The Murky Water Syndrome
Part 10: Four Down, One to Go
"Nice entrance," Delia laughed, happy that Zeeltor seemed to be back to his overly perky self again. He'd given her a scare there when he'd drifted off into some kinda alien version of heartbreak city.
Yazmine wiped the water from her eyes, "Almost didn't make it back, swimming isn't as easy as they make it look on television or in the Olympics here on Earth."
"So you can swim now?" Jay asked.
"Nope," Yazmine laughed, "but I can scramble to the surface after being thrown off by a shark, provided the water is less than five feet deep."
Jay laughed, "It's a start."
Val elbowed him, but not nearly as hard as usual.
"I'm just glad you're safe," Zeeltor grinned widely.
"Looks like the good doctor has the hots for his assistant," Val murmured to Jay.
"Yeah, guess they'll be doing a little experimenting in the lab once it's dry again." he snickered.
X and R could hear their muttering due to their large ears. R smiled and shook his head, X felt ready to lose his dinner. Then he remembered something…ELLE!
He looked over to the place where he had laid his injured partner down, she wasn't there. For once, X started to panic---and all over Elle. "Where is she?!" he demanded of everyone within earshot.
"Who?" Jay asked stupidly.
"WHO?!" X snapped, "MY PARTNER! AGENT ELLE!"
Jay backed up a step and Val stepped between him and the eccentric alien to prevent a fight that would ultimately result in Jay getting his head bashed in. "Cool it you two, this won't help us find Elle."
"And we've still got another shark to contend with," Yanei reminded them.
The timing couldn't have been better, behind Val and Jay the Great White burst fourth. The two agents screamed and dove under the water.
"SWIM!" R cried.
"I doubt they were gonna jog!" Delia called as she yanked him up onto a counter top.
Beneath the surface Val and Jay quickly pulled on their masks. The Great White lunged for Jay, this was what Val had been waiting for, a chance to shine! With lightening fast reflexes she mimicked a move that she had seen Elle use many times before when dealing with sharks. Grabbing the tail, waiting for the shark to whip around, and then pulling herself on top before it could attack.
Jay was dumbfounded, watching Val try something that crazy made his stomach churn.
Val was holding on for dear life. She couldn't understand why in the world Elle would ever want to do this for a living, sure it was exciting but it was also insane!
"JAY?!" Val shrieked when she didn't see the agent anywhere around, "Get back here and stab this thing!"
It felt like whole minutes were flying by with no sign of Jay. Then Val spotted something that made her heart sink, Jay's dart, just lying there on the flooded main floor. "JAY?!"
Val was scared to death. Had the shark grabbed Jay while she was busy using wrangling tactics? No, there would be blood in the water, wouldn't there? Unless---unless Jay had been swallowed whole. The shark certainly seemed large enough for that.
A flood of conflicting emotions rushed through Val's mind---and heart. Her body ached and her chest felt like someone was pounding on it. 'Stupid Jay!' a voice cried out inside her, 'Why'd he have to go and get himself killed?!'
Tears trickled down her cheeks from behind her mask. 'I can't believe he's gone. And I was such a jerk to him! I can't believe I lost him to a STUPID SHARK!'
With that final thought she swung her fist around and brought it up against the shark's head. It slammed against it's eye. The Great White became disoriented, thrashing around. Why let this murderer off easy with a simple little dart? Especially when it had taken Jay away from her before she got to tell him how much she---
"Val?"
Val turned her head, searching for the person that had called to her. "Jay?"
'Don't lose your focus!' a third individual thought frantically as she watched the creature throw off Val and swim for Jay. 'Amateurs.' Elle shook her head and took the dart in her hand.
"JAY?!" Val couldn't believe this, she was going to lose him…AGAIN!
"Oh man! I should've stayed under that desk!" Jay thought aloud.
"YOU WERE GONNA ABANDON ME WITH THIS THING?!" Val shrieked.
'Uh-oh,' Jay thought, "What was I supposed to do? I dropped my dart!"
Val considered swimming past the shark and ripping Jay apart herself, but she decided he really wasn't worth the trouble. She must have been tripping or something when she got all choked up over the thought of him getting eaten.
"VAL?!" Jay screamed as the sharks jaws spread apart.
She thought about leaving him there, he certainly deserved it. But even Val had a limit to her grudges. She started to swim to Jay's rescue and then noticed another figure approaching from behind him. It was Elle. Now Val could have some fun giving Jay a little payback.
"Sorry Jay, I---can't---hear---you. You-you're…breaking up!"
Jay's eyes grew large. He was close enough to smell the shark's breath. Not something he'd always wanted to do. He did notice something odd. A small golden watch stuck between it's front teeth. It looked like something a ritzy high school girl would wear.
Elle was close enough to the shark to make a move now. She took a metal desk lamp out from behind her back and shoved it in between it's jaws. The creature tried to clamp down but found it impossible.
"Let's get outta here!" Jay screamed as the metal lamp started to bend.
"ELLE?!" X was screaming, wondering where in the world his little human had gotten to. He had only left her for a second, what if---NO! she was safe, that shark couldn't have caught her off guard, Elle was supposed to be an expert.
Kay was diving below the surface, trying to spot the three agents through the murky water. "No luck." he spoke after resurfacing again.
"She's out there somewhere with that killing machine!" Yazmine cried, struggling against Zeeltor who was holding her back. "I've got to go in after her before she gets herself killed!"
"Experiment 562 is the same shark that killed the young girl that was swimming in the tank." Yanei sighed, "If the wrangler's down there, I'm afraid she's probably just it's second meal."
X stormed over to the woman, intent on causing her severe bodily harm for that comment. "Whoa Cos!" R shouted, jumping in front of Yanei. "What happened to looking for Elle?"
"There she is!" Delia called, pointing over to the water where Elle, Jay, and Val had surfaced.
"The shark's a little busy for the moment," Val coughed. "Elle shoved a lamp in his mouth!"
"Way to go Elle," Delia laughed, imaging a huge shark with a desk lamp between his jaws, it seemed almost comical, like in a cartoon.
Suddenly there was loud splashing behind the agents. Jay glanced over his shoulder and noticed the tall dorsal fin heading towards them, "AHH! I think we made it mad!"
"Good." Elle muttered. X was rushing towards her, no way she could swim fast enough to get away from that thing with broken ribs.
"Get out of the water!" Yazmine yelled. Everyone climbed up onto something. Everyone except Elle and X.
Yanei watched, their only hope was to dive under and swim for their lives. Even that was a faint hope. She thought back to the experimenting the Council had allowed Dr. Opus to do on the sharks. The agents would never be in danger if her people had just trusted the MIB to help them. Now it was her turn to help the agents.
Underneath the surface of the water Elle and X had dove under trying to avoid becoming the shark's next meal. X had his arm around Elle's waist again. She couldn't understand why in the world he was being so overprotective. Trying to save her neck, or his (providing that Zed should blame him if anything happened to her).
"X let go! I know what I'm doing!" Elle screamed.
"No way Little Ears!" X replied sternly, "You think I want to get my ears pulled off when R tells my mother about how I just let you get attacked?!"
They continued to argue as they swam, X dragging Elle along as she went off about what an idiot he was. "All I need is a distraction and I can get this dart in that thing's jaw!"
"A distraction? You mean like what? Getting KILLED??"
Yazmine was fighting Zeeltor, begging him to let her protect her friend. Zeeltor hated to see Yazmine this way but he couldn't in good conscience let her go out there. "It's too dangerous," he insisted, "Agent X is down there, he'll protect her."
Kay, Jay, and Val watched the shark gain on the partners as they drew closer to the counters. "They're not gonna make it." Val whispered.
Jay put an arm around her, "It's okay Val."
"How is it okay?!" Val demanded, glaring at him.
"Uh---it's gonna be okay." he stuttered.
A splash off to the side got everyone's attention. Yanei had disappeared. "Oh great," R groaned, "like we didn't have enough to deal with!"
Elle and X spotted the third figure in the water. "What are you doing?" Elle asked.
"I could ask you the same thing." Yanei replied.
"What does it look like we're doing?!" X grumbled, jerking his head back towards the shark behind them.
"Well, as long as you're down here, can you give us a hand?"
Yanei nodded, "What should I do?"
"I need you to distract the shark." Elle answered, X didn't like where this was going.
Yanei reached for the holster she had put on over her wetsuit, there her laser cutter hang at her side. She pulled it out, set it on a thin and slightly deep cut, and then raked it across her body. A clean cut was made from the bottom right corner of her neck to the top left corner of her neck. Blood gushed fourth.
Kay turned looked into the murky water as a bit of dark blue appeared at the surface, "What's she doing?" he puzzled aloud.
Yazmine turned, her eyes widened. "She wouldn't…"
"What?" Jay inquired, staring at the alien, she seemed to be in a trance, staring at the large shark.
"Agent Jay," Zeeltor gasped, "blood attracts sharks, it drives them into a frenzy."
"So in other words," Jay interpreted, "that's suicide!"
Zeeltor and Yazmine nodded together.
The blood surrounded Yanei as she struggled to keep her place in the water. "Let's hope Earth sharks are attracted to alien blood too."
"Speak for yourself," X muttered.
"You can let me go now," Elle sneered as the shark noticed the bloody alien in the water and changed it's coarse towards her.
X didn't really know what to do, let his partner go so that she could swim off to her death and possibly save the MIB, or hold on to the little human and drag her kicking and screaming to safety, most likely costing hundreds of lives in the process. It was at times like these that he really missed his old job as a peacekeeper.
A few choice words raced through Yanei's mind as the creature swam up, jaws opened wide. 'Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.'
"This won't be pretty!" Jay gasped, blocking Val's view with both his hands.
The shark's head jerked to the side just as it got to Yanei. "Huh?"
It continued to whip it's head back and fourth, what was it doing? Then Yanei noticed something, a small dart in it's jaw. But there was something different about this dart, it was glowing yellow.
Yanei felt someone grab her arm and pull her back. It was Agent Elle. X was swimming up right behind her. "We've got to get out of here!" Elle informed them.
Everyone above the water's surface was staring silently at the shark, it wasn't thrashing around like the other's had done. What had gone wrong?
"Do you suppose this one's immune to the poison?" Zeeltor inquired.
"I doubt it." Yazmine replied.
The shark suddenly stopped moving altogether. A deafening silence followed.
Agents and aliens began to lean in closer, looking at the skin of the shark. Odd, it seemed, porous, and the openings were growing larger. Like something out of a late night science fiction movie the shark was deteriorating from the inside out. "Gross." Val gagged.
"It's like some kinda flesh eating bacteria." Delia remarked, turning her nose up as the shark wriggled slightly, it's insides leaking out. "That does it, no more cheeseburgers from this cafeteria for a month! Well---maybe a week."
The shark grew weak, despite the sickening poison eating away at it's body, the creature was still alive.
"When did you slip a poison like THAT into the darts?" Zeeltor questioned Yazmine.
"I didn't." she replied. "Elle must have. This way there'll be no DNA left for someone else to use to repeat this experiment, and with Dr. Opus in custody, we did apprehend him didn't we?"
"That's what U and W were sent to do." Kay responded.
"Kay?" a voice called.
"Right here."
"I assume that that was the last shark?" Zed's voice asked.
Kay glanced up at the office, Zed was standing there with a communicator and had somehow linked to the frequency of the diving masks. "Yes."
"Good, I'm sending the boys up to retrieve the two aliens W and U caught up on the roof."
Kay nodded.
Val and Jay were watching the disgusting sight with a strange fascination, like a passing driver gawking at train wreck. "Val? Jay?"
"Here." they both muttered absently.
"You two okay?"
The two agents nodded. "Had enough excitement for one day?" Zed laughed looking down at Val's shocked face. She nodded again, her face resembled that of someone who had just been neuralyzed.
"What about you two?" Zed asked a stunned Yazmine and Zeeltor.
"We're good." Yazmine replied, not even looking at Zeeltor.
"Everyone seems to be peachy keen!" Zeeltor finally answered cheerily.
"That's nice." Zed looked around below, his eyes skimming the water for the three other volunteers. "R? Delia? How are you two holding up?"
"Okay," R peered out, wondering when his cousin and his little partner would surface.
Delia glared up at the office, "Oh this was FUN! I haven't had this much fun since Zeeltor jammed chips into my brain! We should do this every day! HEY!!! We could call it 'FISH FOOD FRIDAYS'!"
"I'll take it into consideration," Zed sighed, looking out at the murky water. Where were those three? "Elle? X? Sergeant Yanei?"
The agents and aliens in Zed's office were cheering as the shark was finally reduced to an indistinguishable mass of blood and guts. The poison would have it completely decomposed to nothing by the time the sun had risen.
Agents were sent out to retrieve the prisoners while Zed continued to call the names of the three volunteers. "Elle? X? Sergeant Yanei?"
One by one, the agents and aliens in the office stopped cheering. "ELLE?!"
One agent was tapped on the shoulder, "What? We won!"
"We've got two agents missing in action." the other agent explained.
"Oh---no."
"X?!"
Down below, Kay dove into the water. R and Delia and already jumped in to search for their friends (and in R's case, cousin).
"I can't believe we came through all this, just to lose them now." Val mumbled before defiantly jumping into the water.
"Third time's the charm." Yazmine sighed.
"SERGEANT YANEI??!"
Jay was in the water now. Everyone was. Even the other agents and aliens that had been unwilling to budge from their safe hiding places earlier.
"WHERE ARE YOU THREE?!"
"I don't think they're coming up Z-Man." Jay said sadly. Poor Elle, she'd been a good friend and a fellow agent, Yanei'd made one heck of a mistake by hiring that wacko to mutate sharks but at least she'd owned up to it. Heck, he was even going to miss that pointy eared human bashing alien, Agent---
"AAAHHH!!!!!"
SPLASH!
X looked down at the annoying human flopping around in the three feet deep water which was rapidly being drained by some agents Zed had sent to install the drainage system.
"Pathetic." he muttered.
"WHOA MAN!" Jay choked out upon regaining his balance. "WHERE'D YOU COME FROM?"
X just rolled his eyes, humans could be so stupid sometimes. It was a wonder they weren't all wiped out eons ago!
"OW!" A familiar female voice complained from behind X.
"Little Ears still hasn't realized how idiotic it is to swim around with broken ribs," X laughed, "She'll never learn."
Elle glared at X, "Oh VERY FUNNY!"
"Hey," X continued laughing, putting his hands up in defense, "if it wasn't for me you'd have been food for that shark."
"It was dying you moron!"
"And you would've been it's last meal!"
"Nice to see you two are alright." Zed chuckled.
The cheering started again.
Yanei had surfaced while the two agents were arguing, she glanced around and her gaze settled on Yazmine. She looked sourly at the alien sergeant for a moment before sighing and allowing her features to soften. "I'm glad you're okay. Now maybe you'll understand what I mean by it's foolish to tamper with nature?"
"I think we've all learned a lesson." Yanei agreed. Extending her hand and then waving it around the room.
Yazmine looked, Yanei's hand passed before several high ranking aliens of various species from all over the universe. If they'd relay what they saw to the governments of their home planets then surely this incident would never be repeated again. There would be no fourth time. Finally, the nightmare was over.
"You okay down there Sergeant?" Zed asked, "Wouldn't want to have Lyndon on my case after a mess like this."
"I'm just fine Sir." Yanei replied, glad that Yazmine didn't seem eager to wring her neck after all this.
"Great, now I'd like everyone to report to my office pronto." Zed disconnected and then turned to the crowd of aliens and agents standing all around him, "And as for all of you---OUT, NOW!"
******
The last of the agents were scurrying out of the room, closing the door behind them, as Zed sighed and sat down at his desk.
The door flew open and a drenched Agent Delia stormed in. "Hello there ZED! Sir, can I see your wallet for a second? I need to GO SHOPPING TO REPLACE MY WARDROBE."
Zed sighed and stared up at the agent as the other volunteers walked in and took seats.
Delia pulled on her stained white shirt. "SHARK BLOOD does NOT wash out!"
"Agent Delia--"
"…and WHILE I am at it--- all us ladies are going to get our hair done BECAUSE all this gross water IS NOT GOOD for hair!"
X rolled his eyes again, while R and Jay chuckled. It wasn't often that they got to witness Zed getting chewed out.
Looking sternly at the agent Zed simply stated, "No."
With almost any other agent the matter would've been resolved, but this was no ordinary agent. THIS was AGENT DELIA.
Calmly Delia removed her black jacket, taking it firmly in her hands she held it out over Zed's desk and started wringing it out. Shark blood and water ran all over his paper work.
Zed raised an eyebrow, "I suppose I had that coming."
Kay grinned. Jay bit his tongue to hold back laughter. Val chuckled openly.
"I'll see if Agent V is free for some last minute appointments." Zed compromised.
"That's better." Delia smiled and took a seat.
"I wanted to congratulate you all on a job well done." Zed continued. "Dr. Opus has been captured and is currently awaiting his trial in the Zubzang Galaxy. I hear they're pretty harsh sentencers there."
"What about the Council?" Yanei inquired.
"Turns out the MIB negotiators solved the crisis earlier, just before Dr. Opus left the aquarium with the sharks. Of course, you know there will be consequences for all the trouble caused here?"
Yanei nodded, "The Council will make amends by any way you deem necessary."
"Good to hear. Oh and Elle," Zed turned to the shark wrangler who was clutching her side, "I want you to get down to the lab with Zeeltor and Yazmine just as soon as the agents finish draining the base floor."
Elle looked up, squinting in pain, "No problem."
Zed took a final look around at the heroic agents and aliens before him, "Once again, great job, you're dismissed."
The agents started to head out of the room, Elle stayed in her seat. X turned when he didn't notice her heading for the exit. "Great," he grumbled, "where would you weak little humans be without us aliens to do everything for you?"
Elle turned to snap at him but was cut off when he bent down and scooped her up, "Let's move it Little Ears, haven't got all day. Hope you need lots of shots!" X chuckled.
******
An hour later, the sun was up, the Great White was nothing more but a suppressed memory, and the agents were all back in their living quarters, drying off and preparing for yet another long 37 hour day.
Agent Delia waited around in Zed's office, he had gone down to the kitchenette to discuss the disappearance of about six cans of his premium coffee during the flood with his prime suspects---the Worms. She was intent on finding out when Agent V would be able to fix her hair. It was a mess! All frizzy and---what did this button do?
Delia's curiosity got the better of her again as she walked over to a small clear, square shaped button that was on the side of one of Zed's walls. With a shrug, and a quick look around, she pressed it.
Instantly sprinklers popped out of hidden panels on the ceiling of Zed's office, water was sprayed down at a surprisingly fast rate.
"Oh crap!" Delia cried, pushing the button harder, maybe that would turn off the water. "My hair is going to be ruined beyond repair now!"
Then she noticed the door, someone was at the door! It was being shoved opened and Zed could be heard mumbling something out in the hall. Delia quickly dashed over and shoved the door shut before Zed could get a foot in.
"What the--" Zed stood puzzled, he pressed against the door, it didn't budge, 'locked'. "Who's in there?"
Delia panicked and called out the first name to pop into her head, "Uh---AGENT X!"
Zed groaned, he was NOT in the mood for this, "I should've know. AGENT DELIA, OPEN THIS DOOR RIGHT NOW!"
Delia looked at the room that was rapidly filling up with water, she had a sneaky suspicion that Zeeltor had designed those sprinklers. She was up to her knees in water now, oh was she ever IN DEEP!
"AGENT DELIA!"
'He doesn't sound happy,' Delia winced.
"Um, coming!"
"NOW!"
Zed tapped his foot on the floor, the door swung open and water knocked him off balance, sending him crashing against the opposite wall. "AGENT DELIA!!!!"
Delia was sprawled out on the floor at his feet, she moaned and shook her head. "Ohh, surf's up." Then she noticed Zed and his blood red face, 'Uh-oh.' She jumped to her feet and fled down the hall, "Sorry Sir can't talk now, got paperwork to do!"
Zed's face slowly returned to its normal color. He got up, wrung out his tie, and headed into his office. The fish from his aquarium were flopping around on the floor. After catching each one and tossing them back into the tank he went to his desk he calmly picked up the phone. With a collected voice he said, "We're going to need a floor buffer in my office," then hung up.
________________________________________________________________________
In case you were wondering---that's THE END!
