The Ridukeulous Race

by Clown Princess Phoebe

In a spin-off of Total Drama hosted by former contestant, Duke Dodson, twenty-two teams will be pitted against each other in a race around the world for a chance to win one million dollars! Which team has what it takes to win...THE RIDUKEULOUS RACE?

13. Shawshank Riduke-tion

"So…you're saying that it was a crime to have my racers harass the wildlife like that? Especially since it was rhinos, which are already constantly poached as is? Hm…you know, this would all be really interesting to the Dukester…if he cared at all!" Duke screamed into his phone before suddenly hanging up and rolling his eyes. "Scam callers, am I right? But more important than legalities…last time on…The Ridukeulous Race: our teams were all said and done with their Finnish adventure, and things drastically switched gears and brought us to the fly-infested heat pit that is Zimbabwe! The first task of many was to hop in a jeep and drive all the way to Victoria Falls! Miraculously, the Bloody Prom Babies didn't crash and burn, but I can't say the same for James and Eliott! Man, I don't think feet are supposed to bend that way." The clip of James and Eliott in the confessional was shown, with James' foot being twisted the entire wrong way after they crashed their jeep. "Things were heated with other teams as well, with Arnold starting to feel just a bit guilty for being the world's biggest asshole to Aisling, Ursula deciding she was going to try her luck with some other rich boy, between Evan or Arnold, and Virgil being…ignorant, to say the least!" The next clips that were showcased were a quick cycle of Arnold telling Aisling to predict something when he was driving, Ursula eyeing down Duke and startling him, and Virgil chasing around a bunch of Zimbabwe natives.

"But once we got to Victoria Falls, things were shifting gears quite a bit! It was time for everybody to bring on their best selfie game, being tasked with taking a selfie going down the falls, and then another one with a white rhino before making it to the chill zone. Aisling's predictions saved her and Arnold from missing their first selfie, and protected the rich prick's colon from a pointy rhino horn, so I think he's starting to believe her…just a wee bit." The clip of Aisling patting the rhino on the snout while Arnold stared in awe was briefly shown. "Some teams had some good luck with this one, but as for the Not-So Friendly Duo and the Fake BFFFLs…well let's just say a little bit of unwarranted team and spit swapping got Sadie and Marty in hot water with their teammates!" Xavier and Katie were shown plopping into the river after trying to jump into the raft that had Sadie and Marty in it. "But who cares about them when the most interesting thing to happen was Flora and Helena coming back? Please, stop sending me death threats, they're back! Oh, Conservationists also became the Long Lost Brothers and Hottie and Nottie changed to the Race Moms, too." The next clip was showing Flora and Helena being dragged back into the race by Duke, with Helena seeming worried while Flora was just thrilled. "But even though things seemed pretty neck and neck between our bottom three teams, James and Eliott just couldn't keep up with the race…and had a pretty nasty falling out. I guess pretending to be father and son for so long on national television ends up taking its toll, right boss? Haha…please don't fire me for endangerment! But my boss and coworker are old news and this is…THE RIDUKEULOUS RACE!"

Cue Intro

"Here we are folks…still…still in Zimbabwe. Oh, man…" Duke's tongue flopped out of his mouth as he started to walk towards the chill zone from the previous episode. Beads of sweat dripped down from his forehead fast enough to make his own Victoria Falls, and when he finally got to where the chill zone and the first dukebox was, he flopped down onto the ground. Zeke and Lyle stood there, staring down at him with some mild worry in their minds. "Y-yesterday's winners…and the newly named Long Lost Brothers…are just about to…whew…kick of the race by grabbing the first travel tip!"

Confessional

"It was a pretty interesting night last night, considering all that Lyle and I discovered yesterday. I mean, we'd been sharing hotel rooms this whole time anyways, but it was so much different knowing that we were actually brothers." Zeke grinned as he pulled Lyle in with one arm and started ruffling up his hair with his fist. "Man, you're gonna love the family! They love all the same things we do, so, we could honestly be just like the Irwins!"

"H-hey, stop noogying me!" Lyle and Zeke chuckled together, the sight of them doing things like this was, admittedly, a little gross to watch. When the younger brother finally let his older, yet shorter brother free from his grasp, Lyle let out a deep breath. "Yeah, that would be a lot of fun! I mentioned it back in Finland, but my folks sort of kicked me out and…you know, wanted nothing else to do with me not too long ago. It'll be nice to be in a real family again."

Confessional End

"Alright, tip time!" Zeke smirked and slammed his fist down on the button for the dukebox, aiming to grab the tip, though Lyle snuck right under his nose and snatched it before he could.

"Looks like we're going to…Australia! Hey…weren't we just talking about the Irwins?" Zeke and Lyle glanced at each other with suspicious looks before suspicion turned into overwhelming excitement. "Oh, who cares about odd coincidences, we're going to the land of all the badass animals!" The two happily high-fived each other.

---

"Ah, Australia…the Dukester's actually had a few exhibition matches in this nasty place. That Ballsy Bugger is the best opponent I've ever had to face…still beat the snot out of him, though!" Duke snickered to himself as he stood in front of a giant Australian flag. "Australia is well known for many things, being home to the craziest wildlife you've ever seen, including abnormally large spiders, Tasmanian devils, and the platypus! It was also initially built with the intent of just being a prison island, so keep that in mind when you see some crazy Australian person…it's just in their blood." A rather tall girl with dark skin poked her head in from the side of the screen, glaring at Duke, who just pushed her away.

"Our teams will have to hop on this tour bus to make their way to the next airport, where they'll be booking their next flight…to Melbourne!" Duke walked towards a bus, hopping into it before it took him all the way to the airport. He ran inside of the airport, and a plane suddenly took off after, with the camera transitioning to show him walking outside of the airport in Melbourne, towards a dukebox. "Once they all make it to the land down under, it'll just be taking a quick trip to the next dukebox to receive their next travel tip!"

---

"Well, no time to waste, let's get started towards our Australian wonderland!" Zeke beamed before he and Lyle ran away from the chill zone towards the bus, leaving Flora and Helena to slowly approach the dukebox. There was something different though…primarily in the outfits that they were wearing. Starting with Flora, she still had her wand from the previous episode, but her usual dress had been swapped out for one that was a lot longer in the skirt, which went all the way down to her ankles, showing that she had also switched out her little sneakers for black wedges. The dress itself was pink, as her normal attire, but shoulderless and showing a little bit of cleavage. The sleeves seemed to be a bit wider at the cuff than her regular, as well. As for her head, well, she had donned a matching pink witches hat to complete her attire.

"Alright, first day back in the race, it's great for our fresh start!" Flora beamed before glancing over to the side to find that Helena's face was flushed with red, and she generally looked like she wanted to die. Her attire matched Flora's closely, only her wedge shoes were red, while her dress and hat were black. Outside of that, the outfit entirely matched her partner's…though her wand was different, being the more classic type of stick wand that you'd expect from a wizard. This outfit lacked her typical maid attire, which included the corset that she usually wore. It made it quite a bit more noticeable how chubby she was. "Oh, Helena! You look so good!" Flora giddily giggled before leaning towards Helena and giving her a soft peck on the cheek.

Confessional

"...I-I…do not like my body. Not one bit." Helena had her arms wrapped around her torso, trying to cover herself up the best that she could while Flora leaned towards her, resting her head against her shoulder while giving her a gentle rub on the back.

"And I think and know that Helena is the most beautiful creature on this wondrous planet! Even more graceful and majestic than unicorns!" Helena blushed at the compliment from Flora, who gave her another cheek kiss before shooting up to stand with a beaming smile. "She was a bit hesitant to dress up like witches with me, but she agreed since I said we'd both wear the same thing! Mystical Opposites is such an old team name, anyways! I wanna be the Mystical Witches, now! Since, you know, everyone else gets to change their names."

Confessional End

One by one, the teams started to pack into the bus in the very order that they arrived at the chill zone in the previous episode. Zeke and Lyle sat near the very front, whistling to some birds that were flying alongside the window. Flora and Helena ended up sitting in the middle of the bus, right next to Michael and Virgil. The girlfriends were quietly cuddling up on each other while Michael glared at Virgil, who was smiling at the two of them and giving them a huge thumbs up. Arnold and Aisling took the seat in the front just across from Zeke and Lyle, with the rich boy quietly watching as his partner shuffled her tarot deck. Near the back, there sat Jamie Lynn next to Evan and Phoebe next to Logan. The mischievous duo smirked between each other as they discussed something in hushed whispers, while Logan was trying to braid Phoebe's chaotic hair, though…it just poofed back out into its regular disorganization the second that she thought she had finished. Then, there was Lady Belle and Ursula, who were seated right behind Arnold and Aisling. Ursula licked her lips as she stared at the back of Arnold's head, though Lady Belle just seemed to be snickering at her partner. Mika and Conroy sat next to each other near the middle of the bus, scribbling sketches of Karma and Vanessa, who were in the seat across from them, posing to their heart's content. Honey and Mitsuki were together, of course, with Olive sitting on Honey's lap while Becky sat on Mitsuki's lap. Mitsuki slowly looked over at her partner, only to find her winking at her, which made her blush and look away in a panic. And finally, there was Sadie, Katie, Marty, and Xavier. Xavier and Marty were next to each other in their own seat, with Katie and Sadie being similarly positioned in theirs. The two lovebirds seemed mildly upset to not be sharing a seat.

"Ah…it really does warm my heart to see an openly gay couple being so confident in their own bodies. If only I had the courage to rock a dress like that, I'd be slaying every second of every day." Virgil blushed gently as he rubbed his own cheeks, with Michael looking like he was just about to vomit from hearing him say such things. "Oh, here you go again, being offended by seeing some girlbosses out in public. For shame, Michael…for shame!"

"...Virgilio, please, I am begging of you, just tell them that they're the internet's favorite porn category or something. Tell Helena that she looks like a piggy in that dress, anything!" Michael clasped his hands together to beg before something stiff suddenly whacked him on the back of the head, making him collapse into Virgil's lap. The editor glanced over at the other seat to see Helena's lip quivering and her eyes tearing up while Flora looked…pissed. Her face was red with anger, and she hardly seemed to mind that she accidentally dented her wand when she hit Michael with it. Virgil could only smirk and give the girls a slow clap.

Confessional

"I love hearing Michael say the things that I wanna say…really makes me feel like I'm accomplishing something here. Seriously, who would've thought that he'd be begging for me to say these things? It's honestly the best thing I've experienced in my entire life…though, I guess there isn't much for it to compete with." Virgil shrugged his shoulders, still seeming pretty entertained with his whole act. "Not done with it yet, of course…I wanna keep living it up in this glory for a bit longer."

Confessional End

The bus didn't take very long to get to the airport, and when it did, the teams rushed out of it to head inside, each booking their flight. There was a good deal of pushing and shoving when they were trying to get in line to get the tickets, but it all ended up being for naught, as they would all be taking the same flight anyways. They collectively groaned, having hoped for the chance to get some sort of advantage on any of the other teams that were still in, but ended up accepting the lack of that and boarded their flight, which departed soon after.

"Our remaining thirteen teams are now en route to Melbourne in a thirteen hour flight that's going to seem like an eternity! Of course, it would probably be wise for them to nap here…but I don't really wanna let 'em!" Duke snickered as the camera panned by many of the remaining teams, showing that they were all sound asleep on the plane, at least until a television screen lit up near the front of the cabin, showing the view of Duke himself, who blew an air horn loudly to rile everyone up. There were plenty of screaming racers, none more than Phoebe, though, who woke up and immediately started swinging her fists around like a bear was attacking her. She accidentally knocked Jamie Lynn in the jaw, who glared before hitting her back…way harder.

"Wakey wakey, eggs and bakey! Racers, I know you were all enjoying your little trip to dreamland and all, but that's not where our next leg takes place! We're going to Australia, remember?" Duke held up a travel tip, showing that there was a small red bar on it, something that nobody had seen before. "This lil' bugger right here is something fairly fitting of the theme of this cesspool country: a boomerang! If you happen to find one of them attached to your travel tip, you'll be able to use it to send any team of your choice back to repeat the previous challenge!" There was mostly silence in response to this, with some mixed murmurs coming from a few of the racers.

Confessional

"Something you can use to send any team back to repeat a challenge? Hot damn, sounds like it's about to be a total hayday for me!" Lady Belle was practically drooling at the thought of getting one of the boomerangs, while Ursula just glared as she saw the spittle spilling from her lips. "Y'all out there know how much I despise women…slutty women more than anything else. I'm figurin' this here might be a good opportunity for me to get rid of that skank, Honey! Oh, and the little fly that's always buzzin' round her."

"You could use it on…quite literally any other team than those two. They aren't exactly the most competent players, if you haven't been paying attention." Lady Belle didn't seem all too interested in what Ursula had to say, and the widow was only left to sigh and roll her eyes. "I think we'd be better off using it on a team we can't benefit from…Michael and Virgil seem like the safest bet to me. You know, since the rich one of that duo doesn't want a taste of all this."

---

"Evan and I hardly agree on anything, but if there is one thing that we do agree on…it's that we won't get anything out of using a boomerang on the neighbors. I despise Jamie Lynn with every fiber of my being, but I'd feel absolutely remiss if I caused Phoebe to lose because of my spite." Evan glared at Logan as he heard her spilly her sappy piece about her friend.

"...God, you're so disgusting nowadays. Anyways, I can't let Jamie Lynn get booted, even if Phoebe is annoying…and an eyesore." Logan was the one glaring this time, looking just about ready to deliver a swift punch to the back of Evan's head. "So that leaves us to think about teams that we'd want at a disadvantage. When it comes to teams that score consistently high in the rankings, I think our best bet is hitting the Psychic and Skeptic. They haven't had a placement below fifth in so long now."

Confessional End

"...Alright, this flight is dragging way longer than I anticipated. Typical weakblooded pilot, not knowing how to speed things up." Becky looked up at Mitsuki, who was still holding her, even as they were in the plane and not the bus anymore. She didn't seem to care that this wasn't exactly a safe idea or anything. "Mitsuki, rock me back and forth. Olive usually does it for me, but…" The lead singer gestured to Olive, who was passed out in Honey's lap, snoring like a behemoth.

"I-I didn't expect you to be the type that likes being rocked to sleep, but if that's what you want…I'd be no true MILF if I ignored my daughter's request." Mitsuki's arms were a bit shaky as she started rocking Becky back and forth, but the prom queen hardly seemed to care, as she was out like a light in a matter of seconds. Weirdly, her eyes stayed wide open while she was asleep, but they could tell she was out from the soft snores that they heard in between Olive's obnoxious ones. "...R-really didn't need much rocking to fall asleep, huh?"

"Well, think of it this way! With the kids asleep, it gives me and you more alone time!" Honey smiled and moved her hand to rest it on Mitsuki's shoulder. The dweeby girl seemed to full-body crease when she felt herself being touched in this sensual manner, and blushed horribly before shaking Honey's hand away.

"Y-y-you stop it with that! I-I already told you so long ago that I don't do that gay stuff!" It seemed like Mitsuki was really forcing herself to say those words, which just got a smirk sent her way from Honey. "S-stop looking at me like that! Maybe if your chest was solid and muscular instead of…l-luscious…a…and bouncy…and you had a huge ding dong instead of whatever delicious snack you've got in your pants, it would work!"

"S-so inappropriate to say all that stuff while the kids are sleeping right here…but ooooooookay. If that's what you insist…" Honey smiled as she returned her attention to Olive, who almost seemed to be holding in some laughter. "Olive? You're awake now?"

"M-M-Mitsuki said ding dong!" Olive suddenly burst out into obnoxious laughter as Mitsuki's face went as red as Becky's eyes. She tried to hide her look of embarrassment by staring out the window, though it didn't stop the drummer from laughing. It also didn't stop Honey from smiling at her with her own faint blush. Somewhere, someone could hear Lady Belle vomiting in the bathroom.

Confessional

"I want my race moms to kiss already." Becky huffed pure steam from her nostrils while she sat with her arms crossed and a stone-faced expression. "What? I can enjoy seeing other people in love, too…I'm just very selective about it. But it's obvious that it's going to happen…it's just taking everything in my power to not smash their faces together with my own two hands."

"I thought they got married in Finland? Well…I also was only half paying attention while we were there." Olive shrugged before reaching down below her feet to grab a piece of paper, holding it up to show it was a drawing of Mitsuki and Honey at a wedding altar while herself and Becky were officiating the event. "I even drew up the best part of the wedding! Becks scared off the real pastor, so we had to up and take his place, yup!"

---

"Stop doing that!" Mitsuki pointed aggressively at Honey, but not towards her face, towards her chest. The little nerd was blushing ferociously as she pointed, while Honey just stared at her in confusion. "A-all that bouncing and jiggling, it's distracting me!"

"I…I'm sitting perfectly still right now." Honey giggled a bit, but even that seemed to be enough to get Mitsuki hissing in her own panic again.

Confessional End

"And our contestants have finally landed in Australia! The dukebox is just waiting outside, so now, all that's left is to see who can nab that travel tip before the others!" As Duke's announcement finished, teams started pouring out of the airport, headed straight for the dukebox, which wasn't that much distance from where they already were. The first of the many teams to reach it were Arnold and Aisling, with the rich boy grabbing the tip.

"Hm…we'll be needing a taxi for this one!" Arnold started running towards the driver's door of the first taxi he saw, but before he had the chance to abuse the cabby inside, he remembered Aisling, glancing back to see her glaring at him. He gulped nervously and ended up opening the back door, holding it for her. "P-perhaps we should sit in the back together to discuss our next move on the way to Geelong Maximum Security, yes?"

"My orb says that's the right thing to do." Aisling huffed and went to the other side, opening her own door and getting in, leaving Arnold to sigh and hop in next to her, shutting the door behind him.

---

"Geelong prison closed up many years ago and all that, but when it was active, it was pretty well known for being absolutely brutal! Seriously, not just the prisoners were awful, but those security guards definitely deserved some time for how they were treating them!" Duke cackled as he stood in front of the penitentiary, holding his arms across his belly. "But nowadays, travelers just come by and take a whole bunch of pictures of the place. Truly a shell of its former self." He sighed and shook his head in disappointment.

"When our teams get inside, they'll all be locked up inside of one of the many cells!" Duke had moved inside of the prison, walking into one of the open cells with a grin. "These cells each have one of four different methods for them to escape! They'll find either tunnels, trapdoors, hidden tools, or bars! Once they breakout…" The camera transitioned to show the host walking alongside a river, where there was another dukebox waiting. "They'll have to head to our final dukebox of the leg here at the Barwon River! Boomerangs can only be used up until this point, they'll expire afterwards! Finally, we have a little something something in store for the teams, today!"

---

"The first team that reaches the chill zone will get one phone call home!" Xavier squealed excitedly as he sat with a solemn Marty in the back of one of the taxis. "We can call to find out how Cheese is doing after his trip back home!"

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." Marty sighed and glanced out through the window, not really seeming all too thrilled with the idea. He was more interested in watching all the other taxis starting to depart, including the one with Sadie and Katie in it. "S-sorry if I don't seem that into it, I am…it's just…you know, being bummed out and all that."

"Yeah, I get it, but you have to stay strong! I know it sucks to not be able to…fawn over your girlfriend every waking minute, but it'll all be just fine in the end." Xavier gave Marty a pat on the back before grabbing him by the wrist and starting to lead him towards the taxis. "Let's just stay focused on the challenge and try to get ourselves that phone call, yeah?"

"Yeah…yeah." Marty nodded slowly, and they walked away from the dukebox, allowing the next duo to come up and get their travel tip. As the tip shot out from the dukebox, that same red bar from before that Duke was showing was on it. A large hand extended to grab the tip.

"Oh…oh?" Conroy looked at the tip, but even closer at the boomerang that was on it before he turned to show it to Mika, who stared at it with an equal amount of confusion. "It's one of the boomerangs that Duke was talking about on the plane ride…huh."

"We're supposed to use this to send a team back to repeat a challenge, right? But…what team do we even send back? I hadn't thought about that at all when it was being talked about." Mika scratched her chin as her and Conroy started walking towards the first taxi they could find, hopping into the back seat and thinking as the cab started to pull off towards the prison. "We could probably use it on some team like…the pop stars? Or maybe the neighbors?"

"Huh? But…those teams aren't exactly what I'd consider a threat to us. Sure, Evan's a bit bulky and all, but you and I are in pretty peak condition ourselves. I'm sure we could beat them out if it came down to it. As for the neighbors…they're bound to self-destruct pretty soon. Haven't you seen how they act towards each other?" Mika seemed a bit down to hear her suggestions getting shot down so quickly. "It'd be better if we used it on a team that's a considerable threat to us. I'd say something like…the brothers. They always seem to squeeze themselves out of tough situations with the help of nature. Not much we can do to defend ourselves from that sort of thing."

"But…the brothers seem like they're really nice…couldn't we maybe try using it on the Bachelorettes before we worry about them?" Mika tried to reason with Conroy, who again, was quick to shoot her down with a shake of his head.

"Lady Belle and Ursula…they're the oldest players in the competition right now. Ursula would like us to think otherwise, but I can see past that plastic surgery from a mile away. We definitely won't need to worry about them, especially with Eliott finally gone. Lady lost her lap dog with him leaving." Conroy smiled a bit, a smile that came off as a bit smug to Mika, who glared while he relaxed himself in his seat. "Lyle and Zeke are definitely the way to go if we wanna think about ourselves in this race."

"...Right." Mika huffed and turned to look out the window while Conroy just side-eyed her, a bit confused as to why she was so annoyed.

Confessional

"I don't really understand what's wrong with Mika…I'm just thinking about what move is going to help our team the best moving forward. This is how I always think about these situations…what's different about it being a part of this race versus a part of one of our games back home?" Conroy tapped at his chin with all seriousness about his expression. "...I'm really not sure what's the matter. Maybe I should ask…after the leg is done, I mean."

Confessional End

"Hm…dahling, what do you think we should make of all this boomerang business?" Karma flicked her tongue at her teeth as she and Vanessa sat in the back of their cab, which was currently stuck in the heartiness of the Australian traffic. Both of them were filing their nails down to a sharp claw-shape, making them look both feisty and dangerous. "I don't think we've made ourselves any enemies…so that certainly helps things look better on our end."

"Honey, I don't think there's a single team out there that would worry about using a boomerang on us. Unless, of course, they're just envious of how dang good we look." Vanessa bobbed her head from side to side, which caused her ponytail to flip into Karma's mouth. The makeup artist gagged as her fashionista partner pulled her pony back. "Oop! Sorry, sugar! I swear, this hair has a mind of its own sometimes!"

"T-that's quite alright, dahling…just maybe attempt to keep it a bit more contained, would you?" Vanessa nodded as Karma finally lifted her hands up to show the claws that she had fashioned with her nails. They were definitely pretty sharp, as she gave a little jab to the seat she was on, smiling as she saw it tear through the material with ease. "Oh, mahvelous perfection!"

Confessional

"Yes, yes, of course, the tip did mention that we'd have to escape a prison cell, and while we're both certain that the cells will have what we need to escape…it's always good to have a backup plan." Karma grinned as Vanessa held up a piece of sheet metal, which Karma jabbed right through with the nail on her pointer finger. "Not only that, but do you see how much we slay with these claws?"

"You got that right, baby! I feel like a cat– no, a full-blown jaguar! Nobody's gonna wanna mess with this kitty when she whips out the claws, nuh uh!" Vanessa started bobbing her head again, and her ponytail practically uppercutted Karma, knocking her off of her seat and onto the cold ground. "I-I'm sorr-"

"Just…please…be careful with that thing."

Confessional End

"Say, Ursula," Lady Belle could hardly fit in the backseat of the taxi with how outlandishly massive she was, and her feet were practically poking out underneath the driver's seat. Of course, just with the presence of those two women in the back of his cab, he seemed pretty nervous. The southern lady picked at her teeth with a toothpick before flicking it out an open window and snickering as she saw it fly into some random passerby's eyeball. "Who you reckon we should call when we up and win this leg?"

"Hm? Hadn't put much thought on that…it's such a silly prize for winning first place. I don't have anyone worth calling back home, as I'm sure you don't either?" Ursula looked up to Lady Belle as she was putting on her starkly red lipstick.

"Eh…guess I could call the boys…make sure they're having a hoot with my sister runnin' the manor and all that. I'm just hopin' she isn't goin' too easy on 'em, is all. Don't want my workin' boys getting too used to the easy life…they'll be no good to me, then." Lady Belle smirked before the cab hit a pothole, causing her to bounce ever so slightly and hit her head on the roof. "Dangnabbit! Cabby, you do that again, and I'm stranglin' you from this backseat, ya hear?"

"Oh, do relax, would you? You get so worked up over the slightest of problems." Ursula rolled her eyes and patted the cabby on the shoulder, calming him down ever-so slightly. "Good cabby, please don't do that again, and we won't need to strangle you from the backseat. There, that's how you let them know they've made a mistake." Ursula smiled and pulled her hand back from the cabby's shoulder while he looked like he was about ready to faint. As the two women cackled together, the first of many cabs was pulling up to the prison, dumping out Arnold and Aisling, who stared at the massive gate together.

"Hm…this place…" Arnold got really quiet for a moment while Aisling stared at him. "...Is a total mess! I could maintain an abandoned prison better in the middle of my morning shower!" The rich boy grumbled while his psychic partner rolled her eyes at him, and the two of them started walking up towards the gate. He went to press his hand up to the gate, when suddenly, handcuffs were slapped around his wrist. Aisling turned to see what had happened, only to get similar treatment. There were two burly prison guards standing right there, making sure that their prisoner's wouldn't try to break free from their cuffs.

"Welcome to Geelong!" The one guard shouted before Arnold and Aisling blinked, only to re-open their eyes and discover that they had been thrown into one of the prison cells, with the door slamming shut after they were both inside.

"Oh, well, that was just rude! I suppose we could start looking for clues on how to escape…" Arnold started to move his feet as Aisling watched him when he suddenly dropped down to sit on the ground with his legs crossed. "But I think it would be much better if we held a seance, first."

"Oh, you want to do one of my voodoo rit- wait a minute…you actually used the right word for once?" Aisling was mildly shocked while Arnold just stared back at her and slowly nodded, "Arnold…the enthusiasm is…appreciated…but a seance, that's just connecting with the spirits of the dead. Not only that, but I'm not a medium, I'm a fortune teller. I'm not sure that that's something that I'm even able to do."

"Sure you can! You practically know all the mystic arts and their ways! This one just seems like a challenge, but when we get faced with a challenge, we do whatever it takes to move through!" Arnold grinned, but this grin wasn't the same as his usual, which was definitely cocky. This one just seemed more excited than anything else. "From what I researched, you technically don't need the assistance of a medium for a seance, anyways. You're a genius with all this, so you might just do better than any medium could anyhow!"

"A-Arnold…" Aisling faintly blushed at the sentiment before she rummaged around in her robes, reaching for a few sticks of incense that she had with her. She also retrieved a little pot, which she stuck the sticks into before setting it on the ground and lighting them up with a match. "I'm still unsure that this will work…you're not just trying to watch me fail so you can laugh at me again, are you?"

"I'm not, honest! I truly believe that you've got what it takes to do this. B…better than anything that I could come up with, anyways." Arnold nodded again and Aisling slowly sat down to cross her legs across from him, still somewhat in disbelief. The two stared at each other blankly before slowly closing their eyes. Just outside, two more teams had arrived at the prison, one being the YouTuber and Editor while the other was the Mystical Witches. Flora and Helena rushed right up to the gate with Michael by their side, though Virgil was a bit more hesitant.

"I dunno, seems a bit fishy to me…" The editor watched and grinned to himself as the trio was handcuffed by the guards at the gate. "Heh! Serves them right for being gay!" Virgil snickered until a baton suddenly swung and hit him right in the hip. "Ack! Police brutali-" Another swing of the baton crack upon his head, knocking him flat to the ground before he even had the chance to complain anymore.

"Our teams arrived at Geelong prison, with most of them just sitting and accepting their fate as prisoners, while others…well, they at least put on a nice show for us!" Duke snickered as camera feed of the outside was shown. Phoebe just let herself be locked up in the handcuffs, not even daring to make a move, while Jamie Lynn was currently holding one of the guards in a chokehold.

"Oh no, I'm not letting you cuff me like that, no way! If I'm going down, I'm going down swinging!" Jamie Lynn got ready to punch the guard in the back of the head when she was suddenly tackled by another guard. Still, she tried her best to fight back against him, but more and more kept coming until there was a full dogpile on her. Some time had passed, and both her and Phoebe were finally slammed into the last cell, with Jamie Lynn spitting out a tooth onto the ground…only it wasn't her tooth, it was someone else's. "Yeesh, the nerve of those guards is just unbelievable."

"T-they're just doing their jobs, right?" Phoebe whimpered lightly, only getting a glare back from her partner, who started working on checking around the room for a trapdoor on the floor. "O-oh, right, we should probably be looking for a way out."

"You know, if you spent half as much time actually looking as you do talking about looking, then…well, you'd…you'd be looking already!" Jamie Lynn couldn't really find where she was going with her insult and gave up halfway through. Phoebe had a sharp exhale leave her nostrils as she rolled her eyes and went to the barred window to see if there were any bars loose. "Did you really just roll your eyes at me? What's gotten into you?"

"I did it because I…I…d-don't…I don't like you!" Phoebe squeaked embarrassed before ducking under the covers of the blanket on the bottom bunk of the little bunk bed set that was in her cell. She cowered for dear life under the blanket while Jamie Lynn didn't even pay attention to her, she just kept chipping away at the floor. "P-please don't kill me, I'm sorry for being such a bitch!"

"Oh, come on, that jab was totally deserved! In my opinion, you could've done much worse than that! Let me get a few swings at her, I'll show her what for!" Phoebe heard Libby nagging her in her own head, but did her best to ignore her. "Come on! I can really give her what she deserves, you're letting her off way too easy for cheating out our man like she did!"

"I-I know…b-but wouldn't it be best if I tried to handle it on my own for once? W-we both know it's gonna be a bad thing if she finds out that you're here…" Libby went silent after Phoebe thought back to her, and the meek girl finally crawled out of the bed to continue looking around at the bars like before, but she was clearly pretty embarrassed for her freak out, even when Jamie Lynn didn't really seem to care at all.

Confessional

"Phoebe's been even more of a pain since Richard's been gone, which is really just aggravating me to no end. He was a distraction to you, you're supposed to be doing better without him around!" Jamie Lynn annoyedly bonked her fist on the back of Phoebe's head, not getting much of a reaction from her.

"A h-hot distraction…" Phoebe smirked a little bit and twiddled her thumbs while looking off to the side. Meanwhile, Jamie Lynn just looked like she was ready to puke from hearing her say that.

---

"Like, we've never really had to escape from a prison before, but we've totally done a bunch of escape rooms in some of the malls back home! Oh, there was this one that was prison-themed! They had a guard there and everything…so maybe this will be just like that!" Katie seemed pretty excited for the challenge, but Sadie, on the other hand, didn't seem so interested, as she was more so just down. "Sadie! It's an escape room! You like escape rooms!"

"Yeah…I do like escape rooms…" Sadie sighed to herself, holding her head in her hands with her elbows propped up on her knees. "It's just…it would be a bit more fun if we could do it with more than just one team per cell."

"Sadie, you'll get to see him when the leg is over, I promise you, it's really not the end of the world." Katie tried to cheer her friend up, but Sadie didn't really respond at all other than with a sigh. "Oh…this is gonna be a long race…"

Confessional End

"Cell…cell…cell…spell! Aha!" Flora excitedly rushed over to Helena, who was poking around at the toilet in their cell to see if there was anything of use in or near it. The pink witch wrapped her arms around her girlfriend from behind, giving her a huge, loving hug, which got a blush all along her face. "I know what we've gotta do! Okay, okay, so! We have our wands! We can cast a spell on the guards to make them let us out of here!"

"F-Flora…I'm not so sure that that's going to work the way you want it to." Flora seemed to ignore Helena entirely, pulling back from her hug and wandering over to the cell door.

"Guard, guard! Come, quickly! I need to tell you something!" One of the guards heard Flora's calls and begrudgingly walked over to see what all the ruckus was about. She opened her mouth to say something, but instead of actually speaking, she just poked her wand out through the bars, dumping sparkles in his eyes. This just made him scream in agony as he ran around wildly before crashing into a cell door and busting it open, only it wasn't her own. "Oh…well, it looks like my spell at least worked for one of the other teams!"

"See? I told you that the guards were bound to let us out on their own eventually…can't keep charm like this locked away forever." Ursula snickered as she stepped out through the door to her cell, with Lady Belle trailing after her, only the southerner's hips got wedged in the doorway, rendering her stuck. The widower glanced over her shoulder to see her partner's condition, immediately bursting out into laughter.

"Oh, don't you laugh at me, you nasty bag! You're just jealous that I've got more hips than you could afford to carry around!" Lady Belle tried to squeeze herself free, but not too much luck at all. Across the prison hall, she could see the Race Moms in their own cell, with Mitsuki gnawing at the bars like a rabid squirrel while she stared the southerner down. This happened to be just the kick in the pants that Lady Belle needed to squeeze herself free. "L-let's get outta here before that animal tries anything funny."

"Flora's plan to have a guard open her own cell ended up backfiring pretty badly, letting the Bachelorettes get sweet freedom before any of the other teams…and rocketing them into first place." Duke announced as the two women started sprinting out of the prison. "Though twelve more teams remain behind bars…it's only a question of which one will make it out next!"

"Well, Becks! Whaddya make of this cell? Seems pretty tough to break out of, right?" Olive glanced over at Becky as they stood before the cell door. They stared at each other before starting to cackle like maniacs. With a few simple side steps, they slipped right through the bars and freed themselves, not much of a task for two tiny children, such as themselves.

Confessional

"Y'all ever seen one of them cartoons where the guard is goin' all 'Snoooooooooooooooooooooore…mimimimi?' And then the prisoners sneak the keys from 'im and use 'em to free themselves all lickity split? Well, that's what I wanted to do, but it ended up being more like one of them cartoons where the bars is too wide and the prisoners just slip right through 'em! Yup!" Olive seemed pretty pleased with herself for getting out so easily, there was even a smirk on Becky's face.

"I always like those cartoons where the guard comes to check on the prisoner and the prisoner shanks the guard in the chest. Oh, but this was alright, too." Olive seemed a bit queasy as her younger sister giggled evilly.

Confessional End

"NO! NO NO NO NO NO! UGH!" Logan stomped her feet throughout her cell, while Evan simply leaned against the brick wall at the far end of it, grinning at her. "This is…this is just ludicrous! Why on Earth would they shove me, me of all people into a lousy cell like this! I've never done one thing to deserve this treatment! Not ever! I am the absolute pinnacle of human decency!"

"That's what you think?" Evan snickered, getting a glare shot back his way from Logan, though he just checked his nails all aloofly. "Well, I was gonna say, I could probably bust us out of here nice and easily, but if you're so insistent on the fact that you're perfect, maybe I should just keep it to myself. I'm sure that you'll find your own way out, Miss Perfect."

"Oh, I know that you're not coming at me like that! Have you forgotten the fact that you've befriended that absolute she-beast over in Cell Block Bitch?" Logan turned her glare outward towards one of the other cells, which had Jamie Lynn and Phoebe in it. "That transgression alone makes you the worst person that's ever existed, so I won't take kindly to you calling me out. Not one bit!"

"Alright, alright, whatever you say! I'm just gonna sit tight and watch, then! No better way to learn something than from the masterpiece of human life, right?" Evan plopped himself onto the ground, relaxing in his seat while Logan huffed and got herself right back to work. In the cell just next to them, there were Mika and Conroy, the latter studying the layout while the former was staring at the floor.

"Hm…well, it doesn't seem like this is really going to be anything obvious. They sure knew what they were doing when they hid our escape route." Conroy looked over to Mika, who more or less ignored him and just started tapping her foot. "Mika? What's up with you?"

"Nothing." Mika answered her senior bluntly, stomping down hard on the spot on the floor that she was standing on and causing it to collapse. It left a big crater in the floor, much to the astonishment of Conroy. "Floor's open, let's leave." That was all she had to say before jumping down into the large hole, slowly fading from all sight. Conroy stared at the opening before giving a little sigh and jumping in after her.

"Oh, dahling…this escaping thing just seems like it's going to take us quite a while. I swear I've looked up and down, all over this cell, yet, I haven't found a single lick of evidence that might lead to our way out." Karma fake sobbed into her sleeve as her and Vanessa stood near the barred window to their cell. The cell itself didn't really look like they had checked anything in it at all, considering that everything was still in place, exactly where it was supposed to be. "Whatever shall we do?"

"You know what I'm thinkin', sugar?" Vanessa gave Karma a pat on the back, the two of them grinning before swiping at the bars with their claws and cleaving them to pieces. They laughed together as they watched the pieces of the bars fall to the ground below, and Karma started to climb through the window. "Oh, yeah, honey! We showed this cell who's boss!" Of course, the fashionista's head bobbed as she spoke, and with it, her ponytail swung, knocking Karma on the back and making her scream as she plummeted to the ground below from the window. Vanessa slowly peeked her head out, looking all worried. "O-oh! Sorry, ho-"

"BE CAREFUL WITH THAT WEAPON!" Karma groaned in pain and started pulling herself off of the ground, only for Vanessa to jump out of the window and land right on top of her, crushing her back into the dirt below. The fashionista wasn't too sure where her partner had gone after she crushed her, and was scanning the area. That was until the makeup artist's muffled voice came from underneath her. "Stp sttng n my fce!" Vanessa shot up from the ground, just looking embarrassed as Karma got up. She opened her mouth to apologize again, when her partner just put a hand over her lips. "Just…stop!"

"Aye aye! Virgilio! You are going to ruin your pretty little teeth if you keep trying to bite the bars! Don't mimic Mitsuki's technique, that'll only work if you're as depraved as she is!" Michael tried to pull Virgil back from the bars that he was chomping down on, which he did, it just took him a few good tugs. He set him back up on his feet, "Aye…it will be better if we just search around! Maybe ours is one of the rooms with the hidden tools?"

"Did you just…assume that I can't be as depraved as Mitsuki? Why would you assume that? I'll have you know, I can certainly be depraved! Maybe I've been holding back the urge to just let you have me on that bed right there! I want your boyfriend to see it, too! He's probably watching this!" For some reason, that was a bit more than Michael was willing to take, and he suddenly swung his arm and punched Virgil right in the jaw. It came at him a lot harder than he was expecting, knocking him off his feet and to the floor. He could only look back up at his partner in dumbfoundedness, a complete loss for words.

"I have had enough of you in this race! I might have had enough of you as my editor as a whole! I can deal with you mocking me, I can deal with you being a blatant racist, and I can even deal with this whole farse you've put up to annoy me or whatever it is that you're doing! But I'm not going to let you humiliate me like this and bring my boyfriend into it like that! If you wanna be obnoxious and awful in whichever way you're feeling, go for it. But I'm not putting up with it anymore." Michael huffed and went back to looking for the tools that he had mentioned before while Virgil slowly got himself off of the floor.

"Y-you just hit me…I…I just got hit in the face by a gaylord like you!" Virgil rubbed his jaw, which was still stinging pretty bad from where he got hit. He contemplated hitting Michael back, even raising his fist up, but he couldn't find the strength in him to do it. He just got himself to work, looking for a way out with his partner, not bothering to say another word.

Confessional

"That…hurt." Virgil looked like he was about to cry, but he obviously didn't want anybody to see him like that, so he was doing everything in his power to hold it in, though it was only mostly working. "...But I think I respect it. Not enough to forgive Michael for being gay, but enough to at least stop with my little charade. I think I'm really gonna put a lot of emphasis on the 'F' the next time I use that word…"

Confessional End

"I'm…I'm not really sensing anything at all…the incense has almost burned out entirely at this point." Aisling still didn't open her eyes, but she could smell that her sticks of incense were burning down to nubs pretty quickly. The scent was fading away, and she'd hardly been given a whisper from any sort of spirit. She almost looked upset with the expression she was making, "I've failed again…another excuse to mock me for-"

"The toilet…check the toilet…" The words that sailed through Aisling's ear canal almost sounded like the wind itself had choralled throughout her body. Her eyes suddenly shot open, and she saw that Arnold still had his closed and wasn't moving a muscle.

"A-Arnold, it says to check the toilet…that's what the spirits whispered to me." Aisling shot up from the ground while Arnold sat and watched her, not moving at all just yet. When she moved over to the toilet, she gave it a little nudge, which knocked it over onto the ground, revealing a small tunnel underneath it. There was a glimmer of excitement in her eyes as she revealed the path. "It…it worked! The seance worked! Oh, let's go!" She didn't even wait for her partner to get up before she jumped down into the tunnel.

"...Right." Arnold frowned and got up from the ground, dusting his pants off a bit while walking towards the tunnel. "...Let's go."

Confessional

"...I didn't want her to feel bad about it failing…I really didn't." Arnold still had a frown as he reached for his phone, pressing a button that played a whispering voice that said the exact same words that Aisling had heard from the spirits. "...She's happy about it, but it just doesn't seem right. Should I have just let her fail?" The rich boy just looked puzzled with himself, completely unsure of what to think.

Confessional End

"And there's the next dukebox! Damn skippy!" Lady Belle was practically panting from all the running she had done while Ursula didn't look nearly as worn out as she was. The southerner leaned herself against a nearby tree, staring out at the river as she continued to take deep breaths in hope to recover from all her sprinting. "Oh, lordy, me! How in the hell are you not all tuckered out, yet? You ran the same mile I just did!"

"You sprinted the entire way in fear that Mitsuki was going to try and make out with you. I ran normally because I'm not an idiot." Ursula snidely remarked before passing by Lady Belle to grab the next tip from the dukebox. "It's an all-in…craft-a-raft."

"This all-in is fairly simple– even the Dukester can do it without having to use too much of his brain for it!" Duke walked right by the ladies, heading over to a massive pile of scrap wood that was waiting out for him. "The teams will have to build themselves a raft, which they'll have to use to sail all the way down the Barwon River to the chill zone! The last team that reaches the golden carpet is in for some baaaaaaaaad news!" The host grinned as he finally stood himself on the carpet, flexing his muscles.

"Building a raft? Well…this certainly would be a lot easier if we still had your handy working boy around to do it for us." Ursula frowned, walking over to the pile of wood and looking it all over. She went to grab a piece and immediately got a splinter in her thumb. "Ow! Listen here, you flimsy piece of soon-to-be paper! If you even dare to give me another one of those nasty splinters, I'll make sure the rest of your existence is much more miserable than being put together into some raft!"

"Uh…Ursula? Yer talking to a piece of wood right now…it don't have any sentient existence or whatnot." Lady Belle finally caught her breath and cracked her knuckles while walking over to join her partner. "It's a lucky thing for you that I've had plenty of experience handling myself in situations where my working boys just can't seem to suffice. Watch and learn." The southerner grinned and bent down to grab another piece of wood, which gave her a splinter as well. "Dangnabbit!" She suddenly chucked the piece of wood far off into the distance, hitting the very same random passerby that she accidentally stabbed the eye of earlier.

Confessional

"Maybe we both overreacted a bit, but that wood definitely deserved a good hollerin' at for splinterin' us up and all that." Lady Belle huffed while Ursula got fast at work, carving something into the wood that splintered her earlier. "Whatcha doin' now?"

"Now? Oh, just some voodoo curse or something. I'm hoping that it grants this wood the power to feel so I can torture it for the rest of eternity." Ursula snickered before suddenly stopping and chucking the wood off to the side. "...Sometimes you really don't know how idiotic an idea is before you actually blurt it out."

Confessional End

"Must…break…out…must…help…my…babies…" Mitsuki whined as she slowly slid down from the bars, her jaw sore and raw from how much she had been chomping down on them. She let out a defeated sigh as she laid there on the ground. "Oh…there's no use! I-I've been gnawing and biting and tearing and all sorts of -ings, but I just can't seem to make a dent in these bars! What do you think, Honey? …Honey?" Mitsuki slowly turned around to see a massive pile of dirt heaped up in the side of the room while there was a huge hole in the floor. Honey slowly popped her head up from it and smiled at her.

"Oh, you were too busy for me to get your attention, but I got a way out for us! Come on, let's go!" Honey happily dove back into her tunnel while Mitsuki crawled over to it and stared down through the hole.

"C-crawl into your hole? T-t-that's just so obviously you telling me how badly you want to sleep with me! W-well it ain't happening right now! I mean ever! Ever!" Mitsuki declared how straight she was before she went down into the hole. The two of them ended up dumping out into the sewer system underneath the prison, landing right near Aisling and Arnold.

"Oh? I wasn't expecting company on this journey…how interesting." Aisling smiled and walked over to the two girls, extending a hand to each of them. "Welcome, friends! So nice of you to tag along with us!" Honey reached out to shake Aisling's hand, but Mitsuki suddenly slapped the fortune teller's away while huffing and puffing. "O-oh, dear…you seem quite upset."

"N-nobody gets to touch this bimbo's hand except for me! …C-cause she's my teammate!" Honey smirked and just let Mitsuki hold onto her hand while Aisling slowly backed away and returned to Arnold, who was still as distraught as ever.

"Well…I was hoping that our companionship would be a bit more jovial…" Aisling sighed, looking back at Arnold and frowning at him. "What's got you so upset? Don't tell me that the fact that the seance actually worked has got you moody…"

"No. No, it's…it's not that. Can we please just keep going? Your seance got us out of the prison, so perhaps you leading the way will get us in first place." Aisling seemed a bit confused by the sorrow tone in Arnold's voice, but just continued on ahead while he followed behind her. Mitsuki and Honey walked up to join him, with the little gremlin staring at him and blushing. He glanced down at her, but not with his usual hatred for her depravity. "...Say, Mitsuki? You seem like you hold things in a lot…what about when it feels like you have to let it out? Like, telling it to somebody."

"I-I-I don't know what you mean by that, I-I'm pretty open about all of my feelings…" Mitsuki tapped her fingers together, her blush worsening as the boy talked to her.

"So…you're saying that if something's weighing on me, I should just spill it, then? That's not something I've been taught in my family. 'Emotions just get in the way, why feel bad when you could be capitalizing?' That's sort of my father's motto…I despise him." Arnold glared at the ground while he walked, with Mitsuki tapping at her lip.

"Um…w-well…maybe…if you don't like your father all that much…y-you should make your own motto? I-it might come easier to you if you do it your own way…a-at least from what I've seen of you." Mitsuki could hardly believe she was able to form these fully intelligible sentences to this boy, the blush wasn't even on her face anymore.

"...You're right. God, I hate admitting that other people are right…but…t…thank you for entertaining me with this conversation, at least. I'll give you that you're more intelligent than you look." Mitsuki pouted slightly at the "compliment," but decided not to say anything while Arnold ran to catch up with Aisling.

"Is there anything that you're holding in, Mitsu? Maybe that you wanna tell me?" Honey leaned down towards Mitsuki with a smile.

"...N-not ye- no! Nothing! Gah!" Mitsuki covered her ears and kept on walking while Honey continued to smile. Meanwhile, Arnold was just catching back up to Aisling, and he tapped on her shoulder.

"Hm? What is it no-" Before the fortune teller could even get her words out, she was interrupted by her partner.

"The seance didn't work." Aisling just stared at Arnold in confusion, at least until he brought his phone out to play the same voice as before…the exact same voice. Her confusion sank to sorrow pretty quickly, matching the boy's own expression. "I didn't want you to feel upset about it failing so I…tricked you." She opened her mouth to say something to him, looking about ready to cry. "...And I'm sorry."

"Y-you're what?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I lied to you. I thought it would be the right thing to do and I was wrong…as I frequently have been during this race. Finland was just the worst of it." Aisling stayed silent while Arnold stared dead at her, the two of them ignoring that they were being passed by Honey and Mitsuki entirely. "You don't need to say anything, you don't need to be the amazing person that you have been to me this whole race. If you're ready to throw in the towel, that's fine with me. But it's better that I tell you now than never."

"...Let's just keep going, like you said. I don't know if I want to think about all of this right now." Aisling murmured and kept going on ahead, with Arnold returning to trailing behind her like before.

Confessional

"Well…maybe that's it for our run. I'm not too sure. It does feel better to have been given the chance to say that, though. So…I suppose, it isn't a total loss." Arnold didn't quite smile, but he wasn't quite frowning, either. He had an incredibly neutral expression on his face. "...I think I'd be quite upset if I wasn't able to continue this race with her."

Confessional End

"With more and more teams finally busting themselves out of prison," Duke narrated as several different camera views were shown.. One showed Phoebe finding a huge file mixed in with the bedding that she had been cowering in, which Jamie Lynn was using to start chiseling a way out through the window. Another had Zeke and Lyle whistling a tune, which convinced a bear from outside to smash through not only their wall, but the wall of Flora and Helena, setting both teams free. The final three views showed Katie discovering a trapdoor in the floor of her cell, Xavier finding out that the bars in his cell's window were loose, and Michael finding a tunnel underneath the bunk bed in his own. "Only one team remains in their cell, the stubborn Logan and the snarky Evan! Meanwhile, more teams are starting to build their rafts…and some teams have already built their rafts!"

"Come on, paddle faster than that! It's like I'm doin' all the work here!" Lady Belle glared at Ursula while she was flailing her own paddle for the raft like a madwoman. The difference in how the two were paddling really made it difficult for them to get anywhere in the river, and they ended up just spinning around and around in circles. "Dangnabbit, can't you see that you ain't doin' it right?"

"Have you thought for a moment that you might be the one that isn't doing it right? You have to finesse the paddle, not just flail it around like some sort of cavewoman!" The two continued to bicker between each other while they were slowly passed by Becky and Olive. Becky was just sitting near the back of the raft, using her feet to kick the water enough to propel them forward, while Olive stood at the helm with a captain's hat on.

"Onward, ye scurvy dogs! Heehee! I've always wanted to say somethin' like that!" Becky rolled her eyes at her older sister, but they kept going strong through the river. Meanwhile, back at the dukebox just near the pile of scrap wood, Mika and Conroy were finally arriving.

"Well, that didn't take as long as expected…oh, look, the brothers are coming this way! It's the perfect time to-" Conroy reached to grab the tip from his pocket, only to find that it wasn't there anymore. When he looked behind him, he saw Mika holding it in her hand, frowning at him. "Mika? We have to use that now or it'll be no good."

"And? I don't want to use it on the brothers, I don't care if it's going to be best for us or whatever. I'd rather use it on somebody who deserves it." Mika waved the tip around in her hand while Conroy just stared at her. "And you said that the Bachelorettes wouldn't be a threat when we talked about it in the cab, but they're way ahead of us."

"Well, I-"

"And who's not ahead of us right now?" Mika raised an eyebrow at Conroy, who shrunk a little where he was standing.

"The…brothers," he sheepishly admitted, absolutely hating the look that he was getting from his partner.

"And if we wait around for one of the other teams to come, that's just going to waste more time for us. So…" Mika ripped the tip in half, dropping the pieces on the ground while Conroy just watched in silence. "We aren't going to use it at all, then. I don't wanna do something that's gonna help us if it's only gonna negatively impact another team that's really nice."

"But I-" Mika just held her hand up, stopping Conroy in his tracks. At this point, plenty of the other teams were already passing them by and leaving them in their dust. The only team that still hadn't reached that dukebox, outside of the pop stars, who were still locked up, were the neighbors.

"Ugh…Evan still hasn't busted out of his cell yet? Are you kidding me right now?" Jamie Lynn grumbled to herself, staring back at the prison before looking on ahead to see Mika and Conroy standing around and talking to each other still. A smirk popped onto her face as she reached into her pocket, pulling out a travel tip with a boomerang stuck to it. "Well, I guess I at least can do something to buy him some more time!"

"Y-y-you had a boomerang this whole time? You didn't tell me about that…" Jamie Lynn just deadpanned, which annoyed Phoebe, who looked away from her. "R-right, you never tell me anything, why would I expect anything else?"

"Good on you for actually realizing that!" The two finally came up on the dukebox, with Jamie Lynn aiming her travel tip at Conroy and Mika, though only Mika was able to see them from where they were standing. "Boomerang!" The b-ball players felt their hearts sink into their stomachs as two prison guards suddenly cuffed their wrists once again. They were dragged all the way back to the prison, only this time, they were tossed into a cell that looked a lot sturdier…and had a lot less in it.

"Mika and Conroy have to go back to the prison, which means they won't be getting a standard cell, like before, but they'll be in the absolute top security cell that there is!" The door was slammed shut after Duke's little blurt, and Conroy blankly stared at Mika, who just looked embarrassed for having ripped up their own boomerang. "And as far as things go for Logan and Evan…well…let's just say things haven't really changed." The camera swapped views to show Evan sitting and whistling while Logan was still stomping all over the room and looking for a way out. Back in the river, however, Becky and Olive were coming pretty close to land again.

"Land ho, I repeat, land ho!" Olive cheered loudly as her and Becky finally docked their raft, both of them hopping right off of it and rushing as fast as they could to the chill zone, where Duke was waiting for them.

"Prom Babies, you guys have pulled yourselves back into first place! Been a good while since you guys have had this, eh? This means that you win the phone call home! Also, remind me to make sure Arnold doesn't have an international plan, later! No telling what that kid's got…" Duke grumbled to himself before chucking the phone over to Becky and Olive, the former catching it in one hand. "So, who you gonna call?"

"Ghostbus-"

"I know who we're going to call," Becky started typing a number into the phone and pressed the call button without a second thought. It started ringing and she put it on speaker, holding it up so both her and Olive could hear it. It finally went through, and they heard some shuffling on the other end.

"Hello?" The voice sounded pretty young, but definitely a little bit older than the two of them. Just hearing it come through brought smiles to both of their faces.

"IVY!" Olive shouted loudly into the phone, getting a squeak back from the other end. "Oh man, oh man! Have you been watching? Tell me you've been watching! Did you see that me and Becks got to play in a festival in front of a bajillion people? No, two bajillion people! No wait, three! There was a whole bunch of 'em! Yup!"

"...She's still pretty excited about that whole thing, even when I sort of screwed up the first half of it for us. That's beside the point…how are you doing back home without us? None of those weakbloods are giving you any trouble, are they?" Becky and Olive started to walk off with Duke's phone, not caring that it wasn't theirs or anything.

Confessional

"We've talked about her before, but Ivy's our screamer…you know, kinda the most important part of a screamo band. She's really good at it, too. No way any weakblood out there would ever have a chance to outscream her." Becky smirked to herself while Olive held up a picture that she drew, which had herself, Becky, and Ivy in it. The third girl had purple, fluffy hair that had one side shaved entirely.

"I drew this picture of the three of us! Sometimes I forget what people look like, but I'd never forget her face! Oh! We should really introduce her to Mitsuki and Honey the second that the race is over!" Olive bounced excitedly while Becky slowly nodded at her.

Confessional End

"I…hate…this…challenge. Oh…and I also hate you." Ursula was panting as her and Lady Belle were finally starting to get closer and closer to docking their raft, which looked like it had been through the ringer at this point. There were dents in the wood, cracks, the whole thing just seemed about ready to capsize…which it did the second that they docked. Their raft went under with the two of them on it. Bubbles started rising up to the surface of the water before they finally came back up, soaked and gasping for air.

"D-dangnabbit, this is what happens when some no-good city girl like you tried to put in some handiwork! Next time, just leave it to me!" Lady Belle hissed at Ursula, who just glared as they started to climb onto the grass. They spat up a bit of water before finally running over to the chill zone, only to meet Duke, who was shocked to see how horribly damp they were from their little swim.

"Bachelorettes! You…guys are second…also looks like your raft didn't really survive the river, huh? Well, you can towel yourselves off in your hotel room…or not if you don't want to. Hard to tell what you temptresses are trying to do with your antics." Duke smirked as the two older women grumbled and started walking past him. Meanwhile, back in the top security cell that Mika and Conroy had been dumped into, the two were looking for a way out, each of them seeming to be pretty upset about what had just happened.

"I messed up big time…we could have at least brought the neighbors back here with us if it wasn't for me and my sporadic decision making." Mika whimpered while she ran her hands along the wall of the cell, trying to see if any of the bricks were loose. Unlike the smaller stairs on the upper levels, this one didn't have a bed in it, nor a toilet or sink. It was essentially bare, not leaving much to the imagination. "I'm sorry, senior…I got way too heated up about your plan that I might've just cost us the game."

"...No no, it's fine. I like to think that each of us has certain downsides in areas that the others excel," Conroy admitted sheepishly, trying to hide the fact that he was blushing out of embarrassment. "For example, my analytical approach to things sometimes ignores how decisions will impact other people than myself. And when it comes to things that are on the spot, I just take way too much time to come up with a plan. You're a lot quicker-witted than myself, but sometimes those decisions end up leaving out how the long-term will be affected. We're…a good balance to each other."

"But I ripped up our boomerang! There was no way that any of that was your fault, I just got way too in my own head about it. I should've just listened to your plan at the start, it would've gave us at least a handicap with the other team here with us." Mika sighed, glancing back at Conroy to see that he was just smiling at her.

"Mika, if there is anybody at fault for this whole situation, it's no one other than myself. I know the kind of person you are well enough to know this is how you would react to me making such a harsh decision. I should've been more open to collaborating with you about who to boomerang. You were right in the end, after all…about the Bachelorettes being somewhat of a threat. There's no doubt that they've already finished the leg at this point. So, in short, I'm sorry." The teammates smiled at each other briefly before looking around the open cell, hoping to find some sort of hint as to what might've been the way out. "So…what do you make of this box we're kept in? Not much to really look at…"

"No, there isn't…it's just an open room with a door, a floor, four walls, and a…a…ceiling…" The two paused for a moment before glancing up to see a hole in the ceiling above them, though it was a solid ten feet up from the ground. "Well, whaddya know? The ceiling's actually the answer for this one. The only thing is…how are we gonna get up there?"

"Oh, I think we can handle that. I mean, standing on my shoulders would probably make you just about ten feet talal or so, no?" Mika's eyes lit up as she heard Conroy's suggestion.

"S-senior! That's so unlike you to think of something like that…it's…it's…"

"Sporadic? I'm not the only one doing the teaching in our relationship, Mika. I could stand to learn a lot from you." Mika happily skipped over to her senior to stare up at him with her sparkly eyes.

"Weeeeeeelll, I guess that's a good start, but you'll definitely have to keep up the good work if you're ever gonna be as sporadic as m-" Mika was confidently blabbering about herself until Conroy suddenly leaned down towards her and gave her a quick peck on the forehead with his lips. Her face lit up hilariously red as he stood back up, his face a reddish hue of its own.

"H-how was that for sporadic?" Mika was entirely silent as she stood their, blushing to herself. "Oh no…should I have not done that?" As Conroy started doubting himself, Mika jumped up from the ground, wrapping around him like a sloth hugging a tree and kissing him right on the lips in return. The two just stood there in their romantic moment for seconds that seemed like hours before finally pulling back from each other.

"T-that would have been a bit more crazy coming from you, b-but I don't think I'm opposed to your methods." Mika and Conroy kept smiling at each other like idiots, hardly being able to hold back the redness. "Now…let's get ourselves out of this cell, yeah?"

Confessional

"This whole time, I thought I just had a unguided crush on Conroy! W-which did sort of start after he started coaching me on how to play…I mean…he's so cute!" Mika gushed while Conroy tried to hide how flustered he was. "Never in a million years would I have been able to guess that he'd actually have a thing for me, too!"

"Y-you're legitimately the most fun person to spend time with. And I learn a whole lot from you, so…I'm glad to have the oppurtunity to continue learning more with you by my side." The two of them just looked like blushing messes together every single time they complimented each other. They shared one more quick kiss before the confessional cut out.

Confessional End

"This is just ludicrous, you ogre! Stop lazing about already and help me find a way out before we lose the leg! You know I'll be doing terrible things to you if we lose here because of you!" Logan rushed over to where Evan was sitting, grabbing him by his vest and shaking him a bit while he just continued to smile at her, seemingly unbothered by her aggressive behavior. "You know the stakes are high, I don't understand why you're not cowering in fear. That's what you're supposed to do when I'm ordering you to do something!"

"Eh, maybe back when I was drinking every day and night, but since I've been sober for a little bit now, I don't I've got the need to fear you. I mean, come on, what can you do to me that I can't do to you? You're small, insignificant, and quite frankly, nobody likes you. I'm sure that I could do my own solo act at this point." Evan smirked, while Logan just huffed and crossed her arms, all red in the face. "Maybe if you're polite to me, I'll help you this one time, eh?"

"P-polite!? To you!? You just called me my least favorite thing and you expect me to be curteous to you? Don't even joke like that, that's not even funny!" Logan started to laugh loudly, but when she noticed that the smirk on Evan's face wasn't going anywhere, her laugh came to a halt. She stomped around a little bit, her arms still crossed as she thought to herself before finally coming full circle and standing right in front of him again. "F-fine! Evan…would you…p…pleeeeeee…pleeeeeeeeeeee…agh! Would you please help me find a way out of this cell?"

"Oh, I thought that you'd never ask!" Evan smirked even wider as he suddenly shifted his body slightly to the side, revealing that there was a tunnel in the wall right where he was. Logan's jaw dropped at the sight of the escape route, and the bulkier pop star got up from the ground and stretched out his back and shoulders. He gave her a little pat on the back, "Welp, guess we'd better high tail it out of here if we don't wanna lose, eh?" He snickered before hurrying into the tunnel, with Logan still having her jaw dropped while she followed after him.

Confessional

"Meh, maybe we'll lose here, but just hearing Logan practically begging me to help her…ahhhh…that truly makes it all worth it for me. On technicality, I don't really need the money or anything. I mean, both of us make plenty of cash with our shows and merch sales and all." Evan smirked and glanced over to Logan, who still had her jaw hanging from her face. She really wasn't sure to say and he just burst out into laughter. "I really hope that your face freezes like that, it really is too good!"

Confessional End

"With Evan and Logan finally escaping their cell and Mika and Conroy making up before getting out of their second cell," Duke's voice boomed over a side-by-side view, the left side showing Logan and Evan crawling out of the tunnel and out into the open while Mika and Conroy popped out of sewer grate on the right side view. "Most of the other teams are finally finishing up their leg and reaching the chill zone! It'll be an intense bout to see who ends up in last, but as for who is just fine and safe…" The camera changed views to show Duke standing on the chill zone, watching as the other nine teams barrelled towards the chill zone, almost in one full unit.

"Looks like we've got…Psychic and Skeptic in third! Race Moms in fourth! Glow-Up Gals are fifth! YouTuber and Editor, securing sixth place, nice bruise, Virgil!" Duke luaghed as Virgil glared past him, covering up the bruise on his jaw with his hand while he and Michael started walking off past the chill zone. At the same time, the Vicious Pop Stars and the Basketball Team reached the scrap pile of wood at the start of the all-in.

"Alrigth, since I already solved one problem of ours with escaping the cell, I might as well just take care of building this raft, too! Not like you'll be of much help at all, Logan!" Evan taunted Logan and got fast at work putting together the raft, though she shook her head, grumbled something below her breath, and gathered herself together to help him out.

"Sen-...Conroy! Let's work together for this! I'm confident that any raft we build together will never sink!" Mika nodded proudly and started grabbing pieces of wood, with Conroy nodding back to her and drawing up a quick blueprint for the two of them to follow for their build.

"Long Lost Brothers, you fellas got yourselves seventh place! Mystical Witches, not bad, eighth place!" Duke held up a thumbs up to the two teams, each member hugging their respective teammate and jumping up and down before being knocked out of the chill zone by the next two teams to arrive. "Oh! Ninth place goes to the BFFFLs, tenth place is for the Friendly Duo!" Sadie and Marty sighed in relief before kissing each other while Katie and Xavier weakly smiled at them. But, of course, the moment was cut short by the same fate that they had bestowed upon the brothers and the witches, with them being knocked right out of the chill zone. "And finally, our eleventh place spot goes to…the Awkward Neighbors! Do better next time, yeah?"

"Oh, shove it, you two-bit wrestler!" Jamie Lynn growled, threatening Duke with her fist and even getting him to quiver where he stood. "Ugh, I'm not wasting the energy beating the snot out of you, just take this as a warning!" The girl glared at the host as she walked away, with Phoebe shakily waving at him and mouthing the words "I'm sorry" before following her teammate.

"Y-yeesh! Talk about anger issues, yeah? Anyways…we've still got two teams stuck in the bottom place at the moment, which one is gonna be able to make it to the end first?" Duke looked out towards the river, where he saw Mika and Conroy paddling neck and neck with Logan and Evan, though Logan looked about ready to pass out. Meanwhile, the basketball players were working in tandem.

"We got this, Mika! Just keep paddling!" Conroy cheered on his newly declared girlfriend, and this cheering seemed to be what she needed to start paddling even fast, getting the two in front of the other team, much to Evan's astonishment.

"Ah! Dammit Logan, just give the other paddle to me if you aren't going to try!" Evan grabbed the paddle from Logan, who almost instantly collapsed on the raft. "Try this on for size, basketball dorks!" Evan grunted and started windmilling with both of his arms, spinning so fast that water was being splashed back from each of his paddles. Mika and Conroy hardly noticed until he suddenly passed them and they were both soaked from head to toe with river water. Evan made it to the docking point fairly quickly, grabbing Logan from the raft and booking it to the chill zone with her slung over his shoulder.

"Vicious Pop Stars, you guys have made it to the end in twelfth place! Not a glorious finish, but still, better than last, I'd say!" Duke beamed while Evan just exhaled annoyedly and moved past him, allowing Mika and Conroy to slowly, and shamefully, take their place on the chill zone. "Mika…Conroy…you two really had an emotional roller coaster in this challnge. It started with disagreements, which led to punishment, but also ended in romance. You really had a good run…" The basketball players sunk their heads in shame while holding each others hands. "...And I hope that it stays that way, because nobody's going home tonight!"

"W-what? We actually get to stay!? Oh, Conroy, this is awesome!" Mika jumped up and down excitedly before hugging Conroy as tightly as she could.

"I agree…it really is awesome. We'll definitely make sure we don't get last during the next challenge, of course." Conroy hugged Mika back, and the two held each other on the chill zone while Duke rolled his eyes at them.

"Well, I guess they're technically not the worst duo when it comes to PDA, so I'll let this one slide." Duke shook his head and started walking away from the chill zone, with the camera trailing after him. "Thirteen teams will still go ahead into the next leg, but these non-eliminations are few and far between! It may have been a breath of relief this time, but only time will tell what happens next on…THE RIDUKEULOUS RACE!"

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22nd: The Rivalry Twins - Maya and Jeremy

21st: The Idol Queen In-Waiting - Sua

20th: The Cool Guys - Evander and Kurt

N/A: The Mouse - Cheese

19th: The Dynamic Gamers - Colin and Freddy

18th: The Sailor America Fans: Lukas and Sunny

17th: The Reality Show Rivals: Jacque and Angel

16th: The Wilderness Girls: Sophie and Bea

15th: The Dweebs: Andrew and Richard

14th: The "Father and Son?": James and Eliott