Special thanks to Kritchkow, girltechcoyote, Jimmy 144, LadyNRA, MarieRene, Kendralynora, Lynnutte and everyone else! (Phew)
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In a dark corner of the port, an old, rusted shipping container had found new life in the employment of the mob. It was being pried open by a man with large forearms. Two others ruthlessly dragged a man's portly body into the container. A thin woman was handcuffed and being dragged backwards as she struggled and screamed.
The two men roughly hauled the unconscious man and dumped him inside the rusted container.
"Be careful with him!" the handcuffed lady yelled.
The man who was dragging her pulled her into the container by the handcuffs behind her back. He forced her to her knees as the first two men left for the door. The third man joined them and they closed the door, sealing the two agents inside.
(2 Days ago)
"Claudia!"
A strong voice bellowed throughout the office, making the windows rattle. The voice was quickly followed by it's owner, a portly man past his middle aged, as evidenced by the pepper grey color invading his unruly curls and goatee. Artie Neilson barreled into the room, as he often did, with his hands filled, clutching a handful of file cards in one hand and an open Farnsworth with the other.
Reaching the file cabinets, he opened a drawer and jammed the communication device into it to stand it up and allow him to talk to his agents on the other end. He roughly pushed his glasses back onto his face and jerked out another drawer. "'Uncontrollable cravings' you said?"
A voice came from the Farnsworth. "Yeah Artie, this guy took on three cops before they taised him. He was out of control." Special Agents Pete Lattimer and Steve Jinks were displayed in the little grey and white screen.
Their supervisor shuffled through an endless supply of aged and stained file cards, letting them fall to the floor as soon as he eliminated them, mumbling to himself as he went. "Cravings… cravings…. Somewhere… I know—Atlanta… I remember something… something…. Ah!" Artie held up on particular card and read it. "Coka-Cola."
"Artie, we are in Atlanta, there's a lot of Coke around here. Besides, I get cravings for that stuff, but not that bad…" Pete's voice said.
"Yeah." Artie huffed a laugh of agreement at Pete and Jinks in the little display. "But this-" he flicked the card. "is one of the original cans of Coke, from the original batch!"
Steve Jinks piped up, "Didn't that have actual cocaine in it?"
"Among other things." Artie added seriously. He referenced the card again. "Found in Atlanta, the original batch was said to provoke uncontrollable cravings until more was obtained, which only led to more cravings." He sighed and got serious. "Eight deaths attributed to the batch when the initial test group beat each other to death trying to get the last can in the room." A beat passed before Artie turned back to his agents in the field. "If he drank a can from the original batch, he won't stop until he gets more. Find him! Stop him!" He flipped the Farnsworth's case shut roughly ending the call without saying goodbye.
Artie stayed still for a second thinking hard. Suddenly he turned and yelled, "Claud-"
He stopped short seeing his boss, Mrs. Fredric in the room. Artie caught his breath from the surprise of her arrival. He didn't hear her enter, but that was normal with this mysterious woman. He quickly capped his annoyance with himself, letting it only come out as a growl for a greeting. "Mrs. Fredric."
The neatly dressed dark woman addressed him with her air of authority. "Arthur."
Recovering quickly, Artie made his way to his desk. "To what do we owe this visit?"
"I am concerned with the workings of your team." She responded.
"I- the team is fine." Artie said with obvious confusion. "Pete and Steve are in Atlanta now and working together fine."
"I am not talking about Agents Jinks nor Lattimer." The woman interrupted him slowly with purposeful selection of her words.
Artie looked at her. They both knew what the problem was. Ever since HG Wells showed up, Myka, the woman who vouched for her, was never quite the same. She only barely came back to the Warehouse at all, quitting after the havoc that Wells created. Artie rubbed his stubby fingers over his jaw. The problem was that Artie didn't know what to do to get things back to normal.
Seeing his struggle, Mrs. Fredric softened her tone. "Take her on a case Arthur. Perhaps you can reestablish Agent Bering's confidence in herself and her abilities." Artie nodded and grunted considering her idea. "Detroit."
"What?"
Mrs. Fredric tilted her head. She didn't like repeating herself. She slowly said again. "Take her to Detroit."
"Wh- what's in Detroit?" He asked.
"A case." She replied patiently.
Artie was confused. "Case? What case?" Just then his computer alerted him to a 'ping' or an alert of artifact activity. Artie spun around to look at his monitor. "Looks like we just got a ping. Two people dead, for no apparent reason. In…. Detroit."
Artie turned around to look at Mrs. Fredric, but she was gone. He was surprised, although he knew that he shouldn't be.
The red headed Claudia came into the room from the Warehouse door. She caught his last sentence. "Where?"
Artie took one more look around the room to make sure that his creepy boss really was gone before saying, "Um…. Myka and I are going to Detroit."
Claudia stopped dead and looked at her boss. She was just getting used to being sent into the field as an agent to collect artifacts. With Pete and Steve already out, she assumed that she would be the one to go out with Myka if anything else came up. "Artie…. Um… you sure, that you don't like want me… ya know. To go?"
"No, no…. I'll go." Artie was already throwing various items into his bag for the trip. He stopped when the tone of Claudia's voice finally permeated his thoughts. "Ah…. Think you can run support from the office?" He tilted his head to look at the girl's face. "I'll have Leena come into help."
Claudia shrugged off the blow to her ego. "Yeah, course. Just want to make sure that you're ready to be all running around in Motor City." The jab at Artie's ample midsection was her cover up of the awkwardness. It didn't pass by Artie unnoticed, but he also knew that their normal mode of communication was affectionate teasing, so he took it as a good sign. He gave her a playful scowl as the girl smirked and left the room.
After Claudia left, Artie thought of the mission. Crossing the room, he picked up the phone. "Myka? Start packing. You and I have a case."
Input please! :) Thx for reading.