It was the biggest man in the room who first asked the question everyone was wondering. 

“Uh...who are you?” 

“Oh, me?” Cassie answered casually. Her eyes quickly scanned the room and everyone in it. “You won’t know me. Anyways...I just want to have a chat with the members of the Reese Cartel. I take it you’re one of the said members?”

Before Mr. Patricks could say anything, the manager suddenly spoke up. He finally recognized the man who brought Cassie in. To be fair, the man was his employee, though not a close one. 

“Danny! What is the meaning of this?” He demanded. “Who is she? Why did you bring her here?”

“Yeah...I don’t know who she is. She just walked in here.” Danny returned with a shrug. He was telling the truth. “As for why I brought her here...she asked!”

The manager felt his brain slowly melting. What? She asked? And you just nodded and obeyed and took her into my office where all my secrets are kept? Is she your boss or am I your boss? Oh...why did he end up with such an idiot as an employee? He shuddered to think what the Reese Cartel would do to him for such a mistake! This idiot could doom him and his family!

“You damn idiot!” The manager was about to step forward and give Danny a good beating when Mr. Patricks held his hand out and stopped him. The man’s eyes were trained on the door. 

“Bob. Frank. Jason. Louis. Come in!” 

The four bodyguards entered the office, still fully awake and alive. They still had their weapons in their hands, but none of them thought about using them against the intruders. 

“What is it, boss?” One of them asked innocently. 

Mr. Patricks felt his face turn red in anger at the nonchalant response. 

“What is the meaning of this, my friends? We have been working together for how long? Several years? I have never treated any of you poorly. Jason! When your mom was sick, who paid for her hospital bill? Me!” He demanded, sensing a betrayal from his most trusted people. “I trusted you! All of you!”

“Oh, of course.” One of the bodyguards shrugged as if everything was normal. In fact, a part of him even wondered why his boss was saying this to him. 

Mr. Patricks could barely contain himself as he pointed at Cassie. 

“Then how do you explain this?”

“Well sir. I can explain. You see...she told us to step aside and allow her in, and she said she is allowed in here, so…” Jason replied in confusion, completely unaware of what Cassie did to him. “What else are we supposed to do?”

“What do you mean...maybe stop her?” It was at that moment that the large man felt like killing someone. Preferably, the four idiots standing before him. They had one job. One job! “You know what? Forget it! You will pay for this betrayal!”

He snapped around to Cassie. Now, this young woman was a complete enigma to him. Mr. Patricks had seen enough to know that there was no way this young woman was related to the government or the police. Yet she somehow managed to compromise all his trusted bodyguards and turn them to her side! More importantly, despite clearly having no combat capabilities, this young woman approached him recklessly. She was either arrogant, or she had tricks up her sleeve. 

For a second, the man had to admit he was concerned. Someone with a dangerous level of reach was coming after the Reese Cartel, and this girl might just be the vanguard. Still, he held his fist and let out a bloodthirsty grin. 

The girl made a mistake. Indeed, there were four armed traitors in the room, but Mr. Patricks was confident that he could get to her before any of them could respond. With a hostage in hand, it wouldn’t be too hard for him to fight his way out of danger. And then, he would extract all the information he needed from the girl with any means necessary. 

That was when Cassie waved her hand and shook the worldview of everyone in the office. 

“Draw your weapons and throw them to the other side of the office.” 

The four bodyguards obeyed almost immediately. The accountant wasn’t armed, which ensured that the order didn't apply to him. He simply stood there, frozen in a mixture of fear and confusion. The manager walked over to his table, pulled out a handgun, and threw it to the corner. 

Cassie grinned to herself. Controlling six people at once was extremely straining for her, but in the end, she still managed it. 

That was when Cassie realized something was off. One person didn't obey her command, at least not completely. 

Right in front of her, Mr. Patricks had drawn his handgun, much like the others. However, instead of tossing it to the side and disarming himself, the man stared at the weapon for a few seconds. That was when his hands started shaking, followed by the rest of his body.

The man was struggling against Cassie’s psychic powers. Cassie issued him an order, but he was able to disobey it with sheer willpower. 

By the time Cassie realized what was up, Mr. Patricks had regained full control of himself. Without wasting a moment, the man charged at Cassie, firing his handgun in the process. 

For someone who had little to no prior combat experience, Cassie acted surprisingly quickly. Almost instinctively. She waved her hand, and an invisible power pushed Mr. Patrick’s arm to the side, causing all the bullets to whiz by Cassie’s head and narrowly miss. 

But that didn't bring an end to the man’s movement. By the time Cassie turned back and before she really had an idea of what was going on, Mr. Douglas was already within arm’s reach of her. He quickly dropped his handgun and sent his fist punching right into Cassie’s chest. 

That punch made contact and sent Cassie flying, her back smashing hard against the wall of the office. Mr. Patricks pushed forward once again, slamming his side into Cassie and crushing her between his body and the wall. With that done, Mr. Patricks took a few steps back. His lips curled up in a victorious grin.  

He didn't know what the girl did, but for a minute, he actually considered throwing away his weapon. Somehow. Thankfully, he was able to resist that urge when everyone else fell victim to whatever sorcery the girl did. 

And now, the girl was down. Now he could find out all he wanted to know...perhaps with some creative use of lighters and staplers. If she could somehow gain access to whatever sorcery this girl used on them...then the Reese Cartel might be able to grow to a hundred times its former size!

With his enemy down, Mr. Patricks turned around to the four bodyguards. Well, the one silver lining of what just happened was that now he knew his men didn't betray him. That was good. 

“Retrieve your weapons. Send a message to Mr. Reese and tell him to send more people here. And find me footage of all the cameras we have in the club. I want to see when this girl came in and what she did…”

He never finished because he could see the look of shock and horror on the faces of the bodyguards and the manager. Cursing under his breath, he snapped around and found that the girl on the ground, the girl that should be injured and knocked out, was in fact awake. Not only so, but she was also transforming. 

A silver layer was materializing across her body. It started out around her chest and quickly covered her entire body, shielding her very mortal and very vulnerable flesh behind an impenetrable barrier. Silver light radiated across the armor as it worked to amplify Cassie’s already potent psychic powers. 

“Shit…” One of the bodyguards cursed. This was something straight out of a sci-fi movie! Who was this girl, and what did they do to have her come after them? All they did was sell some drugs, maybe kidnap a few hostages for extortion...ok, and they did kill plenty of people, but never did they think they would find themselves facing whatever this girl was!

He had retrieved his trusted shotgun, but he couldn’t bring himself to use it. He didn't need to be a genius to know fighting a woman with superpowers in sci-fi armor with a shotgun would be a formula for disaster. 

Mr. Patricks saw the same thing unfold before his eyes, but he wasn’t as smart as his guards. For one reason or another, he felt like he still had a fighting chance. In an act of courage or stupidity, perhaps both, the man took a sub-machine gun from one of his subordinates and took aim at Cassie. 

He was going to pull the trigger, but that never happened. Silver light across the armor that hugged Cassie radiated even brighter than before, and Mr. Patricks screamed. His gun-holding arm was twisted into an unnatural angle by an invisible force. 

He could no longer hold onto his weapon, which slid out of his crippled hand and hit the ground in a loud metallic clank. 

“Ahhhh!” The man screamed. His knees buckled from the sheer pain, but with a will of iron, he stopped himself from collapsing. Instead, in a last-ditch effort, he launched himself forward and rammed into Cassie’s armor with his good side. 

To his absolute horror, Cassie didn't even buckle this time. Whatever kinetic energy he held in his charge dissipated upon contact with Cassie’s armor. His attack did the same thing to Cassie as a gentle tap. Before he could make another attempt, an invisible hand grabbed onto him by the neck and lifted him into the air. 

The man started choking. 

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