Title: Waiting For Minako Part 20 Author: Dark Day For Anime (Mark A Page) Email: ayanami@merlin.net.au ICQ: 9845111 IRC: Saitou^Hajime on DALnet #AJAS Fic Rating: Gotta love all these guys who get worked up over Sohryu Asuka Langley, considering she shouldn't even be born, yet.... Then again, psychotic anime females have that edge over their normal counterparts.... Waiting for Minako by DDFA (Mark A Page) Part Twenty - The Photocopier -------------------------------------------------------------------- ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Scene: A restaurant in Hades. Usagi and Mokona are sitting hunched, playing chess. Usagi has nothing more than her King sitting helpless in the corner of the board, whilst Mokona's pieces surround it, ready to strike. Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: Pu! Usagi: Shh! You'll break my concentration. Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Mokona: ..... Usagi: ..... Usagi moves the King to another square. Usagi: Check and mate, I think. Mokona looks at Usagi, dubiously. Usagi: What? Have you got a complaint to make? Mokona takes out a 38 special and blows Usagi's King away. Mokona: Pu! Usagi: Why you little.... Of course, you know, this means WAR! Mokona: PU! Usagi and Mokona glare at each other, making little growling noises, for several moments. Then Mokona kisses Usagi and runs like heck. Usagi stares at the retreating lump of white dough as her face goes bright red. The arrow that had been embedded in her head snaps in half and pops out, both sides, like a cork, followed by a gush of blood. From out of nowhere, Usagi lifts a large wooden mallet. Usagi: Your ass is mine, you little bastige. It'll be bunny pancakes on the menu, tonight. Usagi immediately goes in pursuit of her quarry. Meanwhile, elsewhere in this dimension, Makoto, wearing dark glasses and a trenchcoat, peers into a dark room. Makoto: *sniff* Been a while since they cleaned this place. Makoto steps into the room, switching on the light, revealing a collection of Amis', sitting in chairs around the walls. Makoto jumps in surprise, then relaxes when she realises they are all staring into space with the same dazed expression as every other Ami in the bizarre private hospital. Makoto: What is this? A mass-production plant, or something? Makoto creeps through the room, watching the Amis warily, towards a door on the other side, where she can hear mechanical whirring noises. She places a hand on the doorknob. Ami 1: I wouldn't go in there if I were you. Makoto jumps and spins, staring at the Ami who had spoken. Makoto: What.... What did you... Ami 1: I said, I wouldn't go in there if I were you. Ami 2: It could be very bad. Makoto swallows as all the Amis' turn to her, staring like zombies. Ami 2: Very, very bad. Ami 3: Our original went in there. Ami 1: She never came out. Ami 2: Then we appeared. Ami 4: Appeared in this world. Ami 3: From out of nowhere. Ami 1: Maybe from out of that room. Ami 2: It wouldn't be nice if the same were to happen to you. Ami 3: The same WOULD happen to you. Ami 5: Because SHE wills it to. Makoto: What are you talking about? Ami 1: She who wills everything to be. Ami 5: She's very dangerous. Ami 4: She could change your reality, and take your life. Ami 6: And even that wouldn't be the end of you. Ami 2: Look at us. Look at us all. Ami 7: We continue to suffer eternal torment. Ami 3: Can there be any greater hell than to feel life's pain more than once, at the same time? Ami 4: We are being driven mad by the pains. Ami 1: Our minds, slowly going to pieces. Ami 7: Beware her, for she wants you. Makoto: Who are you talking about? Who is "she"? Ami 8: Who were you waiting for? Ami 1: Waiting for when your odyssey began? Ami 7: She who you never saw. Ami 5: She who you might never see. Ami 3: She who may not even exist. Ami 2: in which case, do we exist? Makoto: Minako? Are you trying to tell me that Minako is behind all of this? Ami 9: Does she have a name? She who does not exist.... Ami 2: Behold, even now, she watches you. The 2nd Ami points to the ceiling, and Makoto looks up. There, she sees a pair of eyes. For a moment, they seem familiar, like Minako's eyes, but they vanish in an instant. Ami 1: Tis shame. Ami 3: Is there to be no final confrontation? Ami 9: Are we all to be left in suspense, waiting. Ami 8: Waiting for Minako. Ami 6: Forever and ever. Ami 2: Without a final payoff? Ami 1: The bills get bigger every year. The costs of living never seem to go down. Makoto facefaults. Makoto: Ano ne.... Before she can continue, the Amis eyes' go glassy again, and the door starts to rattle. Makoto turns to the door, and sees that it is quivering. Then there is a clicking noise, and the quivering stops. Makoto steps back just in time for the door to fly open. Inside, she can see Ami, sitting dazedly on top of a photocopier, which is scanning her at high speed. With each scan, from out of a chute on the side, new Amis are popping out, landing on a mattress in front of a conveyor belt. As they stand, they step up onto the conveyor belt and are carried through a hatchway at the far end of the room. Makoto steps into the room. Makoto: Ami? Are you alright? Ami turns and looks at her, dazedly. Makoto: You are the REAL Ami, aren't you? Ami: You.... were expecting.... someone else? Makoto: Oh, thank Kami.... What the hell is going on here? Ami: I'm.... not sure. I seem to remember.... being blown out of a river by an energy beam, then I was here, with all of these copies being made of me. Makoto: Why didn't you get off the machine and investigate your surroundings? Ami: I tried.... But.... Ami turns aside, pointing to a small pile of mutated things, sitting in the corner of the room. Makoto: What the hell are they? Ami: I'm not sure, but when I got off this machine, they started popping out, instead of copies of me. They're all dead.... I think.... They had no mouth to breath with. They suffocated to death. Makoto: Good grief. Makoto steps up to the side of the machine, looking over it. Ami: You won't find a switch to turn it off. I looked, but couldn't find one. Makoto: Damn. Well, it looks like we'll have to resort to the old method of shutting off machinery. Ami: Like? Makoto grips an electrical cord and gives it a tug. Instantly, the machine grinds to a halt. She holds up an electric plug, triumphantly. Makoto: When in doubt, pull the cord out. Ami: ..... Makoto: ..... Ami: Exactly the kind of response I've come to expect from a rampant technophobe like you. Makoto: Well, it worked, didn't it? Ami: ..... Makoto: ..... Ami: That's not the point.... Just then, a giant hedgehog rises from behind the photocopier, causing the pair to wet themselves. S.N.: D I N S D A L E ! END OF PART 20 -------------------------------------------------------------------- ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ ^_^ -------------------------------------------------------------------- Will Minako ever arrive? Does Minako even exist? Is Ami the real Ami, or is she a figment of Ami's imagination? Was the photocopier really making copies of her? Did Makoto really pull out the cord? Does Mokona pack a 38 special? Will we ever discover which Time Lady of Gallifrey Setsuna REALLY is? Does she have something to do with the junking of so many of Doctor Who's black and white episodes? For no answers to these questions, and more, please read the next exciting, enthralling and overpromoted chapter of "Waiting for Minako". In glorious black and white script. Black and white always lends it that certain "image", don't you think? ^_^ _________ / @ \ DDFA (The Right Dishonourable Mark A Page) / / ^ ^ \ \ ayanami@merlin.net.au /\ Chief Propoganda Officer, Keeper of \/ \/ the Tapes and Co-Founder of the Saitou-chan \___________/ Appreciation Society - Adelaide Japanese /_/ \_\ PU Animation Society GWAK 1.0 - Wednesday, 16th December 1998 You can't blame it on Tuesday, now!