Okay guys thanks so much for your reviews!

Maybelline30, Savannah Silverstone, thanks for your ideas!

This chapter is basically all about Hell. I gave the sergeant a little bit ofthe personality of Coach Hedge from the Heroes of Olympus series, because he didn't have much of his own personality and Coach Hedge is funny. So it you notice any similarities, that's the reason why.

Disclaimer: Yes, Santa Claus gave me the rights to Alex Rider. Then the Easter Bunny came and stole them from me, and the Tooth Fairy left them under my pillow. Nope, I still don't own Alex Rider.

Chapter 3

Alex walked into the mess hall with K-Unit, and a gradual hush fell over all the men as they realized he was back. "Hey look, it's Double O Nothing!" a man shouted from the back of the room. Everyone erupted in laughter. Ben bent down to whisper in Alex's ear. "Look, Alex,"he said. "I know that you're good, that you're very good, but they don't know that. Mrs. Jones told me to make sure that you didn't get in a fight or anything. Just don't let your face show that they're getting to you, and eventually they'll leave you alone." Alex nodded. Someone else shouted something extremely rude and unrepeatable, and Alex's face turned into a mask that revealed nothing.

Over the next few days, Hell lived up to its nickname. A constant stream of insults was thrown at Alex, questioning his parentage, ability to fight, and reasons for being sent to Brecon Beacons. Alex, however, kept up a perfect poker face, and the abuse started to diminish as they realized how good he was; he beat everyone else in one-on-one combat, and got the fastest time ever recorded on the obstacle course.

The obstacle course involved swimming across a river, climbing a tree to retrieve a flag, and racing through the woods to get the flag back to the base. Alex made it through in three minutes and thirteen seconds. As he finished and was walking back to the showers, he heard C-Unit talking about how only John and Ian Rider had come within ten seconds of him. His face paled, and he walked more quickly.

"All right, cupcakes, listen up!" the sergeant had taken it upon himself to wake them all up with a bucket of icy-cold water. Somehow, the bucket he dumped on Alex was twice as full as the ones he dumped on the others. "Today, you're doing a special edition of the obstacle course. You'll be running an extra half-mile back through the woods, and once you're done with that you'll be running over a branch thats stretched across the river. Only one person from each unit is going through it, and it's a competition. Whichever unit finishes first will get twice as long showers, wth warm water. The person competing for this unit is Cub."

Alex gulped as all eyes turned towards him. Wolf gave him a look that clearly said, 'if you don't win this thing, I will murder you.' Only Ben spoke. "Good luck, kid."

Alex nodded.

Half an hour later, Alex was starting to freak out. He'd climbed higher than any of the other units, and he didn't see the flag. Suddenly, the tree began to shake beneath him. He glanced down, clinging to a branch. Kangaroo from M-Unit was straddling a branch 20 feet below, holding two flags and shaking the tree as hard as he could. Alex started climbing downwards, and when he was ten feet from the bottom of the tree, he jumped off and began sprinting through the forest.

He couldn't see Kangaroo anywhere. When he reached the point where he turned around for the extra half-mile, Kangaroo wasn't there. Alex pushed harder, running through the pain. Then he got to the riverbank and found that the branch he was supposed to run across was missing. He dove in, swimming back across. On the other side, the sergeant told him he was the first one back (sounding quite surprised), and asked where his flag was.

"Kangaroo stole it," Alex got out, panting with his hands on his knees. The sergeant looked at him strangely, pointing towards the river. Kangaroo was running across the branch, holding his own flag but to Alex's.

"Cub, what's wrong?" Kangaroo asked with faux sympathy. Your flag is still in the tree, you forgot to get it." Alex's jaw dropped open as he looked across the river, where his flag was prominently displayed in the upper branches. Alex's jaw dropped open as he began to sputter indignantly.

"No whining, cupcake," the sergeant snapped. "Because you came in first place but you don't have your flag, you're stuck in second place." Later, K-Unit asked their youngest member what happened, but all he said was "Kangaroo won, we didn't."

They asked the sergeant what happened, and he told them about Alex coming in first but claiming that his flag had been stolen. He then told them something that shocked them.

The next day, they were sent to the shooting range after breakfast, during which K-Unit had been surprisingly nice to Alex. Kangaroo kept asking Alex if he needed someone to hold his hand before he shot, and Alex finally snapped. He punched Kangaroo in the nose, hearing a satisfying crack as blood gushed out. Holding his nose, Kangaroo swung at Alex, but Alex dropped to the ground and rolled, coming up behind Kangaroo. He kicked his legs out from underneath him. Getting up clumsily, the older man lunged at him, and they rolled into a stack of guns, knocking them over.

"What is this?" Ben roared, furious. "Alex, you promised me that you wouldn't get into a fight." Alex stood up, holding his stomach.

"Aw, his mommy is protecting him," Kangaroo cooed. "How sweet."

"Cub is part of K-Unit," Ben snapped. "Anyone who wants to hurt or harass him has to go through us." The rest of K-Unit nodded. "Plus," Ben continued. "His dad and uncle were Dragon and Coyote, and he's just as good if not better than they were." You could have heard a pin drop.