Charge of the Shadow Brigade Chapter 21: The Shadow Mutiny Commences, a lxg fanfic

Putney, London

Natalya sat at her computer, clearing her mind completely, not giving an ounce of thought to the two men sitting outside. With the exception of Turkish and Bond, they had all left, each to his own perilous mission.

The League's emblem appeared on the screen as she started her attempt to hack into the system.

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East London Docks, Warehouse 64

Judas hung from the rafters as he made sure his final resort was in working order, he wouldn't use it till all other options had gone to hell.

He looked down at the empty warehouse, several weapons he had mounted on the walls, swords, spears, stakes, daggers; the works. Despite his morally paralyzed nature, he wanted a fair fight, not just revenge, and he would get that.

Soho, London

Sofie exited the building carrying a cardboard tube of the sort used to hold maps, she walked up the street then entered a shop right as Skinner was exiting, he also carried a similar tube and they almost made the swap smoothly, Had Skinner not stuck a needle in her flank which sent a highly potent sedative that caused her to slip into sleep within seconds.

He dragged the incapacitated lawyer to Chas' cab which was sparked nearby. He laid her on the back seat and handed Chas a stack of pounds.

"This should take care of your trouble, Chandler. Will you do me another favor?"

"Depends, what is it?"

"If I give you a ring, come and meet me by the big windowless building on Stockwell Street, do you know it?"

"I know it, no problem."

Chas drove off and Skinner got into another car with Logan at the driver's seat.

"How hideous." said Skinner as he emptied the tube as Logan drove off.

Crawley, West Sussex

Agents had just begun arriving to guard the facility during the attack that was expected to occur within hours, the keyword in this case is 'expect'.

Roughly one mile away, Max Zorba and Jekyll stood watching them through binoculars.

"We should be able to take them by surprise." said Zorba in his distinctive Greek accent.

"Are all your men ready?"

Zorba looked behind them, around two hundred criminals in several cars and trucks were there, armed to the teeth and warm for the idea of battle.

"They're ready, where is the loot?"

"Right now there is between one-fifty to two-hundred Agents over there, there may be more on the way, and they've come prepared to fight a legion of anarchists. Very soon there will be more guns and explosives than anyone can fathom, and there is more in that building. You'll have the booty of your dreams and a battle to go with it."

Putney, London

After twenty minutes of effort, Natalya was finally in control of the league's systems. And once she exploited that power, her location would be known.

"Skinner?" She asked through the satellite phone on the desk.

"Yes, Natalya."

"I'm in."

"Good, now follow the instructions and you three get out."

L.H.Q.

Dorian was in his office reviewing intelligence reports when the plasma screen on the wall opposite to him started up and the utterly terrified face of a technician appeared.

"Mr. Gray?" said the young man as he adjusted his glasses and wiped the sweat from his forehead, "I'm sorry to disturb you, but something is wrong… Our systems, they're out of control."

"What?" asked Dorian sharply.

"Someone has hacked the system."

"I was told that is impossible!"

"It is… was."

"What damages has been done."

"Our outside communications, Sir. They've been shut down."

"How soon can you get them back on?"

"We can't, not until… Wait," said the man as he looked away at some computer screens, "… all locks are being opened, the entrances are wide open! And…. we just lost the bulk of our security system."

"Are you saying that this place is open for all to enter and do as they please?"

"Yes. I'm sorry; I have to idea what had happened. We'll try to fix this all up, as a matter of fact; we've already started to track down the location of the hack. It's coming from somewhere in Putney."

"Give me that address soon, and you better get the systems fixed, or I'll read your resignation in the morning, and your obituary the morning after."

The screen blanked shut, Dorian pressed his intercom,

"Kat, Get me Miss Fatale."

"She's not in." answered the secretary.

"Well find out where she is."

Dorian rang up Sands who was in his own office.

"Mr. Sands?"

"Yeah."

"Very soon we'll have the Shadows' location in Putney, I need you to head there and apprehend them once we get the address. Take twelve special Agents along with you."

"Yes Sir."

Dorian waited a few seconds before buzzing for Kat,

"Have you found her?"

"Sorry, Sir. I've tried her cell, her flat, no one knows where she is."

"Fuck! Are all Operatives accounted for?"

"Yes, with the exception of Mr. Rayne."

Heathrow Airport, London

'Attention all travelers, this is the boarding call for flight Six-One-Six to Los Angeles, California.'

Ethan Rayne carried his bag and walked to the terminal, he had no regrets about it, and he was doing the sensible thing and getting out while he still could.

Crawley, West Sussex

A hand held rocket launcher sent a missile through the dark night and into a group of unsuspecting Agents.

The explosion brought great fear to the dozens of Agents who didn't expect to see any kind of combat till the wee hours of the morning. Several of them were relaxed, smoking cigarettes, eating some packed meals or slipping a few sips of Irish coffee when the higher ranking Agents weren't looking. The attack took them completely by surprise, they scampered in all directions, not knowing what to do exactly, their formations were in complete chaos.

A horrifying, animalistic, sadistic roar erupted through the air as Jekyll changed while Zorba and his troops advanced.

East London Docks, Warehouse 64

Mr. Trick walked into the warehouse, full of skepticism, he looked blankly at the empty space and the various objects on the walls, and something was making him feel very uncomfortable about the whole situation. He thought Big Brother had to be quit insane to send him here.

A loud sound of a switch being thrown open was heard and the warehouse was filled with light from some spotlights mounted on the rafters above.

"Missster Trick." said Judas in an overly theatrical manner, "I've been expecting you."

"Mr. Kemp, of course." said Trick with disdain in recognition of the voice which seemed to be coming from nowhere. He looked around him and saw that there was an abundance of weapons on the walls, there was also a great deal of crosses nailed around them as well.

"Do you like what I've done to the place? I tricked it out just for you, no pun intended."

"I like it, where are you, you little shit?"

"Why," said Judas as he dropped from the rafters onto the ground, "I'm right here."

Judas walked in an arc a distance away from Trick, fondling his tulwar sword in his hand.

"I though your lot the Chimpperies weren't big on crosses."

"I reconsidered; you had that effect on me. For eight years while I was in that cage, I though of nothing but the taste of you dust."

"I'm flattered. What's with the toys?"

"Oh, you don't think I'd fight an unarmed man, do you?"

"And the crosses?"

"I just thought they'd make the place look festive."

"Uh-huh. So, I'm part of the price you received to be Big Bro's little snitch?"

"Spot on. Now, are we done with the talky part and can move on to the slice and dice main even?"

"Why, certainly."

Putney, London

The League's special agents were massive men, each was a at least six feet-three inches tall, man-shaped mass of muscle, covered in riot police armor and carrying a submachine gun. Twelve of these men were right outside the Shadows' apartment, four of them shattered the door with a police ram and then they bolted in, raising their guns they advanced into the apartment looking for the Shadows.

"Find them." said Sands as he followed them in.

They entered the study where voices could be heard, but upon entering all they found was a dark room with recorded voices coming from computer speakers. The screen displayed a screen sever indicating that it has been abandoned for some time.

"The bedrooms are clear." said an Agent.

"The kitchen is clear." said another.

"The balcony is clear." said a third.

Sands sighed in frustration, and then caught sight of an Agent standing by the computer about to touch it.

"Don't!"

The warning was late as the Agent struck a key on the keyboard and the animated shapes disappeared from the screen to reveal one word in bald black letter on a red screen.

BANG

They key stroke activated a trigger wired into the keyboard, which then sent a spark to a concealed stack of C4. The explosion was devastating, killing all thirteen men instantly and sending streams of flame and debris out the windows.

L.H.Q.

'You've reached Sofie Fatale's residence, I'm not here presently, but you can leave me a message and I'll contact you soon. –BEEP-'

"Sofie," Dorian angrily said on the phone leaving a message to Sofie, "I don't know what's wrong with you, I don't know I did to make you upset. But forget all about it, we're being attacked right now. Sands was killed, we can't contact our Agents in Crawley, and Rayne may have been kidnapped. I need to contact Big Brother, and I can't do that without you. Get back to me quickly!"

Greenwich, London

The two guards at the front desk of Asgard Inc. were exposed to a strange sight, it seemed like a fire engine was heading directly their way.

"Fred, is that fire engine coming straight at us?" asked Howard.

"It does appear that way. AAAAAAA!" said Fred.

"AAAAAA!"

Bond and Natalya who sat at the front seat watched he two men scrambled to get out of the way.

"James," started Natalya, "What if this is the wrong place? What if 'The Eye' is at McArthur Inc.?"

"Put your head down!" ordered Bond as they neared the glass doors.

The engine came crashing into the bulletproof glass doors and advanced into the lobby as Bond hit the brakes to keep from crashing into a wall.

Seconds passed before four Agents entered the lobby from a door in the corner, raising their machine guns.

"Well, I guess this is the place."

Turkish hoped out of the back of the engine, carrying a grenade launcher, he aimed at the oncoming Agents and pulled the trigger, the grenade exploded five feet away from them and sent them flying before their lifeless corpses hit the marble floors.

"007," said Tanner through Bond's earpiece, "Is it the place?"

"Definitely so." said Bond as he and Natalya got into the back of the truck where they and Turkish loaded up on weapons and equipment.

L.H.Q.

Logan shut the car's engine, turned off the lights and popped open the hood.

As he and Skinner walked out they couldn't help but look in reverence upon the building, this was their moment of truth, both of them would prove their metal tonight.

"Best not forget this." said Skinner as he handed Logan a leather jacket, then loaded up on weapons.

"Thanks." said Logan as he put it on and buttoned it up.

The entrance was open for all to enter, and so they walked into the belly of the beast.

East London Docks, Warehouse 64

Despite the pain it caused him, Trick reached through the crosses and pulled a sword of a wall to block Judas' swing, punched the Australian in the face and attempted to cut off his head as he temporarily lost his footing.

Judas spun out of the way and sliced with his sword, cutting Trick in the arm.

Judas smiled smugly as he liked the blood of the edge of the sword, Trick eyed the wound that was already healing and cursed, "Oh, no you didn't!"

The two rivaling fiends went on fighting each other with such ruthless tenacity, and tooth metal met flesh sending blood splattering on the floor, but it didn't stop any of them.

As the battle raged on, the hooded man from the League's meeting sneaked in undetected.

Greenwich, London

The three didn't meet much resistance as they descended to lower sublevels, they arrived at a room with two guards guarding a vault, both were promptly shot down. Bond then attached plastic explosives to the vault door and armed a detonator and took cover as the countdown began.

The explosion was deafening, it filled the room with a cloud of plaster and dust. Despite the damage to their hearing, Bond and Turkish walked into what was behind the vault.

Three technicians jumped from their seats, raising guns that were hung on the side of each's console.

Natalya could hear the fire fight and waited in morbid anticipation till she heard Turkish call her in.

A ten-by-sixteen foot high screen was mounted on the wall facing away from the entrance; beneath it was a massive array of drives and buttons and methods of interaction with the computer. Natalya looked upon it in complete and utter awe and admiration, momentarily forgetting she was here to destroy it.

"The Eye."

L.H.Q

It is a time of reckoning, Dorian thought and head out to his secretary's desk.

"Mr. Gray…"

"Kat, I need you to get out of here, right now. We're under attack."

"But.."

"There's no time, I need you to get everyone out of the building, tell them to use the emergency exits."

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The metal detector sounded of as Logan walked though it, he simply jammed his claws into the circuit board and stopped the irritating noise just as they were met with four Agents who came at them from around a corner. They didn't have luck any better than that of the dozens of Agents that had ever faced up to Logan before.

"I'll go down to the archives department to get your file and rig the place to explode at five O'clock." said Skinner, "You take the elevator and be careful on your way up. And remember, never…"

"Take off my jacket, I know."

Each went a separate way, Logan heading on to an elevator while Skinner headed to a flight of stairs and headed down.

East London Docks, Warehouse 64

Judas punched his adversary in the teeth, then pulled Trick's sword which was lodged in his ribs.

"Motherfucker," he cursed, "You nearly stabbed me in the heart, what's wrong with you?"

Trick took a medieval mace from the wall and hurled it at Judas's head who ducked out of the way and pushed Trick to the ground, and the two wrestled for a while and aimed blows to already injured parts of their respective bodies. Judas was eventually able to get behind Trick and use the Mace's chain to choke him, pulling forcefully till all his already sore muscles were aching, but still going further, forcing the metal links back till he it started penetrating his flesh.

"How does it feel, mate?" gloated Judas as blood and sweat coated his forehead and he was slowly decapitating his enemy.

"You tell me."

It wasn't Judas who said that, nor Trick, but the hooded man who grabbed Judas from the back of the neck, picked him up and threw him at a wall twenty feet away.

Judas ignored the pain that the crash brought on, he brushed the dust of his shoulder and looked up.

The newcomer was removing his hood to reveal his disfigured face. He was bald and pale with a bloated skin, his teeth were razor sharp and he could notice what looked like a scar that went straight from between his lips to below his chin, splitting his bottom jaw in half.

"Judas Kemp… " said Trick as he nursed his wounded neck, "Meet Jared Nomak."

Greenwich, London

Turkish guarded the gate to the vault as Bond stood by Natalya as she was analyzing the data displayed on the screen, inserting several disks and CDs into the drives, her finger hitting a hundred buttons per minute, completely mastering her domain.

"Bond?" Moneypenny said through the earpiece.

"Yes, Moneypenny?"

"There's a car from the League that has just arrived and Agents are making their way into Asgard right now."

"How many?"

"Around twenty-five."

"Natalya," called Bond, "How much time do you need?"

"I don't know, fifteen minute maybe."

"What are the news on other fronts?" asked Bond.

"The Crawley Operation is still going on, no news from Jekyll. Tanner has been directing Logan and Skinner for the last five minutes. You be careful, James."

"You too, Jane."

"Turkish." called James.

"What do you want?" Turkish said without looking at the spy.

"We have company, we need to secure the location." answered Bond, shrugging off the unwarranted hostility.

"Alright."

The two exited through the vault door, there were two ways to come so they decided to split up and control the flux of oncoming Agents through each door.

At the same time, Silas and Elle Driver were entering the Asgard building after the wave of Agents came in.

Minutes passed, and then the two dozens of Agents came bursting through the doors to find Turkish opening fire upon them.

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For the love of Jack Harding, somebody convince me someone is still reading this stuff and review.