A dark and grim bay was only visible of the Sea of Japan. The seaweed was black and began to crisp, and no one was in site. Nothing but air bubbles and algae.
Not far off from the gloomy bay, three red lights began to blink as three black and white third-circles began to break apart. They unscrewed themselves, and began storing energy, which created a red circle surrounding the parts. Finally, the red circle begins moving towards the middle, and covers the entire inside. There, six shadows became noticeable through the strange portal. At last the figures of Ecco and company appeared.
"That was a lot longer than I thought." said Aqua shrinking back to his normal self.
"Well, we did travel half the way around the world." Replied Ecco as he shrunk himself to normal as well. Trellia and Coral appeared as well as Shard and Hammer.
"It was so awesome going through there! I loved the scenery." said the ecstatic Coral.
"Yeah, but it felt like going through a drainpipe." replied Shard who felt the need to throw up.
While everyone was trying to return to normal, Aqua and Ecco swam ahead to see any sign of life or any signs of crystals. They found neither and became disappointed.
"It looked like someone blew this place up year's ago." said the killer whale looking concerned. Ecco just nodded and sighed.
"Let's just head back and start tomorrow. I can barley see anythi…" Smack! Ecco hits a flat metal object which left a small bruise on his beak. Aqua swam towards the now disgruntled dolphin and searched for the object that he hit.
"Ecco what was that?" asked Trellia along with Coral behind her.
"I bumped into something hollow. Dang it hurts!" he said rubbing his beak with his fins. Coral also looked around near Aqua and discovered something hard and metal-like. It was a tad rusty, and had a reddish bar in the middle.
"Hey. What's this here?" she asked Aqua.
"I can't see anymore. Do whatever you need to." He said to the female dolphin. She opened her mouth and grabbed the bar and pulled it down. A loud screech occurred, and a massive blast of neon lights blasted right in front of the group, blinding them.
"AAH! My eyes!" screamed Trellia.
"Turn around if you really want to keep your vision!" yelled Ecco. Everyone covered their eyes and faced the opposite of the blinding lights. The lights just got stronger, but more harder to ignore, almost putting the group into a trance.
"Hey Tang! Someone found the power switch!" screamed a voice from behind them.
"I'm right here Wang. You don't need to up your tone!" said the other voice in an upset sarcastic voice. "heyyyyy… we found our hero's!" the voice went on. Ecco and Hammer turned around with their fins still clinging to their eyes.
"Not to worry friend! You'll get used to it. It isn't that bright." said Wang grinning. Hammer looked at Wang and noticed he was a spinner with an orange hardhat on his forehead. The same with the Tang.
"Okay open your eyes! Take a look at the view and music!" said Tang pointing his beak at the beautiful neon city.
"Music!" said Coral and Aqua in unison. They immediately charged, ignoring the blinding lights. The rest charged after them and noticed the beauty of this place. Music could be heard everywhere! The towering rocks where homes of baby whales, dolphins and even smiling sharks. This place was almost heaven compared to what Kit and Greyson explained. Suddenly a song caught the attention of the group and began moving their heads to the beat.
"We built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll.
Built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll."
"How is this music possible?" asked Ecco to Tang.
"Oh some parts fell out of the sky and…" Ecco already knew the answer and nodded his head violently with a large grin.
"Say you don't
know me, or recognize my face
Say you don't care who goes to that
kind of place
Knee deep in the hoopla, sinking in your fight
Too
many runaways eating up the night."
They continued to see more structures of other creatures playing, and more lights being built. Even a screen was being built on each structure! It turned on and focused on Ecco and Coral. The two just blushed in embarrassment.
"I never been on a monitor like that before! I could live here forever!" she said full of excitement.
"Marconi plays La
Bamba,
Listen to the radio -
Don't you remember?
We built
this city,
We built this city on rock an' roll!"
"We
built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this
city, we built this city on rock an' roll"
"Someone always
playing corporation games
Who cares - they're always changing
corporation names
We just want to dance here, someone stole the
stage
They call us irresponsible, write us off the page"
"Marconi
plays La Bamba,
Listen to the radio -
Don't you remember?
We
built this city,
We built this city on rock an' roll!"
"We
built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this
city, we built this city on rock an' roll"
"It's just
another Sunday, in a tired old street
Police have got the choke
hold, oh, but we just lost the beat"
Aqua swam near Wang and began asking him numerous questions. Wang answered every one without getting a tad upset.
"Where did you get the music? The Monitors? The lights!?" he said frantically. Wang just adjusted his hardhat and looked at the whale pleasantly.
"We found a strange human machine with the labels 'Best Buy' and 'Home Depot'. All that junk was found in these hard brown cubes in this endless stream of ships. Your place could use some." Said the spinner with a larger smile.
"Hmm. We would like that!" said the whale looking at Ecco. He nodded and smiled as well.
"Who counts the
money underneath the bar
Who rides the wrecking ball into our
guitars
Don't tell us you need us, 'cause we're the simple
fools
Looking for America, crawling through your schools"
"(I'm
looking out over that Golden Gate bridge
Out on another gorgeous
sunny Saturday, I'm seeing that bumper-to-bumper traffic)"
"Don't you remember? (remember)"
"(Here's your favorite radio
station, in your favorite radio city
The city by the bay, the city
that rocks, the city that never sleeps)"
"Marconi plays La
Bamba,
Listen to the radio -
Don't you remember?
We built
this city,
We built this city on rock an' roll"
"We
built this city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this
city, we built this city on rock an' roll"
"We built this
city, we built this city on rock an' roll
Built this city, we
built this city on rock an' roll"
Coral noticed a wooden plank standing up near a fixed monitor. It had a picture of a jewel in the center and a grey and black stick around it. Wang peeked around her and spooked her.
"Ah! Your interested in the Music of Light competition huh? Your good at singing girl?" asked the spinner. Coral shook her head and pointed her beak at Aqua. "Ah! So the big one has the voice. Take him up to the Music Clam tomorrow night and don't forget to have a song to bring!"
"What's the prize Wang? It looks like a crystal." Coral asks.
"It's a crystal alright. With a magical feeling inside of it. It's worth winning it." Replied the spinner. "now if you'll excuse me, I have some repair work on some lights." He smiled and swam off. Coral quickly swam to her friends and panted trying to tell Ecco about what she just learned.
"Looks like you went and fun. What's up?" Ecco asked. Coral pointed at Aqua and smiled. "You want Aqua, Coral? What for?" he asked again. She caught her breath and spoke.
"There's this contest tomorrow night, and Aqua is perfect for it!" she replied.
"What? Sumo?" joked Shard. Aqua tail flicked the seahorse and gave her an anxious look.
"What's the contest?" he asked.
"Singing!" she squealed for joy. Aqua gasped at her and sighed.
"You know it takes me a week to memorize a song Coral! And right now I haven't got one on me." He said. Coral swam in front of the whale and grabbed him with her fins.
"But you don't understand. It's a Guardian crystal!" the crowd gasped and looked at Aqua with grins on their faces.
"We'll I can find one. But I'll need some background singers though" he quickly turned to Ecco and Hammer who gulped at his grin. "Your both perfect." Ecco got in front of the whale's face.
"We don't even know what song your dealing with."
"Have one already!" he quickly opened his mouth which revealed two square machines attached with a wire which leads to a place where the sound comes from. "Listen to these all night, and you'll memorize them, trust me!" he said with a triumphant smile.
"This better work!" Hammer said.
The next night at the Music Clam….
"Contestants four right?" asked a common dolphin talking to the threesome. Aqua, Ecco and Hammer nodded. "Have any background music you wish to play?" he asked. Ecco softly handed over a square machine and swam on. "YOUR NEXT ON STAGE!!" he yelled.
The three looked at each other with determined looks.
"Ready?" Aqua asked the other two.
"Actually, we've been excited since we started listening to that stuff. It rocks!" Ecco said with an ecstatic expression.
"Into your positions guys!" Aqua swam in the middle of the velvety stage while Hammer and Ecco swam between the fake light-spewing pearl. Suddenly black sticks popped up from under them.
"Hey what are these?" Asked Hammer. Aqua turned his head a little.
"You sing in them." He turned his head back at the enclosed clamshell.
"And now our final contestants! The Guardians!"
The shell opened up and Aqua's music began to play.
Aqua opened his mouth after thirteen seconds of music went off.
"Now that she's
back in the atmosphere
With drops of Jupiter in her hair, hey,
hey"
"She acts like
summer and walks like rain
Reminds me that there's time to change,
hey, hey"
"Since the return
from her stay on the moon
She listens like spring and she talks
like June, hey, hey"
"Tell me did you
sail across the sun
Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the
lights all faded
And that heaven is overrated"
"Tell
me, did you fall for a shooting star
One without a permanent
scar
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out
there"
The music got more upbeat and a tempo formed. Hammer and Ecco twirled during Aqua's singing.
"Now that she's
back from that soul vacation
Tracing her way through the
constellation, hey, hey
She checks out Mozart while she does
tae-bo
Reminds me that there's room to grow, hey, hey"
"Now that she's
back in the atmosphere
I'm afraid that she might think of me as
plain ol' Jane
Told a story about a man who is too afraid to fly
so he never did land"
Ecco and Hammer began singing "oohs" and "aahs".
"Tell me did the
wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to
dance along the light of day
And head back to the Milky Way
And
tell me, did Venus blow your mind
Was it everything you wanted to
find
And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out
there"
"Can you imagine
no love, pride, deep-fried chicken
Your best friend always
sticking up for you even when I know you're wrong
Can you imagine
no first dance, freeze dried romance five-hour phone conversation
The
best soy latte that you ever had . . . and me"
"Tell me did the
wind sweep you off your feet
Did you finally get the chance to
dance along the light of day
And head back toward the Milky Way"
Ecco and Hammer swam quickly to Aqua near his position and sang their last parts.
"Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah"
"Did you finally get the chance to dance along the light of day"
"Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah"
"Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star
Tell me, did you fall for a shooting star"
"Nah nah nah nah nah nah nah"
"And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there?"
The crowd of five thousand screamed of joy at Aqua's performance. The threesome bowed their heads, and then patted their whale friend on the back.
"Looks like we have a winner!"
"I wonder what the rest of the gang thought of it." Hammer asked Ecco. Aqua pointed at the front row and noticed Trellia, Coral, and even Shard jaw dropped with their eyes wide open.
"Me thinks, they liked it Hammer." Ecco says chuckling as they wave their fins at the loud audience.
Next day…
"Dang my throat hurts!" screeched Aqua holding his throat with his fins and sticking his red tongue out.
"Well, we'll let you rest for awhile, all that pressure, and publicity and sore throat and…"
"Very funny. Ow. Ecco. I'm not missing out on my part!" Aqua said with a determined look on his face. Ecco just shrugged.
"We'll set out for those dragons in two days!"