A Long Explanation

The Second part of the Spy Adventure

The boy dressed in black walked, almost ran, right for the team! With this motion, the team didn't trust him at all, but who would? Leo began to run in the opposite direction and the rest of the team followed right behind him."What does he want?" Annie asked June with a strong tone of fear.

"I don't know Annie!" June replied, also scared. The team continued glancing back to see if the boy was still running after them. Leo looked at Rocket, who was also still beside them, but he was still do dizzy from the spinning to actually be able to fly away safely. Finally, when Quincy turned to see the boy in black chasing them, he was the first to notice that the boy had stopped in place! The team also slowed down, but didn't come to a haltLeo saw that they didn't have much farther to run before the reached a canal, or a dead end really. When the kids could see that the boy was examining them carefully, they stopped as well. Still in shock, none of the kids ever said a word yet to this strange kid. Leo looked at him as he raised his right hand in the air and called out "Lady Lynne?". His voice was kind of high pitched, almost like Leos. Everybody looked around confused and once again the boy called out "Lady Lynne?" and this time he pointed right at June. June pointed at herself, asking if he was talking to her, and he nodded almost sarcastically. "Lady Lynne, please come forward" he cried out to June. At that second June shook her head quickly and the other three kids quickly surrounded her, protecting her from what might be a threat.

"Who are talking about?" Annie asked loudly, holding her arms up as if acting like a wall between June and him.

The boy scratched his head. "Are you not Lady Lynne?" he asked. All in unison the team shook their heads. June went around the rest of the team and got a bit closed to the kid. "Are you calling me Ly...Lynne?" June asked cautiously

"You must not be Lady Lynne then?" the boy asked, a smile obviously growing on his face. The team was confused, for it was not a devious smile. But a very pleased, satisfied smile. The kids nodded again, saying that June was not named Lynne. "My apologies!" The boy yelled out stepping forward closer to June. "I am very sorry for the mix up, young lady. I could've sworn you looked just like Lady Lynne." He sounded much more friendly now, but the team still didn't quite trust him. "May I ask you name?" he asked June, going down to one knee.

June looked at Leo, then Quincy, then Annie, all of which had blank stares and absolutely no reaction to the question.June coughed as she spoke. "My name is," June paused for a second, "My name is June," she finally said. She felt awkward telling this random boy her name. The boy bowed down, perhaps showing respect to June.

"Lady June," he started, "again, I am terribly sorry. I've been looking for a girl named Lynne for a good while and you seemed to resemble her almost perfectly." He looked at June's pink earrings. "Ah," he aired out, "Lady Lynne does not even have pierced ears."He nodded to himself, pleased. He looked behind June to see three more confused children. "May I ask you for your names?" he asked again.

There was no response for a moment before Leo tuned in and said "My name is Leo."

"I'm Annie," the young girl said, twirling her pigtails nervously

Quincy stepped up. "I'm Quincy," he said confidently, almost as if he really trusted this kid.The boy in black nodded at everybody's name and he repeated them to himself for remembering. "And is that your aircraft?" the darkly dressed boy asked them. The team nodded all together, felling a bit of superiority of claiming Rocket. "Wow," the kid said. He looked at Rocket for a good long while before anything else was said. He examined the bright red color, the shape and the music. He had never seen anything like Rocket before! Right then it snapped to him. "Oh dear!" he shouted. "I've forgotten! My name is Benjamin Brookingham." He bowed to the team and Rocket. It was now that the team finally seemed to have a little bit a trust in this new acquaintance, Benjamin

June was not sky in asking her next question. "Who's Lynne?" she asked rather bluntly. Benjamin looked at her, almost as if he had expected the question to come up.

"I'll tell you, but not here." Benjamin said, quieting his voice. He looked around for a quieter, smaller place and looked into one of the canals. "Quick, let's go down the canal!" Confused, the team followed him right up to the canal then Rocket changed into a gondola, allowing the kids to ride on. Benjamin was in shock of the transformation. They all got on Rocket, except Benjamin. He didn't know if he would be allowed on.

"Come on up," Leo told him. Benjamin hesitantly boarded Rocket as well. Satisfied, Rocket started down the canal.

Benjamin sat down, getting ready to explain the answer to June's question. Little did he know that this answer would just strike up several more questions. "Who's Lady Lynne you ask?" Benjamin asked looking up at June. June nodded. The whole team sat down, expecting a lengthy answer. "Do you know about the ACA and VDA?"he asked expecting a yes for an answer.

"No," Leo and Quincy said in unison.

'What's that?" Annie asked. All four kids were confused by this letters and what they might have meant.

Wow, Benjamin thought, This will take a while. He sat up tall with good posture and started to explain. "Okay," he started. "First off, you do know that your in Venice, Italy right?" the team nodded. June and Quincy seemed satisfied that they were correct about being in Venice. "Good," Benjamin said, somewhat relieved "Now, the ACA and VDA are "secret" organizations here in Venice. The VDA stands for Venice Defense Association." The team nodded, still very confused. "I am a part of the VDA the kid said. I am here right now to protect Venice from the ACA."

"What's the ACA?" Leo asked while hiccuping.

"And what are you defending against?" Quincy asked.

Dissatisfied, June spoke up. "You still haven't answered my question! Who is Lynne and why did you think that I was her?"

"I'm getting there!" Benjamin shouted almost angrily.Benjamin sighed. "To be honest, I don't have answers to the first two questions." The team glanced at each other, than at Benjamin. " We're not sure yet what the ACA really stands for, or even if it really exists. We've only heard the rumors that are constantly spread that Venice is in terrible dangerEverywhere you go you will hear talk about what might happen to Venice, or what will happen to Venice, but the thing is this: Nobody yet knows if anything will even happen! We just want to make sure that if something does happen, we can stop it before anything bad happens." He stopped, recollecting his thoughts.

June was getting fed up with this. June stood up, "But why did you call me Lyn–"

She was cut off by Benjamin, "I'm getting there now!" he told her. She sat back down. "Okay," he continued, "we've been spending about two months trying to determine if we are in and danger. Typically, after that much time without any results we would just call it quits and conclude that everything's all right. But there is a little something that we're looking at that keeps us constantly on our toes." He paused. Annie waved him on with her arm. "We've noticed that everyday at around one-o-clock, several people start gathering in a large red manor right back there where I first saw you. About twenty people all go into a large red building everyday, but the thing is, they all always were red! Nothing but red!It's oddly suspicious. We are keeping a close eye on them." The kids were understanding this a little bit better now, but not completely. Although they couldn't be sure, the gathering of people everyday didn't seem to odd to them, but they weren't going to cut off Benjamin.

"To be honest, when I saw you, I was actually waiting for the gathering to start again. Hearing this, Rocket turned around back to the district they were previously in."One of the small lasses that used to go into the red manor everyday looks just like you!" he said pointing at June. "We have pictures of nearly all of the people that go there everyday for our studies. The girl always went into the bright building with a boy, a little older than her. Both of the two seemed two wear the finest clothes out of anybody that goes in and both wore bright blue rings on their fingers. I have heard the boy frequently address the girl a Lynne. I am positive that it was her name. Research back with the VDA also proves that her name was indeed Lynne" The team was confused at Benjamin use of past tense explanations. "But lately, Lady Lynne hasn't been going to the gathering anymore, but the boy, whom is most likely her brother, still goes! So, when I was watching and waiting for the gathering to occur, I kept a sharp eye for Lady Lynne and thought I saw her, but it turned out to be you instead.

The team was still having difficulty retaining all of this information, but they had the basic idea. Rocket arrived back at the same district as before with good timing. "Look!" whispered Benjamin, as he pointed to a bright red building near the place where Rocket originally landed.The team looked at the building and could see a large number of people all going through the doors, all wearing bright red clothes! Benjamin was right! "And look!" Benjamin said, there's Lynne's brother!" The team noticed a small boy, maybe about Benjamin's age, going right into the Red Manor. Just as stated, he was wearing much fancier clothing than everybody else, which was odd considering that he even looked like the youngest one there! He had dark hair. The team could almost see a small resemblance between him and June, but just barely. "See, that's what I'm talking about." Benjamin said.

"Wow!" Annie said, "that's confusing!" She yawned.

"No kidding, but it makes a little sense to me," Quincy added.

"Me too" June through in.

"Is there anything we can do to help?" Leo asked Benjamin. "If Venice is really in any danger than maybe we can help stop it!" The rest of the team all liked to hear this!

Benjamin scratched his head unsure. He looked at June and Annie, then at Leo and Quincy. He looked down to see Rocket, you certainly could be of use. He looked at June and Annie one more time and had an idea! "Yes!" He shouted! "I know how you could help us out tremendously! Will you come back with me to meet the rest of the VDA? Then we could really get this going!" The team all nodded, accepting his offer.

Leo whipped out his baton, "We've got a mission!" He shouted. The team all smiled brightly as Leo's baton lite up. "We're going to try and save Venice!" Then all at once, everybody but Benjamin shouted "We've got a mission!". Benjamin was happy that the team was willing to help. He knew that with their assistance, their chances of saving Venice would shoot high in the sky. "Were do we go?" Leo asked. "You can tell Rocket where to go!"

Benjamin nodded. "We just need to go all the way down this very same canal and we will be at our stop! Simple as that!" Rocket happily responded with the musical noises and took off in straight down the canal.

Benjamin thought for a second and looked up. "Lady Annie," he began, "are you willing to dye your hair?"

Perhaps the team should've thought about this twice? Maybe Benjamin couldn't be trusted? They probably should've questioned a little bit more. What if Benjamin wasn't who they knew him to be so far? They would find out eventually

Chapter 3 will be out shortly