Chapter 3

It was the next day, a pretty normal one. Bright sunny, the kind everyone likes. Martin Mystery was spending his time walking through the quad thinking about the previous night. He was shocked to say the least. He thought he knew everything there was to know about the paranormal. He was surprised to find out that to defeat fire demons, you freeze then from the inside out. He hated being proved wrong.

Martin was cut out of his thoughts by a loud cheering coming from the old oak tree in the middle of the quad where a large crowd had gathered. Martin walked over to investigate. He managed to find his way through the crowd by crawling on the ground past their legs. Degrading, yes, but necessary.

When he got into the front of the circle, he stood straight up... smacking his head against someone else's. Hard.

"Ouch! Hey watch where you put your head." The person said

"Vanessa!" Martin shouted, recognising the owner of the voice. "What's going on here?"

"Martin Mystery. Can't I go 48 hours without you causing me a near concussion?" She asked rubbing her head. "I'm so gonna get a bruise." She mumbled.

"What's going on here?" Martin persisted.

"Oh. Yeah. There's this cool guy performing awesome tricks on a skateboard. He kinda looks like you, minus the Johnny Bravo hairdo." She said. "Look he is finishing up."

The performer gave one last mid-air spin and landed perfectly much to the delight of the crowd which roared deafeningly.

"He's kinda cute too." Vanessa said, looking dreamily at the performer who turned out to be...

Marvin! What the hell is he doing here? I thought he was transferred.

Martin was cut out of his thoughts by Vanessa grabbing his arm and tugging him roughly over to Marvin. Martin looked down at their joined hands and blushed. Then he remembered that men don't blush.

Martin reddened.

Vanessa remained completely oblivious to the whole thing.

They finally reached where Marvin was but his back was to them. Vanessa quickly straightened up, brushing invisible dust off her clothes before clearing her throat quietly.

Martin scowled.

Marvin turned around and looked at them flashing a pearly white smile. Vanessa blushed and suddenly found her sneakers very interesting. Martin was trying his hardest not to scoff.

"Hey Martin. How's it hanging?" Marvin said.

"Fine." Martin replied. "What happened? I thought you got transferred."

"I did but my parents got moved back so it looks like I'm here to stay." He said.

Marvin then turned to Vanessa. "Who's your friend?" He asked

"This is Vanessa Marine. She is a new student and I'll be showing her around for the next 13 days." Martin said.

"Nice to meet you." Marvin said reaching out to shake her hand.

Vanessa looked up and flashed a pearly white smile at Marvin, a slight tinge of red on her cheeks. They shook hands and their hands lingered for longer than necessary.

Martin had had enough.

"Okay Vanessa." Martin said. "We'd better get going. Places to go people to see. Bye Marv!"

Martin grabbed Vanessa by the wrist, literally dragging her across the courtyard with hearts trailing from her as she waved stupidly to Marvin.

When they were a safe distance away, Vanessa snapped out of her trance and started walking on her own.

"He seems nice. You know him?" she asked Martin.

"Yeah I know him. He used to go here but then he was transferred." He said.

Vanessa nodded and they walked in silence for some time.

"So you said we had places to go." Vanessa said attempting to break the painful silence.

"Oh yeah!" Martin said brightening up. " We have the chemistry lab, biology lab, computer lab and my personal favourite the cafeteria. So," he said clasping his hands together, "Where do we hit first?"

Vanessa gave a small smile at his antics. "Well, do you have a –"

She was interrupted by Martin's watch beeping. He groaned and lifted his wrist up, scanning for the secret entrance to the Centre. He found it behind a bush. Great. I found the entrance now for the excuse.

"What's wrong Martin?" Vanessa asked.

" I, uh, gotta answer a text message. Behind that bush! It's very private and may take a while so I'll meet up with you later, okay bye!" Martin said hastily sprinting for the bush. Kicking up a cloud of dust and blowing away Vanessa's hair in the process.

Vanessa looked at the bush where Martin had just disappeared and could have sworn she saw a flash of light. Then she realised it could have just been the light playing tricks on her. She then looked from left to right.

The courtyard was empty.

"Well, let's get this over with." She said, disappearing behind a building and vanishing.

Martin Mystery. Clear.

The mechanical voice said. Martin loved the Centre. A secret organisation crawling with aliens and all matter of unexplainable bent on protecting the innocent from everything that goes bump in the night. Martin loved it here. It was his element.

Martin boarded the elevator to M.O.M's office wondering what today's mission could be about. He opened the sliding doors and felt a mixture of interest and disgust.

Interest because there was a new face, or rather eyes. The figure was covered from head to toe with black spandex. It had a long black cape that had a hood and reached the middle of its calves. It had black thigh-high heeled boots and a masked that covered its forehead, mouth and nose leaving only blue eyes that constantly seemed to glow with unnatural energy and a long flowing midnight black curtain of hair reaching the waist. The figure was obviously a girl.

Disgust because Marvin was there. Perfect.

Diana and Java were there too.

"Hey guys. What's up?" Martin said, straining to sound pleased.

"Martin! There you are! M.O.M was just about to brief us on the mission. We would have left without you." Diana said.

"Sorry I got a little held up." Martin replied.

"Or you were too busy showing around your girlfriend."

"Martin has girlfriend?" Java asked completely bewildered.

"No Java. I just show he around."

"Yeah. Martin couldn't get a girlfriend even if he paid her."

"Wanna bet?"

"Okay, okay, break it up. I have a very important mission for you guys." MOM said. "But first there are going to be some changes in your team."

"First as you can obviously see, we have a new agent. I'd like everyone to meet Siren. She's not from around here and has some very unique abilities."

"OOH!" Martin exclaimed hurrying over as excited as a child on Christmas.

"Do you have invisibility, telepathy, duplication, -" Martin just rambled on listing a very impressive assortment of powers, making Siren look rather flustered. Then annoyed.

She shot him a death glare.

Martin quivered.

"My abilities will be revealed in due time. Now we must focus on other things." Siren said.

She had a regal air about her, as if she were royalty. Her voice had a bit of an echo to it and she was just one of those people you just couldn't say no to.

"Thank you Siren. Now, Marvin will be joining you, as well as Siren, until further notice." MOM continued.

"What!" Martin screamed with a horrified look on his face.

"Yes," MOM said. "Now, on with the mission."

The screen behind MOM came to life. It said the location was Hawaii but everything was frozen solid. Even the sand was covered in a layer of ice.

"As you can see, we have a major crisis on our hands. Places are being frozen solid at an alarming rate. Witnesses report seeing ice warriors from different eras in time freezing and pillaging everything in sight. I need you to investigate and put a stop to this."

At that a thin line of violet energy shot up from the ground and widened to form a door that blew freezing cold air into the room.

"Good luck agents."

Dear readers,

Sorry about the overdue update. As I said on my fanfic Generator Titan, I went to boarding school. I go back on May 6th. Expect and update every week or so until then. Keep sending me reviews and PMs. I need to know if you are still reading!

Vanessa1288