Elle slowly moved through the rubble of the agents' living quarters, trying hard not to cry. The main building had been bad enough but here.... They had given up their old lives for MiB and now everything from their new lives was gone too.
"My crystals are safe!" X called as he came out of his room with a couple of large bags.
"Lucky you," Elle murmured as she pushed through the debris trying to reach her room. The door was totally blocked though. Just then she heard a faint meowing from inside.
"Orion?" she called, frantically pulling at the rubble trying to clear the door before finally reaching a piece much to big to move. She pounded her hands against it in frustration. She had been sure that her poor cat was gone and now he might as well be.
Suddenly a dark shadow appeared behind her and then X was there, reaching out and shoving the debris away. "Humans. Always need an alien to rescue you," he muttered.
"Elle shook her head as she pushed the damaged door open and went in, scooping up her cat the moment she spotted him and hugging him close. So much was gone. She fought back tears as she slowly moved around the room, seeing what could be saved.
*******
A little while later, Elle joined the rest of the agents who were assembled with any salvaged possessions waiting to hear what Zed had to say about the reconstruction. She looked curiously at the worms, who were hurrying past her, two clutching a large box and the other two pulling a cart loaded down with cans of coffee.
"Well, I have good news for a change," Zed said as he addressed the crowd. "I've been in touch with our Japanese branch, which luckily escaped this attack unscathed, and they have a plan to raise the funds for repairs to headquarters. Some sort of new toy, I understand."
"A toy? Do they really expect to make enough money to replace all of this?" X called.
"According to the head, Sonomi, they will," Zed said. "Of course, until things are repaired, we have no place to live. Fortunately, there was only minor damage to MiB Hollywood, so I've made arrangements to temporarily move operations west. I will be staying here to oversee the repairs so Kay will be in charge while you are in California. Report to Agent U to pick up your plane tickets."
"California? Are there a lot of humans there?" X asked as he followed Elle over to U, who was passing out envelopes to various agents.
"Of course there are," Elle said as she reached U and he handed her a thick envelope.
"Oh, Agent Elle, Agent X, you'll be escorting the worms and Frank the Pug as well as his family," U stared down at his notes when he saw that. "You'll find their tickets in the envelope as well."
"Oh, great," Elle muttered as she moved away, opening the envelope to see where they were seating. She cringed when she saw that her party had been assigned to couch. She hated couch!
"What seats did you get?" Jay said as he came over waving an evelope. "First class all the way here! One of the benefits of being partners with Kay. They assigned seats based on senority!"
Elle glared at Jay, sending him fleeing as X came over followed by the worms, disguised as human children that were maybe eight years old. A couple of the worms were lagging the cart, with Frank and his family securely fastened into a pet carrier on top of the pile of coffee.
"Here," X said as he shoved another carrier at her. "That cat will have to be checked with the bags."
"This is so unfair," Elle murmured as she patted Orion's head before stuffing him in with reassurances that he wouldn't be locked up for long.
Just then, Zed strolled past them, clutching a newspaper under his arm. The worms caught sight of it and cringed. A couple of them quickly reached out and snagged Elle, pulling her towards the SUV as the others raced to load the coffee and other bags. "Don't want to miss our flight!" one of the worms said as Elle sighed loudly. She was never going to survive this trip