Wonderer's Wish World 2: Evolutionary Rebirth

Cult of Personality

Day 32

Time: 8:46 AM

Location: Downtown Hospital, Nightlight City

Darius exchanged a terrified look with Mira, whose face showed him all he needed to know about the enemy behind him, and as nothing at all. He swallowed nervously, feeling sweat pour down his face.

"I-It's not me," he called out, flinching at every sound behind him, from the click of a gun to a slight cough. "I'm not DJ StarSpeaker!"

The person behind him snorted. "Right. So you just happened to break onto this roof, with one of the biggest radio towers in the city, where StarSpeaker is suspected to frequent... by accident."

Stiffly, Darius nodded, and the person behind him laughed.

"Right," they sneered. "Well, random citizen, I'm going to have to ask you to turn around very slowly for me and drop everything in your hands, and then to helpfully comply when we ask you to come to the station with us. Any perceived sign of resistance will be met with violence, just so you know."

As if in a reminder, the person pressed their gun even harder against Darius' head, and he shivered.

Desperately, Darius tried to think. They thought he was StarSpeaker, who was, apparently, not popular with the police, and, at worst, was a criminal. Darius had no way to prove he was StarSpeaker, and he didn't know if any attempt to would turn these people even more against him.

There was no chance of escape, not unless Darius wanted to run to the edge of the roof in front of him, and risk getting shot down... or risk becoming a splat against the concrete.

There was no other option than to comply, so Darius gulped, and slowly turned, letting his satchel and figurine slip through his fingertips, thumping dully on the floor as Darius lifted his arms in what he hoped was a nonthreatening way, turning to face the people behind him.

The person who had been speaking, the leader, evidently, smirked at him as he finally turned to face them, their gun held level to Darius' face and a bit too loose for comfort. Behind them stood, to Darius' surprise, seven other people, dressed in the same uniform and armed to the teeth, equally large guns pointed both at Darius and at their leader.

Darius stared at them all. Really? All this for... a radio personality? What on Earth did StarSpeaker do?

"Finally," the person in front of him, muttered, their grin widening. "You have the right to remain silent, and we have the right to silence you whenever we want, as well as to search through every procession you have on you, and to bug you. Again, if you show any signs of resistance, we have the right to defend ourselves."

They said all that quickly and dully, clearly a speech they practiced many times while Darius' eyes grew wider and wider with every word. At his expression, the cop seemed to grow even more smug, seeming to take his horror as one of shock that he had been caught, rather than his growing horror at what he was hearing.

Suddenly, without warning, Darius' shoulder was grabbed roughly and he was yanked forward, in front of the cop. Before he could even blink, his hands were pulled behind him, shackled in handcuffs before he could even react.

"He's secure," the cop spoke, and out of the corner of his eye, Darius saw them speaking with a hand pressed to their ear. "Bring the ship up. Let's get out of here before the rest of his posse shows up."

"My... posse?" Darius repeated, lowly so that the cop didn't hear. His mind first went to Molly, Ben, and the rest of them, but that couldn't possibly mean what they meant. He was starting to realize that StarSpeaker wasn't exactly who Darius thought he was, if these cops were to be believed.