Stage In The Sky

Chapter 4: Sub-Zero

The first week of the movie shooting went well. The second week started off good…but ended with a fight between Serena and me. I had enough of her complaining and gave her a piece of my mind. Ken intervened with a kick that bruised my ribs something fierce. Ken…he was usually a cool dude, but I saw from his eyes that he’d mess up anyone who messed with Sailor Moon.

Ken also started teaching Chris and I proper Shotokan Karate. He taught us to utilize the body in self-defense. His style used an array of kicks and powerful punches as well as these crazy acrobatic moves.

Our schedule was hectic. It was hard to ever find time to relax and just have fun. Chris found it easy to have fun, while I’d focus on training. I remember Chris throwing water balloons at the girl one time. He could always be depended on to lighten the mood.

Every morning since we started shooting the film, Chris and I would run as fast as we could to school as part of our training. During class, we’d do push-ups as quietly as we could without disturbing everyone. Chris out would tire out and quit before me. But I was more determined.

From three to eight, Chris and I would join the other cast members to film the movie. At about seven, mom and dad would occasionally visit us on the set and serve us dinner. When I got home, Chris and I would spar for a while, using techniques Ken taught us. Of course, Chris would pucker out early so I’d have to practice by myself. I didn’t stop until Dad made me. The next day we’d wake up and do it all over again.

On Saturday December 14th while the cast was having lunch, the director, Steven Tack came to join us for lunch. It was the first time he did that.

“Hey everyone! I just wanted to come and tell you guys that you’re doing a great job. In two weeks we expect to shoot the final scene. And, I just wanted to tell oyu that it’s been a pleasure working with all of you.”

“YEAH!” Chris exclaimed.

Steven’s words were followed by a chorus of applause, cheers, and whistles.

“There’s just one more thing we have to talk about,” said Steven. “Ken, Ryu, Sailor Scouts. We need a soundtrack.”

“Don’t worry about it. We already started writing songs. And the girls wrote three songs before they arrived for filming.” Ryu assured him.

“And Majestic and I can sing too. Majestic has a whole notebook full of song.” Chris told everyone

“That’s great!” Ken said. “It’ll be easy to make our songs a four-part harmony.”

Everyone seemed happy about the idea. Except Ryu. Actually, he looked irritated.

“Well, what do you say, Ryu?” I asked him.

With a fake grin, he shouted, “Let’s do it!”

…

A limo dropped us off that day at about 7:30pm. Chris seemed a little uneasy. Like something was troubling him. We gathered at the table to eat dinner with mom and dad.

“Guess what! Chris and I are going to help Ken and Ryu on a soundtrack for the movie.” I told mom and dad.

“That’s awesome!” Mom cheered.

“So you guys plan on being in a group?” Dad asked.

“I really hope so. It’ll be so cool.”

Chris was barely eating anything. He put down his fork and abruptly scooted out his chair. “I’m sorry.” He said before walking out the back door.

“Don’t worry, I think I know what’s wrong with him.” I told mom and dad.

I turned on the porch light and joined Chris in the backyard. He was sitting on a rocking chair under the gazebo, accompanied by our Rottweiler, Max.

“Alright, Chris. Talk to me. If anybody is worried about something, it’s usually me.”

He smiled. “I see you’re getting better at martial arts. You can probably beat me straight up, without all that rage.”

“Nah. Two years too soon for all that.” I smirked.

“I’m serious, bro. You practice more than I do. Train more than I do. And honestly, I’ve seen you do some of those kicks a lot better than Ken.”

“Chris, what are you getting at?”

“You’re not going to believe me. But I’m going to tell you, and show you.”

I squinted with a curious expression. Couldn’t remember the last time I saw him so serious. Considering all the supernatural crap I’ve seen the Sailor Scouts do over the past few weeks, I doubted he could say anything that would surprise me.

“Every night, long before I knew what adopted meant, I’ve been having these dreams.”

“What kind of dreams?” I asked.

“Really weird ones. Mainly, I see me wearing this blue ninja looking uniform. I’m fighting people. Then, I would see a few other people wearing ninja uniforms, except their colors were different. One was wearing red. Another, yellow. Green. Purple. We fought each other and they’d kill me. That’s when I’d wake up and feel that my hands were covered in ice.”

“Ice?!”

“Yeah, man! I’d go to the bathroom and it’d take minutes before the hot water could thaw through it. Sometimes…I cried. I couldn’t understand why this was happening. But dude…even when I cried, my tears would quickly freeze as they rolled down my cheeks.”

“What?!”

“Exactly! My tears would be ice cold!” He shouted.

“Alright man, calm down. Maybe we could…”

I couldn’t believe it. He was really tore up about it. He was crying before my very eyes. And before my very eyes, I saw how his tears would freeze up and wither away like tiny beads of snow. Carefully, I reached out and touched his face.

I flinched.

“How is this possible?” I whispered.

“I’m not finished.” He said. “After mom explained what adopted meant, I had a dream that three other guys helped me fight against those ninjas. And we won. Then, just last night, I had a dream that really freaked me out. A voice was talking to me. It said that I was the sworn protector of his son. I asked the voice who his son was.”

Chris’s blue eyes rose from the concrete porch floor and landed on me.

“Well? Who…who is his son?”

“You. He said his son was Majestic.”

I just stared at him. I couldn’t believe it. Chris could just be lying. He better not be.

“After the voice said your name, I saw a vision of a pair of red fingerless fighting gloves with a pad metal spikes on the backhand side. Then I saw this huge diamond the size of a tennis ball. And finally, I saw the coolest sword I ever saw. The blade looked Japanese but with Chinese dragons etched in the blade. But the handle looked medieval.

“And this morning. I can’t explain it, but something compelled me to look under my bed. There was a box, like a wooden chest or something. Either way, I don’t know how it got there. I’ve never seen it before. But these were inside.”

“No way! Un-uh! No possible way!” I gushed.

It was a pair of red fighting gloves. The kind Chris described.

“Well, try ‘em on.” He told me.

A little worried, I cautiously reached out and grabbed them. They were remarkably light-weight and had a leather touch. The pad of tiny metal spikes on the back were sharp, but didn’t cut unless I really added pressure, like a brillo almost. Anyways, I put the gloves on that night for the first time of hundreds to come. And as soon as I did…

A surge of energy rippled through my entire body and pulsed in my heart. I literally heard a loud heartbeat and stumbled back, almost dropping to my knees. It was incredible. It’s not like I felt all-powerful. But more so, my focus, this intensity sharpened to the point where I just felt ready. Ready for what? Anything. Alert. Ready to take on anything.

“Wow…” I gushed. “Don’t tell me you’re going to find a sword under your bed tomorrow.”

He chuckled, having watched me with great amusement.

“Majestic. I swear, everything I’m telling you is true. I know it’ll hurt you too much if I lied about something like this. And check this out.”

Chris stood up and faced me and Max. He stood there and closed his eye as if he was concentrating on something. His body started to tremble. At the same time, a blue aura started to glow around him. Quickly, it got brighter. Finally, there was a blinding flash of light and after I shielded my eyes, I looked and saw something that caused my jaw to drop.

“Wow…” was all I could say.

“This is the blue ninja uniform I was wearing. Check this out!”

Chris whipped his arm and extended toward the wooden fence. Nothing happened for a couple of seconds. Suddenly, a blue beam and the chime of crackling ice projected from his hands to the fence. Then, Chris ran to the frozen fence and performed an awesome flying heel kick to break through as if it was nothing but brittle branches.

A fragment of the shatter fence flew my way. I caught it and immediately let it go. It was so cold. Max started licking it. The wood was encased in a chunk of solid ice.

“Bro…That’s so cool. You can create ice. That’s awesome! You should be happy.”

“Majestic, I think those guys I was fighting in my dreams were my brothers. And in my dream, I die.”

“What about the three guys that are supposed to help you out?”

“Well, I have no doubt you’re one of them. I think the others are Ken and Ryu.”

“Oh…” I said, understanding his concern.

“Did you see the way Ryu looked when it came to making a soundtrack?”

“How could I forget?” I said.

“Exactly. He’s not a good friend. But without his help, I think I’m going to die!”

“Hey!” I said, rushing over. “That’s not going to happen, bro. Ryu will come to his senses even if I have to make him.”

Chris looked at me with such sorrow, but smiled nonetheless. That’s when Dad came outside. And told us to come in and hit the showers. It was so dark out, that I don’t think he noticed Chris was dressed like a freaking ninja. Just as Dad turned to go back inside, he saw the flash of light. Turned back around, and Chris was dressed in his regular clothes. I just laughed. Dad’s bewildered expression was priceless.

The next day, the cast and crew had the day off. It was a good thing too. I didn’t wake up until eleven. Mom and Dad had to go to work, but Chris and I stayed home because it was Christmas vacation.

After brushing my teeth, I went to go wake up Chris. “Yo Chris, wake up.” I said with a nudge.

It didn’t work. So, I thought I’d take a page out of his book. I leaned close to his ear and shouted, “WAKE UP!!!”

Chris’s eyes shot open. He thrust his open palm towards my chest and the next thing I knew, I went flying back into the closet doors with a massive blasting icy beam. I was suspended in a block of ice with my feet off the ground. It was ridiculous and freaking freezing. My teeth rattled like crazy and I could barely move a muscle.

“CHRIS!” I shouted.

“OH! Majestic, I’m sorry!” He said, rushing out of bed and almost slipping on the floor.

“Let me think.” He said.

Then he put his hands on the block of ice encasing my body and gradually, it started to evaporate and melt at the same time.

“Chris, how are you doing this?” I said, still grinding my teeth in frozen terror.

He chuckled. “Don’t know. Just am. You really shouldn’t have woke me up like that bro. It’s just silliness.”

“Well, you do it all the time. You don’t see me freezing you to death.” I stammered.

There was a knock on the front door.

“Who’s that?” Chris asked.

“How the freak should I know!”

“Pull yourself together bro. Get dressed and all that.” He told me as I yanked the comforter from my bed and wrapped it tight.

Chris looked through the peep door and rolled his eyes.

“What’s up man?” Ryu said casually after Chris opened the door.

“Come in and have a seat.” Chris told Ken and Ryu.

I joined them.

“Guys…do you really want to do a song for the soundtrack?” Ken asked. “I mean, I know you’re good and all. But you lack the experience.”

Ryu added, “I mean, I doubt you guys have any idea what it’s like to produce or even handle fame?”

“You guys don’t have a clue.” I countered. “Do you think this is our first time doing entertainment? Ever since we were little we’ve entered talent contests and won. Last year we recorded a CD.”

“Never heard of it.” Ryu said, bluntly. “Why haven’t I heard of it?”

“Probably because you were on the other side of the freaking country.” Chris said, growing impatient.

“Look, if you don’t want us to do it. The just say it.” I told them.

“Relax. We’re just questioning you guys because we want you to do a song with us. We just didn’t know if you were qualified.” Said Ken.

“Well…are we qualified?” I asked him.

Ken gave us the thumbs up with that charismatic grin of his. “Of course!”

I smiled with relief. In my mind, this was just one step towards building that friendship to keep Chris safe.

…

For the next couple of days, Ken and Ryu stayed at our house thinking of lyrics for the songs. Next, we had to decide who would sing which verse. For the first song we did called, “As Long As You Love Me,” Chris would sing the lead vocals in the first verse. Then Ryu would sing the second. I would sing during the breakdown. We all would sing the chorus, of course. Since the song has a smooth steady tempo and an uptown beat, I decided we should make some dance steps to it. For the position of choreographer, Ken and I had a dancing contest. I won.

Next, we presented it to the Sailor Scouts. They laughed at us at first, probably because we performed like we were serious. Or, at least I was. Even though their laughing pissed me off, I thought for sure that this song would be the starting point for our careers. When we showed the director, he was impressed and said we needed a music video. We named our boyband of Ken, Ryu, Chris and I, the Backstreet Boys. Us guys together with the Sailor Scouts made up the team called, G-Force.

On December 21, Ken’s dad showed up. I think mom was impressed by the way he looked when we picked him up from the local airport, Bush Fields. Ken and his father, Ben Masters, looked like they had a happy father-son relationship. Ben hung around and hugged everyone except my family.

“Man, you guys have grown! It’s been too long.” Said a cheerful Ben.

“Five months, to be exact.” Ken pointed out with obvious disappointment.

Chris and I stepped forward. “Hi, my name is Majestic and this is my brother Chris.”

“Oh yeah, sure.” Ben said, taking off Chris’s hat to sign it.

“No, um. Mr. B…” Serena snickered. “This is Majestic and Chris! They’re part of Ken and Ryu’s group, the Backstreet Boys.”

“Hold on…You’re Majestic and Chris!? Man! I heard your song. That song was rockin’, man. You guys are only eleven too? You’re just kids! Haha! You guys are going to kick a whole lot of ass man. I can’t wait.”

Mom slapped him. “Watch your mouth. These are kids.”

Immediately, six bodyguards in black started grabbing mom and dad. Chris and I sprung to action. I turned the shoulders of two guards grabbing my mom and did a hellacious spinning roundhouse to knock them boy out. Dad put one man in a headlock and dragged them to the ground.

Chris side-kicked one in the ribs. The last two came running for Chris when he jutted his open palm towards the pavement, freezing it with a blue frosty beam. The two men managed to keep their balance as they slid forward on their ice. But they were powerless to Chris and I drop-kicking them in their chests.

Chris and I kick-jumped back to our feet when Ben held out his hands. “Whoa! Sorry about that! That’s on me.”

Everyone calmed down. Chris was amazed to see our dad all riled up. It was the first time we ever saw him put hands on anyone.

“You guys are amazing. I think I want to be your producer. Executive producer.” Ben said.

“What do you mean?” Dad asked.

Ben smiled and presented a business card like a magician. “We’ll talk more later.”

After Dad took the business card, Ben Masters hopped in a limo with Ken, Ryu, and the Sailor Scouts while Chris and I rode home with mom and dad. I couldn’t figure Ben out. From first impressions, I could tell he was very unique. He had a surfer accent, very rich, very important…but made his son study martial arts? What kind of guy was he?