Apollo looked at the deep hole surrounded by a wall of dirt in front of him.
It was the first time he tried digging a hole and it had slipped his mind that the earth that is dug out needs to go somewhere.
(What the hell do I do with all this earth? I can't leave it here, this would be ridiculous, instead of a trap, it would be called giant ant hill imitation!)
"Master, we have finished."
"Hmm..."
The hole two voices come out from inside, it was Alyssa and Leilani who had been digging inside the hole during this whole time.
"I see, then you can get out now."
"That's..."
"...impossible..."
"Wah?"
Feeling confused, Apollo climbed the dirt hill and looked down the hole, finding both of them covered in dirt. A picture is better than a thousand words, just a single glance he was able to understand what the problem was. The hole was 4 meters deep, the girls were only 1,5 meters high, even if they raised their arms, they couldn't reach half of the hole's depth and sure enough they didn't know how to fly.
(In the Animes it looks always so easy...Why is reality so hard?)
Taking a look around, Apollo sees the pile of branches that were prepared by Briony. He grabs the biggest one of them and approaches the hole again.
"Here, grab this, I will pull you out."
""All right!""
Apollo crunched in the hole's border, extending the branch downwards. The little girls inside the hole the grabbed the branch and waited with expecting eyes.
"All right, I'm going to start!"
Apollo took a deep breath and pulled with all his strength, but, no matter how petite those two were, pulling them out from the hole was like a common villager drawing out Excalibur from the stone pedestal. No matter how hard he tried, Apollo couldn't even lift them from the ground.
"Haaa... Haaa... Haaa... Haaa... Damn it, this is not going to work. Leilani let it go for now. I'm going to pull you one at a time."
"All right."
Once again apollo put all his strength in his arms, hips and knees but Excalibur didn't move at all.
"I refuse to lose! Aaaaaaaaaggggghhhhhhhh!!!!!!"
And then, finally, the border of the hole caved in, making Apollo fall inside the hole as well.
"Gah!!! Ouch!"
"Mmm... heavy...hurts..."
"Sorry Leilani. I will get off right now."
Hearing their Master's odd cry, Rose, Briony and Daisy, who were all cutting branches, ran to the hole out of worry for their Master safety.
"Master!"
"Are you okay!?"
"Wait! Be careful! The mount is-"
"What?"
"Kyaaa!"
As they were descending the dirt mount, Daisy lost her balance and fell down, grabbing Rose and Briony on the way.
"Ouch!"
"Gyaaahhhh!"
Baaaaaaam!
"Slippery...because it's made of lose earth..."
""Sorry!""
(Is this a comic book? What the hell is this situation!? How are we going to get out now!?)
Feeling a bit depressed, Apollo sighed to himself and murmured in a low voice...
"If only I had grabbed a rope instead of a branch...."
"A rope? I will grab it now!"
Waking up from the dizziness provoked by her fall, Daisy jumps out of the little girls mount that had been formed, puts the shovel vertically against the hole's wall, then jumps over it, using it as a stepping stone to jump once again, finally arriving out of the hole and disappearing from everybody's sight.
The whole thing was so fast and absurd that Apollo didn't even have time to react before the little soldier had completely left the scene.
(What the hell!? You can do that!?)
"Hey... girls... can you do what Daisy just did?"
The four looked at Apollo and shook their heads in denial.
""Impossible!""
"Yeah, I thought so..."
Some time later, the sound of running could be heard approaching them.
"Master! I'm baaaaack! Here is your hope!"
"Wait, no, don't-"
Pang!
"jump down...."
Before he could finish, Daisy had already landed by his side.
(Sigh, whatever, she can jump out again...)
"Okay, Daisy. Good work."
After patting her head and singing a few praises, it was time to work again.
"Daisy, hear me out."
"Yes!"
"Grab this rope and tie it to a thick tree near here. Then throw us the other tip, so we can climb up."
"All right!"
In a quick maneuver, Daisy got out of the hole once again. Then, following her Master's orders, she looked for a thick tree in the surroundings and tied one end to it.
"Master, we got a problem!"
"...What now?"
"The rope can't reach the hole!"
Apollo wanted to cry. The Sun was already starting to hide behind the mountain and soon it would be night. He took a deep breath to calm himself and used all his will power to stop himself from banging his head against the hole's wall, and told her new instructions.
"Then go back to the Factory and grab another rope, then splice the new rope to the one tied on the tree and throw us the other end."
"All right! Be right back!"
Hearing Daisy's steps as she moved far away, Apollo sat with his back against the hole's wall and waited patiently.
The night had already arrived as Daisy come back again. This time everything worked out and they were able to get out of the hole....well, almost everything. The problem was that Apollo wasn't able to climb the rope, so he was pulled up by the girls instead, just like he wanted to do to them when this whole mess started out.
With a sense of defeat in his heart, Apollo brought the girls back to the Palace to rest, have some dinner and take a bath. He didn't have any desire or energy to finish the trap as it seemed deadly enough as it was.
As he arrived back at the Palace, he felt a tasty smell on the air. As he opened the door he noticed Rose putting down the dishes made of tulip and boar meat on the table.
"Eh?"
"Master, your meal is ready. Please eat while it's still hot!"
(She was with us all this time, right? When did she separate from us? When did she cook this meal??)
Apollo stared at Rose with a questioning look on his face, but didn't react at all, only showing a bright smile.
"Master, I'm hungry..."
Briony grabbed Apollo's clothes and looked at him with pitiful eyes.
"All right! All right! Everybody, time to eat!"
""Yeah!""
...
As the meal was finished, and Apollo's energy had somewhat recovered, he looked at his bracer and saw there were less than 8 hours left for the start of the invasion.
"Damn! I messed up! I'm late!"
Noticing the new girls were all ready to be born, Apollo run through the night in direction of the Lab.