Author's note: While I love the Jem-verse and I also enjoy well-done Jem fic, I can't seem to wrap my brain around writing for any of the main characters. So I choose minor and undeveloped characters to play with. Please note that as regards most of the bands that are not either Jem and the Holograms or the Misfits, as far as I was able to find (I admit I do NOT own a copy of Christy Marx' 'The Jem Bible') no background information, including names, is ever specified. Hence if you have a different conception than what I present here – you are just as correct as I am (more so if you have actually read the 'bible' for the series). So from the sole picture that's easily available on any web search, from left to right their stage names and instruments are: Panic (drums, can play keyboards), Rocket (vocals & usually lead singer, occasional guitar), Epic (synthesizer, background vocals, can play guitar but usually prefers not to), and the leader of the group; Moon (vocals, electric violin, and occasional synthesizer). Oh, and yes I am a fan of Battlestar Galactica. Both of them.
Song lyrics will be in italics.
Disclaimer: Not mine, none of it, sadly. Depending on date and exact content, everything in the Jem-verse is or was the property of Hasbro, Christy Marx, Sunbow, Integrity Toys and probably a few other companies or writers out there. No profit is being made from this (by me, anyway). As a side-note, it appears that the Jem-verse may actually overlap the Hasbro cartoon world(s) of G. I. Joe, The Inhumanoids and the Transformers, as apparently at least one character appeared in all four series.
Moon stepped foward, alternating two minor chords on her synthguitar. She picked up the microphone as the rest of the Space Cadets took their places, ready to rock the fans assembled for the musical contest. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as the Leatherettes, the first band to have played, left the stage. She had to admit that they had managed to combine an electric banjo and a bass guitar more effectively than she would have expected.
The Space Cadets would simply have to be better.
"Welcome, everyone," She swung to face the audience. "we hope you are ready for some more music!"
The crowd's murmur was less enthusiastic than she'd hoped, and she found herself wishing that the group hadn't decided on "Lost in the Stars" as their first number. It wasn't going to generate enough energy. But it was too late to change anything now.
Turning to gesture to each of the other band members, Moon called out. "On drums, Panic."
The drummer responded with an almost hushed beat, quiet, measured, pulsing out.
"On Keyboards, Epic."
Moon smiled to herself as Epic stepped ran her hands across the keyboard of the synthesizer and a powerful ripple of sound blasted out of the speakers. An almost feral grin spread across Epic's face. Moon realised that this borrowed set-up was the sound system Epic had dreamt of for years, and she was going to make the most of it. The keyboardist started bopping her head in time with the warm-up chords, ignoring the fact that her pristine purple tower of hair sprayed-into-submission-do was already starting to disintegrate.
The audience started to move with the music. Good, thought Moon. She set aside her synthguitar and picked up the electric violin.
Beside her, Rocket thumbed the on switch of the vocals microphone, and strode slowly out towards the audience. As she stomped, the blue headdress she wore began to subtly flash in time with Epic's chords. Moon wished again that it could have been a cloudy day. The black lights that were arranged around the edges of the stage weren't doing much to brighten the stylized white space-suit tops the group was wearing.
From the back of the audience, Eric Raymond held out a subtle hand, making a thumbs-up gesture, a predatory smile failing to soften his features.
As Epic resolved the introduction into a repetitive call, Rocket made a point of scanning not just the audience, but the sky above.
"Can you hear me?" Half a question, half a call.
Panic started in on a slowly building drum riff, counterpointing the powerful chords of the synthesizer. As she increased the intensity of her rhythm, she nodded slightly to Epic, and answered the keyboardist's maniacal grin with one of her own.
"Can you hear me?" Rocket sung out to the sky, this time much louder and more plaintive. That one phrase took her through two octaves. "Can you hear me Major Tom?" The last word was at the top of her considerable range, strong and powerful.
Moon came in with her electric violin, echoing the cadence of Rocket's question and increasing the tension of the music. Rocket sang out and Moon's violin underscored her anxiety.
Can you hear me Major Tom?
It's been too long /There's something wrong
But Tom did not reply
Lost in the stars / Far from the wars
Was he alone / Was this now his home?
Would he never say good bye?
Moon kept her eyes on Raymond as she played. He was watching the audience more than the performance. At one point someone in a workman's jumpsuit came and they had a brief exchange, which ended up in the workman hastening away toward the control set-up for the stage.
A musical riff came, and Moon turned toward Epic, slowly backing away as she played so that synthesizer and electric violin were on opposite sides of the stage. After the final chorus, Epic paused, synthesizer suddenly silent, the only sound to be heard was the urgent plaintive wail of Moon's violin.
Then a moment of silence, and then a massive chorus from the synthesizer, essentially the sounds of an explosion. Then nothing.
The audience was silent for a moment. Moon held her position, feeling sweat trickle down from the ridiculous tower of hairspray-and-dye that was actually holding its shape pretty well. Thank goodness it was a cool day. This look would never last under the strong lights of an indoor gig.
She hoped the audience's silence was in appreciation, but she wasn't really sure. In any case, too much silence would be bad, so she signaled Epic to roll into the opening chords of "Path of the Lords of Kobol".
It seemed to Moon that she was having a harder time than usual hearing Rocket. She tried to catch the singer's eye a couple of times and urge her to tweak up the volume on her mike. No such luck.
Rocket had a good voice, but occasional fits of nerves, and she usually helped calm herself down by looking up at the sky, or basically anywhere that she was assured not to meet anyone's gaze. A big part of her choice of dark blue lenses on her costume eye gear was so she didn't have be so aware of people looking at her. An odd weakness for a lead singer, but usually they played small enough gigs that Moon could signal her with a wave of an elbow or a bump or something. No such luck here, the stage was too big and they needed to occupy it all.
Meanwhile Epic was getting louder.
Inwardly Moon fumed. They were making stupid mistakes, not cuing off of each other. They were starting to lose the audience. Oh, not terribly, but they'd had a bit of an edge, and now it was going. Dammit.
Then she caught a glimpse of Eric Raymond again. His gaze travelled back and forth, band members, audience and then over to where the next band, The Misfits waited. His expression changed ever so slightly, and his expression moved past predatory into outright feral.
The green-haired lead singer of the Misfits matched his expression.
Four bands, Moon thought to herself. The Leatherettes played a sort of Country Fusion, The Space Cadets played Techno and Synth Ballads, the Limp Lizards played Eclectic Grunge and Pseudo-Theme Song Covers. The Misfits were the only rock band. It only looked like diversity. What it was, was a set-up.
That was the moment when Moon knew that not only were they not going to win, but that they had never really had a chance.
Never mind, she told herself, just play.