Now. April 2nd, 2008

Regent's Park, London

"Felix." said Sir James Bond, General Director of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, as he walked side by side with Felix Leiter, Director of the New York City Branch as the two walked through the corridors of the League's main headquarters in Regent's Park, while each's aid followed them closely.

"Jim." said Felix, "Great seeing you old man. I wish the occasion was different."

"Is everyone here?"

"Josephine isn't here yet, or so I was told."

"Josephine..." muttered Bond with disdain, "She picked one hell of a time to go honeymooning with that little minx of hers."

"Benjamin." came a voice from behind them, "And Jabulon. Evening."

Mina Jekyll, also known as Josephine, Director of the Gotham City Branch of the League walked past the two, hardly giving any further acknowledgement, not showing any more respect for the two than that with which they spoke of her.

The top eight officials of the League rarely ever gathered together, rarely in the strictest manner. In the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen's current, modern form, the eight officials had gathered only twice before. Beyond that, encounters usually meant two or three Branch Director's cooperating on common ground, or James Bond taking a tour of the seven branches, which he did annually.

But like those two other times, crisis had arisen, and so they had to gather once again. The perpetual thorn in the League's side; the opposition led by the four Captains, four former Agents of the League; Captain Nemo, Captain Barbossa, Captain Mason and Captain Raimus, had finally struck the League where they couldn't bear to be struck.

The War Room as it was dubbed was an ample chamber; the walls and the floor were covered with dark gray plastic that covered the various electronics. At one end, opposite the entrance was a massive plasma screen covering an entire wall. At the center of the room was round table, covered n the same kind of plastic, and around the table were eight seating positions, with a plush leather chair and a touch-activated computer screen built into the table, one for each branch director and the eight, designated by a silver semi-circle, was reserved for the General Director.

Bond sat at his position at the round table, shifting his eyes among all seven branch director, who had flocked from every league stronghold, leaving the management of their respective branches to their vice directors.

There was Paik, the Korean industrialist, there was Montoya, the southern American drug lord, Yusuf al-Kherish, the noted diplomat and descendant of one of the captains of the Arabian revolt against the Ottoman empire in world war one, Felix Leiter, the former American spy, Mina Jekyll, who had been a member of the League since the very beginning. There was Peter Gruber, the German mercenary and Sofie Fatale, the French attorney and deputy director for the French branch, seeing as how the director was absolutely unable to attend.

Aside from those eight, the only other attendee was a young gentlewoman there to record the minutes.

Mina Jekyll, codenamed Josephine stood up and started speaking in an English accent somewhat softened from years of living in the united states, saying,

"My fellow extraordinary gentlemen and gentlewomen, our worst fear has come to pass; the opposition has MacGuffin. This meeting has been called to decide what to do."

"Now, hold on just a minute," said Leiter, "They have a mere prisoner that has never been confirmed to be MacGuffin. And even so, what MacGuffin knows, if he is still alive, is only of general relation to Project Phoenix as it stands today."

"I agree with Director Leiter," said Paik, "I do not think anything significant will come of this."

Montoya grunted in disapproval,

"Director Jekyll is very right in her willingness to cover the bases," he said, "We really should consider an aggressive plan to eliminate any threat before it is materialized."

"Such a massive operation would require considerable concentration and massive resources." said Bond, "Do not forget that We're still in the second year of our five year plan. With the upcoming schedule in '08, we do not need anymore on our plate."

"I personally would like to know why is it that we have waited thus far to crack down on them," said Gruber, "We should have attacked them all in '92 when they were weakened and we had the chance."

"You know why that is, Gruber," said al-Kherish, "We need the opposition leaders alive. There are things they know that we've spent billions and decades in trying to find to no avail, such as the fountain of youth, the Blazing World and Davy Jones' Locker, both are known to only Nemo and Barbossa."

"They likely have a good idea of what Phoenix is." said Josephine loudly, silencing all the smaller voices, "The man thy have is MacGuffin, there has been always little doubt of that. The opposition are neither stupid nor week, they are highly intelligent, resourceful and natural survivors. If I remember correctly we had two of their leaders sabotaged and left for dead after the war, and they survived till this very day.

"They are he most dangerous people on this world, because they believe that the world would be better if it weren't for us. Once MacGuffin tells them what he knows, they will fill in the gaps for themselves. And you can trust me as I say that they will spare neither coin nor blood in stoping it... None of that would have happened if we had given priority to shutting them down years ago like I had told you all."

At that last sentence Mina and Bond's eyes met in a stare full of hatred and contempt, so intense that the other six descended into a shocked silence. There was no love between those two, no good feelings at all, and though not even they knew it at the time, that stare would mark the end of an era, an the beginning of a contest.

Days ago

The Yellow Submarine.

Off the coast of Okinawa, Japan

Captain Nemo walked through the corridors of the Yellow Submarine toward the loading docks. The submarine was already on its way to the island as were the Black Pearl and the Red October. It would be quite an event; almost every member of the opposition in the same place at the same time, from the four Captains to the lowest sailing crew. Nothing like that has ever happened before, not in the sixty years of the opposition, since Hector Barbossa's ship had wrekced on the same beach where Prince Dakkar had washed up a year earlier. Not even more than two of the Captain had ever been in the same country at the same time before.

"Gaum-Ja." said Nemo as he saw the Korean beauty, clad in a leather coat and ignoring the lustful stares of the crew. The men looked away and scattered as soon as they realized their Captain was there. Lee Gaum-Ja, who formerly worked collecting information about the League's east-Asian branch, before her cover was blown and she had to flee, had been undertaking a special assignment in Japan, with the aid of Hatori Hanzo, the renowned assassin.

"Captain." said Gaum-Ja, "What's happening?"

"Someone sold us out." said Nemo, "Every last member of the opposition who hasn't been killed in on his way to a secret location."

"Is that where were going?"

"Yes. Are you alright?"

"I'm okay." said Gaum-Ja, lowering her head to disguise her flattery at Nemo's concern, "I found it."

"Have you?"

"Yes." said Gaum-Ja as she reached into her black leather coat's pocket, and produced a tiny piece of paper, pasty white and completely blank, perhaps less than two square inches in area.

"This is all that's left." said Gaum-Ja, "This is the piece. This is the death note."

There it was, the seaon premiere. I've already written around fifteen chapters, so for the next month or so updating will be like clockwork. This season I plan on making a little bit different, it'll be a bit darker, more noirish, and more eventful. There will be a number of story arcs leading to the cataclysim finale, involving every character I could think of, from Spider-Man to God. Which leads for my request, I need a fictional Prime Minister of the UK. You can suggest a character that you think could have become PM by 2008, though. I want to hear your suggestion.

Next chapter sees the return of the femme fatales, vampire drug dealers, grieving bartenders, spies, ex-soviets, pirate lords, german psychics, prostitutes-slash-pirates and miscellaneous shady characters like that.

R&R.