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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 3:50 am
The pikachu slowly crept out from under the couch, ears perked up and eyes open, alert. Whatever danger it had sensed was gone, for the time being. It didn't waste any time. While the two girls were distracted with trying to get away with the mess they'd made, it made a beeline for the door, did a double take, scrambled back to the couch, grabbed a half-eaten chocolate bar and sped between the legs of the girl that had been feeding it into the hallway.
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Posted: Sat Jun 23, 2007 9:02 pm
Kira of Flames Kira frowned, seeing the Pikachu's reaction. "Diana... Something's wrong...." Her eyes widened as two and two equaled four. "Diana, get out of here quickly." She started pushing her new friend to the door. "Someone's got to be coming, it's bad enough that one of us will get in trouble, but it'll be worse if it's both of us. I'll do my best to clean up as much as possible." "Forgive my language, but HELL NO! I ain't leaving a friend behind!" Digging her feet into the carpeted floor, Diana used her own weight to prevent Kira from pushing her out. "Look! We both made this mess and we are both going to clean it up! Besides......" She turned and grinned at Kira. "This is clearly a two-person job." Just then, a streak of yellow and brown darted into the hallway. Diana paniced slightly as she watched the pikachu flee. She hoped no one would find Blaze anytime soon.
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 12:19 am
Minutes later, Hayden emerged from the small bathroom, clad in a fresh uniform and toweling his hair out briefly before tossing the towel back into the bathroom. "That quick enough for ya'," he commented, still feeling slightly snarky, even after his shower.
A quick glance at the clock on the wall made him cringe internally. Just after five. "Look, I know you're eager to leave and all, but I need to check something really quick. Since I'm going to be doing your job for you, I'm sure a couple more minutes won't kill you," he muttered, crossing to his computer and quickly powering it up. Five o'clock meant that his orders for the next day had been sent to his computer and he needed to log in and check them. The process made him cringe everytime...he never knew what lay waiting for him in the internal company inbox.
The log-in screen popped up as usual and he hurried to type in his info. He waited, a bit impatiently for the internal e-mail to pop up...and...nothing.
An error message? Server could not be reached? Oh, for hell's sake...
Quickly, the guard started checking computer settings...proxy info...anything he could possibly think of. Everything looked perfectly fine, so why couldn't he connect? Sighing tiredly, he reluctantly turned around.
"I hate to ask this...but do you know anything about computers?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:58 am
"Computers? Yeah sure, I got a degree in'em, kiddo." Phil spoke the phrase as though he was kidding, but...
The skinny janitor leaned over Hayden's shoulder. He started messing around with some more settings, even entering a few command codes. Finally he grunted and checked the connection behind the console.
He ran a finger over the blue cabling. "Seems fine here... Ah!" Phil backed away and crouched under the desk. He unplugged the cable from the wall and held it up so Hayden could see. "Look at this! I don't think this is helping your connection much." Phil understated as he waved around the mangled, seared cable.
Phil made a face as though he was thinking. Truth was, he'd done his thinking ages ago. Now he was just acting. "Funny... That almost looks like..." Phil glanced back at Hayden. "I've seen this before in some country towns, electric pokemon come and chew cables and things." He shook his head. "Usually Pikachus. But it's impossible for one to get into the building..."
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 8:45 am
Kira sweatdroped as Diana protested leaving, then smiled and laughed. "Heh, guess your right... This is definitely a two person job....." She handed the girl a plastic garbage bag. "Lets start by getting all the chunks first, right?" She picked up a soggy, melted ice cream sandwich and made a face as it melted everywhere. "Ok, a little mental note, lets not use ice cream next time..."
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Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2007 2:30 pm
Hayden stared blankly at the burnt and frayed wire in silence for a moment before his eyes shifted back to Phil.
"You have got to be kidding me."
The disbelief was evident in his voice and he didn't bother trying to disguise it. He reached up and massaged his temples slowly. "Let me see if I've got this right... I can't log on and receive my orders for tomorrow, because some electric rat with the munchies apparently ghosted into my room just to chew through my ethernet cable and disappear, leaving me to get torn into by my superiors YET AGAIN for something else I can't help? I love my life..."
He shoved his chair away from the computer and stood, stalking across the room in frustration. "Okay, bottom line...what do I do now? I don't exactly have a replacement cable lying around in here, as you can see." He gestured tiredly to the sparse-furnished room. To be honest, it wasn't much better than any of the experiments' rooms and he probably had fewer personal objects in his than some of them did.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 8:57 am
"Hmph. Cat 5, should be easy enough to find." Phil grumbled. "Stay here, I'll only be a minute."
Back out in the hallway, Phil decided to make good another old debt. He shuffled down a couple rooms and knocked on the door, twice rapidly, then twice more slowly, his signature around here. Hayden was watching him suspiciously, and Phil knew it, but this time he could afford the attention. Not like he was doing anything illegal, now.
"Zach, open up. You know it's me." Phil knocked more insistently. There was a growl from the other side of the door before it swung open, revealing the irritated yet nervous-looking face of Zachary Morgan. The stocky guard was in his tracksuit, and had clearly been in the process of working out. "Whatcha want, Gutters?" He asked, a little out of breath. "Gonna ply me for favours again? Not gonna happen, buddy."
"Favours?" Phil shook his head. "Nothing fancy or illegal this time. I just want some of your spare Cat 5."
The guard eyed him suspiciously. "You're up to something."
Phil leaned in a little threateningly in response, his eyes narrowing. "I'm throwing you a line here, mate." He glanced past the guard at his chest of drawers. "You still owe me for my last shipment. We can call it even if you just give me one bleedin' cable." Phil let the words hang for a second. The veiled threat didn't make the guard cave immediately, but it did persuade him to acquiesce with some dignity. He turned to go back into his room and rummaged around a white cardboad box full of electronic junk. "Fine, fine. I just don't want to end up muted for this, bud. Or I WILL kill you." The guard looked intensely at Phil as he handed over the blue cabling.
Just try it. "Don't worry, this has nothing to do with you." Phil gave him a reassuring grin. Or it might not have been all too reassuring, he was finding it harder to tell the difference. With that, the guard cast one last look at Phil's eyes, as though trying to see into the janitor's mind, then shook his head in exasperation and shut the door.
Phil whistled a victory tune he learned from an old console RPG and strode back to Hayden, still carrying a now-smug grin, and waving the cable around with one hand. He brushed right past the confused guard and immediately bent down, plugged in the cabling to replace the burned one then staggered to his feet, setting the mouse cursor over the userID field in Hayden's terminal login. "Here, try it again now." He leaned in close to the screen, as though intent to see if his efforts had paid off.
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Posted: Mon Jun 25, 2007 5:50 pm
Blinking, Hayden shook his head in confusion and disbelief. "I don't even want to know," he muttered. He definitely wasn't asking questions...though a sneaking suspicion in the back of his mind wanted to know why the grumpy janitor was being so cheerfully helpful all of a sudden.
"Alright." He slid into the seat, shooting a brief glance over his shoulder at Phil before turning back to the screen. He paused before typing anything, but remembering that his info would show up on-screen as all asterisks, hurried to type his info and hit "Enter." After a moment, his assignments for the next day popped-up on the screen automatically. Hayden sighed with relief, leaning back in the chair.
"Thanks, man," he told Phil, if reluctantly. "And sorry about the delay." He took a moment to glance over his assignments, cringing slightly, then cleared the screen and logged out.
"Alright, I'm ready. Let's head back to the lounge." Shoving his chair back from the table, he headed for the door. Hopefully, Kira and Diana had taken his advice and gotten the heck out of there by now.
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Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 6:07 am
"Oh, not a problem, not a problem." Phil replied innocently. "You owe me. Again." He then added, in an irritatingly sing-song voice. Phil glanced over his shoulder at the terminal one more time, smirking inwardly. Happy day.
"Well, let's get on with this then." He led the way out the door into the guard's hallway, mop in hand, a black rod concealed in its stringy mass. He had no more use for the taser, but it was sure to come in handy, somewhere down the line.
"You oughtta set up a trap in your room. Catch yourself a pikachu."
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Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:25 pm
Kira of Flames Kira sweatdroped as Diana protested leaving, then smiled and laughed. "Heh, guess your right... This is definitely a two person job....." She handed the girl a plastic garbage bag. "Lets start by getting all the chunks first, right?" She picked up a soggy, melted ice cream sandwich and made a face as it melted everywhere. "Ok, a little mental note, lets not use ice cream next time..." Diana nodded and walked behind Kira, clutching the plastic bag. As Kira began to clean her section of the lounge, Diana felt her mischief instinct kick in. Glancing between the bag in hand and Kira with her back turned......Oh man, it was too perfect. Quickly sneaking up behind her, Diana pulled the garbage bag over her friends' head and spun her around playfully (away from any furniture, to avoid hurting her) before going back to her spot. Laughing, she started to scrub at some stains on the couch and chairs. "Sorry Kira, I couldn't help myself!"
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Posted: Tue Jun 26, 2007 8:48 pm
Kira squeaked when her vision went plasticy black from the bag, then quickly pulled it off, frowning a bit. "Diana, we really don't have time to mess around! Hayden already told us we should have left, we need to clean this up spotless and get out of here." The fact that Hayden had looked so worried really freaked her out, and she knew that there was going to be big trouble probably following this.
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Posted: Thu Jun 28, 2007 8:15 pm
Diana pouted a bit before becoming serious. Finishing up with the chairs and couch, she put them right-side-up and moved on to start mopping up the small amount of tile in the lounge. "You're right, Let's make this place so spotless.....it would make a germophobic proud!"
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Posted: Fri Jun 29, 2007 1:44 pm
Kira smiled and nodded, tying off a bag of garbage and food remains and starting on another one. "Right. We'll make it look like a person with a really severe case of OCD cleaning came in here.... Although, they'd probably have a heart attack upon first site..." She laughed nervously, then pulled out the Lysol, spraying down the counters and scrubbing them hard.
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Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2007 12:16 pm
Diana chuckled at the mental image while finishing up with the mopping. Squeezing out the water and placing said mop and bucket back into the closet, she grabbed some carpet cleaner and attacked the stains on the ground. After a few moments of silence, Diana decided to strike up another conversation. "Hey Kira? Did you ever go to that Heavens' Light concert a couple of months ago? Ya know, when they were playing in Celadon City?" ((Heavens' Light is a made-up band, BTW.))
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Posted: Sun Jul 01, 2007 3:29 pm
Something about that overly-happy response gave Hayden the chills. So much for reassurance.
"A trap, huh?" He decided to keep the conversation going, to minimalize the awkward and uncomfortable silence. And to give the girls time to get the heck out of there, if they were smart. "What sort of set-up would you recommend, might I ask? Cage? Sticky tape? AA batteries?" he joked with a weary grin.
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