Sunday - March 29, 2014
35,000 feet above the Atlantic Ocean
0354 hours
We were about an hour and a half in our flight to New Mouse City. I provided healing for everyone who were injured during their duels, and soon after that, we had changed our clothes and most of us went to catch some shut eye.
I, meanwhile, couldn't sleep. Not even in the most comfortable couch in the aircraft. I was dead beat, sure, but I can't help but to just stay awake. I looked through photos of Firas and I on my phone - times when both of us were close. I smiled at them as I recalled our childhood. We'd go everywhere, we'd do everything... those times were pretty sweet. If only I got to thank him before it was his time.
Benjamin was also trying to fall asleep next to me on his spot of the couch. His head began to droop and his mouth opened wide to a yawn. He looked over at me with those weary eyes. "Hey dude," he groaned softly.
"Hey Benjamin," I replied, eyes still glued to the screen.
"You asleep yet?"
"Nope. You?"
"I'm about to." He yawned again. "Whatcha doin' there?"
"Scrolling through old photos of me and Firas."
He examined my face expression. "You don't look sad for a guy who just lost someone close to him."
"I am, I just have that good poker face, you know?" I sniffled. "But I'm happy for him too because I got to reform him in time. I'd suffer more if he died on Williams' side."
Benjamin pondered. "You know, you don't have to join me in the talent show because of what happened. I'll call off the performance, because I can't have it without you being part of it."
I'm sorry, what?
"I understand that you're mourning, and I respect it. You need time for yourself to recover. I can think up other ways I can confess to her later, so you don't have to worry about that," he continued.
Benjamin, what were you thinking?
"Dude, what are you talking about?" I said. "We're not gonna cancel our performance."
"Are you sure that you want to do this?"
"Yes! I'm sure. Benjamin, the next several hours will be the biggest hours of your life! I'm not gonna make you cancel the performance just because I have to mourn. Just because I'm sad, doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be sad. Taking away other's happiness isn't what I do, especially to family."
A smile grew on his face. "I really appreciate that, Danny. Thanks."
"No problem."
I saw him squint and peered over me. "Seems that we're not the only insomniacs here."
I looked over to where he was looking. Colette was on the far side of the couch at the armrest, mildly sleepy as she looked down on her phone. "Tu ne dors pas encore, Colette?" I spoke her tongue.
"Hmm? Non... Though I do feel like turning in soon," she responded.
"Whatcha doin'?"
"Checking up on..." she yawned, "...how Julie is doing."
"How is she?"
"She's doing well, ze medics tended to her cuts and bruises and she's staying at our Ops Command for ze night."
"That's good to hear. Though there's one thing that bothers me..."
"What is it?"
"How did she deploy the taser that you gave her?"
"I was kinda wondering the same thing," Benjamin said.
"Oh yes, she just told me about zat! So, remember ze informant from Task Force 141?" she reminded.
"Yeah?" I nodded.
"He was stationed outside ze office of where she was kept in. There was another Technologist guard inside with her. She saw ze chance, so she got ze taser kept in between her legs so, you know, to avoid being searched, and deployed it to him. She made a run for ze door zat turned out to be locked, and ze noise made ze informant to check out what was happening. He switched places with ze tasered guard, and from there, he protected her until we arrived."
"How do you hide a taser in between your legs?" I wondered.
"I know, right?" Benjamin said.
"Oh, her legs are longer than yours are," she pointed out. "Besides, they won't search her all ze way up her whole leg, anyway."
"I don't know, If I was the guard searching her, I'd be touching her all over..." I chuckled.
"Ohh, you did NOT just pull that off!" Benjamin began to giggle.
"Hmph... pervertir!" Colette said, sneering.
"Just kidding, Colette!" I assured.
She giggled. "I know..."
We all fell into a slumber fifteen minutes later.
___________________________________________________________________
New Mouse City, Mouse Island
0231 hours (Eastern Standard Time)
We arrived at New Mouse City at the same hour in local time. We already had a plentiful of sleep on the jet, but the jetlag tired us so much that it made us want to get more sleep. Thea and the Thea Sisters got a ride in Ameera, my Porsche Panamera Turbo S to Thea's house where her students would sleep over for the night. Meanwhile, I drove a Porsche Cayman S back to my home.
Geronimo however gave Trap, Benjamin and Pandora a lift, to where they stopped at her aunt Patty Springs' place to drop her off first.
"Hey Pandora, you're home," Benjamin gently tried to wake her up.
Geronimo stopped the car at her front stoop. "Give me five more minutes..." she moaned before snoring some more.
"Pandora, you gotta wake up! You're home!" he attempted again, softly shaking her.
"Why don't you carry me, Benjami-" her words cut off to more snoring.
Benjamin was baffled. "What?"
Geronimo laughed lightly. "Well, you heard her, Benjamin! Carry her up!" He rolled down his window to greet Patty who was outside in her pyjamas. "Hi there, Patty! We're so sorry to come by so late..."
"Oh cheese... Uncle Trap, accompany me?"
"Sure," he agreed.
So he opened the door with Pandora in his arms and clambered off with Trap. "Hi Aunt Patty," he greeted.
"Hi Benjamin! My, my, aren't you so sweet!" she stated.
He smiled shyly. "Yeah... she's really hard to wake up after what we went through in the last several hours..."
With Trap behind him, they went upstairs to her room and Benjamin laid her down on her bed and tucked her in. "Get some rest, Pandora. Tomorrow's gonna be a big day..."
They got back to the car and said goodbye to Patty. Geronimo dropped Trap off to his house, and Geronimo drove to his house with Benjamin since Benjamin was going to crash at his place for the night.
_______________________________
Flash's house
0945 hours
Earlier in the morning, Flash called a meeting about the talent show performance with Benjamin and I. He told us to skip breakfast because he told his parents that we were coming over and they had already prepared us breakfast, so that means we got invited to his house.
My Porsche Cayman S pulled up on the side of the street in front of Flash's house. We expected his parents to be home since it was a Sunday.
We walked up the front porch and I rang on the doorbell. The door promptly opened and behind it was his mother. "Good morning there, boys!" she greeted us with a cheerful smile.
"Good morning, Mrs Lange," I replied, with a smile so heavy. (I had been crying my eyes out for nearly an hour last night.)
"Oh Danny, I think you've known me well enough just to call me Aunt Hannah! Like Benjamin does."
"If you insist, Aunt Hannah..."
"Come in! Flash is waiting for you in the kitchen - he's just finishing up his breakfast."
We thanked her gracefully and entered the house. We were by the living room when Flash called us at the kitchen, having breakfast at the marble kitchen island. "Hey guys! Come on over here, I got some sandwiches if you're hungry," he offered.
They were grilled cheese sandwiches. "Ooh, these look too good to pass up... Don't mind if I do," Benjamin accepted.
Benjamin took a big bite out of his sandwich, with the cheese oozing out and smoking as it was still hot. "So, besides our final rehearsal, what'd you call us hear for?" I asked.
Flash brushed his paws to get rid of crumbs. "So, I've been thinking. It's about the song."
I took a triangle half of a sandwich. "What about it?" I munched on a little piece of it."
"Okay, the concept of the lyrics seems little bit unsuitable for Pandora, don't you think?"
Benjamin's sandwich was left to just a bite-sized piece. "What do you mean?" He threw it in his mouth and chewed.
"I mean that do you think she needs to hear you acknowledge on how she looks? I think she pretty much doesn't have to. What she needs to hear is that how much she means to you in your life."
Benjamin came to a state of thought. "Now that you mention it..."
I furrowed my eyebrows in interest. "Hmm... Okay then, so what do you propose?"
"I think that we need to come up with new lyrics for the entire song, including Danny and Benjamin's rap part in the second verse and bridge. We'll use the concept I mentioned just now."
"But we'll still use the same song melody and vocal melodies right?" I asked.
"Yeah. We'll still be using Faded as the song melody and the custom vocal melodies we composed."
"Nice..." Benjamin smiled in amazement. "I think I can write some new lyrics within the hour."
"We'll help you out," I insisted.
"Alright then, let's get to it!" Flash said triumphantly.
After cleaning up, we went upstairs to his studio.
__________________________________________________________
Geronimo's Perspective
0918 hours
Again, after just a few hours of sleep, I was woken up by the annoying sound of the alarm set on my phone early in the morning. I even had it set to play the most calm song I could ever find online and I still find it annoying! Great Gouda, how I hate to wake up early.
I turned over and brought the pillow over my head to drown the noise. Even when it's muffled, I could hear the soft piano tunes and chords piercing through. With great effort, I stretched my arm over to my phone on the bedside table and turned the noise off while I was still in my covers.
As much as I wanted to sleep in for another hour, I had an appointment with the theater in Downtown. I imagined that my staff had already been there to make final touches for tomorrow's talent show live stream. To be a good example as an employer to my staff, I knew I had to get up.
I sat up on my bed and flipped over the covers. I threw my legs off the side and stretched my arms out in every direction and yawned with a big gaping mouth. I glanced at my phone and reached for it. On the lockscreen was a notification - a text from Benjamin.
"Hey Uncle G, I'm heading out early today. Flash called Danny and I for a meeting at his house. Danny's giving me a ride, so don't worry if you woke up late."
I stood up and got a refreshing shower, had myself dressed in my usual green suit, and went down to have breakfast.
I was on my phone, watching a live broadcast of my news program while sipping hot tea. The anchorwoman was reporting the events of Paris from last night.
"Last night marks the end of the reign for the British extremist organisation, The Technologists when their leader, Brazier Williams was found dead under the now-fallen Eiffel tower. He was apparently shot in the head after receiving multiple gunshots believed to be from the French military to the abdomen protected by armor. After the six hostages he took were rescued by Interpol, Williams took over the French capital as retaliation and had turned the city into a war-torn state as the French military and Technologist forces exchanged fire in multiple simultaneous battles. Williams took another hostage with him who was later identified as 14-year-old Firas Fuad, who had connection with Williams' sworn enemy, 14-year-old video game creator and Junior Interpol Agent Danial Arif.
"Firas' body was found not far from Williams, and on him was a note written and signed by Danial Arif himself who is believed to partake in Firas' rescue mission with an unknown team. The note said 'To whomever that finds this, the name of this person was Firas Fuad. He was my best friend who was appeared to be taken hostage by Williams in a hijacked live broadcast in an attempt to bait me and my team to rescue him. He was never actually taken hostage; he was brainwashed by Williams so he'd take his side and was used for me to come to him. He was reformed in time before he was killed for betraying Williams. My request is that his body is to be taken home back to Malaysia for a proper Muslim burial. He was a great hero because he defied Williams and fought against him until the very end. Signed, Danial Arif.'
"We had tried contacting him, but up until now he refuses to give a comment regarding this."
I stopped listening to it and drank up the last drop of my tea and cleaned up.
I fed my pet goldfish, Hannibal before entering the garage. I chose to drive my cheese yellow Ford Focus ST for once so that the parts won't freeze up. I started the car and drove off to the theater.
____________________________
New Mouse Playhouse Grand Theater, Downtown NMC
1029 hours
I arrived about an hour later at the theater. The only other vehicles parked on the street outside of the theater were Stilton Media Group vans, and a red Mitsubishi Lancer that I recognise. I parallel parked my car in between the Lancer and one of my company's vans.
I entered the auditorium through the front entrance. The halls were brightly lit up and it highlighted the architectural design details - from the red walls to the white pillars that separated the boxes at the side of the hall, and the golden arch over the stage that had artistic patterns etched on it. A chandelier made of gold leaves hung over the front orchestra seats and light shone from inside them made them glow and sparkle.
Technicians were practically everywhere by this time. My staff handling the broadcasting equipment were double-checking the feeds from the cameras were sent back to the studio, theater staff making sure the microphones and audio systems were functional as well as the stage lighting. A giant LCD screen made up of smaller LCD screens at the back of the stage was being tested with multicolored visual effects. In the orchestra pit, several members of the school's symphony orchestra were tuning their instruments and doing minor rehearsals.
In the middle of the rear orchestra seats was a woman that I know. She was preoccupied - having her arms akimbo and looking down at the preparations done as if she was supervising everything. Maybe she was? I wouldn't know. It was Veronica Stiffwhiskers, the owner of the red Lancer and my former school rival who had now became the principal.
"Be careful with that piano!" she shouted over to the mice on the stage who handled the grand piano. The sound of my keys jingling as I put them in my jacket pocket caught her attention. "Oh hey, Geronimo!" she greeted radiantly.
"Morning, Veronica!" he replied with a wide smile.
"Glad that you made it here on time. Your staff just brought in a few spare cameras in case some break down."
"Oh? Well, you have to thank my assistant, she was partially involved in this idea. So, how was the week for you in terms of preparations?
She looked back towards the stage. "Things have been quite smooth lately, I might say. There were no mishaps on stage, the auditorium was in pretty good shape, and the school's symphony orchestra did their best in the rehearsals for the opening performance."
"Oh? What did you have in mind for that?"
"We're recreating the music video of Alan Walker's Faded Restrung on stage. It won't be a hundred percent accurate, but we'll present it in the best way possible."
"Ah... well, I wish you and your orchestra the best of luck."
"Thanks, Geronimo." The two were quiet with each other for a short moment. "I saw the news on your channel earlier in the morning. About the Paris attacks ending. When I heard they mention Danny's name... I knew it had to be you and your team."
I'd never thought she saw that. Then again, it was in the morning news. "Yes... yes, we were there when it happened. The victory was hard-fought, but I wouldn't want it any other way. All those brave men and women out there who fought with us... their sacrifices are priceless."
"Including someone close to a member of your team... I feel so sorry for Danny. He's told me about his friend, Firas before. They sound inseparable, yet..."
"In the end, death did them part..."
"Yeah..." Veronica swept her hair away from her forehead. "I wanted to thank you all... for your sacrifices. And your bravery."
"Awh... no need for thanks, Veronica." I gave a faint smile. "We were just doing what we felt was obligated for us to do."
I looked at the stage. At the front center of it was two rodents I was truly familiar with. I squinted to get a better look. A rather large ruby necklace in the shape of a heart on one of them confirmed it. "Are those two... Tina Parmesani and Talia Squeaks?"
Veronica giggled. "Yeah, they are! Tina offered to sing in the opening performance since she was coming as a special guest. Then... when news broke out about Danny's friend, she invited Talia to come and do a duet with her."
I was completely puzzled. "Why?"
"Both of those superstars are best friends like Danny and Firas... they told me earlier that they wanted to perform the opening performance as a tribute to those two."
I was absolutely stunned. Those two sensational singers went out of their way just to celebrate friendship. "I... am just lost for words right now..." I said.
"And you know what would make this perfect? Danny as the pianist!"
My smile drooped. I was reluctant to agree when I heard that. I honestly thought it wasn't such a good idea. "I... I don't mean to disagree, but... it happened just a few hours ago and he's still trying to cope with it. I'm not really sure that he can handle much more emotion."
Veronica's joyful expression faded to a disappointed one. "Oh... yeah, I think you might be right. If he can't handle it, then it's fine - I won't force it. I understand his situation."
But then again, I do feel bad for her. I gave a bit of thought - maybe this wasn't a bad idea after all. "But, what I can do is that I'll put the word out for him. If we're lucky, he'll say yes."
Her smile quickly came back. "Well, I appreciate it. Let's hope he'll do it."
"C'mon, it's a tribute to his best friend. I doubt that he'll pass this up to some other person."
"I second that."
Then a loud thud reverberated from the stage followed by an agonized scream. We saw someone in a black hoodie balled himself up into a fetal position. Veronica and I traded troubled looks.
We rushed up the stage and checked on the mouseling. "Oh Gouda, Timmy! What happened to you?"
A girl was attending to him opposite of us. "He was running on the stage until he tripped on some tangled cables," she said.
"Timmy, what did I tell you about running on the stage?" Veronica reprimanded.
The mouseling groaned in excruciation. "Not to?" he reminded himself.
Veronica sighed. "What's hurt you so much that you screamed?"
"I landed on my elbow, Principal Stiffwhiskers- argh!"
"Oh no..."
I dug my other jacket pocket for my phone. "I'll get us the paramedics."
"I think I broke my arm... my whole paw feels numb," Timmy stated.
"Don't move it around. Hang on tight until the ambulance gets here. Geronimo?"
"...the New Mouse Playhouse Theater. Yes, thank you." I just got off of 911. "They'll be here in 2 minutes."
The paramedics took him away to a hospital minutes later for further treatment with two of his band members accompanying him on the ambulance. We watched it drive away with its strobe lights flashing and sirens blaring.
"Well, there goes one of our violinists..." Veronica says
"Can you still perform without him?" I asked.
"Technically yes, but it'll be one less violin playing among the 11-person string ensemble that's supposed to be performing on the stage with the singers. One less means that the recreation of the video will be inaccurate. So, it's either that, or we'll have to find a replacement violinist in time."
"Hmm..." I stroked my chin as I brainstormed. Then I snapped my fingers to a sudden epiphany. "I think I just might know where to find one!"
__________________________________________________________________________
Violet's Perspective
Thea's house
1045 hours
Sleeping on the living room couch could never be more excruciating. I woke up with a shoulder pain, cramping up as I move my arms. As Pamela woke up with me, I asked her to massage it away and gladly she did so without hesitating. I knew I should've asked to switch with Nicky to sleep on one of Thea's Japanese tatamis.
After everyone of us had been up, we ate some breakfast while we enjoyed a morning drama on TV on our first day off in spring break. I savored a plate of full breakfast that we all helped prepared for each other, but I kinda missed when Danny cooked for us (his french toast was so good, I wanted it to be cheesy!)
We planned to go on a shopping spree with Thea later but then I get an unexpected call from Geronimo. "What's up, G?" I answered.
"Excuse me to interrupt you from whatever you were doing, but, how would you like to be a violinist in a performance?" he offered.
My eyes lit up. "What? A performance?" The rest had their eyes on me with a confused look. "I'll be right there."
I hung up, finished the last of my baked beans and got off the bar stool at the kitchen island. "What was that about?" Nicky asked.
I put the plate I the dishwasher. "Geronimo called, he said he wants to meet up with me urgently."
"Where?" Thea asked, drinking her morning coffee.
I was on my way to the stairs. "New Mouse Playhouse Theater."
"For what?" Colette added.
I was already halfway upstairs. "Geronimo wants me to replace a violinist who got injured during rehearsals for the talent show's opening performance."
"So I guess you're not gonna go shopping with us today?" Paulina said.
"I'm afraid not, girls."
"You have any transport? You can take Sebastian," Thea offered.
"Are you sure about that?"
"It's your choice... I won't mind if you do." Thea sips down a bit of her latte.
I guess I was taking her Bugatti for a ride at that day.
______________________________________________________
My perspective
1234 hours
We had been writing the new lyrics to our song for about two and a half hours. We had a little bit of adjustments and edits here and there, and bit by bit, it made the song work. We synced the wording with the rhythm of the song and melody, made sure each line rhymed, and when tested out with the melodic harmony of the instrumental, it sounded perfect to our ears. The only thing to craft was the proposal.
"Okay, so far we got this;" Benjamin said, looking down on a piece of paper he wrote the lyrics down, "Throughout the whole song, I confess to her, especially in the two choruses. Should we put the proposal separate from the song or include it somewhere?"
"I'd say we put in the song twice," I suggested. "One at the end of the bridge, just entering the final chorus, and another one in the final chorus just before the break."
"Yeah, try replacing 'to take you to your favorite places' from the first chorus to something like; 'will you be my one true love?'" Flash added. I actually quite like that.
"Dude, that works!" Benjamin exclaimed in a eureka moment. "Maybe we can use that in both the bridge and final chorus."
"Definitely, Benjamin," Flash nodded.
"Try singing the line once," I requested.
Benjamin cleared his throat and took a deep breath. "Please say yes if I ask you...! Will you be my one true love?" He sang it with full of musical and romantic spirit, chills ran down my spine.
"O-ho-kay... that was freaking awesome!" Flash admired.
"What are we waiting for? Let's rehearse it!" I said.
_________________________________
1610 hours
We rehearsed the whole song over and over for the entire afternoon. There were some outtakes here and there (mostly Benjamin not memorizing his lyrics correctly), but most of them were successful attempts at singing the whole song.
In the middle of the session, Pandora called Benjamin to ask if he was doing anything during the day, so we told him to say that he was out chasing scoops with Geronimo. She asked if Benjamin wanted her to get anything for him since she, Thea and the Thea Sisters were out at the mall on a shopping spree. He just told her that he wanted some cheesy pretzel sticks from Aunt Annie's.
By 4 o'clock, the three of us were running out of steam. My fingers cramped and back ached, Benjamin's throat started to sore, and Flash just felt sleepy.
"I think we've done enough for today..." Benjamin gulped down a whole glass of water.
"Yeah, you might have to save those vocal chords for tomorrow night," I stated.
"Let's give the best we got to Pandora, guys!" Flash cheered.
"Copy that," Benjamin said.
"Heck yeah!" I responded.
My phone chimed to a notification alert. I had received a text from Geronimo, mentioning something about the talent show. What he said next was one of the biggest surprises of my life.
And I said yes to it.
Benjamin and Flash notice me smiling and tearing up. "Danny, what's up?" Flash wondered, then having an idea of what it was about and turned to Benjamin. "This is about Paris, isn't it? "
"A few hours ago before returning here, his best friend who was taken hostage on live broadcast died in Williams' hand," Benjamin summed up. "He wasn't even actually a hostage, Williams brainwashed him so that Firas would fight against Danny, so he was only bait for Danny to come. He reformed Firas in time, but I don't think this is entirely about Paris."
"It's about the talent show," I spoke up. "Geronimo said the school's symphony orchestra's gonna be performing Faded Restrung as an opening performance... with Tina Parmesani and Talia Squeaks singing a duet."
"Hold up, what?" Flash said in disbelief.
"Whoa...! So what's making you have tears of joy?" Benjamin asked.
I wiped away a teardrop. "They want me to be the pianist. The performance is a tribute to Firas." My vision blurred to more tears escaping my eyes.
"Whoa! That's awesome, dude!"
"What did you say to it?" said Flash.
"I agreed to it, and uh... I think I gotta go, they need me for the rehearsal."
"Best luck to ya, Dan!" Benjamin wished.
"Gambate!" Flash told me to do my best in Japanese. (Yes, he's an otaku.)
__________________________________________________________________
I met up with Geronimo with Principal Stiffwhiskers and (to my surprise) Violet later at the theater after about a 15-minute drive. Oh, Pinky was there to so she can set up for the live stream. I said my thanks to them for doing this and I wept a bit more because it had touched my heart. Once I was calmed, we got on with the rehearsal.