This chapter is gonna be a little lengthy. Caleb and Corey are my creations, as are the rest of the Destroyers and Ranekaera, and anyone who has any questions about them or wants to borrow them, they can email me anytime they want.Freddy sounds a bit like a mix of Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit, Brent Smith of Shinedown and the lead singer of P.O.D. (But mostly just the first two). -Xave
All lyrics are mine, so no stealing.
The bus was cold with the doors only half boarded up and most of the windows all shattered. I shivered and wrapped as many tentacles as I could spare around my body in an attempt to make myself a little warmer. Ran was shivering violently. Freddy was hiding under all the blankets we had just to keep from getting hypothermia, since he's the only one of us besides his brother that's truly reptilian. Blacky, on the other hand, was simply lounging back at his ease, his bangs hanging in his face with a casual elegance that neither Freddy nor Adrian could compete with. The bus stopped at an intersection and Blacky noticed Ran as she gave a particularly violent shudder.
"You cold?" he asked, sitting up straighter and flipping his hair out of his eyes. His black hair hung down to his first 'waist', below his first arms but above his second.
"Very." She shivered, wrapping her shredded looking wings around herself. Blacky got up, which made the bus sort of swerve, and re-planted himself next to her on the seat. He gently held two side arms out and she looked at him uncertainly.
"C'mon, I don't bite." He said, smiling.
Ran very carefully leaned into his side, at first cautious, then, as she felt the fur, she practically suctioned herself to his side. He wrapped a wing membrane around her and Freddy merely rolled his eyes and looked the other way. The Civic Center loomed up ahead.
"Stop's coming up!" Damon called, pulling the enormous bus into the lot. I wanted to get inside, the twins were gearing themselves up for the show and Freddy looked as if the first person to try to get him out of those blankets would have both kneecaps broken. Ran and Blacky, nearly inseparable, merely sat there; Ran with her hands and face buried in his side, and he, with a cloudy expression on his face, as if he wasn't sure how to feel.
Outside, it was getting dark already, and people by the thousands were already waiting in line up front. They looked over at the bus as we drove in and I dreaded the worst.
"Look, it's them!"
"D'you think they'd sign my ticket in lipstick?'
"Oh my god, I love Freddy!"
"Listen to them. You'd think we were god or something." mused Freddy. I rolled my eyes.
"Only one person on this bus is a god." said Kou. Ran resurfaced and smiled at him, and he blushed and smiled back.
Damon parked around back and we began climbing out of the beat up vehicle. This was going to cost us big, I thought disgustedly, taking in the things that were going to need to be replaced. The doors, the windows, the floors because of all the blood, the pipe on the underside of the vehicle, the one that Ran'd wrenched out of our bassist's middle.
I hopped out and saw a few security guards milling about, but none moved to help us.
Ran got out behind me, shivered and looked around.
"I wonder if Caleb's here yet." She muttered.
"He will be. Just look for him and I'll keep and eye out for the crowd." I said, squinting in the direction of the parking lot. Only a few people were hanging out around the corner of the building, and Ran suddenly let out a little shriek.
"Caleb!" she called, smiling. The other guys got out and smiled at her as she ran in the direction of the side o the building. There was one orange lizard monster and with him, a slightly smaller dark purple one. They both had snake-like bodies, six long limbs, and perfectly smooth skin (with the exception of wrinkles.) I noticed they didn't sprawl like true lizards.
Hm. They must be Therapsids, I thought. The purple one had long, wavy black hair, light brown eyes and a ring through his lip. They both wore black T-shirts, Caleb's with the Destroyers logo, his son's with a picture of us in front of our recording studio in Maine.
"Ran!" the purple one cried. They ran to each other and she and Corey hugged, he embracing her very tightly. Then she hugged Caleb the billionaire, and he kissed her on both cheeks. Behind him was someone I hadn't noticed at first, a surly looking monster with four arms and a muscular torso that had all the looks of a hired temporary bodyguard.
"Hey, Ran, it's good to see yeh ag'in." said Corey, grinning hugely. He had a thick Scottish accent, while his father's was a soft British.
"Hi, Mr. Buschemi, nice to meet you." Said Kou, offering a hand.
"Hello. You must be one of the guitarists, my son was telling me." He said, smiling. Small wrinkles webbed out from the corners of his eyes as he smiled, giving him a fatherly warmth that I liked immediately.
"My name's Kou. This is my brother Adrian." He said. Adrian shook Caleb's hand next and Corey looked beside himself with excitement. I guess he never thought he'd get to meet the Destroyers in person. I smiled at him and held a hand out.
"Hey. First concert?" I asked him. If he was a fan, which I didn't doubt, he would already know who we all were.
"Gods, yes. 'Ah love the Destroyers. You're mah fav'rite." He replied, shaking my proffered hand. Flattered, I smiled.
"Shall we get on with the show? I'm a bit curious to find out if you gentlemen are really as good as my son says you are." Said Caleb, with a hint of challenge in his voice, although the overall manner was rather polite.
"Good? Good? Buddy, we are the best metal band this century, of course we're good." Boasted Freddy. Blacky followed him out of the bus, waiting in case Freddy collapsed before he made it into the building. If he did, Blacky would scoop him onto his broad, furry back and wisk him inside as fast as he could. As I was thinking, a chilly wind bit through my thin shirt, making me shiver.
"C'mon, let's get inside, I'm fuing freezing." I complained. I reached into my shirt pocket and made sure my bottle of Codeine was still there. It was and I was momentarily reassured.
"Throw it out, Guppie. You don't need that." Said Ran in an undertone. Had she seen it? It seemed impossible, but maybe it had a little water in it. Maybe that's how she knew.
"Need what?" I asked innocently.
"You know what." She hissed back. I rolled my eyes, but did as she said anyway, tossing it into a wastebasket as we entered the building through a back door, so as to avoid the crowd. It was annoying, but a new shipment of 'stuff' was on its way from our contact soon anyway. Nothing big, just illegal cigarettes, my Codeine, and something not really suitable to put on a public fanfic site. Let's just say Blacky needs an extra large. Come on people, we're in a rock band!
The inside of the Civic Center, (the backstage anyway) was one narrow hallway with a staircase in it, which eventually led to a few huge, adjoined bathrooms and some smaller "dressing room" type things. This was where we were headed now.
"Hey, sorry guys, you'll have to get in line like the rest. Here." Said Freddy, all warmed up now. He handed Caleb and Corey some plastic tags, saying 'with the band', which would make sure they were first in line.
"Oh. Okay." Said Corey, looking quite dejected. Ran rolled her eyes at him.
"It won't kill you." She said.
Corey responded by cheerfully giving her the finger. She gave it right back and the Buschemi's bodyguard led them back up and out of the Center, presumably around to the front.
I looked to Freddy and he raised his eyebrows, a ring and a barbell in each.
"What?" he asked. I shook my head, my dreds waving in my face, and, brushing them behind my shoulders, (or lack there of; I have no bones) I headed over to where all our equipment was waiting for us. My drum kit lay in pieces, having been disassembled in order to be brought inside. There were two bass drums, about four different types of snares, two floor toms, several different regular toms (the ones attached to the bass), about nine or ten different symbols, and then of course, there was the special effects pieces, the ridiculously small electronic drum pads and the little mini symbols. All in all, it was about 35 or 40 piece set, and it was also one of my smaller ones.
"Hey, where's Damon?" I called, standing up straight. There were crew everywhere, but among them, I spotted him, taking inventory of everything on a clipboard. I picked up a small twig on the ground, probably brought in by someone's boot, and chucked it at him. It bounced harmlessly off his arm and he looked up at me.
"Something wrong, Gup?" he asked.
"No, I was just wondering. What time we supposed to go on again?" I asked, knowing he couldn't hear me but knowing he was an expert at reading lips.
"Woa, jeez, we better get this stuff onstage, you guys are one in ten minutes!" he said, looking at his watch.
"Come on, people, let's get this stuff out there, the guys still need to get ready and we're late as it is!" he called to the others. The sound crew and the few roadies we had immediately began picking our equipment up, piece by piece and bringing it through another long, slightly wider hallway, leading onstage. There was a huge room off to my left containing several rusted, chipped sinks, spotty mirrors and several toilets and urinals, and a dirty tiled floor.
"Hey, in here!" I called. They followed me in, with the possible exception of Ran, and Freddy dumped the plastic shopping bag he had out onto the floor. It spilled a myriad of makeup in various shades of blue, red, orange and, predominantly, black, along with everything from spiked bracelets, armbands and chokers, to our stage clothes. We hastily grabbed what was ours and I grabbed my black eyeliner, red eye shadow and a small plastic package containing my various other tongue rings. I had a different one for when I had to sing, which was smaller and made it easier for me to talk.
I pulled my thin, torn green tank off and pulled a regular black t-shirt on. It was slightly smaller than my other one, because it was my workout shirt, and showed off my skinny but muscular body. I slipped a few spikes on and began doing my makeup. The others were already ready, except Freddy, who had to go around a lot of metal with his black lipstick and eye shadow. He had a thing of X-treme Hair Glue open by his elbow, and since I was done, I grabbed it and began spiking his bangs for him. All I had on was the black eyeliner and a lot of orange eye shadow. Over to my right, the twins were helping each other with their makeup and since Blacky had only to dab on some dark blue eye shadow, we were all almost ready. The twins wore identical jet black clown tears under their eyes, identical black tank tops and near-identical spike chokers.
"Thanks." Said Freddy, watching me fix his hair in the mirror. I was rubbing gobs of the gel into his bangs and absentmindedly tore the scrunchie thing out that was holding the rest of his long, blonde hair back.
"We got three minutes." Said Blacky in his deep, growling voice, and I hastily washed my sticky hands off under a tap.
"I'm not even going onstage and I'm getting an adrenaline rush." Ran admitted.
"Eh, don't worry. Just wait sidestage with the roadies and try not to blow your eardrums out like Damon, and it'll be fine." Freddy assured her, tossing his hair back and loosening himself up for the show. She still looked excited.
I picked up six spike-tipped drumsticks off the floor, one of my many custom designs, and twirled them experimentally through the air. Ran watched me, impressed.
"What, can't do that?" I asked, smirking.
"No, not really." She said.
"Maybe I'll teach you sometime, then." I said.
"Cool."
Damon poked his head in.
"Todd and Mitch are out there already. You guys all set?" he asked.
"Yeah." Said Freddy. He was just lacing up his ankle-length black boots, replete with a red anarchy symbol on the sides and skulls and crossed bones for the buckles.
"Good. You're on." He said. Ran grinned nervously, Freddy was taking deep breaths, the twins were grinning from ear to ear and Blacky was flexing his huge, powerful muscles and wings, the membranes extending from the undersides of his wrists and forearms. I smiled, loving the adrenaline rush, and I led them out.
Fully costumed and pumped full of adrenaline, the Destroyers walked out onstage to an explosion of cheers.
The lighting was orange, red, black (which made everything purple), white and, of course, blue. Behind the drum rise was about a million different TV monitors, at the moment spelling out the name of the band, but as we walked out, it began to reflect our movements. It was like one big TV, only you were looking at us live at the same time.
Our stuff was all set up, and I hopped up onto the drum rise and stood behind my kit. The twins grabbed their guitars off the huge amplifier and each hooked one prong-ended tentacle into their instruments. There was a deep hum and a blue-white glow surrounded both their tentacle and their guitars. The started tuning, which made the crowd go nuts. Squinting through the lights, sweat already starting to run down my face, I spotted Corey Buschemi, jumping up and down like a maniac, all dignity forgotten. Grinning, I positioned the microphone closer to the set and began a four armed multiple drum roll, hitting every drum I had. The sound was like several bombs going off at once.
"Sorry 'bout that!" I just barely heard one of our audio techs shout. He was fiddling with the levers on the boards, and the next time I tried it, it was better, still very loud, but only because the speakers were right in front of me.
"WELCOME, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, TO IOWA! HEY, RAISE YOUR HANDS PEOPLE, HOW MANY OF YOU TRAVELED FROM DIFFERENT STATES OR DIFFERENT FUING COUNTIRES … JUST TO BE HERE?" Freddy yelled through his mike. There was a tremendous scream at this, and I distinctly saw about a million hands, paws, claws and tentacles go up, Caleb and his sons' in particular.
I looked to the side and saw Ran, screaming and cheering with the rest of them, and I felt a surge of protectfullness for her, why I had no fucng idea.
Relax, she'll be fine I told myself.
"WELL! WHAT THE HELL'RE YOU WAITING FOR!" he screamed. He looked back at me, gave me a thumbs up, and I raised al four arms. As he began talking next, I counted the beat with my sticks.
"LEEEET'S FUUIIIIN' ROOOOOOOOCCKKK!" he screamed, and I began an insane, multi-armed drum solo, the twins on guitar doing a furiously fast-paced tremolo picking down on the highest fret, Blacky furiously punching the thick strings of his bass. The sound was explosive, and I saw Ran on the side, screaming and head banging. I laughed in spite of myself, thinking that she'd be better off in the crowd with the rest of the 'destroyers', the ones who gave a concert their all and head banged 'till they hurt, screamed 'till they lost their voice and got so close they went temporarily deaf. We admired people like that, and that was how we'd chosen our name, to honor those ones who laid off the drugs and simply came to a concert to have a good time.
"ARE YOU READY TO FUIN' ROCK, IOWA!" Freddy screamed, walking back and forth across stage, taunting the crowd.
"YES!" they screamed back.
"THEN HERE WE GO, LET'S GO!" he screamed angrily, baring his fangs and roaring, a high-pitched shriek from someone's nightmares.
"HAVE YOU EV'AH FELT LOST INSIDE
YOU COULDA DIED!
AN' HAVE YOU EV'AH FELT BORED AN' TIRED
YOU WERE RETIRED!
WELL LEME TELL YA SUMTHIN'!
I AM HERE TO GET YOUR ASS UP
SO WHAT UP?
BACK UP!
AND SHUT UP!
WE ARE HERE TO GET YOU WIRED!"
"HAVE YOU EVER LAID OUT IN THE ROAD
THINKIN' THERE IS NO WHERE TO GO
CHEER UP
SING A SONG
JUST GIVE UP YOUR GHOST
AN' DON'T BE AFRAID TO SURVIVE!"
Freddy sang the main verse. The crowd was going crazy, there were already about four different mosh pits going on, and I was giving all my concentration to my drumming. Mucous sweat rolled off my body in sheets, and even as I played, one of my sticks was cracking down the middle. I motioned to someone offstage, and Ran noticed me. I stopped drumming a second, threw her the broken stick, and someone handed her a new one and she tossed it back to me. I immediately started playing again. There was a part just ahead, a thre beat grunge sound with a pause in between, where the drums, guitar, bass and lyrics all went as one and I knew the pyrotechnics were going to go off, making it even louder, so I readied myself. It happened when he started pausing in the words to the song. Freddy sang on.
"SO LIFE SUCKS?
SO WHAT?
YOU SHOULDA KNOWN ALL THE TIME!
THAT SOME-TIMES
WHAT IS REAL CAN SEEM SO FCK OUTTA LINE!
SO WHAT YOU
WAIT – ING FOR!
GET YOUR ASS
OFF – THAT – FLOOR!
REMEMBER;
LIFE GOES ON
THIS AIN'T THE END UH THE ROAD!
SO STOP THINKIN' 'BOUT THE ROPE!
WE ARE NOT YOU'RE SOURCE OF ENTERTAINMENT!
WE ARE HERE TO GET YOUR
ASS!
UP!"
At this point, the twins and Blacky changed the guitar riffs, this time doing a bunch of single power chords and going in time with my new beat, which was a simplified one-two-three hit of both floor toms, two snares, and both bass drums.
After the twin's solo, in which Kou did one thing, and Adrian answered back, I had one drum solo with Blacky, and I gave it my all.
From the side lines, Ran was smiling, a flush in her unhealthy, nearly translucent face and a strange, excited sparkle in her eyes.
Cool song, no? I write all my own stuff, you can check some of it out at my own website! www.schizophrenicsrus. I still have a lot to do on it, but I will get it up!