A Dish Best Served Cold
Summary: Moriarty is out rule the world once again and he's had it with Sherlock Holmes's interference. He has a plan, but the detective's friends may pay the ultimate price.
Disclaimer All Publicly Recognizable Characters, Settings, Ideas, etc. are the Property of DiC Entertainment and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Original Characters and Plot are the Property of the Author. The Author is in no way Associated with the Owners, Creators, or Producers of DiC Entertainment. No Copyright Infringement is intended.
Chapter 13 - Clash of the Detectives
Somewhere in the London Underground
"Got the map off Moriarty's desk Mr. 'Olmes?"
"Indeed," the detective replied as he turned his attention to the youngest Irregular, "However, due to an encryption I was obliged to request that Tennyson keep hold of it."
The youngest Irregular had broken the encryption back in the metal tunnel. He handed the device to Holmes. Who looked at it then the surrounding area.
"This way," he pointed at a tunnel straight ahead. He then took the lead as the others followed.
"We need to find out what Moriarty's up to." Lestrade voiced after they had been walking some distance.
"I have already enough information to have formed a general hypothesis, although I will admit to lacking in certain necessary details."
"So what is he up too?" Lestrade did not sound surprised at the detective's statement.
"He plans to replace the world leaders attending the peace conference with his own artificially intelligent androids."
"Oh really? And how does he plan to avoid DNA scanners?"
"You remember, of course, that Terminator film which you insisted I should have the opportunity of experiencing?"
A look of dawning comprehension passed over Lestrade's face. "I don't believe it."
"That Moriarty would endeavour to make use of such a scheme?"
"No, that he saw Terminator."
"Okay hold up what's going on?" Wiggins asked, the Irregular's listened with near bug-eyed incredulousness as Holmes explained. "You gotta be kidding me!"
"Unfortunately, that is not the case."
"Well it sounds like you know everything."
"I have not the specifics as to when he plans to strike. The conference it's self is scheduled to take place over the course of a week, leaving ample time for disruptions, any change to the schedule of the conference could cripple its preparations to a considerable degree. It has taken years simply to orchestrate the meeting of the leaders and to persuade them to agree on a mutually beneficial treaty, not to mention the obscene amount of time and organization that was required for the conference alone."
"Ya but we got Moriarty, what can he do now?"
"If we are operating on the assumption that he has created a contingency plan? Plenty I'm afraid."
"So when he wakes up we question him."
"I'm sure he will prove most cooperative." The detective's voice had seldom assumed a more sarcastic tone.
Wiggins sighed.
"However," Holmes continued, "So long as we are able to keep Moriarty within our custody we should have it within our power to prevent him taking any actions which might prove detrimental." Though he didn't sound convinced. He had checked the date—today was the first day of the conference. Moriarty was sure to have already given his men their instructions.
They continued to walk towards an exit and had been walking for twenty minutes when they heard a familiar voice. "Quick zis way!"
Everyone froze momentarily and quietly pressed up against the side of the tunnel though Wiggins had some difficulty. All they could do was stand there, silently hoping that the guards would pass without noticing the group. However, a reawakened Moriarty had other plans.
"Here you fools! They're—!"
Deidre hand clamped her hand over his mouth as quickly as her reflexes would permit, for all the good it did. They could hear the guards run towards them. Holmes, Lestrade, and the Irregulars started to run but Wiggins, who was still carrying Moriarty was having difficulty, due to the fact that Moriarty was struggling and shouting. Deidre would have blasted him but Wiggins was in no position to allow an opening for such a delightful action.
Finally Moriarty kicked Wiggins in the side as hard as he could, the irregular loosened his hold and the criminal fell to the floor.
Quickly Moriarty tried to scramble away, but the young boxer managed to restrain him by putting him into a headlock.
"You're not going anywhere."
Moriarty elbowed Wiggins in the gut as he tried to affect an escape again but Lestrade tripped him, bent down and twisted his arm behind his back.
"Aagh," Moriarty winced as Lestrade twisted with a vindictive smile on her face. She was enjoying this, and having a very hard time resisting the temptation to dislocate her victim's shoulder. Moriarty sensed this and stopped struggling. Lestrade was almost sorry. Just then Fenwick and about ten others showed up and pointed their ionizers at the group.
Lestrade hauled the villain to his feet and using him as a shield, positing him in front of the group.
"You shall pay dearly for this!" he hissed.
"Ya, ya tell someone who doesn't have an ionizer pointed at your back," replied an unimpressed Lestrade as she shoved her ionizer further into Moriarty's spine.
"Turn around Fenwick, you and your men." she ordered, Fenwick and his men did nothing but glare defiantly. Lestrade sighed and whispered to Moriarty "tell them to turn around."
"Harm me in any way and you will all die."
"Ever have your shoulder dislocated? It's not pleasant," Lestrade gave his arm another twist for emphasis, perhaps a bit harder and further then necessary.
"Arrgh," Moriarty grunted then issued the order to his men, "Do it."
Reluctantly and Fenwick his barrage turned, Holmes, Deidre, Wiggins, and Tennyson fired their ionizers at them. After all the guards and Fenwick had been taken care of the group continued on their way. Lestrade pushing Moriarty in front of her, her ionizer firmly implanted in his back
Moriarty remained silent, he didn't want to provoke Lestrade for with her somewhat volatile personality he knew that would be a bad idea, he needed a way out.
"So Moriarty," Wiggins asked casually, "How are you planning to replace the leaders with your androids?"
"That is none of your concern boy, events have already been set in motion and you are too late to effect any change in their execution."
At this Holmes stopped in his tracks, turning to face his nemesis. "What have you done?"
"Surely you are capable of arriving at a veritable conclusionSherlock Holmes." The detective's name was laced with contempt.
There was a glint in Moriarty's eyes that put even Holmes on edge not that he showed it. He was, however tempted to separate from the others turn back and find out what he could but he had Moriarty and he needed to get the others out.
What he could but he had Moriarty and he needed to get the others out.
"We shall discus the matter upon your incarceration in New Scotland Yard."
"Can it be that you actually believe you are capable of bringing me even to the parking lot?" Moriarty scoffed.
"Shut up clone head," Lestrade shoved him forward violently.
They continued to walk in silence and were approaching an exit when Moriarty finally managed to get a hold of the smoke bomb he had hidden in his sleeve. He would have gotten it sooner but Lestrade had made getting it at all rather difficult—still he had it and he used it.
Holmes saw what was happening and gave a warning.
"Look out!"
But it was too late—Moriarty had tossed the smoke bomb. The gas stung everyone's eyes as they reeled back, coughing painfully. Lestrade's grip loosened and Moriarty made a break for it. Wiggins heard the criminal's footsteps and tried to grab him, his hand brushing the criminal's sleeve.
The smoke quickly cleared.
"Zed!" Lestrade shouted, "We have to go after him!"
"Indeed," replied Holmes, still coughing slightly. "Wiggins, you and the others must make your way to the surface, see to it that Watson is restored to his body. Lestrade and I will remain here and attempt to discover what we can, from the way in which Moriarty was expressing himself I fear that we may even now, be too late."
"We can't just leave you Mister Holmes!" Wiggins protested.
"You can and you will; And you needn't worry, Lestrade shall accompany me, and is more then adequate to the challenge, and upon your reaching New Scotland Yard reinforcements will, no doubt, be forthcoming, now, you must hurry for I doubt there are any more alcoves which will lend themselves to concealment and you will agree that Watson has been excluded from events long enough."
Wiggins nodded.
"Oh and one more thing." Holmes gave Wiggins the map. "I expect Chief Inspector Greyson will want this. Indeed I believe he will need it."
"What
about you and Lestrade?"
"We will make due, Wiggins do not
worry."
Wiggins turned to go, he looked at the other Irregulars and they headed towards the stairs that would take them outside. Deidre was clutching Watson's board as if her life depended on it. He could tell getting the compudroid back to his body was her first priority.
After the Irregulars had disappeared from view Holmes turned to Lestrade. He had wanted her to accompany them but he knew she would not agree to that. The Irregulars could take care of themselves—after all it was they who had come up with the escape plan—he and Lestrade had been rather useless in that particular endeavour.
"Well Lestrade shall we?" Holmes waved his hand back towards the direction they had come.
"Lets." The inspector replied cheerfully. She was hoping the opportunity for a little payback would arise
They had been walking for several minutes when Fenwick's voice began echoing across the darkness once more.
"Hurry we muzt capture Holmez."
Quickly the detective took hold of Lestrade by the shoulder and the two dogged down a tunnel, pressing them selves flat against the wall. After a few moments Holmes chanced a glance around the corner.
Fenwick only had five men with him this time, Lestrade smiled—she could take those odds.
Taking a half step forward, her companion's hand suddenly tightened it's grip on her shoulder.
'It would be unwise to attract their attention Inspector' seemed to be his silent message. He was right—where were the other four? If they were constantly reporting to each other and if all of a sudden Fenwick and his men were to stop communicating… well that would be a big hint as the where she and Holmes were.
As if on cue Fenwick pulled out a communicator and practically shouted into it: "'ave you found zem yet?"
Holmes began pulling Lestrade further down the passageway, wanting to get as far away from Fenwick as possible. Some distance away he began to speak.
"If Fenwick is still present in the vicinity then perhaps Moriarty is as well, although I must confess to some doubt as to the probability of that occurrence, I suggest we make our way back to our original location with all possible speed."
"Well I know it's in this general direction," Lestrade informed him as she pointed to a passageway on her right. She had always had a good sense of direction. Holmes nodded in agreement and they continued down the tunnel, the way Lestrade had indicated.
Not wanting to alert those searching for them by talking the two did not converse. They had been wandering for about ten minutes when Holmes noticed they were in a rather decrepit area.
"This area would seem to be rather lacking in adequate foundations, I suggest we attempt another route." The detective observed.
Lestrade looked around. Holmes was right, the wall trembled slightly with each muted step and a few chips of concrete fell from the wall—a sneeze could bring the place down. So naturally, Fenwick chose this moment to appear on the scene.
"Handz een zee air boz of you!" His usual gritty voice was tinged with joy, like a cat that had just found the mouse of his dreams and was in eager anticipation of pouncing upon it. The capture of the two would make his master happy and when Professor Moriarty was happy, Fenwick's life was much improved.
Holmes sighed, analyzing the situation, he knew Moriarty would want them alive but that wasn't comforting. He was about to walk in front of Lestrade to shield her but she had been faster and moved in front of him, he sighed, again.
"Fenwick, you're under arrest."
"Does that ever actually work Lestrade?"
"Shut up Holmes" She snapped a bit too loudly—the ceiling trembled violently.
Fenwick, upon realising the two were distracted, fired his ionizer. Holmes and Lestrade managed to doge by jumping to their right but the blast hit the wall, causing it to shake violently and crack, ever so slightly the crack grew as both groups stood in silence the crack began to spread and grow as the shaking intensified.
"Cave in!" Fenwick shouted, "Run!"
The lackey and his guards sped back into the darkened shelter of the place from whence they had come.
Holmes and Lestrade were forced to run further down the tunnel. Pieces of cement and old pipes rained down on them, hands over heads they attempted to shield themselves, unfortunately this mode method of protection proved completely inadequate.
They sprinted from the area and were almost out of danger when Holmes, with his usual precision and accuracy spotted a large piece of cement in perfect alignment with Lestrade's head. With an extra burst of speed, the detective shoved her out of the way.
Lestrade unprepared for the sudden force was thrown off balance as was Holmes
The next thing both detectives knew was darkness.
00o00
Lestrade awoke moments later, due to the fact that Holmes was tossing pebbles at her head.
"Alright I'm up already," she growled in annoyance as she forced her sore and protesting body into a sitting position. "What happened?"
"I became aware that a large slab of concrete was about to turn your skull into something very unpleasant and took the liberty of delivering you from harm's way. However, while you were indisposed another smaller piece rendered you unconscious, by then, we were, luckily out of danger, and have been spared any truly bothersome injuries, save of course, the notable exception of my right leg." He informed her dryly with a slight smile.
Lestrade look at him, his leg was indeed trapped under a large slab of concrete. 'Well that explains why he threw pebbles instead of tickling my face with some strands of my hair like on our first case.' She climbed to her feet, "Hold on I'll get you out"
She began to look around for something she could use as a lever, and saw a five foot metal pipe on the floor, she grabbed it and using another rock as a fulcrum managed to lift the slab of concrete which was had pinned her friend to the floor. Using his arms to crawl and bringing his leg up Holmes managed to get out from under the slab.
Lestrade let it fall back slowly so as not to cause another cave in and turning to Holmes, asked with concern, "Can you walk?"
Holmes didn't answer he merely rose to his feet for a few shaky seconds before his leg gave in. He fell and Lestrade caught him.
It was one of those cliché romantic moments where the girl trips and is prevented from falling flat on her face by the metaphorical highly attractive knight in shining armour—except the aforementioned girl saves the guy. Both seemed to realise this for Lestrade suppressed a laugh and Holmes glared.
"I got you," she told him jokingly.
"So I noticed," he replied stiffly as if contrary to his friend he was not finding the situation humorous. He adjusted himself so he stood on one leg, pointing to the pipe Lestrade had used as a lever.
"Hand me that pipe," he gave the order using one of his more commanding voices in an attempt to recover some dignity.
Lestrade bent down and got him the requested object as she handed it to him she knelt down to have a look at his leg.
"Looks like you busted your ankle," she told him, his ankle did appear to be in poor shape, the trouser leg above it was splotched with blood.
"Really," Holmes said dryly, "I had no idea, the large amount of pain in that area was very deceiving."
Lestrade smiled, 'There's that Holmes' wit. He can't be in that bad a shape.'
Then Lestrade remembered how Holmes would go three days without food or drink to set traps for criminals, and how he would often fail to have a proper weapon with him when confronting his quarry. From what she read of Watson's journals, he generally seemed to posses a survival instinct equivalent to that of a gnat.
She pulled his trouser leg up and saw there was a fairly large gash—not a compounded break as she'd feared. Lestrade was relived to see that it had missed the peroneal artery, if it had not Holmes would have bled to death by now.
The Victorian who had been gazing at their surroundings looked down when he heard fabric being torn and saw that Lestrade had removed her grey overtop and had ripped the armoured sleeves off before tearing the thing down the middle. She than wrapped it around his ankle and silently grabbed two small pieces of pipe at her side. She then tore both her black sleeves and used them to secure the pipes to Holmes's leg.
Making a fairly sturdy brace, to prevent further damage to the detective's ankle, she stood up sighing. She grabbed his right arm and before he could protest, put it over her shoulders to support him. Holmes seemed annoyed but said nothing and the two continued on their way hopping they were not lost.
After fifteen minutes of wondering around aimlessly Lestrade had come to the conclusion that that was just what had happened. They were lost, lost in the Abandoned for About Fifty Years About to Collapse London Underground and hunted by a bunch of thugs lead by the greatest criminal mastermind of all time. Perfect.
She turned to Holmes, "We're lost aren't we?"
"I should not condemn us so quickly Lestrade, I am sure that we are situated somewhere in the general vicinity of our desired destination. I do not think Moriarty would be so predictable as to allow the entrance to be easily located, we must concentrate our attention on searching for a disguised switch or lever of some sort."
Lestrade looked around but didn't see anything, and they didn't have time to do a thorough examination if the wall. So they continued to walk looking for any suspicious cracks along the way.
After a few minutes they once again heard Fenwick's 'melodious' voice as he insulted his men for not finding Holmes and Lestrade. Deciding that a confrontation was not a good idea with Holmes in his state Lestrade quickly turned them around and started moving in the opposite direction as fast and as quietly as she could.
Once they had gained some distance Holmes began to speak "I must ask you to continue on your own, I am far too much of an encumbrance in my present condition and it cannot be deigned that you stand a far better chance of avoiding capture and apprehending Moriarty if you do not have to concern yourself with me."
"Not happening," Lestrade replied curtly.
"Lestrade, for Gods' sake listen to reason, time is of the essence and I am slowing you down." Holmes sounded tired, an argument was the last thing he wanted.
To bad he was dealing with Lestrade.
"You'll be caught for sure. And there's no way I'm letting you go through that again." The image of Holmes's empty eyes was prominent in her mind. 'Never again' she vowed mentally.
"Lestrade, listen to me." he told her exasperatingly, "If Moriarty succeeds it would mean disaster, millions even billions could die."
"Uh huh. I'm not leaving you behind."
"If you do not then Moriarty will only have the pleasure of downing two birds with one stone." His voice was a mixture of tones, anger that she was being so stubborn, fear that they would both be caught, and desperation, because the thought of witnessing his friend go through such torture again was a prospect he would do anything to avoid.
"I'm not going to argue with you anymore. Shut up or so help me I will knock you out and drag your useless carcass to safety."
Holmes sighed as he removed his arm from Lestrade's shoulder and hopped awkwardly over to the nearest wall. Only when he had sat down did he notice that Lestrade had an ionizer pointed in his direction.
When Holmes had turned his back on her Lestrade had gotten her ionizer out and put it at its lowest setting. When he looked up his face merely took on an annoyed expression. As if he did not expect her to carry through with her threat.
"Lestr—"
But she had no intention of listening. She had given him fair warning if he chose not to take her seriously that was his mistake. She pulled the trigger. Holmes's body glowed green for a moment, before going limp.
Lestrade walked over to his unconscious form and using a fireman's carry, grabbed him and the pipe and continued down the passage.
She had set the ionizer at its lowest possible setting so Holmes should only be out for a few minutes. Still that was time enough in enemy territory with a 140 pound man on her shoulders which made fighting and getting at her ionizer very difficult.
She continued to walk all senses on the alert listening for foot steps and feeling for them via vibrations in the ground all the while looking for a suspicious crack in the wall. Suddenly she heard footsteps coming from behind her and from the tunnel to her left to her right was a wall—continuing onward she knew her pursuers would catch up to her soon.
Lestrade was fast becoming scared. The idea of capture was terrifying. Desperation beating in her heart, she scanned the walls and path ahead for a hiding place.
The footsteps were getting closer. All of a sudden as she was rounding a curve she spotted a ladder, it looked like it was used for maintenance. There seemed to be a nook or some kind of crawl space or tunnel at the top. Grateful she had decided to use a fireman's carry, which was great for caring someone up a ladder, she headed straight for it and began to climb.
Once she was at the top she set about climbing into the nook with Holmes still on her back. No easy task, she almost slipped and fell, fortunately she did not. She pulled her foot out of sight just as six men she recognised as guards came into view.
She waited and they continued on their way, completely ignoring the ladder. A few seconds after they had passed Holmes groaned. Fearing the guards could still be within hearing range she clamped her hand over his mouth and listened for a few seconds.
Signalling to Holmes to be quiet, she removed her hand. They sat in silence for a few moments more then Holmes spoke.
"Lestrade that was foolish." He sounded angry, "What one earth came over you? Your ancestor would never have indulged in so foolhardy a stunt."
"Well I have been reading about you since I was old enough to put words together," she replied with a smirk. "And before you say anything else, next time you suggest I leave you behind I'll knock you out—and not just for a few minutes." Her smile had faded and she had scarcely looked so serious.
To call Holmes' look a glare would have been too polite.
"Right I think they're gone. Lets go, can you climb down?"
Holmes wanted to suggest she leave him here where he was relatively safe but one look at her face told him that wasn't an option. He was about to respond in the affirmative when he realised he felt a breeze. "Lestrade do you feel that?"
"Feel what?" Just as Lestrade finished her question, she too felt the cool caress of fresh air. Moriarty would have to ventilate his fortress somehow. "A shaft?" she offered.
"Possibly," replied Holmes, "I think it would be best to continue down this tunnel."
Lestrade sighed. The tunnel was big enough to crawl through and it would be easier on Holmes. Still there was the issue of darkness.
"You should go first then," she told him remembering he had excellent night vision. Holmes nodded and started down the tunnel with Lestrade in pursuit.
Next update will be on the 2nd of November
Tootles