> *Pink reaches into her purse and pulls out an arsenal of books, > video, idol cards, cds, dvds and vcds, making a small mountain of > goods in front of Kunou's feet* > > [Kasumi] ^o^; > > [Professor] You keep ALL of that in your purse? May I see that for a > minute...? > > [Kunou] This is... more than sufficient, thanks... o_O > > [Pink] I really prefer him with this dark, spiky hair to anything else > *points to a book* Is that possible? > > [Kunou] Of course... > > [Pink] THANK YOU SO MUCH! ^o^ > > [Kunou] *gulp* *Scene: Gate 9's Lab Complex. Kunou is sitting at a terminal, punching away at various buttons and keyboards, muttering to himself. Odd lights flicker from several gauges, and a large contraption is in a sealed booth in front of him.* Kunou: *muttering* Okay....gene sample accepted and cloned....thank goodness for eBay, never would've found a genetic sample otherwise... *Kosami suddenly pops up behind Kunou.* Kosami: HI! Whatcha doin'? Ku: *jumping about half a foot into the air* ACK! *On his way down, Kunou's arm nudges a dial juuuust a tad......* Ku: I thought I told you NEVER to sneak up on me like that! I almost had a heart attack! Ko: But it's so boooring everywhere else! Kasumi is cooking, the Prof is examining some handbag or other, and that Laura person is using the Danger Room to play with some of your weapons...there's nothing to DO! Ku: ...I thought you were still working with that game in the Arcade? Ko: Um...I finished it. Can I help you out or anything? Ku: *sighs* Just sit there and don't touch anything. *Kunou goes back to fiddling with various buttons, not noticing that a dial is now misplaced. Eventually, a green button is pushed, and the object in the sealed room begins glowing.* Ko: ...oooooh! What now? Ku: Now we wait. *Eventually, a "ping", sounding somewhat like an oven timer, goes off, and the object opens up, revealing.......* Ku: Um.....something is NOT right here. Ko: ....Kunou-chan? Please tell me that you WEREN'T trying to create that... *Resting in the chamber is......Marilyn Manson.* Ku: No, I can DEFINITELY say that I wasn't trying for THAT! *checks the control panels* ....okay, how did the genetic sampler get set there? Geez.....*fiddles with the knob* Ko: Just how did you get that thing's DNA, anyway? Ku: *mumbled* Evil DNA of the Month Club. THERE! *pushes the green button again, closing the object, which emits some more light.* Ko: Don't you have to get...that...out of there first? Ku: Naaah. It'll just degenerate 'im into protomatter and then reform the next clone out of 'im. Ko: *looking a tad green* Ewwwww... *The oven timer "ping"s again, and the object opens once again, STILL with the wrong results.* Ku: .....okay, what th' smeg is THAT? Ko: *squints at the figure in the cloning chamber* Hmm.....the face looks familiar.....hey, that's Ricky Martin's face! And his arms... but the hair looks like that person that Laura had all those pictures of....and the rest of the body looks like Brittany Spears. Pre-chest- enhancement. Ku: *frantically pushing buttons* Okay, we're DEFINITELY not keeping this batch of protomatter. I'll have it set up a new one. This is just WEIRD. *Two hours and two more batches of protomatter later.....the Lab looks like a hurricane hit it, and there are even a few scorch marks on the inside of the sealed room with the cloning chamber.* Ku: *checks diagnostic readouts* ...well, this one looks right, at least... DNA checks out, .001% discrepencies....personality download'll be done in about an hour, and then Laura'll have her Hyde-sama. Ko: *looks at control panels* Kunou-chan? What does this blinking red light mean? Ku: *checks panels* ....*sighs* It means that I drew a little too much power from the grid when we were trying to destroy that Barney-clone. *sighs* Knew I shouldn't've used all those pulse cannons, but I panicked! Ko: *hugs Kunou* Well, this was fun, Kunou-chan...I'm gonna go play some more games now! Byeeee! *walks out* Ku: *sweatdrop* Figures.....once there's work to do, she disappears. ....she reminds me of me. Ah, well. I'll have the medibots take the cloning chamber up to the Medibay, and Laura can meet up with 'im there. But first, I think I need to get to the Ops room and see if I did any damage.... *walks out as a few small, white robots roll in.* ----------- And now we've reached the point in time before my last MR, where the Ops room isn't in that great of shape, and Kasumi's fixin' stuff. Now on to what comes after. ----------- *Kunou is sitting alone in his quarters, with the lights off, just sort of staring. There's a knock on the door.* Ku: Enter. *Kasumi walks in.* Kasumi: Konbanwa, Kunou-san. I brought you some tea, and some Grasshopper cookies...you haven't been eating enough lately, so I thought a small snack might do you some good. Ku: *mumbles* Ka: ....*sets tray down* Is anything wrong, Kunou-san? *walks over to Kunou and sits next to him* Anything you'd like to talk about? Ku: ...*sighs* Kasumi.....you ever get the feeling that there's just nothing really worth doing any more? Ka: *blinks* What do you mean? Ku: ...it just seems so pointless. I've got access to all of the powers of the Marvel Universe, plus a few techniques of my own, all the techno- stuff that I could ever want, I can do bloody near ANYthing....and there's nothing to do. What's the point in doing anything? If I can't do it one way, all I have to do is use a different set of powers, and I'll surely be able to do it another way. I just spent the better part of the day creating LIFE, for crying out loud! Make a clone? No problem. Manipulate time? Child's play. Change reality to give men breasts and women flat chests? It'd take some time, but it's possible! Where're the challenges? Where's the fun? Used to be that there were at least a FEW things that I couldn't do, but I've learned more and more powers with time.....it's insane. Ka: *blinks* Um...well, you can still die, can't you? So you've at least still got to be careful... Ku: *sighs* Actually, I don't think I CAN die. When Xanthar attacked me...there were a few dozen powers I could've used to make his attack ineffective. He wasn't even really a threat. But....I froze. I shifted to Professor X's powers, for cryin' out loud. And he killed me. *turns to face Kasumi* But I couldn't stay dead. The Nexus wouldn't let me. There _has_ to be a release valve between the MU and MLverse, and for better or worse, I'm it. So I'm gonna be here for a looong time. *sighs again* I think I'll just stay here for a bit more, Kasumi...thank you for the tea and the cookies. Let me know when the Hyde-clone is ready, and notify Laura as well. Ka: *hugs Kunou* Hai, Kunou-san...and don't worry, I'm sure that you'll get a challenge soon. There'll be another adventure, and you'll go rushing in to try and save the day, and you'll get yourself in trouble, and mess everything up. As usual. And you'll love every minute of it. *hugs again, and walks out* Ku: .....heh. Heheheh.....*starts giggling and laughing, as the scene fades out* She...heh....knows me pretty well....*giggles*....