Part 18: Disaster

ACT 2: Disaster

Christian’s Perspective:

Christian went to Parc Centros, one of the most technology-advanced when it comes to fighting Dozers. The weapon that Louis held was a Minesweeper, a special type of bat tapered with four electric grills. When swung, it can emit particle waves that paralyze foes in an instant. Christian had heard stories of the proprietor to be someone that was hungry for fights, and wanted to rise up the leaderboards among other proprietors. He had the constant need to come up with even stronger equipment, and constantly looked for the craziest and most powerful Dozers to use their parts as upgrades.

The trio stepped foot outside a giant gate, where the security guard was smoking a cigar. The lights outside were glimmering, and they were allowed entry just from Louis being there to accompany them.

They slowly entered the premise, as Christian saw someone flew right out of the gate in an instant. He was covered in burns, and quickly took off in fear, yelling about how he regretted coming.

A voice yelled out how his pizza had arrived cold, and how it was lacking in pepperonis. Louis began to shake, and said it was probably a bad time to go in, considering how angry the person inside was.

Christian stood in immediately, only to find a shockwave of electricity running through the lobby. Standing at the far end was a man on a high seat, tossing out the pizza into the bin.

“Man, they couldn’t even give me a pizza that is hot.” The proprietor spoke in disgust, not even looking back at them. “Tch.”

Christian took another step forward without a sense of fear, as a wave of electricity shocked him.

The other two were completely frozen, but Christian shook it off like it was nothing.

“Hmm, oi. Who the hell are you?” He spoke blatantly. “What do you think you are doing, dirtying the carpet in here? HUH?”

“I am here to speak-”

A blast of wind blew through the sides of his face, as the proprietor swung his bat down to the ground.

“I am warning you not to step any closer.” He pointed to himself with his thumb facing towards himself. “I am Carlos, the proprietor of Parc Centros. The one who single-handedly apprehended Randall Tang. One thing to note about me, I do not allow uninvited guests to enter my turf. Do you get it or not?”

“Umm… sorry to break it to you, Sir.” Louis butted in as his gaze scared the daylights out of him. “Ahh.. R…Randall has escaped from the police stat-.”

“Wait…” Carlos said, as he lifted himself off his chair. “Time for me to head off.”

“Sir, where are you heading?” Louis asked.

“To capture Randall, of course.” Carlos said. “Is there anything more that has to be said?” He was about to leave the room when Christian shot a bullet that created a bunch of rubble and blocked him off. Louis was appalled as the proprietor turned back to face him.

“Well… well. Slow down. I haven’t had a chance to speak to you yet.” Christian said as he was suddenly met face to face with the swing of his bat.

Margaret activated her hologram, creating a pillow that absorbed the strike.

“Why… a pillow… out of all things…?” Christian still felt the sensation of his cheek bruising from the attack.

“I do admire your guts to interfere with my goals.” Carlos said as he swung out his weapon, and the whole place sparked with electricity. “But do you really think you can beat me with a measly gun?”

“They say not to bring a sword to a gunfight.” Christian said. “What do you think-”

Carlos rushes in with a clean sweep of his bat, as Christian knew this man wasn’t playing around. The power of his electricity was enough to stun him, and he was definitely crazy enough to kill him if the battle dragged out.

“Christian’s weapon is bad at close range.” Margaret thought. “Should I assist him? He might actually die if he gets striked by that bat.” She saw how focused Christian was and decided not to interfere in a men's battle.

“I can store any object into this gun as a bullet. Usually the order is fixed to 6 bullets per round.” Christian thought, as he fired a bullet at the side of the wall. It let out a high pitched sound, as Carlos lost his senses and loosened his grip.

“By releasing the magazine, I can release the empty shells that are a form of Camodozers. These bullets can shapeshift into any object it touches. Usually they are done beforehand, and the order becomes fixed to which bullet was placed first.”

“However, the bullets will also have a third of the weight of the object it absorbs, and the bigger the object the more it will use up the energy crystal when fired.” Carlos got up and swung his bat, but Christian blocked it with his arm. He fired a bullet under his feet, as it turned into wax.

“Tch, child’s play.” Carlos thought. “What is he even doing? Firing random things at me to make me distracted. All of these tricks but no real power whatsoever.”

“The gun itself is where the crystal is embedded, so the amount of bullets and type of objects have to be calculated.” Christian thought, as he swapped to a special magazine that weighed at least 5kg. He knelt down on the ground, as Carlos had no idea what this man was thinking.

“Does his bullets equal the weight of the objects it had adapted into?” Carlos thought, as the sound of the gun being fired was heard. “Tch, I have no time to think about this!”

Carlos swung his bat with full force, sending large shockwaves of electricity across the room.

“Crap… this might actually kill him…”

The bullet changed into a mattress, absorbing the electricity.

Christian’s bullets were all in a fixed order, which meant remembering all of the bullets that were in his magazines was important. In order to remember, Christian carries 6 different magazines on his belt, which he could easily swap out. Each magazine contained the same type of bullets, making it easier for him to identify them.

Christian swapped out to his Explosive Magazine, firing an explosive barrel at Carlos.

“Is he trying to blow this place up?” Carlos could not swing his bat, which allowed Christian to run up to him with a gun in his head.

Carlos was taken aback at how easily he won, simply with cheap tricks like this. He did not count this as a victory, yet he knew he could not possibly win against his weird tactics.

“You win, I’ll hear what you have to say. Just make it quick.” Carlos finally decided to stop this fight, and call a truce between them. Louis and Margaret were heaving a sigh of relief from this recklessness, and the four decided that their goal was to capture Randall Tang.

Carlos explained that he knew little about Randall other than him not being responsive to any questions. The fact that he escaped also meant that he was rather close to the Wolf Tamer’s plans.

“What is the best course of action?” Christian asked. “How do we deal with Randal-”

A loud beep was heard as Carlos had received a call from the Punggol Town Council, and was asked to assist in capturing Randall Tang. He was said to be followed by Blu and headed towards Punggol Plaza.

“Looks like you have your answer.” Carlos said, as the other three knew what needed to be done. They hopped onto his car as they drove down to the mall.

When the four of them reached the place, the policemen had scouted the area but there was nothing suspicious so far. There were many people there, and most were told to look out for a suspicious person, Randall, and to report to the authorities immediately. The shops were also entered, including the car park areas, and even the HDBs surrounding the mall.

The four arrived at Punggol Plaza, as Carlos attended to Peng Goh who was in charge of overseeing the matter.

“Good to see you, Carlos.” Peng Goh said. “You are here with…?”

“Some guys that invaded my private property.” He looked back at Christian and Margaret as Louis felt a little offended by those words.

“Oh, you are Margaret from the IDEU.” Peng Goh said. “I’ve heard that you were deployed to look after that man from the DEA.”

“Yes, I am watching him constantly.” Margaret said. “What is going on here?”

“One of your friends is already here.” Peng Goh said. “You can go meet up with him and he’ll tell you the full story. My head is being wrapped around with so much crap that I can barely give you an answer right now.”

“So Randall was still not found, but he could not have hidden himself that well.” Carlos said. “Where the hell is Blu or Florence for that matter of fact.”

“I heard that Florence was killed by Randall.” Peng Goh said. “It shows that we aren’t facing the normal Randall now.”

“Well, Florence was the weakest link.” Carlos admitted. “I did all the heavy lifting in that fight against Randall. But…”

“...man, that guy didn’t deserve to die that early.”

“Well, that's how it is.” Peng Goh felt a sense of regret for kicking him around before she left. “Tch, what am I even doing… back there?”

Christian and Margaret met Josh, and they exchanged as much information they knew through their mission.

“So Randall is coming here?” Christian asked as Josh was frantic about this whole situation and how it seemed to turn for the worse.

“Once Randall has been located by Blu, we should be able to surround and apprehend him.” Josh said. “As for Ilyas' team, Rahul told me everything… and Chen Kwang's arrest. I’ve asked them to rest somewhere as they… aren’t going to be useful in the fight now.”

“Shouldn’t they be helping?” Christian asked. “There is no time for the DEA to rest when so much stuff is happening.”

“They must be exhausted in battle.” Margaret said. “Besides, for them to arrive here… might be too late.”

“Yeah, we got the manpower we need.” Josh said, looking at Carlos who just joined in on the conversation. “We just have to search more thoroughly. This plaza shouldn’t be that huge that we can’t find one man.”

“Yeah, if we knew who the Wolf Tamer was.” Christian said as Josh’s phone rang again.

Josh opened up his phone to see a hidden message, telling him to come to the basement alone.

“Not going to answer it?” Carlos asked as Josh put it back in his pocket.

“It’s nothing, just a scam message.” Josh said. “In any case, you three can take the second and third levels and do a thorough check.”

“And you alone?” Christian asked. “That sounds way too risky.”

“I am fine.” Josh said. “I’ve done the search entirely by myself.”

“Christian and Margaret, you two can go up.” Carlos said. “I’ll be with Josh. Two of the strongest guys fighting against Randall does not sound like a bad idea, right?”

“Fine.” Josh said, as they went their separate ways.

Carlos was being suspicious of Josh's behavior, but Josh knew very well he could not have Carlos there or it might compromise the deal. They went down into the carpark basement as Josh cracked his fingers.

“Say, Josh-”

“Sorry.” Josh knocked Carlos out with his acid, temporarily knocking him unconscious but not killing him.

“I do not have any other choice.”