At The Lyndon Residents, Nadine was finishing her homework and was ready to go cook up some ramen noodles for her and Holden. Holden started eating it by slurping like a dog, but Nadine showed him the proper way to eat up ramen.
After she made the chicken ramen noodles, Holden was curious about something, "When are Mommy and Daddy going to be home?" asked Holden.
Just as Nadine was about to tell him that they are working late, a Haitian couple came through the door, "Mom! Dad!" Nadine greeted as she hugged her parents,, " How was work at Draft to Craft Studios?"
"It was great" answered Mr. Lyndon, "The workers have been buzzing about The Backstreet Boys being judges on Let's All Dance Until We're Sick. Plus we have a slight emergency in the voice dept."
"Go on" Nadine replied.
"Should we?" Mrs. Lyndon asked her husband, "The boss could fire us if we bring a big celebrity and start a riot."
"Kendra" answered Mr. Lyndon "The Deadline is this weekend and we don't have much time."
"Your right Devin" Mrs. Lyndon, "The casting directors are having trouble finding the right voices for the roles of the five main girls in our latest project. After the board of directors noticed your five-part harmony on the LADUWS website, they figure that you girls could be perfect for the roles. Also, the actor who was supposed to play the critic in the pilot has a dreadful singing voice and needs one of The Boys to come."
"What vocal range does the critic have" asked Nadine.
"Somewhere between tenor and two octaves" answered Mrs. Lyndon.
"Tenor and Two Octaves" recalled Nadine, "That's the same range as A. J"
"Can I come too, Mommy?" asked Holden.
"Sure" answered Mr. Holden, "We could always use your random instrument playing for the off-key players' scene."
"Yippy" shouted Holden.
The next day after school, our heroes arrived at Draft to Craft Studios, the animation studio where Nadine's parents work at. A. J not only came to supervise them but to record his voice for the play critic. "So Dev," asked A. J, "What's the name of the toon your working on?"
"Broadway Preserved" answered Mr. Lyndon, "We got the idea from the local jam shop, Age of Jamming."
"It's a cartoon where we showcase kids singing broadway songs." explained Mrs. Lyndon, "Like Grease's Your The One That I Want, West Side's I Feel Pretty, and Cats' Memory. Remember the time where Julie Andrews came to Port-au-Prince for a movie shoot based on the Broadway musical, "The Shimmering Edge"?"
"Yeah," recalled Nadine, "She played the British World War II, widow."
"That was the same movie production where I met your father" explained Mrs. Lyndon, "My father was the movie's director and Devin's father was a postman who was sending a new camera from Hollywood. It also took your kid to work day and Dev decided to stay for production. I was the leading lady of course."
"You had an amazing voice" Nadine recalled.
"After I filmed my beach scene with Julie, I saw him leaving and was hoping if he could be part of Poindestre Studios as an intern." continued Mrs. Lyndon, "He said yes. He moved up from a coffee boy to a scriptwriter/set designer within two years."
"The pilot episode is already made and unfortunately" Mr. Lyndon, "I don't have the voice actors with the right vocal cords too. Also, the actor playing play critic has a horrible singing voice, and has a beautiful singing voice."
As Mr. Holden was wondering where were the others, A. J told them that the others couldn't make it, because Howie D and Kevin are going to help Pablo with some cooking for a visiting Telenova form Puerto Rico, B-Rok is going to is visiting his wife for the day, and Nick is staring in a hair gel commercial and doesn't want any Dorothy's getting in the way.
Dorothy could remember the first time she'd ever heard of The Backstreet Boys. She was coming home from school when her parents and Donovan were watching a VHS of the show Fully Booked were The Backstreet Boys guest-starred. During the physical challenge of Breakfast In Bed and saw the gorgeous blonde getting the items for the tray to serve to his bandmates.
"What do you see in Nick?" asked A. J.
"Not only his solid gold hair" Dorothy lovingly said, "I love a man in a waiter's uniform and has respect for the beach."
"You really like poetry don't you," asked Ginger.
During the tour, Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon was showing them the wonders of pencil-tests, character design, background design, animatics, coloring, marketing, and target audiences. Then it was time to record the voices for some of the characters.
In the recording booth, they were surprised to see who the director was. It was Alexandria Guidi-Merlo, her husband, "Jaiden" whose sister owns the place, and their three kids, "Jamison", "Gerado", and "Dream" who play some of the kids in Broadway Preserved. "This is my second job in order to avoid Dad's constant crankiness" explained Alexandria "I love him, but I'm afraid he might scare away the customers."
"I'm with ya" A. J replied, "Remember last night when I found his antique organ grinder and I accidentally broke it. Apparently, it was too old."
"Dad was a talented organ grinder" explained Alexandria.
Alexandria explained that for recording voices, they do them individually and they only get their lines. After they went through some rules, they each recorded our lines one by one. Later as A. J was finishing up his lines for the critic, he saw a picture of a Haitian girl with fireflies roaming around.
Out of the booth, he looked closely towards the picture, "Yo, Kendra" he called, "Who's the singer here?"
"That's Firefly Eden" explained Mrs. Lyndon "Our first cartoon at Draft to Craft Studios, she's like Diamond with bugs. Firefly Eden is a tropical-themed popstar who used The Luciole Étoile She was even on the cover of Question Ink Magazine."
"Luciole Etoile is French for Firefly Star" continued Nadine, "In fact, Eden's mother's name is, "Lucy". My favorite episode is when she learned that her mother is the previous wielder and that her maternal grandmother was the wielder.
"I remember" recalled Mrs. Lyndon, "You and I voiced Lucy and Eden's grandmother during Season 2."
As soon as Mr. and Mrs. Lyndon, Alexandria and her family left to combine the recordings with the final animation process, a Zallegrean that looked like Tex Avery came in, "Excuse me" A. J said to him, "Recording sessions are over."
"Hold up, A. J" replied Jessie, "A superhero always figures out details whenever something strange is going on. Like you said, "Recordings are over" and not only that, all the slots for the recording sessions are booked this week with The Natural Twenty Gamer Club commercial, audiobooks for the children's textile book, "Textile Smile", and for the animated music video by Tri-Z, "Club Swan"."
"Very clever, My Dear" replied the space animator evilly, "The names, "Zavier Zavery" I'm going to bring my cartoons to life and destroy the earth."
"Not while we're here you won't" growled Griffin girl.
Just as they were about to attack, Zavier pointed his Animation Pen at them and sent them to the Firefly Eden cartoon.
In the cartoon, they looked something from a cross between Dream Boyz High and Diamond And The Illusions, "I just hope we don't get this way when we do our recordings for Arthur." A. J groaned.
They looked around to see that there in the quaint little town of Pristine Beach. By a dinner theater called, "The Shakespear Soungdtage". Inside the theater, they saw an African American toon with an elderly bartender. They were Eden DeJardins and Lucy Beauchene-Desjardins. Looking at the empty scenery, Nadine knew that this was the last episode of Firefly Eden before it got canceled.
"Girls and AJ" she whispered to her team, "I know that this is the final episode, but I know how we could get out of here without changing the ending."
"Really" whispered Faith, "How"
"We'll play along with the tribute to Eden's late father Pierre DeJardins" suggested Nadine. "Who was the founder of The Shakespeare Soundstage. The show ended in 1999 and the song used for his funeral, which was All-4-One's I Swear."
"That is my favorite song" recalled A. J, "Okay, I'll play along."
As our heroes were listening to the soulful voice of Firefly Eden and the tunes of her backup band, "The Storybook Experience" A. J made glowsticks come out of his hands and made a little wave in them, then everyone joined in.
In the real world, Zavier was petrified by this, so he decided to take them to another cartoon.
Suddenly, their appearance was changed into a cross between Sailor Moon and Dora the Explorer. Then they were in Broadway Preserved. Onstage, they saw Frieda Gia, Nola, Jazlyn, and Dior, who are the cartoon avatars for Faith, Ginger, Nadine, Jessie, and Dorothy. Just like that, they recalled this being the scene where the critic was reviewing their version of West Side Story's America.
By the door, they saw A. J's cartoon avatar and musical critic, Albert Johnathan McLeo. Even though they're a cartoon, A. J couldn't see the disappointment in a bunch of innocent girls, so he pushed all five real-world girls backstage and as they got out, they were wearing outfits similar to what The Sharks wore in West Side Story. "What gives Mr. Sunglasses," asked Jessie.
"You gals wanna blend in," A. J said, "You gotta blend in you wannabes."
Offended by A. J's insult, they decided to blend in, "Me and my big mouth" A. J groaned
"A. J's becoming impatient, again?" asked Jessie quietly.
"I'm afraid so" whispered Faith, "So let's just do what we can to keep the cartoon as it is."
Behind their cartoon counterparts, they started dancing to West Side Story's, "America". Thinking back part of his and Howie D's ancestry, he thought he could include America for International Week and surprise Kamila with it.
After they were doing with the number, they were hoping that their plan would work.
In the real world, Zavier couldn't take the sweet Broadway tune. He got so mad, he broke his pen and freed out heroes. They were back in the real world and ready to takedown the Termite Terrace Reject.
Backstreet's Back Alright
Ordnance and Centauremerald took him down with lasers, screams, and kicks, Griffin Girl used her razor-sharp claws to take down Zavier, Diamondnix shot out some ice from her hands, Merazul did a siren song so beautiful, Zavier fell asleep.
After Dr. Zora teleported Zavier back to Zalgea, Rubyhane used her fairy dust to fix the recording studio up before anyone noticed. After Diamondnix did a little picture adjustment, a group of children came in to record some of the voices. Holden was surprised because Merazul was his most favorite superhero, unaware that she's actually his sister. Not wanting to disappoint the children, Ordnance and The Griff Gals decided to give them autographs.
After that, they hid in an empty broom closet and changed back to normal. Luckily, nobody noticed them changing. As Holden was playing his toy ukelele and singing Backstreet Boy's, "Shining Star". His parents thought he was going to sing the Earth, Wind, of Fire version, but this was close.
The next day at the Backstreet Boys beach house, they were having a movie night. The backup dancers, the contestants, and Vincenzo's cousins were all there to be the test subjects for the Broadway Preserved pilot. After they presented the cartoon, everyone cheered for the pilot of Broadway Preserved. Most of them especially liked the critic's solo number and A. J's cameo in the toon.
The Griff Gals were petrified by their accidental alteration, but if the audience thinks it was part of the show, it's cool. "Hey ugh, girls" whispered A. J, "Sorry I called y'all a bunch of wannabes. I just couldn't see people disappointed."
"We know" Jessie replied, "And we remembered that you mostly hung out with girls growing up, so we're good.
Later as they were celebrating with popcorns and dance-offs, Alexandria wondered if A. J can collaborate with some of the songwriters for the show.
The End.
