A/N: Just a quick little story, I really don't like that there is no real plot to this story, but i'm working on it. Please give me feedback.
"Happy Birthday Alex!" "How does it feel to be 7 years-old now?"
"It's exciting!"
Alex turned around and looked at the rest of the room, there were many children from school that came to celebrate his birthday. The one person that he enjoyed the company of the most was not his Uncle or the other school children. No, not them. He was excited for his 18-year-old neighbor, Terrance West. He's short for his age, no more than 5'10. He has dark olive toned skin and speaks Spanish fluently because of his family background. One could tell that he was muscled and well toned for his age. Terrance knew that he wanted to join the Special Air Service, or SAS as soon has he graduated school. This was his last year with Alex before going off to join the military.
Terrance could feel eyes staring at him and turned around to see Alex give a small smile and a wave. When ever Ian was away on business trips, Terrance would come over and make sure Alex got to school everyday and had food to eat. He could be called a babysitter, but to Alex he was like the older brother he never had. They had a brilliant time playing football at the park ever since Alex was 5 years-old. Alex looked forward to his time with Terrance. This year they were going to spend as much time as possible together.
Terrance walked over to Alex, brushed past the crowd of parents in the hall talking about their kids accomplishments and rustled Alex's hair.
"Hey Alex, Happy Birthday. Do you want to go play footie in the yard?"
"Yes!" Alex rushed to the coat closet by the door and pulled out his brand new football Ian gave to him for his birthday. The games and hangouts happened throughout the year and while Ian was away on business. That day finally came when Alex would have to say goodbye to Terrance and send him off to the military training and college.
Seven years later, Alex Rider never forgot Terrance but he made friends with his housekeeper Jack and they had a similar sibling relationship just like he did with Terrance. But things changed that one night when Alex opened the door to show two police officers at his front door. Alex could see the lights from his bedroom window and he first thought it was about a neighbor's house when he heard knocks on his front door. Jack was getting ready to open the door when Alex beat her to it and saw the sad looks on the officers faces.
"What's wrong? What are you doing here?"
The officers took off their hats and placed them over their hearts. "We are very sorry son, but we are here to inform you that your Uncle was in a car accident and he did not make it to the hospital. He died on his way there." Alex slumped to his knees in front of the officers, he didn't cry though. He was in too much shock to do anything but stare down at the floor. The officers, bid their farewell after telling Jack to bring Alex inside. Alex later that night cried into his pillow, as the news finally hit him.
You all know what happens from here, Alex finds himself looking into his Uncle's death and ultimately finds himself employed by MI6. What he didn't expect even more than becoming a spy was that he would be joining training at an SAS camp in Brecon Beacons. Blunt said he would have the rest of the day to pack and that a car would arrive the next morning to take him to the camp. Everything happened so fast, Alex didn't have time to process everything that happened. He only just buried his uncle the week before. Alex sucked it up and packed his bags. At nine AM sharp a black sedan pulled up in the front of his Chelsea home and gave a short honk signaling for Alex to get in. Alex hugged and waved goodbye to Jack.
The drive was only two hours, but the car was painfully silent so it felt more like a ten hour drive. All you could see were trees in the distance and some farmland barely at the edge of the Forest. Alex turned his attention to the front, when the car slowed to a stop in front of the gate where a guard in his SAS uniformly took their IDs and waved them through the gate. Alex got out of the car and grabbed his military issued duffle that had everything he needed and was ushered to the Sergeant's office. He knocked and entered at the command. The sergeant gave a sneer and looked at Alex from head to toe observing him.
"I don't care why you are here, while you are here you will obey SAS rules and you will keep up with the team you will be stuck with." The sergeant picked up his phone and ordered K-unit to enter. Alex wouldn't say he was scared, he was a little nervous about the meeting and everything that happened in the last week was really weighing on his emotions. With this thought K-unit entered and the first thing they did was size up Alex before standing at attention in front of the Sergeant.
"This is cub, he will be placed with your unit for a fortnight. Don't ask me why he was sent here, just make sure he does his exercises like all the other teams."
"Yes sir!"
In this time, Alex scrunched his nose in concentration at one of the members. It has to be Terrance, he wanted to be in the SAS and he look about the age he should be now after he left 7 years ago. Alex stood from his chair and went over to the unit, he couldn't help it though he smiled and looked straight at the man he knew was Terrance from his childhood. He smiled at the man and gave him a hug. He knew he shouldn't have done that when the man stiffened until, Alex whispered "Hi Terrance, its Alex. Uncle Ian died last week." The man relaxed into the hug and raised his hands to wrap one around Alex's back while placing the other one on the back of Alex's head. They stayed like that until the Sergeant demanded to know what was going on.
"Well sir, this is Alex Rider. He is like my younger brother, I pretty much raised him when he was very young while his Uncle was away on business."
"Alex Rider? Any relation to a John Rider?"
"Yes sir, he was my father. I was told he died in a plane crash with my mother."
"Welcome to the SAS Cub, John was the best soldier I ever had the privilege to train with here before things went downhill and he was recruited by MI6. Now, GET OUT! YOU HAVE TRAINING TO DO!"
All the men and Cub stood at attention and saluted before exiting the tiny office and heading to K-unit's barracks.
"So Wolf, who is this and aren't you going to introduce us?"
"Sorry Snake, its been so long I just got caught up in seeing him again. This is Alex, I used to babysit him when he was younger. I was his neighbor, so I took care of him when his Uncle was away on business."
"Hi Alex, my name is Snake. I don't think I'm allowed to give you my real name. Maybe when we are on leave or something. I'm the team's medic, which reminds me you need to have a quick physical before beginning training with the rest of us."
"My name is Fox, I'm the language/ communication expert of the team. And this hyper one jumping next to me is Eagle, he is our team sharpshooter."
"Hi! Hi! Hi! Nice to meet you Alex, Wolf has told us nothing about you, but this training is going to be fun. And by the way, Wolf is our team leader and strategist."
"Nice to meet all of you, looks like you have a nice family of friends here Ter, I mean Wolf." Alex dropped his head, chin touching his chest. He couldn't think of that word right now, it was not the time to dwell on what he did and didn't have right now."
"Come here Cub, tell me what happened with Ian." Alex slowly brought himself over to Wolf's bunk. And sat gently on the edge.
"It's been 7 years, I thought you would have gave a ring or sent a letter to let me know how you were. After you left it was lonely, I had no one to play football with anymore. Then Ian hired a housekeeper named jack to look after me. She's American with a fiery temper. She didn't want me coming here, but MI6 said if I didn't do it then they would revoke Jack's visa and deport her back to America. I couldn't let that happen since she is the only one I have left. Ian was away on a bank business trip two weeks ago when police came knocking at the door a week later saying that he died in a car accident. He was always so careful as a driver so I went and investigated his car. There were bullet holes everywhere. MI6 saw this and my abilities to sneak into my Uncle's office so they decided that I was the only who could finish what my Uncle started. That leads me to why I am here and not at home."
"I'm sorry Alex, I wish I could have been there for you. After college I served the country by working for the military police since they paid for college, but I knew SAS is where I wanted to be so I applied. This is actually towards the end of selection training right now. Anyway, it's time for lunch we should head down before we get yelled at for being late." The group nodded their heads simultaneously before following the leader out towards the mess hall.
As they entered, the room quieted down and all eyes fell on the smallest member of the group, Alex. Alex slunk back towards the back of the unit to hide from the stares. Wolf put his hand on his shoulder before glaring at the room telling them silently to back off. The group did as they were told and resumed their conversations. The members got inline for their food and occupied an open table towards the exit. The group ate quickly in silence before heading out. Snake took Alex aside to have his physical assessment. Snake gave Alex a clean bill of health and they all went and tested Alex to see what he could do. They started him off on the hardest exercise first so they could see where he really was physically. The members showed him how to run the obstacle course and Alex didn't think it would be too bad.
At the chime of the whistle, Alex began his 1 km run to the beginning of the obstacle course. At the first obstacle Alex launched himself up the climbing wall and rolled quickly down the nets without getting caught. He crawled through the mud under spiked nets and then climbed a rope to reach the bars that would take him across to the salmon ladder. Alex panted as he came to the end of the course the final obstacle was to run up the cut logs that were placed at different heights and distances before climbing one more net and crawling through the mud again to reach the final net that needed to be climbed to complete the course. Alex finally made it to the end when he saw the team stare at him in the distance with slack jaws. Alex didn't know what the big deal was, he ran the course and didn't think he was that caked in mud from it. He couldn't think of any reason why they would be staring like hat at him.
"What? Was I that bad?"
"No! No Cub,quite the opposite actually. We have never seen someone do that course so quickly on their first try. Your time was 15:35. The fastest time for an adult soldier for their first run averages around 17 minutes. You did amazing, what else can you do?" The group nodded in affirmation to Fox's statement.
Cub shrugged his shoulders, he really didn't know what else they could test him on. He just followed them to the next exercise. Alex looked up from the ground when the heels in front of him slowed down. What Alex saw was a room that looked like any other classroom. There were desks with chairs, a chalkboard and an instructor's desk at the very front of the room. Alex looked questioningly at the group in hopes they would explain what he was doing there.
"So, what languages do you know Cub?" Cub tilted his head up in thought.
"I know Latin, French, Spanish and Italian fluently. I'm in the process of learning Mandarin and Russian."
"How did you learn so many?"
"My Uncle took me traveling a lot and he said I should learn the language of where we visited so he would have me spend time with the locals and learn to speak while he did some business."
"Well, I can say that you beat most of the men here. Most only now 2 or three languages. I know Spanish from home and a learned French during school."
"Let move on to combat and after that it should be dinner before a night swim. Do you know how to fight Cub?"
"A little. I am a second degree black belt in Karate."
"Well let's test our skills then."