The Night The Lights Went Out In Domino City

Yes, this is one of those "Stories Ripped From The Pages Of Today's Headlines!!!!!!" I live in New York (not the city, but close to,) BTW, and we were out for close to 12 hours. It all worked out all right, though - the place I work didn't open until 12 noon, but they didn't get the network and phones working like they thought they would. So ----- they gave the few people that did come in (myself included) their full 8 hours pay and told us we could leave if we wanted to - after about an hour. To paraphrase NYC mayor Michael Bloomberg, there are worse things than having a gorgeous summer Friday off. :-)

And BTW, I really do know someone who like talks just like Tiffani Mills and all - the sort of person who can leave you a ten-minute voice mail message and still never tell you what she wants----

I'm sure it'll earn its rating later......not ie fie first chapter, though.

Disclaimer - They're not mine, except for Jada and Tiffani

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"The Night The Lights Went Out In Domino City"

"So anyway, then I was like coming out of Rave and all - or like was it Contempo? No, it was like Rave and all, like-- no, no, wait, it was like H&M, cause I was like looking at that really hot purple bikini they like have in the window and all and I like knew George would like think I was like sooooo hot in it and all --- no wait, I'd like gone there already and all, I was like coming out of Rave and all --- like, no, no, it was like Takahashi's and all, like----"

Jada Mercury considered banging her head on the dashboard but decided not to for fear of setting off the airbag. This was the last - repeat last - time she was ever going to ride in a car with Tiffani Mills.

"---So like anyway, like I was coming out of there and all like and who should be there but like Mr. Price, you know, that really hot hot sexy History teacher who drives the Trans Am and all, the one with like the killer blue baby eyes and all - and he like said "Hi Tiffani" and I was like "Hi Mr. Price" and all but like I was dying and all like literally dying cause he was looking right at me with those sexy hot blue eyes of his and all and he said like how's your summer going and I said like fine and he was like that's good and then he was like are you looking forward to school and I was like yeah and all and like I was just like dying and all like literally totally dying and all cause he's like so hot and all and he was like looking right at me with those hot sexy baby blue eyes and all like I mean he was like looking right at me and all----"

Mai Kurjaka groaned, leaning her head against the back passenger side window of the car. One of the many problems with Tiffani was that she never finished talking before everyone around her had finished listening.

"And then he was like that's good and all and I was like yeah and he was like well have fun and I was like yeah and he was like see you in September and I was like yeah and I was like dying like totally totally dying and all I mean he is just like so hot and so sexy and so cool and all he's like the hottest and sexiest and coolest guy in like the whole wide world and all and he makes me all hot just looking at him with like those big blue eyes and like all and---"

And when is this freaking light going to change? Jada wondered, glaring at the left turn arrow that was, in Tiffani's vernacular, like still totally red and all like----

And then like all at once, it went out completely and all.

"---the fuck?" Jada said.

"And then he said like see you bye and I like said see you bye and he like walked off and I was just like standing there watching him I mean after all he is like so hot and all he's like just so totally hot and all like he's even hotter than Justin and Jeremy put together and all like he's so hot and all like---"

"Guys, the stoplight's out," Jada said.

"The what--?" Mai looked where Jada was pointing. "Oh shit. It is."

"And like anyway then I----like what do you mean and all like the stoplight's out?" Tiffani said, finally looking around. She screamed. "Oh NO! Like the light's out and all!! Like how are we gonna get across the road and all now?"

Faced with three lanes of solid 4 PM traffic that they had to make a left turn against, it was a valid point........

~*~

Solomon Mutou was looking over a shipping invoice in the back room of the Kame Game Shop when the lights abruptly went out, leaving him in semidarkness.

"Yugi, turn that back on, please. I'm still in here," he said, but the light stayed off. He looked around, realizing his grandson wasn't anywhere around. "Yugi?"

"Ji-chan?" Yugi's spiky, tricolored head appeared in the doorway. "All the lights in the store are out."

"That's odd. We must have tripped a breaker," Solomon said, going over to him.

"Mutou-san?" A young woman called, opening the front door. "Do you have lights?"

"No, we don't. You too, Ito-san?" She was one of the owners of the little grocery store several doors down.

She shook her head. "Gede wanted me to ask you before he called. That's the first thing they always ask."

As she spoke, Yami came down the stairs. "Mutou-san? The microwave isn't working."

"The power's out," Solomon told him. "Odd. I wonder what's going on?"

~*~

Meanwhile, across town at Industrial Illusions:

"Oh Pegasus? Are you giving your computer the Millennium Eye again?"

"I'm trying to send this annoying little idiot from HR to the Shadow Realm. Why?"

"Because every time you do that, I get the blue screen of death."

Pegasus J. Crawford, aka Maximillion Pegasus, looked around his office door at his secretary, Maddy Gray, who was frowning at her own computer. "Are you sure it's me?"

"The system has become unstable. You can wait to see if it becomes stable again or you can reboot your computer---" she read. She was about his own age, small and slightly plump. Her hair was dark brown with several wide, jarringly white streaks slashing through the front - the result of a "subtle" highlighting job gone seriously wrong.

"Ah." He came around behind her desk to look at the screen. "Really? Every time?"

"Just about," she admitted.

He smirked. "Oh my. I wasn't aware of my own powers."

She looked up and around at him. "How did you get that thing back, anyway? I thought you told me you'd lost it." Everyone had told her not to take this job, but she didn't see what the problem was. Pegasus was actually a lot of fun to work for - provided he liked you, that is.

"It's a story that's too long and complex to explain. I shan't bore you with it," he said. "But I do think I should look into getting you a decent computer."

"I.S. said this was the best one they'd give a ---" she rolled her eyes. "---mere secretary."

"Hmmph. We'll just see about that," he said, full lips curling into a smirk again. Mere secretary indeed. He was going to have to have a serious talk with Information Services.

As she gave up and rebooted the computer, Croquet strode into the suite. "Mr. Pegasus, sir, I was thinking----" he started.

"You were? Really?" Pegasus arched an eyebrow, giving his security chief a superior little smirk. "How exciting for you! Who knows? I might actually be able to make something of you after all. Besides a throw rug for my office, that is." He winked at Maddy from behind his silvery curtain of hair, then leaned on the low wall separating the secretarial area from the rest of the office suite, chin propped on one hand. "So. Do tell us all about this little thought of yours! Was it any good?"

Maddy sipped diet Coke in an effort to keep a straight face. She thought about as highly of the security chief as Pegasus did, which wasn't very. Not since the "security patch" he'd insisted IT install on everyone's computers had turned out to be the Conqueror Worm. It had taken her half a day to clean up the resulting mess.

Croquet paused, then realized that he'd completely forgotten what he'd been about to say.

Pegasus shook his head. "Tsk-tsk. You should have quit thinking while you were ahead." As he spoke, all of the lights in the suite abruptly died, along with the subdued hum of the climate control system. Thanks to the vagaries of the emergency power system, Maddy's computer stayed on, although her connection with the network was abruptly terminated.

"What happened?" Croquet said in the aftermath.

"Well, don't take my word for it, I mean, I'm just a secretary---" Maddy said, giving him a sarcastic eyebrow as she spoke, "But -- wild guess -- I'd say the power just went out."

"Why would they do that?" Pegasus said, looking up in bewilderment at the now-dark flourescents. "There aren't any storms around anywhere. The weather's perfect."

"Let me call Steph and see if her building's out, too," Maddy said, picking up the phone, then making a face. "The phones are dead."

Pegasus had gone to look out the huge windows that formed one wall of the suite. "I do believe all of Domino City is out."

"How can you tell?" Maddy said, joining him. It was not quite four-fifteen on a brilliantly sunny mid-August afternoon, so she didn't think there would be any buildings lit up.

"The traffic lights are all out," he said, pointing at the incipient chaos below.

"You do realize, Mr. Pegasus, sir, that this is most likely the beginning of a terrorist attack---" Croquet said, coming over.

Pegasus gave him an icy glare. "And you realize, of course, that that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard? What are you doing here, anyway? Go see if anyone's stuck in any of the elevators!" He looked around at Maddy as Croquet hurried off. "I do swear, sometimes I don't know why I keep h"
"

"Because he makes us look all the more brilliant by comparsion?" Maddy said.

Pegasus chuckled. "He would make a rock look brilliant by comparsion, but you do have a point." He looked up. "I'd ask Emergency Control to make an announcement telling everyone they can leave, but I suppose the public address system is out as well. Oh well. I assume they'll come to that conclusion on their own."

~*~

"Let us turn! Let us turn! Oh please like let us turn and all!!!" Tiffani was sobbing. Traffic was not giving anyone a break - not on Route 9.

"I can't get a signal on my celne--ne----" Jada said, looking in bewilderment at the little instrument. So much for calling 911 and getting someone out here to direct traffic.

"This is seriously eerie---" Mai said. Jada had scrambled into the back seat on the mistaken belief that the signal might somehow be stronger there.

Behind them a horn honked irritably as someone cut someone elsf.
f.

"I CAN'T LIKE GO AND ALL I CAN'T GO!!!!!" Tiffani screeched, obviously thinking the horn was directed at her. She was sobbing hysterically, mascara and tears streaking down her face. "WHY ARE YOU LIKE HONKING AT ME AND ALL LIKE I CAN'T GO!!!!!!!" To Jada and Mai's horror, she was starting to inch forward, even though there was no sign whatsoever of a break in traffic.

"Tiffani, what the fuck are you doing?!" Mai demanded.

"THEY'RE HONKING AT ME LIKE I GOTTA GO AND ALL BUT LIKE I CAN'T---" Tiffani screeched.

"Then don't!" Jada exclaimed. "Tiffani, calm down, you're going to get us fucking killed and all----" She broke off, looking at Mai. "Oh shit, it's contagious."