Chapter 29: Tony

“What? They lose their power?”

The trainees were surprised, to say the least. They were new, so they hadn’t heard about the old man Sam just yet. 𝚍ｎ𝚘ｖ𝚕．𝚘𝚛𝚐

Stanley himself remembered when he first learned about the old man from his brother. He couldn’t believe someone like this existed.

A person like the old man Sam could only live a life that was no different than a Dull if he was by himself. But when he was with the Defenders, he was one of the most important people in the town, besides the Mayor.

The old man turned to the trainees that were looking at him with surprised looks and got angry. “Stop staring at me and go back to work!” he shouted at them.

He then arrived next to tied-up people and started pulling out the ropes that were tied around his arm. He unraveled a rope that was about half a meter in length and placed it on one of the man’s hands.

“Don’t let him drop it, and tie it while keeping contact with his hands,” Sam said and moved toward the other person.

Garry wrapped the rope around one of the hands of the man that was already tied up. The only important thing here was to keep the ropes in contact with the person it first came in contact with and their powers would remain suppressed.

No one truly knew how exactly Sam’s powers worked or what his activation ritual was. All they knew was that he was a man that had ropes wrapped around his body and any one of those ropes could get rid of one’s powers.

After going through the 6 people that were captured, every single one had their powers suppressed.

“Goddammit!” the old man cried out again. “Now I have to walk all the way back again. This wouldn’t have happened if I got to live in the mansion if that damn Damian had kept his word.”

The old man grumbled even as he left.

Garry and the rest shook their heads when they heard the old man. Stanley and the rest couldn’t understand why they were acting the way they did.

“Did he say something about someone not keeping his word?” one of them asked.

“Who’s Damian?” another person asked.

“Isn’t that the Mayor’s name?” Freddy spoke to himself.

“Stop talking about the old man Sam,” Garry spoke. “Somebody run over to the prison and tell them to send someone over.”

“What about the Census? Do we stop here?” Stanley asked.

“We have no other choice,” Garry said. “Where are the papers?”

“I have them, brother!” one of the 2nd years spoke up and brought out the papers. Garry took the papers and checked them over before nodding to himself.

“Who here is the fastest?” he asked.

“I—”

“I am,” a young man spoke up before Stanley could.

Like Stanley, he was a third-year as well. He was under the other senior and was tasked with the 3rd row of houses for the census.

He was definitely one of the fastest runners amongst the third-year trainee thanks to his powers.

“What’s your name?” Garry asked.

“Tony,” the young man quickly spoke with a straight posture. He was smaller than almost everyone in the group, even the first years, coming at around 5 feet and 3 inches, nearly 4 inches shorter than Stanley.

“Alright, Tony. Go and call them,” Garry said.

“Yes, sir,” Tony said and jumped once. As soon as he landed, he dashed forward.

Garry was taken aback for a moment when he saw Tony run, all because Tony didn’t run at all. Instead, he glided through the ground seemingly not losing any speed as he did so.

In fact, he sped up as time went on and very soon he disappeared onto the other side of the main street in the 1st Quadrant.

“The hell is his power?” Garry couldn’t help but ask.

“He can make all parts of his own body and whatever he is touching frictionless. The ground doesn’t stop him and the air doesn’t block him, so he can run easily, so long as the land is relatively smooth,” the other third-year trainee explained.

“I see,” Garry said.

“Huh? I think Renny had that power too,” the other senior beside Garry said. “He could remove friction from his body too, but he never glided like that.”

“Had?” Garry turned to ask.

“He died during the one attack 5 years ago when 2 Crawlers entered at the same time during the night,” the other senior said.

“Ah, right,” Garry said. “Many people died that night too, didn’t they?”

“Is two people having the same power something unique?” one of the trainees asked.

“Not really,” Garry said. “The specifics can be different and the activation rituals can be different, but many people have the same type of powers.”

“Just think about how many people have powers that have to do with fire or water or ground,” the other senior said. “There are only so many different things that are possible. It usually differs in the way it can use though.”

They talked about people that they knew had similar powers, even pointing out a few that had some healing powers like the Mayor, but not to his level.

After a while, Tony came back with a few people and a cart pulled by a few bulls.

Bulls and Cows were the only farm animals not taken care of by the Dulls. Instead, they were domesticated in the town itself by the everyday people.

Bulls were mostly used to pull carts while cows were used for their milk and to give birth to more bulls and cows.

They were rarely used for their meat, which was why they weren’t taken care of on the farm where only chicken and pigs were raised.

Stanley helped with putting the unconscious people onto the cart. Once everyone was on there, the other senior left with the cart to the prison area, while Garry and the rest of the trainees returned to their quarters as the first day of their work came to an end.