"Wait a minute.  Losing body parts?  You didn't say anything about the humans losing body parts!"  X yelled as he opened the door of the SUV and hopped in, speeding out of the MIB garage after dumping the worms' coffee on the pavement, jerking on his human mask just as he turned onto the road to the store.  "Do you know how attached Elle is to all of her parts?"  She would have his ears if she woke up and was missing something.  And he wasn't even going to let himself think about what Zara had said about six hours before fatalities.

"If you get them treated fast enough, you won't have to worry about that."  Zara said.  "Don't worry.  Just think of it as permission to drive a little faster than usual."

"You've used that before.  Remember suspension one?"  X grumbled.  And he didn't need a reason to speed in the first place.  The only reason that he was holding back on hitting the little red button on the SUV was the lack of agents to handle neuralizing all of the humans afterwards.  "Zara, please say you were kidding about the humans losing parts."

"I wish I was.  You said yourself how they were all freezing."

"I know.  Elle's hands were like blocks of ice."  X said as he speed around a bus, cutting off a taxi and shooting through a red light to the blare of horns.

"Right.  That's the circulation being compromised.  What those poor humans were dosed with is seriously nasty stuff.  If that blood doesn't get flowing again, and the faster the better, they're going to start losing things, and they'll be lucky if it's just fingers."

"I think Little Ears likes her fingers.  If she loses something, you can come to Earth and break the news to her."  X said.  "Zara, what do I do when I have the tea, just dump it all together and feed it to them?"

"Basically, yes.  It should bind the poison, and keep it from doing more damage until it has time to get out of their systems."  Zara told him.  "Even if it works the way it should, though, those poor things are going to be sick for awhile."

"What?  Who's going to protect the planet if every agent but me is sick?"  X said.  "Zara, you do not know the Hollywood agents.  A couple of them make the worms look useful!  And if I call over to the office in Japan, Agent Kay will probably wish he died from the poisoned cake.  He has serious issues with their head."

"They are going to be all right, though, aren't they?  Zara, please tell me that this is going to work."  X pleaded with his cousin after a moment.  He could worry about protecting the planet later.  Right now he just had to think about saving his partner.

Zara hesitated, and X immediately caught on that something was up.  "You don't think it will work?  Zara!  No, they can't die!  I can't lose...."

"No, it's not that.  It's just that this hasn't been tried on humans before is all.  It should work.  I'm sure it will work.  And what was that you were saying about not wanting to lose someone?  Is there something I need to tell Aunt Zoe about you and that little human of yours?"

"No, there is nothing you need to tell my mother."  X said as he zoomed around a station wagon full of nuns,cutting them off and causing the sister behind the wheel to shout something that he was pretty sure would net her penitence for at least a few years.  "So, what do I do when I get this stuff mixed?"

"I'm going to let you tell him what to do while I check with Aileen."  Edie said.  "Maybe she'll have some ideas on what to do as far as protecting the planet until the agents are back on their feet."  And the tall alien wasn't going to let herself think that anything else was going to happen.  Jay was a good friend.  She didn't want to loose him, and it would destroy her partner to loose Kay.

When she came back in to the living room, Aileen was sitting, eyes glued to the TV screen, and the crumpled blanket-covered heap that was Agent Kay.

"Aileen?"  Edie said as she came over and touched her lightly on the shoulder to get her attention.  Maybe giving her something else to focus on besides watching Kay, and thinking she might see him breathe his last at any moment might help.  "Agent X brought up something.  With all of the agents down, who's going to protect the planet?"

"Oh, dear.  I'm sure those poor little humans wouldn't like it at all if they woke up to find their planet trashed."  Zoe said.  "I could call Chief Zeredon.  Maybe he could offer some suggestions?  I'm sure there are loads of peacekeepers who would be happy to help the humans out temporarily."

"That's probably the best idea."  Aileen said after a moment to recall what resources the MIB had besides the agents in New York.  But even if they could get peacekeepers on their way now, it would be at least a standard day before assistance could arrive.  "Is there some sort of way to access the MIB's systems from here?  There might be someone closer that could fill in, at least until we can get more help to the system."

"If you can show those worms how to do it, I could probably rig something up."  An uncle volunteered as Zara came back in, and a couple of cousins offered to provide more TV sets and equipment for monitoring purposes.

"I can show them how to do it, no problem."  Zara said before turning her attention to the situation at hand.  "Hey, worms, are any of those poor things still throwing up?"

"Nope."

"Not even Agent U anymore, and you should have seen how he threw up after the New Year's party."

"And after the Christmas party."

"There's moaning, though.  There's a whole lot of that."

Not good.  Those poor humans.  Zara didn't want to think of how much pain they had to be in, and there was no way that she could risk trying to talk her cousin through dispensing pain medication.  "Aunt Zoe, could you call the hospital and let them know that they're going to have to find someone else to work tomorrow?  The only option that she could see was to head to Earth herself as soon as X had the humans half-way stable, to try to help him.

"Should I see if they can spare anyone else?  All of those poor humans."  Zoe murmured, already thinking of where she had put her travel bag.  She couldn't just stay at home with that many people needing assistance.

"Tell them I have a disaster on my hands, and see if they have anyone they can spare that doesn't mind coping with that sort of thing."  Zara said.  She was sure that one or two of the people that she had worked with in various situations over the years would jump at a chance to go to Earth and get some experience in working with humans.  "Worms?  What's the temperature like there?  Those humans need to be kept warm right now."

"It feels warm to me."

"Just like an espresso grande."

"The humans don't seem warm, though.  They're still shaking."

"And cold."  a worm said as he reached out and touched Jay.  "What are they doing so cold?"

For the first time, the seriousness of the situation seemed to be getting through to the worms, as they all clustered around the crumpled form of their friend.

"No, don't try to wake him or anything.  Right now they just need to be still and quiet.  See if you can turn the temperature up in there, too."  Zara told them.  "And make sure that the humans are all covered up, everything but their faces.  They need to stay warm."

"Okay, warm.  We can do that."

"Wait, what's that?"  One of the younger cousins called from where she was sitting on the floor, watching the screen and for once not complaining about missing her favorite show like she had at the last six family gatherings.  "See, there, over by that thing where the big aliens are collapsed.  There's something moving down at the bottom."

"What is that?"  Zara said as she dropped to the floor herself to get a better view, with Aileen dropping down beside her.  "It was some sort of creature, but it didn't look right to be an Earth animal.

"It's a Fmeck.  How did they get in there?"  Aileen murmured as she recognized the alien in question.  And more importantly, with only four worms there, how were they going to get them out?