The Metal Men

The Rogue Rockers

by Martin Maenza

Prologue

Twenty months earlier in a small bar on Sunset Strip at two in the morning, a quartet of men sat around a table in the back drowning their sorrows with shots and beers. Most had long hair and faces in need of a shave. They were dressed mostly in dark colors or black, in leather and T-shirts.

“This totally sucks!” Danny said. “We’re never gonna catch a break!”

Scott clanked his beer bottle against his long time friend’s. “I’ll drink to that!” he laughed.

“You’ll drink to anything, you peckerhead!” Sean said.

“Shut up!” Scott said, slamming his beer down. “Or I’ll make you shut up!” He lunged across the table at Sean.

“Oh, you want a piece of me, pretty boy!” Sean said, preparing to defend himself.

“Stop it both of you!” Danny, the only blonde in the group, said. Rick, the quiet one, merely brooded in the corner taking this all in. “Fighting ain’t gonna help our situation! How the hell are we gonna get discovered if my two guitar men are messin’ up the act by poundin’ each other?”

“Your friend has a point,” an authoritative voice said as he approached the table. The four members of the band turned to see a man with long blonde hair, past his shoulders. The guy was dressed stylishly in tight black leather pants, a dark dress shirt opened three quarters of the way and a thin black headband.

“This is private convo,” Scott said. “So buzz off!”

“Really?” the newcomer asked. “Too bad. I thought you boys were looking to be discovered. I was going to offer my assistance to you in that endeavor. But, if you’re not interested…” The man started to turn to walk away.

Sean bolted out of his seat. “Hold up!” he said, grabbing the man and spinning him around. “You looking to help us? Why?”

The blonde man smiled and reached into his shirt pocket. “My card,” he said, flipping it onto the table.

Danny snatched it up quickly. “N. Styx, musical agent,” he read aloud. “No way!” He passed the card around to the others. “You’re seriously an agent?”

“Yes,” the blonde said. “I used to be in a band before I moved to management. You might remember me from ‘the Devil’s Crue’.”

Sean took a good look at the man’s face more closely as did Danny. “Hell, yeah!” Sean said. “I recognize you now! Nicky Styx! Scott, get this man something to drink!”

Danny pulled up a chair and gestured for the man to sit. He complied. “So, you looking for acts to represent?”

“Yes,” Nicky said. “I caught your act this evening. You boys have potential, I can see that. With the right direction and focus, I think you could make a big name for yourself. In fact, I’m betting that, with my backing, you boys could go down in the history books of rock ‘n’ roll.”

“No foolin’?” Scott asked.

Nicky smiled. “I’m willing to draw you up a contract to that effect right now. You boys interested?” The guys looked at one another and could read one another’s eyes. They’d been a band for such a long time, ever since high school back in a small town in western New York. They’d be willing to do anything to make it to the top.

***

Presently, in an indoor arena venue that seats over thirty thousand, the crowd of the packed house murmured a few minutes before show time. On this night, six rather unusual attendees to a rock concert sat three and three about fifteen rows up on one of the side sections.

“This stuff is driving me nuts!” a lanky fellow with a long nose and chin said as he tugged at his face.

The fellow next to him, a round faced, well athletically built man with friendly eyes grabbed at the first guy’s hands. “Stop it, Merc,” he said. “Leave the ‘skin’ be. You don’t want to draw attention to yourself, do you?”

“Look golden boy,” the lanky one said, “this wasn’t my idea to put on this stuff and clothes! I only went along with it out of coercion! I blame Miss Tina here for this!”

The one woman in the group, a fresh faced attractive one with shoulder length hair, pouted slightly. “Don’t you go ruining this for me,” Tina said. “I thought that us going out in public, mingling with the people, would be a good experience. The extras allow us to blend in and just take in a social event.”

The guy in the middle between the two turned back to her. “Now, this wouldn’t have anything to do with you thinking Michael Bretts, the lead singer, is cute, does it?” Gold kidded her with a smile.

“Well,” Tina said, and she would have blushed if the material over the surface of her body could allow it, “I never said that.”

“I thought you had a thing for Doc Magnus,” Mercury interjected.

“No one said a girl can’t look at other men,” Tina said with a wink. “Besides, rock stars are just fantasy. Doc’s more attainable.”

“Bah!” said Mercury. “Fantasies are for humans!”

In the row behind these three sat another trio of guys, two larger and one shorter. “Why’d you pick those things up?” the more muscular of the two big guys asked.

The more heavier set guy held in his hands some popcorn and nachos. “Uh… just trying to uh… take in the whole experience,” he said. “You know, like uh… Tina said we should.”

“Are y-you actually g-g-gonna eat t-them?” asked the smaller guy nervously.

“Nah,” the dimwitted Lead said. “Just wanted to uh… blend in.”

“Ha ha,” the muscular Iron said. “If you wanted to do that, you should have gotten one of these.” He reached between his seat and tossed a black T-shirt, the largest size available, across the way. It hit the smaller guy accidentally. “Sorry about that, Tin.”

“I-its OK,” he said, fumbling to pull the garment off his head. He then stretched it out to read the writing. “Ratt Poison. That’s k-kind of s-scary.”

“Oh please, squirt!” Mercury in the row in front of them said as he craned his neck back. “That’s the name of the band, you simpleton.”

“Don’t pick on him,” Iron said.

“Yeah,” Lead said, also coming to Tin’s defense. He then leaned forward and tapped on Tina’s shoulder. She turned around. “Uh… Tina? Can you uh… explain this again? I get the uh… metal part, but not the uh… hair part.”

Tina chuckled and went into a brief dissertation on the genre of music dominated by the so-called Hair Metal bands, so named because of large volumes of hair on their heads. Before she could finish though, the lights in the arena started to dim, signifying the start of the show.

***

The opening act was on-stage, belting through its fourth number with raw power and thunderous guitars. From the sidelines, two members of the headlining act watched with great interest. From the back and with the outlandish clothes they wore, one might easily mistake them for women. But despite their use of makeup to add to their androgynous looks, the boys in this band were all about chasing women. Their reputation for back stage and after hours antics were all over the tabloids. And that suited them just fine; any publicity was good publicity.

The taller of the two men pulled off his dark cap and ran his fingers through his long, bleached blonde hair to tease it out. “They’re really rocking the house tonight, D.D.!” Michael Bretts said as he replaced his hat on his head.

The other man also had bleached blonde hair, long and kept out wild with tons of hairspray. “Hell yeah!” D. D. Ceville agreed. “They’ve been on fire the last few months! Opening for us must be really helping their record sales too. Did you see their debut’s about to crack the top ten?”

Michael shook his head. “I honestly didn’t think our core audience would get into them,” he said. He glanced out across the arena and could see the heads bouncing and lighter glows waving. “But they seem to be getting better and better every night. Perhaps we better watch it! We could be replaced in the charts.”

“Nah,” D. D. said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “Ain’t never gonna happen! Ratt Poison’ll always be the biggest metal band out there!”

Michael pushed the smaller guy on the shoulders. “Go check on Robby and Dicky!” the leader of the band said. “We go on when their set is done.” Like the rat he resembled, D. D. Ceville scurried off to find his buddies and to get in a bit more partying before it was time to work. The attractive lead singer of Ratt Poison, meanwhile, continued to watch the performance.

On-stage, Scott and Sean finished their dueling guitar battle only to turn it over to the pounding solo of their drummer, Danny. The black haired Sean gestured to his friend to lean back from the mikes; the brown haired Scott did so. “Do you feel it?” Sean asked. “We are so in the pocket!”

“Yeah,” Scott agreed. “The crowd’s really into it too!”

“We should launch into ‘Chant for the Devil’ next!” Sean suggested.

Scott nodded in agreement. That was their big number with pyrotechnics and all. It would be a great way to close out the set and give the headliners something to top.

***

In row sixteen of section D, the smaller of three guys clasped his hands to his ears. Even the polymer skin-like material they wore over their robotic bodies wasn’t helping keep the sound of the loud music out. “W-w-will this b-b-be over soon?” Tin asked.

Iron chuckled. “Yep,” he said, “then we get a brief break before the main act comes on, and it starts all over again.”

“Oh n-no!” Tin groaned.

“What’s the uh… matter?” Lead asked. “You don’t uh… like these guys?”

Mercury poked his head into the conversation. “I sure don’t!” he snapped. “This Hell’s Pawn band belongs in Hades with all their caterwauling!”

“Stop it, guys,” Gold said, playing the peacemaker. “Can’t you just sit back and enjoy the show like everyone else is doing?”

Mercury did a quick look around at the crowd who had been singing along with the band during their current number. “Sorry,” he said, “I forgot to bring my Bunsen burner.” The hot head shook his head. “I don’t get these humans. They’re like dumb cattle. Just listen to them chanting when the band tells them to!”

Gold hadn’t noticed it until Mercury said something. He too started to look around and saw that the entire arena was full of an audience who were chanting back the song’s refrain, over and over. In fact, there was something else even more odd. He turned to Platinum. “Tina, do me a favor,” he said and explained what he wanted her to do.

Reluctantly, the female member of the Metal Men obliged, turned to the guy sitting next to her and waved her hand in front of his face. No response. “That’s weird,” she said.

“No it’s not,” Gold said with some urgency in his voice. “Check their eyes! They’re all glassed over. Everyone in this audience is under some kind of trance!”

“Everyone but the six of us!” Tina exclaimed.

“Right,” Gold said. “I can guess why we’re immune, but why are they all under a trance?”

Suddenly, as if on cue, there was a loud explosion of lights and flames from the stage. All six of the Metal Men turned quickly. “Maybe that’s your answer!” Mercury snapped.

In the air above the stage about twenty feet, what appeared to be a red laser beam shot across the way. It began to grow brighter and wider, only to be joined by another beam, and another and still more. In a few seconds, the crossing lights seemed to form a five sided star followed by a circle connecting all the points.

“Is this uh… part of the uh… show?” asked Lead.

“I don’t think so,” Iron said with a concerned look.

There was another flash from the sides of the stage, and smoke began to rise up to pour from the platform. The air within the laser symbol began to shimmer. Within the symbol a pair of large sinister eyes formed followed by a huge toothy jaw!

“W-what is t-that?” Tin stammered.

“I don’t know,” Gold said, “but whatever it is wants to come out and play! And we’re not about to let it do that!” The robot discarded the clothing and peeled away the polymer skin to reveal a shiny metal body. The others followed his lead. “Metal Men, to action!”

The six robots rushed down the aisle to the end of the section. Most of them stretched over the barrier easy enough to reach the lower level while Iron leapt over it and Lead climbed over. “What’s the uh… battle plan?” huffed Lead.

“Tina and Tin, take the stage! The rest of us will see if we can halt whatever’s trying to come through that portal!” Gold ordered. The team was used to his directions and began to execute them.

A large brown, scaly hand with sharp claws grabbed the edge of the portal, followed by another on the other side. “Yo, Gold!” Mercury said, stretching his scarlet form upward. “We better make this fast! Ugly’s trying to get out!” The flowing robot tried wrapping his upper torso around the clawed fingers. “Back off, Clyde! Your kind isn’t wanted here!”

From within the pentagram, the toothy jaws laughed. “Foolish, mortals! You know not with whom you are trifle!” To punctuate the deep ominous threat, two beams of energy shot from the eyes outwards.

One blast winged the robot’s body, which started to alter his properties to liquid at the merest touch of the scalding heat. “Hey!” Mercury exclaimed, releasing his grip. “First you insult me by calling me a human, and then you blast me too! What are you?”

The demonic figure in the portal laughed loudly and began to fire more bursts out of the pentagram. “These should keep you at distance until I am freed!”

“Lead, the audience!” Gold barked.

The large light gray member of the team knew immediately what to do. He stretched his body out as large and as flat as he could to create a protective barrier between the portal and the entranced crowd. “Ugggh!” Lead groaned as the blasts hit his surface. Despite the pain, he continued to hold his ground. After all, the robots were programmed to protect human life above their own. Given his natural properties, Lead was the perfect one to keep the radiation of the energy blasts from hurting the people.

Other blasts were heading for the stage.

“Oh no!” Platinum exclaimed as she stretched her shimmering body forward. She quickly wrapped her body around the torso of Michael Bretts who was still standing to the side of the stage when all this started and moved him aside. “Gotcha!”

The jerking motion of being moved so quickly shook the singer from his trance. “What the…?” he asked.

Platinum quickly moved him to safety, out of the range of the blasts. “Sorry for the rough handling, cutie,” she said. “Couldn’t let those goldilocks get a single singe.” She gave him a little wink and a smile.

“Thanks,” Michael said. He didn’t know what else to do, so he leaned forward and gave the female robot a little kiss on the cheek.

“Ooooo,” Platinum cooed. She was lost in the moment for a second, but the blasting near the front of the stage snapped her back to reality. “Sorry, gotta run.” She started to stretch away, then doubled her head back. “What the hey.” She gave the singer a smooch on the lips and then returned to the fight.

“Whoa,” the surprised Michael said. “Cold.”

Tin was frantically running back and forth between the members of Hell’s Pawn. “I d-don’t get it,” he said to himself. “T-they’re like in a t-trance t-too, b-but they k-keep p-playing anyway.” He waved his arms frantically in front of them with no response. “W-what d-do I d-do now?”

“Get down!” Platinum yelled as she tackled her teammate. The two rolled across the stage just as a burst of energy exploded on the stage where Tin had been standing. “Sorry about that, Tin.”

“N-no p-problem!” he stuttered.

From the rift, the demonic voice boomed. “The summoning is near its completion! Soon I shall once more walk your world, casting forth chaos and destruction!” The clawed hands pulled the body upwards towards the rift’s opening, and a large brown oblong head began to crest the edge. “Once again, Nebiros will reign supreme! I shall destroy this world and have my revenge upon the accursed Blue Devil!”

“Dream on, demon!” Iron proclaimed. He had reformed his two arms into a giant cannon. “Let’s do this, Gold!”

“Right,” the leader of the team said, forming himself into a projectile as he leapt into the cannon barrel. “Make this shot count!”

“You know it!” Iron said as he took aim and fired. The golden bullet shot forth into the air and nailed the demon’s left claw.

Nebiros’ grasp slipped for a moment. “Foolish ones!” he howled. “Your actions only delay the inevitable! Once I pass fully through the portal, I will be free once more!”

Gold reformed next to Iron. “Then we’ve got to stop that from happening! Team, new strategy!” He quickly stretched around the area, giving each member their assignments. “Metal Men, together!”

As five of the robots started to come together, Mercury complained like always. “I could’ve come up with a plan like this,” he griped.

“Shut your trap and get in position,” Iron snapped. The ore rich robot formed himself into one large wench, with Lead doing similar on the other side. Platinum and Gold treaded themselves through the pair and came together above the portal. Mercury slipped in the final position to form a cap of sorts.

“We’re ready,” Gold shouted. “Now!”

“Go, Lead, go!” Iron encouraged as he went into motion.

“O… uh… kay!” Lead acknowledged as he did the same. Their actions, in tune with their comrades above, brought Mercury’s surface down upon Nebiros’ rising form. Together, the Metal Men started to impede the demon’s assent and then began to force him back down into the nether realm.

“Noooo!” Nebiros cursed. “I shall not fail!” Blasts shot upwards towards Mercury.

“Hey!” the red robot exclaimed. He tried to keep resealing his surface where the blasts punched through his body.

“Tin, hurry!” Gold shouted. “You have to get the band to stop playing! They’re the key to shutting down the portal!”

“On it,” the smallest of the Metal Men said. Tin rushed the stage once more and started to jostle the lead guitarist. “M-mister, you’ve g-gotta wake up and s-stop p-playing.”

The dark haired Sean’s eyes blinked once and then again. He started to snap back into focus. “What’s going on?” He stopped playing guitar, which caused the portal to convulse slightly at the loss of power.

“What????” Nebiros exclaimed, noting the shift in the portal. “Noooo! You cannot do this!” The demon summoned up an incredible amount of mystic energy and shot it forth out of the portal.

Mercury was hit with the initial brunt of the blast and went flying. “Nooo!” Platinum cried, but she couldn’t keep hold of her teammate.

The blast continued on its course, towards the stage and where Tin was trying to rouse the band. “Tin, look out!” Gold shouted.

The robot was befuddled for a moment. Sean dove upon him, knocking Tin to the ground. The blast nailed the guitarist and sent him flying towards his band mates. Sean’s body slammed into the entranced Rick and Scott. Sean’s guitar flew surface first into Danny’s drum kit. The brunt of the blast also rocked the band members, sending all four flying.

“Noooo!” Nebiros howled. The attack had been meant for the robot and not the band. Inadvertently, he managed to take out the very beings responsible for the summoning. With the hypnotic music gone, the audience began to slide out of the trance as well. This caused the portal to begin shrinking at a rapid rate. “So close, so close! Curse that deceptive bargainer! I blame him for this failure! If I ever escape this hell, I swear I shall make you pay, Ner….!”

The demon’s voice trailed off into the void as the portal closed with a great big pop.

***

The Metal Men quickly regrouped themselves and checked on their own.

The dark colored Iron helped his crimson comrade to his feet. “You OK, Mercury?” he asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” the robot complained. “But next time someone suggests a night out, I pass!” Iron smiled to see that Mercury was quickly back to his old irritable self.

Platinum and Gold joined Tin on the stage where the little guy was untangling his legs from some cables. “You OK there, Tin?” Gold asked.

“Yeah,” he said, “t-thanks to h-him.” He gestured towards the band members who lay sprawled amongst their equipment. “Are t-they d-dead?”

Gold stretched over and quickly did a check with his eyes. He dared not move them for fear it might further aggrevate any injuries they’d suffered “They’re all breathing, but they seem out of it. Tina, see if you can get some emergency crews here fast!”

“Right,” she nodded and hurried off to find a phone

“W-will they b-be OK?” Tin asked, concerned.

“I’m no expert on humans,” Gold said. “But I think the shock of the blast threw the four men into comas. It might be quite awhile before they recover. All we can do is hope.” If Tin had the capability, he would have started to cry. But Doctor Magnus hadn’t programmed them with that function, so all he could do was appear sad.

Nearby, D.D. Ceville joined his band mate near the stage. “Man, I go to get a little buzz before our set and everything comes unglued! What’d I miss?”

“One hell of an act,” Michael Bretts said. “One hell of an act. Hell’s Pawn’s set tonight won’t soon be forgotten.” Indeed, even amongst the crowd, there was a large murmuring.

Epilogue

A good looking man with long blonde hair lounged on the couch of his home in a forest green silk bathrobe. On the large television screen in front of him, he watched one of the cable channels where a man in a black and white polka dot shirt read a news brief.

“This just in to the Rock Television news,” the announcer said. “Tonight’s Ratt Poison concert turned chaotic as over thirty thousand fans witnessed a bizarre spectacle during the opening act’s set. The band known as Hell’s Pawn, whose first album “Xavier” has been rising up the charts for the last few months, was injured during the squirmish between a large demonic figure and the group of robotic heroes known as the Metal Men. The following footage was obtained by Rock Television from an amateur home video taken during the concert.”

The grainy picture showed parts of the battle.

“The members of Hell’s Pawn were rushed to a nearby hospital for treatment,” the announcer continued. “At this moment, all four members of the band are in comas. Given the situation, authorities agreed that the concert should not continue. Ratt Poison plans to reschedule the

show. I’m V.J. VeeJay, and now back to the music videos.”

The blonde man clicked off the remote control. Well, I’ve seen enough for one night, he thought to himself. The interference by those robots was unexpected but not tragic. I kept my end of the bargain. I promised those boys they’d make the rock ‘n’ roll history books, and they will. I’ll just have to slip by the hospital and insure they end up dead so I can collect my payment.

He rose from the couch and sauntered towards the bar to pour himself a drink. And though Nebiros will no doubt be after my head, I’m not worried. My end of the deal was to provide him with a way for the summoning portal to be opened. I never promised that he’d make it through. And with what I got from Nebiros, I’ll be able to continue as I’ve planned! The blonde man, known by many names including most recently Nicky Styx and Nathan Nero, laughed sinisterly.