Mazaròl Lions : Chapter 24 "How It Started"

After that weird and stupid question Elio got from Lucas, he tries his best to answer it without being suspicious or letting his thoughts blurt out. Without knowing it as well, when he hangs up the phone, he immediately gets up from the bar’s stool, leaving his drink untouch, and somehow gets a strike that drinking is not an option right now. The elevator’s door opens for him as he steps inside but there is a little bit of hesitation pressing on their room’s floor, fourth floor. Contending with himself, he decides to just go to his room and avoids everyone for probably a few days. He unlocks the door and gets inside, weirdly full of anxiety that he can’t really describe what it is. What makes it weirder is that he feels so much relief seeing all of the lights are turned off and his footsteps are moving faster than how he usually goes for jogging. With only a few more steps, he reaches his room’s door and slams his body to the door as it closes behind him. Another sigh comes off from him then he places his right hand on his face. “This is torturing.” he whispers underneath his breath. Morning comes in just a flash but for Elio that is one of the longest nights he ever experiences as he doesn’t get any sleep at all, just barely. Not working on anything though, he just can’t with some of those ridiculous reasons. Takes a peek at his clock on the wall, not knowing how many times it is already for him to glance at it. At this hour in the morning, he tightly closes his eyes because he badly wants to skip this routine. Yep, the sound of someone's footsteps are approaching his room. “Breakfast ready!” a female’s voice shouts from the other side while knocking on his door. He hears it, noticing it’s not a certain someone, so he forces his body to get up with all the strength he has just to answer that door. Before the other person can knock again, Elio is already at the door and opens it. This person looks at him from head to toe with her confused face and a raised eyebrow. “Dude, you look awful.” Howl says, her voice mixed with something that can be sound as mocking him though. Thankfully, on that eternity night, Elio already thought of a way to avoid the meeting with them. Well, at least it might work for a few days ahead. “They gave me some codes last night.” Elio says and just like he expected, her eye twitches as she seems to be aware of it. “What kind of codes?” she asks with her serious voice. “He only said that these are hints for the auction. That is why I stay all night to finish it.” he replies and yawns right after. This should be enough signs for her to understand, right? Thanks again for his thoughts from last night that it gave him panda’s eyes this morning. “Alright then. I will let the others know about it. Just let us know if you need anything, okay?” she says and pats Elio’s shoulder gently to comfort and encourage him. Hearing what she just said, Elio almost says ‘safe!’ at the moment but he gets a hold of himself not to be obvious. With that, Elio only responds by nodding his head and slowly walking back inside his room. The door closes and he flops his body down on his bed again. “I got this.” Days pass, then finally the auction day comes and all of the tigers and lions are preparing themselves and checking for the plan once again in Lion’s stationary. In those past days, Elio successfully avoided the members, not everything but mostly, and didn’t get any interrogating questions regarding his meeting with Heliodor. “Is everything clear?” Heliodor asks everyone in the room and they all answer it firmly, except Elio who prefers to stay silent just like usual. “Alright. Good luck, everyone. Let’s do this.” he says and with that the briefing is done as they are all now heading toward the auction with two different cars. Before they all separate ways with the other team, someone suddenly tugs his clothes. “You got this, okay?” It’s Sapphire. “Just stay calm and you will do everything excellently as always.” Just like always, with her bright eyes, soft smile, she is the one who gives words of encouragement toward all of her members right before heading for the mission. Elio doesn't do anything instead of just nodding his head naturally like how he always responds to others as well. Nothing more than that? No more fluttery things? Well, probably distancing himself from the members really helped him to settle down all of things that he needs, not all things though. Or it can be possible that because he is on a mission he needs to put his effort to the fullest so it can run smoothly later on. Besides, he already solved all the codes that he ever found these days so that it makes it become a lot more powerful. They finally arrive at the auction event and the driver of the participant's team leaves right after he dropped them off. Soon after, the backup team follows right behind them. Howl is assigned to disguise herself to be one of the workers for serving the guests and Spec is the one who is watching the outside condition. His position is inside the coliseum and at the highest place as he can be to make sure he is able to look at every corner of the place from outside. In addition, he brings his weapons, especially a sniper where he needs the most right now, with him. Meanwhile, the van has finally arrived at the location of their plan and it is only just two of them, Elio and Heliodor, Heliodor is the one who drives them in. “Alright everyone. We are here. Testing signal please.” Heliodor says as soon as he gets a signal from Elio that his radar is on. “Champagne?” One response from Howl, pretending she is serving the guests because she is the one who disguised. “Much pleasure to meet you.” A woman’s voice mixed with a male one, this comes from Citrina and Zircon since they are the partners. “In position.” Spec is the last one to answer because he just arrived at the location where Heliodor told him to. “Good. Keep it going ladies and gentlemen.” Heliodor says as he gets off from his seat and goes to where Elio is working right now, the controlling place in the van, with a cup of coffee in his left hand. Elio is too focused on the screens in front of him and observing all of it closely so there is no silly business happening. “How is it going?” Heliodor asks him while leaning his body to the van’s side door with a higher voice tone so he can hear him right away. “Everything is under control.” Elio replies without looking at him or even a slight flinch. Seems like Elio already knew that this person could possibly be going to distract him. “Then let’s continue our talk from last week.” he says and sits on the small bench that is attached to the van’s side. Now Elio just realizes his mistake again, he shouldn’t have given that answer. How fun it is to dig my own grave? He mocks himself and slowly turns his chair around only to face someone who he really wants to outplayed with. Always, a smug face that is always looking down at all of his opponents and weirdly gives enough pressure as well. “The last time I asked you was about your job, right? Let’s keep on the track.” He says first without waiting for Elio to say a word. Probably because he already knew Elio’s patterns of talking with someone, only a few words and that is so simple yet get all of the point of what he means. Not waiting for a nod as well from Elio, Heliodor starts to speak up again with something that is already expected to happen by Elio. “How are the new members?” he asks and drinks his coffee. “Seven.” Elio replies right after, the answer is also based on his question from the previous ones where Heliodor always asks for ratings. Taking his cup away from his mouth, Heliodor nods his head and hums from the response as he puts the cup on his side. “Honestly, I thought they were ten for you. Why? You look totally different from the first time we met.” He replies still with that smug face. “Appearance or mindset?” another instant reply from Elio. “Both.” Heliodor follows his track but he is not yet finished when it comes unexpectedly “And feelings.” It’s only one word, a single word, yet it works so effectively to freeze Elio on the spot as he tries his best not to be panicking or showing any sign of weakness. Even though he already holds it all, Heliodor's grin only grows higher and it looks a lot more devilish than ever. Nothing can pass through this person. “So? Care to give me any details or some tea?” He continues and puts his left leg on top of the others. The van is full with the air conditioner turned on but Elio can feel his sweat run down on his chest as well with his palms. It only takes less than 10 seconds to crash down all of Elio’s effort to put those things. All of his time to avoid and get rid, simply doesn't affect that much at this point. But Elio also realizes that if he doesn’t say anything back to him for more than half a minute, it’s a checkmate before the king can get out to protect the queen. “Assumption? No wonder, it’s not surprising coming from you.” Elio replies calmly as usual without cracking any of his words. The response only makes him chuckle and takes another sip from his coffee. “Well… Do you have any questions for me? It sounds so unfair that I’m the only one who keeps asking you.” he continues and puts down the coffee back to its previous place. Elio stares right into his eyes, thinking what kind of question he should ask since this is his chance to get to know something that is still questionable for him. But right before he can let out his question, suddenly his mind telling him not to. He just realizes that it is a chance for him to ignore him, swipe away the thing he mentioned just now, and focus back to his job. With that, instead of asking him questions or saying anything back to Heliodor, Elio breaks eye contact and turns his chair around as now he is facing back to the screens. Elio can hear the person behind him let out another chuckle but he ignores that for now because his priority right now is to stay focused. Scanning all of the security cameras in front of him, Elio spots nothing other than a person with a mic on his right hand as he looks like preparing himself. That person must be the MC of this show since he takes a deep breath before taking his step on the stairs to get on the stage. “Good evening ladies and gentlemen!!” He says loudly through his mic which takes everyone's attention in an instant. “Seems like it’s starting.” Heliodor says as he stands up from his seat and approaches Elio. He is standing right behind Elio, close enough for him to monitor all of Elio’s screen. Everyone welcomes the MC excitedly with claps and cheerings. “Thank you everyone for coming on this wonderful night where we are going to start the legendary auction!” he continues and receives louder cheerings from the audience. Citrina looks at Zircon as he nods his head now they are moving to the next spot hand in hand together. While the other two, Sapphire and Aquamarine looking unfamiliar with these kinds of events, also get to their own spot as well. That loud noise of course will reach the kitchen area where Howl is having a small briefing from her head chef, telling them to do exactly as they are assigned. At first the MC starts the auction by introducing all of the head of organization, mayor, and finally with the people who are contributing to this auction. “Alright, without any furthermore let’s get into it already!” the mc says with a lot of excitement and shares his energy with the crowd. This is it where the real work starts to begin. Elio and Heliodor as the people who are working in the van need to know correctly with detailed information about the buyers of each item. Well, Elio is the one who is doing the program while Heliodor is checking for the condition, inside and outside. Based on Howl’s information who is working with them from the inside organization, all of the auction’s items are placed in one place. Later on after the auction ends, all of the items will be delivered with their two full weaponized and armored vans. As for the teams who get inside the auction split into two works. One for getting some access that is out of Elio’s range since they need to get the access from the intern people or the higher place of guards. While the other one needs to make distractions to make the other one can get inside easily and without any notice by Elio’s help by controlling the security door and cameras. While people are busy and focusing on participating in the auction, Citrina and Zircon, the team who are going to get inside are ready. Looking through the screen, Heliodor turns his microphone on. “Ready citrina, zircon?” He asks them for confirmation about their current position and condition. “Don’t ask. My patient is not that much.” She replies sharply. Hearing that response, Heliodor can’t help but chuckle with his big grin. “Fantastic. Sapphire, aquamarine?” He continues with the check. Before giving him an answer, Sapphire takes a look around first and looks at Aquamarine as she is waiting for his response. Right after Aquamarine gives him a nod of affirmation, Sapphire gives him the answer. “Ready.” She says. “Excellent. Good luck boys and girls.” Heliodor says and turns off his microphone. The operation starts as Sapphire and Aquamarine accidentally make the champagne tower fall with their neat trick which no one will ever notice about. Half of the crowd turn their heads facing where the two are, taking this a sign they are successfully drawing a lot of the attention to them as the guards and crews are also coming to them. “It’s startingggg…!” Heliodor exclaims excitedly beside him and makes a sound of his slurping on his cup of coffee. Elio on his right side can’t help but his heart starts wanting to dominate by taking control of him. At this moment, he needs to focus on all of the situation but his eyes keep him to look at where the team is making a huge mess in there, the fallen champagne tower. But he always puts it in mind it’s all because his leader’s fault for bringing something nonsense when they are in the middle of work. “Fascinating, isn't it?” he continues and this time by tapping his hand on Elio’s shoulder. Must be wanting to take Elio’s attention away from the monitor once again but Elio ignores him. Thankfully, his mind kicks in to remind him that Citrina and Zircon have almost arrived at the executive door where only staff and crew can pass by with their name tag. This area is still under Elio’s control where he has the access to hack the cameras and open the door for them for only 10 seconds to avoid any suspicion as well. When they are only a few steps away from the door, Elio already hacked all of the cameras and he finally opens the door for them. The door opens in front of them and they both accelerate their step to get inside right as the door closes right after a couple of seconds they got in. “We’re in.” Zircon reports as he takes out his weapon from his hidden pockets as well as Citrina. “Have fun you two.” Heliodor turns his mic on only to give them some kind of ‘encouragement’ and continues to look at what is happening next inside the auction where the team made an incident. Howl is there since she is one of the workers now and that is where Sapphire hands her a chip for Elio to gain larger access which it only lasts for 10 minutes later. Done cleaning up their mess, Howl gets back inside and goes according to their plan. The team who just successfully made a scene now just need to act casual and blend in with the other guests as the show is still ongoing. Of course, they won’t let their guards down as they could possibly make another one just for distraction if anything goes wrong. “Absolutely perfect, everyone.” Heliodor compliments all of them through the microphone once again as he is watching every step through the screen “How is the outside’s air, cub?” ends it by asking Spec about his sight. “All clear.” Spec replies right after, eyes still on the telescope as he observes everyone, every corner, every detail of outside the place. “Keep it up and keep your body warm as well.” Heliodor replies and turns back off his microphone. “Feels so good!” He says while stretching his arms above, pulling and straightening until all of his bones make satisfying sounds. Even though all of it goes smoothly and right according to the plan, Elio still doesn’t want to take away or let his guard down even for a second. His eyes still lock to the screens in front of him, watching everyone’s move, guards, security cameras, and all of it. However, something Elio thought at first won’t come again, the reality betrays him. Just like how it says, the one thing that you keep thinking not going to happen might happen right after the second you think of it. “Look at how all of this went smoothly, dear partner.” Heliodor, out of nowhere, starts another conversation for him which it’s now obvious that he wants to distract Elio. With that, Elio doesn’t bother to turn around and go along with his game, he ignores him again as his eyes don’t move an inch away from the screens. “Actually, I do wonder though…” he continues and leans closer to the screens as he is pointing at one of them. The screen that gets pointed out by Heliodor makes Elio hold his breath for a moment and twitches one of his eyebrows. The screen where the auction is on with all of the mean Sapphire and Aquamarine team positions. “She is a very, very magnificent person.” he says and it comes another twitch from Elio “She keeps her guard on even though she knows the plan goes along perfectly.” he continues and leans back away from the screen. Congrats Heliodor. He succeeded in taking Elio's attention away from his screen even though it's just for a couple of seconds. It’s not over yet, that's not all of Heliodor's surprises, he still has one. Heliodor takes two steps away from him and shoots an unexpected question which is something that Elio avoided the most from the past week. Not only a question that makes all of his blood circulation stop, face getting pale like he's half dead, but the other words he used. “What do you think about her, Sam Elio?”