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Crossfire: Greed
Cockroach Smell

Cockroach Smell

Heleno and Luiz break into the butcher's shop and apparently don't find many people; as they run, only their footsteps can be heard.

Luiz breaks the ice: “You look like a woodpecker!” he says provocatively.

“What!?” says Heleno, taken aback. “You look like -”

“Shhh!”, Luiz interrupts him. ”There's someone in that room!”

They look at the door and see a very large man standing with his back to them in the dimly lit room.

Unaware of their presence, the man went about his work, which consisted of pouring acid on the meats on his table.

The two of them watch him from the doorway, and Luiz already understands what it's all about: “He's using acid to renew the old meats. It wasn't cardboard, after all...”

“Do you think we should talk to him?”

“Let's try...”

They approached, and the man welcomed them: “Hello boys, I'm the butcher!” said the man, with a macabre smile. His face looked like someone who hadn't slept for days, and he didn't look genuinely happy.

Heleno takes the lead: “We received some complaints from our customers, which led us to believe that you were putting cardboard in the meat.”

“Cardboard? That's nonsense,” says the man. ”I'm just treating the meat!”

“Technically, he's not wrong...” says Heleno, pointing his index finger upwards.

“Of course he is!” replies Luiz, aggressively, and he turns to the butcher: ”You're threatening people's health!”

The butcher gets angry: “Don't shout at me!”

“Forgive us, we don't want to intimidate you!” said Heleno.

The man calms down, and Heleno continues: “In any case, we're going to have to get you out of here, this building will be banned.”

The man turns away and leans over the table.

Heleno and Luiz now don't know how to proceed.

Heleno approaches: “Come on, it's late! You need to get back to your family.”

The man turns and violently tries to hit Heleno with his cleaver, causing him to recoil and fall.

“What's going on?” asks Heleno, breathlessly.

Holding a meat cleaver in one hand, the man also grabs his meat mallet from the table: “No one is leaving this room!”

The door behind them closes.

“Get ready, Heleno!” says Luiz, assuming a combat stance.

Heleno stands up: “Calm down, Luiz. Can't you see there's something wrong with him? He's not well at all!”

“Yes, I know. We'll fight him without our weapons, but I can't guarantee he'll survive.”

The two of them get together and prepare for battle.

Simultaneously, Roberta and Jennifer find themselves in the cold rooms, filling boxes and boxes of meat.

“I should have brought longer clothes,” says Roberta, ”then I wouldn't be as cold as I am now!...”

Jennifer takes her eyes off her cell phone and, with a haughty look on her face, turns to Roberta: “I agree, and that Burger Killer uniform is really ugly. Look at that orange! Eww!”

Roberta retorts: “Well, at least we have a uniform!”

“Oh!” Jennifer stares at Roberta for a few seconds. “Okay, that was really good...” And then she goes back to her cell phone.

...

“He's definitely in the penthouse, Ronald!” Naiara was leading them. “I've been here before!”

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When they reached the penthouse, they both noticed that the butcher's manager was already waiting for them, with a boning knife in each hand.

He looked like a penguin as he stared at them: “You came to ask for a refund!?”

“No, we came here to give you a hug!” replied Naiara. “Why did you start adulterating the meat?”

“Ahaha!” The man laughs. “I had to do it, the government charges very high fees!”

Suddenly, his mood drops; he becomes downcast: “If I don't take advantage of others, how will I afford my wife's luxuries?”

“Taking advantage, eh?” Ronald sounds disappointed. “That's what's wrong with many of us... Many who have almost nothing live off taking advantage of others, while defending politicians who take advantage of all of us...”

He continues: “Our people root against the progress of its own people; and the people, with their envy, are rooting against the progress of their fellow man...”

“Just speak for yourself, Ronald!” says Naiara. “Everything I've achieved has been through hard work and persistence; I've never been one for that sort of thing!”

“But what about when you were dating Zeca?” asks Ronald.

“That's the past!” says Naiara. “Don't you know that you shouldn't question a woman about her past!”

“Enough talk!” The butcher's manager starts rubbing his knives together. “Get ready for trouble!”

Naiara points at the manager: “Go on, Ronald! I forgot my weapon at home...”

“Okay...” Ronald uses his power, cloud of smoke!

Suddenly, the whole room is covered in a strange mist, and now Ronald is attacking the manager, who is making a series of disorganized movements, without any technique.

Ronald hits the man in the abdomen and blocks his knife attacks; still in the mist, Ronald drops one of the knives and uses the manager's unarmed arm to spin him around and throw him away.

At the same time, Heleno and Luiz are both running in circles around the butcher.

The butcher tries to catch them both, but only manages to hit tables, cupboards, furniture and whatever else is in the room.

The two heroes sometimes jumped, sometimes ducked, sometimes took cover behind or under some object.

Luiz finally gets an opening and approaches the butcher, who immediately raises his hammer and cleaver, but Luiz blocks both objects and kicks the butcher in the face, who backs away.

Then Heleno bends down behind the butcher and makes him fall, causing his knees to buckle.

Heleno then grabs one of the man's arms, while Luiz grabs the other.

But it's not enough, the butcher gets up and starts struggling; and by throwing Heleno away, one of his arms is free to pull Luiz away.

The butcher now has only a hammer in his hand, the other being bare.

Heleno and Luiz, on the other side of the room, prepare to try again.

While Heleno and Luiz were finding it difficult to defeat the butcher, Ronald was dominating the fight against the manager.

And as the fog clears, the manager finds himself slumped over in pain and knows he won't stand much of a chance against Ronald.

He looks down at the only knife he has in his hands and immediately gets up, charging at Ronald in the hope of defeating him.

But his efforts are futile, Ronald easily stops the man's attack and unleashes a sequence of attacks, including punches, knees and slaps.

Ronald again throws the man away and tells him to stop.

“I'm a peace guy, I don't like unnecessary violence; you've already lost.”

The man laughs: “That's where you're wrong, I have a contract with those you pledged to destroy!”

Naiara hears his words and immediately understands what the man means.

“Nitaireans... He's talking about the Nitaireans.!” she says.

“Exactly, they coerced me, they defeated me, but...” He begins to remember what happened.

“They weren't what I thought they were, they looked human and told me a lot of things I didn't know...

“... They told me the reason for what they do and proposed that I join them; at first I was afraid, then they proposed a duel, and if I lost, I would become their partner...

“... From then on, I was ordered to sabotage meat little by little; they wanted to make people hate eating anything made from animal products...

“... I obeyed them, and then I became an accomplice... But I was profiting more, because now I was selling low-quality products for high prices; and so I began to question myself...

“... Why sell real meat for a fair price when I can sell fake meat for an insanely high price?”

The man stared at them both, believing he was right.

“Now I understand, you've lost your autonomy and are benefiting more as their servant; and now, there's no going back...” said Naiara, disappointed.

“Boy, you can be worse than Naiara!” said Ronald, impressed. “No offense!” turned to Naiara, he said because he found Naiara rather greedy.

“You're right, Naiara. I can't go back anymore...” said the man, resigned to his fate. “That's why I won't hesitate...”

The man stands up.

“I have no choice, I'm already a criminal,” he says, ”either I do this, or I'll be arrested and go to the factory...”

The two of them watch the man attentively.

“What are you talking about?” asks Naiara.

“Goodbye!” he says quietly.

The man then begins to squirm and contract, expanding his body until he turns...

... A huge cockroach.

“What the hell is that?” asked Naiara, perplexed.

Ronald stood in front of Naiara: “They mixed his DNA with... With that of a cockroach!?...”

Naiara vomits.

Ronald summons his shield and charges at the big cockroach, hitting it in the face with his shield and throwing it away.

But the cockroach soon returns and grabs Ronald's arm, who screams in pain.

“Grraaa!!!”

Naiara, in shock, watches the cockroach bite Ronald's arm.

Drilling deeper and deeper, the cockroach bites Ronald's arm while holding him with one of its paws.