Pizza Pie, Pizza Pie!

It was a slow day. A really, REALLY slow day. Shinko sighed, hands carrying his head. He leaned over on the counter, elbows digging into the dough. The only customer in the store was some weird dude in a trench coat, and hadn't even bought anything. He just sorta stood there, looking around all suspicious. It bother Shinko quite a bit, this man, but nothing out of the ordinary. Trench Coat wearers were commonplace here; for some reason, it seemed that people wanted to be discrete about getting a slice of pepperoni.

The phone, placed by the register a few feet away from Shinko, blared suddenly, waking up the store momentarily. Shinko reached over, scarcely moving his feet, and grasped the phone, pulling it to his ear. "Hello, this is ACDC Pizza Department, may I take your order?" Shinko said lazily. A sudden blast of noise erupted from the other end- the caller.

"HELLO?!" the voice boomed as Shinko removed the phon from his ear and stretched it away from him.

"I NEED 20 LARGE PIZZAS HERE AT MY APARTMENT ASAP. I GOT THIS PARTY, YA'SEE, AND IF I DON'T GET THOSE PIZZAS QUICK, IT'LL BE A FLOP, AND YOU'LL BE THE ONE PAYING FOR IT! ITS ROOM 406 ON THE 21ST FLOOR, ON 14 ANDERSON AVENUE! SO GET TO WORK! I HAD BETTER SEE THOSE PIZZAS IN 45 MINUTES OR LESS!"

The loud caller suddenly hung up, leaving Shinko bewildered and deaf in his right ear. He calmly put down the phone, his ear still ringing from the caller's tremendous voice. "Ugh..." Shinko said, placing his palm on his forehead. "ANOTHER rambunctious caller asking for 20 more pizzas, on another slow day. It just always happens."

Shinko clapped his hands, and called for the other employees. The others rushed to him quickly; of course, there was only 3 other people there that day. Shinko began to explain, "Okay. I just got a call from...someone... and they need 20 large cheese pizzas at this address, STAT. And by STAT, I mean 45 minutes." All the workers' eyes grew large, and they looked at each other nervously, then stared at Shinko again. Shinko stared back, and said, "WHAT? Let's move!"

At that moment, the employees manned their battle stations; one at the dough, one at the toppings, one getting them boxed, and Shinko working the oven. The routing was as follows; the dough worker would meld the dough into the flat shape, and toss it to the topper. While the sauce and cheese was being prepared, the boxer readied several boxes for the first batch. As soon as the first pizza was topped, another pan of dough was done, so there was no time to lose. Shinko, having heated the oven, tossed it right on in for a few minutes, completely nuking the pizza for minimum time. Once the baking was over, it was slipped from the over to the box, and then piled into the car steadily. After the first 5 pizzas, the process was already tedious. After 10, they were beginning to slip up. After 15, the worst possible thing happened; the oven broke.

Flames spewing from the slots, Shinko and company were forced to step back. There was 20 minutes left, which would normally be plenty, but now that the electronic oven was broken, they were screwed. After the flames died down, there was only 15 minutes to spare. Then, Shinko got an idea. It was an electric oven, right? That means that viruses were probably the cause of the malfunction!

Shinko reached into his pocket, and drew out his sky-blue PET; the home of his Navi, Cyclone. Shinko flipped it on quickly, as every moment was precious. On the screen, the sleeping face of Cyclone appeared, making a soft moaning sound. Shinko yelled, "CYCLONE! GET UP! WE GOT TROUBLE!" and instantly, as if by magic, Cyclone awoke and began revving up.

"Viruses, right?" he said, stretching himself.

"Yeah." Shinko confirmed. "They're making the oven spew fire. We'll have to take them out."

"Alright, then!" Cyclone said happily. "Jack me in already!"

"Yeah! Cyclone, jack...IN!" Shinko said, sending Cyclone into the main computer of the oven.

One of the employees whispered to another; "Why do people always say that while they jack in...?"

As Cyclone jacked out, Shinko and the crew were already hard at work making the few remaining pizzas. With little time to spare, they were rushing, tossing pizzas together as fast as they could...

And then, they finished. As soon as the last pizza box was slammed shut and piled into the car with the rest, Shinko took off towards the assigned address. Luck was with him, as there wasn't much traffic along the way. Sweat was rolling down Shinko's cheek as he repeatedly checked his watch for the time.

Cyclone began to talk, but stopped. He figured that he shouldn't add to the stress. As the car pulled to a stop, Shinko leaped out, and began to shuttle pizzas onto a small, scooter-like vehicle. He dashed into the building, and caught the elevator just as it was closing. The door closed, and Shinko waited for what seemed like an eternity for the elevator to reach the 21st floor.

He must've checked his watch at least 20 times while in that elevator, and when it opened, he nearly ran over a couple who were going down.

"SORRY!" He called over his shoulder, looking for room 406. "401, 402, 403..." he muttered, reading the door signs. "...405...406!!!"

He knocked on the door, panting. The door opened just as Shinko's timer went off, signifying that he BARELY made it. But, of course, the guy inside wasn't burly. He wasn't tough. It was a geeky guy, with a sweater vest, thick glasses, and even a pocket protector.

"Thaaanks..." he said, with a very annoying voice. "I really needed these for my party..." Shinko did not reply. His eyes were fixed on the megaphone that he could see on the table past the mans shoulder. His heart pounding and veins swelling, an incomprehensible anger rose withing Shinko.

Just that moment, the tenets 3 floors down heard a loud yell, then a tremendous thump. "What da heck wazzat?" one of them said, scratching his head.

Shinko left the building in a hurry, not wanting to be suspected for the man's broken bones. He opened the door, got in, and slammed it shut, and sat there for a moment.

"Shinko...?" Cyclone whined, having not seen what just happened. "What's wrong."

"Nothing." Shinko said with a smile. "Just that all our work was for nothing."

Cyclone did not reply, just shrugged as the car sped off.