Chapter 10

Raul was back in the office. Having left earlier to clear his head and get some fresh air, he breathed strongly before stepping into Dominic's office. He would not be too pleased when he set foot into it. There were not only dust, but also rubbish, litter and leftover food, scattered across the room. Even a cat was seen chasing a mice. Raul slapped his face in disbelief.

"Dominic!" Raul shouted. "Where are you?"

Dominic appeared in the office. He was out for a walk just before Raul stepped in.

"What is it, Raul?" Dominic said, as if he was unaware of the condition of his office.

"Why is this office so messy?" asked Raul.

"Hmm…," Raul said while drinking his regular coffee, "I do not know."

Raul slapped his face again, and was left head scratching in anger. Later, members of the Flying Brothers came out of Dominic's private room, kicking the empty soda cans on the floor. Having seen them appear, Raul got angrier.

"You three," Raul said, "do you realise what you have done to this place?"

"Sure," one of the Flying Brother said, "we brought in the janitor to clean up the mess."

"Who threw the soda cans and the fries on the floor?" asked Raul, with a fierce look on his face, and his sharp eyes.

"He did," the Brother pointed to his companion. With that came an argument over who threw the cans and the fries on the floor. Raul was getting pretty annoyed and thought to shut them up.

"Enough!" screamed Raul, with a thundering voice. His eyes were sore, and the look on his face really showed his feelings. "You have not contributed much to city domination so far. I believe our collaboration should, as we say, come to a conclusion."

"What?" a Brother said in disbelief. "Where will our money go?"

"Down the drain," said Raul bravely. He really had enough of the Brothers's antics, regardless of Dominic's treatment towards them. Raul is an easy going person, but when he gets mean, he gets really mean.

The Flying Brothers were angered by the end of the partnership as stated by Raul. Raul was then shoved to the ground, with little resistance on the smaller assistant of Dominic. At that time, Dominic was still taking a sip from his favourite coffee.

"Brothers," one of the Brothers said, "let us leave this junk."

Raul was down, but not out. Having recovered from the flat ground, he put his hand in the pocket of his jacket, and took out some sort of weapon. Then, with a direct aim at one of the Brothers's harnesses, he shot the weapon. The shot caused the harness to malfunction and, in turn, catch fire. The other two Brothers looked on. One was terrified, while one attempted to attack Raul, who was still on the ground.

Even though he was sitting on the ground, Raul's weapon of choice was just too strong and could take down a sophisticated machine like the flying harness that Flyer created. Several shots and the other two Brothers were taken down. They fainted in fear and defeat, with their harnesses as good as finished.

Dominic just finished drinking, and when he looked at what was going on in front of him, he could not believe.

"What just happened?" Dominic said, as if he heard nothing.

"This," Raul said, referring to his weapon, "is a weapon, a pistol I created by myself. This is one of many other weapons that I created, to take down anyone who crosses our paths. Paths of Dominic, and me."

"What have you done, Raul?" Dominic asked in surprise. "We made a deal with them, with Flyer. We would give them money in return for control of the city."

"I do not care," Raul said. "I electrocuted them, disarmed their harness as well. They are still working, by the way."

"How do you know?"

"Look at them, they still have the functions necessary to be started out later."

"That pistol of yours…how did you do it?"

"Dominic," Raul said, "you did not know that I am a scientist. I created this pistol in a short time. All it took was some chemical combinations. It may seem a little complex, but people with my expertise can do it."

His words, although seemed a little arrogant, were clear to Dominic, that his assistant was not just some small-time thug, but rather, a sophisticated, intelligent scientist. However, Dominic did not understand chemistry, because he did not care much about it, even during his school days.

"You are a scientist?" Dominic asked.

"Yes," replied Raul with a smile.

"Then, why not you give the weapons to our men? We can all be rich with them. Rich!"

"I do not need to do that. Besides the weapons I told you about, I also carry out experiments."

"Now that is a real scientist."

"Whatever. I have created not only weapons, but I started making Artificially Intelligent Robots, just recently. So far, it is a success."

"Artificially Intelligent Robots? AIR?"

"Precisely."

"Raul, can I be your lab partner?"

"No."

"No?"

"No! No one should interfere with my work. Not you, nor anyone."