A/N: Okay, I couldn't really figure out to best explain the plot of this story in the short space provided, so here's a slightly longer version than the other summary:
This story is basically Stormbreaker, except right off from the beginning; Alex isn't the only teen agent. The contest for a kid to first try out the Stormbreaker, in my story, actually sends two kids to Herod Sayle's place instead of one. The other teenager that gets to go is in the same situation as Alex, meaning she's a spy. Except, she's from America instead of Great Britain, and she wasn't blackmailed (call it what you want, Mr. Blunt) into going. But now, I'm kinda giving away the whole story, so I'll quit it with the summary.
Please review after reading! And remember, this is only my second fanfic, and my other one in the Twilight section isn't even finished yet, so updates might be kinda slow. Also, this fic is gonna be based off of the order of events in the book, not the movie. Stroy starts when Alex is being informed of the fact that his uncle was a spy. And I realize that I'm rambling on and on so I'm gonna start typing the Author's Note and start with the story!
DISCLAIMER: This goes for ALL FURTHER CHAPTERS. I do not own anything of Anthony Horowitz's or of the Alex Rider variety!!!!!
Narrator-Alex Point Of View:
How can this be happening to me? Alex thought. He had just accepted the job of following in his late Uncle Ian's footsteps: becoming a spy. Although his thoughts exuded surprise, Alex was actually unperturbed. After all, this all did make sense.
His uncle's mysterious dissapearings, and the case that Ian was hardly ever home. Or that he was ready to leave almost as soon as he got back. And then there were his sudden injuries with questionable explanations. Really, Alex didn't think the fact that his uncle was a spy was that surprising of an explanation.
Alex pushed back his chair and stood up. He was ready to start his training. The sooner he started, the sooner he could get on his mission, and the sooner all this could be over. Mr. Blunt forced him to sit with a few words.
"Alex, wait." Reluctantly, Alex slowly sat back down into his seat, all the while eyeing Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones, still sucking on her peppermint. When he saw that Alex wasn't going to run off anywhere, Mr. Blunt continued.
"There's one more thing we need to tell you." His voice had the same dead quality as always. "Remember the contest?"
Of course. Alex thought with a bit of sarcasm. You just told me about it a couple of minutes ago. But instead of voicing these particular thoughts, he settled for quoting Mr. Blunt's earlier words. "Be one of the two lucky children to first try out the Stormbreaker. Travel to Port Talon and meet Herod Sayle himself."
Mr. Blunt gave a slight nod. After a brief silence, Alex ventured to say, "What does this sudden recap have to do with me? Other than the fact that I'm one of the lucky" Alex put specific emphasis on this word, "children that get to go to Port Talon?" Mr. Blunt and Mrs. Jones were silent. They wanted Alex to figure out the correct question by himself, let him stretch his brain a bit.
Alex sighed as this became clear.
"Does-" he cleared his throat unsurely. "Does this have something to do with the other winner?" Alex guessed.
"Precisely." said Mr. Blunt. His face was in its same composed mask that Alex had first seen, but Mrs. Jones allowed herself a small smile at Alex's miniscule victory.
Mrs. Jones relieved Alex or Mr. Blunt of leading the conversation and said, "The other "winner" that will be accompanying you is also a spy, and of course, a teenager like yourself. This is also her first mission," Alex took notice that his partner was a her "and it would be in both of your best interests if you treated her with the utmost respect. After all, you don't want to spend an entire mission fighting with your partner, do you?" She took Alex's silence as an agreement. Then she continued. "Alex, meet your new partner, Amber."
The doors at the head of the room swung open as if someone had been listening behind them, waiting for their cue to enter. Alex stood up and turned away from his chair so he could see who entered the room. In stepped one of the most attractive girls that Alex had ever seen.
The girl, Amber, Alex reminded himself, was about half a head shorter than him. She had curly, chestnut colored hair that fell in ringlets down to her lower back. Her eyes were a very dark brown, so that you could not distinguish the iris from the pupil from a distance, and ever so slightly upturned at the edges.
With his keen eyes, Alex noticed that Amber's heart shaped face was almost flawless, except for a small, almost invisible scar right at the left corner of her full, red lips.
Trying to look indifferent about it, Alex swept his gaze over the rest of Amber's slim build. He could tell she was very fit, and had muscles, but they didn't bulge. Her body type was not unsimilar to his.
Alex guessed that Amber was 14 like him, judging by her somewhat genorous curves. He could also tell that she was confident, most likely in about everything she did, by the fact that she had very nice posture, tall and straight, and yet loose, something that suggested to Alex that amber was of the friendly variety. Thankfully. After all, who wants to go on a mission with a stuck up, prissy girl? Definitely not him.
Alex concluded that she was extremely easy on the eyes, but the thing that attracted him most was the composure of the girl's face. It was serene, not as much or as harsh as Mr.Blunt's, but Alex could sense that there was boundless energy just below the surface of the calm, waiting to break loose. He felt that she was used to smiling. Alex could only imagine what her laugh might sound like...
"What's wrong with him?" Amber's skeptical voice asked. Alex snapped out of his thoughts and found that the look on Amber's face was showing the first signs of emotion. Puzzled, if not a little bit uneasy; As if Alex was a patient escaped from the insane assylum, ready to jump her at any moment.
After she got over the initial shock of Alex staring at her, the charming blush that had previously occupied her cheeks faded away and her face slipped back into it's composed form.
"Amber Gregors, meet your new partner, Alex Rider. Alex Rider, Amber Gregors." Mr. Blunt introduced.
Alex felt a slow, stupid smile spread over his face. What was wrong with him? "Hi!" he exclaimed, just a little too loudly. Although Amber's face didn't reoccupy the slightly fearful expression, Alex felt sure that he had just convinced Amber that he was not mentally stable. Amber merely inclined her head in acknowlegment, keeping Alex's gaze. "Great!" Alex thought. "Instead of being stuck up and prissy, she's an emotionless robot!"
"Amber," Mr. Blunt inquired. "Will you please take Alex on a tour of the rest of the house, so he won't get... lost?" Alex could have sworn that Mr. Blunt was about to say "In trouble".
"Right away, sir." Amber replied in a monotone. There was still no life in her voice and no expression on her face. "She's ben hanging out with Mr. Blunt a little too much." Alex thought.
Amber switched her eyes to Alex and when their gazes held, Alex felt a peculiar bolt of electricity. For a moment Alex thought he could register surprise on Amber's face but as quickly as the supposed expression appeared, it dissapeared.
"This way." She said in a dead, clipped voice, and she turned around and stalked out the door breaking their mysterious connection, with Alex on her heels. He could've sworn that Mrs. Jones was faintly smirking.
Out in the long hallway, Amber was already about 5 yards ahead of Alex. When she got to the door at the opposite end of the hallway, she turned around with an eyebrow raised, tapping her foot impatiently. Alex jogged the last few feet to Amber and tried to start proving that he was in fact mentally sane.
"Um... hi! I-"
"Shhh!" Amber interrupted him. She opened the door they were standing next to and stepped through it into a larger, more ornate room. Through the doorway, Alex could see that that this room was about the same size of the dining room, but instead of stone flooring, there was a cushy looking carpet. He also noted that the only pieces of furniture in the room were two armchairs facing each other and a coffee table, right next to a vast walk-in fireplace. Amber motioned for Alex to follow her through the doorway. As soon as the door was shut, she exploded.
"Hi! Oh my gosh! I cannot believe that I finally get to meet you! I mean, I looked at your file and all, but it'll be so much more interesting to hear about you from you, and not read about you on a piece of paper! I'm just so excited! My first mission! And with another teenager no less! Wow. Seriously. Wow! This is just so- what's the matter with you?"
To say Alex was surprised would be a gross understatement. He shut his previously gaping mouth though his eyes were still wide, and hurried for an explanation for his shocked expression. "Back there in the dining room you just seemed so...er..."
"Robotic? Unfeeling? Barbaric?" Amber filled in knowingly.
"Well..." he took a deep breath. "Pretty much that, yeah. Although I don't think you were barbaric. Quite." Alex joked.
Amber laughed at this. Alex was temporarily stunned, her laugh was so beautiful. It almost sounded like wind chimes, except it had a more human happiness ring to it. It was ethereal. And when she smiled, here whole face lit up, almost like an angel's... Stop right there! Alex chided himself. You cannot start developing a crush on your new partner.
There had been a slightly awkward pause in the conversation that was lengthening with every passing second, so Alex said the first thing he could think of.
"Aren't you supposed to be showing me the house, or something?" Alex said, not unkindly.
"Oh, that." Amber said with a casual flick of the wrist. "Nope!"
Alex looked at her with a question in his eyes.
"You see," she started to explain, "when Mr. Blunt said 'show him the house' what he actually meant was, 'Go show him this not so scary side of you and get to know him better before you start off on your mission.'"
"Oh. Well. Seeing as we're supposed to get to know eachother..." Alex searched desparately for a question "What's your favorite color?"
Amber tried to catch her laugh before she could offend Alex, but it got stuck in her throat, so the sound she made was a cross between a grunt and a snort.
Alex put on a fake hurt expression. "What was that for?" he was amazed at how easy it was to joke around with Amber. After all, they had only just met and Alex was already at ease with her.
"It's just-" Amber calmed down her remaining laughter. "It's just that, it seems a bit odd to me, that in a matter of mere minutes, you're able to get over your initial shock that your uncle was a spy, and you're about to follow in his footsteps, and the first question you can think to ask your new partner in espionage is 'What's your favorite color?'"
"Well, what am I supposed to ask?" Alex inquired a bit defensively, although he could see the humor in the situation.
"I don't know," Amber replied. "You're a bright guy, and there are loads of other things to learn about me than my favorite color. Take your pick. Prefferably something unique, though. But before we start our little Spanish Inquisition, wouldn't you like to sit down first?" She gestured towards the comfy looking armchairs.
"Good idea." Alex agreed with a nod and a slight smile.
The two teenagers sat down and, although slowly at first, started talking. Since Amber had already read Alex's file, it was mostly Alex asking the questions. He had been sure to ask why Amber was so unfeeling in the dining room.
"Well you see," Amber explained, "I feel that when I'm around Mr. Blunt, it's easier for me to not show any emotions like him. Everything's so much simpler when you act like you don't care about anything. That way, he can tell me the information he needs to, and I can get out. It insures me that I stay in his presence as little as possible. Sometimes he gives me the creeps." Alex couldn't help but agree. " I swear, though," Amber went on, "About half the time I almost burst out laughing. He just looks so..." she searched for the right word, "ridiculous in his gray suit with his gray tie and gray face. It kills me to keep a straight face. If I didn't act in the community theater in my hometown when I was younger, I doubt I could keep my "dead" face on half as often as I do."
The pair continued to talk for hours. All the while, Alex enjoyed listening to her American accent. It was different, refreshing.
During this course of time, Alex learned a lot of things about Amber. Other than the usual questions such as age (13), favorite holiday (Christmas), food (pepporoni pizza), ect, he also found out other interesting facts about her.
For example, Amber hated it when people cussed heavily or smoked in public areas. She also loved watching and laughing at horror/thriller movies at home with friends while eating Pistachio ice cream. When they finally got around to the question, Alex found out that her favorite colors were, in this order, black, garnet, topaz, and blue. These were only some of the things Alex learned about her. He realized, though, that when he asked her about her past and parents, she got very quiet. All she did was mutter something about having a mom back in Washington (not D.C.), and then quickly changed the subject.
At ten minutes after midnight, Amber looked at the clock and regrettably halted their conversation.
"You'd better get to bed." She urged Alex softly.
Alex wanted to spend more time talking with her, so he blurted out the first excuse he could think of, even though it was a lie.
"I'm not tired." Alex didn't realize how childish he sounded until the words were out of his mouth, and he looked down, slightly blushing.
"Are you sure?" Amber knowingly asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes." Alex said shortly, not meeting her eyes.
"Truthfully," Amber said without shame, "I'm kind of tired, but I'd rather stay up all night talking with you. Or rather, you asking me questions and you answering them."
This had Alex looking up to see that Amber had a slight smile on her face, and that his gaze caused her cheeks to color slightly. She looked down. Before Alex could say anything, Amber continued. "But you have to go to training camp in the morning and, trust me, you'll need all the sleep you can get. In fact, in a couple of days, you'll probably regret you stayed up late to talk to me tonight."
"Don't you have to go to camp too?" Alex questioned.
Amber smiled a small smile of relief. "Actually," she said, "I finished my training yesterday. Thank goodness." She yawned.
"Now, seeing as we're both tired," she continued before Alex could cut her off "even though one of us won't admit it," she shot Alex a playful glare, "I suggest we go to bed before we fall asleep in these chairs." Although her voice was friendly, it had a firm undertone to it that let Alex know that it'd be pointless to argue.
So, Alex reluctantly agreed and saw her to her room (which was right next to his), and then got ready for bed. As he lay under his sheets, a piece of his and Amber's previous conversation came back to him.
In fact, in a couple of days, you'll probably regret you stayed up late to talk to me tonight. Amber had said.
No, Alex thought, I don't think I will.
Well? What do you think? It's not as fluent as I would've liked, but my brain has been disconnected lately. So, of course, there is going to be romance in later chapters and, lots of interesting twists. And some other fellow Twilight readers might say that Amber resembles a younger Bella, but alas, this is not an Alex/Twilight crossover (good idea, though) and Amber's character is based off of me (because I'm just that self centered!). Please review! bats eyes Bye!