"You're just yanking my chain, right?" he pleaded with a synthetic look of concern on his face.
"No," Adrian replied, "we're dead serious."
Flash just looked at him and laughed. By the end of the fourth show, Flash had stopped laughing. It was time to talk to the band.
"Guys....I don't want to seem ungrateful, I mean playing with you is great, and I ...."
Adrian interrupted, "what is it, you want more time for your symphony?"
"No, not at all. 17 minutes is perfect for my guitar solo. It's just that I was wondering when I would actually, you know, get to be in front of the curtain."
Adrian Mandibone beamed. The rhythm section embraced, and Tony Hapoate, the chief of security, lifted group manager Brian Kotter four feet off the ground and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
"Flash, " Adrian exclaimed, "now you are ready." Adrian extended his arm towards Flash and struck him first on the top of his head, then on his right shoulder, finally on the left. He dropped down on both knees and whispered again, "Now you are ready."

And he was.

The show at the Corning Civic Coliseum began the same way as the others. As the traditional call and response tune, "Who Rocks Like (Corning, NY)....Nobody!!!!" whipped the crowd into a frenzy, the arena went completely dark. It stayed that way for 90 seconds and a murmur coursed through the crowd interspersed with cries of, "We love you Adrian," "Free Bird," and "”What the fuck!” As confusion continued to give way to anger, a solitary guitar chord rang out.
'Veracity Stryker has an announcement!" The drummer took that opportunity to crash the 50 foot gong that had sat silent and undisturbed behind his kit for five years. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time you all met the newest member of our family. Let him be to you as he is to us, your friend, your teacher, your lifelong sensei ."
Hundreds of lasers began to swirl as Flash began descending from the ceiling on a crane. For effect, a mix of Lou Gehrig's retirement speech and Orff’s Carmina Burana played as the drummer pounded hypnotically on his bass. "Today I consider myself, myself, myself...boom, boom, boom...the luckiest man...man...boom, boom, boom." It was truly frightening. Flash landed in the center of the stage bathed in smoke and light , barefoot and wearing a long, flowing white robe. He extended his arms to the side and was met by three small old men bearing a guitar, a pick, and a cowboy hat.
"Flash!!!!"
And the show proceeded. It was like nothing anybody had experienced before. The audience and the band alike were mesmerized by the display of such blinding and virtuosic speed. He started out fast and by the end of the evening, he surpassed even his own expectations. All eyes were on Flash. It was his night.
Minutes after the concert ended the party was underway.

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