Hello all you wonderful people you! I would've had this up yesterday as a Halloween treat, but my beta forgot to PM about the doc...she finally remembered after I PM-shouted at her ;P
Anywho this chapter is dedicated to AmyAlways for being such a supportive friend and my awesome bet: Lavilane!
Disclaimer: No I don't own the extremely hot (I'm a girl, not a guy for all you people who think I'm a guy) Alex Rider, but I'm begging (heh say that out loud) for the rights to own him...
ON WITH THE STORY!
Wolf fidgeted. He didn't know how to approach the kid, and didn't want to find out. There were two choices available to him at the moment: a) Talk to Cub about his missions and the bruises, or b) get his eardrums ranted to bits by Maria.
He chose the safer option.
Wolf, rather timidly for such a hulking man, trudged to Alex's bedroom and knocked on the door. It cracked open after a few seconds and a blonde head poked out. "Yes?" was the abrupt, but polite answer.
"Er, kid, my sister told me to talk to you about, er, well, your bruises," Wolf mumbled out. He was relieved when he saw a small smile break out on the kid's face at the mention of his eccentric sister.
Wolf cleared his throat and said, "So, kid, could you let me in so we can talk?" Immediately Alex's face closed off and he uttered,
"No," then attempted to close the door, but Wolf's foot purposely got in the way of the door's path.
"Yes, we need to talk!" Wolf snapped, "I want to know how you got those bruises and just what missions those MI6 bastards sent you on! All I know is that one at that madman's school, and you were snowboarding down a mountain on a fucking ironing board being shot at, and then you get hit by a fucking train!" The man was breathing a little heavily after his rant. Alex looked a bit surprised but he still refused to open the door any further.
"What do you want to know?" the kid suspiciously, but quietly, asked. The door opened fractionally wider, loosening its grip on Wolf's foot. Inwardly, said man sighed in relief, 'cos you try having your foot jammed in between a door that keeps trying to close and the corner of a doorway.
"I want to know how many missions you've been on, how dangerous they were, and who you managed to get tangled up with to make so many terrorist organizations out to kill you," Wolf listed. Alex's eyes narrowed, and with no foot to stop the door, he tried to slam it shut, but it was once again stopped, this time by Wolf gripping the door and narrowly avoiding crushing his fingers in the process.
"What if I don't want to tell you?" a muffled, rather childish, reply floated through the almost closed door.
"You will tell me, or else Maria will come in here herself and interrogate you!" Wolf threatened, then added as an afterthought, "and she's worse than any terrorist I've faced too." The door swung open and a face filled with disbelief was revealed.
"No way in hell. I bet she couldn't be as bad as SCORPIA," Alex shot out. The soldier almost retorted with a sharp remark, defending his sister, when he realized SCORPIA must've been one of the terrorist groups that was threatening Cub. No wonder a regular foster home was unacceptable . . .
"Kid, how do you know about SCORPIA?" Wolf asked slowly, "There's no way MI6 would send a child to infiltrate the ranks of SCORPIA," doubt starting to worm its way into his voice.
"The same way you know Maria is scarier than any enemy you've met," Alex said, revealing nothing about the subject, but raising more questions in Wolf's mind. If Cub really did infiltrate SCORPIA, how did he manage to withstand their interrogation or torture?
"Seriously, Cub, tell me," Wolf demanded. He was on the verge of letting himself into the boy's room, but he got the answer he wanted, but wasn't expecting.
"Fine, but only if you, one, promise not to tell anybody, two, I have the right to seriously hurt you if you even try to get this information out of this room, and three, you can't tell Eagle or Snake," Alex said, listing his rules.
"But I have to tell K-unit! They're my family!" Wolf half-shouted. "Wait, what about Fox?"
"If you promise to agree to my terms, then you get to know why I didn't tell you not to tell Fox," Alex reasoned.
Wolf grumbled about unfair rules, but agreed to them.
Once settled in Alex's bedroom, Wolf began to ask questions until Alex raised his hand, silently telling the man to stop. Right when Wolf was about to ask why, Alex's voice started up in the story that made him who he was.
"My hectic life started when my uncle died, and if you have any interruptions, too late for them, 'cos I've already started," Alex said.
Continuing, "Before he died, Ian took me everywhere: Japan, Germany, Spain, France. He taught me rock-climbing, kayaking, scuba diving, pick pocketing, and many foreign languages. My uncle also signed me up for karate when I was seven, and now I'm a second Dan or black belt.
"Once he died, things started to not add up. When I was younger, I never wondered why he always came home from 'business trips' injured, but after his funeral, I started wondering. I now realize that he was preparing me all along for eventually becoming a spy when I grew up.
"They took away Ian's car, claming he was in an accident, and all the stuff in his office was also taken. I caught a glimpse of the van that took away everything related to MI6 in my house and that sparked my interest even more, and this time, I went to the junkyard where the car was waiting to be crushed. Let's just say I got in very close acquaintance with the walls of the vehicle.
Wolf attempted to interrupt, despite Alex's warnings and was immediately silenced by the glare sent his way.
"They called me the next day, telling me they wanted to talk about Ian's will. Instead, it was all a test, to see if they could use me for the Stormbreaker project. Yes, the one with Herold Sayle. I jumped out the window and to the next office, which was Ian's, to find anything I could about the man. What I got was a tranquilizer dart to the chest and no information whatsoever.
"I woke up in the manor at Brecon Beacons and was served lunch with the withered old bag called Alan Blunt. The training, I'm sure you're very familiar with, Wolf," Alex said, directly addressing the soldier for the first time in the monologue. For what he hoped was the last time, Wolf felt a pang of guilt of how he treated the kid, especially when it was just after his uncle's death.
"Wait, if you were living with your uncle, then why couldn't you just go back to your parents?" Wolf asked.
"Because," Alex said, "my parents died in a plane crash when I was a few months old and now I live with my housekeeper." Wolf got the feeling that there was more behind the story than the teen was letting on.
"To shorten up the story that I'd really hate to stop," Alex said, sarcasm dripping off his words, "I went on the Point Blanc mission after that, then sent to Skeleton Key as a supposed cover when I ended up taking on the mission. I could've declined the offer, but then my housekeeper would've been deported to America, and England, and much of the world, would be a wasteland from a nuclear bomb.
"After that, I went on a mission all on my own, proving to the MI6 chiefs that Cray was a maniac bent on destroying the world. He had a very . . . unusual, death. The mission I went on next, and rather soon at that, was, er, involving SCORPIA," Alex muttered.
"WHAT?!" Wolf roared, unable to help himself. "MI6 USED A KID TO SPY ON SCORPIA?!"
"Let me explain, and you'll see," Alex irritably snapped, "So, as I was saying, I went on a mission in SCORPIA, but I looked for them on my own, again, and was accepted into training after nearly being eaten alive by a wild animal and nearly being drowned. After I betrayed them in the end, I was . . . er, revenge was executed. Then I went on two back-to-back missions after SCORPIA, one in space, and one with Ben-uh, Fox," Alex said, finishing his little tale.
"Whoa," Wolf mumbled, unaware of Alex's situation until now, "and I always thought you were a spoiled brat whose rich daddy sent you to BB."
"That guess was so far off it isn't even funny," Alex deadpanned, "and remember, no telling Eagle and Snake."
Hearing the names of his team members reminded him of what was happening tomorrow: the terrible three were coming to see Cub.
Oh shit.
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