Everyone flinched and stared at Forge.
"On your mark get set go." Said Forge unenthusiastically. And then all three teams darted off different paths. A few minutes later, Jean came jogging up over the hill.
"Where's my team?" she asked.
"Let me explain the rules first." Said Forge.
MEANWHILE!!!
"I hope these tasks aren't TOO difficult!" said Evan as the Blue Team jogged down their little path. Then they came up to a sign and a huge rock off to the side of the path.
"Man, this is going to be MY task!" said Lance as he cracked his knuckles.
"Wait!" said Kitty, grabbing his arm. "Let's read the card first! It says, 'Behind this rock is a pile of rope. Someone who can walk through walls must go through the rock and retrieve the rope and bring it with you, continuing down the path.'"
"Someone who can walk through walls?" Kurt said. "That wouldn't be YOU, Kitty, would it?"
"Yeah, it's me!" said Kitty, being all proud of herself. Then she walked through the wall and returned a few seconds later looking rather disappointed. "It was just sitting there. That was a really lame challenge."
"Well you have a really lame power." Said Lance.
"LANCE!!" yelled Kitty angrily.
"Guys, guys!" said Evan. "Let's just keep going!"
MEANWHILE!!!
The Red Team was strolling nonchalantly down the path.
"Why are we strolling?" asked Scott suddenly.
"Why not?" asked Todd.
Then they started picking up the pace until they finally found a little sign in front of a huge gorge.
"It's red!" cheered St. John. "It's ours! YAY!!"
"It says, 'You will need someone who can leap across this giant gorge to press a button on the other side which will extend a bridge for the rest of the team to walk across.'" Wanda read.
"Ooh!" said Todd. "That's me! I get a task!" Then he got a big running start and leapt across the gorge but fell just short of the other side and plunged to his doom and he died. But not really. He actually made it all the way, thankfully and found the button with no trouble and pushed it. Just like the sign said, a little electronic bridge extended out and connected to the other side.
"That was easy enough." Said Wanda.
"Speak for yourself!" said Todd when everyone had gotten over to the other side.
MEANWHILE!!!
"Why, OH WHY, did Jean have to have the first task?" complained Pietro as he ran around the little area they were waiting in, standing in front of a little sign that read, "You will need someone who can fly to take you all to the top of this cliff where you will find the continuance of the path from there."
"What if Jean won't even use her power?" Rogue said, sounding annoyed.
"I don't think she would do that, chéri." Remy said.
"Will you stop speaking French?!" yelled Pietro. "I'm feeling very edgy right now and listening to you insert random words of a different language that I have to sit here and decipher isn't helping!"
Remy stared at Pietro long and hard. "Très bien." He said finally. "Mais tout I dit était chéri."
"STOP IT!!!" yelled Pietro.
Luckily, Jean came running up at that very moment.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late!" said Jean, taking a few deep breaths. "Forge had to explain all the rules to me! But thanks for waiting!"
"Aucun problème." Said Remy for the soul purpose of annoying Pietro.
"Tell him to stop speaking French!" Pietro whined.
"No!" said Jean. "French is the language of love!"
"In case you three haven't noticed, we're kind of in a race here." Said Rogue, tapping her foot. "And we have to get up this giant cliff using Jean's powers. You WILL use them, right?"
"Of course!" said Jean. "I'll use them what it's the rules! All I have to do is levitate us to the top? No problem!" Then Jean used her powers to levitate everyone to the top of the cliff. YAY!!
MEANWHILE!!!
"Look!" said Kurt. "Another sign!" This sign was in front of a large body of water with a bunch of huge rocks in the middle of it, leading like stepping-stones. "This one says, "You will need a someone who teleports. You must teleport with your entire team to each individual rock and activate a button on each one. Only when all buttons are pushed can you proceed down the path on the other side of the water.'"
"Well, Kurt, this one's like yours!" said Kitty.
"All right, guys!" said Kurt. "Grab on!" Then they all held onto Kurt as he teleported to each rock, stepping on a little button as he went along. There were about ten rocks so after a lot of teleportation, they finally landed on the other side of the water.
"I feel kinda dizzy…" said Lance.
"That wasn't too hard!" said Kurt.
"But what are we gonna have to do with this rope?" Evan wondered randomly just because he has to say at least one thing before we got to a…
MEANWHILE!!!
"What do you suppose our next task will be?" Scott wondered out loud to himself as he continued running down the path with the rest of his team. "And who do you think will have to do it?"
"WAIT!!!" St. John yelled. Everyone stopped and turned around. "I lost my lighter again!"
"You never lost it in the first place!" Todd pointed out.
"I'm holding onto it, remember?" Scott said, waving the lighter around.
"Oh right." Said St. John.
"Why were you reaching for it anyway?" asked Wanda.
"I felt like burning something." St. John answered.
"Look, here's the sign!" said Todd as he leapt ahead of everyone else and pointed to a sign. "It says, 'You will need someone who can fire a straight, steady blast. You will have to blow up a rock about thirty meters ahead to continue your journey down the path.'"
"Well I guess that's…" started Scott.
"YAY!!" cheered St. John. "I get blow stuff up!"
"It's not YOU!" said Scott. "It's ME!"
"Oh." Said St. John sadly.
They hustled about thirty meters until they came across a gigantic rock that was blocking their path.
"All right…" said Scott slowly, wondering how he could prolong this so that it wouldn't just end when he blasted the rock into smithereens. But, unable to think of something, he decided to just belt out his battle cry that he had been waiting for a perfect time to say where he could look cool in front of people. "For a better tomorrow!!" And then he blew up the rock and all the chunks flew up in the air and crashed to the ground.
Even though the other three thought that was kind of knavish, Scott thought it was cool so he strutted happily through the rubble of the killed rock.
MEANWHILE!!!
"It's been a really long time since we last had a task." Said Rogue.
"Let's bet on who will get the next one!" declared Pietro. "I bet it'll be me! What do you think guys?"
"What makes you think that?" asked Jean.
"I just KNOW it!" Pietro replied as they came up to a little man sitting at a table with a sign in front of him.
"It reads, 'Find your best card player and defeat this man in a game of poker and he will allow you to pass.'" Rogue read.
Remy sat down in the chair across from the guy. "Think you're good enough to take on Gambit?" he asked.
"Hey!" said Pietro. "Who's to say that I'M not the best card player?!"
"Pietro, be quiet." Instructed Jean.
"You ready?" said the man.
"Ready." Said Remy, pulling out a deck of cards from his pocket and shuffling them with expertise.
"This is going to take forever!" complained Pietro. "What's up with this task?! He doesn't even have to use his powers!"
So they all waited around for a while.
"I'm going to go check how far the others are!" Pietro said as he ran off at super fast speeds.
"Have you almost beaten him?" Rogue asked, looking over Remy's shoulder as he played poker intensely. She looked at his hand to see a diamond hand that was Royal Flush. "Um…why don't you just go all out and beat him now?"
"Part of the game, chéri." Said Remy. "Watching the opponent squirm."
"We don't have time for that!!" yelled Pietro as he ran back up. "The other groups are already on their way to the third task! It was bad enough that we had to wait around for Jean but now we have to sit through a card game?!"
"Très bien." sighed Remy as he put his cards down on the table to reveal his ridiculously excellent hand.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!" yelled the crazy man as he melted into a pile of goo and the chair he was sitting on disintegrated.
"Well…that worked." Said Jean. "Let's go!" And then they all continued down their path.
MEANWHILE!!!
"All right." Said Evan. "The sign says all I have to do is shoot spikes up there that are attached to ropes and we have to climb the ropes to the top."
"I am like SO not good at climbing!" whined Kitty.
"Climbing's no problem!" said Lance. "You can hang onto me, Kitty."
"Yeah right, Lance!" said Kitty. "I think I'd rather manage on my own."
"Even though I could so easily teleport to the top or climb this cliff without a rope, I don't want to risk Forge catching it on his video cameras and make us start over." Said Kurt. "But that's okay because I'm really good at climbing too since I was in the circus for my entire life."
"And I can climb too…" said Evan hesitantly because he wanted to put in a comment too. Then he shot the spikes up they attached the top of a cliff, letting the rope hang down. "I'll go first." Said Evan as he grabbed the rope and started climbing. Everyone else one by one started climbing up as well.
"This is totally way hard!" complained Kitty. "We shouldn't have to do this! Only Evan should since this is his event! There should be like a button up there that makes stairs come down or like something like that!"
"Don't worry Kitty!" said Kurt since he was above her. Then he teleported so he was on the rope underneath her. "We're right behind you! If you fall, I'll be here to catch you!"
"Thanks Kurt!" said Kitty sarcastically. Then they kept climbing and climbing until they were finally at the top. "That was TOTALLY out of line!" Kitty declared. "That should not have had to be our task! I'm telling the professor when we get back!"
MEANWHILE!!!
"How long are we going to have to do this for?" Wanda said impatiently as the Red Team trudged after St. John who was melting giant quantities of ice in front of them.
"It's some kind of never ending cavern!" Todd agreed.
"I think it's FUN!" said St. John.
"Are you sure we're supposed to be here?" Scott asked, looking back.
"Why else would there be a unnecessarily large amount of ice here for me to melt?" St. John said more to himself than to Scott.
They continued for ever so much longer.
"This is getting irritating." Said Scott, putting his hand on the rim of his sunglasses. "If only I could blast through all this ice!"
"Don't do that!" yelled Todd. "We'll have to start all over again!"
"Besides, I think we're almost out." Said Wanda, peering carefully through all the ice and seeing daylight.
Sure enough, within a few minutes, they were out of the cavern.
"Aw…no more burning stuff." Said St. John sadly as he handed his lighter over to Scott.
MEANWHILE!!!
"All right!" said Pietro as he ran up to the sign and dashed around it a couple hundred times as everyone else ran up to it. He then read it over once or twice and didn't say anything.
"What's it say?" asked Jean.
"It says, 'Find a single person who can run up the cliff you see before you. Then that person must use the power of telekinesis to lift a rock from this spot and transport to a caved in pathway and use the power to make things explosive to blow up the rocks in the way.'" Pietro read.
"So we all have to work together for this one!" said Jean happily.
"No." said Rogue. "It says a SINGLE person. I have to take all your powers and do it by myself."
Everyone stood there in silence.
"How about we drop out of the race right now?" asked Pietro. "I'd rather not go through that."
"Like you know anything happens." Said Rogue, rolling her eyes. "You're unconscious the whole time."
"Yeah, that's what I don't like." Pietro said.
"I would have to agree avec mon ami." Remy agreed. "It's never happened to me but I would like to keep it that way."
"Come on guys!" said Rogue. "Don't be such pussies!!"
"How about I run up the side of the cliff, Jean flies up there and then Remy just tosses an explosive rock up there and Jean catches it and then blows up this little cave in place?!" Pietro suggested. "You can stand idly by, Rogue."
"But this is my task!" Rogue pointed out.
"We can't cheat!" Jean said.
"And we can't be sent back to the beginning." Remy added.
"But I don't want to!" Pietro whined.
"Well neither do I." Said Rogue. "Because the last thing I want is to be inside your head."
"My head rules." Said Pietro.
Then Jean used her telepathy to secretly tell everyone to jump Pietro at the same time and then Rogue ran up and touched him and then she touched Remy and Jean too!! AND THEN SHE WAS AN ALL POWERFUL BEING WHO COULD RUN REALLY FAST AND MAKE THINGS EXPLOSIVE!!! THAT WOULD RULE!! IF ONLY SHE COULD SHAKE THE WORLD!!!!
So then she completed her task. Then came the hard part of waiting for everyone to regain consciousness, especially now that she had a piece of Pietro and she vowed that from now on, she would be a little more understanding and sympathetic of his extreme impatience and ADHD.
MEANWHILE!!!
"All right!" said Lance, running up to a huge rock with a sign in front of it. "Finally I get to shake the world!"
"Is it just me or are we encountering a whole lot of huge rocks?" said Kurt.
"We are." Evan said.
"So all I have to do is destroy this huge rock?" Lance said, sounding somewhat disappointed.
The other three took a few steps backwards as they heard the electric guitar music and Lance started shaking the world with his eyes rolled back in his head!! But then there was a flash of light and everyone found themselves standing at the bottom of the mountain with Forge standing in front of them.
"Why are we back here?" asked Kitty.
"Maybe we won!" said Kurt. "We finished all our tasks!"
"Negative!" said Forge. "Did you read the sign?"
The four looked at each other.
"Did you or did you not read the sign?" Forge said, putting his hands on his hips.
"We didn't…" said Evan.
"If you HAD, then you would have seen that for that task, you merely had to hold onto Kitty's hands and walk through the rock to the other side." Forge said.
"What?!" demanded Lance. "It was my turn! Kitty already did something!"
"Who said there was a task for each person?!" Forge said. "Did I say that? Did I say that? I don't remember saying that. I don't think I said that. So what are you four doing standing around here?! Everyone's getting to the top while you're staying here talking to me!"
"Let's go!!" said Kurt as the four of them started off down their path again.
MEANWHILE!!!
"Hm…when do you suppose our next…" started Scott but then he spotted a sign. "Ah! Here it is! It says, 'Work as a team to fight the Yeti. Everyone must have a turn.'"
"A yeti?" said Todd but as soon as he said that, a big hairy yeti jumped out from a bush and started frothing and growling and snarling.
"Okay, we have to make sure everyone does something to kill the yeti." Said Scott.
"FIGHT the yeti, not KILL the yeti." Said the yeti.
"Oh, my bad." Said Scott, rereading the sign. "All right, Todd, you spit slim at him, St. John, you singe him, Wanda, you do whatever you do and then I'll finish him off by blasting him off!"
"It's FIGHT the yeti!" said yeti.
"Fine!" Scott. "We'll fight the yeti and then when he dies we'll…"
"FIGHT THE YETI!!!" screamed the whole team and the yeti.
"WHATEVER!!!" yelled Scott.
"Here, I'll bargain with you." Said the yeti suddenly. "You all use your powers and create a spectacular lightshow and I'll say that you hit me and defeated me. Just don't blast me with anything or hurt me."
"Mr. McCoy, is that you?" said Scott.
"Uh…No!" said the yeti, thumping around. "I'm a horrible yeti!!"
"All right guys…let's…uh…FIGHT the yeti!" declared Scott. Then the group shot their powers off in random direction until the yeti randomly clutched his heart and collapsed.
"I am defeated!" said the yeti.
"A+ performance, Mr. McCoy." Said Scott.
"Thanks Scott." Said the yeti. "I mean…I'm a yeti! Now pass before I decide that I am not defeated! The goal is just a little further!"
"All right!" said St. John AND Wanda since they haven't said anything yet as everyone ran past the yeti.
MEANWHILE!!!
"We made it!!" said Jean as the four of them ran to the top. "Look, there's a sign here! It says, 'Find someone who is really fast to go down and retrieve a key from Forge to open this box which will have the clue to your next Checkpoint in it.'
"I'm there!" said Pietro, dashing off.
Just then, the Red Team came barreling around the corner since there are corners on mountains.
"YEAH!!" cheered St. John. "We're at the top!!"
"We're not first but we're still here!" said Scott.
"Actually, we still have to complete a task." Said Jean. "So technically, you ARE first."
"Don't say that!" said Rogue.
"So we ARE first!" said Todd. "Look, here's the directions to the next Checkpoint! See ya!"
"Hey look!" said St. John, picking up a pile of clothing. "Red Team costumes and hats and all other red accessories!"
"As if this couldn't get any dorkier." Said Wanda.
"And look, here are some green ones for us!" said Jean.
"Let's go!" said the Red Team as they grabbed their directions and boarded the helicopter that was supplied for them since they came in first place.
"What's taking Pietro so long?!" said Rogue. "I thought he was fast!"
MEANWHILE!!!
"And that's when he told me that mind and soul is one." Said Forge as he fished around in one of the drawers in the desk that all his television camera things sat on. "But then I corrected his grammar and told him that mind and soul ARE one."
"Have you found it yet?!" Pietro demanded.
"Not yet." Said Forge. "I just can't remember where I put that key!"
He stood there thinking for a minute.
"I don't have all day!!" yelled Pietro.
"Well obviously not!" said Forge. "You're in a RACE!! Oh wait…I remember now! I put it in my pocket!" Then he pulled a key out of his pocket and handed it to Pietro. Pietro grabbed the key and left without saying thank you.
Then he ran ALL the way back up the mountain but it really only took him less than a second.
"All right!" said Pietro. "I got the key!" Then they unlocked the box and got their directions. And they also took their awesome green costumes and began descending the mountain but there were stairs on the other side so it wasn't hard or anything. All of a sudden, Kurt came out of nowhere.
"Aw man…" he said and then teleported away back to where his group was. "I saw the green team up there…and the helicopter's gone so the red team probably was up there before them."
"Weak man!" said Evan.
"So what are we waiting for?!" demanded Lance. "Let's climb this stupid rope AGAIN and keep going!"
MEANWHILE!!!
"Our directions said that we should just come to you for the clue to the next checkpoint." Said Scott.
"Yup." Said Forge as he pulled out two sets of handcuffs and linked Scott and St. John.
"Hey, what gives?!" demanded St. John and Scott.
"You two are having a little bit of controversy." Said Forge. "So, in order to build better teamwork, you two will be handcuffed together until you reach the next checkpoint. Since you came in first, it is only two of being handcuffed together."
"Wow, thanks." Said Scott.
"So, your next checkpoint is in France." Said Forge, giving them a slip of paper. "You can take your complimentary helicopter there. It will be annoying, but you will get there eventually."
"ALL RIGHT!!!" cheered the Red Team as they all leapt into the helicopter and took off just as the Green Team came running down the mountain.
"Welcome back!" said Forge.
"We have to come to you for directions?" said Jean.
"Well duh." Said Forge as he whipped out two pairs of handcuffs and linked Pietro, Remy and Rogue together so that Pietro was in the middle!!
"What is this?!" Pietro said immediately as he started fidgeting and moving around in attempt to get free of the handcuffs that imprisoned him so. "I can't get loose! I can't get loose!"
Rogue and Remy only looked at Forge with skeptical glares.
"Since you came in second, three of you have to be handcuffed together and you get a car as opposed to a helicopter." Forge explained. "Since you three are the most controversial out of the four of you. Actually…really, Pietro's the only controversial one so I put him in the middle and Jean's just such a team player than I didn't think she deserved to be…"
"All right, we get it." Said Remy.
"Okay, here's your car!" said Forge, stepping aside. "Go on off to France!" Then Jean climbed into the driver's seat and everyone else got in the back since they were handcuffed together.
MEANWHILE!!!
"Okay." Said Evan as the Blue Team came running up to the rock that they had previously tried to shake the world to get rid off. "All we have to do is walk through this and we'll be at the top."
They all grabbed Kitty's hands and frolicked through the rock and then stumbled across the peak of the mountain where they discovered little blue uniforms they could wear as well as a piece of paper that told them to go and see Forge!!
So, instead of climbing down all the stairs, Kurt just teleported them to the bottom where Forge was waiting.
"Welcome back!" said Forge as he handcuffed them all together in a line that went Lance, Kitty, Evan, Kurt. "Sorry but you're in last place."
"Why'd you handcuff us together?!" demanded Lance.
"It's your punishment for coming in last." Forge replied. "Your next checkpoint is in France. Here's the car you have been supplied with." He paused. "Oh and by the way…if any of you break your handcuffs, go through your handcuffs or teleport out of your handcuffs then you will be penalized for breaking the rules."
They all hopped in the car. Since Kurt was on the end, he got the drive and everyone else had to squish next to him.
