AN – So this is my first real shot at a WH13 story, reviews are loved because I like to know what people think but a note is that this story is almost completely written off line I just have to sit down and write it. I love looking into history and coming up with new artifacts, because the story will cover everyone there's no real pairings at the moment. Once again please read and review and I own nothing please support the official release. I should also mention that this takes place after 'What matters most' 4.17 but before the arch with Nick, so Nick hasn't arrived as of yet.
Lights flashed as reporter James Mansfield arrived in D.C after a long boat ride on the battleship Reagan. Not being used to being on this side of the camera he clutched his bag close and shielded his eyes from the onslaught of flashing lights. There were two reasons on why he was being so crowded, he had been on assignment in Iran to take pictures of the poorer families when he had been captures by some rebels, he had spent eight days in a hole in the ground without any food or water, simply left to die. The news was spreading that a child found the opening and brought him barely enough food and water to live but that wasn't true, he had been alone the whole time. Climbing into the back of an SUV James blinked, his eyes dazzled with the flashes as the car started up to take him away from that madness. He was to go to a secure location to make an official statement and pre-event James would be declaring his civil rights or something but now he was just happy to be alive as a squad of American soldiers rescued him.
"Do you know where we're going?" he asked the driver.
"Just a safe house here in the city, soldiers report to Langley but with you being a civilian we thought this would be more civil. What do you remember about the days before? They're just going to ask you about your time there may be talking about your story will relax you."
"There was this one family, a mother and a daughter, the father had been killed weeks before, the little girl Alia, she and I had this bond. There were these older kids teasing her saying that her mother did things to get money. I stepped in and defended her even though I was supposed to remain neutral," he said thinking about her as he pulled a little stone figurine of a cat from his pockets, "She gave me this stone cat, told me that it brought her luck and thought it might help me as well. I think it was because I walked her home that I was captured, because I was taken right after being dropped off." As they pulled up to a red light the driver looked in the rearview mirror catching James' eye as well as seeing the figurine.
"You know there's this story of a prisoner of war that matches your story, this noble in France who King Henry thought was plotting against him. Just because he could he took the noble and threw him in jail stating that his punishment was to starve to death. As the story goes a cat took fancy of him and brought him food so he didn't starve. His name was Sir Henry Wyatt," he said turning in the seat and looking back at James with a smile, "And you are holding his cat," he finished holding up a torch in his hand closing his eyes as the torch lit up and everything in James' world went white.
"We have two pings that are odd," Artie said sitting down at the breakfast table slapping away Pete's hand as he tried to take the folder, "First off there was a newly released P.O.W. who returned to the states after being captured for eight days with no food or water."
"Definitely artifacty," said Pete reaching for a doughnut instead.
"Indeed however they found him in the back of the SUV that was taking him to the safe house, unharmed but minus something. The last thing he remembered was the view from the helicopter, he lost anywhere from five to ten minutes of memories."
"So the artifact the guy had was stolen by someone else who was using an artifact," Myka said from where she was standing. Finally joining them was Steve and Claudia who joined Pete at the table.
"Yes, it was going to be Pete and Claudia but we have to put it on hold until we gather more information about the theft."
"Theft?" Claudia asked reaching for the cereal.
"This is why we wake up on time," Artie started but Pete cut him off.
"Had a ping but was stolen by another ping, so was that both pings?" Pete caught them out then asked as Steve took the file from Artie and looked through it.
"Any idea what artifact could do that or cause memory loss?" Claudia asked Artie.
"There's a few items that can cause memory loss, like Jack the Ripper's lantern or Alois Alzheimer's glasses but I'll need to look into that further, as for long lasting survival there's a few things like." But Steve cut him off.
"What about a stone cat?" Steve asked, "James said that a little girl gave him a good luck charm but it was missing."
"Oh…" Artie said thinking and muttering to himself.
"What to share with the class?" Claudia asked earning a fist bump from Pete.
"Sir Henry Wyatt was a French noble who spent weeks in prison, rumor had it that a cat would bring him food every day, it was declared a miracle that he was still alive and King Henry released him."
"So both pings were taken from us?" Myka asked.
"What? No, the second ping is from Chicago, there's a doctor there who was acting very paranoid, more so than usual. The only thing was that his wife discovered some papers on the floor, when she picked them up he screamed at her and told her to get out. Those papers are perfect copies of the lost theories of Immanuel Kant, the father of modern psychology whose mind went weak later in his life. The papers were amazing, theories into man's inner psyche but due to intense paranoia he burned all of them."
"So we art off to Chicago," Myka said but Steve shook his head.
"Afraid not, you see the doctor was so paranoid that he sealed himself up with concrete, by the time authorities got to him he was long gone, suffocated to death and the theories were gone as well. I believe the artifact that was taken by the police was Immanuel Kant's pocket watch," he said opening the second folder and flipping it open, "Logged in, one pocket watch but that evening the watch was gone."
"So the thief walked into a police station, into the evidence locker and walked right out with the watch?" Myka asked earning a nod from Artie.
"Do you think it's the same thief?" Pete asked, "Could the memory loss artifact affect so many people that the guy just walked in and took it."
"Or girl," Claudia put in but Artie shook his head.
"No, we obtained the security tape and it shows a man walking in and out again, Claudia I emailed it to you. Is there some way to make it look cleared so that maybe we can identify him or the artifact?" Claudia nodded and pulled out her laptop fingers dancing across the keyboard as the others gathered around her.
"He obviously knows there's a camera, we can't see his features at all," she said trying to make the image clearer, "I think that's it," she said and they watched as the figure walked up to the counter and held something up. Pausing Claudia pulled in and tried to clean it up. "Looks like a badge or something." With that Artie jumped up and rushed to the older computer looking through the warehouse's database.
"It's Dorothy Jean Guggenheim's Press Badge, more famously known as Lisa Howard," Artie called from where it was, "It can change your features to the victim so they think you're someone else. She was known to get amazing stories."
"I feel a but in there," Myka said punching Pete when he giggled at that.
"She…the badge causes deep depression if wore for extended periods of time, she was the first and last news anchor to kill themselves on live T.V."
"Does it cause memory loss?" asked Steve to bring everyone back.
"No, so as far as we can tell if the two are related than the thief has four artifacts."
"Five," Claudia shouted and they returned to her, "I got this from outside a few minutes before the watch left. Look he's holding something then goes into the police station as if he's making sure it's there." Artie studied the image and gasped.
"No, we have to have that," he muttered going back to his computer and typing things to make Claudia almost feel jealous. "No, no, no,"
"What's wrong?" Myka asked running over to him.
"The thief, he knows what artifacts are."
"Obviously," Pete chimed in.
"Of course but that artifact he's using is Luis Vas de Torres' compass. If you know what you're looking for it takes you right to it."
"So that's bad because he can find artifacts?" Pete asked and Myka shook her head.
"It's much worse because that means he could eventually find the warehouse."
TATTATTAT TATTATTAT TATTATTAT TATTATTAT TATTATTAT
Flipping close the compass and slipping it into his pocket the thief entered the office of Professor Isaac Luke who was typing away at his typewriter. Looking up at the man he smiled.
"I'm sorry but office hours ended a long time ago, if this is about a class assignment I must ask you to come back later." He said in a polite tone.
"No, I'm not a student, but I heard you are a man who collects old books and items relating to it. Am I correct?"
"Why yes, I do have a few rare items but they're not for sale."
"I don't wish to buy them, only see one. You have an original copy of the children's book Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle do you not?"
"Ah yes, written in 1947 by Betty MacDonald."
"And there's a bag of beans that came with it?"
"Well yes and no," said the Professor, "The woman I bought it from said that her great-great-great aunt Betty often wrote notes and kept them inside the pouch. She said they were all the cures the she would invent in her stories to make children smile."
"Yes, I would like to see that, please."
"A fan of her books, I would love to show you," The Professor said turning and picking up a glass box which held the pouch, turning and setting it on the table he looked up at the man, confused. "What is that?"
"My own rare item, from the 1930's there was an actress named Jane Bartholomew whose name you'll never know and whose image you've seen a dozen times. She was the model for the Columbia Lady from the Columbia Pictures image. Once she realized that she would never be credited and never be famous for her job she stole this torch from the shoot, all of her anger and pain went into this torch making it so if she couldn't be remembered, no one should. Luckily for you the effects are only temporary and you'll have completely forgotten I was here." The torch flashed white light and by the time the Professor came to he was alone and the box in front of him was empty.
TATTATTAT TATTATTAT TATTATTAT TATTATTAT TATTATTAT
"So you're saying that the thief is using this compass to locate artifacts? Could it be an accident, just wanting things of power?" Myka asked.
"No he would have to know exactly what he was looking for in order to locate it. That might mean access to the Warehouse but Wyatt's cat was never logged into the database." Artie said dismayed.
"What if we set up a trap?" Pete asked getting a look from everyone, "I mean if he's coming after artifacts than we can each take one from the warehouse and lead him to us."
"That's a great idea," Myka started as Artie said the opposite at the same time.
"Worse idea ever"
"Come on Artie we'll only use artifacts we know can't cause trouble, such as…" Pete said trying to think of one, luckily Claudia saved him.
"Barthelemy de Casseneuz's wig!" This got odd looks from everyone, "I saw it after we did that thing with Trey that would have been easier than the Fez trick. It lets you hear what animals are thinking, can't be that bad and I know it drove him crazy but he didn't know how it reacted."
"Fine, but meet me in the office and I will approve your choices first." Artie said as the others left, it was rare for him to let them actually do this and they weren't going to let it get out of their sight.
Walking with Pete, Myka wondered what she should pick when Pete called out that he found one.
"Something that makes unlimited cookies?" she asked sarcastically and before he could ask if they had that she shook her head.
"Aw, well since he took an artifact that makes you survive things I thought this might be tempting," he opened the small box and showed her the army patch that rested inside, "Nicholas Alkemades' Flight Sergeant Badge, he was a bomber pilot in WW2 who jumped out of his crashing plane and survived the eighteen thousand foot drop." Myka had to admit that was smart and started looking for something as well when her Farnsworth went off.
"Another stolen artifact, Betty MacDonald's pouch, said to have some sort of healing property," Artie relayed.
"Great, I have survival, Claudia has crazy psychology, Artie will probably use one he already has, you can grab the curing one and I'll go look for Jinks and help him find one." Said Pete as he ran off leaving Myka alone to walk towards the Cure section. On her way there she thought about the news that her doctor had given her, cancer, and wondered if there was a cure for her somewhere in these stacks. Shaking it off she walked down the row looking at each item trying to discover what was what. Settling on a golden bowl she, after putting on purple gloves, picked it up and read what it was.
"Asclepius' Offering Bowl, left by ancient Greeks who would leave offerings of gold coins to be cured, can only be activated with one hundred percent gold coins." Sighing she carried the item back up to the office, arriving to find Artie and Steve who explained that Claudia and Pete already left with their items.
"Are you okay?" Steve asked and Myka knew he could read her and said.
"No but I don't really want to talk about it, what do you guys have?" Nodding and accepting that if she wanted to talk to him she would, Jinks held up a ski pole.
"Belongs to Edmund Hilary."
"Sir Edmund Hillary," Artie corrected, "First man to scale Mt Everest, ah and you have the Asclepius' Offering Bowl, good choice. You two head out in different directions to see what you can find. I'll stay here just in case he located the Warehouse."
Driving along in her Ford Focus Claudia tore down the highway going faster than she should have, but it wasn't every day Artie gave them free time. To prove to herself and the warehouse she was ready to take care of it she wanted to be the one to catch the thief and even discovered a ping of her own. Local South Dakotan scientist Ernest Lawrence's family still lived here and she heard they were having an estate sale on the family property and she wanted to check it out. Arriving within the hour she parked and made sure the wig was safe in her trunk before walking over to the massive sale. There were lots of nick-knacks but she was looking for something that felt right. She found herself looking in a box for toys and slowly removed a pair of clacker balls. They were cherry red and on a yellow stick that she just knew was an artifact. Taking her prize towards the counter she smacked into another shopper and they both fell to the ground. Apologizing she looked up and was stunned to see a very good looking man trying to help her up. He looked six foot with medium length black hair and black eyes, his skin was tanned and his eyes were full of concern.
"I'm sorry I didn't see you there," he said helping Claudia up.
"No it was my fault I was too preoccupied with my gift to my nephew," she said quickly scooping up the clacker.
"Interesting choice, I haven't seen one of those in a long time. Jake Torres," he said holding out his hand and shaking hers.
"Claudia Donovan, I'm sorry but I need to get going Jake," she said moving pass him, "Niece's birthday and all." Jake smiled a secret smile and let her go, she was smart to discover that item here of all places but naive to think that there was only one artifact in this family of geniuses. Moving through the crowd by way of the compass he paused and picked up a baby rattle turning it in his hands to read the bottom to himself, "J.H.L to my son." John H. Lawrence was Ernest's brother who had a son who died from cancer young, in his grief and sorrow the toy he made for his son was imbued with a healing life force. Taking his own precious purchase to the counter he paid and went back towards his car pausing to see that Claudia was speaking into a box like device passionately. Moving along to her car he was looking for the clackers and was surprised to see the needle on the compass go from her to the trunk. Breaking the lock was easy but he frowned at what was inside. Deciding to figure it out later he took the wig, gently closed the trunk and walked back to his own car watching Claudia in his rear mirror before driving off himself.
"You lost the wig?" Artie shouted exasperated at Claudia. Who kicked nothing around with her foot.
"Yeah but I got something cooler, Edmund Lawrence's Clacker."
"I know that the Clacker seems more dangerous but in the right hands the wig is as well, and the worst part is that this means that Pete's plan actually works. However instead of running around trying to get caught we are just going to set up a perimeter and for now we will take turns sleeping here in the office as pairs." Talking into the Farnsworth everyone else returned to the warehouse with their original artifacts except Pete who stopped for hamburgers on the way back. Gladly sharing they all sat and watched as Artie wrote artifacts on the board, pinning up the known ones that the thief had. Rubbing his temples Artie sat down on the chair and wondered what was going to happen next when a new ping came in.
"He's working fast," Pete mused into his burger as Claudia and Artie went to work. Bringing up the item Artie felt a familiar rush in his chest, the ping was for a specific artifact, the Mayan Calendar which he thought was lost years ago when they lost a pair of agents to it. Never telling that story Artie didn't know if he could retell it to his current family from fear of something like that happening again but thinking back on it now it clicked home, the agents he lost that day. Agent Jennifer Lockhart and Agent Jacob Torres had their times stopped in order to save Artie, one moment they were standing there with him after the fires from the events calmed down then they were gone, faded into nothingness. If Jacob was really related to Luis Vaz de Torres than it was possible for him to have the compass.
"I'm going to take care of this pick up myself you all wait here and keep an eye out for anything really strange." Artie said and gathered his things. Walking up to him Myka crossed her arms over her chest.
"Are you sure you want to do this alone?" she asked and he looked at her absent but intense.
"I have to," he said and she nodded letting him go before settling back with the others, still worried.
TATTATATTATTATTAT TATTATATTATTATTAT TATTATATTATTATTAT
The location of the ping was nearby, far enough for help to take time but not that far that it would take a long time for him to get there, arriving in the desert area Artie noticed only one other car. Since it was getting a little dark the headlights were on and they shined on a man digging something. Grabbing his bag and his testla Artie went over to where the man was digging not noticing something sticking out of the ground. Looking down Artie saw a medium sized box, opened. Inside he noticed the stone cat, the pocket watch and the badge.
"Agent Torres?" he asked and the man stopped digging.
"I'm glad you at least remember that much Artie," Jake said looking up at him, pausing in the dig.
"How did you get here?" Artie stammered.
"Honestly, I can't remember. The last thing I remember was standing there with you and Jennifer then nothing until I woke up with the compass around my neck." Artie saw the compass holding up the gun. "Arties please, I'm your friend remember, I'm not doing anything wrong."
"You're stealing artifacts," Artie said.
"Not really, just doing my job, in fact I'm going to bury artifacts that I find that I don't need right here and you can come and bag and tag and whatever them. The statue of the cat, I guess I didn't need to take that one but I was there. The watch, if I got there sooner maybe he wouldn't be dead. The badge is all yours, keep it safe."
"The compass?"
"No, I'm still looking for something that I know is not in the warehouse."
"You've been gone for a long time, how do you know?" Artie asked.
"The compass, I've returned to the warehouse Artie, I can't go back in. I can't speak to Mrs. Fredrick or the regents until I've found my partner." Jake said looking at his watch, noting that time started a few seconds ago and he probably won't remember the reason Jake was doing this, that was fine though.
"This is about Agent Lockhart, if you're trying to find her Jake let me help you. I owe you that much."
"I can't afford to lose the compass until I find her. Thank you friend but no, I have to do this myself. I like to think that I had your fascination with artifacts and Jennifer had the belief in what we were doing. I was a little more like McPherson as I thought that once studied the artifacts should be used for good. He was too reckless though I agree his punishment of banishment was the right choice, I would have bronzed him myself."
"So what, you're going to be a freelance artifact hunter?"
"I'd like to be an Agent again, once I find my partner."
"That's not up to me," Artie said lowering the gun, "What artifact are you looking for?"
"Ambrose Bierce's map, I believe that I can use that to locate Jennifer." Jake said checking his watch again. Against his better judgment Artie nodded, he owed the agents something for what happened to them. The regents told him that they were a loss but obviously that wasn't true, looking up he started to say that he would help when he saw that Jake was holding up the Columbia Picture's Torch and he knew that it would make him forget. Firing off a shot more to make him stop they watched as the electricity diverted and hit the object in the ground and with that Artie's world went white.
"Artie? Artie are you okay?" came a voice through the darkness and Artie groaned opening his eyes and seeing a very worried Myka looking down at him. "What happened?"
"You've been gone for an hour so we tracked your car here. Artie did you go after the thief yourself?" Myka asked as he sat up and looked around seeing Claudia and Steve bagging the items from the box. Pete was bagging two other items.
"We should have you go out more often Artie," Pete said trying to make him feel better, "Five artifacts at once, the pocket watch, the badge, the stone cat, and these two other things." Taking the bags Artie held them up.
"When Columbia pictures first started the iconic liberty woman was cast and though thousands of girls say they were the model for it no one knew for sure, this is the torch that the girl used but due to being lost in time it creates a white light which means I can't remember anything about the thief." He rubbed his head and straightened his glasses picking up the other bag, "This is Giovanni Aldini's wand, I must have fired the tesla at him and this absorbed the shot." Allowing Pete to help him up Artie started to the car.
"Is he done? Pete asked and Artie shook his head.
"He wanted us to have these otherwise there would have been nothing left behind," Artie said keeping the identity of the thief to himself. All he could remember was that the thief was Agent Torres but he had no idea why he was doing this, why he didn't just come home. Much later at the warehouse Steve was putting the artifacts away while Artie went to the former Agent rooms looking through the catalog before stopping on Torres' room.
"What's going on?" came a voice from behind causing Artie to gasp and spin seeing Myka there.
"Nothing, this is just one of the agents before your time room, agent Jacob Torres," he explained opening the door. "Former military he and his partner were agents before you and Pete arrived, the pair I lost to the Mayan Calendar." Myka remained silent knowing that Artie didn't like to think or talk about agents he outlived, not wanting him to ever know her secret. "I told the regents that we should look for them harder, they did save my life, but they said that they would keep looking and eventually they were forgotten, just like Agent Smith."
"Smith?"
"Elijah Smith, he's the agent who got lost in the Escher vaults. Sometimes it's better to know that someone is really dead then just missing. I always held a little hope that one of them would return some day," he said sitting at the desk and flipping through the notes that were felt of the desk detailing artifacts they found together. "Could I have some time to myself?" he asked in an un-Artie way so Myka gave his shoulder a squeeze and left him alone. Once she was gone he flipped open the binder and began to read. "Research shows that the Mayan's Calendar showed them the end of their lives and with this knowledge they tried to escape into a world between our own, to return when it was safe. Could this mean something or just Artie mistranslating again?" Artie smiled and chuckled as tears ran down his face as he continued to read.
AN x2 – I love creating the artifacts and looking up history so much that I'll also be listing the featured artifacts at the end of each chapter. So here we go:
Sir Henry Wyatt's Stone Cat - Allows one to go eight days without food or water
Luis Vas de Torres' compass - Used to locate the Torres Strait over Australia
Jane Bartholomew's "Lady Columbia" Torch - Blinding light causes one to lose their short term memory up to ten minutes.
Immanuel Kant's Pocket Watch - Increases thought but causes extreme paranoia
Dorothy Jean Guggenheim's Press Badge - ID on badge changes to wearer's image
Betty MacDonald's Pouch - Absorbs illness turning it into a bean which must be eaten or illness returns worse
Barthelemy de Casseneuz's wig - Ability to hear animals
Nicholas Alkemades' Flight Sergeant Badge - Survive falls
Asclepius' Offering Bowl - Full healing but once a year must put a solid gold coin otherwise the cured person is killed
Sir Edmund Hillary's Ski Pole - Causes possessor to withstand extreme cold temperatures
Edmund Lawrence's Clacker - Creates an atomic explosion
John H. Lawrence's rattle - Cures cancer but transfer to someone else
Mayan Calendar - Stops someone's clock and traps them somewhere, unknown
