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
Lady Moon3: It's Eilidh, and here she is. Oh, and in regard to the person 'connected' to Hyde, he'll be more involved in the next chapter.
Sean Malloy-1: Here it is; hope I didn't keep you waiting.
Lunawolf: Here's the new character, and I hope you like her...
AN: Eilidh's origin is ALL my own idea; nobody else's. So don't go looking for background information on her, because what's up here is all there's going to be. Anyway, enjoy.
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 2004
"So," Gwen said, as she sat at the table of the League-mobile, looking around at her new colleagues, "Who's our final member, and what's she capable of?"
Having returned to the League-mobile with Gwen, Clark and Angel had been informed that the League would be holding a meeting to discuss how best to track down their remaining member. Having set the League-mobile to 'automatic pilot', the Doctor had joined the others at the main table, where Gwen had just kicked off the discussion.
In reply, Bond picked up one of the files beside him, opened it out, and spread its contents out on the table in front of him. He then picked up a photograph from the mass of papers in front of him, and showed to the rest of the League.
It showed a young woman, apparently in her late teens, wearing black shoes, back trousers and a pink long-sleeved top, with shoulder-length blonde hair and greenish-brown eyes. She had an attractive face, and gave the impression that she cared about things in general.
"Eilidh Wilson," Bond explained, as the League looked at the picture. "She's a psychic, although apparently it isn't natural; it occurred when she suffered a near-fatal electric shock while conducting a science experiment."
"How could that made her psychic?" Fiona asked, looking up at Bond curiously.
"Apparently, she had traces of some kind of chemical on her hands when she received the shock in question," Bond explained. "What the chemical was is unclear, but it somehow resulted in the electrical charges in her brain being boosted to a far greater degree than is normal in the human brain. The result was her acquiring the powers of telepathy and telekinesis, as well as the ability to generate mental illusions in the minds of anyone she wished to."
"Useful little stunt," Harry commented, glancing up at Bond. "So, what makes her so difficult to track down?"
"She's generally... secretive with her abilities," Bond explained. "Every time she saves someone's life or gives them a hand, she then uses her telepathy to erase their memories of her visit to them. Only strong-willed characters have ever managed to retain their memories after her tweaks with their minds; that, coupled with some odd occurrences that have gone on in certain areas, are the only clues we have that she even exists."
"And you're sure that's enough?" Clark asked. "How do we even know it's her? I mean, if nobody remembers her helping them, she could be anyone."
"Little things," Bond replied. "I would tell you, but there are certain details I've been told to keep to myself."
"Such as where these assassins we're after are coming from?" Fiona inquired in a casual manner, although it was fairly clear that she was a little frustrated.
"No, that's not something I need to keep from you," Bond replied. "I simply felt that I should wait until we're all here to tell you. But, if you want to know now, I suppose I might as well let you know."
Fiona looked at the spy for a couple of minutes, and then shook her head.
"No," she said simply. "If you don't think it's TIME to tell us something... well, that's different. I'm prepared to wait a while." Then she got back to business. "So, how do we track someone who can read people's minds?"
"With my help," Angel said, looking up.
"Pardon?" Elektra asked, looking over at her friend. "What makes you the best one qualified for the job?"
"An interesting little quirk of being a vampire, as you know, is the lack of a reflection- at least, in some cases," Angel said, as he settled back into his chair. "What you probably didn't know is that, as far as telepaths are concerned, the same thing applies to our thoughts; they're present, but they don't make a 'reflection', for lack of a better term, to be revealed to the telepath."
"Neat trick," Gwen said, glancing over at the vampire. Then she turned to face Bond, as a thought suddenly occurred to her. "How do we find her?"
Bond smiled. "That's easy enough; we've developed a device to track down psychic powers being used. It's not powerful enough to give us an accurate location, but it does allow us to pinpoint her to a certain city."
"Which is?" Harry asked.
Bond sighed. "Las Vegas."
A couple of hours later, the League were looking around in wonder at the brilliant lights and casinos that were currently surrounding them. With the exceptions of Angel and Bond, none of them had visited the place before, and in Bond's case it had been mostly for business purposes. Some of the League were wishing they could get out and enjoy the nightlife of the city, but they all knew that they had to practical; they were still one member away from being a complete team, and they had to focus on finding their last member.
"So, what's the plan?" Harry asked, as the League sat in the front seat of the League-mobile while the Doctor drove them through Vegas. "I mean, I follow that Angel's going to be tracking Eilidh, but what do we do then?"
"Her powers only extend to around ten metres away from her in every direction," the Doctor explained. "Theoretically, we could have a couple of us behind Angel, so long as we're within visual distance of him and not within sensing distance of Eilidh. With those numbers, we should manage to prevent her from running away from us before we give her our proposal. However, it's unlikely she'll attack Angel if he poses no threat to her, so he'll just call us when he's started talking to her." He smiled absent- mindedly, as though at some long-distant memory. "If only everyone was that understanding..." he whispered to himself, so low that only Angel and Clark could hear him.
"The plan's sensible enough, I suppose," Fiona said, from where she was lying back in her seat. "So, where will we be starting our search for her?"
"Just here," the Doctor said, as he stopped in front of the Tropicana casino.
Angel looked up at it, and gulped.
"Um, why are we starting from here?" he asked, nervously looking over at Bond. "I had a bad experience with these guys a year ago; I'd rather not go in for a repeat performance."
"Oh, that incident with peoples destinies getting stolen?" Bond asked. "We know about that. In fact, that's why we came here; it seems like the kind of place that Eilidh would be keeping an eye on. We've received rumours of some demonic activity here, and Eilidh apparently knows about it as well. Research shows that this casino is one of the major hotspots for their activities, so it seems as good a place as any to start."
Harry coughed to attract attention. "Sorry to interrupt, James," he said, holding up one hand. "but I'm a little confused. What's the problem with this casino?"
"They made a business of stealing people's destinies and selling them on the magical black market a year or so ago," Bond explained. "They briefly acquired Angel's, but his friends managed to get it back, as well as return everyone else's destinies to them."
"Ah," Harry said, looking back at the vampire. "That mustn't have been good."
"It wasn't," Angel replied. He left it at that, and Harry didn't push his luck.
A loud, rapid ping suddenly emitted from down on the dashboard. The Doctor looked down at it, and then glanced back at Angel, grinning as he spoke.
"She's in this area," he said, smiling. "The detector can't pinpoint her exact location, but it can detect when she's getting close to us, and she is right now."
Angel grinned. "Right," he said. "Then I'd best be off."
Opening the door of the League-mobile, he stepped out onto the ground and glanced back at the others.
"I'll call you when I've tracked her down," he said, as the Doctor shut the door. "Just get somewhere quiet and don't attract any attention!" he called out, as the car drove away, leaving him standing there.
Looking around, Angel noticed with relief that nobody had really paid him or the League- mobile much attention; probably they'd mistaken it for some kind of street act. Not the most plausible of explanations, Angel knew, but humanity had the strangest ability to deceive itself when facing something that was thought to be impossible by the general public.
Turning around, Angel walked towards a nearby side street, and looked around from there. He wasn't sure what he was looking for, but, since Eilidh should be there soon, he might as well wait around.
Looking around the crowd, he found himself grateful that his longing for blood was far less powerful than it had once been; in this crowd, coupled with the fact that he'd not really had anything to eat for a while, he might have had some difficulty controlling his urges.
Just then, he noticed a flash of blond hair. Looking after it, he noticed a young woman, around the height that Eilidh was according to the files, following a tall man in a long trench coat with a large floppy hat pulled down hard over his head. Leaving the alleyway, he began to walk after her, staying near to her so that he could see her distinctive hair and coat, but not so near that she'd realise he was following her, especially due to her inability to read his thoughts.
As he followed her, he briefly found himself wondering who she was following. Then again, in this line of work, maybe 'what' would be a more accurate expression...
He looked at the figure in front of Eilidh, trying to see if he could make out anything unusual about it. It being from the back, he wasn't exactly able to see much, but he did notice that the hat was slightly bulging out to the sides, although the creature didn't look any taller than the normal human. However, it was walking in a fairly rapid manner, despite the fact that it didn't seem to be making any great effort at speed.
Wait a minute... Angel thought to himself, as the creature turned around a corner and began to head down a small street to the side of the Tropicana, followed closely by Eilidh. Horns in that particular position, unremarkable in height but fairly fast... it reminded him of something...
Then, one of the creature's legs briefly became visible underneath the trench coat. The leg in question was the colour of normal human skin, as far as Angel could see in the bad light, but it was covered in scales...
Angel gulped. He knew of only one demon that fit that kind of category; the mouthless demon that had once nearly driven Buffy insane by allowing her to read minds.
(A.N. The demon in question appeared in an episode of Buffy's third season ('Earshot'), just to let you know.)
He quickly flashed over what he remembered of that species; if killed by a living being, the being absorbed a certain aspect of the demon, but if killed by a vampire, nothing would happen.
Angel quickened his pace while trying to remain quiet. He had to stop Eilidh before she confronted that demon; there was no telling what the effects on her would be if she took it out with her mental powers. Quite what the demon's telepathy would do to her when she already had that power Angel didn't know, but he didn't want to risk it.
Besides, the aspect of the demon that infected Eilidh may not be internal, and he was sure she wouldn't want to be covered with scales, just as an example.
Before Angel could race on ahead, Eilidh suddenly stopped walking. Instantly, the demon was lifted up off the ground and thrown directly into the nearby wall. As the creature began to slightly stir, Eilidh walked over to it, and then raised one arm to her side. A large crowbar flew directly to her hand, and she raised it above her head.
"This is for the woman you killed," she stated simply.
Then she began to bring the bar down.
"NO!" Angel yelled, charging forward and grabbing the bar. Before Eilidh could react to his attack, the demon had kicked out and knocked them both back. As the demon got up, Angel noticed that at least he'd been correct in his guess; the demon's lack of a mouth proved that. He just hoped that he'd live to use that piece of information.
"Great job!" Eilidh said, looking back at Angel with anger in her eyes. "I could have taken him out!"
"And become infected," Angel said, morphing into his vampiric countenance. He may no longer have Angelus within him, but he could still shift into his more powerful form when he wanted to. "Just stay down; I'll take this guy," he said, as Eilidh stared at his new face in a combination of horror and awe.
Before she could react, Angel had jumped back up to his feet and had charged towards the demon, knocking it back into the wall again. It still wasn't quite down, but it wouldn't be moving for a couple of seconds. Remembering the arrangement with the others, Angel took the opportunity to pull out his cell phone and dial the number of the League-mobile, which the Doctor had programmed into the phones of the entire League during their spare time. Fortunately, it was fully charged up, and the phone was answered in a couple of rings.
"Yeah?" Harry asked from the other end of the phone. "What's the situation?"
"Demon!" Angel yelled, as his opponent got back up. Punching it as hard as he could, he knocked it further down the alleyway, into an abandoned warehouse. Glancing back, he saw the reason for him having hit it back so far; Eilidh was standing up with one hand out in front of her. Evidently she'd used her powers to knock it back. Angel nodded in thanks, and turned his attention back to Harry. "Eilidh and I have it under control, but get here as soon as possible, OK? We might need backup. We're in an alleyway down the side of the Tropicana."
"We'll be there soon," Harry replied. "Do what you can in the meantime, OK?"
Angel grinned. "Of course," he replied, smiling. Then he terminated the call and looked towards the demon. It was getting up, but didn't look like it would come charging towards Angel and Eilidh any time soon.
Glancing back, Angel noticed that Eilidh was running towards the demon, with an expression on her face that was so focused that, if looks could kill, the demon would probably be dead.
"Can't let you have all the fun!" she said to him as she passed him. Shrugging, Angel tore on after her.
"Just don't touch it to kill it!" he yelled at Eilidh as he drew level with her. "I'll attend to that!"
Eilidh looked like she was about to say something to that, but before she could get a word out, the two of them were in front of the demon.
Looking like it would roar if it had a mouth to do so, the demon charged at the vampire and the psychic, tackling them both to the ground. It moved to scratch Eilidh on the face, but as soon as it came in contact with her face, it yanked its hand back as though it was burned. Taking advantage of the strike, Angel kicked out at the demon, leapt up onto his feet, grabbed the demon by the head, and twisted its head around.
The demon slumped to the ground in a heap.
Angel glanced back at Eilidh. "Why didn't it scratch you?" he asked her, indicating the demon.
Eilidh shrugged. "Basic trick. I just made the demon think that my face was on fire, and it couldn't back away from me fast enough." Then she looked at Angel curiously. "And while we're on the subject of powers, what are you?"
Realizing he still had his vampire's face on, Angel morphed back into his human countenance.
"Sorry about that," he said to her. "My name's Angel. I'm... well, I'm a vampire."
"You're a WHAT?!" Eilidh asked, glancing around herself as though looking for a stake.
"Hey, I won't try and drink your blood or anything," Angel protested. Eilidh stopped with her glances and looked at him curiously. "I don't kill innocent people. I'm a good guy; in fact, I'm a member of a team."
Eilidh looked curiously at Angel. Then she blinked and stepped back in shock.
"You... you don't have any thoughts..." she said, sounding horrified.
Angel groaned. "Look, it's not that I'm pretty much an instinctive person or anything," he said. "It's simply that, as a vampire, my thoughts create no reflection for you to read."
"It's true," a voice said from beside them. "After all, he doesn't have any reflection in a mirror; why should his thoughts be any different?"
Angel blinked. "Fiona," he said, looking at where he thought the voice had come from. He had to admit something; if this was Fiona being invisible, it was very effective. Normally he was able to smell where someone was, even if he couldn't see them, but here he could only just hear her heartbeat.
He frowned at that. Only just? "You're not ill or anything, right?" he asked, looking where he thought she was currently standing.
"If you're worried about my health because my heart seems to have a faint beat, then no, I haven't got a heart problem," Fiona said, as she popped into view in front of Eilidh. "It's just that, well, my skin seems to be a bit stronger whenever I'm invisible, so its vibrations aren't as easy to hear as when you can see me."
Eilidh blinked a little. Smiling assuringly, Fiona held out her hand. "I'm Fiona Brand," she said casually. "I work with Angel."
"Really?" Eilidh said, taking the offered hand and shaking it. "On this... team he mentioned?"
"Yeah," Fiona said, glancing over towards Angel. "I assume you've guessed that I was hanging around all the time?"
"Well, I guessed as much," Angel replied. "After all, no sense in having only one of us to follow her."
"Wait a minute," Eilidh said, holding up one hand. "What's with all this mask and mystery? Why are you guys so desperate to track me down?"
Angel groaned a little. "Damn!" he whispered to himself, before turning to face Eilidh. "Sorry about that; forgot to mention why I'm here. We're interested in recruiting your services in our team."
"Really?" Eilidh asked, sounding slightly curious. "Who else is on the team?"
"We are!" a voice said from the door that led to the alleyway. Glancing back, Angel and Fiona saw the rest of the League heading towards, Clark apparently moving at normal speed to allow the rest of them time to catch up. Apparently, Bond was the one who'd spoken, given that he was leading the rest.
"Oh," Eilidh said, as the League gathered into the open block. "Well... interesting collection of people. What's the situation?"
"Simply put?" Elektra asked. "In a nutshell, vampire assassins are targeting world leaders, and the British and American Governments are forming a team to stop them. We're eight of the team's members; they want you to be the ninth."
"I see..." Eilidh said. She looked around the warehouse at the League, and then looked directly at Bond. "Vampires, huh?"
"As far as we know," Bond replied. "There may be others, but the vampires are our main concern. So, will you join us, or not?"
"I'm very much afraid you won't be alive long enough for that to be an issue," another voice said.