bounds.
The problem, Adrian quickly realized, was that this puppet didn't seem to fear any pain at all. It had absolutely no notion of defense and was constantly on the attack. Coupled with its severely damaged body, Adrian surmised that the puppet was a disposable hire for the sole purpose of eliminating him. He just didn't understand why the teen targetted him.
Just outside the alley, a teen looked at the battle with increasing surprise. The puppet he had enslaved was an absolute tank and monster in terms of physical strength, and Adrian genuinely didn't seem to have any abnormal strength beyond regular fitness, yet he was able to accurately predict, intercept, dodge and counterattack the puppet without serious harm.
As the teen was watching the battle intently, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Frightened out of his wits, he instinctively turned around to see a young man look at him with anger on his face.
"Did you have enough fun?" Quill asked the teen, and used his incredible speed to sucker punch the teen without waiting for a response.
"Ow! I really need to work on my strength!" Quill winced as he shook his arm in pain, while watching the surprised and horrified teen dizzily fall unconscious from the impact.
Adrian, who had been waiting for this movement, finally changed from a purely evasive maneuver to using his leg to strike at a precise location on the puppet's knee. This was one of the puppet's ability weak points, and hitting it immediately caused a surge of pain to radiate throughout its body, causing it to fall down. Adrian didn't hesitate and punched the puppet's carotid again, rendering it unconscious.
Quill dragged the unconscious teen into the alley as well. "What now?"
"I'm calling my contact in the security division." Adrian said.
Quill's face paled. "Are you out of your mind" He quibbled.
"Relax, you helped me in your legitimate identity. Besides, the security division is one of the few people who know I have awakened." Adrian calmly replied as he made a call.
---
A disheveled man with groggy eyes heard Adrian's description of the events and he looked towards the teen who had been sedated while yawning.
"So you took action because you knew that this brat couldn't enslave more than one person at a time. Your ability is very useful boy. Once this matter involving you is over, you could even join the tactical squad." The disheveled man said with a yawn.
Adrian shook his head. "I've had enough trouble to last me a lifetime already. You consider this guy here." Adrian pushing Quill forward. "He has a sense of justice." He finished speaking while winking at him.
The disheveled man was about to say something when a man in a black uniform and with a cloud emblem on his breast pocket who was analyzing the contents of the teen's belongings walked over and whispered something into the disheveled man's ears, whose eyes opened up with an excited glare.
He looked at Adrian with a peculiar expression. "Boy, it seems your fate is intricately linked with this matter. This brat might actually be one of Eucalyptus' five servants. Thanks to you we might have caught the third one." Then he turned towards Quill. "Young man, you did well as well. If you are interested I can recommended you as a trainee in the Security Division. You'll begin with grunt work, but we appreciate hard workers."
Adrian raised an eye. "This puppet of his seems to have taken the drug just like Cody." He thought to himself, but did not reveal this matter to the man from the security division. For one thing, there was an asymmetry between what he actually knew and what the security division thought he knew about the matter.
"Don't let the matter of my involvement leak out." Adrian said cautiously. "These guys are so mysterious and dangerous, I'd rather not have their boss turn his eyes towards me."
The disheveled man smirked. "That Eucalyptus bastard is busy hiding right now. This boy probably feared his identity exposed because of you and desperately targetted you. If he had time and patience, he would probably use a powerful puppet and kill you without any problems."
---
Back at home, Adrian quietly lay in bed. There was bit today that he hadn't revealed to anyone else. After rendering the puppet unconscious, Adrian had felt once again, the transfer of the orb within the puppet, the ability, into his body. Refined under the force of the black flame, the flame grew slightly bigger as the filtered colorless energy then washed his body and filled his cells with energy.
"Just what is the nature of my ability? Is it a rare dual ability?" Adrian thought to himself as he activated the negative vision and observed the flickering black flame within his chest.
"I can not only display the powers of a rare sensory type, but I can also seem to absorb and filter abilities in situations, which seem unclear." He further analyzed.
Jumping out of the bed, Adrian began exercising with all his effort. He felt that his body had improved dramatically once again. His stamina, endurance, reflexes and strength had all improved dramatically.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone