Spy School: Choose your own adventure!

The Mission

"I'll go with option one," I breathed.

Ben's initial reaction was priceless. Face gape with shock, he took a look at me. "Really? I thought you would go all advantageous and choose the second one."

I shrugged. "I have a bad feeling about the second one. As is, if I fail the mini-mission, you'll throw the blame on me for not catching the criminal. Then, the CIA will be on my tail for ruining our project."

"Pfft," Ben laughed. "Don't worry about failing. With Erica here, there's about  99.99% percent chance success rate."

Erica's face was red in less than a second. "You don't have flatter," she said quickly. "I'm not that talented. There are many people out there who are much better than me at this gig."

"She's being humble," Ben rolled his eyes. "Anyway, follow us. Now that our cover's blown, we basically have nothing left to hide."

Nothing left to hide? I took a look at the two, who were talking and laughing like childhood friends. If anyone asked, I'd probably guess they would want to hide the fact that they're dating. Despite Ben's looks, he's still pretty witty himself. Along with Erica's talent, a perfect pair. Match made in heaven.

"Follow us," Erica pointed over the fence in my backyard. "We're going to scale that wall, then after that, the path will get complicated. Make sure to keep an eye on me."

I nodded curtly. Tracing their footsteps, I easily climbed the fence (living 5 years with that stupid wall which blocked the path to a friend's house helped my muscle memory in doing so) and watched as they started making an intricate zigzag of turns.

"O-oi!" I shouted from behind, sprinting at my fastest pace. "Slow down, guys! Are we seriously going to run at this speed the whole time?!"

"Speed?" Erica raised an eyebrow mid-run. "I'm, like, barely jogging right now."

Ben, who was panting beside me, gave me a get-a-load-of-this-girl look. 

"She's too athletic for her own good," he muttered between breaths. "I'm also dying over here, if you can't notice. And yes, we're going to run at this pace for the whole time."

I groaned. Being a spy was harder than I thought.

"No, you're not a spy yet," Erica said, reading my thoughts. "Just because you're running with us doesn't mean you're in the CIA. First of all, you're going to have to prove yourself with this mission. Then you'll have to get past my sister."

"Sister?" I panted alongside them. "Is she as athletic as you?" I said, then, lowering my voice, I whispered to Ben: "And, more importantly, Is she a hottie too?"

Ben's face turned pale. It took me a second to realize that Erica had heard this statement-- somehow-- and I was in trouble.

"Dude," Ben whispered alarmingly. "You should not have said that."

I gulped and slowed down, backing away to a far distance. Maintaining the isolation, I avoided Erica's cold stare and breathed a sigh of relief.

Suddenly, my legs went out from under me. It was so sudden, I didn't even have time to react. One second I was running, the next I was staring at the sky. But the thing was, this road was flat! And I didn't trip over my own feet. Then what had happened?

From my right, I heard a scoff. My head turned, and I saw Erica's face looming over me, stone cold.

"You should keep your guard up," she said exasperatingly. "If you're going to let someone trip you that easily, then you obviously don't have the prerequisites for being an agent."

"Tr-trip?!" I stuttered in amazement. "You were, like, 30 feet in front of me a second ago!"

"This tripping technique has happened to me before too," Ben sighed and lent me a hand. "I have enough bruises to prove it. Erica can teleport, I swear. One time she travelled across campus in ten seconds."

"How?!" I exclaimed. 

"Healthy living," Erica rolled her wrist. "And eating a lot of carrots."

"Excuse me?" I stood up and continued to run. "How does eating carrots give you the power to teleport?"

"Don't question it," Ben stared at the horizon. "She's been staying stuff like this since we met."

"Since you two met?" I raised an eyebrow. "And when was that? What, fifteen years ago?"

"Fifteen years?" Erica laughed. "I've known Ben for 3 years now."

"That's surprising," I noted. 

"Why?"

"You two don't know?" It was my turn to laugh. "You guys act like you've known each other since you were kids! At some point, I even thought you two were dating."

Both of them turned red and suddenly gained an interest in their shoes. 

I smirked. "You two are too cute. And don't give me that look, Erica-- I'm speaking facts."

"Anyway," Erica dodged the topic smoothly. "Make sure to follow us at a good speed, since the next part of the route is going to get confusing. After passing through Oak Street, we'll head to the--"

Her speech was cut off by a groan, and the sound of a stone hitting flesh. The next thing I knew, Ben and Erica were on the ground, hands cradling their chests in pain. A stone the size of my fist flew towards my head, but I dodged it just in time.

After the clutch of a move, I turned around again to face the imposters. Two giant bodies flew by, one of them making a large impact against my chest. I couldn't stop myself from flying to the ground.

Everything turned to a blur as my skull ricocheted off the hard concrete. Head spinning, I turned to take a look at Ben and Erica.

My eyes fell on an empty sidewalk.

Choose your own adventure second decision - Click on 'External Link'

Option one - Inspect the crime scene, and use clues to track down Ben and Erica

Option two - Don't waste time, and run around the neighborhood and try to find them by luck. After all, they couldn't have gone far yet.