Things felt a bit different when I awoke from my slumber. Yes, Gladius and Maple were curled up on my chest as always, but something in the air felt different. It was this sense of nostalgia, like we were looking into the past. With a tired sigh, I slowly moved to sit up, getting a sleepy look from the Wasabi Whip and a hushed mumble from the sword. I rubbed my face, reaching over and grabbing my glasses from the nightstand. Putting them on, I scanned around the dimly lit room.
From the sleeping forms, I could see Ralph, Marco and Manolo still out cold. I smiled lightly, eyelids still drooping as the wrecker's snores almost lulled me back into slumber. With a silent groan, I tossed the blanket aside and slipped on my socks before trudging out of the boy's room.
I made my way down the hall, a sleepy Maple on my shoulder and a still sleeping Gladius under my arm. The TARDIS was quiet, aside from the ambient noises that seemed to speak to me. I smiled as a happy beep echoed through the main room, and I raised a hand in greeting. Snorting to clear my nose just a bit, I made my way to the kitchen.
Of course, it was empty, so I simply pulled out some fruit and a glass of water. I set Gladius down on the table, and then Maple before sitting down and eating my somewhat simple and rushed breakfast as my two companions shifted before returning to sleep.
I smiled as I chewed, reached over and pet the Wasabi Whip on his head. He smiled sweetly and leaned into my touch, making my heart warm.
Only for it to nearly stop when someone kicked the door open.
"AAAAAAAAAA!!!" I shrieked out in shock, Maple and Gladius flying into the air and latching onto me fearfully. I spun around, and we saw Corey standing before the now open door with his fists on his hips and a grin on his face.
"What the hell, Core?!" I cried. "What was that about?!"
"It's because it's a huge day, dude!" The band leader said proudly. "And I need your guy's help!"
I cocked an eyebrow, Maple still clutching his whip around my head, while Gladius had recovered from the fright and was now hovering by my side.
"What, pray tell, is so important that you had to give the three of us heart attacks?" The sword spat in annoyance.
"It's the anniversary of Peaceville's founding! And since The Doc is a time traveller, I thought he'd be a massive help!"
I tilted my head, a curious look on my face. "You know, that's cool. Sure, we'll help out with the celebration, Core."
"Rockin'! I'll meet you guys in the garage!" He darted off with a salute and rock sign, and I heard the TARDIS' front door open then slam shut.
Gladius shook his hilt, letting out a sigh/laugh mix. Maple hummed quietly, finally relaxing his whip around my face and letting it fall weakly over my back.
"Well, I guess we got our day figured out", I said in a cheery tone, facing Gladius. He huffed, but shrugged regardless.
"And what is it?" A groggy voice mumbled as they entered the kitchen.
I turned to see a very sleepy and grumpy looking Amy trudge in, with her husband Rory following after her.
"Corey says he wants our help with some anniversary thing", I said simply with a shrug. "I think it'll be fun, so I'm gonna help. Although I think he's hoping The Doc will help, because of the whole time travelling thing."
Rory sighed. "Yeah, I'm not surprised. When there's a man with a Time Machine in your life, you'd want to make the most of it."
I smirked at the Ponds, and they looked at me. Then at each other, before blushing and avoiding my eye contact. I just laughed, and finished up my breakfast and left the married couple to their own devices. Entering the TARDIS' main room, I saw as most of the others were finally up and about.
Subconsciously, I slid up next to Maria and Manolo, with the wooden woman silently wrapping her arm over my shoulders, not taking her eyes off the book she was reading. Although my presence did make her smile just a bit. Manolo was calmly strumming his guitar with a content smile plastered on his face.
"So, I overheard Corey wants us to help him with something", Maria said offhandedly, her free hand playing with my messy hair.
I nodded, leaning into her a bit more. "It has something to do with the city's founding, so that's nice!"
The guitarist quietly laughed. "Knowing Grojband, and after yesterday, something is going to happen. Looking forward to it!"
Maria started to laugh, dropping her book at Manolo tone ending with a sarcastic edge. I was quietly giggling, Gladius joining in when the musician shot us a light glare. But the laughter didn't last long, as Maria leaned over and kissed her husband on his forehead. I smiled at the heartwarming sight, only to notice Vanellope and Hilda heading out of the TARDIS. Deciding that was probably best, I bid farewell to the couple (Maria gave me a kiss on the forehead as I stood up), and with Gladius by my side, we left the blue box into the Riffin garage.
The first thing I noticed was Laney, Kin and Kon sitting next to a table with a small wax candle gramophone on it, the rustic melody humming out of the golden horn. I tilted my head ever so slightly as I silently watched them, before walking over and studying the small musical device with the band.
"100 years ago", Kin explained, "Music was recorded on these crazy wax cylinders."
"Music on wax!?" Kon shouted in excited disbelief. "They had so many new ideas in the past!"
"We could use it to record our gig today!" Laney said excitedly. "100 year old song on a 100 year old candle!"
"The candle is new", the keyboardist said. "Out of 100 year old candles!"
"Take a shot whenever someone mentions 100, wax or candle", I said jokingly. I leaned forward to get a closer look at the gramophone. "But seriously, this is so cool. It's fascinating how this does work."
"Ahhhh, I remember having one of these in my corner of the archives", Gladius said wistfully. "I had a box full of these wax cylinders, each with a different song, to help fill the room with music as I read the hundreds of novels."
"That's awesome, Gladdy!" Kon said happily. "Bet it was nice. Did you have any rock songs?"
"Sadly, my dear boy, rock music was far past the time of these revolutionary devices. Moved over to a record player at that point."
We all turned our heads over when the side door was kicked open, somehow stopping the music. Corey stood in the open doorway, holding what looked to be some sort of old photo album.
"Hey guys", the band leader started. He held the album out. "I found some old photos of Great Grandpappy Riffin."
"Story time!" The brothers cheered excitedly. They dashed off the couch and sat on the cement floor as Corey sat on a plastic crate, holding the now open photo album.
"This is Cylus Riffin." Corey pointed at a photo of a man that looked very similar to him, who was holding a filled out music sheet. "He wrote the original Peaceville anthem, 100 years ago today!"
My eyes sparkled as me, Laney and Gladius joined the pair. "That's sweet! And proves that music flows through your blood." The band leader smiled and nodded.
"I was expecting an old-timey moustache", Kin said in slight disappointment.
"Hey, it's our great grandads, Flin and Flon!" Kon said happily, pointing out a pair of young men that looked similar to the brothers. They held a metal capsule above a dug hole. "They look even more alike than we do!"
"Still no moustaches, though."
"This must've been taken when they buried the Peaceville Time Capsule", Corey explained as he studied the photo.
"I hope those suspenders are inside when Mayor Mellow opens it today", the drummer said in anticipation.
"There's the moustache", the keyboardist said, moving onto the final photo of the page. It was of a fancy looking woman that looked exactly like Laney.
…Except for said moustache resting under her nose.
"Yeeeeaaahhhh", the bassist droned out, "That's my great grandma Janey." We all gave her looks, and she shrugged. "She was in the circus."
"I find it convenient you four are all friends", Gladius said suspiciously. "Considering you were all part of the town's founding families."
"Consider it fate, Gladdy", Corey said confidently. The sword huffed at the second use of his nickname. "It'll be great for us to rock out that anthem 100 years after great grandpappy wrote it."
Suddenly, Trina appeared out of nowhere and ripped the album from Corey's hands with a scoff. Her friend (more lucky, if anything) Mina stood next to her with a smug look.
"Go play in a hole, Corey", the pink haired girl spat. Her face suddenly shifted to a smug look like Mina. "We only need one Riffin today. Me!" She opened to a page with a photo of Cylus hugging another man as the other family members watched happily in the background. "Nick Malory and I are reenacting the town founding hug, and I don't want it spoiled with Groj-noise!"
She then turned to glare at me and Gladius. "And I don't need your lame-o fans to ruin it either. This needs to be perfect."
I scoffed and crossed my arms as Corey and the others glared back, with the band leader challenging his sister. "A hug may have started Peaceville, but the next hundred years will be built on a foundation of rock!" We walked off to the TARDIS to do some last minute prepping, Corey not taking his eyes off his sister till he shut the door behind him.
As soon as we scaled the steps to the main console, The Doctor flashed us a confident smile. "So I heard you needed help with history."
~X~
After gathering some artefacts to help give the performance more accurate theming, we all moved to the town centre. Me, Majima, Star and Marco all helped get the already set up stage prepared music wise as the others all cooperated to decorate the stage so it looked like we ripped it right out of the past.
A small crowd was forming, and I smiled at the happy and curious murmurs. It was nice to help the town celebrate such an important milestone, even if we were only here for only three-ish days. It was still nice, regardless.
Turning back to the stage, I watched as Ralph and a disguised Dry Bowser (he complained when he was expected to wear the coat again) helped move a statue of the town founding hug Trina showed earlier to the middle of the wooden platform. They grunted as they set the stone sculpture down, the planks creaking a bit at the weight, but then settled and remained firm and sturdy.
The band were tuning their instruments, hoping to get the sound absolutely perfect. It was fairly… peaceful, ironically. But something about the calm made me worried.
Consider it being stung so much it was expected.
A short man in a brown suit and hat with glasses like Kin happily skipped onto the stage as me and my gang bid silent wishes of good luck to the band and moved off the stage. We all stood off to the side as the brown suit man, who I guessed was Mayor Mellow, set down the time capsule and stood centre stage with a beaming smile.
"Happy hundredth birthday, Peaceville!" Mellow began, silencing the excited chatter of the crowd. "You don't look over a day over 99! We're going to open your present, sing you a song, and then bring back the embrace that started the place!"
"Just a hug, huh?" Jenny said with a smirk. "Man, if it was that easy to fix my problems, I would have done that years ago."
"Nah, I prefer to crack some skulls", Majima said cockily. He was met with levelled glares from the other adults and heroes.
"I sense something that simple will make things difficult this time around…" Galacta said in dread. We all gave each other unsure glances, then returned our attention to the stage once again.
"Okay, Peacevillians!" Mellow continued. "Time to pop the top, and let the anthem be dropped!" Kon began to drum on his set as the mayor bounced around the capsule. "Maybe there's gold inside, too!" He popped off the top, looked inside…
And was met with a noxious fart.
Me and my group all gave the sight a strange look as the mayor coughed, then pulled out the only contents from the capsule: a single piece of paper.
"Nope, just the anthem."
There was nothing but crickets chirping at that, and we watched as the paper was caught in the breeze and smacked into Trina's face, who was off to the side. I eyed her suspiciously as Mina looked over the paper. But all of that changed when Mellow let Corey take the stage to sing the anthem.
"Where are the lyrics?" He asked.
"Right here, Corey~" Trina said in a very oddly sweet tone. When the band leader took the paper, the older girl slid away like a snake, laughing evilly.
"That doesn't bode well…" Zomboss said tensely.
And it most definitely didn't end well. Before I could even register what was happening, Corey sang what I could only describe as a century's long scandal. Turns out the Riffins actually stole the anthem lyrics from the Malorys (who themselves were actually super lame, apparently?), which sparked this massive brawl that, as Corey sang, 'abused and bruised each other in a feud'. Kin and Kon suddenly were in the split crowd, both sides spitting insults at the shocking revelations.
When Corey said all that needed to happen was Trina and Nick hugging to fix things, I looked over to see the textbook cool dude now eating an onion while in an outfit that was probably popular 100 years ago. When Corey tried to reassure Laney things would be fine, the two news anchors that were here admitted they played the whole thing live.
And it peaked when Kin and Kon built a brick wall that divided the whole town in two.
My group watched everything from the sidelines in complete shock as we walked onto the stage.
"That escalated so fast!" Marco cried in disbelief. "Like, seriously, one confession later, and the town is at each other's throats."
"Then the Nicelanders weren't this bad with me…" Ralph mumbled.
"Okay, so it's a huge deal", Corey said. "But not too huge to fix with an anthem about unity! We just need lyrics."
"And you're just the Riffin to steal them?" Laney spat in annoyance.
"Drastic times call for drastic, hypocritical actions, Lanes", Star said, not taking her eyes off the bickering crowds. This made the bassist roll her eyes, but not argue back.
"Exactly! All we have to do is get Trina to hug Nick. One diary moment later, and we got huggy-wuggy calm-you-down lyrics!" The band singer pinched his partner's cheek, much to her chagrin.
""But Trina doesn't seem like she wants to hug Nick." Laney glanced at the pink haired girl, and she was still in catatonic shock from Nick's loss of coolness. "She doesn't seem she wants to do anything!"
Corey began to walk over to his wide-eyed sister, who was having her nails filed by Mina, and with me, Gladius and Laney following after him.
"What's up with Trina?" Corey asked.
"She just shut down when Nick Malory became lame", the teal haired girl explained.
"Do we have time for me to panic and run around shouting it's all over?" The singer said quietly, leaning towards us.
"No!" The three of us spat.
"Fine, let's go with Plan B: A clever solution!"
So far, that plan consisted of tracking Nick down, who was still eating a raw onion by the now finished wall. I had no clue where the others ran off to, but they were probably on damage control to keep the town from burning itself to the ground.
"Hey Nick", Corey began. "Any chance you can stop eating raw onions, quit being lame and be huggably cool again?"
"Sorry Riffin, Nick digs tradition", the once cool hunk said with a shrug. "Feud on!" He raised his fist and awkwardly walked off.
"Welp, we're boned", I said bluntly. "Trina isn't going to go anywhere within ten feet of Nick, if she'll even move again, that is."
"No matter how cool he makes it look, too…" Corey added desperately.
"Yeah", Laney growled with crossed arms, "She probably thinks it's 'Like, ultra forbidden and junk or whatever'." Lanes did a perfect imitation of Trina's voice, complete with a scoff and hair flip.
"Solid Trina impression, Lanes", Corey said happily. His eyes were bright with an idea. "And extra solid idea giving! Plan Double B!"
Corey ran off back towards Trina, me and Laney sharing a confused look before chasing after him. Gladius sighed and followed soon after.
Me, Laney and Gladius hung back as Corey sweet talked his sister (despite his obvious displeasure), and with some tricky words, Corey was able to convince his sister that this 'super lame love' was forbidden love, which made it 'uber romantic' and thus something Trina desires.
Hearts formed in the pink girl's as she dashed and hugged her long-time crush, who was still eating a raw onion while sitting atop the wall. I joined up with the others as we watched Trina rocket into the sky, hearts swirling around as she began to write into her diary. Both crowds on either side of the brick wall were zapped with the good feelings, calming them down significantly.
After the lovestruck Trina was caught by the still lame Nick Malory, Corey caught the diary. With the old anthem paper, he wrote down the new anthem as Laney pumped up the crowd.
As Nick sang the new anthem, the rest of my friends watched the scene before us in silent befuddlement.
"And what, just like that everything is okay?" Vanellope said in complete confusion.
"If only everything was this easy…" Hilda mumbled in a hint of envy. "Some of us need to literally scale mountains to fix problems. And then it still goes wrong…" I frowned down at her, with Alfur wincing at the memory of her quest to make it so the elves would just leave her, Twig and Johanna alone in their cabin.
…Only for it to be crushed by a giant, forcing them to move to Trolberg.
Twig nuzzled against his best friend, and Vanellope glitched off Ralph's shoulder to hug her. The adventurer returned it instantly, and I smiled down at them.
"This is just how this place works, gang", I said simply with a shrug. "I wouldn't be surprised if we run into another world like this." I began to walk off back towards the Riffin household, humming the new Peaceville anthem as I swayed with each step.
~X~
After everything at the town was cleaned up, the rest of the group had joined me and Gladius back at our temporary stop. I smiled as they all filed into the garage, but the smiles I got in return felt a bit resigned. And I knew why.
It was time to get going.
But that only seemed to spark something within Corey.
"I'm coming with you guys!" He announced, standing proudly on the stage. He had his guitar strapped to his back, a very confident grin on his face.
My friends and I all froze and stared at him with wide-eyes.
"WHAT?!" Corey's bandmates roared in shock.
"Guys, relax", the singer said reassuringly. "I want to see what weird and wild things are out there, and after today… I want to maybe be inspired to make my own lyrics."
Laney gave her friend a wide-eyed look. "Wow, Core, that's… Not really like you."
"Welcome to the club!" Dry Bowser shouted. "Being on an adventure like this will do that to you."
"What he said", Zomboss mumbled.
"So, whatdya' say, Lanes?" The band leader gave his friend a massive smile.
The bassist flinched back. "What?!"
"C'mon, we talked to Caleb about this last night!" I ducked a bit at the attention being sent my way. "And you said you'd think about it. Well, you had a day. So…"
Laney turned around and gave me a pleading, nervous look. But all I did was smile and nod reassuringly.
Kin and Kon seemingly had the same idea. "C'mon, Lanes", Kin began. "This isn't something that you can turn down!"
"Yeah!" Kon added. "You and Corey get to travel to who-knows-where!"
"Me and… Corey…" she whispered out. She shot a glance at her best friend, and when he shot her a finger gun, I saw her eyes sparkle with adoration. With a sigh, she finally nodded. "Fine, I'll tag along. But only so that you don't do anything reckless." She gave Corey a pointed glare (which had the hint of love) as she moved to get her bass.
"Kin, Kon!" Corey said. The two brothers dashed up to the leader. "While we're gone, I want you two to experiment and science!"
"You got it, boss!" Kon said with a salute.
Laney rolled her eyes and made her way over to the TARDIS, with Izzy and Vanellope instantly dashing over to greet her.
I laughed at the sight as Corey slid up to my side. "So, you ready for some crazy adventure, Core?"
"You got it, dude! Looking forward to flying high!" He entered the blue box after, with all the others following soon after.
"Kin, Kon, you two should stand back", Gladius said. "Don't want you two caught in this crossfire."
They nodded and ducked behind some cover as I grabbed the sword. After getting angled correctly, I slashed the air and opened another portal.
"Keep the rockin' jams of Grojband alive while we're gone, dudes!" Corey cheered as he and Laney leaned out the TARDIS' front door. They waved to the brothers as I entered the Time Machine, and once I shot The Doctor a thumbs up, we closed the door, and were off.
~X~
And here we are. The end of another arc, this time finishing off with the simple episode War And Peaceville. It was a fun episode, but a lot more calmer and basic. It's all so the next two arcs have so much more meat on them. Seriously, after Adrift In The TARDIS, I needed this string of easy chapters that are 3.5k words at minimum (before these ending author's notes).
But yep, we're now 68 chapters along now. Only two away from the big 70. That is crazy and makes me emotional. Looking forward to the future!
Up next: Caleb and Co. find themselves at a somewhat rundown summer camp that's run by a trio of bizarre counsellors and their three campers…
~Caleb~
