The Modern Knight

Preparing to Storm the Castle

The 20th of June, 2014

"It's okay, Lancelot. Put it down," Merlin said, "It's verified."

Roxy had pointed a gun at Eggsy when he and Nicolette had arrived at the Manor via the tube from the shop.

"You think me coming here would have been verification enough," Nicolette said with a sigh.

"Sorry, Guinevere," Roxy said as she put her gun in its holster.

"Arthur's phone is receiving update texts about getting to safety," Merlin said as he looked at the phone, "We don't have a lot of time."

"What're you gonna do?" Eggsy asked.

"The question is, what're we going to do," Nicolette said as she crossed her arms, "God knows who's in Valentine's pocket and who's not."

"We have no choice," Merlin said with a sigh, "We're going to have to deal with this ourselves. Follow me."

Roxy, Eggsy, and Nicolette followed after Merlin.

"Nikki, I'm gonna need you to get the prototype PTAV from the Star Wars vault. Meet us at plane November-two-four-seven-Charlie-Kilo. Be as quick as you can," Merlin instructed.

"Right," Nicolette said quickly before running off away from the other three.

The young woman weaved through several hallways before reaching one of the vaults. She punched in the code and bounced on the balls of her feet as she waited for the heavy door to open. She ran in and grabbed the prototype PTAV, checking that it was in the bag before slinging it over her shoulders.

"Fuckin' hell," Nicolette cursed before running back out the vault, making sure it was locked behind her.

She then ran to the aerial hanger, looking for the plane with the identification Merlin had specified.

The door for the plane was open, so Nicolette quickly ran up the steps and into the plane. The young woman dropped the prototype PTAV in the main cabin before going up to the cockpit with Merlin.

"Did you forget to mention that thing was heavy as hell?" Nicolette asked as she panted.

Merlin gave a quick chuckle before he flipped some switches, making sure the plane was closed up before taxiing the plane from the hanger to where they could take off.

Nicolette acted as Merlin's co-pilot as they made their way to cruising altitude.

"So, where are we going first?" Nicolette asked.

"We're gonna dispatch Lancelot in Canada to destroy one of Valentine's satellites. She's gonna be using the prototype PTAV to get up there. While she's doing that, you and Eggsy are gonna be infiltrating the base Valentine is at and get me into his computer system. Then I'm gonna shut down his device," Merlin explained as they positioned the plane for their flight path.

"Lovely," Nicolette muttered.

Nicolette could hear the zipper of the prototype PTAV's case being opened as the plane started to reach cruising altitude.

"What the fuck is this?" Eggsy asked.

"I have no idea," Roxy said as Nicolette got up from her seat.

She saw Eggsy was messing with the joystick arm of the prototype PTAV.

"What you're playing with is a prototype personal trans-atmospheric vehicle," Nicolette said as she sat down next to Eggsy.

"It was developed as part of Reagan's 'Star Wars' project," Merlin said as he moved to sit down at the computer station on the plane that was away from the cockpit, "It's pretty basic but, it should still work. We're gonna take out one of Valentine's satellites."

"We're gonna break the chain and stop the signal. Or, at least, delay it as long as we can. It'll take him a couple of hours to reroute it."

"Which buys us enough time for you to get me into Valentine's mainframe so I can shut it down."

Eggsy nodded his head and he continued to examine the prototype PTAV's arm that was in his hands.

"Lancelot, you're gonna be using it," Merlin said pointing to the device, "Get into your halo suit."

Roxy gave a stiff nod.

Merlin then got up and grabbed Roxy's Halo suit out of the small closet that was on the plane. He handed it to Roxy before sitting back down at the desk to examine the implant Eggsy had pulled from Arthur.

"So, what've we got?" Nicolette asked a little while later.

She was standing next to Merlin as he examined the implant.

"It seems the implant can emit some counter signal to ensure the wearer remains unaffected by the waves of the SIM card," Merlin muttered as he manipulated the implant between tweezers.

"The waves that turn everyone into a psyco killer?" Eggsy asked.

"Quite. But what he probably didn't tell anyone is it can also super-heat their soft tissue at his command. Valentine selected his chosen few to get the count down warning, but he had to be sure they didn't blab to the wrong people beforehand."

"How does this help us right now?" Nicolette asked.

"It doesn't," Merlin said in a frustrated tone before getting up from his seat, "Roxy! Here we go!"

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The 21st of June, 2014

"Alright. That should have you secured until you pull the release," Nicolette said as she moved to stand in front of Roxy, next to Eggsy.

"The higher you go, the more the balloons expand," Merlin explained, "When you reach the edge of the atmosphere, they'll explode."

"You'll need to deploy your missile just before that, okay?"

"The edge of the atmosphere," Roxy muttered in a flat voice.

"Once you've deployed, you'll need to release for decent fast," Merlin said before drawing a deep breath, "Good luck."

Nicolette and Merlin both turned to climb into the plane. Merlin went in first and Nicolette followed him.

"Eggsy! Come on! Time is not our friend right now!" Nicolette called, before noticing that Eggsy was holding Roxy's hands.

Nicolette felt a twinge of jealousy but had to quickly shake it away. Now was not the time for jealousy for any reason.

Eggsy let go of Roxy's hands as she got higher above him and ran over to the plane. He climbed up the stairs quickly and glanced at Roxy one last time before getting into the plane.

The door then closed, and the plane prepared for take off.

"So now where are we going?" Eggsy asked.

"To the coordinates on Arthur's phone," Nicolette said as the plane started to take off.