Okay, I will spare you the pain of reading this . . .
Wait, no. (Believe it or not, I actually considered sparing you all the pain . . . but I have some announcements to make)
HUGE Announcement: Okay, so I had all the chapters under heavy editing (SUPA DUPA MEGA ULTRA heavy editing) and now they're soooooo much better and many scenes have changed . . . kinda. Tho I changed the beginning tons. If you don't believe, go see for yourself. (This does not go the same for later viewers)
Ben's POV:
"Murray is there?!" we all exclaimed.
Catherine nodded. "Yes. Now, children, here's what we're going to do."
XXXXXXXXX
Mike and I were hiding behind a boulder waiting for the signal. Chip, Cyrus and Alexander were at a hospital. Cyrus was being treated right now. Erica had insisted for Cyrus to have further medical attention.
We were at a park where Catherine was told Murray was going to come here. The boulder was a bit slanted so we could easily carry out our plan. We've been waiting for a while now.
"Psst. Ben!" Mike whispered.
"What is it?" My eyes were trained on Jawa.
Jawa was supposed to get the first signal from Catherine which meant that Murray had arrived and then, alert us to ready the sedation machine gun since they know we're not the best with guns and aim and all. Machine guns make it easier. Then we are supposed to alert Erica.
"There's a suspicious looking guy over there." Mike pointed to a dude wearing a baseball cap pulled down low over his face, soccer cleats and a Eagles jersey. He seemed like a pretty big sports fan to me.
"I don't see how he is suspicious." I whispered.
"Don't you see that there's a slight bulge in his pocket?"
I squinted, trying to see. I couldn't. Not exactly my fault since that 'guy' is 30 feet away.
Ka-CAWWWWWW!!!!! CAWWW!!!!!! CAAWWWWW!!!!
It was the signal! "Mike! Quick, we need to insert the bullet clips!" I hurriedly attached the clips. (I don't know if this is how you do it, probably because the greatest weapon I've ever wielded was a broom. No, seriously, respect the broom 🧹)
"Mike?" I frantically searched for him. Then I spotted him. He was inching his way to Mr. I-Like-Sports. He caught my eye and mouthed, "I'm going to investigate him." I mouthed back, "Are you crazy? No! You are supposed to fire the machine gun!"
"It's fine. You can fire it instead!" Then he turned his attention to his newfound task. This. Was. Totally. Not. Fine . . . at all.
Great. I'm left here on my own. The irony, someone who's failing his 101 Weaponry class now has to deal with a machine gun. By himself. I've wasted enough time. I quickly dragged the machine gun up the boulder and laid down on my stomach behind the bulk of the gun. Gripping the handles, I zoomed in on the target using the mini telescope that was attached to the gun.
There was a black van parked at the curb. So far, nothing unusual. Then something interrupted my little sightseeing.
CAWWWW!!! CAWWW!!! They were short sharp caws. I turned my head to the noise.
It was Jawa, waving his hands around wildly, when he saw I was focused on him, he was relieved.
Then he started doing these complicated frantic hand motions. Jawa looked like a cow dying while at the same time somehow trying to fly. (does that make sense?)
I must've looked confused because he threw his hands in the air, giving up, and just mouthed, "Signal. Erica."
Ohhh. Right, I forgot about that last piece of instruction.
I got out a walkie talkie and spoke into it. "Aunt Polly just broke her back." Depressing signal, I know. Two miles away, Erica received the message. "You were late, Ben. I've already started setting the traps four minutes ago."
Oh. "Um . . . sorry?" I tried to apologize over the walkie talkie but it seems like Erica turned off hers.
I turned back to what I was supposed to do. Laying back on the slanted boulder, I pressed my left eye to the telescope. Again, I saw the black van but this time, there was a 14 year old looking boy wearing a extremely stained shirt carrying a black briefcase rimmed with silver. Murray.
However, there was two burly bodyguards flanking him. I'm surprised Murray could afford such security.
I readied my machine gun and braced myself for the jolts of the gun. But before I could press the trigger, something strange happened in front of my eyes.
From what I can see, one stranger clad in black dropped down from a tree above Murray and his guards. In a second the bodyguards were unconscious and Murray was tied up with duct tape. Ouch. painful for him if he ever wants to get out of that.
I stared, stunned. Not taking my eyes off from the scene, I slowly raised my walkie talkie. "Jawa? Catherine? Did you see what just happened?" I didn't ask Erica because, well, Erica is two miles away and can't see what happened.
"Yes." came Catherine's voice. Strangely, she was calm.
"Yeah, that was the fastest fight I've ever seen!" Typical Jawa. He was probably referring to his book about How to Disarm Your Opponent Under Five Seconds.
"I am hurt that you didn't ask me." Erica spoke into her walkie talkie, sounding anything but hurt.
The mysterious "savior" casually leaned against the tree, as if waiting for someone.
"Oh," I was embarrassed. "Sorry. But you couldn't possibly see what had happened."
"I can. Because I was the one who asked Alexa to come help." I rolled around onto my back instinctively and sat up.
Erica was standing right behind me at the edge of the boulder. Amusement flickered across her face.
Then the machine gun came sliding down, crashing onto my back. Pain flared up. I guess letting go of the handles was a bad thing.
I rubbed my back. "How did you get here? And who's Alexa?" (Okay, so I tried to make a female version of Alex Rider because, well, I didn't want to collab the Alex Rider with Spy School. Why? Well, in some fanfictions I read, there was Alex Rider. I didn't like that so much so . . . I came up with my own idea: Alexa Rider. lol Naw, just kidding. You will find out her last name/surname soon.)
"I believe that is I."
My head whipped to the new voice.
There, standing calmly was the mysterious attacker. A black hood obscured her face. I hadn't noticed before, but she was wearing those puffy pants you would see in in movies. And of course they were black. Hanging from her pants was a simple silver chain looping back up to form a U shape. (I have no idea what those pants are called . . . Google wasn't being very cooperative)
"You!" I exclaimed, pointing my index finger at her. I scrambled to my feet.
"Yes, me."
"This is Alexa, Alexa, this is Ben." Erica introduced us to each other.
"Pleasure to meet you." I extended my hand.
Alexa stared at my hand warily. "Don't think you can trick me into that hand trick," she said with menace. I grew alarmed.
"Um . . . you okay?"
"You think you could judo-flip me?! Oh, you're are asking for it, boy. I shall put you in the-" Alexa was cut off by Erica.
"Alexa, Ben meant no harm, and besides," she added. "Ben's fighting skills are very questionable." I took no offense. Alexa relaxed slightly. She shook my hand, though cracked a few bones for a reminder and possibly threat.
"What do we do with Murray and them?" I asked as I nursed my fingers.
"Easy, hand them over to my clan. We'll take care of them." Alexa said this as if the most obvious thing in the world.
"Your cla-?" I was interrupted by Catherine and Jawa crashing through the bushes.
"Ben! Where is Mike?" Catherine saw Alexa. "Oh, hello Alexa! What a delightful surprise!" she said brightly. Jawa was puzzled at the sight of this stranger.
"Hello, Catherine." Alexa replied. "You friend, Mike, had taken off spying on my lieutenant, Tyler." She sounded amused at this. "So, by now, your friend has been rendered unconscious by Tyler."
Jawa and I stared. I turned to Erica. "Is she joking?" Erica opened her mouth to speak but the answer came to me.
A boy looking no older than 17 years old, came through the bushes dragging a unconscious Mike.
I assumed that boy was Tyler. He had abandoned his sports disguise and now wore a simple black vest over a grey hoodie and black jeans. Tyler was handsome with curly brown hair, dark brown eyes and had a lean build.
"Well," Tyler set down Mike on the ground. "He was foolish to try and take me on."
I was horrified. Mike had a nasty bruise forming at the side of his head. (I'm terribly sorry, Mike [me here again, talking to book characters] for putting you thru that but . . . it's for the um . . . greater good????)
Jawa wasn't quite sure on what to make of this. Though to my relief, he got out some sort of cream and applied it to the bruise.
"Did you transport the three people to our base?" Alexa asked Tyler. "Yes." Tyler dutifully answered. I had no idea how Tyler transported three people to somewhere so quickly, but I had far more important questions.
"What is this clan-"
"Tyler! You grew so much! The last time I saw you, you were in diapers!" Catherine exclaimed. Tyler looked somewhat embarrassed.
"Hello, Catherine." he greeted.
Erica had not been paying much attention to the conversation. In fact, she looked at Tyler a bit dreamily. (cringe)
Jealousy stirred up inside me. I tried to push it down. (Me: 🤢 oof that face looks like a semi alien with some weird lines underneath the eyes . . . i feel for ya buddy [why do i keep talking to nonexisting things?])
"Can someone please tell me what is all this?!" I raised my voice. Erica's head snapped toward me. She looked like she was woken up from a nightmare. Her eyes were suddenly alert and I thought I saw frustration pass through them. At first, I thought it was frustration for me interrupting her Tyler-watching time, but then I realized Erica was frustrated for being distracted so easily.
Erica glanced at Catherine, Alexa and them. They were sharing news of what had happened between their apart time, so it was kinda like "Hey, long time no see! Let's gossip!".
Erica started walking and signaled me to follow. I did.
"Okay, so Alexa is the head of her clan." Erica said as if that would explain everything. My response was a blank look. Erica sighed. "Like, her clan is made up of warriors. Nothing you've ever seen before."
This was hard to process.
"What do they do, exactly?"
"They run errands for many agencies as long as the task is not low." Erica said. I didn't want to know what they did if they did if the "task" was not high enough. "
We were now walking alongside a creek. "How did you get in contact with Alexa, though?"
Erica sat down on the riverside. I sat down next to her. "Remember when we were at the hotel, inside the Ferrari, right before it exploded?" My legs ached. "Yes." That moment gave me bad memories.
"And I let you drive."
"Yes, but I didn't really get to do the driving part."
To my surprise, Erica laughed. It was a nice twinkling sound. (I tried to make Erica's laugh sound as good as possible, but this wasn't so satisfactory to me. someone, help?🆘)
"True." she admitted after she recovered. "So, I contacted Alexa saying we need help." Erica saw my confused look and explained furthermore. "I guessed that Zoe was a quadruple agent and we would get into a mess."
Ohhh. I guess Zoe technically is a quadruple agent because . . . you know, power hungry thing. (Thank you Rev-it-to-the-limit for motivating me to officially announce the quadruple agent stuff)
Though to be honest, I'm getting tired of my friends betraying me. It's frustrating to see people I thought as friends turn against me, and it's kind of annoying and also sad.
I stared at the pebbles and stones. I picked one up and threw it into the water. PLOP. Tiny waves rippled. (Yes, Ben, channel all your anger into the rocks)
Erica picked up a stone. It was smooth and light grey. She chucked the stone at the water. PLOP, PLOP, PLOP, PLOP. Erica flashed me a cocky smile. "That's how you skip stones." I smiled and picked up another rock.
But before I could throw, the coldness of a barrel of a gun pressed against my temple. I froze. I didn't turn my head and forgot how to breathe; in zero seconds flat, I could die.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Erica, eyes formed into a harsh glare. But Erica just stood still. Not moving, just expressing her hatred with her eyes.
I then heard a voice I was not ready to hear.
"Happy to see me?" Zoe asked. Being a smart person, I didn't answer. My truthful answer would've been 'no', but seeing that would have me end up dead, I decided not to answer. (Good boy. Have a cookie. 🍪)
"Let Ben go." Erica said coldly.
I thought I could almost hear Zoe smile. "Really?" she sneered. "Do you think it would be that easy?"
No response from Erica. Zoe probably wasn't expecting one, anyway, since she continued. "No. I think I would prefer having you two locked up."
ZIIIIP. A sedation dart zipped past me. I heard Erica thud to the ground. I clenched my fists. I hated not being able to help, especially when one of my friends are being knocked out.
"Your turn, Ben." Zoe said.
Then my world turned black.
Whew!!! Finally, am I right, to have a new chapter! Supa sorry for the wait, but hopefully the 2,385 words you just read made up for it.
Anyway, let us move along!
Shoutout to 349328153L, MattButtT and Rev-it-to-the-limit!!!! 👏🏻
And see ya next time ppl!
~DG