Super: Underground: Book 2 in the Super: Series (12 page)

Over the next couple of weeks, the group continued recording and finished putting the gym together while Riss and Lex learned more about Lex’s new talents. The first new skill Lex had discovered, which they took to calling the Voice of Command, seemed to be effective for very simple commands, like “Stop” or “Come here” or “Wake up.” The Voice of Command seemed to be able to make people do things against their will, however, an idea that made Lex very uncomfortable.

She noticed that Riss had been correct in thinking that if she tested her will against the voice commands that she could learn to break them. When they first started practicing together, it would take over five minutes for Riss to begin moving on her own again once Lex had commanded her to stop. After a few weeks, the number of minutes until her friend got free had started to decrease, even though Riss could only move slowly at first until Lex gave a freeing command.

“It feels like I’m trying to walk despite a huge amount of weight or pressure piled on me, like I’m at the bottom of the Marianas Trench or something,” Riss had described the experience.

The second thing Riss and Lex had been working on they began to call the Voice of Persuasion. To Lex’s relief, she didn’t seem to be able to make Riss do anything against her will with that voice, but Riss described it as more of a siren song that could potentially convince someone to do something. As they practiced, Lex found she could deliver focused messages, making requests more complex than she could do with the Voice of Command. Riss became increasingly sensitive to them, to the point of being able to accurately describe Lex’s requests much of the time.

While the group finished their album, they also set up some shows around town in order to practice performing and to see people’s reactions to the new material they’d worked out. While they prepared to go on stage for their third show, Riss turned to Lex with a raised eyebrow.

“Why don’t you try something out while we’re on tonight?” she said, showing off the ghost of a smile. “Put a message in one of the songs to ask people to buy our CD.”

Lex shrugged, thinking about the fact that they’d just finished putting together their first bunch that day and had about 20 with them. “Why don’t I just say something about it during one of the breaks or just before we go off stage?”

Riss nodded. “Yeah, definitely say something then, but you should also try your Persuasion out on them, see how well it works.”

Lex looked back dubiously. “I don’t know,” she responded. “That just doesn’t sound right.”

“Come on,” Riss said, trying to convince Lex. “It’s a Tuesday night and there’s not really much of a crowd. What would it hurt?”

“But what if the people don’t have the money? It would be wrong to use Persuasion on them to try to buy a CD.”

Riss shrugged. “You’re good enough at it now; ask them to buy the CD if they have spare cash.”

Lex frowned. “What song would I put it into, anyway?”

“I think you should add it to the song about being hungry,” Lou said, coming up behind the two women.

Glaring back at him, Lex said, “Lou, I would have thought you wouldn’t encourage this!”

He shrugged. “I don’t see any harm in it. From what Riss says, if someone really didn’t want to buy our CD, you wouldn’t convince them to do it anyway.”

As a result, Lex felt more nervous than normal as she stepped out onto the stage, but the sensation dissolved as she got into the performance, feeling her way through the songs as she normally did. The crowd seemed small but appreciative, so Lex found herself relaxing as the set wore on.

As Lou played the initial bars of the song she and Riss had discussed, Lex found her stomach clenching, nervous about the idea again. But she took a deep breath before she began to sing and resolved that she would just be doing a one-time test and that she’d add the Voice of Persuasion somewhere near the middle of the song.

The taste in my head is as dry as my mouth

As I work, I walk, I write, I read

No matter what I do or where I go

I can’t get away from what I need

The crushing, grinding emptiness fills me

I struggle not to think

But everything around me

Points to that missing link

I’m hungry

I crave what I don’t have

I’m hungry

It takes the strength from me

Lex continued to sing, thinking of the times in her life when she’d been confronted with empty cupboards, or maybe just empty pockets, and no way to fill them or her empty belly. About halfway through the song Lex remembered her talk with Riss, and so she tried to send a message out to the crowd, hidden in the lyrics she sang. She felt the skill she’d used before kick in, and heard the familiar burr in her voice, so after she sent the message, Lex just continued singing. They performed a couple more songs to end the set, and once it was over, Lex introduced everyone and explained that they’d recently finished recording their first album and had copies for sale. She pointed at the table near the back of the room where Casey sat and took a final bow before beginning to dismantle her gear.

After they’d packed their equipment up and Lou had carried it out to the van, the three of them wandered back into the club to meet up with Casey. She stood near the table talking to someone setting up merchandise for the next band. Once Casey spotted them, she held up the empty box they’d brought the CDs to the show in.

“They bought every last one,” Casey said with a goofy smile. “Some of the people here who didn’t get one seemed mad, actually. I got some good tips from some of the other bands on getting set up with an online distributor, and I took email information from the people who didn’t get a copy so we can let them know once we’re set up.”

Riss looked over at Lex with a look that said, “I told you so,” and Lex felt sick to her stomach.

“I shouldn’t have done that. It was completely wrong,” Lex mumbled, scuffing her shoe on the floor.

Casey raised an eyebrow, while Riss spoke up. “You just encouraged them. Trust me, by now I know how this works. You didn’t force anyone to buy our music who didn’t want it.”

Lex looked at her friend dubiously, and Riss shook her head. “It’s not like you have to do it every show or anything. I just wanted to see if it would work with people other than us, and it seems like it does.”

As Lex looked back up, she could see Casey looking at Lou with a raised eyebrow while he just shook his head. Lex sighed as Casey put a large hand on her shoulder.

“Look, there’s no harm done. And don’t worry about it; I’ll set up the distributor. It’s a good idea anyway, since we’ll be on the road soon enough.”

Sighing, Lex nodded, resolving to forget about it and enjoy the rest of the lineup that evening.

Over the next few weeks, during the run up to their departure, the band practiced the songs that they planned to perform on tour at least a few times every day. Over meals they discussed the various venues and locations they’d perform at on their “first West Coast tour,” as Casey insisted on calling it.

“I figure that’s the way it is, since we’ve only really talked about hitting a few areas this first time. We can think about it as sort of an initial look, and the second time around we can hit a lot more places because we’ll probably have a feel for where we want to look most,” Casey explained.

“Why don’t we just hit more places this time around?” Riss asked in return, shrugging.

“Well, when I talked to everyone about it, it seemed like most of us wanted to just try life on tour in order to see how things go,” Casey responded. “Even you didn’t seem to like the idea of being on the road for months.”

Riss raised an eyebrow. “You’re right about that. I didn’t realize that’s what it would take to do a lot more.”

Casey tilted her head to the side, thinking. “We can take as much or as little time as we want, but based on the amount of territory we all talked about when we started thinking about touring as a way to figure out where to settle, I think we’d really need several months to cover it all.”

Riss nodded then, and so did Lex as they all bent to look at the maps and schedules that Casey had printed out. For their first tour they’d decided to visit San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, and Seattle. They’d be playing at ten different venues all together, and they figured they’d be on the road nearly a month between playing the shows, visiting, and traveling.

A couple of weeks before their first show in San Diego found Lex and her friends busy making a large number of CDs. After they’d received a massive amount of raw supplies that they’d ordered, the group spent days making CDs by hand. Once they had 300, everyone agreed to call it quits, even over Casey’s argument.

“Look,” Riss said, putting the cover on the stack of blank CDs she’d been feeding into the CD printer the group had gotten. “That’s 30 CDs for every venue we’re playing. We’re not likely to sell that many each time we play, anyway. I think any more would just be overkill.”

“I agree,” Lex chimed in, putting down the scissors she’d been wielding for hours to cut the CD inserts they’d gotten done at a local print shop. “Let’s call it done.”

Lou looked over at Casey and nodded. Casey sighed and wiped her hands on her jeans, then closed the last CD case and put it in the box with the others.

“All right, but if we run into a situation like we did the other night, I’m going to make you take over for me and explain to your disappointed fans why we ran out.”

The group also decided to practice some simple team techniques in case anything happened on the road. From the first session Lex and Riss could see how Casey and Lou protectively closed in on them, protecting them from either side. Smiling to herself, Lex suggested a different version where Lou and Casey flanked her and Riss but not so closely that they couldn’t move.

The group did discuss, in detail, what to do if a situation came up where they’d need Lex’s Voice of Command.

“We should think of some sort of code word or something,” Casey said, “in case Lex has to use it. That way, she can shout the code word, we all cover our ears, and then she says the command.”

Lex sighed. “All right, but only in case there’s some sort of emergency.”

Everyone thought for a few moments, until Lex finally spoke up again. “How about if we use ‘orange?’ It’s pretty short, and most other words don’t sound like it.”

“Orange,” Casey mused, saying it slowly. “Sounds good to me. What do you all think?”

Riss shrugged and nodded, and Lou nodded as well. “OK, ‘orange’ is it, then,” Casey added with a smile.

Just a couple of days before they’d scheduled the tour to begin, Riss and Casey caught Lex in the kitchen after breakfast but just before she made it to the gym for her morning workout.

“Come on,” said Casey as she grabbed Lex’s arm. “We need to do some shopping today.”

Lex felt confused, wondering what had prompted the trip. “You need me along?”

“Yeah,” Casey agreed with a grin. “Some of the things we need to get are for you.”

She felt puzzled, especially when she realized Riss would be going too, until they arrived at a clothing store in their local mall. Lex didn’t mind as they browsed through a few shops, looking for things to wear on stage.

“Look,” Casey told them as they glanced through the racks, “I’ve been talking to some of the other bands and their managers, and the one thing they recommended as a way we could improve is to pay more attention to our look.”

Lex turned her attention from the t-shirts she’d been looking at and stared at Casey for a moment. “We don’t have a look,” she stated, raising an eyebrow.

Casey barked out a laugh. “That’s what they said. When we talked about it they said it really didn’t matter for Lou as much as it did for you two. I asked what they’d recommend, based on what you guys sound like, and they said dark colors and maybe some leather.” She scratched her head for a moment before continuing. “Not my idea, really, as I’m sure you can tell, but that’s what they said.”

Riss stopped what she was doing as well, and now both she and Lex stared at Casey. The taller woman held up her hands. “Don’t look at me like that, I’m just telling you what they said. A number of them talked about how your music sounds very Dark Ambient or Gothic, whatever that means, and that it was a common style of dress for that type of band.”

Lex sighed. “All right,” she agreed, willing to think about it. “Let’s keep going and we’ll see.”

Riss gave Casey another suspicious look and went back to browsing.

They bought a number of t-shirts for the two of them. Riss favored ones with cybernetic themes and found several that she liked, and Lex felt most pleased that she’d found a small shop that sold anime-themed gear. She picked up a number of t-shirts to replace the ones she’d lost when they fled. Her favorites had designs that wrapped all the way around the shirt, with characters or their accessories winding from front to back.

They ran into a snag when they reached the leather shop, however. Riss completely refused to try on anything other than a slim-fitting leather coat that fell almost to her knees, but that ended up looking so good on her that it didn’t seem to matter. Once Casey turned to work on Lex, Lex found that she had to veto some of the ideas her friend presented to her, as well.

“No, no, absolutely not,” she said in horror as Casey held up a bustier and short skirt to her.

“Which one don’t you like?” the taller woman asked.

“Both of them…I can’t wear stuff like that! I’d look like…I don’t know. A total ass.” Lex frowned as she looked at the two rather small pieces of clothing, wishing them away.

“Come on, Lex. You know you’re in good enough shape to wear something like this,” Casey said, trying to sound convincing as she shook the two hangers in Lex’s direction.

Lex shook her head. “No, Casey, really. I just…couldn’t. I’d be so uncomfortable I don’t think I could sing right. Isn’t there anything else I could try?”

“Well,” Casey said with a frown of her own, then pulled a pair of leather pants off the table behind her. Lex sighed, then gulped as she looked at them, but dutifully put out her hand to grab them so that she could try them on.