Disclaimer: I do not own Martin Mystery, related Personnel & Entities or The Centre, the 42nd Highlanders, or the MIB for that matter. These are used without permission for purely entertainment purposes. I DO, however, own the one long-lost field agent, two office schmoes and three Leviathan victims, along with a wee bonnie girl of three and a boy on the way (in story, I'M not even dating) and a strange traveler.
Description: When one is away for ten years, one tends to miss a lot: office reorganizations, cafeteria menu adjustments, that sort of thing. But what happens when one misses something important?
Chapter 2: Alliance
Montreal, PQ. Dec 24th. 2010 CE
Voices and music of a definitely holiday variety wafted from the hotel ballroom as Gary adjusted his grey sports coat and trousers in the washroom. "Damn sneaky pant legs… always twisting in the wrong places!" Having worn a kilt for most of the last decade, he was having a bit of trouble when it came to wearing modern clothing, especially between the belt and the socks. He finally got his pants in order and headed out to the party.
As he approached the doors he noticed that English and French weren't the only languages being spoken. Strange tongues of all pitches and tones he heard, and as the entered the room, he found out why. In the main ballroom, which was decked with all the usual winter greenery, there were Humans, myth-folk, Mintarians, Langatharians and most other species he knew but there were also others. Strange creatures that resembled sea-life, reptiles, birds, and sundry others milled about, wearing either fashionable attire, nothing at all or just something thrown on. He passed a coffee machine at the buffet, along with short, thin creatures drinking coffee out of martini glasses.
Along with the aliens were a number of strange humans; some of who wore black suits and some wore immaculately white shirts, ties and pants. The others he recognized as people from the Centre. After grabbing a mug of what looked like eggnog he looked around to find the ones he sought and as a matter of fact, they found him. Walking up to him were two people, a man and a woman, that were familiar.
"Gary?" asked Diana. "Aye." Answered Gary, looking her over gawk-eyed. She was much the same as she was ten years back, just that she had matured a little, had her hair in a loose bun, was wearing a blue dress… and a wee bit o' growth 'round the abdomen if you know what I mean. Martin, on the other hand was wearing his hair long this year in kind of a David Xanatos-chic ponytail. He was wearing light green sports coat with slacks of emerald, but still favoured the wearing of black shirts apparently. Finally unable to keep silent, he breathed deep and said, "Well… look at you two: All grown up! And expecting your first bairn by the looks of it!"
Martin and Diana exchanged a confused look, glanced behind them… and came to the rapid conclusion that something that was supposed to be there wasn't. Martin dashed off, leaving Gary and Diana alone in the crowd. They talked politely. "Never would've expected this, oh no. Never thought you two would've stopped fighting, let alone get feelings for each other." "I hope this didn't come as too much of a shock, all this I mean."
"Of course not lass. It's just that you two always had the nastiest spats. I also seem to remember you drooling over someone named 'Marvin'. How is he?" To this Diana took some offence, retorting that she NEVER drooled, but then pointed him out, along with his fiancée, Jenny (it was either this or kill Marvin in a 'freak' accident; I chose to kill two birds with one stone).
At last Martin came back, leading a small girl with blond pigtails and a face covered in lime Jell-O to the small group. "Gary, this is our daughter Margaret. She turned three last month on the eleventh." "November 11th, as in Martinmas?" Gary looked at Martin "Clever." Now that he looked closer at the girl, he could see the combining of features, and if the lime Jell-O being cleaned from her face was any indication, she was heading towards possessing her fathers natural slime-o-holism.
Gary bid farewell to the parents and child, but stopped a short distance away and looked back. Never in a thousand years would he have suspected this, but here it was staring him in the face. Time had passed, and people's hearts and minds had shifted with it.
"Beautiful family, ain't it?" said a voice beside his head. Gary turned to see a 30-something black man in the black suit get-up. "Sure is slick, sure is." Gary turned again, meeting a white male in his sixties. Noticing Gary's confusion, they introduced themselves "Gary, this is Agent K, I'm J, and we're… well, that'll save me some time, Zed's going to speak."
And indeed one of the black suited men was coming to speak on the raised podium, a rather old one by the looks of it.
"Welcome, Centre Operatives and Men… and Women in Black, to the 10th annual interoffice Christmas Party, though on Centaurion time it feels more like six." A gentle ripple of polite laughter went through the room. "And let me be the first Man in Black to congratulate Martin and Diana, the team who brought together those looking out with those looking in, on the upcoming birth of their second child." Zed gestured toward the group of 3, which triggered polite clapping. "Woiebgck and Bob promise not to play any Seattle grunge this year, though be prepared for a waltz or two, maybe some banjo and as always, have a blast."
With this he stepped down and allowed the party to mingle, gnome with alien, troll with sprite, and of course, men in black with confused Scotsmen. "Who are you?" "We're an extra-governmental agency which licenses, monitor and polices extraterrestrial activity on the planet earth." Gary turned to J to get a better answer but got a different answer. "We're serious." "But the centre already had connections in outer space, why do we need you guys."
K put on his 'legal code recitation' face. "Because, Gary, the aliens you made contact with were usually trying to gain some kind of favouritism with earth governments, and since earth cannot be allied one way or another and remain a neutral safe haven, we had to step in. Not to mention that most of the Centre's technology is either illegal in more than 20 sectors, dangerously experimental and/or too advanced to arrive on earth for the next ten thousand years. Mostly dumped here by somebody desperate not to get caught with it."
J decided to cut in. "Which incidentally, makes this stuff perfect for you guys. I once thought space was weird, but what goes on down here is just… Damn!" They led Gary into the cloakroom and shut the door behind them.
"This next part is understood to be totally secret, completely Omega level security clearance, you got that?" Asked K, deadly serious. "Aye" was Gary's shrewd response, not completely sure what prompted this. "We know you're curious as to how Martin and Diana wound up, especially considering how they acted when you last saw them, so here's the skinny." The two agents then wove a complicated tale of how fostering an attraction repressed by parental matrimony had been one of the founding conditions of bringing the Centre back into the MIB fold, since M.O.M. (or Agent M) had gone government back in the seventies after a series of paranormal incidents. They knew not why; maybe M.O.M. decided to play matchmaker.
The two agents then put on sunglasses. "Of course you realise that this conversation never happened." Said K. "What the bloody hell are you…" Gary could not finish his exclamatory, for a flash of bright red light clouded everything in the world.
Gary's' senses returned later on, with a full mug of eggnog in one hand and a pastry in the other. He wandered around, but then something strange happened. A man covered head to foot in clothes that could only be called "Fremen" with only his eyes showing, passed by him. Gary began to feel strange, as if time was forming a bubble around the man, the same stretching and warping feeling he had experienced… when he had gone through time!
Meanwhile
"Well Agent M, this is certainly shaping up to be the most festive party we've had yet. But I don't understand why you refuse to enforce a tighter security system when it comes to agents." Zed asked M.O.M. as they shared coffee with the worms, but using mugs.
"Take a look at Martin and Diana for just one example. They have so much to enjoy, and to be and to do. Things they couldn't experience trapped behind a letter and a pair of black shades with no past and no future." "This from the woman who forsook her letter for an acronym."
"Their my initials: Maude Olivia Mackenzie… or was it Margaret Octavia McDougal, I can never remember which?" The former Agent M stroked her chin in thought
"Anyway…" Zed raised his mug in a toast "to the Mystery children: may they inherit neither their mothers irrationality nor their fathers stupidity." "Hardy har har." Replied M dryly as their mugs clinked.
Hope you enjoyed, and yes, by reviewer request, I will try to write a history of the preceding ten years of Martin and Diana's lives. And just who is this stranger with the time bubble?