Masked 02 stood at the entrance... He glanced around, fixed his blindfold over his dark lord oni mask, and inspected his CZ P-10 series.
Crows cawed overhead. A raven cried once before flying off, leaving 02 to face the circling birds.
He looked around, seeing the crows, and decided to load his magazine.
"Well, looks like Mr. Charles's trial will have a jury," 02 said as he received a notification from someone with the name "Bra Khule" saying, "Young one, where are you?"
02 paused, looking at the message, wondering if he should reply.
"02, what is taking you so long to enter the warehouse? Reports say there are zero civilians with the suspect," O.I.A. asked, snapping 02 out of his trance.
"Just thinking," 02 said as he replied to the message sent by "Bra Khule."
"I'm just out getting some things. Do you need anything, Bra Khule?" 02 sent as he adjusted his mask a bit, revealing his MicroSynapse set connected to it.
Moments later, Bra Khule replied with, "Bring school stationery and boerewors, steak; we are braaiing back at the base. Don't be late, young one."
"Of course, Bra Khule. Tell the boys I'll be there at..." 02 checked the time: 10:17 AM.
"I'll be there in 4 hours." He finished typing and sent it.
"02, return to your training," O.I.A. said in a commanding tone.
02 put his O.I.Phone away and entered the warehouse.
A group of men was storing and loading guns as the guards pointed their rifles at him.
02 looked around, seeing about 16 men and dozens of guns ranging from handguns to shoulder arms, shotguns, and even submachine guns.
"What do we have here?" 02 said as he walked closer and pointed his gun at the guards.
"All these firearms aren't licensed, meaning you broke the law, but you're also selling..." 02 said as he saw waves of vibrant pulsing colors fill his vision—not just shapes, but clusters of microscopic life blinking with purpose.
"What's going on here? What am I looking at?" 02 said to himself as his vision in this realm or world began to burn.
"I can't afford to lose focus!" 02 shouted to himself as he shook his head.
Someone could be heard shouting, "Fire!!!" as three of them shot their guns at 02 when he was distracted.
Then, as if a lens were flicked, the world drained to grayscale in an instant. There were only waves that were colored, and they were moving towards his head, but ever so slowly.
"So this is what the set can do," 02 said to himself.
O.I.A. interpreted his thoughts. "User 02, I would like to inform you of the impending threats; it would be best if you changed the electromagnetic effect to repel the directions of the threats," O.I.A. said formally.
"Threats!" 02 said to himself as he waved his hand, pushing away the waves and changing their direction, missing him.
The waves turned out to be bullets, and the men were filled with fear and terror as the crows outside cawed so loudly that it echoed in the warehouse.
"You three have threatened my life; now I sentence thee to life," 02 said as the three men tried running.
02 saw the men's bodies shimmering with thousands of flickering lights—cells in motion. Then it dulled, except for a golden-red pulsing at their necks.
02's vision narrowed. "Targets acquired," 02 said as he fired, the bullet sparking as it sped, ricocheting off the metal pillars in front of the men, shooting through the necks of the three men in seconds.
One of them stepped back and fell on his back, holding his neck, spitting blood as he died.
The two men tried reaching the others but slipped on his blood, hitting their heads and dying in the process.
The last man turned around, staring at the masked figure as his last words were "Kungani mina" before he fell dead, bleeding out.
"Mr. Charles will come down and face his trial. And maybe I'll give you a light sentence," 02 said as he shot upward, missing a man above as he watched the event.
"What the hell did I just witness?" Mr. Charles said calmly to himself as he held out a glass shakily.
"I sentence them to life for trying to leave the trial without my permission," 02 said calmly as the crows robbed the dead bodies of any metal objects.
Mr. Charles analyzed the situation and contemplated what to do.
"Whatever this man or umoya is, I can't afford to lose my life; I got too much to do. He seems to be treating this as my court sentence, so I better play along," Mr. Charles said to himself as he composed himself.
"Your Honor, what crimes am I being charged with?" Mr. Charles asked, coming down the stairs as he fixed his tie.
O.I.A. turned on and showed Mr. Charles's charges, and 02 read them out loud.
"Mr. Charles, you are operating an illegal business, selling firearms to the community, and more specifically, to children," 02 said, pointing his gun at the man above as the men on the same level panicked and put their guns down, while some stood their ground but were terrified by the thought of being killed by whatever was in front of them.
Mr. Charles, a bit panicked about the gun pointed at him, stayed calm with a smirk.
The crows cawed anxiously and flew out as they watched from outside, cawing nonstop until...
"SILENCE!!" 02 yelled, and the crows quieted down.
"Court in order. Mr. Charles, you are being charged with possession of a firearm with intent to supply, unlawful transfer of a firearm, and, according to a witness's statement, you have been smuggling firearms, adding to your charges," he said as he closed the doors.
Mr. Charles and his crew, hearing these charges, knew this man was either Umvuni or something beyond them.
"What the hell are we dealing with?" one of the men said as he held back tears.
"I want to go home; man, this isn't worth the money," another man said as sweat fell but floated midair.
The men, seeing this phenomenon, pleaded with Mr. Charles to get them out of this.
"I have to be careful, or I'll be sentenced to 'life,'" Mr. Charles said to himself as he wiped off his sweat subtly.
"Your Honor, may I come forward to plead my case?" Mr. Charles asked.
02 nodded his head as the men opened a way for Mr. Charles.
"On what evidence do you have of me committing those crimes?" Mr. Charles said, calm and respectful in front of 02.
He listened to Mr. Charles's defense and decided to pull out his evidence on his O.I.Phone.
"A smuggler of yours said you are the boss behind the gun selling," he said as he lowered his gun while he gestured for a metal chair for him.
Mr. Charles, not scared, continued his case.
"Well, I do have a license for these guns you see. If I may, I can show you that license if you allow me," Mr. Charles said as he gestured upstairs to his office.
"You there," 02 said, pointing to a guard.
"Fetch the license, and if you think of running, you will be sentenced to 'life,'" 02 said.
The guard listened and went upstairs into the office, where he couldn't be seen.
"Now, as long as I lower those charges, I'll be safe, but the others have committed worse crimes in my name and they get the 'life' sentence," Mr. Charles said to himself as he stood with confidence.
The guard returned with the license and paperwork as he passed the others, giving looks as if signaling for something.
The masked figure took the paperwork and license.
"I'll go confirm the legalities in this," 02 said as he opened the entrance, and before he closed it, added, "Also, if any one of you tries to leave, you will end up like those three men who attempted to leave."
He said this as he closed the doors, and the only outside light from the front entrance shone like a horizon on Mr. Charles and two others.
"Guys, I call for backup; maybe we could beat him; he's outnumbered," the guard who gave the paperwork and license said.
"No way, Melokuhle. I'm leaving this. I got my life together, and I'm not losing it to that Umoga," another man said as he put up his gun and got out through the back door.
Mr. Charles, seeing all this, decided to sit down on a chair as the men around planned their escape and even a counterattack, but Mr. Charles did nothing.
"Sir, what's the plan of action?" one of the younger men asked.
"Do whatever you deem fit for the situation," Mr. Charles said, sitting on the chair, calm and collected, as if he were planning something.
"Help!!!!" the voice of the man who escaped was heard before they could react; a shot was heard.
And everything went silent. The men decided to get upstairs to do a sneak attack, but Mr. Charles sat there, not trying anything, and the only ones down there were the younger man and a guard.
"Okay, men, when that door opens, we shoot nonstop," Melokuhle, the guard who delivered the paperwork and license, said.
Five minutes later, nothing—not even the crows—would caw as they left the warehouse and the light was visible again.
"What the hell is going on?" one man asked.
One of them checked their phone, and it was *10:30 AM*, and the sounds of leaves and birds chirping echoed from afar.
"Yeah, let's all go outside together," the guard said.
They all kept quiet, not eager to go outside. Mr. Charles, the guard, and the young man stood down there watching.
"Come on, guys, if one of us goes out alone, that person will get killed and end up like horror movie characters," Melokuhle said.
They discussed the idea and all made the decision.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's all go," one of them said as the representative.
They all went down and exited, guns in hand, and they all backed to back, forming a formation.
They saw no one, and one of them went to the back and came back saying he wasn't there, so they could escape through the truck. "The guy said" as they all got into the truck and drove off.
"Mr. Charles, why didn't we follow them? It doesn't seem smart of us to wait for him to kill us," the young man said, confused as to why he didn't leave with them.
Then 02 walked into the warehouse, seeing Mr. Charles, a younger man, and a guard waiting for him.
"I see you three listened to my order, meaning I must keep my end of the promise," 02 said as he raised his gun, but then.
"I can tell you where they're heading to if you put us in witness protection. I can provide you information on other criminals you might be interested in knowing," Mr. Charles said as he got up.
02 put down his gun and O.I.A. said, "It would be in your best interest to put him."
"We have a deal, the trial is dismissed," 02 said calmly as he put his gun away and walked in the direction where the truck drove off.
Mr. Charles got up and went into his office. He got three glasses, poured whiskey for them, and gave them out as he took a sip and went back down, standing at the entrance, watching the murder of crows flying toward the truck.
"I would rather not have the Umvuni take my life because I didn't follow his trail," he said as he drank the whole glass, poured more, and put it down, cutting to a truck hitting near a forest as the men tried to fix a flat tire.
"This sucks, big man. What do we do now?" one of the men said to Melokuhle.
Melokuhle, trying to use the radio, saw how it wasn't working, and they had no signal.
"Can't call for help; the phone died out of nowhere; just replace the tires with new ones," Melokuhle said.
One of the men went behind a tree to pee. After he finished, he saw the horizon as he took a deep breath and then turned back to the truck.
"Hey guys, that horizon is beautiful; it's breathtaking," he said as he showed them, but the looming shadow was moving toward them, with the crows flying in different directions.
"What the..." Before he could finish, a shot rang out.
"Well, I hereby sentence you all to death!" 02 said as he shot every one of them. As they tried shooting back, the bullets bounced off, killing everyone but Melokuhle.
Melokuhle, visibly shocked and terrified, decided to run into the forest.
We see dozens of pulsing neon lights all around, but it all went gray as everything except a specific golden-red part of the figure running—the chest—was glowing.
"Is this mine, usuku lokwahlulela?" the figure said before a shot was heard, missing his heart but hitting his blood veins.
The figure fell, and it turned out to be Melokuhle, laying on the floor bleeding out as he struggles to breath.
Silence filled the forest as we hear Melokuhle coughing, struggling to live or die.
02 walked up to Melokuhle's body and sat next to him as he checked his phone and turned off the set, feeling exhaust, headache, dizziness and seeing the pulsing lights dimmer.
"User 02, your mastery over the electromagnetic field is excellent, but your manipulation of microorganisms is lacking. I need you to wait for the agent to arrive to teach the basics and get you home. You did amazing in your training," O.I.A. said formally yet proudly.
Then back at the massacre at the truck as the crows scavenged the dead bodies for their metal objects even some finding snacks.
A familiar-looking black Shelby Mustang GT500 stopped at the scene, and the shopkeeper came out, causing the crows to flee.
After walking for a while, he saw 02 sitting next to a barely alive Melokuhle and could tell he was exhausted.
"User 02, how was your training with the 'MicroSynapse' set and gear going?" the shopkeeper asked in a confident and calm tone.
02, on his phone, checked the time and saw that it was 11:22 AM.
"Hey, Bra Khule, I might be there around 1. Tell the boys that I'm bringing home the ingredients and stationery." He sent the message as he looked up at the shopkeeper, who looked like a silhouette stretched unnaturally to him, but he couldn't tell if his mind was playing tricks on him.
"Well, 02, let me help you get rid of the evidence and teach you how to use the set to manipulate microorganisms," the shopkeeper said as he threw him an energy bar that was bigger than a normal one.
02 sighed, exhausted from this experience, sat there, and caught his breath.
"Alright, I do need to understand that function anyway," he said as he bit into the energy bar.
"Perfect. You make it look like they killed him," the shopkeeper said, pointing at Melokuhle, who was fighting for his life.
"First, you need to turn on your set again but focus on that man's body," the shopkeeper said.
02 did as instructed, and he saw a neon pulsing light and focused on it.
"Great, now remove your bullet using the electromagnetic field," the shopkeeper said, kneeling down next to him.
He did as instructed and removed the bullet, getting a splash of blood on his blindfold.
"Now accelerate the wound by focusing on those red cells," the shopkeeper said.
He tried and saw a red neon light as the other light turned gray, and he accelerated, but it felt hollow.
"I could only get the surface level of his wound," the masked figure said, tired as he started seeing blurs.
"Great job. You got the first step in. I'll take you home," the shopkeeper said as he put on gloves and shot Melokuhle three times.
02 went into the car as he heard gunshots and saw him drag bodies behind the truck.
*10 minutes later, the shopkeeper walked up to the car the, seeing masked 02 was waiting in the car, asleep, and the trunk as he sees Me Khani tied up awake.door opened, and 02 pointed his gun at him.
"02, let's not repeat our first meeting," the shopkeeper said jokingly as he entered the car and drove off.
"Where must I drop you, 02?" the shopkeeper asked as they left the district.
"To the nearest shopping district. I need to get some things," 02 said, looking out the window.