Chapter 1- Changing of the Guards

It was a typical night in King's Cross. The sounds of gunshots, the sirens of emergency vehicles, the rattle of the elevated train line and streetcars zooming by were all added into the gritty ambiance of the urban atmosphere. Even unusually late at this hour many streets in the city were still hustling and bustling with human activity and most shops were still open even. A strike contrast however near at one particular area at the docks since it was abandoned for about 15 years ago at the end of the Second World War. It was a wonder why the City Council still weren't bothered by it. No soul was there as the buildings were devoid of human life but strangely it didn't show any sign of decay at all. Could it be that someone actually occupied one of the buildings there?

"How goes in Sector 17?" a young adult female asked.

"Quiet as a tomb." Another young adult female answered as she watches the monitor screens.

"Bridget," yet another young adult female called as she lowered her headphones down. "Our informant Monkeyman is on line three." She informed.

"Patch him through." Bridget ordered.

"Yes, milady." and she did so.

"Bridget?" a distorted static noise called her.

"Yes, Monkeyman," Bridget said. Dissatisfied by the unwanted noise, she turned her head to a person near the receiver booth. "Boost the frequency a bit, Candice." She ordered.

"As you wish, milady." She answered and proceeded to do so.

The voice finally became crystal clear. "Bridget? Bridge, are you there?"

"We can hear you loud and clear, Monkeyman. What can we do for you?" Bridget asked.

"I don't know…" he said with a trail of panic. "I've been following these two suspicious characters for two hours now… M-Monkeyman… and they're like stopping at the back of the Bank of England… and I have a bad feeling about it… Monkeyman… I'm going to need some backup, incase anything happens."

"Affirmative," She answered back as she puts on a communicator on her head, "attention Agent Natasha and Agent Sarah, your assistance is greatly needed in Sector 39."

"That's a confirmative," Agent Natasha replied on the other side of the line and Bridget nodded. "Continue as ordered, meet our informant Monkeyman there, over and out." She then put the communicator on the cradle walking away from it as she tried to find a chair to sit because she was too tired after been working for sixteen hours non-stop. Luckily, there was one unoccupied near the coffee maker and she quickly went to it. She then took a mug from the table and poured a cup for herself. As she looked at the warm cup of coffee, she sighed depressively because she had agreed to a decision that she didn't want to do.

"Feeling down in the dumps today, Bridget?" her friend asked as she jolted something down on the clipboard.

"Yeah… just a few more weeks until I get decommissioned, Jessie. I really don't want to do it… I really don't… I don't wanna leave this fine organization…" she paused for a while. "But what can I do? It's inevitable. I'm sure going to miss being a secret agent and all…" She said dejectedly.

"Hey, cool it, don't be sad…" Jessie comforted as she placed a hand on Bridget's shoulder, "all of us will get decommissioned sooner or later. Come on, it's hard for us too you know. Without your guidance and leadership, this organization would've fallen apart years ago."

Bridget smiled weakly, "Oh come on Jessie, I'm not the only person who's doing all the work around here. All of you are doing a wonderful job too."

"We all do." Jessie said with a smile, and Bridget responded with a smile too. "Say, regarding the standard procedure, have you selected fresh new recruits for the organization?" Jessie asked, trying to focus on her job this time.

"Potentials' information should arrive any minute now. I asked Aishya and Michelle a week ago to hack into every British group database to find any possible new recruits."

"Hack? Don't you have any more professional and legal way to obtain the files?"

"Well, while I do admit it's a little unethical but the City Council had granted special rights to us to do anything if we were to acquire new recruits."

"Really?" she said in disbelief, "since when the City Council acknowledged the existence of our little secret organization here?"

"Apparently, the mayor was one of the organization's first members." With that little bit of information, Jessie lowered a half of her eyebrow in complete bafflement.

Jessie shook her head. "For God's sake, you've got to be kidding me." She said in utter doubt.

"Yeah, that's what everybody said when they first heard it." Bridget replied with a half-smile as she took a sip from her coffee.

"Oww, hot…"

"Milady, potentials' information is up and ready." Somebody informed.

"Ah, finally., Bridget said in relief. "Patch it to the big screen, Wren." She ordered as she got up from her seat. "Could you excuse me for a moment, Jessie?" Jessie nodded and walked away from her.

"With pleasure." Wren said, then did as ordered. The screen lit up with a picture of someone's face, his personal information like height, weight, age, race, hair color, his whereabouts and what job he had. "Here's potential #1290 – Terence 'Jet' Harris."

"Jet Harris? Isn't he the cute one in the Shadows?" Bridget asked.

"Presumably." Wren replied.

"Wow, talk about all-time twist of fate… is he just good as 007?"

"He's a tough, street-smart young man with an attitude to boot. He once rescued a girlfriend of his named Carol Costa from a group of ninjas."

"Ah, yes… I remember that man," Bridget said as she snapped her fingers. "So he's the one who rescued Carol Costa from a group of ninjas working for EVIL… He'll make a great agent, hell, even replacing me as chief."

"Even if it's a long shot, he could surpass 007, one of the best agents we had…"

Wren pushed the same button again, "here's potential #1291 – Hank B. Marvin," Again the screen changed revealing Hank's information. "A man with a great fashion sense, persuasive and most importantly, rich."

"Heh, he'd be a great relief for our cash-strapped organization. Next."

"#1292 – Daniel Joseph Anthony 'Tony' Meehan. Has the book smarts, intelligent, diligent, has fencing skills but unfortunately, lacks physical strength. "

"Never mind, we can train him for that. Next one."

"And finally, potential #1294 – Bruce Welch. He's very knowledgeable about nature so he'll be a great asset to us if we ever have to do missions at the outskirts of the city."

"I see but how come all of them are in the Shadows? Didn't Michelle program the algorithms to search and analyze for a potential from every group in England?" Bridget said as she took another sip from the coffee.

"She did," Wren replied. "But they kept coming back with the same results. All these four boys are the city's best of the best."

"Interesting," Bridget said. "I want Agent Farrah to get a hold of Tony, Agent Natalie for Bruce and and Agent Elaine for Hank. And I want every one of the potentials to be here tomorrow as band practice is over."

"Affirmative," Wren said. "But what about Jet, the cute one?"

"He's mine," Bridget promptly said cracking her knuckles. "I'll be reeling him in."

Thus the reason why the abandoned buildings at the docks weren't so abandoned. It was retrofitted, upgraded and converted into a secret organization's main base of operations.

Chapter 2- The Recruitment

"And it has been told that if and ONLY if the leader step down from his or her post," a redheaded young man told the tale animatedly in his best preacher impersonation. "One will take his or her place as the new leader and three will join in and will become as one of them as agents. And so goes the secret spy organization, unique only to this very city and none others anywhere else in this great land." And with that, Gerald closed his urban legend tale with a bow followed by a round of applause from the crowd who were listening to him.

"Heh, the same old Gerald…" Hank Marvin chuckled in incredulity.

"I don't know, Hank," Bruce Welch replied. "His urban legends always end up being real in the end. And I believe this particular one'll end up just as same as all of his other tales."

"Oh come on, Bruce. Those are just coincidence. What are you hearing just now are kids' stories and I seriously doubt that any of it is true. I mean, c'mon? Mixed-gender secret spy organization? Hey, I'm all for equal rights and all but don't you think that's a little too much?"

"Well, whether it's real or not, Gerald made it sound ever so very convincing." Tony Meehan intervened and the two guitarists nodded in agreement.

"Hey, Gerald," someone in the crowd called him. "You expect us to believe all this crap?" it was Terance 'Jet' Harris.

"Jet, I'm telling the truth." Gerald replied back.

"You want to know what I think about your story? I think it's a load of bullcrap, just like everthing else that comes out from your mouth." And with that crude remark, it drew some chuckles from the crowd.

"Hey, Gerald, he's attacking your credibility! You're not just going to sit around and shut up, are ya?" someone shouted in the crowd.

God, I hate that man, Gerald thought. "Well, at least my mouth isn't some infested cesspit spewing filth," he retorted back coolly and the crowd chuckled louder. "I'm not expecting you to believe it, Jet. I'm just here to tell the tale." He then continued and replied to her like a true raconteur.

"Although I'm skeptical of the story, I feel that the legend is very entertaining and informative nontheless, as usual coming from Gerald of course." Tony shared his view.

"Thanks, Tony. It's nice to know that I have a fan." Gerald said with a warm voice. Tony grinned at the remark.

Tony was on the bus to his parents house in Hampstead. And because the decathalons were a month away, he took the opportunity to grab his books and study. "Let see… The Code of Hammurabi contains 282 articles of laws written on stones and placed at public places." Tony read to pass time. "Oh dear, the academic decathlon competition's gonna be hard…"

The bus stopped and a new batch of passengers came in. One of them was a young female adult and since the seat next to Tony was empty, she took a seat next to her.

"Studying?" she asked.

Tony was slightly startled. "What? Oh yeah. I need to study trivia and facts for my academic decathlon."

"Ah, the decathlons… It brings a lot of memories let me tell you that. My team used to be the statewide champion, you know."

"Really?" he said. "Which country?"

"Well, London of course."

"In what year did your team won the decathlon?"

"Some six or seven years ago."

"My team's been winning the state decathlons for ten years in a row," Tony informed. "Somehow I have a feeling you're a former student in my secondary school."

"Heh, maybe I am."

"Come to think of it, you do look awfully familiar. I think saw your face on the 'Wall of Scholars' once…"

"That's probably me," she said with a smile. "Say, I'm doing a survey for the State Education Department and I'd love if you would partake in the survey and fill this questionaire form. Can you help me out please?"

"Survey? In regards of what?"

"Oh, the British band's stuff like are you happy with the current hours, band members - very basic stuff."

"Sure, I'll be happy to." Tony nodded. He then took his pen out and filled the forms. On every question, he comtemplated carefully before he wrote it down. The stranger was impressed by his attentiveness. "Hmm... he's right after all. What a smart cookie."

"I think I'm done. Here you are." Tony said as he gave her the papers back.

"Thank you," she replied. "And here's my card just to prove that I'm for real." she said. "Oh, damn… I think I'm nearing my stop. See you later." she waved at her as she got up from her seat and disembarked from the bus and Tony waved back. Tony watched her reached something from her handbag. It was a grappling hook.Tony was stunned as it was something out of the ordinary. She aimed the grappling hook on the roof a building nearby and pulled the trigger. She saluted him, reeled herself away and finally she was gone from Tony's view.

"My god, that's the most outlandish thing I've ever seen!" Tony said as he reached the card that the stranger gave to him earlier. He stared relentlessly at the card but found nothing important (it was the State Edu Dept. address). He then flipped it over and found something interesting. And with that, he remembered the urban legend that Gerald told earlier. "Temping offer, Darling. I'll see what your organization's got to offer."

After leaving the Two Is, Hank was shopping for new clothes in an upscale trendy mall in one of the classiest parts of the city - one of his usual hangouts. "No, no, no, no, no, no," he disagreed. "Those colors clash with each other and they make me look ugly if I were wearing it. Go and pick something else, will you?" Hank ordered as he shook his head and the attendee nodded and went away back into the stock room to find something that would satisfy Hank. "These people know nothing of fashion…"

"If I may suggest these to you, Miss…" out of nowhere another employee came to him and recommended him a green shirt.

"Oh… that's great," Hank replied delightfully. "If I may ask, where did you garner such taste for fashion?"

"I was in the Liverpool School of Design, Sir."

"Ah yeah, the highly respected fashion school around Dingle. What a wonderful choice! You've got my full compliments."

"Thank you, Sir. If you could excuse me for a while, I've got something very important to attend to."

"Carry on." He said as he contemplated whether he should buy that great shirt. "Hey, what's this?" he spotted a card underneath the garment. It didn't look like a price tag to him. "it can't be for me... it could be hers…" he muttered under her breath. "Wait, Love! I think you dropped something!" he shouted at her.

"Just read it!" she replied as she fired a grappling hook outside from the window. With a wink, she swung herself outside. Hank threw the shirt away and sprinted to the window but she was already gone. Still dazed, he walked back to the bench he was sitting earlier and picked the card up and read it. "Fight crime? What is this? Does she think I'm that gullible?" he said in disbelief. "But then again, she did have that grappling hook and the clichéd mysterious spy demeanor." And he read the card again. "Sorry… not interested." He said and flipped the card over. On the other side, the card said: "You get to wear chic outfits!"

I'm there! So Gerald's legends does have some merits after all. We'll see if this so-called 'spy organization' have what it takes to have me in their little club. he thought with a smirk.

Bruce was in the local park to find some new insects to be added into his collection. He always wanted to follow into her father's footstep, to become an entomologist. He was at the largest oak tree on the highest hill in the park, searching for some new insects to add. "Hmm… this is a rare discovery. An Oryctes Rhinoceros (Rhinoceros Beetle) living in this very park?" He wondered as she picked the creature up. "I thought your habitat was in the rainforests. You must've escaped from a pet shop or something. You poor thing…" he said as he gently petted the beetle.

"Excuse me… I know this is going to sound very silly but by any chance have you seen a large beetle wondering about?" a female stranger asked him.

"I think I'm holding it right now." Bruce said as he showed her the beetle.

"Ah… thank you so much. Could you put her in this cage for me?" Bruce nodded. "Thank you." The stranger replied. "I'm an undergraduate at the local community college; my professor would kill me if I lose the little guy here. But thanks to you, I finally found it."

"How did the beetle got out?" Bruce asked her as he looked at the insect.

"I was preparing to do an experiment when all of the sudden this bratty kid came by and kicked the cage. The beetle got out and flew away."

"That's terrible, kids nowadays have no appreciation for mother nature. Man, she's such a beautiful creature…" Bruce said with amazement.

"She is, isn't she?" the stranger replied back. "Say, I want to show you my appreciation for finding my beetle but I don't have anything on me right now except for this card. So, if you happen in need of anything, just give me a call." She said as she gave Bruce the card.

"Wait a minute; this card doesn't have her name or her number on it."

"Hey, I think you gave me the wrong --" he stopped as he saw something that he couldn't believe his eyes. A hang glider shot out from the stranger's bag. She then ran downhill to gain momentum, jumped up and instantly flew upwards into the sky. "If you're interested, come and visit us today!" she shouted from above. Still in disbelief, she looked at the card again. "Heh… Gerald. Where did you get all those urban legends?"

Jet rode his motorbike home in complete irritation muttering countinuous string of profanities. He couldn't believe that the bus left him even after he grabbed his bike and vroomed off after it and banged the side as a signal to ask the driver to stop. But the driver didn't stop and because of that, he had to ride 17 blocks to just get home. And because of that, he really wanted something bad to happen to that driver. He stopped at his tracks when he saw the pedestrian light went red. He rolled his eyes and without any choice, he waited for it to turn green again. As he waited impatiently, someone approached him from behind.

"Beautiful day, huh?" the stranger asked.

Jet looked at the person and scoffed. "Yeah right, Darling…" the stranger was wearing a typical female outfit for the autumn season, a bag and a pair of sunglasses.

"Sounds like someone's feeling a little bit moody today." the stranger said jokingly.

"Look, Love, I don't know what're your motives are but mind your own goddamn business!" he pointed at her as he scowled. "I'm having a bad day today."

"Hey, wait a minute… he looks awfully familiar…"

"I can see that. Would you believe that I'm actually here to help you out and offering you to have an experience of a lifetime?"

"Look, how many times do I have to tell you to leave-me-ALONE?!" Jet yelled uninterested at the offer. But the stranger still kept her cool. "I've gotta admit, he's one feisty character."

"Here's my card." The stranger offered him. In complete exasperation, Jet took the card, in hoping that if he took it, the stranger would leave him alone.

"Just give it a thought, will you?" the stranger said with a smile.

"Okay." he said as she put it inside the left pocket of his black leather jacket and the green light finally lit.

"Well, see you around sometimes. Gotta go!"

Finally! Jet thought in relief.

The stranger then pushed a button on her belt and out comes a pair of jetpacks from her bag. Jet's eyes widened in shock, speechless at the sight. The stranger then rocketed away from him. "If you're interested, visit us todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyy…" and the voice trailed off and she was gone from Jet's sight.

Jet's jaw dropped all the way to the floor, still in disbelief at what he just saw. Slowly, he took the card that the stranger gave to him earlier out from his jacket pocket and read it.

WORLD ORGINISATION OF HUMAN PROTECTION

Are you an adventurous person? Do you like to fight crime, helping others and playing with high tech equipments?
Then visit us today nearby the docks at the abandoned warehouse in the Willesden Green District.
Alone.

"Oh my God… so Gerald is right after all... but I'll pass. It sounds too stupid for me." he said to himself as he threw the card into a trashcan and continued riding off. But after a few blocks, he stopped.

"Then again, I'm very curious about it... Damn you, Terence Harris... you're going to regret it..." he argued with himself. He then got off his bike and walked over to the trash can and took the card out and read the location.

Near Willesden Green station, an accident happened involving a bus and a freight truck. Fortunately, the passengers and the freight truck driver were okay but same thing can't be said to the bus driver…

Although Jet was tired from the biking, he kept going as he really wanted to know what was the fiasco with the jetpacks were all about. "I swear to God, if that girl is pulling any tricks on me I'll -- Tony? What are you doing here?" Jet stumbled upon him at a junction nearby the docks.

"I was following this instruction that some stranger gave to me, Jet." Tony answered as he showed Jet the card.

"Didn't your mum ever tell you not to take anything from strangers?" Jet said jokingly as he reached for Tony's card. "Hey, it looks just as same as mine. Is the person who gave it to you a girl with shoulder length red hair?"

"Uh, no. She's a black female. I believe that she's about your age probably."

"This is getting weird. C'mon, let's just go. The sooner we know what all this crap's about, the better."

"I agree with you." Tony replied.

They then walked to the designated area. Upon arrival, they saw Hank and Bruce looking just as quizzical and puzzled as them.

"What are you guys doing here?" Jet said snidely.

"And what are you doing here, Jet?" Hank retorted. "Hey, Tony." he greeted warmly.

"Some weird girls gave me and Tony here some stupid cards. What's your story?"

"The same as yours. Apparently, all of us received a poorly manufactured card from a bunch of crazy people."

"This is just too weird." Bruce said.

"No, really, you think?" Jet said sarcastically.

"Hey, will you shut up, Jet? We're all in the same predicament here and your snide and sarcastic remarks aren't going to help us!" Hank scolded him in an annoyed tone.

"You should keep your stupid opinions to yourself, Pal!" Jet snapped back angrily as he pointed his finger at Hank. And with that, the arguments, retorts and ripostes began as Bruce tried his best to calm both of them down.

"I sometimes wonder how Cliff still managed to let him be our leader and bass player, Tony." Bruce sighed as he shook his head which the sentiment was shared by Tony.

"Come on, standing around idly won't help us with anything. Let's go search around and find a clue to help us with this unexpected turn of events." Tony suggested and Bruce nodded at it. With the older two Shadows still arguing in the background, Tony and Bruce started to look around their surroundings to find a hint. Bruce inspected around the warehouse's wall and finally found something.

"Hey, Tony, come and take a look at this." Bruce said referring to a large red button with the words 'Do not push! this means you!' on top of it.

"I don't know if you should touch that, Bruce." Tony said being cautious.

"Oh, come on. What could happen?" Bruce said with a smile and pushed it. Suddenly, an alarm rung loudly and made all the boys stop at what they were doing. Then, unexpectedly all of them got shot high up high in the air because they were all trapped in a net and they were reeled upwards.

"Okay, okay. My mistake. I shouldn't have pushed it." Bruce apologized to all of them as they looked at him irritably.

"Now, how are we supposed to get out of here?! Hey Hank, move your bum away from me!"

"Shut up, Jet! I'm already uncomfortable as it is!"

Suddenly, a door nearby was opened, revealing someone whom Jet had already known.

"I knew I remember you from somewhere! You're that girl that brought that brooch to Carol, weren't you?!" Jet accused her which he was right. That person was wearing a tight black leathered uniform with matched his jacket with her red hair untied.

She chose to ignore Jet's accusation. "Okay, so which one of you touched my button?" she asked.

"Oh God!! Rephrase PLEASE?!" Hank said in repulsion.

Chapter 3- World Orginiastion Of Human Protection

The door opened and finally, it gave the Shadows a first glimpse of the very active spy organization. For obvious security reasons, two other agents flanked the young men as they followed Bridget from behind. As they walked through the area, the guests scanned the place in awe, for they saw computer terminals, servers, maps hanging on the walls at a certain area of the place with some agents diligently charting and graphing them, telecommunication operators, strategy planners, a large screen and a coffee maker. Jet was the first to ask a question.

"So, Bridge – let me get this straight; this is the headquarters of your secret spy organization, isn't it?" he asked but Bridget kept mum. "With the women running all over the place, you guys must be feeling very lonely..." he added snidely with a smirk followed by some snickers from the guests. They stopped at their tracks as they reached another door.

"Well, most of us aren't. Although we are busy sometimes, we do have the free time to spend with our significant others and all." Bridget denied as she slid a card on the reader next to the door. Tony was uneasy with the new surroundings so he scanned around to make himself familiarize with the place. He saw an agent looking at her with flirting eyes and gave Tony a wink and made a soft purring noise with her hand making a catlike gesture. Tony chuckled nervously at that and averted his eyes away. "Oh god…"

"What are you doing?" an agent asked to the agent who flirted with Tony earlier.

"Just having some fun, make the potentials freak out a little bit." he replied with a smirk.

"Access granted. Welcome Bridget." A monotonous computerized voice declared. The door opened and they went into a conference room. Inside the room there was a large meeting table, the kind that you see in most offices, a large screen with a slide projector positioned to it and the English flag placed at the corner next to the screen. Bridget went forward to the front and sat at the middle chair. The two agents who escorted them earlier sat on either side next to her. "Please, take a seat." Bridget offered and the Shadows took a seat at the remaining unoccupied chairs.

Bridget firmly placed her hands on the table, clasping them together as she broke the ice. "Guys, first of all we would like to extend our gratitude for showing an interest to the World Orginastion Of Human Protection or as we here call it, WOOHP."

What the hell? WOOHP? Hank thought incredulously as he lowered a half of his eyebrow.

Bridget continued "We know that all of you have a lot of questions to ask so by following our standard policy we let the potentials – i.e. you; to ask twenty questions on anything regarding about this organization. I'll disregard any questions that don't have to do anything with WOOHP so please choose wisely. And I mean it."

"(1)I'll start with the most obvious question: What is World Orginisation Of Human Protection?" Tony inquired.

"WOOHP is a secret organization which goal is to make the world safe and protected from any harm and malicious behavior. We are also striving to make this city a crime-free place and to disrupt any ill-mannered organization from wrecking havoc in this city."

"Heh, good luck with the 'crime-free' stuff," Jet said snidely. "(2)Who the hell started this organization, anyway?"

"The person who came up with starting this organization is Colleen; she started it during the early 40's."

"Wow, way back in the 40's…" Bruce said in amazement. "(3)Who is she?" he asked.

"She's one of the first five founding agents of this organization. WOOHP was her brainchild so it's a no-brainer that she's the first elected chief of WOOHP. She's also the daughter of MI6's head R&D (Research and Development) Department. Years ago, her father suggested to the MI6 directors that all of the R&D department should be relocated here considering that London is the most popular of all English metropolises – therefore, it was plausible since our nation's adversary may not have heard of this city and thus, the secrecy is assured. It was fine for a while but due to some logistics problem, they had to abandon their office here in the early 50's, leaving some spy devices for us to tinker and to upgrade."

"(4)So you're saying that most of your equipments are from MI6 then?" Bruce asked again.

"That's correct although they're the rejected ones. So that's where our team of technicians and electronics experts comes in handy. After the equipments come in, the team will look into it thoroughly, read the schematics, and make the final assertion whether the device is acceptable to make adjustments. Most of our new high tech equipments are our own ideas, though they were inspired from the old ones."

"(5)Not that I'm belittling your efforts or anything but are the devices safe after the modifications work are done?" it was Hank's time to ask.

"We subjected them to the harshest test before we issued them to the agents. I can proudly say they are 100% safe."

"Five questions." the agent next to Bridget informed.

"(6)Aside from the high-tech equipments, are the agents being issued with guns?" Jet asked.

"Fortunately, no."

"Damn." Jet muttered under his breath.

"(7)Can I get back to Colleen?" Tony asked. "Why did she want to start a secret spy organization anyway?"

"It's a long story but I'll make it short," Bridget replied as she looked at her watch. "When she was sixteen I think, she got mugged when she got out from a subway station. She changed considerably after that. She became more paranoid of her surroundings and constantly being in a state of alert even when she was in the comfort of her home. Then, she felt that it was high time that she has to do something about it. After the therapy, she felt that nobody should suffer the same ordeal as she did so she secluded herself in her room thinking about what she should do to make the streets safe from crime. She got the inspiration from his father who used to be an agent before he got promoted and driven by her hatred of Communism during that time. So after she banded with a few of her friends at school and secured a place at the docks and some secondhand equipment, WOOHP finally became a realization."

"(8)And just how much has WOOHP contributed to the society?" Hank inquired.

"Official statistics said that street crime has been reduced significantly after the organization was founded."

"Sounds like you're pulling the statistics right up from your bum." Jet snickered snidely.

"Well, it's because of us your bum's safe when you went out for a midnight stroll years ago," Bridget retorted coolly. "What, you think when you were a kid that the streets are perfectly safe even when you went out during the night? I remember the time when you and Carol got out from that fancy French restaurant we managed to suppress a mugger, a drug addict and a snatcher from hurting all of you." Bridget informed with a nonchalant voice but harsh. Bruce and Tony were shocked and got the willies when they heard that. Jet was just stunned and couldn't think of anything to say back at her. She regretted of ever saying that remark and had her head hung in embarrassment. The whole room went silent for a while.

"And… uh… we are all grateful for that," Hank said on behalf of them trying to break the silence. "(9)Getting back to the Twenty Questions business, I am curious on how does this organization recruit their members. How do you guys do it?"

"Policy states that if a normal member is either going to retire or to get decommissioned, she has to find a person to replace her. As for a chief, like myself, is going to retire or to get decommissioned, she has to find five potential new recruits."

"(10)So what are you saying that you are retiring, aren't you?" Tony asked her.

Bridget didn't answer but she gave him a weak melancholic smile.

"Ten questions."

"(11)How does one get decommissioned?" Hank wondered.

"If an agent reached a certain age or graduated from college or any institute of higher learning, or moving away from this city, he or she will get decommissioned."

"(12)And what age is that?" Bruce asked.

"24."

"(13)At what age does one get recruited?" Tony asked.

"Most of the time we either search for a 17 or a 21 year old."

"(14)I don't see any guys here at all. Is this organization open strictly to anyone?" Jet finally asked another question decided to be serious this time around.

"Yes, you could say that. Although we do have some men who acted as our informants."

"(15)Informants? Who are these informants?" Tony asked her.

"They are the honorary agents so to speak. We call them 'Big Brother' agents based on the book 1984."

"BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU." The other girl next to Bridget added jokingly with a spooky voice and made ghastly hand gestures which drew some glares and puzzlement look from the other people inside the room.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she cowered. "Bad joke at a bad time…"

Bridget shook her head and proceeded to elaborate the answer further. "Basically, they are just bunch of guys whom we made allies with. They are our eyes and ears. They are very reliable and can be trusted."

"(16)If I may ask, can I know some of them? It might be useful someday." Bruce intervened.

"Ah… someone is showing a hint of interest in joining." "We'll be glad to." Bridget said as she switches the slide projector on and turned the lights off. "I have the feeling that all of you know most of them." she added as she pushed a button on the remote.

"Here's Informant Stoop Kid." A picture of Stoop Kid showed up on the screen looking very handsome in his red doorman uniform (The abandoned tenement which he stayed was upgraded into a luxury apartment and he was offered a job as the doorman there).

"Stoop Kid? Holy cow," Jet blurted. "Who else? Monkeyman?" he said snidely.

"Yes, Monkeyman is one of our informants too." Bridget replied, and the screen showed a picture of Monkeyman running after an escaped monkey. The guests stared at the image incredulously.

Bridget pushed the same button again, "Here's Pigeon Man." It showed Pigeon Man at the park throwing birdseeds at a flock of pigeons.

"How come all of their informants are crazy hobos?" Jet wondered. "(17)Um… do you have 'normal' people as your informants?"

"We regard all of them are normal but by considering your definition of normal, we have to say Harvey." Bridget said and the screen showed Harvey, the neighborhood mail carrier. "And Fuzzy Slippers." The slide showed a silhouette with a large question mark on it.

"Fuzzy Slippers? Isn't that Jet's cousin Gerald's friend?" Tony inquired. Bridget nodded at it. And with that, she turned the lights on again. "You still have three questions left."

"(18)I'm having a hard time on this, why us? Out of hundreds of thousands of young people living in this city, how come we are the ones who got selected?" Tony inquired.

"Because you four are the Shadows and you're also London's best of the best. We have a computer that run searches for any good potentials judging by their intelligence, various skills and athletic abilities and have it sum it all up to produce the results. And each and every time the results comes out the same: you guys are the best of the best." The Shadows were taken aback when they listened to that. All of them thought the computer must've made some mistake or something when it selected them.

"(19)What can we expect in return assuming that we do accept your offer?" It was Hank's question.

"Respect, honor, appreciation and have your name written in the history books or legends if you prefer."

Jet was in disbelief. "(20)What, no money? After all the hard work we've done and we don't get paid?"

"Don't worry, Jet. If money is on your mind, the last couple of years, the city council had contacted us that they are contemplating whether they should to pay us and provide us with supplies if we keep the job well done. I myself, disagree on the paying offer. And that ends our Twenty Questions Session, Boys. So, what say you?"

The four Shadows looked at each other in incredulity, didn't know what to reply to her. "Err… we're all overwhelmed and flattered by your offer, Bridget but I think it's hard for us to make a decision just abruptly. We need to have some time for us to think about it." Tony said and every other guest except Jet nodded to agree with Tony.

"Take your time, Shadows. I was also in shock too when I was first offered this job."

"Thank you for understanding, Bridget. I just don't know, I feel that I will have a terrible time to juggle between the upkeep of my studies, my social life and the commitment to this organization should I accept this offer." Tony informed to all of them worriedly.

"Don't worry, Tony," Bridget said with an assuring voice. "If it's going to make you feel any better, I think I should tell you this: All of us turned out just fine, like Dr Bliss…"

Dr Bliss?! Jet thought with a glee. This is gonna be interesting on the next therapy session when I bring the topic up.

"…Officer Pudney and Billy Fury."

"Billy Fury?" an agent next to Bridget said quizzically. "You've got to be kidding me."

Bridget sighed exasperatedly with a trail of irritation. "Oh, YES. He used to be one of us. Why is it so difficult for you guys to accept it?"

Jet rolled his eyes at the quarrel but then he got up from his chair. "Well, this has all been fun but I for one have made my decision. I'm not going to join." he said as he spread his arm wide and stormed away from the room with his teenage bandmates looking at him.

"Wait, Jet…" Bridget called as she extended her hand out but Jet turned his head to her and said "Forget it. Danger? Excitement? I ain't having these things." as he walked away from them.

"Don't you want to be better than Hayley?" Bridget asked and Jet stopped abruptly at his tracks.

He turned back looking at her with deadly eyes. "What about my aunt Hayley?" Jet asked back with a harsh tone.

"She was one of our best agents incredibly dedicated to her work and to this organization and because of her coordination and leadership skills; she had nearly crippled our arch enemy's organization. Although the group didn't collapse entirely but today, they are nothing more than a shadow of their former self." Bridget informed and the guests said some words of praise about Olga.

"Not to mention she was my mentor." Bridget added.

Bloody hell, why does her name keeps popping up everywhere I go?! Jet screamed in his mind with his fists clenched. In pursuit of to prove himself to be better than his mother's younger sister, he finally caved in to Bridget's offer although not hastily. "I'll think about it." he said softly in defeat.

"Good, if any of you is interested in joining our 'club', please come back same time tomorrow. Keep in mind that we are not forcing you to join. And please promise to us, do not tell anybody about this."

Chapter 4- The Contemplation.

The four Shadows walked away from the warehouse, still in shock and in disbelief on what just happened and at the offer that were given to them. They were each with their own thoughts, not making a word out of it.

"Hey, guys," Tony said breaking the silence. "I'm feeling ever so extremely stressed from all the things that just happened to us so… wanna go downtown and have some snack?" he suggested and his older bandmates nodded in agreement.

"I can't believe that I'm going to eat in here." Hank said disbelievingly as he entered the Two I's diner with the other guys.

"Shut your gob, Hank," Jet scolded him. "Not all of us are guys who look like geeks."

"At least could we go to a cafe?" Hank whined.

"Not to mention it's economical. Come on, Hank," Bruce said to him. "Jet said that this place was our gang's favorite hangout when we were kids. Remember all the ice-cream we ate and the brain freeze we got afterwards?" he recalled the memory with a pleasant voice.

"Alright…" he replied in defeat. "But just this once." And the boys took a seat at a table near the window. And after a few moments, a brown haired waitress came to them and asked for their order.

After she handed them the menu, she asked them "Can I get you lads your order?" in her cool Irish voice with her hands holding a notepad and a ball pen ready to write the orders down.

"Mrs O'Hara?" Tony identified her quizzically.

"You know me?" the lady replied with half of her eyebrow down. "Come to think of it, you lads are very familiar…" she said as she pointed her pen at them.

"We should be. Don't you recognize us? We're the Shadows." Tony informed her.

She gazed at her thoroughly with her eyes squinting. "Oh yeah…" she chimed. "Now I remember! You're Mr Meehan's son, aren't ya?" she said jokingly which made Tony rather proud of his Irish heritage and drew hysterical laughers from Hank and Jet and a soft giggle from Bruce.

"Oh man… after all these years, he still remembers that thing!" Jet thought as he laughed out loud banging the table with his fist repeatedly.

Doris immediately apologized to her. "Oh, Tony lad, I'm sorry. We all had our worst days you know." he said as she hugged him from behind like a loveable aunt which made Tony smiled a little bit. "It's nice to see you all again girls." she said as she held Tony's shoulders and massaged them. "Yeah, despite my old age, I can still remember your names. You're Jet, Bruce, Hank and this lad here's Tony," she said their names correctly as she pointed at each individual. And the laugher finally died down. "And may I just say, all of you have grown up becoming very nice young men." she complimented drawing some smiles from the Shadows.

"Thanks," Hank replied. "You don't look too shabby yourself. Say, is this like, your new job or something?" he inquired.

"Oh no… I'm still working for that old goat Wartz. I only work here after school is out. So, can I get anything from you lads? And uh, since I own some shares of this diner, the drinks are on me."

"Thanks," Hank replied on the gang's behalf. "I'll have a soda – Pepsi and a burger."

"I'll just have whatever is on today's special." Bruce said.

It was Tony's time to say his order. "I'll just have a glass of warm water and some fries."

And finally, Hank said "Diet soda and potato salad – after all, I've got to maintain my figure." And with that, Jet placed his fist over his mouth making a fake coughing noise with a subtle word being said in it.

"coughjerkcough."

It didn't take Hank long to be aware of that crude remark. "You know, Jet, people would like you better if you weren't such a jerk." Hank said with an annoyed voice.

Jet didn't pay any heed to his statement; instead, he did it again. "coughfattycough."

Hank rolled his eyes in aggravation. He's so moody… he thought irately.

Mrs O'Hara could just smile at them as they reminded her of her long forgotten youth. "Okay, you lads just sit tight; your orders will come shortly." The Shadows then handed her the menus and she walked off away to the counter.

"So, what do you guys think about the spy organization? Are you going to join?" Bruce asked to all of them. "I personally wouldn't mind joining it seeing that I've got no problems with it. But I've gotta think about it more."

"I wouldn't mind joining it myself," Hank replied. "From the looks of it, their uniforms are sure nice looking with the khaki trousers and those black roll neck jumpers…"

"Let me get this straight, the only sole reason that you're joining that organization so that you could wear their outfits!" Jet interjected.

"Aside from that, I do have some my own personal reasons to join, Jet," Hank riposted back. "And what about you, Mr 'I-feel-so-tough-that-I-won't-even-consider-joining-but-due-to-some-circumstances-I'm-willing-join-anyway'?"

"Shut up and mind your own business. This is between my aunt Hayley and me so back off. God, it makes me angry just the thought of her! I mean, could she be any more annoying! She has already made my life a living hell by overshadowing me, constantly bossing me around like she owns the damn place and she – ARGH, I just don't want to talk about it, it's too depressing." Jey abruptly stopped with a scoff. Everyone at the table looked at him with melancholy; obviously felt the pain that Jet felt. Hank on the other hand, felt that he was over-exaggerating the bitter relationship with his aunt.

"Besides, I said I'll think about it, not agreeing into joining it. Oh yeah, I'm sorry I laughed, Tony. You gotta admit, that was pretty funny."

"That's okay," Tony muttered under his breath but held no grudge on him. "But then again, I'm contemplating about it. I'm not exactly sure but if Bridget was right about all of the former members becoming successful, I might consider of joining it, she kinda convinced me in an indirect sort of way." he said to all of them. "What about you, Bruce? What is your answer in regards of joining WOOHP?"

"I'm 50-50 myself, I'll probably make my decision by the end of the day. But there is something that bothers me though; I'm ever so surprised that they didn't consider Cliff to join. I believe he's got a lot of untapped potential even more than us."

"Oh, please, Mate…" Hank sighed cynically. "Not to sound that I'm mocking him or anything, Cliff's an extreme pacifist. He won't join even if they handed it to him on a silver platter. 'Violence doesn't solve everything,' he said. Please..."

"And besides, a couple of years ago, he told me that the sight of blood makes him queasy. How weird," Jet added. "And with this line of job, I don't know about you guys but I feel there's going to be a lot of bloodshed." Jet said with a smirk. The other guys weren't amused by it not even by a bit.

"Jet, would you be so kind not to say another word again?" Tony said with a bitter but polite tone.

"What? I'm just giving my opinion about this matter."

"Opinion about what?" Mrs O'Hara suddenly intervened with her hands holding a tray with the ordered drinks.

"Oh, nothing," Jet replied. "Just about something that was offered to us just now." He elaborated further as he and his teenage bandmates watched Mrs O'Hara put the drinks on the table.

It had been several hours after the snack at the Two Is and Jet was in his room nearly finishing writing a letter to Carol. He had moved into a flat near Soho with Hank, Bruce and Tony just a few months ago, his bedroom was tidy, his bass guitar and clarinet were near his bed and because of that he had to move all her 'prized' possessions (the Carol shrine) up in the secret compartment just above his room. After he lobbied his father and saved some of the money his parents sent him, he finally bought herself his very own desk. He kept hundreds upon hundreds of pictures of Carol conveniently stored in a folder and he adorned his wallpaper with a lovely picture of her outside the Two Is that she gave to him for some apparent reason. The collage of Carol was his secondary Carol shrine.

After he wrote the letter to Carol, he went to his bed, threw himself onto it and contemplated about Bridget's offer earlier today.

Aunt Hayley… how I hate her. How'd did she came into the picture? Why must I always be in her shadow? WHY must she make my life a living hell? Doesn't she realize that she's ruining my life as much as it is? What can I do to be better than her? Well, there's that stupid spy organization… but is it really worth it to join just to show that I'm better than her?

He got up from his bed and made his way to the phone by his desk, picked it up and dialed his aunt Hayley who anwsered it.

"Hey, Aunt Hayley, it's Terry, a moment of your time?" Jet asked. A mental image played in his mind of him holding a shotgun in his arms and shot his aunt Hayley at point blank range - repeatedly.

"Alright, Terry," Aunt Hayley replied on the other end of the line. "What's on your mind?"

"What do you know about Bridget and WOOHP?" he asked demandingly.

"How come you know about it?" she asked.

"How should I know? This Bridget woman's the one who came to me earlier today and asked if I wanted to join some creepy spy organization!" he explained.

"Didn't she already tell you that it's a standard procedure should they acquiring new recruits?" she asked.

"Well… yeah, she did," he replied. "But that's no reason to make me freaked out about it!"

"Every one of us experienced the same thing you did, Terry. It doesn't make you any more special than us."

"You still haven't answered my question, Aunt Hayley…" Jet retorted back reminding his question again.

"About that, well…" she said. "Back in the 40s --"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," he cut her off. "You used to the head honcho, you kicked butt, you nearly crippled some loser criminal organization and Bridget used to be your apprentice…" he explained to her in a bored tone because he already knew the story. "Tell me something that I don't know."

"Oh, so she did tell you then?"

"Not by much. She just said that you used to be her mentor and that's it. By the way, she's the chief now."

"REALLY! I'm so proud of her…!" Aunt Hayley chimed delightfully on the other end of the line.

"Yeah. So what's the deal anyway?" he asked becoming impatient.

"Well, if you must know, Terry--"

God, that's why I called you…

"I got offered to join when I was 16 years old, Terry. They thought that I had the potential to become one. So after I agreed, they put me into training for a couple of weeks and after that gave me my first assignment."

"And you rose up to become the chief, when?" he asked again demandingly with a trail of cynicism.

"Seventeen. I became the deputy at sixteen."

"Whoa… that fast?" Jet asked skeptically.

"Why yes. I was the youngest chief ever." Whether she intended it or not, Aunt Hayley didn't realize that she was bragging.

Great… more reason to hate her.

"Oh. OH! I want to show you something the next time I see you!" Aunt Hayley said joyfully. Jet felt that she was going to boast again.

"Is it a uniform?" Jet could only ask. "What, you're giving me that as a hand-me-down present or something?"

"I would if you considered joining it. I think the uniform would fit you perfectly."

So on the next day after band practice, the selected potentials were at the same not-so-abandoned warehouse as they waited for Bridget to show up. They were unanimous, they wanted to join. Actually, there were only three of the boys there as one of them was missing – Jet was no where in sight.

"Told you he wouldn't come," Hank said with a smirk as she extended his hand to Bruce. "Cough it up."

"Crap." Bruce sighed under his breath. With utter disappointment and reluctance, he rummaged through his jacket pocket and gave Hank his five pounds. Both of them earlier made a bet that whether Jet would come to join them or not.

"Easy five pounds." Hank said joyfully as he put the money in his jacket pocket. Tony looked at his feet in boredom with his hands in his trouser pockets as he nodded blankly at Bruce with the occasional "M-hmm" and "I see," being said. Bruce was droning something about his 'relationship' with Katherine.

Footsteps were heard approaching them and all the guys looked at the direction where the sound originated. Bridget emerged from the corner alone without anyone else in sight. "Only three of you? Where's Jet?"

"Unfortunately, he's not able to join with us today." Tony replied back.

"Well, that's too bad. He'd make a great agent." Bridget said disappointingly.

"Who said that I'm unwilling to be here?" a voice shot out behind them. They all turned back and saw Jet. "My stupid bike wouldn't step on it again." he pointed behind with his thumb.

Bruce gazed at Hank with a smirk as he gestured his finger for his money. Hank rolled his eyes and gave his five pounds back. "Ah tut-tut-tut. Where's your five quid?"

Bridget smiled broadly and told Jet "So you're in or not?"

"I'm in, alright. Just want to join this stupid organization so I could prove to the world that I'm better than that idiotic aunt of mine." Jet explained his vendetta with an exasperated tone.

"Very well then. Gentlemen and it's with a great pleasure, I bid you welcome to our humble organization."

Chapter 5- The Training Part I - Basic

"Okay boys, here is your standard entry-level cadet uniform." Bridget said as she passes out the black roll neck sweater, khaki trousers, brown belts and brown combat boots to them plus a khaki jacket each for Jet and Bruce and a khaki waistcoat for Hank. The uniforms were folded evenly and wrapped in transparent plastic bag.

"Great… and where are we supposed to change?" Hank asked her.

"Changing room's over there." She pointed at a door with a sticker sticking on it saying 'Toxic Waste Substances,' which was obviously the bathroom. A little joke made by a member who had a good sense of humor.

"Don't you guys have a real changing room or something? Or at least a locker room instead of that cesspit?" Hank asked her back again.

"God, aren't you picky?" Bridget sighed with frustration.

"Hey, he's got a point!" Jet interjected with a smirk. Hank was ticked off at the comment.

Bridget continued. "Besides, there's no need of having a changing room since all us are ready to perform our duties every time we step our foot on the streets. Even off-duty we keep on the alert. Understand?" And the Shadows nodded. "Now go change."

One by one, they stepped into the bathroom and change. And when each time somebody comes out, they commented to each other on how nice they look. Hank was the most pleased of them all.

Hmm, he thought as he looked at himself. Perfect fit, not too shabby, the color goes great with my complexion, not to mention great and I look great!

"We designed them not for the fashion sense, Hank. Considerable attention was taken to design to uniform, like stealth, camouflage, comfort, heat resistance et cetera."

"Say, how come we don't get the berets like those other guys?" Bruce pointed to the other members, who were wearing the same uniform as they do but with berets on their heads.

"Like I said earlier, you boys are the entry-level member. You'll get the berets once you've completed your basic training and your apprenticeship with your mentors."

"Sure," Jet intervened. "Okay, Hank's happy with these clothes, we're all uniformed and we're all ready. When do we kick some butt?"

"Not yet," Bridget informed with a chuckle. "You'll have to do a month's worth of basic training before we can let you out in the field. Follow me."

The Shadows followed Bridget to an elevator where it would take them to the lower levels of the headquarters' complex. After the ten seconds elevator ride, they reached a very wide open space underground complex that houses the training facilities that would rival any army boot camp in the nation. It had the standard obstacle course, a martial arts ring, a swimming pool to train the agents for an underwater simulation, a shooting range for both guns and to practice aiming their grappling hooks and other whatnots and a stealth simulation arena. There were a few agents there practicing in that place. The new agents were impressed by the sheer magnitude of it.

"Wow, I'm absolutely impressed by this facility." Tony said with awe as he and his older bandmates walked out from the elevator.

"You guys have a pretty cool place despite having such limited funds." Jet complimented with a sarcastic tone to Bridget.

"Thanks," Bridget replied with a smile. "This place used to be an underground complex to store ammunitions cache and bombs during the Second World War. But after it was over they moved them someplace in the mountains and abandon this complex altogether. And then we came in, leeched it and act like we own the place."

"Cool." Jet nodded. The new recruits followed Bridget to the front of the obstacle course control unit where they were greeted by a slightly plump and angry but highly disciplined agent who was the same age as Bridget.

"Ten-hut!!" he yelled as she stood on attention and the two coordinators behind him rose up from their seat and saluted Bridget.

"At ease." he replied and the two coordinators resumed monitoring their post.

"These are the new agents, Lorenz." Bridget said spreading her arm wide at them.

"Fresh meat, huh?" he said mockingly in an American accent. "These boys are pathetic. TOO skinny!" he yelled at them. Bridget gripped her lips to prevent herself from laughing.

Oh yeah… the obligatory tough drill sergeant scene. It's like as if I'm in a World War 2 movie or something… Jet thought rolling his eyes.

"WHAT IS THAT?!" he barked at Jet. "DID I JUST SEE YOU ROLL YOUR EYES, PUNK?!" he screamed loudly in front of his face spraying some… well, you know.

"Uh… no sir, I mean yes, sir…" he cowered back. Jet wasn't pleased with the first impression and neither did Lorenz. They could feel the aura, the electricity in the air, they began to hate each other.

My god… if he manages to make Jet to recoil back, then he's must be tough… I better not play around… Bruce thought as he looked at Jet who was being slightly out of character. Really, he would've fight back and punch that drill sergeant right on the nose but noooo…

"I see you boys lack discipline! You came here to me and I see you not in attention position! And for that, ALL of you will do 50 push ups!" he yelled angrily but Hank was flabbergasted.

"50 push ups?!" Hank cried. "There's no chance in hell I'm ever going to do that!" he whined as he crossed his arms.

Ooh… I wouldn't say that if I were you, Hank… Bruce thought imagining the worst.

"What's that?!" he strode to him. "Well, boo hoo!" he yelled at him. "If you won't do 50 push ups, well I guess I'll have to give you a hundred push ups then since you don't like the first one I instructed!"

Hank gasped in horror.

"Any further objections from any of you, I will have my leg," he pointed at his leg. "Kick your ass," he pointed to them. "so high you'd kiss the moon!" he pointed to above. "Now do those push ups and then get to the obstacle course, GO, GO, GO!!"

"Well, see you around, Boys. Be sure to come here everyday after band practice," she smirked as she waved at them. "This is just the first step on your way to agentship. Ta-ta!"

Time for some montage! Cue the military drum music! The first week they were struggling to keep up the pace with the rest of the other agents (C'mon, they're newbies!). Even the easiest training such as running around the complex for 30 laps made them whimper in exhaustion. On the few final laps, Hank couldn't take it anymore and dropped down wearily to the floor. Lorenz came to her, violently threw a bottle of water onto the floor and left him in disgust. Weakly, he grabbed the bottle, opened the cap and chugged the drink down. Bruce missed the gymnast bar and dropped down onto the mattress. He got a scolding from Lorenz. Tony couldn't balance himself on the log and he fell down to the mud hole. Lorenz sighed at the poor performance. Jet couldn't rappel down and accidentally tied his legs like a knot and left dangling on the ropes upside down. Lorenz smacked her forehead. Bruce ran as the walls from either side fire paints blobs at him but he couldn't manage to avoid them, and because of that all of them hit her and he lied down in a puddle of red paint. Lorenz shook his head in disappointment.

The second week, things were started to get better. Hank could finally keep up, although barely. Bruce no longer missed the bar but couldn't do a single movement. Tony could finally balance himself, although wobbly. Jet could finally rappel down but slowly and Bruce finally manages to get past with only little red paint on her shirt. Their hard work had finally started to pay off, they think. To the shooting range, Bruce shot the hook at the target perfectly but not tightly and the result was he fell down crashing as soon as she swung to the other side. Jet shot it perfectly and tightly but she didn't know how to stop and crashed onto the wall on the other side. The other Shadows couldn't even manage to hit the target!

But on the third week, it was a brief week of relief as everyone had their own shining moments at least once. At the martial arts ring, Jet beat down all of his sparring partner there. Tony was ecstatic to see his friend kicked the snot out of those senior members. After he threw someone out of the ring, he cracked his fists and neck and looked at Lorenz threateningly. Lorenz felt challenged by it but he scoffed it out. It just wasn't a good time for it she thought. Jet then went to Tony and gave him a high-five.

"Wow, Jet. You know kung-fu!"

"Correction, I know jujitsu!"

Hank gazed at the gymnast bars, snickered at it and powdered his hands. He then jumped to the bars and did a lot of gymnastic motions and movements. He swung, flipped and tossed himself over and over on the bars and finally, he did a somersault flip and landed on his feet perfectly. Everybody cheered and Hank was proud on his performance. He gave them a bow and walked pass Jet over to Bruce. Jet himself was impressed.

"Since when did you learn to be a monkey?" he asked sarcastically as well to inquire.

"Well, Jet," he replied pompously, "I guess Cliff did a right thing after all. Five years in dance class and three years doing gymnastics does produce some good results."

Bruce was at a corner of a building completely in dark. He carefully placed his steps one by one as he stalked. His tracking skills which was honed during the time he was at the Rocky Mountains to assist his uncle Laurence (who was a zoologist) in observing mountain lions and during her trip in the African savannah had became significantly helpful in this stealth simulation. He had to remember only one rule: be quiet as much as possible. He crept along the walls and saw a window above his head. Slowly, he opened it and went into the building. He switched her night vision on and found what he had looking for: the 'hostage'. He grabbed the doll and slowly crept back outside. After a few paces, he was home free.

"Stealth rating: 98 percent," announced someone at the booth.

"Yes!" Bruce reacted joyfully putting her fist up and Hank gave him a high-five.

Each of the boys was at the shooting range eyeing at the bull's eye many yards away from her. Their eyes narrowed, the pointed their guns and fired. The bullets shot forward fast and hit the target perfectly. They reloaded and fired as quickly as they could. Each bullet hit on the same place as the first one did! They were like an early 60s criminal gang with guns! But then, Tony lowered his gun and picked up a knife. With his left eye closed, he threw the knife at the target. Miraculously, it hit the bull's eye. Bruce, who was watching him, was deeply impressed.

"Nice hand-eye coordination skills." Bruce complimented.

"Thanks, Mate…" Tony replied to him with a smile.

Onwards to the weapons handling at close range combat. Everybody in the complex was there to see the match. In his hands, Tony was holding a broadsword. His opponent, a blonde girl was holding the same weapon. They sized up each other and they went into ready stance. Cue suspenseful martial arts dojo music.

"Hey, Mate." somebody next to Jet called.

He didn't budge his face to him and replied "First of all, don't call me mate. Secondly and finally, what?"

"Is that your pal over there, that bloke with the jumper and trousers, Tony?" he pointed at him.

"Yeah. What about him?"

"He's going to have hard time fighting with that girl. We call her 'Sal the Slayer'. I should know, we've all fought against her and all of us got defeated by a mile."

"Tony's dad runs a Fencing Club so I don't think she'll go down that easily. In fact, I think he'll win this match."

"You're being optimistic. Not to get your spirits down, I was the Captain of the Dueling Club in my school myself but Sal... overwhelmed me." Jet began to worry. What chance did a man like Jet had defended and protected over the years have against that so-called slayer?

Why doesn't she use that fencing sword? Jet thought nervously. The opponents glared at each other. The whole complex went into silent. Tony grinned and he made the first move, his foe widened her eyes in anticipation. Tony charged at her but her opponent fended it off. Their swords clanged and clashed with each other with each every hit produces a spark. Every swipe and slash came with a "Hyeah!" and "Argh!" from them. They locked their blades and what looked to be a stalemate, but then released and Tony flipped his body away performing an uppercut with his sword and his adversary's weapon flung out from her hands and landed in front of the crowd. The crowd gasped. Lorenz was pleased. Jet smiled. Tony went back into ready position motioning his hand (like Morpheus did to Neo) as he smirked. His foe was impressed by his performance and grabbed a katana sword, a much lighter weapon than Tony's.

"Two out of three?" she offered.

"You're on." Tony replied narrowing his brown eyes with a grin across his face placing the sword in front of him.

He went back into ready stance and yet another battle raged on. His foe lunged forward but Tony managed to block the attack in the nick of time. Indeed, the lighter and more maneuverable sword was proven too much for Tony and after many blows, his sword hurled out from his clutches and pierced the wall near the crowd was standing. Cheers erupted for them both on the excellent sword playing. Tony's opponent grinned, twirling her sword. By now the crowd was very thrilled and some of them even placed bets on who will win. Tony smiled with a scoff and walked over to the weapons basket. He took out the fencing sword – broader than the usual one, played with it a little and wielded to have a feel for it. He then pointed the sword at his foe. His opponent rolled her eyes as if she wanted to say "Oh please…" sarcastically.

She was overconfident, there was no way that puny sword would take a katana out and not to mention its fighting style was completely way off. Little that she knew, Tony was excellent at handling that particular sword. And the fight was on! The both charged to each other as they shouted their own battle cry and the first clang made the crowd shivered in awe. It was a magnificent fight, they dodged each other's thrust and slash, sidestepping and parrying the attacks, jumping and ducking to evade, and blocking each other's hit. It was the longest two minutes of their life, and neither one of them wants to be defeated. But suddenly, Tony saw an opening and it could be the finishing blow! After the last clang, he went for it!

The very tip of Tony's sword was at Sal's throat and if he made one sudden move, he would be a goner. His opponent stared at her nervously. She could feel the cold steel of Tony's sword. The audience was dead silent, quiet as a tomb. Tony smirked and lifted his sword away from her. "You're dead." he taunted good-naturedly and gave her a bow of respect. His foe extended her arm to Tony to shake hands with her and he did. Sal felt that she had finally found a member worthy to pass her 'Slayer' status down.The crowd erupted in cheer applauding at the excellent swordsmanship. And the loser had to pay the winner her bet. Tony felt he was the epitome of badassery. The King of Butt Kickers. Oh, if only his girlfriend Sue-Ellen were here to see her in action…

"Yeah, Tony!" Jet whistled.

"Good going, Pal!" Hank shouted.

"You're the man!" Bruce pointed at his delightfully.

"Damn, Tony, that was great! And I thought you only knew fencing!" Jet said proudly placing his arm on his shoulders as he gave him a towel to wipe his sweat.

"Well, Jet, there are lots of things that I haven't told you yet!" Tony told as he wiped his face. The gang walked away from the crowd who was chanting Tony's name.

"Tony! Tony! Tony! Tony! Tony!"

It was the fourth week and everything was running smoothly for them. Hank could outrun everybody in the complex. Jet could rappel down like a trained marine. Bruce dodged the projectile without any of them hitting him and Tony could balance her body just like a ballerina. And at the shooting range, even Al Capone would be proud of their shooting skills.

It was the final week and Lorenz called all the freshmen to stand on attention before him as he paced back and forth in front of them. "I must say… that I'm very impressed, with all of you including Mr Harris over there." he said but still in a serious tone. Jet was cross but kept his cool. "And I believe that all of you have what it takes to be an agent, just like each and every one of us here." he said with his arm spreading wide implying the agents training in front of them. "But," he paused for dramatic effect "Your training is not completed yet. Like Bridget said before, you have to undergo two weeks of field training with your mentors. Even before you set foot on this place, your mentors have been specifically chosen to your merits and personality. I believe you've met them before…" he said and he pushed a button near him. And a few moments later, four recognizable individuals emerged from the elevator.

It was Farrah, Natalie, Elaine and Bridget and they walked over to them. They stopped before them. Except for Bridget, they all stood attention.

"Status report." Bridget inquired motioning her hand so that Lorenz could give his clipboard to her. She then flipped through the papers checking it.

"All potentials did their training flawlessly including Mr Harris. A splendid job if I may say so myself."

I hate him. Jet thought gripping his lips.

"Good," he replied. "Gentlemen!" he boomed to all of the potentials, whom now a more disciplined, obedient and systematic individuals. "At ease." And the Shadows went to ease.

"As you may have known, these agents in front of you are the ones whom you first met when you were offered with the job. These agents also will be your mentors who will teach you to learn the ropes, instruct, and make sure you won't screw up during real life event if one should happened. Tomorrow at 10 PM sharp, all of you are required to report to your mentors at the headquarters, failure will not be tolerated!"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" the Shadows shouted in unison.

"Good. And all of you earned yourself a good rest because you're gonna need it to get ready for tomorrow. Dismiss."

Chapter 5- The Training Part IIa – Field

Jet was the last one to arrive the next day. Inside at the communications room, somebody pointed out to Jet that his young bandmates were in a 'secret room'. He followed the directions and found himself standing in front of a common room. Everybody was waiting inside the room. Hank and Bruce were watching a talk show and Tony was admiring the interior design of the room which looked like a waiting room at a doctor's office, couch, tired looking decorative plants, TV, coffee table and all. They were all uniformed. Jet thought he was late, but thankfully for him, he was five minutes earlier than expected.

"Man, I didn't know there was a common room in this place." he said as he slumped on the couch next to Bruce.

"Tony went adventuring when he got here and found this room." Bruce replied.

"Quite accidentally," Tony interjected and resumed admiring the interior design of the room. "They planned to tell us about this room when we've fully completed our training or something like that, kind of a 'members only' thing going on here.".

"So, why are they letting us use this room then?" Jet said as he lifted his on the table.

"Because they saw Tony kick Sal's butt Phoebe yesterday and they were pretty impressed by it." Bruce intervened. Tony grinned at the remark.

"Get up, you slackers." someone scolded at them. "Ten-hut!" Tony yelled and they all stood on attention. Bridget let the door open and she walked into the middle of the room. "At ease." And they went to ease.

"Are you boys ready for your first night out?"

"Sir, yes, Sir!" they all shouted in unison.

Bridget nodded. "Hank, Bruce, Tony, your mentors are waiting outside the building. Make sure you listen to their every word and try not to disobey them. You are now dismissed." And with that, they marched single file out from the room as Bridget watched them went away. She then turned at Jet who was waiting for her instructions.

"Jet, you're coming with me."

"Oh, great…" Jet moaned frustratingly. "My first day on a field job and I'm stuck here on this roof waiting for someone that would never show up." he complained as he paced back and forth behind Bridget who was carefully monitoring an alley below them. They were on a rooftop of a two storey store.

"In the industry we call it a stakeout." Bridget informed with smile.

"Sounds more like 'Sit on your bum and do nothing' to me," Jet retorted back and stopped pacing. "When do we get to see some action?"

"Cool it, Jet you'll get your reward soon enough," She said to him. "Now stop whining and come over here and help me."

With an exasperated groan, he walked over to her and looked down below. The only light there was coming from a dinghy looking backdoor, shining the alley revealing musty old boxes, crates, a dumpster, trashcans and few cats passing by.

Jet scanned the place around and found nothing that interests him. With a long, groaning sigh, he asked Bridget "Why are we here again?" in a bored tone.

"We received a tip-off from Fuzzy Slippers that something really big is going to happen here. He's usually right about these things."

"I don't see anything that would interest anybody here." he stretched his arm out to the alley below. "What's so special about this place?"

"You see that building over there?" she pointed in front of them at the red bricked building to the left. It was a stereo equipment store.

"Ohh… I guess I missed that one." Jet replied embarrassingly. Bridget could only smile at him. "Scan and take note of each and every environment you're on. They could be your greatest enemy or your greatest ally."

Jet nodded and they both went silent. Moments later, he asked "Hey, Bridge, can you tell me what's wrong with Lorenz? He looks like he hates me or something."

"Huh? What makes you say that?"

"I don't know, ever since the time when he sprayed in front of my face, we started to hate each other. There's something about him that makes me want to beat the crap out of him…"

"That's Lorenz to you," she replied as she cracked her knuckles to calm herself. "Just between us, she had this superiority complex thing going on, and kinda egotistical occasionally and that's some of the lower traits that I've come to dislike about him. But, once you get past all that, he's a pretty cool guy."

"And that's showing that everyone has their own pros and cons unlike my aunt Hayley who's perfect all the time."

Bridget was stunned at the statement, "What's wrong with your aunt Hayley?" she asked quizzically. "Is there something you want to talk about?"

"Everybody loves Aunt Hayley…"

"Oh… nothing." he decided to walk away from it. More silence between them. "Was she really your mentor?" Jet suddenly asked her.

"Yep and I'm proud to be her apprentice. She taught everything I know and I am greatly indebted to her. You must be lucky for having such a great aunt like her." She said oblivious of Jet's resentment towards his aunt Hayley. Jet could only sigh in aggravation and decided to save her breath not to talk about his aunt further.

11:33 PM. They heard a noise at the alley. They went on guard. They saw four silhouetted figures walking towards the stereo store. The backdoor light vaguely revealed their appearance but Jet could recognize one of the figures.

"Frankie G?" Jet muttered to himself.

"You know that guy?" Bridget said softly to him.

"Sorta… he used to hangout with me years ago. I heard he ended up in juvie for a break-in or something like that. Thank God I was smart or else I'd ended up in the same place with him."

"We caught him in the act… it seems like he haven't learn his lesson yet…"

"Should we go now?"

"Not yet… wait until he made his move…" Jet nodded and they waited. Frankie and his cohorts were scanning around the place high and low, hoping that nobody was there to interrupt their operation. Bridget and Helga continued to monitor their movements. The overall atmosphere was tense because Jet was never in a situation like this before. He looked at Bridget. She was absolutely calm, probably because from all the experience she had handling this kind of situation throughout the years: this would be a piece of cake. Still, she wouldn't let her guard down, at any time, she would strike.

And the expected happened: Frankie took out a crowbar from his jacket and wedged it on the door lock. It could take some time to open it up. Bridget felt it was the right time to strike. She then took out her grappling hook out and threw it on the other side of the building. She motioned her hand to Jet to use the fire escape stairs to go down, find a hiding place and waited for her move. Jet did as he was instructed. Slowly, he made her way down trying not to make a noise. He hid behind a couple of trash cans and he signaled her for a go and Bridget went for it. He swung downward and kicked one of Frankie's friends and he landed in the dumpster unconscious and the dumpster's cover slammed down tight. Bridget released her grip, did a flip, and landed on top of it glaring at the three men as her eyes narrowed. They were shocked but they didn't expect a second adversary coming.

Jet ran towards them, jumped up and kicked another one of Frankie's unaware goons on the head and he landed violently to the ground. The blow was so hard that the guy spitted a tooth and blood out. Bewildered, he got back up but only was greeted by a punch courtesy of Jet Harris. He stood wobbly, uttered some incoherent words and dropped down to the floor. It all happened too fast and sudden and Frankie and his other friend felt they were overpowered.

"Who the hell are these guys?!"

"What? You wanna stay here and find out?! Let's get outta here!" Frankie replied in panic.

Having no choice they had to retreat to their vehicle and fled. Bridget tried to run after them but they were too fast for her to catch up. But Bridget could guess where they were heading to. She went back to the scene of the crime and saw Jet tying those two fallen thugs up. Jet looked at her in a puzzlement gaze.

"Why won't you stop them?"

"They've got a car. I don't have a proper vehicle to go after them."

"Then how are we supposed to catch them?" he asked as he kicked the two men down fiercely many times.

Bridget placed two fingers on her left ear and said "Cady, be on a lookout for a tricked out, gray colored Mitsubishi sedan heading towards your location. Stop that car by any means necessary."

"Yes milady, I will." Cady replied. And she signed off.

"Oh my God," Jet said in shock. "You have those microphone earpieces thingy that the Secret Service uses. How come we don't get those things?"

"Because, Monsiour Harris, you're still in training."

"Take it, go to the ledge and wait for my signal." She ordered.

Reluctantly, Hank took the weapon from her and went to the ledge with Cady following him from behind. Hank aimed the weapon at the nearby street, waiting for Cady's instructions.

"I saw your score results at the shooting range, Hank, I've got full confidence in you. Don't tell me that you don't know how to use it."

Hank gulped in anticipation as he looked at the street through the crosshair.

"Wait for a gray car to show up."

"I'm not sure I can do this… it's pretty hard for me to shoot a moving target…"

Cady and Hank could hear a car skidding from afar. They both turned their head to the sound and saw the said car drove recklessly through the street. Their first impression was the car was driven by a drunk driver since it swerved from left to right violently, nearly hitting a mailbox and a fire hydrant.

"Aim for the wheels," Cady ordered and Hank followed as instructed. "Wait for my signal."

"NOW!!"

With that yell, he pulled the trigger and the bullets were released. But unfortunately, it missed and hit the street.

"ARGH! Damn it!" Hank sighed in frustration as he frantically tried to reload the gun. He aimed at the car again as he breathed through his clenched teeth in hoping for a hit. He pulled the trigger again.

"Why the hell did you leave them there?!" Frankie's comrade yelled at him in demand for an answer.

"And get our butts kicked? Are you nuts?!" he reasoned irrationally as he floored the gas pedal down, trying to concentrate on the road. "'Sides, I don't see you helping them!" In the midst of the chaos, they heard a loud bang at the back of the car. The wheel was blown up!

"What the hell?! What the hell?! What the hell?!" his friend panicked.

"OH CRAP!!" Frankie felt he couldn't control the car anymore. He slammed the brake down. The car spun around twice, hit the curb, the car turned upside down and crashed to a lamp post nearby. The whole neighborhood was awakened from their slumber in shock. The once sleepy neighborhood was up in furor and lights from the houses were switched on, and the occupants got out from their houses to see what the commotion was all about. To their surprise, it was an accident occurring in front of their very eyes. Frankie G and his friend crawled out from the vehicle weakly and fell down to the sidewalk. Miraculously, they weren't injured that badly. Quickly, the neighbors came and help them out, not knowing what those two did just now. Human lives were important than all that. One of them went back inside his house possibly to dial 999.

Hank looked at the chaotic scene below and felt responsible for it. He was shivering in fright afraid that he might've killed those two persons. She felt too weak to hold the weapon, and dropped it down to the floor. He gazed at his shivering hands, the hands that 'murdered' those people. He couldn't take it anymore, the guilt was too much for him to bear, he kneeled down and broke down crying with his hands clasping his face. Cady quickly came to him and comforted him.

"Hey, hey… chill. Just chill…" she consoled him as she hugged.

"I'm… I'm a horrible monster…" he sobbed melancholically as he gripped Cady tightly.

Minutes later, they heard sirens coming from the streets. Cady got up and went to the ledge to observe the area. An ambulance and two police cars came to the scene to inspect the situation. Frankie and his friend were treated by the paramedics as the policemen looked at them trying to guess who they are.

"Francis Giuliani. This kid went to juvie six years ago." A policeman informed him reading the information through the police database inside the squad car.

"And this other kid?" the detective asked back.

"We're trying to find out, Detective Pudney." Officer Pudney was given a promotion two years ago and thus elevated her status as one of the most formidable police officer in the city.

"Detective, we've found two other guys bounded and gagged in an alley nearby Bartlett's Audio Store at the Roosevelt Precinct. It was a break-in attempt, but somebody managed to suppress them down. One of those guys mentioned his name," the policeman said as he pointed to Frankie. "Our guys are taking them away."

Detective Pudney pondered for a while and said "Take these two into custody. We need to do some questioning."

"Damn it…" Frankie muttered under his breath as the paramedic applies some alcohol on his wound.

Cady scanned around and saw Frankie and his comrade still alive, but weak. She let out a sigh of relief, and turned her head to Hank who was still sobbing as he stared at the floor blankly with his reddened eyes.

"You can rest easy now, they're alive." she said with a calming assuring voice. Hank was glad about it but he still felt scared,sobbing. "Please…Let's go back…" he pleaded. Cady nodded and placed her finger on her ears to talk with Bridget through the communicator. "Mission accomplished. We're heading back to the base."

Chapter 7- The Training Part IIb – Field

Meanwhile, Brue and Natalie were in the darkness as they monitor a bunch of thugs all four of them quietly behind a pillar with their night vision goggles on with a blackjack on their hands. The place was dimly lit, and if one wants to see the place clearly, a help from the flashlight should do the trick. But the thugs came prepared because they brought their own flashlight with them.

"Hey Nick," one of the thugs called. "You sure we can pull this heist off?" a jittery man asked worriedly.

"God, Vic, enough with the worries already," Nick said back sighing. "What's to worry? The alarm and other miscellaneous security systems have been cut off courtesy of Morrie over there," he pointed at the chubby man smoking in front of the driver's seat of a small truck. "And Earl's loading the loot up into the truck with out any problems at all. So chill out, man."

"Okay… if you say so. I think I'm going to stand over there -" Vic said pointing at the nearby pillar with his flashlight where Bruce and Natalie were behind it. Fortunately, they didn't saw them, "- so I could see a good view of this warehouse." Bad move.

"Okay. Just as long you're doing your part of your job." Nick replied and walked off to the truck's cockpit. Vic went near to the pillar and shone the whole warehouse with his flashlight.

Hopefully Nick's right. he thought. Pulling a heist with this magnitude needed a lot planning before it was carried out and so far nothing bad happened. They wanted to steal imported priceless ancient Aztec artifacts from there worth about hundreds of millions of dollars so they would sell it at a much higher price in the black market. Suddenly, he was been hit by something hard on his head from behind and fell unconscious but was caught in the nick of time by a mysterious figure before he completely fell down to the ground so that he wouldn't make any noise. The figure then dragged the unconscious Vic into the darkness.

Matalie stalked forward carefully placing her steps one by one. She went behind a crate and waited for Earl to come to pick the crate up. Earl came with his flashlights on searching the crate for any complications to move it. Nothing was there to slow him down. He picked up the crate still being unnoticed of Natalie and Bruce's presence and put it on the trolley. He turned back to the other crate and whack! Another ruffian feel down unconscious but this time the girl couldn't caught him in time. He fell down to the floor making a loud thumping sound, and alerted Nick. Quickly, he pointed his flashlight to the direction where the noise was made and to his surprise, a young man – Bruce Welch, the rhythm guitarist for the Shadows, completely covered in black clothing with his night vision on. The night vision intensified the light source and blinded the poor man as he screamed in pain. He quickly pulled the device off from his eyes, threw it on the ground and rubbed his eyes.

Nick quickly got out from the passenger seat but was kicked by Natalie unexpectedly and thrown into the cockpit again. A scuffle ensues in the small confined space. Natalie punched Nick on the face and he screamed. She tried to land another blow but her fist was caught by Nick, he twisted her arm and pushed her away out from the truck. But she managed to grab the seatbelt, therefore saving her from being thrown out. Morrie rushed inside and joined into the fracas and tried to burn her hand with his cig, but was fended by Natalie with her other hand. The cigarette dropped to the floor. Nick was furious now. With full strength, he violently kicked Natalie out from the truck.

"Aughh!" she screamed in pain after been thrown out. Morrie quickly started the engine on.

"Floor it!!" Nick shouted to Morrie as he closed the door. The wheel at the back of the truck screeched, producing a billowing smoke and they went off. Nadine, after recovering from the temporary blindness, jumped over Natalie, ran out from the door, and tried to chase the escaping truck, as it hit almost everything through the narrow alley. Feeling that she could lose the truck, she took out something from her utility belt and threw it to the truck. The device was stuck on the container's door beeping a light.

Bruce stopped at his track feeling that the truck was too fast for him to pursue as he panted for air. He felt someone was approaching from him behind. It was Natalie. "That was some quick thinking," she complimented. "Judging the direction where the truck headed and the road they took, I'd say they're heading towards downtown, which coincidentally, where Farrah and Tony is being stationed there." she said and placed her two fingers on her ears to use the communicator.

"Farrah, there's a small blue truck heading your way and we managed to put a tracking device on the vehicle."

"Which tracking device? The A-101 or the B-102?" Farrah asked her back. Natalie turned her head to Bruce.

"Bruce, which tracking device did you use? The A-101 or the B-102?" she asked.

"Uh… I don't know…" he replied rubbing his neck. "All I remember it was pink in color –"

"The B-102." Natalie cut her off and informed Farrah.

"Nice choice." Farrah said and the conversation stopped.

"What's B-102?" Bruce asked curiously.

"It's a tracking device with an EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) in it. It will disable every electronic device on the vehicle it mounted on."

"EMP? Wow, you guys thought of everything."

"Hey, they don't call us secret agents for nothing," Natalie said with a smirk.

Bruce smiled back at her. "This job sure beats the hell out of babysitting."

On a rooftop of a four storey store, Farrah and Tony were there surveying the area around them. After she acknowledged the information from Natalie, she turned to Tony and said "Okay, Tony, get ready." as she walked over to Tony who was using a PDA that was given by Farrah a couple of hours ago. Apart from fencing, Tony was quite the genius so a PDA was issued to him so he would use it to hack into security systems, to operate WOOHP's spy devices and to use it to plot paths before venturing further into a difficult mission.

Tony was indeed ready, he held the stylus and tap on the screen waiting for Farrah's instructions. They both could see the truck driving maniacally through the streets, in a very careless manner. Tony tapped on 'Applications', 'Wireless Apparatus', 'Tracking Devices' and select 'B-102' as requested by Farrah. The PDA made a chime sound and began searching for any tracking devices planted in the area.

Searching…

10 percent...

25...

50...

75...

100 percent

Device Found.

The screen then revealed a street map of the city with a red arrow in the middle of it, indicating the tracking device as it zoomed closer. The map was white in color, black indicates roads, highways and names while brown signifies railroad, and blue implies a body of water such as river or a lake. After a few seconds, a small popup window appeared below the map.

Execute?

YES NO

"Shall I carry out the assault now?" Tony asked her.

"Yes, now." Farrah replied back.

Tony then tapped on yes executing the EMP attack. Electrical bolts came out from tracking device and disabling almost every electrical equipment on the truck, thus making it unable to drive and couldn't be steered. Farrah grinned and asked the headquarters to call the authorities.

"Uh-oh…" Morrie said in worrisome.

"What? What do you mean, 'uh-oh'?" Nick replied back demandingly.

"I… I lost control of the truck…" Morrie replied disbelievingly as well as in worrisome.

"What the hell are you talking about?" Nick snapped back.

"That's what I said! I-LOST-CONTROL-OF-THE-TRUCK!"

"Ohh…" he replied back nonchalantly. Then Nick snapped back to reality, "THEN HIT THE BRAKES, YOU IDIOT!! You want both of us to get killed?!" he shouted in panic.

"I can't!!" he shouted as he stomped the brakes many times, "the brakes are out!" Suddenly, they heard police sirens coming towards them. There were three cop cars chasing after them.

"This is the po-lice!" one of the cops shouted through the megaphone, "Pull over your vehicle NOW!" But the truck couldn't stop due to the brake malfunction forcing The Police to do something drastic, by ramming the truck at the side with their squad car. After a tremendous amount of efforts made by the police, all the vehicles were now in complete halt, stopping near the freeway onramp. All the cops got out from their squad cars. Using their vehicles as shields, they went behind them and pointed their guns at the truck.

"POLICE!! Hands in the air! Do it! Do it now!"

"Don't shoot! Don't shoot! We surrender!" Nick shouted nervously as he and Morrie got out from the truck.

"Nick Vermicelli…" one of the policeman said. "Why am I not surprised…" and lowered his handgun down. "Search those morons." He said to his squad mates.

"Against the truck, Boys." one of the officers said as he turned Nick's body around to face the truck.

Back at the rooftop, Tony and Farrah was looking at the scene proud of another job well done. They looked at each other and smirked.

In the comforts and safety of the headquarters, the Shadows relaxed themselves in the common room while exchanging stories about their endeavor in the past two weeks. Everybody had their own stories to tell and non other than Hank told his her story to them in a very enthusiastic way since he had his own story to brag now.

"And then there's where I kicked his butt!" Hank told his story excitedly and animatedly to his bandmates. They laughed wholeheartedly at her story. It even garnered a chuckle from Jet who generally never liked his stories much and took a sip of water from his plastic cup.

"I find it ironic that their symbol of masculinity is also, coincidentally, their most vulnerable and weakest spot." Tony giggled.

"Hehe, at least he won't be able to contaminate the rest of the world with his tainted seeds." Bruce interjected and they laughed again. Jet took a sip again emptying the cup. He then went out and headed to the water cooler to refill his cup.

"While we wait for Bridge to prepare for our graduation, let's watch some movie." Hank suggested to his bandmates and they nodded. This was the night they graduate and became a real member of WOOHP, the night they had been waiting for a long time. After the cup was filled, Jet took it away but accidentally bumped onto Lorenz and spilled the water all over his jacket. Lorenz was very mad. Neither of them wanted to apologize due to their ego and all.

"Well, aren't you going to say something?!" he barked at Jet as he wiped his jacket.

"Yeah! About a million things but I can't express myself monosyllabically enough for you to understand it all!" he replied back sarcastically.

"You know what? That's IT!! I had enough of your crap!! You're pathetic!" he yelled at Jet as he glared at him back. The people behind them paused at what their doing and looked at them, in shock of their quarrel. "Don't think you're becoming an agent and all means you're so goddamn almighty!!"

"Oh, and I suppose you are?!" he retorted back. The whole room gasped, some placed their hand over their mouth, some clenched their teeth in dread and even Bridget couldn't believe her eyes.

"Well see about that! Half an hour from now, meet me at the martial arts ring at the training facility. We'll settle this score with an old fashioned school playground brawl!" he riposted back and walk away from him to the elevator. Jet continued to glare at him back as he could listen to somebody whispering behind her.

"Jet, did you just realized what you just did?" Bridget asked nervously him.

"What? Aside from not taking any crap from him?"

"You just made the aggressive giant more… aggressive…"

Chapter 8- Jet Vs Lorenz

And so, Hank, Bruce and Tony were lounging in the common room, as they watch a really excellent fantasy movie based on a very enchanting novel. The movie itself received a lot of positive reviews from critics around the world due to its exciting story, their colorful characters and how they managed to faithfully captured the vision of the author. The scene in the movie was showing a lush open grassland as the camera flew over it showing three characters as they bickered with one another. The dwarf constantly reminded to his other companions that his race could sprint very fast in short distances and could smite an ogre in just one blow. The girl, that Hank found very attractive, scanned around the area with her eyes while the human, the humble warrior in the movie, acting as the leader of the group.

"Ooh… Bridget Bardot's so cute!!" Hank exclaimed giddily.

"Hopefully I won't sound too elitist because I personally prefer the books over the movie," Tony informed as she watched the movie. "Although one can't deny the director took insurmountable amount of effort to make this movie to be faithful to the books."

"Ah… I take Jailhouse Rock over this movie anytime." Bruce said since he was an Elvis fan and all but still impressed of the movie he was watching. Suddenly somebody barged into the room, unbolting the door violently.

"Hey, you guys are still here?" Cady asked with puzzlement. "Have you guys heard it already?"

"What? What's going on?" Bruce asked back.

"Jet's fighting Lorenz!" she cried out. The teenage Shadows looked at each other for a moment in disbelief and quickly they then scrambled over the chairs, couches and table to go watch. Cady widened her eyes in alert and quickly darted away from the door to avoid from being trampled on. The boys quickly ran to the elevator, but to their dismay, there were already a lot of people were there, waiting for it to show up. Cady took a peek at them smirked and went into the common room. "God, look at those slobs, they don't even have the courtesy to switch off the – Oh my God, it's Elvis Presley!"

It was the same situation at the control room too. Most agents abandoned their posts for a while to witness a fight that would only happen once in their lifetime. Lorenz actually was a force to be reckoned with. It was because of him many of the hardcore criminals got defeated and sent to prison. He was the organization's toughest agent and the most hard bitten. He got his traits from his militaristic family in which each of her family members had at one time served in the army. Most of the agents wouldn't dare to mess with him due to his reputation and nobody had ever won against him when sparring together. When they heard the news that a newbie defied and disobeyed her, they thought he was mad, insane and gone totally lunatic. There was no way Lorenz would ever accept his apology now but if… and only if, the newbie performed better against him in the fight.

"Sorry, Frannie, I gotta go for a while!" an agent shouted through the communicator to his comrade.

"What? What's going on over there, Olli?" Francesca (Frannie) asked back.

"Lorenz's gonna fight that new potential kid!!"

"Oh my GOD! Tape it for me!!"

"Will do!" and Oliver (Olli) threw the communicator away and quickly made her way to the elevator.

"What? Taping what?" Frannie's partner asked her.

"Lorenz's going to beat thecarp out of that newbie, Lauren!" she said excitedly to Lauren as she pounded the back of her palm to her other palm.

And to the other side of the control room, there was a commotion going on through the mic as well.

"Ashley! You must save me a seating spot! I'm going back to the base as fast as I can!!"

"But, what about the smuggler, Anndi?" she asked.

"Screw 'em! I wouldn't miss this fight for the world!"

Many agents were now at the martial arts training arena waiting for the show to start. They sat on the floor, making a circle around the arena to watch, and some even climbed up on the obstacle courses to get a better look at the arena. They exchanged chats, made commentaries about the upcoming fight and predicted on who will win the match. Mostly among the veteran members were unanimous about the match, saying that Lorenz will win. But they wouldn't forget that maybe Jet had some tricks in his sleeve since she probably learned some traits from his Aunt Hayley and the best agent the organization ever had. Lorenz hadn't show up yet but Jet was there doing some warm ups before the upcoming fight. His bandmates squeezed themselves through the crowd as they moved their heads from left to right in searching for a space to sit.

"Excuse me… excuse me…" they said as they carefully placed their steps so not to accidentally step on them. They found a place just in front of the arena, and sat down on the floor. As they watched Jet prepared himself, they could hear some of the comments made by the other members.

"He wouldn't live to see the day." one of them said referring to Jet.

"He doesn't stand a chance against Lorenz." the other one said.

"He's going to get royally creamed."

"So… is like, Lorenz PMS-ing or something?" asked one of the younger members.

"If he is… then may God help Jet…" the veteran member replied.

His bandmates friends were extremely worried but Tony was the most nervous one among them. Suddenly, somebody in the crowd got up and shouted:

"10 quid says that Lorenz's going to win this match!!"

"Make that 20!!" shouted the other.

"25!!" said another.

"50!!" Hank shouted as he got up showing a fifty pound note.

"Hank… what are you doing?" Bruce censured him through his clenched teeth.

"What? You heard the naysayers, there's no way Jet's gonna win this match." he opposed their confidence in Jet. They glared back at him angrily.

"God… you guys are no fun…" he sat back dismally scoffing. The crowd was still alive with the sound of bet placing and pretend commentary about the fight. Then, the fiasco suddenly died down when Lorenz came into the arena, walking towards Jet as he glared at him in detest. Jet glared back, got up from his warming up session as he cracked his neck and knuckles in preparation for the fight. Face-off. Bridget felt that she couldn't prevent the fight because she knew that once this thing goes on, there was nothing could stop it from happening. It was… inevitable. She could only observe them from the main control room two floors above so she wouldn't interfere in the personal fight.

"I thought you ran away." Jet began the taunt.

"From a scrawny, skinny kid like you?" he replied the insult back. Some of the crowd laughed.

"At least I don't have a fat ass to drag along with me." he smirked insulting his body weight. The crowd gave a resounding "ooooohh…" at them.

A girl next to Tony chuckled softly and said "She's asking for it." to her friend and she nodded in agreement. Tony was very worried about the outcome of the match. He tried to be optimistic but couldn't because of the crowd's reaction. Even Hank made his doubt of Jet's capability to defeat Lorenz. For now, he could only pray that he would come victorious or he wouldn't be beaten to a pulp much by her, if he was defeated.

Jet and Lorenz sidestepped and circled the ring as they glared at each other, observing weaknesses and which body part seemed to be vulnerable. Oh… yes, they remembered all the crap they've been through in these past few weeks…

Both of the opponents stopped circling, and went to ready stance as they anticipate each other's attack. The whole complex went to silent as they observe those two, in hoping they gave a good 'performance'. The only people who were worried about those two were Lorenz's and Jet's respective friends and the paramedics who were waiting nearby. Actually those paramedics were just medical students in training.

Lorenz made the first move. He quickly lunged forward and punched him but was deflected by Jet with his left arm. Jet quickly threw him a punch with his other arm but was caught and they got themselves into a lock. Jet tried to kick his stomach with his knee but the movement was blocked by Lorenz's shin. They released their lock and they kicked each other's shin by using their own shins again and again. It was painful, but it was a one of the tactic to weaken the foe. Jet couldn't bare the pain he felt and tried a different approach. After the last shin attack, he quickly kicked his face by using his other leg. It hit him and sent Lorenz withdrew back trying to balance his posture so he wouldn't fell down. The crowd gasped in shock at Jet as he restarted his stance back into ready position.

"This is the all powerful Lorenz? He's more careless than I thought." Jet smirked feeling that he could win this match and became overconfident of his powers. Little that he knew, Lorenz wanted him to be overconfident so he would become reckless in which would gave to him an advantage. Lorenz wiped the blood away from his mouth with his sleeve and resumed his stance once more. The crowd held their breath in anticipation of the next round of the match.

This time, it was Jet who made the first move. He performed a roundhouse to the head but his leg was grabbed in the nick of time by Lorenz. Using his palm, he hit Jet's knee and stunned it so his leg would be ineffective temporarily as Jet screamed in pain at the blow. Jet quickly jumped up by using his other leg and kicked his stomach with that leg. Lorenz abruptly released his grip of Jet's other leg and was sent flying away from him and fell lying on his back. Jet landed on his feet but then leaped into the air and bent his left leg so his knee would hit him on the stomach again. Lorenz anticipated for this move and he quickly darted away to the side from the attack rendering Jet's move to be unsuccessful.

Lorenz quickly got up and kicked the side of his head and sent him flying and landed on his back as he slid away. But Jet quickly pressed both of his hands downwards to bounce back up as he flipped his body and landed on his two feet again. Jet then quickly ran towards Lorenz and they both launched a torrent of punches and kicks to each other as they tried to block and repel each other's attack. But Jet repeated his mistake, he launched yet another roundhouse and again, Lorenz caught his leg. With all his strength, Lorenz pulled Jet's leg and made her lost her balance of her body and fell down. Still with the leg in his clutches, Lorenz spun his body around to gain momentum and threw Jet away from him and landed on the wooden bench destroying it.

"OH NO!" Tony got up from his seat and ran quickly over to his bandmate as Lorenz tried to catch his breath. Tony gently lifted his head up with one of his hands and with the other one tried to lift his body up. "Jet? Jet, speak to me… are you okay?" Tony said worriedly. Jet gave a bewildered moan to him and slowly opened his eyes. He felt something was not right, he quickly darted his body to his side away from Tony and faced the floor. Seconds later, he coughed, letting some blood out. Tony gasped in horror and said concernly "Jet, please I beg you! Please stop fighting!"

"No, Tony…" he coughed a little and resumed "I won't stop." He got up and went inside the arena again as Lorenz smirked at him. Hank and Bruce became more restless and Tony couldn't believe the stubbornness of his oldest bandmate. Soft whispers could be heard from the crowd. Bridget at the command room shook her head of Jet's stubbornness. They both went into ready stance again.

"If I use all of my strength now, I won't have any energy left to continue this fight…" Jet contemplated carefully. "But what choice have I got, he's just as strong as a bloody ox… I'll have to take this gamble…" then it was decided. It was now or never, he had to use her full strength in order to defeat Lorenz. Jet threw a punch but was fended off. Jet threw another punch but this time, it wasn't deflected and it went straight to the chest forcing Lorenz to step backwards and left her vulnerable. Helga launched three punches, and all three of them hit on three different places. He proceeded to kick the side of Lorenz's body twice. Lorenz began to weakened but determined to fight back. He tried to punch Jet but he ducked and grabbed the arm twisting it and went to the side still holding the arm.

Liorenz groaned in pain but Jet wasn't finished with her yet, he used his other arm and pushed Lorenz's body upwards as Jet released both of her grasp. Lorenz flew upwards over Jet and landed behind of him violently on her front. Still, he wasn't ready to admit defeat. Lorenz jumped back on is feet glaring at Jet. By now, the two opponents were in terrible shape; their hair was messy, parts of their clothes were torn, sweat enveloped them and trickle of blood flowed down from their mouth. They then charged at each other throwing another set of punches and kicks to each other as words like "Argh!" and "Hyeah!" came out from them.

Jet noticed an opening that Lorenz seemed to neglect his feet. And when lorenz tried to kick him in the head, Jet quickly ducked down and performed a foot sweep amking Lorenz fall down. But Jet quickly got up and kicked him while he was still in midair throwing him away and landed rolling on the ground. Jet went back to ready position anticipating for another round. But Lorenz didn't get up. Jet was perplexed, went off guard and walked over to him but still being very cautious. Lorenz's body was still motionless. Everyone in the crowd held their breath. Lorenz lost the match?

It can't be. they thought. Jet was in disbelief himself. Did he win the match?

This was the perfect time for her to counterattack. Lorenz quickly got up and punched Jet in the face totally off guard. He gave an uppercut and Jet was thrown back but still standing. Lorenz continued to punch him repeatedly again and again. Tony couldn't bear to watch his friend in pain and averted his eyes away from the arena closing them tightly. Jet became considerably weaker by the second but drawing no sympathy from Lorenz as he continued to deliver the punches. Bruce couldn't bear to watch it and averted his eyes away. Hank grimaced as he watched Jet getting pounded. Even though he hated him but he knew when enough's enough and when to stop. Lorenz's friend thought he had gone totally ballistic.

Jet was now very weak and stood wobbly on the ground. Lorenz stopped at his tracks. Without pity, he slapped Jet and he fell to the ground, making the crowd gasp in shock. The fight was over. But no, Jet got back up slowly and punched him weakly still in determination to fight back. Lorenz didn't felt anything from the punch and pushed Jet away from him and fell down again. But still, Jet did not give up, he got back up and tried to punch him again.

"GOD, YOU JUST WON'T GIVE UP, DO YOU?!" Lorenz yelled losing his mind. He made an uppercut and Jet fell down to the ground violently. The crowd began to sympathize for Jet and some of them became teary eyed.

"Lorenz… stop…" one of them pleaded.

"C'mon… he's shorter than you. What are you doing?" a rational voice spoke.

"ENOUGGGGGHHH!!" Tony yelled loudly as he got up echoing through the complex. Everybody took notice of him. "I won't stand by idly and see my friend get beaten up to a pulp by a…a-a," he tried to find a perfect word for it, "barbarian like you!!" Lorenz glared at Tony who looked at him in defiance. Lorenz cracked his fists and walked over to him. Tony stood his ground. He didn't move. Lorenz raised his fist high in the air but suddenly, he felt someone grabbed his wrist.

"That's enough, Larry!" Bridget said warningly. And due to his own military ethics, he wouldn't dare to fight back an higher ranking officer than him. He had no choice but to recoil. Bridget gazed at Tony for a moment and turned her head to Jet who was lying weakly on the ground. "Go check him up." Bridget said to Tony. He nodded and quickly ran to his friend. Lorenz stood attention before Bridget.

"You may've won the physical fight, Larry but the way I see it, Jet technically won the match. He didn't become berserk, he didn't use dirty tricks and he made the crowd sympathies for him. And what did you do? Trying to attack a non-combatant? What's got into you?" Bridget said to him referring to Tony as Lorenz hung his head in shame. "I'll see to it that you will have disciplinary action to be taken against you. Report to the disciplinary office immediately." In reluctance, Lorenz saluted her,and walked away drawing jeers and glares from the crowd.

"We need the paramedics here." Bridget said pointing to Helga, and they scurry over to her. Hank and Bruce ran over to Jet while the rest of the crowd dispersed away. Tony helped him get back up as he being examined by the paramedics.

"Are you two sure you know what you're doing?" Hank asked the paramedics in doubt.

"Of course," one of them replied back. "At least I didn't flunk out from my exams like her!" she said referring to the other paramedic.

"Hey!" she retorted back.

"Did… did I win?" Jet asked bewilderedly.

"You sure did, Jet. You sure did." Tony said proudly.

"You're gonna be fine, Jet. Don't worry about it." Bruce said in calm assurance and Bruce nodded at it.

"Due to Jet's condition, I think it's best to postpone the graduation to tomorrow, if he's getting better of course. Otherwise, it'll have to be next week. Are you guys cool with it?" Bridget asked them.

Chapter 9- Insert Title Here.

It was Friday, 2:00am in the morning. After the aftermath of the fight and Jet's treatment by the paramedics by putting bandages on the bruises, Tony and Bridget helped Jet by sneaking him in back into her house supporting the weak Jet by propping him up. Using Tony's key, they opened the front door and quickly but carefully they brought him to his room as Bridget closed the front door again. Typical, Jet thought. Hank forgot to lock the door using the door chain again. They quickly lied him down in bed as Tony took the blanket and tuck him in.

The next day at the Two Is cafe, Gerald was in the line as he watched the lwaitress plop a spoonful of mashed potato onto his plate. The shape and the sound it made disgusted him as he stuck his tongue out a bit. The mashed potato was one of the daily Two Is lunch components served together with cafeteria burger, cafeteria apple, cafeteria pudding and cafeteria milk. He would like to thank the bastard who thought up with the idea of serving this tasteless bland food to them. He shook his head, and walked over to the dining area in searching for his friends. To the left side of the cafeteria, next to the window nearby a corner, Sid, Stinky and Harold were there exchanging idle conversations with each other. He then walked over to them.

"And then… ninjas! Hundreds of them!" Sid told the story enthusiastically, "They burst through the windows and doors and stuff, making a circle around that chick with swords in their hands, ready to beat the crap out of that chick."

"Is he still talking about that Jet and Hank fight thing again?" Gerald intervened asking Stinky as he took a seat next to him. "I'm so sick of hearing it because that damn thing happened WEEKS ago and it's so freaking old than when the dinosaurs died out!"

"No he ain't. He's talkin' 'bout some movie he saw last night." Stinky informed.

"Yeah, yeah. Don't interrupt me," Sid said to Gerald and continued. "And then the chick was like, 'C'mon, you guys!' and then she pushed the detonator and the whole place exploded!!"

"So the girl died?" Harold inquired.

"Fat chance. She was a mutant and stuff. After that, she went back to the island, kill the scientist who made her that way, the end and the credits rolled up. Man, what a satisfying ending!"

"Man, that's the stupidest movie I have ever heard." Gerald scoffed.

"Hell no, guys," Sid swiped his arm wide. "It had hot chicks, ninjas and explosions. It was a great movie!"

"Your taste in movies is wierd, Sid," Gerald said back smiling. "Speaking of movies, I just saw Curly beating the crap out of himself outside the cafeteria. It was insane man. Kinda like a Fight Club thing going on there."

"Well, any crazy thing he did today is 'justifiable', I guess." Harold said to them, making quotation marks on the word justifiable.

Suddenly, the double doors to the cafeteria opened up violently as Curly flew in landing on his back. Almost everyone in the cafeteria either jumped in shock or immediately turned their heads to the door. Curly was bleeding heavily on the nose and on the mouth area with blood stains over his shirt, and his red glasses were broken. "No, please…" he pleaded weakly waving his hand to nobody in protest. With the same hand, he made it into a fist and punched himself in the face repeatedly. Passerby's walked past him and said without a trail of sympathy to him:

"Freak."

"Moron."

"Psycho."

He then grabbed a hold of his own shirt collar and dragged himself out from the cafeteria. Everyone in the cafeteria went silent, blinked in perplexity at Curly and resumed their activities. Stinky shook his head at Curly's idiotic display and said "The guy needs therapy, fast. Otherwise he'll keep on hurtin' himself."

"Speaking of hurting oneself…" Gerald said. "Have you guys noticed the bruises on Jet's face?"

"I've yet to see him today," Stinky said. "But please do tell."

"Oh, man. It was freaky. I was at my Public Speaking class this morning and I saw him and I was like 'damn, boy, what happened to you?'"

"And what did he say?" Harold inquired further.

"The classic Jet Harris reply: It's none of your business, Geraldo! Now get away from me." He imitated him.

"It's creepy when you imitated him, Gerald." Sid replied with a smirk.

"Can the conversations you guys, here he comes." Harold said as he pointed to the door.

"Holy crap…" Stinky said in disbelief, dropping his spoon of lemon pudding to his plate.

"I think I know what happened to him," Sid said, motioning his index finger. "He probably got into a fight with Hank again."

Gerald was now very fed up with his antics and glared at Sid, nearly exploding in anger. "Say that again, Sid. Say that again! C'mon Sid, SAY IT!! I dare YOU, I DOUBLE DARE you."

"Hey… whoa, whoa… hey…" he cowered back with his arms stretched out, cutting Gerald off as he tried to defend himself. "You don't need to get medieval on my butt!"

"Today's not good, Tony," Jet muttered to Tony as they left the Two Is a few minutes later. "Everyone's been staring at me and asking me the same stupid question: 'What happened to you?' GOD! If I hear someone asking me that stupid question again one more time, I swear I'm gonna scream and smack that guy up so hard his own mum won't recognize him!"

"They most probably are concerned about you, Jet. Eventually, I'm sure people won't take notice of your misfortune sooner or later."

"Yeah, right," he scoffed. "I doubt any of those idiots are concerned about me, Tony."

"Well, judging by Carol's expression, she most certainly is." he said pointing to Carol walking over to Jet.

Jet turned around, kissed Carol and winked at her to which she just grinned back. "She just won't give up, does she? Anyway, moving on to our agenda, has the date for the graduation day been confirmed yet? Bridget didn't seem to contact me these past few days, strangely. I can't believe I'm saying this but I'm actually looking forward to it."

"Bridget's most probably busy with the preparations and that could be a plausible reason why she didn't contact you. Anyway, Farrah said they will notify us tonight by sending carrier pigeons to us, courtesy of Pigeon Man. She said to me that she expects our graduation will be on this Wednesday. To be truthful, I'm in the same boat as you are, Jet. I'm also in incredulity that I'm actually looking forward to our graduation. I guess by joining WOOHP does make us be aware of our unexplored capabilities and unknown potentials within ourselves that have yet to be discovered."

"Ah… I'm just in so could prove to those people I'm better than my aunt Hayley." They finally arrived where Jet's motorbike was.

Tony decided to ignore that remark. "One thing that grinds my gears, Jet, what did your parents said when they learned about your condition?"

"If you must know, my dad went ballistic and he immediately accused me of fighting again which is justifiable I guess, if you still remember my fight with Hank several weeks ago."

Tony could remember it well, it was an extremely heated argument about a false rumor about Jet that been circulated around the Two Is but the perpetrator of the rumor was never found. Naturally, Jet would always lay the blame on Hank first since he pretty much hated him so much. He remembered that Jet angrily stomped over to the booth Hank was sitting at, saw him and gave him a big hard slap across the face. Argument ensues as people flocked around them and a fight proceeded after that. The fight was then quelled down by the owner himself and they were both given a detention.

"Yeah, I remember it quite clearly." Tony responded nodding.

"I told him that I got into a scuffle with a mugger but he didn't buy it. And then, my aunt Hayley came in and affirmed it to dad. And due to my dad's trust on his sister-in-law, he just nodded at it, gave me some lame advice to be careful next time and walked away."

"Your aunt Hayley said that? She lied to your dad? I must say that I'm in shock…"

"Me too, Tony. Me too…"

Nightfall came. Ordinary night at the Shadows flat. Jet was reading a Jeeves and Wooster book while thinking about Carol. As he was still reading, he heard a cooing sound coming from the window.

That must be carrier pigeon that Tony talked about that afternoon. he thought. He quickly got up and went to the window. Indeed, there was a pigeon with a note tied on her left leg. He untied the note, gave her some breadcrumbs to eat and the bird flew away. Jet opened the message up and read it.

Dearest Jet,

Come Wednesday, you will become one of us. Be sure to come here at 10:00pm sharp. We hope that you have recovered from your injury.

WOOHP

Ah, the wonders of the modern age… Jet thought smirking.

Wednesday beckoned, night had befallen onto the city and the potentials were at the base inside the training facility for the graduating ceremony. They were lining in front of Bridget with the mentors behind her in formation that you would expect from a military graduation ceremony. Bridget was there, the mentors were there and the Shadows were there and accounted for.

"Please allow me this opportunity to slip away and kick myself." Jet said sarcastically.

"Can I be next in line?" Hank asked.

"Ah, what the hell, you go ahead. I can wait." Jet replied back.

"Hey, Jet, before you go kick yourself, we've got some business issues to talk about. Where's the bet money I win?" Bruce smirked at him motioning his fingers for the moolah.

Later, the boys lined up in formation in front of Bridget as she recited the organization's pledge to them and they repeated the words back. After it was over, Bridget strode to the side, stopped, turned around to face them and yelled "Will the mentors to their respective potentials come forward and present them with the official membership garment?"

The mentors came forward and presented them the light violet colored beret at them. They then put the headwear on their heads, brushed the dusts off a little bit and adjusted so it would look right. They then took a step backward, turned around and march to their original spot.

"Boys, you are now officially a part of a sisterhood. Today, all of you now are a member of the World Orginization Of Human Protection. You are now no longer at the bottom of the food chain, you can now stand equal and mighty like the rest of us and you won't have to take any orders from your mentors anymore. Instead, you'll work with them, not for them, as a team together. They've taught you everything you know, and you should be thankful to them. Say it!"

"We're grateful for everything that you've done for us, our mentors!" the Shadows shouted in unison.

"And now, for my retirement. I will now pass down my…" she began to stammer. "…m-my Leadership to…"

But suddenly, the ceremony was cut short by someone who, out of nowhere quickly ran to Bridget to inform her a shocking, unexpected news. "I'm sorry to interrupt the ceremony milady but I come here to bear you this very dreadful news."

She then whispered the news to Bridget. She was taken aback and was very shocked at the news. She abruptly left the ceremony and followed the news bearer to the upper levels to the communications room. The agents she left look at each other in questioning of Bridget's sudden, abrupt action. Frantically, Bridget began to shout orders to almost every one of the operators there.

"Candice, I want you to trace where the signal originated! Jessie, I want you to record the conversation! Aishya and Michelle, I want you two to analyze and decipher the video for any hidden codes! And Wren, patch it to the big screen!"

"Yes, milady!" they all said in unison. Bridget took an idle communicator up and wore it as she watches the big screen. The screen was distorted and unclear for a while but a few seconds later, it came clear showing a face that Bridget had known for so long. She hated that face. The face belonged to a person who was sitting on a leather seat behind a table with two people flanking that person to the left and right.

"Oh, no… not you again…"

"Hey, Bridge! Long time no see!" the person replied back with a mock joy, puffing a smoke out from the cigar.

Chapter 10- Main Screen Turn On. It's You!!

"How did you managed to get our frequency?!" Bridget demanded an answer as she gazed at the person with her eyes narrowed in resentment.

"Well, you know me, babe…" the thinly built light tanned black colored hair person replied suavely. "Lets just say I know you a lot more than you know me… I mean, c'mon. Aren't you glad you finally get to see me again? Say, how 'bout you and me go out and have ourselves a fresh cup of coffee, huh? We have lots of catching up to do you know…" the person made a boring flirt.

"Well, thanks but no thanks, Mikey."

"I hate it when you call me that! Why don't you call me Michael like everybody else?!" he sneered fumingly.

"Sure, Mikey." Bridget replied mockingly smiling.

"Don't call me that!!" he whined angrily.

The elevator dinged and the door opened. The newly graduated agents came out and hastily went straight over to Bridget.

"Hey Bridge, what's the emergency? Why did you leave us down there?" Jet asked for an answer as his teenage bandmates behind him were too expecting an explanation from her.

She ignored the new graduates as this particular thing with Michael was on her top priority right now. "What do you want, Mikey?" Bridget demanded straight to the point in realization that procrastinating with idle chat is very unnecessary.

"Bridge?" Jet asked back. Noticing that he wouldn't entertain them, Jet shook his head and looked at the monitor screen. They could only recognize two of them excluding Michael especially that one particular person to his right.

"It can't be you…" Hank said.

"Whoa…" Bruce could only say.

"This is impossible…" Tony spoke disbelievingly.

"Oh no… oh my God…" Jet said incredulously.

Behind Michael, it was a person they recognized the most, the person who went to the same Two Is cafe with them. He was the person whom they saw very often. He was the well-known loan shark. It was… Gino, Big Gino who was now the same age as Jet and still wearing those very expensive Armani suits though his family members wouldn't call him 'Big' due to his short stature.

"What I want? Hmm…" he replied stroking his chin. "Hey... I see you've recruited new bunch of hapless pathetic underlings that you call 'agents' to obey your every whim, Bridge," Michael noticed them smirking trying to avert the conversation between him and Bridget away. "By the way, I'd like all of you to meet my new assistant." He said pointing to his left. The Shadows knew her and Tony knew her very very well. It was the Pet Shop Girl wearing a yellow jumpsuit holding a katana sword firmly behind her.

Oh no… can it be her? Tony thought gravely.

Bruce interjected but his question was being directed to Gino. "Gino? I can't believe it, what the hell are you doing there?!" Bruce asked demandingly to him as he pointed a finger at him.

Gino cleared his throat and replied "Well, you see, Pally, me and my brother are—"

Michael quickly turned his head to him and shouted "Didn't I tell you to SHUT UP?!" to him furiously. Gino jumped slightly and stared at his big brother with his fearful eyes. He took a big huge gulp, lowered his head slowly in terror of his brother and decided to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the conversation. He wouldn't dare to defy his brother. His irate glare then gradually became a soft grin as Michael look at his little brother and said softly to him "That's a good sport." He then turned forward back to face Bridget and her band of vigilantes. "Sorry 'bout that, my lil' brother tends to interject when I'm having a conversation. Very rude. Hope you'll forgive him." he 'apologized' as he tapped the cigar over the ashtray. "Now where were we…?"

"Ah, yes," He puffed a smoke out. "Regarding our not-so-warm relationship with you guys. As you all may have know, my, or should I say, my father's organization and yours go wayyyy-way-way-way-way-way back together as mortal enemies. You've disrupted and destroyed our organization eight years ago Bridget but now, I've regrouped most of my old gang and recruited some new ones, restore the old operations back and I, with it, will have my revenge on your stupid, pitiful spy organization and that asinine bitch Hayley McKenzie!!" he shouted threateningly as he stood up to show dominance. He did not know amongst the people in the control room, Hayley's nephew was there listening to his every word. Jet went pale when he heard that in shock and couldn't say anything about it. Tony then quickly tried to comfort him by placing his hands on his shoulders. "By the way, where is she?" Michael said noticing Hayley wasn't there among them.

"Leave Hayley out of this," Bridget retorted. "She's retired years ago and she's in no way involved with us right now!"

"Yes, quite." He replied calmly sitting down back. "As always, you're very defensive about your mentor, aren't you? Well, with that I can safely say this is an unexpected, surprising twist of events. So the leader who busted my father many years ago has already retired and now, I got no one to lay down my revenge. But don't worry Bridget, I still got you and your stupid organization for me to meddle with. Ah, what the hell, I'm not the kind of person who follows the rules, anyway. Retired or not, Hayley'll get what she deserves." He ended it with a devilish smirk as he put the cigar down and extinguish it.

"Don't you even dare, you jerk…" Bridget replied angrily.

"Guess what? I think I'm going to!" he then laughed maniacally. "Oh yeah, I almost forgot," he stopped laughing and it gradually becoming a soft chuckle. "These coming weeks, I'm planning of doing a series of very evil deeds in this city, you know… to strengthen my organization back financially speaking." He informed as he rubbed his hands in evil glee.

"What? You're gonna rob banks?" Bridget said back lowering a half of her eyebrow.

"What?!" he shoot up from his seat. "what the… how do you know my plan?!" he shouted demandingly.

Bridget shrugged. "Uh… I dunno, I just made a guess. I mean, you did give away a hint at the end of your sentence: 'financially speaking'. I mean, can't it be more obvious?"

"ARRGHH!!" he shouted as he banged the table with both of his fists. "WHY do I always tell my evil schemes out loud to everybody?!" he shouted out loud as he shook his fists in anger.

Everyone back at the control room just blinked at him in disbelief. God, what a hothead… Hank thought.

Michael then calmed himself, by motioning his hand outward as he thought of words to cool himself such as "Cool, just be cool…" Feeling that he was much better now, he sat back and gave them a soft smile and said to them all. "In that case, I dare you to stop us. But I must warn you that we've become more powerful than you imagined, and never underestimate us." He then took a glance at his watch. "Oh man, just look at the time, my meeting's going to start in a couple of seconds. Catch ya later. It's a shame our relationship didn't go as well as I thought it would be." And with that, he disappeared from the screen, leaving nothing but static and noise. Wren then switched the screen off as they looked at each other in stunned silence.

Bridget rubbed her forehead as if she was attempting to nurse her headache, closing her eyes. "Status report." she asked the operators she assigned earlier to monitor the conversation.

"Can't find the location, milady," Candice replied to her. "They seemed to use an encrypted version of our frequency."

"Conversation recorded," Jessie informed. "Five minutes and thirty-four seconds in total, milady."

"No hidden messages and codes detected." Aishya said.

"She's right, milady. I've double checked it and zilch," Michelle agreed. "But we can't assume it's completely clean. We need to go through with it again."

"Thanks…" Bridget said softly to all of them, sighing deeply. "You guys did a great job."

"I… I don't understand," Tony said in perplexity. "Why did he call us? I mean, we ended up having the benefits of knowing his plans…"

"Bad guy cliché, Tony," Bruce responded. "Haven't you watched Al Capone? The bad guys always give the good guys some hints about his plans first before they go on doing it."

"If this was a movie or something, I'd blame the bad writing." Hank added.

"I don't know about that, but knowing him, we'd better watch our back because he's very cunning." Bridget said to all of them.

"Is there something that we should know about him, Bridget?" Tony asked her.

"Yeah… and I want to know the thing between him and my aunt Hayley as well." Jet asked her rather unconventional since he never really cared about his mother's younger sister much.

Bridget stared at Jet and she knew she couldn't talk her way out of it. She sighed nervously contemplating for a while as she gazed her feet and rubbed her arm and said to the Shadows. "Let's go to the common room. I'll tell you everything that I know about him."

"Okay," she sighed as all of them took a seat. "Let me tell you a story about Hayley, Michael and our organization prior to your membership and our affairs with Michael's family." Bridget said to all of them as they paid attention to her.

"A couple of months after Hayley McKenzie became the chief, this person, Michael, started to wreak havoc in the city. Businesses and banks were robbed, houses were broken into and people were assaulted. This was all because of his fault since he wanted to prove to his father that he was competent enough be the heir to their family business. We, without the knowledge of the police, contributed a lot of our effort to vanquish them and we did."

"Wait a minute, family business?" Bruce asked her.

"His father used to be the head of one of the mob families in this city but not very influential though," Bridget divulged to them which made them hard to swallow the fact. "But due to our sabotage and effort… his plan backfired. Not only have the cops gained insurmountable amount of evidences to convict him but even his father as well. The twist was, his dad was sentenced 20 years in prison while he… could get away with just five."

A most shocking revelation from her. The Shadows could only stare at her in great disbelief.

"We would've never thought that we could go that far. It was never on our intention to go after his dad. We just let the cops handle the mobs while we go after Michael and his gang."

"Why?" Jet asked.

"Because he and his gang involved themselves in petty street crimes. We specialized in apprehending these kinds of criminals, so what he did is just like an invitation to us."

"And what about Big Gino? Why was he there?" Phoebe asked her.

"Big Gino? Gino who?" Bridget asked back.

"You know, that guy was standing behind him, the one who was wearing that Armani suit." Rhonda explained.

"I don't know. He said that he was his brother, maybe he is. Though, I have heard rumors that Michael went on a rampage like that because his father picked someone else to be the heir of the family."

"Judging from the timeline of the events, I would assume that Gino was too young to be appointed as the successor of the family." Hank said.

"When you see Gino, why is he always being flanked by two bodyguards on each of his side? One could assume his father wouldn't want him to get hurt or worse due to his importance to the family." said Tony.

"Who cares about Gino and his stupid brother!" Jet snapped at them. "What about my aunt Hayley?! I want to know why and I want to know right now!!" he shouted as he banged his fist onto the coffee table.

All of them gazed at his for a while being surprised that Jet actually was concerned about his aunt. Bridget nodded softly, contemplating for words to explain to him and finally, she replied "Most likely he wants to take revenge because she was the one who put him in the slammer. I don't know what method he would choose but I know for sure it won't be a pleasant one."

Judging from the look of his face, Jet began to worry about his aunt Hayley's well being in the future.

"And there's something I should tell you, Jet… At first, I… really, really don't to say this, but under these circumstances, I have to divulge it. Your aunt… used to be Michael's girlfriend."

"WHAT?!" the Shadows shouted in unison. Jet was the loudest one amongst them.

"After they learned that they were on the different side of the fence, they quickly cut off their relationship and became enemies. So I think this threat has to do with Michael's disdain of Hayley as well."

"Oh man…" Jet sighed shaking his head softly. "This is so unreal, it's not even funny." He replied gravely as he stared at the floor playing with his thumbs.

"I'm sorry, Jet… but it has to be let out eventually," Bridget replied sullenly and Jet nodded weakly in understand. Tony offered comfort to Jet and he accepted it hugging him. "Should… should I … tell my aunt Hayley this?" Jet asked her.

She couldn't find a suitable answer to reply but "It's up to you…" was her answer.

Tony wanted to asked her about the Pet Shop Girl but he thought to himself it would be the best to keep it to himself right now as the situation didn't really call for it.

"So… what are we going to do now?" Bruce asked Bridget after he glanced at Jet and Tony.

"We go on high alert, orange level," She informed. "I will station agents at all major bank outlets in the city and I will notify our informants to keep a sharp eye on certain places incase if anything should happen."

"What will become of you?" Bruce asked. "What about your retirement?"

"It looks like I can't retire now, can I? With Michael's back on the loose, this organization needs someone who has dealt with this type of situation before and has a lot of experience regarding it more than ever. I won't give my position up to someone who has little experience in handling these kinds of things. If I were to give up my position right now I feel I'm not being a responsible leader. I have to stay until this situation has been rectified out."

The Shadows gazed at her in amazement. It was hard to find a leader like her these days with such high of a caliber.

"Nevertheless, you are no longer the potentials in training. You are one of us – a part of a great team," she continued smiling softly. "Well, boys, I think I have told you enough, so I think you all should head to the Assignment Office to see who you got partnered with and what's your first assignment as new agents." The new agents then nodded weakly, got up and went out from the room leaving Bridget alone.

"Just when I thought that I was out they pull me back in…" she thought sullenly as she clasped her hands over her face in weary frustration.

"Night, Boys," a middle height, thinly built, pale looking brunette haired beatnik girl said to them. "I am El, your Assignment Officer." The girl introduced sitting behind a desk with a computer in front of her.

Hank moved his head close to Bruce as he looked at El. "Whoa… I would've never thought I'd see a Goth chick in this place." Hank whispered softly to his best friend.

"I heard that," El replied. "Ya know, I would've never thought I'd see a prissy stuck up geek in this place too." Everybody was chuckling softly except for Hank who glared at her.

"'Sides, this gig beats the crap job I had at the mall. Plus I get to kick people's ass," She informed typing something on the keyboard. "All right, give me your names so I can put them in this crappy dinosaur." She asked referring to the aging computer she was using. Each and every one of the Shadows gave their names out to her.

"Tony Meehan, Jet Harris, Hank Marvin and Bruce Welch," El replied as her eyes narrowed while looking at the monitor. "They didn't put your last name into the database… Those goddam lazy asses in the Human Resource Department… I swear one of these days I'm going to kill 'em all and—" she abruptly stopped looking at the Shadows who were staring at her back in horrified stun.

"Uh, metaphorical exaggeration, of course…" she said sheepishly and continued typing. After she finished, she then pressed Ctrl P and a list of names were printed, each with assignments given and whom they got partnered with. El then ripped the papers off each by each by their corresponding names. She licked her thumb to wet it and flipped through the papers to double check them.

"Bruce and Tony, your first mission is to carry out a stakeout at a bank near the Lincoln subway station. Good luck." Again she said giving the paper slip to Bruce amd Tony. "And here's your standard issue communicator." She gave them a small device that could fit in a grasp of a hand wrapped in plastic. "You attach the communicator box on your utility belt like so…" she instructed. "Put the earpiece jack right here and you're ready to go."

"And…" she let out a wicked chuckle "Hank and Jet…"

"No! No way!" they both blurted out in unison objecting ruthlessly to the idea of them getting partnered together.

"Well, boo-hoo," she cried mockingly. "You're both partnered together and your mission is to monitor some strange activity happening at Liverpool Street. Live with it."

"I can't get partnered with this geek!" Jet tried to reason pointing at Hank.

"I want reconsideration!! There is no way this thing will work and I certainly do not want to be this jerk's partner!" Hank gave his explanation which weren't concrete and justifiable.

"Hmm… ooh… ahh…" El faked a thought. "Well, tough luck. The universe doesn't revolve around you guys, you know."

"Bruce," Hank called him whiningly. "Help me out here!"

But Bruce could only smile back at him back and said "You guys have a good time now!" he waved to him as he and Tony walked away from them. Tony, who was walking with him, could only chortle softly as he placed a hand on his mouth to cover it up from them.

"Tony…" Jet said through his clenched teeth. "Don't you dare bail on me now!"

"Oh… look at the time," Tony replied looking at her wristwatch, smiling softly, "I'm already late for my post. I'm sorry, Jet but perhaps we should talk about this some other time?" and Jet answered it with a jaw drop practically in disbelief of his friend and bandmate. Tony then joined Bruce as they walked out and then vanished from their view and a loud laughter was heard.

"And here are your communicators," She shoved the devices over the table to them. "Well, just don't stand there staring at me incredulously! Get out of here before I put you two in janitorial duty!"

Chapter 11- Trying to Get Along

On top of a roof of a two-storey shops at Liverpool Street, two recognizable silhouettes were there monitoring the said street for any peculiar activity. The moon was full tonight and very bright, and with the help from some dim streetlights, it brightened the place up making the job easier for the assigned agents to perform their duty. Jet and Hank tried to ignore each other by forgetting their respective foes were there accompanying one another. No words were spoken between them since they arrived there until…

"What did I tell you about not to go two feet near me?!" Hank said exasperatedly to Jet as he monitored the streets below.

"It's a free country. I can go wherever hell I want. 'Sides, it ain't like you've got a restraining order or anything." Jet shot back spitefully.

"I might consider after this." he mumbled to himself. More silence between them and was going on about a half hour. The overall feeling was tense, not because of the environment but because of the aura between them that drove them nuts. It did not help either that both of them were uncomfortable with each other. Hank tried to tolerate the uncomfortable mood but gradually, it became more and more tense and finally, he cracked.

"GOD…" he blurted through his clenched teeth shaking his hands as if she wanted to strangle someone. "I'm… going… NUTS… if I stay here for another second…" he pointed at Jet accusingly. "With YOU!!" Jet rasied his left eyebrow at Hank in bafflement.

"Hey, it ain't no picnic for me either, Hank! You think I like to get partnered with you?!" he then groaned exasperatedly.

"Okay! Okay," Hank sighed exasperatedly too. "Since we're both here and we can"t just abandon our post just like that," he snapped his fingers. "Why don't we at least try get along with each other? You cool with that?" he offered his hand to seal the deal.

Jet stared at Hank's hand for a moment with his eyes narrowed, thinking about it. "Sure." he scoffed and reluctantly, he shook his hand. And they then resumed monitoring the street below. More uncomfortable silences between them.

"So… what do you want to talk about?" Hank tried to break the ice.

Jet thought for a moment and asked "I don't know… what do you want to talk about?"

"Okay, Jet, I want an apology from you for starting a fight with me—"

"Oh God, this crap again," Jet cut him off angrily. "Didn't I already apologize to you in front of Mr Taylor?! 'Sides, I was PMS-ing that day!"

"You weren't being sincere!!" he retorted back.

"What do you want me to do?! Write a formal apology in the papers?!"

"If it helps, then yes!!"

"Forget it, Hank! That's the only apology you could get from me and I'm not planning to do it again!"

Hank narrowed his eyes pointing at Jet furiously. "Why, you stuck up arrogant jer—"

"That's enough, you two!" somebody said through their earpieces to quell them both down.

"Bridget?!" Jet blurted out. "How do you—"

"I saw you two through the cameras, Boys! You two are supposed to help each other, not bickering with one another!!" Bridget scolded to calm them down.

But Jet and Hank went to their defensive side whining back "But he started—"

"ENOUGH, Boys!!" Bridget cut them both off. Soft snickers were heard in the background. "I don't want to hear a word from you two anymore! Either you shut up or both of you'll have to face disciplinary action after this!" She scolded both of them like a mother tried to quell her children down shouting through the communicator. They both went silent.

"Good," Bridget sighed with a relief. "Now keep it that way so I won't have to deal with you two anymore because you Shadows are driving-me-crazy!!" she yelled through her gritted teeth, threw the communicator on the table and walked away. Some of the operators in the room tried to hide their laugher. But some did manage to throw some sarcastic teases to her.

"Milady, you'd make a great mum!"

"Can you baby-sit my bratty little brother tomorrow?"

"Bridget!! She called me dummy head!!" An agent pointed to her friend calling Bridget whiningly. And the whole room burst into laugher.

"Ha-ha…" she replied back in defeated tone. "Well, it's not easy to baby-sit a bunch of whiny squabbling little brats like all of you, you know." But the entire Communications Room was still in laughter ignoring Bridget's mockery. Feeling that she had tolerated enough of their laughter, she exited the room mumbling expletives under her breath.

An hour pressed forward and Jet exhaled loudly in total boredom as he monitored the ongoing activity down on Liverpool Street. By ongoing, it meant void of activity. He thought to himself of all the places in London, those crooks had to pick up Liverpool Street. Some of the shops were in shambles and he doubted that the rooftop he stood on would hold them up any longer, especially when Hank was alongside him. There was nothing here that would interest anybody, except for those old steel beams that was still sturdy enough to hold the old buildings up and one would make a fortune if one would sell them at a scrap dealer. In his mind, he was cursing at El for making him to go along with Hank of all people.

Hank pondered as he gazed at the old buildings, the old relics from World War Two. Was the idea of her getting partnered with Jet was some kind of a sick, crazy joke from his former mentor Elaine? He did tell her that it was a standard procedure that an agent would be partnered with an incompatible comrade so they could get to know each other and develop some sense of friendship together. But… the idea of getting partnered with Jet was completely uncalled for. Ever since they first met, they could never get along with each other and what difference would it make now? He, like Jet, seriously doubted that by getting partnered together they eventually would get along even though teamwork was being stressed time and again. Only an hour left before their post was over, Hank prayed it would be over soon.

Suddenly, they heard a vehicle approaching the area and they went on alert. They saw a small white truck pulling into a broken garage in an abandoned row house across the building they were on now. The lights from the truck were shut down, the engine stopped and three men got out and went to the back of the truck. They exchanged some idle chats but it was heard indistinctly by the two agents, something about a trivial matter. Then one of them opened the door to the container and went into it. The agents were baffled as they looked at each other. Jet then took out a small binocular from her utility belt and watched the thugs through it. The person who went into the truck earlier was now carrying a bomb with him.

"Oh my God…" Jet said grimly lowering the binocular down.

"What? What's he holding?"

"A bomb…" he answered nervously as he looked through the binoculars back and saw those people went into the building. "But why would they want to bomb an old building like that?"

"You kidding? This place is designated as a city heritage site, pretty much like your old neighborhood in Kingsbury. Maybe it's a symbolic thing for them to bomb an old building like that. It's true what Bridget said, they really want to wreak havoc in this city."

"Assuming that you're talking about Michael, how do you know this is his doing?" Jet asked him demandingly.

"I just know. See that guy with the green shirt? He used to be Gino's bodyguard. You really need to brush up your childhood history, Jet."

Jet never really liked his childhood much. "Fine. Okay, shut up and listen," he put the binocular back. "Here's what we're gonna do."

"What? Hey, who died and made you the leader?" Hank shot back.

"Look, you wanna stop them or not?"

"Sure I wanna! But we're supposed to work like a team, not me taking orders from you unless it's on stage!"

Jet groaned and said "All right, fine! Give me ideas as I go along. First, I'll approach them from the left." he indicated by pointing his pathway out to Hank.

"I'll start on that rooftop," said Hank. "I'll shoot my grappling look at that exhaust port over there—"

"Wait, hold on a second, that doesn't look safe." Jet protested.

"I thought you've always wanted me dead? Why the concern all the sudden?"

"If you're dead, then I won't have anyone for me to throw my insults at."

"Screw you. I'm sticking to my plan."

"What?! C'mon, Hank! That looks dangerous, you could seriously hurt yourself! I mean, just look at it! The exhaust port is old and too loose!"

"Shut up, Jet! Unless it's on stage, you're not the boss of me!" Hank then took off and went to higher ground to take aim at that exhaust port.

Arrogant jerk… he cursed in his mind in frustration that Hank wouldn't listen to him. Fine, be that way. He shook his head and went to the other side of the building he was on to climb down the fire exit stairs. He then slowly sneak through the alleys, went across the street quickly and hid behind a wall as he watched the opened front door pondering whether it was safe to go in.

Up above, Hank was aiming his grappling hook at the exhaust port. Perfect hit, he then tugged the rope to make sure it was strong. Feeling sure that the grip was tight, he then held the rope tightly and swung to the other side. But Jet was right: Hank was too heavy for the loose exhaust and it detached from it's original position and with Hank fell down to the ground to some garbage bins below breaking his fall which coincidentally alerted the three guys inside the building. "What's that?!" they asked as they went out.

Jet slapped his forehead in aggravation of Hank's tomfoolery. It was too late for him to hide Hank from those goons now since they were outside looking at the unconscious Hank.

"What's a geek doing here?" one of them asked.

"Michael did say be on a lookout for the Shadows in that sort of green and black Army uniform. I guess that he's one of them." The other guy shrugged.

"So, what are we supposed to do? We can't just leave him here… he's out cold for crying out loud." Gino's former bodyguard said.

"Let's take him to the boss then. He'll know what to do. Remember, nobody must not interfere or know about our operation."

"Nobody but me, jerks!" was Jet's one-liner of the night as he jumped upwards pouncing the three men. Two of them fell down except for one person who was startled at his presence. But he quickly snapped back and fought with him throwing some punches and kicks. The two thugs got back up and came to their associate's aid. With three against one, the odds seemed impossible. As he parried, dodged and blocked the attacks, he shouted for Hank's help.

"Hank!! HANK!! Wake up, WAKE UP!! Please WAKE UP!! Help me out here!!"

Hank finally opened his eyes slowly moaning bewilderedly. Still weak but thankfully did not suffer any injuries, he slowly woke up as he looked around his surroundings with his vision still blurry. He finally recovered and saw Jet fighting for his life against an overwhelming odd getting punched and kicked from the thugs. Hank shook his head rapidly to make himself more alert and joined in the massive brawl. Finally the odds were somewhat fair if not even. Two trained agents against three untrained, inept goons sounded to be another victory for them. Still fighting, Hank made a swift punch across a thug's face and he landed on the garbage cans violently. He got back up and went back to rejoin the foray but he suddenly stopped at his tracks when his wristwatch vibrated.

It was the signal.

"Guys!!" that thug called and everybody stopped looking at him. "Thirty seconds left! Let's amscray outta here!" And all of the goons abruptly left their foes and ran over to the truck as the agents chased them. They made safely inside the truck locking the doors and fled away. Realizing that it was impossible to catch that truck by running after it, Hank took out a small black colored device out and threw it on the truck. It was the other tracking device without the EMP device. It got attached to the back of the truck making faint beeping noises and bleeping lights.

Jet and Hank looked at the truck as it swerved and veered through the road. Breathing heavily after the fight they were in, they looked at each other and Jet said "Didn't I tell you about the exhaust port?!"

"And what about you, huh?! Are you just gonna wait for the building to explode?!" Hank retorted back shouting the top of his lungs. "Wait…" he realized something saying 'wait' softly. They both turned their heads slowly at the building.

"THE BOMB!!" they both shouted loudly in unison. They ran away as far as they can hoping to find a safe hiding spot before the building exploded. And fortunately, they did for they could find a safe hiding place behind a stoop at another building. They jumped in and lowered their heads as low as they could get bracing for the explosion. Seconds went pass by, they could felt it in their pounding heart. But… nothing happened. The building did not blow up.

Slowly, Hank and Jet got back up from their hiding gazing at the building that supposed to explode. Nothing happened and they were perplexed by it. Still being cautious, they went inside searching for the bomb. Jet went to the second floor while Hank searched for the explosive device downstairs. And Hank found something at the kitchen.

"Jet!" Hank shouted and Jet heeded to his call. He then quickly went downstairs to the kitchen and saw Hank sighed out frustratingly looking at a small green colored rectangular device bleeping a green light in front of him.

"It's a fake. It's not even A REAL BOMB!!" Hank shouted angrily as he picked the device up and threw it at the wall. Jet was frustrated too as he pondered why would those goons do this to them. All those fighting was for nothing.

"Hank, Jet. Can you hear me? Anyone of you, answer me." Bridget said irately through their earpieces. Both of them were reluctant to answer back. But they had to. In anticipation for a scolding, Jet closed his eyes tightly and put two fingers over the earpiece so it would enable her to answer back. "Yes… milady?"

"I want to see you back in the headquarters… NOW." That made his point.

Jet gazed at Hank grimly and said to him "We're in deep crap…"

"I can't believe it…" Bridget shook her head as she paced back and forth in front of Hank and Jet. "A month and two weeks of adequate training and both of you still screwed up!" she scolded them exasperatedly. They both hung their head in shame but Hank tried to retort back.

"Hey, it wasn't our fault that they sent inexperienced agents such as ourselves in the field!"

"Oh?" Bridget replied back sarcastically. "So how did Bruce and Tony manage to perform a splendid job with their mission, huh? They successfully caught the criminals and they managed to save the bank from getting robbed as well."

They both went silent.

"And what did you do? You both fell on a trap. The whole bomb thing was a set-up. Didn't I tell you that Michael's a sneaky person?"

"A… a set-up?" Jet asked dimly in a quizzical tone.

"It's the oldest trick in the book. Their cohorts were actually only three blocks away from you two and yet both of you are still gullible enough to fall into their trap!!" Bridget yelled angrily at them.

"HEY!!" Jet shouted back. "At least we put a tracking device on their truck so it's not a loss!"

"Not good enough," Bridget shot back. "Apparently, they knew about it and threw tracking device into the river." She then relayed orders to the Communications Rooms via her communicator. "Wren, I want you to patch the video you recorded earlier to the Conference Room right now." she ordered with an indifferent voice.

Wren nodded and replied "Yes, Milady, you may turn the screen on and change to AV1."

"Thank you," Bridget said and grabbed the remote control to the television next to her. "Our cameras caught them on tape breaking into a bank." she said as she pressed a button to show them the video. "And because of your mishap, that bank was robbed." The video played fast-forward. A small truck went into an alley next to the bank and minutes later, the truck went out again and the alarm rang.

"So? You've got the evidence on tape. Why don't you send them to the cops?" Jet asked her.

"We can't. It won't prove anything since the video is in very poor quality and we don't want them to intervene in our organization. But that’s not the point," she continued sternly. "The problem is between you two. What we have here is a failure to communicate. A communications breakdown if you will. You two were too busy about your relentless trivial bickering that it actually managed to blind you two from your job. And I for one won't tolerate it."

They both gulped in dread. Who knows what punishment Bridget would give to them.

"Both of your patrol hours will be extended to three hours, no exceptions and no excuses. Effective tomorrow night. Now go home and think about you've just done."

Chapter 12- An Offer You Can't Refuse

The the Abbey Road studios on Friday, Bruce was walking alongside Hank to put their guitars away in their lockers after a very lengthy band practise. Bruce spun his locker combination, opened it up and to his surprise, she saw something that he absolutely adored.

"Oh my God…" Bruce said in softly in shock surprise placing his right hand over his mouth.

Hank took notice of his friend's surprised tone. "What? What is it?" he then inquired.

Bruce took the thing out from his locker and showed it to his friend and bandmate.

"It's beautiful…" Hank gazed in awe of it. "You never told me that you have a secret admire before." he teased smiling.

"Tell me about it, I don't even know I've got one either. So this is how it feels like to have one." Bruce replied and smelled the beautiful purple orchids he was holding. "And obviously this person knows a lot about me too since this is my most favorite flower ever."

"Sweet and yet, creepy… and it makes me wonder how that person got your locker combination…" Hank replied back. "Don't you at least feel a bit freaked out about it?"

"Nah… at least not now. And I don't think any of my stuff is missing." he said smiling and looked back inside her locker just to double-check. "Hey, there's a card inside." He took it out and read it.

Happy Belated Birthday!
I wanted to give you a frog but:

1. They’re fresh out of frogs.
2. You ain’t afraid of them.
3. These flowers are just as beautiful as you.
4. Wanna go watch a movie tomorrow at noon? My treat.

"And so the plot thickens…" Hank said.

Bruce sighed flatteringly "Oh… how sweet."

"You're not seriously considering meeting this girl, are you?" Hank lifted his left eyebrow in a quizzical gaze of his friend.

"Maybe I will… but that's just because I think I know who this girl is." Bruce said to Hank. To him, the frog remark was a dead giveaway.

At the nearest corner, there was somebody who was at the wall watching them. She saw the look on Bruce's face – the most beautiful ever smiling and felt happy of the flowers she gave to him. She smiled that she liked the gift and went away walking. As she walked, she tightened her fists and let out a soft, yet a powerful "YES!" from her mouth. Entertaining her obvious euphoria, she began humming some music and danced a victory dance to it.

"Dance with me, Mr Lordan!" she took Jerry Lordan's arm as he was walking past her making the papers he was carrying to fall on the floor.

"Ooh," he shrieked. "Lisa… hee, hee!" he giggled. "Just what are you think you're doing?!" he said as Lisa McKenzie spun her around.

"Holy crap, this is embarrassing but I can't control myself, Mr Lordan 'cause I'm so happy!" Lisa replied and released his hand. Lisa continued to walk and dance away leaving him in shock of Bruce Welch's girlfriend behaving oddly like that. Lisa walked happily to Sarah Cross who was rummaging through her locker.

"Hell yeah, Sarah," sh said happily. "After all these years, I've finally had the guts to ask him out!" she then leaned next to Sarah's locker.

Sarah chuckled softly. "I'm sure your mum'd be very proud for you, Lis," Sarah replied sarcastically still searching for whatever in her locker. "Playing the anonymous secret admire card won't get you nowhere, let me tell you now."

"Oh, don't worry about it. I asked Bruce whether he wants to go to the movies tomorrow. Besides, I gave him a little hint in the card."

"Really?" she took out a book from her locker and closed it up. "What kind of a movie are you planning to watch with him anyway?" They then walked over to the Two Is to have some lunch.

"Probably an Elvis movie, Sarah. Guys like those sort of films. Otherwise, if he's not into that stuff which I doubt, I'm gonna bring him to watch Oh, Boy or something."

"Oh, Boy?" she asked doubtingly. "Somehow, I don't think Bruce's the kind of guy who watches that show, Sarah. Well, good luck. By the way, where's Sue Ellen? Isn't she always with you at this time of hour?"

"Look, Sarah, you just got to hear this: Sue Ellen West got a fight with some liberal girl just now, they were arguing about policies, issues, presidential debate and all that crap but then, that liberal girl got so angry at her and she just snapped and slapped her!"

Sarah chuckled in awe. "Oh, that Sue Ellen… so then what?"

"What else, Sarah? Sue Ellen fought back, the liberal girl fought back and then the whole thing went to hell. She didn't know that girl was Tony's cousin on his mum's side." Lisa smirked.

"Ha, ha," she chuckled again. "That's crazy…" and Lisa saw Tony coming towards her. "Hey, Tony, tell Hank I said 'hi'." She complimented politely waving her left hand.

"I sure will, Lisa," Tony blushed as he replied shyly. But then, he yawned and made Lisa raised an eyebrow. "Do you girls have plans later?" he tried to open a conversation.

"I do, Tony," Sarah interjected excitedly smiling. "But I won't spoil it to you."

Tony smiled back. "Well, I'll be sure I'll be looking forward to hearing it," he then checked his watch. "Oh, I wish I could continue our talk but I gotta pick my little brother up from school at 3:30pm. I'll see you two later then." he said sweetly grinning at Lisa.

Lisa nodded as she smiled softly. "Yeah, see ya." Tony replied the grin back by winking and left.

"Did you just hear that?" Lisa asked Sarah.

"Hear what?"

"I dunno, he sounded like he's tired or something. He's usually cheerful at this time of hour," She shook her head trying to explain to Sarah. "I dunno, maybe I told her to say 'hi' to Hank for me."

"It's just that, Sarah. Don't act like a crazy person like Taylor over here." They were walking past Taylro Kane who was softly chanting "His name is Vincent Eugene Craddock" repeatedly.

The day was Saturday and Jet had just finished his time at the park to muse for a poem. And since he left his motorbike at home, Jet had to ride the bus. He only paid about 3 shillings as he glared at the bus driver who was wearing a neck support and had stitches around his face. Most likely, he was the driver whom Jet had curse to have something terribly bad happen to him. The driver glanced at him for a moment and averted his eyes away from him. Somehow, the energy that surrounded Jet made him afraid of him. Jet shrugged, showed him her new bus pass and went inside to find a seat. He found an empty one in the middle section of the bus.

Shortly after two stops, he saw his new enemy Big Gino in his usual recognizable look entering the bus. He raised an eyebrow in disbelief and turned his face away from him so he wouldn't get noticed by him. It was too late. Gino saw him and then, he took a seat next to him.

"Afternoon, Jet." he greeted not looking at him.

"What do you want from me?" Jet answered bitterly looking at the scenery outside the bus. "Did your brother ask you to take me hostage or something?"

"Calm down, Jet. Let me tell you my side of the story."

"Get lost." Jet wasn't interested in listening at all.

Gino stared at him for a moment trying to read him. "It gravely concerns about your aunt Hayley." He made his point.

That got Jet's attention as he looked at him while still not facing him. "I'm listening."

"Jet, I hope the things that I'm going to tell to you won't frighten you 'cause your aunt Hayley's life is in grave danger as we speak."

Jet darted his head back in dread. "What the hell are you talking about? he finally faced his head at him.

"I'm gonna be frank, me and my brother've never share the traditional bond of brotherhood together even though we were born from the same mum. That such connection never existed between us. Want to know why? He never looked at me as his own flesh and blood. He never looked out for my wellbeing, he never cared about me and he..." he briefly stopped trying to console himself. "I… I can't stand him much longer. I… I hate him." he expressed melancholically to him which made Jet blink.

"It's because of his attitude that my dad won't let him become the heir of the family business. It's because of that callous, selfish and incompetent madman my dad's in prison. It's because of him my mum's suffering from a terrible disease. It's because of him my dad's organization crumbled into pieces. And I, as the real heir to the family, won't stand around like a fool and watch all of my dad's hard work gets destroyed by that idiot. You've probably have heard it before somewhere, Jet: the reason why my dad chose me instead of him to be the heir is 'cause he sees me as a confident, matured young man who showed his entrepreneur and leadership skills at an early young age. That's why my dad's chosen me. Not that I'm boasting or anything, mind you. I took the words straight out from my dad's mouth."

"And this concerns my aunt Hayley how?"

"I visited my dad yesterday to have a discussion about this issue and he said to me that your aunt Hayley shouldn't be harmed in any way 'cause she's already retired from your spy organization. She's no longer considered as a threat. My dad's a very honorable man—"

"Honorable?" Jet scoffed. "Yeah right."

"Jet, if my dad wasn't an honorable man, he'd order his men to eliminate your aunt Hayley right after he got prosecuted for all the trouble she caused. But he's got ethics. He won't touch his enemies who've retired or no longer being viewed as a threat. I trust his judgment and his decision. But my brother doesn’t seem to see it that way. Your aunt Hayley's still considered as a huge threat to him and to his organization." Jet became worried.

"What are you trying to say?"

"I overheard my brother yesterday that he'll send a person to assassinate your aunt right after her shift ends at the Charring Cross Hospital in Hammersmith today." He finally revealed the dreadful information. Jet felt a cold wave of fright sweeping all over his body. Sure he 'hated' his aunt Hayley and hhe wanted to get rid of her and all but with not that kind of way.

"Why are you helping me?" he spat back. "Why should I believe in everything that you say?!" he was in denial.

"I've promised my dad that I'll overthrow my brother one way or another and helping you is one of my ways to thwart him. He's doing everything that my family stands up against. He assaulted people without any reason, extorting money and worse; he's venturing into drugs business."

"Isn't that practically what your dad did even before your brother became the faction leader?"

"Michael's nothing like my dad," he replied angrily. "My dad only protects people who are loyal and a good friend to the family and the only business we do is running a small casino in this city. The other families don't want get involved in our affairs since it's an internal issue and that's why I see your organization is my only reliable ally right now and after this commotion is over, I'd like to propose a solution. I'm giving you an offer you can't refuse, Jet, I'm proposing a treaty between our organization that we'll never ever interfere and intervening each other again."

"Excusez moi, Gino: WOOHP won't ally with a mob family! And besides, you're asking the wrong person here. I'm not the leader, Bridget is."

"You misunderstood, Jet. I'm asking you only to assist me in deposing Michael, that’s all. The reason why I asked you is 'cause your aunt Hayley's in trouble and unlike my relationship with my so-called brother, I know that both of you and your aunt love each other and always look after one another. I… envy you, Jet. Judging from all the things I've heard about her, I wish I could've a brother that has the similar traits like her…" he said shedding a tear. "But no… instead, I have Michael…"

Jet felt completely guilty when he heard that. He now realized how lucky he was to have an aunt like Hayley.

Big Gino sniffed and wiped the tear off his eye. "Sorry… dust in my eye." he lied. A momentary pause as he gazed at the scenery outside to console himself. Then, he got up and pushed the bell so the bus would stop.

"Remember, Jet, save your aunt and please send my message to your Chief, I beg of you." he pleaded hopefully and got off from the bus. Jet slouched back against his seat and couldn't swallow all the hard facts just heard. Whether he had noticed or not, a tear began form in his eyes fearing what would become of his aunt Hayley later.

At her family's house, Sarah looked in the mirror and rubbed his chin thinking whether she should wear Evening in Paris perfume or Poison perfume. She chose the latter. She actually 'borrowed' it from her mother's drawer since she was too cheap to buy one. After applying it, she went over to her wardrobe and took the cleanest blouse and skirt out from it and wore them. She found her pink Alice band on her bed, put it on and before she took one step out from her room, she rechecked and double checked herself to see whether she was forgetting something.

The bus arrived and she got on. Jet was inside but she didn't notice him because she was thinking about Bruce. Jet sighed frustratingly at his fate and his aunt Hayley's safety. He tried to think how she would prevent the assassination attempt, but couldn’t because he was quite amused by the look on Sarah's face. He smiled softly but then, he shook his head violently trying to think again. But Sarah's face prevailed once more. Knowing that he couldn't concentrate with Sarah looking like she had just met Elvis Presley in front of him, he pushed the bell to ask the bus to stop. He then got off from his seat walking past Sarah as he made his way out from the bus. Sarah stopped for a while, shrugged and continued thinking about Bruce. The people in the bus only stared at her in perplexity.

Sarah got out from the bus and went into a flower shop to buy some orchids for her date. The odd behavior that Sarah was doing ultimately freaked theflower weller out as she stared at the young woman in quizzical gaze. After paying her, Sarah went out with a new bouquet of flowers with her as she walked down the street.

Eventually, she arrived at the cinema waiting at the ticket booth for her date to arrive. After waiting and nearly given up hope, Bruce emerged from the street smiling at the relieved-as-hell teenage girl.

"So, you're the one who trespassed my locker, eh, Sarah?" he asked inquiringly but not threateningly and with a soft smile.

"Well, I admit it's crazy but I couldn't think up a better way to give you those flowers," she said. "Beides, I left an obvious hint in the card that would clue you in so that you could kill me later."

He chuckled at the explanation. "What about the reciting poetry gig at my balcony?"

"Shakespeare did it before and it's really boring." Sarah replied playfully. Literature was never her idea.

"How long have you been waiting?" Sarah then asked him sweetly done with the playful banter.

"For a while…" she shot back a nervous smile. "And uh… here's another batch of orchids that you like. Heh… heh…" she snickered nervously.

"Oh, Sarah. You're too kind," he replied as he politely accepted the flowers. "Shall we watch a movie then?"

"Sure," Sarah relpied happily. "Okay, Bruce, what do you want to watch? I really don't know much about your taste in films but I'm gambling for an Elvis film right now," she told him. "Crap, now I have to sit through a sexy Elvis film for two hours."

"Uh… well, Sarah, I appreciate it and an Elvis movie's always what I've got in mind."

"Thanks, Bruce." said Sarah kissing him on his left cheek.

20 minutes later, Jet was cursing to himself for not knowing when his aunt's shift will end as he walked hastily to the Shadows flat. Suddenly, he had an idea. He then quickly went over to the nearest public phone and called his parents. The phone line was ringing but nobody was answering it.

"Come on… come on…" he said in impatient anxiety. "Mum… please answer the bloody phone…"

And finally, somebody answered him. "Hello?"

"Mum!! Do you know when aunt Hayley's shift at the Charring Cross Hospital in Hammersmith'll end today?"

"Oh… I don't know, Terance dear…" Winifred Harris's voice replied but thankfully, she wasn't in her moody intoxicated state today. "Why don't you check at the Charring Cross hospital?"

"Oh for God's sake!!" he shouted in his mind. He then slammed the phone down and called the Charring Cross Hospital. He had known the phone number for quite sometime due to his therapy session with Dr Costa who was Carol's father.

"Charring Cross Hospital. Can I help you?" an operator answered.

"Yeah, I'm inquiring about Hayley McKenzie, I'm her nephew Terance Harris."

"Which department?"

"Pediatric… I think."

"Hold on please." And the usual annoying waiting music was playing through the phone. "I just want to ask about her hours, goddammit!!" he shouted in his mind. Jet was completely irritated by the stupid music. Hopefully, it wouldn't be that long for someone to pick up the phone.

"Pediatric." Finally somebody replied.

"Can I speak to Hayley McKenzie?"

"She's busy with a patient right now, sorry." the female receptionist replied.

"Okay, uh... can I ask when will her shift ends today?" he asked back hastily.

"Wait for a moment please," the receptionist replied as she typed Hayley's name on the computer. "Her shift should be over in ten minutes from now."

Jet looked at the end of the road he was nearby as he calculated the distance between the public phone he was using and the hospital where his aunt Hayley was working. I've still got time… he thought and then said to the receptionist. "If you see her, could you ask her not to go outside the building?"

The receptionist paused for a moment. "I'll see what I can do."

"All right. Thank you!" he then slammed the receiver down but picked it up again and proceeded to call Bridget. And thankfully, she answered it right off the bat.

"Thunder?" It was the codename for any agent who called the headquarters using a regular phone.

"Flash!" was the answer for the said code. "Bridge! It's me, Jet! Listen, there's not much time so I'll have to be quick and just don't ask why! Send all agents in a 200 meter radius around Charring Cross Hospital in Hammersmith to go there. Please, it's very very important!"

"Active or—"

"I don't care! Just send them all there!!" he then slammed the phone down and quickly ran to the hospital.

"Wren, contact all agents within 200 meter radius of Charring Cross Hospital in Hammersmith to go over there now."

Wren stared at her for a moment and replied "As you wish, Milady." She then typed something on the keyboard. The monitor then showed a road map of the city with a huge circle hovering over it. There was a 200m written next to it, and a word 'SCANNING…' was flashing on the top left side of the monitor. Only one was present, it was Bruce.

At the cinema, Sarah and Bruce were enjoying themselves as they watched that movie. But suddenly, Bruce's enjoyment was abruptly stopped when his wristwatch vibrated (Sound muted, of course). Somebody had sent him a message. He rolled his eyes and checked his wristwatch and read the message sent to him. The message reads:

Bruce,

Your presence is greatly needed at Charring Cross Hospital in Hammersmith to help agent Jet. Don't bother changing to your uniform. Your assistance is extremely urgent and is required ASAP.

WOOHP

"Oh great… and I'm in a middle of a date..." he sighed frustratingly. Sarah looked at him and asked "Is something wrong?"

"Sarah…" he stared at her trying to find a suitable answer. " I gotta go…"

She was absolutely shocked "What?! Oh come on, Bruce… can it just wait?"

"I'm sorry…" Reluctantly, he then slowly got up from his seat and went out. Sarah was completely dumbfounded as she watched him went out. She felt dejected and slumped down on her seat. "What did I go wrong?" she asked herself morosely.

"This better be good, Jet."

"Hey, Hayley. Going out already?" the receptionist asked her.

"My shift is over, Claudia," she smiled. "Make sure Johnny gets plenty of rest so the burns from his body will heal faster."

"Will do."

"And Rose, you're coming to my play tomorrow, aren't you?"

"Hey, of course I am! I'm a huge fan of independent plays, you know," she smiled back. "Oh, before I forgot, someone just called asking for you."

"Oh my God, really? Who was it?"

"You know… I haven't the slightest clue. Silly me for not asking. He did however ask you not to go outside the building."

"Well, that's silly. Why would he want me to stay put? Well, I'm off. See you on the stage, Rose." Hayley waved at her friend.

"No, see you on the stage!" Rose replied back jovially.

At a nearby abandoned building, a sniper was setting his equipment and pointed it to the hospital's front door. According to his boss, he was expected to eliminate a redheaded woman probably in her mid to late thirtes as indicated in the picture he got from his boss.

Nice lady. he thought. After he had done setting his equipment, he looked through the scope to the front entrance of the hospital, hoping that he would hit her in one single shot. Anticipating, anticipating. Suddenly, he heard loud shouting noise. He shifted his scope to the direction the sound was coming. It was a young man running to the hospital, motioning his arms across her body again and again to someone so he wouldn't take any more step out from the hospital. He lifted an eyebrow.

Chapter 13- Protect Hayley

"Miss McKenzie! Miss McKenzie! Get back into the hospital! Get back into the hospital now!" Bruce shouted to Jet's aunt worriedly as he dashed towards her. Hayley was stunned quizzically at her nephew's friend and she decided not to take a step further out from the hospital. She too felt something bad would happen to her if she took any more step out. The sniper was perplexed because he couldn't hear what Bruce was shouting. He could but it was indistinct and unclear. He wanted to know who Bruce was shouted at. Bruce then took Hayley's hand and pulled her inside the hospital again. "Stay here." Bruce said to her. Hayley nodded at the order and then asked "What's going on?"

"I was asked by someone that you’ll have to stay inside the hospital for awhile." he explained trying not to divulge the fact that she was affiliated with the spy organization. Hayley nodded but still wanted to know what was going on. Brucee looked outside and saw someone running towards them. She saw the young man tired and panting heavily from the running but still determined to approach them. The sniper looked at the Shadows rhythm guitarist through the scope and made a thought.

"Is that her…? No… that's not her. It's a guy and he looks like in his late teens… and his face is different than the picture…"

The automatic doors to the hospital opened and Jet went through it and saw Bruce and Hayley nearby a vending machine. He then proceeded to stop in front of them breathing heavily to catch his breath.

"Jet? Jet, what's going on?" Bruce asked his worriedly.

"Please, Terance, tell us." Hayley pleaded.

"Wait for a sec… for me to catch a breather for a while," Jet replied huffing and puffing. "I met… Gino… on the bus just now. He said… Michael's sending someone… to kill you…" he said to Hayley. Hayley's face went pale after she heard that. Bruce was absolutely shocked.

"Oh my God…" Hayley could only say. She was totally stunned.

"And didn't I… tell you… to watch your back, Aunt Hayley?!" Jet shot angrily at her. "It's pretty dangerous for… you to go wandering about by yourself!"

Hayley felt guilty because she felt that she dragged her nephew into this mess.

"And uh, Bruce… Are there any other agents… 'sides you who're present?"

"I don't think so, Jet. I think I'm the only one here."

"You're an agent, Bruce?" Hayley asked him he nodded softly.

"Hay, Bruce… thanks." Jet winked and shot a warm smile at him.

Bruce replied the smile back and asked "What the hell's going on around here?" Hayley was eager to know as well.

"Do you remember what Bridget said to us shortly after our graduation? Do you remember what she said about Michael's going to plot revenge against my aunt Hayley? I think there's a guy outside who's waiting for my aunt to come out…"

"And kill me!?" Hayley snapped from her stun bursting out loud and becoming fearful at sudden twist of events. Jet nodded at the remark. Hayley then panicked and became more and more frightful. "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! What should I do!? What should I do!?"

Jet then quickly grabbed her shoulders and shouted at her "Listen, Aunt Hayley!" but Hayley still panicked as she turned her head from left to right in paranoia and her eyes darted to every direction and babbling incoherently.

"AUNT HAYLEY!!" Jet shouted loudly at her and Hayley stopped abruptly looking at him as a tear ran down from her eyes.

"Calm down! Aunt Hayley, please… don't make the situation any more difficult anymore than it is now. You and I both know that panicking won't get us anywhere. You used to be an agent, you should know better. Now please, let's calm down and find a way to get out from this mess." Jet said with a warm but stressful tone and Hayley nodded nervously at her nephew's rationalization. The three of them grouped and made a discussion.

"Okay, first things first: we need to call backup. Secondly, you," Jet pointed to Bruce. "And me are not the target so in theory, we're practically safe. But the trick is getting my aunt Hayley out from this building safely. Bruce, do you still have your wristwatch with you?"

Bruce and Hayley noticed something that Jet was calm and could analyze the situation well, something that could be found in a competent leader. "Yeah, you want to call the headquarters and ask for backup?"

"Exactly, call them."

Bruce nodded and dialled the numbers on his wristwatch. "Thunder?" Bridget asked for the reply code.

"Flash," Bruce replied. "Milady, this is Bruce, I've made it. Do you have any agents other available for us? We're at Charring Cross Hopsital in Hammersmith."

"Hold on a second while we check." Bridget replied and ordered Wren to search for any agents closest to the hospital. But to their dismay, the nearest was three miles away from them, and they need help as soon as possible.

"Sorry, guys…" Bridget replied worriedly. Bruce looked at his oldest bandmate and his aunt and shook his head in fear.

"Wait, Milady… what about the informants?" Wren suggested to her and Bridget lit up.

"Oh, yes… the informants! Why didn't I think of it before?!"

"Good call, Wren!" she said approvingly.

"Wait just a minute, guys, I think we can still help you!" Bridget said through the phone. After she executed a command on the computer, the screen on the monitor zoomed in from the satellite view to the street level of the city. The word 'SEARCHING…' was written on the top left of screen and a green X in the middle of it. It locked down a target some fifty meters away from the hospital.

"Monkeyman's the nearest informant, milady." she beamed.

"Call him."

"Monkeyman?!" Jet said in disbelief to Bruce. "Let me talk to her!" he let Bruce to put Bridget through to his wristwatch and Bruce did so. "Bri… Milady, of all people, you asked for Monkeyman's help?! Come on!! There must be some other agents nearby. Run a search again!" he felt that Monkeyman was extremely incompetent and would be last person in his mind to save them.

Oh… so very new… Bridget thought to herself. "Just relax, Jet. He's capable enough. Too capable if I may so myself."

"But—"

"Trust me on this. I'll give you a call as soon as the situation's been rectified." Bridget smirked and hung up on Jet.

Jet was completely dumbfounded and disbelief as he stared blankly at his wristwatch. Slowly, he looked back at Bruce and exploded. "I can't believe this," he got up and paced back and fourth in front of Hayley and Bruce. "There's a guy who's trying to kill someone and what do they do?! They're sending a psychotic lunatic to help us?!" he screamed. "My GOD!! Of all people, they're sending Monkeyman?!"

Suddenly, they all heard a frightful cry from faraway "MONKEYMANNNNNNN!!"

"Great…" Jet slapped his forehead. Bruce was apprehensive himself but Hayley smiled a bit though nervously.

The sniper looked at the direction where the scream was coming from. The sniper got up from his position and went into the middle of the room with his gun pointed at the door which was the only way in or out of the room. Silence, tense silence. Suddenly, he heard a crash. Monkeyman came in from the decaying ceiling above. He quickly dashed forward and disarmed the sniper, and the gun flew back hitting the wall behind them. A scuffle ensued in the confined space. The sniper withdrew because he took a lot of beating from Monkeyman and dropped down to the floor next to the gun. He saw it, took the gun and smack Monkeyman with it making him hit some old wooden furniture behind him. It was time for him to retreat. The sniper, with the gun in his hands, ran outside the room and jumped out from the window and fell into a dumpster below. He then quickly got back up ran into his car and fled as Monkeyman looked at him from the third floor.

Monkeyman spat some blood out from his mouth and went back inside the room where he and the hitman had the scuffle. He saw a casing supposedly for the gun and a picture of Hayley. He then placed two fingers on his left ear to use his communicator.

"M-Monkeyman to base. Suspect has fled. I repeat, suspect has fled."

"Are you okay?" Wren asked him.

"I'll be fine… Monkeyman… Just tell your agents that it's safe to come out," he said as he picked the picture up. "And uh… Hayley's with them… isn't she?"

Bruce felt his wristwatch vibrated again and quickly, he pushed a button and a message was sent to her and again, from the organization. It read:

It's safe to come out. Monkeyman would want to meet all of you in the abandoned building in front of the hospital. He's on the third floor.

WOOHP

"Well, I guess we should be going then…" Bruce said to the two of them.

And so, they all got up from their seats and went out from the hospital cautiously. Jet could be seen walking with his frightened aunt. They then made their way into the building as requested by Monkeyman. He waved at them and showed them the things that the sniper left behind. The first thing he showed was Hayley's picture. He gave it to her.

"This is an old picture of me… back when me and Michael were still together." she said as she gazed at the picture torn in half. The picture showed a smiling Hayley who hadn't changed much apart from the hairstyle and an arm across her shoulders. It was most likely Michael's.

"And… M-Monkeyman… take a look a this." Monkeyman said as he pointed at the gun case that looked like a suitcase. He then crouched and began examining it. Suddenly, he felt someone was holding his shoulder. It was Jet.

"Hey, Monkeyman… thanks for saving us…" he said beaming softly at him. "You're pretty cool… for a lunatic…"

"Heh…" he chuckled. "Don't mention it. 'Sides, I owe your aunt Hayley a favor for quite some time now."

"Ah…" Bruce responded. "You guys've been helping each other out when she was in the organization, haven't you?"

Hayley went closer to Monkeyman and said to Bruce "No, we go way before that, we've known each other since Secondary School." she then gave Monkeyman a hug. He was quite stunned and Hayley smiled at him and said "Thanks, —"

"No! No, no, no, no," he quickly cut her off. "Don't say my real name; it'll destroy the mysteriousness of my character!" he beamed and Hayley smiled back. "Thank you, old friend."

"Hey, Bruce," Jet called him. "Could you go to the headquarters for a while with me? I want to show the gun case to Bridget." Bruce nodded at his suggestion, Jet then turned his head to Monkeyman and asked "Monkeyman, could you escort my aunt to her house in Queensway? Make sure no one's following you."

Monkeyman nodded softly. As Monkeyman and Hayley watched them went out, Hayley said to him "You are planning on bathing, aren't you?"

"Hey…"

"Hmm…" Bridget pondered at the headquarters. "He left a bullet and a gun case behind. How very strange…"

She, Jet and Bruce were in the communications room looking at the case in front of them. "What'd you make up of them?" she asked Bruce and Jet.

"He can't just leave them there deliberately…" Jet replied.

"Maybe he did deliberately leave them there," Bruce hypothesized. "Maybe he wanted it to be taken by us. Have you checked for any bombs yet?"

"I've sent it to the lab and they've already x-rayed it. Nothing was found," Bridget said. "However, we won't take this gun case as an insignificant entity. I want it to be taken seriously just like any other evidences: important and very valuable." she then picked the phone up and pressed a button it. "I want a person to bring this gun case back to the lab. See to it if you can find any more evidence from it."

"Yes, Milady." the voice from the other side of the line replied. Bridget put the phone down and looked at Jet. "The sniper's most likely going to hunt for your aunt again since he failed his first attempt at her. Do you have any idea when will the hitman strike again?"

Jet pondered for a while and he remembered something. "My aunt Hayley's going to perform in an indy play at the Mermaid Theatre near Temple station tomorrow. Most likely, the hitman will be there too."

"He will," Bridget replied back. "I'll mobilize some agents to help you there tomorrow." And they nodded.

Michael, you prat… Bridget cursed in her mind. Hayley's not your fight anymore…

"Bri— I mean, Milady…" Jet still couldn't get used to refer her as Milady. "What about Gino's offer?"

"I'll think about it later."

A soft knock was heard on Hayley's door the next day. She was sitting on her bed, looking forlornly as she tried to concentrate in preparation for the play. She couldn't because she was too scared of her fate that seemed inevitable tonight. With her acting on stage, she was completely vulnerable and prone to the anticipated attack. Her agent training would be useless there because she was too busy acting. She had thought of not going, but the show must go on. The door knocked again. Softly, she replied "Come in." Jet slowly opened the door and looked at his aunt who was staring blankly at the floor with clump of tissues in her hands. He couldn't help but to feel sorry for his aunt.

"Hey, Aunt Hayley," he spoke softly. "Ready to go?"

She nodded softly. Jet sensed that she still wasn't ready even though she gave a conformation. He then walked over to his aunt and sat next to her.

"Hey… c'mon, don't cry. You're gonna be just fine. All of us'll be there to protect you," He then took Hayley's left hand and grasped it to calm her. Hayley suddenly burst into tears and embraced her nephew. Jet didn't resist and welcomed it with open arms consoling her. "Even though I 'hate' you, Aunt Hayley 'cause you're so bloody perfect all the time but this is different. We're family and we're supposed to look out for each other. We just do." Hayley chuckled worriedly when she listened that as tears ran down from her eyes.

Jet felt this was the first time he ever felt so attached to his aunt.

At the Mermaid Theatre, about twelve agents were sent by Bridget to assure the safety and security of Olga. They were the Shadows since they need more experience and they were accompanied by veteran members including Lorenz, Bridget's deputy and also were the one who fought with Jet earlier. Bridget thought by sending him to assist Jet would be a great idea because in this scenario, they would have to depend on each other and thus would develop trust and bond between them two. Ever since the fight, they never spoke to each other and Bridget felt this would be a perfect time for the both of them to start over.

As audience began to fill the seats and crew members were making last minute checks on the props and equipments behind the curtain, the agents were on the catwalk high above them all, aggressively monitoring around the theatre for any hostilities. Jet was with his aunt behind the stage to give her assurance that the spy organization will do their job well.

"Hayley, you're in the first act so please stop worrying. We can handle everything they can dish out."

"I know but I'm actually worried about you… all of you. It's because of me you're all putting yourselves in danger…"

"Listen, you'd do the same thing we do now if you were still an agent today. It's a part of our job. And now, it's a part of your job to go out there and give the performance that'll wow the hell out of everybody! So please, stop it."

Hayley nodded weakly and gave Jet soft kiss on his right cheek. She was ready to get into her character. "Good luck…" she said to Jet.

"Break a leg…" Jet replied back and walked out to his gang above.

"Any luck of contacting Sarah?" Hank asked Bruce as they watched the stage below them.

"I tried last night and this morning and afternoon. But her mum says she's busy… I just don't know why…" he replied sullenly to him.

"Bruce… I feel bad for you… if it wasn't for Jet—"

"If it wasn't for me what?" Jet replied bitterly as he climbed up into the catwalk. "Listen, I wasn't being a plonker, I was really in need of help. If Bruce didn't come soon, my aunt Hayley would be dead by now. And that's something I don't want to happen to her."

Hank felt he was being a plonker right now. "I'm… I'm sorry…" Jet scoffed and ignored him. He then looked at Tony who was talking to himself.

"I heard this play Hayley's in is a completely original story. Pardon me for not looking at the advertisement at the front entrance since I came in from the back but I think the story started in World War 2 during the 1940s. The protagonist has this baby girl you see, and he has to give his child to a nurse, Hayley, so she ever so could raise his baby girl in a safe environment in the United States rather than his war torn country. He had no choice but he had to do it. The safety of his child comes first. And thus, begin his epic journey to the UK by enduring the harsh unforgiving life by becoming a refugee in a nearby country."

"Quit speaking to yourself, Tony, be on the alert. The play's about to start." Jet warned Tony.

It was the second act of the play and so far so good, nothing happened yet and Hayley was still in one piece and she performed her character wonderfully. But still they kept on alert. After the play started, they were grouped into two, veteran members on the ground while the rookies were on the catwalk. Tony scanned around and saw a sudden small flash of light crossing her eyes. He stopped at his tracks. There was it again. He slowly turned his head to where the light came from and saw a dim set of eyes looking at him from a ventilation shaft. The eyes then vanished. Tony sensed something was amiss and he then told all of the agents via the earpiece that she spotted something. Agents, above and below went on high alert.

The other three agents went over to her and Tony pointed to them what he just saw. Hank grabbed his torch and switched it on and pointed it to the shaft, but no one was there but they could hear the thumping noise echoed out from it. Another assassination attempt failed thankfully due to the carelessness of the sniper. The Shadows knew where all vent shaft ended, on the rooftop.

Jet kicked the rotted door to the rooftop violently making it break into pieces. He saw the sniper in front of her running quickly to the fire exit stairs nearby. "After him!" Jet shouted to his teenage bandmates behind him. The sniper quickly ran down the stairs as the four agents trying frenetically to catch up with him. The sniper then jumped from the second floor to the alley below to quicken his pace. His car was just around the corner. But to his surprise, Lorenz was there smirking at him. He had let the air out from the wheels and he took the liberty to jam them with chains as well.

"Crap…" he cursed to himself. Because he was such in a hurry to run away, he forgot bring the bullets with him. He had to take yet another direction. He was in the middle of the T-intersection of the alley and he had no choice but to take the last one available. Lorenz joined the rest of the gang as they chased after him.

"Larry! I can't believe I'm saying this but… thanks!" Jet said to him as they chased the hitman.

"No problem! It's what I do best!"

"Who's taking care of my aunt?!"

"There were six left in the theatre. I asked them to stay there and protect your— gaaaahhhh!!" The sniper threw his gun at him and Lorenz tripped on it. And because of that, his knee was seriously hurt and he couldn't run.

"Lorenz!" Jet stopped in his trecks and his friends and bandmates did too.

"Don't worry about me! Just go after him!" he replied back pointing to the sniper as he pressed his knee to suppress his injury. The Shadows nodded and continued to go after the sniper.

Everything's going according to plan…

Chapter 14- We Got Him

The night was getting late and the streets were getting quiet and nearly devoid of activities. A blue colored muscle car drove on carrying four girls from a hockey game. It was actually Billy Fury's car but he had given his trust to Carol to maintain and ensure that it would be in a pristine condition just like the way he left it. He had to leave the car because he had to go to back to Liverpool for a week. He had warned Gerald that if his baby had one single scratch on it, he'd kill her. The hockey game was a tremendous win for Carol Costa's team because the last time they won was three years before and because of that, they had a reason to celebrate and also because they defeated Gerta Fox's team.

"That was great. Of all the hockey teams, you just had to win," Lisa said cooly to Carol. "You're a great hockey player, Carol…"

"You're right, Lisa. At least we had fun." Sarah was as optimistic as she concentrated on the road driving the car. "Us girls together at a hockey game and all…"

"Well, the night would be a whole lot better if my goalkeeper didn't keep stretching her legs every five minutes." Carol blurted out.

"Oh, c'mon, Carol, remember the reason why we were there in the first place: We were there to cheer Sarah up." Sue Ellen said referring to Sarah who was sitting next to her. Still, after at watching the hockey game, she was still in disbelief, dismay and felt dejected when Bruce left her abruptly at the cinema yesterday. She didn't talk back when Sue Ellen referred her as she stared down blankly at her hands.

"Cheer up, Sarah," Carol said positively. "I'm sure things'll turn to the better eventually."

"Yeah, Sarah. At least he dragged you to watch an Elvis movie," Lisa interjected, "I had the displeasure of watching Butterfield 8 with Hank…" and the girls gasped except Sarah. "I reckon what Elizabeth Taylor was wearing in that film is the worst torture a girl could endure…"

But still, Sarah said nothing. Bruce was still floating in her mind.

"Sarah…" Sue Ellen snapped. "C'mon, Love, don't be moody like Jet," she said good-naturedly. "Who needs boys anyway?! You're now with women! You're in a company of women! Come on, Sarah! Show us your womanliness!!" Sarah suddenly stopped to think what she just said. Carol and Lisa were looking at her in incredulous disbelief.

"Oh man… that didn't come out right…" she muttered to all of them as they stared at her back disbelievingly. "What…?" she replied nervously as she took her eyes off the road but the other girls were still staring at him. "I like guys even Tony…" Sue Ellen replied again sheepishly.

"Why was he always busy? Why, Bruce, why?" Bored of staring at her hands, Sarah then faced forward to stare at the street in front of them. Suddenly, she saw someone was running fast in front of them. "CAROL, HIT THE BRAKES!!" she shouted immediately.

"What? OH CRAP!!" and she slammed the brake down quickly. The man was hit but safe (hopefully) because Carol was driving in a residential area and fortunately, she stopped in a nick of time. The man rolled over the engine hood and continued running away from whatever he was running away from. Gerald quickly got out from his car and shouted at him.

"Hey man!! Are you hurt?!" she shouted at the mysterious man but it didn't gather a response from them.

"Carol, if a guy can run like that after he got hit by a freaking car then surely he must be okay!" Lisa said to him.

"Well, yeah… but I want to avoid lawsuits, just to make sure." She got into Billy Fury's car again. "Hopefully, there's no scratch on the car…" she murmured nervously. And suddenly, all of them saw the Shadows running in front of them. They recognized each and every one of them.

"Bruce?!" Sarah said incredulously.

"Tony?!" Sue Ellen said incredulously.

"Hank?!" Lisa said incredulously.

"Jet?!" Carol said incredulously.

They watched them with their jaws gaping incredulously as if they were reading a really pathetic copy and paste job. The Shadows chased the perpetrator down the block and into the park. It was the park where the story of the Headless Horseman resided. But that was not the main story here. The sniper ran forward fast and saw a horse carriage near a stable. He thought that he'd lose them if he'd take the carriage and fled with it. And he did so. He climbed on to the driver seat… but then he saw a man on it.

"Hey… what the—" but the sniper shoved him out violently from the driver’s seat and fell on the ground. He took the rope and whooped to make the horse run. "Hyah! Hyah!" he whooped again and the Shadows tried to ran after him. But the carriage was too fast for them and they had to stop.

"Dammit!" Jet shouted disappointingly through his clenched teeth as he threw a fist across his body. He then looked back and saw the man lying on the ground as he weakly tried to get up. "Let's help him out…" Jet said in a defeated tone. Hank and Tony nodded and went back. Bruce, on the other hand, saw another horse available in the stable. He felt that they still had a chance to catch the hitman. Quickly, he placed his thumb and his index finger from his right arm inside his mouth and whistled. The horse inside widened his eyes in alert of the call. It then neighed and jumped out from its stable and ran towards to Bruce. The other agents scattered away except for Bruce who was in front of the charging animal.

Bruce sidestepped to the left, grabbed the horse's rope, swung herself to the other side of the horse and finally, he managed to mount the horse after she landed on it's back. He whooped "Hyah!!" repeatedly and the horse went faster and faster leaving the other Shadows behind.

"What the hell, is he nuts?!" Hank exclaimed disbelievingly.

"C'mon, Guys! Help the driver first and then we go after Bruce!" Jet said to Hank and Tony as he ran to the man to help him out.

Bruce, who was riding the horse, galloped through the woods of the park trying to catch up with the fleeing stagecoach. The sniper could hear distinctly another horse galloping after him. He shifted his body to the side to take a look at the road behind him and saw Bruce coming closer towards him. He began to panic and whooped again. Even though he was controlling two horses but the huge weight the horses was pulling made them go slower than Bruce's as he dashed forward to them. He was now neck and neck with the hitman.

The sniper took a whip out from a compartment near him and tried to hit Bruce with it. He groaned in pain but still persist. The hitman whipped him again and Bruce felt that he couldn't bare the pain it any longer. He slowed his horse down and had to pullback. Again, the hitman looked behind him and saw nothing except for the trees, he had passed and the long stretching cobblestone road. Where the Shadows rhythm guitarist had gone?

Bruce was actually behind the carriage all along as he pressed his body against the wooden carriage and tightly, he held the decoration on the roof clinging for his life. The horse that he rode on earlier was in front of her, still running after the stagecoach. The horse ran closer and motioned its head upwards many times indicating that it would help Bruce by boosting him up if he'd step on its head. Reluctantly, he put his leg on its head and quickly, the horse moved his head upwards. Bruce yelled at the sudden motion but he finally managed to get on top of the roof safely. The hitman could hear the shriek vaguely but shrugged it off since he felt has imagining things. The other horse that helped Bruce ran forward and passed the hitman and he saw no person was mounting the horse. He let out a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, somebody kicked him in the face. He looked upwards and saw Bruce glaring at him. He looked back in front of him and saw the long, straight road without any obstacles to obstruct his path. This was the right place and time to attack. Bruce punched him. He punched him again but this time, it was deflected by the hitman. He grabbed one of his legs and pulled it making Bruce fell down on the roof. He quickly got up went on the roof confronting Bruce. "Normally, I won't hit a Brit guitarist but in this case, I'll make you an exception!" They then had a scuffle on the roof as they dodged and evaded each other's attack and the tree branches that came towards them.

Bruce was terribly beaten. "Not so tough when I'm fighting back, are ya?!" the hitman shouted and he punched Bruce on the side of his face making him fell down from the coach but fortunately, he grabbed the coach's ledge in the nick of time. Obsessed of trying loose him away, the hitman smirked at Bruce as he looked at him worriedly and he stomped his feet on Bruce's hands which were clinging tightly on the ledge of the stagecoach's roof. What Bruce and the hitman didn't know, there was an arched bridge crossing a lake in front of them. Due to the speed of the stagecoach once it went over the bridge, the coach jumped and the hitman was thrown down into the icy cold lake. Bruce sighed in relief and quickly got up and went onto the driver's seat and commanded the horses to slow down and went back to the bridge. By the time he reached the bridge, the other Shadows arrived there as well courtesy of the man who was kind enough to give them a ride on another stagecoach.

"Whoa… I'm pretty impressed. Nice job, Bruce." Tony said as he disembarked from the coach looking at the hitman crying for help.

"I can't swim!!" he gurgled panicky.

"How do you know to ride a horse?" Hank asked Bruce.

"Well…" Bruce replied as he hopped off from the driver's seat. "I learned a thing or two about horseback riding before I moved into London. I guess I've still got the skills." he said letting out a relieved sigh.

"Jet to headquarters, come in." Jet said through the communicator.

"Yes, Jet, we can hear you loud and clear," Natalie answered. "What's your status?"

"Tell Bridget that we've captured my aunt Hayley's assassin. We're bringing him to the headquarters to do some questioning."

"Affirmative. Do you need backup?"

"Nah, I think we got more than enough people to handle him."

"Gotcha. We'll be expecting you. Over and out." And they signed off.

"Uh…" the man interjected. "I don't know what Shadows are doing but are you going to save that man or not?" he said pointing to the nearly drowning hitman with his thumb.

Cady brought the handcuffed hitman into an interrogation room somewhere inside the headquarters. The room was very bright, had a table, two chairs which one was occupied by the sniper, the only door in and out, and a one-way mirror. The sniper looked somewhat calm as he played with his thumbs on the table with his face looking towards the floor waiting to be interrogated. Just for fun, he looked at the mirror and jokingly, he said "You know, being handcuffed and monitored secretly by girls is somewhat a turn-on for me…" he smirked timidly.

"Pervert…" Bridget muttered as she and lots of agents monitored him in another room. The other agents shared her sentiment as they unanimously nodded in agreement. Through the mirror, they saw him putting his legs on the table with his hands firmly placed behind his head as he sang "Love me tender, Love me sweet."

"This is ridiculous…" Jet scoffed.

"Yeah," Bruce agreed. "He makes Cliff sound like a cat on a roof…"

"Not that, you idiot," he snapped. "I mean, him. Just look at him. He doesn't seem to be afraid at all. What the hell's wrong him?"

"He'll wet himself when the interrogator comes in…" Elaine interjected with a smirk.

"Who's the interrogator?" Hank asked her.

"Lorenz." She replied as she turned her face towards Lorenz as he entered the interrogation room limping due to his knee injury. Lorenz locked the door behind him and calmly, he proceeded to sit in front of the sniper. After exchanging long uncomfortable gazes to each other, Lorenz finally started the interrogation.

"Let's cut to the chase: Michael sent you, didn't he?"

"What do you think?" the hitman smirked.

He got up angrily and pushed his feet away "ANSWER THE QUESTION, DAMMIT!!" he yelled as he glared at him.

He nearly fell from his chair. "Whoa…" he said calmly though slightly nervous. "No good cop, bad cop thing?"

"What do you think?!" the interrogator replied furiously.

"All right, all right, God… Yeah, he sent me to kill that Hayley bird. Happy now?"

Lorenz glared at him and sat back down. "Tell me, does he hire any other hitman besides you?"

"Nah, the boss's got full confidence in me so he didn't if I recall correctly."

"For someone who's been put trust upon, you screwed up pretty badly." he replied sardonically.

"Hey, c'mon, everyone makes a mistake once in a while."

"Yeah, just like your folks did when they were in bed." he answered back, drawing some chuckles from the other side of the mirror.

The sniper chuckled though he was a bit offended by the remark and he decided to play his game. "You know, for a fat guy, you're not very jolly," he retorted back. "If you'd just lighten up with the sarcasm and the cynical tone, you'd probably get a girlfriend by now." The remark also drew some snickers.

Lorenz quickly counter-retorted. "Well, unlike you, I didn't throw away my life to work with an incompetent jerk like Michael. And for the record, I got a girl... sorta. How 'bout you, huh? You got a girlfriend? I bet you're one of those lonely guys who still lives in their folks basement and sleeps with an imaginary girlfriend."

The sniper stared at him in defeat and said "Touché." Some of the agents behind the mirror were laughing their butts off. Lorenz smirked at him. The hitman lifted his legs onto the table again and said "I wish I were home, away from all of you…" he said softly tapping his shoes.

"Ha! You wish!" he chortled.

"Seriously, I wish I were home…" and suddenly, his shoes made a whirring sound and out came some sort of light bulb from his shoes. Lorenz was alerted but he was too late. The hitman quickly closed his eyes tightly and the shoes let out a very bright blinding light that blinded everyone, even in the other room where the other agents were monitoring them. The shoe worked like a flashbang grenade, a weapon that let out a very powerful light source usually used to blind people temporarily. After they were all recovered from the temporary blindness, they heard a loud crashing sound far from them. They went to the direction of the noise and saw a shattered window. They ran over to it and saw the sniper landed safely in a dumpster after a two-storey fall. Quickly, he got out from the dumpster and fled.

"Get him! Get him!" Bridget shouted to all who followed her. Hurriedly, Bridget, Jet, Hank, Bruce, Tony, Cady and Elaine ran after the sniper who dashed madly desperately trying to escape from them. He ran as he overthrew boxes and trashcans to slow down the agents behind him. He finally managed to get out from the narrow alley and saw King's Cross station in front of him. Thinking this was the absolute perfect way to be lost from them, he quickly went inside.

"Final train bound for Aldgate will depart in one minute. Final train bound for Barking will depart in one minute. All passengers are advised to get onboard the train immediately." informed the voice through the PA system. The hitman hoped that he'd catch the train in time. He jumped over the ticket gate as he was watched by one of the security guard guarding the gate. "Hey!!" the guard shouted. "Stop, now!!" As he got up from his seat, the Shadows and three women ran past him and jumped over the gate too. He gazed at them for while in disbelief and said to himself "I ain't getting paid enough for this…" and sat back, resuming humming to himself.

He dashed forward hastily and saw the train in front of him. The alarm for the closing door was played and he quickened his pace even faster. The door began to close and the agents were behind him. He gulped nervously. He hoped that this'll work as he jumped into the train. He made it as the door was shut tight behind him as he landed on the train's floor and hit his head on the opposite side of the door. And the train began to move as the agents could only look at the motioning train in defeat. The hitman rubbed his head in an attempt to heal his head as he waved and smirked at the agents.

"Dammit!" Cady yelled angrily.

"C'mon, we can still catch him on the next station!" Elaine said as she pointed back to the exit.

"Are you kidding?!" Hank shouted. "The next station's Holloway Road! There's no way we can catch him right now!"

"Milady, if I may suggest, call any other agents available near the next station." Tony proposed to Bridget and she nodded at the suggestion.

"Wren, do we have any agents available near Holloway Road Station?" she said through the communicator.

Wren made a quick search and to her dismay. "Sorry, Milady, the nearest one are you guys… and the informants are away too. Sorry…" she informed sullenly. Bridget didn't answer back but gave the gang a defeated look. "Let's go home…"

Chapter 15- Trying to Intervene

"Okay, Girls, listen up," Carol said to Sue Ellen and Lisa. "What we just saw yesterday was out of the ordinary. It was crazy." The three of them were having a discussion during lunch hour at the Two Is. "We – hey, where the hell's Sarah? She should be here by now." She said looking at her watch.

"She said she wanted to meet Bruce before she joins us." Lisa said.

"Knowing her, she won't bail on us," Carol said in assurance yet she was in doubt herself. "Hey, have you girls heard?" Carol then asked as they waited for Sarah to arrive.

At the Abbey Road studio, Sarah wanted to see Bruce after this to ask him why he left her at the cinema last Saturday. "Sarah…" somebody called her lowly from behind. She turned around and saw Bruce looking at her apologetically.

"Hey." Sarah greeted him in a low tone, still upset that he left her just abruptly.

"Hey…" he replied back. "About last Saturday—"

"No… no," she halted him as she motioned her hand as to say 'no'. "It's okay. Maybe there was something important going on that day and you had to go. It'd be selfish of me to ask you to stay. I—"

"Cool it…" Bruce cut her off putting his index finger in her lips. "It's not okay. I shouldn't have left you alone like that… I—"

"Then why you left?"

"I… I-I…" he stuttered not knowing how to reply to her. "It was an emergency. I had to go. I can't tell you why but I just had to!" he snapped weakly. "I'm… I'm really sorry, Sarah…"

"Why?" Sarah asked again in disbelief. "Why can't you tell me! Don't you trust me?"

“It’s not like that…” she replied halfheartedly, “It’s an oath… I can’t tell anyone… not even you…”

"Bruce, I'm having a very hard time about this! If you've got any problems at all then please tell me about it! C'mon, you know me: we've known each other ever since we were kids and I'm willing to do anything to help you out! Please, tell me…" she implored hopefully. She then remembered the incident that occurred last night. "You joined that spy organization, didn't you?"

Bruce was stunned but an oath must not be broken. Tears began to develop in Bruce's eyes and he said to her "I'm sorry, Sarah, I just can't…" Feeling that the conversation was too hard for him to carry on, he then unwillingly left Sarah and disappeared through the crowd.

"Bruce…" Sarah called him softly but there was no answer back. She then tried to find him in the crowd but to no avail. In frustration, she went back to Bruce's locker and banged it angrily.

At the Two Is, Sarah finally arrived and took a seat. She still looked upset.

"Sorry for being late, Girls." she sighed depressively.

Carol raised her left eyebrow hearing her depressed tone. "What's wrong with you?"

"I don't know, Mate… Bruce is keeping secrets and stuff and he doesn't want to tell me about it. I kinda worry about him. Do you think it was really them running after that bloke you hit last night?" she asked to all of them.

"I don't know either. It was like a spur of the moment thing when I saw those mysterious figures come running front of us…" Lisa gave her input.

"Yeah… I didn't know why the hell I yelled out Tony's name either. The silhouette kinda looked like him but it was all dark and stuff so I could be wrong." Sue Ellen said.

"Oh, come on, Girls," Carol disagreed. "It was really them yesterday! Why do we have to be so bloody skeptical about it!"

"It's because we can't assume, Carol! What if we were wrong? We'd be the biggest laughing stock ever for having some idiotic idea that the guys joined some spy organization!" Lisa snapped back and the table went silent again. Lisa paused as she put her elbow on the table with her palm holding her forehead as she tried to think of something.

Carol gave into Lisa's explanation and asked "Okay, so what are you saying? What are we gonna do?"

"We'll try to extract some information from them piece by piece. Just act natural and ask them what they were doing yesterday: really casual stuff. But don't be so blatantly obvious about it. Then after we think we've got enough information about it and we're sure that they've join the agency, then we can finally help them out."

"Help? Help them with what?" Sue Ellen opposed. "Okay, let's just say the Shadows 'are' a member of the spy organization. What can we do? They've already got them training and whatnot. They can take care of themselves. Why should we bother?"

"Because they're our friends, Sue Ellen," Lisa answered back. "We should help them out. And if I recall correctly, the agency's offering a position as an informant."

"Okay… so what you're saying is that we're gonna play detective?” Sarah said sarcastically. "Why don't we just put them one by one into a small room and interrogate the hell out of them? That'll save us some time rather than creeping our way in."

"Hey, if you've got a better idea then by all means, tell us," Lisa snapped back. "You don't have to be snide about it!"

"I hate to interrupt," Sue Ellen interjected. "But before this conversation begins to heat up, I'd thought you oughta take a look at that." she said softly pointing to a table across the room.

"Holy crap…" Carol said in disbelief. "The guys are sitting at the same table together!"

"Whoa…" Sarah blurted out. "I've seen so many unusual things in my life but seeing Hank and Jet sitting in one table together really takes the cake. It's just like seeing pigs fly!"

"I'd understand if Bruce and Tony were sitting together but Jet and Hank?" Lisa said amazed disbelief. "Oh my God… then there's definitely something screwy is going on here…"

"Hey, Sarah, Bruce's over there, why don't you go and try again?" Sue Ellen suggested to her.

She contemplated for a while and replied "No… not right now. I wanted to but I think the time's not right. We need some time to gather our thoughts first…"

All of them were practically in incredulity when they saw the Shadows sitting together chatting. But, that was not the case actually at their table. They were seriously discussing a strategy for their next move against Michael. After the incident with the sniper, they wouldn't want to take any chances anymore. He and his mob had to be defeated quick.

"Okay, listen up," Jet said to his younger bandmates as he took out a piece a paper and a pen out. "Bridget's agreed to Gino's offer and an alliance between him and us will follow suit. But despite the alliance, I really, really don't trust him. He could be in the same league as his brother using me to destroy our agency. And it could be much worse too, he might one of these days successfully kill my aunt Hayley."

"Okay, Jet. What do you think?" Tony asked him.

He then drew something on the paper. "According to the map that Gino sent to us, his brother's base of operations is located right here near Tower Hill Station. Now, we might—"

"That's all the way across town from the our base!" Hank interjected in surprise.

"Wow, that's a very constructive input, Hank," Jet replied sarcastically. "If you haven't got anything productive to say, just shut it, will you?"

Hank took the remark as an offence and immediately, he retorted "Oh, and I suppose that you're magically elected as our leader, eh? Who died and made you one anyway?"

Jet glared back at him. "Okay! Let me see you come up with some plans! I bet yours are definitely better than mine since you're always criticizing them!" he then shoved the paper and the pen to Hank but he could only glared back in disbelief at him since he couldn't come up with one. Still, he was in defiance as he still glared at him in detest.

"Thought so," he then pulled the paper and pen back to him. "If you don't know damn all about this, I suggest you to shut up and listen to me." Jet said angrily to him. Bruce had enough with Jet's mocking and he riposted back to defend his best friend and older bandmate.

"You know what, Jet? You're not being a team player. All you do is barking orders all day to all of us, thinking that you're superior and almighty than us unless we're performing. Well guess what? You're not. We don't like it and we surely don't wanna be under your thumb forever. No one asked you to be the leader and I don't think anybody, especially from us, will ever want you to be one. So back off." he said vehemently which added more weight to the already tense atmosphere.

The Shadows Girlfriends Club observed the heated conversation from their table as they made a small commentary about it. "Getting along with each other, my bum. I'd say it's going to be an all-out flame war after this…" Sarah gave her opinion.

"No, wait…" Carol said. "I think poor Jet's standing down."

"Jet standing down? Are you new here? This is Terance 'Jet' Harris we're talking about here, Carol," Lisa interjected. "He'll probably explode into furious anger and his permanent state of being a tough guy'll do nothing but to make the discussion more incendiary than ever."

Jet couldn't believe that of all people, Bruce would be the one who'd said all those things to him. He got up fromthe booth to show dominance and tried to retort back at him but suddenly, he was shoved back down by Tony who wanted to defend his best friend and oldest bandmate from Bruce's vitriolic remark.

"And I suppose he'd do a better job than Jet," he shot back referring to Hank. "When was the last time he show his leadership proficiency and her ability to coordinate an efficient strategy? The only thing that I can see him capable of doing is navigating through shopping complexes to purchase overpriced clothes and useless trinkets from an equally inept store!" he counter-retorted angrily slightly not being himself since he was too enraged by Bruce's remark.

"That's what you think of me, Tony!" Hank shot up from the booth pointing at him accusingly. And the whole table went to hell as all four of them flew into a rage. Everyone at the Two Is stopped what they were doing currently and focused at the blazing booth.

Realizing that the Shadows usual booth was too out of control, a passing waiter walked over and tried to calm them down. "Guys… please…" he said trying to be nice. "Why don't you Shadows just calm down and—"

"SHUT UP!!!!" the Shadows shouted at him in unison. The waiter then decided not to open his mouth anymore as he left the booth as the Shadows quarreled fumingly over the booth. Back at the Shadows Girlfriends Club's booth, they wanted to help but some of them can't help but to be amused by it.

"Wow…" Carol said in awe. "This is even better than that scene in one of those 50s American High School movies…" though the only thing they did was bickering.

"This is stupid. I think we should intervene, Lisa." Sarah said to her worriedly.

"Yeah, c'mon, let's go before they start giving each other what for and breaking the band up…" and with Sarah, she then got off from the booth. Just after a few steps, they stopped at their tracks, turned around and saw Carol and Sue Ellen still not budging from their booth.

"Well? Aren't you girls coming?" Lisa asked them.

"Are you kidding? You don't break up a Shadows-style fight! You just don't!" Carol answered back.

"Carol's right." Sue Ellen concurred pointing at Carol.

Dissatisfied and unhappy with their answer, Lisa said to them "You girls are such jerks…" she grumbled and she and Sarah went over to the Shadows trying to break them up.

"You okay, Tony? Wanna talk about it?" Lisa asked concernedly after she and Sarah successfully broke up the fight between the Shadows. Lisa told Sue Ellen to bring Tony out of the Two Is whereas Jet stormed off to the men's bathroom trying to cool himself down. Hank and Bruce also went out from the Two Is as they tried to calm themselves down. Other girls like Carol and Sarah came over to the waiter and helped him out.

"Yeah… I'm okay. Tell Lisa to thank her for her concern, Sue Ellen." Tony replied softly. They then walked together heading towards the bycyle rack where Tony's bike was.

"Tony… I'm worried about you," Sue Ellen said anxiously. "What I see just now isn't the Tony I know. What's wrong? If you've got any problems at all, then by all means tell me. I might just help you out."

"Well, I appreciate the effort, Sue Ellen but I've gotta reiterate that despite the condition I'm in now, I'm okay." he replied with a little exasperated tone hidden in his while he hopped onto his bycycle which had his books in the basket.

Sue Ellen wasn't satisfied with the answer that he gave her. "From the tone of your voice, you sound pretty aggravated. Is there something bothering you?"

"Please, Sue Ellen. Enough with all of this. How many times do I have to tell you that I'm okay," he snapped back. Sue Ellen was stunned at his remark. Tony then continued. "If you really wanna help me, then please…" he was in reluctance to say the next sentence to her as he gazed deeply into Sue Ellen's eyes. "Leave me alone…" Sue Ellen was shocked and absolutely in dismay. Tony looked down in sadness and was about to ride his bycycle off. "I just don't want you to worry about me…" he thought poignantly as tears began to brim in his eyes.

Sue Ellen was in complete disbelief of him. He's never done anything like this before. she thought. She then saw Tony ride off sighing heavily with her head facing downwards to her feet thinking what was wrong with the Shadows lately. Maybe Carol was right; maybe we shouldn't be bothered by it. Maybe they did – Oh my God… what's this?" she saw something on the floor. It was a black colored flat thing that could easily fit into a grasp of a hand. It looked like an electronic device to her but she didn't know what it was actually since she never saw anything like it before. She then picked it up to examine it.

"Tony must've dropped this when he rode off…" she said to herself as she inspected it. She then scanned the place around and was amazed by the device herself. Maybe it was a prototype gadget and Tony volunteered to use it. There were only two people she knew who'd go head over heels over high-tech gadgets and they were Tony and her sister Laura. But, the cloud of suspicion was still in her mind. Maybe this was one of the equipment he used for his spying activities. She needed a clarification, she needed Laura. But first, she had to go to Laura's house first because she was getting late.

"There you are, Love," Sarah greeted to her. "So, you wanna go 'investigate' this thing right now?" Sarah said snidely making quotation marks.

"Yeah… and I thought you wanted to join me?" she replied back.

"Sure I do, Silly! I won't bail on you!"

Sue Ellen smiled in approval and turned to Carol. "How about you, Carol?"

"You know, I really forgot to mention to you girls about this," she said, slightly nervously. "Do you remember last week that I had to go to a Gene Vincent concert with Jet in the nearby city?"

Sue Ellen was practically in disbelief. "Carol, please don't tell me it's today…"

"Sorry, Girls, Jet forgets easily. So that's why he wants me to go with him." she said.

"Okay. How about you, Lisa? Do you have, if any reason at all to run away from us?" Sarah asked her.

"Hell no. I'll start speaking to Hank providing that he still wants to speak to me…"

"Cool. Okay then. Let's go," Then, they all split up except for Sue Ellen and Sarah. "Sarah, I need you to follow me to my cousin Laura's house."

"Your cousin Laura's house? What for?"

"'Cause I think I may have a lead in my pocket right now." she rummaged through his pocket and showed her the black colored device.

"What the hell is that?" Sarah asked quizzically as she took the object from her to examine it.

"It's some sort of an electronic device thingy. I saw this baby on the floor after Tony rode off. It could be one of those spy gadget doohickeys."

"How do you know?" Sarah asked again giving the device back to her.

"I don't 'cause I don't wanna assume. That's why we're going to my cousin Sarah's house since she's as clever as Tony himself. She can tell us what this thing is."

"I hope you know what you're doing, Sue Ellen." she replied back concernedly.

"Hey, I'm a bold girl," she said smoothly. "You know, to be honest, I really hope that they didn't join that spy agency…"

"What spy agency?" somebody interjected. It was Gerald.

"You mean, you don’t know?" Sue Ellen asked back disbelievingly. "Sarah, he doesn't know."

"It's your fault, Gerald," Sarah blurted out. "By now, every one of us should already know the tale of the…" she paused for dramatic effect. "World Orginisation Of Human Protection."

"I'll tell it," Gerald said with a smile as he hopped on one of the steps of the stoops. "Wait… I haven't got a guitar." He replied to her. Sarah had replaced her bongo with Bruce's spare guitar ever since she learned how to play one.

"Stay around for a while to hear our urban legend, will ya?" And Sarah then began to get into her character. "People of this not-so-fine education establishment; the story you are about to hear is an urban legend, passed down from teen generation to teen generation. And our own Gerald is the Keeper of the Tale. Take it away, Gerald." People then gathered around the two guys, wanting to listen to his tale. Sarah then stepped aside so the attention could be focused on Gerald. She then sat on the stone railing of the stoop and played 'Man of Mystery' to accompany Gerald's oration. It was all depended on the tone of Gerald's voice actually. If the story became intense, so would the music.

"O gather around, Ladies and Gentlemen," he said in his best preacher impersonation. "For I, Gerald J. Harris, the Keeper of the Tale is telling you a legend of the…" he paused for dramatic effect. "World Orginisation Of Human Protection."

Chapter 16- A Visit to Laura's

The doorbell to Laura O'Flannigan's house was rung by Sue Ellen as she and Sarah waited for someone to show up. They could hear a thumping noise that most probably someone was descending down the stairs. The door opened revealing Laura smiling at them.

"Hey, Girls," she greeted cheerfully. "What brings you two here to my residence?" And with that, she invited the two girls in.

"Nice pad you got here." Sarah complimented as she observed her surroundings inside the house as she and Sue Ellen followed Laura to her room.

"Thanks," she said back. "I helped my mum with the interior decoration and stuff. So… is there anything that I can help? Is this a social visit or you guys have something on your mind?" she explained to them as she opened the door to her room. Her room was small, comfy and a heaven for a geek such as himself. It was small partly due to lots of computer equipments were in her room. And most of it weren't hers: she ran a small business of repairing computers for her friends. She earned a little cash and her friends loved it since it was cheaper and faster than the repair job in the stores so it was a 50-50 win for them.

"Not really." Sue Ellen replied back as she took a seat at Laura's computer. Her computer was a flat screen LCD monitor with an awesome speaker and a cool neon-lit transparent casing that houses the CPU, RAM, motherboard and all. Sarah then opened a web browser and went to her favorite website.

"We're here to ask you if you know anything about this," Sarah said as she gave the device to Laura while he took a seat on Laura's bed. "I suspect that it's some device thing."

Laura took a look at it and she was puzzled herself. "You're asking the wrong person here. I don't even know what the heck this is." Laura said quizzically to Sarah.

"Well, we thought you knew." Sue-Ellen shrugged.

Laura gazed disbelievingly at them for a moment and said "What makes you say that?"

"Well, you're the only person other than Tony we know who'll go nuts about these things, so we thought that, well, you knew."

Sarah smiled softly at her friends and said to Laura "So, Laura, can you help us or what?"

"Oh, about that. Sorry, Girls. I simply don't have the time to do it."

"What? Oh c'mon, Pal, it's not like it's going to take much of your time. How hard is it to find that thing anyway?" Sue-Ellen said to her.

"First of all," Laura said to her. "That thing's not from any gadget company I know and I know my gadgets. Secondly, it looks like some sort of a rejected prototype-stage device and thirdly, I have better things to do to occupy my time. I'm really sorry, you guys." she refused politely to them.

"C'mon, Pal…" Sarah tried to persude her. "Help a mate, will ya? We're running out of options here."

"I really, really want to, Sarah but I can't. I've got a map to make, a story to write, homeworks to finish, a play to manage and a website to code. And my hands are already full as it is." she explained thoroughly to them in hoping her dilemma would be understandable.

Sarah and Sue-Ellen understood and thought it would be pointless to carry on the talk. "Yeah, we understand. Thanks for your time anyway, Laura." Sarah said weakly as she nodded. She then motioned her head at Sue-Ellen to the door and both of them got up from their seats. As they were walking to the door, Sarah saw something concealed on the shelf that looked like a picture of Cliff Richard. She suddenly had this one crazy idea that she thought that might just work.

"Oi, Laura, how about if," Sarah stoped in her tracks looking at her. "You help us and I'll fix you up with Cliff." she smirked.

Laura was at first startled at the offer but somewhat exited since she never had the guts to make the move but she felt that he was too perfect for her so she had to decline the offer. "I don't know, Sarah… I'm too nervous. Even the mention of his name makes me tremble. I just can't…"

"C'mon," Sarah said coolly. "Just take it easy. I think it's high time for you to make the move, don't you think so? You'll miss your chance if you're still waiting for the 'right' time. Procrastinating will get you nowhere and in the end, you won't get the guy that you love."

Eugene contemplated deeply and carefully at Gerald’s words as he rubbed his chin. Maybe Gerald’s words did have merits in it. Maybe this was the opportunity he was looking for. Maybe with Gerald’s help he could finally go steady with her. He then decided, “I’m in Gerald.” He said, smiling.

“Glad you could join the bandwagon.” Sid said with a relief, patting his back.

“So, where’s the thing that you want to know?” Eugene asked Gerald. He then put took the device out from his pocket and gave it to him. Eugene then brought it to his computer table and put it next to the keyboard. He opened a drawer next to him to find his miniature screwdriver set. He took the largest out of them and proceeded to open the device with it as Gerald and Sid watched him attentively. The contents inside the device impressed Eugene as he gazed at it.

“Wow, whoever designed this thing must be a freaking genius.” He said to himself in awe. He then took a magnifying glass to get a closer look at the circuit board. “And there’s a lot of stuff inside here that isn’t in the consumer market either… where do they get all this?” he asked himself.

“Interesting…” he said, finally could recognize what the device actually was, “It’s wi-fi. Wireless Local Area Network. See this little black thing?” he asked to them as he pointed a pointy piece in the circuit board, “It’s a receiver/transmitter antenna. I must’ve not following the news lately, because this thing isn’t suppose to be in the consumer market yet…” he said in disbelief, and then he gazed at his computer, and an idea popped in his head.

“Hmm… maybe my computer could read this thing, hopefully.” He wondered. He then switched his wi-fi device on and booted the program for it.

Searching for the nearest wi-fi device…
25 percent…
50…
75…
100…

Two devices found:

(Unknown Device) 907830GGW
Mokia 6060 DF#3233

He then clicked on the (Unknown device) on the selection window and to him and his guests’ surprise; the options were shown as follows:

Tracking Devices- A-101

“That thing is a tracking device…” Sid said incredulously as he stared at the monitor screen. Reluctantly, Eugene clicked on the A-101 and a few moments later, the tracking device started to beep and emitted bleeping lights. In realization that he was on a verge of a clue, he quickly launched yet another program that’d track any wireless frequency around his surroundings. The program revealed three addresses; one came from his computer, another one from the tracking device and another from a foreign location that it’s only revealed itself as ‘LESpheeb’.

“LESton?” Gerald said quizzically, “do you think it stands for the LES spy agency and… Tony?”

“This is getting complicated than I thought…” Eugene said to himself as he rummaged through the drawer for a paper and pen. “There’s only one way to find out…” he said as he wrote down the foreign address. He then restarted his computer and logged on into a different operating system. At the OS’ command prompt, he typed a command that would see if the user’s address were online or not. The screen then displayed the answer to Eugene as he nodded in understanding.

Sid and Gerald couldn’t comprehend what was actually displayed on the screen since it was all a bunch of numbers and words to them, so one of them asked Eugene, “So… what does this all means?” Sid asked him quizzically.

“One thing’s for sure, the line is active…” he replied to them, and continued on typing. “Judging from this serial number right here, I’m currently breaking into a PDA.” He informed them as he pointed the numbers on the screen. He typed some more. “Let see if I can look into the contents of this thing…” he said to himself.

Later, all three of them were incredulous disbelief when screen revealed many of the PDA contents. Folders such as Applications, Code Breaker, and Global Positioning System were shown on the screen. But the folder that struck them the most was a folder with a title ‘Personal Information’, with Phoebe’s picture on it.

“That’s Phoebe…” Gerald said disbelievingly, as Eugene and Sid looked at him, waiting for him to say something. Gerald then looked at Eugene and said, “Well, what are you waiting for? Click on it.”

Eugene nodded nervously and proceeded to do what Gerald had requested. Phoebe’s information files and her logbook were located in the said folder. Eugene positioned the pointer over the logbook file, and looked at Gerald again nervously, “Should we go on? Clicking on these files is just like invading Phoebe’s privacy…”

Gerald contemplated nervously at the thought of invading Phoebe’s privacy, “No… don’t,” he said, which was a right move, “Let’s see if there’s anything else you can dig into.”

Eugene nodded in relief, and pushed the ‘back’ button on top of the screen. Again he rummaged through all the files and folders, nothing very important but intriguing nonetheless. Inside the Network Settings folder, Eugene spotted another address which triggered his curiosity instincts to life. He then copied the address and pasted it on the command prompt. He typed another set of command but the result displayed was:

Address may be blocked by a firewall or masked.

“Interesting…” Eugene said with a smug smile, “This may prove challenging.” He said to himself as he cracked his knuckles. Eugene then typed a command on the prompt line to open up an application to break up the address concealment. The software works, but it only revealed a portion of it, as the others were secured greatly. The portion of the address was still masked by an incoherent bunch of alphabets and characters. Eugene smirked broadly since he felt this little puzzle was more of a challenge than an aggravating speed bump. He tried again, but this time, he messed with the programming a little bit.

Sid saw something between the JavaScript and UNIX book that caught his eye, “Hey Eugene,” he called, interrupting Eugene’s concentration, “Are you taking any Japanese classes or something?” he said, showing him a book titled ‘Japanese for Everyone’.

Eugene smiled a bit at Sid and said, “Japanese language is an interest of mine, so it’s something that I personally want to know.” He said, “Thanks to animes…” he thought, “And I’m glad Pheebs is around to help me with the language. She gave me that book actually. She’s a great teacher.” And he then continued typing. Eugene remarks seemed to make Gerald smiled a bit, in proud of her.

Minutes later, Eugene finally cracked the address, accompanied by a loud “yes!” from him, and copied it up and pasted it to the command prompt to retry it again. And this time around, it worked. The computer was active, so Eugene cautiously broke into the computer that was linked from Phoebe’s PDA. Alas, another obstacle: a firewall was guarding the security of the computer.

“Ah, crap… not another firewall…” he sighed in annoyance, but he always knew in every firewall, there was a weakness, or a security hole, and only experienced hacker such as himself would know how to exploit the weaknesses. He looked at Eugene and Sid, who was reading some books and magazines, and said to them, “Hey guys, do you have any plans after this?”

“Uh no… is it going to take long?” Sid asked him.

“This might take a while…” he said to them, sighing. Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. What started as a favor for Gerald had become an exciting challenge for Eugene. He liked every single thing that he had discovered and typed. They were proven invaluable to him. He became… passionate of it. Sid and Gerald, on the other hand, were getting bored. Gerald was lying on the floor playing Eugene’s portable game console while Sid was asleep on Eugene’s bed, with a videogame magazine placed on his face. Tired of waiting, Gerald asked Eugene, “Are you done already?”

“Almost finished… just give me a couple of minutes, will you?” he replied, as he furiously punched the keyboard buttons to type the commands. Funny, Gerald thought, since that was the same answer that he gave to him ten minutes ago. Gerald then switched the game console off, and decided to take a nap. A few moments later, Eugene euphorically shouted, “YEAH!!” loudly, making the Sid and Gerald woke up from their slumber.

“What? What did you find?” Sid said, rubbing his eyes.

“Gentlemen, I have successfully broken into their database, and suffice it to say: it’s a huge treasure trove of information inside.” He said happily, showing them the result on the screen.

“Good job, man. Good job.” Gerald complimented him as he patted his back, “but won’t you get caught or something?”

Later, there was much rejoicing, as they gave each other a high-five. Laura smiled broadly as he stretched his body as to claim the victory.

“C’mon, let’s see what’s inside the folder.” Sid said to all of them, and they proceeded to do so. Inside the folder, there was database of the active current agents was displayed, crime statistics, and the agency’s funding. Although it wasn’t much, but they’re proven very helpful nonetheless.

“So it is true then… Phoebe, Lila, Rhonda, Helga and Nadine are a member of LES.” Gerald said ponderingly.

“So what’s your next move, dude?” Sid asked Gerald.

“What else? We’re going to Fuzzy Slipper’s place and ask him about this, since he’s like, their number one informant and all. Eugene, call me if you find anything important.”

“I will. Man, that was the ugliest hack I’ve ever done…”

Chapter 17- A Visit to Fuzzy Slippers’

To get to Fuzzy Slippers’ place, Gerald and Sid had to take the el train line. The trains really were showing its age, since the looks of its interior was dilapidated and almost worn out -yet another victim of vandalism. There were windows on the brink of shattering and graffiti was almost everywhere on the walls, windows and even on the floor. It was a wonder how did they managed to survive to this day. The train driver announced their stop, and they quickly got up and squeezed through the packed train to the exit. They then proceeded to the token gate, and after a flight of stairs, they were back on the street again. Sid stopped for a while and scanned around the area high and low since this was his first visit here and he wanted to get familiarize with the surroundings.

“So this is where the famous Fuzzy Slippers live, huh Gerald?” Sid asked him as they walked together, braving the strong wind. The sun was setting, casting a very weak and dim yellow light to that neighborhood. A way to describe the place was that the winds blowing the newspapers, dusts, garbage and empty cans away, gunshots were heard from afar, suggesting that this was a pretty hostile place, streets and old buildings weren’t maintained very well, and graffiti was everywhere.

“Yep, this is the place where he was born and raised. Hey, I thought you’ve met the guy.”

“Yeah I did, but I didn’t ask him where he lives. Still, I can’t remember much though. The last time I met him was,” he paused to reminisce, “I was at your house when he came over right?”

“That was the last time you met him?” Gerald asked incredulously, “Man, that’s like when we were ten and stuff. It was the time when we practiced our urban legend presentation, wasn’t it?”

“I think so.” He replied back. “So, how is the old guy, huh? Still helping his dad at the grocery store?”

“Old guy? He’s about five years older than us, man. He studies at University of Hillwood to become a doctor for crying out loud.”

“All right, whatever. So, why is meeting with Fuzzy Slippers will help with us with anything?”

“I told you before man, he’s the spy agency’s number one informant. He knows all the happenings and activities in the city, and that’s why the man is extremely valuable to them.”

“Where does he get his sources, anyway?”

“That, is a secret my friend.” Gerald smiled at Sid and snickered back softly as they continued their walk to the mentioned grocery store. To get to the store, they had to pass by a basketball court, which as of now, there were people on the court playing the game and also watching it, shouting to their team mates for the ball, shouting profanities, and cheering for support. Gerald and Sid recognized one of the players in the court. The player gave them a wave, and they waved back, and the player came over to them to have a friendly talk.

“Hey ‘sup, Gerald, Sid, what’s happenin’?” the player greeted them warmly behind the chain-linked fence as Sid and Gerald stopped at their tracks.

“We’re just cool, Joey.” Gerald replied back, smiling. “Who’s winning?”

“Man, as if you didn’t know!” he snickered boastfully, “of course we’re winning! We whooped those sorry ass losers’ hard, man!”

“Bullcrap,” an opposite team member shouted, “It ain’t over til it’s over, and I’d say we’re going to kick your ass!” and he was accompanied by cheers from his teammates.

“You’re just bitter because you’re already lose, jerk," Joey replied back, “Why dontcha—”

“All right, all right,” Gerald interjected nonchalantly, “Cut the stupid thrash talk out will you two?” he said to the both of them.

“Hey Gerald, say to that friend of yours that he’s just a loud, bragging wannabe cow!” the opposite team member mocked playfully, which was followed by a loud, mocking, hysterical laughter.

Joey just ignored the insult, smiling and said to Gerald, “So, what’re ya doin’ here man?”

“Meh, we just thought that we’d give Fuzzy some company. Is… what the…” he saw a car, which looked familiar to him coming towards the court, “does that car look familiar to you?” he asked Joey, pointing at the said car.

“What car? You mean— oh crap…” he became fearful, alarmed, and quickly he shouted, “EVERYONE, DUCK NOW!” and some gunshots were fired.

“Sid, get down!” Gerald yelled alarmingly to Sid, and quickly he followed as ordered. It was a drive-by, specifically targeting an individual inside the court. Everybody was lying on the floor, face down. The person who was targeted by the people in the car retaliated by firing gunshots at them back. The car then drove out of sight. The drive-by was over in less than a minute, a very scary less than a minute. Thankfully, nobody got shot at or injured. There was a long silence followed soon after that, then one of the players got up and asked, “Is it over?”

The gunman sighed in relief and replied back to him, “Yeah, everything is cool now…” and then everyone got up, but still nervous as most of them alertly scanned around their surroundings incase there was a second wave.

“You’re okay Sid?” Gerald asked him as he pulled him up.

“Yeah… thanks. I’m just feeling very edgy right now, that’s all.” He said shakily. “I really hope that something bad will happen to that car…” he was looking at the street where the car went to.

And something bad did happen to that car. They could distinctively hear a screeching noise and crash soon afterwards. It was the work of LES, a couple of their members who were stationed in that neighborhood shot the wheel of that car with a crossbow and the car crashed to the sidewalk, but thankfully nobody was badly injured. Couple of seconds later, sirens of emergency vehicles was heard coming to the crash site. The driver and his passengers would have a very difficult time to explain why there were firearms inside their car to the cops. The spy agents smirked at each other and left the rooftop where they were positioned to go to another part of the city.

“Well, your wish just came true.” Joey said, chuckling softly.

“Now you’re making me feel bad.” Sid replied back coolly, slightly feeling guilty about the curse.

Gerald snickered as he shook his head, “Look Joey, we’d better get going. Good luck with the bum whooping.”

“Damn man, after that mess I doubt that any us wants to play again.” He said, and he turned his face to his gang and shouted, “Hey, how ‘bout we call it a day, huh?”

“Yeah… let’s get the hell out of here before things are getting uglier.” One of his friends said back to Joey.

Joey chuckled nervously, and said to Gerald and Sid, “You were saying something about Fuzzy, Gerald?”

‘Yeah, um… Fuzzy is still at his pop’s store, right?” Gerald said to Joey.

“Well, you’d better be quick then. His shift will be over anytime soon.”

“Thanks man. Say, wanna come along?”

“Ahh… nah. It’s getting late anyway, and I probably should get back home helping my old man with the garage.”

“You shirked away from your dad? You ingrate.” Sid accused playfully.

“That’s low, man. What kind of a son are you?” Gerald added more.

“Shut up.” Joey replied back, chuckling. “I promised him I’ll be back in time to help him. And you know me, man. I ain’t the kind of a moron who breaks his own promise.”

“A’right. A’right. Don’t hurt yourself, man. We’d better go anyway. We're out.” Gerald said, pointing to the location they’re heading.

“Yeah, see ya.” Joey replied back, as he gave them a small wave and headed back into the court. Gerald and Sid resumed their journey to the grocery store to meet with the great Fuzzy Slippers. The store was between a barbershop and pawnshop. Although from the outside it looked somewhat old and unmanaged very well, the interior were very clean, the items were carefully shelved, and welcoming, since it was after all a family store ran by Fuzzy Slipper’s family for generations. As Gerald opened up the door, ringing the little bell above it, he saw Harvey, the neighborhood mail carrier at the counter, lingering around.

“Hey Harvey my man!” Gerald greeted him.

“Hey man.” Sid also greeted him.

“Hey guys.” He greeted back, “What’re you two doing here?”

“We thought we’d pay Fuzzy a visit. You’re not coming all away here to buy groceries, are ya?” Gerald asked him.

“Heh, hell no man. I just cut my hair. I’ve been to that barbershop next door for over 20 years now. Hey, wanna check it out?” he took off his hat, revealing his new hairdo to Gerald and Sid.

“A regular Denzel Washington, Harv. The chicks are gonna love you now.” Gerald complimented, smiling at him.

“You think so, man?” he said, looking at a mirror behind the counter. “I still think it looks kinda like Wesley Snipes’ hair.” He then put his cap back on.

“Nah…” Sid disagreed, “You’re somewhere on along Ray Charles’ line.”

“Ray Charles? Maybe ten years from now man. You sure I don’t look like Wesley Snipes?” he asked again to reassure.

“What? Denzel ain’t cool enough for you?” Gerald asked back, smiling.

“What’re you talking about dude? He obviously has that Ray Charles look on his face.” Sid said to Gerald, making a frame with his fingers with Harvey’s face inside it.

“Well, I guess I've to ask my money back then!” he replied, and the three of them laughed heartily. Well, not that heartily.

“Whoo… oh man.” Gerald said, as his laughter died out. “Hey Harv, where’s Fuzzy?”

“He’s at the freezer back there, unloading some stuff.” Harvey replied back, pointing with his thumb. “Go ahead boys, go and annoy him.” he said, smiling. Sid and Gerald smiled back, went to the place that Harvey pointed out. And they finally met Fuzzy Slippers, who was unloading some cans of sodas from a box into the freezer.

“Hey Fuzzy.” Gerald greeted him.

Fuzzy replied the greet back, as he unload the box.

“Busy day, huh?” Sid asked, smiling.

He said something that it was a very slow day today, so he finally had some time to unpack these sodas that hogged the space inside the stockroom. Harvey came over to them and grabbed a can of root beer from inside the box, pulled the tab and drank it. Fuzzy was annoyed and glared at him.

“Hey, cool man. I’ll pay it back.” Harvey replied back, sipping the drink. Fuzzy scoffed, shook his head and resumed the unpacking. He warned Harvey not to spill the drink, and Harvey snickered at him.

“Hey Fuzzy,” Gerald said, “Got any new urban legends? I’m really running out of materials here, man.”

Fuzzy asked back about what urban legends that Gerald had told to the good people of this city.

“Buncha stuff; The Subway Train Ghost, The Massacre of Victoria Mansion, The Guy who fell down into the Soda Vat and Died, Bridget’s Spy Organization…” he said, pointing them out with his fingers one-by-one.

Fuzzy then took a plastic container box and sat on it, as he extended his index finger out and said that he has a new one for him. Gerald widened his eyes and lay back against a shelf and relaxed himself by putting his hands inside his pockets. Sid took a can of soda inside the freezer and drank it. Fuzzy glared at him as he grinned nervously.

“Hey, I’ll pay for it, dude. Don’t worry about it.” He chuckled nervously.

Fuzzy groaned in annoyance, but keep his cool. He then proceeded to tell a story to them about The Legend of the Bridge Walker. It was said that in a gloomy, foggy night in the time after the construction of the longest bridge in the city was completed back in the late 1890’s, there was this maiden, who unfortunately for her, had an unfaithful fiancé. She saw her fiancé with her own very eyes that he committed adultery with another woman. Disheartened, and heartbroken, she stormed out from the house and ran away as fast as she could. Her jerk of a fiancé tried to catch up with her, calling her repeatedly, begging for forgiveness. But she ignored him. She ran across the road as her fiancé tried to catch up, but suddenly this fast stagecoach knocked her fiancé down and trampled him as he screamed painfully, and finally resulting in a painful, agonizing death. She glared at the lifeless body, smirking and was actually delighted that he got what he deserves.

She began to smile widely, in a psychotic grin kind of way, and burst into a maniacal laughter. People at the scene were perplexed and started to become frightened of the girl. She stopped laughing, scanned around with that freakish smile and fled the scene. As she walked, she hugged herself, softly laughing maniacally. She walked to the middle of the mentioned bridge, climbed the ledge and threw herself into the river as she laughed. And the laughter was silenced forever. And again it was told that if you went over to the bridge sometime around midnight, you could hear her maniacal laughter when she killed herself. And with that, Fuzzy ended it with a smirk, beaming at the guys, who had their jaws gaped incredulously.

Fuzzy then continued and said something regarding Bridget’s spy agency, that they’ve recruited new agents to replace her.

“Yeah, we know about it.” Gerald replied. “Why did she want to quit anyway?”

Fuzzy replied that Bridget is one semester away from her graduation. She wanted to concentrate fully on her studies to become one of the top graduates.

“Yeah? Sid asked, “What’s her major?”

Political Science, he replied. He elaborated that she wanted to become a columnist for a major newspaper someday since she loves to write.

“Kinda like Helga, isn’t it?” Sid whispered to Gerald.

“Nah, Helga likes to write, but not about politics.” Gerald said back. “Do you know it’s actually our friends who got selected to become their member, Fuzzy?”

Fuzzy shook his head and shrugged, saying that he didn’t know about it. All members were selected due to their attributes, merits and quality, not under influence from anyone else. But, he said more, that they shouldn’t worry about their friends since the agency took care of their members very well, and not to mention each individual was put into training to become dependable, vigilant and trustworthy vigilantes.

“Wow, you know almost everything about them, don’t you?” Sid asked him.

Fuzzy shot back a soft smile, and resumed unloading the cans.

“So… Do you have any juicy dirt for us? You know, tip-offs and all.” Gerald asked.

Fuzzy replied that if they wanted to know, then they have to keep it a secret and act as if the conversation never happened before.

“Man, that classified?”

“You bet.” Harvey interjected, “Imagine that the tip-off was leaked. Now imagine one pissed off bad guy who can’t carry their operation out because of that leaked tip-off. And imagine that they’re going to find that guy all over the place and won’t rest until they've found himand beat the crap out of him… or worse.”

Sid and Gerald gulped nervously. They now had second thoughts about it.

“Ah, don’t worry about it.” Harvey said, snickering. “Just keep your mouth shut and nothing is gonna happen.”

Gerald and Sid looked at each other, contemplating. Sid then shrugged, and Gerald said to them, “Ah, what the hell. Just shoot.”

And so Fuzzy gave some info that he had heard on the streets recently. A house somewhere outskirts of the city was in suspicion of smuggling drugs. An abandoned dock at some small port was expecting a shipment of illegal drugs. And finally, Michael was planning to do some assaulting, but Fuzzy couldn’t tell to who or what he was targeting.

“Have you told Bridget about this?” Harvey asked him.

He replied no, since two of their agents will come here soon to obtain Fuzzy’s tip-off.

“Who’re the agents? They're not the new ones, are they?” Sid asked him.

He shrugged and shook his head, and replied to the two concerned guys that they shouldn’t be worried about it if their friends were the ones who’ll be given the tip-off. It was a usual standard procedure for them to come to his place, since it was the safest way to pass the information.

“Still, we’re kinda concern about it, man.” Gerald replied, “We want help them, one way or another.”

“Help them? How?” Harvey asked, sipping the root beer.

“Well… we want to be their informants, just like you guys.” Gerald finally expressed his interested to them.

“We?” Sid raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, we.” He replied back, “if we want to help them, the sure proof way is to become their informants. There ain’t any other way.”

Harvey and Fuzzy stared at each other disbelievingly. Were they serious about volunteering themselves to become their informants? An informant’s job isn’t as easy as it looks. It shouldn’t be taken lightly as responsibility is high if a person wants to become one and he would be held accountable for any false and misleading information or intelligence. One misinformation and it could spell jeopardy for the agents, or worse. Fuzzy warned them both, if they wanted to become one, then they must be highly dedicated to their job.

“We’ll try our best, man. I mean, we have you guys to guide us and besides, we’re in school. School is the best place to pick up information.” Gerald justified his reason. Credible, but wasn’t good enough for Fuzzy and Harvey.

Harvey and Fuzzy then discussed about Gerald and Sid’s volunteering in front of them. There were some disagreement and voices were raised, but finally, they were unanimous. With that, Harvey said to them, “Sorry guys, can’t let you to become one.”

“What! How come?” Gerald protested, in demand for an answer.

“Look, I know you two are concerned about your friends, but you two don’t have what it takes to become one.”

“That’s bullcrap, man!” Gerald swiped his hand wide across angrily, unsatisfied with the given answer. “We could do twice a better job than you do! Better even!”

“Now you’re being obnoxious, man!” Harvey replied back, “Didn’t you listen to yourself just now Gerald? You’re whining! You guys aren’t responsible and mature enough for the job!”

“I can’t believe it!” Sid said angrily, “We’re offering our help on a silver platter and you guys reject it outright! We’ll prove it to you that we have what takes, and we’re gonna beat you in your own game!”

Fuzzy then finally interjected and said to them that this fuming conversation is over. Gerald and Sid glared at them for a moment, with rage still flaring in their hearts, and they then abruptly left the store, slamming the door shut. Harvey and Fuzzy looked at each other, absolutely concerned.

“They’ll understand that this is for their own good eventually.” Harvey said dejectedly. Fuzzy nodded, and replied to him that Sid didn’t pay for his soda.

Outside the store, Gerald and Sid walked away angrily with rage still burning in their hearts.

“This sucks.” Sid muttered softly.

“Yeah, who the hell they think they are?” Gerald said back, kicking a can. “Fuzzy became their informants when he was our age, and yet he has the freaking balls to tell us we’re not responsible enough! What a stupid excuse.”

“Now what’re we going to do?” Sid asked him.

Gerald contemplated for a moment, trying to remember what Fuzzy told to them earlier. He remembered something, and smirked. “Hey, Gino has a brother called Michael, eh?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Don’t you remember what Fuzzy just said? This Michael guy is planning something bad, but Fuzzy ain’t know nothing about it!”

“Oh, come on dude. There are thousands of Michaels out there in this city. What makes you so sure Gino’s psycho brother is the one we’re looking for?”

“Sid, it’s… bloody… Gino…”

Sid was stunned, and stared at Gerald for a moment. “My God, you’re right. Let’s go find him!”

And to get to Gino’s place, they had to take the subway. Once it arrived, they went inside the train, and took a seat near the exit. They didn’t talk, most probably since they were too tired or had nothing to talk about. A couple of moments later, Gerald suddenly smiled and snickered softly, which made Sid raised an eyebrow at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Heh. I just remembered something when I was nine. Remember the ‘When the sun goes down, stay above ground’ warning?”

Sid chuckled, and replied, “I can’t believe you still remember that crap, man.”

Eventually they arrived in front of Gino’s house, with bodyguards patrolling inside and out of his abode. The house was surprisingly modest, almost a mansion but it wasn’t, and its front lawn wasn’t big at all.

“Should I ring the doorbell or should you?” Sid said to Gerald, smirking.

One of the bodyguards took notice of the presence of the two awkward teens staring at Gino’s house, and he immediately took action, “What are ya kids looking at! Get outta here!” he ordered them.

“Jeez man. We’re just admiring the place, that’s all.” Gerald replied back as he and Sid went off. They then walked into an alley nearby to gather thoughts and tried to conjure up a plan on how get into his house.

“So how are we going to get in?” Gerald asked.

“Wear a fake moustache and go for the old pizzaman trick?”

“Be serious, man!” he retorted back, “There’s got to be a way to sneak in past those guards.” He said, rubbing his chin.

Suddenly they heard a loud knocking sound from deep inside the alley, and a soft “crap…” was heard. They then turn to the where the sound was coming from and saw a figure trying to climb up a fence. They recognized that figure.

“It’s Gino.” Gerald said, spitefully.

“Come on,” Sid motioned his head to suggest to Gerald to go after him. They walked with a somewhat hastened pace to Gino, as he was trying hopelessly to climb the chain link fence up. Sid yanked his clothes, Gino turned around and Sid said to him, “Hey there pal.”

Then both of them grabbed Gino by his shirt collar and pinned him to the wall aggressively. Gino was stunned and began to get scared of the threatening situation. He tried to cool them down by talking to them and trying not to struggle.

“Gerald, Sid, what are you—”

“Cut the sweet talk, Mate!” Gerald replied angrily.

“You’re just as sick as your brother ,you son of a bitch! You guys are planning to destroy LES and their members, aren’t you! Tell us what are his plans now or we will beat the crap out of you!” Sid threatened him.

“Look, I think there’s a big misunderstanding here.” Gino replied back nervously. “I’m not in the same league—”

“Yeah, right! I bet your arse you’re not!”

“Talk, man! Don’t make me use this!” Sid warned, as he took his pocketknife out.

Gerald became alarmed, "Sid, what're you doing? Put that thing away!"

Sid scoffed, and put it back into his pocket. "All right, Gino! 'Fess up!" he continued.

“Please, guys! I’m really serious about this! Bridget’s spy organization could be in danger right now! There’s a big possibility that they’re going to fall into my brother’s trap! Please man, listen to me!”

Gerald glared at Gino’s nervous look. He thought that they had intimidated him enough, and felt that he was being honest about it, and finally he said “All right. Start talking, but don’t even think of pulling something stupid.” Gerald warned him.

“Well, if you’d please let me go from your clutches? I swear that I won’t run away.” He replied back timidly, as he tried to shove their hands away from his suit collar. They were reluctant at first, but finally they released their hands away. Gino brushed his suit, and said to them, “Let’s go to Helga’s house. I’ll tell you all the details on the way there.”

Chapter 18- Revelation

“Why were you in the alley just now?” Gerald asked him.

“I escaped from the house through the ventilation shaft.” Gino replied back. “I had to climb up, jumped over to this building here and then climbed down from that stairs. My brother had ordered the bodyguards to make sure nobody leaves or get into the house.”

“Why?”

“He doesn’t want me out, afraid that I might interfere with his plan.”

“Makes sense to me.” Sid replied.

“Hey, were you really going to stab me with that knife?” Gino asked nervously to Sid. The three boys were walking down the sidewalk rather hastily to Helga’s house. They knew they only had little time, so they had to go there as quickly as they could to warn them about Michael’s plan.

“Dude, you kidding?” he took his pocketknife out playfully and flipped it in and out repeatedly, “And get the risk of being thrown into juvie? I use this for self protection, man. I got mugged when I was nine and again when I was thirteen, so I have to do something to protect myself.”

“Protect yourself? So why did you pointed that knife to me just now?”

“To freak you out, man. What else?”

Gerald shook his head at the conversation that he felt was unnecessary and a hindrance to the real talk they were supposed to be engaged in right now. He interjected and said, “Gino, we want the truth, now. What is your brother up to?”

“Oh, yeah… that. All right, I don’t know if you guys are going to believe me or not, but here’s it is anyway.”

It was quite a nervous time for Helga as she prepared herself for another day on the job. As she combed her hair in front of the mirror, she was watched by her sister Olga who was sitting on her bed, looking at her with a rather worried look.

“Olga, whatever you do, don’t leave the house.” Helga warned to her big sister. “Bridge said that they’ve received a big tip-off from Fuzzy Slippers that Michael is launching a big assault somewhere in the city, but we don’t know where.”

“Gang war?” Olga asked back.

“Don’t know, but I won’t go out if I were you. ‘Fraid I might get caught in a crossfire.” She replied, and the author giggled softly.

“Hmm… that is a very strange move for him to make… he never liked to do an open-ended assault as large as that.” She theorized. “I don’t like the looks of this. It doesn’t sound like him at all. Be wary of his tricks, Helga. Be safe.”

“Don’t worry, I will.” She replied back, as she fastened her utility belt. Strange, the belt fitted her waist usually, “Olga, mind giving me a hand here?”

“He what?” Gerald said in utter shock, almost yelling.

“That’s what I said. It’s a big, huge trap, and they’re falling into them.” He revealed the information, “God…” he rubbed his forehead, sighing, “and I thought they were smart enough not to be that gullible…”

“So let me get this straight:” Sid said back to recap, “All the information about the drug smuggling, the shipments and the assault are actually a big set-up?”

“Yeah, it’s an ambush. But the assault is true, though.” Gino reiterated back, “His plan is to separate most of Bridget’s agents far and between so he could initiate his primary mission easily.”

“What primary mission? What’s he targeting? It’s not Helga’s sister, is it? I mean, you told us that your bro is still pissed at her.” Gerald said.

“No… Olga’s assassination is just a small plan in his big agenda. He never actually wanted to kill her in the first place.”

“Where will you be going?” Olga asked concernedly to her sister.

“Bridge put me at a place called Ravenholm Dockyards.” She replied back. “Can’t remember what it looks like, though. ButI have heard that the place was abandoned many years ago…”

“It’s the old dockyards…” Olga said to herself. “It was abandoned in the mid 30s when a new port was scheduled to be opened on the other side of the city. I’ve been there once.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s a terrible, horrible place. It’s totally disgusting. Rotting wooden warehouses and piers just waiting to collapse, old, ugly, rusty metal machines that can’t be operated, polluted water, and worse: rats and roaches are all over the place. Eww…” she cringed at the thought of having a stakeout at that place, which she used to with her partner many years ago back when she was an agent.

Helga rolled her eyes, and wanted to ‘thank’ her for the very unhelpful information that she really didn’t want to hear, “Great, sounds just like fun to me…” she said sarcastically. “It should be a calm, happy walk in the park.”

Olga ignored her sister sarcastic retort and asked her again, “Are there anyone else going there with you?”

“About twenty agents or so. All of them are veterans, except for me and Rhonda…” she said Rhonda’s name rather murderously. “Why do I always get paired with her?”

“If you don’t mind I’m asking Helga, why do you have antagonistic feelings towards her?”

“You just wouldn’t understand Olga, even if I tell you.” Helga replied back, trying to dodge the conversation about Rhonda and her.

Though Olga was eager to learn more, she decided that she shouldn’t force her keenness onto her. She nodded back, and asked, “What about your other friends?”

“What? Phoebe, Nadine and Lila?” she asked back, “They’re going to a house somewhere at the outskirts of the city, wait, was it a mansion? Well, whatever.” She shrugged, “Either one, they’re going there with some other veteran agents.”

“I’m confused, so you’re saying that the dude who was hired to ‘kill’ Olga was actually delivering something into their base?” Sid asked again, with half of his eyebrow lowered.

“Holy moly, he’s even smarter than I imagined…” Gerald said in disbelief. “How did your brother managed to learn that Olga was in the agency, anyway?”

“I don’t know, but what I’ve heard from one of his friends, that there was this one night when my brother successfully broke into some grocery store. After he got all the cash he wanted, he ran as fast as he could to his car. But suddenly he was stopped by some chick that came out of nowhere and kicked him in the head. He got up, turn back to see who was stupid enough to do that to him, and wham.” He smacked his fist into his palm. “He saw her. Eyes face-to-face, under the moonlight, they stared at each other, totally stunned.”

“Wow…” Sid said in awe. “I can’t imagine the looks of their faces when they saw each other at that time.”

Gino then continued, “Olga was stunned, but Michael snapped back. He quickly got up, ran pass by her and jumped into his car.”

“And Helga’s sister didn’t do anything?” Gerald said sternly in disbelief.

“Hey, I’d be stunned and do nothing too if see my boyfriend… wait, in this case girlfriend, robbed a store.”

“Okay… getting back to the present... what’s your brother’s big plan?”

“What I’ve heard after he got out from prison he swore revenge against Olga and her agency. But he never knew the whereabouts of their headquarters. So the first agenda in his mind was he wanted to find theirheadquarters, which he believes is located somewhere in this city. But, even though he had spent years of finding it, he still couldn’t find it, until the last two weeks…”

“Whoa, hold on a second there squirt.” Sid interjected. “How did he manage to learn its existence just a couple of weeks ago?”

“That I don’t know. Somehow, after years of searching and employing hundreds of hired goons to find the place, his efforts were finally started to pay off.”

“Yeah, go on…” Gerald asked to continue. “So, what’s he going to do to the base? Burn them to the ground?”

“Nope, he has a better plan than that. He planned to storm the headquarters, taking it over from Bridget and turn it into a center of drug business of some sort of this city. That, also in turn is to insult to the already established agency that their impregnable, elusive fortress that what used to be a center of preventing crime is going to be turned into a place of crime.”

“That jerk… he must be stopped…” Gerald said spitefully.

“Wait a minute… so, what’s going to happen to the agents if your brother succeeds?” Sid asked worriedly.

“That’s why we’re stopping him from doing it. Who knows what will that maniac do to them. That’s why we can’t fail, gentlemen. Their lives are in our hands right now.”

“I’m guessing that I’ll be going now Olga.” She said as she made last minute checkups on her equipment and performing some warming ups. “Wish me luck.”

“Wait a minute. You’re going there alone?” her sister asked concernedly.

“Uh… yeah?” Helga replied uncertainly. “Why? Is there something wrong?”

“No… actually no. I’m just really concerned about you, that’s all.” She replied back. “I really have a bad feeling about this.”

“Oh, for crying out loud Olga! Try to put yourself into my shoes: Would you bail this mission just because you have a bad feeling about it, huh?” Helga asked her, rather menacingly. All agents knew that they had to put their feelings aside when performing a mission so it wouldn’t distract them from their duties. And this was what Olga had forgotten about. She looked back at Helga, feeling rather embarrassed at her, and lowered her head down in unease of her question. Helga looked back at her, and felt that she was being too intimidating. She shook her head softly, and said to her sister:

“Look, I know that you’re worried about me, and care about me, but know this: I’m aware that the enemy we’re facing is not one of those really stupid ones, and judging from all the stories I’ve heard about him from Bridget and you, he is extremely dangerous. That’s why I won’t let my guard down. That’s why I’ll be on the alert all the time. I will be careful. I won’t fail this mission. And I certainly will make the agency proud.” She replied to assure her sister, as she smiled weakly at Helga.

“And most importantly, I want to show to those people that Helga G. Pataki can excel much more than her big sister.” She added, smiling at her. “Besides, I’m tired of them labeling me as ‘That's Olga’s Sister’.”

Olga smiled again, chuckling softly at her sister’s persistence of wanting to become better than her. She guessed that their sibling rivalry had expanded to new horizons now. A new competition trophy was added into their rivalry, to become a better agent in the Ladies of Espionage Sisterhood. The both of them smirked to each other, and Olga said to her, “You’ll never be better than me. I was their best agent, and nobody has yet showed their worthy of becoming better than me.” She challenged her.

“Just wait and see, dear sister of mine.” Helga said back, as she hopped onto the opened window, “I’ll prove to you, my friends, and the organization that I-can-be-better-than-you.” She said with a smile. And with that, she climbed up the rain gutters up to their roof and after scouting around for a while to spot her location, she then went off to mentioned docks where she supposed to be going. Ravenholm dockyards, sounded pretty unwelcoming.

Olga poked her head out of the window to see where her sister had gone too. She looked to her left and to her right but didn’t see her sister. She then looked forward, and saw a dark silhouette of her being lit by streetlights near her as she went pass them. Olga smiled a bit, and thought to herself, “Seems that ever since she joined the agency, we’ve become very close. Hopefully we’ll stay that way after this. And from the looks of her face, she really does want to prove herself. Good luck, Helga. I know you can beat me.” And with that, she closed her window, and went downstairs to living room to watch television.

“Oh man… The thought of them being captured really scares me.” Gerald said worriedly to all of them. He suddenly remembered something; they had forgotten all about Stinky. He slapped his forehead as he groaned stressfully, and felt like he wanted to kick himself, since Lila could also gave valuable information to them too.

“Hey guys,” he stopped at his tracks, as they other guys followed suit. “Do any of you have a cellphone? I really need to make a call.”

“You’re asking me?” Sid asked him, “Dude, I’m dirt poor and I scavenge the trash cans for food for God’s sake.” He exaggerated a bit to prove his point, “I can’t possibly afford a phone. Well, I did have one, but my brother took it away from me and smashed it.”

Both Gerald and Sid were stunned.

“Man, your brother is really messed up.” Gerald said in disbelief.

“What did you do to deserve that?” Sid asked him, starting to become concerned.

“Nothing.” He replied melancholically, with a trail of anger. “He did that just to annoy me. That’s why I can’t stand him anymore.”

“Man, and I thought my relationship with Jamie O was bad…” Gerald wondered, starting to feel sorry for Gino. “At least Jamie O respects my things…” he then realized how lucky he was to have a brother like Jamie O. Though he wasn’t the ideal brother that Gerald always wanted, at least he didn’t act like a total jerk like Gino’s brother.

“Hey, Gerald. Why do you need to use the phone, anyway?” Sid asked him.

“I need to call Stinky and ask him whether he had better luck of digging out information from Lila since she, well, can easily be persuaded.” Gerald shrugged.

“We have no time for that!” Gino snapped back. “We need to go to Helga’s house, pronto!”

“Yeah, about that. Why do we need to go to her house anyway?” Sid asked him. Can’t we just stop and call her?”

“Or call the headquarters for that matter?” Gerald added more.

“We can’t call the headquarters because their line is already being tapped.” Gino replied back to them, “We’re going to Helga’s house because she’s the only agent who lives the nearest to my house.”

“Tapped?” Gerald asked. “That’s impossible. They don’t have the technology, or the equipments to do that. Unless of course, there’s an inside job…”

“Exactly, Gerald. Exactly.” Gino said back to confirm. “Apparently, there’s a traitor that lies amongst them and they are unaware of her presence.”

“Olga.” Gino said to greet. He had harbored some respect for Helga’s sister, since she was one who put his brother out of commission, and he was thankful for that.

“Gino.” Olga replied back, “What brings you here?”

“You can dispense the secrecies since all three of us already know that Helga is with Bridget’s spy organization, LES.” He answered, and with that Olga narrowed her eyes alarmingly.

“What do you want from her?” Olga asked back.

“Unfortunately this is not a social visit since we are here to warn her about the stakeout that she’s supposed to go. Is she around?”

“I’m afraid not, Gino. She just left.”

“Dammit!” He cursed, “We’re too late!”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Olga asked concernedly.

“Did Helga inform you that she’s going to a house somewhere outskirts of the city?”

“No…” she replied back, “She told me that she’s going to the Ravenholm docks and—”

“Oh no… even worse.” He said disbelievingly through his clenched teeth. “Some of my brother’s gang are there waiting for them. They’re setting a trap.”

“I knew there was something wrong behind it!” she exclaimed worriedly. “Your brother is a very cunning person. It’s a shame he doesn’t want to use his talents to a good use…”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go find her!” Sid said to all of them.

“Wait, what about the others?” Gerald replied back.

Olga then told them, “Helga said that Bridget split them into two teams. Helga and Rhonda is grouped in one team and—”

Sid continued, “Nadine…”

And so did Gerald, “Phoebe… and…”

Gino concluded it, “Lila are in the other. This is getting very complicated. We can’t help them if we’re all together. We have to split.”

“I agree.” Gerald said, “Sid, we need to go to my place to pick up the car. And from there, we can go to that house where Phoebe and Nadine might be.”

“The address?” Sid asked him. Gerald groaned, because was frustrated that he did not know. Gino rummaged through his breast pocket and gave them a piece of paper. It contained the address of the house.

“Thanks man.” Gerald said to him. “Let’s go Sid. Let’s haul ass.”

“You’re not suggesting we’re going to run all the way to your home from here, are you?”

“If you want to wait for the bus, then go! I, on the other hand am in a hurry!” and with that, Gerald ran away as fast as he could from them to get to his house.

“Hey, wait!” Sid shouted as he went after him.

“Well, what about us?” Gino asked Olga, but Olga wasn’t at the door. In fact, he was all alone now in front of the house.

“Olga?” he asked again. Suddenly, he could hear someone descending down from the stairs. It was Olga, wearing her old agent suit, which miraculously still fitted her like a glove.

“Let’s go.” She said to Gino. “We’re taking my car.”