Zelgadis was almost done restringing his red Ibanez 260, hoping that they'd hold up tonight of all nights.  He would have to concentrate with all his might and show Valgaav who was better at weilding the axe.  Just for fun, he plugged the guitar into the amp and struck a horribly out of tune chord to make sure it fed into the speaker properly.  Then, with an evil smirk, he mashed the "death metal" distortion pedal.  An inferno of rotten electrically-charged tones exploded into the hall.  With a tsunami boom, he tuned his E string down to C and made all the other strings fall into place.  To get the show on the road, he assumed the position:  hunched over, eyes on the frets.  He imagined Gourry pounding out the double-bass-drum beginning of "Frozen Soul" and joined in by pumping out the dispicable sixteenth notes on the C diminished chord.   Counting in his head, he prepared for the B section, waited, waited, then SYNC/STOP/SYNC/STOP.  Out of sheer pleasure, he started the refrain, "And you will never be the flame/That lights the way out of the hole/Cuz you never know the shame/of carving your own frozen soul!" 
      Lina and Gourry came in and spotted Zel in the midst of the next section.  Lina smacked her forehead and unloaded her bass off her back.  Gourry was keeping the beat to himself and bashing the air in front of hi with his sticks.  Lina marched up in front of Zelgadis and stood before him, arms crossed, glaring, trying to get his attention.  Zel brought his head up to do the re-intro and froze in his tracks.  Caught in the act.
     "YOU JERK! YOU DIDN"T WARM UP AGAIN!!"  Lina took a swipe at the side of his head.  "YYYAAAAHH!!!"  It hurt her more than it hurt him.
      "Relax,"  said Zel, readjusting his shoulder strap.  "That song is in my lower range, I'll be fine, just got caught up in the riff."
      "You're going to burn out your voice if you're not careful!"  Lina said, massaging her right hand.  "If your voice is burnt, there's going to be a Dragon Slave with your name on it!"
      "I just restrung my guitar, I'll warm up along with it.  Here, let me take care of that,"  He took her hand and did a mild healing spell on it.  Lina flexed her fingers as she headed to her bass case.
      SLANG bipity BANG!  Gourry sat at the drums, double checking the set up.  "So, Lina," he enquired as he adjusted the double bass pedals, "What's the order again?"
       "Darkness beyond twilight, Crimson beyond........"
      "Miss Lina!"  shouted Amelia, just entering, as she unslung her guitar and keyboard.
        "Gourry," threatened Lina as she plugged in her bass, "I wrote it down for you three times today already, if you ask one more time...... GRRRRRR!!!"  She switched her attention to the five string bass and tuned it with the tonebox. 
        Gourry looked down, a bit ashamed, and tried to apologize.  "I'm sorry Lina, it's just that I don't have anywhere to put it on my drumset, so I have to remember it," he said as he warmed up his wrists.
      "Miss Lina, please," said Amelia as she sest up the keyboard, "we have to concentrate, all of us, or else there's no way we can kick it tonight!  Mr. Gourry will remember the set, he always does."  She smiled encouragement to Gourry, who was trying to remember the set list in his yogurt-brain.  Zelgadis merely tuned his C guitar during all the commotion, then faced Lina.
     "Look," Zel said, trying to be a center of sanity.  "Let's warm up and mark through the set.  I know we can do this.  We're not competing against All Gaav's Children so much as we've got to compete with ourselves.  We've got to rock better than we ever have.  We know how good they are."  
       "You're right, Mr. Zelgadis!"  chimed in Amelia, "We have to be better than ever, and we can do it if we are true to our own hearts!"
        Gourry scratched his head, "So, if we beat ourselves, do we still get the recording contract?"
        Everyone facefaulted carefully, so as not to damage their instruments.
        "GOURRY!!!!"  screamed Lina.
        "Uh, why don't we awrm up for a few, huh?"  said Amelia, trying to save face.
       "I agree," said Zel.  "Let's take it nice and slow, look through our notes, and give it a try.  We have to do our sound check as well."    They all nodded in agreement and started warming up.  Zelgadis took deep breaths and started to hum in low tones to get the blood flowing through his voice.  Lina joined in and tried to make harmony.   Amelia double-checked all the plugs to her synths, and massaged her hands, then did some quick scales on a grand piano sound.  Gourry  warmed up with medium paced beats and threw in some style, adjusting his set here and there.  He beat out some double bass drum action, and soon fell into the swing.  Amelia tuned her guitar and quickly went through some chord progressions.  Lina was flying up and down the bass frets, practicing some of the scales involved in their songs.  Zel warmed up the secondary guitar, then went back to his restrung C-tuned.          Lina saw that Amelia and Zel were ready and raised her hand.  After she caught everyone's attention, she closed her eyes, and everyone knew what that meant -- Group Warmup.   She placed her hand on her lowest string.  She dropped her head, and they all became one.  They played the same chords and accents with Gourry as back up.  A start and stop jumble of egregious chords that suddenly found themselves flying down a double bass highway, which all of a sudden crashed into a half-time ride of majestic chords and Amelia made string angels float above the sea of dissident chaos.  They all swooned to their own instruments as Zelgadis improvised a new melody to guide the next few chords.  He held a note that opened everyone's eyes, dropped his head, and they went back into the sixteenth-note start/stop that started the opus.  A string of chopped power chords ended the piece.
        CLAP CLAP CLAP!  "Very good!" applauded Xelloss, the record producer who'd organized the Battle of the Bands.  "I've never heard you play that one before.  What's it called?"
         "Heh heh, well...." answered Lina, "Erm, it's actually our warm up piece."  She smiled, trying not to show any lack of confidence.
        "Are there any words to it?"  Xelloss inquired.
        Lina sweated.  "Uh, no..... we just use it to loosen up.  We'll practice tonight's set next!"
        "Good, good!"  Xelloss smiled.  "Just remember, All Gaav's Children gets the space in a little while.  I'll let you get started practicing!"  He turned to leace, then quickly turned back and shot into Lina's face.  "SO!!! What are you playing tonigh?"
       "Oh, well!" said Lina, a little surprised at the question.  "We'll be doind our six best songs! ' Roundabout', 'Fly by Night', 'Higher', 'Cuts You Up', 'Midnite Mover', and one I jsut wrote called 'Home'.  It's a bit long but we make it really crank!"
        Xelloss stepped away and scratched the back of his head.  "Oh, that's too bad!"
        Lina got really nervous.  "What's the matter?  We can get rid of my new song if you want us to."
        Xelloss waved his hand.  "Oh no, no!  I'd love to hear the new song.  It's just all those old ones!  I've heard them so many times before.  Do you have anything else new?"
        Everyone looked at each other and cringed as Lina was about to lose her temper.  "ARE YOU CRAZY?!?!?  WE'VE BEEN PRACTICING THIS SET ALL WEEK!!!!!  THESE ARE OUR BEST SONGS!!!!"  she snarled and exposed her fangs.  "You've been baiting us around for a contract for months now!  We agreed to this battle so we could show our stuff!!  Now you want to hear something new?!?!?"
        "Exactly!"  chirped Xelloss.  Everyone hung their heads in anguish.
        "Look Xelloss," snapped Zelgadis, glaring at him.  "We've done everything you've ever asked us to do but you still haven't signed us!  Why should we listen to you now?"
         "Now, Zelgadis," said Xelloss with a wagging finger.  "I've heard your songs and played them for my superior, who may be showing up tonight.  If she does come, she'll want to hear the rest of the album we'll produce!  SO!  I want to hear Lina's new song 'Home', and whatever new ones you've got.  BYE!!"  He shunted out of the room.  Everyone sweatdropped and hung their heads again.
         "Oh, Miss Lina!" cried Amelia.  "What will we do?"
         "Yeah," said Gourry.  "I just memorized the set perfectly!  Now we need to remember a new one!  What should we do?"
         "I'm thinking, I'M THINKING!" Lina shouted.
          "How about this.."  Zelgadis suggested. "Let's do Gourry's and my song 'East of the Sun West of the Moon.'   Xelloss hasn't heard that one, and our fans like it a lot."
          "Oh! I know!" chirped Amelia.  "Mr. Zelgadis and I can do 'Angel'!  We just perfected the vocals last night, and I just found  the perfect synth effects for it!"
          "Hey, that's a good idea!  They haven't heard Amelia sing yet." added Gourry.
          "Hmm, I get to be evil in that song," observed Zel, scratching his chin.
         "Mmm...OK," grunted Lina.  "But we need two more!"
          "Hey Zel," called Gourry,  "What about your new song 'Resurrection'?"
          Zelgadis got really nervous.  "Uh, well, um,...I just wrote that one, and they don't know it.  I don't want them to hear it until it's done."
          "Well Zel! I'd just LOVE to hear it," announced Lina.
           "I don't know... um... it's just that...."
           "What's the matter, Mr. Zelgadis?"  asked Amelia.
            "It's just that, I only wrote it for an acoustic guitar and me, and it's kind of long,"  he answered, hiding his eyes.
         

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