CHAPTER 223: PIRATE KING (1)

"3! 2! 1! The votes are in and- The! Winner! Is! Bad Boy! I guess you guys wanted a performance that was the opposite of the cute concept?! Well, you got it! Please welcome Team Rebels."

As MC Ryan Leary stepped off the stage, eight boys dressed in all black slowly filled it.

They were wearing white t-shirts, black leather jackets, black leather pants, and black boots, with their hair slicked back except for a single piece that fell in their face.

As the music began playing, the boys lined up and began walking forward with a forceful cross step while snapping their fingers, causing a huge splash on the wet stage.

Then, with a cheeky smile that was quite the opposite of the gentle one he usually had, Carlos began singing in a lower pitch than usual, his voice sounding like the richest, smoothest, darkest chocolate.

"You better run, you better hide,

I’m a changed man, so step aside

Revving my motorcycle engine under the sun

Wrapped in black leather, shooting forward like a bullet from a gun

Tell my momma I’m a good boy gone bad,

Slicked back hair, my two wheels, and an open road.

Rubber on the pavement, flames behind me, cause I can’t be slowed

Tell my momma I’m a good boy gone bad,

Do what I want, yeah

Say what I want, yeah

Nothing to restrain me

Cause I play how I want

Cause I’m a good boy gone bad"

The audience was silent for a moment as they watched the dark, intense vibe that was completely opposite of the cute vibe of the previous team before they began screaming in excitement.

********

"Bet you lot are happy you decided to listen to Ari and added to the concept, innit?" Benjamin said in a loud voice as they watched Carlos’s team perform in the waiting room assigned to their team.

By how unconcerned the staff was about clearing the water off the stage, it seemed that all the other teams were going to be doing the same thing.

If they had gone with just the water concept like originally planned, they would have had the most lackluster performance of everyone today.

And it seemed that most of Ari’s teammates realized that as they glanced at him uncomfortably before looking away.

Heh.

Funny people.

Since there was no point in rubbing it in, Ari just ignored the commotion and continued adjusting the silky red scarf that kept slipping down his head and over his eyes despite the ridiculous amount of hairpins the stylist had used on his head.

No matter how tightly he tied it, it refused to stay up, and the dark eye makeup that had finally been settled on by the stylists was now smudging, making him slowly look like a raccoon.

Slip.

As Ari pushed the scarf back up again, he heard Benjamin’s teasing voice from behind him.

"That’s why you should have worn a hat like me. It’s classy, stays in place, and very stylish, innit?"

"Pass. It looks like a Dorito on your head."

"You’re not seeing the full picture, mate. It’s suave, it’s stylish, it’s-

"A red Dorito."

"Fine. Call me Captain Dorito, pirate of the seven seas, here to plunder that cheddar." Benjamin flipped the collar of his matching red vest up before striking a pose.

"Hey! You’re not the captain, I’m the captain." Justin chimed in as he rolled around on the sofa in their waiting room.

"Justin. Bruv. Don’t be jealous, not everyone can be a statuesque captain like me, innit. You’re more like a first mate. Maybe even second."

"You take that back!"

"Make me."

"Hey! Don’t mess up your outfits!"

As Ari rolled his eyes while Justin and Benjamin began wrestling, and Rex broke it up, his vision was suddenly filled with a familiar transparent blue screen.

[Ding!]

[Surprise Mission: Mutiny! Treason! Backstabbing! Espionage?]

[Arrrgh, me matey. Although you 7 are supposedly crewmates, bound to sink and swim together, and there’s a fishy plot afoot that might sink the ship with controversy and cause things to blow up with a BANG.]

[Goal: Discover and eliminate the plot of the treacherous blonde crew member trying to sabotage your crew’s performance.]

[Time Limit: Until your team steps on stage.]

[Reward: +1 Stat Points & 1 time use of skill I’m Number One, Pay Attention To Me! (A).]

[Failure: Loss of 5 random stat points.]

"What the heck?"

As Ari was trying to understand why a surprise mission had popped up out of nowhere, the contents of the screen changed.

[Skill: I’m Number One, Pay Attention To Me! (A)]

[Effect: People can’t take their eyes off you. The lower the watcher’s charm stat, the more effective the skill is.]

[Duration: 10 minutes]

[Activation: To activate the skill, yell "I’m Number One, Pay Attention To Me!"]

He really wanted to know how the skill names were decided and why he had to yell such embarrassing lines to activate them.

[You’ll accept the surprise mission, right?]

Do I have a choice?

[If not, are you prepared for that rank of yours to drop and for that stupid blonde’s to rise?]

[Because they like to compare both of you, and right now you’re struggling.]

[The way things are looking, he will more than likely be the MVP of the performance after snagging both the center and the main vocal parts.]

[Do you really want him to do well while the rest of you suffer?]

Let William do well?

Over his dead body!

"Ari? Why did you zone out like that? Nervous?"

"Ya," Ari replied absentmindedly, looking around their waiting room and noting that Jerome was sitting alone and William was nowhere to be found.

Of course.

"Really? Since when do you get nervous? Running a fever? Your hand hurts?"

"Since now. I need to use the bathroom. I’ll be right back."

"Oi! Ari!"

Brushing off Benjamin’s concern, Ari quickly left their waiting room, basically sprinting through the hallway with one hand on his scarf.

[Where are you going?]

"Bathroom."

[Why?]

[Shouldn’t you be finding William?]

[Are you really nervous?]

[Now is not the time for that.]

Ari didn’t bother responding.

Dodging past the concerned staff members, Ari quickly entered the closest bathroom stall and began the tedious process of unlacing one of his tall, knee-high boots.

He was looking for something that he had stashed away just in case.

[Oh? What’s that? A flashdrive?]

"Yep."

[I was curious about what you were putting in your shoes earlier.]

After working on the arrangement with Larry Jackson, Ari had saved a copy for himself on a borrowed flash drive.

Just in case, because he didn’t trust any of the production staff, and he definitely didn’t trust William.

One of his concerns with having William on his team and having him work on the arrangement was the blonde boy modifying it and lip-syncing in the same way he had during the SuperNova performance.

While the incident seemed to have passed, from casually browsing the web, he had seen some fans speculate that William’s lip-syncing with others on their team was also being blamed, but it was brushed under the rug by his fans jumping and fighting anybody who made such a claim.

But that thought was always on the back of his mind, with Assistant PD David being the person he suspected the most.

Despite Ari bringing up the issue to PD Emily, he had no idea if it was resolved or if the staff member who allowed such a thing to happen was still here.

His main suspect was Assistant PD David who clearly hadn’t been fired so Ari could never discount that such a thing was happening again.

If William wasn’t on his team, that was one thing, but receiving this surprise mission more or less confirmed it.

It was the only thing that Ari could think of that would mess their performance up.

With his boots fully laced up once more, Ari quickly washed his hands before running out toward the first staff member that he saw.

"Hi! Please tell me where stage director Sherill Lanole is? I need to talk to her."

"For what? She’s busy." The man who had been stopped looked a bit nervous as he looked Ari up and down.

"My team had last-minute changes to our music, and I need to give the sound crew the most recent version."

"No!"

Seeing Ari gave him a weird look, the staff member avoided his eyes before muttering, "I can’t help you with that. Excuse me. I have another task to get to."

Not one to be deterred, and truly finding the man’s behavior weird, Ari began following him.

"It’s really important. If you can’t help, where’s the sound room?"

"Leave me alone!"

The man began walking faster, and after waffling between following him and figuring out what the deal was, Ari just memorized the face and name on the badge before running back toward the stage and stopping the staff member who seemed to be flustered.

"Hi, where’s stage director Sherill Lanole. I have something to ask her."

"Look, kid, I don’t have time for this right now. We’re actually having an issue with the sound system right now. Go back to your waiting room and stop running around!"