Tracks of Choice: "DwarfStar" by Rasputina, "Miss Lucy Had Some Leeches" by Emilie Autumn

Chapter 3: CounterpartKlok

Dethklok, Ofdenson, and about five hundred klokateers sat in the Dethcopter as they made their way to Las Vegas, Nevada where they were to meet Andrew Munkittrick and the girls of Cancerous perform their last concert of their tour in the dessert. It would take them a several hours to get there, about six they were told, at full speed across America. So far they only had about an hour left or so.

Dethklok was currently on their lunch break, each member eating their own particular lunch special. Nathan had a half pound burger with the works, French fries and a chocolate shake with a beer. Pickles was cutting into a medium well t-bone steak with a side order of mashed potatoes. Toki bit into his simple pickled herring sandwich. Skwisgaar was in the mood for plain personal size cheese pizza and beer. Murderface pretty much was devouring a tuna sandwich.

All of them were watching another one of Cancerous's music videos, this one was called Dwarf Star. Apparently the girls weren't limiting themselves to just guitars and drums. In this music video, two of the girls were playing cellos while one remained on the drums, which the beat was simple enough where anyone could do it. The song itself was pretty creepy, the way the music flowed with the cellos. It wasn't metal, more of rock, but just the freakiness was enough to have some of Dethklok's member like it. The lead singer was accompanied by the drummer, who was replaced by the bass player. The choreographed movements of the singers reminded them of some trippy horror movie, perhaps the Dark Nurses of Silent Hill. Hell, even the background of the music viedeo would remind them of it.

"I betsch their gonna flipch or shomething when they shee usch." Murderface said with a mouth full of food. He took a hand full of potato chips and crammed it into his mouth. The music video was finally over.

Toki looked up from his pickled herring sandwich and quirked an eyebrow, "Why does you says dat?"

"Caush… we're Dethklok!" Which was almost true.

"Dood! Don't talk with yer mouth full! It's disgustin!" Pickles said leaning away from the other man as tuna bits spewed everywhere. He carefully moved his food away from Murderface.

A klokateer came in just then, bowing as he stood before Dethklok. "We are upon the MGM Grand and will be landing shortly, my lords. If you will make your way to the loading docks, we shall lower you to the roof entrance of the penthouses." Nathan dismissed him and sighed.

"This is it." Pickles said as he got up, "This is like… the moment of truth. We gotta get some answers. Ain't no way in hell am I lettin' girls beat me in music. We're the most brutal fucking band in the world! And we gotta make sure they know that." Of course, soon enough he would be eating his words.

"I agrees wits Pickle. I ams fastest guitars player ins da worlds. No way ams I lets some… some lady takes it. No matters hows much she looks hots."

There was a slight jerk from the massive helicopter as it attempted to get as close to the hotel without smashing it and killing hundreds like they normally did. With Ofdensen on board, he had instructed the flight crew that minimal damage was a must or he'd 'fire' them. Dethklok finally made it to their destination, waiting for the moment where the loading dock would lower and they could get off to most likely beat the crap out of these girls. For all they knew, they were posers.

Ofdensen met them all once they entered the large room. He adjusted his suit and began to debrief them. "I see you all actually made it on time. I was just told we landed safely, even with this massive helicopter. Outside we are to be greeted by Mr. Munkittrick…"

"Cans we just goes? I am have goes to da bathrooms." Toki said as he waddled back and forth, trying desperately not to pee. The CFO just shook his head slightly and pressed a red button on the control pad that opened up the hatch. One by one the boys exited to the roof where a man in a dark blue business suit was waiting for them.

Mr. Munkittrick was not a man to be taken lightly. Compared to their manager, this guy would be qualified to an NFL player with his massive physique that had Nathan a bit worried. The man was taller than Skwisgaar by at least an inch or two. Unruly brown hair covered his head, not as neat as Ofdensen kept his. A large grin spread across his face, his hands behind his back. His brown eyes scanned over the boys, but he made no move to greet them personally.

"Charles! Long time no see!" the man greeted as he gave Ofdensen a very businesslike hand shake once the other was off board. The boys just tuned them out as they began to talk business. They entered the roof access of the penthouse which led right to the main greeting room in the girls' suite. Toki immediately made a beeline to where he thought the bathrooms were.

As for the others, they were amazed. "How comesch we don't get a hotel room? We gotsch money for it!" Murderface said as he sat on the surprisingly soft black leather sofa. He bounced on it for good measure.

"Yea, I mean, come on. Look at the carpet. Through my boots its… its soft you know? Like… really, really soft… carpet or something. I can actually feel it. Actually feel it." Nathan said as he looked down at the plush red carpet.

"No kiddin. This place is really… is that a bar?" Pickles ran right to it, drooling at the selection, "This has got to be a home collection or a really snazzy place that has this kind of stuff!" taking a bottle of tequila, he whistled. "One of them has a taste for south of the border."

Mr. Munkittrick perked up, "Ah, that would be Cherry who was…"

"Born n' raised in Houston, Texas. Gotta love bein' near Mexico." The new voice startled everyone except the managers. In the door way stood a woman with flaming red hair in a black bikini and flip flops. She had her hands resting on her hips, right on her slight love handles. "Mind tellin me why that there gentleman is touching my Maracame Anejo?" She left eyebrow arched gracefully as she stared at Pickles expectantly. Her eyes roamed his body, then carefully at the others. She moistened her lips a little as she realized who they were. "Well, if it ain't Dethklok come here to see us." Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned on the door way, waiting for the others to come. A smirk settled on her face as watched them amusingly. "Mo'ra ain't gonna like this Andy."

The room was quite as Dethklok stared at the girl, Cherry, whom they knew as the very drummer of Cancerous. Pickles started at her feet hen trailed up, seeing the koi fish tattoo on her left outter ankle then ascended up her shapely legs, around her hips, past her stomach with the sexy belly ring, onwards up her breasts, along the column of her neck and to her simply gorgeous face framed by a mass of dark red hair. She was better looking in person. Pickles caught himself for he drooled because Cherry was looking right at him. Again the tip of her tongue darted out of her mouth to caress the lip ring set at right side, not center. From behind the open door, voices were heard coming towards the room. The voices were singing, at what first sounded like a nursery rhyme but transformed into something morbid once the lyrics became clearer. Two of them obviously had accents, most likely the guitarist as they had read. The moment of truth was upon them.

…Rats I've dropped a teacup
How easily they break
I'm on my hands and knees until I pay for my mis-
Take off all your clothing
We've only just begun
We have no anesthesia
It's eighteen forty
One thing we should tell you
Before you try again
The tests are all invented by a lot of filthy ...
Mentally hysteric
She's failed the exam
Don't bother telling Lucy for she doesn't give a ...
Damn that nitrous oxide
For when you can't escape
They say the surgeons oft commit a murder or a ...
Razor-blades are rusty
And not a lot of fun
So when they try to amputate your legs you'd better ...

One by one the girls began to file into the room, though the other four hadn't realized they had unexpected guests. The youngest looking one, who was wearing towel over her swimsuit, accidently bumped into Cherry's elbow. This caused them all to stop singing.

"Watch where ya goin' kiddo." Cherry said with a small grin.

"Ah, sorries Cherry. I didnst means to bumps ya." She gave the other girl a smile and turned toward her manager, "Andy, thank…" her breath hitched in her throat as she spotted Ofdensen. "Who is dat besides yous?" this caught the attention of the other girls as all of the turned toward Ofdenson then to Dethklok who had been on their way to go change.

Without realizing it, they were standing in front of their instrumental counterpart. The slight resemblance such as eyes and hair was almost mind-boggling, as if they had the same genes, but that was as far as it went. At least for most of them. With the frontmen of the bands, it was a whole other story. Nathan stared down at the woman who was suppose to be the other him with such intensity, others would turn to stone in fear. Green clashed with Golden Hazel. The air suddenly became stifling before Moira exploded. Her jet black hair framed her pale face as she narrowed her eyes, crossing her arms over her flaming red bikini top with black polka dots. Even for someone much smaller then him, she looked scary with the scowl on her face. It must have been her eyes. They were such a vibrant gold, almost unnatural. Like a cat.

"What's Dethklok doing here!? And without my knowledge!" Her fists clenched as she dropped her hands to her sides, never breaking eye contact from Nathan. No, this was an all out unproclaimed staring contest between the two. The first to blink would be the loser, the metal imposter. The same thought crossed their mind as their eyes narrowed more.

Munkittrick sighed and rubbed his temples. Glancing at Ofdensen with a slight apologetic look he confessed to the other, "Moira has this unexplainable grudge against Nathan and Dethklok, perhaps for the reason I explained to you over the phone. Sorry Charlie, things could get ugly. She can't tolerate the fact that she's compared to him, let alone the band being called your "long lost twins"." No one noticed as both of them exited the room, a move that could have been a bad choice if no one, not even the klokateers who were nowhere to be found, was there to watch them.

"Wow-wee…" Toki and Lucy said at the same time, both unable to stop poking each other's shoulder. For Skwisgaar and Runa, they were sizing each other up, the woman just standing several inches shorter of him. Murderface and Bloodyfist had their backs to each other, both pouting with their arms crossed over their chests like children. The woman was eyeing a sharp object by the TV, wondering how she could get to it if Dethklok started to rowdy. Everyone knew someone got hurt when near the band, and it sure wasn't going to be anyone from Cancerous.

At the bar, Cherry was making a cocktail for Pickles as they watched the interaction between their band mates. It had only taken Cherry a moment to figure out that their managers might have had something planned and it was best to get to know someone over a drink or two… possible her whole collection that was big enough to accommodate many drinks between her and Pickles with their alarmingly high alcohol intake.

"Let me guess… Acid Trip?" Pickles said as he took his cocktail glass once the other drummer strained the contains. Cherry grinned, going about to make another for herself.

"My, I see ya got an knack for this kind of thing, huh? So I hear ya got a thing for 'em…"

"Now you're makin' an Adios Motherfucker." Pickles was impressed. Not very many girls he had known knew much about mixing drinks, let alone these hard core ones that could get a normal personal wasted with just one drink. Mostly women ordered beers, mudslides, sex on the beach, some kind of martini, margarita, kahlua or mojito. Very non-metal drinks in his professional opinion. They were just too common and plain.

The girl chuckled, "As I was sayin', I hear ya do drugs. Kiddy glaucoma, huh?" Before Pickles could reply, Skwisgaar and Runa joined them, both with their guitars as they sat on the stools. The two had quit sizing each other up, probably because they didn't feel as threaten right then, not with Moira and Nathan were sending vibes through the room that said World War III could occur.

"Cherries, Turk Bloods. I dun wants to deal wits hangover if I has Zombie." Runa said as she carefully began to pluck a few strings. Pickles and Skwisgaar's brows shot to their hair lines. These girls knew hardcore drinks. "Sometings says to me dat dis could gets ugly wit Moiras." She rocked her head over to where the front woman was standing. Runa smirked a little.

"Ya, tells me 'bout dit." Skwisgaar was furiously picking at his strings like normal, "I means… pfft, comes on nows. I coulds cares less now if we met you pretties ladies or not. If I's not feelings likes trowing my guitar outs da windows, maybe dis not so bads." From the corner of his left eye, he watched as Runa upped her tempo, mimicking Skwisgaar's note like an echo without looking at the strings. The corner of his mouth twitched in a slight grin. She was pretty good. Better then Toki. Yet still not as fast as him, or so he thought. No way she could surpass him.

Cherry was furiously looking through the left side of the shelves where rows of wine were displayed. She began to curse, "Damn the Alamo! Where in tarnation is that burgundy wine ya like? The one that one boy sent to yer ass last week?" She bent down with her hands on her knees, giving Pickles an eyeful of her well defined butt poking through from tight fitting bottoms. "Now, I'm sure we didn't finish it yet." She jumped when her band leader began to yell.

"Get out! Get the hell out of here Explosion, you and you're… you're crappy ass band!" Moira shrieked as she pointed toward the bar, "We have a rehearsal to get ready for, and dammit Cherry! Quite making drinks for these people!" At the same time, her head and Nathan's turned toward the place where two of their band mates were.

"Now hold on dere!" Cherry said as he slid Skwisgaar a shot of Absolute Suicide while still on her quest to find the necessary ingredient for Runa's Turk's Blood. "A drink ain't never hurt no body! Don't be getting me all hogtied with your shenanigans. Right Lucy dear?" looking around the room, she noticed the other girl was gone, as were their managers. "Huh? Where's Lucy?"

"And Tokis!" Skwisgaar jumped up from the bar, looking around furiously, "He's… he's not be here too?"Sure Skwisgaar was always mean to the poor Norwegian boy, but they were in a strange city where anything could happen. This caused the semi 'Big Brother' mode to kick in.

"They shaid shomething about getting candy from down schtairs." Murderface said, finally coming out of his weird ignoring phase. Bloodyfist just shrugged before hocking up a loogey where she spat it out in a trash can through the gap of her teeth. Everyone but Murderface and the vocalists, who were once again caught up in their epic staring contest, shuddered.

-----

Down stairs, Lucy was currently holding Toki by the hand as she led him out of the elevator to god only knows where. "Now dats they ams be not paying tention, we cans go get some candies from our tour bus!" Lucy giggled. She had a skip to her step as they entered the lobby. A few heads turned, but no one approached them.

"Why don'ts you keeps somes in da hotels room?" asked the other rhythm guitarist, "Does it not makes it easier?" They finally slowed down as they made it to the parking lot. Lucy let their hands fall apart as she shrugged.

"Maybe it is easiers for yous, but for me, they don'ts let me keeps da candy nearby. I am guessing because I never shares or if I eats too muchs, I goes cookoo in da heads. But dat hasn't happens in a whiles." They were walking toward a huge black tour bus with 'Cancerous' on the side of it as if it was painted on with blood. The windows were heavily tinted with the pictures of skulls on them. Adjusting her towel, Lucy knelt by the tire next to the door and began to feel around, "Where cans it be?" she said to herself. Toki heard a jingle just as Lucy smiled. Getting up, she unlocked the door and went inside. "We always hires and fires drivers cause dey takes stuff from us. Right nows we no has drivers." She explained.

Toki was amazed at the interior of the tour bus. Everything had a gothic feel to it. The bus was big enough to hold four people across in the walk way, making maneuverability easy for the two. The bus itself was probably the size of two giant RVs, divided by a moveable center for easier turns. This mobile unit must have cost a pretty penny. Lucy was heading for the back portion of the bus that was hidden behind a thick red curtain with black lace over it. Once she moved it, Toki got a good look at what he assumed was their room.

To his right was a small computer station and sound system, probably where they mixed some of their music while on the road. Right across was someone's bed half covered behind a thick blue curtain dressed in plain black satin with a single red pillow with a dagger on it. Next to the computer was another bed in white sheets with strange looking ornaments around it. In front of that one was Lucy's, since she was kneeling again, rummaging through the bottom of the hot pink comforter with black ruffles and a pattern of black skulls and hearts. The place next to the wall was covered in morbid stuff animals and dolls. The small cubicle like room also was decorated with pictures of a woman with a kind smile, possibly her mother or an older sister. One that stood out was a rather old one, withered and torn around the edges with the faces of a smiling young couple, but the top half of the man's face was faded.

The last two beds where completely covered by the thick blue curtains. Toki sat beside Lucy on the red plush carpet. He jumped when the girl beside him squealed.

"Ah! Founds it!" Giggling again, she placed a large cardboard box on her lap and opened it. Toki saw little containers, each one with a symbol. "What kind?"

"Huh?"

Rolling her eyes, she opened a box with a lemon on it, "Does you likes sours, cho-ho-lot, sweeties or bitters?"

"Chocolate…" Lucy gave him a small box filled with chocolate. "Tank yous."

-----

Back in the hotel room, Nathan and Moira continued their staring contest. Murderface and Bloodyfist had joined the others at the bar, both enjoying a beer and a bowl of chips. Probably Doritos since Cherry liked them a lot.

"Skwisgaar. I think we should find the young ones." Runa said, surprising the famous guitarist a little. Runa rolled her sky blue colored eyes and explained, "Finland is next to Sweden. I lived at the border, and it's not like our language is very different to begin with, silly."

"That is true. But I wouldn't worry about Toki. He can take care of himself… I think." He shrugged.

"Hey, hey! Whatcha y'all talkin' bout?" Cherry said as she leaned over the bar, clearly getting drunk as she hiccupped a little since she and Pickles were already on their eighth drink, "I say… I say… Mo'ra's gonna win this here round. Nate ain't looking so good."

Pickles had to agree with her, "Seems his left eye is twitching there." He slurred then looked around the room, "Where are the managers?" it was the first time that someone noticed Munkittrick's and Ofdensen's disappearance.

"Don't know, don't care." Bloodyfist said as she got up from the bar stool, "But I'm gonna get dressed. This bathrobe is really hot."

"I agrees, I coulds gets yeasts in-nectons if I don'ts change. Cherries, won'ts you come change too?"

The red head tilted her head back and finished off the last of her drink. "Sure!" chuckled the female drummer as she slowly made her way around the bar, stopping in front of the male drummerplaced her hands on his shoulders from behind. Leaning against his back, she spoke into his right ear, "Pickles, feel free to take whatcha want. I ain't yet to met a man who could handle all 'em drinks I made until today. You earned it, honey!" No one could tell if he was red faced from the booze, her words or the fact her chest was smashed against his back.

So the three girls left to go to their room, which even for the pent house, it only had three rooms. One was obviously for their manager, one was theirs and the other room they couldn't figure out why it was unused until now.

"They're going to stay here, aren't they? Dethklok I mean." Bloodyfist said as she dumped her suitcase on her bed which she shared with Cherry. The said girl shrugged.

"Maybe. But wouldn't they be stayin in their helicopter?" Cherry took out a black tube top from her pile of clothes that would show off her midriff and belly ring. "Now what the hell do I wear with this?" going through the bottoms, she settled for a pair of black tight fitting jeans.

Runa was already undressing with her back toward the other two, "Perhaps. But I tinks I saws it takes off. I bet Munkittricks and dere mani-ger gots sumting to dos withs dis."She slipped on a black leather halter top that dipped low on the chest. In the front a leather cord that zig zagged and came down to a point just below her bellybutton incase she wanted to tighten it which she did to bring her cleveage closer together.. She then slipped on some underwear and wiggled herself into her tight fitting jeans before sitting on her bed that she shared with Lucy to put on her knee high boots.

Bloodyfist had just got done changing into her black shorts that rested just above her knees and black wife beater with matching black arm warmers. "I think you're right, Runa. I mean, come on. Ya think Andy would know that Moira really hates Nathan for reasons I'm still unsure of." She took her hair out of its two messy buns and quickly ran a brush through it before going to their bathroom to blow dry her longer than normal betty bangs.

Cherry was at the vanity mirror putting on some make up. It consisted of eyeliner, some brown eye shadow and red lip stick. "I think she's actually bummed that we've been compared to 'em for a while now. I don't think it's our fault that we sort of look n' sound like 'em on stage. Creepy as it is, I think it's pretty neat." Putting down her eyeliner, she went about to put in her earrings and tongue ring. "Thank the lord o' mighty we're not actualy twins!"

"Buts my uder self is da bests guitarist in da world. Do I evens comes close to dat?" Runa sighed as she clasped a black choker around her neck with a hagalaz rune pendant. She had already put on makeup: blue eye shadow, black eyeliner, a hint of bronzing powder and vanilla flavored lip gloss. "He like Gods of guitar. Dey says I am seconds, but reallies?" she scoffed at the last part.

"What's that have to do with anything!" Bloodyfist said as she walked out of the bathroom, putting away her purple eye shadow. "At least you're not being compared to a gorilla!" there was silence in the room before they all burst out laughing. They were finally done as they walked back into where they found Moira grinning like a fool and Nathan cursing.

"Fucking… fucking fly! Had to go and land on my eye!" he said.

Moira snickered as she sauntered to the room just as the girls joined the boys at the bar, "Beaten by a girl. Brutal ain't it Explosion?" she cooed before closing the bed room door so she could change in private.

Runa shook her head as she tapped Skwisgaar's shoulder, "Come one. We should get Lucy and Toki. When she gets hyper, there is no stopping her from running a muck around the hotel."

"Fine. I think I need some fresh air anyway." He got up and followed her out of the room, leaving his guitar besides hers at the bar. But before they could enter the elevator, they ran into their managers who happened to have a giggling Lucy and a blushing Toki with them.

"Band meetings, now." Ofdensen said as he redirected the lead guitarists back into the room. All of a sudden, the Scandinavians didn't like where this was going. Runa gave Skwisgaar a side glance. He returned it with a shrug and sighed. Shaking her head, Runa followed Munkittrick and Ofdensen back into the penthouse suite.

Hmm, not exactly the way I had first outlined it, but oh well. It's just the beginning! Feel free to leave reviews! :D