Jessica snapped to attention as EVERYTHING shifted!
Gun, missing. Terrain altered. Incoming death via Psionic-Electro Pulse… Gone?
No targets. No threat.
Her heart refused to slow down as she reached for… Well, nothing. Even her reserve weapons and extra layers of clothing were missing… She was down to her underclothing, shirt, pants, and socks and shoes.
That was it.
And this clothing was different from the reinforced concealed body armor she had been wearing before. Thinner, though comfortable, and vastly lighter.
…Even her HAIR felt shorter! "What the HELL happened!?"
A sniffle nearby caused her to focus on her client… No, on young John Doe, who she was guarding. Not just the client of her defensive contract. Right.
Calm down. "Are you hurt, John?"
The boy wiped his eyes, looking at nothing. "No. But…Patriarch Wedgie and the clan stayed behind. I wasn't strong enough to bring all of us along. I… I don't think they made it."
What?
No, focus.
One sun, no visible moon, air wasn't poisonous, gravity felt standard, air pressure within acceptable ranges.
Time zone was altered, or her transition to here was NOT instantaneous and she was missing memories. Location vastly modified, this was some sort of forest clearing instead of a bustling city.
At least she had a rough idea of WHO had moved them both. "John, who is… 'Patriarch Wedgie'?"
The child slumped. "He was my first apple slice. M̵̟̖i̪̼̳͖̯͙̬̬͎n̡͓͎͉͖ͅè͈̯̮͎."
Uh. Alright?
John held his hands open. "Wedgie was real. I… I could keep him and know that I was real, that this was real, that we would be okay, that I wouldn't 'wake up' there again. But… But I couldn't keep all of you in my Pocket, so… So they had to stay behind."
Did… Did an apple slice somehow save her life?
No, mental crisis later: Current sitrep now. "Where are we, John?"
He shrugged. "I'm still hurt, so bringing anyone with me is really hard… Especially when they are alive and stuff like you are, instead of a ninja apple wedge. I couldn't go very far without leaving you behind, and that would have hurt you, so… We are still fairly close to where we were."
Good?
John vaguely waved his hand around. "We are still on an Earth, within the same cluster of dimensions as your home, within the same Realm. They even share a time stream, so we won't return to the distant past or future or something."
…Maybe not so good. "But we can return?"
He nodded. "Eventually. I wasn't supposed to travel like we did though… Emergency stuff or not, I need time to recover a bit." He tilted his head, seeing or hearing something she couldn't. "We can get back faster if we take a few more careful and slower, smaller steps on the way."
Right, that fell into the good category. "Agent T better file my UTS form by the deadline this time, or I'm going to tell his girlfriend ALL sorts of embarrassing stories."
The 'Unintended Temporary Suspension' forms were automatically filed (theoretically) when an Agent vanished, 'died' in unusual ways, or was detected as ascending to higher or lower planes of existence.
Should she return, she'd at least get back pay and earned paid leave and stuff.
After all, working with alien technology/life/etc tended to cause odd situations all the time anyway… The MIB had pretty much standardized a number of forms to cover it all.
Right.
She can breathe and operate functionally, she had a plan and a way home, her protectee was alive, and she WASN'T blasted into chunks by a deadly weapon during an ambush.
She could work with this. "Hey John, do you have any idea where my stuff is?"
He shrugged. "Left behind or Consumed. I didn't have enough Pocket space to carry it all, so I prioritized your health and safety over the other stuff and Devoured the rest of it to fuel our escape."
Did… Did he know that his eye was bleeding? "Are you sure you are alright, John?"
He blinked… And with frustration, wiped his eyes again. "Yeah, just… It hurts to force my Pocket to hold so much without building up to it. I also had to leave behind a few nonessential organs and stuff, which I need to regrow." The boy caught her sudden horror, and tried to wave it off. "This is nothing, I'm good. I'll get better."
Jessica tried to verify his health, but well… All her equipment was gone. He SEEMED to be fine. "If my stuff was eaten, where did I get this stuff?" She waved at her outfit.
He shrugged. "Many of you do dangerous stuff in your jobs, and one of you lost part of your house to a dimensional rift after a failed negotiation or something. That was from your closet, though I couldn't Keep much even after letting you out before my System locked down and stopped me from doing stuff."
That… That sounded impossible, important, and concerning. "Your system?"
He absently wiped away more blood. "Yeah, my existence is still trying to heal itself and sometimes it disables parts of me to prevent me from making things worse."
Ah. "Mom used to tell me to 'Stop picking at it', so something like that?"
He shrugged, looking down at his hands. "Most of my abilities are locked down right now. Cause I'm hurt."
He seemed so small, just then, as he whispered. "I… I don't like being hurt. But it is still better than feeling nothing."
Well.. That all sounded like an issue to be processed later. Focus on the positive! "So I got some clothing, we both are away from those guys trying to hurt us, and…" She grinned as she managed to find her spare shades! "...I still got my style? Yeah, we got this John! Let's look around, make sure we are safe, and then find some civilization, alright?"
He pointed. "Nearest town is that way, five miles. This is apparently a park, and there is a public facility restroom thing over that direction fairly close."
His arm fell. "Oh, and you can't speak the local language. Or read it. I won't be able to do so either for another hour or so, maybe longer if we don't rest first."
Ah.
That could add a few steps to her plan. Still! "So we got a plan AND we aren't lost! I tell ya John, today's going to be a great one!"
Thank goodness Agent training handled wilderness survival and unarmed martial arts. Let's do this!
~~~Pocket System~~~
John had felt pretty out of it for a while, missing his apple companions, until Jessica found something amazing!
He now had a PINECONE!
Its name was Spike!
He was prickly and much bigger than any of Wedgie's followers, but now that John hadn't had to compress a big adult woman into his Pocket he had enough room to keep his new companion safe!
Oh, and he eventually managed to unlock his System's communication units and somehow connect them with Jessica (As a pocketee apparently got granted some optional permissions or something), so they could both talk and write and understand the local languages and blah blah blah.
But more importantly, he had a new Pocket pal! And while, to most, Spike seemed to be a normal boring pinecone… To John, he was a new traveling buddy!
He mentally hugged his hidden
stroble while Jessica was out getting things done.
She gave a big speech about how he shouldn't steal stuff or rip people off or whatever she was doing right now to get money for this hotel room and food and all that, but she seemed suspiciously talented at landing on her feet and being able to blend into an unknown culture.
Still, it was impressive work for anyone with no identity, money, or shared cultural norms to gain that much funding within a half hour or so. She even said she'd keep an eye open when shopping with her new funds… But it felt too soon to simply buy more fruit.
After all, he didn't want Wedgie to feel like he was being replaced.
Thankfully, Jessica was very sympathetic and said she'd get them pizza or something, if that existed in this version of Earth. Which sounded awesome!
He absently chewed one of the metal rods Jessica had managed to gather. It tasted a lot like iron and had tons of impurities and stuff, but the System was sleepy right now and ANYTHING that he Devoured was helping it recover faster.
Still, it was odd for his Pocket to work like this… As if a separate space was an invisible mouth that could just chomp something for his System to process.
John also had no idea why he could feel the experience himself, even if the 'flavor' of glass and metal and plastic was surprisingly vibrant and fascinating.
Plus, he didn't HAVE to use his actual mouth to Devour things! He could just open his Pocket and suck stuff up while focusing on his intention!
He took another bite from the rod anyway.
Because it somehow felt better to do it like this. Better texture or something.
And it wasn't like the material actually entered his mouth or anything, so he wouldn't get poisoned or hurt his stomach or whatever. So it was fine. Fine!
Om nom nom.
Rust was spicy. Mmm.
Was it small enough now?
[[
Pocket.]]
John winced as it didn't vanish in his hand.
[[Limited Pocket Access continues until stability is reacquired.]]
Party pooper.
With a sigh he went back to nibbling on his metal snack stick.
At least he still had Spike in his Pocket, if nothing else.
Stupid limits, stupid injuries, stupid attacking jerks forcing him to run here and… Sigh.
Oh well. At least Spike didn't need a following of similar friends like Patriarch Wedgie… He was a loner! A cone all alone! His bristly exterior showed how tough he is, no matter how warm and fuzzy he was internally on an emotional level!
He bit more metal off.
…Wonder what Jessica was up to?
~~~Pocket System~~~
This was a lot harder to pull off without credentials, a stable source of money, and a Neuralyzer.
Jessica smiled at the low level clerk! "Thank you SO much! I still can't believe my husband didn't place our documents in the safe like he was supposed to, and it would have been so tricky to get them replaced the long way…"
The young woman smiled with satisfaction. "I'm just glad I can help, and that you are all alright after that fire. Do you need anything else today?"
Nope. "This is MORE than enough, I mean it."
Credentials got!
Now to do the next fifty or so steps to navigate the red tape and set up a self-certifying cycle of jargon and paperwork to get a temporary ID, then a legal set of 'real' credentials, then A REAL ID, then more actual real credentials, then…
Sigh.
Well, when your secret government organization doesn't exist in the dimension you fled to, one had to work with what they got. At least she had comfortable shoes thanks to John.
She paused, thinking about her clothing.
After all, it was 'new' to her, not from the attacked convoy.
John had been forced to leave nearly everything behind (Including most of her hair and ALL of her body hair, which had freaked her out), and that clothing had been from another version of her, stuff lost to the who knows where due to an accident.
A version of her that ALSO worked for MIB, based on the encoded emergency identification codes she found sewn into the lining of her pants.
A version of her that probably had access to one or more Neuralyzers… One of which may have ALSO been lost to the somewhere at the same time as this clothing.
She felt a headache trying to punch her in the brain sac.
Could… Could she have just asked John for a Neuralyzer?
Just… Just ask for a device that would let her manipulate people with ease?
No. Definitely not. Right? Probably not.
He had mentioned something about his abilities being 'locked down' due to his injuries, after all.
…But once he was recovered to some extent, she would have to check if that was possible. To just acquire devices she owned that was lost to her alternate selves like this comfortable clothing had been.
Not now though.
In fact, she was NEVER going to ask the boy if she could have just gotten him some sandwiches earlier today or something and then waited a few minutes to acquire guns, fake identification, money, and a damned Neuralyzer.
Right.
From now on, that scenario was impossible, all the work she had done today was necessary and NOT a god damned waste of time, and if anything or anyone implied otherwise she was going to firmly ride that boat down the streams of 'the Nile'.
With a growing burn of frustration, she did make a mental not to determine if, from now ONWARDS, her young companion could just acquire goods from nowhere. Just… Just because it would speed things up a little bit.
Right, go pick up some pizza, make sure the kid was alright, forget how annoying today had been, and ask tomorrow. She had a plan, she could work with this.
And ideally, let's see if the plan made in THIS dimension offered options with stuffed crust. Kids loved stuffed crust pizza, right? Right.
