Live! from Las Vegas

It was a normal day. Live from Las Vegas was broadcasting from the Stratosphere. It was about ninety degrees outside.

And Vince was mad.

"Someone emptied their toaster's crumb tray ON MY CARPET!!!" he yelled.

"You're kidding!" Marty said, appalled.

"I'm not! Look at this carpet!" Vince gestured wildly at the carpet, which looked like the insides of a bag of crumbly bread.

"Those are toast crumbs, alright," Stanley said, coming over to see.

Vince was turning purple.

"I think we'd better leave him alone now," Marty said.

A couple of hours later, the crumbs were all off Vince's carpet and everything was peaceful again.

Marty was doing his show when the phone rang. He pressed the button for Line One. "Hi, Live from Las Vegas!"

"Marty?" It was Stanley. "I just found a piece of paper tacked on my fridge! It says: ‘Beware of the Toastinator!'"

There was a long silence. Finally Marty said, "What's the Toastinator?"

"I have no idea," Stanley replied. "The note doesn't say."

"What's wrong with Vince?" Jay asked, appearing in the doorway of the broadcasting booth.

"I have no idea," Marty said. "He was mad earlier about some toast crumbs on his carpet."

Marty and Jay went over to Vince's office. The engineer looked ready to pound the wall in. He was clutching a piece of paper.

"Vince! What's wrong?" Jay asked.

"THIS!" Vince yelled, thrusting the paper at the disc jockey.

"‘Beware of the Toastinator,'" Jay read.

"‘Toastinator'?" Marty repeated.

"That's what it says," Jay said.

"Stan got a message like that," Marty stated.

"IT'S OUTRAGEOUS!!!" Vince yelled.

Jay gave the paper back to him. "Well, it's strange, alright."

Marty glanced at Vince's desk. "What's that??" he exclaimed.

Everyone whirled to face the desk. Vince turned red. He reached down and picked something up. He turned it over and over.

"It looks like a piece of toast wearing a mask and cape," Jay said.

"I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING SO SILLY!!" Vince yelled.

"I think that's exactly what it is," Marty said to Jay.

"Now that's even stranger than that message," Jay declared.

They turned to leave when Vince started yelling again. They turned back.

A piece of toast, identical to the one they'd just found, was on Vince's head.

"Vince! How'd that happen?" Marty asked.

"IT JUST FELL ON MY HEAD!!" Vince replied, grabbing the piece of toast and slamming it on the desk.

"Hey, wait a minute," Jay said. He picked up the toast. "This one has a tag on it."

"‘The Toastinator,'" Marty read.

"WHAT IS THE TOASTINATOR??" Vince demanded.

"This, apparently," Jay replied, handing the toast back to Vince.

"I'M SUPPOSED TO BEWARE OF THIS PIECE OF TOAST?" Vince shrieked.

Marty and Jay looked at each other. This was definitely strange.

"Look at this," he said, and showed it to Jay and to Marty, who was still there.

The paper once again said "Beware of the Toastinator," with the "T"s being images of toast. This paper, however, featured a color illustration of a giant piece of toast, wearing a mask and a cape. It had a sinister look in its eyes.

"That's a weird picture," Marty said.

"I think it's the Toastinator," Stanley said.

"Where'd you get this?" Jay asked him.

"Through my email," Stanley replied. "There was no return address on it. It said ‘Sender Unknown.' Probably some prank."

"Vince got a couple of pieces of real toast wearing masks and capes," Jay stated.

"I bet he loved that," Stanley remarked.

Vince came into the broadcasting booth. "What kind of nonsense is that?" he asked, pointing at the picture.

"It's the Toastinator," Marty said.

"Ridiculous!" was Vince's only comment.

Frankie, another engineer, came out of the engineers' booth. "What kind of super hero is that?" he asked, pointing at the weird picture.

"Actually, from the message we've been getting, I think it's a super villain," Jay replied.

"Huh?" Frankie looked puzzled.

The deejays filled him in on the strange goings-on, with Vince occasionally interrupting.

"Look what I found in my office!" he said, and held up the piece of toast.

"Really weird," Frankie said.

"Hey, there's a fax coming through!" Dan Allen called.

"Wonder what that is?" Marty mused.

In a minute, Dan brought out a piece of paper, looking puzzled. "I don't get it," he said. "There's this weird picture with some kind of strange message."

"Is it a piece of toast wearing a mask and cape?" Stanley asked.

"Actually, it is," Dan replied. "How'd you guess?"

In response, Stanley held up the picture he'd got.

"This is very strange," Dan commented. "The message on the fax is a little different from that one." He held out the fax.

There was that same picture of the Toastinator, along with a caption reading: "The Toastinator is coming to town! Beware!"

As the deejays studied the message, they wondered if this was maybe more than just some prank. . . .

"No, but at least we haven't gotten any more weird things like that," Marty said. "Maybe it's over."

"Yeah," Stanley agreed. "So far, it been peaceful."

"AUGH!!!!!!!!"

"Uh oh," Stanley said ruefully. "I spoke too soon."

The deejays went over to Vince's office. "What's wrong now, Vince?" Jay asked.

"Look at this!" Vince held up a muffin with a tag.

"‘The Toastinator's Assistant,'" Marty read.

The deejays all looked at each other. "Uh oh," they all said. It wasn't over yet . . .