Today is the tenth anniversary of the infamous World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001. Because I remember that day like it was yesterday and not ten years ago, though of course not for a good reason at all, nor in a good way by any means. And, because I made a tribute to the ones who died in that horrible tragedy on that world changing day last year, I thought I'd make another one this year, though in a different style than last year. The Monster Rancher anime, to be precise. This is where the story begins, and I chose to use Tiger, Gray Wolf and Pixie as the main parts of it(though all the other goodies are still present)because they are my top three favorites in the show and because they're meant to show even the hardest of us still know wrong from right and are capable of compassion even when vices are a prominent part of us.

I own none of the characters. They all belong to the Monster Rancher Anime.

Monster Rancher Style Tribute To The 9/11 Attacks

This story takes place in New York City. Real world New York City. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. It was late at night on that very day, near the area that would be referred to as Ground Zero in the end. The Monster Rancher Goodies, that is to say, the normal seven, plus Gray Wolf, Pixie and Big Blue, had all been brought into this real world as so to see what they must know had happened outside of their MR universe. What had happened in the real world they were created in.

They at first knew not why this was needed, but soon came to see and quickly learn exactly what happened and why. Only the most vile of the vile could even think about such an absolutely unspeakable, utterly unforgivable atrocity as this one. Let alone get the act into motion. Let alone pilot the planes. Let alone crash into the towers. Let alone give birth to the worst of tragedies in not only American history, but in the history of the modern world.

We look at the lot of these heroes and how they deal with what they never thought they would possibly see in their lives. Ever. Not even in their worst of nightmares. Sadly, this worst of anyone's nightmares had come true, and it was still true. It would forever be true as much as it would be real. Real. Horrible. Unspeakable. Indescribably horrendous. But still total reality…

There were ten individuals standing in front of that which once was. In the middle of the city they had somehow been brought into, a tragedy which was terrible beyond words had been done. Done by madmen. Terrorists. Monsters. Satanic hellspawns. Beasts who had the nerve to disguise themselves as human beings. And even further, had the nerve to consider and organize the act which led to what the ten heroes saw before them now.

These individuals were a ten year old boy, a thirteen year old girl, two wolf monsters, one white and blue, the other silver grey, a grey stone giant, a blue, icy looking stone giant, a yellow, one-eyed, tail having ball creature, a little, pink ducklike creature, a brown, bipedal rabbit and a winged, pink and Caucasian skinned devil woman. They had seen much in their lives, and a lot of evil, but never anything like this. Nothing of this magnitude. It was more than even they were able to comprehend, grasp or bear.

You see, what they were looking at, this tragedy they were viewing, was the wreckage of two towers which once were, but were no more. They had been destroyed. They didn't fall all of a sudden. They didn't just vanish into thin air. Planes were intentionally flown into them by evil men who wanted to take the lives of as many innocents as possible along with their own, and in addition wanted to contaminate this world with the worst kind of terror and chaos. The fiends who did it orchestrated this alongside their leader, the infamous monster known as Osama Bin Laden, and with his guidance, they saw to it this was many people's last day on planet Earth.

As soon as they'd been brought into this world, the knowledge of all they'd need to be aware of about all this came to them through some means or another. They were hit hard and made speechless by this, but only for a time. Still, it would be quite a long time. They couldn't believe their eyes. Not any of them. And those same eyes would not stay dry for long. They all had a voice deep within them, a feeling inside of their souls which knew when to cry out "THIS IS NOT RIGHT!" Which knew when to scream "EVIL IS PRESENT!" Which knew when to tell them something was horribly wrong in the worst way.

Al Qeada's act would forever leave a mark on the world, especially the America the lot of them were currently in, and in nothing short of the worst way. These ten all knew it very well indeed, and it did not feel good to them. It felt nothing short of devastating and gut wrenching on the highest level of magnitude. "How could anyone be so wicked and cruel?" asked Holly, who was the one to finally break the silence. "We've seen evil, sure, especially whenever Moo was around." Genki admitted. "But we've never seen this sort of evil." Golem gasped.

"Not even I as my baddie self could have thought up something such as this." Gray Wolf said. "Even then, I wasn't evil on THAT level." "The same is applied to me." Pixie said. "And me as well." added Big Blue. "How can this be anything but a nightmare?" asked Suezo. "Chi!" Mocchi wept. "We have to be dreaming. This can't be real!" Hare suggested. "But it is, and we all know it, even though we wish it were just a nightmare." Tiger sighed morosely.

"I know, I know!" Hare shouted. "It's just…" He threw himself around Tiger, who did not even attempt to shake him off like he usually did. This was too serious and too tragic a time for anything like that. Hare then said: "HOW? WHY?" "I wish I knew, Hare. I can't answer you. I wish I could…" Tiger replied, his voice cut off by trying to fight back the tears he felt forming in his eyes. He always wanted to protect anyone he saw as an innocent caught in the crossfire, but all these thousands of innocents got caught in the worst kind of crossfire, and they'd sadly stay caught.

"God…why couldn't we have done anything?" asked Pixie. "Why couldn't we have got here and stopped this?" asked Golem. Being the peace lover he was, Golem was positively and thoroughly mortified by something such as this. As well as horrified and aghast more than the others, which was quite a statement. As for Tiger and Hare, they weren't even thinking about a thing having to do with their hateful rivalry towards one another.

Because some things surpass the boundaries of rivalry, enmity and opposition. Because some things are far too important, far too horrid, far too beyond belief for anything that is minor at the end of the day to matter in the grand scheme of things. Hare just hugged Tiger and buried his face into his fur to hide his sad face, and Tiger simply hung his head.

Suddenly, a wetness of sorts started to form in the beautiful amber eyes of Tiger, the equally beautiful, silver eyes of Gray Wolf and the just as beautiful brown eyes of Pixie. It was only too obvious what it was, and Genki, Holly, Big Blue, Golem, Suezo, Hare and Mocchi would follow very quickly. This wetness came out of everyone's eyes and went down their faces, and either hit their torsos, the concrete road they were standing on, or, in some cases, both.

Then Gray Wolf and Tiger stood up, sat on their haunches and looked up to the night sky. Their tears were far more than those of the others, and so were Pixie's, for these three had taken longer to see how good humans could be than the others. So it hit them especially hard to see innocent people be killed, and in such a barbaric, unpardonable fashion as this, no less. Their far more recent understanding and care for people made this tear at them by four high orders of magnitude, while with the others, it tore at them by three high orders of magnitude. Case in point and I rest my case.

Tiger and Gray Wolf knew all too well they were crying as much as the others were, but that didn't matter to them. Not even with them being well aware of what a dent this put in their otherwise tough, rough-like attitudes. Why? Because anyone would cry at a horrible sight such as this one. Pixie was crying as well, and she didn't care about her tears any more than the two horned wolves cared about their own.

She didn't care how hard and brave she usually was. This was far more important than her usual self or her reputation or anything like that. For all three of them were too busy caring about what this tragedy meant. What the smoking, fiery and debris-esque remains of what was once the World Trade Center represented.

And what it represented was the stricken horror of innocence killed stone dead for the sake of a greater evil which had no place in any world. Not this one, not the Monster Rancher world, not any world at all. No world except hell. The others were equally aware of the fact they were shedding tears as Pixie and the two wolves were, but this was by all means the perfect time to do so. It was the perfect time to do so with anyone who wasn't 100% corrupt and damned to/bound for hell. Anyone who was not a terrorist or any other kind of horrid, hideous murderer. They cried hard, and Mocchi hugged Genki hard while sobbing into his shirt, and Suezo did the same amount of crying while holding Holly nice and close to him. She cried into him very hard.

Gray Wolf, after Hare unwrapped his arms from around Tiger, nuzzled his brother and wept as he hung his head. Tiger looked to Gray Wolf and nuzzled him back as he kept up his tears, not even bothering to even think about holding them back anymore. This was just too, too much for even one as gruff and dark as he. He then held his brother close to him with his right paw and, since his eyes were closed, didn't notice his tears drop onto Gray Wolf's fur. Big Blue, as Pixie got on her knees and put her face into her hands while still mourning the death of these innocents, picked his master up, all while he cried as well.

Big Blue held Pixie close to him and she sobbed into his chest, saying: "Dammit, Blue, even when I hated humans before learning more about them and realizing I was wrong about the way they were, I only wanted them enslaved. I never wanted them killed so brutally in any way, least of all this one. Why was there nothing we could do?" "I do not have any idea, nor would I have wanted this even back when I was a baddy." Big Blue said. "No more than you would have at all. I wish we could alter it, master. Sadly, we can't. No one can." "I know, I know, I know!" Pixie shouted under her breath. "It's just...HOW IS IT POSSIBLE? HOW IS ANYTHING OF THIS SORT POSSIBLE? WHY WOULD FATE ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN?"

She went silent after that, and so did Big Blue, who was still holding and comforting her. A while after all this, everyone was able to at least not be trapped in their tears, though they still were crying all the same despite being more focused now and standing up to look at what they'd seen and to know what had to be done now. "There needs to be a homemade memorial by this team for those who lost their lives in this travesty of a day from hell." Genki said. "Yes, there does." Holly spoke. "Especially since I haven't been this sad since Gray Wolf died, though he thankfully came back, unlike…" Tiger stopped there. Gray Wolf knew as much as everybody else what he would've said, and licked his brother compassionately, telling him: "I know, my brother. I know. We all know."

"And nor have I been this upset and distraught since I first learned of Blue's death." a sentence from Pixie consisted of. "And like with the wolves, Big Blue came back, and yet, the innocents who did no more than be unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time…" She allowed more tears to erupt from her eyes and clenched her fists at her sides, then Big Blue put his hand on her shoulder to give her as much comfort as he was capable of. "So, how do we do it?" asked Hare. "First, a moment of silence from all of us," Genki said, "and as soon as that moment of silence has been done…"

He turned to Tiger and Gray Wolf, as well as to Pixie, and said: "I want you three to do what you do best, and in the perfect way to complete this memorial." Tiger, Gray Wolf and Pixie knew precisely what he was asking for at once, and then everyone lined up, side by side, to give their moment of silence, which they did well, especially since they hung their heads and closed their eyes while doing so. After it was over, Tiger, Gray Wolf and Pixie got to work. The two wolves ran a few feet away, looking up to see a full moon, and Pixie took off into the sky, with her wings making sure she'd fly nice and fluently.

Then, to honor the victims of the attacks and all who were affected by them, which was everyone who wasn't evil, obviously, Tiger and Gray Wolf howled to that full moon at the top loudest volume. Simultaneously, Pixie flew across the sky and at one point enveloped the moon with her body, or at least mostly, anyway. Then she flew forward and across the MR team in a vertical manner. Once she landed, Tiger and Gray Wolf ended their howling session, and then they rejoined the gang. In the next instant, the gang held hands/paws/tails, and they looked up to the sky one last time.

Soon enough, they'd be taken back into their own universe, but they'd not ever be forgetting what they saw, what it meant and why they had to see/know about it. So they shed a few more sets of tears and gave one more moment of silence, which would last for an even longer period than the last two moments of silence, and it was only their friendship which was making them capable of going through all this. Which was understandable, all things and facts considered and known.

Then, after the silence was broken by Holly, who said: "To all of the victims who died in this regrettable, horrible tragedy…" Golem continued: "We can say nothing but…" Then, at last, Tiger finished the sentence with: "Godspeed, and God rest all of your innocent souls." Then the likes of Pixie and Gray Wolf added on, respectively: "We salute you." and "Everyone salutes all of you. Always." "Chi…" put in Mocchi. These heroes were friends, no doubt, but they were as of now brought together as friends more than ever, and this would make sure an already close group was now even closer for all time, and this would remain so no matter what else occurred.

Remembering all of their own losses now, whether it was Tiger losing Gray Wolf for a time, Pixie losing Big Blue, also for a time, Holly losing her father because of Moo's soul, Genki losing all his friends, though only for a while, Golem losing all his original friends in that war the lot of them died in or anything else, for anyone else, their empathy for the 9/11 victims echoed a good way out into the distance, even as none of them made any noise. And they also envisioned all of their own losses as well as the events which made the terrible sight they saw before them the horrid, hideous reality that it now was.

Their pain of loss felt the pain of loss of the families and friends of these dead people, and they all shed one last set of full and sincere tears. Then they suddenly, without noticing it, got teleported back to their own MR universe, but they wouldn't notice they were back there for some time, for they were lost in the grief they felt for the ones unfortunate enough to lose their lives on this horrible, tragic day.

THE END

So, what did you think of this tribute to the 9/11 attacks and the innocents who lost their lives because of them? I hope it was as powerful and heart-touching as it was meant to be. We must never forget, no matter who we are, that fateful day which changed America for all time and at the same time made us realize just how evil people were capable of being. Ratings and reviews, please, everyone!