Al(ison)

Note: Not part of fandom canon ATM.

Prologue - Early August 2018; Bad Axe, Mi.

Case Information
Case File:	WH13-423871-248317
Case Date:	Late September 2018
Agent(s) Involved:	Artie Nielsen, Claudia Donovan
Artifact(s) Collected:	Cancer Mallets, Personality Balancing Ring

There was a storm outside as Al Lir walked back to his apartment, another attempt to get a job having failed. “This city sucks.” He mumbled. “Can’t even get a decent job.”

He continued walking when he saw an unusual ring. It had two symbols on it. A blue one, and a pink one. Curious, he picked it up. He looked at it for a bit and then put it in his pocket, shrugging.

When Al got back to his apartment, it was late. He sat on his couch and pulled out the ring. What an odd thing. He thought to himself. Al then had a sudden temptation to put it on, although a part of him was telling him it was a bad idea. Ignoring this, he put the ring on. When he did, there was a flash and the ring’s pink symbol vanished. “What the…” Was all he said as a light surrounded him and he blacked out…

…A woman laid were Al had just been.  Confused, she got up. “Who…who am I?” She asked herself.

Chapter 1 - Late September 2018; Warehouse 13

Artie walked into his office to see Claudia on her phone playing Angry Birds.

“Where are the others?” He asked.

Claudia shrugged. “Doing inventory. Although I think Pete went with someone to Chicago. Something about killer vacuum cleaners.”

Artie was about to ask about the vacuum cleaner part when the there was a ping! He ran to his computer and then checked the details. Claudia was standing behind him.

“What happened?” She asked. “Where is it?”

“The ping is from Bad Axe Michigan.” Artie replied.

“Bad Axe? Good thing Pete isn’t around. He’d probably make an axe related joke about Michigan having a city named Bad Axe.” Claudia stated.

Artie chuckled. “Yeah, he probably would.” He said. “Anyways, apparently there’s been a series of cancer-related deaths in Bad Axe. The odd part is that these people seemingly got affected with a lethal level of cancer days before their death.”

“Oh my, those poor people.” Claudia said.

“Yeah. Anyways, the warehouse computer gave us the name of someone who just went to the hospital and learned about his cancer. It’s a man named Al Lir.”

“I’ve got his address.” Claudia said. “Lets go.”

“Alright, but I’m driving.” Artie said, walking towards the exit.

“Great, just great.” Claudia mumbled, following him.

“I heard that!” Artie yelled.

Chapter 2

After a long drive, they arrived in Bad Axe. It was late in the evening, and they decided to go to Al Lir’s apartment. When they arrived, Artie knocked on the door.

A man opened the door. “May I help you?” He asked. He was 5ft 8in, with brown eyes, short messy black hair, and pale skin.

“Yes, I’m Agent Nielsen and this is my partner, agent Donovan, we’re with the Secret Service.” Artie replied. “Are you Al Lir?”

“Yes I am.” Al responded. “Look, I don’t know why Secret Service agents decided to show up on my doorstep, but this is a bad time.”

“Sorry for the inconvenience sir.” Claudia said as politely as she could, frustrated by the guys attitude. “We just have some questions to ask you.”

“Look it’s late. So come back tomorrow to ask me questions.” Al insisted, closing his door in their faces before they could respond.

“Yep, he’s hiding something.” Artie stated in a matter-of-fact tone.

“Based on what I saw when I looked at his record, I’m pretty sure it’s nothing we need to worry about.” Claudia noted.

“Wanna bet?” Artie asked.

Claudia thought on this. “Sure. Loser cleans out the Gooery for the next three weeks.” She offered.

“Your on.” Artie replied. Getting a tool out of his bag and uses it to open the door. They entered the apartment and Al turned around and looked at them in surprise.

“You shouldn’t be in here. Get out before….” He began, his voice trailing off as a pinkish light surrounded him. It enveloped him and when the light vanished, a woman stood where Al had just been. She was about 6ft, with bottle green eyes, chocolate brown hair, and tan skin. She was also thinner with long arms and legs. She was also wearing the same clothing. She looked up. It was silent for a few minutes until she broke the silence.

“Um….can you please take a seat for a few minutes? I need to get changed.” She asked, blushing. “My name is Alison Lirian by the way.”

Chapter 3

The two stunned agents were still on the couch when Alison walked back in. Her room was separate from Al’s. She was now wearing a pair of jeans, grey socks, and a black shirt. She sat down on the recliner.

“So, who are you guys?” She asked.

The female agent looked confused. “Um, we told you earlier.”

Alison shook her head. “No, you told Al.” She explained. “I’m not him. I’m a separate person. I don’t even have access to his memory.”

“If you’re a separate person, how did you two get merged into one?” The male agent asked.

“We didn’t.” Alison replied. She held up her right hand and showed him the ring. “I was created by this ring when Al put it on a month ago. I come out at night, he comes back during the day.”

“Like Jekyll and Hyde.” The male agent mused.

“Sort of.” Alison replied with a smile. “Now, can you please tell me your names?”

The female agent nodded. “I’m Claudia Donovan. This is Artie, he’s my boss.” Claudia said. “We’re with the Secret Service.”

Alison raised an eyebrow. “Secret Service?” She asked. “I have my doubts, I mean, it makes sense that you were surprised about the transformation, but your taking everything else in stride. You do seem to be agents, just not Secret Service

“Your clever.” Artie complemented with a chuckle. “Well officially we are, but our line of work is…different.”

“Okay.” Alison murmured, confused.

“Anyways, how do the two of you get along?” Claudia asked.

“We don’t.” Alison replied. “Al refuses to find a balance with me. He wants me gone. It doesn’t help that I’ve set up a security system that refuses to let him out of his apartment unless he cleans up after himself. I had no choice, he was being a slob.”

Claudia laughed. “Now that’s an interesting way to get him to clean up after himself.

“Did you know about Al’s cancer?” Artie asked.

“He left me a note about that last night.” Alison replied. “I checked, and I don’t have it.”

“Interesting.” Artie noted. “There’s been a recent string of cancer related deaths in Bad Axe. People have been suddenly getting a severe case of cancer that kills them a few days later.” He gave Alison a list of names. “Do any of these names sound familiar?”

Alison looked it over. “Well, some of these people take music lessons.” She replied. “Although a pair of mallets got stolen last night from the private music lessons teacher.”

“Mallets?” Claudia asked.

“Yeah, a pair of old percussion mallets. Used for instruments like marimbas.” Alison explained. “It was notable because Al stopped taking music lessons a couple of days ago after he had an argument about those mallets being crappy.”

“Where’s the music teacher Al was seeing.” Artie asked.

Alison sighed. “Sadly, she died of cancer last night. Apparently she collapsed while playing with the mallets that were stolen.”

“We need to find those mallets.” Claudia stated.

Chapter 4

Alison had offered them to stay there for the night as opposed to renting a room at a hotel. Artie refused, but Claudia agreed. Artie complained, but Claudia pointed something out.

“Think of it this way, I can keep an eye on Al.” She suggested.

“Fine. Have it your way.” Artie grumbled. “Just keep an eye on him, and monitor his condition.”

Claudia nodded. “Artie, by the way, what happens to Allison if Al dies?” She asked.

Artie shrugged. “I don’t know, but if I had to guess, she’d probably end up becoming the single person, but it’d be had to say for sure unless that happens.” He explained. “See you tomorrow.”

The next morning, Artie left the hotel room he rented and stopped at a cafe to get something to eat. While he ate, Claudia called.

“What’s up?” Artie asked.

“Al’s a tool.” Claudia fumed. “This guy is a complete and utter jerk. Honestly I can see why the ring is trying to make him a nicer person, but it’s attempt is in vane.” “That bad huh?” Artie asked. Claudia responded with a nod, and looked like she was going to start going on a rant about Al. So Artie changed the subject. “How about you tell me about Alison?” He suggested. “How was spending time with her?”

Claudia smiled. “Oh, she’s great. You already know she’s nice polite, and clean. Alison is also smart, clever, very caring about others, and she has this curiosity about the world. She knows there’s more to it than most people know, and that fascinates her.”

Artie raised an eyebrow. “Really?” He said, perplexed.

Claudia nodded. “Yeah, she asked me a lot of questions. I couldn’t answer some of them, mainly because they involved the Warehouse to a degree, but yeah, she wants to know.” She explained.

Artie was interested in this. “I’ll have to talk to Alison tonight.” He decided. “I’m going to go ask around about the robbery.”

“Okay.” Claudia said, then hung up.

Artie spent the next few hours asking around town about the robbery. He learned that the robber was a guy that had worn a dark green shirt, brown cargo shorts, and a black hat. He also got a picture of the guy from a street camera near the music lessons place.

Later, he went to talk to one of the doctors at the hospital. The doctor he met up with was a guy named Robert Green.

“Hello agent Nielsen.” Robert greeted. “How may I help you?”

“I’d like to ask you about the recent string of cancer-related deaths.” Artie answered. “What’s your opinion on them?”

“Ah, those.” Robert said flatley. “They’re sad, but also strange as many had come in for appointments recently and they were fine.”

“Anything particularly similar about the deaths?” Artie inquired.

Robert thought on this. “Well, not really except each of them happened a few days after they had music lessons.”

“About how many days after?” Artie wondered.

“Probably about three or four days after.” Robert guessed. “Why?”

“Just wanted to know.” Artie replied. “Also the day the music lessons teacher died, a guy broke in and stole a pair of mallets, did you see this guy anywhere?” He questioned, showing Robert the picture.

“Yes I did.” Robert replied. “In fact, I bumped into him earlier that day.”

“Can you tell me what he looked like?” Artie asked.

“Better, I can give you a picture.” Robert answered. “I have a great memory and one of my colleagues is a fantastic drawer.” Robert stood up. “Wait here, I’ll come back with a sketch for you.”

Well that was convenient. Artie thought as Robert walked away. He then got a call on his farnsworth. He opened it and saw Claudia.

“Artie, something weird just happened.” She sputtered.

Chapter 5

While Artie had been looking into the robbery, Claudia had been spending time with Al. She closed her farnsworth and put it in her pocket. She then looked for Al and found him in his room.

“What do you want?” He asked flatly.

“Just wondering what your up to.” She replied.

Al sighed. “If your here about earlier, then don’t bother, some days are worse than others.” He explained, frowning. “Yesterday was a very bad day. Worse than normal.”

“Why?” Claudia asked.

“I blacked out around 11:30am, and when I woke up, I was on a park bench and it was 3:45pm.” Al replied. “I have no memory of those four hours and fifteen minutes.”

Claudia frowned, her eyes narrowed. “That’s not a good sign.” She said.

Al snorted. “Whatever, I probably got drugged.” He reasoned. “I need to go do some shopping, Alison left out some money for me to use. I hate shopping, but I Alison has some nasty consequences if I don’t do the chores on the list.” He explained, standing up.

“Can I come with you?” Claudia requested. “It might go faster.”

Al sighed. “Fine, lets go before I change my mind.” He muttered.

A few hours later, Al and Claudia had finished shopping and Claudia bought them some fast food. They were back at Al’s apartment and had finished eating. They were putting stuff away.

“Thanks.” Al said hesitantly. “You didn’t have to help.”

“It’s no problem.” Claudia assured. “The mallets whammied you, and you also got whammied by that ring, I needed to make sure you’re okay. Who knows how long we have left to find the mallets, or how your death would affect Alison. We’ve got to be careful”

Al thought on this. “Well you put it like that, I can see why you’re being careful.” he reluctantly admitted.

Claudia smiled. “Now how about you tell me more about this ring.” she suggested.

“If it’ll help get the damn thing off me.” He grumbled. “It seems to be made of some sort of black wood, and when I found it, it had two stones, a blue one and a pink one. When I put it on, it glowed and I blacked out. When I woke up the next morning, it only had the blue stone, and there was no sign of it ever having the other stone. From what I can tell from Alison’s recorded messages, when she’s around, the ring only has the pink stone instead.” He explained.

Claudia blinked. “Well that’s a new one. A ring that splits itself in two and the persona’s are opposite of each other. It sounds like it’s trying to balance you out. Although you’ve been fighting it, refusing to cooperate. There’s bound to be a downside if it can’t balance the user. Combine your refusal with you getting whammied by the mallets, I wonder if the downside is starting to take effect…” Claudia mused, partly talking to herself.

“That’s the most ridiculous…” He started. His voice cutting off as the ring activated and suddenly Al was gone and the blue stone switched to the pink one and Alison was standing where Al had just been.

“Okay, second day in a row, this is getting weird.” Alison stated, confused.

Claudia opened her farnsworth and Artie answered. “Artie, something weird just happened.” Claudia sputtered. “Get back here as soon as you can.”

“What happened?” Artie asked urgently.

“The ring just switched Al to Alison, and it’s a quarter past noon, and according to Al yesterday during the day, he blacked out for 4 hours and fifteen minutes.” Claudia explained. “So it sounds like this happened yesterday as well.”

“I remember that. I was confused by why I was out during the day. Although, on the bright side I finally got to see the sun.” Alison said, smiling at the optimistic thought.

“And you’re just mentioning this now!?!?” Artie scolded. “That kind of info is exactly what we need to know. You should have said something!”

“Sorry…” Alison apologized, her voice quiet. “I’m going to go get changed.” She stated, her voice wavering as she sniffled. She then walked out of the room and her door could be heard closing.

Clauida sighed. “Great job, you hurt her feelings.”

“I didn’t mean to.” Artie  replied.

“Just get back here as soon as you can.” Claudia snapped, hanging up on Artie before he could answer.