Chapter 14: The Day Before

"Dude, that was fucking sick."

We were in the practice studio. We had just run through a bunch of songs as a full band for the first time, including "Savage City", "Kitsune," "Drunk Trolls," and even a cover of "Fear Of The Dark" by Iron Marten.

"Thanks," I responded, "I guess I'm that good of a singer."

"You are quite a good singer," Nick replied, "I mean, you got range."

"I mean you and Judy doing the co-lead vocals also kicks ass," I said, "plus Finnick's deep backing growls."

'HYOOOORAAH!" Finnick screamed, practicing his deep growls.

"Thanks," Judy said, "was never really sure I could sing."

"And Duke, that evil spoken word voice you had on Savage City. Extremely sick!"

"Thank you so much," Duke replied in the evil voice he uses in songs.

"So," Judy said, "we now got like half of an album down."

"What do you think we should call it?"

"Don't know," I said, "but we already have six songs maybe we can write six more."

"Well," Finnick said, "all of us are doing the songwriting."

"It's all even between us!" Duke said.

"Maybe," I said, "if we film ourselves performing we can post it online and see if anyone finds it. Maybe after releasing a song or two on the internet we can be requested to open a Tundratown show."

"That would be great," Nick said.
"As long," I said, "as we don't get too big. I would like to be at that level where we're just big enough to headline but still playing small venues."

"Yes," Judy said.

"Also," Finnick said, "we could write a song about our experience in outer space."

"That would be fucking cool!" Duke said.

"Oh yes, a song about what we do and -OH WAIT! Valencia said that the Slammerjam leader would make an announcement tomorrow. Hopefully we can get a good uprising against them and write a song about it."

"Indeed," Judy said.

"And," I said, "I forgot to ask Valencia if there was any idea what the announcement would be."

"Well," Nick said, "We reached a good stopping point."

"I guess I'll go," I said.

"Well," Finnick said, "she's probably hanging out in the green room with the band."

"Thanks," I replied.

I went out of the studio and back into the Tundratown Palladium. AFter climbing onstage, I went down the hallway to find the venue's main dressing room that I had gotten drunk in the previous night.

"Oh I guess you win again," said a German accent from the dressing room. I walked in to find Valencia playing the otters in Super Smash Bros.

"Valencia," I said, "Valencia Lopez."

"Oh, HI SNOWY!" She said back, "I just finished another game with the band. We're quite bored up here."

"Well," I said, "I got some questions for you. Mind if I ask them now?"

"Go right ahead," said Valencia, "maybe we can just step out of the room first."

We walked into the backstage corridor.

"So," I said, "I remember in your speech yesterday, you said something about the Slammerjam leader making an announcement."

"Uhh," Valencia said, "yes."

"Do you know about this announcement?"

"Well," the Kit Fox replied, "I forgot to tell the whole details."

I listened closely, something I rarely do.

"I was going out to oversee the solar panels on top of the new Heat venue - I'm sure you know that Sahara Square is the solar power capital of the world. I was about to climb the stairs that go to the roof but then I suddenly felt a weird pulling. I was now at the edge of the beam that the aliens were using. Before I could call for help, I felt myself being lifted off the ground. Many long seconds later I ended up in the cargo bay of this ship. Then that's when the Slammerjam leader said, 'Stay Put! Don't move. Do what we say. I have an announcement to make in a few days."

"Oh," I said, "so that's why."

"Well, I was then forced into one of the holding cells here where I had no idea what to do. I thought I would be trapped here until the air duct opened up."

"Yeah and I guess,"

"It was Chuck and Rachel, the Marmot and the Shrew," said Valencia, "they told me they were here to rescue me. I was so overwhelmed that I just decided to crawl through that air vent with them. I told them about the announcement, and that I was thankful for their help, and they decided to make me leader of a new club. We ended up in this area, where all the buildings are. None of the Slammerjams even know we are here, but we are secretly watching them. We found how to hack some of the webcam feeds and found other mammals that were being held captive. Chuck and Rachel have been crawling through trying to get to the other mammals and bringing them in here. The escape holes have been sealed with a thick glue substance to prevent passage."

"Oh," I said, "so great to know how it began."

"Well, one day," she said, "we were looking at the cams and saw a tank coming into the spaceship. We wondered what the fuck was happening. EVentually, we followed it on the cams and then saw you three. I was like 'hey, I recognize that trio, I just saw them a few weeks ago!' We watched you get kidnapped and then pinpointed the cell you were brought to."

"Wow," I said, "that is pretty intense."

"Chuck and Rachel found out how to get you right before our meeting," she said, "before long, I came out onstage and saw you three in the audience."

"Well," I said, "that was quite a lot. But, what happens if the announcement goes through?"

"We try to rise up."

"But how will we do it?" I asked.

"We don't know yet," Valencia said, "but anyone can join. WHo knows, it may even be you."

"Well," I said, "a friend told me that Judy, Nick, and I would be the ones to end this ordeal once and for all."

"Oh," said Valencia.

"Their name is Lupe Wolford, sometimes spelled as Wolfard, they don't really care how it's spelled. They also were the one who told us to ride in a tank."

"Wow."

"We thought they were high on something at first," I said, "well, they were actually stoned, but the tank thing actually worked. Maybe this whole thing will work after all."

"Maybe," replied Valencia, "I wish you the best of luck and hope we can all get through this. By the way I got an alarm set beforehand where we can all find out what to do before the announcement."

"Thank you for your time," I replied, "I gotta get back to my band practice."

"Bye," Valencia said.

I loped out of the venue and back into the studio.

"Yo," Duke Weaselton said as I entered the room, "what if, for my stage outfit, I wear a white shirt, green jacket, green pants, a green bowtie, and a green hat that I fill with money and I chuck it at the audience at the end of every show. That would be fucking sick."

"Yeah dude," Nick said, "that is quite the interesting idea."

"I'll be looking like a cross of the Once-ler, Angus McFife, and Johannes Eckerstrom."

"Yeah that would be fucking great!" I said, "what if we all did stage costumes?"

"Hell yeah to that," Judy said.

"No elephant costume this time," Finnick said, "I call dibs on vampire outfit."

"Probably that Robin Hood outfit I still own," Nick said, "will be fun."

"Thinking either a pirate or farmer for me," Judy said.

"Hmmm" I said, "I'm not sure about mine. Maybe something space related given our current predicament."

"Hell yeah," Duke responded, "we'll be like The Village Mammals of metal."

"Fuck yeah!" We all responded.

Nick violently played a riff on his guitar.

"Oh for the love of Spencer Charnas," Nick said, "just fucking broke a goddamn string oh my fucking Hades fuck and it nearly hit my eyeball."

We all looked to see a broken string hanging off of Nick's guitar.

"How the fuck am I gonna fix this."

"Hey," another voice said, "you need something?"

We looked over to see a Coyote in the doorway, the same one who said 'We love you!" the previous day.

"Uhh, yeah," Nick replied, "I broke the e string."

"Well," said the coyote, "I know just how to fix that."

She then took the guitar from Nick's lap and pulled a new string out of her pocket. We were astounded at how fast and well she could fix it, and only one minute later was the new string fully attached.

"There you go," said the Coyote.

"Thanks so much," Nick said.

"Yeah I learned this from working at a music store," said the Coyote, "of course the aliens blew it up."

"Well," I said, "We got the gig for you."

"Oh nice," said the Coyote, "I guess I'm your guitar tech now."

"Indeed you are," said Judy.

"Thank you so much," replied the Coyte, "Oh yes and let me introduce myself. I'm Dakota Wagley."

"Snowy Broden"

"Judy Hopps"

"Nick Wilde"

"Finnick Honeycutt"

"Duke Weaselton"

"And we are Dethbrush."

"Oh like the name," said Dakota, "what kinda music do you play."

"Kinda a mix of various metal subgenres," I said, "mainly a mix of metalcore, power metal, melodeath, and sometimes hints of folk, black, and tech metal."

"Oh nice," said Dakota, "sounds like it fucking rips."

"Plus we got a phone recording of one of our songs," Judy said, "mind if you listen?"

"That would be great!" said Dakota.

We played our phone recording of "Mount Sinister" and Dakota was immediately headbanging to the music.

"That fucking ripped!" She said, "I'll proudly be your guitar tech. I can also be a bass tech and a drum tech too."

"Oh that's fucking excellent!" Finnick said.
"Welcome to the gig!" Duke said.

"I'll have to go now," Dakota said, "but hopefully we meet again at our first show."

"Satanspeed to you!" I said.

She gave us all the horns as she left.

We continued to write a few more songs and came up with a new one entitled "Take the Stage" that we planned to make our album opener. We even wrote the riff for it. We also played a few more of the songs.

"So," I told the group once we had finished, "tomorrow the alien leader makes their announcement."

"Oh yeah!" Duke said, "TBH I forgot about that."

"I was just talking with Valenica, and she told me how we plan to fight 'em off."

"Alright," Judy said.

"And I'm wondering how you think we should do that. Or maybe we could just see how it goes."

"Well hopefully we can access the tank. I wouldn't be surprised if it's in this area."

"Also Valencia knows how to get to the main area to watch the announcement and launch our attack."

"Alright," I said, "we might not have the best planning but at least we have a plan."

"Hell yeah!" Judy shouted, "that is pretty much what we did on the ZPD."

"Well," I said, "this is a pretty good first full band practice session. Glad we got one in while we're up here, and hopefully before the big day."

"And hopefully we can bring our tunes right back to the Big Z!" Nick shouted.

"Hell yeah!" I said, "well, Valencia has an alarm set for tomorrow. We can all figure out what to do then before the announcement."

"That is excellent," Judy said.

"Well," Duke said, "hopefully we can win this whole thing."

"Fingers crossed!" Finnick shouted.

"Alright," I said, "on the count of three, say Dethbrush is forever. One, two, three."

"DETHBRUSH IS FOREVER!"