A/N: It's that time of week again. ;) Orin brings you this chapter with love. He'd love to say more but he's literally falling asleep at the keyboard. Anyway, enjoy! Mind and Orin love you all, and thanks for reading!
[SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA – 2010]
Ahh, morning. The sun was shining, the birds chirping... and the partner was hungry. Myka watched Pete roam the room, opening and closing drawers. "Pete, we have to get going. We'll grab something on the way."
"But I'm hungry now," Pete complained, putting on his best puppy eyes. Almost as if he could sense her judgment, he hastily added, "What? I haven't eaten all night!"
"Pete..."
The warning tone of her voice prompted Pete to shut up about his hunger. "All right, all right. So what are we looking for again?" he wanted to know. "All I know is that it's some lady."
"Look for a lady wearing a red hat." This was the most basic description she could give Pete. Actually, it was the most descriptive she could get. She hadn't yet gotten a good look at the woman's face, and the rest of her clothing weren't out of the ordinary. If they were going to find this woman, they had to pray that she still wore the hat.
Pete stared at Myka. Hopefully, the task would be as simple as it sounded. But then again, with their job... it rarely was. "So... look for red," he clarified. You know. Just to be absolutely sure they were on the same page.
"Yes, Pete. Look for red." She had to resist the urge to roll her eyes. Sometimes Pete was just... well, Pete. There was no accurate way to describe him well.
"Can do!" he chirped. "Let's go do some sightseeing!"
[TWO HOURS LATER]
"Man, how hard can it be to find some lady wearing a red hat?" Pete complained. Myka didn't voice her thoughts, but she had to admit that she expected that this would be so difficult. Red usually tended to stand out against other colors. Why, then, was it so hard to find their target? She could only hope that Claudia and Helena were having better luck.
Pete's arm shot out to block her way as he excitedly pointed somewhere to her left. "Oh! Oh! Myka, look! That woman's – oh, never mind." He sheepishly lowered his arm. "Okay, I could have sworn her hat was red."
Myka turned her head to look at the woman in question. "Pete..."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Learn my colors."
Myka just shook her head. "Oh, Pete." He grinned at her in return.
"I might be tempted to learn my colors if we got different colors of frosting for co–" The sound of buzzing interrupted.
"Hold that thought, Pete. Someone's calling." Myka dug the Farnsworth out of her pocket. "Hello?"
"Myka? Myka! We need you and Pete as backup. That cracked lady in the red hat is here and she had the artifact!"
Myka swore. "Are you–"
"Yes! Yes, I'm sure! H.G.'s chasing her right– oh frak, she doesn't have a weapon! Gotta go! Come as fast as you can. We gotta catch this lady. Claudia, out."
Myka stared at the blank screen on the Farnsworth. "Pete?"
"I heard. Let's go."
[MOMENTS LATER]
"Claudia? Claudia, where are you?"
"Pete? Myka? Is that you?" a familiar voice panicked.
Pete and Myka rounded the corner and found themselves face-to-face with a visibly distraught Claudia and a strangely unmoving H.G. Wells. The older woman had something clasped in her hands as she stood, staring blankly ahead of her. What Claudia told the agents sent a chill down Myka's back: "Guys, the other woman has artifacts with her."
"What happened to H.G.?" Pete wanted to know, examining Helena. "It's like she's just... stuck in time or something."
"I don't know! I ran over with my Tesla after calling you guys and I just found her like this!" She paused. "And don't tell Artie I built one? Please? I like my days being relatively punishment-free." She'd begun behaving herself recently, resulting in less chores for herself. Needless to say, she was pleased with the less intense workload, and Artie was happy that he didn't have to keep saving her from the dangerous situations she seemed to find herself in.
"Claudia, calm down," Myka said as soothingly as she could. "Did you see how this happened?"
"No! Like I said, I came running with the Tesla and she was already... like... that." Claudia gestured awkwardly at Helena, turning her head so as to avoid the frozen woman's gaze. She wanted to avoid looking at her in general as well. She shouldn't have let the older woman go after the artifact thief alone. She should've stayed with there with Helena. They were a team.
"Was the woman there?"
Claudia thought back to her arrival. "No, she was gone by the time I got here." She glared up and down the alley, as if expecting the woman to just walk out into the open and offer herself to the agents.
"And the artifact?" Pete prompted.
"It's as much here as Wally is, and you know how hard he is to find. I'm so sorry, guys."
"Don't you mean Wald–" Pete began, before Myka punched him. "Ow!"
"It's not your fault, Claudia," Myka told the girl, shooting Pete a warning look. Not now.
"I should have been faster!" she argued. "I could've prevented–"
An unexpected voice interrupted them. "Where did she go?" Helena asked, blinking in bewilderment and looking around as if her target had vanished into thin air.
"H.G.!" Claudia cried, barely stopping herself from tackling the woman and hugging her. Just hearing her voice was a cause for relief. She lived! The woman hadn't killed her, and she wasn't frozen forever...
"Pete? Myka? When did you two arrive?" H.G. wanted to know, frowning at the two agents. "As a matter of fact, when did you arrive, Claudia? I thought I told you to stay back."
"Helena," Myka began, "she stopped your clock." She hoped she wouldn't have to go into more detail about that. How would she explain it when she didn't even know how it happened? At least she'd begun to stop asking how things like this were possible. As Pete said, with this job... there was no such thing as no such thing.
Helena frowned. "She stopped my..." And her facial expression changed. "Oh. Oh." She pressed her lips tightly together. "She did?"
"Yeah."
"How long was I...?"
"About ten minutes." Myka raised her eyebrows. "How did you know what I meant?"
"That's a surprisingly short amount of time. In the past, the artifact in question had been used for much longer periods of time. Of course, the longer you put someone on hold, the more dangerous it is for the victim. As for how I knew... my partner and I retrieved the artifact back when we worked at Warehouse 12."
"What was it?" Claudia wanted to know.
"A stopwatch. I caught a glimpse of it in the woman's hand. Funny, though, I could have sworn I saw it back at Warehouse 13 not too long ago..."
"What's that in your hand?"
"Hm? Oh..." Helena unclasped her hands and held the object up for all to see. "A small white stone." Indeed, what she held was an oddly-shaped white stone that fit neatly into the palm of her hand.
"Strange. Did she leave it for you?"
"She handed it to me and said 'I'll see you next time.' That's all I remember until I... reawakened, and saw you three."
"She must want us to do something," Myka mused. "But what?"
Claudia gazed around at the group with a grim look on her face. "We have to find her before she starts messing with civilians. It's bad enough that she's targeting us, but when innocents are at risk..."
"Myka and I will try to find her," Pete decided. "That's what we were told to do, anyway. You two just stay here and... try to figure out that rock thing."
"Gotcha."
[AT THE OTHER END OF THE ALLEY]
The woman turned a small black stone over and over again in one gloved hand as she watched the Warehouse agents. "Now, let's see how long it takes for them to figure it out." She smirked and slipped the stone – it looked just like the black half of a yin-yang symbol – into her pocket. Then she turned and fled.
