Guys Like Us

By Danii

NOTE: It edged into my brain and demanded to be writtin while my half-wit muse was asleep on the couch.

Summary: The Official sends Darien, Hobbes, the Keeper, and his nephew to investigate the happenings in a little town in CA where everything went wrong.

Rating: PG-PG13

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone here. Don't sue. I get no profit from this, just odd stares and headaches.

Distribution: Do you actually want this? I'm flattered! Just send me a line as to where it's at, put my name on it and it's fine.

NOT BETA READ

XOVER: BETWEEN THE INVISIBLE MAN and BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER

'Ships: Giles/Keeper(C) Buffy/Xander

TIMELINE: Just after "Of Liberty and Larceny" and the Buffy season finale...

Dedication: To all the nice people who give feedback. I don't know about any other writer, but I live on the stuff...which reminds me: FEEDBACK SUSTAINS MY LIFE! PLEASE DO!

Guys Like Us
By Danii

Darien was late for his appointment. It wasn’t ‘dear god he’s gonna kill someone’ late; lord knew he’d had enough of that recently. Just a couple minutes, nothing to sweat. At least not to him. He had a feeling that the Keeper wasn’t going to be all that pleased with him, but then he remembered how she seemed to have softened up to him recently, and that made him feel a bit better. It wasn’t as if he could have prevented it. Even if he could turn invisible, that didn’t change the fact that he had to use the bathroom like everyone else.

When he got there, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the Keeper had not even noticed his tardiness. In fact, she didn’t notice his entrance at all. She was too busy bustling about the office, moving papers, reading papers, tossing papers. The Keeper moved around the little lab quickly looking rather nervous. It took a few knocks on her desk for her to turn around and realize he was there.

"Oh, Darien!" She exclaimed in her familiar British accent,anxiously pulling her hair behind her ear, "I’m sorry I didn’t notice you coming in…I’m a bit busy, as you can see, not to mention worried."

"About what?" he asked politely. He was curious as to what could get the rock-solid Keeper into such a tizzy, and he knew that if he sounded to interested she wouldn’t tell him.

"Oh, the transfer we’re getting today, and the Official’s news, and the failure, and-" She stopped, then looked at Darien for a moment, her eyes flashing in slight irritation, "several other things I’m not supposed to tell you about…"

He smiled his brightest smile, letting the old Fawkes charm flow, "Well, now that you mentioned them, you gotta explain."

"No," she answered with a neutral tone as she pulled him to the chair, "I really don’t. I wasn’t supposed to mention them at all, though I suspect that you will be involved sooner or later."

"Which one?" he asked, sitting down in the familiar black seat that always made him feel like he was at the dentist, "The transfer, the news, or the breakdown?"

"I will not be telling you, Darien," The Keeper told him evenly as she prepared the shot, "As I said, you know too much already…"

"Fine, fine" he said with a shrug, "you know me, always curious…"

"I’m not even going to tell you what happened to the cat." She replied with a slight smile as she injected him with his dose of counteragent. He just smiled back at her, and the Keeper got a little worried. That smile meant trouble.

The conversation didn’t go any farther because just then, Hobbes walked in.

"Hey, Fawkes, you won’t believe what I just heard!"

Darien got up from the chair and focused on his partner. Hobbes was really excited. "What?"

"Just heard that a major government project has just blown up in everyone’s face."

"And this is relevant how?"

"Because we’ve been put on the case. Not to mention the fact that one of the finest agents down there is going to be teamed up with us! The Official’s nephew! I can’t believe it!"

The sometimes-invisible man sighed. He liked Hobbes well enough, but every now and then his partner could be so disappointing. He’d expected news like ‘they just found a way to get the gland out’ or something, and now Hobbes was telling him that they were getting yet another clown in the Agency circus who was the Official’s nephew to boot. Great. Just great.

"Don’t you know what this means?" Hobbes cried, nearly grabbing Darien by the shoulders, "This means that we’re finally getting some recognition! We’re gonna be distinguished as a major Agency of the United States government!"

"I have three words that describe my feelings about that-woop…dee…doo…"

The other Agent scowled, then pulled his partner into the hall. As he did, Darien said a quick good-bye to the Keeper, who had gone back to her work, completely forgetting him.

"Listen, Fawkes," Hobbes hissed, his dark eyes boring into Darien’s, "This is some major stuff. It’s important, and you have got to stop with this aloof crap. You’re an agent, albeit not voluntarily, and that’s what you’re gonna be until they figure out how to get that thing out of your head. There’s no way out of it. So why don’t you stop being such a whiney little ass about it and TRY to enjoy your work?"

Darien seemed to consider this for a second, then looked about to accept it, but, "How about…no."

Hobbes just sighed and shook his head. If the hair on top of his head hadn’t already disappeared, he would have pulled it out by now. His eyebrows would be gone by next Tuesday at this rate. What a partner…

"Anyway, the Official wants to see you…us…" the other Agent continued tiredly, "In his office, now…"

Neither Darien nor Bobby said a word as the two of them walked to the Official’s office, nor did a word escape them as they waited in front of the familiar door. Fortunately, the door was opened before the silence became annoying.

"Fawkes, Hobbes, we have got some major work to do." The Official said with a strange glint in his eye. He looked so excited, like a fox who just found out that he gets to be night watchman at the hen house. "Hobbes, you know anything about a group called The
Initiative?"

Hobbes whistled low and long. This was some pretty deep crap. Even he, snoop extraordinaire had heard very little about it. Very top secret. In fact, "All I know is that it’s in California. Some little nowhere town…"

"Sunnydale" the Official supplied with a smile, "Sunnydale, California. The town with the single highest missing persons ratio in the world."

"So what, people want to get out of this little berg?" Darien asked, all sarcasm, "This is what we’re going to work on? A bunch of insane West-coasters who happen to hate this town?"

"May I also state that this town has one of the highest murder ratios in the world as well?" the Official continued coldly, "The only town higher is in the middle of a war zone."

"And?"

"And the Initiative was sent down there to check it out. But, apparently, things started going wrong. One of their experiments-"

"If you tell me it escaped," Darien said with disgust deep in his tone, "I’m just going to vomit."

"Fine" the man behind the desk said briskly, "I won’t tell you, but it’s true. They also lost their top scientist, a one-"

"Maggie Walsh." Said a familiar voice from the door. All three men turned to see the Keeper standing just inside the room, a rather upset expression on her face.

"She was one of the finest in her field," she continued, her eyes letting slip only a small hint of emotion, "I studied under her for a time. Truly genius."

There was silence for a while, and then the Official said, "Anyway, the experiment went nuts and destroyed the base. Men were lost, and the research done completely vanished. Now, only the real tops were in on this. I mean, the highest powers set this up, so they had funding we can only dream about. So how did it fail so badly? I’d like to know why it happened."

Again the room went quiet, until Darien asked, "What I’d like to know is why you care?"

The Official grumbled beneath his breath; something about nosy agents, then replied, "One of my best men, an experiment like yourself, Fawkes, has been there for quite some time, and some of the things he’s reported are too bizarre for me to expect you to believe. But when he told me about this, I knew that this had to be acted on. My agent has reason to believe that the experiment who started this mess was tampered with by someone other than Maggie Walsh, causing it to go insane. Now I need to you two to head down there and help my man find out who did it and why…"

"But it’s done, over, finished!" Fawkes cried, "And if he’s such a good agent, how come he can’t do it himself?"

"It isn’t over. The perpetrator is still out there, and he can cause more damage. That town is a very delicate situation, which I will let him explain in detail. As for my man, he has been undercover for over 5 years…" the Official explained, "If he blows it now, there will be a lot of trouble because the Initiative was just at the tip of the ice-berg. I need his info. I know things the big-wigs would pay millions to know, and many did. At least 6 million dollars of that gland in your head came from his information. Besides, one of the things that keeps that town running is me. Me making sure to take care of property damage. Me keeping those damn lawyers out of that town. Me planning out the new high school…"

"What happened to the old one?" Hobbes asked.

"Blown up."

"Rough gig."

"The roughest." The Official told them, his voice even more grave than they’d heard before, "Now you two will be boarding a plan, along with my man, to Sunnydale first thing in the morning. And lucky for you, I don’t ever send relatives in coach, so you’ll be
getting first class all the way."

"Relative?" Darien asked, looking entirely disgruntled, "you mean this guy, one of your ‘best’ agents, is this nephew I’ve been hearing about? GREAT! Probably some stuck up, naive little butt-kisser who doesn’t know a damn thing…"

"No." said a voice from behind the Official’s desk, but more accurately the Official’s chair which had been turned away from the rest of the room the entire time, "Not really, Agent Fawkes."

The chair swiveled around to reveal it’s occupant. Tall, muscular, and handsome, with a a slight grin on his face, the young man had the same air as the Official did as he sat in the chair, that slightly smug, self-satisfied sort of look. His dark, well-groomed hair shone in the office lamp, and his deep chocolate eyes seemed to bore into Darien’s soul
with an intensity that is rare in one as young as he was. And he was young. To the two agents, he looked like he could barely drive.

"This" the Official said with a prideful grin, "Is my nephew Alexander, Special Agent Alexander Harris. Xander, meet Darien Fawkes and Bobby Hobbes…"

The young man got up from the desk and walked around it till he could shake with the agents. First he went to Darien.

"Hello," he said in a pleasant tone, "Nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard such wonderful things about you…and your special little ability. Sounds fascinating…"

"Nice to meet you too, kid…" Fawkes said with a slight edge to his voice. For a youngster, he was awful confident.

The kid must have picked up on Darien’s tone, because he gave a second look to the Agent, this time directly in the eyes. That look scared Darien. It was the sort of look that told you the measure of a man, and this look told him that the kid was much more lethal
than he looked. He was the kind that would jump off a cliff right after you to get you if he felt it was the right thing to do. He wouldn’t let that friendly exterior trick him again. But before he could look any deeper, the young man pulled away and went over to Bobby.

"VERY pleased to meet you, Agent Hobbes," he said in a more respectful, but still jovial, tone, "You know, I’ve read your missions from several agencies, and I must say, your work is astounding. I find it an honor to meet you, and I hope we’ll get this job done well
together…"

Hobbes was eating up the boy’s praise like it was the last donut he’d have for years, and the smile on his face was as wide as the Grand Canyon. He was loving this.

"See, Fawkes," his partner crowed, "I am worth so much more than your transparent behind…"

The Official looked at Agent Hobbes meaningfully before Hobbes said, "But since we’re going to get first class, I’ll save my talk concerning a pay raise for later on."

"Good." The boss said. Then he turned towards the Keeper. "You will be going with them, and you’re going to be taking care of both Darien and Xander…"

I know, I know...this is going to be nuts. Don't hit me. But I just had to do it. I needed to get two of my fav guys (there is no way I can work in Autolycus, Jack Stilles, or Ashley Williams, though I wish I could cause then I'd have my complete hottie set) in the same story while boosting Xand and giving the boys a good case.

Next up: The plane ride...