Chapter One - The New League
Tom Sawyer frowned at the envelope in his hands. It was made from expensive, thick rice paper. He turned it over, wondering with or not he should open it. The last time he had received a letter like this one, it had started one of the wildest adventures of his life. Before, he had been only too eager to set off on the trip, but he wasn't so sure now.
Walking over to his desk, Tom sat in the leather chair and propped up his feet. He looked at the envelope, then set it down on the desk, steepling his fingers under his chin as he did so.
The odd thing was that someone knew where to reach him. He and the rest of the remaining 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen' (as they were known) were at their shore post, a little town off in the English moors. It was hardly ever visited, and the few visitors that came were normally there for a funeral or a wedding. The League was taking a break from travelling, and had spent the last week restocking the Nautilus.
His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door. "Enter," Tom said loudly enough for the person on the other side to hear.
His door opened softly and a young woman with brilliant red hair slipped in. She walked smoothly over to the desk, and sat in the chair opposite of him.
"Hello Tom," Mina Harker greeted. "I see that you got one too." There was no questioning in her voice.
"I did," Tom nodded. "What about the others?"
"Here and accounted for," Rodney Skinner's voice proclaimed. Tom looked up to see the familiar black trench coat and white face, flanked by Captain Nemo and Dr. Henry Jekyll. Al held identical envelopes.
"Are we going to open them?" Henry Jekyll asked, already fingering the seal on the back.
"I don't know," Mina hesitated, biting her lip before continuing. "I don't like the wax seal."
"So? I don't like the seal of the British government, but I still open up their letters. How is this any different?" Nemo pointed out, as they crossed the room to the desk, sitting in the remaining chairs.
"Look at the seal," Mina instructed, and all of the men listened to her. "It gives us several clues about the sender. One, the centre is the Lunar Eye, the ancient Egyptian symbol for the feminine race. Surrounding this are the Serpents of St. Patrick, symbolizing knowledge and immortality. At the top left hand corner, is a crescent moon. It in turn means a weaver of fates, controller of destinies."
"And this tells us what about the sender?" Skinner asked, shifting in his chair.
"I was getting to that," Mina replied crossly. "The sender is female, no man would use the Lunar Eye. There is a large amount of knowledge and learning behind her, as well as the passivity of never-ending life. Finally, the sender considers herself the commander of other's lives, running them down to the last detail," Mina explained thoughtfully, her eyes never leaving the seal in question.
"What worries you about it?" Tom asked, reading her expression.
"Dorian Grey used the Serpents of St. Patrick as his seal as well. It makes me wonder if he was quite as dead as he seemed. He always was a good actor." Mina bit her lip again.
"If he was going to do something, he would have done it before now. It's been almost four years. And we can always choose not to reply to the letters, right?" Henry suggested.
"Very well, I suppose you're right. I did watch him decay myself." Mina nodded, and everyone else almost ripped their letters open. Inside was an address, a date, and a time.
"233 St. Helen's Way, London. September 3rd, 1903. 3:30 pm," Skinner read aloud. "well, when do we leave?"
"What are you talking about?" Tom asked, a frown starting to form.
"It's8:00 on the morning of the 2nd of September. We still need to get to London, and find where this road is. I have no idea," Skinner replied, as if it were obvious.
Tom looked around. Jekyll, Nemo and even Mina were all nodding their heads. "Alright, I'm in."
LXGLXGLXGLXG
The group huddled around the table, a giant map of London laid out before them.
"So, here we are," Nemo said, pointing to the only silver pin on the table. It was in the middle of the Thames river, some ways away from the actual city.
"And St. Helen's Way?" Mina asked, looking at the sea of coloured pins that covered the map. It turned out that Nemo had a room full of maps, all mounted on tables. Nemo said that he used the room to keep track of enemies and friends alike.
"Here," Tom said, tapping a bright orange pin, the only one of it's kind. "It's a private drive, so 233 is the only large building on it."
"Will it be easy to get to?" Henry asked, his eyes sweeping all possible routes from port to St. Helen's way.
"Relatively," Skinner announced. Everyone looked at him, wondering if he had a not-so-legal way of getting there. Apparently these thoughts showed, because he shook his head and sighed. "Look, most people would go the long way around, docking at the Westminster Abbey, then following King street to Pall street, hooking a right and going 'til they reach St. Paul's Cathedral, then hooking a second right, onto Cheapside street. After that, it's straight ahead until a left at Bishopsgate street and St. Helen's way is the only road off of it until you reach the outskirts of London." He traced out the route with his finger, from the silver to orange pins.
Everyone blinked at Skinner in slight shock, as he seemed to come up with this rather quickly.
"How long would it take us to go that route?" Henry asked.
"On my count, about an hour, with the docking fee of 3 ounds at the Abbey," Skinner replied, still looking pleased with himself.
"You implied a second route, Skinner. Care to share?" Mina asked, noticing how Henry grimaced at the thought of an hour outside. He was obviously thinking of Edward's reaction to having freedom so close.
"Ah. It will save us 40 minutes, but cost a sight more," Skinner said, looking back down at the map to trace the new route. "If we docked at Paul's Wharf, we could take Fish street to Grace Church Street, to Gracious Street, and then we are on Bishopsgate after crossing Leaden Hall Street." He pointed out the new route, which did look a lot shorter.
"What's the docking price?" Nemo asked, as if trying to decided between his wealth and his life.
"Somewhere close to 50£, at least that was the price last time that I in town," Skinner reported.
"We'll do it," Nemo declared. "If this is a trap of some sort, I want to be able to get back to the Nautilus as soon as we can."
Tom, Mina, and Henry all nodded in agreement.
"If that's settled, we should plan on docking soon. It is almost 2.30," Ishmael spoke up from his corner.
LXGLXGLXGLXG
"Stupid bitch! It's no wonder why YOU attend Paddington Prep! You're parents couldn't stand to have you at home, you annoyed them so much," a brunette shot at the girl in front of her. The girl snorted before replying.
"That insult would work SO much better if you were the one that went home during vacations, rather than staying at school the way that you do," she replied amid the snickers from the crowd of teens around them. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, waiting for the next round.
"The only reason that you have to go home is because the teachers can't handle you. Everyone knows that you are just a trouble child. I'll bet that your parents have to pay double tuition to keep you in Paddington!" The brown-haired girl smirked at her own genius.
"Daphne, Daphne, Daphne." The blonde shook her head with something akin to pity, her icy blue eyes twinkling. "If only you knew how much more YOUR parents have to pay. But enough of that. How are you and your boyfriend Will doing? Oh! That's right, he broke up with you after our last chat. Did he tell you that he already had found someone new? A male someone?"
Daphne sputtered for a second. "Tha-that's not true! Will wouldn't hook up with a guy! He's not like that!"
"Not like what? Gay?" There was a small giggle from the blonde at that, her eyes dancing even more now. "I'm afraid that it is very true. I set them up myself. I thought that it was time for Will to date someone with a brain. Of course, since both me AND Eleanor were uninterested, that only left one other choice." The blonde turned to address the crowd. "Not that I ignored all you lovely ladies and gents out there. But Will REALLY needed a change, fast. So next time he's single, I'll start to accept applications. I promise!"
There was a returning chuckle from the mob, and the blonde grinned back. She opened her mouth to say something to Daphne, but her words were cut short.
"Constance Elizabeth Cutter! Get your ass over here right this instant! Did I say that you could move from that bench?" The female voice boomed over everyone else, and Constance visibly winced.
"But Ellie! I didn't move! I'm still on the bench!" Constance replied, sounding pitiful and deflated compared to before. And true to her word, Constance was indeed still standing on the bench.
A tall, thin red head had pushed her way to the front of the crowd by now, and stood in front of Constance tapping her foot on the ground. "I'm waiting!"
"Sorry. I promise that I won't fight with anyone for the rest of the trip," Constance said. She jumped down from the bench and grabbed the rucksack that sat next to it. "Lead on, good general."
Eleanor glared at her, then turned and started to push her way back thru the crowd, Constance a few steps behind. A couple of people stopped to congratulate her on a good cat fight as the crowd went back to what they had been doing before. Constance smiled at everyone, and hurried after Eleanor, following her to a blocked off entrance into the museum.
"What's this?" she asked, looking for a way to get in.
"This is the entrance to the not-quite-finished wing for great Victorian mysteries in Art and Science, focusing mostly on the latter. It's main exhibit is something tat I think will be of great interest for you, as you have been attempting to build one for the last 5 years or so," Eleanor replied, watching Constance examine the blockade.
"Seriously? They have the original time machine back there? How did they get that? I thought that they didn't have it?" Constance nearly squawked. "They didn't have it when I took the plans! And that was only three months ago!"
"I looked into that, and they had been keeping it in a special vault under the museum, a heavily guarded vault, might I add. Just in case you decided to get any ideas." Eleanor and Constance shared a grin, both knowing that that was exactly what Constance had been thinking.
They snuck into the wing thru an opening that Constance had made in a corner. After a few minutes of exploration, they found what they had been looking for.
Constance climbed in, careful not to speak or make too much noise. She motioned for Eleanor to follow her, and slung their bags into the machine as well. Pressing the needed buttons, she started up the time machine, and set the time dial, all from her memory of the plans.
Both girls gasped as the machine began to spin, sending them thru time. Before they could go too far back, Constance grabbed the brakes and brought them to a shuddering halt.
The girls looked around. They were on the deck of a large ship, possibly a steamer. Trading frightened looks, Constance and Eleanor knew they were in trouble, from the sounding to the boots and shouting that were drawing closer.