Alex Rider pays a visit to Brecon Beacons...

Go!

The sergeant paused, making the competitors tremble in anticipation. He took a deep breath and...."Go!" The sergeant barked, his voice echoing in the Brecon valley. The soldiers set off to a steady start, preparing for the two mile run they had to do before the course. This section was still classed as the assault course though because the track was so worn that, in places, you would be running through knee-high mud. Disgusting.

As the onlookers watched, Viper continued at an almost sprinting speed, no strain visible on his blank face. Cobra, however, was running -no, walking- at such a slow speed that he would be running at the same speed as an eight year old girl would. Within about three minutes Viper was at the start of the first obstacle. Before I start describing the course, you need to know that Cobra's best time was 15:23 and was the second worst in his unit, the worst being gecko, a medic who was as unfit as a disabled frog. Anyway, now we can carry on.

The first obstacle was net of thick ropes, strung between several poles. The series of poles and ropes formed a passage that they had to weave through as fast as possible. It took mere seconds for Viper to pass through, as he was accustomed to invisible laser beams protecting vaults or doors or stolen items of great value. Secondly was a wall. This wall was fifteen feet high, and vertical with no hand holds at all. It was smooth concrete, with a top that was flat and lined with sandpaper. This, despite how evil it sounded, was no problem for viper. It was similar to scaling a concrete wall in the pitch black of night, usually a flat with Windows only every twenty feet. He leaped, flipped in mid-air, bouncing of the wall slightly to give him more lift, and landed straight on top, no complications.

As Viper reached the next obstacle, Cobra, red and Panting,reached the net of ropes. It was currently five minutes in and Viper still showed no sign of fatigue or strain. Just for fun, Viper decided to try his hardest and see what time he got. Actually, it wasn't just for fun. Viper also wanted to show the spys and audience how the pros do it. He also knew that Cobra was a show off, and Cobra also thought he was the boss, commanding people and telling them what to do in such an arrogant voice that people only did it because it would stop him complaining.

So, decisions made, Viper ploughed through the next section. A net of barbed wire was suspended a foot and a half above the mud of the ground. After crawling through in a couple of seconds, The next obstacle came into view. Poles, starting at one foot high, then two, then three, and so on stood stretching into the sky. They were circular, ten centimetres in diameter and led across yet another pit of mud, finishing up before the tunnels. By this time Cobra was on top of the wall, looking strange with a pale, frightened face and red, puffy cheeks.

Ten seconds later, Viper was looking into the darkness of the tunnels. Nicknamed this, they were actually several black pipes, seven of them to be exact, next to each other, all were the same, leading into darkness before getting thinner and shorter, designed to stamp out any claustrophobia soldiers possessed. Unfortunately, Viper was very tall for his young age and barely fit into it the pipes even before they began shrinking. After twenty seconds of cramped, smelly and hot tunnel, Viper stood facing the final obstacle, several hills and cliffs. Viper jogged up the first steep hill and simply jumped the ten foot drop below. Slowly the hills got bigger, until Viper was forced to climb up the chalky cliffs instead of jogging.

Three minutes later, Viper sprinted the last stretch at inhuman speed, a speed that would qualify for the Olympics if he tried hard enough. A huge welcome greeted him as he ran back to the sergeant who was both beaming and gaping at the same time."Viper, you.... you just broke the record the second time this week! Well done for surpassing your record the day after you set it! Only Hunter could do that, your nearly a match for him!" At this Viper's face stiffened for a moment, then blanked again."Your time was an incredible 8:42, you must be the best soldier in camp!"

"The best spy too..." murmured Viper beneath his breath. Viper turned to the course, only to find Cobra on the first hill, struggling to get down the other side. Viper nearly smacked himself in the face. What an absolute idiot! He could just jump! Turning t o the spys, he said "Watch that idiot on the course carefully. That's how not to do it." Viper then turned back to the course, his face stone cold again.

Eagle, who had been silent the whole time (surprisingly) now started jumping up and down in glee, chanting,"Viper beat the Cobra! Viper beat the Cobra!" The rest of the unit were still standing there, gaping at the course. Five minutes later, nothing had changed. Eagle was chanting, k unit was staring, but thus time, a red Cobra -not something you see every day-came into view. Even Cobra made improvements to his time, with 14:49 and was shocked to find his unit gaping at him as he was brave enough to race the one and only Viper, the fastest man on site.

He ran as fast as his weak legs could, which wasn't very fast, over to the sergeant and asked,"Sir....are... you...impressed....with me?... I think...I did...well considering I...raced against....Viper."

The sergeant just rolled his eyes and shouted, "kitchen punishment duty, now! You could have at least tried to keep up!" This might look like the sergeant shouting at Cobra for no reason, after all, Cobra improved his time! But this time, it was because of the faults in Cobras personality. The shouting at people to do mindless tasks that came from the sergeant were nothing compared to Cobra's shouts. The sergeant knew Cobra would make K units job even harder and so, Cobra had to be out of the way the whole time. Kitchen duty for a month should do it nicely.
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Authors note
Disclaimer: I own nothing recognisable from the Alex rider series.

Wow, another chapter already! The next part will either come out in the next few days, or in a week or so or longer time. Thanks for all the comments, they really fuelled me on! Thanks to ThatOneFG for commenting and voting on almost all my chapters!