| Scene: New York City Our story starts on an early fall morning. The sun is just rising over the sleepy Atlantic Ocean. The first morning rays are beginning to hit the building where our story begins. We go up the stairs to the second floor, down to the third door on the right. Upon the door are the words "Stapp and Associates" The door opens and there he is. One look from this man sends the strongest of women swooning. One word spoken and they faint. He is just as powerful against the powers of darkness and chaos. He speaks, "My name is Stapp. Scott Stapp." The sound of his voice is like silk. Suddenly, the sound is broken by another voice. "Ok, cut out the James Bond Crap. You're not James Bond. You'll never be James Bond. Besides, James Bond didn't have a sidekick. Who the hell would I be?" The intruding voice is that of Mark Tremonti, Scott's partner in this venture. Scott grins. "I could be Batman. That would make you Robin." Mark gives him a disapproving look. "Wrong batperson, wrong batchannel." Scott scratches his forehead. "The Lone Ranger?" "You'd look horrible in a mask, I don't think we could ride horses in town and I don't want to call you Keemosabe" Scott looked perplexed. "And another thing. I want my name on the door. I am sick of being "the associate." "Well, it looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the crypt this morning." Mark gave him a nasty look then went to his desk. Scott walks over to his desk, the bigger one in the room, and writes something on a piece of paper. He takes tape and places the sign he made on the door. Scott then looks over at Mark. He sweetly smiles. Mark jumps up from his desk and goes to see what he has written. On a small piece of paper, Scott wrote 'Mark Tremonti, the sidekick' and had it taped under "Stapp and Associates" on the door. "Great. Now I sound like a big loser." "If the shoe fits...." Mark opened his mouth to speak, but the phone cut him off. In one liquid movement, Scott answered the phone and said, "Stapp and Associates, how may we serve you?" Mark closed the door, and went back to his desk, the small one in the room. Scott hung the phone up. "Who was that?" Mark asked. "The Professor. He's got some 'toys' for us to look at." Mark's eyes lit up. "Ooooh. Toys? Hmm... This means we get to go blow some stuff up." He cracked his knuckles. Mark started to put on his jacket. "Yeah. Blow stuff up." Scott shook his head. "Even if we ARE NOT supposed to blow things up, they usually do when you're around." "Hey, just because the last time your car got in the way of the new gun that the Prof made for me......, Well, you shouldn't have parked it there....." He got a sheepish look on his face. "Yeah. It just happened to get in the way when it was nowhere near where the dude was we were chasing. If I remember you also leveled a building." "Yeah, well, the Professor didn't tell me if I turned the dial to 10 it would do that... and that was a condemned building anyway. I did the city a favor." He smiled at his statement. Scott shook his head again. "Let's go. He wants us there in 30 minutes." "So can I drive?" Mark asked. "NO. I'd like to get there in one piece." Scott grabbed his keys to the Land Rover that was parked out back. Mark slid down the old banister and threw open the back door. Scott mumbled to himself on the way out. "Sidekick, pfft. If I didn't think of him as my brother...." he walked out the back door to find Mark attempting to skateboard in the parking lot. He fell flat on his backside when Scott came out the door. "Oops" He stood up, grabbed his board and ran over to the Rover. "Ready to go, Tonto?" Mark shot Scott a look. He smiled back at him. "Your smile doesn't work on me. I'm not going to faint. That is one of the advantages to having a Y chromosome." "Darn, I was hoping it would work and I could leave you here." "Not on your life, I want new toys!" They hopped into the Rover and made it over to the Professor's place in record time. Mark nearly ran in to the lab. Scott leisurely walked in and found Mark sitting at a table with a headset on. The Professor, as they jokingly called him, was fiddling with it. The Professor was their friend Scott Phillips. He had an uncanny knack of making everyday things magically turn into weapons, devices and fun things for the boys to play with. "What in the world are you doing?" "Trying to find a brain, so far, no dice." he laughed. Mark growled. "When did it turn into slam Mark day?" The Scotts laughed. "This, Mr. Stapp, is an eye-activated automatic pistol." "And you are putting it on him why?" Mark looked right at Scott. "Hey, that's not armed, is it?" "Not yet." The Professor did some final tweaking and told Mark to look at the target on the wall. He armed a small device that was attached to Mark's sleeve. "Ok, Mark, aim with your right eye, and fire." Mark looked at the target. He pulled the tiny trigger and nothing happened. "Man, what did I....." He swung around at the two guys just as the device fired. Several rounds flew toward the two men standing on the other side of Mark. They ducked in time and heard several glass bottles shatter. The rounds lodged in a table and the opposite wall. "Oops." He smiled at them both. They slowly got up. "That is your favorite word." Scott shook his head. The Professor quickly pulled the device off of Mark's head. "I think I have to fix the timing on this thing." Scott's eyes got wide and he shook his head. Mark hopped off the table and walked around the lab. Both Scott's said at the same time, "Don't touch anything!!!!" Mark frowned. "OK." He sat down in front of the TV, turned on the Playstation and played a few games. Scott turned his attention to the Professor. |