Time was already speeding up and Zeff, now crouching on the ground as he was before, could see the cop’s face now as he, too, began to accelerate.

The extremely deep, low, and slow voice of the cop began to rumble in Zeff’s ears as his eyes met Zeff’s. “Frrrrrrreeeeeee—” he began, his voice getting higher in pitch with each passing millisecond, “—eeEEZE! Get your hands—”

Zeff sprang into action, flying past Dr. Sylvan with incredible speed. He had absolutely zero fighting experience, but he could certainly push someone if need be. So that’s exactly what he did. Grabbing the cops face with one hand and his shooting arm with the other, he pushed the man towards the wall with all his might.

*CRASH* went the wall as the poor cop sailed through it with an awful wail, careening through the air several feet before bouncing off the ground like a skipped stone off of still water and rolling to a stop in the soft grass, half dead, half alive, groaning in pain. Luckily, Zeff only lived on the second of six floors or it might have been curtains for the poor man…

Zeff turned to face the cops who were now looking at him wide-eyed with disbelief. Zeff couldn’t know for sure whether it was because he looked so much different than their file likely said he should or if it was because of the incredible feat of strength he had just displayed.

“H-hands up! Mr. C-corad!” Came the shaky voice of the nearest officer.

Zeff flinched as he noticed something floating over the nearest officers head.

Just above his concerned and sweaty face there was a floating yellow bar, a progress bar like what he had seen in the skill tree, that was nearly full. Next to the progress bar on the right side, he could see the numbers ‘6/9’ and on the other side, on the left, read the words ‘Phobia 0’. He looked across his living room at each of the cops with ‘Phobia 0’ and they all had different numbers. One of them had ‘8/11’, another ‘5/8’ and one in the back, a female cop that looked to be Hispanic with an uncanny calmness, even had ‘4/84’.

Zeff blinked hard. Why was her second number so high? He took another second to look her over.

She was a very short woman by anyone’s measure with long, dark brown hair, thick eyebrows and high cheek bones and she had the top three or four buttons of her police shirt unbuttoned in a way that felt a bit too purposeful. That, mixed with her apparent curves and obvious sex appeal made her look more like a cop from a telenovela rather than a bonafide police officer.

She seemed calm, even confident, as she stared Zeff down, her deep brown eyes seemingly peering into his very soul.

Just in front of her, however, stood another man with a full Phobia bar floating above him and blinking slowly, and he was anything but confident. His numbers read ‘4/4’ and his Phobia level was ‘Phobia I’. The poor man was trembling noticeably, and even audibly, as the gun he was brandishing at Zeff made a gentle clicking sound as he shook with fear.

Phobia was working. This man looked like he couldn’t even make eye contact with Zeff, let alone shoot him.

Zeff raised his hands in the air slowly, making a few of the officers flinch, their ‘fear’ jumping up a point or two. He couldn’t blame them, though. He had just sent a man flying through a solid wall, after all…

“Woah, now.” said Zeff, trying to calm the cops down. “That was a complete accident just now.”

“Stay back!” yelled the nearest cop, his Phobia reaching level 1. As it did, his knees began to shake, nearly giving out altogether, and his breathing became extremely heavy, like he had just run up a flight of stairs.

“You’re wanted for theft and murder!” Reported the female officer. “Put your hands behind your head and get on the ground! We’re taking you in for questioning!”

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Dr. Sylvan, out of sight of the cops, urging him to run, but Zeff was too astonished to heed the doctor’s words.

“Wait just a minute! Did you say theft and murder?!” As he raised his voice, nearly every cop who wasn’t in ‘Phobia I’ was instantly promoted to it. All accept the female cop.

But Zeff was too shocked to care as he went on, “I have done nothing—” He paused shortly to look at the giant, gaping, man-sized whole in the wall, and corrected, “uhh—I hadn’t done anything wrong until you guys ran in here with your guns out! This has to be a mis—” *BANG-BANG!*

Two bullets had found their way into Zeff’s stomach.

Behind him, he could hear Sylvn let out a soft, barely audible gasp.

‘Not again…’ He though as he fell to the floor, paralyzed by the pain. It was the second or third time in less than 24 hours that he had been shot and, needless to say, he didn’t like the feeling one bit.

The one who had shot him, the first to have a full Phobia bar, gazed around the room with a confused and horrified look on his face. “I-I didn’t mean to… I—”

“Officer Snead!” Roared the female officer, her ‘fear’ falling to ‘9/84’ and counting, “What the h*ll did you do that for!”

As everyone turned to stare at officer Snead, who was nearly in tears, Zeff kept his eyes on the female officer. No one else’s ‘fear’ had decreased after Officer Snead had pulled the trigger, yet hers was still falling.

Zeff caught his breath as he realized that the female officer, her cold, cruel eyes being the only ones focused on him, was smiling ever so slightly. It faded instantly, however, and her ‘fear’ jumped up a whole 50 points to 59/84 as she saw that Zeff, who was supposed to be about to die, was smiling right back at her.