The Battle of the Boy Bands Part III of III
By Patrick Gillespie

*** One Week Later: The Final Elimination-Round ***

Backstage the screams and excitement of the audience could be felt. This was the moment Mr. Palman had been waiting for. He may not have made it with his original set of boys, but he had made it.

All of the members of The High Notes stood in a silence waiting to go on. They would go second, right after The Backseat Boys. There would be a total of three rounds. Each round consisting of one performance from each group. After each round the audience would vote for their favorite by screaming the loudest during their favorite performance. Whichever group won two of the three rounds would be the winner of the competition.

Suddenly the lights dimmed and The Backseat Boys went on. Their performance was quite good and the song they sang quite catchy. Their dance moves were good, even great in the eyes of some of those who watched. The audience reacted by cheering and screaming loudly. It would be a tough act to follow.

The lights dimmed again, this time it was The High Notes' time to go on stage. The crowd went wild. Their performance not only dwarfed that of The Backseat Boys, it made what they had done look like kids play. The High Notes out did The Backseat Boys in every aspect of their performance. From the singing to the dancing to the way it all fit together.

At the end of the round The High Notes were declared the winner. The High Notes only had to win one more round to win the contract. The lights then dimmed again and The Backseat Boys came back on stage, but they would only be there for a short time. Their performance simply could not match that of The High Notes. They were booed off stage within a minute into their second song.

The lights then dimmed again and The High Notes took the stage once more. The crowd roared in approval. Their second performance was not unlike their first. Beautiful singing and amazing dance moves. Mr. Palman watched from the sidelines, he could taste the victory they were about to get. He had been waiting his whole life for this moment.

Then suddenly, while in mid performance, Justin looked over at Mr. Palman and gave him an evil look. He had remembered, he had somehow been able to hide the memory of last week's unpleasant event from the memory swipe. Mr. Palman swallowed in discomfort and started to become uncomfortable. He began to worry about what might happen, but even his worst thoughts could not prepare him.

The rest of the boys continued on with the performance, unaware that anything was wrong. JC, the cute one, then went out into the spotlight for his solo part. He was only about half way through when Justin finally decided to make his move. Reaching into a prop bag he had brought with him on stage, he pulled out a blowtorch and immediately set fire to his fellow band mate.

"I will not be controlled! I'm more than just a toy!" Justin screamed. "I will not let you have your dream if you will not let me have mine!"

The crowd screamed in horror.

"Don't worry brother, you will soon be free from the prison they created for you!" Justin roared, continuing to blast JC. "You will be free! You will be free!"

Mr. Palman, thinking quickly, reached for his controller and tried to turn Justin off, but it did not work. Justin was not responding. Mr. Palman began to panic. The controller may have never of worked. Justin could have been faking his turn off responses the whole time. Justin then turned his blowtorch toward his other band mates. They were still standing on stage, frozen it shock from what they had just witnessed.

"Free! Free! Soon you will be free!" Justin insanely yelled and he blasted them with fire.

The audience by this time was flooding the exits trying to escape. People were falling all over each other and some were getting stomped on as they fled the building. Once the other robots had thoroughly been destroyed, Justin turned his weapon toward the one he hated most, Mr. Palman.

The fearful boy band manager closed his eyes and braced himself for what could be his end, but after a few seconds of cowering in fear, nothing happened. Mr. Palman slowly opened his eyes and looked back at the robot, it appeared as if it had abruptly halted and turned off. Stunned, but relieved, he relaxed some and looked around the abandoned room to see a reason for the sudden halting of Justin. After a few seconds the two businessmen that had greeted him from the limousine two weeks before emerged from behind some trashcans that had been turned over. They appeared very upset.

"This is quite displeasing, we told you we would see you in two weeks, but we did not want it to be like this," one of the businessmen calmly said. "You have made a mockery of this contest and of Jive Records."

"The robot... it wouldn't, it wouldn't turn off," Mr. Palman replied.

"I think we need to have a little talk," one of the businessmen replied, directing him toward one of the exits in the room. "You need some 're-education.'"

Mr. Palman followed, not knowing what would happen to him. The halted Justin continued to stay in the same position, but now bared an evil smile.

The Backseat Boys remained backstage, unharmed from the brief moments of terror, yet still a little shaken up. After a few minutes of waiting, they were greeted by some unenthusiastic Jive Records' officials. They were then informed that by default, they had won the contest. All of the boys radiated with happiness. They were then lead into a back room for the signing of the record contract.

As they walked into the room they were greeted with a warm reception from the president of Jive records, the ambassador to planet Earth, and the ambassador to planet Rew. All of the boys joyfully smiled. Only the greatest acts on their planet got marketed to the other known human inhabited planets.

Years ago their people, the people of the planet Zarun, had discovered a way to quickly travel through space. With this technology they discovered and were able to travel to two other planets in their galaxy that inhabited humans. The planet Earth, and the planet Rew. Jive Records had funded the research for the technology, so they were the ones to benefit from the technology's discoveries.

Being the business that it was, Jive Records had quickly set up secret deals with the existing record companies on Earth and Rew. Jive Records would supply all these companies with all the cheesy pop music that they needed, and they would in return supply Jive Records with gold and rock music.

After some chitchat, the boys were made to sign a contract that said they would not reveal who they really were when visiting the other planets. The knowledge of such a fact could ruin the market, and Jive Records wanted no such thing. They were making too much gold from the other planets to have someone ruin the market. The boys happily accepted the agreement and began what would soon become an interplanetary phenomenon.

The End