(welcome viewers to a brand new Fanfic made by yours truly, remember I do not own any characters in this tale unless they're in the Public Domain)
Chapter 1
WASHINGTON DC 1901
Henry Fleming sat in his chair as he waited for the man he summoned. He casually reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He put the cig in his mouth, and pulled out a match book so he could light it but just then the door to his office opened.
The door was opened by a young man dressed in a waistcoat, trousers, and derby hat "ah" Fleming said "I've been expecting you Mr. Sawyer, please sit down."
The man named Sawyer did as the man requested, Fleming offered him a cigarette but Sawyer held up his hand to show that he did not want one.
Fleming put his cigarettes back, proceeded to light his, and said "now I presume you want to know why I called you here?"
Sawyer took off his hat, placed it down on Fleming's table and finally spoke "yeah that would make sense, seeing as you called me here without telling me why I swear you always have to call me at the most inconvenient times."
"Say that reminds me" Fleming said "how's your wife?"
"You mean Becky? She's fine she's been a bit cranky lately but she's fine."
"Ah I was wondering how she was doing" Fleming pulled his cigarette out and breathed out some smoke before speaking again. "Anyways about why I called you, did you ever hear about a group called Prospero's Men?"
"You mean that Penny Dreadful Moore writes? What I want to know is who hasn't heard about it?"
"Well this may come as a bit of a shock to you, but that isn't fiction just something made so people wouldn't know about it."
Sawyer was silent a few seconds before bursting into roaring laughter, after a few minutes of his chuckling he said "you're kidding right?"
Fleming's silence told him he was serious.
Sawyer's eyes grew to the size of plates (well not literally it's just a figure of speech) and said (bellowed is more like it) "GOOD LORD, YOU WERE SERIOUS?"
"Of course I wasn't, you know I'm not stupid if I weren't serious why would I have a straight face?""Because you were pulling my leg, but that's not important now, what's important is the fact that that a work of fiction just turned out to be real I mean how the hell did you find this out?""Easy" Fleming said "you remember that Pirate Armada we hired in the Revolutionary War?""Yes."
"Well one day pirate Captain Bartholomew Red and his crew raided a British ship that he believed had lots of gold, it did not have any gold though and instead there were documents that he assumed were worthless.
"Benjamin Franklin assumed they must be important, so he had Red give him them and sure enough he found out about a group of British adventurers called Prospero's Men.
"This was a shock to the man, because up till that point the thought that he was the first person to think up this concept.
"ever since we've kept a close eye on the Brits, and discovered that previously to Prospero's group there were two groups similar to Prospero's Men albeit not in Government employ, and later we found out about a group called The Fellowship ran by Lemuel Gulliver was formed some time after the War, and we were hard pressed to make sure they wouldn't attack us.
"Aside from them the only such group, was an unnamed group lead by Phineas Fogg, a group by an W. Murry, and another group in 1899 which was so incompetent I'd go so as to say Mycroft was drunk when he got them."
"And now you want to make your own group?" Sawyer deduced.
"In a way, yes" Fleming said "let's just say that the services of such a group are vital at this moment and I decided to chose you for it."
"Alight, I'll go, I could use a little extra money after all."
"Splendid" the Civil War veteran replied "come with me so I can introduce you to the rest of the group."
Fleming got up from his chair and walked over to another door, Tom got up from his seat and followed him.
The room next door was a lounge, it had plenty of sofas and a small table one could set their things on. However it while it looked cozy, it probably had weapons all over the place after all this place would have to be prepared for anything considering where he was (if those of you want to know where he is the building Sawyer is in just happens to be the US Intelligence Headquarters.)
Seated on one of the sofas were two men engaging in conversation, both were young and handsome but they both had something bizarre about them.
One was blonde, dressed up like a desert nomad, and had a sword sheathed at his belt. the other one was wearing normal clothes but had a devilish looking revolver holstered at his belt and a sword just like the man he was talking to did. Tom thought he looked familiar but he couldn't place him.
On a nearby chair sat an elderly man who was quietly smoking a cigarette, he wore a wide brimmed hat, sand caked trousers, a poncho, and boots with metal spurs. Tom noticed he had a revolver holstered at his belt and that there was a silver rattlesnake inlaid in the handle.
One man occupied a sofa by himself, he was wearing formal evening wear but strangely enough was wearing a fur coat that draped around his shoulders. His eyes were Blankley staring off into space, as if he could see something that wasn't there, joining him in this act was a black cat who was perched on his shoulders that didn't look at the least bit phased by the people around him.
Tom didn't know why but there was something unsettling about him.
Tom sat down in one of the chairs as Fleming addressed the group.
"Alright, I suppose everyone would want to know why I called you together?"
"of course you idiot" the man with the fur coat muttered under his breath.
Fleming ignored this remark and spoke again "tell me has anyone here been aware of the events of 1865 concerning a Miss A. Liddell?"
"You forget" the man with the bizarre weapon said "I haven't been able to follow current events."
"Ah yes of course Mr. Carter I forgot" Fleming pulled out a folder "in 1865, Alice P. Liddell mysteriously disappeared in a meadow while her sister was asleep, she was missing for months before he showed up again in Mid-October.
"As it turned out she'd fell into a bizarre 'hole' in the riverbank and landed into an alternate dimension where both the laws of physics and logic are different, she would visit it 14 years later only for her biological functions to turn out different then they were before and die of malnutrition.
"Five years later, a Dr. Bellman assembled a group of people to help him find the source of the portal and seal it off for good as a way of protecting the local children, however this would backfire and he along with his group would wind up on the nearby riverbed, suffering from exposure, missing a member, absolutely insane, and one of them suffered a fate similar to that of Miss Liddell but the hole didn't show up again after that so we assumed the menace was ended…"
The man in the fur coat yawned obviously bored "is there something else you wanted us here for other then boring us with child's stories?"
"I was getting to that" Fleming said "anyways as I was saying, imagine our surprise when the hole showed up again in Texas. We had a nearby military establishment mobilize it's troops and stand guard at the hole to make sure nobody could fall in. unfortunately this time the so called "Wonderland" came to us.
"About a week ago, a small army of men that appeared to be dressed as playing cards, burst out of the hole and slaughtered the unfortunate men guarding it. They were aided by a pack of creatures that closely resembled gorillas, which we later identified as Mi-Gos known in some places as Abominable Snowmen.
"They proceeded to storm the fort the soldiers had came from, and also massacred everyone inside. A local boy had came up to the fort with their monthly shipment of goods, and was the sole witness to the attack and that was only because they needed someone to deliver this note."
Fleming having finished his cigarette by now stuck it in an ashtray, he then pulled out a letter and read it aloud "Dear sir or miss, I the Queen of Hearts would like to inform you monkey people that I have made an alliance with dread Kutulu and will come in a month to rape, pillage, and utterly slaughter your world. Please inform the rest of your monkey planet this so that they might stand a fighting chance…not that it'll do them any good. Signed the Queen of Hearts."
Fleming put the letter down "needless to say we were shocked that such a thing would happen, we told the British government this and found that they had in fact been prepared for something like this, but they advised us that the best thing to do is to stop the Queen before she can make good on her threat."
The man in the fur coat gave another yawn and said "and why are we here? Isn't the military good enough for you?""Under normal circumstances yes, but after what happened to we're not sending ordinary people no way…it's not worth the risk."
"And I guess" the elderly man said finally "that's why ye called me?".
"correct mister…what was your name again?""I don't have one I'm a man with no name, if you had any sense you'd just give me a nickname."
"Like No Name?""I guess.""Splendid" Fleming gestured to the men on the coach "those two in case none of you knew are Mr. John Carter formally of the Confederate Union, who had by means unknown traveled to Mars, and lieutenant Gulliver Jones an American soldier who by means of a magic carpet also traveled to Mars. Both are skilled fighters as shown by their activities there, thanks to our psychics not only their activities but were able to summon both of them. They signed onto the group after we explained our problem to them."
Fleming turned to No Name "this man's name is a mystery to everyone but he is possibly the most dangerous gunslinger in the West, and while he may be elderly he's still extremely dangerous."
He turned to the man in the fur coat and his cat "and this is Doctor Nikola a mad scientist who made a potion that extends life indefinitely, In addition to that he has considerable knowledge of the occult which may come in handy down there, he joined us after we promised him diplomatic immunity."he finally turned to Tom "and this Mr. Tom Sawyer a private detective who we have hired in the past" Fleming pulled out his lighter and lit up another cigarette before speaking again "now gentlemen I feel I should remind you that tomorrow, all five of you will be sent down into Wonderland to eliminate the Queen. I recommend that you all get a good nights sleep and prepare yourselves in the morning."
The group dispersed now (wondering how the Hell they were going to go to Texas in a single day) and went off to some nearby rooms that Fleming kept for visitors soon all but Nikola were asleep.
What was Nikola doing you may ask? Sorry you're not going to find out about…yet.
In the morning the group had got up, and began preparing for the journey.
Gulliver went through a nearby armory and selected a nice looking revolver to take with him, to make sure it wouldn't fail him he grabbed several pounds of spare ammo.
Carter pretty much tore the armory apart, in his search for spare ammunition eventually he found what seemed to be the closest thing he could get to spares namely the biggest bullets there.
No Name didn't take any guns, instead he just found spare bullets for his pistol similar to how Carter did but without the mess.
Tom looked through the armory and found both a rifle and a shotgun, eagerly grabbing those he grabbed as much spare ammunition as he could fit in his sack.
Nikola didn't show up there for reasons they could not figure out.
Upon leaving the armory they headed for the lounge they were in the day before, and saw the most amazing sight…there was a swirling portal in the room.
"Amazing isn't it" said a voice behind them, carter turned around and saw Fleming and Nikola behind them "what the hell is that" the former Confederate demanded.
"That" Fleming answered "is a portal I had my psychics make, it's not going to take you to Wonderland but it does lead to the area the hole is, now I suggest we go through there before the psychics have to close it."while they were a bit nervous at first, they soon went one by one into the portal.
When they exited it they were amazed at how fast they traveled from Washington to Texas, the League saw a group of soldiers standing guard around something obviously the hole.
When Fleming neared them the troops walked back a bit to give Fleming and his group room, Fleming had one of them tie the end of a very long piece of rope to a very strong tree.
"Now then" he said "here is how you get in take hold of that rope and climb down, be careful though the Hole could close behind you and cut the rope."
This last piece of information rattled the others…except for No Name and Nikola, the former saying "f*** that I'm going down anyways" the gunslinger taking a hold of the rope (which by now was attached to a sturdy tree) and began the trip down.
"well if he can do it then so can I" Gulliver said, then following No Name's lead and beginning the climb.
Carter was next, then Sawyer, and finally Nikola who went down with his cat perched on is shoulders.
Fleming was watching them climb down, when he noticed something disturbing…the Hole was shrinking.
He tried to yell a warning but it quickly closed before he could yell, leaving nothing except a cleanly cut piece of rope Fleming bit his lip nervously as he muttered "just like the Bellman group"
(Well that's it for now readers I hope this has been good enough for you.)