Chapter 28: Sounds Of Independent Music
The next morning Stan and Kyle had already woke up and were searching for something that had been stuck in their minds throughout the whole night. It was about eight 'o' clock and the sun's rays were burning bright and leaving light marks and shadows on some of the furniture in the basement room through the tiny hand-size window at the top.
"OK, search for……Liver…pudlian." Stan spoke as he typed the word into a search engine. The computer that they were using was of old quality and had been down in the basement for some time. But it still had a decent internet connection. "Liverpudlian culture, Liverpudlian crime, Liverpudlian facts, Liverpudlian Bio, oh wait here we go." Stan clicked on the link and the webpage opened up. Stan and Kyle stood on the cardboard box; still in their pyjamas, curious as to what they were about to find. "Welcome to the home for all your required Liverpool knowledge. Would you like to meet a Liverpudlian girl………no. Are you older than 16…………no. Are you browsing this site because you just don't know what a Liverpudlian is………………no. Are you a total tosspot………no. Oh wait here we go. A Liverpudlian is the name given to anyone who originates from the city of Liverpool, England."
"Oh………so that's what a Liverpudlian is."
"Amongst many famous Liverpudlians are The Beatles and famous footballer Steven Gerrard. Would you like to know more………no."
Stan and Kyle both jumped off the box, turned off the computer and began getting dressed.
"Dude, I think that tape's made my brain go all funny."
"Yeh mine too, I'm feeling a bit dizzy. Although it's made me wanna suddenly just play the Guitar just for the hell of it."
"Completely."
Back upstairs and a few hours later, Liam and Daniel had arrived at Marcus' house and were just setting up the instruments in separate rooms. Marcus was helping with carrying some of his mum's and (step) dad's bags to a car outside. It was the day that they were planning to leave London and escape to Scotland to try and get away from this increasing threat from the Government and MI6 and Marcus was cool in keeping his emotions calm and neutral.
"Well that's it, that's the last bag." Marcus spoke as he placed the final luggage bag in the boot of the car and closed it. "You sure you're gunna be alright?"
"Marcus I should be the one who should be asking that. It's gunna be good seeing all our family again. It's just a shame that you can't come with us too. But I understand you've got a job to do here so I'll leave you to it."
"Alright." Marcus gave his mother a hug as he held firmly onto her; having this slight thought in the back of his mind that she would never return. But he knew not to think like that and so finally let go; allowing her to step into the front passenger's seat of the car.
"MARCUS…" Marcus' step-dad shouted. "Over here now!" Marcus turned around and gave his step-dad an annoyed look. The two of them hadn't got along very well for some time now and Marcus was glad to be seeing the back of him for a while. "I'm only trusting you because your mother trusts you as well. If it were just us two, I wouldn't think anything else for a second to not leave you with all this."
"Yeh, tell me something I don't know Tom."
"DAD, more like."
"You're not my dad, you're my step-dad; get with it! You'll never be anywhere near to my liking as my real dad was. As far as I'm concerned, you're just another guy in a suit."
His step-dad slightly laughed and returned back to his slightly annoyed face again. "I may be just another guy in a suit to you Marcus, but I've earned this reputation. And I fail to see you gaining the same reputation with what you're doing. As far as I'm aware, you're just another stupid kid with a wild dream."
"So……my talent and skills are nothing but a wild dream eh? Get the hell out of here, before you find my fist pressed against your face."
"Fine, I've had enough of this pathetic father son talk anyway. But I warn you, if I find just one scratch in or on this estate home, then you haven't seen the worst side of me yet………son." His step-dad walked off and entered the driver's side of the car. Driving off quick and smoothly, Marcus watched as the car drove off down the hill and out of sight.
"God, what a twat!" Marcus spoke to himself as he ripped a piece of a photograph off that was given to him by his mother. In his hand, a photograph of him and his mother happy and now in a muddy pool of water by the side, a torn off area of the photo that had his step-dad and brother on it. "Right, I better go and wake Norman up."
Meanwhile back in the house, Daniel was about to start teaching Stan and Kyle how to play the Guitar whereas Liam had set up his and Kenny's new drum kit in the Garden. Cartman on the other hand was busy watching TV; waiting for Daniel to finish so that he could start learning how to properly play a keyboard, not that he actually wanted to do it.
"Alright guys, let' start of with something basic." Daniel spoke as he tuned in a guitar given to him by Marcus. "Give me a 12 string example to start off with." Stan and Kyle looked at each other. "Yeh, both of you." Stan and Kyle looked down at their guitars and started playing a 12 string tune; both playing random notes on it. Although it was their first try at it in while, they were playing a pretty good tune. "Wow, that's not bad. But this time, try using your fingers with your other hand to tune and change the tone of the notes you play. OK, try again." The boys played the same random 12 string tunes, however this time, adding tone to it. It sounded much better than the last one and so Daniel was able to go into more harder skills and abilities with the guitar.
In the garden, Liam had set his drum-kit up so that it was facing the other drum kit that was just opposite. Kenny had already sat down on the kit's seat so Liam took his seat as well.
"Right Kenny, you ready to begin?"
"Hell yeh, let's do this."
"Alright to start off, just give me a basic slow-tempoed beat just so that I know how you do with drums."
"Errrrr, OK." Kenny grabbed hold of the two drum sticks and looked down at the large array of drums and cymbals that he had. "Holy s---, what the hell do I play?"
"Just play anything you want, it doesn't matter."
Kenny started playing a slow beat with just a few drums and a cymbal sound.
"OK……OK that's not bad Kenny. You done this kind of thing before?"
"Kinda. But that was only with a little drum-kit, not like one of these kinds of kits."
"Well it won't be long before we've got you mastering this drum-kit. You'll be an expert drum player in no time."
Back upstairs, Marcus was lying down on his nearly-made bed; feeling tired and slightly dizzy. He was starting to get pains in his chest again; the same pains he had been feeling for about the past few days and he couldn't work out what it was. If it wasn't indigestion or the cause of a heart attack, then what exactly what was it. He slowly walked to the bathroom and upon entering, took out a box of tablets. Swallowing one with a glass of water, he walked back to his bedroom where he collapsed on his bed and fell asleep again.
His dreams were starting to turn into nightmares as memories that he thought he had lost in the past returned to him all of a sudden. Memories became corrupted nightmares as images of himself at MI6 Headquarters returned to him.
All they were were nothing but quick flashes of himself at a slightly younger age getting dragged and forced through corridors and into/onto machines that he had never seen before. All he could hear was himself crying and screaming for it to all stop; before hearing himself yell at the top of his voice in what sounded like pain. And at the final bit of this nightmare, a low-toned voice started to speak:
"Tell your team of scientists and medics that they can begin removing Kane-Bridge's memories. Remove everything regarding this area of the headquarters over the past week. We cannot let him remember what has happened to him here."
"But sir, there is a slight possibility that he will remember all this."
"That's a risk I'm willing to take. At least we know now that the Core Unit energy can live within a normal human host body. Now we can begin plans to replicate this energy into an injection chemical once we collect enough energy sources."
"Sir, are you saying……"
"YES, it seems that our plans our coming together. Soon the entire population of this world will follow whatever laws and rules we create. Soon the world's society will belong to us once more."
"What do we do about Kane-Bridge sir?"
"Take him to the medical wing immediately. We have to make this whole incident look like something else. If we can cover this whole thing up so that no one outside MI6 and the Government knows, then we can begin the missionary phase of this whole operation…………Oh by the way, I forgot to ask you, what source of Core energy was put into Kane-Bridge's body?"
"Oh it was energy from the Spirit Unit sir. Although it is a synthetic organic version though. The real type of energy could have killed him sir. But as long as we are able to use Core Energy which is chemically combined with our synthetic versions, normal humans should become brain-washed once they get injected with it."
"Excellent. Let this remain a secret that we shall keep hidden under MI6 documents."
"Marcus……Marcus!" Liam shouted as he shook Marcus who was lying asleep on his bed.
"Huh-wh-wha-what."
"Marcus, the boys have all learned how to play their instruments. They're ready to begin recording downstairs."
"What, already? What time is it?" Marcus pushed himself up so that he was in a seated position on his bed.
"It's just gone five in the afternoon."
"What, 5pm. Bloody hell, I've been asleep for a hell of a long time."
"Yeh, come on, let's get downstairs."
As Marcus was about to follow Liam out of his bedroom, the phone in his room started ringing. For some odd reason, Marcus felt a cold chill go down his spine as the repeating ringing sounds kept going for a few seconds. Marcus walked over to the phone and slowly picked it up. Placing it by his left ear, he took a deep breath and looked forward.
"Hello."
"You can't stop what's already been declared Marcus."
Once again, it was the anonymous caller who had been calling him for some time now. "What do you want? I don't have time for these ridiculous stalking calls."
"HA HA HA HA, stalking calls? Oh Marcus, I'm not stalking you. I just thought I should call you to warn you that what you're doing is stupid and a total waste of time."
"And how would you know what I'm doing huh? You been watching me with your stupid binoculars or sumin?"
"HA, oh no. Let's just say I have……affiliate contacts."
"And who might they be? More of the same stupid lifeless time-wasters such as yourself."
"HA HA HA, you never fail to amuse me Marcus. Oh no, I'll give you a big clue to who I'm working with…two letters, one number………M………I………6."
Marcus felt that cool chill go down his back again. "What did you just say?"
"Surprised Marcus? You should be, but then again I guess you've seen quite a few other surprises since you've been back in this country."
"Alright I've had enough who the f--- are you?"
"YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE! HA HA HA, just kidding. I'm the one who's been given the job in showing you that your efforts to stop all this happening are useless. It won't be long before MI6 find out what you're doing Marcus. As soon as they're done with this country, they'll come after you and stop you. But tell you what; I'm going to give you a little help."
"Oh really? Well what's that then, another pathetic riddle or sentence full of confusing s---, coz' I've had enough of that from you over the past week?"
"No, not really; turn on your computer and you'll find that you've received a new e-mail. Open it to find a map and a few documents regarding 'an unknown location'."
"And how the hell's that supposed to help me?"
"Marcus………haven't you figured it out yet, that location is where MI6 and the Government are planning to launch their secret weapons. The same weapons that'll allow the entire population of the world to be under physical and mental British control."
"What did you just say?"
"You've got three days Marcus. Enjoy 'em while they last. I'll be waiting for you Marcus……I'll be waiting." The caller hung up and Marcus was left shocked and baffled at what he heard
Back in the basement studio, Norman Cook had made his way over to the big massive mixers whilst the boys were setting up everything they needed within the recording studio. And as usual, Kyle & Cartman were arguing.
"No way Cartman, you're not singing. We already agreed that me and Stan were the ones who were mainly singing in our tunes."
"I am not keeping bloody silent in these songs. I wanna sing!"
"Yer' can't fatass. Yer' just playing the keyboard."
"BLOODY HELL, I WANNA SING!"
"Cartman, me and Kyle are singing and that's that."
"Well fine whatever, SCREW YOU GUYS, I'm not gunna say anything."
"Good, coz' we don't want yer' to say anything."
"No, I DON'T want to say anything."
"We don't want yer' to say anything."
"NO, I DON'T want to say anything."
As Marcus made his way downstairs into the dark room that was the music studio, he placed a few pieces of paper on a desk table in the room. Everyone looked at Marcus wondering what was on the pieces of paper. Marcus looked up with a serious look on his face.
"We've got a problem." A few minutes past and the five lads and Norman were gathered around a table. "I just received information from an anonymous caller of the whereabouts of MI6's and the Government's main stronghold and weapon source……………here." He pointed to an object on what looked like a map of the world. He was pointing to what appeared to be another island or country that looked exactly like Great Britain; only reflected. "This is New Britain. The Government have been hiding this from the world for some time now. It's an island about halfway between Britain and America and is based right in the central area of the Atlantic Ocean…..here."
"Woah, an identical country which we haven't heard or seen before. Dude, that's messed up."
"I know what you mean Kyle. But what's worse is that this is the place where they're planning to launch their weapons."
"W-W-WEAPONS?" Stan shouted with a huge shock on his face.
"Yeh, weapons. Instead of injecting everybody around the world with chemicals, they're gunna use missiles which look identical to nuclear bombs; except with all the nuclear s--- and large destruction and stuff. If these missiles hit the ground and release all the weird gas that's filled inside them, the whole world's gunna become corrupted with that energy stuff. They'll all be brain-washed; just like MI6 had said. However, if we can get to this island wherever it is and stop the missiles from being fired, then we might have a chance of stopping all this madness from happening."
"How long have we got until those things are fired."
Marcus sighed. "Three days exactly or 72 hours."
"Three days……Jesus Christ, we'll never finish in time. We'll never be able to finish our music and get there. We don't have enough time. Plus, we don't even have anything to even get us there."
"What about if you five book a flight to wherever it is then?"
"That's impossible Norman. The whole country's under control by MI6 and the Government now and all flights and transportation have been cancelled and stopped. There's no way we can get out of this country………unless…"
"Unless what?"
"Unless we can persuade the public to donate money so we can buy ourselves a plane and fly there."
The boys looked at one another.
"Marcus, I don't wanna be mean or anything, but that idea kinda sucks. How and where the hell are we gunna get a plane from?"
"Why eBay of course. They sell everything. I'm sure they sell planes; they have to."
Marcus rushed over to a nearby computer and started typing away really quickly. He opened up eBay's main page and searched for planes. "Ah, here we go. SkyFox-2SG Personal Plane and it's robotically controlled as well."
"Cool, how much does it cost."
Marcus clicked on the link. "Ah………£898,000……and it's being sold by someone called………arsemucher2006?"
Cartman laughed.
"Shut up Cartman!"
"Dude you have to admit it is quite funny."
"Alright, let's see, buy it now for £898,000…………yes………bla bla bla bla………yes……Ok there we go, all we need to do now, is produce both our albums of music, get it on the radio or TV or sumin and then persuade the public once they've heard our music to give us £898,000 so that we can stop this whole thing from happening."
"And if we don't raise £898,000?"
"Then God or Bank Loan help us!……Alright, let's get started." Marcus and Norman made their way over to the mixers and editing equipment while the other boys made their way back into the recording section.
"Dude, is it just me or has this whole adventure just completely f---ed up?"
"I dunno dude, let's just get this album over and done with so we can save the world………or sumin."
The hours passed by and the first of the two albums was well under way in production. As Norman and Marcus mixed and edited each and every track as they were made on the large mixers and synthesiser boards, the four boys continued to play like the rocking Indie band that they never knew they were. Indie, Rock, Country, Electronica, Funk and the odd Metal at times, every track was unique in its own way. There was the odd tune that had only music in it, but the rest were a mixture of music, lyrics; written by both Stan and Kyle and even the odd collaborations by Marcus who put some of his DJing and dance music samples into their tunes.
The production of Moop's album went on into the night. Marcus had fallen asleep by about 2am and the four boys were getting really sleepy and tired. They had just finished recording the last track. Kenny had even fallen asleep whilst sitting behind his drum kit and Stan and Kyle had their eyes half open as they placed their guitars back on the stands. Stretching his arms up and turning off the keyboard, Cartman came up with a practical joke in his head and started tip-toeing towards Kenny's drum kit; trying not to laugh.
"Cartman, what the hell are you doing?" Kyle spoke; looking back at Cartman.
"Shhhhh!" Cartman continued tip-toeing forward; still laughing under his breath. He picked up one of the drumsticks and raised it above one of the loud large cymbals; ready to strike it.
"Cartman, don't you f---ing dare!"
Cartman slammed the drum-stick down onto the cymbal; causing a large 'PISH' noise and causing Kenny to jump up in shock and yell at the top of his muffled voice in fear. The noise also woke up Marcus who jumped up from leaning on a nearby table. Cartman started rolling on the floor laughing. Realising what he had done, Kenny looked down at Cartman in a pissed off mood and jumped down from his seat. Walking over to him, Kenny punched Cartman lightly on the face and walked out of the recording room.
"Ow, Jesus Christ Kenny, can't yer' take a joke." Cartman spoke; following the others out of the room.
Meanwhile, Norman ejected a CD out of a large device and placed it in a CD case.
"Here it is boys…" Norman began "…Your finished album."
"Really? It's all done!"
"Yep, all 15 tracks recorded, mixed and engineered are on here."
The boys jumped up in celebration; realising that their work was done and realising that they had actually recorded a real music album. Although it had more serious purposes, they were still happy about it and couldn't wait to hear it.
"Hey, what time is it anybody?" Marcus asked in a very tired and sleepy voice.
Stan looked at his watch. "Woah dude, it's 2am!"
"2am! S---, and I missed Adult Swim as well. Oh hell I can't think, I say we start my album tomorrow. If we can get that finished by tomorrow, then we should have enough time left."
As the four boys went back upstairs and off to bed, Norman tried to get Marcus up as well.
"Come on Marcus, you look tired as well."
"Nah, I gotta come up with a few ideas for tunes first. I'll come up in a little while."
"Alright, whatever you say………" Norman stopped on the first few steps of the staircase. "Oh and Marcus, can I…"
"NOPE"
"Oh………so do I have to…"
"YEP"
"Ohhhhhh, alright." Norman continued walking up the staircase and back up to the ground floor. A few minutes later in the garden, Norman once again found himself having to sleep in the shed. "Look at this, the world's best DJ having to sleep in a shed. Ah well, maybe I should sing myself to sleep. Fatboy Slim is f---ing in heaven! Fatboy Slim is f---ing in heaven! Fatboy Slim is f---ing in heaven! F---ing in, f---ing in, f---ing in heaven!" As soon as he had finished singing the lyrics to one of his tunes, he immediately fell asleep and started snoring.
It had just gone past 2am and the current time left until corruption was now just less than 63 hours.