GOLD

(Rewritten)

Chapter Four

Nazis and a New Name

I soon figured out that I wasn't capable of sleeping, so I stayed up all night getting used to my guitar.

I picked it up, thinking I had no idea what to do, but I just started playing a random song. It surprised me that I was able to do it. Byrd had said I was programmed to do it. I tuned the guitar half of the time and practiced through the rest of the morning. I was in the middle of a song when Byrd came in…glaring at me. He sat down and shortly after, Aera came in as well.

Byrd continued to glare at me before Aera finally said something.

"Well, it's Monday. We'll start performing at about four. How well can you play that guitar?"

"Well," I responded.

"Okay, good."

Byrd continued to glare at me every once in a while as he was reading a newspaper.

Where'd he get a newspaper? I thought.

"So…what do you do around here when you're not performing and not killing helpless Nightguards?"

Byrd looked up at me with a glare when I said helpless Nightguards.

"Well-" Aera began to say before she was cut off.

"You can help me with the little problem we have outside."

Mr. Byrd had come in without us even noticing. He looked a little beaten up and he had a stern look on his face.

"What's the problem?" Byrd asked.

"They are back," Mr. Byrd responded in a worried voice.

"You don't mean…" Aera began to ask.

"Yes, I do mean that it's them."

"Um, who are you talking about?" I asked.

"You'll see," Said Byrd before he had a look on his face that said light bulb. "Oh…I guess we'll call it the final test. If you can do this right, then we know you're worth something…even if you can't kill Nightguards…" He mumbled.

"Wait…he can't do what?"

"Nothing!" Byrd exclaimed.

"Okay…?" The bewildered pizzeria owner said as he looked at Byrd suspiciously.

"Yeah…it's nothing," Byrd said back.

"Anyway, they are back and I need you to get rid of them."

"Get rid of them?" I asked.

"No! Just run them off, don't kill them."

"I know how to do it," Said Byrd as he went over to a painting, lifted it up, and pulled three paintball guns out of a secret compartment.

They weren't regular paintball guns either. They had actual magazines that were loaded from the bottom and there was a semi-automatic and fully-automatic setting on them.

"Ah. I see you're putting those to good use. Hey, be careful with those. They're custom made and expensive." Mr. Byrd said…acting like what according to Aera was his normal self.

"Is everything you do expensive?" I asked.

"Yes, pretty much," He responded," Anyway, go up to the balcony and give them-"

"Yeah, yeah, we know," Aera interrupted.

We headed off the stage, across the seating area, down the hallway, and up the stairs. We walked through Mr. Byrd's living room which had a lot of nice furniture, a wide-screen TV, a coffee dispenser? His kitchen had a bunch of high-dollar kitchen stuff and his dining room had a Mahogany table with a bunch of fancy silverware a-and another coffee dispenser? There was a double-door made of glass that led out to the balcony.

Byrd and Aera went out the door first and when I was about to walk out, I heard:

"Uh…what are you guys doing?" It was Mr. Byrd's daughter.

Nope.

I quickly stepped out and closed the door behind me. Then I heard the annoying yelling and screaming coming from the parking lot. There were a bunch of Volkswagen beetles and a bunch of people yelling at the building. I noticed that there was a flagpole out in the grass with no flag on it. I looked down into the crowd and saw them ripping the American Flag apart. I heard one of them yell:

"Hail Hitler!"

I then saw them trying to raise the Nazi flag up the flagpole. I quickly loaded the paintball gun, switched it onto automatic, and covered the Nazi flag in blue paint (not to mention I also ripped it into shreds). All of them went silent and looked up at me…

It was an interesting moment. Everyone stared at me and I saw out of the corner of my eye the flag ripped right off the rope and flew away in the wind which was pretty strong at that moment. It seemed like forever before anything happened.

"Hail Hitler!"

That's it.

We all fired into the crowd with our guns on automatic. We painted them red, white, and blue. They all scrambled back to their cars, which I then realized had tiny Nazi flags on them. We covered the windows of their cars in paint as they sped off. One of them even crashed into a dumpster…where they belong.

"Well, that was fun!" Said Byrd.

"Yes. Yes it was, "I said back.

"Well, that looked fun!"

Mr. Byrd had walked out onto the balcony. He got a slightly angry look on his face when he saw the American Flag in pieces on the ground.

"This town needs to run them off," He said.

"Um, why isn't your daughter in school?" I asked.

"It's Winter break, ding-bat!" Byrd answered before Mr. Byrd could.

"Jeeze, I didn't know. I just woke up yesterday. How was I supposed know?"

"Oh…right."

"Well," Said Mr. Byrd," It's getting close to four, so you should probably get back to the stage."

With that, we all headed back to the stage to get ready for my first show. I was backstage making sure my guitar was tuned correctly, Aera was checking the piano which was on the stage, and Byrd was making sure that all the audio systems were working.

"Um, Byrd?" I asked.

"What?"

"I don't even know what songs to play."

"Just let your programming take care of it. You'll know what to do."

"Okay…" I still wasn't sure.

I could hear the footsteps of people walking down the hallway. I slightly pulled the curtain to the side and peeked out. The kids came in and sat down in the seating area which was in front of the stage and the adults walked into the dining area. After a while, Mr. Byrd walked out onto the stage and read a speech which was on a card that he was holding.

"Now, I know you don't want to sit there and listen to me talking, so let me introduce our friends. Byrd, come on out!"

Byrd walked out and waved to the kids as he walked up to the microphone and said hi to everyone.

"Now for our wonderful pianist, Aera!"

Aera came out onto the stage and waved as she walked over and stood by the piano which was to the left of Byrd.

"Now, last but not least, our new friend who's great with the guitar, come on out!"

I walked out onto the stage and waved at the kids as I walked over to my spot on the stage which was to the right of Byrd.

"Now, how about I get off the stage and let our friends perform?"

I picked up a microphone and said:

"Yeah, get outta here! You're taking up too much space!"

The kids laughed as I put the microphone back down and Mr. Byrd stepped off of the stage. I sat down in my chair and Aera sat down at the piano.

"Alright, who's ready to hear some music?" Asked Byrd.

"We are!" The crowd of kids yelled.

"Can't hear you!"

"WE ARE!"

"OKAY!"

With that, Byrd started singing as Aera and I started playing the music to the song. I had no idea what song it was, but I just went along with it. Afterwards, we played some more songs and later, we came down off of the stage to say hi to the kids and ask them how the pizza was.

And, since I was new, a bunch of kids came over to me. They started asking questions.

"What's your name?" one of them asked.

"Uh… I don't have one."

They looked at me funny.

"Cool leather jacket," Another said.

"Um, thanks."

They acted like they were trying to come up with a name for me. A few of them had books in their hands. They were looking at the book cover which had the picture of what looked like a wolf on it. They looked down at the book and then back up at me.

"Nice to meet you, Tempus," One of them said.

A bunch of kids just gave me a new name…