New Beginnings Part 2

"Queen Aleena here. It has been six months since the last time I've been able to share the progress of my children on their quest. Robotnik had recentley been hit hard, with 5 factories destroyed within 24 hours thanks to the resistance. Finally having some free time, my children have decided to headline a festival of bands whose music share the messages of revolution and freedom. What they don't realize is that the will meet a new ally at their performance - one with a greater connection to them than they realize."

Early the fallowing morning, the members of The Shenanigans arrived at Mastodon theater. Parking their truck in the back, the band started wheeling in their gear with the help of some of the theater techs.

As the band staring putting their gear backstage, a little bear girl walked up to them. She was dressed in a pink T-Shirt that said "Daddy's Little Rockstar" and jeans, and was carrying a small purple purse. "Excuse me," she said shyly. "Are you guys The Shenanigans?"
"We are," Trey said as he put down a floor tom case.

"Oh my gosh!," the girl said excitedly. "Daddy told me you guys were coming! I had no idea I'd be able to meet you!" She reached into her purse and pulled out a CD. It was one the band published a while before thanks to help (and funding) from Pregame. She also pulled out a sharpie. "Will you guys please sign my CD?"

"Sure thing kid!," Axel said as everyone nodded in agreement. "Who do we sign it for?"

"Annalynn Mastodon!," the girl said happily. Axel then signed the CD, and passed it to Mina.

"I didn't know little kids your age liked hard rock music!," Axel said.

"Well, she discovered the Deftones when she was five," an older bear in a business suit said as he walked into the room. "Her love of hard rock went from there!" He reached his hand out to Axel. "James Mastodon, manager of Mastodon Theater."

"I'm Axel," Axel said in reply as he shook Jame's hand. "This is Mike, Mina, Trey, and Tails."

"I look forward to seeing your show," James said. "The guys in Pregame gave me your CD, and I loved your music so much I had to have you all perform in our Fight for Freedom Festival. Of course, I knew that if I didn't put you guys on the bill I wouldn't get a retirement fund from my daughter here!" James ruffled Annalynn's hair.

Tails was the last to finish signing the CD. He gave it to Annalyn. "Here you go!," he said. "Hope you enjoy the show!"

"Oh I will! Thank you so much guys!," Annalyn said as she happily skipped over to what the band assumed was her father's office.
After she left the room, James had the crew get back to helping The Shenanigans get their gear on stage.

Meanwhile on stage, a green hedgehog was doing sound check on his drums. "How do the drums sound out there Mac?," the hedgehog asked the soundman.

"They sound great!," the soundman replied. "Definitely ready to rock!"

"Good!," the hedgehog replied. "This is the first gig I've played where I had to mic my drums, so I wanted to make sure everything sounds just right."

"Are you sure he didn't turn the drums all the way down and the vocals all the way up?," a blue hedgehog jokingly said as he walked onstage. Both hedgehogs laughed.

"Actually Sonic," the green hedgehog replied. "I think it's the other way around." He got off his drum throne. "It's nice to play a show and not have to worry about Ro-butt-nik. By the way, how's the sister doing?"

"Oh, you know Sonia," Sonic replied. "She's doing her hair for the 20th time, when of course it's just going to get messed up with all her head banging!" He laughed to himself.

"Well, I'm going to go check on her anyways," the green hedgehog replied.

"Don't get her hair messed up, Manic!," Sonic said jokingly as his brother walked offstage.

*****
Meanwhile, in one of the dressing rooms, a the hedgehog in question was doing her hair. Perfect! She thought. Then again, I've said perfect 20 times already. She sighed. Besides, it's just going to get messed up when I start head banging. As much as she still liked nice clothes and her hair done, Sonia hedgehog had definitely lightened up a bit. In fact, she actually found she loved the feeling of throwing her hair around like mad on stage. Well, whatever, I still have sound check, so I better get on stage!

As Sonia stepped out of her dressing room, she almost bumped into a red hedgehog. "Oh, pardon my clumsy self!," she said. However, the hedgehog didn't notice, as he seemed to be in a hurry and was running down the hall quickly. Suddenly, Sonia's medallion started glowing! "Strange," she thought out loud.

"Hey Sonia, what's up with your medallion?," Manic asked as he walked to his sister.

"I'm not sure," she replied. "It started glowing after I bumped into this red hedgehog who was running down the hall."
Weird, Manic thought. "Well, we can worry about it later," he said out loud. "Sonic's doing sound check, and then you're up next."

"Ok," Sonia replied. As she walked to the stage, she thought to herself Just who was that hedgehog?

****
A few hours later, it was almost time for The Shenanigans to go onstage. As the band put on their guitars and did some last minute stretches, Axel started thinking about a strange event that occurred earlier. He was running down the hall in order to quickly get some duct tape from the manager's office, and he accidentley bumped into a pink hedgehog. After that, his medallion started glowing. It had never done that before, he thought. I wonder what triggered the glowing? However, his pondering was cut off by Trey tapping his shoulder.

"We're on dude!," the fox told him. "Let's get rolling!" And with that, Axel stopped thinking about his medallion, and started getting his brain back into "rocker mode." He then walked up to the front of the stage.

"Alright Fight for Freedom fest!," he yelled into the microphone. "are you ready to rock?" Thunderous applause was his response. "Then let's get rockin'!" He then signaled Trey, who counted off the first song.

Twenty minutes later, The Shenanigans had conquered the stage. Everyone was head banging and jumping around like maniacs. As their latest song came to a close, Axel walked back over to the microphone. "So how we doin' here at Mastodon Theater ladies and gentlemen?" Thunderous applause was, of course, the response. "We're going to do something different here. Apparently the theater manager's daughter has been listening to The Deftones since she was 5, so we decided to play one of their songs for her." Offstage, Annalynn could barely contain her excitement.
After an intro from Mike, the lyrics began. "I've watched you change," Axel began. "Into a fly…" As this was a cover song, everyone in the theater knew the words, and began to sing along.

Soon the band was at the last chorus. "…I've watched a change, in you," Axel continued. Suddenly, there was a loud explosion as the back wall of the stage was destroyed! Axel turned around to see a weasel in a purple robe and an orange dingo walked through the hole they made…with a squad of Swat Bots behind them. The weasel was the first to speak.

"Stay right where you are hedgehog, and no one gets hurt."

Songs Featured:

Change (In The House of Flies) - Deftones (White Pony, 2000)

Author's notes: I'm not sure how many people noticed (or even knew) this, but Annalyn is the name of Deftones drummer Abe Cunningham's ex-wife. Also, the name Trey is a reference to Trey McClurkin and Tre Cool, my two favorite drummers at the time I wrote the first draft of this story. Also, Mike Cooper's last name comes from Skillet frontman John Cooper. That's all for now!