"Copier…"

Summary: Paracelsus is leaving a little gift for Arthur and the gang…

Disclaimer: No copywrite infringement intended.

Part XXIV…

Alternate Warehouseverse…

"Well…?" Sutton hissed to Charlotte as he, she, and Nicholas followed Agent/new Caretaker Leena toward the offices area…An agent keeping up the rear, just behind Nick now.

"See if you can distract her and the other fellow a mo…" Charlotte hissed back.

"What? Permission? At last…" he grinned.

"Very funny…Just do what you do best and briefly and shallowly entertain the young lady."

"Only because you asked me, dearest." Smile.

She rolled eyes as he moved up…But a pleased wry grin after him…

God, after five hundred years, he can still…

"Agent?" he called, pleasantly…

….

"Ok…" Claudia, gingerly stepping over the stunned and unconscious body of a female agent…Blinking to see… "Geesh…Myka? Look, it's her." She pointed down.

"Jesus…The ex-Ms. Lattimer?" Myka stared at the prone form of Pete's ex-wife...At least, ex-wife in our world…

"Looks like she works for him…Maybe things didn't work out the same here?" Claudia shrugged. "But maybe in this dimension they hook up later, a happy or temporarily happy ending for Adolf Lattimer here."

"He's not that bad, Claud…" Myka sighed. "I think we…They…Hurt him a lot more than he admits…"

"Yeah, well I'd just as soon not have to enjoy more of his hospitality if we can avoid it. Especially since he seems to want us gone as well." Claudia looked round. "But without more to go on, we're stuck here."

"Well, we know the process involved a big power surge…And it looks like it's kind of a flip…We exchange with our counterparts?"

"But Paracelsus…" Claudia noted. "He was able to co-exist here with his better brother, right? Both were bronzed till evil me let bad him out and then one good bronzed, then dead and one evil free were here for a bit. So it's not exclusively a swapping process, unless bronzing or maybe some effect of the Stone negates that, somehow." Hmmn…She pulled up the laptop, setting it on the shelf in front of her…

"Bronzing is a unique process…The consciousness is sorta sorted outside the normal dimension of our universe." She mused, typing…

"It is?" Myka stared.

"It sure isn't stored in a bronze brain…" Claudia, wry grin. "That and the swapping nature of the physical nature could indicate a quantum…"

"Say, what's this?" Myka lifted a black ribbon and metal piece from where it had fallen to the floor near the unconscious ex-Mrs. Lattimer.

"That's the Marquis de Sade's collar…" Claudia eyed it, taking it.

"The who's what?"

"The French inventor of sadism…"

"I know who de Sade was…I'm a bookseller's daughter." Myka frowned… "I just meant…His collar?"

"He used it to influence his victims to get them to participate in his little 'experiments'…He didn't get many willing victims before he got his works out on the Net."

"Mind-control?" Myka blinked. "Mrs. ex-Pete had a mind-control collar?"

"Great…" Claudia sighed. "No doubt my evil twin strikes again…Our ex-Ms. Pete must have been her mole in the Lattimer organization, either likewise his ex- as in our universe or just a pretty girl agent bad Claudia noticed caught his fancy. Well…I'm just full of neat, evilly vicious ideas, aren't I?"

"Unless…" Myka eyed the body…

"Even I don't think he's capable of that…" Claudia shook her head. "No, this not only sounds like bad me…To my extreme disturbance, it occurred to me immediately that it would make sense for her. Anyway, we're in a crisis sit here, focus imperative. And we should get moving before Team Pete starts to awaken or the reserves come in."

"Yeah…" Myka agreed.

Nah…He wouldn't…She eyed the woman on the ground one last time…Shaking head.

"I think I won't miss this world…" she noted.

Hmmn…Claudia eyed the results of her search for any and all missing artifacts. Only one really standing out…

"Pepys' Pantagraph is missing…Presumed stolen and destroyed during a previous raid by another baddie." She tapped the screen. "But either Paracelsus or Claudia Negative could have altered the record, to suggest it was long gone when it was taken recently."

"What's…?"

"It's a modified artifact…Modified by the scientist Robert Hooke, a friend of the diarist Samuel Pepys…It could make copies of things, supposedly on paper, but in fact…"

"Our copier…" Myka stared.

"An early version, maybe…And the kicker being, it was used by Pepys to restore his dead wife." Claudia eyed Myka. "Now suppose it wasn't a restoration…?"

"But a kidnapping?...Or at least a transfer from another universe…?" Myka nodded.

"Pepys and his science geek Hooke might never have realized they were snatching, not resurrecting…" Claudia pondered… "And the note here says a part of it came from an artifact used by Paracelsus…Some kind of drawing tool, purpose unknown but definitely occult and seized after Paracelsus' arrest and bronzing."

Myka eyed the image… "That thing, there…" she pointed to the metal arm… "That looks like a piece of the side panel of the thing I saw."

"Paracelsus must have improved it with additional artifacts…" Claudia nodded. "Probably so he could target the universe he wanted to grab from better, improve his odds. He's been developing this thing for centuries, getting new technology from the Warehouse and outside as he could…A quantum transfer device across the multiverse…"

"Quantum…Transfer…I remember…" Myka stared. "That's the last thing Claudia…Anti-Claudia…Said to me, something like that anyhow."

"Cute…So she and Paracelsus have a device that can let them go anywhere…An infinite number of worlds to escape to…And he must have worked out a way to probe them, find out if they had what he needed before he made the trip himself."

"Then…" sigh… "He and evil Claudia must have the multi-artifact with them." Myka eyed her. "So we may be stuck here."

"Lovely…Not. No, we're going to find a way home. There's no way I'm letting a 'teen prostitute/Eva Peron Claudia' take our Warehouse…And my Artie." Claudia, hard stare. "Or your Pete…"

"Right…" Myka nodded…Faint grin. "We've lucky boys to have us so crazy about them…"

"Indeed." Claudia, eyeing the unconscious agent on the ground just behind them. "Uh…Normally…I would never suggest this on human ethics grounds…"

"Claudia?"

"Just to assure you I haven't been substituted for yet another evil Claudia…As I say, I'd never…Normally…Suggest this…" she glanced at the collar where Myka had set it on a shelf…

"…But I think, if it's the same general item as in our universe…Whoever puts it on the victim…"

"Claudia?"

"We need a little back-up…And someone who knows their way around here. If…I…Did this to her, she might know something about the artifact or the plan…Plus if she is Pete's ex- , or something, here…"

"Do we have to? I don't like the idea of utilizing artifact mind control unless we really…Really…Have to."

"Unless you see another way outta this, I think we do…" Claudia sighed.