*Special thanks to Delia97, her IM brainstorming with me helped add some comedy to this tragedy. ^_^ Thanks girl!*
The Murky Water Syndrome
Part 3: Wipe Out!
One A.M., soon it would be morning. Normally the MIB found time to sleep (the night shift started) but this time they were mostly all out and about wrapping up the last of an unexpected load of alien tourists which were forced to land on Earth when an engine blew on their way to Saturn. That meant a lot of grumpy aliens who needed housing and food. Agents were scurrying all over the place. There were aliens from all across the galaxy and other regions of space on board the shuttle and now they were all crowded into the tiny HQ building. Zed---was NOT happy.
"Well then tell him that were gonna need more rooms cleaned out and ready to receive occupants, PRONTO!" Zed snapped at the communicator screen in front of him. "We need to find sixteen more rooms and get these passengers out of the middle of the main floor. No one sleeps until this problem is taken care of and we get these extraterrestrials some rooms!"
Zed looked out of his office and down to the main floor where the passengers were all huddled into the center, grumbling, tired, and unmanageable. It reminded him of flights being canceled at the airport and large numbers of families exhausted and irritated looking for room to sleep and in a panic about where their baggage had been placed.
Elle and X were pushing through the crowd and trying to hand out living assignments to the few aliens whose rooms were ready.
"I hate it when aliens act like humans." X grumbled.
Elle jabbed her heel onto the top of his foot. "I hate it when you act like a jerk!"
X strained against himself, not willing to be imprisoned for strangling his partner. No matter how annoying she was.
She fought her way through the crowd, this was bad, a crowd this big was a buffet to the watery terror that was about to be unleashed upon the MIB HQ. "Excuse me," she tapped on the shoulder of the closest agent to her, "can you tell me where to find a Dr. Yazmine?"
Agent W turned around and stared at the teal alien woman behind her, "Oh, um, she's in the lab downstairs, if you take that hall-" W pointed and then with a sigh looked around at the ever growing crowd, "-you know what, why don't I just take you there myself."
"If you think it would be faster," Yanei agreed, "there isn't a moment to lose."
"Okay," W led Yanei down the hall and towards the lab. Yanei only hoped she wasn't too late. Maybe she would be lucky. Maybe Dr. Opus would be unable to reach the MIB HQ building before she had a chance to warn Dr. Yazmine?
"OW! Watch it would you?!" Dr. Opus shouted.
"Sorry," the officer whispered, lowering the pipeline into the shaft from the emergency exit above. "Are you sure you want to go through with this. I mean, these are the MIBs were talking about here, there's no telling what they'll do to us if we're caught!"
"Oh, they'll probably just blast us with some high powered gizmo that they've got lying around, disintegrating us and launching our ashes into deep space."
"Oh, is THAT all," the officer cringed as he motioned for the doctor to cut on the water.
The water was turned on and the elevator shaft began to fill with water. "Now that's the last shaft right?" Dr. Opus called.
"Yes!" the officer called back, "What now? Some of these shafts are bound to seal off once the systems detect the water?"
"That's why we've brought so many pumps," Dr. Opus called, "First we flood the elevator shafts, then we flood the ventilation systems, and THEN we build up the pressure in the water pipes below the main level and into the lower levels causing them to burst! All but the living quarters and offices from Zed's on up will remain dry."
"Sounds like you've got water on the brain," the officer muttered.
"Just do it if you want to get paid. I want these agents and aliens swimming with the fishes in less than half an hour!"
"What if something goes wrong with your perfect little plan?" the officer questioned, he pulled himself out as the water began rising.
"Ha! I'm a genius my boy," Dr. Opus grinned, "My plans are flawless, NOTHING can go wrong!"
Kay turned towards the Twins who were babbling something from their station. "What's up?" Jay asked.
"Seems elevator shafts are being flooded on all sides of the building Slick." Kay replied calmly, "Better check it out."
"What do we do about all that water though, we open those doors and we'll get drenched, and Zed does not want to deal with flooding on top of all this mayhem right now!" Jay looked up at the office and the displeased figure of Zed that was shaking it's head at the chaos below.
"Simple, we take the stairs." Jay stared at Kay for a moment, that was a lot of climbing, "We go up to the roof, open the emergency exit hatches on top of the shafts and see what's causing the flooding."
Jay hated the thought of taking on all those flights of stairs, but given the choice between that or staying down here with a shuttle load of angry aliens, he'd take stair climbing any day.
Kay turned quickly to the Twins, "Alright guys, Jay and I are gonna go see what the problem is. I want you two to seal off the shafts and keep the HQ area from flooding."
The Twins nodded and uttered sounds of agreement as Kay and Jay rushed down the hall to the stairs. They passed Delia and R on their way. Jay snickered, he knew where Delia was headed, her little decorating attempt for the kitchenette hadn't set well with Zed.
Zed returned to his chair, he knew he wouldn't be getting any sleep that night, not unusual. Just as he popped a couple more aspirin into his mouth---in walked another headache.
"Uh Zed, you wanted to see me?" Delia entered with R lagging behind, Zed's office wasn't his favorite place to be. It seemed that every time he was in there, Zed was yelling at his partner over something. Whether it was over putting peanut butter in X's shoes or slugging Jay with a folder full of important paperwork.
This time Zed decided to be direct with her, "Agent Delia, can you tell me what Skittles are for?"
"Um…to eat and for throwing and use in Chinese Checkers when you lose the marbles!"
she replied after giving the matter some thought.
Zed stared at the agent for a second, whatever the boiling point of his blood was, he was certain that Delia had reached it. "Agent Delia, I'm only going to ask you this once, what is an entire bag's worth of Skittles doing ALL OVER THE WALL?!"
"They're sitting there---looking---cool?"
R drew back a step, Zed's face reddened and he knew his partner was in for another lecture, oh how he hated laundry duty!
Mustering up all the patience he had Zed continued, "WHY are they all over the wall? It's a wall Delia, not construction paper for some preschool art project!"
"Because it was all blank and white and BORING!" Delia insisted, "I just made it a little more colorful and interesting, that's all? Sheesh, it's not like I use M&Ms."
R snickered at this. Zed shot him a look.
"Agent Delia, if you want to use some artistic license in this building then go borrow some blank canvas from Agent W. Don't use a blank wall! It's a white wall for a reason Delia! Leave it white! If I wanted decoration I'd give V the go ahead to hang some wallpaper!"
"But-"
"No buts!" Zed snapped, "You two are going to go down there right now and remove that candy from the wall! Understand??"
"What wall?" asked Agent Delia.
R clasped a hand over Delia's mouth before she could object further. "yes sir---" he said for her.
R shuffled Delia out of the office as Zed collapsed against his desk, "Lost marbles," he mumbled, "Delia's lost HER marbles, that's for sure."
"I heard that!" a voice called from down the hall.
Zed groaned when she poked her head back into his office, "What now?!"
"It's about the candy removal thing," she muttered, "Uh, where do we keep the blow torch?"
Zed's eyes widened, what did she use to stick those things on the wall? He decided for the sake of his blood pressure that he didn't want to know, "OUT! Get out now!"
******
U and W were working on filing away some forms in an office on the lower level. "We'd have been done hours ago if you didn't have to go and do everything by the book." W hissed.
"I prefer to do it right the first time," U replied, everything seemed to be in order.
W shook her head and hopped back up onto the desk, "I left you down here thirty minutes ago while I went up top to help with the crowd, PLUS I had to show some alien how to get to the lab and you're still not done yet!"
"Some alien wanted directions to the lab?" U asked, suddenly paying attention to her.
"Yeah, said her name was Sergeant Yanei of some Hiquip planet and that she needed to speak to Dr. Yazmine right away."
U jumped up and took his partner by the arm, "What?! You didn't even know why she wanted to talk to Dr. Yazmine and you lead her down to the lab?!"
"Yeah, so?"
"SO?!" U dragged her out into the hall and over to the elevator. "We've got to get to Zed's office and find out if she had clearance to go to the lab! You know the kinds of weapons and technology that Zeeltor keeps in there! What were you thinking?!"
"I-"
"That's right, you WEREN'T thinking!" U answered for her as the elevator binged.
"Stop trying to sound like my father!" W snapped. "She seemed perfectly fine. I don't think she wanted to tamper with anything and she didn't act like a spy!"
"How long ago did you leave her?"
"About a minute or two ago." W shouted. "I took her halfway to the lab and pointed to where she needed to go, I knew I'd have to come back and drag you away from the forms before you kept us both down here all night Mr. Protocol!"
U was about to scold her some more when the elevator doors came open and they were swept away by a wall of water. "U!!!" W bubbled as she went under.
He burst up and grabbed hold of the railing by the stairs, "I think we should use these." he gulped.
"This was NOT my fault!" she spat water in his face and staggered up the stairs, struggling for balance as the water rose.
******
"Ah yes!" Dr. Opus laughed, looking at a monitor he'd brought from his office. "The lower level is flooding! Someone must've tried to use the elevator."
"Great," the officer sighed, "we've got the ventilation system flooding and the pipes are ready to burst. Now what?"
"Now---" Dr. Opus laughed, pressing a button on the remote in his other hand, "---we turn my little pets loose in their new home!"
A genetically enhanced Tiger Shark wriggled in it's net which was dangling just above a staircase on the main level of the HQ building. "But it's not flooded there yet!" the officer protested.
"It will be-" Dr. Opus sneered.
******
Yazmine and Zeeltor were working with a new blaster design, something multi-purpose but practical. It would fire ice beams, heat rays, laser blasts, and knock out gas cartridges, yet it would be small enough to be concealed within an agent's jacket and quick to power up.
"Dr. Yazmine?!" a female's voice called from the doorway.
"Yes?" Yazmine looked up as Zeeltor continued to manipulate wires within the metal casing of the gun.
"I'm Sergeant Yanei of the Hiquip Council." Yanei gasped, "I'm afraid we have a problem here that only you can solve!"
"Me? What kind of problem?" Zeeltor looked up as Yazmine suddenly grew serious.
"It's right up your ally, doctor." Yanei replied.
******
Delia and R were in the kitchenette removing Skittles from the wall, or trying to anyway.
"Urgh!" Delia groaned, "I can't believe this! Why can't Zed just leave my masterpiece like it is!"
"The blow torch isn't working." R sighed, "What did you use to stick these things up here anyways?"
"Just some crazy glue---" Delia answered, "---that I borrowed from Zeeltor."
R moaned, they'd NEVER get the candy off that wall now!
Suddenly Delia looked up, "Quit playing around R!"
"Huh? What'd I do?"
"You know what you did!" Delia shouted, "Now quit throwing water on me!"
Delia was looking up at R as she spoke and another drop of water hit her in the face.
"Hey!"
"It wasn't me!" R pointed upwards at the vent just above them. It was rather large. But the kitchenette was right in the center of that hallway so it helped regulate the airflow when the door was left open on the hot days. Now instead of cold air, cold water was trickling out!
"What the-"
Before Delia could finish her sentence a burst of water came out of the vent and sent both agents toppling backwards.
"OH NO!" a Worm cried.
"The COFFEE!!!" the other three yelped, rushing towards the coffee maker.
******
Kay and Jay were almost to the roof now, Kay still climbing stairs at full speed, Jay lagging behind, whining the whole way. Kay's communicator went off just as they had one more flight to go. "Hold it Slick." Kay motioned to his partner who happily collapsed onto a step.
"Great." Kay muttered, "The ventilation system for the lower and main levels have been flooded too. Seal it off guys."
Jay looked over at an air vent, "At least the water isn't building up far enough to reach beyond the main level."
"That's one thing to be grateful for Slick," Kay sighed, "But we've still got some elevator shaft flooding to look into."
The sound of equipment moving around on the roof made Kay grow silent, Jay did the same. It sounded like something was being lowered down into an elevator shaft, but what?
"Better have a look," Kay said, he tried to open the door to the roof but it wouldn't budge, "It's been welded shut!"
"Tough break." Jay shrugged. "Whatever's being lowered down isn't gonna be on the roof anyways."
Kay turned to Jay and nodded, "You're right Slick, let's get down to the main level and see what's in the shaft."
Jay groaned, he had a bad feeling about this!
******
"You mean to tell me that those 'things' are replications of the monstrosities that were created by the original team of researches on Inglebarel?!" Yazmine gasped once Yanei had finished explaining about the sharks and their purpose.
"I'm afraid so, but you must understand, the Council entered into this agreement with the best of intentions. No one on this planet was ever meant to be hurt!"
"The worst experiments ever performed in the universe were done with the best intentions!" Yazmine spat, she couldn't believe that she was going to have to go through all this madness again, for the THIRD time!
"Fascinating!" Zeeltor commented cheerfully, earning him glares from both women.
"You were the one who saved the researches, on both occasions, and I've heard of a shark wrangler who accompanied you, perhaps she can-"
"NO!" Yazmine shouted, "I'm not dragging Laurel into this, not again!"
"Laurel?" Zeeltor puzzled for a moment and walked over to a computer.
"But you must understand, the building is being flooded and with these things loose, it's suicide to get into the water!"
"I don't care, I almost lost her fifteen years ago to ignorant researchers that tampered with nature and then again nine years ago when more researchers who claimed to have learned from past mistakes tried to do the same lame brained experiment again! I won't put her in danger a third time!" Yazmine leaned against the counter, "It's like you said, it's suicide to get into the water, I can't let her go swimming with those killing machines."
"Laurel Weaver? Agent Elle?" Zeeltor asked, turning away from the screen.
"Yes." Yazmine nodded, "I used to take her on field studies and let her perform experiments and research with me while I was off and abroad all throughout space gaining an expertise in predatory animals and natural destructive phenomenon."
"And she's the shark wrangler?" he asked Yanei.
"Nine years ago she was, it was a 'summer job' I believe, she was notified of the repeat incident and returned to Inglebarel to help kill off the dangerous sharks." Yanei continued to explain the incident as water silently crept down the hall, leaking from various air ducts and the stairwell.
"I'm very sorry that all this is happening again." Yanei apologized, "But please understand how desperate my people are, our enemies are persisted, we felt that this drastic coarse of action was our only hope!"
"HOW did you find out the genetic testing information necessary to recreate the effects that were part of the behavior of the previous sharks?!" Yazmine demanded.
"Does the name Dr. Opus ring a bell?" Yanei asked.
"Opus?" Yazmine gasped, "That crackpot?! I can't believe he sold out!"
"Dr. Opus?" Zeeltor questioned.
"He was one of the researchers on the original team." Yazmine explained.
"Ah."
"Your knowledge and the shark wranglers skills may be the only chance the agents and aliens in this building have for survival." Yanei insisted, "If I'd only realized sooner exactly what the Council and I had done-"
"Oh I'll tell you what you've all done!" Yazmine snapped, "You've taken one of the deadliest experiments of all time and unleashed it on a building full of innocent and unsuspecting people. What you've done, Sergeant Yanei, is sealed all our fates for a war that could've been resolved peacefully! But instead of giving the MIB negotiators a chance to resolve the conflict your Council has decided to go behind our backs , violate several scientific guidelines, and play God with nature! We're all going to die because of your idiocy!"
Yanei and Zeeltor were speechless, things did look bad. Time passed and the three aliens stood there with nothing more to say. Zeeltor looked up a while later, "What's that sound?"
Yazmine and Yanei heard the strange noise too. "It sounds like---rushing-"
"WATER!" Yanei shouted as the room started to flood as a wave crashed through the door.
"Get out of the water!" Yazmine shouted.
Everyone climbed up onto the counters, Zeeltor grabbed Lucy's dish.
"Blitz!" Yazmine called as the alien firefly rushed over to her. "This is the one nightmare of my life that I'd hoped never to relive," she turned to Yanei and jeered, "Thank you so much for making me relive it a THIRD time!"
Zeeltor seemed strangely delighted by it all, "Oh excellent!" he exclaimed. "This will give me a chance to test out my new experimental diving gear!"
"What?" Yanei asked, looking at Yazmine, "Don't ask."
"Here we go." Zeeltor said, handing wetsuits to the two women from the top shelf of one of his holding cabinets. "One for each of you, one size fits all!"
Yazmine pulled on her wetsuit and looked out onto the murky water that filled the once bone dry lab, "This is just how it started the last two times." she whispered, "And you know what they say-"
"Third time's the charm!" Zeeltor replied happily.
"I don't think pessimism will help Dr. Yazmine." Yanei spoke, pulling up the zipper to her wetsuit.
"Just wait until you see those things rip through steel doors and laser proof glass walls," Yazmine spat, "then tell me to be optimistic!"
"Maybe I should go first and make sure it's all clear?" Zeeltor offered.
Before Yazmine could stop him, he placed the fish bowel shaped helmet on his head and dove into the water. It was only a few feet deep and Yazmine's screams fell on deaf ears as Zeeltor waded out of the lab and down the hall…a move he would later regret.
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