Introduction to Disaster

Preface

You don't know who I am. I'm not even going to assume that one of you have heard of me. I'm just the new girl on the block, the one person retelling the same story everyone else wishes and dreams were true. Well, yes, I am sure someone has told a similar story. After all, there is no original story. But what I'm about to tell you is the truth. Those stories, the ones about the famous brother detectives? Yeah, they are mostly true. Sure, some of the details were lost over retellings of the epic tales, and some things were exaggerated. But over all, it's the same story. Two boys run into danger, or Danger calls their name, or hunts them down to the ends of the earth, and they almost always end up on top.

There is something missing, though, in all of those stories: the reason they were in a constant battle with endless peril. The reason can be summed up with three words:

Me: Alicia Hardy.

Now you don't believe me. The Hardy Boys never had a younger sister. It's not possible. I'm here to tell you differently. In fact, I am the reason the boys wanted to be Detectives in the first place. I'm also the balance between the two: The reason Frank is not always serious and Joe is… well, I can't always account for Joe's behavior. Anyways, you can see me hiding between the lines of all the books, the one who always manages to get lost in the lines and get a gun pointed at her. (I'm also the one who tried to push Frank and Nancy together at every page turn.) I caused more trouble than solved. Believe me; those cases were a lot tougher than they sounded with me in the picture.

Oh, look at me ramble. I guess if you are still reading, you are interested in how this will turn out. Let me start then: at the beginning.

Chapter one: Little Sister's Middle Name

"Dad! Alicia just knocked over the bookshelf again! And this time she's pinned!" Little, dark haired Frank Hardy, 9 years old, ran into the study right after a loud crash sounded from the living room. Fenton Hardy stood up quickly and ran to find his little girl in tears, leg pinned under the shelf. Some heavy text books had stopped it from crushing her, but only just barely. Little Joe, blonde and 8, was holding her hand, telling her it would be alright. "Daddy's here, see?" She shook her head and her dark auburn braids tugged her head back. She cried harder.

"Don't you see? I'll get in lots of trouble! I just wanted to read another book! I didn't even climb it this time! I just reached for the book and it fell!" Seven year old Alicia cried hysterically and would not be consoled. Fenton Hardy had to smile a little at the thought of Alicia being more afraid of getting in trouble than a large bookshelf squishing her. He lifted up the book shelf and turned it onto its side, making it slightly more stable. Frank and Joe grabbed their little sister and pulled her to safety. Walking over to his kids, he pulled them into a big hug.

"Alicia, you do need to be more careful, but right now I'm worried about you. We don't want anything to happen to you. How about this: Next time you ask me when you want a book that is above where you can reach. If you can do that, I'll see if I can't get some mini stairs put in for you." Alicia nodded. Frank smiled and Joe gave a big sigh of relief.

"We thought you were a goner!" exclaimed Joe.

"You were lucky that shelf didn't fall all the way," Frank added solemnly.

Alicia smiled, "That's why my middle name is Lucky!"

Joe shoved Alicia playfully, "Hey! That's my line! And besides, your middle name is Marie." Joe stuck his tongue out and Alicia folded her arms and pouted.

Their father laughed. "I could have sworn it was Disaster, but Marie works too." He ushered the three of them to the backyard. "Now please, try and stay out of trouble. I have some work I need to finish up, and then I will join you." The three kids ran outside and started chasing each other around the big oak tree that stood in the middle of the yard. Fenton closed the screen door, grabbed the papers from his office, and sat at the kitchen table: watching, waiting for Disaster to strike again.

"I want to be like Dad when I grow up! Strong, and handsome! I will rescue the world's damsels in distress!" Joe struck a muscle man pose and fought off an imaginary bad guy.

Frank smiled, "I want to be smart like Dad and learn lots of things. Maybe solve some cases." He thought for a moment as Alicia chased a butterfly to the fence, and looked back to her brothers.

"I want to be a musician and a spy! I want to do undercover work, get leads from inside enemy lines!"

Frank laughed, "I think you mean behind enemy lines. Maybe there is some way we could do all of these things. I wonder…" He stopped to think again, when Joe threw a water balloon at Alicia.

She screamed her high squeal. "I'll get you for that, Joe Hardy! You won't get away with that, you loser!"

The game was on: Joe being the evil mastermind, Frank solving the case of the water balloon with his trusty spy. That's how it all started, a backyard game. This is the day when it changed. We didn't know it then, but the day was about to get a lot more interesting.

The screaming, squealing, and laughing stopped coming from the yard. Fenton looked up at the yard; He could see Frank and Joe looking at the something near the fence, but not Alicia. He leaned over to his right to get a fuller view of the yard, and there she was, barely in view, looking slightly surprised and frightened in the same direction as the boys. He moved to stand up when he heard Alicia scream, and saw Frank run towards the screen door. Joe yelled at the unseen danger, "Leave her alone! He is going! See!" He pointed at Frank, who had just reached the door, breathless, calling, "Dad! Dad" for the second time that day.

Frank threw open the door came in, and hugged his father. "There is a man outside, and he says if you don't drop the Johnson case, he'll hurt Alicia!" He paused and caught his breath. "He also said if you came outside and tried anything, he would hurt her too! But don't worry, Joe and I have a plan. I'm going to sneak around front while you go out, he wants you to hand the case file to Joe, and Joe will give it to him. But Joe is going to walk really slowly and distract him so I can kick him in the knee and make him drop Alicia!" He ran out the front door before his father could stop him. Fenton grabbed the file and ran out to find his daughter struggling in the arms of a large, beefy masked man. When she saw him, Alicia stopped struggling and said "Daddy! He's squishing me! Make him stop!" She continued to kick at her captor's stomach.

"Joe, go inside with your brother." Fenton looked at Joe, hoping he would understand that his brother was at the gate, not inside the house. Joe glanced one more time at Alicia before running inside. Fenton looked at his daughter.

"Don't worry, sweetie. Your daddy is going to save you. He has important papers that I need."

I remember my first bad guy: more vividly than the rest. His breath was sticky, and his hands were rough and scratched my arms. His voice was deep, gravelly, and full of sinister acid. I guess that isn't something you forget easily. I also remember my dad's expression. He never looked so worried or scared in my entire life of seven years. To this day, the only time he was that frightened is when Frank, Joe, and I later joined the Network. He really didn't want any of us near the detective business, especially not me. I think this was the reason why he fought so hard against me going anywhere with the boys.

"Listen Jim, you are already in enough trouble as it is. Please, don't do this to yourself. Just let my daughter go and we can talk about this reasonably." Fenton dropped the file half way between himself and Jim, who still held his daughter in a tight grip. "There is the file. Now let the girl go."

"How do I know it's the right file?" Jim put Alicia on the ground but kept one muscled arm around her neck. Fenton saw two shadows standing on either side of the open gate, waiting to pounce on the man who held their sister.

"You'll have to trust me." Frank saw his dad give the most unperceivable nod. He looked at Joe, and whispered lets go. They stepped out from behind the gate, and charged at Jim. Joe gave his battle cry as he smashed full weight into the man's right knee. Frank threw a flying kick into the other. Jim cursed as he fell forward and loosened his grip on Alicia. Alicia took the opportunity to throw her elbow deep into his gut. He cursed again and completely lost his grip on her. Her brothers grabbed her hands and they shot off towards the sliding door that was still wide open. Fenton grabbed the file and shielded his children as they ran in.

The police showed up shortly after my father called and told them about Jim. They caught him on the outskirts of Bayport. Aunt Trudy and mom came home from grocery shopping and saw the gate wide open, the book shelf turned over, and all of us huddled in Dad's study under the desk while he worked. I don't think we ever told them what actually happened that day. As far as she knew, "Disaster" had struck again.