"Last time on the Ridonculous Race: Things got super spicy in Mexico, and rhymey. Devin picked a potent pepper in an attempt to impress Carrie, but the pepper won. The Ice Dancers were headed for gold until in a surprising move Kevin's cartoony levels of upper body strength managed to get the job done. The Ice Dancers may have failed at grasping the gold and ousting the creepy Goths, but they did succeed in getting the Reality TV Pros cut from the race. Who's going to disappear this week? The only way to find out is to watch right here and right now. This is… the Ridonculous Race!"
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As is the usual routine, Don stood next to the Chill Zone from the day before, now equipped with a new Don Box for the next leg of the race and some samba music "Hola compadres and welcome back to Mexico, where the Artists are the first to depart from the starting line of today's race and Kevin is the first to depart from whatever shame he may have as he taunts the 6th place by penalty Ice Dancers."
"This one is just for you ya Heather reject." Kevin started dabbing Power Ranger style, much to the amusement of the other teams.
"And scratch that, he has no shame."
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"These last few legs of the race have been pretty average, but that ends now." Gwen's resolve seemed firm "From now on we stay in the winner's circle by any means necessary."
"Any means necessary, sounds like music to my ears." Kevin let out a wistful sigh "So does this mean that-"
"No, just no."
"You don't even know what I was gonna say."
"And I'm about 95% sure that I don't want to know."
"...I've taught you well young grasshopper."
"You've taught me absolutely nothing."
"And that means that I've taught you well."
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Josee was foaming at the mouth for like the umpteenth time "We not only lost the gold but we ended up in the bottom two AGAIN, but the Goths are still in the race! Well at least we got rid of those annoying pros, now it's only a matter of time. We won the bronze medal for treachery, the silver will be getting rid of those Gothic vampires and then we'll finally get rid of the Artists for good!"
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Putting Josee's ever destabilizing sanity aside for the moment, Gwen picked up the first tip of the day from the Don Box "Looks like we're going to Can Tho Vietnam."
"That sounds like something out of a video game." Kevin noted.
"Or a movie."
"Or anime."
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"Can Tho is not only a great name for a Disney style movie villain, it's also the largest city in the thriving Mekong Delta of Vietnam. Each of our 6 remaining teams will find their next tip located along the infamous Mekong River, where the fish are as plentiful as they are pungent. No seriously, they smell like Owen."
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Devin was the fourth one to collect a tip from the Don Box, but thanks to his pepper juice incident from the day before he couldn't read it "Uh… it says… you know what screw it." he handed it to Carrie "Here, you read it while I get us a taxi. Taxi!" he bolted off, only for it to be followed by a loud crash.
"The road is the other way." Carrie pointed out.
"I knew that!" he bolted the other way, followed by another crash "Ow…"
"...Yeah, this is gonna be a long day."
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Devin let out a sigh "It turns out I'm violently allergic to hot peppers, especially when I accidentally rub some of them into my eyes so my vision is still kind of off right now. But just don't tell Carrie about that alright? I'm trying to impress her so that I can lay the land for when I tell her that I'm in love with her."
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By now the 6 remaining teams were trying to hail taxis.
"Taxi, hey taxi over here!" believe it or not, despite his poor eyesight Devin was able to hail a taxi fairly easily, but then he grabbed Loki from where he was in Ennui's hand "Come on hurry up Carrie, there's no time to waste- Wow your hand is really hairy. Drive drive drive!" and so the taxi took off.
"...So." Carrie turned back to Crimson and Ennui "You guys wanna share a cab?"
"Fine." so Ennui hailed a taxi and the three of them set off "You realize that Devin probably won't survive that cab ride, Loki doesn't deal well with strangers."
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Devin heard a snarling noise and rubbed his eyes just enough to be able to see the form of a clearly pissed off Loki glaring up at him "What the- Where the heck is Carrie? Oh man is she in a cab alone with the Goths?" he then proceeded to get mauled by Loki, which made for a very painful cab ride."
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"Loki doesn't like strangers." explained Ennui "Especially ones who reek of happiness and desperation."
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Ennui, Crimson and Carrie all met up with Loki and a severely injured Devin at the airport and found the former holding the tickets for the Goths and the letter holding the tickets for both himself and Carrie "You have our tickets. Good job Loki. Come on, let's go already." and so the three of them took off.
"Oh good you got our tickets. Come on, let's hurry and get our seats." so Carrie grabbed the tickets from Devin and took off.
"R-Right, coming!" and so Devin took off in the wrong direction once again, resulting in another crash "Ow…"
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"All 6 of our remaining teams have boarded the same flight to Vietnam, and when they land it will be a race to find taxis."
Sure enough, the Best Friends, the Goths, the Ice Dancers and the Artists were able to secure taxis fairly easily. Unfortunately, this left the Bromigos and the Fashion Bloggers without any luck.
Jen let out a groan "Oh man there aren't any more cabs and we're the only teams left, now what are we gonna do?"
"Hey check these out." Geoff pointed to where some rickshaws were parked nearby "Tell you what, I'll drive the thing and you guys just kick back and enjoy the scenery."
"Wow, that's…"
"Chivalrous? Well I'm trying to take a few cues from another guy's book. Oh and Jen?"
"Yeah?"
"...Nevermind, just go ahead and kick back." he started pedaling once they were all on board the rickshaw "Let's move it, to the Can Tho river!"
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DJ looked at Geoff and raised an eyebrow "You're really throwing me for a loop dude, why not just ask the girl out? She's right there and you're basically driving her white horse."
"Because I don't wanna take any chances of screwing this up with her." Geoff told him like it was obvious "I'm trying to wait for the right moment and that moment isn't when you're pulling a rickshaw in Vietnam and sweating like a pig while your cowboy hat is starting to slide off because your White Stallion Glue is being melted by the Vietnamese sun!"
"So then when is the right moment?"
"I don't have a freaking clue!"
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It wasn't long before the Ice Dancers and the Artists arrived at the Can Tho river and were making a beeline for the Don Box "Bye bye losers, see you at the finish line!"
"Not on your life ice bitch!" Kevin tackled both of them to the ground "Go for it Pasty, grab the tip!"
"I'm on it." Gwen picked up the tip from the Don Box "It says here that we're doing something called a Superteam challenge."
"What the hell does that mean?"
"Let me read it and I'll tell you, it says that three teams are gonna have to go catfish noodling together."
"Super noodle what now?"
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"Catfish noodling is a local fishing technique in which people use their fingers as bait for the catfish that are as big as they are disgusting. In this superteam challenge, teams must work in groups of 6, counting people not teams, and collectively noodle six catfish in order to receive their next tip. And as an added bonus, if a superteam manages to catch the catfish branded for the Ridonculous Race then they'll receive what's referred to as a Zip It Ticket, which will allow all three of those teams to skip the next challenge and go straight to today's Chill Zone. And as always, the last team to arrive here may be cut from the race."
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Josee looked like she was trying not to gag "Well then I guess we have no choice, we'll have to work… together." her voice sounded like it was filled to the bring with disgust." this was met with a gasp from Kevin and a hard glare from Gwen.
Jacques on the other hand shuddered "I cannot stand fish, they're so slimy and wiggly and they always try to slap me with their fins!"
"Yeah well I don't care, we need that branded fish in order to get back the gold that we rightfully deserve and I'll do anything that I have to in order to get it even if it means working with these rejects."
"You realize we're standing right here." Gwen pointed out.
"Yeah I know."
"Just checking. So anyway it looks like it's gonna be you guys, the two of us and the next team that shows up. We might as well get a boat while we're waiting."
"I guess."
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It wasn't long before the rest of the teams arrived and started to collect their tips.
Carrie was the first of the stragglers to grab a tip, due to Devin still having poor eyesight "It's a Superteam challenge!" she looked back to see the Goths show up "Hey maybe could work together with them."
"Which ones though?" asked Devin "I mean us and the Fashion Bloggers are in an alliance so that makes two teams."
"True, but as for the third team why not go with DJ and Geoff? I mean you've seen DJ's arms before, add his heart into that mix and he's basically a superhero."
"But then again the Goths helped us out yesterday so we owe them."
"Enough with the talking." Ennui stepped up to them "Let's just go, us and your alliance. Better than working with the Ice Dancers."
"True." he looked over at Carrie and let out a sigh when he thought she couldn't hear him "Man this sucks."
"Still making a fool out of yourself?
"Yeah, what's wrong with me? The more I try to tell her I'm in love with her the more that I screw it up, plus my eyes don't help that. I've gotta prove to her that I'm her knight in shining armor and then I'll tell her I'm in love with her, and then everything will be great. It's totally foolproof." he put some drops into his eyes.
"Proof that you're a fool."
"Yeah. Hey!"
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Not long after that, Geoff pulled up with DJ and the Fashion Bloggers while he was driving the rickshaw and sweating like crazy "Oh thank god… I can breathe again…"
"Hey don't sweat it, you pulled through like a champ." in a surprising move, Jen gave Geoff a quick kiss on the cheek before grabbing a tip from the Don Box "Well that's interesting, we've gotta work in teams of six."
"Oh cool so that means we get to work in a team with whoever else right?"
"Well…" she gestured to to where the Best Friends and the Goths were sitting in their own boat nearby, with Devin waving in the wrong direction, only to fall into the water.
"Oh. Well what are you gonna do right?" he seemed rather bittersweet about it as he proceeded to follow DJ into the boat with the Artists and the Ice Dancers "So… good luck then." and so the three teams of the yet to be formed Axis of Evil took off.
"Yeah, you too." so with that in mind, Jen and Tom made their way over to the boat that was housing the Best Friends and the Goths "Hey guys, what's up?"
"Hey." was the simultaneous chorus of Ennui and Crimson.
"So… how do you think the first team is holding up?"
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Josee was quick to lose her temper "For crying out loud Jacques, will you just get in here and noodle us some fish already?! For the love of gold this is just fish, and take off those stupid sparkly gloves you moron!"
"Not even when hell freezes over!" Jacques and his sparkly gloves remained firm in their position and resolve "I may be willing to stick my bare hand in a glove full of bullet ants but I would rather die than put my hands anywhere near the mouth of a fish, they're too cold and too slimy. It's like having your grandmother lick her own feet and then force you to give her a foot rub!"
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By this point, the second Superteam had already set sail.
Carrie watched as Devin looked out the bow of the boat and turned back to the Goths "You know it's kind of weird, Devin's been so sweet lately so if I didn't know any better then I might let myself think… No, I no longer read into every little thing that he says or does. Unless the two of you think that I should." this was met with a snarl from Loki "Alright sorry, unless the three of you think that I should." this was met with more snarling from Loki "Huh?"
Ennui was quick to translate "Loki says that you can do one of two things. Your first option is to just push those feelings deep down inside and ignore them until they're basically nonexistent."
"Okay…"
"Your second option is to let your feelings out and see where they might lead you on the path of life."
"Wow. And that all came from the rabbit?"
"He's smarter than most humans." this was met with chipering from Loki.
"Huh, well maybe I should-"
"Hey Carrie check it out, I found this bucket of chum to attract the fish to us!" and then the boat hit a rock, causing Devin to accidentally spill the chum all over Carrie.
"...Feelings being pushed down. Down. And now they're gone." this was met with a chirp of disapproval from Loki as he handed her a cloth "Thank you."
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"Loki usually doesn't deal well with strangers, but he does know hopeless romantic cases when he sees one." Ennui was met with a chipper from Loki
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The first team was progressing well, more or less.
Gwen was able to use the noodling technique to catch a fish on her hand "Alright it's gross but effective, I've got one!"
"Get the f*ck over here!" Kevin ripped one of the fish out of the water with his bare hands, which turned out to be extremely effective "And who says doing things like you're a blonde version of the Hulk doesn't work, I guess it's just my natural charisma."
"Oh and don't forget the face, personality and odor." Josee offered her two cents "You don't have the same breeding as someone like me."
"Hence why I don't lick myself in front of other people." this was met with a snarl, but other than that it shut her up.
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By this point Jen was directing the rest of the Superteam on searching for fish "Alright guys listen up, chances are there's at least some fish right underneath us so let's take different areas for now. Crimson and Ennui, you guys go over to that side and try to scare the fish towards where me and Carrie at the bow so we can use the noodling thing to catch them. Devin and Tom will take them off of our hands, literally, and stick them in the boat."
"Fine." so Crimson and Ennui stepped out of the boat and sunk down into the water in a very ominous way.
Carrie and Jen took this chance to start searching for fish "Here fishy fishy."
"Okay ew ew ew!" Jen suddenly found a fish sucking on her hand "I got one, oh good god it feels so slimy and weird on my hand!"
"Hey I got one too!" Carrie found her own fish stuck to her hand "Oh man this feels so weird and not in a good way."
"Take them take them take them!"
"Please just take them!"
"I've got it!" so Devin leaned in to take the fish from Carrie's hand, only for it to start repeatedly slapping him "Ow ow ow-"
"Oops, sorry. Here Devin, try it this way." so Carrie turned it around, only for the fish to just up and blast Devin in the face with water.
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Devin let out a sigh "Man I just can't do anything right today can I? I have to find some kind of way to show Carrie that I'm her knight in shining armor, her hero. Come on Devin, wake up and get a grip already!" he started slapping himself "Ow."
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Others were having about as much luck as him.
Geoff had managed to catch a fish with his bare hands, only for it to slap them with its tail "Easy little fish, you don't wanna make me angry. You wouldn't like me when I'm angry." his response was the fish raising its tails and several more appearing before slapping him repeatedly, causing him to scream in pain and everyone watching to cringe.
DJ and Gwen on the other hand manage to bring up two of their own fish "Not to bad of a job so far teammate."
"Right back at you." Gwen shot him a small smile "Kind of brings back some memories of World Tour."
"Yeah- Hey where did Kevin and Josee go?"
"...Oh crap."
"GET OVER HERE!" somehow Josee had managed to tackle Kevin inside the boat and was trying to bludgeon him with a fish, and Kevin was attempting to do the same.
"Oh for f*ck's sake!" Gwen kicked both of them in the face and held Kevin back, with Jacques doing the same to Josee "Will you two get a hold of yourselves? In case you two haven't noticed, we're losing right now!" she pointed over to the other Superteam.
As it turns out, Jen had managed to catch the fourth fish "Nice work you guys, now we only have to more to go!"
"Do you see what they're doing that we're not?"
"They're…" Josee tried to bite back the bile "They're… cooperating. Well isn't that just perfect, I wasn't born with that gene!"
"Look I think it goes without saying that we hate each other and Kevin lacks the restraint necessary to hold back that hatred."
"Well of course, what's your point?"
"My point is that right now can we hate the thought of losing to them even more to the rest of those teams?"
"...I hate when goths make sense, and what's worse is that I think that you might be right about this. Fine, we'll call a truce but just until the other teams are gone."
"Agreed. So going back to what our strategy should be…"
"I have an idea." Josee pointed to where a crocodile was sleeping nearby "Anyone love a good little bit of sabotage?"
"If it means that I get to wrestle with a crocodile then I'm all for it." and so Kevin proceeded to make his way over to the crocodile.
Gwen on the other hand was left with a horrible realization "I think I just created some kind of Axis of Evil."
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Devin was looking out at the Can Tho river, his eyes still very blurred 'Oh god come on, where the heck is it?'
"Oh wow look at that!" Josee pointed to the giant crocodile near the rocks "Did you see that absolutely massive catfish over by the rocks? I have to admit it would take quite the impressive man to catch a beast like that. I would be all over him!"
'...And just like that Adam's not the only one who knows how to get the girl. All I have to do is catch the mega catfish, Carrie swoons over it, I tell her I'm in love with her and then we get our happily ever after.' so with that in mind, Devin made his way over to the rocks "Well they said over by the rocks so here goes." and so he grabbed the giant catfish (actually the crocodile) by the tail and dragged it over.
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Ennui dropped the last catfish into the boat "There, that's all six."
"You guys wait here, Tom and I will go get the judge." and so Jen and Tom swam off to get the judge.
"Where did Devin go?"
"I've got one!" that was when Devin came back over "Oh man do I've got one, it's kind of a biter but man this oughta get us some major cred!"
"...Where to begin with what is wrong with this picture."
"What?"
"First of all, you're covered in bloody bite marks and not in a good way. Second of all, you're still having eye problems aren't you?"
"No. Maybe. Why do you ask?"
"Because that's not a catfish, that's a crocodile."
"What? No it's not! Is it?" this was met with a growl as the crocodile chomped onto Devin's arm and dragged him underwater.
"Devin!" Carrie let out a horrified gasp.
"Hold on, I've got him." Ennui slowly sunk underwater.
"Are they gonna be okay?"
"They'll be fine, and chances are he'll have some new boots." Crimson told her.
"...Okay."
"Here they are sir." that was when Tom and Jen came back over "We collected all six catfish just like we were instructed to and now they're ready for counting, you'd better be sure to have that tip ready- Why is the water red and black?"
That was when Ennui rose up from the water in an ominous way, now wearing a belt and vest made up of crocodile skin holding Devin by the wrist "Hey."
"Hey. Where did you get the croc skin stuff?"
"...Found it."
"Oh. Well… nice."
"Thanks." he dropped some of Devin's eyedrops into his eyes and slapped him once straight across the face.
Devin bolted upwards "Back off croc I saw every Karate Kid movie and I'm not afraid to imitate it- Oh hey I can see, thanks man."
"Sure."
Jen took this chance to receive the tip from the judge "Looks like it's an All In, something about getting lost and found underground."
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"For this All In challenge, each of our six remaining teams must take taxis to the famous Vietnamese wartime tunnels. Somewhere in said tunnels we've placed a Don Box with their next tip containing directions to the Chill Zone. But they had better be sure to be careful, the tunnels are riddled with decades worth of traps, dead ends and more than a few spiders. With any luck a certain someone might get the chance he needs to be a hero. Hint hint."
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Josee could not have been more pissed when she watched the other Superteam ride off towards the caves "What?! You mean to tell me that I… cooperated… for nothing!"
"I'm pretty sure sabotage doesn't count as cooperation." Gwen pointed out.
"Shut up you gothic vampire-" she was cut off by a shriek.
Jacques pointed to where the catfish with the Ridonculous Race logo could be seen in the distance "There's the branded catfish, I see it! Hurry, someone come over and-" the catfish chomped onto his hand, causing him to shriek in pure horror "GET IT OFF GET IT OFF GET IT OFF!" and yet this was still enough for the judge to hand them the Zip It Ticket.
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"While team evil, if it could really be called that, collect their Zip It Ticket and cruise their way straight to the Chill Zone, the other three teams at the underground tunnels in order to start the second challenge."
Jen and Tom poked their heads into the cavern and both of them cringed "Looks kind of creepy in there."
"Really? I haven't felt this happy in days." Ennui commented "This place reminds me a lot of those catacombs in France, it could be an amusement park or a camp for kids."
"...Yeah, anyway let's just hurry up and get this over with fast." and so the three teams rushed into the cavern, only to find three caves leading to three different paths.
"So does this mean that we're all on our own now?" asked Devin.
"Well we're in an alliance but…" she gestured to the Goths.
"Oh. Right. Wow, this is awkward-"
"Save the attempts to spare us from the awkwardness." Ennui cut him off "We'll just give you some kind of signal like a bird noise or something when we find the Don Box. Either that or we'll just have Loki signal you in some way."
"...Oh. Well okay then, come on homie let's go." Devin grabbed Carrie by the hand and led her down the tunnel to the left, with the Goths going down the tunnel to the right.
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Don on the other hand was standing with the Ice Dancers, the Artists and the Bromigos at the Chill Zone "While the three teams tied for last place all split up and two of them are being consumed by awkward temptations to betray the third one, our Axis of Corruption is in a three way tie for first place. Congratulations you three."
"Wait we're called what now?" DJ and Geoff chorused.
"Say what you will but it doesn't have that terrible of a sound to it." Jacques pointed out "I know this might not seem ideal to any of you, but what would you say if we kept this alliance for the time being, at least until the final three?"
"...Fine, put her there partner." and so Josee shook hands with both Gwen and Kevin, snarling at them as she did.
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Geoff cringed at the thought "I don't know about this man, Jen and me have sort of hooked up. I think. I just don't really feel right about joining an alliance without her."
"Yeah I get you." DJ put a hand on his shoulder "And frankly as tight as me and Gwen are I don't trust the Ice Dancers, and knowing what that chick's kind can be like I say we steer clear of them."
"Thanks man, and you know I think that now I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna go and ask Jen out when she gets here."
"Good for you man, good for you." and so they bro hugged.
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Josee let out a scoff, a venomous smirk plastered across her face "Of course this isn't a real alliance, we're just playing with the Artists. All we have to do is let them think that they're safe and when their guard is down-"
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"We take this to their throats." Kevin held up Gwen's Dragonfang "And then it's a one way ticket through the Drop of Shame."
"Okay when we get home I'm sending you to therapy. And give me that back." Gwen snatched the Dragonfang away from him "And stop using magic tricks to steal that thing out of my pocket!"
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"The race for first place is over, as is the race for the top three, and now the three sub teams of the Superteam are battling it out to not come in last. And getting caught by booby traps in every direction. And making fools out of themselves by trying to act mocho. And some are doing other things."
Crimson, Ennui and Loki slowly walked down their path, taking in the darkness, until they stopped at a dead end "It's a dead end."
"Maybe. Or…" Ennui sat Loki down on the ground and watched him go to work on the wall.
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Devin looked up as he saw the cavern roof shaking slightly as a result of Loki going to work on the wall 'Okay Devin you've gotta take that as a sign, you've gotta tell Carrie how you feel just in case you end up buried alive. Hey Carrie, we need to talk."
"What's up?" asked Carrie.
"There's something that I've been wanting to tell you for awhile. I know you're probably still mad about the tiger thing in Vegas but it was thanks to that incident that I realized something really important."
"What's that?"
"Carrie… I-" he was cut off when the ground beneath Carrie suddenly crumbled, leaving her dangling over a pit of spikes "Carrie!"
"Devin help, pull me up! Please!"
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By this point, Jen and Tom were both wandering in complete darkness "Eesh, who the heck turned out the lights?"
"I know right? Oh wait hang on, I have matches." Tom lit one, only to shriek in terror when he saw that he was covered in spiders, causing him to drop the match.
Jen lit another one and used it to light a torch "Okay Tom it looks like all of the spiders are gone so you can stop clinging to my leg now."
"...I'm not clinging onto your leg, I'm just making sure that there aren't any spiders crawling up your legs."
"You're a terrible liar." Jen pulled Tom to his feet "Come on, let's just go and keep looking for the Don Box."
"Right." the two of them started walking "So… You gonna ask out Geoff or not?"
"I did tell you before that I didn't want to get involved with anything like that until after the race was over, but then again after watching Devin spend the past two days trying to make a fool out of himself for Carrie I think that as much as I do like Geoff I think it's best if I spare him from the same fate."
"And how much he made a fool of himself for the blonde surfer girl during Total Drama Island a few years ago."
"...For the surfer girl, right."
"Hey easy, she's already been dating that friend of Devin and Carrie for a year so I don't think you have anything to worry about-"
"Oh look there's the Don Box." Jen gestured to the Don Box in the middle of the large cave area, only for this to be followed by a very loud scream "Hey Tom?"
"Yeah?"
"Did that sound to you like it was a good scream or a bad scream?"
"That was a bad scream, definitely a bad scream."
"...You think it was Devin?"
"No, I mean he's not exactly Hercules but he's also not, well me. That was definitely Carrie that was screaming."
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Devin was trying, and failing, to pull Carrie out of the hole "Don't worry Carrie I'll pull you out in a second, just hang on for a little bit longer!"
"I'm holding on as much as I can but I'm slipping!" by this point Carrie was coming off as pretty much hysterical "Please just don't let go!"
"I'll never let go, no matter what happens I'll never let go!" and then he started slipping and nearly fell into the hole with her, until he felt something grab onto his leg, which allowed him to get a grip and pull Carrie out of the hole to relative safety "Oh man that was close." he looked back.
As it turns out it was Ennui and Crimson pulling on him by the back of his shirt "Hey, you guys alright?"
"Yeah, thanks to you." he glanced over to the now clearly visible hole in the wall "Did you guys bust through that wall?"
"No, Loki ate our way through." this was followed by a snarl as Loki spat out a few chunks of rubble.
"...Cool. So about the whole alliance thing-"
"We usually don't do alliances, you guys aren't dark enough to meet our normal standards. But still, you have honor."
"So is that a yes or a no?"
"More like, let's wait and see how things play out." this was followed by squawking noises sounding in the distance "Is that the signal?"
"I don't think we ever agreed on a signal."
"...Oh yeah." and yet they still took off in that direction regardless.
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Jen slapped a hand over Tom's mouth "What the heck are you doing? I just asked if we should signal the other teams, I never said to do it!"
"What are we supposed to do, just leave them down here?" Tom protested.
"...Alright you got me there." this was followed by the other teams showing up "And it's too late now."
Ennui was the first one to pull out a tip from the Don Box "It's a map to the Chill Zone. Come on, let's go." and so he, Crimson and Loki all took off running, with Carrie and the Fashion Bloggers following right behind him.
Devin, now covered in both sweat and shame, looked at the camera and let out a sigh filled with shame, humiliation and remorse "And just like that I'm an idiot all over again, the more I try to impress her the more I come off as a grand f*ck up-"
"Devin come on, hurry up!" Carrie's voice rang throughout the cavern.
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"It's one final dash to the Chill Zone and to not come in last, I can't wait to see who it's gonna turn out to be!"
Tom and Jen found themselves pulling ahead of Devin and Carrie "Do you think we should let them pass us?"
Jen looked back at the Best Friends, then back at Tom "Well Devin is gonna need a lot of time to work out telling Carrie how he feels and I don't wanna ask Geoff out until after the race is over anyway, so they need it more than we do. Let's do it."
"Alright. 1… 2… 3!" and so they suddenly slowed their pace, allowing the Best Friends to overtake them.
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Don was quick to count off the Goths once they arrived at the Chill Zone, with the Best Friends following not long after "Goths you're in fourth place and that means it's fifth place for the Best Friends, you guys are still in the race!"
"YES!" Devin and Carrie wrapped each other in a sweaty hug "I actually did it, I didn't screw it up! Well not too bad anyway."
"Uh, Devin?" Carrie pulled away from him due to the fact that he was sweating like a dirty pig in the middle of August.
"Oh yeah right, sorry. I guess I'm kind of sweaty."
"Not really. Hey homie, back in the tunnels I think you were gonna say something? Trying to tell me something that sounded important?"
"...Yeah you know what, I think that can wait. I mean Tom and Jen just let us pass them so that means…"
"That they just sacrificed themselves so that we could stay in the race."
"Yeah."
"...You're right, whatever is going on between us can wait." and yet she let out a sigh as her thoughts began drifting with the wind 'Devin nearly cost us the race today, what's been going on with him lately? It's like the longer we're in this race the less I actually know him. I want to win the million but with my best friends, not some total stranger.'
Sure enough, Don took the chance to address the Fashion Bloggers "I'm sorry you two, but you're out of the race. You can take a moment to say your goodbyes." and so he walked off.
Jen held out a hand to stop Devin and Carrie before either of them could say anything "Don't bother guys, it's okay. We made the choice on our own and you need this race right now way more than we do. Just make sure you win it, for our sake."
Devin and Carrie shared a look and nodded "Yeah, for sure."
"And one other thing, just make sure that whatever happens you don't give up on your true feelings." she glanced over to see the Bromigos and the Artists standing a few feet away, having come to see her and Tom off "Just like how I can't give up on mine."
That was when Geoff made his way over to her "So this is it then."
"I guess so."
"I'm really gonna miss you."
"I'm gonna miss you too."
"You know I would never be part of screwing over you guys like that Ice Dancer chick did. I would never do that babe, you're the girl for me."
"Aww aren't you sweet." she wrapped her arms around his neck and gave him a quick kiss on the lips while leaving a card in his hand "Call that a little goodbye present, why don't you give me a call once the race is over?"
"...Okay." and then he fainted.
"Kiss of death, works every time." and so with that, the Fashion Bloggers took their leave from the race in style.
"And so does this." Don took this chance to sign off "So five teams move on to the next round but the question remains, who will survive the set of challenges that have still yet to come? The only way to find out is to keep on watching… the Ridonculous Race!"
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Tom let out a sigh "You know I wouldn't call this a failure in any way, we made it all the way to the top six and we kicked butt while we did it."
Jen nodded "Oh yeah totally, we nearly died so many times on that skywalk and in the geyser field and on that vine and everything else up to this point. But regardless of that we did it, and we looked good while we did it and we even made some new friends along the way. Plus I got a new boyfriend out of it."
"Yeah you got that right, yay us!"
"Doing a race like this is a huge test of how strong your friendship is and I think we did pretty great."
"Greater than great."
"Now come on, let's go home. We've got a blog to update." and with that, Tom and Jen walked off into the sunset in style.
A/N:
And with this chapter, the Best Friends are once again on their own. I originally planned for the Fashion Bloggers to make it to at least the final four, but after I wrote the Goths back into the story I shuffled my plan around and now I decided that it was best if the Fashion Bloggers went now. Besides, there was no way I was gonna axe the Bromigos like they did the Surfers just to bring them back later.
Okay to be completely honest, the Ice Dancers are the only team with any evil competitors (Josee) left, so choosing teams for the temporary Axis of Evil was pretty hard. But in the end, I decided to stick the Bromigos and the Artists in because, as a wise man once said, you have to keep your friends close and keep your enemies closer. Plus I didn't want to get rid of either of those teams just yet.
Geoff getting slapped by the fish off screen is a reference to Total Drama Island episode 20, Wawanakwa Gone Wild, when he gets attacked by the beavers.
Geoff's goodbye with Jen is based on his goodbye with Bridgette in Total Drama Island. The main reason why I'm including all of these references to the earlier seasons of Total Drama is, well it's kind of complicated. See I was looking over a few episode of Total Drama All Stars since I plan to do that for another fic later on, and I looked over a few things like people complaining about the character derailment. At first it was mainly the big things like certain specific episodes (Mood Madness, You Regatta Be Kidding Me, Sundae Muddy Sundae), but there were a bunch of little things like Lindsay being weak during the first episode and Courtney not being able to handle gross foods and other stuff. I realized just how easy it can be to lose track of hardcore Total Drama facts like Lindsay actually being super strong from shopping (which isn't really that important in my opinion), or Lindsay being dumbed down to what would be the albino daughter of Peter Griffin, Cosmo from the Fairly Oddparents and modern day Patrick Star and everything bad about the two of them combined, or even with things like Courtney having a super strong stomach (Chinese Fake Out), or her being lactose intolerant (Dial M for Merger). I know a lot of you will undoubtedly disagree with this, but now I kind of understand at least some of those writers on some level. Now I get it on some level, if you wanna be successful with these things then you've gotta make sure you know these things by heart. That was the mistake that Ed MacDonald made, and I want to make sure that I don't make the same mistake.
As a heads up, next chapter one of the five remaining teams WILL be eliminated from the race, thus making Darjeeling a non elimination round. I have a plan for that which mainly revolves around character development for a few specific characters.
Just so you know, this is the last update for this story (and my second to last update in general) before Thanksgiving, so in that case, happy thanksgiving guys.
Rankings:
Ice Dancers: tied for 1st
Artists: tied for 1st
Bromigos: tied for 1st
Goths: 4th
Best Friends: 5th
Elimination:
Fashion Bloggers: 6th
Reality TV Pros: 7th
Sisters: 8th
Rockers: 9th
Father & Son: 10th
Stepbrothers: 11th
Adversity Twins: 12th
Mother & Daughter: 13th
Ultimate Duo: 14th
Vegans: 15th
Geniuses: 16th
Tennis Rivals: 17th
LARPers: 18th