Author note - please let me know how this chapter tickles your fancy. There's two ways I can write this story. One is - I can do the whole cast - as in Alex and his new team. I can write exerpts about them all and turn this into something that isn't just about Alex rider. The other is that I can focus solely on Alex. It's your choice, because I know how much Mary Sues (this isn't one) irritates people.

And! I'm sorry if I'm off on a few things. I'm American...and I'm making his team American. But alex and EVERYBODY else, aside from Jack are british and I don't know too much about all of that.

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How does a teenager become a spy? Alex Rider hadn't ever asked himself this one simple question. You may think that it was because he already knew, having been a spy and a teenager himself. But that wasn't it. He didn't attempt to ask himself this question because he wasn't sure he wanted to know.

They say that in time and experience everything falls soundly into place. You achieve the status you are meant to achieve and acquire the responsibility and mentality of an adult, given the appropriate time. Alex hadn't ever heard this phrase before. But if he had, he would have no other choice but to scoff at it.

Fourteen years of mere existence, and he couldn't shake the feeling that somehow, somewhere along the way he had lost himself. His uncle, the man that had been nourishing him for as long as he could remember, spent that same exact life keeping him in the dark. He had been lied to. That's how simple Alex Rider could boil his life down to. Lies. Secrets. Moments in time hidden from him, that Alex knew he would never be able to regain. The man who hid so many things from him would never be able to reveil these exact things to him, no matter how much time Alex gave him. He had lost a huge chunk of his life, and he knew that he would never get it back.

Alex knew that even if MI6 ever did manage to leave him alone, which was doubtful in and of itself, he would never be the same ignorant boy he used to be. He proved that when he went after Damien Cray and then Scorpia all on his own accord. He knew that he'd always be on the alert, even after his spying days were just a distant memory. This was the person he was meant to be, and part of him wasn't bitter about that. Sometimes he even liked the person he had become. Today...he wasn't exactly in love with himself.

"I don't want to do it," he stated. His voice was soft, tired, but his words were clear. He looked like a different person. His skin was clammy, pale. His eyes were outlined in red, half closed. His blonde hair was dishelved and his hands lay limp on top of the stiff hospital sheet. "I'm tired of this little game we're playing."

Blunt didn't reveal emotions. He had expected Alex's relunctance, as he did ever since the first time he'd met the boy. "Don't be foolish," Blunt stated. "People are in danger, the government needs your help."

Alex sighed. "I'm too weak to do anything anyway." Before Blunt even contemplated responding to Alex's simple statement, Alex regretted saying it. It almost sounded as if he were making an excuse, as off hand as that excuse was. It sounded like he almost felt guilty. Which he didn't. Most of the time.

"It's a new academy that you've been enrolled into, Alex," Blunt said, disregarding Alex's previous statement completely. "For self defense. You'll merely look like a boy whose been shot and is now looking for a way to prevent that if you were ever put in that situation again."

"Since when does self defense stop bullets?" Alex asked.

"It doesn't," Blunt agreed. "But as I'm sure you have already discovered, knowing how to protect yourself does give you quite a hefty bit of confidence."

"Oh," Alex said nodding understandingly. "So it's confidence that makes you indestructable in the face of guns...boy I sure wish I had known that a few days ago when I was shot."

Blunt shook his head. "Your coorporation is preferred, but it is not necessary. You have a team to think about now."

Alex shook his head. "I'm sure they can take care of themselves."

"As am I," Blunt agreed. "Or else I wouldn't have suggested them for this mission. But that is rather irrelivent. All I want you and your team to do, Alex, is attend the academy and keep your eyes open...see if anything unordinary is occuring."

"Why?" Alex asked. It was the first sign of his defense crumbling, and he hated how easily he had caved. "What do you think we'll see?" he asked.

Blunt's face remained emotionless, and he remained silent, almost deliberating whether to tell Alex or not. "There has been four deaths within the past three months. Deaths that may or may not have been the unfortunate outcome of accidents. There have been numerous calls to the local police, from desperate, pleading teenagers. The children would go on about how roughly they were being treated, how certainly the treatment wasn't legal. But you must understand Alex, this school is comprised of children in need of extra discipline. The school is there to provide it, and teach them how to become better people in general. You and your team need to keep your eyes open; listen to every conversation; watch everyone one at all times. I'm sure you know how it goes. And that is why I approach you first and foremost."

Blunt fingered through a pile of folders and pulled out on file in particular. He stepped foreward and handed it to Alex, who hesitantly accepted it. "That is your new assignment and the team you have been assigned to. I expect you will have no problem reading through the file before you flight leaves tomorrow afternoon."

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How does a teenager become a spy? It used to be impossible. Teenagers were emotionally inept to endure the traumas attributed to spying. They generally were rash; Alex knew this more than anyone could. But Alex did not know how a teenager could become a spy...willingly. Nor did Daniel Ozbourne.

Daniel Ozbourne was nineteen. He was the first child ever forced into the spy world. It differed radically from Alex's experience. His father was American and was quite possibly the farthest thing from a 'spy'. His mother was Korean and murdered when he was at a young age. His grandfather, however, did teach Daniel everything he currently knew about the martial arts. It is true, he wasn't a spy. He knew two languages, English and Korean. He knew little else about the spy world.

But what lured Blunt to him was a 'heist' Daniel had attempted to pull. He tried to steal a diamond; a diamond worth a hefty sum. And what got Blunt was that he nearly got away with it. Reviewing the videoes, Blunt was almost awed by the way this boy moved. He seemed endlessly agile, and rather pleasantly impulsive. He was perfect. Blunt knew that Daniel Ozbourne could die - going into his first mission, when he was fifteen, but that was a risk Blunt was rather more than willing to take. However, Blunt had not anticipated the amount of angst that Daniel held within himself, after his mother's death and then after his partner in that one great heist had been killed right before Daniel had been caught.

It has been four years since Daniel had attempted to rip off one the grandest museums in America. It has been four years since Daniel had met Blunt. It has been four years since Daniel had been sent on a mission.