Authors Note/Disclaimer: I don't own WA3, it belongs to Media Vision/Sony.

The fourth month is here, but don't start rejoicing just yet. I know I said I snuck some seriousness into one of my previous chapters, but this one is the most serious chapter of this humour fic I've written so far, even after I rewrote the more serious part to make it sillier. I appologize for it not being as funny as normal, but I promise the next chapter will be back to the utter silliness. And I do mean silly. Hee hee hee... Oh, and for those of you who don't remember, David is the boy from Ballack Rise, not one of my characters.

Month Four: The Mission

"I cannot believe you talked me into this," grumped Clive as he and the other three members of the Maxwell gang galloped through the desert, following Annette back to her hometown. "I should be at home making sure nothing is happening that could harm Catherine."

"For the guardian's sake, Clive! Catherine is a big girl and can take care of herself!" Virginia shot back with a scowl. Clive had been grumping about the same thing ever since they'd left Humphrey's Peak. She was growing tired of listening to him. "If you keep this up, I'll feed you to the monster myself!"

"Yeah, she'll be find, Clive, you'll see. Kaitlyn and David will make sure she's all right," added Gallows.

X X X

"Mommy, I'm going out to play with David, okay?"

Catherine looked up from where she was sitting reading a book. "Be back by sundown."

"Yes, mommy!" And Kaitlyn was off, out the door. Catherine smiled.

"The house to myself for the rest of the day. This is so nice." Propping her feet up on the coffee table, Catherine returned her attention to her novel.

X X X

Clive just hmphed and crossed his arms, so the others ignored him. "What do you suppose this creature is?" asked Gallows.

"How should I know?" snapped Jet, "Annette didn't exactly tell us much, did she?"

"I guess we'll see when we get there, won't we?" snapped Virginia, doubly annoyed now. Gallows and Jet glared at each other.

Annette fell back to trot beside the young leader. "We're almost to the town. The monster is nocturnal, so we don't have to worry about it coming out to greet us."

Virginia nodded and they rode on in almost complete silence until they reached Little Rock a short time later. Annette and the team dismounted and tied their horses on the hitching post outside the saloon. "So, what now? We just wait for the monster to come out and deal with it?" asked Jet.

"Essentially, yes." Annette turned and began walking towards her shop. "Well, I have to get back to work. There's still time before the monster returns, so you could always waste it at the saloon. Bye, and thank you once more."

"No problem!" smiled Virginia. She turned around to face her teammates and groaned. Clive and Gallows had both already disappeared inside. She grabbed a somewhat startled Jet by the arm and dragged him inside, too. "Come on, let's go," she grumbled.

Once inside, they joined the other two men at the table they'd taken over. Virginia noted that Clive, unlike Gallows, already had a drink in front of him. And by the smell of it, she guessed it was something particularly strong.

"Clive, are you moping?" she snapped. "It's starting to get on my nerves!"

"Would you perfer me to be a grumpy bundle of nerves on the battle field? No? Then please let me be," was his reply.

She glared at him, saying nothing for a long while before sighing. "Fine, whatever." But she didn't stop firing acid looks in his direction, which he returned just as readily.

Gallows grabbed Jet and pulled the boy aside, away from the two grumpy party members and whispered in his ear. "Is it just me, or do those two seem to be fighting a lot lately?"

"Maybe Virignia's PMSing. I don't know, nor do I really care. I just want to stop this monster and collect the reward."

Gallows laughed. "Glad to see you're still acting normal."

"Whatever."

X X X

Dusk couldn't have come any sooner for Jet. According to the townsfolk, the sun went down, the monster came out. Not only that, but Clive and Virginia had been at each other's throats for the remainder of the day, and it was beginning to grate even on him. They sat at the makeshift barrier the townspeople had built to keep the monster out, waiting for it to show it's ugly face. Clive hiccupped and Virginia shot him a death glare.

"I am not drunk!" he insisted. Jet was sure that was a lie. He'd watched the older man down drink after drink of the hardest stuff Von would serve him for the last few hours. He was certian no one on Filgaia had that kind of tolerance.

Jet didn't understand the need some people had to drink. He'd heard some people claim it calmed them down, but if Clive, who was obviously a nervous wreck, was any example, then that was a lie, too. He was beginning to think it was wrong to have dragged the older man out to Little Rock. Virginia should have let him stay home with his wife. Everyone would be happier, and Kaitlyn and David could have kept up the vigil on Clive.

But there was nothing to be done for it now. Jet perked up as the guard from Little Rock, Kovahn, spoke. "Look over there. I think it's coming."

Clive lifted his ARM and looked through his scope at the distant figure.

"..." he said.

"What? What is it?" asked Virginia.

Clive looked over at her, rolling his eyes. "It's a trilobite."

"It's bigger than normal!" protested Kovahn. "And faster. Don't underestimate it, it's dangerous!"

"Yeah, it is bigger," muttered Clive, "by about two inches."

"Oh, who cares? Let's just kill it, get paid, and get the hell out of here." With that, Jet stood and headed off to face the monster. The others hastened to catch up, and soon the creature was within firing range. They found out the hard way that Kovahn wasn't lying about it being faster than normal as it continuously dodged their attacks, snapping back in counter. Clive tried his Lock On skill, and missed. Virginia lept upon that in a second.

"Not drunk, huh!? How do you MISS with LOCK ON!?" she yelled. Clive just shrugged, a goofy grin on his face and passed out. Virginia resisted the urge to kick him as Jet took care of the trilobite with his Accelerator skill. With an irritated sigh, he ignored the others and headed back to town. They followed shortly after him, Gallows carrying Clive on his back, as the passed out sniper snored obnoxiously.

X X X

"Urgh..."

"Finally coming around, huh?"

Clive opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times, the pain in his head temporaroly causing him to forget that he required his glasses to bring focus to his world. But he still knew who the three fuzzy shapes before him were. "...hello...why does my head hurt so much?"

"Don't you remember?" came Virginia's sarcastic reply.

Clive made an effort to sit up, clutching at his head and groped about for his glasses. "If I did, do you think I would be asking?" Finding the truant glasses, he slid them on.

Virginia didn't answer him. "Well, we should be heading back to Humphrey's Peak now that we're all up."

It was still a few minutes before Clive joined everyone else outside as Kovahn met up with them. "Thank you for stopping the monster. As we agreed, here's your reward." Jet snatched the bag from the man and peered inside.

"...200 gella? That's it?"

Kovahn sweatdropped, scratching at the back of his head. "We don't have a lot to offer..."

"That's plenty, really," Virignia assured him as Gallows and Clive took Jet firmly by each arm and led the boy from town.