Author's Note: Thank you everyone for being patient with me. Lots of stuff has been going on in my life since... (looks at last update) early July? One of which is that I adopted a new cat! He's a six-and-a-half year old tuxedo kitty that I've named Conan, and he is absolutely the sweetest, gentlest, most cuddly and forgiving cat I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. I also started a new job about a month ago and before that, I actually wrote an original short(ish) story and submitted it to the Writers of the Future contest! If anyone has aspirations of becoming a professional writer one day, I highly recommend that contest because it's completely legit and an excellent break-in point because the contest is only for amateur/unpublished writers, so you don't have to worry about competing with already-established writers.

And now that I'm done boring you with my life update, you may read on.

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men…

"We're here," Gin said while stopping the car in front of a warehouse.

"What is it with you people and warehouses?" Conan commented dryly as he stared up at the building in question. At least it didn't have the cliché abandoned look to it.

"Where did you think we were going to collect more weapons?" Gin said rhetorically as he got out of the car, and Conan quickly followed suit. "Besides, they make excellent meeting places for large groups of people."

Conan huffed as he shoved his hands in his pockets and glanced over at the red car coming to a stop next to Gin's Porsche, then the passengers got out. Akai had completely foregone his Subaru Okiya disguise seeing how useless it was in this situation, and he observed the warehouse before them with a critical eye. As soon as Haibara cleared the vehicle, she made her way over to Gin like a magnet and they walked to the front doors together. Conan's eyes narrowed behind his glasses and when he looked up at Akai, he found a similar expression on his face.

"Hey, Mr. Akai, when you were in the Organization, were they…?"

Akai shook his head slowly. "If they were, it was either after I left, or they hid it very well while I was there. Although… Shiho really did grow up in America apart from her sister during her early childhood and graduate from university at thirteen, so it makes me wonder if my dating her older sister was the spark that made her interested in romantic relationships which led to this."

He gestured at the pair who weren't even so much as holding hands but were still so close and so keyed into the other that they easily could have if they wanted. This was a big part of the reason why he had gone with Gin and Haibara had ridden with Akai despite none of them being happy with the arrangements. They both might believe Gin about the aliens and Vermouth and the danger to the planet, but that didn't mean they trusted him.

Eventually, Haibara noticed that he and Akai had hung back and waved them over. "We've got the door unlocked now, so come on in."

Conan steeled himself and walked with Akai into the warehouse. Once his eyes adjusted from the brightness outside, he was disappointed to see how normal it looked on the inside. Clean, concrete floor with crates stacked around the room in blocks that created aisle ways to reach more of the contents at the back and in the middle. Gin had already moved further inward and was scanning the labels on the sides of the boxes.

"We have a lot of different things stored here, not just weapons, but unless the inventory has drastically changed since I was last here, there should be plenty for all of the FBI and PSB agents to be well-armed with surplus ammunition," Haibara explained.

"Akai, help me get these down!" Gin yelled from halfway across the large building while holding the handle of a crate.

Akai's lips twitched in what might have been annoyance, but he voiced no protest as he moved to help Gin. He was the only one who could since Conan and Haibara were still in the bodies of seven-year-olds.

"Hey, Haibara, about the Apoptoxin, do you really not have an antidote, or did you lie about that too?" Conan asked in a low voice.

Haibara crossed her arms and shrugged, not meeting his eyes as she sighed. "No, I didn't lie to you about the lack of an antidote. However, I might have a proper one soon. Before the incident with the NOC list and the Ferris wheel, I only had one final step to complete in the synthesis process before it was ready for testing, but I was too distracted worrying about Gin these past few days to concentrate on my work. I have a good feeling about this one though, and if all goes well, we'll both be permanently back to our original forms soon."

Conan stared at her hard. There it was again. That implication of something between her and Gin. "You know… I tried to ask you before back during the Haido City Hotel incident, but are you and Gin-?"

"He's my lover," she snapped, her eyes suddenly on him bright and sharp, daring him to make some kind of comment on it even as her cheeks reddened. "I'm eighteen, almost nineteen even, so it's not illegal."

That was way more than Conan wanted to know about Haibara's relationship status and he quickly raised his hands in a placating manner. "I never said it was, did I?" he pointed out.

Nonetheless, he was very grateful to hear the sound of incoming cars and he cautiously poked his head outside to see who had arrived. He was even more relieved to see it was James Black, Jodie and Camel. He wouldn't have known how to react if one of the Organization members had shown up first.

"Hey, Ms. Jodie!" he called as he waved and all of them oriented on him, eyes brightening in recognition.

"Conan, you're here! What exactly is going on?" Jodie asked when she drew near. "Shu explained over the phone that extraterrestrial aliens are real, the Organization are good guys, and we're being recruited to storm their HQ here in Japan to take it back from Vermouth?"

"Yeah, that's basically what's happening from my understanding," Conan said with a slight grimace. "Mr. Akai's already inside the warehouse helping Gin pull down some of the weapons crates he found."

"Never thought I'd hear a sentence like that after Akai's infiltration mission ended," James muttered with a slight shake of his head.

Conan stared at him a few seconds longer. According to Gin, James used to work for the American MiB, but had his memories erased after he left the organization. Did he really not remember anything about that time?

"Are we the first to arrive apart from you guys?" Camel asked, noticing the two solitary cars nearby.

"Yeah, we're waiting for the rest of the FBI, Mr. Amuro and his PSB people who are in the know of the Organization's existence if not its true nature, and the Organization people Gin and Haibara called," Conan summarized.

"Haibara? The little brown-haired girl Vermouth was after a while ago? What's she doing here?" Jodie asked, perplexed.

"Err…"

Right. They treated him a lot like his normal teenage self, so he sometimes forgot they didn't know his true identity like Hattori or Kid did, and they definitely didn't know Haibara's.

"She… she's a relative of one of the Organization members but had to go into hiding because she was in danger due to her family's work, and now that the Organization's headquarters is overrun, she wants to help get it back. She's really smart, so she'll be able to help a lot!"

He wasn't even technically lying for once, just skipping over the fact that Haibara's one last relative in the Organization died nearly a year ago now. Jodie still looked unconvinced, but she didn't vocalize further protest over it. They followed him into the warehouse where Haibara greeted them at the entrance, and then Jodie and Camel got enlisted by Akai and Gin to help move more crates. Conan started moving in that direction too to offer the use of some of his gadgets, but more cars were already coming. He recognized Amuro's white Mazda and he was accompanied by a man named Kazami who Conan recognized as the guy who'd been unconscious in the Ferris wheel gondola. Both of them waited outside to meet the rest of the PSB officers as they arrived, and James came to stand near them to do the same with his FBI agents which was how Conan unintentionally found himself as one of the official greeters. He didn't recognize any of the other PSB guys and only had passing memory of some of the FBI agents from Haido Central Hospital, but all of them seemed to have a rudimentary understanding of what was going on and why they were being summoned before arriving.

One of the last vehicles to arrive was one that Conan did actually recognize: a blue Viper with a white stripe on the hood, and he had to force himself not to panic. The Organization wasn't the enemy anymore. The driver just narrowly avoided hitting several other cars when they swerved sharply and came to an abrupt stop.

The passengers got out and though he had never actually seen Chianti or Korn before, he immediately recognized the female voice when she raised her arm at Amuro and yelled, "Oi, Bourbon, we're here; where's Gin?"

"Inside waiting for us. You're the last ones to arrive." He sounded rather smug about that.

Chianti clicked her tongue loudly and glared. "Had to pick up Kir on the way first, prick."

Conan glanced behind her and saw the CIA NOC stepping out of the car from the driver's side back seat. She politely inclined her head towards first Amuro, then James, and then himself, whom she smiled at first. She seemed a little worn down.

"If everyone's arrived then, let's all head inside and strategize our attack plan," Amuro suggested, and they all entered the warehouse together.

Conan's eyes didn't have to adjust to the darkness again. Somebody had turned on a light and he gaped at how much smaller the space was now that it was full of people, opened crates, and bewildered agents handling strange-looking firearms with the same care as an active explosive.

He was distracted from this chaos though by a sudden loud screech. "The fuck! Sherry?!"

Conan whirled around. Chianti and Korn were staring dumbfounded down at Haibara. Kir and Bourbon's eyes were wide as well, and Bourbon was even gaping silently. A quick glance around the warehouse revealed that everyone had stopped what they were doing temporarily to watch the potential drama unfold.

Haibara gave a sheepish smile and a wave to the Organization crew. "Yes, it's me. It's been a while, Chianti."

That seemed to snap Chianti back into speech. "What the ever-loving fuck happened to you?!" she exclaimed.

"Obviously, I shrunk."

"Obviously!"

"Chianti, knock it off! We have more important things to do right now," Gin barked from the center of the warehouse.

Chianti immediately rounded on him and stalked in his direction. "You knew about this! What the fuck did you do to her to make her like this!"

"It was my doing," Haibara piped up, making Chianti stop dead in her tracks and look over her shoulder. Haibara's expression was set in a stern frown. "I created the drug that caused my current state and 'that person' recommended its usage when I was sent into hiding. Gin had nothing to do with it; he only complied with 'that person's' orders."

Chianti let out a low growl and kicked a container over before crossing her arms and scowling while tapping her foot. Her dark expression and vocalizations eased somewhat when Korn moved to stand beside her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Bourbon, are all of your people here?" Gin asked.

"Yeah, they're here."

"Mr. Black?"

James looked a little surprised to be addressed the correct way as if he were in America or England, but he nodded. "Yes, everyone's accounted for," he said.

"Good. Then everyone: stop what you're doing and gather close where you all can hear me. We're strategizing our attack on the Organization's headquarters now."

From the looks on many of the PSB and FBI faces, Conan wasn't the only one who found it unusual and ironic that such words came from Gin of all people, but everyone started slowly shuffling towards the center of the room where Gin was stationed. One of the advantages Conan had become accustomed to in his shrunken body was that it was much easier for him to dart between people's legs to get to the front of a crowd, and he made good use of that here too, slipping between all the agents until he was at the center where he also found Akai, Jodie, James, Camel, Bourbon, Kazami, Kir, Chianti, and Korn. Haibara appeared much as he had, but on the other side of the loose circle.

Once everyone was gathered, Gin began to speak. "Alright, to bring everyone up to speed on why you've been summoned, Vermouth, one of the Organization's executive agents has created a mind control drug that she's administered to the boss, whom I will refer to henceforth as 'that person', with the presumptive goal of taking over the entire Organization. I have also received word from the same source who witnessed her putting 'that person' under her control that she's not human, but an alien shapeshifter that is already responsible for the deaths of many Organization agents, including some of our liaisons."

His eyes shot over to Kir who let out a soft hiss, and Conan watched her with sympathy now that he knew the truth of what happened with her father. Did Gin mean to imply he felt Vermouth might have somehow been connected to that too?

"The mind control serum is very potent and has caused many agents to behave in a way they ordinarily wouldn't. If past history is anything to go on, some of the victims have even chosen suicide over being controlled as they had no way to stop the drug or communicate what was happening to them," Gin explained. "We do have at least a partial antidote for the drug, but not much. However, I'm not expecting we'll need to use a lot anyway since my hunch is that Vermouth's original plan was to infect as many high-ranking people as possible with her drug first before she made her move, but we forced her to hasten her plans. If the drug she's using is a perfected version, then I also doubt she has a lot to go around since she hasn't had much time to make it."

"In other words, you think that most of the resistance we'll encounter at headquarters will be normal agents whose only crime is being ignorant of what's really going on since it's doubtful Vermouth has revealed herself as the puppet master," Bourbon summarized with his usual cocky smile.

"More or less," Gin agreed. "Even now, Vermouth's probably having 'that person' and Rum spin some tale about me betraying the Organization and needing to be stopped at all costs, and even without mind-control, fighting our way past everyone who works at headquarters would be foolhardy at best, even with our increased numbers."

"Eh? You mean even with all these weapons, it still wouldn't be enough to break in?" Camel said while holding up a massive quadruple-barreled chrome rifle with probably-rotating cylinders. Conan couldn't even begin to guess what it used for ammunition or what it was called.

Gin's lip twitched, his expression completely devoid of amusement. "The MiB headquarters is a central alien communications and transport hub that has lockdown procedures specifically designed to prevent these weapons from blasting the walls apart like they're paper mâché. I'm arming you with these weapons because they'll at least do something to the barriers. We could charge one of the main entrances with a dedicated group armed with metal-cutting lasers while everyone else acts as a shield to fend off attackers, but that would take too long and there's a very low chance of success anyway."

"We also don't want to kill anyone since those within the building don't know any better and are just doing what they've been trained to do, to protect the Earth and the MiB," Kir reminded them firmly.

"You must have some secret back entrances that still work though," Conan piped up. All adult eyes suddenly fixed on him and he continued. "Well, if some unfriendly aliens were to seize control of headquarters and force a lockdown, then an organization as prepared as them would probably have built in some secret access points that aren't affected by the lockdown so that the MiB agents can get in and take it."

Gin seemed to chew on the idea and glanced at Amuro. "Is there any merit to his reasoning?"

Amuro grimaced. "I know of some of the secret entrances that probably wouldn't be affected by the lockdown, but the problem is that I learned of all of them from Vermouth."

Gin clicked his tongue. "Of course you did. Vermouth's been the Executive of Intelligence for so long, there's probably nothing about the building that's remained secret to her. She's probably got those entrances covered as well."

"Um, hey, what about the emergency exit out of the VR room? Does the bitch know that one too?" Chianti inquired with one hand half raised into the air. Her question was met with blank stares and she scowled. "Quit staring like I got three heads. It's a recent addition, only three years old or so since Korn and I spend so much time in there, and there's no easy way out of that pit if there's an emergency fire or something."

"That… she might not know about that one," Bourbon admitted hopefully.

"How accessible is it from the outside?" Gin demanded.

"It's pretty inconspicuous. It dumps you out in an underground tunnel that leads to a hidden side passage in the Yurakucho subway line between Edogawabashi and Gokokuji stations," she said.

"So there's no chance of civilians being unwittingly near headquarters and only a limited possibility of other MiB personnel having discovered it from the outside as well," Kir mused out loud with an approving nod.

"But a tunnel means that if Vermouth does know about it, it's a very easy place to defend with a small force or she could barricade it completely by collapsing part of the tunnel," Akai put in, frowning slightly.

"It's the best option we've got," Gin reminded him pointedly.

"Let's assume for the moment that the entrance is neither guarded nor blocked. What are we supposed to do once we're all inside?" James asked.

Gin seemed to deflate at the question and didn't answer immediately. At last, he said, "That's another part of the problem. I have no idea what Vermouth's motive or goal for hijacking Headquarters is. Our best bet on that front is to locate either 'that person' or Rum and administer the antidote to the serum, but then that begs the question of where to find them, and Vermouth won't make that easy either."

Conan grimaced, understanding the complexity of the problem. They needed more information that they couldn't access. They would be going in blind, and even with as many people as were currently present in the warehouse, they would still be grossly outnumbered if Vermouth had the boss or the second command all forces to their location. Wait a minute… command…?

"Hey, do you guys have some sort of central intercom system or something?" Conan inquired curiously.

"We do, actually," Haibara spoke. "The Central Communication Station, but why do you ask?"

Before Conan could answer, Gin chuckled and was grinning slightly. "I see where you're going with this. Since Vermouth only has a limited number of agents under her direct control, she has to rely on 'that person' or Rum to give her orders which means at least one of them is positioned in the CCS."

"Exactly!" Conan exclaimed, smiling back in spite of himself. "So if a group heads to the CCS with the antidote, then we'll not only be able to figure out what Vermouth is planning, but be able to broadcast across headquarters the truth of what's happening so the non-controlled agents will stop trying to thwart us."

"We'll have to have another group stay behind at the exit to guard and protect it in case something goes wrong and we need to retreat, Gin," Amuro said.

"I agree, and we still need to figure out what to do about Vermouth. She's a shapeshifter, so she can literally look like anyone. It would only be too easy for her to escape looking like one of us right when we think we have her cornered," Gin growled.

"Um, excuse me, but may I say something?" The question came from Kazami who looked uncertain about speaking up and glanced at Amuro who nodded. He coughed once to clear his throat and then continued, "So… since most of the Organization's agents presumably aren't being mind-controlled, that means that reasoning with them is an option if we encounter them, right? Your color scheme is black, but you have no strict dress code, so if all of us wear something black, then when we enter the Organization, those of us who aren't recognizable codenamed agents can speak to the other guys, tell them what's really going on, and then also tell them whatever secret passphrase we're making up to prevent Vermouth from shapeshifting to look like one of us without our figuring it out."

"That sounds like an excellent idea, Kazami," Amuro congratulated.

"I agree, especially with the black color scheme. There's bound to be security cameras in the building…" A brief nod from Gin confirmed that. "… and if they all feed to the CCS, then whoever the mind-controlled victim stationed there is will otherwise see a bunch of not-Organization members creeping through the halls and will alert both Vermouth and all of the agents present in the building."

"Fortunately, in addition to weapons, this warehouse also stores plenty of plain black clothing, so nobody has to go without," Haibara assured everyone with an amused smile playing across her lips.

There were some more things discussed such as who would be grouping together, which groups would be assigned which tasks, and what the secret passphrase would be (it was "Did you enjoy the wine last night?" with the answering response "No, it tasted like sour grapes"), but that was basically the end of the strategy meeting. After that, the whole group split apart to load up on weapons, grab some black clothes, or both.

Conan glanced down at his blue jacket, red bowtie, white shirt, and gray shorts, and was about to go see if the Organization happened to store any black clothes in kids' sizes when Haibara called his name. He switched tracks and headed to her. She was still smiling in amusement.

"You realize there's no point in you or me wearing black since that won't hide the fact that we're kids, you know," she pointed out. "Anyway, I want you to have this."

From behind her back, she pulled out a gun and held it out to him. He frowned at it and then at her. "I'm not shooting anyone."

Her expression went flat. "Idiot, do you really think I'd give you a weapon that could hurt people in this situation? It's a stun ray gun. You fire it at someone and if it hits, they're frozen in place from anywhere between five minutes to an hour depending on where the dial is set. You can fire ten beams before you need to load a new charger which are in this bag. I packed ten of them which should be more than enough for our purposes."

"Oh… thanks Haibara," he said and accepted the black canvas bag.

After turning it over in his hands for a bit, he undid the two straps hanging from the flat, rigid part of the bag and strapped it to his left thigh. Then after making sure he knew how to turn off the safety, eject the old charger and load a new one into the stun gun, he placed the gun into its holster and took off his jacket, then swung his arms through the shoulder harness attached to it so the gun lay against the left side of his chest. He had to do a lot of tightening of the straps for the harness since it was designed with an adult's measurements in mind, but together, he and Haibara managed to shrink it down to something more closely matching his size. Once he'd gotten his jacket back on, he saw that most everyone else was already dressed and armed as well. With everyone now wearing black, the entire warehouse looked like it was full of Black Organization members, and at the center of it all was Gin, the ringleader of this stealthy infiltration operation.

"Alright everyone, let's roll out, and anyone who's not at Edogawabashi station within five minutes of the estimated arrival time is getting left behind."

Admittedly, I was debating with myself over where exactly I wanted to end this chapter, but then Gin went and decided to make that quippy one-liner, and somehow it felt right to end the chapter there, though it wasn't my original intention. Hopefully I'll have another chapter done before the end of the year, but it's not looking like I'll finish the whole story by the end of the year like my I'd planned. Oh well! It's not like I'm not enjoying myself writing this story. :)