"Let's go guys," he said as he passed the other two men.
"What happened," Jack asked.
"Nothing. Let's go," Mat responded.
As Tymon watched the men leave, he wondered how they'd die. He had no intention of intervening this time but was still curious, so he left the tavern to follow and watch them.
The three men entered a dirty truck. Tymon followed along the rooftops.
After a few minutes, they pulled to a stop next to a woman walking by. She rejected each of their advances and their attempts to give her a ride. The woman continued walking in the opposite direction until she disappeared into a barely perceivable ally entrance.
Tymon assumed she thought that was a good idea since the entrance was too narrow for the truck to follow.
Unfortunately, there was no traffic, so it was easy for the men to quickly reverse the truck until they were parked across the alley entrance.
Tymon was perched on the roof of one of the buildings that helped form the alley.
While Mat rushed into the alley, the smaller guy protested about wanting to go home and having only agreed to drive them to the bar. He complained about wanting no part in this while Jack pushed him forward as he grinned.
As Tymon traced the roof to the opposite end of the alley, he saw that the narrow path led to a rectangular enclosed space the buildings seemed to have been built around. There was grass, bushes, and a small tree being grown there.
Tymon quickly moved to one of the shadowy areas near the edges of the area. He wanted to go unnoticed as he watched what happened. Tymon noted to himself that the woman wasn't meant to die tonight, so he'd make sure she left there unharmed. The smaller guy wasn't fated to die soon either, so he wasn't too concerned about him.
The woman was trapped as the only exit to the area was behind the men. As Mat and Jack closed in on her, the smaller guy stood between them and pulled out a switchblade.
He was shaking terribly, but his eyes were fierce with determination as he stood to protect the woman.
Mat and Jack laughed in amusement.
"You know you're no match for us. Toss the blade before you get hurt," Mat instructed him.
Jack moved in and snatched the blade from him. Then, he threw it away from them.
The blade must've been thrown with incredible force because it whistled in the air as it headed straight for Tymon.
Tymon quickly caught the blade, but this alerted the others of his presence since they didn't hear it connect with the wall.
Jack turned and squinted in Tymon's direction.
"Is somebody over there," he asked Mat.
Mat pulled out a gun and pointed toward the shadows.
"Whoever's over there, come out, or I start shootin'," he ordered. He was still intoxicated enough for his hands to be unstable as he aimed.
As Tymon slowly walked into the light, Mat adjusted his aim.
Mat, who was too drunk to reason, started mumbling about not going back to prison and fired the gun.
After shooting three times, his gun ran out of bullets.
The bullets didn't hurt Tymon, but they did leave holes in his shirt where they made contact.
"No way...," Jack said, confused.
Mat threw his gun to the ground and instructed Jack to get the "big gun."
Now amused, Tymon let Jack get the gun from the truck. To his surprise, the weapon was a military-grade shotgun capable of coating its ammunition with the users' spirit energy.
As Mat charged the gun with as much of his energy as he could, Tymon added a thin layer of protection to his clothes so they wouldn't be riddled with bullets.
When Mat fired, the force from the shotgun hurled Tymon through the brick wall behind him. It also forced Mat back a few feet.
Mat grinned as he kissed his gun and slapped Jack on the back. However, his grin faded when he heard bricks move as Tymon walked through the hole he had just been thrown through.
"Now that you know your weapons are useless, how about you give up and wait for the police," Tymon remarked. "I'm sure they'll wanna know about the gun too."
"What are you, freak?!" Jack screamed. He suddenly pulled out a tiny tube with red tablets stacked inside.
"You on 'J' too? They said only take one, but you must've taken more to get that strong. If you can handle it, I know I can," he said. Out of desperation, he swallowed each of the tablets.
Jack's spirit energy suddenly boosted dramatically. It was easily twenty times as powerful as an average human's.
What the hell..., Tymon thought to himself.
Jack's body was now crackling with power as he laughed maniacally.
"Woooh! What a rush," he said, very satisfied with his new power.
Without warning, Jack lunged at Tymon.
Tymon stopped his momentum with one hand and sent Jack crashing against the wall.
To Tymon's surprise, Jack got back up immediately, but before he could do anything, his eyes became bloodshot, and his skin began to expand as it turned red like all his blood was rushing towards the surface.
Before his body exploded, Tymon used his Blackout technique and wrapped some of his spirit energy around Jack, preventing blood from splattering over him.
When he undid the technique, in Jack's place was a mess of bloody bones and organs piled on the ground.
After witnessing this, the smaller man began to vomit. The woman used the moment as an opportunity and grabbed the man's hand as they ran through the alley. When Mat tried to do the same, Tymon sped in front of him to cut off his exit.
Mat reached into his pocket and pulled out a tube with red tablets similar to Jack's.
Before he could take them, Tymon snatched them from Mat and saw a stack of six red tablets with the letter "J" inscribed on them.
Tymon grabbed Mat by the throat, raised him off the ground, and slammed him against the wall. He used Blackout to envelop both of them in darkness. The back door light next to Mat's head gave them just enough light to see each other.
"What is this," Tymon asked while holding up the tube.
"They're JANUS tablets," Mat answered as he desperately gripped the arm Tymon used to hold him against the wall. "I don't understand the science behind it, but they make people strong."
"Where'd you get them," Tymon asked.
"I-I don't know. Jack! He knew," Mat replied.
"You're lying," Tymon said impatiently.
"Tell me!" Tymon used Order to force his will onto the man and made him compliant.
Mat's grip slacked as his arms fell to his side. His eyes glazed over as they peered into Tymon's. He was now under Tymon's control.
"All I know is the seller goes by the alias Prodi-G," he said emotionlessly.
"That's all?"
"Yeah," Mat responded.
Tymon understood he wouldn't get anything more helpful from the man. Before choosing what to do with him, Tymon used Order to ask Mat an unrelated question.
"What were your intentions with that woman earlier?"
"I planned to have my way with her like I did with the others," he answered honestly.
Tymon assumed this disgusting habit had something to do with why the man was previously imprisoned.
"Don't you have any regrets for targeting innocent women the way you do?"
The man's head lolled to the side.
"The only regret I have is ever getting caught and being too drunk to plan tonight properly."
The man's smile as he said that sicken Tymon.
Tymon broke his hold over the man as he contemplated handing him over to the police or removing him from the face of the Earth.
Now lucid again, Mat began to scream in terror.
"Who are you," he asked with fear in his eyes.
"Stop talking so I can figure out what to do with you," Tymon told him.
Mat continued to scream. Then began to beg for his life.
"Please, man, I'm sorry. I promise I'll nev–"
The man's final words were cut off as his body instantly decayed and crumbled to the ground.
"I said stop talking."
Looking down at Mat's remains, Tymon had no remorse for what he had just done. Unlike the other lives he'd taken this man deserved what he got.
Tymon heard sirens off in the distance and flew high into the night sky, where he floated for a minute.
He looked down where he'd just been and thought about the lingering sensation he felt right after he killed that guy. It somehow felt...empowering.
What was that feeling, he thought.
And this..., he pondered as he fiddled with the tube of red tablets.
So, humans have a drug that makes them stronger now...