Bab 92: Chapter 8: Trapped
Initially, the crowd didn't take in Sir Deva's threat too seriously, despite the surprisingly early display shown of strength and the perfectly timed theatrics, no one is foolish enough to think that a muscle head like him can perform the feats that he just said he can.
Sir Deva allowed for such doubts to exist, as it is only when people are given false hope and making subsequent erroneous judgments in how much control they actually have within their hands that they would be encounter true despair when they realized the depth of trouble they are in. He scanned around the room, and chatter popped in and out of his hearing as the various forces started checking in with those that are left on the space ships, hanging around the other corners of the station or even in the nearby regions of space.
Knowing that they would eventually come to the realization of what is going to happen, Sir Deva left the seating area and looked for the way up to the host's studio. Some of the Aquarians that are also stood up moved out of his way intelligently as he left, and he found himself alone in the lobby outside the arena. Snapping away a glass of Aquarian Shocker from the service droid, he marched towards the studio that's near the top of the stairs high above everything else.
The door was locked and labelled 'Official Staff Only', and Sir Deva easily broke off the locking mechanism with a simple shove and entered the room.
The two hosts spun around in their chairs rapidly and looked at him in horror, the voices of panic coming from the central control room flooded the studio, though the two hosts couldn't hear much of it as their heart beats become seemingly louder and louder as the giant human approaches them.
Sir Deva pulled a chair from the side, and sat onto it backwards, his arms crossed in front of his body and resting on the top rail. He doesn't enjoy intimidation tactics, as he believes that the more one displays intimidation, the less power there actually is behind them, like the gym rats with barely any meat on them pushing their chests forward and flexing their arms. True power comes from the belief in oneself and in the path he has taken to get to this point.
However, he does acknowledge the utilities of intimidation tactics. Lady Lily would be proud of him, as she is one to use whatever tool's that's available to accomplish her goals, while Sir Deva prefers certain methods to be performed, and followed a strange personal code.
'What....what do you want?' After some awkward silence after Sir Deva has sat down.
'Can you put me through to control?' Sir Deva asked gently, and tapped his foot on the ground to bring himself closer towards them on the sliding chair. The two hosts subconsciously shifted backwards in an attempt to distance themselves from Sir Deva, but the back of the chair pinned them down and left them no where to go.
'You want to talk to the control center? Of...of course!' The human host looked at his colleague, spun around and tapped in a few quick keys on the panel in front of him.
'This is Station Control, I thought I told you to wait for further instructions. We are a bit busy at the moment.'
The human host opened his mouth and was about to say something, but Sir Deva raised one finger, and he shut up.
Sir Deva slided forwards once more in his sliding chair, and reached the studio desk.
'This is Sir Deva. I am the one who is causing the current situation that you are pointlessly attempting to get out of. May I talk to the captain of the space station please?' He opened his mouth, and declared the same truth he did to everything from within the arena. This is what Absolute Being is supposed to be about, displaying unparalleled confidence in one's power and skill!
The other side of the communication was dead silent for a while almost as if the communication device was cut off, then a hologram flickered into life and an image of an old Aquarian official dressed in uniform showed up on the studio desk.
'You are this Sir Deva?' The captain asked, his voice sounded typically hollow for an Aquarian and yet the threatening undertone was clear as day, 'you know, you are really brave, trying to hijack this very space station.'
'Please don't give me any history lessons of past failures, as I am different.' Sir Deva cuts of the captain before he was about to spew out how the experienced space station security has fought off many attempts of robbery, heists and hijacking. It's all part of the act to encourage them to try to break out of the gravity well, and things would only get interesting when the fake hope he has given them is snuffed out. That's how you break a resistant spirit. Right now, he needed to act arrogant, and full of himself, which he comes across naturally most of the time regardless.
'No, you are all the same. Riot control droids are heading your way, and the arena is being evacuated.' The captain shook his head as he looked directly at Sir Deva, 'you will be shot on sight, but you will be brought back to life and made an example of, like all the ones before you. You are nothing, there were many as foolish as you are before, and there will be many like you after.'
'This is just the way it works.'
'So you wouldn't want to hear my demands?'
'There is this human saying from the old earth: we don't negotiate with terrorists.'
The transmission is cut off, and Sir Deva lets out a short sigh as he realized what he would have to do. Then, as he was pondering the next steps, he can hear the sounds of rapid shaking coming from beside him. It was the human, his legs are shaking uncontrollably as the fear completely overrides his entire mind. His face is pale like paper, and sweats started to sieve through his shirts despite the completely functional air conditioning. He knew what's coming, and there is no stopping it.
Should he make a run for it? Or should he fight?
Don't be stupid. Lord Bonoleon was trashed by this dude, and he hit this dude right in the head! And don't bother about running either, Sir Deva can snatch him in half a step.
The human host swallowed hard as the uncontrollable shaking continued to become greater and greater.
Knowing the human isn't going to be of much use to him, Sir Deva turned to the Aquarian host, who seemed unbelievably calm in comparison, and asked, 'Could you do me a favor and make an announcement?'
The Aquarian hosts nodded lightly and leaned towards the desk, supporting his body with all six arms so he won't collapse onto it, and looked back at Sir Deva.
'Could you announce that I would release the station and all the ships once the thief that took the energy core is caught from within the station and handed to me, please? I would be at the Station Control, make that doubly clear to everybody.'
The Aquarian host nodded heavily, gurgles for a moment to clear his throat, and spoke to the mic, 'Sir Deva said that he would release the station and all the ships once the thief that took the energy core is caught and handed to him.' His voice sounding comically high pitch, almost like the classic prank of speaking with helium inhaled. This is a drastic contrast from the typical Aquarian voice, and Sir Deva almost burst out laughing if not for the general grim atmosphere of the studio he is in.
'Could you make that DOUBLY CLEAR, PLEASE?' Sir Deva stood up and looked down at the Aquarian host, his giant figure looming over him like a tower. Finally, the Aquarian has started shaking too as he quickly pops his face by the mic and repeated the instructions before shutting it down once again.
'Thank you, that would do finely.' Sir Deva said, and cracked his knuckles as he stepped back and headed towards the door.
'Are you...going to kill us now?' The Aquarian host asked in his elevated pitch.
'No. I am going to give you a second chance.' Sir Deva said as he leaned against the door frame and turned around, 'you know what will happen if the riot droids come here? They would enter guns blazing without a regards for whatever that's going to happen to you, just so they can take me down.
'I am leaving, and that means your lives will be saved, and your lives would be on me. For the second chance I have so generously provided for you, I want you to do one thing.' Sir Deva said, arms crossed and gazing right into the souls of the two hosts with fierce intensity, 'shut down the rare goods auctions, for good. Or I will do it for you.'
With that, he turned and left the studio. The Aquarian host froze in place as the rush of fear and stress overloads his mind and shuts his entire body down. Then, he smelled a stench coming from his human colleague before the body dropped to the ground. The human host was so scared that some excretion has slipped out, and he passed out right on the spot. He supposed that it would be a tale for the ages, if he can make it out alive this time.
After waiting for a long time until he can't hear the sounds of Sir Deva's heavy footsteps and some more, the host stood up from his chair with great difficulty and looked around the corridor to make sure Sir Deva has left the proximity of the studio at least. Then, he walked back to the mic and looked at the chaos going on in the room before turning it on one last time and making an announcement for the last time in a long time.
'Sir Deva have exited the building, please evacuate the arena in an orderly fashion.' He knew this would cause some sort of chaos, but perhaps that's the best thing he can do in this situation. After the last announcement, he sagged back into his seat and lets out a long breath.
People have already started to rush out of the arena the moment Sir Deva has made his way towards the studio, and this announcement just further bred the chaos. The floods of beings started cramming through the tunnels as they pushed against one another, and the adept Aquarians still struggled to navigate the flood of beings despite their aquatic roots.
However, it's not like getting out of the arena first means this eventful day can finally come to an end, as rows of riot control droids have surrounded the entire arena building and the crowds of people that were walking in the streets were completely cleared out. Quick actions were taken, and now the Spotlight can focus its resources and attention in taking down Sir Deva. As the crowd exited the door, the riot control droids raised their guns at pointed at them.
'Please stay calm. We are only here to ensure Sir Deva isn't going to be one that leaves freely.' Through a speaker attached to one of the riot control droids, the voice of the space station captain thundered through, 'all Aquarians, you may pass through. Same for the handful of Rockies. Humans, please stay where you are.'
Voices of complaints were heard from the crowd, but since a majority of the people are Aquarians, those voices weren't exactly loud. The riot control droids backed out and opened a single path to allow for crowd to go through before it splits off into five simultaneously parallel paths that allow roughly one being to barely pass through.
'Aquarians, please cooperate when asked to be inspected.' The captain continued, 'this is a matter for safety for the space station, so please be ware.'
Right as the crowd have started moving, a squadron of riot control droids were also sent into the buildling itself and started their area sweep. However, they will not find Sir Deva there.
The Aquarians are generally taller than humans, standing at around two meters and up, their aquatic ancestry meant gravity isn't exactly a limiting factor for height growth. However, Sir Deva is also at this height. Hence he could walk alongside the average Aquarian without being spotted. With his hoodie pulled on covering most of his face and his jacket worn, he looked not too different from an abnormally well-dressed Aquarian, which isn't exactly uncommon in the crowd. The biggest difference lies in the number of sleeves, however, and Sir Deva knew that would initiate the fight.
The crowd moves along quickly as bodies rubbed against each other. Waiting deliberately for the crowd to appear turns out to be the right choice, as he knew at least the captain when hesitating when he is moving from within such a large group of beings. If he does anything reckless, he could be pissing off the top dogs of multiple regions of space. As the crowd flow separated into five segments, he heard a cold robotic voice calling from behind him:
'Turn around slowly.' The droid ordered. Sir Deva knew that the droid was addressing him, though he ignored it and continued to walk forward. He is now only three meters away from the five 'layers' of droids, and when he get to that point, it would be a lot easier to cause chaos.
However, the metallic clanking noises from the droid's footsteps behind him sounded rather unrelenting, and the droid repeated the instruction once again, 'Turn around, now.'
Sir Deva has moved another meter and a half closer while gently pushing someone in front to the side. There was a loud mouthed teenager type who's constantly complaining about the slow progress of the queue out loud not too far in front of him, though he looked a lot less capable compared to Lord Bonoleon that he fought not that long ago.
If anyone is to be the trigger for absolute chaos, it would be her. Sir Deva smiled knowingly and dived his head forward. The droid behind him raised his guns as its metallic arms clicks into position, right at that moment, Sir Deva raises his hand and quickly created a sphere of mass right near where he stood for an instant before dissipating it away just as quickly. The sudden bending of spacetime jerked everybody into it, and rammed the droid into the Aquarian teenager as Sir Deva stepped out to the side.
'What do you think you are doing?!' The teenager pushed the droids backwards as her entourage turned around and encircled the droid. The crowd became more and more rowdy as the Aquarians started shuffling the droids and pushing their ways out of here.
'Stay in line!' The captain yelled out through the speakers to no avail as everything descends into complete chaos. He slammed a fist onto the control in front of him and cursed underneath his breath about the absolute babies that are the rich customers of his. He is absolutely certain that Sir Deva is the one that caused all the ruckus, but with such chaos, he would be nowhere seen. All of the camera images from the riot control droids are nothing more than an absolute mess, and the drones hovering from above show nothing more than waves of dots moving in ridiculous patterns.
'Captain, what do we do?' The droid control officer asked and looked over to him. He held his head with his arms as options ran through his mind. Despite what he was saying, the reports coming back from the scounting team is not mistaken, and for some strange reason, the entire station is indeed situated in a gravity well. Travelling towards the outside of the station becomes increasingly more difficult, and realistically none of the ships that's parked here would have enough power to escape it. Though the curvature isn't up to relativistic levels yet, and just by looking at the stellar objects nearby, this manipulation of gravity fields seemed to just be local.
As far as he knew, none such technology is even remotely possible, and if what Sir Deva's saying is true, then perhaps the best idea is to cooperate with him. Regardless of what power he has, it seems to far exceed the comprehension of his. However, what would giving in to Sir Deva's demands do to the reputation of the Spotlight, the ultimate neutral zone where you can trade freely and not worry about anything else apart from bankruptcy. If they can't offer protection to sellers and buyers, who would even come to this station from now on?
He prided himself with the riot control droids, being the latest and most advanced version straight from the settled regions, and perhaps now it's the time to fully unleash their power.
He lets out a long breath as he made up his mind and explained his decision to the crew, 'We cannot allow for the terrorist to escape. Broadcast a final warning for return to order before stunning all of them.'
'All... of them?' The droid control officer asked hesitantly. Sure, nobody would get hurt if they are hit by jolts of energy that's not intense enough to leave any permanent scars, but the disrespect and shame they feel through being taken out by the mere captain of the station will leave a long-lasting mark that will have god knows what kind of consequences. And yet, what choices do they have?
There is no way of spotting Sir Deva among the rioting crowd.
'This is a final warning for order before stunning procedure would be applied. You have five...' The voice of the captain came out from the droid that's carrying the speaker, though its cut off as a muscular body guard pushes it aside and crushed it underneath his feet. Knowing that the scenario cannot really be salvaged by this point, the Captain shook his head and gestured towards the droid control officer.
'Opening fire, stunner setting, now.' He said as his fingers ran through the controls. All of the surrounding droids moved simultaneously, pointed their guns towards the nearest being, and opened fire.
The crowd screamed and all started running, but all of the droids simply started backpedaling and expand the surrounding radius, giving them more time to aim and maul down the crowds of people, albeit with stunners only.
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone