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The Amazing Race 1
Posted: Dec 8 2006, 05:47 AM
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Episode 1

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This is Timiocato's Central Business District. Timiocato: the capital of the Pacitalian Republic, a centre of economics, politics, academics and transportation, this city is the hub of the country and the starting point for the very first Atlantian Oceania Amazing Race! Twelve teams with pre-existing relationships will be competing in this race. They will be subject to physical, emotional and cultural stress throughout the entire race. But in the end, one team will emerge victorious, with one million doura in pocket.

The teams are:


Andy and Matt, brothers from Krytenia.
Andy: "I'd say we're competitive... you know, we were always raised to put in top effort, no matter what we did. Our parents taught us the importance of that. We always seemed to excel in sports because we pushed ourselves so much. I think we'll excel at the physical challenges, and we both did well in school so hopefully our intelligence will help too."

Matt: "I want this race to bring my brother and I closer together. That's all. I know we'll do well if we cooperate and we run the race like what we are: brothers, through and through."

Arda and Siramone, mothers from Pacitalia.
Arda: "It's been hard the last few years, with Siramone's husband passing away. My husband and I have tried to include her in our family and, really, she and her son are pretty much a part of our family now, and it's great. We share and do everything together. I'm so excited to get the chance to do this with her."

Siramone: "I really want to prove to my son that we can live without Martino. It has been so difficult getting adjusted to single life again but I know that if I do well, if I try my hardest, he'll be smiling down from heaven and I'll have made my son proud of me as a mother and a leader."

Chelsie and Rona, best friends from Andossa Se Mitrin Vega.
Chelsie: "Rona and I have been friends since 11th grade, we were in cheerleading together. We've always been fun people, always try to squeeze the most out of life."

Rona: "I look at this as a life-changing experience, you know? It's obviously once-in-a-lifetime and we're really excited, and we're going to put in 100 percent and go all the way! You got me laughing on that one!!"

Dave and Paige, a married couple from Manhattan Prime.
"We've always wanted to see the region, and we've never had the chance: one of us has always been working at the time when the other is free to take a vacation. So we finally just gave up and said, you know what, we want some adventure. We don't want a packaged deal, one-week vacation. We want to get away. So that's what we're doing with this race. Trying to learn about the rest of the region, trying to gain perspective of our surroundings, and to come back feeling like we actually did something other than a nine-to-five everyday."

Diega and Wolfgang, friends from Bedistan.
Diega: "Wolfgang is a bit verbally abusive, a cocksman, to put it honestly. He doesn't put up with a lot of crap from others, so I think my role will be cohesive. I have to keep him in check in order for us to be successful on this race. If I don't we'll be alienated so quickly, and we know we have to build trust and respect first before we start taking off and doing our own things to win."

Wolfgang: "We're gonna win. Period. Watch. Out. World."

John and Maria, a father/daughter team from Bazalonia.
John: "Maria and I had our struggles when she was in her formative years, but we've really grown closer since she returned from university. It's been great getting to connect with her again."

Maria: "I struggled with alcohol and substance abuse in my teenage years, and dad helped me... helped me to pull myself out of that... but I was foolish and ignored it. I don't know... why... I did that... any of that, but I'm just glad... so glad to have him here with me. It's like a guardian angel having him around, you know? He keeps me safe, keeps me away from danger."

Lorenzo and Malaino, brothers from Vilita.
"We're both computer nerds and we LOVE to eat, so hopefully there are plenty of technological and food challenges. If there are, we're bank."

Massimo and Antonio, twin brothers from Pacitalia.
Massimo: "Antonio runs a successful architecture firm and I am the president of a smallwares tech company a few blocks down the road, actually. We've gotten ahead only by being competitive and setting goals. We're very competitve against each other, but moreso to other people. We work well as a team, and I think we'll do well if we stick to our principles.

Antonio: "We need to set goals and meet or exceed them to win, and we'll be doing that plenty."

Matt and Alanis, a dating couple from Lamoni.
Matt: "Alanis and I have been dating on and off for about four years now. I feel like I know her well, and we've been there for each other. We just bicker a lot and it's led to some nasty splits, but we've overcome that. I hope this race brings us closer together."

Alanis: "Matt is a jerk sometimes but he gets results when he sets himself to it. I know we'll win this race if we can keep our emotions together in check and cooperate. He has a nasty tendency of checking out other girls with me present so I'll have to be watching for that."

Romano and Tony, boyfriends from Bazalonia.
"Well, where to begin? We started dating about three years ago, totally inseparable, you know. It's just... it feels right."

Romano: "I know I'm doing this with the right person... I couldn't possibly have had the courage or the determination to even put in my application if I didn't have Tony."

Sarah and Nevan, coworkers from Amarenthe.
Sarah: "Strangely enough, we're here because of an inter-office bet. A bunch of coworkers got together and offered us a total of a thousand silvers if we got onto the show. And we did, so it'll be nice even if we don't win... because we haven't spent that money yet."

Nevan: "Sarah and I are pretty good friends. At work we do a lot together as a team and we are productive people. I think that will reflect here in the race."

And, Vincent and Julie, a long-distance couple from Liverpool England and Chacor.
Vincent: "We found each other on an online personals site and met up a couple of years ago for the first time. It was just such a surreal experience, and we've met up many times after that and had equally surreal experiences. Just the thought of talking to a computer and then realising it was a real human being behind those texts was something that made it so unbelievable."

Julie: "Yeah, I think we're used to surreal experiences, it'll help us conquer the odd and the weird on this race."
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Leg 1 - Synopsis (Part 1)

All teams arrived by taxi to the Piazza dei Santi in central Timiocato, where the race began.

Andy and Matt - Currently in 1st Place
"Drive yourselves, using one of the marked cars available, to the official residence of the Pacitalian prime minister?! Sweet! You got me laughing on that one!! You have 121 doura for this leg of the race."

"Did you see the parked cars, Matty?" "Yeah, man, they're over here."

Teams must now drive 14km southeast, out of the government district and across the Rio Pogli, to the Official Residence of the Prime Minister of Pacitalia. Once there, teams must climb a marked set of stairs to find a man dressed in the official regalia of the prime minister's chamberlain. When they find him, the man will give them their next clue.

Massimo and Antonio - Currently in 3rd Place
"All right, man, home turf. Let's do this thing!"

Andy and Matt - Currently in 1st Place
Matt (driving): "Do you see any of the other teams back there?"
Andy (passenger): "No... I think we have a good lead here."
Matt: "What does the map say?"
Andy: "Uh... Via San Delligamo and then get onto the B171 eastbound until you see the exit for Corso Istrabuca."

Arda and Siramone - Currently in Last Place
Siramone (driving): "Great! This thing won't even start!"
Arda: "Calm down, Sira, it's just nerves."
Siramone: "No, hon, I'm telling you, this is not working."
Arda: "D'you wanna switch then?"

Diega and Wolfgang - Currently in 2nd Place
Wolfgang (driving): "Woohoo! Check us out, out of the gate like THAT! Oh yeah! Read the map, dude, tell me where we're going."
Diega: "Stay on Via San Delligamo til you cross the bridge, then get on the B171 east to Corso Istrabuca. Wow, I can't say anything Pacitalian without my tongue twisting."
Wolfgang: "I took languages at university, you know."

Andy and Matt - Currently in 1st Place
Andy: "This looks like the place. Park and let's get out."
*climb the stairs, approach the man* "Thank you, sir."

A: "Fly to Gabalfa, sweet!"

Teams must now drive their vehicles to Timiocato Santo Ragazzo International Airport. They must then fly to the capital of Bettia: Gabalfa. Once there, teams must hire a taxi to take them into central Gabalfa, to the train station, where they will catch a train into the Banastra Rainforest.

M: "All right, man, let's get going! Bettia, man!"

Timiocato Santo Ragazzo International Airport - Concourse N

Andy and Matt - Currently in 1st Place

M: "AeroPacitalia... Hi, there... we'd like to book two tickets on the next available flight to Gabalfa."

"Yes, sir. AeroPacitalia flight 3170 leaves, direct to Gabalfa International, at 9.52am."

M: "Nice, dude, boarding will be in like 20 minutes. We'll take that, please."
A: "That was a stroke of luck, eh?"
M: "Yeah, no joke."

Diega and Wolfgang - Currently in 6th Place
W: "Where the hell is this place, dude? You told me to go B171 eastbound!"
D: "Yeah, and you went B171 westbound - we're going the wrong way, I've said that like 10 times already. Get your ---- in gear and let's turn around! GOD!"
W: "Don't swear at me, you ----! If it weren't for me, we wouldn't even be in second!"
D: "We're probably third now because of you not listening to me! Do you want to read the map?! Do you?!"

Timiocato Santo Ragazzo International Airport - Concourse N

Dave and Paige - Currently in 2nd Place

D: "This airport is huge... look at this place. Ah, where do we go here... excellent, AeroPacitalia."
P: "Yeah, here it is. Hi, there, signora. Could we book two tickets on the next available flight to Gabalfa?"
"AeroPacitalia flight 3170 to Gabalfa will be boarding in 3 minutes. I can sell you the tickets but you must hurry."
D: "Yeah, yeah, we'll take 'em. Holy... lucky us!"

Sarah and Nevan - Currently in 3rd Place
S: "Is this AeroPacitalia? Hi, can we book two tickets to Gabalfa?"
N: "The next available flight, if possible, please."
"I'm sorry, sir, but boarding has already commenced for flight 3170, which leaves at 9.52. The next flight is on PNAPacitalian in twenty-five minutes."
S: "Why can't you sell us the tickets?"
"Pacitalian air security regulations - we cannot sell tickets for flights that are in the boarding status. I apologise."
N: "Damn... a bunch of teams will catch up."
S: "Well, we better go down to PNAPacitalian. We don't really have a choice."

Andy and Matt, and Dave and Paige, are on the first AeroPacitalia flight to Gabalfa, which left at 9.52am AOTC+3, and will take 7 hours, 40 minutes.

Massimo and Antonio - Currently in 4th Place
M: "AeroPacitalia?"
"Yes, sir. How may I help you?"
"Two tickets to Gabalfa, please."
"I'm sorry, sir, we just finished boarding on flight 3170. PNAPacitalian offers a flight that will begin boarding in 14 minutes. They are in Concourse G. We also offer a flight leaving at 10.21am that is indirect, through Mathdon, Falcania. It is two and a half hours longer, sir."
A: "We don't want that one, hey, bro? We'll take our chances down at PNA. Thank you."

Vincent and Julie - Currently in 5th Place
V: "Hey, Massimo! What's the story?"
Massimo: "AeroPacitalia's last direct one of the morning just left - she told us there's a PNAPacitalian flight leaving at 10.17am, it's boarding in like 12 minutes from another concourse and it's the only other really direct option we've got. Otherwise she said we have to take a flight leaving four minutes after that that stops in Mathdon, Falcania, and adds an extra two and a half hours onto the travel time. So we need to go down and get those tickets now, guys. Let's go!"

Diega and Wolfgang - Currently in 9th Place
D: "Where the hell are you going?!"
W: "This is the B171 eastbound!"
D: "No, it's the A7 southbound, you're taking us into the downtown!"
W: "Shut up, I'm not! Look, there's the sign for the ferry-- oh..."
D: "Yeah, you see?! Turn this car around! We're already down to, like, fourth, now!"

John and Maria - Currently in 6th Place
J: "Maria's just calling ahead on a cell phone to see if she can reserve tickets. We called BazAir but they said they don't fly out 'til six tonight. Maria called AP and their direct flight this morning just left, so she's trying that other Pacitalian airline, PNA?"
M: "Yeah, dad, they say if we're there within the next eight minutes we can buy them and board. Concourse G."
J: "We'll be there in four, that's great."

Sarah and Nevan, Massimo and Antonio, Vincent and Julie, and John and Maria are all on the second flight to Gabalfa, PNAPacitalian flight 856, which left at 10.17am AOTC+3, and will take 7 hours, 39 minutes.

Chelsie and Rona - Currently in 7th Place
C: "All right, got the clue from the guy, do you know how to get to the airport?
R: "Yeah, I'm highlighting it with my sparkle-ink highlighter, even got the exit marked with a big heart around it!"
C: "Good stuff! Let's do some chants to pass the time, maybe?"

Romano and Tony - Currently in 8th Place
R: "Here we are, Prime Minister Palace."
T: "That's not what it's called, sillybear. It's the Official Residence of the Prime Minister of Pacitalia."
R: "Don't say I've always been the smarter of the two of us, Tonycakes, because you're a walking encyclopedia."
T: *giggles*

Matt and Alanis - Currently in 9th Place
M: "Is that..."
A: "Yeah, looks like the boyfriends."
M: "I wonder what position we're in right now."
A: "Yeah, it's hard to say, I didn't see any other teams around."

None of the teams remaining in Timiocato made the final of three pre-offered flights (AeroPacitalia flight 198 to Gabalfa via Mathdon, which left at 10.21am AOTC+3 and will take 10 hours, 2 minutes). They must now make their own way to Gabalfa.

Arda and Siramone - Currently in 10th Place
S: "All right, well, Arda got the car started, I... ah... don't really know what I was doing wrong as it's an automatic transmission."
A: "S'okay, babe, just nerves. We'll be fine. I see the PMR up on the hill over there."

Lorenzo and Malaino - Currently in 11th Place
L: "These seats are kind of tight, eh. Had trouble getting into them."
M: "Well, you are a bit overweight, Lo."
L: "HA! A bit! You're too kind. Do you see the residence?"
M: "Yep, judging from whatever's on top of that hill up there and what I see on the map, that has to be the place."

Diega and Wolfgang - Currently in Last Place
W: "What's wrong with you? You're giving me the wrong directions!"
D: "I am n--... all right, bloody f---ing hell, pull over, we're switching!"
W: "Shut the hell up, Diega and don't tell me what to do! I am in control of the situation! I am in control of this team! Do what I say!"
D: "You did NOT just say that! PULL OVER!"
W: "All right, hey, that's how you want it?" *swerves right, cutting off six lanes of traffic* "THAT'S HOW YOU GET IT. DRIVE HOW YOU F---ING WANT, THEN!" *exits the car, slams the door and storms angrily down the soft shoulder*
D: "Wolf! GET BACK IN HERE NOW! We'll be in fifth if you don't get BACK IN HERE NOW! I'm driving away! I'm gonna drive away! WOLF!!!!"

Timiocato Santo Ragazzo International Airport - Passenger Flight Direction and Assistance Centre

Chelsie and Rona - Currently in 7th Place

C: "Hi, there! We need to get to Gabalfa, Bettia, on the next flight. Can you tell us which airline would be best?"
R: "Preferably with an in-flight movie!"
"All right. I can get you on Nedalia Airlines flight 2313 flying out of here, through Kafra, then to Gabalfa, at 12.02pm today. Nine hours in total."
C: "Sure, we'll take that. Where do we go to buy?"
"They're reserved under your names, waiting for you at the Nedalia Airlines check-in booth at Concourse F. Thank you."

Romano and Tony, Matt and Alanis - Currently tied in 8th Place
R: "So, we should go find that flight assistance centre to find a flight, eh? I think all three of the flights they put in the clue have long gone now, it's 11.30 already."
M: "Yeah, let's try and find a flight at the centre."

Chelsie and Rona arranged to fly to Gabalfa via Kafra, on Nedalia Airlines flight 2313; leaving at 12.02pm AOTC+3, it will take 9 hours, 19 minutes in total, with the stopover in Kafra scheduled to take 55 minutes.

Romano and Tony, Matt and Alanis - Currently tied in 8th Place
R: "Well, we just missed a flight on Nedalian Airlines, apparently. That's what the lady on the phone just said."
A: "Damn, I wonder if anyone got on there - probably those bimbo cheerslaves and the fatty boys - though I think I saw them on the way here."
*group laughs*
R: "All right, I've got nothing. This lady can't seem to find anything that can get us there in less than 10 hours."
M: "I think I've got something. The guy I'm talking to says AeroPacitalia has another flight at 2.21pm today, direct to Gabalfa. (to Alanis) Write this down? (into phone) Flight... 3172. Seven hours, 41 minutes. Great. We'll take four tickets. Can we reserve them and pick them up at the AP booth? Great! Thanks."
A: "What's up?"
M: "Tickets for all four of us, departing from Concourse N like the first flight did. It's 12.10pm now, so we've got about 90 minutes til boarding. Hopefully none of the other teams show up by then. We might avoid seeing them if we go over there right now."

Arda and Siramone - Currently in 10th Place
A: "Is this the airport flight centre?"
S: "Looks to be. Yeah, there's the sign. Park in the marked parking lot, clue says."
A: "I guess we should talk to these ladies first."
S: "Can you tell us the quickest flight to Gabalfa?"
"Yes, just one moment. Okay... flight 3172 on AeroPacitalia commences boarding at 1.41pm, leaving at 2.21pm. It's direct to Gabalfa. Would you like to take it?"
A: "Oh, yes! Let's do that!"
"Okay, they are reserved for you and waiting for pickup under your names, at Concourse N. You have about 40 minutes to go over there and clear security. Thank you."

Lorenzo and Malaino - Currently in 11th Place
L: "We called ahead and reserved seats on a direct AP flight to Gabalfa. 3172, I think. Leaves at 2.20 so we're trying to hurry up and get over there."
M: "Here we are! Sweet! Okay, man, we've got ten minutes til boarding, let's roll."
L: "Traffic sucked, how did we only get here in an hour..."

Matt and Alanis, Romano and Tony, Arda and Siramone and Lorenzo and Malaino are all on AeroPacitalia flight 3172, direct to Gabalfa; leaving at 2.21pm AOTC+3, it will take 7 hours, 41 minutes.

Diega and Wolfgang - Currently in 12th Place
D: "So it appears that Wolfyboy is pouting cos I kicked him out of the driver's seat, which means I now have to run the race basically on my own - navigation and driving. And I found this place on my own... what a load of help he's been... all right, let's just get to the airport now... what a day already... you know, you could stop looking like your dog died..."
W: "You are just non-stop chatter, aren'tcha?"
D: "Don't do this, Wolf. Seriously. I wonder why I'm friends with you sometimes."
W: "Ouch."

Timiocato Santo Ragazzo International Airport - Passenger Flight Direction and Assistance Centre
D: "You know what's ridiculous, Wolf? That it took us seven hours to get to the PMR and another two to get to the airport, because you and the traffic were being ridiculous. Thanks for pitching in."
"The next flight is at 5.53pm on BazAir, flight 9541 direct to Gabalfa. You may pick up your reserved tickets at the BazAir counter in Concourse F. Thank you."

Diega and Wolfgang have arranged to fly BazAir flight 9541 direct to Gabalfa; leaving at 5.53pm AOTC+3, it will take 8 hours, 10 minutes.

All teams are now headed to Gabalfa, Bettia.


This post has been edited by Pacitalia on Dec 8 2006, 07:04 AM
Pacitalia
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Posted: Dec 8 2006, 06:27 PM
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(OOC: Okay, so hopefully you enjoyed the last two parts, but I'm condensing it from now on - that speech thing was tedious and took a LONG time. tongue.gif)

Leg 1 - Synopsis (Part 2)

Andy and Matt, and Dave and Paige, were the first teams to arrive in Gabalfa. Once there, they had to hire taxicabs to take them into the city's Central Station, where they were to board a train taking them into the Banastra Rainforest, to the city of Upper Sweeney. Four other teams were behind them on a second flight that was to arrive in Gabalfa approximately 15-20 minutes later.

Once off the train, the teams had to walk to the Rainforest Interpretive Centre. At the interpretive centre was the race's first cluebox. Arriving there still in first and second place, respectively, the two teams encountered a Detour: Guide or Slide.

In Guide, teams had to proceed on foot about 1km into the forest and use a map and compass to search the forest for one of ten clues tied to the trunks of old rainforest trees. Each clue also had a sticker saying "Automatic" or "Manual", corresponding to the type of transmission in the car they would be driving in the next leg of the race. Teams that arrived early would have better selection while teams that arrived and chose Guide later would likely be stuck driving a stickshift. Teams were permitted to keep looking until they found a clue with an "Automatic" sticker, but once chosen, they could not change their minds.

In Slide, teams had to walk 400m the other direction into a clearing, where they were to participate in traditional Bettian forestry activities, popular especially among the Welsh population. Teams had to roll three cut logs 75m along a track using traditional tools. The first three teams to complete the Detour received a clue with an "Automatic" transmission sticker.

Andy and Matt chose to do Slide, while Dave and Paige headed off to partake in Guide. Dave and Paige easily found a clue with an "Automatic" sticker, finishing the task in about five minutes. Andy and Matt had misunderstood the clue, assuming that the search area for Guide would be very large, when in fact it was only about a square kilometre. They struggled with the traditional tools and considered switching detour tasks but ended up finishing Slide in about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, back at the airport, Sarah and Nevan, Massimo and Antonio, Vincent and Julie, and John and Maria had arrived on their flight. The first three teams easily found a taxi but John's need to use the bathroom delayed him and Maria by a couple of minutes, and when they emerged at street level no taxicabs were present. Finally, a cab arrived ten minutes later, just before Maria was about to reenter the terminal to call one. By the time they were settled in and on the road to the station, the other three teams had received a 15-minute headstart.

However, the next train did not leave until the bottom of the hour and this allowed John and Maria to draw level with the three teams again, to the chagrin of Vincent, who had confided to Julie that he found John "a bit priggish". Nonetheless, like in the air, all four teams were together on the same train to Upper Sweeney.

Once in the town, Sarah and Nevan found an alley shortcut (marked by a sign but not a route marker) that allowed them to shave nearly five minutes off their jog to the Interpretive Centre. Nevan expressed his doubts about using the shortcut but when the team arrived first out of the pack to the cluebox he was relieved. They chose Guide and were finished the detour just as the other three teams arrived. Vincent, panting, demanded to know how they had gotten there so quickly. "We found a shortcut," Sarah replied proudly. "Good luck, guys!" They left the other three teams and proceeded to the next route marker.

Vincent and Julie, and Massimo and Antonio, chose Slide. John and Maria, choosing Guide, also finished quickly like the two teams before them. Finding a clue with an "Automatic" sticker, they opened it to find that they had to proceed, still on foot, to the Upper Sweeney Seafood Market about six blocks away from the Interpretive Centre. There, they would find their next clue.

Massimo and Antonio, frustrated with Slide and seeing how Vincent and Julie were also struggling, switched tasks and headed for the clearing. They found a "Manual"-stickered clue in about three minutes and took it, not realising that there were still clues with the "Automatic" stickers. They headed to the market as Vincent and Julie were just beginning to get the hang of the Slide task.

Andy and Matt reached the cluebox at the fish market to discover that Dave and Paige had already been and gone. They encountered a Roadblock. In Fish Throw, one member of each team had to toss 50 seapike into a lined wicker basket from at least twenty metres away to earn their clue. The slippery fish were proving a problem for Matt, who was also struggling to keep his balance on an equally-slippery floor. By the time Matt had finished, Sarah and Nevan had arrived, with John and Maria visible down the street.

A few minutes prior, Paige had opened their clue, then letting Dave use the bathroom to clean his hands. They learned that they needed to reach the pitstop, the famed Hotel East Bettia, on foot. They reached the landmark accommodation after about ten minutes of searching and reached the mat, finishing first on the opening leg of the race. As their prize, they were awarded a five-night vacation to the Capora Sanchez resort, in Cabo Santo Lucasi, Meritate, Pacitalia.

Andy and Matt finished and headed for the pitstop. Matt left the sidewalk to cross the street and was nearly hit by an oncoming vehicle. However, Andy managed to pull him off the street and scolded him for not looking before crossing the street. "You learned that in kindergarten, you dumb---," he seethed. The team arrived at the pit stop second, nine minutes after Dave and Paige.

While Sarah and Nevan deliberated who should do the Roadblock, John quickly decided to do it and get it over with. He was brilliant with the fish, tossing them all in within a few minutes and leapfrogging Sarah and Nevan for third. The Amarenthian team finished only about two minutes behind, and began a footrace to catch up to John and teammate and daughter Maria, who had begun jogging in the direction of the hotel. Sarah and Nevan regained third, beating the Bazalonians to the mat by about five or six seconds, based on the difference that John and Maria took the escalator while the Amarenthians chose the stairs.

Massimo and Antonio arrived shortly thereafter at the Roadblock, finishing quickly and reaching the pit stop in fifth place. Vincent and Julie, who had struggled with the Detour task, reached the Fish Toss about half an hour later after mixing up street names. Vincent commenced the Roadblock just as the next flight, shepherding in another four teams, had arrived in the capital, giving the first six teams a pronounced headstart of nearly three and a half hours on the back half of racers.

Chelsie and Rona had chosen the first flight offered to them without checking to see if there were more direct options that would arrive earlier. As a result, their nine-hour, single-connection flight through Kafra to Gabalfa, though leaving Timiocato two hours earlier than an afternoon direct from Timiocato to Gabalfa, actually arrived 24 minutes after, allowing four teams to leapfrog them. Those four teams, Matt and Alanis, Romano and Tony, Arda and Siramone, and Lorenzo and Malaino, managed to just make a top-of-the-hour train to Upper Sweeney, increasing their lead on the cheerleaders by an extra 35 minutes.

At the detour, Matt and Alanis chose Slide while the other three chose Guide. Lorenzo and Malaino were the first to find a clue, but like Massimo and Antonio, took a "Manual" clue without realising there were still three clues with the automatic transmission stickers. Arda and Siramone found their clue next, also choosing the "Manual" clue without knowing of the alternative choice. By luck, Romano and Tony, who had strayed off on another path and were now at the back end of the plot, found an "Automatic" clue, opened it and proceeded, slightly behind the Vilitans and Pacitalians, to the Roadblock. Matt and Alanis did reasonably well in the physical task, finishing in about 15 minutes and actually coming up alongside the Bazalonians on the way to the seafood market.

All four teams arrived at about the same time, but there was a limit of three teams at one time. Alanis had stumbled on her way into the market, skinning her knee on the grate at the door, so the Lamonian team had to step aside to clean the graze and bandage it. That allowed the other three teams to start and finish at the same time, nearly like clockwork, as they wished Alanis good health and headed in a footrace to the hotel. Alanis, whose problem was more embarrassment than pain, finally stood up, red faced, and watched Matt complete the roadblock.

On the way to the hotel, Romano also experienced a similar problem, accidentally slamming his fingers in the revolving door of the hotel. This allowed two teams to jump into a multi-second lead while Romano attended to his throbbing (but uninjured) fingertips. The relatively fit Pacitalian mothers beat the struggling, overweight Lorenzo and teammate Malaino to the mat, but both teams still finished out of elimination spots. Romano and Tony arrived at the mat about a minute later, while Matt and Alanis reached the hotel about six minutes after that.

Chelsie and Rona finally got a train to Upper Sweeney about an hour after arriving at the station, and once there, quickly made their way to the Rainforest Interpretive Centre. However, they accidentally stumbled on the Roadblock first and were frantically redirected the right way by the market staff who thought the Vegan cheerleaders had already completed the Detour. The two got lost once again before having to ask three separate locals for directions to the interpretive centre. They completed Guide in about ten minutes, finding the second-last "Automatic" clue and returning to the Fish Market to complete the Roadblock.

Meanwhile, Diega and Wolfgang were still bickering on the plane to Gabalfa. They had managed to score tickets on a BazAir flight that was another three hours behind Chelsie and Rona. Upon their arrival, the Bedistani couple were approached by race staff and redirected to an area of the international airport's terminal building, where they were told to wait for ten minutes. By this time, host Cano Mora had already checked in the other eleven teams, and had made his way back to the capital. He eliminated the Bedistani couple on the spot, informing them that the other teams had already completed the leg. Diega broke down in tears, convinced that they were still "in sixth or something". Wolfgang became enraged and tossed a garbage can at a window, shattering the glass.

Standings after Leg 1 - Timiocato, Pacitalia, to Upper Sweeney, Bettia
1st - Dave and Paige
2nd - Andy and Matt
3rd - Sarah and Nevan
4th - John and Maria
5th - Massimo and Antonio
6th - Vincent and Julie
7th - Arda and Siramone
8th - Lorenzo and Malaino
9th - Romano and Tony
10th - Matt and Alanis
11th - Chelsie and Rona
12th - Diega and Wolfgang
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http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/The_Amazing_Race_1 - Stats updated.
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Leg 2

Previously on the Amazing Race: Twelve teams set out from the Pacitalian capital, Timiocato, in a race around Atlantian Oceania, for the grand prize of one million doura. Krytenian brothers Andy and Matt excelled at navigation but suffered at the detour, allowing married couple Dave and Paige the grand opportunity to pass them for first. The Manhattanites took full advantage and led the rest of the way, capturing top spot on the opening leg of the race. Two sets of four teams had to take the same flights, adding to the tension and nerves of the first leg. Chelsie and Rona were in seventh from the start of the race all the way to the airport in Timiocato, but took the first flight offered without realising it would allow four teams to pass them on an earlier flight. Diega and Wolfgang bickered right from the very start of the race, and Wolfgang's arrogant behaviour irritated his teammate. The pair couldn't overcome their verbal tangles and were eliminated on-the-spot at Gabalfa International Airport after it became clear that they could not place any higher than last. Eleven teams remain - who will be eliminated next?

=====

This is Upper Sweeney, a quaint and small city nestled in the rainforests of far eastern Bettia's Banastra province. It was here that eleven teams found their first pit stop in a race around the region. Manhattan Prime's Dave and Paige, who were the first team to arrive, departed exactly twelve hours after their arrival time. Their clue instructed them to, using a provided vehicle with the transmission they had chosen in the detour of the previous leg, drive 480km northwest back through and past Gabalfa to the Bren-Brooks International Wildlife Park, which straddles the Bettian-Nedalian border. There, they would find their next clue. Dave and Paige were quickly on the road, via Grappenhall, in their vehicle, which had an automatic transmission. Teams were given 225 doura for this leg of this race.

Andy and Matt were soon to follow, departing nine minutes later. Opening their clue, they decided to ask locals what road would get them to the park the fastest, and were directed by a shopkeeper south to the M1 expressway, Bettia's major east-west route, which straddled Akani Sands and took them directly into Gabalfa. Unfortunately, this was their second mistake in as many legs as it was a significantly longer route that would add an extra hour and a half to their trip west, at the very least. Not only that, the road connecting them to the expressway was tolled and the highway-access booth did not open until later that morning. Andy and Matt arrived at the booth to find they had just over 90 minutes of time to pass, to the displeasure of both brothers.

Sarah and Nevan, and John and Maria, departed two minutes apart. The former team, Amarenthian co-workers, hung back to team up on navigational decisions with the latter team, a Bazalonian father and his daughter. They decided that the road taken by Dave and Paige was likely the most direct and would have the least traffic. They did not know about Andy and Matt stuck at the closed toll booth 90km to their south, but by a twist of fate, John's suggestion that they head that way and join the expressway was quashed by both his daughter and by Sarah. The Bazalonians jumped in their car and followed Sarah and Nevan to Gabalfa.

Next to depart were Pacitalian twin brothers Massimo and Antonio. They, too, took the route of three teams ahead of them, and were followed shortly thereafter by LE/Chacor long-distance dating team Vincent and Julie, who tailed the Pacitalians into Gabalfa. The short time between the third, fourth, fifth and sixth-place teams allowed the speedy Massimo and Antonio, naturally trained to drive swiftly on the notorious Pacitalian autostrade, plenty of opportunity to overtake the slower Sarah and Nevan, and John and Maria. Massimo, Antonio, Vincent and Julie beat the other four to the wildlife park by about twenty minutes, only to discover that Dave and Paige were still waiting there - the park was not yet open as it was too early in the morning, meaning that Sarah, Nevan, John and Maria would likely catch up anyway. Indeed, the Amarenthians and Bazalonians arrived with one minute to spare and all five teams entered the compound together despite Dave and Paige's protests that "the teams should [have lined] up in order of arrival".

Massimo and Antonio arrived at the cluebox first to discover that their next task was a detour. The five teams had a choice between Spot or Trot. In spot, teams had to use a provided sheet listing species of native animals. They had to correctly mark off 50 species on the sheet. In trot, teams had to participate in a rainforest relay, running from a red starting stick to a blue one 400m away. But while doing this, they had to also carry a 25kg weight in a specially-designed backpack the entire way. Each team member had to complete three laps, alternating with the other member of their team. All but one of the teams headed to complete Trot: Dave and Paige tried their luck at the birdwatching detour, believing that they could finish an intelligence task more quickly. Once again, the Manhattanites' instincts paid off, as they found all fifty species in under ten minutes while three of the four teams struggled to assemble the cords on the backpacks and then put them on. Vincent and Julie excelled at Trot, and finished just as Dave and Paige were heading back to their cars to drive to the border crossing in the park and over into Nedalia.

Once successfully finished the detour, teams received clues instructing them to drive into Nedalia and locate the airstrip on the edge of the International Wildlife Park, slightly south of the highway off an access road. "Bren/Brooks Airfield" is primarily used to airlift ill parkgoers to a hospital in either Kafra or Gabalfa, depending on the citizen's nationality or illness, as well as to fly in park rangers if they live far enough away. Teams were to drive to the airfield and leave their cars, signing up for charter flights to Kafra International Airport. Upon arrival at the airfield, teams had to sign up for one of three of the flights to Kafra, leaving approximately one hour apart, or whenever the plane was full. What teams were unaware of was that one of the flights would be indirect, stopping over at another rural airstrip, just outside the city of Aanjar, before heading on to Kafra. Each plane had room for eight people, meaning the last plane would carry the back three teams.

Andy and Matt finally arrived in Gabalfa and began heading to the park as another group of four teams departed City Park in Upper Sweeney and headed to the wildlife park via the highway through Grappenhall and Gabalfa. The clique, led by Pacitalian mothers Arda and Siramone, were followed in a type of entourage by Vilita's Lorenzo and Malaino, Bazalonia's Romano and Tony, and Lamoni's Matt and Alanis. They all reached the park within a minute of each other and arrived to discover a team still at the detour challenge (they were unaware that it was Andy and Matt). However, just as they reached the cluebox, the brothers from Krytenia emerged on a path, having successfully completed Trot, and headed to the Nedalian border crossing. Andy was unhappy when he enquired of his team's current position. When Alanis informed them that they had stuck together on the way over from Upper Sweeney and not overtaken anyone, Andy and Matt took that to mean they were now in sixth place (which was correct) and they ran even harder to their car to get to the airfield.

Having crossed the border, the first four teams managed to snag tickets on the first flight into Kafra from the wildlife park while a disgruntled Sarah and Nevan were forced to wait for the second flight. They were very disappointed, but also surprised to see Andy and Matt, and asked what had happened to them. Explaining their situation, the four laughed about it and Andy and Matt said on reflection that "it wasn't that bad, just another adventure, and I suppose that's what this race is all about..." Ten minutes later, Matt and Alanis and Romano and Tony arrived at the airfield and signed up for the second charter flight, completing the manifest and allowing it to take off for Kafra. This second flight was the unlucky choice, the indirect one. When they touched down in Aanjar, Sarah attempted to disembark from the aircraft but was told to sit down, that they were not in Kafra. Nevan, nervous, asked why they had not gone to Kafra and was brushed off with a simple, gruff response: "Connecting flight." The second flight arrived in Kafra approximately an hour and twenty minutes behind the first aircraft.

Dave and Paige raced through the airport with Massimo and Antonio, and John and Maria, hot on their heels, trying to locate the subway that would take them into Kafra's city centre. They reached the subway, and it departed leaving Vincent and Julie slamming on the train doors in frustration at their milliseconds-late arrival. Fortunately, another train arrived six minutes later, keeping them at least an hour and a quarter free of the four teams behind them on the second aircraft.

Chelsie and Rona were the last team to depart, and, using their good looks, convinced a local Upper Sweeney resident to join them in the car and guide them to the Wildlife Park. They arrived in four hours, finishing Spot in twenty minutes and joining Arda and Siramone, and Lorenzo and Malaino, at the airfield for the third flight, direct into Kafra.

Once at the correct subway station, teams had to find a cluebox at the top of a staircase that would lead them to their next task. Massimo and Antonio arrived first, the clue instructing them to proceed on foot six blocks to the famed Café Classique Ouza Prehistorica where they would find their next clue. Dave and Paige, and John and Maria, trailed by only a couple of seconds. They reached the restaurant to discover that they had to complete a roadblock. In this roadblock, one member of each team had to indulge in a Nedalian delicacy: ten whole baked cockroaches, covered in a hot, spicy cream curry and okra sauce. The delicacy's sauce is one of the regional cuisine's spiciest known substances.

Antonio chose to do this roadblock as his brother had performed the fish toss on the previous leg, and sat down to a plate of curried roaches. Remarking on their surprisingly good taste but a little put off by the texture, he compared them to eating "weird and REALLY spicy potato chips" and continued eating. Failing to fall to the throes of his gag reflex, Antonio quickly finished the roadblock, cleaned his plate and received the next clue, gulping down a bunch of cold water in the process, his brow glistening with sweat. Paige had similar luck finishing the roadblock, as she had tried chocolate-covered cockroaches on numerous occasions and found consuming the pests quite easy. However, Maria, who had chosen to do this roadblock, struggled, gagging numerous times and eventually vomiting into a garbage can. She continued sitting at the table, after downing her fifth roach, agonising and worrying that she wouldn't be able to finish. Her dad remained at her side, coaxing her to continue and encouraging her with the prospect of a third-place finish.

Massimo and Antonio's clue instructed them to fly to New Brux, Spruitland. Permitted to find any means of transport back to Kafra International Airport, the brothers hailed a taxicab with Dave and Paige hot on their heels, trying valiantly to protect their tops finish in the first leg. The Manhattanites, however, had an advantage: Dave had been to Kafra numerous times on business trips and knew that the subway was much faster than taking a cab, as traffic was highly unpredictable and volatile. Indeed, the couple's instinct was a huge pay-off once again, as the train beat the Pacitalian brothers' cab back to the airport by just under five minutes. However, both teams discovered they would be on the same flight, leaving in 70 minutes, and realised that such a flight would likely include John and Maria and possibly Vincent and Julie, who, unbeknownst to the two leading teams, had long since arrived at the roadblock. Julie took the roadblock and was enduring similar troubles to Maria in completing it. The Bazalonians finished first and held a two-minute lead back to the subway station, only stopping to let Maria vomit one last time in a garbage receptable outside the station. They caught a train back to the airport just in the nick of time, with a once-again frustrated Vincent left pounding desperately at the doors as their lag behind the top three teams increased.

John and Maria managed to make the leading flight and accompany the Manhattanite couple and Pacitalian twin brothers down to New Brux. Another flight departed Kafra for New Brux fifteen minutes later, which Vincent and Julie caught, followed just barely by Sarah and Nevan, Andy and Matt, and surprisingly, Romano and Tony, who also had excelled at the roadblock to overtake another struggling roadblocker, Alanis.

The pit stop, as the clue instructed, was the hotel and conference centre at the airport. Racing on foot, Massimo and Antonio easily defeated the older Dave and Paige. Dropping something on the way there, they picked it up and continued sprinting to the mat with host Cano Mora visible at the end of the hall, finishing the leg in first for an overall gain of four places. The prize for winning the second leg was new 17" FoxBook Pro notebook computers to both members of the team.

Dave and Paige failed to hold onto their first-place finish but still managed to secure second place, followed closely by John and Maria. Vincent and Julie took fourth place, jumping two spaces over their previous finish, while Sarah and Nevan dropped two spaces to finish fifth. Andy and Matt remained in sixth place to the leg's completion, while Romano and Tony arrived at the mat in seventh.

Meanwhile, back in Kafra, Alanis had managed to finally complete the roadblock and the Lamoni team raced to hire a cab to take them back to the airport. However, the unpredictable traffic got in the way and the team was faced with an hour's extra delay on the road back to the airport, while Lorenzo and Malaino arrived at the roadblock first and began chowing down, excelling like they promised. The Vilitan brothers overheard a traffic report on the restaurant's radio warning of huge delays on the roadway and opted to return to the airport by subway, overtaking the Lamonians for eighth place. However, both teams made it on the same flight down to New Brux and the Vilitan brothers' weight once again kept them from winning a footrace as the Lamonian dating couple regained eighth and reached the mat a solid minute ahead of Lorenzo and Malaino.

The final two teams arrived at the roadblock and were disgusted to find the task that laid before them. Arda eventually resigned herself to doing it as Siramone flatly refused, and the Vegan cheerleaders faced the same issue: the only difference was that both team members refused to even so much as touch the plate. However, Arda could not finish without eating it slowly, and her turtlish pace allowed Chelsie and Rona to begin catching up once Chelsie finally, enraged, relented and sat at the table to do the Roadblock. Both teams left the restaurant at the same time and both chose the subway. Likewise, both teams took the same flight to New Brux, and like the Lamoni/Vilita footrace before them, it came down to athleticism, as, despite Rona tripping on the carpet in the international terminal, the cheerleaders managed to once again just narrowly avoid elimination, while knocking the Pacitalian mothers out in the process.

Standings after Leg 2 - Upper Sweeney, Bettia to New Brux, Spruitland
1st - Massimo and Antonio
2nd - Dave and Paige
3rd - John and Maria
4th - Vincent and Julie
5th - Sarah and Nevan
6th - Andy and Matt
7th - Romano and Tony
8th - Matt and Alanis
9th - Lorenzo and Malaino
10th - Chelsie and Rona
11th - Arda and Siramone

This post has been edited by Pacitalia on Dec 15 2006, 02:34 AM
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Posted: Dec 15 2006, 02:46 AM
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http://ns.goobergunch.net/wiki/index.php/The_Amazing_Race_1 - stats updated.
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OOC: Due to a family get-together, presentation of the third leg of the Amazing Race has been postponed until tomorrow.
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Leg 3

Previously on the Amazing Race - eleven teams set out from Upper Sweeney on the second leg of this race, heading for the Bren-Brooks International Wildlife Park, a beautiful nature reserve that straddles the Bettian-Nedalian border. Dave and Paige, and Andy and Matt, were the first two teams to depart, but the Krytenian brothers were given faulty directions by a Welsh-speaking shopkeeper and went south instead of west, ending up at a restricted-hours toll booth, and waiting anxiously for it to open. The delay allowed four more teams to reach the park in front of them. Dave and Paige found ease with the detour but were overtaken by Pacitalian twin brothers Massimo and Antonio, and ended up losing their lead the rest of the way. The Pacitalians held first all the way through a food-challenge roadblock in Kafra and then beat Dave and Paige to the mat in a footrace through the international terminal in New Brux. Arda and Siramone ran a respectable leg but couldn't beat the young, sprightly cheerleaders in Chelsie and Rona, as the last non-elimination spot in the leg came down to a footrace. Ten teams remain - who will be eliminated next?

====

This is New Brux, Spruitland's capital city and the second pit stop in a race around Atlantian Oceania. Massimo and Antonio, who were first to arrive, departed exactly twelve hours later. Their clue envelope contained 201 doura. It instructed them to hire a taxicab to take them to the New Brux Palisades Hotel where they would find their next clue, in the hotel lobby. The Pacitalian brothers were followed shortly thereafter by Manhattanite couple Dave and Paige, and soon after by the Bazalonian father/daughter team, John and Maria. The three teams set off for the hotel but were worried to see, after a ten minute drive out of the airport, that they were driving back to it. Massimo asked the cab driver, who said he "[was taking them] to the hotel". Sure enough, the cabs returned to a hotel adjacent to the airport and teams continued on foot to the clue box.

Dave and Paige beat Massimo and Antonio, and John and Maria, to the clue box, and once there, the two squads opened clues to encounter their third roadblock of the race. In this roadblock, one member of each team had to descend from the top of the tower to a mat 98 metres below, in a method of skydiving known as freefall jumping. In freefall jumping, participants wear no safety gear and no parachutes, but the distances are markedly shorter. The mats below are large and deep, and the margin of error is miniscule, so the teams that had the strongest resolve and the least fear of heights would finish the roadblock quickly. Upon successful completion of the jump by the one team member, the team would receive its next clue.

Once again locked in a footrace, the Pacitalian brothers managed to beat the Manhattanites on the stairs up to the roadblock area. Antonio chose to do this roadblock as Massimo had a slight fear of heights. Receiving instructions from the spotter at the top of the tower to land horizontally on his back or face down, and not feet-first, on the knees or head-first, Antonio took his leap of faith as soon as the instructor said "go". He yelled in exhilaration as he landed perfectly on his back near the centre of the large mat and met his twin brother back at the taxicab outside the hotel to open their next clue. John and Maria were allowed to pass the Manhattanites as Maria had decided she would do this roadblock, and fell face-down onto the mat, wincing from the pain of having the rough fabric of a mat smack her in the face at the equivalent of 170kph, but smiling nonetheless.

John and Maria had passed Dave and Paige because they were still deliberating on which of them was to do the roadblock. Eventually, Paige accepted the challenge, landing somewhat like an Olympic diver with a few swirls and twirls on her way down to the mat. She appeared to land slightly awkwardly but nonetheless on her back, and told Dave she "felt slightly winded" after it. Still, the two opened their clue to find out they needed to proceed on foot back to the airport terminal and take a train from the underground station to Sativa, another city about 180km west of the capital.

About twenty minutes after the departure of the first three teams from the hotel, Vincent and Julie arrived to take on the roadblock. Vincent, irritated by the cab driver's refusal to tell him why they were going back to the airport, deliberately underpaid him, setting off a spate of verbal fireworks, in which the driver threatened to call his manager and the police under the charge of "failure to provide monetary exchange for services". Julie, screaming at Vincent to pay him so that they could continue on the race and not lose any more time, eventually had to rip doura out of Vincent's hand and thrust it at the driver, apologising; the two then vaulted the steps of the hotel lobby and reached the clue box, bickering profusely.

Sarah and Nevan had arrived in their cab just as the verbal exchange had finished and barely lost out in a footrace to the clue box, with just three seconds separating. However, the Amarenthians rushed through reading the clue and quickly ascended the staircase to the top of the tower, beating Vincent and Julie, who were still not only bickering but now deliberating who would do the roadblock. By the time the LE/Chacor long-distance couple had finished their exchange Andy and Matt had arrived, rushing through the clue in similar fashion to the now fourth-place Amarenthians and then beating Vincent and Julie to the top (they had taken the elevator instead of the stairs). Romano and Tony, the Bazalonian boyfriends, had also arrived shortly after and reached the top of the hotel just in time to see Nevan jump awkwardly off the side of the building and into the mat below, landing on his back.

The other teams successfully completed the roadblock (Andy took the roadblock for the Krytenian brothers, while Vincent and Romano also both accepted it). They rushed to catch up to Sarah and Nevan, who had already started running back down the street to the terminal in order to catch a train to Sativa. However, the footrace was all for nought, as all four squads arrived at the station to find John and Maria waiting impatiently at the tracks with Dave and Paige, and Massimo and Antonio, as the train was not due to arrive for another ten minutes. All seven teams got on the first train while the Pacitalian twin brothers sat down in the same compartment as Dave and Paige in order to befriend their Manhattanite counterparts and discuss a strategy. The two teams established an alliance on the train but could not figure out which team they wanted to have out. Instead, they agreed to cooperate to complete the detour and set a goal to finish this leg one-two once again, in either order. Andy saw the two teams conversing on his way to the bathroom and returned to his compartment to inform Matt, and John and Maria, who were sitting there with the Krytenians, of what he had just seen.

"I don't know if they were forming an alliance," Andy said. "But it looks suspicious to me. Maybe we should do the same."

The independently-minded John, however, would have none of it and took great strides to imply to the Krytenians he would not participate in an alliance. The seven teams emerged from the train simultaneously, but the Pacitalian-Manhattanite alliance were first to the cluebox being at the front of the train. It instructed them to travel 20km south by taxicab to the smaller city of Valhove, where they would find their next clue.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel the last three teams had all arrived to start the roadblock, and at about the time Andy had gone to the bathroom on the first train, they had all left for the airport terminal. Lorenzo said that it had always been his dream to "freefall off something and live", and to the laughter of the teams present, he sheepishly jumped off the building and fell with a huge smack, perfectly, on his back. He was followed by Alanis, who also completed the roadblock perfectly, and then lastly by Chelsie, who did her third roadblock of the race. The three teams hurried up the street back to the terminal to try and see whether they could catch a train. To their dismay they found that the train occupied by all seven teams before them had left only 20 minutes earlier, but Matt and Alanis went to the information desk and discovered that if they hurried, they could take the subway to New Brux's central train station and catch a train to Sativa that would leave only eight minutes after their arrival at the station. They were delighted to also discover that this train would reach Sativa only five minutes after the one that had left from the airport. Sprinting to the track they all just barely managed to get on the subway train and were successful in buying tickets for the train to Sativa, getting on and breathing a sigh of relief, as they had gone basically non-stop from the start of the race until getting on the train.

The three teams all sat in one compartment and began befriending each other, playing cards and reading magazines, while Alanis and Malaino put their heads together to read up on Sativa and the local area in preparation for the rest of the leg. Matt suggested that all three teams form an alliance between them to try and oust some of the stronger teams if they could manage. Lorenzo agreed, saying that now that they had narrowed the gap to just five minutes it was entirely possible all three of their teams could finish in the top five with a little luck. Chelsie and Rona eagerly agreed to the alliance, if not only to guarantee themselves a little more security after two straight second-last-place finishes and two straight narrow avoidances of elimination. They arrived at the train station, exactly five minutes after the first train, and opened their clues to discover they needed to hire cabs to go to Valhove.

Romano and Tony were surprised at their strong showing so far on the race but they seemed to speak too soon as their cab endured two flat tires simultaneously, forcing them to the side of the road and allowing Vincent and Julie, and Andy and Matt, to pass them on the highway. Indeed, they waited long enough that the back three teams passed on the highway, forcing them into last place while they stood at the roadside waiting for their replacement cab to arrive.

The other nine teams all arrived at the next route marker, at Valhove's municipal spruit collective, within two minutes of each other and were expecting a detour. Instead, they just had a simple task to fulfill. The teams had to search through fifty 500kg pallets of prepackaged spruits for fifteen clues, which would reveal their next destination. Andy and Matt found a clue in the first pallet they searched and were intrigued to find that all teams now had to drive a marked car back to Sativa and then fly to the Milchaman capital of Alexandria. They were followed shortly thereafter by Matt and Alanis, Sarah and Nevan, Lorenzo and Malaino and Dave and Paige. Massimo and Antonio emerged from the collective in sixth place and rushed to their marked car to try and catch up to the five teams in front, even though they were aware they would likely all make the same flight. On the way back to Sativa, the six teams passed Romano and Tony, who were just now heading down to Valhove in the replacement taxicab.

Sure enough, Massimo and Antonio's hunch was correct, as the next flight to Milchama's capital city did not leave Sativa for another two hours and twenty minutes, which would mean, if Romano and Tony regained some time and completed the task quickly, all ten teams would be on the same flight -- a direct route by Milchaman carrier Scipio Airlines -- if space permitted. Matt, Alanis, Lorenzo and Malaino headed to a travel agent to try and find an alternative way of getting to Alexandria and discovered that AeroPacitalia had a flight through New Brux which would leave forty-five minutes earlier. But the travel agent warned that the flight actually would take nearly four hours to complete as the stopover in New Brux was long, so the teams declined the tickets and tried to find something else. However, they were unsuccessful, and, disgruntled, headed back to the Scipio ticket counter to join the other teams in purchasing fares for the direct flight to Alexandria.

A bit of in-race tension erupted in the passengers-only food court as the teams anxiously waited for their flight. The teams sat down in cliques with Dave and Paige, and Massimo and Antonio, continuing to sit alone. They had invited Andy and Matt and John and Maria to sit with them while they all waited for the flight, as the Manhattanites "wanted to chat with them". Andy pointedly refused the invitation and the two went and sat at a far table, sending odd scowls at the Pacitalians and Manhattanites, while John and Maria accompanied them, looking confused and sheepish. Dave moved to ask Andy what his problem was but was stifled by Paige, who shot her husband a severe look of warning. That tension seemed to only get worse as the Krytenian brothers looked up, with disappointment, to find that the last four teams had all arrived and would be taking the same flight to Alexandria. Meanwhile, the Pacitalian twin brothers made a pact with their Manhattanite friends, resolving to try and knock Andy and Matt out of the race for their strange and unwarranted attitude.

All ten teams sat down in their seats while John and Maria successfully managed to negotiate with a couple in the second row to trade spots. This gave them a fourteen-row advantage over the other teams on the short hop over to Alexandria... or so they thought. Instead of the standard procedure wherein the rows at the front deplaned first, the flight attendants deplaned the back rows first allowing Matt and Alanis, Lorenzo and Malaino, Chelsie and Rona, Dave and Paige, and Massimo and Antonio to enter the terminal first. The latter two teams sprinted ahead while the Lamonian dating couple waited for their four friends to catch up. The five teams reached the cluebox in the terminal to discover they now needed to take the bus into Alexandria's city centre and find the Statue of the Broken Painter. They were followed not long after by four more teams who had been seated mid-plane, and then, by John and Maria, furious at the sudden reversal of fortune, but with resolve, managing to outrun a much-more-athletic Andy and Matt, and a suddenly fatigued Sarah and Nevan, to the cluebox.

The Pacitalians, Manhattanites and, strangely enough, the Vilitan brothers, managed to make the first bus while the Vegans, who had gotten lost looking for the bus stop, had forced their Lamonian alliancemates to hang back and wait for them. The next bus, departing three minutes later, contained those two teams, plus the Amarenthians, both Bazalonian teams and the Krytenian brothers. Vincent was forced to wait as Julie had suddenly fallen violently ill and needed medical attention to stop her vomiting and reverse the dehydration. After an hour in the nurses' room, the team was once again ready to go though Julie still felt nauseous and woozy. Julie suspected that it was the curried roaches from the previous leg that had made her so ill. Vincent expressed his worry that the team would be eliminated while Julie berated him for "caring more about the race than her health". The long-distance couple took a third bus and, obviously, were not accompanied by any other teams.

Once in Alexandria's city centre, the first nine teams emerged from the bus to find, upon asking locals, that they were still a few blocks from the statue. They could see the bronze paintbrush reaching into the sky above the stout buildings and began running in the direction they had been given. All nine teams ran in sort of labyrinthine race through the streets trying to find the most direct route to the statue on foot. They all arrived at basically the same time anyway, but Dave and Paige, and Andy and Matt were the first to get clues and discover that they were to partake in the anticipated detour.

In this detour, teams had a choice between Steal or Beg. In Steal, teams needed to ask three different locals from which country Milchama stole their beloved statue. Corroborating the results they needed to then cross the street, travel to Bismarck subway station, and inform a lady dressed all in blue of their answer. If they were incorrect, they had to start over. If they were correct, the attendant would hand them their next clue. The task appears easy but in reality, not many Milchamans know this fact of history, and only citizens with post-secondary educations or a knack for their national history would know the correct answer. In Beg, teams were to take the subway or bus 3km north to Bismarck Station, and cross the street to the National Library of Alexandria. Once there, they had to find the microfiche copies of Oliver Twist, and then, using a special reader device, find a passage from the book marked in the clue. The team had to determine which word was used most frequently in the book out of a pre-determined list of three given to them in the clue, and then report the word to the on-duty librarian. If correct, they would be given their next clue; otherwise, they would have to start over.

Six of the nine teams chose Steal as it was perceived to be the easier task. Dave and Paige, once again acting on instinct and with Dave's knowledge of classical literature, headed to the library to partake in Beg alongside Massimo, Antonio, Lorenzo and Malaino. Chelsie and Rona were unsuccessful on the first six people they asked but received an answer from a dowager old lady across the street from the statue. Chelsie and Rona finished fifth of the six teams but all of them were told to return to the task as their guesses (ranging from Bazalonia to Spruitland to even Pacitalia) were all incorrect. Only the sixth team, Sarah and Nevan, got it right first try (the correct answer: Collonie), and so received their next clue instructing them to take a taxi to the pit stop, the Beit Hagah Synagogue. At almost exactly the same time, all three teams doing Beg finished the task and headed to street level to hire cabs to take them to the synagogue.

The labyrinthine streets of Milchama's capital once again proved their challenge against the leading four teams, and by a twist of fate and of happy luck, the Vilitan brothers, Lorenzo and Malaino, emerged at the synagogue and touched down on the mat first, followed swiftly by the Amarenthian co-workers Sarah and Nevan. Massimo and Antonio beat Dave and Paige to the mat by about four minutes. Lorenzo and Malaino's prize for winning the third leg was a 7-night holiday to a destination of their choice in Atlantian Oceania, provided by PNAPacitalian Vacations.

Matt and Alanis reached the synagogue in fifth, as they were the second to complete Steal, and respectably enough, on only their second try. Meanwhile, as John and Maria finished Steal on their third attempt and headed to the mat in sixth with Andy and Matt hot on their heels, Vincent and Julie had just arrived at the detour and headed to the library to begin Beg, trailed closely by Chelsie and Rona, who were frustrated with their lack of success and had decided to switch tasks, leaving Romano and Tony alone in completing Steal (they were now on their fourth attempt but had resolved to keep going). Tony weeped in frustration as an emboldened Romano continued to struggle valiantly in their quest for the correct answer. Finally, three people reported Collonie in response and the team, on a hunch, headed back to Bismarck Station, desperate to know whether their answer was correct. Vincent and Julie finished just as Chelsie and Rona were about to complete their reading, and having given the correct answer, the long-distance couple from Liverpool England and Chacor sprinted across the street to hire a taxicab to the synagogue. The Vegan cheerleaders, however, were most definitely not as successful, and only managed to score the correct answer on the third attempt, by luck. Romano and Tony had just begun their cab journey to the synagogue while the cheerleaders ran downstairs, in the fight of their life, trying to stay in the race and not be eliminated.

Vincent and Julie beat Romano and Tony to the synagogue mat, but the Bazalonians' ninth-place arrival led them to a heavy sigh of relief. Realising that Chelsie and Rona would be last, they quietly kept their celebratory relief in check as they left the mat and crossed the street to the hotel that would serve as their between-legs resting point. Two minutes later, the cheerleaders arrived, and with tears threaten to cascade down their cheeks, host Cano Mora informed them that the third leg was non-elimination, and that they were still in the race. However, he reminded them that because of this, they were now "marked for elimination", and they now had to place first in the next leg in order to avoid incurring an automatic thirty-minute penalty that might, if the racers were bunched together on the next leg, result in their elimination. The cheerleaders, relieved, hugged each other but that relieved elation was soon replaced by a strange, steely resolve to place first, as they informed Cano that they "knew what had to be done to win the next leg".

Standings after Leg 3 - New Brux, Spruitland to Alexandria, Milchama
1st - Lorenzo and Malaino
2nd - Sarah and Nevan
3rd - Massimo and Antonio
4th - Dave and Paige
5th - Matt and Alanis
6th - John and Maria
7th - Andy and Matt
8th - Vincent and Julie
9th - Romano and Tony
10th - Chelsie and Rona

This post has been edited by Pacitalia on Dec 22 2006, 06:55 PM
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Posted: Dec 22 2006, 06:46 PM
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Once again, delayed to tomorrow morning, as I have a family event to attend. Yay the holidays!
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Leg 4

Previously on the Amazing Race - ten teams set out from New Brux, Spruitland. A roadblock placed immediately next to the starting point of the leg caused confusion among teams, who thought they were being mistakenly returned to the airport and driven in a circle. But the appearance of route markers hanging from a hotel doorway soon alleviated the fears and the teams continued to the roadblock, which involved freefall jumping off the top of a tall hotel into an air-filled mat below. Teams were relatively good at the task with mostly graceful landings. The Pacitalian twin brothers, Massimo and Antonio, formed an alliance with Manhattanite married couple Dave and Paige while on a train to the Spruitlander city of Sativa. Andy and Matt spotted this deal-making while on the way to the bathroom and decided to form a counter-alliance, and while in Sativa International Airport on the way to Milchama, sparks nearly flew as the Krytenian brothers rejected an invitation by Dave to sit with them. A tricky detour requiring strong memorisation skills held up a few teams and, though four teams set out at once to try and win the leg, by a stroke of luck and the help of Alexandria's labyrinthine streets, Vilitan brothers Lorenzo and Malaino emerged to hit the mat in first place. It was eventually Vegan cheerleaders Chelsie and Rona who hit the mat last. Fortunately for them, it was the first non-elimination leg of the race. Ten teams still remain - who will be eliminated next?

====

This is Alexandria. It is Milchama's capital city and the third pit stop in a race around Atlantian Oceania. Lorenzo and Malaino, who were first to arrive, departed exactly twelve hours later. Their clue envelope contained 252 doura. It instructed them to drive a marked car to the Milchaman city of Chof Maariv, which lies on the western coast of the country, and then catch one of three passenger ferries leaving that day for Cantinople, Bazalonia. The Vilitan brothers were followed soon after by Sarah and Nevan, Massimo and Antonio, and Dave and Paige, as the four teams had placed within two minutes of each other. The four teams decided (with a little coaxing from the Pacitalian-Manhattanite alliance) to team up and drive together to Chof Maariv, first consulting a map to find the direct route to the city.

Four minutes later Lamonian dating couple Matt and Alanis left the mat to begin the fourth leg, followed two minutes later by John and Maria, and then another two minutes after that, by Andy and Matt, in one of the most tightly-packed fields yet on the race. Vincent and Julie started the leg about fifteen minutes later, followed by Romano and Tony ten minutes after that, and the "marked for elimination" friends from Andossa Se Mitrin Vega two minutes after the Bazalonian computer techs. All ten teams received vehicles with automatic transmissions for the drive to Chof Maariv. Chelsie and Rona found a quick route on an expressway that would take them within 20km of Chof Maariv, where they would then have to switch onto a local road and continue on. The other nine teams had chosen a slightly more direct, but slower and two-lane highway that would take them right to the ferry berths.

The Vegan friends Chelsie and Rona, who, while being called the "cheerleaders" by the other teams for their sprightly, overly bubbly attitudes, are actually a gradeschool teacher and tattoo artist, respectively, were well on their way to overtaking the other nine teams except for Chelsie's decision to drive almost 60kph over the speed limit. Needless to say, a highway patrolman spotted the antics as the Vegans weaved in and out of the two lanes, frantically passing slower vehicles left and right. Catching up with them, he forced them to the side of the road and demanded an explanation, a driver's licence and the vehicle's registration papers. When Chelsie was unable to produce a driver's licence, having realised she'd lost it, Rona tried futilely to offer up her driver's licence instead. However, her swift plunge into her backpack earned a hostile, reproachful glare from the policeman who ordered her, fearing she would pull out a weapon, to remove her hand slowly from the backpack, and for them to step out of the car. Shaking with fright, they were thrown in the backseat of the cruiser and driven back 5km to the nearby town's police station, and booked on speeding charges.

At the police station they were told that to avoid an overnight jail sentence they could pay a 260 bob speeding fine (equivalent to exactly Ð 134). The cop would then escort them back to their vehicle at the roadside. However, in their frightened haste, Rona, who had been responsible for the money and had it in her money belt, had left the money belt in the vehicle. Chelsie, irritated, started to yell at her teammate, causing her to cry. To profuse apologies from a tearful Rona, the policeman relented and informed them he would drive them back to the vehicle and book them there, taking the pay-out back to the station. Grateful, they agreed, and after two painful hours at the police station, they were driven back to their vehicle and paid the fine. Back on the road, Rona reminded Chelsie to "take it slow", and they started back out at a more acceptable 110 down the highway to Chof Maariv. Unfortunately, the nine teams in front of them at the start of the race had once again passed them back and had arrived just in time to catch the first ferry to Cantinople, leaving Chelsie and Rona with a three-hour disadvantage (three-and-a-half hours if the elimination penalty was taken into consideration).

On the ferry, Dave and Paige, and Massimo and Antonio, once again sat together to discuss their strategy for the leg. Dave had not forgotten the Krytenian brothers' rude refusal to sit with them but for the other three, their focus was simply on eliminating Andy and Matt for their strengths. Though the Krytenians had endured two tough legs, finishing mid-pack, they were reminded of the brothers' very strong efforts in securing second place on the premiere leg of the race, and that the finish in the third leg was especially fierce and closely-packed, as there was not much difference between first place and last. They resolved once again to find an opportunity to eliminate the Krytenian brothers, but also picked a backup team to try and oust in case their "A" plan failed. In the end they settled on Matt and Alanis, who had steadily improved their position over the previous three legs.

Once off the ferry and cleared through Bazalonian customs, teams were directed to a cluebox just outside the ferry terminal entrances. Andy and Matt arrived first, followed by Sarah and Nevan, and Matt and Alanis. Their clues instructed them to proceed on foot, finding the Killawaloo Restaurant and Grill, about six blocks east of the ferry terminal. At the restaurant, teams would find their next clue. Assuming that a detour was next, the nine teams rushed in a pack down the street, frantically trying to ask directions to the restaurant without alerting other teams to the location. Dave and Paige worked with Massimo and Antonio, using the free map of central Cantinople they had retrieved from the ferry on the way out, and found the restaurant first. They ripped open their new clues to discover, like the previous leg, that the Roadblock was first, and that the race's first Fast Forward was available.

In the fast forward, teams immediately proceeded by taxi or public transport to Cantinople's international airport. Once there, they would fly direct to Fauxhan, Bazalonia's capital, and find the Richard Menszae Memorial. Memorising, but not writing down, the long quote on the plaque underneath, teams would then have to cross the street to the parliament buildings and, in front of a session of the members of that parliament, recite the quote. The speaker would then hand the team their next clue. The team that successfully completed the task could skip all other tasks and go directly to the pit stop. The fast forward was one of a select few on the race, and since teams can only use a fast forward once throughout the race if they complete it, they had to decide whether it was advantageous to use the fast forward now or wait for another one later in the race.

In the roadblock, while one member remained behind at the restaurant, the other member of each team had to proceed on foot across the street and to the northwestern corner of Centennial Park, the crown jewel of Cantinople's central district. Searching three massive fountains filled with coins, that team member had to find three distinct Bazalonian coins not minted since the 1920s. He/she had to select at least one coin with a miniature Bazalonian flag on one side; for if it was not presented to the maitre d' at the restaurant, teams would not receive their next clue.

None of the teams took the fast forward, deciding to give Chelsie and Rona a chance to take it if they could catch up. Dave decided to do this roadblock for the Manhattanites, and following him on foot to the roadblock were Antonio, Alanis, Sarah, Lorenzo, Maria, Andy, Vincent and Tony. None of the teams found difficulty with the task and the order of procession back to the restaurant remained essentially the same, except that, because it was a footrace, the less athletic Lorenzo and Tony fell slightly behind. However, they were in for a treat, as Dave reached the restaurant first to discover that, not only did this leg have the race's first Fast Forward, but also its first Yield. In a Yield situation, a team can choose to halt a team behind it for thirty minutes. That team's thirty-minute penalty starts when they reach the mat. Teams can choose not to yield if they wish. Only one team can be yielded at a time but once that team's penalty expires, any teams behind it can also use the yield. Dave and Paige hurriedly stepped on the mat and yielded Andy and Matt, to the quiet congratulations of Massimo and Antonio, who joined the Manhattanites to receive their next clue from the maitre d'.

They hurried into the cellar to begin the Detour. In this detour, teams had a choice between Hide and Seek. In Hide, teams proceeded into the warehouse room of the cellar below the restaurant. The Killawaloo is famous for its nightly psychical magic shows, and in this detour, teams received their own room of the warehouse and must have successfully concealed a playing card somewhere in their room. The psychic-magician had 30 seconds in which to locate the card, and if successful, teams had to try and hide the card again. If the magician could not locate the card in time he would hand the team their next clue. In Seek, teams headed into the backyard of the restaurant and across to the wine cellar. Deciphering a limerick poem, the teams had to find the corresponding bottle of wine mentioned in the limerick and return it to the restaurant's vintages specialist. If correct, she would hand them their next clue. If not, they had to return to the cellar and start over.

The limerick poem was:
QUOTE
There once was a wine from Drago
That was made 76 years ago
It was spiced and quite strong
In a cask for so long
That you'd hope that one team ought to know


Andy and Matt sat stewing at the yield while all eight teams split in half to complete the detour. The Manhattanites, the two Bazalonian teams and the Lamonians decided to try their luck at the hiding detour and were all successful, with Alanis jokingly remarking that, since it was so easy, she thought "the magician [was] a fraud". The other detour was relatively easy for the teams that had chosen it as well, with all but, oddly enough, Sarah and Nevan figuring out that the wine they needed to find was an oak-matured, Dragonese deep red vinted in 1930. The fact that Sarah and Nevan couldn't figure out the limerick was odd, considering they come from Amarenthe, a country that has a substantial Irish minority population. However, with a little hinting help from Lorenzo and Malaino, they figured out the last part of the poem they needed to decipher: the part on the wine being oak-matured. Joining the other eight teams they waved goodbye to Andy and Matt, though Dave and Paige, and Massimo and Antonio, purposefully looked up at the ceiling as they passed the boiled-up Krytenian bros.

Meanwhile, Chelsie and Rona were halfway across the sea between Milchama and Bazalonia on the second ferry, hoping nervously that the lead between the other nine teams and them had not increased any more than three and a half hours, and unaware that Andy and Matt had been yielded by a vengeful Dave. In fact, most teams that weren't directly involved in the spat at Sativa's airport in the previous leg had no idea that there was any tension between the Krytenian brothers, and Dave and Paige, and so carried on unaware of the gravity of Dave's yielding, simply assuming that they had blocked Andy and Matt for being a strong team. The eight teams continued on in a caravan of taxis, after receiving their clues, going to the train station in preparation for their journey on the high-speed route to the capital, Fauxhan. Arriving at the train station, only six of the teams (Vincent and Julie, Matt and Alanis, Dave and Paige, Sarah and Nevan, Romano and Tony, and Massimo and Antonio) managed to get tickets to go on the first train but there was another train leaving on the same route just fifteen minutes later. John and Maria, and Lorenzo and Malaino, were stuck waiting for that second train, but committed themselves to a hardball catch-up once they arrived in Fauxhan about sixteen hours later. For the first eight teams on their way to the pit stop, it was time to catch up on sleep and continue making acquaintances (which was considerably less awkward with Andy and Matt stuck back in Cantinople). The Krytenian brothers were able to finish the detour and reach the train station to catch a train just as the "cheerleaders" from ASMV reached the Cantinople ferry terminal on the second boat over.

Reaching the clue box, Chelsie and Rona jumped with excitement to find that they had the opportunity to make up ground on the other teams by using the Fast Forward. They noticed that no one else had taken the fast-forward and quietly expressed their gratitude for it. They were facing either a twenty-hour train ride to the far other side of Bazalonia and two tasks, or a distinctly shorter (but still rather long) flight to Fauxhan and one task. Rona expressed reservation about using the fast-forward now but Chelsie almost hit her in frustration, telling her there was "no time like the present", and that if they "didn't do the fast-forward now there might not be another time to use it," because they would be "totally out of it". Rona finally figured out how much of a hole they were in and agreed to do the fast forward, and the pair grabbed a taxi to the airport for the flight, which left in just under three hours. If it did not suffer delays, the flight would turn a four-hour disadvantage into, roughly, a two-hour advantage.

Arriving in Fauxhan without a hitch, the cheerleaders proceeded directly to the Richard Menszae Memorial by taxicab, and arrived at the tribute to Bazalonia's prolific foreign minister with a one-and-three-quarter-hour advantage over the other nine teams. They did not know, of course, how far along in the journey the other teams were and so had to assume that they were not in first place. They did figure, however, that the teams were closely packed owing to their mass departure on the first boat from Chof Maariv earlier in the day. By the time they had reached Cantinople, it was sundown, so they arrived in Fauxhan on the overnight flight to a breaking dawn in the east, sending waves of gold and light blue over a drowsy Bazalonian capital. Chelsie and Rona breathed in the cool, pleasant morning air, and remarked that it was "motivating [them] to work harder". They had their first go at memorising the quote and both tried to memorise the whole thing. They re-read the quote until, after about ten minutes, they felt they had it under wraps, and so went over to the parliament buildings to recite the quote in front of the MPs. However, Chelsie and Rona both missed a couple of words and were told to start again.

Two more tries went by unsuccessfully, and just under an hour had gone by. Rona began to weep in fear that they would not finish the task in time but Chelsie, now emerging as the stronger of the two women, encouraged her teammate to try again, suggesting that they split the quote in half, with Chelsie reciting the first half and Rona the second. She said that the clue didn't say anything about not being allowed to do such a thing. The gamble paid off, as after using up nearly all their advantage over the other teams, they recited it completely and totally, to the applause of the chamber. The house speaker handed them their next clue as they waved in appreciation to the assembled members and jogged out of the chamber to hail a taxicab to the pit stop, the nationally-renowned BazLighters Hotel in the Old Port district. They managed to cue a taxi with just three minutes to go until the first train was to arrive in Fauxhan's central train station, but it appeared that the clock had punched midnight regarding the team's luck.

The taxi driver chose a route that happened to be logjammed with morning rush hour traffic and the frantic girls pleaded for him to exit at the next off-ramp and go an alternate route. He assented with just seconds advantage over the first six teams who were all cascading into taxis for the jaunt from the train station to the hotel, which was a bit shorter than the distance from the parliament buildings to the BazLighter. Indeed, it was Vincent and Julie's taxi that nearly cut the Vegans off. Alarmed, they once again yelled frantically at their driver to step on it and get them to the hotel before "the cab up there". Alas, it was not to be, as the long-distance daters reached the hotel, and the mat on the back sundeck, in first place, followed by a tearful Chelsie and Rona, who feared that they would indeed be eliminated. Not far behind were the other five teams on the first train, and Romano and Tony shockingly came second followed by Dave and Paige in third, and Massimo and Antonio in fourth. Sarah and Nevan were fifth followed closely by Matt and Alanis. With five teams in, Chelsie and Rona's fear only served to grow, especially upon asking Nevan whether more teams were going to follow soon. When he informed them there were two more teams on a second train that was likely already at the train station by now as it had departed fifteen minutes later, the Vegan friends embraced each other, holding on for strength and chattering with anxiety. Such anxiety was a rightfully-felt emotion: just doing the math was enough to make someone scared to death of the likelihood of elimination. With only five minutes of their thirty minute penalty gone, and six of nine teams in within that short time, it was a daunting figure that had all six teams waiting by the mat to see what would unfold: whether Chelsie and Rona would escape the throes of elimination or not.

Five minutes became ten, and ten became fifteen, with still no sign of the other three teams yet to arrive. However, the two teams on the second train arrived after three or four more minutes, blaming the traffic and hastily touching the mat. Disgruntled with losing their lead and finishing seventh, Lorenzo and Malaino still gave the Vegans reassuring looks and waited beside the six other teams while John and Maria finished a disappointing eighth. It was all up to this: would Andy and Matt arrive in time to stay alive, or would Chelsie and Rona's penalty expire before that time?

The penalty indeed expired, and a relieved Vegan team stepped graciously on the mat, once again just barely escaping the elimination bogeyman's clutches for the fourth-straight leg (a second-last place finish in the first leg and the second leg, a non-elimination finish in the previous leg and a second-last place finish in this leg due to the marked-for-elimination penalty). Indeed, with the teams waiting there for the eliminated Krytenians to arrive, it looked almost like the end of the race, alas, it was completely the opposite, and when Andy and Matt arrived eight minutes later their looks of relief turned to abject horror upon seeing Chelsie and Rona standing among a sombre, milling crowd of teams and realising that they were indeed, eliminated.

Standings after Leg 4 - Alexandria, Milchama, to Fauxhan, Bazalonia
1st - Vincent and Julie
2nd - Romano and Tony
3rd - Dave and Paige
4th - Massimo and Antonio
5th - Sarah and Nevan
6th - Matt and Alanis
7th - Lorenzo and Malaino
8th - John and Maria
9th - Chelsie and Rona
10th - Andy and Matt
Pacitalia
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Posted: Dec 31 2006, 03:14 AM
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Posted: Jan 5 2007, 11:09 PM
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Leg 5

Previously on the Amazing Race - ten teams set out from Alexandria, Milchama in the fourth leg of a race around Atlantian Oceania. Chelsie and Rona were desperately trying to avoid incurring a time penalty after being marked for elimination, but Chelsie's excessive speeding on a Milchaman highway led them straight into a police station and delayed them from catching a ferry to Cantinople, Bazalonia with the other nine teams. In Cantinople, teams tried to find coins in a fountain on the roadblock, and Dave and Paige arrived back at the restaurant with time to yield Andy and Matt. That yield proved to be the saving grace for the Vegan best friends, who took the fast forward and flew directly to Fauxhan, turning a multiple-hour disadvantage into a promising advantage. However, Vincent and Julie beat them to the pit stop and they were forced to wait while all but Andy and Matt arrived before the expiration of the penalty. Thankfully, 9th place was enough for Chelsie and Rona to stay in the race, once again just barely staving off elimination. Nine teams remain - who will be eliminated next?

====

This is Fauxhan, Bazalonia's gorgeous capital city stretching along the country's northwest coast; the fourth pit stop in a race around Atlantian Oceania. Vincent and Julie, who were first to the mat, departed exactly twelve hours later. Their clue instructed them to select a marked car from the parking lot beside the BazLighters Hotel and drive to Fauxhan International Airport, 29km southwest of the city centre. Once there, they had to find the store in the international terminal called Martin's Tourist Treasures. The cashier on-duty would give them their next clue, but the store's hours of operation were 10am-6pm and it was already late afternoon.

Vincent and Julie hurried to the airport with all eight teams hot on their tails; the time separation between the nine teams was only 31 minutes at the start of the race. Reaching the airport terminal, they were frustrated to discover they had just missed the shop's opening hours, as it was 6:24pm. Now all nine teams would be waiting in the airport terminal until tomorrow morning to receive their clues from the shop.

At supper in the hotel lounge that night, the teams made a pact to get their clues in order due to the unfortunate near-miss, though the teams were watching Dave and Paige and Massimo and Antonio, who had flouted the pact previously on Leg 2 at the wildlife park in Bettia. The next morning, the pact held true and Vincent and Julie were the first to receive their clue, followed immediately by Dave and Paige, Massimo and Antonio, Romano and Tony, Matt and Alanis, John and Maria, Chelsie and Rona, Lorenzo and Malaino, and lastly, Sarah and Nevan (who had suffered a car breakdown on the way to the airport and had been relieved to see that they had caught back up once there).

Opening their clues, the teams discovered that they now needed to fly five and a half hours west-southwest to Phonecia, the capital of Fmjphoenix, and the hub of the major state in extreme southwestern Atlantian Oceania. Teams looked up at the arrivals/departures board to see that a flight for Phonecia, on BazAir, was leaving in 45 minutes. However, Bazalonian federal flight regulations were similar to Pacitalia's in that check-in closed 20 minutes prior to boarding for security reasons. Already, fifteen minutes had passed since the store had opened meaning that time was running out for the teams to hurry over to the international concourse check-in counters and get tickets for the 10.45am flight to Phonecia.

The first six teams there (Vincent and Julie, Massimo and Antonio, Lorenzo and Malaino, Sarah and Nevan, Matt and Alanis, and Romano and Tony) managed to score tickets on the first flight before it was declared 'full'. John and Maria, Chelsie and Rona, and Dave and Paige went on standby for the first flight but moved onto try and find another flight together that would hopefully leave very soon after. Reaching the AeroPacitalia, they found, to their relief, a flight that left six minutes later. But as Chelsie and Rona were about to buy the tickets the lady behind the counter informed them that it was a connecting flight through Halosen and asked whether or not they would like to check for alternate routes that would get them there faster. The lady told them another AeroPacitalia flight was leaving at 11.58am direct to Phonecia, but it would arrive about 35 minutes before the connecting flight. With no other real options, the three booked on the third flight leaving two minutes before noon and, then, passing security, settled anxiously into chairs in the waiting area. Chelsie and Rona headed to the nearby Starbucks with Maria to jack up on a bit of caffeine, while Dave and John did a crossword. Paige asked the tourist information desk for literature on Phonecia and nearby Vanguard, another major Fmjphoenician city. The Manhattanite couple were visibly nervous, as this was the first time in the race that they were not in the leading pack, or in the top five teams.

Finally, the moment of truth arrived and the teams were called to board AeroPacitalia flight 5784 to Sky Harbor International Airport, with no idea that strong headwinds had slowed the first plane down by approximately 20 minutes, at least lessening the advantage. The second plane encountered a bit of turbulence but chose a southern curve, largely avoiding the weather disturbance. The first plane arrived in Phonecia late-afternoon with the second plane now just 37 minutes behind. The first six teams scrambled out into the parking structure under a blazing sun, the air temperature reaching close to 35*C. With the sun beating down on their necks, Vincent and Julie were putting a strong effort to defend their first-place finish in the previous leg, reaching the marked cars first and selecting one for the drive to the Evergreen Bridge that linked the Fmjphoenician capital with its second-largest city, Vanguard.

At the bridge, teams parked their vehicles and found a cluebox containing instructions for their Detour. In this detour, teams had a choice between Upside Down or Right Side Up. In Upside Down, teams left their vehicles in the lot and would then run to the midpoint of the bridge, bungee-jumping off the pedestrian walk. Once the cord lowered them to the platform below the bridge, they would then be taken by speedboat back to a staircase that led to the bridge level and given their next clue. In Right Side Up, teams continued driving to the other side of the 2km-long bridge and then searched another lot similar to the one they had just parked in for clues stapled to the inside of overturned cardboard boxes. In this detour there were 1,000 boxes with a total of ten clues.

Vincent and Julie, arriving first with a seven-minute headstart, chose Upside Down. Julie decided she would go first, expressing a lifelong desire to bungee-jump or skydive at least once in her life. She excelled at the task and egged Vincent on, who was a bit scared of the heightened task he was now facing. Vincent eventually jumped just as Matt and Alanis and Sarah and Nevan arrived to take on the bungee-jumping. Meanwhile, Massimo and Antonio arrived with Romano and Tony, and Lorenzo and Malaino hot on their tails, and all three went to search the boxes for clues figuring it would be easier. To an extent, it was, as the Pacitalian brothers found a clue and returned to their vehicle just as Vincent and Julie had driven past, allowing them to snake up from fourth to second. Romano and Tony struggled, going through almost 200 boxes before finding a clue; by then, Matt and Alanis had finished the bungee-jump and were well on their way to reaching the next route marker in third place. Lorenzo and Malaino found a clue in their 84th box and met the Amarenthian co-workers Sarah and Nevan on the road to the next waypoint in a battle for fourth. The Bazalonian computer geeks finally rounded up a clue on their 277th box and got in their cars, frustrated at the lack of success, but somewhat relieved to still be in the middle of the race pack.

Just as the geeks were leaving Right Side Up, the final three teams arrived, with Dave and Paige in the lead. The Manhattanite couple quickly decided to take part in the bungee-jumping, with Paige going first. The married couple finished in less than ten minutes, while the Vegans finished the box detour in seven, and both returned to their vehicle with a clue, instructing them to drive south to the city of Spraat and find the Draylom Foods manufacturing plant. They planned to make up some more time on the other teams on the 2-hour drive out to Spraat, as they had already narrowed their deficit from almost 40 minutes to just under 15. And indeed, with Chelsie and Rona just behind them, following them like they were hooked onto each other, the Manhattanites and Vegans passed Sarah and Nevan, Romano and Tony, and Lorenzo and Malaino, to settle into fourth and fifth place behind Matt and Alanis. And with John and Maria in dead last and still not yet to the Detour it appeared that perhaps one Bazalonian team would not be seeing the daylight of the next leg.

Struggling valiantly to make up time, the father/daughter team rushed through the bungee-jumping detour and returned to their vehicles, hurrying to make up some time against the eight teams in front of them. However, they were still about half an hour behind those teams and it took about three-quarters of the journey to Spraat before they finally caught up with Lorenzo and Malaino and forced the Vilitan pair into last place, with Romano and Tony dead in their sights. But they reached the food processing plant before they could do so, and found Vincent and Julie, Massimo and Antonio, and Matt and Alanis well into the Roadblock.

In this roadblock, one member of each team had to ascend the plant's 227m tall smokestack -- from the inside. That person would don protective gear, harnesses and a gas mask, and then, entering the stack chamber, climb from bottom to top on a ladder secured to the brick inside. The team member would receive their clue from a spotter at the top, then descend back down a second ladder, shower to remove contaminants and rejoin their teammate to open the clue. The smokestack is not lit and only a pinprick of light can be seen at the top because it is such a tall structure, the darkness worsened by the dim late-afternoon sun. This variable may serve to encourage people to finish, or it may discourage them or unnerve them. Nevertheless, a team member that does not successfully complete the task must return to the bottom and allow teams waiting a chance to complete the Roadblock.

The Liverpool English/Chacorian dating couple had continued their tradition of choosing between them who would do the Roadblock before the leg commenced. It was Julie's turn to complete a Roadblock as Vincent had already done three of the four. However, she was nervous about climbing into what was as good as a black hole, even with the gas mask, protective gear and harnesses strapped firmly around her. Her anxiety delayed her decision enough that Antonio was allowed to go first. Vincent watched, disappointed, in the lobby, as his girlfriend's nervousness played out for everyone watching the closed-circuit television feed. Three minutes later he was back down at the bottom of the stack with a clue in hand, running to the showers in a hurry to reach the pit stop first, the second time in the race that the Pacitalians would accomplish this. The pair were on their way back to Vanguard, this time to Gorgon State Park, with Massimo clapping his twin brother on the back excitedly. They passed an increasingly frustrated Vincent pleading at the television, hoping that his girlfriend would "start the flippin' task". And she did, in just enough time before the ground-level spotter would have told her to wait and allow Matt to take his first attempt. Julie and Matt both finally finished the task, followed closely by Dave and Sarah, and the four rushed through the showers and rejoined their teammates, hurrying to their vehicles to catch up to the Pacitalians.

Rona took this roadblock and surprisingly, finished it quickly, with the other three teams raring to go. Romano got the all-clear with fellow Bazalonian John behind him, and last to go was Malaino. However, Malaino passed both Bazalonians on the way up, climbing around them and reaching the top of the smokestack first to get his clue, in a concerted attempt to prevent a Vilitan elimination. John cursed and hurried it up, but was not sure enough of himself to pass Romano on the descenders' ladder. The two men battled it out to get through the decontamination (with Romano sneaking some awkward looks at John in the shower), but both Bazalonian teams were even-steven as they pulled out of the manufacturing plant's parking lot and drove to catch up with the seven teams in front.

Massimo and Antonio reached the mat first but had to book it to the finish line as Vincent and Julie were madly catching up and were just seconds behind. Only seconds behind them were Matt and Alanis, and the Lamonian team recorded its first top-three finish of the race. And with Sarah and Nevan coming in fourth it now remained to be seen whether the Manhattanites, Dave and Paige, would suffer their first finish in the race that was not in the top five. Indeed, it was a battle between them and Chelsie and Rona to the mat but Chelsie tripped on a rock and appeared to suffer a light ankle sprain. Dave and Paige reached the mat just as they realised Chelsie had injured herself and remarked to host Cano Mora that they "would have stopped to help if we'd seen it faster". However, Cano checked them in as the fifth team at the pit stop, giving Dave and Paige the distinction of finishing in each of the top five positions at least once (1st on the first leg, 2nd on the second leg, 4th on the third leg and 3rd on the previous leg). They then immediately ran back to help Chelsie and Rona, with Paige supporting a gingerly-walking Chelsie on one side and Rona on the other side, while Dave carried their backpacks to the mat to help them finish the leg in sixth, their best result yet on the race. The Vegans and Manhattanites exchanged hugs and Chelsie profusely thanked the couple for helping them.

Now, the last three teams were visible on the horizon and it would be a footrace between three not-exactly-athletic teams, two of which were Bazalonian. Lorenzo and Malaino had already gotten out of their cars and were running as hard as they could for the mat, and managed to reach the mat and place seventh just as the two Bazalonian teams were catching up. But it would mean heartbreak and an early exit for one of the two teams from the Prime Ministerialship, and it indeed was the computer nerds, Romano and Tony who had the misfortune of missing the last non-elimination placing by mere seconds to their compatriots, John and Maria.

Standings after Leg 5 - Fauxhan, Bazalonia, to Vanguard, Fmjphoenix
1st - Massimo and Antonio
2nd - Vincent and Julie
3rd - Matt and Alanis
4th - Sarah and Nevan
5th - Dave and Paige
6th - Chelsie and Rona
7th - Lorenzo and Malaino
8th - John and Maria
9th - Romano and Tony

This post has been edited by Pacitalia on Jan 5 2007, 11:10 PM
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Posted: Jan 5 2007, 11:23 PM
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Posted: Jan 27 2007, 01:41 AM
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