Frank Evans, first of his name, was not happy. The strikes of thunder in the distance were promising rain and he was standing out in the middle of nowhere. Granted, the cheap farm was just fifty metres north of his location but it was hidden behind so many trees that it couldn’t be seen. That forced him to stand around doing nothing. Time was money and he was wasting both with how long he was standing around.

“What time did you tell him to be here?” Frank questioned one of his subordinates. The leader couldn’t remember every brute’s name so he frankly had no idea who they were. The muscles were all he cared about, the man being a beast. The drug-lord was still unhappy that he hadn’t been able to find any Augmentation users, only having that damned Biomancer in his clutches.

“He was meant to arrive ten minutes ago, sir,” the brute answered, checking his watch. It was golden though the material didn’t carry all the way through. Frank wondered what person the brute had beat up to get that little trinket, throwing himself a reminder to have it checked later that day. Even mindless muscle could still be useful for many months and blackmail was a great way to keep them in line. “Do you want me to-”

“I want you to stand where you are currently and shut up while doing it,” Frank cut in, loving the appreciation of brief anger on the brute’s face. The other two there would stop the man from doing anything against Frank. It was fun like that, though the leader could protect himself if needed.

Feeling at his side, the gun sat snugly inside his jacket. Too many people disliked standard weaponry in the current age, having the argument of them doing little against the Heroes of the current age. Yet most people also forgot they were very susceptible to bullets and that Frank didn’t always aim for the Heroes. If his desires were fulfilled, he would never actually be meeting one of those in person. Everybody above knew that criminals didn’t fare well with some of the supers who took their job seriously.

The rustling of the leaves hinted at the darker clouds coming closer, Frank getting more and more annoyed. The promises of that Manipulation User were something the leader would soon not care for. An easy way into the farm wouldn’t be too bad and the power-set he the Biomancer wielded was documented as being able to manipulate the earth to a high degree. Granted, Frank doubted that the person by the name of Oak Williams could do such a thing. They were quite powerful, else they wouldn’t have been hired by the farm, but Frank had never seen something that would imply they were that powerful.

Then again, Frank had only seen the Biomancer sober once. And with the capabilities the man had shown off while intoxicated, there was hope for the leader to be surprised. Though… a slight cough from one of the other brutes was all Frank needed before his face turned to stone.

After too long a wait, the Biomancer of the hour had finally come along. It seemed that two of Frank’s men had made sure of that, walking beside the larger man in perfect rhythm. Frank wasn’t sure where the men had gotten that from, the leader certainly not being one to instil such discipline in his workers. Trying to put advanced orders onto drug addicts never worked well for some reason.

“Should I ask why you wasted my time by making me wait for you?” Frank said with a toothy grin, feeling a bit perturbed by the general lack of facial expressions on the Biomancer. He remembered Oak Williams as a very impulsive man, making decisions mature minds shouldn’t normally make. Granted, that’s how Frank got the man into such a heavy debt, loaning him the money that the Biomancer used for liquor and drugs. Where was that emotion that normally fueled the Manipulation User? “Did you not get enough sleep or something?”

“I came at the time I needed to be here,” Oak answered, no hint of emotion in his voice either. Frank looked the man over, seeing no obvious signs of forgery. This was very much the man that he had dealt with in the past. Why was he acting so strange?

“Is that all you have to say to an old friend?” Frank said. He normally finished off that line by giving a grand hug but the leader didn’t feel too safe getting close to the Biomancer. The two men that had followed the Manipulation User into the forest joined his side, standing beside the brutes. “I almost have to cry at such a pitiful excuse.”

“I will not lie with the use of excuses,” Oak replied with little hesitation, his eyes seeming to mimic that of a dead fish. “There is no reason that I came here other than my obligations to my safety.”

“That’s certainly one way to word it,” Frank said with a confused expression. It was peculiar at the start but it was coming closer to an uncanny valley with every second. Something was very wrong. Acting like he needed to brush off his jacket, he turned off the safety on his gun through the fabric. “So… are you ready to start off taking a chunk out of your debt? I have been curious to see how you are going to build this tunnel of yours.”

“Indeed,” the Biomancer agreed. “Please step closer. I believe you will want to see this with your own eyes.”

The larger Manipulation User went down to one knee, touching the left hand’s palm against the moist dirt. The roots of nearby trees began to form a wider circle of sorts in the earth before the area within began to vacate itself of materials. Frank… was impressed.

“I didn't think you could do this,” the leader of a small empire said, taking a few steps closer to the edges of the circle. “How deep can you make this?”

“It depends on how much time I have to work with,” Oak answered bluntly, the earth beneath continuing to vanish. The beads of sweat on the super’s face made Frank grow more secure. “Each metre of space needs the entire area around it to be covered in thick roots, lest the dirt collapses and kills everything in the tunnel. This starting portion is going to be easily made but I strongly assume it can take days or even weeks of channelling this power before I make an area that will fit what I promised you.”

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That was more what Frank expected to hear. If the Biomancer wasn’t lying, the potential uses of his power wouldn’t be too bad. The drug lord had been hoping to gain a larger foothold in the area and having such power around wouldn’t be too bad.

“That is more time than I was hoping for,” Frank lied as the hole grew to be nearly three metres deep. Three metres in only a minute. It was glorious and a perfect display of what he desired. “How about you extend yourself a bit more and dedicate your time to this project? I might even increase the debt you pay off.”

“That won’t be necessary,” Oak said. Warnings were quick to start up in Frank’s head, the man ready to pull out the gun. Thunder began increasing in the distance, the strikes making his ears slightly defeated. Rain would fall soon.

“And why is that?” Frank questioned, crossing his arms. It would take under a second to pull out his gun and shoot. The aim might not be entirely true but he was relatively sure he could still fire a semi-lethal shot.

“Because I plan to kill and bury everybody here,” the Biomancer. That small smile on the large man’s face was the only emotion Frank saw that entire time. Pulling out his gun, he-

A root from a nearby tree shot itself into his left foot, digging itself through his leg at record speed, creating pain that Frank had never felt before. The shot meant to kill the Biomancer did nothing, the bullet flying high above. Another attempt to aim was met with another root pushing the gun out of the leader’s hands. Frank fell to the floor in absolute pain and agony, nearly screaming out until his ears were deaf.

And then, looking back at his underlings, the strangest thing was happening. The two goons that had brought the Biomancer had pulled knives. The brute that had checked the time for Frank was already on the ground with his hands on his bleeding throat, the other brutes fighting for their life as roots began to envelop their feet as well. Without the ability to move around, knives were inserted into every part of their body.

This wasn’t how things were meant to go.

“How dare you!” Frank shouted at the Biomancer. “You’re under me! You are not allowed to do this!”

“You run an organisation based around doing criminal activities, selling illegal goods, and stealing the hard-earned materials harvested by the farms nearby,” the Biomancer said in quick summary, Frank’s eyes growing ever wider. “To be surprised that somebody decided to betray shouldn't be a surprise and, to be honest with you, I am disappointed in the lack of true resistance I saw today. All the plans I had made for this area are turning out to be a time I had wasted.”

“... What?” Frank had to, unable to formulate a million thoughts running through his mind. “You aren’t Oak Williams. Oak Williams was a moron who liked booze.”

“This body did have quite the addiction to such substances, yes,” the body of Oak Williams agreed. “That has been stopped, however, and all activities like it will be stopped the moment it becomes socially acceptable to do such a thing without causing questions about the sudden change of heart.”

“What are you?”

“I believe that I am playing the role of an executioner, at the current moment. Though… the role of a grave digger would fit as well.”

Looking down at the start of the tunnel that had been made by the Biomancer, the horror of true comprehension dawned on Frank. He tried to crawl away but the root in this leg merely continued upwards, locking him in place while causing unbearable agony. The body of the man he had known as Oak Williams went over to him, making roots hold his arms while he ruffled through his jacket. Finding a phone, the Biomancer took out the battery. Barely able to glance at his now-dead subordinates, Frank saw they got the same treatment, though their phones were fully destroyed.

He tried to scream for help but the ring of thunder in the skies drowned it out. The slow realisation that he was going to die went over Frank Evans as a root from a nearby tree forced itself through his skull.

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The Hivemind was quite happy with its actions, seeing everything go down in one of the most optimal manners possible. The gun hadn’t been in the original schematics of what Frank Evans was supposed to be carrying, the information stating it was a taser. Yet, things had gone smoothly, the guards brought along were dispatched off without issue, and the Parasite was ready to move on with no struggles.

Hearing the repeated claps of thunder, the Hivemind hurried up the final cleaning. It had no desire for the Biomancer or the two new vessels to be caught in the rain. The written effects of colds were not desired, after all. However… there was a chance it would have to live through it for just a bit of time.

The choice of converting the two minor criminals had been hard but it was one that the Hivemind had done in good faith. It was only during long conversational pieces that it had even known of their direct connection to the drug-lord, the list of possible criminals not having noted them down. In other words, only other criminals knew of their pasts. If they were to be exterminated before things became dire, the Hivemind would have no issues.

Using the two new vessels to carry the corpses into the hole made for them, the Hivemind glanced at the phone in its hand. It was surprisingly enough without a passcode, a quick fingerprint ID being all that was needed. And since the Hivemind had access to a cut-off finger, it could access the phone whenever it so wished.

Granted, it had no desire to keep the device for more than a few more hours. Instead, it looked through the contacts listed on the phone, finding every name that had been listed on the sheet of paper Olivia had carried and proceeded to send the date and location to each of them.

They were all expected for an emergency drop-off in ten minutes just outside of the farm in the woods. Frank Evans, being the smartest businessman, had secured extreme amounts of various products that he was going to give off for prices that would have every addict frothing. However, the size of the payload required all hands on deck and for everybody to help everybody else get to the location.

Was this a very brute-filled way to get every single person in the same location at once? Most definitely. However, the Parasite had prepared extensively for it. Closing up the current grave and letting the dirt fill itself to its original position, the Hivemind moved over to the next part of its planning stage. With the three vessels, it was planning to kill over thirty people in one minute. It sounded hard in theory but enough preparation had been made to make it possible.

Seeing the glinting gun in the dirt, however, the Hivemind was unsure of what to do with it. Or, well, it turned on the safety before anything else, knowing the rules better than most. Guns were very restricted in most Sectors, making the idea of keeping one around very hard to accept. The potential damage that a single bullet could do was extreme, though, and the Hivemind did appreciate the idea of one last defence.

Yet the things that it would have to lose for the gun to help… making another hole in the earth, the Hivemind dropped it in. If it ever needed the weapon, it knew where to find it. Keeping such a restricted item in the open was too troublesome.

The next couple of minutes passed quickly, the small valley that the criminals had been summoned to filling up with the larger group of scum. The Hivemind looked from above, standing on one of the hills above. The entire place was surrounded by them, more than tall enough to work for its purposes.

Crates had been put into the middle of the small valley. With the lack of Frank Evans, those who’d come to heed his call weren’t sure whether to open it or not. But, time was the enemy of all human minds and curiosity got the better of them, the group of thirty forcing themselves right into the middle of the area.

If they had been on the edges, they could have likely outrun the landslide that came from all sides. But as the rain pelted down on all living things, the earth moved to swallow all people in the valley. None were left in the end, the few alive under the earth crushed with roots. Other than the change in the local topography, no evidence of the criminals was left. Taking a few minutes to make the earth swallow the corpses deeper down, the Hivemind left for the farm once more.

It needed to grab a few prepared shopping bags on the way, of course, since it had decided to walk to the town close by to grab various drinks with some friends. That’s the excuse the farm knew, at least. And with so many that were going to be labelled as missing in the next few days, the Hivemind knew that it had to keep up that alibi.