Featured Music:
1. Excerpt from "This Girl is on Fire" by Alicia Keys
2. "Auditions" from Sing movie
3. "Breaking News" "I Heard a Little Rumor," and "Fight Song" from Henry Danger: The Musical
4. "S.I.M.P. (Squirrels in My Pants)" from Phineas & Ferb)
5. "Ghostly Music Box" & "Otherworldly Concerto" from The Haunted Mansion
6. "More Breaking News" from Henry Danger: The Musical
7. "B.B.B.F.F." from MLP Friendship is Magic
8. "Nothing Left to Lose" by Jeremy Jordan & Eden Espinosa
Note: Once again, please be aware that no screen names listed in the story are real (at least, to my knowledge).
Conductor impatiently searched among all the singers she'd conducted, and found none of them matched Count Crescendo's voice. So, she decided to take a new approach to it. If she couldn't find Count Crescendo by going around the galaxy and making everyone sing, she would make Count Crescendo come to her.
So, she decided to place an online flier, announcing a contest where whoever could sing the most like Count Crescendo would get to have a big record deal, and the musical curse would be ended. Of course, both of those things were lies. Conductor knew the real Count Crescendo would see this as an opportunity to end the curse without revealing his true identity, so she could catch him in the act, but she had to go through many auditions to do it first.
Of course, Carmine knew this contest was a trick. He'd seen producers do this kind of thing before, putting up fake contests that were Count Crescendo themed, hoping the real Count Crescendo would expose himself. But none of them were successful… until now probably.
"You're sure this'll work?" Carmine signed.
"I'm sure. Now, hold still." Garrett sang, placing a wireless microphone on Carmine's head, and then pouring a potion on it to make it turn invisible.
Carmine needed to be eliminated as a possible Count Crescendo suspect, which would not be easy with Conductor's spell making everyone sing on-key. But then, Garrett remembered how as Count Crescendo, Carmine always wore a special auto-tune microphone to disguise his voice when he talked during interviews or press conferences, so no one knew what his speaking voice sounded like.
"Okay, try it out!"
Carmine cleared his throat, and sang a few notes.
Carmine:
This guy is on fire
This guy is on fire
He's walkin' on fire
This guy is on fire
Happily, Carmine found that his voice sounded a couple octaves lower. Given how high Count Crescendo could, it was perfect to auto-tune his voice to sound lower.
"It's working! I sound great, but differeeeeeent! Carmine sang, unable to keep from showing off his singing abilities.
"Just in case," sang Anakin. He took out a little red pouch and gave it to Carmine. It was full of some kind of blue powder.
According to Anakin, it was pollen from Sing Around the Roses, which could alter a singer's voice completely (temporarily) if they breathed enough of it in.
"If the mic doesn't work for any reason, just take a deep breath of this stuff." Anakin sang.
"Okay, I will." Carmine sang.
And now, Carmine was ready to go and eliminate himself as a suspect.
At a big theater, the stage was set. Conductor stood as the main judge and called each singer up so she could listen to them singing. Each time they came up, she pointed her baton at them and then got them to perform. Of course, she knew that Count Crescendo had to be a human, but she didn't list being a human as a requirement to avoid raising suspicion.
"Alright, future singers. Let's get this over with. First singer, step on stage!" Conductor instructed.
And so, auditions began.
Each singer sang one of Count Crescendo's songs, or a song by an artist he'd done a duet with.
Singer #1:
Ra ra ah ah ah!
Ro-ma, Ro-ma-ma!
Gaga, oh la la!
Want your bad romance!
Since Count Crescendo had backup singers and dancers, some of the auditioners auditioned as a group.
Singer #2 & Backup:
Jump!
You might as well jump! (Backup: You might as well jump)
Jump!
Singer #3:
Baby! Back a million to a kiss from a rose on the grave
Audition #4:
L.U.C.K
L.U.C.K
Audition #5
Come my lady
Come, come my lady
You're my butterfly
Sugar, baby
Come my lady
You're my pretty baby
I'll make your legs shake you make me go
And some… well, let's just say they auditioned a little outside the box. Even though everyone was pretty sure Count Crescendo was a guy, a couple of girls decided to audition too, hoping they could at least score a record deal or prove better than Crescendo.
Audition #6:
Oh my gosh, look at her butt 3X
"NEXT!" Conductor shouted, not able to take any more of how the girls were moving in their audition. "Kids and their twerk videos."
Audition #7:
Lollipop, lollipop,
Oh lolli, lolli, lolli
Lollipop, lollipop
Oh lolli, lolli, lolli
Lollipop
Ba-bum-bum-bum
Audition #8:
People say
"Yo humpty, you're really funny looking!"
That's alright 'cause I get things cooking
Audition #9:
Working nine to five!
Put away to make a living!
Audition #10:
We can dance if we want to!
Audition #11:
Asereje
Then another auditioner vocalized loudly like an opera singer, but not anywhere near high enough to pass for Count Crescendo.
Audition #37:
So I ride, like the wind
Ride like the wind!
Audition #52:
When the two of us need to look no more
They say love, it's clear to see
But darling stay with me
Audition #78:
Everytime it rains, it rains
Pennies from heaven
Don't you know each cloud contain
Pennies from heaven
Conductor angrily crossed off another singer from the list. Not one human auditioner came even close to matching Count Crescendo. Some were good singers, but were too short, too tall, too dark-skinned, one guy was in a hover-chair, another got stuck trying to do the splits, and basically no one could even come close to matching all of Count Crescendo's dance moves either.
"Last call for auditions," said Conductor.
And onto the stage came Carmine.
"Prince Carmine." Conductor smiled. "Surprising to see you. A royal who worked as choreographer for a big pop star, and you think his talent may have rubbed off on you?"
Carmine just shrugged in response.
"Alright. Let's see what you got."
And Carmine took a deep breath and sang his bit, but his voice sounded lower as well as quieter than Count Crescendo usually sang.
Carmine:
Baby you're a firework!
Come on, show 'em what you're worth!
Make 'em go u-u-up
You're gonna leave 'em all in a-a-awe!
Carmine stopped singing, and Conductor groaned as she checked him off the list.
"Get all these wannabes out of my site!" Conductor instructed.
And security kicked everyone out, leaving a bunch of disgruntled performers to leave complaining that this was a big waste of time, but in his mind, Carmine was cheering. The microphone worked, and Conductor wouldn't look to him as a suspect for being Count Crescendo. And, thanks to the auditions, Carmine had a hypothesis where the mariclava was.
"I think the mariclava has to be in her baton," sang Carmine. "If we can get and break it, the music curse might stop."
"Only question is, how do we get close enough to get it?" Padme sang.
"How do you think?" Lamenta sang, becoming invisible, then visible again. "We just need a little bait."
And everyone knew just the kind of bait they could use to lure Conductor some place and get her baton.
That afternoon, Shera Nova and Darrel Trent made a breaking news report.
(Cue: "Breaking News")
Shera Nova:
We've got breaking news
Darrel:
There's a holo-net virus on the loose
Shera:
That's not the breaking news
It's about the musical curse we've been captured in
Listen to these people who
Darrel:
Conductor tricked
Shera:
Just today
Darrel:
Take it away, witnesses!
Some of the auditioners:
We all auditioned to win a big record deal
We then learned all Conductor promised wasn't real
She wasn't interested in us
The whole time she just bluffed.
She was just hunting Count Crescendo!
Darrel honestly couldn't help applauding how great the bunch of singers sounded together.
Darrel:
Woo! Bravo!
Shera:
My dear partner Darrel Trent, do you know what this means?
Conductor cursed us all just to do something obscene!
As much as some folks loved to read about celebrities online, including Count Crescendo, his most dedicated fans raised the point that not knowing who he was behind the mask was a huge piece of his charm. And if the press took that away, it could mean no more Count Crescendo concerts, no more new albums, no nothing because, assuming they were right about the reason Count Crescendo hid his face, he would likely go into early retirement (or more accurately, hiding).
Darrel:
That does sound bad
But then, that was when the newscast was interrupted by none other than Count Crescendo himself.
(Cue: "I Heard a Little Rumor")
Crescendo:
Sorry, Shera Nova
This is the one time I'll be interrupting your program
Maybe!
Five, six, seven, eight
I heard a little rumor
Conductor has cursed the city
I have a feeling it's
She's wants my true identity
So I challenge her to fight with me
By song to end the curse
And then Conductor interrupted.
Conductor:
Oh now you challenge me?
So flaky, the worst
Challenging me you see
I sing a pretty treble
So Crescendo if you don't show tonight
I'll ch-an-ge the curse
To th-ra-sh
Me-tal!
And sure enough, when Conductor waved her baton, everyone was suddenly singing like thrash metal musicians, and hating it so much! Even Myra, a big time rock fan, didn't like it!
Everyone:
This is the worst! This is the worst!
Make it stop, make it stop this is the worst!
So much darkness, So much sadness! Why does anyone like this music?!
So it was settled. Count Crescendo & Conductor would fight in a battle of singing. And it would take place in none other than Rocker Stadium.
Crescendo & Conductor met at Rocker Stadium, where there were cameras set up to livestream the event. There were to be three rounds, two of which would be selected by each of the competitors, ladies first.
The two fighters came up on stage, and Conductor quickly raised her baton, but then all of a sudden, some little floating arrow swooped in, and tapped Conductor's baton, making a computer mouse clicking sound! And then it dragged the baton away.
"My baton!" Conductor screamed.
"No cheating here!" sang an auto-tuned voice, and on the screen appeared Terror-Byte. "You'll have to fight on your own, Conductor! Or should I say, Surlei?"
And then Terror-Byte vanished with a laugh, and Conductor turned back into Surlei.
No one could believe this. Did that really just happen? A clavatized villain declavatized another clavatized villain.
"Does this mean the curse is over?" sang a reporter.
But that was a clear answer no.
"No matter." Surlei said. "You challenged me to fight, Crescendo, and once I beat you, you'll reveal your identity to me."
"We'll see about that," sang Crescendo.
(Cue: "Fight Song")
Crescendo:
Fight song, fight song
This is the fight song
This is the fight song
This is the fight song
Crescendo & Conductor:
There will be fighting in this song
Fighting that is done through song
fight song
In came a droid to serve as the referee.
(Droid: Round one!) fight song
Surlei:
Crescendo, let's see
Can you sing as high as me?
Surlei started to sing, and she had a surprisingly nice voice. But Crescendo sang too… Both of them could sing pretty high, but Crescendo was the only one of the two who could shriek in high C, whereas Surlei ran out of breath.
Crescendo:
This is the fight song
fight song
(Droid: Round Two!) fight song
Since Surlei had her turn to choose a challenge, it was Carmine's turn this time.
Well, girl, let's see
Can you sing as long as me?
So, both competitors began to vocalize again at the same time, at the same pitch, trying simply to keep singing without stopping to take a breath. Surlei started to strain her voice after about a minute and a half, but Crescendo made it to a full two minutes without struggle.
This is the fight song
fight song
(Droid: Final Round!)
Fight song
Both:
Okay, let's see
Can you sing as low as me?
Crescendo went first. He could sing pretty low.
Crescendo:
Beat that
So, Surlei gave it her lowest, but it was nowhere near as low as Crescendo's lowest note.
Surlei:
Ehm, let me try that again
So, she did try again, but only succeeded in making herself cough.
Don't look at me
But Surlei wasn't going to give up. So, she challenged Crescendo to sing other things.
Surlei:
Riffs (Crescendo: yeah, yeah)
Beatbox
Crescendo beatboxed very rhythmically
Opera
Crescendo could shatter a dozen glasses at once with a high-pitched vocalization.
Scat
Even in a genre as random-sounding as scat, Crescendo couldn't be beat.
"Your determination is admirable, Surlei." said Crescendo. "But how about we just call a truce and we can put this behind us?"
"I don't think so!" Surlei then grabbed Crescendo's currently long white and purple hair and started to yank it!
"OOWWW!" Crescendo screamed as Surlei pulled his hair.
Suddenly, a computer arrow appeared again and tapped Surlei and threw her into a smelly trash can, where she got really badly stuck by her rear, and when she tried to get free, she only succeeded in knocking the can over with her still stuck in it and the can started to roll, and the livestream caught it all, and people watching were laughing so hard!
"Looks like you really got some junk in your trunk now, huh, Surlei?" Terror-Byte sang mockingly. And then she laughed too. "One down. Twelve more to go."
"Twelve?" Crescendo said.
Quickly, Tech ran an algorithm through the comments on Gabby's blog, and found there definitely were a dozen other cyberbullies, some more active than others.
SkyCloud98 and CloudStar1487 were two of the most active ones. Then there were the ten others.
AlphaKay28, UnicornSlayer14, BuccaSneer48, TweedleGlee53, Chips-n-Clips003, MandyKane9, BrightBrit25, BoldPlay228, TigerJay1342, and IrisDream423.
"I've heard there are a lot of haters out there," said Teatra. "But this is ridiculous!"
"Technically, it is more severe than ridiculous," said Tech. "But you are correct that there are a lot of hateful users for a site run by a child. It is perplexing why these people are saying such things about Gabriella."
BuccaSneer48: Why do you still wear a bow? Think you're a present or something? Hope someone kept the receipt.
TigerJay1342: Princess Skywalker? More like Princess Stinker.
IrisDream423: Pink's a color of beauty. So why do you wear it so much?
BoldPlay228: Talk about crimes against art. Forget juvie, you should go to real prison without parole.
BrightBrit25: What did a handsome guy like Master Skywalker do to deserve getting stuck with a fashion-deprived freak like you?
MandyKane9: The band doesn't need some ugly little cur like you in it. Go back to whatever freak show you escaped from!
"These comments aren't even clever!" Teatra said.
"Based on what information Carmine Jinn provided, it appears Terror-Byte is planning to humiliate each and every one of these cyberbullies using whatever power Mariverde gave her."
That was when Boba and Omega's phones beeped, and the twins opened it to see something that made them laugh.
"What's so funny?" Padme said.
"Terror-Byte uploaded a video to Star-Screen." Boba said.
In the video, Terror-Byte appeared.
"What up viewers of the net? This is Terror-Byte with a little payback in store for someone who thought spewing hate was cool."
She then showed video footage of SkyCloud98, real name: Nuro Symarus.
"Not only did he insult my hair bow, but he said that my brother dances like a squirrel. Well, why don't we see what happens when he gets a little dance lesson from some squirrels?"
And then the footage changed to Nuro innocently walking, still looking worried about Terror-Byte coming for him… and then, Terror-Byte clicked around the area and made some squirrels pixelate into the real world, and made them attack Nuro by jumping on him and then getting into his pants!
Nuro started screaming and jerking all around.
(Cue: "S.I.M.P./Squirrels in my Pants")
Nuro couldn't stop shaking, jerking his whole body around, screaming for the squirrels to get out, There were a lot of LOL, ROFL, and cry-laughing emoji comments. And then, Terror-Byte jumped in with a baseball bat and whacked Nuro like a piñata until he tried to run away, only to step on a rake and get knocked out like in a classic cartoon.
"That's gotta hurt!" Terror-Byte laughed. "Only a few more vids to go. And then we go to the big stuff." Terror-Byte growled.
The family wasn't exactly sure what she meant by that, but they knew they had to get her out of there soon. But how was the question?
True to her word, Terror-Byte did terrorize the other cyberbullies by creating humiliating videos of each of them and then posting them on Star Screen.
BrightBrit25….
In a nice apartment somewhere on Coruscant the next morning, Brittney Parisia got up for school and put on a very fashionable outfit for school, but the moment she walked in, everyone was laughing at her, and she didn't understand why…. Until she opened her locker and looked in the mirror to see her fashionable outfit had been replaced with clown clothes! Her designer dress had been replaced with a yellow and red-spotted jumpsuit, her high heels were replaced with shoes that had to be at least a size 49.
Myra and the twins saw this and couldn't help laughing with everyone else. Comedia was literally rolling on the floor laughing at this sight as well.
"What the hell happened to my clothes?!" Brittney said. Then she growled when she saw Comedia laughing. "What did you do, Comedy Mare?"
Comedia tried to calm her laughing. Key word: tried.
"Sorry, Brittney. But I can't take credit for this one."
Then, people screamed as something else appeared in the room, or rather someone, appeared in the hall.
"Hello, BrightBrit25." Terror-Byte said. "I have a little present for you!"
Gabby took out a pie and splattered it in Brittney's face, and while Brittney was trying to get it off, she clicked on the floor and covered the floor in banana peels, making everyone slip and slide all around… except for Comedia, who could escape it by flying. But when Brittney tried to catch herself on the water fountain, it squirted seltzer water in her face, and a bottle of seltzer water, squirted her in her hair, and threw her into another pie to the face.
To make matters worse for Brittney, all that was live streamed.
"Guess we know who's the real class clown slash fashion failure now." Terror-Byte taunted.
People laughed at Brittney and taunted her so much she ran out of school crying.
MandyKane9….
In another high school somewhere on Naboo, there was a senior named Amanda Kanans. She was the solo lead singer in the choir at her school, and today she was rehearsing for a big concert with the school's rock band.
"I'm ready, maestro." Amanda said, vocalizing. "Me, me, me!"
The drummer tapped his sticks three times, only for his drumsticks to suddenly POOF! Vanish.
"What the-?!" the drummer gasped.
"Uh, Barry? I don't hear any drumming." Amanda said.
"My drumsticks just…. Vanished!"
"Don't be ridiculous, you obviously dropped them."
"I told you to wash your hands after eating that buttery popcorn." said the guitarist.
"I did. And I didn't drop my sticks. Check the floor." Barry said.
So, the band members did check the floor, but found no drumsticks. Then, all of a sudden, they heard some music playing, but not like the music they played. Creepy music.
(Cue: "Ghostly Music Box")
The lights suddenly went out, and a spotlight appeared with a little music box with a little ballerina spinning in it. Everyone in the band was confused.
"Okay, who's the comedian?" said Amanda. She looked around to see that the other band members suddenly disappeared. "Guys? Guys!"
Amanda started to think this was the boys trying to play a joke on her.
"Very funny, boys." Amanda said sarcastically. "You think a little music box is really scary? Ooh! It's a scary little ballerina!"
Amanda walked over to the music box and picked it up, and then the ballerina turned its head to reveal the face of Terror-Byte.
"Face the music!" said the ballerina, making Amanda scream and throw the music box to the floor.
(Cue: "Otherwordly Concerto")
It was then that the little ballerina picked herself up, and with each step she took, she grew until she was Gabby's actual size. But even though she was shorter than Amanda, the older girl was terrified.
"So, you think the band doesn't need me, huh? Perhaps the band you're trying to join doesn't need you."
Terror-Byte pixelated a keytar into her hands and made organ music join in the music as she continued to stride towards Amanda.
Amanda tried to run, but it was so dark, she could barely see where she was going, and somehow the room was bigger, and Amanda didn't seen to get anywhere no matter how fast she ran. Probably because Terror-Byte had her running on what turned out to be a giant record player.
Amanda thought she had an easy way out: just jump off. But she didn't know that there was a drum sitting there, and she ended up running on that like an acrobat balancing on a ball in the circus.
"Thanks for doing the drum roll, MandyKane28." Terror-Byte taunted.
And then all the music stopped when Amanda fell and got her head caught in another drum.
As you can probably guess, this was all live streamed too; it was basically a horror comedy movie.
BuccaSneer48…..
In Hondo's pirate gang, there was suddenly a knock at the door.
"Delivery!" sang a voice.
Hondo thought that sounded strange though. He didn't remember ordering anything, or receiving packages in the regular mail. But at the entrance to his hideout was a pretty box wrapped with white paper and tied with a pretty pink bow. And the tag on it said it was for one of Hondo's men.
"Renaldo! Someone sent a present for you!" Hondo called.
"Who's it from?" asked Renaldo.
He looked at the tag, and it didn't say who it was from, but it did have a note saying Hope this gift really rolls you away.
So, Renaldo ripped open the package and found roller skates in it. A little strange, but they were pretty cool-looking. So, he decided to try them on, but the moment they were on his feet, they had him roller skating against his will. Although, it went surprisingly smooth. The other pirates thought that looked like fun; all of them thought they were a new special kind of skate that does that skating for the wearer, but they weren't.
"Hey, I want a turn!" said one of the other pirates.
Renaldo, however, found he couldn't make the skates stop, and he couldn't take them off either.
"What kind of skates are these?" said Renaldo
Suddenly, all the lights flickered, and one of the holo-screens turned on to reveal Terror-Byte.
"How's the gift, BuccaSneer48? Want the receipt for that one?" Terror-Byte taunted. "What do you say we crank things up!"
Suddenly, Renaldo found the skates were moving him faster, and then Terror-Byte jumped right out of the computer, which freaked all the pirates out.
"Don't tell me you don't recognize an old guest of yours." Terror-Byte taunted.
The pirates all drew weapons, only for Terror-Byte to click on their weapons, and click a big DELETE button that appeared from out of nowhere.
"Who are you?!" Hondo demanded.
"Call me Terror-Byte. But you may know me formerly as a little girl you held hostage?" Terror-Byte lifted the VR mask, only to reveal her eyes were red underneath.
No one could believe this.
"Princess Skywalker. My, how you've grown." Hondo said.
"Thank you. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a cyberbully to handle." Terror-Byte put her mask back on.
Hondo and his men tried to stop the girl, but she conjured up a familiar bedazzled ray gun and blasted all of them, placing them all in constricting ball gowns, all of them with patterns like wrapping paper and topped off with pretty bows and ribbons.
With the others confined, Terror-Byte raised the stakes by blasting Renaldo and placing him in a pink dress and making him lose control of the skates and his own body until he roller skated into a toilet that started flushing and basically tortured the poor guy.
"Guess that gift really has you flushed." Terror-Byte laughed.
That last live stream really got a lot of LOL's from viewers.
TigerJay1342….
At Melody Academy, there was a Tholotian teacher named Tamron Zamudio. He was a very strict teacher though. A lot of students complained about him acting more like a bully than a teacher.
"Come on! My grandma could do better kicks than that, and she can't even walk!" Prof. Zamudio yelled at another student.
All the students were terrified, and some were even falling down or pulling a muscle because Zamudio wouldn't stop yelling at them and insulting them. I know what you're thinking, a lot of dance teachers are strict. But, there's strict teaching, and then there's bullying.
"Get up off the ground, you big bunch of babies! How I got stuck with the most pathetic students here, I'll never know."
Suddenly, the piano just collapsed into a bunch of pieces, right in front of the droid playing the music.
"What the heck?!" Zamudio exclaimed.
"I don't know what happened, Professor!" said the protocol droid. "The piano just fell apart."
"Oh, for the love of- Students! Keep dancing. I must take care of this musical mishap" the teacher went over to a closet to go and get a radio. But when he opened the closet, a huge pack of something cute, but terrifying to everyone else rushed out.
"SKUNKS!" screamed one student.
Quickly, all the dancers rushed out of the room as quickly as they could to avoid any chance of getting sprayed by the adorable, but very smelly animals.
Zamudio tried to get out of the room too, but the doors were all sealed shut, and the skunks immediately turned their tails to the teacher, and sprayed him with the most foul smelling odor his nose would ever have to bear.
"Payback really stinks, doesn't it?" Terror-Byte taunted from the TV in the room.
So far, Terror-Byte live streamed many humiliating videos of all her cyberbullies, and in less than twenty-four hours too. But that still wasn't enough for her.
Sitting in what looked like a room full of wires and various buttons, Terror-Byte pulled up various files and pictures of various times she and her (or rather Gabby's) friends and family fought various villains, and did some scanning, as well as copying, pasting, and downloading various features from each picture, as well as downloading some software that she could use to stalk each of the bullies and watch their every move no matter where they were. She'd humiliated them each one at a time, but she was ready for something bigger and much scarier.
And somehow, she managed to do all that while also getting her school work in on time.
What? Just because she's a villain doesn't mean she won't still care about her education.
"Time to give every single one of those monsters a little comeuppance they'll never forget."
The entire family didn't know what to do. Terror-Byte already humiliated all of her cyberbullies, but she was still on the prowl. And despite Conductor's defeat, the musical curse was still going on.
"This is awful," said Mona, typing some code into her computer. "Terror-Byte's got humiliating videos posted on for all her bullies, but now people are making nasty comments about her becoming a villain, and that's just making her even madder!"
"Seriously, what is it gonna take for people to watch what they post online?" Hunter said.
"If a living computer virus isn't enough to scare cyberbullies away for good," said Indira. "I don't know what is."
"There's gotta be some way to get her out of there!" Anakin said.
Anakin grabbed his phone and said into it, "Gabriella Rosella Amidala-Skywalker-Jinn, if you don't get out of the computer right now…. I'm taking away your computer!"
And then, Anakin's phone spurt glitter sparkles into his face. Anakin spat out some that got into his mouth as Terror-Byte just laughed at him and disappeared again.
"That's it! We gotta get her out of there."
Anakin took to the keyboard himself, but then there was an error message on the computer.
"Oh great!" Mona sang sarcastically. "She locked us out. You happy now?"
"I've heard children are getting too sucked into their devices these days," said Padme. "But this is ridiculous."
"Can't you just use a flash drive to get her out like you did for Gamer?" Kara asked.
"That's the first thing I tried." Mona said. "She has control of every device, and many at once."
"I think the mariclava has to be in her mouse." Omega said. "She was using it to make all kinds of things happen when she attacked Brittney today."
Just then, a special news report appeared on everyone's screen with Shera Nova and
Shera:
There seems to be no end to this musical curse over Naboo
Darrel
That's right co-host, Sher. I've been singing like la-di-di-do-di-do
Shera:
Stay tuned, cause real soon.
Darrel:
Terror-Byte will appear on this screen here!
Shera:
To live stream!
Darrel:
And Conductor was arrested!
Trent
That's right, and embarrassing as it-
And the news report was interrupted by none other than Terror-Byte herself.
Terror-Byte:
Hey, people, it's Terror-Byte
I wanna thank you, for livestreaming!
I caught those who did the bullying
So I haunted them and taunted them to stop
And if you provoke me
I'll come and make you scream
And now, the worst will start
And I won't say when!
And then all of the screens suddenly turned back to normal, or so they appeared.
This was even worse! Terror-Byte could attack at any moment from anywhere. There was no telling what she would do.
Perhaps the one feeling most affected by this was Boba. Out of all the kids in the palace, he'd known Gabby the longest. Not too long before this happened, Gabby helped Boba feel better when people were saying horrible things about him on the holo-net. But now, the same thing happened to her, maybe even worse than Boba had it, and now Mariverde took advantage of when Gabby was at her most vulnerable state ever.
Boba couldn't believe this could happen to Gabby of all people. She was the happiest, most optimistic, most headstrong girl he'd ever known. Gabby didn't care what other people thought; she always fought for what was right, but it seemed that wasn't enough to shield her from having her feelings hurt when people used mean words against her.
Looking at Royal Page again, Boba scrolled through videos Gabby had uploaded, and to his surprise, he found a sudden re-upload of a video Gabby made and posted in honor of Boba's last Gotcha Day.
In the video….
Gabby just finished adjusting the camera and stood back with her keytar and her teddy by her side.
"Hi, everyone." said Gabby. "For those who don't know me, I'm Gabby Skywalker-Jinn, Princess of Naboo and Solaris. So, some of you may know that I'm the firstborn in my family, but actually, I have an older brother."
Gabby then picked up a photo of her and Boba.
"That's me with my big brother Boba. My mommy took that picture during the first week we became a family. It feels like only yesterday that happened, but a lot has changed since then. Now, it's the fourth anniversary of when he first came home, so I wrote a special song dedicated to him."
So, Gabby began playing her keyboard, and the video changed to show various home videos made over the years of fun times Gabby and Boba had together over the years.
Gabby:
When I was just a baby, I always thought that maybe
I'd see how many other people I could meet
I grew up royalty, didn't know hard it would be to seek
Other people to make my life complete
But there was one boy that I cared for
In one of those videos, Boba pushed Gabby on the swing and gave her a hug when she got off.
I knew he would be there for me
My big brother best friend forever
Like two peas in a pod, we did everything together
And there were so many wonderful times where Boba and Gabby were having happy times, bonding and having fun together like siblings should. Like, the time they got a kite from their maternal grandparents, and they learned together how to fly it, but Gabby almost flew away by the kite carrying her away with the strong wind and Boba had to catch her and bring her back down to the ground.
He taught me how to fly a kite (Best friend forever!)
And in another clip, there was one cookie left, but both kids wanted it. Instead of fighting, however, Boba split it in half and gave a piece to his sister.
We rarely ever had a fight (We did everything together!)
And as time went by, the two siblings shared their dreams with each other. There were clips of Gabby sharing the story books she'd written and drawn to feed her dream of being an author, and the time Boba was training to be a cheerleader, finding his dream was to do something athletic.
We shared our hopes, we shared our dreams
I love him more than I realized
It seems…
And then Carousella came in as a backup singer.
Carousella:
Your big brother best friend forever
Like two peas in a pod, you did everything together
But Gabby and Boba being the only kids wasn't to last, as more clips came up of the family growing from the baby twins being born, Omega being adopted, Lamenta's family moving in, and the horses and the Batch moving in.
Gabby:
And though our family has changed
I hoped that he would stay
My big brother best friend
Forever...
Forever...
Boba could see Gabby put a lot of heart into this, but he also could sense a hint of sadness in Gabby's tone of voice that she missed having Boba all to herself sometimes. Before meeting so many other friends, Boba was the first kid Gabby ever considered a best friend. Well, the first friend with only two legs who was closer to her age anyway (Ahsoka was already in her teens back then, so she was closer to being considered a grownup, at least from Gabby's perspective). For the longest time, the two of them grew so close. Despite not being related by blood, no one who saw them together could deny the clear bond they had; the way Gabby was always eager to show her big brother something new she'd learned or how she would imitate things he did, seeing him like a role model. As hard as being a big brother could be, like the time Gabby basically copied literally everything Boba did (to be fair, she was only three at the time), or all the times Gabby Tigger Tagged him, Boba wouldn't trade that for anything. And as time went by, Gabby saved Boba from a lot of bad decisions just by being there for him, and he was always willing to do the same for her, and he did just that. Why should this time be any different?
Boba decided he needed to confront Terror-Byte himself.
Boba took out his phone and used a spell like the one Mona used to send everyone into the holo-net. And he made his way to the Kira App, and said to her, "Take me to the villain Terror-Byte, formerly known as Gabriella Skywalker!"
To Boba's great surprise, Kira sent him straight to Terror-Byte's hideout.
Boba entered and saw Terror-Byte was working on something that definitely didn't look good. She was bringing up pictures of villains they'd fought before, clavatized and escaped villains, and by the way she was clicking, it looked like she was copying and downloading bits and pieces of their powers. Boba wasn't sure what she could be up to, but he had to stop his sister before she did something she couldn't undo.
"Gabby!" Boba exclaimed.
That caught Terror-Byte's attention. The young villainess turned around in her chair and saw Boba standing there, his face filled with horror and disbelief when he really saw what his sister had turned into.
Suddenly, in her head, Gabby recalled a memory from before Boba became her brother. Aurra Sing told Boba to shoot Ponds, and Boba was about to do it, but as Gabby looked in horror, Boba saw the look on her face from the corner of his eye, and suddenly he couldn't do it.
Inside, Gabby was still there, and when she saw the look of horror on her brother's face, she had the same response he did. Well, almost.
"Boba?" Terror-Byte said, except this time, her voice didn't sound auto-tuned.
"Gabby, please listen to me." Boba said. "I know this isn't who you are. You're a good girl, an amazing girl. You have a lot to live for. Please, just give me the mouse, and we can both go home."
It seemed Gabby was still in there, and she was hearing what her big brother was saying, but Mariverde came back and cast a little extra magic in, and then she made Gabby see even more nasty comments people were leaving.
"No. I came to do a job, and I'm going to finish it! And no one, not even you can stop me!" Gabby said.
Boba could tell Mariverde was placing a stronger grip on Gabby than he thought. He recognized this anger all too well. He remembered feeling such anger when he sought revenge against Windu.
"Gabby, you once told me revenge wasn't the way to go. It's not going to undo what's been done." Boba said.
But Gabby retaliated, "But it will change the future. By the time I'm through, they'll fear even thinking about using a device."
Still, Boba wasn't going to give up on his sister. He decided he needed to remind Gabby of the things she'd told him about the dangers of seeking revenge. He thought that if he could remind Gabby of who she truly was, it would help her to break out of her trance.
Boba:
Gabriella, you're angry, I get it
Believe me I know what it's like
But you are making a mistake
The path of hate is a dangerous track
You take one step and it's hard to turn back
It pulls you along
And though it seems wrong it feels right
Don't you see this path you're on leaves a permanent mark
It feels good at first, then it slowly turns dark
With each passing day
You're further astray from the light
Suddenly, you lose your way and lose the thread
Lose your cool, then lose your head
Every loss is harder to excuse
Terror-Byte started to look down a bit as her brother sang this song.
Then you'll see you'll lose your faith and lose your soul
'Til you lose complete control
And realize there's nothing left to lose
Nothing left to lose
(Spoken): Sis, trust me
Becoming the villain isn't the answer
Gabby was about to take her brother's hand, but Terror-Byte took over again and slapped her own left hand with her mouse.
Terror-Byte:
(Spoken): Is that what you think I am?
(Singing): The path I'm on is a path paved in black
I'm taking that road and I'm not looking back
Each twist and each turn
Leads straight where I'm yearning to go
Yes, it's true, my path is dark but I see where it ends
My rivals will fall as my power ascends
Despise me, that's fine
I'm taking what's mine even so
Terror-Byte clicked on Boba and held him close to force her to look into her eyes. She insisted that she, unlike him, would succeed in her revenge scheme.
Not like you
You lost your nerve, you lost the game
But you and I, we're not the same
I'm not lost, this fate was mine to choose
So I chose to lose my doubts and lose my chains
Lose each weakness that remains
Now that I have nothing left to lose
Nothing left to lose
But Boba knew Gabby had her whole life ahead of her, and he wasn't going to let her throw that away, clavatized or not.
Boba:
You have so much to hold onto
Terror-Byte:
I only want my rightful dues
Boba:
Listen please!
You've lost your grip
And lost your mind (Terror-Byte: I'm not gonna lose)
All's not lost, don't be so blind (Terror-Byte: I refuse)
Cut your losses, drop the IOUs (Terror-Byte: I refuse)
Oh-oh, choose
Terror-Byte:
I lose no tears and lose no sleep
What I want I'll take and keep (Boba: It's time for you to choose)
You can't stop the turning on the screws
Terror-Byte took over stronger than ever and then clicked on something else and for some reason, she was clicking on pictures of every Enchanted member of the royal family, then she placed some binders on Boba, and placed him in a pixel cage.
Terror-Byte:
You'll stay in that cage until this is done
And just in case you think of escaping
Terror-Byte clicked something that sent Boba away. But just before Terror-Byte hit send, Boba could swear he saw Terror-Byte lose control of her own left arm, lift up the VR mask, and he could see Gabby's eyes turn back to green for a moment, and in her normal voice crying, "Help me!"
But then Terror-Byte took over her mind again and placed the VR set back on.
"And you, stay down!" Terror-Byte told herself.
Now I have nothing left to lose
Boba screamed as he was thrown through what looked like a tunnel of code, the boy being jerked around as the cage spun around and around until it reached the end of the tunnel, and it dropped him all the way on Ord Mantell, where the cage shattered like broken glass when it hit the ground.
Groaning, Boba picked himself up and dusted off, and saw he was in a familiar place. He remembered coming here with the Batch once or twice to help with a mission.
"I gotta find a way back," said Boba. "It's a long shot, but maybe Cid will at least let me call my family for a ride."
So, Boba started to run… but to his great surprise, he found himself running a lot faster than he was used to running, and he literally blazed a trail when he screeched to a stop.
"What the heck?!" Boba gasped. He didn't remember being able to run that fast.
And many other movements he made were unbelievably quick too! Boba thought that seemed strange. The only time he'd ever seen anyone do that was when…
"She didn't!"
So, needing a way to know for sure, Boba ran over to a cafe where he saw a waiter droid carrying a pitcher of water, and he poured it over his head to get his entire body wet. People thought Boba had to be crazy or something, but Boba wasn't thinking about that.
Boba looked down at his feet. His legs got wet, but to his great surprise, they didn't turn into a tail!
Hope you guys enjoyed the latest chapter of this story! Please review if you did.
If any of you can think of anything else you think Terror-Byte could do to get back at the cyberbullies in her revenge acts, please share your ideas, and I just might put it in.