Chapter 3: The Beginning

"You untied him?" Mr. Solomon screamed in alarm at to the girls as they walked in with Alex. "We don't even know his name yet? Bex, did you even figure out what he did to the sound system?"

"Relax," Alex told him, trying to calm him down. "It's back to normal. I didn't do anything permanent." He had gone back to his American accent again and Bex gave him a slightly surprised look. She had already gotten used to his British one. Alex gave her a sideways glance to let her know to keep it on the down low for now and she took the hint.

"Oh that's very comforting," Mr. Solomon said sarcastically, having not seen the exchange between the two. "Especially considering that I have no idea who you are or why you're here." Alex sighed.

"It's Alex and I've told you about a hundred million times now all I wanted was to talk to Cammie. I need her help."

"Speaking of that," Cammie said, figuring it was just better to get it all out with and deal with it now, "Bex, Liz, Macey and I are all going to California with Alex for a few days."

"What?" Mrs. Morgan asked, going deathly pale. "Cammie you can't. What about the Circle?"

"Alex knows about the Circle," Cammie mentioned, trying to play innocent. Her mom rolled her eyes.

"That is not what I mean. I mean that you have a price on your head and the only place where I can keep you safe is here!"

"Mom, Alex has a price on his head too. He needs help okay? We're the only ones who can help him," Cammie said, giving her mother a look that said you can't stop me.

"What does he even need help with?" Mr. Solomon asked unwilling to just let her go. "We don't even know his last name!"

"Trust me, it's better if you don't," Alex interjected. "Maybe if we're successful, I'll tell you."

"When do you have to leave?" Mrs. Morgan sighed, sounding resigned. Cammie's eyes shot up.

"We can go? Really?" She asked, astounded. Her mom nodded.

"It doesn't seem like I'm going to be able to stop you. How much time do you have?" Everyone looked to Alex.

"That depends, how long was I out?" He asked. He glanced to Bex for the answer, enjoying watching her squirm a little.

"Uh, like six hours. Sorry about that. I thought you might have been from the Circle." Alex waved her off.

"That's alright. Happens more than you might think. Anyways, it's better than being drugged. Drugs make you more sluggish, you wake up slower, and you tend to be a little looser with the tongue than you should be when you first wake up. So let's see, I was out for six hours, I arrived in Virginia about ten hours before that, and I've been in your interrogation room for another hour or so. I was given 48 hours to recruit you and get us all plane tickets, which I still haven't done and get to California so I'd say about five hours. The flight itself will take us about five and a half hours and we'll have to sleep and eat at some point and I still have to brief Macey and Elizabeth. So there goes about 24 hours, so yeah, not much more than five hours. I'll book the flight while you guys pack. Oh and I have aliases for all of you. I assume you can handle that."

The girls all nodded and left to their rooms to pack while Alex got on a phone to book flights. When they were finally ready to go, Mrs. Morgan walked them to the front door. The girls walked ahead towards the car that would take them all to the airport. Alex already had his things from the hotel in it. As the girls got in, Mrs. Morgan gently grasped Alex's arm with just enough pressure to make him pay attention and stop him from getting in.

"Watch out for them," she told him in a low voice, looking him straight in the eye. "They've never done anything like this before and I swear, if anything happens to any of them I'll kill you myself!" Alex held her gaze, just as serious a look on his face.

"It's a dangerous game we'll be playing and if your school is half of what I've heard it to be, they already know it. Having said that, I will do anything and everything I can to keep them safe." He gave her a half smile that didn't quite reach his eyes as he shook her off and got in the car. She had a sudden suspicion that he'd been through more that she could ever dream of someone at his age. "Don't worry, they'll be back before you know it," he told her. With that final reassurance, he shut the door and the car drove off.

Once again, Alex raced down the terminal, though this time he had four girls following him. They made it just in time and slipped on the plane as the last passengers on.

"That was cutting it a little close don't you think handsome?" Macey smiled, sitting down next to him. He gave her a charming half smile.

"Maybe," he agreed, not bothering to elaborate.

"Well why didn't we get here earlier and just wait?" She asked. The other girls leaned in, waiting to hear his reasoning. He shrugged.

"I'm just paranoid I guess. The more last minute and spontaneous you are, the less people are able to predict you or follow you somewhere." They continued to look at him, wanting to hear more of his apparent wisdom. They wanted to learn from him. They also still needed to be briefed. He leaned back into his seat and tried to ignore them but eventually their curious stares started making him uncomfortable. He rubbed the bullet wound on his chest, absentmindedly.

"Are you hurt?" Liz asked, breaking the relative silence of the group.

"Hmm?" He asked, suddenly realizing what he had been doing. "Oh, uh, no. It's nothing." He said. Cammie rolled her eyes and unbuttoned the top few buttons of his shirt. She knew from experience that spies, especially the male ones, tended to downplay their injuries. He tried to push her away but she gave him a look that made him stop. What she found under his shirt however, made her gasp.

"Alex is that. . .?" Liz asked.

"The bullet wound," Bex breathed, her eyes growing huge. Along with the huge bullet wound practically right over his heart, they could see a couple other scars and burns.

"How much PT did you have to go through for that?" Macey asked, clearly impressed. Alex shook his head.

"None. Well, about a week. I was supposed to go through more but I got into some trouble that resulted in another mission." Liz's eyes widened even further.

"That's not nearly enough! My uncle's a doctor, I should know." Alex nodded in agreement but remained silent so she continued. "Is that why it still hurts?" He gave her a half smile that was more like a grimace and she realized that he was not comfortable sharing this much about himself.

"Uh, no. Not exactly. It's complicated. Snake says it's fantom pain, meaning it's all in my head. It only 'hurts' when I'm stressed or uncomfortable." Cammie batted at his hand and he realized he had started doing it again. He grimaced at her and continued. "It's one of the very few tells I have though I don't doubt that you'll figure out at least one other before the mission is over." Macey opened her mouth to ask another question, no doubt something like who was Snake or how did he get his other scars but he jumped in before she could get a word out.

"Alright, you guys need to be briefed. Might as well do that on the plane to save time. I don't know how much time we'll have once we get there and we'll need to figure out a hotel or something when we arrive before we can do anything so, yeah." He passed out the passports and IDs that Smithers had given him.

"So our cover is that we're all related and we're going to visit our aunt. An agent will meet us at the gate and pretend to be just that. She'll most likely be MI6 as am I and before you say it, yes I am British and wow don't I have an amazing fake American accent." The girls all smiled at this comment.

"Whatever she says, just kinda go along with it. Always remember to keep your eyes open, you never know who could be watching and I can guarantee that it won't be the friendliest gaze. As I told Cammie and Bex in the interrogation room, Cammie and I are siblings, the rest of you are cousins. Keep track of the lies you tell and stick to them. That's one of the most important things. Our 'aunt' will help us to a hotel and help us get checked in. We'll have two rooms. I don't know who wants to split up with who but I suggest not going girls and boys since I'm the only guy here. Once in California, we'll be looking to a terrorist organization that goes by the name of Scorpia. We just need to find out what they're planning and get it back to MI6 so they can take care of the he problem."

"How about Alex and I share a room and you three share a room. Considering we're siblings it might look out of place if we have separate rooms," Cammie suggested.

"How is that fair?" Macey whined. "No way I'm letting you get the room with the hot guy!" Everyone gave her a look except for Alex who was skillfully avoiding all eye contact now that the briefing was over.

A/N: Hey guys! Thanks for reading this. Here is the third chapter. Please read and leave reviews. You can do this even if you are a guest. I really appreciate all feedback. Hope you enjoyed it!

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Shamwow- Thanks for your feedback. I'm glad you're liking it so far. I really enjoyed writing it so I'm glad there are people like you who enjoy reading it. Please keep leaving your amazing reviews. I really appreciate them. Thanks again!

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Anonymous- Thanks for your kind words. I'm glad you are liking it. I will try to update this story every week by like Wednesday so stay tuned. Thanks!

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