Towering above all of the buildings in New York City, dwarfing even the World Trade Center, was the Headquarter of the Corporation. Many historians were unsure of exactly when the corporation was actually formed. Specializing in all sorts of different fields, the Corporation had control over numerous industries ranging from robotics to weaponry. The CEO of the company was a mysterious figure that almost seemed eternal in his control of everything. Words have been whispered that he had his hands in many unsavory businesses to continue his company's good fortune.
Valgaav reclined back in his chair as he faced the back window of his office that showed him the entire city of New York below. All those pathetic cretins down there without a single clue of how insignificant their very existence was, still stuck in the pathetic ideal that the world and everything else revolved around them. Well, it wouldn't be long before he pulled the veil from their eyes, moments before they were to be purged from this pathetic world.
"Phone for you, Mister Valgaav." His secretary said through the intercom.
Turning back to his desk as he picked up the phone, Valgaav asked, "Yes?"
"It's a pleasure to finally talk to you," Edgar remarked in a gravely tone with the sounds of snapping in the background.
"So you've finally arrived," Valgaav remarked as he narrowed his eyes. "Meet my contact at the Chester Cat Café. He'll give you the info for your target and try to stay inconspicuous. I don't want the PIE to catch wind of two bugs running through the city."
"Actually there's only me," Edgar muttered.
"What happen to the other one?" Valgaav inquired rubbing his temples in preparation for the bad news.
"Some aborigine ate him" was the reply that he got.
Valgaav held the phone out in front of him as he looked at it for a moment before he asked, "Are you serious?"
"Yes, but don't worry. I'm more than enough for the job and I had to improvise a flesh suit, but I won't stick out one bit." Edgar chuckled.
"Then get to the rendezvous point," Valgaav ordered.
"Fine, but remember my payment for all this," Edgar insisted as he tapped his fingers gingerly.
"Twenty thousand pounds of Sugar as agreed." Valgaav replied as he heard the bug slobbering through the phone line.
Quite frankly he despised the bugs, a race of egocentric beings that believed that they were superior to everyone else. Plus their delight for pain and destruction made them somewhat hard to control, especially when they felt in the mood to cause some chaos. Only their incredible strength and their speed made them even considered for work as mercenary. Though you had to pay them in loads of sugar, their only real weakness was their obsession for the substance.
"Right," Edgar laughed as he hung up on the other end.
"Blasted bug," Valgaav swore as he slammed the phone. "I'll be happy to end this little business affair as soon as possible." He grumbled before the phone rang again. Curling his lips into a snarl, Valgaav snapped, "What is it now?"
Silence.
Valgaav froze as his eyes widen. He looked at the phone he held fearfully, he could swear his hand would start to tremble if it wasn't already frozen. Oh damn it, it was him. All right, don't show fear. Because he can sense your fear and consume you into himself and you're not ready for that.
How is the operation going?
Valgaav gulped as his hope for the need to answer that question would not come up. He had been made well aware of how the other disliked delays or complications. The charred skeleton brought to him as a warning was all the convincing Valgaav needed.
Taking a deep breath, he responded, "Everything is going according to plan."
Have you located the key?
"My agents have located the guardian of the key, it'll be mere child's play to gain the info from him," Valgaav responded.
Fool. Do you honestly think that a bug will be able to handle the PIE agents?
"Bugs are one of the strongest races in the universe and-" Valgaav tried to reason before he was struck by a wave of pure nausea.
Don't trifle with me. I have waited too long for this chance to slip out of my fingers.
"I assure you, Lord Dark Star. Everything will be taken care of," Valgaav stated trying to ignore the psychic backlash of its anger.
Despite his half demon contributing to his amazing resistance to most damage, he almost felt like choking under its sheer presence. A being that stirred even when the stars wre young, it pre-dated the sheer concept of evil. Though now it seemed to radiate its pure and untainted emotion through its own voice as it conversed with him. Few beings were capable of handling its presence without dying from the sheer exposure of dealing with it.
"I'll handle everything personally," he promised as he felt the annoyance of Dark Star fading as it was much easier to breath now.
Do that. I'll be arriving shortly.
Valgaav's throat ran dry with that last comment as he stuttered, "You're coming here?"
Yes. I do not want to be disappointed when I arrive.
There was an eerie silence as Valgaav felt Dark Star's presence fade away slowly before completely dissipating. Letting out a sigh of relief, he was about to place the phone down when he realized it had melted into a bubbling puddle of plastic and wire. Dropping the remains of the receiver onto the desk, he coughed a bit as he noticed the blood on his hand.
He would have to move more quickly now if he didn't want to be destroy by it. If the thing wasn't so necessary to his plan, he would do without it. But Valgaav knew the only one with the power to fulfill his dream was it. Even if dealing with it may kill him from its sheer presence and unfathomable power that could consume things by simple exposure.
"I can't die yet," Valgaav muttered as he leaned back in his chair looking up at the ceiling. "Not until I avenge them can I finally rest. Only until my revenge is complete can I finally rest," he muttered as he closed his eyes.
"Alright let me get this straight," Zangulus repeated as he paced before the table, "You claim that the victim knocked the ice cream that you had bought out of your hand. That resulted in you chasing him down before you finally managed to catch. Then you claim he sprouted gills on his neck, before he pulled out his gun, which you then claimed to have mysteriously vanished after breaking. He then ran away again and you gave chase before someone shot off his head?"
"That's right," Lina replied as she sat by the table.
"Then please refresh my memory how the suppose perpetrator looked like?" Zangulus stated placing both hands on the table facing Lina.
"He was dressed in black with bluish stone skin and wire hair," Lina replied crossing her arms.
"I don't recall anyone ever having stone skin before," Gourry muttered as he leaned against the wall behind Lina.
"That's because people don't have stone skin," Zangulus snapped as Gourry shrug. "Now I am sick of this game, who was it that you killed!"
Standing up as she looked Zangulus right in the face Lina retorted, "I didn't kill him!"
"Oh please, we have a record of you this big," Zangulus stated as he held his hand out three feet.
"You know that was the same size of a fish I caught once," Gourry said as the two looked at him a bit. "Was I talking out loud again?" he asked as the others sweatdropped.
"Anyway," Zangulus said trying to get back on subject. "You have proven yourself to be quite the juvenile delinquent and there is no doubt in my mind you are somehow responsible for what happen."
"Oh come on, why don't you try wondering about what that guy is? He was spilling blue blood when he died!" Lina said as Zangulus and Gourry blinked.
"We'll let the autopsy deal with that first," Zangulus stated as he pulled out a chair and sat down. "We're ready to wait you out."
Lina snorted as she said, "I want my lawyer."
"You're not getting a lawyer till you start spilling the beans," Gourry replied as he stretched his neck. "Zangulus can be pretty stubborn about these things."
"Oh be quiet Gourry," Zangulus sneered as the three people stood there for a few moments.
The silence was broken as the door open and Martina stuck her head in and remarked, "Boys, the chief wants to see you."
"I wonder why?" Gourry muttered scratching his chin as he and Zangulus left.
"Good riddance," Lina sighed as she leaned back in the chair.
If there was one thing she had gotten sick of, it was those blasted NYPD. True, she had done some illegal and underhanded things in the past three years, but she had never killed anyone. Though the identity of the person she allegedly killed was a mystery. What was he talking about, someone coming?
Lina's thoughts were interrupted as the door to the interrogation room opened up. Three men dressed in black suits came walking in. Two of them looked almost identical with the shades and black wide trimmed hats they had on. The other one had the shades on, but wasn't wearing the hat to reveal his short graying hair along with the ear radio he had on. He signaled for the other two to stand by the door as he walked over to the other side of the table and sat down.
"Who are you? FBI?" Lina asked looking at them.
"We have no affiliation to any of your so-called governments," Smith stated as he placed his hands together. "I am simply refered to as Agent K. Smith. You may address me however you please." He said as Lina raised an eyebrow at the complete emptiness in his voice.
"Alright Smith," Lina muttered growing even more suspicious about everything. "Where's Zangulus and Gourry?"
"They are no longer of any interest to you right now," Smith said flatly as he looked at her. "It has come to my understanding that you recently had an 'unusual' encounter. This encounter has left you with questions you can not find answers for. Am I right?"
"What are you getting at?" Lina asked not liking where this guy was going.
"My agency would like to help you in dealing with this problem. If you would come with us of course," Smith commented as he handed her a business card.
Lina looked at the card for a moment as all it read was "MiB" on the front and totally blank on the back of it. Things were getting really suspicious right now and Lina hated being in a situation she wasn't in full control.
"Fat chance," Lina retorted as she tossed the card back at Smith.
Catching it with his hand, Smith said, "I'm afraid that you are making things more difficult then they have to be, Miss Lina Inverse."
"How did you know my name?" Lina demanded as Smith merely got up.
"That is not concern your for that now. You may take her," he ordered as the two other MiB grabbed Lina by both her arms and lifted her up. "Our orders are quite clear on what to do with people like you. You're a bit too dangerous to simply just have your memory wiped."
"Hey, let go of me you creeps!" Lina cursed as she managed kick one of them.
"Take her away," Smith ordered as the two MiB nodded and escorted Lina out of the room. Touching his hand to the radio plugged into his ear, he said, "The girl is on her way."
Looking up at the recording surveillance camera, Smith simply reached into his coat as he withdrew a pistol. Pointing it at the camera, he pulled the trigger.
A loud explosion rocked the building.
Twisting around as he saw dust flying down the hallway outside of the door, Smith easily dashed out of the room. Smoke obscured much of the hallways, but Smith was able to see through it with little problem. The exterior of the place had been badly scorched as he spotted the two men he had assigned to escort the girl laying on the floor. Walking up to them, still wary for any attack, he checked on the first one, but he was already gone. The other one however was still alive in manner of speaking.
"What happened?" was all Smith said.
"A PIE agent intercepted us and got the girl" was the response.
"He will not be pleased," Smith stated as he looked at the damage to the door done by the PIE agent.
Lina was not a happy camper right now. For one thing, she didn't like camping and for the other thing she wasn't all that happy about her current situation anymore. First she had her ice cream splattered and ruined by some weird jerk. Then she got herself in trouble with the NYPD (again) to make the matters even worse. Soon after that some weird dudes calling themselves the MiB wanted to haul her off somewhere. Right now she had just taken from those guys by that weird blue stoned guy who was responsible for half this mess.
"Where the hell are you taking me?" Lina asked as she gave the driver a death glare.
"Somewhere else," Zel replied not even bothering to look at the girl.
"Can someone explain why I've suddenly become so popular all of sudden?" Lina muttered as she looked at the dashboard of the taxi the stone guy commandeered.
"You messed around with stuff people are better off not knowing about," Zel answered her.
Great, she had Mister Sarcastic City here to deal with now. All of this was starting to give her a real bad case of stomach cramps.
"So what reason do you want me for?" she asked. Zel didn't answer her. "Hey, I'm talking to you!" Lina snapped grabbing Zel by the ear and tugging it.
That got his attention.
"You saw what weapon that person you were chasing had right?" Zel stated whacking her hands off. "Can you identify it if you saw it again?"
Blinking in surprise at his comment, Lina shrugged, "I guess so, but-"
"Good, we're here," Zel said slamming the break and causing Lina's face to plaster against the windshield. "You should really learn to wear the seat belt," Zel remarked as he got out of the taxi.
"Thanks for warning me," Lina muttered rubbing her nose. "It probably looks like someone flatten it."
"It already looked like that," Zel commented.
"No, it didn't!" Lina snapped before she got a look at where they were. "Hey, this is Xelloss' Pawn shop. He just sells contraband, not weapons."
"You'd be surprise about the guy," Zel remarked as he pulled out the same gun he used to kill the other guy and started to fiddle with it.
"No, wait a minute, you aren't planning on going in there and blasting his head off are you?" Lina asked stepping in front of Zel.
"That's the plan," Zel remarked snapping the gun back.
Crossing her hands in front of her, Lina said, "Time out, let me take care of this."
Zel looked at her for a moment, before he shrugged and put the gun away, "Alright we'll do it your way for now."
"Right," Lina nodded as she walked into the pawnshop.
"Well Lina, pleasant surprise to see you here." Xelloss smiled wearing a cheap bowling alley uniform as he was examining a bunch of Rolexes. "So what can I do for you?" he asked as Lina looked around the shops.
"Do you carry weapons?" Lina asked grabbing him by the collar and looking him right in his closed eyes.
"Oh come now Lina," Xelloss shrugged. "You know I don't do those sorts of things and why do you want a weapon anyhow?"
"She isn't interested in a weapon, but I'm interested in who you might have sold one to," Zel stated as he stepped into the store pulling out his gun.
"Well Zel, pleasant surprise to see you too," Xelloss greeted.
"Cut the bull," Zel said as he leveled the pointer at Xelloss with Lina taking a few steps back.
"Hey, I thought we were going to do it my way?" Lina demanded as Zel shrugged.
"It was taking too long," Zel replied.
You should really learn to work on your people skill-" Xelloss started before his head was blasted off by a well placed shot.
Lina looked from the burning stump that was Xelloss' head to Zel and asked, "And how does that help us?"
"Watch," Zel said.
"That wasn't pleasant," Xelloss muttered as a head rematerialized in the space just vacated before.
"Just tell me what you know," Zel remarked keeping his gun trained on Xelloss still.
"Well that is a secret-"
Lina looked at Zel and muttered, "Again with the head being blown off?"
"I just hate him when he gives me that phrase," Zel said as they waited for Xelloss to get a new head.
"Okay then, two times getting your head blown off is enough for me." Xelloss sighed.
"It'd better be because the next one is going to be shot in a place you won't be growing back," Zel warned as Xelloss merely shrugged.
"If you must see my wares," he stated as he pushed a button under the cabinet that revealed numerous kinds of alien weapons.
"Well?"
"Oh that one," Lina pointed at the one that looked like the one the weird guy was trying to use.
"A Mark-X Air Compression Stutter Type," Zelgadiss remarked looking at the model. "Was more than likely used for a kidnapping job. Who was the target?"
"I don't know?" Xelloss smiled as Zel glared at him.
"You obviously made sure he didn't tell you so you couldn't get in trouble," Zelgadiss muttered as he turned to walk out. "Let's go," he told Lina as he exited.
"What the heck is he? An alien?" Lina demanded when they exited the store.
"No, he's a high level demon. Ever since his Master vanished he's been running a large fence and information web. If I had the power to do it, I would send him back to the underworld that spawned him," Zel muttered as he looked at the sky.
"So what is going to happen to me?" Lina asked stretching her arms behind her head.
"You'll see," Zel remarked as he got back into the taxi.
"Not the taxi again," Lina muttered as Zel gestured for her to get him.