Chapter 9

Ralph awoke the next day, hearing loud bangs and the walls shaking in his room. He walked over to the door, which was locked, and could hear screams on the other side.

Ralph asked, 'Suit, are you fully functional?'

Suit answered, 'Yes.'

Ralph said, 'It looks like we will have to go to work from the sounds of things on the other side of this door.'

Ralph took the door handle, lifted it off its hinges, dropped it, and rushed into the main MIB lobby. What he saw there was incredible. A forty-foot-tall, yellow-skinned alien with a roundish chubby face and chubby fat rolls was smashing everything in sight. MIB agents were all firing various weapons at the alien, but they only made it angrier. It picked up a chair and threw it at a group of MIB agents. Ralph quickly flew over and caught the chair just before it hit them. He dropped the chair to the floor and rushed over to catch a table headed for a group of aliens, grabbed it, and flung it back at the giant yellow alien. It hit the yellow alien on the shoulder, and it cried out.

Ralph saw M off to the side, firing at the large yellow alien, and flew over and landed beside her.

She shouted because the noise in the lobby was so loud from all the weapons fining, the alien yelling, and people and other aliens screaming, "I guess Suit is awake."

Ralph shouted back, above the noise in the room, "Yes, completely functional when I woke up. I heard the commotion and came out to see if I could help. Sorry about the door. Where did this guy come from?"

"We don't know. He just popped in. This place is becoming a grand central station for portals!" she yelled.

Ralph saw the yellow alien pick up another table to throw. Suit set a force field around Ralph, and he flew toward the alien and blocked the table. It bounced off the force field and passed through a window, shattering it into a million pieces. Ralph flew toward the alien, caught its huge fist, and held it up, preventing it from smashing another table with humans and aliens cowering beneath it. Ralph pushed the fist up and away from the table. The yellow alien grabbed at Ralph with its other hand and attempted to squeeze him, but the force field prevented this from happening. Instead, it took the force field with Ralph inside and threw it like a ball against the wall. The force field bounced off the wall, landed on the floor, and rolled back toward the yellow alien. Inside the force field, Ralph was a little dizzy from the ride.

Ralph decided he needed to try and communicate with the thing. He flew to its head, touched its temple, and sent a telepathic message, 'Calm down.' It worked. The alien stopped yelling and throwing things and looked around to see who was talking to it. Ralph could hear its confusion and showed himself in front of its face. It looked at him, thought 'Ball,' and smiled and grabbed for Ralph to hug him. Ralph told it, 'Be gentle, or you will hurt me.' It was very gentle, and he rubbed Ralph against his face and smiled.

Still held by the yellow alien, Ralph shouted at M and C, who had come out of her office when it quieted down, "It's a baby! It didn't understand what was going on and was scared. You must find its parents."

Ralph stayed with the baby, giving it gentle, loving thoughts and letting it hold him like a doll. He asked, "Can we get him something to eat?" They brought out a massive bowl of cereal that looked like Cheerios, and the baby grabbed them from the bowl and ate them sloppily, dropping Cheerios all over the floor. Then, they brought out a large metal pot with milk. Ralph flew down, lifted the pot to the baby's mouth, and tipped it so the baby could drink the milk.

C came out and shouted, "We found the parents! They will be coming through any second to get their baby." At that moment, a portal opened from the high ceiling, and two huge hands came through, picked up the baby, and carried him back through the portal.

Ralph looked up, and a giant yellow face—the mother, he assumed—appeared in the portal, smiled, and telepathically told Ralph, 'Thank you for taking care of our baby. We were frantic trying to find him. He had hit the teleport button, and we had no idea where he went. Thank you again.'

The baby tried to reach through the portal and called to Ralph., 'Ball!'

Ralph laughed and told the mother, 'That was okay, no problems taking care of him. I have one of my own coming soon.'

The portal closed, and Ralph turned to see all the MIB agents and various aliens staring at him. Ralph said, "I communicated with the baby and mother telepathically. She is pleased to get her baby back; he had accidentally hit a teleport button and ended up here."

Some aliens said, "We heard your telepathic conversation."

C asked, "Now that your suit is active, can you talk to all the alien species here?"

Ralph shrugged and said, "I don't know, I haven't tried."

C said, "Q, set up a test, and we'll see if Mr. Hinkley has this ability."

Later that day, a representative from each alien race on the MIB Earth was lined up and brought before Ralph. He attempted to say hello, ask about their race, and tell Q, who could verify if he was correct. Most of the aliens he could directly communicate telepathically with; for a few, he had to touch their heads to link. C seemed delighted with the results.

She brought Ralph into her office and said, "Mr. Hinkley, thank you for helping with the giant baby situation."

Ralph said, "No problem, that's the type of thing a Hero does."

C said, "I understand that your timeline is looking for technology that can be used to help prevent and fend off alien invasions?"

Ralph replied, "Yes, that is correct."

C asked, "Do other Heroes have your telepathic abilities?"

Ralph said, "Oh, yes. Some are better than others, but we all can do it to a certain level."

C said, "That is good. Then I think we can negotiate a trade deal. I propose that a few of your Heroes, as you call them, be stationed here to help with alien communication. This is one of the biggest problems, especially when a new alien race appears, as with the baby situation. In return, we would provide you with technology that has helped us to prevent a few invasions."

Ralph smiled and said, "Oh, that will make Eric Thornton, our director, happy."

They shook on the agreement. After that, Ralph was allowed to roam the facility freely. The television in his room was turned on, and he could see many similarities between their two timelines.