Fan Fiction ❯ Chao Music ❯ End ( Chapter 17 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

A/N: I've decided to go ahead and end the fic with this chapter. I hope none of you mind, seeing that I've been saying that it would've been two more after this.

And now, the final Review responses!

To ficmaster: Yep. And it gets even more and more serious. Uh oh.

Enjoy.

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“Where are they?” asked Julia, tapping her foot. “We've been waiting for about four hours now.”

“They probably got caught in traffic,” said Skippy, sitting on the plush grass of their new estate. “And it is a totally different country with totally different driving rules. They probably just got a little sidetracked.”

“Still, I'm getting a little worried. Should I call the police?”

“Nah. Iyou's a smart person.”

“…OK…”

“So is Kryptic.”

“OK. That's good.”

It was near that moment that a yellow taxi pulled into their estate, stopping right next to the front door.

“Who could that be?” asked Julia, heading towards the taxi. She soon found out, however, when she noticed that Kryptic and Iyou were in the front seats.

“What's going on?” asked Skippy as the two Chao got out of the cab. “Where's Bus?”

“Bus is gone,” said Iyou, slamming the door.

“What?” asked the other two Chao at once. “Why?”

“The police thought it was… `misleading',” said Kryptic, making quotation marks with her fingers. “They wanted us to sell Bus and get a taxi instead. They thought that if we drove around a Bus, people would want to hop on, and since we wouldn't stop, they would sue the bus companies.”

“But…” began Skippy, “wouldn't they know that Bus isn't a travel bus? Wouldn't the Plastic Spoons graffiti we put on it give away?”

Kryptic and Iyou stared at each other.

“I… guess we forgot about that,” said Iyou. “We could drive over to the police station. They still might have Bus with them.”

“Well don't just stand there, then!” said Julia, rushing over to the cab's side doors. “Fire up Taxi and start driving!”

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“What do you mean that we can't take it back?”

“I'm sorry, sir, but they bus company has already purchased the bus. They need more buses.”

Iyou sighed. “Are you sure? There's no way we can give them enough money to buy another bus?”

“I'm afraid not,” said the police man, sitting behind a desk. “I'm terribly sorry.”

The four Chao said nothing as they turned around and headed out of the police station.

“So what now?” asked Kryptic.

“There's nothing else we can do,” said Iyou. “We're just going to have to keep this piece of crap until we can find something better.”

The four Chao looked at their new ride and sighed.

“It's so… yellow…” said Julia. “Wouldn't this attract people as well?”

“No. They mainly use the bus. I haven't seen a single taxi cab in this city yet.”

“We might as well just go home,” said Skippy, already climbing into the back. “We've got to start recording tomorrow.”

The rest of the Chao said nothing as they piled in. Iyou jammed the keys into the ignition, and they drove off, leaving behind a trail of black smoke.

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“OK… Let's start over from measure 768. If we can just get through there, we should be done.”

“Right,” said Neil, nodding his head to Charles's idea. “From 768 on the beat of 4. One. Two. Three. Four.”

All four Chao began to play a slow, sorrowful sounding tune, which sounded much like Lynyrd Skynyrd's Free Bird. The tempo was fairly the same, but the notes were very different.

Taking a deep breath, Neil began to sing.

“So if you try to find the prisoner

You will notice he's not there.

He has flown far away, now

Far away, from here.

How many times must I tell you…

There's no way you'll understand

That he's a whiiiite raaaven

Soaring high above the land!

Woah woah woah woah!

Soaring high above the land.

Soaring high above the land!

Yea yea yea yea!”

The tempo rapidly increased, and the four Chao were playing a fast and catchy hard rock solo.

Neil took in large amounts of air as he prepared for his vocal part.

Opening his mouth widely, he began to scream.

“FLY AWAY!

FLY AWAY!

ANY DAY!

WHITE RAVEN

SO PURE ON THE OUTSIDE

BUT LITTLE DO YOU UNDERSTAND

WHAT'S ON THE INSIDE!

WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIITE!!!!!

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAVEEEEEEEEN-EN-EN-EN-EN!”

Neil prepared to yell out one more word, but stopped when he grabbed his chest and winced. His guitar fell limply to his side, dangling on its strap.

“Neil?” asked Skippy, who was standing right next to him at the time. “Are you OK?”

“I can't breathe…” said Neil, words quiet with lack of breath.

“Oh man…” said Skippy, motioning to Charles. “He's going under!”

“What?” asked Charles, noticing Neil. “Aw man…”

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“I've never felt so worried in my life,” said Raven, slowly swinging her legs as she looked at the floor in sadness.

“I'm scared,” said Julia, wringing her hands. “Is he going to be alright?”

“I don't know. All we can do is wait…”

More silence.

“Here's Skippy,” said Raven, looking past Julia. Indeed, Skippy was heading right towards them. Once he was close enough, Raven asked, “Any word?”

Skippy nodded. “He's suffering minor pneumothorax.”

Raven and Julia just continued to look at Skippy as if he had never said anything. Finally, Julia spoke up.

“What?”

“Minor pneumothorax. It's a partially collapsed lung.”

“That sounds serious,” said Raven, squinting. “Is he going to be alright?”

“Yeah. The doctor said that it was just caused by spasms in the diaphragm. It caused air to get trapped under his lungs, and they just partially became unstable. But the doctor says that Neil will never be able to sing like that…”

“For how long?” asked Julia, hoping that it wouldn't be too long. They desperately needed to get the album done.

“Never.”

Raven just muttered something under her breath while Julia's eyes grew wide.

“What are we going to do?” asked Raven. “The band could be at stake.”

“I don't really care about the band right now,” said Skippy. “Neil's body could've killed himself. Would you still be worrying about the band then?”

Raven frowned. “No… I guess not…”

The three Chao sat there for a full five minutes before Julia spoke up.

“Do you think… that this is the beginning of the end?”

“What do you mean?” asked Skippy.

“The end of the band. I mean, yeah, he could still sing, but not as well. And the Lord knows that I can't sing like he can, and you two have to concentrate a lot… People will loose interest, and then our stocks will go down. We can't… go on like that.”

“Personally, I really don't care. It's just a band… We'd still make some money off of our old albums. The Beatles are still making huge royalties.”

“But that's then,” said Raven. “What about later? This is the year 2005 we're talking about. Most kids seem to switch interests in a week or so now.”

“We would still be friends… right?”

“Of course,” said Raven, smiling. “We'd still see each other. I mean, it's not like we're going to bite each other's heads off about this or something.”

“Right,” said Skippy, smiling faintly.

The two Chao sat there in silence once more. A nurse then came up to them a few minutes later.

“Are you with Neil?” she asked.

The three Chao turned and faced her.

“Yes,” said Raven. “How is he?”

“He's fine, but he needs to stay here overnight. You can come and visit him tomorrow morning.”

“Alright…” said Julia. “Thank you.”

The nurse nodded and left.

“I guess we should go,” said Skippy, looking at his watch. “It's getting very late.”

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“Now that you've decided to end your career, do you plan to pursue another one?”

Raven looked at the reporter. “No,” she said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “I'm getting sick of it all. I can't… just expect to go on with it anymore. I haven't even graduated high school yet.”

“So you're saying that you just want to settle down and live a normal teenage life?”

Raven sighed. “Yeah. Pretty much.”

“What about the others? Do they want to stop as well?”

“Probably, yeah. We've all decided it was a good idea to end the Plastic Spoons. We were all getting sick of it, to tell you the truth. I think…”

The reporters around Raven waited for her to finish her sentence.

“I think that… we're all much happier now.”

The reporters just marked that statement down, not asking any more questions. They then left, not saying goodbye or anything. Raven knew that the press conference had now ended.

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“How did it go?” asked Skippy, noticing Raven approaching Taxi.

“Not bad,” she said, climbing in. “Those reporters were terrible, though. They probably asked me the same question five times.”

“But we're finally done now, right?” asked Neil from the front. “We no longer have to do anything?”

Raven shook her head. “No.”

Iyou nodded as he pulled out of the driveway.

For five minutes, the Chao sat in silence, looking out the window. Finally, Skippy grew bored.

“Turn on the radio or something.”

Neil happily obliged and pressed one of the buttons. The Chao smiled when they recognized the song.

“Free As A Bird,
It's the next best thing to be free as a bird.

Home, home and dry
Like a humming bird I fly as a bird on wings.

Whatever happened to the life that we once knew
Can we really live without each other
Where did we lose the touch
That seemed to mean so much
It always made me feel so

Free as a bird,
It's the next best thing to be free as a bird.

Home home and dry
Like a humming bird I fly--a bird on wing

Whatever happened to the life that we once knew
Always made me feel soooo
Free

Free as a bird
It's the next best thing to be
Free as a bird
Free as a bird
Free as a bird”

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And that's the end.

Thank God.