"Further details have emerged about the kidnapping of rock group the Hex Girls at the Vampire Rock Concert. The identities of the supposed vampires who kidnapped the Hex Girls along with contest entrants Matt Marvellous and the Bad Omens have been revealed by police. They were Dark Skull, Stormy Weathers and Lightning Strikes of the band Wildwind who disappeared on Vampire Rock shortly after losing lasts year's contest."

Gus Boggs, manager of the Hex Girls, couldn't help but smile as he watched the news from the comfort of a rather luxurious armchair in a rather lavish hotel room with a cocktail in hand and his feet resting on an ottoman. Next to him was a coffee table with a tray of mostly now empty cocktail glasses on top of it.

Yet again they were leading with a piece on his band's kidnapping for the third day in a row on the news since that situation had been resolved. The Hex Girls were getting tons of free publicity in Australia, and to a lesser extent abroad, without him even having to lift a finger. It was fantastic. Their kidnapping was a blessing in disguise.

Of course not that he'd had this view of their kidnapping before they'd been rescued obviously.

At the time it had been quite the rollercoaster of emotions for him, thought Gus he took a sip of his cocktail. Initially when he'd heard about his band being kidnapped he was filled with a mixture of panic and worry, both for each of his Hex Girls and his own financial security. After several long slow hours of worry, phone calls and frantic pacing back and forth across his hotel room he received a call from the concert host, Daniel Illiwara, that the Hex Girls had been rescued and were fine, which of course caused him instant jubilation. Then followed panic at first when their kidnapping hit the press, as his initial reaction was that wasn't the best of news, followed by more jubilation when it occurred to him this was great free publicity.

Previously the Hex Girls weren't that known in Australia, hence he'd predicted a low turnout for the few concerts they'd be doing once they were back from being the opening act of the Vampire Rock Concert, but now everyone would know of them. They were front page news and he had already planned to capitalise on that publicity whilst it lasted. And plan he had. Already he'd scheduled four interviews in the upcoming days to further advertise both his band and their upcoming concerts.

He then reached for the remote and turned the TV off, no need to hear the newscaster repeat what he'd already heard over the past few days. Then after exchanging his now empty cocktail for another full one on the tray in front of him he got up and headed towards his room, thoughts drifting back to his band.

They'd probably be a bit iffy towards the idea of exploiting their own kidnapping in the way he'd planned, but they'd come around when they saw the logic in it. Or Luna would at least, thinking logically wasn't much her fellow Hex Girls' thing sadly. Thorn and Dusk were far more driven by emotion, which whilst that great for having passion in their performances on stage it was the cause of much stress and aggravation off stage.

As he entered his room and left the lounge behind he caught sight of his sketch pad, despite initial assumptions people would make about him he was an artist as well as a businessman. Not a very good artist, but at least he made an attempt. The sketch pad was lying open on the rough designs for new performance outfits for his band that he'd been sketching recently.

Hopefully they'd come to the idea of changing their performance outfits. There was nothing wrong with they're current ones, quite the opposite. They're simple yet sexy and distinct looks had become rather iconic. However iconic doesn't mean something can't get stale. In recent times they'd been a decrease in record sales and a slight decrease in concert attendance. Nothing big yet but best to nip that in the bud before it became an issue, the solution he'd come up with being a change in the girls' performance outfits. Not yet mind you, partially since there wasn't a need yet and partially since other than a uniform colour scheme of red, black and white he had little other ideas for the new outfit's designs. However it was best to raise the subject earlier rather than later with the chicklets. Especially given the poor reaction he knew he was going to get.

They'd all be rather opposed to even talk of the change, especially given they'd designed their original performance outfits themselves long before he'd become their manager. Which was going to be something they'd point out, as they always side-lined and dismissed his role in managing them and what he'd done to make them a success like that. As far as each Hex Girl was concerned they'd have been a success without him. Whilst the way he saw things without him to manage the Hex Girls they'd still just be only doing Halloween gigs in New England.

But he put those thoughts aside as he walked over and settled down in an armchair by the large window his hotel room had, giving him a grand view of Sydney harbour in all its sunny splendour.

It was a brief moment of relaxation before the stress, demands and divaish attitude he'd get when Tiny arrived back with the Hex Girls later.

Tiny, now there was a man you could rely on. If only he'd come across and hired him as the band's roadie a few years earlier, he'd have saved himself so much stress. The man was a godsend. You gave him a task, he completed it as you specified. No complaining or anything of the sort. Combine that with his strength and he was the perfect roadie. Plus he really digged the man's facial hair.

After another sip of his cocktail his mind began to wander back to the scandals the band, or rather specifically Thorn and Dusk, had. The two were absolute darlings but they had real a knack for getting into trouble, or at least causing negative publicity for the band. Something Gus would prefer to avoid, despite their dark look the dears had he wanted them to have a clean reputation.

His band called themselves eco-goths for a reason, they were all too some extent environmentalists and had used their fame and money to support causes related to that. Save the dolphins, save the trees, save the tigers and stuff like that. Gus had no problem with that, there was no harm in it and it was great PR for the band. Thorn however went a bit beyond that, whilst the darling meant well she was a bit of a zealot when it came to that stuff. They'd been a few times when an interviewer acted dismissive when their environmentalist leanings came up, and in response Thorn was rather hostile to them, occasionally a bit vulgarly so. In a few cases which came to mind Dusk and Luna had to calm Thorn down. And there was that awkward little issue almost a year ago where there were three terrorist bombings across the US by an eco-terrorist, who it just turned out was an activist Thorn had openly supported in the past before his sudden violent turn. That association had been quite the PR nightmare.

Otherwise though Thorn on the whole was an absolute darling, both to be around and work with, provided she wasn't having a diva moment. A talented singer and guitarist, alongside being an excellent song writer and of course extremely beautiful. Gus knew he was lucky to manage a band with her in it.

Dusk was far simpler when it came to getting in trouble and creating negative publicity. She had an aggressive side to her and as such wasn't afraid to instigate a fight over the smallest of insulting comments towards either herself or her fellow Hex Girls, in part since she usually won said fight. However turning up to a concert with a black eye or bruises really wasn't a good look, though Gus couldn't deny her attitude there was rather Rock and Roll. Nor were some of the antics Dusk got into whilst out drinking good publicity either, something Gus tried and regularly failed to stop her doing. Having to pop down to the police station to pick her up after some incident was an annoyance in itself; it was aggravating when inevitably the press heard about it. As they always did despite his best efforts to prevent that.

Thankfully those incidents were the only real controversy his band had, and with each repetitive incident by either Thorn or Dusk the incidents got less attention. Only other negative publicity was the baseless accusations of Satanism and the like the band occasionally got, down to their look and some of their song lyrics, but of course those were completely baseless and rarely drew much attention. The accusations were rather comical in a way. He'd never heard Dusk or Luna even mention religion and Thorn was a Wiccan, and whilst Gus didn't quite understand his guitarist's beliefs when he'd done some research it the whole thing just came across to him as harmless pagan mumbo jumbo, certainly not Satanic in any way he could see. Though Thorn kept her beliefs quiet for that reason, as she'd put it once to Gus "people just wouldn't understand."

Anyway those controversies were in the past now, especially since another bonus of their kidnapping was that it'd deflect attention away from their past scandals. What could've been a terrible incident was instead a blessing in disguise. Gus was sure his band would come to see it the same way, once he explained it to them later.

Until then it was time to stop thinking about those past issues. Instead it was time to lay back and relax.

"Gus!"

"We're back!"

Gus groaned as he was awakened from his relaxing nap by the yells of Thorn and Dusk as they announced their return. Looks like it was time to get back to work again.

He quickly got to his feet and, after briefly rubbing the sleep from his eyes, exited his hotel suite and entered theirs suite's joint lounge. The Hex Girls were over by the door being handed their bags by Tiny. Upon noticing Gus the roadie gave a nod of acknowledgement before he left the suite to go fetch the girls' instruments.

"Darlings it's good to see you." greeted Gus in a cheerful manner. "I do hope you're ok, did the concert go well?"

"Same Gus." replied Thorn as she walked over to him, Dusk and Luna obediently following her as usual. "We're fine, the concert went well. Everyone loved us, as usual." a smirk gracing the singer's face at her last comment.

"Except for the whole being kidnapped thing." added Luna as she put her left hand on her hip.

"Oh I do hope you're ok after that ordeal chicklets." replied Gus, making sure that there was concern audible in is voice. "You weren't hurt were you?"

"Other than Dusk getting slapped when she bit one of the kidnappers' hands, yeah we thankfully weren't hurt." explained Luna.

"Worth it!" added Dusk excitedly. "I made that bastard bleed!"

"Thank goodness dears. I was so worried about you three when I heard about it." replied Gus, choosing to ignore Dusk's comment.

"Well worry no longer, the Hex Girls are back and ready to rock." said Thorn with a confident smirk as she put her hands on her hips.

"You bet we are!" added Luna as she raised her arms and did the sign of the horns with each hand.

"Anyway I…" began Gus before being interupted.

"I'm hungry!" whined Dusk. "When can we go eat?"

"Ugh we can get room service shortly Dusk, don't interrupt." ordered Thorn in annoyance.

"You were saying Gus?" inquired Luna curiously.

"But…" began Dusk once again, earning a glare from Thorn.

"No Dusk's right. I'll call up some room service first, you must be hungry after the long drive back from the concert." said Gus with the intent to avoid a disagreement between the girls. "We'll back about the other stuff later, just business stuff anyway."

Dusk smirked and stuck her tongue out at Thorn when he said she was right, Thorn just left out a "Hmph" sound in reply as she turned away from the drummer and crossed her arms. Luna seemed to eye him for a moment, probably trying to think of what he meant by business stuff.

"I guess I'm a bit hungry." said Luna after a few moments passed, before turning to look over at Thorn. "How about you Thorn?"

"Fine by me." replied Thorn with a shrug.

"Well that's settled then." said Gus happily. "Now you chicklets go relax whilst I order room service, I'll call you when it arrives."

"So you see, I think the dears will come around to it." said Gus as he discussed changing the Hex Girls performance outfits with Tiny. Well discussed was a strong word, given how the roadie was a man of few words it was a rather one sided conversation.

There was then a sudden knock of the door to their hotel room, startling Gus.

"Ah that must be room service." said Gus as he recomposed himself. "Tiny would you…"

Gus stopped himself as he saw the roadie had already gone to fetch the food without being told too. There was that reliability on show again.

Whilst he did that Gus got up and went to tell his band their food had arrived, starting with Luna first.

Near instantly after knocking on the door to her room once he received a reply of "Come in!", Gus opening the room soon after. Luna was sat in an armchair in the corner of the room, clad in a simple purple dress with a rather worn green book in her hands.

"Room service has arrived." said Gus. The redhead merely nodded in response as she put down her book and headed for the door, Gus turning and heading to knock on Dusk's door.

He knocked once. No response.

He knocked once more. Again no response.

He knocked yet again, far harder this time. At first there was no response, but when he was about to knock again Dusk opened the door. Thankfully due to their pronounced height difference he avoided almost hitting the drummer in the face. She'd changed into a loose dark green t-shirt and green shorts and had her hair down from its usual pigtails. In her hands were a pair of headphones with music still blaring from them, explaining why she'd took so long to hear him knocking.

"What?" Dusk asked moodily as she looked up at him, an annoyed expression planted on her face.

"Food is here." answered Gus.

"Finally!" exclaimed Dusk as she threw the headphones to the floor before she rushed past him, almost knocking him over in the process. Gus was about to tell her off but bit his tongue in order to avoid having an argument, instead shutting Dusk's room's door and went and knocked on Thorn's door.

"I'll be out in a few minutes!" yelled Thorn in reply. Good enough reply for him.

With that Gus turned and head back over to the couches and two armchairs in the middle of the room, placed around a coffee table in a crescent shape. Dusk and Luna were sitting on the couch whilst Tiny sat in one of the armchairs, Gus heading over and taking the remaining armchair.

"So what did you want to talk about?" inquired Luna in between cutting up and eating her steak, the manner in which she ate looking rather dainty and feminine in comparison to how Dusk was shoveling down her meal of chicken nuggets and French fries that she'd practically drowned in ketchup.

"Yeah what?" asked Dusk, her ketchup covered fangs looking like they were stained with blood.

"Let's wait on that till Thorn's here too chicklets." answered Gus as he began to cut into his own steak, averting his eyes from the repulsive sight Dusk was creating.

"That's fair." replied Luna.

"I guess." said Dusk.

"So what did you too do whilst we were at the concert?" asked Luna, trying to make conversation in the meantime.

"Well we played tourist and visited the sights of Sydney." answered Gus. "Had a little potter round the shops too, though pray think there weren't any of interest to you darlings."

"Were there any antique shops, preferably ones stocking old books?" ask Dusk curiously. "You know how Thorn's into collecting that stuff."

"Not that I can remember." answered Gus with a shrug. Luna looked like she was about to reply when the conversation was interrupted by the sound of the door to Thorn's room opening as she exited it.

"Sorry I took so long." apologised Thorn, who'd since changed into a black top, black pants and a white leather jacket and her hair up in a towel. "You called me just as I was coming out of the shower."

"No need to apologise chicklet." said Gus cheerfully as Thorn plopped herself down on the couch in between Dusk and Luna.

"Yeah does matter how long you take. Not like it matters if your leaves get cold." teased Dusk as Thorn reached for her bowl of salad and assorted vegetables.

"Shut it Dusk." hissed Thorn, her fangs glinting in the light.

"So what was it you wanted to talk about Gus?" asked Luna, obviously trying to change the current conversation before her fellow Hex Girls had another dispute. Gus nodded his thanks to her before speaking, the redhead merely smiled back in acknowledgement.

"Well first off darlings you're kidnapping caused quite the stir." began Gus. "It's been front page news on every paper and a leading headline on TV."

"As it should be." commented Thorn in between chewing a carrot.

"Cause we're important!" added Dusk.

"That may be dears. But I think it's also an opportunity not to be missed." said Gus, pausing briefly to choose his next words carefully. "You three weren't really known here in Australia before this. Now everyone here knows of you thanks to that kidnapping. For that reason I've arranged four interviews in the upcoming days, all during primetime TV hours. It's a fantastic opportunity to not just advertise the few concerts you're doing whilst we're over here darlings, but the band as a whole and your upcoming third album."

"Wait…you see our kidnapping as an opportunity to profit from!" responded Thorn, clearly offended by the idea. "Do you know how traumatising that was?"

"Yeah that's fucked up." added Dusk, an annoyed expression on her face whilst Luna just gave him a disapproving stare.

"I can't believe you'd even consider doing that." continued Thorn as she glared at him with her piercing green eyes. "How can you be so greedy?"

"Chicklets this is just how the entertainment business is. You can't have let an opportunity pass by, even if it is a bit distasteful. It's quite the competitive business" defended Gus, as he reflected that going by the guitarist's and drummer's responses that he'd chosen his words rather poorly. Bit too insensitive with how he'd phrased things.

"That's fair." said Luna as her previously disapproving expression left her face. "Our kidnapping is already being widely talked about, can't change that. So it only makes sense to capitalise on it."

Thank goodness, again Luna's logical side was being a godsend.

"I suppose…at least we'll get something good out of it then." agreed Thorn after a moment's consideration.

"I guess." agreed Dusk reluctantly, still frowning.

"And I am always up for more interviews." said Thorn with a fanged smile. "Always happy to let the fans see more of me."

"Without context that could be interpreted differently from how you meant it." commented Dusk as a mischievous smirk graced her face.

"What do you…oh." replied Thorn, blushing as she realised what the drummer was implying. Luna merely rolled her eyes at Dusk's comment.

"Anyway now that that's sorted, onto the second topic." said Gus, intending to get this over with quickly. "Now first off, please keep an open mind about this chicklets before jumping to being offended again."

The three goths all had a mixed expression of both confusion and curiosity on their faces at that comment. Each no doubt wondering why they'd be offended by what he was about to say.

"Now darlings you know how I've talked about who there's been a decrease in your record sales and a decrease in concert attendance in recent times." began Gus gently.

"Only a slight decrease." replied Dusk defensively.

"Which you said not to worry about." added Luna.

"Yes and you still need not worry your pretty little heads chicklets. However if it continues it could become a problem and we may need to make some minor changes to the band." said Gus, before quickly adding.s "Mind you that won't be a problem any time soon of course."

"What changes?" asked Thorn, her tone indicating she didn't approve of where this conversation was going.

"Visual ones dear, your performance outfits. You see…" answered Gus, before he was near instantly interrupted as the three Hex Girls jumped to their feet, Thorn's and Dusk's bowls falling off their laps and onto the floor and spilling salad, vegetables and French fries across the floor in the process.

"What the hell's wrong with how we dress!" interrupted Dusk angrily, her heavily eyeshadowed eyes glaring intensely at him.

"Yeah our outfits are fine!" added Luna angrily, an emotion uncommon to her. "We perfected how we look on stage long before we needed to hire you!"

"First you exploit our kidnapping for publicity and money, now you want to change how we look when preforming!" yelled Thorn angrily as her glaring green eyes drilled right through him. "You know you're really pissing me off today Gus."

"Chicklets please calm down, you're jumping to conclusions. I hadn't finished yet." said Gus quickly, trying to recover the situation. "Please sit down and don't ruin the tempo till I at least finish explaining."

The three angry rockstars continued to glare at him for a few moments, before Thorn spoke.

"Fine. But you better have a damn good explanation for why you'd want to change our performance outfits." said Thorn moodily before she sat down on the couch again, her fellow Hex Girls thankfully following her lead. Albeit Dusk was still intently glaring at him.

"Your current performance outfits are fantastic of course. Very iconic, sexy and stylish. But no matter how iconic something is it can get stale. That's why if this decreasing trend continues, I think eventually an outfit change may be in order. Something new and striking to help bring attention back." explained Gus, hoping this explanation would garner a better response. After all he was a sensitive chap, he didn't enjoy getting yelled at. "Pray think darlings such a change won't be needed, if at all, for at least a few years now. But I want to raise the subject with you earlier so it wouldn't come as such a shock or surprise if we need to change your performance outfits down the line."

"I suppose that's a good enough explanation." said Thorn after a few seconds, more to her fellow Hex Girls than Gus.

"Makes sense, I get the logic behind it." agreed Luna, still a bit annoyed from before. "As much as I hate to say that."

"I think it's stupid." said Dusk, arms still crossed in annoyance. "There better be a real big decrease in record sales and concert attendance before we even consider it."

"Which is never going to happen, so we'll never need to change our performance outfits." added Luna confidently.

"Exactly." agreed Thorn with a confident smirk. "So it doesn't really bare thinking about." Dusk relaxed at that, though she still fixed Gus with an annoyed stare.

"Of course darlings, of course." agreed Gus, really turning on the charm. "But I had to bring it up, just in case you know. Hope for the best prepare for the worse and all that stuff."

"Fine, but don't bring it up again." ordered Thorn as she stood up, towering over him. "Unless it is absolutely needed."

"Of course chicklet. I've got it." replied Gus as he too stood up, mainly since he was taller than Thorn and didn't like being looked down on like that. For a girl so nice she could manage to be a bit intimidating when she tried to. "Now forget about that and get back to being relaxed and groovy."

"Will do." replied Thorn with a sweet smile as she turned to head back to her room, before pausing and turning back around sheepishly as she looked at the mess of salad, vegetables and French fries scattered across the floor in front of the couch. "Umm we need to clear that up."

"Why? It's Gus's fault." protested Dusk.

"No I'd say it's your and Thorn's fault Dusk." disagreed Luna. "You were the ones who spilt food everywhere."

"Don't worry about it dears, I'll clean it up." interjected Gus, trying to prevent another disagreement. "You just relax."

"Fine by me." replied Thorn as she turned and headed back into her room, no doubt to fix her hair she'd had in a towel throughout the previous conversation. Gus was about to go get the brush and dustpan to clear up the mess when he was surprised by Tiny suddenly appearing next to him with said items in hand.

"No problem boss, I'll take care of it." said Tiny, startling Gus. He hadn't noticed the roadie had come and stood beside him, heck he barely remembered Tiny had been in the room with how quiet he'd been.

"Would you? Oh thank you darling." replied Gus as he ran a hand through his hair as he regained his composure.

"Yeah thanks Tiny." added Dusk. The roadie merely nodded before he got to work clearing up the mess.

"Well if you don't need anything else girls I'll be heading to getting a little shuteye." said Gus cheerfully, muttering under his breath "I'm going to need it after all that yelling…"

He received no reply as another disagreement between his Hex Girls broke out in front of him.

"Dusk what are you doing?" exclaimed Luna in disgust. "Don't tell me you're still going to eat those fries."

"What? They're still warm." replied Dusk in confusion as she picked up a bunch on French fries off the ground.

"That's not the point. They've been on the floor Dusk!" said Luna, exasperated and disgusted by her fellow Hex Girl.

"So what? I'm hungry." replied Dusk, as if eating food off the floor like that was an everyday thing.

Gus rolled his eyes at the scene and turned to head back to his room, he'd let Tiny deal with it. He'd dealt with enough goth diva antics for one day.