"Alex Rider," hissed Julia Rothman.

"Alex Rider," coughed Herod Sayle.

"Alex Rider," glared Winston Yu.

"Alex," said Jack. "Alex, time to get up." When she got no response she started shaking him.

Something was wrong, Alex recognised that---- they were calling his name more urgently now and something was different with their tone of voice----this one was much more comforting, caring.

"Alex, Alex!! Get up Alex; you'll be late to school!"

Jack sighed in relief as Alex sat up, a little disoriented looking.

"Alex," she called softly, wanting to attract his attention. He whipped his head round to face her and she saw that his face was covered in sweat.

"Another one?" she asked, and her heart ached because she couldn't help him with this problem----couldn't take the weight off his shoulders.

Alex nodded his head. This last nightmare had been especially vivid compared to the others he had been having over the past couple weeks. He felt as if they had been standing in front of him, mocking him, calling his name.

Jack just shook her head, an angry expression on her face as she muttered under her breath, "…would never have even started if they had just left him alone…" by which point Alex tuned out as Jack went into her daily rant about MI6 and how they had ruined both their lives.

"Jack," he said. "Jack." He tried one last time "JACK!!!"

"… and as for that Mrs Jones… what? Oh, yes Alex, what do you want?"

Alex sighed; Jack was the best guardian he could have hoped for apart from her rants about MI6 and cluelessness at times.

"Jack, could you please get out of my room while I change?"

Jack was still not quite with it again. "What? Oh yes, school. I'll just go downstairs and pack your schoolbag for you. Where did'ya put your timetable again?"

"I left it on the table last time I remember," Alex called down the stairs after her as he shut his door and got changed for school. He grabbed his now packed bag off the table on the way out and a piece of toast with a bit of butter on it. As he was about to get on his bike he remembered his watch which was still sitting on his nightstand. Quickly, he ran up the stairs, grabbed his watch and called out a goodbye to Jack.

"Bye Jack. Gotta go, I'm late!"

Then he all but jumped on his bike and started pedalling furiously towards Brookland. When he reached the playground, there was nobody in sight. Quickly, he spun the bike into a sliding stop while getting his bike lock out of his pocket and readying it to be put on his bike. It wasn't necessary but in all his fourteen years, Alex had learned that it didn't hurt to overly cautious.

Swiftly he snapped the bike lock on the bike and ran into school. Through the main doors, past reception down the corridor on the right and into the third classroom on the left. Due to his current fitness state, he wasn't out of breath, panting or tired in the least, but a normal teenager would be. Alex was careful to hold his breath while he ran down the corridor so that by the time he reached his class, he would be panting for breath.

He burst through the door and put his hands on his knees, panting for breath, hopefully giving the impression that he was tired and out of breath.

"Sorry I'm late, sir," he gasped.

"It's okay, Alex. Please take your seat and see that it doesn't happen again," Mr Cameron said.

Alex made his way to his seat next to Tom, who grinned and whispered to him, "What's with the hold up?"

"Tell you later," Alex replied out of the corner of his mouth, while getting out his books.

The period passed slowly, as did the next 5. It happened when they were in English, the subject in which everybody fell asleep due to the teacher's method of teaching, which was to give them comprehension after comprehension. The teacher's name? Mr Simpson.

So when a man and a woman, both dressed in black, entered the room, most of the class welcomed the intrusion. Most of the class being everybody but Mr Simpson and Alex. Mr Simpson because he hated being interrupted and Alex because he had a nagging feeling in his gut that told that these people were no good. The strange thing was, he felt like he knew the woman. She had an hourglass figure, dark brown/black eyes, a slightly tanned complexion, long black hair that reached her waist and was wearing black stilettos.

She spoke first.

"You," she said, looking at Mr Simpson with contempt. "Sit down on the floor now, with your hands above your head. Move slowly."

As of the moment Alex heard her voice and saw her eyes, he knew he was dealing with a professional. Her eyes were bottomless, hollow pits that reflected everything around her, but didn't hold any emotion. Alex knew from his Karate training that a person's voice could give away their character, and what he heard was not good. Her voice was like a razor, sharp, cruel and cold, which told him that she was a sweet, lovable person. Yeah right.

Then he heard Mr Simpson start to speak and his attention swung back to his teacher, who quite frankly, was an idiot for not doing what the woman said.

"Hold on here a second," he began, and Alex groaned internally, but he was cut off by the man. He had been so quiet that Alex had near forgotten about him.

"I suggest that you do as she says," he said menacingly, reaching behind him and pulling out a gun, which he cocked and pointed at his head.

Ignoring the gun, Mr Simpson ploughed on as if the interruption had never happened, "Just who do you think you are coming in her and disrupting a class of schoolchildren who are learning vital skills for later on in life?"

Alex was now convinced that Mr Simpson was incredibly brave, or incredibly stupid. His thoughts tended to lean towards the latter.

The woman grinned viciously, and began to speak.

"I don't remember telling you to speak? Do you?" she said, turning to her partner, who grinned in the exact same way and shook his head.

"Oh well, guess I'll have to kill you. What a pity," she said, her voice implying the complete opposite.

"Before you die, I will grant you your last question. We are the enemy." And with that, she drew out a gun and shot him in cold blood. The body of Mr Simpson swayed and then crumpled to the floor, splattering blood everywhere. A few girls screamed.

"Silence," the woman said, turning the gun on the whole class. At once the class was still, barely daring to breathe. Alex continued to stare at the woman as she walked over to Mr Simpson's desk and started sorting through the papers on his desk, looking for something. All the while the man was holding his gun pointed at the class. Alex knew he had to do something but he wanted more information on them. Eventually she found what she was looking for and Alex recognised it----the name register that each teacher called to see who was absent and who was in school at the start of each period. Alex was a little confused. What would they want with the register? And then it hit him. They were going to be held captive and they needed to know the names of the people they were bringing and of course if anybody tried to run off, they could easily find out who it was.

The woman was checking through it right now for the sixth period class. Alex looked around the room and noticed the scared expressions on his classmates' faces, suddenly aware that his expression was calm. He hurried to put a terrified look on his face like the one on Jessica Gipson's.

It appeared the woman had found the list as she started to talk again.

"Alright, listen up! When I call your name, you're going to stand up and give me two facts on your abilities. Not, for example, I like to play with my Barbies. We want to know information," she barked out. "For example, I have done my silver swimming award, I can run 3 miles and not get tired, I can fire a gun, that sort of thing. Right then, what are you waiting for?"

First person up was Jonathon Andrews. He rose from his seat slowly.

"Faster!" barked out the woman. "When I give you an order I expect you to move! Now," she said, "any special abilities?"

"I-I…uh…I mean...um...I can swim 1600m without getting tired," Jonathon replied, getting more confident.

The woman smiled sweetly at him. "Good! Sit down!" she paused to write down what he had said.

"Levi Aldrich," she called.

"Nothing."

"Sit!"

It was then that Alex noticed it, surprised that he hadn't before. A small silver scorpion tattooed onto the skin between her forefinger and thumb.

The hiss slid through his teeth accidently, "Scorpia."

The reactions he got to that word were amazing. The class began murmuring.

"Scorpia? What's that?" "I've never heard of it before." "This is Rider remember?"

"Yeah but what does it mean?"

The man trained the gun on him as soon as the word escaped his lips. The woman however appeared unfazed, busy writing down what Levi had said. When she was finished she pointed to him with the pen.

"Up, boy," she commanded. Alex stood up. "Name?" she questioned.

"Alex Rider," Alex said.

The woman had begun to write his name down when suddenly she stopped.

"Alex Rider?"

The rest of his class was watching Alex and the strange woman in confusion. Alex readied himself for an attack coming from her when, all of a sudden, she tipped her head back and laughed.

"No way. This is not the infamous Alex Rider?!" she said. "Come here. Now!"

Alex slowly walked to the front of the class.

"Now, Alex. Someone here in your class asked a very good question, which we answered, which you chose to answer in more explicit detail. Would you please explain to your class what Scorpia is?"

Alex stared at the woman with hate in his eyes. "No," he said, very deliberately.

"I beg your pardon?" the woman asked.

"You heard me," Alex said, growing tired of playing games. Every fibre in his body was screaming at him to attack.

"But Alex," she said, her voice sounding sickly sweet. "Don't they know what you do? Why you're gone from school all the time?"

This time the class were looking at Alex with curiosity. Alex personally felt sick. If the truth got out…

"I'm afraid I don't know what you were talking about," Alex replied, trying to play it cool.

"Oh but I think you do, Alex," she said loud enough for them all to hear. "You didn't tell them, did you? So it remains my duty to inform all subordinates of your status." She paused to take a breath.

"Alex Rider, is, in fact a spy…"

And that's when Alex attacked. He couldn't help himself. He kicked and blocked and punched when appropriate. It was all over quickly. The woman left her guard down for a minute and Alex struck her temple with his elbow, knocking her out. He pushed her to the ground before taking the gun strapped to her arm. Cocking the gun, Alex looked around the room. He hadn't even broken a sweat.

His classmate' expressions were pictures, even Tom's. In fact he wouldn't be surprised if their jawbones were discovered in China. Tearing his gaze away from them he saw the man standing at the far side of the classroom still holding the gun.

That's when the whispers began.

"What the…?" "How'd he do that?" "I didn't know Rider was so good at Karate."

"Do yo think he's really a spy?" "Na, what did the woman mean by status?"

Alex sighed. There went normality out the window. Then the man started to talk.

"Alex is a spy," he confirmed. A few of his classmates still looked sceptical at this, but the majority looked as if they believed him.

"Cool," said Johnathon. "Do you mean, as in, like MI6?"

The man nodded. Alex was getting a bit tired of them all talking about him like he wasn't here.

"That's enough from you," he said, pointing the gun at the man.

"But Alex," the man protested, a small, cruel smile on his face. "We haven't even got into your history of missions. Did you tell your friends that you've been to Cuba? Mont Blanc? Inside an Air Force 1 plane? Bangkok? Flamingo Bay? Venice?" he hissed out the last word.

He continued with his narration of Alex's life, "Oh yes. You've been to Venice," he said with malicious intent in his eyes. "Who here went on the school trip to Venice a few months back?"

Alex groaned as members of his class raised their hands.

"Did you ever wonder where he disappeared to? Did you really think he'd gone home? Alex Rider came to Scorpia."

The whole class looked a bit confused by now, Tom included. Alex mentally whacked himself on the forehead. He'd left out this part of his spying adventure in his explanation to Tom.

"Tell them Alex or I will, I'll tell them by shooting this young girl here. Tell them about Scorpia," the man said.

Alex dropped the gun in defeat and started talking.

"Scorpia, correct me if I get any of this wrong, sir," Alex said, laying an emphasis on the sir, making it sarcastic. "Sabotage, Corruption, Intelligence and Assassination. Those are what the letters of Scorpia stand for and it's their main activity points. "That's what we do," the man said nodding his head for emphasis.

"Now tell us, Alex. How did you come to know this? The whole story, please."

"I was told this by Mrs Rothman when I decided to join Scorpia," There were gasps from all around the room when he said this. "I then went to Malagosto to be trained."

Alex shut his mouth, aware that he had said way too much.

"Good. Alex, tell us, please, what they were teaching you on Malagosto," the man said, eyes sparkling with joy at Alex's demise.

"How to kill," Alex answered as if he was a robot.

"Now little kiddies we're going to here from Alex how the story ends."

"I was sent to kill the second in command of MISO," Alex was enjoying watching the looks on his friends faces in a strange way. It comforted him to know that he hadn't been entirely unprepared for the day when he would be forced to tell his friends everything. "I failed and MI6 captured me again. I prevented you all from dying. The End."

"But Alex," the man said. "You haven't explained your injury to them yet."

This time the class' mutterings were louder. They had all noticed that Alex came back to school rather battered.

"I refuse to do that," Alex said in a clear voice. "It is irrelevant."

"Very well, then. I will tell them. Alex here was a fool to cross Scorpia and as he walked out of MI6 headquarters we had a surprise waiting…."

Alex lunged across the room, which was jus what the man wanted. Alex saw the sheen of the knife's blade but was too late to stop it. He was a little confused when he felt no pain and then he realised that hurting him hadn't been the man's intention, all he'd wanted to do was slit his shirt. From top to bottom. Alex threw his shirt on the floor and dived after the man again. But before he reached him, the man called out, "Look. Now you can all see the surprise we gave Alex." Alex looked down and realised that his scar from his bullet wound was visible.

All his classmates were staring at him in wonder, Tom as well. Alex hadn't told him he'd been shot ever. He hated talking about it.

Alex stopped running at the man, turned, went back to where the gun was lying on the floor and lifted it off the ground. He made sure the safety was on and walked towards the man.

"Did you tell them you went into space Alex?" he said hoping to throw him off guard.

But Alex replied with a calm, "No."

And then he ran at the man, swinging the gun as if it were a club, but the man got there first and stabbed him in the arm with his blade. Alex ignored the sudden pain and clubbed the man over the head with the gun. The man fell to the floor unconscious. Alex yanked out the blade and used it to shred his shirt into six strips to tie up the man with. He used three. One for his hands, ankles and a gag for his mouth. Then he walked over to the woman and did the same to her. And then he faced his class.

"Is anybody will to donate their shirt or have an extra one? Girls do you have a jump rope or some long thread?" Alex asked his class.

Then Tom took off his shirt and gave it to Alex.

"Thanks," he said. And proceeded to shred that shirt as well.

"Now, does anyone have water?" A girl out her hand up and Alex went to take it from her.

"Thanks," he said again. He pored about a quarter of the water onto one strip which he used to clean his wound and then he just splashed water on his face and wet a few others which he bound around his arm over the wound.

Then he made his way back to his seat and sat down. Everyone was looking at him.

Alex sighed, "Alright. What do you want to know?" immediately a babble of voices