"Jinksy is a momma's boy! Jinksy is a momma's boy!"
"Shut up, Claudia!" I said in a warning tone. Claudia had been calling me a momma's boy ever since we got back from visiting my mother. Now that we had both forgiven each other about Sophie's death, Claudia and I had been disconnected from the metronome - and from each other.
Claudia chased me down the stairs of Leena's B&B with another chorus of "Jinksy is a momma's boy!"
"Shut up, Claudia!"
"Oh, is she still going on about that?" asked Myka, who was, as usual, reading a book, draped over Leena's couch.
"Yep," I replied. As Leena walked by with a tray, I smelled something suspiciously delicious.
"Are those…scones?"
"Yes," replied Leena, with a general oooh from Myka, Claudia and myself. "And you better start on them before Artie gets here, or there won't be any."
"Too late," said Claudia, dismally, as Artie walked through into the B&B living room.
"Everyone, I have assignments for you, come and - oh, are those scones, Leena? Mmm thank you," Artie mumbled, grabbing a handful of scones, which only left half.
Which Pete took.
"Ooooh, Leena, scones, mmm, delicious, thanks," he said, jogging downstairs to the dining room.
Myka, Claudia, Leena and I followed into the dining room.
"So, Artemis," said Claudia, in an accent H.G Wells probably would have cringed at, "what hast thou been doing? Creating fire?" This earned a scowl from Artie. Well, Artie was always scowling, so this earned Claudia a deeper scowl.
"Riding dinosaurs?" I suggested, earning a glare over his spectacles that looked rather like Professor McGonagall.
"Writing the Rosetta Stone?" Myka joined in.
"Pwobrly berldwin P'rmds er' Ge'zer," said Pete, with about five scones stuffed in his mouth. We all looked at him in disgust. "Whar?" he said indignantly.
"Can you be any more childish?" asked Leena. Of everyone here, she was the most motherly figure - which often meant she scolded Pete.
"He says 'Probably building Pyramids at Giza,'" Myka concluded.
"Wow, you still speak Pete, huh? That must be the hardest language you know," Claudia said, then turned to me and mouthed momma's boy.
"What did I say, no old jokes, no short jokes, no fat jokes, no glasses jokes!" Artie demanded irritably.
"But Artie, we're sorry, we only did old jokes," Pete said. "We're not done yet!"
"Yes. You. Are. We have a ping, for Steve and Claudia, so Pete and Myka can take a break form their exhausting time in West Virginia. Take some time, maybe see a movie, or go to a restaurant…"
"Oh really?" said Pete excitedly. "Because there's this awesome new taco place that opened up that I wanna show Myka-"
"No, of course not!" snapped Artie, making me jump and spill coffee on myself.
"Ouch!" I yelped, with Leena quickly appearing with a towel and refresher of coffee.
"Oh, poor Jinksy. For a second I expected to feel your pain…but because you're a momma's boy…" Claudia jeered.
"Not now, Claudia," I warned.
"Shut up, all of you!" Artie yelled, making all of us jump.
"Artie, are you alright?" Leena said in her soothing but concerned tone. "You're aurora's off the charts, its never this red…"
"I'm fine, alright, I've just got a lot on my mind," Artie snapped. "Look sorry, but a lot is going on. Pete, Myka, believe it or not, but we still have artifacts that have to be tagged and placed from Warehouse 2."
"Oh, man, we're still working on that?" Pete whined.
"Leena will help you out, you've got to do it quickly thought, they've been mulling over for over a year and their energies could be…dangerous. Anyway, Steve, Claudia, we have a ping in Minneapolis. A woman is jumping in the face of danger, taking bullets, etc. and miraculously healing from the wounds. However, it makes her increasingly reckless. Yes, I know, she's doing good, but every artifact has a downside."
"I know that woman," said Claudia.
"I know what the artefact is.