The first time Eggsy runs into Alex Rider, it's nearly literal.

As it happens, Eggsy is sneaking around a top secret base of a megalomaniac (calling herself Lady Victoria, which had got right up the nose of several of the Kingsmen who were actual nobility, not just some mad bint putting on airs) trying not to tip off the guards as to his presence so that he can give Merlin access to the systems (so in other words, it's Tuesday) when he ducks around a corner to avoid some clomping military boots (for some reason most megalomaniacs are terrible at kitting out their security with stealthier footwear) and then has to freeze in order to not run head-long into a kid in his late teens in dark-coloured street clothes.

Eggsy has only a split second to wonder what the hell this kid is doing down here when Merlin swears in his ear.

"Damn, it's Rider. I had no idea MI6 was running an operation in here. Galahad, be extremely careful, and whatever you do, don't underestimate him."

Eggsy blinks. This kid was MI6? Right. He aborts his move to pin the kid up against the wall and tranq him with the small dart in his watch (he might be happy to kill for his country, but he does try to avoid killing kids and so far he's been successful), and then immediately has to dodge the knife hand aimed straight for his windpipe.

"Shit, chill out bruv, I'm not one of the bad guys," Eggsy hisses as he sidesteps out of range.

'Rider' observes him coolly, and Eggsy is distinctly unnerved by seeing an expression he had first seen on Harry Hart's face on the face of a blonde teenager. It was an assessing look that weighed, measured, and evaluated threat level. Eggsy had the distinct impression that the kid thought that he could take him.

Eggsy wasn't sure if he should be annoyed, amused or wary in response to that.

All things considered (especially Merlin's reaction), he thought as the kid jerked his head in the direction of a door a few metres down the corridor, it would probably pay to be wary.

After all, Eggsy knew all about how useful it was to be underestimated.

He followed the kid into the room, unsurprised that Rider kept him within sight at all times.

"Who are you then?" Rider demanded, obviously tensed and ready to react if necessary, eyes darting around to case the room in a way that Eggsy didn't need Merlin hissing in his ear to tell him that the kid had probably assessed the potential for weapons and escapes in the small office already.

Eggsy was given the distinct impression that if it came to fight or flight, Rider was the type to disable with prejudice and then get the fuck out of dodge.

Even before Harry Hart had dragged him into the spy movie marathon on acid that was Kingsman, Eggsy had been in enough brawls to tell when one was brewing. He had little doubt that if Rider felt cornered, then he would fight like a rabid sewer rat hopped up on flushed crystal meth.

After all, that's what Eggsy would do.

So he held up both hands placatingly, and talked fast.

"Right, so, I'm Galahad. Well, Eggsy really, but Galahad's me spy name."

Over the comms, he thought he heard a sound suspiciously like a hand slapping a face.

"Oi," he protested to Merlin. "Rider's in the game too, innee? So I'm not blowing no covers if I tell him what I'm about, and this way we don't have to faff about. We don't got no time for that shit, yeah? Weren't you telling me that you needed this op done yesterday, last week for preference?"

Rider raised an eyebrow. "You have communications?"

"Yeah," confirmed Eggsy. "Why, you don't?"

Rider snorted and muttered something under his breath. It didn't sound complimentary, but on the other hand it didn't look as though it was particularly pointed at Eggsy so he didn't take offence. He looked Eggsy up and down. "Well you certainly aren't MI6, they usually have the courtesy to brief me when I'm going to run into a fellow agent."

Eggsy caught a note of bitterness in Rider's voice and filed that away to mull over later.

"Eggsy, tell Rider that Merlin sends his regards to Smithers, and that I know about the fat suit," Merlin said suddenly in his ear.

Eggsy dutifully repeated the message, and Rider looked taken aback.

He seemed to consider for a moment, and then he relaxed a hair.

Eggsy got the distinct impression that that meant it would maybe take him an extra half-millisecond to get some sort of weapon in his face upon making a false move than it would otherwise.

"What organisation are you with then?" Rider asked him.

Eggsy grinned and straightened his lapels. "I'm a Kingsman now, ain't I. We're the ones who get shit done to protect home while your lot are stuck faffing about with the politics and paperwork bullshit," he said cheekily, ignoring Merlin's complaints in his ear about Eggsy's brand of diplomacy or lack thereof.

Eggsy reckoned he'd win the argument later though, because rather than offended, Rider seemed to be somewhere between amused and intrigued.

"So what, you're freelancers?"

"Not in the sense that we ask for people to pay us, but we do trade favours with other agencies every once in a while. 'Course, officially and as far as most people in charge are aware, we don't exist, but the Q network tend to run into each other at conventions and nod's as good as a wink when you got your favourite agent in the shit and no one wants to start a war." Eggsy could almost hear the eyeroll from Merlin at his description of him and his compatriots as the "Q Network" but it were true, weren't it?

Rider raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment. "Right then. What's your mission?"

Eggsy shrugged. "Plug the thingamajig I got into a computer hooked into the main system so that Merlin can hack their data to figure out what these wankers are about. You?"

Rider grimaced. "I've technically gone off mission a bit. I was supposed to be tailing an American ex-pat weapons dealer named Lorna Western, but then she dropped by here and I thought that intel about what the hell a secret military base is doing in the middle of the Shetlands might be a bit significant to my handlers."

Eggsy snorted. "Yeah, these wankers are just your typical doomsday plot by a megalomaniac. Something about releasing some shit into the water supplies. We're grabbing the database so we can figure out how to warn people to stop it before some poor sod gets poisoned."

Rider sighed. "I hate doomsday plots by megalomaniacs," he said a little plaintively. "They tend to get really creative when they try to kill me."

Eggsy nodded, "I know, right? Least normal mercs and whatnot aren't going to try and splode your head with fucking fireworks."

Rider just rolled his eyes. "Try getting locked into a live action simulation of a computer game that's trying to kill you in real life."

"What was the game?"

"Feathered Serpent."

"Oh shit bruv." Eggsy winced. He remembered seeing the footage of the Gameslayer consoles before they had been suddenly not released when the boss of their company had turned out to be some kind of terrorist nutter. (His friend Jamal had been particularly upset about that- he'd been saving his pennies only to learn that he had been about to inadvertently line the bank account of a straight up murdering arsehole. Bit funny how that seemed to keep happening, celebrities trying to fuck the world to supposedly fix it, what with Valentine coming through a couple of years later. Maybe he and Cray had been part of some fucked up club or something and wow, that was something worth running by Merlin later, because you never knew…) "How'd you get out of that?"

"I cheated," Rider replied deadpan.

Eggsy grinned at that.

"Fair 'nough." He tilted his head. "What say you we work together to get this shit plugged in for Merlin and then we fuck off for a pint?"

Rider, a somewhat odd expression on his face, took a moment to consider, and then shrugged.

"Sure, why not."

Twenty minutes and four downed goons later, and the two of them were stealing a car.

Well, Eggsy was stealing a car and Rider was playing look-out with a gun he had managed to swipe off one of the goons.

Turned out Rider was a crack shot, which was handy because he had to shoot another three goons who busted in whilst Eggsy jimmied the lock and hotwired the silver sportscar that they'd found parked out the front.

"Get the fuck in, bruv!" he shouted, and Rider ducked into the car and threw his belt on whilst Eggsy threw the car into gear.

"That's the fastest I've ever seen someone steal a car," said Rider, and he sounded impressed, rather than a bit scornful like some of the other Kingsmen had been. (Apparently it was fine to ask Merlin for a universal key to unlock and run cars with electric locks and ignitions, but it was plebeian to get the same job done with a bit of metal and a leatherman. Sometimes Eggsy really wondered about his colleagues.)

Eggsy just grinned as he burned rubber around a corner.

"You just never lived in the right neighbourhoods bruv."

As it was, they never did get their pint, because by the time they lost the goons, Merlin told Rider through Eggsy that his mark was about to skip town and Eggsy had to get back to base.

It was a bit disappointing (it sounded like Rider didn't half have a couple of stories) but Eggsy left Rider with a business card.

"Been nice workin' with ya. Give us a call if you ever in a shit spot and you need some under the radar help, or you just got time to catch me for that pint, yeah?"

Rider had favoured Eggsy with a genuine smile, and for a second, years dropped off his face and he looked like a kid.

(Eggsy made a mental note to ask Merlin just how old this Rider kid was, because on reflection, Eggsy would eat his brogues if this kid was more than barely legal.)

"I'll do that."

Then he got out of the car and left.

When Eggsy later remembered to ask Merlin about Rider aside from a completely unbelievable set of anecdotes about missions that he was dead certain were more than classified, which said a lot about the quality of Merlin's sources of intel, he learned three things.

The first was that Rider's first name was Alexander.

The second was that the kid had been press-ganged into MI6 at the age of 14.

(Eggsy wasn't sure if he was more shocked that this was even a thing, impressed that Alex was somehow still alive and kicking at least nine kinds of arse, or downright furious on the kid's behalf. Even before they got onto the age thing, forcing someone to do this job when they weren't into it was straight up not right.)

The third thing was that if he ever met this Blunt cunt, then he was going to fuck him up.

...

A/N: Yeah yeah, you all want me working on Yet Mad. It's going to happen, but this happened first.