*AN* Anyone who has been following the interviews or twitter knows the guys have been having some mishaps on the tour this year, falling down, tripping, injuries and more. I thought I'd up the ante and base a story on their misfortunes. By no means is this to make fun of them, yes I do think its funny when they mess up but everyone is bound to mess up sooner or later. It just shows that as perfect as they are, they are only human. They all laugh it off and no one has gotten seriously hurt where they had to cancel a show or the tour so dont get uptight. Its just a story.
I did start writing this without my OC but as I wrote she weaseled her way in and although the story can go without her, I needed an extra character. She's only made a brief appearance thus far and it may be it.*
"10 minutes to show. Finish getting ready, I'll be back in 2 minutes to do a check." Peter, their tour manager said. The guys of BTR were in their dressing room, chilling out and putting on the finishing touches before their big performance. The musicians were already at the stage, getting ready to take their places and just outside the door, the guys could hear their staff running all over as the clock ticked down. It was just another day really, they've performed about 150 times so far in their career and although they were still nervous before each show as they warmed up and chanted their pre-show rituals, the edge disappeared after a while.
Everyone worked hard to make sure the show was a success and fun for all. Sure there were mishaps such as power outages and delays from storms but nothing really major that made them stop the show. Kendall got hit in the chest with some pyro the night after changes were made for adjustments but he was fine. Most shows were perfect but no matter how much practice they had, there would always be room for error as they tripped, fell, missed steps in dancing or dropped props. These small mistakes were nothing and they shook it off, as did the crowd. The guys always laughed at themselves when fans would tweet GIFs or videos of their mistakes, like when James was dancing and his microphone flew from his hands. He nonchalantly strolled to the edge of the stage and jumped down to get it before returning with grace and fitting right back in line, not missing a beat, while his band mates couldn't help but smile the whole time.
Carlos suggested a new trampoline after seeing the old one with a good amount of wear. When Logan tried it out, he nearly flew off the stage; it was quite 'springy'. In time they learned to readjust their jumps so they would land safely. The trampoline was fun to say the least and it was the best part about their adult size jungle gym. Logan and James taught Kendall and Carlos how to do back flips, both on the trampoline and from up higher off of their platform. Every sound check they would all practice their moves and stunts as well as do the regular vocals and test the equipment. They even had a good size trampoline to practice with on the road
This was the biggest show of the tour, it was scheduled as the last so it had already been planned out with all the trimmings and what not for the party concert spectacular they had; however more dates were added, just a couple. They practiced relentlessly and once satisfied with the results, took the rest of the afternoon off to relax before they had to get ready. They were confident and ready, though slightly nervous. Peter came back and checked them all over and the sound technician, Rich, hooked them up before they met up with the rest of the band and pumped themselves up. They took to the stage and waited for a few minutes. The crowd roared as the countdown began and the guys took a deep breath, shook hands, their hearts beating out of their chests.
The arena went dark and the guys began to rise on their platform and counted down in their heads as they heard the starting beats in their in-ears. They were ready and the music began, lights went up, pyro went off and the crowd burst with emotion as the guys began with Elevate. The crowd went wild and the guys danced around the stage as they sang their entrance song to get the crowd going. The concert was a huge success so far and they were only half way through. They were on their second change and all the practicing earlier had started to get to them so they took an extra 5 minutes to get dehydrated and rest a bit. Kendall had gone on stage to appease the crowd and came up with a skit to go find the others and see what was taking so long. They had done this skit before but it was always planned into the show.
Kendall went backstage to get his turn to rest and to 'find James' when James came out the other side, just like a comedy routine on their show. Each member took one minute on stage giving the others 4 minutes to recuperate. Soon enough they all 'found each other' and took it slower as they did some acoustics to rest up some more. They were exhausted, quite far from it actually, they were just beginning to lag just a little bit is all, they could still go for the other hour they had left.
After their acoustic set, they changed once more into their final outfits to perform their encore portion of the set list. All was going well still so far and everyone including the bad, was rocking out hard. The guys played around on their jungle gym freely during an instrumental part, Logan had gotten hung up slightly on a pyro cannon and didn't notice. James got hit in the chest with a blast and knocked off balance. He continued to sing right after he fell to the floor but sat for a moment to let the sting wear off as he rubbed it out. The others gathered for their in sync routine and James was late to the party, they noticed him at the top but he came down and slid right into the line, occasionally holding his chest since it still burned. Something was up but his band mates, followed his lead and kept going, they would ask when the song was over if he was alright.
Right after the song they crowded him but not in a way that would worry the crowd. He explained he got hit in the chest with a blast of pyro and it still burned a bit. He trotted off stage to check himself out and was caught by stage hands to get a quick glimpse. Naturally the crowd starting to get antsy when James ran off but Logan quieted him down.
"He needs new batteries, he'll be right back." Logan explained
"He's malfunctioning at the moment." Carlos continued
"James is a robot" Kendall added
"His monitor isn't working and with everybody having a good time he cant hear anything else." Carlos said
"Without these monitors, we'd be so off key." Logan said
"That and we'd be deaf." Kendall added
"That too." Logan agreed.
James was off to the side in the dressing room sitting in a chair, breathing deeply. He was short of breath all of a sudden. The ladies of wardrobe undid his shirt and Ronnie, a member of the tour crew had the first aid kit. James didn't look too bad, his chest was a bright red but no bleeding or burns that were visible so far. Ronnie put on some gloves and applied a helping of a burn ointment and James winced in pain as it burned more. He twisted in his seat and let out a grunt as he punched the nearest solid object.
"This shit hurts!" he yelled out. His mic was far enough away and off so nothing was getting picked up to the audience but his band mates could hear him a little bit. James couldn't hear them but Kendall pretended to have a conversation with James to entertain the audience. Afterwards he went backstage to see what was going on. Team members wasted no time and Kendall didn't even have to stop or ask as they told him to head to the change tent. James was in a bad way, the top half of his outfit lay scattered on the floor and Ronnie was applying the ointment. Through the white cream though, the burn shone bright.
After the ointment began to work, James felt better and decided to go through with the show, there were only a few songs left and he didn't want to let anyone down. Kendall filled James in on the story thus far so he could go along with it. James greeted his fans and they roared.
"I found the batteries! Can you hear me out there!?" he shouted to the crowd. They roared in response as Kendall filled in Carlos and Logan on what was going on. They all took turns speaking to the crowd while the others checked on how James felt. They continued on his word that he was fine and he promised to be checked out later after the show by a professional. Usually they had a medical professional, Katie, who was also their best friend, cast mate and even part of the tour crew as the manager, around but tonight she was held up in CT. They passed through last night on their way to NY and she stayed behind.
Most of the staff knew mild first aid such as James' burn but anything more serious, they would have to go by the book that she left with them. She said she'd be at the concert late and definitely be there by the time they left to continue the tour. She was on her way, in fact she was just down the street stuck in traffic. She'd be there in about 10 minutes and be just in time for the encore.
The band played and the guys began to perform Love Me, Love Me, a very fast paced and energetic song. It was one of the last ones they played since it was tiring. They made full use of the stage, the jungle gym and anything else they could use to keep moving in between choreography bits. Towards the end of the song Carlos pushes Kendall off the platform and onto the trampoline where he bounces to his feet onto the stage. With the newer trampoline, he really flies, but with all the practice trials he did, he stayed in control and landed just off balance but on his feet. After he cleared the way, he was just in time for Carlos' cue to jump onto the trampoline. Kendall had actually only just cleared the way as Carlos came off the platform so Carlos was off his angle and velocity and landed wrong on the trampoline and it sent him flying off and he landed on the floor with a thud before sliding across the stage. Kendall caught his friend before he went any further and helped him up.
Carlos dusted himself off and went right into his part. He hurt a little bit, he had landed on his side when he hit the stage floor. He saw Kendall struggle to get up but couldn't stop his own jump so he readjusted in mid air to give Kendall space but he landed on all fours on the trampoline and couldn't swing himself around in time before flying off so he would land on his feet. His side hurt pretty bad, when he tried to breathe in deeply it stung. He figured he be bruised a bit in the morning but get himself checked out anyway. Both boys went back up the ramp to switch places with Logan and James who would do the same stunt for the next chorus.
James pushed Logan off and he landed on the trampoline, on his back and flew up and off, landing square on his feet. James followed suit right after, jumping feet first. James landed right on cue, just like Logan. They both went back up for the big finish. Through the ending beats and their dances, they heard a small explosion from one of the pyro cannons. They always made noise when they went off but this one was different. It went in all directions and hit their guitarist Danny, right in the face. He fell backwards and almost off his platform on the 2nd story but caught himself. He held his face in his hands and was trying to keep in his screams of pain as best he could. With out his guitar the sound was a bit off so people noticed, especially after the explosion.
Danny jumped down as soon as a few stage hands got to him and took him backstage. The crowd was still loud but now concerned. Things kept going wrong and they were grateful the guys kept going and luckily so far all the mishaps had been small but still…What was going to happen next?