MAGE ; benny weir [1]

fifty-two

"Hey, check this out," Ellie told the guys and Sarah as she was looking through Serena's charts in Ethan's room. "Her voice is full of paranormal acoustic energy. She's affecting people's brains."

"Alright, Rory, take a seat," Ethan told him. Rory sat in a chair in front of the sound analyzer with a glowing strap around his head.

"This is Rory's normal brainwave pattern," Ellie explained, showing the chart. "Pretty dead."

"I'm laid back. Why stress?" Rory said.

"If we play a bit of classical music, Rory's nice and calm," Benny explained as he turned on some violin music. "But, as soon as we play even a second of Serena's song..."

He turned up Serena's voice, and Rory's fangs immediately protruded and he went to bite his arm. "And Rory tries to bite his arm off."

"So, Serena's a siren," Sarah finalised. "How do we stop her?"

"Well, according to vast levels of science, and Wikipedia, the Sirens lost a singing contest to the Muses and were destroyed by their own jealousy," Ethan explained.

Ethan's eyes widened at the sight of him having an idea. "What if we become the muses? We get into the talent show, and when she turns on us, we use her own song against her."

"How? What if she likes her own terrifying voice?" Benny asked him.

"What if.." Ellie began as she circled around the room, thinking of a plan. "What if we used a phase inverter and send a negative image of her own evil harmonics right back to her?"

"The old evil-harmonic-phase-inverter trick. That'll get her," Benny smiled as he wrapped his arm around Ellie. "Smartie."

"We should totally invert her face. But how do we get on the show and be good enough to make her jealous?" Rory questioned.

"We'd have to get really close for the phase inverter to even work," Benny questioned with Rory.

"Simple. Music today is just about computers. We just have to figure out the formula to a perfect song," Ethan simplified.

"Okay..? Just in case you four don't become the hottest teenage band of all time, I'll go tell Erica that we might need a few more kicks in our dance routine," Sarah told them, walking out of Ethan's room.

"Guys, we should totally drop one of MC MonsterBat's tracks. My beats make people feel good!" Rory suggested, with Benny and Ellie frantically shaking their head 'no' desperately to Ethan. "We'd be called MC MonsterBat and the Muses!"

"No, Musatronics!" Ethan, Benny, and Ellie exclaimed together. "Yeah, I was totally gonna say that."

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Ethan, Benny, Ellie, and Rory were setting up their equipment in the tryout room. "Our music is mathematically perfect. Our lyrics use only the most popular words from hit songs of the last ten years," Ethan explained as he picked up the microphone. "And we are robo-tuuunnned!"

Mr. Stern just watched in boredom as they began their song. Rory was behind the auto-tune station, Benny was at their drumset, Ellie was stood at the keyboard, and Ethan was at the very front with the microphone. "On your count, B."

"One, three, five, seven!" They began to play their song and they knew how bad it was, but that was the point. Mr. Stern was getting fed up with them and he finally yelled, "Stop!"

They stopped their music as Mr. Stern began to speak. "That was terrible. Truly. Now, I can either ask you to leave, or I can give you the last spot in the show so that I can leave. So congratulations."

They all looked at each other in joy that they actually did it, surprisingly. "Musatronics!"

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Each one of them were backstage, putting on their costumes for their show. "So, El, what do you think?" Benny asked her. Ellie laughed at the sight of her boyfriend, who wore a green bandanna and a giant cape. "Wow, you look... ravishing."

"Well, so do you," he said, eyeing his girlfriend to see the blue ribbon she tied into her side braid and the yellow bracelets that complemented her actual bracelet. "But you always look ravishing."

"Stop it, you- oh, wow," Ellie stopped as she saw Rory enter the backstage area with his hair in multiple directions. "Benny, thanks for helping with my hair. I can't really use a mirror."

"Any time, champ," he laughed as Ellie's jaw dropped at what he did. "Okay, you cannot do that again," she laughed and whispered to Benny. "What? It was funny."

"Hey, Rory. Your mom's here, and she's next to your grandmother," Ethan said to Benny. "Grandma can't help us if there's a magic mishap, since that hearing aid goes down to zero when the music goes on."

Ellie wasn't surprised when he didn't mention her dad being there, but she couldn't help but feel a little bit sad that he couldn't show. She knew that he worked late and after-hours almost every day, but it still felt weird to her. As Ethan walked away with Rory, Benny could see the look on Ellie's face of her thinking about her dad.

"I know what you're thinking, and I don't want you to think that. He can't be here, and it's okay," he assured her, slipping his hand to intertwine his fingers with hers. "Let's go turn this siren's brain into slush."

Ellie smiled at the floor and took his hand back, holding it and swinging it slightly. "Thanks, B."

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"Before we get to our showstopper, here is an act that can only be described as.. next," Mr. Stern introduced them as they all walked onto stage. "Musatronics!" they each exclaimed.

They began to sing their song and Serena went to see what all of the cheering was about. She stood at the side-stage area and watched as all of the people were clapping along and dancing to their song. "What?!These people are mine!"

"Guys, she's mad now!" Ellie told them. "Earplugs!"

They stopped playing and shoved their earplugs in as she began to sing out of rage. "Stop it! These people need to feel my pain, and so do you!"

"Alright, time for an actual magic show," Benny said as he went over to Ellie and fought off the people who were now attacking them onstage. Ethan fixed their equipment and blasted Serena's sound waves into her ears, making her scream in pain.

"You can't keep me quiet!" Serena yelled. "Sorry? What was that?"

He turned up the sound waves as loud as they could, and Serena gave in and disappeared into the waves. "Woah, that was intense."

"Well, guys, I think we just recorded our first number one," Benny smirked as he threw his drumsticks into the air.

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"I think that's the last time we'll hear from Serena," Ethan mentioned as they were at their lockers the next day. "And MC MonsterBat. Oy."

They all heard the PA system go off overhead as Rory's voice streamed over the speakers. "Yeeeaah, buddy! Whitechapel High, this ain't no lie! MonsterBat Morning Meltdown, don't even ask why!"

Ellie facepalmed at the voice of their friend over the intercom as he explained the morning announcements. "What are we going to do with him?"

"Good question."