The Challenge Rivals Edition X Chapter 11
On Top of the World
BZZT!
"Wha-"
BZZT!
Warren rolled over in his bed, throwing an arm over Betsy and moaned. "What the f*#& is that?"
BZZT!
"Yo! Fantomex! Shut your vibrator off dude!" Bobby yelled from the bunk next to Warren and Betsy.
"Wha' time'zit?" Betsy asked into Warren's chest.
Warren opened one eye to look at his watch, which sat on the end table next to his bed, "Jesus Christ. FIVE! THIRTY!"
BZZT!
Bobby groaned and got up, "I'll deal with it."
Bobby: I've lived with Warren since we were kids. I know his morning habits and he ain't gettin' up.
Bobby tripped out of the room just as Ali, Rogue, and Paige were emerging from theirs in an equal state of grogginess.
"I like the bedroom hair, Blaire." Bobby said, squinting at her. "I'm taking a mental picture now."
Ali raised a finger at him, covering her eyes from the light, "Keep it up and this is the last you'll see of it."
As the banter continued, Jean-Phillipe, Alex, Santo, and Victor and Dani and Hope also leaned out of their rooms.
"Can you shut up, Drake and go stop that noise!" Fantomex roared.
Bobby raised an eyebrow at him, "Okay." Bobby walked into the sitting room and found where the sound was coming from.
"Hey! It's the cell-phone. We have a clue people!" Bobby shouted.
"Tell TJ to call back later. Around noon." Warren shouted from his room.
Bobby looked at the phone, "Well then I'll go win 100K on my own and you all can stay here."
There was a chorus of moans as everyone trudged into the sitting room and looked at Bobby expectantly. "Alright, here we go. It says 'The time for puns is over…' well this is a terrible clue…it's always time for puns."
"READ IT!" Ali screamed.
Bobby sighed, "You're all no fun. "'The time for puns is over; it's time for your final challenge. Wear your team uniforms and come outside in thirty minutes.'"
"Ugh. This is going to be terrible." Ali moaned.
Rogue patted her thigh and pulled her to her feet, "C'mon partner. Let's get ready."
Warren was nudging Betsy to wake back up, while Dani and Hope had gone off back to their rooms. Thirty minutes later, all twelve remaining competitors had come back the main room all in their uniforms.
"Shall we?" Betsy asked.
Paige nodded, "We shall."
The group marched outside to find TJ and Madison Jeffries waiting for them. "Welcome everybody to your final here on Rivals: Edition X. This is what you guys have been waiting for and this is gnarly. Your final is a race, and it's essentially a carbon copy of the final on the show. Unfortunately, your island doesn't exactly have the space for some of the things that went down on that final, but Madison has come up with some creative stuff to help us out, Madison?"
Madison nodded and stepped forward, "Eventually you'll run to a checkpoint that will lead you into the main compound of Utopia and down in it's depths to our Danger-Room. Once in there you will continue to follow the path; whatever is in there is a solid light construct and should behave as normal terrain would."
"Thanks Madison. You'll start the race here in staggered heats, girls first. As you can see off the shore there are three speed boats with a line off the back of each. You'll hold that line and the boat will pull you underwater one hundred yards to your kayaks. You'll then kayak through the course and back to the island where the land portion starts and you'll follow the checkpoints to the finish line. First place takes home 100K to split, second takes home 50k to split, and third…we'll hopefully you didn't have any dates or anything that you missed while you were here; third gets nothing. Good luck, and I'll see you at the finish line. Girls, go get into your wetsuits."
Betsy: We've been able to bury any animosity that we've had between us to win three challenges, and today, we'll win a fourth.
Paige: I think a race plays to our strengths and we should do really well today.
Betsy: I concur.
Ali: I've said before that I hate running, but there's more to this race than just that.
Rogue: We wanna keep a pace, just like we did in the obstacle course and hopefully the other teams will tire themselves out.
Hope: We're the best team here and all we have to do is prove it.
Dani: Ali is a priss and Betsy and Paige's wins have been lucky. We have had the least obnoxious rivalry of the other girls here and we're ready to smash these other squads.
After all the girls had changed into their wetsuits the pairs each lined up behind a boat.
"Alright ladies, final challenge time. THREE, TWO, ONE, GO!" On TJ's airhorn the boats' engines started and moved out into the water, after a few seconds, the teams' feet were lifted off the beach and all six competitors went under the water, hanging on to the line at the end of the boat.
Rogue: It's a strange feelin'. On the one hand it's probably one of the coolest sensations, flying through the water, but on the other, you're worryin' that you're gonna run outta breath.
Halfway through the boat ride, Ali's hands began to shake and she was thrown off the line. Shortly after, Paige was shaken off of her line.
Betsy: I feel Paige's tension leave the line and I know that she's gone. All I can hope is that the other teams lost players along the way too.
However, on the third line, Dani and Hope were still holding strong as the boats approached the kayaks.
Dani: Hope and I manage to stay on the entire time. If this is any indication of the rest of the race, I think we'll be fine.
The boats came to the end of their paths and stopped, causing Hope, Dani, Betsy, and Rogue to pop up and start the swim to their kayak. All four made it in a short amount of time, but Betsy and Rogue were forced to wait for Paige and Ali, who were still swimming.
"Come on Paige! You're almost there!"
"Hurry up Al! We're losin' ground."
Hope detached a paddle from the side of the boat and passed it over her shoulder to Dani before grabbing her own. "Okay, you're the power, and I'm the steering Dani."
Dani nodded, "You got it. Ready? Stroke left. Stroke right. Good. Keep the rhythm."
Dani: We have to go on a path out in the middle of the ocean around some buoys and then back to the shore. It's a couple of miles, but we already have put some fifty yards between ourselves and the other teams, so all we need to do is keep this distance.
Meanwhile, Paige was hoisting herself into the kayak, while Ali was on the last leg of her swim to her own. Betsy leaned over the side and tugged her into the boat. "You get in the front and steer, I'll row."
"Okay." Paige gasped.
Betsy leaned around to look at her partner, "You're tired? We just started Paige."
Paige gulped her breath down and waved a hand, "I'm fine. Just paddle."
Right next to them, Ali had gotten in the boat and grabbed a paddle. She dipped it into the water and began to frantically dig to start their boat.
"Ali, stop, Ali…what are you doing?" Rogue demanded.
"I'm rowing this f*#&ing thing!" Ali shouted.
Rogue sighed, "We have to synchronize Ali, you just can't paddle." Rogue looked to see that Betsy and Paige had now put a decent amount of distance between them.
Rogue: We're off to a shaky start to begin with and now we can't row this damn thing. Wonderful.
Bobby: We can see Ali and Rogue from the sidelines. They look like crap. Betsy and Paige are far ahead of them now and Hope and Dani are twice as far.
Back in the water, Betsy and Paige were starting to cruise. Paige had gotten her second wind and was now aiding Betsy in powering the boat and they were quickly closing the gap between Dani and Hope. Up in their boat, Dani looked back over her shoulder and gasped.
"They're coming Hope."
"How fast?" Hope asked through gritted teeth, as she guided the boat around the buoy to begin the trip back.
"Fast enough." Dani replied.
Dani: Our lead was initially a few hundred yards. Now it's about fifty and at the speed they're tracking us at, fifty yards is nothing.
"Keep it up Paige," Betsy grunted, "We're closing in on them."
Betsy: I'm not going to allow a partially botched under water pull to lose me this competition. I have every intention to win this final race and that involves passing Dani and Hope right now.
"Hello, ladies." Betsy said as her kayak drew level with the Black team's. "We hope this doesn't demoralize you into quitting and letting us win."
"Stay focused Hope," Dani said, keeping her eyes locked ahead of her on the shore.
"Oh, you two are no fun," Betsy said grinning and digging harder into the water, propelling her boat past theirs.
Warren: Betsy, Paige, Hope, and Dani are all on the last leg of their race and I see that the green kayak pulls ahead. I know I'm running my own race, but I'm hoping that Betsy and Paige can hold whatever lead they take.
Back at the change direction buoy, Rogue and Ali had just made the turn to come back to the shore.
Ali: At this point I've had enough. This is the FIRST thing we've had to do, and I'm already ready to quit. I hate this.
"Alright, gentlemen. Time to rock." TJ said, nodding to the men who had all gotten into their wetsuits.
Victor: We've been seen as an underdog this whole time, but there's a lot of fight in our dog.
Santo: Vic and I are the most balanced team here. The things he's bad at, I'm good at, and the few things I can't do, he does really well. I think we'll be fine.
Warren: We still aren't each other's favorite person, but that's the point of the show. As long as we can relax and work together for the next few hours, we shouldn't have a problem.
Jean-Phillipe: We both want to win; so we will both do what we have to do. Then hopefully we'll go our separate ways.
Alex: Bobby and I are the best runners here and we also have been working together the best. Since that's exactly what the final is about, I'm not worried.
Bobby: It sucks to be working with another team the whole time, and then just have to come out and beat them but Warren's a billionaire, he doesn't need anymore money. We're going to try to take it.
"Everyone holding their line? Alright…good luck, and I'll see you boys at the end. Three, two, one GO!"
Warren: The boats start off and I'm already not happy. The water feels like it's bashing me in the face and try having giants wings tethered up under a wetsuit. I'm not a waterbird.
Despite his reservations about the water, Warren continued to hold on to the line. He looked to the side and noticed that his partner was holding strong as well, but he could see Bobby on his other side and he didn't look like he would let go anytime soon either.
Bobby: This may technically be the least important part of the race, but I see it as a statement for the other teams that we're going to win.
However, on Bobby's other side, things weren't going as well. Santo and Victor had barely been able to hold the line to begin with, and once the boat hit a particularly rough patch of current, they were thrown from it.
Victor: This is what I didn't want to happen. Santo is an awful swimmer and now we have to go about a quarter of the distance while we watch everyone else get to their boats.
The boats stopped and Warren, Jean-Phillipe, Alex, and Bobby all surfaced and noticed that they had all made it.
"Go! Go! Go!" Bobby shouted at Alex shoving him in the water towards the kayaks. He shot a quick glance at the Blue team, who had also begun the swim.
"Does it matter which boat?" Fantomex asked on approaching the kayaks.
"If I had to guess the blue one with our names on it is meant for us." Warren replied.
All four climbed into their boats and distributed the paddles, taking off within yards of each other.
At the same time, Betsy and Paige had pulled onto the shore and ran to a blanket where their clothes had been laid out. They began to strip off their wetsuits and pull on their uniforms, just as Hope and Dani pulled in and dismounted their boat.
Betsy: They're literally seconds behind us. We need to pick up the pace.
Betsy pulled her second running shoe on just as Paige had pulled her uniform over her head and pulled her water-pack onto her shoulders. "Ready?"
"Ready."
Betsy waved her on and the two began to jog down the trail as Hope and Dani started to change.
"We have to protect the lead, luv. Just tell me if you get tired and we'll slow down a notch."
Paige nodded, adjusting her pack and spotting a clearing ahead, "Already?"
"What?"
Paige pointed ahead, "Look."
The jogged for a few more yards and stopped in front of a sign, in front of which sat six rocks with chains attached to them. "'Ball and Chain," Betsy read, "You must carry this rock with you for the duration of the challenge. If you drop it and it breaks, you must take the pieces. If it breaks to the point where you cannot carry the pieces, you must return to this point no matter how far along in the course you are'. What? Alright, whatever." Betsy bent down to pick up the rock that was painted green and tossed the chain over her shoulder.
"Do you want me to hold the chain?" Paige asked.
"No. I've got it," Betsy paused for a second, hearing footsteps through the grass, "Let's just go."
Ali and Rogue had finally arrived on shore and had finished putting on their clothes. Rogue pulled her hair back into a pony tail and looked for an arrow on where to go.
"Okay…it's that way." She pointed in the direction that Betsy, Paige, Hope, and Dani had gone in, while Ali finished tying her shoe, "Are you ready?"
"Yeah, I'm good, let's go."
Ali: We have major ground to make up. Black and Green were both way gone by the time we pulled up so now we have to make sure we're running the whole time.
"Don't gas yourself now just tryin' to catch up, Blaire. None of those four girls are Olympic runners. They'll tire out too." Rogue reminded her.
"We're going to have to make ground on them eventually." Ali said, through her pants, "Might as well be now when we're at our peak."
Rogue: Ah'm worried about Ali. She's very smart and in great shape, but this kinda thing isn't for her. Hopefully she'll pull it together.
They approached the clearing and saw a sign with four rocks in front of it. Rogue quickly read the sign. She groaned and bent down to pick up the red rock, throwing it over her shoulder.
"What?"
"We've gotta carry this thing the rest of the way. Hurry up, the others were here a while ago." Ali nodded and the two took off down the path.
Bobby: The kayak ride is a nightmare. Not because it was tough, but we were neck and neck the whole time and I had to look at Jean-Phillipe's masked face the entire time. Why is he even allowed to wear that thing during competition…whatever. At the end of the day I'm happy because they have much stronger upper bodies than Alex and I, and we kept pace in an upper body event. Now we're going to smoke them.
Both Bobby and Alex's and Warren and Jean-Phillipe's boats came up onto the shore at the same moment. All four competitors sprinted out of the boats and ran to the changing area.
"This is ridiculous." Warren muttered, untying his wings once out of the wetsuit. "Alright, I'm not retying them." He pulled his shirt over his back and turned his back to Fantomex. "Rip two slits in the back."
Fantomex turned to see Bobby and Alex take off down the trail, "We don't have time for this!"
"Just do it!"
Fantomex sighed and made to parallel tears running down the back of Warren's jersey. What he didn't expect, was one of Warren's wings bursting through the tear and knocking him to the ground.
"Damn it Worthington!"
Warren barely held a laugh in as he looked down at his partner, "Whoops. Sorry. C'mon, let's catch up." Fantomex staggered to his feet and ran after Warren down the path.
Not long after they left, Santo and Victor pulled up to the shore and raced out of their boats.
"C'mon Santo." Victor said, tossing his partner his orange jersey, "We're on land now, we should be good."
Santo: The kayak thing didn't seem like it would be bad, but I'm spent.
Santo took a swig of water from his water pack and took off after Victor. "Dude, this is the worst."
"I know Santo. I'm not really into it either, but this is what we're here for. Let's catch these bastards and rub their faces in it."
Victor: Even though there was a decent amount of space between us and Blue and Black, we still saw them hit the shore, so we can't be that far behind.
The two slowed to a jog when they approached a clearing where the final rock, colored orange sat. Victor skimmed the sign quickly and then picked up the rock.
"Y'want me to carry it?" Santo asked.
Victor shook his head, "Get some energy back into you. They've all been here already and I'd rather you carry it when we can run instead of jog. C'mon." They turned and took off towards the next checkpoint.
"It's right here, Paige. You can rest!" Betsy said, pushing through to a clearing where the next sign stood in front of a campsite, complete with tents, lanterns and compasses. "'Build a Memory: Memorize exactly the contents of this campsite for a later checkpoint. You may not touch any of the items and you may not write anything down'. This is easy, Paige." Betsy turned to look at her partner who was double over, breathing heavily.
"Keep your head up, Paige. If you do, it'll stop the dizziness."
Betsy: I'm losing Paige by the step.
Betsy took Paige by the arm and walked her as close as they could get to the tent. "You take care of the things in the corners and I'll get everything else, ok?"
Paige nodded, "Okay."
As they were watching, they were startled by Dani and Hope coming through the clearing. Unlike Paige, neither of them looked tired.
Dani: We're back to being neck and neck, now we just have to pass them.
Dani quickly read through the instructions while Hope walked over and started to memorize next to Betsy. "Paige are you ready?" Betsy asked, looking to her partner who was still doubled over, but looking at the campsite.
"Paige?"
"Give me another second."
"Ready?" Hope asked Dani.
"Ready." Dani re-shouldered the rock and they took off for the next checkpoint.
"The next checkpoint should be coming up, man." Warren panted to Jean-Phillipe who was beginning to lag. "We're almost there." He looked over and noticed his partner's slowing pace and held out his arm, "Give me the rock." Jean-Phillipe nodded and passed Warren their blue rock, which Warren slung over his shoulder.
Warren: We're running, and all of my fears are becoming reality. Jean-Phillipe has stopped talking AND he's lagging, which to me, says that he's gassing out. I've seen the show…I know what's coming. So far we've done NOTHING compared to what's around the corner. For now, I'm going to try to keep his spirits up.
"Look it's right here!" Warren shouted, running through and opening and finding Bobby and Alex. He put his pet rock on the ground and quickly read through the sign.
"Jean-Phillipe…time to put up with that big spy brain. It's memorization. Are you good?"
"I'm…fine…Worthington." Jean-Phillipe said pushing past him to look at the campsite, "You remember the smaller things."
Warren nodded and began to memorize standing silently next to Bobby. Once he had gotten a few things down he turned to his friend.
"How's it going?"
Bobby held up a hand to silence him.
"No, but what's up? This is pretty hard so far. It's crazy."
"Will you shut up?" Alex said.
Warren leaned around Bobby, "Oh, hey Alex. Didn't see you there. You doing alright?"
Bobby closed his eyes and clenched his fists quickly before returning his attention to the puzzle.
"Ready?" Alex asked.
"No." Bobby turned to Warren and punched him hard in the arm. "Now I am." Alex nodded and picked up the black rock, and then they ran off.
"What was that?" Jean-Phillipe demanded.
Warren looked after Bobby and Alex grinning. "I know Bobby like the back of my hand. The kid can't memorize to save his life. Hopefully that helped us out. Are you done?"
Fantomex took one more look at the campsite and nodded, "Yes. Let's go. Can you still carry the rock?"
"Yeah. C'mon."
Meanwhile, Ali continued to trudge forward, with Rogue attempting to inspire her into a slow jog. "Can't you like…give me a piggy back ride?" Ali asked.
"Ali…"
"Hey look!"
Rogue turned and saw that Betsy, Paige, Hope, and Dani were all right in front of them, loading what looked like dirt into a wheelbarrow.
"Wow…you guys really suck. We've been walking!" Ali said.
Betsy snorted and looked over her shoulder, "Read the sign and then talk, Alison."
Rogue walked over to the sign, "'I Dig You. Transport one ton of dirt from the trough at bottom of the hill to the trough at the top of the hill using the wheelbarrow. If you spill any dirt, you must pick it up.' How do we pick up dirt?'"
Ali turned and inspected the piles that the other teams were working on and there was already a sizeable dent in both of theirs. "This cannot be for real."
Rogue grabbed her by the hand and tugged her to their pile. She handed Ali the shovel. "You use the shovel and I'll use my hands." She put the rock on the ground, "I'll push it up the first two times if you take the rock."
On the other side, Betsy and Paige had hoisted another wheelbarrow of dirt into their trough and began to run down the hill with the empty wheelbarrow.
"Betts…you need to move the next few." Paige held up her hands to her partner, showing her the bleeding blisters.
"Sure."
Paige: This is a terrible challenge. We're only about halfway through it and my hands are bleeding and Betsy's are getting there.
"The boys should be here soon." Hope said looking over her shoulder, scooping dirt into her wheelbarrow with her hands. "This is taking us forever."
Dani nodded, "They'll probably pass us on this. They're stronger than we are."
A few minutes later, Dani's prediction came through as Warren, Bobby, Alex, and Jean-Phillipe all burst through the clearing tripping, elbowing, and climbing over each other, to read the sign and start the task.
"Jesus!" Ali shouted, gripping her wheelbarrow and starting to hike up the hill, Rogue now taking the rock.
The two male pairs read the sign as fast as they could and immediately ran to the dirt pile nearest to them.
"Get your wind back," Warren ordered Fantomex. "Help scoop some if you can, but I need you to be able to run after this." Fantomex nodded, as Warren grabbed the shovel and started to scoop dirt. Betsy, running down the hill next to Paige, quickly gave her boyfriend's arm a squeeze as she ran by.
"Keep it up, luv, you're doing great." She called over her shoulder.
Warren grinned over at her, "I'll see you at the end, sweetie. 100k richer!"
"They gonna let you hand me the check Worthy?" Bobby asked, starting to march up the hill with Alex holding the rock.
"Look who's talkative now!" Warren called back, "Wait…which way was the compass facing Bobby? It was on the right side of the tent right?"
"AH! Shut up Warren!" Bobby screamed.
After the Black and Blue teams had made a few trips up and down the hill, Victor and Santo popped out of the clearing.
Victor: We made it through the memory thing fairly easily…but I just hope Santo can keep in his head.
"Hey boys!" Bobby called to them. "Hope your forearms are ready for some work."
Alex: Bobby isn't kidding. We've gone up and down this mountain four or five times and my arms are about to break.
Further down the way, Ali was crying freely as she pushed the wheelbarrow. Warren, Jean-Phillipe, Alex and Bobby had all passed her and Rogue, and the Green and Black teams were finishing up. As Warren passed her going up the hill, with Fantomex on the wheel-barrow he reached out to pat her arm.
"It's okay Ali. You can do it. Keep pushing."
"Go f* yourself." Ali snapped back.
"Ok then."
Ali: I hate this. I hate every second of this.
"You can't be doing this." Rogue said, jerking the wheelbarrow out of her hands and pushing. "We aren't that far behind and I'm sick of you crying."
Rogue: Ah've put up with a lot this challenge. Ali's been a good partner, but she's been wishy washy. We played a perfect game, never had to go into an elimination round, and she's willing to throw it away because it's hard. She needs to shut up and do it.
At the top of the hill, Betsy dumped another wheelbarrow of dirt into the trough and filled it up. She smoothed it over to show that it had reached the top. She turned to one of the judges, "Are we done?" The judge confirmed and Betsy kicked the wheelbarrow away from her.
"Get this f*#&ing thing away from me." Betsy said and motioned to Paige. "The hell is over, let's get out of here."
Paige: You know she's mad when the sailor mouth starts.
"Come ON Paige." She pointed to Dani and Hope coming up the hill with what was likely their last trip. Paige nodded and chased after her partner who took off down the trail again.
Alex: You know how slow the girls have gone when our team and Warren's are only about one trip behind them. What bodes well for us is that while Bobby and I have alternated, I see that Fantomex has pushed the wheelbarrow maybe one out of five times. Warren's been a horse but he'll be spent real soon.
Warren, for his part was now hiking up the hill with what he thought was his teams last patch of dirt. He looked over his shoulder to see that Fantomex was more than halfway down the hill, dragging the rock along the ground.
"Hey!" Warren shouted. "That thing's gonna break. I'm carrying a hundred and fifty pounds of dirty and your carrying a twenty-five pound rock. Hurry up!"
Warren: My patience is starting to wear thin. The last few days all I've heard is what an amazing competitor this guy is. How if we were separated he'd run circles around me.
"I'm coming." Fantomex grunted back.
"Look," Warren said, pointing ahead to Alex and Bobby who were smoothing the dirt over in its trough. "They're done. Pick up the pace."
Warren managed to get his last set of dirt to the top of the hill and grunted as he hoisted it into the trough. Fantomex sat on the ground with the rock next to him as he smoothed the dirt over and looked to the judges for clearance. Once they gave him the ok, he turned to his partner.
"Are you good?" He asked. "Can you run?" Fantomex nodded and hoisted himself to his feet, as Warren grabbed the blue rock from him.
"I'm sick of playing catch up, man. Time to get moving."
Rogue had now taken over wheelbarrow duty from her partner, while Ali had taken their rock. "We're almost done Ali. One more trip." Rogue said, soothingly.
"Followed by a million more miles of running. The other teams left here like fifteen minutes ago, Rogue."
"It's okay." Rogue said, looking to her side and watching Santo pass them as he carted what was likely his final bunch of dirty up the hill. "One foot in front of the other, Al. That's all we need. They can't hold their pace the hold race." They came up on the trough just as Santo and Victor had finished smoothing theirs over and then taking off. Ali put the rock down to help her partner lift it up, and the dumped their last load into the container.
Ali: This torture is over. I don't care what's next, it's gotta be better than this.
"They're right on us, Betsy." Paige said, listening for the ground crackling behind her. "Like, literally right on us."
Betsy spared a quick glance over her shoulder before turning back and continuing her jog. "There's a lot of race left. It doesn't matter how close they are now."
They reached another clearing with a sign. This sign sat in front of six cubicles, each with what looked like an array of junk inside of it.
"'Memories, Part 2. Recreate the campsite that you saw earlier in the race exactly. If you make any mistakes, you must return to the original campsite before trying again'. Oh God." Betsy gaped at the sign.
"Jesus." Betsy spun to see that Dani and Hope were standing with them and had just read the sign as well.
Hope: The original campsite is about five miles back. So far we've been holding up pretty well, but a ten mile round trip would not be fun.
Both pairs split and sat in front of a cubicle. Betsy turned to one of the judges, "Where's the tent?" She followed the judge's pointing finger to a bag in the middle of the cubicle. "S#&^." She turned to Paige, "Do you know how to…"
Paige put her hands on her hips, "Why, because I'm from Kentucky?"
Betsy nodded, "Yes. Exactly."
Paige grumbled as she pulled the tent out of the bag and started to put it together, "You're lucky you're right."
As two people fairly experienced in putting up tents, Hope and Dani threw theirs up in no time. Now they were sitting on the ground with the rest of the items deciding what belonged in the site and what didn't.
"There was definitely no frying pan." Dani said, inspecting the collection of cookware. "Yes to the tea kettle…I'm just trying to remember if there was another normal pot."
Hope nodded tossing the frying pan aside and adjusting the lantern and compass that she new to be in the right spot. "Just take your time. We need to get some wind back anyway. I don't want to have to run all the way back. I'll take trailing by five minutes here for another ten miles."
As they were speaking, Bobby and Alex emerged from the clearing, with Warren and Jean-Phillipe right behind them.
"Ladies," Bobby said, nodding to the girls as all four went over to read the sign. They skimmed it quickly and went to one of their own cubicles, with Warren stopping to plant a kiss on Betsy's forehead.
"We're running a race right now, Worthington in case you'd forgotten," Jean-Phillipe sneered as he walked by. He sat on the ground hard as he surveyed the objects in front of him.
"Wasn't there a tent at the other one?" Jean-Phillipe asked. Warren groaned walking over to him and pulling the tent out of the bag.
"We have to put it together?" Fantomex demanded.
"Good luck boys!" Bobby shouted over the walls of his cubicle. Bobby had already shook his tent out of the bag and started putting the rods inside of it while Alex banged the pegs into the grass.
Bobby: I camped all the time as a kid. We didn't have a ton of money so this is how my dad and I vacationed. I know Alex, since he was a geology student, was all outdoorsy, so this part at least should be cake for us. Warren's never built something for himself and Fantomex is French.
Bobby and Alex threw up the tent in no time, while Warren was still struggling with his. He tasked Fantomex with getting all of the smaller items in place, while he tried to snap the rods into the tent.
"This is ridiculous."
On the other side, Betsy and Paige had just put their last items on the scene and were discussing what to do.
"Are you SURE the lantern sat like that?" Betsy asked. She pointed to the small lantern which Paige had placed on top of a cooler. "I could've sworn it was next to it."
Paige shrugged, "Pretty sure."
"Pretty sure earns us another ten miles Paige." Betsy said, leaning out of her cubicle and waving frantically to catch Warren's attention. Warren saw her and shot her a questioning look. Betsy pointed at her own eyes, and then at Warren's cubicle. Warren understood and waved her over. Betsy tip-toed over to the Blue team's recreation and pointed at the lantern, which on their site stood next to the cooler. She nodded at it as if to ask if they were sure. Warren flashed her a thumbs up and she grinned, kissing him before she went back to her site.
"It doesn't go there." She whispered to Paige. She put the lantern down next to the cooler and was startled when she turned and found Warren standing behind them studying their set up. The Green team stood up and Betsy leaned to whisper into his ear.
"We'll see you at the end." She turned to a judge, "We're done."
The judge looked at what was probably a photo of the proper set up and then at their station. "You're good, you can continue." Before leaving Betsy ran to her set up and threw a few things out of place so that if any one else came to look, it wouldn't be correct.
Betsy: We're the first team done at the campsite. It doesn't say anywhere that we can't look at another team's site.
For his part, Warren had now arranged all of the other objects correctly on his site and then returned to fiddling with the tent.
"Can you hurry up?" Fantomex asked from his position on the grass.
Warren turned to him shocked, "I'm doing all of the work here."
"I have to be able to run after you finish."
"You have to be able to not suck at life too and I don't see that happening." He finally slipped the rod into its proper spot and the tent was assembled, "I just have to pin it down and we're good."
At this point Hope and Dani got up from their cubicle and went over to a judge, noticing that Betsy and Paige had already left.
"They're gone?" Hope demanded.
"Maybe they had to go back to the beginning."
Hope shook her head, "If they did they would've passed behind us and we would've seen them." She looked at a judge, "Are we good?"
"Yes, you can move on."
Hope and Dani took off just as Victor and Santo came out of the clearing.
Victor: Once again, we get to a checkpoint that the other teams are still at. We have no idea how long this'll take though, so it's not really any help.
As they settled into their spot, Warren and Fantomex got to their feet and went over to a judge. "Are we finished?" Warren asked.
The judge took a long look at their site and back down at his page, "I don't see the…nope, there's the compass, you're finished, you can go."
"Woo-hoo!" Warren shouted, knocking down a few things on his site before turning to his partner, "Let's book, Le Pew."
Warren: Finally…we're winning.
Alex and Bobby turned just in time to see two retreating blue backs.
"What the f^?" Bobby shouted, "How'd they do that? The tent should've taken them forever."
Alex shrugged, "Who knows?" He adjusted the last pot that he had to put down, "It doesn't matter, anyway. We're done." He waved a judge over, "Can you check us please?" The judge gave their scene a once over and then flashed a thumbs up.
"You're good."
Alex: Warren and Fantomex took the lead from us, but not by much. If we keep the pace we were going at before, we'll catch them in no time.
Just as they left, Ali and Rogue came through the clearing to see only Victor and Santo.
Rogue (sighing): Even farther behind.
The two read the sign and went over to their station, Ali sitting on the ground as soon as she got there.
"Where's the tent?"
Rogue shook the materials out of the green back and pointed at what looked like, to Ali at least, a mess of scraps.
"Oh, what the f#&$."
Betsy and Paige were now jogging down a path and winding towards the main complex in Utopia.
"Gotta be the last legs." Paige panted as they approached the door.
Betsy snorted, "Yeah, we'll see about that."
The automatic door slid open and the both stepped inside of the entrance hall of the island. Inside, there sat a sign, in front of six large objects that were covered in colored cloth.
"They like their suspense don't they?" Betsy laughed. They walked over to the sign, but before they could read it they heard the whoosh of an automatic door behind them, and Dani and Hope sprinted into the building, coming to rest right behind them.
"What's under the curtain?" Dani asked.
"We're about to find out," Betsy replied, "Though I already have a good idea. I've seen the show too."
Betsy peeled the cover off the sign, "'Final Feast. You may not leave the station until you've eaten everything on your table.'" All four groaned and Hope and Paige pulled the black and green cloths respectively. Laid out on each table was one large steak, a larger bowl of mashed potatoes, two salads, two bowls of ice cream, and ten tacos sitting beside a jug of water.
"Oh your gotta be f#$&in' kidding me." Hope said looking down.
Hope: When you live most of your life starving, you tend to be a big eater when food is readily available. This, however, is over kill.
"Oh look." Dani said, swinging her leg over her bench and beginning to portion out the food. "They left us a puke recepticle." She pointed to a small black wastebasket on the side of their table. Betsy and Paige looked and saw that each had their own garbage can as well.
"Well," Betsy said, raising a glass, "Cheers to all of you." With that, she dove in on the salad, while Paige started slicing pieces of the steak off for herself.
"We're here." Warren said, stopping to take a breath in front of the door to the complex, waiting for his partner to catch up.
"Good. Hopefully something that involves sitting down."
"Oh you don't know the half of it." Warren replied, darkly. They entered the compound and saw the other teams at their tables. "Yep…gonna be terrible."
They passed by the other tables, with Fantomex going to pull the blue cloth off of theirs. "Y'okay Betts?" Warren asked as he passed by. Betsy responded by freezing up, and then quickly leaning off the table and heaving into her pail.
"I'll take that as a no." Warren sat at his chair and grabbed a fork. "What do you want to eat?"
Fantomex had his head in his hands and was massaging his temples. "Jean-Phillipe." Warren said forcefully.
"Not a good sound." Fantomex muttered, speaking on the sounds of vomiting and dry heaving that were happening around him.
"Pull it together. What do you want?"
"Salad." Jean-Phillipe choked out.
Warren: Oh, here we go.
No sooner did the salad touch his partner's lips did Warren have to shield his eyes as Jean-Phillipe leaned over to throw up. The sounds of his retching joined a chorus of two others at that moment who Warren made out to be Hope and Paige. Warren closed his eyes as tightly as he could and concentrated on swallowing the bites of taco in his hand and humming to himself as he ate to partially drown out the sound.
"Oh my God, I'm going to die." Dani muttered into the bowl of potatoes she was in the process of eating. So far, she and Hope had finished the salads, half of the tacos and three quarters of the steak. Hope had volunteered to finish the rest of the tacos while Dani choked down the potatoes and remainder of the steak. At the other table, Betsy and Paige had finished the ice cream, salads, and almost all of the steak, but the potatoes and tacos had been untouched. It was at this moment that the doors slid open again, this time revealing Bobby and Alex who jogged to their table and ripped the black cover off.
"This part's going to suck dude, but just push." Bobby said, immediately diving into the tacos.
Alex nodded, going for the steak, "I'm starving man, I'll be fine." His nose wrinkled as he heard Betsy heave from the table next to him, "Ah. Okay. That isn't helpful."
Down the line, Fantomex was still struggling with his salad while Warren had finished all of the potatoes, the ten tacos, his dessert, and his salad. "Can you help me out here?" Warren demanded. "You can't eat a f#&$ing salad and some steak?"
Fantomex's body stiffened and he pulled his mask up over his mouth so he could vomit again. Warren rolled his eyes and took Fantomex's dessert and started to eat it, "Well that answers that question."
"Looking a little green there, Frenchie." Bobby said with a large grin, taking a huge bite out of his taco, making sure to chew with his mouth open for Fantomex to see, "'Zint this d'licious Alex?"
"Mhmm. Soo goooood." Alex replied, through a mouth of steak and potatoes.
"Bobby, please." Dani said holding up a hand to hide him from her field of vision, while Hope once again turned to the pail, "Just, please."
"Sorry Dani. All's fair."
The doors opened once more and this time, Victor and Santo came through and noticed what was going on.
"FOOD!" Santo bellowed and ran to the orange tablecloth, ripping off as soon as he got there.
"You say that now." Bobby said, his mouth thick with ice cream. Santo looked down at the quantity of what was before him and his rocky face fell a little.
"Oh." He shrugged and sat, immediately going for the steak while his partner grabbed both salads and poured them into one bowl, which he started to take down.
"Jean-Phillipe EAT THE F$ING STEAK YOU P#&$$!" Warren bellowed at his partner, causing everyone to turn in his direction. They saw that other than one bowl of salad, Warren had every empty plate stacked in front of him, with the only thing left being the steak.
"I'm a vegetarian Worthington!" Fantomex groaned back.
"I don't give a f$. I ate everything else. Eat the steak!"
Down the line, Dani was finishing the last taco, while Hope was polishing off the second bowl of ice cream. Dani paused once more to throw up into the pail, but then opened her mouth for the judge, who looked in, slightly repulsed and nodded, "You're good, you can go." Both of them got up, excitedly, grabbed their rock and jogged out of the area.
They followed the signs, their sides cramping up, as they led them out of the compound and to the base of the mountain that sat behind the building.
Dani: I just ate my body weight. Now I have to climb a mountain. Awesome.
Back at the table, Warren was still screaming at his partner, "No. I refuse to eat another bite. I already had 90% of what was here."
"Can't you just…"
"You haven't done ANYTHING! For all the s$ you talk you've been slowing me down all day and you can't eat one steak and some salad. Jesus Christ EAT!" He roared.
"Team chemistry at an all time high!" Bobby gloated, polishing off the last taco, before moving on to the second dessert.
"F*#% you Bobby, shut up."
"Are we done?" Betsy asked, opening her mouth for a judge, who looked at the table.
"Yes you're finished."
Betsy nodded and grabbed her rock, rubbing her partner's back as she stood up, "We have ground to make up Paige." Paige nodded and dragged herself to her feet. Betsy stopped briefly to rub Warren's arm as they passed by.
"Take a breath." Warren nodded to her, still clearly irate as the Green team left the checkpoint.
"Yeah, War, take a breath," Bobby grinned at his friend.
"Tell me how happy you are once you try to eat the steak and desserts, Drake."
"You shoulda asked me five minutes ago." Bobby replied chuckling, "Alex finished the steak and I just finished the dessert. We're a salad away from being out of here."
"What?" Warren demanded turning to look at them and sure enough, there was one bowl of greens, that Alex was happily munching on, left on the table.
Warren rounded on his partner who was slowly chewing a bite of steak that was still only half eaten. Warren moaned and grabbed the hunk of meat in his hand and began tearing chunks off and shoving them into his mouth.
"Well that's gross." Victor offered from the other table, through a mouthful of potatoes.
Alex spooned the last bit of salad into his mouth, washed it down with a swig of water and then opened for the judge. The judge gave them a nod, and after a quick whoop of glee, they grabbed their rock and got up from the table.
"Later Worthy!" Bobby grinned.
Bobby: Warren has to feel like crap now. He's doing this final basically by himself and was beating us and now he's losing.
Moments after they left, Warren crammed the last bit of steak into his mouth and swallowed, showing the judges his empty mouth. They cleared him as well and he turned to his partner.
"Let's go."
"Give me…one…" Before he could get the sentence out, Fantomex turned to heave one last time, and then pulled his water pack on. "Okay, I'm ready." Warren shook his head, pulling the rock onto his shoulder, and leading them out of the area.
"Dude." Santo said. "What the hell happened to Dazzler and Rogue?" He shoved a spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.
"No idea," Victor said, his mouth full of steak. They turned when they heard the whoosh of the door, "Speak of the devils!"
Ali and Rogue limped their way over to the sign and read it. Ali swore looking at the four tables full of empty plates, and groaned again when Rogue pulled the tablecloth off of theirs.
"No way, Rogue." Ali said, holding her hands up in front of her. "I can't."
Ali: Betsy, Paige, Hope and Dani aren't here. Even the boys are gone. We're in third place by a long shot and it's pretty obvious that we aren't going to win this thing.
"What are you talkin' about?" Rogue asked.
Ali put her hands on her hips, "We're getting our asses kicked. I'm not gonna eat all of this food for nothing."
"Just sit and eat Ali." Rogue turned and saw that Santo and Victor had gotten up and been cleared by the judges to move on. "It's just us. Pace yourself."
Dani: We get to a landing on the side of the mountain and see a sign. But there's nothing around except six big rocks. I already have one big rock, I refuse to carry another.
"Read it Hope." Dani said, doubled over. "My eyes aren't working anymore."
Hope read the sign once, silently to herself, her eyes widening by the second, and then read it out loud, "'Sleep or Stand. This challenge will take place over night. Either both teammates must stay awake, or one must stand on one of the rocks while the other sleeps. If you fall off the rock, you must wake up your partner and switch. If you interfere with another team you will be assessed a fifteen minute penalty in the morning.'"
"Are they out of their minds?" Dani demanded, "We've ran about fifteen miles total today and it's an OVERNIGHT?" She looked over at the rocks, "Do we have to start now?"
Hope shrugged, "Only if you want to sleep. I figure we wait until it gets a little later. The sun hasn't even set yet." She pulled off her water pack and slid the rock off her shoulder, taking a seat on the ground. Dani sighed, before pulling her own pack off and doing the same. Not long after, Betsy and Paige came around the corner.
"Are they hurt?" Paige whispered.
"No, luv, but we all will be soon enough." Having watched the show with her boyfriend, Betsy knew exactly what was on the sign, so she allowed Paige the pleasure of reading it while she took her extra items off and sat on the ground with Dani and Hope, where Paige joined them shortly.
"We've done some crazy s* in our day, but this has been awful." Dani said.
Betsy raised an eyebrow, "In your day? You're a baby Danielle."
"I was an X-man before you were Betsy." Dani pointed out.
"You were a New Mutant before I was an X-man, Danielle. My years on the real team severely outweigh yours."
"This is stimulating conversation," Hope said, leaning back on the ground.
"Which of the boys do you think'll get up here first?" Paige wondered.
Betsy shrugged, "I'm obligated to say Warren…but Fantomex looked awful when we left the food."
"I have no idea how Warren is doing this all by himself. Bobby and Alex have been doing awesome but they're sharing the load. Warren's in the race while dragging another person along with him."
Betsy smirked at the other competitors, "He's a horse."
"Well that is disgusting." The four girls turned to see Bobby and Alex walking up to the sign. Bobby gave it a quick read through and shrugged, since he knew what was coming. He walked over to the girls and plopped on the floor next to Dani who grinned at him,
"Pretty good, Drake."
Bobby shrugged, "We do what we can."
"Where's Warren?" Betsy asked, sliding so Alex had space to sit as well.
"He was only a few bites away from being done when we left," Alex replied. "He'll probably be here soon."
"Look, I see Victor and Santo coming." Warren said pointing, "Are you going to let them pass you too?" He was currently looking down at his partner who was dragging himself up the mountain. "There's a checkpoint right there, you'll be able to rest."
"Ugh…"
Warren rolled his eyes, "I refuse to carry you. I will, however, swear to God that I'll drag your useless ass up this goddamn mountain if I have to." He reached out and grabbed Fantomex's wrist, tugging at it. Fantomex mustered up his strength and yanked his arm back, pushing himself to his feet.
"I'll not suffer any more indignities. I'll walk."
"Good." Warren said pulling the rock onto his shoulder, "We're almost there anyway."
After a few more minutes of hiking, the approached the landing where the other teams sat.
"You look tired," Bobby pointed out, grinning at Fantomex. He offered his hand to Warren, who high fived it, before taking his seat next to Betsy and wrapping an arm around her.
"Well now he can rest." He nodded to his partner who had shed his backpack and laid down on the ground. "How long ago did you guys get here?"
Alex shrugged, "Five minutes or so. Nothing much."
"Santo and Victor weren't that far behind me." Warren said, "They're hanging in."
"What about Rogue and Ali?" Dani wondered.
"I haven't seen them since the wheelbarrows. And we were the last of our teams to leave there."
Meanwhile, Ali and Rogue were approaching the halfway point of the mountain.
"I'm starting…to cramp…" Ali said clutching her side as she slowly walked behind Rogue.
"Every other team did it, Ali." Rogue said through gritted teeth. "You can do it too."
Ali slowly massaged her side, still walking forward, "Are you okay with the rock?"
"Don't have much of a choice do Ah?" Rogue asked.
"I guess not."
Almost twenty minutes later, the pair had made it to the landing where the other five teams sat, Santo and Victor arriving some fifteen minutes before them.
"Jeez…it's the walking dead over here," Hope said, earning herself a raised finger from Ali.
Warren offered a hand to Rogue which she took as he guided her to sit with the rest of them, while Ali tripped into Bobby's arms and nearly knocked them both over.
"How's it going kid?" Bobby asked, smiling down at her.
Ali chuckled, which came out with a rasp, "Peachy."
The hours went by and all six teams stayed awake and alternated between chatting with each other and massaging their limbs to get some feeling back into them. Eventually, it began to grow dark, the judges provided six sleeping bags and every one was deciding how to proceed with the next challenge.
"D'you wanna sleep?" Bobby asked Alex.
Alex shrugged, "I'm not really tired right now. I'll stay awake and talk with everyone else and if one of us gets tired, the other can hop onto the rock."
"Sounds good."
"I need a break, Vic." Santo muttered, running a hand over his face. "Just for a few hours."
Anole patted him on the shoulder as he walked to the rock, "It's fine, Santo, go to sleep." Rockslide nodded and walked off to one of the sleeping bags, which he balled up and used as a pillow. Victor sighed and stepped onto one of the rocks, where Warren, Betsy, Rogue, and Hope already stood.
"Rocky getting some shuteye?" Bobby asked from his perch at the base of Warren's rock.
Victor nodded, stifling a yawn himself as he got his balance on the small rock, swaying slightly before he steadied himself.
"It's kind of funny y'know?" Rogue asked.
Betsy turned to her raising an eyebrow. "How d'you figure?"
Rogue looked up at the sky, chuckling, "We've been to space, to alternate universes, we've fought people who try with alla their might to kill us…and we're still moanin' about a little race." The group fell silent for a moment, before all seven broke into a fit of giggles.
"It is kind of pathetic," Warren said, wheezing slightly as he laughed.
"I used to have to eat rats," Hope said, through her laughter, "and I barely dealt with some ice cream today."
Bobby: This is the calm before the storm. We're laughing now but…breaking point is coming.
"How's your day been, Worthington?" Bobby asked, still chuckling.
Warren immediately sobered and glared at his friend, "Awful."
"The biggest s&*% talkers…" Bobby began, grinning.
"Suck at everything?" Warren finished, "It's absolutely ridiculous. Here this guy is, doing everything he can to make me look like the bad guy, talking this huge game and not coming through. And I bet I STILL will look like the bad guy for yelling at him today."
Betsy reached out to put a hand on his arm, "D'you really care, luv?"
"Not a bit."
"You two have been doing great," Alex said, nodding at Hope and Betsy. "I had no idea it would be so neck and neck."
"Me neither," Hope agreed.
"Paige is a lot tougher than she's given credit for," Betsy said.
"Even you two." Warren said, looking at Victor, "We thought you'd be the pushover team. You impressed the hell out of us."
"Thanks," Victor mumbled.
Bobby looked up at him, "Y'okay kid?"
Victor groaned, "This is just awful, and we just got up here."
Warren reached over to pat him on the shoulder, "Heart it out kid. You've made it this far. There's not gonna be much left. You may even take second since my partner is useless."
"I can hear you!" Jean-Phillipe called from his sleeping bag.
"You're useless!" Bobby shouted back to him. Warren kicked Bobby gently in the shoulder.
"Jean-Phillipe are you going to stay awake? If you are I can get off of this thing."
"No. Just stay there."
"But…" Warren was cut off by a gasp, which made everyone turn their heads. Ali was sitting bolt upright clutching her sleeping bag, looking around terrified. Once she realized where she was, she looked over at the group standing on the rocks.
"Sorry. Nightmare." She looked to her partner, "Rogue do you need to switch?"
"It's fine Ali…it's only been a couple hours. Go back to sleep." Ali nodded and turned over.
Bobby still hadn't pulled his gaze from her, "Alex take the rock." Alex rolled his eyes and hoisted himself up to stand on the rock next to Hope. As soon as he was on, Bobby took his team's sleeping back and laid down next to Ali with it, covering them both with it.
Betsy looked suspiciously at the two figures, which were moving far too much for two people attempting to sleep, "He's not trying to sleep is he?"
Warren refused to look to see what was friend was doing, "I very much doubt it. Hey, Santo!" Warren was looking at the student, who had woken up and was eyeing the combined mass of Bobby and Ali curiously, "Go back to sleep."
"That needs to stop." Hope said, shielding her eyes.
Warren nodded and bent over on his rock to pick up a smaller one. He tossed it up and down in his hand a few times and looked at Alex, "Do you mind?"
Alex shrugged, "As long as he can run tomorrow."
"He'll be fine." Warren drew back and lanced the rock at the back of the lump he knew to be Bobby, which let out a moan.
"You ASSH^!" The lump shouted, but then went still.
"Are you dead?" Warren asked, vaguely concerned.
"No." Came the muffled reply, "Now leave me alone." The group giggled again and settled back onto their rocks.
The hours continued to pass and the teams still stood on the rocks. Santo had come halfway through the night to relieve Victor and Betsy and Paige had alternated steadily. Bobby woke up to offer to take over for Alex a number of times, but Alex seemed content to stay awake. Hope and Dani had also spent the night alternating, but Rogue and Warren had essentially spent the entire night on their team's rock, with Warren only getting reprieves for minutes at a time when Fantomex was awake, which allowed him to step off the rock and stretch. Finally, dawn came once more, and the teams saw the familiar sight of TJ Lavin walking towards them.
"TJ!" Rogue shouted, "Please tell me Ah can get down!"
"You stayed on that thing all night?" TJ asked, incredulously.
Rogue rolled her eyes, "Ali needed her beauty sleep. Warren did it too."
"Well way to tough it out you two. Yes, you can all get off the rocks. Wake your partners up and come over here." Rogue, Warren, Alex, Paige, Santo, and Dani all got down and woke up their partners. A few minutes later the group stood before TJ.
"First off, I'm very impressed by what I'm seeing here. All six teams made it to the second day, so that means it's anyone's game. Today is part two."
Paige: We've already been through hell, so I doubt what happens today will be any worse than what we've been through.
"Today's portion of the race shouldn't take you very long, but it's the most important. I'm going to give each of the teams an avalanche beacon, the beacon is going to tell you six different locations up the side of the mountain. At each of these locations is a key. It's up to you to find a key and then race to the top of the mountain where there will be a box with the Challenge: Rivals trophy in it. The first male and female team to open the box will receive 100K to split, second will receive 50K to split, and third gets nothing. Now, here's the catch. Yesterday's part of the race didn't count for nothing. The team for each gender that arrived at the Sleep or Stand challenge first will receive a two-minute head start up the mountain over the second place teams, and that's Dani and Hope and Bobby and Alex. The second place teams, Warren and Jean-Phillipe and Betsy and Paige, will get a one minute start over the third place teams: Santo and Victor and Ali and Rogue. So stretch out, wake up a little, because we're starting in a minute. Oh, and by the way, you don't have to carry the rock anymore."
"THANK YOU GOD!" Ali screamed, earning a laugh from the others.
Warren: Today's challenge isn't going to take more than a half hour. The two minute is going to be tough to work through but I still feel good and Jean-Phillipe had a whole night of rest. I still think we're in this.
"Bobby, Alex, Dani, Hope, are you ready?" TJ asked. Alex snapped the clip on his helmet and gave a nod to TJ.
Bobby held up a fist to his partner, "Finish strong." Alex grinned back and tapped Bobby's fist with his own.
"We're ready." Dani said.
"Okay, you have a two minute head start, ready, go!" The two pairs ran to a spot where the six locator beacons sat. Alex and Dani grabbed theirs and turn them on.
"Which way do you want to go?" Dani asked, looking at the screen, which was flashing with six possible locations.
"This one looks closest." Hope said, pointing to one.
Alex looked over at theirs, "Let's not race to the same one, which are you going for?"
Dani pointed at the screen. "The fourth around counterclockwise."
Bobby nodded, "Okay, we'll go for this one, the second around." He took off with Alex following him, though at a slower pace. "Hey…you okay?"
Alex continued to jog, massaging his thigh, "Yeah, just go."
Alex: Being that I stood on the rock for three quarters of the night while Bobby was attempting to get laid, my legs are still kind of asleep, but they'll be back once the run starts.
Warren watched with his arms folded across his chest as Bobby and Alex started to scale the mountain. He was counting the seconds in his head and watching their every movement.
"TJ?"
TJ looked at his watch, "You guys have twenty seconds so, Warren, Jean-Phillipe, Paige, Betsy, line it up."
The teams clipped their helmets into place. "Ready? Three, two, one GO!"
The teams sprinted over to the beacons and powered them up. Warren looked up to where Bobby had gone and then back at the beacon. "It look likes they went to number two…and Dani and Hope went that way. One looks the closest, let's head that way." The two took off, as Betsy and Paige went after the sixth beacon.
"Santo, Victor, Ali, Rogue. You're up." The teams nodded and got into place at the starting line.
"Three, two, one, GO!"
The final two teams took off for the beacons, and after looking for the other teams, took off for the final two beacons, the third and fifth.
Further up the mountain, Alex was starting to struggle, he stopped every few feet to massage his thigh, while Bobby tried to spur him on.
"We're almost there dude. Like, ten yards tops," Bobby said looking at the beacon. "We can start flipping rocks over, c'mon!" Alex nodded and got on his hands and knees, turning over the rocks.
"Come on, man." Warren said, urging his partner forward. "We're making up so much ground on them, just keep moving."
"I'm doing what I can, Worthington."
Warren: I'm not going to yell. I'm not going to berate him. I'm done doing that. I'm just going to try to coax him to finish…but the fact that he still speaks in that condescending tone when he's performing like crap is starting to irk me.
"How far away are we?"
Fantomex looked down at the beacon, "We should be right around it."
"Oh my God!" Dani shouted, flipping a rock over and picking up a small key, "I have the key! Hope, I have the key!"
Hope immediately jumped up from the rocks she was searching through and looked over to her partner who had a gold key in her hand, "Oh god! Go Dani! Go!"
The Black team ran back to the main trail on the mountain and started their hike up the mountain.
"They found it." Paige said, deflating as she was flipping rocks over.
"It's not over yet," Betsy said, frantically turning rocks over, "They still have to beat us on the climb."
"But we don't have the…" Paige began but was cut off when Betsy gasped and pulled a small key from underneath a rock. "Well let's move it Betts!"
"I found it!" Warren roared, holding up a key. He spared a quick glance at Bobby and Alex who were still flipping the rocks over and turned to his partner. "Come on." Fantomex struggled to get to his feet and after a few steps, collapsed to the ground. "It's almost over. We can win if you get up."
Fantomex gritted his teeth and looked at his partner, "Well clearly I can't get up you imbecile."
Warren turned to look again and saw that Bobby had leapt to his feet and was now leading Alex back to the path.
"They found their key! Get up!" Warren shouted.
"Do you not understand me Worthington?" Fantomex shouted back.
Warren: The breaking point is here. I endured his s$ this whole competition. I stayed up all night. I did all the wheelbarrowing. I ate all of the food. I rowed the kayak and I did the puzzles. And now, because this loser can't hack it, I'm going to watch Bobby and Alex walk away with the victory.
Fantomex groaned as he felt himself pulled to his feet by his partner. "What are you doing?"
Warren looked at his partner and snarled, "I'm winning." He bent down to Fantomex's knees and before his partner could protest, lifted him into a fireman's carry and started to jog back to the path.
Along the way he noticed Ali, Rogue, Santo, and Victor all stopping to stare at him as he came up behind Bobby and Alex who still hadn't noticed them.
"Dude, Frenchie can't hack it. Just keep the pace. We'll get there."
"This leg is really cramping up on me Bob. I'm not sure how much longer I can go."
"Excuse me, you're in my way." They both turned around just in time to see Warren shove them aside and continue his jog up the mountain with Fantomex bouncing on his shoulders.
Bobby: Holy s#&.
Alex: No f*#$ing way. We stand there in shock for about five seconds.
Bobby and Alex stood gaping as Warren continued to jog forward. Bobby started to run after him, but turned to stall as Alex was still limping.
"Alex…"
"Bobby, I don't think…" Alex turned to look over his shoulder and saw that Santo and Victor were now moving towards the trail, key in hand. Alex's jaw locked into place and he turned and started to skip up the trail, favoring his bad leg.
"Where are we supposed to go?" Hope demanded, looking around at the summit of the mountain. All she saw was a flag and no arrows pointing to anything discernible.
"Hope…" Dani began quietly. Her partner turned to her and pointed to the base of the flag, where six brown boxes sat. The pair walked over to them and saw that two of them were adorned with a 1, one in blue and one in pink. Hope reached for the pink box and stuck the key in the lock. She lifted the box open and inside sat a golden trophy in the shape of an X. She passed the box to Dani, who lifted the one out of it and held it up expecting it. After a minute, she turned to her partner, beaming,
"We did it. We won."
Hope let out a squeal and jumped onto Dani, causing the pair to topple down onto the ground. "We won!"
Dani: When I first met Hope, it was when members of my team had been seriously injured trying to protect her. I didn't understand how this girl that we didn't know was put before our family. It took this experience to realize that…Hope is part of our family now, too, and I wouldn't have picked anyone else to win beside.
Hope: I didn't really know Dani before this. All I knew was that I had punched her in the face a few times. But now I also know that I'm grateful for those punches, because I think I made a great friend and I can only hope we're on a team together again.
While Hope and Dani were hugging on the rocks, Betsy and Paige had climbed up the mountain. Through her tears, Paige reached for the pink number 2 box, and opened it to find a smaller trophy, made out of silver.
"We lost." Paige said.
Betsy smiled sadly, "We came in second place."
"The first loser."
Betsy wrapped an arm around her, "We did very well, Paige. Be proud of us."
Betsy: Paige and I had both the easiest job and the hardest job here. We didn't have real animosity between us because we barely interacted. However because of that we didn't initially have a functioning relationship at all, plus we had heard all of the terrible things we had said about each other. The fact that we could pull together and take second place is nothing short of impressive.
Paige: I take back all of the things I've said about Betsy. She's a great person, with a great heart, and hopefully she and Warren stay together forever. They're beautiful together.
The two teams heard a noise and turned expecting to see Bobby and Alex walking over the ridge, only to find Warren, with Fantomex still on his shoulder, making it to the top.
"Warren!" Betsy shouted.
Without a word, Warren walked over to the base of the flag and dropped Fantomex onto the ground. He leaned down and with a final sigh, opened the chest and pulled out the trophy. After a moment of inspection he tossed it to Jean-Phillipe who had enough energy to catch it.
Warren: It's not supposed to happen like this. The team is supposed to unite and be one and win together, with a better relationship. That didn't happen here. We may have won, but if I never saw Jean-Phillipe again, I really wouldn't care.
Jean-Phillipe: Worthington had his day. I can promise you if we ever do another Challenge together, and are on opposing teams, the outcome will be very different.
"Congrats." Warren said. "You just won 50K." He turned and walked away, only to be immediately jumped on by Betsy who barely allowed him time to speak between kisses.
"You did it!" Betsy said, grinning down at him.
He adjusted her in mid air, hooking her legs around his waist and grinning back, "I guess I did."
Warren: We just won a collective 75K. Neither of us need…
Betsy: Or want.
Warren: Or want, that money. We already have plenty, and more importantly, each other. So we'll be donating it to charity.
Betsy: To be able to experience this together was plenty.
At this point, Bobby and Alex made it over the ridge and crossed to their box. They unlocked it and Bobby passed the silver trophy to Alex, who took it grinning. They stood up, smiling at each other, when Warren walked over.
Bobby held out a hand to his friend, "My man." Warren shoved his hand away and pulled his friend into a hug.
"I just…" Warren began looking at them both beseechingly, "You were both so good, this whole race. You deserved it more than I did. You should've won."
Bobby let go with one arm, keeping the other around his friend's shoulder, but tossing the other around Alex, "I think we're good with what we've got."
Bobby: I walked into this challenge with there being someone out there who I really didn't like, and I'm walking out of it with a great new friend, and I'll have his back as long as he needs me to.
Alex: Bobby and I had a much more palpable rivalry than most of the other male teams. We did what the show wanted us to. We weren't forced, we weren't cajoled, we just became friends, and I'm glad we did.
Warren nodded at them, while Betsy ducked under his free arm to join them. Bobby shot a grin at her.
"Three person relationship?"
Betsy rolled her eyes, "In your dreams, Drake. Besides." She nodded to a spot behind him, where Santo, Anole, Rogue, and Ali had all climbed over the ridge to the summit.
"Jeez! I thought we won it." Ali said, self-deprecatingly. She took her key and opened up the third box and took out the bronze trophy. She looked to Rogue and shrugged, "Better than nothing."
Rogue held back a laugh, "Could be worse."
"How so."
"Ah could have to deal with that."
"Wha…" Ali was cut off by being picked up, spun around, and then being on the receiving end of a Bobby Drake kiss. She resisted for a moment before responding. After a moment she broke and looked up at him grinning.
"Turns out you're kind of okay, Bobby." She said with a smirk.
"Glad to hear it." He held her around the waist, and leaned to kiss Rogue on the top of her head.
"You guys did great."
Ali: Rogue put up with a lot from me on this challenge and I'll always owe her for what she helped me with. I may not be leaving with anything to put in my bank account, but I have a newly repaired friendship and perhaps a boyfriend. I only said perhaps Bobby so you better have been behaving from when we did this to when it airs.
Rogue: Even though she frustrated the hell out of me, Ah can never be mad at Ali. She gave me everything she had. Hopefully next time she figures out how to run, but for a first rodeo, I'm pretty happy.
Santo was the last to unlock the box. He too passed the small trophy to Victor who grinned, taking it. "Santo…I…" He was cut off with a bear hug from his partner that sent them to the ground.
"We did it man! We kayaked in the ocean, we ate a s% load of food, and we climbed a freakin' MOUNTAIN! This was awesome." Santo said.
"But we didn't win."
"Who gives a s*#$? It was still the coolest thing ever."
Santo: For as much crap as I give Vic, he's my buddy. We may fight all the time, but he knows that I'll always have his back.
Victor: I thought that Santo and I would be gone the first week. But here we are, running a race against some of the original X-men. They may have only kept us around because they thought they'd beat us…but the experience was worth it.
"You all did it." All six teams turned and there stood TJ Lavin. "You completed the Challenge: Rivals." The teams all roared and clapped as hard as they could, "Santo, Victor, Ali, Rogue, you gave it everything you had, but the other teams had a little bit more. I don't have a check for you guys, but you did an awesome job. Betsy, Paige, Bobby, Alex, you guys had the lead at points today, but just fell a little short in the end." He peeled two cardboard checks from the pile in his hands and passed them to Betsy and Alex, "I have checks hear for fifty thousand dollars for each team, and you earned every penny. That leaves first place. Hope, Dani, you guys led for the majority of the race, and you managed to grind it out in the end. Warren, Jean-Phillipe, I'm not sure if you two really embraced the process, but since one of you gave a Herculean effort, I suppose that he earned it enough for the both of you. So, Black team, Blue team, you each get a check for one hundred thousand dollars. Congratulations." He passed the checks to Warren and Hope.
Warren: To be standing here, at the top of our home, with these people is an amazing feeling. You think about everyone who went home…
Alex: Monet, Theresa, Julian, David…
Rogue: Remy, Erik, Ororo, Sarah…
Paige: Sooraya, Nori, Sam, Guido…
Victor: Dr. McCoy, Namor, Jubilee, Laura…
Dani: Kitty, Emma, Scott, Logan…
Warren: …and you really appreciate the experience. We, most of us at least, have learned how to work with people we either couldn't, or wouldn't. It's a lesson we'll take into the field, into our interactions with each other, and maybe…hopefully…into another challenge.
