London Calling.

"(…) London calling to the underworld

Come out of the cupboard, you boys and girls (…)"– The Clash "London Calling".

Warnings: Crime and everything that comes with it.

Timing: 2016, a year after "The Cabbala"

Rating: M.

Disclaimer: Disclaimer: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen original comic books © Allan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Neverwhere © Neil Gaiman. Atomic Robo © Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegner. Stargate Atlantis © MGM Studios. Hellboy (in character of Karl Ruprecht Kroenen) © Michael Mignola. Slenderman © Eric Knudsen (as Victor Surge). The story © Archer Black.

Dracula (in character of Wilhelmina Murray) by Bram Stoker. Allan Quatermain by sir Henry Rider Haggard. Orlando (or his/hers alike) by Virgina Woolf.

Mad man's mind, p2.

?

The Tube. London Below.

Door was walking first, leading her group from one tunnel to another, then up some stairs, then down again. She only said that they were going to Earl's Court and Robo assumed she meant the district.

"And despite what you may think, there were some books that even I wasn't allowed to read or possess." Kroenen was telling them some story or another from his time in the waffen-SS to pass the time. "It didn't matter who I was and what privileges I had. It was forbidden and there were to be no exceptions. But I really worked for Rasputin and I needed to have access to books that were banned even for me."

"I wonder what kind of book could have been unavailable for you." Robo asked sarcastically. "You were one of Hitler's most trusted..."

"That would be Sefer Ha-Zohar... Sefer Yecirah1)... To name only two that comes to my mind at the moment." Kroenen sighed. "And I was never Hitler's most trusted anything because he never trusted people. Even SS officers."

"Turns out he was right with all the assassinations attempts." Robo nodded recalling that there were many people willing to actually end the Fuhrer.

"Anyway, there was this Gestapo officer who was extremely keen on the idea of catching me doing something illegal. Now, Gestapo was under SS, but it was an SD formation. And while the Gestapo officer was couple ranks lower than I was, he still could act against me even though I was in Hauptamt Persönlicher Stab Reichsfüher-SS and I was one of those overseeing the H-Sonderkommando2)." Kroenen returned to his tale. "And I was in possession of number of books that were extremely illegal. I knew he was after me and he knew that I knew... but there was one thing that worked for my benefit. This Gestapo officer hated... "

"We're here. Sorry, Doctor Kroenen, you will have to finish your story another time." Door turned to them.

They were standing on some empty Underground station. The hour was late and there was only one person other than them but the man seemed to have fallen asleep.

"I thought you said we were going to Earl's Court." Robo was surprised.

"Yes. He will be here shortly." Door nodded. "Oh, don't worry, you'll see."

"That's what I'm worrying about." Robo murmured but haven't said anything else because a train arrived and stopped for them to get in.

The door opened for them and they walked in. They were immediately stopped by the guards but neither Robo nor Spike paid attention to what was said. They were too busy staring. Staring at the floor that was covered in rushes, staring at the guards that wore chain mail and helmets and at the train that suddenly was larger on the inside than on the outside. The air was filled with all sorts of organic smells. It was thick. It reeked of human sweat and smoke and food mixed into suffocating aroma that almost made Spike faint.

And there, at the end of the large room sat a man. He was tall and heavy, massive even, he almost looked like King Henry VIII Tudor due to his attire… but his face was different. Most importantly he lacked his right eye and had a beard. But it was clear that when younger he was strong, he'd been formidable before he became as worn as he was now.

Suddenly they were pulled forward. The man, the Earl, recognised Door and called for them. There was Court's Fool there too, a scrawny man but certainly intelligent if he was the Fool – it took brains to work as a Fool on a court.

"Little Door! Still working on that killer." The Earl bellowed. "And I see you brought your menagerie too. How it goes, My Lady?"

"Yes, Your Grace, I still do but we managed to name our main suspect." Door nodded. "We did get far, but now we require your help."

"Mm... The League has a long history and well-deserved reputation. I'm not surprised that you manage well. Tell me then, what help do you seek?"

"An access to your library." Door replied without hesitation. "We may know who he is and what he is after, but we're yet to catch him and so we require more knowledge."

"And who that mysterious man is?" The Earl asked.

"We suspect the Spring Heeled Jack." Door said, this time there was slightly less confidence in her voice. It probably due to their lack of proof.

"That WAYWARD ELF-SKINNED LOUT!" The Earl howled. "That SAUCY DIZZY-EYED CLOTPOLE! If I'll ever get him in my hands!" The old man shouted some more and only then calmed down. "Forgive me, My Lady, I have some unfinished business with that scoundrel… Speaking of which, I see you are not with de Carabas?"

"He chose not to vex you further, Your Grace." Door replied truthfully. "May I ask what kind of unfinished business you have with Spring Heeled Jack? If it is of legal nature, perhaps you can fill a complaint for when he will be captured and put to justice?"

"I will do no such thing. It is an old history. He abused my hospitality when he was my guest, stealing a family heirloom of great value. A book, a codex written in the times when London Below was founded." The Earl explained. "If I see him, he dies! But I will not hold it against you, Lady Door, if you will catch him first and serve him the justice he so richly deserves."

"Thank you, Your Grace." She bowed her head in respect.

"But it is only because you're daughter of Portico." He smiled.

"Forgive me for being so intrusive, but what kind of a book it was?" She enquired.

"It was book about Oberon's Kingdom and severing the ties with it." The old man replied. "Nothing that cannot be found in other books, but it is the original from which other books cited."

"Your Grace, what you just said is extremely important to me." Door's eyes grew round. "I am forever grateful."

"Anything for Portico's little daughter, but I'll keep that in mind should you ever choose to go in your father's footsteps and decide that you want to end the fiefdoms." The Earl laughed jovially. "Come, I will take you to the library, just mind your band of varlets."

"Your Grace... they're not varlets."

"Rascals then. Come."

Door only sighed and followed the man. The other four joined her.

"Are we looking like rascals?" Spike whispered to Kroenen.

"We probably do. Except for Slender that is." The German shrugged. "We're definitely motley."

Robo was about to protest but then he realised that the German Occultist was probably right. Out of the four of them (not counting Door who was a local noble) only Slenderman looked properly smart in his impeccable black business suit, and he wasn't even a human. Kroenen was what could be called a human… but only because there was no legal way to disqualify him for foul play3). And Kroenen was all when it came for humans, organic ones at least. Robo was a robot but he was a robot constructed by a human, so he was a human robot with all the civil rights and surname linking him to his Serbian ancestry4). Spike wasn't even from this Galaxy, let alone human or even Earthling. So yeah, calling them motley was an understatement5).

?

The library was different that Door's. It wasn't as spacious but Robo noticed that even as cramped as it was it still shouldn't be able to fit into a train. And yet it was there. It was a small room, or rather it was a large room filled with literally everything to the point where it became small room. It was filled with all kinds of junk, but the room was high (much higher than a train should ever be as Atomic Robo noticed) and the walls were obscured by book shelves stuffed tightly by variety of books. Some were old and precious-looking, others looked like cheap paperbacks. There were scrolls too. A bunch of maps here and there. There was no order in the Earl's library. But there were a lot of other things too. Some old plushies, a rubber love doll (deflated), plastic skeleton, bottles, jars, and a duffel bag. All sorts of things.

"Now, what do you look for?" The Earl asked looking around the place.

"We would appreciate some sort of faerie artefact list, preferably with descriptions." Door requested. "We suspect that he is after both faerie descents and artefacts."

"Ha! Almost everyone Below is faerie descent!" The Earl huffed with humour.

"That is why we seek for the artefacts. We want to ambush him but we have no way of knowing who he will attack next." Door admitted. "This is why we're after artefacts; it's our only option right now."

"Try this one then." The Earl reached and with great effort pulled a thick, heavy volume covered in dark leather. "Damn thing gets heavier every time I have to pull it off the shelf."

"Thanks you Your Grace." Door nodded and Robo immediately took the book from the Earl.

"Thank you, young... man." The Earl huffed with relief. "You can read it in the reading room." He turned for the door. "It's the next door. You will have a roommate though."

"A room mate?" Door's eyebrows rose high.

"Yes, yes, yes. I have a young man here, very bright minded young fellow. He's researching the Beast of Gévaudan and its connection to Beast of London." The Earl brightened slightly. "He wants to write a monograph. Exceptional young man."

"Won't that be a problem?" Kroenen asked. "Our work requires uttermost discretion."

"Don't worry, lad, he won't be running around and telling people what you're working on. He's busy with his research." The Earl laughed.

Everyone else could almost feel Kroenen's glare. No one called the ex-Nazi a 'lad' since… well he was never called that. Not when he was still a young boy. Not when he grew up to be serious man. And later no one dared.

"Come now. I'll take you to the reading room and leave you there." Their host beckoned at them. "You must forgive an old man, but I need some rest."

"Of course Your Grace." Door smiled. "We will do our best to be swift."

"When you will be done, tell me and I will stop at the nearest station." The Earl promised.

?

The reading room was only a little bit larger than the library. Or perhaps it was just an impression due to lack of book shelves and all the things that littered the library. The room certainly wasn't cramped, unlike the library that seemed to contain more books that it should, and the reading room was almost empty except for two reading tables. One of them was occupied.

The man was certainly young, or perhaps simply looked young. He had haircut similar to Door's father, only dirty blonde and no facial hair. He was dressed properly but not old fashioned. He had two books on his table and there was a sculpture of some animal sitting next to the opened books.

When they entered the room he lifted his eyes at them, they were so dark that they seemed black in the meagre light of the reading room. At first his eyes widened in surprise, but then he immediately smiled.

"Good evening... I think it is evening." He said softly with faint accent that was hard to identify.

"Good evening." Door replied politely. "I hope we're not disturbing you. I can promise that we will work as fast and quietly as we can."

"Of course. And you do not disturb me at all. I was starting to be tired a little bit." He said. His accent seemed to shift between French, Italian and Spanish. Or perhaps it was just an impression. "A small distraction will refresh my mind."

"We probably won't provide even a small distraction." Robo replied. "We're in a hurry."

"Oh, I understand." The man nodded.

"What are you working at?" Door asked looking at the sculpture.

"Oh. I have this working theory about Beast of London and Beast of Gévaudan." He gestured to the books and to the sculpture. "I think they're related. Sure, some people claim that Beast of Gévaudan was some trained animals used by some local nobles, but I believe it was a faerie creature, and that Beast of London was too."

"Oh, I see." Door nodded still focusing on the sculpture... could it be...

"I believe the Beast of Gévaudan was much smaller because it was not allowed to grow, unlike Beast of London which was reported to grow into impressive size." He continued. "My best guess is that someone found a young unknown animal and trained it. The beasts seem to be highly territorial, and the attacks happened in Paulhac, Mont Mouchet and La Besseyre Saint Mary triangle, in areas of Gévaudan, Haut Gévaudan, Vivrais, Haut Vivrais, Vélay, Cantal and Margeride, which is a nice territory to live fur such an animal. The area of the attacks was littered with shafts of antimony which could be a preferred dwelling for it, if the fact that Beast of London preferred similar settings. In addition the local forests were swampy, making the place simply ideal to hide such an animal." The man started to happily describe the historical and geographic details of the area.

As the man started to explain why locals were largely unarmed after Camisard uprising in the first years of XVIII century in the Cévennes mountains area to Door; and as Atomic Robo and Kroenen focused on the book, Spike and Slenderman were watching the man closely.

"And so, you see the place was ideal and the local situation worked in the animal owner's favour. My best bet is that the beast was handled by Chastel brothers and their father Jean Chastel also known as "Mask". They were serving two high ranked aristocrats; one marquis d'Apcher and one count de Morangiès. I'm not sure if they've set the beast free on their own or because they were told to, but it probably get out of their hand with just how the animal was aggressive, and it was aggressive because it was protecting its territory." The man explained and gave Slenderman and Spike strange look. "In the end, it attracted attention and Jean Chastel shot the animal with silver bullet that was supposedly blessed. I suspect though that not all of the attacks were the animal's doing, some of them were probably their 'master's'. Some people reported that the beast was capable of running on two legs, but others claimed that the beast had tail.6)"

"And the beast itself?" Door asked with awe.

"No one knows how it really looked like. And we're not likely to ever be sure considering that half the time it was most probably the beast's owner dressed up in some gruesome costume." The young man shrugged and took the sculpture to look at it more closely. "But this sculpture shows some resemblance of the Beast of London, which sculpture is sadly lost. It seems to picture much younger and less developed version of Beast of London."

Door wanted to say something when Slenderman's tentacles shot toward the man and Spike hissed.

"That's him!" The Wraith growled.

The young man ducked and evaded the two tentacles that the pale entity sent after him. He rolled on the floor, still holding the sculpture and jumped back to his feet. His eyes glistered as he looked at the five individuals that separated him from the door; there was something strange in that look. Then he jumped forward, bounced off the wall and above Door, Robo and Kroenen. Spike tried to snatch him in mid-air but missed. Slenderman's tentacles only hit the wall.

They didn't wait before going after him but Robo and Kroenen bumped at each other in the door.

"He really IS spring heeled!" Spike shouted in surprise.

"The name didn't come from nowhere." Door shouted back. "Though he doesn't look like himself. Spring Heeled Jack had black hair. This man is blonde!"

"You'd think it's so hard to change the hair colour these days?" Kroenen shouted back at them from his position behind Atomic Robo.

"I don't think it was a hair dye." Robo yelled.

"It doesn't matter. We must catch him!" Door didn't really care at the moment what hair colour the man had.

They jumped into Earl's main room and saw the Spring Heeled Jack running past the guests and jumping on the tables. Door could swear that it looked almost exactly the same as when Marquis de Carabas did the same last time he visited The Earl.

"Stop that man! It's him. It's the Spring Heeled Jack!" Robo hollered.

The guards immediately threw themselves at the running man but they were to slow. The Earl himself stood up from his throne. He was a heavy man so it cost him a lot of effort but he seemed to ignore it in favour of looking angry, perhaps even furious.

"Get him now!" He roared and then turned to Door and her companions. "What is the meaning of this all?"

"He's the Spring Heeled Jack!" Robo shouted back while everyone was trying to catch the running man.

"Your Grace, we believe we have identified him as Spring Heeled Jack, although he may actually be his son or grandson." Door replied. She did not join pursue. It was already a crowd there.

"What?" The Earl was shocked and it was clear on his face.

His Fool, Tooley, was about to say something when a sound of breaking glass distracted everyone.

"He escaped." Robo called from the other end of the room.

"It shatters my heart." Tooley said but there was little enthusiasm in his joke.

"How do you know it was him?" The Earl questioned ignoring his Fool.

"Doctors Kroenen and Tesla were looking through the book you recommended while the man was telling me about the Beast and what he believed it was. Spike and Slenderman were listening too, and they both are telepaths. Spike hissed that it was him and the man started to run." Door explained. "He jumped above us, he truly is Spring Heeled."

"Jack certainly did his homework." Robo joined Door and the Earl. Behind him rest of the group was still tangled with Earl's guards. "And he has the sculpture."

"I was wondering if it was the same marble sculpture as mentioned in one of my own books." Door nodded. "But there was no description of it, so it could have been anything."

"That sculpture he stole from me was fairy made." The Earl growled. "It is second time that Spring Heeled Jack steals something from me. And I don't care if it is his son, grandson or son-in-law, if I catch him, I will put him on a wheel!"

"I am terribly sorry, Your Grace." Door bowed her head.

"Nonsense, you did not steal anything from me." The old man shook his head slightly. "But it is peculiar that every time you pay me a visit, my windows get shattered."

"I have blood!" It was Kroenen's voice. He stood next to the stained glass window that the Spring Heeled Jack jumped through.

"It looks like he's bleeding. Doesn't look serious, but it is prominent enough." Spike confirmed.

"Are you sure it is not yours or one of the guardsmen?" Robo turned back to his team mates.

"None of them got wounded." Spike replied.

"A trail of blood." Door blinked. "We may catch him if we're lucky."

"I will stop the train at the nearest station." The Earl promised. "We're nearing it anyway, you can go into the tunnel but you must be careful."

"Thank you, Your Grace." Door beamed.

"I have promised." He smiled fondly. "Do an old man a favour tough. Tell your father to visit me sometime." He added.

?

Before the Earl finished his last sentence the train stopped and they got out. There was a slight consternation.

"Does he know about your family?" Robo asked not sure what to think.

"He does. Sometimes. He is old you know." Door sighed. "His memory isn't working right at times."

"He seems to do fine most of the time." Kroenen observed.

"He is old. He and my grandfather were friends." Door shrugged. "Let's go and see if we can find that trail."

"Slender says that he shouldn't have much trouble with the blood." Spike passed Slenderman's words. "The question is when Spring Heeled Jack will notice that he leaves a trail for us to follow."

"That we will see. Let us go." Door decided and they carefully descended into the tube. It was dangerous, but there were niches for them to hide in should they needed to. All they had to do was to be careful. Luckily for them it was one of the old and forgotten tunnels that only Earl's train ever used.

TBC.

The insults used by the Earl were made with "Shakespeare Insult Kit" from Tumblr.

1) True names of Jewish occult books.

2) SS was divided into Allgemaine-SS (the general SS) and Waffen-SS (the military SS). It is noteworthy that SS was divided in different offices; there were 12 different offices, 2 of which were devoted mainly to extermination of "less worthy" nations, these being the SS-RSHA and WVHA.

I put Karl Ruprecht Kroenen in Hauptamt Persönlicher Stab Reichsfüher-SS which was Reichsfüher's Himmler personal headquarters, to support his role in Ragna Rok and the fact that he worked for Rasputin (who was approached by Himmler himself as stated in Hellboy comic book). Additionally Kroenen was in Thule Society which means some benefits such as some cosy official assignment while he was working with Rasputin. But despite his high rank and important occupation he is not immune to investigation because in dictatorship anyone can be guilty of treason.

The H-Sonderkommando was an 8-people squad that was investigating witch-hunt trials due to Himmler's personal interests. The team was led by Dr Rudolf Levin. I put Kroenen as one of the overseers due to his involvement with Rasputin (Hellboy's mother was a witch), but he is not a member of it. The archives of H-Sonderkommando were found in 1946 in Sława (Silesia, Poland, formerly III Reich's Schlawa, in 1937 the name was changed to Schlesiersee) and transported to Poznań, but the H-Sonderkommando was active all over the III-rd Reich and the occupied territories. The archive counts 3884 volumes and covers the time period of 385-1940, from Europe, USA, Mexico, Turkey and India (only 49 cases from Poland).

3) It is a loose reference to Terry Pratchett's "Men at Arms" where you can find following quote "(...) whereas Corporal Nobbs had been disqualified from the human race for shoving." I decided Nazis or ex-Nazis (and even those who later worked for USA) would easily be disqualified from human race if it was possible in the first place (and most Stalinists too, if you ask me). And Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is undoubtedly an ex-Nazi.

4) Nicola Tesla was Serbian, born in Similjan (Austro-Hungary, modern Croatia). Robo's official name is Atomic Robo Tesla; he bears the surname of his constructor, who is his "father" in a way, which only means that Robo is an American with Serbian "ancestry".

5) Just to be on the safe side and dissipate all doubts:

Slenderman is his usual self: no face, no hair, black business suit, white shirt, black tie and perfectly polished shoes. And one of the very few creatures that actually look attractive in a business suit (because business suits aren't very sexy by themselves so it's up to the wearer to make it look smashing).

Spike wears his usual Earth set: an undershirt with something printed on it in black and white, pair of jeans, some shoes and a coat. He's a bit of a hipster with it, so he looks like he slept in his clothes for a week, but it is all purposeful look to show that he's so cool and doesn't care. He never looks like that in his Wraith attire (in which he looks crisp and sharp).

Karl Ruprecht Kroenen is the comic version with the movie looks (because the movie look has better masks and sweet body suit), so he wears a mask and a body suit, but because it's not a movie version, he wears some trousers and a sweater over the body suit; he wears knee high boots and a coat too.

Atomic Robo looks the same way he does in the comics, so it's some trousers, sneakers, a shirt with some funny print on it and perhaps a coat, jacket or hoodie.

You can see how they look weird together. Especially if you add Door on top of all that.

6) Beast of Gévaudan was real, it all happened. The beast was terrorising the mentioned places for three years. We do not know what it really was but personally I believe it was couple of dog mix-breeds or indeed some African animals (such as large felines) used by some people (that also donned some beast-outfits) to fulfil their perverse urges. Some of the attacks were sexual in nature while others were clearly animal attacks.