"Doctor Otto Octavius, you are arrested." Falkins said.
Otto was not surprised, he knew this would have happened one time or another and now finally the moment had come. He looked at the general in front of him. The small, slightly overweight man stood determined with a smile of victory on his face in the middle of the circle the soldiers formed around them. Otto counted eight of them. All within the reach of the actuators, but with weapons at the ready. In his mind formed already a plan to take them down, but he did not move, yet.
He noticed Truman standing outside the circle, a look of desperation written on the man's face. Otto could imagine how the man must feel at the moment, when all the hope you have is destroyed within the moment of split seconds, but he would not let that happen. It might have looked bad for him at the moment, but he had one thing on his side that the general did not know of.

The actuators under his coat tensed but he told them not to act yet. They would get their chance soon enough, he thought. Otto doubted this could be ended without a fight and he was prepared.
As the seconds passed by and nobody made an intention to move Falkins said again:
"You are under arrest, Octavius, did you hear me?"
It was then when Otto let out a small chuckle and Falkins gave him a perplexed look for the instant of a few second then the moment of confusion was gone and anger took its place.
"You think this is funny? You escaped the law long enough, you are going down today." Falkins hissed.
"I don't think so." Otto smiled his voice calm. He stood perfectly still. "If you want to survive you will let me go."
The look on Falkins face changed only slightly. His eyes narrowed and his skin started to become an unhealthy red. "If that was a threat I can only laugh. My men will shoot as soon as you only think about killing me."
Otto chuckled again. "Oh, it's not me who's going to kill you. No. You will be responsible for your own death."
"What are you talking about?" Falkins growled.
Otto gestured at the ceiling with one hand. The sudden movement made the soldiers around them tense noticeable. They braced their grip on the weapons. "Don't tell me you already forgot."
Otto could almost hear the grinding of the cogwheels in Falkins head and his smile became even bigger. Several more seconds passed and nothing happened. Nobody moved and the tension was almost unbearable. The soldiers shot each other confused glances.
Truman who had not moved the whole time was slowly backing away from the circle.
"You're digging your own grave, pal!"
"That's enough!!" Falkins shouted. "NOW!"

Otto has made the experience that the world slows down when fighting. Actions that only take a few seconds seem to last minutes and hours, it was not different this time. Falkins mouth was warped into a grimace as he shouted at the soldiers, but at that time Otto had already taken action.
One soldier keeled already over unconscious by a blow to the head when others overcame their shock at the sudden sight of the metal arms that shot out from under his coat.
By the time the first gun was fired two more had lost their weapons and lay unconscious on the ground.
One bullet drilled itself into the flesh of the man and he let out a scream. Two more reflected from the metal surface of the actuators and flew as ricochets through the hallway.
One passed Falkins face so close he could feel the heat of the bullet. "STOP!!" He shouted desperately, but nobody was shooting anymore.

***

Truman kept holding his breath. The fight had only lasted a few seconds, but he felt like he had just watched two hours of an epic battle. Ever part of is body was stiff from the tension that was still controlling his muscles.
He saw the three men on the floor; one was bleeding from an invisible wound. He stared at the crimson pool as it became bigger and bigger. He looked up at the four men still standing, weapons aimed at Octavius but nobody fired. Then his gaze shifted to the general. The same general that had been confident and determined to arrest the man in front of him, the same man who had failed miserably and now looked like somebody has just emptied a bucket full of ice water over his head.
He could not see his face but something told Truman, there would be no second attempt. Then he finally dared looking at Octavius, who still stood at the very same spot where he had been before. Unharmed. Three tentacles arching around him, constantly moving, ready to deflect more bullets. The fourth tentacle however had wrapped itself around a soldier, its head now looming over the barely conscious man, giving him a crimson gloom; his uniform stained red where the bullet had made contact with human flesh.
Octavius face flinty, he simply stood there, waiting.
Truman finally let out his breath, as quiet as possible; he felt every noise breaking the silence could cause the situation to escalate.

***

Falkins stood there in shock. His mouth open, his eyes widened. He had thought eight would be enough. Eight would be sufficient. I miscalculated..... he thought. He watched how slowly a smile formed around Octavius' mouth. He stumbled backwards unable to keep his feet where they were. "No..."
"Already giving up, General?" Falkins could not take that smile any longer; he made another step backwards and bumped against the wall. How could this have happened? He was a general! Damn it! He should have known better. He pressed himself against the cold wall of the hallway still starring at the man in front of him.
"It's your entire fault, General." The man grinned. Falkins watched how the unconscious man in one of the tentacles grip dropped to the floor. He did not move. He had seen a lot during the thirty-two years of his military career, things far worse than this but there was something about this situation he could not deal with. Was it the tentacled man, who still grinned his maniac smile at him, or were it the four unconscious and bloody man on the floor, that went down within seconds, because they followed a command he had given. Falkins did not know it. Maybe it was all of this together, maybe this was just the last drop of water that finally made the bucket overflow.
Then he started running. He ran down the hallway, he didn't know the direction, he didn't want to know the direction. Away from this man. Away from this smile. He just could not have taken it any longer, he just had to get away from there. He ran down another hallway, almost bumping into two scientists that were having a rapid conversation about something he didn't understand. He was too fast away from them to catch even one word of it. He made it around the other corner and collapsed against the wall. His body was not used to that kind of strain anymore. His lungs were burning and his feet and knees threatened to give away under him, but at least he was far enough away now. He leaned his hot forehead against the cool stone of the wall trying to catch his breath again. Oh God, why....?

It was quite amusing to watch the plumb man moving so fast and Otto couldn't help but chuckle. He hadn't imagined it would end like this, but it was fine with him. One problem less to worry, that man wouldn't dare going anywhere near him again or send soldiers after him. His gaze wandered over the soldiers still standing around him. His expression became serious. They had their weapons clutched in their hands, shivering, probably wondering what he would do to them. He didn't want to look down to the unconscious men one the floor especially not to the one who took that bullet for him. He never wanted to hurt somebody again, but it had been inevitable. He looked in the frightened faces of the men. It was not their fault all of this had happened. It was not their fault a giant asteroid was racing towards earth, it was not their fault he was so angry, angry at that general, angry at Truman for bringing him here, angry at himself for letting Truman bring him here. He glared at them and he could feel the rage boil inside him. They were staring back if even possible more frightened than before. He could feel the actuators swaying through the air around him and he could hear their voices.
Let us attack!
Let us kill!
They wanted to hurt you!
Let us kill them!

There were loud noises, somebody was screaming, a crash, then silence. His head was spinning and he could not remember were he was. His back was just one big pain and his head didn't feel much better either. He slowly pushed himself up, unable to open his eyes. He could feel the bandage around his head and then suddenly something removed it.

Otto pushed back the memories that suddenly emerged from the corner of his mind, where he never wanted to look again. He shook his head and then yelled at the soldiers.
"GET AWAY FROM HERE OR YOU END UP LIKE YOUR COMPANIONS!"
It did not take long and the men disappeared around the next corner, the look of sheer horror probably still on their faces. Otto let out a sigh. No, he wouldn't let it get that far.

***
The two men were now alone. Truman could still not believe what just happened before his eyes. Did he just really see General Falkins run away in panic? He decided not to waste any energy thinking about it. For now, more important things needed to be done. He took a few steps towards the other man. "Doctor Octavius?" The man did not look at him; he looked down at the ground and turned away. The tentacles slowly disappeared underneath his coat again. "Doctor?" Truman walked closer avoiding stepping over the men on the floor. "I- I'm sorry." Octavius didn't respond. "I'm sorry I couldn't prevent this. I tried to talk to Falkins, but he wouldn't listen. He probably did-" "No need to be sorry." Octavius suddenly turned around. "Uhm..." "I guess I'll be able to help, since the general hopefully doesn't have any intention of arresting me again." He walked past Truman and down the hallway. Still a little startled Truman followed him. "Uhm...okay." He did not know what else to say. They walked down the long corridors without any aim in mind. After several minutes Truman broke the silence. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine!" Came the cold reply and Truman was silent for several more minutes. He used the time to go trough his plan again. The plan that was supposed to save the world. The same plan that had already caused so much pain. He was not only thinking about the poor men they left in the hallway where the battle had taken place, but also of the men that had encountered the Armadillo and where now in the hospital station. Nothing of that ought to happen. Everything was supposed to be going smooth, but nothing ever did. At least he achieved what he wanted. Octavius was here to help, Stamper was going to help, not the way Truman wanted to, but he was helping, and last but not least Falkins was somewhat out of the way. He sighed.
"Something wrong?" Octavius asked. Truman shook his head. "No actually everything's just like I wanted, the only flaw is that it didn't happen the way I wanted." He shrugged.
"Mhm."
Truman suddenly remembered what Octavius had implied during the battle. "So...how was your meeting with the Armadillo?" The other man didn't answer, he seemed like he was lost in thoughts. "Doctor?"
"What?" Octavius gave him a puzzled look. "I asked how the meeting with the Armadillo was."
"Oh, yeah... it was alright." He looked down the hallway again. They were still wandering the long corridors of the facility.
"Were you able to...you know...talk to it or whatever it was you were doing there?"
"Her."
"Pardon me?"
"Talk to her." Octavius stopped and turned to Truman. "It's female and yes, I was able to talk to her." Truman's eyes widened in excitement and Octavius smiled.
"What did she say?"

***

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!"
"I can do whatever I want!"
"NO YOU CAN'T! YOU CAN'T LEAVE ME HERE!"
"You'll be fine!"
"NO!"
Grace glared at Harry, hands on her hips, a bewailed expression on her face.
"You can't leave me here..." she whispered, "You could die up there." Tears filled her eyes and Harry gestured her to sit down next to him on the bed. She did so and he put an arm around her. "Somebody needs to do the job, honey." He caressed her cheek with one hand and took hers in his other. Tears were now streaming down her face. "Please..." she begged.
Harry sighed and looked down at his feet. "You could teach the astronauts, I know you can do that. It's not impossible."
"Grace. Please. You know I can't do that, they will never be as good as I am and we need the best man for this job, just what Truman said."
Grace sobbed, she was shivering under her father's arm and she knew he was right. She just did not want it to be right. She wanted her father with her, not up there.
"I have to do it, Grace, please understand." She didn't want to understand. No. She pushed his arm away and stormed out of the room without saying another word. "Grace, please!" Harry reached out for her, but she was already gone.