Hello again! It's been far too long!
For those who don't know, I've had to make some big decisions recently. I'm going to be trying once again to get a up and running, as I have run completely out of funds. To raise interest, I will be posting a few chapters for 2 random stories I've had sitting around. I also have a poll on my profile page where you can vote on my new story ideas that interest you, and I will write the first chapter of whichever stories are most popular. If I can get enough patrons, I will be writing ALL the new stories AND I will FINALLY be finishing Out of Place! But only if I can get this to work out!
More info is on the tumblr. The name is CoffeeFueledAuthor. Thats my name too!
Be sure to vote!
And now, please enjoy the novelization of Iz and Auggie: Escape from Dimension Q!
Chapter 1: Moment of Truth
This was it; the day they had been waiting so long for had finally come. This was their first, and quite possibly only shot at the fame and fortune they had worked so hard for. Today was their day to prove themselves; to finally become somebodies.
The anxious duo waited just backstage, nervously listening to the current band contestant playing their heart out. And though only three judges sat amongst the rows of empty auditorium seats, this one performance meant more to these bands than playing to a full house. That's because this one audition could very well decide if they would ever perform to anyone ever again.
The musicians on stage were only midway through their song; the duo behind the crimson curtain had no choice but to continue to wait. The weight of their anticipation was quickly becoming agonizing, and the two didn't know how much longer they'd last.
Iz quickly gleamed around the curtain with shimmering emerald eyes to steal a glimpse of the judges. She could hear the current performers succumbing to the stress, causing them to momentarily lose the beat among a few sour notes. The judges, Iz could see, were not impressed. The one in charge of the competition, seated center stage and decorated with a cap and sunglasses, mumbled something under his breath as he hurriedly scribbled on the paper in front of him. The other two judges had apparently nodded off. Their heads were slumped over the desk before them, their judging papers completely blank. Iz smiled to herself and flicked a lock of blue hair behind her head. This would be a piece of cake.
Pulling herself back behind the curtain and quickly adjusting her purple overshirt, she spun her head around and looked at her band mate, Auggie. The dull colored bluish gray robot seemed lost, his eyes staring forever into the middle space. His metal, clamp like hands were interlocked, his long arms sending a nervous shiver down them every now and then. With his magnetically floating head staying in a single point in space above his geometric body, he rocked gently back and forth on the single wheel that acted as his feet, not even noticing Iz staring at him.
Immediately recognizing Auggie was beginning to lock up under the pressure, Iz thought up some much needed words of encouragement for her metallic friend.
"This is it, Auggie!" She began, the little robots bright yellow eyes snapping up to hers in an instant and his three hair shaped antennae perking at the sound. "Do or die!"
Auggie smiled and reached out a single clamp. "All or nothing!"
Band mates Iz and Auggie had been working towards this very moment for two years, using every spare moment they had to practice their performance. Winning this contest had become their lifes' dream ever since Isaac had vanished without a trace. Isaac was a true musical genius, extremely talented with a passion to share his art with others.
For Izabelle LeGrand, or Iz for short, music was always an important part of life. Her parents were both musicians themselves, and they had young Iz playing Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata on the piano by the time she was three years old. But even though Iz could play the music, she never truly understood or enjoyed it. To her, it was just another chore given to her by her parents. But when she met Isaac, everything changed.
Isaac could play most every genre from Bach to the blues. His music had a sort of power over people, capable of moving even the grouchiest audience to dance to his rhythm. Iz was captivated by the mans music from the very first time she heard him, viewing him as a role model and striving to one day be as talented as him. Isaac was more than happy to take the young girl under his wing. Iz would visit him frequently for lessons, where he would teach his apprentice not only how to play, but the meaning behind the music.
But one day, Iz arrived at Isaac's house as usual to find he was gone. It was as if he disappeared off the face of the Earth. He left no note, no forwarding address... The only thing he had left behind was his shy robotic house keeper.
Augustus T. Robot was a fully automated machine with a complex ai and distinct personality. Fully equipped with all sorts of gadgets, he had been given the sole task of keeping the house clean. Isaac had picked up the curious robot about a year before his disappearance, but never really explained where he had come from. Auggie would be present whenever Iz came over for lessons, but he always seemed too wrapped up in his work to say anything beyond a standard greeting.
Isaac described Auggie as a quiet little robot who always managed to mess things up when only trying to help. Even though he had been built with a very human sense of self, he still was somewhat limited emotionally, and he often missed subtle cues of sarcasm or exaggeration. Curious and always wanting to learn, Auggie had begun to pick up quite a few unique skills in living with Isaac. He was often caught imitating the musician, pretending to play on invisible instruments and dancing to the music in his head.
When Iz arrived at Isaac's house that fateful day, she was surprised to find it was Auggie who answered the door. Even though they had never truly spoken to each other before, the robot invited Iz inside to voice his concerns. He explained to her that he had, for the first time, run out of things to clean. Isaac had gone out four days ago and simply never returned.
At first, Iz and Auggie were both incredibly worried, wondering why Isaac would have left so suddenly without telling either of them where he had gone. But as Iz continued her usual visits and the two exhausted any and all possible trails, they finally had to decide that no news was good news. Until they heard otherwise, they would assume that Isaac had simply chosen to bring his love of music to some other part of the globe.
Whenever iz came over, she and Auggie would talk about Isaac; about what they loved about him and how his music made them feel. The two bonded over their mutual respect for their absent mentor, and quickly became close friends. Iz began to realize just how much Auggie had picked up about music from observing Isaac, and eventually she brought a guitar with her on one visit and persuaded Auggie to play. He took to it like it was a part of him, and in no time could perform almost as well as his role model.
The two ultimately decided to form a band together in honor of Isaac, with Auggie playing guitar and Iz on her keyboard. Their skills improved with each practice session, and their bond only continued to strengthen.
And just a month ago, the biggest record company around, Screech Records, announced a special battle of the bands style contest. Whichever group won would receive a five year contract and a whole recording studio. Iz and Auggie were determined to win; not only for themselves, but for the man that brought them together.
The band on stage was just wrapping up their song, and Iz was listening carefully for their cue to go on. Auggie's electronic mind was racing; it was almost time, and he feared he would somehow manage to mess it up like everything else he ever tried to do. His bright eyes darted around the room, and he nervously rolled forward on his wheel.
"Iz?" He asked, begginning to tap his band mate on the shoulder with his metal clamp. "Hey Iz!"
Mildly frustrated, Iz refused to look away from the stage. "Not now, Auggie." She whispered. "We're about to go on."
Auggie continued to prod her shoulder, now harder and faster. "But this is very important, Iz!" He pleaded.
Iz, with a sigh of resignation, finally turned her head around as Auggie only continued his poking. "What!?"
"If I do anything that... That makes you nervous..."
Iz retalliated with pokes of her own, repeatedly jabbing Auggie in the forhead so hard that his floating head moved back a little with every poke. "You mean like tapping me on the shoulder?" She offered dryly.
Just then, a loud voice rang out from the auditorium seats. "Good job, nice try, adios!" It shouted impatiently. "Bring out the next contestant!"
The two members of the previous band wandered backstage from their audition, looking dejected with their instruments nearly dragging behind them. As the second one, the girl with the autumn hair and black jacket, passed by Iz, she lifted her solemn face in a half hearted smile.
"Good luck, you two." She sighed. Her gaze dropped to the floor and she and her partner shuffled out the heavy door marked 'exit'.
Auggie quickly turned to Iz with a new expression of worry.
"Don't fret." Iz grinned reassuringly. "We learned from the best, remember? We're bound to win!"
Auggie smiled, satisfied. Iz smiled back, then turned and lead the way onstage. She took a deep breath, ready to give it all she had.
As they went onstage and the lone three audience members came into their view, the only judge left still awake smiled excitedly at the duo and began to read their previously submitted application.
"Alright!" He exclaimed suddenly, startling his two coworkers out of their slumber and back into focus. "Our next two contestants!"
Iz and Auggie took a deep breath as they found their spots onstage. A gruff stagehand appeared with Iz's sleek keyboard, and he brought it to her and helped set it up. Auggie opened the large chamber in his chest and removed his gleaming red electric guitar. Iz quickly shot Auggie a few quiet notes on her keyboard for him to tune to as the judge continued to read.
"Let's see... Izabelle LeGrand and Augustus T. Robot, otherwise known as... Yes! Groovy Gravy!"
His two judge comrades whipped out their pens and papers, preparing themselves to write either glowing compliments or harsh criticism. "We've heard a lot about you." The middle judge lowered his sunglasses and gave the competing duo a serious stare. "Let's see if it's true..."
It was time. They had been given a single shot at fame and fortune. It all came down to this performance. The friends gathered their courage, shivering gently with anticipation. The song they had picked out was one they had written themselves using everything Isaac had taught them. They were positive that this song would win them that glorious prize.
With the confidence clear in her voice, Iz counted them down. "One, Two, Three, Four!"
And they took off, playing better than they ever had before. The music filled the auditorium with a resonating power, and the judges picked up their heads, becoming completely overtaken by the song. It was clear from their expressions that they were loving what they were hearing. Iz and Auggie smiled; that record contract was right within their grasp.
But only a few seconds in, something disastrous happened. All of a sudden, as if an invisible switch had been thrown, the song began to collapse in on itself. The notes turned sour, the beat became misplaced, the music simply fell into chaos. It was as if their instruments now refused to play the song at all.
The band mates panicked, baffled by their predicament and trying desperately to persuade their instruments to play again. But they couldn't understand what they were doing wrong. They were sure that they had been playing everything correctly just as they had so many times before, but it just wasn't working. Nothing they did could revive the shattered tune. In a matter of seconds, it was clear that it was gone. They just couldn't feel the music anymore like Isaac had taught them.
Unable to tolerate the insufferable noise for another second, the head judge sprang into the air.
"Hold it! HOLD IT!" He shouted, waving his arms wildly above his head in case the band couldn't hear him above the noise pollution.
Iz and Auggie finally stopped. They stood red faced, completely embarrassed with the sounds they had just created. They were so much better than this! They both knew that! So what had gone so catastrophically wrong? The judges, now freed from the musical torture, removed their hands from their ears and shot glares at the humiliated contestants.
"That's it! That's it!" The capped one seated himself again and furiously tore up Iz and Auggie's application, simultaneously tearing their very dreams asunder. With a snap of his fingers, he signaled to the security guards who had been hiding just behind the curtain. "Get these hacks outta here!"
The two tried to explain themselves, but barely had time to blink before the burly guards grabbed them from behind, literally tossing them out the backstage door like unwanted garbage. The failed musicians landed in a heavy heap atop their instruments, which had been pitched out only seconds before them.
And with that, it was all over. The audition they had been practicing towards for two years had been blown in an instant. All their hope of ever getting that record contract with Screech had gone up in smoke. Not only that, their image would certainly be destroyed. Once word got out of just how poorly they had performed, they would no doubt become the laughing stock of the entire music business.
"What happened out there!?" Iz shouted, crushed under Auggie's weight and still in mild shock over their musical disaster.
"I know this sounds strange..." Auggie mumbled, attempting to raise his free floating head from the ground. "But it felt like someone was tampering with my circuitry."
Iz's confusion quickly transformed into anger at the sound of her robot companion's voice. Auggie. That's what had happened. He had panicked and managed to mess things up just like he always seemed to do.
"Look." She growled, roughly knocking Auggie's bulky body off of her and standing up. The confused automaton looked to her from his awkward position sprawled on the floor. "You ought to be robot enough to man up to your mistakes! You were so nervous, you must've choked!"
He couldn't deny it; Auggie did tend to screw things up fairly often. But he was positive this time wasn't his fault, and he was determined to convince Iz of this.
"But, no! I..!" He stammered, but was suddenly interrupted by a loud noise. Two strange men suddenly burst from the shadows, closing in on the pair from either side. Auggie clumsily flung himself back into a standing position atop his wheel, and the two musicians stood back to back, completely at the mercy of these new intruders.
Both men bore the same outfit, consisting of a pitch black three piece suit and tie. One was Caucasian with silver dusted white hair and an eyepatch covering his face, the other was of African American descent with rough black hair and a huge, burly build.
The older man with the eyepatch leaned towards the vulnerable duo. "I'm afraid you two will have to come with us." He stated. Without hesitation, he grabbed Iz by the collar of her dark purple shirt, easily lifting the young teen a whole foot in the air. The other man, meanwhile, quickly scooped Auggies heavy body into one arm and used the other to pluck his detached head from the ground. With their captives secured, the two men left just as quickly as they had come, leaving behind only the bands battered instruments still strewn pathetically across the floor.
They knew this day would be important, one that they'd remember for the rest of their lives. Unfortunately, they learned, it wasn't for the reason they had initially thought.
To be continued...