The English Opening - Playing White, Peter Wisdom

[mcr]

Hoping to catch the master of the manor in privacy, Peter Wisdom found that Elizabeth Braddock had beaten him to the punch. Deciding to eavesdrop, he heard Dr. Millbury spin tales of the girl's father, discuss advanced physics, and the mysterious "Otherworld".

Wisdom knew of her brother, peripherally - a promising doctoral student at Thames University in London, lined up for a spot on Wisdom's own team. Researching the topic du jour - Advanced theoretical physics, Nathan Rosen's paper on folded space-time, and its practical applications. Under the tutelage of senior research scientist Hugo Travis ... and visiting lecturer Henry Pym.

The pieces were all starting to paint an interesting picture. Brian had disappeared around the same time as Pym. And though the former had left no trail to follow, Wisdom's contacts were able to tail Pym to a meeting of the Hellfire Club in London. And now, here he was, right in the belly of the beast. Where he had all but confirmed with his own eyes that other realms beyond his own did exist. And that, at least so it seemed, modern science was able to replicate the old ways his family had long passed down. Since the time of Camelot...and Morgan le Fay, if she was to be believed. The Braddock family too, according to her.

If James Braddock was indeed from Otherworld, as Millbury suggested, his daughter might know more than even she realizes. Together, she and Peter might be able to fill in the missing gaps of what happened to her twin. But they would need more than just some old family traditions and bits and pieces of childhood memory. They needed the resources and collective knowledge of England's greatest secrets - stored in Portwell House, an hour or so away by train.

Taking their leave, Betsy and Wisdom arrive for an arranged rendezvous with his MI-13 contact.

[phencerx]

After digesting what all had just taken place and overhearing Elizabeth and Dr. Millbury's conversation, Peter knew that to get more information he was going to have to check in with one of the few MI-13 contacts he knew he could trust. Breaking away as their conversation was ending, he found a room that wasn't in use and makes a call to his colleague O. Using a series of codewords that flowed into natural conversation, he let his friend know that they needed to meet, and it needed to be off the books and not at headquarters. And that he would be bringing a "friend".  After completing his call, he casually finds Elizabeth.  "Perhaps we should get out of here for a bit.  Your name rings true and I might have some information that you'd be interested in."

Getting out of the mansion was much easier than Peter had expected. While thinking everyone would be held under lock and key for the foreseeable future, all it took was saying that he needed some air and wanted to go out for a pint with Elizabeth. As they left the mansion, Peter quietly says to Elizabeth, "Chances are they're going to be following us luv. Let's keep the chit chat civil like a couple of mates until we reach where we're going."

He didn't yet know what to think of the members of the Hellfire Club, but so far they had done nothing to truly gain his trust. He initially went on their little mission to ingratiate himself with them, but now having the knowledge that they were willing to play with forces that hadn't been seen in this land for centuries made him want to stick around to make sure they didn't muck up the world. The train ride over was quiet enough, but Peter still kept his guard up looking for signs of anyone listening in.

Once they reached their destination, they came upon a quirky looking fellow in a fez. Having been surrounded in the den of vipers, Peter was more than happy to see a friendly face and clasped the man's hand in a firm handshake and brought him in for a hug to quietly whisper "let's take this inside shall we."

Upon entering Portwell House, Peter takes a deep breath of relief. This place had been like a second home to him since he was brought into the MI family. Turning to Elizabeth, "Miss Braddock, allow me to introduce you to O. Quartermaster and occult researcher extraordinaire. O, this is Elizabeth Braddock. Brian's sister."

[OurLadyWar]

Elizabeth followed his lead, curious to see where this next rabbit hole would lead. She listened and nodded acknowledgement to his direction and kept her gaze forward, instead of looking over her shoulder to see if they were indeed behind followed. Basic stuff, but not something a regular civilian would know not to do. On the train, she was quiet as she processed what all Dr. Millbury had told her about her father. She found herself confounded and bemused about her late enigmatic father, but the reminiscing had also made her miss him again. Still, she covered her emotional tracks well, opting to watch the scenery unfold past them instead of pouring her heart out to someone she barely knew. True, he had proven a stable and capable leader on the mission, but that was all she knew.

In the Portwell House, she rubbed her hands up and down her arms, but the house soon warmed her well enough. It was all strange pleasantries with the friend in the fez -- "A pleasure, Mr. O," she would present her hand for a shake -- until her brother's name was mentioned with a good deal of familiarity. That flinch was near impossible for her to cover up. "You knew Brian?" She looked between them. "Both of you?"

[mcr]

The man introduced as O extends his hand:

"Another one, Mr. P? Get it? Cos I'm 'O'?"

When Betsy withdraws her hand, he tries to smoothly pull his own back before wiping it on his pants, as if he meant to do that rather than return the handshake.

"Ah, er, yes. Brian. Sharp as a tack that one. Way beyond his years. Some of his work is really exciting stuff. But I've never actually met him. I don't leave the Department much. The recruiting and the field work we leave to chaps like old Petey here."

He returns the hug with an awkward two slaps on the back, almost like petting an unfamiliar dog.

"I can only assume that's why the two of you are here: You have news of his disappearance? You were rather cryptic earlier?"

[phencerx]

Peter groans at O's joke. He was always quirky, but the man could come up with whatever you need and his knowledge of the, let's say, stranger things in this world was top notch.

"Aye luv. I've had an eye on your brother for a while. He had already signed on to join MI-13 and was slated to be under my supervision once transferred over. I saw him from a distance a few times just to see what all the fuss was about and he didn't disappoint. You'll have to forgive me for not saying anything earlier, but not knowing the true motives of all those in that Hellfire Club and all."

He walks over to the wet bar and pours three glasses of scotch out of the decanter. After taking a sip, "Ahhhhhh. Balvenie 50 year old single malt. You always keep the good stuff here O." He hands the other two a glass and sits down. "Trust me, you're going to need this old chap."

Peter takes a moment to gather his thoughts. "Elizabeth, the research your brother was doing was cutting edge. Something to do with space-time and shite like that. Really it was over my head, but the brass at the top were really interested. And here's the kicker, he was working with Dr. Hank Pym. You'd know him as the giant from the other place we traveled to and they both disappeared around the same time."

Lighting up a cigarette and taking another sip of his scotch, Peter momentarily flashes back to that "Otherworld". Just as quickly, he snaps back out of it and turns to O. "Those tossers at the Hellfire Club managed to find a way to open a portal to what we can only assume are other realms. And to top it off, we had a run in with Morgan le Fay in wherever the bloody hell it was we traveled to. I can tell you this though, it sure wasn't jolly old London. And she seemed to recognize me and the lass. Now you being the knowledgeable chap that you are of both science and mysticism, naturally I decided to give you a ring on the telly. We don't know enough yet to get the higherups involved without them trying a guns blazing infiltration. And from what I've seen there so far, modern weapons won't really be of much help."

[mcr]

"So that Yank finally did it, eh? Quantum tunneling? Not just a pipe dream? And Morgan le Fay? We all know the stories, of course. Rose against King Arthur in days of yore, defeated by Merlin at the siege of Camelot. Makes the lot of us look like wankers, I bet. Magic so dark just thinking about it makes you want to wet the bed. Er...forget I said that, yeah?"

He began flitting about the room, tossing dusty old tomes which must have been worth a fortune in collectors value as if they were yesterday's rubbish:

"Le Fay...Le Fay...You say she recognized you? That may help narrow it down."

He seems to be talking to himself more than the two of you as he says that, until he finally settles on one:

"Here we are: 'Marchogion y Ford Gron' The Knights of the Round Table'."

Licking his finger to add moisture, he thumbs through the weathered parchment.

"Sworn to service of England and her King, Arthur. According to Layamon, their ranks are thought to number over a thousand strong and are the progenitors of many of England's noble houses. Splintered into warring factions upon the machinations of the witch Morgan Le Fay and Mordred, Arthur's bastard son. When Mordred felled Arthur, Merlin named the remaining loyal knights as stewards of the ... of the realms?"

He scratched his head:

"Of the realms? Is that right? Named them stewards of the realms to watch over them until the return of England's true ruler? That can't be right. England was one realm until the 15th Century. Almost 200 years after this was written...."

He continued, somewhat perplexed:

"Whose sons and daughters would take up their noble calling as England's greatest champions. Ah. So your forefathers must have stood against the witch. That must be why she recognized you: England's champions risen again to take arms against her."


He skipped ahead a few pages:

"With their combined might, they stood against Morgana's army until Merlin banished her ... away .. to...ah fuck. What did you say happened to you lot?"

[OurLadyWar]

Elizabeth readily accepted the drink and took a draw with a pinch of her lips, and the wince was more a reaction, not a revulsion. She held the glass warm in her hands after that, as one might cradle a bird, and tapped her fingertip on the crystalline rim. "When was the last time either of you even saw Brian? Or for that matter, how could I even know you were even close? He never mentioned either of you, not in his letter or on our walks. Though, with how MI is, I can scarcely blame him. The scotch is good, but I'm afraid I'll need a little more proof with its proof." A pointed look to Wisdom. "If you get my meaning." It was all well and good for chaps to say they knew Brian, but until she knew they were all truly familiar, she was not volunteering anything. In fact, she had a suspicion Wisdom knew plenty more than he was letting on, but she was not keen making that privilege an easy one for him. Or O.

She took another couple of sips and inspected her surroundings with a languid, but gracefully detailed stroll. Her casual impression was disrupted when O mentioned "England's champions risen". In fact, the fumes of the scotch were almost too much, but she seemed to ride the surprise out well enough. "You mean... me and," she motioned to Peter, "and him? Us?" At the silence hanging in the room she made a polite and sweeping gesture. "Well! No offense. That just seems a little much."

[phencerx]

Peter handles the news in stride, taking another long drag from his cigarette. "Bollocks O. I've been called a lot of things in my life but they've always been closer to a bloody bastard than a champion. You know the kind of work I do for Queen and Country. If even a fraction of it ever came out, it'd be to the gallows with me."

Peter stands up and excuses himself to the next room where he moves to one of the bookshelves. He pulls on one of the books and the bookshelf swings open to reveal a series of file lockers, each with it's own individual combination lock. He runs his fingers across them until he finds the locker he was looking for and turns the wheel right, then left, then back to the right, all while masking what numbers he was entering. He thumbs his fingers through the files until he finds the one labeled "Braddock, B."

Reentering the room he looks to  Elizabeth, "I like to keep my "special project" files where they won't be randomly stumbled upon by the other chaps at HQ."  He then begins to read from the file. "Brian Braddock. Son of Sir James and Lady Elizabeth, both deceased, though no bodies ever recovered. Brother of Jamie Braddock, currently incarcerated in Broadmoor High-Security Hospital for violent and criminal acts. Twin brother of Elizabeth Braddock, see file "Braddock, E." Brian has been recruited to MI-6 for his studies on Advanced theoretical physics, Nathan Rosen's paper on folded space-time, and its practical applications. NOTE: Ask O to explain what the hell that even is."

"Unknown to most members of MI-6, a transfer has been put in for Brian to be moved under my command in MI-13 due to his other extraordinary gifts. Brian has been cautious, but in the past three months that I've been surveilling him, I've seen seen the following instances:
1. Super human strength: lifting an overturned double decker bus off of the side of a building to keep it from collapsing. NOTE: This was at 3am so I'm assuming he thought no one would be watching.
2. Flight: Same incident as listed above, flew away before any onlookers could identify him.
3. Energy Blasts: Witnessed blasts emit from his hands to clear a rockslide on the backroads near Scafell Pike."

Peter hands the file over to Elizabeth, including surveillance pictures taken all around England. "Good on you for being suspicious luv. That's what'll keep you alive. As for the last time I saw him, it was a little over a month ago when his transfer was approved. After that I went on with my own missions."

Now turning back to O, "And as for what happened to us, hell if I know. We jumped through a portal and landed in what they called another realm. Le Fay was there acting out her own version of Alice in Wonderland with Pym and the others that had gone before us. Strange thing though, when we finally took down her thralls, some type of black smoke monster appeared out of them and disappeared. Much to my disliking, I had to make a deal with the witch to get us out of there. Once the "bargain was struck" as she put it, the whole world seemed to cease to exist as we were plunged into total darkness before being pulled back to this world."

[mcr]

"Get...Oh fuck fuck fuck fuck! She didn't get you out, you sod, you released her."

He raced to find another book, flipping through it with haste. Reading aloud, he chanted an incantation as dust floated in the air, swirling into a black mist that began to take shape and solidify, pulsing with a menacing red glow, before he stopped, the spell and the shape dying with his words.

Not bothering to wait for the recognition in their eyes he exclaimed:

"That black smoke monster?"

He gestured wildly:

"Merlin banished the witch to an endless void - a space between worlds called the Dark Dimension, ruled over by Dormammu, a creature of unfathomable evil and power obsessed with consuming other realms and adding them to his own, and his legion of Mindless Ones - shapeless monsters of utter destruction. She was held prisoner there by a ruse, tricked into binding herself to a pocket dimension within the void and to there remain until a true champion of England released her. Christ what have you done?"

He looks shaken.

"But Alice in Wonderland...that...that's more than a thousand years after Morgana left our realm. That doesn't make any sense? Forget how she would recreate it - why would she? It has no significance to any Arthurian legend I've ever read?"

[OurLadyWar]

Elizabeth took the file gladly from Wisdom when he offered it up, and flipped through. The fiery wreckage of her home was quickly passed, but not without a flinch, and then... seeing Brian's picture, her heart swelled. She had not seen her brother in so long that even just seeing a picture of her twin was like catching a glimpse of him down a crowded street. She fondly touched his shoulder as everyone's words sounded underwater for a moment. Elizabeth surfaced with ease, however, and shut the file. She had to focus if she wanted to get him back.

Especially now that O was conjuring. The blob of mist with the pulsing red core should have unnerved her, but Elizabeth did not seem rattled. In fact, a flash of recognition went across her. "I've seen something like this before. Since Brian disappeared and I began my search, these... 'shadows' have been following me. They look a lot like this. Sometimes they just watch, but most of the time they attack me. That's why I never go too far without a little help," she held her hand up slowly as energy seeped through her arm, pooled, and produced that rosy blade, petals of energy flipping slowly through the air from the conjured weapon.

As O had his fit, Elizabeth's blade snapped back to sleep, and she popped her hands on her hips. "What he did was save his team. How was he supposed to know all that at the time?" Elizabeth tetchily snipped. "Look, yes, it was a mistake, but more often than not... mistakes can be fixed."

The "Wonderland" angle had intrigued her as well. "If the tales are beyond her, there may be someone else she was working with. Someone who knows the stories, someone who wanted her to be set free. I had suspicions our rescue mission was a ruse, but now..."

[phencerx]

"Spot on lass. Even while detaining the witch, I could still feel eyes peering down on me. Now it looks like we know who."

Peter walks back over to the decanter and pours himself another drink. As he lifts the glass, he notices his hand shaking ever so slightly. It's been a long time since something rattled me, he thought to himself. It wasn't O's magic, or even Elizabeth's news of having been followed by these beasts in this world. The idea that he might have let loose the most powerful and dangerous sorceress on record and garnered the attention of a world devouring entity, well that's just another line in the long list of things that will haunt Peter's nightmares.

Steeling himself, he turns back to O, "Right, so I saved who I could but cocked up at the same time. Reminds me of Belfast, but we managed to set that one straight, right old chap. And I'm guessing you've got something in this library to give us an idea of how to put the genie back in the bottle. And if not, I pray you know someone who does."

Looking back over to Elizabeth, "At least I had the forethought to alter our little deal with the devil."

[mcr]

O jumped back at the display of psychic power Betsy just put on, diving under a table curled up in a ball with his hands over his head.

"Careful!"

He urges, in a harsh whisper, and squeezes his eyes shut, opening one every odd moment to see if anything had happened.

"Lord knows all the tricks we provide this one with just for him to explode them all as soon as he gets 'em, we don't need another dent in our annual budget. It's a wonder we have demo crews at all, we could just put him in front of a problem and wait for it to fall apart in sheer terror! Plus you never know, even with all the wards in here, if something really nasty were to turn up what would happen! Especially not if they're drawn to you and that power of yours."

Waiting a few moments and satisfied that things were safe, he crawled back from under the desk, searching through the discarded books on his hands and knees.

"It's all right here in these books Mr. Wisdom! I keep telling you you need to come down here more often, but you're always running about 'saving the world', and, as you put it, managing to cock things up in the meantime. Tell me more about the Wonderland manifestation, I'm sure I can find something somewhere..."

[phencerx]

After O removes himself from under the table, "Right lad. Now that you're done soiling your britches, back to the question at hand."

"It's all right here in these books Mr. Wisdom! I keep telling you you need to come down here more often, but you're always running about 'saving the world', and, as you put it, managing to cock things up in the meantime. Tell me more about the Wonderland manifestation, I'm sure I can find something somewhere..."

"The books are more your thing my friend. Doing the dirty work, that's mine. I'd love to switch places with you, but then I'd have to come save your ass after an hour." This kind of friendly ribbing goes back between these two for years. As much guff as Peter gives O, he knows that he's more than capable of taking care of himself, but it's still fun to get him riled up at times.

Peter moves over to the book that O was reading, "But in all seriousness O, you know you're the only true friend I have here in the Division. As for the Wonderland, it was right out of the books, only with real people being controlled to play the roles. Some speed freak acting like the White Rabbit, a bloke that could duplicate himself forced to play the card soldiers, and Hank Pym off his nutter trying to get us to eat and drink things to make us grow or shrink. I took one of his pills, and I can tell you, it gives you one nasty hangover that you won't soon forget."

"Then of course there was Le Fay, acting all mad Red Queen with her off with their head shite. Only when I got close enough to interrogate her, she definitely seemed to have all of her faculties." Peter then pauses for a moment, deciding if he should reveal the next bit. If Morgan Le Fay was released back into our realm though, it was time to put all the cards on the table. "But the most bizarre part of it all was Alice. A doppelganger of our dear Miss Braddock here."

[mcr]

"It's a rather English thing, isn't it? Lewis Carroll? There's..."

Apparently finding what he was looking for, he continues:

"There's a realm called 'Otherworld' which is shaped by the unconscious thoughts and desires of the British people. A sort of 'bridge' dimension linked to the various different realities. The true aim of Morgan's conquests, some say, and I suppose it could have taken on more modern archetypes as our attitudes have changed? It could have bled into Morgan's pocket dimension somehow when the four others you mentioned were taken there, perhaps where this 'other' Elizabeth is from? We definitely need to know more. About her. Those Hellfire folks, and how they add into all of this. Would it trouble you to ask if you could continue to keep your eyes on them? It worries me greatly that Pym was working with or for them and disappeared the same time or near so to Brian, and now we've got some kind of shadow creatures making incursions into our world. Could be Dormammu's Mindless Ones. Could be something else entirely."

[OurLadyWar]

Elizabeth crossed her arms over her chest, shifted her weight. "Sounds like we have our homework cut out for us. Very well," she sighed, linking her hands behind her back and giving a good stretch. "I will see what I can dig up. We can meet at my place in a few days. Peter, if you give me a lift, I can show you just where that is."