Hello people! Recently I watched Kingsman and wondered what would happen when Merlin needed a replacement. Obviously they couldn't send agents into the field without him in their ear so they had to do it while the current Merlin was still alive. That then lead to this. I have used the name Emrys because that was the actual Merlin's first/real name.

LET THE CHAOS BEGIN...

~~~There's something on your shoulder~~~

London, England, 10 months before V-Day

Nikolas Howard sat on the 1603 train to West Croydon. The carriage he was in was virtually empty. Understandably so seeing as it was just about the beginning of the summer holidays.

Thus, the carriage was empty apart from Nikolas, a middle aged man wearing a tracksuit and was smoking and another bald man wearing what might have been a wool jumper and reading a newspaper. The man in the tracksuit was staring at Nikolas, making him feel uncomfortable.

Nikolas was a 5' 9" 19 year old boy from Dublin living in South London with short brown hair and emerald green eyes. He was more towards a lean yet slightly muscled build than average due to time training in a variety of martial arts including some of the more obscure ones like bartitsu and eskrima. All in all, Nikolas couldn't tell what warranted such attention from this man and instead of shouting out to him Nikolas turned his gaze back to the items in his hands and on the table in front of him.

On the table were an assortment of small metal pieces that seemed to have absolutely no relation to each other except the material they were made from. However, in his hands was a small amalgam of pieces that was beginning to take the shape of a small electric pencil sharpener. Though it would be able to sharpen pencils, once built, this device would be able to price a completely harmless yet extremely bright flash of light that would allow Nikolas to escape the more boring lectures at his college in Oxford.

Suddenly, the man was on his feet and walking towards him. Nikolas just focused on the Sharp-Flash (as he had chosen to call the device).

The man stopped. Nikolas could hear him breathing and could smell the smoke from the cigarette on his breathe. He looked up to see the cig hanging from the man's mouth and his ratty eyes trying to burn a hole in his skull.

"You Henry's kid?" The man asked. Nikolas almost threw his hands up in the air and moaned. Henry was the name of his father. Henry Howard had fallen into a depression after Nikolas's mother's death a few years ago and turned to drugs. He'd then acquired himself a "gang" of sorts and nearly completely forgot about Nikolas. Only paying attention when Nikolas walked through the front door and gave him the six pack of beer he had forced Nikolas to get.

Since then, Nikolas became on the receiving end of many attempted beat-downs from his father's groupies. There were two ways he could go to get out from this situation and neither of them meant Nikolas would get anywhere near being hit now, only more so later when he got home. So Nikolas decided to go for the deception option.

"Who, me? You're fuckin' joking mate. I ain't heard of anyone called Henry. Piss off." It was known among his father's group that Henry Howard's son was a very well spoken, polite teacher's pet. Or so Nikolas had lead them to believe.

He had forged fake documents from teachers saying what a great pupil Nikolas was when in reality, when he was with friends or on the rare occasion he lost his temper, Nikolas was very loud, outspoken and generally a fun guy to be around.

"What was that, dickhead? I don't think I like your attitude. Maybe I'll have to teach you some manners, huh punk."

Nikolas sighed. He had hoped it wouldn't come to this. He swiftly stood up, elbowing the man in the jaw as he did so, and punched him in the face. The man was stunned for a moment and Nikolas stepped out from his booth and gave the man a fierce uppercut that snapped his head back before kicking him in the gut and slamming his face into the table as his head was brought forwards, effectively knocking him unconscious.

Nikolas stood above the man and take a deep breath to calm his heartbeat.

After a few seconds he turned back to his booth, picked up his bag, threw the metal pieces on the table into the bag that was already filled with other ways to get out of lessons or doing work and placed the half built Sharp-Flash on the top of the pile in his bag.

He then turned to the other man in the carriage and found him standing In the middle of the runway with his arms crossed and staring directly into Nikolas's soul.

"Sorry ab-"

"No need for sorry. You tried to defuse the situation but your friend on the floor kept pushing. Not your fault."

Nikolas stared wide eyed at the man. This had never happened before. Usually the other people around him just ignored the whole thing or let out a pompous little "humph" sound.

"Thanks for your acceptance I guess." Nikolas said and with that he turned around and head ed for the platform door to wait for the train to stop.

The stranger then also picked up his belongings and stood next to Nikolas.

"However, I would quite like it if you could drop by this address sometime in the near future. Just to let me...say thank you for stopping the situation so quickly and efficiently." The man said in his Scottish accent as he handed Nikolas a card.

Kingsman Tailors

It said on the card. On the other side of the card was an address, the actual location of the store, Nikolas guessed.

He looked up to thank the man again but found only the open platform door and an almost empty station.

~~~It wants your brain~~~

Nikolas looked down at the card in his hand and then again at the tailor's in front of him. It was a nice cosy little place. With warm lighting and old fashioned furniture it looked like a stereotypical tailor's shop.

He sighed and entered. Maybe he'd be able to sell whatever it was the man from the train wanted to give him as an old antique thing.

Looking around he found that it did indeed resemble a traditional tailors shop before his gaze settled on the man behind the counter. It was the man from the train.

"So you finally came, huh Cole. Can I call you Cole or would you prefer Nikolas?"

Again, Nikolas stared at the man. How did he now his name. Was he one of those stalker/pedophile people Nikolas saw frequently on the news?

"How do you know my name? Who are you?" Nikolas asked. His body had prepped itself for fight or flight. He knew the man could tell exactly how tense he was from the way he was grinning.

"For now, call me Marlon." Marlon said as he stepped out from behind the counter. Nikolas gave him a once over. He was wearing the same woolen jumper, dark trousers and a pair of glasses were perched on his nose. Nikolas couldn't see any ways to hide a weapon on him so he decided to trust Marlon for now.

"So I'm here. Now what?"

Marlon smirked. Like he knew something Nikolas didn't.

"Follow me."

Those two words confused Nikolas to no end. Follow him where? The shop wasn't that big, though Marlon sure seemed to think so as he walked towards fitting room one.

Nikolas decided to just go with it for the time being and followed Marlon into the small room with the giant mirror.

"Look in this mirror. What do you see?"

Nikolas glanced towards Marlon who nodded him onwards.

"I see us. You with your glasses and me with my shirt untucked."

It was simple but it was true.

"You want to know what I see?" Asked Marlon, "I see a bright young man who uses his talents for escaping the classroom and messing around."

Ok this was starting to freak Nikolas out. Just how much did this Marlon guy know.

"But," there it was, " I think that, with a chance and enough effort, we can change that."

Just what did Marlon think he could do? Nikolas was a screw up. Lowest grades and the most detentions in school. Nikolas had all but given up.

"And how can I get this chance?"

"I'm going to help you."

And with that, Marlon placed his hand on the mirror, a faint red glow around the place he put his hand led Nikolas to believe there was a built in security scanner of some sort.

After a second, the glow turned green and there was a loud *clunk* sound as the floor Nikolas and Marlon were standing on started descending, startling Nikolas and making him lose his balance momentarily.

"You get used to it after a while." Commented Marlon.

"How the hell have you done this?! Raised platform? Interlocking cogs in the walls?...Magic?" Nikolas's last guess had Marlon scoffing.

"Just a simple set of pulleys and weights." Marlon said it as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

After a few seconds of downwards movement a hole in the wall to the right of the giant mirror began to emerge.

Through the hole was a large but short corridor that lead to a tube type thing with an section cut out and a set of seats facing each other at the front and back. Nikolas could tell that it was some kind of transport tube leading to somewhere Nikolas didn't want to go until he got a few answers.

"Alright who are you? Why is there a giant elevator in a tailor shop? Where does that tube go to? I can tell you're not a tailor so answer the bloody questions!"

Marlon (if that was even his real name) looked like he had been waiting for Nikolas to snap and smirked.

"Alright but no interruptions. My name is Merlin. Just Merlin. I work as the brains behind an independent intelligence agency called Kingsman. We are modern day gentlemen. Our motto is 'Manners Maketh Man'. A few hundred years ago a group of very successful tailors came together and decided to use the money they had to set up a spy network. Today we rely mostly on donations."

Nikolas stood still for a second, trying to take it all in. He had expected to have to fight with Mar-Merlin. Not this. That said, it might have just been a giant lie.

Narrowing his eyes Nikolas said:

"Prove it."

~~~It's in your ear~~~

Nikolas's eyes widened and his jaw dropped as he looked at his surroundings.

They'd gone back up the elevator and headed across the shop to fitting room two. Nikolas had expected for another handprint on the mirror. This was another thing altogether.

Nikolas could see shoes and guns and lighters and umbrellas. Oddly enough there was a wall of electronic tablets all switched off.

"Like what you see?"

Nikolas turned back to Merlin and glared at him. Euphemisms were funny but this wasn't the time for stuff like that.

Merlin walked over to the shoe rack and beckoned Nikolas over.

"These plain shoes here are called oxfords the ones with a design on them are brogues. Try a pair." With that Merlin passed Nikolas a pair of oxfords. Nikolas didn't even check the shoe size. If Kingsman knew his name, they probably knew his shoe size.

Once the shoes were laced up Nikolas stood up and clicked the heels together. Suffice to say, he was extremely surprised when a knife popped out. He sent a horrified look over to Merlin who smiled.

"Don't touch the blade. It has an extremely deadly neurotoxin that will only take a single cut to kill you."

Nikolas nodded and slid the blade back into the shoe using the wall as a block. When he looked back up Merlin was holding a pistol and a ring that had an inscription of what looked to be an upside down set of glasses.

"The ring can electrocute when switched on. I take it you know how the gun works."

Nikolas slipped on the ring and held the gun

"This is bloody insane!"

"To you maybe. I designed all this."

"All of it?"

"Yes."

"So why are you showing it all to me?"

Nikolas could have guessed Merlin's six next words on his first guess.

"We want you to join us."

~~~It's almost all the way in~~~

So how was that? I thought it was pretty good. Chapter 2 will come out quite soon so that's something to look forwards to.

R+R are appreciated

See ya,

Timelinez