Author's Notes: So much writing to do, so little time to do it all in.

Any of you who have read Let the Music Be Your Master will probably recognize the style this chapter is written in. I hope my writing skills have evolved enough that I can properly describe the action of song scenes without sacrificing characterization and the like. It's a very tricky business, and I plan to (for now) confine it to this chapter alone.

A Musical Interlude

Chapter 2- Strange Wings

Sam started pushing her way through the crowd to get closer to the stage. She wanted a front row view of this.

"We'd like to open up tonight with a couple of songs off of Edguy's album Hellfire Club," Danny said enthusiastically. "This first one is called Down to the Devil." He stepped back and the whole band readied themselves.

There was a pause for only a beat before the keyboardist; Technomancer was the name on the leaflet, played a piano intro with a pre-recorded track of synth strings in the background. He played a soft, plaintive melody twice before the guitars, bass, and drums came in and he provided atmospheric effects. Danny had a wide grin on his face as he played the same melody from the piano on his guitar, making it sound more aggressive, yet still achingly expressive. The music paused for a beat and he stuck the pick into a plastic sheath attached to the body of his guitar and slid it under and around his back as he stepped up to the microphone.

Roaming the plains
Where a number is your name
In a palace
And you'll never find the door
Oh look into the mirror
Is it what you wanna see
Or just a cuddle toy
The vogue has washed the ashore

Danny's voice was a mid- to high-range vibrato with a belting, theatrical quality. He embellished each lyric with dramatic and symbolic hand gestures to add emphasis while the guitarist and bassist, Jack and Bram, put their feet up on the footlights and pointed their instruments out into the crowd. The bassist was left-handed, so the two had switched places and were back-to-back so as not to risk feedback.

As the first verse ended, they broke apart and went to their individual microphones to join Danny in singing the next two lines before he continued solo.

No I don't care what you say
Into the darkness I plough my way
I'm striking out for paradise
To be the one I am

Now this was music Sam could really get into. About damn time there were more bands that understood what it meant to actually be an individual. These guys clearly got it, and they were all over it. The performance was very high on energy, but they managed to ham it up onstage without sacrificing musicianship.

Jack and Bram joined Danny in singing the chorus, letting him go solo on the first part of the third line.

We're going down to the devil
We are striking out for paradise
To bedlam below - down to the devil
The mad parade is coming home

There was a quick bridge with just a guitar riff played by Jack, who actually mouthed out the notes and chords he was playing, before the second verse started up, Danny's gestures becoming even more dramatic.

Can't you hear the sound
As they make the hammer pound
Rusty nails into a coffin of you size

He swung his arm down as if swinging a hammer, crossed his arms over his chest, stared out into the audience through half-lidded eyes. Sam had to wonder just how much experience he had at this. He was performing like a seasoned veteran of touring and gigging.

To bury you alive
You mature until you're ripe
Then they reap you
When you're beautiful enough
In their eyes

They lurk to wall in your belief
Put up glass ceilings that you can't see
To break down the freak
They don't you to be

Yes! Exactly! Someone who got it! Just this one song was enough to convince Sam that she made the right decision in coming to this concert. She was definitely going to stick around to talk with them after the show.

We're going down to the devil
We are striking out for paradise
To bedlam below - down to the devil
The mad parade is coming home

Danny pulled his guitar back in front of him and played the intro riff again a step higher. Sam wasn't much of a musician, but she had a few lessons in guitar and vocals, and she had enough of an ear to be able to tell these things. Just as the riff ended, Jack scraped his pick up the bass strings of his guitar and launched into a solo as he stomped around and tossed his hair every which way.

Danny and Jack pivoted so that they were back to back and played a harmonized lead, occasionally smiling at the audience or each other over their shoulders, before Jack finished off the solo and resumed his place beside Bram and Danny removed his guitar and placed it in a stand beside the synthesizers.

Technomancer... Sam still felt a little weird mentally calling him by that stage name... Technomancer played the synth/piano intro once more before the full band came in again.

We're going down to the devil
We are striking out for paradise
To bedlam below - down to the devil
The mad parade is coming home

Danny was now unburdened by his guitar and was really playing up the dramatic movement. He pumped his fist, carried the microphone stand around the set, leaned out into the audience as he sang. That was great showmanship.

The chorus was repeated, this time with Technomancer and Poltergeist also lending their voices, creating a powerful harmony. Danny sang out "To bedlam below," in a falsetto and pointed straight out into the audience as if leading a charge before waving the Horns in the air with his free hand.

Down to the devil
Striking out for paradise
To bedlam below - down to the devil
Mad parade is coming home

Danny pulled the microphone out of the stand and stood up straight, throwing his head back as he sang the next line, the rest of the band continuing the chorus for him.

Oh we're going down

(Down to the devil
Striking out for paradise)

They repeated this a second time with Jack providing two new lines.

We're going down

(Down to the devil
Mad parade is coming home)

(Here's your invitation, your instigation
Your damnation to the hellfire club)

At last, they gave one more refrain of the chorus, leaning out toward the audience as much as their instruments would allow.

Down to the devil
Striking out for paradise
To bedlam below - down to the devil
Mad parade is coming home

The music swelled and came to an end. The crowd burst into cheers and whoops as the band waved out to everyone with big grins on their faces. Sam was only slightly surprised to find herself shouting out with Monica.

"Thank you everybody!" Danny shouted. "My name is Danny Phantom. I'll be your frontman tonight, in case you haven't noticed. Let me take a moment to introduce you to the Phantasmic Four. On the keyboards, the Chewbacca to my Han Solo, Technomancer!"

Technomancer wiggled his eyebrows with a big grin. "Evening, ladies! Ever dated a rock star before?" That was met with a few whoops and catcalls to which he was only too happy to respond to. "God damn, I'm cool," he bragged in a very self-satisfied tone.

Danny chuckled and turned to his right. "On lead guitar, our resident wild man, Jack the Ripper!"

Jack stepped up to the microphone with an impish grin and hissed, "Repent your sins to me."

"Give it a rest, Lugosi," Technomancer quipped. That earned him a raised middle finger.

"Moving on," Danny interrupted, "we've got the Goliath of our rat-tag quintet, Bram Van Helsing on the bass."

Bram reached to the upper frets of his bass, and finger picked the string with three fingers, letting his fretting hand slowly slide down the neck until he hit an open string. "Yeah," he remarked off-handedly, "I'm hot. That's me pretty much." His voice was as deep as his instrument. If he grew a beard, he would have looked and sounded like a bear. Now that Sam thought about it, if he had a beard, he would look a lot like the guitarist, further convincing her that they were related in some way.

"And finally," Danny said as he turned and pointed to the drummer, "we've got the noisy ghost back here beating the drum skin, Poltergeist."

Poltergeist twirled his sticks over his head and bowed. "This is my dream job. I get to hit stuff and make noise."

Sam couldn't keep the grin off her face. Though Goths were always stereotyped as being depressed, morbid, and distant, she was a firm believer that if you're going to go out and do something, you may as well enjoy it. And these guys clearly loved doing this.

"Alright, we're going right into the next song," Danny announced. His eyes met Sam's again and they lingered a moment before sweeping across the crowd.

Every time that happened, Sam felt the strangest feeling inside of her. Her chest felt lighter, and it seemed a well of warmth started resonating from the exact center of her body. It was something new and a little unexpected. Something she wasn't quite sure what to make of yet.

"This one's kind of a long one. It's called The Piper Never Dies."

Danny wasn't kidding. Most songs would be nearly over by the time the intro to this one finished. But it was a damn good song. There wasn't a single boring moment. The whole band was putting their best into this, and Danny was working the crowd like a real showman. But that couldn't have prepared her for what happened over six minutes in. Jack was playing a solo with a wah pedal, and it lead into a verse with a new melody in which Jack and Bram sang back up to add a baritone/bass harmony to Danny's tenor.

Balance on the edge of day and night
Dive into haze and kiss the light
Many of the tales you've been told
Never written for the brave and bold

As Danny sang the next lines, he didn't look to the audience, he looked straight at Sam. She wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but it felt like he was singing... to her!

Come and take my hand tonight
Come and sleep with me tonight
Certainly I'm gonna take you there
Showing you around everywhere

(Oh...)

Technomancer and Poltergeist gave a choir-like harmony in back up throughout while Jack and Bram sang the verse a second time underneath Danny.

Do you believe that you're devil-may-care
As you jump into the fire
Do you believe that you're devil-may-care
As you jump into the fire

Dreamer, dreamer, dreamer, dreamer, dreamer
Dreamer, dreamer, dreamer

The rest of the song kind of passed in a blur. Sam was vaguely aware of Monica grabbing her arm excitedly and giggling that Danny was singing to her. Okay, so it wasn't just her imagination. She had never met this guy before though. Shouldn't she feel a little creeped out? Instead she felt kind of... giddy? That word popping into her head brought Sam's thought processes to a screeching halt. Did she really just describe herself as giddy? She did not just describe herself as giddy, damn it!

Before she knew it, the song was winding to its close. Danny was twisting and gyrating his body to the melody, Jack was swinging his upper body wildly and tossing his hair out, Bram was wind milling his long hair, Technomancer had actually tossed off his beret from throwing his head back at the last note, and Poltergeist looked like a kid in a candy shop as he pounded at his drums. By the time it was over, they were all slightly pink in the face and sweating.

"Piper Never Dies, ladies and gentlemen!" Danny shouted as he raised the Horns over his head. "We're gonna shift gears for our next song. Jack will be taking over lead vocals for this one."

"Thanks, Danny," Jack said before switching to a new guitar. It was the same model, but had a metallic black finish. Danny also switched from his white Les Paul to a silver guitar similar to Jack's that was standing behind the keyboards.

"Why do they need different guitars?" Monica asked curiously.

"Probably a different tuning," Sam answered.

The two musicians gave a quick sound check and stepped up to the microphones. "Who here wants to hear some Children of Bodom?" Jack shouted to the audience. He was met with several loud yells and cheers. "Good enough. We're doin' Follow the Reaper!" With that, they launched into the song. The grinding riff met with a throbbing bassline, pounding drums, and jarring chorus hits on the keyboard. That was when Jack opened his mouth to sing. It certainly wasn't what Sam was expecting, though. He sounded like a damn snake! Whatever he was singing was totally lost in the rasp of his voice. She caught a swear word or two and occasionally something legible came up, but those moments were few and far between. For the most part, it was hard to believe those sounds were coming from a human throat.

Whenever they played the riff that preceded the chorus, Danny, Jack, and Bram would line-up, point the necks of their instruments out, and dip their upper bodies down and up again to the beat of the drum. It was a pretty cool effect, especially since they were arranged according to hair length. Bram was at the left, and his elbow-length hair was constantly airborne. Jack's shorter hair kept whipping and snapping back. Danny's bangs flipped back and forth across his face as if trying to show they could look just as cool as the long tresses of the other two.

The song had three solos. First was a short, harmonized lead between Jack and Technomancer, which lead into a speedy keyboard solo, which was followed up by a wah pedal guitar solo. It was amazing that these guys could pull all of this off while acting like such hams.

A final chorus came, and Jack finished with the last two words in a whisper. There was a pause as he raked his hand back through his hair and forlornly muttered into the microphone, "I was only twenty-one when I died." Sam was really surprised to find how much she was enjoying this.

The setlist progressed pretty interestingly. The next song was Heavy Metal Universe by Gamma Ray. Once again, Sam found herself with great respect for these guys. The lyrics of that song really appealed to her radical side.

There ain't no way to stop us
And you'll never kill our pride
'Cause it's not only music
It's a chosen way of life.

That was very much how she thought most of the time. Except, in a different context.

After that, they played N.I.B. by Black Sabbath. Classic tune. Danny made a big deal out of Jack and Bram's synergy in that song, and the two certainly lived up to it. Bram's bass work really stole the show on that one. His fingers glided effortlessly over the strings, making it look like it was as easy to him as breathing. Those two were like a machine, though. And Danny proved himself a versatile frontman with his slinky, sinuous movements and gestures along with his theatrical facial expressions.

Dr. Stein by Helloween. Pure by Lost Horizon. Danny and Jack traded off some impressive solos on those two.

Dracula by Iced Earth. Space Truckin' by Deep Purple. Excellent vocal and drumming performances.

Rainbow in the Dark by Dio. Nice guitar solo. Danny had a surprisingly emotional voice as well. He really got a lot of mileage out of his vocal chords.

Attack of the Mad Axeman by the Michael Schenker Group. The Wickerman by Iron Maiden. Very energetic performances. The latter featured three guitars rocking out at once.

The Old Gods Return by Blue Oyster Cult. Ah, familiar territory. Though Sam had always considered BOC to be hard rock more than metal. But whatever. When you get a gift like this, you don't question it.

Hearts on Fire by Hammerfall. The Fourth Legacy by Kamelot. Emerald Sword by Rhapsody. Those were kind of... cheesy. But in a good way. It was like DD metal, which was kind of an amusing concept all by itself.

Kiss of Judas by Stratovarius. Green Manalishi (with a Two-Pronged Crown) by Judas Priest. Nightfall by Blind Guardian. Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden. They were really trying to cover their bases on this concert.

The next song produced a rather unexpected side effect in Sam. A Touch of Evil by Judas Priest. This was one of the few Judas Priest songs she'd heard that she really liked. It was at once spooky and menacing. And the band was really getting into it. They chose to do it with just one guitar though, and Danny really hammed up his performance. That was the problem.

In the night
Come to me
You know I want your Touch of Evil
In the night
Please set me free
I can't resist a Touch of Evil

Danny was standing in a wide stance as he sang the chorus, his knees bent deep and his weight sinuously shifting from one side to the next. He kept a sultry look on his face, one hand holding the microphone close to his mouth, and the other slowly gliding over his upper body and forward leg in a very obviously provocative manner. At the last chorus it was official. Between the dark atmosphere of the music, the sensually sinister lyrics, and Danny's suggestive performance... Sam had never been more turned on in her life. It was a little embarrassing. After all, she had never been one to lust after a guy like this. Matter of fact, she had never officially gone out on a date before. Aside from the fact that she hadn't met many guys she would consider as prospective boyfriends, she was rather disenchanted with the whole dating scene, mating dance ritual, hard-to-get bullshit that society was stupid enough to negatively reinforce. But now she was just about ready to jump this singer she had just met for the first time in her life, and he knew even less about her than she did about him. For god's sake, he didn't even know her name!

Danny tossed his bangs aside and wiped the sweat from his face with his forearm as he replaced the microphone in its stand. "Just two more songs to go, everybody." He turned away and put on his Les Paul. "Little change of pace for this one. I'll be doing lead vocals and lead guitar instead of just playing rhythm or trading off solos. I'd also like to make this a dedication."

Sam gasped as his eyes once again found hers and he smiled softly. "Hope you don't think I'm too forward," Danny quipped as he winked at her. "Strange Wings by Savatage, for the Gothic beauty up in front."

Sam could have sworn her heart skipped a beat. He just dedicated a song to her? Too forward? Gothic beauty? She had always imagined she would make any guy get intimate with the treads in her combat boots if he pulled a stunt like that, but now that it was actually happening...

The intro featured a solo complete with tapping before Jack switched his guitar to a clean channel and played the rhythm track while Danny sang.

She is a maiden of the stormy skies, yeah
I, I caught a glimpse from the depths of my eyes
Atop a black winged mare
Casting a wicked stare
She throws her head back
And rides into the night

She flies strange wings
Behind a thin disguiseShe flies strange wings
Still tears she cries

Well... if a guy was going to pick a song to sing to her, at least he picked one with some appropriate lyrics. A Clapton song would have just made Sam feel sick to her stomach from the sappiness.

Oh I, I followed her
To the brink of dawn, yeah
She, she took control of my very soul, yeah
She's still a mystery
In her arms I long to be
I don't know why
I turn and reach to the sky

She flies strange wings
Behind a thin disguise
She flies strange wings
Still tears she cries

Danny nimbly dove into the guitar solo. Whereas Jack and Bram played their instruments with wild abandon, and Technomancer and Poltergeist played as if they couldn't possibly be happier doing what they were doing, Danny sang and played his guitar like it was right. It was hard to describe, he just seemed to love what he did. He made it look so easy. His body undulated, rocked, and twisted with the music in the most natural way. Sam had only seen this in a few other people. It was an extremely rare display of confidence and security.

At the end of the solo, the music faded, and for a moment it seemed the song was over. Before anyone had the chance to applaud, though, the band started up again, a huge grin splitting Danny's face.

She flies strange wings
Behind a thin disguise
She flies strange wings
Still tears she cries

Danny played a lead line of the same three notes ascending and descending with just his fretting hand hammering on and pulling off the strings as he sang layered vocal lines with Jack who was using the very top of his range. Danny had stuck the pick in its holster and was now using his right hand to add his theatrical gestures.

Strange wings, yeah
(Strange wings)
Behind the starry skies
(She flies away, oh)
Strange wings, yeah, o-oh
Whoa, such strange wings
(Strange wings, yeah, yeah)
Behind a thin disguise
She flies strange wings
(O-oh, yeah)
Strange wings
(O-oh)
Still tears she cries

The song faded out, and the crowd went berserk while Sam could have sworn her face went beat red. Monica grabbed her arm, excitedly gushing about how "lucky" she was. Despite all the confusion in Sam's head, there was one reaction she knew was natural. The corners of her lips turned up into one of her rare genuine smiles.

Danny smiled back her as he removed his guitar. "Thank you, everybody. We're gonna wrap up tonight with a change of pace. We're doing the metal remix of one of our favorite movie themes. Can you guess which one?" Danny put one hand to his ear and held the microphone out. After a moment of people shouting movie titles, he shook his head and stepped back. "No, no, none of those. Let me give you a clue... Who ya gonna call?"

The instant people started laughing and cheering, the band broke out into full swing with that familiar hook.

Ghostbusters!
If there's something strange in your neighborhood
Who you gonna call- Ghostbusters!
If there's something weird and it don't look good
Who you gonna call- Ghostbusters!

I ain't afraid of no ghost
I ain't afraid of no ghost

If you're seeing things running through your head
Who can you call- Ghostbusters!An invisible man sleeping in your bed
Oh, who can you call- Ghostbusters!

Instead of singing it out, Danny held the microphone out to the audience and let them shout "Ghostbusters!" at the stage. Sam wasn't even a little surprised to find herself doing the same. After all, why not? It was a good movie.

I ain't afraid of no ghost
I ain't afraid of no ghost

Who you gonna call- Ghostbusters!
If you're all alone, pick up the phone
And call - Ghostbusters!

I ain't afraid of no ghost
I hear it likes the girls
I ain't afraid of no ghost
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Who you gonna call- Ghostbusters
If you've had a dose of a freaky ghost
You'd better call - Ghostbusters!

This was actually a pretty refreshing experience. Sam never would have admitted it in her teenage years, but now that she was twenty and had overcome her adolescent insecurities, she freely admitted that she was having fun.

Let me tell you something
Bustin' makes me feel good

I ain't afraid of no ghost
I ain't afraid of no ghost

Don't get caught alone, oh no
Ghostbusters!
When it comes through your door
Unless you just want some more
I think you better call - Ghostbusters!
Ow!

Who you gonna call - Ghostbusters!
Who you gonna call - Ghostbusters!Who you gonna call - Ghostbusters!
Who you gonna call - Ghostbusters!

The song ended and everyone broke out in whoops and cheers. Sam whooped and applauded herself. The band took a bow and waved. "Good night everybody!"

As the group began packing up and disconnecting their equipment, the crowd began slowly drifting out. Sam on the other hand decided to stick around. She needed to talk to Danny and she wasn't going to go until she had answers.

"Sam, you coming?" Monica asked as Sam leaned up against the nearest wall.

"I'll be back later," Sam answered off-handedly.

Monica put on a sly grin and glanced up to the stage. "Oh, I see. Wanna talk with your admirer over there. He's cute. Have at him, Sammie."

Sam turned to glare at her roommate, but Monica was already heading for the door. Since the target of her annoyance was gone, she turned to the source of her confusion. She caught Danny staring at her before he went back to packing his two guitars away.

The room was just about empty now, so Sam decided to make her move. She walked up to the stage and the band members all looked to her at once. She smiled embarrassedly, one hand fiddling with the hem of her skirt. "Hi." Damnit, could she possibly have botched that up any worse?

"Hey," Danny responded with a small smile. "Sam, right?"

That came out of left field. "H-how did you know my name?" Sam asked, mentally slapping herself for stuttering.

"Dave told me," Danny replied. "Said you might be here tonight. He's told me a lot about you."

"Oh." Sam felt a blush creep up into her cheeks and fought the urge to twist her body like a little girl. "Hey, uh... that song... The one you dedicated. Was that... Was that really for me?"

Danny himself blushed a little and smiled embarrassedly. "Actually, yeah."

Sam tried to contain the smile, but it still forced its way out anyway. Damn, her lips were persistent. But this was too awkward, too spontaneous. She needed a chance to duck out and gather her thoughts. "I need to get back, but... do you have a pen?"

"Gotcha covered," Technomancer piped up as he pulled a ballpoint pen from one of the pockets in his cargo pants and tossed it to Danny who deftly caught it.

He handed Sam the pen and she took him by the wrist and wrote her cell phone number on his palm. "Call me soon, okay?" She handed him the pen back and smiled before walking off.

"See ya," she heard Danny call as she headed for the door.

Once she was out of Englund Lounge, Sam released a breath he didn't know she was holding. She had never gotten that nervous around a guy before. Why now? She had meant to try and figure out why it felt so important to meet him, but one look into those green eyes and she had forgotten all about that. Maybe later she could figure this out. What she needed right now was caffeine.

Sam headed for the pub and grabbed a bottle of Mountain Dew, the only decent drink Pepsi ever made. As she headed out of the pub toward the dorms, all she could think about was Danny, the concert, Danny, the new bands she'd have to look into, Danny... Trite as it sounded, her thoughts kept going back to the singer. It felt like a scene out of one of those really terrible romantic comedies. Expect in this one, Julia Roberts was playing a Goth college student... Sam was really glad she didn't say that aloud, even if no one was around to hear it.

Now, irony is a funny thing. As is the timing that the universe seems to hinge on. Sam left the dining hall where the pub was located and rounded the corner toward Radcliffe Hall where her dorm room was when she saw Danny and the band carrying the last of their instruments out of the college center across the way. They didn't notice her, seeming to be absorbed in their conversation. But what happened next...

Sam saw Danny abruptly stop in his tracks and straighten up as if shocked by something. The others seemed to have postures of exasperation and resignation. There was a brief exchange and Danny set the lights he had been carrying down and- holy shit!

Sam dropped her soda with a gasp and her eyes went as wide as her mouth, which had just dropped open. Danny shot straight up in the air and started to fly, his legs vanishing into a wispy, silver-grey cloud trailing below his waist as his outfit fluidly morphed into a full-body suit.

-x-

Author's Notes: If you took out all the lyrics, this would probably be a fairly standard-length chapter for me.

Don't expect an update on this for a while. I've got so many other things I need to be working on.

robin and star fan: You know how I just ended this chapter talking about irony and universal timing? Weird, huh?

Short n' Simple: It's pretty difficult to strike the right balance, but you get used to it.

LaBOBuren: This is another chapter story, don't worry.

amiee: I'm hoping to keep the level of quality in this one. I'm still kind of a newcomer to this series and I'm playing catch-up fast.

blue: At this point, I'd just be repeating what I said above.

Lady Katreina: As a power metal junkie, I'm of the mindset that heavy metal is a way of life to be embraced and lived to the fullest. Can't remember where I was going with this, but...