The ARC
AN: okay, so I decided to carry on and finish episode one, as always, please tell me what you think.
Disclaimer: nothing owned but my OC
Chapter 2- Pristichampsus
The phone rang. It rang again. And again, Lorelei groaned and rolled over, glancing at the clock on the way 12:43am. She grabbed the phone and slid it open, answering, "hello."
The voice on the end of the phone seemed as tired and groggy as she did, Connor Temple. "Hey Lor, anomaly at the British museum. Sorry." He almost seemed frightened.
"It's 12:45!" Lorelei exclaimed, "How is that fair?"
Connor gave a weak laugh, "I know, look we're on our way now, Abby's driving like 100 miles an hour, want us to pick you up?"
"Your superstars!" a definite yes, she wasn't driving when she was this tired, never!
"Great, we'll see you in five. Don't fall back to sleep." And with that the line went dead.
Lorelei sighed loudly, "Better get up then."
She forced herself to sit up, and change into an oversized red jumper and black leggings. A few minutes later, there was a sad, slow knock at the door, Lorelei stumbled over to the door, pulling on her dark red ankle boots as she went, Connor almost fell into her apartment when she opened the door, he must have been leaning against it.
"Great." He seemed less than pleased to be there, awake, at this time; he grabbed her wrist and dragged her to Abby's car. Abby looked so awake and cheerful, and Lorelei wondered how this was possible.
()()()()()()()
The three of them entered the museum, Abby dragging Connor and Lorelei behind her,
"Cutter!" Connor called, his voice eerily echoed around the empty museum. Abby suddenly picked up the pace, still holding the wrists of her two friends, this caused the two to groan loudly.
"How much coffee has she had?" Lorelei asked, turning to Conner, he was about to answer when Abby cut him off;
"Only two cups."
Connor rolled his eyes at this, and was about to make a sarcastic remark when once again his was cut off, this time by Cutter,
"Connor Temple, Abby Maitland," he quickly gestured to the ARC's new Captain, "This is captain Becker, he's here to protect us so do as he says." He turned and sighed, "Unless I think he's wrong."
Lorelei gave a quick nod to the Captain as she past him and hurried to catch up with Cutter,
"Any sign of an incursion?" she asked the team leader,
Nick sighed, "Nothing yet." He was walking pretty fast, and Lorelei couldn't be bothered to even try and keep up with him. She slowed down and ended up walking next to Becker. The young Captain couldn't help but quiz her,
"So," he hesitated for a second, "you're American?"
"Yeah? And your English." She snapped back
"Sorry, I meant no offence."
"No, no, you didn't offend me," she yawned, "I'm just tired, sorry." She mumbled the last bit and looked at her feet; she didn't mean to get so defensive. Ever since Stephen had died, she had been on edge, stroppy even. She would never let on, but she blamed herself, for everything, she should have stopped him, she should have done something. Becker voice soon cut through her thoughts and brought her back to planet earth,
"So? How long have you been in England?" he asked, checking a small side corridor.
"Erm, since I was fourteen, dad moved over here for business, I've been back a few times, to catch up with old friends and stuff, but I prefer it over here. Weathers not as good mind." She added the last bit as an afterthought.
"How long have you known Connor?" they both glanced over their shoulders to see Connor talking to Abby, "You seem close."
"We are, I met him when I started uni, he-" she stopped mid-sentence as Nick called her name from the front of the group, she politely pushed past a few soldiers, and saw Nick kneeling over something, getting closer, she realised it was a body, of a woman she looked about thirty five.
"It's a creature kill." Abby stated from behind them, Cutter turned to Lorelei who sighed,
"It could be anywhere in the museum by now." After this statement the team decided to split up, Cutter and Jenny with Becker and his men, and Abby with Connor and Lorelei. The museum was creepy to say the least, and she didn't feel very safe, without backup. Especially since Connor had a gun. He jumped and yelped at the mummies lining the pale walls in glass cases, Lorelei laughed and patted her friends shoulder,
"There mummies, Connor," he looked blank, "which means their dead."
"Yeah, obviously." He stated quietly. Lorelei raised her eyebrows and was about to say how childish he was when, they heard a muffled crash,
"Come on." Abby walked quickly past them, closely followed by Lorelei, Connor had to run to keep up with the two girls. They turned a corner and faced a young, tanned, dark haired woman. She looked terrified,
"Stay where you are." Connor spoke clearly, the woman shook her head and turned to run, only to be stopped by Cutter and the others,
"Stay where you are." Cutter repeated, this time the woman nodded and stood ridged with her eyes wide. "It's alright," Nicks voice was softer now, "who are you?"
The woman stuttered, "D-Doctor Page, who are you?"
"I'm Nick Cutter."
()()()()()()()()
Doctor Page had caused a lot of problems after meeting the team; she had legged it after seeing the body of the woman, and then ran into the room with the anomaly inside. Lorelei had to give her credit though; she had managed to fight off what seemed to be some sort of giant crocodile thing.
Lorelei was left with Becker, Connor and Doctor Page; she switched on her phone, only to see that it had no signal, "Brilliant." She sighed and pushed the small device back into her boot, this earned a strange look from a tall blonde soldier standing nearby, "no pockets." She explained quickly, before turning to see Conner talking to Miss Page,
"I bet I can read your mind." She rolled her eyes at the idea of Connor trying to be cool, "you want to know; who we are, what's the ARC and what this big flickering thing behind me is." He gestured with his thumb to the anomaly still present in the sun cage.
"Actually," Doctor Page started, "I was wondering why an Egyptian goddess was trying to eat me."
()()()()()()()
Lorelei was leaning on a box listening to Connor and Doctor page talk about the sun cage, when she felt her eyes begin to close, she put her chin in her hands with her elbows up on the box and sighed, she was exhausted, it was the first time she had actually slept in weeks and she was woken up because of some stupid anomaly in some stupid museum. But that was how her life seemed to be at the moment, stupid. She felt herself begin to drift off again, and she knew she had to do something,
"Doctor Page is there a canteen or vending machine anywhere?" this question earned a confused glance from the Egyptologist, Lorelei sighed again and stated, "I really need a red bull or something."
The young woman nodded, "near the reception."
"cheers." She headed towards the door but was stopped by Connor calling her back,
"Someone's going with you. Becker!" Connor always thought of himself like Lorelei's brother, it was pretty much the only time he acted his age, when Lorelei was involved.
"Fine. I refuse to walk fast though. Ok?" it wasn't so much as a question, it was a statement. Becker nodded and walked to the door with her.
()()()()()()()
Lorelei and Becker were re-entering the storage room where the anomaly was when the heard a crash, and the sound of something heavy hitting the floor and breaking, Connor was sitting dejectedly with an expensive looking vase, broken at his feet. Lorelei raised an eyebrow at her friend, and laughed as he spoke,
"I've been cursed." He said bluntly
"Ok, whatever, I'll ask later." She was too tired to have that sort of conversation with him, Connor nodded; his eyes were wide with fear. Lorelei shook her head and collapsed into a chair nearer the corner of the room, it was comfier than expected, she leant to the side of the chair, letting her dark hair fall over her face slightly, and she was soon asleep.
"Should we wake her?" Becker asked, coming to stand next to Connor who was also watching the young woman in the chair, she didn't look comfortable but Connor didn't want to wake her,
"Nah, it's probably the most amount of sleep she's had in a while."
"Is she okay?" Doctor Sarah Page asked, "When she was talking, she seemed a bit, distant."
"Yeah, she's fine." Connor calmly defended his good friend, "someone close to her died a few weeks back, and I think she's still getting use to not having him around."
"Stephen." Becker confirmed quietly, Connor nodded,
"She's been having nightmares since." He sighed and got back to work, trying to be quiet so as not to wake Lorelei.
Lorelei was jolted awake by the sound of screaming and a loud thundering roar, she stood up instantly as she saw Doctor Page fail to through a small golden cat at the creature that was no trying to drag Connor through the anomaly in its jaws,
"Connor, stay still!" Lorelei screamed as she ran to grab a wooden plank from the side of the room, she was no longer tired, the adrenaline was coursing through her veins as she hit the creature on the top of the head, Connor was instantly dropped to floor and Lorelei rushed over to him,
"Are you ok?" she asked as she wrapped her arms around her friend,
"No," came her answer, Connor turned to Doctor Page, "You nearly let it eat me!"
"Sorry." She stuttered, "That cat, that's priceless."
"Yeah? So's Connor!" Lorelei spoke quickly. Connor recovered quickly, and started to think logically,
"Come on girls, we need to block this up." Lorelei nodded,
"Definatly."
()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()()
Lorelei watched as Connor searched for the creature on his data base, she giggled quietly, remembering that he had created this himself,
"What?" Connor questioned
"Nothing it's just, you're such a geek!" she laughed, a proper laugh, Connor hadn't seen this in a while, so he let her enjoy herself at his expense. She stopped to listen quietly to Connor and Nicks conversation on the phone, she was secretly trying to find out how to pronounce this creatures name, she could never understand why prehistoric creatures had such long and complicated names, if it was up to her they would all be called something much simpler.
After a few minutes herself and Connor went to help the others, the boxes were heavy, so progress was slow.
"This is all taking up to much time." Connor complained, Lorelei nodded and caught a glimpse of Sarah's expression,
"What is it?" Lorelei asked,
Sarah nodded towards the corner of the room, "Forklift." Lorelei turned to see a small yellow forklift truck,
"Yeah, that would probably help." She breathed; all was silent until Connor turned to Sarah,
"Why didn't you say that before?"
Lorelei sighed and left them to their childish banter, walking towards the forklift, she motioned to the blonde soldier she had spoken to earlier,
"In you get." He obliged and soon set to work. They didn't get far though, before yet another creature pulled itself through the anomaly, taking everyone by surprise, it roared loudly and saw that Lorelei was the closest potential meal. Before anyone could blink, it lunged, knocking her of her feet and winding her badly. The creature loomed over her, studying its new meal. Lorelei was still trying to catch her breath; she was curled up on the floor, virtually pinned to the ground by this massive crocodile,
"Connor!" she screamed, "Do something!"
He didn't need telling twice, he ran a reached for a large lamp stand, taking a deep breath and bringing up as much courage as he could, and pushed the lamp into the creatures now open jaws, this set an electric shock through the creatures body and the anomaly, the large animal shuddered and pulled back through to its own time. Lorelei let out a deep shaky breath. She stared at what was now a smaller, rounder anomaly,
"W-what." Her voice was barely a whisper, as Connor walked carefully and slowly to the Anomaly, he poked it with the end of the lamp stand, the metallic stand wasn't sucked in.
"Wow." He breathed; Sarah looked completely confused, so Connor explained,
"Normally the anomaly sucks anything metallic through, but this," he ran a hand through his hair, "It's like its locked or something. This is." He paused "wow" Lorelei beamed and Connor quickly matched this expression. The smiles fell as the anomaly suddenly went back to normal,
"Ok. We'll figure it out later; we need these boxes back up!"
()()()()()()()()()()
After about fifteen minutes of more back breaking work, the barricade was back up. Sarah sighed, full of relief, as did Lorelei. Connor jumped down from the boxes with his phone, he glanced at Lorelei,
"It's Cutter, Hello?"
"Hey, it looks like our friend is heading back your way, we'll see you there."
"You have got to be kidding me!" Lorelei spun on her heels and ran a hand through her hair.
Quickly, and with the help of the soldiers they moved all of the boxes from one side of the anomaly and opened the large garage like door, only to find that there was no creature in sight,
"Connor, we can't see it!" Sarah exclaimed, all heads turned to see the creature coming from a completely different direction, it was limping badly, and it moved slowly. Connor had jumped down form the boxes, and right into the path of the creature, he froze in shock, unsure of what to do, Lorelei didn't move, she was completely clueless, how could she help?
"Connor get out of the way!" Abby's voice filled the room as herself, Cutter and Becker, piled into the storage room. Connor decided to climb a large chain that was hanging from the ceiling. She couldn't help it, Lorelei faceplamed. What were they supposed to do know?
As if she was reading her mind Sarah answered, "Bow!"
Lorelei's head snapped in her direction, "Huh?"
"This creature is used to being treated like a god, bow!"
Abby agreed, "If I t doesn't think we're a threat, it might not attack." Her sentence was cut short by Becker being unbelievably stubborn,
"I'm not bowing!" Lorelei sighed and pulled him down slowly,
"Keep your gun handy." He rolled his eyes but nodded none the less.
The creature slowly and reluctantly limped back through the anomaly, Connor was still hanging by the chain, whimpering like a school boy, his grip failed and he fell to the concrete floor with a loud thud,
"Ow!"
Lorelei laughed, "Are you okay?"
He managed to get to his feet before tripping over thin air, Lorelei had to catch him, he breathed deeply,
"That has to be the end of the curse now?"
Sarah nodded, "here's hoping." Lorelei shook her head and helped Connor to steady himself.
"Right!" she clapped her hands together in excitement, "Who's up for a McDonalds breakfast?"
Should I continue? Constructive criticism always welcome.