Time: Midnight
Place: A lonely road on the outskirts of London
Arthur walked quickly along the edge of the road. It was a cold winter night, and the heavy jacket he was wearing didn't do much to stop the chill. Shivering, he stopped for a moment to readjust his scarf and hat.
After a few minutes, he arrived at a run-down house just off of the main road. Reaching into his pocket, he fumbled with a piece of paper that had a note and address written on it.
It said:
Meet me at this address at midnight if you ever want to see you beloved children again. Come alone. Do not tell MI6.
-Ivan Braginsky
1976 Buckham Street
Arthur scowled at the contents of the note, but quickly checked the address of the house and the address on the note. They were the same.
Walking up to the door, he quickly scanned the area for booby traps, cameras, trip wires and the like. There was nothing.
Part of him, the one that was the spy, warned him that the whole place was probably a trap. The other part, the father, caretaker and dad, told him that any risk was worth it for the kids.
Arthur sighed. He hadn't seen Alfred and Matthew in three days. They were probably scared to death right now.
Wishing that he had went ahead and told MI6, he walked up to the door and knocked politely. Waiting a few seconds, he knocked again.
The door slowly creaked open. A woman with unusual violet eyes and nearly platinum blonde hair peered out. "Are you Arthur Kirkland?" she growled.
"Indeed. May I ask, what is your name?"
"Natalia. The rest is unimportant."
She stared at him in such a way that his hand involuntarily strayed towards the handgun he kept near at all times.
"Come," she said. "Big Brother Ivan wants to see you."
Suddenly, she lashed out with the syringe she had been concealing in her left hand and stabbed Arthur in the forearm, injecting him with whatever strange chemical was in there.
Caught by surprise, Arthur staggered backwards but wasn't quick enough to dodge it. Wincing, he clutched his arm where the needle had gone in.
His vision went blurry as the drug started to take its full effect. Dropping to his knees, he tried fighting it, but it was too strong. Everything was…so tiring…
Arthur toppled to the ground, out cold. Natalia smirked at his easy defeat. Could this have really been the famous Arthur Kirkland, the one that every villain and terrorist feared? Then again, eight years of taking care of his beloved children must have made him soft.
Picking Arthur up by his jacket, she dragged him around back and tossed him unceremoniously into the trunk of a waiting van. Climbing into the front seat, Natalia shouted at the driver to step on it in Russian.
She smirked. Big Brother Ivan would be pleased with her tonight.
In this AU, Alfred and Matthew are around six or seven years old. Also, this story is very loosely based off of the book Alex Rider: Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz.
Recently I have been reading too many spy novels. It seemed that the villain was always Russian, the spy British and the supporting character American.
Therefore, this was born.
- Long-Vuong