Alex Rider

The Class Reunion

~ 12 years ~

Brookland Comprehensive School Class Reunion!

July 18, at 4:00 p.m.

Be there to see old friends, old teachers

Old schools

At your very own Brookland

26 year old Alex Rider looked at the brochure and sighed. 12 years had gone by since the time he had first met MI6, and virtually nothing had changed. He was still working for them (though he was getting paid now) and all Alan Blunt and Mrs. Jones did was get more demanding. Somehow, they didn't even seem to get older. That's probably what happens when you work in their business. You're so busy planning other people's deaths that it forgets about your own.

But he really should go to the reunion. He hadn't gotten much interaction with other people lately, despite his frequent visits with Jack of course, and this may be his only chance to enjoy something that had nothing to do with MI6.

He looked down at the date again. July 18. That was two days away. Surely Blunt couldn't think of somewhere to send him until then. He had just gotten back from China 3 days ago.

He turned around the brochure, and read the fine print.

(Please RSVP to this event)

And then below it was a phone number.

Alex sighed, and walked over to the nearest telephone and dialed the numbers. It rung once, twice, then finally,

"Hello?"

Alex paused in surprise. He hadn't heard that voice for a long time.

"Tom?"

The voice on the other line hesitated.

"Alex?"

Alex laughed, elated. "Tom? What are you doing working at Brookland?"

Tom chuckled. "You make it sound like I'm some teacher. I'm the gym coach."

Alex nodded. That made sense. "So I'm guessing that you'll be at the reunion, or are they making you grade papers the whole day?"

Tom groaned from the other line. "Don't remind me! Amy forced me to be the RSVP receiver. I'm bored to tears down here."

Alex grinned. "So you'll be there."

Tom sighed. "Yeah. I guess I will."

Then he hung up.

Alex looked at the phone, and then chuckled as he set it back down. This reunion would be interesting. At least he'll know one person that was going to be there.

~ 2 days later ~

As Alex pulled up to the familiar building, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of nostalgia. Despite all that had happened in the years before, he still had some interesting memories from this place.

Oh, how time flied.

As he stepped out of his car, a familiar face walked up to him.

"Alex!" he cried.

Alex jumped, surprised, but grinned when he recognized the face. "James, it's been a while."

James Hale chuckled as he stopped in front of his old friend. "It's been more than a while. I couldn't find a way to contact you after graduation. Otherwise, I would have invited you to my wedding."

Alex's eyebrows raised, pleasantly surprised. "Congratulations! Who's the lucky bride?"

James hesitated, and then blushed. Grinning sheepishly, he said, "Mary Jameson."

Alex's mouth fell open, and then he chuckled. "Mary? From school? I didn't know you guys had been dating."

James blushed even more. "We weren't. I just met her in a restaurant on day and we stuck up a conversation. A year later, I proposed."

Alex stuck out his hand. James shook it. Smiling, Alex added, "Once again, congratulations with your new family. But shouldn't we be going inside?"

James smiled. "Yes, it's getting cold out here."

Alex resisted rolling his eyes as he walked toward the familiar doors. It was the middle of July. Trust James to think of something like that.

As Alex stepped inside, he was slightly disappointed to see only about a dozen familiar faces in the hallway. It looked like everybody else was too busy to some see their old friends.

"Alex!" somebody cried from behind him. He turned around to see a girl (now woman) from his old maths class.

"Rebbecca." he replied, wondering if he got the name right. Thankfully, she smiled.

"I'm glad you got over your bouts of sicknesses to come here." She said, "I was afraid that you would be stuck in the hospital recovering from some tropical bug."

Alex chuckled, briefly remembering all the illnesses MI6 managed to come up with whenever he went away on a mission. "Yeah. I think my body's finally caught up with me."

Rebbecca grinned. "So what are you doing these days, since you seem to be out of college?"

Alex hesitated. He was sorely tempted to say something like, 'Oh nothing much. I'm just an agent at MI6, but I've been that for 12 years. I've been shot at more times than I can imagine, and actually have a room reserved for me in the hospital. But other than that, nothing interesting.'

"Oh, I'm a manager at the Royal and General bank." He answered, repeating the lie that his uncle Ian had told him for most of his life.

Rebbecca hesitated in surprise. "Oh, really? That's…..great, I guess." then, recomposing herself, she added, "I just would have thought you to do something more….adventurous."

Alex shrugged, "A lot of things have changed." he said. "But then again, the computers do put up a decent fight whenever there's a lot of work to be done."

Rebbecca chuckled. "Well, it was nice to see you again, after all this time. Stay healthy. Oh, and don't let those computers get the best of you."

Alex smiled. "Don't worry, I won't." And watched as Rebbecca walked away.

"So you've followed in your uncle's footsteps." another familiar voice said from behind him. Alex smiled as he turned around.

"Yeah, I guess I have Tom." He replied to his best friend. Then he chuckled as he took in what he was wearing.

Tom blushed. "Don't laugh. I had no say in this!"

Alex grinned as he looked over his old friend's attire. "I don't recall our coach ever to wear shorts that were that small on him. Isn't the dress code more….dignified?"

Tom groaned. "Things change, my friend." Then he hugged Alex. "Nice to see you again."

Alex laughed. "Same to you too." Then he pulled away.

Tom dropped his voice down to a whisper as Alex's ear passes his face. "You must tell me everything you've been doing lately. Even if it doesn't include MI6. We've been out of touch for too long."

Alex nodded, his face becoming more serious as he looked around for any eavesdroppers. "Don't worry. I will."

Unfortunately, before he and Tom could reminisce about their past, a large man entered the hallway, unbeknown to everyone, including Alex.

"Well isn't this sweet." he said, his voice dripping with menace. "I really should have worn something more formal."

Everybody in the hallway turned around.

The man in the doorway was dressed in all black, a balaclava on his face, and clothes that hung loose from his large frame. "Like a ninja" Alex thought suddenly. A horrible thought dawned on him as he spotted what the man was holding in his right hand.

It was a gun.

Audible and inaudible screams alike filled the room as the rest of the students realized who the man was. Mentally, Alex cursed his bad luck.

"Isn't this sweet." The man repeated as he stepped inside. "Old friends meeting old friends. It's too bad, because you haven't had enough time to catch up with each other." He visibly removed the safety from the gun for emphasis.

"W-w-who are you?" a woman stuttered from farther down the hall. The masked man sneered.

"Who I am doesn't concern you. I'm here for one person, and one person only."

Alex froze. There was a nagging suspicion in the back of his mind, and he shuddered at the possibility of it being true.

"This is a reunion!" a squeaky man whom Alex couldn't remember the name of piped up from the front. "So unless you have an invitation, I think you should leave."

The masked man chuckled. "Don't worry. I have no orders to harm you. So long as you give me the man that I'm looking for, I'll leave in peace."

Alex saw Rebbecca glance at him for a moment. He frowned. Did she know?

"Who are you looking for?" she asked, turning her attention back on the man.

The assailant fingered his gun, as if desperately wanting to use it. "An MI6 agent, by the code name of Cub."

Confusion swept through the room, along with apprehension and despair. How were they suppose to know who here was a secret agent? Isn't the whole point of being one supposed to be "secret"?

Tom looked at Alex through his peripheral vision. He could see that his friend was tense, though he hid it well. But he knew they were thinking the same thing. How the hell were they going to get out of this mess?

The man chuckled, and lowered the gun, but only slightly. "Perhaps I should tell you some background information about this spy I'm looking for." he said, clearly enjoying himself. Tom couldn't help but shiver at his voice. This man had obviously done this before.

Alex scanned the room, from the emergency exit in the corner, to the other hallways that branched out from the one everybody was standing in. He frowned. If this turned into a fight, it wouldn't be too hard for others to get hit. The space was just too compacted.

"He's one of the best agents MI6 has ever seen," the assailant started, snapping Alex out of his planning, "hence the reason I need to find him. He's become too much of a threat to who I work for."

A small man in the back, who Alex remembered as Jeffery Emery, spoke up. "Who exactly do you work for?"

The man sneered. "You wouldn't have heard of us. It's a very secretive group."

Alex nearly rolled his eyes at the cockiness of their attacker. It was like he believed he was in some kind of action movie. The kind where the villain wins.

Fortunately, there weren't many of those around.

"Did your employer give you a better description of this…agent?" Alex asked. The man opened his mouth, and then shut it promptly when he realized that he couldn't answer. Quickly, he replaced it with a smirk.

"What is it to you?" he said. "Besides, do you think Scorpia's dumb enough to not give me some background?"

Alex shrugged, feigning nonchalant. "I don't know. They must be, because after all, they sent you."

The man immediately realized his mistake. His face reddened. "Why you little…"

Alex dove to the side, dragged everyone besides him down with him, as the attacker opened fire. Several people behind him screamed as they flattened themselves to the ground, instinctively shielding their heads with their arms.

"Run! Run! Run!" Alex cried, pulling people off the ground and shoving them toward the emergency exits. Everybody was more than happy to comply as they rushed out the doors, effectively dodging the bullets that came pelting their way.

Tom stayed behind though, rendered immobile as he stared at his friend in amazement as Alex swiftly knocked the gun out of the distracted man's hands with a roundhouse kick. The man cursed, and lunged at Alex, who dove out of the way, grabbing the gun off the ground in the process. Tom finally snapped out of his shock when he finally realized that Alex was holding the man at gunpoint.

"Tom, are you all right?" Alex asked, his focus trained on the man in front of him. Tom nodded uncomprehendingly.

"Scorpia will find you." The man hissed. "They'll find you and make you pay." Alex only smirked.

"I doubt it." he said, no trace of nervousness in his voice. "After all, I bet they wanted you to fail. Who are you to them anyways?"

That effectively shut the Scorpia agent up as he realized what Alex meant. Alex grinned as he caught his friend's expression, though Tom failed to see the flicker of alarm in his Alex's eyes.

Minutes later, the parking lot was filled with the sounds of sirens and ambulances. The police quickly overpowered the Scorpia man, and lead him out in handcuffs. Tom saw Alex being dragged over to a secluded spot by a policeman in order to be questioned about his part in the attack. Several minutes later, he returned with an amused expression.

"What did you tell him?" Tom asked, unable to hold his curiosity. Alex held back a smirk. "I told him everything that happened." he answered, feigning innocence. Tom frowned. There had to be more than that. "So what were you smiling about?" Alex grinned.

"Because he didn't believe me."

Tom looked incredulously at the policeman who was typing away at his laptop. He chuckled as the man visibly froze, looked back at Alex, and immediately left to talk to a fellow policeman. He and Alex locked eyes, and, unable to hold it any longer, began to laugh, ignoring the incredulous looks everybody was giving them.

They laughed about the incident for the rest day.

So, this is my edited version of Class Reunion. Please reply and tell me what you think.

P.S. I think I finally know where I'm gonna take the story. Wish me luck!