The First Mission

The night had come and gone as simply as that, the boys had rested in what can be called a peaceful manner as it was now time to start preparing for an early morning.

The boys woke up in this order, Cyrus, Terra, Vito, and Dawn. Dawn was feeling more tired than usual but nothing strange had happened to him.

When Cyrus woke up, Terra had woken up shortly after. Cyrus as usual took note of this.

"You are a light sleeper?" he asked.

"Yeah kinda, It's pretty hard to sleep with lots of uncertainties going on, but I'll be fine."

After freshening up themselves they woke Vito up by Cyrus kicking him off the bed. He was asleep for too long.

"What would you do that for?" he complained.

"We called your name, but you kept sleeping," Cyrus said with Terra hiding behind him. He wanted nothing to do with Cyrus's terroristic activities.

"How many times did you call me?" Vito asked loudly as he was upset that they would wake him up from such a comfortable bed.

"Once! In my mind. I was pretty loud too. Now come on, let's go," Cyrus said leading the way to the dining room.

"Wait, Dawn is still sleeping," Terra exclaimed.

"Leave him," Cyrus said, "He seems more tired than we are. He might need it."

"Oh but when it's me then of course you'd push me off the bed" Vito mumbled to himself.

The group had left to go have breakfast in the kitchen after making sure that Vito would brush his teeth, bathe, and do literally everything else he had to do. It was the equivalent of babysitting in Cyrus's mind.

As they sat down to eat, John left through the teleportation door that was near the kitchen, as to why it was placed there, it was because teleporting takes a lot of energy and most people aren't themselves when they are hungry.

Edith had rushed in once the door had opened again, she looked like she had been running to get hearing with a bit of sweat on her head.

"What's the rush?" Vito asked taking a bit of the sandwich that was lying in front of him.

"Did you finish the food?" she asked as she was panting quickly.

'Of course not!' Vito thought to himself, there was too much of it to finish in the first place. But that's not what he said out loud. "Did you not eat?" he asked while stuffing his mouth full.

Edith was furious to hear such insolence. 'He would dare ask me that after I rushed all the way to get here this early in the Morning?' she thought. "Did you finish, the food!?" she asked again.

As she said those words she took 3 steps forward and Cyrus walked in with an apron and a plate carrying a handful of sandwiches and a drink. 

"Here you go, Edith! I saved you some," he said as he put the plate next to Vito's seat.

Her eyes lit up and a big smile went across her face. "Thank you! I skipped breakfast so I could have these."

"But you didn't know what we would be eating," Terra said confused.

"Yeah, but the food is good. It's guaranteed to taste good. Why wouldn't I eat here?" she said as she was stuffing her mouth full.

No sooner after, Dawn had walked in, He was finally feeling more refreshed. He is used to being tired but yesterday night felt like some energy was drained out of him. Today he felt better but still acted the same.

He walked up to the table, grabbed a seat between Terra and Edith, and sat down. Cyrus also served him his plate.

"Well, look who decided to join us," Edith said.

"Shut up! Don't talk to me, the pig who stuffs her mouth," he said calmly without looking away.

"What! What did you just say, you bastard!? You want a beating?" She angrily retaliated.

"Guys don't create disputes among yourselves, that's my job," Cyrus interrupted as he started pouring drinks.

"Alright everyone, It seems you have all gotten well acquainted with one another. That is good. As you will all be working together to accomplish missions. As for your first mission, a change of clothes is required," John said as he began waving his hand around the door.

He wasn't really doing anything but the kids thought it was cool. Including Dawn surprisingly.

 "Where are we going?" Edith asked. She had already finished her meal and was properly cleaning herself up. She used a handkerchief she carried in her hang bag to wipe away the crumbs on her lips.

"Well that is a secret, you will find out soon," John said with a smile.

The group had changed into a set of comfortable shoes, Jeans, and a dress shirt. They were also provided with hats similar to cowboys. And all of their clothes were grey.

Cyrus had already deduced that they would be going into a zoo when putting all of this into consideration.

"Alright the preparations on the other side are ready, is everyone here ready to go?" John asked.

They had all nodded their head intently except for Dawn. It was finally their first mission, their first step in making a difference in their lives and this world. When they had stepped through, their experience was beyond expectations.

The weather was dry and it was hot outside, the sun was bristling brightly and it had caused the majority of them to cover their eyes, the wind blew deeply and the air nearly flew the hat off of Edith's head. Whatever they were expecting this was not it. 

The place was filled with trees and bushes surrounding all of them, there was wildlife wherever they could see. This of course was the norm around here as the group was in a different region altogether.

The group found themselves passing through a tree and spotted a truck nearby. This truck was used to climb over uneven land with ease and had 4 heavy wheels. There were also supplies in there that the group could see, ranging from first aid kits to snacks and other consumables, and even a strange plant was found there.

"Everyone! Welcome to Africa." John said with glee as he walked ahead of the group.

"Africa?" Cyrus had asked, "I thought we were heading to the zoo?" he finished.

"The zoo? Why would I take you there? We are here for training not for sightseeing."

"Oh my god is that a giraffe!?" Terra yelled excitedly, he was about to start heading off in that direction when John caught him swiftly before he could get far.

"No Terra! That one has not been assigned to you," he said.

'Assigned?' Cyrus repeated in his mind. 'Wait, he doesn't mean to?'

"Alright, I will make this quick seeing how some of you are more excited about this than others. Your first mission under my care will be to tame an animal that has been assigned to you."

"Line up together and get ready to receive your designated companion."

They all stood in a single straight horizontal line. Many of them had hearts beating violently as this was something unexpected to most of them. The only one in the group who was not excited about this was Dawn. He was an introverted person who hung alone. He was mostly a shut-in and hated outdoor activities.

"Cyrus," John said as Cyrus was the first one in the line.

"You shall be taming a zebra," he said.

"That's just a more complicated horse," Cyrus complained.

"And it suits you quite well. Now moving on," he said while turning to Edith.

"My lady, as for you, you shall be tasked with taming one of the finest beasts of the land. An extraordinary creature of wonder in creation."

'Tsk, the only thing more annoying than being outside is when he talks all fancy. Nobody likes you, John.' Dawn said in his mind while he made an audible *Tsk sound.

John caught on to this and smiled at Dawn.

"Edith for your task you shall be retrieving a giraffe," he said.

"What!! No fair! I wanted that," Terra begged from across the line. He was placed at the far end somehow.

"Don't worry representative, I have something in mind for you," John reassured him. He could only take his word and trust what he had stored for him.

"I don't mind a Giraffe I love them," Edith said. These words had put bitterness into Terra's mind. "Lucky" he whispered.

"Now for Dawn," John said. "What is it?" Dawn replied.

"You shall be tasked with taming a hippopotamus," John said with a smile and closed eyes as the two of them just stood there in silence for a while.

"Can I have another creature?" Dawn eventually replied.

"Sure thing, you can go and retrieve an alligator instead," he replied.

Again there was silence between the two as a ball of dried grass blew right past them. It was akin to a tumbleweed.

"No, I don't think you get it, I don't do lakes," Dawn said again in hopes of changing the task being handed to him to something much easier to handle.

 "Oh in that case, how about a rhinoceros?" John said while tilting his head sideways a little. This caused a vein to pop out on Dawn's face and two tumbleweeds had passed them by while they were just standing there doing nothing.

 "I'll take the first one," Dawn reluctantly said. He didn't know much about Rhino except for their point horns on their head and that alligators eat people. The reason he chose a hippo was because he heard that they were vegetarians. "Vegetarians wouldn't kill other animals, right?" he thought.

"As for you two boys," John said while looking at Vito and Terra respectively, "The two of you shall tame a Tiger and a Lion in that order."

"WHAT!? Why do we get the monsters that actually eat meat!?" Vito yelled in dispute.

"Yeah! That's not fair!! Edith got a giraffe!!" Terra complained to him.

"Now now boys, this is your first mission, I chose the animals that I thought were going to challenge your skills respectively and help you to grow, but if you are scared and want to go home then I guess I could open the portal for you guys to go, what do you say?" John asked as he dangled the keys to leave this place and head back to the mansion right in front of him.

"Damnit! I'm not afraid, we both aren't, right Terra?" Vito asked as he tried to recompose himself. He wasn't going to seem scared in front of others, his pride wouldn't let him.

But when he looked at Terra, Terra wasn't exactly supporting him. "I mean a lion is a lion and you are getting a tiger. Do we really wanna do this?" he asked with a hesitant smile.

"Of course, we are besides John wouldn't assign to the two of us animals that would simply tear us to shreds so we got this," Vito reassured him.

Terra hearing that logic was filled with confidence. It makes no sense to choose him as the representative just to have him killed off! Who would even think of such a thing? It just sounds silly.

"You are right Vito, let's do this," Terra spoke with confidence. He was brimming with energy to accomplish this task before the others. He felt like he had too.

Meanwhile, John who was standing behind the two of them smiled to himself knowingly. 'I never said that the animals wouldn't attack them. At least they will learn today, something of value.'

Cyrus was the only one in the group being cautious.

"He John, shouldn't we be given keys to make it so that if we get lost or in trouble, we can get back to the mansion?" he asked.

"Oh! That is correct, you are a smart one, aren't you? But for this mission, you will not receive such a thing. We wouldn't want them to get lost so all 5 keys, well 6 including mine shall be kept with me. For this mission only. If you wish to live then you may inform me and I will take you back." John had now finished his explanation. It was satisfactory but it left Cyrus feeling unsatisfied.

"Also don't worry about getting lost, I'll know where you are. I'll keep my eye on you." John added as Cyrus continued staring into him. He couldn't get a read on John and it frustrated him not knowing how others think.

It made him wary.

But as soon as he was starting to get roped into those thoughts Edith wrapped her arm around his neck and started dragging him toward some giraffe.

"Let's do this!" she said enthusiastically.

"Wait! you are taking me to your side, you can't use me to complete your tasks Edith-"

"Shh! No one needs to know," she said as she shut his mouth and continued carrying him like a toy.

Vito basically did the same thing with Terra and Dawn was left all along to wander away in a random direction to look for water.

And with that, the first mission had begun.