ONE

It was a typical Friday afternoon for the three MI9 agents stationed at St. Hopes Secondary School. They had a free period until the end of the day, so Rose, Blane and Daisy decided to spend their time in their underground MI9 headquarters, like they usually did during lunchbreaks and free periods. Rose was sitting in a corner, reading a large novel, whilst Daisy was showing Blane some videos on YouTube on one of the high-tech computers supplied by MI9. Blane and Daisy were laughing flirtily together, when suddenly the screens became black and the room became reminiscent of an eerie, dark alleyway in the poorer suburbs of London.

"What was that?" asked Daisy, in a slightly frightened tone.

Rose looked up from her book. "The power's gone out. I thought Lenny fixed that..." Rose replied.

Daisy was becoming more anxious. "But how do we get out of here then? It's pitch black and the elevator's not gonna work."

"The generator should kick in any second now." Rose was confident that everything would be working again soon enough.

The three spies continued waiting without as much as a murmur, until Rose broke the silence, a solid three minutes later. "Something's wrong."

"I'm gonna go look for some torches." Blane said.

"Don't leave me here in the dark!" Daisy jumped up, found Blane's left hand and held it securely.

"I'll look over this side." Rose suggested.

Blane started walking in one direction, and Daisy followed directly behind, wary of any noises. A few seconds later, Daisy heard a 'THUD' and immediately shrieked and exclaimed, "What was that!?"

"Ow."

"Blane are you ok?" Daisy asked, clearly concerned for the safety of her best friend.

"Just bashed my foot on this box. But hey, I've found some supplies."

"What have you got?" asked Rose, more concerned with finding a way out.

"Um..." A light flicked on. "A torch!" Blane shined it at Rose, and then up at Daisy, who had a look of relief on her face. "Here you go, pass one to Rose." Blane handed two torches to Daisy, who in turn threw one over to Rose. The three spies could now see.

Ever practical Rose was quickly ready for action. "I'll go check on the generator."

Daisy walked over to the desk, picked up hers and Blane's pencil communicators, put Blane's in her pocket, and held hers up to her ear. "Lenny! Lenny! Lenny, are you there?" All she got in reply was static. She walked back to where Blane was searching through a crate of supplies. "Lenny's not answering."

"Try the phone."

She walked back to the desk, picked up the phone and pressed '1' on the speed dial, hoping for an answer from Lenny's phone just outside the store room. Willing to try almost anything, she pulled out her mobile phone from her pocket. As usual, there was no reception.

"Anything?" Blane asked.

"Nothing. I'm gonna go check how Rose's doing."

"Ok."

"Rose? Rose? Have you found something? Rose?" Daisy slowly made her way to their underground generator, where she saw Rose lying limp on the floor. Daisy hurried over, knelt down, and instinctively checked Rose's pulse. It was still beating. "Blane, Rose is unconscious."

"Are you sure?"

"She seems pretty unconscious." Blane got up and walked over to where Daisy was still kneeling over Rose. "What do you think happened?"

"I don't know. We didn't hear anything." Becoming anxious again, Daisy grabbed Blane's arm. "Might have been an electrical surge from the generator. Sill don't know why it hasn't come on yet." Blane reached out to touch the generator.

'Hang on a sec! What if the same thing happens to you? I can't drag two bodies out of here, even if we do find a way out."

"Good point. You stay here and try to bring Rose 'round. I'll go find the emergency exit. Oh, and Daisy," Daisy looked up at Blane, even though she could hardly see his face. "Be careful."

Daisy smiled. "You too." She kept her eyes fixated on him, as he went to find the emergency ladder. He's so protective of me. I love it, Daisy thought to herself.

She continued to sit there for a few minutes, thinking about Blane. She was startled when Rose began to wake up.

"Wh-what happened?" Rose managed to say.

Daisy was relieved. "I don't know. I came over to see how you were getting on with the generator, but found you lying on the floor instead. Blane thinks it might have been an electrical shock."

"Maybe." Rose looked around the room. "Where is Blane?"

"Gone to find the emergency exit, seeing as it doesn't look like we're gonna get the power back any time soon." Daisy put her arm around Rose's back, and tried to lift her up. After many failures, she managed to bring Rose over to a chair in the middle of the room.

"Found it!" Blane called out from somewhere in the dark.

"Great. Oh, and Rose is back."

"Good." Blane said as he walked out from the shadows. "'Cause we're gonna have to climb out."

"Oh no..." Rose said.

Blane walked over to the crate of supplies he found earlier, pulled out some rope and began tying it around his waist. He then walked back to Daisy and Rose, where Daisy stood up and let Blane tie the rope around her. He then tied it around Rose. "Now, I'll go first, Rose you go in the middle, and, last but certainly not least, Daisy."

"How far underground are we?" Daisy asked.

"A couple of hundred feet, I think." Rose replied.

Daisy groaned, not wanting to climb her way out of HQ.

________

When the three spies reached the surface, they were not as relieved as they would have liked to have been. They were not greeted by the familiar sight of St. Hopes, but instead by twisted metal and large fires where the school should have been. Each of their jaws dropped synchronically at the scene which stood before them; it was like something out of a movie. At this point, Daisy was too scared to even hold onto Blane.