A Love Manipulated pt. 1

Name: Beria Herod

Age: 20

Height: 5'11"

Weight: 185 lbs

Birth Place: Jersey

Mother and Father: Judea and Cato

Powers: Earth Manipulation

Beria has a happy home, with two loving parents. He is an average looking young man, slightly muscular build, with dark black hair. Beria had a younger brother who perished at a young age when he fell into what was deemed a sink hole by authorities. Beria dove in after him but was unable to save his brother. He did, however, acquire special abilities from the encounter. Beria has the ability to manipulate the soil and thusly anything attached to it (e.g. plants, buildings to some extent, rocks, etc). He can shape and mold it to create barriers, holes, basically anything as long as it remains in one piece. He can not control once it become detached from the mass. He can shoot projectiles but once launched they can not be course corrected. He can change the density of the soil making it hard enough to stop a moving vehicle or soft enough to swim through. He can also use the soil to heal wounds on his body, filling in lacerations as you would a crack in a wall. 

Name: Greggory Perchiensky

Age: 32

Height: 5'4"

Birth Place: Queens NY

Mother and Father: Unknown

Powers: Persuasion, minor mental control

Greggory was born to two unfit parents. After his birth he was immediately put up for adoption. He did not thrive well in the foster system, often getting bullied by the other children. He was a sickly looking boy with thin brown hair. He was also much smarter than the kids and even the adults, which made him more of an outcast. He was shy and suffered from anxiety which would later manifest into depression. He didn't speak much as a child. One day, Greggory was being bullied by another foster child when he finally spoke up. He told him to go pick on someone as stupid as him. The young man promptly turned and found another bully and picked a fight. Greggory found through other encounters that he could verbally persuade others to do things for him. If he physically touched them, he could even bring them to harm themselves but only if he maintained direct contact. He found also that no one could lie to him if he expressed them not to. Eye contact is not required for his verbal manipulation to take affect and can even be applied through the phone or headset. 

Beria's cell phone rings. He picks it up still groggy from the lack of sleep he got.

"Hello" he answers in a raspy voice

"Is that how you greet the love of your life? Hello?" a woman answers sarcastically

Beria smiles slightly without opening his eyes. It was Cera his long time girlfriend. He was always happy to hear her voice first thing in the morning. 

"Hey baby. What's up?" Beria replies as smoothly as possible

"What's up? How about that you're about to miss class?" Cera laughs back into the phone

Beria shoots up straight and looks at his clock. 9:48 it reads. Damn! He forgot to set his alarm again! Beria jumps out of bed and drops his phone. You hear Cera yell "You're welcome" before she hangs up. Beria knew that he couldn't be late for one more class, or he'd be dropped from his courses and forced to pay his tuition himself. He was able to go to school due to a full ride scholarship that he won for his work in top soil erosion and sink holes. He threw on his clothes, grabbed a bagel on the way out the door and was on his way.

*****

Greggory sat in his apartment alone. He was always alone. He wondered why no one loved him. What was so bad about him? What was so off putting? So repulsive? He hated women for their reactions to his advances. The laughter, the look of dread. "That's the last time", he thought to himself. He let his mind drift back to earlier in the day when he asked out the waitress from Coffee Grande; and how she laughed in his face and how the customers followed suit. She finds it very hard to laugh now after he made her swallow scalding hot water.  

Greggory had made up his mind. If they woudn't love him of their own free will, then he would make them love him. First he needed to change a few things... 

******

Beria was running late to his lunch with Cera. His experiment had run longer than expected and he lost track of time. She would understand, she always did. But he hated making her wait. He ran as fast as he could. He knew that he couldn't use his powers where anyone could see them, otherwise he could have been there almost instantly. Solidifying a piece of soil into a board and changing the surrounding area into a liquid like state, he could surf there. He had used this trick in the past. 

Beria had become very adept at controlling his powers. When he was a child it was often he would lose control and someone would get hurt. Usually minor stuff such as a fall or twisted ankle. But when he was thriteen he accidently turned the ground around a jungle gym to a quick sand like consistency. Three kids almost lost their lives when the equipment sank into the ground. It was from that day he had decided that he would hone his powers and never lose control again. He would protect others and use his abilities to make the world a better place. 

Then out of nowhere Beria hears an alarm going off. It sounded like a building alarm. He stopped and decided to go and investigate. It was probably nothing but if he could help than he must. He rounded a corner to see the local bank with a window broken out. There were two large SUVs out front anda half dozen men loading in what looked to be bags of money. They were throwing them through the window and into the back of the two cars. They were all dressed in normal clothes and no one in the bank seemed to be at all concerned with the fact that they were being robbed. Beria took a closer look and all the tellers were standing still, taking no heed of the money leaving. Something was wrong and he had to find out what was going on. 

Beria moved silently to the side of the building. He had been in this bank many times, so he knew the layout fairly well. He walked along the wall until he felt he was far enough towards the back. He put his hands on the concrete and concentrated. After a few seconds he clenched his hand into a fist and a small pillar of soil punched through the ground to reveal a perfectly symmetrical hole, big enough for him to fit through. He jumped down and stood up. He had a few inches of clearance, perfect. He began walking and moved the earth in front of him as you would beads hanging in a doorway. After ten or so feet he looked up. He clenched his fist again and another pillar shot up, breaking through the concrete. The hole was just big enough for his head to fit through. The dirt below his feet rose up and raised his head just above ground level. He peered around. The bathroom, perfect just as he planned. He lowered himself down and enlarged the hole. He climbed through and made his way to the door. He pushed it open ever so slightly, just so he could hear what was being said and maybe get a view of the leader of this rag tag group.

No one was speaking. They were all just silently tossing money to one another and going back for more. It was eerie. They had no look of malice or even joy, they were expressionless. Just as Beria was about to turn and leave, a man appeared. This man was not expressionless, he was over joyed at the site of the crime unfolding in front of his eyes. He was a sickly looking man, but he was jumping around clapping as if he were watching his favorite sports team win.

"That's it! I want all the cash in the building! This will show everyone, once I'm rich they'll all crawl at my feet" the man yelled, laughing as he did so.  

The robbers paid no heed to him. It was as if they were under some kind of spell. Most of these men were dressed for every day outings, shorts and t shirts, no masks to try and hide their identity. Then, a police siren sounded. Beria couldn't make out much of the front but he could see part of it. He saw the officer come through the hole in the front window. 

"What the hell is going on here?! JIM?! MARK?! What do you think you're doing?!" the officer screamed grabbing the arms of two men. Jim and Mark didn't respond, just continued to walk ahead carrying the money bags. "STOP MOVING DAMNIT!" 

"Officer, please. These men are working", the sickly man stated clapping his hands together. 

The officer then turned to face the man. He drew his gun. 

"Sir you are going to put your hands in the air" the policeman stated with a firm voice. 

"Yes officer, anything you say", replied the sickly man as he slowly placed his hands behind his back.

The officer inched forward, gun still pointed at the perpetrator.

"Now, get on your knees slowly!" 

The sickly man smiled and put his hands down.

"You know what? I think I'd rather stay standing" he said smoothly

"PUT YOUR HANDS BACK UP!" the officer screamed

"No. In fact," the sickly man stepped forward, "How about this. Put the gun down on the ground and help these men with the money."

Beria was shocked as he watched the officer do as he was told. All the anger and confusion now gone from the man's face. Just placid compliance as he set the gun down and joined the line of men hauling out the money. Beria did not understand what he just saw. Did this man have to ability to control others with speech? Or maybe thought? Either way, he knew he had to stop the money from leaving. He closed the door slowly and ran back through the hole he created, sealing it shut on his exit. He ran back down the side street and towards the front of the building. How would he stop the cars from leaving? He smiled as a plan came to mind. 

He closed his eyes and put both hands on the ground. He concentrated and could feel the earth underneath him bending to his will. He felt the weight of the cars and moved all of the dirt underneath them away. Soon you could heard a loud cracking noise as the roadway began to give way underneath the weight of the vehicles. Then all of a sudden they both dropped five feet into the ground. Beria had moved enough so that they would not beable to drive their way out of the hole. The sickly man ran out screaming. 

"What the hell!? How did this happen!? MY MONEY!" 

He paced trying to wrap his head around the event he just witnessed. The men kept throwing the money into the cars regardless of their new positions. The sickly man pushed one of the men into the hole.

"STOP!" he screamed

All of the men simultaneously stopped what they were doing and stood still. As if they were waiting on new commands. They reminded Beria of robots more than people.

The sickly man calmed down a bit and took a deep breath. 

"Alright. All of you start taking the money out and find me two new vehicles!" he yelled smacking the closest robot to him in the head.

The men started to obey, setting the money they were carrying down and climbing into the hole. Beria was shocked. 

The sickly man was determined. He had to make a new plan, but what? He thought hard. "AHA!" he  said to himself.

Once again Beria concentrated with both hands on the ground. The dirt around the vehicles began to shake and soon the vehicles started to slowly. The men in the hole sank with the vehicles but did not seem to care, they only tried to complete the task that was given to them. The sickly man screamed and pulled at his thin hair.

"NO! WHAT IS GOING ON?!" he forced out as he stomped around.

Beria laughed. He decided to speed up the process and after another ten seconds the cars had sunk completely into the earth. Then, a giant clenched hand made of soil appeared. It rose up and dropped the lackeys out onto the ground softly. Other than covered in dirt, they were no worse for ware. They blinked and looked around. It was as if they were coming out of a deep sleep, few had very perplexed looks on their faces. 

"Where am I?" one man asked.

"I don't know. How did we get here? And why are we covered in dirt?" another queried

"Ugh I've got it in my mouth and ears!" one man stated sticking his tongue out.

A look of fear painted the sickly man's face. 

"NO! Get back to work!" he screamed

The men all looked at him perplexed. "Who are you?" one of them asked clearly agitated. The sickly man's eyes widened. He had lost his hold over them. The men stood up, they were looking for answers and were going to find them out. One way or another. They slowly began to advance onto the sickly man, one of which cracking his knuckles with a look of grimace on his face. Beria knew that he couldn't let them hurt the sickly man, even though he was doing wrong. A wall of dirt rose from the pit and encased the sickly man. The men stopped and looked around. Who had done this? 

Once the sickly man had been encased, his voice could no longer be heard. The other men slowly began coming out of their stupors and some feel to the ground as they shook off their mind control. All had the same look of perplexion as they wandered into the street. The tellers, the bank manager, the officer, all confused and disoriented. Beria decided it was okay to release the cars. The earth rumbled as the two SUVS popped back out of the earth. The men all stood back at the sight of this event, some stumbling and falling over. Beria then dropped the dirt wall around the sickly man revealing a fear stricken man. With one slight difference. Beria had cast a dirt mask around the sickly man, harder than steel, making it impossible for him to speak. The man panicked and ran. The officer gave chase but was too disoriented to catch the culprit. Beria chuckled, he knew it would take the sickly man a while to get the helmet off, and maybe he'd think twice before trying to rob somewhere again. 

Beria decided his work here was done and left. He had a date to get to after all. 

******

Back in his apartment the sickly man burned with rage pulling at his mask.

"I will find whoever ruined this for me" he thought, "And they will suffer greatly. They will remember the name Greggory Perchiensky. I will force them to bow till their knees crack! I shall bend them to my will".