The Loch Ness Syndrome: Zed's Fishing Trip

Part 4: Landing at the Loch

The flight was about to end and the stewardess was making a last run up the isle to see if anyone else, besides that annoying man in black that had been harassing her the whole flight, needed any refreshments, snacks, pillows, or reading material.

She pushed her cart down towards the agents and groaned when she noticed that the annoying passenger had switched seats with the other suit wearing gentleman beside him. Oh well, maybe he'd complain less about being cramped up this way?

Delia glanced over at the cart as the stewardess paused to ask Kay (completely overlooking Jay) if he wanted anything. She noticed that this cart had one of those soda dispensers that rolls another can into place once you take one. Hmmm….

R had been staring out the window, Zed reclining so far back he was in his lap once again. Honestly! Sometimes he thought that cute partner of his was out to kill him!

He didn't notice the faint sounds of clanging as the sodas kept rolling forth in the dispenser. Then he heard snickering and Delia turned and shoved at least ten sodas behind his back. "Hey--"

She slapped her hand over his mouth and made a sign for him to be quiet. 'Oh great,' R thought, 'what's she up to now?'

Once the stewardess wheeled away her cart she turned to Jay. "Pst Jay. Psssstttt JAY!"

"Huh? What?" the grumpy agent snapped into attention.

"Here." she produced the dozen sodas she'd stuffed behind R and the nearly two dozen others she'd hidden on her own person.

Jay stared at the sodas as she shoved them all into his lap, seeing the stewardess no where around he tossed Delia a sly grin, "Hey cool! You're alright, you know that?"

The compliment was short lived once Delia got that playful smirk on her face and called to Zed, "HEY ZED--- Jay and his sticky fingers have gotten him about three dozen highly caffienated soft drinks!"

"Agent Jay!" Zed jumped up, jamming R's feet in the bottom of the chair. "Why can't you act like an adult just once??"

"B-but I-I didn't do it!" Jay insisted, pointing a finger across the isle, "It was Delia. Kay saw her, right Kay?"

Jay turned to his partner for assistance but found that Kay had drifted off while reading and had noticed none of Delia's prank.

Zed was glaring down at him while Delia bit back a laugh. It wasn't Jay she struggling not to laugh at though, it was R. He was uttering some of the funniest words she'd ever heard in her life. "R?" she nearly giggled, "What does all that mean?"

R glanced down at her with one eye open as he tried to pry his feet out from under the seat, "Uh---it's kinda the equivalency of cursing on Earth."

"Oh," Delia smiled, "you should hear me when I stump my toe."

An announcement was finally made saying that they would be landing shortly and to please fasten their seatbelts. "Finally," Yazmine grumbled, I couldn't take another minute of being forced to seat in front of that horrid woman."

"Now Yazmine," Zeeltor begged, "you promised you'd ignore her until the flight was over."

"I will," Yazmine smiled sweetly then turned and glared out the window, "but as soon as we land---I'm gonna jam my wing right up her-"

"YAZMINE!" Zeeltor choked out, "Do you want to get fired?? If Zed hears you talking like that I'm sure he'll find it inexcusable and-"

"And I'm sure he'd agree that she had it coming."

Zeeltor slumped back in his seat, he wasn't so sure about that. It be awfully tedious of him to have to take off time from his research and experimenting to find another assistant as qualified as Dr. Yazmine. Instead of worry about the matter further he simply went off in a humming phase and merrily drummed the tune on the back of Delia's seat with his feet.

Delia's eyes shot wide open when she felt the rhythmic pounding on the back of her seat. "Oh perfect." she moaned.

"What?" R asked while rubbing his sore feet.

"Talk about childish," she huffed, "Zeeltor's kicking the back of my seat!"

******

Back at MIB HQ things weren't exactly picturesque. Well, not unless you were in the new art class that W had set up for the extraterrestrial children.

"Uh, Agent U, Sir." Agent Gee questioned as he appeared on the communications screen behind Zed's desk. U frantically whirled around in his chair and addressed the agent, "Yes? Is something wrong? What did you need?"

"Uh," Gee stared at the hyperventilating agent a moment, "I've apprehended the perp and now it's only a matter of what to do with him before the ice melts."

"Huh? What?" U was panicking, big surprise. "Well, just stay there and wait for the containment crew. That's an order agent!"

"But uh-Sir," Gee replied, "I'm in the middle of the Grand Canyon. And there are kind of a lot of tourists out here today."

"Oh, well, uh," U wracked his brain for an idea but couldn't think of anything. "Look, just read your handbook, what does it say to do in this situation?"

Gee grumbled and flipped through a few pages in the middle of his handbook before holding it up to the screen, "It says---to ask you."

"Oh great," U moaned, no way that could be a misprint, he didn't have that kind of luck. "I dunno, try to move him to a secure area, a cave, or niche in the cliffs, or something. I'll have the containment crews out there as fast as I can."

Gee shrugged and looked at the rapidly melting ice sculpture next to him, "Alright Sir, if you say so."

The screen went black and U spun back around, slapping a hand to his forehead he searched through a few of the desk drawers, "I wonder where Zed keeps that aspirin?"

******

At the airport the agents were searching for their baggage when they noticed there were short an agent.

"Where's Agent Jay?" Zed questioned, turning towards the others.

"I think he said something about going off to find our stuff." Delia answered.

As if on cue the baggage rolled around on the spinning carrier and Jay popped out of the pile of suitcases, making a colossal mess. "Found our stuff." he laughed nervously.

The agents shook their heads and went over to the suitcases, stuffing their belongings back in. "Can we go to our rooms now?" Delia begged.

Zed nodded, "But just for a minute, once you're all settled in, we've got work to do."

He handed R, Zeeltor, and Kay a keycard each. "Hey! What about ours?" Jay demanded.

"Your partners," Zed reminded him, pointing to Kay, "you'll share a room."

Delia gulped and looked over at R, "And I seem to remember owing you for that nice nap on the airplane." R smirked.

"Can't I just sleep in the lounge?" Delia pleaded.

Zed shook his head, "There are two beds per room, you shouldn't have any trouble getting along."

Delia grumbled and followed R outside where they called a taxi and were taken to a hotel less than five minutes away from the loch where the monster (alien) supposedly lived.

"I can't believe that he's making us share rooms! He probably gets his own luxury suite and everything!" Delia exclaimed as R tried to get the door to open.

"Well, he IS the head of the MIB and this is sort of like a vacation to him." R reminded her. Why wasn't this stupid card working? He'd swiped it at least six times already!

"Yeah," Delia agreed, "I guess it's only fair that he gets to take it easy after all the stuff Jay's put him through." R snickered at this. "Here," Delia took the card and slid it through the slot on the door handle, instantly the light flashed green. She swung the door open grandly and gestured inside, "Voila!"

"Uh…" R looked inside at the little room. The two twin sized beds were so close together they were touching each other. The small refrigerator was crammed between the chest of drawers and bathroom door, and the one window was the size of a porthole.

Delia stared at R for a second in puzzlement and then glanced inside. After a brief pause she snorted, "I'm UNDERwhelmed."

The next floor down Jay and Kay were having a similar unpleasant experience. At least their beds were apart though. They could hear Delia shouting about that from upstairs.

"Sounds like we won't be getting much sleep tonight," Jay muttered, glancing upwards.

"Speak for yourself," Kay replied, taking out a set of earplugs. "It helps to come prepared Slick."

Jay shook his head, when WASN'T Kay prepared?

"And so help me R if you roll over tonight and even graze me with your elbow I'll knock you upside your big ears so hard that your family in the JeeDang Galaxy will feel it!" Delia finished her string of threats.

"Uh, got it." R choked. "He couldn't remember how still a sleeper he was, but he hoped for the life of him that he didn't toss and turn tonight."

"Good." Delia spun around on her heal and started unpacking. "I call the first two drawers and the left half of the hanger rack."

"That's fine," R muttered pulling off his human mask.

"Wouldn't get too comfortable partner." Delia sighed, "We've gotta head out to the loch and search for 'Flippy' just as soon as our bags are unpacked."

Inside his room Zed was nearly done unpacking and headed out on his balcony for a breath of fresh air. After being stuck in a cramped airplane with bickering agents all morning he needed it!

His one regret about the hotel arrangements was that it put him right next door to Delia and R. Those two were going to keep him awake all night, he just knew it.

Jay stepped out of the room and stretched out his legs in the few rays of sunlight that slipped out of the cloudy sky. This place wasn't so bad. He'd been through worse assignments. His heart sank as a cheery voice called to him. "Oh hello Agent Jay!"

"Oh no," he griped, dreading to turn around and face the alien in the nerdish human suit that he knew was staring up at him, "Zeeltor."

"Righty-o!" Zeeltor exclaimed, "Looks like Yazmine and I will be staying right next door!"

This was a nightmare. Jay seriously hoped that maniac didn't get any strange urges to experiment while he was on this mission. Especially since Jay seemed to be the doctor's favorite lab rat.

"Uh…Dr. Zeeltor." Yazmine peered out of their room, "Shouldn't you be unpacking? Zed will be down in just a few minutes wanting us to head down to the loch."

"I'll be right in," Zeeltor called, "just enjoying a bit of fresh air." Turning to Jay he added, "You wouldn't believe how stuffy these human suits can be."

"I can only imagine your discomfort." Jay muttered. "Say---did you see that stunt Delia pulled on the plane with the soda cans?"

Zeeltor nodded.

Jay perked up, "Really? Then maybe you can tell Zed and Delia will finally get yelled at for-"

"Dr. Zeeltor!" Yazmine shouted, coming out and pointing to her watch.

"Oh, so sorry Agent Jay." Zeeltor chuckled, "But I must be getting back inside. I have some equipment to round up before we depart."

"Hey! But-"

Zeeltor didn't pay any attention as he hustled into the room and shut the door. Jay started grumbling but was interrupted by a thonk on the head by something that had been dropped from the next story. When he looked up he saw Delia hanging over the banister smiling down at him. She was holding something wrapped in aluminum paper in her hand. "Trying to get me in trouble Jay?"

"Wouldn't dream of it." Jay faked a grin, then turned away and added, "Hmph, we'll see who gets the last laugh."

This earned him another thonk on the head from Delia. "HA! Looks like the master prankster gets the last laugh!"

"What do you keep throwing at me?!" he demanded.

Looking down he noticed the small object wrapped in aluminum. It had cursive pink writing on the front. "Scented soap," he muttered, "figures."

"Alright agents---and doctors," Zed announced once everyone was finished unpacking and standing in the parking lot, "I've arranged for a tour boat to pick us up in ten minutes and take us out on the loch. If Flippy's out there, chances are we might get attacked, if we're lucky."

"Lucky?" Delia and Jay gulped.

"Time's wasting people," Zed concluded upon checking his watch, "once we're out on the loch I want Delia, R, Jay, and Kay suited up and ready to dive. As for Yazmine and Zeeltor, you'll be up on the boat taking readings and managing the special gear you brought along."

"And what are you going to be doing Sir?" R inquired.

"As for me," Zed answered holding up his reel, "I'm going fishing."

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