Aru Shah and the Soul Trident

The Debut of Rudy Rocks

"You mean Dwayne Johnson?"

"Yeah, that guy."

Mini sighed and facepalmed. What was her problem? He thought it was a perfectly good name. Oh well. Haters gonna hate.

"Fine," Mini answered at last. "I guess it's okay."

"Great," Rudy exclaimed enthusiastically, winking at her. Then, he bounded off to show off his great lyrics to Aiden.

"No," his cousin said, taking one glance at the sheet music. "There's no way I'm singing this."

"Aww, c'mon cuz!" Rudy whined. "This is the first song of our band. Plus, Mini said it was okay!"

"Of course Mini said it was okay! She- never mind."

Rudy cocked his head in confusion. Aiden sighed and pinched his nose. He did that a lot for some reason. Maybe he has sinus issues, Rudy thought. He continued, "Besides, this isn't your debut-"

"Our debut," Rudy corrected. He shook his head disappointedly. When was Aiden going to admit that he wanted to be in his band?

"Your debut. We're doing this so we can get the key. Remember?"

"Yeah," Rudy answered impatiently. "But it's technically our first performance! Granted, I didn't count Mini in the equation before, but as long as she can play an instrument, I don't really care."

"That's not what I-"

"You're singing this and that's final!" Rudy shoved the rest of the lyrics at him and ignored his cousin's protests. Rudy knew that he secretly liked the song. Besides, he was Aiden's favorite cousin, so there was no way he didn't like it. He's just too shy to admit it, that's all, Rudy thought to himself, grinning.

He was about to voice his thoughts, when the weird hand thing next to the microphone caught his eye. He poked it curiously.

"What is this thing anyways?" he asked.

Aiden turned his attention towards the contraption as well, and shrugged. "Maybe we'll find out once we start?"

Rudy nodded, then clapped his hands together. "Alright, let's start in...3...2...1!"

And the symphony began. Aiden was definitely worthy of his title as the lead singer. He matched the notes perfectly and his velvety voice rang through the air. Mini was also not that bad. Her tune was a little off, but overall, it was pretty good. Of course, Rudy thought he was the best. He carefully picked out his gemstones and hummed as they warbled out a couple of beats.

As they sang and played music, Rudy noticed that the weird hand thing started to move. Its previously stationary fingers started to shape the metal in its palm, fashioning it into the form of a key. Rudy soon realized that the louder they played, the faster it moved. Until it didn't.

The mechanical fingers suddenly paused, leaving the key half-finished. What was happening?! Everything was going pretty smoothly, except for a note out of tune here and there. He knocked on it, thinking it got stuck or something, but it stayed stationary. Aiden couldn't answer his question, so Rudy inched closer to Mini.

"Mini? The hand thing stopped for some reason," he hissed. "Why?"

"What hand thing?" Mini whispered back, while furiously playing her violin.

He pointed at it. "It's making the key for us."

"Try knocking on it or something. Maybe it got stuck?"

"I did! But it didn't do anything! What if-"

"Time is up. Pay to keep playing." A robotic, automated voice boomed out from somewhere behind them, cutting off Rudy.