Mrs. Clark was sitting up in her daughter's room. It had been three months since Rachael, Lisa, and Mikaela went missing. The police had done everything they could during the first days after they disappeared but as time wore on they went from being optimistic they'd find them alive to being cautiously optimistic of finding their bodies. Her work was very kind over this and told her to take all the time she needed and her job would be waiting for her. Mr. Clark continued to go into work but he was a mess and would often snap at his co-workers and others for no apparent reason.
Mrs. Clark looked around tears in her eyes. Friends had told her that they should have a funeral for Rachael but she wasn't going to have one without a body even though she knew the chances of her being alive were slim. The police had briefly considered that she just up and left but the fact that both Lisa and Mikaela's clothes were found with Rachael's ruled that out. The police had shook their heads when Mrs. Clark had said she had found their underwear inside their clothes like they had just vanished right out of them. It sounded crazy but she had seen it. The theory now was two or more people had come in with guns and made the girls take their clothes off and arrange them like that to confuse the police. Of course the police took the clothes to look for any clue but they only found the girl's hair on them. Now the police were at a standstill with no suspects, no witnesses, and no motive.
As Mrs. Clark sat on Rachael's bed someone knocked on the door. She took a couple minutes to compose herself then went down to answer it. When she did she opened the door to a man in his thirties dressed in a black suit. She asked, "May I help you?"
"I'm Agent Carter ma'am," the man said. "I'm here about your daughter. May I come in?"
"Lets see some ID first," Mrs. Clark said.
"Of course," Agent Carter said and held up his ID which said he was Agent Dale Carter of the FBI.
"Alright come in," Mrs. Clark said allowing him in.
"Is your husband home?" Agent Carter asked looking around.
"He's at work," Mrs. Clark said sitting down. "Please tell me that you've found Rachael."
"I'm afraid we haven't found her yet," Agent Carter said. "I hope to find her and the other girls soon though. I need to ask you a few questions and I need you to answer truthfully and to the best of your ability."
"Of course," Mrs. Clark said with tears in her eyes.
"I know this must be rough for you," Agent Carter said with sympathy in his eyes. "Now on the day in question did you notice anything odd?"
"Well I came home and Rachael's car was in the drive and the door was open," Mrs. Clark said. "I figured that she was home but when I called out to her she didn't answer. I found their clothes on the kitchen floor which I thought was a little strange."
"By their clothes I assume you mean they belonged to Rachael, Lisa, and Mikaela?" Agent Carter asked.
"Of course."
"Very well continue."
"The other odd thing was their underwear was inside of their clothes. I had thought that they had simply changed and gone swimming."
"You didn't think it odd that their underwear was inside their clothes?"
"Not until later," Mrs. Clark said and then broke down crying.
Agent Carter put his arms around her and held her until she was done. After he asked, "And what did you do with the clothes?"
"I folded them and put them in the front room," Mrs. Clark said. "It's my fault. I shouldn't have touched them."
"It's not your fault," Agent Carter said grabbing hold of her shoulders and looking her directly in her eyes. "You couldn't have known that it was a crime scene and you did what you would naturally do."
"Thank you for your kind words but if I hadn't moved them the police might have found my daughter by now," Mrs. Clark said her eyes brimming with tears.
"Was there anything else?"
"Just an empty box addressed to Rachael. I don't know who it was from or where."
Agent Carter nodded and pulled what looked like a Tricorder from Start Trek: The Next Generation out of his pocket. Opening it he held it close to the couch then got up and held it close to the carpet. Going around the house he held the device close to different things. Eventually he stopped and put the device back in his pocket. Taking out a phone he looked at Mrs. Clark he asked, "The police have the clothes and the box?"
"Of course," Mrs. Clark said looking puzzled.
Agent Carter hit a button on the phone and after a few seconds said, "I need the evidence for the Rachael Clark and Lisa and Mikaela Scott. Bring the evidence to the Clark residence. Also get Mr. Clark and Mrs. and Mr. Scott here too. I want this done within the hour." After hanging up he said, "I'll explain shortly."
An hour later everyone was gathered and the evidence bags laid out Agent Carter said, "I know this may seem strange to you but bear with me." He took out that device and opened the evidence bags. He nodded after putting the device near each bag. Touching something on it he went back and placed it near the bags containing the girl's clothes. He smiled and said, "Good news. Your daughters are still alive."
"I suppose you're going to say that you've found them doing whatever you were doing when the police couldn't," Mr. Scott said a bit of anger in his voice.
"We haven't seen you do squat except pretend to scan things with that Tricorder," Mr. Clark said saying Tricorder with some disdain. "Our daughters were kidnapped and here you think something from a science fiction series can find them."
"Your daughters weren't kidnapped," Agent Carter said pulling out his phone. "I'll explain once your daughters are back." Putting the phone to his ear he said, "I need a micro-extractor and the reversion gas in here." After he closed his phone two people brought in something that looked like high tech tweezers and a canister. Nodding to them he said, "Make sure no one comes in until I give the all clear."
As the men nodded and headed out Mr. Clark asked, "What is this nonsense?"
"Well before we go any further I think I need to show you something," Agent Carter said. He took off his suit jacket and his tie and shirt. Standing there topless he reached behind his head and pulled his head apart. It was like he was pealing off a mask. As he did a face was revealed that looked like his only younger and feminine. He didn't stop with pealing off his head but went on to peal off the rest off his body like a costume. Soon a naked eighteen year old girl was standing there.
"What's going on here?" Mrs. Clark asked fear and panic in her voice.
"My name is Hanna," what was Agent Carter said. "I just took off my old skin which acts as a hazmat suit. I work for a secret government agency called P.S.I. or Paranormal Science Institute. We deal with things outside the mainstream science. Now let me get your daughters out of their clothes." Picking up the one instrument she dug in Rachael's clothes and a strange sound could be heard. After a second the sound stopped she picked up a piece of plastic and she placed the tip of the instrument on the center. A blue light emitted from the tip and that strange sound could be heard. She repeated the procedure with Lisa and Mikaela's clothes. She took the three pieces of plastic and set them on the floor.
"What are you doing?" Mrs. Scott asked some hope in her voice.
"I placed your daughters on those squares," Hanna said placing her hand on the canister. "Now I'm going to release the gas in this canister and it will return your daughters to you. Don't worry it won't harm you." She twisted the top of the canister and a red cloud of gas spilled from it.
The red gas quickly rolled across the room. They could still see the squares and what they saw astounded them. Something was growing on the squares. Soon they were recognizable as human babies. They continued to grow and the parents of the missing girls gasped as they realized they were seeing their daughters grow up again. They sat up and looked around as they reached six years old. They looked a little confused until they hit twelve. There Mikaela stopped aging. She looked just like she did the day she disappeared except her hair looked like it hadn't been cut a day in her life which was true in a sense. Lisa and Rachael continued to age until they reached the age they had been.
The girl's parents couldn't help themselves. They got up and hugged their naked daughters crying with joy. Hanna smiled and said, "I'm sure you want to know what happened."
All eyes turned to Hanna and Rachael asked, "Who are you?"
"My name is Hanna," Hanna said. "I'm part of a secret government agency called P.S.I. or Paranormal Science Institute. We developed the gas you had been exposed to."
"Why would you develop a gas that makes people disappear?" Mr. Clark asked a note of anger in his voice.
"We did it in case a world wide natural disaster occurred," Hanna said with a shrug. "You've heard that if you removed the space from between your atoms that you'd be no bigger than the head of a pin?" When everyone nodded she continued, "Well we were tasked with doing something like that. We had to come up with a way to fit all of world's people into one or two ships just in case. What we came up with is a gas that could regress anyone to the stage of a fertilized egg. A single cell that was in suspended animation and could be stored long term."
"How did I end up getting this gas?" Rachael asked.
"A group of rogue agents stole some of the gas and the formula for it as well as other stuff and disappeared," Hanna said with a sigh. "It may be they decided to test a batch of the gas they produced. They got it right it seems."
"Why would they steal it?" Mr. Scott asked.
"I wish we knew," Hanna said sadly.
"Well I definitely got some excitement in my life," Rachael said. "Maybe this is what I needed to get me out of my rut."
"I have a proposal for you Rachael," Hanna said with a grin. "We could use another agent. If you want we can test you to see if you could be an agent. It can be hazardous work but it's also exciting most of the time. What do you say?"