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Previously on the Amazing Race, some of our contestants got "steaming" mad with the first challenge, although some of them used it to their advantage. After that, it was a hands-down talent contest for first place. The emperors came in first. Ren managed to "flip" things around for his team and got him and Cal out of last place. Sadly enough, the magicians, Chloe & Parker, ironically fell into last place and were sent home. Eleven teams remain. Which of them will remain safe? It's anyone's guess for this once. It's time for... the Amazing Race.

***

"We're back in Oregon," Toner greets. "Yesterday's temporary winners get the first crack at the clue box."

Lucius presses the button and reads the tip to Max. "'Your next clue lies at Lake Walcott State Park'. Uhh... where is that?"

Right in the middle of the good old state of Idaho. Also known as the Gem State, Idaho is known for its mountainous landscapes, its vast unprotected wilderness as well as numerous recreational activities. The last of which plays a major part in today's leg of the race. Teams must fly to Twin Falls, Idaho and take a bus all the way to Lake Walcott State Park to find their next tip.

The first plane out only has twelve seats available which means the last five teams are in a rush to catch up to the others. In one of the taxis heading north, the telephone operators are worried not only about their placing, but also about their allies. "You think the emperors are going to wait for us to catch up?" Sally asks.

Sindy shakes her head no. "I have high doubts. As long we keep getting separated, there's no way we'll be able to help them about and vice versa. For now, I suggest that we temporarily end the alliance until we can come up with something."

Pepper is sort of bummed out a little. The first few days, him and Cinnamon were doing awesome. Then they came in first place; something they didn't expect to happen at all. Then they started slipping again, this time dangerously close to last place.

His partner gently elbows him to see if he's alright. "I'm fine," Pepper sulks. "It's just, we were doing great and now here we are near the bottom of the totem pole."

"We'll do fine," Cinnamon signs. "Although I agree that we need to step up our game. But we cannot get carried away like some of the teams in the past because once they did, they ended up going home."

Even in the quietest part of the town, the silence is interrupted by a large motor roaring through the streets. The one driving it is a tigress with a black wolf holding onto her for dear life. "I will never understand how you do this stuff!" Ryan shouts, referring to how his partner got the motorcycle.

"It was so easy!" Josee calls back. "Besides, we're only in ninth place! This seemed like a better option than a taxi!" What she left out was that she just stole the cycle as the keys were left in the ignition. Josee gives the motor a loud rev as she speeds their way to the airport.

"Where did you learn to do that?" Majira asks, indicating Echo's plate act she did last night to keep them in the game.

The fennec explains, "Oh that? That was just something I picked up during freshman year. As for how I learned, I'd rather not go into that one." She scratches the back of her head and just watches at the city passes by.

While Ren & Cal are the last team to leave the Drive-In, the first six teams are already on the plane, Idaho-bound. By the time it lands at 11:06am, those inside are anxious and ready to get to camp (you don't see that often with twelve semi-adults). They load onto a bus, heading one-hour east until they reach the park grounds. The teams rush out for the clue box in front of the welcome center.

Judging by the white clue, Judy reads, "It's a One-Way: 'Summer Home... Triathlon'?" For this task, teams must complete three mini-challenges. The first of which is Disc Golf; teams must toss their discs into three metal baskets before marching northeast towards an open field. Once there, pairs must work together to set up an entire tent with no outside help. Lastly, it's a very long trudge two miles up the hiking trail until they reach this leg's checkpoint. Last team to arrive, could be eliminated.

All twelve players are handed yellow rubber discs to begin with. Then Vito points out, "It says we have to complete baskets number six, seven, and eight before we can finish." Which worked out because number six was in front of the welcome center.

The cab drivers take the lead. Donna reaches the spot they have to throw from first and she tosses her disc with little trouble. It travels far and far. Vito, on the other paw, has trouble with his right hook and it ends up in a bush. "Umm... I'll just go get it."

Toby launches his with all the strength he has and it goes flying straight into the basket. Resting both paws on his partner's shoulders like a pep-talker the tiger whispers, "It's all you, fox. We're in first. You can do this."

Felix lets his arm back and throws his disc hard. It lands just a few feet away from his intended target. "Darn it," he mutters.

Some of the other teams have little trouble. Max & Lucius sink their discs in with less then three strokes. The officers struggle some, but Nick gives Judy a few pointers. "It's all in the elbow and the wrist," the sly fox explains. The bunny tries again and she sinks it in. "Not bad for a first-timer."

"I could say the same about yourself," Judy replies.

Seeing the officers pull ahead makes Donna growl a little. She turns to Vito, who is still trying to make the first basket. "Hurry up! What are you playing around for?" she asks.

"I'm trying!" Vito shouts back. "I've never been good at frisbee back home and this is basically a large version of it!"

Up ahead, the father/son and marine teams are slipping behind the others, but they aren't giving up easily. Kaleb tries to get a small running start, but slips and fall on the ground. "Dad?" Mac tries to get his father's attention. "Why would you need to do that? We're only five feet away from the second basket?" The little cub picks up his own disc and just tosses it in the basket.

"Sorry, son," Kaleb says. "I was just trying to make things a little more interesting." He finishes that basket, ears down. The wolves run out to find the next one they have to do. Mac doesn't get it at first, but he begins to understand. Kaleb is still upset that people don't find him interesting like the guys back at the sauna yesterday. There has to be something he can do to bring his old man's spirits back up.

Zack squeals with joy as he finishes each one with ease. "This is so fun!" he calls out. Chris watches as his partner and gets lost for a moment, looking at the fox being cute and adorable the way he is.

Someone bumps the wolf/husky from behind and he hears a familiar British voice. "So, are you going to go after that or what?" Felix teases.

Chris growls at him. "Don't you have a tiger to go fuck or something?" He runs off before he can be interrogated further. Felix smirks. He absolutely wants that fox, he thinks. As for how I'm going to get him to admit that... I'll have to keep thinking on that.

Thirty minutes later, the friends with benefits, officers, and marines have finished the disc task and are heading north to begin constructing their tent. At this time, the last five teams arrive on a second bus with no time to waste. When they do, Donna gets more worried. They're already behind. She can't risk them being dropped further.

"Vito! We're starting to lose it!"

"I know, woman! You think I'm not trying?!" Vito comments. He tries again for the fifth time and he finally manages to sink it in. "Finally!" He runs to get his disc as the second group begins to start.

The telephone operators step up in line. Sindy & Sally get their first basket in two tries; keeping their focus on the metal basket as they need to catch up to their allies. Two different colored discs land in the first basket next. The blue one was Cinnamon's, but when he looks to see who threw the second one, he's greeted with the familiar look of the annoying tigress.

"Are we ever going to get rid of her?" Cinnamon signs to his partner.

"I know, I know," Pepper assures him. Ever since St. Kitts, Josee has been getting on the brown fox's nerves and all he's been wanting to do is send her and Ryan home.

Our engaged couple tries their hardest to finish as they're still in last place. But once again, they're outlasted by Echo and her amazing talents as she zips through the first basket without even trying. "How in the world does she do that?" Ren asks. Cal just shrugs. "Is she some sort of sports prodigy or something?"

The bear pats him on the shoulder. "Just focus on the challenge, hun. We're already way behind."

At the third basket, father and son finish (with a not-so gleeful look from Kaleb) with the emperors trailing behind and the cab drivers behind them. "This is for all the marbles," Max says. The fox, a perfect hundred feet from the basket, tosses his disc and makes it in. Lucius takes another two strokes but manages to get it done.

"Oh, we better run!" the wolf urges as he picks up his fox and carries him northeast.

Vito tries tossing with his left arm as his right one is worn out and tired. Donna gets her disc in on her first try. "Will you stop fooling around?"

"I'm not good at this!" Vito points out again.

"Clearly," she mutters. Before she can even say anything else or Vito can do anything else, Echo's disc zooms by them and lands perfectly in the basket. Both foxes drop their jaws while Majira quickly sinks his disc in. "See? Even those from the second group are doing better than you!"

"Echo has more muscle in her than my whole family has combined!" Vito argues. Seeing as how he was only thirty feet away from the basket, he figures there's no way he's going to miss it this time. Yet he does.

A foreign voice fills their ears. "I'm pretty sure that they go inside the metal rustbucket," Ryan mocks them. Him and Josee throw their discs together, landing in the metal "rustbucket" at the same time. "Huh. Would you look at that?"

"Back at my house, my family used to play frisbee all the time," Josee explains as they head north. "Sometimes they didn't even toss it to each other. A lot of the times it was them choosing a specific place for it to land and making us throw the frisbee there."

With four teams still itching to finish the disc golf challenge, the haters join the other six teams in a large clearing. A few of them are close to completing the second task. Josee grabs a tent pack and the haters chose a good spot next to a tree.

"Zack, can you hand me that tarp?" Chris asks. The fox does and he goes back to clipping the cover onto the framing poles. He, on the other hand, can hardly focus on what the fox is doing, only on that cute look he gets when he's completely focused on something.

Zack notices this and snaps his fingers. "Are you ok?"

"Huh? Oh... yeah." Chris slaps himself in the face to regain focus.

The race for first continues and the pressure is completely on. Mac drives a few stakes into the ground while Kaleb lazily attaches the frame poles. Felix decides to work from the inside out, thinking that would be a good strategy, but Toby catches him sneaking a few looks towards Chris and wonders what he's thinking. Josee & Ryan fight about which side they should start with first (kinda of pointless). Max & Lucius use a mirroring strategy where when one person does one thing on one side, the other person does the same on the other. For them, it seems to be working out. Majira, thinking that he's the stronger of the two, holds up the support while Echo, claiming she has faster paws, clips the main part of the tent onto it.

Judy tries to do something, but Nick gently pushes her away while he does a few things that she cannot recognize. "What are you up to?" she asks.

The sly fox stands back up and hands her a stray rope. "Pull on this and you'll see." The bunny, albeit reluctant at first, yanks back on it as hard as she can. Suddenly, the tent pops up, clipped on and everything. She stares in awe and looks at her partner for an explanation. "You learn a few tricks when you once hoped to be a part of the Junior Ranger Scouts."

"Done!" Nick perks up his ears when he hears Toby's voice from the other side of the clearing.

"Speaking of tricks, how about we go make ourselves scarce?" The officers and friends with benefits race out onto the trail in a foot race for first.

Back at the first task, the cab drivers have at last completed the third basket no thanks to Vito's poor throws. But, they still aren't giving up as the other three who are still behind try their damndest to catch up.

"You can do this, man!" Pepper cheers from the sidelines as he finishes the last basket. Cinnamon stands fifty feet away from the goal, disc gripped hard in his paw (but not too hard). The vulpine throws it hard and he hears the familiar metal chains indicating he has made it. "See? It's not so hard after getting used to it, is it?"

Cinnamon shakes his head no. Yet as they run, the one thing in the back of his mind is still beating out Josee.

Two fuchsia pink discs land into the bucket next. Sindy pulls her partner along, but with less anxiety that she had at the beginning of the competition. "You, despite being close to last, I feel like we're doing awesome," she says as they run.

"Really?" Sally asks. "What makes you say that? We're in second-last and we still haven't seen nor heard from either Max or Lucius."

"True but at least we haven't slipped back into our dreaded fourteenth position that we were stuck in at one point. And we've made two allies who, until we can catch up with them, seemed to have really had our backs the whole time." The ladies make it to the clearing, seeing most of the teams are starting to finish. They grab a tent set and find a perfect spot near another trail.

Three minutes later, a certain still last fox and bear arrive next (or dare we say "last"). "How in the world are we not able to keep up?" Cal asks. "I told you we should've signed up for GP instead."

"I'm sorry," Ren says as he grabs the last set. "But I told you what happened: they were finished with the auditions by the time we tried to get in. This seemed like a better alternative at the time."

As the last few teams battle to catch up to the others, more and more teams complete the tent task and race to the carpet. Mac snaps in the last clip and declares their finish. "Come on, dad. We might still come in third if we leave now." The little cub pulls on the larger wolf, but Kaleb just walks slowly. "Ok, that's it! What is your problem?!" Mac shouts.

"My problem is that... I feel as if nobody wants to try and bond with me no matter what I try. You saw what happened back in Portland, right?"

Mac nods. "Dad, I think the problem is that you're trying way too hard. I mean, you're a great guy who has a big heart. If anyone turns down being your friend, then I see the problem is in them, not you."

Kaleb perks his ears up and smiles. "You really mean that, son?" The cub nods. "Well then, let's go check in while we still can." He hoists his son over his shoulder and carries him off.

***

Toner stands in front of a full body mirror right beside the carpet. As he waits for a team to check in, he experiments with a few ties; unable to decide between a black bowtie or a plain regular one. After switching back a forth a few times, he goes with the bowtie as the other would look to formal on him.

The sounds of rapid footsteps grab his attention. Show time, he thinks to himself.

The officers start to slip behind the beneficial friends. It looks like they're about to take the win when the smaller duo frantically run faster and trip onto the carpet. "Well, I haven't gotten to say this in a long while; but Nick & Judy, you're in first place," Toner declares. "Which leaves Toby & Felix in second place." The still standing pair share a kiss anyways.

With first place locked up, the race to get out of last has just gotten started. The emperors finish their tent soon enough. Max stops Lucius before they continue, though. He points to the lady vixens who are having problems catching up. "I wish we could, hun," the wolf sympathizes. "But the tip made it quite clear: no outside help. They're on their own."

It pains Max to have to leave their allies behind right when they have a chance to work together again, but he gets up and leaves with his husband anyways.

"Pass the stakes, I'll get them set up," Sally insists. Sindy looks across the ground and finds them strawn out next to the bag it all came in.

"And we're done," Chris rushes when the marines completely set up their tent.

The situation for the haters begins to simmer down a little. As Ryan wipes off sweat from his forehead, Josee drives the last stake into the ground. "Whew! Never thought it would take so long just to pitch a tent," Ryan says.

"Well of course it took long," Josee argues. "You barely helped and even when you did, you did it slow on purpose." Ryan rolled his eyes. While they may be on better terms, she still is a crazy nutbar that he wouldn't mind messing with. Even if it sacrifices their ranking in the race.

Echo & Majira- 3rd place

Chris & Zack- 4th place

Kaleb & Mac- 5th place

Pepper ties the apex of the tent to the support while Cinnamon quickly clips on the sides. "We're getting there..." Pepper says with a stake that he put between his teeth to hold it there until he needed them. Once the brown fox gets all sixteen clips on, the two quickly stake down the tent then head off.

Donna growls a bit when she sees only two other teams as it means that there's no way to catch up into first. But it also means that there's a possibility that they could come in last. "How're you doing over there?" she asks.

Vito grunts as a stubborn clip refused to latch onto the support. "I'm trying to..." The fox uses all his strength, but comes up short each time. "It's no use. This thing refuses to cooperate.... Oh mama mia, I'm going to snap one of my fingers off!"

Donna watches for a few seconds (because since when is it not funny to see your partner struggle with something so simple?). When she's had enough, she slaps Vito's paw away and snaps in the last clip with no effort. Then again, the fabric on the tent rips slightly, but she pulls on his paw and runs before they have to start again.

"Finished," Sindy says. Her and Sally run off towards the trail and even manage to slip past the cab drivers. At least until the latter pair find the strength in them to ditch them.

Max & Lucius- 6th place

Josee & Ryan- 7th place

Cal & Ren- 8th place

Toner slips on a blueberry milkshake when another pair of feet land on the carpet, allowing him to say, "Ninth place. You're still in the race."

Pepper lets out a sigh of relief. Turns out he was right; they were slowly slipping down the totem pole and soon enough, they'll be eliminated from the whole show. The thought bums him out a little and his ears and tail droop. The strippers walk away as Toner focuses his attention back towards the other way where two other teams are in a deadlock for last place.

It looks like the telephone operators will come next, but then the cab drivers slip into the lead and then back. The four of them having their own motives to keep pushing themselves further. Sindy & Sally want to keep seeing their allies in the race and besides, Sindy came too far to come in last now. All Donna cna care about is beating out the other competition and winning the million dollars to prove she isn't a loser.

"In tenth place..." Toner teases as the two teams are within walking distance. But none of them stop. Especially to two who speed up. "... the cab drivers." Vito & Donna cheer and hug each other (not for their ranking as tenth place is very awful; but for the fact that they didn't come in last). The red dog then turns to the last dynamic duo remaining. "Well, Sally, Sindy, I'd say it's been nice knowing you, but let's face it, I barely even noticed you were here. Good luck in some other race, you're done."

Both vixen slump and turn around.

***

"Hey, this whole thing could've been a lot worse," Sally says to try and bring up Sindy's back mood. "Plus, we got to see a whole bunch of stuff people back at the office never would've gotten to."

This brings her friend up a little. Sindy lets her smile grow as the memories flow into her. "Yeah. I suppose that this was a fun experience. I'm mostly glad we got to make a few friends along the way. You know, ones that won't turn their backs on us like, say... before your sixteenth birthday!"

"I told you I was in California that day!" Sally puts Sindy in a playful headlock and gives her a noogie. "Now come on, sister. Let's go home and see if we can get ahold of Arnold."

"Oh boy!" Sindy's tail lashes back in forth out of enthusiasm.