VVVVVV

"A yellow coded cufew is now in affect. This is for your protection." Severus hurried along the streets trying to stay out sight. The outdoor intercom system announced once again "A yellow coded curfew is now in a affect. All unauthorized personal will be subject to arrest. This is for your protection." Severus quickened his step. He'd never been out this late before. 'Shouldn't have left the apartment so late,' he thought. Severus looked further up the street and stopped. Someone was standing on a street corner watching him. He looked around and ducked into a side alley. No one was following him. Severus turned around to double check and promptly collided with something hard, yet giving. He looked up and saw a tall, strong man standing right in front of him. "Whoa! Excuse me, sir!" the man exclaimed. Severus took a few steps back, "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you." He looked around. A dark alley with some huge man in his way. This wasn't good, and Severus had a feeling that this could get a lot worse.

The large man smirked and took a few steps towards Severus. "In a hurry are we?" Severus winced as the man looked him up and down, then moved closer, "After curfew, you know." Severus moved to go around the man, "My uncle...he's very sick, so I'll just-" The man grabbed his arm, stopping him from going any further. "Oh, sick uncle is it?" Pulling Severus closer to him, the man called out "What do youthink of that, Peter?" Another man emmerged from the shadows, small and portly,and even more unpleasant looking. "Load of bollocks is what I think, Macnair." Oh no, two men? This was very bad. Severus wrestled his arm out of Macnair's grip. "I made a mistake," he said in what he hoped was a calm voice.

Maybe he could talk his way out of this. "I shouldn't be out after curfew, I know that, but my uncle-" "Well maybe you could take care of us before getting back to your uncle." Macnair interrupted asSeverus slowly started sliding his hand into his coat pocket. Hopefully they wouldn't notice..."You see, my friend here, he's kinda sick. Ain't you, Peter." Peter sniggered, "Oh yeah, real sick." Peter grabbed Severus free hand, "Bad case of the blues, here can feel them." As Peter tried to thrust Severus' hand between his legs. Overcome with sudden panic, Severus yanked his hand away and pulled out the can of mace he'd had in his pocket. "Don't touch me!" He back against the alley wall, holding the mace in front of him. Macnair chuckled. "Oh look, Peter, kitty's got claws." Peter advanced on Severus with a cruel glint in his eye. "He just threatened us!" Macnair reached into his own pocket, "That he did, Peter, that he did. That's a Class G offense, ain't it?" Macnair turned to Severus, "You know what that means?" Macnair revealed the badge he'd pulled out of his pocket. The symbol of two, red crosses, one laid over the other on a black background. "It means we get to exercise our own judicial discretion." Macnair crowed. Peter sniggered again, "And you get to swallow it!"

Realization suddenly dawning on him, Severus felt a jolt of terror run through him, "Oh God, you're Fingermen." "Now he's getting the picture," Macnair said to Peter. "Oh no, please!" Severus knew he was begging but he couldn't help it, "I didn't know! I'm sorry-" "Not yet, you're not." Peter growled. "But you will be,"Macnair continued. "If you're not the sorriest piece of arse in all of London by the time the sun comes up, well, you'll certainly be the sorest." Instinct kicked in right there, and Severus turned around and started running out of the alley only to collide with a third man who'd been standing behind him, unknown, all this time. "Oh, God, no!" Severus shrieked as the man twisted his arms behind his back. "Please don't do this! I'll go home, I swear! I won't do it again. Please!" "Watcha think, fellas?" Macnair asked as the third man pulled roughly on Severus' arms, sending shots of pain through all the joints. Peter smirked and unzipped his trousers. "Spare the rod, spoil the child," he said and stepped towards Severus as the man holding his arms kicked his legs out from under him, forcing him to his knees on the cobblestone ground. "Help!" Severus shrieked, even though he knew it was hopeless, "Someone, please! Help!" Peter stepped forward one last time and grabbed Severus' hair, forcing his head, and his mouth, up.

Hope was lost, when suddenly, from somewhere in the darkness of the alley, a deep, rich theatrical voice broke through Severus' panic. "'The mulitplying villanies of nature do swarm upon him.'" The voice quoted. "What the hell. We're Fingermen, pal!" Macnair shouted, holding up his badge. "Yeah," Peter added, "So bugger off!" The voice now had a face to go with it. As the figure approached, the bone white of the mask shone like beacon in the dark. "'Disdaining fortune with his brandished steal,'" The voice and the mask approached more swiftly, "'which smoked with bloody execution." As the clouds above the alley parted, the moon light glinted off a long steel blade that the figure had drawn. "He's got a knife!" shouted the third Fingerman. Macnair pulled a heavy police baton from his coat, but before he could even get a decent grip on it, the masked figure sliced him across the throat and with a impossibly strong punch, knocked Macnair through the air to crash against the alley wall. The third Fingerman dropped Severus roughly on the ground and ran at the dark figure. A well placed round house kick sent the Fingerman flying into another alley wall. The sickening crunch of bones breaking let the world know that this man wasn't going to get up again.

With these two men dispatched, the figure turned his attention to Peter who had been crawling away, his pants around his ankles. The masked man picked up the police baton and went after Peter. The man stepped on Peter's dropped trousers, forcing him to stop. Peter turned to look up at his captor and cried "Mercy! Please-mercy!" "'We are oft to blame in this,'" masked figure continued and bent to Peter's level. "'Tis too much proved, that with devotion's visage and pious action, we do sugar o'er the devil himself.'" "Wha...What's that mean?" Peter whimpered. "Spare the rod," the figure explained patiently. And with that, he raised the baton above his head and brought it down on Peter's with wet, gross crack!

Severus, who had been laying on the ground and watching the destruction with disbelief, came back to his senses and grabbed the mace he'd dropped from before. He held it close to him as the figure turned around and seemed to eye him, but with the mask on it was impossible to tell. He took a step forward and Severus pressed himself closer to the wall. The man stopped, "I assure that I mean you no harm," he said gently and held uphis hands innocently. Severus let out a small sigh of relief. "Who...Who are you?" he asked. "Who?" the man said. "Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is man in a mask." "I can see that." Severus cut in. The man bowed his head slightly. "Of course you can. I am not questioning your powers of observation. I am merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is." "Oh" Severus breathed. "Oh, right..." "But on this most auspicious of nights," the man continued, "permit me then in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet, to suggest the character of this dramatis persona."

The figure gave an extravavgant theatre bow. "Voila! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of Fate." Severus looked around. This felt like it was going to be a grand performance, but with him being the only audience member. "This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished; a vital voice once venerated, now vilified. However this valorous visitation of bygone vexation now stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violent, vicious, and voracious violation of volition!" The man drew his knife once again and sliced a large V through the government poster hanging on one of the walls. 'Strength through unity! Unity through faith!' the message now marred from the man's sword.

Severus felt his mouth drop open and the man turned and looked over his shoulder at him. "The only verdict is vengance. A vendetta, held as votive, not in vain, for the value and veracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous." He paused and tried to stiffle a giggled by covering the mask's mouth with his hands. "Yet verily, this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it is my very great honor to meet you and you may call me V" With that, V bowed deeply and Severus tried to take in everything he had just said. "Are you like a...crazy person?" he asked. Severus could feel V smile behind the mask. "I'm quite sure they will say so. But to whom, might I ask, do I have the pleasure of speaking." Severus looked at V for a moment before responding. "I'm Severus" V cocked his head to one side. "Severus?" he asked. "Se-v-erus" he repeated, emphasizing the 'v'. "Yes of course you are." "What's that supposed to mean?" "It means," V continued thoughtfully, "that I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence." he bent slightly and offered a hand which Severus took and rose to his feet. "Are you hurt?" V asked. "No, I'm fine," Severus said as he brushed himself off. "Thanks to you." he added. "I only played my part." V said.

"But tell me, Severus, do you enjoy music?" "I suppose so," he said. Though Severus couldn't really be sure if that was an honest answer. All you heard on the radio nowadays was the government approved tracks. "You see," explained V, "I'm a musician of sorts and on my way to give a very special performance." "What kind of musician?" Severus asked. "Percussion instruments are my specialty but I intend to call upon the entire orchestra for this event." The smile upon V's mask seemed to widen. "And I would be most honored if you would join me." "Oh," Severus started, "I don't think so. I think I should be getting home." "I promise it will be like nothing you've ever heard or seen," V interjected. "And afterwards, you will return to your home quite safely." What to do? 'What the hell?' Severus thought. The man had just saved his life, going to a concert with him was the least he could do payV back. And he seemed polite and trustworthy... "Well, alright."

V

Eventually, Severus found himself on the roof of one of the many apartment buildings in downtonwn London. He looked over the city as moonlight filtered throught the clouds. "It's beautiful," he breathed. V nodded. "A more perfect stage could not be asked for." V said as he looked up at the Old Bailey, an old courthouse built where the infamous Newgate Prison had once stood. The Bailey had seen countless executions in those days and even more since the latest war. "Still," Severus remarked, "I don't see any instruments." "Your powers of observation continued to serve you well." V drew out a white conducter's baton. "But wait!" He gestured towards the Old Bailey and grandly announced "It is to Mother Justice that I dedicate this concerto in honor of the holiday she seems to have taken from these parts...and in recognition of the imposter that stands in her stead." Severus looked up at the statue of Lady Justice and couldn't help but think how she seemed to be on a permanent holiday. The scales she held were never balanced anymore and the sword in her hand was brought down upon many for the slightest transgression. V interrupted his thoughts. "Tell me, Severus...do you know what date it is?" V asked softly. "Um, November the fourth." No sooner had he said those words, when the bells of Big Ben began to chime, signifying that the fourth was over and November the fifth had officially begun. "Not anymore it isn't."

V said and stepped towards the ledge of the roof and began to recite a well known British nursery rhyme . "Remember, remember the fifth of November. The gunpowder, treason, and plot. I know of no reason, why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot." As the last chime of the bells faded into the night, V raised the baton and tapped a lead pipe next him. "First, the overture..." V began waving his arms, mimicking a concert director. "Now the strings." Severus watched in slight disbelief. Maybe this guy was crazy. "Listen carefully," V told him. "Do you hear it?" Severus strained his ears for a moment and was a bit shocked when- he did hear it. Orchestra music floating up from the streets. "I hear it!" he exclaimed and ran toward the ledge.

Down on the streets, the music pouring from the loud speakers woke sleeping civilians. People poured out into the streets to see what could have prompted the government to play loud music at this late hour. Severus turned back to V, who was 'directing' the music with a passion now. "How did you do that?" Severus asked in shock. How did this man gain access to the private government wire? "Wait!" V cried, his movements becoming frenzied. "Here comes the crescendo!" Severus looked back up at the Old Bailey just in time to see it explode into a pillar of fire. The rest of the building followed suit. Ancient stone and old carvings bursting out onto the street as explosions from within the Bailey shook the surrounding area. Severus' hand flew to his mouth to stop a scream at he watched what was left of Lady Justice tumble to the street below. V began laughing manically as fireworks shot up from the burning building. All colors, red, white, blue, purple...Two rockets launched into the air and exploded, creating a large, red V. Another firework shot off encircling the letter. A signiture. As V continued to direct the music comming from the speakers, Severus' one thought was 'What the hell have I gotten into now?'