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Previously on the Amazing Race, our teams traveled to the city-state of Singapore. Some enjoyed being on the camera more than others. Conflict between other teams arose that started from a harmless prank by Nick. Donna started to hate her own partner. Ren & Cal won the leg for the first time in history. And while the vegetarians came in last, it was all a non-elimination leg so no one went home. But what do we have in store for Joey & Miles this round? And which team will find themselves in last place? Time to find out. This is... the Amazing Race: All-Stars.

***

"Welcome back to Singapore," Toner introduces. "Teams always depart in the same order in which they arrived. But before we get into this leg of the race, I feel obligated to introduce a new twist. Since this is the All-Star race, and I'm going to make this year tougher on the others, we feel like those who escape elimination during the non-elimination rounds should get a punishment. So, for this round, Joey & Miles MUST finish in first place; otherwise, they'll receive a 25-minute penalty at the next checkpoint." The dog snickers. "Aren't I just the best?

"Anyways, up first for today are the married team..."

Ren steps up to the clue box first. "We're going to Malaysia," the fox observes.

Malaysia is a southeastern Asian country known for its beaches, rainforests, and bi-continental influence. Teams must travel by bus into the capital city, Kuala Lumpur, until they reach the Petronas Towers where they'll find the next tip.

The fox and bear rush out of the lake towards the bus stop. But they'll be okay. Because only the first seven teams get on the first bus out. The marines, prostitutes and twins collect the tip next, some more focused on the race than others. "I seriously hope Mitch will forgive us for ditching him yesterday," Kit worries.

"I'm sure that they'll be fine," Kitty reassures her older sister. "And besides, you know that Mitch likes you too much. Why, I bet that he's proud that you're pushing yourself right now."

On the contrary, once the fraternity brothers head out, Mitch has both of his ears down. When Jasper asks him what has got him so bummed, he responds, "I just can't believe that Kit would go on without us. I thought me and her had a good thing going on."

Jasper pats him on the back. "Don't worry, bro. I'm sure she still likes you. She just wants to win the race as well and it's hard to focus on two things at the same time."

"You're right! Maybe if we can pick up our pace as well, then we can catch up to her!" Mitch starts jogging a little faster than normal. This isn't exactly what Jasper had in mind, but he figures that since they're in the bottom three at the moment, there's no point in arguing.

One team leaves the last checkpoint in a very pissy mood. "I cannot believe we came in last place!" Joey says. She rubs her temples in frustration. All she really has to blame are the officers for throwing off their concentration. "At least we didn't get eliminated. But we REALLY have to step up our game if we want to avoid elimination this time."

Miles nods in agreement. "But remember what they say about tough challenges like this: Work smarter, not harder." Joey admires this about Miles, that even though he can get mad sometimes, he tries to keep his head straight no matter how dire the problem. Sorry to push their luck, but they're stuck on the second bus to the capital, with seven other teams.

And one of those teams might be a bit more peeved that the veggie heads. "We were doing great the first few days," Tammy marvels at herself. "But how did we go from winners to tied for being a loser?" she asks, referring to her and Rachel being on the second bus.

Donna & Vito are still not getting along 100%, but they're doing much better than yesterday. The vixen smirks while her partner growls and glares out the window. The sun glimmers off the silver metal of a muzzle wrapped around Vito's maw. Donna looks to the audience and frowns. "What? This is exactly what he gets for breaking up me and Claudia," she says. "I'll unlock it when we check in tonight and we are NOT losing."

Josee & Ryan spend the trip towards the capital cuddling and nuzzling each other. Both the tigress and the wolf in a good mood compared to most days. Something about the sun being out and hearing a few birds chirping about that makes them happy.

Then you've got the team behind them, the graduates. One of them is rocking her usual teen girl outfit that matches her golden fur. The other is in nothing but her usual black gown and her glossy black fur. Mabel sighs, feeling completely neutral. "How did the humans just bounce ahead of us? I thought they weren't very good of players."

"How could you say that?" June asks. "The boys made it all the way to the finale last time."

"Yeah, but they haven't been doing so hot this year." The formerly pink cat yawns and flips upside-down for her usual nap. June will never understand where Mabel formed these strange habits. Although, the wolfess does admit that it's pretty impressive to sleep upside-down since blood will rush to the brain, making it harder to sleep.

Only a few hours later, the first bus stops right outside of the Towers, twin glass structures that climb towards the sky. Halfway up the sides of the buildings, a bridge connects on Tower to the other. The clue box sits in front of a pool of water that sits between the Towers. First place married couple reaches it first.

"It's a One-Way," Cal reads. "'Seek higher things'?" For this One-Way, teams must race to the 41st floor of the Towers by any means necessary. It doesn't matter which tower to enter from. Once they get there, they must walk out onto the sky bridge and search for the Amazing Race logo painted somewhere around the block.

The married couple and the marines rush inside together for an elevator. Chris frantically presses the up button as he sees the other teams approaching. "Come on come on come on!" the wolf grumbles to himself. They hear a ping and the doors move open. All four of them rush inside and Zack presses the door close button.

"Um, rude!" Barbara shouts, kicking the door and wincing as her toe stings. Jon secretly snickers.

"We'll have to take a different elevator," Brent suggests. He pulls Syd towards the next elevator and presses the call button. There, the other five teams sit and wait for the chamber to sink down to them.

Meanwhile, going up, the marine/married alliance slowly wait for the elevator to ping to the 41st floor. It stops once in a while to let people on and off. Chris growls in frustration. "This is going to take forever."

Ren pats him on the shoulder. "Have patience, Chris." Ren has never really had any conversations with Chris except for the time he blackmailed the wolf into expressing his feelings for Zack last year. Otherwise, his only real interactions with them is with the fox.

A few minutes later, they reach the floor they were looking for. "I think it's this way," Cal points out and leads them down a hall towards where the bear thought he saw the bridge. Sure enough, his sense of direction is correct and they find themselves high off the ground in the glass bridge.

Zack, wide-eyed from his acrophobia, wraps his arms around Chris, knowing that he'll protect him. "S-So, does anyone know where we're supposed to be looking for?" Zack asks, shaking from his fear.

"The logo of the show," Ren answers. He presses his snout to the glass, skimming around the roads and buildings for what? He wasn't sure. The logo comprised of a blue globe and black and yellow letters that spelled out the name of the show...

Like over there! Ren points out the logo on top of a white building to the left, another tower but not has big as the glass Towers that they're looking from. "Found it!" the black fox exclaims in excitement. "Back to the elevator!" He runs back the way they came with Cal, Chris, and Zack following right behind him.

Just in time, the other teams' elevator opens up to the floor. Surprisingly, the five teams don't make a move to split apart just yet. "What are we waiting for?" Brent asks. "This is a race."

"Those other two teams are too strong for my liking," Angie says. Cal & Ren with Chris & Zack? Those four are strong physically and mentally. To have any shot at winning this race, one of those teams needs to leave immediately. "Why don't the five of us work together to try to take one of them out?" The critics look to each other, seeming to be on board with the whole thing.

"Sorry," Kitty says, breaking the silence. "But we have no interest in playing dirty." She and Kit walk away from the group towards one end of the building.

Devon & Jon soon mirror them, going the opposite way. No way are they going to worry about four other teams to keep up with them when they've been doing great to begin with.

This only leaves the critics behind. "Sure, we can help you," Barbara says before Eddy can give his opinion. "After all, we have one thing that gives us an advantage over them." The wolf holds up the Express Pass that Tammy gave her.

Angie & Jennifer perk up at the sight of the Pass. "Wow," the collie says. "You think we might be able to use that against the others?"

"It won't eliminate them, but it sure will knock them down a ranking or two. And sometimes a little bit can go a long ways." Eddy tries to speak up but Barbara holds a paw to his snout. "No time for this, the smart people are talking." Besides, she adds to herself, we've got two teams on our side now. We could be an unstoppable force that lasts all the way to the finale.

The humans find themselves as the sky bridge first. As soon as they step out there, both boys start scanning their surroundings for the Amazing Race logo. "Okay," Syd says, "if one of us looks one way, and the other looks another way, we'll be able to find it in to tim-"

Jon pushes him to the side, knocking him into the glass. "Move it, losers," the husky says. Brent helps his friend to his feet and he glares at the prostitutes. He has no idea why they're acting much bitchier this year than they did the last time they played this game. So you got penalized because of a mistake you made. Big whoop! "Found it!" He points to a large white skyscraper on the other side of the street.

Both of them run off in a joyful mood. Brent, on the other hand, is feeling mixed emotions. While it's great they now know where they have to go, he's more upset that they would treat his best friend like he's nothing but dirt. His fists ball up as he helps his friend to his feet. "Are you okay?" he asks.

Syd nods. "Yeah. I'm fine. Thought I don't know about you, but I'm starting to hate those hookers." Same, Brent says to himself. And for once, this hatred might be a bit stronger than the hatred he has for Mabel. Almost.

"Keep your eyes out for the bridge," Kit says as the twins run down the hall. For once, her mind was 100% on the game and not Mitch. Kitty tugs on her arm when she spots the bridge between the towers. "Nice work, sis." They run out and start scanning for the logo somewhere on the streets.

As the last two teams in, the sorority sisters and the critics work together to search around frantically. But not as bad as they thought seeing as they're not in last place. For Barbara, all they really have to worry about is getting through this task. Then, they can use the Express Pass and bounce themselves into first place. It needs to be used before the 8th leg of the race so... why not?

Eddy gives a sharp wag of his tail and points down below. "Found it!"

Barbara comes up behind him, slaps him on the head for giving away the location then says, "Nice job. Move it!" Angie & Jen and Kit & Kitty run back for the elevators, each trying not to forget the location of the white building.

The building in question is called the Aurora Tower; three glass structures that stretch upwards in square-like columns. Cal & Ren reach the next clue box that sits right outside the Aurora building with the marines right behind them. "What does it say to do next?" Cal pants.

Zack skims over the clue and drops it, eyes widened in a state of shock. Chris waves a paw in front of his eyes; nothing. "What could be so bad about the challenge?" the wolf asks. He scoops up the clue and reads, "'Roadblock: Reach for the Sky'... Oh no..." He looks upward towards the top of the building.

For this Roadblock, whoever didn't toss a flaming instrument in Samoa gets to climb up the side of a skyscraper; just as dangerous yet more thrilling at the same time. Players must strap into retractable cables and walk up the side of the building to retrieve the next clue on the roof.

And before most of you go and say "Hey, this is way too dangerous and illegal", we've got a permit to do this and as a few safety precautions, there's several air mattresses on the ground and the players will be given helmets. For extra safety, there will be a second harness attached to each player as a back-up. And people say Toner doesn't care about the well-being of the contestants.

Meanwhile, the second bus has arrived at the twin towers. The race to not come in last has begun; especially for the vegetarians, who still have the penalty to worry about. Donna attacks the call button on two of the elevators. "What are you doing?" Vito asks.

"Shh!" the vixen hushes. "I'm getting us out of last place." The doors to one open. And just like Donna predicted, the other teams on the bus run in as well. Donna's ears perk when she hears the ding of the next elevator opening up. She grabs Vito's paw, swipes her paw up on the floor buttons and runs out before the doors shut.

"HEY!!!" Josee pounds her fist on the door.

Donna snickers. "This is almost too easy." The drivers go to the second car, going directly upwards. "Told you I would get us out of last place. Now we have a real chance at winning this thing." Vito stays silent beside her. She doesn't appear to be as mad at him anymore about the whole Claudia thing.

The seven other teams in the first elevator scowl in frustration as the elevator stops on floor #2. 3. 4. At number 5, Josee hops out of the car with her partner. "This is ridiculous," the tigress says. "We'd be much faster taking the stairs." Not seeing a reason to argue, the haters run for the stairwell.

Most of the others follow them, especially Joey & Miles whom are motivated by a mix of rage, and fear. "If we don't win this round, we'll be penalized," Miles says. "And if we come in last again, we're going home."

"And the longer we stay in the race, the better," Joey chimes in.

The only team who didn't run after the stairs are the graduates, who decided to look for another elevator instead. "No point in wasting our time heading up the stairs when we could've just looked for a different car to ride upwards," June explains to the audience. "I guarantee you that one of those who took the stairs are going home."

Mabel presses the door close button and together, her and June ride up to the 41st floor in silence. June looks down at her feet, unsure of how to even look at her partner in the face anymore. The old Mabel might still be in there, the wolf tells herself. No. If she was, she wouldn't be like this after two years without Brent.

Rachel & Tammy aren't bothered by running up the stairs. Stair-climbing was one of the challenges of the second finale. Sally & Sindy on the other head, are exhausted and whining after only four flights. "My ankles are not cut out for this much running upstairs," Sally complains.

"Come on, we've still got... quite a ways to go," Sindy says. She hoists her partner to her feet and half-drags, half-pushes her partner up the stairs.

Much in the same fashion, Nick carries Judy up the stairs much like he did last year on the first day. It's better that way, the fox thinks. That way, Carrots keeps up her energy for the next task because let's face it, we're going to need all we can muster.

Vito & Donna run out onto the sky bridge. "Haha! Made before anyone e-" She looks to see the frat bros overlooking the streets, their noses pressed into the glass. "What the?" Donna asks. "How did you two get up here so fast?"

"Hm?" Mitch turns around towards them. "Oh we just looked for another elevator. Some nice held it open for us; turns out we were going to the same floor she was." He goes back to looking outside. The drivers join their side, darting their eyes back and forth, sweeping every inch of the block that they can find.

"Yo! One logo across the street," Jasper observes the logo painted on the building. He squints a little and looks harder because he swears he saw people on the side of the tower. "Huh. What are those guys doing?"

Ren has already strapped into gear and snapped on his helmet. He leaps up, his foot catching into the window of the first floor. Without looking up, the fox begins to walk towards the sky. Zack, on the other paw, is strapped in as well, but is quivering as he looks at the top of the tower, which seems to be miles away.

"Are you going to be okay?" Chris asks. "You look like about ready to throw up." Suddenly, Zack can taste bile in his throat. He swallows his down and, with shaking paws, walks up to the side of the Aurora Tower.

"I'll be fine," he says aloud. No I won't, he says in his brain.

As both foxes walk up, more teams arrive for the second task, all with shocked looks on their faces as they witness Ren and Zack climb the side of the building. "Risk my life walking up the side of a skyscraper?" Brent asks. He wipes his forehead and lets out a sigh. "Man, did I dodge a bullet or what?"

He looks to see Syd with a worried look on his face. "Sorry," Brent continues. "I'm just very glad I'm not you right now." Syd slips into the gear and helmet before stepping onto the side of the tower. As soon as he's a little higher and he stands straighter, he's thrown off balance. Gravity affects you differently when trying to walk upwards. For a moment, Syd wonders how the actors of the movie Allegiant were able to do something like this.

Angie has zero issues climbing upwards. Sure, she gets the occasional gust of wind in her eyes and she slides down a few feet, but she paces herself so she doesn't fall.

Barbara, though, doesn't look to enthusiastic about doing the task as anyone else. "No," the grey wolf says. "Noooo way I'm doing that! We are definitely using the Pass and skipping the challenge because... fuck this." Eddy shrugs, not seeing any reason to disagree. The critics collect the next clue from a watcher who was set up by Toner in case they used their Pass.

With one team skipping the challenge, the others are in a tight race to get out of last. Kit struggles to get a firm grip on the cable that keeps her from slipping. Right when she thinks she has it, a faint, frenzying reeling sound comes up from below. Jon whips past her, his feet pounding against the glass as he runs up the side of the tower. He even surpasses Ren, who growls at him as he zips by. "Jerk!" the black fox shouts. "I almost lost balance!"

Jon, not seeming to listen nor care, comes to a stop just short of the roof. He leaps over the railing, where the other end of the cable is tied to a hook, and runs to the clue box for the next tip. "'Race on foot to the next checkpoint at the... Bukit Bintang'?" the husky reads.

The Bukit Bintang is one of the largest shopping districts in the whole city. It also serves as the 6th checkpoint in the All-Star race. Last team to check in... could be sent home.

As Jon jumps down from the roof, slowly making his way back to the ground, those still in the twin towers are struggling to get out of last place. Josee point out the logo a few minutes after they reach the bridge; they take the elevator back down. Right on their tails, June & Mabel and Joey & Miles take a few minutes to fan out and search, hoping to find the logo before the other team does. Mabel points it out silently and for once, June is glad she doesn't really speak as much anymore.

By the time the vegetarians reach the 41st floor, they collapse from exhaustion, both foxes covered in sweat. "Pathetic," Tammy says as she steps over them. Judy & Nick come up right behind them, the latter of the two panting and perspiring heavily while the rabbit is still alert and awake.

"Thanks for the lift, partner," she says.

"It's no... no big deal." Nick falls to the ground. Sighing, Judy grabs his arms and begins dragging him towards the bridge.

Sindy & Sally run onto the platform next, each taking huge gulps of air as the height takes their toll on them. "Is it... over yet?" Sally gasps. She falls to the ground while Sindy tries to pick her up. When the vixen looks out over the intersection, she tries to shake her partner awake.

"Hey, Sal, I can see the logo down there. We need to..." She grunts as she carries her teammate back towards the elevator bank. "Girl, what in the world have you been eating?"

***

Outside a glass building (seriously, does everyone here build with glass?) in the shopping district with "Pavilion" in bright pink letters hovering over the entrance, Toner sits on the edge of a fountain, letting the cold water soak his shirt and head fur. His personal masseuse, Quentin, sits next to him as they wait for teams to show up.

"Have you ever seen Paris?" Toner asks. Quentin shakes his head. "I heard it's pretty lovely this time of the year; especially when the sun goes down and the city lights go up." In his paw, a grape-flavored slushie he got from the camera crew sits. As he goes to slurp it down, he sees two familiar wolves running towards him. He spits out his drink. "What? How did they get here so fast?"

Barbara & Eddy step onto the carpet, both out of breath. "How did we do?" he asks. "Please tell me we got something good."

"You're the first team to show up." Toner watches as the critics shout with joy and hug each other; a rare gesture that happens between them considering how much they hate each other. "But how in the world did you finish the skyscraper challenge so easy?"

"We skipped it," Barbara answers. "Tammy gave us one of the Express Passes back in Samoa. Good thing it came in handy because there was no way I was going to climb that thing. Plus... we came in first place!" Toner rolls his eyes as they walk off, jittering like they're on caffeine.

Pretty soon, the prostitutes come into sight. When they step onto the carpet, Jon says, "I assume that we've come in first again, right?"

Toner opens his maw and takes a deep breath, suspenseful with a smirk on his face like he's about to say yes. But the words that actually come out hit Jon like a punch to the face. "Nope. You came in second. Suckers." The husky growls and curls his fists, cuing Devon to carrying him off to the side to calm him down; mostly with kisses... and a public BJ (much to Toner's disgust).

Now that the race to come in first is done, the race to avoid elimination has begun. Right as the vegetarians come to, every other team has disappeared. Miles hops to his feet, shaking his partner hard. "Joey! Joey! Get up! We're in dead last!" The vixen snaps her eyes open and she scrambles to her feet. Together, the run towards the sky bridge to start searching for the logo.

Across the street, most of the teams are at the Roadblock; with one partner waiting on the ground, and the other dozens of stories off the ground, walking upwards. One of the bittersweet things is right as Kit is climbing back down, she slides past Mitch who is going up. As soon as she makes eye contact with them, she waves to him. He nods back in acknowledgement then continues to walk up. It's enough to make Kit blush.

Josee takes the tactic that Jon used for this. Although it's dangerous, the tigress runs up the side of the building. She can almost see Donna's tail lolling several yards in front of her, mocking her. Growling, she yells up, "You're going down, city girl!"

The vixen looks down to see Josee beast-moding her way up the side of the tower. Panicked, Donna yelps and tries to speed up her pacing, her cable reeling in faster than she can run. Eventually, Josee catches up to her, tugging on her tail. "Ouch! Hey! I paid $40 to have that done." Donna frees her leg and kicks her in the back of the head.

As the girls have their catfight, Ren slowly lets himself fall down with the tip in paw. He passes by Zack, who has his eyes clenches shut and is literally inching his way to the roof. With Angie right on his tail, Ren lands on the ground in one piece. Both foxes unhook their gear and they start running towards the checkpoint. "Whew! I never felt so alive in my life!" Angie squeals.

"Weird," Jen says. "I never really thought you take up wall climbing in your life."

Syd takes the next tip from the box and hops over the side of the building, whooping on the way down. This wasn't as scary as it looked before. The olympians and officers arrive at the scene right as Syd lands next to Brent. "One of us has to do THAT?!" Tammy demands.

"Um, I have to be the one to do that," Rachel says, putting emphasis on the pronoun. The skunk lets out a breath she didn't know she was holding. Relieved, she sits on the side with the others.

Judy joins the cat as the walk up the tower. "You know," the bunny shouts over the wind, "this really isn't that bad if you don't look down too much." She's thankful that Nick carried her up the twin towers; otherwise she wouldn't have the energy to do this sort of task.

Angie & Jennifer- 3rd place

Cal & Ren- 4th place

Brent & Syd- 5th place

Kit & Kitty- 6th place

With more and more teams completing the Roadblock, the vegetarians are frantic to get to the last challenge. "Jeez I hope we're not too late," Miles swears under his breath. But the foxes reach the second task right on time. Right as the frat bros reunite and run off, Joey scrambles to get into the climbing gear. "Have you ever run up a wall before?"

"No," Joey answers. "But hey, if Shailene Woodley can do it, how hard can it be?" The vixen leaps up onto the side of the building and begins to run as much as the cable attached to her will allow.

When Zack finally reaches the ground, he slowly opens his eyes. The second he sees Chris, he rips the gear off his body and jumps into the wolf's arms, trembling. "That was the scariest thing I've ever had to do in my life," he whimpers.

"Shhh, it's over honey," Chris soothes. "And you did great." Even when he takes his arms off the fox, he hangs on for dear life. "You want me to carry you to the checkpoint?" Zack nods.

Donna and Josee continue to have their little catfight, making absolutely zero progress. Mabel slips by them; the black kitten moving to and from the roof without making a sound. When the vixen and tiger see her walking back down, they let go of each other and run for the top of the building. I hate her so much, Donna thinks.

Jasper & Mitch- 7th place

Chris & Zack- 8th place

June & Mabel- 9th place

Donna & Vito- 10th place

Josee & Ryan- 11th place

Joey reaches the roof in no time flat. However, Judy and Tammy are already on the way down. When they pass by Sindy, who's struggling, the vixen asks, "How long do I have to hold this thing?"

"You don't have to," Tammy says. "It reels itself in." The vixen gives her a confused look. Deciding that this isn't worth her time, Tammy continues to fall down. How does something so dumb end up on a show like this?

Sindy passes Joey on the way up, looking around for the clue box as she takes in the fact that she's in last place. The box sits a few feet away and she grabs the next tip. "So how do I get back down to the ground?" she asks herself. She walks towards the edge of the roof, but trips and tumbles over. "WOAHHH!!!" Sindy stumbles and twirls end over end in the air, sending her down faster.

She crashes into the air mattress and pops it. Sally digs her out. "Are you alright?" she asks.

"Yeah. I'm fine. But we better hurry to..." Sindy reads the clue again. "...some shopping district on the other side of town."

***

Judy & Nick and Tammy & Rachel run for the checkpoint as fast as they can. Four pairs of feet pound against the pavement, their heartbeats faster than normal pace. As they inch closer to the carpet, they see Toner with that purple coyote that he's brought along for the show. If Tammy didn't know any better, she would say that Toner might have some sort of a crush on him. Who else would have their tails brushing against each other so nonchalantly?

From her distraction, the skunk accidentally allows the other team to run ahead of them and they step onto the carpet before them. "ZPD officers come in twelfth," Toner dictates. "Olympians, you take up spot number thirteen."

"Thirteenth place?!" Tammy says. "Are you joking?!" One hard look from Rachel and she backs down. Next round, they should probably use the Express Pass they were given earlier this season.

When Judy & Nick are out of earshot, Tammy perks back up. "Hey, Toner, can I ask you something?" The red dog flickers his hears her direction. "Why did you bring this guy along with you?" She nods towards Quentin. "Didn't you have a girlfriend?"

Toner's eyes well up with tears and he whimpers (something she's never heard him do before). "Emphasis on the word 'not'," he says. His voice almost shakes, as if he's truly sad. He sniffles then recomposes himself. "If you must know, I wanted Quentin to join me this year because I need to take my mind off of... her... AND I pay him good money for a good back massage. Now... away with both of you."

Without another word, the olympians walk off. Rachel leans close to her partner and says, "You really should be careful about what you say to Toner."

"Okay! I just wanted to know. He's acting really funny lately..." Tammy turns back to watch the dog and 'yote converse a little more.

Joey & Miles run up to the checkpoint rug, feeling confident about their scoring. "Vegetarians, fourteenth place," Toner announces. At first, both red foxes cheer for being so close but Toner continues, "Hold on there, guys. You're forgetting the non-elimination penalty. For failing to come in first place, you must wait 20 minutes before you can check in."

"What?!" Miles shouts. "Crap! I thought you've forgotten about that."

"As if. It allows me to pick on other teams. Besides, all you have to do is sit there and hope and pray that the phone operators don't show up in time." The dog looks up and smirks that evil smirk. "Oops. Spoke too soon."

Joey & Miles look up to see Sindy & Sally running their way towards them, carrying seven or so shopping bags in their paws. "How in the world did they get that much done so fast?!" Toner asks, taken aback. "They finished the Roadblock five minutes ago!" The vixens run up to the carpet and hop on, looking confident and not terrified. "Well, I'm not sure how you girls did it; but you're in fourteenth place." Sindy & Sally squeal and give each other a side hug before running off.

Now in his usual taunting mood, Toner turns to the veggie heads. "Well, Joey & Miles, once again, you're the last team to arrive. Only this time, it means that you are cut from the competition." Miles throws his handkerchief on the ground in frustration. So close.

***

"Well, I suppose that that could've ended on a worse note," Joey says as the vegetarians walk to the nearest airport.

"What are you talking about?" Miles demands. "This show is obviously rigged. 'Non-elimination penatly'; what a bunch of complete bullshit. Toner was purposely hoping to send us home today." Joey wraps her arm around his shoulder. For now, it's enough to get him to stop tensing up. "Hey, Joe? Remind me to never sign up for a reality show ever again. In fact, why did we come back for this lame race?"

Joey's answer is simple yet smart-alecky. "Because you thought it would be a fun idea. If I remember correctly, you said 'Let's give it another try; what is the worst that can happen?'" The vixen snickers as Miles doesn't responds. "Come on; let's go home and we can try that new caesar salad recipe."