In the depths of a damp lush rainforest, a man wearing a black cloak jumped through at an inhuman speed. He had two red eyes and a strange symbol on his back, much like the man in the Atlantic, in fact the two were one and the same.

He stopped before a shallow spring and waved his hand producing a small black ball exuding a noxious black gas. He looked down on it for a moment before dropping it into the depths of the spring and saying, “World Seed. It’s time.”

The spring rapidly started turning black from the spot it was dropped in and the seed started germinating at a rapid rate forming a small stalk before bursting out of the surface, the man nodded in satisfaction before jumping back into the thickets.

Shortly after, a small black frog with three eyes jumped out of the black spring, it gave off a piercing shriek and shot into the thickets, while the surrounding plant life began to change, shifting and growing furiously.

-----

“Ugh, there really needs to be a better way of finding world app users, not everyone’s going to be an idiot like Paul or Matt… Who the hell is dumb enough to go to a police station in person without an illusionist? He should have known other users would converge on that station.”

The old man grouched as he and the soulless young girl pulled up at a small derelict building adjacent to the hospital and went in disguised as construction workers.

“Well, we could scan the minds of everyone in the city,” she said.

“That would take forever, and people come in and go out all the time, how would we even round them up… It’s not like we can pass down a decree to the entire city, even the mayor doesn’t have that sort of power, and the states are probably under the control of kings or powerful lords.” He muttered as he recalled the president delivering a speech and a little person made of psions controlling him like a puppet from behind.

“Even if we could round up every person in the city… They would just have to hypnotise one or two people to escape, it’s not like we can hypnotise the entire city...” He said.

“Actually… We can. But it’ll take a long time. We could rewrite their memories.” She said.

“Rewriting memories is dangerous… The more changes we make and the further it gets from reality… The riskier it becomes… Especially if contradictions arise… Or… Patterns… They’re good at spotting patterns…” He said and peered through a pair of binoculars.

“Where is he…?” He asked.

“He’s… Almost here...” She said.

-----

Matt’s car, or should I say, the car of his slave shot around the corner towards the hospital. Matt stared with bloodshot eyes constantly scanning the road for police cars and anyone with a gun. If only I had a gun, that damned Palmer wouldn’t have been able to dominate me like that…

The car screeched to a stop before the hospital and he stepped out with his slave. He looked left and right cautiously and slowly walked up to the arch telling him that he was entering Violet Hospital. He’s not much, but at-least he’ll buy me some time if Palmer appears again...

As he opened the door, a blob of psionic power shot towards the receptionist and sank into the depths of her being, branding an imprint of absolute obedience. To her, he was her master, her god, anyone who opposes him is a monster who enjoys eating infants and soaking in a bathtub filled with their victim’s blood. His word is law. Without him, her very soul would cease to be.

Along with that notion, another image filled her mind. Palmer. This was a monster beyond imagination, one who tried to kill her master, her god, the one who is all. He beats old women every night for fun and ate his own daughter alive.

No matter what, she must do everything she can, even if it means destroying her very mind and soul to destroy this menace and to keep her master and the world safe from his madness, otherwise… The world would fall into an eternity of darkness, her soul would fall into the depths of oblivion and demons will scour the earth.

Matt nodded in satisfaction and moved onto the other people in the reception room, sending blob into the depths of a businessman’s mind, injecting memories of Matt saving his business after Palmer shot his best employees, along with information about his saviour being under threat from corrupt government officials, including a senator, a mayor, and a judge.

I know you were controlled, but screw you, Palmer… You really messed me around… The businessman trembled as his thoughts changed his and his past shifted before looking at Matt and sighing.

“What happened?” He asked.

“Palmer shot me in the arm.” Matt said.

“Ugh, that bastard. I don’t know why he’s still in the police force, he belongs in prison, who knows how many people that psychopath has killed...” The man sighed.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Yeah, he’s crazy… He was chasing me earlier, in fact… I sometimes wonder if he’s right around the corner… You know how crazy he is, he’ll never stop once he’s found some meat...” Matt sighed.

“Ugh, tell me about it… You know what… I might have something which could help you out.” The man said as he fiddled around with his briefcase.

“Really?” Matt asked.

“Yes. Here.” The man a small pistol and handed it to Matt.

“Thank you so much… I hope that I don’t need to use this and I’ll repay you for i-” Mat began, but the man cut him off.

“Keep it, you helped me a lot when that freak came for me last time.” The man said.

“Okay, I will. Thank you.” Matt nodded before turning to a thin man sitting on a couch and sending out a blob. It flew across the room and drilled into his head replacing images of demons and devils in popular culture with images of Palmer.

I doubt they’ll send him again, but… If he does come, then I’d like to provoke a strong response, if possible… It’s a shame that vague notions are much weaker, but I don’t have anywhere enough power to hypnotise dozens of people at once, by the time the assassin comes, it’ll be too late…

Matt sighed and walked into the hallway, sending out tendril after tendril, naturally he implanted a great degree of respect or worship towards himself and a deep hate of Palmer, the corrupt officials after him, or the mafia. He alternated his stories each to best cater to their psyches, and clutched his head at the incredible amount of psions he had to use.

Urgh, damn it. This is really draining… If I keep it up, I won’t be able to squeeze out more psions today… Maybe, I should stop… No… If they come, then they won’t overlook the chance to attack me deep in a hospital where it’s hard for me to escape, but… They’ll probably be prepared, if they do appear to deal with anything I can do… Damn it…

He trembled as he wandered into surgery room with his slave and found a man wearing a surgical gown. He send a blob out into his psyche imprinting a scene of Matt saving his career and stopping a rabid man whose son died in a failed surgery from stabbing him to death.

He also didn’t forget to bestow an overinflated sense of respect and worship which was so over the top, that even this reason wouldn’t cover this near obsession for his ‘master’’.

Okay, that should do it… Now… Matt turned and said, “I need a little help. Palmer shot me, there are couple of bullets I need… Extracted.”

“Oh my god… Okay, I’ll do it.” The surgeon said as he rushed to get a pair of tweezer and other bits of equipment, including a small surgical knife.

“Don’t tell anyone about this… There are some dark forces at play here, if you know what I mean.” Matt said.

“Okay, I won’t. This never happened, you came here for a quick check-up.” The surgeon said as he came back with a tray of equipment.

“Thank you for being so… Understanding. Make it fast… Otherwise, we might have some unexpected… visitors...” Matt said as he rolled up his sleeves exposing the ugly wounds and the surgeon gasped.

“This’ll hurt, but… If you don’t have time to lose, then I’ll have no choice, stay absolutely still.” The surgeon commanded as he strapped down the arm to help stem the bleeding and looked closely at the wound with a magnifying glass.

He picked up the knife, opening up the wound slightly as Matt grimaced and searched around for the bullet, finding it deep in the crack. Resist the pain… Resist it… Come on… A little pain like this is nothing compared to ear- Agh…

He reached in with the tweezers and slowly tweezed it out, before applying some agents and carefully stitching the wound shut. He briefly stopped before proceeding to the second bullet hole, quickly locating the bullet, and to Matt’s dismay removing the second bullet. Agh… If only I had some sort of… bullet-proof… armour… agh…

Matt trembled as he pulled it before stitching it up, applying special bandages and relieving the pressure on the arm.

“That should do it for now, but I would advise keeping that on for a couple of weeks, and of course… Not getting shot.” The surgeon said.

“I’ll try, but I’m not sure Palmer will be so kind.” Matt said as blob drifted through the wall into patient’s head and swiftly enlisted him onto the Palmer Resistance Forces. And immediately following that, another blob latched onto another patient in that room, along with the doctor.

“Let’s go. We’ll take an ambulance out of here, they’re probably watching my car.” Matt said as the two followed him out the room, with blobs flying everywhere towards unwitting targets, as Matt pushed his psionic powers to their limits. I never thought I could seize control of so many people… Desperation does that, huh…

He continued walking briskly down the corridor with slaves on either side while pushing out blobs and tendrils now and then to create a devoted army with a variety of backstories and reasons for following him, and of course, reasons for absolutely hating Palmer’s guts, it was unbelievable how much these people hated Palmer.

Another blob shot out, this time towards a man wearing a black tracksuit, it drilled into the depths of psyche, burning the devotion and hate into the depths of his psyche, but as it completed, the sounds of gunfire echoed out. It’s them. They’re here. I knew it.

“Move, move, move.” Matt said as he hurried the two along the corridor and pushed his mind to it’s limits to send out more and more blobs. Every person I control is another person I can use to stall them, even if it’s just for a second more, come on… More… More… Agh, my head… More!

Screams echoed out a more gunfire echoed out and Matt broke out into a sprint along with his slaves. Damn it, why did they have to put the ambulances so far, how on earth does any patient survive the trip from there to here, ugh…

As he burst through a double door, a couple of security guards jumped out in-front, they were armed with two handguns and shouted, “Freeze!”

A blob shot out from Matt’s echoed towards one, but it bounced off as if he was protected by a shield, much like with Palmer and his friend. It’s one of their minions, damn. In that case, I’ll have to…

“Pin them down!” Matt shouted and several men lunged at the two startled men and pinned them down on the ground. They struggled like demented ferrets, but after several punches, they descended into darkness and Matt’s two slaves seized their guns.