"Copier…"
Summary: Paracelsus is leaving a little gift for Arthur and the gang…
Disclaimer: No copywrite infringement intended.
Part XXVII…
Original Warehouseverse…
"Well, one Pepysian Pantagraph, secure and in place…No funky hologram illusion." Claudia noted, carefully setting the pantagraph down before Artie and Nick. "Quite a toy…You really think this brought a woman from another dimension here?" she eyed Artie.
"There's no question Pepys retrieved his wife or a reasonably good facsimile of her with it." Artie, bending to examine the pantagraph, gloves on.
"Now there's a love story…" Claudia noted with light smile, grinning wide at Artie's stern glance. "Oh, come on, Neiled One…You know it is. She was the soul of his Diary and he couldn't let her go. It's first class Hollywood, classic H I mean."
Though I may see an even greater one in the works…She thought, smiling at his sigh.
"Amazing…So Uncle used this to improve the original device and even enhanced it?" Nick stared.
"Which raises the question…How? And why?" Artie sighed.
"I thought we'd solved that one…" Claudia shrugged. "He needed to better target his worlds for jumping to and fro…"
"But how did he get hold of an artifact two hundred plus years after his own time while he was in the Bronzer, not to mention others for the enhancements? And if he wasn't in the Bronzer, if he'd put a copy in his place, why take the risk?" Artie pondered. "He was safe, immortal from the Stone, his counterpart was out of the way…Even his family was fooled at the time of the bronzing…"
Nick looking a tad sheepish…
"Well, he'd lost the Warehouse regardless of whether he'd escaped imprisonment. And being your typical power-mad megalomaniac, he probably wanted a shot at every Warehouse as well…" Claudia suggested. "And I'm sure he was very good at playing the Lighter version of himself…" she smiled at Nick, he returning smile, gratefully.
All true enough, as dear Jinks would confirm if he were with us, she thought.
"Besides, he wasn't immortal at the time? He needed the Stone again,
didn't his staff root him out too soon? They defeated him before he could use the Stone, right? Called in the Reagents, booted him out, without two weeks' notice." She added, solemn look.
Yes, I do owe my ex-partner/(totally faked orgasms, every one, I swear, Artie) ex-lover for that bit of alternate universe transfer of memory, even if it jibed with my own world's series of events…
"And how did they manage that?" Artie stared at her.
"Well…" she shrugged. "You're the records gatekeeper, oh Neiled one…" smile.
"Actually there's no complete record of how Paracelsus was stopped then." Artie pondered. "Just the flat report that he was charged, prevented from using the Stone, removed as Caretaker, and condemned to bronzing."
"Interesting…" Claudia nodded. "Nick?" she turned to him. "Any light you could throw on the subject…Your unk must've made arrangements with you, told you something about his work. You knew about the bronzing and the bronzer, at least enough to get him out."
And Claudia for the Prosecution takes the case…
Nick looking a bit uncomfortable…
There we go, shift that spotlight back on to my fiendish nemesis and his hapless minion nephew…Actually may have been a good thing you showed here, Nicky, she regarded him calmly.
"Well, Uncle told me what I've told you, Mr. Neilsen, before…That those who pressed him to carry out his experiments on us intended to silence him. That to save us in the future, Mother and I must free him should he disappear into their clutches."
"Our clutches…" Claudia noted. "Sorry…" to Artie's frown.
"I'd no idea the Warehouse was in the hands of good people, I trusted Uncle despite all that had happened, it seemed to explain things that he was merely trying to stop…"
"Us 'bad' guys…" Claudia filled in…
"We understand, Nick." Artie, quietly. "But if he knew a means to escape, why didn't he use it?"
"Teach!..." Claudia raised hand.
"Sorry…" grin. "He wanted to be bronzed…And transfer himself just…" she paused.
Artie, hard stare…
"…Neilsen, you've done it again…" she grinned.
"Excuse me?" Nick, blinking.
"He couldn't have transferred alone, Nick. And I and Holmes here believe you didn't help him there, correct?" she smiled.
"No, I'd…" stare. "He had someone else helping him? Someone who carried out the transfer…"
"Not just any someone…" Artie pointed out. "It was someone in another universe. Someone who made sure the Paracelsus who ended up in our bronzer was the wrong man. Our friend wasn't about to spend hundreds of years in bronze awaiting you. Anything could have gone wrong. No, he put the original Paracelsus, the man you knew, in our bronzer and skipped off, round the universes, but keeping him and God knows how many others, on bronze, as safe anchors. He had to have places to run whenever he might be caught or a Universe might be too dangerous to stay. But he always had to have a partner, to pull him out or back to whatever universe..."
"Yes, oh Great One…?" eager stare.
I sense Bingo, my darling. Thank God I'm the Claudia who loves you even more than life itself or I'd probably be flaming you alive right now…
"A partner, the one partner he'd trust…" Artie eyed the two.
"Paracelsus…Alternate." Claudia nodded. "There were two of them."
"At least…There had to be. He couldn't have done it without another." Artie agreed.
"Another…?" Nick began.
"Evil unk…But Nick…" Claudia, patting his arm. "Two evils out of an infinite universe is not bad. God knows how many evil Claudias there are running about."
And who better to save the Universes all from such menaces than a reformed, more or less EC? See, Fate herself wants me to win all the marbles here. I'm needed, she thought. No other Claudia would understand what I'm capable of…
And in 10000 or 20000 years, I'll use that to explain the truth to my immortal husband after I've given him endless proofs of my utter devotion to him and the goodness thing…
More or less…
She smiled kindly at Nick's rueful look.
"Really, for every evil one, I'd bet there are a million saints." She beamed.
"That might explain why he had to keep moving…" Artie noted.
"So why come back to our world ala bronzer? Why not just find another Stone and a vulnerable Warehouse where our crack team is less so? With MacPherson in charge, ready and waiting to sell out and some dimwitted version of me and the fellas the bumbling assistants." Claudia shrugged. "Like, wow, I'm so into this Warehouse stuff, Mr. MacP." She cooed, batting eyes to Nick's smile.
"Why indeed…" Artie nodded. "Unless he got caught and had to run to the safest hole he could, which just happened to be our bronzer."
Oh, Artie…You're getting this…Even I needed some spelling out by dear ole Pary…
"But if he could go anywhere…?" she looked at him. "Ah…" grin. "Someone plugged the rabbit holes…"
"He was running out of safe worlds, the Reagents of one or maybe many, Warehouses must have been closing in on him…Backed by his better selves. Sealing off world after world." Artie nodded. "Naturally, he'd set off one too many alarms jumping around…Sooner or later some of his good counterparts had to get wise to him"
"Gee…They might have dropped by and told us." Claudia frowned. "What, are we the Warehouseverse equivalent of Bug Tussel, Arkansas? The seedy slum Universe no one cares about…"
"No, worse…" Artie shook head. "We're shielded."
