I'm BAAAAACK! Same excuse as always, college is a bitch. So let's not dawdle any longer, on with the show!

Day one

The black forest is a sprawling, mountainous landscape that stretches all the way to the German/French border. To say it's easy to get lost in this forest is like saying that the boston strangler was a bit of a loon. And, as our heroes soon found out, they couldn't just go a mile or two out from the castle and just wait there. No, that would be too easy, so Cobalt released some of her more…wily plants out into the immediate area around the forest. Luckily, the eds realized this before they were scooped up and eaten. One of the other recruits, however, wasn't so lucky.

After an hour of running, where the sun had started to set against the landscape, causing most of the forest to go pitch black as if it were the middle of the night, the eds finally decided to stop to catch their breath. "Jesus," Eddy said in between heavy pants. "What the hell is wrong with these people?"

"I've heard of survival of the fittest," Double d chimed in. "But this is psychotic."

Ed fell flat on his back upon the grass. "Tired…" he grunted before drifting off to sleep.

The other two eds watched their snoring friend and sighed. "We probably should get some rest," Said Double d, who rubbed his eyes. "We have a long week ahead of us." Double d laid himself against a tree and attempted to get some sleep. When he didn't hear Eddy stirring on the ground, he opened one eye to see him looking out through the brush. "Not tired?"

"I'll uh, keep watch," Eddy said, looking back at his friend. "You get some rest, I'll go to sleep in a minute."

"If you say so." With that, Double d shut his eyes to go back to sleep. Eddy sat on a large root and kept watch. He was just as tired as the other two, but he also knew they couldn't let down their guard, not even for a second.

Meanwhile…

On a faraway cliff stood two lone figures, watching the contractors moving throughout the forest with binoculars. One was a girl not much older than the eds, but her eyes carried a deadly precision that carefully watched each of the students. The other figured was concealed in a black overcoat and wide brimmed hat. "Look at them," said the girl. "Scurrying like ants. This'll be easy."

"Your confidence is admirable, Ms. Mimi, if misguided," said the cloaked figure. "Do not underestimate any of them. If they are here, then they are trained killers who will grant you no quarter. Kill them all, without mercy."

"That's what you hired me for, isn't it?" asked Mimi. "Rest assured, the Knives of Ceaser do not disappoint. They will be dead before the week is done."

"Then see to it," said the figure. "My employer does not tolerate failure. If they do not kill you, you will wish they did." In the blink of an eye, the figure was gone.

Day two

The eds took shifts throughout the night, each watching for anyone approaching while the other two slept. A few hours before the sun came up, Eddy woke up his two friends and they headed out. "So, what's the plan?" asked Double d.

Eddy turned around. "Why are you asking me?"

"You're the man with the plan, if I remember correctly."

Eddy sighed. Curse his ego. "Well, first things first, we need to find one of those supply caches Seraphim talked about. I'm willing to bet there's food in there, or at least the means to get food."

"Sounds like a plan," Double d said with a shrug.

"Tally ho!" Ed shouted. Ed snatched up Eddy and Double d and bounded in a random direction into the forest.

The three traveled for about two hours. They didn't really have any direction, but they at lest had a goal; find supplies. However, as time drew on, and their search bore no fruit, they grew in hunger. "It's no use," Double d said. "We'll never find those supply caches before we starve to death."

"What do we do?" asked Ed.

"We'll have to get the food the old fashioned way," said Eddy.

"Oh, joy," Double d said, taking a gulp.

Meanwhile…

Mimi leapt from tree to tree, the only sound made by her movements being the light rustling of the branches. In the brush below, she saw her prey stumbling through the forest. He was panicked, irrational. She couldn't blame him, as she had already killed his two teammates and propped them up in the perfect "serial killer victims menagerie" way that practically guaranteed darkened jeans. The dumbass stopped to catch his breath, leaning against a tree. A toothy smirk crawled across Mimi's face as she peered down at the sheep below. The guy had found a gun earlier on a hidden package, which he whipped around at the tree line. "Who the hell are you?!" he shrieked.

Mimi hopped onto the tree he was leaned against, still out of his sight. She giggled, throwing her voice around the forest to throw him off. "Someone who was expecting more of a challenge than this," she said. "You won't believe the amount of zeroes that were on the check offered to me to kill you all. I at least expected you to know how to use a gun."

"You-you're an assassin?" he asked.

"I'm a professional." With that, she held out her arm, aimed at the poor sap's head. A small pistol then slid out of her sleeve, which she then clasped. In one small pressure on the trigger, she had officially eliminated one of the teams. "Shame you couldn't say the same…"

One team down, three to go…

Meanwhile…

Double d took a damp cloth and rubbed it against Eddy's bleeding forehead, while Ed mounted the rabbit, tied to a stick, over a decently sized fire. They had managed to catch themselves some dinner, but not before Mr. Bunny had caused Eddy to trip and fall head first into a large bramble patch and give himself a bad konk on the head along with the painful stings. Eddy narrowed his eyes at the cooking rabbit. "Yeah, that's right Mr. Bun bun. Burn," he said.

"Perhaps next time you'll think twice before jumping towards anything while on the edge of a small cliff," said Double D. "or any kind of cliff for that matter."

Eddy stuck out his tongue at his friend before going back to watching the rabbit cook.

The three sat in silence, even when eating. They didn't want to make too much noise, and potentially alert a rival team that may be nearby to their presence. However, the silence was broken by something far different. The eds perked up when they heard the rustling of leaves and the clumsy stomping of boots. They scrambled for anything that could be used as a weapon. Ed grabbed a large stone from the ground, Double d grabbed a smaller stone and stepped back with intention to snipe their potential attacker, and Eddy grabbed a still flaming stick from the fire and pointed it out at the darkness.

Someone did step from the shadows, but he wasn't a threat. One of the other would-be recruits stumbled out from the darkness, his face dripping with blood, and clutching a limp arm, snapped in two. The man slumped to the ground and fell on his face. The eds immediately dropped their weapons (Eddy of course laying the stick back into the fire) and ran to his side, pulling him up and laying him against a nearby tree. "Hey, buddy, can you talk?" asked Eddy.

The man coughed up a bit of blood before looking up at them. "B-just barely, but yeah-I-I can talk."

"What happened to you?" asked Double d, trying hard not to gag at the sight of the man's shattered arm, which was still bleeding profusely.

"Assa-*cough*-assassin, in the woods," he said through a bleeding mouth. "Hunted us all down like animals. D-don't know how many she's gotten so far, but she got my team…"

"Is this Zephyr's idea of a test?!" Double d asked, backing into a tree. "I know he's looking for the best, but this is absolutely insane!"

"T-that's just it, though," said the man. "I don't think she's with Zephyr. I'm from the mafia, and trust me, you can tell when your boss sends someone to kill you."

Eddy turned to Double d. "Sockhead, he's hurt pretty bad," he said.

"W-what do you want me to do?"

"Well you're the doctor's kid, you must know something!"

Double d gulped, took a deep breath, and then huffed before walking back to the man. "W-we need to splint this arm," he said, his voice shaky, but determined. "Ed, tear off a bit of your coat." Ed did just that and handed it to the sockhead, who took two sticks and used the cloth to tie the sticks to the man's broken arm, splinting it straight. Double d grabbed the damp cloth from before and cleaned off the man's face. "Okay, Ed, pick him up and take him to the fire." Ed nodded, grabbed the stranger and carried him to the fireside.

The man shivered by the fire while the eds sat next to him. "Wh-why are you…helping me?"

"Hey, strength in numbers, right?" asked Eddy with a sheepish grin. "Rest up, because we're probably gonna have to get moving pretty soon. If you just got away, she probably won't be far behind."

The man nodded. "Probably a good idea."

"By the way, what's your name, stranger?" Eddy asked

"Dick," he replied. "Dick Sullivan."

Eddy smirked, pointing his thumb towards himself. "I'm Eddy," he said, pointing at the others. "That's Double D, and Ed." Dick nodded at the three in acknowledgement.

Meanwhile…

Mimi hopped form branch to branch, scanning the scenery with her night vision goggles. She stopped on a perch to more thoroughly scan the area. Just as she was about to quit, though, something caught her eye. She zoomed in on a patch of ground to get a closer look at a blotch of something on the dirt. It was blood. Someone had been bleeding here. And if she was a betting girl (which she was) it was the one that got away. She scanned for more bloodstains nearby. It took a minute or two, but she found the trail. With a devilish smirk, she continued through the forest towards her target. Who knows, this mistake might've been a blessing in disguise.

He just might lead her to the rest of her prey.