Chapter 156: Grabbing Attention
"What the hell am I looking at?" a pedestrian muttered, slack-jawed, as the car rolled past him.
The Vision Mercedes-Maybach 6 Cabriolet Imperium wasn’t just a car. For him, it was more like a vision that didn’t belong to the world he knew.
The onyx-black body shimmered with platinum microflakes that seemed to drink in the sun, its elongated form gliding silently over the road like a predator.
Heads turned instantly, conversations were cut short and coffee cups froze halfway to lips. A delivery cyclist nearly toppled over when his handlebars veered at the sight. Phones flew into hands as if by instinct, their cameras struggling to capture the impossible angles and surreal sheen of the car.
"Is that... a Maybach?" another man whispered, staring as though naming it aloud would summon disbelief. "No... that’s not anything Maybach has ever released."
The car drive down the street with grace, its presence parting traffic like a ghost ship on the ocean. Even the roar of engines around it seemed muted, insignificant, swallowed by its aura.
Inside, Liam leaned back in the seat, perfectly calm. Mason sat tense in the passenger seat, stealing glances every few seconds, while Nick gripped the wheel with a professionalism that was only skin-deep.
Liam noticed the way his knuckles whitened, the faint tremor he fought to hide. Even for someone who might had chauffeured luxury cars his whole career, this was beyond comprehension.
They turned onto Wilshire Boulevard, and chaos followed.
Pedestrians crowded the sidewalks, with phones raised. Some sprinted across intersections just to catch another glimpse. A
"Yo, what is that?" a teenager shouted, chasing after the car with his friends. "That’s not even out yet, bro! That’s like— that’s like 2050 level!"
"Shut up and record!" one of his friends barked, already live-streaming. Within seconds, the comments on his feed exploded.
Live steam chat:
"FAKE! CGI!"
"Bro that’s real, I live in LA I’m here right now wtf."
"Future tech?? Elon??
"Nah, that’s gotta be concept car... but how’s it on the street??"
Traffic began to ripple outward like concentric waves in a pond. Most drivers slowed, craning their necks out of their cars to get a better view at what was in front of them.
Some even forgot to accelerate when lights turned green, earning them horns from behind. A Texsla driver pulled up alongside, eyes wide, and simply matched speed, recording every angle he could before nearly drifting into another lane.
Soon, they were moving through a clogged artery of downtown, and the car itself became the cause. Vehicles slowed deliberately, boxing themselves around the car just to gawk.
A delivery truck stopped dead in its lane as the driver leaned out the window, phone extended. The honking behind him grew into a cacophony, but no one cared — their eyes were glued to the rolling phantom.
If one saw the scene, they would be curious to know how an accident didn’t happen.
Nick kept his composure, weaving the car forward with a precision that belied the chaos outside. But even he couldn’t stop the inevitable: gridlock.
Liam glanced through the tinted windows and he saw that a crowd had formed, spilling from sidewalks onto the road, pressing dangerously close.
Dozens of phones hovered in the air, recording from every angle. Some people waved; others simply stared in reverence, as though in the presence of a legendary or mythic artifact.
"This is madness. They’re going to block us in at this rate," Mason muttered under his breath, as his eyes darted from one side to the other.
"They won’t," Liam said simply.
Sure enough, the crowd parted as Nick edged the Imperium forward, the car’s aura doing what no horn or siren could have accomplished.
The sea of people gave way, reluctantly but irresistibly, recording every inch as the car slid through.
Above, the buzz of rotors drew Mason’s gaze and he cursed softly, "Drones."
Civilian drones, a few of them, hovered like vultures, their lenses trained downward. Footage streamed instantly to every corner of the internet. Within minutes, hashtags lit up across platforms:
#UnknownCar
#WhatIsThis
#FutureMaybach
#GodOnWheels
Speculation went wild. Some insisted it was a secret Applē car, while thers swore it had to be Elon Musk’s next project. A few conspiracy theorists were convinced it was military tech disguised as a luxury vehicle.
But no one guessed the truth.
For more than an hour, the Imperium crept toward LAX, leaving a trail of chaos in its wake. Traffic bated his fangs for blocks and police dispatch radios crackled with reports of "an unidentified luxury vehicle causing gridlock."
And through it all, Liam sat in perfect calm, one hand resting lightly on the armrest. He saw the drones above, but his expression never changed.
For him, the world could watch. They can speculate all they want, as none of it mattered.
Finally, the sprawl of LAX appeared on the horizon. Glass terminals gleamed in the afternoon sun, planes roared overhead, and the chaos of travelers filled the air.
But even here, even among the steady stream of luxury cars like Bentleys and Rolls Royces gliding toward private hangars, the Imperium drew every eye.
Security guards at the terminal gates froze as the car approached. Their radios crackled urgently. One guard raised his phone before his superior barked at him to put it away.
Thankfully he didn’t get fired that day.
Nick guided the car smoothly to Imperial Terminal’s south side. Hangar 14 loomed ahead, a massive structure of steel and glass.
The gates parted silently, and the Imperium glided forward, slipping away from the chaos outside and into the cool shadow of the hangar.
Too bad for the drones still hovering a few kilometres from the airport. They couldn’t help but wish that the no-fly zone didn’t exist, but they also knew when to stop. Besides, the drones that flew into the airport’s airspace were scrambled, jammed or even forcibly landed by the airport’s drone defense system.
As the doors shut behind them, the noise of the city dulled, replaced by silence. Mason opened the rear door, stepping aside as Liam emerged.
The moment Liam’s shoes touched the hangar floor, his eyes lifted — and he froze.
Before him stood a monster.
It dwarfed even the cavernous space of the hangar, gleaming beneath the industrial lights like a sleeping titan. Wings stretched wide, their span swallowing shadows.
And beside it were a group of people in professional attires. One of them, a man in a pilot uniform, walked towards Liam and greeted him.
"Good morning, Mr Scott. I’m Captain Adler," the man said, as he shook Liam’s hand.