Crawler watched the medics take the Terran into the clinic. Once the clatter had died down again, she came out from her hiding spot and looked around.
She had no idea where she was. In fact, she had never been to this part of Paris before, even after all her searching for that child Wells had wanted a few days back.
She walked up and down the next few streets slowly, trying to find something familiar to her, but after a good half hour she realized it was all for naught. So, with as much dignity as she could muster, Crawler walked into a tourist shop and purchased a map.
Wells waited at the observation level of the Eiffel Tower impatiently. These past few days had been a real disappointment. First he thought he had his target, and she escaped and disappeared again. Then Crawler failed on her mission to get the shield component.
Sometimes I don't understand why I bother to depend on others. If you've got to do something right, got to do it yourself. That's what I've always been told, so I should just listen to it.
He heard the rustle of clothing before the person behind him spoke dryly, "Don't jump, it's not worth it."
Wells shook his head and turned around, then started. "Crawler?"
Crawler smiled, the scars on her face wrinkling slightly. "Let me guess, you don't like the new look. I didn't myself, at first, but hey, it gives me that bad girl look I'm always trying to accomplish."
"Looks painful."
Crawler shrugged. "So, what was this about my apartment not being there anymore?"
Wells handed Crawler a token and motioned to the viewer beside him. The woman warrior raised her eyebrow, but went to the viewer and looked out. She quickly aimed it at her apartment then a low growl escaped her throat. "Someone was there."
"I think the destruction was more than an obvious answer to that." Wells leaned against the railing. "Any ideas on who might be tracking you?"
Crawler thought back to the Terran she had left on the clinic's doorstep, "Not a clue in the world."
Wells sighed, "This is just not going according to what I had planned at all."
"That's why you shouldn't make plans," Crawler spoke, using the viewer to look closer into the destruction of her apartment. She could see that the wall was blown out, a police line across the open drop at waist height. Like that will stop someone from falling over. Since the explosive was on the left side of the apartment, near the bedroom, the kitchen area was not as demolished as the other side.
"Are you even listening to me?"
Crawler stood up and leaned on top of the viewer. "You were saying something important?"
Wells growled. "And to think I even thought I might have missed your company."
Crawler smiled and looked back in the viewer, but the little black discs had slipped over the eye sockets, signaling that her time was up. She sighed and leaned over on top of it, looking over Paris. "So, how was your weekend?"
"Not as productive as yours." Wells shook his head. "Did you at least get your hands on the component before you got the shit beaten out of you?"
"I did not get the shit beat out of me," Crawler said indignantly. "I just got caught off guard."
"Yeah, sure. So...?"
"Well, I did get something." Crawler pulled back her sleeve to reveal the watch on her wrist. "I got one of the chips from the upper circuit board. I hid it in the open compartment of the watch."
"Open compartment?" Wells raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Yeah, when you hit the middle button." To demonstrate her point, Crawler reached over and pressed the button on the side of the watch. Suddenly there was a tiny waver of light in front of Wells's eyes, then Crawler was gone. Wells jumped back, surprised. "What the?"
Agony.
Heat.
Pain.
Fire.
All that coursed through Crawler's body at once. She tried to scream, but the pain was too much. Waves of hot electric pain ran up and down her body, making all her muscles spasm at once. With all her control, she tried to reach to the watch, to press the button again and hopefully stop the agony.
Light flashes flashed before her eyes. A ring of blackness formed around the fuzzy image of Wells, and then it was all blackness.
A thud sounded near his feet and he looked at the ground, not able to see what had made the noise. He leaned down and found a lump in the open space that was probably Crawler. He quickly traced his hand long her body until he found her right arm and the watch. As he pressed the middle button, Crawler fazed back into view, unconscious.
"Crawler, are you ok?"
Her eyelids fluttered and Wells noticed that she was very pale with a twinge of green in her skin color. Suddenly her eyes opened and she rolled to her side, proceeding to send her lunch over the side of the Eiffel tower. Once that, and probably breakfast, was gone, she rolled onto her back and held her head in pain. Shouts of protest could be heard from below.
"Better?"
"I dunno. what happened?"
Wells shrugged. "I was going to ask you the same thing. You just... disappeared."
"How long was I out?"
"Only a couple of seconds..."
"Can't be..." she tried to sit up but just groaned and lay back down. "That felt like forever."
"What did you feel?"
Crawler shut her eyes for a moment. "When I touched the button, it was like a sharp pain ran right up my arm and along my spine. Then my whole body just started to vibrate. I couldn't stand up, and it felt like my whole body wanted to implode."
"Then I would take it that it was a bad experience."
Crawler groaned and reached for the watch. She tried to pull it off, but it wouldn't budge. "Get this thing off me," she said, holding her arm out to Wells.
John Wells sighed, then tried to pull at the watch. It wouldn't budge. He examined it closer and shook his head. "No use. Whatever that surge was, it fused the watch closed. That sucker's not coming off."
"I'll figure it out later." She grabbed onto the railing and pulled herself up slowly. It took her a moment to get her footing then she just glared at the watch.
"I'd like to examine that watch closer. Maybe we should go back to my place and crash there for the night. After all, you don't have your own apartment anyway."
Crawler lifted the corner of her mouth. "Just want me to come back to your place, huh?"
"No." Wells crossed his arms. "I'd just rather know where you are in case I need you."
"You will, cause I can't take this dang watch off." She played again with the watch on her wrist, but the clasp was locked.
"You won't give me a straight answer, will you?"
"You actually expected one?" Crawler gave Wells a cheesy smile.
"Forget I asked." Wells shook his head. "I'll call you later with a time and place to meet tomorrow once I find out some more information. Until then, just don't get yourself killed."
"I'll try not to." She watched Wells walk away, then turned to look over Paris as the tiny lights of the city turned on to match the light that the sun provided during the day. Somehow, during the night, she liked the city better. She waited another few minutes, then started down the tower to start working on her own problems.