New Avengers Snippets!
Jul. 23rd, 2006 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rabidsamfan13. Dirtier By the Dozen
Oct 18 06
Disclaimer: The New Avengers are copyrighted, but not by me. I think Canal+ or Mark One Productions owns the rights at the moment. Which means, of course, that this is fanfic – me playing in someone else's sandbox. Even moreso, anything in dark blue is a scene taken straight from the screen, dialogue and all, that either didn't hit the novelizations, or that didn't hit them in a way that satisfied my sense of the character arcs that I'm exploring. Links to quotes and screencaps (where they appear) are courtesy of bromfield hall.
As a rule
*** means I'm still adding onto a piece or scene and
### means I'm satisfied with that bit for now.
---
http://www.bromfieldhall.co.uk/tnaquotes11.htm
http://www.bromfieldhall.co.uk/dozenpics.htm
Summary: For them as hasn't seen it lately: A general who makes unexpected inspections stumbles onto an army unit which is acting as mercenaries. After Steed begins to investigate the general's disappearance, Gambit and Purdey wind up in the hands of a madman.
Scenes
"What you need, Mike Gambit," Purdey said, smiling down at him with a hey-go-mad glint in her eye, "is a little diversion."
What I need is to remember how to breathe, he thought, but she was already gone, running upright through the heather like a mother partridge leading the hunt away from her nest.
"Purdey! Purdey!" he whisper-called after her, but it was too late to stop her. As if he ever could!
Gambit started scrambling towards Miller. His only hope now was to cut off the head of the snake before Purdey was caught and crushed in the coils.
###
"I think you're just too late," Miller said with a self-satisfied smile. He nodded towards the wasteland and Gambit risked a glance to see what he meant.
Purdey, running… and between them, red signs marking the edge of a minefield.
"No…" Gambit breathed. He thought he'd been as frightened as a man could get, but he was wrong.
Epilogue
Gambit collected the rifle from where it had fallen and crouched down to check that he hadn't hit Miller or the Sergeant too hard. He wouldn't be entirely sorry if he had, he knew, but it made for paperwork.
Fortunately, they were both just unconscious, and by the signs, going to stay that way for a while. He straightened again and looked around. Half the men of the Special Commando were watching Purdey climb up to the helicopter, but the rest were watching him warily.
Well, he was wearing the uniform – and the military discipline that Miller had enforced so fiercely might last long enough to keep them from doing anything hare-brained. It wasn't like Gambit was close enough to do any good if another one of them decided to take a potshot at the chopper. Or Purdey.
"All right you lot!" he shouted. "Form up! Column of four! On the double!" To his gratification they responded. Not as quickly as they might have done for Miller, perhaps, but they were soon in marching order. There were gaps, but not as many as Gambit had feared. He went down to talk to them, more grateful than ever for the brief weeks he'd spent going through OCS as a part of his training for the Department.
"Eyes front!" he ordered, when he saw them studying him, and nodded when they braced to attention. "All right, I know some of your messmates have run for it, but you lot were smarter. You knew it couldn't last forever and it hasn't. Now they're going to get hunted down like rats, and you're going to take your medicine like soldiers. Tell the truth and three to five years from now you'll probably be back on the street – which is more than you could say if it was Colonel Miller running the courts martial."
By the uneasy shifting and the glances he knew he'd hit the gold. He pointed to a couple of the burliest men. "You two, fetch the Sergeant. And you two," this time he picked the youngest faces he could find. "Fetch Colonel Miller. We're going back to the parade ground."
###
They hadn't got more than halfway, with the helicopter pacing from above, when Steed's armored division turned up, much to Gambit's relief. He knew that Steed was perfectly capable of bluffing, even on that scale, and he'd wondered how long he could keep control of nearly a hundred combat hardened troops. But fortunately, he wasn't going to have to find out.
After the first two tanks swept by, there came a jeep bearing an elderly Colonel with thinning white hair and a bright eye. Behind him was a major – a real one – with a squad of MPs. Gambit reversed his gun and handed it to the nearest of them as they took charge of his column of prisoners.
The colonel beckoned to him. "Your name Gambit?"
"Yes, sir," Gambit said, saluting. He reached into his pocket for his ID, being careful not to bring out Purdey's bra along with the billfold. The adjutant accepted it and scanned it, nodding to his superior before handing it back.
"I'm Elroyd Foster," the Colonel held out a hand that Gambit was quick to shake. "You haven't seen my niece Purdey running about, have you? Steed said she might be in trouble."
"She was," Gambit admitted. "But she's okay now. See?" He pointed up to the helicopter, where Purdey was waving cheerfully out the side door.
Colonel Foster waved back, equally cheerfully, and for a moment Gambit could see the resemblance.
***
"Do you mind if I grab a shower?" Gambit asked, accepting the pile of civilian clothes from Steed.
"I was going to suggest it," Steed said. "Towels are in the cupboard. Take your time."
Gambit nodded, but his eyes went to Purdey. "Unless you'd like to wash up first…" he offered.
"Not me," Purdey said emphatically. "I've got a date with Steed's refrigerator. Do you know they didn't feed me any breakfast? Or lunch!"
Gambit grinned but he didn't argue. As he vanished up the stairs, Purdey winked at Steed. "I expect he'll remember that he's hungry by the time he gets back down," she said. "I hope you've stocked up."
"There's plenty," Steed said beneficently. "Even marshmallows."
***
"Gambit? Are you decent?"
"Nearly. I can't find my shirt."
"That's because I've got it," Steed put his head around the door and displayed the laden hangar. "Sorry about that. I'd hung it up to prevent wrinkles and forgot."
Gambit took it gratefully. "Thanks for cleaning it," he said. "Even if I do have trouble imagining you bent over a scrubbing board."
Steed's own smile had slipped as he observed the pattern of bruises on Gambit's midriff. "I thought I'd got the two of you out in good time!" he exclaimed. "You look like you've been playing rugby with a herd of elephants."
"No, just a little game of three-on-one. It would have been a lot worse if you hadn't turned up when you did. Miller's ideas of discipline are positively Victorian. No. Earlier. When did they start running defaulters around on gun carriages anyway?"
"They were making a regular practice of it by the Napoleonic Wars," Steed answered, glad he'd saved his young colleague from that fate at any rate. "Did Miller threaten you with that?"
"No – but I watched one of his men getting the treatment for talking to Purdey."
"What about Purdey? They must have taken her prisoner late last night. Did she get roughed up as well?"
"Not that she's mentioned." Gambit shook his head. "I don't think Miller had got round to interrogating her. Though he might have done if he hadn't had to deal with me arriving on base. He's completely mad you know. If we hadn't stumbled onto him God only knows how soon the balloon would have gone up. Maybe a week – not more than a month."
"Just as well General Stevens liked making unannounced visits then," Steed said.
"Travis would have let us in on it," Gambit felt obliged to point out. "If he'd got the chance." He finished buttoning his shirt and reached for his tie. "Which reminds me, you're going to need those films as evidence for the trial."
***
"You look like you're dressed for a funeral," Purdey said, wrinkling her nose up at Gambit's somber black suit. It didn't suit him at all, as far as she was concerned.
"Yeah," Gambit answered, not smiling. "Travis's mum got into Heathrow this morning."
"Oh." Purdey felt the levity drain out of her shoes. "I'm sorry."
Gambit shrugged – the small shrug that she'd come to learn meant that he didn't have words for how he was feeling. "She's holding up, best she can." He shot a look at Steed. "Said she'd like to know how it happened, and why."
Steed nodded, smiling as he produced a thin sheaf of paper from his jacket pocket. "I've arranged for clearance," he said, passing it across to Gambit. "You're authorized to tell her anything that's in that version of the report."
Gambit scanned the paragraphs quickly, and Purdey saw the tightness leaving his shoulders as he reached the third page. "That'll do," he sighed. "Thanks, Steed." He nodded to Purdey and vanished out the door.
Purdey went to the window and watched as Gambit got into his car. He had an older woman with him – one who was wearing a black dress. "I didn't know that Gambit knew Travis well enough to know his mother," she said.
"They grew up on the same street," Steed said. "Not of an age to be playmates, perhaps, but close enough in age to know one another. According to the security report, the mother emigrated to New Zealand ten years ago and keeps sheep. That's what took her so long to come – it's lambing season there."
"Oh." Purdey tapped at her lower lip with her pen, wondering of a sudden if Gambit had truly felt lonely when he'd asked her to come over and watch the films that had cost Travis his life. It was hard to tell, sometimes, when he was flirting and when he was serious. "Do you know if Gambit's building allows dogs?"
Steed took the change of subject calmly. "Not that I know of. And who'd feed it, if he were called away? Charlie can fend for himself if necessary."
Purdey smiled, thinking of the little sparrow that served Gambit as alarm clock. Charlie would object to competition, no doubt, and Steed was right to wonder who would feed any other pet Gambit might acquire. It wasn't like the horses, where a hired stableman had the job of making sure that the stud farm ran smoothly regardless of Steed's other responsibilities. "That's all right," she said, "I'll think of something."
###
Alternate versions
Ficbits and Dialogue notes
Thinking Out Loud
Watching this again, and wondering where the hell Gambit learned to take a beating in near silence. He might grunt when a belly blow takes the air out of his lungs, but he doesn't cry out. Not here, and not in Trap when he's caught in that net.
n.b. One of Gambit's record albums is clear enough to identify here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creedence_Clearwater_Revival_%28album%29
In My Not So Humble Opinion
Another of my favorites – this one gets tagged as the "Gambit" episode, and in some ways it is, but let's face it, Purdey gets the best lines. And Steed gets written well too, which is a relief after Gnaws. This is not to say that Gambit doesn't get some good bits! I thoroughly enjoy the Scots accent stuff (not being able to tell the difference anyway), and we actually find out what scares the man. (Well, World War Three and Purdey nearly getting herself blown to bits are both pretty scary, right?)
Favorite scene – Gotta be that chase through the brush. Putting Purdey in that bright red outfit might look silly from a camouflage-is-safer perspective, but it makes for some great imagery. And she didn't mean to run through wilderness, did she?
my TNA fic links
Oct 18 06
Disclaimer: The New Avengers are copyrighted, but not by me. I think Canal+ or Mark One Productions owns the rights at the moment. Which means, of course, that this is fanfic – me playing in someone else's sandbox. Even moreso, anything in dark blue is a scene taken straight from the screen, dialogue and all, that either didn't hit the novelizations, or that didn't hit them in a way that satisfied my sense of the character arcs that I'm exploring. Links to quotes and screencaps (where they appear) are courtesy of bromfield hall.
As a rule
*** means I'm still adding onto a piece or scene and
### means I'm satisfied with that bit for now.
---
http://www.bromfieldhall.co.uk/tnaquotes11.htm
http://www.bromfieldhall.co.uk/dozenpics.htm
Summary: For them as hasn't seen it lately: A general who makes unexpected inspections stumbles onto an army unit which is acting as mercenaries. After Steed begins to investigate the general's disappearance, Gambit and Purdey wind up in the hands of a madman.
Scenes
"What you need, Mike Gambit," Purdey said, smiling down at him with a hey-go-mad glint in her eye, "is a little diversion."
What I need is to remember how to breathe, he thought, but she was already gone, running upright through the heather like a mother partridge leading the hunt away from her nest.
"Purdey! Purdey!" he whisper-called after her, but it was too late to stop her. As if he ever could!
Gambit started scrambling towards Miller. His only hope now was to cut off the head of the snake before Purdey was caught and crushed in the coils.
###
"I think you're just too late," Miller said with a self-satisfied smile. He nodded towards the wasteland and Gambit risked a glance to see what he meant.
Purdey, running… and between them, red signs marking the edge of a minefield.
"No…" Gambit breathed. He thought he'd been as frightened as a man could get, but he was wrong.
Epilogue
Gambit collected the rifle from where it had fallen and crouched down to check that he hadn't hit Miller or the Sergeant too hard. He wouldn't be entirely sorry if he had, he knew, but it made for paperwork.
Fortunately, they were both just unconscious, and by the signs, going to stay that way for a while. He straightened again and looked around. Half the men of the Special Commando were watching Purdey climb up to the helicopter, but the rest were watching him warily.
Well, he was wearing the uniform – and the military discipline that Miller had enforced so fiercely might last long enough to keep them from doing anything hare-brained. It wasn't like Gambit was close enough to do any good if another one of them decided to take a potshot at the chopper. Or Purdey.
"All right you lot!" he shouted. "Form up! Column of four! On the double!" To his gratification they responded. Not as quickly as they might have done for Miller, perhaps, but they were soon in marching order. There were gaps, but not as many as Gambit had feared. He went down to talk to them, more grateful than ever for the brief weeks he'd spent going through OCS as a part of his training for the Department.
"Eyes front!" he ordered, when he saw them studying him, and nodded when they braced to attention. "All right, I know some of your messmates have run for it, but you lot were smarter. You knew it couldn't last forever and it hasn't. Now they're going to get hunted down like rats, and you're going to take your medicine like soldiers. Tell the truth and three to five years from now you'll probably be back on the street – which is more than you could say if it was Colonel Miller running the courts martial."
By the uneasy shifting and the glances he knew he'd hit the gold. He pointed to a couple of the burliest men. "You two, fetch the Sergeant. And you two," this time he picked the youngest faces he could find. "Fetch Colonel Miller. We're going back to the parade ground."
###
They hadn't got more than halfway, with the helicopter pacing from above, when Steed's armored division turned up, much to Gambit's relief. He knew that Steed was perfectly capable of bluffing, even on that scale, and he'd wondered how long he could keep control of nearly a hundred combat hardened troops. But fortunately, he wasn't going to have to find out.
After the first two tanks swept by, there came a jeep bearing an elderly Colonel with thinning white hair and a bright eye. Behind him was a major – a real one – with a squad of MPs. Gambit reversed his gun and handed it to the nearest of them as they took charge of his column of prisoners.
The colonel beckoned to him. "Your name Gambit?"
"Yes, sir," Gambit said, saluting. He reached into his pocket for his ID, being careful not to bring out Purdey's bra along with the billfold. The adjutant accepted it and scanned it, nodding to his superior before handing it back.
"I'm Elroyd Foster," the Colonel held out a hand that Gambit was quick to shake. "You haven't seen my niece Purdey running about, have you? Steed said she might be in trouble."
"She was," Gambit admitted. "But she's okay now. See?" He pointed up to the helicopter, where Purdey was waving cheerfully out the side door.
Colonel Foster waved back, equally cheerfully, and for a moment Gambit could see the resemblance.
***
"Do you mind if I grab a shower?" Gambit asked, accepting the pile of civilian clothes from Steed.
"I was going to suggest it," Steed said. "Towels are in the cupboard. Take your time."
Gambit nodded, but his eyes went to Purdey. "Unless you'd like to wash up first…" he offered.
"Not me," Purdey said emphatically. "I've got a date with Steed's refrigerator. Do you know they didn't feed me any breakfast? Or lunch!"
Gambit grinned but he didn't argue. As he vanished up the stairs, Purdey winked at Steed. "I expect he'll remember that he's hungry by the time he gets back down," she said. "I hope you've stocked up."
"There's plenty," Steed said beneficently. "Even marshmallows."
***
"Gambit? Are you decent?"
"Nearly. I can't find my shirt."
"That's because I've got it," Steed put his head around the door and displayed the laden hangar. "Sorry about that. I'd hung it up to prevent wrinkles and forgot."
Gambit took it gratefully. "Thanks for cleaning it," he said. "Even if I do have trouble imagining you bent over a scrubbing board."
Steed's own smile had slipped as he observed the pattern of bruises on Gambit's midriff. "I thought I'd got the two of you out in good time!" he exclaimed. "You look like you've been playing rugby with a herd of elephants."
"No, just a little game of three-on-one. It would have been a lot worse if you hadn't turned up when you did. Miller's ideas of discipline are positively Victorian. No. Earlier. When did they start running defaulters around on gun carriages anyway?"
"They were making a regular practice of it by the Napoleonic Wars," Steed answered, glad he'd saved his young colleague from that fate at any rate. "Did Miller threaten you with that?"
"No – but I watched one of his men getting the treatment for talking to Purdey."
"What about Purdey? They must have taken her prisoner late last night. Did she get roughed up as well?"
"Not that she's mentioned." Gambit shook his head. "I don't think Miller had got round to interrogating her. Though he might have done if he hadn't had to deal with me arriving on base. He's completely mad you know. If we hadn't stumbled onto him God only knows how soon the balloon would have gone up. Maybe a week – not more than a month."
"Just as well General Stevens liked making unannounced visits then," Steed said.
"Travis would have let us in on it," Gambit felt obliged to point out. "If he'd got the chance." He finished buttoning his shirt and reached for his tie. "Which reminds me, you're going to need those films as evidence for the trial."
***
"You look like you're dressed for a funeral," Purdey said, wrinkling her nose up at Gambit's somber black suit. It didn't suit him at all, as far as she was concerned.
"Yeah," Gambit answered, not smiling. "Travis's mum got into Heathrow this morning."
"Oh." Purdey felt the levity drain out of her shoes. "I'm sorry."
Gambit shrugged – the small shrug that she'd come to learn meant that he didn't have words for how he was feeling. "She's holding up, best she can." He shot a look at Steed. "Said she'd like to know how it happened, and why."
Steed nodded, smiling as he produced a thin sheaf of paper from his jacket pocket. "I've arranged for clearance," he said, passing it across to Gambit. "You're authorized to tell her anything that's in that version of the report."
Gambit scanned the paragraphs quickly, and Purdey saw the tightness leaving his shoulders as he reached the third page. "That'll do," he sighed. "Thanks, Steed." He nodded to Purdey and vanished out the door.
Purdey went to the window and watched as Gambit got into his car. He had an older woman with him – one who was wearing a black dress. "I didn't know that Gambit knew Travis well enough to know his mother," she said.
"They grew up on the same street," Steed said. "Not of an age to be playmates, perhaps, but close enough in age to know one another. According to the security report, the mother emigrated to New Zealand ten years ago and keeps sheep. That's what took her so long to come – it's lambing season there."
"Oh." Purdey tapped at her lower lip with her pen, wondering of a sudden if Gambit had truly felt lonely when he'd asked her to come over and watch the films that had cost Travis his life. It was hard to tell, sometimes, when he was flirting and when he was serious. "Do you know if Gambit's building allows dogs?"
Steed took the change of subject calmly. "Not that I know of. And who'd feed it, if he were called away? Charlie can fend for himself if necessary."
Purdey smiled, thinking of the little sparrow that served Gambit as alarm clock. Charlie would object to competition, no doubt, and Steed was right to wonder who would feed any other pet Gambit might acquire. It wasn't like the horses, where a hired stableman had the job of making sure that the stud farm ran smoothly regardless of Steed's other responsibilities. "That's all right," she said, "I'll think of something."
###
Alternate versions
Ficbits and Dialogue notes
Thinking Out Loud
Watching this again, and wondering where the hell Gambit learned to take a beating in near silence. He might grunt when a belly blow takes the air out of his lungs, but he doesn't cry out. Not here, and not in Trap when he's caught in that net.
n.b. One of Gambit's record albums is clear enough to identify here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creedence_Clearwater_Revival_%28album%29
In My Not So Humble Opinion
Another of my favorites – this one gets tagged as the "Gambit" episode, and in some ways it is, but let's face it, Purdey gets the best lines. And Steed gets written well too, which is a relief after Gnaws. This is not to say that Gambit doesn't get some good bits! I thoroughly enjoy the Scots accent stuff (not being able to tell the difference anyway), and we actually find out what scares the man. (Well, World War Three and Purdey nearly getting herself blown to bits are both pretty scary, right?)
Favorite scene – Gotta be that chase through the brush. Putting Purdey in that bright red outfit might look silly from a camouflage-is-safer perspective, but it makes for some great imagery. And she didn't mean to run through wilderness, did she?
my TNA fic links
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2010-10-17 10:37 pm (UTC)My favourite bit? "Not me," Purdey said emphatically. "I've got a date with Steed's refrigerator. Do you know they didn't feed me any breakfast? Or lunch!"
Gambit grinned but he didn't argue. As he vanished up the stairs, Purdey winked at Steed. "I expect he'll remember that he's hungry by the time he gets back down," she said. "I hope you've stocked up."
"There's plenty," Steed said beneficently. "Even marshmallows."
So precisely them it's brilliant.