Author's Note: Just wanted to let you know that you can expect updates coming more regularly now (holidays yeeeeah :D )

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Fight the Rising Odds

"Approaching destination."

It was surprising how even a short remark like that could trigger such harsh feelings within her, but she just couldn't help it: every single time Horace Whitehall's voice rang out from the computer Victoria stopped doing the jigsaw puzzle in front of her to swallow down the anger rising within her. She didn't know him personally, indeed, but with all those instances Alasdair had told her about, all those times her friend's father had mistreated him, it appeared sheer impossible to be sympathetic to this man. Still, she hoped for this mission to be accomplished, of course, not least because of the other voice Mr. Whitehall's was accompanied by.

"I've never seen a nuclear power plant from the inside before. Maybe I should take a fuel rod as a souvenier… Don't look at me like that, I'm just kidding. I'm trying to— Oh, forget it."

"Poor Galahad, hm?", Victoria murmured, grinning down at the slumbering pointer at her feet.

Why such a serious man like Horace Whitehall would choose him of all Kingsmen to accompany him here was a complete mystery to her. Perhaps he'd been the only one available, or the closest one. In any case, Whitehall had asked for him specifically, though, when he'd discussed the mission with Arthur earlier this morning.

According to him, there have been several attacks on Whitehall Inc, ranging from cyber attacks to a break-in in the central offices last week. At first it hadn't bothered him too much — just as Alasdair had told her, his father didn't seem particularly interested in his company at all, left all the work to his supervisory board — as business in the energy industry was prone to offences by rivals anyway. This time, however, the regular police had failed finding the people responsible, he'd told Arthur. This was a stranger case than usual. Or so he made his superior believe to be his motives in deigning to play a part in business affairs, at least.

Victoria suspected other reasons behind it, rather those of the pride-driven kind. After all, these attacks were directed at his company, a Kingsman's company. He couldn't let those responsible slip, even if those attacks would have been completely harmless. What would his colleagues think? If he didn't take action, his good reputation would be lost. Perhaps this was why he asked for one of his colleague's support in examining his company's nuclear power plant the hacking attacks had revealed to be those people's target: to bestow a flavour of general importance to this actually private matter.

If her speculations were true, Arthur, listening from his 'Round Table'-room right now, didn't get any of it. Throwing in a comment every now and then, the organisation's head seemed absolutely relaxed... and absolutely unaware of being bugged.

When Victoria had finished setting the microphone's software up on the computer in her room, she'd anxiously been waiting to hear someone search the 'Round Table'-room and find the mic, but noone ever came. Why would Kingsman anyway, she'd thought afterwards. After all, Victoria'd made sure this incident looked like nothing but a burglary to them. The only thing they might fear is that those small-time crooks had caught something, some detail that, under highly improbable circumstances, could lead to their exposal, which in turn had made Victoria fear for being exposed herself. Owing to the surveillance camera in the alley she'd fled into and her lack of believe in there being anything like honour amongst thieves, Victoria knew that Kingsman was searching for the one burglar that got away. Indeed, the description those young criminals could provide them with was fairly inaccurate — they'd experienced her as a blond, poor girl with a Cockney accent — but Kingsman knew about her acting skills, not least because they'd been part of the training. So, since she expected them to resume their tailing, Victoria'd abandoned her nocturnal patrolling and spent the following three weeks acting all normal, going to the gym, walking her dog, helping her brothers with some business, going out with friends... It'd been one hell of a boring time, but it had felt like an appropriate punishment. After all, with her little burglary act, she'd been promoting crime herself, despite having fought it for an entire month. Of course, she hadn't had a choice, and, of course, those boys would have robbed a jeweller anyway... and, yes, they'd been arrested as well... From this perspective, Victoria'd done just the ri—

Shots.

Victoria winced, staring at the computer with widened eyes.

"It's a trap!", Horace Whitehall shouted.

Galahad seemed just as distressed. "I count six men — no, wait, seven — no — SHIT!"

Harry was at his feet in the blink of an eye, barking at the computer.

"SSHT!", Victoria silenced him, rushing towards the speakers herself to turn up the volume and hear more clearly, but that was easier said than done, as the two Kingsmen and whoever was attacking them were shouting across each other.

"They've got a sniper! Top left corner!"

"No clear line of fire!"

"They're behind us!"

"Let's—"

And then the line's gone dead.

For a second that felt like an eternity not a sound was to be heard. Victoria stood there, holding her breath, staring at the computer's speakers, waiting... waiting...

"Merlin, prepare...", Arthur's voice cut through the silence eventually, but it faded as he was leaving the room apparently, prohibiting Victoria from understanding any of his plan towards this grave situation.

Would he send some Kingsmen to get their colleagues out of there? Would he go himself? And what was there to prepare? There was no time for great preparations, for assembling agents from wherever they may be, for mapping out attack strategies or for vastly equipping oneself! No, they would never get there in time...

But Victoria could.

Like a scalded cat she started to slip out of her pyjamas and into her Kingsman suit. Harry, all excited, trotted by her side as she finished, grabbed her umbrella and darted out of the room, anxious to move silently as to not wake any of her brothers, especially since she took their car keys before leaving the apartment. Hastening towards Nick's black Jaguar, she unlocked its doors and opened the nearest one for Harry. "Passenger seat.", she panted, got around the car to kick off its number plates and got behind the wheel herself. One belt across her sitting dog's chest, one across her own and she already put the key in the hole. The Jaguar roared to life and Victoria floored it.

Everything was silent around the plant. Located in the middle of nowhere, it was composed of a complex of various square buildings, one of which standing way taller than the others, but even that didn't show any sign of nocturnal activity... if it weren't for the guard patrolling around it.

Hiding behind a smaller building next to the big one, Victoria examined the man: He was wearing similar black garments as they did at Kingsman during some missions, a handgun was attached to his right thigh, and the upper half of his face was covered by a nightscope, making her scheme a little more challenging. When Harry barked from behind another house, making the guard look in that direction, her umbrella's stun bullet found its way to his temple nonetheless.

Looking around to not miss any other potential attackers, Victoria hurried towards the unconscious guard, took the gun from him and turned to Harry, who was just coming as well.

"Listen to me, Harry,", she began, pocketing a full magazine she found in the guard's belt. "you have to stay here and warn me if there's someone coming, do you understand?"

To confirm the dog let out a muffled bark.

Victoria smiled, kissed him between his darkness-defying amber eyes and hastened towards the entrance door closest to her. It was unlocked, which together with the pressure she was under enticed her into imprudence, but Victoria ignored the feeling, proceding as cautious as she was trained to do, with the gun always at the ready. Switches and warning labels were decorating the walls of the corridor-like anteroom it led to, as well as the hard hats that were hanging from them, but not a sign of any guards. Narrow stairs led up to a metallic door with a built-in window, which dim light was streaming from. Leaping several stairs at the time, Victoria climbed it, but she stopped abruptly when her eyes caught movement behind the small window.

Pressed against the wall, she waited for a few seconds before daring to peek through it.

Thanks to the window's size, she only got to see about half of the plant's main hall, but still it was sufficient to get an idea of her surroundings. Myriads of pipes, tanks and other metallic constructions occupied a large part of the hall, though it was difficult to make out any details, as the light shining through only came from the very back, an area out of sight to her. Everything else was clad in darkness. What was discernible however was some sort of tower straight ahead, which was connected to two footbridges running along the walls, each of which guarded. At least that explained the movement on the bridge this door led to. It was a shorter one, fortunately, so that there was space for only one man — the sniper who the Kingsmen had been attacked by, as she realised now. He was wearing the most bored expression, as he paced up and down, using his rifle like a cane in doing so. The opposite bridge carried more armed men — three or four, as far as she could see — making it a more difficult task to come up with a suitable plan.

Probability had it that wherever the light was coming from was the place where the Kingsmen were held — dead or alive — which meant that having a clear line of fire for that particular area was upmost priority. The connection between this footbridge and the tower in the middle would be a reasonable option, as one would not only have an all-round view of the entire hall, but also be partly protected by the tower.

But how was she supposed to get there without being caught? It certainly proved immensely difficult to sneak past the sniper. Disabling him also posed a risk, as that might catch the attention of the guards opposite to them. Unless we stay under cover of the tower's shadow...

Stuffing the handgun inside her waistband, Victoria pressed against the wall, only peeking through the window, waiting for the sniper to be fully engulfed by darkness. Silently, she slipped through the door, sneaked up to the man from behind and, before he had the chance to turn around and step into the light again, she caught him in a rear naked choke.

He jerked, suddenly wide awake, let go of the rifle to tug at the forearm constricting his brain's blood supply. Preventing it from falling down noisily, Victoria quickly pressed the weapon against his body with her knee, whilst slowly pulling them both to the ground. She wrapped her legs around him, gained full control of his body, barred him from any abrupt moves. He struggled and struggled, tried so hard to wrestle free, but Victoria didn't loosen her grip, tightened it even further like a constrictor. She felt the man's muscles going limp against her, until he slackened completely.

The last thing he must have heard was his own heartbeat pounding in his ears, and, as that move demanded quite some effort, this was what Victoria had heard as well. Now, however, that her body calmed down again, other sounds filled her mind. The sounds of voices, or rather one voice.

Rapidly, but still as cautious as possible in order to avoid making any sounds, Victoria rolled the unconscious sniper off of her, grabbed his rifle, sneaked to the middle of the tower connection bridge, and, finally, she had perfect view on them.

Having their mouths, hands and feet duct-taped, the Kingsmen knelt in one of the few spaces clear from tanks and pipes. Galahad's usually styled hair was ruffled, just as his colleague's, which was so fair of colour that it would have been a truly simple matter to identify him as Alasdair's father, even if Victoria hadn't already met him at some of her mother's charity dinners. He also matched his son in height, though, while her friend had rather delicate and gentle features, his father had a hard face, one of the kind that might intimidate opponents by just a single look. Of this, however, the five men surrounding them, levelling their guns at their heads, didn't show any sign of. Another one, the one she'd heard speaking before, was pacing up and down in front of them with a mobile phone held to his ear. Probably the leader of this group.

Usually, such high numbers of opponents wouldn't be too much of an obstacle for a Kingsman, let alone two — Victoria'd fought her way through that terrorist nest as well, after all — but first of all had they been ambushed, and secondly, in contrast to the terrorists she'd had to face, those men seemed to have enjoyed some form of military training as well. So many of them could only be beaten if being caught off guard themselves; a part Victoria would be happy to play.

Pressing the rifle's butt against her shoulder, she aimed right at the leader's head. In a matter of seconds one after the other of those black dressed men would fall, the Kingsmen would be rescued... But what if they had an entirely different plan? What if they hadn't freed themselves already due to their scheme of finding out more about their attackers? What if they were just waiting for the right moment to strike? It bugged Victoria that that thought hadn't crossed her mind earlier. It didn't really matter, though, since she hadn't started shooting yet anyway. So, no plan frustrated, if that actually was the Kingsmen's plan.

Either way, Victoria kept the leader targetted, readying herself to pull the trigger as soon as he gave away some crucial information.

"You didn't tell us how good they were.", he growled into the phone, his voice rich with some kind of German accent. "They killed four of us, two are badly wounded. You—" He exchanged a look with his colleagues, his lips forming a straight line. "Yes... Yes, Sir... I asked them, but they wouldn't answer." His eyes darted from one Kingsman to the other, though only one returned the look, as Galahad rather examined their surroundings. Behind his attentive gaze Victoria saw an escape plan forming in his mind, one she'd hopefully wouldn't disrupt completely by her presence.

"Definitely.", the leader said eventually, continuing his staring contest with Mr Whitehall. Perhaps the Kingsman was provoking their opponent in such a blunt way on purpose, in order to divert his attention from his scheming colleague. Or perhaps he was just behaving in such a defying manner as a form of commanding the respect he believed was due to him. From all Victoria knew about that man, the latter option didn't even seem too unlikely.

"Alright, one second." Taking a quick step towards him, the leader held the phone out to the still unblinking Kingsman. "Boss wants to talk to you." As if interpreting his raised brow, he added: "Don't worry, you won't need to talk yourself."

Even when the device was brought to his ear, Mr Whitehall maintained eye contact, until suddenly he did break it, abandoning his defiant posture and staring into space with an utterly blank expression. Victoria couldn't quite imagine what this conversation might be about, considering how unilateral it was. They couldn't parley like that, couldn't question the Kingsman about anything. Perhaps this 'Boss', whoever it may be, just wanted to share his brilliancy, uncover how he or she managed to set up two super-trained agents, as so many 'villains' liked to boast. Maybe he or she was just revealing that they'd planted a mole in the organisation, or one of their own, a Kingsman, betrayed them. As highly probable as it was that Victoria's imagination was just running riot at the moment, Mr Whitehall would surely have some interesting things to say about that stranger on the phone as soon as they've gotten out of here.

How the opponents' leader knew that the conversation was over, Victoria had no clue, but apparently he did somehow, as he took the device away from the still gazing Kingsman and held it to his own ear again. He paused for a moment, said "Yes, Sir.", hung up and shot Horace Whitehall in the face.

Victoria caught her breath.

The Kingsman dropped dead, his blond hair soaking in the pool of blood that formed around his head, whilst the leader pointed his gun at Galahad.

Her bullet hit him right in the temple.

Firing at those on the opposite side with the handgun in her left and at those on the ground level with the rifle in her right, Victoria dashed across the bridge, jumped of the handrail at its end and landed with her foot crashing into the face of one of the remaining five. Shouting erupted in the hall. Victoria smashed the rifle's hilt into an attacker's forehead, shot another's finger off, let the weapon drop to dodge the blow of a third and used his own momentum to swing him around and take him as a human shield for all the bullets showering down at her and Gallahad. One hit her in the shoulder when she grabbed the knife on the man's hip, but the Kingsman suit shielded her from fatal wounds. In one quick motion she cut Galahad's ankles free and threw the knife into the fingerless one's chest, which almost gave the one she'd kicked in the face the opportunity to attack her, if it weren't for the Kingsman kicking him off his feet. Victoria shot him in the head and the two ran for cover behind a tank.

Galahad, having freed his wrists when Victoria hadn't been looking, tore the tape from his mouth. "What the hell are you doing here?!"

"Long story, but I think the more important question right now is: how the hell do we get out of here?!"

"So you're here on your own?"

"Yes."

"Pity." He peeked around the tank. "Well, alright, I think I know a way out. There's a door at ten o'clock, roughly a hundred feet from here. Let's try it there. Our weaponry?"

"I've got a handgun with half a magazine left and my umbrella."

"Good, I'll take that one."

"No, you won't."

"What?"

"I like the umbrella better."

"Me too."

"Well, tough luck."

"Victoria, it's actually mine."

"You gave it to me!"

"I didn't say you can keep it forever."

"Doesn't matter. For now it's mine."

"Says who?"

She looked him dead in the eye. "The one who's rescuing your bloody arse."

"Good point.", he admitted, taking the gun from her hand. "Alright, here's the plan: They're regrouping down here, so we'll have to expect fire to come from both above and the front. We'll have to be quick to get to the door. You lead. Try to shield us both, and I'll fend them off, understood?"

Victoria nodded, put the umbrella up and they dashed off. Immediately, they were greeted by a barrage of gunfire. Even all the strength in her thighs couldn't prevent her being pushed back, so, in hopes of confusing their attackers and buying themselves more time, she activated the umbrella's SMOKE-function, filling the space between them and their opponents with thick white clouds. The hail of bullets stopped, the men in black started coughing and shouting, whilst Victoria and Galahad slipped through the door into a similar corridor as before and rushed to the closest exit.

"Shit!", they both cursed at the sight of a guard standing outside, his machine gun directly pointing at them. Then there was barking all of a sudden that turned into the guard's own screaming upon Harry biting down hard on his arm. Galahad seized the chance and shot him in the face.

"Our car should be right up there, let's go!", he shouted, running on to the right.

The three of them raced down along the building, the car the Kingsmen had used to come here finally coming in view, when suddenly a door to their right burst open and a dozen men in black streamed out. Before they noticed them, Galahad's gun was already raised. He pulled the trigger. It only clicked.

All at once the men spun around, levelled their weapons at them—

—and the truck sent them flying.