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MiB East Coast HQ, Beneath LaGuardia Airport, The Next Day
Morning, Xander's POV
"Welcome to the New York City branch of MiB," Director One, aka ex-Agent K, said from the balcony outside his office. "You are the newest successful recruits of Phase One training and, after thorough consideration, it has been decided by myself along with the other directors that your talents would best be put to use here. Some of you will be field agents. Some of you will be assigned to the various departments located in this facility. All of you have a job to do and I expect you to do them to the best of your ability. Get to it. Dismissed."
"Not big on speeches is he?" he asked Agent L as the group of new recruits dispersed.
"You should've seen him ten years ago. He might've said a short sentence or two but that'd be it." Agent L replied with a grin of amusement.
"Not a real talker?" he asked curiously as he knew nothing of ex-Agent K's past.
"Not unless he had to. Used to bother J a lot that the two of them never chit-chatted on the job or really got to know each other," she replied with a slight shake of her head. "It got better gradually but they only really became like most partners over the last three years or so."
"Hopefully whoever I get partnered with will be a little more talkative," he said as they began to walk to the armory. "I know when to shut up and everything but silence is definitely not golden for me."
"Then you're in luck, junior," Director One said as he fell into step next to him. "For the next six months and maybe beyond Agent L will be the senior agent paired with you. She'll show you the ropes and get you up to speed on the local alien and demon communities as well as all the relevant treaties and accords we have with both of them."
"Sounds good to me," he said, not having a problem with the blonde and actually finding it nice since he'd already gotten to know her from the first half of the training. "L?"
"It'd be nice to pass something on to the next generation before I retire from field work," Agent L replied with an agreeable smile on her face.
"Then get the kid outfitted and head out to the forest east of Belleville. Got an unauthorized landing four hours ago and I want it checked out." Director One said before breaking off from their group and going someplace else.
A REAL people person that guy, he thought sarcastically as he imagined what the future would be like.
It didn't take them long to reach the armory and, after they both had their retina's scanned, they went inside. Adorning the walls were numerous weapons, most of which he was familiar with, but there were a few that either hadn't been chosen for the training or had just been added.
"Your standard loadout for field work will be the series one de-atomizer, an icer and a Futabian Four Point Restrainer," Agent L said as she handed him each item as she named them. "You already have your communicator and it'd be kind of pointless to give you a Spectral Trail Scanner seeing as you already have one built into you. Now repeat to me the three basic rules of field work."
"Rule number one: fake identities are crucial. Either come up with a workable one on the spot or give the civvies time to come up with one for you. Rule number two: whenever possible keep the action away from civilians or populated areas. Cuts down on the number of people that need to be neuralyzed and any possible conspiracy nuts slipping past the nets," he replied, remembering the lesson given by Agent U. "Rule number three: always identify the alien or demon or supernatural entity before discharging your weapon. Forgetting the fine print in their database entry can get you as well as others killed."
"Good. Now let's get down to the garage and requisition an LTD." She grabbed the same set of weapons herself. "It's never a good idea to let the trail get too cold."
He was a bit disappointed when they got to the garage and all of the vehicles were the same late 80s model car. He'd kinda hoped for one of the shinier cars that most modern government agencies gave their operatives but, since he was the rookie, he'd keep his opinion to himself.
"The reason we still use LTDs rather than something a little more current is because shinier cars draw more attention and it's part of our rules to be forgettable." Agent L said as though she could read his mind. "And no, I can't read minds. A lot of new agents think the same thing the first time they see the LTD. Last time I checked they scheduled the upgrade to a new model to be in about ten years or so. By then the LTD will be too old for us to use and would only stand out if we did use it."
"Makes sense," he said, seeing the logic in her reasoning.
In less than a minute they were on the road and heading in the general direction of the unauthorized landing, with traffic being the only thing slowing them down. Looking about the interior of the car, he tried to see if he could figure out which of the controls were exactly what they appeared to be and which were fakes for something else entirely. While it was possible to tint the windows to keep people from looking inside, he guessed that doing so would only make the LTD stand out more, so they had to make sure everything that could be seen from outside looking normal.
"I'll show you what does what later, Agent A," L said without taking her eyes off the road. "For now, whatever you do, don't press the red button on the brake lever. EVER!"
Moving his hands away from the red button like it was the open maw of a venomous snake, he couldn't help but be sorta curious about what could be so bad about it to make L warn him that vehemently.
After pulling out into traffic he decided to give his Fore Seer ability a workout, plus see if he could pick out any undesirables while cruising at the speed limit. Going through the three steps of the meditative state process, he was rewarded when every living thing he looked at began putting out a light field of a specific color. At first it was a little difficult keeping track of everything at such a high speed but, by adjusting his gaze to look where the car was going rather than directly alongside it, he managed to solve that issue. The only thing he still needed to do though was look through the MiB database to see which environment spawned the most law breakers, then cross reference that with specific species and then the sentient beings on the most wanted list recently seen in the neighborhood. Once he had all that he should be able to pick out the scum from a crowd of innocent civilians without trouble, whether he was on foot or in a vehicle.
It took them a little over half an hour before they arrived at a dirt road going into the forest east of Belleville and, with the flick of a turn signal, they went down it so that they could as close to the unauthorized landing touch down point as possible. It was bumpier than going down the highway and concrete but he wasn't going to whine about that until he started slamming his head into the roof of the vehicle hard enough to get a concussion.
When they arrived a minute later, though, he saw that there was a pickup truck already parked and that meant civilians who'd seen the crash and come to investigate. Not a big problem but it would've been nice if he and L could've wrapped everything up before anyone not 'in the know' could get a look at the alien spaceships. After L parked the LTD on the side of the dirt road they got out and began to make their way towards where the alien ships were located, keeping silent so as to not announce their arrival as well as give the civvies time to come to their own conclusions. It wasn't until they got past the first curtain of trees that they saw both the ships and the civilians who looked to be a pair of country boys. He couldn't tell what their respective jobs were but figured it was probably an occupation common to this area of America, so he didn't pay it any further mind. The ships, on the other hand, he looked over quite thoroughly determining after a quick count to be six in total with one being easily three times the size of the other five.
"I wouldn't be standing to close to those things if I were you, guys," he said as he watched one of the civvies reach out to touch the hull of the largest ship. "You don't know where it's been."
Watching, he could see the two guys turning to look at him and L before taking on the expression of people who didn't like suits, whether they were corporate or federal in nature. Not that he could blame them with the problems the country had and how some people in their area of living were probably going through some hard times. Still, they were dreaming if they thought that messing around with alien tech that they didn't have two clues about would improve things for them or anyone else. It was far more likely they'd blow themselves, their home or the entire east coast up than anything else.
"Yeah? An' who the hell 're you?" asked one of the guys, sounding dismissive.
"I'm Agent Gold, this is Agent Brown, and we're with the U.S department of lands and forests." Agent L said, flipping open her I.D so the civvies could see them. "I'm afraid since these objects fell within our jurisdiction they're ours automatically."
It'd been a nice piece of tech to learn the trick behind the I.D. wallets.
Apparently they were tied into some hardware hidden in the suits that picked up whatever the agent said then altered the ID inside to match. That was why all agents were trained to flip open their IDs a couple of seconds after identifying themselves in order to give time for the tech to create their 'official credentials'. The ID formats that were most common were stored in the hardware's memory and they were the ones that could be manufactured quickest but completely new ones could be thought up on the spot but they'd take a second or three longer to make.
"However there is a loophole open to you. You'd just need to sign some official documentation signing over rights to the unidentified items," Agent L said, sounding like she was open to a deal. "It wouldn't be much trouble for you. You'd just have to agree to let some of our scientists look them over before you do… whatever it is you plan on doing with them."
What? Why is she trying to make a deal with them? he thought, doing his best not to let his confusion show on his face and ruin the act.
Nevertheless the duo looked to be agreeable to it so, as one, the four of them returned to where their vehicles were parked next to the dirt road. It wasn't until he saw her take her shades out of her jacket pocket and put them on that he realized that she wasn't planning on selling the spaceships at all. Looking back the way they came, he finally figured out that the reason she'd lured the civvies over here was so that they could be neuralized out of sight of the spaceships.
Smart!
Putting his own shades on he watched as L took out the neuralizer, pressing the button to cause the top to pop up and then, before the civvies could do anything, she flashed it in their faces, making sure both of them got an eyeful of the light.
"There were no alien spacecraft. What fell down was some debris from a communications satellite. You came out here to take a look but there was nothing salvageable, much to your annoyed disappointment." Agent L rattled off without any real enthusiasm in her voice. "When the company people came to pick up the junk you had a good laugh at all the grunt work the 'snooty suits' would have to do and then went for beer."
It took a couple of minutes before the blank looks disappeared from the faces of the civvies but, when they did, their expressions immediately fell in line with the story L had spun. The guys looked arrogant, amused and not very nice but, seeing as how they went over to their truck to drive away, he didn't really mind all that much.
Once the truck was completely out of sight he and L went back to the ships to give them a once over before the cleanup and recovery teams moved in.
"Care to take first look?" L asked, gesturing to the ships.
Knowing what she meant, he turned on his Fore Seer ability and began to take a look about the crash zone to see if there was anything informative. While he was pretty sure that the occupants of the space vehicles were long gone, he'd be able to pick up any residue or organic material they might've left behind. One by one he examined the ships until, on the third one, he hit paydirt in the form of glowing green residue near what could be a hatch leading into the interior.
"Got a bit of glowing green goo by a hatch!" he yelled to L before continuing on. "Guess we got a toxic or chemical based environment alien on our hands."
"And what leaves a green spectral trail and rides around in ships like these?" L asked, sounding like she already knew the answer.
Taking a look around at each ship and comparing them to the ships Agent U had shown everyone during practice, he didn't hit a match right off the bat but then he remembered. There were some differences, probably the result of a new model, but the configuration was too similar to what he'd seen in class for it to be anything else.
Not what he wanted for his first case as a MiB agent but he supposed it could've been worse.
"Bugs."
"Bugs," L said in confirmation before she took out her communicator put it to her ear. "Director One? We've got bugs. Looks like one luxury transport accompanied by five escorts. I'm thinking we've got a VIP and an entourage looking to see the sights."
He couldn't hear the other side of the conversation given the type of communicator L was using but she didn't look worried, so he decided he wouldn't be worried either.
"If the bugs and their VIP only got here last night then they'll be looking for the essentials," L said as she returned her communicator to her pocket.
"That means human suits for getting around and anything pumped full of sugar for food." he said, filling in the blanks.
"It also means keeping an eye on the morgues for any suspicious deaths. Bugs have a short fuse and massive inferiority complexes." L said, adding in her own two cents.
"A group of bugs in NYC," he said with a shudder at the imagery his mind was coming up with. "Something tells me your old colleagues are going to be busy the next couple of days."
"Then let's do what we can to keep the overtime to a minimum," L said before taking up a defensive position. "For now, though, we stand guard until the recovery vehicles get here to relocate the ships. There could be other arrivals heading our way."
"Almost makes me miss Sunnydale Syndrome where anything strange was just ignored," he said, taking out his series one deatomizer before prepping it so that it could be fired at a moment's notice.
He hoped he wouldn't have to use it but he'd be ready if he had to use it.
The Streets of NYC, A Little Over An Hour Later, L's POV
"So where are we going?" Xander asked from the passenger seat of the LTD.
"A pawn shop owned by an alien named Jack Jeebs," she replied as the navigated a familiar route to her desired destination. "He's pretty much a bottom feeder that specializes in buying and selling questionable merchandise. Stolen property, contraband and things that're illegal on Earth make up the usual things he sells. If our bugs are looking for human suits to disguise themselves in, he's our best bet."
"If this Jeebs guy deals in illegal stuff, why hasn't MiB drop kicked his alien butt off Earth yet?" Xander asked, glancing at her before looking back out his window.
Good. Still training his Fore Seer power, she thought. "Two reasons, mostly. The first reason is that his father is the vice president of one of the galaxy's top spaceship manufacturers. Daddy has enough clout to throw around that he can get Jack off the hook with a slap on the wrist."
"And the other reason?" Xander asked, nodding in comprehension of the first reason.
"Jack Jeebs is small potatoes as far as alien criminals is concerned. He never directly harms anyone. He just provides the ones that do with the tools they need. The few times we've given his store a full once over, we've determined that he doesn't get what he sells easily so there's no danger of him flooding the market with dangerous hardware." She turned the final corner. "He is, however, one of the top providers in New York City and the scum of the universe know it. So long as he's in business we'll always have a good idea of where they'll go for equipment and what they buy gives us clues as to what they're up to."
"So basically you can't keep him off world and he has his uses so long as he's in business." Xander said, looking much more informed.
"Precisely," she said as she pulled up to the curb in front of Jeebs' Pawn Shop. "Let me do the talking to start things out but if he starts dragging his feet, shoot him in the head."
"Won't it be kind of hard for him to tell us anything without a head?" he asked with a little confusion.
"Trust me," she said as she got out of the LTD and pocketed the keys.
She imagined that Xander shrugged in response but she didn't look to confirm.
With the ding-a-ling of the bell that hung over the door to the pawn shop it didn't take her long to see Jeebs lounging on a chair behind the counter, magazine in hand. The moment the shady character spotted her, though, he put his feet back on the floor and tried to put on his 'I am but a simple businessman' look, even though it'd never worked in the past. She guessed with enough practice it might be enough to fool an agent who was new to New York City but no one station in the big apple would fall for it.
Jeebs' reputation preceded him.
"L! What a surprise! What can I do for MiB today?" Jeebs asked, making it sound like he was best friends with the organization.
"Information as always, Jeebs. We had a couple of out of towners drop in last night and we'd like to know if they've come around here looking to get the essentials." she replied, not wanting to mention bugs just yet in order to see what Jack dropped unintentionally.
"R-really? I hadn't heard," Jeebs said with his right eye twitching a bit.
Lie number one.
"It was six ships. BUG ships," she said, now certain that the pawn shop owner knew something. "You know what happens when bugs come to town, Jeebs. Tell us what you know and it won't."
"I wish I could help you L, REALLY, but this is the first time I've heard of bugs being in the neighborhood." Jeebs said, still playing dumb about the situation.
BEEYOON!
SPLAT!
Just like she'd hoped Xander had trusted her word and had fired his deatomizer at just the right time to splat Jeeb's biomatter against the wall before the head regenerated, like it always. Glancing over her shoulder, she could see mild-to-moderate surprise at the sight but nothing more than that. Given what the young man had witnessed the last three years in Sunnydale, it didn't surprise her that a head regrowing after it'd been blown off hadn't phased him much.
"Do you have ANY idea how much that STINGS!?" Jeebs exclaimed at Xander looking annoyed.
"You'll have to forgive Agent A, Jeebs. He's fresh from training and has a low tolerance for liars," she said, taking the role of good cop for the rest of the discussion. "The worse the lie, the angrier he gets. Director One, the agent formerly known as K, partnered me with him to keep him from doing too much damage but I think it'll take me awhile to figure out how to do that quickly. Who knows what could happen in the meantime."
"So it'd be in your best interest to be honest, Jeebs," Xander said menacingly as he stepped forward and leaned on the counter. "REAL honest!"
For a moment it looked like another lesson would be due but, like she expected, the slimy little man caved in before the lesson could be given.
"Okay! Okay! Two of'em came in early this morning looking for six human suits!" Jeebs blathered out like his life depended on it. "Strange thing is they paid for 'em in cash. The last couple of times they just splattered me and took what they wanted."
"They say anything we might want to hear?" Xander asked, reaching up to grab the guy by the shirt.
"N-not really! Just said something about making MiB pay through the nose for all the times you guys have gotten in their way." Jeebs replied quickly, with only mild signs of breathing difficulty.
"You sure that's everything?" she asked, narrowing her eyes just enough to let Jeebs know she wouldn't react well to finding out important info had been withheld.
"That's everything! They didn't say anything more! I swear!" Jeebs said, sounding like he was just scared enough that lying wasn't likely to be possible for him.
Looking him in the eye, she couldn't see any hints of deception so, for the time being, she'd accept that he'd told her everything he knew.
"If you hear anything, learn anything, you will let us know, right?" she asked in a way that made it clear it was an order rather than a question.
"Of course! You'll hear about it two minutes after I do! I promise!" Jeebs said before being shoved back by Xander, causing the alien to fall on his ass.
"Good. C'mon, Agent A," she said before walking towards the door. "We have other places that need checking."
Hearing more than seeing the young man's footsteps fall behind her, she left the store and made her way over to the LTD.
"So what do you think?" she asked as she got into the driver's side at the same time that Xander got into the passenger side.
"It confirms that we've got bugs in town but it also tells us something else," Xander replied as she started the car.
"Oh?" she asked, interested in what was going on in the new agent's head.
"Jeebs said he was surprised that the bugs didn't take what they wanted rather than paying for it. The bugs I know from class wouldn't have been 'polite' enough to pay for the things they wanted," he replied as she pulled into traffic. "So what would make them do something they usually wouldn't? I think they paid because they knew that raising hell at Jeebs' place would've gotten our attention. This was them trying to be sneaky and low profile."
At first she thought the young man might've been reading too much into things but, the more she considered his words, the more it sounded logical. Following that line of thought she wondered why the bugs would be exercising such caution with their actions when they never had during their previous visits to Earth. The only thing she could think of was what Jeebs overheard about the bugs wanting to deliver some payback for all the times MiB had thwarted their efforts. That they hadn't struck already implied that they wanted something more than a quick strike but it didn't hint at what their grand plan was.
Not enough to figure out a way to counter them.
"So where to now?" he asked her as the LTD continued to navigate traffic.
"If things have changed with the bugs, we need to figure out just how much they've changed," she replied as she picked their next destination out in her mind. "For that we need someone who has a finger on the pulse of galactic politics as well as this city. Guess we'll swing by Frank's to see if he knows anything."
"Who's Frank?" he asked with a mild raised eyebrow.
She just smiled and wondered just how this next meeting would go.
Frank the Pug's Newsstand, Xander's POV
"We're supposed to learn about galactic politics from a dog running a newsstand?" he asked as they approached the business in question.
"Don't underestimate him," L said as she walked alongside. "Frank might not have genuine dog-like senses but his ears are always open for information that's valuable."
"So basically he's a snitch?" he asked as they arrived at the newsstand.
"Information broker, if you please," the dog said identifying himself as Frank. "Snitch is so… low class."
Like a dog alien running a newsstand knows anything about class, he thought keeping his opinion off his face.
"Information broker it is," L said before getting down to business. "We've got bugs in town Frank and they're being more careful than they usually are. Any idea why?"
"Hmmmm… well, after you, K and J iced the last bug queen way back when, the entire bug planet's been locked in a civil war trying to figure out who the new big cheese is going to be." Frank replied after a moment's thought. "A coupla contenders have been duking it out but the last two or three years, the number of nominees has dropped to three. Maggie, Larvina and Rochelle. Right now it's a tossup whose gonna come out on top, 'cause their forces are about equal."
"You got any theories about why they're here?" he asked, trying to get to the important part of the discussion. "Jeebs claimed they talked about getting payback against MiB."
"Nothing comes to mind except…" Frank replied before a look of fear came over his face. "Gotta go!"
The dog alien tried to leap to the ground but L caught him mid-air before bringing him up to eye level.
"Frank!" L said with warning in her tone as well as in her eyes.
"The only thing I can think of is one of the queen wannabes must be planning to boost up her infantry here. Hatch a coupla hundred thousand of 'em then ship the whole lot back to the home world," Frank said reluctantly as he realized he wouldn't be getting loose anytime soon. "Stuck with using their own planet there's a limit to how big their armies can get, 'specially since they wipe out any bug nurseries belonging to the enemy. If one of 'em manages to lock down Earth with an infestation, they'll manage to upset the three way tie back home."
Thinking on that, it'd certainly explain the caution.
The more commotion they raised, the more likely word would get back home somehow and the two who weren't behind the current visitors found out they'd likely come to put a stop to the 'recruitment'. That'd be bad, very bad, since a bug civil war finding its way to Earth would be a little hard to keep quiet hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of giant bugs crawling about.
"Any idea which one of the queen wannabe's it might be?" he asked, fishing for more information.
"Can't say. News outta the bug planet's not easy to come by," Frank replied with a shrug of his canine shoulders. "If you can get accurate info on how things're going there, my money's on whoever's startin' to feel the pressure from the other two. Can I go now? I want to get offa this rock before its covered in creepy crawlies."
"Fine," L said, putting the dog down on the sidewalk, allowing the pug to walk away, presumably to catch the next space flight off of Earth.
Watching the alien go he wondered how many other extraterrestrial residents of Earth would be leaving town once word reached them that a serious bug problem was in their future.
"Don't suppose there's any way to do a city-wide clamp down on off world communications?" he asked, wanting to keep word of their current bug problem from reaching bug central.
"Not an option. We've got two dozen dignitaries and half a dozen royal family members in the city who can't afford to be out of touch with their home planet. We cut them off and we'll have some threatening to sever ties while others will be declaring war." L replied, shaking her head. "The best we can do is keep news of the bugs being on the planet to ourselves and hope that there aren't any loose lips capable of sinking this planet-sized ship."
Not the most foolproof solution but he'd have to defer to the senior agent on the matter.
"So any ideas on where to go next?" he asked even though he had a few ideas of his own.
"Back to HQ for now," L replied as they began to head back to HQ. "If we haven't gotten an alert on a new bug sighting by now, all we can do is research potential infestation locations and keep an eye on sugar high production facilities. Sooner or later we'll get a hit."
With that they were back in the LTD driving back to MiB HQ, where they'd wait for a nibble on one of their possible targets before moving out.
As he watched the scenery go by he tried to think of some other way that they could turn the tables on the bugs that hadn't already been spoken of. They'd be covering the potential lairs and food sources of the bugs, along with the morgues for any sign of activity of the insect kind, but what else could help them. What else usually went hand in hand with the presence of bugs? He thought on the matter for a good five minutes before he had an epiphany that just might work. Taking out his communicator, he connected himself with the twins back at MiB HQ.
"Bob? Agent A here," he said even though he was aware of L looking at him. "Can you set up a monitor on all pest extermination or control businesses in New York City? Run a tally on which neighborhoods get the most calls from here on out?"
He couldn't quite understand what Bob said in reply so he turned to L and asked, "I assume that means he'll get right on it?"
"Yes, and that's quite a good idea, A," L said with a grin of approval. "Normal bugs attract their terrestrial counterparts by their presence alone. Those who are at queen level or close enough draw even more of their local 'cousins', so given the number of ships we saw in the forest I'd say we're dealing with six bugs at the least and double that at most. Where ever they're holed up will have the world's largest bug problem soon enough."
"Question is will we hear about it in time to hard boil any laid eggs," he said with his mind coming up with worst case scenarios by the dozen.
"Depends on how easy the Twins can tap into the extermination businesses and how quickly they get calls about bugs crawling over every surface," L said, stopping the LTD at a red light before turning to look at him. "Still, if there's one thing that New Yorkers are good at, its letting others know when something is bothering them. Should be fine."
While he wasn't from the Big Apple, he had heard a lot of things about it and then there were the numerous movies or TV shows that were set in NYC. All of them painted New Yorkers as being aggressive and, at times, irritable, so if bugs started crawling all over the place they wouldn't waste time calling for someone to come and exterminate them. While he supposed there was always the possibility that the extermination services that got the calls would all be offline, not everyone had a computer, much less used it in their business, but he was banking on enough being online for the twins to make his idea work.
As he silently watched the scenery go by, though, his mind kept drifting back to what Jeebs had overheard and he wondered if there wasn't some other meaning to the words. Making MiB pay through the nose was a fairly uninspired way of saying they wanted payback, so he wondered if the bugs meant the phrase literally. Could the bugs be planning to do something that would wind up costing the MiB a lot of money to repair or replace? As far as he knew the only time when the Men in Black had to dip into their money stash was when something they did or aliens did caused property damage. If something got smashed or fried, MiB did their best to fix it up so that no one would have any proof that anything suspicious had happened. That being the case one possibility would be to go on a rampage throughout the city, causing as much destruction as possible to expensive targets before being taken down.
If my idea's right then I'm going to have to run simulations back at HQ to see which areas of the city would rack up the highest price tag for repairs. Once a list of the top five are made up, Director One can position our forces in those areas so they're ready to pounce the second the bugs showed their beady little eyes.
Were there other interpretations of the words Jeebs heard?
Maybe.
For the entire ride back to HQ he thought on the matter considering scenario after scenario as carefully as he could without any reference material to work with.
MiB HQ, Two Hours Later, Director One's Office, Agent L's POV
"So how's the kid doing so far?" Director One asked from his chair behind his desk.
"Good. He picked out two details I didn't immediately think of and they're smart moves," she replied from one of the guest chairs. "With a little luck it'll cut down on the number of places we'll have to search."
She summarized what she and A had done since being sent out to investigate the unauthorized landing and, by the time she finished, she thought she spied a flicker of approval in her friend's eyes. Considering how emotionally repressed Director One had a history of being, she took that to mean that he was impressed the new recruits performance.
"Smart thinking. I assume A's researching right now?" Director One asked after his face returned to its normal emotionless state.
"Yes. The twins are monitoring all the extermination businesses we can access online and will let us know the second a part of the city starts showing abnormal bug levels," she replied, remembering seeing the alien duo busy at work. "It'll take more time to figure out where the bugs might hit if it's true that they plan on sticking us with a huge repair bill."
"I'm not sure if that'll do any good," he said, looking contemplative. "The bugs have never been all that bright so I doubt they'll be able to strategically choose places in the city to hit. It's more likely that they'll attack whatever looks expensive but we both know that nothing is ever quite what it seems."
"True, but it's better than doing nothing," she admitted, remembering her own past run ins with bugs like Edgar, Edwin, Dung and Moe. "I'd rather not have to start walking around the city with a tank of bug spray strapped to my back."
"Not saying he shouldn't look at all. I just don't think it'd be smart to give it unnecessary weight." he said, clarifying his position on the matter. "We'll mark down any potential target areas down but, until half of them get hit, we'll be keeping our response teams mobile in case they pop up someplace else."
"Reasonable enough," she conceded with a nod of her head. "Is there anything else?"
When Director One shook his head she left his office and began to make her way back to the room where Xander was working away on his ideas to put an end to the plans of the bugs. She knew the Twins would alert her if they found anything so the best way to use her time would be to speed up the surveying of the sections of the cities by helping Agent A. With all the businesses and factories where sugar-filled foods or drinks were made under surveillance, it'd be easy to spot bug activity, allowing them another means to get a leg up on the enemy. If she recalled right, the last time a female bug was about to lay some eggs she sent her minions to gather as many sugary foods or drinks as they could get their hands on. Depending on how far along the wannabe queen was in her 'pregnancy', there was a chance MiB could catch her minions in the act, slowing down the egg laying and perhaps even locating their lair. Either one would be a win from her point of view so she'd patiently wait for either to fall into their laps.
It was as she was walking down the hallway, though, that she happened upon someone she recognized all too well so she decided to stop for a little chat.
"How is your first day in MiB's diplomatic division, Agent D?" she asked Delenn, who'd been walking down the hall in the opposite direction.
"It's proving to be quite informative, L." Delenn replied with a look that made it clear she was enjoying her first day on the job. "I never knew that Earth had so many treaties with so many races."
"Well, considering that there are fifteen hundred aliens on Earth at any given time, it stands to reason that there'd be at least a hundred or so individual races here," she said, laying it all out for the Minbari-Human hybrid. "Assuming each of them have their own governments, that'd mean we'd have at least one treaty with each of them. That's a lot to stay on top of for your division, so I imagine it takes quite a bit of getting used to."
"True, but the division manager is patient with me." Delenn said with a half nod. "She's assigned me to review the various treaties and agreements to see if any will need to be renewed or reexamined. It's a good chance for me to properly familiarize myself with them."
"Good. I'd hate for you to get scared off by having an arm load of work dumped in your lap," she said with a grin of approval. "Just be prepared for things to get more stressful when we have a delegation or trade conference in town. If it isn't providing security that gets you, its dealing with the powerful personalities of the people involved."
"They cannot be any more difficult to deal with than some of the members of the Worker and Religious castes. I will do as I was taught: employ reason and patience." Delenn said, sounding undeterred. "Eventually everything will work out."
"You've got more patience than I do so I'll have to take your word for it," she said, never once thinking she could stand to be stuck in a room with a delegation. "Still, it's nice to hear you're doing as well as A is with your posting."
"How is Xan—I mean, Agent A doing?" Delenn asked, correcting herself from saying Agent A's true name out loud.
It was understandable considering how hard it was to use a letter after being allowed to use a name during phase one training but it was something that had to be done. No one could be allowed to put a unique and identifiable name to their faces because, if someone did, it'd compromise their ability to do their jobs. Secrecy and anonymity were the two most important things for the MiB. As long as Delenn remembered to use the right name in public, it shouldn't be too bad and what the young woman wanted to call Xander in private… that was between the two of them.
"He's getting into the swing of things quickly enough," she replied, remembering how things had gone so far. "Managed to come up with a few new ideas for us to follow up on."
"Anything I should know about?" Delenn asked inquisitively.
"No. Earth has never had any diplomatic relations with the bug home world," she replied with a shake of her head. "Mostly because they're pretty much hostile to every other civilization in the galaxy. A civilization that thrives on carnage and the death of others aren't the kind of people we want anything to do with."
"I imagine not. Minbar has had its own encounters with the bugs and none of them have been pleasant," Delenn said, looking like she had a foul taste in her mouth. "I wish both of you luck in removing them from this planet."
"In our line of work we can use all the luck we can get our hands on," she said, remembering all the times that luck had been the only thing standing between Earth and destruction. "See you later for lunch? Assuming me and A aren't in the field working, that is."
"I'll see you there so long as the division manager doesn't have a problem with it." Delenn replied before resuming her previous course down the hallway.
Continuing on her way it didn't take long for her to get to the room where Xander was working and, from the look of concentration on his face, he was hard at work. While it was encouraging to see him take his work seriously, she'd have to keep an eye on him so that he doesn't go too far with it or he'd wind up worse than K was when she first met him. The man might be considered a legend and founding member of the MiB but he'd sacrificed a lot to gain both titles. He'd had to sacrifice the woman he'd intended to propose to along with everything that'd been attached to his civilian life on that dirt road decades ago. Things had gotten better after Director One had been given J as a partner, there had been more emotion in his eyes, and his performance in the field had gone up by a measurable amount as well. If she wanted Xander to be at his best, he had to make sure that he remembered to live a balanced life between work and enjoying life.
"Any promising possibilities so far?" she asked as she sat down in front of the computer next to him.
"Not really. When I took a look at the repair and replace fund MiB has I found that it's pretty damn big even if you only take what's allotted for this month," Agent A replied as he continued to type away, cycling through the possibilities. "Unless the bugs get their hands on a couple thousand pounds of explosives and put them at strategic spots around the city, they're going to have their work cut out for them if they want to break our bank."
"I'll lend you a hand while we wait for any news from the Twins," she said as she began bringing up the Situation Simulation System to run her own scenarios. "With a little luck they'll come up with something that'll get us what we need sooner."
From that point on she worked in concert with her partner, going through the possibilities while making note of any section of the city that would be particularly costly to repair or replace. It was tedious work but her academic mind accepted that it was part of the job and often necessary in order to get the right results.
Only time would tell if they hit the truth first or the Twins did.
MiB Information and Archive Center, Evening, Xander's POV
"Well, we've got four possible target spots that'd definitely take a bite out of the monthly R&R budget but nothing that'd put MiB in the red," he said as he finished firing off a message to Director One with a list of possible target areas.
"Even if the bugs don't go on a rampage, it'll be good to know where NOT to let something happen." L said as she pushed herself away from the computer she'd been working on.
"I guess," he said, less than happy about the current state of things.
L looked like she was about to say something when her communicator beeped, causing her to take it out of her pocket to activate it.
"Twins have got a possible lair site," Director One said as his image appeared on the communicator. "Seems there's a heightened bug problem in the vicinity of Third Avenue and East one hundred and twenty-fourth street. The number of calls to extermination businesses for that area are higher than any other spot in the city, making it likely that the bugs are somewhere close by."
"Sounds like a place to start," L said, sounding encouraged. "We'll go take a look."
"If it does turn out to be bug central do not engage," Director One ordered in his usual monotone. "Call for back up then sit tight. No telling what kind of surprises our uninvited guests might have laying around."
"Roger that," L said before shutting off her communicator. "Let's go."
A nod was all he gave before he followed her out of the room and began heading in the direction of the garage where the LTD awaited them.
As he walked down the halls he mentally began to play 'name that alien' in order to find out if his time studying up on the various species had worked or if he needed to work harder. It was a little hard since he had to keep half his mind on navigating the hallways and not bumping into anyone but, as they entered the central area of the HQ, he believed he was getting his guesses right three out of five times. Not a great score but, considering he didn't know anything seven months ago, it was respectable enough that he'd probably make it five out of five inside of a year.
"Agent A! Agent A!" came an unfamiliar voice from behind, causing him to stop and turn.
Walking up to him in a lab coat was an alien he'd never seen before that looked like a cross between a Gran and a blue coral reef and whatever it was looked to be quite determined to speak with him.
"I'm glad I managed to catch you before you left," the blue alien said as he came to a stop.
"What's up, Doctor Zeeltor?" L asked, having stopped and turned around as well.
"A pleasure to see you as well Agent L," Zeeltor said with a smile before he started digging around in his lab coat pockets. "I just thought Agent A would like to take his K-Gloves out with him for a test drive. Now where are they? I know I put them somewhere…"
"K-Gloves?" he asked looking at L.
"Your idea back during Phase One," L replied, looking him right in the eye. "You mentioned something about melee weapons and then thought up an idea about some gloves?"
"You actually tried to make some?" he asked, somewhat surprised that they'd taken his words seriously.
He'd just said whatever sounded logical at the moment.
He hadn't used one bit of scientific knowledge or thinking.
"Yes indeedy! It was actually a fascinating project," Zeeltor said as he continued to root through his pockets. "Would you believe that no one has even considered trying to make something similar? Fortunately with a bit of time and research I was able to construct a prototype. Of course it still needs to be field tested but now's as good a time as any to give it a whirl. AH! Here they are!"
The sea blue alien pulled two black gloves from his pocket and at first glance they didn't look all that different from a pair you could buy out of just about any men's clothing store in… anywhere, really. However when he took them from Zeeltor he noticed what looked to be semi-transparent wires along every seam from the tip of the fingers, all the way back to the strap at the wrist area.
"Well! Go on! Put them on!" Zeeltor insisted, sounding like someone who'd cooked their first meal and wanted an honest opinion. "I had them tailored to the exact measurements of your hand using tertiary data stored in the fingerprint elimination system. They should fit perfectly!"
Mentally shrugging he did as asked and slid the first glove on and found that it did indeed slide into place quite comfortably. It wasn't too tight nor was it so loose that they might slip off under just the right circumstances. Putting on the other glove, he flexed his fingers a few times, made fists with them and threw a decent jab without finding anything to complain about. However, if Zeeltor really did make these gloves like he wanted, then there was an important question he needed to ask.
"So how do they work?" he asked, looking them over for some kind of button or knob or something.
"Press the large buttons at the back of the wrist area of the gloves. This will activate them." Zeeltor replied, pointing at the big buttons in question.
Doing as told, he watched as the wires he'd spotted earlier begin to glow, energy beginning to circulate through them like rivers that never came to an end. It was definitely cool looking but so did most of the props for a big budget sci-fi flick up until you actually tried to use them as demonstrated in the movies.
"They only take a second or two to warm up and then they're ready for use," Zeeltor said before pushing a smaller button halfway from left to right. "Once done you simply slide this button to your desired power setting and press down to lock it in place. Should you want to kick it up a notch just pull the small button out of the notch and adjust as needed."
Following the man's instructions he slid the button back and forth along the strap, watching as the seams on the back of his hand lit up a different color. From left to right the colors were green, blue, purple and red, making it easy for him to know what setting each glove was on.
"Now, as you explained during your phase one class, the gloves will naturally absorb the kinetic energy employed when throwing a punch, magnify the energy as needed and upon impact with the target discharge the energy all at once. Naturally the energy will be directed primarily to the point of impact which, of course, is where you want it to go but there will be some overflow off to the sides depending on what power level you have them set on," Zeeltor said, sounding quite thrilled at explaining his invention. "The gloves themselves are made of a material which will adequately protect the wearer from any impact damage."
"So how hard can I hit perps with these gloves?" he asked while mentally approving of the design so far.
"When you have the gloves set to green then your punches will hit with the force of an angry Krogan. When set to blue a punch from you will feel like getting hit with an Asari's biotic charge," Zeeltor replied, rattling off the list. "Put it on purple and the crooks will swear that they've been slugged by an angry Kronan. As for the red setting theoretically it should allow you to strike with the force sufficient to put a respectable dent in the side of decent sized mountain."
"Isn't that a bit overkill?" L asked after hearing the power settings.
"No such thing as overkill, L. Just open fire and I need to reload." he said, keeping his gaze on his gloves as he casually practiced changing the settings.
"I measured the settings based on the durability and lethal potential of alien species that would not be overly affected by conventional MiB weaponry. Granted, some of the species I found in the database haven't visited Earth in a hundred years or more but better safe than sorry," Zeeltor said, making it sound like the power levels were completely reasonable. "Like any other instrument or weapon used out in the field by MiB personnel, it's all about the right tool for the right job."
"Good advice. Can't remember the number of times back in Sunnyhell that taking down the demon of the week forced us to brew something up or wait for some antique weapon to be FedEx'd to us." He turned off the gloves before stuffing them into his jacket pocket. "Thanks, Zeeltor."
"Not a problem, Agent A," Zeeltor said, sounding like he'd been working on his favorite hobby. "In fact, if you have any other interesting ideas, please feel free to send them to my email account. If they're anything like your glove idea, it will be quite enjoyable to find out if they can be made to work."
"Sure thing," he said, not sure what other devices his imagination might spawn but found himself oddly curious to see what the alien scientist could pull off.
With that he and his partner resumed their way to the garage and were on their way to the insect hot spot where, hopefully, they'd pick up the trail of their uninvited arrivals. According to what he'd read in the MiB manual, despite their unsavory history with Earth, bugs were given the same treatment as other perps and that was take them alive if possible or dead if necessary. The fact that past encounters tended more towards the dead than the alive was just a sign that some species were simply too dangerous to apprehend while they were still breathing. Still, in the interests of making a good first impression with the boss at the start of his career as an MiB field agent, he'd give these bugs a chance to surrender willingly for deportation back home.
If they threw his generous offer back in his face, he'd get to field test his gloves.
Intersection of Third Avenue and East One hundred and Twenty-Fourth Street, Evening
Agent L's POV
"Looks like the reports were right," Xander said as they got out of the LTD. "Lots of businesses closed down due to bug problems."
Looking around herself, she could see a number of stores and businesses with signs in their windows declaring themselves closed for the day and others that had extermination business trucks parked out front. She didn't see anything skittering about on the streets or sidewalks but that didn't mean much if the bugs were planning on something sneaky. Since there hadn't been any commotion about a horde of giant bugs running about, it was a safe bet that the aliens she and her partner were after were underground. That meant the sewers or tunnels that they'd dug themselves since arriving on the planet. She personally preferred the latter since they couldn't be all that deep or intricate in such a short period of time and because the latter would make it harder to contain them if things got dicey.
Giving one more look around for any clues, she decided to see if Xander could 'see' anything useful.
"Your peepers telling you anything useful?"
"Give me a second," Xander replied, closing his eyes in concentration for a few seconds before reopening them and casing the immediate vicinity. "Oh yeah! They're in the neighborhood. Seeing plenty of bug slime and stains and they're all coming from manhole covers."
"Consistent with their usual M.O.," she said as she began to walk towards the nearest manhole cover. "Let's see where the trail leads."
Thankfully traffic was light at this time of night so it wasn't hard for them to pop open a manhole and climb down into the mess that was the New York City sewer system. It was foul as usual but after all the cases she'd worked that ended up in the sewers, it didn't invoke the same feeling of disgust that it used to. After having bugs spit on you and aliens explode their innards all over you, normal human refuse wasn't quite as repulsive. Taking out her deatomizer she waited for Xander to join her and provide a general direction to go in before heading that way as stealthily as could be managed given the environment. There was only minimal lighting to be had, for the benefit of sewer workers presumably, but it was enough to tell where the walls were and where the ledges could be found. With Xander taking the lead she devoted her attention to guarding their sides, with the occasional look back to make sure nothing was sneaking up on them.
Given the size of the sewer tunnels, if a bug chose to attack them there wouldn't be much room to dodge attacks but it had the benefit of making it impossible for more than one bug to come at them from any direction. With the benefit of only having to face four in these tunnels at any one time, it'd be difficult to deal with them but, as long as they took the time to place their shots, she felt that they could last long enough to call in the cavalry.
Ten minutes later that they hit their next big break in the form of a hole in the sewer wall that definitely wasn't man-made and had been done rather brutally. Bits of concrete lay about, as well as handfuls of dirt just outside the hole, with footprints in the dirt that were insect-like in nature. Kneeling down near the opening she tried to determine just how recently the bugs had come through there as well as just how many they were up against. The guess of six to twelve was just a little too vague for her and she'd prefer a more exact number so that when everything was over with they could count heads and be sure that they'd gotten them all. The more she looked, though, the more it became clear that there was no real way to differentiate one footprint from another so she and A would have to eyeball the enemy numbers.
With a hand signal she entered the tunnel, never letting herself be exposed and hugging the tunnel walls as closely as she could in an effort not to be detected. As she proceeded, though, she began to worry about just how deep the bug made tunnels went since it seemed deeper than even twelve could manage working nonstop. She tried to determine how that could be but, before her thoughts could get very far, they came to an end of their chosen tunnel that connected to a large cavern at least the same size as a three story building, if not a bit bigger. Gesturing for Xander to crouch low to the ground, the two of them crept forward until they were right up against a rocky outcropping tall enough for them to hide behind. Once convinced of their safety, both of them inched their heads up until they cleared the outcropping, allowing them to see what was on the other side.
What she saw was NOT encouraging.
Sure, they'd managed to confirm the presence of the bugs, but the bad side of that was that there were decidedly more than predicted by anyone. The prediction they'd originally been going by was six to twelve bugs but what she was seeing was closer to sixty to a hundred and twenty and the only good news was that the majority of them were too far away to notice two new arrivals.
"Yikes! That is a lot of antennae down there," Xander whispered looking every which way. "How'd they manage to cram so many into those six ships?"
"They couldn't have," she said before taking out her digital binoculars and bringing it up. "There has to be some other kind of explanation."
With calculating eyes she looked everywhere amidst the crowd of alien insects for any sign of something that'd clear things up for her but it was tough making anything out with so many moving bodies. It wasn't until a group of them moved away from one specific spot that she saw something that was quite interesting indeed: the female bug, aka queen wannabe. Red in color, with appendages like those on a praying mantis, the bug princess was definitely bigger than the usual minions but the real telling feature was the patch of purple on her lower torso. Zooming in on that part, she made a mental note to have Zeeltor incorporate some ranged sensor add ons to the binoculars when the assignment was over with. There was nothing really that she could tell from appearance alone but then God must've decided to give her and A a gimme because something then happened that was somewhat familiar. The bug princess began to convulse with increasing violence and then, without warning, five egg-shaped constructs were expelled from her butt. Those eggs were swiftly picked up by other worker bugs before being taken over to a section of the cave where her binoculars showed many hatched egg shells strewn about.
"There's our explanation. I'll need to get a sample but it looks like they're exposing the wannabe queen to some kind of reproduction accelerant in order to make her pump out the eggs as fast as possible." she whispered after ducking back behind the outcropping. "I wouldn't be surprised that the same accelerant also sped up the growth rate of the bugs in the eggs. It'd certainly explain how they've managed to increase their numbers so quickly in such a short period of time."
"Whatever the case, it's not good for us," Xander said, sounding grim. "If they keep pumping out numbers like this, it'll let them overrun the city in no time at all. We gotta get every available agent down here pronto armed to the teeth!"
"Right," she said, taking out her communicator.
She was about to establish a connection when she was tackled to the side and it was only her realizing that it was Xander kept her instincts from attacking him. When they landed on the ground she felt a separate impact and, when she looked back to where she'd been, she saw that somehow a bug had crept up on them undetected. If it hadn't been for the newest field agent of MiB's NYC branch, she might've been impaled on one of the bug's spike-like hands.
"Don't be shy!" the bug said mockingly as it turned to face them. "Come right in. Join the PARTY!"
"Sorry, bug-face!" Xander said before aiming and firing his deatomizer. "This isn't my kind of crowd!"
The shot hit the bug in the head, causing it to stumble back a few steps but it didn't knock it down, indicating that it had a thick shell, making it quite tough. As soon as her junior partner rolled off of her she brought her own deatomizer to bear in order to join her strength to his in the hopes of getting better results. This time the bug did go down but she knew that it was a pointless victory because now every bug in the cavern knew that intruders had stumbled upon their lair. Within seconds they'd have dozens of bugs coming down on them so it made escape all the more important. Pulling Xander to his feet, she dashed for the tunnel, intent on phoning home and getting clear of the bugs at the same time.
"This so, SO NOT GOOD!" Xander declared as they ran for the main sewer tunnels. "Get the cavalry down here!"
"On it!" she said bringing the hand with the communicator back up, only to find the device had been damaged in the tackle. "Or not. Use your communicator to-"
That was all she could get out before a multi-elbowed set of arms came out of an adjoining tunnel and grabbed onto her, pulling her into the darkness. She tried to fight it but it was a fact that, in terms of brute strength, bugs were stronger than human beings by quite a bit.
"Put her down, BUG!" Xander yelled, priming his deatomizer to fire.
"Forget about me, A!" she yelled as she continued to struggle. "HQ has to be told about this! Get moving! NOW!"
She could see the hesitation in his eyes but eventually he did the right thing and took off, leaving her to deal with her bug-eyed sparring partner on her own.
She hoped she could last until help arrived and, if not, she hoped that Xander at the very least could keep the bugs from accomplishing what they came to Earth to do.
Street Level, Xander's POV
This SUCKS beyond the telling of it! he thought as he finally made his way out of the sewers and back into open air. Gotta save the griping for later though. L's not going to last long in bug town!
He'd wanted to call down in the sewers but every time he reached for his communicator a bug popped out of someplace, demanding that he give it his full attention. Running and gunning, therefore, took up a lot of his attention but, on the plus side, he was doing awesome in the headshot department, having hit every bug he aimed at thus far. He wondered if it was his training he had to thank or if being steps away from being killed had somehow heightened his senses and reflexes. It didn't matter as he looked about to see if the bugs were going to pursue him even further but no manholes were being pushed aside or concrete shattered.
"This is Agent A to HQ! We've got a priority alpha situation in progress!"
"What's the situation sport?" Director One asked as his face appeared on the communicator screen.
"We've got a positive lock on the bug lair but there's a helluva lot more than we thought there'd be," he replied, trying to get only the important bits. "I saw clearly something damn close to over a hundred bugs of various sizes in the underground cave. L thinks the bugs are using some kind of reproduction accelerator to force their wannabe queen to pump out eggs like there's no tomorrow. L thinks the accelerator is also causing the baby bugs to grow up faster than normal."
"Where's L?" Director One asked, no doubt believing that it should've been the blonde who called in since she was senior agent.
"She got grabbed by a bug. Ordered me to get word back to you," he replied, not liking that fact. "But I'm planning on going back for her. Just wanted to pass the info along to you first."
"That's a negative. You don't have the firepower or the experience to take on that many bugs by yourself," Director One said, shaking his head in the negative. "Stand guard up top and if any bugs poke their heads out of the sewer shoot them off. I'm dispatching three heavy units to your position now. Wait for them."
For a moment he considered pulling the whole 'I am sorry but I am losing the connection' but then he had a better idea.
"Aye, aye, sir," he said, trying to sound like he was only grudgingly obeying orders.
"Don't worry, kid. We'll get L back." Director One said before cutting the connection causing the screen to go blank.
"Not if I beat you to it," he said, pocketing the communicator before heading for the LTD.
While he knew that he'd be getting into trouble for this there was no way he could leave L at the mercy of the bugs. There was no way of knowing how long the woman had to live before the bugs decided to feed her to their young and he didn't like the idea of breaking in a new partner so soon after getting the last one. However he knew that the boss man would've done something to keep him in line if he announced his intention from the beginning so he'd done his best 'I am a loyal agent' act. He'd have to wait until later to find out whether or not it'd worked or not but right then he had bigger things to think about.
Popping the trunk of the LTD he took out a Tri-Barrel Plasma gun and slung it onto his back with the black strap before a single-barreled rifle deatomizer joined it there. Sliding in two more series one deatomizer pistols into his pants pockets to go with the one holstered beneath his armpit, he also grabbed what looked like a belt of some kind of sci-fi grenades. Wrapping the belt around his waist he wondered if he should grab anything else but decided not to since it'd probably only slow him down or make it easier for the bugs to snag him. Slamming the trunk of the LTD closed he made his way quickly to the manhole cover he'd popped up from and, once there, used the light on the single barreled rifle to make sure no bugs were waiting for him down in the sewers. When nothing bug-like could be seen he quickly climbed down before bringing the business end of the deatomizer rifle back to bear on the sewer tunnels in front of him.
Hang on, L. I'm on my way.
He hoped, well and truly, that the bugs thought he was long gone so that they'd leave only a token defensive force a little ways out from their main lair. If they were still searching for him they'd slow him down and that increased the odds of L being bug food, which simply could not permitted. Flicking the light on his rifle off so as not to give the enemy advance warning, he proceeded as swiftly as he could without ruining any chance of surprise. He did his best to try to keep his imagination from getting him all worked up since it'd only make him sloppy and reckless, neither being something that'd help L.
He was halfway to the big cave when he nearly ran into a bug but managed to duck into a shadowed alcove of rock and dirt before it spotted him. Holding his breath he waited for it to pass him by so that he could get closer to the main lair before starting the fireworks in earnest, but it was tough on the nerves all the same. Seconds ticked by as he listened for any sign that he'd been spotted but, when the heavy scuttling footsteps of the bug started moving away from his position reached his ears, he knew it was time to move on.
When he finally got to the cave where the main horde was, he was a little surprised to find that there was no bunch of bugs patrolling the perimeter. Even if they didn't think there'd be trouble for a little while it was common sense to make security in this spot so tight that the second he popped out of the tunnel he'd get his head chomped off. Could the bugs be THAT stupid?
Upon reviewing what he'd read about them he decided that YES they COULD.
Have to work fast! he thought as he kept low to the ground and found himself a different surveillance spot than the one that'd already been found out. Now how do I get an army of bugs to turn L over unharmed without getting me or her killed in the process?
Looking about for inspiration he tried to see if there was anything in the environment that could be used to his benefit but found mostly just the usual mish-mash of dirt, rock and rusty underground pipes that looked like they hadn't been used for years. All the other potential materials were down with the bugs, having already been used to construct a crude living space. The more he looked, the more it appeared as though his only option was to open up on the bastards, fight his way to L and then fight alongside her to get back to the surface in time to hook up with Director One's cavalry. It wasn't until he noticed four particularly large pipes stuck in the dirt walls that an idea came to him that just might work. It was crazy and had the potential to backfire completely but at the same time his only personal brand of luck seemed to prefer he live through such situations, so he'd trust in it for the time being.
Sneaking around the periphery of the bug lair, he planted two grenades from the belt he'd taken from the LTD and stuffed them into each pipe. It was a nerve-wracking process to get all four pipes rigged without getting caught, considering there were a few times some bugs scuttled on by but no alarms were raised, so it was all good. Another good thing was that, unlike normal grenades, this one came with a remote detonator rather than a rough number of seconds before blowing up. Add to that the presence of a trigger guard covering the button and he could safely put it into his pocket without worrying about accidently setting the grenades off by landing on the detonator wrong should he need to dive or fall on his back for some reason.
It'd also allow him a means of 'persuading' the bugs to let L go free.
He just needed to be convincing enough to fool them.
Alright, bombs are in place so it's time to introduce myself. He crept as far from the locations of the grenades as he could manage so as not to give away their position.
Priming his single barrel deatomizer rifle, he stood up and, as he expected, the bugs heard the whine coming from the weapon and a few even made to attack him. Deciding that he needed to show that he was not just some pushover human that they could have their way with he opened up with the weapon, splattering all that got closer than twenty feet. He kept this up until the bugs started exercising more caution in their approach and actually seemed to be trying to come up with a plan before speaking.
"Now that I have your attention, PRINCESS, let's talk a little. I know you're planning something. Some of your minions were a little too loose in the mouth and dropped some facts they shouldn't have. As we speak a MiB response team is on its way armed with enough weapons to kill you and every other bug in here. Here's the important bit, though: if you turn over Agent L there and let the two of us walk out of here I can probably convince the boss to give you and your horde a chance to leave the planet in peace. It's not the grand army you were probably hoping for when you decided to come to Earth but it's better than dying."
"Big talk, little ape. You are but one and we are many," the female bug said, not sounding worried in the least. "You and your female will be dead long before MiB gets here and we'll be long gone. Still, at least your corpses will serve as nourishment for my babies. They need to start on meat before they can move on to sweets."
"You're assuming you and your kids are going to get the chance," he said before bringing out the detonator for the bug to see. "On the off chance you actually do manage to beat me I've made sure that I'll get the last laugh by strategically placing explosives all around your new home. With the press of a button I can bring the entire roof down on all your buggy little heads. Still want to see just how far I'll go?"
He had them.
It was a timeless rule of baddies that they were, at their core, cowards who would never prove willing to sacrifice their own lives just to take one person down. 'Her Highness' would fold soon, releasing Agent L, and would then quietly surrender to be deported off the planet back to their civil war torn planet.
Not bad for my first case.