Title: TI01 - The Irregulars

Series: The Irregulars

Author: Lucifael (lucifael75 )

Website: neo/groups/LucifaelCreation/info

Summary: Harry has a mentor/friend who connects him to a new dectoring friend, and combined a team will be formed that will protect the world, have a lot of fun, and rip off those less deserving of their funds.

Disclaimer: All recognisable media, TV, Comics and their characters belong to their rightful owners, which isn't Lucifael, also I make no money from this venture it's freely shared entertainment only.

Warnings:

Tags: Action/Adventure/Rom-Com

Genre: Adventure

Rating: FR18 - M

A Black Site, Queens, New York

Sapphire Blue eyes looked up at the entrance. There was a little war of emotions that arrived in their deceptive beauty. This beauty was surrounded by a likewise deceptive face of almost innocence, until the owner really smiled. Then you could see all the sin surrounding their nature come out to play and yet, at the sight of her visitor there was more. A deeper emotive content they had never really allowed themselves beforehand.

"Sherlock!" They said a wide smile coming to her face. He'd come, she really wasn't so sure he would this time, after all it was only a simple request from her. She had to admit it meant the world to her that he'd taken it and done it.

"Moriarty," The man, Sherlock said, hiding his own enjoyment at seeing her, she could tell.

"You know, we've known each other a while now Sherlock, perhaps you could unclench a little and call me Jamie?" Jamie Moriarty said, rolling her beautiful sapphire eyes a little as she spoke.

He almost smiled, another sign that he did care, despite what his otherwise stern demeanour showed. The other part of the request was that he come alone, to which he had also adhered to.

Jamie Moriarty was a touch jealous of the time that Joan Watson had with Holmes, perhaps it wasn't romantic between Watson and Holmes, but she certainly wasn't a peer of Sherlocks. All the same she'd caught Moriarty with her knowledge as a woman, it had to be said. She'd spotted that Jamie had fallen for Sherlock while entangling him in her wiles.

She smiled, patting the chair next to her, for a change she wasn't painting, but then she'd known he was coming some week hence now. So, she'd prepared, she didn't have much in the way of clothing choices, but she had a little make-up, a skirt and heels. It all added up. After all she wanted his help here, and he needed to be in the right frame of mind. She was aware that any true manipulation would be seen through, that's what made him so exciting and interesting, but some womanly wiles, not so much.

She also had a pretty massive favour to ask of a man that didn't really owe her any. Thus, looking her best and at her most feminine wasn't going to hurt that.

"What's this about, I was rather surprised to find you here, all things considered. Including your last escape from this very facility. Let alone allowing you letters, or visitors after last time." He noted, his tone controlled as it often was with her, but his eyes, those gave him away.

She smiled beguilingly, but only because she found him beguiling, "Oh, you know. I'm still of value, after they felt they had punished me enough for my transgression and after the why I did it came to light and with the singular lack of loss of life, it wasn't so bad." She said, "Not being able to paint for a few months was hard, but really the hardest part was not being able to keep up our correspondence for that time." She held up her hand to still his response.

"I know you won't believe that, but it was." she said. "But sadly, I've not asked you here for anything that will sit well with you."

He lifted a brow, when not sure what to say, he said nothing, he could chatter on a lot, but he didn't fill silences when they were working for him either. One of the many things she liked about him.

"It's two-fold really, I would like to hire your services, you and Joan actually. But...well, I have a... consultant that I'll be wanting you to work with. This may well be a sticking point, but I won't be moved on that. Don't worry he's not wanted for ANY crime." she said half smiling.

"Nor were you" Sherlock pointed out dryly.

"Yes, rather the same idea, only he has been...busy really, something he had to do that now it is done he was free to...spread his wings."

"You almost sound proud." He pointed out, ever the sharp one.

"What? Did you think you were the only one that was allowed a protégé?" she asked slyly. Her eyes sparkling as she dangled that out there for him.

"A protégé?" he asked, looking rather shocked.

"Of a sort. But really, I saw something in him I felt was worth cultivating. Don't worry, you're still unique to me, in many ways." She said with a small smile. "And anyway, when I met him well, neither of us was really looking for a relationship with anyone. Quite frankly he never went through it but most boys his age were just out of the girls have cooties stage. But not him, not My Protege." she smirkingly said, "And I was quite young myself, I think he did harbour rather a crush in the latter parts of his education, but he kept it to himself."

"How old are we talking? Are we seriously saying you corrupted a child?"

Her eyes flashed with sapphire fire, "I assure you not! He was corrupted by those filth LONG before I met him." she said almost in a snarl. "I gave him his strength back. I taught him to win, and he did, in a big way. Enough that he had to leave the little enclave he was so protecting like a hero."

"Hero, someone you know?" he asked dubiously.

She snorted in a very unladylike like fashion, "Oh dear me, I only said LIKE." she remarked, "It was a bone of contention between us several times. But he, himself, is not a classic ideal of a hero. Though more prone to good than bad, perhaps. Did you think I was just trying to create another me; do you think I WOULD do that?"

"Then what?" Sherlock asked.

"I honestly couldn't tell you what made me do it. Other than when I met him, he was sad and pathetic and frankly I was going to put him out of his misery, it would've been a kindness, really. But something stopped me, and instead I taught him to be... rather fabulous actually and if you want to succeed in this task and trust me you do, you need him or you won't be able to pull it off."

"Excuse me?" Sherlock asked insulted.

"Oh no, Sherlock I don't doubt your prowess in the mind, or well... we wouldn't be what we might be, but rather you are doubting his in his area, and know not the particulars of what you'll have to do to pull this off."

"And why, and what, would make me do it?"

"I'm asking you for a favour," she said simply. "It's not what you would feel as something that would compromise your morals. In fact, I'm trying to stop something I set in motion that now, with my incarceration, would fall into disrepair and do a lot of damage. I'm essentially asking you to stop one of my more...diabolical plans, and jobs, before it goes off without anyone in place to guide it. If it did it would be very, very bad."

"How bad?" he felt he had to ask.

"Not cataclysmic, but bad enough. It's a device you see, well you'll know more when you get the file from a...my source, and you'll see it's rather well protected and more importantly in a way you won't even see coming. I am more than aware that to be as good as you appear to be you have to be quite the criminal mastermind yourself. But, please, trust me without him you'll fail. He, on the other hand, is uniquely qualified in just this sort of protection, and what's more he does it for fun, not professionally, but then he's also rather rich."

"And you haven't extorted him," Sherlock found himself asking.

"I told you that you are unique, but not in the fact I would never hurt you, that also applies to him. Besides he feels he owes me a debt, I could have anything he has access to, just by asking for it. But that is rather boring, so I never have." she said with a smirk.

He actually smirked a little back, but it was quickly hidden. She was equally aware that he found her fascinating back, she had a feeling he would her protege as well, he was after all utterly and entirely unique, if not to WHAT he was as to HOW he was it, and just how much of it he had available.

"I'll do it," he said after a moment, "Not overly happy about the consultant thing, but I trust you have your reasons."

"That's a surprising amount of trust."

"You can't earn any without being given some." he retorted.

"More addict rhetoric, darling?" She asked with a grin.

"Perhaps, perhaps it is even foolish, but I'm doing it anyway. I feel Watson will not like me doing so. Is that why you asked that it was me alone?"

"Oh no...actually it wasn't, I wouldn't go so far to say I respect her, but I admire that she had a hand in 'bringing me down'" Jamie smirked, "But either way adding her into he mix would just add a random variable into what will shortly become clear."

"Another plan, within a plan?"

"No, just bringing in my consultant, now be prepared Sherlock, this will happen very quickly." she said seriously. Then tapped a finger to her head and flicked it, a light flew off into the wall.

"What was that, what technology?"

"It's not technology. Do you think he didn't teach me anything in turn? That I did it totally out of the goodness of my own heart?" she said with a very sexy smirk.

A moment later the guards in the four corners of the room just collapsed to the ground, then a shimmer then a man appeared holding Jamie's shoulder. He was a good height, extremely good looking with astoundingly piercing Emerald green eyes, dressed in all black, and was looking at Sherlock with suspicion. "Are we escaping Sal?" he asked, his accent well to do English.

"Shh now...and I told you it's Jamie now." She smiled up at him half twisting to do so.

"Yeah, yeah, so you, and this bloke?" He asked, almost pressed really. Sherlock realized he was quite keen to take Jamie away from that place, and was more grudging about Sherlock himself.

"No, not me, just you two. I'm not here to escape. I need you to offer any and all help to Sherlock here." She cut off as there was a low growl. "Steady boy, you are NOT allowed to hurt, or especially kill Holmes. I mean it!"

"But Sal...it's him, the one that put you away, and come to think of it Luv, why are you in jail still, though a rather better location this visit?" he asked, his voice southern British now, slightly less refined than before in his annoyance.

"He is...my friend." she said summing up a very complex relationship into a single word was...hard.

"Hmm, sure...friend, some friend. With friends like that you don't hardly need the enemies you've accrued." He noted very sardonically. This was a man that put dry back into the English sense of humour.

"We are," Sherlock said. "And I don't understand, how did you get in here, what happened to the guards and just how did you think you were going to escape?"

"Seems you understand very little." Harry bit back.

Jamie, or apparently 'Sal' slapped the hand on her shoulder that was still resting there, "Now Be nice!"

The man rolled his Emerald orbs, "Fine, fine, so...what is happening? Why you won't let me get you away from here, I just don't understand!"

"I am...trying something new."

"For him?" He asked, obviously displeased with this realization.

"I just am, Harry! So behave!"

"Okay Sal, keep your knickers on. Okay Mr Holmes, you need to hold my arm or some other body part that takes your fancy." This Harry said, now smiling a little.

"Actually Harry you need to go out the front door, and they need to wake up with no memory of strange happenings. I've just earned back my small freedoms, I don't want to have to go through that all again."

There was a distinct sigh, "You are a one!" Harry noted, very fondly actually. "Right, bear with me a tick." He added, walking off towards the guards. Only for Sherlock to get in his face.

"I can't let you hurt them!" was the firm response from Sherlock.

"I'm not going to mate, but the clock is ticking so..." he said moving his hand in a flicking motion. Much to his utter shock, Sherlock was picked up, sent flying to the couch next to Jamie Moriarty and then he couldn't move.

"What the devil!"

"All will be explained." Jamie assured him, "Right Harry?" she asked meaningfully.

"It's against the statute you do know that right? Of course you do! But either way I'll be breaking the rules Luv."

"Like that's EVER stopped you." she remarked with good humour.

"True..." he drew out, waving his hand at the guards and looking around, "Oh lovely, a super duper electronic system...I LOVE these" he said with a large, handsome smile. "Can I...please, Can I?" he said looking back at Jamie imploringly.

"Oh alright then," she said with a massive smirk, "Might even buy me some good will when I don't escape."

"Escape?" Sherlock asked, very confused and still apparently tied to the chair with no visible means of doing so.

Then Harry put his hand on the palm print reader, which suddenly fizzed, sizzled and then snapped in a flare of light, the door opening and swinging to allow egress.

"That is so much fun, oh I do love anything computerized." he smirked, "makes my job so much easier when I come across computerized security." he said all smiles. "Now can I interest you in a front door Sal?"

"No...I told you..."

"...Trying something, yeah I heard ya." Harry said not looking impressed. "Right you, Mr Holmes, sonny boy, we should go, the guards will be awake in a minute and none the wiser to my presence. I just fluffed it all a bit, casting no suspicion on Sal. But either way, we need to leave to not give them a reason to doubt their programming."

"Programming," Sherlock asked in worry, and some major concerns as to their health.

"He's a bit of a boyscout isn't he? For you I mean?" he asked Jaime looking at her piercingly.

She smiled, "He's unique, special, ALMOST my peer."

"Impossible." Harry said with no room for wiggle. "Come on, or I'll have to wipe memories from here to...wait...are we in New York!"

"Yep" 'Sal' or Jamie said with a grin.

"Huh, well either way," he said walking to Sherlock, pulling him and to Sherlocks surprise finding he could now move. Harry then virtually frog marched the confused detective out of the room.

"Oh Harry! They need access to my file 5431" Jamie called out at the last moment.

Harry stilled, turning to her with a raised brow, "I told you that was a crazy plan!"

"What's life without a touch of crazy." she said with a smile.

"Right fine, was going to help anyway since you asked, but now I definitely WANT to help." he said, then he and Sherlock just disappeared.

Moriarty rolled her lovely eyes, walked to a painting, kicking off her shoes, kneeling on the stool and went back to work.

Everest, Peak

The howling wind and snow didn't effect him. This was the very first thing that Sherlock noticed, then he noticed it all stopped mere metres from them. He was at the peak of a rather famous mountain and he wasn't already suffering from exposure. It seemed impossible, but he had a phrase all to do with that and when rationality failed, you had to pursue other courses of cognitive function.

"So I made a promise not to hurt you, but then I didn't say I would protect you either." Harry said his smile far more chilling than the elements, "But all I want is a truthful answer to a simple question. Then we'll be at your home." he added.

"What's the question?" Sherlock asked guardedly.

"Do you love her too? It's simple and your immediate response will be to lie. But if you do, or quite frankly, give me the wrong answer. I'll let the elements in and you'll be dead in minutes, probably never found again." Harry said, "I have no issue killing fools, and I think you may be one."

"I am no fool, and..." Sherlock paused, this wasn't easy to talk about and it wasn't like they had processed it with it each other, perhaps couldn't. "Yes I do."

Harry smiled warmly, "Good." he said. "I don't know how I would classify me and Sal. I would go as far as perhaps her only surviving, and perhaps ONLY friend. I'm betting she wouldn't SAY it. But I think I can get away with claiming it. I know your relationship is somewhat untenable, but the important thing to me, is that you return her obvious feelings for you."

"I do, but as you said...it's not terribly tenable. She'll be in prison for the rest of her life."

Harry laughed, a lot, "Yeah...right mate. If she's still in prison and by that I mean not released in a year I'll be VERY surprised, in fact I'd go so far as to say...shocked. Appalled too mind you, and will likely go and get her by force if necessary at that point. But mostly because she'll be addled and need my help. Not that she EVER has before you know, but still...that would be a good sign of needing it."

"She said similar, can we go. I don't know how you got me here, but it's not exactly conducive to conversation." Sherlock asked, with all the calmness he could muster.

Harry smirked, "Cool and calm under pressure. Now you probably think this is a simulation or something so..." he raised his hand and all th elements rushed in. Sherlock wrapped his feeble coat around him, feeling the wind cut through him and the snow settled on his head and shoulders. Then the hand was lowered and it all went away, if anything he felt positively toastie after that.

"Right, right! I WILL figure out what you just did." Sherlock said, mostly to himself.

"Perhaps, if you're half as interesting as Sal finds you, that you will indeed. But you won't get much chance really. Since I'm about to tell you and this partner of yours. Joan Watson was it? I read ALL about you two when Sal got caught! I've been waiting on her call nearly half a year now. Turns out she's content where she is. I personally blame you for that, she's trying to be better for you. What you need to get through your thick head is there is NO better. She's already perfectly what she is, and anything else is a falsehood and not her true nature."

"I...do understand that, but we must all grow too."

"This isn't growth, well...no good spitting this back and forth, you don't understand, not yet. You might end up doing, and that would be wonderful. She could be herself, you could be yourself, maybe you could raise genius rug-rats. Half of them will want to save the world, the other will see the profit in chaos."

"That's...bleak."

Their view shifted again, but not before Sherlock caught sight of a smile that scared ten years off his life and made him wish for a shot of heroine to the arm there and then.

Brownstone, New York

Watson walked into an incongruous sight, for one Holmes was looking at a man, (and oh boy what a man), like he'd grown another head, and had snow all over him. But the look on his face was almost fear. Not something that Sherlock ever really showed the world.

"Urh..." Joan Watson was caught halfway between admiring the Adonis that had appeared in their front room, and worrying about the look Holmes was shooting him.

"Ahh Watson" Sherlock said snapping back to his usual ways. "This is urh...Harry, I don't actually know his last name..."

At this Harry moved forward his hand held out, Watson took it and he shot her a sizzler of a smile, "Noir, Harry Noir at your service." he said his accent slightly more refined than even Sherlocks root accent. "It's a rare pleasure Doctor Watson." he went on to say, "You've garnered quite the critical acclaim for yourself during your stint out from under his shadow I may say. One wonders why you felt the need to step backwards?"

"We agreed we work better together, in a partnership." Watson explained, "I was...in a situation that saw me moving back and we're working well, almost like I never left, with the added proviso of me doing some of my own work."

"Marvellous, well you come highly regarded," he said in a slightly strange way of putting it.

"Highly regarded?" she asked.

"Oh yes, Sal was actually almost impressed, that's quite high regard from her." Harry grinned.

"Who is Sal?" Joan asked.

"I can answer that, apparently he means Jamie Moriarty." Holmes filled in, "He knew her by another name."

"Yes, I did, but officially or under cover I use whatever name I'm given, but that wasn't that, now was it. I thought, perhaps - hoped, I was there to rescue her."

"Rescue HER" Watson demanded. "It's us who need rescuing from her really."

"Only damsels really need rescuing Dr Watson, I can't abide a damsel, the rest of the world is quite capable of wriggling out from under her schemes, they are just too fat or lazy to do so."

"That's an...interesting perspective." Watson noted.

"But surely you've fallen afoul of some of her machinations yourself." Sherlock asked him.

"Oh yes, many times." Harry said, "Of course past a certain point in her tutelage I knew I was doing so, and did so eyes wide open. The one lesson she never did teach me."

"What's that?" Watson asked.

"Not to adore her," he smirked, "I have but two friends in this world and I let them get away with...anything, and one of them is her. Of course the other is also an outrageously beautiful woman, but it's not their looks, or anything they have in common actually. But they both have that allowance. It drove Sal mad, and often ended in some harsh punishments." he shrugged, "So if you want to denigrate her for what she's done I will fully understand it, but you won't get any traction in guiding me from the darker path either. She's saved my life far more often than she put it in danger."

Watson pursed her lips, "Okay" she said, "But why are you here then, you can't be our biggest fans. Sherlock put her away."

"I am banned from seeking retribution on that score, or even harming a hair on his head." Harry said.

He looked around the room, "A chess set, should've known of course. I'm afraid I'm pants at this, old mate of mine beat me in five moves or so all the damn time!"

"You must be truly awful" Joan tried to have a joke with him. She got a laugh, a smile and a nod.

Only Holmes smirked, "Or very, very, good!"

Harry looked at him, his eyes alight, "Well...no one see's that. I tried it with Sal once." he chuckled, "Being stabbed fifteen times tends to leave a lasting memory NOT to do it again."

"Fifteen? Stabbed? And you still like this woman, are you a masochist?"

"No, I'm not a fan of pain, but it was her preferred teaching mechanism." he said rolling his eyes, "Besides for reasons you don't know...yet. I was more than fine. I barely even lost more than a pint of blood."

"That's...no a small amount" Joan argued.

"When you regenerate as fast as we do...kind of is actually." He smiled. "Ahh, now she's thinking...what does he mean by 'We'."

"I believe that's what you're supposed to tell us Mr Noir." Sherlock noted.

"You can call me Harry it's the only part of my name that's...original" Harry smirked, "Well no easy way to do this, please close the drapes, or blinds in your case. We don't want some passer-by to see this."

Holmes gave Watson the nod and they went around the area closing the blinds, then turning on an overhead light to combat the darkness that set in on the later evening light being missing.

"Thank you, well..." he said then held up his hand cupped, and suddenly a hissing, spitting ball of actual flame was just there in his hand. "Now admittedly we can't all do this, and usually it takes using a focus, but actually Sal forced me to no longer use one. Of course she took a LOT of pleasure in snapping My focus."

"Why?" Joan asked, "Why that in particular you made note of it in particular."

Harry smirked, "I'm not telling you that, but needless to say some laws suck."

Holmes raised an eye, then Joan moved closer reaching out, "Hey there beautiful, be careful now...that's actually hot!" Harry warned pulling his arm away and the ball of flame in his hand at the same time. "I find this is a pretty good example that anyone that's ever read fiction or seen a movie with magical effects see's it and they think...OMG that's Magic!" he mocked a Californian accent to say the last. "But if you insist, stick a bit of wood in there, orrrrr I could light the fire for you?" he smirkingly asked.

"Urh...let me just..." Joan said haltingly.

"It'll be harder for you, for one Sherlock has seen me using this a few times already, ignoring how I got into a secure facility and incapacitated the guards invisibly and all at the same time."

"I did wonder" Sherlock said as Joan grabbed some kindling from the fire, then stuck the end into the fireball. It didn't take long for it to catch and light aflame.

"It's real fire! Are you seriously saying...?" Joan looked at him with a note of suspicious wonder.

"Give it a moment, it'll sink in. It's been my experience that despite how really low level this is, it's the be all and end all of magic to a non-magical. Like slinging fireballs around has any practical use anymore." Harry said rolling his eyes, "Sure...it's pretty and dramatic. But I rarely sling a fireball at anything, for one they don't fly so fast, and you have to actually pitch the damn thing, so you have to arc it to hit anything at range, usually giving them all the time in the world to dodge the damn thing. Mostly it's good for explosions."

Joan seemed stuck on this point, oddly Sherlock wasn't having remotely the same problem.

"Something tells me you're taking this TOO easily Mr Holmes." Harry noted, "Not your first time huh?"

"No, not really. When I first started at Scotland Yard, well just after, there were terrorist attacks, no one could explain them. Eventually a shadowy Section M contacted me as by this point I was working the case, and filled me in. Apparently some boy called..." he paused and looked at Harry in shock, "Harry...Harry Potter. The Boy-Who-Lived."

"I HATE that name," Harry sighed. "It's also rather redundant don't you think. Lot's of boys lived."

"Not all of them survived something that guarantee's a kill Mr Potter" Sherlock remarked.

"No, not that anymore I changed my name, it's Noir now." Harry corrected him.

"French for Black. I suppose that makes sense a familial connection, but didn't he turn traitor?" Sherlock asked.

"As it turns out no. It might interest you to know that if not for Sal's help and training, Voldemort would've either won, or I would've turned around and replaced him." Harry said his tone dark. "I had absolutely zero wish to help those idiots, but I had to, and if not for her...I likely would've died in the attempt. In retrospect the two sides manipulations of me where childish and clumsy, but at the time it was all rather fraught. Eventually she taught me to get out from under all that crap and stand on my own two feet. That's when the tide truly turned."

"But you're a hero, have always been a hero. At least that's what I was briefed on." Sherlock said. "And you're some sort of protege to Moriarty?" he asked stunned.

He smiled a dark smile, "You think I'm a hero...you're rather mistaken. If I had a choice I would've left those bastards to rot in their own self made midden pile. I didn't, and when I applied myself it all came to an end rather quickly. But I did it for one reason in the end, and one reason only."

"From what she was saying, that's not entirely true, Moriarty didn't' want you to help them." Holmes said.

"No, not for Sal...she advised me to leave and let it all implode. No I did it for my OTHER friend, she's a muggle-born you see. If I had left, she would've died VERYfast, or been put into slavery and bred upon, or nameless and horrible deeds I don't want to contemplate. They call me their saviour, but I'm not...She is. If not for her, I wouldn't have bothered and joined Sal when she made the offer the first time to get me the hell out of there. Does that sound heroic to you, either of you?"

"Perhaps not," Joan said slowly, "It sounds like the actions of a VERY good friend though. One I wouldn't mind making myself."

He winked at her, "Play your cards right" he smirked. "I'm afraid my ability to be 'friends' with a woman terminated at puberty. Of course both my only friends were sort of grandfathered in, since I knew them BOTH before that event."

"Shame" Joan remarked.

Sherlock smiled slightly, "Well I don't think there is any denying what I'm seeing, and I've been trying to. There are various ways to fake what I'm seeing, but it moves perfectly with your hand, you can actually feel the heat coming off it, it snaps, sizzles and pops like a flame would and in anyway I can surmise it appears to be real."

"It is, but it's really not all that impressive either."

"No, I think jumping me across the Atlantic to ask pointed questions was a little more impressive. And keeping the elements at bay considering the conditions up there were not conducive to human life."

"He did what?" Joan asked shocked and wide eyed.