New Beginnings by Marcia Gaines
This story continues the arc prefaced in "Just For Tonight".
Content for this new arc is K+, for the previous it was MA
"New Beginnings"
By
Marcia Gaines
Chapter One
Myka stood with her hand on her hip and looked at the clothes she laid out on the bed. The powder blue button-down, grey cardigan vest, and jeans stared back at her as if to dare her to find something with more personality. They were her usual fare, so she was not sure why they seemed so bland today. Even this bathrobe seems more cheerful than that outfit, she thought, as she readjusted the terry cloth belt around her waist. She let out a sigh and went back to her bureau wondering if she had anything more appealing to fit her mood.
"Anything but the status quo," she muttered under her breath. After the way things had been over the last months, and especially after the dream she just had, she needed something other than more of the same. She rifled through her clothing selection and settled on a white silk tank, black slacks, and a thin burgundy scarf. "Definitely better," she said to her image when she finished dressing, and grabbed her gun and badge to affix to her belt and retrieved her Farnsworth from under her pillow where she stashed it earlier that morning. She paused before heading to the door and picked up H.G. Wells' locket. Though it brought a smile to her face, it was a sad one, and she closed her eyes to think.
Although she privately considered it to be her lucky locket, Myka knew telling herself such nonsense was just a rationalization to keep it with her; she did not care whether or not the notion was silly. She grew to like the feeling the locket gave her when she had it with her. Feeling the weight of it around her neck, or the bulk of it in her pocket, always gave her the sense H.G. was nearby. The comfort of that thought carried her through many difficult days, and over time it grew into a habit. She decided she would feel out of sorts if she left it behind, so she slipped it into her left pocket and walked downstairs for breakfast.
"Good morning, Myka." Leena greeted her and gave her an appreciative nod. "Don't you look nice?"
"Good morning, Leena!" Myka replied. "And, thank you, I just felt like dressing up today." She glanced down at her outfit and smiled. "After all, it is a special day!" They both smiled broadly, and excitedly sat down to eat a quick meal before heading out together. They discussed Artie's update to Leena earlier that morning, there were still a few anomalies but he deemed it safe enough to open the Warehouse. They were back in business and Myka's heart was lightened by the news. When they pulled up to the rickety building a few minutes later Myka noted the temporary building they were using for their operations center was being disassembled. Artie was not one to waste time and apparently today was no exception. With the Warehouse operational, the temporary facility was no longer necessary.
The Warehouse looked exactly the same as it always did, and Myka's mouth showed a slight smile as she considered how happy she was to see it again. Over the last three years the Warehouse had become her home, and her co-workers were her family. The place was truly her happiest place on Earth, and she was only too glad to be back on the premises. The walk to the main office seemed longer than usual due to her excitement, so that by the time she and Leena validated their identities to the scanner she felt like she was going to burst with expectation.
As the door opened Artie's voice boomed out, "CLAUDIAAAAAAA!" Myka laughed. That was definitely normal. She quickly glanced around the office and raised her eyebrows. It was a complete wreck. The mess did not appear to be from the explosion itself. It seemed more likely the place was ransacked, but Myka knew better. The Warehouse had been on lock-down since yesterday evening, and the pools of purple fluid everywhere reminded her of Artie's statement. If this was what artifacts "acting up" looked like, she would hate to see what happened when they were angry.
"Artie?" Leena called out to the empty room. She bent down to pick up some folders and placed them on his desk. Myka walked to one of the inner doors to search for Artie and frowned as she looked down to see her shoes sloshing through neutralizer. That figures, she thought. The one day I decided to dress up would be the one day I should have dressed more like Pete. She sighed and reached for the door, but before she could open it, Artie came striding through it.
"Oh, good. You're here," he said. He moved into the room and dropped a spray-bucket and hose before beginning to remove his goggles, gloves, and his neutralized lab-coat. Leena and Myka looked at each other as if to silently dare one another to be the one to ask. Neither of them were able to get the question out before Claudia came running into the office. Apparently whatever drenched Artie gave Claudia a double-dose. She was completely covered; head to toe, with the neutralizer fluid. Enough of it dried in her hair that it looked like she forgot to comb it after applying a large amount of styling gel. She, too, wore a lab-coat, gloves, and goggles.
"Dude!" she exclaimed as she noticed Leena and Myka. "It is seriously Freaky Friday down there. You do not want to leave this office." She collapsed into a chair and put her head in her hands before pulling off her coat, gloves, and goggles.
"Claudia?" Artie questioned with a low and drawn-out tone.
"Oh my God, Naggy O'Naggerstein," she retorted, "Give me a minute here!"
"We don't. Have. A minute." Artie stated in the staccato-like cadence he reserved for his exasperated moments. Claudia muttered something incoherently and stood up. She moved to her computer station and tapped furiously on the keyboard. Moments later her screen showed the current reading for artifact activity. There were two small red blips on the screen.
"Progress!" she yelled and added, "Down to just two. And I know exactly where those are." She stood up again and began pulling on her wrangling gear.
"Artie…" Leena said interrupting the exchange. "What happened here?"
"It looks worse than it is," he said and his glasses bobbled up and down as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. He readjusted them and continued, "We have a few artifacts reacting to the translocation of the Warehouse." He pointed to the shattered remains of something on his desk. "The pocket watch James left me. I thought it would reverse time and let us save the Warehouse, but that's not what it does. Instead it creates a sort of… a…a…" He waved his hands in the air as he searched for the proper word, "I don't know, a sort of… temporal rift."
"A temporal rift?" asked Myka.
"More like a supersonic tunnel of time," Claudia offered. "It created a sort of bubble around Artie that stretched out and grabbed the entire Warehouse. One minute we were staring at empty ground, the next minute the Warehouse came wooshing out of the tunnel." She had on her coat and reached for her gloves as she spoke.
"I don't understand," said Leena.
"Neither do we," replied Artie. "We haven't been able to figure it all out just yet. We've been a little busy." He looked at Claudia as he answered.
"Understatement of the century," Claudia said. "I swear to Almighty Oprah, if one more artifact decides to throw a hissy fit I'm going to…" Her words were cut short by the sound of Artie's Farnsworth. He reached for it and opened the case. Pete's disembodied voice filled the room.
"Artie. Hey." He said.
"Where are you?" growled Artie into the Farnsworth. "You were supposed to be here already!"
"Hold your horses; I'm just a few minutes away. I was calling because I need to know what you want on your burrito." Pete said.
"On my what?" retorted Artie.
"I stopped for some burritos on the way back. They're really good, too. I got a couple for the road. Want one?" He held up what must have been two burritos for Artie to see. They were wrapped and appeared to be the size of large soup cans.
"Just. Get. Here." Artie said in that staccato tone again.
"Okay, but what about Claud or Myka? I mean, seriously Artie, these burritos are really goo…" Pete did not finish his sentence before Artie slammed the Farnsworth's case shut. He turned to Claudia who was wringing fluid from some clothes. "Are you still here?"
"Dude. Chill. I'm getting ready to go back down there." She dropped the wet clothing into a bucket and looked at Leena. "Did you get them?"
Leena held up a bag and nodded. "Yes, a whole new set of workout clothes for Pete."
"Oh thank God. Maybe he won't notice." Claudia said with relief.
"Notice what?" Myka asked.
"Oh, ah, well one of the angst-y artifacts caused some trouble in the Pete-cave and I sort of… had to… spray everything down in there." She indicated to Leena to follow her as she turned to leave. "I'll have to replace the Nerf-balls and his Silly Putty collection some other time." As they headed out of the office she added, "Apparently… neutralizer and gooy rubbery stuff do not mix well."
Myka watched her leave before turning her attention to Artie. "Artie, what is going on here?"
He looked thoughtful and said, "Artifacts are delicate things. They like to be at a state of rest. With the transfer through the… rift, some of the more touchy artifacts were… disturbed… as it were." He stood up and began removing his gear. "Luckily we have that under control now." His sentence was punctuated by the sound of a large crash.
"Or… Not…" said Myka and they both ran to the inner area of the Warehouse. From below them on the catwalk they could see Claudia thrashing around under a pile of objects. Leena was helping her to her feet. "Claudia? Are you okay?" Myka called out to her.
"I'm good. Great. Perfect!" she yelled back. She stood up and kicked at the pile of metal sending a couple of them bouncing off the shelves. One whizzed by Myka and Artie.
"Claudia!" barked Artie as he ducked. "What are you doing? Those are artifacts!" Myka turned her head to watch the path of the flying object; it ricocheted off the guard rail and hit her in the hip before taking off again.
"Ow!" Myka exclaimed as she rubbed the impact point on her left hip. That was going to leave a mark. The object bounced around a few more times before falling harmlessly to the grating below her.
"Sorry!" said Claudia meekly.
Artie and Myka stood up and descended the nearest staircase to the Warehouse floor. His glare spoke volumes, and Claudia cowered under it as she shuffled off to retrieve the accosting object. She returned with it a few moments later and looked at Myka apologetically. "I'm so sorry, Myka." She said. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine." Myka said in response. She turned to Artie and repeated herself, "I'm fine." His glare softened, but only slightly.
"You do not kick artifacts, Claudia." His voice was harsh. "Do you have any idea what that thing is?" He pointed to the object in her hand as he asked his accusing question. Claudia looked at her hand. The object was small, about the size of a baseball, but was not a uniform shape. It was red, but so dark it bordered on purple. It was also transparent, as if it was chipped from a large object made of dark glass. Before Claudia could respond he answered for her. "That, you impatient child, is the actual Philosopher's Stone. It's been written about in legend for centuries and you kick it around the Warehouse like it's a soccer ball?"
Everyone looked at the Stone as Artie continued his tirade. "Do you have any idea what that stone can do?" His voice reached a volume loud enough to hurt Myka's ears. She turned her head and grimaced as he ranted.
The air around them began to crackle. "Uh. Artie?" Myka said.
"That stone has the properties to transmute anything it touches. Anything!" He ignored Myka as he yelled. "The last thing we need is for the very Warehouse itself to turn into metals incapable of dealing with the artifact energy surrounding us!"
Small pops and the sound of sizzling permeated the area near them. Myka's face showed concern as she pleaded again, "Artie? Calm down."
He continued to ignore her as he swiped at Claudia's hand but stopped short as he realized he no longer wore his protective gloves. "Put that back, and don't kick anything else!" he bellowed.
"Artie!" Myka tried to say emphatically without yelling. "Keep the emotions under control." With that she finally got his attention and he made a face as he stuffed back his anger.
Claudia chose to capitalize on the reprieve and slunk away to disappear into one of the rows of shelves. Leena gave Myka a look and pointed to the bag of clothes she had as she walked off in the direction of Pete's cave. Artie stomped off to an unannounced destination and Myka was left standing by herself. She looked around as the air popped one last time. Clearly tensions were high and with everything already going on they did not need to be making things worse. She let out a sigh. What a strange thing, she thought. This place where nothing was as it seemed turned into such an important place in my life. I never saw that coming. She never would have imagined how much mayhem such seemingly ordinary things could cause through no fault of their own. She looked down at the pile of objects near her feet and smiled. Endless wonder, indeed, she thought.
"Myka!" a voice above her shouted in excitement. She looked up. It was Pete. She smiled in return and headed back to the stairs. He looked confused as he asked "What the hell happened? Why is there neutralizer everywhere?" He turned to face her from the catwalk and beamed an ear to ear smile in her direction. He never thought he would see the Warehouse again and, like Myka, his happiness was more than evident. He began descending the stairs as Myka spoke.
"I'll let Artie explain that one…" she said. "Go ahead and call him, I'll be right there."
"I already did, he's on his way." He smiled at her. "Can you believe it? It's baa-a-ck" he said mimicking the Poltergeist slogan. Myka grinned at him and they walked into the office.
"Yes. It's back. And it's about time you are, too, Agent Lattimer." The sound of Mrs. Frederic's voice caught them both by surprise when they walked through the doorway. "I trust you have all your… issues… behind you?" She eyed him over the top of her glasses. He nodded nervously. Something about Mrs. Frederic always made them both anxious.
"Good," she continued as Artie, Claudia, and Leena walked into the room. "We have a situation. We need all hands on deck for this one."
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