Heat Three. Results.
First Place: The Royal Court of Princess Donut.
Second Place: Team Sparkles.
Third Place: Lady Dominators and the Gimp.
Fourth Place: Team Free Love.
Fifth Place: One Fine Pig.
Sixth Place: A replacement team will be assigned soon.
Eliminated:
The Wild Hunt.
The Jugglers.
HEAT 4 OF 7
[ 33 ]
“We both drove,”I said to Donut as we limped back to the garage. My shredded kangaroo suit only had two hours left, which meant I could soon ditch it, but I still had to do little hops. We didn’t get teleported inside like we had after the first race, which was weirdly inconsistent. “That means neither of us can so much as touch the controls for the next race. We’ll need someone reliable to drive.”
Donut huffed. “I didn’t drive! All I did was touch the pedals! That doesn’t count.”
“It does count,” I said.
I eyed the house with the number 6 painted on the door. We wouldn’t find out who our new opponent was until just before the next race. I hoped it would be another NPC team, though I knew, realistically, that the odds were against us. I sighed.One problem at a time.At least we’d come in first place.
“Those poor foxes,” Donut said. “I never even knew the creepy Juggler people, but the fox ninjas were starting to grow on me.”
“I will drive next race,” Dong announced, looking over his shoulder. He and Bucket Boy had the groaning Gluteus Maxx strung out between them. Dong had rushed down to the scene ofthe wreck to try to talk to Corky, but Rapture and Genesis had scooped him up and gone straight to their garage, pushing Dong aside without saying a word to him.
“We’ll talk about it,” I said.
“What is there to discuss?” Dong asked. “I am...”
He paused at the sound of a commotion at the finish line behind us. We all stopped and turned as two giant figures walked over the finish line. It was Onikuma the bear mount for the dead razor foxes and Old Shuck, the giant dog from the Juggler team.
“What the...?” I asked before both of the biological mounts blinked and disappeared.
“Carl, I thought they were dead!” Donut exclaimed. “Why is the stupid dog still alive?”
“I guess if the riders die but not the mount, the mount is saved. It makes sense. Sort of, I guess.”
“But where did they go?”
I shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. Not here.”
Donut harrumphed.
A grumbling gremlin, pushing a wreckage-filled wheelbarrow much too big for it, passed us. From the smoking debris within, Dr. Metcalf beeped.
Would you look at this? I’m a shattered husk. Shocker.
“Dr. Metcalf!” Donut exclaimed, waving at the wheelbarrow. The gremlin grunted with annoyance as we sped up to keep pace with him. “We thought you were broken into a million pieces!”