Inspirational quote: Believe you can and you're halfway there.

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Fortunately for both Kieran and Dr Kozak, both of them had managed to catch up with Esperanza much later on.

They had barely taken fifty steps until Agent Astera reappeared again, a worried look on her face as she saw Dr Kozak.

"Oh, Demetrius, I've been looking for you everywhere," she told him, kissing him lightly on the cheek.

"I was thinking the same thing, I haven't seen you all day," Dr Kozak agreed, letting her kiss him one more time.

Kieran cleared his throat like Dr Kozak did when him and Esperanza were talking, making all of them look at him blankly.

"Uhm. Who's she?" Kieran asked, pointing mainly at Agent Astera.

Dr Kozak looked at his wife, then at Kieran, but then remembering that he had never really introduced Agent Astera to Kieran, finally said something.

"Oh, Kieran, this is my wife Agent Astera, Astera this is er, Kieran. We're not related at all much but I was his doctor when he was eight so.."

Astera just scowled at Kieran, Kieran doing the same thing. And whilst they were scowling at each other, Dr Kozak added something else as well.

"There are a few facts I have to tell you about her," Dr Kozak carried on, moving Kieran away from everybody else. "Astera is my woman. Okay! Not yours. Don't wink at her, flirt with her, smile at her, look at her, touch her, talk to her, laugh at her, tease her or wind her up. Okay?! That is my thing, and you can't change that, ever."

Kieran wasn't even thinking of doing any of those things anyway, so everything was cool and calm for him.

"Wow, controlling much.." Kieran whispered sarcastically, rolling his eyes. "And don't talk to her, wow, I'll have to do that at some point, don't I? Kind of a messed up rule. Don't you think?"

Dr Kozak didn't reply, but got a bit annoyed when Kieran mentioned that it was kind of a messed up rule.

"And don't look at her? Seriously."

"Don't look at her lustfully, I mean." Dr Kozak told him, all three of them walking away.

No one had really noticed that Esperanza had magically disappeared somewhere again, and when she reappeared, the first thing she did was to yell Astera's name for everyone to hear.

"Astera!"

Agent Astera turned around, and when she saw Esperanza, smiled immediately.

"Esperanza!"

Then after that was some sort of really sophisticated handshake.

Their handshake lasted for what felt like two minutes but was really thirty seconds, and by the end of it, Dr Kozak and Kieran were annoyed completely.

"Okay, that's got to be one of the longest handshakes I've ever witnessed in my entire life," Dr Kozak groaned, after it all.

"But coolest," Kieran added, half annoyed as well.

Nobody had said or mentioned anything after that, the reason for this being because Dr Kozak was leading the way and taking everyone to where they were actually supposed to be.

"So are we finally going to start our first mission now?" Kieran asked Dr Kozak, seeing as Astera and Esperanza were talking to each other about something.

"Yes, Kieran," Dr Kozak replied, half smirking at him. "Yes, you're finally going to start your first mission now. With Esperanza."

Dr Kozak had led Kieran, Esperanza and Astera into a room, specifically his laboratory, although Kieran wasn't so sure because Dr Kozak had like seventy something of them in total.

The laboratory was like a science lab and a cinema combined. Towards the back of the laboratory was complete darkness, as in no one could tell what was behind there or if anyone could even go behind there in the first place.

At the front, everything was blue, as well as the massive computer screen taking up majority of the space.

The coolest bit was at the top. Everywhere on the ceiling, and at the top of the wall were either the words 'KOZAHKISTAN HEADQUARTERS', 'Dr Kozak is awesome' or 'Demetrius rocks' everywhere.

Photos of Dr Kozak infested the place as well, but mainly pictures of when he was still young.

The cutest photo of Dr Kozak was the one with his two sisters, Agent Valentina and Nurse Elizabeth where Valentina had given Dr Kozak a pigtail wig and he was frowning, and folding his arms in arrogance.

On top of their heads were their names, but shortened: Demz, Valen and Lizzie.

Demz- Demetrius.
Valen- Valentina.
Lizzie- Elizabeth.

They all looked about fourteen.

They were all in their thirties now, so this was all a very long time ago. Nearly two decades now.

Dr Kozak logged on straight onto his computer as soon as the three of them (Astera had to attend to someone) had arrived at Dr Kozak's laboratory.

His password was about twenty seven characters, and as soon as he was logged on, that was when he said something.

"Right guys," he told them, typing away. "First mission. Always the easiest."

"Don't you mean hardest?" Esperanza questioned, where Dr Kozak just looked at her and scowled.

"No. I meant easiest, Esperanza. Don't correct me," he barked at her, before spinning in his spinning chair which was also unsurprisingly blue.

"Okay, so..." Kieran trailed off, bringing a chair next to Esperanza and sitting down right next to her. "What do we have to do?"

"Bring back something very important that I lost very recently," Dr Kozak told them, where Esperanza and Kieran agreed that that sounded way too easy.

Too good to be true as well, but mainly easy.

Dr Kozak then unexpectedly slammed his left hand on the table, freaking both of them out.

"It's not easy, guys," he assured them, looking at both of them in the eye at once. "Just because it sounds easy doesn't mean it is!"

"Okay! Jeez!" Kieran shouted back. "What did you lose recently that was 'very important to you' then?"

Dr Kozak muttered something so quietly that Esperanza and Kieran literally had to ask him twice to repeat what the hell he had just said.

"I said I lost my wallet, okay!" He shouted back at them, making both of them groan. "And I need both of your help finding my godforsaken wallet."

"Seriously? I thought you'd give us an actual mission, sir," Kieran told him, where Dr Kozak just smiled and touch typed something really swiftly on the computer.

"I was joking, ha! You guys are really easy to wind up," Dr Kozak sneered at them. "But I have lost something really important, two days ago. And it's that."

Up on the screen of Dr Kozak's computer was a trophy, which was very gold, probably made out of real gold as well, by the looks of it.

It looked rather rare and valuable, so Kieran couldn't stop staring at it. It kept on spinning around real slowly as well, making everyone see what it looked like on the back as well, not just the front.

"What is that thing?" Kieran asked stupidly, coming way too close to Dr Kozak's screen.

"What does it look like, Kieran? A trophy, of course. And I need that trophy before the time is up to complete all missions."

"Yeah, I don't see why this is important," Kieran admitted, standing up to leave.

"Yeah, same," Esperanza agreed, doing exactly the same thing as Kieran. "I completely agree with Kieran. Let's go, man."

That was when an infuriated Dr Kozak decided it was a good idea to laser beam the door handle with the same type of gun that he had used to intentionally kill Lauriel with before either Kieran or Esperanza had a chance to get to it.

He originally threw the gun away because it had ran out of bullets but then realised that instead of just throwing the gun away, he could have just bought more bullets. So therefore he picked it up from the bin again, after realising its usefulness.

"Leave and you die, both of you. Sit back down."

Dr Kozak watched both of them listen to him, before saying anything else.

"This trophy is not just a trophy," he lectured. "It is the last trophy I need for my trophy collection. There's 125 in total, I've got 124, and I need that trophy to make it complete. I had 125, but then that trophy got stolen two days ago, and now it's gone. And I've got to get it back before 1AM tomorrow morning... Otherwise, something terrible happens."

Kieran was half asleep by the end of Dr Kozak's lecture, and was woken up again when Esperanza nudged him, kindly telling the guy to listen.

"So... You just want me and Kieran to get that trophy for you before 1AM tomorrow on my birthday?"

Dr Kozak nodded.

"And I know tomorrow is your birthday. So happy birthday in advance for tomorrow."

"First mission seems easy enough. Come on, Kieran, let's go again," Esperanza commanded, standing up and heading for the zapped door, Kieran following her.

When Dr Kozak realised that both of them were about to leave, he said something.
Well, shouted.
Realistically speaking.

"Wait!" Dr Kozak hollered, making both of them sit back down again. "You guys have absolutely no clue on where this trophy is."

"Isn't it here?" Kieran wondered, yawning.

"Haha! Nope. You guys wish. It's somewhere else, actually."

And after Dr Kozak had said that, that was when Kieran and Esperanza rushed to sit back down again because for once, something that Dr Kozak had said had actually interested them.

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Moral of chapter: Just because something is boring at first doesn't mean that it won't get better afterwards.