This is my first Alex Rider fic, so i hope you like it :) it will be eventual Alex/Yassen towards the end. Hope you enjoy!

Firestorm

Chapter 1

Alex Rider woke up. He rolled over, yawned, and turned off his alarm, grimacing against the sunlight that was creeping in through his bedroom window. It was Monday morning, precisely a week after his 16th birthday, and he was about to get ready for school.

As he padded over to the bathroom, still yawning, he stretched, still finding pleasure in not having any bruises or broken bones, despite his last mission for MI6 being over a year ago. They hadn't contacted him since just before his 15th birthday, when he had adamantly refused to talk to them, and they had reluctantly conceded. He was beginning to think they had forgotten about him.

Alex couldn't feel more pleased about MI6 not being in his life anymore. It was like a huge weight had been lifted off his shoulders, and he didn't have to constantly worry about whether there would be a phone call waiting for him when he got home, from Alan Blunt or Mrs Jones.

Despite this, there still seemed to be a part of him that missed the action and adrenaline of his missions. However, Alex had learned to bury this part deep inside him. After all, it would only lead to trouble, and he really didn't need any more of that.

He had gone back to school, and after a few months when his friends had realised he wasn't going to be 'ill' again, they had accepted him readily, and he now had an almost normal life.

Almost normal, because his dreams were still haunted with images of the horrors he had seen during his missions. Usually featured were all the people who had died as a result of him, taunting him, calling him a murderer. He frequently told himself it wasn't his fault any of these people had died, yet they still hung around his subconscious and pushed to the surface every time he fell asleep.

Pushing these thoughts from his mind, as he did every morning, Alex pulled on his clothes and went downstairs to see what Jack had cooked him for breakfast, or at least tried to cook anyway. She had never exactly been the cooking type. When he arrived in the kitchen, he took one disgusted look at the runny scrambled eggs on his plate and immediately lost his appetite.

"Jack, when will you actually learn to cook properly?" He smiled at her as she entered the room to see him making himself toast while scraping the failed breakfast into the bin.

"Hey, it wasn't that bad was it?" She grinned back at him, making herself a cup of coffee. "I guess I'll never get the hang of cooking. Good thing you can take care of yourself, Alex".

A brief look of sadness crossed her face as she studied him, so quick that Alex could almost have imagined it. However, when he next looked, she had a completely neutral look on her face, as if she was trying not to think about something.

As always, Alex felt guilty that Jack had been dragged into all of this because of him. He felt as if he was keeping her here against her will, especially since she had started mentioning how much she wanted to go back to the USA to stay with her family for a while.

Alex quickly bolted his breakfast down so that he could leave for school; the atmosphere was getting a bit too awkward in the kitchen. Giving Jack a quick wave goodbye, he left the house, grabbed his bike and started pedalling to school.

It was a pleasant day outside, and Alex pedalled slowly, drinking in the sunlight. For once, the weather was acting like it should do on a mid-August day. Up until now, the sky had been overcast, and he had been wondering if summer was actually going to arrive this year.

As Alex pulled into the road next to his school, something caught his eye. Two men, looking extremely shifty, were exchanging what looked suspiciously like drugs and money. Alex narrowed his eyes and pedalled slowly towards them, trying to take a closer look without looking suspicious.

As he watched, the man who had dealt the drugs headed over towards a car, and climbed in the passenger seat. The man in the driver seat immediately put his foot down and sped off into the distance. Alex made a split second decision and shot after him, pedalling frantically to keep the car in sight.

The car sped first left, then right, and then left again, and Alex was certain he was going to lose it. Why did he decide to do this? He should be leaving this kind of life behind; he should be pulling into school right now and laughing with his mates.

As these thoughts crossed his mind, though, the car pulled into a road that was heavy with traffic, and he pedalled slowly forwards, keeping his distance to stop the driver becoming suspicious of him. However, as he inched forwards, trying to get a closer look at the car, he glanced at the wing mirror and saw the driver looking straight back at him.

Immediately, the driver narrowed his eyes, put his foot down and sped through the red lights, Alex pedalling like mad to keep up. Okay, so he hadn't planned for the guy to find out he was following him...but he had to keep going. He had to stop this guy. For all he knew he was selling drugs to people in his school, and he didn't need a repeat of what happened before with Skoda.

The car sped down countless twists and turns, and Alex started losing his bearings. He could only hope that they decided to give up soon before he got completely lost. What had started as a pleasant day now felt stiflingly hot, and his heavy school bag and uniform felt like it was dragging him down with every metre he pedalled.

Finally, just as he was contemplating forgetting about it and heading back to school, the car made a final swerve into a multi-story car park, and he knew they had come to their destination. Perhaps they were planning on disposing of him here, but he would show them. He wasn't as easy to get rid of as that.

Creeping slowly up the ramp to the next level of the car park, Alex glanced around him, trying to see where the two men had stopped the car. As he emerged onto level two of the car park, he saw a movement out of the corner of his eye, and threw himself behind a parked van. Slowly he edged his head around, and saw the two men standing next to their car, looking around apprehensively.

Quickly, Alex moved back behind the van, and planned his next move. From the look of them, they were the usual dim witted criminals, and he was pretty sure he would have the upper hand in a fight. He was, after all, a black belt in karate. Sure, these guys probably had the strength, but they would be way too slow to take him on. With this in mind, Alex composed himself, and got ready to make his move.

Slowly, and as quietly as possible, he edged forwards towards the next car, and then ducked behind it. Trying to get at close to the men as he could without being seen, he crept along behind the next few cars, until he was right behind them. Cautiously, he crawled nearer and nearer, until with a screech that sounded unnaturally loud in the silence, he accidentally scraped his arm along the side of the car.

Swearing to himself, he got quickly to his feet as the men spun around, and adopted a defence position. The driver was the first to come towards him, and without hesitation, Alex waited for him to come as close as possible before ducking from the punch the man aimed and giving him a back-kick right to the abdomen. The man's eyes bulged, and he fell to the ground in a heap.

Looking up, Alex saw the second man looking at him with shock. A split second later he was running, and Alex was chasing him. Sprinting as fast as he could, he began catching the man up and smiled coldly to himself as he saw where the man had run to. Alex had cornered him.

Walking slowly towards the man, Alex saw him standing stock still with an expression of fear and anger on his face. With one swift movement, Alex aimed a kick right into the man's groin. As the man bent over, doubled up in pain, Alex punched him in the side of his head and knocked him out cold.

Alex surveyed the scene, contemplating what he should do about these two. He couldn't just leave them here, or they would be back on the streets tomorrow, dealing again. As he stood looking at the two men laying unconscious on the floor, Alex seemed to come to his senses. What was he doing, standing here wondering what to do with these men? He wasn't like that anymore. Walking towards the entrance to the car park, Alex pulled out his phone and called the police, telling them that there were two criminals unconscious in the car park, before hanging up. Alex got on his bike, and started pedalling back the way he came, towards school. He was going to be extremely late.

Alex walked out of school with his best friend Tom. He had told him all about what happened before school, and Tom had helped him come up with an excuse that seemed at last slightly plausible, so that he didn't get into even more trouble. However, the end of the day finally arrived, and Alex was pretty sure he knew what was coming.

With a sense of foreboding, Alex waved goodbye to Tom and began to cycle home. In the past, whenever something like this happened, it was usually followed by a call from MI6 asking him to come in. It had happened like this on his very first mission, when he had survived the incident in the breaker's yard, and then found out about his uncle. It had also happened in his very next mission. He had been chasing drug dealers then too...pushing this to the back of his mind, Alex pulled up to his house, and unlocked the door, holding his breath.

Confirming his suspicions, Jack was waiting for him just inside the door. She looked at him grimly, and only needed to say a few words.

"I had a call today Alex. From Mr. Blunt."

Alex nodded at her resignedly and sighed, dropping his bag and moving towards the phone. He may as well get it over with and find out what he wanted. He picked up the phone and dialled the number that he knew all too well by now. There was no mistaking the voice on the other end of the line.

"Alex, how nice to hear from you. I trust you have been well?" Alan Blunt's cold voice had no emotion in it, and Alex knew he didn't give a damn about how he felt.

"Just tell me what you want, and get it over with". He replied equally coldly, feeling hate towards the man with every fibre of his being.

"I need you to come in. There is a matter of...importance of which we need to speak".

Alex glared at the wall, hating himself for what he was about to do. Because if he agreed to go and talk to Blunt, there was no going back. He would be convinced, or blackmailed, and when he left that building he would have the weight of the world on his shoulders once again.

But if he refused, he knew they would end up getting to him somehow, whether it was through Jack, or someone else close to him, they would do it. And he couldn't let anyone else get hurt. Sighing, he spoke the words that sealed his doom.

"Fine. Just tell me when".

So, hope you liked it! Please review, will help me know whether to carry on or not :) x