Chapter 1: Scorpia

As they walked into the auditorium, Alex immediately sensed something was wrong. He scanned the room, noting the teacher's tense body language and the hushed voices of the students. This put Alex's senses on high alert, ready to attack at the slightest hint of danger. It took all of his control not to run away.

The students settled into their seats, and the main speaker walked to the front. Alex watched in suspicion as the deputy head of MI6 started to talk. "I am talking to you today," Mrs Jones said, "as part of a programme to help the younger generations understand some of the threats we are faced with in the current times."

There were suddenly many whispers in the room, but Alex ignored them. He wondered what MI6 were doing in his school, as they never did anything without an ulterior motive. He had been manipulated too many times before to believe that this situation was a coincidence.

The whispers ceased as Mrs Jones continued, the students now paying full attention. "I am talking about Scorpia," she said, and the screen above displayed the image of a scorpion. Alex however, turned pale at this new turn in events, terror piercing his eyes, before he locked everything away behind a mask of steel, hiding his fear. Why did it have to be Scorpia? Surely there was another organisation that was more important for the students to worry about? Unfortunately, Alex knew that this was not true. Having faced Scorpia before, Alex knew there was no group more terrifying - he just wished that he didn't have to stay and listen to the descriptions of the people in his nightmares.

Tom noticed Alex's reaction, but only knew a small amount about why his best friend was acting this way. As far as he knew, Alex had managed to bring down one of their operations a while ago, and this meant that they would apparently always be looking for him, to get their revenge. Tom guessed that Alex had good reason to look so afraid.

Mrs Jones carried on with her presentation, and displayed some of the heads of Scorpia on the screen, whilst telling the students a little about each. With a sinking heart and growing dread, Alex recognised all of the faces shown, trying to lock away the unpleasant memories that this particular talk was dredging up. Forcing himself to concentrate, Alex pulled himself away from past. He didn't like to think about what was coming next.

In the pause before the next part of her speech, Mrs Jones swept the room with her observant eyes. Most of the students were looking subdued and slightly frightened, which was the purpose of this talk. However, there was also a group of boys at the back of the auditorium who thought Scorpia was very funny and who were cracking jokes about some of the assassins. Mrs Jones flinched and thought that they were very lucky that these particular assassins could not hear them right now, otherwise they would be in for a huge shock. Glancing around again, the woman saw Alex. He had a completely blank face, showing no emotion and Mrs Jones almost cracked when she saw what MI6 had turned the boy into. She had always felt guilty for using Alex, but then he was so good at his work that it would be criminal not to put his talents to good use. Unfortunately, Mrs Jones had a feeling that Alex would not like the next part of her presentation even more.

Sighing mentally, the deputy head of MI6 pressed a button on her remote and the screen above her turned blank as she continued with her speech. "However," the woman said, "Scorpia are not as large a threat as they were before." Muttering broke out amongst the teenagers and Alex glared at Mrs Jones in complete and utter fury, venom in his eyes, as he could see where this next part was leading. But Mrs Jones carried on. "An MI6 agent has recently managed to foil two of their operations, at great personal expense." This announcement brought a tide of rapid whispers into the room, as everyone digested the news.

Alex was frozen. Great personal expense? He felt white hot anger brewing inside him. No one knew just how much he had sacrificed on those missions. No one except him. Beside Alex, Tom watched as his friend visibly started seething. Tom was now extremely worried at what his friend would do if this went on for much longer.

"Any questions?" Mrs Jones asked, and this snapped Alex out of his furious thoughts, having completely missed the last part of her speech. One boy up his hand laughing and said, "What is this so called 'super spy's' name?" Everyone could hear the mocking tone in the boy's voice, and they waited in silence for the woman to answer. However, before she could, they heard a low voice, dripping with acid, replying, "What would you care?"

Everyone looked around for the mysterious speaker, and Alex, who hadn't realised he said his thought aloud, panicked. This was the final straw for his tensed muscles, and before he knew it, he was running out of the auditorium and out of the school, his mind in a frenzy.