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Episode
8: Part 1
<Announcer Gippal>
Gippal walked around the winding staircase in an
elegantly decorated room with a large fountain and ran his hand along the
slick gold banisters. "I'm standing in the castle of Hollow Bastion
where in 1959 a large battle between good and evil took place. This
location was more recently known as the seventh pitstop in a race around
worlds. Teams raced between worlds in the Kingdom Hearts galaxy and some
maneuvered their well-crafted ships from the roadblock perfectly, while others built and flew what looked more like garbage floating through
space. A difficult choice between a long detour and a scary detour had
teams worried about elimination, but it was a slip by Jecht on a vine that
left he and Raijin to catch up. In the end, Fujin and Raijin were
eliminated after a horrific accident only feet from the pitstop mat. Will
Auron and Jecht be able to catch up after this rough disaster? And will
the alliance between Shinra and Rufus and Yuna and Rikku hold strong?
Steiner and Beatrix, who were first to arrive at 9:42 pm, will depart at
9:42 am. <Steiner & Beatrix: Dating, 1st to depart: 9:42 am>
Steiner ripped open the clue then pulled Beatrix
beside him and handed her the clue.
"Fighting illiteracy again?" Beatrix
asked.
"No, I simply love hearing your voice as you
serenade my ears with the details of our next task," Steiner said.
"Aww, that's so sweet," Beatrix said.
She looked at the clue. "Go to the fountain in Halloween Town."
She looked at Steiner. "Like that?"
"Absolutely lovely," Steiner said. <Announcer
Gippal>
"Teams must now travel to the world of
Halloween Town by a Gummi Taxi. The taxis do not know where to go, so
teams will have to direct them, but each taxi will provide them with a
map. Once in Halloween Town, teams will have to find the town's center
fountain and reach the clue box located directly behind it to obtain their
next clue." <Steiner & Beatrix: Dating, Currently in 1st>
"Let us make haste. The boy and his father
are only seconds behind us," Steiner said as he and Beatrix ran
outside the castle and ran to the platform to take them to the bottom of
Hollow Bastion. <Shinra & Rufus: Father/Son, 2nd to depart: 9:43 am>
"Fountain in Halloween Town," Rufus
said. "Move it."
Shinra and Rufus ran outside the castle and ran
to the platform, only to see Steiner and Beatrix step onto the platform
seconds before them.
"Damn, we'll have to wait," Rufus said.
"There goes any sort of lead-" Rufus looked up at Steiner on the
platform, who was currently waving for Rufus and Shinra to join them.
"This is a good plan how?" Beatrix asked Steiner.
"After learning of the recent elimination, I
would like to assist all teams and try to eliminate Sir Auron and Sir
Jecht. Though I hate to exploit an injury, he is wounded and we must take
advantage of this."
"I understand," Beatrix said as she
also began waving for the Shinras. "Also if we help this team, they
will in turn likely help the two girls. If we can work together somewhat,
at least we can get rid of Auron and Jecht or possibly Amarant and Lani."
"We must eliminate competition by any means
necessary and this may be our only chance."
Shinra and Rufus stepped onto the platform and
the platform began to head down the cliffside of Hollow Bastion.
"Thanks for waiting," Rufus said.
"Happy to assist," Steiner said with a
salute.
"You're weird," Rufus said.
"You don't know the half of it,"
Beatrix said. She smiled at Steiner and rubbed his armored back. He gave
her a confused look, but smiled and waited for the platform.
The platform reached its lowest point and all
four racers hopped off and climbed down the remaining steps and raced to
the edge of the world where five taxis sat and waited for them.
Steiner and Beatrix jumped into the leading taxi
and slid into the backseat. Beatrix picked up the map. "Let us go
umm, forward."
"Nice navigation!" Steiner said
enthusiastically.
"Thank you?" Beatrix responded.
"You're so welcome!" Steiner said as he
hugged Beatrix tightly.
"You're very weird. Oh, but loveable! You're
umm, loveably weird." <Shinra & Rufus: Father/Son, Currently
in 2nd>
Shinra and Rufus jumped into the last taxi and
Shinra picked up the map.
"Go forward," Shinra ordered. The taxi
accelerated forward and immediately crashed into the taxi ahead of it.
"He's too literal, let's change taxis,"
Rufus suggested.
Rufus and Shinra climbed out of the taxi and ran
for the taxi in front. Once inside, Shinra watched out the window as
Steiner and Beatrix headed off. "Follow that taxi," Shinra
ordered. <Amarant
& Lani: Coworkers, 3rd to depart: 9:57 am>
"My turn to read!" Lani yelled as she
grabbed the clue from Amarant and ripped it open.
"I think you read all of them," Amarant
said.
"And therefore it's my turn. This is no
exception. Hand it over!" Lani looked down at the clue. "Go to
Halloween Town. Perfect! A town of freaks in costumes! You and your
chicken-suit will fit in perfectly for once! You can translate from freak
to human for me."
"Why would I do that? You never translate
from whore to human for me."
"Shut up, Flamer! That's just because you're
a homosexual chicken!"
"Can we go now?"
"Fine!"
Lani and Amarant ran through the castle and
through the cliffs of Hollow Bastion and reached the taxis. They quickly
jumped into the closest taxi, which had a smashed up front bumper. They
slid inside and patted around the seats for a minute before Lani finally
spoke to the driver.
"Where's the map?" Lani asked him.
"I don't have a clue," the driver said.
"Of course not! The clue is at Halloween
Town! Drive us there!"
Amarant grabbed Lani and pulled her out of the
taxi. She complained loudly as he stuffed her into the taxi in front of it
with a smashed up rear bumper. He found the map on the seat and instructed
the driver to go forward by pointing over his shoulder and grunting. <Rikku & Yuna:
Cousins, 4th to depart: 10:02 am>
Rikku tore open the clue and read it.
"Halloween Town? Sounds groovy!"
"Should we dress up?" Yuna asked.
"Probably," Rikku said. "Let's
change in the taxi."
Yuna nodded and the pair ran outside and boarded
the platform. It coasted to the bottom where they got into the front taxi.
Yuna grabbed the map and gave a quick point in what she thought was the
correct direction, then grabbed her backpack and started pulling out
brightly colored clothes. <Auron & Jecht: Grizzled Old Guys, Last
to depart:
10:05 am>
Auron ripped open the clue. "Halloween Town
by taxi."
"Sounds great," Jecht said. "Let's
do it."
"How's your leg?" Auron asked.
"It's good enough. Come on now, let's go
already. We're losing!"
Auron and Jecht made their way to the bottom of
Hollow Bastion and found the last taxi. It had a smashed up front end but
still seemed to be functional. The pair jumped inside and looked
around.
"Hey, what gives?" Jecht yelled to the
taxi driver. "There's no map in here!" <Shinra & Rufus: Father/Son, Currently
in 2nd>
"Now go north- no, northeast- no, north by
northeast," Shinra ordered as he stared down at his map.
"You suck at navigating," Rufus said as
he looked at his map to try to follow the directions Shinra was supplying
the driver with.
"Rufus?" Shinra asked with a bit of
fear in his voice. "Where'd you get the map?"
"It was in the taxi," Rufus responded.
"Wh-"
"What taxi?"
"The umm- oh. Oh! Crap! The first taxi we
were in. We need to take it back to keep from getting a penalty. Err,
wait. It's too late for that I think," Rufus
said. "Okay, keep going to Halloween Town. I think I see it, so we'll
go there, run to the clue box, then pray for a roadblock or a yield or
something. Then one of us will return the map while the other makes
himself useful somehow."
"You're becoming quite the planner,
son," Shinra said. "One day I'll bet you could even take over
the company back home."
"Yeeeeeeah. It's possible."
Shinra and Rufus watched as Steiner and Beatrix's
taxi slid in only a few seconds before theirs did. All four exited the
taxis and ran inside the large creepy gates and over to the fountain
spewing a strange green liquid in the town's square. All around were scary
looking monsters, though they all seemed relatively subdued. Rufus and
Beatrix reached it first and pulled out their clues.
"Roadblock," Beatrix read.
"Who's got heart?" Rufus read to Shinra.
"I'll do it. Go return that map." <Announcer Gippal>
"A roadblock is a task that only one team
member may perform. In this roadblock, that team member must bring two
remaining ingredients to the lab doctor. The two remaining ingredients:
Memory and Surprise. Teams must obtain the Forget-Me-Not for the Memory
and the Jack-In-The-Box for the Surprise. For Memory, teams will be shown
a blurry picture of a woman named Sally. Then they must search the town
and correctly identify her by asking her for the Forget-Me-Not, which she
will then hand to them. For the Surprise, they must go
to the graveyard and find the mayor, who will give them a short task
before providing them with the Jack-In-The-Box. With both items, teams
will go back to the laboratory and give the items to the doctor, who will
give them their next clue."
Shinra ran back to the taxi, despite being completely winded, and slid
back inside. He pointed for the taxi to fly back to Hollow Bastion. Within
a few moments, his taxi was on its way back to Hollow Bastion.
"I'll do it," Beatrix said.
"I shall readily anticipate your hasty
return," Steiner said.
"Mr. Shinra," Beatrix said to Rufus,
who was about to run to the laboratory. He stopped at the mention of his
name. "I would like to work beside you on this task to increase our
lead. Only for this roadblock though, then we will become rivals once
again."
"Yeah, sure," Rufus said. "Meet
you at the lab." He positioned himself to run on, then stopped and
pointed at the laboratory only thirty feet away. "Oh. It's right
there, pardner."
"Pardner?" Beatrix asked. She shrugged
it off and shook her head a few times. "Okay, be right there."
Rufus ran quickly to the laboratory and
went up the small flight of stairs leading to the entrance.
Beatrix was about to follow when Steiner tapped
her shoulder moderately violently.
"What is it?" Beatrix asked.
"I only pray you have a plan and that you
may fill me in on it," Steiner said. "I know we mentioned an
alliance to eliminate certain other teams, but I was hoping it only an
information sharing alliance, not roadblock assistance and-"
"Adelbert, be more vigilant. Did you not see
Shinra's hasty disappearance? They have broken a rule and will incur a
penalty for sure. We must simply stay near them to have complete safety
this leg. Now please, I must hurry to meet Rufus for our roadblock."
Beatrix kissed Steiner on the cheek and left him
in a daze to collect his thoughts as she ran to the laboratory. She ran
quickly up the steps and found Rufus, who was studying a picture on the
wall of a ragdoll woman.
"That's Sally," Rufus said, pointing to
the picture. "I've memorized her, let's go." Rufus grabbed her
hand and ran with her to the door she'd just passed through. He led her
down the stairs and through the town square while checking everybody in
the town for what seemed to be less than a split-second, then vocalizing
his findings. "Not her, not her, not a woman, not her, Steiner, not
her, not something I want to go near..."
Steiner watched Rufus pulling Beatrix along and
crossed his arms. "Scandalous creature," he muttered to himself.
"I shall have no empathy when you are eliminated this leg." <Amarant
& Lani: Coworkers, Currently in 3rd>
Amarant and Lani stepped out of their taxi and
ran to the clue box. Amarant arrived first and grabbed the clue.
"Roadblock," he read. "It's
y-"
"Who said you can read the clues?" Lani
asked angrily. "Hell, I didn't even know you could read!"
"Here, read yourself." Amarant handed
her the clue. "It's your turn, and that's good because it sounds
boring."
"Yeah yeah, whatever. Try not to suck too
much penis while I'm away." Lani read through her clue then ran to the
laboratory. <Rikku & Yuna:
Cousins, Currently in 4th>
Rikku and Yuna emerged from the taxi in a
slightly different attire than before. Yuna was dressed as an angel,
complete with plastic wings and skimpy white lingerie, while Rikku was
dressed as a devil, complete with a pointy red tail and skimpy red
lingerie. They quickly ran into town and found Steiner waiting beside the
clue box.
"You dressed up too!" Rikku said,
pointing to Steiner's chest. "And you dressed as a knight!"
"Rikku," Yuna said as she dragged Rikku
away from Steiner. "He always dresses like that. We just haven't seen
him in a while since he did the fast-forward."
"Ohh, riiiight," Rikku said.
"Weird. I never thought I'd know- or have previously known- a
full-blown knight! That's wicked awesome!"
"What about the Crusaders?"
"The who?"
Yuna sighed. "The roadblock is mine. Be back
soon I hope!"
"Good luck!" Rikku said as she hugged
Yuna. <Auron & Jecht: Grizzled Old Guys, Currently in Last Place>
Auron and Jecht waited outside the remaining taxi
and looked around for any place to find, steal, or buy a map, but after a
quick survey of the vacant rocky area they knew it would be impossible.
"I dunno, Auron," Jecht mumbled. "Wanna
just wing it and hope for the best?"
"It sounds like our best option," Auron
replied. He looked up at a floating gummi taxi flying approaching their
area. Neither Auron nor Jecht moved at all aside from their necks that
twisted to watch the taxi fly in. It slid to a stop next to their already
damaged taxi and the door swung open quickly. Shinra stepped out and ran
to Auron and Jecht and stood in front of them holding a map out in front
of him.
"I- err, that is, Rufus accidentally
took this," Shinra said as he handed it to Auron. "Bye."
Shinra raced off to his taxi and hopped inside. It revved its engine and
went forward, slamming into the back of Auron and Jecht's taxi, then slid
clear and flew off in the direction of Halloween Town.
"That was weird," Jecht said.
"Yes," Auron replied. "Well,
there's no time to waste. Let's go."
"Right."
Jecht and Auron ran to their taxi and slid
inside. They wasted no time and directed their taxi driver to Halloween
Town. Rufus continued to lead Beatrix by the
hand until he finally found an area of the town where a large staircase
led up to a single house. He walked up quickly as Beatrix finally tugged
free of his grip.
"What's up, pardner?" Rufus asked her.
"We're just helping each other on this
roadblock," she said sternly. "You have no right to touch me.
Anywhere!"
"Sorry, geez. I just wanted you to keep up
is all. She's in here, I know it."
"You know it," Beatrix said mockingly.
She put her fists on her hips. "How do you know it?"
Rufus brushed his nose and pointed suavely at
Beatrix. "I can smell her perfume."
"It was a picture," Beatrix said.
"Oh. Well it smelled like ink, and this
house smells like ink. She's gotta be in here. Besides, look there."
Rufus pointed to the window where a silhouette of a woman swayed back and
forth.
"And you know that's her?"
"I figure it's a good bet since the rest of
the things in this town are creepy crawlies. It's the most female looking
thing around- Oh, aside from you of course."
Beatrix shoved past Rufus and pulled the
doorbell, which made a screaming noise. Within seconds, the door opened
and a large ragdoll woman opened the door. Her arm was only holding on by
a thread but still had two small brown bags labeled 'Memory'. Rufus and
Beatrix pulled the bags from her dangling arm and headed down the stairs.
"One down," Rufus said.
"Rufus," Beatrix said softly. "I
apologize for my outburst. You somehow found the first location, so I
thank you."
"It's all good, but let's hurry up. If we're
gone for too long who knows what your tin can will think we're up
to. Oh, also there's the whole 'we're in a race' issue."
"Right, that too," Beatrix said with a
smile. Lani walked through the graveyard and
found a stout man with a strange face on the back of his head. The face
itself was strange, though the fact that it was on the back of his head
was also highly strange. She circled the man to decide to which face to
talk to: the one on the front or the back.
"Ready to play my challenge?" the
Mayor's front face said.
"Holy hell! It talks!" Lani screamed
and jumped back a little.
"Holy Christmas!" the Mayor yelled as
his normal face rotated around and his frightening face became his front.
"That's creepy as peanut butter," Lani
said, strangely calmed by the Mayor's 180 degree head rotation. "So
what do I have to do?"
"Simply memorize the order that ghosts come
out of these tombstones and the 'Surprise' is all yours."
"The last time somebody ended a sentence
with 'the surprise is all yours' I found myself tied to a bed covered in
peanut butter." She watched the Mayor, who looked at her with a
confused expression, then looked behind her. "Come on! My plan might
not work if you don't friken hurry!"
Without anymore words said, ghost began to emerge
from tombstones and fly into the air. She watched for a few seconds, then
looked back at the mayor.
"Are you serious?" Lani asked.
"There were four ghosts. The order was one, three, two, four. Can I
have my surprise now? It's no friggin wonder that you have surprise
instead of memory, because that was lame."
"Sorry," the Mayor said as he handed
her a bag with 'Surprise' written on the side.
Lani grabbed the bag and slowly started walking
out of the graveyard when she saw Rufus and Beatrix approaching from the
left.
"Ah ha!" Lani yelled. "So this
Sally girl is somewhere to the left, eh? Thank you two."
"How'd you know she'd do this?" Rufus
asked Beatrix without missing a beat.
"She's a cheating bounty hunter, of course
she's going to do something she thinks is clever," Beatrix said.
"Oh no, you're not tricking me," Lani
said. "You didn't go out of your way to throw me off. You're playing
with my head!"
"Love to chat, but we have to run,"
Rufus said. He and Beatrix ran into the graveyard.
"You JERKS!" Lani screamed. She looked
left, then right, then left again. She grabbed her head and twisted her
body from side to side before finally running the way they had come from.
"She didn't buy it I guess," Rufus said to Beatrix as they both
watched her run off.
"She might pass us, let's hurry,"
Beatrix said. "I'll tell you everything
you need to know," a small green creature said to Yuna, "but
you'll have to speak up. My ears come out the back of my head.
"Oh, okay," Yuna said. She grabbed its
head and pulled it forward into her chest as she spoke to the back of his
head, which was completely absent of any auditory devices. "I need to
find Sally, then the graveyard. Will you show me where they are?"
The green creature breathed deeply and smiled.
"That was amazing. Err, I mean yes, follow me." The creature
trotted to the southeast and Yuna walked quickly behind him. <Auron & Jecht: Grizzled Old Guys,
Currently in Last Place>
Auron and Jecht reached the clue box and tore
their clue open.
"Roadblock," Auron said. "Who's
got heart?"
"Probably me," Jecht said. "I'm
the one that has a boy and wife and therefore I've got a bigger
heart."
"I'm pretty sure your cause and effect chain
there is a bit skewed. I'm doing it."
Auron ran to the laboratory and went inside. He
studied the picture of the woman just as Lani ran inside and handed two
bags to the large headed doctor in the wheelchair.
"Thank you," the doctor said. "Now
with this I can make another heart! I'm cranking these out and selling
them on the black market you see." He handed Lani her clue, which she
took promptly.
"Good idea," Lani said, obviously not
caring in the slightest. She ran quickly outside and grabbed Amarant by
the wrist.
"What gives?" Amarant asked.
"I just want you to appreciate this. I
rocked that roadblock."
"And you're wasting time." Amarant
grabbed the clue from Lani and tore it open. "Make your way to
Monstro Town in the Mushroom Kingdom." <Announcer Gippal>
"Teams must now travel by taxi to Monstro
Town through a gateway at the End of the World. Once there they will have
to travel one team at a time through a celestial vortex. Once through,
they will find Culex's Travel Agency and a clue box where they will
recieve their next clue." <Amarant & Lani: Coworkers,
Currently in 1st>
"Hurry up, Red!" Lani yelled as
she ran for their taxi.
Amarant complied and ran to the taxi and jumped
in after her. "End of the World," Amarant said to the taxi
driver, who seemed to actually know where that was as he fired up the taxi
and sped off.
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