This chapter includes events from my previous stories, Task Time, From Here to Eternity, Pleased to Meet You, and Lateral Thinking. This will be easier to follow if you've read those

Chapter 2

"Solve the riddle. You must all stay in your rooms. Fastest wins. Your time starts now."

"I knew it!" Cuzzi said as the assembled group watched all five of the men complete the riddle solving task. "As soon as I read that task I said McGarrett was going to have an unfair advantage."

"To be honest, Dad, you said that about almost every task," Annie teased.

"In this case it was true," Cuzzi volleyed back. "I love my wife, and she is without question the best thing that has ever and will ever happen to me, but she has called me twice in the last month because she can't remember the combination to the lock on the shed." He smiled. "She has many talents, completing puzzles isn't one."

"She's figured out how to stay married to you this long," Hoss chuckled. "I'd say that's the most confusing puzzle of all."

"I know we were probably the slowest team," Victoria said good-naturedly as the image of Hoss's face filled the screen, dressed as Chaplin. "But I had a lot of fun with this task."

Hoss kissed her cheek. "Me too."

As the video finished, Jack looked at Catherine and said, "Even as the competition I have to say, that was a very impressive display, Lieutenant. If it hadn't been for needing Steve to put on the hat and mustache, I think you could have easily solved this one alone."

Steve nodded. "No question she could have."

"Mom and Dad make a good team," DJ reported proudly.

Angie beamed as she repeated one of her favorite sayings. "Teamwork makes the dream work."

"There were no style points in this one," Annie said. "We're going strictly by how long it took you to complete the puzzle and solve the riddle."

She and Joseph consulted the clipboard then he said, "One point to John, two to Jack, three to Hoss, four to Cuzzi, and five to Steve."

"We were third?" Victoria high-fived her husband. "I'll take it."

"It took Carrie ten minutes to find the second half of the puzzle," John said. "We're lucky we're not still working on it."

"It wasn't 10 minutes," Carrie scoffed.

Annie consulted her notes. "It was 7 minutes 18 seconds."

Carrie shrugged. "That sounds about right. Treasure hunting is not my specialty. But I looked great in the hat and mustache."

"They still have those," Angie said. "Aunt Carrie keeps them on her dresser …"

"Ok, little one." Carrie scooped up her goddaughter and tickled her belly. "We don't need to go into details."

"Create the best transformation based on a movie. Your 60 second scene must be filmed with no sound. The Taskmaster must be able to identify the movie without dialogue. You have 30 minutes to plan then 1 hour to prepare. You must start filming in no more than 90 minutes. Your time starts now."

"I'm still finding blue paint in some very strange places," Chelsea said as the group watched Al and a dozen of his friends reenacting a scene from Braveheart.

"They may take our lives but they'll never take our freedom!" Al said in a bad Scottish accent.

The images on the screen changed to Hoss, along with several dozen young sailors, reenacting a scene from the movie Midway.

"I called it!" Cuzzi said. "I knew you were gonna do a battle scene. I can't believe you just happened to be TAD in Yokosuka."

"Just lucky I guess," Hoss smiled.

As the video moved on to John's task Steve teased, "Stagler as Miss Congeniality is definitely the biggest stretch."

Everyone smiled and awwww-ed at Steve's Benjamin Button style transformation co-starring Elizabeth, Catherine and Angie then the video wrapped up with Jack Radicz changing from Bruce Banner to The Hulk in a performance that drew by far the loudest applause.

"My finest hour," Jack chuckled.

After a short consultation, Joseph and Annie turned to face the group.

"Unfortunately, two of our contestants are going to score zero points," Joseph said.

"Dad," Annie smiled. "That was an amazing battle scene reenactment but there was no transformation. Even the blue paint happened off screen."

Al opened his mouth to object then stopped for a few seconds as he reviewed the wording of the task in his head. "Fair enough."

"Hoss," Annie said apologetically. "Same for you. Great battle but no transformation."

"I had a hell of a good time that day though," Hoss beamed.

"Steve," Joseph said. "You did a great job but most of the hard work was done by genetics."

"True," Steve agreed.

"So you get 3 points," Joseph said. "John you get 4, and Jack, you absolutely owned this task so you get 5 points."

"Write down as many details as you can about the maintenance worker who came in to fix the lights. Your time starts now."

"This one was tricky because each man completed the task in a different venue. We made everything as equal as we possibly could and as you'll see, the different locations had no effect on the task completion."

The group watched as each of the men recalled virtually every detail about the maintenance worker who had been in their presence for only a few minutes, and mostly with the lights out.

"That was an easy one," Danny teased.

"It's impossible to give anyone the edge in this one," Joseph said. "I'm awarding all of you 5 points."

"We have one more task to show you," Annie said, vibrating with excitement. "I've been waiting a long time for this one." She bit her lip to keep from revealing too much too soon. "Let's just watch."

"Go as long as you can without blinking. Your time starts in exactly 10 seconds."

"This was harder than it looked," Al said as the video reached the point where he tried to physically hold his eyes open with his thumb and forefinger. "Plus, the air was very dry that day."

Annie rolled her eyes. "I'm sure it was, Dad."

Cuzzi finally blinked at 2 mins 30 seconds which put him ahead of Jack and Hoss who lasted 2 mins and 13 seconds and 1 min 48 seconds respectively. Steve bested his time, but only slightly, at 2 minutes 41 seconds. John was by the longest at 3 minutes 18 seconds.

When the video ended Al looked at his daughter with a puzzled expression. "I'm not sure why you were so excited over this one."

"Well." Annie's eyes sparkled with mischief. "We actually filmed a bonus participant for this task.

Contestants and gathered friends alike all looked confused.

"When we were going over the footage …" Annie could barely contain her excitement. "I'll ruin it if I try to explain it. "Let's just watch."

Suddenly the screen sprung back to life.

"You look at your grandmother's camera and I'll count you down," Annie said

Elizabeth smiled at DJ. "Go ahead. This will be fun."

"As long as you can without blinking," Annie reminded him. "Your time starts in 10 seconds."

Steve looked at Catherine who indicated she had no idea what was about to happen.

"5…4…3…2…"

As Annie reached "1" DJ closed his eyes tightly and remained facing the camera.

After a few seconds of silence, the air was filled with the sound of raucous applause.

"That is genius!" Cuzzi said. "Absolute genius. Great lateral thinking, DJ."

"I'm jealous," Hoss added. "I can't believe I didn't think of it myself."

"That kid is going places," Jack said.

"That was absolutely brilliant," John agreed. "It honestly never even occurred to me."

"Great job!" Angie threw her arms around DJ. "You're very smart!"

"He kept his eyes closed for 3 minutes and 32 seconds, so technically DJ is the winner of the task."

DJ blushed as the crowd applauded.

"We've added up the points and the results are as follows," Annie said. "Jack and Hoss are tied for 4th with 14 points each."

Jack barked a laugh. "That's her polite way of saying we're tied for last."

"She gets her manners from her mother," Hoss said.

"In third place, Al with 15 points," Annie said.

"I did my best," Al said.

"Second place goes to John with 17 points," Annie said.

Angie gasped and threw her arms in the air. "That means Daddy won!"

"Yes, he did." Annie smiled. "With 22 points." She took a few steps forward and handed Steve the trophy. "Congratulations. You are the winner of the 1st Annual SEAL Taskmaster event."

"I'll treasure this," Steve said with a grin as he accepted the small plastic trophy. "Mostly because I know how much Cuzzi wanted to win it."

"Don't get too attached to that," Al said. "I demand a rematch."

Steve grinned. "Just name the time and place."

THE END

Find all our stories (in chronological order!) on our website: marirealmcroll dot wixsite dot com backslash real-mcroll

Or in the McRoll in the REAL World community here on fanfiction dot net Find us on Tumblr: mcrollintherealworld dot tumblr dot com

You can join our mailing list by emailing us realmcroll at yahoo dot com with: Add me, please! in the subject line. Or just drop us a line to say hi! We love hearing from our readers.