SINGULARS

Chapter 19

Juan and Shaddai were playing basketball at the town square with Omid and some kids, waiting for Carlos and Hannah to come back, suddenly it started getting windy, a helicopter was approaching the town square.

"Omid, everyone, go back to your houses and don't go out," said Shaddai to the kids.

Everyone ran following Shaddai's orders, however, Juan stayed, the helicopter landed, Chuck, Orange, and Koko got out of the helicopter, Shaddai was surprised.

"Long time no see, Shaddai, How ya doin kiddo?" greeted Chuck kindly.

"Chuck! How are you, buddy? You look strong!" said Shaddai, happy to see his friend. Juan was left speechless and terrified at the fact that Shaddai was friends with the state boss of Snake Crawl.

"Do ya remember this guy?" asked Chuck

"Yeah, I think they visited you once at the hospital, chimpanzee and yellow right?" Shaddai answered.

"First of all I am a Gorilla man, not a chimpanzee, and second my name is Koko," said the Gorilla upset.

"And my name is Orange, not Yellow, how could you miss that? Just look at my clothes," said the tall man wearing orange clothes. Shaddai laughed.

Juan was sweating nervously, but his friend was chatting casually with some drug lords.

"Anyway what are you doing here Chuck?" Shaddai asked.

"We see ya in the news, you should've mentioned to me that ya were coming to Moon's navel, you did a lot of damage to the cartel's structure in your last adventure," Chuck answered.

"I am sorry, my trip here was unplanned, and it wasn't my intention to fight the cartel, they just got in my way and sometimes it was just self-defense."

"That's what I thought, but you still did a lot of damage and the cartel can't unsee this mess, you dismantle a point in tower city one of the most important locations due to its multiple roads to the border cities and the main access to Eagle nest, and this port is really important to ship to the south of the new continent and the east coast of Eagle nest," explained Chuck.

"Wait, you know a lot about the cartel, what's up with that?" Shaddai questioned.

"You don't know who these are?" asked Juan.

"Hey, you are the missing guy, Juan, it seems like you betrayed us," said Orange.

"I see, we'll deal with that later, ya know the rules, but more importantly, Shaddai, I joined the cartel, I am one of the top dogs, the very head of the cartel sent me here for ya, but since ya are my friend and I know ya, I want ya to join us, with your strength and singularity it'll be a great help, you can maybe replace Marti."

"What? How and why did you join the cartel? After what happened to you," Shaddai replied.

"I realized something Shaddai, powerful people can do whatever they want, there are no good nor bad, just powerful people and weak people, what happened to me was the result of me being weak, but thanks to the cartel I am not weak anymore."

"I am sorry but that is going to be a hard pass for me buddy, I have no intentions on working for the cartel," said Shaddai.

"I knew it wasn't going to be easy, but is either bringing ya as an ally or bringing your corpse, however, we don't want Eagle nest's officers in our business, so why make this an international problem Shaddai, so please consider, in the meantime, I'll show ya the benefits of being in the cartel, I'll be waiting for you at Marti's mansion," Chuck replied, Chuck and Koko, closed their eyes.

"Orange flash!" yelled Orange emitting a bright orange light, leaving Juan and Shaddai blind for a few moments.

Orange kicked Shaddai in the back sending him towards Koko, the gorilla man threw an uppercut at Shaddai sending him to the sky, Orange hit Shaddai once again with an energy ball, Chuck jumped and then punched Shaddai sending him back to the ground and destroying a part of the town square with the impact leaving a huge hole on the ground, Shaddai was left unconscious.

Moments passed, in his sleep he felt sorrow, anger, and fear from the outside, this awakened Shaddai from his slumber, he was in Hanna's arms, she was crying really loud, then he noticed Carlos, he was angry and scared, a lot of people were around the area, confused he stood up trying to process what happened.

"Shaddai, what happened?" said Carlos.

"Well, a couple of friends came to visit me, it turned out that my friends joined the cartel and they invited me to be part but after I refused they attack me and" -said Shaddai before noticing Juan's corpse, Chuck and his friends murdered him and hang the body in one of the basketball's nets, the habitants of Beauty beach took down the body and it was now laying on the ground. -"Juan?" Shaddai asked while shivers ran through his body after seeing his friend's cold body covered in blood.

Shaddai turned his back and understood why Hannah was crying and why Carlos was worried and mad, he clenched his fists, tightened his jaw, the pressure of his feet shattered the cement under him, Shaddai was furious.

"Hannah, Carlos, follow me, we are going to Marti's mansion," said Shaddai.

"Wait, we need to," Hannah said but Shaddai stopped her.

"It wasn't a question."

Shaddai dashed into the jungle, Carlos and Hannah followed him.