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?

4. Mediterranean Homesick Blues

"Last time, on the Ridukeulous Race," Duke's voice sounded off like a coyote's howl, with some clips from the last episode showing on the screen. The first was of the flights arriving to Paris after leaving Morocco, "Our remaining teams took a trip to Paris for the second leg of the race, a leg that had them booking it right to the Eiffel Tower off the get go!" Some of the teams were then seen working on their drawings with the artist watching them. "We had them take a chance to show off their artistic skills, or lack of skills in Sua's case, but nonetheless, they all moved on to the Catacombs, where they were forced to navigate to find ginormous wheels of cheese, more than even I could stomach!" The next clips showed teams sailing through the river on their cheese wheels, with James and Elliott realizing they had forgotten their oars after already having been stuck in last place. It also showed Sua paddling with the practically lifeless body of Zerine on her own cheese wheel.

"Defying all odds and disagreements, Virgil and Michael managed to grab the first place spot for the leg of the race!" Michael and Virgil were shown in the chill zone, the former looking incredibly excited while the latter just looked annoyed. "And while James and Elliott fell to the dreadful last place arrival in the race, it was Sua who ended up biting the dust in this leg. Guess you can't really go on without a partner that can compete!" Sua was shown in complete disbelief at her loss in the race, with her charging at Duke and inevitably leaping into the waters below. "Girl might make for a good wrestler, though. That chokeslam of hers is no joke! But onto business as usual, we're about to have another team lose out on a big cash prize! Find out who on this showdown of a lifetime…THE RIDUKEULOUS RACE!"

Cue Intro

"You all know how this rumble goes by now, right? We finished off the last leg at the Louvre, which means that the chill zone there is gonna be our starting point for leg number three!" Duke stood outside the Louvre as he spoke the name of the game. Unlike the previous episode, where it was incredibly dark and late at night, he was in broad daylight. "Much like last time, the team that gets to start things off will be the team that scored first place last time around: the YouTuber and Editor!"

"Aye, isn't this so wonderful, Virgilio? We may be able to pull another first place with us starting ahead of everyone!" Michael and Virgil approached the chill zone together, Michael being his usual cheery self while his partner had his own personal rain cloud following him around.

"Right, it's wonderful that I am forced to spend even more time with you than I usually have to. I'm just surprised that your germs haven't infected me yet…at least I don't think I've gotten the urge to kiss another man yet." Virgil looked around in a skeptical manner for a moment before sighing in relief, "Nope, still don't wanna tongue tango with any dudes."

Confessional

"I've done plenty of fun games like this on my channel before, having people compete for big cash prizes and all, but I've never actually had the chance to compete in one myself before now!" Michael raised his fists up a bit and cheered while waggling them, "It's honestly a lot of fun, I can see why everyone was so quick to sign up for mine!"

"Right, they're definitely competing for fun and not just because they're all a bunch of greedy fucks that want more money than they know what to do with." Virgil rolled his eyes and slouched against a wall, suddenly being pulled in for a big hug by his partner. "What in the everloving fuck do you think you're doing, queermo?"

"I'm sorry, Virgilio, I'm just so excited to be competing in this with you! We make such an excellent team, both here and on my channel!" Michael squeezed Virgil tighter, getting a severly annoyed sigh out of him.

Confessional End

Michael and Virgil made for the first dukebox of the leg, the latter slapping the big red button to snatch up the tip and read it.

"It says to take the train to Calanque de Maubois on the Mediterranean coast and search the station for the next tip." Virgil sighed and tossed the tip aside while both he and Michael started running away from the chill zone. "I swear, we had better get out of France soon…I can almost feel the need to hit on underage girls growing in my brain."

"Ah! Virgilio, bad bad bad bad bad! You can not say such things!" Michael lightly slapped Virgil on the wrist while they ran, picking up his pace to run a bit faster than him.

"Hey, I said I'm trying to avoid doing that, how is that bad? Ugh, whatever," Virgil picked up his pace to match Michael's, and the two were soon well on their way to hitch a ride on the train.

---

"Oh yeah, baby! We've got our teams taking a train down to Calanque de Maubois, a name that I am ninety-nine percent sure I just butchered!" Duke popped up in front of a map of France, showing the path from Paris to Calanque de Maubois, "This place is just on the edge of the Mediterranean Sea, a place with beaches that would be great to host a summer smackdown on, but I keep getting told I'm too obnoxious for the locals to handle!" The clip cut away to show Duke standing atop a tall cliff that overlooked the sea, soon jumping off of it. "I almost forgot to mention the Red Cliffs, aka the ultimate turnbuckle! I feel sorry for the poor sap that's about to face the power of my people's elbow!"

---

With the YouTuber and Editor already off in hot pursuit of that train, more teams started to get a move on, with Friendly Duo and the Wilderness Girls being the next to fly from the chill zone. The BFFFLs grabbed their tip from the dukebox, reading it over before starting to run, but for some reason, they kept their pace a bit slow so that the Sailor America Fans had time to catch up with them.

"Like, oh my gosh, I didn't know that you guys were in the spot right behind us, that's like, totally a really cool coincidence!" Sadie ran with Katie on her left side and Lukas on her right, leaving Sunny all the way on Lukas' right side, but close enough so that she could hear her talking. "B-by the way, I like, really appreciated you saving me from landing in that mucky yuck back in the catacombs!"

"Like, totally! That was just so sweet of you!" Katie butted into the conversation, though this hardly seemed to bother Sadie or Lukas. "Most people would bump into us on purpose or drive their car through a big puddle while we were walking on the side of the road. Sadie, do you think people didn't like us that much? Oh my gosh…maybe they thought we were annoying?"

"Like, no way, Katie! They definitely just thought that our style was gonna shake the world, and they were jealous that they didn't do what we did first!" Sadie and Katie squealed between each other, with Lukas smiling at them. "We're totally a fashion designer duo, it's a lot of fun! What do you do, Lukas?"

"He can't answer that question! He can't answer any of your questions! He can't talk, and personally, I think it's really rude they you keep talking to him so much, since you're both just reminding him that he can't talk at all, so maybe you two should just buzz off and go drone on to someone else's man!" Sunny stuck her tongue out at Sadie and Katie, both of them being taken aback by her sudden snapping at them. Lukas looked down at Sunny with a frown, shaking his head at her and completely breaking her heart. "Gack…"

Confessional

"I can't believe what just happened…those two annoying girls turned my Lukas against me! Did you see the way he was looking at me back there!?" Sunny looked utterly defeated as she sat alone on the side of the road. "That's it…no matter what it takes, I'm gonna make sure that they don't get in between me and Lukas anymore! He's my sexy, European boyfriend…well, I've got him claimed for when I turn eighteen, but he's still mine, nonetheless! Sadie, Katie…this is war!"

Confessional End

"Oh, Virgilio! We should definitely take the subway, it'll get us to the train station a lot faster than anything else will!" Michael started running towards the stairs to the subway, Virgil trailing just behind him with a miserable look on his face.

"Right, of course you would wanna ride in something that has 'sub' in the name. Bottom bitch," the intolerant editor and his partner headed down the stairs as quick as they could, with the Wilderness Girls not too far behind them.

"Troop master, this was such a great idea! There's no way a taxi would've gotten us to the train station on time in the height of rush traffic!" Sophie used her nimble youth to burst down the stairs, passing right by Michael and Virgil, though Bea's age still dragged her behind a bit. "Hurry up, we might be able to get back in first place, like last time!"

"I'm hurrying, I'm hurrying!" Bea was practically panting as she started to pick up her pace, just barely managing to pass by the YouTuber and Editor duo.

Confessional

"I truly feel sorry for anyone that wanted to go and grab a taxi right now…I certainly hope nobody had that not-so bright idea." Bea looked down to Sophie, who was beaming with confidence. "My little troop knows a whole lot about all sorts of busy schedules, even for places we don't live near. Helps us figure out which ways would be the best to take and when."

"Oh, don't go lying for my sake, troop master! You're the one that's traveled far and wide, studying every locale to get all the information we could possibly need!" The duo held proud smiles up to the cameras, their teeth glistening brightly.

Confessional End

"Uh…t-taxi?" Xavier weakly held up his hand to call a cab, but several of them just drove right by him. The wind that came with the cars zooming by was enough to knock him onto his behind, leaving him startled. "W-wow! I almost got hit by a taxi in France! Guess I can cross that off of my bucket list!"

"Your bucket list has almost getting hit by a taxi in France on it?" Marty cocked an eyebrow at his partner as he helped him off of the ground.

"Sure does! That, and plenty of other things in relation to France! It's practically home to the best bakers in the world, so I just have to see what's what! Isn't that right, Cheese?" Xavier looked down to his jacket pocket, seeing Cheese poking his head out and squeaking in delight.

Confessional

"There are a whole heap of France related goals on my bucket list, but I managed to cross a good bunch of them off last night!" Xavier lifted his hand and pointed to his eyes, showing the bags that hung below them. He looked more tired than even Phoebe, who had eternal dark bags under her own eyes. "So what if I missed out on some sleep? Shuteye doesn't compare to getting to complete some of your life goals!"

"...You know, if you fall asleep in the middle of the road, I might not be so eager to scoop you up." Xavier gasped while Marty deadpanned at him, though the deadpan did shift to show a slight smirk. "I'm just messing with you, man. But you really need to start taking this race a bit more seriously. If you skip out on sleep the one night, you might knock out the next day."

"Oh, no need to worry about that! I got some of my life bread with me! It's a French bread that they say is able to rejuvenate and energize anybody that has the blessing of consuming it!" Xavier dug around in his pockets a bit before pulling out a golden loaf of bread. It truly did look immaculate, so immaculate that it almost made him feel bad when he ripped a small bit of it off. He tossed the piece into his mouth, chomping down on it with a smile. Sure enough, the bags under his eyes disappeared, and his skin even seemed to have that same golden glow that the bread had. "See? All better!"

"I don't…I don't even know how that's scientifically possible," Marty could only star in utter disbelief. He reached out to take a piece of the bread, but Xavier suddenly pulled it away.

"N-no! We have to ration it properly!"

Confessional End

While Xavier and Marty continued to wave and wait for an oncoming taxi to stop, another one of the teams joined them. The Vicious Pop Stars had their own plan for how to handle such an issue…at least Logan had her own plan.

"Evan! Jump in front of that taxi and roadblock it!" Evan looked a bit nervous as he heard the orders that Logan barked at him. She noticed that he was taking longer than a few seconds to respond to her instructions, and her attitude worsened. "I'm sorry, do you have your ear plugs in or something? I told you to jump into traffic, right now!"

"Y-you got it, Logan!" Evan gulped down that ball of nervousness in his throat, soon jumping into the street and standing right before the path of one of the taxis. The driver pressed his foot down on the gas, but not quite quickly enough to avoid colliding with the pop star. Evan, though, was unscathed by the crash, as being built like a complete brick house had him in a state of safety. The car, however, seemed to be no longer of any use to anyone with how badly smashed up it was. "Eesh…I don't think that went so well, Logan."

"It went just swimmingly, actually! Take a look at that!" Logan ran up to Evan, ushering him to look at all the taxis that had stopped moving due to the traffic jam he caused. "With them all stopped, we're free to hop in whatever cab we want!"

"Wow, you really are so much smarter than me…maybe someday I'll have a brain as big as yours!" Evan smiled, but Logan rolled her eyes at him and rushed into the nearest cab that hadn't been destroyed from the crash. He followed after her, and the two were soon en route to the train station.

"Xavier, this is our chance! All the cabs are still stopped, we've gotta get in one of 'em!" Marty booked it to another one of the cabs, jumping into it as quickly as he could. As he sat in the back, he realized that Xavier was taking his sweet time getting there, and poked his head out the window to see what he was doing. "What's the hold up, man?"

"I just gotta bring all this bread with me, it's kinda clunky!" Xavier's hands were indeed full with loaves upon loaves of freshly baked bread that one could only assume he had literally just gotten from one of the nearby bakeries.

"Man, that seems like it's really worth the hold up on our time," Marty deadpanned at the camera, his sarcasm beaming. Eventually, Xavier managed to get into the cab, thrusting every single loaf into Marty's hands so that he and Cheese had more room to sit and relax.

"Alright, Mr. Cabby! Can you take us to the train station?" Upon Xavier's request, the driver began heading to the train station. "Ah…back on track at last!" The baker noticed the glare that was being shot his way from his partner and found himself a bit lost. "Somebody seems a bit cranky! Didn't get enough sleep last night, I bet!"

"Oh, you bet, do you?" Marty's glare deepened and, with his elbow, he pressed down on the button to roll the window down. Each of the loaves of bread began flying out of the window, all crushed by other oncoming cars while Xavier was forced to watch in horror. "Whoops…guess I'm just way too tired and cranky!" Meanwhile, much closer to the train station, Logan was filing her nails in the back of her cab while Evan stared blankly out the window.

"What's gotten into you, you big oaf? How come you're just staring at the people on the sidewalks?" Logan didn't even glance over at her cousin as she snarkily spoke to him, much more focused on her nails. She lifted one of her hands close to her face to take a good look at the work she had done, but was clearly disappointed with it. "Not pointy enough! This kitty is supposed to have claws, not nubs!"

"Ah…you know, it's just been a while since I've had a good drink. I'm starting to get really sad again," Evan slumped against the side of the taxi, his face squished against the window's glass. He let out a drawn out sigh, with his breath fogging up the window in an instant.

"Oh right, the woes and issues of a middle-aged alcoholic. Do yourself a favor: drop the sauce and focus more on your beauty routine and people may actually start respecting you, mmkay?" Logan playfully giggled, although still not looking up from her nails. The cab then came to a sudden stop, causing her to file down just a bit too fast and messing up one of her nails. She stared at it in disbelief for a second before hissing like a feral cat. "You! You fiend! Do you have any idea what you've done!?"

"Dahhhhh…I took you to the train station?" The cabby looked tense as he saw how furious she looked, but somehow, she managed to calm down.

"You're lucky I have a race to get back to, swine! If it weren't for that, it would be off with your head!" With those words, and a great amount of spit flying from her mouth, Logan left the cab, Evan following after her without a peep.

Confessional

"I take pride in my beauty routines. I mean, no one can just wake up this gorgeous; they need to work hard to attain this! That's why Evan looks so much like a schlum while I'm out here, queening it up!" Logan stood on top of a bench and did a little dance with her hips while Evan frowned at her. "Oh, what now? You're upset because I called you a schlum?"

"I was actually just concerned that you forgot to put on underwear, but I guess it's not my business who you show your hooha to." Logan's eyes went wide as she saw a crowd of people around her, all with grins on their faces as she was standing so tall on that bench. She quickly sat back down and crossed her legs, her face red as a beet.

"I don't know how, but this is somehow your fault and I hate you for it!" Evan sighed while Logan turned away from him.

Confessional End

"While we got last night's chumps, James and Elliott, just now leaving the Louvre to get a start on the race," Duke spoke over the video feed of James and Elliott running off of the chill zone by the Louvre, which soon transitioned to show several teams at the train station, those being the Wilderness Girls, the YouTuber and Editor, the Vicious Pop Stars, the Friendly Duo, the Sailor America Fans, and the BFFFLs. "We've got six teams already leaving the train station to head on down to Calanque de Maubois! As for everyone else, they're all still en route to reach the station and hopefully catch train number two!"

"Oho, Mitsuki-Chan…we're in the back of a smelly cab. You know what couples do in the back of cabs right? Where they tip the driver a little extra so they can…guhohohohoho, I'm getting sticky just thinking about it. The sweat in my neckbeard is forming its own glue, practically!" Andrew licked his lips like a hungry dog while stroking his phone screen, his two dimensional waifu blushing back at him.

"Dude, if you start having sex with your phone while I'm back here, I swear…" Richard narrowed his eyes at Andrew for a brief moment, "I mean, maybe if it was a real girl, I'd ask if you guys were down for a little ménage à trois. You know, in the French spirit."

"Mitsuki-Chan is a real girl, ackshully. You're only saying such hurtful words because you're a shrimpy little normie that doesn't get any girls." Andrew wiped a large glob of sweat glue from his beard, flicking it out the window before reaching down to his side and pulling up his katana, which he pointed at Richard's nose. "And don't ever think about saying that she's not real ever again. Nothing personal, kid, but that just might spell the end for you."

"...Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight," Richard raised his finger and lightly poked the katana out of his face, sighing after and glancing out the window. As he did so, he saw that their cab was right next to the cab of the Awkward Neighbors, and a smile cracked on his face. Through the window, he could see that Jamie Lynn had headphones on and was jamming out to music while Phoebe was burying her face in her knees, huddled up like a ball. He rolled his window down to shout out to her, "Hey! Sonic the Babehog!" No response came from Phoebe, who couldn't hear him through her closed window. He frowned, but reached down and grabbed a pen that he found laying on the floor of the cab. He chucked it at her window, hoping to get her attention with the sound, but it surprisingly shattered the glass whole, scaring the life out of her.

"Gah! That's it, it's over for me, here and now! Caught in the crossfire of a French gang shooting! Tell my family I love them and I'm sorry they were forced to deal with a bitch like me!" After a brief bout of cowering in fear, Phoebe didn't hear anymore "gunshots," and she peered out through the now open window to see Richard staring at her with a big, doofy smile. "O-oh! Richard…hi…wait a minute…WERE YOU SHOOTING AT ME!?"

"Eh? Shooting at…no, I threw a pencil at your window. Or maybe it was a marker? I dunno, who cares about that. Whatcha doin' in there, hiding that pretty face of yours in those even prettier thighs?" Richard's smile paired with his compliments got Phoebe to turn bright red in a matter of seconds.

"U-u-um…well, I was just chillin'...you know, cool girl stuff, cause I'm totally cool and I do cool things and stuff and…yeah." Phoebe tried to put on a cool smirk, but she ended up looking like a nerd that was trying to impress somebody. Richard snickered slightly, and her blushing got worse than before.

"I mean, I feel like you should be chilling over here with us instead, you know? Plus, if you still wanted a head between your thighs I would be happy to oblige." Richard winked at the nervous wreck, who opened her mouth to speak, but was suddenly interrupted by Jamie Lynn pulling her away.

"Excuse you, Pervy Pete, but the only person that's allowed to leer at my teammate is me! And not in a pervy way, in a 'you're a stupid piece of garbage' way!" Jamie Lynn pressed down on the window button to try and roll it up, but she then realized it was broken. "Hm…whatever! Consider this window rolled up! Which means we can't hear you!"

"Oh, alright." Richard shrugged and turned to look at Andrew, who suddenly had his hoodie off and was terribly sweaty while he rubbed his cheek against his phone screen. "DUDE, REALLY!?"

Confessional

"And I thought that I was the disgusting one!" Richard stood about ten feet away from Andrew, who was still a sweaty mess. "Yeesh…in any case, I never thought I would actually dislike a total babe, but Jamie Lynn has proved me wrong! Seriously, getting in the way of me and that Blue-Haired Beauty…that's gotta be a felony in one of these countries, right?"

"Psh, I'm telling you that you need to settle for a two-d queen instead, fool! She will give you everything you need, and if the three-d females are jealous, they can't do anything about her!" Andrew shouted out to his teammate, but Richard elected to ignore him.

"Whatever…Jamie Lynn can be stubborn if she wants, but that isn't gonna stop me! You hear me, you punk wannabe?" Richard pointed towards the camera, trying to look threatening, but he still just looked kinda creepy, per usual.

Confessional End

"Ah, the subway…it sure does bring back some good memories of home," Kurt took in a big whiff of the putrid subway air, a smitten look on his face all the while. Evander sat next to him with a clothespin pinching his nose shut, looking skeptical of his partner as always. "Oh, come on Emmett! You're a true Italian American, you gotta have a love for the subway! It's the spirit animal of New York!"

"No thanks, Kurty K. If there's a vehicle that I'm all about, it's those hotrods that you see us greaser types always working on in a garage but never driving." Evander dug into his pocket, pulling out a picture of him standing next to a hot rod just like what he had just mentioned. The hood was popped open, and it was quite visible that the engine had some serious damage done to it. "This is my baby back home! Plannin' on tossin' some flame patterns on the side and lightin' 'er up for a spin when we're done here!"

"Ayyy…what'd you do to that engine there, Big E?" Kurt took the picture from his partner, flipping it over and pointing at the engine's damage. "Looks like you were using your monkey wrench a bit too aggressively…that, and you spilled pasta sauce all over the cap to where you fill your oil. Betcha haven't been able to pop that thing open since then. I reckon she needs a good cleaning and some light touch ups before she'll be in driving shape again."

"Eh? Kurty K, no offense, but ain't no way you know a lick about working on cars. I've watched a buncha shows from the sixties and seventies that let me know how to do everything, and you're just…well, you!" Evander chuckled and swiped the photo back from Kurt, tucking it into his back pocket while ignoring the less than pleased look his partner was giving him. "If ya wanna go about pretending ya know your stuff, be my guest, but don't expect to fool anyone."

Confessional

"Back before I became the homeless vagabond I am today, I used to run my own auto repair shop! Car jack busted when an intern was helping out with an inspection, though." Kurt's gaze shifted down to his hands, which were holding a rusty pin that had the remnants of the words "Kurty K's Auto Shop" on it. "Shut me down not long after that. I turned to alcohol and drugs and, well, here I am now! Worked out all fine in the end, though! I do love me some excessive amounts of alcohol and drugs!"

Confessional End

"Wow…being on a dark and scary subway is so crazy! It makes me think that there should really be a Five Nights at Freddy's game set on a subway!" Freddy suddenly gasped as he looked out the window and saw an old poster for one of the FNaF games. "Colin, Colin, Colin, look! Poster! Freddy Fazbear! Pizza!"

"Huh?" Colin took a peek out the window, looking to see whatever it was that Freddy was pointing at, only to discover that the window was actually a mirror that had been disguised as a window. In its reflection, he only noticed himself and Freddy, no poster, no Freddy Fazbear, no nothing. He raised an eyebrow in question to his quirky partner, "Uh…say, Freddy…have you ever been on a subway before now?"

"No, I haven't! Why do you ask?" Freddy's face was turning more green by the second as Colin looked at him, "Say, I don't think I'm feeling so good…"

"Uh oh…uh…uh…one second, I'll figure something out here." Colin looked around frantically for something, eventually finding an old paper bag and grabbing it to hand to Freddy, who almost immediately barfed in it. Unfortunately, the barf was a lot more vicious than the bag could take, and it ripped right through it, effectively soaking Colin. He gagged a bit, but did his best to hold his lunch down.

"Ugh…what was in that pizza? Oh! Maybe Afton was trying to poison me so I would be unconscious and everyone could stuff me into an animatronic!" Freddy chuckled for a few seconds, at least until he gagged again and went right back to vomiting.

Confessional

"Subway sickness, always gets to us the first time or so when we're riding 'em. I mean, I generally wanna puke when I go out in public anyway, but that's neither here nor there." Colin stood in front of a restroom, leaning against the wall next to it while horrible gasping noises could be heard from inside. He loosely knocked on the door before pulling it open slightly, "Hey, Fredbear! You good in there?"

"O-oh! I'm actually great! My good friend Chica was just telling me all about where she got her glow up for Security Breach! P-pretty interesting stuff!" Freddy sounded thrilled for a moment, but alas, he went right back to vomiting.

"Yeaaahhhh…dude's gonna be in there for a little bit. I know that feeling too well," Colin shut the door behind him and pulled his phone out of his pocket, opening a meme app and scrolling through. "Heh, I love watching toddler's run into walls. That's what you get for being too rambunctious, kiddo."

Confessional End

"All this riding around in taxis has got me feeling sick…people seriously need to clean themselves better before they use public transport." Angel complained as her and Jacque headed down the stairs to enter the train station, although he wasn't paying that much attention to her droning nagging. She was quick to notice this and glared at him, "You know, as long as we're here together, you could definitely converse with me a bit more, love. It's dreadfully boring to just be talking to a wall half the time."

"Yeah, yeah, that's great an' all, but are you seeing what I'm seeing up ahead?" Jacque pointed ahead in the depths of the train station, where Flora was sitting in the middle of the train tracks while Helena was standing back on the station platform, looking dreadfully terrified. "Looks like somethin' that just might be worth my time to get a gander of."

"Is that girl quite mad? Why on Earth would she lay down on train tracks when we're expecting a train to come soon?" Angel and Jacque looked between each other, the latter shrugging before running ahead to see what was up with Flora. Angel sighed and followed after him, "I hate it when you just run off like that, Jacque!"

"Oh, Flora, come on! You can't sit in there!" Helena's voice was a bit shaky, and the expression she bore made it clear that she was the type of panicked where she hadn't a clue of what to do.

"I don't see what's so bad about being down here, it's just like a ladder that's laying down on the floor! Oh, maybe if I start climbing it, it'll take me to some fantasy realm! That would be quite amazing, don't you think so?" Flora giggled and reached down to grab one of the train tracks, though it gave her a splinter in her thumb, which caused to reel her hand back and yelp. "Oh…I think this ladder has some sort of magical force field on it that's gonna hurt my hands any time I try to touch it!"

"Flora, please…" Helena's eyes were welling up with tears as she kept looking down the train tunnel to see if there was one coming, but she was slightly relieved to see that the coast was still clear. Jacque and Angel walked right up to her, standing by her side and looking down into the train tracks to stare at Flora in wonder. "O-oh…Jacque, Angel…I see you've noticed my dilemma here."

"Sure have, pretty nasty thing, having someone being dumb as a sack of potatoes and not listening to ya when you're telling 'em what they should be doin'. I find myself running into that same problem with Angel all the time." Jacque snickered, but a swift flick to the back of the head knocked all the hilarity away from him. "Ack! Dammit, woman! I hate it when you do that!"

"And I hate it when you call me woman, so I guess that makes us even…for now." Angel was now the one snickering, holding her hand in front of her mouth while Jacque rubbed the back of his head.

"S-say…would you guys mind helping me get her out of there? I don't think me telling her that a train is gonna come flatten her if she doesn't is going to help much and I'm…well…not the strongest person. I think I might get stuck down there as well if I go down." Helena seemed almost uncomfortable asking for help, it was kind of pathetic to watch.

"Hmmmmmmmmm," Jacque raised a finger up to his chin, tapping it in thought with his eyes closed. "I dunno…losing an opponent in the race due to train-related injury might just be a little beneficial to me and my associate here. Not sure what I really get out of helping you."

"W-what are you saying?" Helena looked to be in even more of a panic with Jacque starting to act sleazy, but seeing her like this was almost too much for him to bear.

"Ah alright, no need to be looking at me like a sad puppy, I won't let your lady friend get crushed by a train." Jacque sighed and jumped down to the tracks below, heading over to Flora and scooping her right up. In a matter of seconds, he tossed her back up to the platform above and crawled up the ladder on the side to get back up himself. "There, all's dandy and fine now, ain't it?"

"That was oodles of fun, being down there! You should come down with me sometime, Helena! You'd make that place way prettier! It was kinda creepy at first, so having you would've helped a lot." Flora giggled and rushed over to Helena, giving her a soft kiss on the nose while Jacque rolled his eyes at the duo.

Confessional

"Who would've known that Jacque could be a sweetheart at times? I mean, he definitely cost us an advantage by not letting that girl turn into a flapjack, but still, sweet." Angel shrugged her shoulders while Jacque stood over by the Opposites, who were still closer to the train tracks. "I'm kidding, of course…I would never want to gain an advantage in such a dreadful, messy way."

Confessional End

"Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Senior, why did we have to take a taxi? I mean, I respect your judgment and all, but a taxi…a taxi…A TAXI!?" Mika suddenly jolted up and got right in Conroy's face, her excessive energy getting the best of her. He was a bit startled by the suddenness of it all, but kept reasonably calm. "I personally think that, you know, if we ran the whole way to the train station, we would've reached it before anyone else! We're the most athletically able of all the teams, soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo."

"Be that as it may, don't you think it would be better not to use all of our energy on the very first part of the leg? If we were to run to the train station, we may pass out from exhaustion on the train. Might even miss our stop if we were asleep real good. I can't imagine that the other teams would want to wake us up, either." Conroy smirked and adjusted his glasses while Mika stared at him in complete awe. "It's as simple as that, sometimes…eat your sides first and save your entree for the end."

Confessional

"I seriously don't know how he does it, but, man, if my senior isn't the smartest person I've ever met!" Mika bounced up and down while clapping like a feverish maniac, all too excited for the rather simple idea. "My ideas are always more of a 'rush in and think later' type deal!"

"Well, that's not entirely true. Yes, your ideas can be sporadic, but sometimes that sporadic sensibility of yours makes them all the better for dire situations!" Conroy looked down at Mika with a smile as he complimented her wild mind, causing her own smile to stretch out to be as wide as it could possibly be. "Just you wait, I'm certain that you'll be saving us from quite a bit of trouble in this race."

Confessional End

"We've now got our second bunch of lackluster tag teams posted up at the station, waiting for the next train to come!" Duke spoke as the next seven teams were seen together at the station, those being the Reality Show Rivals, the Dweebs, the Awkward Neighbors, the Mystical Opposites, the Basketball Team, Dynamic Gamers, and the Cool Guys. "But while they're stuck waiting and the others are still trying to get to the station, the first group has already made their way to the beach!" The camera cut away and revealed the teams from the first train rushing over to the dukebox at the train station in Calanque de Maubois. The first to smack the red button was none other than Sadie, though Sunny snatched the tip right from under her nose to read it first.

"Now, it says that- hey!" Lukas annoyedly grabbed the tip back from Sunny, passing it back over to Sadie with a smile. This brought Sunny an unrelenting amount of rage, but she wouldn't dare to lash out on Lukas, so she just sat there and stewed in it.

"Like, thanks, Lukas!" Sadie squealed lightly and looked down at the tip, "Like, it's a botch or watch!"

"Ooo, what does it say?" Katie started shaking from excitement, though the excitement turned to confusion when she saw how mortified Sadie looked. "Sadie?"

"'Who wants to swim with sharks?'" Upon hearing Sadie speak the tip's words, plenty of contestants gasped in fear, uncertain of what was coming next.

"That's right, these jabronis are all going for a swim, and the type of swim that may be their last! We've got the losers that didn't draw the portraits swimming out far into the Mediterranean to snatch up their next travel tip!" Duke stood in a small boat that was surrounded by a swirl of sharks with travel tips strung around their dorsal fins. "Conveniently, we've got them tied around these shark fins, so it isn't a challenge that the meak can handle!"

"It should be noted that if your teammate is eaten, you will be disqualified," Logan snickered as she tossed the tip into the water and dusted her hands off. "Heh, those sharks will be lucky if Evan doesn't eat them first, considering how much of a big lug he is!"

"Eat a shark? I mean, I do like fish, but…I dunno if I should go around and try to take a bite out of those guys." Evan stared off into the distance of the sea, watching as the sharks swirled around, waiting for something to come by so they could take a bite out of it.

Confessional

"Sharks are basically minnows when you throw Evan into the sea. He's huge, he's got pointy teeth, and he definitely has a lust for blood, just like them!" Logan beamed until she saw that Evan was downing an entire six pack of craft beer, a frown clear on his face. "Evan! You can't drink before you go swimming with sharks, that's how you get mauled and how I get disqualified!"

"Eh, don't worry. These craft beers never even give me a buzz…not to mention the fact that they taste foul." Evan swallowed down the last of his alcohol, chucking the six pack aside and letting out a disappointing belch. Logan was clearly disgusted, but it didn't seem to bother the big lug all too much. "I wish we were in Germany. The beer they got is way better than any of this stuff."

Confessional End

"You know, Marty, I think maybe losing third isn't such a bad idea. I mean, those sharks seem pretty vicious, and I definitely don't wanna get mauled from swimming with them." Xavier stared out into the water nervously before suddenly spinning around and starting to march away from the shore. "Well, might as well just cut our losses and head home with our dignity still intact!"

"Oh no, I think things will go quite swimmingly for you out there," Marty lightly smirked at Xavier as he moved to block his path, not daring to let him give this up for them now. Xavier looked up at him, trembling in fear while Cheese jumped out of his pocket and onto Marty's shoulder. "That's right, those sharks probably just need a friend, and we both know how amazing of a friend you've been since the race started. I think it'll all be just fine."

"You know, I think I'm getting the vibe that you're mad at me about something, but I can't really tell what." Marty sighed and shoved Xavier into the water, soon getting an earful of squeaks from an angry Cheese.

"Oh, did you wanna go in there with him?" Cheese quivered and shook his head rapidly while Marty grinned down at him. "That's what I thought!" With Xavier now in the water, each of the teams that were on the beach officially had their botcher in the water. At the head of the swimming pack were Evan, Lukas, and Virgil, all of who didn't seem to be bothered in the slightest by these dire conditions.

Confessional

"You know, if the worst case scenario for this botch or watch is that I'll get mauled to death by some sharks, I don't think I can consider it to be that bad. Saves me from having to deal with people anymore, which is always a plus in my book." Virgil shrugged his shoulders, leaning back against a wall while Michael looked at him and pouted. "Hey, don't hate me for speaking my mind. Isn't that what you gays are all about? Speaking what's on your mind?"

"Virgilio, we don't wish death upon ourselves to save us from social interaction, that's a big no-no!" Michael huffed and shook his head before regaining his smile, "Besides, if you were to die a gruesome, shark-related death, you wouldn't be able to spend anymore time with me on this fun race! Wouldn't that just make you sad and regretful in your death?"

"...Right, yeah. I would totally be sad about that, you got it."

Confessional End

With those three boys paddling closer and closer to the sharks ahead, Lukas managed to swim just a bit faster than the others, his eyes on the prize. He got close enough to a shark that was over there, but when he went to grab the tip from its fin, he realized that there were actually two tips, not just one. With a smile, he snatched them both off, turning himself around in time to not be noticed by the aquatic creature. On his swim back, he headed right over to Sadie, who was trailing a bit further behind the other botchers.

"Oh, like, hey there, Lukas…again! You already got your tip? Eee, that's so exciting! I'm kinda scared to go swimming by those sharks, b-but maybe they'll be friendly sharks! Or the type of sharks that have a dance-off against jets or something!" Sadie giggled, just hovering near Lukas in the water while he held out his hand towards her with one of the tips in it. "Oh my gosh, Lukas…you got a tip for me so I wouldn't have to go swimming with the sharks? That's so sweet!"

"Ugh!" Sunny groaned and stomped her feet as she watched Lukas and Sadie in the water, clearly not enjoying the friendly moment they shared. In a huff, she spun around and crossed her arms, refusing to look out into the water. "Stupid Sadie being her stupid self and stealing my time with Lukas. I have half a mind to throw a steak at her so the sharks go right for her!"

"Like, that would totally be really bad, though!" Katie frowned at Sunny, who hadn't realized that she was standing right near her. "I'm not sure what your problem with Sadie is, but it can't be bad enough to want her to get mauled by a bunch of sharks!"

Confessional

"Sadie is my best friend in the whole world, no matter what happens! If she died from a bunch of sharks eating her to bits, I would have to jump in and join her!" Katie shook her head while Sadie stared up at her with twinkling eyes.

"You would get mauled by a bunch of sharks just for my sake? That's so sweet it makes me wanna cry," Sadie started to sniffle, and soon, Katie joined her in the sniffling. The two wrapped their arms around each other in a warm embrace, squealing excitedly all the while.

Confessional End

"Oh, you don't know what she did to me? Take a look out there!" Sunny thrust her arm to aggressively point at Lukas and Sadie, who were paddling back to shore with each. "That…that…urgh…I can't think of a good insult right now, but when I find one, she's gonna taste my wrath! She keeps stealing all of his attention! That's supposed to be reserved for me! Not her, me, me, me! He's my special European boy, not hers!"

"But, you're like…a child. I don't think it would be very good if he was giving that kind of attention to you." Though Katie tried to be reasonable, Sunny wasn't having it, and she angrily stomped off. The BFFFL could only shrug and turn her attention back to the sea while she waited for her partner to come back.

"With the first six teams already in the water, ready to either get their tips or get back to shore, we've got the second train arriving right now!" As Duke announced, the second train pulled into the station, dumping out the seven teams that it had in tow and allowing them to get their tips from the dukebox. With a good deal of them just as nervous as the first group's botchers, they headed down to the beach, where they faced the water.

"Come on, just a little closer…just a little closer…" Bea swam as fast as she could, heading for the sharks and attempting to snag a tip from one of them, but the second she did, the shark snapped around and tried to bite her. "Ah! You should learn to respect your elders, sonny!" With a fierce karate chop to the nose, the shark was knocked unconscious, flipping over in the water and allowing the troop master to grab her tip with ease. "I got it, little scout!"

"Woohoo, go troop master!" Sophie raised her arms victoriously before digging around in her pocket and pulling out her patch book. She scanned over it for a little while before frowning, but the frown was soon replaced with an opportunistic smile. Grabbing a pencil, she flipped to one of the black pages at the end, drawing in a picture and some words. "There really should've been a 'Karate Chopping a Shark' patch to begin with, but I guess I have to do it all myself!"

Confessional

"Okay, so, I have really been trying not to tell my grandma anything, but I've been adding in new patches to the book ever since we started the race! My drawing and handwriting skills are pretty nifty, so I can't say I'm worried about anyone doubting the realism of them." Sophie grinned, still alone as her grandma was swimming back to shore. "Maybe it isn't the most honorable thing to do, but creating patches based on all of my amazing troop master's achievements is just…well…deserved! She works her butt off, and I'll be darned if she doesn't get recognition for it!"

Confessional End

"Senior! You won't get hurt when you go and swim with those sharks, will you? I don't know what I'd do if you got torn to shreds by them! I mean, I'd probably collect the shreds and build a shrine out of them, preserving them perfectly in formaldehyde so I could have you with me forever and ever." Mika rambled on for a bit and then flashed a big, toothy grin to Conroy, who seemed utterly stunned for the first time.

"U-uh…no, I don't think I'll get hurt. I've actually been cooking up some sort of a plan since reading the tip card, so I've got a clear idea of what to do when I get out in those waters." Conroy snapped, somehow cueing a presentation board to drop from the sky and land next to him with a diagram of him swimming towards the sharks scribbled on it. "Now, you see, there are plenty of those nasty sharks out there, it would be foolish to take a head on approach. That's why I devised a plan to come in with a pincer attack!" He grabbed a marker, drawing an arrow that had him coming into the sharks from the side. "While the bulk of the teams are coming in from the front, I will sneak in from the side. This will make proper use of them as a distraction, leading me to come out entirely unscathed."

"Wow, senior! You really are just so impeccably smart!" Mika clapped her hands and Conroy took a bow, kicking the presentation board far away from him. "I wonder if all the other teams are going to be okay, though."

"Ay, tutz, I wouldn't go worrying a thing about guys like us!" Evander piped up from the sidelines, his shirt torn from his body as he flexed his pecs before her. "You know how it is, us manly men will go storm out into the ocean like nobody's business. Might even bring back a shark or three for dinner, while we're at it. Sneaking in from the side, using others as a distraction, that ain't a cool plan in the slightest."

"So you suggest just charging in and going headstrong? That seems like what the bulk of the other teams will be doing, so I purposefully devised something a bit different." Conroy's glasses slid down a bit, but he was quick to adjust them, hiding his minimally annoyed eyes.

"Yeah, you devised something dumb and with way to many steps. I'm almost willing to bet you that my main man, Kurty K, is gonna get that tip well before you and your 'pincer attack' even come close to those sharks." Evander got up in Conroy's face, the two sharing a staredown while Mika and Kurt watched from the outside.

"Wow…I've never seen my senior so upset about something before. He looks all tense and sweaty and like he's gonna blow up in rage!" Mika watched as closely as she could, not even blinking while she watched.

"You kinda look like a curb girl I once knew," Kurt eyed Mika up and down while she gasped and covered herself as best as she could with her arms. "Hey, I never said there was anything bad about being a curb girl."

"I am not a prostitute!" Mika kicked sand in Kurt's face before stomping away, leaving him to howl in agony from the grains that had gotten into his eyes. He started to run around the beach frantically, eventually running right into the water and storming towards the sharks without even thinking about it. This just left Evander and Conroy to stare at each other in their rage, still.

"Well, would ya look at that! My boy's already in the sea, ready to go get his tip! Guess that means you're a bit behind, don't it, b-baller?" Conroy kept silent while Evander mocked him, soon turning to head into the water as well, clearly more annoyed than before. "That's right, you go on with your nerdy plan, see how much extra time and dignity it costs ya!"

Confessional

"If there's one thing that I just love doin', it's putting nerds in their place!" Evander chuckled while Kurt flailed his arms, screaming and running a good distance away on the beach. "Doesn't matter to me if the guy plays basketball or not, he's still the textbook definition of a nerd! Blech…textbook…only nerds say textbook definition of something. Imma need to wash my mouth out with pasta flavored soap later, aye…"

Confessional End

"Gah, Michael!" Michael snapped up from the beach nap he was taking when he heard his name being called from the sea. As he narrowed his eyes, he noticed that Virgil had a tip in his hand, which he was holding above the water while swimming away from a shark as fast as he could. "Find a bucket! Sandcastle building! YOWCH!" The shark chomped down onto Virgil's rear, surprisingly not taking the flesh right off of him. It shook him around like a ragdoll before launching him back towards the beach, where he fell into the sand and became buried with only his feet sticking out of it.

"Virgilio, no no no!" Michael rushed over to his editor, prying him out of the sand and setting him back up on his feet. "Now is no time to be playing ostrich!"

"Despite the fact that Virgil was almost turned into some shark's lunch just now, he's still right about the bucket! This challenge is an All-In, where teams must work together to build a sandcastle replica of the Palace of Versailles!" Duke walked onto the beach, holding up a poster of the aforementioned palace…which he soon tore in half and tossed aside. Next to him, there stood a little, blond boy whose hair hung in front of his eyes, giving him this sort of surfer vibe. "Local sandcastle expert, Sandy McCastle is here to judge them on their architecture! It's up to him to decide when the teams have done good enough to earn their next travel tip!"

"Okay…phew…I think I'm still intact!" Xavier came back onto the beach, holding his tip in one hand while using his other hand to see if he had any bites taken out of him. "Yup, still good! Those sharks were a bit too busy with Virgil to really notice me, anyways!"

"See, I told you everything was gonna be just fine, Xavier!" Marty approached Xavier with a smile, but soon turned his head away and glared off to the side while he thought to himself. "This guy is just never gonna get any comeuppance, is he? Ugh, I shouldn't be thinking these things about my friend, but I can't help it! Making me the butt of everything, costing us a whole bunch of time in multiple stages of the race…it's too much! He needs to take this thing seriously, and the only way is if something kicks him good in the keister!" He went back to facing his partner, his smile right back on his face, "Nice job, buddy!"

With the bulk of the first set of teams' botchers coming back to the shore, the only one that was left out in the water and trying to get a tip was Evan, who had a hard time getting near the sharks. Eventually, one of them swam right up to him, its maw wide open and ready to take an oversized bite of him, but this just annoyed him for some reason. He sent a punch flying right into the shark's teeth, cracking them to bits and watching as it started to sink below the water. In the nick of time, he grabbed the tip from its fin and it sunk deep into the water, to not be seen again.

"That's right, show them who the real monster is!" Logan cheered for her partner from the sidelines, and even though he despised being called a monster, he still couldn't help but smile as this was the first time she had ever genuinely cheered him on in anything. While he began to swim back, the botchers from the second set of teams were heading into the fray. The bulk of the group had Jacque, Flora, Andrew, Phoebe, Colin, and Kurt, while Conroy stuck to his plan and went in from the side.

"With the first set of teams getting ready to start building their sand castles and the second set of teams wrestling with the sharks out in the sea, we've got the third and final set just arriving now!" Duke narrated as the third train arrived and dumped off the Bachelorettes, the Bloody Prom Queens, the Conservationists, the Uncomfortable Siblings, the Glow-Up Gals, the Psychic and Skeptic, and the "Father and Son?." They did what they could to get to the dukebox and get their tips, but seeing what the challenge was didn't have any of them feeling that great, give for one snarky, obnoxious soul.

"Oh, do battle with the sharks to get the next tip? Ha! Ha, I say!" Arnold rolled his sleeves up and stormed towards the beach…or at least started to before he was suddenly grabbed by Aisling, who held him back while the other teams went ahead. "You had better have a really good reason for holding me back or I'm dragging you in the sea with me."

"Well, just…in the event that you suddenly get eaten by a shark, I figured it would be a proper time to finally have you do your drawing from my tarot deck." Aisling waggled the deck of cards, but when she noticed Arnold about to slap them away, she hid them back in her bra, where all her other belongings were. "Alright, then…perhaps we can at least consult the crystal ball on a proper game plan before just storming down there?"

"I'll be consulting my own mind and nothing else, thank you very much! Pfft, the very notion that I might listen to a porcelain orb for directions is almost insulting." Arnold yanked his arm away from Aisling, heading down to the beach while she sighed and sat down at the train station. She grabbed her orb from her bra and started to rub it while holding it in her lap.

"It would be better to start planning out our sandcastle construction now while he's out there getting the tip. Maybe he'll start believing when he sees that I already knew what we were supposed to be doing." Aisling smiled while staring into her crystal ball, but soon frowned while it glistened at her. "D-don't reveal to him that I know what we're supposed to do? But…that would surely have him putting more faith in both me and the mystical arts, no?" The ball glistened some more, and it was clear that Aisling was stunned. "If you're saying that will break him…it must be true. Alright…I'll keep it a secret."

Confessional

"Arnold is an absolute mystery to me…I've never met someone so completely opposed to even looking into the mystical arts as he is, but here he is, nonetheless. To each their own, I suppose but…I feel I must get him to pull his cards at some point. It's my duty…" Aisling clutched her tarot deck close to her chest while staring confidently towards the sky.

Confessional End

With the third set of teams sending out their respective botchers, those being Arnold, Mitsuki, Lyle, Lady Belle, Karma, James, and Becky, those that were already back on the beach got to work with their teammates to start putting together their sandcastles. There were some teams that were moving faster than others, notably the Wilderness Girls, both of which were well equipped with their Sandcastle Building patches, and the YouTuber and Editor, who had definitely gotten experience with all the sets Michael had constructed in his videos. Of course, where one will exceed, someone must be failing, and those someones were the Vicious Pop Stars.

"Ugh! It's all just a bunch of stupid sand, how come it keeps caving in on itself! I added water, I used stones to make a base, I don't understand what the big issue is!" Logan got up in a huff and started to steam from her anger while Evan watched. While he had noticed that there was just a bit too much water in their castle, he didn't feel as though he should say that. Instead, a different idea came to his mind…an idea that he thought would lead to the best possible scenario.

"You know what I think? I think this castle just wants to give you a run for your money, considering that it probably knows how much of an icon you are!" Logan's head perked up as she heard her younger cousin complimenting her in this strange way. "That's right, it clearly doesn't think that Logan is all that. It's trying to make you look like a chump! You know what you should do? Show that sand who's boss, dry it out a bit and see if it likes it!"

"...You know, I hate getting orders barked at me…" Evan's head sunk lightly as Logan paused, but, she soon continued, "BUT I ALSO HATE PEOPLE UNDERESTIMATING ME! People, sand, anything, anybody! Fuck you, sand! You don't think I'm all that? You think I'm just some sort of chump? You think I'm not good at building sandcastles just because I'm small!? You're small! You small, insignificant, grains of sand you…you…AGH!"

In a flurry that made her almost look like a tornado, Logan whipped around the sand, moving faster than anyone's eyes could see. Evan had to back up a bit in fear that he would be sucked into her wrath, but soon enough, it was all over. Logan came to a stop, standing in the sand and breathing heavily while steam came off of her very red forehead. The shovel that she had been using had been melted to a small nub, leaving it completely useless, but Evan wasn't sure there would be any more need for it. After all, in her rage, she put the palace together…the melted plastic serving as the best kind of structural base that anyone could've needed for such a thing. Sandy McCastle was utterly astounded by how quickly the job had gotten done, not to mention Sophie, Bea, and Michael. Virgil could've cared less, but that was just Virgil.

"Huff…huff…huff…" Logan glanced next to her to see that the judge was holding a tip towards her, and she snatched it up faster than the eye could see. Evan found himself even more impressed than he usually was with her…"quick thinking." "Huff…huff…it says…get speedboat…follow gps…chill zone…iceland…ugh…" Logan fell to the sand with a thud, but Evan grinned and picked her up, carrying her like a toddler before running off from the beach.

"That's right, we're going to Iceland!" The camera transitioned to show Duke standing on a dock near a chill zone, surrounded by icy waters. "The southernmost dock of this lame country is where our chill zone can be found! The race for first has officially begun, with Logan and Evan getting an enormous lead on all of the other teams. Who will come in last, though?"

Confessional

"So…I kinda picked up that it's easy to get Logan to do things if you convince her that someone is underestimating her. She's tiny, but she has a big attitude and a big need to be in charge of everything. I mean, that's just the way she rolls." Evan shrugged, still holding Logan in his arms while she slept and snored. "I mean, I'm not very smart, but I do figure some things out…or maybe I am smart and I'm just drunk all the time…I don't even know."

Confessional End

"Mitsuki, hurry the hell up, don't be playing around out there!" Kotomi snarled as he stood on the beach, watching his sister as her arm was stuck in the mouth of one shark while her leg was stuck in the mouth of another. They tried to tear her apart, but her body acted like some sort of gooey slime, just stretching while they tugged on her limbs. To the others, it really didn't make that much sense. "Ugh, she's so useless, I swear."

"D-do…you sharks maybe…think you could put me down…I already got my tip, I just wanna go back to shore." Mitsuki mumbled her words, as speaking up really was never her strong suit. In a gross, perverse way, she had stuffed the tip she took into her underwear, this only being noticeable as her dress was practically torn to shreds. It gave others a glimpse of just how thin she was, looking like the victim of some pretty bad parents.

"Mitsuki, I swear, if you don't start taking this seriously, I'm telling mom to dump you on the streets!" Kotomi continued to bark orders and complaints at his sister while he was suddenly approached by someone from behind, who lightly tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to see Olive smiling and looking up at him. "What do you want, Mohawk?"

"That's your sister, yup?" Olive cocked her head in question while she pointed out to the sea, directly at Mitsuki.

"Yeah, what about her?"

"Oh, nothing, just making sure I wasn't mixing things up before I did this is all!" Olive giggled, Kotomi not sure what she was on about until she suddenly headbutted him right in the middle of his nose. He fell down almost instantly, looking up to see her staring down at him with flames in her eyes that matched those of Becky's. "Listen here you thin-boned piece of garbage…she's out there risking her life to help you two get further in the race, and you're sitting her whining about her. If she died today, you'd be thinking all about how miserable of a brother you truly are. Better start treating her with some respect if you know what's good for ya." Olive's demeanor switched right back in the blink of an eye, and she was her smiling, innocent self again. "Mmkay?"

"R-right…" Kotomi just stared in disbelief while Olive walked away from him, whistling while she chased after some crab that she found running along the sands. Out in the ocean, Mitsuki was still getting pulled back and forth by the sharks, but for some odd reason…they let her go and swam away.

"Blegh…not sure that was the kind of wet fun I had in mind when I was playing my merman dating sim…but whatever…" Mitsuki shook her head and regained her stability to see Becky floating near her in the water, a tip in her own hand. "...A little girl…what am I supposed to think about little girls? They aren't any competition to me…unless there's some nasty, perverse pedophile hanging around here. Hm…what do I even say to her? Why is she staring at me like that? I feel…uncomfortable."

"...You were getting mauled by sharks and you didn't even scream. That makes one thing clear to me. You…" Becky raised her hand and pointed directly at Mitsuki, a very faint smile on her face, "...are not weakblooded."

"...U-u-um…" Mitsuki avoided eye contact at all costs, utterly terrified of this small child, "Crap! What am I supposed to say to that!? What does that even mean!? Is that what the kids say to be hip these days!? Blegh, what am I, a grandma? Who even says things are hip anymore? Stupid brain, I prefer it when you give me those intrusive, gay thoughts!"

"You're speechless, I know…it's not a common occurrence for me to give such a high honor to someone. Just know that it's something you should bear with pride…you stand out from everyone else, you're no mere mortal…that sort of thing." Becky brought her hand down from pointing, that faint smile still there. "In a way, we're in the same coven. This means that when me and Olive win, we'll be giving you a small cut of the prize, naturally."

"O-oh…" Mitsuki paused for a moment, still having a hard time maintaining eye contact, "Is this what it's like to have an ally? A friend? I don't really know, but…I think I like this kid. Maybe that means I get to be their guardian or something…oh my…they can be my kids…and if they're my kids, that means…" She suddenly raised her arms up excitedly and shouted towards the sky, "I'M A MILF!"

"...Uh…right. I'm gonna go back to my sister now, but you enjoy your…uh…'MILF status.'" Becky lost her smile and just looked a bit uncomfortable, soon swimming back to shore.

Confessional

"That's right, you heard it here first, folks! I've officially declared myself as the legal mom of these kids, so I'm a MILF! My legs are wide open, some come get a piece of momma's pie, boys!" Mitsuki was practically frothing at the mouth while Kotomi stared at her in disgust, using a tissue to wipe the blood that was pouring out of his nose. "...What…happened to you?"

"More like what happened to your ego!? Be real, no one would wanna eff you, even if you were a mom!" Kotomi laughed at his sister, which caused blood to bubble up in his throat, making him gag.

"...What the fuck just happened?" Becky just looked completely confused as she stood next to Olive, who had the crab from before in her hands.

"Oh, well, I caught a crab and named her Pinchy! Say hi, Pinchy!" Olive raised up the crab towards Becky's face, and it almost immediately pinched her on the cheek. "...Uh oh…"

Confessional End

"Rrnnnnng…always dragging me down and putting us in a low place, I swear, that woman ain't nothin' but a fly in my honey!" Lady Belle paddled towards the sharks, the water bubbling around her and turning to steam from the anger and heat that was coming off of her. "Once I swim myself back to shore, I'm gonna feed her to these nasty sharks! That'll show her who's holding our team back!"

Confessional

"Ursula went and mentioned to me that we're always behind because I can't carry all the flabby baggage on my chest with me. Hmph!" Lady Belle shook her chest at the camera, confident as her breasts bounced back and forth. "These are all natural, genuine beauties, and there ain't no flab about them. I mean, has she looked in the mirror recently? Her ass-"

"Is fine as hell! That bat wouldn't know anything about sexy form if it came and hit her upside the head!" Ursula was nowhere near Lady Belle, as she was still back on the beach, swaying her hips from side to side to show off their lusciousness. "It's the asset of mine that every man wants, though none of them can afford it. And she'll have the gall to say that men are avoiding us because of me! Ha! That cryptid is the only thing scaring off the boys! She'd do well to figure that out by now!"

Confessional End

"Ah…ah…yup! Living a life full of danger and excitement, just as I was intended to!" James choraled excitedly, albeit very clearly exhausted. He was swimming towards the sharks, not too far from Lady Belle. He could feel the water getting hotter as he got closer to her, something that just felt a bit off to him. "Huh? Man, I don't remember anything about hitting up the jacuzzi while we were in the Mediterranean! Heheh…geez, it's really hot in here…" Soon enough, James was turning red, and his hat suddenly lit ablaze. "TOO HOT! YAHAHA!"

James jumped into the air from the water, somehow defying physics and running around in the sky while still ablaze. Lady Belle watched him for a brief moment before raising her hand to her mouth and laughing behind it. A shark swam up to her at that moment, ready to take a bite out of her, but she turned and stared it in the eyes with an unmistakable bloodlust. Somehow, this stare was enough to kill the shark right then and there. It flipped over and floated in the water, allowing her to grab the tip from its fin quickly and easily. As she began swimming back to the ocean, James continued flying around, at some point swirling by one of the sharks and grabbing the tip from it. He continued to run until he got back to the beach, flopping down on the sand and holding his tip up towards Elliott.

"Yeesh, dad…you really did a number of yourself out there, didn't you?" Elliott sighed as he stared at his "father" laying there in the sands. "I still am not sure why you're so pressed about staying in this competition anyways…your net worth is in the millions, isn't it?"

"MILLIONS?" Ursula piped up in the distance as she heard the word uttered, soon shooting over to stand by the "Father and Son?." She yanked James up from the sand, smiling at him in a seductive manner while running her finger along his chest. "I'm sorry, I don't think you and I have spoken much before, have we? Ursula's the name, being prime wife material's the game." She blew a playful kiss to the older gentleman, who just looked confused. "Oh, don't be so coy…this is a great opportunity for us to get to know each other, in this competition and all!"

"Er…right?" James still looked confused, not that having been almost cooked in the sea was helping him get a grasp of what was going on any sooner.

"Woopsie!" Ursula and James turned to face the see as Lady Belle had called out, soon seeing that a dead shark was flying directly at them at intense speeds. It was unclear if she had thrown it or if it got washed up by something else, but it looked dangerous, and there wasn't time for them to move out of the way.

"Ah, dad!" Elliott suddenly shouted and moved in front of Ursula and James, reaching forward and managing to catch the shark in his bare hands. With a spin, he launched it back into the sea, wiping the sweat from his forehead soon after. "That was almost really bad…wonder how that happened? And man, it just got so hot here…" The boy tore his top off, wiping more sweat from his body with it and gaining the lusty eye of Lady Belle, who was staring at his immaculate muscles.

"Working…boy…strong…muscles…me likey!" She shot over to the beach like a rocket, stopping dead in her tracks right before the "son" and licking her lips while leaning down towards him. She made sure to have her chest hanging right in front of his face as she did. "Well, hello there, boy! Golly…I never took you for someone with such Herculean strength!"

"Ah, w-well…sometimes I play football in my spare time away from the stu-...away from home. That, and other sports. Oh, and general exercising…punching bags help me realize some of the pent up stress from wor- home!" Elliott blushed and rubbed the back of his head, trying his best not to stare at Lady Belle's boobs, but she spun his head back forward with her hand. "U-uh…"

"Oh, don't be shy, boy…I'm a firm believer that if ya see somethin' ya like, you're free to keep on looking at it. Why shouldn't we claim what we want in life…right?" Elliott was left far too flustered to even think straight while Lady Belle just kept him looking right at her chest. Eventually, James took his "son" by the arm, pulling him away so they could start on their sandcastle. Ursula walked over to her partner, and the two grinned while they watched the boys go to work. "Say Ursula…I think we've been a bit too hard on each other, don't you agree?"

"Oh yes, I think we've both done some unforgivable things and have generally been rather rude to each other. But with this new information coming to light…I believe it is time to set aside our differences." The two women shook hands while not even shifting their gaze away from James and Elliott. "I've got dibs on moneybags…"

"And I want that strong workin' boy…" They both licked their lips before cackling in a menacing manner.

Confessional

"T-those ladies are really strange, just coming onto us like that…" Elliott kept rubbing the back of his neck, his face red like a ripe tomato.

"They were coming onto us? Huh? Was I missing something?" James looked confused for a moment but soon shook his head. "Do I look like I have time for women? I'm married to my job!"

Confessional End

"You got this girl, show those sharks that you ain't nothing to mess with, mhm!" Vanessa bobbed her head back and forth while she called out to Karma, who was panting like a maniac while she swam towards the sharks. Zeke stood near the girlboss on the beach, whistling and calling some local seagulls to sit upon his head. "Boy, are you on some Ace Ventura juice or what? How are you getting those birds to just flock to you like that?"

"Huh? Oh well, me and Lyle are just incredibly in touch with nature, you know? The animals love us, we love the animals…it's the very same reason that I'm not worried about how he's gonna handle the sharks!" Zeke chuckled and pointed out to the sea, showing that Lyle was being carried back towards the shore by one of the sharks, a tip in his hand. "It truly does pay off to become one with nature."

"Er…if you say so. I ain't got a thing against animals or what not, but I gotta be real with you: the moment I see a shark swimming near me, I'm throwing some hands." Vanessa shuddered at the thought of being in Karma's position before shaking her head. "K-keep it up, girl! You've got this!"

"Dahling…I'm not sure just how much longer I'll be able to swim like this…my form isn't made for this type of workout…" Karma continued to pant, swimming towards the sharks, but at some point, she ran out of energy. She flopped onto her back, floating in the water and just staring up at the sky. "C-can't keep going…need beauty rest…or…will die…" And, like that, Karma was out like a light, snoring while she stared up at the empty sky.

"GIRL, WHAT!?"

Confessional

"Nuh uh, ain't no way Karma just up and fell asleep in the middle of the sea! Girl, lemme tell you, I would sooner swim myself to death than take a beauty nap out there!" Vanessa shuddered again as she stood on the beach, taking a glance over her shoulder to see that Karma was still just floating there. "But seriously, that girl better wake herself up before we up and lose this leg cause of her. I just won't stand for that, nuh uh, no way."

Confessional End

Conroy finally made it back to shore, taking significantly longer to do so than the other teams from the second train and a good deal of the teams from the third train. As he got back, he was met with the sight of Mika, who just appeared to be a bit distraught. He approached her with a wary eye, wondering whatever might be wrong with her.

"That whole time it was just me and Evander…all he went on about was bad mouthing you. Saying that your plans were stupid…calling you a nerd…" Mika sniffled lightly, refusing to look her senior in the eye. "He said it was no wonder that we were so far behind…I couldn't even say anything to defend you! I'm sorry, senior…"

"Hey, hey…nothing to be sorry about. Sometimes people can just be like that…we can't expect everybody to like or understand us. Tell you what, let's just forget about him and his partner and get on with the next part of the race, eh? We're building a sandcastle together, I figured that could be something fun for the both of us." Mika slowly glanced up at Conroy to see that he had propped his sunglasses up at the top of his head, showing his kind eyes to match his warm smile. She blushed faintly, but kept quiet and nodded at him.

As the Basketball Team got to work on their sandcastle, there were plenty of teams from the first train that were just finishing up and collecting their tips from Sandy McCastle, while the teams from the second train were well in the thick of things at this point. Meanwhile, there was Karma, who was now the only person still out in the water at this point. She was enjoying her seaborne beauty nap, up until a shark swam past her and splashed water all over her face, waking her up in an instant.

"My, my, what on Earth was that? I was quite enjoying my little nap there…yaaaaaaaaaaaawn…" Karma raised her hands to her face, rubbing her fists against her eyes to wake herself up a little more, which is when she noticed something odd and out of place. Upon pulling her fists away from her eyes, she was met with the sight of a black, almost ink-like substance smudged against them. She paused for a brief moment to take it in, which is when Vanessa realized what had happened out there.

"Oh no…oh no no honey! K-Karma! Just calm down, don't do anything irrational out there!" Unfortunately, it was all for naught, as Karma couldn't hear Vanessa, no matter how loudly she cried out to her. The makeup artist shot up from her sleeping position, barreling towards the sharks with unmatched speed and power.

"YOU RUINED MY MAKEUP! YOU WILL PAY!" Karma's shout tore through the heavens and storm clouds gathered, raining down hard on the sea. The sharks looked all confused, but they had no time to collect themselves and evaluate what had happened, as she came towards them, grabbing one by the tail fin and using it as a weapon to beat the other sharks senseless with. When all was said and done, she claimed her tip, swimming back to shore entirely annoyed.

Confessional

"No one…and I mean no one messes up my makeup job and gets away with it! This took me an hour and a half, and that's just the eyes alone, dahling! Now look at me! LOOK AT ME!" Karma angrily pointed at her own face, showing the black eyeliner that was bleeding all the way down her cheeks. Her brow twitched while she stared into the camera, "Those sharks are lucky I didn't eat them alive out there!"

Confessional End

"Alright, looks good to me. What say you, Andrew?" Richard glanced over at his partner, who was relaxing on a beach towel with his phone laying next to. He had sunglasses covering his eyes, and plenty of tanning lotion on himself…as well as on the phone. Richard sunk down a bit and just blankly stared at Andrew, getting aggravated. "Could you maybe at least pretend to be involved at the competition."

"Need I remind you that I'm the one that built the castle? All you did was commandeer at the end, saying you needed to add in more details. Well, let's see the details, then." Andrew lugged his hulking figure over to Richard to take a gander at things, only to see that the addition was no more than a busty woman etched in on the roof of the castle. "...Richard, do I even need to explain why I'm disappointed with you right now?"

"Meh, can't blame a guy for making our sandcastle eight times more attractive. Yo, Castle Kid!" Richard called over Sandy, who saw what they had done and almost immediately blushed, covering his innocent eyes, though they were technically already covered. "Aw, come on. This is just our unique take on that castle!"

"That's it, Richard! Stand back, or things might get ugly for you…" Andrew reached over to his side, placing his hand gently on the handle of his katana. It seemed that the winds were swirling around him as he took a battle stance. "From the seventh circle of hell, I draw my ultimate power and channel it into one, delicate. Final Slash: Demon Gate!" With only a slight pull of the katana from its scabbard, Andrew immediately tucked the sword back away, turning his back to the sandcastle. "Tch…you're already cut, you just haven't noticed it yet."

"Uh…dude? Now's not the time for the anime theatrics," Richard shook his head…that was until the top layer of the castle suddenly billowed away in the breeze, leaving it clean of the addition that Richard had left. "Aw, man…well, what do you think, kid? We get a pass now?" Sandy uncovered his eyes and looked back at the castle, nodding before passing the tip over to Richard. "Heh, nice. Guess we're going motorboating! …But not the fun kind…"

"You're always complaining about this or that…that's what separates me: the man from you: the boy. Mitsuki-Chan, let us make haste!" Andrew scooped his phone up and tucked it safely into the burrows of his neckbeard, running towards the dock with the motorboats with his arms flying behind his back. Richard geared up to get going, but found himself looking towards Phoebe and Jamie Lynn, who were just about done building their castle.

"Mm…beach babe. Don't mind if I do, heheh!" Licking his lips, Richard started to walk over and join the two girls, who weren't looking his way. "Well, well, helloooooo ladies! But more importantly, hello Blue!"

"B-Blue? Oh…the hair…r-right…" Phoebe started to look up towards Richard, but Jamie Lynn grabbed her by the chin, forcing her gaze back down at the sandcastle. "Oh…I don't think I'm really allowed to talk to you right now?"

"Why? Cause your buddy has some sand in her panties?" Richard chuckled while Jamie Lynn glared beams at him. She got up from the ground and grabbed him by the collar of his hoodie. "Woaho! Didn't know I was insulting a total dommy mommy! Gonna pin me down and sit on my face now?"

"I'm gonna turn you into chum if you don't follow after your fatass friend and get the hell out of here. Phoebe is pathetic enough without you being here to distract you. I'll be damned if I let you make it any worse." Jamie Lynn growled at Richard until he shrugged his shoulders and backed up a bit.

"Alright, alright, I gotcha. It's completely natural to be jealous of someone with a nicer figure than you. That's why you're always talking down to her, right?" Jamie Lynn didn't even humor Richard by responding to this, as she just got back down and returned to her work on the sandcastle. "Well, I guess I'll get going, but I'll see ya later, babe." He winked at Phoebe, who blushed and went back to work.

Confessional

"Richard is persistent! Annoying and persistent, that is! Seriously, always snooping around in our business…I'm trying to win this contest, and I unfortunately need to drag Phoebe along with me if I want that to happen!" Jamie Lynn angrily kicked some sand away from her before crossing her arms. "Phoebe, stop entertaining him! Wrap your tits or something, just turn him away!"

"But I barely have any tits to begin with…" Phoebe glanced down at her chest sadly.

"I don't care, just do it!"

Confessional End

Evander and Kurt had just finished building their sandcastle and collecting their tip from Sandy, leaving Mika and Conroy as the only team from train number two that had yet to finish their construction. While Kurt looked about ready to take their motorboat off to Iceland, it seemed that the head honcho of the operation had a different plan. He started walking towards the basketballers, leaving a confused Kurt back at their sandcastle.

"Ayo, basketball nerds! Having a fun time nerding it up over here? You know, talkin' your strategy, building precisely and what not." Evander chuckled as he stood over the two of them, though they did their best to ignore him. Conroy could tell that Mika was getting upset with him hovering over them, something that made him annoyed again. "Oh, what now? Not gonna talk to me? What kinda uncool pansy doesn't stand up for himself in the face of adversity? Man, you guys really are chumps!"

"I'd prefer it if you didn't call Mika a chump, please and thank you." Conroy stood up from the sands, staring down at Evander through his shades. He was just a bit taller than the cool guy, but by no means as muscular as him, so it was a pretty even standoff. "You've got your tip already…just go on and do whatever it is you have to do next, alright?"

"Oh, I'm really scared of all this big talk! You gonna force me to leave, or are you just gonna stare at me behind those dweeby glasses of yours?" Conroy didn't say a word, he just kept staring at Evander, who cracked a smirk. "Meh, guess you ain't gonna do anything. Well, guess that means I can do this then!" With a chuckle, the cool guy kicked the sandcastle that Mika was still working on, a good deal of the sand dumping all over her. She was stunned, and soon looked about ready to cry while Conroy stayed silent.

"That's gonna be a big no-no, Evander! Forcing one of the other teams to lose progress is technically cheating, and a party foul!" Duke popped up from out of nowhere, slamming a big timer down on the ground that had twenty minutes on it. "For that, you and Kurt are getting slammed with a nifty twenty minute penalty!"

"Aw, Duke! Come on buddy, that ain't fair!" Evander was clearly upset, but despite his protesting, nothing was budging in Duke's mind. Kurt groaned and flopped down on the sand in annoyance. "Erk, that's so lame."

"Twenty minute penalty, you said?" Conroy looked over at Duke, who nodded back at him. "Great, thanks for filling me in." The basketballer smiled before looking back at Evander and socking him right in the face. Oddly, the punch seemed to have quite literally no effect…no bruising, no bleeding, nothing.

"What was that? Such a sissy punch, basketball nerd! Can't even fight back, so pathetic." Evander chuckled and sat back down near Kurt, smiling the whole time.

"Conroy, man, 'nother party foul. Can't just go trying to extend another person's penalty…even if you didn't actually knock him out or anything…and that punch was totally pathetic. I'm putting you basketball geeks on the same penalty as the Cool Guys." Duke shook his head and walked away from Conroy and Mika, the latter finally standing up.

"You didn't have to do that, senior…" Mika still looked incredibly sad, and her being covered in sand certainly wasn't helping. "We have to wait twenty minutes before we can get back to building our castle again…"

"Indeed we do…I'm entirely fine with him slighting me, but I won't stand for him kicking sand onto you. Especially when you were minding your own business." Conroy shook his head and sat down next to Mika, who sat back down as well. "Besides…this gives us a good chunk of time to think about how to proceed when the penalty is over. I'd say we get a bit more sporadic with our building. You do that quite well, after all."

"Mhm…" Mika smiled ever so slightly, feeling comforted by Conroy.

Confessional

"If someone's gonna punch me, I wish they'd at least hit me hard enough to give me a fun fight story to tell to the boys back home! That guys hit me with the strength of an ant!" Evander chuckled boastfully, showing off the spot where he had been hit, which was completely free of all marks. "Oh well, guess he'll learn how wimpy he is from this, at least!"

"Did you want me to punch you give you a fun story?" Kurt looked a bit confused by what Evander was going on about. "I mean, I can do that, but I don't think that'll make things any better."

"Kurt, no."

Confessional End

Duke made his way all the way back tpo the dock in Iceland, where he stood next to the chill zone, anxiously awaiting the teams to start flooding in. In the not so far distance, he took nte that Evan was drawing closer and closer, Logan still snoring behind him. They docked well before any other team had the chance to, and the taller, stronger member of the duo scooped his partner up and hopped out of the motor boat, rushing over to the chill zone with her in his arms.

"Vicious Pop Stars, talk about a crazy rebound from that last leg! You've escaped the clutches of being a turbo mega loser and made it first this time around, shading!" Duke pumped his fists up in the air excitedly, and Evan sighed in relief.

"That's good…Logan will be really happy to hear that." As he stood there holding Logan still, the next two teams docked and rushed to the chill zone, being the Wilderness Girls and the YouTuber and Editor. "Oh…hey other teams."

"That little rascal in your arms sure has a whole heap of energy if she was able to outmatch us in the sandcastle building competition so quickly! I'd give her a patch if I wasn't worried that she'd try to bite me for offering." Bea nervously side-eyed Logan, who remained snoozing this whole time.

"I never did imagine ever seeing someone work so quickly and dilligently! It was, mwah, magnificent!" Michael blew several fake kisses through the air while Virgil visibly cringed. "Oh! Maybe we should do a collab sometime! Virgilio, don't you think that would be a wonderful idea?"

"I think you getting put in a camp would be a good idea." Virgil grumbled and walked away from Michael, who just shook his head.

"Wilderness Girls, you're second! That means you YouTube cronies are third. Pretty good placements, not much further from how both of you placed in the last leg!" Duke clapped while the three teams started to move on from the chill zone, and he continued to watch the horizon to see an oncoming swarm of motorboats. "With two teams still currently on penalty, we've got an onslaught of others just raring to reach our chill zone!" One by one, more boats arrived at the dock, and teams rushed for the chill zone like it was the only thing that would keep them alive.

"Alright! Friendly Duo, you guys are fourth! BFFFLs, fifth! Sailor America Nerds, sixth! Reality Show Bozos, seventh! G-G-Gaymers, eighth place, and no new high score! Smart girlfriend and Brain Damaged Girlfriend, ninth! Disgusting Dweeb Freaks, tenth! Jamie Lynn and Her Burden, eleventh! Bloody Babies, twelfth! Kotomi and the Goblin, thirteenth! Hot MILFs, fourteenth! Furries-To-Be, Lyle and Zeke, fifteenth! "Father and Son?," sixteenth! Leaving Arnold and Aisling at our lovely seventeenth spot! Three teams remain on the beach, how much more intense can this get!?"

"Dahling, this sandcastle looks simply magnificent! I just wish getting that tip didn't come at the price of ruining my absolutely beautiful makeup job." Karma grumbled under her breath, getting up from the sand and staring at the magnificent sandcastle that her and Vanessa had put together.

"Mhm, you said it, gurl! Well, all that's left is for us to get that next tip…we'll totally get your glam back right after we're all done, yeah?" Karma lightly nodded to Vanessa, who beamed. Sandy approached the team, tip ready in hand, which Vanessa claimed quickly. "Oh, motorboats! Exciting! Absolutely thrilling!"

"Oh, I've never been on one of those before! Sounds like it'll be oodles of fun!" The girlbosses excitedly ran for the dock, leaving Evander, Kurt, Mika, and Conroy with the remaining thirty seconds of their penalty.

"And there goes the last team…other than the cool guys." Mika sighed as Karma and Vanessa took off in their boat, but looked up to Conroy with that faint smile of hers. "Well, getting out third is better than getting out first or second, as they say! Always gives us time to strategize before joining another game show like this, right?"

"Oh, you guys and your strategy, so boring! At least attempt to act cool in your complete loss!" Evander scoffed at Mika, annoying Conroy again. "Timer's just about up…I'd say it was nice competing with you guys, but you were really just kind of annoying, you know?"

"Heh, yeah, annoying. That girl wouldn't even admit to her being a curb worker." Kurt chuckled, and Mika looked away, completely embarrassed. The timer finally ran out, and the four of them stood from the sands.

"Well, Basketball Nerds, I guess we'll be seeing you later! Or not, haha!" Evander started to laugh while he and Kurt ran for the docks. "Man, did I get stung by a bee or something? Cheek's really hurting like it. Ay, Kurty K, you seeing any bee stings here?" He turned his cheek to his partner, giving him a good chance to look it over.

"I don't see no bee sting there…maybe you're the one on crack this time." Kurt shrugged and got into the first motorboat that he noticed was available. Evander walked over to the boat, but as he stood before, his cheek really started hurting bad.

"Hey man, what the hell is goin' on here! It's hurtin' real bad!" Evander started to rub his cheek, and before long, the imprint of a fist was shown on it. "WHAT KINDA VOODOO MAGIC IS THIS!? AGH!" The pain got worse and worse, until Evander suddenly went flying, landing back in the sand on the beach with some of his teeth knocked out.

"...What?" Kurt just looked absolutely dumbfounded, but he ran out of the boat to go get Evander. He was much heavier than what he was used to towing around, considering that with him being homeless, he wasn't anything exceptionally strong.

"S-senior, what just happened?" Mika started to look away to see what was going on with Evander and Kurt.

"Don't worry yourself with it, let's just focus on the sandcastle! That crazy energy of yours is really gonna help us rebound this!" Mika nodded, and feverishly got back to work on the sandcastle.

Confessional

"Simple calculations, really. The penalty was only twenty minutes long, but after what Evander did, I figured he could take some extra time to pay for it." Conroy adjusted his glasses before glaring at the camera. "As I said…nobody can get away with doing that to Mika."

Confessional End

"Hm…taking a really long time, waiting for these last teams. Wonder what those chumps are up to? Oh, here we go!" Duke clasped his hands as Vanessa and Karma docked, each of them getting off of their boat and running to the chill zone as fast as they could. "Glow-Up Gals, your placement of eighteenth isn't really good or anything, but it's a pass, which means you guys are gonna be moving on to the next leg of the race!"

"Mahvelous, dahling, absolutely mahvelous!" Karma cheered and threw some glittery confetti, which sprinkled all over Duke's head. His eye twitched lightly while the two of them danced by him, leaving him to shake his head as best as he could to try and rid himself of the confetti. It didn't exactly work well, though, as glitter has a mind of its own and this time, it decided it wanted to stay in his locks.

"You know, I should penalize them for giving me this mess to deal with, but I'm ready to get this show on the road! Basketballers? Cool Guys? Who will be the last team to be safe tonight? The suspense is killing me! …No, literally killing me! I've been standing here for so long now, I just wanna go eat!" Almost as if a gift from the heavens, the next motorboat docked, its teammates swiftly getting out and rushing to the chill zone. They were panting from all the running, but nonetheless, they were there. "...Mika and Conroy! You guys are nineteenth!"

"We…we made it in time! Senior, you truly are a genius!" Mika's eyes went back to how the usually twinkled as she stared up at Conroy in awe. It was then that the final boat docked, with Kurt jumping out and helping move and drowsy Evander along with him.

"Sorry, Cool Guys! Guess you really ain't all that after all! You're out!"

"Aw, gabagool…" Evander sighed and fell over on the dock, with Kurt groaning annoyedly.

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"Man, I can't believe that nerd even used math and science in his friggin' punches! Talk about a truly lame way to knock me out!" Evander sat on the dock next to Kurt, staring off into the distance before the camera transitioned to show the clip of the latter harassing the kids back in Toronto before being pulled away by the former.

"Meh, maybe you should just accept that your big mouth got you in a whole heap of trouble this time around. Getting knocked out ain't cool, so you've got some reevaluating to be doin'." As Kurt spoke, the clip of him and Evander snatching the camel from Marty and Xavier played.

"As if I'm gonna take advice from some hobo on how to be cool! It was a waste, paying for you to tag along…you didn't do a damn thing while we were here!" The next clip showed, being the one of Evander first taunting Conroy on the beach. "Whatever…I'm gonna start my own leather jacket shop when I get back home. That, or hair gel! Grease is back in style, I say!"

"Eh, maybe I'll see if I can get back into the auto business…I been feeling the passion all over again…or maybe I'll just go do some more crack."

"Whatever you say, Kurty K…whatever you say."

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22nd: The Rivalry Twins - Maya and Jeremy

21st: The Dual Artists - Zerine and Sua

20th: The Cool Guys - Evander and Kurt