It didn't take the police and the agency long to get there at the bowling alley. Marcy, Lance, and Walter paced around the place.
"Clio….CLIO" Marcy called.
"Over here…" Clio waved. Marcy rushed over to her niece and gave her a big hug
"Thank goodness you're okay…" then Marcy looked at Clio up and down. "What are you wearing…"
"My friend James gave this to me for my birthday...We were here for a party…"
Then Marcy facepalmed herself. "How could I forget your birthday…"
"I'm telling you that's what we saw…" Phillip told a few other officers
Lance and Walter came over to him. "Ay man...Did you see what happened?" Lance asked Phillip
"Yes sir...A man with pink eyes took my boyfriend James...He tried to go for Clio but He chose James…"
"Pink eyes…" Walter asked
"YES...I wish we had some footage we could show you…" then Clio's green eyes widened
"Phillip say that again?" Clio ran up to her best friends partner
"Some footage…" Phillip repeated. Then Clio nearly rushed out of the door when Lance grabbed her hand
"What is it girl talk to us…"
"I just remembered something...Come to my apartment...It's not too far from here...COME ON…" Clio raced out of the door. Marcy glanced at Walter and Lance and they follow suit.
When they got to the apartment, Clio opened the door. "What took you guys so long…"
Walter, Marcy, and Lance came into a small and cluttered apartment and Clio was setting up a computer with a flash drive
"Not too shabby…" Walter whispered to himself, looking around Clio's place
"Okay, what is it that you wanted to show us…" Lance inquired
"I was testing a camera on James and I just remembered that I never took it off of him…"
"A camera?" Marcy asked
"Yes, a camouflage camera...That's not the point watch this…" Clio projected her camera footage like a movie theater and the audio came in really clear.
"Hey the camera on here is really good…It's so clear" they heard James exclaim
"Can you hear me?" they heard Clio and saw her waving to the camera
"Loud and clear…" James replied. "I think this one is your best one yet…"
"Thank you…"
"Fast forwarding 2-3 hours later," Clio whispered and fast forward the tape
Sir this is a private party you can't then the man came into the footage.
"That's the man Phillip was talking about…" Clio pointed to a middle-aged tall man with a suit and tie, black hair, pale skin, and his irises are pink
"That's freaky…The way he's standing there…" Lance whispered
"You get away from her…" they hear James yell and see him push the man. Then the man reached, grabbing for James's collar, dragging him away as if to strangle him
"Let go of me you prick…"
"Let him go…" they hear Clio shout. The others witnessed the man turned sharply around, pulling out a gun and tried to shoot at Clio, but the bullet grazed her cheek.
"Whoever works here shut this place down…" Clio shouted. Then the man picked up the pace dragging her friend out of the door with Clio following after them. The others watched in despair. Walter turned and saw Clio shedding a tear and went towards her
"CLIO…" James shouted before the doors could shut
"Jamie...JAMIE...Jamie…" then Marcy spotted something familiar
"Clio, freeze that image…" Clio quickly paused it and Marcy took a look at the car's license plate.
"POELAB…" Marcy whispered
"I tried to break down what it could be but nothing came up…" Clio wiped her tears.
"Hey It's going to be okay…" Walter wrapped his arms around her.
"James is my friend...I don't want him hurt…" then Walter lifted her chin to get her green eyes to meet his blue ones
"We're gonna find him…" Clio blushed a little and smiled slightly wiping her tears and sniffled.
"Thank you…" Clio whispered. Walter blushed too and smiled. Lance smiled seeing the connection between the two young adults and so did Marcy.
"Clio...Can you show us that camera you were working on…"
"Yeah…" Clio went over to her desk. "This is the camouflage camera...The name sounds freaky I know...But this camera can blend in with anything… Prince...Princess…"
Then two doves fly towards her, scaring Lance.
"More pigeons…"
"That's Prince and Princess...They are doves...not pigeons...Prince...it's your turn…" the dove with a blue feather went up to his owner and the camera was place on him and it blended in a white color, surprising the quartet. Clio picked up the virtual reality headset
"Anyone wanna try this one...It goes with the camera…" Marcy walked over and placed it on her head and Prince began to fly around
"You can see everything so clear…"
"Prince chirp…" Prince did as he was told and Marcy jolted a little
"Nice audio…" Marcy commented
"Okay Prince you can come back…" then Prince went on top of Clio's bun and she took the camera off of her bird and placed it back on her desk. Princess flew on her shoulder. "So what do you think?" Clio shrank a little when Walter approached her and clamped his large hands onto her slightly smaller ones
"You're a genius...This is amazing that it can blend into anything and no one noticed"
"You think so…"
"It's amazing Clio...James was right when he said that this might be your best" Marcy complimented
"Thanks, Aunt Marcy…"
"What about the briefcase?" Lance asked Marcy.
"Clio...There's a chemical in a briefcase we have in H.T.U.V...DO you think you can crack it…" Marcy asked
Clio grinned eagerly. "Yes, Mam…"
Lance cleared his throat, bringing Marcy up to him. "Are you sure this is a good idea?" he whispered
"She's a chemical genius I think she can handle it," Marcy told him. She looked around at the apartment and sighed thinking about something
"Lance Walter, can I be alone with Clio for a second?" She asked
"Sure…" the men exited the apartment.
"You didn't like my invention did you?" Clio shrank. Marcy cupped her niece's cheek
"Of course I do...It's amazing...Something I might've never seen before…"
"I've been working on it for a while" Clio took down her bun so her long hair can cascade down to her lower back.
"How long have you been by yourself…" Marcy asked
"6 months since Mom and Dad's accident…" Clio frowned and glanced at the floor.
Then Marcy glanced at something on her couch that made her smile. It was a small rag doll. It had tan skin, black pigtails, and a white shirt with light blue overalls.
"I'm sure Lizzie remembers you…" Clio said, coming over to Marcy.
"I remember when you were younger, you took this doll with you...Anywhere you went from the grocery store to an outing at a carnival…"
"Lizzie was my friend...I didn't really have too many friends growing up...The only friend I had was James…"
Walter and Lance glanced at each other with concern, listening to the conversation.
"Aunt Marcy…" Marcy turned to her niece. "Do you trust me?" Then Marcy gave her a big hug and gently kissed her forehead.
'Of Course, I do...You're my niece...I love you and I just want you to be careful…"
"I want you to know that I can do this…"
"I know you can...But right now I need you safe...We'll go in the morning...You can spend the night at my place...Just like old times…"
"I kinda have to go with you…" Clio shrank
"Why…"
"I'm going to be evicted tomorrow because I'm behind on rent..."
"Wait wait...Did you pay for most of the inventions yourself?!" Clio sheepishly smiled as she shrank down further. Marcy rubbed her temples and sighed
"Okay okay...Get packed we're out in 3 minutes…" Marcy released her and walked out of the door
"Okay okay...I'll be fast...Come on Princess and Prince…" Clio packed a good percentage of her things and her inventions and followed Marcy Lance and Walter out the door
The next morning Then they arrived at the H.T.U.V headquarters. They told Clio that they were going to meet with Joy to see what's in the briefcase. Clio understood that. She wore a pink shirt with a blue heart on it and loose denim shorts. Her long hair was now down with small braid space buns on top.
When Clio walked in with Marcy Lance and Walter, She slightly hid behind them, not liking everyone looking at her.
"It's okay Clio…" Walter whispered to her. "These are just normal people."
Clio slowly came out of her shell and came out from behind the others
They walked into the office to find Joy Jenkins waiting for them.
"Did you find any intel on those briefcases…" Joy asked them
"We did and we might have someone that can help us…" Walter told her, gesturing to Clio, who shyly waved.
"Joy...This is my niece Clio...She's top of her class in chemistry...She wanted to break down the chemical's in the briefcase
"Now hold on a minute…" Joy got a bit skeptical
"Ms. Joy...If I may...I myself want to know what's in the chemicals...I think one of the people infected with it took my best friend and I want to figure out a way to reverse it so I can help…" Joy looked and thought about it. She gestured to the soldiers hold handed the case to the child.
"Let's see what you can do…"
"Is there a lab rat I can use...after I break it down to give it a test…" Clio asked
"Find her one…" Joy ordered another soldier. Clio wrapped her hair in a red scrunchie and clipped her bangs with a bobby pin. Walter cleared his throat and handed her his goggles and Marcy handed her some latex gloves
'Thank you…" then the briefcase was opened revealing two pinkish-red substances, giving off the appearance of on top of the pouches were labels that said H2R57. Then she gently tapped on the bag and it began to light up
"It gives off an exothermic reaction...Might be some liquid in there…" Clio spoke. She took one of the pouches and placed them on the table for everyone to see. She was given a small knife and slowly slit the pouch open and she stepped back a little
"Exothermic with the heat of 230 degrees Fahrenheit and 150 celsius...There has to be hydrogen in here…"
"How do you know…" Lance asked
"Hydrogen can give off any degree it can react to, whether in freezing temperatures or heat up to atmospheric pressure and heat up to at least 1,000 degrees…so they are using at least 2 of hydrogen but what's the R? Clio dropped some of the chemicals on the table and it clanked on the surface.
"Must be a metal…" Walter deduced.
"Right...it's in there but why mixed a nonmetal and metal it doesn't work...Might be Rubidium or Radium…Lots of it" Clio whispered to herself
Then the officer came in with a rat and a syringe.
"Thank you...Whoever has these chemicals might be using either lots of Radium or Rubidium...Metals...Rubidium is an alkali metal and Radium is an alkaline earth metal…"
Clio carefully placed the chemicals in the syringed needled and placed the rat down.
"I'm sorry little buddy…" She slowly stuck the needle in the rat, making it squeak like crazy
"Oh...no" Walter gently grabbed Clio and pulled her back.
"What's happening to that rat?" Joy asked her
"I don't know…I placed the chemicals in it to see what would happen…"
Then the rat stopped squirming and squealed and it slowly turned towards Clio and Walter.
"Holy…" Walter whispered. Then the rat squeaked sounding like a wailing beast, attempting to attack Clio. then Walter caught it in a container
"So that's how they get it in you….They stick you with a needle and it turns you to a rabid...zombie…" Lance looked at the rat in utter disgust and fear.
"We have to stop them before it spreads to anyone else…"
"Clio do you still have your flash drive?" Marcy asked her. Clio nodded and ran to the nearest computer and inserted it in. they watched the footage from James' jacket.
"What do you want with me…" they heard him
"Oh for a little test…" the woman told him. They watch her nodded and the same needle was coming towards him
"No no no...I'm too young to die" Clio gasped.
Then one of the henchmen burst in "We have to go to Brazil to get our next target
"Perfect and then We'll get the next supply pickup in Austria"
Then they watched James getting dragged into a cell. "Be lucky you've been spared. They see a husband and wife looking maliciously at the camera/James
"If some angel is going to save me, now would be a good time…"
"Don't worry James I'm coming for you…" Clio whispered
"We'll go to the private jet...We're going to Rio…" Lance said. And with that, the quartet headed off to their next destination not without Joy telling them to be careful.