"Nah, it'll be fine!" Thankappan assured him. He sounded really confident for some reason as he patted Taro's shoulders.

"How can you be so sure?" Taro asked, clearly confused about Thankappan's strange confidence.

"Well, it's not that I'm sure about it. It's just that we're all screwed equally if it doesn't work out in our favor." Thankappan replied. Suddenly, the hand that he used to pat Taro's shoulders quivered.

"Ha, what happens when-" Taro was about to put forth the possibility of everything crumbling down. However, before he could complete his sentence, Thankappan clamped his shoulders even tighter than before, asking him to stop.

"Just, no. We don't have the luxury to think about the future. Look, he's coming to his senses." Thankappan spoke as he pointed towards John.

#

John slowly opened his eyes. It seemed as if Taro knocked him out for a very long time. The surroundings were so bright for him. He squinted his eyes, trying to get a good look at the people before him. However, he didn't have to guess their identities, since he already knew who they were.

"You bastards!" John screamed as he tried lunging towards the people before him. However, he was unsuccessful in doing so. He noticed that they tied him down to the chair. Since that was the case, he didn't struggle too much and receded back to the chair, since he didn't want to waste too much energy. He was planning to escape, so every bit of energy was important to him.

"Ooh, thinking of escaping now, are ya?" The one who stood in the middle approached really close to John and gave out a smile. It was Thankappan.

"Piss off!" John tried spitting at him, however Thankappan dodged it.

"Hey, why would you do that now, huh? I don't wanna get some weird illness from your spit! Hmm, what do we do about it then? Well, we'll make you clean it after we flash you one more time!" Thankappan's smile grew even more sinister as he continued speaking.

John was trying to conserve his energy. However, upon hearing this statement from Thankappan, he could no longer keep it quiet. "Fucking—I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! How can you be so careless? You fuckers flashed twice at me. Including the orientation, this would be my third time getting flashed. Do you even know how dangerous that is?" He asked.

"Yes." Thankappan gave out a straightforward reply.

This enraged John even more. "Then why would you do that, huh? I would've ended up with no memories of literally anything. Not just the shenanigans you pulled out in that tournament." He screamed.

"Hmm, so?" Thankappan tilted his head, as if he was not getting John's point.

"Huh?"

"Why would we care about that?" He asked.

"Argh! MIB handbook. You remember the rules, right? They do not allow you to flash the neuralyzer on a fellow agent because it might prove fatal. It's an official rule! Do you even know the punishment for doing such a thing? You would all lose your jobs. Hell, you might as well be imprisoned or killed for hiding the truth about that alien right there!" John spoke as he pointed towards Taro.

Thankappan thought for a while before replying. "So, what you're saying is that even if we are to leave you without flashing you for the third—fourth time to be exact, you'd end up snitching on us and get us imprisoned or killed, huh? Well, here I was thinking of not flashing you, expecting you to keep your silence on it or get an immunity for us, at least. But, now that's all in the drain!" Thankappan sighed.

John just realized the opportunity he missed. Had he lied, he would've been able to escape without harm. However, now he messed that up as well. "Ah, I did not mean—you know what? I'll get you that immunity. Hell, I won't even speak of this incident, or any, as a matter of fact. So, is that offer still up?" He asked, giving out one of the most innocent voices he could pull off.

After hearing this, Thankappan sighed yet again. "Ha, should've lied when you had the chase, man! You sound too desperate now."?He shook his head in disappointment towards John's attempt.

John knew it as well—the line was to incite him and give him the slightest of hopes. It didn't hold any sorta meaning or weight behind it. It was hollow as the man who spouted it was.

"Very well. Why aren't you flashing the neuralyzer on me? Why drag it out this long?" He asked.

"Wha—I'm not dragging it out! You were the one asking questions! You know what, I'm just gonna straight-up flash it at this point!" Thankappan proclaimed as he brought the neuralyzer before John's face and wore the sunglasses.

Although Thankappan sounded confident as he shoved the neuralyzer, his face and body language relayed his intentions to John. He looked concerned about something, and this was John's best shot at doing something.

He kicked Thankappan in the knees, causing him to go down. John followed it up by kicking the ground and doing a barrel roll with the chair. He then grabbed the neuralyzer off Thankappan and didn't waste a single moment to flash it on him since he didn't want to miss the angle he was on.

"Ah—the aliens are trying to kill us both. We are best buds! You were about to save me when the Wadorian kicked you in the knees. If we don't report this to the HQ, it's gonna be the end of us both!" John screamed, hoping that some of it would get relayed to Thankappan, who would've got his memory wiped by now.

However, when he stopped tumbling, he realized. There was a man shielding Thankappan from the neuralyzer's rays. It was Taro who came in for the clutch-save. Since that happened, John tried to do it once more as he twisted his hand back to adjust the position of the neuralyzer. However, before he could do anything with it, the plankton took it off his hands, while Gibli made him sit back in an upright position.

"Well, divide and conquer, huh? Quite a good plan, other than if you think about it a bit more and you'll find it completely stupid! I was wearing the glasses, for Pete's sake! And even if the glasses fall off and you hit me after the ray slipping through Taro's defense, even then it wouldn't matter. I might stand by you for the time being not knowing the truth behind your words, however we'll get trashed by these three if that happens! What were you even thinking?" Thankappan asked, as he dusted himself and got up.

"You see, that was the problem. I didn't get any time to think. That was my only chance, and I made use of it." John replied.

"I see. Splendid effort—not enough to mess anything, but great effort. Now,?don't worry about anything and just sit still as I do this!" Thankappan once again shoved the neuralyzer between them, although this time around, he kept it at a considerable distance from John, which made John smile.

John hadn't given up. He wasn't planning to until he actually ends up getting flashed. So, instead of giving his consent to flash the neuralyzer on him, he instead closed his eyes shut as hard as he could, trying to make this process as difficult as possible.

"This guy! What are you doing? Are you trying to play the long game? You know it won't work, right? Why are you even struggling, huh? Last ditch effort? It's gonna amount to nothing—you know that, right?" Thankappan groaned in annoyance.

However, John didn't give him a reply. Instead, he continued what he did, not giving Thankappan an obvious chance to flash the neuralyzer on him. He felt immense satisfaction doing this.

Although John looked pleased, the others surrounding weren't. Thankappan was getting more annoyed as the minutes ticked on. "Okay, screw it! You're gonna play this game? Fine! We're gonna force your eyes open then!" He proclaimed as he signaled Taro to do the dirty deed.

John's struggles didn't last too long upon the involvement of the Wadorian. He seamlessly opened the eyes that were previously forced shut, to the point that John was afraid that Taro might accidentally end up bleeding his eyes.

Since Taro made his job easier, Thankappan felt at ease as he brought forth the neuralyzer—this time around, brimmed with confidence. However, before he could actually flash it on John, someone interrupted him.

"Ha, sorry guys! I'm late. I mean, Shivani wasn't leaving me alone for some reason—what the hell are you guys doing?" M'Baku asked with horror clearly depicted in his face. He didn't get why John was tied to a chair and why Taro was holding the man's eyes as if he was gonna tear it off. He was confused at this point.

"M'Baku. Leave. You never saw this, okay?" Thankappan spoke in such an ominous tone that he had no choice but to shake his head as he ran back to Shivani's room. He learned of the terror that was Thankappan. From that day forward, he did his best to not get on the MIB agent's wrong side.

#