ELLO. To everyone who read my first chapter and liked it, thank you! I'm glad you like the story so far, and yes, I know that the Japanese is total crap.

So, on that note, I have a mission for you guys! If anyone knows the correct pronunciations for Noodle (and I mean, you're positive about your translation), PLEASE send them to me as the chapters come out, and I'll be more than happy to edit it. :) Cuz everyone knows how bad Google Translate is. I hope that I at least got the honorifics correct. Noodle sees Murdoc and 2-D as kind of superior teachers (sama), while Russel is the first one that she considers a friend (san). She's beginning to see 2-D the same way, tho. Please correct me if I'm being a absolute dullard.

I thought I'd make a little half-introduction for Del. He's a main playa, he get around, yo, and is another example of some amazing imagination. Plus he's a better rapper than Eminem by far.

So, read and enjoy! I love constructive criticism about my writing, but keep in mind that I haven't exactly been paying attention to quality lately. I can always edit it with some advice from you guys. Have fun!

"Everybody's here with me… We got no camera to see…. Don't think I'm all in this world… The camera won't let me go… The verdict doesn't love our soul… The digital won't let me go. Yeah yeah yeah…"

The recording studio was loud with bass, beats of the drum, and a strangely intriguing voice. The recorder wasn't usually on, but the acoustics of the room were best for rehearsals. Murdoc was actually dressed today, in jeans and a v-neck, concentrating loosely on the rhythm he was meant to follow every so often, while Russel was nearly asleep with a series that he had been practicing forever. Only 2-D was focused on the new addition, the one they had been waiting for so that the song would be complete.

He held up his fingers while still singing, and then pointed at Noodle as a signal. "When tomorrow… tomorrow comes today." They sang the line together in a conflicting harmony, Noodle following the translations she had in front of her, before 2-D brought the harmonica to his mouth. For the rest of the song, the new girl paired up with Murdoc and strummed ever so softly in the background, then whistled the tune into a microphone with him at the end. By then, Russ was actually sleep-drumming, and Stu was out of breath but satisfied.

"Aight guys, great work. Take a break, we're back in 'ere in an 'our, maybe some ideas for 19-2000, eh?"

Murdoc coughed at the order, "Yeah, yeah, sure." Then as he was leaving, "Damn, give the bloody kid the singing job, and 'e takes ma' band."

Russ just stopped drumming, fell over, and decided that the floor was comfy enough to lie on for an hour. Spending all night playing Prince of Persia makes a person tired during the day.

Before Noodle could run to the pantry to grab some Goldfish, 2-D grabbed her shoulder and gave her a thumbs up.

"Ya did great today, Noodle. I'm proud 'a you."

She smiled and bowed to him, something that she still remembered from her pre-box days. "Thank you, TooDee-sama." And she bounded off in the great search for cheese and pokemon.

2-D watched her go, and did feel pride. In just a month, the little random Asian girl who showed up in a box had learned a lot, and had become comfortable here atop the Gorillaz' lofty hilltop abode. She was learning plenty English from all of them, although Murdoc's lessons were slightly… unorthodox; and she quickly displayed her real talent for not only the guitar, but for keyboard and vocals as well. She was, for all intents and purposes, the stereotypical musical prodigy of the band. But she was more than that, of course. She wasn't rigorous with it; in fact, most of her interests lay outside of music. She was fun.

It'd been a long time since any of the guys had experienced any real "kid fun," like what had been reintroduced to them lately. After high school, or maybe even before it, most of them were wrapped up in adult crap that sucked the imagination dry. That was one of the reasons Stuart dropped out of university. The other was a vehicle "accident."

Rubbing his head again and popping a little something to stop the ache, 2-D decided to follow Russ's lead and get some quick shuteye. Even if he never did fall asleep, it was relaxing to just sit on his bed and stare at the ceiling.

When the blue-haired singer finally left the room, Russel's eyes snapped open and watched his friend leave down the hallway. When it was all clear, he sat upright, opened one of the closets, and pulled out something he personally had cherished for a while now. Soon he began working on his masterpiece in the soundproofed silence of the recording studio. He laughed in his head and left his worries behind with a hammer and spanner in his hands. His one real moment of peace.

Alright, it's been more than an hour, what now? Russel had called it quits on his masterpiece and stored it back in the closet, then sat back at the drum set. Five minutes later, he scoffed at the band's usual delay. At fifteen minutes, he wondered if he was missing something. At half an hour later, he swore under his breath and decided to go look for everyone.

The house seemed unusually quiet, aside from the usual: all five TVs on at once, toilets flushing, 2-D's townie friends button-mashing in the theater, Murdoc forcing AC/DC upon everyone, against their will, by way of the PA system. Russel had learned to tune these out over the past three years, and instead focus on the more important things.

Yo, dude, yo house is creepy when it all empty like 'dis.

Russ growled to himself at the outburst in his head.

Right, right, Ima shut up, then. Whatev, bro.

"That's better."

He continued searching down the corridors, in empty closets and bathrooms, but found nobody. That is, until he reached the second floor and heard footsteps running up and down the hall. When he stepped on the level to investigate, a little red blob rushed at him and jumped into his arms, the hood falling down and revealing one of the biggest smiles the big guy had ever seen.

"Wotcha cock, Russel-san!" it hollered in his face happily.

"Ahoy, Noodle," he chuckled and let her to the ground. "Lemme guess, you learned that from Murdoc?"

"Murdoc-sama wa wata… um… teach me lot!"

"I thought so." He rubbed her head and walked with her to her new room. Noodle had decorated the previously barren chamber with tons of posters, photographs, and other such things, and even had him help her install a shoji board closet on the far side. Before he could step foot in her domain, however, she pushed on his belly and crossed her arms in front of him.

"Password," she demanded.

Russ stared. "Err… there's a password?"

"Duh!" As if it were obvious that all rooms had passwords for entrance.

"Well, uh… lemme think for a sec, then." He watched the girl roll her eyes and smile like it was the secret of the century.

Yo, you want a hint, bro?

Hehe, sure.

Try 'Elephunk."

"Is it… Elephunk?"

Noodle stood there with shocked eyes and a wide-open mouth that eventually curved into a laughing smile.

"Uun! How you know?"

"I just know these things, ya know?" Russel gloated and tried to move past her.

"Na-ta-ta!" She yelled, pushing against him again. "New password!"

"Ugh, another password?" Hobbs said in mock exasperation.

Peanut butter.

"Is it peanut butter?" he smiled.

The girl stood there for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on. Finally, she just replied "No."

Sneaker.

"Sneaker?"

"No."

"Bicycle?"

"No."

"Thesaurus, fedora, Australia?"

"No, no, no!"

They stared each other down, one trying to make the other give up the strange little charade. Noodle squinted and frowned so hard at the giant before her, trying to be menacing, that her face started to hurt. Russel, on the other hand, cocked his eyebrow with a smug look on his face.

"Is it baseball?"

The menacing look imploded. "AAAGGHH! Wakaranai! Wakarimashita! Umai!" (1)

Russ watched her storm into her room. "So… I can come in?"

"Yes," Noodle growled playfully. "Come, come!"

She ran over to her bed and jumped onto it, letting herself bounce a couple times before she settled on her stomach. From there, she watched her friend enter slowly, and eyed him with caution.

"Seikou omedetou!" Noodle congratulated him sarcastically, and he approached the bed. "Sit!" It was more of a command than a suggestion, so Russel sat on the floor, still smiling at the little girl. He thought she looked a bit irked because of his cheating, but she didn't know about Del.

Noodle continued, whispering softly "Me o toji nasai," (2) like it were a secret. But Russel just cocked his head to show that he couldn't understand.

Noodle pointed to her eyes. "Me," she said, and then made a closing motion with her fingers.

Praying that he wasn't misinterpreting her, Russel carefully closed one eye, and then the other, listening to the girl rustle around on her bed for a while and then stop. He could almost sense her in front of him, but didn't give it away. For a second, all was still.

Then, "Open."

He snapped his eyelids open, then realized he was face-to-face with a monster. It was blue with giant fangs and angry eyes, and it screamed a high-pitched scream that made the drummer jump backwards five feet and land hard on his back.

Noodle ran over giggling, tearing the Oni mask off and jumping on her victim's belly. It sounded like an umph when she landed, but Russ was just fine. In no time, both were laughing so hard that they didn't want to stop. Not ever.

"I haven't done this since I was a kid," Russel reminisced, bringing the balloon to his mouth, and releasing all the helium he could into his lungs. When he took it away, and tried to say, "does my voice sound sexy," the result was too comical to possibly even try to describe on paper. Noodle was laughing hard for a good eight minutes.

Once they'd calmed down and Russ's voice had returned to normal, the girl followed suit, closing her eyes and inhaling a lot more than Hobbs thought was possible for her. When she opened her eyes, they were wide and crazed, and when she opened her mouth, Noodle's already high-pitched voice had intensified five-fold.

"NOODARU!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, and jumped up and down on her bed, repeating the word until the helium wore off. Returning to reality, she looked down at Russel, who was in stitches from laughing so much.

"Oh my God, that's just too awesome," he chuckled to himself, and got up, almost falling over in the process. He looked at his watch, and marveled at how an entire hour could go by like that. "Ha, almost forgot what I came here for in the first place. Noodle?"

She looked up from a quick staring contest with the Oni mask. "Mmm?"

"Have you seen D or Muds 'round here? We were supposed to practice a couple of hours ago." He emphasized the word 'practice' to make sure she understood.

Noodle groaned. "Ohhhh, how I… um… wasereru?" (3)

"I dunno. But, do you know where they are? 2-D?"

"Too-Dee-sama sleep."

"Okay, and Murdoc?"

"Murdoc-sama… gone. Away."

"He's gone? Where?"

She shrugged. He looked at her and thought for a while.

"Right, well, we're gonna go look for them, alright?"

Noodle smiled, "Kay!" and Russel lifted her into the air. "Na! Koware mono, chuui!" (4)

Safely on the big guy's shoulder, Noodle pretended to be the pirate captain, and guided her ship as they set off to the top floor. Russel opened the door and peered inside, reminded instantly of the general junkyard that was 2-D's room. Keyboards hung from the walls, clothes draped from unlikely perches, and far too many prescription bottles decorated the floor. And there he was, snoozing with his ass in the air, headphones still on and Walkman still playing.

Russel felt kinda bad about doing this, but Del thought of it first, so it really wasn't his idea. Besides, it was funny. One of those huge jugs of water that you find at big box stores sat on his bedside table, open. Noodle giggled silently while she watched Russ sneak up, snap the Walkman headphones on the side of 2-D's head, and then dump the water all over him. Later, Hobbs would blame the helium and certain dead people for his actions.

"What the bloody hell!" Stuart yelled out loud, groping at his face and twisting himself off of the bed. He landed with a thud and the crunch of a bag of chips underneath him. When he gathered himself and managed to stand up, his black eyes looked even darker then usual. "And just what was that all for, eh?"

Russ grinned. "We had a practice session two hours ago, and only I showed up."

2-D facepalmed himself with a mixture of disappointment and frustration. He had been looking forward to introducing the band to a surprise he'd been keeping to himself since before Paula left. That bitch didn't need to be a part of his winning number. Now he'd have to hold up on the big production of trying to get the band to absolutely love it.

"Ah, ah, aight. S'okay, we can get t'it tomorrah, I s'pose," he said with finality.

"Yeah, bro, we're in no rush. Have you seen Murdoc? Noodle says he left."

Stu came back into focus. "Yeah, 'e said 'e was runnin' ta get milk, or somefing."

"Doubt it."

"Me too."

After 2-D got dressed into something drier, the group made their way downstairs. They passed by the theater, and the four townies playing Medal of Honor inside, but decided to leave them alone. They weren't really great friends, anyways, 2-D just met them at the pub in Braintree and became pretty acquainted. Invited them over once in a while to be runners and basically goof around.

Noodle and Stuart waited in the lobby while Russ took a quick look downstairs. The new girl immediately started playing with the jukebox in the corner, switching from band to band, Elvis Costello to Coldplay, and when she'd had her fun of mixing songs up, she turned it off and sat back down to wait for Russ. He was taking a rather long time.

2-D yawned, and turned to Noodle to find her staring at him with a big smile on her face. For maybe thirty seconds, they both held the staring contest, but Stu was like the Oni mask – you really couldn't tell if he was ever going to blink. When Noodle couldn't take it anymore and fluttered, both musicians rubbed their eyes laughing. By the time Russel returned from his search, he found the girl playing with 2-D's unusual hair, using rubber bands to make funny little pigtails all over the place, and 2-D himself trying to play her Les Gibson guitar, but failing. He was never a guitarist.

Noodle had played with the singer's hair before. One of her first words was 'hair,' when she pointed to it and started messing around with it. Just about everyone who ever met Stu-Pot had to admit that his naturally blue hair had to have been the weirdest thing they'd ever seen, but then their focus would fall to his eyes and their minds would change. Nevertheless, Noodle preferred his hair. It was just so fun to play with.

Russel came up to the two playmates and sniggered, "You look like a pretty princess, D."

Noodle recognized the word 'princess' and nodded her head in agreement with a beaming grin. Even Stu didn't mind the comparison. "Oi, if she wants me to be a princess, m'all for i'."

"So cute," Russel said, tousling what little hair wasn't tied up. "By the way, da buggy's gone, and so is Murdoc. Put da puzzle together, he's prob'ly getting himself kicked outta 'nother bar."

"Prolly." 2-D raised his hands and gave Noodle a noogie, messing up her own hair. The distraction was just enough to allow 2-D to escape with what little masculinity he had left in his hairdo. "Wanna go find 'im?"

"Ain't rainin', ain't got nuthin' better to do. Let's hit it."

Both men grabbed each of Noodle's hands and walked out the door, swinging her with them. They had been planning on taking 2-D's dad's truck, which was a loaner, but just as they were getting in, Murdoc was getting out of his screeching, not-quite-coming-to-a-complete-stop Geep, and nearly rammed his way through the side-wall of Kong Studios. Nearly. He managed to exit and avoid too much damage in order to get to his friends quicker.

"Guys, guys, guys! I have an announcement!"

Russel sighed like he always did when Murdoc was excited. "What, what, what?"

"Okay, 'old your breath, and prepare yourself, Satan is being extremely generous today. Here. Ready for this?" He inhaled. "I got us our first gig!" The man was laughing hysterically, skipping, and slapping his butt all at the same time. He hadn't been this excited since he first thought his buggy had been delivered.

2-D smiled while the other two just amused themselves with the odd display. "Really?" he asked.

"You bet your little dullard balls, really!" Murdoc couldn't stop dancing in congratulations of himself.

"Well, where is it?" Russel piped in.

"See, that's the best part!" Muds came in and huddled them together so the birds in the rafters couldn't hear. "I got us a late-night show, three weeks from now, at the Dukes-Fucking-Genesis, baby!" And he continued dancing across the driveway. "All aboard for Chelmsford, we are gonna be big!"

Dukes Genesis was one of the biggest nightclubs in Central Essex. The old gig at the now-bankrupt Camden Brownhouse, back when they were still just Gorilla, yielded teeny results from a strangely-named little man who had trouble convincing his bosses that they were the new thing. He needed to prove to them that the Gorillaz were the future of the music industry, the name of the 21st century! Murdoc knew as well as anybody that Dukes gave them the chance to get out there, in the public eye, and make a killing for the elitist producers of EMI. A hotspot for young adults rebelling and having fun, everyone with the exception of Noodle instantly understood that this was the place that they wanted to play. It was perfect. Only one thing was prickling the back of Stuart's mind, though.

He frowned. "But, w-wait! We can't!"

The marching band music and the Queen's voice congratulating him on his success suddenly died in Murdoc's head. He turned a creepy gaze to his frontman, and snarled, "Why the fuck not?"

"We only got four songs, and one a' 'em in't even finished!"

Muds relaxed again. "Oh, little Two Dents. Think about working hard to achieve a goal! So we'll work on 'em! We got three weeks, mate. Plenty o' time."

"Ah guess so. Gonna need to practice all the time, ya know."

Suddenly Noodle entered the conversation. "Sore wan an desu ka?" (5)

Russel tapped her shoulder so that she would spin around to see him pretend to rock out to a guitar. He started head-banging and everything. Instantly, Noodle brightened up and started running for the house, shouting "Watashi wa gita o shutoku shi masu!" (6)

"You're not joking with us, are you?" 2-D turned to Muds.

"My friends," he grinned larger than he ever had before. "This is the start of the greatest thrill ride that anybody could possibly imagine… and the world will never see us coming."

The trio had their arms around each other's shoulders, Noodle jumping up on Russ's shoulders, Gibson in hand, and they looked out on the face of Essex, England. It smelled funny, and the sounds of construction were nearby, but it was the most peaceful place that any of them could remember.

Russel smiled. "This is one happy landfill we got here."

TRANSLATIONS - again, see any terrible translations or pronunciations, and just send me the real ones. Thanks

"Na" and "Na-ta-ta" aren't words, they're just cute sounds that 10-year old Noodle makes.

(1) I don't understand it! All right! You're good!

(2) Close your eyes.

(3) Forget. (Noodle's trying to remember the English word, but gives up.)

(4) Fragile, handle with care! (the same words on her FedEx box, hell yes!)

(5) What is this?

(6) I'll go get my guitar!