"Looks like you need to work out a few bugs," Pete remarked amiably, eyes darting over the deserted pathways.
"More than a few. This is so embarrassing!"
Cars and even ships or planes had proven to be artifacts or influenced by something artifacty that had been put into them in the past, but she had never been this easily fooled before.
Claudia punched a few keys and Pete waited for the security lock to disengage. The pad was like a universal key, though it still couldn't get into the Stark Industries computer system. Whatever the company used, it was way beyond anything Claudia had ever tackled. It also fascinated her and presented a challenge she was ready to take on. Not now; at a later date.
The door to the exhibit clicked open and both slipped inside. Neither noticed the silver R8 convertible roll noiselessly closer and park itself just a few feet away.
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The Evolution of Technology exhibit was cast in dim light. It was enough to see by and the larger exhibits had their own spot lights. Nothing moved, no music played, no one was narrating. Everything was crisp and clean and ready to be run over by kids and adults alike. Claudia ran appreciating eyes over some of the exhibits, visibly tempted to explore more. Pete kept her on track, steering her along the main walkway.
The pad kept them heading for one of the side rooms. Many dealt with early inventions and ground-breaking ideas. Pete glimpsed a list on the pad and Claudia read it out loud.
"Code breaking device," she said and nodded at what looked like a very big, very basic type-writer. "Can apparently break every known code in the universe."
"Cool," Lattimer commented, but it wasn't the usual boyish enthusiasm.
Claudia couldn't fault him for it. Myka Bering leaving the Warehouse had really put a dent in a lot of things. Artie was more grumpy than usual, Mrs. Frederic hadn't been around in weeks, Leena had locked Myka's room and spent a lot of time filing at the Warehouse to keep herself distracted, and Pete was… Pete was a lot more subdued. Claudia missed Myka, too. She had been her big sister, a confidant, a really good friend… Claudia missed her terribly.
But Pete was probably the one most affected. They had known each other way before the Warehouse had partnered them, and they had become really good friends. They had gone through a lot together and had come out stronger. Now Myka had quit and it had shaken Lattimer up.
"Thing is, it's not the machine. It's the paper," Claudia went on, walking around the exhibit. "It tells all your deepest, darkest secrets." She waggled her eyebrows.
Pete looked interested. "How?"
"No clue, but Artie said to get it."
"With the machine?"
Claudia shrugged. "When in doubt…"
Pete snapped on the purple gloves that were made of the same neutralizer material they used for the bags.
"Gotcha." He reached out for the type-writer/codebreaker, then stopped. "Are there alarms?"
She checked the pad. "Give it five more minutes. Security is almost done here and we'll have about a minute to nab the thing."
"I'd advice against it," a new voice startled them and Pete turned around sharply, Tesla in hand.
How the figure in the red and golden armor had sneaked up on them so soundlessly was anyone's guess, but it had. There were no discernible facial features, just the coldly glowing eye slits and a mouth that looked like the face was scowling at them.
Claudia had taken a step back, clearly impressed and slightly frightened, and Pete kept the Tesla trained on the newcomer.
"Who are you?" Lattimer demanded.
"I believe the question is: who are you?"
Claudia etched even closer to her temporary partner. "Uh, security check?" she tried.
It got her a chuckle. "You wish it was that easy. You're not security. Actually, I'm running your files right now and I'm impressed you got this far."
Claudia gaped and Pete's grip on the Tesla tightened. "How can you run our files?" he demanded.
"Peter Lattimer, Secret Service," the armored figure said easily. "Quite a service record. Claudia Donovan. Impressive, though in a more criminal way."
"Hey!" she protested.
"Please put away the gun," the figure requested.
"No way. I want to know who you are and how you know who we are," Pete replied.
"I'm part of this Expo's security. You can call me Iron Man. I think Mr. Stark will be very interested to meet you if just half of the information on file for you is true. As for how I know… that is my trade secret."
Iron Man made an inviting gesture toward the exit.
Pete held his ground.
"You think you can shoot me with this?" Iron Man asked pleasantly.
"I know I can."
"What if that thing's a robot?" Claudia whispered.
"It's not," Lattimer growled, trigger finger twitching.
"Hardly," Iron Man replied.
"We're leaving now."
Iron Man raised his right arm, palm outward, the center of the palm glowing in a cold, blue-white light. "Mr. Stark requests you stay."
"Tell Mr. Stark thank you, but no thanks."
Before either of the two parties could say anything else, or act upon what had been said, something went off with a flash of light not far away.
Iron Man's head whipped around and without another word he suddenly blasted off. Claudia whispered an almost reverent 'cool!'.
"What the…?" Pete started, then the pad in Claudia's hands started screeching.
"Major spike!" she announced. "And I mean major major spike!"
Pete grabbed the paper from the code machine and stuffed it unceremoniously into the bag that would neutralize it. He quickly closed it over the flash it produced, then raced off to where the pad said another artifact was going haywire.
"What is it?" he demanded of his current partner.
"No idea! This section back there is for Wonders of Modern Tech, derived from ancient findings. Rather broad field."
Claudia couldn't type a lot while running and she nearly ran into Lattimer when the agent stopped abruptly.
"Well, hell…"
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Will had let Iron Man take the lead in cornering the two intruders. Rodimus Prime was outside, ready. The others hadn't been informed yet. Tony wanted to take care of matters and keep them from having to break off from whatever they were doing. Will had agreed, for now, and would be Iron Man's back-up if he needed it.
Taking the route through the exhibit back to back with the Evolution of Technology one, he let his eyes stray over the multitude of displays.
One had him stop without even thinking about.
Something tingled along his spine and energy whispered over his fingers as he flexed them.
The runes rose to the surface, bright and prominent and demanding.
Lennox stared at the smooth metal shape, looking like netted metal cage, elongated, with sharp points at the end that twisted in opposite directions. In the middle was a spherical shape that looked empty, but to Will's eyes it had a contents. Something was there. Something flickering, begging him to come closer.
'Unknown relic, found at Petra, Jordania', the cardboard card said.
Lennox reached out without thinking.
The glass case around the relic cracked before his fingers reached it.
It shattered.
Runes flared brighter, all accumulating on the back of his hands, his fingers, his palms.
He touched the netted case and…
… everything exploded.
Sight, sound, touch… everything was heightened one second, the next it dulled to nothing. Lennox felt something pull him into one direction while he was also rooted firmly to the spot. He couldn't move, but he was also running very fast. He was no longer in the exhibition hall, but he was aware that he still was. It was like an out of body experience, like he was drawn away, but only so much that he was still there.
Something moved and he tried to turn, but he couldn't. Still he saw the approach of a figure he knew, one he recognized, and one that was clearly a Prime. He could see the sigil imprinted on the figure, knew this was a fellow Prime, knew it was Tony Stark, and he knew the connection that formed between them instantaneously when Iron Man was close.
"Tony?" he tried.
He got no reply.
All he heard was a dull hum. All he saw was the basic shape and the Prime glyph.
And he saw fine connections branching from Stark to something not in the room. His own body was reaching out for Stark's and while he tried to warn his friend or stop the tendrils, it was to no avail. A net formed, encasing Tony, but there seemed to be no harm from that.
The Prime glyph flared.
The netted case in his hands dulled and within the sphere a light flickered, then died.
Lennox's hand opened and the relic clattered to the ground.
His vision cleared and he became aware of someone grabbing his upper arms and yelling his name. He blinked, looking into the intense eyes of Tony Stark, peering out at him from the open visor of his helmet. Tony appeared paler than normal and he was repeating Will's name.
"Uh," Lennox managed.
"Will, snap out of it! What the hell is going on?"
Will flexed his fingers and raised one hand, staring stupidly at the rune-covered skin. It was bronzed skin, burned golden or blackish in places.
"Shit," he managed.
It got him a wry smile. "Yeah. You changed. You look like some pigeon lover's delight."
Will twitched a smile. "What happened?"
"You tell me."
Will blinked as he saw something flicker through Tony's eyes. It was something electric blue. He blinked again.
For a fraction of a second he saw Stark without the armor, covered in what looked like a multitude – millions upon millions! - of wire-like lines. They sank into his skin and disappeared, but the eyes remained a strange electric blue. Not unlike what Will's looked when he turned protoform, or what the armor's eye slits appeared when the HUD was switched on.
Around Tony, the world shimmered, like some weird special effect from a movie, and for another fraction of a second the whole fabric of space ripped open and peeled back, showing Will another place. A completely different place. It was a world of metal. They stood on metal ground, looked into a dark sky with millions of stars, and around them there was nothing but destruction. A gigantic scrap heap. A war-scarred planet.
Stark inhaled sharply, fingers digging into Will's skin. "What the hell…?" he started.
And then the moment was broken, the portal closed, the world realigned itself.
Portal.
Will blinked.
Portal?
"Lennox?" came the sharp question.
"Huh?"
Damn. Nothing made sense! He didn't make sense!
He looked down at his feet where the netted cage lay. It looked dull and lifeless, without the shine it had had before, and it almost appeared brittle.
"Will!" Tony insisted, his own voice shaky. "Get a grip, man!"
"I… I… What happened?" he managed.
"I have no fucking clue. I was hoping you did this."
"N-no. You. It was you. You… I think it was… a portal."
"Portal? I can't create portals!" Tony insisted sharply. "Sub space pockets, yes. Portals? No." He finally released Lennox's arms. "Roddy's coming. He alerted the others. I think we need to get you out of here and back to base," Tony decided, voice business-like and beyond argument. All tremors were gone, erased by iron control and years of experience in hiding his emotions.
It didn't stop Lennox from arguing anyway. "I'm fine. It was just… I don't know. It was weird, but I'm okay."
Right… Okay. Okay wasn't the definition of what he was, really. He kept seeing fine lines dancing around him and Tony. He saw the weird wires on Tony himself. He kept hearing echoes of something coming closer… and then he saw the echo. Rodimus rolled into the exhibition hall and it set off another flare of the blue lines, of weird wiring and tendrils wrapped around them. This time Will could see the strong connection between Tony and his guardian, could see the Prime glyph glow brightly on both of them, and he had an unhindered view of the spark inside Rodimus' armored frame. The spark was young and bright and strong, and it was strongly linking to Tony… to the Extremis within Tony.
Lennox reached out to touch one of the tendrils and it felt cool and smooth and very familiar. The blue light wrapped itself around his fingers and the hum increased. It was almost like a symphony of song and light, something beautiful and unique.
He could hear it whisper, could feel it touch his very soul, and it made him shiver. He felt the presence of more people through the tendrils. There were Rodimus and Tony, of course. He was touching them almost directly. There was Sam, coming closer. There was Optimus, like an ancient shadow in the background, powerful and strong.
Something snapped him back to the present and he heard Tony demand to know what was going on, repeating his name again and again. Stark was holding the strange relic, the dull metal cage with the empty sphere inside. And the sphere seemed to leak energy despite being empty, creeping up Tony's fingers and over his metal skin.
"It's Cybertronian," Will managed. "It's… Prime. It's reacting to us…"
"What is? This?" Tony held up the metal relic and then stared at it; hard. His eyes looked strange. "Well, hell… What is this?"
"I don't know. But it's… it's like part of the Allspark. Not a shard. Nothing like a shard. Just a part… something strong… I can see it touching you."
Tony stared at him, then at the relic. "It's touching me?" he repeated, voice level.
"Yeah. Tendrils of energy. Like it's touching Rodimus. And me."
He knew Tony understood the implications the moment he had said the words. Primes. They were all Primes. And this thing was something ancient and Cybertronian. Maybe not even created by the Prime; maybe something the Allspark had added somehow.
Tony's expression took on a faraway quality for a second, then he smiled humorlessly. "Jazz and the others apprehended our intruders. I think we need to deal with them first, then get a grip on this."
Rodimus transformed, just about able to stand up to his full height in this room. The building was enormous and easily accommodated him.
"Where did this come from?" he asked evenly.
Key, key, key, echoed through Will's head. But a key to what? He already had the Matrix key on his back. And the Allspark had never needed a key. It had worked keyless.
He almost laughed at that.
"I'll check the inventory," Tony replied, already doing that via Extremis. "I also want to know what those two were after."
"Who are they?" Lennox asked.
"The guy is Peter Lattimer, Secret Service. The young woman is Claudia Donovan, currently employed by the government as well, but not Secret Service."
"Not just that," Sam said as he walked in, looking serious. "Remember Thirteen?"
They all did. Sam had briefed them on the existence of the sentient being that might be what was left of an ancient Cybertronian who had arrived on Earth a long time ago.
"Lattimer works for Warehouse 13. Donovan, too."
"So they were looking for artifacts. Cybertronian tech. Here."
"Like that one?" Sam nodded at the relic in Tony's hands.
"No. They went for something completely different. This…" Stark glanced at Lennox. "Well, Lennox here triggered that one."
Will grimaced. Tony held it out to him, a challenging expression in his eyes. Lennox hesitated, then touched the relic. It didn't react, didn't flare, didn't hum. It was just a husk of dead metal – until it started to crumble in his hands.
With wide eyes Will watched it turn into nothing but flakes that sank into his skin like the runes tended to… and disappear.
"Shit!" Stark exclaimed.
Bright blue optics stared down at them and Rodimus' expression was one of disbelief and shock.
The tendrils Lennox could see strengthened, spreading out like a web between the five Primes, one of them not physically present, and then everything disappeared. Like the flakes had.
"Shit…" he echoed Tony's statement.
tbc...