Disclaimer: I do not own anything contained, mentioned, or otherwise written in this chapter.

Hyde A/N: I'm baaaaack!

Audience: --cowers in fear--

I plan to make this chapter short. But we shall see. Usually when I plan a short chapter it turns out long, like the last chapter. But this one shall be short. I shall try my utmost. Why do I want it short? Because I want to get this posted ASAP because I've been on vacation for a week and you poor deprived people deserve your chapter. So anyway. Here goes.

"AMON! THERE YOU ARE! WHO INFORMED YOU THAT YOU COULD HAVE THE NIGHT OFF?"

"You did…sir."

"ME? Well, at least you had the sense to come in."

"Yes sir."

"Someone, make a note of this: no more nights off! Got it?" Kosaka swept his eyes about the room. The STN-J members (excluding Amon) cowered under his glare.

"Yes sir," chorused throughout the room.

"Okay, where's Robin? I want you to take her along on this one. She's the only one who can handle these trashcan-throwing demons…"

"She has the night off," Sakaki volunteered, and cringed.

"SHE HAS THE NIGHT OFF?"

"Wait, Chief, what one am I taking her on?" Amon asked.

"HERE!" Kosaka shoved a file into Amon's hands. "Look it over on your way out. And pick up Robin on the way."

"Uh, Chief," Michael interjected hesitantly, "She has a dentist appointment."

"Oh, great! What am I going to do with you people? Take someone else then."

"Doujima. Come on." Amon turned and strode out, leaving no room for argument.

"But Amon!"

"Are you sure?" the Chief called after Amon.

"Yes," he said firmly and darkly. "Come on Doujima, let's go."

At that moment, pandemonium struck.

"Zwoooooooooop…" said the computers.

"AUGH!!!!!!" Michael screamed. "My computer! It just shut down without my consent!" He dove for the machine, knocking Doujima aside.

"Hey!" she yelled.

"Michael!" Karasuma yelled.

"My cheetos!" cried Sakaki, who had just dropped said articles on the floor in the confusion of the moment.

"What's going on here?" Kosaka growled.

"Doujima. Let's go." Amon said darkly and insistently, but to no effect.

"No!" Michael cried. "No, please, say it isn't…" There he broke off and began frantically tapping keys and pushing buttons.

"Michael!" Doujima said, and tapped the frantic creature on the shoulder. She looked very mad.

"Later," Michael said distractedly. "My computer! My databanks!"

"Michael, what is going on?" Karasuma asked impatiently.

"Ah, well, a little dust won't hurt," Sakaki said to whoever happened to be listening. He shoved three cheetos into his mouth.

Amon, realizing the seriousness of the situation, was no longer in a hurry to leave. "Michael. What's the extent of the damage? Did you lose anything?"

"I don't know," Michael said frantically, "and I can't find out!"

"MICHAEL! Listen to me!" Doujima screamed shrilly.

Kosaka had long ago abandoned the mess which passed as his employees and retired to his office to take more blood pressure medicine.

"MICHAEL!" Doujima yelled.

"Michael," Amon said intensely.

"Michael…" Karasuma said, having decided that whatever had just happened it was bad and it was Michael's fault.

"Some cheetos, Michael?" Sakaki asked, apparently oblivious to the fact that something was horribly wrong. He picked one up off the floor and extended it toward the frantic Michael.

"Would you guys be quiet and let me concentrate?" Michael asked, turning around for the first time since his beloved computer had gone kerplunk.

"But Michael!" Doujima protested.

"Sure you don't want a cheeto?" Sakaki queried.

"Have you found anything out?" Amon asked.

"Oop," Sakaki said. "There's a cheeto under the computer." He stuck his front half underneath the table with the purpose of retrieving it. No one noticed. They were all too busy trying to get Michael's attention for their own demands and purposes.

"Michael," Doujima said. "LISTEN TO ME MICHAEL!"

"Mmm…later…pixel points…" Michael muttered distractedly.

"Well, looky here," Sakaki said, his voice slightly muffled. "Something chewed through this huge wire."

Michael only heard Sakaki's words in the back of his mind, but as soon as they registered he jumped to his feet and yelled, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"

"I said, Michael…" Doujima started.

"No, not you," Michael said crossly, "Sakaki."

"I said something chewed through this huge wire."

"SOMETHING CHEWED THROUGH A WIRE?" Michael dove under the table, knocking Sakaki back and scattering the cheetos he had so diligently picked up.

"No, my cheetos!" Sakaki cried.

"No, the wire!" Michael cried.

Both looked on the verge of sobbing.

Sakaki scrambled to rescue his cheetos before they were stepped on. Michael scrambled out from under the table and ran to a storage closet. He rooted through boxes muttering technical mumbo-jumbo that no one but he could comprehend.

"What, Michael, what is it?" the girls clamored, while Amon lounged against a nearby wall and attempted to look macho and uninterested and at the same time figure out what was going on.

Sakaki, meanwhile, had retreated with his cheetos to his computer and was adding yet another layer of cheeto dust to his keyboard (and his fingers, which we must assume are perpetually orange).

"Ah ha!" Michael cried suddenly, causing both girls to jump and Amon to slightly widen his eyes. "Here it is!"

"What?" Karasuma and Doujima asked simultaneously.

"The extra cord. It's identical to the one that was chewed through." Michael dashed over to the computer and began a cord exchange, which involved plugging and unplugging a lot of cords and wires.

"There." Michael said finally.

"Zoooooweeeeeeep…" said the computers, coming back to life.

There was a cheer throughout the room (in which Amon took no part).

"Michael…" Doujima said threateningly when the moment of joy was past, "Can I talk to you?"

"Not now…hafta run a check of all files and systems…two or three hours…"

"Come on Doujima, let's go," Amon said, and he considered dragging her from the building. Only considered.

"But…" she stammered.

"Now." He stalked out, and she reluctantly followed his retreating back.

"Why me?" she moaned, to no one in particular.

Wow, that was brief. Well, relatively. Yay for brief interludes! Anywho, I should be able to post this tonight, or at least tomorrow. Yippee!

Since I am at a loss for a conversational interlude, I shall move on to review responses.

Carri: You know what, I'm not dirt broke because I hardly ever spend any money and I just got loads for confirmation not too long ago, but my parents won't give me an allowance either. Sucks, but I suppose I don't really need it now that I have a whole lot from confirmation and I just got twenty in belated birthday money over vacation. And my parents aren't exactly rich either. Vacation was nice but it was mostly visiting relatives. I shall get around to Touko again at some point but the story line insists on going a different direction for now. I had this wonderful inspiration for a new nuisance for Amon but I completely forgot it. Which is annoying. Anyway, enough blabbing for now.

May your potatoes never be sautéed in motor oil,

Hyde

St Earns: I'm glad she likes it. Well, how could anyone not like WHR? I cannot imagine such a horror. A world in which people do not like WHR. –weeps at the thought—

No, most of Doujima's red hair is gone, except a stubborn streak behind her left ear. My parents don't allow any food around the computer whatsoever (especially since its fairly new, like 1998 or so, if that's considered fairly new anymore).

I loved writing this chapter. I kept cracking myself up with Sakaki and his cheetos. Speaking of writing chapters, Ais hasn't put out a new chapter or Amon and Laundry for a while now. Though I understand her computer is under repair (poor Luisne!). She didn't review this chapter yet either, which is perhaps for the same reason. Anyway, May noxious oatmeal cookies never invade your green beans,

Hyde

Saikoubi Sama: Yes, the chapter was quite filler-like, but considering that I set up such a situation in the previous chapter I went ahead and wrote it anyway. This one is not filler-like, but rather a brief continuation of previous plots, or something. You can't really call it a brief interlude because its not quite an interlude. Anyway…

May your dreams be filled with cotton candy (and not with puzzle pieces like mine were the other night),

Hyde (AKA: Hyde)

CrazyTomboy: Yuck! No I haven't and I never wish to. Gross. I did have a pretty good time. I completed, um, three books, worked on a 1000 piece puzzle, bought (or rather, mom bought) a dress I really wanted that was on clearance, and other things associated with visiting my reletives.

Oh, and sorry, but Amon Has a Cold is terminated for now. If I ever get an inspiration I might work on it again but at this point I have enough to do with this one.

May some random person I am acquainted with's guinea pig never squeal in your left ear with piercing timbre (if that's the proper musical term),

Hyde

Ow. Been to the Indy Air Show over the weekend and sunburned my upper lip so bad it's blistering. If that's never happened to you before, you don't want it to. But it was pretty cool. They had the Thunderbirds there, and if you've never seen the Thunderbirds, you should. Its cool. They fly around like two feet away from each other in formation in F-16 jets.

Sorry, I would have had this posted a day sooner but document manager was offline for repairs when I tried, so…

May helicopters never land on your roof,

Hyde