Finally we’re here!”

  Sharkz' disappointment was completely gone, and he was back to his energetic self, his tail wagging wildly like a happy dog.

  “Man, I can’t wait! I had to walk five grueling minutes to get to this place. I am gonna suck ’em dry, I’m telling you, just like last time.”

  As they entered the sushi place, they sat down and looked at the menu.

  As Sharkz’ eyes browsed the options, Ashwin was looking around, visibly stressed, gripping the menu and punching holes into it.

  “They’re not customers,” he whispered to his best friend.

  “I know.” He replied with the same calm look as before, visibly not caring.

  “Vro, we’re gonna have problems again unless—”

  “Unless it’s a raid and we won’t have an issue with the police,” he cut him off.

  “Listen, if this were just an attempt to capture me, they wouldn’t have radios. I can hear those. They would be using Morse code, buuuut they aren’t.”

  His voice grew louder and louder, slowly gaining the attention of the disguised men.

  “Wanna know what they just said? Target confirmed, neutralisation in 10.” He was shouting now.

  The men all got up, some from their tables and a few out of the kitchen, their coats bloodstained, and pulled out their hidden guns.

  “They killed my favorite sushi man. How disappointing.” Sharkz said that with a frown on his face. He was looking at the back of the counter, blood trickling down from the singular hole in the middle of the old man's forehead, his grey hair now stained red while he lay motionless in the corner.

  “It’s silly honestly. They think they’re gonna be heroes, but the lab never told them I’ve killed all their gunmen.”

  He was giggling while the men reconsidered their choices, murmuring to each other.

  The squad leader yelled at his men:

  “Would you believe him!? An uneducated being, not even human, devil’s spawn! Would you believe him over scientists, researchers that are trying to save humanity—”

  “Save humanity? From me?” Sharkz cut him off, visibly offended.

  “Pffft, you guys are the ones killing civilians and terrorising this city, and I’m not doing anything illegal. Wait—I do… that’s not the point. Everyone has to get by somehow. But I know that humanity doesn’t need to be saved from me.”

  He took a break, processing a thought.

  “You really are an annoying piece of sh—”

  “Fire!” The squad leader cut him off, angry.

  They were surrounded by a dozen men, guns pointed towards the middle of the room. The distinctive click of each trigger was followed by the burst of the automatic pistols. They emptied a magazine, each.

  The squad leader yelled:

  “First round, clear!”

  As they waited for the smoke to dissipate, they noticed two figures still standing, with all of the bullets on the ground. Sharkz waved the smoke away while coughing.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “I caught the bullets. You guys are pretty darn weak, I didn’t even try!”

  The squad leader’s expression slowly changed from a serious face to a “quote-on-quote shitting his pants” type of face.

  The shock only lasted a second before he ordered a second wave:

  “Second round, fire!”

  But the shooters couldn’t find the guns previously in their hands. A neat pile of metal clattered in front of Ashwin’s feet, who had been silent this whole time, but present.

  The squad leader seemed to catch on to what happened: “Did you just take our guns?”

  One of the soldiers didn’t understand and asked: “Sir, what do you mean? They just disappeared.”

  “No no, I swear I saw him move. The human.”

  He replied to the squad leader: “Yeah I did. But be wary, I’m not any old human.” His eyes flashed bright green then went back to their original darker green.

  He looked away from the squad leader, and turned to his best friend: “Man, can’t you just ice up the place and get it over with? You’re not the only one who’s hungry.”

  “There’s no fun in that thoughhh. And maybe if I give this organisation a bit more info on me and how my supposed powers work, they’ll leave us alone for a while.”

  The leader’s bodycam appeared in his hand. Then, out of thin air, ice appeared in the shape of a tripod, just the right size for the bodycam.

  The squad leader, shocked and lost for words, looked down on his chest to see the body cam gone.

  “Ho-” He stopped mid-sentence.

  “Why did they stop moving?” Ashwin asked.

  “I iced their nerves. They’re stuck in place. It’s irreversible damage, but I was gonna kill them anyways.”

  “And why aren’t they talking?”

  “I iced their tracheas.”

  “You really do think about everything, do you?” Ashwin smiled warmly.

  The shark chuckled before starting his ‘vlog’:

  “Alright, hello there scientists! Apparently, you guys are after me for some reason? I’m guessing it’s because of my overly cool features? Anyways, first question: How can you make things disappear and can you teleport?”

  “I don’t teleport or make things disappear. I’m just really fast, around fifty times the speed of sound I think. Second question: How do I manipulate ice? I can’t explain how exactly, but there’s this thing called energy, and every single living being has it. Once a lifeform doesn’t have energy left, they die. Every human or whatever I am is born with a type of energy that’s linked to your soul. So for me, it was ice. Humans can’t access these powers unless some conditions are met, which I’m too lazy to explain. Find it out for yourself. Bleh!”

  He stuck his tongue out, looking at the camera, then turned to Ashwin.

  “Alright, that should be enough, now let’s clean up.”

  He scooped up all the bullets on the ground and put them in his mouth.

  “What are you doing?” Ashwin asked, puzzled.

  Sharkz signed, his mouth full. “You’ll see.”

  Suddenly, a bullet shot out of his mouth hitting a soldier in the stomach, blood splattering on the ground while it filled his mouth slowly dripping out, drop by drop. Another bullet shot into his shoulder.

  He continued till he shot 10 bullets at that soldier, continuing the cycle on every gunman, each finishing bullet hitting them in the head. Then he reached the squad leader.

  His eyes red, a scowl on his face.

  “You said you needed to save humanity from me. You're the ones who need to be saved from me.”

  The leader was on his knees, paralyzed, his eyes looking up at Sharkz. Every tear drop that came out of his eye instantly froze. He was mute, but you could clearly hear it—he was pleading for his life.

  “Ashwin, point the camera here.”

  Ashwin looked bored as if he was used to this.

  “Sure,” he said while he turned the ice tripod.

  “This is gonna happen to every single one of your men, watch carefully.” Sharkz looked at the camera, his eyes flashing from red to blue.

  He walked in the now blood-soaked room. Each step he took splashed blood, his white trainers now red. The shark walked towards a fallen shooter and ripped out an arm easily as if ripping a small branch from an old dried-up log, the body now fragile because of the ice.

  He returned to the squad leader and picked him up by his hair, lifting him—a bigger man into the air.

  He stuck the arm through his stomach; intestines getting pushed apart came out the other end. He threw the corpse violently, his eyes now fully red, pupils like a cat's eye. The body tumbled to the ground without its head. Sharkz had eaten it.

  “Delectable.” His voice was deeper and raspier. He turned to Ashwin, his eyes back to the usual black while wiping off the blood from his mouth.

  “Let’s go, shall we? After all, there’s a raid waiting for us outside.”

  “I forgot about that, damn. Let’s get this done quickly. I’m hungry.”