Fargo watched as Claudia restrained herself from panicking in the middle of the corridor in front of the lifeless neutralizing station. He stepped close to her and put his hands on her shoulders, giving them a light, reassuring squeeze.
"The goo is pumped to these stations from a central location, right?" he quietly inquired. She nodded her head in a flurry of shining copper hair. "Why don't we just take the radio straight to the source?"
"Okay. Okay, yeah that's a good idea," Claudia shook herself slightly and took a deep breath, "See? This is why I need you, you can talk me down from the ledge." She returned his signature crooked grin with a shaky chuckle.
Moving over to a terminal installed next to the station, the tech savvy girl tapped a few keys, the screen booting up with a flash of brilliant white in the dark, and pulled up a map of the Warehouse. "Hah! Let's see them mock my reasoning for hooking these babies up to the back up generators now," she murmured to herself, then glanced over her shoulder and beckoned Doug to get closer.
"So we're here," she pointed to a cluster of 3 white dots on the gridded map, ""We need to get from here.." she traced her finger through the maze of aisles to a large expanse of space near to the top of the map, the back of the Warehouse, "to there, the Goo-ery."
"The.. Goo-ery?" Fargo's breath tickled the exposed skin of Claudia's neck, sending a shiver down her spine.
"Also known as the Neutralizer Processing Center, but that's not nearly as fun to say," she explained while memorizing their route.
Sliding out from between the terminal and Doug's presence behind her, she poked her head into the aisle long enough to make sure the coast was clear. The ground violently lurched beneath their feet, causing the metal structures to groan in protest. Artifacts shifted, rolled, and fell from their homes. An ornately painted vase narrowly missed Fargo as it hurtled past his ear and shattered at his feet.
"Well, a good day that would not have made," Claudia commented, skirting around the fragments of jagged ceramics. As a murky turquoise vapor coiled into the air above the wreckage, she snagged Doug's hand and tugged him into motion, "That's our cue to skedaddle. Let's not stick around to see who the guest of honor is."
With the radio tucked against her hip under her arm, Claudia watched the young head of Global Dynamics out of the corner of her eye while they zig-zagged their way through the Warehouse. He had been quiet, not that he was an overly chatty fellow, nor was this the ideal situation for conversation, but she sensed something was on his mind. She was mulling over how to approach the topic when he beat her to the punch.
"Is it always like this?" his face was upturned, watching the swaying shelving units and the continuous laser show above them, the flashes of red light silhouetting his features, "I mean, do you guys ever have quiet days, or is there always a disaster to avert?"
"We get the occasional reprieve, but there's usually an artifact that needs to be collected somewhere. They don't all threaten humanity, but we have our fair share of catastrophes," she was quiet for a moment before she sniggered, "There was this one time that Pete and Myka got body swapped, 'Freaky Friday' style. Now that is something that I would've paid to see. Although.. if they hadn't snagged the artifact, they would've melted together.. and then exploded. So scratch that, it's pretty much always like this."
Claudia attempted to shoot Fargo a happy grin, but it fell short when she saw he wasn't looking at her, his lips slightly pursed as if he was deep in thought. She must have blinked, as he was suddenly staring at her, his eyes boring into hers behind his glasses.
"Y'know what I can't get over?" she startled slightly when he spoke. an amused smirk slowly emerged from the intense scrutiny of his stare, "I keep thinking, 'What kind of crazy person would want to work here?'" Claudia sucked in a breath at his phrasing and broke eye contact to stare behind him. She was willing the tears not to spill when he reached up and touched her chin lightly, bringing her gaze back to him. "And then I think I'd gladly be that crazy person. I would run away from aliens every day if I got to run away from them with you."
Her mouth hung open as she gaped at him, his words sinking into comprehension. Seeming to snap out of her stupor, she clamped her mouth shut with an audible click of her teeth, then launched herself at him. The radio bounced away at their feet, forgotten, as she tightly curled herself around him while he vibrated with silent laughter.
"I hate you so hard right now," her whispered voice wobbled near his ear.
Fargo shifted in her grasp so he could wipe away the wetness on Claudia's cheek that she would adamantly deny was there.
"Liar," he kissed her nose with a loud smack.
A new wave of artifacts clattered down from the shelves, and a sharp yip from Trailer reminded the duo that they had a mission to accomplish. Claudia reluctantly let go of Fargo and wiped at her nose with a snuffle.
"I don't know about you, but I think I'm overdue for a vacation," she stooped to pick up the ancient radio and glared at it, "A vacation far away from the Warehouse"
"We're almost there, right?" Fargo spun in a slow circle, taking in his surroundings, "These aisles are all starting to look the same to me. How do you not get lost all the time?"
"You get used to it," She placed a hand on his back when he was facing the correct direction, "And yeah, we're almost there. Look," pointing to a softly glowing window not too far ahead of them, she gave a whoop and rushed ahead of him.
Doug was following behind her when he saw the stray bolt of energy heading their way. Stumbling as he tried to catch up with her, he reached a hand out as he shouted to her, "Claudia! Watch out!"
He stared in horror as time seemed to slow down. Claudia whirled around to face him, her auburn hair fanning out around her face. A radiant smile meant for him transformed into a gasp of alarm as the glowing crimson bolt slammed into the metal shelf inches from where she had been running. Time sped back up as she covered her head with her arms to shield herself from the shards of destroyed artifacts and splintered shelves that began to rain down around her. The backlash of energy swept her feet out from under her and she collapsed, quickly disappearing as the ruins continued to cascade around her. The dust was beginning to settle as Fargo finally reached the pile of rubble that Claudia was crumpled in.
"Claudia?"