14 Our Monster

"I don't have time for this bullshit…"

That was what Cynthia wanted to say, but managed to keep in her mind.

She couldn't afford to let her cover slip now, not when she has successfully become a recruit of P.A.I.N.

[All of this was probably set up by that idiot.] Cynthia mentally grumbled to herself as she casted a sideways glance to the idle crimson marines who just stood by at their posts, as if there was nothing wrong.

This golden-haired idiot in front of her was creating a commotion and yet what are they are doing?

Absolutely nothing.

Nothing but watch the situation unfold in silence.

There was no doubt that at this very moment, their helmets were sending their visuals as a live feed to a certain blue and green planet in the Solar System.

Cynthia had to try her very best to keep her innocent appearance as she thought of the person who was most likely responsible for this whole ordeal.

She was not unfamiliar with the eccentric director of P.A.I.N., either fortunately or unfortunately she even personally interacted with the man in her past life.

[I know that you're watching me 'Allen.' Do you want a performance? Is that it? Fine I'll give you a damned majestic performance.]

Soon a plan quickly formulated in her head, sure it may be a little rough around the edges but it was better than nothing.

With that innocent smile that Cynthia perfected, she spoke to the man.

"Erm… Excuse me Mr..?"

"Mocxe, Zackary Mocxe. You would do well to remember that name.

Zackery kept that obnoxiously prideful smile on his face as he boasted. In fact, Cynthia felt that it may have grown wider.

But ultimately, Cynthia knew that she could do nothing but let him ramble on, at least for the time being.

"For that name belongs to a powerful psionic with a psionic level of 4317! Yes that's right, 4317! Such a feat is only achievable by D-class psionics who only make up-"

"8% of all total psionics."

Sensing the right moment to interrupt, Cynthia decisively cut into Zackary's self-absorbed monologue.

"Well look what we have here. It would seem that you know your stuff at least…"

For a short moment, Zackery paused to lean over and put his face at Cynthia's level, placing that obnoxious smile in front of her as he did so.

When he continued speaking, his voice became colder and more threatening.

"But don't you dare attempt to upstage me in front of everyone here."

Zackary's prideful sneer warped into a contemptuous smile as he spoke, it would seen that Cynthia really bruised his ego. Fortunately, enough, this is exactly what Cynthia wanted.

"If you do, I will warn you that there will indeed be conseq-"

"You aren't that special."

Of course, Zackary was less than pleased with her response to say the least. His contemptuous smile regressed into a hateful frown while anger and fury clearly burned in his hazel-coloured eyes.

With that hateful expression, Zackary slowly pronounced his next few words.

"What. Did. You. Say?"

It was at this moment that Cynthia has realised the commotion that both she and Zackary had collectively created.

Other than the clearing made around the two of them that was three meters wide in radius, she also realised that the number of eyes watching has multiplied to a number larger than the original amount of people in the cafeteria.

There were even more crimson marines at the scene, but like the others, they remained passive the moment the saw the people involved in the incident.

This only confirmed Cynthia's theory that this entire ordeal was actually an absurd scenario conceived by and set up by Allen.

What a pain.

However, these details were unimportant at the moment.

What mattered was dealing with this idiot in front of her.

She can deal with Allen and his clowns some time in the future.

After all, they were also part of that long list of traitors who absolutely needed to die.

While still pretending to be that naive and oblivious child, Cynthia 'innocently' answered Zackary's question.

"I said that you aren't that special."

When Zackary heard Cynthia's response, his hateful expression only intensified.

Nevertheless, Cynthia continued to keep up the act as she explained herself, the fury burning in Zackary's eyes heating up as she did so.

"There are still hundreds of thousands of D-class psionics like yourself, not forgetting to mention the thousands more people ranked in a class above you."

At this point, Zackary's appearance has completely devolved to that of a beast, his hunched back as he bent down combined with the fact that he was now baring his teeth and furiously gnashing them together made him look like some large downtrodden golden hyena.

Despite his now savage appearance which completely contrasted his previous prideful appearance that stood tall, Cynthia wasn't affected in the slightest.

As with most things, she has seen worse in her previous life, this breakdown was nothing to what she witnessed and even did herself.

As such, Cynthia was able to maintain her act of that oblivious idiot girl who couldn't control her mouth.

Unlike before when Zackary pronounced his words clearly, this time he forced his words through his teeth, only exaggerating his already beastly appearance.

"How dare you… How da-"

"And one of those thousands more people is me."

This time, Zackary's expression froze entirely in response to Cynthia's third interruption, apparently he was caught of guard by this revelation.

However, he wasn't the only one taken aback by her response, the eyes of the bystanders watching widened as well when they heard her proclamation, some people even staggering backwards in shock.

The only people who appeared to have remained unperturbed and stood completely unmoved were the crimson marines whose helmets obscured their faces.

On the other hand, Cynthia only tilted her head and answered in a nonchalant manner.

"I think those men in white told me that my power level was over 40,000? I'm not sure what happened exactly but they told me to wait for the 'more advanced' scanners but to be honest I think I broke it."

Although Cynthia spoken in an innocent and childish tone, and scratched the back of head in a slightly awkward manner, no one present shared her outward appearance.

Zackary in particular had his expression transform into something completely different from the prideful sneer or contemptuous anger from before.

His mouth hung slightly open and twitched and trembled at regular intervals while in his eyes, Cynthia could undoubtedly see fear.

He was scared.

For the first time in this encounter, he no longer saw himself as 'above,' Cynthia, a fact which she revelled in.

She has long grown tired of his obnoxious, self-absorbed and self-righteous pride. He probably had his reasons for why he was like this but she didn't care.

It was always satisfying to watch people like him realise how insignificant they really are, especially to Cynthia who has known and killed many people like him in her past life.

After a few seconds passed, Zackary was able to produce a single, weak word through his trembling mouth.

"Impossible…"

However, that glint of fear quickly dissipated.

And was quickly replaced by a furious flame that burned even harder than ever before.

"That's impossible! You're lying! You have to be!"

It would seem that denial was his brain's first reaction.

This was no surprise considering his stubborn and prideful nature.

In fact, that means that it would only be more satisfying to put him in his place, to watch that fire in his eyes be put out without even the slightest resistance.

[Wait… fire in his eyes… hmmmm… I think that just gave me an idea.] Cynthia managed to keep herself from twisting her mouth into a malicious smile when she replied.

"But it's the truth? Why would I lie?"

"I said! Stop lying!"

At this point, Zackary lost any semblance of his prideful disposition. Although he has now stopped bending over to put his face at Cynthia's level, he seemed so much 'smaller' to her.

Both of his eyes were now bloodshot and multiple veins were visible on his forehead. Both of his hands were balled into fists and his biceps and forearms shook and vibrated violently.

Spit and saliva flew out of his mouth as he hollered in anger.

"I've had it! I tried being nice! Now time to personally teach you a lesson!"

Showing off his incredible speed and strength, Zackary grabbed Cynthia by the hair before yanking her up off the floor.

Pain surged through Cynthia's head but she ignored these sensations, instead focusing on other details.

It would appear that he was a self-enhancer psionic, since he was D-class he should be able to multiply his physical capabilities by 1000% at most.

Judging from what he displayed right now, he multiplied his abilities by around 200% but that should only be because he was holding back since he wanted to 'teach her a lesson.'

But none of that mattered anymore.

Because this was the exact moment that she was waiting for.

Before he could even move another muscle, she snapped the fingers of her right hand.

The next moment, both of his eyes were set aflame.

…

Both Melanie and Allen remained silent during and after they watched the replay which displayed exactly what they had missed.

After Cynthia provoked Zackary, whether intentionally or unintentionally, she quickly set both of his eyes on fire in self defence after he grabbed her by the hair.

What happened next was that weirdly enough, both of the two seemed to have become incapacitated, albeit in their own unique ways.

Other than Zackary who rolled on the floor in pain, Cynthia had curled up into a ball and started sobbing to herself, apparently she did not take the turn of events very well.

But in the end, Allen still got what he wanted.

The moment 'the fight' started, she effortlessly incapacitated her opponent.

Even if she ended up in that sorry state that she us now, a victory is still a victory.

He couldn't help but wonder just how powerful she could become with the right guidance. [B-class perhaps? No she may have the potential to become an A-class psionic.]

Typically psionics can only jump from one class with the difficulty of jumping classes increasing exponentially with each higher classes.

But when it came to a talent like Cynthia, Allen felt that she may indeed have the potential to jump the two imposing classes in order to make it into the esteemed A-class.

After a long moment of quiet contemplation, Allen decided that it was finally time to break the silence.

While glancing at his second-in-command out of the corner of his eyes, Allen asked her a question.

"Well what do you thin-"

"Don't let her act fool you boss, even if she did it out some… primal instinct, she still managed to precisely burn only Zackary's eyes as her retaliation."

The fact that Melanie actually interrupted Allen only further emphasised her concern when combined with her hurried and serious voice.

Normally she would let Allen finish speaking, no matter what he was saying and yet this time, she actually cut in to state her concerns.

"While it is true that this could be easily remedied with a pair of cybernetic eyes, this still puts into perspective what Cynthia is capable of when she is only five years old."

Melanie's hurried voice began to tremble the more she spoke.

"Someone like that… She's… she's a monster…"

"Yes that is true but…

Allen felt a somewhat nervous smile grow on his face as he paused for a short moment for dramatic effect.

A few seconds later, when he did break his artificial silence, he found that his voice was anxious yet it was also full of excitement and expectation.