Chapter 11 - 11: One Feet In Grave
"There are too many possibilities," Xander muttered as he frowned. "But we don't want possibilities. We need answers."
He further inquired, "Did you collect fingerprints and other samples?"
Mayne nodded as he softly answered, "Yes, Captain. We have collected some fingerprints. We can match them against the database. If this person is in our database, we'll find him."
He paused for some time before speaking again, "But I have a feeling that it's a newcomer who did it. If my assumption is correct, we won't find him in our database. And if it's a scheme of our enemies to throw us off, the outcome will be the same."
He was actually quite sure that this wouldn't yield any result, but he was tame with his words.
Xander placed his hand on Mayne's shoulder; giving him a tight-lipped smile, he said, "Just do your best."
He looked towards the man who was in a white robe. The man had come in the recently arrived armored vehicles.
Xander commanded, looking at the white robed man, "Mike, place this whole town in lockdown. No one is allowed to leave or enter without my permission. Test every person in the town to see if they have powers."
After pausing for a moment, he added, "Maybe that guy is someone from the town. I want the tests done today. The results should be in front of me by tomorrow."
Mike wasn't a Variant, and he had no powers, but he was from the support squad of the APF.
He was responsible for things related to their communication, equipment, transport, and testing.
"Yes, Sir," Mike acknowledged as he spoke confidently. "You'll have the results by tomorrow."
"Will you be going back to the base now, sir?" he asked softly.
Xander smiled slightly as he refuted, "Why will I leave? We are possibly against a monster that has similar powers to one of the strongest Variants who walked on this earth. I can't be lazy and leave everything to you all."
He further added, "You would die if you actually managed to find him. Our team and I are going to stay with you guys. If he is indeed in this town, he can't be allowed to escape. For your safety and for this town."
His words made Mike frown; however, he knew that Xander was right.
*****
While the APF was focusing more on the town, keeping their entire focus on locating Lucifer, Lucifer was moving towards the Legion City where his home was.
He had awakened the power of Wind that he received from his mother. This power allowed a person to be able to do many things, but for now, Lucifer was only able to use it to run like the wind.
His entire body felt as light as a feather as he sprinted through the forest.
Lucifer knew that the people who awakened the power of Wind were even able to fly, but that was only possible if their abilities were at the same level as his mother.
His mother was the only elemental wind Sorcerer who could utilize the complete power of wind and fly.
There were other awakened ones who could fly, but they all had different magic than her.
Not a single person was able to fly after getting the power of wind except for his mother. Since her power of wind was Grade A, she could easily use it to fly.
She was the only Variant to ever awaken and master the A-Rank power of wind to its full extent.
But her power of wind was overshadowed by her Power of Decay which was an S-Rank ability.
Most people knew her as the "Queen of Decay."
But only the people who were really knowledgeable knew how useful the power of wind was to his mother.
It wasn't as scary and destructive in essence as her ability of Decay, but in utility, it was much more efficient despite being an A-Rank ability.
Until now, not even a single person had managed to awaken S-Rank Wind Control, not even his mother.
It had been a long time since the first human awoke his abilities. Despite so much time being passed, people still didn't have a complete understanding of abilities.
Most people only knew basic things. They knew that some rare people awoke the powers when they were younger, and the powers were graded from that moment itself based on their element, nature, and rarity.
Super Strength of his father was an S-Rank Physical Power. There were other strengthening powers but none like this, which boosted strength so much; that's why it was S-Rank.
The Black Lightning of his father was also S-Rank since it was one of the rarest and most destructive abilities when it was fully mastered. It was much more scary and dangerous compared to normal lightning powers that Variants awoke.
There was also a theory that people could upgrade the ranks of their power naturally by making them stronger through training, but so far, it was not proven as no one had managed to do it. It was only a theory that some crazy people had.
Let alone upgrading an A-Rank Power to S-Rank, people couldn't even upgrade from E-Rank power to D-Rank.
Lucifer was lucky that he had inherited all S-Rank Powers from his parents. Only one of his powers was A-Rank, and that was Wind Control. His Healing was unranked, though.
Even though he had S-Rank abilities, he was still a kid who had no control over such powers. He also had no one to teach him. So even though his powers were S-Grade, he couldn't utilize even a fraction of those powers, which was proven by how he couldn't fly.
His powers were S-Rank but only in potential and name. His powers were going to be much weaker as long as he didn't master them entirely.
Lucifer ran for five straight hours and only stopped when he reached the next town.
It was another small town which was only as big as the last town. Despite being the same size as the previous town, this place seemed much worse.
There were not many people on the streets. This looked like a ghost town instead. In the long road ahead, he only saw three people altogether.
All of them were standing in the same place. They were all men who were wearing sleeveless leather jackets that were unzipped. There was nothing inside their jacket that revealed their hairy chest. All of them were bulky people who had a good amount of mass in their bodies. Their biceps were the size of Lucifer's head.
These three men were standing in front of a small house that looked like it desperately needed some repair.
All three of them had guns in their hands.
One of the guys walked towards the door of the small house and kicked it with full force.
The door opened as its lock broke because of the impact.
The man barged inside the house in significant strides.
Lucifer observed them, but he didn't stop walking. He was only intrigued by these people.
After a few moments, the man that had entered the house came out.
He seemed to be dragging an old man with him whose neck was in his hand. The man threw the old man on the road in front of the other two guys.
The old man seemed like he was in his seventies. His face was full of wrinkles, and his body seemed weak. His head was full of white hairs that were untied and looked dirty.
The red-haired man that had thrown the old man on the street started laughing cruelly as he gazed at the old man.
"Hah, Old Man Stan! Did you really think that you can stay alive after eating our money? You took the loan, but you don't even pay the interest? Are you really looking to die?"
The red-haired man stepped closer to the frail old man. The old man was trying to sit up, but before he could, a foot landed on his head, smashing him on the ground again.
"Stay on the ground like the good dog you are!"
Lucifer glanced at the men for a brief second. He could see everything that was happening. A curious interest was visible in his eyes.
"I-i wanted to pay you, but there has been a theft in my house. Someone stole everything! I have nothing left to pay you. Please give me more time." The old man pleaded as tears kept falling from his eyes.
"Is that something we are supposed to care about? If you can't pay, we will just sell your house," the red-haired man grunted.
"No, please. Don't do it. This house is the last thing I have left. It has the memories of my dead kids. This is the only thing I have left," The old guy begged as he touched the feet of the red-haired man.
"Why do you care about a house? It's not like you're going to stay here for long! You'll be dead soon anyway. One of your legs is already in the grave," the red-haired man threw back his head and let out a loud, humorless laugh.
The other two men also joined in as laughter filled the surroundings. The old man was obviously embarrassed, but he didn't care.
"Please. I'll be your slave for all my life. I swear on my life!" The old man said while sulking.
... to be continued.