Back again with terrible news, I still don't own Zoids, I know this deeply affects you. ON WITH THE SHOW!(Meso is now spelled Miso)
The next morning at breakfast everybody was talking about the day before. Wolf, Mixy, Miso, and Loki were all mysteriously absent. In fact they all had seemed to disappear right after the session the day before and their absence had not gone unnoticed.
"I wonder where Wolf and them went anyways it's not like people can just disappear." Wondered Moon-Bay aloud as she sat down at the table with Van and their group.
"I know I think it's weird too," replied Van, "I think we should ask them what's up next time we see them."
"I guess that wouldn't hurt anything." Said Moon-bay eyeing a piece of toast on her plate.
It was three o' clock when they got their chance to find out where the girls had gone. Moon-bay spotted Wolf walking down the hall with Mixy and Loki. Mixy and Loki were talking and laughing, but Wolf hung back slightly staring off into space.
"Hi guys what's up?" Asked Moon-bay as they approached.
"Not much. What about your self?" Responded Mixy smiling broadly.
"I'm good. I've been meaning to ask you guys, where do you go after the sessions? I never see you around." Moon-bay seriously hoped she didn't sound stupid, but it was too late to change any impressions now.
"Uh… um… Wolf can answer that one." Loki and Mixy said in unison stepping behind Wolf.
"We leave the base, we don't work here all the time, and we have other jobs too. Plus we aren't exactly what you'd call military personal." Explained Wolf. Moon-bay could tell that she had to work hard to phrase the answer right.
"Really I didn't know that." Said Moon-bay looking rather intrigued. "Well see you around then."
"Yeah you too." Loki waved as they walked past. The conversation they had been having picked up again and Wolf was left trailing behind lost in thought.
Not long after their brief encounter with Moon-bay Wolf, Loki, and Mixy were on the stage again in front of every one. For today's session they had something special in mind.
"Alright guys for today's activity we need to go off the base so get ready for a field trip." Announced Loki looking around while Mixy and Wolf passed out maps to one person in each group and walked back.
"I think that's everyone Loki." Said Mixy as she walked over to the stage.
"Right then let's blow this Popsicle stand." Yelled Loki in response while running towards the vehicle they would be using.
A short drive later everyone was parked on a pull off near the road. They were in a remote mountain location surrounded by evergreen trees and wild bushes. Birds were flying over head singing and playing with each other. It was a beautiful scene and everyone would have been content just looking around them unfortunately that is not what Wolf, Mixy, Loki, and Miso get paid to do.(Miso just joined the group) So after they felt like everyone had a good enough stretch they began to give the details on why they were where they were.
"I hope every one had a good nights sleep because today we're hiking to Suicide Rock." Laughed Miso as she walked up to stand next to Wolf.
With out any prompting Wolf started to walk up a trail. It was beautiful trees on each side on the wide path and wonderfully scented bushes and a small stream that came from the top of the mountain ran next to the trail making a pleasant sound. Everyone was happy until about five miles up that is.
"Exactly how far away is Suicide Rock?" Panted Moon-bay when she caught up with Wolf who was in the lead with Miso and Mixy, Loki was "encouraging" people in the back to pick up the pace.
"About ten miles." Replied Wolf after looking around for a second.
"Good, only five miles to go." Sighed Moon-bay.
"Uh, no, ten more miles from here." Wolf said emphasizing the more and here parts of that sentence.
"What? Are you trying to kill us!" yelled Moon-bay jumping up in surprise.
Miso looked behind her to see the other people. "Yes and no." she smiled manically. Moon-bay dropped back to walk with Van, Hermann, and Irvine. They walked in an unhappy silence for an about two miles until Van couldn't take it anymore.
"I can't believe this! What does walking up a mountain teach us? I'm getting tired, Moon-bay, how many miles do we have left?" He groaned kicking several rocks.
"Eight I think." Stated Moon-bay dryly, "My feet hurt."
"Hurry up. My word you are an out of shape bunch. I hiked this last week and we were at the top an hour ago! Get moving! You call yourselves soldiers. I don't think so!" That was lovely Loki speeding up the slackers. She was most effective at this because she was carrying a whip like branch which she wasn't afraid to hit anyone with if she felt they weren't moving fast enough.
"I think we should speed up she's beginning to scare me." Said Moon-bay glancing back just in time to see Loki pick up a handful of rocks.
"She has a point though we're soldiers we should be able to do this no problem." Hermann sighed and shook his head. Five miles later Van was complaining again, only this time it was slightly warranted. You see the stream I mentioned earlier, well, it turns in to a river further up and it's rather noisy. And Van is about to spring a leak.
"Argh, I have to go!" Van whined hopping slightly. This continued for a while until it got so irritating that Mixy decided to take care of the problem.
"If you have to go that bad find a bush. It's not like there is a lack of those out here. So go pick one!" She screamed at him loud enough so people at the bottom in their cars could probably hear her. Van turned bright red and quietly took care of business.
Finally after a couple of hours of hiking they reached they're destination and everyone collapsed on the ground and cried. Not really, they didn't have time for that. Wolf lined them up and told them why they did the hike.
Alright, the reason we walked all the way up here is because this is where your next activity will be in fact I think Loki, Miso, and Mixy already left to set it up." Wolf paused to see if anyone had any input, there were lots.
"I thought you said the hike was the exercise!" exclaimed Van turning bright red at the thought of doing more work.
"Uh, no, Miso said we would be hiking to Suicide Rock today. Nowhere in that sentence does that say that is the activity you would be doing." Replied Wolf in a dismissive tone.
"Why didn't you tell us we were going to be doing something else then?" asked Thomas crossly. He wasn't one for physical activities and wasn't looking forward to doing anything else other than going back to the base after that hike.
"You didn't ask." Was Wolf's simple, but effective, reply.
"What was the point of the hike then? Surely we could have done this activity somewhere that doesn't require that much work to get to." Yelled Irvine. He did fine on the hike but doing something that didn't give him direct results was not something he enjoyed doing.
"There are two reasons we took that hike; the first reason is it is a beautiful walk and I enjoy it, the second I will tell you once we get back down the mountain." Sighed Wolf. Soldiers could be such babies.
Wolf's walkie-talkie crackled to life as Loki's voice came through. "Everything's set up bring them over anytime you feel like it."
"All right it seems that everything is ready. So lets get moving," Wolf looked around and then added, "it's not that far away don't worry." About one hundred and twenty feet later they were standing in front of what appeared to be a giant spider web coming off of two trees.
"What the heck is this?" gasped Van when he saw the "web".
"This," replied Miso "is you will be doing today. Take a good look at the web there are six more like it. Break up into the groups you were in yesterday and choose a web. There should be two groups per web." Miso waited for everyone to pick a web before she continued. "Okay now that that is over I want you all to find a way to get through your web with out touching the string. You can only use one hole once so when your finished sit down and relax." Everyone got started and once again what should have been a simple task turned out to be a lot harder than it sounded.
Van and Hermann's group were at one net and about half way through couldn't figure out how to get the rest through. Thomas and O'Connell's groups were together and were having similar troubles. The other groups didn't get as far before they experienced their problems, but they were relatively the same.
"Do you think we should give them some hints?" Miso asked Wolf after seeing yet another failed attempt to get through a web.
"No let them figure it out. It'll be good for them." Replied Wolf "Anyone up for a game of 'Egyptian Rat Trap'?" She asked as she pulled out a deck of cards.
"Hells yeah!" Miso, Mixy, and Loki yelled jumping up.
Two hours and fifteen games of E.R.T later Miso sat laughing and smiling. "Wow you guys suck at this!" Miso had won all fifteen games and wasn't to humble about it. "Man I rock!"
"Alright we get it!" Snapped Mixy.
"Awa, you're only sore, because I won you money." Said Miso holding ten dollars tauntingly in front of Mixy's face.
"No I'm not." Mixy spat turning around.
"I think they're done guys." Loki broke in pointing at the groups. Indeed everyone was sitting down looking rather tired and put out.
"All right men way to go you all finished. Let's go back down and we'll talk about what this was supposed to teach you at the base. How's that sound to you?" No one said anything they just took off down the trail at a flat out sprint. Laughing at their sudden burst of energy Mixy, Miso, Loki, and Wolf ran after them and what was a three hour hike up turned out to be a ten minuet sprint down. It's doubtful that everyone was even touching the ground they were going so fast.
That's it for this chapter I hope you enjoyed it. Oh I might put up the rules for Egyptian Rat Trap on my profile. I just have to remember them.