They made it back to HQ around 2pm Pacific Time Zone. Ida was already halfway through her search when the two walked through the threshold. The Middleman was quick to her side,

"What's coming down the wire, Ida?" she didn't turn away from the HAYDAR as she issued her answer,

"I've pinpointed one cluster of Galifreyian particles that were recently agitated." The Middleman walked over to the wall of lamps and turned a series of them off, "Looks like your time traveler is currently in the 1950s." with a final click of a lamp a nearby wall slide open, revealing a shallow alcove. The Middleman walked over to it, motioning for Wendy,

"Then that's where we'll confront him." He handed a leather belt with an oversized silver pocket watch serving as the buckle to her, "Here, Wendy. Buckle this around your waist." Wendy hesitantly accepted it and threw the belt around her thin waist.

"We've really got to discuss the lack of fashion sense around here." She quipped while pulling the tails of her green vest over the belt. The Middleman pretended to not hear the comment, instead fiddling with a dial on the wall.

"Hang on, Dubby." Came his order as he flipped a switch. A great beam of white light engulfed the two with most haste, lightning crackling out of the illumination. One stray bolt crashed into the HAYDAR. It shorted out the machine and sent a wave of juice through the wires Ida was hooked to. When the commotion had settled to normalcy, the Middlemen had disappeared and Ida lay on the floor, her hair standing on its ends.

The two Middlemen found themselves standing on a quaint suburban street; 1500 hours, 1954. While Wendy took a minute to collect herself after that ordeal, her boss raised his Middle-Watch to his square jaw,

"Ida, we've made it here," he looked at his frazzled apprentice, "mostly unscathed." He released the button, waiting for Ida's reply, but he was met with silence, "Ida? Ida, do you copy?" While he tried to reach the cranky schoolmarm, Wendy took a moment to examine her current attire.

"Why am I in a poodle skirt?" she threw her arms up in surprised disgust. The Middleman was too preoccupied to answer. After a few moments of intently staring at his watch, the Middleman turned back towards his protégé.

"Fudge sickles, Dubby. I think Ida was put out of commission by the time machine. I told her it was dangerous to stand so close to exposed erratic electrical expulsions." She only half-heard his statement, instead waving her arms up and down her person to draw attention to the pink poodle skirt and white blouse.

"What is this?" she asked with an angered whisper through clenched teeth. The Middleman simply raised his eyebrows in preparation for a lecture,

"You see Wendy, the WATCH accommodates…" before he continued he could predict the question about to leave her lips, now adorned by ruby red lipstick, "Wright's Automatic Time Changing Harness." He took a pause before continuing, "It is set to mask us in period appropriate garb, to avoid raising suspicion or alter the timeline." Wendy dropped her arms to her side with a defeated huff.

"So, apparently I'm on my way to the Enchantment under the Sea dance. How come you don't look any different?" she pointed to the fact he was still clad in his drab green Eisenhower jacket. This caused her boss to stand up straight, adjusting the coat on his shoulders.

"This is a timeless look, Dubby." He said with pride, "And it's the 1950s, the war had just ended, and this would still be in fashion." Wendy Watson rolled her eyes and started to walk down the street,

"Let's just find our perp and get out of here."

The seemingly picture perfect town was a bustle with life; boys delivering papers by bicycle, men mowing lawn, the smell of dinner wafting out of open kitchen windows. They found their directions by following the signal traced by the BTRS scanner.

"Doesn't this place seem rather pleasant?" The Middleman was taken up in the jolly mood this place seemed to produce.

"Yeah, I love the prospect of staying home all day, standing in front of a stove. Just waiting for the giant ants to bust in and eat me." she grumbled in a dry, sardonic tone. This wiped the cheerful look from his face,

"Well, yes. That doesn't sound as pleasant." He slumped his head back towards his scanner in defeat, "Here." He pointed towards a long stretch of road out of town, "The path leads that way."

"Looks like we need to catch a ride." Wendy noted, then set her sights on a nearby Hudson Hornet being washed in a driveway. She grabbed the Middleman's sleeve and led him over to the car's owner.

"Hello, I'm Ms. Hines and this is Mr. Howard. We'd like to talk to you today about your future. Are you prepared for it?" the man looked up from his car and released his grip on the garden hose nozzle. His perturbed gaze set on the imposing Middleman,

"What's she talking about?" he asked with an annoyed tone.

"What my, um…" he took a minute to think on his improve, "secretary, meant to say was, 'Are you prepared for the possibility of total nuclear annihilation?" This threating question turned the man's mood from sour to dour. "Oh, yes. It's a real threat. The Communists are looking for an excuse to push the big, red button." This put the man into a nervous frenzy,

"What should I do? How can I save my family? How much money does it cost? Can you turn my house into some impenetrable vault?" the Middleman raised a comforting hand to silence the man's ranting.

"What you need is the best in high quality car parts. We can outfit this beautiful baby blue," motioning to the Hornet, "with the latest in nuclear deflection technology. It will allow your family to survive any Soviet plot and be mobile."

"If you'll just let us take your vehicle to our specialists we'll have it back to you by the end of the day." Wendy interjected, extending a palm, motioning for the keys with a finger wiggle. The man threw the keys at them with no hesitation, then ran into the house at a terrified pace. The two Middlemen climbed into the car, following the trail of time residue.

"Secretary?" Wendy asked with a smile of disbelief. The Middleman shrugged before answering,

"I had to make it believable given our current time period. I meant no offense, Dubby. You know I value you as a respected member of the Middle-Team." She leaned back on the bench seat,

"Yeah, never ask me to file papers for you though, or that's it." Her smile now honest.

They had left the suburb behind them some time ago and the scenery had turn into an empty desert spotted with Joshua trees.

"The scanner says turn left." Wendy Watson had been keeping an eye on the tracker as the Middleman drove through the now blistering heat, "Ugh, why couldn't we have travelled to the Ice Age?" she uttered, dabbing sweat from her brow with the sash tied around her waist. The Middleman looked at her with an eyebrow raised in curiosity, "There's no air conditioning in this thing."

"I hadn't realized." He returned.

"I can see the sweat staining your collar." She called him out.

"I have learned to ignore extreme weather conditions, a skill learned from Sensei Ping." He went back to focusing on the road to make the left turn, "but yes, it is rather hot out." The left turn took them off of the paved road and onto a gravel path. Soon their car ride was ended at a fence that ran across the desert. The Middleman got out, Wendy at his heels. She looked at the gate that stood in front of them,

"Well, this just got interesting." The sarcastic remark referencing a metal sign hanging on the fence reading 'Area 51'. The Middleman only grimaced. He walked back over the car and rested on the hood. He rubbed his chin with his left hand, then tried to reach Ida again on the Middle-Watch. The connection continued to ring with no answer from the other side. As he stood there looking at his watch, Wendy grabbed the Middle-gun, which was tucked away in her purple waist sash and blasted the lock off of the gate, causing the chain link door to fly open. "I want out of this poodle skirt soon" she sternly asserted as she marched back to the car. Her boss only looked on in shock,

"Wendy Watson, we cannot break into an instillation of the United States Airforce." He stated fiercely. His apprentice addressed him from the open window of the Hudson,

"We lie our way into crime scenes all the time." He, in turn, leaned against the window frame poking his head into the cab,

"This is beyond waving some fake badges. If we get caught," he paused as his face took on a somber expression, "are you familiar with Fiji guano torture?" the images running through Wendy's head of what that meant crinkled her nose. "Not to mention how much effect this would have on the fabric of time." Trying to remove the images, Wendy replied back,

"Wait, is this going to be one of those plots were we were actually the aliens captured at Area 51?" the question asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Don't be ridiculous, Dubby. I've seen the aliens kept at Area 51. They bare no resembles to you." He climbed back into the driver seat, internally deciding to take advantage of the open door. "As a matter of fact, Mr. Shumway is quite the conversationalist." The super-secret base seemed to be rather empty, not a building in sight.

"Huh? I expected the mysterious Area 51 to be more… impressive." Wendy exclaimed as she looked out the open window, the breeze throwing her hair back from her head.

"Area 51 wouldn't be a very good secret if it was 'impressive'," returned the Middleman's stately voice, "No, most of the facility is underneath our very tires." This new bit of info caused Wendy to poke her head out the window and stare at the ground passing under them.

"Whoa." She said in a hushed breath to herself, "just like Disneyworld." When she looked back up, her gaze caught a tower in the distance. "What's that out there?" the Middleman looked over that direction.

"Where we are heading." He responded while consulting the scanner. Veering off the gravel road and into the dirt, the structure loomed higher as the Hudson pulled closer. It was revealed to be a launch pad for an atomic bomb test. Parking the car, the two approached the nuclear ordinance with an eye on the Middleman's BTRS scanner. Wendy gazed around the metal beams, examining the bomb hanging by a sturdy steel cord.

"Where's a lead-lined fridge when you need it?" she commented as her gaze settled at the top of the tower. What she beheld caused her to alert her mentor, "Hey, look up there. Is that a man?" He reacted with a scanner raised on the figure.

"Yep, and the trail stops at him." He then turned to address the man, "You, up there, stop!" There was no answer as the man seemed to ignore the order. Before they could begin to formulate a plan, a siren broke the ambient silence of the desert with a rousing blare. The figure on top of the tower disappeared in a flash of blue light which seemed to coincide with the bomb starting a slow fall down the steel tension cable. "Oh phooey." Swore the Middleman quietly. Not long after that they both leaped into the car, throwing the gas pedal against the floor. Hesitantly looking back as the bomb neared its rendezvous with the earth, Wendy asserted with a nervous tone,

"I don't think this car can go 88 miles an hour, Doc." But it fell on deaf ears, as the Middleman was focused on alternatively his belt and the road.

"Dubby, I need you to focus." She hung on his every word, "Set your WATCH to jump onto the nearest time stream disruption." The bomb connected, sending up a bright light accompanied by sound and fury. Wendy fiddled at the belt buckle as the shockwave approached the car,

"How do I do that?" she yelled over the noise. Her boss yelled back as his hands, removed completely from the wheel, tinkered with his own WATCH.

"Just turn the top knob a quarter turn and press down on it." She followed the instructions as the first wave of dust hit the car. Both clicked down on the button and zapped away in a wave of white light as the nuclear fire engulfed the speeding car.