Prologue.

Alex was having a really bad day. First he'd been late to school because the chain on his bike had snapped. Then a group of kids had decided to attack him at lunch which ended with Alex getting a black eye and a sprained ankle, all because he hadn't wanted to hurt his assailants. Now he was being told he had to go to an assembly about personal safety. Oh the irony.

Every year Alex had been at Brookland they had one of these assemblies, always with a different group of people. Last year was the SAS courtesy of MI6, not that the school knew that. The years before had been the police, the fire station, and a famous martial artist and others that Alex couldn't remember anymore.

He walked into the assembly hall with Tom, his only friend left at the large school. He expected to see the guest speakers waiting in the chairs that were normally set up for them. Instead he only saw the principal and the vice-principal sitting up there.

Alex felt jumpy. Something was definitely off. He wasn't sure why but he was willing to bet it wasn't going to have a happy ending.

Sure enough as the last students found seats the doors were closed and blocked by two large men. Alex grabbed his emergency phone and texted MI6, "Something's wrong at school. Not sure what. Standby. Backup may be requested."

That done Alex handed the phone to Tom, "If anything happens hit send three times. Then send a text to 'Joe' and tell them the situation."

Tom looked worried. He whispered, "What's going on?"

"Maybe nothing but it may be an attack," Alex whispered back. "See those men? They're guarding the doors to keep us in, not other people out, which is why I doubt this is a 'personal safety assembly'."

Suddenly thirty men came out armed with semi-automatic pistols and lined up against the walls and three men stood in the center of the stage. Alex paled and turned to Tom, "Tell them I'm probably about to die. Tell them enemy Three."

All the other students were whispering about all the guns excitedly, Most of them thought this meant that the three men were famous and rich and this was his security team. Alex knew better. It was Scorpia and they were here to ensure Alex didn't' see tomorrow (AN: sorry for the absurdly corny line).

The Chinese man stepped up to the microphone, "As you all know this is a personal safety course. I'm going to show you who you need safety from. First, I need a volunteer." He paused. "How about Mr. Rider?"

Alex felt his stomach drop. He didn't move. The Chinese man drew his gun and slowly pointed into the sea of students. Alex stood up sharply.

"Okay! I'm coming."

One of the teachers called out in terror, "Don't hurt him!"

"Shut up Ms. Bedeshire," Alex ordered forcefully.

"Thank you for volunteering," the man smirked as Alex walked towards him.

One of the kids near the front broke the stunned silence," What are you playing at Rider? Why did you involve us in your gang fight?" Alex would have rolled his eyes if he wasn't so terrified."

The Chinese man chuckled, "A gang huh? Well at least it wasn't drugs. That would have been hilarious. The great Alex Rider being called a drug addict. I would kill to see that."

"You're a contract killer, Dr. Three," Alex growled. "How's your leg?"

Dr. Three just smiled and turned his gun on the still approaching teen. He fired twice and Alex screamed, as did much of the student body. Three had shot Alex once in the shoulder and once in his thigh. The teachers and Tom all shouted for them to stop, but quickly shut up when a gun pointed at each of them.

Three nodded to the men on either side of him who went and grabbed Alex. Alex screamed again as one of them yanked on his injured shoulder.

"Not so tough now, Rider," Three whispered in his ear. "Before I kill you, we're going to play a game." He turned to his men, "Tie him up."

Alex felt dizzy as he was dragged over to a chair and bound. He was losing a lot of blood very quickly, but he was surprisingly unperturbed by this. He was far more concerned with what came next. Dr. Three was the world's expert on torture. Whatever game Three wanted to play would not end well.

The other students were hysterical at this point. Alex felt his world crashing around him. He did not want these innocent bystanders to see him tortured. He hoped MI6 were on their way.

"Silence," Three ordered. Silence fell immediately. "Good. Game time, Alex. Let's start with your dad and your uncle, shall we? Who did they work for?"

Alex glared at the man, "A bank."

"Wrong answer," Three said happily. He brought out a knife and cut off Alex's shirt revealing the hundreds of scars that littered his chest.

"One more chance Alex or this is going to hurt."

Alex said nothing and Three walked away and grabbed something from a duffle bag. It was a metal baseball bat. Three smiled nastily, "It wont make you bleed as much as the knife. He took the baseball bat and swung it at Alex's chest with bone-breaking force. Alex cried out again, this time gasping for air. "Who did John and Ian Rider work for?"

Still gasping for air Alex decided the two dead men weren't worth his silence, "MI6! They worked for MI6, alright! Why can't you just kill me?"

"How did you get recruited?"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Alex said stubbornly. This was one point Alex was not willing to share with his schoolmates. He knew it was useless to try and resist Three though. As the bat swung again Alex decided to just answer the questions. "When Ian died MI6 blackmailed me into finishing his mission. I was stupid enough to give into it."

"Next question," Three said. "How many missions have you done for MI6."

Alex didn't see how that question could hurt anyone but him but decided to piss off Three, "That depends. Do missions I took on without MI6 count?" He knew he should have kept his mouth shut as Three swung the bat again. Alex knew better than to bait the man much more. Plus, the world seemed to be fading in and out of focus, making cohesive conversation difficult.

Three glared at him, "Yes, they do."

"Well seventeen I think. Ten involving Scorpia."

At this point Three got bored of questions. Alex was honestly surprised at how quickly he stopped. Alex must have hit a bigger nerve than he had thought possible. Instead, he summarized several missions and proceeded to torture him with a wide array of weapons. About twenty minutes later Alex was unable to scream anymore and he hung limply in the ropes.

Many of the kids and teachers were crying. They were horrified with what Dr. Three had done to Alex who was now covered in blood and bruises. Stiffled sobs could be heard clearly now that Alex had fallen silent. None of them could imagine the pain Alex must have be in.

"Pathetic Alex," Three glared at the boy, "you were so much more fun last time."

The doors slammed open and men burst through the doors. Three cursed and drew his gun. He pointed it at Alex as he glanced over his shoulder. SAS had arrived.

This was what Alex had been waiting for. He had been loosening the bindings on his hands for a while now and had gotten them free a few minutes before. Alex grabbed Threes gun hand and turned the gun away from himself, his whole body screaming in agony. Alex managed to wrestle the gun away from Dr. Three.

Three turned and ran. He would not die here. He ran out through the emergency exit, Leaving Alex to collapse against the chair again, the gun held limply in his right hand.

The SAS came in, guns blazing, and shot the Scorpia soldier before they had a chance to react. Alex was slipping into unconsciousness, the gun still in his hand, when the SAS medic got to him.

"Shit!" the medic cursed. "I need help over here!" he yelled.

The other medics came running. The first medic said, "Lay him on the floor and apply pressure to the bullet wounds while I bind them."

They went to move him but were stopped when his gun pointed into one of their faces. Alex's eyes flickered open, "who are you?" he said hoarsely, not lowering the gun.

"SAS"

Alex stared at them for a moment then nodded. He clicked on the gun's safety and dropped it, "Is everyone else okay?"

"Yeah kid," said the medic. "What's your name?"

"Cub," Alex whispered. "The SAS know me as Cub."

The medic stopped binding the boy's arm in his shock, "Cub?"

I was… stationed… with… K-unit," Alex was trying not to nod off.

"Do you recognize me Cub?"

Alex shook his head, "I'm not seeing too clearly right now. He hit my head pretty hard. I'm pretty sure I've a concussion. If I had to guess though, you're snake. Otherwise, you wouldn't ask if I… recog…"

Alex passed out.

"Cub!" Snake yelled. "Shit, kid. You can't sleep right now." Snake slapped Alex across the face getting cries of outrage from the teachers, but nothing from Alex. He glared at the unconscious boy. "Wake up Cub!"

Another soldier walked up to the medics and placed his hand on Snakes shoulder, "He's out Snake. There's nothing more you can do till he gets to a hospital."

"Damn it Wolf! He's got a bloody concussion! What if he doesn't wake up?"

Tom had come over, getting through the soldiers by telling them the had important information. When he finally got to Alex he cured, grabbing Snake's attention. Tom stared at Alex, "Shit Alex… Why is it always you?"

"His name's Alex?" Snake asked.

Tom glared at him, "They sent you in without telling you his name? God those people are assholes. Did you even know you were rescuing a kid? 'Cause, Alex is going to kill them this time. I sent the signal a half hour ago."

Would and Snake turned to the strange boy. Wolf looked livid, "A half hour ago? We only were told ten minutes ago. Are you telling me that they let a child be tortured for twenty minutes before they even called for help?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Tom muttered.

"What's that supposed to mean Tom?" asked someone behind Tom.

Tom jumped and spun around, "Mr. Daniels? Why are you here?"

"Answer the question Tom," Ben Daniels growled. "What do you mean it's not the first time."

Another soldier ran over to the group, "The ambulance is here."

"Took long enough." Snake growled. "Send in the paramedics. We need to contact his parents."

Ben shifted uncomfortably, "I'm Alex's guardian."

Tom looked over, surprised, "It's official then? Alex let you into Jack's room?" In Tom's opinion legally didn't matter, just Alex's approval.

"He's not over her death yet by a long shot, but I can't blame him. He saw her get blown up after all but he wasn't given any other viable options. He was told: me, SAS, or a boys home."

The paramedics brought a stretcher and lifted Alex onto it. The paramedics looked like they were going to be sick. They didn't understand how a child in school could be so injured. Ben and Tom followed Alex into the ambulance which sped off to St. Dominics.

Not a great chapter, but as this was hand written at first I'd say it has improved dramatically. Please review. I'll update this soon if you all like it. I already have the next chapter typed, I just have to edit it.