Undone

Chapter 1. Not Yet

I OWN NOTHING.  THIS A ROUGH DRAFT.  EVERYTHING IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

"It's over, Artie.We lost." Pete surveyed the wreckage outside his perfect circle. Myka looked as if she might collapse. Artie, on the other hand, was holding something small and bronze in his hand.

"Not yet," murmured Artie.

"Artie, what the hell is that?" asked Pete.

"This," smiled Artie, "is one of the only artifacts left." He held it up by a chain. The artifact was a pocket watch.

"Wait, is that some sort of time machine? Can we turn back the clock a couple of hours?" A bubble of hope grew inside of Pete. They could save Steve, Helena, the Warehouse.

"Of course not! Time travel is ridiculous!" scoffed Artie, curling the chain around his fingers. "I'm still shcoked H.G. could... No, this is Lewis Carroll's pocket watch. He was always running late for parties and his wife would be furious at him!  So he'd turn back the little hands of the clock and undo all of the damage in the area surrounding him for a couple of hours.  It was the same time, just different circumstances."

"That's where the Rabbit got his watch in Alice of Wonderland, isn't it?" smiled Myka.  Artie tapped his nose.

"Very good, Myka.  Now I just need you two to go back to Leena's and get Claudia, Leena and Mrs. Frederic. We'll need some help in rounding up people and who knows what the artifacts will be doing!"  Pete put his hand on Artie's shoulder.

"Artie, Mrs. Frederic's life force was tied to the Warehouse.  She's probably..." he looked at Myka.  She was biting her bottom lip, as she usually did when stressed.  Her eyes shone with determination.

"We don't know that yet Pete.  She could just be really sick or something.  Look, we'll go to Leena's and we'll get them and then we'll come back and fix everything. Let's go."  She took off at a brisk pace in the direction of the vans.  Pete and Artie locked eyes.

"She's not gonna be ok, Pete."  Artie rubbed his eyes and sighed.

"Myka's right, Artie.  You don't know that yet."

"No, I do know.   Anyway, I wasn't talking about Mrs. Frederic."  Artie sat down in the little paradise in the crater, emptying his pockets.  "Go.  I have to figure out how this works."  Pete jogged after his partner.