Chapter5 It would be nice to say the next week went by in a flash, but that would be an outright lie.
Panic gripped the populous as the frequency of stories of maddened morphs grew by the day. Scientists worked day and night to discover an antidote - or failing that, at least the cause - but to no avail. It happened differently for many - for some, their minds would be the first to go, leaving them a savage beast in a friendly body. Others' minds kept perfectly stable, while their bodies slowly adapted away from the human side.
It was soon discovered that those whose minds were lost didn't go completely out of it, when a group of them made a raid on a police station. The attack was well-organised and planned, and the station went down easily. There was often no way of telling whether a morph was normal or not. It became dangerous to walk the streets. Riots were commonplace. Houses were burnt to the ground regularally. It was very rare to find someone who hadn't had some of their friends and family lost, either to madness themselves or to the madness of others...
But the Battle of the Bands wasn't being cancelled, no way.
When the day finally arrived, crowds came from all over the place, to get their minds off the horrible goings-on of the world and lose themselves in what promised to be a day of fantastic music...
After months of practising, and then trying to adapt to their new forms, the two bands didn't think they were quite ready. Especially since BJ was now almost fully Suicune. He was basically a Suicune on its hind legs that had a human brain and the power of speech. His paws were still good enough to play his guitar, but every now and then he would accidentally hit a wrong note.
FireDog and Thunder also showed signs of becoming more Pokemonlike, but not nearly as much as BJ had. All the band members kept the power of speech and the ability to stand on their hind legs. None lost the power to play their instruments, and for this they were very thankful. In Legends Alive, though, the girls had barely changed at all. Everyone was a tiny bit more birdlike, but that was it. No major changes.
The crowds were roaring, the lights were flashing, the bands were pumped... And it began!
"Welcome to the Battle of the Bands!" the announcer said. "I'll tell ya folks, this was almost canceled. But thanks to the insistance of the two band leaders of the Legends Alive and Endangered, this concert will take place in just a moment. First up will be the band Legends Alive!"
The five girls took their places on stage amongst screams and catcalls, and set up their equipment. The TV reporters began to roll the tapes.
"This song is dedicated to my boyfriend Mark, who was fully changed into a Staryu a few days ago," Silver said as the talking in the audience died down. "He is no longer human in any way, and I will miss him." She stepped away from the microphone and whispered, "Mark, this is for you." The entire auditorium fell silent as Silver began to sing, with Artic as backup.

"I will remember you.
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by.
Weep not for the memories.

Remember the good times that we had?
I let them slip away from us when things got bad.
How clearly I first saw you smilin' in the sun.
Wanna feel your warmth upon me, I wanna be the one.

I will remember you.
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by.
Weep not for the memories.

I'm so tired but I can't sleep.
Standin' on the edge of something much too deep.
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word.
We are screaming inside, but we can't be heard.

But I will remember you.
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by.
Weep not for the memories.

I'm so afraid to love you, but more afraid to lose.
Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose.
Once there was a darkness, deep and endless night.
You gave me everything you had, oh you gave me light.

And I will remember you.
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by.
Weep not for the memories.

And I will remember you.
Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by.
Weep not for the memories.
Weep not for the memories..."

~-~-~-~
A small hole in the ceiling, mostly covered up, let a little light shine through. Nobody noticed, as the bright, multicoloured spotlights that shone upon the stage would call far more attention than a little daylight.
Just off to the side, the shadowy figure perched, tossing something up and down in his hands, as he listened to the girls' music. He hated to admit it... but they WERE good...
He smiled his evil smile. Not that it would do them much good, once he was done with them...
The thing he was tossing up went a slightly unexpected direction, and his hand missed it. He grunted in suprise, made two grabs for it, missed, then as a last resort tried to hit it back up with his tail. It didn't work, and it flew out into the crowd.
He cursed as he lost sight of it, among the thousands of dancing fans. Hmph... damn... Well, it didn't matter that much...
As he turned back to the band, he realised they were about finished. Good... Wrenching open the panel again, he moved out onto the rooftop, heading for the stage door at the back of the hall...
The Legends Alive would soon be getting the suprise of their lives...
~-~-~-~
As the girls slugged through their second and last song, Holly was becoming a little nervous. Something was seriously wrong with her keyboard.
She'd noticed quite a bit of heat as the first song finished, but she'd assumed that was of her own doing - she was half fire-type, and understandably very nervous. But about halfway through the second she'd felt the heat coming from inside the instrument, and seen the heat rising, and knew that this was not good.
She'd twisted her arms slightly, to wave them a little and cool the board. While it might have felt a bit silly, the crowd liked it - the Houou feathers resembled a shimmering rainbow as they waved up and down. She hit a couple of bad notes, but it wasn't noticed above the madness of the other instruments.
She managed to slow it, but it was obvious the board wasn't going to take much more. It lasted just until the song ended, and exploded in a shower of sparks just as the final chords died away. While it shocked all the birds beyond belief, the crowd roared, thinking it some rather good special effects.
Laura thanked the crowd while the others moved offstage, Artic helping Gold heft her rather destroyed instrument away. Another band took the stage, a group of rock and ground pokemon with some suitably corny pun for a name, but the birds were too busy looking at the board to pay much attention.
"Man... what happened?"
"I don't know, it's been getting worse since the start." Holly said, still in slight shock as it had blown up right under her beak. "Do you want to take a look at it, Zelda?"
"I won't be able to fix it, but I might be able to tell you why it happened." She said, crouching next to the board. The others let her have some time, and looked towards the stage.
"No competition." Aria remarked after a moment. "Their music isn't bad, but their singer is awful."
The others nodded. The Day of the Morph hadn't helped this band. The lead Onix's voice was too low and rather gravelly, and the Sandslash guitarist who occasionally came in with him was little better. Their music was good, however, and the people were still dancing happily.
"Josh's band is up next." Maura said, looking at a timetable she'd had stored in her pocket.
"Hm? And how many after that?"
"Seven other bands."
"Ten in all, that's right. Well, Josh's should be the only one we really have to look out for, right?"
"Probably."
"Oh man..." Zelda moaned from behind them.
"What?"
"This was no accident. Somebody messed with this keyboard, someone who knew what they were doing."
"Are you sure?"
"Have a look." She held up a small bunch of wires. They'd all been cut, and several had been rearranged and reconnected.
"Sabotage?"
"I'd say so."
"Who'd do that?"
As the Rock band's chords died away, the announcer introduced the Endangered.
"I think I could offer a pretty good guess."
"Come on... we still made it. And with Silver's voice, how on earth is Josh gonna beat us?"
The others were silent, staring at the stage...
~-~-~-~
The Endangered had quite an entrace planned. The girls were quite shocked to see how much Sammy had changed since they had last spotted him, but he looked quite confident by the way he hefted his guitar. Beside him were a tough-looking Entei with a toothy grin, taking his place at the drumset, and a viscious Raikou holding another guitar. A Dragonair morph slithered on with a microphone.
"You don't think that's Josh, do you?"
"No... that's Chadran, if I'm any judge."
"Well, where's Josh?"
"Maybe he's too changed to make it."
"No, you heard the announcement. Josh insisted the show go on. He wouldn't do that, unless he could participate."
As one, the three legend-dog-morphs started playing... and as they did, they all blew an attack towards the centre of the stage.
Fire, ice and electricity collided and exploded in a storm of sparks and shards... and in the wake of the explosion stood the last thing they needed. Tall, powerful, and incredibly wicked-looking, stood the last thing they needed.
Josh was a Mewtwo.
As he began singing, they saw that these guys did, indeed, have a chance at beating him. His voice was loud and sounded slightly warped, and it was pretty-much perfect for the song they sung. As he danced madly around the stage, he made sure to shoot a sneering, confident glance in their direction.
"Oh man..."
"We've got to do something about this..." Gold said, moving back to the keyboard. "This belongs to the people running the concert. They'll make us pay for it."
"It's not actually that damaged on the outside." Zelda said. "We might be able to fix it. I'm not going to try though, we need a professional. I might make it worse."
"Should we go out and find one?"
"Yeah, I'll go." Gold said. "I don't like this music anyway."
She moved towards the door, but Zelda called out to her. "I'll come too."
"Yeah... you know the best places."
"Yeah... and it's not safe to be out by yourself these days, legendary or not."
"True. Well, let's go."
The two left through the back door of the concert hall. As they took wing and soared off over the city, neither of them saw a dark figure detach itself from the wall and follow...
~-~-~-~
Throughout the city, the riots were getting worse without people there to offer resistance. Quite a lot of the still-sane people were holed up in the concert hall, dancing wildly.
Many of the maddened riotors knew this.
They wanted destruction.
They wanted death.
And there was one place where that would be available in abundance...
Unknown to its inhabitants, pokemon were gathering from the entire city, to encircle the building...
This was going to be messy...
~-~-~-~
The two girls flew hard, Gold in front. Though it was Zapper who knew where they were going, the electric bird didn't have anything near the flying speed as the Houou. Gold would fly ahead for a while, then hover in wait for her friend.
The sky was unusually empty. Gold flew in silence, simply enjoying herself in the cool air, nothing was out of place...
There was a sudden whoosh... she felt herself pushed down slightly by a downdraft. Strange.
"Did you feel that, Zelda?" She called back. No answer. "Zelda?"
She spun in midair, and hovered, scanning the horizons. Zelda was gone without a trace...