Alex smiled.
"I'm glad you completed your first mission early; it'll be put down as a good record for you guys. I'm guessing you're free for the day. Maybe you should train; your Coach did inform me that you are facing your CIN some weeks away, is it?" Alex said as he brought out a document.
"Here, sign this, all of you."
Suzanne picked up the pen and signed underneath her name, the others did too, one after the other.
It was the documentation of their mission file. In it was the evidences gathered on the case and the way it was solved. Also short personal statements of themselves were written down.
"You're right; we should train." Ryan nodded curtly.
"Alright, I'll leave you to it. If there's a new mission, I'll let you know." Alex nodded at him and walked out of the empty classroom.
"Ashley what's your skill?" Ethan asked as he turned to her.
"I'll tell you in a while, but first I want to hear all the details of how Andrew solved this case," she replied as she turned to Andrew and smiled at him.
"Yeah! Me too!" Suzanne agreed, moving nearer to Andrew as well.
"Fine, but we aren't staying here very long; you know I hate explaining things to anyone," Andrew muttered in his usual bored tone.
Ashley settled on a chair quickly.
Ryan just looked out through the window, not really paying that much attention to the details of how Andrew solved the puzzle of the dog-napping. But Ethan listened eagerly.
"Well," Andrew sighed and started. "After we received the documents on the missing puppy, I researched more on Mrs Paulina, so I'd know more of her daily schedule and her personality. I wanted to know what kind of owner she was to Patches. What I gathered was that she was just a nice woman and on weekends she allowed some kids to come and play with Patches while she watched them and gave them light snacks," Andrew stood up and walked over to the board.
He drew six children; four were girls while the remaining two were boys.
He turned to look back at them.
"I found out that the six children normally played with Patches but not at the same time. Four girls, two boys...But one of the boys, Todd, moved out of the neighborhood a month ago, so I ruled him out." Andrew drew a big 'X' over one of the figures he drew on the board.
"So I researched more on the other five kids, afterall most children loved puppies and, who, when given the chance, might grow to love Patches and might want to claim her for themselves." Andrew went on with his explanation.
"I found out that out of the five kids, Betty, was one of the girls that played with Patches. Also I noticed that while the other kids lived around the neighborhood, Betty was the only one that lived far off. So how could she find time to come from her house to play with Patches?"
Andrew drew some houses and circled one.
"That means she knew someone in the neighborhood she could stay with, someone that knows her quite well; someone like her babysitter, Sally."
"That's real smart Andrew," Ethan said amazed.
Ryan scoffed from where he stood. "I bet you couldn't come to the same conclusion even if all the clues were staring at you in the face," he told Ethan.
"Why don't you come say that to my face?!" Ethan demanded hotly as he stood up and started walking towards where Ryan was.
"Ethan shut up! Let Andrew finish his story!" Suzanne snarled at him.
He stopped walking and looked back. He relunctantly returned to his seat.
Ryan gave a bemused chuckled which made Ethan glare hard at him.
"Alright," Andrew continued, "So I checked Sally's background. It was relatively easy since she was a teen and most teens tell the social media every little thing about their personal life. She also had lots of pictures on her wall." Andrew made a face, "It was really annoying scrolling through those pictures but it was from there that I gathered the next clues I needed."
"From the pictures?" Ashley questioned, deeply concentrating.
Andrew nodded and connected his laptop to the class projector and did all the settings necessary to get it working.
"If you'll take your eyes to the screen, I'll give you a detailed explanation of what I mean," he told them.
They all looked at the projector.
A picture of Sally was already on the screen. She wore her clothes in the most exaggerated fashion. She had on shades and a black pencil jeans pants. She also wore a yellow spaghetti top underneath her designer fur coat and the purse she held in her right hand matched her fur coat as it was made from the same smooth, white fur.
"So? What about it?" Ryan asked casually, taking his gaze away briefly from the projected image on the screen to look askance at Andrew.
"Well, three days before she baby sat Betty, they went out for a walk and she took some pictures." Andrew changed the picture to what he was talking about.
Sally and Betty's grinning faces were the first things that could be seen.
Sally had squatted to Betty's height so that she could snap the two of them in a selfie. They were behind a flower shop that was built with glass so that passersby could see the types of flowers they had and patronize them.
Andrew zoomed in on the picture. "When you zoom in and look closely at the glass reflexion you'd see a faint image of a woman's legs, walking a white Scotty," Andrew said.
"True!" Ethan nodded as he made out the faint image.
"So it's possible that lady was passing by as they took their picture and they took notice of the dog," Ashley stated.
"Exactly," Andrew nodded, as he looked back at the projected images of Sally and Betty, then back at his Squad members. "And when I was researching on Betty, I found out that she was a demanding kid; it means she's used to having her own way, whatever she wanted, she had to get it, regardless of the cost. Probably Sally also noticed that trait in Betty and started drawing the nice dogs in the area to Betty's attention. Once Betty liked it, then it wouldn't be so hard to poison her mind in stealing them." He shrugged as he ended his statement.
"That's really awful," Suzanne said.
Andrew looked at her. "Betty was already used to stealing her school mates' properties; like a pencil or an eraser. It's no suprise that she agreed to Sally's devious plans," he told her.
"So what happens next?" Ashley enquired, concern lacing her voice.
Andrew returned to his laptop.
"There's a pattern here if you'll notice. In each picture Sally takes, they're mainly near a park, and dog owners chiefly take their dogs for a walk in parks, so it's relatively easy to get one unnoticed. Also, three days after every hit, Sally posts a picture where she's wearing a new fur coat. Coincidentally the colour of the fur of the dog they had earlier seen."
He brought out a chart, "The crime rate of dog-napping has increased this month from 5% to 65% as fur coats are now the latest fashion; everyone wants to wear one nowadays. And, it's relatively easy to make business out of selling dogs."
"Oh," Ashley wailed as she recalled something.
"What is it?" Ryan asked her as he looked her way.
She faced him and smiled, "Nothing much, I just remembered that at the dog shelter which I volunteered to work in, the manager always had people running a deep background check on those who wanted to adopt the dogs so they wouldn't fall into the hands of bad people that wanted to use them for shady purposes."
"Really now," Ryan said in disappointment and returned his gaze back to the scenery outside the classroom.
"Yes," she replied.
"You work at a dog shelter Ashley?!" Ethan asked with wide eyes.Ashley laughed lightly as she replied him, "It's actually a volunteered act, and I don't get paid. Besides, It's only on weekends.""Cool! Can I volunteer too?" Ethan asked her eagerly."Sure! The more, the merrier!" Ashley nodded as she beamed him a wide smile."Anyway," Andrew said and all their attentions returned to him."That was when Ashley suggested we went to the park to look for clues, I needed to check out some things so I agreed to it. The thing I didn't know was how Sally and Betty took the dog from right under the owner's nose, so I wanted to find out."Suzanne adjusted herself in her seat. "Wait a minute, you mean you knew all this before we headed to the park and you didn't say a word about it?!" she asked Andrew incredulously.Andrew shrugged."It was a hypothesis. I had to be exactly sure and as I was still missing some
"Heh....if it isn't Squad 10," a voice scoffed.They all looked in the direction of the voice.They saw Luke approaching with his Squad mates some distance behind him."Hey Luke!" Suzanne waved gaily at him. He had on a pompous look as he addressed Ryan and ignored Suzanne."Pity you didn't stay long enough in the E-rank exams; you'd have witnessed me being victorious," he smirked, as he eyed them all in derision. His focused attention settled disdainfully on Ryan. "Anyway, it's a good thing you were rushed to the hospital, everyone saw how weak you were. I bet if it was me, I could witstand a bullet or two." Luke bragged as he poured his mouth at Ryan dismissively.Ryan just gave him a cold look, then ignored him."There's Luke, bragging away as usual," Ava snorted as they arrived at the spot where Squad 10 was."How's your arm Ryan?" Snow asked, as she looked at Ryan and smiled briefly at him."It's fine," he re
"Bye guys!" Ashley waved.Ryan replied with a mumbled grunt and Ethan laughed again as he looked Ryan over. What had happened there that afternoon was still extremely funny to him, though Ryan would not readily agree with him."Hey, Ethan, is anyone picking you up?" Ashley asked as she got out her bicycle.Ethan made a sour face as he looked her way."My big brother's picking me up; he always does," he replied."Okay! See you tomorrow then!" Ashley said cheerfully as she hopped on her bike and pedaled away."Bye Ashley," Suzanne smiled and waved nimbly as Ashley rode off.She and Andrew turned to start walking towards the bus stop.Ryan's butler, Greg, zoomed in. He alighted from the car."Master Ryan," Greg said as he opened the back seat of the limousine for Ryan."Thanks," Ryan replied curtly as he entered.Greg went to the driver's seat."Ryan! Wait! Don't leave!" a girly voice shrieked behind th
Andrew looked away as his dad fixed a rather harsh gaze on him."You're late," he repeated, but with a more controlled tone than before."By two seconds," Andrew said."Do you know how precious each second is? In just a second you could save a life! And you are a hero in the making, yet you think two seconds means nothing?!" his dad's nostrils swelled up.Just then Andrew's mother came into the living room.Andrew stood some feet near the door but he backed it. He faced his dad who stood beside a chair that faced the door. He had been timing Andrew's arrival.Andrew at once looked in his mother's direction.He hadn't seen her come in but the orange fragrance of the perfume she usually wore filled the room.She approached her husband."That's enough now," she said with a note of finality.Just as his dad was cooling down, Andrew's next remark made him blow his top again."It's just two seconds," Andrew's eye
"Goodnight master Ryan," Greg said politely.Ryan nodded curtly."Night."Ryan shut the door to his room quietly. He walked over to the adjacent door and opened it. The cool night air hit him as he stepped into the small balcony.He held the rim and looked at the serene vast land of his estate that stared at him.He could make out the lake where it stood on the property. The swans would gather at spring; they always did.The weeping willows that were far off seemed weepier that day.The green house already had the flowers in it blooming. But the roses were planted separately as a personal garden where only roses grew.Though they were of different kinds and in a variety of colors.Rita's favorite had been the white ones. She'd hang them in her hair all the time.Ryan looked down at the fountain that was decorated with statues of horses that were a few feet below his balcony.He closed his eyes and opened th
Recap of part 1;"Can we not do this now?" Suzanne said as she put her spoon down.She was trying to eat her cereal in peace but her parents, especially her dad, were lecturing her on how to behave once she gets to Superhero high.Shane laughed from where he sat."You mean they shouldn't lecture you on being a complete disappointment like you are?" he asked and laughed again."Shut up Shane!" She snarled at him.In a mild way it was true. Suzanne O'Izzy was just an average kid, a clumsy kinda girl with big dreams. She wants to be the hero everyone looks up to so badly.Luckily in her country, Herotapolis, there was an organization, Hero League, that could make her dream come true but first she and the others who are vying to be heroes have to go through a test known as the Thriox which consists of three tests.
"Silverstin?!" Suzanne quipped, amazed.The guy that stood before them was the hero league's best student. It was rumored that he had worked for Shades for a while but his power was too much for them to contain and in order not for him to be eaten up by darkness he was sent back to the hero league since they'd assumed being around his mates would bring out his positive side.Nothing changed.He was the most popular hero. Even new born babies knew his name.But he was rumored to be strict and rules-abiding. He also didn't do anything fun.He was a Rolex. His powers weren't fully known yet but so far, he could turn people within a sixty mile radius into ice. He mainly dealt with ice-based things.When he was still a kid, about three different series of painful experiments were run on him by his dad, who worked for the rogue heroes.He later
Squad 10 had different expressions on their faces as they got an earful from a very annoyed Aiden. Ryan couldn't stop with the cold scowl while Suzanne looked perpelexed. Ethan was more annoyed at Ryan being able to do something while he laid there getting captured than he was at Aiden for his mouthful scoldings. Andrew was just...well you guessed it, bored! "That was a complete fail!" Aiden repeated. Suzanne bowed her head, a bit ashamed. Aiden paced around while the four stood watching him. "You didn't even attempt to work as a team! Just like the last time, you all ran off on your own!" "So this was about team work?" Ryan asked in his usual tone. A glare sent his way from Aiden was enough to make him look away. "You were too easy to predict!" Aiden stated. "I'm disappointed in all of you," Aiden said. "Anyway what was I t