"You need a break, he said. You need to get to know the other pilots, he said. What exactly were Dr. Keller and Dr. Roku thinking anyway?" Kelima growled.
"They were thinking that it is necessary for the cohersion of our team that we spend time together, away from our Gundams, getting to know one another." Veir pointed out hefting his pack higher on his back.
"Although, why they decided that we needed to go camping is beyond me." Jeden muttered. "I hate camping. Too many bad memories of diasters with my father. Something bad always seemed to happen when we were camping."
"What sort of things?" Quatre asked moving closer to the other pilot.
"Oh, floods, mudslides, attacked by swarms of flies and mosquitos, the occasional hurricane." Quatre's eye brows shot up into his hair line.
"You've got to be kidding."
"Nope. We even ran into a sasquatch one time."
"Now, you're kidding." Duo broke in. Jeden gave him a brief smile.
"Am I?"
The ten pilots hiked for another forty-five minutes before reaching their destination. It was a small group of cabins clustered together. The place was a Boy scout camp during the summer, but right now it was closed.
"Wow!" Segundo said as she surveyed the area. "They have all sorts of neat stuff. There's a huge fire pit, actual clean bathrooms with running water, and a wooden jungle gym!"
"A what?" asked Trowa as he set down his pack. Segundo smiled.
"A wooden jungle gym. You know, one of those large wooden structures that kids like to play on. Its two levels of rope ladders, sliding poles, slides, balance beams and swings?" Most everyone was giving her a blank look. "God!" she threw up her hands in disgust. "Didn't any of you have a normal childhood?" Two hands in the back went up. "Yes Veir, Jeden."
"Define normal." Veir said. Segundo growled while Heero, Trowa, and Wufei exchanged confused looks.
They were beginning to set up camp and draw straws to see who would bunk with who, when they heard a sound. A man in a jeep came roaring into the camp. Screeching to a stop he leapt out and was greeted by six guns, one assault rifle, one hatchet, one sword, and a dagger pressed against his throat.
"Who are you?" San asked acidically, pushing the dagger blade against his larnyx.
"I-I-I'm here to s-set up for the B-Boy S-S-Scout J-Jamboree." He paused for a moment to study the people surrounding him. "Are you people suvivalists?"
"Jamboree?" Duo said. "I thought we had this place to ourselves all weekend."
"Dr. Roku did schedule this place, right?" Kelima inquired turning to Jeden and Quatre.
"I thought he did."
"W-We could talk to my boss. He's coming up right behind me." the man offered.
"We'll do that." San replied.
"I can't believe we got kicked out of a Boy Scout camp." Duo muttered as he pushed another stick into the fire.
"We had no choice. They had double booked the camp and since there are 10 of us and 60 of them, we lost." Segundo replied checking her hotdog to make sure it was done. "At least we got to have a camping spot."
"Children must go." Heero growled. "They're noisy."
"That's why we took the outer most campsite." Veir commented. "Would anyone else like another hotdog to roast?"
The others shook their heads. When they'd been informed about the double booking, the pilots had not taken it well. They didn't feel like hiking back to their trucks, so they persuaded the camp director to let them stay. Ten people carrying weapons can certainly make a man change his tune. So they'd ended up on the fringes of the Jamboree in one small cabin. Nobody was very happy, but they decided to make the best of it.
San added another piece of wood to their roaring fire. It crackled and popped then ignited beautifully.
"Aaaah..Fire." Kelima purred. Wufei gave him an odd look. "So I like fire."
"Pyro." Wufei muttered.
"Yes, thank you I am." he replied grinning.
"Would anyone like s'mores?" Jeden asked holding up a bag of marshmellows.
"Ooooooo! S'mores!" Quatre exclaimed. "I haven't had those in ages." Heero, Trowa, Wufei and Duo were giving the other six pilots odd looks.
"Wait, don't tell me. You've never had s'mores before." Segundo said. Four pilots shook there heads. "Once more I wonder about you're upbringing, but I won't ask."
"It's very simple." San said searching through their collection of sticks. "You find a stick, roast the marshmellow, then stick it between two pieces of grahm cracker and one piece of chocolate. Finally you eat it."
"Oh." Said Duo. "Sounds good. Pass me a marshmellow." Then next ten minutes were a hysterical test of how to properly roast a marshmellow. Duo ignited his twice, Heero lost his in the fire, tried scooping it out and failed. Trowa managed to get his perfectly brown, then dropped it on the ground. Quatre and Jeden kept eating the marshmellows without roasting them. It got so bad that Veir had to take the bag away while Wufei and Kelima kept trying to find the perfect coals to roast their marshmellows in. Segundo just ate the chocolate.
Somehow San managed to be the only one with properly done s'more and he refused to share his secret of success with anyone, secretly entertained at watching them all suffer.
"Okay, so what else do you do at a campfire besides roasting marshmellows?" Duo asked lickiing his sticky fingers after his fourth s'more.
"Tell ghost stories." Quatre suggested.
"Or just talk." Veir said.
"Or light more stuff on fire. Where's that can of pop I was working on?" Kelima asked scrounging around behind him. The four Martian pilots rolled their eyes.
"Pyro." Wufei muttered.
"Oh, you'll love this. When you heat up a can of pop with liquid still in it, it'll create this great flame that leaps up about six or seven inches." Kelima said as he brought forth his can. "As long as it's not diet. The more sugar the better."
Setting the can in the nice bed of coals that had build up, he waited with an excited gleam in his eyes. Quatre crept closer to Jeden.
"I'm scared." he whispered.
"He does this all the time."
"Kowai."
"Hai."
So the ten pilots watched the aluminum can heat up. They waited and waited, but nothing seemed to happen except that the pop can was turning orange.
"Is this it?" Duo asked glaring over the fire at Kelima.
"Patience is a virtue in this case." the red head replied. Duo was about to say something else when suddenly Quatre gave a shout and a green flame shot up seven inches.
"Ooooooooooo." Segundo said an unseemly glint in her eyes.
"Where's another can?" Duo exclaimed searching around for another half empty can. "I wonder what else will burn?"
"I have some butterscotch candies." Jeden admitted fishing in his coat pocket.
"Toss'em in!" Kelima said. "Let's see what will happen." The butterscotches were tossed in along with one stick of bubble gum, one piece of chocolate, two more pop cans, and a few peppermints from San's private collection. Heero, who thought that the flame from the first can wasn't very impressive, carefully made a place for his nearly full pop can and sat back to see if he could get better results. As they waited, they heard a snap. Six guns, one assault rifle, one hatchet, one sword, and a dagger appeared.
"WAIT!" a plaintive voice wailed just as they were about to attack. It was the man from before, the man who had told them that there was a Jamboree in their camping site. He stood shaking as one by one the weapons were put away. "I hate to bother you people and your little survilalist society outing, but we've a bit of a mystery on our hands."
"How so?" Jeden inquired.
"I was wondering if you'd seen anyone sneak into camp and dismantle our jungle gym. When we all went to bed it was there, but now it's missing. Our director noticed it when he went to use the little scout's room."
"Sorry." Quatre apologized. "But we haven't seen anyone."
"You're the first to approach our camp." Trowa said. The man sighed.
"I guess I'll have to call the sheriif in the morning." The man trudged off back through the woods.
"Poor guy." Segundo muttered tossing another log on the fire.
"Ninmu kanyou." Heero said placing another log on top of Segundo's.
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