Chapter Text
From far out and beyond in the emptiness of space in the Milky Way, a tiny little meteorite formed by the clash of two lesser known and… less important dwarf planets.
And on and on it traveled, trillions of miles.
Passing by beautiful stars that were dying, suns going supernova, black holes devouring everything on their path, galaxies colliding with each other.
All of that, in complete, total silence.
Eventually, it entered the Kuiper Belt, then flew closeby the planet Jupiter, barely surviving the gas planet’s strong gravity field by being flung to an even more terrifying, yet beautifully stunning planet.
Earth was lonely, not really fitting in with its neighbors. A big blue shiny marble compared to the black void of space, a small jewel that held the most priceless thing imaginable.
Life.
Earth, the only planet in its solar system that could inhabit life, couldn’t really do anything about the small alien object that started entering its stratosphere at a rapid speed. It furiously and quietly landed on a meadow, leaving behind a scorching trail of fire on one specific country, on one specific state, on one specific county…
Out on a bright sunny day in the countryside of Suffolk County, New York, a tiny little beast emerged from the fallen meteorite, it was as small as a needle and twice as deadly.
You could just squeeze it with your fingers, it would give you a really good reason to do so too.
It looked around briefly at the bright blue sky, the nature and the weird hairless apes tending to a farm nearby, they were completely unaware of the silent hazardous being that hopped around among them, that craved a taste of blood.
—
When Jay woke up this morning, he thought whatever had happened yesterday was all just a funky dream.
He wouldn’t exactly call himself creative, because there was nothing he was exactly good at anymore to express himself with, but that dream was so… weird.
He knew for a damn fact he shouldn’t have eaten asian food and downed half a bottle of tequila for dinner, he just had a feeling like he always did, and yet ignored it.
This is what he gets:
Dreaming about a mysterious agent man recruiting him for a secret bureau that polices and monitors aliens, flirting with a good looking coroner lady, then blowing up an intergalactical cockroach with a special alien gun alongside with his new partner against crime.
Huh. Huh?
Rubbing his eyes open, Jay chuckled as he searched for the bedside lamp switch, laughing at how absurd and crazy that whole scenario sounded, while the only thing he seemed to be able to grab was… air, no lightswitch.
Wait- This was not his own bedroom he was in.
This room was almost pitch black, the only light source came from the small crack underneath the door, no windows. The bed he laid on felt overly stiff and small, and the sheets were kinda scratchy, itch inducing, same with the pajamas he was wearing.
There was a sudden burst of knocking on the door. Loud and firm.
Jay groaned, dragging his fingers down along his face, leaving behind deep red marks. “You just had to be real, didn’t you Kay?”
“Rise and shine, the postman’s knockin’.”
The noise repeated in some kind of musical rhythm.
“Yo! Hold your damn horses! Jeez.”
Sliding off of bed and dashing to open the door, a blinding amount of light filled up the small spaced room as Jay got greeted by an expected, yet unusually familiar man.
Kay was leaning against the opposite grey wall, looking down at some file like it was the morning paper, acting as if he hadn’t just thrown a drumming solo on Jay’s door.
The guy was all up and ready for the day, black suit perfectly pressed, tie tight up his throat. Not a single hair was out of place on his head, and that got Jay thinking how Kay even managed to sleep after a night like that, if at all. How could sleep even be possible here?
Finally looking up at the new agent, Kay casually threw the file into the kid’s arms. “Hey, how ya doin’?”
I don’t exist anymore, I’m not poor or rich. I never had or ever will have a family, no one to care or worry about, no one to go back home to. I’m hella well. I’m ecstatic!
Jay smiled slowly, meaning it. “I’m good, man.”
Kay narrowed his eyes at him. “Good. Take a look at that.”
“Take a look at what?” Curious, Jay opened the file he was forced to hold, there was a newspaper inside. Uh huh, so Kay was reading the morning paper, would you look at that. “Aww, you brought me a crossword puzzle, how sweet. Thanks, but no thanks, I ain’t that old like you yet.”
After a few blinks, Kay then reached and flipped the paper over for him, tapping at the headline. “You’d wish it was a simple crossword puzzle, slick. We’ve got work to do. This is the perfect way to get you trained. Repetition. Zed wants to see how you’ll do on your own, and so do I.”
Jay raised a brow at him, slowly glancing downwards.
THE WORLD May 9th 1997
All of New York, all in one page. 40 cents.
DEADLY ITCHY OUTBREAK DRIVES FARMERS MAD
Doctors are stunned, Scientists were left bewildered
NEW SPECIES DISCOVERED?
OR SOMETHING OF EXTRATERRESTRIAL ORIGINS
LINKED TO A METEOR FOUND IN THE AREA?
What a curse it is to be a farmer. He flipped a page over, and his eyes widened.
The photos inside were… kind of grotesque, it’s crazy they made it into paper. Poor farm girl looked like she got her life sucked out of her body, it was a miracle she was still alive, apparently.
Jay couldn’t bring himself to look away from the girl’s sullen face, and his lips staggered as he tried to speak. “I can’t do this on my own, Kay, I told you. This is…”
Too much, way too much.
Every five years or so, it felt like his whole life would suddenly take a 180 degree turn, going from routine to something completely new and alien. It wasn’t that he wasn’t used to crazy shit like this, but this was a new level of crazy he’d never encountered before, and actually alien.
Having the fate of Earth and billions of people’s lives on the planet in your hands was… very overwhelming, and downright terrifying.
From what little he could see of Kay, the man seemed to have suddenly turned into a statue, and a good few seconds passed before he uttered anything back.
“I’ll be there with you.” It was barely audible. “If that’s what you want.”
“Gotta hold my hand through everythin’, huh?” Jay felt his own hands crumble up the sides of the newspaper, without meaning to, giving him a papercut. “I bet you’re thinking I’m weak for this, and for not having the guts to neuralyze you yesterday. T-That I kept you back from-”
“I’m not. Do you want me to be?”
“...No.”
“Then look at me, please.”
Jay did just that, and Kay looked patient, appraising, like he could easily wait an eternity for an answer that any random rookie could figure out.
“What’s on your mind?” Kay slowly asked him, emphasizing every word, his gaze then scrutinizing every subtle change of expression on the young agent's face. “What are you thinking right now, exactly?”
Time flies by faster than a bullet, but this moment felt like an eternity. It was merely ten seconds.
“I think we got another bug,” Jay finally said after some thought, his voice sure and confident.
“Bingo,” Kay actually smiled. “You’re getting good at this, ace,” taking the file back in his hands again, he rolled it up into the perfect bug swatter before leaving. “Eat something, get suited up, I’ll meet you at the weaponry. You remember where it is, right?”
“Yep, I sure do,” Jay mumbled, scratching his head as he glanced down the hall at all the other agents getting ready for a 37 hour day, his voice was not so confident anymore.
—
Jay went and got himself lost in MIB headquarters.
He had passed by many other agents left and right, but still acted like he knew where he was going with a powerful walk. He’d blame it on being kinda shy, same would his pride, though he never really was afraid to speak his mind.
Doing so always got him into trouble, hence him being here right now. Him and his big mouth.
After finding his way around to the main hall the hard way, Jay instantly spotted his partner chatting with another agent as soon as he had turned around the corner.
It kinda freaked him out, the way his eyes immediately landed on Kay from so far away, through crowds of many other suits.
The thing was, Kay spotted him too in a heartbeat, and abruptly stopped talking, insisting on not breaking intense eye contact, even when they were now three feet away from each other.
“‘Sup?” Jay practically yelled at the agents with a nod, to get through the background chatter. “What are you girlies talkin’ ‘bout here, huh? Fill me in on the latest MIB gossip, come on.”
Kay looked disappointed, and the guard acted as if he didn’t exist anymore as he returned to his spot. “You got lost, didn’t you?”
Jay was now fairly sure Kay had to be a mind-reading alien or something, because the man was way too good at figuring him out, considering they knew each other for only like four days.
“No, I didn’t. That’s uh…” Jay slyly walked by him while avoiding eye contact, and the agent guarding the weaponry opened the door for them both with robotic movements. “That’s a really wild accusation to be throwing around, man.”
Inside, the whole weaponry felt warm, and the air smelled like metal. There were too many things to look at, way too many lethal weapons to look at.
Jay put his hands in his pockets, watching Kay casually stop and pick up a weapon, examining it briefly before putting it down and moving on.
Some guns buzzed and beeped and pinged, and some were way too weird looking, you couldn’t tell which way to hold them, or where the trigger was. It was an accident waiting to happen.
Another maze, Jay relied on Kay as to where they had to go to now, and let him get in front through the many rows of tables and lockers full of silver weapons.
“You waste time being quiet at the worst possible moments. Someone ever tell you that, hondo?”
“Nope, I ain’t got that one before. I call dibs on the deatomizer though, no noisy cricket for me today.”
“Not while I’m around, ace.”
“Look, my aim’s good, Kay, I swear. I was uh… a little stressed out back there at the jewelry store.”
“We’re not going to shoot anything.”
“Hm?”
“We need it alive.”
“Kay’s right.” A female agent interrupted, murmuring as she rummaged through a weapons locker full of smaller special alien guns. “It most likely spread an alien disease to humans and innocent animals, we’ll need a sample for a cure.”
Dr. Laurel Weaver, now Agent Elle, turned around while taking out of the locker two cricket sized guns, and held them up like a cowgirl, a delirious smirk on her lips.
What a woman.
With sparkling brand new Ray Ban sunglasses resting on top of her head and an equally shiny smile, her skirt was a little too short, and the white dress shirt beneath her suit jacket and tie was a bit too tight on her. Jay didn’t complain.
“Nice to see you again, boys,” Elle held up the guns from their barrel in front of them, in an inviting way, kinda like the people at the supermarket offering free cheese samples. “I trust you’ll bring me a fine specimen to work my magic on? Got a test I’m very much looking forward to passing.”
“Your excellence depends on junior over here,” Kay implied, quickly taking and hostling his newly acquired gun with ease. “When the planet gets blown up, blame it on him, not me.”
Taking the gun then pausing with realization, Jay turned to glare at Kay with a thrown off smile, the older agent was completely and utterly unimpressed. “I’ll try my damn best, alright? Actin’ like you can see the future or some shit.”
Kay snickered, nodding once at the lady agent, then walking away without another word.
“Elle,” Jay jabbed a thumb at the door his partner walked out from. “Can you believe that guy? Seriously.”
“I believe he’s trying to bring out the best in you, Jay. In his own way, of course.” Quickly reaching out to steady his gun equipped hand, Elle eagerly tried bringing his attention to the weapon, pointing to it, showcasing it. Her touch was cold, and her fingertips smooth. “Anyway, this is called an Icer, and it shoots ice, obviously, could you imagine if it shot fire?”
The gun that shoots ice and not fire, was a little bit bigger than the cricket, and it was colored white with a few blue accents. It was heavy and sturdy, it felt expensive, and out of this world. If Jay closed his eyes he could easily imagine he was holding any other human made pistol, though it was harder for him to picture himself being anywhere else anymore already.
“So,” Elle frowned worriedly, refusing to let him go by hanging on to his shoulder. “I think I made it pretty clear what you should use it for?”
Jay met her eyes, his smile radiant and contagious, wiping away any signs of distress from her face.
“That you did.”
“Tell me all about it when you come back?”
“That I will.”