Solitary [MCSM Fanfiction]

Chapter 2: TEAM OCELOT

They'd won last year, the year before that, the year before that and every other year since they'd started competing in the contest. Quite impressive. There was an uncomplicated pattern ongoing, getting Petra to conclude that soon, she'd be joining the reign of the champion builders, an achievement she only dreamed of having.

But what on earth were they going to build?

Gill marched through the door, back from a sneaky mission Aiden and Lukas sent him on. "Bad news, guys. Competition's going to be wild this year. More people are taking part including Jesse and his Order of losers."

"Oh, not those three again," Aiden grumbled. He scribbled out an idea he'd just written in his notepad. "Alright, give me some suggestions. We cannot let Jesse's fail squad beat us."

By considering the fact that none of them explained to her who Jesse is, she believed he was probably well-known and could easily tell he had no luck winning a single competition.

However, judging by the way he was brought up by Gill and Aiden, Petra could sense that they were the only competition the Ocelots had, and that they're called losers just because they could have come incredibly close to winning against them on past occasions but always came in second or third. Who cared about the others when there was a clear rivalry between two different parties?

"Something big. Like a giant Ocelot! That'd really intimidate them."

That build would make an impression for sure. It would toughen the name of their brand and now that there were five of them, they didn't have to worry about time constraints.

"Good thinking Gill, but we should also build something functional and smart, something that'll impress the judges." That was Lukas, joining Aiden to collaborate on his notepad page.

"What, like a TNT cannon?" Maya asked.

Aiden affirmed her idea, but also brought up the success rate of winning with it, which was quite low because of the hazard factor.

The group gave a few more build proposals which slowly filled out half the page in the book. Aiden and Lukas did the most weighing of the pros and cons of each bullet point, leaving the creativity generation up to Gill and Maya.

Petra admired their team planning and desperately didn't want to fall out of line suggesting a daft idea or speaking out of turn. Nevertheless, she took the risk, having picked up the scraps of Maya's first idea. "Something explosive like a TNT cannon, but covered with something cool to look at. Sounds like a fire-charged volcano to me."

All the Ocelots turned their heads towards Petra, the movement collectively sharp, and then drew back to their leader for confirmation.

"That's..." Lukas started, his tone reflective, eyes gazing at the floorboards in deep contemplation, "actually a great idea!"

"Would you look at that," Aiden said with a beam stretched across his face, "we have a fast, tactical thinker on our team."

Petra slightly bowed her head as bashfulness tinged her complexion. She gave a half-confident smile, yet hoped deep down that the others wouldn't have gotten jealous. The feeling stayed like a stubborn wart even when Maya and Gill physically approved with their impressed nods.

As the team listed all the resources that needed collecting, Petra also hoped that the Ocelots wouldn't build up her ego only to destroy it in a matter of seconds. She still had her guard up and her trust for anyone was more non-existent than unicorns.

The list of materials and construction sketch was only half complete by the time they took a break. All five of them went out again, although they split into two and parted ways: Lukas and Gill went to register for the competition since their planning had set it in stone. Maya, Aiden and Petra were grabbing lunch from the hobs again, in which Petra almost declined because of the potatoes; although when they bought the cooked chicken, she was relieved her hunger wouldn't start depleting anytime soon. Sweet, the Ocelots wouldn't let her starve - another thing to add to her list of advantages of being in this group.