Chapter 5
Surrey, England
Croft Manor.
08:00 24th June 1994.
The team were gathered and spread out through the kitchen, sipping coffee and eating toast, having arrived back here a couple of hours ago, they had taken the chance to wash and get a change of clothes.
"Ok so what is the plan?" Jason asked.
"We need to confirm Hailey has been taken to the Headquarters." Lara answered and the other's nodded looking to Nathaniel. "Nathaniel could you scry for her again?"
"If she is in Watcher's Council headquarters, I won't be able to find her." Nathaniel replied. "But then you figured that didn't you, and this is a way of knowing where she is or not?"
"Good now what do we know about the headquarters?" Lara asked.
"Three storey mansion on the edge of London, that houses most of the offices of the Council, but their security measures appear to be normal, they are anything but, everything is mystically guarded and it would take a lot to get past." Hilary answered.
"Ok what about Hailey where will she be held?" Evy asked.
"In the mansion sublevels most probably." Nathaniel answered. "There are five levels beneath the mansion that deal with the Council's more darker agendas and storage facilities for things that should never exist and never see the light of day."
"What about entry?" Alex asked.
"We can teleport into the mansion, there maybe a few rooms we won't be able to teleport into, including the council's main chamber, also the subs levels will be blocked." Hilary answered. "I would suggest three teams, one per floor of the mansion clear it first, and then clear the sub levels afterwards."
"Doing that we run the risk of them killing Hailey before we get to her." Lara answered. "Are you three sure there is no way to port into the sublevels?"
"Actually there I can help." A dark skinned man dressed in a suit wearing an eye patch said followed by two women and another man entering the study having quite a few weapons drawn on the them.
Lara felt a buzz from one of the woman, and something like a buzz from the other man, looking to Hilary who just smiled and nodded, she shrugged pulling one of her 45's close.
"And who would you be?" Lara asked levelling her two USP 45 of the lead man.
"Colonel Nick Fury Lara, I called him." Hilary answered.
"Ok Colonel what is your interest in this?" Lara asked as they all lowered their weapons having had one of their own vouch for him.
"I am the director of Strategic Hazards Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate, we call ourselves S.H.I.E.L.D." Nick replied. "Our job is to deal with threats to the security of the world, against terrorism, invasions and demonic activity, the Watcher's Council has been under surveillance by us for quite sometime."
"So why have you never struck at them before?" James asked.
"Never enough evidence to connect them to any crime, also we cannot find all the holdings of the Council, we are pretty sure they have secured locations all over the world but we don't know where." One of the females with the Colonel replied.
"Who are your friends Colonel?" Alex asked.
"Natasha Romanoff aka the Black Widow, Clint Barton aka Hawkeye, and this is Elizabeth Cryer." Nick answered pulling a folder out and passing it over. "That contains direct plans of the Watcher's Council headquarters, including how best to enter the sub levels."
"Ok, what do you want in return?" Indiana asked.
"A copy of their database concerning demons etc." Nick answered. "I figure you won't want anyone else getting hold of what's in the vaults, but I don't think you would have a problem with sharing the demonic database do you?"
"Shouldn't be a problem, but we will want to check it first, make sure there is nothing that can harm anyone we know." Nathaniel replied.
"We aren't going to use it for that, we are just trying to get a handle on the demonic world." Natasha stated.
"And we understand that, but are you saying there isn't someone who could use for their own purposes, within S.H.I.E.LD or those you report too." Lara asked but none of the four commented. "You want anything else Fury?"
"Thought you could use these four, plus the ops teams I have prepping in London for this rescue." Nick replied.
"Would be helpful." Lara commented. "Don't suppose we could swing thermal imaging as well could we."
"I'll look into it." Nick replied teleporting out
London, England,
Watcher Council Headquarter, Location Unknown (Mystically hidden).
08:40
Quentin Travers stood before the Council, not as a member but as the head of the Slayer Liaison Department, to explain his action over the last 24 hours.
"So you brought the subject here?" Jacque demanded.
"Sir I believed as it has been shown we were to be raid, by unknown parties who knew of all the safe house locations, but only knew the headquarters was somewhere in London." Quentin answered. "I believed this fact, combined with that there would be no way for them to determine our exact location, our best option sir."
"Yes well that may well be, but you should have consulted the Council." Liam demanded.
"Maybe I should have consulted the Council, but by the time a decision was made we may have been hit, and have lost the target back to the enemy." Travers snapped.
"Yes well there is nothing else can be done for now." Jacque replied. "How does the conversion progress?"
"She is a very stubborn subject, who seems to regain all her strength when she loses conscious, but with Mr Giles working her over physically and mentally 24 hours a day, we will have her broken and working for us very soon." Travers answered.
"Very well." Liam answered. "But we may wish to think about moving her to our American facility, that way preventing anyone from finding her at all."
"That may bare thought, I am wanting to have the security over there evaluated, I have just received reports that two of their subjects of their projects have recently escaped, and I wish someone to go over and fully evaluate their security measures." Jacque answered.
"Who do you wish to go?" Lady Cassandra asked.
"For the moment I am not sure." Jacque replied. "Meeting adjourned."
Everyone except Lady Cassandra left.
"Yes what is it Cassandra?" Jacque asked seriously.
"Yes are no longer safe here the subject will be rescued." Lady Cassandra stated. "To interfere is to bring the rafe of powerful people down onto us, we would not survive, let the subject escape and escape with the Council."
Then Cassandra just disappeared.
"Interesting." Jacque said thoughtfully. "Very interesting,"
Surrey, England
Croft Manor.
14:00
Having been planning all day with the help of the people left by Fury, Lara and the others were pretty sure they had a solid plan of action, they would be split up into strike teams. Each team would hit a different section of the mansion for different reasons, ranging from getting Hailey and getting out, to finding and securing the vault and mainframe to attempting to catch anyone on the Council's itself. Though they knew this very unlikely as the Ruling Council would leave once the raid started until their forces secured the mansion, they just hoped to catch a straggler.
The team for Hailey were Hilary, Bryce, Elizabeth, and two special ops soldiers, while Lara had wanted to go with them she knew she would be better suited dealing with the vault, Nathaniel, Jonathan and three ops soldiers. The team hitting the Council would be Alex and Jason O'Connell, Indiana Jones, James Bond and Natasha Romanoff, the rest would be sweeping through the building cleaning out holdings of Watcher's and their records.
"Ok teams we will be using an old mansion near the headquarters, as our staging area." Nathaniel stated. "I already sent the ops unit and S.H.I.E.L.D personnel ahead of us, to secure the premises and await our arrival."
"Ok why the separation?" Bryce asked concerned.
"Do we completely trust this group?" Lara asked.
"I served with Fury in World War 2, him and his howlers, were well known for doing whatever it took to complete the mission." Hilary answered. "And from what I understand it that is how S.H.I.E.L.D operates, I think they will be straight with us in this raid and I trust Fury it is the people he reports to I am not sure about."
"So we trust Fury and those he has provide us with, but not the people he may report too." Alex said and the others nodded. "Ok so what are we going to do about it, we can't do this raid without them or their support, and I don't like the idea of not giving them the database either, if they are willing to support us in this private action I think we owe that to them."
"Agreed." Nathaniel answered and everyone nodded. "Ok people lets get ready I can open a portal to nearby the mansion, it should be secluded enough to allow us to exit without being spotted.
The group began picking up their weapons and equipment, with Lara taking her pistols, shotgun and MP5 assault rifle with silencer, seeing that she and Hilary were alone.
"Hilary one of the woman is an immortal yes?" Lara asked.
"Yes Natasha, an old associate of mine, she won't be a problem." Hilary answered.
"What about the man I can feel something, almost like the buzz of one of us, but not quite there." Lara replied and Hilary nodded. "What does that mean?"
"That he will be one of us when he dies his first death, he is what you used to before you died." Hilary answered and Lara nodded and they both walked out of the study.
London,
Abandon Mansion, Operation Staging Area.
14:30.
Natasha and Clint sat in the lounge area, on a couple of un-ended boxes, the rest spread out through the mansion some on watch for anyone approaching, the others either resting or cleaning their weapons.
"I don't like this Natasha." Clint commented sipping his soda.
"What don't you like Hawkeye, I thought you were all go for taking down scum like these watchers." Natasha answered.
"No I have no problem with that, it the fact the colonel has us reporting to outsiders, and letting them run the mission as well." Clint answered. "Not that some of them aren't good at what they do, but this should be handle by us internally, hell we didn't even bother to complete a full background check on the lead parties."
"I know what you mean but the Colonel believes in them, and trusts them to do the right thing." Natasha replied. "Besides we are here to make sure they do the right thing, and pick-up the pieces when they go wrong and they will go wrong, this group has no organisation no leadership."
"Yes well I don't think this group has been gathered before this." Clint replied. "I think they were all gathered for the purposes of rescuing the young girl, and they all were able to contribute something to make them useful enough to be called upon for this."
"We have incoming," A male voice said over the walkie talkie.
"Identify." Natasha stated grabbing her two 45 as Clint grabbed his bow.
"Looks like our 'friends' are arriving." Elizabeth answered.
"Good." Natasha replied holstering both her 45.
Standing with Clint still carrying his bow, with a sash of different arrows strapped across his back, they walked out of the lounge moving to the front of the mansion to greet their guests. By the time they reach the front door of the mansion Clint had secured his bow across his back, as they opened the doors to be greeted by Hilary Lara and Nathaniel with the others behind them.
"Welcome." Natasha said allowing them to enter then to her throat mike. "Sentries remain in place, everyone else gather in the lounge for briefing."
Lara glanced at her in surprise.
"We don't want anyone finding us un-prepared Lady Croft." Natasha commented.
"No it's not a problem." Lara answered smiling. "Just surprised that is all."
"We always have sentries watching every angle, when we have a base of operation." Clint answered. "Standard operating procedure, along with an every 5 minute check in, it helps to keep us live and in business."
"What do you have planned?" Natasha asked as they entered the lounge.
"Three assault teams going after the council, the vaults and my sister stacked with our specialists and your people, and the rest performing roaming patrols to pick-up stragglers." Lara answered.
"A well thought out plan." Clint replied. "We would like to stack the specialist teams, with our special ops troops, they are fully trained for black ops and may spot something you don't."
"Already accounted for, excluding the Council raid the other two teams have ops troops, and we would like Natasha on the council raid." Hilary answered and Clint nodded. "With yourself and Miss Cryer leading the roaming teams."
"When do we strike?" Natasha asked.
"Sunset." Nathaniel answered smiling.
London, England,
Watcher Council Headquarter, Location Unknown (Mystically hidden).
08:40
Travers sat in his office reviewing the reports for the last few days, when Rupert Giles entered looking rather tired and exhausted.
"How goes the interrogation Ripper old friend?" Travers asked sitting back in his chair.
"Very damn slowly, every time I think I am getting close to breaking her, she passes out and when she recovers she is back where she started." Giles reported. "I wish we could intuit a mystical block, but that would interfere with the work, I wish it was the old days when you could torture someone into obeying you."
"I know what you mean, but there are modern methods you may wish to try." Travers said smiling, when alarms sounded all around them.
"What the hell is that?" Giles demanded.
"We are being invaded." Travers replied in shock.
"Shit who by?" Giles demanded. "You don't think it someone trying to rescue my subject do you?"
"Possibly, but they shouldn't have been able to do this, no one knows the location here apart from those deadly loyal to the Council." Travers replied.
"What do we do?" Giles demanded.
"Leave while we can." Travers replied casting a teleportation spell.