-3-

Lookalikes

Nate and Chloe were up in the rafters of the museum, decked out in their patrolling attire. They were waiting for a perfect moment to drop down and begin their mission. Though neither one of them would admit it, they were nervous about getting caught. Luckily no one there had ever seen their faces and before they left, Sully had given them hats to wear to better hide their identities. Nate handed Chloe her hat and they put them on.

"You ready for this?" he asked her, adjusting the hat on his head.

"Don't you know it, cowboy." Chloe said with a wink.

"Okay, let's do this then." he answered, popping the grate off in front of him as quietly as he could. He looked down below and saw that the coast was clear. "You go first, I'll be right behind you." he told her, lowering a rope for her to climb down.

"Gotcha." she replied, slowly beginning to climb down. She dropped to the floor with barely a sound. She took a quick look around to see if it was clear for Nate to follow. "Okay, you're clear." she called to him.

"Okay..." he said, grabbing onto the rope to begin his descent. "Easy does it."

As Chloe watched Nate climb down, she saw a stray guard coming his way. "Son of a bitch." she cursed to herself. She saw that Nate was right above him.

While Nate was climbing down the rope began to snap, he dangled in mid-air for a moment, hovering above the guard. "No no no no no..." he said over and over. Just as the guard looked up Nate came crashing down on top of him, knocking him out. Nate hit the ground hard and rolled to a stop. "Shit!" he yelled, standing to his feet. "We're not getting out that way."

"Are you all right?" Chloe asked, handing his hat to him that had fallen off in all the ruckus.

"Yeah..." he answered, taking the hat from her and donning it once more. "Just going to need a good chiropractor after all this." Nate let out a sigh and looked around the room. "The necklace we need should be in one of these cases. Just take a look around." he told her.

After a few minutes Chloe came to the case that held what they needed. "I've got it." she told him.

"Good girl." Nate said with a smile, pulling out a glass cutter from his pocket. "Got the replica?" he asked her as he started to cut a circle in the glass.

"I have it right here." she answered, taking the necklace from around her neck.

Nate shot her a strange look. "You were wearing it?" he asked, raising a brow.

"Why not?" she answered. "I thought it looked rather dashing on me if I do say so myself." She smiled to herself and handed the necklace over to him.

Nate just shook his head and chuckled. "I'll never understand you women." he told her. A moment later he popped the circle of glass from the case. He reached inside and took the artifact. He felt himself staring at it. It looked just like the one he lost when he took down Marlowe a year ago, save for the ring being black in color. Truthfully, he missed wearing that ring. It was passed down from, who he always thought to be his ancestor, Sir Francis Drake in the 1500s. Drake was always his idol and the ring bore his motto 'Sic Parvis Magna' which meant 'Greatness from Small Beginnings'. Words that Nate wanted to live by—always.

"Uh, I hate to interrupt what appears to be a great moment of tranquility, but we need to get our asses out of here before we're caught." Chloe warned him.

Nate snapped out of his daze. "Yeah...guess you're right." he answered, taking the replica from Chloe and putting it where the original was. He then put the real one around Chloe's neck like the fist one was. "Let's go."

"In here!" the two heard a guard call from the other side of a door.

"Crap!" Nate yelled, he and Chloe taking cover behind one of the cases. "What the hell do we do now?"

"Good thing one of us came prepared." Chloe smiled, pulling out two guns, handing one to Nate.

"You're a genius, Chloe." Nate praised her. "Now, these are bound to be Adelle's men so we have to get out of here as soon as possible." As the two hid there, a shot was fired, shattering a vase on the case in from of them to pieces.

"Good Lord, that Ms. Adelle Bruno doesn't mess around." Chloe said, clicking her gun to the ready.

"No kidding." Nate answered, looking over to her. Suddenly he noticed that the necklace was glowing a faint blue color. "Chloe..." he said slowly, pointing his gun at the necklace to show her.

Chloe looked down to she the shining charm around her neck. "What the hell?" she asked.

"I don't know..." Nate answered, looking over the case and firing a few rounds, taking out of of Bruno's guards. "Let's just—" he began and jumped when he looked back to Chloe.

"What!?" Chloe yelled in response. "You're scaring the piss out of me."

Nate was still silent for a few moments. He knew that it was none other than Chloe sitting next to him, but she didn't have the face of Chloe at all. Her face and body was a mimic of Adelle Bruno.

"Do...do you have a compact on you by any chance?" he asked her in shock.

"Of course." she answered, pulling a small, circular red compact out of her bra. Her jaw dropped when she saw that Adelle was looking back at her. "What in the bloody hell is this?" she asked in horror.

"I don't know..." he answered. "That necklace lit up a second ago...maybe that has something to do with it." he told her.

With that, Chloe quickly removed the necklace from her neck. And as soon as she did, she fazed right back into being Chloe—just as Nate had predicted. It was clear at this moment why the real Adelle wanted this artifact so badly.

"You're right." Chloe said, looking relieved to see her old face back again. "What kind of witchcraft is dwelling in this thing?" She asked, looking at the necklace in awe.

"Adelle are you in here!?" Another guard yelled out into the room. Chloe and Nate could see red beams floating throughout the room. They knew that as soon as they peaked any part of their body out, they would be shredded to pieces by them. They were pinned down. Then, suddenly, and idea struck Nate.

"Wait, wait. Chloe, put that necklace back on for a second." he told her.

"Are you mad!?" she shrieked at him. "I don't want to walk around town with a terrorist mastermind's face!" she said, thinking that Nate had finally lost his mind.

"Chloe, those are Adelle's guards and we are pinned down with massive snipers here. Now, chances are she knows that that necklace has special powers but doesn't know exactly what yet. With you looking like her you can get us out of here." he explained.

"And if they don't believe I'm here and they gun me down to nothing?" She asked in retaliation.

"Chloe, I just saw this happen before my own eyes and I still can't even believe it." he told her. It was the truth. He had never seen anything like that in his whole life, and he had seen some very odd things in his days. "If you feel like it's too dangerous I'll come out and cover you. I promise I won't let them hurt you...okay?" he told her. He would never put someone he cared about in danger unless he was certain that what he was thinking would work.

Chloe just sighed in annoyance. "Christ, why do I do these things for you." she muttered, slipping the necklace back on. Much to their surprise, nothing was happening. "Oh, that figures—it's defective." she said.

"No, maybe not. Try saying her name." Nate told her, thinking that they didn't have anything left to lose if she did.

Chloe rolled her eyes and spoke. "Adelle Bruno."

Just like that, the necklace began to illuminate once more and seconds later she was back transformed into Adelle—black suit and all.

"I just hate it when you're right." She scoffed, shaking her head, tucking the necklace inside her shirt so the guards wouldn't see that she had it.

Nate smiled, he was glad to know that he still had his knack for figuring out the impossible. "You can do this. I'm right here." he reminded her.

"Bollocks!" Chloe said in an enraged whisper and stood before all of the guards. All of the beams were aimed straight at her forehead. She simply rose her arms up. "Stand down." she said to them in a firm voice.

The guards all paused for a moment, the beams still not leaving her face.

So she thought she'd try again. "I said, stand down." she repeated.

Nate watched her from below, he was getting nervous when he didn't see the beams fade after the first time she threatened them. Every second that ticked off felt like hours. He then felt a wave of relief when he saw the beams disappear and the guards pull back. Chloe sighed in relief as well.

"Ms. Bruno...what are you doing here? You told us and us alone to come and get the artifact." One of the bulky guards asked, walking forward.

Chloe would have to wing this, she just hoped she'd wing it right. "That was before I realized that this mission may be to important for all of the...incompetence my army shares." she said, speaking now in an Italian accent. She walked over to the case that held the fake necklace and pulled it out. "Do I hear any complaints?" she asked smugly.

"N-no..." the guard answered, he and the others too afraid to argue back with the head honcho.

"Go back to our staging grounds for now." she said, tossing the necklace to the guard. "Take care of this. I'll meet you back there in a little while. I have a few more things to take care of." Chloe ordered them. When she saw them leaving the room a bit too slowly, she thought she'd light a fire under them. "Don't make me repeat myself." she said coldly. Seconds later, the room was emptied. "It's clear." she told Nate.

Nate stood and looked around the room to confirm her words. "Thank God." he sighed. "That was a little too close."

Chloe ripped the necklace off of her as fast as she could, reverting back to her beautiful brunette self. "I will never get bloody used to that..." she said in frustration.

Nate walked over to her and patted her back. "Hopefully you won't have to. You did a great job. You really saved our asses." he told her proudly.

"I don't know about you but I'm more than ready to get the hell out of here." She told him, handing him the necklace, him slipping it into his pocket.

"Let's just get this back to Sully and see what he has to say about this." Nate said, wanting to get out of here just as badly as she did at this point. He helped Chloe out of the nearby window. They were going to use the fire escape to get to safety. After Chloe was already climbing down he pulled the necklace back out of his pocket and looked at it for a moment. "What the hell was that..." he said to himself.