Chapter 154 Q & A
"So, should we just wait for this guy to wake up, or should we just wake him up by ourselves?" Alex muttered as he and his companions stared at the unconscious body of Nomad. "Because from what I see, it will take a little longer before we can talk to him directly."
Professor Frances seems to share the same worry as Alex, as she started prodding the looped space with her nozzle.
"I can wake him up now, and I think that is the best thing that we can do. We can't afford the Pantheon coming here in full force before we can ask this guy what we want." The professor said as she pointed her nozzle at Nomad.
"Well, with us taking Nomad hostage with us, I am sure that those guys will be a lot more careful dealing with us." Alex muttered cheerfully to himself as he thought that the appearance of Nomad here was a godsent blessing to him. "With Nomad practically coming here by himself, we have a hostage that we can use against the Pantheon!"
"Wait, so you really think that his teleporter just went here on his own volition?" Alina mumbled with a disbelieving tone in her voice. "You think someone will be really that stupid?"
"If you research the attitude of the Pantheon members online, you can map up their rudimentary attitudes." Alex replied as he began counting off with his fingers.
"Myth may look amicable, but there had been some cases of her raging against some of her critics. Tetra's cool, as his posts were all mature and level-headed in tone. Machi… he seems like a recluse, which somehow complements his power. Foresight, she's a good troll, no doubt supported by her powers. As for Plague… well she was a former villain, so she surely has some negative behavior. Then there's Miden who looks like the average otaku and comic guy. You can see that his posts were usually about his favorite characters. As for Nomad, well you can say that he's had some rebellious streaks, and you can see it on his online posts."
"…You know, the way that you profiled the Pantheon members online was just plain creepy." It was the professor who said these words as she looked at Alex uncertainly. "Are you sure that you did not have an online stalking job before?"
"…" Alex did not give a reply to that as he averted his gave.
"No way."
Before the situation could turn awkward, Alina let out a cough as she glared at the professor.
"Let's stop talking now, and let's start waking this guy up."
"Oh right, there is that too." The professor replied as she waited for Alina to open up her space. Once she was done, the professor started spraying some kind of gas in front of Nomad, and this time, the color of the gas was sickly brown.
"Kehokk, kehokk!" The effect was instantaneous.
At the instant that the sleeping Nomad took a whiff of the brown gas, his eyes immediately shot open, with his body flailing around in panic.
"Let him out now." Alex said to Alina, who in turn, snapped her fingers immediately.
"Argh!" Once the looped space was gone, Alex saw and heard the panicking Nomad who seemed to be trying his best escape.
To Alex's delight, it seemed like Nomad's power is not working anymore. Just the horrified expression on the teleporter's face was enough to confirm that.
"Hey, don't try teleporting away now. We have suppressed your power, so you better stay still there." Alex smugly said as he tried to get the attention of Nomad.
"You!" Nomad, whose voice sounded like a bratty kid, stood up as he tried to attack Alex.
"Piak!" Alex slapped the teleporter with one of his tentacles, sending Nomad sprawling to the ground.
"Hmph, without your teleportation power, you are nothing, young man." Alex said as he looked down at Nomad. "And here I thought that you Pantheon members are all high-class opponents. But as it turns out, once your power's gone, you're all nothing!"
Really, Alex was somehow disappointed with what he saw.
He thought that maybe Nomad has some crazy good fighting skills even without his power. As it turns out, this teleporter actually only relies on his teleportation abilities.
"Hmph, when I first met Khora, I had no powerful abilities, yet I managed to survive three of her attacks." Alex said as he looked down at Nomad disdainfully. "If I can do that, then this guy should have done this too. Tsk tsk tsk, what a disappointment."
"Alex, I think you are setting the bar up high here." Alina complained as heard what Alex said. "Nobody can just easily do what you did before…."
"Hmph, stop talking in front of me like you were all better than me!" Even if he was already slapped away like a rag doll, the teleporter still had the audacity to act tough. "You think you already won? Hmph, just you all wait!"
"What, wait for your allies to rescue you? Well, we are waiting for them too." Alex replied merrily as he started sensing the Gravity Waves around him.
He gathered 5,000 of these gravity waves and used them all to press down on Nomad.
"Argh!" The teleporter let out a shout as his body visibly sank, with some sounds of his bone starting to creak.
"Nomad, without your power here, there is no way that you can just fight us off." Alex said as he started to slowly increase the gravity on Nomad. "Well, once those Pantheon guys come here to rescue you, you may have the chance to escape. But for now, you will be in our mercy!"
"That's right, little boy." Professor Frances said as she appeared to be holding a syringe in her right hand. She pressed the plunger of the syringe a little, and some metal-colored liquid dripped out of its needle. "We will have all the fun that we can have with you…"
"…."
Alex felt somewhat bad that he was acting like the bad guy now, but deep inside him, he also felt like he was cool. Don't ask Alex why, he just feels it.
"Hey, what the hell is in that syringe, Professor?" Alex asked warily as he stared at the professor approaching Nomad. "Is that something that we should be worried about?"
"Oh, don't get worried by this syringe." The professor replied cheerfully as she skirted nearer and nearer on the downed Pantheon member. "This liquid is something that will paralyze Nomad's whole body, except for his mouth. That means that once I inject this liquid in him, the only thing that he can do was to move his irritating mouth. Pretty neat, right?"
"Wat."
Both Alex and Alina were shocked by what they heard, as they began staring at the syringe on the professor's hand warily.
"Do you… really need to do that?" Alex said as he felt that paralyzing Nomad's body was somewhat too much. "Isn't that too much?"
"Well, it's better that we do this, instead of just allowing him to possibly do something that will jeopardize us." The professor replied as she waved the syringe around. "Don't worry, once we ask him all the questions that we want, I can remove the paralysis. But if he does not answer, then he will stay paralyzed until I said so."
A whimper came out of Nomad's mouth, who looked horrified with what he just heard.
Alex shares the same sentiment as Nomad, but he also realized that Professor Frances was right.
"She's telling the truth, Alex." Alina said behind Alex as she let out a sigh. "The professor will remove Nomad's paralysis once he gives us all the info that we want, and she's also willing to make Nomad stay paralyzed forever, if it needed to be so."
"Huh. That's convenient, I guess."
Since he already had Alina's confirmation that the professor will not be that horrifying, Alex decided to give the professor the go signal.
"Okay, let me lighten up this gravity first, and then you can do your stuff." Alex replied as he reduced the gravity waves on Nomad, down to tolerable levels.
"Hahaha! And the professor strikes again!" The professor cackled maniacally as she dipped the needle of the syringe on Nomad's left bicep.
The poor teleporter tried squirming out of the way, but Alex's gravity waves made sure that he cannot do that.
5 seconds passed by, and the professor let out a satisfied sigh as she emptied the whole syringe.
Her whole face was flushed red, as if her emptying the syringe awoke some kind of feelings inside her.
"…" Alex chose to not say anything, as his FED Manipulation detected some hints of arousal from Professor Frances.
"This woman… gets turned on by injecting people with chemicals? Huh, no wonder she's carrying those many syringes around her." Alex thought wryly to himself as he shook his head. "Well, at least I'm not the one that gets injected with those chemicals…:
Alex then looked down at Nomad, whose whole body was laid down on the floor like a dead fish.
It was only Nomad's mouth that was working, evidenced by the countless curse words coming out of his mouth.
"You c**ks**kers! You are all m****rf****ers! Once I get out here, I swear I'mm f**k you all up! You hear that? I'mma f**k you all up!"
Alex let out a tired sigh as he looked at the professor, who seemed to still be turned on even by now.
"Don't you have a truth serum that you can inject on this guy? Even with Alina's lie detector ability, there could be some questions that will be hard for us to uncover. With a truth serum on the other hand, we can easily get what we want."
After hearing what Alex said, the professor paused slightly for a second, before her face darkened.
"…" Alex could not help but take a step back, as his FED Manipulation felt a deep, primal rage coming out of Professor Frances's body.
It was so potent that even Alex, who were used to sensing countless emotions everyday, was somewhat shaken by what he felt.
"I DON'T DO TRUTH SERUMS. GOT IT?" The professor replied as she took some deep breaths, probably to calm herself down. "I can make anything that I want, but truth serums are out of the chart. Do you… understand?"
"Yes." Alex replied, realizing that he stepped on a land mine here. "Yes, I understand."
He might look apologetic, but inside his mind, Alex decided to give importance to Professor Frances' reaction to Truth Serums.
With the reaction that the professor had regarding truth serums, there is a high chance that Alex can use it as a leverage against this woman later.
With that info safely memorized, Alex decided to start what he was supposed to do.
While keeping a straight face on, Alex slowly approached the still cursing Nomad. The professor, who still looked somewhat pissed, was walking alongside Alex, with her gripping her nozzle tightly.
Behind the two were their Companions, who had their weapons prepared in case a surprise attack swoops in on them.
"Crack, crack." Alex cracked his neck masterfully as he lifted up the paralyzed teleporter.
"F*** you!"
"…." Alex looked at Nomad with an inquisitive expression on his face, as he ignored the curses being thrown on him.
Countless tentacles then started to cover Nomad's body as Alex began to smile like the professor.
"Why don't we play a game Nomad? Alex said as his tentacles began squeezing Nomad's body tightly. "The game is called 'I ask a question, and you answer it'. Its rules are just simple. I ask you a question, and you answer back honestly. I assume that you can do that, right?"
"F**k you!"
"Okay, it seems like you are ready to start the game now. Let us start then."
"F**k!!!"