Alex entered in the hall of the Tent, walking towards Dave’s office without stopping when Hayley or Austin greeted him. The office was a small room, with the walls made of a dark wood and a big carpet that covered the entire floor. Dave was sitting in his desk, playing with an old acoustic guitar. Alex left the umbrella in the umbrella stand and sat on the chair, right in front of Dave. Just then, Grohl opened his eyes.

“Tré called me,” said Dave. “He told me he had talked with you.”

“He did,” Alex confirmed. “We can find the Sapphire Drums, but I’ll need the Golden Guitar and the Crystal Bass.”

Dave nodded. “Where are the drums hidden then?”

“I don’t know. But using the bass and the guitar, we can find them.”

Dave nodded once again. “You want to begin now with the search?”

“Yes, but I won’t go with Hayley and Jack,” said Alex, rising from the chair and walking towards the glass exhibitor on which rested the Crystal Bass and the Golden Guitar. “I don’t want to risk their lives again.”

“So, who do you want to go with?” asked Dave.

“I need a guitarist, a bassist and a drummer,” said Alex, turning towards Dave again. “Someone to play the bass, someone to play the guitar when I can’t, and someone who could have a connection with the drums.”

“And who are you thinking to go with?”

Alex smiled.

Mark said yes immediately. He had experience with the Crystal Bass, and above all, Mark had proved being a target hard to defeat. Alex would have preferred Tré as the chosen drummer, but he wasn’t in the Tent, and Alex didn’t want to waste much time, so he picked Rian. Now they only needed another guitarist just in case Alex wasn’t able to play the guitar.

It looked like an easy job, finding a guitarist in the Tent, but the truth was that when Alex started looking for one, he only found drummers and singers. There were only a small number of people in the Tent since most of them were watching around the city. Alex ended up asking the first guitarist he found.

“I don’t get this,” said Frank Iero, staring at Alex while holding a coffee cup. “You want me to go with you in case you need replacement?”

 “Kind of,” said Alex. “We need as much defense as we can, we don’t know what kind of danger we are going to face. I’m not talking about a belieber or someone else; back in New York we had some big problems with the bass. It would be better if we could have a backup guitarist.”

Frank thought about it. “Well, you brought Gerard back safe and sound. Damn, I thought he was dead, you made me really happy when you came back with him, so we could say that I owe you a favor.”

Alex smiled. “So you come with us?” Alex asked.

Frank nodded. “When are you planning to start?”

“Right now.”

Frank opened his eyes wildly. Before he could say anything else, Alex walked away, followed by Rian and Mark.

“But I haven’t finish my coffee yet,” whispered Frank

There was a big abandoned building somewhere in the center of Baltimore. Alex opened the doors and a huge cloud of dust covered the fresh morning air.

The four of them got into the building, which looked like some kind of factory; there were big machines and conveyor belts everywhere. The ceiling had several holes, and some of the beams were loose. It looked like if it was going to collapse at any time.

“Can anyone tell me again what we are doing in here?” said Frank when a mouse appeared running in front of him.

“Shut up Iero,” said Mark. Frank shut his mouth and looked at the floor without saying anything else.

Alex walked into the building. “I feel like back in New Mexico,” he said, running the hand over a conveyor belt and staring at the dust that was left on his hand. “Ok, let’s do this fast, bring the guitar and the bass here.”

Mark and Frank walked towards where Alex marked, carrying the Crystal Bass and the Golden Guitar.

“Rian, you go here,” said Alex. Rian put over the conveyor belt his small portable electronic drum set and took a pair of drum sticks from his pocket. “Ok, humm…play something good, like…basket case!”

Mark looked upwards, trying to remember the song. Rian waited for him and Frank to begin. Mark finally looked down, ready to begin.

“We don’t have amplifiers,” slowly said Frank.

Alex hit his face with the hand.

“I was actually waiting for you to say that,” said Mark smiling. “We don’t need amplifiers.”

Frank nodded. “Ok,” he said, and immediately started to play.

It was the intro, as remembered by Alex. He started to sing mentally; “do you have the time, to listen to me whine, about nothing and everything, all at one.”

Alex ran outside, looking with the eyes a light or an explosion or anything. Frank kept playing the intro, until finally Rian and Mark started joined him.

“I went to a shrink, to analyze my dreams; she says it's lack of sex that's bringing meeeeee down,” sang Alex quietly. He looked over his shoulder, expecting to see the instruments shining or Mark floating, whatever, but nothing happened. “It’s not working,” he said, walking again into the building. “Guys, guys, stop.”

“I haven’t’ played the drums in 4 years,” said Rian, “I think my arms are about to fall apart.”

“Are we too bad?” asked Frank.

“No, just you,” said Mark, hopping away from Frank.

“No, we need something stronger,” said Alex. “Like…”

Before Alex finished talking, Frank started to play the guitar. Alex realized immediately of what it was, and so did Mark and Rian, because it only took a few seconds for them to start playing the song too.

Alex stared at Frank.

“Are you sure?” asked Alex. Frank nodded.

“Load up on guns, bring your friends,” sang Frank, “it's fun to lose and to pretend, she's overboard and self-assured, oh, no, I know a dirty word.”

“Hello, hello, hello, how low,” sang Mark, “hello, hello, hello, how low, hello, hello, hello, how low.”

“With the lights out, it's less dangerous, here we are now, entertain us, I feel stupid and contagious, here we are now, entertain us.”

“A mulatto, an albino, a mosquito, my libido, yeah.”

As they played the song, Alex started to feel like if he was floating, like if he was listening to most perfect sound ever. At one point, he even felt like kicking Rian’s electronic drum set; it sounded so out of place compared to the perfection of the Golden Guitar and the Crystal Bass.

Frank and Mark were so focused on playing the song that they didn’t realized when the guitar and the bass started to shine, expelling lights that blinded Alex. It was working, the Music Instruments were trying to be aligned; the purple lights of the Golden Guitar surrounded Frank, and the pink lights of the Crystal Bass embraced Mark like some kind of cloak.

But then, the floor started to tremble. The walls started to shake, the beans started to fall. The entire building started to collapse like the Clinton Castle had done back in New York.

“STOP!” yelled Alex, but Mark and Frank didn’t show any signs of listening to him; the music was so loud that the sounds coming from the building falling apart wasn’t even perceptible to the ear; not even Rian’s electronic drum set was heard now.

Alex ran towards Mark, prepared to slap him, but his hand rebounded over the purple lights, and Alex fell to the ground. Rian stopped playing the drum set and moved his lips.

“What the fuck?” he said, but no sound was heard.

Alex moved his hand, making a gesture indicating Rian to approach fast. The drummer jumped over the conveyor belt and moved quickly towards his friend. Rian helped Alex to stand on he’s feet.

“What are we gonna do?” screamed Rian at Alex’s ears.

“We need to get their attention!” answered Alex, but they didn’t have to make a single movement. Both Frank and Mark opened their eyes in the moment a big piece of the ceiling fell over them.

The bricks touched the purple and pink lights, and bounced up like bouncing balls. Finally, Mark and Frank stopped playing the song, but the instruments didn’t stop shining, and the building didn’t stop trembling.

“We have to get out of here!” shouted Alex, running back to the exit followed by Rian. Frank and Mark started to run behind them, moving as fast as they could, with the building falling apart at their heels. In the moment they stepped their feet on the street a big powder cloud rose in the air, covering Alex, Mark, Frank and Rian with dust.

Alex was breathing fast, with the eyes set in the place where a few minutes before there was a two-story building. Now there was only a big mountain of rubble.

But the instruments didn’t stop shining. Instead, they shined more and more every second. Suddenly, the sky shined, the ground shook, the guitar and the bass shined to the point they hurt Alex’s eyes, there was a white flash in the sky, and finally, a shining-blue light beam, that looked much like the pink one that the Crystal Bass had projected in Central Park, appeared in the horizon.

But unlike the bass, the blue light disappeared in a few seconds. The guitar and the bass stopped shining. Everything went back normal (except for the old factory, of course).

“Where was that?” asked Mark.

“Faraway,” said Rian, “I’d say…”

“Washington,” said Alex. “We have to go to Washington, the Sapphire Drum Sticks have just moved there.”

“Why don’t we try to get them a little bit closer?” asked Frank.

“You kidding?” said Alex, “we almost kill ourselves. It’s obvious that those things are not something to play with. We have to go to Washington now.”

“And how are we gonna find them?” asked Rian, “we could waste a whole year looking for them in the entire city, and yet we wouldn’t find them.”

“The bass and the guitar will lead us,” replied Alex. “Come on, we have to get a vehicle. Also I’ll call Dave to tell him that the building and the lights show was our fault.”

“It’s always your fault Alex,” said Rian laughing.

Alex smiled. “Fuck you Rian.”

They started to walk, talking about how they have just saved their lives by a miracle, laughing and joking about the guitar and the bass. Alex grabbed his phone to call Dave. In the moment he unlocked it, it shook on his hand. “New message,” appeared in the screen.

Deep inside, Alex knew what it said without opening it, but he opened just in case he was wrong. Again, the unknown contact had sent him an alert message.

“Hurry,” said the message, “he saw it too. He’s going straight to get them.”