If it wasn't for the monsters swarming around him in place of the other RORs at the starting line—shoving one another away in order to get the best view of the competitors taking off—he might have remained frozen in place. As it was he ended up falling behind the rest of his teammates, tailing them with Chip Goff right in front of him.

As if someone had shouted an order, everyone began to run in a single file. He looked to the others in confusion before he saw the adjacent teams mimicking the strategy. Of course: Staying in a line meant limiting the risk of stepping on an urchin because it gave each member of the team more room to maneuver around them. And even though they people in the back weren't able to see what lay ahead of them as well, all they would have to do is copy the movements of the person in front of them in order to avoid danger.

Someone screamed in pain, and another cry soon followed. It made him want to pick up the pace, but if he swerved around the others he was certain to run into an urchin. Swallowing his panic, he craned his neck and stole a brief glance forward as he heard another, deeper cry. The fuzzy, green and blue forms of Mike and Sullivan were ahead of them, but both of them had already been stung. Their teammates, however, were nowhere in sight. Didn't they understand the rules of the challenge?! Every member of their fraternity needed to move as a team!

He just shook his head sadly. He couldn't worry about Mike for the moment. For the time being, they were opponents. He had to keep his head in the game!

The next area of the tunnels was fast approaching, and he felt his shoulders tense in preparation for the struggle to come. With Mike and Sullivan keeping the lead, he was able to witness the horrors that awaited them as the RORs begun to break formation to instead move as a conjoined mass: Sullivan fell back behind them and Mike was swiftly brought down by a hail of urchins after limping halfway through the area. The ones on the ground were growing scarcer and scarcer in return for the ones that were bound to be fired at them from above. Despite his poor vision without his glasses, he could make out the movement of other monsters lurking on the catwalk—volunteers for the Scare Games ready to launch swarms of those things upon them.

Randall briefly looked up at Johnny to see if the other would change is mind and give him some cue to camouflage himself, but the ROR president simply kept his eyes forward with a smug grin. He didn't completely understand why until he took notice that the monsters above held their fire as they passed by. I guess no one wants to mess with the best, he mused as he dropped to all eights to pick up speed. Not that he could entirely blame them… Though it wasn't fair to the terms of the challenge, he supposed he was better than getting shot.

He pushed himself against the wall as he rounded the floored Mike, and stayed low as the others ducked their heads upon entering the third and final part of the tunnels. The finish line wasn't all the far ahead of them, but before they could reach it they still needed to dodge that urchins that now hung at various links from the ceiling. Despite how some lingered close to the ground, it was still easier for him to dodge them than the multitude that loomed above. His lithe form was easily able to swerve around them before he got too close.

The light outside had grown larger, and he could see the group of monsters waiting across the finish line. So close—they were so close! Just a little farther! He had already well begun to heave from physical exertion, but he pushed himself harder as a result. Falling behind only meant bringing the team down with him!

But, fortunately, he didn't have to wait very long. His heart pounding in his throat, the world around him appearing even more blurry than usual by the sudden brightness and moving blots of color, he found his body slowing down as his feet touched the concrete sidewalk. Someone—he thought it was Brock—shouted above the excited hysteria that was the crowd.

It took a moment longer before his words registered to his stunned ears. "Roar Omega Roar wins!"

He… They had done it. And he survived the first challenge!

A few of his team members raised their fists in the air in a celebratory fashion and riled a new wave of cheers from the onlookers that surrounded them. He flinched as a large hand patted his back with enough force to knock him over a bit, but when he looked over his shoulder he only found Johnny who gave him his usual smirk of confidence. As he took another look around at the others, he managed a small wave himself at the monsters cheering for him. He was a ROR after all: He felt, maybe, it was ok to show a bit more confidence himself.

Their early celebrations were interrupted by a green blur and a blue and purple mass lunging from out of the tunnel and throwing themselves upon the finish line. The urchins' toxins had horribly disfigured them—various areas of their bodies had swollen up—but it was clear the two forms sprawled before them and glaring at each other on the ground were none other than Mike and Sullivan. All went silent in the awkward confusion that passed over the crowd over the arrival of just the pair, but from past experience he easily knew that they had been swept away by the competition between each other. That much was only confirmed as they began to argue over who had reached the finish line first.

"Oh way to blow it, Oozmas!" Chet took a few steps forward as he taunted them, waving a claw in the air mockingly.

"Hey, second place ain't bad," Mike returned with a confident pose. As he fought to catch his breath, he only hoped that confidence held some weight to it. Yet sure enough, Jaws Theta Chi ran past them claimed second in the competition—much to their horrid shock.

"Your whole team has to cross the finish line," Johnny explained, giving them a half-amused, half-disbelieving look.

Randy continued to hope beyond hope that the rest of OK was right behind them, but one after another the other teams emerged. As assured a defeat as it was, a sickening feeling of dread still washed over him. Sure enough, in last place, the other four members of OK shuffled their way across the finish line—in just the same deformed state if not worse as his friend's and his antagonist's.

Like a predator swooping upon its prey, Dean Hardscrabble—with terrifying elegance—dropped behind Mike with a smug grin upon her face. Was there even any sense for her to gloat? It was clear enough that the one-eyed monster felt horrible as it was—knowing that so simple a fault had been his own, blind downfall.

He held back the small cheer that attempted to rise from his throat, however, as a sudden announcement was made by Brock. JOX, who had apparently been using protective gel during the competition, was disqualified. Which only meant that OK would take their place in the next challenge.

"Randy!" The call of his name gave him little warning for the sudden green figure that pounced upon him from the out of the crowd, a pair of arms tightly encompassing him in a firm hug. He winced a bit at the bulk of a camera wedged between them, the outline of its film compartment digging into his scales. A moment later that same grasp took him by the shoulders with both hands as he looked into a pair of familiar aquamarine eyes with a wide, complimenting smile. "That was amazing!" Tani beamed, "You were amazing! I have so many great shots of you—granted most of them are blurry—but you did amazing! Come on! Tail slap!"

Swept away by the excitement, he was unable to catch himself before turning with her on cue to commence their signature, celebratory act. The clap of their tails seemed to echo in his mind as his face fell into an expression of abashed horror. Looking around him, he found the other RORs snickering at them both with the mischievousness of schoolyard children, and from somewhere farther in the crowd someone gave a high whistle. He felt himself shrink in place, though Tani gave little heed to the stares directed their way as she fumbled with a collection of photos in order to select a few good ones to show him.

Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted Mike, Sullivan, and the other Oozmas attempt to retreat from the area—falling back into the recesses of the crowd like dogs with their tails between their legs. He wished—truly wished—he could've gotten a moment alone to talk to Mike… He knew they needed to clear away the bitterness between them, but what could he even say? And in front of all these people? Much to his dismay though Tani also spotted him and, of course, ran to his side next: She was already well out of reach before he had the chance to pull her back.

"Oh! Mikey!" she shouted after him, fumbling through the pictures still as she approached him. Every now and then an empathetic grimace twitched at the corners of her mouth, and he could only assume she had gotten a few, less-than-perfect shots of their companion as he had raced through the tunnels. Finally, however, she emerged with a few to offer him. "I've got some pictures of you too! I'm planning on scrapbooking some of these, so you go ahead and pick which ones you like. Since you're not rooming with Randy anymore, and my schedule's pretty packed this semester, maybe we can meet up after the challenges and—"

He cut her off with an irritated wave of his hand, "Not now, Tani. Can't you see I'm not in the mood to deal with you?!"

Both reptilians tensed in shock at the harshness of his tone. Slowly, the energetic grin that usually graced Tani's face morphed into a look of hurt. Even Sullivan seemed mildly baffled by the outburst. Upon realizing his mistake, Mike's own expression turned to one of guilt and he rung his hands in shame.

Randy felt his fronds tremble in anger nevertheless, and before he knew it he found himself striding over to them—propelled by his outrage. Well, perhaps outrage was too strong, though disappointment seemed too mild a way to put it. "Mike!" He struggled to keep his voice level, thanks both to his anger and to having never spoken to the other in such a manner. "I know you're upset about everything, but that doesn't mean you should take it out on her."

His stepping in only appeared to make things worse as the other turned on him next, glowering, "And what all do you think I'm upset about, Randall?! Just because of this challenge?!" Moved by his own anger, Mike took a step toward him while he fell back in turn. "You picked the RORs over me, your friend! You stabbed me in the back just because you think being a ROR is going to make people like you!"

As embarrassed as he was for Tani motioning him back to speak for him, he was almost thankful that she did: He couldn't think of a retort to contradict him. "Now you hold on a minute," She chided, the end of her tail flicking the air out of frustration. "Randy signed on with the RORs on the last day of this past semester—long before you had even decided to join the Games. Who would've even expected you to have joined a fraternity for that matter! You can't blame him for not joining OK. What was he gonna do? If he had left the RORs at the last second, then they wouldn't have been able to compete in the Games."

With a smug grin, Johnny strutted over to the trio and wrapped a muscular arm across her shoulder, giving her a light shake of approval. "Couldn't have said it better myself, Tanith." Placing a hand over his heart, he added, "After all, where would we be without him as our sixth monster? Am I right, boys?!"

Amid the cries that followed from the other fraternity members, Tani gave the president a cold, disgusted sneer and shoved him away from her. Mike looked between them, equally as repulsed though his glare was directed at all three of them. "You know what? Fine!" He turned away with a dismissive gesture. "I don't care! I don't even care anymore. You two want to hang with the RORs? Fine. After a week or two with those bozos, maybe you'll learn!"

Randy remained quiet—watching him go and twiddling his fingers out of habit. Tani looked back and forth between them, but he quickly grabbed her shoulder before she could give chase. There would be no reasoning with Mike when he was this upset anyway: Maybe he was so angry that he couldn't even be reasoned with at all… Either way, now was not the time to continue any sort of 'civil' discussion.

The tension was shattered as Johnny gave a long whistle, "Looks like your old buddy has a few jealousy issues to work out there…. Oh well!" Once more, he patted Randy on the back as he chortled, "With friends like those who needs enemies, right? Let's just get going."

The words stunned him for a moment, and he was unable to react until the grey-skinned monster had already turned away and began to walk off with the other RORs. "G-going?" he repeated in a small voice, "Going where?"

"To grab victory grub!" Johnny answered, spinning on his heel and waving his arms in a wide, encompassing gesture as he continued to walk backwards. "Now hurry up: Cicada Grille closes in a couple hours. And uh…" His eyes narrowed thoughtfully at Tani before, he smiled and nodded, "You can bring the lizard lady too."

"Me?!" Tani shouted with indignation, her mouth drawing back into a snarl as she scoffed, "As if I'd ever—!"

Randall gave her an imploring glance, taking her hand in his. As a ROR, he would be spending a lot of time with his fraternity brothers: That either meant he wouldn't be able to spend as much time with Tani or that Tani would need to spend at least some time with them as well. He wanted to bring her to parties. He wanted her to celebrate with all of them without it being awkward. He wanted her to be friends with his friends. But if any of that was going to happen, she would have to be willing to at least give them a chance.

Her eyes softening as she looked at him, her speech faltered momentarily before she then recovered in a more polite tone, "…miss… the chance to share a meal with Randy…" Her fingers tightened round his, and he felt his scales heat up in a slight blush.

"Awww!" a new, high-pitched, female voice interjected. The pair looked off to the side to find the PNKs gathered together in a mass as they watched them in an adoring manner similar to one monsters might give their pets after them having done something silly. "That's so cute, Tanith!" Crystal squealed, and then followed after her sorority sisters as they joined the RORs. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's get going then!"

He eyed Tani apologetically as she cringed and kept his fingers laced with hers to reassure her. If they stayed together, maybe the PNKs wouldn't have the chance to swarm upon her like piranhas. Otherwise, it could be a long night…

Seeing her worried expression, he wondered if it would be a long night nonetheless…