[EVENING – SCHOOL ROOFTOP]
The bonfire crackled in the courtyard below. Music played. Students laughed.
Noah and Lilly stood on the roof, away from the crowds.
"It's quieter up here," Noah said, leaning on the railing. "And the view is better."
Lilly nodded. She was scanning the perimeter.
"Noah," she said softly. "The General's visit... it means we're high priority now."
"High priority for what? Tea reviews?"
"No. For everyone."
BOOM.
The first firework launched into the sky. Red sparks showered the darkness.
"Whoa!" Noah cheered. "Pretty!"
[THE VULTURE SQUAD]
Above them, hovering silently in the smoke of the fireworks, was a stealth helicopter.
Inside, four men in wingsuits prepared to jump.
"Target sighted," Leader Vulture said. "He is isolated on the roof. Extraction in T-minus 30 seconds."
"Use the noise of the fireworks to mask the approach," the pilot ordered.
The four Vultures jumped.
They glided down silently, aiming for the roof behind Noah.
[THE LANDING]
Noah turned around to find a vending machine.
He saw four men in tight black suits land silently on the roof. They were holding grappling hooks and stun batons.
Noah blinked.
"Oh!" Noah shouted over the noise of the fireworks. "Are you guys the Tech Crew?"
The Vultures froze.
"Uh..." one Vulture hesitated.
"You're here for the finale, right?" Noah pointed at the fireworks launch tubes set up on the far side of the roof. "One of them looked jammed earlier! I bet you're here to fix it!"
The Leader Vulture looked at his team.
He thinks we're technicians? Perfect cover.
"Yes," the Leader growled. "We are... fixing the jam. Stay back, kid."
[THE "HELP"]
Noah ran over to them.
"I can help!" Noah yelled. "I'm good with knots!"
Before the Vultures could stop him, Noah grabbed the grappling hook rope the Leader was holding.
"This is loose!" Noah criticized. "If you rappel with this, you'll fall!"
He quickly tied the rope around the base of the biggest firework mortar tube.
"There! Secured!" Noah gave a thumbs up.
The Leader Vulture stared at the rope.
He tied my extraction line... to the launch tube?
"Wait!" the Leader shouted. "Undo that!"
"No need to thank me!" Noah beamed.
Another Vulture tried to grab Noah with a stun baton.
Noah bent down to tie his shoe.
Whoosh. The baton missed his head and hit the Leader in the chest.
ZAP.
The Leader convulsed and fell backward—right onto the ignition switch for the Grand Finale.
[THE LAUNCH]
CLICK.
The control panel lit up green.
"Oh," Noah said, standing up. "Did we start early?"
BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM.
The Grand Finale ignited.
Hundreds of rockets fired at once. The noise was deafening.
But the biggest mortar—the "Big Bertha"—was the one Noah had tied the rope to.
It fired.
The rocket shot up with tremendous force.
The rope went with it.
The Leader Vulture (whose leg was tangled in the rope) went with it.
"AAAAAHHHHHH!"
The Leader was yanked off the roof and shot 200 feet into the air.
The other three Vultures stared up as their boss ascended to the heavens.
Then the rocket exploded.
BANG!
A massive golden shower of sparks illuminated the Leader Vulture, who was now dangling from a parachute that had deployed in panic. He drifted slowly across the full moon, silhouetted against the sparkles.
[THE CROWD BELOW]
The students cheered wildly.
"Look!" someone shouted. "They have a stuntman!"
"It's a Flying Ninja!"
"Class 3B went all out!"
Ms. Mai watched from the courtyard. She saw the silhouette of a man dangling in the sky.
"That's Vulture One," she noted. "A top-tier aerial assassin."
She sipped her tea.
"Sato turned him into a parade balloon."
[BACK ON THE ROOF]
The remaining three Vultures looked at Noah.
They were terrified.
He launched the Commander.
He tied him to a rocket and fired him into the stratosphere.
And he's just standing there... smiling.
Noah clapped his hands.
"Wow! That was amazing!" Noah yelled. "Your friend is really brave! I didn't know he was part of the show!"
He turned to the other three.
"Are you guys next? Do you need me to tie you to the other rockets?"
The three Vultures dropped their weapons.
"NO!" they screamed.
They ran. They jumped off the roof, deployed their wingsuits, and fled into the night, desperate to escape the "Rocket Maniac."
Noah watched them go.
"Weird," Noah said. "They left before the encore."
Lilly walked up behind him. She had watched the whole thing from behind the AC unit. She was pale.
"Noah," she whispered. "You just... fired a man."
"Yeah! It was cool, right? I tied the knot really tight so he wouldn't fall."
Lilly looked up at the sky, where the assassin was slowly drifting toward the police station.
"You saved us," she said.
"I just helped the crew," Noah shrugged. "Teamwork makes the dream work."
[CONTROL ROOM]
"Target Noah neutralized the aerial insertion team," the analyst reported, voice trembling with awe.
"Casualties?"
"One launch. Three retreats. Zero fatalities. The leader is currently stuck in a tree three blocks away."
The President laughed.
"Now he uses the sky."
"What do we class him as, Sir? Ground unit? Assassin?"
The President watched the fireworks reflect in Noah's eyes on the screen.
"Classify him as... Natural Disaster."