After a long wait, THE SECOND BEN BANG ADVENTURE IS OUT! Have a nice time reading it...

Chapter 1

The dream

             Ben Bang heard a noise at the door; it opened and a man came in. Well, he wasn’t a man; but half-man, half-skeleton with a scar separating both halves. As he had lost an arm Ben directly recognised the man on the photo he had seen not long ago: Dr Scar!

“Good afternoon Ben!” said Dr Scar.

The picture brutally changed.

“I have invented a bug called “LIFE SUCKER”, and as you would think it sucks life out of people! And guess who I’m going to try it on! YOU!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

          Ben suddenly woke up; he was sweating crazily. He tried to remember his dream but only heard that high screeching voice yelling. He didn’t know what to do. He thought about all the strange events that had happened this week. Did this all have some connection to his dream? Ben went downstairs to have a drink to think about something else. Although the house was small, Ben found the way to the fridge quite long and scary. He opened the fridge and saw his usual bottle of fruit juice. After serving himself he stayed there listening to the rustling of the leaves in the wind.

          He heard a crunching noise as if someone was outside walking on the pathway leading to the house. Ben turned round and saw a familiar face looking at him through the window. Ben recognised it at once, it was Marina Craft. Ben thought it was impossible; what was she doing here in the middle of the night? Marina was the head of the SSA: The Secret Spy Agency. Last year, it was she who had forced Ben to risk his life in a dangerous mission. Saying this he remembered he had signed up for being a spy. Ben went to open the door for Marina to come in. But instead of coming in, she whispered,

“Come out, I don’t want to wake up everyone in the street!”

          So as he had been told he went outside. Although Marina was a strict woman, Ben couldn’t help noticing she was wearing fluffy slippers and a tartan dressing-gown.

Chapter 2

THE plan…

As soon as Ben stepped outside he asked,

“Why did you come here, in the middle of the night?”

“We need your help; there is a new mission for you! I can’t stay here long, come to the SSA tomorrow, first thing in the morning to learn more.” Marina whispered.

Ben was puzzled; what was so important?

“OK, he said, I’ll be there first thing in the morning!”

But when he turned to look back at her, she had disappeared.

The next morning, when Ben woke up, he suddenly remembered the meeting with Mrs Craft. And he also remembered that he had to go and see her at the SSA. So he got dressed in his usual Gap shorts and shirt and he also put on an old Superdry sweater. Then, when he was ready, he went downstairs, put his new Geox shoes on and went to the shed to get his bike. As he arrived at the old shed that smelled moist, he managed to get his BMX out of it. He had got his bike last year at Christmas and spent lots of his time on it trying to do tricks. As he was pedalling he saw that the city looked empty for a Saturday morning. After parking his bike outside the supermarket, he walked down the main avenue. At his left there was a big building that Ben recognised at once, it was the SSA building that was disguised as a technology museum.

As he entered the SSA, he took the old bullet-proof lift up to the top floor to Mrs Craft’s headquarters. When the doors slid open, Ben found himself looking at a medium-sized metal door at the end of a long corridor. The door looked like it was guarding something very precious; but Ben knew it was only the door that led to Marina’s office. Ben suddenly realised that he was standing in front of the door, so he knocked and heard a metallic screech as a hatch opened. Ben hadn’t noticed it until now as it was built into the door, in fact he had realised that everything in the building was highly secured, unlike last year. Ben heard Marina’s voice, unusually high-pitched as if she feared being attacked at any time:

“Who’s there?”

“Agent 008, you called me here last night,” he replied. The door opened for Ben to enter, a pale Marina, as if she hadn’t slept much, said:

“Come in, and sit down.” Ben did as he was told. “The reason you are here is, as I told you, I’ve got a new mission for you, But before I tell you it, you have to promise you will never reveal this information to anyone; do you promise?” Ben hesitated but after a few moments he said,

“Yes, I promise.”

“OK, here we go: have you ever heard of Ted Botha, the famous chemist who died during an illegal experiment, thirteen years ago?” she asked, “And have you heard of all the strange deaths that have happened this week? We think they are linked.”

“But how could that be, if he died years ago?” Ben asked.

“We believe that he could have survived it, but that he is very feeble.”

“But how could he be living if he is so weak?”

“Well that’s the problem, we know that the goal of his experiment was to make robots that could contain, for example, a human soul.  But there’s a problem: we haven’t got enough evidence on this case to go headfirst in the base and take Mr. Botha to jail. That’s why you’re here: we need you to find the most information you can and bring it to us,” she paused, and added in a faint whisper that Ben probably shouldn’t have heard, “if you’re not dead by then”.

Ben suddenly got it.

“You mean he is living in a robot!!!” he exclaimed.

“Yes” Marina answered. Although she spoke calmly, it felt as if he had just been slapped in the face. “So, are you willing to go on this mission?”

“Yes” he answered; inside he felt as if he had thrown himself in the mouth of a massive crocodile…

“Do I have any gadgets?”, asked Ben

“Yes, but you can not use them until you’re in the base. Talking about lairs, Ted Botha’s is in Africa. We think that the entrance to it is in a bin, in the courtyard of a restaurant. It is called “Congo’s bar”, and as you’d think it’s in the Republic of the Congo in Brazzaville.”

“So can I have my gadgets now?” he exclaimed

“Yes, but please calm down,” she said, as she opened a drawer in her desk. She pointed to a spinning top and said, “Here is an unusual Beyblade spinning top, it’s unusual because it can either just be a normal one or it can spin with blades coming out of it. These,” she pointed to the glasses, “Are the same as last year, they are info glasses. This” she said taking a single marble, “Is a net marble, it fires a net when you press it. Now this is my favourite,” she said with a note of excitement in her voice, as she took a tiny LEGO man, “This is the tiniest electric figurine on Earth; it can multiply itself and obey every single order you give it thanks to your info glasses. And it can change its size, its name is BOB123. Any questions?”

“Actually, I have three: how do I get to Congo thingy republic, do I have a sort of private jet plane?”

“Yes, your plane leaves tomorrow at 10:00. Here,” she gave him a ticket, “Is your boarding card.”

“Why do you choose me, not someone else?”

“Because,” she rolled her eyes at him as if the answer was evident, “as far as I know, not many adults can climb into bins!”

“Can I call my LEGO buddy Bobby, instead of BOB123?”

“OK, if you don’t have any other questions,” she said, ignoring him, “You can start your mission.”

Chapter 3

Congo, here I come

On the way back, Ben was thinking about his next mission. How on Earth was the entrance to the lair in an old rusty bin? He promised himself to keep that question in a corner of his mind. After all, he would have loads of time to think about it in the plane.

That night, he didn’t sleep well at all. His nightmares were filled with bins of different sizes and colours and each time he’d reach one, he’d fall in and wake up.

At 8:00, he got dressed and left his room with his heavy suitcase. He put his shoes on and walked out into the morning breeze. A taxi was waiting for him by the pavement, Ben got in it, and as soon as he sat down, they set off.

Twenty minutes later, they were in front of London Heathrow airport.

“Here is your luggage, Mr Bang;” said the driver speaking for the first time, he was handing his luggage to Ben, “I will be here when you return.” Then he turned round, got into his car, and drove off, leaving Ben on his own. An official-looking older man like a body-guard arrived and shook his hand as he said,

“Hello Mr. Bang, I am Mr. Tyrex. I will accompany you in the plane up to your final destination, The bin.”

“Great,” Ben thought, “Now I’ve got a baby-sitter!”

They both walked in as he looked at his watch, it said 9:06. First they went to the check-in, to send Ben’s suitcase away (luckily, he had kept his glasses on, just in case and had his LEGO man in his pocket), then they waited half an hour in a waiting room for the gate to open. When it did, they boarded the plane and found that (to Ben’s relief) Mr. Tyrex wasn’t sitting next to Ben, but behind him.

When they reached Republic of Congo, Ben had to shake Mr. Tyrex to wake him up.  When Ben finally succeeded, they walked out of the small aeroplane. The airport was packed with lots of different types of people, so Ben nearly lost his elderly minder. He found him ten metres away from where he had left him; he was stuck in the electric door… When he managed to get him out of it, they ran to their old rusty bus where the grumpy conductor told them that they were late.

“Great,” Ben thought angrily, “now we’re really late!” The bus was packed with people, so Tyrex and Ben had to stand up. Twenty minutes later, the bus arrived at its destination, Congo’s bar. It was a beautiful place with flowers everywhere, and two medium-sized wooden statues were placed on each side of the entrance.

Ben was going to go in when Tyrex said,

“Good luck Mr.Bang, it was a pleasure to meet you.” Then Ben went in, and when he turned to see a last time Mr. Tyrex’ face, he had vanished. So, Ben asked a waiter where the restaurant’s courtyard was. The man told him to follow him; Ben did as he was told as the man opened a door at the end of the room.

“Here you are,” he said as he left. Then Ben saw the entrance to the lair: it was on old green bin made of plastic. He got closer and opened it; inside it was so dark that Ben couldn’t see the bottom of it. He put one of his legs in it and looked up; this might be the last time he would see the sky. “3,” he thought, “2,1, Go!” he jumped in as the darkness swallowed him. He found out that he was going down a slide as he landed in a squishy, greenish putty…

Then something or someone hit him on the back of the head, as Ben lost consciousness.

Chapter 4

My name is ………. (Part 1)

When Ben woke up, he had a sore head; he remembered the thing that had hit him. Now, Ben was thinking about it, and he realised that no human being could have hit him with such strength. He tried to feel the bump on his head with one hand but saw that he was attached to the ceiling with a rope around his feet. Ben suddenly felt that his blood was coming to his head.

He reached for his pocket with both hands, and after a few minutes of wriggling around, he managed to take his glasses, and Bob123, out. He put the glasses on and held Bobby in his hand: as soon as the glasses reached his nose, he felt the tiny Lego robot wriggle in his hand. Soon, he realised that he could control the robot with the glasses. So Bobby followed Ben’s instructions. He went up the rope and started biting it: seconds later, Ben had fallen to the ground. He looked around him and saw he was in an old, humid room that smelt of mildew*.

He started thinking as quickly as possible, he had to hack into the system. But for that, he had to have a computer.

“There must be some computers in here,” he thought, “I need to find one of them”.

*mildew= fungus or mould that grows in humid areas such as caves or dark rooms

He started looking around the room for a door. He found it at the far left corner: he opened it and peered out of the room. He was looking down a long metallic corridor in the same style as the room he had just left. Then Ben heard a weird noise:

“Cliclicliclicliclick…” as if thousands of little metal pincers were scuttling down the corridor towards him. “Cliclicliclicliclick…” he heard it again. Then he saw where the sound came from: two tiny spiders were coming in his direction. Ben scrambled back into the room as quietly as possible and closed the door behind him. He crouched down and looked through the keyhole as the two creatures went past. The boy looked closely at them and saw they were made of metal…

Chapter 4

My name is ………. (Part 2)

“Cliclicliclicliclick…” Ben waited for the spiders to disappear, then he crept out and ran down the corridor in the direction where they had appeared. He turned at the corner and sneaked into the closest room to avoid another pair of metal creatures as they scuttled by;

“So there are more of these robots, Botha’s probably got an army of them!”, he thought. Ben looked around himself and couldn’t believe what he saw… He was in a massive room filled with electronics: computers, TV cameras. Ben looked at the centre of it; in the middle was the main computer.

“Hallelujah! This is much easier than I thought it would be…” Ben whispered, he crept closer and saw that the computer was on. He started hacking into the system. Ten minutes later he found the code to the main information: it was “hello😊”. He found Botha’s plan, it was named Deathbot…

“Is that his name?” Ben questioned himself. He looked at the list:

1)     Kill about twenty people all around the globe

2)     Keep their souls in oxygen room

3)     Build minibot army

4)     Continue experiment with souls

5)     Take over the world!!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

He found a detailed plan of the spiders underneath the list. Ben heard a noise,

          “CLICK CLICK CLICK CLICK!” Ben hid behind the closest computer, as the door opened. He peered over the top of the device and saw what looked like a XXL version of the mini bots…

Chapter 5

The Battle

“RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” it went as if it was breathing loudly.

“It looks like Darth Vader is in there!” thought Ben… The spider came closer to him as Ben wondered if the monster would find him or not. To Ben’s surprise, the spider spoke in a deep, frightening voice:

“Nice try Ben but that’s not how you’re going to get me…” Ben got up and looked at it straight in the eyes (it was complicated, it had so many):

“I’m on a mission and I will accomplish it!” Ben reached into his pocket and found his net-firing marble and his spinning top. He activated the latter and left it turning slowly. As the spider didn’t understand what the boy was doing, he shouted to the spinning top:

“Attack!” and it obeyed and started turning around the multiple legs of the spider: the creature got distracted as Ben aimed to throw the marble; the spider was moving so fast that all Ben could see was a big grey blur… Ben threw the marble without looking: the net shot out and captured the monster…

“But what about the mini-bots?” he ran out of the room and found that they were nowhere to be seen. So he went back to the control room and found them all in there: as soon as they saw him, they got angry and got together to form one big mini-bot… It looked as if they were all a piece of a puzzle and they had clipped onto each other. The massive mini-bot came towards Ben. But suddenly he got an idea, he ran out of the room and went back to another room with computers and closed the door behind him. He turned on a computer and hacked the system of the bots; when he finished, he went out of the room and saw the big-bot coming. But they weren’t aggressive any more. Now he had reached his goal, he had to find a way out: so he called the SSA:

“Hello, Agent 008 talking to SSA: do you hear me?”

“Yes perfectly, are you OK?”

“I am, but I need you to come and get me: I have captured Ted Botha. I’ll tell you more when I see you…”

“OK, we’re on our way. Wait for us in the courtyard of the bar and take the boss with you.”

“Thank you! I’ll be there!”

Ben put his phone in his pocket and came out of the room. He remembered that the mini-bots were his now and that he could control them: Ben asked one of the robots where he could get out.

“We can show you…” they said in a metallic voice, “Follow us.” So Ben followed them. As they went past the control room Ben asked the spiders to stop: he entered the room and looked at the space where, moments before, the monster had been lying trapped in a net. Now, all there was left was a few remainders of the ropes…

Chapter 6

Escape

“Oh no…” Ben murmured to himself with a shocked face, “Ooooooooooh no… I’m in big trouble.” He turned to face the bots who were still in shock (or at least they looked like it): without Ben saying anything, the spider he had talked to before said:

“We can locate him with our system: we have a system within our body that makes us able to find him when we are lost.”

“Well, that’s great! Can you tell me where he is now?” the boy asked.

“He’s going to the D part of the building, the exit.”

“OK… Form a car for me and we can get there before him!” As soon as he finished his sentence, there was a car in front of him. He climbed in and the robotic car raced off: Ben found out that it was auto-driving. They raced down the corridors of the lair, which Ben thought looked more like a maze than a base. Then at the last corner that separated the villain from them, they arrived in a massive stadium with a glass dome over it. In the centre, they saw Death-Bot (or Ted Botha) in a rocket trying to take off. Ben flung the door open and ran towards it… As he reached the bottom, fire came rushing out of it and Ben had to jump away to avoid the flames!

As Ben managed to get back up, the rocket had already been launched. He watched the machine as it went up in the sky. But Ben heard something else over the noise of the spaceship: as if a massive missile of some sort was shooting towards him… Then Ben saw where the sound was coming from: a helicopter was hovering next to the rocket. The boy saw the SSA sign on the back of it. The SSA fired at the spaceship and that was the last thing Death Bot ever saw or heard…

Ben lost consciousness.

Chapter 7

Reasons

When the twelve-year-old boy woke up, he found out that it was about noon and he was lying in his bed. Two familiar faces were looking at him and, as he opened his eyes, both stopped moving. It was Mr. Tyrex and Marina Craft. Marina was the first to talk:

“Well done, Ben! We are both very proud of you for what you did back there.” She stopped and let Tyrex speak…

“Yes Mr.Bang, it was very heroic…”

“What happened to the villain?” Ben asked, “Did he die?”

“He is now in a place called heaven for bad robot spiders,” answered the head of SSA.

“I was right then,” continued the boy, “I have accomplished my second mission!”

“Yes, you are right, and we will not give you any more missions for now,” she said as she got up and put her chair back where it belonged.

“Well done!” she repeated before leaving the room with Mr.Tyrex on her heels…

“Mission accomplished!!!” Ben thought before falling asleep.

A story by A.W (alias Squigly)