TITLE: It's not cheating; it's creative problem-solving!
WHO: Adam, Bernie, Betsy, Jean, Nikki, Rahne, Ralph, Simon, Skyler
WHAT: Day one of the field days competition
WHEN: October 16
RATING: PG, for Nikki being a bad influence

Nikki makes her way down to the path into the woods early, but a
couple of students still beat her there. They find a table waiting for
them, and start tearing into the packets of supplies and instructions
that have been left for them. Nikki flips her jacket collar up, to
shield her neck from the light drizzle, and follows suit, frowning at
the unfamiliar tools that have been left for her. Once she's finished
reading the mini-briefing, she turns to stare over her shoulder at the
mansion. "Man, I hope Rahne knows something about this stuff," she
mutters to herself.

Skyler arrives, and brings with him a somewhat pensive expression.
Wearing sturdy clothes and meeting in the woods? This does not bode
well for him. The 'woods' are a nice place you visit-- and go skiing,
like in the Alps. With room service. And massages. And every other
comfort of civilization, just with a pretty view that you pretend to
be a part of. Alas, poor Skyler comes to show team solidarity, wearing
himself a heavy pair of jeans and a leather jacket of the rugged
variety. Once he finds the packets he peers within, and glances over
at Jean with an incredulous look, "... emergency rations? We might
need emergency rations? I'm so ordering pizza when we get back."

Rahne makes her way down from the mansion promptly, a thick woollen
sweater and padded vest put on over her usual clothes for added
warmth. As she reaches the table, she frowns down at the instructions,
reading them over quickly before grabbing herself a pack and then
stepping back to find her squad. Spotting Nikki, she heads over
towards the other girl with a grin of greeting, though she also looks
a little overwhelmed by this all. "Ach, 'lo there, team-mate," she offers.

Bernie slaps on a hoodie with a warm enough jacket on top. Jeans and
brown boots are on the lower parts of her body. "Of all days it has to
drizzle today," she scrunches her face at the sky as she talks to
Adam. The two walk up from the path and make their way to the table.
"Hey guys," she smiles too the others who made it there before them as
she hands a pack to Adam. Immediately she opens the bag and searches
through contents, not all too overjoyed with what she sees so far.

Ralph shows up, as dressed for the event as he can manage. In his
case, this means he's wearing winter boots, jeans, a flannel
button-down shirt, and a windbreaker with a hood. He looks around for
his teammates, and waves awkwardly at the non-teammates he's familiar
with (and is about to be opposing).

Jean, a few steps down the path behind Skyler, dressed down for the
occasion, but essentially warm, smirks in amusement. "Five seconds in,
and you're already complaining? Pick up that nerve, soldier!" she
orders in jest as she approaches. The instructions are given a read,
but the remainder of the squad is given a wave as they, too, near.

Betsy moves along the path from the mansion. She wears a sweatshirt
with a Harvard logo and thick leggings under her skirt. She looks like
she was made up earlier today, having skipped out for a nice little
make over. Shorter hair, pale lipstick. On her feet are a pair of big
black boots. She moves to the table and looks at the package. Her lips
purse. She looks around for anyone who may be in her squad. Uh oh.

Simon smiles as he moves along with the others, wearing a long coat
instead of his usual vest, t-shirt and heavy baggy pants with lots of
pockets and cowboy boots. He even wore an actual cowboy hat on his
head as well "Well lookie thar, seems someone decided ta holda party
and leave me all alone."

Adam heads down the path with Bernie, dressed in a sweater, jacket
jeans and his regular sneaks, he also has a backpack slung over one
shoulder with back up clothes, just in case. He snuggles Bernie as she
whines about the rain. "This is going to be so great." Yes, he's
exiteced about the whole thing. He'ss always played team sports and
there hasn't been any competition here until now. This makes adam
happy..as does the contents of the packet. "Oh wow..looks like all
that camping expierence will come in handy."

"Hi there, Rahne. Do you like my shirt?" Nikki asks the younger girl
with a grin and a wave. The latter gesture extends in a greeting to
several of her friends on opposing teams, giving everyone time to look
at the Gen-X team shirt she silkscreened the night before. Refocusing,
she does a quick head count, pointing at students and mouthing
numbers. When she's done, she shakes her head and says, "Man, look at
the Pack! Jean must have put a psychic compulsion on them or
something. Do you know how to do this... 'orienteering' stuff?" The
question is posed generally to all Gen X'ers available.

Ralph looks through his pack, and does his best not to immediately
despair - granted, there aren't a whole lot of activities he'd have
been 'good' at except, I dunno, a study-a-thon, so he should've
expected this, but still... "Oh... geez." He looks at his teammates.
"Uhh. Do... any of you know how to... do... this kind of thing?"

Skyler gives Jean a long-suffering look, and he snorts softly, "Yes,
ma'am." he remarks before turning an accusatory look at Adam. It's all
his fault, this 'outdoorsy' business, "You're now Alpha-- I'll loan
you the title-- since you seem to have a clue or two. I hope you know
how to work these nifty map things, since my navigation is limited to
malls, airports, and giving clear instructions to cabbies. Alas." He
flashes a grin and then shrugs.

Bernie isn't built for nature and ruggedness, but she was never close
minded to new experiences. She can't help but be excited either. "I
claim official first aid duty for our squad," she says to her group.
She might as well help with /something/. Over hearing Nikki's comment
she replies, "Yeah. Jean set up a force field around the woods. So if
we try to escape we feel a sudden shock. You know...like those
invisible dog fences." After saying so she grabs Adam's arm for
protection...just incase Jean were to attack her for that comment.

Simon looks about. "Eh I actually got a problem, I never was assigned
to a team thing so...where do I go?" He asks, looking around and claps
his hands together and looks about, to see who would let him on their
team.

Rahne takes the time to peek into her own bag as well, seeming curious
rather than particularly put out like so many of the students. "Nae,
no' really. Bu' I do ken the woods fairly well," she offers, looking
up at Nikki hopefully. "I havenae ever bothered wi' a map an' compass
before, though." She takes a look around to see if anyone else might
be able to loan the expertise of a stint in the Boy Scouts or something.

Adam looks at his teammates. "Come up guys, buck up. It's not that
tough..it's a compass, it points north. You find north on the map and
then you go from there. Granted, I've never actually done this before,
but it can't be that hard to figure out." Skyler's outting him as
'Alpha', earns a grin. "Cool..I'll be leader." He chuckles at Bernie
and then points a finger challengingly to the other team. "You're
going Doooown!" Yeah, he's a bit hyper, probably too much sugar right
before.

"How appropriate," Nikki calls out to Bernie, sticking her tongue out
at her friend. "Looks like we'd better do some recruiting, then," she
says in a lower voice, intended for Rahne only. Pointing at Simon, who
is standing alone and looking rather bewildered, she says, "Get him,
but make him promise not to make any tasteless jokes. Bat your
eyelashes innocently, and if that doesn't work, threaten to maul him."
Giving the younger girl a wink to show she's kidding -- probably --
Nikki sidles over to Betsy, who is also standing alone, and likewise
bewildered. "Hey, Bets, do you think we might form a strategic
alliance over here? It seems to work on 'Survivor...'"

Rahne looks a little bewildered by Nikki's advice, but does clue into
the fact that the older girl is (probably) joking, so she flashes a
grin and nods. "Aye, all righ'. I'll see wha' I can do." With that,
she takes off at a bit of a jog towards Simon. "Ach, are yeh looking
for a squad? We're a wee bi' shor' on numbers..." she explains
self-consciously, pointing back over to the others.

Simon nods to Rahne and smiles. "Ah so I can join? Thanks, always
loved helping out beautiful women." he says, tipping his hat and
begins walking to the squad, waiting for Rahne when he was halfway there.

Betsy nods, "Even though my illustious chaps decided that I could
handle victory all by myself, but pehaps an alliance would work best."
She winks at Nikki, and then looks at the other team. "You need me,
you do... Adam can't win." She grins a bit.

Jean picks up a pack for her purposes and glances to Ralph, smiling
reassurance. "Ralph, right?" The trainee she's yet to meet, by process
of elimination. "Don't worry," she tells him. "Just concentrate on
having a good time, that's what we're here for." Attention is then
divided between Skyler, Bernie, and Adam, the teenaged girl getting a
nod to her claim, then a blink. "/Hey/! I'm a good telepath, I'll have
you know," she protests in general. Force field around the woods and
shocks? Bah! But the dubbing of Adam's title gets a chuckle.
"'Fearless leader', that should probably be," she suggests,
shouldering her pack. "Has a better ring to it."

Rahne goes a little pink at that, but is saved from full-on red-face
by assuming Simon means the other two. "Aye, all righ'," she agrees,
before moving to catch up with him and rejoin the makeshift team.
"Ach, well, our numbers are a li'l better now, righ'?" she offers to
Nikki as she returns.

Bernie gasps in insult, and dramatically places a hand over her heart.
"Nikki Vibe, you are soo...../MEAN/," she frowns in her failure to
think up of something cool to retort with. So yeah. Back to her group.
"You /are/ coming with us...right Jean?" she looks puppy dog-eyed to
her squad teacher. Not that she doesn't trust Adam, but its reassuring
to know that there will be someone around to levetate you back up when
you fall.

Ralph blinks at Jean, then nods. "A-all right, ummm... Professor
Grey." Likewise he's able to piece together his squad leader's
identity, although he still looks pretty nervous. Then again, he might
just be nervous about how many people are gathered at once, many of
whom he doesn't know.

Adam smiles to Jean, "Absolutely. Hey-" He nudges Bernie playfully.
"No way..she's a teach, she can't compete. And besides, you got
me...we're gunna win. Hello..Fearless leader here."

Nikki nods along with Betsy, narrowing her eyes at the competition.
"Just keep gloating, furball!" she calls out to Adam. "While you still
can!" She leads the purple one back over to their ragtag alliance and
offers Rahne a confident nod, then heads over to the table and picks
up two of the three straws left there. Evening them out, she strides
over to the opposing team and holds them up. "OK, somebody overcome
your fear of my ferocious meanness and pick a straw. We might as well
get this show on the road."

"Hey, you guys are the ones who wanted to be called 'The Pack'."
replies Skyler with a mild rolling of his eyes, ".. so alpha seems
rather suitable." He then rolls his shoulders and digs his cellphone
out of his pocket, eyeing it accusingly, "Note to self-- get a damn
GPS on this thing for future creativity on the part of teachers." Jean
gets a similar look, though the accusation isn't all that serious. He
slips the phone back away and adds, "So. Go strawpicking, Alpha-man."
He decides to head over and stand by Bernie. First-aid, and all.
Should be close for when he dies.

"Coming," Jean answers to Bernie and the group by extension, "but
mostly for the exercise and being within range of any trouble." A
nod's given to Adam's point. The one about her being a teacher and not
competing, that is. She explains further, "The challenges are for
students. I'm not going to interfere in any way." Ralph gets a chuckle
at the formality. "/Jean/," she corrects to him. And there's an
eyebrow quirked at Skyler, good-humoredly; need she repeat her earlier
comment on being a good telepath?

Adam is still happy as a clam and walks over to Nikki, giving her his
best 'evil eye'. "Okay...here we go." He reaches in to pick a straw.
He pulls out the shortest. "Looks like we're up first." He grins.

Nikki doesn't seem the least bit bothered about getting stuck with the
wait time. "Alrighty, then. May the best loose coalition of parallel
interests win." She offers the opposition a confident smile, which
thins out to a focused line after she makes her way back to her team.
"So, guys, we've got time to plan. What do you think? Rahne knows the
woods; does anyone know maps?"

"That's exactly what I'm scared of," Bernie deadpans to Adam. Adam =
Alpha-male? Skeeerrryyy. Though her face lights up to hear that Jean's
coming...even if she's not helping. Watching Adam pull out the
shortest straw, she clasps both cheeks in distress. "My god! Just
throw us into the furnace why don't ya!" she sigh quietly and takes to
pack to begin walking into the woods. "See you at the end guys," she
waves to the other groups. That is if they make it....

(The students split off into their respective groups.)

Adam gathers his squad around him, feeling important. As they begin to
head into the woods, he starts being leader. "Okay..so, let's get a
quick rundown here, so we know what we have to work with...I'm a bear
shifter, Bernie's an empath, Ralph's got his ninja reflexes..Skyler,
what's you're thing?"

"For the sake of this exercise, I'm a seventeen year old athletic
socialite with an endless sense of adventure-- usually more of the
BASE jumping variety-- and who isn't really afraid of anything."
replies Skyler in a dry tone of voice, "Nothing else will be relevant
to anything that's going to be happening out here in the woods, so it
doesn't matter."

Ralph reddens slightly at the reference to his power as 'ninja
reflexes'. "Uh... yeah... umm, any of you that didn't already know,
uh, be sure, umm, that you don't try to hit me or push me at any
point, even lightly or jokingly... it, uh, it makes me try and hit you
back... a-and I can't control it..." He trails off.

Jean is a passive listener, bringing up the rear. Sneakers cut through
grass, trodding lightly. With Sagas at the school, snakes could be
anywhere, after all. Best to keep careful pace. She smirks to a bit of
the conversation, but seems otherwise pleased with how the kids are
working together so far.

Bernie mentally notes to steer clear of Ralph. She isn't likely to hit
or push anyone really. Unless its jokingly. And to Skyler's last
statement she says, "Diiittooo." Bernie is practically /worthless/ for
this exercise. Except for the fact that she can run at crazy speed
when being chased by something ferocious. "I guess we just have to
play to whatever advantage we can muster," she shrugs.

Adam smirks at Skyler's lack of enthusiasim but shrugs, "Good enough.
Ralph, come're...you're in charge of the compass. Don't look at me
like that, it's not that hard. You just need to watch the needle, it
always points north. So, when we ask you which way we're going, you
look here and let us know. Can you handle that?" He's going to hand
the compass over to Ralph...get that boy involved. "Now, the hard part
is going to be the map..we need to figure out where the first point
is. Come on, socialities, let's take a look at this thing." He brings
out the map for the team to look over.

On your squad, Ralph blinks, surprised, then nods. "O-Okay!" He takes
the compass and stares at it. Seriously, he's not just glancing at it,
he's downright studying it. He also looks over at the map, but he's
very much trying to get the hang of how the compass works so he
doesn't screw up at a crucial juncture.

Maps he can do. Well, sorta. Skyler peers at the map and says, in an
ever so helpful way, "That's where we want to go." And he points at
the mark that indicates point one. Isn't he helpful? Pointing out the
obvious. "The whole 'control point one' thing gives me that idea. Now,
as to where we -are- and thus how to get there? Bernie, hon, have you
any idea?" He squints at it, "The maps I'm used to-- the ones in
malls-- usually have this pleasant little mark saying 'You are here'.
This seems to be lacking."

Bernie has her own experiences on reading city maps. "Well," Bernie
says looking around the map for little land marks. Pointing her finger
in a certain place she says, "That should be the winding path, so we
should be around /here/." She peers further and says, "Assuming that
we're facing north, we'd have to go northwest." Wooo Social Studies
worked for Berniiiee!

As the topic of cardinal directions pops up, Ralph jumps in! "Oh! I
can check that! Ummm, north is..." He rotates a little... little
more... little more... "There! So..." He points. "Northwest is there!"

Adam bats Skyler's hand off the map, "You are so helpful Skyler,
thanks." He smiles proudly at Bernie. "Now we're in the game. You're
so smart baby, that gets a kiss." He gives her a peck on the cheek.
Hopefully this doesn't discourage the boys from doing good work on teh
team themselves. "Okay, Northwest looks good. Let's go, we've to beat
the others! Ralph, make sure we're staying on track." With that, he
turns to happily lead them off into the wooded depths.

Skyler perks up visibly, and offers Adam an amused grin, "Hey, if I
get helpful, do I get one too?" he inquires pointedly. But all this is
said as he hurries along; he can keep up a decent enough pace, even
with this Wildlife thing going on around here. Sticks, and rocks, and
other things that people should be paid to pick up. Alas.

(Meanwhile, Generation Double HeliX plans and prepares for the challenge.)

Rahne nods, glancing out over the woods as the squad hangs back to let
the others go first. "Aye, we're gang to need the map to figure ou'
how to get where we need to be, I think. I usually jus' run all over,
bu' tha' willnae work so well this time." So saying, she pulls out her
own copy of the map, frowning at it thoughtfully as though it might
start to make sense.

Simon shrugs. "Only thing I know and good at is cooking and sneaking
about, but I am great at both." He says and just looks about. "Well I
doubt I will be sneaking around for this so what do you want me to do
ladies?" He asks, looking between the three of them.

"Actually, sneaking might not be such a bad idea," Nikki says to
Simon, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "If we can't figure out the map,
we can always follow the others. But will they be able to sense you
spying on them?" Turning to Rahne she says, "If we can get away with
it, that's where you come in. You might know the fastest ways to get
past any obstacles... we could catch up and then zip past them before
the finish."

Betsy bends to adjust the laces on her boots, "I do not know," She
stands, "Its all strait lines, right? North points one direction, our
destination lies at an angle to that. So we follow the angle." She
closes her eyes squinting at the others.

Simon shakes his head. "See thats the problem with telepaths, they got
to know where and what to look for when feeling for thoughts, however
otherwise, I am completely unable to be found when I want to be. Ok
then if I am to follow people, who am I to follow?" He says, watching
everyone around him.

Nikki gives Simon a slightly surprised look. "Are you sure? If so,
that'd be great. But then, we'll have to have a way of getting in
touch with you when we need guidance." She puzzles over the problem
for a moment, then shrugs. "I can't think of anything. Anyone else got
any ideas?"

Rahne takes out her compass, having to fiddle with it a little to get
herself pointed north. "Aye, north is up, righ'?" She turns the map
that way, trying to figure out how to make it line up with the real
woods in front of them. After a moment, she just shakes her head a bit
and looks back over at Nikki. "Aye, well, we coul' try tha', bu' - is
tha' no' cheating? I though' we were supposed to figure ou' the way
our ainsel'." She looks back at the map, becoming a little more
skeptical that she's going to be the one to master that particular
feat. "Bu' aye, I coul' probably ... figure some way through, if I
knew where." As Nikki puts forth the question about communicating, she
looks back up with a shrug. "We coul' use the whistle, bu' then the
teachers migh' think we needed help."

Simon looks over the map and looks about. "Ok it's simple, I can go on
ahead, mark trees and you guys can follow it. Or I can follow them to
a point, come back and get you guys and then when we get to that point
I can scout about to see if I can find anyone then I repeat the whole
process over again."

Betsy reaches into a pocket of her sweatshirt, and then pulls out a
stick of purple lipstick, "Here, mark the tree wit this." She then
looks at Nikki, "Well, it sounds ok to me." She looks after the other
group again.

Nikki nods thoughtfully at everyone's input. "I dunno, Rahne, it's
more like we're coming up with solutions that play to our strengths,
not really cheating. We know we aren't very good orienteers, but we
have other skills that might help. I think that's part of the game."
but suddenly her eyes pop open wide and she snaps her fingers. "And
wait! We don't just have whistles!" She holds up her hand, which
starts to blur with regular pulses of vibration.

A noise like a honking goose echoes through the woods. Definitely not
a whistle. (emitted for all)

Nikki grins. "See? I can call you whenever I want with noises like that."

Simon nods "Ok works for me, I will mark trees until you call me then
I will come back, simple enough strategy." He says and he gives a
sigh. "Good thing I had a great meal today, or else I would be wore
out." He says, then looks up. "So want me to vanish now?"

Rahne seems a little reluctant about this idea, but at Nikki's
explanation of how it's not really cheating, she gives a slow nod.
"Aye, all righ'. An' ... I coul' probably track Simon in my other form
if we need to find him," she offers, getting a little more into it. At
Nikki's noise, she gives a bit of a laugh and then shrugs, trying
unsuccessfully to get the map folded up again properly. "Aye, I think
we've waited our fair amount of time, nae?"

Nikki glances over at a clock which is resting on the supply table.
"Yeah, that's long enough, but don't disappear just yet. Rahne, use
your nose to lead Simon to the other team first. When you get close
enough to follow, /then/ do the vanishy thing, and Rahne can come back
and lead us along with you." She turns to Betsy, frowning slightly. "I
guess this one really doesn't call for pink triangles, does it? But
you can try to figure out this map-compass thing while we go."

Rahne nods again, offering the map, which she's managed to get
somewhat haphazardly folded back up again. "Aye, all righ'. Come along
then Simon. Coul' one of yeh keep an eye on my pack?" She sets it down
by the other girls and then, just like that, is replaced by the form
of a small red wolf. Unable to speak, she just gestures with a nod of
her head towards the woods and then sets her nose to the ground,
trying to figure out the proper trail from the smells of people
wandering this way and that.

Simon nods and follows the fox. "I will try and leave a bit of myself
unvisible so you may be able to track me, otherwise my scent cannot be
found when I am completely invisible." He says following the little
animal to the people.

(Meanwhile, Nikki's call has been heard by the Pack)

Bernie makes her usual scrunchy face as she gets a peck. Yay! Props
for Bernadette! Though as Skyler asks for his kiss she grins and
nudges Adam, "Come on, hon. Sky contributed. Give him a wet one!" And
she begins walking in the way which Ralph indicates. She blinks a
little into the direction from where the loud goose sound comes from.
Though she has a somewhat bad feeling about it, she shakes it off and
keeps walking.

Lo and behold! As the group progresses they come to a cliff. Great.
Bernie's morale sinks a little. "Its pretty deep...," she frowns
looking over the edge, "Is there anyway we can get around it?"

Jean adjusts to the quickened pace of the kids, but her stride still
keeps her several steps behind still. Eyebrows raise at the noise
echoing. Eyes glance up, surveying, and lower again with a slight
shaking of her head, but she keeps wordless.

Adam smirks, saying to Skyler, "....I don't think so." He chuckles a
little, but then glances off into the distance at the sound.
"Um...okay." There's no time to worry over strange noises for now the
group finds themselves facing a cliff..a pretty sheer one at that. He
looks left and right thoughtfully. "Hmm... You sure this is the right
way still Ralph?"

Ralph gulps as he looks over at the cliff. "....Uh... I think so..."
He checks the compass. "Y-yeah, we've been going northwest... er... I
guess... we gotta go around?" He furrows his brow. "Don't suppose any
of you have any... er... cliff-crossing powers..."

Skyler frowns slightly at the cliff, "... Well. That's sorta
unfortunate. I've done wall-climbing at the gym, but I'm not sure if
it'd be faster to try to go up then to go around. Besides the whole
possibility of breaking bones, which would be probably bad for our
progress. Hey, ninja-boy, are you any good at climbing?" He squints
over at Ralph and flashes him a grin.

Ralph blinks. "Uhhh... n-no... I'm, uh, I'm really not a ninja..." One
of those sentences you never expect to have to say in your life, but
here we are. "...All my power's good for is counter-attacking...
ummm... Wow, that's tall..." He scratches his head. "Unless someone's
powers can help with this... or someone can climb this, and drop down
a rope or something... or... I dunno, something else..." He looks at
the compass dubiously, then sighs. "Maybe we go around?"

Adam continues to stare up at the cliff, thoughtful. "Going around
will take a while. Besides, if this is the right way, then this was
probably put here to test us..so let's figure it out." He can't help
but chuckle at Skyler, and well, the image of Ralph rock climbing.
Suddenly he laughs. "I've got it. You guys ever walk a balance beam?"
he says, grinning as he backpeddles a bit, looking up at the trees.

On your squad, Simon smiles once he was a good distance away from the
group. He closes his eyes as the silver liquid begins to cover his
whole body and once it covers him it hardens and he vanishes
completely. He marks a tree with the purple lipstick, the mark facing
away from the group he was following. Once marked he begins to move in
close, the liquid which made him invisible muffled his foot steps as
he moved.

(Back at the edge of the woods...)

Nikki picks up Rahne's pack with a smile and a nod, letting Betsy keep
her hands free so she can keep trying to decode the map. "See you guys
later," she says, waving. "Having any luck?" she asks Betsy.

Betsy says "I dont know, I seem to have figured out this elevation
thing... and well, there are some markers, I think if i see elevation
change it should get us not lost..."

Rahne is gone for a short space of time, before she comes back out of
the woods, running at ... quite the impressive clip. She pulls up to a
halt in front of the rest of her squad, shifting back to human form
and just a little breathless. "Aye, all righ'. He shoul' be wi' them
by now," she announces.

Nikki grins and reaches out to pat Rahne on the shoulder, handing her
the pack with her other hand. "Great job!" she says. "That was really
fast!" Turning to Betsy, she says, "Sounds good. I guess there's
nothing stopping us heading into the woods, then?" And if no one
protests, she's going to start heading into the forest in the
direction Rahne took.

Rahne gives a grin of thanks to Nikki's praise as she takes her pack
back and slings it over a shoulder, turning to follow the older girl
into the woods. "Nae, I dunnae think so. I left him jus' a li'l ways
up here," she indicates, pointing along a direction. After a few feet,
she seems to think better of wasting her powers by being in human form
and opts for her transitional form again, still human-like in shape,
but a little larger and considerably more hairy.

Betsy blinks at Rahne and smiles. She then begins to follow the other
two, holding the map awkwardly, not particularly looking where she is
going. Her own world becomes that of 2d lines and green spots. Her
heavy boots thud as she moves noisily through the brush.

A big crashing sound echoes in the woods, from the direction of the
cliff face obstacle.

(Up ahead...)

Jean comes to a stop, now within range of the first obstacle facing
the squad. Her eyebrows form another arch at this doozy of a lead-in
before shifting to Skyler. "The mall-dweller's done wall-climbing? I'm
pleasantly surprised at this," remarks the teacher for levity's sake,
flashing a smile, before quieting down in interest to Adam's apparent
idea, watching the teenager curiously.

Bernie snickers at Jean's retort, but replies to Adam, "Yeah. A little
bit. Not exactly a balance beam, but I've walked things that could
substitute for it." Simon is so far undetected. Unfortunately.

Ralph grimaces a bit, already afraid he's going to be a team
liability. "Er... no, I haven't... that's like... when you walk across
some... narrow... thing, right?"

Simon moves out of the way as best as he could without making a noise,
still remaining close to the group to be able to hear anything. He
remains quiet and clear headed, knowing about the powerful telepath
with them.

Skyler flashes a grin over at Jean, "Hey, it's exercise that's fun,
challenging, lacks all of the stupid machoism of most sports, and
isn't as tedious as weightlifting... That and swimming keep me pretty,
hon. Besides, I intend on climbing a /real/ mountain soon. Maybe on my
18th birthday. Besides, you're surprised? Did oyu miss the BASE
Jumping comment?" He then flashes a curious look at Adam, "...No, but
it sounds fun. I have good balance. Let's do it, alpha-man. But what
are we walking -on-?" And then to Ralph, he says, "Don't worry, bud.
Hands-and-knees can work just as well. Falling is bad."

Adam goes about inspecting trees for another minute before making his
decision. He turns to the group. "Yeah Ralph. Okay folks..here we go.
The plan is, I'm going to knock this tree over and it should, with any
luck, fall onto the cliff, giving us a walkable slope. This tree has
some big branches that you guys can use as hand holds. I'll go last,
in case anyone needs help. Okay?" He waits about all of 5 seconds for
any objections to his plan before he hands his backpack to Bernie and
prepares to shift.

Bernie shrugs. Sounds like a grand old plan. "No objections here," she
says grabbing his bag. That's right, weigh the smallest one down so
that she falls /harder/. But remembering a small detail she says,
"Uhm...Adam...what about your....clothes?" Wow, does Bernie turn red.
Will she have to cover her eyes or something?

Clothes? Skyler decides to focus his attention upon Adam. And smirk.
What? As if he's not going to look. Yeah. Right.

Ralph scratches the back of his neck. "Uh... all right... I mean, I
haven't really climbed before, b-but I'll try my best...!" He puts his
best face forward. Or something like that.

Simon remains out of the way to the best of his ability but he cracks
a grin when he heard Bernie and saw her face. He just waits and
watches them, still continuing on with the plan he made with the
others but sure to also remain clear headed and out of sight.

Adam smirks at Bernie. "That's why you guard that bag with your life.
Extra clothes." With that, he quickly stripes off his sneakers, jacket
and shirt...those Bernie could put in the bag too, please. Then he
shifts and within seconds is replaced by his great bear form. Aware
that time is ticking, he wastes none of it and starts the task of
setting his forepaws on the tree and hefting with all his might. A
little digging at the base, and more pushing and soon enough the tall,
fairly thin tree comes crashing downward.

Jean is a neutral party at the moment; any detections of Simon will go
unnoticed or ignored, alas. "BASE Jumping?" she says back to Skyler's
response, slightly rounded eyes answering the obvious even before she
replies, "I guess I must've missed that. Darn my old people hearing."
She makes something of an unserious face, but catches up with the
current discussion pretty quickly, mouth tightening a little, but no
teacherly concerns strong enough to warrant breaching her role. She
watches as the tree falls, standing by, arms folding loosely.

Bernie clears her throat and neatly places the clothes in his bag. She
looks down as much as possible to avoid anyone seeing her eyes...or
her face. Up and away she goes climbing the tree till she reaches the
top. As she waits for the others, she pulls the map out of Adam's bag
to see where they should go next.

"Note to self: piss off Adam over the phone only." remarks Skyler as
he strides forward, eyeing the tree and saying, "I'll go first."
confidently. And then, if no one stops him, he's going to start
scrambling carefully up the treeee.

Ralph gets to the tree next, and of course, he's the worst at it;
despite his reputed ninjosity, there's no escaping the fact that Ralph
is an unathletic, tubby teenager who isn't used to this sort of thing.
Still, he puts full effort into it, and through sheer concentration
and willpower, manages to inch his way up to the top. "I... I made it!"

Simon follows after Ralph, knowing that the team should provide him
plenty of room to work with so this was his chance. Once Ralph was up
and about the top he climbs to the top and does his best not to touch
anyone or let them know he was there, looking down at the bottom to
the rest of them.

Jean has, by this point, joined the kids at her own pace, once more
returning to the background.

Bear Adam waits for the others to go up and trods along after them.
Once they're all up, the turns to face the tree again. He's not about
to give the other team the advantage of his hard work...no siree. He
takes the extra time to push and shove the tree back off, allowing it
to crash to the bottom of the cliff.

Nikki continues to trudge through the woods, pausing every once in a
while to consult Rahne on the direction they're taking. It isn't long
before they come to a tree marked with bright purple lipstick -- at
the bottom of an intimidating 30-foot cliff their opponents are still
making their way up. Only the tremendous crash of a tree slamming into
the rock stops Nikki in time to avoid being seen. "Oh, great," she
says, peering around a tree, then ducking back to look helplessly at
her teammates. "What now?"

Rahne does her best to lead the other two along to where she'd last
left Simon, and then towards the marked tree. At the crashing of the
trunk, she jumps, stepping back a little before looking back out with
wide eyes. "Ach. I ... dinna. Do yeh think we coul' just climb up it?"
She looks over with a questioning expression. "I think tha' there is a
way aroun', bu' it will take us longer."

"Mmmkk, so map says we keep going northwest," Bernie says. Meanwhile
she pulls out Adam's clothes, and walks over to Bear Adam, petting
behind his ear. Fuzzy! "Arite, let's keep moving, yes?" She hands
smokey his clothes and continues on.

Ralph consults his compass. "Th-this way!" He points, and... welll,
doesn't lead on, so much as... lets someone else lead on.

Simon marks the a tree at the top of the cliff with the same lipstick,
moving to the edge and hopes the other group can find the tree. He
remains at the edge while everyone lingers but the moment they started
to leave he leaves with them, moving quietly and marking every once
and a while.

"Yay! Point one reached!" Bernie cheers and she picks up the team's
flag, waves it around, and does a little victory dance. "Annyyywayy,"
she says, "No time to idle, oui?" She holds the map out, once again
trying to find the land marks, "Uhmm. Map says East now." She looks to
Ralph for a heading.

Ralph nods, looks at his compass, and points. "It's... that way!" He
smiles a little. He's useful! Yay!

Adam grabs Bernie for a quick celabratory hug and then nods. "Let's
keep moving!" He hurries his team along...

Skyler, still clothed, is just following at this point. Getting flags
isn't difficult, after all. ;)

Simon watches everyone and when no one was looking he snatches his
team flag and makes it invisible with him, putting it away within his
coat and hurries along with everyone else, being sure to keep up with
the others.

(Back at the bottom of the cliff)

"Stupid bear," Nikki growls as she watches Adam sabotage the makeshift
ladder. "I guess you're right, Rahne. I've never climbed a cliff that
wasn't plastic with color-coded handholds, but the YMCA experience
will just have to do." She waits until the other team is out of sight,
then heads out to the base of the cliff. She scrambles up a few feet,
only to backslide away half the distance she's covered. "Damn rain,"
she mutters. "This is really slippery."

A hair-covered Rahne watches as Nikki begins to scale the cliff,
grimacing as she begins to slide. "Ach, be carefu'. If yeh fall frae
much higher, yeh coul' get hurt." She bites her lip, trying to think
of something better to try. "We shoul' have broug' some rope," she
remarks, before, with a shrug, moving forward to try climbing herself.
Clawed hands do add to the challenge, but she seems to be gifted by
some extra agility and strength in this particular form which is
helpful in making her way along.

"Wait a minute!" Nikki says, pausing. She reaches into her T-shirt and
pulls off the glassy, rod-shaped pendant she wears almost all the
time. "What's the point of having a diamond spike, Nikki, if you don't
/use/ it?" she asks herself -- and indeed, there's a decidedly
crystalline sheen to the object, now that it's in the light. She holds
it like she's the innkeeper at the Bates Motel, and her powers ignite
with a deep buzzing sound. Pressing slowly, she drives the makeshift
diamond drill into the rock -- instant piton. Using it as a handhold,
she starts dragging herself upward much more quickly.

Rahne glances over at the buzzing noise, laughing a little as she sees
what Nikki's doing. "Aye, tha's thinking," she offers as she continues
scrambling on up by the virtue of her own abilities. There's the
occasional slip, and one incomprehensible mutter as she manages to
skin her knee a little, but otherwise, she seems to be managing to
slowly but steadily make her way up.

After a good time of walking east The Pack finally sees the stream
coming into view. Ugh, great. Water. Bernie dips a finger into the
stream and immediately pulls it back out as she shivers. "Its
coooolllldd," she frowns.

The first challenge defeated, Skyler heads with his teammates along
towards the next, making his way through the woods. Once the stream
comes into view, he sighs; a quick glance back and forth gives him his
bad news, and he promptly-- without bothering to stop moving-- pulls
off his jacket, drapes it over his arm, and then tugs at his shirt to
pull it off. He stops for a moment to kick off his shoes, yank his
socks, then continue heading towards the stream.... Skyler has had a
lot of practice, it seems, with quickly removing his clothes-- its
best not to analyze why-- and soon he's taking off his /pants/, too.
By the time he's at the edge of the stream, the athletic young man is
in his boxers. Is he going to lose them too? Noo, don't worry.

Simon continues marking the trees so the other team would know the
path and upon hitting the river he looks to it, giving a slight shiver
once he hears Bernie. It already was cold being coated with the liquid
which made him invisible, now it was going to get even colder.
Sometimes the life of a spy isnt all glamorous like James Bond.

Ralph shivers just looking at the stream. "O-oh boy..." He looks at
his teammates, then at the river. No, he can't be a drag... So he
rolls ups his pants legs, takes off his shoes and socks, takes a few
paces back... "Gangway....!" ...then gives a running jump into the
water - Ker-SPLASH!! He tries to keep the momentum up the rest of the
way, getting out of the water as quickly as possible so it doesn't
have time to soak him all the way through. He's still soaked
afterwards, but perhaps, just perhaps, he's a -little- dryer for it.

Adam comes up to the stream too, arching a brow at Skyler. "Uh
dude..it doesn't look that deep. You planning on swimming across? I
guess we could just walk across really...hopefully it won't give us
all pneumonia." He busts up laughing at Ralph though. "He's got it!
Come on." He too takes off his shoes and socks, rolling up his pants.
He steps back..a little further and then runs at the river, running
through the water yelping "cold, cold, cold, damn that's cold..cold!"
Until he gets to the other side.

"I'm planning on NOT having soaking, cold clothes when I'm on the
other side. And the shirt is off so I can use it to dry my legs off on
the other side." remarks Skyler to Adam. Skyler's clothes are bundled
into his jacket, and held close, and then he resolutely makes his way
through the ever so cold water, holding everything up high enough to
not get splasahed anymore then it absolutely has to. "I was not aware
that our teachers were sadists. Note to self: do not go into the
basement, you won't like what you find." he remarks dryly, before
snickering softly. Once at the other side, he grabs his shirt out and
quickly wipes off his legs and feet a bit before working on hopping
into jeans as swiftly as he can. "I'll catch up in two seconds." he
calls off to the teamies.

With the advantage of her climbing aid, Nikki manages to match Rahne's
pace and prevent herself from backsliding. She grins over at the other
girl's compliment, tucking a black spike of hair out of her face, and
says modestly, "Yeah, well, I knew this thing would come in handy
someday. Remind me to thank Chikako next time I see her." In a few
minutes, she's gotten to the top of the cliff, and turns around to
help Rahne for the last few feet.

Rahne takes the offered hand up the last little bit of the cliff,
careful not to catch Nikki with her claws. "Ach, well, tha' was
certainly a challenge," she remarks a little breathlessly, before
sniffing about at the air. "I think tha' we want to go tha' way," she
guesses, basing it on where the smell of other people seems heaviest.
Her eyes are already scanning the treeline for the next marker.

"Sky, can't you just roll...," Bernie says turning even redder again
when another member of her squad strips down to his skivvies. "What
the /hell/ is this? A /BACHLORETTE/ party?!" She looks in another
direction to protect her virgin eyes as she takes off her socks and
boots. However, as she looks in the other direciton, a sudden random
pang of fear strikes her. But it wasn't her own fear. Maybe....noo
way. She looks in the direction again, and the feeling was still
there. Was she sensing someone? Impossible! She needed eye contact and
no one was there. Unless...they're invisible. She puts the thought in
the back of her head as she quickly makes her way across the stream.
"Holy crap cold!"

Simon almost looks away from bernie when he makes eye contact with the
woman, marking a nearby tree so they will know to come here and marks
the ground infront of the stream like an arrow to point to them to
cross it before going across himself, shivvering as he makes his way
and breathes softly, beginning to get a little tired once he made it
across.

Ralph chatters on the other side, but rolls his pants back down and
puts on his boots and tries to put up with the cold. "Qu-quick, we've
got to keep moving... Bernie!" He waits for his teammate to reach the
other side. "Bernie, which direction now...?"

Adam slips his shoes back on. Sure his pants may have gotten splashed
with the cold water, but at least it's not his shoes. He's good. To
Bernie, as she approaches the other side, Adam smiles, "Don't worry
babe, I'll warm you up later." He nods then to Raplh, who's totally
gotten into the spirit now.

"Wait up," Nikki calls to Rahne, running over to grab the team's flag
-- only to discover that it's already gone. "Oh, good thinking,
Simon!" she says happily. "Now all we have to do is worry about
keeping up with them!" Matching words to action, she gets a move on to
catch up with Rahne.

Rahne glances back over as Nikki calls out to her, having forgotten
for the moment her own speed. She waits quite patiently but eagerly
while Nikki goes to fetch their flag, her eyebrows lifting a little as
she returns without it. "Simon got to it already? Aye, well, let's
move on then an' catch oursel's up." And with that, she starts along,
gesturing towards the trees that have been marked as they approach and
pass them. "We mus' be going in the righ' direction."

"... and no, my jeans don't roll up, dear." replies Skyler to Bernie
with a wry smirk, soon hopping after the team as he wiggles into his
jeans with slightly damp legs and the rest of his clothes in his arms.
What! He's not going to ruin his jeans. He's not!

"Uhm...yeah...direction," Bernie blinks for a second and looks back
onto the map, "North east this time." She grins sheepishly to Adam and
says, "You better live up to that promise then." Though as she waits
for Ralph to point the way she looks around her surrounding. Its
almost as if she's paranoid. Again! There's that pang of fear when she
looked in this direction. Stronger this time. There's someone here.

Nikki nods at Rahne and picks up her pace, getting to a light jog.
Maps and compasses, not so much, but when it comes to running through
the woods, this Georgia girl is as experienced as anyone -- except, of
course, the wolf-girl. She suddenly laughs gaily. "Man, this is fun!"
she calls out. "We should do this more --" She's cut off by the
appearance of the stream, and their competitors on the other side. She
laughs again, then starts waving her arms and calling out, "Hey there,
guys! Should we have given you more of a head start?"

"Aye, well, yeh can come ou' wi' me anytime yeh'd like," Rahne
invites, as to running about in the woods. But she picks up on Nikki
cutting off and looks out over the stream, a toothy grin coming to her
face as they spot the others, waving a furry hand at them. "Ach, I
think they jus' ran across. We coul' try to put a boulder in the
middle there, for it isnae far across, or we coul' just make a dash
for it after them."

Ralph nods. "North's that way! So, c'mon, let's... eh?!" He gets a bit
thrown off by seeing the other squad on the other side of the stream.
"Ahhh...! They're catching up!"

With Ralph pointing the way, Adam and the rest of The Pack hurry off
again, coming upon the next checkpoint. This time adam grabs the team
flag. "Got it...let's keep moving. That river was an easy obstacle and
they're right behind us. Come on, come on..."

Hearing Nikki's voice, Bernie grin and jets out of there following
Adam to the check point. Checking the map as she's running, she yells
out for Ralph to hear, "Southeast!" Catch up with Adam, she says in a
quiet voice, audible for him to hear, "Hey...Adam. Do you...smell
anyone?" She then includes, "I sensed someone twice back there." The
fear she sensed still lingered a bit in her mind.

"Ummm! Okay!" Ralph does seem to be getting into the groove of this!
He checks the compass, then points. "Thataway...!!" He hurries off,
doing his best to keep up - being the least athletic member of The
Pack does have its disadvantages after all...

Simon continues to keep up with the rest of them, panting a bit so he
slows down so his panting could be heard. He knew he had to keep up
and after getting a good breath of air he begins to move up with them
to hear whatever they say as well.

Ralph looks at the map in Bernie's hands. "O-okay... next we should
head, uh! Uh!" He looks at his compass, then at the map, then at the
compass again, still more or less running as he goes. "Th-that way!
I'm pretty sure, anyway!"

Nikki raises her eyebrows at Rahne, surprised by the girl's
suggestion. "You can just 'put' a boulder there?" she asks, a note of
awe in her voice. "Hey, no argument here. We don't even really have to
beat them. If we cross the finish line less than five minutes after
they do, we win!" She rubs her hands together eagerly, and steps back
from the water's edge, in case Rahne is going to be doing any sudden
boulder-hurling.

Rahne laughs a little, shrugging a shoulder. "Aye, I think so. It
wouldnae need to be a verra big one..." she murmurs, partly to herself
as she turns to scan the bank for something suitable. There's one that
looks like it might do the trick a short ways down, so she trots over
to it. Even stronger as she is in this form, it does take a bit of
hefting to get it freed from the ground, and then she attempts to lob
it like a granny-bowler as far into the stream as she can. It lands
with a splash, and with a surprised noise, she has to jump back to
avoid the spray.

Adam whispers back to Bernie, "I wouldn't notice it unless I was in
bear form. You think we're being followed? Wait..come to think of
it..I only saw the girls back there...Simon was on thier team too and
Si-" Adam frowns, "Dammit! Dammit to hell. Simon!" He looks a little
pissed now. "You filthy little cheaters!" He shouts, "Simon, I know
you're here somewhere..find your own way!" He calls as he runs off
with his team.

Nikki's jaw just drops. "WOW!" she shouts, grinning like mad even
though she caught a little of the splash herself. But then she hears
Adam shouting across the pond, and her expression turns to one of deep
concern immediately. Without even thinking, she holds her arms up to
the sky, and lets out another loud goose-honk. "We don't need him to
follow them anymore," she comments to Rahne. "They're barely out of
our field of vision." And with that, she skips out a foot or two into
the stream and then makes a leap for Rahne's artificial stepping stone.

"Aye, we jus' ... have to keep up," Rahne agrees with a self-conscious
grin of her own, as she wipes her hands on her pants. Letting Nikki
hop across first, she moves to follow along soon after, already
sniffing the air to see if she can detect Simon returning or not.

Simon flinches when he hears Adam. To explain how Simon uses his
powers, he has to be scared to keep it up to just cover him. The more
scared he is, the more that covers him and longer amounts of time he
can remain being invisible. Upon hearing Adam he felt his body
continue to keep up but not so draining as before, actually scared
enough to not force his powers out like normal. Hearing the honk he
listens to where Ralph said, looking ahead to memorize the way and
begins running back quietly, the further away he got from the other
group, the less scared he became. Once back at the other side of the
stream he appears with the crystal flakes falling off of him. "Guys
they only thought I was there, they werent sure!" He says, holding the
two flags.

"No problem, Simon," Nikki says, reaching out to pat the soggy boy on
the shoulder. "You did really well! We've caught up, and from now on
we just need to keep up with them to win! And if there are any more
obstacles like this, we'll be sure to run into them again before they
get across. In the meantime, Rahne, are we close enough to follow with
your wolf-nose alone? Because you know they'll be putting the pedal to
the metal now."

"Aye, I think so. It's a pretty strong trail, this close," Rahne says,
sniffing about at the air experimentally. "Good work, Simon. Yeh got
us this far." She flashes him a wolfish grin before gesturing with her
head and starting off after the others. Map, shmap, she'll follow her
nose.

Adam is more determined than ever to win this and he's going to drive
him team to do it. He nods to Ralph, and takes off at a good spped.
"Come on Ralph, hurry!" He'll feel bad about pushing him later, right
now, he wants to win. They reach checkpoint 3. "Get the flag..." It
won't take the others long to catch up, he knows. That checkpoint was
just a flat out run, esspecially for the cheaters who aren't even
bothering to map out the course.

Ralph is winded, but dammit, he's also pumped! "Ahhh, okay, okay..."
He grabs the flag, then does some more compass-map consulting.
"This... no! THIS way!" He points toward the next checkpoint...

Adam nods, clasps his teammate on the shoudler and then heads off in
the direction pointed. Soon enough they come upon the revine and Adam
stops short. "Damn." He furrows his brows, desperatly trying to pump
his brain for a clever thought.

Ralph blinks, looking down at the ravine. "Ummm... Er... got any more,
uh, tree-toppling in you?" He frowns, and scans his surroundings for
other possiblities...

Skyler can run; running isn't a hard thing to do at all. So he keeps
pace with the others without getting really winded, and then eyes the
ravine again. He flashes a look at Adam, "If you knock over the tree,
I have an idea that might delay them when they get here. I'll have to
catch up some, but I can race-- and they should be at least a couple
minutes farther behind."

Simon nods and begins to run on ahead. "Come on lets go, I know where
they will be going for a little while!" He says, beginning to run
alongside Rahne, watching her. "Damn woman, if we win this I am so
going to take the two of you out to dinner." He says, panting as he
ran, tired from using his powers.

Nikki, who's still fresh, manages to catch up to Simon fairly easily.
"Hey, take it easy, man," she advises him, reaching a hand up to place
it between his shoulder blades. "You don't have to keep up with Rahne
-- not only does she know the terrain, but physically, she's..." The
skinny rocker waves her free hand, trying to pluck the words out of
the air. "She threw a boulder into the river so we didn't have to get
our feet wet!" she finally says. "If you need to drop back a little to
pace yourself, that's fine. In fact, that's better than getting
dehydrated or passing out or something." At this point, they come
across the next batch of flags. Nikki barely even breaks stride,
leaning down like she's a polo player to snatch up the appropriate
token. "Which way?" she asks her teammates.

Adam nods to Skyler, trusting him. "Ok, let's do it. Once I shift, I'm
staying in bear form...I can't risk the time to shift again. Ralph,
just keep leading the way..we're close!" With that, he does his thing
again..shifting, picking our another tree and knocking it over. The
crash ecoes across the wood.

Rahne seems to be able to keep pace with the others fairly easily, so
that she can keep half of her attention on tracking the others by
smell. She glances over as Nikki grabs their flag. "Ach, tha' one, I'm
pretty sure," she indicates with a clawed finger, looking to Simon for
confirmation.

Simon looks around and remembers what Ralph said just before he left,
pointing to the direction. Hearing the crash only makes him speed up.
"They knocked another tree over, if I know adam they will make it so
we cant use it to our advantage." He says, running as fast as his legs
can take him.

So now, it's a footrace through the woods. Nikki grins and offers a
silent prayer of thanks to the angel of Deep South summers. This
doesn't slow her body down in the least: she takes off in the
direction indicated at a brisk jogging speed that she can keep up for
quite a while, if she has to. "Don't worry, Simon," she says between
deep breaths, turning her head to offer her teammates a grin. "Adam's
not the only one who can knock over a tree."

Once they make their way across the bridge, Skyler turns and crouches
by the log, digging something out of his pocket. What? Something
random, and pointless-- a lighter, really if one is going to be paying
close attention. He's then going to sit there and wait until the team
comes into view, "Cheaters never prosper!" he will then yell-- light
the lighter and make a flinging gesture at the tree... Flame catches,
and spreads-- quickly rushing down the tree towards the other side
where the people are. Faster then flame really should, but why should
that be surprising? Then with a laugh he's going to dash off and ruuuuuun.

"This way... oh! There's the fourth flag! One more, guys!" Ralph takes
a deep breath - hey, he's pudgy and he's been running, don't blame
him! - and runs for the flag. Assumedly, since Skyler told them he'd
catch up, he does this BEFORE he goes illusion-pyro, and Ralph's off
and running for that last damned flag!

Rahne's eyes widen a little as she hears the tree go over, but she
gives a little laugh to Nikki's comment. "Aye, a' leas' we know tha'
the need migh' be coming up real soon..." She trails off as she breaks
out of the treeline at the ravine, skidding to a halt and staring at
it for a moment, before Skyler's voice catches her attention. "Ach!"
she exclaims, jumping back as the fire seems to be racing towards
them. "Look ou'!" she warns the others.

Nikki spots the fire as soon as it ignites, and can't help but laugh,
even though she's starting to pant from the exercise. She slows to a
halt, at the edge of the tree, and gives a few brief instructions.
"Rahne, shift to human. Both of you, cover your ears. This is gonna be
loud." She cups her hands around her mouth and shouts to the opposing
team, "HEY, RAT PACK! MAKE A WISH!" With that, she curls her arms back
into a pose similar to a kung-fu stance and lets loose with a
tremendous compression blast that sounds like lighting striking the
tree. That gust of wind is enough to flatten a man, and the solid
impact of compressed air will be more like a blanket to the flames
than normal wind. Instant averted forest fire! Right...?

Simon acks as he sees the flames. Without even thinking really he
moves his hands forwards towards the flames, the silver liquid he
produces appears over his hands but hearing Nikki he moves to his
hands to his ears. He smiles once he see's what Nikki did but seeing
the flames still there he just groans. "Ok...I will make you both
invisible...The liquid I produce seems to fight of fire pretty good
for a while so maybe we can use that to get across." He says, panting
as he begins to move as close as he can towards the flames.

Rahne promptly shifts back to human form at Nikki's warning, hands
already on their way to her ears. Her face scrunches up as she claps
her hands to the side of her head, only dropping them down once the
noise has passed. Seeing the flames unaltered, she blinks, looking a
little confused. "Ach, wha' ... was it yeh meant to do, exactly?" she
asks Nikki, as diplomatically as she can manage, before looking over
at Simon. "Yeh shoul' be carefu'," she warns, beginning to edge a
little nearer herself.

Ralph runs, and runs... he's already severely flagging, and uses the
new (and final?) challenge of a swath of thick brush as an excuse to
pause and catch his breath. "Ugh... uff... it... should be... right...
past here..." He wipes sweat from his brow. "...Adam, think you could
flatten a path for us...?"

Run! Run, run, run. Skyler is running, but fortunately he's in rather
good shape so can run without a lot of difficulty. To do the whole
catching up thing.

Adam skids to a stop as the forest suddenly thickens. He pants a
little and turns to look at Ralph. The big bear crouches down and
noses the chubby boy, gently, of course, but with the intent of trying
to tell him something. He nods to the question, but after this...it's
a running race and Ralph is exhausted, he can tell that much.

Ralph blinks at the pantomiming ursine. What is it boy? Timmy fell
down the well? No, that's not it... wait, he's crouched down...
"...Hey... think you could... support my weight..?"

Adam is a 700 pound bear...Ralph's not /that/ fat. The bear nods
again, more urgently and tries to prod Ralph along. Meanwhile, with
his better senses, he catches the sound of footsteps running...please
be Skyler, please be Skyler...

Ralph clambers onto Adam's furry back, clinging as tightly as he can
to the bear-fur. "A-All right... let's go!!"

Yes, it's Skyler, coming up on the bear and the rest of his
companions. He nods his head firmly, "Let's go." he agrees.

And go is the word. Adam gets up, steps back slightly and then charges
into the brush like a mac truck, flattening and demolishing all the
bushes and growth in his wake. What he can't stomp through, he bites
and claws through...it's annoying but hardly more than that..although
he'll need a good combing out later.

"How convenient." remarks Skyler idly, before he charges off after
Adam; he'll have to remember to offer to comb, bathe, or massage out
any brambles the young man has later on... For now, though, he's going
to run as fast as he can. He's not a track star, and he's finally
starting to get a little worn down, but the end comes in sight.

"Wait a minute, they weren't affected at /all/!?" Nikki cries out in
disbelief, staring at the impudent flames. "That blast should have
smothered them in /seconds/! Wait a minute..." she trails off, holding
up a hand to forestall Simon's sacrifice, and picks up one of the many
fallen leaves lying on the ground. She tosses it into the flames
before her... and it drifts down into the ravine, unharmed. "They're
/fake/! I knew it!" Well, not really. But now is not the time to
debate the point; she leaps up and starts running into the flames.
When she's on the other side, she's visibly shaken from the
experience, but she calls back, "It's like running over coals. Once
you get moving, it's not so bad!"

Simon nods and begins running into the flames and through them,
silverish liquid begins to cover his body instinctually when fire got
close to him but shattered off after a few moments. Once across he
tries his best to run but so far he is only going at a jog, smiling
weakly as he knew they were catching up.

Rahne blinks, surprised at this revelation, her eyes opening wider as
Nikki just suddenly tears through the fake flames, hand coming up to
cover her mouth, and only dropping back down once she sees the other
girl in one piece on the other side. "Ach! Tha'..." She trails off,
then nods resolutely. Once the other two are through, she drops back
to wolf form, having to hold back the impulse to close her eyes (not
good when running over a log, no) and racing through on all fours
herself. A little breathless, more from fear than exhaustion, she
moves back to transitional form so that she can remark, "Let's hope we
dunnae have to do tha' again. Wha's next." Sniffing at the air, she
moves to follow Simon along, trying to figure where the trail now leads.

Nikki pants, trembling as she waits for her teammates to cross. But
when they do, their presence seems to steady her. She wraps a
supporting arm around Simon's back, taking some of his weight so that
their speed will average out a bit. "No worries, Rahne, next time
we'll know what to expect. From now on, it's just a race, and they
don't have a five-minute lead. We're fine, but there's no time to
dawdle! Let's get a move on!" She takes off after the other team.

Simon nods and he closes his eyes, trying to find the energy to run
but only manages to speed up some more, an arm wrapping around Nikki's
waist so he could support himself, yeah thats it support himself
sounds like a good excuse to wrap his arm around her he thinks to
himself as he begins to move a bit faster, still breathing heavily.

Rahne glances over at her team-mates, realizing that Simon is rather
running out of steam. Spotting the control point, she gestures on
ahead. "Yeh two jus' keep going tha' way, an' I'll grab this an' catch
yeh up," she offers, breaking off to go and snag their next flag
before returning to the group. "We mus' be almost there now, aye? How
many does tha' make?" It gets a little confusing when your team's been
split up for half the race.

If Simon's arm-wrapping is motivated by anything other than fatigue,
Nikki doesn't have time to notice now. She grins her thanks to Rahne
and continues. She and Simon move through the woods in silence for a
minute, then Nikki whistles as Adam's path of destruction comes into
view. "Whatever happened to sustainable living?" she asks
rhetorically, mourning the once-lush plants that are now a thin green
paste on the ground. "At least they aren't very hard to follow." And
indeed, it's a piece of cake for the Gen X'ers and their allies to jog
along the greenway Adam has opened up.

Rahne jams the flag into her pocket as she joins back up with her
team, moving ahead just a little so that she can focus on finding that
trail of smell again. Focussed on that, she's silent for the several
minutes while they move through the woods, but when they come upon the
brush that's been decimated, well, no need to really concentrate
anymore. "Ach, we'll have to thank him for clearing tha'," she notes
with a grin (albeit a slightly sad one for the poor foliage), before
she moves to follow through the brush.

Simon groans as he continues to try and keep up, still holding onto
Nikki once he begins to travel along the brush, it could be seen he
nearly wore himself completely out, he was stumbling every other step
and panting heavily.

As Skyler skids across the finish line, he spins and quickly looks
around, "Adam! Drop him and come here, quickly. I need your help. I
have to sit on your back, and then you're going to when I tell tap
your shoulder walk back across the line towards them when they come
into view. Okay? Trust me."

Adam quickly sets raph down and then comes over to Skyler, nodding. He
does as directed by his teammate, crouching down do Skyler can get on.

Ralph tumbles off onto the ground, grabbing the last flag (if there is
one?) and flopping down with relief at having finished - riding a
raging bear isn't exactly restful, even if it's not running. "Oof...
oof... we... made... it... hoo... ray..." Whatever Skyler's planning,
Ralph has no part in it; the poor guy doesn't even seem to be aware
that the others still have a chance of winning!

The Pack ends up sitting on their heels restlessly for a couple of
minutes -- their opponents have done pretty well, but not /that/ well.
The necessary five haven't half expired, however, when the team comes
into view. Nikki grins, waving at her opponents with her free arm.
It's pretty clear she expects an easy win -- the Pack members are
still panting (and in Ralph's case, nearly passed out) from their
sprint for the finish.

This is fun. Skyler settles onto the bear, and looks rather seriously
back at where the others will approach from. In a calm tone of voice
he instructs the bear, "Think 'wheelchair'; you're my prop. I'm the
Professor. As soon as they come into view, start across the line back
towards them."

And then there's a look of concentration.

And then there is Professor Xavier, on his wheelchair, looking like a
very unhappy bald man. His lips pursed tightly, eyes narrowed
slightly, and one hand drumming on the arm of his chair.

As soon as they come into view, he'll start heading towards them (and
crossing the line right away to their side)...

Adam pads along, slowly, being the wheelchair. Think wheelchair...you
are the wheelchair.

Rahne continues along after Nikki, shifting back to her more mundane
form as soon as they clear the woods. She's grinning, not too worn out
by the exercise herself, but then, she makes it a habit to tear around
these woods for fun. "How do yeh think we did?" she asks her team as
they come into view of the finish line. But the sight of the Professor
and that unhappy look on his face slows her to a stop, a concerned
frown on her face as she looks over at the others with a questioning
expression and then back to the Professor's doppelganger.

When Nikki spots Xavier waiting for her team, she grins broadly.
However, as she gets closer, she spots his severe expression, and her
own jubilant attitude slips a little. "Give me the flags," she
whispers to her teammates, holding out her free hand expectantly. By
the time they're facing the Professor, Nikki's expression is just as
stern as the faux headmaster's, backed by the full force of her
teenage rebelliousness. "Is something wrong, sir?" she asks him in a
polite tone.

The faux-Professor's voice is as calm and smooth as it ever is, but
there is now a slightly cold edge to it; "I trust that each of you
will be studying for Jean's next class on ethics, as it appears there
is a certain lack in your education thus far. Did any of you bring
with you the rules and instructions for this exercise?"

Rahne's eyes widen a little as her stomach drops and she looks up at
Nikki for a moment and then back over at the Professor, her face
falling by degrees as she begins to look quite anxious and upset
indeed. "Nae, they were ... fastened to the table?" she says, not
quite sounding so sure, as she gestures absently back over her
shoulder towards the starting point.

Simon pants and lets go of Nikki, walking towards the professor.
"Sir...I...think I...overdid it..." He says, stumbling as he walked to
the man and was intending to take the full blame for the team when
just as he reached the professor his eyes close and he falls forward,
passed out completely from exhaustion before he even hit the ground or
the professor considering he was infront of him when his eyes closed.

The Professor reaches into his coat and pulls out a folded piece of
paper, "Fortunately." he remarks, "I have a copy here. Let me read a
quote for you, Rahne; 'Today, the squads will be competing in an
orienteering challenge.'" His eyes focus intently upon her, "Will you
please tell me what you interpret this passage to mean this contest is
meant to be about?" he then blinks at Simon as the young man falls on
him, and he shifts a bit in his seat, holding him up as carefully as
he can and nodding to Nikki, and nods to Nikki, "Please help him away,
while I speak to Rahne. He may need to have Jean check him out." The
coldness fades a bit at that, his natural kindness and concern showing
through. But only for a moment.

"Sorry, Prof. Maybe you should have written the directions more
clearly." Nikki says, the diminutive popping up involuntarily. She
continues to walk toward the finishing checkpoint, the flags clutched
in a white-knuckled hand. "You want to call it cheating? I call it
working ourselves to the breaking point using every resource we had.
And, unlike them, we did it without doing /anything/ to slow the other
team down." Suddenly Simon collapses, and Nikki cringes and turns
away, with mixed sympathy and anger. She's already moved quite far
away from the group. "Can you get him, Rahne?" she asks the younger
girl. "I probably can't carry him on my own anyway." She continues to
stride over toward the table, tears starting to appear at the corner
of her eyes. Her shoulders are shaking, letting off a discordant
buzzing sound.

Rahne's eyes open a little wider as the Professor begins addressing
her directly, and somehow Nikki's disrespect isn't exactly helping her
feel any better about this whole thing. "Ach, I though' tha' ... we
jus' had to get through the woods, to the checkpoints an' then ou'...
Was tha' - was tha' no' righ'?" she asks, her voice getting
consistently smaller as she speaks, and she's really hoping a hole
will open in the earth at this point. When Simon collapses, her eyes
open a little wider, and the sensitive girl is beginning to look very
overwhelmed indeed. Nikki's not the only one on the brink of crying,
girls, bah. "Woul' yeh - Coul' I take him, sir?" she asks, ever so
politely, reaching hesitantly for Simon as Nikki's asked.

Ralph blinks. "Uh, e-e-excuse me?" Ralph has, by this point, finally
stood up. "Wh.. what's g-g-going on? I, I'm sorry, I'm kind of...
confused... b-but I don't think they've d-d-done anything wrong..."
Judging by his newfound level of stuttering, Ralph is really, really
terrified of speaking back to "the" Professor... But he's doing it.

With a quiet sigh, the Professor shifts a bit more and nods to Rahne,
"Take him, but he can wait while we finish this conversation. It will
only be a few more moments. Thank you." The natural polite softness is
there before the edge returns, "Orienteering is the art of using a map
and a compass to navigate." There's a pause, and he glances back to
Ralph, "Ralph, go to your room. I am not speaking to you. It would be
wise for you not to interrupt."

Nikki turns to glare icily at the Professor, and suddenly raises an
eyebrow. Now ignoring the man completely, she runs the last few feet
across the finish line, and then turns to -- oh. my. God. Stick her
tongue out at the Professor. "Sorry, Baldy!" she shouts at him
savagely. "We win! And, oh, by the way? You should get your wheelchair
looked at. It seems to have left bear tracks all the way back into the
woods." Saved by the drizzly weather and the damp Earth!

Rahne takes Simon, looking a little bit disconcerted as the Professor
makes the unconscious one wait for aid. But she's a little too upset
by this point. Ralph gets a small, thankful grin as he tries to speak
up, but Rahne gives her head a quick shake; if she's the one in
trouble, she'll fall on this sword. And then her attention goes back
on the Professor, having to take a few deep breaths to get her
emotions under control enough to reply. "Bu' - it said tha' we coul'
use powers an' creativity an', an'..." But she's distracted by Nikki's
actions from finishing that, staring at the girl with shock and then
looking back at Xavier with confusion. "Bu' ... Wha'...?" She looks to
see the tracks that Nikki is mentioning, expression opening in shock.
The 'Professor' gets a scandalized look as she turns away with a bit
of a sniff to try to drag Simon away. Of course, in this form, she's
really just a ninety-pound weakling, so it'll take a bit of doing for her.

"Oh, well. It was worth a try." remarks the Professor casually,
standing up and rolling his shoulders-- and then ceasing to look like
the Professor, "When one team cheats, the other must do whatever is
nessecary to win." He doesn't look upset at losing, just mildly
amused, and he reaches down to offer the bear a hand, "You can stop
being a wheelchair now."

Ralph's initial reaction to the faux-Professor's scolding is, of
course, dejection and anxeity over what had gone wrong. Nikki's
outburst/revelation, of course, throws him completely for a loop, and
he ends up just staring open-mouthed at Professor Skyler and his
wheelbear.

Adamshakes his head and let's Skyler down. He'll need to go shift, but
before heading off to a private place to do so, he meets Nikki with a
challenging look, considering her the rival leader. Oh..there will be
payback. Oh yes.

Now going completely beyond the boundaries of good sportsmanship,
Nikki starts doing a mocking victory dance, singing out in one of the
classic playground taunting tunes, "Im-PER-son-ating a TEACH-er!
Im-PER-son-ating a TEACH-er!" She switches it up a little with a
call-and-answer on the bridge. "When I say 'DIS,' you say
'QUALIFIED!'" She does the classic back and forth with an imaginary
microphone: "DIS..." Silence. "DIS..." Silence again. Now she's
suddenly a crooning soul singer, and her resonant voice goes into full
effect. "Fauxavier, why do! you! try! to hurrrrrrt me soooooooo?"

Rahne is going to need a moment to recover from this yo-yoing
emotions. She makes sure that Simon is taken care of before turning
back to give Nikki a bemused, if subdued, look for her antics, just
shaking her head a little with a slow grin beginning to form.

Skyler simply smiles at Nikki, an almost sympathetic expression,
"Honey, if not even doing the challenge isn't going to get you
disqualified, then what I did guaranteed falls under 'creativity'.
Navigation, sweets; not sending your little spy to follow us. That's
the point. Good show though; what do rules matter when you win?" He
flashes her a grin and then reaches into his pocket, pulling out his
cellphone and popping it open, "Hey, it's Sky..." Apparently it buzzed.

Nikki suddenly whirls on Skyler and accosts him with a violent hug.
"Awww! I'm just kidding, I'm not really going to get you
disqualified!" she squeals, doing her best to ruffle his hair. "That
was /brilliant/. Evil to the core, but /brilliant/." And now she's
running over to Rahne, scooping her up a couple of inches from the
ground in a hug of her own.

Rahne can't help but give a surprised laugh as she suddenly finds
herself hugged right off the ground. Well, that was unexpected. "Ach,
aye, congratulations," she offers with a grin, sense of relief at not
getting in trouble, mixed with the euphoria of winning, well, all is
right again. "Yeh were a verra good team-mate. An' yeh all were verra
good an' tough opponents," she notes to the other team, no hard
feelings. "It's all righ', Ralph," she adds sympathetically for the
upset one.

There's an oof, and Skyler laughs softly as he rests the phone against
his shoulder to muffle it and use his other arm to hug Nikki back,
"You altered the game from one of pure skill, to a much more direct
confrontation between us; the boy in our camp meant we had to respond
directly to you.. Oh, I commend you for doing it-- you reconfigured
the game to suit you. And." He offers as a grin as she heads back over
to hug the other girl, "If it only weren't as wet, my ploy would have
worked too. Alas, evil doesn't always work I suppose." And then he
speaks into the phone, "Where?" simply, before he looks back at Ralph,
"Easily." is all he says.

Now Nikki moves to help Rahne carry Simon back to the mansion,
supporting the boy underneath one armpit. "Come on, Ralph. Whoever's
sticking around, let's go to the kitchen. I'm making you all
milkshakes." As they make their way back to the school, she looks over
her shoulder and calls out to Skyler, "By the way, Fauxavier? Would
make an /amazing/ Halloween costume."

Ralph blinks a the proceedings, brow slightly furrowed, as if he just
can't understand the reactions... Finally, he deflates, shoulders
sagging. "...o..kay..." He scratches the back of his head, once more
certain that he just plain doesn't understand -people-.