Into the Black: Epilogue

[bring_a_sponge]

A silence falls over sublevel C, broken only by the occasional clatter of falling debris, and the quiet chatter coming over the MiB comm, as the surviving Men in Black escape from the DeNeuralyzation Room upstairs and fan out to see just how bad things are.

Well, they sure aren't good. But the destruction of N, Y, T in the shooting gallery has left the Oil for dead, apparently everywhere else in the Headquarters.

That wasn't supposed to be how the Oil worked. But then, Zed thinks, MiB got most of its data about the Black Oil from those same Agents.

He looks around what's left of the gallery, and of Marvin, and then finally the rest of his team.

A long pause.

"I'll say this much for Milliways."

"The place is a fucking nuthouse, and always will be."

"But the people there know how to kick ass like nobody else."

Comments

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, Jen's stuck on top of Marvin's head for a few minutes, looking around for a square foot of floor that isn't covered with slime, guts, Oil, body parts, and other viscous unidentifiable substances. She turns, and can make out two beslimed figures crawling out from the remains of Marv, and breathes an audible sigh of relief. The thought of good people dying in this place had that tight feeling at the back of her throat, the feeling that takes years to go away.

"This place? A slip and fall class action lawsuit waiting to happen," she calls out to no one in particular.

She finally sights a cleanish patch of floor thirty or so feet away, and leaps, landing on both feet.

Jen does what comes naturally, after fighting non-stop on teams for so long: status check. She turns slowly, looking around, taking silent inventory.

"Zed? Is everyone here? Is everyone okay? Where's Steph? Where's Goldy?"

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

At about this time, Goldy comes sliding down into the carnage from the Landing Bay, on one of Steph's de-cel cables. She's still covered in bug juice.

"Jeez. It looks and smells like the shit actually hit the fan down here."

"What did I miss?"

[bring_a_sponge]

Zed has just finished doing a status check himself. "Everyone here and accounted for, Jen. Goldy there, Steph there, and....well, hard to miss Maxwell in that."

"Team Alpha on their feet," Zed casts a concerned look toward Suzi. And then, seeing Venkman, he adds "OK, on their feet, figuratively. And Team Omega still holding the line."

"And the surviving Agents are out of the DeNeuralyzation Room. They're upstairs now, securing the area."

"What's left of it, anyway."

Yeah. Fowler Schocken Insurance of Regulus IX is just going to love this claim....

[3rdtimelucky.livejournal.com]

It's actually quite obvious what Goldy missed. There's a huge worm laid across the room with a blast hole in its head and a gaping crater in its side. She looks a little peeved to have missed the smackdown, but she mentally concedes that her arsenal would have been no match for that size of beast.

"Hey Zed," she calls, making her way through the rubble and gunky debris over to Steph. "I picked up a few more worms up there."

She leaves that hanging for a suspenseful second, then grins.

"A bit smaller though. They said they're friends of yours, so I didn't cremate them."

[bring_a_sponge]

"Oh," Zed grunts cryptically.

"Not sure it wouldn't've done us a favor."

Knowing the worms as well as he does, Zed's tempted to follow up on her use of the phrase 'picked up.' But there are some things even a Man in Black really doesn't want to know.

"Everything else quiet up there?"

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Meanwhile, Jen is relieved to see Goldy intact. Sometimes you have to verify things with your own eyes.

She gives Goldy a thumbs up and a grin.

Then she holds up two fingers behind Zed's head while he's speaking, giving him digital antennae.

[maxwellsdemon02]

Duo pops out of the mech, and clambers up to its highest point to survey the carnage. "Worms are no match for the awesome skills of..."

The air filters inside had protected him from the smell until now. He makes a very expressive face. "Gross."

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Jen makes her way closer to the mech, her shoes getting slimier with each step. Ewwww.

"You haven't smelled gross until you've had to share a room with Thor after a four hour fight with the Mole Man underneath New York City, kiddo," she calls. "Nice shooting! Want to jump down? Or want me to come up and get you?"

She holds out her arms, inviting. Unless he's one of those teenage boys with an ego.

But Jen is impressed. Very, very impressed.

[maxwellsdemon02]

"Mole Man sounds smelly by definition." Duo is not particularly fond of nature. "But who's Thor?"

He eyes the floor. Jumping off of high things is always a good time, especially if you have green, statuesque women waiting to catch you. But he's already sort of slime-y.

"I'll stay up here, thanks. I have to put this thing back where it belongs, after all."

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

"Thor! Thor Odinson! God of thunder! What are they teaching you kids in school these days? No comparative theology?"

Or maybe there's just no Scandinavia or primal elemental gods where Duo's from.

"Where did you learn to pilot these mechs, anyway?"

[maxwellsdemon02]

"No school is the problem. I know a little about plenty of religion, but only if they've got active followers at home, or like, actual avatars in the bar."

He pats the mech fondly.

"From mad scientists, of course. Duh." Duo does not feel like going into the whole Tragic Past™ and war torn world thing right now. He's in a good mood.

[gammagammahey.livejournal.com]

Jen nods. This is perfectly in line with the way things usually work, of course, on her world. It's always either mad scientists, or something to do with Stark Industries, or the Office of National Emergency and their tragically misguided campaign to make Sentinels appear cuddly.

"Have you fought in one of these things before? Fought something like this, I mean? I've got a job for you if things don't work out back home...."

She jerks a thumb back at the thoroughly eviscerated Marvin.

And grins.

[maxwellsdemon02]

"We are sadly lacking in evil space aliens, at home. Regular human beings are enough trouble. And I fought a war in a mobile suit, which is a kind of mech."

He grins.

"We can talk, but only if you have better toys than Zed, here."

[alwaysroomforhope]

Steph rolls her eyes and doesn't ask. (Goop. Worms. Jeeze.)

Besides ... she's quiet now, thinking about something else entirely.

Mysterious cloaked strangers may be a dime-a-dozen in Milliways and even in Gotham, but here? Plus ... weird.