CHAPTER 24: A Dragon's Invitational
Tigress POV:I exited the rehearsal space and began making my way to the others who were looking for us in the street.
I do have to say, I started feeling bad about how I treated John before our talk last night now that I saw what he's truly like, especially when he's with his family.
I then began having the butterflies in my stomach all of a sudden. I didn't have this feeling until I saw John with his family, and by just him being himself with the others.
I then remembered what he asked me back at Mei Ling's and what I told him in response.
I don't have the time for romance.
'Maybe for you John, I can change- WAIT A MINUTE! No, he's your teammate. Even so, after how I treated him when he first got here, highly doubtful he feels the same.' I thought. It's as if seeing him being himself made me develop feelings for him.
I then brushed those feelings off as I exited the building and called out the others.
"Master!"
Shifu looked over and saw me before he along with the others made their way over to where I was.
"How is he Tigress?" Shifu asks.
"He received a clean bill of health from Mei Ling. No internal injuries."
"Excellent news. So, where is he?"
"Follow me, he's with Mei Ling and some other friends of theirs. He also had a surprise visit from his sisters and their father."
"How shocked was he to see them?" Viper asked.
"Very shocked."
I led them to the rehearsal space where Su was waiting for us.
"Hey Viper." She said.
"Su!" Viper zipped beside us to hug her.
"How have you been?" Viper asked.
"Well for one, grateful that both Tigress and John saved me earlier from a few assholes trying to assault me."
"When did this happen?" Shifu asked.
"Not long after we made it to the village. Like she said, three men were harassing her. If it weren't for John hearing what was going on, we most likely would have never noticed and it could've ended much worse. Luckily, we were both able to stop the three from hurting her."
"Well done Tigress. Let's see how he's doing." Shifu said.
"Come on in. I hope you are all accustomed to loud noises." Su said.
"Why?" Mantis and Monkey asked.
"You'll see." I smirked.
We walked in the room and the lights were turned off. Knowing what was about to happen, I simply played along.
"Lemme get the lights real quick." Su said.
As soon as the lights turned on, we saw John, his sisters and the others all set up and ready to go.
Roman began the song with a cymbal swell whilst giving a three count.
The song they chose to play was Sickness Unto You by Trivium. The roles were as follows.
Roman: Drums
Lilly and Song: Bass
Kate: Rhythm Guitar and Dual Harmony solo with Mei Ling.
Mei Ling: Vocals (Clean), Rhythm Guitar and Dual Harmony solo with Kate.
John: Vocals (Screams) and Lead Guitar during the main solo.
As the six were playing the song, me and Viper kept looking over at the guys to see what their reactions were since we've seen John play the guitar along with his sisters.
"This is awesome!" Mantis said.
"How the hell can they both play that fast and still be able to either sing or scream that powerfully?!" Monkey asked.
"Lots and lots of practice. Just like how we train to become better and better everyday." Viper said.
Crane on the other hand was concentrated on Mei Ling throughout the entire performance as for Su with Roman. As for me, I simply watched John do his thing. Although that feeling I had earlier began creeping back, I slowly started to accept that I had feelings for him.
John's POV
We finished the song and immediately the guys walked over to us.
"Dude, that was sick." Monkey said, giving me a fist bumb.
"Thanks." I said.
"So, I see your shoulder is working properly Captain?" Shifu asked.
"Well, Mei Ling did her magic and fixed her up all nice."
"And I see you have some company too." Viper said slithering over to Kate and Lilly.
"Sure do, might as well introduce them to the rest of the team."
As I gave introductions to the guys who haven't met my family yet, Monkey gave me this look of confusion.
"Umm John, I hope you don't take this the wrong way but didn't you say that your sisters were younger than you?"
"Yeah younger twins, why do you ask?"
"How much younger because they look your age."
I then realized I never mentioned the fact that they're not biological sisters at birth. I then looked over at my dad.
"Should I tell them the story?" I asked him.
He simply nodded. I took a short breath before telling them.
"When I was born, my birth mother died giving birth to me. Dad decided to raise me on his own, which I still thank him to this day." I patted him on the shoulder.
"Three years later, me and him were at the park. As I was playing in the sandbox, I had noticed these two playing with a ball when it rolled over to me. I then decided to ask if I could play with them and they said yes."
"Whilst they were playing catch, I decided to meet their mother, who was sitting on bench next to ours. During our conversation, she brought up that when she gave birth to the twins, their father left them and never came back. I told her about John's birth mother and we hit it off ever since.
About 2 weeks later, we confessed our love for each other and a year later, we got married." Dad said.
"So they became my step sisters and it wasn't until they turned 18, a couple months after I did, that they decided to make it official and get adoption papers filled out to have Dad become their father. Thus officially becoming the best sisters a brother could ever ask for."
"As for you being the best brother ever to both of us." Kate said.
I walked over and hugged them both as did they to me.
"Awww." Mei, Su, Song and Viper said.
Out of nowhere, we heard a stomach growl. We all looked at each other to see who's stomach was it until we found the culprit.
"It would seem that my stomach is needing some food." Shifu chuckled.
"Well we were supposed to meet up for some food." I said.
"I know a good noodle resturaunt just down the street." Lilly said.
"Lead the way then." Shifu said.
Timeskip: At the Restaurant.
We were seated in a quite area of the restaurant so that we could eat in peace.
For the majority of the time, we sat and talked about random stuff. Occasionaly, some of us would joke about Crane and Roman's feelings towards Mei and Su. To be honest, it was too tempting for us considering both guys were sitting next to their crushes. But it was all in good fun.
A little while after the food showed up, Mei Ling pulled Roman and Song aside for a moment before coming back and tapping her spoon on her glass.
"Can I have everyone's attention please? Me along with Roman and Song have an upcoming show that our band has planned this coming Thursday in celebration of the Dragon Warrior's inauguration. We were originally planning on inviting the Furious 5 as honorary guests for the show."
"But since there was a pretty significant change of plans, AND now John is for one, the Dragon Warrior and a good friend of ours too. We only thought that it would only be fitting for him to join us on stage that night along with both his sisters to play their respective instruments since they missed the opportunity to perform two days ago." Roman added.
I looked at my sisters and they both had the same satisfied grin on their face. I simply laughed and smiled.
"No need to ask me twice. I'm in."
"Me and Lilly can attest to that. We both accept." Kate said.
"Yeah, and like Roman said. We missed playing along side John on stage Saturday." Lilly said
"So it's settled then-"
"Pardon me of interupting you Mei Ling, but I believe you forgot to offer something for the five as well." Shifu said.
Me and the five all looked at each other just as confused as we all thought we were.
"What offer Master?" Crane asked.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. What Master Shifu is wanting is for each member of five to be a part of the celebration by joining us on stage and sing a song of their choosing." Mei Ling said.
We were all wide-eyed. Talk about a 'what the fuck' moment. For the most part, everyone seemed to be shocked by what Shifu was wanting from them. But after a couples seconds, Monkey was the first to express his excitement.
"Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes! Count me in." Monkey said.
"Monkey stole the words right out of my mouth. But yeah, I'm in for sure." Viper said.
I began smiling, this was something I never even thought would happen. Becoming Dragon Warrior is really not as bad as I thought it would be.
"As long as I can sing something without sounding like the devil, then I'm down." Mantis said
We chuckled. Crane was unsure about this.
"Crane, you seem on edge. You ok?" I asked.
"Oh, it's just that this is something I've never really done before. So you can say I'm a bit nervous. Plus, I've never sang before."
Mei Ling then went over and hugged Crane.
"Crane, I'm positive that you will do just fine. If you want, I would be more than willing to give you some help by coming up to the palace and give you singing lessons. And if you want, we can start that tonight." She said kissing his cheek.
He simply blushed.
"Well looks like I'm sleeping with earplugs tonight." Monkey joked which gifted him a slap from Viper.
Now both Crane and Mei Ling blushed, which made me and Roman laugh.
"Moving on now, Tigress. What's your take on this?" I said.
She thought about it for a moment before speaking up.
"Well, as the rest of the five know this is out of my comfort zone and something I never would do willingly.
But, I'm willing to step out of my comfort zone not just for John and not even for us. I am willing to do this because it will bring joy to the villagers seeing us taking part in an event that celebrates a new start for them with John being added to our team as the Dragon Warrior.
Because of the nature on how the Dragon Warrior was picked, I believe there are some doubters about John's picking. With this show, I do believe that it could not only silence the critics, but it will also reassure that this was no accident. That is my long version of saying I'm looking foward of doing this on Thursday."
"Excellent! We have a green light. Now all we need is to fix up the setlist and a disguise for John." Roman said.
"Why would I need a disguise?"
"Element of surprise." Song said.
I immediatley knew what she meant, so I simply nodded.
"Quick question. How do we know which song we will get to perform?" Mantis asked.
"Don't worry. I'll take the time tonight to help you guys pick the song you want." I said.
"As for you John, I'll text you the setlist once she's finalized." Roman said.
"Thanks dude."
And so with that we finished off our meals and said our goodbyes to my family before making our way back to the palace for training and to prepare the five's individual songs they will be choosing to sing.
Quite a lengthy chapter, but I did want to put a bit more effort in writing more detailed chapters and not worry about the word count. So you may notice a chapter being much shorter or much longer than others.Hopefully you enjoyed and stay tuned. Two more music themed chapters and then we dive back towards our future encounter with Tai Lung.