As devastating as it may have seemed of the singularity event that had occurred in Mexico, it wasn't even close enough to how much of a devastation it would have been if Aaron's father hadn't come to the rescue.
But even now, in Ron's secret bunker, the Quasiparticle Transporter was still feeding off the energy from the strange planet whose signal it had initially pinpointed.
This particular fact about the entire situation did nothing but increase the potential of the Quasiparticle Transporter, thereby increasing the rate at which a singularity could appear around any part of the world.
Evidence of this could be attributed to another singularity event that occurred in one of the many amusement parks in New York City.
**
The day had barely gotten a few minutes past noonday, but that particular park had already been bustling with liveliness — with people who were either wandering aimlessly while chatting with their various partners, or some who were there for the sole purpose of trying out all the fun spots available in the park.
However, a few moments later, the atmosphere around the park suddenly seemed to be exhibiting some kind of a strange and drastic increase in its temperature; everywhere and everything became dangerously hot, as though the sun had inched closer to Earth.
For a while, no one couldn't quite explain the reason behind their spontaneous and profuse sweating. But it soon changed as a few scores of people present in the park heard a man's quizzical voice:
"Hey, what's that thing up there... in the sky?" The man pointed to the sky.
Some of those who had heard the man's question turned their heads in the direction of his pointing finger, and what they saw after that was just unbelievably absurd — in their homogeneous opinions.
"Is that... a second sun?" One of those who watched the sky asked after seeing a giant mystifying orb in the sky.
"No. That can't possibly be a second sun. It's way too fast and way too close to be a second sun. It's probably a comet. A really red hot comet shooting past Earth." Another said in response to the latter's question.
But the actual yet elusive truth about the speck they were all beholding was that Not only was the strange object in the sky far from being a second sun, but it was also nowhere near bearing any physical semblance to a comet.
And at this time, the entire park had fallen deathly silent, as they had all noticed the strange red orb in the sky.
The temperature was still very much higher than average, but somehow, their bodies were still able to regulate their temperatures by expelling more and more sweat from their pores.
But they all knew that they were in for another round of extreme heat-tanning when they witnessed this alleged comet change its trajectory and head towards them instead.
"What the... are comets known to behave in such a way?" A young man threw the question to the particular man who had deduced the strange orb in the sky to be a comet.
"I‐I don't know anymore." The man stuttered as his body kept dispelling every ounce of moisture from itself.
He was also now as lost as almost everyone else in the park.
However, another man made a clarifying remark:
"That's definitely not the way comets are popularly known to behave because... that is not a comet."
A few people who were in the man's immediate vicinity turned in the direction of the voice they had heard and saw a middle-aged man viewing the sky through a double-lensed binocular.
The man, who was still oblivious to the fact that his latter statement had earned him a handful of inquisitive onlookers, continued:
"Hmmm... it kind of looks like a large flaming eagle...
...I don't know, eagles are not supposed to be flaming so I'd say it's a very large flaming bird."
"No way. Let me see that!" A set of an incredibly deft finger snatched the binoculars from the oblivious man's grasp.
"What the—" The man uttered, taken utterly by surprise.
"Whoa! No freaking way!" The current possessor of the binoculars uttered as he viewed what he could also now call a flaming bird. "You guys should definitely check this out. I think that thing might be a–like... a for real-like Phoenix."
"No way. Phoenixes only exist in folklores... not in real life." A man laid out his objection as he snatched the binoculars from its previous possessor.
"Knock yourself out." The latter said as he stepped away.
The current holder of the binoculars was beyond dumbfounded when he finally realised his blunder of doubtfulness.
He, like the previous users of the binoculars, expressed their stupefaction: "It's truly a Phoenix.
It's so... breath-taking."
This third guy, who still held the binoculars, could be said to have gotten a more vivid and discernible look at the Phoenix because, while they watched the bird in the sky, its descent was still as constant as age and time.
And right now, the bird had already reached a certain altitude to give the rest of those who were without a pair of binoculars a clear view of its radiant plumage, beautiful crimson and flaming feathers, and a set of viscous-looking robust and taut talons.
The Phoenix hovered above its dumbfounded onlookers with a pair of fiery red orbs for its eyes. It continued flapping its flaming and majestic wings, generating multiple searing hot fire flakes that did nothing to bother those it happened to come in contact with their skin.
They were all severely awe-stricken to the extent that their minds seemed to lose a bit of their functionality.
However, there was only so long of an extent to which the human mind could be affected by something whose cultural enigma was on par with the Phoenix.
So those who had managed to break free of their spellbound state quickly took out their respective mobile phones and filled their storages with pictures of the flaming bird.
A few others went further by streaming the entire thing live on their respective social media platforms and channels.
Sooner than later, the Phoenix was now being bathed in flashing lights from the cameras of either the multiple phones hovering in the air, or from the conventional mobile camera.
But the unceasing flashes of white and a few yellow lights commoved the Phoenix by a great deal. A great deal that it only made the bird screech in irritation as it fruitlessly tried to shield its eyes by turning away in another direction.
But alas, the flashes came from every possible direction, and there was certainly no outrunning its predicament.
So out of sheer frustration, the Phoenix opened its beaks and a thick and condensed beam of red hot flames shot forth towards a Ferris wheel.
The wheel, as soon as it got engulfed in the bird's supernatural flames, exploded with an upsetting and deafening bang, hurling large shards of metal in every direction.
Luckily, the occupants of the Ferris wheel had long vacated their previous positions to get a good look at the Phoenix, so they had been spared of the devastation caused by the single-breath attack from the bird.
However, they weren't quite spared of the flying metal fragments resulting from the Ferris wheel explosion, though.
Most of them either got impaled, grazed, or mutilated by the high-speed fragments that sliced through the air.
Although the hurled fragments didn't particularly incur the death of anyone, the sudden and unexpected attack from the Phoenix was enough of a cue to compel the people around the bird to hurry away from it.
As they all scattered away while screaming at the top of their lungs, the accumulation of all their wails and agonizing cries for help also unsettled and commoved the bird so much that it shot another dense flame at one of the rollercoasters in the park.
But to its dismay, the noise only seemed to intensify with each and every one of its attacks.
So the already upset bird did something even more drastic in an attempt to stop the noises and all the erratic running:
It emitted a heart-wrenching screech, generating a giant flaming sphere that encapsulated its entire body.
It then charged down amid the fleeing group below it.
Then it emitted another screech.
In response to its last screech, the flaming sphere that encapsulated the bird's body abruptly expanded outwards with a deafening explosion, which sent a fiery wave that washed over everyone in the park, incurring severe burns and multiple harrowing injuries on their respective bodies.
Despite the success of its attack, the bird wasn't exactly intent on letting up on its attacks after that last one because it quickly created another giant sphere that encapsulated its body again.
Although the park was now getting scanty as most people had managed to flee from the bird, the bird was seemingly intent on claiming at least one life before they all scattered away.
But before the sphere could explode and cause another round of devastation, an M-13 assault missile tore through the air and bore a hole into the bird's sphere before exploding with a bright crimson wave of fire.
"Everyone! You need to evacuate the perimeter effective immediately. We have got the situation under control."
Those who were still present in the park and happened to turn to the source of the strange domineering voice saw several ranks of military officers with their diverse weapons and tanks taking charge at the flaming bird, who didn't seem perturbed after receiving a direct hit from an assault missile.
How terrifying!