Alex Rider pays a visit to Brecon Beacons...

On your marks!....Get set!....

As K unit woke up, they noticed a slight change in the air of their freezing cabin. Snake, always being the one to share his feelings, voiced their thoughts aloud."Something's different, but I can't quite pinpoint what it is." When the usual sarcastic comment didn't come from the mouth of an amused Viper, heads turned to look at his bunk which was.........empty? But that didn't make sense! Viper was always the first one up! And he never left the group behind.

"uhh, well... maybe he's gone on ahead, to wake the maggots up, they'll probably take ages getting up anyway. Actually, that's not a bad idea..." Suddenly Fox had taken charge, and had hurried everyone up so they could get front row seats to the torturing. Those brats were gonna feel suicidal in no time at all!

When the group arrived at the maggots bunks, they were in for a surprise. Can you guess? That's right, no Viper! The unit just grumbled and woke up the spys, who had slept like logs. Because of this, they were near impossible to wake up. In the end Eagle decided to evacuate the cabin and wake up the remaining operatives by using a horn, making on of the loudest sounds in existence (or at least, that's what the recruits thought). It quite literally shook the whole cabin. This abominable noise successfully woke up most of the lazy spys, and soon after their friends had woken them, trying not to be submitted to the Wolf-Glare. Soon they were all gathered in front of the empty room, whining about the time and constantly moaning and yawning, the incredibly annoying noises muffled by their pure fear of punishments, which they doubted were very nice.

"Where's Viper?" And "I thought he was the punctual one!"and the occasional "Hurry up, where is he? He should never be late or he'll get binned!" Weaved through the crowd. Finally, one lad decided to speak to the only people who could actually answer him." Where's Viper? He's supposed to be in charge, isn't he?"

"Yes, Viper is in charge. And we are currently presuming he is in the mess hall, so get over there! But first, as you may remember from the timetable, we have a 5 mile run to do. You will not be able to stop halfway through, as the route goes through the centre of the camp, around the edge of the lake, and finishes outside the mess hall. Now move it!"  Wolf's shout abruptly silenced the spys, who stood, frozen to the spot, for a second before running off after the flaming soldier who had just disappeared along the well-worn track.

50 minutes and twenty-four panting spys later.....

Seven soldiers who were all slightly red in the face, either from anger or exhaustion, stopped outside an emptying mess hall closely followed by two dozen people who could be called tomatoes. Before the tomatoes could start complaining, they were led to their table where they were given slop. The soldiers collected their own mush and sat down at their table to eat the well-earned meal seven minutes late." Hey, Viper still hasn't turned up. Where is that man?" Eagles voice cut through the blissful silence half way through the meal. Eventually all the soldiers were looking at eagle with strange looks in their eyes. Their eyes were saying 'umm, Eagle of course he's gone, that's kind of obvious!' Eagle just said "What are you looking at, is it my beautiful blue eyes?" This time, states of distaste and disgust were the only things sent his way.

Fox took this as an opportunity to stand up and announce to the whole hall (which only had the spys and both K and D unit) "finish your mush and get yourself outside now!"  The whole hall scrambled to follow the instructions and rushed outside but only to stand around again and talk. "Now then. Viper has disappeared so I will outline the morning schedule for you. First, the whole lot of you will come with us for a quick explanation and demonstration on the assault course. Then, you will split into two groups and head of to your own activities. Now, we will start heading to the assault co-" Fox was as suddenly cut off when a panting unit full of normally serious soldiers rushed by. Wolf, worried that there was something wrong, grabbed the sleeve of the unit leader, squid.

"Whats going on?" Wolfs panicked voice got several of the spys worried.

"It's...Viper... he's going... to do... the assault... course racing... against Cobra in... a minute." Squid just about managed to catch his breath by the end of the sentence and sped off toward the assault course.

"Well, that answers three questions. The first was what a unit was doing running through the forest, the second was who wash going to do an example on the course and the third was where Viper was." The Sergeant had taken the shocked faces of the group as a signal to make his entrance and mini-speech. "Come on, we don't want to make them wait now, do we?"

Soon the whole group were marching behind the sergeant, wondering why the race was taking place. Cobra was F units leader, and took pride in being the sixth fastest in camp, just slow enough not to be on the board. The first of course, was Viper. Constantly running for his life, Vipers speed and stamina had drastically improved since the day of his initial introduction to MI6.

As the group arrived, two muscled men were strolling down the side of the assault course. These men were currently assessing the section where barbed wire enclosed the soldier who was enduring the torture and forced them down to their knees in a deep pit of slick, grimy mud. As the men walked past, the sergeant called the figures. Now recognisable as the tall, serious Viper and the slightly smaller Cobra who, despite being a commanding unit leader, also enjoyed the occasional laugh and prank.

As they strolled past, the sergeant called them over and told them to 'give a quick briefing of the course to the brats' and as the pair started their description of the obstacles, the remaining soldiers gathered together, with the sergeant included, and started mumbling about how stupid Cobra must be to challenge the master of all soldiers and spys; a true legend amongst recruits and veterans alike. Viper was the role model every recruit looked up to when their instructors shouted 'come on, by the end of this you'll be half as good as Viper! That is, if you actually try!'

Eventually, the two competitors were lined up on the start line, a confident face with not a hint of doubt was next to a determined one, the determined face having spurts of doubt, as was evident from the sweat and the glancing frantically around that was coming from that direction.

The sergeant himself held the timers, one for each man."On your marks!.....Get set!......."

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Disclaimer: I do not own anything recognisable from the Alex Rider series.

Thanks for all your support in my writing and I am very sorry for the wait, I actually wrote half the chapter a week or so ago and couldn't finish it until today. Continue reading, reviewing and supporting!!

Date published: Wednesday 10th August 2016