Bi-Weekly
Nation Building
Issue #1 – Catching up with
By:
Robert Rock
Note: This storyline is set prior to "Tempus Fugit" in Pendragons
Department
F.66 was established in the early 20th century by a police
commissioner, when he discovered what he thought was a occult connection in the
Jack the Ripper murders. The torch
has been passed on through the years to various Chief Inspectors that have
dedicated both themselves and the department to ensuring that these connections
aren’t missed.
Many
things have changed with Department F.66 since the rise of the Black Mass Barrier.
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The
Mystery School
The
run down stone building stood on the banks of the Thames in Putney.
Its general appearance and state of repair would lead the casual observer
to believe that the building was on the verge of being condemned.
Inside
the Mystery School was the very cluttered office of Department F.66’s current
Chief Inspector. The desk and
cabinets were piled high with files. The
files themselves were packed to the point of spilling out with information that
would make the average conspiracy nut cream their pants.
CI
Eccles was dressed in a stained white shirt and a clip on tie as he reclined in
his chair. Unknown to him, his glass eye sat slightly askew unnerving the man
with whom he was speaking to no end.
Across
the desk was Jonathan Whitman, the parliamentary liaison to Department F.66. He
was dressed in a crisp navy suit accented with a heavily starched dusty pink
shirt, matching tie and pink rose fitted in his buttonhole.
He sat very cautiously in his chair worrying that any movement might
besmirch his lovely, hand made suit.
“Chief
Inspector Eccles, I say again, it is imperative that you complete your
performance reviews of the staff, as well as their psychological profiles.
The nature of your team’s focus has proven in the past to
produce irregular or erratic individuals,” Jonathan Whitman says. “How is the prime minister to know whether or not you and
your team are functioning efficiently?”
Chief
Inspector Eccles leaned forward with and evil glint in his on good eye,
“Right, you rangy little ponce, I put up with all this government bollocks to
be able to do a job that this nation needs doing.
What I won’t put up with is your smart little shite eating mouth.”
Whitman’s eyes widen and he leaned quickly back into his chair.
“I’ll
give you a verbal update and we’ll call it even, shall we,” Chief Inspector
Eccles stated. Whitman now pressed
very firmly into his worn chair only nodded.
The thought of maintaining his pristine suit were gone from his mind and
his only thoughts were of getting away from this lunatic as fast as possible.
Whitman
removed a leather portfolio and a golden pen as he prepared to take notes.
Chief
Inspector Eccles reclined back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. He
drew in a deep breath and began.
“Constance
Johanssen, chain smoking, death magnet. She’s
a creepy little bint that I pray is killed on assignment almost daily.
Approximately 200 of her friends have been killed as a result of their
friendship to her. Unfortunately, she is also a competent investigator and a
fine detective."
"Her
cousin Dust Johanssen, he was thought to be killed as part of a dowry to the
demon Zahgurim. He spent time in
that demons realm until he was released by Damion Hellstorm.
He is a functional magic-user, until the Blackmass barrier pushed up his
power level greatly. He’s still a
bit of a coward and hasn’t mastered his new power levels."
"Inspector
Strangefoot and Bob have both disappeared and have not been heard from in almost
a year. It is believed a rampaging
troll may have eaten them, but so far this is unconfirmed."
"John
Gideon is a bit of a complete psycho, who I try to keep on medical leave as much
as possible. He firmly believes
that he’s the biblical Cain. When
he is on active duty, it’s marked by extreme bouts of excessive violence and
unsettling bits of esoteric knowledge."
"The
department occasionally works with Harold, Peter, and Romany Wisdom.
This association is on a case-by-case scenario."
"Harold
is a crazy, one-armed old kook who specializes in serial killers.
Although he gives delusional, paranoid conspiracy theorist a bad name, he
still possesses a quick mind and a keen grasp of criminal psychology."
"Romany
has spent time running around with Joey Chapman and the Pendragons before he
left her for Lady Chriton and then died. She’s
running a home for wayward magical creatures out of her flat and is often useful
as a consultant on that matter and others."
"Peter
is a complete Black Air trained nut job who spent time with Excalibur.
He’s a pain in the ass to have around.
He never listens to instructions, does things his own way, but he
produces results or kills people trying. He
has become a bit unbalanced since the Black Mass barrier and has displayed some
low level magical abilities. He has
principally kept to himself over the last year or so."
"Now
is there anything else you need to know?” Chief Inspector Eccles asks as he
leans over the desk staring intently at Jonathan Whitman.
As he does so, his glass eye wobbles gently side to side.
The
mere sight of that eye makes Jonathan want to vomit.
Looking quickly away to avoid it, Jonathan smoothes the front of his suit
jacket. “No Eccles, I believe
I’ve heard enough. I would
describe this department as shabby or motley, but you’ve done that for me
already. I would ask the Prime
Minister to dissolve this unit if not for business that he would like you to
attend to. As you know Mr. Blair couches much of his approval rating on the
Pendragons. As such he would be
loath to see them dragged into a possibly messy investigation.”
Whitman
pulls a folder out of a very expensive Louis Vittan briefcase and places it in
front of Eccles. “It has come to
our attention that there is an individual within the British supernatural scene
that is attempting to unite all previously mystical or magical creatures into a
cohesive unit. It is the worry of
the Prime Minister and others that if this is complete then they may want rights
and form voting blocks or things of this nature.
We would like you to investigate this person or thing and neutralize him
or it if possible.”
“Do
you have any idea how many of these reports I’ve seen since the barrier went
up? No? Well I’ll tell you anyway, about one a week.
The only credible one I saw was that report on Baroness Blood.
The rest have been guesstimation or speculation.”
Unfazed
Whitman presses on, “That may be so, but we feel this one has merit and have
confirmed several pieces of the intelligence to reliable external sources. If
you would be so kind as to investigate and provide me a weekly status reports
for the Prime Minister’s consumption.” With that Jonathan Whitman quickly
stood up, brush himself off, pack his briefcase and hurried out.
“Blood
fem,” was all Eccles mumbled to himself as he watched Whitman leave.
As the door to his office shut Eccles turned his attention to the file.
“Never heard of this one before. Nothing
else on the go right now, might keep the crew out of trouble or at least get
Constance killed.”
He
continued to read through the file and became increasing more concerned with
what he was reading. “Bloody
hell,” he whispered at the end of the file and felt a familiar knot growing in
his gut that let him know there was actually something to this.
He got up and went to see who was on the floor to get this investigation
started.
Department
common room
Dust
Johanssen was deeply engrossed in a large mystical volume and never heard Chief
Inspector Eccles approach him.
“Dust,”
Eccles’ yelled louder than necessary, causing Dust to jumped and screamed like
a little girl. Eccles was fairly
certain that he might have wet himself.
Taking
a second to compose himself Dust looked up at Eccles, “Yes sir?”
“We
just got a lead on a potential unifying threat within the supernatural crowd.
I want you to work some of your contacts and verify as much of the data
in this file as possible.” Eccles says as he drops the file on the tome.
A small cloud of dust is kicked up by its fall.
Eccles faints chocking and waves the dust from his face. “No wonder
they call you Dust, with these books you read.”
“Funny
sir, very funny.”
“I’m
not a comedian you American fop. Get
off your ass and go work some leads.” Eccles
yells, his face turning beet red. Dust grabs the file and disappears, literally.
“What I’m stuck with,” Eccles’ mumbles to himself as he walks
back to his office.
Mortigen
sat in an overstuffed leather chair and sipped cognac.
The room was expensively appointed, but all eyes in the room are drawn to
one particular piece. Behind
Moritgen’s head was a sun disk of beaten gold.
Its construction was on the crude or primitive side, but it seemed to
exude power.
A
young vampire entered the room and bowed before him.
He motioned for the vampire to rise.
“Everything
has been attended to sir. They
await your presence for the meeting.”
“Thank
you, Gellen. Tell them I will
arrive shortly.” Mortigen answered. “And
Gellen,”
“Yes
Lord?”
“See
to it that everyone is well fed while they wait.”
“Absolute
Lord.” Gellen dismissed himself a wry smile played upon his lips.
Mortigen
stood up from his chair and turned to the gold disk behind him. “And so it
begins,” he said and began to laugh quietly to himself.
Next
Issue – Mortigen makes his pitch and Chief Inspector Eccles lines up
more players
Authors
Notes
Blame
Barry Reese. It’s his fault that
he created a compelling universe, ripe with potential.
It’s his fault that he supported me, an unknown writer and allowed me
to write House of Braddock. It’s
his fault that he began writing a phenomenal weekly series, Union Jack (go read
it now) that gave me the mad idea to try it myself (although I’m not quite mad
enough to try weekly, but bi-weekly is close) .
Department
F.66 first saw life in the Pryde & Wisdom mini written by Warren Ellis and
most of the research I did for the characters came from www.marvunapp.com.
I hope you enjoy this little piece of the Pendragon universe as I try to exorcise all of my own personal paranoid, conspiracy theories in this title.
Comments can be sent to rarock2002@yahoo.ca