Unrighteous Dominion: Chapter 3

Adam did not need his Social Worker anymore; Adam did not even need school anymore. All he thought of was what he could do. His imagination was the limit. Nevertheless, right now he just wanted some fun. Adam headed to Little Italy, a section of town notorious for its crime and illegal opportunities. When Adam got there, he stared down everyone he saw. Adam was looking for trouble; he wanted to fight. He had heard about illegal gambling circles and was walking through kitchens looking for them. Then he walked in the back door of a restaurant named Mario's Italian Factory. When Adam barged in, he saw the men at the table and cards in their hands. Then he saw the guards at the door that on seeing Adam immediately grabbed him and threw him towards the wall, but in mid-flight time slowed down the air got cold, frost formed on a guard’s thick mustache. Adam could see his breath and he could hear the breath of everyone else in the room slow as he sped up. He flipped himself around as he flew so his feet hit the wall ready to jump off it. He could feel the energy growing in him like a searing hot pain that just grew and grew. He waited until the pain went from enjoyable to exciting all the way, till it was excruciating, then he let it go.

The drinks, that had frozen from the cold of the room as the heat energy changed into something else, were scattered all over the place as Adam threw the guard with the frozen beard onto the poker table. Even before the guard landed on the table, Adam had nearly destroyed the other guard, his limbs a whirlwind moving faster than the eye could see. The first blow was a kick to the knee sending bone shards from the shattered kneecap through the pant leg, the guard let out a guttural scream on the impact. Then in a rage and losing his balance, he threw a punch at the now slower moving Adam. Adam caught his fist spun his arm then punched upward through the guards elbow, followed it around with a quick punch to the sternum that crushed the ribs and everything beneath them. Then something unexpected happened, the guard burst into flames a split second after the punch landed. By the time, the guard hit the floor the flames were out and he was a charred mass.

Before Adam could ponder how that happened the men still in the room pulled out their guns and started to fire. Adam was now moving slower and slower he could not dodge the bullets so he just thought about deflecting them and it worked. All of the bullets fired except one were deflected, that one bullet smashed into Adam’s collarbone destroying his shoulder. Although before he passed out from pain he heard someone say "Don't kill him we need to find out what he was doing here, especially now that we have hooks in the..." As he drifted into the abyss of unconsciousness, he thought that it was the dealer of the game talking, the one that had managed to shoot only one bullet and hit him. It was a regular gun but it had a red glowing Shield with an "E" in the center of it. The bizarre symbol was located on the left hand side of the barrel. However, all his thoughts disappeared when the needle pierced his arm injecting the sleep agent deep into his still fast beating heart.

Adam sat at his desk remembering. It had been three years since that day when he had awoken from the drug they had given him. He’d managed to kill another of the guards, and then the Gun was in his face, the one with the glowing shield. "I don't think you want to die, do you?"

That is where it all started. What he had not known at the time was that the leaders of a little known criminal group that called themselves the Changers were playing the poker game he interrupted. It was a weird name and Adam still does not know what it meant to the man with the gun and his almost cult like following. The man with the gun, his name was Demagonton Percherson, everyone called him Demo. Half in short cause of his name and the fact that he was willing to demo his gun at the drop of a hat. Demo was the leader of this group, The Changers. That was how Adam had gotten his start. After Demo had seen what Adam was capable of doing to his guards, and was finally convinced that he was not some cop, Demo hired Adam to be his personal bodyguard. Earning his trust had taken a while, and he had killed many for Demo. Eventually Adam had enough respect that when Demo disappeared, all of The Changers just came to him. Everyone assumed that Adam had killed Demo; no one cared to ask.

The group, The Changers, known to the world now as the Energy Changers was a school of sorts. Adam, being the only instructor, taught a person how to take energy and convert it into something else. This is what Adam had learned to do three years earlier. Except for back then he did not know how he was doing it.

Three years earlier, he had been able to take ambient heat, the energy that is everywhere and use it to his advantage. The easiest thing for him to do was to convert it into kinetic energy. He was able to speed up his own movements. However, in the kitchen, that Thursday afternoon when he caused that guard to burst into flames he knew there was more but he could not even have guessed the half of it.

Adam teaches about thirty people at the Changers headquarters, He was turning it into a sort of school, most fail; they can never ever reach the state of mind it takes to feel the energy then summon it to themselves. Still some pass, and those he makes sure he has some way to control them and that they know about it. He makes sure he has every Changer on the planet under his control.

It was nostalgic moments like these that he thought about his old roommate, Chris. Adam had heard Chris had disappeared the same day Adam had dropped out of school, that same afternoon that Adam had gotten his new Career.

"Excuse me, Sir?" It was Adams secretary.

"Yes, what is it Cathrine?"

"There is someone here who needs to see you." She said almost scared. It had been a month since the incident but she was still shook up. One of his students was trying to bribe him for money. The silly girl actually thought that she had enough power and following to take out Adam the founder. Cathrine had walked in as Adam shot a string of fire into the poor girl’s hair. The screams as she burned would have been enough to haunt most people for years. Instead, Cathrine had apparently shrugged it off. It was only moments like this when Adam could sense her terror.

"Send Jason in." Jason walked past Cathrine before she could say a word.

"I have made a breakthrough on the project you assigned me." He said so excitedly. It was weird that a twenty two year old could sound as excited as a four year old at Christmas.

"That will be all, Cathrine." Before she could leave the room, he began talking. "So what have you found about the gun." Demo had left behind his Gun, The one with the Shield and E engraved into it. Adams shoulder still ached from the wound from the bullet. The weird thing is the engraved mark on the gun never glowed again and as far as anyone else thought, it never did.

"The shield and E were carved with Energy changing. I don't know what the purpose was but I can replicate it."

"But does it glow?"

"No, but I don't see why you want it to or care about it so much." Adams reaction to that statement was quick and brutal. Frost formed instantly on the windows and Adam was moving too fast for Jason to respond. Adam could sense Jason trying to draw energy but Adam was taking it all. His breathing sped and before Jason could respond, Adam had him by the throat and threw him across the room. Jason smashed into the big picture window, sending a spider web of cracks threw the first and second panes. The glass splinters fell all twenty-three stories to the ground. Adam had grabbed Jason by the leg before he could hit the ground and then flipped him over in a high arc over his head, smashing him down onto Adams desk, which was now brittle from the cold. Adam was on Jason the instant he hit the ground. Adam was so focused on Jason he didn't even notice the splinters in his feet. He got real close in Jason’s face and whispered "Don't you ever assume I am wrong. Ever." However, Jason did not hear him nor remember. Jason’s concussion blocked all memory of the event. Adam sat back in his chair and thought. He started meditating felt the familiar sensation of every muscle in his body quiver as he slipped into the state of relaxation and external perception.