Title: A Cross Purposes Crossover Story: "The Librarians and the 13th Warehouse" or "The Case of the Protectors of Knowledge"
Author: Joshua
Disclaimer: This story is part of the Brane of Extraordinary Women fictional universe, created by DianeCastle, specifically it takes place in two of the established 'universes' that is part of the larger Braneverse; the Bionicverse and the BtVSverse. There may be references to several of Diane's stories, or others that are part of the Braneverse written by other authors. All references are used with permission, after discussion with the appropriate author. This story takes characters and settings from the television shows Warehouse13, (created by Jane Espenson and owned by the SyFy Channel and NBC Universal), and The Librarians, (created by John Rogers and owned by TNT). Though there may be cameos by characters from the Bionic Woman/Six Million Dollar Man, The Secret World of Alex Mack, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Summary: A Cross Purposes Story. Unbeknownst to those that have already met across space and time, two teams of those dedicated to keeping dangerous magical artifacts safe, will cross paths, further linking their worlds. The Librarians meet the Warehouse Team, and sparks are gonna fly!
Prologue In The First:
Smithsonian Museum
Washington D.C.
(Bionicverse)
Aly Mack, special agent for the OSI, settled in for a long night. Normally they'd have a whole surveillance team with standard, yet state-of-the-art equipment doing this kind of job, rather than one of their 'Special Operatives'. Unfortunately, there were special circumstances all their own which required either her, Kate, or Jamie to be on site around the clock, and the only shift she could cover was in the evenings after most of the city had gone to bed, which is where she wished she was right now.
Apparently, in his work overseas, the 'second' Bionic Man, Steve Austin's son, Michael Austin had uncovered a plot by yet another secret conspiracy group. Only, instead of assassination, their goal was espionage and blackmail. Their target, famous author and anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, who worked at restoring and uncovering artifacts here at the Smithsonian. Having met the woman in passing, Aly couldn't really understand what these people wanted from the good doctor. Sure, she was abrasive and kind of mean, though honest to a fault, but nothing about her background, or her personal history suggested any kind of material that these people could use against her.
As for why the OSI was involved in the first place, beyond Michael's investigation, apparently Willow and Dr. Brennan used to go to the same university and they know each other from that. Of course, Brennan refused any form of protective custody, insisting that she was more than adequate to defend herself. Hence the long-range 'listening' of the OSI's bionic agents.
She was currently on the roof of the building of the section of the Smithsonian where Dr. Brennan's lab was kept. Of course, Aly had taken full advantage of taking all the tours and everything else that the multi-building museum had to offer. It was on the OSI's dime after all, and she had to know the lay of the land, or at least that was her excuse and she was sticking with it.
Dr. Brennan, who by the way wanted everyone to call her "Dr. Brennan", was working in her lab with a number of interns as well as her personal assistant, a funny little guy with unkempt brown hair named Zack, on some kind of project that was so important they'd worked until past midnight every night for the past week or so. And as fascinating as it was to listen in on the scientists work, Aly had kind of lost interest after finding that she kept having to look up the definitions to words practically every sentence. And she only had so much availability on her data plan as it was!
Besides, as fascinating as anthropology could be, and parts of it were really interesting, Aly knew that she wasn't about to switch careers and become an Anthropologist. So, while maintaining a cautionary surveillance, she instead brought her homework and a few of the texts that Willow had recommended for keeping up on computer languages and programming.
Her cellphone vibrated as the silent alarm she'd set up went off.
Putting away her books, Aly pulled out the phone and reset the alarm for another random interval, and then began her patrol. She started by 'stretching', a completely useless exercise given that all of her limbs were bionic, save for the fact that it let her fool her mind that she was already in motion and it took her a few seconds less to reach the 'threshold', the point at which the world around her seemed to go into slow motion. Within moments, she was running across the rooftops of the Smithsonian museum, casually leaping across the gap between them with hardly any noticeable effort, her bionic ears and eye working at peak efficiency as she completed her ten-circuit patrol.
Since she was dressed all in black, and staying away from the light sources scattered about, there was very little chance of anyone seeing her. At least, not before she detected them. Speaking of detecting...
Aly came to a sudden halt that would have seriously strained the body of anyone not bionic. She focused on her hearing, trying to pinpoint the location of what she was picking up. It was a conversation. Between a man and a woman, and from the few context clues she'd gotten so far, they were talking about breaking into the museum. She listened a little closer while continuing to try and narrow down their exact location.
"Pete, I'm trying to concentrate here!" the woman 'whispered' harshly, though with Aly's bionic hearing it was as the same as being right next to them.
"I wasn't doin' nuthin!" he said in the same tone that Aly had once used when she was like five years old after messing around with her older sister's things.
"Uh-huh," the woman believed it as much as Aly herself did. The bionic agent could practically hear the rolling of her eyes in her tone. "Now quit it! Do you want us to get caught?"
"We're not gonna get caught," he said.
By this point, Aly had finally managed to narrow down their location and quickly crossed the rooftops to get to the deserted loading dock, where a pair of brunettes, both in their late twenties, were huddled around the back entrance to the museum. Specifically, if she recalled correctly from the general floor plans she'd read through of the place, it lead to the area where new and still-being-researched pieces were kept. At least, those that weren't going directly to one of the many labs scattered throughout the institution. She couldn't see what they were doing exactly, given that they were both huddled around the door, but it was pretty clear that the woman was trying to pick the lock. Though, that didn't explain the odd whirring sounds she was picking up.
Rather than confront them, as her instincts were want to do, Aly instead listened to her training and found a spot where she could observe without being seen. These might be the conspirators that they'd been after all along, or they might be a pair of moronic thieves. Either way, Aly's job here was to protect Dr. Brennan from being blackmailed, not to do the job of the police.
Speaking of...
"All right, got it!" the woman announced.
"Score another for Artie and his gadgets," the man mock-cheered.
"Pete," the woman, who Aly could now see had really curly dark brunette hair, shook her head at her partner, sounding exasperated, but at the same time there were subtle traces of what she saw between Willow and Xander whenever she had dinner over at their house. "Look, let's just get the artifact, make sure that it is the real deal, and then—"
"And then?" he interrupted, perking up like a puppy dog.
"Then we'll see where the night takes us," she smirked and lead the way inside the museum.
The man, Pete, was frozen to the spot for several seconds before hurriedly chasing after his partner in more than one respect.
"Hey Myka, when you say..." the door closed before she could hear the rest of his speech, and Aly didn't particularly want to employ her bionics to catch the rest of it. Instead, she pulled out her cell phone and hit speed dial number one.
"Hi, Jamie? It's Aly," she said into the smart phone. "Yeah, there's been a, how would you say it? A development."
—WH-13—
Myka, once she and Pete got to the storage space for the museum, pulled out the Farnsworth, the hand held antique audio-visual communications device, which just so happened to use a signal that was completely untraceable and unhackable. Period. According to Artie, anyway. Flipping the switch, the transmission quickly went through and she the round black-and-white screen flickered to life, showing her the face of her boss, Arthur Nielsen.
"Hey Artie," she greeted him, though making sure to keep her voice down.
"Myka," he nodded in reply, adjusting his thin round glasses atop his scraggly bearded face. "Hello. I take it that you and Pete have gotten into the museum by now?"
"Yeah, we just got to the storage room for the newly arrived pieces," she replied. "Are you going to tell us what this is all about now? I mean, there hasn't been any sign of an Artifact going haywire or anything. No strange happenings, no unexplained phenomena, no unusual deaths or anything like the usual."
"And nothing smells like fudge," Pete broke in as he drifted around behind her as he conducted his own... unique sweep of the place for the Artifact.
"So what gives? What's up with all the secrecy?" she asked, fighting the smile that threatened to spread across her face at her partner's antics.
"Ah, yes, well," the oldest Warehouse agent on the books flustered for a bit, before answering, "I do, ahem, apologize for that, but you see..." he hemmed and hawed for several seconds, until Claudia finally came to his rescue.
"He doesn't actually know what the Artifact is," the young twenty-one-year-old redhead remarked as she squeezed in beside he mentor on Myka's screen. "Or rather, he didn't before he sent you to go get it."
"Well, that's not so surprising," Myka said, hoping to stem off Artie's temper for a bit longer. "We almost never know what the Artifact is before we get sent out on a Ping. What is surprising is how we get sent out before anything, y'know..."
"Before anything weird happens," Pete said as he came in from her other side this time.
"Yeah," she agreed.
"I, uhm, well, there's a … mamrmtmimfmamcmtmphmamtmphmthemumsmemumph … erhrm!" Artie mumbled into his chest.
"What, sorry, I didn't catch that Artie?" Myka frowned.
Claudia, however, seemed to be fluent in 'mumbling Artie' as the Warehouse Agent could see the look of surprised shock on the girl's face, which was slowly morphing into a very wide grin.
"No. Way!" Claudia Donovan, the tech-savy genius, youngest Warehouse Agent, and future Caretaker of the Warehouse, exclaimed, slapping the old man that was her mentor on the arm. "There's an Artifact Detector at the museum?!"
"No!" he vehemently denied, then wilted and confessed, "Not exactly, anyway."
"Artie?" Myka's voice grew concerned as Pete stopped walking around and peeked in over her shoulder.
"An... Artifact was permanently placed on the site of the Smithsonian Museum about fifty years ago, give or take," he explained with his trademark put-upon sigh. "It is connected to our monitoring system here at the Warehouse, and alerts us when anything of a... significant nature, or power level, comes within range. It went off big time right before I sent you two off to snag it. Fortunately! The readings indicate the Artifact, whatever it is, is dormant. But it had to have come to the museum within the last twenty-four hours, hence..."
"Having us search the storage area for newly arrived, but uncatalogued items," Myka nodded her understanding.
"Exactly!" Artie confirmed. "Now, get that Artifact!" he screamed into the screen before slamming the connection shut.
"Well, somebody didn't get his scone today," Pete mocked, now that there was very little chance of Artie actually hearing him do so.
"And whose fault is that?" Myka teased back as she put away the Farnsworth, absently checking to make sure the Tesla, the only real weapon a Warehouse Agent was equipped with, was available and fully charged. Far too many times to count had they needed it, and it turns out they'd forgotten to charge it, or it would short out after too many shots one after the other.
"Hey!" Pete defended himself. "I'm innocent. This time. I was on the red-eye, with you, trying to get over to DC as fast as humanly possible. Hey, maybe it was Jinks! Or, even Mrs. Frederic! She looks like a woman who likes her scones, know what I'm sayin?"
"Pete," she said warningly.
"Never mind," he quickly retracted his statement. "Artifact. Right. So, if I was a mysterious artifact, being shipped to the Smithsonian, where would I be?"
Myka didn't manage to fully hold back the sigh of exasperation, as she sauntered over to the nearby office desk and soon located and started looking through the manifest. To keep her child-like partner from getting too exasperating, she said out loud, "We can check the manifest to see what came in most recently. That should narrow down the search, and then we just bag each one and see which of them, well..."
"Goes 'gooey kablooey'?" he finished for her.
Not really having a better adjective for the explosion of sparks and power when neutralizing an Artifact, Myka just shrugged. Then frowned as she double-checked the manifest with shipping receipts and other evidence laid out before her on the desk.
"What is it?" Pete asked, noticing her sudden change in expression.
"There," Myka answered with no small amount of dread, and growing sense of a trap, "has only been one shipment in the last forty-eight hours, and it contained only a single item."
"Convenient," Pete grinned, which slowly faded as he observed the pensiveness of her face. "Too convenient?"
"The item was flagged as extremely urgent, and was shipped immediately to the Medico Labs, in the Anthropology department. Specifically, the lab of a Dr. Temperance Brennan. As a matter of fact, the Send To address was for her office here," Myka said.
"Temperance?" Pete repeated. "Who the heck names their kids Temperance? And... why do I get the feeling that I should know the name 'Brennan'?"
"Temperance Brennan is the biological daughter," Myka explained as she put down the papers, "of Max and Christine Ruth Keenan."
Pete's own expression dropped to match his partner's.
"Shit," he cursed. "Now those names, yeah, I do know them."
They both stood there, delving unpleasant memories for almost a minute, before Pete snapped them both out of it by asking, "Do we call Artie back? Should we get some back-up? Maybe call the whole thing off and come back with an actual plan, rather than sneak into the country's most prestigious museum to steal the mail from one of their employees? What do we do, Myka?"
Steeling herself for what was to come, as much as she was able, she said, "We go and snag the Artifact. That's our job, Pete. And, preferably, we do it without running into Max and Christine's daughter."
"Considering what those two get up to," Pete said, "I'm pretty sure the apple didn't fall far from the tree. So let's make that a priority." A beat later, he couldn't help asking, "You think she's hot?"
Rolling her eyes, Myka just lead the way through the building, using the analog password decoder as necessary to bypass the electronic security between them and their goal. Rather than risk running into security guards and getting caught on camera by going through the public areas, Myka lead them into the infamous underground tunnel areas beneath the concourse. A quick consult with handy map of the complex, and she soon had them entering the basement area of the Anthropology department building within the Smithsonian.
Right as they were coming to the hallway that would lead to the department head's office, the Farnsworth buzzed, rather loudly and insistently, prompting the pair of agents to hide themselves away in the shadows of an alcove before answering, and even then only speaking in loud whispers.
"Uh, Myka, Pete?" Artie's tone indicated he was concerned, and slowly growing very concerned. "Are you guys still in the museum, and do you have the Artifact yet?"
"Uh, no, not yet," Pete answered for both of them. "And so, yes, of course we're still in the museum. What's up, Artie? What's with the frowny face?"
"Oh, nothing much," Artie finally turned to face them, his gaze until now having been on something besides the Farnsworth. "Just that apparently you've been made, and every law enforcement agency in DC now has a BOLO out on the two of you. Not to mention several SWAT and mobile response units are converging on your location as we speak."
"What?!" Pete and Myka both exclaimed in unison.
"H-how—how could this happen?" Myka stammered. "We've barely been here for half an hour! At the very least, building security should've sent a guard to check the loading dock where we came in before calling for reinforcements, let alone SWAT!"
"Oh, it wasn't security that called it in," Artie mumbled, his attention back on, hopefully, his unique computer terminal that always seemed to have the exact answers he needed. More or less.
"Then who, or what was it?" Pete prompted.
"That," he grumbled while pecking away at his terminal, "is what, I am trying, to—gah!—find out! Wh-wh-what?!" he suddenly exclaimed as he was wheeled back out of the way and Claudia took over.
"Move over, Artie!" she ordered, fingers flying over the Steampunk-typewriter-esque keyboard. "And let a master work. Or, in this case, let the Mistress take over. Oh, and here's who, or rather what, called in the tip." She handed him a slip of paper.
"Oh dear," Artie's anger at being shoved aside lost its ire before it could even be properly vented.
"Artie!" Pete and Myka both hissed into the Farnsworth at the same time.
"Sorry," he adjusted his spectacles once again. "So, uh, you all remember how I used to be NSA? And, considering our own jobs, it is easy to deduce that there are, of course, other secret organizations out there?"
"I do not like where this is going," Pete groaned.
"Apparently," their boss casually informed them, "there is an agent on site for one such organization, who is so well connected that within minutes of them having detected you, and apparently without you detecting them, has now called every single other law enforcement agency within the tri-state area and gotten them to make looking for you their number one priority."
"What organization has that kind of pull?" Myka wanted to know. "Even the FBI and Homeland Security couldn't work that fast, Artie! For that matter, what kind of field agent has that kind of authority?"
"The OSI," he told them.
Pete and Myka looked at each other and shrugged, while he vocalized for the pair of them, "Never heard of them."
"Uh, short version," Claudia's voice came over the Farnsworth, and Artie briefly adjusted the screen so they could see her furiously typing away at the computer terminal, "they're a department that is pretty high level, connected to both the State, Defense, Justice and Energy Departments. They basically make sure that the US has the pinnacle of all technology and scientific discovery, and keeps the bad guys from getting it first. They work both foreign and domestically. And you two seem to have royally pissed off one of their agents, because an alert just went out for you two, putting you on the No-Fly-List!"
"Wait, what?" Myka exclaimed. "How are we supposed to get back to the Warehouse?"
"Uh, I'll take care of that," Artie readjusted the screen so it was just on him. "Just... get that Artifact! Claudia..."
"Claudia," the redheaded hacker spoke up again, "has just gotten into the Smithsonian's systems and bypassed their security." Artie wasted little time and moved his Farnsworth so it was settled in front of his young protege. "I've taken the cameras and other little goodies, so I can guarantee you five, maybe six minutes, tops. I've also been sending the security guards to check pretty much every location that is as far away from you as it is possible for them to get, and I'll do what I can to keep them off you, but that won't last forever."
"Thanks Claud," Pete gushed. "Any sign on the office where the Artifact was sent to?"
"Uh, gimme a second," more furious typing, "It's clear. The lady in the lab coat that was there earlier just stepped out, and is currently headed toward the cafeteria, looks like. Nearest security guard, unless he starts running, is two minutes out. So, you guys might, y'know, wanna hurry, I'm just saying."
They were already dashing down the hallway and inside of thirty seconds were inside the office of Dr. Temperance Brennan. The door, fortunately, was not locked, and despite the trouble they were now it, luck at least seemed to be on their side, as the package from the manifest was lying there out in the open. Myka quickly confirmed that the Artifact was indeed present with a quick spray of Neutralizer—producing a brief shower of purple sparks just from contact with the plain brown paper wrapping around it—and then they were out and running for the exit before the office door had even finished swinging shut.
Only to be confronted by a masked figure all in black barely ten yards in front of them.
"Who's this guy?" Pete whispered, not exactly quiet.
Aly wasn't quite sure whether or not to be insulted, but at least her outfit was successful in (mostly) hiding her bionically enhanced bust, so she didn't feel as much like a freak. On the other hand, it was really insulting for any woman to be confused for a man! Instead, she just held out her hand expectantly, not saying a word.
They all looked down at the package in Myka's hands, and then the curly-haired brunette tossed her partner the Tesla.
Aly had been shot at enough in her short career with the OSI to know when to dodge and when to risk a charge, and though ten yards was practically nothing to her bionic speed, the way the vacuum-tube-looking gun in the man's hands began to whine, like it was building up a charge, not to mention the sparks of visible electricity coming from it. That was enough of a hint for her to know it was better to dodge.
Pete, afterwards, couldn't be entirely sure what happened. While the Tesla wasn't exactly 'fastest gun in the west', there had been very few times that he'd missed with it, and those could be chalked up to random or unknown effects from some kind of Artifact. All he knew was that this time, he had the person in black dead to rights, center mass, he'd pulled the trigger, the Tesla discharged, and then the guy or whoever dodged to the side so only their left leg was hit, and even then low on the shin and ankle.
"Whoa, did you see that? Damn that was fast!" Pete commented to Myka as they hurried from the room.
"C'mon Pete, let's get out of here!" Myka insisted.
"On the way, Mikes!"
Aly picked herself up off the floor, hobbling a bit as her entire left leg jerked and started in fits before going stone-dead still. She couldn't even get it to swivel or shift from its locked position on her hips. Fortunately, the rest of her was still functioning, but she wasn't about to chase after them with her leg like this. Settling herself on the floor, she pulled out her phone to speed dial Jamie, Rudy, and Oscar, in that order.
Mumbling to herself while the phone rang, "A lightning gun. It had to be a lightning gun. I bet Alex never had to deal with this kind of crud before."
"Jamie?" Aly answered once the call had gone through. "I'm in the museum, just outside Dr. Brennan's office. I think those blackmailers came to retrieve a package or something. And Jamie? These guys have some serious tech. One of them shot me with an actual lightning gun! Don't worry, it only got me on the leg, but now my left leg has seized up and I can't pursue. I went ahead, like you suggested, and notified the local LEOs. But you or Kate might want to get down here. … Yeah, I'm calling Rudy next, see if there might be some way for me to fix this myself. Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Just catch these guys, all right?"
Outside the Smithsonian, Pete and Myka were driving away in their Secret Service rented SUV. They had Artie and Claudia back on the Farnsworth.
"OK, can we talk about what just happened back there? Because, I'm kind of freaking out here!" Pete shouted as he drove through the nighttime streets of Washington D.C. on the way to the airport. "That... person, whatever, moved fast enough to dodge a Tesla after I fired it! That's not normal! That's Artifact level hinkiness, if you ask me!"
"Do you have the Artifact?" Artie demanded to know.
"Yes!" Myka answered, unwrapping the package to reveal a wooden box. Wearing the purple neutralizer-laced gloves, she opened it and aimed the Farnsworth's screen at the interior even as she looked herself. It was a pendant of some kind, with a glass or clear-crystal jewel at the center with a dragon-motif gold border, fused onto an iron setting to which the pendant's chain was attached. "Uh, Artie? What is this thing anyway?"
"Oh dear lord," the grizzled Warehouse Agent gasped out loud. "The Eye of Heimdall!"
"The what of who now?" Pete repeated, as Myka reoriented the Farnsworth so they could both see Artie on the circular screen.
"Heimdallr," Artie elaborated, "Better known as Heimdall, the Norse god that guards the Bifrost, the Rainbow bridge between the Nine Realms of Yggdrasil. That Artifact has been on the Watch List for all Warehouse Agents since Warehouse Three! How the... No! Nevermind. You need to get it back here, ASAP!"
"What do you think we're doing?" Pete remarked. "We're headed to the airport now. We should be—"
"What part of No-Fly-List did you not understand?!" Artie roared at them through the small video box.
The image jumbled for a bit and when it calmed down, Claudia was on the screen.
"Hi, sorry about that, Artie is taking a breather," she told them. "I'm in the DC traffic system. Got you green lights, and thanks to a little Claudia-magic, you're welcome by the way, nobody can see you on traffic cams. But Artie's right, you're not flying back commercial."
"You can't expect us to actually drive all the way back to the Warehouse, in a rental, do you?" Myka snapped, the stress getting to all of them.
Artie suddenly appeared over Claudia's shoulder, calmer, if not calm, at least.
"Get to Norfolk Air Base," he ordered. "I've called in a favor. There's a flight leaving in less than an hour. It will be going to Edwards Air Force Base in California."
"You mean it will 'officially' be going to Edwards," Pete pointed out, using only one hand to do the air-quotes, since he was driving.
"No, it'll be going to Edwards, no stops, no layovers, and not landing at the Rapid City Regional Airport, or anywhere else before reaching Edwards," he said in his 'I am not kidding' deadpan tone of voice. Which suddenly switched to his lighter 'I know you are gonna hate this, but I am still not joking' tone when he asked, "You're both HALO certified, right?"
"ARE YOU KIDDING?!" they both screamed, and Pete nearly had a traffic accident, but his reflexes were still top notch, thankfully.
"Pete, you were in the army, right? You've jumped out of an airplane before," Artie tried to be nonchalant about what he was asking of them.
"I was a Marine," he corrected. "And... yes, but only like half a dozen times, tops! It has actually been years since I last did anything in a plane that wasn't just sitting there watching a movie and eating peanuts, Artie! And you're supposed to get like a week of ground school before they ever take you up! And, please correct me if I'm wrong, but Myka hasn't even had that much, have you?"
"No, I am not HALO certified, nor have I jumped out of a plane... or even thought about doing so. I'm pretty sure I made certain that it was never even on my Bucket List, for that matter," she informed everyone listening. "Artie, please tell me that there is some other way back to the Warehouse. Please?"
"Nope. Sorry," he said as he cut the connection.
The two Warehouse Agents sat there in silence as Pete turned toward the exit that lead to Norfolk.
"I'm going to kill him," Myka vowed, her voice flat and very angry.
"I'll help hold him down," said Pete.
It was going to be a long trip back to the Warehouse.
Continued...