Ren Corporation

[InuKun]

Just to give everyone a heads up, I usually do fictional work for the forums I was involved in and though this was never completed due to Ren's demise, it was still rather popular.

[/i][/QUOTE]

Ren Corporation
Prologue

The sun began to grace the city as it slowly rose above the horizon. The first rays showered Ren Tower as down below on the city streets, a film crew began to assemble on the steps, amongst the bustle of staff members heading inside the tower. "This has got to be the worst idea the producer has come up with yet! Tell me again why we were selected to film inside Ren Corporation?" the cameraman asked. "After all, it's a week away from my family." The director turned and looked scornfully at him. "Quit your complaining! Look, we're going to be inside Ren Tower for pete's sake. Do you have any idea how powerful their Security Procedures are? I hear their security staff are trained in the martial arts amongst other things, to help deal with intruders. Besides, given how much I had to invest just to convince the Public Relations team to let us film inside wasn't easy." "Yeah, but still. I mean, you can bet there are secrets behind these walls that no one outside the company could live to tell the tale of if they found out."

A car pulled up out from and a young lady got out. As soon as the crew noticed her, they all sighed. "Great. Now she shows up." As she walked over, the director stormed over to her. "Just where in the hell have you been?! We've been busy setting up for over an hour and you show up late! This is hardly a professional attitude for a reporter!" She just scoffed at him. "Relax. After all, it's not like my personal life shouldn't be important to me." The director grabbed a fist full of his hair and almost pulled it out in frustration. "Okay, fine! Just get yourself ready as we don't have much time. We're due to have the Head of Public Relations come out here momentarily to speak with us about what we can expect over the next week."

About 5 minutes later, a young man came walking out of the building carrying a portfolio and noticed the crew. Walking up, he extended a hand to the director. "You must be the crew from Inside Business. I'm Seri, Manager of Public Relations." he said calmly. "Yes, that's us. I'm Mark Dawdleberry, the director. This is Elaine Bottoms, the reporter. Allan Ziegelhoffer, cameraman. And Daniel Shithumsilf, the Sound Technician." After the round of pleasantries, Seri motioned for all of them to follow him inside. As they entered through the tall, gold double doors, they walked over to the Security Desk where Shadow_Alpha was seated. "This is Shadow_Alpha, one of our Security Staff here at Ren Corporation." Turning to look at Shadow_Alpha, Seri spoke to him. "Shadow, I need these 4 to get Temporary Access Badges for the week." Shadow looked at the four of them. "You'll each have to come back here every day as these badges are only valid for one day, and will show VOID[/color][/b] by around 6pm this evening." With that, he handed each of them a small paper badge. "Keep them on you at all times inside the building."

"Thanks Shadow." Seri replied. "Okay, now that you've all been badged, we just have to have you go through screening with the camera equipment X-Rayed, and we'll be good to go." Shadow took the camera and sound equipment, and placed it on the CTX Machine Belt. Each of them then passed through a Metal Detector and cleared. As Shadow monitored the screen, nothing biological, explosive, or questionable came up from the gear, so he waved them on by, whilst muttering under his breath about the names that they had. "Alright, well I think our first stop should be my office so that we can get an idea of the timeline and then I'll give you all a tour afterwards of the company. Does that seem okay with all of you?" Mark nodded. "Yes, that seems fair to me." Seri smiled. "Alright, then for now, let's head up to my office on the 48th floor. I'll introduce you to my team of staff whilst we're there as well."

Daniel nearly had a heart-attack. He had a fear of heights, and being told that they would start off on the 48th floor wasn't something which he'd wanted to hear. "Uh, sure. That's fine with me." he said nervously. As the elevator reached ground level and opened, he started to sweat like crazy. As soon as they were inside and the door had closed, he discovered another scary thought for him. The Elevator was set against the side of the building with a glass floor and walls. As the elevator climbed past the 8th floor, he got a bird's eye view of the outside, and when he looked down, a superb view of the ground getting farther and farther away from his feet. After what seemed to be forever, the elevator came to a stop on the 48th floor and opened up into a spacious area trimmed with gold. "Here we are." Seri said. After they exited the elevator and got over the initial shock of the interior, they followed him over to a set of doors marked "Public Relations Department". Inside, a hallway sat with doors lining the left side. Walking all the way down to the end, Seri opened the far door and motioned for everyone to follow him. "Well, here's my office." he said nonchalantly.

It looked like Seri was a multi-millionaire by what the interior looked like. His office was huge, covering roughly 300 square feet, with expensive artwork all over. None of them knew what to make of this. Seri proceeded to take a seat and motioned for the others to sit down. As soon as they felt comfortable enough and actually took their seats, Seri started the conversation. "So, what made Inside Business select Ren Corporation for this documentary?" he asked. "Well, our bosses had decided that they wanted to show investors, along with the ordinary public, how large corporations are run on the inside. Sort of a way of letting companies show the world how they do things, without giving away any confidential information of the corporation." Seri nodded as he followed along as they explained the whole concept behind the project that they were doing...

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Chapter One: I'm too lazy to think up a title.

As the meeting wound down inside Seri's office, they heard a knock on the door. "Come in." The door then opened with both Roosta and kirby86 walking in. "Ah, perfect timing! If I may introduce my team to you. This is Roosta." Roosta then nodded. "And kirby86." Waving hello, kirby looked at Seri, wondering what was going on. "These are the staff from Inside Business which I'd been discussing with you last week. They're going to be doing a week-long documentary on our Company and our operations. Should they require any assistance, feel free to help them within reason." Mark then stood up to introduce the team to them. "My name is Mark Dawdleberry, and these are my crew. Elaine Bottoms, Allan Ziegelhoffer, and Daniel Shithumsilf." As Daniel was introduced, Roosta and kirby both looked at him open-eyed, curious as to how he'd become cursed with such a Surname, all the while resisting the urge to break out in laughter. "Uh, right. Well, I'm sure that you'll enjoy your stay at Ren. Of course, please feel free to ask us anything you want while you're here." Roosta finally said after the initial shock.

"Well, if you're all ready, shall we begin the tour?" Seri asked, trying to avoid any embarrassment from kirby or Roosta. Mark, himself eager to get the tour underway, nodded in agreement. "Of course! I'm looking forward to it." Seri smiled. "Alright. Then how about we start with Public Relations and then move down to the 1st basement and the Warehouse, working our way up to the Penthouse Office of our President and CEO, Konoko." "Sounds like a plan." Mark replied. With that, they left Seri's office and made their way next door to the Conference Room of the PR Department. "Well, this is our conference room for Public Relations. At Ren, each department has it's own conference room, so that when a meeting is called for a specific group of departments, the primary department will host the meeting in their own conference room. So far, Public Relations has only held 21 Inter-departmental meetings. If I recall, I think Engineering has held the most with 103. We have a full-floor conference room on the 12th floor, which we use for Company Parties, meetings involving the entire company, etc. Feel free to leave your equipment here every night if you wish and use this as a conference room for the documentary whilst you're here." Mark nodded as he followed along with Seri. "That's about it for now as far as our department. Shall we get going?"

Daniel and Allan went ahead and put their gear down, seeing as they didn't want to be lugging it all over whilst the tour was going on. "Right behind you." Daniel said. As they made their way to the elevator, Roosta and kirby had to go into their offices, so they bid the others adieu for the time being. When the door to the elevator closed again and both were certain the crew had left, the entire floor suddenly burst in echoes of laughter from two men who could no longer hold it inside regarding the surnames of both Elaine and Daniel, but mostly Daniel. Meanwhile, Daniel, who'd temporarily forgotten that the floor and walls of the elevator were glass, had suddenly remembered when the door opened. As Seri selected B1, Daniel silently gulped again, as he again broke out in a sweat. When the elevator jerked downwards to start its descent, he cringed. Allan looked at him and noticed Daniel's discomfort. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked. Daniel nodded. "Yeah, just a slight fear of heights." he replied. Seri, who overheard, laughed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I can change the scenery for you if you like." He then entered a code on the key pad. It turned out that it wasn't glass that made up the walls and floor as they'd originally thought. The scene changed to a jungle theme. "The walls and floor are actually made up of LED screens which project a scenery that the rider asks for. The illusion of the outside is created by two wide-angle lens cameras. One underneath and one to the side of the elevator. It's a project that Engineering put together a couple of years ago." Seri explained.

"How many backgrounds do you have?" Elaine asked. "Currently we have 43 backgrounds available, but Engineering is looking at adding more in the future." Daniel had meanwhile calmed down a little since he was no longer looking outside and down. As the elevator reached the Basement, the doors slowly opened, unto a large warehouse with Computer Software and Hardware stacked in huge piles throughout. Exiting the elevator, Seri opens his arms. "Welcome to our warehouse, where all our supplies gets shipped to customers around the world." Two men came walking over as soon as they saw Seri. "Ah, Seri. We need your advice on..." Seri looked over. "Excellent." Turning to face the crew, he introduced both of the warehouse staff members. "This is ChillPill. One of our warehouse employees." ChillPill just sighed. "And this is the Manager of our warehouse, Lobo_13." Lobo just waved and looked back at Seri. "Look Seri, we really do need your..." Seri interrupted Lobo again and decided to introduce the crew of Inside Business. Lobo simply slapped his face in his palm, annoyed at the fact that Seri wouldn't let him get a word in edgewise.

Of course, the usual reaction occurred when they both heard Daniel's surname. Trying to maintain his composure, ChillPill simply said "Feel free to ask us any questions that you may have about the Warehouse. Although I can't think of why you would want to ask us any questions." Lobo cleared his throat. "Okay, well as Seri said, this is the warehouse at Ren Tower and I am Lobo_13, it's manager. We have another member, Nyadare, however he's out this morning at an appointment. In here, we store all our company software and products, ready to be sent both to distributors along with private clients who order directly from us." Seri then looked at Lobo. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Lobo sweatdropped as he looked at Seri. "We wanted to know what color I should paint my nails this time." Mark overheard and looked at Lobo's fingernails. "Elaine, what do you think?" he asked her. Elaine took one look at Lobo's nails and shrugged. "I suppose that a dark shade of green would be nice." She was admiring the Bluish hue that his nails currently shone with. Seri just laughed. "I think you should go with a golden yellow, to match my old home in Arizona with the sandy deserts."

Lobo nodded in thanks for the suggestions. "Well then, I must thank you for your input." "Alright! Next stop, will be Marketing on the second floor. I'll introduce you to Eslcire and his staff, who are really a great team. Oh, but before that we have to stop by the cafeteria as I need to pick something up. I guess it's be back to the lobby first so we can get what we need from the cafeteria. Feel free to grab a bite to eat while we're there." As they said goodbye to the warehouse, they went back to the lobby and headed over to the cafeteria. Inside, they ran into SquallAKALeon talking with both Fly-ana and Xtinction. Seri brought the crew over. "Hey Squall, Fly, Xtinction. How're things going?" Squall looked up at Seri. "Hey Seri. Not much for me. Just getting ready for a meeting with my team as we upgrade some of the security system." Fly-ana and Xtinction were busy looking over a notice which had been placed in their mailboxes, which gave their schedules with Ren-1 for the week. "Folks, these are SquallAKALeon, our Security Manager, along with Ren-1's Flight Crew. Captain Fly-ANA and First Officer Xtinction." Xtinction and Fly-ANA looked over and nodded. "Good morning. Sorry for not saying hello earlier. I'm just busy trying to make sense of why we're going to Cancun tomorrow afternoon for 3 hours. We've been asked to send Warwitch and fio-chan, along with malanhelen and Larry to do a presentation to the City Government. Hopefully we get stranded there and can turn it into a mini-vacation." he said jokingly. Holding out his hand, he shook each of the guests. "I'm Fly-ANA, the Captain of Ren-1." Xtinction then joined Fly in shaking their hands. "Hola! Nice to meet you all. My name is Xtinction. First Officer for Ren-1. Nice to meet all of you."


Squall, Fly-ANA, and Xtinction started talking with the crew about their work, whilst Seri went to grab what he needed for the trip to marketing. After a few minutes, he returned carrying an insulated paper cup. "Alright. We ready to get going up to Marketing?" he asked. "Sure, I think we're all set here." Mark replied. Saying goodbye, they left the cafeteria and made their way back to the elevator. Once the door opened on the second floor, Seri made a hard left and walked down the corridor until he reached a center door labeled "Marketing". As he opened the door, he came right across the Marketing Manager/VP of Ren, Elscire. "Ah, Elscire! It's good to see you this morning. Oh, here you are, a nice steaming hot cup of Earl Grey." Seri then handed Elscire his tea. "These are the crew from Inside Business that I'd told you about last week. They'll be here for the week doing a documentary on our rise in the ranks to power." Elscire took the cup and held it up. "Cheers. It's nice to meet all of you. I'm Elscire, Marketing Manager and Vice President of Ren Corporation. I certainly do wish you a pleasant stay here this week. So, what can I do for you?" he asked.

"Well, today really is just a feel for the company and getting a rough idea of where all the departments are." Mark explained. At that moment, Viraqua walked in from his connecting office. "Hey Elscire." He then noticed the guests. "Hi there." Elscire and Seri waved Viraqua over. "Good to see you Viraqua. These people are from Inside Business and are here for the week to do a documentary on Ren Corporation." Seri informed him. "Ah, welcome to Ren I suppose. However you must excuse me for now as I have a meeting up in Engineering. We've come up with a new rebate program and I want their input on the idea." Elscire looked over at him. "Well, why not see what our guests think of it?" Viraqua shrugged. "If you don't mind." Mark and the others simply nodded. "Sure, I'd love to hear what the idea is."

"Well, we've decided to offer a full money-back rebate on all of our most recent products to hit the market." Mark looked at him with a look of interest. "But wouldn't that result is losses to Ren?" "Ah, but here's the thing. The customer must find the secretly hidden 300-digit serial number and write it within the box on the rebate form which is only the size of a checkbox in a manner that is legible to our staff without the use of high-powered magnification. This will guarantee that the public buy our products thinking that they'll get their money back, only to get nothing. It's perfect!" Elscire grinned evilly. "Excellent work Viraqua! I wish you well in the meeting with Engineering." Viraqua then turned to face the crew. "So, what do you think?" They all just stood there and nodded. "Uh, yeah! I think that's a great idea." Daniel said, uneasy with the spotlight having been thrown on them. "Great. Well, I'll be sure to have you all buy copies before the week is done, out of your own pocket money of course. See ya." He then walked out into the hallway, leaving them alone, as the crew from Inside Business tried to get their heads around what Viraqua had said.

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Chapter Two

Well, I think we’d best be going on now.” said Seri. “After all, we still have quite a lot of the company to see today on the tour. But thanks again Elscire for your help and for your time this morning.” Elscire just waved his hand. “Oh, that’s no problem. After all, I enjoy meeting with clients. And thanks again for the tea, Seri.” Turning to face the crew of Inside Business, Elscire gave a slight bow. “If there is anything you wish to ask of me, or any of my team during your stay, please feel free to ask.”

As Seri escorted them back out into the hallway, Daniel held his hand out to shake Elscire. “Thanks again for your hospitality.” “Don’t mention it.” Once they’d left the office, Elscire shrugged. “So those are the people from Inside Business that Seri brought up at the meeting on Friday. Hmm, let’s hope they don’t get too nosy while they’re here.” Marpix then walked out of his office. “So, who were they?” “Oh, Marpix. Those are the people that Seri arranged to do a documentary on the company with.” Marpix looked concerned. “Do you think they’ll uncover the truth?” “I doubt it. But it may be in the corporation’s best interest to get them involved to keep an eye on things. After all, I don’t want the truth about our company getting leaked out to the common public, or at least, not until the final phase of our plan is complete.” Elscire then looked Marpix in the eye. “By the way Marpix. Shouldn’t you be with Viraqua at the moment giving the presentation to Engineering?” Marpix laughed shyly whilst rubbing his hand behind his head. “Um, yeah. I guess I forgot about that meeting.” Shaking his head, Elscire just waved a hand towards Marpix, as if to say “Go on.” “Well, I guess I’d best be going to that meeting now.” Marpix then proceeded out of the office and down the hallway towards the elevator, leaving Elscire alone in the Marketing office. “I need to get a new secretary.” he said.

Meanwhile, Seri was walking the staff over to the other end of the hallway, and came to a stop in front of a large Oak door with the words “International & Investor Relations” on it. “These are the offices of both the International and Investor Relations Departments. Both of which used to be under Public Relations, but split off a year ago due to the sheer volume of International Relations that the corporation has to deal with on a day to day basis. Let me warn you though, as since they’re always really swamped with work, you may not get a chance to speak with anyone today.” As Seri opened the door, it became apparent that his guess was not quite correct. Indeed, the opposite was true. For inside, everyone was sitting down on sofas resting, with two of the employees fast asleep. Annoyed at what he was seeing, Seri quickly closed the door and turned to the crew, saying rather nervously “Well, it appears that they’re in a meeting at the moment so I think it would be best if we came back later.” Just as Seri was finishing the sentence, juanoscar walked up behind them. “Good morning Seri.” Seri looked over to see juanoscar smiling at him. “Aw, crap!” he muttered. “Um, everyone, this is juanoscar, the Investor and International Relations Manager here at Ren. juanoscar, these are the crew from Inside Business which I informed you of back at Friday’s General Management Meeting.” “Ah, yes. I remember now. Sorry about that. Please, come inside. It‘s certainly a pleasure to meet all of you” With that, juanoscar scooted by Seri and opened the door for everyone. “Don’t be shy. No one in our department will bite.” They looked around to see that in actually, no one was apparently working. “You must excuse our tired physiques, but we were all here most of the night dealing with a Relations Issue in Shanghai, China.” he said. Seri just sighed. “So, that’s why everyone is resting right now. I see.”

MaidNanako walked over as they entered and handed juanoscar a set of documents. “Excellent. These should do nicely for the project. Thanks MaidNanako.” After juan managed to introduce the staff of the department, and they had yet again gotten over the initial shock of Daniel’s last name, they greeted the crew with as much strength as they could afford for the time being. “So, do you have any questions of either the staff or I?” juan asked. Allan raised his arm. “I was wondering how challenging the department can be for a newcomer, in light of the fact that this department handles quite a substantial workload?” “Well, that would depend on the stamina given by the individual employee. Certainly, if you give a little, you can expect only a little back in return. If you give a lot, then you can expect a lot back in return. I like to run this department with the idea that everyone is equal and no one is greater than another. I find it helps promote equality for everyone in this department. But then again, each department runs things differently.” As the discussion continued, Aaldhelmson came in, carrying the model light saber that had been dropped of by the courier earlier that morning. “Sorry about that. Mail Room had called, letting me know that the package I’d been waiting for had arrived.” Laughing gently, juanoscar simply waved it off, saying “Don’t worry about it Aaldhelmson. Oh, these are the people from Inside Business that are going to be with our company for the week.” Aaldhelmson smiled. “Please to meet you. My name is Aaldhelmson, one of the International Relations team members in this department. Sorry though for making this introduction brief, but I really must get into my office and play with my new toy. So if you’ll excuse me.” With that, Aaldhelmson slipped past going straight to their office.

“Well, as you can see, we have a pretty unique group here in this office. But certainly feel free to come and visit at any time you wish, and we’ll be sure to take care of you.” As they left the office back into the hallway, Seri noticed a familiar face getting out of the elevator and heading towards Marketing. Familiar in the fact that it was a neko-droid. “Robo kitty, it’s good to see you again.” Robo kitty simply turned to see Seri and his entourage walking towards him. “It’s been quite a while, Seri.” Robo kitty turned to face the people that were with him. “And who might all of you be?” Seri laughing gingerly at Robo kitty’s up-front question. “Well, these people are from Inside Business and they’re here to help to a documentary for the week.” Robo kitty’s eyes flashed when he heard that. “So, these are the people that Elscire asked us to keep an eye on for the week. It appears the two of us are going to be able to have some fun, after all.” he thought to himself with a grin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Robo kitty.” Mark said, albeit nervous of the apparent aura of power seeping from Robo kitty. With a slight scoff, Robo kitty replied “No, no. The pleasure is all mine, I assure you.” Seri looked at Robo kitty for a moment, and figured it would be best to simply let them get on their way to their next stop. “Listen, I’m sorry to have to cut this short, but I think it would be best if we kept going. After all, there is still a lot to see here and so little time in which to see it all.”

After they got in the elevator, Mark turned to Seri. “Um, who was that?” “Robo kitty? He’s one of the network controllers who monitors the networks of our clients. Sort of a general handy-man as it were. He just likes to give a tough guy appearance to himself, but truth be told, he’s really a very lovable creature.” Elaine raised her hand. “Um, so what’s the next stop for us?” Seri waited until the elevator came to a stop on the 6th floor. “One of our most prestigious departments of all, and I’m told the envy of competitors worldwide.” As the door opened, a single double-door greeted them. On the door, in large gold letters, stood tall the words “Information Technology”. “I must ask though that if during the week, you ever come here, that you don’t film or take photographs of what is within. This floor is a restricted level, so even when you do come, you will have to be escorted at all times here.” Getting off the elevator, they all nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s no problem.” Mark answered. “Alright, without further ado, the Information Technology Department.” Seri the opened the doors, and unto their eyes shone a world they hadn’t expected. Pinball and Video Games lined the sides of the office foyer, with several office doors spread out. In the center of the room was a large marble and gold fountain with what appeared to be a sculpture of Soundwave standing triumphant in the middle.

Seri invited them to all have a seat whilst he went and got the Manager of the IT Department, Sideways. Heading to the back of the foyer, he knocked on a large door. A few moments later, Sideways came walking out carrying a TV Remote. “Hey Seri! What’s up?” “Hey Sideways. Look, sorry to bother you since I know the IT department is rather busy with getting the project finalized, but I was wondering if I could introduce the crew from Inside Business to everyone?” Sideways shrugged. “I guess so. We are kinda busy right now, but I guess I can’t see any harm with giving everyone a break to come say hi.” “Thanks.” Seri breathed a sigh of relief. “No problem. Hey just give me a moment to let everyone know and come out of their offices.” With that, Sideways left to pick up his phone. A minute later, he returned. “Okay, they’ll be out in a moment. So, where are these guests?” Seri walked Sideways over and introduced them to him. As the conversation got underway, Xaio, anonym, and motoroil came walking out of their offices. “Great. And here are my three main supervisory staff who keep an eye on things here in the IT Department. May I introduce Xaio, anonym, and motoroil. They help keep this department running, and I know we couldn’t do it without their help. Guys, these people are here for the week to help put a documentary on our company together.” “Nice to meet you.” Xaio said, pretty much summing up how all three of them responded. After a few more minutes of idle chat, Seri once again took the initiative to get the tour back on track. “Well, once again, I’d like to thank each of you for taking the time out of your schedules to meet with our guests.” Sideways just nodded. “Oh, don’t worry about anything. It helps clear our minds and reduce the stress that we get placed under. But certainly do take care for now and I hope we’ll see you all again later this week sometime.”

As they all headed back into the hallway and waited for the elevator, Seri started running a mental list on where they had already been, and where he could still take them. He wanted to get at least one more department out of the way before they breaked for lunch. “Ah ha! I know where I can take them. And it’s just not that many floors up. Besides, the two managers are both wonderful people.” he thought. As the door to the elevator opened, Seri quickly had to change the scenery as someone had set it back to the outside view. Once he was done, he invited Daniel to get on board, as he sent the elevator climbing up to the 39th floor. “Okay, to help wind the morning part of the tour down, you get a treat. This is where the Online Games, such as our MMORPG’s are networked. This department is unique in that it has two managers who share the operation together, and that they also happen to be married. But don’t worry. They are both great people and I’ve always enjoyed working with them here.” As each floor counted up on the screen, the crew from Inside Business tried to put together all that they had seen thus far. Finally, the elevator came to a stop of the 39th floor, opening right into the office of two people who sat at a set of computers typing away commands which relayed to their characters on the screen in a fantasy world. They both paused the game when they heard the chime of the elevator and the sound of the doors opening. They saw that on the walls around were pictures of both managers together.

“Hey Seri.” The young lady smiled as she saw him walk in. “Bernouli. Nameless Chibi Neko. How are the two of you this morning?” he asked. “Not bad. We were just trying to iron out some bugs in one of the upcoming games that we’re going to have put on the market.” Nameless put his wireless keyboard down for a moment. “So, what brings you here? It’s a treat for us to even see you outside of General Management Meetings these days.” he asked. Seri motioned to the four people that were with him. “Bernouli, Nameless Chibi Neko. May I present the crew from Inside Business who will be doing a documentary all this week about Ren Corporation.” They both nodded hello, as Mark stepped forward. “I’m Mark Dawdleberry, the director. This is our reporter Elaine Bottoms, Cameraman Allan Ziegelhoffer, and Daniel Shithumsilf, the Sound Technician.” Nameless Chibi Neko could only manage to cough when he heard it, trying to be polite enough not to laugh at Daniel’s last name. “Uh, it’s nice to meet you all.” he finally answered. Bernouli wrapped her arm around him and smiled at everyone. “So, what can we do for all of you today?” she asked. “Well, I’ve just been busy giving a tour to them, introducing them to everyone in each of the departments.” Seri answered. Bernouli looked at her watch. “Well, we were actually going to be heading down in a few minutes to get lunch from the cafeteria. Why don’t you join us? It’ll help you meet staff that you normally wouldn’t meet. Some of us work outside the building more often than inside. Such as our Research Analysts and Field Teams. They’re all here today, so you might be able to meet some of them during lunch.”

Seri smiled. This would certainly speed the tour up for him, and allow him a break for a little while to rest his legs. “That sounds really nice. But please, I must insist that we be allowed to buy lunch for all of you.” Mark said. “It’s the least we can do as a way of thanking everyone for their hospitality.” Nameless shook his head. “Oh, there’s no need to do that. After all, the food in the cafeteria, whilst cheap in price, is quite hearty in quality. So, it isn’t a drain on our wallets to eat here.” A few minutes later, they all made their way down to the cafeteria.

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Chapter Three

As they all made their way into the elevator, Bernouli shook her head. “I don’t like this scenery.” she said. Reaching over to the key pad, she keyed in a passcode for her private display. A moment later, the elevator changed from a jungle scene, to a collage of hand-selected pictures from Bernouli and Nameless Chibi Neko’s Wedding Ceremony. “That’s better. These are photos from our wedding day that we gave to Engineering for them to make a collage for the elevator of. They got to watch as a series of photos, ranging from Bernouli in her dress before the ceremony, to the first kiss as husband and wife. They even got to enjoy photos from the reception party afterwards. Everyone just smiled, as it brought a tear to Seri’s eyes reminding him of that day. “Bernouli, I have to say that you look absolutely beautiful in that dress.” Elaine said, herself unable to avoid tears from seeing the occasion. “Well, this will get an addition soon. Engineering asked me on Thursday for the wedding video, so that they can make a video wall as well of our wedding.” Nameless explained. “Of course these aren’t available for just anyone to select since they are pass-coded.”

A minute later, the elevator arrived at the Ground Floor, and everyone headed over to the cafeteria. Unlike earlier, the cafeteria is now swamped with employees who are vying for a good meal and a premium place to sit down. “Don’t worry. It’s only like this on Mondays and Wednesdays. The rest of the week it doesn’t get as bad.” Seri explained. “Why just those days?” Allan asked. “Well, on those days, the food is half price, so naturally everyone wants a bit more from the buffet selection. You normally pay 50 cents per pound of food, but when it becomes 25 cents per pound, you get a lot more for your dollar.” “Why so cheap?” “It’s subsidized by the accounts that Ren holds globally. Not to worry though. Truth be told, the food may be cheap in price as a result, but not in quality.” They got in line and waited for their turns at the buffet counter. When they had all selected the foods that they wanted, they met up at the cash registers where Nameless handed his employee account card to the cashier. “This is on us today. However I think it would be best given the circumstances to possibly eat quickly, and give you all a chance to talk with the employees that are here.” Seri looked behind them to see fio-chan and Warwitch were next in line. “Excellent. Hey fio-chan, Warwitch.” The two ladies looked up to see Seri, Bernouli, and Nameless Chibi Neko standing there with some new faces. “Hey everyone. How’re things?” Warwitch asked. “Warwitch. Fio-chan, these are the staff from Inside Business who’re going to be here throughout the week to help run a documentary on our company for the outside world to see what goes on here.” “It’s a pleasure to meet both of you.” Mark said. “These two ladies are the Research Analysts for Ren, and basically meet with our clients out on the field along with the field teams to monitor how our products are doing, and what the clients feel could be modified to help the product fully suit their needs.” Bernouli added.

Elaine was impressed. “That’s amazing that you two have such strong positions within the company. I must say that I’m really impressed by all the work I’ve seen thus far today whilst on the tour.” Fio-chan smiled. “Thanks for the compliment. Although the stress for us isn’t as great as it is for those in Engineering or IT.” Everyone laughed at that comment. As they started conversing, they suddenly heard an announcement over the PA in the cafeteria. “Make way for Field Team A. All rise in the presence of Larry.” The staff all jokingly stood at attention, whilst the crew from Inside Business stood there wondering just what was going on. “Hey, what’s so special about a field team?” Allan whispered to Daniel. “How should I know?” The answer would leave all 4 of them with their jaws on the floor. For into the cafeteria walked a distinguished gentleman wearing a high quality suit and dark sunglasses. This in and of itself wouldn’t be unusual, however the individual next to him was what got their attention. As malanhelen walked over to the buffet counter, Larry waddled closely behind. For you see, Larry is a duck. A duck who was wearing expensive Ray-Ban shades and sporting a high class suit specially tailored for him. Everyone applauded as Larry followed along behind malanhelen, hoping to get some extra food from the other employees. “Surprised?” Seri asked. “Those two make up Field Team A, and although Larry is a duck, he’s extremely gifted at getting clients off topic.” After grabbing the food for both he and Larry, malanhelen walked over to the line at the register and ran into the others after paying for his food. “Hey Warwitch. Fio-chan. Ready for the meeting tomorrow in Cancun?”

“As ready as we’ll ever be, I suppose.” Warwitch replied. “Oh, malanhelen, these guests are from Inside Busniess and are going to be here for the week doing a documentary of the company.” Seri mentioned. Larry quacked loudly whilst flapping his wings. Elaine thought it was cute, so she reached down to pet him. "No! Don't!" cried malanhelen. But it was too late. Larry started pinching her hand with his beak, trying to lay a hint that he wanted her to give him food and affection. "Sorry about that." malanhelen said as he reached over and gently took hold of Larry. "You aren't hurt, are you?" Elaine rubbed her hand a little, and then smiled. "It's okay, it didn't hurt that much." she answered. Heading over to a large table which had opened itself up again, they all took a seat and started to talk about what was going on in their lives, and sharing information both on Ren Corporation along with Inside Business. After about 45 minutes, Nameless Chibi Neko looked up at the clock. "Well, I guess we'd better be getting back to work now." he said. "Well, why don't you come back up. We'll give you all a tour of our office as you weren't really able to see too much of it earlier when you came in. There's a lot of cool things in there." Bernouli offered. Seri looked at the crew. "We've seen most of the departments already. It's completely up to all of you as to what you want to do right now." The crew from Inside Business decided to quickly confer amongst themselves whilst weighing their options. After a few moments, they elected to take Bernouli and Nameless Chibi Neko up on their offer. "Excellent." Bernouli said with a smile.

As the elevator returned to the 39th floor, Bernouli turned the overhead lights on, which certainly did brighten the room up clearly for everyone. In the far corner was a heart-shaped bed with matching pillows. They could see more clearly the pictures which also covered the walls, showing the love between Bernouli and Nameless Chibi Neko and how it evolved and became the strong burning candle it is now. On their desk, encased in a gold and silver frame with a diamond cat paw-print, was the crowning achievement thus far in their lives. The Photo of the two of them together right after the wedding ceremony. All around were memorabilia of cats, ranging from bobble head kittens and sketches, to a sculpture of a kitten grooming a tiger peacefully. "So, would you like to see our latest game development?" Bernouli asked.

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Chapter Four

Whilst everyone else was enjoying their Lunch break, the Human Resources Department was busy watching everyone in the cafeteria by Close Circuit TV, running timers on each employee. Pyoko grinned as she watched the timers count down, one by one. “Come on, expire already. I want some fun today!” Within 30 seconds, three timers reach zero. Laughing maniacally, Pyoko grabbed the Intercom and spoke into it. “Attention everyone in the cafeteria. I need the following employees to come up to HR this minute. You all went over your allotted 45 minute break for lunch. Mr. Porker, Mrs. Widearse, and Mr. Manboobs. We’re going to have a little chat in my office. As for the rest of you, remember that I’m keeping a close eye on your break, and believe me, if I could, I’d eliminate your breaks all together. That is all!” She then smiled as she watched the three employees walk dejectedly out of the cafeteria with their heads dropped in shame. “Good, good! They’re feeling bad now. That should cheer me up a little.” Frozen sun walked over and joined Pyoko in watching the three employees walking towards the elevator, thankful that they were able to feel depressed for at least once in their lives. “Dammit! I can’t feel happy.” he thought. “I work in HR, so I can’t make myself feel happy.” Pyoko, still feeling in a good mood, and getting somewhat excited at what she’d get to do in a short while, turned to frozen sun. “Hey, could you do me a little favor and grab my punishment bag from the other room? I want to get warmed up ready for this punishment.”

Almost getting into a round of laughter at the mere thought of what was in store for the three slackers, frozen sun walked outside and retrieved the “Punishment Bag”. Returning to Pyoko’s office, he handed it to her, just as a knock came at the front door. “Thanks. Ah, it would appear our guests have arrived.” Pyoko said. Frozen sun walked out to the office front door and opened it. “You know, you can walk in, you don’t have to knock.” he told them. As all three of them walked into the foyer, he showed them to a row of hard chairs in the corner. “Have a seat. The mistress will see you all shortly.” he told them. Going back into Pyoko’s office, he let her know that all three were sitting outside waiting to see her. “Excellent. So frozen sun, shall we go to lunch now? Might as well have them wait in anguish for as long as possible.” Frozen sun now did break out in laughter. “That’s a really evil thing to do mistress. I like it!” With that, they both took the direct exit from Pyoko’s office out into the hallway and headed to the elevator, leaving all three of their slackers sitting in the foyer sweating nervously as they imagined the horrible things that Pyoko might do to them.

When they arrived at the cafeteria, they found that the room was quieting down from what it had been a short time earlier, as most of the employees had cleared out after the announcement Pyoko had made, which managed to install fear into each employee, who’d then ended up either rushing back to their workstations early, or else spending the rest of their time in the cafeteria simply watching their watches, not wanting to go over their allotted 45 minutes. After grabbing their lunch, the two of them sat down and looked at their watches. “Frozen sun, I’m going to allot ourselves an additional 15 minutes, so we get a full hour for lunch, just for added effect. After all, those three know that they can’t return to their positions until they’ve met with me.” Raising his drink, the two tapped their drinks together whilst saying "Cheers."

Once their lunch hour was finished, they both headed back up to the HR Office, and as Pyoko emptied the contents of the bag out, frozen sun walked back out into the foyer. "Our apologies for the wait. The Mistress will see you know." he said, whilst motioning to the door to her office. Gulps could be heard from all three employees before they stood up and slowly made their way into her office. Pyoko didn't look amused, wanting to play with their heads. "What took the three of you so long to get here, pyo?! You've made me wait over an hour for you to all arrive! Let me ask you, why should I not have your employment with Ren Corporation terminated, pyo?! You all bring shame to this company, with your lax attitude and desire to make higher ups like myself wait and question where you are, pyo! What a disappointment to us all you've all become, pyo." She was smiling and patting herself on the back for the roll she was on. "Now then, please explain yourselves. First, why you went over your allotted 45 minutes, and second, why you made me wait so long, pyo?!" Mr. Manboobs took a breath, getting ready to talk. "Well, you see..." Pyoko interjected. "No! I don't want to hear anything the three of you have to say. It's not worth my precious time at this point, pyo."

Frozen sun just stood there laughing mentally as Pyoko chewed all three of them out. Thirty minutes later, Pyoko finally stopped yelling at them. "Okay, I think we all know that I've finished my rant with you all, pyo. So then, what are you going to do to help correct your actions so that they never happen again, pyo?" Mrs. Widearse volunteered her response. "Well, I'm going to monitor my lunch break more closely and make sure I avoid getting the wrath of Pyoko in the future." Pyoko shook her head. "Good. You understand that you won't want to face my wrath again, but that's okay. You won't have to face my wrath anymore, pyo." The three of them looked at her, all perplexed. "You see, Since none of you returned to your workstations on time, and did not let your managers know, it pains me, but I'm going to have to terminate each of your employments with Ren Corporation. After all, we can't have such irresponsible behavior within our prestigious company, now can we, pyo?" "Y-you mean, w-we're fired?!" Mr. Manboobs asked, totally in shock. "T-that w-would b-be a y-yes, pyo!" she answered. "Now then, I need each of you to sign these documents which declare that you understand that you are each bound to the confidentiality agreements for the next 5 years, and that you agree not to seek employment in any field for at least five years, in order to protect our company, pyo. Also, you will pay restitution to Ren for the fact that you did not clock out for lunch. Payroll isn't going to pay you that money, pyo." Pyoko then turned to frozen sun. "Can you get me their files along with three termination packages for processing their terminations, please?" Frozen sun bowed his head. "Of course, Mistress." He went over to the Records Room and looked up their files.

When frozen sun returned to Pyoko's office, he handed her the files and termination packages. After filling in the sections of the forms that she needed to work on, she handed them the forms to sign. As each signed their forms, Pyoko picked up the phone and called up Underground. "Hey Underground, it's me, Pyoko, pyo. I just wanted to let you know that I have Mr. Manboobs in my office at the moment, pyo." Underground, who was on the other end, just exploded by the sound of her response. "Well, I summoned him because he went over his lunch break, but he also made me then wait over an hour waiting for him, pyo.... Yes, we're busy filling in the termination paperwork right now.... I understand. Okay, that's fine. Alright, thanks for the compliment, pyo.... Talk to you later. Bye now." With that, she then hung up and then went ahead and dialled up Najla. "Hey Najla, could you do me a favor and come down to HR for a few minutes, pyo. I have two of your liason staff here and we're in the middle of doing termination paperwork with them, pyo.... Sure, that's just fine.... Okay, I'll see you in a few minutes then, pyo.... See you then."

"Um, is Najla coming down here?" Mrs. Widearse asked. "Yes. She will be escorting both of you to your workstations to clean out, pyo." With that, she called Squall up in Security. "Squall, hey there. Yeah, just busy handling some terminations here, pyo. Yeah, Najla will take care of her employees, but I need a favor. Underground is swamped with his workload, so I was wondering if you, or one of your staff could come up and escort Mr. Manboobs to the Field Test Office, pyo... Great, thanks for your help, pyo." Replacing the receiver, Pyoko looked at Mr. Manboobs. "I suppose you figured it out from the conversation, pyo. Underground is busy catching up and trying to split the workload you've forced on him through this incident over to the other teams, pyo. We'll have Squall and The ghost coming up to escort you to the Field test Office. But as all three of you know, we reserve the right to look over what you remove, in order to ensure no company property is removed, pyo. Not to say that you would do it, but I'm just required to let you know that everything you take with you could get checked, pyo."

As the paperwork was wrapped up, Najla walked into the office and saw both Mrs. Widearse and Mr. Porkchop sitting there looking ashamed at what was going on. "Hey everyone." Sitting down next to them, Najla looked both of them in the eye. "So, what happened?" "Well Najla, they went over their time for lunch and then when I asked them to come discuss it with me, they made me wait over an hour for their arrival, pyo." Using her control abilities, she had broken them all down into believing that they were completely at fault. "Well, I'm done with them now, so I'll leave the escort duty down to you, pyo." Najla shrugged and stood up. "This is the one part of the job that I hate the most, having to escort people from the building." Najla then gave a sigh. "Well then, let's get going." "Actually, before then, could we have their security badges?" Squall asked, as both he and The Ghost came walking in. "It makes things less complicated in the long run." Pyoko looked over and smiled. "That was quick for you two to arrive, pyo." "What can I say? We in security are quick to respond to any and all issues that may arise." The Ghost answered. Removing their badges, all three employees handed them to Squall, who then signed the termination paperwork of Pyoko's to say that Security had recovered their SIDA badges, thus preventing a $100 charge to their payroll accounts.

"Well, my job in all of this is complete, pyo." Pyoko said. "I certainly do wish all three of you well in your future endeavors, pyo." With that, Najla, Squall and The Ghost escorted all three of them out of Human Resources. Once they'd all left, frozen sun turned to Pyoko and smiled. "Looks like today was a successful day for you." Laughing, Pyoko replied "Well, I always find it a blast to make the peasant employees get worked to the bone in every department, pyo. Besides, it's all in the interest of allowing us to achieve the goals of Project Analogue here at Ren." "So how are your workouts in Kung Pyo going?" frozen sun asked. "Excellent, pyo. It's enjoying to watch victims suffer, pyo."

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Chapter Five

Back in Bernouli and Nameless Chibi Neko’s office, they were busy talking with Mark, about the newest online fantasy and action games that Ren was getting ready to launch. “Each game has to run through testing stages using avid gamers, and of course Bernouli is the backbone of the program, since she does all the base artwork for the games that we release.” Nameless hugged her as he continued. "All in all though, it's just amazing to me even after all this time, how Bernouli can put such hard work into the programs here at Ren. She's the most important thing in the world to me, and I wouldn't give her up for anything." Bernouli blushed as Nameless went on, but still enjoyed hearing him say it. "I have to say, you both put a huge amount of effort and time into the work you do. But tell me, how do you cope with long hours and challenges that arise during creation and testing of games?" Nameless and Bernouli both looked towards the back of the room where the bed was. Mark took the hint. "Ah. Say no more. I understand."

After another hour of discussion, in which Allan and Daniel got to try out some of the new games that were still in Beta testing, they finally wrapped up and thanked Bernouli and Nameless for their time. "Hey Seri, where were you thinking of taking them now?" "I thought we'd pay a visit to Engineering, and then head to Accounting, followed by Staff Travel, and wrap the day up with HR. We can visit the other branches tomorrow morning since filming doesn't start until lunchtime." Mark nodded. "Yeah, that sounds like a plan." "Well, if you're going to Engineering next, could you ask Cheesey to call me when he has a chance?" Nameless asked. "I need to ask him about something." Seri nodded. "No problem. I'll let him know." "Thanks."

Getting into the elevator, they waved good-bye to Bernouli and Nameless as the door slowly closed. "They looked soo adorable together." Elaine commented. "Yeah, it almost makes me cry, the sheer beauty of it all." Daniel said. A moment later, the elevator came to a stop on the 26th floor. "Here we are. Engineering." Seri proclaimed. As the doors opened, they saw several cubicles and in the distant background, a large oak door. As they slowly made their way in, one of the Engineers happened to be walking around the corner, having just picked up some coffee for himself.? "Hey Seri." "Ah, Kuyukly, good timing! Could you get Cheesey and everyone here for just a moment.? I'd like to introduce our guests." Kuyukly simply shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Although right now, it may be better to have the meeting in Cheesey's office. Oh, I'm Kuyukly, by the way." he said. "Sounds good." Seri answered. "Perfect. Follow me then. We just have to stop by and grab Angelus on the way."

They walked over to Angelus' cubicle, who quickly joined them, seemingly glad to get away from his workstation. "Phew. Thanks. I needed a break." "No problem." Kuyukly replied. Heading into Cheesey's office, they saw Cheesey and fluffyanimals in a debate. "I fired the Sales Team last week up in Witchita, since we needed to cut costs. This strategy relies on our customer base up there driving to the distribution center and begging for our latest product." Cheesey explained. "Do you think I should write a book on Management for it?" Fluffyanimals just stood there, completely dumbfounded. "Um, Cheesey? I'd try reading one first. That's going to backfire since I doubt anyone would have an interest in driving there and begging for it." "Not to worry. I have Robo kitty working with IT to create an expiration code for our last product, so that when users go to try and use the software after their next connection to the internet, the software will tell them that the User Agreement has expired and they need to get the next program. Besides, the meeting with Marpix and Viraqua earlier should have explained to you that we need to come up with new ways to deal with the customer base." It was apparent that Cheesey hadn't seen everyone walking in.

Clearing his throat to try and get Cheesey's attention, and partly to stop him from talking in front of the guests about such issues, Seri then walked over. "Hey Cheesey, fluffyanimals. Sorry to interrupt, but these are the crew from Inside Business who're going to be doing a documentary on Ren." Cheesey and fluffyanimals looked over and then they both said hello. Mark then moved forward and introduced everyone. It became apparent to Mark though that there must be something unusual going on, since every time he had introduced Daniel, the reaction was almost always stares, sometimes even more. After spending several minutes talking with the staff of Engineers, Seri knew that they were going to have to speed the tour up a little, since otherwise it would be past contract time for the crew of 5pm each day. "Well, I guess we'd best be going, as we have three more stops to make today. After that, we can head back to Public Relations and wrap the day up. We can get the final major departments out of the way first thing tomorrow morning. You should be good to go around 10am with the start of the documentary then." Mark looked at his watch and noticed that it already 3:15. "Darn it. I had lost track of time already. Sorry, but we're only allowed to be working on the documentary each day until 5pm, and I'd like to get started on the filming tomorrow." Fluffyanimals waved his hand. "Don't worry about it. That's completely understandable. After all, each of you has a long week ahead of you here at Ren doing the documentary. Good luck though with it."

With Engineering out of the way, the next stop was the 43rd floor, where Accounting and Staff Travel are housed. When the door opened onto the hallway, Seri quickly made for the right side, heading straight for Accounting. As Seri opened the door, they all looked inside, where a young lady was sitting at the front desk, typing away on some forms. When she looked up, she saw Seri and the others walking in. "Hey Seri." "Afternoon Carol. Is ToxicCookie in his office?" "He sure is. Let me just tell him that you're here." Picking up the phone, she dialed ToxicCookie's extension. "Hey, sorry to bother you. Seri is here with some clients and wanted to know if he could see you.... Alright. I'll let him know." Placing the receiver down, Carol looked at Seri. "He says to go on back." nodding, Seri replied "Thank you." As they reached ToxicCookie's office, Mark was amazed to see that ToxicCookie had $100 bills framed around his walls. "Mr. Seri. I must say that it's a pleasant surprise to see you here this afternoon." ToxicCookie said as they all walked in. "So, what can I do for you?" he asked. Seri motioned to the four people that were with him. "ToxicCookie, these are the crew from Inside Business who're going to be here all this week doing a documentary on Ren Corporation. I'm just busy giving them a basic tour of the primary departments at the moment so that they can see what goes on within our company on a daily basis."

"I see. Well, it is certainly a pleasure to meet all of you. My name is ToxicCookie, and I'm the Manager of Accounting here at Ren. I'm also fortunate in that I run the only department which currently has a secretary." he said jokingly. Seri grinned. "Yeah, he's lucky. But given that Accounting is a heavy job responsibility, the stress almost warrants that he be afforded one." Mark introduced everyone again, but this time, found that ToxicCookie didn't react in an unusual manner when he heard Daniel's last name. Unaware to anyone, Elscire had already notified Human Resources, Accounting and Security of his concerns. He'd asked Pyoko, ToxicCookie and Squall to report anything they saw out of the ordinary from the crew to Robo kitty, who would immediately take care of the problem. Pyoko had been annoyed during that conference call, as she'd wanted to punish the crew from Inside Business herself, if they started poking their noses in where they didn't belong.

Knowing that time wasn't on their side at the moment, Seri, cut the introductions short. After having thanked both ToxicCookie and Carol for their time, they left for the other side of the floor, where Staff Travel was located. As the door opened, they ran into Fly-ANA and Xtinction, who were getting ready to head home for the day. "Hey, nice to see you all again." Fly said. "Getting the tour of Staff Travel, now?" "Yeah, we're just winding down for today. There's just so much to see here at Ren, it's going to be a challenge for us to get this documentary to fit everything." Mark explained. "It can be a challenge, however it's always good to look to each challenge with an open mind." Xtinction said. As they all conversed, Forte came out of his office. "Seri! What brings you to my neck of the woods?" Seri introduced the guests to Forte as Forte took a look at Elaine and flirted with her. Fly-ANA leaned over to Mark. "Better be careful." he whispered. "Forte is known for being able to swoon the ladies."

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Chapter Six

As Fly-ANA joked around with Mark, Mark just watched, somewhat jealous, as Elaine was conversing with Forte. "Well, listen. I get off work at five, so how about we go have a talk over dinner?" Forte asked her Elaine blushed at the question. "Wow! Sure, I'd love to." she answered. All the while thinking what a stud he was. Mark, trying to get his mind back on track, turned back to Fly-ana and Xtinction. "Uh, what did you mean by him being a Ladies Man?" Both of them were shocked at the question. "Um, the fact that he's swooning Elaine as we speak?" Xtinction answered. "Well, if you'll excuse us, we need to get going as we have to start early tomorrow with flight planning and getting ready for the trip to Cancun." Allan's face perked up. "Did you say, Cancun?" Fly-ANA smiled. "Yeah, some of the staff members have a meeting with Mexican Government Officials there tomorrow afternoon." Allan then looked over to Mark, with puppy dog eyes, as if to say, 'Can we please go?' Mark, who was no fool to Allan's gesture immediately replied in a stern voice. "Absolutely not! We aren't here for a pleasure trip to Cancun. We're here to do a documentary on the company." Seri interjected. "Ah, but you can still go with them to Cancun, as you would be able to see what goes on."

Mark looked at Allan whimpering, and just sighed. "Alright! Fine! If you really want to go to Cancun, then I guess I'll let it slide." Allan threw his hands up in the air, shouting "Hooray!" Xtinction, Seri and Fly-ANA just laughed at that. "Anyway, we really do need to get going, so if you'll excuse us, we'll be out of your hair." With that, Xtinction and Fly-ANA left the office. This whole time of course, Elaine and Forte had been too busy with each other to notice what had happened. Mark, interested in calling it a day already, decided to look at his watch. Calling out in order to try and get Elaine's attention "Well now Seri. Would you look at time? I think it's almost time for us to be calling it a day. Don't you? How about we head back to your office for now?" Seri just shook his head, really not wanting any part in this apparent love triangle that was developing before him. "Uh, yeah. I think that it might be a good idea to head back to my office. So, shall we get going?" This got Elaine out of her daze and she quickly excused herself but told Forte that she'd meet up with him in the Lobby afterwards. As Forte said goodbye however, Elaine took the initiative and leaned in quickly, giving Forte a kiss. When she broke the kiss off, she simply said "Bye for now." With that, she joined her partners and Seri out in the hallway. "Sorry about that. He’s just such a stud." she told them.

Back in the elevator, Seri turned to the four of them. "Well now. What do you think of the first day?" "Oh my god. This place is incredible!" Daniel replied. "It's been such a blast meeting all the people that we met today." "Yeah, and let's not forget how we're going to Cancun tomorrow." Allan quickly inserted. "Well, apart from Elaine's embarrassing display a few moments ago... I think that this day has proven to be most constructive." Mark said, having put sarcasm in his first part. Elaine just blushed. "P-Please don't tease me like that Mark. You know I already gave an apology for it. But I couldn't help it. He's really handsome." With that comment, everyone just shut up as they waited for the elevator to return to the 48th floor. After getting their personal belongings, Seri went ahead and helped escort them down to the lobby. "And you might not have noticed it yet," he said. "But take a look at your badges." Each of them looked down. Sure enough, over the Valid Date, now appeared in big red letters the word VOID[/color][/b]. "That's so cool. How do the badges do that?" Daniel asked. "Chemical reaction. It slowly transfers to the Valid sticker above over time, until you get the finished product." "Neat." "Well, I guess that is it for today. Do any of you have any questions for me?" Seri asked. "Nope, I think we're all good for today. Listen Seri, I want to thank you again for helping us out with making this documentary." Seri shrugged. "Don’t mention it. It's my job, and I certainly enjoyed giving you all a tour of what I could manage to get in today." With that, they said their goodbyes and Seri headed back up to his office, where kirby was just getting ready to head home.

"Ah kirby. Heading home for the day?" "Yeah, Roosta and I got everything finished that we had planned for the day. Actually, Roosta left about 10 minutes ago." "Oh, that's fine. I'm just getting ready to head home myself, truth be told." "So, what do you think of them?" kirby asked. "Well, they seem alright, although we may need to get Robo kitty and Najla involved to help ensure that nothing of the Project's true nature gets leeked to them." Seri replied. "Actually, Elscire already has them involved." "Ah, so that's why we saw Robo kitty heading towards Marketing earlier. Anything else?" "Yeah, Elscire has Squall and Pyoko also helping out. And he said that should any of them get wind of what the Project was, that they were to be dealt with by any means necessary." "Oh well, the good news is that we get to see the completed documentary before it gets submitted to Inside Business, meaning that we'll be able to ensure that nothing does get leaked to the outside. After all, it would be Konoko that gets on my case if anything bad were to be aired in that documentary about Ren Corporation."

Leaving the PR offices, Seri turned off the lights and made his way with kirby in the elevator down to the lobby again. Lo and behold, when they arrived, there was Elaine and Forte, getting ready to leave on their dinner date. "Have a good evening Forte, Elaine." With that, Seri headed over to the rear doors, which headed to the Carport. As he reached his car, Seri ran into Nameless Chibi Neko and Bernouli. "We keep running into each other today." he commented. "Yeah, it's all good. Say, did you get Konoko's email a little while ago?" "No. I've been giving them a tour pretty much all day and didn't check my emails before I left. So, what's up?" Bernouli grinned. "Well, this is big news. Konoko is getting ready to announce his retirement from Ren Corporation and has already decided on who will replace him." Seri was shocked to say the least. "Why would he retire now? He's still so young. Not to mention, who's going to replace him?" "Well, he decided that he wanted to have a break from holding all the press conferences, along with hearing those tabloid comments about how our products may have caused the deaths of over 200 people in the past 5 years." Bernouli explained. "Ah yes, I remember those. It was a huge nightmare for me to handle." "So, he's going to be announcing tomorrow his resignation at lunchtime to the media, and announcing his replacements." "Replacements?" "Yeah. He's going to transfer it over to a two person team. Nameless will be CEO, an I will be the new President."

Seri was too surprised for words to begin with. "Wow. Congratulations to both of you. It would appear that even with Konoko's retirement, we have two very capable persons to keep the whole company in excellent order. And I know that the company will thrive under your skills." A slight breeze kicked up, and Nameless quickly wrapped his arm around Bernouli and drew her closer, in order to help keep her warm. Bernouli just blushed a little, whilst enjoying the warmth. "Well, I'd better be going as I need to get some stuff for the renovations I'm doing back home." "Alright Seri. We'll see you tomorrow." With that, Seri got into his Ferrari F-50 and drove off back towards his home, whilst Bernouli and Nameless stayed cuddling each other.

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Chapter Seven

As the dawn fast approached, Squall arrived at the Tower carrying a small briefcase, which he held close to himself. The night cleaning staff had already headed home after wrapping up another evening's work. After parking his car, he headed around to the front doors to ensure that they had been locked, since he'd found that the cleaning staff a few weeks prior had accidentally forgotten to lock the doors after going outside for a smoke break. Thankfully he found them to be sealed tight. Rather than going back around to the rear to get in, he walked over to a panel in the wall by the doors and swiped his card. The panel door opened unto a scanner with the outline of a hand along with a small camera. A voice called out "Hand and Eye Print Identification, Please." Placing his right hand on the scanner and looking into the camera with his right eye, he could see out of his left as a blue light started flashing quickly. A couple of seconds later, the light turned to a steady green. The voice now said "Prints confirmed. Good morning Master Squall." Squall quickly shut the panel back up and walked back to the doors, knowing he only had 20 seconds before the magnetic locks turned on again. Swinging the left door open, he walked inside and closed it behind him. When he heard the clank of the plates at the top, he looked up to verify that the light was green, indicating that the door was sealed and armed again.

"It's a good thing that no one tried to pry the doors open in the night to break in." he thought. The security system at Ren Tower was classified information outside of security and a select few individuals in management. Some of their previous security system designs are used by the Saudi Royal Family, who have their Mercedes-Benz's shipped from Germany in order to be outfitted with Bullet & Blast-proof windows and shielding. Weights are also added to the doors to make them harder to force open. Ren's engineers had also developed a computer for their cars which would identify the driver and approved passengers, but if someone tried to get into the car who wasn't allowed, they would be hit with a cyanide capsule. For the tower however, an unauthorized individual attempting to gain access to the building out of hours, would simply be hit by a high powered precision laser system which melts flesh and bone with ease. Heading over to his office behind the front Security Desk, he sat the briefcase down and with a smirk, opened it up, taking out the contents.

Meanwhile, Fly-ANA and Xtinction had met up for coffee before work, in order to discuss thoughts for the routing to Cancun later on at lunchtime, since they knew that flying direct on GPS wasn't an option since a squall-line of thunderstorms was expected to cross their path. "It seems we have two options right now. Take a Low-Altitude, or a High-Altitude VOR there. With the Low-Altitude, we burn more fuel, but it's a slightly easier trip since we can simply go out into the Gulf and then intercept San Antonio and Merida VOR signals via Victor Airway 244. Then get the 40 DME Arc, finishing with the ILS into Cancun. That's our Low-Altitude, which will be around 20, 000 feet. Our High-Altitude, has us going on Jet Airways 7 and 41, following from San Antonio, to Monterey, to Puebla, to Campeche, then Cozumel, and finally Cancun for the approach. Save fuel that way, but it's a large circle along the Mexican Coast of the Gulf. I'd have preferred heading direct to Cuidad Madero, and then shooting across, but the Tampico beacon is out of service." Both men huddled over the charts. "So, what are your thoughts?" Xtinction traced his hand along the Low-Altitude chart and compared it to the High-Altitude. "Hmm. I'd rather take the High-altitude, partly as we conserve fuel and it goes by Mexico City. It'll add about 2 minutes by the looks of it, but we shouldn't have any issues with holding patterns coming into Cancun." "I agree. Plus, I'd rather conserve the fuel and not waste it." After a few more minutes, they grabbed their flight gear and left the coffee shop, heading back to their vehicles. They wouldn't be in the office today, as their morning would be spent at Ren's Private Airfield, getting Ren One ready for the flight that afternoon. As Fly-ANA got into his truck, his cell phone rung.

"Hey silver6asterisk. How's it going?" he asked. "Pretty good. I just wanted to let you know that I'm just on my way out of the house and that I'll see you both at the Airfield." she said. “No problem. We've got a while before we leave anyway. Xtinction and I just need to get the flight plan filed and then wait on the fuel and our passengers. Other than that, we're ready to go." "Okay. Well, I don't want to distract you while your driving Fly, so I'll let you go for now." "Alright. We'll see you in a short while then. Take care. Bye." With that, Fly-ANA hung up and backed out of his spot, starting the drive over to the Airfield, which was about 20 minutes drive from the Tower, on the outskirts of the city. When he and Xtinction had arrived, Fly-ANA released the latch and swung the door down. The Engines were still covered over, so Xtinction went opened the cargo door, taking the stool out and then standing on the stool to remove the covers. He then loaded the covers and stool back into the cargo bay and closed the door again. Meanwhile, Fly-ANA had entered the cockpit and turned the Battery Master Switches on, followed by the Auxiliary Power Unit. A moment later, Xtinction walked in as he was keying in the Flight Plan into the Flight Computers. "I'll go ahead and do the pre-flight exterior inspection if you like." Xtinction volunteered. Fly-ANA nodded as he reached over and pulled the flaps lever all the way down to full. "Thanks. I'd appreciate it."

Xtinction walked outside and starting with the nose, began a thorough inspection of the aircraft, ensuring that all surfaces were clear of debris and in safe, operating mode. Moving around to the right wing, he checked underneath at the landing gear, and along the wing to see if there were any dents. He continued to walk around the aircraft, and then walked back to the front of the aircraft. He gave a wave to Fly-ANA, who turned all the exterior lights on. Xtinction saw that all the front end lights worked, and quickly made his way round to the tail to see if the white marker light was on, which it was. He then walked back into the aircraft and entered the cockpit. "We're good." he said. With that, Fly-ANA then switched all the lights off. "Alright. Well, we're going to need the tanks to be full, unfortunately, since I need to assign Villahermosa as our alternate." "Aww, no biggie. How much do we have right now in the tanks." Fly-ana looked at the screen of the flight computer. "Right now, we're 1250 pounds in each wing short of full. Looks like we get to have some fun with the fuel truck." At that moment, silver6asterisk walked up the steps. "Hey guys." she said. "Ah, you made it. Of course we still have a few hours." "Yeah, but I need to make sure everything is stocked and good to go when they arrive." "Good point." Xtinction answered.

Back at Ren Tower, Seri was locking his car when he ran into Lobo_13 and Pyoko. "Good morning." he said. Lobo simply nodded, and Pyoko said "Good morning, pyo. How's things in Public Relations going for you, pyo?" "Not bad. Just taking care of the guests from Inside Business, but other than that, not really much to report." Seri replied. "Well then, pyo. Would you mind doing me a small favor, pyo?" "Sure. What is it?" he asked. Pyoko grinned on the inside, whilst showing no emotional reaction on her outward appearance. "Would you be so kind as to invite them up to Human resources today, pyo? I'd like to spend some time getting to know our documentary guests today, pyo." "Actually, I was going to wrap up the tour with your department this morning. It's just that we ran out of time yesterday." Seri said sheepishly. "Oh, so it's your fault that they didn't come and see me yesterday, pyo. I understand, pyo." "Oh, don't be like that Pyoko. It was just that it was late by the time we'd wrapped up with Forte, Fly-ana and Xtinction." "Oh, so now I'm reduced to hearing such excuses by fellow members of Management, pyo. How shameful it is, pyo."

Out in the lobby however, whizbang was being treated to an unwanted debate between himself, and Mark Dawdleberry. "Look, I already told you. That badge is not valid anymore. They only last for one day. That's why it says void on it now. You need to get a new one before I can let you pass. However, the only way I can issue them to you is if Seri gets here and signs you out for them. Otherwise, I can't give you new ones, and you can't come inside. End of story." "I demand to see your boss." Mark said, determined to one-up whizbang. "Fine by me." With that, whizbang reached his hand under the counter and pressed a small button. Within seconds, Squall came out from his office and walked up to whizbang. "Hey, what's up?" he asked. Mark then spoke up, trying to be professional, in order to make whizbang look like a fool. "Ah, you must be the Security Manager. I'm Mark Dawdleberry, the Director of the team from Inside Business, and we're here for the week in order to do a documentary on Ren Corporation. Unfortunately, we seem to have a member of security who is refusing to issue us with new day passes in order to get around the tower, seeing as the ones we were issued yesterday have already expired. He says we have to wait for Seri to sign us out before we can get the replacement badges."

"That is correct, Mr. Dawdleberry. Seri has to sign you out.” Squall answered calmly. “The reason being that right now, Seri is the only one listed as cleared to issue you your badges. So you can continue this argument which won‘t get you anywhere, or you can be patient and wait for Seri to arrive, so that you can be signed out and get on with your duties." Allan meanwhile was whispering to Daniel and Elaine about the embarrassment that Mark was giving them. “He’s really full of himself, isn’t he?” Allan asked. “Yeah. It’s almost as if he thinks he’s the next Rush Limbaugh, or Bill O‘Reilly.” Elaine answered. “Say, did the two of you remember your passports?” asked Daniel. “I’ve got mine.” Allan replied. “As do I.” Elaine answered. “Wait, I hope Mark has his. He’ll be screwed otherwise.” Allan realized. Daniel quickly walked over to Mark and tapped him on the shoulder. “Um, Mark? Why don’t we just wait for Seri to arrive so that we can get our badges? Also, did you remember your passport?” Mark, angry as he was, calmed down. “Yes, I have my passport. It’s right here.” He took it out of his jacket pocket and held it up for Daniel to see. It was at that moment that two things happened. The first, and least interesting, was that Allan stepped back a coupe of feet and tripped over himself onto the floor. The second, was that Seri, Lobo_13 and Pyoko all came over to the Security desk.

"Hey guys. Sorry for the delay. How are you all this morning?" Seri asked. "We're fine Seri. Just been patiently waiting and talking with these nice Security personnel about last night's Hockey Game between Detroit and Philly." Squall and whizbang just gave Mark a puzzled look before shrugging it off. Neither felt like being in another pointless argument with him. "Oh, since I know you're running a little behind for getting to the Airfield for the trip to Cancun, I thought I would introduce you to Pyoko now. Everyone, this is Pyoko, our Human Resources Manager and Chief Negotiator for contracts with clients. Pyoko, these are the crew from Inside Business who're here for the week to do a documentary on Ren Corporation." Mark held his hand out and shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you Pyoko. I'm Mark Dawdleberry, the director. This is Elaine Bottoms, our reporter. Allan Ziegelhoffer, cameraman. And Daniel Shithumsilf, the sound technician." Pyoko nodded. "It's good to meet you all, pyo. But if I may, pyo? Why does Daniel have a last name that sounds like he shit himself, pyo?"

Daniel was on the verge of tears. "I can't help it!" he whined. "It's not my fault that my parents disowned me as a child because I could never hold it in at school, meaning that the other kids used to complain about how much I smelled. I decided to take that name when I grew up because it would remind me of the shame that I had as a child." There was no movement coming from anywhere in the lobby, as everyone had stopped what they were doing and were looking at Daniel with blank stares. Finally Allan cleared his throat. "Well, it was certainly a pleasure to meet you Pyoko." he said. Seri, also desperate to end the situation, quickly took the badge sign out form and signed next to each of their names. Whizbang then handed each of them their day passes. "Thanks whizbang." Seri and Elaine both answered. "Anyway, due to the delay and such, I suggest we get your gear from my office, and then I'll give you all a lift over to the Airfield." "That sounds like a good idea." Mark replied. Saying their goodbyes, Seri escorted them over to the elevator and up to Public Relations. When they arrived in the conference room of PR, Daniel and Allan quickly checked their gear, and verified that it was all there. "Great." Seri answered. "So, shall we get going?"

As they arrived in the carport, Seri walked over to a van which was parked in the corner in a space marked "Company Van". After helping load the gear into the van, everyone got in, and Seri began the drive over to the Airfield. "Sorry again for earlier." he said. "I'll be sending an email to Squall later today to let him know that anyone in PR can sign you guys in, so that you aren't stuck waiting." "It's no problem." Mark answered. "After all, it wasn't a issue for us." Elaine, Allan and Daniel all retorted mentally "Yeah, it was only an issue for you!" After a 25 minute drive, Seri pulled into the parking lot of Ren Airfield. A small building and a hangar sat before them. As they entered the building, they saw Warwitch, fio-chan, malanhelen and Larry all siting there watching the news in TV. Fio-chan turned and saw them walking in. "Hey there. I was beginning to think you wouldn't make it." Elaine looked confused. "How did you know that-?" "That you were coming along?" Warwitch inserted. "Simple. Forte called each of us last night and told us that you were all coming along."

Suddenly, the door out to the ramp opened, and Fly-ANA walked in. "Okay everyone. We're ready now." With that, he helped grab some of the gear that they were bringing and carried it over to Ren One. As everyone's gear was loaded up by the ground staff at Ren Airfield, Daniel and Allan came up with an idea. Walking into the cockpit, they decided to ask. "Hey Fly-ANA. Xtinction. We were wondering if you could do us a little favour?"

[InuKun]

Ren Corporation
Omake

Xtinction took the checklist out. The cameras were attached throughout the cockpit as Fly-ana and Xtinction took their seats. After attaching their seat harnesses, Fly-ANA looked into one of the cameras. "Hello, and welcome to the cockpit of Ren One. We've just about finished our cockpit preparations for the flight to Cancun. Prior to getting on with the show, I'd like to first introduce ourselves. My name if Captain Fly-ANA, and sitting next to me, is First Officer Xtinction." Another camera picked up the little wave from Xtinction. "What I'd like to do now is the Departure Briefing. So Xtinction, if you're ready?" Xtinction simply nodded. "There's no technical defects to affect the flight today. So it's going to be a standard left-hand seat take-off, using Flaps 20 degrees on Runway Two Seven Right here at Ren Airfield. We’ll have one of the Weather Radars on for Departure, no need for the Anti-Ice, and the Wind at the moment is calm, but we’ll re-assess that as we get to the holding point. Taxiing from Lima, it will be out onto the Outer Bravo, North of the airfield for runway Two Seven Right. Standard taxi routine. If we have an emergency on the runway; if I decide to abandon the take off I will call “Stop!”. I will simultaneously close the thrust levers, manually deploy the speed brakes, and I’ll utilize the RTO (Runway Take-Off) function of the Auto-Brakes. I’ll also select sufficient reverse thrust to bring the aircraft to a complete stop on the runway. Xtinction, you’re in the best position to notice if it’s an engine problem. If you could shout out “Engine One”, or “Engine Two” please, and I’ll apply sufficient reverse thrust on that applicable engine. Also, if you see the Auto Brakes message, if you could mention it to me, as it will be manual braking. And also if you could tell ATC that we’re stopping, and call me 100, 80, 60 in the deceleration. We’ll come to a stop on the runway, and reassess the situation at that time. However, if I decide to continue the take off, I’ll call “Go!”. With the gear selected up, aircraft under control, if you could restate the failure for me please. 250 feet or above, we’ll initiate the Auto-Pilot. Above 400 feet, I’ll ask for the appropriate check-list memory items. If you could carry them out for me, I’ll try and monitor as much as I can. Once those are done, I’ll talk to ATC. I’ll also fly the horizontal profile of the Ren Five Departure. Do you have any questions on the briefing?" he asked Xtinction, who calmly replied "No." "That is the Departure Briefing Complete." Fly-ANA answered. "And now, if we can have the Before start Checklist, please." Xtinction grabbed the checklist from beside him. "Before Start Checklist." He then called out the items listed.

"Autostart" Fly-ANA answered "On"
"Oxygen Masks" "Set"
"Altimeters" "29.97 is set, and cross-checked."
"Fuel Control Switches" "Cutoff"
"Parking Brake" "Set"
"Passenger Signs" "On"
"Briefing" "Stated"

"And that is the Before Start Checklist." Xtinction said. Fly-ANA watched as ground staff attached the Lectro Tug to the nose wheel and took the ground power away. Turning the intercom on, he spoke to them. "Flight Deck-Ground." "Yeah, go ahead." the agent answered. "Yes, hi there. I see that you've taken the ground power away. Could you confirm for me that all the doors are closed and latched, that all pins except steering bypass have been removed, and are we clear to pressurize the hydraulics?" "I can confirm that all doors are visually closed and sealed, all pins have been removed except the steering bypass, and you are cleared to pressurize." "Cleared to pressurize, thanks." Fly-ANA then turned to Xtinction after pressurizing the hydraulics. "If I could have the Cleared for Start Checklist down to the line, please."

"Take-off Data/MCP" "Is checked and set"
"Demand Pumps" "Aux and Auto"
"Fuel Load and Pumps" "Checked and set"
"Packs" "2 and 3 off"
"Trim" "7.2 units set. Zero, Zero."
"Doors" "Closed"
"Beacon" "On"[/align]

"That is the Cleared for Start Checklist."

At that moment, silver6asterisk called up to say that everyone was seated. With that, Fly-ANA called on the intercom down to ground staff. "Flight Deck Ground." "Go ahead." "Yeah, we're clear to push, so when you're ready." "Okay, if I could have Parking Brake to release please. Parking Brake to release." Fly-ANA released the parking brake. When the Parking Brake message dropped from the screen, he called back. "Okay Ground, parking brake is released, and clear to push." As the Citation was Pushed clear of both buildings so that it could depart safely, ground came back on for Fly-ANA. "Okay, you're clear to start Engine number two at this time. Clear for number two only." Xtinction pulled the starter switch for number two engine, as Fly-ana switched the Fuel Control Switch to run. A couple of seconds later, they heard the engine on the right side roar to life as it began to rotate the turbine fans. Fly-ANA verified that with the N2 and N1 readouts hitting 102.3% before dropping. As the aircraft came to a stop, ground got back on. “Okay, if you can set the parking brake. Also, you're now clear to start Engine One." Fly-ANA applied the brake once again. "Parking brake is set." They both proceeded to start the Number One engine on the left side. After ground has freed the aircraft from the tug and removed the bypass pin, they showed both to Fly-ANA who gave the thumbs up. "Okay, let's finish the Start Checklist." he said. Xtinction reviewed the list.

"Aux. Power Unit" "Off"
"Demand Pumps" "Auto"
"Anti-Ice" "Not Required"
"Aft Cargo Heat" "On"
"Packs" "Normal"
"Recall" "Checked"
"Ground Equipment" "Cleared"

"That is checklist complete" With those words from Xtinction, Fly-ana applied power to the thrust levers, in order to get the Citation underway by it's own power. As they taxied along, Fly-ANA quickly did an interior scan on the display readouts. Once everything was verified, Fly-ana taxied the aircraft into the hold short position of Runway 27 Right. "Ren Traffic. Ren One is holding short of Runway Two Seven Right and is preparing for departure to the Southwest. Ren." With that radio call, Fly-ANA taxied the Citation onto the runway, and proceeded to apply full thrust to both engines. About 45 seconds later, they were airborne, and on their way to Cancun.

To simplify things, here's a rundown of some of the terminology.

VOR: Very-high Omni-directional Receiver. It's radio beacon that tells you on a magnetic rose, where you are from the station, using two different radio wavelengths. For instance, you could be 270 degrees from the station. (Or West)
Squall-line: This is the term given when you have a group of embedded thunderstorms together making a line across the edge of a front.
DME Arc: Distance Measuring Equipment, which works with VOR's to tell you how far you are from the VOR station. An arc simply means you are following in an arc at a given distance from the VOR.
Jet and Victor Airways: Think of them as the highways that aircraft use in the Instrument World, with Victor Airways below 18000 feet but can in some areas be transitioned higher), and Jet Airways above 18000 Mean Sea Level. You use them to travel between VOR's at altitude.

[/QUOTE]

[InuKun]

And here is the unfinished chapter, given the site was shut down part way through writing it. I elected to add it just as a way of honoring the memory of the story.

Ren Corporation
The Unfinished Chapter

Meanwhile, back at Ren Tower, a hustle was brewing as Squall sat at his desk talking with his wife Hinata over the phone. "Don't worry. Everything's under control. I submitted your resume to Pyoko earlier so within the next couple of days you should get an interview for the position in Public Relations. Just don't be acting all shy and everything at conferences and giving everyone nosebleeds from your sweet charm. Believe It!" he said with enthusiasm. Suddenly a knock on his door caught his attention. "Anyway, gotta go for now sweetie. I'll talk to you later, okay?"

Hanging up the phone, Squall simply called out "Come in." As Elscire walked into the office, Squall smiled. "Well, well. This is unexpected. It's a rarity for you to come and visit me in here, Elscire." Elscire walked over and shook Squall's hand. "It's good to see you this morning Squall. I actually am just here to deliver a message that Konoko and Nameless Chibi Neko wanted me to give to you." Squall's ears perked. "A message?" "Yes. The message is that there will be a meeting of all Upper Level Management later this afternoon at 2 o'clock which is mandatory.And Konoko asked me to tell you that he doesn't want another excuse like the last time where you claim to have missed the meeting because according to you, an elderly gentlemen approached you less than 5 minutes before the meeting and had sold you 5 magic beans." Squall tried to defend his honour. "They are magic beans, you know."

Elscire looked over at a table in the corner by the window. Walking over to it, he picked up the pot that was placed in the center. "Oh, yes. And here is the magic beanstalk." He points to a 1 inch sprout sticking up out of the soil. "Well, I'm glad everyone who works here has got a head for heights, because it's a whopper, isn't it? We shall all be needing oxygen masks before we get to the top of this one, won't we, Sir Squall?"

And that's it. There's no more.