AMSND 9 - The Return of Dr Straizer Featuring Agent 009

 

(Josie Sayz: This is the nineth story, from my ‘AMSND’ series that I wrote when I was 14 years old. This story follows in the series of the ‘AMSND’ stories, which inspired me to create the Arcturus High series. This story was actually inspired by a radio advertisement for Mars, back in… it was either 2004 or 2005. The radio advert was literally, “Agent double-ow-nine, I want you to swim to Geneva, battle Dr Straizer’s entire army using only your fruit knife…” and it influenced me to write this story.

Although each story is a stand alone piece, you can find the rest of the AMSND series here:

1) A Magic School’s New Dream: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/ansnd-1-magic-schools-new-dream.html

2) The War of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-2-war-of-crooked-burrow-school.html

 3) Six Se’enarians Go To Sea: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-3-six-senerians-go-to-sea.html

4) The Arrival of a New Headmistress: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-4-arrival-of-new-headmistress.html

5) The Day Before the Last (Day of Term):

https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/01/amsnd-5-day-before-last-day-of-term.html

6) The Story of Crooked Burrow School: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/02/amsnd-6-story-of-crooked-burrow-school.html

7) The End of the Octopus: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-7-end-of-octopus.html

8) The King of Magic: https://josiesayz.blogspot.com/2025/09/amsnd-8-king-of-magic.html.)

The Return of Dr Straizer Featuring Agent 009

 

The door to the Room of the Octopus swung open as Jay, Drew, Nicky, Lyra, Lola and Lara came out. They had been on their breakfast break from Science. “Don’t forget to wait for us later, before assembly,” Jay requested.

“Don’t worry, we won’t,” Lyra replied.

“See you later,” Lara called, skipping up the marble staircase followed by Lola. People began to gather up near the science corridor and classes were going in.

Shada, Samantha and Larissa were all talking at the bottom of the Science staircase. “We’re all gonna meet here before assembly, aren’t we?” questioned Shada. Samantha nodded her head.

“Laz…” Samantha poked her.

“What?” Larissa jumped.

“You haven’t being paying attention to us all the week… what’s wrong?” Shada sighed.

“Nothing,” Larissa panicked. Shada and Samantha both turned around to look in the direction of where Larissa was facing to see what or who was distracting her.

“Nicky!” exclaimed Shada. “You’ve been looking at Nicky – own up,” Shada grinned.

“No,” blushed Larissa. “You guys know I don’t like him.”

“Do you want me to go and tell him that you fancy him?” giggled Samantha.

“Sam, I don’t like him, okay,” replied Larissa.

“Okay, whatever you say, we’d better go,” Shada explained.

Breakfast was over and all of the Year Nines were in their Science classes learning about Photosynthesis for their SATs that were coming up in May. Once Science had finished everyone began to make their way to the Hall where the assembly was about to take place. “Wow, we get to sit on the blue seats for once!” gasped Lyra excitedly. The music dimmed down and the Deputy Head teacher stood in front of everyone.

“Are there any announcements?” he announced. As he did Mr. Flourfield made his way to the front of the Hall in order to announce something. Mr. Flourfield took the microphone.

“I need to see Nicky Marton now please,” Mr. Flourfield announced. Everyone looked towards Nicky as he rose from his seat and left the Hall. Nicky was led up two flights of stairs by Mr. Flourfield and into the Humanities Office. “All right, do you know why you’re here?” Mr. Flourfield asked.

“No Sir,” paused Nicky. “But if it’s about what happened yesterday in tutor with me and-”

“Look, no one cares. I only make that stuff up,” Mr. Flourfield snapped.

“But -” Nicky began.

“Silence! Now Nicky, I have a very important job for you to do for me, well actually it’s a list of things to do. Anyway, first give me a number from one to…nine hundred and ninety nine,” Mr. Flourfield ordered.

“Right,” Mr. Flourfield began. He started pacing up and down the room thinking. “You’re a brave boy, Nicky.”

“I am?” questioned Nicky nervously.

“Yes, you are.” Mr. Flourfield placed his hands on Nicky’s shoulders, making him sit down on a chair that was situated behind him.

“Why did you make me pick a number? What’s going to happen to nine? Is it going to die, because Drew’s birthday’s on the ninth so then he would be thirteen forever? On second thought can I eat it, I skipped breakfast this morning?” asked Nicky sniggering.

“Nicky…” he warned. “Agent 009, I want you to swim to Geneva, battle Dr Straizer’s entire army using only your fruit knife, then skateboard to Strasbourg where you will battle the killer fish, sleep with racketeers, then pull down Dr Straizer’s entire headquarters using only your left hand. Then in the afternoon…” Mr. Flourfield recited extremely quickly.

“I think I’m gonna need a pen,” Nicky interrupted jokily.

“Then… I want you to travel to Beijing by pogo stick, tackle Dr Straizer’s hit men, climb the boulder mountain, make a roof entrance to Dr Straizer’s lair, defeat him, then using only a raft sail down the nearest coastline until you get to Japan. By bike, ride to Tokyo, find the ruby hidden within The Ruby, then catch the plane back to Maycotts Heath,” Mr. Flourfield explained.

“Wow, all that in one day! That’s impossible!” Nicky stated.

“No it isn’t 009. Not for a secret agent like you.”

“But I’m not a secret agent. I’m not even sure what gender I am…well I guess I’m a boy. But I’m not a secret agent.” Nicky then began smiling to himself. “Can I wear an eye patch?” he asked hyperly. Mr. Flourfield glared at him. “Please…”

“Fine!” he sighed giving in. Nicky cheered.

“So, when am I going to do this crazy stuff?”

“Monday,” nodded Mr. Flourfield.

“Monday?” Nicky cried. “Is it even safe?”

“Yes. Now get out of my sight,” roared Mr. Flourfield.

“But that’s impossible. Not the getting out of your sight thing, I mean the mission. What if I… and then… but what happens if… and when…” babbled Nicky trying to piece everything he had just been told together.

“Get back to lesson,” bellowed Mr. Flourfield.

“Sir, yes sir!” Nicky saluted Mr. Flourfield before rushing out of the Humanities Office, slamming the door shut behind him. He was too scared to disobey him. Nicky was already in Mr. Flourfield’s bad books for talking in tutor when he was supposed to be silent. He was also in trouble for throwing a paper aeroplane across the room, which once the aeroplane was unfolded Mr. Flourfield discovered that Nicky had drew a rather insulting image of him.

Dr Straizer had heard that there was a new agent on his case. If he still wanted to take over the world he would have to act fast. Dr Straizer had no idea who the new agent on his case was or what they were like, but he was sure that he could outsmart them, after all every single agent who had tried to cross him before ended out dead. He and his team had always outsmarted anyone who had crossed their path. Dr Straizer and his team all had watches, which acted like a video phone, so he was able to contact any of them at any time. “Bouncer 002, come in 002,” Dr Straizer spoke into his watch, lifting the antenna up.

“I read you loud and clear boss,” came the dopey reply.

“Keep a sharp look out for anyone suspicious,” Dr Straizer informed 002.

“Roger!” was the reply. “Over and out, boss.”

“Perfect,” whispered Dr Straizer to himself rubbing his hands together.

“What did you say?” 002 asked.

“I said - hey wait, didn’t you just say over and out? That means you should have ended the call!” yelled Dr Straizer. “Take your finger off the button!”

“But what about you, shouldn’t you have ended the call?”

“Don’t talk to me like that!” roared Dr Straizer. “I am your boss, you should respect me!”

“Oops! Sorry boss,” apologised 002 dopily.

Back at Crooked Burrow School Year Nine were in the playground because they were on their lunch break. Jay, Drew, Nicky, Lyra, Lola and Lara were walking by the entrance gate to the playground.

“Why did Flourfield want you in assembly?” Jay asked Nicky interestedly.

“He wants to send me on some sort of quest, to stop Dr Straizer’s evil plan, travel around parts of Europe and Asia and find a ruby,” Nicky explained vaguely.

“Don’t be silly, Nick!” laughed Drew. “What did he want?”

“That is it, I’m telling the truth. I have to travel to loads of different places in order to get to do everything. I end up in Tokyo before I fly back to Maycotts Heath,” Nicky tried to make his mission clearer to his friends.

“Really?” gasped Lola.

“Don’t encourage him Lola, he’s just being an immature little baby,” frowned Jay disappointed at his friend.

“But it’s the truth,” cried Nicky.

“Ha, ha, very funny Nicky. If you don’t wanna tell us then just say so. If you’re gonna lie to us then get lost,” demanded Drew angrily.

“Fine, don’t believe me,” yelled Nicky.

“Fine,” Jay and Drew shouted.

“Good,” Nicky yelled back.

“GOOD,” shouted Jay and Drew.

“Humph,” Nicky folded his arms angrily.

“Humph,” sulked Drew and Jay. Nicky stormed off. He didn’t want to be where he wasn’t wanted.

“Wasn’t that mean?” asked Lola worriedly.

“No, he deserved it,” stated Jay harshly.

“Yeah, he’s being an idiot,” Drew sighed disappointedly.

“Well I think you’re both being horrible,” Lyra said under her breath. Lara and Lola looked over to where Nicky had gone; they didn’t want to be accused of taking sides.

Nicky was on way over to the other side of the playground where Shada and her friends Samantha and Larissa were. He knew the girls as they were in his form and he knew that Shada was a really clever girl. So he wanted her advice. “Shada,” Nicky began.

“What?” asked Shada, surprised to see Nicky talking to her.

“None of my friends believe me when I tell them the truth. You’re smart, what should I do?” Nicky asked sadly.

“Why ask me?” questioned Shada.

“‘Cause you’re smart,” he replied, unable to believe she hadn’t realised that.

“I don’t know, tell them a lie,” suggested Shada insensitively.

“Nicky wouldn’t lie to his friends Shada,” reasoned Larissa.

“Well I don’t know what to say,” panicked Shada, embarrassed that she couldn’t solve Nicky’s problem.

“I know what to say,” grinned Samantha cheekily.

“What?” frowned Shada.

Samantha went over to Nicky and whispered in his ear, “Larissa likes you.”  Nicky smiled and looked over towards Larissa.

“What did she tell you?” asked Larissa curiously.

“Nothing,” Nicky blushed. “What about my problem?”

“I already told you Nicky, I can’t help you,” Shada sighed.

“I wasn’t talking to you,” he said nastily. “I was talking to Larissa.” Nicky pointed to Larissa, who went bright red. Shada folded her arms crossly.

“Well maybe you should prove to your friends that you’re telling them the truth, and if they still don’t believe you…then maybe they aren’t your real friends,” Larissa explained.

“She’s only saying that because she likes you,” Samantha whispered to Nicky.

“I thought she was going out with Aidan?” he whispered back.

“No, they haven’t spoken to each other in ages,” Samantha replied. Nicky began to smile again.

“What is she telling you?” whined Larissa wanting to know.

“Nothing,” Samantha and Nicky giggled.

“Nothing doesn’t giggle,” sulked Shada, because she wanted to help Nicky solve his problem, to prove to herself that she was good at helping people.

“Time to go in, Year Nine,” Mr. Reffs called from the front of the playground as her rang a large handheld bell. A crowd of Year Nine students rushed to the front of the playground to go back inside to lesson.

“I can walk you to Maths if you want Larissa, after all you are in my class,” Nicky offered.

“Okay,” Larissa smiled, walking back to lesson with Nicky.

“I’m in that class too,” Shada called after them sulkily, she was also jealous that Larissa was going to go out with Nicky and Shada didn’t have a boyfriend.

“Don’t worry Shada, I’ll walk with you,” Samantha smiled.

“Fine,” Shada sighed sadly. “But it’s not the same.”

All the way back to lesson Shada kept a close eye on Nicky and Larissa; she didn’t want them getting too close. Toby and Tiny Tim (who were in their class) were already waiting outside their classroom for their teacher to let them in. They called him Mr. LNM or Mr. L/N=M, this was partly because he was a Maths teacher and L/N=M looked like algebra and partly because Tim had been nosy one lesson and had looked through their teachers note book and found out that he always signed his name Mr. L/N=M. They had gathered that ‘Mr.’ obviously stood of mister, ‘L/N’ was the initials of his name and the ‘M’ was for Maths.

“Ooow!” sang Tiny Tim as Nicky and Larissa came towards them.

“What?” Nicky blushed as he and Larissa reached the classroom door.

“You two are going out!” sang Tiny Tim.

“Are not!” Nicky and Larissa shouted back.

“Eeew! Why would you want to go out with someone as ugly as her?” Toby asked disgusted.

“Stop being horrible Toby,” Nicky replied, giving Larissa a hug.

“I was only joking,” Toby smiled. “But you gave her a hug so it proves you like her.”

“Fine!” Nicky sighed. “I’ll give you a hug to.” Then Nicky went round everyone in his Maths class giving them all hugs.

The weekend flew by. Then Monday morning arrived. The Monday morning of Nicky’s big quest, but little did he know that Dr Straizer was already planning for his arrival. Nicky turned up for school on Monday in search of Mr. Flourfield. “Nicky, just the young lad I was looking for,” grinned Mr. Flourfield. “Are you looking forward to today’s journey?”

“Yes. But…I just need to say goodbye to Larissa, Samantha, Shada they’ve been very nice to me and-” Nicky began to explain.

“Oh, do be quiet. You don’t need to say good bye to anyone. They don’t like you, no one does. Now do come along,” insisted Mr. Flourfield angrily.

“But I promised –” Nicky babbled.

“No buts, now come with me,” cackled Mr. Flourfield. He led Nicky to a part of the school that he had never seen before. It was a separate staircase in the Isolation corridor. Nicky was a reasonably good boy and had never been up the Isolation stairs before, but he knew that the way was Mr. Flourfield was taking him was not a regular route to Isolation. Mr. Flourfield had unlocked a hidden door through a loose wooden panel in the wall. This hidden door revealed a hidden stairwell that led up and onto the roof of Crooked Burrow School. Once on the roof Nicky saw a helicopter on a circular platform. “Now I know that’s not supposed to be there,” he said, but Mr. Flourfield wasn’t listening.

“From here on ends you shall be called Agent 009.” Now Mr. Flourfield’s tone changed as if he was a military leader. There were no tones or feelings to his voice, “Now, Agent 009, I will drop you off at the coastline. That is where you shall then begin your mission. Oh-” he cleared his throat, “yes, and after, erm, the mission you may go back to being called your stupid ordinary name – Nicky,” Mr. Flourfield explained.

“Yes Sir!” saluted Nicky.

“But you won’t survive,” mumbled Mr. Flourfield under his breath.

“Did you say something sir?” Nicky asked curiously.

“No, no 009. Nothing you need to worry about, now hop in,” Mr. Flourfield began to chuckle to himself as he started the helicopter.

Dr Straizer had prepared his army for battle (knowing that an agent was coming to attack). His army had been given extra training, new weapons and an almighty plan of action. Dr Straizer was almost worried that the agent that they were sending to finally banish him was the best and most powerful yet as he had already destroyed all one hundred and one that had crossed his path before. He felt safe though, because his army were in Geneva, his headquarters were in Strasbourg, but he was hiding in his lair in Beijing and believed that his army or his hit men would easily destroy him (Dr Straizer was really sexist and did not believe that female could be agents).

Mr. Flourfield landed his helicopter near the sea. He leant back into the storage area behind the chairs and began rummaging around. “All right Agent 009, we’re here. You’ll need this backpack containing everything you’ll need: a map, a fruit knife, a pillow case, a spanner, a glove and some rope. The flight arrangements for your way back this evening have already been made; just ask for ‘Flourfield flights’, you don’t need a passport, everything’s sorted. And good luck, not that you’ll need it,” grinned Mr. Flourfield, handing Nicky the tiny backpack.

“Thank you sir. Oh, and when you get back could you tell Jay and Drew-” he began in a positive tone. “Never mind,” said Nicky sadly remembering that they had fallen out.

“Whatever,” Mr. Flourfield mumbled. For Nicky everything had just sunk in. He was just beginning to realise how life threatening his mission was.

“I don’t believe you!” Nicky snapped. “I do you a favour and all you can say to me is ‘Whatever’? This is the last time I ever do you a favour!” Nicky gave Mr. Flourfield a disgusted look and began walking towards the sea.

“Oh don’t worry Agent 009…it will be,” Mr. Flourfield chuckled evilly to himself. “Good luck Nicky!” he called then chuckled to himself. Mr. Flourfield then started his helicopter up and began to travel back to Crooked Burrow School.

By the time Mr. Flourfield reached the school it was Tutor Time and he had to go and tutor his tutor group. As he approached his classroom door several members of his form group were gathered up outside, so he unlocked the door, letting everyone inside. He was in a jolly mood today, so he allowed everyone to talk to each other. “I wish Nicky was here,” Larissa sighed sadly.

“Why?” Zilla asked confusedly.

“Oh, erm…” blushed Larissa. “Well…Mr. Flourfield’s in a good mood, so Nicky would be able to talk to us.”

“But you hate him, remember?” Zilla reminded her.

“Oh…yeah, I forgot…” Larissa looked away from Zilla quickly.

“Is Larissa okay?” Zilla whispered to Samantha and Shada.

“Yeah, she just fancies Nicky,” sniggered Samantha.

“Really?” smiled Zilla excitedly.

“No she doesn’t!” exclaimed Shada.

“Huh?” Zilla was now confused.

“She’s just jealous,” Samantha explained pointing towards Shada.

“Am not!” sulked Shada, folding her arms.

“Shada hasn’t had a boyfriend, but Laz has. So Shada doesn’t want Larissa to go out with Nicky or she’ll have had two boyfriends and Shada would still have had none.” Then Samantha whispered to Zilla, “And I think she’s still upset that Caleb Cartwheel died and she used to fancy him.”

“Hello girls,” Mr. Flourfield had come over to talk to Larissa, Zilla, Samantha and Shada. “Isn’t it quiet today?”

“Yes,” sighed Larissa. “Very.”

“I was talking to Nicky earlier,” smiled Mr. Flourfield.

“Really,” grinned Larissa joyfully. “What did he say? Did he mention me? Did he?”

“Ah, yes, he did. What was it…oh, he hates you and never wants to speak to you again – ever and he’d rather get shot on his mission today than have to spend another moment with you,” Mr. Flourfield told her, which was obviously a lie, but he had a serious, convincing look on his face.

Larissa’s smile quickly faded. “Nicky really said that?” she asked tearfully. Mr. Flourfield nodded. “I can’t believe Nicky would say that, especially after how nice he was to me last week!” Larissa spoke slowly. Then she cried; “Now I never want to see him again!”

“You won’t,” mumbled Mr. Flourfield under his breath.

“What did you say sir?” frowned Zilla.

“I said…the Jont – my new dance move…it’ll appear in tomorrow’s assembly that I’m doing,” Mr. Flourfield panicked.

“Oh, good luck with that,” smiled Zilla sarcastically, but Mr. Flourfield thought she meant it.

“Thank you Zilla,” smiled Mr. Flourfield and returned to the front of the classroom to take the register.

Map reading wasn’t Nicky’s strong point, but he was now almost in Geneva, or at least he thought so. He was currently walking to Geneva, but he was thinking of getting going on a bus, or a taxi. How would he ask for a taxi in France? He didn’t speak French, at school they taught him German. His swim from the coast of England to the coast of France had been quite some journey. Lucky for Nicky he was a good swimmer, or he would have still been swimming – either that or he would have drowned. The sun was out and the wind blew so Nicky’s wet clothes dried off within a couple of hours. He was worn out from swimming and walking so he decided to stop to rest on a bench, and examine the content of the backpack, which Mr. Flourfield had given him. Nicky took off the now dry backpack and opened it up to look inside. It was completely waterproof so none of the contents were wet. The contents included the map that Nicky had first taken out, a fruit knife, a pillow case, a spanner, a glove for his left hand and some string, just like what Mr. Flourfield had told him. Although as well, there was a piece of laminated paper with a list of things that Nicky needed to do. He had almost approached his first destination, but there were many, many more places left for him to go to.

Crooked Burrow School appeared to be going on with its usual day to day business, but Mr. Flourfield wasn’t doing his normal task of teaching. He was sitting in the corner of the Staffroom, where he was on his laptop researching. ‘Dr Straizer’ was his research topic. He wanted to find out how many people had ever got past Dr Straizer’s army, and how many had survived the battle. He tapped on the keys and clicked the mouse. ‘Google’ was the search engine he was using, and it came up with two million, five hundred and twelve thousand, nine hundred and fifty six entries. Mr. Flourfield glanced at the list, and finally clicked on a hyperlink to a website called ‘www.desperadodatabase.com’. After locating Dr Straizer’s name on the webpage Mr. Flourfield found the vital information about the dangerous doctor. It read:-

“The man known as Dr Straizer (first name unknown) is a doctor of the unrequired Sciences and the means of Pirateology. He and his army have been trained in the art of black magic. This comes in the form of fruits located on an Island known to be Frandadis. These fruits have special juices and combining them in their specific way enables them to form the dark art of magic. The leader Dr Straizer himself has been said to have once trained at Crooked Burrow School alongside many great magicians, good and bad by teacher Albertus Caan. He currently owns a number of companies acting under a false name. Since the start of his power the police have closed down many of his businesses and arrested many members of his team, but have been unable to discover Dr Straizer himself. His identity is still a mystery and although his location is not yet known, many imply that his headquarters may be located in Strasbourg.”

Eventually, the information needed was found. There was a hyperlink lower down the page. This led to a document. The document contained the precise information Mr. Flourfield wanted. It read:

Attempts to destroy: 101

Dead people: 101

People survived: 0

What this meant was that one hundred and one people had died trying to destroy Dr Straizer and therefore there had been no survivors. This information brought huge delight to Mr. Flourfield. Now this must be the best time to explain Mr. Flourfield’s plan. First of all Mr. Flourfield’s real name was Captain Evil (it was a complete coincidence that the children who went on the trip to Frandadis Island, to work as slaves for him and steal the Frandadis fruits, had called him by his real name). And he had been sent a task by the Head Captain – Mr. L/N=M. And the task was to destroy Dr Straizer before he took over the world. Mr. Flourfield now knew (and had already predicted) that anyone who dared to battle Dr Straizer ended up dead. Mr. L/N=M had been given a mission brief to send an agent to destroy Dr Straizer’s plans and/or Dr Straizer himself. Mr. L/N=M had decided that Mr. Flourfield would be the best man for the job. But Mr. Flourfield felt that this was too big a risk for him, as he didn’t want to loose his life and would rather get rid of an unwanted student instead. The student he would like to get rid of most was Nicky Marton. Mr. Flourfield was sure that Nicky wouldn’t survive - he didn’t think Nicky was smart enough. He wanted to get rid of Nicky for one reason: he was jealous of him. Nicky was a talented musician with a nice group of friends and was quite popular with the Arians, despite not being one himself; he also had a crush on a smart girl in his form. This really made Mr. Flourfield mad, because when he was at school his life was never that good and it still wasn’t that good now. Mr. Flourfield was once engaged to be married, but his bride-to-be left him, once she discovered that he was evil. Mr. Flourfield knew that with Nicky not being there and with Mr. Flourfield telling lies that he had a chance to ruin Nicky’s perfect life. Also making Nicky take up the adventure of defeating Dr Straizer would hopefully kill him – then there would be no more perfect Nicky.

A huge building towered in front of a terrified Nicky. He opened the door and peered in. The room was very posh and was tiled all over with pale blue tiles. There was a reception desk opposite the door, where a lady was sat. Nicky approached her in order to ask for directions. “Excuse me Miss but could you tell me where Dr Straizer is, please?” asked Nicky nervously.

“Dr Straizer…never heard of him,” she said not even looking up from her computer screen.

“What about an army?” Nicky asked.

“No. But there is the ‘France army of the French’ two hours away in France,” she said sarcastically.

“You speak very good English for an Austrian person, you don’t even have an accent,” Nicky told her.

“That’s because I’m English, you dope!” she replied hurtfully. She opened a packet of bubblegum on her desk and put it in her mouth as she continued to gaze at her computer screen.

“Oh. Well can I just search the building from top to bottom please?” pleaded Nicky.

“I guess that’ll be okay,” she sighed.

“How about from bottom to top?” suggested Nicky.

“Yes, now just go!” she shouted.

“Okay, thanks for helping,” he smiled jokily knowing she was annoyed. When people were annoyed with him Nicky knew that he had succeeded in his daily task.

“GO!” she yelled and for the first time she looked up from what she was doing and pointed towards the front door. Nicky slowly scanned the room for a flight of stairs. He found them. He almost fell over as he ran towards them, skidding on the laminated floor. He made his way down the stairs.

As he approached the bottom there was a sign saying ‘Cellar’. Nicky realised that if Dr Straizer’s army were hiding in this building then he would need the fruit knife to complete the task properly and probably to protect him, so he got it out of his backpack. Crates were stocked upon crates. Nicky’s hand, carrying the knife, began to tremble as he heard footsteps coming towards him, although he couldn’t see anybody (because the crates were too tall). Six men jumped out from behind boxes, three on Nicky’s left and three on his right. They all had swords pointing right at him. Two men from each side came charging towards him. The men’s swords were extremely sharp and powerful. The men had almost reached Nicky and he didn’t know what to do. As soon as they were all about to stick their swords into him, at the last moment, he ducked, causing all the men to stick their swords into each other. The men were all stabbed in the same place – the heart. They tried to draw the swords out which made them loose a dramatic amount of blood. While they weren’t looking Nicky tried to hurt them even more with his fruit knife, but the other two of the six men came charging towards him. Just as they were about to attack Nicky they both swung their swords back, chopping off the heads of two of their fellow men (who were beside them and had been stabbed in the heart), and then as they swung them forwards, they chopped off the heads of the other two men (who were beside them on their other sides and had been stabbed in the heart). Both of the men turned to see the damage which they had caused to their men. Nicky thought of trying to cut one of the men’s head off (who had just charged towards him) with his fruit knife, but he knew that it wouldn’t work, so as he was standing in between the two men he tapped one man on the shoulder, and as the man turned around, he swung his sword, Nicky ducked, and the man sliced the other man in half. Nicky picked up one of the dead men’s swords and pointed it at the last man.

“No, no, please don’t kill me!” pleaded the man. “I’ve killed my best friend,” he began to cry. “I’ll kill myself, I deserve it.” And with those last words the man killed himself.

“Wow, that was easy,” Nicky thought chuckling to himself. He knew that he shouldn’t laugh because people had died, but what the last man had just said before he ended his own life amused Nicky. In order to get a higher view of the room he was in Nicky lifted himself up onto a crate. He could see that on the back of the men’s black uniform written in bold red lettering was ‘Dr Straizer’. Now Nicky knew that he must have accomplished his second mission: ‘battle Dr Straizer’s entire army using only your fruit knife’.

“Not so fast kid,” said a sly voice. A man leaped down from off a crate to the ground and drew out his sword. “On guard!” Nicky hopped to his feet clutching his fruit knife. The man swung his sword forwards. Nicky managed to dodge it by sliding to the side. The man’s sword sliced a slit into the side of one crate. When he removed the sword the front of the crate fell down onto him. Out rolled thousands of marbles.

“What would Dr Straizer want with marbles?” wondered Nicky stepping well out of the way.

“I’ll get you, you brute” growled the man who was now under the one face of the cube-shaped crate. After struggling out from under the crate the man skidded across the floor on the marbles, banging his head against the banister. The stairs, having only been made out of wood, then slowly began to break away from the wall. Then the man fell backwards onto the solid concrete floor and on top of several marbles. Nicky ran up the stairs to the ground floor. As Nicky stepped on each stair the stairs pulled away from the wall even. As some of the stairs fell down they dragged the wall and part of the ceiling with them, making a huge hole in the ceiling, which was the floor to the ground floor. Once Nicky had reached the top of the ground floor with a crash the stairs and half of the cellar ceiling tumbled down.

“Aaahh!” screeched the lady at the reception. Nicky ran over to her to see what was wrong. “My floor, look at it! It’s ruined!” she cried. “There’s a huge hole in it! What am I ever going to tell the boss?”

“Miss, I’m ever so sorry!” Nicky began to apologise.

“You pesky little rodent, you! Look what you’ve done to the floor!” She pointed at a huge hole in the floor.

“Actually it’s the ceiling to the cellar, and it wasn’t my fault you see Dr Straizer’s guards I mean army were –” Nicky began to tell his story, but the lady at reception interrupted.

“I told you before there is no Dr Straizer here!” she shouted. “Now whatever you want, tell me, and if I can help you then I will, but otherwise GO AWAY!” Nicky opened up the backpack and took out his list of things to do. He had already swum to Geneva and had battled Dr Straizer’s entire army – or so he thought, so the next thing on the list was to skateboard to Strasbourg.

“Do you know where I can hire a skateboard, Miss? You did say anything, and as I’m aware a skateboard comes into the category of anything,” Nicky asked.

“Umm…” the lady pondered over this for a moment. “Yes, the shop over the road sells that stupid stuff. Now go and leave me in peace!” she yelled.

“In peace… but with a broken floor,” Nicky added.

“GO!” she shouted. Before anymore was said Nicky ran out of the building by the entrance that he had originally entered by.

To Nicky’s surprise over the road from where he had been was a whole shop dedicated to skateboards. As Nicky went inside his head was flooded with different images on skateboard decks. “May I helpz you, young man?” asked the man at the counter, who had a very strong French accent.

“Erm…yeah,” Nicky began, trying to remember the reason why he had come in. “I need a skateboard which is strong to last me until I get to Strasbourg – in France,” Nicky explained.

“Why yes,” the man paused. “May I askz you of your name?”

“My name?” puzzled Nicky wondering why he would need to tell anyone his name to purchase a skateboard.

“Yes young man, what is your name?”

“Nicky…I mean Agent 009,” Nicky quickly corrected himself.

“Oh, yes. Agent 009, I’ve been expecting you. Captain zomeone or other told me to give you zis,” the man explained as he bent down behind the counter, revealing a skateboard with a mini motor on the back, foot grips and a helmet. Nicky stared with amazement, struggling to say anything.

“Wow!” he gasped eventually.

“Captain Evil and Mr. Flourfield that zis what zeir namez were,” said the man checking the piece of paper that he had kept with the skateboard and helmet specially reserved for Nicky. “Anyzway you don’t need to pay anything az they have, so itz yours, young man.” The man handed the skateboard and a helmet over to Nicky. “Now you’ll needz to hurry, I’ve heard that you’re on a… how do you English zay… tight schedule? And from what I’ve heard you’re lucky to even be alive! Well, goodz luck!” And with that the man went walked off to the back room.

“Okay… thanks – I think?” said Nicky awkwardly. He placed the helmet on his head, went outside and skated away using the map, which Mr. Flourfield had given him to find his way.

Back at school Lyra was talking to Jay and Drew. “Weren’t you two mean to Nicky last week?” Lyra asked.

“No! The idiot deserved it. You should know by now, Lyra, that he’s an immature baby that needs to grow up and stop telling lies,” insisted Jay.

“Don’t be mean!” cried Lyra. “It’s probably your fault he’s not here today.”

“Come on Lyra, your acting as if you fancy him,” Drew laughed.

“So…” she hesitated.

“Lyra’s gone crazy,” joked Drew.

“No, she’s just stupid,” replied Jay harshly.

“I can’t believe I ever went out with either of you two. Why do you have to be so mean all the time?” cried Lyra, storming off to find Lola and Lara.

“What’s her problem?” grumbled Jay.

“Chill dude! It’s not the end of the world. So she fancies Nicky, they’ll never last. She didn’t go out with either of us for long,” Drew explained.

“I guess you’re right,” Jay sighed, calming down.

“I love it when I’m right,” chuckled Drew. “By the way, did you hear that Nicky might be going out with your friend, Larissa?”

“Laz? Her? No way,” frowned Jay. “She wouldn’t!”

“Yeah, well Toby and Tiny Tim have been telling me that they were being very friendly on Friday in Maths.”

“How do they know?” asked Jay.

“Duh, they’re in their class,” replied Drew.

“Since when do you talk to Toby and Tiny Tim?” Jay asked in disgust.

“You are in a mood today,” Drew frowned. “Why do you care who I do and do not talk to.”

Nicky sat down on a bench in Strasbourg, in France, to rest. The motorised skateboard had practically sped Nicky all of the way to Strasbourg without him even having to do anything. He got out his list in order to cross out the tasks he had done and see what was next for him to do. ‘Battle the killer fish’ was next on the list.

“Great!” Nicky sighed sarcastically. “Killer fish – that’s all I need.”

”I know where there’s a killer fish,” came a little voice, from an elderly lady. “My friend’s lived in Strasbourg for years, I visit her from England a lot, and she owns a killer fish.”

“Erm… okay,” Nicky hesitated. “There’s only one problem, I need to battle it.”

“No problem, it’s nearly dead anyway, and she doesn’t want it,” the elderly lady replied. “In fact we were just going give it away today. You’re welcome to have it.”

When Nicky and the lady reached the house containing the fish (after small conversation) the lady knocked on the door. A very tall thin old lady answered. Both the ladies began talking in French, and so Nicky had no idea what they were saying. Soon the lady who Nicky met earlier turned towards him.

“I’m sorry,” she began. “The fish has died.”

“Oh, well I guess that task’s over. Do either of you know of a racketeer?” Nicky asked politely.

“Racketeer? Try the run-down inn on your third left. Now go away!” the lady raged.

“Okay…” Nicky didn’t understand why the lady didn’t want him anywhere near her anymore. This would probably be because Nicky didn’t know that a racketeer was someone who made money in dishonest ways, in other words a thief. The old ladies had probably thought that Nicky must have been a thief.

On the way towards the inn that the elderly lady had directed him to, Nicky looked at his instruction list Mr. Flourfield had given him, wondering all the time why the man in the skateboard shop said Captain Evil – Nicky had no idea who Captain Evil was. Just then Nicky saw that there was an asterisk next to the task ‘sleep with a racketeer’. There was another asterisk at the bottom of the page. The asterisk at the bottom had the meaning of the word racketeer beside it – it said ‘person who makes money dishonestly’. Now Nicky realised that the lady earlier must have thought that he was a racketeer, and that was why she had been so upset and angry with him.

A small, dirty, grubby building stood in front of him. It was the inn that the lady had sent him to. He pushed at the door. It seemed stuck so he forcefully leant on it with all f its weight. It swung open. CRASH! By opening the door he had knocked over a fish tank containing a piranha. Then Nicky tripped over the doorstep, stepped onto the fish, and then slipped on it and flew into a bar stool. “Congrats kid, you just killed the killer fish,” stated the bartender, who seemed a very grubby but strong man with an eye patch over one eye.

“Sorry Sir,” was Nicky’s reply thinking that the man was being sarcastic. “By the way I like the eye patch.”

“Thanks, and don’t bother apologising. No one really cared about it, its better off dead. What are you doin’ here anyway? Its racketeer sleep hour and you look like you’re too young to be in a pub or to be a racketeer… maybe a spy – are you a spy coz I can kill ya with one hand,” the bartender said, scaring Nicky.

“NO! I’m no spy. I just need to…sleep,” Nicky thought that if it was racketeer sleep hour in the pub then he should complete his next task. “Are these people racketeers?” asked Nicky, pointing at a bunch of guys sleeping.

“Sure are,” grinned the bartender. Nicky got out the pillow case Mr. Flourfield had gave him and rested his head on it on the bar counter and closed his eyes. Before he closed his eyes he’d noticed that the time was a quarter to twelve in the morning. His eyes reopened and it was now quarter past twelve – Nicky had fallen asleep – not for long, but he had indeed fallen asleep. He noticed a huge beer bellied man who was asleep next to him. He shuddered and crossed ‘sleep with a racketeer’ off his list, and ‘battle the killer fish’ off; because he had killed the piranha on his way in. Then Nicky hopped off the stool and wandered out of the door.

“Congratulations boy, you’ve helped us catch these crooks,” a police man announced, tapping Nicky on the shoulder. There was a police car parked across the road from the inn.

“How did I help you?” Nicky asked the officers, feeling confused. In front of Nicky stood two police men. One had blond hair and the other had brown. Each had a French accent (not as strong as the skateboard salesman’s), although both spoke clear English.

“We’ve been following you all day. Thank you! These guys’ll get what is coming to them,” warned the brown haired police officer. “You’d better get out of the way.”

“This could get ugly. I warn you to stay away,” the blond haired officer shook Nicky’s hand before getting out his gun and stood with his back to the wall of the pub peering inside.

In Crooked Burrow School Year Nine were in Humanities because their timetable had been swapped for some reason or another. Mr. Flourfield had his P.S.H.E class which he usually taught on Thursdays. He gave them a story to write because he had nothing else to give them to do. “Shada,” Drake whispered, getting her attention to pass a note. Shada unfolded the piece of paper and her and Larissa (who was sitting next to her) read it. It read:

Shada, is Larissa going out with Nicky?  Toby

“What?” frowned Larissa as she read it.

“Why are you being so nosey?” spoke Shada writing what she was saying.

“I wouldn’t go out with Nicky if he was the last person left in the whole universe,” Larissa sighed sadly. The noise in the classroom built. So Toby gave up writing notes and passing them to Drake to pass to Shada and decided to talk to her himself.

“That’s not what it seemed like on Friday,” Toby grinned cheekily to Larissa.

“Well that was then and this is now,” sulked Larissa.

“Why do you enjoy being nosey?” Shada asked curiously.

“Someone’s paying us to find out whether Larissa likes Nicky,” explained Tiny Tim.

“Who?” asked Larissa curiously. “Tell me how much and I’ll double it if you don’t tell them anything.”

“Who is paying you to do something so…so…so wrong?” Shada asked sensibly.

“We promised not to tell, remember, Tim?” Toby reminded Tiny Tim.

“Oh yeah,” he remembered.

“Well then if you won’t tell us promise to leave us alone. And improve your handwriting, it looks like hieroglyphics!” Shada stated angrily and then went back to doing her work.

Nicky had found Dr Straizer’s headquarters. It was huge, towering high over all other buildings. Nicky had been chiselling away three bricks at the bottom of the building. Using only his left hand and used the glove that Mr. Flourfield had given him to protect his hand. Shakily he removed the bricks. Left, then right, then left again and then right again, the building swayed. Terrified as to what was going to happen Nicky ran away and took cover. Slowly bricks began to crumble and the building began to tumble. Within seconds Dr Straizer’s entire headquarters thundered to the ground. Thick clouds of grey dust swamped Strasbourg.

As the dust began to clear Nicky felt two hands, one on each of his shoulders. The hands lifted Nicky to his feet. The owners of the hands stepped forward. “Congratulations young man,” came the policeman from earlier with brown hair.

“We had wanted to destroy this building for years. There never seems to be anyone in it,” explained the blond police officer.

“You never see anyone go in there, or anyone go out. There are just two guards who stand there all day – not moving,” the brown haired officer closed his eyes and shook his head at the vision.

“Okay,” spoke Nicky extremely slowly. He frowned. “Why have you guys been following me around all day?”

“Erm…well…” hesitated the blond haired officer.

“How about a reward? Whatever you want,” the other officer quickly changed the subject.

“Will you drop me off at Beijing – oh and as quickly as possible? May I suggest a jet? I need to be there within… erm – three hours max… I think,” Nicky explained. “If I’m as good at Maths as I think I am, which isn’t very good, but I can count.”

“That’s impossible! By a regular plane it’ll take eighteen hours, and even Concorde will take you four hours.” The brown haired officer was very confused by Nicky’s orders.

“Oh well, four hours will have to do. Hey, isn’t Concorde out of action?” puzzled Nicky suspiciously.

“Yes, but we’re the police. How do you think we get to emergencies to fast? Concorde’s only available for us, but you must keep it a secret. Can you?” the blond officer asked.

“Of course I can keep a secret. You have no idea how many secrets I’m keeping right now,” said Nicky.

“Good. Just out of interest, how did you think we got to emergencies so fast?” asked the blond officer.

“Well –” Nicky thought, grinning.

“Never mind that, the faster we leave here the sooner you’ll get there,” the other police officer informed Nicky.

“So… what secrets are you keeping?” the blond officer asked.

“I can’t tell you their secrets!” Nicky told them.

Lyra met up with her friends Lola, Lara, Drew and Jay at lunch time in the canteen. They were discussing their lessons. “Our English lesson is so boring,” complained Lyra. “Why can’t we do something fun?” she sighed.

“Duh, coz it’s English. Well if you’re bored just think how Jay and I feel – we’re in Science,” groaned Drew.

“Mmm,” agreed Jay gloomily, folding his arms on the table and burying his head in them.

“What’s wrong Jay?” Lara asked noticing that Jay seemed annoyed or upset.

“Nothing,” replied Jay. Toby and Tiny Tim approached the table.

“Drew, new news,” Toby began.

“Great! What is it?” grinned Drew excitedly.

“Larissa doesn’t like Nicky at all – false alarm!” Toby explained. As he did, Jay raised his head up interestedly.

“I thought you said they’d go out – no doubt about it. What happened? I thought Nicky would have his first girlfriend!” sighed Drew disappointedly.

“I don’t know, she just doesn’t really like him,” Toby replied.

“And if you dare mention anything we’ve just said or Shada will probably chop your head off.”

“And ours,” Tiny Tim added.

“Ouch! I like my head on my body,” Drew said holding his neck and feeling for his head.

“Don’t blame her. No one likes him,” stated Jay.

“That’s not true,” exclaimed Lyra.

“Don’t tell me you like him?” Jay glared evilly.

“Maybe I do,” Lyra replied shyly.

“Maybe you should go out with him. See if I care,” Jay shouted, standing up.

“Fine, maybe I will,” Lyra yelled.

“Maybe I will!” Jay copied her in a high pitched voice. And with that Lyra stormed off. “Maybe you should,” he mumbled under his breath.

The time was now approaching a quarter past four. Concorde came into land and Nicky hopped out at once. It then took off and heading back in the direction in which it came. Nicky had his map out with a route highlighted.

After walking for what seemed like ages, Nicky believed that he was finally back on track, heading for Beijing (the capital or China). Although it was tricky to find, Nicky finally came across a pogo stick shop. This shopkeeper also spoke English – like the skateboard salesman. And, like the skateboard salesman, the shopkeeper was also very surprised to see that he had got this far. Mr. Flourfield and Captain Evil were names mentioned by both men too. As Nicky bounced through Beijing he kept wondering who Captain Evil was and how he knew him, but Nicky didn’t let this hold him back from his mission.

Next Nicky arrived at his hardest looking task. He had approached the bottom of the boulder mountain, and now he needed to battle Dr Straizer’s hit men and Dr Straizer himself. Even though Dr Straizer’s army from earlier hadn’t put up much of a fight, Nicky had a strange feeling that the worst was yet to come.

Kicking stones along the ground as he walked Nicky noticed two tall – hugely tall – men, who were hugely huge. The men were wearing black uniforms with ‘Dr Straizer’ written in red – like the men from earlier. Nicky began to panic, but then he remembered that he still had his fruit knife in his bag. He got it out of his bag and sneakily snuck upon the one hit man.

“Aaarrgh!” screeched the hit man in pain.

“What’s wrong?” panicked the other man.

“Someone stabbed me in my lower leg,” yelled the man in pain, yanking the fruit knife out of his leg. Blood began to stream from the man’s leg. He rolled up his trouser leg to see the mark. More blood oozed down his leg like larva flowing out of a volcano.

“I think you shoulda left that in ya,” the unhurt man hesitated.

“Well I’m not gonna put it back in. Can you see who did it?” asked the injured hit man. The unhurt hit man started to look around. Meanwhile Nicky had clambered up and onto a boulder behind the unhurt hit man. Nicky jumped from the boulder onto the hit man’s back. Nicky had the rope in his hand, which Mr. Flourfield had packed away in his bag.

“Help! Guy, get him offa me!” screamed the man.

“Butch, can’t you see I’m bleeding here?” Guy replied. Nicky had managed to get the rope around Butch’s throat and was pulling tightly.

“Help,” cried Butch quietly, almost unable to breathe. Nicky jumped off the hit man after one last pull on the rope and landed safely on the ground. Butch fell unconscious down onto the ground, slamming his head down firmly on a rock.

“Get back here you little brute!” growled Guy limping.

“I hope you aren’t as easy to get rid of as your friend Bob,” chuckled Nicky as he began running.

“It’s Butch.”

“Whatever. Or I’ll get very bored. By the way, thanks for the fruit knife back,” grinned Nicky cheekily, swiping his fruit knife off the floor.

“That was you! That’s it you’ve had it!” raged Guy. He charged towards Nicky, who ducked and rolled underneath Guy, jumping up to stab him in his lower back.

“Aaarrgh!” bellowed Guy in pain again.

“What’s wrong? You can’t handle a little blood?” Nicky sniggered, trying his hardest to wind up Guy. Guy removed the knife immediately from his back and ran straight for Nicky. Nicky ran, and as he did he tripped over Butch’s unconscious body, falling flat on his face on top of Butch. Nicky frantically rolled over to see where Guy was. He was leaning right over him with the fruit knife in his hand panting hard. Nicky’s heart pounded. Guy started breathing very heavily.

“You thought you could get away with this kid. Well this is the end for you and your dastardly deeds,” chuckled Guy as he raised the fruit knife.

“Help!” Nicky cried. Guy slammed the knife down. It sank into heart with blood spurting out splashing Guy in the face.

“Yes,” gasped Guy. “That little kid is dead!”

“No I’m not,” laughed Nicky. “I rolled off your silly sidekick before you even had the chance to kill me.” Guy growled with rage. “I can’t believe you fell for that one. You really thought I was stupid enough to trip over Bill and –” Nicky laughed.

“It was Butch,” Guy interrupted.

“Whatever! And stay there until you killed me. What a stupid hit man!” Nicky carried on trying to wind Guy up. Then he rapidly scrambled up a boulder, with Guy chasing him, still holding the fruit knife (which was now in his teeth). Nicky knew Guy would now be loosing more blood by climbing up the boulder, and he would also become more tired. Just as Guy was about to grab Nicky, Nicky jumped back down the rocks and onto the ground.

After Guy had clambered back down to the ground Nicky was standing there – waiting for him. “I wonder what would happen if you were to slice your own head off?” wondered Nicky.

“I’d die you moron!” Guy laughed at Nicky’s stupidity.

“How do you know for sure? How do you know that the rest of your body couldn’t still kill me? Huh?” Nicky said, noticing that Guy had stopped trying to attack him.

“Coz I do. I’m not that stupid,” frowned Guy,

“How do you know that your head won’t run away to your boss… or your body won’t take control and kill me? Why don’t you try it?” asked Nicky.

“NO!” Guy replied.

“I think you’re chicken,” Nicky sang.

“Am not!” Guy stamped his good leg down on the ground.

“CHICKEN!” Nicky made chicken noises and wing motions.

“FINE! I’ll do it!” yelled Guy. “I’m not a chicken.” Raising the fruit knife into the air to catch the sunlight, Guy swung the knife into his neck. As he did his body fell backwards and his head flopped onto the ground causing a blood fountain.

“I can’t believe he fell for that too!” sniggered Nicky. “I’ve had so many people die today, but I haven’t physically murdered anyone, cool!” He took a deep breath. “Now to tackle this boulder mountain.”

After a rest and a drink of water at the top of the mountain (which had been given to him by the police, as well as a lunch which he had eaten on Concorde) Nicky finally decided that he was ready to drop in on Dr Straizer. At the top of the boulder mountain there was a window, which looked as if it led into a laboratory of some sort. There was also a rope, which looked as if Nicky could tie it around himself to abseil down inside. “Here goes nothing.” Nicky put on a brave face and went for it. Although he was scared – no, terrified – Nicky was still determined to accomplish all the tasks that he had been sent. After opening the window, slowly Nicky began lowering himself down.

“Dr Straizer?” Nicky wondered as soon as he entered the room.

“Yes…who wants to know?” Dr Straizer panicked, searching his room. He hadn’t heard anyone come in and he definitely could not see anybody.

“It is I… Agent 009,” Nicky announced jumping down from the rope in front of Dr Straizer’s desk.

“How did you get past the guards?” demanded Dr Straizer.

“You mean Tweedle Duh and Tweedle Dummi-er. Guy murdered Ben-” Nicky began, chuckling.

“It’s Butch,” Dr Straizer corrected Nicky.

“Yeah, whatever! Anyway Guy murdered Biff –” Nicky continued.

“BUTCH!” yelled Dr Straizer correcting him again.

“Whatever! Then Guy committed suicide, and you call them pair hit men,” Nicky laughed. “Well you used to. Now they’re nothingness.”

“How you, little boy, have survived this far I’ll never know,” Dr Straizer frowned confusedly at the small boy that stood before him.

“I’m not a little boy,” snapped Nicky. “I’m fourteen actually.”

“Fourteen,” laughed Dr Straizer. “You’re tiny.” Nicky scowled at him. “Not one guy out of one hundred and one has ever got past me and you’re NOT going to be the first!” roared Dr Straizer.

“And how are you gonna stop me?” Nicky asked curiously. “The same way your army and hit men did? Speaking of army, why was your army guarding marbles?”

“That’s for me to know and for me to know,” grinned Dr Straizer evilly, slowly approaching Nicky. “So…Agent 009, you’re a little young to be an agent, aren’t you?” Dr Straizer made his way over to the wall and lifted up a small panel (the size of a light switch panel), and revealed a small red button. Dr Straizer pressed it. Immediately Nicky jumped and scanned the room. There was a fake wall in front of the real wall where Dr Straizer was standing. It was now rising to reveal a huge window to another room. In this other room there were millions and millions of marbles. “And at the strike of sundown these marbles will all contain a mind controlling substance, which will allow me to take over the world, lucky me!” Dr Straizer spoke very slowly with a smile of evil.

“You… you… you’ll never get away with this!” yelled Nicky angrily.  “Wait! Do you mean England’s sundown? It’s 23:00 here.”

“Ha! I have been getting away with it for thirty six years,” Dr Straizer cackled uncontrollably. “Now guards, seize him!” Two giant men came into the room and lifted Nicky up, carrying him away to a destroy room, where they placed him on a device used to try to kill the famous 007 in movies, and all the other double 0s and other detectives and spies; all one hundred and one of them.

School had now been over ages ago but Jay and Drew still remained inside the building; they were now getting ready to go home. They had been up in Music as usual, playing instruments and talking to friends. “You certainly cheered up during lunch,” Drew began as they walked down the Music staircase.

“Yeah, so?” Jay replied, jumping down the last stair.

“Well I was just wondering…are you still friends with Lyra? Your yelling match made it not seem likely,” asked Drew.

“I’m totally over it. I’d rather Lyra go out with Nicky.” Jay shrugged.

“You mean rather than Larissa,” grinned Drew.

“What?” Jay laughed nervously. “What are you talking about?”

“You don’t want Larissa going out with Nicky, but you couldn’t care less if Lyra did,” Drew explained.

“I’ve just know Larissa longer, that’s all, and I know what Nicky’s like. I wouldn’t want Nicky going out with her,” Jay opened the school’s main door and allowed Drew to walk out.

“Yeah, whatever Jay,” sniggered Drew.

“What?” whined Jay, wanting to know why Drew was laughing to himself. “Tell me.”

“Oh, nothing dear Jay my friend,” Drew smiled patting Jay on the back “nothing at all.”

Meanwhile Nicky had bigger problems. He had been strapped to a huge metal table. His legs were stretched apart with each ankle locked. The locks were huge metal semicircles with a key slot in. His arms were also stretched out with locks around his wrists. A laser machine was in place a short distance ahead of him. The huge metal table had a perfectly straight burnt, black line running through it. This line was from previous use of the laser machine. “By the time this dial,” Dr Straizer pointed to a dial on a machine on the other side of the window. On the other side of the window was the room containing the millions of marbles and a machine. “…Reaches five hundred hours all of these marbles will be sprayed with a mind controlling substance, which I created using the legendary Frandadis fruits.”

“Frandadis fruits aren’t legendary,” Nicky began to argue. “They aren’t even that well known. I hadn’t even heard of them until I started going to Crooked Burrow School. I’ve never even used them and I’d never even seen them until Mr. Flourfield tried to get some people in my year to steal them-” Nicky paused. It just occurred to him who Captain Evil was. Remembering back to the time he went to sea with his form tutor, Mr. Flourfield, he realised that people had called him Captain Evil, because he was so evil. Then if Mr. Flourfield was Captain Evil he would know about Dr Straizer and maybe Dr Straizer would know about Mr. Flourfield/Captain Evil. Nicky decided that it was better if he didn’t mention anything about the Frandadis fruits or anything similar, just in case Dr Straizer thought of a reason to kill him sooner.

“Are you mocking me, boy?” raged Dr Straizer. “I have been working with Frandadis fruits since the day I started at the school that you speak of. Since leaving the school I have increased my magic ability and by using the Frandadis fruits are now able to take over the world. I shall hand these marbles (covered in the mind controlling spell that I created) out to every single child …and soon I shall take over the world. And no one can stop me now, especially not you – Agent 009!” Dr Straizer laughed evilly facing the window where he could see the marbles. The machine now read 4:27. “As for you Agent 009, your crime solving days and fun kiddy days in the playpen are over. Now when I start this laser you shall get split in two. Be sure to say hello to all the dead agents and spies for me in heaven. Ha, ha, ha!” chuckled Dr Straizer, starting the laser, which would without a doubt slice straight through Nicky. As Dr Straizer switched on the laser he turned back to face the marbles smiling to himself.

The two mighty tall men stood beside little Nicky. One man was on his left and the other on his right. Instead of panicking, Nicky decided to stay calm and formulate a plan. “Pssst, pssst,” Nicky whispered, receiving the attention of the man to his left.

“Huh?” the man questioned.

“Get me out,” Nicky demanded in a whisper.

“I can’t disobey the boss,” was the man’s reply.

“Not even my left hand?” wondered Nicky. The man shook his head. “Say, have you ever wanted to be a super star?”

“Me? Yeah!” The man’s face lit up.

“Well I can help you, if you help me. Now… grease my arm with butter or something,” ordered Nicky. The man grabbed a tube of hair gel. “Oh, never mind – it’ll do. Now cover my wrist and hand. Hurry!” The man did as Nicky had said. As Nicky had small hands this made him able to slide his hand through the lock around his left wrist. The laser did not have far to go until Nicky was sliced, so he had to act fast. “Give me your watch,” Nicky whispered harshly to the guard. He scrubbed the hair gel off his hand and onto his t-shirt before he grabbed the man’s watch. “I hope this works,” Nicky wished. Shakily his hand angled the watch on the laser. The laser beam reflected off the glass face of the watch in the opposite direction. He aimed the laser across Dr Straizer’s body, chopping his chest upwards away from the rest of his body. As soon as Dr Straizer was dead the man to the right of Nicky came to hurt him, so Nicky angled the laser at the man – chopping him in half as well.

“Agent 009 – I must say I –” the man to the left of Nicky began, staring at dead Dr Straizer.

“Now will you undo these locks?” begged Nicky.

“Certainly, Sir,” came the man’s reply. All the time Nicky was still controlling the angle of the laser so that it didn’t slice him. As the man was unlocking Nicky, Nicky used the laser to smash open the window of the room containing the marbles. The alarm for the brain washing substance was on it was now 4:32, so now without needed to worry about being sliced in half, Nicky had plenty of time. Thousands of marbles rolled viciously into the room where Nicky and the man were.

“Thanks for unlocking me…but…you know too much,” Nicky began, as he angled the laser towards the man.

“But I–” the man stuttered, and with those last words Nicky angled the laser at him, killing him. It wasn’t that Nicky was a mean or cruel guy, but he couldn’t risk leaving that man alive. For all Nicky knew the man was only helping Nicky so that he could take over the world. Using the laser Nicky broke the activation alarm of the poison gun containing the mind controlling Frandadis substance. The last use of the laser was for Nicky to use it to destroy itself. Using the watch again, he angled it towards the laser gun, and within seconds it exploded and shattered, leaving thousands of pieces on the floor. The only thing left on Nicky’s mind was the mind controlling substance. He threw the watch to the ground (as it was now broken) and began to make his way towards the machine. He had to be very careful as he went to reach it, because the ground was covered in marbles. Nicky got there, and poured the substance all over the dead body of Dr Straizer. The body hissed and bubbled. Within seconds the body had dissolved.

“Cool!” exclaimed Nicky. Then he prepared himself for his next mission – raft sailing to Japan.

It was now almost four o’clock back in England. Shada, Samantha and Larissa were about to pack away their badminton rackets and shuttlecocks ready to go home. They always played badminton after school, but they usually played on Wednesdays’. For some strange reason this week’s badminton club had been moved to Monday. Larissa had been in a bad mood all day, but now she was in a worse mood because her evil cousin, Jane (who was a year older than her and in Year Ten), was at badminton too. Jane had been playing badminton against Alan, who was in her form. “Why is your cousin playing badminton with Alan?” Shada asked Larissa.

“I don’t know. He probably doesn’t know how evil she really is. Do you think I should go and tell him?” Larissa asked. Shada shook her head.

“You’d be interfering in Year Ten territory. Besides they make a nice couple,” Shada explained.

“Nice couple, ha!” Larissa laughed sarcastically. “Jane wouldn’t make a nice couple with anyone. Anyway are we still coming round to your house later to watch that DVD thing that Mr. Flourfield gave you?”

“Yeah, sure. You two can come round mine as soon as you’re ready,” Shada told them.

“Yey!” cheered Samantha.

“The sooner we get out of here the better,” mumbled Larissa staring at Jane.

Nicky had managed to sail to Japan – well it looked like Japan, he had followed a current of water, which led to the land that he was now on. He had now found a bicycle shop, where yet again someone spoke English and yet again someone mentioned Captain Evil and referred to the England time zone. As Nicky was cycling Captain Evil was on his mind. Was he really Mr. Flourfield? He was reminiscing back to the class trip he had been on two years ago (when he was in Year Seven). He had gone to sea with Mr. Flourfield and a bunch of people from his Year. Also if Mr. Flourfield and Captain Evil were the same people why were the people in the shops relating to both names (Mr. Flourfield’s and Captain Evil’s)? This was a mystery. Also Nicky wondered why every shop marked on the map by Mr. Flourfield had someone in it that spoke English. Nicky had also noticed that he was seeing people who were going by the English time zone. He’d been to so many different places and each one of them had referred to the time of back in England. He was sure now though that Mr. Flourfield wanted to get rid of him. Why else was he on a life threatening mission? And Mr. Flourfield didn’t seem to care. It was as if he wanted Nicky dead. The shopkeepers that had been giving Nicky the transportation that he needed seemed to be amazed that he was alive as well as if Mr. Flourfield had told them that he had expected Nicky to have died before needing the mode of transport. This made Nicky more determined than ever to get back. It was now a quarter past two in the morning in Japan, which meant it was Tuesday, and there were lots of street lamps on, so Nicky could see where he was going.

Back in England it was only a quarter past five. Mr. Flourfield was at home relaxing in his favourite chair. He sighed happily to himself as he changed the channel on this television. Mrs. Flourfield (his mother) came into the living room as she finished making tea in the kitchen. “You’re in a happy mood. I haven’t seen you like this for a long time,” gasped Mrs. Flourfield with surprised. “Have you finally found that special someone?”

“No, it’s because I’ve finally got rid of that boy, Nicky Marton. Forever,” Mr. Flourfield grinned.

“Did you ever think about telling his parents?” she gasped.

“Erm…” hesitated Mr. Flourfield thinking. “I’ll inform them in the morning,” he yawned.

“In the morning? In the morning!” screeched Mrs. Flourfield. “It will be too late then. His parents will be worried sick when he doesn’t return home tonight! They may get the police involved! You might end out in jail and I’m not bailing you out again!”

“I told you mother, don’t worry. I’ll deal with it in the morning,” he sighed. Mrs. Flourfield shook her head.

“Sometimes I think I’m looking after a little kid.”

Meanwhile Samantha and Larissa were over at Shada’s house for a sleepover. They were in Shada’s living room setting up their sleeping bags. “I’m glad you’ve cheered up Laz. This sleepover wouldn’t have been fun if you were sad,” Samantha told Larissa.

“Yeah, me too. But do you guys want to know what happened on the way to yours, Shada?” asked Larissa.

“What?” Shada and Samantha asked interestedly.

“I saw Jay and Drew coming home – well going to Jay’s. They obviously stayed ages in Music. Anyway, Drew said hi to me,” Larissa explained. “But Jay didn’t even look at me. I thought he was my friend.” Larissa sighed.

“Maybe he’s just playing,” Samantha reasoned.

“Yeah but…Drew said ‘hi’!” Larissa stuttered, shocked. “Drew never says ‘hi’. He doesn’t even acknowledge my existence!”

“Drew probably likes you,” Samantha sang.

“Yuck! I don’t like Drew!” Larissa replied disgusted.

“I know…they’re probably trying to mess with your head. They probably want you to think about it. So don’t. It’ll prove their plan backfired,” Shada realized.

“True…okay, let’s set the movie up before we have tea,” Larissa suggested.

“Good idea. Tonight Mum’s letting us have pizza,” Shada explained feeling hyper, because she loved pizza. As Shada started her laptop up ready to put the DVD in, Samantha opened the DVD case. The DVD case that Mr. Flourfield had given them was blank. Mr. Flourfield had given it to Shada to watch, but he wanted all three of them to watch it, so Shada had suggested that the girls should have a sleepover. Their parents didn’t usually let them have sleepovers on school nights, but the girls said that watching the DVD Mr. Flourfield had given them was homework, therefore they had to have the sleepover.

Nicky had finished cycling to Tokyo and was now sitting in a café (which was open twenty four hours a day). This café was in the area marked down on the map Nicky had. He had stopped for something to eat. As he ate he was constantly wondering about his last mission: ‘find the ruby hidden in the ruby’. “A ruby could be a colour… or a shape… or an actual ruby…” Nicky pondered over his last mission for some time. “I’m sure I saw the word ruby today, but where?” Nicky began to move his head frantically around the room and then he yawned. All of the tasks he had accomplished today had tired him out. He was the only person he could see in the café apart from the waiter. All the tables remained empty. Sleepily Nicky rested his head in his arms on the table, closed his eyes and began to think. Then an idea struck him. “Here!” This café had a letter missing on the sign. The sign read ‘Ru by’ because it had originally read ‘Rugby’. “Maybe…” Nicky wondered if Mr. Flourfield had meant here. If he had then this would have been by total chance that Nicky actually stopped as he would have carried on if he wasn’t so hungry. So he began scanning the room for something which looked like a ruby. He wasn’t too sure what a ruby was, he just knew it was some sort of jewel and was a reddish pink colour. A figure made entirely out of plastic stood out on one shelf. It was a cat’s head, but it looked more Egyptian than Japanese. Nicky approached the side of the room where this cat figure was. He clambered up onto the table to reach the shelf that the figure lay on. He picked it up, and then sat down to examine it. He wasn’t sure why he was doing this; something just drew his attention to the cat figure.

“Excuse me small person, what are you doing?” the waiter came over to Nicky immediately shocked to see him standing on the table and because he was about to give him his food and drink that he had ordered.

“Not another English-speaking dude. Calm down man, don’t have a hissy fit. I only wanna take a closer look at this,” Nicky explained, fiddling with the figure. “Oops!”

“You have broken the sacred cat of Japan. A curse shall forever live in your soul. This café is now cursed, Japan is cursed and you shall forever remain cursed. That’s you and your children and your children’s children and your children’s, children’s children,” raged the waiter in an angry tone of voice.

“That superstitious stuff is just a bunch of phony baloney. Besides, I’ve just had good luck. I found the ruby; well at least I think I did – it was an eye in the cat’s head, the other one’s plastic. Anyway I didn’t break it; the top of its head twists odd. I’ll fix it,” Nicky gave a deep sigh, screwed the head back on and secretly stuffed the ruby in his backpack.

“You have just uplifted the curse. I am eternally grateful,” the waiter bowed down to Nicky.

“What was the curse?” Nicky asked curiously.

“What? You do not know the sacred story of ‘The Lost Prince of Hiroshima’?” the man asked. Nicky shook his head, and then sat down cross legged on the table as he could tell that the man was going to tell him the story. “It all began about one hundred years ago… there was a prince named Natsuhisa, who lived in a small village in the city of Hiroshima. He was a happy young lad, not that much older than you. He had a wonderful family and lived a happy life; he was engaged to be married and inherit the family throne (which was currently in his father’s position). His fiancée was the most beautiful princess in all the land, her name was Leiko. Together Natsuhisa and Leiko were amazing magicians and used fruits known as Frandadis fruits to perform magic spells. But there was this man known as Akinobu, who used to be a close friend of Natsuhisa, until they fell out over magic, and he wanted to ruin Natsuhisa for ever. It was said that one night when Natsuhisa was practicing his magic Akinobu came by and Natsuhisa was never seen again. Rumour has it that Akinobu killed Natsuhisa and stored his soul inside a cat head and we’ve kept this cat head in this café ‘The Rugby’ ever since.”

“Wow!” gasped Nicky in a whisper. “What happened to Akinobu or Leiko or Natsuhisa’s family?” Nicky asked, intrigued.

“Well, Akinobu was banished from ever returning to Hiroshima and was banned from ever using Frandadis fruits ever again. Natsuhisa’s family and Leiko never forgave Akinobu for what he did and refused to have anything to do with the art of magic again, because they claimed it was nothing but trouble. As for Leiko, she never went on to love another soul again. She grew to hate everyone who crossed her path turning everyone’s heart to stone,” the man explained.

“Wow…” Nicky whispered. “That’s an amazing story…” Nicky was left speechless. The man nodded at Nicky’s amazement, then smiled.

“So is there anything I can do for you sir?”

“Erm…could you drive me to the airport please?” Nicky asked finally able to find his voice, he just remembered that he had just finished his last task.

“Certainly sir,” saluted the waiter. Nicky looked away uncomfortably, he wasn’t sure that he liked being saluted, not by a guy he had just met.

All the way to the airport Nicky couldn’t help but think about the story that the waiter man had told him. Could Frandadis fruits really cause the death of two people that used to be such good friends? And how do you store someone’s soul in an Egyptian cat figure?

Within twenty minutes the waiter had dropped Nicky off at the airport. “Wait a minute!” Nicky called as the waiter was about to drive away. “I never caught your name.”

“Oh, it is Robert,” the man replied.

“But I thought you were – never mind,” Nicky sighed. Robert saluted Nicky once again and drove off into the distance. Nicky was going to say to the man ‘I thought you were Japanese, Robert isn’t a Japanese name’, but then he realised lots of strange things had happened to him today, so why bother?

Once inside the airport Nicky searched for the desk where he could ask about the ticket, which Mr. Flourfield said he had booked for him. “Excuse me Sir,” Nicky began.

“Are you Agent 009?” the man at the desk asked.

”Yes. And why do you speak English too? Wait…how do you know me?” panicked Nicky. Strangely enough Nicky thought that he recognized this man.

“Mr. Flourfield said you’d never make it. He said that he was glad he was getting rid of you. I know just how impossible your mission was! In fact I recall him saying that he knew that you were going to fail, but his mother made him phone us up to book you a ticket just in case the chance was that you ever made it, and you did. You just saved the human race from the evil Dr Straizer. You are a brave boy Nicky Marton and I’m surprised Mr. Flourfield wanted to get rid of you. It was he who was supposed to take on this mission, not you. You are a very brave boy,” explained the man.

“How do you know my real name?” Nicky asked sacredly.

“Oh,” panicked the man, “erm… Mr. Flourfield told me, of course.”

“Okay…” Nicky replied slowly. “How do I get home?”

“Ah, yes. Come with me,” ordered the man. The man lifted up a bar and Nicky passed under it, so he was now behind the desk. He was led into a room with a funny vertical tube.

“Step inside the cylindrical tube,” commanded the man. The tube was glass, and looked like very futuristic. “This is a transporter, it’ll transport you to Maycotts Heath airport, where a small car will be waiting and I will drop you a few houses away from your house.” The man started flicking switches and pushing buttons.

“You’re coming with me?” Nicky replied puzzled.

“How else are you going to get home?” the man replied.

“Well can I at least know your name?” asked Nicky.

“Just call me Algebra,” the man replied firmly.

“But–” Nicky hesitated. Before he could even continue his sentence he was pushed into the glass tube-like thing and in Maycotts Heath airport.

Tuesday arose and Crooked Burrow School became flooded with students and teachers. Jay, Drew, Lyra and Lola were sitting in the Greenwood in the morning before school as they usually did. They had all overcome yesterday’s yelling match and were willing to stay friends. Suddenly, Nicky came into the Greenwood and went to sit with his friends Jay Drew, Lyra and Lola. “Hey guys,” yawned Nicky smiling, who was very glad to see them.

“Where were you yesterday?” Jay asked.

“I told you on Friday. I was battling Dr Straizer and finding a ruby,” sighed Nicky in frustration.

“Why don’t you believe me?”

“I believe you Nicky,” replied Lyra dreamily.

“Oh great, why don’t you two happy bunnies spring off somewhere else. Like… not here,” Jay groaned.

“Fine! Maybe we will!” yelled Lyra, storming off, grabbing Nicky by the hand and taking him with her. There wasn’t just a yelling match between Jay, Lyra and Nicky; there was also one between Larissa, Shada and Nicky. Once Lyra had led Nicky away from the table where Jay, Drew and Lola were Nicky wanted to talk to Larissa, who now hated him because of yesterday when Mr. Flourfield told Larissa that Nicky hated her. With all the yelling Mr. Reffs nearly banned all of them from ever going to the Greenwood Restaurant in the mornings before school. So Lyra and Nicky had been sent out of the Greenwood in hope to stop the arguments. Nicky now wanted to find Mr. Flourfield and boast how he was still alive and to give him the ruby. So Lyra agreed to go with him.

They reached the Humanities Office and Nicky gave three knocks on the door. Luckily for Nicky it was Mr. Flourfield who opened it. “Nicky?! What are you doing alive – I mean here?” gasped Mr. Flourfield in complete shock.

“I know you only sent me on that mission to kill me, but I survived. Although at this point I think I would feel better off dead, as the only person who’s talking to me now is her!” yelled Nicky with rage pointing towards Lyra. “Why did you do it?”

“Well it was either you or me. Nobody had ever survived before. You saved the world and – wait. Did you say that no one’s talking to you?” Mr. Flourfield explained, and then his face lit up.

“Except Lyra,” Nicky added sadly pointing to Lyra.

“Well it kind of worked,” mumbled Mr. Flourfield to himself.

“What worked?” Nicky asked.

“Oh nothing, nothing at all.”

“I have the ruby you wanted.” Nicky reached into his pocket and pulled out the ruby, and gave him back the map and things from yesterday.

“Congratulations,” saluted Mr. Flourfield. “A million praises.”

“That’s it,” frowned Nicky furiously. “A million praises. I saved the world and nearly died, all for a million praises?” he raged.

“Look I’ll buy you something,” mumbled Mr. Flourfield.

“What do you need the ruby for?” Lyra asked interestedly.

“Well you see all – no, four of the – no – wait. I have lots of… cylinder shaped things which hold people’s bodies in. I have kidnapped two teachers who were said to have left. I have room to kidnap a thousand people – five hundred students and five hundred teachers. Without the ruby I could only capture two students and no more people. Me and Mr. L/N=M are the only two in the world who know about it, so you two must keep this information a secret,” explained Mr. Flourfield.

“Was the guy who met me at the airport in Tokyo Mr. L/N=M but in disguise?” Nicky asked just realizing why he recognized him.

“No!” Mr. Flourfield jumped trying to make sure that Nicky didn’t know even more than he should. “He’s no one you should worry about.”

“And why did everyone refer to England’s time zone?” pondered Nicky.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Flourfield puzzled. “Probably to help you out. Now you two should be off to lessons. Go on,” he ordered.

“No!” yelled Nicky. “I could have died. You wanted me to die. It was supposed to be you fighting for your life, but no you sent me. You haven’t even thanked me for saving the world. And I bet you made Jay, Drew and Larissa all hate me too! Well I’ll tell you something: I hate you!”

“My, my, that was a big speech. Are you finished?” Mr. Flourfield smiled slyly. Nicky had nothing left to say to Mr. Flourfield anymore. He stormed off down the corridor.

“Bye!” Lyra called to Mr. Flourfield chasing after Nicky.

In Tutor Time Shada, Samantha and Larissa reported back to Mr. Flourfield with the DVD that he had leant them and wanted them all to watch. The DVD had started with a Doctor Who title, but it wasn’t about Doctor Who. There was a movie on the DVD in black and white. It was about a detective who was solving the murder of a colonel. They really enjoyed it, but sadly they never found out what it was called Mr. Flourfield just laughed at their story and ignored their arguing. “But it’s the truth,” Shada cried. “You’ve got to believe us.”

“There was a murder and a detective and he was in love with the maid and there was a rude groundskeeper and the house was made out of gold and-” Samantha whined wanting to be believed.

Lunchtime was a lot quieter than usual, now that Nicky only had Lyra for company. Mr. Flourfield was on playground duty. Despite how angry Nicky was with Mr. Flourfield he desperately wanted answers so he decided to pester him about yesterday again. “Sir,” Nicky began trying to be polite. “I wanna thank you for sending me on that trip yesterday, ‘cause now Lyra’s my girlfriend.”

“But you’re supposed to be dead! I wanted to kill you and end your perfect life!” fumed Mr. Flourfield.

“What?!” gasped Lyra. “You wanted to kill Nicky!”

“Now let us just keep this to ourselves. We wouldn’t want to get anyone into trouble now, would we?” Mr. Flourfield insisted. Nicky and Lyra both promised Mr. Flourfield that they were never mention his journey again to anyone.

 

- Josie -