Boilerplate Disclaimer: The various characters from Kim Possible are all owned by Disney the great and powerful. Any and all registered trade names property of their respective owners. Cheap shots at celebrities constitute fair usage.
This leg of the race adapted from Season 17, episode 3. The order of events may be changed to protect the innocent.
School Daze
Kim was not happy when her alarm went off at four a.m. None of the contestants were happy with a four a.m. start. She couldn't imagine any of the show's crew were happy either, since they must have gotten up even earlier to prepare to tape. She took what comfort she could in the fact it would not be a staggered start this morning – everyone would leave together.
They were told this had been planned as a rest day. Yesterday had been long and hard. They were told they needed a day of rest before the next leg, but by skipping it they would soon be back on schedule. Countries that had made plans to lure tourists would be happy not have to change their schedules. The television crew was not happy to miss a day of rest they needed almost as much as the contestants – but any fights that resulted from the combination of cranky villains and sleep-deprived heroes might make high drama. The contestants would be the ones to suffer most.
"How about we don't talk," suggested Shego as they rode to the airport to catch a flight to Ghana's Kotoka International Airport.
"Talk now. Isn't much to say," Kim assured her. "Buy tickets. Take flight. Find the Independence Arch in Accra and pick up our next Route Marker there. I'm not sure how long the flight is... Can you nap on a plane?"
"The way I'm feeling now? Should be no problem."
"Good, we can lean against each other and–"
"Lean again you?"
"Just saying it'll be more comfortable. Ron and I used to lean against each other."
"I'm not Ron."
"I know. But I still have faith you'll make a wonderful pillow."
"Are you trying to cheer me up or creep me out?"
"Just saying that sleeping together might help us–"
"Don't tape that!" Shego shouted at Stan, who was taping them.
Kim rolled her eyes and looked innocent, "You're tired. I'm tired. I'm sure we'll work better if we can grab a nap. What did you think I was saying?"
"Never mind," muttered Shego. "Kotoka Airport. Independent Arch. That's all I need to know."
"Independence Arch, not Independent. And using me for a pillow. You really need a nap. You sound terribly cross this morning, even for you."
"Can't imagine why," the green woman muttered.
There was a scramble at the airport. There were direct flights to the capital of Ghana, but there were flights with connections that might get them there earlier, assuming the connecting flights were all on time.
Participants in the race were spread over four different flights. Three of the flights required connections. Ron and Monkey Fist decided that the first direct flight was scheduled to land only fifteen minutes after the last of the flights with connection. "If anyone has a problem with a plane, or misses a connecting flight, we'll be ahead of them," the Brit pointed out. "And even if we're fifteen minutes behind I think we can make it up."
"So we try and nap here?"
They took a vote. Ron had hoped to get on the flight with Kim, or even a flight with Hego or Mego. Ron felt somewhat betrayed when Rufus voted with Kong and Monkey Fist for the direct flight. "On the other hand, we get a good nap now and don't worry about finding the right gate at some other airport," went through his head as his eyes closed.
Shego had made up her mind not to speak a word to Kim on the plane. And she did not intend to lean against the redhead nor to allow her former foe to use her for a pillow.
Hego and Drakken, the two men she was the least interested in listening to, shared their flight. They both wanted to talk with her about her lack of gratitude or sense of family obligation. Fortunately she had a lot of practice in not listening to either. But their chatter made annoying background noise. Shego yawned and told herself, "I'll just lean against Kim and pretend to sleep." She woke up as they landed in Kinshasa to change planes.
According to the schedule their flight should have been the second plane to arrive at Ghana. There was no way to find out if the flight scheduled to land earlier had arrived on time.
"Move your ass, Pumpkin, we're not coming in behind Dumb and Dumber."
They found the red and yellow box with the next set of directions with ease. Even as they were reading the Roadblock instructions for, "You've Got a Rocky Road Ahead." Team Blue arrived only a minute behind.
"Akotoku Boxing Academy at Jamestown?" Shego asked, puzzled. "Where's Jamestown?"
"They can't mean the one in Virginia. This is where we need to ask someone."
Shego looked at Stan, "Can we just let the guys ask for information, listen in, and take off when we get the answer while they ask for the waiver to give permission?"
"No, you'd take a penalty. Now if they want to share the answer with you it–"
"Come on, Princess. Even if they were willing to tell us I'm not taking any favors from either of them."
Jamestown turned out to be one of Accra's municipal districts.
"Boxing academy and the roadblock is called Rocky Road?"
"I'm guessing it has something to do with the Rocky movie and not the ice cream flavor."
The Cat and the Tarantula, who had been on the earlier flight, were finishing up as Kim and Shego arrived. Kim watched as Shego positioned herself as far from the drug smuggler and his pet spiders as she could. Shego managed to appear even paler and greener as beads of sweat covered her face.
"Good luck," the Cat gasped. "Or maybe it will be easier for you."
The directions were to spend a minute punching a training bag without stopping, and another minute skipping rope.
Kim looked puzzled, "That's so easy."
The trainer shrugged, "Apparently you know how to jump rope." He nodded his head at the two men leaving the gym. "Neither one of them knew how."
Kim looked at Shego, "You want this one? We could flip a coin. I did the market yesterday. I could do this one," she offered and winked at Shego. "but then you owe me."
"Don't know your game, Cupcake. But I'm not going into debt to you. Flip the damn coin."
They had no idea how long it had taken the Hispanic team to finish, but two and a half minutes after they arrived Kim had finished both parts of the Roadblock. Hego and Drakken had entered the gym as Kim jumped rope.
"Can we hang around a minute," requested Shego. "This should be funny."
"Funny?"
"Oh yeah, they'll be worse than your Black Cat."
"But your brother is so strong!"
"Not a matter of strength. You punched the bag for a minute 'cause you and I exchange hits. One punch is all Hego usually needs to throw. Keep punching for a minute? He'll probably destroy the bag with a couple hits. And I doubt he ever jumped rope in his life. And, if it isn't Hego doing the stuff – don't you want to see Drakken trying to skip rope?"
They stayed briefly to watch. Shego's prediction came true. After destroying two punching bags the trainer told Drakken to complete the Roadblock, Hego might leave the gym a smoking crater if he kept hitting the punching bag.
The women stayed a little longer, and then gave up before Drakken could manage a full minute on the punching bag. "As much as I'd like to see him jump rope, let's get on with this," Shego said, "they may never get out of the gym. What's next?"
"You could read it yourself... Or maybe you love the sound of my voice. Do you love the–"
"Read the damn Route Marker."
"Find the supply depot in Dodowa. It's about forty kilometers from here."
There was a Amazing Race post outside the supply depot as they pulled up. "Oh-oh."
"Oh-Oh what?"
"U-Turn. One team can make another team do both halves of a Detour. You sure you don't love the sound of my voice you–"
"Let's make sure we're not the ones on the U-Turn."
The picture on the left showed Team Experience, the team to be U-Turned. A second picture, on the right, showed the team giving the gift – Team Hispanic.
"So they're both ahead of us?" Shego asked.
Kim shrugged. "I don't know. We know Cat and the Tarantula are. If Señor Senior and the Bat were ahead of them then they didn't have to do the U-Turn. But if they're behind us they'll have to make the U-Turn."
"Can we U-Turn someone, my idiot brother and former boss? Assuming they ever leave the gym."
"No, usually only one U-Turn is allowed on a leg... It'll say if another team can do a second. And U-Turns don't happen every round... Besides, why U-Turn a team that's already behind us?"
"Because we can?"
At the Supply Depot they were required to load two wheelbarrows with building supplies and deliver their loads to the Asebi D/A Primary School to receive their next Route Marker.
The school was the location for the Detours - "Bicycle Parts or Language Arts. We need to roll a bike rim to one end of soccer field and back with a stick, no touching and if it falls over–"
"I get the idea. Start over. Like the pictures of kids a hundred years ago rolling hoops?"
"Sounds like it."
"Probably not too tough. What's the language thing?"
"Something called adinkra symbols. We need to find eight particular symbols on this huge puzzle."
"Without knowing how complex or simple the symbols are, why don't I just roll the bike rim. And we call it even for the day."
"I think that's the nicest thing you've said to me all day."
"Don't let it go to your head, Cupcake. Let's get it over and finish this. I need to sleep."
"Me too. It was fun sleeping on the plane with you this–"
"Don't tape that!" Shego screamed at the camera man.
"But remember, we both have to do a Detour requirement."
Team Hispanic was working on the Bicycle Parts portion of the Detour. There was a lot of cursing in Spanish as one or the other had a rim fall over. Kim glanced at Shego, who had noticed the huge spiders were not on the former drug smuggler's shoulders. The green woman looked around, nervously. She licked her lips, "Maybe we should–"
"We can do this," Kim whispered. "Don't worry about the spiders we'll–"
"I'm not worried about the spiders," Shego lied.
Kim smiled, "And in that case we don't need to switch to Language Arts."
"Damn you," muttered Shego.
Kim located where the spiders were sunning themselves and made sure she and Shego were as far as possible from them.
The judges stared in amazement as Kim and Shego finished the Detour. The two women had started a little shaky, which was to be expected since neither had done the exercise before. As they had picked up confidence they'd picked up speed, and it wasn't clear to those watching if the two were trying to finish the challenge or trying to beat the other to the finish line.
"I win," Kim shouted in triumph and pumped her fist in the air as her bike tire rolled across the finish line. She looked to Shego for a sarcastic comment or complaint.
All the green woman had to say was, "Let's get out of here."
The Cat and Tarantula left the field with Kim and Shego. The pair had not managed to get their tires rolled the length of the field without falling. "We're going to try the adinkra thing," Cat explained.
The Route Marker they had been given after completing the Detour told them to attend a class at the school. There were excited whispers among the children as the pair entered the classroom. Neither woman understood the language, but an excited child waved a hand and shouted something to the teacher. The teacher's jaw dropped. "You are Kim Possible?" she asked.
"She is, I'm not," answered Shego, pointing to Kim. "What did Pumpkin do this time?"
Kim waved it off, "It was just a small group of poachers Ron and I stopped. No big."
The teacher smiled, "Well, I'm certain you shall have no difficulty with our geography lesson. Please point to Ghana on the map."
The Pit Stop was by an unfinished addition to the school.
"You are team number three," Phil congratulated them.
"The old guys beat us again?" complained Shego.
"Team Experience hasn't arrived."
Kim looked puzzled, "I wonder what happened. They were on the first plane to land."
Phil shrugged, "I can't tell you what happened to them." That was 'can't tell you' in the sense the producers didn't allow it. The camera crew kept the production team aware of what was happening to the various participants during each leg of the race. This would make an interesting episode when editing finished up and the show was broadcast.
"But arrival at the Pit Stop doesn't have to be the end of a perfect day. Those wheelbarrows of supplies you brought? You can spend some time helping build on the school's addition."
"If we'd known that we'd have shot for next-to-last," Shego complained as she donned a pair of work gloves.
As more contestants arrived at the Pit Stop the pace of work accelerated. The pace of work especially accelerated with the arrival of the Filipino. And while Hego did not possess extraordinary speed his strength enabled him to accomplish things that would have usually required a dozen workers or heavy equipment machinery.
Shego kept a close eye on Electronique. The green woman knew Team Go's old foe wanted the pardon as much as she did, but Shego feared that Electronque's thirst for revenge would be even stronger. Shego decided not to relax when Electronique was around, get too comfortable and the old foe would attempt to harm Shego or her brothers... Not that Shego loved her brothers, but they were family. And Mom and Dad would be disappointed if she let anyone harm them. "Just doing this for Mom and Dad," Shego told herself as she watched the villain work with the wiring plans for the addition.
Despite being on the final plane Ron and Monkey Fist were not the last to arrive, and the pair appeared better rested than the others felt.
"Where's Señor Senior and Bat-guy?" Ron asked Kim.
"I don't know. It's weird they aren't here yet."
"You saw that they got U-turned, right?"
"Yes, but they've done so well, this far, that I can't understand why they're not done yet."
The other contestants had gone to bed. Phil and the camera crews waited until almost midnight for Team Experience. Phil consoled himself with, "At least this was already planned as a non-elimination day." Sponsors and viewers would howl in protest if the two oldest competitors were eliminated. Usually there was a penalty for the last arriving team on a non-elimination day. "Not going to give them a penalty tomorrow. Sponsors would have our heads."
At 11:49 the pair arrived at the Pit Stop. "As I'm certain you realize, you are the last team to arrive at the Pit Stop. However, this was a non-elimination day. You will be able to continue on tomorrow for the next leg." Phil asked them, "What happened to you today?" He already knew, but the network would want them to relate the story in their own words for the broadcast version.
"My friend observed a group of men acting suspiciously," Senior said, "and demanded we stop to watch them. They were, as he suspected, planning a robbery, and his code of ethics demanded he capture them as they fled the bank."
"There were no hostages," Die Fledermaus explained. "We would have left it to the local authorities rather than risking the life of any civilians if there were hostages."
Senior contradicted him, "You would not have waited for the police, my friend. Your sense of duty would have compelled you to act."
Phil turned to Senior, "We did get a very basic report of what was happening. You knocked out one of the crooks?"
Señor Senior shrugged. "It was four against one. It seemed only fair to make the odds even."
"You thought three to one was even?"
"I have great faith in my partner's abilities. And I feared that should I attempt to take two thieves from the fight he would think I had no confidence in his skills."
"The police were very demanding of our time when they arrived," Die Fledermaus continued. "We had to go to headquarters and file reports. We tried to resume the race as quickly as we could, but the media was also there and demanded time."
"And, when we were able to resume," added Señor Senior, "we discovered the U-Turn. Not that either represented a significant challenge, but it delayed us even further. We must find a way to properly thank Team Hispanic for their kindness towards us."
"Revenge is never appropriate," the Bat insisted.
Señor Senior raised a skeptical eyebrow, "Do you really believe that?"
Die Fledermaus chuckled, "No. We'll think of something. But, for the moment, we will take it as a compliment they see us as the strongest team in the race."