So here's my Fanfic, my first Warehouse 13 fanfic…and Eureka, but it's more of a Warehouse Fanfic.
My writing got a significant boost from both Winged Pegasus and another good beta who didn't want me to credit her…Not that Winged Pegasus asked to be credited. These wonderful young ladies did it out of the goodness of their hearts despite their incredibly busy lives. Thanks to them this fic is actually readable! Enjoy!
Far from the nearest town,in what seemed like an unimportant part of the country, was, in fact, the most important part of the country. The Warehouse sat alone in a vast field built up against a rocky hill, a massive structure standing defiantly in the middle of its desolate environment. Deep inside of this so-called "America's Attic" toiled the ever so clever yet young Claudia. The problem with Claudia was that she knewshe was clever, and didn't mind making good use of it—despite many attempts by Artie to stifle her "creativity," or at least that's how Claudia felt at times.
It wasn't that Claudia didn't like Artie, she just wanted to prove herself to him. She wanted to show him everything she could do. Recently, Pete and Myka had managed to retrieve a strange artifact made in the 1950's by a group of scientists (whose names she hadn't bothered to remember). She walked into the large office where she found a blond lady looking over a boxy robot that was on top of a table. She stopped in her tracks, confused.
"You're not Artie," she stated, making her surprise known.
"I'm pretty sure I'm not Artie too," The blond got up cracked an energetic smile as she extended her hand towards Claudia, "Tess Fontana, from Eureka. And you are?"
Claudia's face lit up in recognition. "Oh!" She smiled as she quickly shook Tess' hand. "You're from that funky town full of geniuses." Tess promptly nodded, but was interrupted before she could say anything else. "I'm Claudia Donovan, Warehouse Thirteen next generation. Is it true you guys almost blew up the planet like fifty times?"
"Technically, we never actually came close to blowing up the planet," Tess began to explain, but caught herself. "What's your security level?" she asked in a more guarded tone.
"She has none," Artie chimed in as he entered the room carrying a handful of documents, " And how exactly did you know about Eureka?" The red-headed girl quickly turned away, placing her hand near her neck nervously.
"Oh, I just heard about it," she said sheepishly. Artie just stopped in his tracks and let out an annoyed sigh. "You hacked onto the system, didn't you?"
Claudia turned slightly towards Artie and spoke in a low embarrassed tone, sounding rather like a child with her hand in the cookie jar"I...may have taken a little peek."
"A little peek?" Artie reprimanded—rather loudly, Claudia thought, "Claudia! Those are classified files that you don't have access to—for a reason!" Artie slid his eyeglasses up his nose with his index finger and continued to scold Claudia as she retreated as if to hide from Artie. "You can't just hack in to the system whenever you feel like it. I don't even know why I have to spend time telling you these things, I'm too busy.
Artie shook his head at Claudia and continued on,"Never mind, just...never mind. Dr. Fontana is here to look at an old invention, made in Eureka, which also happens to be an artifact. Just help her out with anything she needs," Artie said as he made his way toward the loft overlooking the inside of Warehouse.
"Yes, sir!" Claudia responded with a salute. She then turned towards Tess. "So...what're ya doin'?"
"Well, I have to find out why this robot has been sending different sub-atomic particles through the pea brain," Off of Claudia's blank stare she moved on to explain further, "It's the wall that divides the dimensions. Anyway this iscausing interdimensional rifts that's making items disappear. And I have to find Dr. Fargo, who also happens to have disappeared."
Claudia stood watching Tess as she continued to poke through the inactive robot. "Have you tried dumping it into the purple goo?" Claudia asked
"If we did that, it won't bring Fargo back," Tess answered. Claudia leaned against the table and then reached over to a section of fried wires. "You know, if I just connect that to a Farnsworth and invert its frequency, we should be able to see this Fargo dude." Without waiting for an answer, Claudia began to fiddle with the wires, almost immediately causing a short and immense spark that nearly fried Tess.
"Hey, watch it!" Tess shouted.
"If you would just let me try to take out some of these-"
"Just step back! I know what I'm doing; I just need to rework some command codes." Tess took the pliers from Claudia's hands.
"No no no no no," Claudia protested, "trust me, you can't just try to rewire and reprogram an artifact like that." Claudia yanked the pliers back from Tess.
"I know what I'm doing," Tess reassured Claudia, and waved her away with her hands.
Claudia narrowed her eyes at Tess. "Fine, get zapped by GORT, blondie, see if I care" Claudia said.
Tess just stared up at Claudia and set down her tools. "Listen," she said, "I did not spend God knows how many hours studying like mad through college, showing up all of those arrogant boys just to prove that women can think just so some teenaged hacker can come and pretend to be the best thing since sliced bread!"
"I'm twenty years old, you fossil!" Claudia shouted. "And I know better than you. You just can't justmake an artifact change its mind."
"Fossil? Who are you calling a fossil, you spoiled brat!" Tess yelled back. "Why does Artie even put up with a punk like you? You probably cause more trouble than you're worth! Grow up!"
Claudia had enough. That last comment about Artie was the straw that broke the camel's back. She threw the pliers at the inactive robot, causing several sparks to fly. "I don't need to hear this from an old fart like you!" she yelled, then turned and stormed off, passing by Artie who walked in carrying a box full of trinkets.
"What's with her?" he asked Tess. Tess, sighed, infuriated. "Why on Earth do you keep such an immature brat like her around?"
"Where's the robot?" Artie asked prompting Tess to turn around—to see an empty table. Just then they heard a loud crash, and saw the robot disappear through the wall heading towards the loft.
Deep in the Warehouse, Pete and Myka had just finished cataloging all of the artifacts that they have retrieved during the past few days. Currently, they were walking down one of the Warehouse's many, many aisles, relieved that they could finally relax.
"All I'm saying is that you should give it a shot," Pete said, trying to persuade Myka of something.
"No, I'm not doing it," Myka refused.
"You have to leave your comfort zone, live a little," Pete said.
"Live a little?" Myka responded in disbelief, and then spread her arms out to indicate the whole Warehouse.with her arms pointed out the whole Warehouse, "I think I have lived more than enough things! I just want to relax and enjoy the down time we have."
Before Pete could manage to get in another word, the Farnsworth buzzed from inside his sweater. He immediately took it out and opened it, to find Artie's face staring up at him, complete with with his crazy eyebrows and perpetually sliding glasses, which always seemed to slide down his nose only for him to push them back up.
"Hey, Artie! we just finished with everything here," Pete said.
"Good, there's a problem," Artie began to explain. "The robot we got from Eureka just went AWOL."
Tess appeared on the screen and joined in. "Hey, Dr. Tess Fontana here. It looks like the robot will be slipping between dimensions, so don't let it touch you."
Artie snatched back the Farnsworth and continued talking. "Go find Claudia and get to that robot before it starts taking artifacts to other dimensions. I'll meet you down there."
Pete and Myka stared at each other; their matching expressions saying, "Not another problem!"
"You go find the robot and I'll look for Claudia," Myka said. Pete nodded in agreement, and they parted ways. It was then that Myka realized she didn't have the slightest clue where Claudia was. She spun around and caught up to Pete. "Hey! Let me see that Farnsworth," She asked Pete.
"Here," Pete said as he handed it over to her.
"Thanks," Myka said and then walked off. She opened the Farnsworth and soon enough Claudia's face buzzed onto the screen. She seemed somewhat upset. Myka didn't bother asking her what was wrong, Claudia didn't need to think about that at that moment.
"What's up?" Claudia asked.
"That robot has gone crazy popping in and out of dimensions taking artifacts," Myka explained, "Where are you?"
"Oh, um…" Claudia began to answer. "Meet me at the Military Section! I have an idea!"
After walking through several aisles of countless artifacts, Myka finally found Claudia holding two cans of Military grade Sticky String, with five more cans in the tool belt strapped around her waist. "It's crazy robot hunting season," Claudia said gleefully.
"How exactly is that going to help?" Myka asked.
"Thought you'd never ask," Claudia answered and pulled out a squirt gun of sorts, "It's a Neutralizer Fluid Portable Dispenser….I call it a Gooey Gun. Just shot it with the Gooey Gun, and I'll fire the silly string. That should make it stay in place no matter what dimension it pops out to."
"And how do we make it stop?" Myka inquired.
"Uh…I still have to work out some of the details," Claudia said after handing Myka the Gooey Gun.
"You want me to do what?" Tess asked Artie who was fastened to the Zipline.
"It's perfectly safe. Pete found the robot in the Victorian section of the Warehouse, and this is the fastest way to get there." Artie finally managed to convince Tess to strap herself to the zipline harnes, then kicked the lever releasing the brake and sent the two off deep into the Warehouse. They finally dropped in between two aisles and found Pete running towards them.
"The killer bot is coming this way!" He shouted. Just then the robot made a turn, vanishing and reappearing, and each time getting closer to the three.
"Um…let me think…it's powered by a small, antiquated fission reactor, so destroying it wouldn't be the best idea," Tess thout out loud.
"No, you couldn't quite blow it up, not as an artifact," Artie reminded Tess. The robot blundered into a crate, making it and its contents vanish.
"A high voltage should be able to disrupt all of its systems…but that won't bring back our missing scientist!"
"He will if he holds on tight!" Claudia chimed in from a distance behind the robot, who reappeared back into real life. "This town ain't big enough for the two of us," She said as she sprayed the Silly String all over the robot. The robot was stuck in its tracks, appearing and disappearing in place. Myka then aimed the Gooey Gun at the robot.
"No, wait!" Tess shouted out, "If Fargo is around he might be able to grab onto the robot! We just need to find a way to fry its circuits."
"Farwho?" Pete asked as he pulled out his Tesla gun and opened fire on the robot, which became stuck halfway between dimensions, partially transparent.A puddle-like effect surrounded the robot, and a squirmy guy with short hair and dark glasses jumped right through the puddle and landed hard beside Claudia.
"Dr. Fargo, I presume," Claudia said as she lent a hand to the heavily panting Fargo.
"That!...That THING!" Fargo said, trying to find the right words.
"Myka, spray that thing now!" Artie said. Myka sprayed the robot with the Gooey Gunand it collapsed on the floor, held down by both the neutralizer and the silly string. Finally, the mechanical terror had been stopped. Everyone exhaled in relief.
Later on, Myka was walking back into the damaged office after helping Claudia clean up the mess caused by the dysfunctional robot. Myka knew that Claudia had had an argument with Tess earlier, and out of spite she damaged [...damaged what?]
Claudia spotted both Dr. Fargo and Tess standing next to Artie. She quickly turned around to go back outside, but was stopped by Myka. "Come on, whatever happened between you two, it happened. She deserves your respect. She's done a lot for everyone, just like we do every day," Myka said.
"But she called me a useless spoiled brat, and she's stuck up, arrogant...and...and..." Claudia kept herself from saying anything else. She didn't want to talk about it at all and tried to walk away again. "
Hey Claudia," Tess came up behind her. Claudia stopped but did not turn around, "Look, I'm sorry that implied that you were a worthless punk. But you were being way too rude and I don't respond well to that."
Claudia didn't say anything until she heard Myka clear out her throat. She turned slightly with her hand right under her chin and spoke in a soft reluctant voice, "Yeah, and I'm sorry that I called you an old fossil…" What Claudia didn't say was that shejust wanted to find a way to impress Artie.
"Apology accepted," Tess responded, "and you do have good things to contribute to around here."
"You're not too bad for a blondie," Claudia spoke with more confidence, smiling and obviously joking.
Tess just smiled, rolled her eyes, and began to walk away, "If you're ever in Eureka, you shouldask for Zane."
"Zane?" Claudia asked, "That's funny, Joshua mentioned something about a third cousin of ourswhose name is Zane."
Tess turned around, "Zane, Zane Donovan...that's your last name too, right?" she asked Claudia.
"Well, it's a small world after all," Myka noted.
"I guess having an attitude runs in the family then," Tess said promptly said in retribution for the blond comment.
Claudia arched an eyebrow. "Oh, she soo did not just say that."
"Claudia," Myka warned, holding her arm.
"Fine, I'll let it slide." Claudia said petulantly.
After the scientists from Eureka left the Warehouse, most of the Warehouse agents decided that it was time for much needed rest. Artie, however, had other plans. Apparently, there were still plenty of artifacts to snag, bag, and tag.