by H. I. Larry
Zac couldn’t believe he was in space, and had just escaped from those maniac Mirror twins, and was still stuck with a boring guitar lesson!
Suddenly Zac had a thought. As he steered the Star Master through the Earth’s upper atmosphere, he made a decision. He set a course for the other side of the world … and the Rockathon!
If he was quick he could catch the end of Axe Grinder’s set and still make it to his guitar lesson. Even if he missed his lesson, surely watching Ricky Blazes live in concert would be the greatest guitar lesson he could ever have?
There was a short landing strip right near the massive outdoor stadium. Zac could see the private jets and helicopters of all the stars lined up beside the runway. He touched down and taxied skilfully to the far end.
Zac bolted towards the stadium. He set his Space Master suit colour back to black. It wasn’t much of a disguise but it would have to do.
It was sell-out show. Zac wondered how he’d get inside the stadium without a ticket. He was sneaking around the backstage area when he was stopped by a muscle-bound security guard.
‘This way, this way! Quickly, Mr Blazes!’ said the bouncer, taking Zac by the arm.
Zac was very confused, but didn’t argue.
‘Here he is!’ the guard called out to a worried-looking stage manager.
Now Zac was utterly bewildered.
‘Really, Ricky,’ said the stage manager, obviously quite annoyed. ‘We told you not to move too far from the stage. The rest of the band is waiting to go back on stage to play the encore.’ The stage manager passed Zac a guitar, and helped him strap it on.
‘There’s been a mistake,’ Zac tried to explain. ‘I’m not who you think –’
But the stage manager wouldn’t listen. He pushed Zac up a short flight of stairs that led to the stage. ‘Just one encore, Sonic Boom,’ he whispered. ‘The boys are counting on you to do an extra special job. Hey, where did you get that rat? Nice touch! The crowd will go berserk.’
The whole bizarre situation was becoming clear to Zac. Black jumpsuit, cool hair, outrageous eyeliner. He and Ricky Blazes looked like twin brothers!
Suddenly Zac caught a glimpse of the real Ricky Blazes sitting in a dim corner. He was gulping down a cold drink and paying no attention to the madness going on around him.
Before Zac could utter another word the stage manager pushed him on stage. The roar of thousands of people shook the stage as Zac took his place next to the band’s singer.
Axe Grinder’s lead singer yelled into the microphone. ‘This is the first ever live performance of our new single. I hope you’re ready to ROCK!’
Listening to Sonic Boom 86 times in a row had finally paid off. Zac knew every note by heart. He leapt about the stage, making sure that the billions of people watching the webcast would never forget THIS Axe Grinder show!
When Cipher climbed onto Zac’s shoulder, and then hopped onto his head, the huge crowd erupted like a volcano! Hundreds of stage divers and crowd surfers flew in every direction and the applause was deafening.
By the time he was finished, Zac was dripping with sweat and shaking with excitement.
The song seemed to fly by. Next thing Zac knew he was being helped off stage by the road crew. All the members of Axe Grinder were slapping him on the back and congratulating him on his playing. Cipher was still on top of Zac’s head.
As they walked back to the change room tent they spotted the real Ricky Blazes wrestling with five security guards.
‘Let go of me!’ he yelled. ‘I told you, I’M RICKY BLAZES!’
‘No fans allowed backstage,’ said one of the bouncers as they dragged him away. ‘Time to go!’
‘Fellas, it’s been fun,’ said Zac, shaking hands with the members of Axe Grinder. He passed the guitar back to the stage manager and pointed towards Ricky Blazes. ‘But you should really go and rescue your guitarist.’
The leader singer’s jaw dropped.
‘Yeah,’ said Zac Power with a shrug. ‘You see, Cipher and I have a guitar lesson to get to.’
Lunar Strike
published in 2013 by
Hardie Grant Egmont
Ground Floor, Building 1, 658 Church Street
Richmond, Victoria 3121, Australia
www.hardiegrantegmont.com.au
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means without the prior permission of the publishers and copyright owner.
A CiP record for this title is available from the National Library of Australia.
eISBN: 9781743581070
Text, illustration and design copyright © 2013 Hardie Grant Egmont
Cover illustration by Craig Phillips
Internal illustrations by Marcelo Baez
Cover design by Simon Swingler