Tony had gone home to relax after the chaos of today. He greeted his mom and dad(they were very proud of their
son), went upstairs to his room, and was ready to engage himself in a nice relaxing game of Modern
Warfare...when his cell phone rang.
"Ah crap" he muttered. He looked at the number. Oh, it was his girlfriend, Lacey Lau.
"Hey gorgeous" he said. "Why weren't you at the graduation party?"
"You have the NERVE to do what you did and act all nonchalant about it? Fuck you! I never want to talk to you
again."
"What? Lacey, what happened?"
"You know what happened."
"No, I don't. What happened?"
"There were witnesses, Tony. They saw you burn down my house. I guess you must be Doctor Mage, that idiot who
dresses up like a superhero. Who else would have LIGHTNING SHOOTING OUT OF THEIR HANDS?!"
"Um...Darth Sidious?"
"Ugh! Stop lying to me, Tony. I would have forgiven you eventually for cheating on me with Laura Miller, but
NO! You go to my house and burn it down the minute I go out with my friends. Goodbye! Have fun in prison..."
And the phone disconnected.
Suddenly, the sound of sirens beckoned.
---
Science Master hung up the phone on Tony Romero, the secret identity(at least publicly) of Doctor Mage. Voice
changers sure came in handy. The robot too. The robot he had built to destroy the Lau household, and Mage's
reputation, worked perfectly. It looked exactly like Mage. And being the genre savvy mad scientist/criminal
genius that he was, Science Master made sure that Mage's personal inflections and personality were matched
perfectly with his creation. He remembered watching Buffy one year, and there was a robot of her. The infamous
"Buffy-Bot" who acted nothing like the genuine article. It was ridiculous, thought Science Master. But not his
creation. If it weren't for the fact that this robot happened to be "evil", no one would be able to tell the
difference between it and the real Mag. Giggling to himself, he watched satellite live-feed of Tony's
neighborhood as a swarm of police cars reached the Romero household.
He turned around, and gazed upon the bound and gagged visages of the real Lacey Lau and her parents.
"Now what to with all of you?" he asked out loud.
---
As Animus phased through the front door of the Miller household like a ghostly spectre, watching Laura be
absorbed by a gossip rap filled with tales of pregnancy, Kylie Perkins moaned in her sleep. She dreamed of a
boy in a prison, cackling to himself.