Butterfly Effect
A Canadian boy walked alone at one of the bridges of Edmonton.
He enjoyed reading a book that kind old lady had allowed him to bring back home.
He was reading it aloud. It would still some time until he would learn to use only his mind to study things that he enjoyed so much.
"To calculate the distance between the stars there are many methods. One of them is the stellar parallax. Placing a finger in front of the face and covering an eye with the other hand, an apparent change of position is generated on the finger. Covering the other eye causes the same thing. Both apparent positions form an angle that can be measured and used with some geometry to calculate the distance between the face and the finger. The same principle can be applied to the stars with a similar process. Taking two photos of a star, each one with six months of difference, displays an apparent shift of position, this time caused by the Earth and the different parts of its orbit around the sun. Friedrich Bessel made the first successful parallax measurement in 1838, for the star 61 Cygni, using a Fraunhofer heliometer at Königsberg Observatory."
Technically this book was more advanced for what you would expect to give to an eight years old boy, but it wasn't like they could deny him a book at the library as long as the book didn't contain any adult themes or images.
Good thing this boy was interested in astronomy and not biology.
"I'm home." he opened the door of his house and saluted his parents working at the restaurant.
"How school was?" asked her mother as she patted him.
"Normal, as always." he shrugged as he just walked away in direction to his room.
He placed the book on the table as he scratched his hair...
The truth was that, even though this kid certainly liked stars and all that other subjects related to it... math had been causing him headaches since... well, always.
He pulled out both a notebook and a calculator from his backpack to start practicing.
The math formula was there... and yet, to say his calculations were erroneous would be a euphemism.
If he couldn't get it right with simple examples...
The kid sighed in frustration as he decided to take a rest.
He decided to go to the room where the PC was. Fortunately, his brother hasn't returned yet so it meant he could play a little.
He opened a Game Boy Advance emulator.
The game? Advance Wars 2.
After beating the campaign in normal mode, it was time to beat it in Hard Mode.
This was another of his interests in life. Reading about the war in story classes... kinda had the opposite effect you would expect in a kid. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact the books count the world war 2 as an "epic" story.
This game also didn't display the brutality of a massive conflict so it may have been another factor.
After some hours, another person entered the room the PC was. "Another long day... urgh." Logan Clark sighed as he let his backpack hit the floor.
The kid did a quick save to ensure is progress didn't get lost as he closed the emulator and moved aside to allow his brother to use the computer.
"How was your day?" the kid asked. Even if he wasn't going to control the device, he always enjoyed seeing his brother playing or doing homework.
"It was great, I got excellent results in the exams so I can relax in peace." Logan happily was searching for the game Age Of Mythology.
"Nice." the kid scratched his hair.
After a while, when his brother needed to go to the bathroom, the kid decided to "take a look" at the exam his brother had had... it was a math test. Unsurprisingly, the teacher had given him an A. As the kid returned the page inside the backpack... he felt ashamed as he remembered his previous math test... a C.
He had to work harder...
Unlike previous times, this time the kid paid more attention to his homework than his brother playing.
Years later... he hadn't improved a lot... he got sometimes a B... but Cs were still the standard.
At least his brother had brought a new console. A PlayStation 4.
Something that made him feel curious was if either he was controlling another soldier... or just a camera with hands, legs and a weapon. He didn't know anything regarding how a videogame was programmed, who knows what kind of weird stuff all this stuff had.
It's not like he hadn't seen another "realistic" games about the war similar to this one before, but this was just awesome! the action was brutal, explosions and shootings wherever he could see!
As his avatar crossed a door to inside a building, he started shooting at two enemy players. Unfortunately, he wasn't an Asian kid so... it went as well as anybody could expect from someone with so low experience.
He sighed as he continued the battle once he had respawned.
The more kills the got as he practiced... the more he liked this game.
A few years after... the Canadian felt he didn't have a purpose in his life. He didn't know why... but his math scores just never reached the standard he was sure it was necessary to work in a space agency.
He just wasn't good at it... and this wasn't even the most complex formulas that existed...
What would he do?
As always, his brother had success without seeming he would stop obtaining it soon.
A good job as a programmer in the neighboring country.
This meant the Canadian teenager had received more presents, like a better PC and it couldn't be said he was a low-middle class anymore... yet... he felt kinda useless...
As he reflected walking through the house... he found an old paper that his brother had received time ago when he was still studying.
That day some soldiers had visited the university to get some more people for the Canadian army...
He... considered it...
He didn't have enough age to enlist in the army... but maybe this could work?
Would his parents accept it?
Probably the answer to the second question as a big no... but what about the first one?
He was decent at the school activities that needed physical strength.
And his life was his... it was his decision to do whatever he wanted to... regardless of what reaction his parents could have.
Besides, those were peaceful times... initiating a war would only cause the destruction of the whole planet through a nuclear attack... and nobody was stupid enough to attempt it or even consider it.
What possibly could go wrong?
Years ago, another kid in Mexico also had his own problems.
The school... wasn't the most boring thing that could have existed... the problem was being with such an insanely high number of other children for so much time so many times throughout the week.
What was the point? usually, the other kids were just putrid rats...
He held an iron pipe he had gotten from a broken metal chair-desk of the classroom.
He swung it multiple times until it actually hit his target.
And oh boy, how much he had desired to break this stupid asshole's face...
As the other kid fell on the ground, placing both hands on the face thanks to the damn pain, the other bullies ran away as the threat of that pipe remained as the first kid looked at them with rage.
The kid on the floor only suffered an even worse destiny as the first kid hit him on the stomach, the back, again on the face,
Of course, after all that, he began to cry like a little bitch.
There were two reasons why the first kid had been attacking this other one in particular.
The first one had something to do with how many times this bully had been bothering him... and the second one...
The kid with the pipe knelt to recover something. It was one of those girly notebooks that had a rose cover, cute stars, and all that girly stuff.
He gave a kick to the boy on the ground and then he walked away.
A certain girl whose hair and clothes had been made a mess thanks to those bastards was crying a lot... until the point it became so annoying...
"Tomala. (Take it)" the kid with the pipe rolled his eyes as he extended his arm.
When she noticed her precious diary back... she smiled as she held it again.
However, she turned back to thank this kindly boy... he was already too far.
The kid, however, already knew this would cause problems.
After all, the authorities were assholes who only reacted when someone was defending themselves or helping others.
He growled like a beast as he began looking for a place where to sit un boredom until they call him.
Hours after that, he finally was in front of the director of the school, both his parents and the parents of that other piece of shit were present... along with the piece of shit, of course.
"Solo, por favor, dime. ¿Por qué lo hiciste? (Just, please, tell me. Why did you do that?)" the woman on the other side of the desk asked.
The kid only closed his eyes as he growled. "Da igual lo que yo diga, nadie va a creerme. (It does not matter what I say, nobody will believe me)"
"Escucha, yo solo quiero resolver todo esto (Listen, I just want to resolve all this)"
"Mentira, lo que usted quiere es aparentar que no es una inútil (Wrong, what you want is to make it appear as if you're not useless)" the kid yawned.
Manuel's parents had to cover their faces to hide their embarrassment, followed by his father giving him a zap on the head.
Not that he cared. Even in the best scenario, the other asshole would only get a warning... like the ones they had been receiving since the beginning of the classes.
In the travel to return home, his parents were yelling at him... as he ignored them.
This, of course, upset them even more.
"¡No puedes tratar a la gente así! (You can treat the people like that!)" his father yelled at him as they finally arrived home.
"¡Debes respetar a tus mayores! (You must respect the elders)"
He didn't care, he just kicked the door of his room.
The kid growled. "El respeto se gana, no se pide. Esos pedazos de basura no lo merecen (The respect is something you earn, not demand it. Those pieces of garbage don't deserve it)"
He also didn't bother to try to defend himself when his father brought the belt to leave some cute marks on his back.
Besides... real people don't cry with crap like this.
Arriving sooner to classes always allowed the advantage to do a final check in order to determine if some homework had been left forgotten and still needed to be done.
It also allowed choosing the seat the student preferred the most. In this guy's case? the obvious option was the seats of the last line, the ones of the part of behind. Those were the most classical seats for an anime protagonist after all.
Besides, in this case, it offered an excellent sight of the trains every time they passed. Counting them was always funny.
As he was reading the news using his cell phone... he always found the same crap of every day.
Three people murdered.
Many corps found inside a very big pit of those the drug traffickers used to vanish people.
Five assaults where the cops had been, as expected, useless.
X amount of women raped Y times per day.
He left the phone on the chair-desk as he rubbed his face in frustration.
What was the fucking point of living in a shitty country like this?
Many could tell him: just don't think about it.
The problem is... he couldn't do that.
Where the hell were the heroes in this world?
Stories of good defeating evil... they seemed less than fucking placebo drugs.
He saw something new as he checked the phone again.
A car accident.
Meh.
Again.
Nothing new.
Yeah... nothing new...
Well, in part it was false...
The new part was that this time it was finally his turn to get a tragedy.
His brother and sister cried in front of both corps of the couple that had brought them into the world.
The boy that hours ago had read the new on the internet... was sitting near... but perhaps not enough.
His eyes didn't seem to lay on anything... and anybody could believe that any life force had been drained from them...
Today, the dices had played against him...
Although it was obvious the siblings of their parents weren't going to abandon them in the economic aspect of life... it was still very depressing arriving home and not being received by at least a mother.
This had obliged him to learn more about how to do the chores of the home.
Sweeping wasn't exactly the most entertaining thing in the universe, but he wasn't going to complain. This was necessary.
He didn't want to deal with his sister crying and running around because of another stupid cockroach.
Coincidentally, thinking about his sister seemed to have summoned her as she entered the house...
But her scared face filled with tears didn't give him a good impression...
Now what?
He approached to her as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "¿Q-Qué pasó? (W-What happened?)"
Between sobs, she tried her best to speak and do not cry more. "E-Estaba e-en la peluquería... c-c-cuando entraron un tipos con p-p-pistolas... se llevaron n-n-nuestros celulares... (I-I was at the hairdresser's shop... w-w-when some men entered armed with g-g-guns... they took o-o-our phones...)"
As he hugged her to comfort her... he felt the rage of his "spirit" to increase until unknown limits.
He wanted to have their blood on his hands and play with their heads as if they were balls.
He already knew since he was a kid that he wanted to work at something that implied dealing with bastards without the right to exist...
However, being a police officer wasn't just enough for him.
But this made him feel even more determined... he was going to be a soldier.
Once the had become 18 years old, he even didn't bother to have a good breakfast that day... no... there was only one thing he wanted so damnly focus on... visiting the recruiting office.
Anybody would normally expect that a little girl would be enjoying playing with dolls based on the princesses and, basically, being a cute cinnamon roll or something like that.
And this girl wasn't exactly an exception... it's just that her style of playing with princesses was different from usual.
Her Nintendo Switch allowed her to play that marvelous game that seemed to be a videogame equivalent of the imagination of the girl like her.
The princess Peach gave multiple attacks against the enemy player who was using Cloud Strife to play online.
The poor fifteen years old teenager couldn't possibly know he was getting rekt by a 10 years old girl.
As the "SOLDIER" got knocked out from the stage, the princess Peach got the victory.
She wondered if she should play using Samus or Zelda on the next occasion as she decided she had enough for that day regarding Smash Bros.
Considering the Triforce lamp of her bedroom and the many Pokemon stuffed toys a kinda obvious answer would be that she would play either Zelda Breath Of The Wild or perhaps Pokemon Sword... but not in this case. This time she wanted to play a game she had received as a present some time ago but... she wasn't that interested at first.
It was the game of a woman who also appeared in Smash. She wielded a sword, an ax, a spear, and even a bow.
If she remembered correctly, this game had something do to with strategy.
On the other hand, she was pretty much making time to wait for her daddy to give him a great hug.
As the man finally appeared, she didn't waste any second to do what she wanted.
"Daddy!" the man quickly carried her on his back.
As a soldier, the man wasn't always present at home. Especially considering his rank as a lieutenant.
"How is daddy's little princess?"
"I did all my homework, and I just beat someone in Smash!"
"Oh?! really?! that's my girl! Daddy is so proud!"
The hug transformed into something more similar to a bear hug... which of course the girl appreciated a lot.
As her fourteenth anniversary of existence arrived years after that, it was time for her father to keep his promise.
Normally a father wouldn't allow her daughter to have a weapon regardless of the age. However, this man knew she needed something to protect himself. He wasn't stupid and he knew her princess had a... privileged figure that increased the possibility of being attacked.
Probably he would have trained her even if that wasn't the case anyway...
He had brought her to place away from the city to practice.
To begin, he had given her a 9mm gun, something easy.
As he helped her to have a correct body position and holding the weapon, he told her. "Remember, this is not a toy, soldier."
"Yes," she nodded and smiled. "I'm perfectly aware."
She aimed at some practice targets.
As she pulled the trigger and the bullet initiated its travel, a hole appeared on the dummy... and, as anybody could expect from a novice, it didn't hit the center.
It wasn't a bad hit, but it wasn't also that great. If she had been using a bow and she would be participating in the Olympic games, she would have obtained 7 points with this shoot.
"Not bad." the father commented. "Go on."
As she continued shooting, her father stopped her for a moment. "Remember the recoil."
While this gun didn't have that much... if she continued like that she would have ended up kissing the weapon.
She gulped as she continued the practice.
Her shoots didn't seem to improve much at first though. This frustrated her until the point she was pretty much determined to get a shoot of 10 points. This reduced the number of bullets she used per minute.
She wasn't going to shoot unless she was sure the hit would be perfect.
Months and months of training had helped a lot. Mr. Brewster had finally allowed her to try different weapons... and one of them was an M4.
She didn't like it.
After so much time attempting to do only perfect shoots... using something that usually implied multiple ones that weren't perfect... wasn't that comfortable.
"May I try other weapons?" she asked as she frowned.
The man nodded.
As she took a look at all her options... she saw an M110.
A weapon designated for snipers... the difference was great.
When she prepared to shoot, it almost felt like this... was designated for her to use. She felt incredibly comfortable.
She waited... she waited...
She fired.
Perfect hit.
She had such a grin on her face.
She fired again.
Perfect hit.
Almost perfect hit...
Almost perfect hit...
Perfect hit!
Physical training was fun.
Even though she hadn't yet enough age to join the military and start working for her country, preparing herself to do not have any problems during the first training sessions would be an excellent idea.
She was flexing at one of those curious parks where there was some equipment for a gym. She used the strength of her arms to raise herself over the height of a tube and then let herself fall. She repeated the process for at least thirty minutes. Then she began flexing on the floor.
After that, another thirty minutes of jogging.
As she sat to take a rest, she drank a good soda.
Because of obvious reasons, she wasn't the only present in that park... and she wasn't dumb enough to do not notice some idiots were taking their time... "enjoying the landscape"
As another teenager approached with one of those smiles that any retarded would have... she pretended she wasn't aware of him.
"Hey, baby. Why are you so alone?"
She didn't respond.
"Are you mute perhaps? don't worry, I just want to-"
The guy didn't waste his time to sit by her side and "accidentally" approaching one of his had to her back... and it was kinda obvious what would have been his next step... had she not suddenly grabbed him by the shoulder and forcing him to fall from the bench with his head being the first thing to collide with the floor.
"You want to know me more "deeply"... right?"
She kicked him like five times.
"Get out of here, unless you want your stupid face to be the next one!"
She sighed as the useless ran away.
He wasn't the first one... and probably not the last one she would have to deal with.
She wasn't going to be a drama queen because of it though.
As she returned home, she played Final Fantasy 6 using her phone as she knew she had to play the FF7 once she was home.
What most people didn't understand is that saying something happened randomly never meant it happened because of yes.
The statistic worked very well.
No matter how low was the possibility, as long as there's an infinite amount of time and the event didn't contradict the laws of reality, that even is going to happen.
The butterfly effect existed, many events of the past had demonstrated it.
Certain wannabe artist getting rejected by the art school somehow had made that said artist become the most famous villain of the previous century.,
The most famous captain had declared the maiden voyage of the biggest ship of the world would have been his last time being captain... and it became true when he went down with the ship.
A random announcement for a DLC with a crown shaped-like power-up had caused an artist to create a gerbender version of a famous villain which generated a global trending of artworks and even increased the price of the stocks of the company that announced said DLC.
It was thanks to this effect that these three meet each other even though nothing in their lives really indicated this would happen.
And it was all thanks to the Gate and the boredom of the goddess who opened it.
And this is what had caused the fall of the old Saderian Empire.
And thirty years later...
Ethan, now retired from duty, enjoyed something that, even though he would have preferred it to be his real work, still make him feel happy.
Using a Celestron Nextar telescope, the men watched the Andromeda Galaxy.
It was his wife who actually got money with this kind of thing though.
It was a little weird to think when he met her, she was already naked... scared and she had half the age he had...
Nobody would tell that kind of story to a kid, but because of she was technically speaking an alien and their DNA didn't allow it, they never had children of their own. It was better that way though, she was always busy studying and his old days as soldier would have ensured the children were raised actually by their grandparents instead.
She was beautiful, smart... and he really loved her blue sky hair.
"You didn't forget to pack your clothes?"
Lelei entered the room, now being 45 years old. Her glasses and modern suit almost made it look like she belonged to this world. Anybody would assume her hair was the product of some hair cosmetics.
"Of course not." He pointed with his finger to his suitcase.
The woman, happy with the situation, sat on her husband's legs.
The ex-soldier didn't waste time to hug her and enjoy the lips of the astronomer-mage woman.
"You know, sometimes I miss your green uniform."
"And I miss your mage clothes, too."
"I can buy one of those Japanese cosplays."
"And I can, for the sake of remembering the old times, get dressed in green again."
She smiled. "Sounds good."
Her stoic nature had faded time ago... and he wasn't going to complain.
"Have I ever told you that you shine more than even the biggest star?"
"Yes, but I always like hearing it."
In the nation that was in the middle of the territory of the whole North American Union, another couple also enjoyed life.
If there was something they never stopped loving was playing together a good videogame.
As Mario paid five coins to the ghost, said ghost robbed 21 coins to Luigi... when the green sibling was about to reach star to buy it.
"I should have known." Manuel rubbed his forehead and leaned on the sofa.
His wife giggled. "So, 2 wins I, 2 wins you?"
"This hasn't ended yet."
"I've won most of the minigames. It's pretty obvious the bonus stars are mine."
"... Touché." he shrugged.
After a while, the app of the phone indicated the presence of someone on the other side of their main door.
The door camera then displayed the faces of two persons they knew so well.
As they allowed the door to be opened, they stood up and walked to welcome them.
As les three amigos meet each other in person once again, they hugged each other with the addition of Lelei.
"It feels good to be able to give you five again." Manuel commented as they did that.
"I can agree." Ethan nodded.
"Has your slave being inefficient recently?" Lelei asked to Sarah.
"At all, he cooks and does the chores when he must." She kissed Manuel.
"You get used to loving your chains." he shrugged. "You know what they say, the women's hair is stronger than a car at max speed trying to rip your ear off."
"A very certain fact." Lelei adjusted her glasses.
"Let's help you with those things." Sarah helped Lelei to grab her suitcases.
It was a shame her magic powers didn't work on this side of the Gate. It would have been helpful.
"A shame we still don't have robots to take care of these details." Ethan commented.
"We don't need them, we will always be soldiers after all."
And that was true in physical meaning.
As they sat again... it was time to do what they liked the most.
Play videogames and watch anime together once more!
A loli-like woman dressed in black walked by her master's side. His new body wasn't as threatening as the old one... but that didn't really matter when he had given up on being a "god" in the sense of ruling over humanity. He was now "50 years old" and dressed a suit.
"¿Algo más que debamos hacer, maestro? (Anything else we should do, master?)"
The man set something on fire as he watched the species to start building a new structure on the old "sacred soil" of Arnus.
"Nada, puedes ir a divertirte tanto como quieras (Nothing, you can go get fun as much as you want.) "
She shrugged and smiled as she jumped away to have a nice talk with a friend.
Piña Co Lada was also present at the base.
She was reading the complete report while Bozes and Hamilton watched their phones.
The North Americans had not wasted time attempting to understand the nature of the Gate to open their own ones. But at the same time, another project of them had recently appeared.
The idea of forming a permanent colony of humans from that side of the Gate to stay in her world even if that someday meant to do not return to their original world anymore.
It's not like this was something new for them as far as she knew. There was a planet on the other side called Mars that already had its own colony being built.
She just wanted to make sure the transition was as pacific as everything had been since she became queen.
She smiled as she saw demi-humans helping to construct some greenhouses.
"Tiempo sin verte. (Nice to see you again)"
She heard a voice she knew so well.
It was so strange she was still as "young" as she was when Pila met her... while she had progressively become old. It was also strange being friends with an apostle like this.
"Rory, ¿qué haces aquí? (What are you doing here?)" she and the loli hugged each other.
"Mi maestro quería ver la construcción de algo como esto. Todavía no han podido llevarlo a Marte por lo que le ofrecieron esto. (My master wanted to see the construction of something like this. They haven't been able to bring him to Mars so they offered him this)"
"Ya veo. (I see)." she sighed. "Me pregunto cuando nosotros iremos a los otros planetas de nuestro lado (I wonder when we're going to visit the other planets of our side)."
"Lo único seguro es que yo estaré allí cuand pase (The only certain thing is that I will be there when it happens)."
"Sí, de eso estoy segura. (Yes, I'm sure about that)."
If her country had developed until the point even some of the low-middle class citizens of her nation lived as comfortable as she used to live during her life as a princess...
Who knows what else the future holds?
And... that's it.
I had to burn my brain to force myself to continue writing because my memory has run out of ideas since time ago but... here it is. What is promised is a debt.
If you wonder why Manuel and Sarah didn't have children... I didn't include them because probably they would have been generic kids who would only say generic things like: it's uncle Ethan! play with us!... and would only have like three things to say so... meh. Besides, it's time for having some characters based on modern couples that barely have children and in the best case they have pets... right?
In the end, Ethan married the one that never attempted to rape him. It makes sense to me lol.
Ethan and Manuel's past was easier to create, while Sarah was more like the classical citizen who cares about the country.
Just, in case someone decides to draw them or something, remember Ethan is left-handed, Manuel right-handed and Sarah is both things.
What else should I have to say? again, it's been an honor to have you all reading me. Even if some concepts of the story bothered you. If you still want to read something written by me, you can go to read my Fire Emblem Heroes fanfic or even my Starforce fanfic that I'm going to continue writing now this is over.
Regarding the situation the world is facing, I have nothing to say that would be new instead of the classical stuff you have already heard so... meh.
Time to answer reviews for the last time:
Draegon75:
Unfortunately, no sane man would allow that XD
Perseus12:
It's been nice reading your reviews every time.
ATP:
I didn't really have something to do with her.
EvilTheLast:
Thanks. It's not the best stuff you can find I really don't deserve people forgiving me sometimes... but thanks, thanks a lot.
Goodbye and may the power protect you!