Disclaimer: None of the League here are mine, and Eilidh and Fiona belong
to themselves and their names are used here with their permission.
Feedback: Much appreciated
Jezrianna: A good point you made, but I'll just explain my reasons for having the books exist here. In the novelization of 'LXG', it was commented that Dorian Gray used to be a friend of Oscar Wilde, which suggests to me that Wilde may have written his book about Gray in their reality.
Also, since LXG sets the League characters in the same world as Sherlock Holmes, it occurred to me that a couple of books written by the mystery writer Loren D. Estlemen ('Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula', and 'Doctor Jekyll and Mr Holmes', in which the great detective investigates the cases of Count Dracula and Mr Hyde) may very well have actually happened; in which case, the books would have been genuinely published, since it was stated in both books that 'Dracula' and 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde' were written, but passed off as fiction because society wouldn't accept them as fact.
Therefore, I am basing this story on the assumption that the League at large were believed to be fiction even in their world, and only a few people know that they actually existed as anything other than words on paper.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 2004
After another half-hour's driving, Bond pulled to a halt outside a large, solid-looking building near the centre of New York. Baring its size, it was unremarkable; grey stonework, a simple set of stairs leading up, windows dotted around about a metre or so apart from each other all over the front of it, a basic wooden double door, the usual sort of thing. The only thing that prevented you from thinking the building was deserted was a sign just above the door, with one word on it.
SHELTER.
"Not much, is it?" Fiona said to Bond, as the three of them got out of the car and looked at the building in front of them.
"It's not meant to be too fancy," Harry replied, as Bond locked the car and the three of them walked up the steps towards the door. "The women who runs this place is generally trying to keep her very existence quiet, to say nothing of this shelter."
"What did she do to merit that kind of secrecy?" Fiona asked, as they opened the door and began to walk along the corridor. It wasn't much more interesting than the outside of the building had been; the whole corridor was in a uniform shade of white on all the walls and the ceiling, with the floor a dark blue in colour.
"She was targeted by a crime organisation led by a man calling himself 'the Kingpin', Bond explained. "She was nearly killed by them, but fortunately she was saved by some policemen who found her body and managed to get her heart beating again long enough for her to be taken to a hospital and saved. However, it was regarded as being too risky for her to return to public life, even though the Kingpin had been stopped-"
"By the vigilante called 'the Daredevil'?" Fiona asked. "I read about that in the papers." She frowned and turned to Bond. "Talking of Daredevil, why aren't we trying to recruit him?"
"There's one very good reason why we're not," Bond replied. "A couple of our agents have managed to work out his true identity, but his extraordinary capabilities make it difficult for him to fight in a team with anyone by his side."
"Why's that?" Fiona asked.
"He's blind," Bond replied, as he continued walking.
Harry and Fiona stopped short, staring at Bond in disbelief.
Bond stopped and looked back at them. "Let me guess, you're wondering how he can do what he can do if he's blind?"
"Well... yeah," Fiona replied, while Harry just stared ahead of himself in a slight state of shock.
"He lost his sight when he was hit in the eyes with the contents of a drum of radioactive waste," Bond explained, as Harry finally got himself back to reality and started listening to Bond. "As you know, when a man looses one of his senses the other four heighten to compensate for it; in Daredevil's case, the radiation heightened his senses to a far higher degree than normal. As a result, his hearing functions as a sort of radar, allowing him to build up a coherent picture of his surroundings just by the sound that's made."
"Oh, I think I understand," Harry said, speaking for the first time since they'd entered the building. "His heightened hearing allows him to detect where anyone is, but it can be more difficult when he's fighting with someone; with too many people around him, he might not have time to determine if they're on his side or not."
"Exactly," Bond replied, as he continued to walk down the hall. Glancing around them as they walked behind him, Fiona and Harry noticed doors leading to some of the other rooms in the shelter; a dining room, a room filled with several chairs and a television in the centre, a large library filled with books of all shapes and sizes, and several assorted bedrooms. Fiona noted that the rooms were far more comfortable than you'd normally find in these shelters; evidently, its owner had a lot of cash to spare.
Finally, they arrived at a door right at the end of the corridor. Fiona noted the writing on it; it simply said 'Caroline Murdock, Manager'.
Glancing over at Bond, Fiona raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Her alias from the protection program?" she asked the spy.
"Exactly," Bond said, as he knocked on the door.
"Come in," a female voice said from the other side of the door. Bond opened the door and the three of them walked into the office.
The office wasn't the largest of rooms, but it had a fair amount of stuff in it despite that. There were two large bookshelves against the opposite wall, and a couple of plants to either side of the door. In front of them was a desk that, if it had been up against the wall, would have stretched half the length of the room, made of a dark red-and-brown wood. There were four chairs in front of the desk, all looking fairly comfortable.
The woman sitting behind the desk was tall and in good shape without being especially muscular, with brilliant green eyes and rich brown hair that reached down to around the middle of her back. Her skin was smooth and positively glowed, the only thing spoiling the effect being a slight scar on her neck and a wound in her left hand. She was wearing a blue denim jacket and jeans, with a white sleeveless top.
"Yes?" she asked them, looking up as Harry shut the door. "Can I help you three?"
"I think you can... tell me, would you prefer Miss Caroline Murdock, or Miss Elektra Natchios?" Bond asked, looking at her casually.
The woman tensed up, and she looked at the three of them with a sudden spark of worry in her eyes.
"We're not with the Kingpin," Harry said, trying to sound assuring. "We just want to talk to you."
Elektra relaxed slightly, but she still appeared very on-edge. "You have my attention," she said simply. "Take a seat."
"My name is James Bond," Bond said, as the three of them sat down in two of the chairs. "These are my colleagues, Harry Potter and Fiona Brand. We are members of a team the British and American Governments are setting up, and they are interested in recruiting you as a member."
"Really?" Elektra said, as she sat back in her chair and listened. "You've got my attention, but I'd prefer to know exactly what I'll be expected to work with."
"Well, there is this," Fiona said, as she stood up. Suddenly, she vanished.
"What the..." Elektra said. Suddenly, Fiona's voice started to speak from thin air.
"That's what I can do, just for your reference," the voice said, before Fiona reappeared standing beside the office door. "I was only recently recruited, but these two have filled me in on what they can do; James is Britain's best secret agent, and Harry's a wizard."
"There's a fourth member as well," Harry put in. "He calls himself 'the Doctor'. He's a time traveller and an alien, and serves as our resident scientist." Elektra stared a little at that last comment. He shrugged. "Hey, who said you had to be human to care about the fate of Earth?"
Elektra nodded a little, then she turned back to the matter at hand. "Exactly what would I be fighting if I joined you?"
"Vampiric assassins," Bond stated simply. "We're not sure who's behind them, but the current theory is that they have some kind of connection to a criminal empire that was in action over a century ago. They may have other agents that we don't know about, but the vampires are what we're aware of."
"I see," Elektra said, nodding slightly. Then she stared the three of them in the eye. "I'm not coming."
Bond blinked. "Pardon?" he asked.
Elektra sighed. "Not that I'm not grateful for you thinking I'll bring something to your team, but the truth is, I'm just some rich little girl who trained a lot. I don't qualify as being in your league."
"That's not exactly true, you know," Fiona said, looking the other woman straight in the eye.
"Believe me, it's true," Elektra replied harshly, standing up. "I only went into genuine action once in my life, and look at what it got me!"
And she pulled her top up to show her stomach.
The three of them briefly winced at the sight that greeted them; just above Elektra's belly button, there was a large, disfiguring scar that appeared to have been caused by something sharp getting stuck right in her chest. The files he'd read hadn't gone into that much detail, but Harry was fairly certain that whatever fight she'd sustained those wounds in was the fight that had led to her being put on the protection program.
Elektra lowered her top and sat down. "I'm not exactly that good at fighting people."
Bond sighed. "Maybe you're right," he said, as the three of them got up out of their seats and began to walk out. Suddenly, Bond reached into his pocket, whipped out his gun, and pointed it directly at Elektra's face.
Acting purely on instinct, Elektra knocked the gun right out of his hand, grabbed it, and had it pointing at his head before Bond had even realised what had happened.
Then she realised what she'd done. Dropping the gun, she stared at her hands in amazement.
Harry voiced the opinions of them all.
"You don't seem to be that useless," he said, smiling at her. "I certainly wouldn't like to get on your wrong side in a fight, and I'm a wizard." He held out his hand to her. "So, what do you say?"
Elektra looked down at his hand, looked around her at her office, and shrugged.
"What the hell," she said, shaking Harry's hand. "Just let me tie up a couple of loose ends her, and I'll be right with you."
*****
After about half an hour's driving, the four of them arrived back at the pier where they were to meet the Nautilus. Elektra had changed into her fighting outfit after handing the shelter over to a member of staff; she was now wearing a pair of leather trousers with high-heeled leather shoes, a sleeveless leather crop top that showed off her stomach (The effect slightly damaged by the wound), a leather strap around her neck and two above her elbows, and two glove-like things that stretched from below her elbows to her hands, but leaving her fingers uncovered. She had two sharp daggers clipped onto the sides of her trousers, and looked far deadlier than she had behind her desk.
"OK, so where's this incredible submarine we've heard so much about?" Fiona asked, looking over at Harry. "Is it invisible as well?"
"Just a moment," Bond said, as he pulled out the transmitter that Harry recognised from the previous time they'd called the Nautilus, and pushed the button.
Nothing happened immediately.
"Well, not that this isn't exhilarating in its own way, but..." Elektra said, just before the water in front of them started to bubble and churn fiercely.
"What the?" Fiona asked, starting to lean over to look at the disturbance, her inner scientist taking charge. Harry tapped her arm and she turned away to look at him. "Yes?"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you; the Nautilus could hit your head," Harry explained.
"The wh-" Fiona began, before the waters parted to reveal the massive submarine.
"Wow..." Elektra whispered, as the Nautilus stopped rising. A large hatch opened, and out drove a large, almost futuristic-looking car. It had six headlights, each gathered together inside a triangle-like shape with smooth edges, and long fins tapering to a smooth point behind it. It was simply round on the bottom, with no sign of wheels on it at all; it almost appeared to be floating above the ground. It was also remarkably long and spacious inside, from what the others could see; Fiona would even swear she could see a television.
The car stopped, and the Doctor got out.
"Ah, good to see you all!" he said, grinning and patting them all on the back. He then turned to Fiona and Elektra, and held out both hands to them. "How do you do, Miss Brand and Miss Natchios? I'm the Doctor, our resident scientist, and this," he said, waving his hand at the car, "is a little thing I call the League-mobile."
"I see..." Fiona said, as she looked at the car. She glanced over at the Doctor. "It's not exactly subtle, is it?"
"Well, we're hardly not going to draw some eyes in a crowd, are we?" the Doctor asked, grinning at his new friends. "Besides, it's remarkably fast, and it can hold all of us and our next four members with no trouble at all. I think that the fact that it looks rather unusual is a small price to pay for that."
Harry shrugged as he looked over at Fiona. "Good point, you have to admit," he said, smiling at the scientist.
Fiona sighed a little. "All right, let's go," she said, as she began to walk towards the car's main door. Just before she stepped inside, however, she turned back and looked at Bond. "Where are we going now, by the way?"
"Kansas," Bond replied, as he and the others began to walk towards the car as well. "A town called Smallville. There's been some interesting goings- on there, and we'll be recruiting the person who keeps it all under control."
"How does he pull that off?" Elektra asked, from her position at the back of the line.
The Doctor smiled. "He's the last of his species in the universe."
Feedback: Much appreciated
Jezrianna: A good point you made, but I'll just explain my reasons for having the books exist here. In the novelization of 'LXG', it was commented that Dorian Gray used to be a friend of Oscar Wilde, which suggests to me that Wilde may have written his book about Gray in their reality.
Also, since LXG sets the League characters in the same world as Sherlock Holmes, it occurred to me that a couple of books written by the mystery writer Loren D. Estlemen ('Sherlock Holmes vs. Dracula', and 'Doctor Jekyll and Mr Holmes', in which the great detective investigates the cases of Count Dracula and Mr Hyde) may very well have actually happened; in which case, the books would have been genuinely published, since it was stated in both books that 'Dracula' and 'Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde' were written, but passed off as fiction because society wouldn't accept them as fact.
Therefore, I am basing this story on the assumption that the League at large were believed to be fiction even in their world, and only a few people know that they actually existed as anything other than words on paper.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 2004
After another half-hour's driving, Bond pulled to a halt outside a large, solid-looking building near the centre of New York. Baring its size, it was unremarkable; grey stonework, a simple set of stairs leading up, windows dotted around about a metre or so apart from each other all over the front of it, a basic wooden double door, the usual sort of thing. The only thing that prevented you from thinking the building was deserted was a sign just above the door, with one word on it.
SHELTER.
"Not much, is it?" Fiona said to Bond, as the three of them got out of the car and looked at the building in front of them.
"It's not meant to be too fancy," Harry replied, as Bond locked the car and the three of them walked up the steps towards the door. "The women who runs this place is generally trying to keep her very existence quiet, to say nothing of this shelter."
"What did she do to merit that kind of secrecy?" Fiona asked, as they opened the door and began to walk along the corridor. It wasn't much more interesting than the outside of the building had been; the whole corridor was in a uniform shade of white on all the walls and the ceiling, with the floor a dark blue in colour.
"She was targeted by a crime organisation led by a man calling himself 'the Kingpin', Bond explained. "She was nearly killed by them, but fortunately she was saved by some policemen who found her body and managed to get her heart beating again long enough for her to be taken to a hospital and saved. However, it was regarded as being too risky for her to return to public life, even though the Kingpin had been stopped-"
"By the vigilante called 'the Daredevil'?" Fiona asked. "I read about that in the papers." She frowned and turned to Bond. "Talking of Daredevil, why aren't we trying to recruit him?"
"There's one very good reason why we're not," Bond replied. "A couple of our agents have managed to work out his true identity, but his extraordinary capabilities make it difficult for him to fight in a team with anyone by his side."
"Why's that?" Fiona asked.
"He's blind," Bond replied, as he continued walking.
Harry and Fiona stopped short, staring at Bond in disbelief.
Bond stopped and looked back at them. "Let me guess, you're wondering how he can do what he can do if he's blind?"
"Well... yeah," Fiona replied, while Harry just stared ahead of himself in a slight state of shock.
"He lost his sight when he was hit in the eyes with the contents of a drum of radioactive waste," Bond explained, as Harry finally got himself back to reality and started listening to Bond. "As you know, when a man looses one of his senses the other four heighten to compensate for it; in Daredevil's case, the radiation heightened his senses to a far higher degree than normal. As a result, his hearing functions as a sort of radar, allowing him to build up a coherent picture of his surroundings just by the sound that's made."
"Oh, I think I understand," Harry said, speaking for the first time since they'd entered the building. "His heightened hearing allows him to detect where anyone is, but it can be more difficult when he's fighting with someone; with too many people around him, he might not have time to determine if they're on his side or not."
"Exactly," Bond replied, as he continued to walk down the hall. Glancing around them as they walked behind him, Fiona and Harry noticed doors leading to some of the other rooms in the shelter; a dining room, a room filled with several chairs and a television in the centre, a large library filled with books of all shapes and sizes, and several assorted bedrooms. Fiona noted that the rooms were far more comfortable than you'd normally find in these shelters; evidently, its owner had a lot of cash to spare.
Finally, they arrived at a door right at the end of the corridor. Fiona noted the writing on it; it simply said 'Caroline Murdock, Manager'.
Glancing over at Bond, Fiona raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Her alias from the protection program?" she asked the spy.
"Exactly," Bond said, as he knocked on the door.
"Come in," a female voice said from the other side of the door. Bond opened the door and the three of them walked into the office.
The office wasn't the largest of rooms, but it had a fair amount of stuff in it despite that. There were two large bookshelves against the opposite wall, and a couple of plants to either side of the door. In front of them was a desk that, if it had been up against the wall, would have stretched half the length of the room, made of a dark red-and-brown wood. There were four chairs in front of the desk, all looking fairly comfortable.
The woman sitting behind the desk was tall and in good shape without being especially muscular, with brilliant green eyes and rich brown hair that reached down to around the middle of her back. Her skin was smooth and positively glowed, the only thing spoiling the effect being a slight scar on her neck and a wound in her left hand. She was wearing a blue denim jacket and jeans, with a white sleeveless top.
"Yes?" she asked them, looking up as Harry shut the door. "Can I help you three?"
"I think you can... tell me, would you prefer Miss Caroline Murdock, or Miss Elektra Natchios?" Bond asked, looking at her casually.
The woman tensed up, and she looked at the three of them with a sudden spark of worry in her eyes.
"We're not with the Kingpin," Harry said, trying to sound assuring. "We just want to talk to you."
Elektra relaxed slightly, but she still appeared very on-edge. "You have my attention," she said simply. "Take a seat."
"My name is James Bond," Bond said, as the three of them sat down in two of the chairs. "These are my colleagues, Harry Potter and Fiona Brand. We are members of a team the British and American Governments are setting up, and they are interested in recruiting you as a member."
"Really?" Elektra said, as she sat back in her chair and listened. "You've got my attention, but I'd prefer to know exactly what I'll be expected to work with."
"Well, there is this," Fiona said, as she stood up. Suddenly, she vanished.
"What the..." Elektra said. Suddenly, Fiona's voice started to speak from thin air.
"That's what I can do, just for your reference," the voice said, before Fiona reappeared standing beside the office door. "I was only recently recruited, but these two have filled me in on what they can do; James is Britain's best secret agent, and Harry's a wizard."
"There's a fourth member as well," Harry put in. "He calls himself 'the Doctor'. He's a time traveller and an alien, and serves as our resident scientist." Elektra stared a little at that last comment. He shrugged. "Hey, who said you had to be human to care about the fate of Earth?"
Elektra nodded a little, then she turned back to the matter at hand. "Exactly what would I be fighting if I joined you?"
"Vampiric assassins," Bond stated simply. "We're not sure who's behind them, but the current theory is that they have some kind of connection to a criminal empire that was in action over a century ago. They may have other agents that we don't know about, but the vampires are what we're aware of."
"I see," Elektra said, nodding slightly. Then she stared the three of them in the eye. "I'm not coming."
Bond blinked. "Pardon?" he asked.
Elektra sighed. "Not that I'm not grateful for you thinking I'll bring something to your team, but the truth is, I'm just some rich little girl who trained a lot. I don't qualify as being in your league."
"That's not exactly true, you know," Fiona said, looking the other woman straight in the eye.
"Believe me, it's true," Elektra replied harshly, standing up. "I only went into genuine action once in my life, and look at what it got me!"
And she pulled her top up to show her stomach.
The three of them briefly winced at the sight that greeted them; just above Elektra's belly button, there was a large, disfiguring scar that appeared to have been caused by something sharp getting stuck right in her chest. The files he'd read hadn't gone into that much detail, but Harry was fairly certain that whatever fight she'd sustained those wounds in was the fight that had led to her being put on the protection program.
Elektra lowered her top and sat down. "I'm not exactly that good at fighting people."
Bond sighed. "Maybe you're right," he said, as the three of them got up out of their seats and began to walk out. Suddenly, Bond reached into his pocket, whipped out his gun, and pointed it directly at Elektra's face.
Acting purely on instinct, Elektra knocked the gun right out of his hand, grabbed it, and had it pointing at his head before Bond had even realised what had happened.
Then she realised what she'd done. Dropping the gun, she stared at her hands in amazement.
Harry voiced the opinions of them all.
"You don't seem to be that useless," he said, smiling at her. "I certainly wouldn't like to get on your wrong side in a fight, and I'm a wizard." He held out his hand to her. "So, what do you say?"
Elektra looked down at his hand, looked around her at her office, and shrugged.
"What the hell," she said, shaking Harry's hand. "Just let me tie up a couple of loose ends her, and I'll be right with you."
*****
After about half an hour's driving, the four of them arrived back at the pier where they were to meet the Nautilus. Elektra had changed into her fighting outfit after handing the shelter over to a member of staff; she was now wearing a pair of leather trousers with high-heeled leather shoes, a sleeveless leather crop top that showed off her stomach (The effect slightly damaged by the wound), a leather strap around her neck and two above her elbows, and two glove-like things that stretched from below her elbows to her hands, but leaving her fingers uncovered. She had two sharp daggers clipped onto the sides of her trousers, and looked far deadlier than she had behind her desk.
"OK, so where's this incredible submarine we've heard so much about?" Fiona asked, looking over at Harry. "Is it invisible as well?"
"Just a moment," Bond said, as he pulled out the transmitter that Harry recognised from the previous time they'd called the Nautilus, and pushed the button.
Nothing happened immediately.
"Well, not that this isn't exhilarating in its own way, but..." Elektra said, just before the water in front of them started to bubble and churn fiercely.
"What the?" Fiona asked, starting to lean over to look at the disturbance, her inner scientist taking charge. Harry tapped her arm and she turned away to look at him. "Yes?"
"I wouldn't do that if I were you; the Nautilus could hit your head," Harry explained.
"The wh-" Fiona began, before the waters parted to reveal the massive submarine.
"Wow..." Elektra whispered, as the Nautilus stopped rising. A large hatch opened, and out drove a large, almost futuristic-looking car. It had six headlights, each gathered together inside a triangle-like shape with smooth edges, and long fins tapering to a smooth point behind it. It was simply round on the bottom, with no sign of wheels on it at all; it almost appeared to be floating above the ground. It was also remarkably long and spacious inside, from what the others could see; Fiona would even swear she could see a television.
The car stopped, and the Doctor got out.
"Ah, good to see you all!" he said, grinning and patting them all on the back. He then turned to Fiona and Elektra, and held out both hands to them. "How do you do, Miss Brand and Miss Natchios? I'm the Doctor, our resident scientist, and this," he said, waving his hand at the car, "is a little thing I call the League-mobile."
"I see..." Fiona said, as she looked at the car. She glanced over at the Doctor. "It's not exactly subtle, is it?"
"Well, we're hardly not going to draw some eyes in a crowd, are we?" the Doctor asked, grinning at his new friends. "Besides, it's remarkably fast, and it can hold all of us and our next four members with no trouble at all. I think that the fact that it looks rather unusual is a small price to pay for that."
Harry shrugged as he looked over at Fiona. "Good point, you have to admit," he said, smiling at the scientist.
Fiona sighed a little. "All right, let's go," she said, as she began to walk towards the car's main door. Just before she stepped inside, however, she turned back and looked at Bond. "Where are we going now, by the way?"
"Kansas," Bond replied, as he and the others began to walk towards the car as well. "A town called Smallville. There's been some interesting goings- on there, and we'll be recruiting the person who keeps it all under control."
"How does he pull that off?" Elektra asked, from her position at the back of the line.
The Doctor smiled. "He's the last of his species in the universe."