RIB

Part Twelve

"Oh my GOD! Those things are UGLY!" Jay yelled. Not 100 yards ahead of the two MIB agents were three bugblatter beasts. They resembled Terran cockroaches, but they were much larger, and had huge shark like mouths full of teeth. One of the monsters had just taken a bite out of an approaching subway train, the other two suddenly turned to face the MIB.

Kay raised his BFG and aimed it at one of the two monsters. At this range he couldn't possibly miss. He set the weapon on a narrow beam to avoid damaging the subway tunnel and fired, hitting one of the beasts in what he assumed was its chest. The monster roared with anger and charged toward the two men. Although it must have felt pain from the direct hit, it obviously wasn't injured very badly.

"Run for it!" Kay yelled as he ran in retreat.

Jay took off just a split second after his partner and quickly caught up with him. He suddenly tripped on one of the track cross ties and fell, slamming into Kay knocking him down. The two men tried to get up, but the bug was already upon them.

Kay looked up and and thought he saw his life flash by him as the monster was about to devour both of them. Suddenly, there was a huge flash of light and the bugblatter beast exploded into a large cloud of green slime. The two agents now found themselves sitting on the tunnel floor up to their necks in bug guts. A few yards away, someone was laughing hysterically.

Agent A stood there with a sick grin on his face. His left arm was still configured in the atomic cannon mode, and was slowly venting residual plasma.

"Nice shooting Tex!" Jay said.

Inside of his head, Astro heard Reno's voice. Just a few hundred yards away he could hear the lead bug still chomping on the subway train.
"I'll be right back!" Astro yelled as he flew past his fellow MIB's toward the subway train.

"I'll be right there!" Astro radioed back to Reno.

Astro roared past the second beast and grabbed the first one that was eating the train, and then dragged it back toward the mouth of the tunnel. Kay and Jay backed up against the tunnel walls to keep from getting squished by the bug. The second monster ran past the two agents and reached the tunnel mouth before Astro did. Astro then carried the beast up to 10,000 feet and released it over the Long Island Sound. The bug smashed into the water at terminal velocity just as a particle beam from Astro's arm cannon vaporized it. The remaining bugblatter monster ran uptown along the Henry Hudson Parkway, heading for the Bronx.

After destroying the second monster Astro reentered the subway tunnel. He flew back to the where the train was parked on the tracks and entered through what was left of the second car. Fortunately, the passengers were able to escape back to the rear of the train before being eaten by the bug. The train was dark as the bugs had shorted out the third rail and killed power to the track. The battery operated emergency lights were dimly glowing. Astro switched on his eye searchlights at a low setting and walked toward the back of the train. He finally reached the middle car where Reno was sitting, with Rene wrapped around him.

"Hi" Astro waved. "It's OK, I took care of the monsters."

"Who are you?" Rene asked, as she released Reno from her grip.

"That's Astro, he's a good friend of mine." Reno said. "He also happens to be a robot."

Astro pulled Reno off of his seat and out of Rene's earshot.
"I'm going to have to neuralyze everyone in the train so they don't remember what just happened." Astro told Reno. "Standard MIB policy."

"Even me?" Reno asked.

"Here, put these on" Astro told Reno, handing him a pair of dark sunglasses.
Astro removed the neuralyzer from his pocket and held it up above his head. He turned the device's power setting up a notch and clicked the switch on the side of it. A pulse of blue light filled the train for an instant and then went out. Astro took the glasses back from Reno and pocketed them while shutting down his eye lights.

"I'm going to leave you now." Astro said out loud to the passengers. "The NYCTA police will be here shortly to get everybody out of the tunnel."

Astro walked through the front four cars of the train, flicking the neuralyzer once in each car. He reentered the tunnel and walked back to where Kay and Jay were standing.

"Everyone all right in the train?" Kay asked.

"Yes, no causalities." A said.

"You missed one of the bugs." Jay told him. "It ran past you like a bat out of hell and is now probably loose somewhere in the city."

"I guess we'll have to find it and eliminate it." Astro said.

"No shit, Sherlock." Kay replied. "Since that arm cannon of yours seems to be the only weapon we have that works against those things, it looks like you're elected."

"Kinda figured that." Astro said.

"Well let's get back to the car and figure out our next move." Kay said.