Eco-Challenge FS (7)

...into the checkpoint bare seconds after Team Heat Delirium heads out. They are wet, hungry, and bone-weary but they don't let it stop them. Without a word to the Mandroids or Jila, the four IQ's trudge to the supply tent. Dumping out their packs to restock, Four and Five yawn at the same time.

"You're going to kill yourself out there if you're too tired to think." Velorek answers. "Rae has set this thing up with some pretty nasty challenges. Now, I don't care how you work this out but you Will have food and drink, then a shower and dry clothes."

Each of the IQ's grab a cup and drink the liquid while deciding where they will go first. Jila brings a stack of clean towels and clothes from the supply tent. Four and Nine head for the showers while One and Five grab a quick bite to eat. It's only soup but it's hot, and the veggies and pasta make them feel a bit better. Then the two pull out all of the supplies from the four packs that need replacing, and stack the new supplies outside the supply tent. In a short time Four and Nine come out of the showers looking less the worse for wear. One and Five head to the showers while Four and Nine eat their soup and pack all the supplies back into the packs. One and Five shower quickly and return to the supply tent also looking more fit to travel.

"There's some information you need." Raegun speaks up. "Since the IQ's entered the checkpoint I've been getting an echo on the comms. Everything you have said here has been echoed back through my comm system. Do any of you have an open comm link?"

"Well then somebody must have dropped a comm." Raegun clicks on his scanners. "Let me see if I can find it then." It takes a second or two before the comm makes a blip on the scanner. "Up in a tree?" The Mandroids and Jila look quickly up into the tree tops. This should be impossible.

"Frell!" alterKay growls from their boat on the chocolate river. "We been found out. Sun, Rae, get that bird back here Now!" alterRae grabs for her comm. "Not with That! With that Mind power you're suppose to be so famous for!"

*Your Highness, we ment no disrespect, honestly. I apologize for my friend. She has not spent as much time on this planet as I have. We really just want to get done here and be on our way. Please forgive us.* Sunny thought to the Queen Mermaid.

"Rae, please...don't do anything that may even hint of disrespect towards the Mermaids. They are really ready to toss our eemas into the drink...and leave us there. I really don't want to go swimming...not in the ocean. It's to frellin' cold!" Sunny calmly told Rae.

"Sunny, Rae, this is not the time or place to have another boxing match. You guys can fight later...we need to figure out what to do about the mermaids." Kay said...trying to keep Sun and Rae from beating the dren out of each other.

The mermaids, sensing the aproach of the huge ship, fled, leaving the rowboat bobbing in the ocean like a cork. The sound of a loud horn filled the air. And the supertanker, like the coming of doomsday, broke through the fog...

Kara, Mouse and Spyral chewed for all they were worth. But the waterfall came up more quickly than they could get a bubble together. They tried grabbing bushes on the river side but the current toward the waterfall was too strong. The rubber raft shot over the waterfall and tumbled to the water far below...

out over the waterfall, Twig grabbed Spyral's hand and held on. It was a comical sight to see this tiny thing holding up a fullgrown man with one tiny hand. But Twig turned out to be stronger than she looked. Spyral grabbed Kara's arm, and Kara grabbed Mouse's hand, and soon they were all suspended above the waterfall in a long human and sprite chain. Twig looked like she was expending about as much effort as it took to file her nails, while the humans were spiralling (hee hee) around and around, fighting to hold onto eachother.

Raegun says chuckling. The Mandroids could work forever but Jila's about tired out. A break will be a welcome thing she thinks wiping her forehead with her handkerchief for the umpteenth time.

"Ok," Raegun says as the group sits at the table surrounding him. "Here's where we are," a translucent map appears in mid-air with a star icon blinking at the edge of Adventure Island.

"Ok, real funny." Raegun retorts. "Anyway, this is where we are, and this is the trail through Fantasy Land. These," three yellow dots flash on the trail "are the challenge spots. We should set up camp at the end of each of these. Rae's picked out some pretty incredible challenges (for you humans) on this island. Oh yes, and there is a Mandatory Stop Zone during challenge number2. Sorry, can't tell you why, but there is. Now, there's no sense setting up everything on the beach of Fantasy Land so we'll go on the this point [the first challenge] and set up there. One of you should, though, sit at the beach and wait for the last couple of teams."

Thankfully, the inebriating affects on Crais are wearing off a little more so he is becoming more helpful all the time. As Geradan returns, the first load is ready to go. Crais goes with the first load, Jila with the second.

As Jila passes over the beach of Fantasy Land and into the first area she notices that it looks a Lot like it could very well be maintained by Willie Wonka. Gumdrop trees, jellybean bushes, creamfilled mushrooms.... and the Chocolate River!! She knows where she's going after the checkpoint is set up. Well, that and back to the beach to give Geradan the scrubbing she promised him. Geradan lands lightly at the checkpoint, and Jila slips out of her harness. Crais and Jila unburden the dragon quickly and he heads back to pick up Larraq with the last load.

"Yes." Crais stands silently thinking for a minute. "Although Riv tells me I should forget about this, riding the dragon feels much the same as Captaining a Sebacean War Ship (sorry Rae, couldn't think of the right term.)."

"Do me a favor Larraq?" Jila says when everything is made ready. She checks her pack making sure that she has a towel, her bathing suit, a couple of heavy duty scrubbers, and a Large plastic bag. "I've got the grill going, so could you make a quick lunch? Geradan and I are going back to the beach until Velorek is ready to come back, and then I'm going to pick up some Candy."

Larraq does what he's asked. He's become fairly fond of Jila during this short time, and he really doesn't mind cooking. Rae has taught him that the more creative you get when you cook the more enjoyable cooking can be. Soon the lunch is ready and split in equal portions. Jila grabs hers and Velorek's, puts each into a sealable container then into her pack, and straps again into a harness.

When they are above the ocean again, Jila and Geradan scan the waterline for the Scoobs. Geradan is planning on landing in the water like an airplane with no wheels, belly first, and the waves will sink Anything on the top of the water. No Scoobs. Here We Go!!

Geradan skims the water perfectly, though he nearly drowns Jila with the water flowing over his shoulders and back. He curls his tail up as good as he can to give Jila a semi-private place to change clothes. Then, Geradan paddles over to where Geradan sits waiting on the beach.

"Here, I brought you some lunch." Jila says unpacking the two dishes and handing one to Velorek. They eat slowly enjoying the food and then repack the containers, along with the papers. "Now it's time for Geradan's scrubbing. Care to help?"

Stripping off his shirt(<thud>), Velorek grabs a scrubber and wades into the water. Jila shows him how dragon scales need to be scrubbed for the most affectiveness. In a couple of hours they have scrubbed the dragon from snout to tail.

After last nights round of dishwashing he had become determined to tell Mr. Lee that he'd had it. Enough was enough! Whatever was going on he was done slepting! He'd meant it to, until Mr. Lee cheated!

He had barely arisen and had his first cup of coffee when the fiesty little oriental had anounced that today they were scaling the mountain. Ragnar took one look at the oversized rock and feeling the drag of the past few days had started to object. That's when Mr' Lee cheated. Sneaky Bas....!

You see the parade of lovely young ladies had gathered around to be with their 'hero' some more. With the poor viking sitting in the midle of them all Mr. Lee had patted him on the back and begun to sound understanding. The lovlies nodded in sympathy and darn near offered condolences! The the little squirt called Rag old and worn out and in need of rest, and worse! He made it sound like the frail old man would continue alone, unaided and such and that Ragnar shouldn't feel bad at being unable to continue!

With a hop and a skip and a hug goodbye to each fair damsel Mr. Lee had nimbly started up! The ladies in turn turned about and glared and pursed their lips at HIM, at RAGNAR! What happened to the days when they used to swoon and be charmed by his meer presence? At least none of the Scoobetts were here to see this!

Alternate Heat Delerium moves out quickly. Alternate Rae keeps her inhaler in hand, just in case she should need it again. She hears Kay and Sweetie planning how to deal with Crais and Jila and goes pale.

She likes Miss Jila very much. She's always been very sweet and understanding. And Crais... well, he's her Commanding Officer, and crush or no crush, she has a duty to obey him. Using her asthma attack as a plausible excuse, she allows herself to fall to the back of the group, and is soon out of their ear-shot.

"I don't think so, sir..." Alternate Rae begins. Double-checking to make sure the whole group is out of ear-shot, she begins, "There's something that I think you should know, sir..."

Lagging behind, Alternate Kay snaps at her to joing the troups. She thought that Rae was just talking to herself,in her weekness. Slapping her on the back as she catches up to them, Kay says

"Bird! Keep watching all around us at all times." she told Sweetie as they proceeded on. Rae wrung her hands. Did she do the right thing? Oh no, she thought, maybe I did, but, then, maybe I didn't.

her little feet. The waterfall ride was lots of fun but it was dren on a poor kittens bladder. Finally she'd had to excuse herself long enough to take care of the problem. If only someone had actually left a litterbox where she could find one!

"GOTCHA!" came a snide male voice as a set of hands scooped down and snatched the two kittens up. "Hey Pedro look what I found! Black kittens in the jungle, who'd of thought! Think they're worth anything, Maybe they're panther cubs!"

From his place, walking before the caged lion cub the elder half of the team shrugged. Trapping animals was a far cry from hired muscle and scamming 'sides What'd he know about animals? He was just glad to have a safe job, miles from any of those nasty Scoobies!

Fidget landed on all fours. Mischief made had done her business already but that didn't mean her sister had! It didn't take much for her to piddle. Jeff instinctively let go before realizing his mistake. Pedro burst out laughing.

being dunked in liquid chocolate wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing... in fact she's had a few fantasies that went along that direction...but the reality was that liquid chocolate was REALLY sticky. And in a jungle setting, it was like the three adventures were walking flytraps.

Spyral gave her a look, then cautiously turned around. "Watch what you're doing back there..." he warned, just to get a smack on the back of the head. "I'm not THAT desperate." Mouse sneered and rummaged through his wing until she found the handi-wipes she had in her pack in his wing. She pulled out enough for all of them (even Twig, though Mouse wasn't sure she deserved it) and handed them around. Spyral headed down the path aways and they all took the time to get as cleaned up as possible.

Aloe fresh, bug repellant, and feeling better, the team came to a rickety looking bridge which seemed to be made out of KitKat sticks. "We can take the bridge." Kara suggested. "It's on the map."

Nevertheless, it was on the map and the only other way across the river, which was necessary to get to the next checkpoint. The intrepid adventures started across, with Mouse scanning the trees for licorice whips in case they had to do a Tarzan and swing over.

"Yes, that is definitely a waterfall. It's not too high and I saw Team Holy Rollers get onto shore ok. I don't think we want to get down the way they did though. Do we have rope?" said 'ghost.

They got to the waterfall and started tying up the licorice vines to make one long rope.They secured it to a candy cane tree near the edge and threw it over. The other end landed in the chocolate pool at the bottom of the waterfall. Grinning at each other, Team Deviants rappeled down the side of the waterfall into the chocolate pool.

When the others were down, 'ghost made a great effort to untie the licorice rope and it fell over the side. The others grabbed it and rolled it up to carry with them, just in case they needed it again.

"Well, we have to go through the checkpoints again, and this time there is no one there with a shower or food. And, if you remember," she said eyeing Rae,"We have done without food a lot of the time, trying to get ahead."

“We could get, like, kicked out of the core. So what? I never wanted to be here to begin with. I would much rather spend my days hanging ten and catchin’ some rays!” AlterSun said, grabbing AlternateRae’s arm and holding them both back.

“Like chill out, Rae, you’ll give us away! Geez, I’m trying to help you here. You need to, like, lighten up!” AlterSun said…noticing that they were close to the shore. She spotted some surf boards that some locals had left behind.

AlterKay realized a little too late that she had lost them. “Frell it all! Get back here you two! NOW!” She yelled after AlternateRae and AlterSun. They weren’t listening. They had reached the boards.

“Yes, we will.” Crais said. He couldn’t let anything happen to Riv, even if she wasn’t the Riv he really knew. What if this one got hurt and it effected the other one? He wasn’t about to risk that.

Crais and Veloreck ran to the shore…they didn’t need boards…Rae had designed them well…they could body surf. Just as they hit the water…a HUGE wave knocked AlternateRae and AlterSun off their boards. The boards came flying out…and then down. AlternateRae and AlterSun were no where to be seen.

“If they get hit in the head by the boards…it could do some serious damage!” Jila yelled to the mandroids. They swam faster. Finally, AlternateRae and AlterSun floated close enough to the shore that Crais and Veloreck could pull them out of the water.

“What the frell were you thinking, Riv?!” Crais yelled at AlternateRae. AlternateRae just looked at Crais…tried to speak, then passed out. The stress was too much for her. Crais had to remind himself that this is not the Rae he knows.

Fidget ran screaming at the top of her lungs "KKKIIITTTTTTEEENNN!!!!!" Her little legs chugging away until she ran right into Elvis <Thunk> The breath knocked out of her Fidget just laid there on her back starring up at Elvis...why did birdies keep circling his head she wondered until she realized they were circling her head not his!

"What?" Kitten asked and Fidget began to spill the beans...of course she left out the part about piddling...instead she told how bravely she tried to fight off the big bad men and how they took Mischief and how they had an 'Artickat' in a funny box. She was especially explanative of how she tried to lour one of the bad men away so that they could capture him...(Fidget seems a lot like an Artickat don't she?) ;D

"Well! Just look at the red tint of his face...and the way spittle fly's from his lips when he talks" Semore pointed out "It is reminiscent of Mr. Ragnar when he is conversing with the little feline."

"Just what did you think you were doing? Coming down to the enemies camp?! Get on your feet now! There will be more night duties for this action!" she stormed. "And, you!!" she said, pointing a finger in Veloric's face, "You know you should not be fraternizing with the troups! You will be put on report for this outrageous action!"

After Rae and Sunny were alert enough to rise, Kay pushed them away from the camp, and back toward the trees. Sunny had a rebelious look on her face, and Rae had her head so low, that she almost tripped several times. She felt so ashamed, that she had failed and knew she must be in really big trouble.

At the top of the ridge, Kay barked orders for her 'soldiers' to tie together some giant marshmellows they had come across. As soon as there were sufficient amount together to hold the three of them, she had them drag it to the river of chocolate. "Now, grab those lollipops and start rowing,", she said, feeling totally humiliated that they were actually traveling through something as wimpy as candy. Heat Delirium reached the falls, and on their raft of marshmellows went over and landed below quite comfortably. Well, in the physical sense. Kay was certain that the enemies had gotten to her troops and they had spilled very officially private information. And, her 'troops', even in thier own confused states of minds, were not sure if they were quite safe with Kay any more. Rae gasped and blushed as a thought of "Mosquito Coast" came to mind, and she couldn't figure out where it came from.

Alternate Rae groaned as she trudged along the path. It had been bad enough when the Captain was acting strangely. This was not entirely unprecidented. But when the human Kay, unpredictable under the best of circumstances, started to accuse him of plotting against them...

Having reached this conclusion, Alternate Rae decided to do something radical. As second in command of the team, it was her perogative, but she would never have considered it before today. She wondered if the humans had an established proceedure for these things.

"I am. Under Article 12, Subsection 8, Paragraph 3, clause B of the Interspecies Cooperation Act. Under Article 3, Subsection 5, Paragraph 1 of the Sebacian/PeaceKeeper alliance's Military Code. Under Article 18, Subsection 6, Clause D of the human's United States Military."

"Under all these codes, I am authorized to override the command of an Officer who is mentally disturbed or putting her own people in danger needlessly. I accuse Miss Kay of both of these things, and so I assume command."

Crais was sitting on the ground, still staring after the group, his mind on poor Riv. He had to look twice when he saw the group returning. He rose and ran to meet them, shouting for Jila.

Alternate Rae stared at him nervously, and took a deep breath before speaking. "Sir, I regret to inform you that I have been forced to assume command of Heat Team Delerium on the grounds that the previous commander of the group is no longer mentally fit for her command."

"No, of course not. Look, let's get you back to the check-point. We'll have Velorek check you over, all of you, and decide what to do then. Okay?" He stared at her with obvious concern.

By now, the others had joined Crais and team Alternate Heat Delerium. Larraq and Jila had AlterKay on a stretcher and were carrying her back to the medical tent. Velorek slid an arm under AlterSun's and was helping her back to the checkpoint. AlterSun was giving him an animated recounting of the main points of AlterKay's erratic behavior. Crais and Alternate Rae made it only a few steps before she stummbled.

Alternate Rae was torn between her crush (and the fact that this was not far from one of her most secret fantasies) and her sense of propriety, which told her that this was NOT an appropriate public display.

Jila walked out of the medical tent. "We've got Kay sedated and restrained until we can figure out what the frell is wrong with her. Raegun's running a detailed scan." She stared at the sight before her, a weeping Rae being carried by Crais.

"Look." Rae pulls out thier race-certification. "We already have stamps for every checkpoint we've been through. All we need to do is reach the next checkpoint that we should have been through."

"So all we need to do is go AROUND the course. The beaches are perfectly level and clear. It'll take us less than six hours, and this is at the outside, to get to our checkpoint."

Kitten pondered that. Wasn't she an ONLY artickitten? How could this be? Had Artickat been off mating unobserved and had another litter in secret? Is this what went on at Scooby parties? The dancing did look kind of strange some times.

"Everyone, grab onto the licorice whip vines just in case." Spyral directed. The whips were all intertwined together so they were sturdy also. With the precision of high-wire trapeeze artists they made their way carefully to the middle of the bridge. Then it cracked.

wringing her hands anxiously and muttering to herself about how stupid she had been. The Captain might understand, but surely the humans would not be pleased that she had assaulted one of thier own. The Captain might face trouble as well.

Crais did what he had seen Rae and the humans do more than once in similar situations. He put his arms around her and held her close, rocking her. "Don't be afraid, dear." he mutters into her ear. "Just... trust in me."

"Mine too." he explains. "And without 'these things' as you put it, neither of us would be here to have this discussion. It's time you came to accept that the Peacekeeper way is not the ONLY way, Riv. Learn to at least understand the other ways if you can not embrace them."