Chapter 12

Standing in front of the California Museum was the Trio of warehouse agents, well two and a junior, Pete rubbed his hands together then turned to the two teenagers, Claudia had her hands inside her jeans pocket and Zane had his arms crossed in front of his chest, "Right Claudia this is going to sound slightly impulsive but I kind of feel out of place with two teenagers…. So hears the plan."

Letting a small groan escape her lips, she always hated it when Pete had a plan because it always meant trouble for either her or Myka, But Zane looked to the man in front of him, his superior in this case. He didn't understand why Claudia was so rebellious with him, "Mr Lattimer what's the plan then?"

Pete clicked his fingers and smiled, "Glad to see your on board Zane, gosh that names so weird… Anyway were at a local museum right? Your bother teenagers…. Claudia's always been interested in the 1600's and I'm guessing you like old things too?" Zane's eye's narrowed watching the man, He reminded him of an older Jaden and was hoping that Jaden wouldn't be like this in his 30's. "So….what do two teenagers normally do when they come here?"

Claudia's eye's suddenly snapped wide knowing what Pete was indicating, "Oh no no no no, Pete! No!" the agent clapped his hands together once, "Claud come on… please… all you two have to do is find the dagger then contact me through the wireless radio, while I go and speak with the director…. "

Zane finally caught onto what the two was saying, letting his arms drop slightly, "So you want us to act like this is a date?" Clicking his fingers once more Pete grinned, "Bingo, your good kid, that's exactly what I want you to do. Claudia has her Tesla if anything goes wrong and I will know through my …. Vibes.." Zane nodded and looked to the red head next to him, she was looking away sighing, but Zane took things serious "Ok Mr Donovan… I'll make sure to look after your daughter,"

Before Pete could refuse to be called Claudia's father, Zane wrapped an arm around the girls waist and began directing her inside the museum she had no choice but to play along with the two. Pete couldn't help but smile but frowned slightly as he noticed Claudia stiffen up at first. When the two was out of ear shot he walked into the building himself heading towards the reception desk flashing his Secret service badge.

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After a few turns inside the museum, Claudia had managed to convince Zane he didn't need to put up the charade anymore, wrapping her arms around her stomach as they walked, she held her tesla in the back left pocket and a pair of purple gloves hanging out the right. The boy had noticed each move she made was with caution but not because of the Artefact, it was something to do with her body. He felt her stiffen up earlier on, in fact, every time he touched her she would flinch, stiffen up or close her eye's as if she was expecting something else to come. "So … this is the type of job you do on a day to day basis?"

Turning her head slightly Claudia smiled, "Sometimes, sometimes the field work is a little more exciting, chasing the bad guy's interviewing people, when I first joined it was because I hacked into Arties database and he punished me by fixing the system I broke into, odd jobs around the place until I was set on as a full time technician."

He gave her one of his rare smiles, "Sounds interesting, you know Mrs F told me I had potential in this line of work of … endless wonder, And so far I met your crazy friend Pete, and spending time with you outside of the academy, to be honest… if I was going to take you out this would be one of the places I'd go." She suddenly stopped as she watched him walk up to an old suit of armour. Her face flushed up slightly "R..really? i…" he turned his head slightly towards her, "Yeah, it's one of my favourite places to go, I'd like to share that with someone who I care about. I can tell your special Claudia there is something about you that draws me to you but … at this moment in time I can't figure that out."

She walked up to the side of him while placing a lose strand of hair behind her ear that showed off 4 piercings in a row and her cartilage piercing. "I'm nothing special Zane all I do is cause trouble for people a burden rea-" she suddenly stopped talking and turned to the left. Which caught his attention, "What's wrong?"

"It's here…" she took a step forward into a room that held a sign for the 1800's relics "How can you tell?" she held up an index finger as she saw a glass cabinet table stand and walked up to it, taking a deep breath right there in the middle a slim dagger with a red twisted hilt was laid right there. Zane looked to the description of the Dagger that was next to it and then back to the girl, she had covered her mouth slightly and noticed her eye's was glistening.

He gently grabbed her shoulders and turned the girl away from the dagger towards him, "What's wrong?" taking in a deep shallow breath, while gripping the t-shirt she was wearing right over her heart, "I… I was just remembering when we had to look for the other dagger, I didn't want to go near that one either because my old man apparently had visions of me with it…. Stabbing him."

Raising his left eye brow to her, as he watched a tear roll out of her own eyes, "Artie had been taken over with some kind of evil, he had used an Artefact to turn time back so he could save the world and got whammed, something took over inside of him and he was going to use that dagger to release a deadly orchid that caused a sweating sickness to kill millions of people. It was in Germany this happened, I tried to stop him but he wouldn't listen…. He spoke some very hurtful words to everyone… to me, once he had used the dagger to destroy the case the Chinese Orchid was in, it flew up to the ceiling and I felt it calling to me."

Taking in a deep shaky breath, furiously wiping her eye's Zane could tell it was hard on her, "I had to do something… I didn't know at the time but I knew if I used the dagger I could save Artie… I stabbed him Zane… I stabbed my old man with that dagger… it felt like I was cutting into my own heart…I never forgave myself for that moment… but he was grateful that I did. i….." covering her face with both hands she angrily tried to stop the tears from falling, but all he did was pull her close into his arms.

"You did what you had to do to save the person you loved Claudia even after what this evil said… you pushed it aside to make sure your old man came back to you, and it sounds like he did." He gently removed the girls hands away from her face, and lifted her chin so he could see them brown eyes. "You hold a big heart, a very kind one at that, you love everyone that you come in contact with but yet I can see it's you who wants to be loved but you're afraid… I don't know why that is and I'm not going to pry anything out of you…. But know this you can always come to me and I will listen."

"Zane… i…." he began to lean in forward when suddenly something caught Claudia's attention out the corner of her eye, "Zane get down!" She tackled him out of the way as a loud explosion was set off right next to them, sending the two teenagers toppling to the ground.

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Inside the directors office of the museum, Pete was stood leaning over the wooden mahogany desk, "Sir you need to listen to me, that Dagger here is something that can be very dangerous in the wrong hands, you don't understand!"

"I'm pretty sure I do Agent Lattimer, and I can assure you that the dagger is completely safe and well protected by the guards here, No one is going to try and steal the dagger" Pete was about to say something until he suddenly stood up straight. "No… something is not right here… Claudia!" the office suddenly shook as a loud explosion was heard throughout the museum. Quickly he ran to the door opening it to see Security guards running in one direction and civilians running the other way, he quickly grabbed one of the security guards, "What happened?"

The young woman looked him up and down, when he brought out his badge, "a small bomb was set off inside the 1800's collection, section C we're trying to evacuate the building just in case it's a terrorist bombing." Pete suddenly took off running down the hallway and flight of stairs.

He was expecting someone holding a gun around the room holding hostages, but once he reached the room, what he found was something he totally wasn't expecting, Zane was pinned to the floor with Claudia on top, both eye's widened as Zane's hand was on her chest, and the other up her shirt on her stomach, lips locked. He suddenly covered his eye's looking away, "Couldn't you two kids wait till you got back to the Academy for this?"

Claudia suddenly jumped up off Zane and looked to Pete, her face was so red he wished he had a camera "Pete! It…it's not what it looks like! I swear! There was this …explosion! I pushed Zane out of the way and…. And…"

"You decided to suck his lips off while he was touching your boobie region huh? It's alright, I understand I was once a teenager… I know how your sex drive works!" "PETE!" Zane stood up straight and helped the girl off the floor who was holding her ears, as they was constantly ringing. He looked over to the glass case that was all over the place "the daggers missing… "

At that the young red head looks around the room and noticed it was just them and the security guards in there who had been slightly shocked to find the teenagers on the floor looking like they was about to have sex. Claudia looked up into the corners of the room, "Security camera's.. they must have caught something…. Come on!" she suddenly became light on her feet clapping her hands together and dashed off with a security guard.

Pete looked to Zane a little while longer, the kid was completely red in the face but he was looking down at the hand that was up his little sisters top, his eye's looked like he had discovered something with the girl but didn't want to jump to assume anything.

"Come on kid, we better chase after her otherwise she's going to go after the robber single handed"

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It didn't take long to find Claudia sat in front of the Security Mainframe going through the footage frame by frame, from the point where she was breaking down in front of the boy, to the point slightly after the explosion.

She felt both males behind her, one stood at the side which she guessed was Zane, and the other Pete who leaned in close to the screen, "Wait…stop right there… looks like… a kid" Claudia inhanced the video "Your right, just a teenager, white male no older than 14?" Pete nodded as the director of the museum walked in "That's Riley James, he comes in here often to help out but … why would he steal?"

Claudia spun around in the chair "Simple, what do all 14 year olds want at that age? Attention? Money? Being forced into doing it? Do you know where Riley would have gone?" giving his grey hair a quick scratch, "well if it's money then there is a Pawnshop just round the corner from here."

Quickly the three Agents ran out of the room and headed down the street.

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A few hours after all the excitement at the museum they had managed to find Riley James at the Pawnshop trying to sell the stolen dagger to pay for his mother medication, Claudia had felt bad for the teenager and said to him that the museum wouldn't press charges so long as he worked off the debt, she had spoken with the Director and he agreed to them terms. Zane had seen the effects of neutralizing an Artefact, but even his eye's had to close and shrink back from the electric that sparked off the foiled bag.

So now currently they was waiting at the airport for the chopper to take them back to duel Academy, and Pete was trying to hug the hell out of Claudia. "I'm going to so miss you for the next week…. Please come home soon! Myka wont watch star trek re-runs with me!" the girl just laughed as he tried to nuzzle into her neck, "Alright, alright! I'm sure I can get Jay and Sy to sit there too, do me a favour and try not to tell Artie what happened today ok?"

"Hey! That's not my place to tell him that you've got a boyfriend, which reminds me keep your hands to yourself Zane," the navy blue haired boy raised his hands, "I intend to Mr Lattimer, not until Claudia's ready anyway." The older agent raised his eye brow to him, "Alright I trust you too crazy kids ok? Now you better go" with that the two teenagers stepped onto the Chopper and strapped in, "Later Pete!"

30 minutes later after being air born, watching the clouds go by, Claudia sighed, while running a finger across her lips, sure she had many kisses before but this one had sent a spark through her whole body.

"Claudia?" turning her head, to see Zane looking at her, her cheeks instantly began to burn slightly, "yeah?"

He looked down to the hand that had been up her top again and back to the girl, "I understand If … you just want me to teach you Cyber Dragons but… maybe we could… try that Museum thing? Just us two one day…" she gave a smile and nodded, "Oh… and you're a good kisser."

Again Claudia could feel her cheeks on fire, "thanks, um… maybe.. we should ugh… " she had noticed him moving forward slightly "as I said to you earlier today, you can always tell me anything… and I'll always be there for you" he raised her chin up to him, and he leaned down slowly placing a gentle kiss upon her rosy lips.

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Well that's it folks! For chapter 12! I hope you all enjoyed it! Yay! Zane and Claudia kissed!

What's going to happen in the next chapter?

Is there going to me more duelling? Or will there me more missions?

Curedream90 And ArticDragonSlayer! Over and out~