"Well, let's hear it!" said Lina, getting ready to listen.   Reluctantly, Zelgadis tuned his acoustic and sweetly sang his new song.  The chords and high reaching notes made it sound beautiful, but Lina and Amelia shook their heads.  "It's a beautiful song, Zel, but we really need to wow them, y'know?"
        "I thought so...." surrendered Zelgadis, taking off the acoustic.
        "Well, wait a minute," said Gourry, fishing for some sheets in his bag.  "You know how I usually don't listen when someone's trying to tell me something, right?"
        "RIGHT!" they chorused, with frowns.
        "Well, last week when Zelgadis was showing me this son, I couldn't help thinking about the new drum riffs I wrote.  As it turned out I jsut thought of my beats with Zel's song and it worked out great!  Here, I wrote out parts for us all!"  Reluctantly they took their respective sheets.
        Lina glared at Gourry.  "Gourry?  What do you do with a musician who can't read music?"
        Gourry scratched his head.  "Oh! I know!  You asked me this before!  Give him two sticks!"  Lina nodded her head, and Gourry realized the joke.  "HEY!!"
        "GOURRY!!!!!"  yelled a beserk Zelgadis.  "WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE LORD OF NIGHTMARES HAVE YOU DONE WITH MY SONG?!?!?!?"
        "Hey," answered Gourry, "it was a great song, but it needs other parts so I wrote them in.  I mean, just you on a guitar will leave us bored."
         "This is a very personal piece," grumbled Zelgadis.  "I wanted to do it solo." Lina looked at him surprised.  "If we could in a concert sometime."
         "You know," said Amelia, looking over her parts, which gave an overview of the whole song.  "Mr. Gourry may have two sticks, but if her loses one he becomes a conductor!"  Finishing the joke and making a point about Gourry's musicianship, she went on, "I think this will work out great!  Mr. Zelgadis can sing it well already, we just need to practice it with him and go along!"
         Lina looked over her and Amelia's sheet music.  "I think we can do this, Zel does sound good, and it's just a little beefing up of a wimpy song...."
         "Wimpy?!?" said Zelgadis with fangs.
         "But if we jsut practice it a few times, I think it will work!" concluded Lina.  "You know, Gourry, I think your head does have something in it after all!  What do you think?  Do you want us to do the song?"
          "I don't know, Lina.  I'm still trying to figure out if Amelia insulted me of not!"  Everyone face-faulted again.
          "It was a compliment, Mr. Gourry," replied Amelia.  "I think you did a great job in arranging this for us."
           "Okay guys!" ordered Lina.  "Let's go through the others and then we'll work on Zel's song."  They all cheered and decided what they would do for their set.  They first played 'East of the Sun West of the Moon' to start the show.  Next they went into 'Home'.  Lina gave glares as some chords weren't hit correctly, but Zelgadis made up for it with fantastic solos.  'Angel' started by some ethereal sounds created by Amelia and her voice made a drastic dialectic to Zelgadis's evil howling.
           "All right!"  cheered Lina.  "That was great!  Let's work on Zel's song now."
           "I'm sorry!" announced a voice at the door of the hall, "I do believe your time is up!"  Immediately upon that came a cackling giggle and the gruff har-har of a beast.
           "Valgaav!" snapped Lina.  "A little too desperate to practice, are we?"
           "Well," said Valgaav, "I'm afraid you're about 10 minutes over our prep time."
           "Oh, Miss Lina!" cried Amelia.  "Xelloss must have eaten up some of our time!"
           "And we spent a long time figuring out what to play,"  Zelgadis agreed.  "We're out of time."
           "Wait a minute!!!" howled Lina.  "That's not fair!  Xelloss made us change our set-list!  We have one more song!"
           "Would you like me to get Mr. Xelloss and have him disqualify you for taking more time than you were supposed to have?"  queried Valgaav.
            Lina growled, and a red ball of fire formed in her hand.
            "Lina!" said Zel, grabbing her and holding her back.  "Let's get out of here, you know those guys are trouble."
            "Did you hear that, Jiras?"  asked Grabos. "We're trouble!"
            "Well, we're not taking anyone else's rehearsal time!  I think THEY're trouble, if you ask me!"  replied a cocky Jiras.
            "WHY YOU LITTLE....!!" cried Lina as a Flare Arrow started to form.
            "Lina, hold it!"
            "Gourry!  Let me go!  That fox is DEAD!" she yelled, struggling in Gourry's grip.
            "Miss Lina!  I think we better go."  said Amelia, covering her keyboard.  "We are wasting their rehearsal time.  We've got to be fair."
            "Yes, let's go,"  agreed Zelgadis.  "We can work on 'Resurrection' independantly, and regroup before the show.  Anyway," he added, glancing slyly at Valgaav, "I think they're going to need the practice."
            "I wouldn't be so cocky, Zelgadis!" challenged Valgaav.  "Gaav may not be here physically anymore, but it's my duty as his student to make sure his music will beat you down for years to come!  We haven't forgotten about the Battle Royal a few months ago!"
            "Look, Valgaav," sighed Lina.  "We didn't put Gaav on his motorcycle and blast him down the wrong side of the highway.  He brought it on himself!"
            "Even so, his music will destroy you from the grave!  The survivors will never be defeated again!" Valgaav snarled.
             The SLAYERZ packed up their gear and headed out of the hall as Jiras set up his sampler, synths, 12-string guitar, and laser lights.  Valgaav tuned his Warlock six-string and set the distortion programs.  Grabos reset his drums and pounded out some fierce rhythms.  Immediately, Valgaav showed his stuff.  Zelgadis lingered a moment, listening to what he was up against.  Valgaav had mastered Gaav's chord techniques, but Zel heard something he did not expect.  Valgaav's own experimentation with delay and flanger effects made the guitar howl like a dragon. 
            Amelia saw that Zel was off kilter.  "Come on, Mr. Zelgadis," she said, tugging his arm.  "Remember, we've got to be true and compete with ourselves and not them!"
           "Right, Amelia,"  Zelgadis agreed.  "Let's go."



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