Chapter 1

"Claudia. CLAUDIA!" The grumpy old man shouted at the sleeping redhead.

"Hu- wha- everything's good." Claudia sputtered in a sleepy manner.

"It isn't much of a punishment if you're asleep during it!" Artie growled as he fumbled with the papers on his desk.

"I consider this a form of extremely passive resistance." She grumbled and collapsed back on to the mountain of paperwork. Claudia stared blankly into space for a few moments, but her stupor was interrupted by a ping from the computer.

"Noooo, we're not allowed to have problems!" The girl whined as she reluctantly lifted her head to examine the screen.

"What's going on?" Artie asked as he walked up behind Claudia.

"Uh... something down in the Vitruvius sector." The girl was suddenly more alert; her eyebrows knit together as she read the report being spit out by the computer. "Signs of life... faint, though. All entrances are sealed and haven't been opened for at least an hour. It's probably a mouse or something."

"Oh, no no no no no no no." Artie shook his head. "We do not get rats in the Warehouse. It is an impenetrable building by everyone and everything."

"and yet I still managed somehow." Claudia muttered under her breath.

"You. Go check it out." Artie waved his hand dismissively. "I have paperwork you didn't do." He arched his eyebrow menacingly and peered over his glasses.

The redhead opened her mouth to protest, but sighed and turned around to go investigate. She grabbed the Tesla and put it in her back pocket. "But what if there is someone down there?" Claudia said with a slight hint of fear in her voice.

"You're fine. Unless, of course, you're too chicken." Artie remarked nonchalantly.

"Of course not!" Claudia scoffed and headed out the door. She didn't make it two steps before turning on her heel and peeking her head inside the door. "Maybe a little." The girl grinned sheepishly.

"Go!" The man didn't even look up- he merely pointed with the hand he wasn't writing with.

Claudia slouched her shoulders as she headed for the Vitruvius Sector. "No, just send your daughter figure by herself to go investigate an intruder." She muttered bitterly.

"Hellooooooo..." Claudia called out to the empty space. "I don't even get to take the segway." She complained to the air. "You know your jacket would button if you used the segway a little less!" She called back to the office.

Claudia walked for a few minutes longer before finally arriving at the Vitruvius Sector. The girl put in her ID number into the pin pad. She drew the Tesla from her back pocket. Carefully, she rounded the corner with the gun pointed in front of her.

"Is anybody there?" Her voice faltered. The lights flickered and she gasped. "This, Artie dearest, is why we should change the lightbulbs!"

She began to look around at the sculptures that surrounded her. "Of course it had to be the sector with all the artifacts that look like people!" Claudia sighed.

She lowered the Tesla and began to look around for signs of entry, or anything out of place. Claudia looked at the artifacts' screens, but nothing was out of place. The redhead jumped as a mouse scurried out from behind an angel statue in the corner. "I told you it was a mouse!" Claudia called to her boss. (Never mind the fact that he couldn't hear her.)

"Yup! Nothing." She threw up her hands and turned around to head back to the office.

As Claudia exited the sector, she gave one last sweep of the area. Her eye caught on the angel statue in the corner. "Huh. I thought you were covering your face a second ago. " She remarked casually. The girl shrugged it off and headed back for the office.

A few minutes later, Claudia returned to the office. "It was a mouse!" She said in a mock-surprised voice.

Artie grumbled something unintelligible.

"When did we get the angel statue, though?" Claudia inquired.

At this, Artie's head snapped up. "What angel statue?" His voice was heavy with concern.

"Uh the one in the Vitruvius Sector?" She shrugged. "I could've sworn it changed positions, but then again, this is the Warehouse and it has probably fried my brain more than I realize." The girl said with a half-hearted chuckle.

"Go back down and check to make sure it's in the inventory system. Here's a form, just in case. I'll be down in just a minute."

"It's probably fine!" Claudia protested.

"Probably being the operative word." He gave her the look.

"Fine." She grabbed the paper and a pen and headed back for the sector. "But if I die, it's your fault!" Claudia called as she exited the room.

The redhead navigated her way back through the maze. The sound of her boots echoed off the cavernous ceiling. She yawned loudly- the lack of sleep over the past couple of days had left her exhausted and rather irritable.

At last, she reached the Vitruvius Sector. Claudia set down the paper on one of the shelves and headed over to the statue. She looked around to find the screen, but to no avail. The girl quirked a brow, "That's weird..." She looked at the statue suspiciously.

The light dimmed but didn't flicker completely. Claudia reached out a hesitant hand toward the statue, stopping inches before it, realizing she didn't have a purple glove on. The girl patted herself down to try and find one, but didn't have any on her. You'd think that with 27 pockets, I'd have a spare one lying around.

"I'll just write it down, I guess. Nothing wrong with a duplicate, right?" She muttered. As Claudia went to fill in the form, her pen refused to write. She scribbled in the margin furiously to get the ink to flow, but it was dead. "You've got to be kidding me." She clapped her hand to her forehead.

Claudia sighed deeply as she headed back to the office, yet again. As she made her way back, she heard a mechanical screeching in the distance.

"Artie?" Claudia called out. "Is that you? That's the segway telling you it's time to start using your own legs for transportation!"

It wasn't Artie.

She saw something blue fade in and out a few aisles over. "Hello...?" Claudia pulled out the Tesla and dropped her form. "Pete? This isn't funny! Steve? Myka?" The panic level in her voice was steadily rising.

The object stood in the middle of the aisle. Claudia took a deep breath and looked through a few shelves to try and see it better. "So much for impenetrable..." She scoffed.

The girl looked around for one of the alarm switches. When she spotted one a few feet away from her, she stealthily crept over to it. Her face fell. "I thought I got all the ones the nanites destroyed!" Claudia's voice was heavy with desperation of exasperation.

Claudia resolved to go inspect it herself. Things couldn't get that much worse, could they? When she reached a distance at which she could look at the object in full view, she stopped. "What is a 1960's police box doing here?" She wrinkled her brow.

"There's got to be some neutralizing spray around here somewhere." The redhead began to search for a can, and when she turned around, she saw a man dressed in a twill jacket, with a bow tie and a very odd demeanor about him.

She dropped the can. "Hello, I'm the Doctor!"

So this is my first chapter! I hope you like it! Please please please review it! :D

This is more or less the rough draft as I am too lazy to go back and edit it. I promise I will update this soon.