Disclaimer: I own nothing.

Author's Note: One of you pointed out that season one was a long time ago and it might be helpful to provide a refresher at the beginning of each chapter. So. Episode ten involved Claudia, Myka and Pete's adventures within the Warehouse, namely the artifact B&B and the near destruction of the Warehouse due to the gooery getting blocked. The first part of this chapter is Claudia exploring the artifact B&B before Myka and Pete arrive. The second part is when the three of them returning to the B&B after going out for tacos at the end of the episode. Enjoy!

I Need a Superhero

It was official. Claudia was not having a good day.

She had thought having the Warehouse to herself for the day might be entertaining. Flying down a broken zipline had not been part of the plan. Neither had falling through a roof.

"I am so getting grounded for this," she moaned.

She pushed herself up into a sitting position. Then she ran a quick visual check be sure all of her body parts were still attached and working properly. Other than being exceptionally sore, she seemed to be in one piece. Now she just had to figure out where she was. She was obviously in some sort of room. Her eyes widened as she realized that she recognized it.

"Holy bed and breakfast, Batman," Claudia said, pushing herself to her feet. She was standing in an exact replica of the living room at Leena's. A slow turn revealed that all the furniture was all the same.

"Sick," Claudia said with a grin. She caught sight of the stairs and her grin widened. If the downstairs was the same, maybe the upstairs was too. Maybe there was even a copy of her room.

She took the stairs two at a time, eager to check it out. The landing at the top was exactly like the one at Leena's. All four bedroom doors were open. Claudia stepped over to her bedroom and looked in. The furniture, bedding, and paint were completely different, obviously much older. But it was definitely her room.

"This is awesome," Claudia said. She stepped inside-

-and found herself back in the hallway.

"What the..." She let the sentence hang as she looked around. It was definitely the same landing. She had come out of the door directly across the hall from hers. But how?

She took a slow step back-

-and found herself standing back in the door to her room.

"O-kay," she said slowly. "Apparently the house is an artifact."

On a sudden impulse, she stuck her hand through the bedroom door. A look over her shoulder revealed her hand sticking out of the doorway across the hall. She pulled her hand back out of the doorway to find it intact. Weird.

"So it's a house with portals," Claudia said, mildly impressed.

She stuck her hand through the doorway again, this time all the way up to her shoulder. Then she turned around and extended her right leg as far as she could. After a moment of straining, her fingertips brushed the toe of her Converse. Claudia laughed.

"'Cake, and grief counseling, will be available at the conclusion of this test'," she said, holding on to her shoe. She let go and pulled her hand back through the door. "This is so much more fun than doing chores."

She checked the other two bedroom doors to find that they too were interlinked. After a few minutes of experimenting with the portal doors, Claudia began to wonder if the downstairs rooms worked the same way. She headed across the landing and back down the stairs.

She was almost at the bottom when she caught sight of the front door. She froze on the third step from the bottom, a sudden doubt entering her mind. If all of the doors were interlinked, then what if...

"No way," Claudia said. She tried to sound certain, but it didn't work. She walked down the last few steps and over to the door. Taking a deep breath, she pulled the front door open. The interior of the Warehouse stared back at her. Claudia let out a sigh of relief. She stepped through the door-

-and found herself in the entryway. For a moment she just stood there.

"Okay," she said slowly. "This could be slightly problematic."

She turned to look out the front door. She could see the Warehouse just beyond it. Maybe if she moved fast enough, she could break whatever field was trapping her. She broke into a run-

-and nearly crashed into the table in the hallway. Only a skidding stop and her outstretched hands kept her from flipping straight over it into the wall. Claudia held up her hands and quickly backed away from the table.

"This is not good," she admitted. She turned around and looked through the door she had just come from. Maybe it would work in reverse. She took a step through and walked right into the living room without any problem.

"Great," Claudia muttered. Then she realized she was staring across the living into the dining room. Which opened up onto the porch.

Her eyes widened.

"Back door!" she exclaimed. She hurried across the living room through the doorway-

-and came out into the hallway through Leena's bedroom door.

"And this is why I hate haunted houses," Claudia said darkly.

The rest of the downstairs doors provided the same result. The living room and hall closet were both accessible. So, conveniently enough, was the bathroom. The rest of the doors were all interconnected in some way or another. She couldn't even get to the kitchen for food, assuming that there was actually anything edible in the place.

"Craptastic," Claudia muttered as she headed back into the living room. She was starting to get extremely irritated. She stood in the middle of the room as crossed her arms, trying to think. "What would Artie do?"

Her eyes suddenly widened as she realized there was one exit she had yet to try. She slowly looked up at the ceiling to see a large hole in the roof. She could see the roof of the Warehouse through it. There was a large bookshelf against the back wall. If she got on top of it, she might be able to reach the edge of the hole and pull herself out.

"Es-ca-pay," she said.

She walked around the couch and grabbed the top of the bookshelf, giving it an experimental tug. It didn't budge. It felt as if it were attached to the wall. Claudia readjusted her grip and jumped up. Thankfully her shoes had good grip. Even so, it still took a bit of work to pull and push herself up to the top of the bookcase.

Unfortunately, the bookcase wasn't very deep. Getting herself into a standing position was a balancing act in and of itself. But finally she did it. With her back pressed against the wall, she looked up at the hole in the ceiling. She reached out her arm, but quickly pulled it back when she almost lost her balance. It was definitely out of arm's reach. She was going to have to jump.

"Geronimo," she muttered.

She took a flying leap out over the floor. Just as she thought she was going to fall, her hands caught the edge of the hole. She looked down and grinned at her feet dangling over the couch. Then began the laborious process of pulling herself up through the hole. It took a considerable amount of kicking and straining to slowly lift herself up. Finally her head reached the roof. She gave one more straining pull-

-and suddenly found herself falling down a dark tunnel. A second later she crashed onto a hard stone floor. Black powder rained down around her.

"Ow," she moaned. The ache that had been slowly receding from her body was now back in full force. "I better get compensation for this."

She pushed herself into a sitting position and found herself staring back out at the living room. Disheartened but not entirely surprised, she looked up through the blackness to see a small area of light far above her head. The fireplace. She had fallen back in through the fireplace. That was not good. In fact, it was very, very bad.

"Okay," Claudia told herself. "Don't panic. Whatever you do, don't panic."

She stood to her feet, brushing all the soot off of her clothing, and began to pace. She just had to think this through logically. It was painfully obvious that she wouldn't be getting out of the house by herself. But other people could still get in. Artie was out running errands, but Pete and Myka were both at the B&B. If she could find a way to let them know where she was, maybe they could come rescue her. So how...

"Cell phone!" Claudia exclaimed. Hardly daring to hope, she pulled her phone out of her pocket. It had three full bars.

"Yes!" she cried, punching her fist into the air. She quickly dialed Myka's number and pressed the phone to her ear.

The dial tone never came. Instead she heard a strange beeping. When she pulled the phone away, there was a message flashing across the screen.

"Unable to connect to network?" Claudia read in disbelief. "Okay, this is not good."

Maybe she had just lost service. It was Nowhere, South Dakota, after all. Call coverage could be pretty spotty at times. And the neutralization field in the Warehouse didn't exactly help. On an impulse, Claudia headed over to the stairs and walked up to the second floor landing. Maybe she could get through from higher up.

She redialed Myka's number, hoping it would work this time. Once again the message flashed across her screen. She tried is again, this time holding the phone as high up as she could reach. The same message appeared again. Unable to connect to network.

"Crap," Claudia muttered.

She was starting to panic. The phone still said she had three bars. She tried calling Pete, Artie, Leena, and even Josh. She even tried calling 911, although she wasn't really sure what she would have told them if they had answered. Nothing went through.

By the time her last call failed, she was pretty sure she knew what was happening. Things could enter the house, but they couldn't leave. It seemed the cell signal worked the same way. She could receive a signal, but she couldn't send one.

"Okay," Claudia said, trying not to hyperventilate. "Now it's time to panic."

She gathered all the air her lungs could possibly hold, and then let it out in the loudest yell she could manage.

"HELP! Somebody help me!"

There was no response, of course. She was the only person in the Warehouse. It would be hours before anyone even realized she was missing. When they finally did come looking for her, it would take them days if not weeks to find her. Or maybe they never would.

She leaned against the wall by what would have been her bedroom door and slid to the ground. This was it. No one was coming. It was like being trapped in Russell's closet all over again. Claudia leaned forward and rested her forehead against her knees. She was going to be stuck here forever.

Suddenly there came a noise from downstairs. Claudia's head jerked up. It sounded like the front door. But that wasn't possible. She had to be hallucinating.

Wait. It sounded like there were footsteps downstairs. Claudia held her breath, listening intently. Was it possible?

"Claudia?" a voice called. Claudia sighed in relief. It was Myka. They had found her.

"Thank-you," she breathed. She pushed herself to her feet and ran for the stairs.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

"Who you gonna call?" Pete sang, pushing open the B&B door.

"Warehouse agents!" Myka and Claudia yelled as they followed him inside.

"Who you gonna call?" Pete repeated.

"Warehouse agents!" the girls answered. The three of them dissolved into laughter.

"Well," Myka said, when they had finally calmed down, "it has been a pleasure. But if you two will excuse me, I have a date with Jules Verne."

"Ooooh," Pete said teasingly. "I didn't know you had a thing for older men."

"I have a 'thing' for literature," Myka corrected, socking him in the shoulder. Pete winced and clutched his arm in mock agony. Myka turned and started up the stairs. "I will see you two in the morning."

"G'night," Claudia called.

"Night, Mykes," Pete said. Then he turned to Claudia and placed his hands on his hips. "Looks like it's just you and me, Robin."

"Why am I Robin?" Claudia asked.

"You could be Batgirl," Pete offered.

"Why can't I be Batman?"

"Because I'm the real agent," Pete explained. "And I have sweet gadgets. That means I get to be Batman. You're the sidekick."

"I'm the smart one," Claudia retorted. "And I make the gadgets. I should be Batman."

"First, young padawan, you must be trained in the ways of the Force," Pete said, giving a deep martial arts bow.

"I think you're mixing up your fandoms there, Obi-Wan," Claudia asked drily.

"You get the idea," Pete told her.

"Speaking of superheroes," she said. "I wanted to say thanks. For saving me earlier."

"Well, it was that or mop you off the floor," Pete teased. Claudia chuckled.

"You know, for a minute there, I thought you weren't coming," she admitted.

"I'll always come," Pete said seriously. "I've got your back, Claude. Promise."

Pete held out his pinky and Claudia couldn't help grinning.

"What are we, twelve?" she asked.

"Ten, according to Myka," Pete informed her. Claudia laughed, but she reached up and linked her pinky with his.

"Thanks," she said.

"That's what families do," Pete said. He grinned. "Besides, where would Batman be without his trusty sidekick?"

"Right," Claudia said sarcastically. "Someone has to wash the Batmobile."

"Now you're getting it," Pete said as he started up the stairs. "Oh, and make sure you change the oil too."

Claudia rolled her eyes.

"You better watch it," she warned, heading up after him, "or this sidekick is gonna give you a kick in the side."

Pete laughed, but Claudia couldn't help noticing that he quickened his pace up the stairs.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. It was greatly appreciated. Please keep it up! On another note, this chapter contained a few other references besides the obvious Batman and Star Wars ones at the end. I can think of four right now. Imaginary gold stars for the people that catch them.