Tunes of trouble

by

Ragna ICE(land)

Summary: Just an attempt to combine two of my favourite hobbies -the Hardy boys and the Eurovision Song Contest...one must just jugde for him/herself how it's working.

A/N: Although it may seem for the first two or three chapters that Fenton is the lead character in the story, it'll be more about just Frank and Joe in later chapters and I know that the characters may be out of characters but I'm just not very good at making other character the way they should be without adding something from myself to them...

This story is supposed to take place in a few years from now, everything concerning the competition in the story is fiction but everything about all previous competitions mentioned is true unless I state else.

Chapter 1

17 year old Joe stretched his arms as he stepped out of the plane after hours in it. His brother Frank, older by a year, was right behind him and so was their father, the private detective Fenton Hardy. They walked through the passageway to the terminal, collecting their luggage from the conveyer belt and then headed out of the airport building, gratefully inhaling the fresh air. The brothers were different as night and day, with Joe being the day by the looks. He was 6 feet tall exactly, blond and blue eyed and muscular. Frank was a little bit taller, a little less muscular, hair and eyes both dark and he looked pretty much like a younger version of their father.

Fenton scanned the area for someone he knew. He was startled when a voice came up behind him.

,Mr. Hardy!" Fenton turned around. A five foot nine, dark-haired, blue-eyed, quite ordinary looking man came out of the airport building, he was probably in his mid thirties or so, wearing dark grey suits and had a knee long black coat on his arm, "Welcome to Madrid," he said, although obviously british, judged on his accent,"I was looking for you in there."

,Well, I didn't recognize you but I assume you're Mr. Belson?" Fenton said while shaking the man's hand.

,I am indeed -but please, call me Steven," Belson smiled.

,Will do...these are my sons, by the way, Frank and Joe."

The brothers shook hands with Steven who then guided them through the parking lot to a newly silver sedan. A teenage girl was tilting on the bonnet. Definately a punker. She was greeneyed, tall and tanned with dark long hair (actullay with purple and red highlights in it) gathered in a ponytail, her nose was pierced and when she eagerly munched her chewing gum someone could have noticed that so was her tounge. A lot of tattoos and bracelets covered her rather muscular arms and all in all she looked really rough.

,That's Maggie, my...uh...stepdaughter...erm...she doesn't like me much..." Steven whispered to Fenton.

,But I like her," Joe said to his brother in a low voice.

Frank rolled his eyes. ,Well, of course you would..." he said mockingly.

Maggie stood up as they came closer. ,Whzzzup!" she said, overdoing a kind-of-Afro-American accent, "I'm Maggie," she grabbed Fenton's hand and shook it, then turned to Frank and Joe repeating the action and then snatched the backpack and sportbag from their hands and carelessly tossed it to the trunk of the car but either of them minded it because they were busy checking if they fingers were broken from her strong handshake.

Maggie got into the driverseat, Steven to the passenger seat and the Hardys stuffed themselves to the backseat. ,If I were you, I'd fasten the seatbelts," Belson warned. The backseatpassengers did so and did not regret it as Maggie sped through the spanish capital, beautiful stonebuildings flying by. That was okay since the Hardys had been there a time of two before.

After 30 minutes they arrived at their hotel.

,I have already got you a rental car as you asked for, it's that dark green sedan over there, powerful enough and not too 'visible', the keys are in a safe-deposit box in the hotel lobby, you'll just give the receptionist your name and room number to receive them," Belson explained.

,Are you staying here as well?" Frank asked.

Steven nodded. ,Yes, we are," he got the key to the hotelroom in the lobby and led the way to the elevator, "I actually held the room beside ours for you."

,Oh, that's great. Then we can just settle in and come over and we can talk," Joe said.

,Exactly," Steven answered.

The elevator opened to a hallway on the third floor. The hallway really was a balcony. Steven and Maggie, who was carrying Fentons suitcase, stopped in front of room nr. 374.

,This is our room, the next is yours," he said, handing the key to Fenton and Maggie put the suitcase at his feet.

,Thanks."

The three entered room 375.

There was a kitchencorner, a comfortable livingroom with nice furnitures and balconies, tv and radio, large bathroom and two bedrooms, one with two bed and another with one bed, that was Fenton's. Everything was in bright colours and there were some food and drinks in the fridge already, Steven had probably arranged that.

Joe dropped his bag on his bed, got himself a soda from the fridge and went out on the balcony. There was a swimming pool on the hotel lawn, a few kids were playing in it, palm trees all around. Joe took a sip of the bottle and thought of the little he knew about the task ahead.

,Hi there," a voice at his side made him jump. Maggie was leaning over the parapet of her balconies, to get by the wall that seperated the balconies for each hotel room. ,I startled you? Sorry."

,No worries," Joe said.

,Is the room okay?"

,Yeah, it's great!" Joe flashed her a big grin.

,Good," she disappeared round the wall.

,That was just too obvious," Frank said, standing behind his brother in the doorway.

,What's that's supposed to mean?" Joe asked innocently then giving in,"All right, and you are the flirting expert here?"

,No way, I didn't say that, I just said that you were being too obvious, especially for this girl, who by the way gives me creeps..." Frank shivered melodramaticly.

,Boys, I'm heading over to Belsons, you coming?" Fenton called from inside.

,Yeah dad, just a second," Joe called back. They went back inside, Joe put the half-emty bottle back into the fridge, then followed his brother and father out the door to the next. Fenton knocked.

Steven came to the door. ,So you didn't get tired after the flight?" he said, smiling. He had changed into more casual clothes, jeans and a white shirt.

,Nah, we slept plenty on the plane," Fenton said.

In the living room he motioned for them to have a seat. Maggie was nowhere to be seen.

,Want a drink?" he asked.

,No thanks," Fenton said cutting straight to the point, "You called on a short notice, I haven't had the chance to explain the matter properly to my sons, and frankly I'm not fully aware of the matter myself, so if you'd begin from the beginning, please..."

,Right, well," Steven began,"I usually work for BBC but right now for EBU-"

,The European Broadcasting Union, right?" Frank cut in.

,Correct, more specifically, in the eurovision department that represents the biggest event for EBU: the Eurovsion Song Contest...now, you're Americans, what do you know about this contest?"

,Um...it's...a song competition...?" Joe suggested sheepishly.

,It's a song contest where european nations compete," Frank shrugged, "And that's it..."

,That's it?" Steven repeated, "Well yeah -but...it's huge!"

,All right, keep going," Fenton said before the man became upset.

,Well, there are about 40 nations competing this year. The contest is split in two nights, a semi-final and a final with one day between. There are always 14 nations already guaranteed in the finals: the host -the nation that won last year, in this case Spain-, the big four -that's UK, Germany, France and Spain-, and then 9 top scorers from last year, unless one of the big four becomes a host, then last year's top 10 will be in the finals, always apart from big four. Those are privileges due to financial reasons. In the semi-finals the rest of the competitors compete for the first ten places and they will proceed into the finals, so in the end there will be 24 nations in the finals. All results are decided by televoting in each competing country. A person is chosen to report the results and we show it live. We show live from about 40 countries, and we show live to more than 40 countries, the european countries that aren't taking part, and countries beyond Europe, Australia, Japan, Jordan, Egypt and on the internet...you realise just how grand this is?"

,Well, when you put it like that..." Frank cleared his throat.

,And we are here to do what?" Fenton pressed.

,I am the director of the competiton...temporarily since the actual director went missing two days ago."

,Ah, now things are finally coming together," Joe said, "Not that, those weren't good information," he added after hearing how he sounded.

,Now, there's a lot of pressure on me, the contest is in two weeks from now, contestants will arrive in one week. There'll be loads of press conferences, rehearsals everyday...I don't know what we're up against. We have received no ransom note but we've had threats telling us to cancel the competiton, I've given the threat notes to the police but I fear that the chaos around the whole thing won't be able to stay quiet, which will lead to cancelling the contest or something worse...basicly, I want you to find out just what the heck is going on and find Salvatore Elina, our original director, preferably within two weeks -most preferably within a week, well, if possible..."

,We will," Joe said reassuringly.

,We'll do our best but I won't promise anything," Fenton amended, not wanting to give Steven false hopes.

,When will you begin?" Steven asked.

Fenton looked at his watch. ,Soon -today, we have very limitied time...after some good lunch."

,It's only lunch time?" Joe said surprised, glancing at his own watch.

,It's 3 p.m. actually, but I want to get something to eat before we start."

,Oh, I know about a fantastic restaurant nearby, you should go there, on the EBU, we have an account..." Steven said.

,Thank you but I really..." Fenton begun but was cut off.

,Oh come on, the least we can do is providing food."

,Well, you've already provided the car and a place to stay at, that's usually enough so..." Fenton looked at Belsons determined face and began laughing, "All right, all right, we'll...go there if it makes you feel better."

,Good, this is the address...-"

A/N: I know nothing of Spain, don't know why I chose that country, it's kinda fictional here, besides, I'll be using a lot of spanish words, but only small words, how can they go wrong? I'll just cross my fingers and hope that no spanish people will read this : P...and if smeone reads this story that happens to know more about the ESC than me (as unlikely as it is, I am THE Eurovision freak) and sees something wrong, please, notify me.