Terminating Chaosby marcos3218ChaptersPrologueChapter 1: OccurrencesChapter 2: AftermathChapter 3: PeacePrologueBANG! BANG! A man got woken up by the sound of gunshots, not very uncommon in this place. He looked to the ceiling for a couple of seconds, it was made of dark wood, but now it's all rotten, and eaten by termites, that gave it this strange white hue. He got out of bed, which was basically a carpet with a jacket as a pillow, went to the bathroom, and looked into the broken mirror. What he saw was a young man, not much older than 20, with black shaved hair, dark brown eyes, light brown skin, and a large scar that ran from bellow his left ear to the end of his shoulder, wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt, black shorts and sandals. The youth turned on the foset, and washed his face. I've looked worse. He thought, while making his way to the exit. The man came to a stop when he saw a small portrait on a cabinet. He got the portrait and examined it. There were two boys in the picture, they looked almost identical, only difference was that one had a large scar, from his left ear to his shoulder. He left his small house and went down a very dirty and narrow street, one of the thousands that exist in Rio De Janeiro. It was filled with trash and cigar buts, there were a few puddles at the side of the street, it rained just a few hours ago. He looked to the nearby hill, that marked the landscape. On top of that hill was a statue of Christ. He was facing the opposite direction, his arms were apparently hugging the other side of town. It was like he was saying "This part is mine, the other part needs to deal with themselves." The man walked through the dirty roads, several people passed by him, some had plastic bags with groceries, others had guns and suitcases filled with drugs. He just sighed and moved forward. The boy stopped in front of a small bar, there were a couple of men drinking and laughing, a couple of dealers selling their 'products', two prostitutes on the corner, and gunmen on the roofs. In this place there is no law, The people are animals, not giving a single fuck if you're living or dead. Death was at every corner, either by a stray bullet or HIV. Anything can happen. "Hey! Marcelo!" a man wearing a tuxedo called the boy. The man was very clean and neat. He looked a lot like Marcelo, only difference was that he seemed a little older and cleaner. His hair was short and his beard was shaved. He didn’t seem biologically older, but tired, he seemed like he didn’t sleep in the last couple of days. The strange man caught the attention of some of the gunmen and bystanders. A man wearing a suit was very uncommon in these parts. The only people with enough money to get a suit like that were either drug dealers or the drug producers. They were the kings of the slums. They sent people to kill others because they looked at them funny. It was basically the Brazilian mafia, if you get involved with them, things won't be very pretty. They ruled everything, from the police to the marketplace. There wasn’t a piece of Rio that wasn’t influenced by the dealers. "Juan! It's been so long." Marcelo said hugging his friend. "How have you been in the USA?" Juan got a job in the USA, he worked as supervisor for of one of the richest companies in the world, NWT incorporation. The NWT inc is a company that revolves around technology as the name already clarifies, New World Technology. The industry is revolved in building a new and better future for humanity. Live a better future with NWT inc. That's their slogan. But in reality, NWT works with 'dangerous' people. They were able to get where they are today by doing some, not so legal deeds. Espionage, sabotage, war, death. That's what they are really good at. "It's been great! But I'm still trying to improve my English. The language is a lot harder than I though." Juan said scratching the back of his head. Marcelo put a hand on his shoulder "It's not that hard. All you need is a little practice. Now…Why have you come back to the favela?" "Why do you ask? Can't I come back to see my twin brother?" "No-no. I meant nothing by it, it's just that you…" Marcelo was cut off when Juan put a hand on his shoulder and laughed. "Don't worry brother, I was kidding. I got this new job that pays really well, they even gave me two tickets to go to anywhere I want in the entire world. But I need someone to accompany me, and you, brother, are the perfect person. I will need some help with my English and you need to get out of this dump." That last comment got the attention of some bystanders. But they just shrugged it off. "Man I'd love to go with you! Where are we going?" "Remember when we were kids and you used to play with those puzzles from the places of Earth. What was your favorite one?" Juan asked his smiling friend. "My favorite one was the Big Ben one." When Marcelo said that, something clicked in his head. "Are we going to London?" "Yes we are." Marcelo opened his mouth and looked at his best friend. "Man, if I was gay, I'd totally kiss you right now." Both of them laughed and went to the bar to get some drinks. The bar was dirty, cigar butts scattered around, the horrid smell of death and rotten fish, broken glass on the floor and a bartender that looked like he hasn’t bathed in the last 10 years. Marcelo was already used to it though, but Juan…. "My god. Did something vomit then die in here?" Juan asked fanning the air in front of him. "If you don’t like it, that's your problem." The bartender said while cleaning a cup, it didn’t seem to be working, because the towel he was using was dirtier than the cup already was. Both boys sat down. "So how have you been?" Juan asked. "It's been nice, not much different from when you left really." Marcelo said taking a sip of beer. "Only thing special is that the police managed to take over Morro da Rocinha." "Really?! Wow. That's the last place I expected them to take over." "I know right? It took them 3 days, 600 cops, 5 helicopter, 10 tanks and a bombing squad." "Wow. How did they get all this armament?" "NWT. They funded everything." "How many were killed?" "1200. 200 cops, 900 from the militia, and 100 civilians. One of the bombs didn’t hit the target. It hit a small refuge on the other side of the hill. Most killed were women and children. I personally think they meant to do that. Strike fear in the opponent. It was brilliant, horrible, but brilliant." "Sometimes I never get your point of view brother." Juan took a large sip, he got used to the taste pretty quick. He looked at his brother. "I see that scars healing up pretty well huh?" "Oh, this?" Marcelo pointed to the wound bellow his ear. "Yea it's been healing pretty good. But what really frightens me is that sometimes I can feel it hurting. It's been over 10 years and I still get woken up from it." "Really?" Juan looked at the wound. "It doesn’t seem to hurt." "Oh but it does. A lot. Sometimes I can barely move from the pain." Marcelo put a hand on the scar. "I guess that's what stray bullets do to you huh?" Actually, Marcelo didn’t know what hit him that night. There was this very loud sound, like a plane, then his ear began to bleed. So he just guessed it was just some stray bullet, the only thing that didn’t match was the angle of the wound. Marcelo never really cared for what happened that night, but sometimes, late at night, he wondered what really happened. "I guess so." Juan lifted up his cup. "To health and prosperity. Saúde!" They toasted and laughed. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 500,000 feet up, -47 Celsius. A unreachable place. Or is it? A young man looked into the distance from his small capsule. He could see the entire North American continent, every city, lighten up by all the lights of the cars and houses. The East seemed a lot brighter than the epicenter of the continent. "Only when you're so high that you realize you're so small." He whispered to himself while putting his helmet. "Alright Duncan, you reached the designated height. Everything is a go, you can proceed to jump." A older man talked through the radio of the capsule. "Copy that. Okay…let's see…. Suit pressurization is stable…capsule GPS is running accordingly… helmet oxygen releaser is at 100%.... Fuck. Wa diz thes happen tae me now?" Duncan said in a slight accent and pressed the side of his helmet, turning on the radio. "What's up?" Felix responded. "The capsule's tractor beam magnet isn't working. The station won't be able to retrieve it." "OK….let me think…. I'll tell Moon Base to sent a drone to come and pick it up, after you jump, the capsule will stay in the 0 gravity area for about 10 hours or so, that will give us enough time." "It damn well be! I wasted 8 million in this thing!" "I wouldn't call it wasted but…" "Alright. Enough talk. I need to do this." "Good luck. I'll contact with you before you break the barrier alright?" "Cool. See you at the bottom." Duncan released his hand from the helmet and the radio got turned off. He breathed heavily in and out. Duncan was wearing a tight black and white spandex that covered all of his body, and a black helmet. He pressed a button and the door of the capsule opened, releasing all the air inside and pushed everything inside. Duncan held on to the capsule until the vacuum had consumed all the air. When there was no more suction, he walked to the small platform the capsule made with the door. He took a quick look around and saw the vast universe. He could see the sun hiding behind the Earth, and the moon at his side. He closed his eyes and extended his right leg, and let himself go. He entered free fall. The air passing through his suit made a faint whistle. Duncan could see the world bellow him getting closer, and closer. "Ok. Duncan, your 200 feet of breaking the barrier, just hold on!" Duncan reached the speed of 750 m/hr. Boom! That is all there was to hear. He had sped up about four times after the boom. The new champion had just done it, broke the barrier. His vision became blurred and he felt a sharp pain coming from his right shoulder. He looked to it and saw a cut in the suit and blood squirting out of the wound. The suit began to rip. Best of NASA my ass! He was now at the speed of 2500 m/hr. The suit couldn’t hold on much longer. If he didn’t open the parachute soon, there would be no story to tell. (I know that in real life that doesn’t happen but this is a fictional story after all. Don’t hate. It's bad. Now…back to the story!) His specially designed parachute opened, it was the one NASA used to stop the space buses. But in a smaller scale. The champion slowly fell to safety on the landing pad at the airport. "Good job kid." Felix said through the radio. His feet touched the ground and he took a deep breath. "Oh man, Duncan! That was awesome!" A chubby guy with light blonde hair said as Duncan took off his helmet. Duncan was a very buff young man, he had black hair in the shape of a Mohawk. His eyes were a very light brown, his beard was shaved, but was still present. Duncan took a quick look at his shoulder. The cut was not very deep, but it would leave one nasty scar. It went from the middle of his shoulder to the middle of his back. At least the bleeding stopped. In an instant tons of reporters and photographers of all types crowded him. Mr. Price, how did you do it? And What did you fell as you broke the barrier? These were the type of questions the celebrity had to answer. But he didn’t. Duncan was too busy with his own thoughts to answer to any of them. Most of the time he just ignored them and moved forward. Did you feel fear? That question has haunted him for all the years of his career. Fear, a word that brought what its definition dictates to him. A word that never seemed to leave his mind. That question, he had to answer. He grabbed the microphone from the reporter, looked into the camera and said: "I didn’t fell scared, not even for a moment, I am pure courage." Duncan smiled and gave the microphone back. He made his way to the agent standing beside a black limousine. The limo had a white stripe surrounding it. Just like Duncan's helmet. "Where next?" the champion asked the small women holding a clipboard. "London Eye. You're going to jump into the Thames." She answered looking at him for a couple of moments. "Sounds nice." Duncan smiled and entered the car. The limousine was empty, only Duncan, his agent and the driver. He put his helmet on the seat in front of him. That black screen on it seemed to be looking directly into Duncan's eyes. It looked like there was still a head inside. "Whit ur ye lookin' at!?" Duncan said to the helmet, with an accent. The seats were white and there was some Champaign on the corner. If only I had someone to share this with. He thought while opening the bottle and drinking directly from it. The limo began to move and Duncan put his head against the glass. He saw all the fans and reporters look as he moved away. There were plains in the distance, he looked at the clouds and the birds. Saw them dive in the air and spin. They seemed so free, so carefree. "I do feel scared." He said quietly to himself, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "The question is: What is the name of the occasion in which two stars orbit each other?" A senior gentleman announced to the tables of students to his right and left, facing a crown of thousands sitting down on a theater. *BEEP* "River Wood?" He asked for the answer. "Binary stars." A boy answered, he was wearing a yellow vest and small glasses, his face was so filled with freckles that made his skin look orange. "Correct!" A point was added to the billboard on top of the announcer. "The game is now tied. This is the final question, whoever gets the correct answer get the 1 million dollar grand prize, as well as a trip to New York City! The question is: Give out the first ten digits of the..." He made a dramatic pause, making the competitors move forward. "…..square root of…." They were all sweating, "2!" He said quickly. BEEP "Los Angeles?" "The square root of 2 is 1.414… um what is it?" A girl stood up and faced the crowd, she hit her own head gently a couple times. "Come on Hillary! You have to know this if you want to win the knowledge bowl!" someone whispered to the girl standing up. "I…don’t know." Beep. "The winners of the 2025 annual knowledge bowl are the school of River Wood!" the announcer said to the crowd of 8000 people at the theater. A loud cheer came from the audience, but many people didn’t react. Hillary frowned and looked at the ground. She knew it was all her fault that her school lost. Her teammates looked at the girl with the purple glasses and sweatshirt, with angry faces and left the stage as the other school was cheering. "Wait!" the announcer told the losing school. "There is a consolation prize for second place. A all paid trip to London!" that got Hillary's attention, she had dreamed of going to London for quite some time now. She smiled with glee when she realized that her dream would become reality. Different from her teammates who were crying because most had already gone to London. They wanted to go to New York and get the 100000 dollar prize and sleep in the suites of the most prestigious hotel in the world. But Hillary wasn’t liked the others. For one she was a lot prettier, if she wanted to she could join the cheerleader's ranks, easy. Her black hair went to the middle of her back, her breasts weren't very large, but that didn’t stop some guys from looking at them. She had the most perfect skin of anyone in the entire school. But what stopped her from being popular was the fact that she's an introvert. Rarely talked and never to boys. She is the only one in her class that hasn’t kissed someone yet, and has absolutely no friends. Another thing was that she wasn’t a spoiled brat like the others in her school. She knew the cost of things and how they affect people. But that made her a easy target for bullies. Every day, always the same type of mockery. You're fat, you're ugly, four eyes, blank flank. She didn’t quite get that last one, but it was a mockery either way. Well, maybe things can change over in London. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Vinyl! Wake up!" A woman screamed at the door of a locked room. The door was a deep black, there were about 10 signs saying: DON'T ENTER IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! There was no answer. "VINYL!" she screamed again. "Be right there mom." A girl shouted from inside the room. The door was unlocked and from inside came a girl with black hair with blue lines traces on them, blue eyes and piercings on her nose and ears. She was wearing a white shirt and no pants. "Shit mom, why do you have to wake me up so early." She rubbed her eye. "Watch the language young lady! We have a plane to catch, where going to London remember?" The lady said looking into her daughter's room. It was messy and very dark. The curtains and bed sheets were the same color, a deep blood red. So was the counter and the floor. "So I want you to get ready, put on some decent clothes and we'll go, okay?" The woman noticed Vinyl wasn’t listening. The girl was in another world entirely. "OKAY?" "OKAY!" the teen retorted and slammed the door. Vinyl then looked out the window of her room and said: "If only someone, somewhere could listen to me and understand me." She whispered to no one. No one listened to her. No one cared she said that. No one saw the tear escape her eye and fall on the scarlet carpet. Vinyl grabbed her phone and listened to a random song. When the song began to play, Vinyl felt something, like that song was foreshadowing something big in her life, something great. When it ended she realized that her life was missing something, someone that understood her and felt her pain, the pain of being an outcast of society. "You know you don’t have to deal with her all the time right?" A male voice whispered to Vinyl. "I know, but she's my step mom, what can I do?" "Vinyl…" A blond man with violet eyes appeared in a chair near the window. He just appeared out of thin air. "…You're 21 years old. You can leave. Nothing is stopping you." "I know Cantus, it's just that…she's all I have left….after dad died, I lost everything." Cantus walked over to Vinyl and gave her a hug. "You haven't lost me." "I know…thank you Cantus." Some tears escaped her eye. "I wish you were real." "Me too." Cantus seemed unsure when he said that. "VINYL!" A women shouted. Vinyl broke the hug, put on some pants, got her bag and opened the door. Cantus didn’t move a muscle since she broke the hug. "Aren't you coming?" "I won't go with you. But I will always be within you. You'll see me when you arrive. Don't worry." And then Cantus just disappeared, the same way he appeared, out of thin air. Vinyl sighed and walked out of the house. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "One and Two and Three…" a song began to play and a couple of girls began to jump and do flips, they shook their pom-poms and did a very interesting choreography. In the end, they did a human pyramid. "Okay Okay stop, stop!" the music was cut by the voice of a old lady. "Linda what happened? You seemed to be having a pretty hard time there." "It's just that the people I have to hold are too heavy and my arms hurt. But I swear I'll do better next time." "So you have gotten weaker. Okay, break times over! Do it again!" and they did the same thing 12 more times. At the end of practice, everyone except Linda and two of her friends stayed over at the showers. Linda looked at the mirror. Her blond hair was messy because of practice, her makeup got a bit ruined but still looked good on her. Anything looked good her. Her breasts were large for her age, and she didn't use any silicon. Linda is the prettiest girl in school, having all the curves in the right places. That was the main reason why she got chosen as cheerleading captain. "What are you going to do during the weekend Holly?" A white blond girl asked an Asian sitting on the bench. "Nothing planned. You?" "Nothing as well." She said with a frown "Well. I'm going to London. So goodbye girls." They hugged and gave their goodbyes. "See you in two weeks girls. Bye!" Linda got in her red Lamborghini and rode off to her mansion. She got to home and gave her bag to the butler waiting next to the car. He was an very old man, but seemed very strong. He has already carried bags and furniture enough to last a couple of lifetimes. Linda walked to her room and untied her hair. She entered the room and took a quick glance around. The wall were this very bright pink with white stripes separating the vibrant color. There were a few old teddy bears on her pink king size bed. The computer was the newest Apple Mac book. It didn’t even reach stores yet. But her father knows some people. Linda sighed and walked to a door, right next to the bed. It seemed very hidden, if someone wasn’t warned about it, they would just be completely oblivious, even if it was right in front of them. The room was small compared to the rest of the mansion. The walls were black, so was the floor. Everything was black. Linda got a chair and sat down in front of a wall. She opened a container in the chair and pressed a large red button. Suddenly a huge TV lit up, it covered the entire wall. Linda got a pair of glasses and put them on. She then got a Play station controller and turned on the console. PS4, that was what covered the TV. There was a title screen, COD Modern Warfare 8. Linda got her microphone and turned it on. "Okay guys, sorry I'm late, cheerleading practice was a bitch today." "Hey Death Eater." A male voice responded. "Been a while since you played." "I know right? My father doesn't like it when I play these games, but then I say 'F U dad, I do what I want' then he just lets me." Linda raised her middle finger and stuck her tongue out. "Really?" "No." Both of them laughed. "Hey AKnight I can only play for a couple hours okay?" "That's fine." Two hours later "I have to go Eater." Aknight said. "Why? I still have a couple more minutes." "My show is going to air this morning and I can't miss it." "What show?" "You know… my show." "What show?" Linda repeated. "It's confidential." "But…" "Ok bye…" Aknight, not wanting to continue the conversation, turned off his console. "That bastard." Linda said under her breath, turning her PS4 off too. She stood up and grabbed a bag, and started packing. Tomorrow she would go to the city of royalty, like herself. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 30th of August 2025 "My little pony, My little pony, ah ah ah…" someone sang in the morning when the sun had just come up in the horizon. "Aaron! Come down!" a man shouted from the kitchen. "It's Sunday dad!" Aaron said back to the man. "It doesn’t matter, you still have to do your shores." The man shouted. "Fine." The boy stopped the video he was watching and went downstairs. As you can clearly depicture, Aaron is a brony, one of the last. He had been since he was 12, today he's 23. Most people think bronies are just fat pedophiles that still live with their mothers. Aaron was the exact opposite, except the part of living with his mother. He did parkour ever since he was 14, so his build was pretty good. Some women dreamed of being with him, his short black hair, perfect figure and good build, he was the perfect guy. The only thing that stopped them from getting him in their pants, was that they expected Aaron to go and talk with them, but he never would, why? Because he's not really a straight forward guy. He always tries to keep away from crowds and new people. And the MLP tee shirts didn’t help either. "Good morning Spike." Aaron said petting his dog, who seemed happy to see his master. He was an adult golden retriever that Aaron found when he went to a brony meet up. It was dark, and he tripped on something, when he looked again, he saw a starving puppy. Aaron decided to adopt him. And had to name him, so he chose the name Spike, for his very favorite dragon. Aaron got the trash bag and brought it outside. His house was in the middle of a small street in London near the Big Ben. If you looked through the trees you might be able to catch a glimpse of the clock tower. His house wasn’t huge, but it was large enough for Aaron's family. He came back to his family that was sitting in the dinner table eating a classic British breakfast. Aaron was the youngest of the family, he has 3 sisters that never show up. Aaron's father, Richard, he was an blue eyed, blond man. He seemed old from all the years he worked so hard for what he has now. Aaron's mother looked like Aaron, just in a different gender. She too, looked old for all these years working. Now that Aaron had graduated and was going to get his own place, they could rest in peace. But there was only one thing that worried them. It has for the past 11 years. "Son, we have to talk." Aaron's father said putting down his mug. "Sure. What do you want to talk about?" Aaron sat with the chair backwards. "It's about that weird obsession of yours. That show that you’ve been hooked on for the past few years." "MLP?" "Yes son." His mother joined the conversation. "You have been acting strange these past years, buying those girl toys and getting tee shirt and…. Ah I don’t even know what else. You have been getting more and more distant. And I fear that now you are… too distant?" "Distant? Distant from what?" "Distant from the world son." His father said. "You used to love going to that park and seeing the Big Ben, the museums used to make you so happy. But after you got hooked up on that show, everything around you meant nothing. Now all you care about are those strange colored horse…" "Pony dad, pony." Aaron corrected his father. "…pony. You have over 70 ponies in that shelf of yours." "74 and a half. Spike ripped one of them in half. Poor Trixie." Aaron remembered the day it happened. After he saw the mutilated body of his most precious part of the collection, he nearly killed his dog. It was a one in a kind Trixie model the size of a small cup, she was wearing the red outfit she used in season 6 episode 10. And Spike thought it was a piece of steak. "It doesn’t matter how many you have son. What matters is that you have alienated yourself from the world. So your mother and I have planned a family day, were going to the London Eye." "uhhhh!" Aaron imitated his favorite character, Twilight in episode 3 of the second season. It has been so long since he last saw that episode, but for all these years it's been his favorite. Aaron left the dining room and went to his room and buried his head on the pillow. Aaron turned around and took a look in his room. Am I really this obsessed. He grabbed a small Twilight Sparkle model. I guess it is time to change, I have been away for a while now, yes. It is time. He placed the model on the shelf and sighed. Aaron grabbed a trash can nearby and sat down on the bed. He took one more quick look at the model. And frowned. He grabbed it once more and held it on top of the trash can. Do it. His fingers didn’t respond. DO IT! He nearly let go, the model was almost falling. His hand began to shake. Aaron! It's been 11 years! You need to let go! His mind screamed at him. But his hand wouldn’t let go. He felt the tears coming up. "AARON!" His father shouted from downstairs. Thanks dad. Aaron put the model to his side. When I come back. I will do it. Aaron promised to himself. But there was uncertainty in his voice. Author's Note This Story happens sometime in the near future, so futuristic equipments are present in the story. Chapter 1: Occurrences(Author's Note: If you want some character introductions, backstory and some charater developments, please read the prologue before this chapter. Thank you.) Marcelo and Juan were admiring the view of this new and amazing city, right beneath the Big Ben, while Duncan was getting ready to do his jump, he signed autographs for some of his fans, who just happen to be at the right place, at the right time. Hillary was looking at the London Eye from the opposite side of the river, while Linda was waiting in line to the giant spinning wheel. Vinyl and Aaron were on the bridge separating both sides of the Thames. Aaron was thinking of how the brony community had ceased to exist, how he was the one of the few couple hundred that still liked and watched the show on YouTube or the occasional times it passed on the Hub. He thought of how the show had influenced his life so much and how it changed Aaron into a more caring, loving and understandable person. But he doubts that anyone really knows any of that. Vinyl was thinking of how she hated herself so much. This hate wasn’t because she did something, it's because other people hate her, so she starts hating herself even more. She doesn't like to think she's that emo kid that no one cares about, but that image of her has been pushed down her throat so many times before, it ended up making her believe it. For some people, London would be the best trip in the world, going to one of the greatest cities in human history. But for Linda it was all the same, she had already been in this city over 100 times. She usually bought clothes during the day and at night, she'd wear a hood and roam around the streets for open game stores. But she needs to hide that side of her from the world, because none of her friends would understand. Duncan was…he was being Duncan. Signing autographs, like he does every time he leaves his mansion. This is so pathetic! That is what he thought inside, outside he was just toughness and courage itself. Duncan didn't like the fame, he hated it, being in the spotlight always made him uncomfortable. But you may be asking Then why does he do these things that bring fame? The answer to that is simple, he's just confronting an old enemy. Hillary was looking over at the London Eye with thoughts on her head, about life, family, relationships, sex. Yes, sex. She thinks occasionally of how it would be to be with the perfect guy, someone caring and kind and nice, etc… But she didn't even know that guys saw her that way too. All they could see was a nerdy girl with nerdy glasses and nerdy shoes, and … a very nice heart. Marcelo was probably the only one that wasn’t sad or was conflicted about something. He learned by living in the favelas, that you have to live in the present, not in the shadow of the past or trying to catch up with the future. Always in the present, because that's what really matters. His scar started to hurt, a lot. It burned from inside out. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A very large boom was heard by our characters, so did all of London. A huge fiery ball came from the center of the clock tower, and it slowly rose up, making the shape of a skull. There were debris falling and people on the floor wounded or dead. Marcelo got knocked out by the explosion. Hillary wasn’t able to move, she saw a huge piece of the parliament go up in the sky and go in her direction, but she wasn’t able to move. Suddenly, someone leaped at her and got her by the waist, away from the danger. Then everything went dark. Linda and the others in the line to the Eye just heard the explosion and saw the cloud. She shoved people away and ran to the direction of the Big Ben. With her athletic skills and agility, she was able to get to the crumbling tower in a matter of seconds. She shoved someone out of the way, but lost her balance and fell to the ground. "Sorry." She said while standing up. "It's okay." Linda saw who she bumped into. He was a tall figure, with blond hair and bright yellow eyes. "Just watch it next time." When she heard him speak, a cold breeze ran through her spine. Linda got scared of the man, for no particular reason. She just got scared, very scared actually. She wasn’t even able to move. He just looked so cold and frightening. The man was calm, there was no expression in his eyes. Then, a very large sound came from behind her. A cloud of dust soon covered everything, blocking her view. She was happy that she didn’t have to look at the man for any longer. When the cloud passed, he was gone. Aaron and Vinyl were standing side by side looking at the tower, they saw it slowly go to the ground and make a huge blast, as well as a thick cloud of dust. The cloud started to get closer and closer. Vinyl turned around and covered her face, Aaron saw the girl and shielded her with an embrace. The cloud passed after a couple of seconds, and Aaron was still hugging the girl. They separated and looked at each other, none of them said a word. Wow. They thought in unison. They kept staring for a couple more minutes and Vinyl broke the silence. "Thanks." She said holding one of her arms and rocking from side to side. "Oh. No problem. Hey, umm… what's your name?" He said trying to avoid looking straight at the girl, he could feel his face blushing. "Vinyl." She said trying to do the same thing. Aaron couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. He couldn’t think straight. "Wow. That’s a really nice name. My name's Aaron. Aaron Braddock." He said looking at her hair, which was black with some blue strips. Then he realized, she is the human version of Vinyl Scratch, his second favorite pony! He quickly blew away that thought. No Aaron! This is real life, no ponies today… or ever! He cussed at himself. "Thank you. No one has ever said that to me before." Vinyl said blushing a little. "Really? It seem very nice to me." "Thank you." "No problem." Aaron said awkwardly. There was an awkward silence between them. "I should go." She said hiding he face on her hair. "Wait!" Aaron said extending his arms. "Can I get your cell phone number?" "S-Sure." Vinyl hesitated for a second. Then reached in her pocket and gave him the number. Who knew keeping my cell phone number written down would be useful. Vinyl thought to herself. Then she walked away. There was this strange feeling in Vinyl's chest, she never felt this before. "Nice." Cantus was leaning backwards on the bridge. "Not right now Cantus, did you see what happened?" "I did. So did all of them." He pointed to all of the people on the bridge. "But I see that you seem very calm. Considering." "It's just that…I…felt safe when I was with Aaron. Like how I feel safe when I'm with you." "I think you're in love Vinyl." Cantus chuckled. "Am not!" She shouted. Receiving looks from the people around her. Vinyl just moved forward, completely ignoring Cantus. Aaron walked over to the other side of the bridge. He looked at the cell phone number. Well, this terrorist attack wasn’t as bad as I thought. Well… for me that is. Aaron though as he saw several people on the floor crying and whimpering. Some of them were dead, cut in half, or missing a limb or two. Sirens could be heard off in the distance. This is why I alienate myself. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Duncan was woke with his head and right hand on something very soft and warm, then when he realized, Duncan was with his hand and head on some unconscious girl's breasts. He stood up seconds before she woke up. "Hey…You okay?" Duncan said putting one hand on her shoulder to help her stand up. "I don’t know. Who are you?" She said and coughed a little. "Name is Duncan Price, I just want to help you, I'm not going to hurt you or anything, I promise." He said helping her up. "Thank you, for saving me that is. If there is any way I can reattribute this, please, call me." She said and gave him a little card. It said: Hillary Hyde, Cell phone .... He just read it and looked at the girl, un amused. "You know you can just kiss me and get this over with right?" He said laughing. She just blushed and took a step back. "I'm kidding." "Oh. Okay." She giggled and that made Duncan's stomach into butterflies, he had been with countless women before, but he never felt this before. Why her? She didn’t have any beautiful qualities. Then Hillary then took off her broken glasses. Duncan discovered why, she was indeed beautiful, proving his first impression wrong, her perfect eyes, nose, hair, and that voice. He felt dizzy and started to move back and forth. This sharp pain ran though his body. "Hey… Duncan… are you alright? Oh my god, you're bleeding!" She put her hand on his head, and it quickly began to start getting wet by the blood. It ran across her arm and dripped. Her He lost his balance and fell forward, she was able to hold him. But her white shirt had several red marks. "I'm not scared… I'm not." Duncan kept repeating that to himself. He started to hear a mocking laughter, the type of laughter that only a bully can conjure up. His dizziness grew. Hillary needed to stop the bleeding, she took off his shirt and used it to drain some of the blood. My god… she thought to herself when she saw his body. Hhow many steroids does this guy take? Her thought was quickly silenced when she remembered what situation she was in. Duncan fell to the ground and blacked out. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A woman running, through a narrow, dirty road. A scream. Eyes, very bright, pale, blue eyes. Marcelo woke up from his dream with someone shaking him. His ears were ringing, when the sense of hearing came back to him, he heard a woman say: "Are you okay? Hey! Are you okay?" She said shaking his left shoulder, he just looked at her and saw a blond girl, with light green eyes. Marcelo tried to stand up, but his legs failed him. There was pain all over. Then, Juan came into his mind. "Juan." He said trying to waste as little energy as possible. "Who?" "Juan. Where is he?" Marcelo pushed the girl aside and stood up, even if his body said no. He limbed his way into the dust fog that covered the whole street. There were people running and bumping into him, many crying or hurt. The fog started to clear and what he saw will haunt him forever. The Big Ben, had been cut in half and fell on the street, half of the tower had fallen down on the street. Then, Marcelo saw something terrible. He saw corpses scattered around. He nearly threw up. "uhh.. ajuda, por favor." He heard someone say quietly. He looked at the where the sound had come from. A man, wearing a tuxedo with half his body under the tower was raising his hand and calling for help. It was Juan. "Juan, oh my god! JUAN!" Marcelo ran to his friend. "Get…me..out of here, Marcelo." Juan said as his friend got both his arms and pushed his friend from the crumbled tower, with no avail. All Juan did was scream. "It's no use. " Marcelo tried pulling him again. "No…Don’t….If I must die here, then I will die here." Juan said letting a couple of tears escape his eyes. "No, no. NO! You can't go, please, no!" Marcelo got one of his friend's hands and held it for dear life. "Please, don’t cry Marcelo. I'll see you again sometime, maybe in heaven or a next life. Just don’t…cry." Marcelo wasn’t following the orders, he was crying his heart out. "Te vejo…depois…irmão." Juan closed his eyes and died, right there, in front of his brother. Marcelo started to cry even harder, he felt someone push him away from Juan. When he looked at who it was, he saw the same women that woke him up. Then he noticed that everything was getting darker and the sun began to get dimmer, and dimmer. Until all there was, was darkness. Chapter 2: AftermathThree days later The TV turned on. A female reporter, with brown hair and eyes was talking on a bridge, behind her there were machines and people removing large pieces of buildings and sometimes, people. "It has been three days since the terrorist attack on the Big Ben and Parliament. The death count has grown from 200 to 350 yesterday. Bodies are still being found on the rumble. Governments all around the world are working on tightening security in airports and they have shut down most landmarks for safety matters. Witnesses of this occurrence say that there was a large explosion that came from inside of the tower, which means this was not an accident, it was meant to happen." She was silenced when the TV got turned off. Duncan was already tired of hearing people say that it was an accident. Of course it was planed. How could it not be? A giant explosion just happens to blow right in the middle of the most iconic mark in London? But he couldn't say anything to the press while he was in the hospital. The doctors said that he had only a few minor injuries, but he hit his head and ripped a large hole in it, causing severe loss of blood. He got knocked out for a 2 days. But the wounds healed quickly, he could get out of the hospital next week, only one more scar for the collection. So for the time being, he got stuck in a room with some stranger for an entire week, doing nothing, for an entire week. For some reason, that didn’t go very well with Duncan's personality. Duncan was trying to rip every single thread of information of the attack from his memory. Time, location, weather, recent events, wars, etc… Then he remembered the girl, Hillary was it? If it wasn’t for her, he would've been in one of the 350 coffins being buried. She carried his unconscious body to the hospital, he had to do something to do something to reattribute. But that was for a later time, now, all he wanted, was to sleep. After a couple of hours, Duncan got woken up with the sound of sobbing, at first he thought it was just a dream, one of the many. But then he saw that it came from the other side of the room. His roommate was crying. Duncan hates to see people crying, he would rather be the one crying, than see others. He stood up from his bed and walked to his roommate. It was difficult for him to walk, his head hurt he had a difficult time with his balance. When he got to the crying man, Duncan put a hand on his shoulder and said: "Hey buddy, you okay?" "Do I look okay?" The man had a slight accent and was very angry. "I don’t want to make you angry, all I want is to help. If you want me to go, I'll go." Duncan said trying to look as honest as possible. "I'm..sorry. I didn’t mean to be angry, it's just…" The man sat on his bed and turned on the light. Duncan saw that the man was very tan, he is probably from Latin America, he had black hair and eyes. His eyes were red, most likely, he hadn't slept for the past days. "I lost the last person that ever cared for me." "I'm so sorry. Hey, I'm Duncan and I was at the attack too." Duncan said trying to calm the man down. "Hey, Duncan. I'm Marcelo." Marcelo had not even looked at Duncan for the entirety of the conversation. "So…Where are you from?" "I'm from Rio, Brazil." "Rio! I love Rio, very nice city, the people are great and the girls are beautiful." Marcelo chuckled at the remark. Duncan felt happy by seeing him laugh. "Well." His smile disappeared. " I know Rio from a whole different perspective. In Rio, you have to watch your step. I lived in the worst slump in the country. It was dirty, horrific, smelly and dangerous. But it was home. I had to live in those slums for over 20 years." Marcelo looked at the man he was talking to. "I came here through my brother. He got this fine new job with NWT, he had a future, but now…It's over. I have no one left." A few tears escaped Marcelo's eyes, but his tone of voice didn’t change, it was still this cold and emotionless tone. "My mother died when I was five, never did meet my father. So my brother and I had to live all by ourselves, then we got 'adopted' by the drug dealers. We were thought how to read, write, kill." Duncan shuddered when Marcelo said 'kill'. He hated that word. "So have you killed anyone before?" "No. I haven't. But my brother has. Several actually. It's not hard. All you need is a good gun and a steady hand." "You speak English very well, how did you learn it?" Duncan really wanted to change topic. "Languages were always my strong suit. My brother's was weaponry. So we always worked together in the city. I was called on when there was someone a foreigner who needed interrogation or torture, and my brother was called when they needed someone killed. " "How many languages do you know?" "Fluently I speak 10: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. But I know the basics for a couple more like Arabic, Vietnamese, Swedish, etc…" "Wow." Duncan didn’t expect someone from the slums of Rio to know so much. "Anyway, it was nice talking to you Duncan. It's late, and I need some sleep." "Yea…right." Duncan moved back to his bed and turned off the light. Bringing darkness once again. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Vinyl speaking." The girl picked up her phone. "Hey Vin!" Someone responded. "Who is this?" She asked. "It's Aaron, how could you forget about me? it breaks my heart." Aaron said sarcastically. "Hey Aaron, how are you doing?" "It's been good. Considering I was just in a terrorist attack that will probably scar me for my entire life." Aaron felt so bad for joking about something so serious. But at least it made her laugh. "Anyway, how's Vienna?" "Oh you know.... boring." "You really aren't into tourism are you?" "Nope." That remark made Aaron chuckle. "So umm.. what now?" He asked. "Well, I was thinking I could maybe pass by London for a couple of weeks and hang out with you." Both of them smiled. Aaron wanted to squeal in delight, but couldn't because he's a guy, but he wanted to. "Aw. So cute." Cantus laughed beside Vinyl. She jumped in surprise by hearing Cantus' voice. He appears out of nowhere sometimes, well, he is her imaginary friend. "Shut up Cantus!" "Who?" Aaron responded. "No one, don’t worry. So… I will get myself a hotel and then…" "Wait. My house is pretty empty right now, so if you want to stay here with me…." "That's kind of creepy, we've only known each other for like what? 3 days?" Vinyl interrupted. "No, I didn’t mean anything by it I was just…" "Don’t worry Aaron, that is a wonderful idea. See you soon." She hung up the phone. Aaron fist pumped and laid on his bed. He took a quick glance around his room. All of the ponies in his room. Oh no. 2 days later "Flight 11 will be landing in the next 10 minutes, dispatching of the bags will be in the stroller 12." The announcer said through the microphone. 10 minutes later, there were people leaving through the main gate. Aaron looked around for a woman with long blue and black hair. While searching he saw a small girl, about half his age, with a small toy, a pony. A blue pegasus being more exact. Rainbow Dash. He thought smiling at all the memories he has from these many years of being a brony. He remembered the first episode he ever watched. It was the first episode of the second season. Some guys had dared him to watch a full episode without begging for forgiveness. Aaron watched it, and liked it. But he didn’t show it. If he did, then his friends would bully him for all eternity. But that episode was what sparked the begging of a brony. He'll never forget Discord, the monster who almost plunged Equestria into complete chaos and tortured thousands. The boy instantly got hooked on the show, he watched the entire seasons on YouTube countless times. Aaron was quite young when he first watched MLP, so he got scared of the bad guys, Sombra, Nightmare Moon, Discord, but especially Chrysalis. She was the one who made him shudder only by thinking of her. He'd stay up for countless nights, only thinking of that face and those eyes. It might seem stupid and childish, but Aaron is still frightened by her. Then Aaron came back to reality. The cold, cruel, unforgiving reality. He saw Vinyl. "Hey Vinyl!" He shouted waving his hand. A blue and black haired girl pushed some people aside and hugged him. "Hey there Aaron." They broke the hug and she handed him one of her bags. "So, how was Vienna?" Aaron said heading out of the airport. "It's nice, just very boring." "You told me through the phone. I can only imagine. So that is why you want to come to London again?" "Yea. And I want to spend more time with you of course." "Aw. That’s nice." He chuckled and put one of the bags in the trunk of his car. Then he lifted up the second one and did the same. Both of them entered the vehicle. "Horrible what happened isn't it?" Vinyl said. "Yea…Horrible." Flashes of the tower falling came to his mind. The people screaming, the blood on the streets. "I heard over 350 people died, and they are still finding more bodies." "Who would have done something like that?" "Some people, Vinyl, just want to see the world burn." Aaron quoted. "Hey, I already heard that somewhere, isn't it from that old Batman movie?" "I wouldn't say old, it has only been 17 years. And yes it is from the movie. But it applies pretty well with the situation we're in." "You know what this attack reminds me of? 9/11." "Isn't that the terrorist attack from 2001?" "Yes it is. This wasn’t very different. Do you think maybe, they were planned by the same guy." "No, I doubt that. The one that planned 9/11 was killed in 2011, the only way is that he maybe planed this before his death." Aaron saw Vinyl taking a magazine with a guy with a Mohawk as a cover. He was wearing a cut vest and was holding a helmet. Under the picture, in very large red letters, said: What can't this guy do? "Who's this guy?" He said pointing at the picture. "His name is Duncan Price, he was able to break the sound barrier without any propulsion, he has already come from the Lunar base and back over 4 times, and he survived the terrorist attack." "Really? He seems pretty awesome." Aaron wasn’t really impressed, but she liked him, and women are always right. That's a lesson he learned the wrong way. "Awesome? Awesome? He is incredible, probably one of the greatest people in the world. I want to visit him after he leaves St. Thomas Hospital." "What happened to him?" "In the attack, a piece of shrapnel hit him in the head, causing some blood loss. So he's staying over in the hospital for a few days." "Wait? Did you say St. Thomas Hospital?" Vinyl nodded. "You know, I'm volunteering at the hospital, they are having some trouble taking care of all the people." "Really? If you see him, could you get an autograph for me. Please." She asked with puppy eyes. "Sure." He smiled. "You're the best." She leaned closer to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. Aaron felt his inside melt. Vinyl was feeling the same thing, she had never been this close to someone, not even her parents. Every time she saw Aaron, something, a spark flashed inside her, which made her smile. Vinyl wasn’t a big one for smiles, she hated it. But when she was around Aaron, she became a whole different person. "Hey." Cantus poked Vinyl's shoulder, he was sitting on the back seat, right behind her. Aaron turned and screamed. He lost control of the car, but quickly regained it. "What the hell Aaron!" Vinyl scolded him. "I swear I just heard someone at the back seat." He was hyperventilating. "There was no one there Aaron." She lied. Did he really hear him? She thought. "I'm sorry I scared you. I do some crazy things when I'm scared." He re-affirmed. They arrived in his house about 10 minutes later. Aaron helped Vinyl taking her bags out of the car. And looked into the void that existed between the leaves of the trees. In that void, you were able to see the Big Ben and now, all you can see is the starless sky. You never know how important something is until you lose it. Aaron looked down and shook his head. Could I have done something? Could I have helped those people? "Hey, Aaron…you okay?" Vinyl said. "Oh…Yea sorry, I was just… thinking." He got one of her bags and put inside the house. Then he grabbed the next and did the same. Then he brought both bags to the room next to his that was used by one of his sisters before she left. He opened the door and turned on the lights, the room was neatly organized, it had its own bathroom and study room. The bed was king size and everything, from the walls, to the floor was this dark, nearly red, pink. Why isn't my room like this? Aaron's room was half the size, and he had no bathroom. Then he looked at Vinyl and showed it to her. "Aaron. Thank you so much for letting me stay here for the next two weeks. If there is anything, anything I can do to repay you, just tell me." "It's okay. You don’t need to do anything. What you should do is take a nice shower, put on some pajamas and go to sleep, it has been a long week and you must be tired." "Yes mom." Vinyl said joking. They both laughed and Vinyl closed the door. Aaron just smiled and went downstairs to get something to drink. His parents were waiting for him in the doorway. "Who is she?" His mother said coldly. "A friend." Aaron made his way to the kitchen and got some water. "Why didn’t you say you were bringing someone in, especially if she is a girl." "Didn’t think I had to." Aaron wasn’t even looking at his mother. "Aaron Ray Stuart Braddock! Look at me!" She shouted at the boy. He just looked at her, without changing his expression. But inside he knew he was screwed, his mother never called him by his full name. "I am your mother and this is my house, you respect me." Aaron just put his cup on the table and crossed his arms. "Mom, look, she's only staying here for the next couple of week, she won't cause any trouble, we don’t have to do anything, just breakfast and a bed. I swear nothing bad will happen. " Aaron assured his mother. She took a deep breath. "Okay. But if I hear one moan or grunt coming from that room, you will leave this house!" Aaron's mother walked away of the room with her head high. She is very protective of her youngest son. She never lets him bring anyone in or do anything dangerous. She doesn’t even let him have a girlfriend because she's afraid of STDs. But thing is, Aaron already lost his virginity. Aaron's father walked over to his son and put a hand on his shoulder. "The girl…" He whispered. "she looks nice." He left his smiling son. At least someone was on his side. Chapter 3: PeaceAaron woke up early, 4:30 to be exact. He needed to get ready to go to the hospital to volunteer. He went downstairs and got some water. "Good morning." A female voice said behind him. "Good morning Vi…." He looked at who spoke. A strange women stood there before him. Her head was bleeding and the blood ran through the side of her temple. The blood had turned her blond hair to a strange reddish hue. But that wasn’t what really startled Aaron. It was her eyes. Her eyes had a cream color. They looked so peaceful. Then he noticed it, she was in his house. "Who are you?" He asked the strange women. "That isn't important. You need to be ready." "Ready? For what? "For the end." "The end?" "Soon, the messenger will come to you, he will tell you more. When you receive the message, don’t panic. We all have faith in you…" She turned her head and heard someone going down the stairs. "Do not panic. Everyone's lives are in your hands." Then, she was gone. Just vanished from thin air. "Aaron? Are you there?" A familiar voice ran through the house. "Yea Vin. It's me." He saw the girl walk slowly to the kitchen. "I heard a strange voice coming from down here. Did you hear them too?" "Yes I did. There was…" The woman appeared behind Vinyl, and shook her head left and right. Aaron got the message. "No one. There was no one down here." "But I could swear I heard you talking with someone." "Must have been a dream. Please go back to sleep Vinyl." Aaron ordered. "But.." "Go back to sleep." Aaron ordered once more. She saw that he was conflicted, his emotions were going all over the place. He seemed confused, anxious, nervous, angry. So disagreeing any more with him would just provoke the situation. So she obeyed, Vinyl walked upstairs and closed herself inside her room. When Aaron heard the door close he exhaled. What the hell just happened? He asked himself. Aaron thought, and thought…no solution appeared to be reasonable or logical. Aaron, just didn't know. So he just ignored, making himself believe that it was just a dream, a strange, confusing dream. Aaron went to the were all the volunteers were suppose to go, as well as other 300 men and women that wanted to help. That strange woman that visited his house that same morning was still in his head. Who was she? What was she talking about? Where did she come from? All these questions crowded his mind. He tried his best to ignore them completely, and just believe he was just tripping balls or something. The volunteer area was very improvised, they used the stage of a band that just passed by town and there were no seats. Aaron didn’t expect there to be so many people there. He imagined only about 80, 100 at max. But there was three times that number. A man, with short blond hair, followed by a few royal guards, went to the podium on stage and took a quick glimpse around, he held the microphone and spoke. "All volunteers please gather round here." And so they did. "Thank you so much for your contribution on this time of need. I, king William the fifth, am very thankful of you all. What has happened this past week has shocked us all, and it is great to see how many people can spare a few days, just for this. What will happen in the following days is: you will be separated into: 100 groups each will have from 2 to 4 people. You will then be sent to a hospital in the city. And from there, the medical personal will guide you. The lists are over at there with those officers, please be organized and disciplined. And again, thank you for your contribution in this time of need." People started to slowly be send off into buses where they would go to the hospitals to help. Aaron expected everyone to jump on top of each others to be sent off first, but I guess everyone knows why they are here and what happened six days ago. Aaron was sent to St. Thomas Hospital, he knew that already because there was a website that showed where everyone was going, so it wasn’t a big surprise. He got out of the bus, everything was in chaos. There were people running everywhere, there were people outside the hospital being treated. A sign pointed to the left. It said in big red letters: Volunteers this way. Aaron followed the direction and was given a paper. He was suppose to go to the lobby and his group number was 42. He threw the paper in the trash and followed the instructions. There was only one more person in his group, a girl, Hillary Hyde. She had brown hair and blue eyes that were hidden by her glasses. She was the classic nerdy girl, glasses, ponytail, braces and very organized and perfectionist. She reminded him of a certain lavender pony. No Aaron, not now. Hillary was wearing a nurse outfit, not the sexy nurse outfit, just a normal every day, nurse outfit. "You must be Aaron Braddock." She said with a smile. Aaron noticed she didn’t have an English accent like himself, she sounded American. "That’s me. So where do we have to go?" "We have to go to rooms 191 to 257 today." She looked at the clipboard she was holding. "So we have to do …" "Did you read the papers they gave you?" "umm…they gave us papers?" She laughed. "Okay. We have to go to the rooms check on the patients, see if their vitals are okay, etc… you get it?" "Yes ma'am. " He stood still and put his hand on his forehead. She got a list and went to room 191. "Okay first patient…" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "This is so much worse than I thought it be." Aaron said almost falling asleep. "Room 250." Hillary said yawning. They opened the door and there were two people in there. One tan boy with black hair watching TV and a guy with a Mohawk throwing a ball at the wall. They didn’t seem more entertained than Aaron and Hillary were. Wait. Aaron had already seen that guy before. That's Duncan Price. Vinyl's idol! He would definitely get some points with her if he brought back that magazine signed by Duncan. He said he would. That’s why he brought it with him. "Hillary?" Duncan said looking at the girl. "Duncan, is that you?" Hillary said giving the papers that had all the reports of the patients to Aaron and ran forward hugging Duncan. "How have you been?" "It's been good, considering. Are you okay?" "I am in a hospital, but I'd be dead if it weren't for you so…thanks." "No problem." Hillary got the papers from Aaron, as he put them in a center on the corner of the room. He then grabbed his backpack and took out the magazine. "Are you Duncan Price?" He said to the man in the bed. "I am." "Could you sign this for a friend of mine, she is your greatest fan." He handed him the magazine and a pen. Duncan signed the magazine and looked at the boy. "So…having any luck with her?" "What?" "Are you having any luck with your girl?" "How do you know?" "Kid, I have seen countless people in your exact situation. It's not that uncommon. Are you going to answer my question?" "Well…I have been doing these favors for her and she has been liking them so… I don’t know?" "Look. All you have to do is be confident, and if you aren't, act confident, and no one will know the difference. Here is my number if you need some encouragement you seem like a cool guy, we should hang out." "Wow…that’s…nice man. Thanks." "No problem." "Aaron, I got all we need, we only need to go to more 7 rooms." "All right. See you soon Duncan." "See you man." Duncan proceeded to throw a ball at the wall and getting it in the air when it came back. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Aaron ran upstairs and knocked on the door, with the signed magazine in hands. "Hey Vin! Can I come in?" He asked. "Yea sure." Vinyl said from inside the room. When Aaron entered the room, he saw Vinyl with only her underwear on looking at clothes. He dropped the magazine and opened his mouth slightly. He looked to the side. "I'll come back later. Okay?" "Wait!" She said to the blushing boy. "I need your opinion." "Opinion?" He was still looking to his side, but taking a few quick glances to the side to see the girl. "Yea. I need your opinion on what I should wear tomorrow." She held up two shirts, one was black with some blue drawings on it, and the other one was blue with black drawings. "You know I'm not gay to know all this stuff right?" "Of course I know you're not gay, just pick one." "Well…I like the black with the blue drawings on it. A very out of the topic question: Why did you let me in here when you don’t have clothes on, knowing that I'm not gay?" "Why do you ask that? Don’t you like what you see?" She said that pointing at her body. "Of course not, by the contrary. It's just that, most people, would…not do that." He said awkwardly. Please don’t ruin this now boner! "I'm not like most people Aaron." "And that is exactly why I like you Vin. Oh I got you your magazine, signed." Aaron picked up the magazine from the floor and Vinyl leaped into an embrace. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." She said almost crying. "You have really nice and soft skin." "Thank you." She said finally, kissing him on the cheek. Aaron, again, melted inside. I think it's time Aaron. The boy thought Okay, act confident, act confident. "Hey Vin. I have one last question." "You're full of questions today aren't you?" "Will you go on a date with me?" He said not looking at the semi nude girl. "Sure, but…" She put her clothes down. "I will go on a date with you. If…" She started to walk to Aaron, put a hand on his chest and slid it up slowly, their faces started to come closer, and closer. Aaron closed his eyes and moved his face forward, but was stopped by a finger. "If you help me chose my clothes for the rest of the week." She said looking at her closet. He just nodded and looked down. I have to get some new pants. Author's Note Sorry for the delay. I had a lot to do, and writing isn't my main priority. I won't promise anything, but the next chapter might come next week or earlier. PS. I haven't gotten any constructive comments yet, please, help me improve this story. Thank you.
PrologueBANG! BANG! A man got woken up by the sound of gunshots, not very uncommon in this place. He looked to the ceiling for a couple of seconds, it was made of dark wood, but now it's all rotten, and eaten by termites, that gave it this strange white hue. He got out of bed, which was basically a carpet with a jacket as a pillow, went to the bathroom, and looked into the broken mirror. What he saw was a young man, not much older than 20, with black shaved hair, dark brown eyes, light brown skin, and a large scar that ran from bellow his left ear to the end of his shoulder, wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt, black shorts and sandals. The youth turned on the foset, and washed his face. I've looked worse. He thought, while making his way to the exit. The man came to a stop when he saw a small portrait on a cabinet. He got the portrait and examined it. There were two boys in the picture, they looked almost identical, only difference was that one had a large scar, from his left ear to his shoulder. He left his small house and went down a very dirty and narrow street, one of the thousands that exist in Rio De Janeiro. It was filled with trash and cigar buts, there were a few puddles at the side of the street, it rained just a few hours ago. He looked to the nearby hill, that marked the landscape. On top of that hill was a statue of Christ. He was facing the opposite direction, his arms were apparently hugging the other side of town. It was like he was saying "This part is mine, the other part needs to deal with themselves." The man walked through the dirty roads, several people passed by him, some had plastic bags with groceries, others had guns and suitcases filled with drugs. He just sighed and moved forward. The boy stopped in front of a small bar, there were a couple of men drinking and laughing, a couple of dealers selling their 'products', two prostitutes on the corner, and gunmen on the roofs. In this place there is no law, The people are animals, not giving a single fuck if you're living or dead. Death was at every corner, either by a stray bullet or HIV. Anything can happen. "Hey! Marcelo!" a man wearing a tuxedo called the boy. The man was very clean and neat. He looked a lot like Marcelo, only difference was that he seemed a little older and cleaner. His hair was short and his beard was shaved. He didn’t seem biologically older, but tired, he seemed like he didn’t sleep in the last couple of days. The strange man caught the attention of some of the gunmen and bystanders. A man wearing a suit was very uncommon in these parts. The only people with enough money to get a suit like that were either drug dealers or the drug producers. They were the kings of the slums. They sent people to kill others because they looked at them funny. It was basically the Brazilian mafia, if you get involved with them, things won't be very pretty. They ruled everything, from the police to the marketplace. There wasn’t a piece of Rio that wasn’t influenced by the dealers. "Juan! It's been so long." Marcelo said hugging his friend. "How have you been in the USA?" Juan got a job in the USA, he worked as supervisor for of one of the richest companies in the world, NWT incorporation. The NWT inc is a company that revolves around technology as the name already clarifies, New World Technology. The industry is revolved in building a new and better future for humanity. Live a better future with NWT inc. That's their slogan. But in reality, NWT works with 'dangerous' people. They were able to get where they are today by doing some, not so legal deeds. Espionage, sabotage, war, death. That's what they are really good at. "It's been great! But I'm still trying to improve my English. The language is a lot harder than I though." Juan said scratching the back of his head. Marcelo put a hand on his shoulder "It's not that hard. All you need is a little practice. Now…Why have you come back to the favela?" "Why do you ask? Can't I come back to see my twin brother?" "No-no. I meant nothing by it, it's just that you…" Marcelo was cut off when Juan put a hand on his shoulder and laughed. "Don't worry brother, I was kidding. I got this new job that pays really well, they even gave me two tickets to go to anywhere I want in the entire world. But I need someone to accompany me, and you, brother, are the perfect person. I will need some help with my English and you need to get out of this dump." That last comment got the attention of some bystanders. But they just shrugged it off. "Man I'd love to go with you! Where are we going?" "Remember when we were kids and you used to play with those puzzles from the places of Earth. What was your favorite one?" Juan asked his smiling friend. "My favorite one was the Big Ben one." When Marcelo said that, something clicked in his head. "Are we going to London?" "Yes we are." Marcelo opened his mouth and looked at his best friend. "Man, if I was gay, I'd totally kiss you right now." Both of them laughed and went to the bar to get some drinks. The bar was dirty, cigar butts scattered around, the horrid smell of death and rotten fish, broken glass on the floor and a bartender that looked like he hasn’t bathed in the last 10 years. Marcelo was already used to it though, but Juan…. "My god. Did something vomit then die in here?" Juan asked fanning the air in front of him. "If you don’t like it, that's your problem." The bartender said while cleaning a cup, it didn’t seem to be working, because the towel he was using was dirtier than the cup already was. Both boys sat down. "So how have you been?" Juan asked. "It's been nice, not much different from when you left really." Marcelo said taking a sip of beer. "Only thing special is that the police managed to take over Morro da Rocinha." "Really?! Wow. That's the last place I expected them to take over." "I know right? It took them 3 days, 600 cops, 5 helicopter, 10 tanks and a bombing squad." "Wow. How did they get all this armament?" "NWT. They funded everything." "How many were killed?" "1200. 200 cops, 900 from the militia, and 100 civilians. One of the bombs didn’t hit the target. It hit a small refuge on the other side of the hill. Most killed were women and children. I personally think they meant to do that. Strike fear in the opponent. It was brilliant, horrible, but brilliant." "Sometimes I never get your point of view brother." Juan took a large sip, he got used to the taste pretty quick. He looked at his brother. "I see that scars healing up pretty well huh?" "Oh, this?" Marcelo pointed to the wound bellow his ear. "Yea it's been healing pretty good. But what really frightens me is that sometimes I can feel it hurting. It's been over 10 years and I still get woken up from it." "Really?" Juan looked at the wound. "It doesn’t seem to hurt." "Oh but it does. A lot. Sometimes I can barely move from the pain." Marcelo put a hand on the scar. "I guess that's what stray bullets do to you huh?" Actually, Marcelo didn’t know what hit him that night. There was this very loud sound, like a plane, then his ear began to bleed. So he just guessed it was just some stray bullet, the only thing that didn’t match was the angle of the wound. Marcelo never really cared for what happened that night, but sometimes, late at night, he wondered what really happened. "I guess so." Juan lifted up his cup. "To health and prosperity. Saúde!" They toasted and laughed. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 500,000 feet up, -47 Celsius. A unreachable place. Or is it? A young man looked into the distance from his small capsule. He could see the entire North American continent, every city, lighten up by all the lights of the cars and houses. The East seemed a lot brighter than the epicenter of the continent. "Only when you're so high that you realize you're so small." He whispered to himself while putting his helmet. "Alright Duncan, you reached the designated height. Everything is a go, you can proceed to jump." A older man talked through the radio of the capsule. "Copy that. Okay…let's see…. Suit pressurization is stable…capsule GPS is running accordingly… helmet oxygen releaser is at 100%.... Fuck. Wa diz thes happen tae me now?" Duncan said in a slight accent and pressed the side of his helmet, turning on the radio. "What's up?" Felix responded. "The capsule's tractor beam magnet isn't working. The station won't be able to retrieve it." "OK….let me think…. I'll tell Moon Base to sent a drone to come and pick it up, after you jump, the capsule will stay in the 0 gravity area for about 10 hours or so, that will give us enough time." "It damn well be! I wasted 8 million in this thing!" "I wouldn't call it wasted but…" "Alright. Enough talk. I need to do this." "Good luck. I'll contact with you before you break the barrier alright?" "Cool. See you at the bottom." Duncan released his hand from the helmet and the radio got turned off. He breathed heavily in and out. Duncan was wearing a tight black and white spandex that covered all of his body, and a black helmet. He pressed a button and the door of the capsule opened, releasing all the air inside and pushed everything inside. Duncan held on to the capsule until the vacuum had consumed all the air. When there was no more suction, he walked to the small platform the capsule made with the door. He took a quick look around and saw the vast universe. He could see the sun hiding behind the Earth, and the moon at his side. He closed his eyes and extended his right leg, and let himself go. He entered free fall. The air passing through his suit made a faint whistle. Duncan could see the world bellow him getting closer, and closer. "Ok. Duncan, your 200 feet of breaking the barrier, just hold on!" Duncan reached the speed of 750 m/hr. Boom! That is all there was to hear. He had sped up about four times after the boom. The new champion had just done it, broke the barrier. His vision became blurred and he felt a sharp pain coming from his right shoulder. He looked to it and saw a cut in the suit and blood squirting out of the wound. The suit began to rip. Best of NASA my ass! He was now at the speed of 2500 m/hr. The suit couldn’t hold on much longer. If he didn’t open the parachute soon, there would be no story to tell. (I know that in real life that doesn’t happen but this is a fictional story after all. Don’t hate. It's bad. Now…back to the story!) His specially designed parachute opened, it was the one NASA used to stop the space buses. But in a smaller scale. The champion slowly fell to safety on the landing pad at the airport. "Good job kid." Felix said through the radio. His feet touched the ground and he took a deep breath. "Oh man, Duncan! That was awesome!" A chubby guy with light blonde hair said as Duncan took off his helmet. Duncan was a very buff young man, he had black hair in the shape of a Mohawk. His eyes were a very light brown, his beard was shaved, but was still present. Duncan took a quick look at his shoulder. The cut was not very deep, but it would leave one nasty scar. It went from the middle of his shoulder to the middle of his back. At least the bleeding stopped. In an instant tons of reporters and photographers of all types crowded him. Mr. Price, how did you do it? And What did you fell as you broke the barrier? These were the type of questions the celebrity had to answer. But he didn’t. Duncan was too busy with his own thoughts to answer to any of them. Most of the time he just ignored them and moved forward. Did you feel fear? That question has haunted him for all the years of his career. Fear, a word that brought what its definition dictates to him. A word that never seemed to leave his mind. That question, he had to answer. He grabbed the microphone from the reporter, looked into the camera and said: "I didn’t fell scared, not even for a moment, I am pure courage." Duncan smiled and gave the microphone back. He made his way to the agent standing beside a black limousine. The limo had a white stripe surrounding it. Just like Duncan's helmet. "Where next?" the champion asked the small women holding a clipboard. "London Eye. You're going to jump into the Thames." She answered looking at him for a couple of moments. "Sounds nice." Duncan smiled and entered the car. The limousine was empty, only Duncan, his agent and the driver. He put his helmet on the seat in front of him. That black screen on it seemed to be looking directly into Duncan's eyes. It looked like there was still a head inside. "Whit ur ye lookin' at!?" Duncan said to the helmet, with an accent. The seats were white and there was some Champaign on the corner. If only I had someone to share this with. He thought while opening the bottle and drinking directly from it. The limo began to move and Duncan put his head against the glass. He saw all the fans and reporters look as he moved away. There were plains in the distance, he looked at the clouds and the birds. Saw them dive in the air and spin. They seemed so free, so carefree. "I do feel scared." He said quietly to himself, he closed his eyes and fell into a deep slumber. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "The question is: What is the name of the occasion in which two stars orbit each other?" A senior gentleman announced to the tables of students to his right and left, facing a crown of thousands sitting down on a theater. *BEEP* "River Wood?" He asked for the answer. "Binary stars." A boy answered, he was wearing a yellow vest and small glasses, his face was so filled with freckles that made his skin look orange. "Correct!" A point was added to the billboard on top of the announcer. "The game is now tied. This is the final question, whoever gets the correct answer get the 1 million dollar grand prize, as well as a trip to New York City! The question is: Give out the first ten digits of the..." He made a dramatic pause, making the competitors move forward. "…..square root of…." They were all sweating, "2!" He said quickly. BEEP "Los Angeles?" "The square root of 2 is 1.414… um what is it?" A girl stood up and faced the crowd, she hit her own head gently a couple times. "Come on Hillary! You have to know this if you want to win the knowledge bowl!" someone whispered to the girl standing up. "I…don’t know." Beep. "The winners of the 2025 annual knowledge bowl are the school of River Wood!" the announcer said to the crowd of 8000 people at the theater. A loud cheer came from the audience, but many people didn’t react. Hillary frowned and looked at the ground. She knew it was all her fault that her school lost. Her teammates looked at the girl with the purple glasses and sweatshirt, with angry faces and left the stage as the other school was cheering. "Wait!" the announcer told the losing school. "There is a consolation prize for second place. A all paid trip to London!" that got Hillary's attention, she had dreamed of going to London for quite some time now. She smiled with glee when she realized that her dream would become reality. Different from her teammates who were crying because most had already gone to London. They wanted to go to New York and get the 100000 dollar prize and sleep in the suites of the most prestigious hotel in the world. But Hillary wasn’t liked the others. For one she was a lot prettier, if she wanted to she could join the cheerleader's ranks, easy. Her black hair went to the middle of her back, her breasts weren't very large, but that didn’t stop some guys from looking at them. She had the most perfect skin of anyone in the entire school. But what stopped her from being popular was the fact that she's an introvert. Rarely talked and never to boys. She is the only one in her class that hasn’t kissed someone yet, and has absolutely no friends. Another thing was that she wasn’t a spoiled brat like the others in her school. She knew the cost of things and how they affect people. But that made her a easy target for bullies. Every day, always the same type of mockery. You're fat, you're ugly, four eyes, blank flank. She didn’t quite get that last one, but it was a mockery either way. Well, maybe things can change over in London. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Vinyl! Wake up!" A woman screamed at the door of a locked room. The door was a deep black, there were about 10 signs saying: DON'T ENTER IF YOU WANT TO LIVE! There was no answer. "VINYL!" she screamed again. "Be right there mom." A girl shouted from inside the room. The door was unlocked and from inside came a girl with black hair with blue lines traces on them, blue eyes and piercings on her nose and ears. She was wearing a white shirt and no pants. "Shit mom, why do you have to wake me up so early." She rubbed her eye. "Watch the language young lady! We have a plane to catch, where going to London remember?" The lady said looking into her daughter's room. It was messy and very dark. The curtains and bed sheets were the same color, a deep blood red. So was the counter and the floor. "So I want you to get ready, put on some decent clothes and we'll go, okay?" The woman noticed Vinyl wasn’t listening. The girl was in another world entirely. "OKAY?" "OKAY!" the teen retorted and slammed the door. Vinyl then looked out the window of her room and said: "If only someone, somewhere could listen to me and understand me." She whispered to no one. No one listened to her. No one cared she said that. No one saw the tear escape her eye and fall on the scarlet carpet. Vinyl grabbed her phone and listened to a random song. When the song began to play, Vinyl felt something, like that song was foreshadowing something big in her life, something great. When it ended she realized that her life was missing something, someone that understood her and felt her pain, the pain of being an outcast of society. "You know you don’t have to deal with her all the time right?" A male voice whispered to Vinyl. "I know, but she's my step mom, what can I do?" "Vinyl…" A blond man with violet eyes appeared in a chair near the window. He just appeared out of thin air. "…You're 21 years old. You can leave. Nothing is stopping you." "I know Cantus, it's just that…she's all I have left….after dad died, I lost everything." Cantus walked over to Vinyl and gave her a hug. "You haven't lost me." "I know…thank you Cantus." Some tears escaped her eye. "I wish you were real." "Me too." Cantus seemed unsure when he said that. "VINYL!" A women shouted. Vinyl broke the hug, put on some pants, got her bag and opened the door. Cantus didn’t move a muscle since she broke the hug. "Aren't you coming?" "I won't go with you. But I will always be within you. You'll see me when you arrive. Don't worry." And then Cantus just disappeared, the same way he appeared, out of thin air. Vinyl sighed and walked out of the house. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "One and Two and Three…" a song began to play and a couple of girls began to jump and do flips, they shook their pom-poms and did a very interesting choreography. In the end, they did a human pyramid. "Okay Okay stop, stop!" the music was cut by the voice of a old lady. "Linda what happened? You seemed to be having a pretty hard time there." "It's just that the people I have to hold are too heavy and my arms hurt. But I swear I'll do better next time." "So you have gotten weaker. Okay, break times over! Do it again!" and they did the same thing 12 more times. At the end of practice, everyone except Linda and two of her friends stayed over at the showers. Linda looked at the mirror. Her blond hair was messy because of practice, her makeup got a bit ruined but still looked good on her. Anything looked good her. Her breasts were large for her age, and she didn't use any silicon. Linda is the prettiest girl in school, having all the curves in the right places. That was the main reason why she got chosen as cheerleading captain. "What are you going to do during the weekend Holly?" A white blond girl asked an Asian sitting on the bench. "Nothing planned. You?" "Nothing as well." She said with a frown "Well. I'm going to London. So goodbye girls." They hugged and gave their goodbyes. "See you in two weeks girls. Bye!" Linda got in her red Lamborghini and rode off to her mansion. She got to home and gave her bag to the butler waiting next to the car. He was an very old man, but seemed very strong. He has already carried bags and furniture enough to last a couple of lifetimes. Linda walked to her room and untied her hair. She entered the room and took a quick glance around. The wall were this very bright pink with white stripes separating the vibrant color. There were a few old teddy bears on her pink king size bed. The computer was the newest Apple Mac book. It didn’t even reach stores yet. But her father knows some people. Linda sighed and walked to a door, right next to the bed. It seemed very hidden, if someone wasn’t warned about it, they would just be completely oblivious, even if it was right in front of them. The room was small compared to the rest of the mansion. The walls were black, so was the floor. Everything was black. Linda got a chair and sat down in front of a wall. She opened a container in the chair and pressed a large red button. Suddenly a huge TV lit up, it covered the entire wall. Linda got a pair of glasses and put them on. She then got a Play station controller and turned on the console. PS4, that was what covered the TV. There was a title screen, COD Modern Warfare 8. Linda got her microphone and turned it on. "Okay guys, sorry I'm late, cheerleading practice was a bitch today." "Hey Death Eater." A male voice responded. "Been a while since you played." "I know right? My father doesn't like it when I play these games, but then I say 'F U dad, I do what I want' then he just lets me." Linda raised her middle finger and stuck her tongue out. "Really?" "No." Both of them laughed. "Hey AKnight I can only play for a couple hours okay?" "That's fine." Two hours later "I have to go Eater." Aknight said. "Why? I still have a couple more minutes." "My show is going to air this morning and I can't miss it." "What show?" "You know… my show." "What show?" Linda repeated. "It's confidential." "But…" "Ok bye…" Aknight, not wanting to continue the conversation, turned off his console. "That bastard." Linda said under her breath, turning her PS4 off too. She stood up and grabbed a bag, and started packing. Tomorrow she would go to the city of royalty, like herself. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 30th of August 2025 "My little pony, My little pony, ah ah ah…" someone sang in the morning when the sun had just come up in the horizon. "Aaron! Come down!" a man shouted from the kitchen. "It's Sunday dad!" Aaron said back to the man. "It doesn’t matter, you still have to do your shores." The man shouted. "Fine." The boy stopped the video he was watching and went downstairs. As you can clearly depicture, Aaron is a brony, one of the last. He had been since he was 12, today he's 23. Most people think bronies are just fat pedophiles that still live with their mothers. Aaron was the exact opposite, except the part of living with his mother. He did parkour ever since he was 14, so his build was pretty good. Some women dreamed of being with him, his short black hair, perfect figure and good build, he was the perfect guy. The only thing that stopped them from getting him in their pants, was that they expected Aaron to go and talk with them, but he never would, why? Because he's not really a straight forward guy. He always tries to keep away from crowds and new people. And the MLP tee shirts didn’t help either. "Good morning Spike." Aaron said petting his dog, who seemed happy to see his master. He was an adult golden retriever that Aaron found when he went to a brony meet up. It was dark, and he tripped on something, when he looked again, he saw a starving puppy. Aaron decided to adopt him. And had to name him, so he chose the name Spike, for his very favorite dragon. Aaron got the trash bag and brought it outside. His house was in the middle of a small street in London near the Big Ben. If you looked through the trees you might be able to catch a glimpse of the clock tower. His house wasn’t huge, but it was large enough for Aaron's family. He came back to his family that was sitting in the dinner table eating a classic British breakfast. Aaron was the youngest of the family, he has 3 sisters that never show up. Aaron's father, Richard, he was an blue eyed, blond man. He seemed old from all the years he worked so hard for what he has now. Aaron's mother looked like Aaron, just in a different gender. She too, looked old for all these years working. Now that Aaron had graduated and was going to get his own place, they could rest in peace. But there was only one thing that worried them. It has for the past 11 years. "Son, we have to talk." Aaron's father said putting down his mug. "Sure. What do you want to talk about?" Aaron sat with the chair backwards. "It's about that weird obsession of yours. That show that you’ve been hooked on for the past few years." "MLP?" "Yes son." His mother joined the conversation. "You have been acting strange these past years, buying those girl toys and getting tee shirt and…. Ah I don’t even know what else. You have been getting more and more distant. And I fear that now you are… too distant?" "Distant? Distant from what?" "Distant from the world son." His father said. "You used to love going to that park and seeing the Big Ben, the museums used to make you so happy. But after you got hooked up on that show, everything around you meant nothing. Now all you care about are those strange colored horse…" "Pony dad, pony." Aaron corrected his father. "…pony. You have over 70 ponies in that shelf of yours." "74 and a half. Spike ripped one of them in half. Poor Trixie." Aaron remembered the day it happened. After he saw the mutilated body of his most precious part of the collection, he nearly killed his dog. It was a one in a kind Trixie model the size of a small cup, she was wearing the red outfit she used in season 6 episode 10. And Spike thought it was a piece of steak. "It doesn’t matter how many you have son. What matters is that you have alienated yourself from the world. So your mother and I have planned a family day, were going to the London Eye." "uhhhh!" Aaron imitated his favorite character, Twilight in episode 3 of the second season. It has been so long since he last saw that episode, but for all these years it's been his favorite. Aaron left the dining room and went to his room and buried his head on the pillow. Aaron turned around and took a look in his room. Am I really this obsessed. He grabbed a small Twilight Sparkle model. I guess it is time to change, I have been away for a while now, yes. It is time. He placed the model on the shelf and sighed. Aaron grabbed a trash can nearby and sat down on the bed. He took one more quick look at the model. And frowned. He grabbed it once more and held it on top of the trash can. Do it. His fingers didn’t respond. DO IT! He nearly let go, the model was almost falling. His hand began to shake. Aaron! It's been 11 years! You need to let go! His mind screamed at him. But his hand wouldn’t let go. He felt the tears coming up. "AARON!" His father shouted from downstairs. Thanks dad. Aaron put the model to his side. When I come back. I will do it. Aaron promised to himself. But there was uncertainty in his voice. Author's Note This Story happens sometime in the near future, so futuristic equipments are present in the story.
Chapter 1: Occurrences(Author's Note: If you want some character introductions, backstory and some charater developments, please read the prologue before this chapter. Thank you.) Marcelo and Juan were admiring the view of this new and amazing city, right beneath the Big Ben, while Duncan was getting ready to do his jump, he signed autographs for some of his fans, who just happen to be at the right place, at the right time. Hillary was looking at the London Eye from the opposite side of the river, while Linda was waiting in line to the giant spinning wheel. Vinyl and Aaron were on the bridge separating both sides of the Thames. Aaron was thinking of how the brony community had ceased to exist, how he was the one of the few couple hundred that still liked and watched the show on YouTube or the occasional times it passed on the Hub. He thought of how the show had influenced his life so much and how it changed Aaron into a more caring, loving and understandable person. But he doubts that anyone really knows any of that. Vinyl was thinking of how she hated herself so much. This hate wasn’t because she did something, it's because other people hate her, so she starts hating herself even more. She doesn't like to think she's that emo kid that no one cares about, but that image of her has been pushed down her throat so many times before, it ended up making her believe it. For some people, London would be the best trip in the world, going to one of the greatest cities in human history. But for Linda it was all the same, she had already been in this city over 100 times. She usually bought clothes during the day and at night, she'd wear a hood and roam around the streets for open game stores. But she needs to hide that side of her from the world, because none of her friends would understand. Duncan was…he was being Duncan. Signing autographs, like he does every time he leaves his mansion. This is so pathetic! That is what he thought inside, outside he was just toughness and courage itself. Duncan didn't like the fame, he hated it, being in the spotlight always made him uncomfortable. But you may be asking Then why does he do these things that bring fame? The answer to that is simple, he's just confronting an old enemy. Hillary was looking over at the London Eye with thoughts on her head, about life, family, relationships, sex. Yes, sex. She thinks occasionally of how it would be to be with the perfect guy, someone caring and kind and nice, etc… But she didn't even know that guys saw her that way too. All they could see was a nerdy girl with nerdy glasses and nerdy shoes, and … a very nice heart. Marcelo was probably the only one that wasn’t sad or was conflicted about something. He learned by living in the favelas, that you have to live in the present, not in the shadow of the past or trying to catch up with the future. Always in the present, because that's what really matters. His scar started to hurt, a lot. It burned from inside out. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A very large boom was heard by our characters, so did all of London. A huge fiery ball came from the center of the clock tower, and it slowly rose up, making the shape of a skull. There were debris falling and people on the floor wounded or dead. Marcelo got knocked out by the explosion. Hillary wasn’t able to move, she saw a huge piece of the parliament go up in the sky and go in her direction, but she wasn’t able to move. Suddenly, someone leaped at her and got her by the waist, away from the danger. Then everything went dark. Linda and the others in the line to the Eye just heard the explosion and saw the cloud. She shoved people away and ran to the direction of the Big Ben. With her athletic skills and agility, she was able to get to the crumbling tower in a matter of seconds. She shoved someone out of the way, but lost her balance and fell to the ground. "Sorry." She said while standing up. "It's okay." Linda saw who she bumped into. He was a tall figure, with blond hair and bright yellow eyes. "Just watch it next time." When she heard him speak, a cold breeze ran through her spine. Linda got scared of the man, for no particular reason. She just got scared, very scared actually. She wasn’t even able to move. He just looked so cold and frightening. The man was calm, there was no expression in his eyes. Then, a very large sound came from behind her. A cloud of dust soon covered everything, blocking her view. She was happy that she didn’t have to look at the man for any longer. When the cloud passed, he was gone. Aaron and Vinyl were standing side by side looking at the tower, they saw it slowly go to the ground and make a huge blast, as well as a thick cloud of dust. The cloud started to get closer and closer. Vinyl turned around and covered her face, Aaron saw the girl and shielded her with an embrace. The cloud passed after a couple of seconds, and Aaron was still hugging the girl. They separated and looked at each other, none of them said a word. Wow. They thought in unison. They kept staring for a couple more minutes and Vinyl broke the silence. "Thanks." She said holding one of her arms and rocking from side to side. "Oh. No problem. Hey, umm… what's your name?" He said trying to avoid looking straight at the girl, he could feel his face blushing. "Vinyl." She said trying to do the same thing. Aaron couldn’t get the words out of his mouth. He couldn’t think straight. "Wow. That’s a really nice name. My name's Aaron. Aaron Braddock." He said looking at her hair, which was black with some blue strips. Then he realized, she is the human version of Vinyl Scratch, his second favorite pony! He quickly blew away that thought. No Aaron! This is real life, no ponies today… or ever! He cussed at himself. "Thank you. No one has ever said that to me before." Vinyl said blushing a little. "Really? It seem very nice to me." "Thank you." "No problem." Aaron said awkwardly. There was an awkward silence between them. "I should go." She said hiding he face on her hair. "Wait!" Aaron said extending his arms. "Can I get your cell phone number?" "S-Sure." Vinyl hesitated for a second. Then reached in her pocket and gave him the number. Who knew keeping my cell phone number written down would be useful. Vinyl thought to herself. Then she walked away. There was this strange feeling in Vinyl's chest, she never felt this before. "Nice." Cantus was leaning backwards on the bridge. "Not right now Cantus, did you see what happened?" "I did. So did all of them." He pointed to all of the people on the bridge. "But I see that you seem very calm. Considering." "It's just that…I…felt safe when I was with Aaron. Like how I feel safe when I'm with you." "I think you're in love Vinyl." Cantus chuckled. "Am not!" She shouted. Receiving looks from the people around her. Vinyl just moved forward, completely ignoring Cantus. Aaron walked over to the other side of the bridge. He looked at the cell phone number. Well, this terrorist attack wasn’t as bad as I thought. Well… for me that is. Aaron though as he saw several people on the floor crying and whimpering. Some of them were dead, cut in half, or missing a limb or two. Sirens could be heard off in the distance. This is why I alienate myself. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Duncan was woke with his head and right hand on something very soft and warm, then when he realized, Duncan was with his hand and head on some unconscious girl's breasts. He stood up seconds before she woke up. "Hey…You okay?" Duncan said putting one hand on her shoulder to help her stand up. "I don’t know. Who are you?" She said and coughed a little. "Name is Duncan Price, I just want to help you, I'm not going to hurt you or anything, I promise." He said helping her up. "Thank you, for saving me that is. If there is any way I can reattribute this, please, call me." She said and gave him a little card. It said: Hillary Hyde, Cell phone .... He just read it and looked at the girl, un amused. "You know you can just kiss me and get this over with right?" He said laughing. She just blushed and took a step back. "I'm kidding." "Oh. Okay." She giggled and that made Duncan's stomach into butterflies, he had been with countless women before, but he never felt this before. Why her? She didn’t have any beautiful qualities. Then Hillary then took off her broken glasses. Duncan discovered why, she was indeed beautiful, proving his first impression wrong, her perfect eyes, nose, hair, and that voice. He felt dizzy and started to move back and forth. This sharp pain ran though his body. "Hey… Duncan… are you alright? Oh my god, you're bleeding!" She put her hand on his head, and it quickly began to start getting wet by the blood. It ran across her arm and dripped. Her He lost his balance and fell forward, she was able to hold him. But her white shirt had several red marks. "I'm not scared… I'm not." Duncan kept repeating that to himself. He started to hear a mocking laughter, the type of laughter that only a bully can conjure up. His dizziness grew. Hillary needed to stop the bleeding, she took off his shirt and used it to drain some of the blood. My god… she thought to herself when she saw his body. Hhow many steroids does this guy take? Her thought was quickly silenced when she remembered what situation she was in. Duncan fell to the ground and blacked out. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ A woman running, through a narrow, dirty road. A scream. Eyes, very bright, pale, blue eyes. Marcelo woke up from his dream with someone shaking him. His ears were ringing, when the sense of hearing came back to him, he heard a woman say: "Are you okay? Hey! Are you okay?" She said shaking his left shoulder, he just looked at her and saw a blond girl, with light green eyes. Marcelo tried to stand up, but his legs failed him. There was pain all over. Then, Juan came into his mind. "Juan." He said trying to waste as little energy as possible. "Who?" "Juan. Where is he?" Marcelo pushed the girl aside and stood up, even if his body said no. He limbed his way into the dust fog that covered the whole street. There were people running and bumping into him, many crying or hurt. The fog started to clear and what he saw will haunt him forever. The Big Ben, had been cut in half and fell on the street, half of the tower had fallen down on the street. Then, Marcelo saw something terrible. He saw corpses scattered around. He nearly threw up. "uhh.. ajuda, por favor." He heard someone say quietly. He looked at the where the sound had come from. A man, wearing a tuxedo with half his body under the tower was raising his hand and calling for help. It was Juan. "Juan, oh my god! JUAN!" Marcelo ran to his friend. "Get…me..out of here, Marcelo." Juan said as his friend got both his arms and pushed his friend from the crumbled tower, with no avail. All Juan did was scream. "It's no use. " Marcelo tried pulling him again. "No…Don’t….If I must die here, then I will die here." Juan said letting a couple of tears escape his eyes. "No, no. NO! You can't go, please, no!" Marcelo got one of his friend's hands and held it for dear life. "Please, don’t cry Marcelo. I'll see you again sometime, maybe in heaven or a next life. Just don’t…cry." Marcelo wasn’t following the orders, he was crying his heart out. "Te vejo…depois…irmão." Juan closed his eyes and died, right there, in front of his brother. Marcelo started to cry even harder, he felt someone push him away from Juan. When he looked at who it was, he saw the same women that woke him up. Then he noticed that everything was getting darker and the sun began to get dimmer, and dimmer. Until all there was, was darkness.
Chapter 2: AftermathThree days later The TV turned on. A female reporter, with brown hair and eyes was talking on a bridge, behind her there were machines and people removing large pieces of buildings and sometimes, people. "It has been three days since the terrorist attack on the Big Ben and Parliament. The death count has grown from 200 to 350 yesterday. Bodies are still being found on the rumble. Governments all around the world are working on tightening security in airports and they have shut down most landmarks for safety matters. Witnesses of this occurrence say that there was a large explosion that came from inside of the tower, which means this was not an accident, it was meant to happen." She was silenced when the TV got turned off. Duncan was already tired of hearing people say that it was an accident. Of course it was planed. How could it not be? A giant explosion just happens to blow right in the middle of the most iconic mark in London? But he couldn't say anything to the press while he was in the hospital. The doctors said that he had only a few minor injuries, but he hit his head and ripped a large hole in it, causing severe loss of blood. He got knocked out for a 2 days. But the wounds healed quickly, he could get out of the hospital next week, only one more scar for the collection. So for the time being, he got stuck in a room with some stranger for an entire week, doing nothing, for an entire week. For some reason, that didn’t go very well with Duncan's personality. Duncan was trying to rip every single thread of information of the attack from his memory. Time, location, weather, recent events, wars, etc… Then he remembered the girl, Hillary was it? If it wasn’t for her, he would've been in one of the 350 coffins being buried. She carried his unconscious body to the hospital, he had to do something to do something to reattribute. But that was for a later time, now, all he wanted, was to sleep. After a couple of hours, Duncan got woken up with the sound of sobbing, at first he thought it was just a dream, one of the many. But then he saw that it came from the other side of the room. His roommate was crying. Duncan hates to see people crying, he would rather be the one crying, than see others. He stood up from his bed and walked to his roommate. It was difficult for him to walk, his head hurt he had a difficult time with his balance. When he got to the crying man, Duncan put a hand on his shoulder and said: "Hey buddy, you okay?" "Do I look okay?" The man had a slight accent and was very angry. "I don’t want to make you angry, all I want is to help. If you want me to go, I'll go." Duncan said trying to look as honest as possible. "I'm..sorry. I didn’t mean to be angry, it's just…" The man sat on his bed and turned on the light. Duncan saw that the man was very tan, he is probably from Latin America, he had black hair and eyes. His eyes were red, most likely, he hadn't slept for the past days. "I lost the last person that ever cared for me." "I'm so sorry. Hey, I'm Duncan and I was at the attack too." Duncan said trying to calm the man down. "Hey, Duncan. I'm Marcelo." Marcelo had not even looked at Duncan for the entirety of the conversation. "So…Where are you from?" "I'm from Rio, Brazil." "Rio! I love Rio, very nice city, the people are great and the girls are beautiful." Marcelo chuckled at the remark. Duncan felt happy by seeing him laugh. "Well." His smile disappeared. " I know Rio from a whole different perspective. In Rio, you have to watch your step. I lived in the worst slump in the country. It was dirty, horrific, smelly and dangerous. But it was home. I had to live in those slums for over 20 years." Marcelo looked at the man he was talking to. "I came here through my brother. He got this fine new job with NWT, he had a future, but now…It's over. I have no one left." A few tears escaped Marcelo's eyes, but his tone of voice didn’t change, it was still this cold and emotionless tone. "My mother died when I was five, never did meet my father. So my brother and I had to live all by ourselves, then we got 'adopted' by the drug dealers. We were thought how to read, write, kill." Duncan shuddered when Marcelo said 'kill'. He hated that word. "So have you killed anyone before?" "No. I haven't. But my brother has. Several actually. It's not hard. All you need is a good gun and a steady hand." "You speak English very well, how did you learn it?" Duncan really wanted to change topic. "Languages were always my strong suit. My brother's was weaponry. So we always worked together in the city. I was called on when there was someone a foreigner who needed interrogation or torture, and my brother was called when they needed someone killed. " "How many languages do you know?" "Fluently I speak 10: Portuguese, English, Spanish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Mandarin. But I know the basics for a couple more like Arabic, Vietnamese, Swedish, etc…" "Wow." Duncan didn’t expect someone from the slums of Rio to know so much. "Anyway, it was nice talking to you Duncan. It's late, and I need some sleep." "Yea…right." Duncan moved back to his bed and turned off the light. Bringing darkness once again. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "Vinyl speaking." The girl picked up her phone. "Hey Vin!" Someone responded. "Who is this?" She asked. "It's Aaron, how could you forget about me? it breaks my heart." Aaron said sarcastically. "Hey Aaron, how are you doing?" "It's been good. Considering I was just in a terrorist attack that will probably scar me for my entire life." Aaron felt so bad for joking about something so serious. But at least it made her laugh. "Anyway, how's Vienna?" "Oh you know.... boring." "You really aren't into tourism are you?" "Nope." That remark made Aaron chuckle. "So umm.. what now?" He asked. "Well, I was thinking I could maybe pass by London for a couple of weeks and hang out with you." Both of them smiled. Aaron wanted to squeal in delight, but couldn't because he's a guy, but he wanted to. "Aw. So cute." Cantus laughed beside Vinyl. She jumped in surprise by hearing Cantus' voice. He appears out of nowhere sometimes, well, he is her imaginary friend. "Shut up Cantus!" "Who?" Aaron responded. "No one, don’t worry. So… I will get myself a hotel and then…" "Wait. My house is pretty empty right now, so if you want to stay here with me…." "That's kind of creepy, we've only known each other for like what? 3 days?" Vinyl interrupted. "No, I didn’t mean anything by it I was just…" "Don’t worry Aaron, that is a wonderful idea. See you soon." She hung up the phone. Aaron fist pumped and laid on his bed. He took a quick glance around his room. All of the ponies in his room. Oh no. 2 days later "Flight 11 will be landing in the next 10 minutes, dispatching of the bags will be in the stroller 12." The announcer said through the microphone. 10 minutes later, there were people leaving through the main gate. Aaron looked around for a woman with long blue and black hair. While searching he saw a small girl, about half his age, with a small toy, a pony. A blue pegasus being more exact. Rainbow Dash. He thought smiling at all the memories he has from these many years of being a brony. He remembered the first episode he ever watched. It was the first episode of the second season. Some guys had dared him to watch a full episode without begging for forgiveness. Aaron watched it, and liked it. But he didn’t show it. If he did, then his friends would bully him for all eternity. But that episode was what sparked the begging of a brony. He'll never forget Discord, the monster who almost plunged Equestria into complete chaos and tortured thousands. The boy instantly got hooked on the show, he watched the entire seasons on YouTube countless times. Aaron was quite young when he first watched MLP, so he got scared of the bad guys, Sombra, Nightmare Moon, Discord, but especially Chrysalis. She was the one who made him shudder only by thinking of her. He'd stay up for countless nights, only thinking of that face and those eyes. It might seem stupid and childish, but Aaron is still frightened by her. Then Aaron came back to reality. The cold, cruel, unforgiving reality. He saw Vinyl. "Hey Vinyl!" He shouted waving his hand. A blue and black haired girl pushed some people aside and hugged him. "Hey there Aaron." They broke the hug and she handed him one of her bags. "So, how was Vienna?" Aaron said heading out of the airport. "It's nice, just very boring." "You told me through the phone. I can only imagine. So that is why you want to come to London again?" "Yea. And I want to spend more time with you of course." "Aw. That’s nice." He chuckled and put one of the bags in the trunk of his car. Then he lifted up the second one and did the same. Both of them entered the vehicle. "Horrible what happened isn't it?" Vinyl said. "Yea…Horrible." Flashes of the tower falling came to his mind. The people screaming, the blood on the streets. "I heard over 350 people died, and they are still finding more bodies." "Who would have done something like that?" "Some people, Vinyl, just want to see the world burn." Aaron quoted. "Hey, I already heard that somewhere, isn't it from that old Batman movie?" "I wouldn't say old, it has only been 17 years. And yes it is from the movie. But it applies pretty well with the situation we're in." "You know what this attack reminds me of? 9/11." "Isn't that the terrorist attack from 2001?" "Yes it is. This wasn’t very different. Do you think maybe, they were planned by the same guy." "No, I doubt that. The one that planned 9/11 was killed in 2011, the only way is that he maybe planed this before his death." Aaron saw Vinyl taking a magazine with a guy with a Mohawk as a cover. He was wearing a cut vest and was holding a helmet. Under the picture, in very large red letters, said: What can't this guy do? "Who's this guy?" He said pointing at the picture. "His name is Duncan Price, he was able to break the sound barrier without any propulsion, he has already come from the Lunar base and back over 4 times, and he survived the terrorist attack." "Really? He seems pretty awesome." Aaron wasn’t really impressed, but she liked him, and women are always right. That's a lesson he learned the wrong way. "Awesome? Awesome? He is incredible, probably one of the greatest people in the world. I want to visit him after he leaves St. Thomas Hospital." "What happened to him?" "In the attack, a piece of shrapnel hit him in the head, causing some blood loss. So he's staying over in the hospital for a few days." "Wait? Did you say St. Thomas Hospital?" Vinyl nodded. "You know, I'm volunteering at the hospital, they are having some trouble taking care of all the people." "Really? If you see him, could you get an autograph for me. Please." She asked with puppy eyes. "Sure." He smiled. "You're the best." She leaned closer to him and gave him a peck on the cheek. Aaron felt his inside melt. Vinyl was feeling the same thing, she had never been this close to someone, not even her parents. Every time she saw Aaron, something, a spark flashed inside her, which made her smile. Vinyl wasn’t a big one for smiles, she hated it. But when she was around Aaron, she became a whole different person. "Hey." Cantus poked Vinyl's shoulder, he was sitting on the back seat, right behind her. Aaron turned and screamed. He lost control of the car, but quickly regained it. "What the hell Aaron!" Vinyl scolded him. "I swear I just heard someone at the back seat." He was hyperventilating. "There was no one there Aaron." She lied. Did he really hear him? She thought. "I'm sorry I scared you. I do some crazy things when I'm scared." He re-affirmed. They arrived in his house about 10 minutes later. Aaron helped Vinyl taking her bags out of the car. And looked into the void that existed between the leaves of the trees. In that void, you were able to see the Big Ben and now, all you can see is the starless sky. You never know how important something is until you lose it. Aaron looked down and shook his head. Could I have done something? Could I have helped those people? "Hey, Aaron…you okay?" Vinyl said. "Oh…Yea sorry, I was just… thinking." He got one of her bags and put inside the house. Then he grabbed the next and did the same. Then he brought both bags to the room next to his that was used by one of his sisters before she left. He opened the door and turned on the lights, the room was neatly organized, it had its own bathroom and study room. The bed was king size and everything, from the walls, to the floor was this dark, nearly red, pink. Why isn't my room like this? Aaron's room was half the size, and he had no bathroom. Then he looked at Vinyl and showed it to her. "Aaron. Thank you so much for letting me stay here for the next two weeks. If there is anything, anything I can do to repay you, just tell me." "It's okay. You don’t need to do anything. What you should do is take a nice shower, put on some pajamas and go to sleep, it has been a long week and you must be tired." "Yes mom." Vinyl said joking. They both laughed and Vinyl closed the door. Aaron just smiled and went downstairs to get something to drink. His parents were waiting for him in the doorway. "Who is she?" His mother said coldly. "A friend." Aaron made his way to the kitchen and got some water. "Why didn’t you say you were bringing someone in, especially if she is a girl." "Didn’t think I had to." Aaron wasn’t even looking at his mother. "Aaron Ray Stuart Braddock! Look at me!" She shouted at the boy. He just looked at her, without changing his expression. But inside he knew he was screwed, his mother never called him by his full name. "I am your mother and this is my house, you respect me." Aaron just put his cup on the table and crossed his arms. "Mom, look, she's only staying here for the next couple of week, she won't cause any trouble, we don’t have to do anything, just breakfast and a bed. I swear nothing bad will happen. " Aaron assured his mother. She took a deep breath. "Okay. But if I hear one moan or grunt coming from that room, you will leave this house!" Aaron's mother walked away of the room with her head high. She is very protective of her youngest son. She never lets him bring anyone in or do anything dangerous. She doesn’t even let him have a girlfriend because she's afraid of STDs. But thing is, Aaron already lost his virginity. Aaron's father walked over to his son and put a hand on his shoulder. "The girl…" He whispered. "she looks nice." He left his smiling son. At least someone was on his side.
Chapter 3: PeaceAaron woke up early, 4:30 to be exact. He needed to get ready to go to the hospital to volunteer. He went downstairs and got some water. "Good morning." A female voice said behind him. "Good morning Vi…." He looked at who spoke. A strange women stood there before him. Her head was bleeding and the blood ran through the side of her temple. The blood had turned her blond hair to a strange reddish hue. But that wasn’t what really startled Aaron. It was her eyes. Her eyes had a cream color. They looked so peaceful. Then he noticed it, she was in his house. "Who are you?" He asked the strange women. "That isn't important. You need to be ready." "Ready? For what? "For the end." "The end?" "Soon, the messenger will come to you, he will tell you more. When you receive the message, don’t panic. We all have faith in you…" She turned her head and heard someone going down the stairs. "Do not panic. Everyone's lives are in your hands." Then, she was gone. Just vanished from thin air. "Aaron? Are you there?" A familiar voice ran through the house. "Yea Vin. It's me." He saw the girl walk slowly to the kitchen. "I heard a strange voice coming from down here. Did you hear them too?" "Yes I did. There was…" The woman appeared behind Vinyl, and shook her head left and right. Aaron got the message. "No one. There was no one down here." "But I could swear I heard you talking with someone." "Must have been a dream. Please go back to sleep Vinyl." Aaron ordered. "But.." "Go back to sleep." Aaron ordered once more. She saw that he was conflicted, his emotions were going all over the place. He seemed confused, anxious, nervous, angry. So disagreeing any more with him would just provoke the situation. So she obeyed, Vinyl walked upstairs and closed herself inside her room. When Aaron heard the door close he exhaled. What the hell just happened? He asked himself. Aaron thought, and thought…no solution appeared to be reasonable or logical. Aaron, just didn't know. So he just ignored, making himself believe that it was just a dream, a strange, confusing dream. Aaron went to the were all the volunteers were suppose to go, as well as other 300 men and women that wanted to help. That strange woman that visited his house that same morning was still in his head. Who was she? What was she talking about? Where did she come from? All these questions crowded his mind. He tried his best to ignore them completely, and just believe he was just tripping balls or something. The volunteer area was very improvised, they used the stage of a band that just passed by town and there were no seats. Aaron didn’t expect there to be so many people there. He imagined only about 80, 100 at max. But there was three times that number. A man, with short blond hair, followed by a few royal guards, went to the podium on stage and took a quick glimpse around, he held the microphone and spoke. "All volunteers please gather round here." And so they did. "Thank you so much for your contribution on this time of need. I, king William the fifth, am very thankful of you all. What has happened this past week has shocked us all, and it is great to see how many people can spare a few days, just for this. What will happen in the following days is: you will be separated into: 100 groups each will have from 2 to 4 people. You will then be sent to a hospital in the city. And from there, the medical personal will guide you. The lists are over at there with those officers, please be organized and disciplined. And again, thank you for your contribution in this time of need." People started to slowly be send off into buses where they would go to the hospitals to help. Aaron expected everyone to jump on top of each others to be sent off first, but I guess everyone knows why they are here and what happened six days ago. Aaron was sent to St. Thomas Hospital, he knew that already because there was a website that showed where everyone was going, so it wasn’t a big surprise. He got out of the bus, everything was in chaos. There were people running everywhere, there were people outside the hospital being treated. A sign pointed to the left. It said in big red letters: Volunteers this way. Aaron followed the direction and was given a paper. He was suppose to go to the lobby and his group number was 42. He threw the paper in the trash and followed the instructions. There was only one more person in his group, a girl, Hillary Hyde. She had brown hair and blue eyes that were hidden by her glasses. She was the classic nerdy girl, glasses, ponytail, braces and very organized and perfectionist. She reminded him of a certain lavender pony. No Aaron, not now. Hillary was wearing a nurse outfit, not the sexy nurse outfit, just a normal every day, nurse outfit. "You must be Aaron Braddock." She said with a smile. Aaron noticed she didn’t have an English accent like himself, she sounded American. "That’s me. So where do we have to go?" "We have to go to rooms 191 to 257 today." She looked at the clipboard she was holding. "So we have to do …" "Did you read the papers they gave you?" "umm…they gave us papers?" She laughed. "Okay. We have to go to the rooms check on the patients, see if their vitals are okay, etc… you get it?" "Yes ma'am. " He stood still and put his hand on his forehead. She got a list and went to room 191. "Okay first patient…" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ "This is so much worse than I thought it be." Aaron said almost falling asleep. "Room 250." Hillary said yawning. They opened the door and there were two people in there. One tan boy with black hair watching TV and a guy with a Mohawk throwing a ball at the wall. They didn’t seem more entertained than Aaron and Hillary were. Wait. Aaron had already seen that guy before. That's Duncan Price. Vinyl's idol! He would definitely get some points with her if he brought back that magazine signed by Duncan. He said he would. That’s why he brought it with him. "Hillary?" Duncan said looking at the girl. "Duncan, is that you?" Hillary said giving the papers that had all the reports of the patients to Aaron and ran forward hugging Duncan. "How have you been?" "It's been good, considering. Are you okay?" "I am in a hospital, but I'd be dead if it weren't for you so…thanks." "No problem." Hillary got the papers from Aaron, as he put them in a center on the corner of the room. He then grabbed his backpack and took out the magazine. "Are you Duncan Price?" He said to the man in the bed. "I am." "Could you sign this for a friend of mine, she is your greatest fan." He handed him the magazine and a pen. Duncan signed the magazine and looked at the boy. "So…having any luck with her?" "What?" "Are you having any luck with your girl?" "How do you know?" "Kid, I have seen countless people in your exact situation. It's not that uncommon. Are you going to answer my question?" "Well…I have been doing these favors for her and she has been liking them so… I don’t know?" "Look. All you have to do is be confident, and if you aren't, act confident, and no one will know the difference. Here is my number if you need some encouragement you seem like a cool guy, we should hang out." "Wow…that’s…nice man. Thanks." "No problem." "Aaron, I got all we need, we only need to go to more 7 rooms." "All right. See you soon Duncan." "See you man." Duncan proceeded to throw a ball at the wall and getting it in the air when it came back. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Aaron ran upstairs and knocked on the door, with the signed magazine in hands. "Hey Vin! Can I come in?" He asked. "Yea sure." Vinyl said from inside the room. When Aaron entered the room, he saw Vinyl with only her underwear on looking at clothes. He dropped the magazine and opened his mouth slightly. He looked to the side. "I'll come back later. Okay?" "Wait!" She said to the blushing boy. "I need your opinion." "Opinion?" He was still looking to his side, but taking a few quick glances to the side to see the girl. "Yea. I need your opinion on what I should wear tomorrow." She held up two shirts, one was black with some blue drawings on it, and the other one was blue with black drawings. "You know I'm not gay to know all this stuff right?" "Of course I know you're not gay, just pick one." "Well…I like the black with the blue drawings on it. A very out of the topic question: Why did you let me in here when you don’t have clothes on, knowing that I'm not gay?" "Why do you ask that? Don’t you like what you see?" She said that pointing at her body. "Of course not, by the contrary. It's just that, most people, would…not do that." He said awkwardly. Please don’t ruin this now boner! "I'm not like most people Aaron." "And that is exactly why I like you Vin. Oh I got you your magazine, signed." Aaron picked up the magazine from the floor and Vinyl leaped into an embrace. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." She said almost crying. "You have really nice and soft skin." "Thank you." She said finally, kissing him on the cheek. Aaron, again, melted inside. I think it's time Aaron. The boy thought Okay, act confident, act confident. "Hey Vin. I have one last question." "You're full of questions today aren't you?" "Will you go on a date with me?" He said not looking at the semi nude girl. "Sure, but…" She put her clothes down. "I will go on a date with you. If…" She started to walk to Aaron, put a hand on his chest and slid it up slowly, their faces started to come closer, and closer. Aaron closed his eyes and moved his face forward, but was stopped by a finger. "If you help me chose my clothes for the rest of the week." She said looking at her closet. He just nodded and looked down. I have to get some new pants. Author's Note Sorry for the delay. I had a lot to do, and writing isn't my main priority. I won't promise anything, but the next chapter might come next week or earlier. PS. I haven't gotten any constructive comments yet, please, help me improve this story. Thank you.
