[1] Miami Club Tropicana: Music Puts Times in Perspective!

[dere]

"It's hard to say, Andreas. I'd like to think so, but..." Lilith fell silent quickly afterwards, lost in thought.

"Then, the decision has been made. The time is now." After the Oracle said this, everything goes to black.

---

"I don't know about stuff like that."

A cheerful young blonde girl, around ten years old and in a Hello Kitty t-shirt, smiles to her friend on the school bus. It's a scorching hot Florida day, but she doesn't seem to mind.

"What do you mean?" Her friend asks.

"Well, my parents have never been around. I live with my Aunt."

Her friend looked a little troubled by that. "Isn't that kind of weird?"

The girl shook her head. "I don't really mind. She's nice."

"But, do you even know what your parents are like?"

The girl's smile fades away a bit as she looks down at the ground.

I knew this wouldn't be easy.

The girl, now looking a few years older, walks through a rather small, cramped, and untidy home, making her way into a kitchen space where an older lady was chopping vegetables.

"Um, Aunt Robbie?"

The woman didn't turn around, keeping her attention on her cooking. "Yes, Lilith?"

"How close were you any my mom?"

The woman stay quiet for a moment, the only sound the steady rhythm of the knife. "Well, we didn't talk to each other much..."

The both of them stayed uncomfortably quiet.

"Alright, thanks Aunt Robbie."

Hmph... well, we never really had much in common. I could never quite fully open up to Aunt Robbie.

The girl, now a teenager, is sulking in a dark and dusty attic, clasping her arms around her legs with her eyes cast down. She is surrounded on all sides by useless junk from older days, piled up all the way to the top of the room.

"What does she know... she's not my mom."

She furrows her eyebrows as she angrily punches the wall that she is leaning against. The vibration from the impacts causes a book to fall down from one of the piles. From the look of it, it's a journal. Curious, the girl reaches out and blows on the cover.

"That name..."

She very quickly opens up the book, quickly scanning over all the information she could find. "Many may confuse The Balance for a form of magic, but in truth, it is an easily explained scientific phenomena that has to do with the energy of the universe..."

So that's where it all began. It's been a while now, I can sometimes forget.

The girl is now clad in a school uniform and is sitting on an outdoors bench on her campus. She is engrossed in the journal, but her concentration is broken by the sudden arrival of a rather nosy boy.

"Why do you read that every day?"

"It's interesting."

"What's it about, anyways? There's nothing that could be THAT interesting."

"Doesn't matter. Hey, don't you have a class this period?"

"Come on, lemme see!" The boy reaches out and snatches the book out of her hands and begins to look through it's pages. The girl quickly stands up and tries to snatch it back, but the boy easily keeps her at bay. His eyes widen as he realizes what he's looking at.

"This is really fucked up... This is some real Satanic shit going on here. What's your deal?"

The boy looks back to the girl, but he's suddenly launched several meters back as he does, landing on his back on a patch of grass. He yells out some curse words before looking up and seeing the world around him dissapear into black nothingness.

"Wh-what? What the fuck is this?"

He panics and gets back up to his feet, but he can still only see into a black void.

"What the fuck is this, Lilith?"

The girl's voice sounds through the void. "Don't you dare ever speak to me again. Should you decide to do so, your soul is forfeit."

I've always had a flair for the dramatic like that.

The void melts away back into the familliar landscape of the campus, and the boy begins to run away, clearly shaken by the experience. The girl walks back to where he fell, carefully picking up the journal and cradling it in her arms. "Serves him right." She walks back to the bench that she was just sitting on, satisfied with what she had done.

Well... I guess he provoked me. Still...

"You don't listen to me at all, Lilith! You just sulk all day, chewing your fingers and looking around nervously. Just tell me what I'm doing wrong, alright?"

Lilith casts her eyes down and chews on her thumbnail.

"Is this some kind of rebellion? You wear all those weird dark dresses, that heavy eyeliner, you say weird things all the time... I just don't know what to do about you."

Lilith sighs as she stands up from her bed. "Alright, I get it. I'm sorry, Aunt Robbie." She moves to her dresser and begins to take out various clothes, putting them in a dark backpack. "I'm sorry I've caused you so much trouble. I'll leave you alone now."

"...What? Lilith, what are you doing?"

"I'm leaving you alone now. I've always been a bother to you, so I'll just rely on myself now."

"Lilith, you can't do that! Come on, let's just talk about this."

Lilith looks straight into the eyes of her Aunt. "You know that I'm different, don't you? Just like my mother was. That person you were so scared of... You just got stuck with me, didn't you? Well, I get it. It's fine. I'm just going to go now."

I don't want to see this.

Why did I have to see this?

I'm sorry Aunt Robbie. I'm sorry things had to turn out like that. But... I had to do it. I'm so close to learning about my parents and the stone... maybe one day we can make up.

I've turned into such a toxic, corrupt person. With almost no morals to speak of. But I don't mind... I still have time to make a difference. I still have time to make it ok.

"Congratulations, child. You have faced yourself."

[Al Freakster the Big Cheese]

Taffy saw everything go black after Oracle's words. He mustered a simple "Chto? (What?)" before all was darkness.

---

A hospital. A very young boy, no more than three years old was wheeled in hurriedly, with his parents behind him. The small group led by a doctor stopped in a strange room, that looked not like any else.

Setting the wheel bed in the center, Doctor turned around to the parents. The male spoke:

"What happened to him, Doctor?"

The doctor pinched his nose, sighing.

"Your Son has a strange case of lactose hunger. It seems that he must eat a lot of milk, cheese and all that."

He then shook his head, saddened.

"That's not all. Simple drinking water is harmful for him. A glass of water can kill him. But, the more different stuff is in there, the lesser the effect is."

Mother was concerned. 

"But how will we feed him? We don't have that much money"."

The doctor smiled.

"I'll take care of the money. I have connections."

So... This is how it all went down. That's how they knew. Man, eto bilo (this was) solemn.

The scene changed. The boy, now a 14-year old teenager was walking through the streets of a small town in USA.

"O nyet ( Oh no...) I remember it!

The man was walking towards a big hotel, Wild Mountain, which could be seen from any part of town. He saw smoke coming from it. The man ran. The smoke grew bigger and bigger. Big fires could be seen. And there was no sound of fire trucks. Finally, the man arrived to the giant pyre that the hotel has become. Right when he appeared, the hotel crumbled. The fires suddenly disappeared, leaving charred building and corpses. The young man slumped to his knees, crying. He heard muffled screams for help coming from the wreckage. He dashed to it. Before he could do anything, the sound stopped. Still not convinced, the man tried to clear the wreckage. He lifted it for a few seconds and caught a glimpse of his father and mother's charred bodies. 

"NYET! NYET! MAMA! PAPA! NYEEEEEEEEEEET!"

The man's scream was met with silence. He laid down on the wreckage, just... Weeping. Unbeknownst to anyone, even him, a musketeer hat full of holes appeared on his head.

I... These memories... I never really expressed negative emotions after. Did ya (I) cry out my tears that... Day?

The scene changed yet again, to a more familiar place. Miami. The man was fighting against the man with "Demons". Seeing the overkill, the damage to the buildings, the gruesomeness, Taffy winced.

"Why... Why was I so violent?"

More and more scenes flashed. They all depicted Taffy delivering gruesome deaths, overkilling fights and such. After a moment, it showed the Doomed World that Taffy saw in the vision. The murders, the deaths, the overall not caring attitude of that world's Taffy left Fuqua speechless. Tears fell down his face when he saw himself eating a little girl's arm. He shouted into the nothingness:

"MY VIOLENCE IS TOO MUCH! I CANNOT UNDERSTAND WHY I DO THAT! I JUST DO IT IN THE MOST EFFICENT WAY! YA NE PONIMAYU (I don't understand) WHY I CANNOT FEEL! I... Just... Don't know what went wrong with me. I fought against bad guys, and dispatching was a good tactic... Ya hochu (I want) my powers back to open a nice cheese restaraunt... That's it. I... I made a lot of sins in my life. I am a bad man."

"You now understand. But what will you do with that knowledge, my friend?"

"I'll set things right. And be less harmful... I (And) be more... Feeling. I promise to my dead ancestors, to my parents, to all who I killed... I am sorry."

[Silver]

13 years ago...

"C'mon, Silas, don't be such a chicken!" A young boy with an irish accent climbed up a gnarled, old tree as if it were the most natural thing. 

"Sean, we can't go up there, your mother said we'd get hurt." The second boy said, nervous and frightened.


"You know that my mother is a worrywart at bes-aaaaAAAAAA" The sentence was cut short by an ill-planned foot placement and the fall that followed.

"I GOT YA, SEAN!" yelled, Silas only barely being able to catch his friend.

Silas set Sean down and then a booming voice came from the house nearby. "SEAN O'DONNEL WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT CLIMBING THAT TREE?"


10 years ago...


"You two better give me all your money!" The man in the black ski mask yelled.


"Do you know who we are, you fuckin' idiot?" Retorted the blonde haired boy.

"Sean, we'd better just give him our money, no one has to get hurt." Said Silas, trying to end the fighting.

""You little brat, imma cut you to shreds!" The robber leapt towards Sean with a knife. Sean raised his arms to defend his head when something made of shadow rushed towards the attacker and caved in his chest.

"HOLY SHIT!" Silas yelled. Sean stood, speechless, a grin slowly growing on his face.

""Silas! I finally got my stand! Oh shit, we gotta go celebrate....after we get rid of this guy, of course." The joybof the moment soon subsided as the reality of the situation set in. The two boys got to work as only relatives of the irish mob could.


7 years ago...


"I AM NOT HAVIN' A FOOKIN' HOMO IN MY HOUSE!" A loud voice raged, coming from an angered irishman.

"Nothing was happening, dad!" Said Sean, feebly trying to deny the events of the night.

"You aren't gonna be havin' anythin' to do with that boy, you hear? Maybe I'll consider forgivin' you if you do that." Said Sean's father.

"...Fine, dad, I'll do it." Said Sean, hesitantly. As Sean said the words, he realized the terrible thing he'd just agreed to.

Earlier that night, Sean had a friend over, this friend was none other than Silas. As the nifht went on Silas seemed as though he had something he wanted to tell Sean something, that something was an explanation of his feelings toward Sean, feelings which Sean reciprocated. The two young men were overheard, though, by Sean's father, a staunch traditional Catholic. The proceedings went just as well as everyone would expect.

1 Year Ago...

On a cold, dark night, a terrible thing came to pass. A murder most foul was carried out in the apartment of one Silas Wright, a man ostracized by his family and friends. A lonely man, who had not had any true friends since an unfortunate incident six years ago. After the police cordoned off the scene of the crime a man came running in, screaming for the police to let him enter. The officers on site tried escort him off, but a mysterious force pushed them aside, allowing the man inside. The man, Sean O'Donnel, knelt besise the corpse of his former friend and his first love. "I could have been there." These were the only words said as Sean got to his feet and walked out the door. What followed was a year of slaughter, the killing of hundreds of innocent people, many of which who only had tenuous connections to the murder of Silas Wright. Entire families and bloodlines snuffed out, each moment of slaughter driving him deeper and deeper into bloodlust, then Sean got a call concerning the man he'd been chasing, a man who just so happened to be in the city of Miami...


The past cleared from Sean's mind, freeing him of the torment of his actions, he'd survived the ordeal and come out of it stronger, accepting that even he couldn't have saved Silas.

[gruulgoon]

Darius: Age 16 

"Yo come on dude, don't be a pussy! We're just ganking some random guy.  You want that new bike don't you?"

 Mike talked to Darius, Mike's little brother Anton was standing next to him, no more than 13 years old.  Darius patted his foot on the ground impatiently and ran his hand through his hair. 

"Yeah but dude, this is the Bronx, you don't know who has connections to who, who has shooters and who doesn't.  You've seen people packing choppers under their coats and in back packs." 

Mike's smirk faded as he nodded to Anton. 

"Well if you ain't gonna do it, I'm looking for a new set of wheels~" 

Not this again

"Yo stop man, it's not worth it!" 

Is what I wanted to say.  But my resolve was weak, and I couldn't stop them. 

They were now running through a series of alleys, Mike on his newly snatched bike, with Darius and Anton behind him, Anton the slowest by far.


"Come on hommie, they comin!  Why the fuck didn't I listen to you?~" 

Why didn't you Mike?  Cause you were raised by the city.  Poor home, no people to turn to.  It was only me and your brother.

"Yo there they is!" 

Why

*Click*

couldn't you understand?

The sound of gunfire was drowned out by a scream.  A scream of agony, of confusion, of disappointment and sadness from a life that would be cut to short by greed.  It wasn't Mike who rode off faster and left them, but it was Anton's.

I could have stopped them, I could have taken the hit, I knew I had my stand then but I was too much of a coward...

"D-Darius..." 

Through sniffling and tears, both Anton's and his own, Darius crouched down and held the bullet wound tight.  He has called 911, but it was clear the bullet had hit an artery and was bleeding severely. 

"I-I don't want to die...It hurts...Where's brother? M-MIKE?!"

Darius put his head on a brick wall and shed tears of hatred, not only at the gang members, but at himself.

"Don't worry Anton, the ambulance is coming soon...a-and they..." 

He wasn't going to make it.  Darius picked up Anton and held him tightly.  His color was gone, and he was growing limp. 

"H-hey Darius..." 

Darius looked up and into Anton's eyes. 

"You're religious right? C-can you pray for me?" 

Nodding, Darius took out his family cross from around his neck, covered in blood that did not belong to him and silently prayed for the young boys soul, whose life hadn't even begun properly before it was ended. 

"A-and promise me...In church...Promise that you...Will..._{sing about me~..."} 

I was a fool...

I was too full of rage...

I needed to avenge him...

Darius and Mike sat outside the hospital, crying when Mike began to speak. 

"He's gone, and it's all my fault..." 

"Yes it is.  You son of a bitch killed your own brother." 

Mike then stood up. 

"T-thank you for being there in his last moments though...when I couldn't have been fucked enough..." 

Darius saw the car coming around from before.

I could have warned him.  But he needed to pay for his ignorance. 

"And I love you cause you loved my brother when I couldn't..." 

What a cretin I was...

"Promise me you tell his story, tell everyone what a good kid he was...I started this.  I couldn't protect him.  But you tried your best.  Darius, thank you...for being a great friend...almost like a bro-" 

*bang* 

No punishment would ever fix what he did.  But even still, he didn't deserve that. 

That's why I repent.

That's why I need to protect.

Even though it will never make up for the two lives I could have saved because my resolve was weak. 

I still go on

Because that Mad City shaped us

And that's why I Sing About them

As they rest in a City of Stars

[ToledoJones]

The Oracle's music comforted Jagger. He felt totally at ease. Totally happy. Then the tears began to fall. The tears were beyond his control, they were his and not his. Not tears of sorrow, at first, just tears.

The tears broke into an incomprehensible blathering. A small boy with short hair stood over his father's casket. Seeing his father's body gave a sense of finality to the boy. His crying ceased. The pain remained, of course. Whoever had come up with the seven stages of grief certainly hadn't made it clear that the stages could overlap. Acceptance came as anger flared to life. Not anger at some higher force - the death had been entirely his father's own fault - anger at his father for leaving him.

***

The boy sat in his room alone as he had for most of the last few months. He dropped the book he had been reading and fell backward onto the couch. He stared at the ceiling, blankly. Many thoughts crossed his mind, but none stayed with him for very long. He was not sure how long he had been staring at the ceiling when it happened. A voice cut through his muddled mind, a clear voice.

"Nice place ya got here." A female voice said in his mind. "The name's Minnie."

"..." The boy sat upright and looked around. "Great... Now I'm hearing voices. I've lost it!"

"You might be losing it, but that doesn't have anything to do with me. Say, you hungry?"

The boy sighed and fell face down into a pillow.

"Hello?"

***

The boy, now a young man was running down a dark alley, his long hair flowing in the breeze. A shadowy figure ran after him, brandishing a set of gleaming charkrams, his foot steps splashed wildly in the rain. The shadowy figure spoke in sickening voice, "You can't hide... They say people like us are drawn to one another." The last word was a grunt. A chakram shot toward the young man and struck him in the shoulder.

Fuck... This is it. It's been fun, Minnie.

The chakram flew from where it was wedged in his shoulder back into his assailant's hands.

Minnie? She seemed distant for the first time in years. Where are you, Minnie?

"With that creep." Minnie replied, as though from another room.

A second wind invigorated the young man. Ignoring the pain, he clambered over a fence at the end of the alley and ran. Metallic noises rang out as he ran through the wet night.

***

The young man knelt over a body. Blood mixed with the rain water on the street. Chakrams lay tarnished in the mud nearby.

***

Jagger opened his eyes. He sat against the wall in the Oracle's room. His friends and the Oracle were nowhere to be seen. A familiar dark figure entered the room, chakrams gleaming at his belt. The figure seemed to be one with the shadows, moving forward smoothly without stride. "I will never stop hunting you..." The figure lunged at him. Jagger closed his eyes. He made no move to avoid the conflict.

Opening his eyes, he found himself in an odd room. He was sure he had never been there before, yet it had an almost supernatural familiarity to it. A high-intensity deja-vu. The room was rather untidy: clothing was strewn about the furniture and comics were littered about the floor and shelving. A bright orange couch and a large dark chair sat around a coffee table and a television set. The room was dimly lit; a ceiling fan spun lazily. A noise in the kitchen caught his attention, a woman with dirty blond hair came into view carrying a bag of chips. "I wondered when you would make it here."

[dere]

The various visions that passed through the consciousnesses of the group came to a sudden end as the room of the Oracle flickered back into view, this time with a pair of elevator doors at the back entrance.

"You all proved to possess strength of spirit. That which you seek is within reach; now go, and fulfill your destiny."

[Al Freakster the Big Cheese]

"Spasibo (Thank you), Oracle. I see clearer now. And I promise to you, my-, no, Our destinies will be fulfilled."

Taffy bowed to Oracle, then proceeded to the back entrance.

"I am still shuddering over my Cheesed self. Eto (This is) some spooky stuff. He ate a girl's arm for crying out loud!"

"Yes, that was quite a morbid sight. But now... Let's be a bit less violent, alright?"

"Sure, my friend. We must continue our hunt over the Jawbreaker after we finish it here."

[gruulgoon]

Darius shivered and took off his helm as he rushed a hand over his hair.

"I just wanna fight something I can actually touch..."

~"You remind me much of myself Darius, why I used to fight, and why it got me to where I am..."~

[dere]

Lilith shivered for a moment, keeping her gaze down towards the ground. I keep on trying to run away from my past... but I keep on coming back. I can't keep doing this... Once this is over, it's time for a new start. After a moment of deep thought, she looked towards the others and sighed. "Almost there. Let's just... get this done quickly. We have to keep on going." She moves towards the elevator doors and forces them open, not taking a single look behind her.

Everything is black and white again.

There is no turning back now.

We have reached a time when people have needed each other.

People have been taught to feel their desire and their doubts.

We have reached a time in their lives when love is the question

And the answer.