This is an AU in which a teacher accidentally finds out what Alex Rider became.
Warnings: No warnings for this story.
Disclaimer: The rights to Alex Rider do not belong to me.
And yes, I'm aware that this has been done before... I just wanted to do it my way.
Enjoy!
The sharp rapping of knuckles on wood sounded loudly through the otherwise almost silent classroom.
Mister Albown, the Politics teacher, looked up from where he was marking papers, shot a stern look towards the students who had stopped working in an attempt to get them to pay attention to their work and called out, "come in!"
The door was almost thrown open and a tall, muscular man entered the room. Gasps sounded as they noticed his army fatigues, his dark hair which was cut into a buzz cut and the dark, sharp eyes which took everything in. The Union Jack stood proudly on the right side of his chest. His division could be seen on his right sleeve, but it wasn't one Albown recognized.
"Can I help you?" Albown asked curiously. It was after all not a normal occasion to have a man wearing fatigues in one's classroom.
"I'm looking for Alex Rider," the soldier – because the man could be nothing else – told him curtly.
Everyone sat up straight and turned to look at the fair haired teenager sitting at the very back of the classroom, who stared blankly at the person who had interrupted the lesson.
Rider's posture and face clearly showed his confusion as he stared at the soldier standing in the door opening.
Sounds of: 'Rider?', 'Army', 'trouble', 'criminal' and 'knew it!' could be heard throughout the entire classroom as the students turned back to each other.
"Why do you need him?" Albown asked suspicious. He might not know what was going on but the teenager was on his terrain now, which made it his responsibility to make sure that the child would be alright. And being sought after by soldiers was most definitely not alright.
"Classified," was the answer he got as the soldier made his way over towards the teenager, who was watching him with a mix of apprehension, confusion, surprise and something which could be fear.
"Alex Rider I presume?" the soldier asked as soon as he reached the blonde's table.
"Er… yes," Rider answered, "can I help you?"
"You need to come with me," the man told him firmly.
Some emotion flashed over the child's face but it was gone before Albown could figure out what it meant. All that was left was the confusion.
"Why?" Rider asked as he narrowed his eyes in what appeared to be an attempt to figure out what was going on.
The soldier stared at him, his face emotionlessly. Rider stared back for a couple of seconds before he lowered his eyes in what appeared to be submission but he didn't make a move to obey the command in his words.
The man's eyes narrowed upon him but he kept silent.
"Why do you need Rider?" Albown asked loudly as he shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
The soldier turned towards him briefly, and told him: "classified." Before he turned back to the teenager.
"You need to come with me," he told Rider again and it was clear that he was not quite sure what to do with a teenager who wouldn't listen to the unspoken command.
But Rider's eyes just flicked up to meet his before they were once again lowered.
A heavy silence fell and it was only after a couple of uncomfortable minutes – in which the soldier stared at Rider, Rider stared at his schoolwork and the students and Albown stared at both the soldier and Rider – that the soldier finally reached into his fatigues and pulled out a ordinary mobile phone. Gasps of surprise and disappointment could be heard and Albown glared around the classroom to silence the children before he once again demanded to know what the soldier wanted with the boy.
But the soldier ignored him once again as he quickly pressed a couple of numbers and placed the phone against his ear, his eyes never left the small form of the child in front of him.
In the awkward silence of the class the sound of the phone being picked up could be heard clearly and though they couldn't hear what was said they could hear that it was a male who picked up the phone.
"Sir, this is Leopard," the man told whoever had answered the phone. Albown blinked at the strange name but he quickly hushed the sniggering students.
A garbled answer sounded.
"No sir," Leopard said.
Another garbled response could be heard.
"Yes sir," the soldier said before he removed the mobile phone away from his ear.
He turned his attention back to the blond boy seated in front of him, "I was told to tell you that is a code zero nine five."
Suddenly something changed in the boy's posture. His face lost the emotions they normally showed until it was completely blank, his back straightened and his shoulders were drawn back. His chin rose until his eyes met those of the soldier steadily. His eyes were cool, emotionless, confident puddles of brown.
In a matter of milliseconds he had gone from a confused, intimidated tough rebellious teenager to a sharp and focused individual, professional in a way teenager shouldn't be. He was cold, emotionless and dangerous; the type of person parents told their children to stay away from.
The students gaped at the boy in surprise and the teacher did a double take as he stared at the boy. He had always known him as a polite, cheerful, lively, popular boy who had gone through a hard period after his uncle had died. He had been rarely in school ever since but it was clear from the rare moments that he was in school that he had changed. It only became clear to him in those few seconds just how much the boy had changed.
"Your identification," was the cold and clipped reaction the soldier got.
"Rider," Albown barked as he rose from his seat, "what is going on?"
But he was ignored by both the soldier and the teenager as Leopard just blinked at the teen – he didn't even look surprised – before he took his identification out of his pocket with his free hand and handed it to the teen without questioning him.
The blonde quickly studied it before he handed it back with a curt nod.
"Rider!" the teacher called out warningly and he slammed his hands on the desk in front of him, but he was once again ignored by the cold eyed individual who had taken over the normally cheerful teenager.
"The threat?" Rider barked out and the soldier placed the phone back at his ear and repeated the question.
Both ignored Albown as he demanded to know what was going on.
"Organisation number zero seven," the soldier told the teenager. Said teenager swore softly under his breath in response before he gracefully rose form from his seat and started to stuff his school items in his bag.
"Against?" Rider asked as he made his way over towards the door, followed closely by Leopard.
It was in the way he moved that another difference could be seen, Albown noted absently. The boy normally moved like most teenagers: like awkward fowls who had yet to have their own limps under control. And even though the boy known as Alex Rider had never been as awkward as most teenagers, the way he moved now was in an entirely different league altogether. His movements were silent and graceful, like a sleek predator or a particularly graceful dancer.
The soldier known as Leopard placed the phone back against his ear after the question and it was clear to everyone watching that the teenager had somehow take charge of the situation and that the soldier just followed his unspoken orders.
"The Royal British Empire," the man told him after a short conversation with whoever was on the other side of the line and gasps sounded from the students.
"The file?" the fair-haired teenager asked.
"In the car," the soldier told him, "you will be briefed on location."
The nod the boy gave the soldier was the last thing they saw before they were both out of the classroom.
Albown shot after them and demanded loudly for Rider to stop and come back but the only thing he managed to do was to drag the attention of other teachers and students onto both the pair and himself.
The teenager and the soldier ignored him tough – not that he had expected anything else – and it didn't take long before they had disappeared completely from his sight as they exited the building and shot into a black, inconspicuous car with dark windows and a number plate proclaiming it to be a car belonging to the British government.
By the time he had realised the significance of the number plate they were long gone.
He turned around and walked back into the school deep in thought only to be stopped by the headmaster.
"What's going on?" Brey demanded to know.
"A soldier entered my classroom, asked for Alex Rider and told him he needed to come with him, "Albown told him tiredly.
"Did he tell you why?" Brey asked, his voice carrying a tone both angry and defeated.
Albown shook his head, "he mentioned the code 095 and a threat by organisation 07 against the Royal British Empire. They just left in a government car."
Brey gaped – actually gaped – at him.
"Government car you said?" he said weakly, "what has that boy gotten himself into?"
Albown just shrugged as he tiredly made his way over towards his classroom.
oOo
That evening, as he was seated on his coach watching the news, he still wondered what had happened. His mind kept repeating the two numbers as he stared blankly at the screen. They sounded like official codes used by the government but they weren't codes he had heard of before.
The only thing he could think of was that they either were codes used by those parts of the government civilians weren't allowed to know about or they were relatively new codes he had yet to hear about. Whatever he wanted it to be, he strongly suspected that the codes he had heard belonged in the first category.
It was only when the words COBRA appeared just above the newscaster on the screen that he was shocked out of his stupor and started to pay attention.
"The fourth COBRA meeting was called today to discuss the threat against the entire Royal British Empire by an undisclosed organisation. Leaders from all of the countries included, ministers, experts on terrorism and members of MISO are said to present. The meeting is still in commission but experts tell us…"
He stared blankly at the screen, his mouth opened in shock as the events of that afternoon once again played through his mind.
Rider, who had been called away by the government, the threat by some organisation against the Royal British Empire, the COBRA meeting which had been called…
The last thing shooting through his mind before he went into complete shock were the words Brey had spoken: "what has that boy gotten himself into?"
I hope you liked this story.
Reviews are much appreciated.
~Marwana