So it's been a while since I wrote a 00Q fic, or any fic at all. This is intended to be Daniel Craig's Bond and Ben Whishaw's Q. I hope you all enjoy it!
Comments/Reviews welcome!
Disclaimer: I don't own 007, Q, or any of the other characters. I'm just playing in the sandbox more talented people have provided.
By the time Damien, the future Quartermaster of MI6, hit puberty, he was pretty sure he knew what he was good at. And that thing was computers. Mechanical things he found a fascination in, how things worked and what made them do what they were made to do. But when he was introduced to computers, it was like an entirely new world opened up. He was never a very social young man, smarter than average and never quite fitting in. Computers never cared, neither did people on the other end whom he chatted with once he also was introduced to the Internet.
When he found he could create not only computers himself, but that he could learn to make websites and programs, Damien found another love in coding. He devoured textbooks, mostly teaching himself and of course through that he learned about hacking. There was a challenge in it, a sense of accomplishment, especially when he stumbled upon so-called 'hacktivist' chat rooms. They not only bragged about what they did, but through them he found that some people even hired hackers. That revelation alone blew the young man's mind. To be paid to do something he loves for a good cause?
By the time the young genius turned 16, he was somewhat infamous online under the name Umbra Dominus, or Shadow Lord in English. Maybe it was a little bit pretentious to proclaim himself a Lord of anything, but he had considered using King instead of Lord. So there was a bit of restraint shown there. He did understand that hacking was illegal and filtered his money through many different services, rendering it basically untraceable before it ended up in his account from a seemingly legitimate shell company that he set up. It was devious, but at the time, Damien thought he was doing good things, and that justified what he was doing.
Unfortunately when you gain the sort of notoriety that he did, not only do law enforcement start looking for you, but those of a more seedy nature will start looking for you as well.
Starting to look at Universities near his graduation at 17, Damien wants to lend some legitimacy to his skills with a degree, though he knows that he is probably smart enough to do any job he could get with a degree. But being on his own in an unfamiliar town for probably the first time means that he's vulnerable in a way that he never considered before.
Walking down a sidewalk from the Tube toward the University to look at it as a possible candidate, Damien isn't aware enough of his surroundings to notice the SUV that pulls up to the curb. The men who get out are wearing suits, not something that seems particularly out of place, but the mid-afternoon hour means that not many people are around to see Damien get grabbed off the sidewalk, a black bag pulled over his head and something injected into his arm that ceases his struggle shortly after he is manhandled into the vehicle.
The next thing the young man knows is the aching pain in his head and a grogginess. Remembering what happened to him, her jerks his head up – the bag having been removed at some point – to look around the room. He is bound to a chair by his legs and his wrists not behind his back, but on the arms of the rather heavy metal chair that, on closer inspection, seems to be bolted to the floor. With adrenaline coursing through his veins, he looks around sharply at everything, trying to take in any details that he could use later when he got out of this situation. He's a bit optimistic maybe, but he can't face the other possibility.
"He is awake." A deep voice says from behind Damien, having a rather distinctly Russian accent. There is a little shuffling and scooting of chairs before two larger men come around in front of the younger man, looking at him. "You are Umbra Dominus, yes?" One of them asks, the same that was speaking originally.
It's a little cliché, yet legitimately scary, when the second man brings out a butterfly knife and starts flipping it open and closed. Damien swallows and then nods a little."Y-yes." he stutters, hating himself for that, but he's pretty much at their mercy and while his hacking has all been fun and games up to this point.
The man with the knife nods a little, his voice sounding more British. "Good. You're going to hack MI6 for us and delete some information." He says as he points a knife at him. "You do it, or we hurt you." He says in a casual manner of someone who is used to violence.
"MI6? I've never hacked into anything like that before." Damien objects as he looks at the men, glad he wore his contacts today, but he jerks against the restraints a little once, just to test them.
The Russian snorts a little. "You will do it. We have tracked you, seen what you do, and you have the capability." He reaches out and grabs Damien by the throat. "He would enjoy hurting you. I would not mind." He says in an indifferent voice, "You will do this, and maybe live." He says in a darker tone.
Ultimately, Damien figures he has no choice, and since with a hand on his throat he can't speak, he just nods a little. The two seem content with that, and they soon roll over a desk with a computer on it. His hands are transferred to longer cuffs and before long he's at work with trembling hands.
While he quickly finds out that he can hack MI6 more easily than he would have thought possible, but since the two men watching him don't seem to really know much or anything about hacking, he isn't as subtle as he could be about it. Of course, he's already well into the system before he starts setting off their emergency alarms and then he leaves a nice little trace back to where he is. Of course, the Russians get a little impatient with how long he is apparently taking, and he gets a fist to the face for his efforts which doesn't help matters. Besides the new bruise and split lip he's sporting, his head is now ringing and pounding.
At least the agents at MI6 aren't completely inept and before Damien actually gets to deleting the files the Russians want him to, the place is stormed and all he can do is duck down when the bullets start flying, and a ricochet ends up embedding itself near his ribs, but not going fast enough to do any real damage. Still, it makes him shout with pain, rocking back in his chair a little.
What happens next is all a bit of a blur as he is freed from his cuffs and brought to a waiting ambulance. When he wakes up next, he's in a hospital bed, with a bandage across his side. And apparently once again handcuffs, he figures out when he tries to lift a hand to his cheek and discovers that his wrist is handcuffed to the rail of the bed.
"You're quite an interesting man, Mr. Brown." A female voice says not far from where Damien is, and he looks over to see the older woman in a chair he didn't notice before. The chair is plush and comfortable, and doesn't appear to be original to the room he's in. The woman herself, is a commanding presence despite her apparent age.
"Who are you? Where am I?" Damien asks as he looks around for a few moments, trying to find any hint, but the room is rather generic, not even a window letting him know what part of the city they're in.
"You may call me M. I'm the head of MI6, the agency you hacked yesterday." M says as she looks from the folder she had open in her hands over to the young man, closing the folder slowly. "That was very skillful of you. Our experts say you deliberately set off the alarms. In fact, they can't find out how you got in." She says thoughtfully as she looks at the young man.
Damien sighs, closing his eyes for a few moments. "That's because your firewall is shit." He says bluntly. "All of your security is. Honestly, for such a high ranking government agency I'm surprised, I've run into banks that have better security." he says before opening his eyes and blinking a few times as he looks back at the woman. He's pretty tired of everything at the moment, just grateful he seems to have made it out in one piece.
M's eyebrows go up for a moment, containing her amusement as she looks at the young man. "So it's true, you are this.. Umbra Dominus I've been told about. Interesting use of Latin." She says quietly with a slight smile. "How did you learn how to hack like that?" She asks, trying to figure out if this is a fluke or if he's part of a group of people.
Damien shrugs slightly. "Taught myself. It was a challenge, and bit of fun." he says as he looks at her, then pulls on his handcuffed wrist. "Am I under arrest?" He asks pointedly as he looks at her.
"That all depends. Given the proper resources, could you improve our security, to keep out other people like you?" M asks curiously as she looks at him, evaluating and trying to figure out if she should put her trust in the young man.
"Yes." Damien says without even having to think about it. "I've written my own software for my own machines." The young man looks more confused by the moment. "Why?"
"I'm prepared to offer you a job at MI6. Working in a department we call Q-branch. It takes care of the technology requirements for our agents. In and out of the field. Protecting them means protecting their identities as well." She says as she watches him, folding her hands over the folder in her lap. "You wouldn't get to go to University and you would have to give up your outside life. Give up who you are. You're a criminal, and we can't have that sort of person on our payroll, you understand." She says as she watches him.
"I wouldn't care about my identity. I don't have much of one outside the internet anyway. And if I were working for you, I wouldn't need that, I imagine." Damien says as he looks at her. "This is real, you'll let me go if I come work for you?" he asks in surprise as he looks at her.
M nods slowly as she looks at him. "We will arrange a flat for you, give you training. We'll keep you under surveillance until you prove yourself to us. Is any of that a problem?" She asks as she stands slowly to step over beside the bed.
Damien shakes his head slowly, a little stunned at the offer he's being given. "No, o problem." He reassures as he looks at her, very interested in this opportunity.
"Then welcome to MI6, Mr. Brown. Do get better soon." M says as she holds her hand out to him.
Taking her hand with his free one, Damien nods a little and give it a firm shake. "Thank you." He says in a dazed tone, wondering if he's hallucinating all of this and got hit on the head harder than he thought.
When Damien is healed up enough, he is given time to retrieve what he needs from his former residence, moved into a small, pre-furnished one-bedroom flat. He is given a new identity, keeping his first name because it's much easier to work that way. He's also given the supporting documents, including a bank account, for this new identity. All of this happens before he's escorted to Q-branch. What he sees there is like a wet dream for anyone interested in mechanics. Between the car, the gadgets and the gunfire, Damien isn't sure what to look at first.
Unfortunately he won't be seeing any of those things any time soon, as he's escorted to a smaller room which has state of the art computers set up and various other computer equipment. "The man who runs Q-branch is the Quartermaster. Everyone calls him Q. R is his right hand man." The agent who escorted Damien says, then he adds, "After you protect our computers and network, then M might see about letting you mess around out there. You know how to a fire a gun?" The young woman asks as she looks at him.
Damien shakes his head. "No bloody clue." He says honestly as he looks at everything, booting up the computer and frowning briefly at it as his mind goes to work.
"Well, you're going to learn. M wants everyone, even you boffins, to be able to take care of themselves should there be a breach." The woman says before she shrugs a little.
"And you, you're an agent?" he asks, glancing her over curiously before he looks at some of the binders and folders left on his desk.
"Don't look so shocked. My name is Eve Moneypenny. I may be new here as well, but I'll be in the field soon enough. Q-branch mostly caters to the double-oh's, though. Q equips them personally, and most of the boffins around here assist with missions." The woman explains with a little shrug and a small smile. "Go to it, then, little genius." She says, reaching out to ruffle his brunette curls.
Before she can touch him, Damien ducks his head out of the way and gives her a bit of a glare. "Don't. Don't touch me." he says in a firm tone, though there's something deeper going on from the various emotions in his eyes.
Holding her hands up in defense, Eve nods a little. "Alright. Sorry. See you later." She says with a little smile before she turns and walks out, closing the door behind her.
Yes, best to keep people at arm's length here. Damien knows where he wants to be, and that's to become Q one day. The things he could do with the sorts of resources that man must have, to help agents save the world. To make useful things which will keep people safe. Finally, he has a goal in life and a direction. The first step being to impress his new employer.
With that in mind, Damien turns back to the computer and starts to make lists of things he'll need while he works on his won software. It won't be done overnight, but he knows himself. It won't take the years that it should.
He has a goal, and now he has to get to work.