In the cafeteria, Draco and the boys were waiting somewhat impatiently for the arrival of the rival band.
"Do you think they will come?" Alex asked Draco, who was in front of all of them.
"I'm sure they will," Draco replied, although he wasn't entirely certain. "I told Egor to do his best to convince them to talk to us."
Draco knew that there wouldn't really be a reason why they wouldn't come. There never really was.
They watched as the doors opened up and all six guys walked through them.
They made an almost military formation, all taking steps at the same time with terrifying synchronicity. At the front, the leader of the band had mischievous green eyes and curly scarlet red hair. He practically looked like a demon about to collect five souls, a small demon, more like a little devil, one of those that pokes people's buttocks with a fork, nothing to do with real demons from Hellstorm but, semantics.
This guy, this band leader, had the body of a professional dancer under that black suit and tie with a red button-down shirt.
This had to be Cadence's son, and he looked a lot like her that was for sure.
Flanking the scarlet-haired boy were two boys, both in silver suits and ties, but there was no further similarity between them.
One was about as tall as Finn, pale to the point he was almost transparent, with a warm smile and silver eyes. He looked more familiar since he had a gym body. His tight suit jacket squeezed his biceps, beefy pecs and a V-shaped back like a glove. This boy was wearing a sky blue button-down shirt, and his hair was a Perry the Platypus shade, but that weird nose... Draco was sure he'd seen this guy before.
The other boy was just as tall as Alex and Frank, wearing a purple shirt that matched his eyes, hair, and stubble. He looked serious and almost expressionless. He was also a gym type.
There were three other boys behind them, wearing black, orange, and purple tailored suits respectively.
At first glance, Draco could discern that there were three members in the rival band who were descendants of Spectres of New Shacklesack, a kingdom famous for being home to talented artists. Draco at least hoped that their faith was not that of the God Tunebra, because if that was the case, he already expected Tunebra Priests prowling the streets slaying Mashers and innocent civilians like when Princess Nephty 'The Martyr' Rahman married Prince Heruz or when King Zehtt Greak decided to marry too many women.
"Well, here we are. Will you not introduce yourselves?" said the son of Cadence O'Pry.
"The one who arrives is the one who introduces himself," Alex replied, puffing out his chest with his arms crossed.
"Let's be professional," Draco tried to calm the waters with his hands.
"They're not professionals," Frank whispered with half-shut eyes. "After the fight they started outside..."
"What fight?" Cadence's son interrupted Frank, and both he and Draco looked at each other.
"What Zeth did seems to have worked," Frank shrugged.
"Well, enough of Zeth! I am the son of Tom O'Pry, my name is Anton, and we are Sixth Octave, and we are the moment," he winked.
"Says who?" Alex asked, cocking his head.
"Go ask the fans out there," Anton pointed back with a smirk.
"But I don't know any song of yours," Finn cocked his head too.
"It's because we just started today. We're going to shoot the video for our first single today," Anton was already clenching his fists and furrowing his brow.
"And you already have fans?" Frank raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, we do," yet the guy seemed nervous, like a child caught in the act about to throw a tantrum to avoid the consequences, "We have a lot of fans."
"Paid fans don't count," Everett said.
"Shut up, ice ape," Anton rolled his eyes. "They are legit fans!"
"They are not," Everett insisted, expressionless as ever.
Draco cleared his throat to soothe things up.
"So tell us, what kind of music do you sing?" Draco asked, "I saw a lot of classical music instruments and some computers and DJ equipment, so it must be a mix, right?"
"Do you know what epic music is, illiterate sextet?" The scarlet-haired leader asked.
Sextet? Apparently he still hadn't realised that Zeth wasn't here.
"I love epic music and soundtracks," Everett said, only a bit enthusiastic, just a bit. "Every day I listen to Ramin Djawadi, Hans Zimmer, Steve Jablonsky, 2Wei, Audiomachine, and..."
"Nobody asked for your playlist, ice ape," Anton dismissed with a hand, making Everett lower his bushy eyebrows and growl.
"Well, are you going to tell us who the hell you are or not?!" Alex yelled, and Draco was now the one to reach up and put a hand on his shoulder to calm him down.
"Let's be professional," Draco stepped forward. "My name is..."
"Draco Von Stroker, yes, I know who you are." Anton didn't even look at Draco, but rather counted the Monster Mash members, "Only five? Where is Zeth? I guess he is terrified. Coward!" All the boys behind the scarlet-haired boy laughed until he put a fist up and they all fell silent. "Guys, let's introduce ourselves." Anton snapped his fingers, and the tall boy in the silver suit and purple shirt stepped forward like a soldier.
"I am Paul Ter Gheist," he said, fixing his purple hair. "Descendant of the famous Priest Paul Gheist, who served House Alfaro of Moonfall and mentored the young Duke Anton O'Pry of New Shacklesack when..."
"No one cares, Paul," Anton sighed, as if annoyed by his own group, "I'll make this simpler... These are..." He pointed to the other boy in the silver suit, the one with the Perry the Platypus hair, "Kevin Visbal, with a V not a B."
"Yes, we already know each other," Alycandro growled, "Quite a traitor, Kevin. I thought we were friends."
"Nice to see you too, Alex. But it is a pleasure to finally meet all of you," Kevin nodded and gave a military salute, "I've always wanted to be a part of Monster Mash, but now I'm proud to think we might collaborate one day. You are all very talented, an inspiration to..."
"Are you done licking their balls yet, Kevin? Or should I bring you some knee pads?" Anton grumbled and rolled his eyes, "Okay. Let's keep going," then he pointed at a boy with black and blue hair, the same shade of blue as his irises and a button-down shirt under a black suit and tie, who adjusted his oversized glasses with one finger, "This scrawny nerd is Jeyk Hill," and then Anton pointed to the green-eyed, chestnut orange-haired boy in the green suit and orange buttoned shirt, "And this is his twin brother, Clyde. Maybe you know them because their father, Maddox, is the dean of the university."
Draco nodded.
He knew these two were descendants of House Hill of The Madlands. Draco knew that the Hills weren't exactly allies of the vampires, though it was hard to know why exactly. It could be because Duke Draco 'The Original' had enslaved the Madmen during the Dawn of Evalon, or because of the Battle of Valentine Mines during the Clash of the Rahmans or perhaps because of the murder of many Madmen during the Castle Trolland Massacre where Duke for a Week Clawstin Alfaro, Madilda Hill and her brother died at the hands of the Trollands and Von Strokers. Draco remembered telling his sister that this move had been a bad, terrible idea, but she told him that neither she nor her son had ordered the massacre, that it was their father. Sure, that definitely sounded like something Dimitri would do.
At least there wasn't any Darktide in Monster Mash, or this would be too awkward given their history with the Hills. Finn could be considered a descendant of the now extinct House Darktide of Volcano Island, but no one really knew, and the mystery of whether Jillian Seamons had borne a Darktide bastard or not still prevailed after thousands of years.
Wait, Draco was already lost in thought. Damn! Why did this always happen to him?! He had to focus! Anton kept talking and talking and Draco didn't even know what about anymore!
"Oh wow! Please tell me more," Draco said his default line, "I'd love to keep listening to you talk about 'insert subject' all day."
"Yeah, right," Anton looked at the vampire with some bewilderment, "We'll keep talking about who we are, I guess."
"My name is Mort Greyston," the last boy stepped forward, very graceful, and bowed. His hair was mint green and purple, as were his mismatched eyes that did match his purple suit jacket and tie and mint green buttoned shirt. He looked clumsy, slow. Draco raised both eyebrows. Mort didn't look like a descendant of the Greystons of Grapeyard Islands, he seemed more like an inhabitant, a foreigner in these lands and he also looked familiar to Draco. "I'd like to say it's an honour to meet you, but it bothers me to know that Frank..."
"Shut up, Mort, no one cares about your grudges," Anton said, shooing the gallant young man with one hand, "In fact, nobody told you to speak."
"I'm sorry, Mr. O'Pry," Mort bowed his head.
"Okay, Anton, that's enough," Kevin said placing a hand on his leader's shoulder, "You're being rude."
"Shut up, Kevin," Anton spat out as he slapped his hand away. "Or I'll kick you out of the band and end your stupid dream of being a singer! You'll run back to your mother's pigsty of an apartment! And you'll go back to dance in your underwear again to earn a couple of dollars!"
"Sorry," Kevin looked down, "I don't understand why you're so rude to me."
"Oh shut up! One call to my dad, and every door in the industry will be closed for you!"
It seemed that things were not going well with the other band. The leader was an asshole, but the other guys seemed to be friendly, but Draco had to observe them more closely because he didn't want to be a victim of adulation like when Prime Priest Ragen Magneel gifted an emerald inlaid Sacred Wood crown to King Ozyrez so he would appoint him as Great Adviser.
"You're Tom O'Pry's son then," Draco said, crossing his arms.
"Indeed," Anton nodded, grimacing. "And you must be the son of the imposing nine-foot-six Duke Dimitri Von Stroker," Anton then looked down, scanning Draco, and then he made a disgusted face. "I see you didn't inherit the height nor elegance. You don't quite look like the brother of the elegant and treacherous Queen Batrix 'The Black Widow' either... I wonder if your brother, Duke Bloodimir of Bloodstone, is also a dwarf vampire."
"He is not," Draco clenched his fists and hunched, his eyes turning sad, "I'm the only dwarf vampire in my family, or in history as far as I know. But it's not my fault Bloodstone vampires are so tall"
"Hey!" Alex raised his voice, and it sounded like a loud bark. Anton looked up and smirked defiantly. "If you make fun of Draco's height again, we'll make fun of you when I knock your teeth out, hijo de tu puta madre."
Anton momentarily lost his smirk.
The Monster Mash boys laughed, and although the Sixth Octave boys seemed to want to do so too, no one dared.
"Thank you, Alex," Draco looked up, and Alex put an arm around his shoulders, locking his golden eyes with him.
"Nobody messes with my bro," Alex winked, and Draco blushed but smiled anyway.