"We're gonna help you," said Rainbow Dash, brimming with determined confidence. "You're insane!" said Orchid, "You don't know what they're capable of!" "Yeah I do, actually..." said Rainbow Dash, her tone becoming more somber, "My parents were killed in a drive-by shooting when I was six years old. I won't pass up my opportunity to avenge my kin... and besides, I gotta help my friends out whenever I can."
Spoiler: Music for scene. "Just...one thing that I need to mention." Crimson said to the rest of the group, sitting on the couch. "The reason behind Orchid's 'Death' was simple. Her father lied. About everything. The moment he moved over to America with the rest of the family, he began to take everything to new heights. He wrote that she died and got someone to make it look believable, all because he needed a heir. And after speaking out about him, he had Orchid's mother executed in the middle of the forest." Orchid sat next to Crim, sad at the news. "That's not all he did. My father was very good friends to a very powerful godfather in the Californian underworld, so when the godfather died when I was about 9, we moved over. Turns out he never got a new job nor did he get anything, he was his successor. He calls it the "Family Business" since then. And he never liked Crimson, even during our childhood together. And now that he knows that Crimson is alive, he's just put a price on him. I would have never had the courage to ever speak up against him if I knew that I would have never seen him again. But my father has seen me betray him, and now, he's going to have me and Crimson killed." Crimson then stood up. "I know that Pinkie Pie was organizing the School Formal back at CHS, mentioning that it's been her 'Pride and Joy' for the past few weeks now. If we are to keep everyone safe, I can't have anyone killed there." He said before he headed towards the door. "You three, stay here. Watch the news tomorrow morning when you wake up." With that, he closed the door behind him. He had just left Circuit, Rainbow and Orchid alone in the building. What he was about to do was stupid, but if he was to make sure his new home was safe, it needed to be done. As he walked along the late-night streets, he checked his hoodie pocket to find a piece of paper. The exact address for the nightmare that was about to unfold. He wasn't armed, but his mind felt prepared. Anyone else that came along was going to be killed. ------------------------------------------------------ 1am, 10 miles northwest from Downtown Canterlot. By the time he arrived, he found himself looking at a huge stronghold that formed as the capital of Orchid's fathers criminal empire, a large concrete stronghold in an industrial metropolis. Crimson was at the gate, looking at what remained before him. In his hands, he then placed a realistic rooster-mask over his head to hide his identity, not risking the chance of discovery again. Tonight, this was the home of the strongest criminal organization in Canterlot, tied directly to Orchid's father and completely armed to the teeth. If Crim and Orchid were to survive, this place had to be taken down. If he died tonight, everyone he knew and cared about would die. But if he succeeded, then Crimson would have broken the back of the largest criminal stronghold on the entire American West-Coast. He had never killed anyone before, but...when his life was on the line, there was a first time for everything... He took a step closer, as history would be made...
Spoiler: Music for Scene The alarm was soon triggered, and from this point onwards, it was impossible for him to reconsider the choice to continue. This was now the point of no-return, and he couldn't go back anymore. Crimson quickly broke into a sprint as he pulled out a butterfly knife that Orchid gave him to protect himself when she originally picked him up at his house and with a solid kick to the door, broke the entire doorframe completely and sent a guard behind him flying backwards. Another guard nearby tried to attack Crimson the moment he went through the door, but was suddenly silenced when his attack failed and the butterfly knife stabbed him in the stomach. The guard under the door was taken care of as well, but one thing interested him. The now dead guard underneath the door was carrying an assault rifle with at least 10 clips of ammo. This would be drastically more useful as the now-armed Crimson ran across the base, taking cover whenever he could and mowing down goons like they were nothing, For the first time that he had ever used a gun, he had already taken down at least sixty professional thugs and killers already. One floor after another was cleared, until for the first time, he noticed something. This place was used to hold vast amounts of weaponry and equipment for Orchid's Father. Military-grade stuff from assault rifles, tactical gear, bullet-proof vehicles and even rocket launchers and grenades were kept in storage on the main floor. Unaware thugs, despite the alarm going off, were still busy working on these cars for what could be a potential invasion. He wasn't going to have any of this. Crimson, from a high vantage point, took a grenade launcher and aimed it at the middle car in a row of at least twenty. The round slammed into the back wheel of the car, managing to get as close as possible to the fuel-tank before the car was blown sky-high along with anyone near it. Crimson then quickly got the hell out of the building as a domino effect managed to occur with the other cars, blowing them to pieces along with their fuel sources, as the whole place quickly started to burn to the ground. Crimson took a motorcycle from the garage and quickly sped-off, just as the entire building exploded in a ball of flames almost a few seconds later. The flames were so intense that it would have left nothing in-tact for Orchid's Father to use, if it was even possible for it to be salvaged. Crimson had arrived at the criminal complex as an innocent yet trained fighter, but had now left the place as a professional murderer. He was okay physically, but his mind? Not at all...
Around the same time, Rainbow Dash's house... "It doesn't feel right..." sighed Circuit. "Crim out there all by himself... he could get hurt. Maybe I should help him." "I want to help him too," said Rainbow Dash, confidently. "It's the right thing to do. And it'd be so cool to take on an entire gang!" "Good idea," said Orchid, "but you both need to learn how to fight."
Around 3 hours later... Crimson returned back to Rainbow's house while everyone was asleep, passing the homes of some of the students in his class. He wasn't surprised that they wouldn't exactly think of him highly, some were afraid to talk to him since the incident involving the Pink Cloud gang. His clothes were not in a good shape either, managing to rip his favorite T-shirt that was now covered in blood. At least he can sleep tonight knowing that the man trying to kill him and his daughter just had a major wrench thrown into his plans. While it was not enough to remove the problem all-together, it could possibly take months to recover from it. But Orchid's father still had able men, and he was ready to deal with them when needed. The moment he reached a bedroom in the house, he simply collapsed onto the bed from exhaustion. The news tomorrow would have been a shocker...
Crim was snoring in the bed, fast asleep as the news began to report another incident. This time, it was showing the burning remains of an old warehouse. "Another violent attack has occurred in the Canterlot underworld, leaving more then eighty people dead after a fire had broken out. Police at the scene received reports of the sound of gunshots being heard across the building. The incident appears to be the scale of a large rival gang attack. More news at 8..." Orchid looked in shock at the news. She knew that Crimson was behind it, but the scale of the destruction was immense. "He's not even human, isn't he?" ------------------------------------------------------------------- Spoiler: Music for scene Something happened inside the dream, a dream from which Crimson couldn't escape from. He was stuck inside of a dusty hallway, which compelled him to move towards a door. Once opened, he discovered something. Three people in the one room, sitting on leather chairs that looked at the teen who walked through the door. One of them had a rooster mask and wore a Letterman jacket, the next one wore a horse mask and a dress. The last one wore an Owl mask with a very well designed white suit. Crimson didn't express any emotion at the scene, but felt like that these people....were representations of himself. "And who do we have here...Oh, you don't know who you are? Maybe we should leave it that way?" Don Juan, the lady with the horse mask spoke with a soft soothing voice that sounded like an angels harmonica, a motherly voice that could unlock the doors to a mans soul. "But I know you. Look at my face, we have met before...haven't we? Richard, the man in the rooster mask spoke next in a much more sinister tone of voice. "I DONT KNOW YOU!" The man in the owl man spoke, Rasmus, snapping at him in a aggressive tone. "Why are you here? You're no guest of mine!" "Do you really want me to reveal who you are? As of lately, you've done some terrible things." "I'm doing these things to keep my friends and family alive" Crimson told the mysterious strangers. "Nothing more and nothing less. I had to kill those people" "Does March 23rd mean anything to you? I believe that this is the day is important to you?" "That is the day of the Fall Formal. It's this Friday" Crimson said to Richard. "What does this have to do with me?" "Do you like hurting people, Crimson?" Richard said.
"What happened last night?! A bunch of gang members died and you look like an extra from Mad Max!" said Rainbow Dash with a mixture of rage and concern.
Orchid walked into the scene and stood behind Circuit and Rainbow. Crimson just shook his head as his bed-hair went everywhere. "I just had to take care of a few problems that me and Orchid had. I completely broke the back of Orchid's Fathers army, I destroyed huge amounts of his supplies and equipment, alongside take out about a dozen or so of his men. I've knocked him out the park to the sense where I don't think he can recover for a few months or so, giving all of us some breathing room." "Crim, you okay?" Orchid said before looking at his complexion. "You look like you've had a nightmare." Crimson sighed deeply. "I guess you can say that..."
"Well, Orchid's been training us to fight like her, so we can help if we need to," said Rainbow Dash. "We couldn't bear the idea of you getting killed without us being able to do anything about it," said Circuit. "I must say, they did quite well," said Orchid, "They learn fast. Faster than I did."
Crim looked at both Circuit and Rainbow. "Spring Formal is coming up...my dream was a warning. Something really bad is going to happen."
Few days later... School continued as normal, and for the first time in a while, Crimson actually showed up to help advanced his studies. He preferred not to attract any attention from people heading his way however, since he was still receiving attention from the mob. Some students even began to take a fancy for him, especially some of the girls for what they believed was a bad-boy attitude. He didn't really pay attention to any of it, he was just busy trying to keep himself alive...
Pinkie Pie was putting everything she could into making this the best Spring Formal that Canterlot High will ever have. With the assistance of the teachers, she was going to make this the most memorable moment that she could. The music, balloons and the food was already being prepared, and Pinkie was totally in her element. Meanwhile, Sunset began to notice that Crimson had returned, and he didn't look like the same student like he was before. He was still friendly as always, and he still had plenty of friends, but for some reason...he looked 'lonely'. So whenever she could, she felt awkward again thinking about him. Wondering why it was just him. Maybe she didn't like something about him? Maybe there was something about him that she liked. Maybe it was something much more personal~
Crimson turned to face Sunset. "Oh...hey Sunset." He said before shuffling his feet. "I could be better, I suppose..."
