The Murky Water Syndrome
Part 6: Submerged in Terror!
Eerie noises filled the winding corridors as the MIB snaked their way down towards the lab. One might think that it was the thought of 9,000 pound sharks swimming around in the water that scared them, or perhaps the fact that they would soon be up to their necks in murky salt water, but no---none of these things caused even the slightest tremor of fear amongst the brave volunteers. What did scare them though, was the fact that they were being led by that cheerful mad scientist Zeeltor!
Upon approaching the steps Yazmine shied back as well as X, who recalled the tiger shark from before.
"Alrighty, here's where it's important to hold you breath," Zeeltor announced. Turning to Yazmine he noticed that her coloring was awfully pale, "Are you alright? Maybe you should wait for us here."
"I'll stay with her." Jay offered. He looked at Val who seemed ready and willing to dive in, "And maybe Val should stay here too, just in case?"
"Okey dokey," Zeeltor agreed, "so I guess it's off to the lab with the rest of us!"
Kay, Elle, X, and Yanei followed him into the water after drawing in a deep breath. R was almost ready to dive in when something tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around a little shakily, expecting a shark but coming face to face with…
"HI PARTNER!"
"AAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
…Agent Delia.
"What on Earth?" Yazmine spun around and was knocked over by R who came stumbling backwards.
SPLASH!
"What are you doing here?" Jay asked as Delia snickered, "You almost got ate the last time."
"I know, but I'd rather risk becoming seafood than stand in that jammed office another minute with all those sweaty agents. Besides-"
R got to his feet and helped Yazmine up, Delia slapped his back heartily, knocking him head first into the water again.
"-couldn't let my partner go trudging around in shark infested waters without me!"
R came back up, spitting out the salty water while Jay laughed. Yazmine was not amused, "Careful agents, too much splashing will attract the sharks."
Jay gulped and Val sighed, "Don't know why I let myself get talked into staying up here anyways. With my luck, we probably won't see hide nor hair of a dorsal fin."
"Good," Jay muttered and crept closer to her.
"So, ya going for a swim?" Delia inquired once her partner had staggered to his feet again.
"Uh---maybe." R didn't want Delia going, if she got killed he'd never forgive himself!
"Cool, I guess that means I'm going too."
"Um, wouldn't you rather stay here with Yazmine and-"
"Nope," She had no desire to be around when Val got bored and started pounding Jay for making her miss all the fun. Delia waked over to the stairwell and dove under, "Last one to the lab's a rotten Tugloosac!"
"Delia!" R quickly swam after her.
In all the excitement none of the volunteers were facing the large terror that was slowly swimming down the hall.
******
In the lab the only place to surface for air was way up at the ceiling where the electrical wires and light fixtures were dangling. It wasn't a short swim for anyone. But humans need air and so do most aliens so that was the first place the volunteers went when they finally reached the lab.
"Remind me to find the architect for this building and HURT HIM!" Elle coughed once she surfaced after X and Zeeltor.
"Leave it to a human to put a lab entrance WAY down at the other end of a hall," X murmured.
Zeeltor didn't seem a bit phased by any of this, "Got your lungs all filled up with air yet agents? Make sure they're filled up tippy top before you dive under again, never know when you'll get your next breath…if you ever do that is."
The cheerful laugh that followed this seriously disturbed Elle and X, they would've backed away a bit but Kay and Yanei surfaced, gasping for air.
"Ready to get the wetsuits now?" Zeeltor asked Kay after he'd had a moment to catch his breath.
"Let's go." he agreed and ducked back down beneath the water.
Yanei followed, then X. Elle stayed where she was. Something over in the shadows just a few yards away had moved.
She waited patiently and her suspicions were confirmed when she saw the tip of a dorsal fin slowly raise out of the water. Then she noticed something, it was headed straight for her! "Oh no."
The creature drew nearer, Elle assumed the position for flipping herself onto its back. Just before the creature got to her she noticed something else, something strange. It's mouth wasn't open, that meant, she wasn't it's target!
The shark brushed past her and it's fin disappeared beneath the water.
"NO!" Elle ducked under, she had to stop that shark before it was too late!
Under the water Zeeltor had just finished handing out the wetsuits and Kay and X had worked their way into theirs. X looked up and noticed something approaching from behind Kay at an incredibly fast rate. He doubted Elle could swim that fast, and he knew that she wasn't that large. "SHARK!" his bubbled cry came.
Kay turned, dart in hand, the giant blue shark had it's jaws spread wide open and prepared to chomp down on his MIB feast. Kay held the dart out and jabbed it's upper jaw with the dart. It stuck there and the poison was visibly leaking out into it's bloodstream. One problem, the shark was still coming at Kay!
X grabbed his shoulders and pulled him back, he needed air! That scream had taken all of his supply.
Things went blurry and he knew he couldn't hold his breath any longer. Just as his eyes drifted shut and a few tiny air bubbles escaped his lips a mask was pulled down over his face from behind. X's eyes fluttered open, he looked back, "Zeeltor?"
Zeeltor was already wearing his mask and gave the revived agent a hearty thumbs up.
X shook his head and turned back to Kay, whose shoulders he was still clutching tightly. The shark had picked a new target---Yanei.
The alien swam around the lab, desperately trying to escape the killer fish. She finally found herself in a corner. Elle spotted the shark and grabbed hold of it's dorsal fin. Instead of going into a death role, the shark turned and rammed it's back against the wall. Yanei watched helplessly as Elle was banged between the wall and the shark.
Her only hope was for that poison to kick in and fast!
Luckily the poison took effect, the shark grew dazed and then---to everyone's horror---started to violently thrash around. Elle was receiving blows to her left side that were sure to have shattered the fragile human's bones. After about ten seconds, that felt like ten minutes, the shark grew limp and turned over, belly side up.
X swam over to Elle as she drifted, lifelessly down into the shadows. Kay and Zeeltor could only watch.
Delia and R swam into the lab and up towards the ceiling.
"Whoa! What a swim!" Delia gasped.
R surfaced a little ways away and screamed. "AAAAHHH!!!!! What the heck?!"
"Huh?" Delia turned to see what her partner had found to yell about now and screamed when she saw the belly of a shark sticking up out of the water.
"It's dead." Zeeltor assured them when he surfaced. "And I'm afraid that they may be the case with Agent Elle."
Delia and R exchanged shocked looks, "What?!" they asked in unison.
"Agent Elle suffered some severe bruising down there when the blue shark's systems ceased to function." Zeeltor explained, a little less cheerily than usual.
Down below Kay and Yanei were staring into the shadows. Kay looked a little shaken, for once. Yanei narrowed her eyes as something came into view. "There they are!" she spoke into her mask, equipped with a radio for communications.
X swam upwards past the two volunteers and surfaced with Elle in his arms.
"ELLE!" Delia shouted, R held her back, it was best to give the little human some room now.
"She's not breathing!" X exclaimed in a panicky tone, through his mask.
"You'll have to give her CPR," Zeeltor responded.
"You mean you want me to put my lips on a humans?!" X gasped.
"Well-" Zeeltor sighed, swimming a bit closer, "I suppose I could do it."
X's eyes grew wide. "NO! She's MY partner so I'll do it!"
His voice had almost a threatening tone as he spoke to Zeeltor, R wanted to laugh but knew this wasn't the time or the place. He'd never seen his cousin so protective of anyone.
X tilted Elle's head back a bit, leaning her against a metal rafter, he really wished he didn't have to do this with his cousin and Elle's demon clone watching. This was going to be SO embarrassing!
Reluctantly he brought his lips to hers. Pinching her nose shut and holding her against the rafter with his free hand. Leaning in, he blew gently into her mouth.
"You'll have to blow a bit harder than that Agent X." Zeeltor instructed.
"Fine," X muttered, his lips still pressed firmly against Elle's, he didn't want to over do it and kill his own partner. He continued to grumble a bit before blowing in, harder but not too hard, into Elle's mouth.
This caused her chest to rise, X looked sideways at Zeeltor, he seemed pleased. Good, that meant that he was doing this right. Taking his lips off Elle's he brought both his hands to her chest, having to lean his body firmly against hers to keep her from sinking into the water.
Kay and Yanei had surfaced and were watching the procedure. Kay in awe of how X could ridicule Elle every second of the day and then turn around and press his lips that tightly against hers, not to mention the way he was holding her against the rafter, now there was a position he was sure Elle didn't want to wake up to!
After a few more breaths and compressions Elle's eyes slide open and she looked up dazedly at her partner. Her vision was blurred and she couldn't make out anything but a big green blob at first. Something warm was pressed against her lips…
The image before her finally became clearer and her beady eyes tripled in size. "X?!!" she muttered through his lips.
He felt her breath against his face and leaned back quickly, "Elle?! You're okay!"
"What do you think you're doing?!" she snapped, "Don't ever kiss me---" she looked around upon hearing the sound of sniggering all around, "---in front of everyone?!"
Delia smiled and cracked a joke, "Talk about being desperate for a man!"
Elle's face reddened.
"X was just giving you CPR Elle," Kay explained, it'd be a shame to see Elle kill X over something that wasn't human bashing or prank related, "that shark gave you a serious beating down there."
Elle pushed herself away from X and started to swim past the dead shark, "Stupid fish, let's get back up to Yazmine and the other's before another one of these sharks shows up and- OOOWWW!!!!!" she grabbed the left side of her chest and latched onto a wire in pain.
X swam over to her and held her up, "Oh dear," Zeeltor muttered, "I'm afraid that you might have some broken ribs. No surprise with the licking you took from that shark. We'd better get you back up to Zed's office."
"What? No!" Elle objected, her arms around X's neck for support, "I'm the shark wrangler that helped bring these things down the first time, remember? I need to stay down here and help you take 'em out!"
"I'm afraid I have to agree with Zeeltor on this one Elle," Kay insisted, "Can't have you swimming around down here with broken ribs, it's just too risky."
"But-" Elle started to argue.
"Here," Kay handed X a wetsuit for Elle and another dart, "take this and head back for Zed's office with Elle."
"HEY!" Elle didn't like being treated like she wasn't even there.
"Come on Little Ears, deep breath." X chuckled, ignoring Elle's protests and allowing her only a moment to take a breath before submerging her in the water.
Kay turned to the others. "Now that we've all got our suits we'll split up and hunt down those sharks."
"Alright," R exclaimed, "one down, four to go!"
Delia rolled her eyes, "What say we use Mr. Heroics here for live bait?"
"Zeeltor and Yazmine can check the sectors on the far side of the main level while Yanei and Val cover the side near the main floor. R and Delia can swim over to the far side of this base level and check the elevator shafts while I go get Slick and make sure there aren't any more sharks lurking around this area." Kay instructed. The others nodded and dove under. The plan was in motion…but so were the sharks!
******
X swam for the stairwell, not an easy feat with Elle struggling against him the whole way, he wasn't a strong enough swimmer to keep this up much longer. He sighed with relief when he spotted the backup lights for the stairwell.
He surfaced with Elle, both gasping for breath. After a moment though, they both grew silent. Something was wrong, where were the others?! Elle's scream got X's attention. "Not in my ear!" he hissed at her.
Elle glared at him then pointed to the bloody water surrounding them. With wide and terror filled eyes both agents began to cry out for the volunteers that they now regretted leaving behind…
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