Unexpected {Ejen Ali Fanfic}

Mission: Bomb

Alicia must have felt it too, because she paused halfway scolding the two cowering students. She glanced across the lobby at Ali, and their eyes met. Ali nodded, and quickly climbed up the stairs closest to him, leaving Alicia behind.

"Fine. You two can go this time." she said to the befuddled girls, obviously repressing the temptation to continue shouting.

The girls looked as though something was not right, but went anyway. They started walking towards the exit in a very hesitant way, glancing back every so often.

"Go before I change my mind!" Alicia growled, and they shot away like a rocket.

Alicia met Ali at the entrance to the abandoned stairs. Ali had a smug look on his face that Alicia felt like smacking him at this moment.

"Looks who's late," he teased.

"Shut up," Alicia growled threateningly. 

Down they went through the lift. The hallways was as quiet as usual, cold, and empty. Everything seemed perfectly normal, except for the fact that now there was some kind of fire burning inside Ali. His old best friend had just been to see him and they were going to go out this weekend. He wondered how much had Viktor changed. But if he was judging from just now, he hadn't changed much at all. 

It was when the doors to the Control Room slid open that Ali stopped in his tracks. 

Moon and Rudy, their old academy mates, were standing there. 

Moon, a cute little Inviso girl with her black hair tied in a ponytail had ran over straight to Ali, hugging him around his middle. Ali chuckled nervously.

"You've grown a lot! Now I'm really convinced I'm short." she said, giving him a sad little smile.

Ali looked at the other Inviso agent. He was the same height as he is now, his spiky chair unchanged, and his expression it seemed, didn't too. 

As Moon released Ali, the other Inviso agent stepped forward to shake Ali's hand, though maintaining his usual scowling face.

"How are you?" Ali asked awkwardly. It was really weird trying to be on friendship terms, especially when Rudy loathed him so much ever since he set eyes on him in the Academy.

"None of your business." he grumbled, taking his hand back.

Just then, Sapphire walked into the room from the Server Room, her bun messier than usual, looking as though she had just ran a hundred miles.

"You two are here. Good! Let's get started," she said quickly, her words tumbling down one after the other. 

The holographic platform in front of them presented an image of SMT Cyberaya. The exact school they are right under now.

"We've just been notified that a bomb has been placed somewhere in the school. It can blow up anytime, and it will be you four's mission to find the bomb and defuse it and make sure it doesn't blow up the school."

"Coool." Ali said. "If it blows up anyways, school will be closed, right?" 

The other four were staring at Ali. Rudy was narrowing his eyes at him, Alicia looked like she was about to kill someone, Moon had her mouth hanging open and arms hanging limply by her side, and Sapphire was looking uneasy.

"That's all. Quickly!" she said, pushing them all back into the hallway. The doors to the Control Room slid shut once they were out.

"That was quick." Ali said nervously, trying to act as casually as possible.

"OK, we need a plan." Alicia said seriously. The other three of them leaned in to listen closely.

"We don't know where the bomb is yet," Alicia said. "So, Moon, it will be up to you to find it."

"Roger that!" Moon said happily.

"Students and teachers need to be out of the way." Ali told them sternly.

"Yes," Alicia said. "Rudy, you get the students out of here. Pretend to be the principal or whate-"

But at that moment, Rudy had gotten up and went right for the lift, and did not return. 

Alicia went on, "Ali, your job is to diffuse the bomb. Moon will call you when she found it."

"What?" Ali groaned. "I've never diffused a bomb before, how am I supposed to do that?"

"For your information," Alicia shot sharply. "You have diffused a bomb before and you have IRIS to help you."

When Ali did not look satisfied, Moon cut in, "Don't worry, Ali, we'll help too, isn't that right, Alicia?"

"No," Alicia said. "I will try to find the person who placed the bomb. They may still be around."

"What are you talking about?" Ali sneered. "You just want to get off task."

"Says the one who doesn't always complete his work on time." Alicia shot back.

Ali was about to protest but was pulled away by Moon, who was jabbering away about her recent missions. Ali was only half listening as they went up the elevator. Nevertheless, he heard snatches of her conversation about her mission to traumatise a CEO of a bank company. 

"Nice," Ali kept on saying whenever there was a pause. 

At last they had reached the hallway of the second floor, most of which classrooms are empty. He had only suspected that Rudy had managed to do his part well. Other than the sounds of evacuated students and staffs two floors below, he could hear nothing else. Moon was still blabbering away, now recounting back to a mission she had encountered a giant spider. 

"Uh, Moon, can we talk about this later?" Ali said nervously.

"It was like this big! The size of a car- oh, sorry, Ali."

"Can you help find the bomb?" 

"Certainly!" 

And she dashed off towards the stairs at the other end of the hallway, pressing her palms together. Holograms of her went in different directions, though now it is nearly impossible to tell which is the real one. One by one, all skipping happily, they disappeared down stairs and hallways.

When none of the Moons were in view, he went into a classroom and dropped into an empty seat at the back of the class. But something was lurking at the dark corner.