20. Fight

Both of them noticed when the plug was pulled- the room fell silent. Alex's grip on the gun tightened. The veins in Andrew's neck bulged, his face began to turn red, and his jaw clenched. Alex couldn't resist speaking.

"Happy birthday!" he exclaimed brightly and planted a foot in Andrew's chest. Oh, the expressions that he could borrow- it was amazing. Speaking of friends…

Alex Meyer and Vivie jumped Andrew, and Alex realized their mistake- he could open fire now. He attempted to go to the plug as he shot. Alex dodged the first bullet and tried to grab Andrew while Vivie stole Alex Meyer's wallet.

"All of you three made it out, did you not? I see," Andrew taunted, aiming the gun at Alex again. Why couldn't he kill people? Wasn't killing Andrew the lesser of two evils?

"Do you need to go back to kindergarten and learn your numbers?"

"I learned all that way before that age," Andrew scoffed, grabbing Alex's neck and squeezing the soft flesh. Great, another reminder from his third mission. But this was worse. No matter how much Alex struggled, he couldn't break free. Wasn't it like that with him and the MI6? They strangled him, and no matter how much he tried to escape, he was trapped- only to be choked to death because of them in the end. What a lovely realization.

"Hey, Mr. Andrew sir, can I have your autograph?" When Alex's vision returned to him, he saw that Alex Meyer had thrown two reams of paper at Andrew, which had forced him to release Alex. He had to laugh at Alex Meyer's spontaneous wit. Vivie caught his eye and grinned, shaking her head. In the confusion, the gun had disappeared. Vivie was on the phone, and Alex assumed that she was calling for help.

Suddenly, Alex realized that there was a window in the room and smirked to himself. He hadn't boarded the window up- and Alex was starting to get an idea. But for now, he wanted to make sure that all three of them could get out of there alive. Why he wanted to keep living, he didn't know. But he definitely felt the urge somewhere within himself…

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Alex certainly wouldn't mind of Alex Rider was the one that threw Andrew through the window. For one, he deserved it, and for another, Alex couldn't throw a five foot nine person to save his life. Alex decided to plan ahead, signaled to Alex Rider that he was leaving and would be right back, then ran back to the room of broken tiles (as he decided to appropriately name it) and climbed down the paper clip chain. Luckily, Alex had brought some of Luke's larger paper clips. He managed to not poke himself on the way down.

The musty smell of the basement hit him, and it was revolting. Alex decided against dealing with it and just grabbed what he came for- a pair of handcuffs. Now where were those keys? He'd seen some in the cell, and if he could figure out how to make it work… whatever, he didn't have time for this. He had to go.

Hoping fervently that Alex Rider still had enough zit cream, Alex threw the handcuffs upwards, but they fell back down again, almost hitting him on the head. Out of frustration, Alex hurled it as hard as he could, and a sense of satisfaction filled him when he heard the metal hit something. He managed to climb up a second time (once was definitely enough) and tripped in his exuberance, spraining his ankle for the third time in his life; he was clumsier than he thought. He retrieved the handcuffs easily- they had hit a Tree Frog bottle, which he quickly pocketed. He gripped the cold chain of the handcuffs and winced while he walked on the ankle. He couldn't waste time. He didn't want Alex Rider to die…

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Vivie was somehow managing to help Alex fight while talking to someone- Nessa, he assumed. Of course, the person on the other end knew that Vivie was busy. Andrew managed to knock the phone out of her hand once, but she had put it on speaker when that had happened (almost as if she had expected it) and had just grabbed it back again. Alex was stuck listening to Andrew's taunts.

"Come to the dark side, Alex. You know you want to."

"Sorry, the dark side doesn't have cookies like they claimed they did. You're a liar."

"I was not the one who put up that video!" Andrew snarled.

"When, then I'm not joining!"

"You will regret that."

"It's not like I haven't already tried the dark side."

"So whose side are you on, Alex?"

"No one owns me, you know. I'm in charge of myself.

"Yes, because everything magically makes sense at the age of eighteen."

"Rider!" A bottle sailed into the room, and Alex caught it- a Tree Frog bottle. That was when Alex decided that enough was enough and opened the bottle, dumping the contents out. Andrew was lying- he knew Alex's weakness, but he was lying. At that realization, Alex decided that now was the time. Alex Meyer's dark eyes seemed to agree with him.

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It was almost like telepathy- at the very least, Alex was surprised that he and Alex Rider were thinking along the same lines. There had been undoubtedly terrible chemistry between the two at first, but now, they could have been brothers. It was uncanny and Alex wasn't sure how much he liked it- or Alex Rider, for one thing- but he definitely wasn't going to complain. He was going to help.

"Meyer, a little help lifting?" Alex Rider whispered as Andrew let out a cry of agony. The room was starting to smell pretty bad. Alex coughed, trying to breathe.

"I sprained my ankle… for the third time…"

"Are you okay?"

"As okay as I can be… what do you want me to do?"

"Shut the window… do you have another bottle?"

Alex pulled out more- he had jacked them earlier. "Go to town, Rider. I'll be right back."

Vivie had taken Alex's phone when he wasn't looking- but where was his wallet? When he asked, her eyes widened, and then she pointed at Andrew, who had it in his hand.

"I swear that guy has superpowers or something," Alex muttered, tackling Andrew from behind (ignoring the pain in his ankle) and stole back what belonged to him. A snake crawled out, and Alex dropped the wallet. Alex Rider handed him a bottle, and Alex dumped the contents of it out on the snake, which hissed and snapped at him. Where had it come from? Alex decided that he didn't care and stuffed it instinctively down Andrew's shirt. It served him right for stealing his stuff. The snake hadn't noticed when Alex had picked it up, and Alex guessed that that was the reason that he hadn't been bitten yet. When the snake didn't fall to the floor, Alex assumed that it had latched onto Andrew's skin and jammed the window shut just as Alex Rider picked him up.

"Meyer, are you okay?"

"I'm fine! If you're going to do it, hurry!"

Andrew flailed, and a hand smacked Alex in the face and sent him reeling backwards. When he touched a hand to his face, he discovered that he was bleeding. As he was thinking this, Alex Rider motioned to him. Alex helped him hold Andrew (he had to weigh at least a hundred and seventy pounds) and glanced at him. Alex managed to chain his wrists together first.

"One?"

"Two…"

"Three," they simultaneously murmured and hurled him out the window.

(A/N: I made a reference to "How to be emo" by nigahiga... heh heh...)