[I'm not entirely sure whether this is a very angry Ben or a very angry Bella, but this would be a version of the end of Breaking Dawn in which the whole mental power vs. physical power thing was taken to it's logical absurdity.]
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"You still don't understand, do you?" Their silence showed that they didn't because if they did this would be the part where they tried to bluff their way out of things.
"Powers. Most vampires have them, maybe all. You know that, it's why you wanted the future seer," I gestured to my new in-law. "As a human mine was ill expressed. It was still embryonic and not yet ready for full use. Inconsistent, incoherent, inchoate.
"Tricolon, it's nice don't you think?" I focused on the one who was always angry. "Rhetoric is such a nice thing and those Latin terms are just so much fun. Much better than Greek." The anger simmered, I was going to have to make it boil if I was going to have an effective demonstration. "Of course I see you're wearing pants." I let that hang a moment, then, "So you're neither." Another pause to let the angry one think about what I was saying, "You're a barbarian." It was just about at a rolling boil, primed and ready for later, so I backed off a bit and pivoted the conversation. "Of course I don't judge you, look how I'm dressed," a gesture to my jeans, "I'm a barbarian too.
"But you're still missing the point," I said while shifting my attention to the lead. "I can block mental powers. You've either learned this or are in the process of putting it together.
"This means the obvious of course, mind readers don't work on me, illusionists don't work on me, so on, so forth. But there's a more basic fact you seem to have overlooked: All powers are mental. A fire starter can create physical fire, yes, but that starts with a thought. Sever the connection between the thought and the intended fire and no fire will start.
"You've assembled a nice little army, for sure, but none of them can do anything." And I turned my attention back to the Greek wearing pants, "You've got nothing. No power, no leverage, no play. You're helpless, hopeless-" the Greek charged, then collapsed to the ground.
I turned my attention back to the lead. "You see it all starts with thoughts. Neurons fire, signals get sent," one of their vampires was trying to approach us unseen while attention was focused on my speech. It might have worked since everyone else was looking at me, but I was free to look everywhere. I glanced at the vampire and he collapsed to the ground, "and things get done.
"It's not just about superpowers," I said looking at the member of the honor guard to the lead's left, he collapsed. "It's about everything," I looked to the one on the right. She collapsed. "The muscles that hold you up, that keep you balanced, that maintain the distance between your face and the ground, these are all controlled by your brain."
Decimation is such a pretty word. I ran my eyes across their battle line, one out of every ten of their soldiers lost the ability to stand.
"If I cut the connection between your thoughts and your body, if I make sure your mental powers can never reach your physical parts, you become..." I looked at the members of the honor guard still standing; they all met their colleagues on the ground, "like them," I finished.
"If you push me I'll remove your ability to push. If you threaten me I'll remove your ability to speak. If you harm anyone under my protection, I will remove your ability to act.
"If you ever want to have control over anything outside of your own mind, and that includes your limbs, you will leave this place and never return. You will abandon all pretensions of rulership. And you will take to heart the fact that the entire human race is under my protection." That wasn't quite inclusive enough. "As well as shapeshifters and the more traditional werewolves.
"Feed on venison if you ever want to feed again."
I returned the ability to move to all those whom I had removed it from. The Greek, as expected, charged me. I shielded that one's legs from that one's mental powers. The Greek faceplanted in front of the entire assembled army.
"So, do you still want to pretend to have power? Because if you do I can rip that pretension away." Pretension, pretty word. It was a shame I wouldn't have a third opportunity to use it.
"Or," I said more casually, "You could take my advice and leave now."
The other side started to retreat faster than the order to retreat actually went out.
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