A/N: Thank you pallysAramisRios for reviewing! Speaking of holos and trouble... ;)
Chapter 16: Interference
Dahj finished winding up Henry Work's Grandfather Clock and checked it off her weekly to-do list on her phone. Part of maintaining the artifacts required regularly tending to some of their eccentricities. Next was rotate the wheels on George Mochet's Pedal Car.
As she made her way down the next aisle, she heard a crackling overhead and looked up to see a blue ball of static electricity go flying through the air. That was weird. Maybe there was another artifact that needed fiddling with she didn't know about yet.
She rounded the next juncture and pulled up short as she almost ran into, or rather through, Enoch. He was simply standing in the middle of the aisle, gaze slanted downward and brows furrowed.
"Something wrong?" Dahj asked.
He looked up at her. "I don't feel right."
She frowned. "What do you mean?" Since when did holograms feel anything?
A static ball came zinging down the aisle and collided with Enoch. Dahj was barely saved by the fact that the static seemed to get absorbed into him instead of passing all the way through. But then he flickered and spritzed, and the static spurted out in several branches, striking artifacts on the nearby shelves.
Dahj yelped and threw her arms up to shield her face as items went flying. The Baylor Dodgeball rolled off the shelf and bounced on the floor, which activated it, and the red ball immediately launched itself at Dahj, hitting her in the chest and knocking her flat on her back. The ball then split into two and they wheeled around to go for Enoch, but they passed right through the hologram. The balls crashed into the shelves and sent even more artifacts to the floor.
Dahj scrambled to her feet and took off running to get help. The Baylor Dodgeball was a nasty little thing, purposely attacking people and multiplying every time it hit someone.
Emmet suddenly stepped into the aisle ahead of her. "Duck!"
She nearly tripped bowing forward mid-run, and the two dodgeballs sailed overhead. They passed through the holo, but then one of those static balls came flying out of nowhere and hit him. And just like with Enoch, it was like hitting a lightning rod that then distributed the electricity out around it. One of the bolts hit both dodgeballs, sending them zinging off to another area of the Warehouse.
Dahj veered down another aisle to avoid getting electrocuted. She made it to the base of the stairs heading up to the main office when she heard a piano key echo throughout the Warehouse. An airplane hanging from the ceiling in the back suddenly fell with a resounding crash.
Rios and Picard came rushing out of the office onto the balcony at that.
"Who touched the Aluminum Blüthner Piano?" Picard demanded.
Dahj vaulted up the stairs. "I don't know what's happening. There's these—that." She gestured sharply to the blue balls of squiggling energy flying around the Warehouse. "They set off the Baylor Dodgeball."
Picard's mouth turned down. "The static balls sometimes build up because of the energy from the artifacts. There's an artifact that will collect them."
"I'll show you," Rios said to Dahj.
They turned to head back down the stairs when Emil appeared at the bottom.
"I believe there is a problem," the hologram started to say, but then he was interrupted by a static ball hitting him and sending bolts of lightning out in every direction.
Dahj and Rios dropped low to avoid getting struck.
"You guys are acting like lightning rods!" Dahj shouted at Emil.
The holo gave a grim nod and hurried away so he wouldn't make them a target.
"I'll call Raffi and Soji to get down here," Picard said.
Rios nodded and ushered Dahj down the stairs, then led the way through the aisles as static balls zinged overhead.
"We need Vyasa's Jade Elephant," he told her.
Dahj heard a telltale bounce a second before something slammed into her back, punching the air from her lungs and driving her face first to the floor. Rios landed beside her with a grunt. Before they could get up, they were bombarded again by the dodgeballs. Both of them threw their arms up to protect their heads.
"Oi! Ova here!" a thick Scottish brogue yelled.
"¡No, por aquí!" Emmet shouted from the other direction.
The dodgeballs, now over a dozen, went flying toward their new targets. As the holograms tried to distract the red balls, Dahj and Rios scrambled to their feet and fled. Unfortunately, the holos were still attracting the static balls. There was a loud crackling and pop, and then one of the dodgeballs wreathed in static went sailing over them and crashed into a shelf unit. Several artifacts fell to the floor, including a pulley block.
Rios skidded to a stop. "Shit."
But it was too late; serpentine ropes immediately erupted from the pulley block and lashed out at them both, coiling around Dahj and Rios before they could make another move. Dahj struggled as they bound her arms against her sides and held her firmly in place.
"Don't struggle!" Rios yelled, equally restrained by the thick ropes. "The more you struggle, the tighter they'll get, until they crush you."
If that was supposed to make Dahj not panic, it had the opposite effect. Heart pounding, she tried to hold perfectly still, but even so, she could feel the coarse rope continuing to slowly constrict around her chest. Only a few feet away, rope was coiling around Rios's throat.
Ean jogged up to them, only to pull up short. "Oof, this disnae look good."
"Be useful and get help," Rios growled.
"Right."
The holo turned and darted off, leaving the two of them trapped and slowly being crushed to death as the Warehouse descended into chaos around them.
Raffi and Soji hurried into the Warehouse. Jean-Luc's call had only said to get down there right away but no details on why.
"What's the big emergency?" she asked as they strode into the office.
Without getting up from the computer, Picard pointed out the office window that looked out on the storage area, which was teeming with static balls flying left and right.
"What the hell. How did it get that bad so fast?"
"It seems as though the static buildup from the artifacts has been interacting with the holograms' matrices and amplifying everything," he replied. "We might have to wipe them from the system."
"Well, hang on," Soji interjected. "At least give me a chance to stabilize them."
She practically pushed Picard aside so she could access the computer.
Raffi went to the window to get a better look and spotted blurs of red among the blue. "Are those the Baylor Dodgeballs?"
"Yes."
Raffi cursed under her breath. "Where's Rios?"
"He and Dahj went for the Jade Elephant," Jean-Luc answered.
"They're gonna need backup with the dodgeballs running amuck."
A clatter from behind had the three of them whirling to where Seven had abruptly appeared. But instead of looking her usual prim self and demanding to know how they'd made a mess of things, she was bent double and had caught herself on the small table with the chess set, which had knocked some pieces to the floor, and which of course made the board vibrate in agitation.
Raffi and Picard hurried over to take Seven by the arms. "Are you all right?" Raffi asked in concern. "What happened?"
"You tell me," she grunted, reaching up to clutch her head. "Something's happening with the Warehouse."
"Yeah," Raffi said and pointed out the window.
Seven squinted, then grimaced in pain. "It's more than just the static," she ground out.
"Hang on," Raffi interrupted. "How is this affecting you?"
"As Caretaker, I'm tied to the Warehouse," she replied.
"We believe having the Rios holograms in the Warehouse have negatively disrupted the delicate balance of the artifacts," Jean-Luc explained.
"Which I'm trying to fix," Soji spoke up firmly.
Raffi knew she and Dahj had kind of grown attached to the quirky holos, but the Warehouse was at stake here.
Seven groaned. "Well hurry."
"Here, you should lie down," Raffi said, and she and Picard helped Seven into the back room that JL used as his own little studio apartment. They eased her down onto the bed.
"Is there anything we can do for you in the meantime?" Raffi asked.
Seven shook her head, face scrunched up in misery.
Raffi went to the sink anyway and soaked a hand towel in cold water. After wringing it out, she came back over and placed it across Seven's forehead.
Picard walked back out to the office. "Soji…"
"Just give me a little more time," she pleaded. "Rios and Dahj are going to take care of the static, right? So once things calm down, maybe I can find a way to make sure the holos don't disrupt the artifacts again."
"Ah, about that," the Scottish hologram said as he entered the office. "Rios and the wee lass are in a bit of a fankle."
"A what?" Raffi snipped, coming to stand in the doorway. Honestly, why couldn't they have programmed that one with a real language?
Nevertheless, his meaning was rather clear.
"I'll go down," Jean-Luc said. "Raffi, stay with Seven."
Soji abandoned her work on the holograms and went with him. They couldn't delete them right now anyway, not when only the holos knew where Rios and Dahj were.
Raffi's jaw tightened as she watched them venture out into the mayhem. Glancing over her shoulder at the state Seven was in, she wondered what would happen if the entire Warehouse came crashing down on itself…
Rios swallowed with difficulty, his throat bobbing against the rope coiled around it. And every time he did, the artifact interpreted it as movement and incrementally squeezed tighter with every swallow. His windpipe was going to be crushed soon if someone didn't get down here.
Static eruptions continued throughout the Warehouse, followed by the sounds of artifacts crashing to the floor. A gust of wind started down the aisle, bringing horizontal rain. Rios tried to hold back a groan; things were getting out of hand fast, and there was no limit to the destruction any number of these artifacts could wreak.
Two of the holograms appeared, hurrying down the aisle toward them with Jean-Luc and Soji following close behind. And then from the opposite direction, on the crest of a gale, came the Zookeeper Cap.
"Watch out!" Rios shouted, his voice strangled by the constricting rope.
But it was too late; the cap landed at Picard's and Soji's feet and immediately exploded into a silk cocoon that spun up and around them, binding them against the shelves. Now they were all stuck.
"What the hell," Soji exclaimed, struggling against the silken cords. At least those simply trapped a person and didn't slowly crush them to death.
Enoch and Ean stood there helplessly and even tried to pry the silk off Soji and Jean-Luc, but of course their hands simply passed right through the objects. Static balls came flying down to hit them, making them flicker as bolts forked out to hit the artifacts on the shelves. One of the shoots from Enoch struck a coffee pot and a ferret suddenly popped out. Enoch whirled at the animal's harried squeaking and bumped into the shelf. The holo's eyes widened and he reached out to touch it, actually making contact. He exchanged a bewildered look with Ean, who also reached out to touch the shelf—and did so.
"What the- how'd you do that?" Soji asked.
Enoch turned toward her, stunned. "I wished we could be physical so we could help."
Rios could no longer speak past the rope constricting his throat, but he recognized Howard Carter's Coffee Pot. It granted wishes (and spawned ferrets for each one). The static must have connected the hologram in that split moment and made his wish come true.
"Now would be a good time to use your newfound ability," Jean-Luc said with an urgent look at Rios and Dahj.
"Right," Ean said and took off running.
"Hold on," Enoch told the agents. "We'll have you out in a jif."
Static balls continued flying around but no longer seemed attracted to the now physical holos. Enoch spun and snatched up the ferret, tucking it close to keep it safe.
Ean returned with what looked like a grenade, which he arched his arm back to throw. "Close yer eyes!"
Rios squeezed his shut right before Ean tossed the explosive, which erupted with neutralizer spray that splattered everything in sight. The ropes immediately went slack and fell away, slithering back into the pulley block. Rios sucked in a ragged gasp of air and shot a hand up to rub at his bruised throat. The others were also released from the traps, though their heads were all covered in purple goo now.
"Ick," Soji remarked, wiping at her face.
"The Jade Elephant?" Jean-Luc asked.
"Haven't reached it yet," Rios replied as they all set off to retrieve the artifact.
Unfortunately, it was stored near Van Gogh's Stormy Night, which was currently manifesting a torrential storm from being disturbed. Fierce gales and biting rain buffeted them as they fought their way toward the shelf. Water streamed across the floor beneath them, making them slip. Even the holograms, now corporeal, were struggling to get close.
"Do you have another one of those grenades?" Soji shouted over the gusting winds.
Ean nodded and pulled out another to throw toward the painting, dousing it in purple spray and calming the storm.
Rios sprinted through the sloshing water to reach the elephant, which he then had to wipe off with his shirt so the neutralizer goo wouldn't prevent it from catching the static balls.
"Watch out!" Dahj suddenly yelled as a red dodgeball came bouncing toward them.
It went for Ean, who flickered right as the ball made contact, and it went sailing through him.
The hologram chuckled. "That's handy."
He grabbed a placard off a shelf and swung it like a racket when the dodgeball came back toward him, hitting it square on and sending it flying high into the air and across several aisles.
Rios set off to track down one of the many static balls careening around. He ran into Emmet and Emil, who were also able to adjust their photon modulation or whatever so they were incorporeal again, which attracted the static once more. As the balls came zinging toward them, Rios leaped in front of them with the Jade Elephant, catching the balls of crackling energy with the artifact. With the holos' help, he collected dozens of static balls. But the dodgeballs were still out to get them.
Until Ean took up a stance with the placard racket and yelled, "Ball!"
He thwacked the incoming dodgeball right toward Emmet, who threw his arms up and caught it. The force of the ball's momentum sent him flying backward to land on his ass, but he'd successfully caught the dodgeball, which was the way to inactivate it. All the copies slurped back into the single, original ball, now dormant.
Emmet kept a hold of it until all the static balls were dealt with, and the Warehouse finally settled. But it was an absolute mess.
Rios and the holos made their way back to the others, who were standing the middle of a flooded aisle covered in dripping purple goo.
Jean-Luc was shaking his head in consternation at Van Gogh's painting. At least the neutralizer didn't stain permanently.
"Everyone all right?" Emil asked.
The girls nodded.
The last hologram appeared, stepping carefully over the mess and tutting. "Look at this."
"Nice of you to show up after the day is saved," Emil snipped.
"Someone has to clean up after you," the holo rejoined.
And with that, he actually did start tidying up, being able to physically interact with objects now too.
Rios, however, was too tired to focus on that at the moment. He, Jean-Luc, and the twins headed back to the office.
Raffi's brows rose sharply at their appearances. "What the hell happened?"
"The static balls have all been collected," Picard replied. "For now."
"And the holos are somehow physical now," Dahj added.
"Excuse me?"
"Enoch made a wish with the coffee pot," Soji explained and went to the computer to check something.
"Are you saying they're real boys now?" Raffi exclaimed.
"No," Soji answered. "They're still computer programs tied to the Warehouse's holographic projectors. They can just…modulate their photons."
Well, one good thing, then, Rios thought. He didn't want a bunch of copies of himself running off into the world.
"We still need to address the issue so this doesn't happen again," Jean-Luc pointed out.
"I can fix it," Soji promised. "The change in their matrices opens up new workarounds."
Picard sighed. "Very well."
Rios set the Jade Elephant on the desk and headed for the door. "I need a shower."
The others also decided to head to the B&B to get cleaned up, leaving Raffi and Seven the only ones in the Warehouse. Aside from the holos, but they were off in the storage area doing who knew what. Seven was sitting up on the bed now, but she still looked wrung out.
"How are you feeling?" Raffi asked.
Seven let out a small snort. "I imagine this is what a hangover feels like."
Raffi quirked a brow. "What, you've never experienced one before?"
"No. As Caretaker, I have certain obligations to conduct myself by. Plus, my connection to the Warehouse provides me with a bit of…fortification, one might say."
"What about before you were Caretaker?"
Seven's expression turned almost reminiscent. "That was a very long time ago."
She didn't expand on that.
"Sounds lonely," Raffi commented.
Seven didn't respond to that either. But instead of disappearing like she usually did, she remained sitting where she was, the both of them contemplating the other in companionable silence.