The team had made it into space the ship no longer going overdrive and in a pace that everyone was comfortable in now. Bernie was able to calm right away but Flo shook a little saying "I don't think I'll ever get used to that." She shook a bit and Clutch said "Maybe you should go relax in one of the bunkers for a bit. You should feel better soon." She nodded shakily as she stumbled off to the back.

Once gone the three glared at Brick who said "What? She needs to get used to it." They all ground at this. Clutch said "Okay we have a new teammate. Who knows nothing about this type of work and we have to train her as fast as we can before we reach a jungle planet with wild animals and a mad scientist. Any ideas?"

Bernie raised his hand excitedly saying "Oh I have an idea. Didn't Artie add a simulation room. We could all train there and get Flo ready for the mission." Peg said "Good idea Bernie. It's the perfect place to start." Brick then said "Let's just hope the kid can keep up." Clutch said "She did when she helped you out." Brick mumbled at that as Peg suddenly yawned saying "Well it's been a long day. We should get some rest before training." They all nodded and headed to the bunkers as well.

Later on Clutch was in the back screen room looking at his dad's diary and looking up whatever he could find, any clue at all to where his father could be. "Still researching I see." Clutch was startled as he looked back saying "Oh Peg hi. What are you doing up already?"

Peg then said "Same as you I suppose. Wondering about certain things in my life." She laid back against the table as she said "Find any clues?" he shook his head saying "Sadly no. Hopefully this next mission gives me another. I'm glad he's alive and that is enough to know now, but I feel that I should be doing something to find him."

Peg said as she looked down sadly "We're all feeling like that I suppose. Like there's something else we should be doing." Clutch raised a brow at that and said "Are you okay Peg? You sound a little sad, doesn't look good on you." Peg sighed saying "I'm okay physically Clutch but, sigh, my hearts a different matter."

"What do you mean? Does this have something to do with you and Bernie? I thought you two were doing great?" Peg looked him in the eyes saying "And we are. Bernie's a great guy. He listens to me, is sweet, and respectful. Things any girl would love in a man. But, I don't know clutch, something's missing. There's no spark for me. Things were great at first but now. I don't know what happened. I suddenly found that, we're not the best for each other."

Clutch then said "Maybe it's just a faze. Or maybe you should talk to him about it. Don't hold it in Peg." He strangely then put his hand over hers and said "I would know. Sometimes it's good to get thing like this out." Peg smiled at this and said "Thanks Clutch. But I think I should wait till after the mission. I don't want to hurt his feelings, he's so sensitive."

Clutch looked down sadly as he pulled his hand away surprising Peg saying "Yeah he is. I don't want to hurt him either. After the mission would be better. But we have a couple of days. You could talk to him." Peg shook her head saying "No Clutch we have to concentrate on training Flo. After, please, don't say anything."

He nodded saying "I'm your friend Peg I won't." She nodded and headed off to the front. Once gone Clutch looked at his hand sadly and said "Bernie's a good friend. I can't do that to him." And so he went back to looking over his father's diary.

Later on the rest of the team had woken up. Bernie yawned as he came to the front and said "Guten tag (Good Day). Everyone sleep well?" They all nodded at this and Flo added "Who knew spaceship bunkers where so comfy." Bernie then said "I know Artie did a good job on those." He looked to see Peg was looking over some numbers on her screen and said as he came up as he gave a small kiss on her cheek saying "Do you need any help lieben (Love)."

Peg was a little shocked as she "Oh no thanks Bernie I got that." Bernie raised a brow at this. Usually they enjoy working together even on small math problems but only said "Oh well okay Peg. I'll just work on a project while we wait to get there. Something that might help us for the fight ahead." Brick then said "Well while you get that done I'm taking the kid to the holo room for some sparring."

Flo said sarcastically "Oh joy." Cltuch then said "Don't worry I'll come along and make sure he doesn't get out of hand." Flo then said "Thanks." And so everyone headed off to do their own thing.

The three heading to the holographic room entered a small white room. Brick said "So how do we work this thing." Clutch came up to some hidden remotes on the wall and asked "Any particular setting?" Flo said "How about a jungle since that's where we're going to be fighting." Brick said "Hey I'm in charge so I give the orders. Put in on jungle setting since that's where we're heading."

The two groaned at that but Clutch started up the sequence. Soon they found themselves in a lush tropical rain forest. Brick whistled saying "Not bad." Flo said "This is kind of freaky. It looks way to real." Clutch shrugged saying "They do what they can back at base. Now let's start with some basic hand to hand, then we'll work our way up to weapons." Brick said "Hey I'm the couch and ….." "Yeah yeah!" they both said as they got into fighting positions. Brick said "Fine you teach her and I'll watch."

Clutch smirked saying "A thanks buddy I needed a work out." The two practiced for a while, it seemed Flo knew the basics of fighting, punch kick and avoid being hurt at all cost, she could block pretty well and gave a nasty punch but she was smaller than the others so she didn't have the same amount of strength and she lacked experience. She could be pushed down even if she did end up struggling free with a precise hit, but she had trouble at some points in escape.

After a while Brick came up saying "You got the basics down kid but you'll need more than that to survive these missions. You need to learn how to overpower your opponent." Clutch then said "That may be difficult for her since she's not used to this kind of stuff. You can probably out think your opponents though. Try using anything around you this time." She nodded as Brick got into a battle stance.

The guy was much larger then Clutch and she felt a bit nervous about this, but as he attacked Flo turned grabbed some racks and chucked them at him "Ow ow hey!" he ran at her but she threw a rock high up hitting the top of the tree, Brick yelling "Ha miss….." he didn't get to finish his sentence as some fruit fell on him "Arg!"

Clutch laughed at this and said "Okay I think she gets it." Brick growled saying "Yeah, yeah. We'll take a break; I need to get this gunk off anyway. Then we'll work on your weapon skills." She smiled saying as she breathed heavily "Got it. Um so what should I do now? I left all my things at home so….." Clutch then said "We can talk some history." She shrugged saying "Okay."

And the two walked off to do so, Brick headed off to the showers to get clean, grumbling a bit. As the two came to the back screen room they found Bernie there working on something and he said "Oh hello, what brings you two back here?" Flo said "Clutch wants to talk history since I didn't bring anything to keep me busy in space. You guys have any pens and papers?" Clutch said "I'll go get them. You go on ahead and sit."

Flo nodded and sat next to Bernie who continued on his project. Flo looked at the strange looking object and said "So what are you making? You said it would help us with the mission." He nodded saying "Since we are going to be on a planet with no quick energy source besides a sun…" "Cause solar powers takes a while." "Exactly so I decided to make a small power source that we can carry around with us just in case."

She said "That would work but maybe we should brush up on our wilderness survival. You guys have any books here?" Bernie nodded as he pointed to a shelf with a covered door. She got up and went to find if there was a book on jungle survival. Space survival, dessert survival, old west survival, she had to remember that one, ah jungle survival. As she came back to the desk saying "Here it is, this should come in handy knowing which plants are dangerous to eat and such. Or what we can use for medicine. I already know that if one of us gets a cut we have to seal it right away or risk an unknown disease."

Bernie gulped saying "You don't say." She noticed his worry and said "Didn't mean to worry you, just thought it be something you should know just in case." He smiled saying "That is okay. It is good to be prepared. I usually like to keep everything organized." He spread his hand around his tools and metals and she said "Wo, I'm never that neat. I have a place for everything and everything has it place but sort of messy system for my room. Anyone moves anything and I freak." Bernie chuckled saying "I suppose we all have our own systems."

Back at the front Clutch found Peg still working on her screen with numbers. He said "Need any help." She sighed saying "As I told Bernie, I got this." Clutch then said "Not if you keep doing it like that." She looked irritated as he said "And what's that supposed to mean?" Clutch came up to the screen fiddling with something as he said "Maybe if you moved this here it would make much more sense."

Peg gasped saying "How did you do that? It's been driving me mad all day." Clutch then said "I'm more than a pretty face." Peg shook her head saying "I already know that Powers." Clutch just responded with "I'm not the only one Peg." He smiled and winked as he walked off. Peg jumped at that, did he just. Oh no she had to talk to him, this would not end well.

Clutch came to the back monitor room and said "Hey guys I got those pens and papers. Sorry I took a bit, I also want to find a certain book…" That's when he noticed the book in Flo's hand and said "Oh I see you already found something to read." She shrugged saying "I like being prepared."

Clutch nodded saying "That is always a good thing to be. So let's get started." Clutch came up and Bernie listened attentively as Flo began to find any useful informational and read it allowed so they could remember. Clutch took some notes as Bernie continued working as well, as Flo said, they needed to be prepared.

It hadn't taken long to find plenty of information in the jungle survival book. But when they came to animals, well Flo and Bernie got off course. Bernie said "Maybe something to help us with climbing trees. I know robotic limbs, like the ones chimps have." Flo then said "Maybe but I go more for bionic jaguar claws, you can climb and you can also have a defense system at the same time."

"True but with your with the chimp arms you can use your own t arms to write or take pictures." "Good point but you would still need a defense system, maybe something like a skunks stench to make the animals loose it's appetite but not strong enough to harm it." "Oh like those electronic zappers that divers use on sharks." "Exactly." Clutch was getting bored and said "Hey I'm getting kind of tired. What about you guys?"

Flo then said "Yeah a bit we should take a break. Guess I'll draw for a bit." She grabbed the papers and pencils and began to do so.

Satisfied to know Flo would be occupied Clutch then looked over to find Bernie, who was almost falling asleep as he worked. Clutch sighed saying "Com on Burnie go take a break." The red head shook his head saying "I cannot, my invention is almost complete." He yawned loudly at this point and Flo said "Then you'll finish it before we get there. Get some sleep. It's not good to be stressed before a big event. Trust me I know. Ugh." She said the last part remembering big events that tired her out.

Bernie sighed but nodded as he got up saying "Okay sleep tight everyone." "Sleep tight Bernie." They both said as he left. Clutch shook his head saying "I'll leave you to your drawing. I'm gonna make sure he doesn't pass out on the way." Flo chuckled at this as she began. Clutch went to the bunk hanger and found Bernie sprawled on his bunk knocked out, making little breathing sounds. Clutch smiled as he went back to the front to find Brick at the control and Peg working on another project.

He said "Again, what are you trying to do?" Peg replied with "I'm trying to find whatever I can on the planet. But allot of it is encrypted." Brick then said "Why would someone want to hide something like that. We already know what jungles look like." Clutch then said "Yeah but not this one. Maybe there's something on it that we don't know. We should keep searching on that." Brick then said "Yeah while you do that I'm gonna go get a cup of joe. I'll need the caffeine. We're coming close to an asteroid belt and I need to be fully awake to smash through that."

The two shook their heads at that with smiles and looked over the encrypted work. The two worked on the encryptions for a while getting more information as they went. As they worked they seemed to of gotten steadily closer and closer.

Clutch's mind kept wondering back and forth to a certain subject. 'I should tell her. No it's not the time. But this could get out of hand. You need to hold yourself together you're the leader. I know but, ah I should have talked to Peg about this before. You couldn't Bernie's your friend you're not going to hurt him for your own selfish reasons are you? No I can't but I shouldn't bottle this up anymore if I do I might get like when my dad disappeared and I don't want to resent my friends.'

Clutch made a decision then and said "Peg. You should talk to Bernie." Peg sighed saying "I said I would after the mission." Clutch shook his head saying "No Peg." "And why's that. You may be the leader but I can handle my life the why I want. This doesn't even affect you." Clutch then said as he held her hand saying "Actually it does." Peg's eyes widened as she said "What do you mean." "I didn't notice it before Peg but I connect with you on a deeper level. I can express my pain and show my true self with you. I didn't say anything before, because I didn't know what I was feeling and when you and Bernie got together I… I didn't want to be selfish. But it's driving me mad Peg and….."

Peg looked shocked as she said looking down "Oh Clutch. Your right, that's one of the reason things have been weird between me and Bernie. I've grown closer to you but I don't want to hurt him." She looked up at him and said "I'll talk to him." Clutch smiled as he looked into her eyes, they seemed to gravitate closer but stopped Peg saying "No not behind his back."

Clutch nodded but suddenly someone walked in and gasped. Their eye's widened, knowing who the sound belonged too. Right there in the doorway, looking heartbroken and wet eyed was Bernie.