Charge of the Shadow Brigade Chapter 7: Begins, a lxg fanfic

Paulo Ceniza stepped out of his private office, trying to look calm and not alarm Jekyll and Natalya. He smiled for no reason.

"The file?" demaded Jekyll.

"What?"

"You said you were going to get a file."

"Oh, I couldn't find it. I must have tossed it out or something a long time ago."

He regretted saying that, because it sounded false and it would drive them to leave too quickly.

"But I do remember what I had read about him."

"Go on."

"Would you like some tea?"

"We don't mind."

"Earl Gray?"

"Sure."

Ceniza went to prepare the tea; he slipped a small pinch of powder into their cups. He continued to talk as he prepared the tea,

"Alestir Crowley mentioned in one of his books that Gray was alive during the nineteen-thirties, although not in full capacity, which is to say he could be injured and it took some time for him to be fully immortal again. As did several other Occultists. In all cases Gray was discrete on how he managed to be resurrected."

Ceniza served them their tea, but neither of them took a sip of it. And in a sudden flash he remembered the name of the man that sat before him, it was Dr. Henry Jekyll.

"However, one incident worth noting is that he was spotted at least once in the company of Grigori Rasputin; the notorious Russian monk and advisor to the Romanovs. Since Rasputin is also said to be an Immortal and was resurrected several times, it is possible that he had a hand in resurrecting Gray. What is your interest in it, Doctor?"

None of it was entirely accurate, Ceniza was making it from rumors he heard and bits of information he had and from his imagination. He held his breath as Jekyll was about to drink from the coffee.

Jekyll froze in the last second. Ceniza called him Doctor, which was quite the oddity since he introduced himself simply as 'Jack Harding'.

He took a whiff of the tea and detected the odor of something foreign, sleeping powder.

He looked to his left and saw as Natalya was raising the cup to drink from.

"Put the cup down, Natalya."

Natalya was confused but obliged as she intuitively figured out what was going on.

"Is anything wrong, Mr. Harding?" asked Ceniza, trying to be calm.

"Not in the least."

Jekyll went to the window and opened it, there was a black car parked outside with some armed men stepping out of it. He turned back to Ceniza.

"Who do you work for?"

"What are you-?"

"Drop the act." barked Jekyll, his voice filled with fury, "You now who I am. I never told you I was a Doctor."

He put his hand into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a revolver and pointed it at Ceniza.

"Who do you work for?"

"I work for the League," said Ceniza as he realized Jekyll was on to him, "Those men outside are field Agents of the Italian branch of the League, they're here to arrest you."

"Is that so?"

"Resistance is pointless."

"Is there another way out of here?" asked Natalya.

"Do you think I'd hel-" Ceniza was saying, but Jekyll shot him in the arm before he could finish and the historian screamed in pain.

"Not without strenuous persuasion."

"You bastard!" cursed Ceniza as he clutched his arm in pain.

"Is there another way out of here?" asked Jekyll, Natalya was repulsed by the whole situation and peeked out the door to see if the Agents have arrived or not.

"There is... but it's insane to-"

"Let's go then."

"No, I won't!" said Ceniza through gritted teeth.

Jekyll squeezed Ceniza's arm above the wound.

"Yes, I will!"

Turkish adjusted his sunglasses as he walked towards the car in a practically empty part of the city, parked near a cigar shop. A bodyguard was standing outside the car, and he knew another one was inside the cigar shop with their main target. He nodded at the bodyguard as he passed besides hi then pulled a Desert Eagle Handgun out of his pocket and shot him in the chest, then twice in the stomach and the arm to make it look less professional.

The bodyguard fell to the ground in a heap. Turkish turned to the car and kicked it forcefully till its alarm started up.

Inside the shop, the bodyguard and the target heard the alarm and knew something had gone awry, so they escaped through the back door, but as soon as they stepped into the back ally, they lost their balance and fell to the concrete ground.

The bodyguard felt the ground and raised his gloved hand and could feel something slippery; liquid soap.

A figure towered above him, he pulled out his gun and shot it, but not before it managed to thrust some blade into his chest.

Logan's wound healed as he stabbed the bodyguard several times. The target got up and raised the bodyguards against Logan, and was about to pull the trigger when several bullets pierced the air and plunged into his back.

Turkish walked up the ally towards Logan and they emptied the target and bodyguard's pockets of wallets and valuables, leaving a single library ID in the target's pocket. They also took their watches and hurried back to the car, where they shut the alarm and drove away as police sirens were heard in the distance. Upon their arrival they will find three bodies riddled with bullets and stab wounds, with their valuables and car gone, it would look like a successful robbery, hopefully.

The Agents appeared up the hall as Natalya, Jekyll and Ceniza stood in the elevator which's doors were closing. Jekyll fired the five remaining bullets at them to buy time while the doors closed, the pistol clicked empty just as the doors were shut.

"They could drop a grenade from above." said Jekyll.

"They can, but it won't do any harm, this elevator is very resistant." said Ceniza as he pressed the buttons of the elevator in a special sequence.

"What you said about Gray-?" started Natalya.

"Complete Rubbish." said Ceniza as he clutched his bloody arm, "No one knows how is Gray is alive, there is only one thing I know for sure, a British Occultist Circle by the name on the Order of Ancient Mysteries are the first to spot him since he was killed in Mongolia."

There was a pause as the elevator descended.

"What is this place?" asked Natalya.

"An Archive, one of many that the league has."

"Where are we going?" asked Jekyll.

"The pits of Hell."

Albert Wheeler, a very obese brown haired man and a back-up Employee of the League heard the doorbell ringing and went to answer it. He barely had any time to be confused when he saw the man in the gas mask, because he soon was sprayed with sleeping gas that caused him to pass out instantly.

Skinner walked in and opened the window, he waited till the gas was dispersed then took off his mask just as McGregor walked in himself. His face matching that of Wheeler's through the use of makeup and some prosthetics applied by Skinner.

"Oyo, Skinner." said McGregor as he touched his new visage lightly, "Where did ye learn to this sort of thing?"

"I used to be invisible; I learned to apply makeup so that I would have a face."

Skinner and McGregor dragged Wheeler into his bedroom and locked him in.

"The dose of gas he took will leave him sleeping for a good ten hours." said Skinner as he searched the apartment for certain items.

"Are you sure it'll work?" asked McGregor.

"He comes in every once in a while, about seven times a year. They won't notice if he looked or sounded slightly different."

Skinner found the Wheeler's wallet, watch and name tag. He then pressed the button on Wheeler's answering machine and his outgoing message started playing,

'Hello. You've reached Albert Wheeler's residence. I'm not here at the moment, but if you kindly leave your name, number and purpose of this call after the signal, then I shall try to get to you in due time. -BEEP-'

'You have no new messages. -BEEP-'

The voice was in a sophisticated and rather pompous tone.

"Can you imitate him?" asked Skinner.

"Why, certainly, Master Skinner. I shall be quit convincing while I engage in this perilous task and hopefully be successful if piggies sprout wings."

McGregor's imitation of Wheeler was very good, with an identical accent and a remarkably similar voice. Skinner was impressed and his face failed to keep that hidden.

"I used to be a spy, Sonny Jim." said McGregor in his usual lude Scottish brogue, "Don't make me scrape yer jaw off the floor."

"Alright. Logan and Turkish killed the league's usual employee thirty minutes ago, by now the police should have collected the body and identified it, the league knows about it and will be calling very soon to ask you to come in."

"I know, and while I'm there, I'll maintain minimal contact with everyone else and take pictures of the bathrooms and the halls and the plants and the cafeteria and..."

"Just the vital locations, McGregor."

The phone then started to ring, the two of them stood silently while the answering machine picked up the call,

"Mr. Wheeler?" came a woman's voice through the phone, "This is Sofie Fatale, we need you to come in today."

'You have One new message. -BEEP-'

Skinner looked at McGregor and smiled smugly, saying,

"Timed to perfection. I also used to be a thief."

As they reached their level of destination, Jekyll and Natalya realized that the description of the sub-level as the 'Pits of Hell' was not a gross exaggeration.

The place was a space with some surgical tables in the center and many cells on each side, housing the things hellish nightmare are made of. The entire place was filled with a sickening odor of them.

They were demons, mostly. Some looked like the average medieval renditions of demons with horns, tails and hooves. While others looked more mundane, almost human if it weren't for their odd complexions, forked tongues or glowing eyes.

"This is a Demon research facility. These are all demons." said Ceniza, stating the obvious, "Funding was reduced so now it's a zoo for demons of rare species, housed here till the League finds a use to one of them. Some of the prisoners are human; the League keeps them here till they go mad then commits them into an asylum they run. It usually takes a few weeks to do that."

"Ceniza!" called one of the demons, a massive horned ape-like beast, "Give me the wench! Give me the wench and depart from these parts. I'll rip her to shreds and feast on her legs!"

"They get fed ten times a week to keep them relatively weak, and spend all the time in these cells since their incarceration. They haven't seen a woman in ages."

"That's nice and all, but let's get out of here."

They kept walking on, trying not to pay any attention to the monsters howling at them.

They reached the end of the walk and faced a door, and just as they were ten feet away from it, the door opened and one of the armed men appeared.

Jekyll pointed the barrel of his empty revolver which he still had at Ceniza's head as he wrapped an army around him.

"Back off or I'll shoot."

Jekyll was laughing inside his head, he knew it wouldn't work; he knew what was going to happen and almost yawned as it unfolded and the armed man shot Ceniza in the chest. Jekyll pushed Ceniza's corpse forcefully at the League's Agent and jumped aside, pushing Natalya down as well and they both took cover behind a table.