Before Aileen could wonder more about where the fourth worm had vanished to, the doorbell rang.
"Thank goodness." Zoe sighed when she looked out and spotted her son's former boss, Chief Zeredon on the doorstep. Although she hated to, she waved for Aileen to come and join her. The poor girl was the only one who could give him the information that he would need on the MIB. And maybe it would be good to have something to distract her from the danger that young man of hers was in. "I'm glad you could get here so quickly." she said as she opened the door.
"The entire MIB was incapacitated?" Zeredon asked, nodding first to Zoe, and then to Aileen when he came in.
"All except for my son and the worms there." Zoe told him as she waved at the television screen. "Except we seem to have lost a worm somewhere."
"Worms and your son are all those poor humans have for help?" Zeredon said as he looked at the television and the sea of blanket-covered bodies. "I hope all of them have wills."
"My cousin isn't that bad." Zara said as she came over with communicator out again. "No, I can't come to work tomorrow, and from the looks of things, I'm going to be lucky to get to work two weeks from tomorrow. I'm supposed to assist with disasters, aren't I? Is it my fault that a gigantic one just popped up? Isn't there anyone else in the hospital who you can trick into pulling a triple shift? Well, if there isn't hire someone else. I'm sure there's a newbie nurse somewhere just aching to die of overwork."
"I swear, I don't know what they're thinking." Zara said as she clicked the communicator closed before her boss could argue more. And anyway, she ought to leave the line open for her cousin. "I've got a couple of medics that I've worked with before getting things ready to go as soon as X gets back, and hopefully gets those poor little humans dosed. There is a way into the systems, isn't there? It would be a big help if I knew what supplies they have on hand. I doubt they're prepared for an emergency like this, though."
"Zed likes to be prepared for everything, but somehow, I don't think a poisoned birthday cake popped into his mind." Aileen said as she looked at the screen and then down at the communicator that she was still clutching. Kay was covered in sweat and she could tell that the trembling had increased. "Where in the world is your cousin?"
"Trying to find a detour around a knocked over bank. It was knocked over in the middle of the street." Zara said as she took the communicator for a moment to assess the human. He was obviously worse, and with what her cousin had told her about this particular human, it wasn't good. "Can you see if you can get me into their medical systems? I might need to get supplies to deal with this." And it would be helpful if she knew what to tell her cousin, or she was afraid the worms, given how this one human was deteriorating, if they had to do something else to try to help them.
"I'll get you in. It's bad, isn't it?" Aileen asked.
"It's bad." What good would it do to try to pretend that it wasn't? Everyone in the house could figure out how bad it was by what was in the television screen. "It's still fixable, though, if we can get them treated fast enough." Where in the world was her cousin? She punched in the number he had last called her from, and waited impatiently for him to pick up.
"What?" X demanded as he hit the communicator on.
"Where are you? Those humans need their medicine." Zara demanded.
"Where am I? I'm planning the death of whoever programmed the computer navigation in these things, that's where I am." X banged on the dashboard with one hand, balancing the communicator against the steering wheel with the other. He swerved just in time as an alien that he was sure he had seen on a wanted poster came leaping across the street. "It's crazy here. It looks like every criminal on the planet has decided to come out and play. Can you tell those worms to make sure that some idiot didn't open the MIB detention blocks?"
"They're a little busy dealing with the Fmecks." Zara said. "Isn't there some way that you can get back faster? Those poor humans really need help." Zara said as she headed for the kitchen and hoped that it was far enough away that Aileen wouldn't hear her "They're getting worse, X. That poor Agent Kay, I'm not sure he's going to have to worry about losing extremities. The way he's looking, I doubt he has four hours left. They need treated fast."
"It's that bad? What about Elle?" X demanded just as he caught sight of Frank the Pug's newsstand. Perfect. That dog came trotting over to headquarters enough that he could probably find it in the middle of a blizzard. Surely he could manage to get them back around the chaos the alien criminals were creating. Zed wasn't going to be happy when he found out about all of this. "Zara, I've got to go. I just spotted my map, and I've got to catch him before the pound does. Tell the worms I'll be there as soon as I can. And if Elle looses anything, I'm holding them personally responsible!"
"There you are." Frank said as X came hurrying up. "Drek's on the loose!" And he knew that it was only a matter of time before the big alien recalled his grudge against him. "Wait, where's Kay?" Kay and Jay were the two who usually dropped in on him, not X and.... "Come to think of it, where's Elle? Didn't think she would let you out of her sight after that stunt you pulled with the television crew."
"She's taking a sick day. All of the agents are taking sick days." X said as he caught Frank by the scruff of the neck and dropped him onto the passenger seat of the SUV before getting in himself. "I need you to give me directions back to headquarters, preferably directions without a bank on the route, before everyone ends up taking perminent sick days. This thing is messed up." he added as he banged on the SUV's directional system, causing a cracking noise that the garage agent wasn't going to be happy with if he lived through the day.
"What do you mean they're all taking sick days?" Frank demanded. "Even Kay?" He'd never heard of Kay taking a sick day. Even when he was infected with Millicrons, the most he took were a couple of sick hours.
"Especially Kay." X said as he pulled onto the street. "Which way?"
"Take a left up there. What's going on?" The alien dog demanded.
X debated for a moment, not sure if he should let anyone else, especially a stoolpigeon like Frank, know what was going on, but really, what choice did he have? He needed Frank's help. "Someone poisoned Zed's birthday cake. I'm the only one still on my feet besides the worms."
"What? Even Kay?" Frank asked again.
"I already said especially Kay." X said. And it worried him, that Zara had seemed so concerned about the poor agent. His cousin had handled every disaster that he could think of. If she was concerned, he knew things had to be bad. "Just get us there the fastest way that you know." he demanded. "And if any agents die, I'm going to have Zed hold you responsible for giving bad directions!" And if something happened to his partner, that dog was getting a one way ticket to the pound!
"X is on his way back. He said something about catching a map, so hopefully he'll get there soon." Zara said as she came back in.
"How long are those poor humans going to be sick? That is if that cousin of yours can manage getting back with something to treat them?" Zeredon asked. He did trust Zara's medical judgement even if putting her together with her cousin usually equalled disaster.
"At least a week, or maybe two for some of the worst cases." Zara said as she looked over the screen. Whatever the worms were trying to do, to stop the Fmecks, she wished they would finish it fast. She was going to have to try to walk them through assessing the humans' conditions again.
"I've got peacekeepers lined up, wanting to go, but for that long, I think we're going to have to get a bit more creative. I don't think the city council would be happy if I pulled half of the force off of the streets for who knows how long." Zeredon said. "We do have a nice class, just about to graduate from the academy, though."
"Rookies?" Aileen said.
"Technically, but the commander assures me that it's the best class he's ever seen. The only reason they're not already out on assignments is due to some paperwork snafu. I can't send them out here, but Earth would be a different story."
"You're sure that they're up to it?" Aileen asked. Zed would die if he knew that she was seriously considering going along with this, but what other choice did they have?
"I'm sure. If not for that paperwork mix-up, they'd already be working. And I'm sure the academy instructors will be happy to come along as well. What about the MIB? Surely they have more agents than those in New York."
"They do, but I''m not sure how many would actually be any help." Aileen told him. She knew the Hollywood agents, especially Agent E, would be nothing but trouble, The Nashville agents might be a bit better. They were at least earnest, and hard working, but still, they were more employment agents than fighters. And it would be hard to move agents from any other areas without trouble. There was only one that she knew of to manage the whole of the Hawaiian islands, and goodness knows, that poor man had his hands full there. "Whatever help you can spare, I'm sure that Zed would appreciate it."
"Hey, the fourth worm's back." Edie suddenly called from where she was watching the screen. "And what in the world does he have with him?" The worm was dragging a cart, loaded down with a large glass item, and with some sort of animal perched on the top, lounging on a pillow.
"That's Zed's fish tank. And Agent Elle's cat." Aileen said after a moment. What in the world were those worms up to?