"Yeah, yeah, I know safety and all that, but I need you to just listen to me for a second guys! Just think, if I made them walk all the way over to New Zealand instead of flying, it would probably have been way more dangerous! The wildlife out here is crazy, and the Dukester was just looking out for his contestants so they wouldn't have to deal with it!" Duke quickly ended a phone call with one of his bosses, rolling his eyes before throwing his cell phone away so he wouldn't have to deal with that noise anymore. "Bosses really can be such a pain, you know? Anyways…last time on the Ridukeulous Race: our contestants were all done with their prison venture and their river dreams, which meant it was time for them to return to a humble life of farming! And with farming, there comes handling pests, the pests in this particular instance being none other than 'harmless,' little bunny rabbits!" As Duke spoke, a clip was shown of the rabbits that were obviously overrunning the farm, with all of the remaining teams watching them run amok. "The goal for the first part of the leg was to nab ten rabbits and turn them into the local farmer, who just couldn't handle that task on his own. That, or get the one and only albino rabbit to bypass the whole challenge. Heh, albino, reminds me of this one girl I used to compete against on another show." The albino bunny was shown in the field before it hopped away into the crowd of other rabbits. "Some teams used ingenuity to make their rabbit catching lives easier, while others…well…struggled, to say the least!" The next clip that was shown had Mika and Conroy putting together their rabbit trap, while a clip that succeeded that challenge was showcasing Lady Belle and Ursula getting mauled by the rabbits that they were trying to sic on Mitsuki.
"In the midst of this challenge, Evan and Jamie Lynn decided that they were done with their glow-up, and wanted to get rid of the gals that we love so much! They did end up distracting the gals pretty good, but argued over the rewards from the distraction, setting back their own progress in the challenge! Maybe they should've figured out who was going to end up taking the rabbit rewards before they went through with their plan, eh?" Duke snickered as he played the next clip, which showed Vanessa and Karma running off to go help that little girl that needed them before it transitioned to a second clip, which showed Evan and Jamie Lynn fighting over the rabbit bag and ripping it to pieces. "And while our chaotic alliance was off messing around, we saw the formation of…a very lopsided alliance! I'm really not too sure what Mika and Conroy saw in Becky and Olive as allies, but hey, they ended up deciding that it was worth it to work with them, so here we are!" A clip was then shown, this time with Becky and Olive agreeing to work with Mika and Conroy in the foreseeable future. Conroy looked like he regretted forming the alliance, while Mika seemed to have no problem with it whatsoever. "After all the rabbits were up and collected, it was time for our teams to move on, leaving the farm by biplanes to reach New Zealand, where we are now at the chill zone! Virgil and Michael managed to score themselves first place in the leg, proving that they could still be a threat among all these talented teams. In the end, though, it seemed like things were neck and neck between Jamie Lynn, Phoebe, Karma, and Vanessa, but much to all of our collective disappointment, the Glow-Up Gals just couldn't finish the leg before them, and they were cut from the race! It's always sad to lose a pair of hotties like that, but the race giveth, and the race taketh away. But such as with death, we move on! But this isn't death, this is…THE RIDUKEULOUS RACE!"
Cue Intro
"Everybody, we're still in New Zealand at the chill zone of the previous leg of the race!" Duke whistled as he walked up to the previous chill zone, passing by the dukebox on the way over. There were mountains behind him, and it looked like there was a full-on pterodactyl circling around one of them, but he managed to completely ignore this, instead just focusing on meeting up with Michael and Virgil, who were both standing on the chill zone, waiting to be able to start the leg. "The YouTuber and Editor were first place in our last leg, which means they'll be getting first dibs on travel tips from the duke box! And they can start…now!"
"Aye, a head start! How fun is that, Virgilio?" Virgil rolled his eyes at Michael as the two of them ran over to the dukebox, with the YouTuber slamming his fist down on the button on top of it. The travel tip printed from the box's mouth, and he snatched it up as quickly as he could, bringing it up to his eyes so he could see what it said. "'We hope you've got a lot of heart in you, cause you're about to take a flight to a place with plenty of Seoul!' Oh, we're going to Korea, Virgilio!"
"That's absolutely right, Michael!" Duke suplexed a random Australian man, slamming him onto the ground before dusting his hands off. He was standing in front of the South Korean flag with a big grin stretching across his face. "South Korea, the only Korea that was willing to let us film our show in it, is home to many things that are pretty popular over in America! From the recently rising in popularity K-Pop music to the delectable morsels they serve, like kimchi and bulgogi, you're bound to find some Korean influence wherever you are!" The host held up a bowl of noodles, slurping some up into his mouth before his face lit up with red and he spewed flames out of his mouth like a dragon.
"Each of the contestants are going to be flying together in this experimental bus-plane that was donated to us by a company known as 'Starshine Industries!'" Duke walked a short distance away from the chill zone, gesturing to the bus plane that he was talking about. It looked like a regular, yellow school bus, although it had wings and jet engines on it. "Don't worry, it's probably perfectly safe! We've been given permission to land just at the outskirts of the capital of South Korea…" The scene quickly transitioned, and Duke was now standing at the outskirts of a massive city, standing by another dukebox. "Seoul! Here, they'll find the next dukebox, and with that, the next travel tip!"
"Wait, we're all gonna be riding together?" Michael looked absolutely defeated as he dropped the travel tip to the ground. "...But that means that we aren't going to be getting a head start at all! Aye, all our work to reach first place last time, and for what?" The YouTuber fell to his knees, sobbing loudly and obnoxiously while Lady Belle and Ursula passed him and Virgil by, both of them heading right for the bus-plane and entirely ignoring him.
"Hey, you know we won't get any start at all if you just spend the whole day crying about having to share the ride, so I'd probably get your gay ass up off the ground and on the bus-plane." Virgil gritted his teeth as he started to walk away from Michael, who reluctantly pulled himself up from the ground and followed after him, staring at the ground miserably as they were now the second team to board the bus-plane.
Confessional - YouTuber and Editor
"I absolutely hate all the cultures in the world, some more than others, but if there's anything I love doing the most, it's tearing down other Asian countries and their people!" Virgil grinned from ear to ear as he opened up a notepad, flipping to a certain page in it. "I've got plenty of material prepared to tear down the South Koreans while we're there! Only problem is that I gotta deal with Michael, who…just happens to be really excited for this place."
"Oh, Virgilio! Do you think they're going to let us go to a K-Pop concert for the challenge? I could really make the K-Pop Stans on the internet jealous if I sent them pictures of me at one, since I mentioned in that one video that I thought the music was dumb!" Michael was grinning on his own now, with Virgil looking honestly a little shocked to hear that. "What? Why do you look so surprised? It isn't good music."
"W…which video did you say that in? And how did I miss the Stans probably complaining all over the internet about it!? You've gotta be fucking kidding me…" Virgil groaned and slapped his hand against his forehead while Michael shrugged innocently.
All of the teams boarded the bus-plane, which was lifting up off of the ground already. A few teams felt uneasy to be on such…an experimental vehicle that would be flying them to a whole different country. At the front of the bus, there was Arnold and Aisling in one seat, with the psychic looking into her crystal ball to try and find out if the vehicle was going to crash or not. Lady Belle and Ursula were in the seat across the aisle from them, with Ursula putting on lipstick while side-eyeing Arnold, though he seemed to be wholly uninterested in her attempt of getting his attention. Behind the two ladies, there was Michael and Virgil, with Virgil snickering as he added more onto his "How To Offend South Koreans" list while his partner was already tweeting about where he was headed. Lyle and Zeke were across from them, reading a book about wildlife that showed all the types of animals that were native to South Korea. Then behind them, there was Becky and Olive, who were seated across from Mika and Conroy. The four of them looked like they were talking strategy…at least Conroy and Becky were. Olive was just showing Mika a bunch of crayon drawings that she made of Honey and Mitsuki getting married. Sadie and Marty were sitting behind the BPQ, with Marty resting his head on Sadie's shoulder while she was blushing uncontrollably. Katie and Xavier were in the seat across from them, both of them enjoying a cake that the baker had made earlier that morning. In the next row back, Helena and Flora were snuggling together while staring out the window at the mountains behind them. Across from them, Evan was grumbling in annoyance while Logan was napping. Her nap had caused her to slump over a bit, and she was effectively leaning against him.
"Ugh…I can't believe we got stuck all the way at the back of the bus. Everybody else is going to get their travel tips before us because of this!" Jamie Lynn whined while she sat near the window on the left side of the back of the bus. She glanced at the seat across the row from her and Phoebe, seeing that Mitsuki and Honey were there. "...Okay, well, we'll probably be able to at least shove our way past one of the other teams."
"S-shoving? Oh…I…I really don't know if shoving would be such a good idea. W-we could just ask them if we could get off the bus-plane before them…" Phoebe gulped nervously before she turned to face Mitsuki, who was sitting on the outer edge of her seat. "E-e-excuse me, Mitsuki? W-would it maybe be okay if we got off of the plane b-before you and Honey? Jamie Lynn wanted to know if we could…"
"...Ehhhhhhhh? I-I-I don't know if…you…s-stop talking to me! I-I've already gotta deal with one woman distracting me all the time, so I'll be damned if I let another one distract me, too!" Mitsuki huffed triumphantly before Honey leaned over to her, her chest pressing right up against her back. This caused the NEET's face to turn as red as a beet. "H-Honey, if you don't get those fat, juicy tits of yours o-off of me right now, I'm gonna go ballistic!"
"Ohhhhhh, myyyyyy bad." Honey teasingly replied to Mitsuki, leaning back from her again. She couldn't see it, but this immediately caused her to frown, like she didn't want her to lean back at all. "I just heard you talking and I got kinda curious, so I wanted to join in on the conversation!"
"R-right, that's definitely what you were doing, you temptress…" Mitsuki grumbled quietly, still facing Phoebe, who just looked really confused about the two of them and what they were doing. "...What? Didn't I tell you to j-just go back to your own partner or something? W-why are you staring at me like that?"
"...N-no reason! No reason at all! Just…s-sorry, I didn't mean to stare…" Phoebe silently turned away from Mitsuki and looked back at Jamie Lynn, who was jamming out to some music while she looked out the window. The nervous wreck was about to tell her something, but then immediately stopped herself, knowing that doing so would probably only lead to her getting screamed at or something.
Confessional - Race Moms
"Y-you know, there's one thing that's actually good about having Honey as my partner instead of my brother! I-if he never left, he probably would've messed up the entire race for us…I love him, but he really likes to pick on me…and make me trip…and fail and stuff." Mitsuki sighed before using her thumb to point at Honey, who was inspecting some dirt while she was talking. "The worst thing about h-having her here is that she's just always trying to get me to go gay, which I'm never gonna do!"
"You sure about that?" Honey raised a finger up to her lip as she glanced over at Mitsuki with a disappointed look on her face.
"...L-let me rephrase!" Mitsuki gulped nervously as her face started to fill up with red all over again. "I-I'm probably never gonna do that!"
"After a long thirteen hour flight, which brought out a lot of napping from our remaining contestants, the bus-plane is finally landing on the outskirts of Seoul!" As Duke spoke, the view of the bus-plane landing by the side of the road was shown, with the doors slowly starting to open. Before they could even open all the way, there were teams that were trying to get out, which just resulted in them all slamming face first into the door. "...Which means that this leg is about to kick off for real!"
"Come on already, stupid door! Open!" Lady Belle grunted loudly before just shoving her arms through the small opening in the doors, forcing them open so her, Ursula, and plenty of other teams could get out into the open. Her and her teammate immediately started running towards the next dukebox, which was just sitting on the side of the street. She slapped the button down hard to get the next tip from it. "'High tail it into the heart of the city to the International Kumgang Taekwondo Center to get your next travel tip!' Well, how are we supposed to know where that even is?"
"Looks like there's a map over here on this post!" Ursula pointed to the lamp post that was only a few feet away from the dukebox. Sure enough, there was a map of the city plastered on it, one that had directions on it that supposedly lead to the dojo, but all of the writing was in Korean, not english. "Uhhh…okay, how are any of us supposed to be able to understand this? It's written in a language that uses pictures for its letters!"
"Don't look at me, I never learned no Korean back home!" Lady Belle narrowed her eyes at the map while scratching her chin, trying her best to decipher what it was saying when Arnold suddenly stepped in between the two of them, taking a picture of the map with his phone. They both stared and watched as he twiddled away on the phone, like he was using something to translate it.
"...Yep, got it! Come on, Aisling, it says we gotta go this way!" Arnold pointed off ahead into the city before he started running, with Aisling brushing past the two older women to join him. Both Ursula and Lady Belle blinked slowly at the sight before shrugging their shoulders and running after the two of them. The business man kept his eyes on his phone as they were running, actively reading off the map. "It's not actually that far from where we are! We just need to keep an eye out for all of the…"
"...Foot traffic…" Aisling and Arnold stopped dead in their tracks as they noticed that they were no longer outside of the city, but right inside of it. There were people walking all over, enough people to make losing your partner far too easy. "Well, I do have an idea on how we could get through this without losing each other!"
"Oh, you do?" Arnold raised an eyebrow as he turned to look over at Aisling, who was holding her hand out towards him. He had to just stare at her for a moment before he got the clue and slowly held his own hand out to hold hers. Most of the times before that, when he was holding her hand, it was just so he could drag her around behind him. This time, however, it was different…as she was now actively dragging him through the crowd, letting the pedestrians knock into him while she ran. Meanwhile, elsewhere in the massive crowd of people, Katie and Sadie were getting smushed together by all the people around them.
"Augh! This is, like, totally not fun at all! It's like going to the mall on a Saturday when they're having a flash sale!" Katie tried to giggle a bit as she thought about the mall, only for someone's elbow to hit her right in the back, causing her to accidentally smack her forehead right against Sadie's. "Owwwwww! These people are so totally rude!"
"Tooootally rude! I think one of them even gave me a wedgie when I wasn't looking!" Sadie glanced behind her to see that there was someone really short scurrying away into the crowd, but she couldn't really make out any defining features before they disappeared into all the people. "Someone definitely did give me a wedgie! This has got to be, like, the worst place that we've been to yet! Right, Katie?" She waited for a response from her teammate, but she didn't hear anything but the murmurs coming from the people that were passing her by. "...Kaaaaaaaatie?" When she turned around again, she found that Katie was nowhere to be seen, and she let out a horrified gasp. "KATIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIE!"
"SAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADIE!" Katie called out into the crowd, but much like her partner, she didn't have any luck in finding her or hearing her. All she could pick out in the crowd were pedestrians, not even other teams.
Confessional - BFFFLs
"Like, I have never been separated from Sadie like that before! We pretty much do anything and everything together, which means that…trying to navigate from this city is gonna be the first big thing that we have to do without each other!" Katie started to bite at her nails before stopping when she realized what she was doing. "Wait! Sadie was the one who did my nails for me…I can't bite them, just in case me and her never see each other again! It'll be the last thing I have to remember her by!"
Confessional - Vicious Pop Stars
"Being a famous pop star has many perks…one of those perks is that fans that recognize you are going to help you out in whatever way they can! Evan and I performed in Seoul a few years back, so I'm sure that there are plenty of adoring fans that remember us!" Logan stood up on top of a chair with a huge grin on her face while Evan paused for a moment and thought to himself.
"...When we played in Seoul…hey, wasn't that the one concert where you had that wardrobe malfunction and your top ripped open?" Logan started blushing out of sheer embarrassment when Evan recalled the events of that concert. "Yep, it had to be. So I'm sure they remember you well…or, you know, at least remember your chest well."
"S-shut up, Evan!"
"Adoring fans! Oh, please, won't you help us!" Logan was calling out into the crowd, which made her look even smaller than she normally was. It seemed like no one could really hear her, and if they could hear her, they were definitely ignoring her. She placed her hands against her hips, glaring at all the pedestrians before kicking one of them right in the shin. He fell to the ground, and she pounced onto him, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt and aiming her fist at his face. "Listen here, you! You're gonna lead us to the Kumgang Taekwondo place, or you're gonna get it!"
"He probably can't understand you, Logan. Remember, when we performed, we had to have a translator behind us on the big screen." Logan glared and rolled her eyes at Evan, pulling herself up from the pedestrian, who quickly got up to his feet to scramble and run away from the two of them. "I'm at least tall enough that I can see past pretty much all of the crowd, so it won't be too hard for me to see where we're going." As the duo started to walk through the crowd, they noticed that there were a lot of pedestrians that were flocking to a certain area.
"Huh? What on Earth could these people possibly be going to if they aren't interested in the most important person here?" Logan seemed pretty annoyed as she looked on to try and figure out what everyone was looking at, only to gasp when she saw Becky and Olive suddenly getting lifted up by the crowd. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"Didn't expect our music to be so popular here…I guess South Korea isn't such a weakblooded place, they've got good taste." Becky wasn't smiling or anything, but her usual lack of emotion seemed to be slightly more amused than usual. She looked behind her to see that Mika and Conroy were still fumbling through the crowd, and she tapped her finger against her chin before looking back down at the people that were carrying her. "Yo, go pick up those green idiots while you're at it."
"Becks, I don't know if it's such a nice thing to call our allies idiots!" Becky rolled her eyes at Olive, who sighed in defeat as Mika and Conroy were suddenly scooped up by the crowd as well. The four of them were effectively being carried along the top of the crowd, successfully avoiding having to walk through all the people below them. "Oh, isn't this so much fun! It's, um, it's like if we, um, got to ride on a roller coaster, uh, but the roller coaster wasn't a coaster and it was just a bunch of hands, yup!"
"I do have to say, I didn't think you would so quickly find a way to get through this crowd, but that just proves your reliability even more." Conroy adjusted his sunglasses as he looked at Becky, who rolled her eyes at him and just relaxed herself while she was being carried around. "At this rate, we'll be making it to the dojo before any of the other teams can!"
"I've never done Taekwondo before! Do you think we're gonna have to face off against other teams, or…I don't even know how this is gonna go!" Mika giggled to herself as she tried to think about what might lay ahead in the leg. She looked over at Olive, who was in the middle of drawing another picture. "Oh, Olive! What are you drawing? More wedding pictures?"
"Nope! I'm drawing 'em on their honeymoon now!" Olive smiled innocently while Mika smiled back at her, before her expression dropped to a look of concern, which confused the drummer. "Why do ya look all upset about that? It isn't anything bad or nothing, I just figure that they'll be eatin' a whole bunch of chicken nuggets and french fries! See?" She held up her drawing to show Mika, who was absolutely relieved to see that it truly was just Mitsuki and Honey eating together.
Confessional - Basketball Team
"L-look, you gotta understand that I wasn't trying to think dirty! B-but, you know, most couples on their honeymoons, they do…things…" Conroy was just silently shaking his head at Mika, who was desperately trying to defend herself. "C-come on, Olive has drawn plenty of strange things like that before, it isn't too out of the ordinary for her to do that!"
"So dirty-minded, tsk tsk." Conroy just continued to shake his head, getting a small smirk on his face as he saw a blush lighting up on Mika's cheeks.
Confessional - Bloody Prom Queens
"Becks, have we ever had a concert in Co-Ri-A before? I thought we have only gone to places in the US so far?" Olive cocked her head to the side while she stared at Becky, who just shrugged her shoulders in response. "Welp, either way, it's nice to have a whole bunch of people around the world that are fans of the band! Which makes it all the more sad that we don't got Ivy with us…"
"Eh, we can just mark this for a destination on one of our tours so she can get the chance to see it." Becky slowly glanced away from Olive and to the camera, "And all of you other countries, don't start thinking that you'll be allowed to touch us because of this. I merely gave these people an exception because I saw that there would be a good benefit to us…if any weakbloods even dare to try and touch us, I will personally ensure you get a quick trip to the nearest morgue."
"Don't ya mean hospital?" Olive giggled innocently as she looked over at Becky, who simply smirked to herself. "...B-Becks? Ya meant hospital, right?"
"Oh…it sure is crowded here, Helena! I don't really like this one bit…it would be much nicer if we could just prance through a field of flowers and get right to our destination!" Flora was nervously clinging to Helena's arm as the two of them tried their best to maneuver their way through the crowd, though they were still obviously having a really tough time with this. Someone even bumped into Flora, and her lip started to quiver just from being overwhelmed by how immense the city was.
"Hey there, don't worry! We'll probably make our way to that dojo soon enough, then we won't have to worry about the crowd so much. All you have to do is believe that we'll make it safe and sound, and it's bound to happen!" Helena smiled at Flora, giving her a pat on the head to try and encourage her a bit. The pink witch blushed as she nodded her head in response, and the two of them continued pushing through the crowd. "...Say, I have an idea of what we can do to make this a bit easier on us!"
"You do?" Flora looked confused as Helena leaned in to whisper something in her ear. Her eyes lit up as she heard her girlfriend's suggestion, and she nodded her head in response. The two of them grabbed for their wands, holding them up high into the sky before pressing the buttons on them, causing glitter to shoot out all over the place. Sure enough, the glitter got into the eyes of many of the people walking in the crowd, and they all dispersed to try and get to safety, clearing a big area so that the team could see where they were.
"Look! There's the dojo!" Helena pointed dead ahead, where there was a dukebox that was sitting right outside of the Taekwondo dojo that the previous tip had mentioned. She grabbed Flora by the hand, pulling her along so they could make it to safety before the crowd had the chance to close in on them again. It was a close call, but they managed to reach the dukebox just in time, though they each needed to stop for a moment to take a breath and regain their energy.
"Oh…all this running sure did a number on me…but your idea really worked, Helena! Excellent job!" Flora clapped her hands for Helena, who blushed and leaned over to give her a peck on the cheek, which brought both of them to be full-on blushing messes. The pink witch cleared her throat before reaching over to press the button on the dukebox and get the next travel tip. "Oh…it looks like it's a botch or watch! 'Taekwondumbos!'"
"Hi-yah!" Duke screamed at the top of his lungs before he sent a powerful punch straight into a training dummy, which was knocked over…but immediately rebounded and ended up knocking him over with how fast it was swinging. He groaned as he pulled himself up from the mat on the ground, brushing himself off a bit. He was standing inside of the dojo, which was absolutely massive in size, and full of people…all of them children, from the looks of it. Each of the children had black belts on, and there was a master that was standing behind them all with his own black belt.
"In this botch or watch, botchers will have to face off against these young masters of Taekwondo! Each of them may look small, but they pack a big punch with how much they've been training!" Duke held up a large chunk of a tree trunk, holding it out towards one of the students, who punched it right in the center and split it entirely. "Once the botcher manages to knock the kid they're up against down to the mat, they'll be able to collect their next travel tip from the master! And another thing…I…sort of forgot who our botchers are supposed to be! The Dukester is known for his muscles, not his memory! So now, each team will have to choose who's going to botch and who's going to watch all over again!"
"We have to fight…children?" Helena blinked slowly as her and Flora walked into the building, immediately taking notice of the children that were standing on the sparring mats. She looked at her girlfriend, and the two of them exchanged a confused shrug before she started to walk over to one of the kids. "A-alright, I really don't want to hurt you or anything, so I'll try to go easy on you. Ready?" The kid didn't answer her, she just got into a fighting stance while looking up at her. "...Ah…okay. Here goes nothing…" Helena inhaled deeply before she started reaching out, hoping to just grab the kid by the arm and pull her down to the mat, only for the kid to duck under her arm and rise with an uppercut right to her stomach. She let out a gasp as she clutched her stomach with her hands and fell forward onto the mat.
"H-Helena!" Flora gasped as she ran over to Helena to help her up off of the mat.
Confessional - Mystical Witches
"O-okay, maybe I really underestimated how strong that kid was going to be…she was so small, I really thought that the mention of them being so strong was just a joke." Helena was still clutching her stomach in pain while Flora gently rubbed her back. "In any case, this is going to be a lot harder than I thought…I've never gotten in a fight before, ever, either."
"M-maybe if you just grab her by the legs and throw her at the wall or something…" Flora suggested, getting a look of concern shot her way from Helena. "What? It's just a suggestion! If it was me, I'd probably knock 'em on the head real hard so they just go beddy bye and I don't have to worry about it anymore."
"...Remind me to watch how you behave around children."
"Y-you gotta keep digging straight ahead, not going in all these curved nonsense patterns!" Mitsuki couldn't be seen through the crowd, though she could be heard mumbling…from somewhere. Even some of the pedestrians seemed to hear her voice, all though they couldn't really manage to figure out where she was. "Honey, this is the o-opposite of digging straight! You aren't listening to me!"
"How about you be the one with the excavating tools and digging experience if you wanna complain about how I'm doing it, hm?" Honey grumbled back at Mitsuki, effectively shushing her up. The two of them still couldn't be seen, that was until a part of the sidewalk near the dukebox started to split open, eventually busting entirely. Honey popped out through the hole, wearing her goggles over her eyes, with the lenses absolutely caked in dirt. Mitsuki popped up soon after, and the two were squished against each other in the opening.
"A-ah! You're too close for comfort, lemme get out of this hole!" Mitsuki grunted and griped like the little gremlin she was before managing to pry herself out of the hole in the ground. She took a big gasp of the fresh air when she surfaced, hunching over a bit while trying to fully regain her composure.
Confessional - Race Moms
"The good thing about knowing how to dig through any sort of substrate is that you don't ever really have to worry about crowds and people blocking your way. You can just go under them and then pop up wherever you need to be." Honey smiled proudly as she pulled her goggles off of her eyes and set them atop her head, where they were normally sitting. "Though, to the inexperienced, being underground in tight spaces like that tends to make them…freak out."
"Hua…hua…afuh…" Mitsuki was heaving heavily while she sat next to Honey, who glanced over at her with a sympathetic look on her face. "Y-you could have made that hole a little bit bigger so it wouldn't be so tight, you know?" The NEET angrily looked up at her partner, who was now smirking after hearing her say that. "Y-you stop it with that d-d-dirty mind of yours, you bimbo!"
When Mitsuki and Honey stepped into the dojo, they were met with the sight of many of the other teams that were already there. Helena was still trying to knock her kid down, but getting her butt kicked pretty bad in the process. Arnold and Aisling were there, with Arnold currently laying on his stomach on the mat while the kid he was up against was standing on his back. Becky was also trying to tango with one of the kids, which was afraid to even step near her while Olive was coloring more pictures. Mika and Conroy were there as well, and Mika was effectively getting kicked right in the stomach, a kick that sent her flying into the wall while her partner watched and winced.
"W-w-well, good luck Honey! I-I'll really be rooting for you to whoop this kids butt!" Mitsuki immediately took a step back from the training mats, leaving Honey to stand across from one of the kids. The excavator gulped as she saw how badly the other teams were getting walloped.
"O-oh…I dunno if this is such a good idea, Mitsuki! These kids really look like they know what they're doing, so maybe it would be best if we just didn't compete at all!" Honey tried to turn away from the mat, only to see Mitsuki glaring at her from the sidelines. She sighed and slouched forward a bit, turning around to face the kid again. She gulped nervously and tried to send a punch towards him, but he grabbed her by the fist, pulling her down and slamming her hard into the mat.
"HEY!" Mitsuki shouted from the sidelines, getting the kid to look up from Honey. He saw the NEET running towards him at full speed, grabbing him by the shoulders before slamming him down to the mat and hovering over the top of him. "L-l-listen here, you little twerp! I-if anyone's gonna be shoving that bimbo around, it's gonna be me! Y-y-you think you're so cool just because you've got that black belt? W-w-well, I've got a black belt in being your d-d-d-doom!" The kid didn't really seem to be too afraid of Mitsuki's threat, as he just shoved her right off of him. She muttered something in annoyance before walking over to help Honey off of the mat.
"Thanks, Mitsu…" Honey blushed as Mitsuki pulled her up from the ground. The two just stared at each other in silence for a moment, each with their own redness in their cheeks before their moment was interrupted by a travel tip being held in front of the excavator's face. She glanced to the side to see the master of the dojo holding up the tip, and she smiled slightly before taking it. "'Head out the back door of the dojo and run through the alleyways until you reach the Mixed International Media Studio!' That should be a lot easier than having to dodge the crowd!"
"With Mitsuki and Honey clearing the botch or watch first and heading on in the leg and others still botching," Duke spoke over the view of the Race Moms running out the back door of the dojo to go to the alleyways before the camera transitioned to a different scene, this one showing Ursula and Lady Belle getting tossed around in the crowd of people. "We still have plenty of teams that are trying to work their way around the massive crowd in the streets of Seoul!"
"I don't understand how you could be that massive and not be able to just focus on one person in the crowd!" Ursula griped at Lady Belle as they tried their best to maneuver around the pedestrians that were swallowing them whole in their busy rush. "You're about as useless to me as my husband was!"
"Oh, shut up with your naggin' and whinin'! It's hard to keep my eyes locked on one twink when all the men in this city look like they're dressed up for a business meeting!" Lady Belle snapped back at her partner before tripping over another person and falling into a puddle of water by the side of one of the streets. The black widow snickered as she watched the southern belle pulling herself up from the puddle, her white dress completely soaked. "Oh, I'm going to end up ripping somebody to shreds before we get out of this city."
"Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatie! Where are yoooouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu?" Lady Belle and Ursula suddenly perked up when they heard the recognizable voice of one of their fellow competitors, that being Sadie. It took some good scanning of the area, but they managed to pick her out of the crowd, thanks to all of the sparkling rhinestones that were all over her pink jacket. They exchanged a glance between each other and smirked before pushing through the crowd to head over to the lone BFFFL. "Oh, like, I am so relieved that I found someone else from the race! I was getting really scared out in the middle of the crowd all by myself!"
"That sounds absolutely dreadful, Sadie! I can only imagine how we would feel if we were stuck in the same situation as you…it's a good thing that we found you!" Ursula nodded her head at Sadie before giving her a gentle pat on the back. "We're sort of lost ourselves, but if the three of us were to work together, I'm sure that we'll be able to make it to that dojo in no time! You seem like someone that's really good with directions!"
"Well, I usually am in charge of directions when me and Katie are going to the mall, or the beach, or…well, anywhere, really! I'm more worried about her, since, like, she gets lost really easily! And I can't see her, or hear her!" Sadie started to shiver in fear as she thought about her missing friend, "W-what if, like, the crowd stampeded over her and she's just flattened like a pancake in the street? I don't want my BFFFL to be a pancake, I want her to be regular Katie!" She turned to full-on sobbing as the image of Katie being flattened in the street showed in her mind, and Ursula and Lady Belle could only awkwardly watch her. The black widow looked up at the southern belle, gesturing towards Sadie with her eyes in hopes that she would do something.
"Ugh…" Lady Belle cleared her throat before leaning down towards Sadie so that she was on eye level with her. She worked to put on her most comforting voice, which was actively disgusting her to no end, but she had no choice but to continue the ruse. "There, there, sweet child! I'm sure we'll find your friend in perfect condition when we make it through the crowd and all, we just gotta keep our eyes nice and peeled for her, y'hear?"
"W-well…if you two are helping me look for her…I guess I can at least help you get to the dojo. I don't think we're super far from it right now…i-it's gonna be this way." Sadie sniffled as she started to push through the crowd, with Lady Belle and Ursula grinning to themselves while they followed after her.
Confessional - Bachelorettes
"If I ever have to put on a nice guise for a lil' piggy girl like her ever again, I swear, I'm going to go ballistic! It's bad enough being stuck in this hellhole of a city, dammit!" Lady Belle slammed her fists down against her thighs out of pure rage while Ursula was back to applying her lipstick, really trying to get the perfect shade of red on her lips. "...How much lipstick are you going through? You put it on at least five times every leg!"
"Is that really any of your concern? Ever since my husband's passing, I've had enough money to handle all of my extravagant habits, so you don't need to worry yourself with how I live my life." Ursula rolled her eyes at Lady Belle before refocusing on her makeup mirror. "Sometimes you really do act like you're my mother, you old bag…" The southerner gritted her teeth and lifted up a frying pan, looking about ready to slam it against the back of her partner's head.
"Sadie, Sadie, Sadie! I have no idea where I'm going, but much more importantly, I miss you! Come back!" Katie screamed out as loud as she could into the crowd before she felt someone tapping her on the shoulder. She turned around, hoping that it would be Sadie, only to find that it wasn't Sadie, but it was Marty and Xavier, both of which looked just as frazzled as she did. "Oh, hi guys! Say, have you seen Sadie running around here somewhere? I got separated from her not too long ago…"
"S-Sadie's lost?" Marty's eyes widened in shock when he heard that, and he looked over at Xavier, who shrugged his shoulders. "No…we haven't seen her around anywhere. Do you remember where it was that you last saw her?"
"Um…yeah, I think I remember where we were!" Katie nodded her head with a little smile before she turned around and started to stand on her tiptoes. She was looking out as far as she could into the city, but she could really only see citizens of Seoul walking around. She didn't really recognize any of the buildings, either, and she ended up getting back down on her feet. "I think we were…over there?" She pointed off in some random direction before running off to go look, with Marty running right after her.
"M-Marty! Aw, nuts…" Xavier sighed, slouching forward before he started to run after the two of them reluctantly. Meanwhile, more teams were finally showing up at the dojo, with the Vicious Pop Stars, the YouTuber and Editor, the Long Lost Brothers, and the Awkward Neighbors all running inside at the same time. Evan was up to go against one of the kids, but being the massive guy that he was, it was easy for the kid to go right for his legs, sweeping him off of them with ease. Virgil was trying to fight his own opponent, but just kept getting socked right in the face before falling over onto the mat. Zeke was also in the ring for fighting one of the kids, and his luck wasn't any much better, as he was effectively being turned into a human pretzel. This left Jamie Lynn to shove Phoebe into the ring, but the second she set foot on the mat and saw her opponent, she rolled her eyes back into her head and toppled over, not needing to even be touched at all.
"This is some serious weakblooded shit, can we be done with this already?" Becky took a step towards the kid that she was against, glaring deep into their soul. It was like the kid saw some sort of eldritch horror beyond their own comprehension when they looked into Becky's eyes, and slowly fell to the ground, crawling away from her in utter horror. "There…I don't see why everyone is struggling with this so much." She huffed before walking over to the dojo master and grabbing her travel tip. She started reading it before heading towards the back door. "Come on, Olive, let's get out of here."
"Wait, um, Becks! Aren't ya kinda forgetting something right now?" Becky turned around and looked back at Olive with mild confusion in her eyes before realizing that the drummer was pointing back at Mika, who was still getting absolutely mauled by the child that she was trying to fight against. The singer sighed from her own annoyance before walking back towards the mats.
"Hey, kid, your shoe is untied!" Becky shouted towards the kid that Mika was fighting, causing him to look down at his feet in confusion. He wasn't even wearing any shoes, so it was a waste of his time, but the second of him not paying attention gave the basketballer the chance to grab him by the wrist and pull him down to the mat. She groaned as she got up, tons of bruises all over her body from getting destroyed in that fight.
"T-thanks, Becky…" Mika held a thumbs up towards Becky, but the singer paid her no attention, just walking away and finally going out the back door. Olive did, however, give Mika and Conroy a little wave before she followed after her sister.
Confessional - Basketball Team
"You know, I might be wrong, but to me, it really seems like Becky is warming up to us! I mean, she's already helped us out twice in this one leg alone!" Mika smiled at Conroy, who simply adjusted his sunglasses in silence. "Then again, I guess she could always just be helping us out because she doesn't want Olive to be upset with her again. Remember how they were back in Finland?"
"I certainly remember a lot of people getting emotional in Finland, including Karma and Vanessa when they heard that their experiment on me didn't work out." Conroy nodded his head before looking away from Mika and at the camera. "Please, if you're watching, gals, never touch my eyelashes ever again."
"L-look! It's the next dukebox! We've gotta be getting pretty close to the end of this leg by now!" Mitsuki was breathing pretty heavily as her and Honey ran through the alleyways, but she was relieved when they finally reached the dukebox, which was just outside the back entrance of the Mixed International Media Studio. She reached her trembling hand out to press the button and get the next tip so she could read it. "T-this one is another either/or! 'Love or Manhwa!'"
"That's right, Mitsuki!" Duke was inside of the studio, walking into a rather crowded elevator that was going up to the tenth floor of the building. "South Korea's got a ton of popular forms of media that people know all over the world, and two of the most popular are the Korean Dramas and the Manhwa, graphic novels! For this either/or, your two choices will involve partaking in one of those things! If you choose the drama…" The elevator opened on the tenth floor and the host walked out to the left side of the floor, showing a live studio audience before a set that looked like a broken down apartment building.
"You'll be replacing the actors in a popular show before a live studio audience, only being able to proceed after you manage to bring at least one audience member to tears with your acting skills!" Duke then started to walk away from the left side of the floor, moving over to the right side now, where there were a lot of desks where people were drawing things on tablets. "If you choose the manhwa, though, you'll have to write a full panel for it, posting it on a popular webcomic site! You'll get through this when your manhwa manages to get on the front page of the site, so you gotta give it your all!" The camera then cut away from the studio, and Duke was shown standing right in front of the studio on the sidewalk.
"After you're done with your either/or, it'll just be taking the elevator, or the stairs, down to the first floor of the studio and heading out through the front entrance to get to the chill zone!" Duke walked a short bit before he was standing on the chill zone with a grin on his face. "Better make sure you get here fast, though! As you know, things don't work out so well for the last team to make it!"
"Oh man…how are we even supposed to know what to do in a challenge like this? I've never watched any K-Dramas, and I definitely haven't read any manhwa…" Honey knocked her fist against her forehead while she and Mitsuki got in the elevator. As the doors started to seal shut, she noticed that her scrawny partner was twiddling her thumbs while looking away and blushing awkwardly. "Mitsu?"
"I-I-I think that maybe w-w-we could write the panel just fine! A-a-and not because I like occasionally reading those reverse harem manhwas w-w-where the main girl is never shown so I can just i-imagine that I'm her!" Honey stared down at Mitsuki with a look of disappointment in her eyes, which just got the NEET blushing even more. "H-h-hey! Don't start judging me, I'm totally gonna make this challenge a breeze for us!"
Confessional - Race Moms
"O-okay, maybe sometimes I can be reading too much of these romance stories and playing way too many dating sims, but that experience is all coming in real handy, s-so ha! I get to laugh at all the people that always made fun of m-me for being into those kinds of things!" Mitsuki pointed dead at the camera with a somewhat confident smirk on her face, though Honey was still just staring at her in complete disappointment. "D-d-didn't I tell you to knock it off with that look!?"
"We could just be together instead of you having to read those stories, but noooooooooooo." Honey thought annoyedly to herself before crossing her arms and turning away from Mitsuki, who just started to grumble to herself.
"Mitsuki and Honey are still well ahead of the rest of the competition, already getting started on their manhwa panel! At the same time, we've got the Basketball Jabronis and the Bloody Prom Babies running through the alleyways, trying their best to stay ahead of the others, most of which are still trying to fight off those kids in the dojo!" As Duke spoke, the six teams that were still in the dojo were shown still going up against their kids. No one was really having any better luck than they were before. "And there are still three pathetic teams roaming the streets, not having even reached the dojo yet! The leg is really heating up at this point, folks!"
"Ack! I knew I should've taken lessons in Taekwondo before starting this race, I just knew it!" Arnold groaned in pain while his arm was twisted behind his back. Aisling was sitting on the sidelines, watching with a little smirk on her face as he got absolutely pummeled. "Y-you don't have to look so happy to see me getting destroyed by this kid, you know?"
"Oh, I know…but it definitely brings me a good bit of joy to see your karma coming back to get you." Aisling softly chuckled before she grabbed for her crystal ball, rubbing it a bit while it started to glow in her hands. "If you'd like to get out of your current predicament, though, I'll note that that particular kid that you're up against is incredibly ticklish."
"Ticklish?" Arnold raised an eyebrow at Aisling, who simply nodded her head in response. His arm was still being twisted pretty roughly at this point, but he did have one arm still open and free. He sighed before reaching behind him, tickling the kid right under the chin. He could feel his arm being freed from the kid's grasp, and he heard booming laughter coming from behind him. He spun around quickly, still using this kid's laughing fit to his advantage as he swept his foot right at their ankles, knocking them off of their feet and down to the mat. "Capital job with your mystic sight as always."
"I knew you would say that," Aisling nodded her head excitedly as her and the disgruntled Arnold moved on to go collect their tip from the master of the dojo. As they were doing that, Zeke was still being tied around himself like a pretzel, howling out in pain while Lyle shielded his eyes from the horrible sight.
"Oh, I just can't watch this mutilation! It's horrible, it's just awful, stay strong, Zeke!" Lyle called out to his brother as he continued to cover his eyes so he wouldn't have to watch Zeke being absolutely destroyed.
"I think this kid broke every bone in my body! I feel like a limp noodle at this point!" Zeke cried out in pain before a light went off in his head and he had an idea of where to go from here. "Wait, that's just it! If I've gone limp, that means I can use the powers of the mighty snake to help me in this battle!" The conservationist grinned before unraveling himself and slinking around on the mat. It was honestly a disgusting sight for his opponent to have to watch, but it gave him the opportunity to wrap around their ankles, squeezing them tightly until they wobbled and fell forward. "Yes! Nature always wins!"
"Nice job, Zeke! I always believed in you! Let's go!" Lyle started to run away from the mat, but after a few seconds, he realized that his brother wasn't following after him. He ran back to the mat, looking down at him in confusion. "Uh…aren't you gonna get up so we can keep going with the leg?"
"I think I might have just dislocated the rest of my unbroken bones when I did that, so…uh…carry me?" Zeke smiled awkwardly, and Lyle reluctantly scooped him up off of the ground before they both continued on with their trek. Not too far away from where Zeke was just fighting, Phoebe was pinned down to the ground, getting repeatedly punched in the jaw while Jamie Lynn just watched her, completely unamused.
"Come on already, we don't have all day for you to be messing around like this, Phoebe! I don't want to be in the bottom two again." Jamie Lynn grumbled while she checked her nails, clearly growing more and more annoyed with how long her partner was taking.
"I-I know…h-hey, look over there, there's something cool!" Phoebe pointed off into the distance, and Jamie Lynn turned around to look. This gave the pipsqueak a chance to put her hat on her head. She jittered before turning into Libby and immediately switching things up, now pinning the kid she was fighting with complete ease. "If you ever put your fist near my face ever again, I'm going to kidnap your parents and dump them off in the middle of the ocean, you got that, twerp!?" The kid immediately started to cry from sheer fear, and Libby pulled the hat off, tucking it away as she shifted back into Phoebe, who nervously got up from the mat and walked over to Jamie Lynn, who was still looking for whatever it was that was pointed out to her. "W-we can go on, now…"
"It's about damn time!" Jamie Lynn hissed as she turned around, and the two started to run ahead to go get their next tip.
Confessional - Awkward Neighbors
"Having this walking detriment with me in this race is really getting way more annoying than I ever could have imagined. I mean, if it was me in the ring with that kid, I definitely would have taken him down in the matter of seconds!" Jamie Lynn crossed her arms and huffed while she looked away from the camera, with Phoebe confusedly staring at her.
"...But…Jamie Lynn…w-we were allowed to pick who was botching for this challenge, so…you could have been the one to fight the kid if you offered…" Phoebe tried to question her partner, who just glared at her, striking fear deep into her soul. "Y-you're right, I shouldn't question your methods, I'm dumb for even speaking up…"
Confessional - Long Lost Brothers
"Nature's lovely creatures can always come in handy for all sorts of different situations! Obviously I channeled the abilities of the snake in that instance, but there are times when we could call upon the mighty eagle so we could fly through the sky with ease!" Zeke nodded his head while Lyle was working hard to lodge his bones back in the right place. "Okay, well, maybe we wouldn't be the ones flying, but we've had birds come to help up before!"
Confessional - Psychic and Skeptic
"It was pretty funny to watch that kid giving you the business, Arnold. I'd say it was better than any comedian I've ever seen!" Aisling had her crystal ball in her lap, and was consulting it once again. It started to faintly glow in her lap before she chuckled a slight bit. "And ever will see, apparently! Nothing could ever beat watching someone get tossed around like a salad by someone that's half their size."
"W-well, that kid definitely had years of experience in that sport, so there was no chance I was going to knock him down too easily!" Arnold blushed faintly out of embarrassment before turning away from Aisling and rubbing the back of his neck. "...So, uh, thanks for helping me with your crystal ball and stuff."
"More and more teams are managing to finish up their Taekwondo classes at this rate!" While Duke spoke, Helena could be seen using her wand to shoot glitter in her opponent's eyes so she could pin them. Evan leapt right up into the air, stomping down on the mat hard and causing it to shake so that the kid he was against, tripped and fell. And then there was Virgil, who just started screaming slurs at the kid until they started crying and sucking their thumb while rolling around on the ground. "But our three teams in the streets still haven't made much progress locating the dojo, putting them in real danger!"
"Any idea on how much further it might be to the dojo, Sadie? It'll be far easier to find your friend when we get there and are out of the crowd." Ursula was fanning herself off while she continued to follow Sadie, who was still sadly leading the way for the Bachelorettes.
"Oh yeah, it shouldn't be that much longer now…I think that it's actually only a little ways away from where we are now, so we should be there in no time." Sadie tried to sound cheerful when she answered Ursula, but it was impossible for her to not appear as miserable as she truly was. Lady Belle and Ursula obviously didn't really care, so they just let her sulk as the three of them pushed past a final bit in the crowd, making it to the sidewalk where the dukebox was. "Yeah, look. We're totally here."
"Oh, it's about time…I thought we were going to be stuck in those streets forever." Lady Belle smirked as she walked over to get the next tip. Her and Ursula read over it together before they started to head towards the dojo's entrance, with a confused Sadie standing by the dukebox still.
"H-hey, wait a minute! Aren't you guys gonna help me find Katie now that I brought you to the dukebox? That's what you said you were going to do!" Sadie looked a little angry for possibly the first time ever as she started to walk towards the two of them, but her anger was quickly replaced with fear when she saw the menacing looks on their own faces.
"Oh, honey, ain't you ever heard a lil' white lie before? Ain't our fault that you wanted to believe that we'd actually waste our time helping you out…good luck, though. Maybe you'll manage to outlast one of the other teams, but probably not." The Bachelorettes laughed to themselves as they finally headed inside of the dojo, leaving Sadie alone on the sidewalk, gasping in shock.
Confessional - BFFFLs
"I-I can't believe it! Ursula and Lady Belle didn't wanna help me find Katie, they just wanted to use me so they could get the next travel tip easier! Oh, that's just so…ugh! Mean!" Sadie glared at the camera as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I knew they always gave off, like, the meanest energy ever, so I should've never trusted them! Stupid, Sadie, stupid! Katie always reads people a lot better than I could…ohhhh…I wish Katie was here!"
"A-and…I think it's all done!" Mitsuki set her stylus down on the table that she was working at, wiping some sweat from her forehead while Honey grabbed at the tablet to look over what she had put together. The panel seemed to involve tons of muscular men that were fawning over the faceless main girl, much like the harem works that Mitsuki mentioned reading before. Honey just looked a little creeped out as she read through it, until about halfway through she noticed that there was another girl character that the main character was constantly arguing with. "Well? What are you waiting for? Post i-it already!"
"Right, got it!" Honey gulped as she posted the work onto the comic site, and the two sat there together, staring at the front page and waiting to see if anyone would like it. There were a few moments of nothing, but after a little more time of waiting, the views suddenly started to sky rocket. People were even leaving comments and reviews under it, and also favoriting the story. Mitsuki looked genuinely shocked to see how quickly the panel was gaining popularity. "Woah! Look at all these comments!"
"Lemme see!" Mitsuki snatched the tablet from Honey, reading over some of the comments before her face went pure red and she recoiled in disgust at what she was reading. "Uwah! Why is everybody shipping the main girl with Yonhe!? They're supposed to do the opposite of that! L-look at all the perfectly good muscular men with big dongs that the main girl's got to sample from! This is just…a-a-absurd!"
"But it's on the front page, so we can get to the chill zone now!" Honey grabbed Mitsuki by the arm before pulling her over to the elevator. The two of them passed by Olive and Becky on the way, both of which were working on their own panel.
"Okay, now have someone try to object the wedding, but Kitsumi finally stands up for Yonhe and tells security to throw them out." Becky was effectively directing Olive so she could draw whatever she was telling her to do. The singer slowly glanced up at the camera with a little smirk on her face. "Just cause I don't draw pictures of it all the time doesn't mean I don't want it to happen, weakbloods." Meanwhile, Honey and Mitsuki were just getting out of the elevator on the first floor, passing by tons of other teams that were just showing up to the studio.
"T-t-this was like, the easiest first place ever!" Mitsuki was a little shocked at how well the two of them did, even as she saw how far ahead they were. They ran out through the front door, both of them stepping onto the chill zone, where Duke was waiting for them. "W-w-we made it! First place!"
"That's right, you two made it! …Made it to your one hour penalty!" Duke grinned as he held up a time clock and set it down in front of the two women, both of which gasped as they saw the sixty minutes starting to count down. "Back in the dojo, you two picked Honey to be your botcher, but the one that pinned the kid wasn't Honey, it was actually Mitsuki! I'm afraid you guys are gonna have to just sit back and wait for this timer to be over before you can actually finish the leg!"
"A one hour penalty seems a little excessive, Duke…" Honey tried to complain, though Duke just raised an eyebrow at her.
"If you really want, I can make it a two hour penalty," Mitsuki and Honey both had their eyes go wide as they heard his threat, and they pretended to zip their lips shut before shaking their heads, as if they were begging him not to do that. "Yeah, that's what I thought! Now, you just sit tight while the Dukester keeps an eye out for the rest of the teams…most of which are either acting or writing right now!" The camera panned up to the tenth floor of the building, peering through the window to show that Helena and Flora were working together on their own drawing, as well as Becky and Olive, Mika and Conroy, Michael and Virgil, and Logan and Evan. The ones currently acting in the studio were Arnold and Aisling, while Jamie Lynn and Phoebe and Zeke and Lyle were standing off to the side and waiting for their turns to go.
"Lady Belle is absolutely throttling the kid she's up against in the dojo, too, which means the BFFFLs and the Friendly Duo are falling even more behind than ever at this point!" The camera quickly transitioned to show Lady Belle pinning the kid she was up against to the mat with the tip of her heel while Ursula snickered and watched. Meanwhile, outside of the dojo, Sadie was still calling out for Katie, leaving Marty, Xavier, and Katie to continue roaming through the crowd.
"Katie…I know you're worried and all…but at this point, I'm starting to think that Sadie might have actually just gone to the dojo already. We've been looking all over the place, but we haven't even seen one sign of her." Xavier was panting from how much the three of them had run around at this point, and Katie tapped her chin while looking all around the crowd again.
"Hm…well…yeah, she might be over there. Sadie's, like, really good with maps and directions and stuff, I was never really good at any of that stuff. I don't even remember coming over here at all before…" Xavier's eye twitched as he heard Katie saying that, and he looked just about ready to rip her to shreds. Marty quickly noticed his friend looking…not so friendly…and he stepped between the two of them to make sure that nothing bad would happen.
"N-now, let's not get too crazy…let's just stop and think about this for a moment. We've been all over the city, and we haven't seen any sign of Sadie, but it seems like the one place we haven't been to is the dojo. A-at least we know that the likelihood of her being there and being safe is really high! That just means that we have to get to the dojo and we'll be all fine, right?" Marty looked back at Xavier, who took a deep breath to try and calm himself.
"Well, it certainly would be easier to find the dojo if we still had Cheese with us, but he isn't here. His sense of smell would've so come in handy right now…" Xavier groaned and looked down at the ground, having basically given up all hopes of finding the dojo at this point. At that point, though, it looked like Katie was thinking really hard about something.
"Sense of smell…oh, that reminds me! Sadie has a really good sense of smell!" Xavier and Marty just looked a little confused by hearing this, but Katie seemed pretty sure that this would be important. "We used to get bullied a whole bunch back in school, and one of those times, there was a kid that stretched out Sadie's nostrils so much that she just smells things way better than other people! She said, like, it was a blessing sometimes and a curse the other times."
"...Right…yeah, that's a fun story, Katie, but I'm not so sure that that's really going to help us find the dojo…or Sadie, for that matter." Marty looked a bit dismayed to hear the end of that story, since it gave them literally no help whatsoever.
"No, no, it totally is going to help us find the dojo and Sadie! Xavier, you remember when you made those pastries like, last week, and the smell of vanilla was so powerful? Well, if you've got anything like that, I'm sure Sadie would be able to notice it from wherever she is!" Katie nodded her head at Xavier, who quickly started to rummage around in his pockets before he pulled a mini oven out of nowhere and set it down on the ground. Marty and Katie shared a glance between each other, wondering what he was about to make.
"Give me five minutes, and I'll have something ready that will let Sadie know exactly where we are!" The baker quickly got to work in his oven, tossing in a bunch of ingredients that he just so happened to be carrying with him. Meanwhile, Sadie was still sitting by the dukebox in front of the dojo, sighing while she stared out into the crowd.
"That's it…Katie's gonna be lost forever in that crowd, and I'm, like, never gonna see her ever again! Ohhhhh, Katie!" Sadie started to sob again while she sat there, effectively giving up all hope…that was until something rather strange happened. She took notice of a rather powerful, sweet smell that caressed her nostrils. She looked up from her lap, seeing a trail of steam that was like a beckoning finger, telling her to follow after it. "...Baked goods at a time like this? Well…I am a little hungry…" The BFFFL sniffled as she got up from where she was seated, and she started to follow after the finger. It was pulling her into the heart of the crowd, but she had a pretty good memory of how to get back to where she was before.
"Man, these baked goods are really a lot farther away than I expected them to be…it's making me even hungrier than I already was." Sadie's tummy grumbled as she continued to follow the scent trail, passing by pedestrian after pedestrian before finally pushing right into the middle of the whole crowd, freezing when she saw what was there. Xavier was standing by his oven, with a freshly baked batch of cookies being held in his mitted hands, while Katie and Marty were standing in front of him, both of them smiling wide when they saw Sadie.
"Sadie, you're okay!" Marty sounded utterly relieved as he held his arms wide open, closing his eyes and waiting for her to run into his grasp. Though, after a few seconds, he realized that that wasn't happening at all. He re-opened his eyes to see that Sadie was actually wrapped in a massive hug with Katie, right next to him. "O-oh, right, yeah…"
"Oh, Katie! You can't ever get separated from me ever again! I was, like, really worried that you got crushed by all the people in the crowd and all!" Sadie and Katie both were sobbing as they hugged each other while Marty was awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck while he watched the display. "I'm so glad you found some other people, it was a pretty genius plan to use the scent of the cookies to lure me to you guys!"
"Well, I know a whole bunch about you, so you could say that I'm, like, an expert Sadie catcher!" The two ladies giggled between each other before Xavier cleared his throat loudly to try and get their attention. They both looked over at him, confused at first before remembering that they were in the middle of a leg. "Oh, right! Sadie, you're so good with directions, do you remember how to get to the dojo from where we are?"
"Oh, like, totally I do! That's where I was sitting before I smelled the cookies and came over here! Come on, let's go!" Sadie happily grabbed Katie by the hand, pulling her along while she led the way back to the dojo, leaving Marty and Xavier to follow behind her.
Confessional - BFFFLs
"OMG, I was, like, so excited to see Sadie when she came running for us! It was like we hadn't seen each other in, like, years! And then, we finally got reunited, and it was the best thing ever!" Katie smiled as she wrapped her arms around Sadie, giving her a big hug. It looked like the hug was a little bit too rough for Sadie, but she didn't complain, as she was just as excited to see her friend again. "Next time we get to a big city like this, we, like, have to make sure we wear a belt that attaches us to each other so we can't get lost!"
"Ohhhh, a double person belt! We should, like, totally add that to our fashion line up! 'The perfect tool to make sure you and your BFFFL never ever get separated!'" Sadie squealed excitedly while Katie gasped at the idea.
"Like, OMG, Sadie, I love the way you think! Let's do it!"
Confessional - Friendly Duo
"What's the matter? Feeling a bit down cause Sadie didn't run right into your arms instead of Katie's? To be fair, the two of them have known each other for like…as long as they've existed, I think." Xavier shrugged his shoulders while Marty sighed a bit before looking up at the camera.
"Yeah, I get it, I get it. I guess maybe it just made me a little jealous to see Katie getting all that love and affection right there while I was basically just ignored." Marty sighed yet again while Xavier held out a cookie towards him, "...Thanks, Xavi. Now, let's go finish this leg!"
"B-but you can't just leave! You've built up this whole life with me, and now you're just going to leave it all behind for your business!?" Aisling started to break down and cry while she was standing on the set of the drama show. The audience looked like tears of their own were welling up in their eyes while they watched as Arnold grabbed a jacket and pulled it on, not even bothering to look at Aisling. "...So this is it, then? This is how it ends?"
"You knew this was going to happen from day one, I told you that I'm always going to go for the best opportunity. I told you not to stick around…that I'd just break your heart. And now it looks like that's happened…" Arnold walked over to the door of the set, not looking back at all. He grabbed a hat from one of the hooks on the wall, putting it atop his head before pulling the door open. "...Goodbye, Aisling. Take care of yourself." With those words, the businessman walked through the door and shut it, leaving Aisling to sob to herself in the apartment. The audience couldn't take it anymore after seeing her crying like that, and they all burst into full on tears of their own. In the midst of their crying, Aisling snuck away from the set, running off the side to rendezvous with Arnold, who was grinning from ear to ear. "That was amazing! You'd really make a great actress if you wanted to pursue that!"
"Oh, I don't worry about pursuing anything like life goals or anything like that." Aisling wiped some of the tears from her cheeks as she and Arnold started to run towards the elevator, "As you know, I just let fate take me wherever she deems I'm necessary."
"Right, of course," Arnold nodded his head at her before looking ahead to see that Becky and Olive, as well as Mika and Conroy, were all getting up from their desks on the manhwa side of the floor. The Psychic and Skeptic gasped, rushing into the elevator and trying to press the button as fast as they could so that they could shut out the other two teams, but it was no use, as they managed to squeeze in just before the doors shut. "...Ladies…gentleman."
"Weakbloods," Becky coldly responded to Arnold, the two of them glaring between each other while the elevator started to descend towards the first floor again. It eventually made it down, but the doors were taking forever to open. Everyone narrowed their eyes at each other, really raising the competitive air in the elevator…aside from Olive, who was just innocently humming to herself. Finally, the door managed to open, and the six people all tried to rush out as soon as they possibly could. It was a tight squeeze, with all of Mika, Conroy, Aisling, and Arnold trying to get through at the same time, but Becky and Olive managed to crawl right underneath them, running out through the front door and landing on the chill zone before any of them even had the chance to get near it.
"Bloody Prom Queens! Congratulations! You're the first team to make it to the chill zone and complete the leg, so you're safe!" Duke greeted the girls with a smile on his face, although they both looked confused rather than excited.
"Wait, first? I thought we would've been second?" Olive cocked her head to the side before her and Becky turned around to see Honey and Mitsuki standing around while staring at their penalty clock, which had forty-five minutes on it still. The drummer gasped, running over to the two of them with a miserable look in her eyes. "Mitsuki, Honey! You guys can't have a penalty, why do ya have a penalty? That ain't fair!"
"H-hey, it's okay! A whole fifteen minutes passed before even one team managed to finish the challenge since we got here, so I've got high hopes that we won't have much more to worry about! We'll probably get done before the bottom half of teams, even!" Mitsuki looked pretty sure of herself until she noticed the uncertainty that was coming from Becky and Olive. "...Uhhhh…what's that look for?"
"Basketball Team, you guys are second! Which means our Psychic and Skeptic are third!" Mitsuki and Honey looked up from the girls to see that more and more teams were flooding over to the chill zone already, and their hearts sank to their stomachs. "Mystical Witches, fourth! Vicious Pop Stars, fifth! Long Lost Brothers, sixth! And YouTuber and Editor are pulling in at seventh!"
Confessional - Race Moms
"...It appears I may have spoken too soon," Mitsuki mumbled while glancing over her shoulder to see yet another team making it to the chill zone, this time being the Awkward Neighbors. She winced at the sight before looking back up at Honey, who looked just as nervous as she did.
"W-wellllll…we had a pretty good run, right?" Honey tried to smile, but the smile sank pretty quickly as both of them looked more and more nervous. "...You think Olive will probably take it just fine, right?"'
"Uhhhhh…" Mitsuki looked to the side to see Olive drawing another picture of Mitsuki and Honey on their chicken nugget honeymoon. "...I'm sure it'll be fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine."
"With eight teams already done with the leg, Sadie and Marty both managing to take care of the kids they're facing in their Taekwondo match, and Lady Belle and Ursula already getting on the front page of the manhwa website, things are looking really bleak for our Race Moms!" Duke narrated as the elevator opened on the first floor again, allowing Lady Belle and Ursula to step out of it.
"I really don't understand why we had to write that…we should've just gone with my idea of having all the men flock to the beautiful woman that needed them," Lady Belle grumbled at Ursula, who had a little smirk on her face while she swayed her hips from side to side.
"Someone already did something just like that! Besides, the largest base of readers is in America, and they all love muscular man x twink! You can't deny that we got to the front page of that website pretty quickly because of that!" Ursula snickered to herself, with Lady Belle still feeling annoyed about what they had written. Before they could make it out of the building, they spotted the final two teams entering, with Sadie glaring beams right at them. "Whaddya know? She actually did manage to find her friend in time!"
"Well, I'll be!" Lady Belle laughed as she watched the elevator door close with Sadie, Marty, Katie, and Xavier all in it. Her and Ursula walked out of the building to stand on the chill zone before Duke, who honestly looked relieved to see them there.
"Oh, thank goodness, the MILFs are still in…ninth place, though. Better make sure you pick up the pace for the next leg, eh?" The two older women rolled their eyes at Duke before they stepped off of the chill zone, and he glanced over at Mitsuki and Honey, who still had a whole half an hour on their time clock. "Yup, things really don't look good at all for the Race Moms! The BFFFLs and Friendly Duo are on their way to complete their either/or, so it could be anyone's game still, but things just look bad!"
"Can you maybe stop reminding us of how bad it looks, please?" Honey whimpered at Duke, who glared at her and held up a sign that said "Two More Hours?" on it. "Eep! Sorry, I'm sorry!" She hushed herself up quickly before she noticed that Mitsuki was glaring back at Duke and grumbling something under her breath. Meanwhile, back upstairs, Marty and Xavier were currently acting in front of the audience while Katie and Sadie were trying to write a panel to post on the webcomic site.
"If I had the chance to do it all over again, I would've never gone with you! You used to be a brother to me, but I don't even know who you are anymore! You're…dead to me." Xavier coldly spoked to a shocked looking Marty, which caused the audience that was watching to start sobbing all over again. They thought their tears would've dried at this point, but that was not the case. "Well, looks like we got through it already! We can head downstairs and finish the leg up, now!"
"S-seemed like you were maybe a little too into the words you were saying, but yeah, we can-...go." Marty stopped in the middle of him and Xavier running as he took notice of Katie and Sadie, who were still in the middle of their challenge. He stared for a moment before his arm was grabbed by Xavier, who pulled him into the elevator and pressed the button, causing the door to shut and block his view of the women. "X-Xavi?"
"Sorry, Marty, but we're so far behind…we need to just focus on ourselves for now." Marty solemnly nodded his head back at Xavier as the elevator carried them back down towards the first floor of the building. The journey seemed pretty long, as it was for everyone, but when the door finally opened up, they were able to run out and book it to the door. They burst through and jumped onto the chill zone, both of them sighing in relief when they landed there.
"Friendly Duo, you guys are really cutting it close, but tenth place for you guys! Only two teams remain to finish this leg, and it's getting really close! Ten minutes left on the clock for the Race Moms, and the BFFFLs are still trying to finish up their panel!" Duke's grin got even wider as Marty started to grow more and more nervous.
Confessional - Friendly Duo
"It was like my heart started racing really fast then and there! The thought of Sadie being in the bottom two just really struck deep within me…" Marty was holding his head in his hands while he stared down at his lap, with Xavier patting him on the back. "...I still have a whole lot to learn about all the feelings that come with romance, I can tell."
"And…done! We made it to the front page! Like, let's get down to the chill zone, Katie!" Sadie shot up from her seat at her drawing desk, and Katie quickly followed along, both of them rushing straight for the elevator. As they went to press the button, though, they were greeted by a holographic screen that displayed the words "Out of Order" on it. The two of them gasped at the sight as they slowly realized what this meant for them. "Katie…I think we have to…"
"Take the stairs…" The two of them glanced to the side, noticing the door that led down to the stairs. It was covered in cobwebs, like it hadn't been used in ages. The two of them shuddered as they saw it, before reluctantly pulling it open so they could start running down the stairs as fast as they could.
"One minute left, c'mon, c'mon!" Honey crossed her fingers as she stared at the time clock, watching every second tick down slowly and slowly. Mitsuki felt queasy as she looked over at Olive, who was starting to look really worried herself.
"Come on, c-clock! You gotta tick down faster or something!" Mitsuki suddenly grabbed Honey's hand out of instinct, squeezing onto it tightly while she began to count down the seconds with her. The excavator blushed profusely the second she noticed her hand being held, but didn't say anything, as she didn't want to risk Mitsuki realizing what she was doing and letting go. "T-ten…nine…eight…seven…six…five…four…"
"We made it down! The chill zone is, like, right there!" Katie shouted as she and Sadie burst from the door from the stairs, both of them panting and sweating from how fast they were running. Mitsuki and Honey both gasped the second they saw the other team, and looked back at the clock more nervous than ever.
"T-three, two, one! Time's up! Let's go!" Mitsuki pulled Honey along with her, the two of them running towards the chill zone while the BFFFLs ran towards it as well. It seemed to be pretty close, and Duke was just grinning more and more as he watched, with Olive, Becky, and Marty all watching intensely, waiting to see who would make it first.
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"Eleventh place goes…to…"
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"...The Race Moms! Katie, Sadie, the Dukester is sorry to say it, but you two are officially cut from the Ridukeulous Race!" Duke drew a line across his throat before he started to walk away from the chill zone. Mitsuki and Honey collapsed on top of each other in pure relief from making it to the end in time, and both Olive and Becky sighed to themselves out of a similar relief. Katie and Sadie froze where they stood, looking between each other and then over at Marty, who seemed just as heartbroken as they were. He walked over to Sadie, taking her hands in his own while forcing a smile onto his face.
"...So…guess that's it, then? No more race for you guys…" Marty sighed softly before Sadie leaned up to press her lips against his. He was immediately shocked, mainly from her taking such initiative with the passionate kiss that she was bestowing upon him. His eyes slowly drooped close, and the two continued to stand there in each other's arms, while Katie and Xavier just watched from the sidelines.
"Well…it's been pretty fun getting to be friends with you guys and all. So…here!" Xavier smiled as he held out a bag of cookies towards Katie, who took them with a huge smile of her own. "Since you guys are gonna be gone, I wanted to make sure you'd have some sweet treats to tide you over while you wait for us to win the race."
"Like, you sound totally confident, and I so love that for you! Oh, you're such a good friend, Xavier! Not just to me and Sadie, but to Marty, too!" Katie leaned in to give Xavier a big hug, getting a minor blush out of him before she pulled away from him. "Well…guess I gotta wait for the smooching to be done and then we'll see ourselves out, right?" She looked over at Sadie and Marty, who obviously were not done with their kissing. "...I'll…give 'em a few more minutes."
"Like, that race was a whole lot more fun than I ever thought it was going to be when we first signed up! We got to meet a whole bunch of, like, interesting people along the way!" Sadie giggled as the clip of her and Katie being startled when Xavier first introduced them to Cheese back in Toronto was playing. "And I definitely never thought that I would end up getting my first ever boyfriend! Oh, I'm gonna miss him so bad!"
"Like, I'm totally gonna miss Marty and Xavier, too! They were pretty much with us through every leg of the race, and sometimes, we only made it through at the end because of them helping us!" The next clip that played was of the women back in Zimbabwe with Marty and Xavier, each of them trying to get their pictures with the rhinos while James and Eliott weren't having much luck with their own rhino. "Oh, and you know what was also really fun? Seeing all the sights!"
"Oh, yeah, totally! Remember when we were back in Finland and everything was all icy, but it was really pretty? That was totally one of my favorite places that we went that whole time!" While Sadie spoke again, the next clip played, this one showing her and Marty sharing their first kiss after Sadie's musical performance back in Finland. "I really wish we could have stayed a little bit longer, maybe just to see some more sights."
"Oh, I really wouldn't feel so bad about it! I had so many ideas and you had so many ideas for clothing lines we can design based on all of the countries that we visited, our brains would probably overflow if we tried to think about any more!" The clips recapping their moments together were all done, and Katie and Sadie were walking together into the streets of Seoul, with a large, pink, glittery belt wrapping around their waists and holding them together. "Now…do you have the directions to the nearest airport?"
22nd: The Rivalry Twins - Maya and Jeremy
21st: The Idol Queen In-Waiting - Sua
20th: The Cool Guys - Evander and Kurt
N/A: The Mouse - Cheese
19th: The Dynamic Gamers - Colin and Freddy
18th: The Sailor America Fans - Lukas and Sunny
17th: The Reality Show Rivals - Jacque and Angel
16th: The Wilderness Girls - Sophie and Bea
15th: The Dweebs - Andrew and Richard
14th: The "Father and Son?" - James and Eliott
13th: The Glow-Up Gals - Vanessa and Karma
12th: The BFFFLs - Sadie and Katie