As usual, I don't own any of the characters, except for any I make up.
Hefting his school bag back up his shoulder Dan walked out to the fire assembly area. It was also deserted, as was the school yard. He was completely on his own.
This was completely crazy ! Dan pulled out his communicator and called Frank. "Frank ? Hi Frank, can you hear me ?" asked Dan. There was no response. Feeling lost, he decided to search the whole school properly. The school was eerily quiet as he walked through the deserted corridors. It was like some ridiculous sci fi movie. He was walking past the doors to the school hall when he decided he may as well have a look inside there too. He pushed open the door to complete silence. The hall had to be deserted. Only it wasn't.
Dan stared dumbstruck across the hall. The entire school was standing in the hall. All the students were lined up on the floor staring straight ahead in silence. Teachers either stood with them or sat on the stage, also in complete silence. Even Frank was standing, leaning on his broom handle. There was a soft hiss of people breathing, but otherwise, not a sound. For some reason, Dan didn't want to break the silence. He walked softly down the side of the room, looking into the glassy stares of his school-mates. He saw Zoe, Tom and Aneisha standing like statues in the centre of the hall with the rest of their class.
Dan dashed round the rows to the middle aisle. He dropped his school bag and waved his hand in front of Tom's face. Tom didn't even blink. What had happened to them ? "Tom !" called Dan, gently tapping Tom's cheek. Tom didn't move a muscle. "Come on guys, snap out of it !" he shouted at them. He took Aneisha's hand and rubbed it. There was no response. He stood in front of Zoe, wondering what to do. He wasn't exactly feeling like Prince Charming, but he tried kissing her. This also had no effect. "Oh please ! Come on Zoe !" he begged her in a whisper.
"Are you looking for something ?" asked a cold voice behind him. He spun round to see the Crime Minister standing watching him, with a cruel smile on her lips.
Dan dropped into a defensive posture. "What have you done to them ?" he demanded.
"Some basic hypnotism backed up with our new experimental gas. They make excellent subjects, don't you agree ?" she asked him. She was walking slowly towards him, like a cat stalking its prey. As she approached, Dan took a step backwards and bumped into Tom. He glanced around once more into Tom's glassy eyes. "V95, kill him !" ordered the Crime Minister. Zoe didn't move. "What is this ? She won't obey !" shouted the Crime Minister. Nervously, Dan looked around him and saw several KORPS operatives gathering in the school hall. "V95, obey !" she ordered again.
Dan grinned. "That's not her name," he said, with satisfaction.
"Oh ! No matter," said the Crime Minister dismissively. "You told me his name," she said, pointing to Tom. "Tom, kill him !" she ordered, folding her arms and leaning back to watch.
To Dan's astonishment, Tom suddenly wrapped his arm around Dan's neck, pulling tightly. Gasping for air, Dan desperately tried to prize loose Tom's grip. He didn't want to hurt Tom, but he had to get him off. He twisted around and managed to loosen Tom's grip enough to get a decent lung full of air. Dan turned and kicked at Tom's legs. He was reluctant to hit his friend, knowing that this was not Tom's choice. Dan could have sworn that he saw some fear in Tom's eyes. His kick knocked Tom off his feet, but he seemed to have developed fighting skills that Dan didn't know he had. Tom spun on the ground and grabbed Dan's legs, pulling him off his feet. Dan crashed to the floor and banged his head on the ground.
Dazed and seeing stars, Dan gazed up as Tom reared above him, pulling back his arm into a punch. The last thing he saw was Tom's fist slamming into his face.
Frank heard the bell ringing. What was that for ? He looked around him and saw everyone else doing the same. He glanced at the hall clock and was shocked to see that it was 3:20. It was the end of the school day. Surely he couldn't have fallen asleep standing up. He knew Mr. Flatley could be boring, but still, sleeping on his feet had to be a new low. Speaking of Mr. Flatley, he seemed to be equally astonished.
"Oh my goodness, is that the time ? Where were we ? Ah, yes, I can't remember. Erm, school dismissed !" he called out. The students immediately started milling around in a confused way, heading for their lockers to collect their things. The hall emptied of staff and students until only Frank, Tom and Aneisha were left. Frank casually walked over to them. Tom looked upset.
"Tom, what's the matter ?" asked Frank.
"I don't know. I had the weirdest dream," said Tom. "My hand hurts," he complained, rubbing his knuckles.
Aneisha also looked confused. "Where's Zoe ?" she asked. "And what's Dan's bag doing on the floor ?"
Frank's face froze with anxiety as he leaned towards the floor near Dan's bag. "And where did this blood come from ?" he asked. Looking around to make sure they weren't being observed, he scraped up a sample of the blood into a small container and put it in his pocket. "Something's going on ! Get Dan's bag and meet me in HQ in a few minutes," he ordered, heading rapidly out of the hall.
He passed Mr. Flatley on his way to the janitor's cupboard. "Ah Frank. I really don't know where the time went !" exclaimed Mr. Flatley. "Well, must get on."
Down in HQ Frank set up the DNA analyser to identify the owner of the blood sample. He had a feeling he already knew. He started pulling up the school's hidden CCTV feeds to find out what had happened in the last half hour. Shortly Tom and Aneisha joined him, carrying their own bags and Dan's bag.
"Frank, I can remember more of this dream. I was fighting Dan. I knocked him down on the floor and punched him in the face," said Tom, looking ready to cry.
"It's alright Tom. Sit down and we'll go through the CCTV footage. Something is going on here," said Frank.
The machine in the corner binged and Aneisha got up to collect the paper feeding out of it. "Frank," she said, reading the paper. "This paper says the blood is Dan's !" She looked at the other two. Tom whimpered. "Come on Tom," she said, sitting next to him and putting her arm round his shoulders. "Let's work out what's been going on."
Frank forwarded the footage to the start of the special assembly. "There's no sign of Dan," commented Aneisha. "He must have overslept."
"I'm not surprised. He was shattered !" said Tom.
They watched as Mr. Flatley wittered on and everybody's attention drifted. Suddenly, a misty smoke started to rise from underneath all the chairs. Everyone in the room went silent and still. As they watched in fascination, somebody walked into the room. As their face turned towards the camera, they could see that it was the Crime Minister. Several henchmen were with her. She faced the room and spoke. Everyone promptly stood up. She turned as one of her agents spoke to her, and all of the KORPS agents then left the room. After a few moments, Dan ran into the hall. He stopped and walked round the room. Then he walked up to Tom and tried to get his attention. When he rubbed Aneisha's hand on the screen, Aneisha felt her own hand. She had a vague memory of someone holding her hand, but couldn't quite seem to get hold of it. Then they watched Dan kiss Zoe. "Aww," said Aneisha under her breath. Frank and Tom turned to look at her. "Well ?" said Aneisha. They turned back to the screen.
What happened next took their breath away. The Crime Minister walked up behind Dan who dropped into a fighting position. Tom watched himself attacking Dan, throwing him down and then punching him as he lay on the floor. He then had to watch as Dan was dragged from the hall by two KORPS agents, followed by Zoe who was marched out of the hall after him. "No !" whispered Tom. "He didn't even try to fight back !"
"Well, he knew you weren't choosing to hit him Tom," said Aneisha. "He wouldn't want to hurt you." She paused. "Oh and that was quite a punch by the way !" she added. Tom managed a weak smile.
Meanwhile Frank was fast-forwarding the CCTV file to the point where they woke up. "Hm, I think that's over 25 minutes between Dan and Zoe being abducted and us waking up," he said. "It looks like KORPS have been developing more than one gas, unless the one used on Aneisha was experimental of course," he added thoughtfully.
"Frank, what are we going to do ?" asked Tom.
"Hm ? Oh, we're going to need some help," said Frank. "I'm going to make some calls. I'd like you two to go through any local CCTV and see if you can trace the KORPS team out of here," he ordered.