“Not the freshest grudge”, Jason thought about this particular phrase as the two men in the kitchen wrapped up what they were doing. The study of malice and especially clustered malice was an area of interest for him when he was still auditing in the Grant Academy. It was because of the extremely unpleasant and somewhat horrifying experience at the Clearwater Municipal Hospital. And from what he understood, grudge, being one of the many negative emotions that could contribute to the sprout, growth and spread of clustered malice, the harvesting of which was quite common among the practitioners of dark arts, because it was a useful source of energy for curses.

From these factors, Jason could tell two things: the first was that these two men were not on the side of the “Drainer”, but somehow they were familiar with the M.O of them; and the second was that they were here as a part of an organization, the collection of the grudge was their only mission here.

“I think we should stop them and question them.” Detective Lee whispered to Jason in the lowest voice he could muster: “Before they get away.”

The two men doing the wrap up immediately stopped and started looking around with cautious and suspicious looks on their faces. Apparently, though they were not able to see through the camouflage wall Jason conjured, they still had good hearing ability that enabled them to notice the low whisper from behind it.

“Sounds like someone speaking something.” the man in a grey T-shirt looked around with his gun pointing at where he was looking at: “But I don’t see anything.”

“Neither do I.” the man in a leather jacket slowly walked towards the position of the silver wall with his gun pointing forward: “But - but what if we can’t see them?”

Before either of the men could do anything, Jason directly launched a palm strike from behind the silver wall, a silver energy palm was unleashed and broke through the silver wall. The man wearing a leather jacket was hit point blank and was sent through the air. The man in a grey T-shirt was looking at the side, and the moment the silver energy palm broke through the silver wall and sent his partner flying he was not ready for the attack, and was thus bumped back by the man in a leather jacket.

“Boom!” Jason assumed that with his single strike he couldn’t have debilitated the two men, so he immediately followed up with a swift kick while the man in a leather jacket was still in the air. The man in a leather jacket instinctually conjured a thin rock on the surface of his torso to protect himself, but was instantly cracked and shattered by Jason’s kick.

The man in a grey T-shirt extended his hands at a wall when he fell to the ground, and ten holes appeared on the wall, like someone tried to grab at it and had all their fingers sunk into it to gain traction. He then pulled himself away from under the man in a leather jacket.

The man in a leather jacket moaned in pain as his ribs were cracked, and his organs were shocked from the two attacks. But he had no intention to give up, and still swung his fist at the Chinese-looking young man wearing a beanie that ambushed him. Dirt, sand and rocks were released from his arm, fingers and fist, forming into a giant fist the size of basketball. In his previous missions, he had killed many elite federal and local law enforcement agents and even some agents from the Division with this very strike. But now, the powerful fist, able to shatter thick bulletproof vests and even energy shields, was shattered instead, by a human hand in claw form.

Jason’s claw attack split in midair right after tearing up the fist made of sand and rock, into five energy claws, each grabbing one limb of the man in a leather jacket, and the last grabbing him by the neck.

The man in a grey T-shirt pushed his hands in claw forms forward at Aimee and Detective Lee. Two bolts of some kind of special were unleashed from his hands, but were only blocked by a shield of ice conjured by Aimee. The next moment, Aimee extended her hands forward and a block of hardened ice was launched at the man’s forehead. With a somewhat funny sounding “bonk”, the man in a grey T-shirt was knocked over and fell on his back on the floor.

“Stand down.” Jason stared at the man who was grabbed by his silver hand constructs: “Don’t try anything funny, and tell us why you’re here.”

“Too bad.” the man coughed and let out a disgruntled and desperate laughter: “Though I am but a lowly man, I am still bound by my oath.” Then, he bit something in his mouth, and his body started twitching, and his mouth started to foam.

“Fuck! Poison!” Detective Lee rushed to the man’s side, and opened his mouth: “Smell of almond - it’s cyanide!”

Jason’s eyes opened wide and immediately pointed at the man in a grey T-shirt with his left hand index and middle fingers. Before this man could do the same as the man in a leather jacket, a gush of silver energy shot into his mouth, forming a set of silver hardened dental braces and a tongue lock, completely covering his teeth, locking his tongue and jaws in place.

“Phew.” Jason stared at the man, who looked back at him with terrified eyes: “I will try to remove the poison later, but now this should do - he cannot bite or even lick anything for now, we’ll just have to watch his throat and make sure he can still breathe.”

“Fuck - FUCK!” Detective Lee paced around the body of the man in leather jacket: “We’ve got to call this in - this is just bad - FUCK!”

Jason quickly made a hand seal and struck the chest of the man with his right palm, leaving a silver handprint on it. Then he stood up and waved his arms, releasing dozens of silver needles in the air, which then fell and penetrated different parts of the man’s skin.

“What are you doing?” Aimee asked.

“Internal Fortification.” Jason said: “Hopefully he won’t die on us.”