Chapter 30: Mind Control
BOOM!
Everyone’s attention immediately snapped towards the direction from which the explosion came.
But just before panic could ensue, a voice suddenly rang out, causing everyone to immediately freeze in place.
[Is this thing on?] The person said through a microphone that rang out in the entire amusement park, [Ah, seeing how everyone is frozen, I’m guessing it works.]
Olivia looked around and noticed that everyone was eerily still, listening to the voice.
Her eyes locked with one of the people in the arcade, and she immediately understood what was going on.
Their eyes were completely blank, almost as if there was no soul in them.
She then turned to Liam, immediately noticing that his eyes, just like the others, were empty.
There was only one factor that she could think of that was capable of this,
Mind control.
[Now then,] the voice came through the speakers again, sounding pleasant and unhurried, [I’d like everyone to make their way to the main plaza. Calmly, please. There’s no need for any unpleasantness.]
Around her, the frozen crowd began moving, and so did Liam.
Seeing them moving, Olivia immediately rushed in the opposite direction, tapping her earring before saying, "We have a problem."
[What happened?] Her agent’s voice came from the opposite end.
"There’s a villain attack at the amusement park we came to," Olivia said as quickly as she could, moving into a corner hidden from the security cameras.
[A villain attack?] Her agent sounded surprised, but she quickly regained her composure and asked, [Should I dispatch a hero?]
"No," Olivia shook her head, "there’s a villain capable of mind control, and he currently has everyone in the park under his control; we don’t know what he’ll do if a hero shows up unannounced."
[Then—] the agent started but was cut off by her, "I’ll handle it."
[What if someone figures out your identity?] The agent asked again.
"They won’t, don’t worry," Olivia assured.
The agent sighed, but ended up agreeing, [Just make sure not to put yourself in danger. Meanwhile, I’ll try to see if I can do anything on my end.]
"Hmm," Olivia nodded before tapping her earring again, before letting out a sigh, "given the range of his control, he should be well over Delta rank, Gamma perhaps?"
"Doesn’t matter," she shook her head, "people are in danger, and Radiance needs to rescue them."
Fortunately, her costume is always on her.
She took out what seemed to be a small golden metal sun from her purse, lightly placed it on her chest, and it immediately began glowing, recognizing her Pragma.
From the golden sun extended a white fabric that wrapped itself around her.
In under a minute, her previous clothes were gone, replaced by a white bodysuit with gold running along her waist and on her chest was the golden sun.
Above the bodysuit was a golden mini jacket with short sleeves that allowed a view of the bodysuit’s longer sleeves, which reached her white and gold gloves.
She also had on white knee-high boots with golden patterns on them.
Her hair had turned from brown to golden blonde, and her eyes were also glowing gold, from their previous brown.
She rested her purse on one of the old arcade machines, alongside her glasses, before she looked ahead of her.
"Alright then," She muttered, her eyes glowing brighter, "let’s do this."
With that, her body released a subtle glow before she went completely invisible.
****
Meanwhile, Liam watched Olivia leave whilst maintaining blank eyes until she completely disappeared.
With a blink, his grey eyes went back to normal before he turned towards his siblings.
Like everyone else, the two were completely under the control of whatever villain was doing this.
He had an idea of who it was, but he had no idea that this event would happen today.
After all, not every event in the comics had time and dates stamped on them.
But if his guess was right, then this was the work of Hypnos and Erode.
And from the way people were following the orders of that voice, this was definitely the work of Hypnos, the mind-controlling splinter.
How did Liam resist being mind-controlled?
Well, he had received training from a group of special monks..... As if!
The actual reason was due to his master, back on earth, basically torturing him to ’steel his mind’.
It was ’training’ that was meant to help him resist exactly this kind of thing....or Earth’s version of it.
Interrogation, drugs, psychological pressure, and sensory deprivation.
His master had put him through all of it, methodically and without apology, under the reasoning that a hitman whose mind is weak was a liability to everyone, including himself.
Hence, the reason why Hypnos’s mind control was merely a suggestion to him.
Unfortunately, though, Eli and Lea weren’t the same, so they had succumbed to the control.
He could try to stop them from obeying the order, but considering the technology Hypnos currently possessed, the target would stop at nothing to carry it out.
Even if that meant harming themselves.
So the easiest choice right now was to knock them out, and as much as he hated it, the other choices were worse.
Forming a syringe in his hand and filling it with a knockout compound he’d learned to make while studying poisons, he walked toward his siblings.
Neither of them noticed him as they continued walking towards the exit of the arcade, their movements eerily zombie-like.
He gently wrapped his hand around Lea before pressing the syringe into her neck.
She gave no reaction to his actions, but the compound quickly made its way through her system.
She suddenly fell forward, but Liam managed to stop her fall before leaning her on him and turning to Eli.
He did the same to his younger brother before he picked the two up and walked back into the arcade.
Liam placed the two in one of the racing controllers and placed a jacket around them before muttering, "big brother will be back."
With that, he stood up and immediately spotted a man in what seemed to be a new formal suit.
Who the hell wears a suit to an amusement park?
Well, it didn’t matter because that was exactly what Zero needed right now, after all, he had a hitman image to uphold.
After knocking out the man and dragging him behind one of the machines, Zero walked out of the arcade with his hair turned white and a formal suit on his body.
"Now then," he looked towards one of the buildings in the park, "let’s see what we’re dealing with."
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