A/N: don't own nothing...

CHAPTER 1: Alex Rider

"RIDER!" the PE teacher barked.

Alex's head shot up from talking to Tom, but only to glare at his teacher. He was the only one who would ever dare do something like that, and for it he got weird looks from his classmates. But he didn't care. He was sick and tired of his PE teacher. Mr. Brown was a retired army officer and, as such, treated his students with a disgustingly great amount of discipline. Not to mention he always picked on Alex since he was said to be 'sickly', although Mr. Brown could see right through that lie. And Alex just didn't have the patience to deal with it.

Now 17, going on 18, and after nearly 4 years working for MI6, he was an official member of the agency. Alex had changed from reluctant teenage spy to the next 007, in all senses. Because Scorpia was still after him, for his 16th birthday, MI6 had agreed to allow him a gun, and his accuracy was as lethal as ever. His brown eyes could melt any woman's heart and his body would make any Olympic athlete green with envy. So, of course, all the boys that shared his P.E. class wanted to murder him in his sleep. Alex was well aware of this and laughed at the thought of schoolboys succeeding at killing him when even Scorpia still wasn't able to. As Smithers had said on more than one occasion, Alex had more lives than a cat.

People still thought him weird, but he had mastered such control over his emotions that it didn't affect him in the least. Nor did he pay any attention to all the girls swooning over him in the hallways. He still gave his 'illness' excuse whenever he missed school but when he came back he was so fit and alert that no one believed him anymore. Even then, nobody asked him anything. As the mysterious guy and 'secret' heartthrob at Brookland, all the students respected him, for he showed a maturity and a calm and serious exterior that didn't quite go with his age.

Unfortunately for Alex, that was only the students. As the excellent pupil he was, when he was at school that is, teachers expected him to exceed in all their classes. And Mr. Brown was the worst, even though PE was something Alex was always good at.

"Let's see if you can beat your own record on the ropes!" yelled Mr. Brown.

Alex didn't dignify that with an answer but walked towards the ropes with a confident walk that had become a bit of a trademark with him.

He grabbed the rope and started climbing. The speed with which he was going up awed even his teacher. Once at the top he touched the gym ceiling while the girls at the other side of the gym gapped at him.

But before he could start going down the gym doors flew open. Alex reacted immediately. Twisting on the ropes in a style Yassen Gregorovich would have been proud of, and with most of the girls behind him screaming at his manoeuvre he placed a hand over the gun holster on the small of his back looking at the doors upside-down. He had been right. A bullet had just made contact with the ceiling causing yet more screams. Had he stayed upright, it would have pierced his heart. Thanking his reflexes, he made his way down the rope at an even more amazing speed than before and touching the ground mere seconds later.

The shooting had caused uproar amongst the students in the gym and they were panicking, all over the place, not one of them noticing that the shooter was aiming only at Alex with a frightening accuracy. This guy was good, no doubt about it. But, unfortunately for the stranger, Alex was better.

Alex grabbed one of the thick mattresses which were used as protection, laying under the ropes and covered himself up with it. Heaving it up, he started zigzagging towards the attacker. Scorpia had put a price on his head after failing to catch him themselves at least 6 times already. So now there were bounty hunters showing up every once in a while. And he was getting bored of this fact. The few last ones, present one included apparently, were all amateurs, and quite easy to take out. But they broke through his cover and, in an attempt of keeping it, he couldn't just start shooting back. If this was already making his classmates suspicious, his firing a gun he pulled out of his back would be a dead give away. So his only chance was to get close enough to disarm the assassin and knock him unconscious.

To Alex's amusement the guy let his guard down at seeing him so close. Alex saw his mistake and took his chance. He kicked the gun out of the assassin's hand whose only reaction was to yell in surprise. 'Amateurs indeed', Alex thought. The hunter finally reacted and fought back, but Alex wasn't there to take the blow. He was behind his attacker and with a karate chop Alex sent his attacker all the way to the numb world of unconsciousness.

Once the danger had been taken care of Alex turned around to asses the damages the assassin had inflicted upon the poor gym. It wasn't as bad as he expected: there were a couple of basketballs fizzing around having been caught by some of the bullets and the mattress he had used as protection looked more like a tea strainer than anything else. There were a few holes on the wall right behind him and a lonely one on the ceiling.

To say Alex was pissed was an understatement. He was mad that these bloody criminals had come to his school. This wasn't his sanctuary of normalcy anymore. He was well aware of that. But there were kids here living perfectly normal lives. And Scorpia and whoever else they hired had no right to disturb those lives.

His classmates were fortunately unharmed but he hadn't expected any of them to get shot, unless they had been stupid enough to run in front of him. But they were scared, some looking rather pale. He thought he even saw a couple of girls, who had apparently fainted, recovering. He was just about to go over to them to check them more thoroughly when the gym doors burst open yet again.

Alex twirled around, for he hadn't expected another assassin though, angry as he was, he was more than willing to take that anger out on another one of those goons. But it was just backup. Some SAS troops had come in to help, responding to the signal he had sent before. But now their only job was to take the scorpion into custody.

He waved discreetly to some of his acquaintances before turning to his fellow students who had already started panicking again. He managed to calm them down and some of the most 'courageous' girls were starting to go to him for 'support and consolation' when one of the soldiers tapped him on the shoulder. He was one of his acquaintances from the SAS and was holding back the laughter at the girls' reactions. Alex glared at him and the soldier remembered the situation. He said in a formal manner something about needing to talk to Alex, as part of the 'investigation'. Alex understood the message and followed quietly. As he was going out he saw his PE teacher looking at him with a mixed of admiration and fear. He would surely not be bothering Alex any time soon.

Once outside, Alex saw Mrs. Jones waiting for him. And he couldn't hold his anger in anymore.

"What the HELL are they doing coming to my school!" he let out in a screamed whisper. "Who the HELL do they think they are, messing with MY friends, MY classmates?! Oh but just let them come back. They will never know what hit them!" Mrs. Jones smiled understandingly. She knew the young spy well and knew that he meant what he had just said.

"Don't worry Alex. We will make sure they never come this close to Brookland again. But well done. Now, Mr. Blunt would appreciate it if you could come around the office this afternoon. He has something he wants to talk to you about. We were going to call you or Jack to tell you but since this situation showed up... though I think you should still call Jack."

"I wonder what he could want?" was Alex's sarcastic remark, his temper cooling slightly. "But yes, I suppose calling Jack and warning her isn't a bad idea. Though I wish you could do it every once in a while. I'm tired of her screaming at me when, at least technically, it's your fault." Mrs. Jones smiled and turned to go back to her car. Alex immediately took out his phone and called Jack.

"Hey Jack? I'm going to be a little late this afternoon."

"What?! Why?! Alex what happened? Shouldn't you be in class right now? If this has anything to do with that idiot of a boss of yours..." Jack left her threat in hanging and Alex chuckled at her protectiveness. No matter how many missions he went on, or how many bad guys he took down: she would always try to take care of him.

"Well there was a bit of an attack moments ago and …" Alex hadn't even finished the sentence when he heard the phone being dropped and sighed. '3, 2, 1...' he thought. And sure enough...

"THERE WAS WHAT?!?!" Alex's arm reacted out of instinct holding the phone as far away from his ear as possible. Once the screaming was over he put it back close to it.

"Jack, don't worry, it was nothing and no one got hurt… well except the attacker. Blunt just wants a few words; though I'm quite sure it's another mission. But don't worry; I'll be back by dinner."

"Oh hell no, Alex, not another one! You're 17! All you should be worrying about is girls and homework. Sometimes not even homework!" Alex sighed, 'Here we go again...'

"Jack, we've been through this many times already. I can't quit this. You and I both know it runs deep in my veins. I've even grown to like it! Besides, it has its ups!"

"Like what, the chance to get killed? When are you going to realise that this is going to be the end of you one of these days?!"

"Never Jack, 'cause the thrill of it is part of the fun! In a twisted sort of way I'll admit."

"Part of the fun?! Are you crazy, what kind of fun can you draw out of dodging frigging bullets?!"

"Jack..." Alex said sternly. He had to get back to class. The MI6 were leaving already.

Those closest to him could hear the whole thing and were already snorting with laughter. He was used to it since Jack had called while he was in a debriefing or something and the room normally exploded with laughter afterwards. He didn't mind. But he was getting familiar acknowledgements because of it. He couldn't afford some of his classmates, who were sneaking out of the gym to try to get a glimpse of what was going on outside, to see that.

"Jack I have to go. I need to get back to class." She finally understood that there was no fighting him and gave up. For now.

"Ok, make sure you're back by 7!"

"Will do. What are you making for dinner?" he asked trying to divert her attention to something less lethal (though, with her, only slightly) than his job.

"How does macaronis with cheese sound to you?" she asked back, taking the bait. He smiled. Trust Jack to go for the easiest-to-make dinner available in the market. He chuckled.

"Sounds perfect Jack. I'll see you later. Try not to burn the macaronis this time though." He teased.

"No fair! That was just because of another one of your stupid missions!" Alex laughed.

"Whatever. I got to go. Bye Jack." Alex hung up the phone still chuckling and was immediately stormed by the few people that were in good enough conditions to walk and talk coherently after the attack. Surprisingly (or not) some girls were in this group.

"Alex that was so brave of you! How did you managed to catch that guy?" one of said girls asked, batting her eyelashes unashamedly. The others also started appraising his courage and all the guys started asking how he hadn't fallen off those ropes. They were all starting to become suspicious seeing as this wasn't the first such occurrence around Alex Rider in the school's record. But their jealousy at his success against assassins and with girls blinded them temporarily.

But all Alex could think about was how long, tedious and absolutely draining this day would be trying to cover up all the actions he took for granted during times of danger.