Spy School: New Enemy

Chapter 1: Unexpected Assist

LOCATION: Santa Cruz Boardwalk

TIME: 2:37 PM

DATE: Monday, June 28th

POV: Agent Benjamin Ripley
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"We should see Joshua here, somewhere," Zoe said. 

We were at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk, looking for Joshua. So far, we had no progress. There was a whole sea of people.

"Well, I don't see him anywhere at all," Mike said.

"Guys, you need to look more harder," Erica said, "Because I see him near the arcade, come on!"

Erica started to run towards the arcade. We followed behind her. Erica dashed busted open the doors and ran towards Joshua. She then hid behind some arcade games. We mimicked her move. We watched Joshua as he walked to a door with the sign, "EMPLOYEES ONLY".

After he closed the door we followed behind him. 

"On my mark," Erica said. Then, with her fingers, she counted down from three. When she hit zero, we kicked the door open.

We rushed in. The room looked like a janitor closet, except more spacious.

"Joshua! You're under arrest," Erica yelled. 

There was no response. I started to get suspicious, "Maybe he escaped somehow. There has to be a secret hatch or something. We need to look around," I said.

Everyone nodded and started to survey the untidy place. I looked behind boxes, vents (which only had a fan blocking the way out. So he couldn't have escaped from there) and desks. 

"Ugh, there's nothing here!" Mike exclaimed. He threw an empty box to the ground and kicked it. 

Zoe walked to Mike and put a hand on his arm, "We'll find him, don't worry," She said in a soothing voice.

I looked at Erica. I noticed her averting her eyes from me. Had she been watching me? 

I ignored that and decided to keep looking around. I saw a pile of clothes, books, boxes, and more. I dug through it. I started to hear a beeping sound. It got louder and louder as I dug through. 

Then, I uncovered the source of the beeping. It was a C4.

"Guys..." I said, backing away from the bomb. The beeping got faster, "Guys, we need to get down!"

Everyone obeyed and hit the deck. Then the bomb exploded with a bright flash and a blinding ring.

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I groaned and slowly stood up to find Joshua standing over me.

I heard people screaming in the distance and security trying to calm everyone down. 

Joshua smiled, "Hey, Ben." 

I growled. Then I got up and proceeded to punch him. I ended up socking his jaw. He stumbled back a bit. Then he felt his jaw for any blood. 

"Hey, I was trying to be peaceful! Oh, well. Mood's gone." He raised a fist. Then he ran at me and punched my stomach. His blow was hard. 

I collapsed to the ground I looked at my unconscious friends. The sight of them made me feel angry. 

Joshua smirked, "Come and get it, Ben. Come on!" 

I clutched my stomach and then tried to punch Joshua. He dodged and pushed me to the ground.

"Last chance, Ben. Join us or you'll die with them," He pointed to my friends.

"N-No..." I grabbed on to a piece of rubble.

Joshua frowned, "Ben, one more time. Join us, or you die. You obviously have a lot to live for."

I scoffed, "Yeah, like evil?"

Joshua shrugged, "I wouldn't put it like that."

Then he grabbed me and threw me to a wall. I looked at my friends one more time. They looked so helpless.

Joshua walked up to me, "So, is your decision final?"

"Yes," I said, "And you should know it."

"Very well," He said as he cocked a gun, "What a shame."

He pointed the gun to my head, his finger twitching against the trigger. 

But, then he froze. I looked at him suspiciously. 

Joshua wrapped an arm around his neck and pulled out a tranquilizer dart. 

"What the? Who did the-uuuuh..." He collapsed to ground with a loud thud. I slowly stood up and looked for the attacker. Then I noticed him. A man, he seemed to be wearing headphones, a bandana, black glasses, a green jacket, and black pants with yellow strips on the side. He was standing on top of a building.

He scrambled away, ditching his tranquilizer gun. 

Then I heard a groan. I twirled around and found Erica getting up.

She coughed and collapsed to the floor. I ran to her.

"You okay?" I asked. She nodded, "How long have I been out for?"

"Um, about five minutes. Joshua attacked me," I said.

Erica's eyes widened a bit, "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine. Well, I wasn't but," I looked back at the place where the man stood at, "luckily, I got an unexpected assist."