(Jenny's POV)
It's been almost half an hour since Professor Rossington gave himself up to SKUL. I'm wallowing in self-pity with Director Fairchild and Stark when the phone starts ringing.
"Hello?" Director Fairchild answers gloomily. A few seconds later she jolts up from her chair. "What? Are you sure? Right – thank you." She hangs up.
"Ma'am? What's happened?" Stark asks.
"That was UKSA," she replies. "They've just spotted the nightclub on their radar. It seems that it's falling back to Earth."
"It's coming back to Earth?" I repeat. "That's great news!"
"I don't think you understand, Agent Brownstone. The club is falling back to Earth. That means it's going to crash into London."
"There'll be no time for an evacuation," says Stark. "What do we do?"
An idea springs to me. "I've got it!" I say. I go over to Director Fairchild's desk and start typing on the computer. A few clicks later I gain access into Zeke's androids.
"What are you doing?" Director Fairchild asks.
"I'm calling on Brawn Hilda," I respond, still typing.
"I'm sorry, who?" Stark enquires.
"It's another one of Zeke's creations," I explain. "A heavy-duty android designed for maximum strength amplification at the cost of reduced versatility and mobility. She can withstand a force of 100,000 megatons. I'm accessing her mainframe to get her to stop the nightclub from crashing into London."
As I finish up typing, the phone rings again. Director Fairchild answers – and hangs up thirty seconds later.
"That was the Mole," she says. "SKUL has seen the club's descent towards Earth and the Grandmaster has ordered a squadron of nitrogen engine planes to intercept it."
"Well, they'll have to get past Brawn Hilda first," I remark.
"There's more. The Grandmaster has ordered one of his pilots to take Professor Rossington with him in case something goes wrong with the engines."
"We need to figure a way of rescuing him," Stark adds.
"And I think I know how." I access Zeke's computer again and download the schematics of another creation of his into my watch. When that's done I use my watch to change into a sleek, powered-amour battle suit, complete with built-in thrusters and defensive shields.
"Check me out!" I exclaim. "Just call me Iron Maiden."
"My word," Director Fairchild gasps, while Stark gapes at me like a fish.
"Right – I'm gonna try and intercept the SKUL jets. Stark, call for any available agents in and around the capital and have them ready to see to the civilians when the club lands."
Stark frowns – but does what he's told to do after Director Fairchild flashes him a dark look.
"OK, team – let's save London!" I activate the jet thrusters situated in the boots and launch myself out of the window and into the night air.
"Oopsy!" I wince, realizing I should have had the windows opened first. I am in so much trouble for that – but I can worry about that later. Right now, I have a professor to save.
As I soar over the city, I see the club continuing to back to Earth. It's getting nearer and nearer. Just then I see a figure heading for the club. I zoom in, and I see that it's Brawn Hilda making her way to the club via thrusters. She closes in… and catches it!
"Yes!" I cheer. "Well done, Hilda!"
However, my celebrations are cut short when I notice far in the distance six aircrafts flying in a vic formation.
The SKUL jets!
Looks like I've got a fight on my hands – but I know I can take them.
I fly towards the aircraft, passing the club and I begin to intercept the jets. I fly at them at top speed, running circles around them. I can sense a few of the jets behind me, but I peel away to avoid their attacks. I glide behind the SKUL jets and prepare to take them out with the mini-missile launcher installed in the gauntlet – but the jets explode before I have a chance to fire.
"Whoa!" I exclaim. The overheating of the engines must have caused the jets to explode due to Professor Rossington's unfinished invention. I need to find him quickly before he goes out with a bang.
But before I can, two more SKUL jets angle towards me – and start firing. I activate my defence shields and a light blue bubble surrounds me, protecting me from SKUL's assault.
"Great. I'm going to enjoy this," I say sarcastically. But a few moments later, the jets explode.
Oh God. I hope Professor Rossington wasn't in any of them. Still, that's the best fireworks display I've ever seen since New Year's.
There's only one SKUL jet left and I'm ready to take it down. But it seems the pilot is doing the job for me as it descends to Hyde Park. I follow after it and as I lands, the canopy to the enemy aircraft slides open. The SKUL pilot jumps out – and starts shooting at me!
Unfortunately for him the suit is bulletproof, so his attempts at killing me have proven to be fruitless. By the time he's realized that he can't take me out, I've already marched up to him and knock him out with a single punch.
"Bravo, Agent Brownstone! Well done!"
I look up and find Professor Rossington applauding me. As he exits the jet, I step forward to greet him.
"Professor! I'm so glad you're OK. I thought you'd perished in one of the jets. How did you manage to destroy them?"
"In his impatience to get my secret, the Grandmaster didn't ask if it worked," he replies.
"Ah! Well, that serves him right. Now that you're safe I better give MI9 a call, and have you picked up, and have him" – jerking my head to the unconscious SKUL pilot – "locked up."
"What about the nightclub?"
"Safely back in London. I just hope everyone is all right and in one piece."
(Frank's POV)
Oh, my God. This is it.
We've entered the Earth's atmosphere and we're coming in hot. We have no way of stopping the club from crashing into London.
I never thought I'd go out like this. I can't die now! I had so much to live for! Suddenly, my life flashes before my eyes: I can see my mother smiling as she tucks me in as a child. My school days as a lanky teenager, worrying about homework and girls. I see the day I was picked as a prime recruit for MI9 – and becoming handler to Oscar, Rose and Carrie. Then I see the day I met Jenny, my beautiful bride to-be – soon to be a widow. It brings tears to my eyes to know that I'm never going to see her again.
I'm so sorry, my darling. I will always love you.
I tightly shut my eyes, bracing for impact and waiting for my death…
Suddenly everything comes to a halt – causing everyone to scream and cry out.
"Oh, my God," I hear Zeke say. "Guys – look!"
I slowly open my eyes, wondering what is happening. I let out a gasp.
We are descending into London… but at a much slower pace. But how?
Oscar seems to have read my mind. "How… how is this happening?"
"I have absolutely no idea," says Zeke.
"It looks like we have a guardian angel by our side," Percy remarks, and we all murmur in agreement.
The club continues to make its way down. I feel like bursting into tears. I can't believe we're going to live – and so will the millions of people living in London.
Moments later the club lands in Regent's Park with a soft thud. At first no-one moves as we're all still in shock that we're all in one piece. But then a few people climb to their feet – followed by several more. Soon everyone in the nightclub is standing up. It feels very weird now that we're standing on solid ground after spending no more than a couple of hours floating in space.
Zeke is the first to speak up. "Erm, everyone… If you'd like to follow me." He heads for the staircase – with me, Oscar, Percy, Kenzie and Hay-Hay following behind.
Zeke leads everyone up the three flights of stairs. When we go through the exit door, we're surrounded by several dozens of men in black suits and sunglasses. Among the men is a familiar looking figure with a default expression on his face…
"It's Stark!" Percy states. "For once I'm actually glad to see that annoyingly smug mug again."
Me too – but I don't say it out loud without giving away my double life as a spy.
Just then I notice someone else in the crowd, standing next to Stark. An eight foot tall, bulky, muscular Amazon, wearing a skintight leotard and combat boots.
"Good God. That's Brawn Hilda!" says Zeke. "What's she doing here?"
"We can find that out later," I tell him. "Right now let's get off this thing."
An inflatable slide is placed for us to evacuate from. I feel like kissing the ground now that we're back on a planet that has gravity.
"Man, it's good to be back on Earth!" says Kenzie.
"Amen to that," Percy agrees.
"Hello, Planet Earth!" Zeke calls to the sky. "Did you miss me? Because I missed you!"
"Me too," I say, Oscar nodding in agreement.
"Well, I don't about you guys… but that was the best stag night ever!" Hay-Hay declares.
I turn to him like he's mad. "Are you serious?" I say. "Have you forgotten what has happened in the last couple of hours?"
"Yeah! And there's no other person who could ever top that. This has to go on record as the greatest stag night of all time! You should be thanking Zeke for planning such an extravaganza, Frank. I know I would – I'm gonna be famous when I post the pictures I've got on all my social media sites."
I'm about to argue back when Zeke interjects. "He's right, Frank. Remember when you came to the Lanesborough, I promised you that this stag weekend will be ranked as the greatest in history. And that's exactly what I have just done."
"Not to mention my birthday celebrations," Oscar adds. "This actually covers the next ten birthday presents – nothing's going to top this."
"This actually was the best night of my life," says Kenzie, agreeing. "I mean… I was in space! The final frontier – even if it was for a few hours. It was a spectacularly breathtaking event that I will never ever get to experience again in my life."
"You've got to admit… this was one hell of a night out, wasn't it, Frank?" says Percy.
It got me thinking. Zeke did promise me a stag night I'll never forget, and look where that got me – a few hours up in space. And like Kenzie said, I'll never get to experience something like that ever again.
I break into a smile. "Yeah. Yeah, you're right, Zeke," I say. "This has been the greatest stag night in history. Thank you."
"Thanks, Zeke," the others say, patting him on the back and shoulders while Zeke's cheeks glow with pride.
After the last person has left the club, Stark informs everyone that the MI9 agents will take them to the hospital to get checked over and then taken home afterwards.
But for me, Oscar, Zeke and Percy, it's different. An agent escorts us into one of the vans where we get checked over by a paramedic – as we get taken to MI9 headquarters to be debriefed. (Even though we didn't have a mission, it was our weekend off.) Along the way, Zeke and I are given pure oxygen as we both ventured out into space without doing proper procedures.
When we reach Thames House, we get escorted to Director Fairchild's office where we get greeted by her Professor Rossington… and a huge hole in her wall. We spend the rest of the night explain the events of our time in space: the deactivation of the explosives; Zeke nearly dying, but ends up getting rescued by me; and Zeke and I using Professor Rossington's formula to rocket the club back to Earth which Zeke perfected. Then the director and the professor tells their side of the story: Professor Rossington surrendering to SKUL; the professor building nitrogen engines for SKUL's jets; Jenny using Brawn Hilda to catch the club and stopping it from crashing into London; and Jenny using Zeke's Powered-Armour Exosuit to stop the SKUL jets from intercepting the club and saving the professor.
"So it was Jenny who saved our lives," I say. "She really is an angel."
"A guardian angel," Oscar adds, and I nod.
"Agent Brownstone would have loved to have greeted you all, but unfortunately she had to make herself scarce as she couldn't risk seeing Frank until the wedding," Director Fairchild explains.
"I understand," I say. But when I do see Jen, on our honeymoon I intend on expressing just how grateful I am in the most physical manner I can think of.
"You know it's a shame SKUL has the details for the nitrogen engine as they can perfect the device," Zeke states.
"Actually, they won't," says Professor Rossington.
We turn to him. "What do you mean, professor?" I ask.
"While I was a SKUL's base working on the blueprints, I altered the plans so as to make the design unworkable. So when SKUL attempts to build their version of the engine, it will end up a failure."
We stare at him in amazement. "That's incredible, professor!" Percy states.
"That's not all. I made a second plan containing the engine's information which I saved on a USB drive. However, I infected it with a computer virus.
"As a result, the computer and the drive will be destroyed," Zeke deduces.
It's not long before everyone in the room – including me – laugh at the irony of the moment. Soon my laughter turns to yawning – as does everybody else.
"Lord, am I knackered!" Percy declares. "What I need is a week in a nice, soft bed."
"You and me both," says Oscar.
"I think we all deserve a rest," says Director Fairchild. "Consider this debrief over. I'll see you all on Monday."
We say our goodnights to the director, Professor Rossington and Stark, and we make our way out of HQ.
"OK, guys, change of plan," says Zeke. "We spend the next two days indoors and sleeping in our beds like bears in hibernation. We'll go paintballing and laser tagging next weekend. How does that sound?"
"Like an excellent idea," I reply, with Oscar and Percy agreeing.
We flag down a taxi to take us back to the hotel. Once we're there, we head up to our room and say our goodnights. Once I'm in my own room, I don't even bother changing into my PJs – I just collapse on my bed and doze off to sleep… zzzzzzzz.