NORMAL WAREHOUSE UNIVERSE
"Hey Claud," Myka greeted Alternate Claudia as they both entered the Warehouse's main office. Alternate Claudia fought back the desire to mock her and just casually waved as Pete Joined them. "Have you seen Leena? She said that if I didn't touch anything she'd personally bake me a plate of cookies," Pete announced not noticing anything different about Claudia. 'These idiots are even dumber than I thought,' Alternate Claudia thought to herself.
"Wow, I guess that boyfriend thing finally caught up to you," Pete said finally noticing Alternate Claudia's pale face, messy hair and roughed up clothes.
"Pete!" Myka admonished him and slapped his shoulder
"What?" Pete answered innocently robbing the offended shoulder, "I was just joking."
"Will it kill you to act your age for once?" Myka asked him.
"Yes it would," Pete answered defiantly.
Alternate Claudia rolled her eyes at the both of them and made her way to the exit. "Where are you going?" Myka asked. "To Leena's," Alternate Claudia shouted back as she walked through the door, "going to check on her."
"Did she look a little different? Like crazy different?" Pete finally commented on Claudia's unusual appearance. Myka didn't reply also wondering what was going on until she finally realized something, "didn't Leena say that she'd be around here early doing some work for Artie?" Pete started to look uncomfortable, as if he could see something huge but wasn't sure if it was there. "Peeeete," Myka spoke knowing the expression on his face, "Are you getting a vibe?"
"I…I think so," Pete answered as he took a step towards the loft overlooking the Warehouse.
"I'll get Artie," Myka said as she reached for the Farnsworth. Artie's face showed up on the screen upon its activation.
"Myka," he acknowledged her. He looked somewhat disturbed about at the interruption.
"Artie, do you know where Leena is?" Myka asked.
"She's supposed to be working in the Warehouse," he answered. "Why? Is something wrong?" Artie's glasses began to slide down, drawing attention to his bushy eyebrows.
"Artie," Pete chimed in, "I just had a feeling. It's probably nothing."
"We can't take any chances," Artie responded as he pushed his glasses back into place, "Where's Claudia?" Myka pushed herself back into view to answer Artie "She's at Lena's right now." Artie sighed, somehow he knew that Claudia must have something to do. She's been behaving in the past, but everyone knew it was only a matter of time before she decided to get creative. "I'll stop over on my way," he said, "just…stay right there."
Just as the Farnsworth was being turned off Pete and Myka heard a faint, strangely familiar female voice ask Artie the question "Is something wrong?" Pete scratched his ear trying to figure something out, "Did you hear music in the background?" he asked Myka.
ALTERNATE WAREHOUSE UNIVERSE
"Even if she is from another universe," Myka argued, "What makes you think she's any different?" Claudiawas sitting on a chair, Indian style, as she watched the exchange.
"That's why I have this," Artie came out of the archive room with an old book, "Jorge Luis Borges' diary. He wrote the famous short story, 'Garden of Forking Paths.' It was inspired by this book." Artie placed the book on the table in front of Claudia who dropped on foot to the floor and leaned closer. "His story involved alternate timelines, arguably. This book tells you what happens a few days in the future, but in other realities. You can see what you should and shouldn't do," Artie finished explaining.
"Awesomesauce," Claudia said. "So how do I do this?" She stared at it. Artie paused along with everyone else. "What?" Claudia asked looking at the others. Artie stared back down at the book, letters began to appear, in Spanish.
"It says that this is not our Claudia," Myka said, who happened to know Spanish. She was starting to believe what Artie was saying.
"So now we just switch the two and catch Claudia and go home?" Pete asked.
"There's one problem," Artie said. "Unless someone quickly trades places with their counterpart in the other reality, they'll start to cancel each other out within a few hours."
"We won't be able to go to the other universe and catch her," Myka said.
"Why not send her? Either way she'll have to send the Claudia we know back," Pete said. Everyone agreed.
