Episode 5: Part 2

<Second Train Arriving>
     The four teams on the second train jumped out of the doors and sprinted to the clue box nearby.

<Ma & Zell: Mother/Son, Currently in 4th Place>
     "Make your way by skateboard to The Usual Spot. Caution: U-Turn ahead!" Zell read energetically to his mother. "Skateboards, Ma!"
     "U-Turn, Zelly!" Ma said with a smile. "Let's not be last!"
     "Heck no."

     All teams read their clues and joined Zell and Ma in heading outside of the train station. They all found their skateboards and headed out to find The Usual Spot. Zell was first out the gates and was doing tricks almost immediately on his board. Ma was second. She didn't do tricks, but she had great form.
     "Ma, you can skateboard?" Zell asked.
     "Duh, Zelly," Ma said. "I used a lot of your toys while you were off being a SeeD!"
     "Total awesome!"
     The next to leave were Reina and Faris. Both were not great at skateboarding, but understood the general concept as they rode toward the city. Then came Biran and Yenke, who acted like dogs riding the skateboards. They put their left hand and knee on the board, then pushed off with their right hand and foot. They build up a lot of speed this way, but struggled when they needed to do any turns.
     Balthier and Fran were about to leave first, but Balthier held Fran back and pointed to the only pair of skateboards left besides their own.
     "Know what this means?" Balthier said, pointing to Reno and Rude's skateboards.
     "We're in second to last," Fran noted.
     "No. Well, yes. But it means they can be eliminated this round."
     "We should hurry to use our U-Turn," Fran said.
     "Exactly." Balthier and Fran pushed off and began skateboarding decently well.

     "Three, two, one, go!" the man shouted to Zone and Watts, who started skateboarding their way down the incline of Market Street. Watts again took the lead and tossed a letter to the first person. He missed the bird again, but Zone noticed it and stopped to hand it a letter. They continued down the slope and Watts handed a letter to the next person and finally continued on to the final bird. Zone caught up to him and the two looked around frantically for the last delivery. It was a woman just beyond the railing of the bottom of the incline. Both Zone and Watts pushed their skateboards toward her, but then a man cried out, "Time!" and stopped Zone and Watts in their tracks. "You got four out of five letters delivered!"
     "I'll get her next time," Zone told Watts. "I found the bird you missed. I'll get that, too. You keep doing what you're doing."
     "Okay, thanks," Watts said. He high-fived Zone, then the two began walking back to the starting line, where, currently, Garnet and Brahne waited on their boards.
     "Three, two, one, go!" the man shouted to Garnet and Brahne. They started down the hill and Brahne started screaming like always. Garnet saw the first person and stopped to hand her a letter, while Brahne sped on, picking up speed as she continued down the incline. Garnet continued on, stopping to give her next clue to the first bird. By this time, Brahne had reached the bottom of the incline, only to hit a bump and fly into the air. The letters she was holding flew everywhere and Brahne barely caught herself. Meanwhile, her letters had flown high and far enough that the bird assumed they were thrown to it and snatched one of them up.
     "Hey, stupid bird!" Brahne shouted, shaking her fist. "That letter is for somebody else!"
     "No no, it's fine, Mother!" Garnet yelled as she slid in to help her mother stand up. "He's one of the five we give it to."
     "Time!" the man shouted. "You got four out of five!"
     "Mother, can you do this again? Get it to this bird? I will take care of the other three, then we'll look for the last person together."
     "Of course I can do it again, dearie," Brahne responded. "After all, I meant to do it this time. I can do it every time."
     "Thank you, Mother."

     "Hit it again, Barthello!" Dona ordered as Barthello chased down the floating ball.
     Barthello ran for the ball, which was getting close to the crowd, then made a careful hit to avoid hitting the crowd, but still keeping the ball afloat. It didn't go very high, though, as it floated toward Dona. She took her stick with two hands and hit it hard, but she hit it sideways instead of up, so it landed on the ground shortly after.
     "Five hits," a man in the crowd said. He came forward and gave them 30 munny.

     Zone and Watts started down the hill again. Watts tossed the first man his envelope and Zone gave the first bird its envelope. Then, Watts tossed the second man his letter and continued on to the final bird. In the meantime, Zone had reached the end with the railing and sacrificed his skateboard, letting it continue down the incline as he hopped over the rail to get to the last person. He grabbed the railing before falling and starting chanting "Bad idea, bad idea, bad idea," to himself. He finally let go and landed safely on the ground, then ran to the woman and gave her the letter.
     "Good job, Zone!" Watts said to him. "That took guts. I'm... surprised you did it."
     "Same here," Zone said.
     "But sorry, I couldn't get it to that last bird in time. You'll have to do that again."
     "What!?"
     "Time!" the man said. "You got all five out of five. Continue on to Poster Duty!"
     "Just kidding," Watts said. He elbowed Zone in the ribs.
     "Jerk," Zone muttered.
     They walked to the next area and saw a huge market. A trolley circled the large, almost-empty market at a very slow rate. All around the market were squares on the walls marked with a strange symbol, where teams were allowed to place a poster. Zone and Watts were each handed a basket of posters.
     "Twenty posters in under a minute, but only where you see the symbols," the man told them. "Ready... Three, two, one, go!"
     "You go that way, I'll go this way," Watts shouted quickly. He and Zone were definitely taken off-guard by the sudden start of the next task.
     "Put the posters on your skateboard and push it," Zone suggested.
     "You do that, I'll do something else." Watts started skateboarding to the left, while Zone took the right. Zone's basket sat on his skateboard as he pushed it along the outer perimeter of the market. He found a section where three posters were allowed and quickly started slapping them up on the walls. Each of the symbols was apparently made out of a sticky substance, so sticking the poster against it instantly held the poster up.

     Dona ran for the ball once again and poked it with her stick before it hit the ground. Their tactic seemed to generally be "Barthello hits it a lot, Dona gets a final hit in before it lands." It seemed to work for them.
     "Five hits again," the man said. He handed them another 30 munny.

<Ma & Zell: Mother/Son, Currently in 4th Place>
     Ma and Zell finally reached The Usual Spot and grabbed their clue from the clue box. Zell ripped it open and read it to Ma. "Detour: Stand or Deliver."
     "Both sound fun, but we're skaters," Ma said with a smile. "Let's do Deliver."
     "You're the coolest, Ma," Zell said. They made their way out of The Usual Spot and headed for the 'Deliver' detour.

<Biran & Yenke: Comrades, Currently in 5th Place>
     Biran and Yenke continued to skateboard like dogs, but wound up getting to the clue box just after Zell and Ma because of their powerful Ronso arms and legs. Biran stood up and grabbed the clue. "Detour: Stand or Deliver."
     "Yenke like to hit things!" Yenke said.
     "Biran like to hit things!" Biran said.
     "Ronso smash!" the Ronso said together with a high-five. They headed out of The Usual Spot in search of the 'Stand' detour.

<Fran & Balthier: Sky Pirates, Currently in 6th Place>
     Fran and Balthier barely passed Reina and Faris and reached The Usual Spot first. Fran grabbed a clue from the clue box. "Detour: Stand or Deliver."
     "I think we're good enough on skateboards," Balthier said. "Besides, Stand sounds dreadfully boring."
     "Agreed."
     They left The Usual Spot just as Reina and Faris were entering, then headed for the 'Deliver' detour.

<Reina & Faris: Sisters, Currently in 7th Place>
     Reina grabbed a clue from the box. "Detour: Stand or Deliver?"
     "We be no good on these wheelin' boards," Faris said. "Methinks 'Stand' be better."
     "Okay!"

     Watts found a section of wall needing three posters and slapped one up, then, suddenly, the man's voice stopped him from putting up another poster.
     "That's it!" the man said. Watts and Zone headed back to the start, where the man handed them 150 munny.
     "Oh, we did it?" Watts said. "I thought we ran out of time."
     "Me too!" Zone added. He took the 150 munny and they hopped on their skateboards and headed for the Sandlot. It was only a short distance away, so they reached it relatively quickly. The Sandlot was a fairly open section of the town with a large stage in the middle. A man in a black trenchcoat stood in the middle holding a stick with a blue foam pad on it. At the stairs leading up to the stage was a young boy wearing camouflage pants, a black sleeveless shirt, and a grey vest. His hair was short, spikey, and blonde.
     "I'm betting on him," Watts said. "Or at least somebody near the stage, which very well might be our roadblock.
     Zone and Watts approached the stage and the boy sitting on the steps.
     "Excuse us," Watts said. "We're looking for Hayner."
     "Found him," the boy responded.
     "Great! We have some munny for you," Zone said. He handed Hayner the munny.
     "Awesome, thanks. I have a clue for you," Hayner said. "But you don't get it until you check in here." Hayner gestured to a signboard next to him, which was labeled "U-Turn." It was like the Yield board, only said U-Turn on it.

<Announcer Gippal>
     "This is the third of six delay points on the race. A U-Turn appears at the end of the detour. Teams can use the power of a U-Turn to slow down another team, forcing them to backtrack and perform the other side of the detour. Teams may only use their delay point once, so they must decide when it is most advantageous to use it."

<Zone & Watts: Resistance Fighters, Currently in 1st Place>
     Zone and Watts stood on the U-Turn mat and faced the camera. "We choose not to U-Turn."
     "A couple of nice guys, eh?" Hayner said as Zone and Watts returned to him. He handed them their next clue, which Zone quickly tore open.
     "Roadblock: Who's struggling to win?"
     "This has you written all over it," Watts said.
     "You crazy? With my stomach all like this?" He started hunching over.
     "That's exactly it," Watts said. "You're struggling to do much of anything. This one is all yours."
     Zone hesitated and finally said, "Fine. I'll do it."

<Announcer Gippal>
     "A roadblock is a task that only one team member may perform. In this roadblock, that team member must participate in a local event known as 'The Struggle.' In this competition, players wield foam bats and attack each other and try to knock a bunch of balls off each other. The balls have been stuck on by velcro and after one minute of play, whoever has collected the most balls wins. In this roadblock, the chosen team member will go against the local champion: Setzer, who originally hails from the Fantasy 6 verse and has helped out on our show before. Instead of normal competition, the team member will only have to collect twenty of the one-hundred balls on Setzer at the end of one minute. Setzer will not be defenseless, however. He will knock them back, dodge their attacks, and even try to get the balls that have fallen back. The round is not over until the one minute is up, so even should teams grab twenty balls, they must keep them for the entire minute in order to win."

     "You're kidding," Zone said as he was handed a foam bat, given a velcro vest, and pushed onto the stage. He saw Setzer across the way, covered in red balls. He slowly put on his velcro vest and held his foam bat. He started crouching down and holding his stomach as Setzer stood over him.
     "You can do it!" Watts shouted from a crowd of people.
     Zone got to his feet as the fight was counted off by the crowd. "Three, two, one, Struggle!"
     Setzer stood in place while Zone approached him slowly. He tried his best to hold back stomach cramps while pursuing his opponent. As he finally got the courage to approach him, he was met with a thwack of blue padding across the side of his face. The crowd all gave a collaborative "oooooh" in response. Zone shook it off and looked his opponent over. It wasn't too painful. For Zone, the real pain was the fear of wondering how much it would hurt to be hit with one of the padded sticks. With the fear gone, Zone rose to his feet, standing tall, proud, and ready. He rushed Setzer, this time ducking his first attack and swatting away at Setzer's midsection with a two-hit combo. Several red balls flew out, which Zone began collecting. He grabbed ten balls and stuck them to himself: six on his stomach, two on his back, and one under each arm.
     He started his next attack. He rushed Setzer and again ducked his first shot, but was unaware of a follow-up shot that Setzer took, hitting Zone in the shoulder and knocking him off his feet. Several of the balls rolled away from the collision with the ground, but since Zone had immediately hit his familiar fetal position, the six on his stomach remained.
     Zone continued the fight, but he made little progress. After one minute, he was left holding only eight red balls.
     "It's cool, Zone," Watts said on the sidelines. "You'll wear him down. Once they get set up again, just go all out!"
     "I know what to do," Zone said sternly. "Don't worry."

     Ma and Zell reached the top of the incline for the 'Deliver' detour and waited for the cue that Garnet and Brahne, who had failed once again, were clear of the area. They grabbed their letters and positioned themselves as the man counted them down. "Three, two, one, go!" he shouted, and Ma and Zell flew down the incline. Zell was faster than ever, but horribly inaccurate as he tossed the letters to the people and birds. The birds made up for the inaccuracy and still grabbed the letters, but the people did not, so Ma was left delivering to those Zell failed to reach. Once Zell reached the railing, he immediately hopped his board onto it and started grinding down it. At the end, he jumped up and tossed a letter to a high-flying bird, then landed back on his bird and circled over to the last person. He had enough time to stop and personally hand her the letter.
     "Time!" the man shouted. "You've delivered all five!"
     "Good job, Zelly!" Ma shouted as she finally was making her way down the last bit of slope. "You missed two back there, but ol' Ma Dincht's got your back!"
     "Heck yeah, Ma! You're the best!"
     Zell and Ma raced off to Market Street to begin putting up the twenty posters while Garnet and Brahne retried the Mail Delivery.

     "That was seven!" the man said as he handed Dona and Barthello another 30 munny.
     "Oh please, this is it!?" Dona said. "We did more than last time, we should get more munny."
     "Sorry, that's the going rate," the main said.
     "How much do we have, Barthello?" Dona asked.
     "We have 130 munny," he replied. "Only 20 more."
     "I am so sick of doing this."

     "It Ronso time!" Biran and Yenke shouted as they entered the Grandstander area. A second crowd gathered around another ball with its own air pump, so they did not need to wait for Dona and Barthello. They jumped right in and grabbed their sticks.
     "This weapon not fit for Ronso!" Biran shouted at the stick.
     "Not at all," Yenke chimed in.
     The ball lifted into the air and Biran immediately hit the ball at Yenke. Yenke responded by hitting it right back at Biran. Things continued to go back and forth for quite a while until it finally came at Yenke, who swung and accidentally spiked it straight into the ground.
     "Thanks lot!" Biran shouted at him.
     "You two hit it twenty-three times!" the man told them. He handed them 50 munny.
     "Ronso rich!" Yenke said, pocketing the money.
     The Ronso waited (impatiently) for the air pump to prepare the next ball.

     Balthier and Fran made their way to the top of the Mail Delivery hill and waited for their countdown. "Three, two, one, go!" They began skateboarding down the hill. Fran was on the left and handed the letter to the person on the left. Balthier rode on the right and had to slow down a bit to give the letter to the bird, since he failed to immediately see the small tag dangling from the bird's leg. Further down the path, Balthier handed a letter to the man on his right before going the rest of the way down the slope with Fran and circling the rail to give the letter to the last girl.
     "That's only four," Balthier said. He and Fran looked around for the last person and finally found a bird floating in the sky just as they heard the word "Time!"
     "Bah," Balthier muttered. "Next time."

     Reina and Faris reached the Grandstander area and gathered up a third crowd around a third air pump. They picked up their sticks and prepared themselves. The ball lifted off and Reina hit a poorly-aimed ball toward Faris, who had to dive for the first shot. She missed completely and the ball landed.
     "Uh oh," Reina said. "Maybe we should switch detours?"
     "Nice try," a man said as he gave the girls 10 munny.
     "I think we be okay," Faris said. "We c'n only mess this up fifteen times b'fore they just give us the clue."
     "Okay," Reina said. "I'll get better, too!"

<Third Train Arriving>
     Reno and Rude jumped off the train and grabbed the clue in the station. "Make your way by skateboard to The Usual Spot. Caution: U-Turn ahead," Rude read.
     "Uh oh. Prepare for a U-Turn, dude," Reno said.
     "Yes," Rude replied as they ran outside to get the skateboards. Both immediately took off skateboarding for The Usual Spot.

     Zone squared off with Setzer again. He quickly rushed in and dodged an attack, then let loose on Setzer, attacking several times. Instead of aiming for Setzer, he aimed for the balls velcroed to his coat, which flew off in several directions. Upon seeing his plan of attack, Setzer swiped at him with his padded bat and knocked Zone away. Zone, however, had landed in a pile of red balls and began grabbing them as fast as he could. Setzer ran toward him to pick up the red balls that were closest to him and reattached them to his coat. Zone began counting out loud as he grabbed the balls. "Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen. Three more."
     Setzer tried to attack Zone as he lay on the ground, but Zone blocked it and countered with an attack on Setzer's leg, throwing him off balance. Zone got to his feet and raced toward another set of balls, then pounced on them, making sure to snag at least three. He gathered them all up on his stomach and chest, then retreated into a corner with Setzer in pursuit. Just as Setzer was bearing down on him, he slid to his feet and assumed his fetal position around the balls he'd collected. Setzer hit him a couple times, once even sending him sliding across the stage, but he remained still. Finally, the buzzer ended the fight and the announcer entered the arena. He began counting the balls Zone had collected and threw them back to Setzer in the process. "Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty-one- y'know what? He got more than twenty! Here's your clue, buddy. Good job."
     "Thanks," Zone said. He held his arm in the air victoriously as Watts joined him on the stage. Just then, Zone looked out onto the cheering crowd and suddenly realized how many people were watching him. "...uh oh."
     "Oh forget about them," Watts said. "You kicked some ass. Good job!"
     "Th-th-thanks," Zone said. "Can we read this off the stage?"
     "Yes. Yes we can." Watts led Zone off the stage and ripped open the clue. "Make your way on foot to the Pit Stop at the mansion outside of town. Warning: the last team to check in may be eliminated."

<Announcer Gippal>
     "Teams must now find the mansion outside of town through a large crack in the wall in Station Heights, the area with the posters. The last team to check in here, may be eliminated."

<Zone & Watts: Resistance Fighters, Currently in 1st Place>
     "Let's go," Watts said. "I think we might've blown our cover to float under the radar."
     "Stop making me nervous!" Zone yelled at him. "And you should ask for directions. I feel kinda woozy after getting hit so many times with that bat."
     "Good idea," Watts said.

     Brahne sped down the hill and tossed a handful of letters into the air for the bird. She got back on her feet and watched Garnet make her way down after giving the three people on the original path their letters. "She won't make it!" Brahne shouted nervously as she hopped on her board and gave one big push in the direction of the last woman. Just as Brahne began barreling toward the final woman, Garnet rounded the corner with her letter for the last woman in hand and gave it to the woman.
     "Thank y- Look out!" the woman shouted to Garnet, who turned just in time to see Brahne only inches away from collision. Brahne slammed into Garnet, who then bashed into the woman and knocked her down with Brahne falling off her skateboard and landing next to them. As the three women lay on the floor, the announcer yelled, "Time! You delivered all five! Continue on to Poster Duty!"
     "Thank you... for trying to help... Mother," Garnet said as she slowly rose to her feet. She helped the woman up, then attempted to help Brahne to her feet, but Brahne needed much more help than that.
     "Perhaps I'll just lay here a bit, dearie," Brahne said.
     "Okay. But hurry, please," Garnet added.

     Barthello hit the ball high into the air before Dona finally pushed him aside and kicked the ball into a wall.
     "That's enough of this," Dona said.
     "Six hits!" the man said as he handed Dona 30 munny.
     "We're done. Stop fooling around, Barthello."
     "Sorry, Dona," Barthello said. "I just... I lost count."
     "Of course you did."
     Dona led Barthello toward the Sandlot. Barthello muttered under his breath before following, "It's hard to keep track when you're doing all the work."
     "I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," Dona barked without looking back at her partner.
     They reached the Sandlot and handed the 150 to Hayner, who pointed them to the U-Turn beside them.
     "Excellent," Dona said, walking up to the U-Turn. She paused a moment to think, then started digging through the cards to find somebody to U-Turn.
     "We choose not to U-Turn," Barthello said suddenly to the camera.
     "Excuse me?" Dona said, stuffing the pictures back in the box angrily.
     "There is no advantage, Dona," Barthello explained. "We should save it until it becomes more useful. Right now, if we U-Turn somebody who is almost done, they could catch up and nothing will have happened."
     Dona paused for a moment, then finally nodded. "Fine, Barthello. You know, you're actually kind of cute when you get defensive and bossy."
     Barthello gulped. "R-really?"
     "No, Barthello. Just open the clue," Dona said with a smile. She pointed at the clue Hayner offered them.
     Barthello grabbed the clue and opened it. "Roadblock: Who's struggling to win?"
     "You'd knock this one out of the park," Dona said. "Do it."
     "You should," Barthello replied. "We know we are ahead. I think if you did it-"
     "Fine, fine!" Dona shouted, cutting Barthello off. "If it'll make you stop explaining basic strategy to me, then I'll do it."
     "Thank you, Dona," Barthello said.

<Reno & Rude: Partners, Currently in Last Place>
     Reno and Rude reached The Usual Spot and grabbed their clue. "Detour: Stand or Deliver," Rude read.
     "We're gonna do both, I can feel it," Reno said. "Let's do 'Stand' first."
     Rude nodded and they quickly ran to find the 'Stand' detour.

     Zell jumped at a wall and, with a poster in each hand, slapped two posters up at the same time.
     "That's it!" the man shouted to Zell and Ma, who chose to do this task side by side with Zell getting the hard to reach posters up and Ma doing the easy ones that he missed. He handed Ma the 150 munny.
     "Thanks, buddy!" Zell said. He offered a handshake, but the man turned away when he saw Garnet and Brahne entering the area for Poster Duty.
     Zell and Ma headed for the Sandlot as Garnet and Brahne took their places in Station Heights. Both put their baskets on their skateboards immediately.

     Zone and Watts found the crack in the wall and ran through a small forest area before coming to the large mansion gates, where Gippal stood next to a young, blonde girl in a white dress. Zone and Watts trotted up to the mat and jumped on.
     "Welcome to Twilight Town," the girl, Namine, said.
     "Thank you," they both said.
     "Zone and Watts," Gippal said, "you're team number one!"
     "All thanks to this man," Watts said, patting Zone on the back. He quickly batted his arm away.
     "As the winners of this leg, you've both won a sack of marbles," Gippal explained, handing them a small, colorful sack with colored, transparent marbles. "We're also giving you an entire 'Struggle' trophy, but right now we only have the marbles. Some punk kids went and broke all these little balls or marbles or whatever off of the trophy, so it's all we have left. Sorry."
     "It's cool," Zone said. "I might've done the same anyway. I'm a pro marbles player."
     "So what of your 'middle of the pack' strategy?" Gippal asked.
     "Right out the window, Gippal," Watts said. "We have a huge target on our backs now."
     "Well, good luck to both of you."
     "Thank you, Gippal," they both said.