A/N: In response to a random review: Look, sweetheart, the references are from One Last Adventure, unless you've forgotten that Jekyll got married in that story. And also, in this chapter I introduce a few characters of my own creation. Enjoy.
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CHAPTER 3
LONDON, ENGLAND
ALBION MUSEUM UNDERGROUND LIBRARY
SPECIAL BRANCH MEETING PLACE
Allan entered the library, so full of memories he didn't want to have. A bandage was wrapped around his head, and he still had a slight headache after that baddie hit him over the noggin with a unlit gas lamp.
He didn't want to be here; he wanted to be out in the streets, looking for Will and his kidnappers. Judging from the expressions on his friend's faces, Allan guessed something similar had happened to the rest of the League. Why is it now that there is a emergency?
Skinner sat at the far end of the table, scowling. He was in even worse shape than Allan; his arm was wrapped up, obviously broken; an eye had a dark bruise surrounding it, and the eye was swollen almost shut. Skinner's head, like Allan's, had a bandage wrapped around the mass of red hair. A scowl as dark as midnight was pasted on Skinner's otherwise boyish face.
"Where's Nemo and the boy?" Allan asked, looking around. Tom and the Indian captain was no where to be seen.
"Dunno," Skinner replied. "And don't care."
Mina, looked as composed as ever even though she was seated in one chair down from Skinner. Dorian stood behind her, his manicured hands resting on the back of her seat. If I didn't know better, Allan thought, I'd say she's been crying.
Jekyll paced nervously around the room, and for once, Skinner didn't bother to stop the doctor. Jekyll checked his pocketwatch every few seconds, just like he used to in the first mission.
At Allan's entrance, Skinner's scowl deepened. "So, dear Mycroft can't even bother to show up on time? I have an appointment to keep, you know."
"With a pretty barmaid?" Dorian said, dryly. Skinner looked as if he would jump the immortal and strangle him there and then, but the formerly-invisible man just scowled deeper, if such a thing were possible.
"He's right," Jekyll told Dorian. "We all have something to do right now, don't we? Besides waiting here for Mr. Holmes?"
"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, gentlemen, Mrs. Gray," Mycroft Holmes said as he entered, Dominicus Pike, his assistant, following behind him. The huge brother of the famous detective hadn't changed over the past seven years since the League members had last seen him. "But I called you here because I believe that all of you have the same problem."
"Same problem?" Skinner made a rude noise as Mycroft took a seat at the end of the table, near where Allan stood. "Somehow I don't think so."
"Skinner, shut up," Mina said, quiet danger in her voice. "Let the man finish."
"Thank you, Mrs. Gray." Mycroft inclined his head in her direction. "I take it that you all know that your children are missing?"
A deadly silence came down upon the room. Skinner sat up a little straighter and Jekyll stopped pacing. Mina narrowed her eyes and Dorian tightened his grip on the back of her chair. Allan himself paid a little more attention.
"How did you know?" Allan asked, suspicious and instantly wary.
Skinner's scowl darkened, if that were possible. There was obvious malice in his voice. "What is that supposed to mean, Holmes?"
"Skinner," Allan, Dorian and Mina said, "Shut up."
"Well." Pike spoke up and passed manila folders down the table. Jekyll finally took a seat next to Skinner, and Allan lowered himself into another. Mina shared a folder with Dorian, who read over her shoulder.
"Who's this?" Dorian asked everyone in general. "And what has it to do with the disappearance of our children?"
"The person in the picture is Lady Jesse Heathrow, daughter of the late Lord Edward Heathrow. She and her friends can help you," Mycroft explained. "They are...unique in certain areas."
"Unique?" Mina asked, looking up from her folder. "How so?"
"Lady Heathrow is gifted in certain arts," Pike said. "Her friends are very much like her in the sense that they can do similar things."
"You need to fetch her, or, at least, get her to help you," Mycroft said. "She is currently in her mansion; her friends live with her. They would be your best chance if you want to get your children back."
Dorian's brow lifted. "And what about Nemo and that American?"
"Here," a voice came from a back door. Allan turned and saw, much to his relief, Tom and Nemo enter. "Sorry we're late."
"Not at all, Captain, Agent," Pike said. "Although the rest of them were just about to set off."
"We will join you," Nemo said. Allan saw that the dark eyes were clouded over, as if something was on Nemo's analytical mind. "The automobile waits outside."
"Actually," Pike interrupted politely, "Lady Heathrow's mansion is in the countryside. In order to get there in time for nightfall, we have transportation arranged and waiting."
"Nightfall?" Mina asked, raising one elegant brow. "One of them is a vampire?"
Pike and Mycroft refused to say anything, and sent them on their way to their "transportation": an airplane, the new-fangled invention of the Wright brothers. Well, maybe not exactly new, but the technology was fairly untested for commercial use.
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NEAR KEW GARDENS, ENGLAND (#1)
SOME TIME OUT OF LONDON
As the plane landed, Dorian and Mina were the last to come out. Dorian surveyed the surrounding countryside; he didn't exactly like it, but he could live with it. Dusk was falling, and the sun hung low in the sky, but not yet setting.
Off in the distance, a large estate loomed, blocking out the sun's rays in the garden. Dorian supposed the only time when the sun shined into the small garden was noon. Allan led the way to the front gate, and rang the bell.
A man dressed in a butler's suit appeared. "How may I help you, sirs? And madam?"
Skinner noticed Dorian's slight amusement at that. He hid another scowl beneath his cast.
"We're looking for Lady Heathrow," Allan told the butler. "It's of major importance that we see her now."
"The Lady is busy," the butler replied indignantly. "She requests no visitors."
As the great hunter and the butler argued, tom looked up at the sky, so beautiful with its shades of blue, pink, read and golds. He liked it, although the sunset had seemed more forlorn to him as of late, ever since Alice had gone missing. He ran a hand through his blonde mass of hair again. He had went to the police, but he guessed something bigger was afoot, because the League had been called back into action.
Besides, since when did all the children either related in some way or born to all of the League members go missing at the same time?
This is way too fishy, Tom thought, looking around as the gate swung open inwards. Allan had won the argument and the League members walked down the path that winded through the opulent garden and were finally admitted into the Heathrow household.
Lady Jesse Heathrow was beautiful, with dark eyes gleaming with intelligence, so uncommon for ladies in her high social position. Her long, black hair hung until mid-waist, free from any restraints. She wore a simple cotton frock, not wasting her money on the dresses that London's society wore.
"Ma'am," Allan greeted. He took her hand. "My name is — "
"— Allan Quatermain," Jesse finished for him as she adjusted her hand so that she could shake Allan's instead of letting him kiss the back of her wrist. "I know. Mycroft has been in contact."
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(#1) Credits to Vesica and the story "A Place In Thy Memory", Chapter 11. I got the Kew gardens thing from there. Thank you for the help (if unintended) and be nice; don't sue. And I have no idea if there are any estates near the Gardens, so, let's pretend that there are.