The Day England Almost Sank

Beginnings

Without further ado...here it is! I appreciate everyone's patience and I am always delighted when you leave a comment! Enjoy the madness!

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Holly walked down the hall, mind on the coming adventure. This was going to be a close one. She stepped into the kitchen that she shared with the six other women and just as came in, Sophie, a surprisingly hyper 30-year-old, said loudly,

"But England is sinking!" Cythera glared at her,

"Don't be ridiculous..."

"But it's true! Holly, tell her!" Holly sighed. Welcome to breakfast...

"It is sinking, I'm afraid." She affirmed.

"To be precise, it has sunk 3 feet in the last two days." chimed in Siobhan as she entered, a book open under her nose.

"Told you!" exclaimed Sophie and stuck her tongue out at Cythera. Tanya came in a moment later, a comforter wrapped around her shoulders,

"Do you guys have to be so loud all the time?"

"Yes!" replied Sophie cheerfully and flung a pancake at Tanya.

"Hey! You little...!" Tanya chased Sophie around the kitchen a few times before they settled down again. Aleda came in, her snow-white wings ruffling gently, and sat down on her stool at the table. Conventional chairs weren't the most comfortable when one had wings. There was a scream and Cythera nearly fell out of her chair. A giant snake was sitting on the table directly in front of her, it's head raised menacingly. Calla glided in a moment later and the illusion flickered out,

"Good morning, all." greeted Calla. Cythera glared and went back to eating her pancakes.

"Ah...that never gets old..." mused Calla, winking at Holly and going to get herself a plate. Holly tried not to giggle. She finally sat down at the large, round table that took up a lot of their shared kitchen. It had to be big enough to fit all seven of them, plus any guests who stopped by.

I suppose I should mention that they lived in an underground bunker. Well, it was really more of a base. Not the cramped military conditions one might think of, though. It was a roomy underground fortress that was really quite comfortable. Each woman had her own room and adjoining bathroom and there was a frankly awesome library that took up most of the East wing.

"We've got a problem, girls." Stated Holly, "As we said, England is sinking."

"And at this rate," added Siobhan, "it will be entirely underwater by the end of that day if we don't do something."

The table was silent, even devoid of the clink of silverware. Aleda shuffled her wings uneasily. This wasn't good. No good at all. Their home and beloved country was sinking.

"Well, what can we do?" Asked Tanya.

"What we usually do." replied Holly, "Make some calls."

I believe an explanation would be prudent now. These seven women are the Keepers. They keep some of the biggest secrets in the world. In some cases, the universe. Their job is to protect the Earth and keep its inhabitants safe. No matter the personal cost. This means that they will defend their Secret to their last breath. They each faithfully keep their Secret and they all have ghosts.

Each Keeper has a specific Secret which they guard; Holly and Tanya are in charge of keeping the secret of the Doctor's existence. Seeing as he's had so many faces and has been around so long, it takes two of them to do the job. They both consider themselves very lucky to have met him. They also coordinate with Captain Jack Harkness of Torchwood (these days are always interesting) to take care of past companions. Holly, even being only 24 and one of the youngest, was a sort of leader. All seven of them almost always worked together but someone had to keep an eye on everyone. She has a smaller secret; she's part Frost Giant. Her father had been human her mother a Frost Giant. She had never found out which one. Her father had died when he was brought in in 2008 to consult on the spaceship that crashed in the Thames. The Slitheen were to blame. She had only been 19 at the time. She is extremely proficient with technology and mechanics and being part Frost Giant, she would live longer than the average human.

Tanya was 23 and could sing like no one's business. The others always said that if they didn't lead such secret lives, Tanya could easily become world-famous for her voice. She also happened to be a complete badass. All the girls were trained fighters in a skill set of their choosing but Tanya was easily the most fierce.

Sophie, the afore mentioned hyper 30-year-old, was in charge of all things Shakespeare. They all loved reading, especially Shakespeare, but Sophie had the best claim. She was actually a descendant of the man himself. The last descendant. Talk about pressure to fulfill a legacy, eh? Her parents had both died when she was 2, 'under mysterious circumstances'. She was still trying to find out precisely what those circumstances were. She lived with her uncle until she was twenty at which time she moved to London and soon was chosen as a Keeper.

Siobhan had an even greater Secret, if you can imagine. She was a black-haired woman of incredible brains and massive deductive powers. Ringing any bells? Siobhan Watson is really Siobahn Holmes, a descendant of the great consulting detective himself. Her Secret was that all those adventures that Arthur Conan Doyle published were all real. All true stories. Every. Last. One. A. C. Doyle was a pen name used by John Hamish Watson, friend to Sherlock Holmes. Needless to say, she had a certain penchant for deerstalkers. She was as clever as they come and her vocabulary was quite magnificent. Her mother was still around and lived in a nice countryside cottage. Siobhan's grandfather four times removed was Mycroft Holmes, the British government, for goodness sake!

Calla was an ambassador of to Earth, of sorts. She's and Asgardian and therefore responsible for keeping Asgard informed of and protected from various space programs. Calla is a very accomplished martial artist and good friends with Natasha Romanoff, or the Black Widow. She has a talent for illusions and a great love of books and history. She was about 23 in human years but in reality almost a thousand years old.

Cythera, nicknamed Cy, is 25 and has her own Secret. When she was a child, she was in a terrible accident and needed a blood transfusion. But she was transfused with a vial of blood from the Enterprise that had somehow made it to Earth. Khan's blood. She had superhuman strength, and could take multiple punched without so much as a blink. Not that I would recommend it. She had many of Khan's talents and had mastered the Vulcan death-grip. She and Steve Rogers saw eye-to-eye on many things. Her wit was as sharp as Holly's sword and she had an incredible ability to read people's faces. Not to mention that her hand-to-hand combat skills were lethal. She had gone to Cambridge, studied Philosophy, and gambled her way into being a millionaire. In that respect, she and Tony Stark got along famously. Her parents were alive and well off thanks to their daughter's riches which she spent freely on them.

Aleda has quite the Secret as well. She's a Valkyrie, who of course, have wings. Full blown, feathered, functional wings. She is careful to keep them hidden when in public, binding them in a special harness,designed by Siobahn and built by Holly, that binds them semi-comfortably to her back and allows her to wear a normal shirt. Otherwise, she favors tank-tops but had specially made shirts. The tailor kept quiet, thanks to Tanya. She must be very careful because if the government found out about her, she would be caged and dissected without a second thought. She and Cythera were also members of a special sector of S.H.E.I.L.D. that was in charge of keeping the Avengers out of the lime-light when they weren't saving the world. They made sure that Bruce Banner had places to go where he could remain calm. Natasha Romanoff had a place to train. Steve Rogers had a place he could escape to when the clang-and-bang of modern life got to be too much. Clint Barton was given a large, outdoor archery arena to go to at any time. Thor had places to stay whenever he was on Midgard for any extent of time. And Tony Stark - well, there wasn't much to be done about him.

This is what the Keepers had devoted their lives to and they took it very seriously. So, they made some calls.

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Well, that's part one...many more to come! Hope you liked it!