“The Mayor is ineffective at his job and must be replaced with someone who knows what he's doing! Poverty and crime is on the rise and things are only going to get worse if we let this man continue doing nothing while we all suffer!”

An overzealous man speaks to a crowd. Raising fiery passion and fear upon the spectators. Hundreds standing in watch of his loud venomous words and his animalistic snarling face ready to strike against anyone who dare stand in his way. Little does he know that he'd be meeting another zealot today.

“Dammit why can't I catch a break? How am I gonna make it through this crowd? Ugh...I hate being in crowds it makes me feel claustrophobic.” Jordan thought to himself as he sweat through his shirt due to anxiety. A crescent moon shape contoured his man boobs and he began to smell profusely due to his refusal to wear deodorant. Luckily that was masked by the common stench shared by the mob.

“Hey man,you need help getting through this crowd?”

“Who was that?”

“Maybe if you turn around you'd find out.”

Jordan turned around. “Oh shit, my bad.”

He turned towards this young man in his early twenties wearing a big pair of headphones and trendy clothing, and rage glasses. “Don't worry about it dude. I'll get us through this crowd. My name is Li by the way.”

“Awe thanks man. I owe you one.”

Li smiled widely “I'll hold your word to it.” He then proceeds to do some martial art hand and for gestures movements a kin to tai chi. “Heavenly Step Through The Dragon's Gate!” He then announced and a emerald green flash of light consumed them both and they appeared next to the stage.

“Holy shit what was that?!” Jordan exclaims.

“You're welcome.” Li responds smugly. “By the way there's something up with this crowd.”

“What do you mean?”

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I mean they're being emphatically controlled by this loser at the podium. He has a power to increase people's emotions and he's using it to make the crowd pissed off.”

“Oh geez. What should we do?”

“I'm going to do something about it, but first I want things to play out first. If anything, one of his goons seems to have noticed that we're probably gonna be trouble.” Li points out a strong looking man in a suit. “He has superhuman strength so he might be some trouble for you.”

“I could take him”

“Good for you.” Li shrugs then continues to watch the crowd on the edge of rioting.

Jordan then ran up to the man and punched him in the face. Seeming unfazed by his attack the man slammed both of his arms on Jordan's shoulders, dislocating them both. “Why God? Why me?” he shouted in pain, arms flailing around like a Muppet.

He tried running away, but the man grabbed him by the hair and slammed him to the ground like a rag doll. “You're not getting away chump!” The man shouted in anger winding up for another attack.

Jordan in a desperate attempt, flailed his right hand to slap the man in the face. Then Jordan channeled all the electricity he could to his opponents face in a light girlish slap frying the man like roasted duck. The man smoking body fell on top of Jordan like a sack of potatoes.

“I-it worked..” Jordan then wiggled his way out from under the man.

“You smell like shit man. I mean shittier than before if I'm being honest.” said Dao.

“Daddy!” said a random crying child running towards the smoldering corpse.

“You're a monster man. Killing that kids dad like that.”

“W-what?! I thought that he was a bad guy!”

“I never said that. I thought you just wanted to fight someone dude. I didn't know you were gonna kill the guy.” Dao then looked at the now orphaned little girl. “Hey there honey. Sorry about what happened here. You wanna come with me and get some ice cream?”

“S-sure.” she replied.

“Alright let's go.” he said to her smiling a huge grin.

“Dao! We've got a mission to do!”

“Dude he's gonna kill himself in a couple seconds. Chill out.”

“What?”

“I've had enough of living now! Now I'm going to kill myself!” he said as he grabbed his tie clip and slit his throat.

“ WHAT THE FUCK!” Jordan shouted in confusion as everyone in the crowd started fighting each other. “WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?”

“It seems to be that after he killed himself everyone got a thought of death. Now they're all trying to kill themselves.” Dao then shrugged. “They'll snap out of it I'm sure. My job's done! Let's go sweetheart ”

As Dao finished that statement and was preparing to leave the area with the orphan child, a strange figure appeared suddenly. It looked to be cloaked in a dark shroud and looked more like a shadow than a person. It had a what looked to a plague doctor's mask but it was definitely it's face. A bird like shroud of prey. It was definitely no man.

It outstretched it's arm and opened its claw to the crowd, and spoke no words. Then the people all dispersed in an orderly fashion. It seemed too orderly; almost like what a beehive would look in the presence of it's queen.

The shroud then floated down towards Jordan and Dao, growing human legs and boots.

“Who is that?” asked Jordan.

“Not sure...I've never seen him before.” Dao looked worried and thought to himself. “This guy isn't real. I could feel it ...but I can't feel him. He's a sand construct, bending light to make a hologram, but other than that I can't feel his presence. Just like I could stay off the charts; he could do the same. He's a void, just like me.”