"A-Army guys!" Tae yelled. "We have to get out of here!"
"Army guys?" Jake asked.
"Lets go!" Tae yelled running to the back of the Inn. "They've prob'ly already surrounded us!"
Raye pulled a pistol out of his shorts. "Ok lets go."
Jake chuckled as they ran toward the back door. "I figured your dad would give you a gun."
Raye smiled, "I've known how to use one since I could hold it."
As the three boys bust through the inn's back door they were indeed greeted by "army guys".
"Well, well." One of them spoke. "Looks like we have a buncha kids trying to start up an Inn."
"He's speaking english!" Tae said in horror.
Raye stood in front of his two friends, ignoring his friend's stupid remark. "We were just staying the night before we go looking for a village."
The man chuckled. "Ok then, how did you guys end up in the middle of no where?" he asked.
"We were on a field trip, and our shuttle crashed on the coast not far from here. Our whole class except us three were killed."
Jake and Tae looked down sadly to hopefully help confirm this story. They were amazed that their friend had changed the story around a bit to sound more realistic.
The soldier who had taken over the responsibility of interrigating the three teenagers stepped up to them and shined a flashlight in each of their faces.
They squinted against the light and pondered on what he could be looking for.
"Hm, well it seems your story is right." the man spoke. "You have scratches and cuts. You better come a long with me then, we'll get you all some food and a warm place to sleep, then give you a lift to the town in the morning."
Raye smiled. "Thats awful kind of you sir." he said.
The man smiled. "Think nothing of it, now grab your belongings and follow me and my men."
Jake smiled to Raye as they walked inside the Inn once again. "Wow you did a great job." he said.
Raye grinned, "What can I say? I have brilliant parents."
Tae was almost in tears. "Food..we're gonna get food."
A short few minutes later the three boys were seated on the back of a large jeep the wind whipping their hair in all sorts of directions.
"Sorry we scared ya back there!" the soldier who had first talked to them yelled.
Tae waved his hand as he munched on some trail mix. "Aw you didn't scare me. I just wanted to make sure you hadn't hurt my friends that's all."
The man grinned and ruffled Tae's hair. "Right."
~*~*~*~*
The ride to the soldier's camp was no more then ten minutes and the boys were cleaned, fed, and given warm beds to rest in for the night as soon as they arrived.
"Be prepared to get up bright and early tomorrow." the soldier had told them.
The three boys had nodded and then climbed into their designated tent, and climbed into their bunks. Even with all the excitement that had happened in one day neither of the boys could go to sleep.
"I don't like this." Raye whispered over to Jake.
Jake nodded, "Check your clothes they gave you."
Tae blinked as the two boys began searching the pants they were wearing.
"You guys should know where THAT is." He joked.
Jake glared at him, "Tae that was stupid, now look in your clothes for some kind of listening device."
"I found one." Raye said pointing. "It may cause an alarm if I try and take it off, but I know how to shut it off."
"Then just do that."
Raye nodded and turned a dial over some shutting off the tiny round device. The boys waited in silence for a few moments to see if they could hear any sort of alarm.
"Alright way to go Ray-man!"
Raye chuckled as he reached over and high fived his friend's outstretched hand.
"Hey do you guys think they're part of that organization that took our parents?" Jake whispered.
Tae and Raye immediatly stopped joking around and looked to Jake.
"I suppose they could be." Tae said in a serious tone, which was rarely ever heard.
"Yea," Raye agreed. "I mean why were they all the way out here anyway?"
"They prob'ly expected to find gundams..." Jake thought aloud. "And when they saw us, they knew how young our parents were when they were gundam pilots, so they put that device on you to see if it was true or not!"
Raye motioned for him to keep his voice down. "Well now that we have figured that out, lets get some sleep, i'll have an idea by morning."
~*~*~*~*~
The sun had just started peaking over the horizon, when Raye started to shake his two friends awake.
"Come on wake up!" he whispered. "I have a plan."
Jake mumbled something like "Those were good pancakes mom" before he was shaken awake.
"What huh?" He said yawning.
Tae had already sat up his rather long brown hair pointing in every direction.
"I have a plan." Raye repeated. "Are you listening?"
The two boys nodded.
"Alright then! When we get into town we'll pack up with supplies and then follow them to their hideout."
"But what about our-" Tae tried to ask but he was cut short by a loud whistle.
"Well we better get dressed. That's the breakfast whistle." Jake muttered. "My dad liked to use that a lot."
Once the boys had donned their new some what baggy military clothing, and had packed their tattered old ones they strode out of the tent and toward the mess tables.
"No wonder why they call it the mess hall." Tae muttered. "It's truly a mess."
The son of Duo was indeed right. The tables were piled high with dirty dishes and a few hundred men sat around eating and talking at the same time.
"I thought the military was supposed to be dignified." Raye said scrunching up his nose as he reached for an untouched plate.
Jake shrugged, "Not when they're eating. They don't have to be."
"Well good morning to young boys."
The three of them turned in unison to see the soldier they had talked to last night.
"Good morning sir." Tae saluted.
The man grinned, "I really like you boy. You'd make a fine soldier."
Tae laughed. "I don't think I could ever manage a big mobile suit." he said.
The soldier looked at him a bit more before chuckling. "It only takes a bit of practice, and besides it's not like you would use a gundam."
Tae blinked. "A gundam sir?"
"Don't tell me you don't know what a gundam is." The man blinked.
Jake grinned, "They're the legendary mobile suits that ended the war between the space colonies and Earth."
The soldier patted Jake's head, "That's right young'n."
Tae blinked again still acting confused, "I guess I must have fallen asleep during that lesson." he said.
Raye shook his head, "This loon is always falling asleep in class. By the way sir we never caught your name."
The man placed a hand behind his head and laughed, "I never told yer? I'm sorry, my name is Hower, Colonel Hower."
"Well it's nice to meet you." Raye said extending his hand. "I'm John."
Jake looked to Raye with a questioning look but then caught on to his little scheme. "I'm Will." he said.
"I'm Tim." Tae said through a mouthful of grits and biscuit.
"It's nice to meet you all." the Colonel said. "Now finish eating and then we'll give you a lift into town."
"Will?" Tae whispered to Jake. "Is that the best you could come up with?"
Jake swallowed his sausage and whispered back. "Yea, TIM it was."
Tae frowned, "I have an uncle named Tim."
~*~*~*~*~
The Jeep roared on down the dirt road with the three boys clinging on to the back.
"This guy drives like a maniac!!" Raye yelled to Tae.
Tae nodded and accidentily hit his head on the jeep as it flew over a bump.
"Isn't this awesome?!" Jake said laughing. He had obviously ridden like this before because he knew the exact way to hang on without falling off, or getting his head banged agaisnt something.
"Maybe to you since your mom drives like this!" Raye yelled.
Jake grinned and made a peace sign. "It's the only way to drive!!"
The jeep flew over another bump sending Tae flying into Jake's lap, but then the Jeep skidded to halt sending the poor boy fying into the front seat.
"Ow.." he groaned.
The colonel blinked. "You alright son?"
Tae sat up and climbed out. "Yea I'm fine. Tell your buddy there to get a license..."
Jake patted his friend on the back. "If you had stayed in my lap a moment longer you would have had a fist in your face." He said.
Tae rubbed the back of his head, "So you're saying this is better?"
Raye chuckled. "Ok you guys lets go get geared up."
After saying their goodbyes to the Colonel the three teens walked into a general store and looked around.
"How are we supposed to buy stuff?" Jake asked.
Raye pulled out some dollar bills. "With this. I read on the sign back there that this place takes Space currency."
Tae smiled, "How much do you have?"
"Around 10 teer."
"That's it?" Jake sighed. "That's only like 5 dollars in Earth money."
Raye shrugged, "It's all we got."
For the next thirty minutes the boys shopped around trying not to spend all their money, but also trying to get enough supplies to last them awhile.
The ended up succeeding and they walked out with a bag full of food and some first aid stuff.
"Ok now what?" Tae asked.
"We go after them." Raye said pointing down the road.
"You're forgetting one thing." Jake said. "Our gundams."
"They'd be too big and noisy."
"I know, but what are we going to do once we reach the base?"
"Sneak in and save our parents."
"Then how do we escape?"
Raye thought for a moment, and sighed. "Alright lets go back and get them."
"Wait!" Tae called after them. "I remember during the briefing the gundams gave us that they have some kind of distress call thing."
Raye blinked. "How does it work?"
Tae pulled out a button thing out of his pocket. "You just press this button and then lock in the position and the gundams will come!"
Jake gave Tae a noogie. "Great job!"
Tae shoved him off and straightened his hair. "See I don't always fall asleep."
"Well lets get moving then." Raye said.
Jake and Tae nodded following Raye down the dirt road toward the military base that hopefully was keeping their parents.