The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
The Cabbala.
"When you were young and your heart was an open book
You used to say live and let live
(You know you did, you know you did, you know you did)
But if this ever-changing world in which we're livin'
Makes you give in and cry, say live and let die
Live and let die, live and let die, live and let die
What does it matter to ya
When you've got a job to do, you gotta do it well
You gotta give the other fella hell. (…) – The Wings "Live and Let Die"
Warning: Violence, explicit language, possibly gore.
Timing: 2015, for particular timing of the characters original universes, see footnote of their respective chapters.
Rating: M, possibly MA.
Pairings: Wilhelmina and Allan (past). Wilhelmina and Orlando (friends with benefits).
Disclaimer: The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen original comic books © Allan Moore and Kevin O'Neill. Neverwhere (in character of Lady Door) © Neil Gaiman. Atomic Robo © Brian Clevinger and Scott Wegner. Stargate Atlantis (in character of Spike the Wraith) © MGM Studios. Hellboy (in character of Karl Ruprecht Kroenen) © Michael Mignola. Slenderman © Eric Knudsen (as Victor Surge). The story © Czarna Archer.
Dracula (in character of Wilhelmina Murray) by Bram Stoker. Allan Quatermain by sir Henry Rider Haggard. Orlando (or his/hers alike) by Virgina Woolf.
The Unseen Playmate.
"When children are playing alone in the green,
In comes the playmate that never was seen.
When children are happy and lonely and good,
The Friend of the Children comes out of the wood.
Nobody heard him, and nobody saw,
His is a picture you never could draw,
But he's sure to be present, abroad or at home,
When children are happy and playing alone.
(…)." – Robert Luis Stevenson "The Unseen Playmate"1).
oOo
Somewhere near the Polish-Belarus border. Białowieża Primeval Forest.
The flight from USA to Europe passed in relative calmness. Spike was curious about civilian human made aircrafts and Robo invited him to the cockpit to show him around not seeing any harm in doing so. The Wraith being pilot himself was satisfied with the presentation but did not show any further interest in piloting the craft deciding that Robo was more than qualified to get them to their destination.
Kroenen was happy to spend the entire time either dozing off or burying himself in his computer, reading what looked like scans of old books. Door allowed him his peace while she busied herself with lecture of her own. Spike, after leaving the cockpit, sat quietly meditating.
They have arrived in London on schedule. Kroenen was immensely disappointed that Wilhelmina Murray would not see them upon their arrival but rather have them briefed after they would return with the last member of their team. Instead they were put on a train that would get them through the Channel Tunnel and to the continent where they would drive to where they were to find the last recruit. They have spent their time in private compartment, untroubled by anyone resting before the next part of the journey.
"Why haven't we flown to there?" Spike asked. He didn't understand why they had to waste so much time by land travel.
"Because there is no landing strip in the forest and even if we landed in the nearest airfield, we'd still have to drive there." Robo explained. He too would rather fly, but land travel was still better than the alternative. At least to him.
"I can take us there directly." Door proposed. "It would be a lot faster."
"Oh no. No way. Forget it." Robo firmly refused. "I'd rather drive us all the way."
"Robo, we'd spent over seven hours flying to London and now we're to spend twenty driving?" She complained. "I can get us there under one minute!"
"No thank you. I rather have you do your thing only if we absolutely have to. Say, if we're on burning ship in the middle of a hurricane with armed terrorists firing upon us and we're sitting on an atom bomb with its timer ticking."
"I am not certain of what kind of travel Lady Door was talking about, but surely it is preferable to spent as little time as possible en route." Spike voiced his opinion. "Why it is so unacceptable to take her offer?"
"That's because Robo is scared." Door explained. She felt a little offended that Robo felt so bad about her skill.
"I am not scared." Robo denied feeling his manly pride being wounded. "I just don't like the idea of traveling by a method that I haven't had a chance to examine or at least dispute about it with a specialist, in this case: quantum physicist."
Both Spike and Kroenen gave him stunned glare. Or rather Spike gave him stunned glare and in case of Kroenen it was presumed stunned glare because they couldn't really tell due to his mask. Neither of them knew of what the robot was talking about. The silence lasted for couple of seconds.
"You just hope you won't have to see it yourself." Robo added with air of finality.
"In this case, I assume that when you have said that you will drive us there it meant that we will not be traveling by train." Kroenen said. He has spent most of XXth century dealing with occult, warmongering and being frozen and he hadn't had any chance to experience modern means of train travel, a method he used to greatly enjoy as a young man. The short trip through the Channel Tunnel seemed promising so far.
"There is a car waiting for us on the other side." Robo confirmed.
"We will have to make a stop for the night." Door added. "We should reach our destination by tomorrow. While it doesn't really matter, it is preferable to approach our next recruit after the sunset."
"Why?" Robo seemed confused. "He hunts at any given time."
"He prefers darkness when it is easier for him to hide from praying eyes." Door explained. "Don't forget that he is rather private creature who likes to keep a low profile."
oOo
It was so late that it was actually early when they finally reached their destination. They have spent the previous night in a hotel, then they drove the almost whole day with short breaks for easting, using toilet and just stretching. The whole time Robo insisted at not having Door to get them to their destination. Door didn't want to argue even though she was getting sick and tired of car travel.
When they finally arrived it was dark, cold and raining but they were determined. The forest at night seemed not as much eerie as plain scary. It was not some well cultivated orchard; it was wild, primeval and immense. It could humble every supremacist claiming of human race's might. The monumental trees surrounded them and their crowns disappeared in dense darkness above them. Despite the cold and late time of year all kinds of creatures were making noises that disturbed the silence of night. The rain was dripping through the partially naked branches far above their heads, not all of it reached the forest's floor. The light from their electric torches only made everything even more far-out as their light revealed only parts of their surroundings making the darkness around them even more intense.
They walked for some time before Door decided that it was time to stop. They were standing next to large oak with thick, straight trunk. They looked around; their hoods narrowed their field of vision.
"Fine. What now?" Robo adjusted the fabric of his hood so it would not fall over his optics. "How do you find someone who is basically unfindable?"
"You make that someone to come to you." Door explained and reached to her pocket. "He does not live in single place. You can say that he is nomadic in his nature but he resides in forested and secluded places and only goes to more populated areas to hunt or for whatever else needs he has." She produced a small vial. "We will summon him."
"What's that?" Spike narrowed his eyes at the vial; it was hard to tell for the vial was made of dark brown glass. In poor light his cat-like pupils dilated into almost round shape.
"A calf's blood." Door explained.
"I did not realise we would perform occult ceremonies." Robo glared at the vial as if it offended him.
"Neither did me. Can I offer a hand?" Kroenen asked. Neither he nor Spike knew who it was that they would now summon since they were not told but he had his suspicions.
"It is not an occult ceremony." Door shook her head and her hood rustled. "We just need to make a sign, a symbol, that our candidate will recognise and answer to and this is a protected area. We cannot simply carve it in the bark so we need to paint it with 'paint' that will vanish quickly. Additionally this blood is of the kind that he prefers and should make him this much more eager to arrive."
"You know, this is absurd." Robo huffed. "It is scientifically impossible to summon someone just by painting something."
"Doctor Tesla, if science teaches us anything it is that we do not know everything about the universe we live in." Kroenen stepped closer. "I am telling this as both a scientist and an occultist."
"Sure…" Robo crossed his arms over his chest.
"Doctor Kroenen, leave him be." Door unscrewed the top of the vial revealing a thick brush. "He will see for himself."
She reached and painted a circle on the tree bark and then crossed the circle with an X. The blood was dripping form the sign but it was there, glistering in the torch's light.
"Now what?" Spike asked looking around. "Invocations?" He too was sceptical of this whole situation.
"We wait." Door screwed the vial close again and put it in her pocket. "The time if optimal and we're in a right place."
"If that someone, whoever that its, likes old woods that much then why get here?" Spike was glaring at the symbol as if it was about to jump of off the tree. "Why not use any random patch of trees? Or even larger woods?"
"At this time of year this is the right place. There are people living around it but the place itself is wild. It is both large and small enough to hand around for the last weeks of autumn. And in this part of Europe there are enough old post-war bunkers that he can have a cosy winter lair while also being close to his natural habitat." Door explained. "This entity is closely connected to people but prefers solitude and clean environment. It is old, it lives in woods but it also changes along with humanity, adapting and embracing all the changes that happen around him, using them to his advantage."
"Uhhh!" Spike massaged his temples.
"What is it?" Door asked worried. They had some pain killers but she left it back in the car.
"For a moment I felt like I was among other Wraith again." Spike explained lowering his hands. The sudden prick of pain was now gone. "I am fine now."
"What does that mean?" Kroenen observed the green skinned man.
"Wraith are telepaths." Door informed the occultist. "I was told that they are capable of limited mind reading of other species and of causing hallucinations but they mostly use telepathy among themselves."
"But I doubt there is another Wraith around." Spike took a deep breath. "I would smell their pheromones."
"Then perhaps you're suffering from migraine?" Kroenen proposed.
"No." Spike denied. "It is gone now."
"Should it return we have pain killers in the car." Door gestured to the direction they came from. "You can get it when he will arrive and we're done here. Just be patient."
"I… "Robo glared at something behind Door. "I… don't think he needs to be patient." He finished with his optics round in either astonishment or shock.
"What?" Door glared at the robot and then turned around. She just realised that the forest went absolutely silent and has been like that for a long moment now…
He stood there, next to a tree few meters away from them. He was dressed the exact same way as the tales told: on black business suit, black tie and impeccably white shirt. He was also soaked in the rain. The suit seemed to be rather thing and the shirt clearly stuck to his body, they could see that he had a tank top underneath the shirt. He was indeed slender, though not sickly thin, it showed that while more than just lean it didn't mean that he had stick thin limbs, the slimness came from his body proportions. He was tall, at the moment he was two heads taller than Spike but it didn't mean anything as it was said that he could alter his size. His height, however, only stressed just how off his proportions were.
"Now do you trust me?" Door asked Robo, not really knowing how to behave now. She never expected to feel that intimidated.
"I'm not sure." Robo answered. He knew he shouldn't be seeing what he saw right now, and yet it was there. In plain sight.
"Slenderman… "Door decided to just get to the point of why she was bothering the creature. "Umm… we are here to ask you if you would be willing…"
"Ungh." Spike groaned. He wasn't accustomed to such intensity, especially from a male creature. Wraith Queens could be even more invasive but their presence felt differently, more subtle.
"Err… "Door turned to Spike who grabbed his head with one hand and staggered. It was Kroenen who caught him preventing from possible fall.
"Ohh… Sweet Queen… "Spike moaned and regained his balance. He never really liked being mind probed, no matter how gentle the Queen was, but having such a close contact with creature so alien to him was entire new level of unpleasant. Slenderman wasn't even bent on being intentionally cruel, but he didn't go out of his way to be gentle either.
And the entity didn't even try to brutally force himself in, just looking around his brain.
"Spike?" Door called worried. This wasn't what she expected to happen.
"I'm fine." Spike let go of his head and sighed with relief. The intense presence of Slenderman was gone. "He just took me by surprise." The Wraith shrugged the rest of the sensation and winced again. He sensed the creature again. Only this time instead of mind spinning assault it was a gentle touch, a sensation not unlike hearing something in between buzzing of many small insects and the white noise on the radio.
"Are you sure?" Door insisted.
"Yes. He says that he knows what you want from him." Spike took a deep breath. Now that the Slenderman was simply talking to him it felt much less detestable.
"Oh… I forgot that you are a telepath." Door glanced at Slenderman who stood in his place soaking in the rain patiently.
"He apparently is too." Spike nodded. "He says that he doesn't care and to live him be."
"What? No, you mustn't decline!" Door's eyes grew large. She didn't expect such a flat refuse.
The creature stared at her with its eyeless face, then it cocked its head to the side.
"He asks how all of this is his business." Spike passed the question. Now, after a moment, Spike found the entity's aura changed. Naturally it was nothing like Wraith, but the creature seemed to tune better to Spike's mind making the contact less offensive with every single thought passed between them. It was quite fascinating since Wraith were not able to make the contact between them and humans any more agreeable no matter what they would do.
"Well… the people we're after will change everything." Door desperately tried to think of a reason why a creature like Slenderman would care about cultural changes. "Your hunting grounds would change, perhaps even vanish!" She stated.
Spike looked at the Slenderman, who in turn leaned nonchalantly against the nearest tree.
"He asks: how?" Spike looked back at Door. From his point of view it was quite interesting.
"In many ways." Door felt sick now. Thinking about consequences of failure made her ill. But it did provide her with arguments she needed now. "In short term, they will terrorise the people so they will be more cautious. They will keep a closer look on their families; they will not allow their children to run free." She said knowing well enough about what Slenderman was hunting. "And children will be scared too, scared children are obedient children, you know that. And you are only allowed to hunt down and devour disobedient children." She added just for the sake of clarity.
Slenderman stretched his slim arm in gesture indicating that he was listening and wanted Door to continue. The rest of the team was observing the 'conversation' with awe.
"In the long run you may not have any place to hunt at all." Door continued as asked. "You originate from European culture; you reached this realm through European pagan folklore and took many names and forms in the various regions and with the passing centuries and millenniums." She said. "If the jihadists will win, if they will reach their ultimate goal, you will perish for there will no longer be a place for you in this world. They wish to destroy western culture that derives directly from Europe, and that means your destruction as well."
Slenderman stood there leaning on the tree for a long moment. The rain intensified and more of it was reaching the bottom of the forest. Finally he directed his attention to Spike.
"He says that he survived all the wars that roared in the world and he is not afraid of another one." Spike repeated Slenderman's words and then gulped when he sensed what the creature said next. "He says that Doctor Kroenen will recognise the concept of the mankind's utter fate."
"I most definitely do." Kroenen spoke for the first time in a long moment. "As it was the ulterior reason behind our Master's, Rasputin, work. It is how nature works."
"Uhh, Slenderman says that he is not the one to stand in the way of nature, especially that he is its enforcer." Spike repeated the creature's words. "He says that we shouldn't either and that the events will unfold as they will."
"Normally I would agree." Kroenen nodded his head toward the Slenderman. "But in this situation I cannot. It is not time yet for humankind to enter its death throes. This is not how the humankind is to come to an end."
"This is sick!" Robo couldn't take it anymore. "You're talking about genocide!"
"I am not." Kroenen disagreed. "I am talking about natural order of things. This happened in the past and it must happen in the future. Such is the fate of every species. This is the second human race that exists and, at some point, it must perish to make place for the next, third throw of mankind, just as the first human race, the Hiperboreans, perished to make place for the one that exist currently."
"Hiperboreans?" Spike asked. "You mean the Lanteans?" He knew that modern humans were but the second wave of mankind and that the Lanteans belonged to the first, original one.
"They have had many names." Kroenen shrugged but didn't confirm or deny Spike's assumption. "They were powerful enough to change worlds, but even them in all their power could not change the laws of nature and universe and evade their ultimate fate."
"He asks if you're sure about that." Spike nodded at the Slenderman who detached himself from the tree and stood in what seemed to be an attention.
"The Conqueror Worm has been stopped before it could sing, the 369 hasn't been released and the tomb of Ogdru Jahad remains sealed tight shut." Kroenen nodded. "The humankind's time has not come yet. It mustn't perish before its time, not unless it is to be reborn as the third mankind."
Slenderman nodded and looked at the forest floor in deep thought. He stood there for a moment as the rain fell on everyone. The night was passing slowly, but the night creatures remained silent, pretending that they were not there.
Then he lifted his head and stared at Spike. The Wraith nodded. The presence of Slenderman seemed normal to him now.
"He said that he will join." Spike informed them. "He says that the last thing he needs is to have overzealous mortals ruining his hunting grounds."
"Oh, good." Door sighed and smiled. "Do you need to pack or change into something dry?" She asked with concern. The creature was soaked.
Slenderman shook his head 'no'.
"Well then, our car is that way." She gestured at the direction they came from.
Slenderman looked at her for a moment and then turned and started to walk in the direction she pointed at. The rest of them quickly followed.
"You do realise he is not a demon." Robo turned to Door. "He's probably just a stray creature from a dimension that is hyperspacially 'close' to ours, probably very much like the vampire dimension."
"Must you explain everything with quantum physics?" Door asked. It was funny how he tried to explain everything scientifically.
"Yes. I do not buy any of that occult hogwash." Robo insisted stubbornly. "Everything has scientific explanation."
"It is the matter of how you look at it." Kroenen explained. "Arthur C. Clarke said that advanced enough technology is indistinguishable from magic.2)"
"So?"
"And Mark Twain said that the reason why the truth seems so much stranger than fiction is that it is not obliged to stick to possibilities.3)" Kroenen continued. "Think of this: if you cannot understand or analyse the occult then perhaps it is not because occults is nonsense but because you lack appropriate tools to examine it and because your science is not advanced enough?"
"And Slenderman says that he is not 'stray' and that Vampire Dimension has nothing on him but it is boring." Spike added. "Whatever he might mean by that and whatever the Vampire Dimension is." He said in his own name.
"So, you're all against me?" Robo asked rhetorically.
"Nec Hercules contra plures4), Robo." Door laughed. "Just stop being so tensed and just take it all as it comes."
"Maybe you'll learn something." Spike agreed.
"Is that what Slenderman says?" Robo gave the Wraith annoyed look.
"No. That's what I say." Spike grinned in a way that only Wraith can.
TBC
OK. Since while LoEG fic, the LoEG is in itself a crossover, so do not worry if you won't be familiar with any of the characters, if the need will arise it will be explain and if you will have any additional questions or something won't be clear, you can also contact me and ask and I will answer you to the best of my abilities.
Spoiler alert: this paragraph contains spoilers.
Slenderman – his timeline doesn't matter because frankly there is no official timeline for him as there is no official story, just the games and fan made stuff.
Also for those of you who have objections how Lady Door or Atomic Robo could bear to work with ex-Nazi scientist, Space Vampire and children devouring demon; I will have you informed that neither Door nor Robo are saints. Door pulled Richard into the problems he had to face after she left (no one saw him) knowing what will happen, and though she apologised, she didn't warn him. And Robo as moral as he is, does have a tiny mean streak in him (but that's why we adore him so). The moral is: Never say never, it is unhealthy (can cause dandruff, nausea, anal leakage and erectile disfunctions XD ). That and they're all made-up characters so they do what the writer tells them to do.
1) I know that it is an innocent kiddie's poem about imaginary friends or perhaps just how imaginative children can be. But when associated with Slenderman it just sounds so creepy that it is perfect for this chapter. Well, not all of it, just the two first verses but that's enough to make the impression.
And I only associated this poem with darker themes thanks to the Minutemen comic book that is sort of a prequel for Watchmen. Those more versed in comic book world will recognise that Watchmen were written by Alan Moore (art by Dave Gibbons, colours by John Higgins), the same Alan Moore who wrote The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (art by Kevin O'Neil).
2) Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
3) "Truth is stranger than Fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't."
4) Not even Hercules can fight against two.
