Minty's Mission

As the team traveled through the portal they found themselves arriving at a location with a multitude of trees. So many different trees were around them that they figured they were in a rainforest.

Taking the lead Minty walked forward first and exclaimed at a tree that was in front of her. After checking the marking, she smiled knowing that they were in the right place.

She looked at the kids the faces of the kids as they were in awe trying to figure out where they had been transported to this time. All of a sudden Dawn asked while raising his hand, "Are we in Australia?"

Minty was surprised to hear this, she never expected him to guess so well. "Yes, we are. How did you know?"

"I played a lot of geo guesser, Dawn said.

"A videogame can help you that much?" Cyrus asked. "The more you know."

"Judging by the landscape and how there are some hills over there, I would say we are in between the southeast and the middle of Australia. In a forest that lies within the mid-section of the desert and hills."

*Clap, clap, clap.* "Well done, Dawn. You are quite perceptive. It seems you have more talent than you lead on. You are right about that. We are somewhere there, but we didn't come here for sightseeing."

Taking the group further in, they came to a location where the land seemed more open, as the trees that were supposed to be there were filled with stumps instead.

"What's all this?" Terra asked.

Minty walked up to a stump and placed a foot on it as she explained, "These are the stumps of some old trees that used to be here. They were cut down a few years ago when the people of this place were thinking of making this place more industrial."

"Luckily the bill never got passed so permission was never given to take this land away. Unfortunately, some damage had already been done and this was the result."

"Minty then turned back towards the group and pointed at them saying, "Today you will be tasked with replenishing this land with new trees."

Cyrus, Dawn, Edith, and Vito groaned in unison while Terra cheered alone, but before they noticed he groaned as well.

"Why us?" Vito asked, "Aren't there organizations that deal with these things?"

"Yes," Minty replied, "Us."

It took a moment before Vito remembered that they were working with people whose entire purpose was to serve the Earth. Planting trees was a standard for that.

"If you are done complaining, there are some buckets filled with fertilized soil and tree saplings further beyond these stumps. After you are done removing these stumps, you shall transplant those trees in their places."

Edith raised her hand to ask a question this time and Minty allowed it, "Uhm, Minty? Where are the tools for removing these tree stumps?"

Minty looked at her as though confused by the question, "You are representatives. Why would you need tools?"

Terra had a heartache hearing this as everyone else was dumbfounded by what she meant. 'Again, who set this standard that representatives can do anything? We are only humans," he cried deep down.

"Minty," Cyrus spoke without waiting to be called upon, "I don't think we can handle this. You overestimate us, we still need tools to do this. And there are over a hundred stumps that need removing."

"You all have super strength do you not?" Minty asked to which the group nodded.

"Then you have everything you need. Once you have removed the stumps, throw them away far from here, otherwise, insects may come to make a home in them and destroy these saplings."

With this said, Minty opened a portal with a key, brought back out a chair, sunglasses, and a magazine, and sat down to supervise the group, with no further instructions being given to them.

They thought she was joking, but this made it clear to them that she was being very serious.

"Come on, let's go," Cyrus said being the voice of reason.

"And do what, use our hands!?" Vito asked.

"Well, I have gotten my hands dirty before working on cars before, I just never thought we wouldn't be given tools. But this shouldn't be so bad," Edith said.

As they were talking, they heard a loud grunting noise and when they looked towards its direction, they saw Terra using his arms and legs to try and lift the stump before anyone else could try.

He was actually halfway down pulling it out and by the time his teammates could properly make out the progress he was making, he had successfully pulled out the stump and had rolled over with it making himself a little dirty.

He laughed it over and went to the next one.

"Well someone is enthusiastic, come on let's go," Edith said grabbing Vito's hand.

"You guys go ahead," Dawn suggested, "These hands are mostly made for gaming, so I'm just gonna.. AH!" Dawn screamed as Edith began dragging him towards the fun.

"You are a boy, have some pride. We are going to pull out these stumps," she said as she dragged his legs across the ground.

"Okay, okay, just let me go!" Dawn cried.

Cyrus seeing this knew that Edith was being a bit personal with the drag and he could guess the reason why. He had told Edith earlier that morning what she owed him for losing the bet which he cheated at and now she seemed to be taking some abuse on Dawn to let out some of her frustration.

As Cyrus and Vito stood together watching this, Cyrus quietly said to him, "Good luck." As he walked away.

"Good luck with what!? Cyrus! Hey Cyrus!!"

It had been 5 hours, and as much as the group could recover their stamina, it was exhausting having to repeat the same process over and over again.

This time it was Terra and Vito's turn to take out the accumulated stumps they had pulled out, this trip was bothersome because they would have to move as far away with the stumps as possible and then come back without getting lost.

To one, it was an adventure, to the other it was a drag.

Terra and Vito set out, they had placed their stumps in a well-made basket of tree branches that Cyrus had created since Minty had refused to get them a sack saying it would be a waste of resources for such a small task.

And since Cyrus had created it, he was exempted from taking out the trash, meaning only Edith and Dawn or Terra and Vito would go at a time.

Vito held one end and Terra held the other, together using the power of friendship they would take the basket, drop off the stumps, and come back.

Reaching the location, Vito was furious that Minty wasn't helping them at all, she was just reading her magazine, and she didn't even look at their progress.

"I know this is supposed to be a mission, but it's not fair. Even John would get involved when it mattered, but she!" Vito complained, "She just expects her to get over this!"

"No tools to help pull out the stumps, which have hurt me over three times already, no sack or wheelbarrow to move these stumps back and forth, and not even so much as a snack break. I miss John."

"Look, on the bright side," Terra smiled, "At least we have this basket, it's a really nice basket."

"Yeah, sure," Vito rolled his eyes, "You mean the same basket that Cyrus made and keeps him from having to make these trips? Yeah, how special!?" Vito said sarcastically as he shook the basket they were holding.

"Vito, not too rough, I heard a crack, it might-" Terra was too late to warn Vito as the basket broke from underneath itself and a stump fell on Vito's foot.

"ARH! Why does the world hate me!!" Vito yelled as he took the stump and threw it at a tree.

Terra was kneeling on the ground as he looked at the basket with tears, "We didn't even go that far from the group." He picked up the branches that fell down and that was when he heard a sound dropping down from a tree.

Vito heard it too and they were both on high alert, both had subconsciously activated their powers and their eyes had a glint of green in them.

The thing that fell from the beehive had hit branch to branch and when it finally hit the ground it became apparent what it was. It was a beehive that fell from the same tree that Vito threw his stump at.

Coming out from the hive, a swarm of bees were flying around, making their way towards the two boys. Both of them were ready to run. But before they could, Terra remembered that animals wouldn't kill a representative.

"Wait, Vito! We should be fine. We are representatives remember?"

"Ah! You are right," Vito said as he pounded his hand with his fist.

The bees placed themselves on top of the two and as they moved, they felt a tingling sensation that made them not want to kill the boys. But neither of them was allergic to bees.

Seeing as how Vito was the only one to cause them harm, they left Terra and were now swarming Vito, stinging him with every chance they had.

"AGRH! Terra, you lied!! They are stinging me!! They are stinging me!!!"

Vito had ducked and rolled all over the ground to get as many bees off of him as possible.

"I don't know what went wrong Vito," Terra cried, "They just seem to like me more."

"You set me up!" Vito yelled as he ran away from the bees.

"Ah!" Terra gasped, "Vito, that leads back to the base, you are leading them to the wrong place. Vito!!!" He yelled with his hand stretched out.

****

"Why must I do something like this? I don't even get a chance to say no," Dawn complained. "First I get put with this group of hooligans and then the only girl in the group thinks she can boss me around and tell me what to do."

"You are a boy you should be able to do this," he mocked as he mimicked Edith.

Dawn had gone a bit away from Edith and Cyrus, he wanted a break and he was taking one whether Minty would allow it or not.

He went down the path that Vito and Terra had gone towards with the premise of saying, "I want to make sure they come back safely." He had only gone down a little bit because he didn't actually care about their safety.

"They can't be that idiotic to get into trouble."

He lay down, enjoying the shade of a tree as he closed his eyes. But strangely, he thought he could hear voices, or a voice screaming something.

Opening his eyes again, Dawn could see Vito running straight towards him with a swarm of bees behind.

Dawn's eyes almost went out seeing this, he turned and screamed as he ran backward the group warning them of bees. He reached the field and started yelling as he ran, "Bees! Bees!"

And when he did this, everyone had heard and acknowledged his statement.

One moment, they were all looking at him and the moment he blinked, he saw that they were all going their separate ways. No one had decided to help him.

"These bastards! They left?"

Cyrus went to hide deep within a bush, so far back that you would never find him even if you looked, Edith had climbed a tree so high up that it would give those scared of heights a heart attack.

And Minty? She placed down her magazine, opened a portal, and said to Dawn, "You will be fine." And left.

Dawn was in tears at seeing his team completely abandon him, still not stopping, he decided to head his own way away from everyone.

As Vito reached the field, he was astonished to find that nobody was there, looking forward to the only source of sound he could hear, he saw Dawn running in a certain direction away from the stumps and he followed him.

"He must have a plan," Vito said following him.

"NOOOOO!" Dawn yelled, "Why are you following me!?"

"NOOOOO!" Dawn cried as he went deeper and deeper into the forest.

Vito was doing his utmost to catch up with him, "He must have a plan, maybe everyone has gone to safety. I need to follow him."

Dawn seeing that Vito would not give up the chase started cussing the bastard, "That fool, *** **** *******M*****" He ran wild past some trees, to a stream full of water that seemed to be leading to some place.

With no second thought, Dawn jumped in and swam for his life.

Vito with no idea what to do and assuming that everyone else followed after Dawn, jumped right in as well, dived underneath the water, and swam away.

****

Back at the stump site, Terra was huffing and puffing as his stamina was being recovered.

"I didn't know Vito could run that fast, could he be faster than me? No, he can't be. It had to have been the adrenaline," he said.

"Still, where is everyone?" Terra asked.

He heard a crack from above him as a tree branch broke, the next thing he knew a girl was falling out of the sky as though trying to land on him. He moved out of the way in a haste and she landed perfectly on her feet with her fist punching the ground right in front of him.

"Oops, the branch broke," Edith giggled as the branch she was on fell down behind her shortly afterward. "Nice to see you survived the Purge," she smiled.

"Purge?" Terra asked, "What do you mean and where are the others?"

Out from the bushes, Cyrus walked out with some twigs all over him. "They left, that way to be specific." He pointed towards where the two boys had headed.

As they were gathered, a portal opened, and out of it a woman dressed in full beekeeping armor approached them. "Is it over?" Minty asked.

"Yes I believe so," Cyrus answered. 

"Why don't we get one of those," Edith replied looking at the suit Minty was wearing.

"Because you are representatives, you don't need it," Minty answered.

Minty took off her helm and said to them, "Cyrus, you go and bring them back in case they get lost. It's not a serious issue so I won't get involved."

"What?" Cyrus asked, "Why me? Shouldn't Terra do something like this so he can gain tracking experience or something? He is the one going to space soon."

"You make a good point," Minty said as she looked at Terra's face. After seeing how cheerful and excited he was she said, "No."

"I trust you the most and you are the most capable for this task. Unless you want to keep pulling out stumps with Edith?"

Hearing this, Cyrus began making his way as he told them, "I will be back before late. Enjoy your trees." He waved his backhand at them as he left.

"Well, you heard me, you can get back to your mission," Minty said as she went to sit back down and read her magazine.

Disappointedly, Edith and Terra went back to work.