Elimination Station

[Dale]

With Bob's permission, I have written some short segments on the sequester footage of the eliminated teams as they are eliminated from the race For the first episode of this mini-saga, we look in on eliminated team number one.

Far below the Gold Saucer in the Fantasy 7 verse, a hot, sandy, desert prison, a place called Corel Prison, sat. The place was filled with rundown houses, one shop, several unkempt thugs, and a trailer-like office.
Heading down to the prison right now was an elevator, and two people stood inside, waiting to reach the bottom. Their identities weren’t revealed right away, since the camera only focused on their legs and any part of them below their waists.
The elevator reached the bottom and the door opened, and then, the camera panned up to reveal the faces of Barret and Dyne, fresh off their elimination at the Gold Saucer Ghost Hotel.
“Finally,” Barret said as he and Dyne walked off the elevator. “Forgot how long that damn elevator ride was.”
“Looks like we’re staying here, Barret,” Dyne said, looking around at their surroundings.
“Yo, wait,” Barret said, snapping his head around to look at the place. “Here?! In this friggin’ hellhole?! Damn, man! Ain’t no way I’m stayin’ here for over a month! This place is a real junkyard. And the dudes here aren’t much better.”
“Come on, we’ll be fine,” Dyne said. “Don’t forget who’s the boss of this place. No one’s gonna mess with us.”
An unseen member of production led them a short distance to where they’d be staying — an old house with one very disheveled room inside. Inside were two couches — one long, one short — that’d been torn up for many years. The upholstery was almost completely ruined. Also in the room was a long shelf that previously held some fine china, but much of the china had been stolen or plundered, and what china did remain was broken on the floor.

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Before they could settle in, Barret and Dyne immediately sat down on the couch and faced the camera.
“We just ran The Amazing Final Fantasy Race, got eliminated first,” Barret said to the camera, “and now, Gippal and the damn producers just sent me ’n’ Dyne down to live here in this God-awful dump called Corel Prison for the rest of the race. Don’ know if I’m gonna like it here that much. Few hours down here would be nothin’ for me, but bein’ here a whole month while eleven other teams are still out there racin’ for one-million gil? Just stinks, man.”
“Yeah, I feel the same way,” Dyne admitted. “I think there’s so much more we could’ve done on the race. So much farther we could’ve gotten. It sucks we went out first because we weren’t prepared for anything that’d test our handicaps.”
“Goin’ out first didn’t bother me half as much as goin’ out first in our own home world,” Barret said glumly.
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Barret and Dyne started settling into their new quarters.
While unpacking his backpack, Barret looked around the room. “’Ey, you know where we are, Dyne?”
“Yeah, in Corel Prison,” Dyne replied, also unpacking. “I should know. I do run the place.”
“Yeah. But you know exactly where we are?” Barret asked.
Dyne took a look around, too, and suddenly, he knew what Barret was talking about. “Hey,” he said. “Is this where —”
“Yeah,” Barret said. “It’s where all the men of the town made that decision to add in the you-know-what.”
“Yeah, I thought so,” Dyne said. “Kind of ironic how things work out, the two of us being stuck in the place where you pretty much ruined everything for Corel.”
That seemed to strike a nerve in Barret. “Whatchu say?” he said.
“Well, I mean, it was your fault that everything bad that happened got started right here in this room four years ago,” Dyne said.
“I was jus’ doin’ what I thought would help Myrna and everyone else in town,” Barret said, trying to keep himself calm. “It’s not like we could use coal forever. And how was I s’posed to know what’d happen? It’s not like any of us knew the truth 'bout the Shinra back then.”
“You all still should’ve listened to me,” Dyne said. “I knew the Mako reactor was a bad idea and that we should’ve stuck with our coal mines, but noooooooo! Let’s ditch the past and head to the present! And what happens because of that? The town gets burned down, I lose my left arm, I lose my wife, and, so I thought, I lose my newborn daughter!”
“Maybe you don’ know this, Dyne,” Barret said, starting to lose his cool now, “but I lost just as much as you did. I also lost the town, I lost my right arm, and I lost my own wife.”
“But you gained a kid — mine!” Dyne retorted.
“I thought you were dead!” Barret shouted, his cool completely lost.
“Sometimes, I wish I had been!” Dyne shouted back. “You know what that whole mess did to my mind?”
“How could I not?!” Barret said. “You wanted to kill Marlene ’n’ you tried to kill me.”
“You know, since we’re reliving the past, maybe I should try again.”
“Try it and you won’t live past the next minute.”
Barret and Dyne both aimed their gun-arms at each other and prepared to fire. They each stayed in one spot for a very long moment.
Finally, Barret sighed and put his gun-arm down. “This ain’t gettin’ us nowhere. We keep this up, we’re back to square one again.”
“Yeah,” Dyne said in agreement, putting his gun-arm down, as well. “We were here to try to make up for the past, not rehash it. I’m sorry, man.”
“Yeah, me, too, man.” Barret walked over to Dyne and put his arm on his shoulder.
The two went back to unpacking, and during this, Dyne asked Barret a question that he’d been prompted to ask from an off-camera crewman.
“So, Barret,” he said, “who do you think’s gonna show up next?”
“Man, I don’t know,” Barret replied. “I think it’ll probably be the large, hairy dudes that barely beat us out. What were their names? Oh, yeah! Biran and Yenke!” A picture of Biran and Yenke flashed on the screen as Barret said their names. “If not them, then I think the big, blue woman and her hot daughter.” A picture of Brahne and Garnet appeared on the screen now.
“Could be,” Dyne said. “Personally, I think Cid and Celes will be here next.” A picture of Cid and Celes was the next thing to appear. “I suspect the two of them will have way too hard a time overcoming Cid’s age. The crazy guy and his wife are another pick” — a picture of Cecil and Rosa appeared — “but only if the guy keeps up the crazy act.”
“I could really take anyone winning if they aren’t the damn Turks,” Barret said as Reno and Rude’s picture popped up. “My favorites are the kid and his mom, though.” Ma and Zell’s picture appeared on the screen.
“I want Dona and Barthello to win,” Dyne said as a picture of Dona and Barthello appeared next. “They seem like one of the smarter teams in the race.”
“Well, whoever it is who comes here next, and whoever it is who wins, I think it’s gonna be interesting,” Barret said.
“True dat.”
“Shu’up, Dyne.”

Next up: Eliminated team number two!

Feel free to comment.

[Dale]

I've ultimately decided to just put all eleven episodes in the same thread to save forum space. So here's episode two, featuring eliminated team number two!

Up in the Gold Saucer in the Fantasy 7 verse, all cameras were on the Ghost Hotel in the amusement park’s Ghost Square, the site of the race’s first elimination. Inside the hotel, Barret and Dyne were entering a room with their backpacks and some extra suitcases brought with them before the race.
“Man, that was quick,” Barret said to Dyne as they immediately got to unpacking their bags. “I thought we’d be down there a whole month!”
“Yeah, I’m glad we’re at least out of that place,” Dyne said.

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Barret and Dyne sat down and faced the camera, their room in the hotel as their backdrop.
“Tonight, jus’ as we was starting to get comfortable down there in Corel Prison,” Barret said, “some production dude told us to pack our bags again ’cause we was heading back up to the Gold Saucer to stay here in the Ghost Hotel. I said, ‘Hell, yeah!’, ’cause who wants to stay in a rundown place like Corel Prison?”
“We weren’t even allowed in the hotel when we were here the first time because all the other teams still in the race were staying here for the first Pit Stop,” Dyne said. “I have to think they allowed us in now because the other teams left on the second leg.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Barret and Dyne finished unpacking their things and headed down to the lobby for a drink, and once they’d found a bar to drink at, talk immediately turned to their guesses as to whom their newest roommates would be.
“’Ey, who do ya think’s gonna come in next?” Barret asked.
“Um . . . I think I’m gonna stick with my guess of Cid and Celes,” Dyne answered as a picture of Cid and Celes appeared on the screen. “Just because Cid is way too old to last that long in the race.”
“Tell that to King Vermin, President Shinra, who actually won last season,” Barret said. “Anyway, I’m gonna stick with either Brahne ’n’ Garnet” — Brahne and Garnet’s picture appeared on the screen — “or Biran ’n’ Yenke.” Biran and Yenke flashed by next. “I’m pretty sure one of ’em is showin’ up.”
“Well, whoever it is,” Dyne said, raising a beer mug filled with beer a bartender had poured for him, “we’ll find out tomorrow.”
“Yeah.” Barret clinked his mug with Dyne’s, and they both drank.

The next afternoon, the second team eliminated disembarked from the ropeway car that’d pulled into the Gold Saucer’s ropeway station and walked into the Gold Saucer. They headed to the Ghost Square. Only the waists and legs of the team members were visible, as the camera focused on only on that region of their bodies.
Meanwhile, inside the hotel, Barret and Dyne waited down at the bottom of the stairs of the lobby and looked at the door.
“Any minute now,” Dyne said to Barret.
“Yeah, can’t wait,” Barret said.
A few seconds later, the door slowly opened, and the camera panned up to reveal the faces of the newest arrivals: Cid and Celes.
“Damn, you were right!” Barret gasped, simultaneously surprised and unsurprised.
“Told ya,” Dyne laughed, walking over to greet the new arrivals. “Told ya.”
“Hi, guys,” Cid said, shaking Barret’s hand, and then Dyne’s. “How’s being the first ones gone treating you?”
“’Bout the way you could imagine,” Barret answered. “It sucks.”
“It did for us, too,” Celes said, taking a look around. “Coming back to this place is the last thing we expected. Granddad and I were expecting a re-sort or a mansion or something.”
“Hey, it’s no Corel Prison, so be grateful for that,” Dyne said.
“Corel . . . Prison?” Cid said.
“Uh, never mind,” Dyne said.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes sat in front of the camera, a hotel room as their backdrop.
“We are the second team eliminated from The Amazing Final Fantasy Race this season,” Cid said to the camera, “and while it’s kind of sad to be out of it so soon, it’s a bit relieving, too. It was only the second leg, but the race was already starting to take its toll on my body. If I’d just been ten years younger . . .”
“It couldn’t be helped,” Celes said. “His age was our biggest detriment by far, so we knew it’d be a problem for us on the race. It reared its head far too soon, though. At least now that we’re out of it, we can unwind, relax, and reenergize.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

The four eliminated racers sat down in the lobby to talk.
“So what happened?” Barret asked. “Come on. You gotta tell us.”
“Well, it was basically like this,” Celes said. “It came down to a footrace. We were one of the three teams in the bottom of the pack, along with Ma and Zell” — a picture of Ma and Zell flashed by on the screen — “and Brahne and Garnet. We thought Ma and Zell would be in last, but Zell’s a strong kid. He carried his mom on his back and passed both us and Brahne and Garnet and got to the Pit Stop before any of us.”
“Then, it was between us and Brahne and Garnet, but despite carrying me on her back so we could copy Ma and Zell’s trick, Celes couldn’t get us past those two in time,” Cid said. “So that was it for us. We got eliminated just this afternoon, around 12:30, and made it here about three hours later.”
“That sucks,” Dyne said, “but how were Ma and Zell in the back? After they came in second on the first leg, that’s the last place we thought they’d be.”
“So did we, to be honest,” Cid said. “But Ma and Zell had some bad luck with a buggy.”
“A buggy?” Barret said. “Damn, I hate those things. Always breakin’ down when you don’t want ’em to.”
“Yes, and then, they got hit with a Xing that Biran and Yenke used on them,” Celes said.
“Yo, a what?”
“It stops one team until another team catches up with them,” Celes explained. “It came so close to putting them out of the race, but . . .”
“But because I’m too old to run very fast,” Cid said, “we’re the ones out instead.” He sighed. “I’m sorry, Celes.”
“It’s okay, Granddad,” Celes said. “I didn’t exactly help things at the Detour.”
“No, you did not,” Cid said, “but unlike at the end there, we still had a chance despite that.” He looked at Barret and Dyne. “So do we have a room here? I’m very tired from that draining leg and need to rest.”
“Sure,” Barret said. “It’s upstairs. Follow us.”
Barret and Dyne led Cid and Celes up to their room and left them alone to unpack and take a nap.

That evening, the four racers left the hotel and the Ghost Square and headed to the Wonder Square.
Once there, the first thing to catch Barret’s eye was the fateful basketball game. “’Ey, look at this,” he said. “It’s the damn basketball game that killed me ’n’ Dyne.”
“Yeah, if only you hadn’t missed that last stupid shot,” Dyne said. “We probably could’ve run the next leg rather than hearing about it.”
Barret nodded. Then, suddenly, he threw some gil into the machine and picked up a basketball. He started shooting baskets in the machine and actually managed to get ten in a row in just less than a minute.
“Wow!” Celes said, impressed.
“Damn game!” Barret said. “Why couldn’t I have done that before?!”
“It’s okay, Barret,” Dyne said. “Not everyone can be LeBron James.”
Barret sent a glare Dyne’s way, but calmed down a few seconds later.
The four then sampled some of the other games in the Wonder Square, with Barret trying the 3D Battler, Dyne trying the submarine game, Celes taking a shot at the snowboarding game, and Cid just relaxing with the Moghouse game.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes faced the camera, the lobby of the Wonder Square as their backdrop.
“I’m not really into these newfangled ‘video arcades,’” Cid said. “The fighting video games and machines, especially those that were meant to give you ‘cheap thrills,’ just weren’t my style. So I just played the moogle game to relax.”
“Granddad hasn’t exactly been one for thrills,” Celes said simply. “It’s always simplicity and calmness for him.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

After spending about an hour-and-a-half in the Wonder Square, the four racers returned to the Ghost Hotel for some dinner, and as they all sat down to eat, talk turned to their fellow racers still running the race.
“Who do you guys think are on their way here next?” Dyne asked.
“Honestly,” Cid said, “I fear Brahne and Garnet might be the next ones to come here.” Brahne and Garnet’s picture flashed by on the screen again. “I can say honestly say that I hope not, because I really like them a lot and want them to win, but it just feels like they’ll be the next ones to go.”
“Feels that way to me, too,” Celes admitted. “Ideally, I’d want either Reno and Rude or Dona and Barthello to show up here next.” A picture of Reno and Rude flashed by, followed by one of Dona and Barthello. “Reno and Rude have done very well so far, but they have a certain cockiness and arrogance about them I really don’t like. And Dona is just rude. Granddad and I were having a pleasant conversation with Brahne and Garnet this morning, and she just butted into the conversation without asking. Barthello’s all right, though.”
“I want those Turks out next,” Barret said, “but I know they’re probably too good at this race, so they’ll probably be in it for a few more legs. I think Biran and Yenke will get eliminated next.” Biran and Yenke’s picture appeared.
“I’m sticking with Crazy Guy and his wife,” Dyne said as Cecil and Rosa’s picture appeared. “The guy just seems too crazy to keep his mind on the race for all that long.”
“Actually, I suspect they’ll be good for a few more legs,” Cid said. “We found out they won the leg just before we were brought here.”
“Really?” Dyne said. “Okay, well, uh, I’ll just join Barret in predicting the Ronso guys are out next. Maybe the mom and daughter, if not them.”
“Mm.” Barret raised a glass he was drinking from. “You know, guessing like this is kinda fun. I kinda like it.”
“Yeah, you never know what’s gonna happen,” Cid agreed. “Life can be full of surprises, so who’s to say the race can’t be, too?”

Next up: eliminated team number three!

Feel free to comment.

[Dale]

All right, folks. Here's what happened when eliminated team number three showed up.

Barret, Dyne, and Cid were all playing cards — poker, to be more precise — up in Barret and Dyne’s room in the Ghost Hotel, mostly bored and just looking for a way to pass the time. They didn’t have a lot of gil for anteing up, so they just used snacks and GP they’d won from the many Gold Saucer attractions instead.
Meanwhile, Celes sat at a table in the hotel lobby, reading a book she’d brought with her from home.
She noticed the camera filming her and turned to it. “Hi,” she said. “I have felt a bit lonely and left out the past couple of days. Granddad’s started to do some real male bonding with Barret and Dyne, probably because he’s, well, a male and is fairly close to their ages. Me? I’m the only girl here, and I’m pretty much the youngest person. It’s best I just let the guys spend time together and enjoy some time on my own.” She turned toward someone calling her from off-camera. “Oh, really? That’s wonderful! I’ll go get them!”
She closed her book and hurried upstairs to Barret and Dyne’s room. She knocked on the door, got a “Come in” from Dyne, and entered.
“Hey, what’s up?” Barret asked her.
“I just got word from a crewman,” Celes reported. “The next team just got to the Gold Saucer and are on their way here. They will be here in a few minutes.”
“Great,” Cid said. “Can’t wait to see who it is.”

Elsewhere, the third eliminated team got off the ropeway car that’d just arrived at the Gold Saucer and headed into the Gold Saucer, only the lower halves of their bodies being shown by the cameras. They made their way toward the Ghost Square.
Back in the Ghost Hotel, Barret, Dyne, Cid, and Celes all waited in the lobby to see who’d be coming through the door.
“Who’s it gonna be?” Barret asked the others. “I’m still bettin’ on Biran ’n’ Yenke.” A picture of Biran and Yenke flashed by on the screen.
“Eh, I think Brahne and Garnet are coming in next,” Dyne said as a picture of Brahne and Garnet then appeared. “The first few ousters are usually the deadweight teams, so I’m pretty sure either they or the Ronso are next.”

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes faced the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“When we were waiting for the next team to come in,” Cid said, “we were sure it was either Biran and Yenke or Brahne and Garnet. We couldn’t think of anyone else who could’ve been eliminated.”
“One team we were sure was safe was Cecil and Rosa,” Celes said as a picture of Cecil and Rosa came on screen. “They jumped from tenth place to first in the span of one leg. If they could do that, there was no chance whatsoever that they’d get the boot early.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

At that moment, the door opened, and in walked the next team. The camera panned up to reveal the faces of the hotel’s newest guests: Cecil and Rosa.
The mouths of all four waiting racers dropped open as they gaped in silence at the new arrivals.
“What’s wrong?” Cecil asked, finally breaking the silence as he dropped his backpack. “Is something the matter?”
“For some reason, I think they’re in shock to see us, Cece,” Rosa said, a hand on his shoulder.
“Sorry for the silent greeting,” Celes said. “We were just surprised to see you guys here — especially after your victory on the last leg!”
“I was more disappointed that I changed my last guess,” Dyne grumbled. “If I hadn’t, I’d have nailed two predictions in a row.”
“Well, it’s us, sorry to say,” Rosa sighed. “And it was a really dark day for us when it happened.”
“As dark as what’s inside of me,” Cecil said.
“Oh, knock it off,” Rosa said, giving Cecil a light shove.

——————————–———————————Cecil & Rosa: Interview——————————————————————
Cecil and Rosa sat in front of the camera, a hotel room as their backdrop.
“Rosa and I, sadly, are the third team eliminated from this season of The Amazing Final Fantasy Race,” Cecil said morbidly. “It feels quite surreal and very humbling to be out of the race this soon, but we know we lost on our own faults, so there’s nothing much we can do about it.”
“It was some bad luck and some really poor decisions in tasks that got us here,” Rosa said. “That, and Cecil’s dark side taking control of him at all of the exact wrong times. It’s a pity we couldn’t keep it more under control.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“So what happened?” Cid asked. “What went wrong for you guys?”
“Just a bad day,” Cecil replied, taking a seat on his backpack. “We started off the last leg all right, aside from a small conflict, but we began falling apart at the Detour.”
“We came across a very challenging Detour that was too hard for us, at least physically,” Rosa said. “We got one of the other teams to help us, but they went back on their word to help us out in return and just left us behind.”
“Which team was that?” Barret asked them.
“Dona and Barthello,” Cecil answered as Dona and Barthello’s picture flashed by on screen. “And this was after they cut in line at a travel agency to get seats on an early flight they didn’t even end up getting on!”
“They what?” Cid said.
“I knew there was something I didn’t like about them,” Celes said with a snap of her fingers. “I knew it.”
“Makin’ promises and then breakin’ ’em,” Barret said, shaking his head slowly. “They remind me of the Shinra in every way.”
“Anyway, we made things worse for ourselves by helping out the last team to start the task,” Rosa said. “Cecil wanted to ditch them at one point, but I was insistent that he do the noble thing to help them. Unfortunately, it put us behind, and that, added to panicking at a luck-based task that followed and then coming across a Roadblock Cecil couldn’t do quickly enough, more or less sealed our fate. The last team to make it in before us was Ma and Zell.” Ma and Zell’s picture appeared. “We had one last chance to pass them after they made a stupid mistake, but there was nothing doing.”
“We got eliminated at sundown yesterday and only got here this afternoon,” Cecil said.
“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that,” Celes said. “But . . . who was the team you guys helped?”
“That would be Freya and Fratley, the two rats,” Rosa replied as Freya and Fratley’s picture appeared. “They suffered a series of injuries and were hindered quite a bit. They couldn’t do that leaping thing they were used to doing anymore. Also, Freya got struck with amnesia after falling off a roof!”
“And you’re sayin’ they still finished and survived the leg despite all o’ that?!” Barret said, his eyes wide in astonishment.
“Yes,” Cecil replied.
“Damn! They got my respect,” Barret said.
“Mine, too,” Dyne said.
“But to go from first place to last place all in one leg had to be tough for you both,” Cid said.
“You have no damn idea,” Cecil moaned. “And what’s worse, two of the teams Rosa and I thought would be out next ended up finishing second and fourth on that leg.”
“Who?” Celes asked.
“Well, Brahne and Garnet came in second,” Rosa said, “behind the sisters, who won the leg.” A picture of Reina and Faris appeared on the screen. “The Ronso finished fourth, though their finish we attribute more to Reno and Rude helping them.” Reno and Rude’s picture appeared next. “They got them onto a flight they reserved all the tickets for, and it was uphill from there for both of them.”

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Barret and Dyne sat in front of the camera with their hotel room as the backdrop.
“Whoa,” Dyne said. “Just when we thought Brahne and Garnet and Biran and Yenke were probably dead people walking, we find out they actually placed in the top half of the pack, for once.”
“Guess we shouldn’t underestimate some teams just on how they look,” Barret agreed.
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Later, after Cecil and Rosa had settled into their hotel room and taken a few hours of rest, the six racers left the hotel and headed out for an evening of fun. The place they had their eyes on was the Event Square, where they were hoping to see a show.
Once the racers had arrived, a woman came up to them. They all assumed she was going to seat them, but instead, she walked right up to Cecil and Rosa.
“Congratulations!” she said to them. “You’re our one-hundredth couple tonight! For that, you have the special privilege of being in our show tonight!”
“Being in your show?!” Cecil said.
“Well, I — I — I don’t know,” Rosa said.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” the woman told them. “Just improvise whatever you want, and the rest of the cast will follow you along as you go. It’s easy!”
Cecil and Rosa tried to object further, but in the end, they succumbed and followed the woman to prepare for their show.
“Heh, this should be fun,” Barret said. He and the others had watched the whole thing.

Later on, the six racers returned to the hotel, with Rosa very angry at Cecil and storming up to their room.
“Rosa, please!” he said. “I panicked! I didn’t mean for that to happen!”
“You can find another room or sleep down in the lobby tonight, bucko!” she yelled down to him as she slammed the door to their room.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes faced the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“Tonight, Cecil and Rosa were chosen to take part in an improvisational show,” Cid said with a slight laugh. “Cecil played a knight and hero, while Rosa played a princess who’d been kidnapped by the Evil Dragon King. Surprisingly, the characters they played had the same names as they did.”
“Rosa was hoping Cecil would choose to rescue her, but instead, he panicked and wound up choosing to kiss the hand of the Evil Dragon King and turning ‘him’ into another woman, whom Cecil went off to ‘marry,’” Celes explained. “When everyone else left the stage, Rosa was left standing there alone, very embarrassed.”
“To say she was pissed at Cecil is an understatement,” Cid laughed. “As for the rest of us? We all just laughed. A lot. For a long time.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

A little later, after Rosa had calmed down, she returned to the lobby to apologize to Cecil. “I’m sorry, honey,” she said. “I shouldn’t have gotten upset with you. It was just a play.”
“That’s all right, dear,” Cecil said. “We never could stay mad at each other.”
“Aw, that’s nice you two made up so fast,” Celes said.
“Yeah,” Dyne said. “Meanwhile, who’s hungry?”
The six racers all ordered room service, which they enjoyed in Cecil and Rosa’s room, and just as they started eating, talk turned to their remaining competition.
“All right, guys,” Barret said. “Who’s headin’ here next? I’m gonna drop Brahne and Garnet and Biran and Yenke as predictions, for once, and say Freya ’n’ Fratley.” Freya and Fratley’s picture appeared. “I respect ’em for fightin’ on in spite o’ their injuries, but two cripples ain’t gonna win a race. I think they’re goners next time.”
“No way, man,” Dyne said. “Freya and Fratley aren’t gonna be here next when there’s still Biran and Yenke in the race.” Biran and Yenke’s picture appeared. “I’m picking them.”
“Since I think Brahne and Garnet have finally gotten the hang of the race,” Cid said as Brahne and Garnet’s picture appeared, “I’m going to agree with Biran and Yenke coming here next. They just don’t seem all that bright. They’ve just been lucky all this time.”
“I don’t know why, but I’m going to say Ma and Zell,” Celes said as Ma and Zell’s picture appeared. “They’ve been in the bottom twice in a row now. They might not be as strong as we thought they were.”
“I believe Dona and Barthello are out next,” Cecil said as Dona and Barthello’s picture was the next one to flash by on screen. “Simply because I want them to be.”
“And I’ll agree with Dyne and Cid that Biran and Yenke will be here next time,” Rosa said. “It’s really unfortunate that they’ve been able to coast through the race for this long.”
“We’re not even close to the next team’s arrival time, and the suspense is already killing me,” Celes said.

Next up: Eliminated team number four!

Feel free to comment.

[Dale]

Okay! I'll be all up-to-date after this one! Let's look at what happened when eliminated team number four arrived!

Barret, Dyne, Cid, and Cecil all enjoyed drinking together at the Ghost Hotel’s bar. With little to do there, it was one of the things they had to look forward to.
“To Elimination Station!” Barret shouted. “May what good times we c’n get roll!”
“To Elimination Station!” Dyne, Cid, and Cecil all said, and the four men toasted and drank.
Celes and Rosa, meanwhile, had a little girl talk up in Cid and Celes’s room.
“I will tell you, Rosa, I was very relieved when I found out a woman was on the third team eliminated,” Celes told her. “I needed the company of another woman so badly.”
Rosa opened her eyes slightly wider and backed away from Celes.
“No! Not like that!” Celes yelped, instantly realizing what she’d said. “I just meant it’s been tough living here with just the boys. Having another girl here makes things a little easier for me.”
“Oh, okay,” Rosa said. “Well, I can see how that must be hard. But hey, if one of the two women’s teams gets here next, the number of men and women here will be even, anyway.”
“I suppose so,” Celes said. “If one of them does show up, though, then I hope it isn’t Brahne and Garnet.” Brahne and Garnet’s picture appeared on the screen. “I’d rather it be the sisters.” Reina and Faris’s picture then appeared.

Later, the ropeway car arrived in the Gold Saucer’s station, and the fourth team eliminated stepped off it, their faces hidden due to the camera just showing their waists and legs.
Back in the hotel, the six eliminated racers waited in the lobby to see who would walk through the door.

—————————————————————Cecil & Rosa: Interview——————————————————————
Cecil and Rosa sat in front of the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“We were waiting in the lobby for the fourth eliminated team to walk in through the door, and all we could do was wonder who it was,” Cecil said. “The majority of us thought it’d be Biran and Yenke.” Biran and Yenke’s picture appeared on the screen.
“However, the other names being bandied about were Freya and Fratley, Ma and Zell, and Dona and Barthello,” Rosa said as pictures of Freya and Fratley, Ma and Zell, and Dona and Barthello, in that order, flashed by on the screen. “Obviously, the race can be . . . unpredictable, to say the least. So I can’t say anyone would surprise me.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

As the three teams stood waiting intently, the door finally swung open.
Then, the camera panned up to the reveal the faces of the members of the newest eliminated team as they walked into the hotel: Freya and Fratley.
“Greetings, friends!” Freya said, raising her hand in greeting as she and Fratley carried their backpacks inside.
“Ha! You see?” Barret said. “I was right this time!”
“I can’t believe it!” Dyne said in shock. “I really thought you guys could recover!”
“We were Yielded right out of the race!” Fratley yelled, not even hiding the smile on his face.
“Oh, my God, I didn’t think this would happen,” Cecil said.

—————————————————————Freya & Fratley: Interview—————————————————————
Freya and Fratley sat in front of the camera, a hotel room as their backdrop.
“Much to our disappointment, we are the fourth team eliminated from this edition of The Amazing Final Fantasy Race,” Freya said, ironically not even looking all that disappointed. “We did not expect to leave the race so soon, but things often fail to go the way you want them to.”
“Yes, but perhaps they could’ve gone the way we wanted it to if not for the damn Yield,” Fratley said. “But it’s probably better this way. At least now, we can have more time to recover from our injuries without risking any setbacks from all the strenuous activity the race forced us to participate in.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“Well, don’t just stand there,” Rosa said. “Tell us what happened to you! Tell, tell, tell!”
“All right,” Freya said. “For starters, the most recent leg had no equalizers whatsoever. At least none that we ran into. So we knew we had to race quickly if we wanted to stay in.”
“We fell a bit behind at the Detour,” Fratley said, “but we caught back up at the Roadblock, which was the closest thing we had to an equalizer, although two teams had already been in and out of it by the time we got there. We had a chance to catch up and possibly get out of the bottom of the pack, and we wanted to take that chance.”
“Unfortunately, Fratley struggled at one part of that task, and that put us in the bottom two with Dona and Barthello,” Freya said. “He managed to get out the task well ahead of Dona, who actually did the Roadblock, but that was when it happened.”
“You mean the Yield?” Rosa said.
“Yes,” Fratley said, nodding. “Ma and Zell got out of last place at the Roadblock and got lost on the way to the Yield, so they figured they were in last or close to it. Thinking Dona and Barthello had passed them for some reason we couldn’t understand, they Yielded us the instant they saw us coming. They went on to finish in seventh because of that.”
“It gave Dona and Barthello time to catch up to us, and we wound up in a footrace,” Freya said. “Fratley actually managed to pass both of them and reach the mat first, but . . . both of them barely got onto the Pit Stop mat before I did, and it was all over for us. We got eliminated yesterday afternoon and took a whole day to get here.”
“Gippal actually had to review the tape to make sure he made the right call,” Fratley said with a sigh. “Shame it had to turn out that way. The last thing we wanted was to leave before Dona and Barthello. Especially Dona.”
“Damn. She sounds like she’s really bad,” Barret said. “She was fine when me ’n’ Dyne talked to her.”
“You hadn’t seen her true colors emerge, Barret,” Freya said. “Once they did, they were not pretty.”

——————————–———————————Cecil & Rosa: Interview——————————————————————
Cecil and Rosa sat in front of the camera again, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“Seeing Freya and Fratley there with us in Elimination Station started to make me feel incredibly stupid about helping them at our final Detour,” Cecil said. “I’d helped them just to be noble, and to hope they went on to do well in the race should they survive that leg. Then, to find out they’d just gone on to be eliminated right after we were? I knew I should’ve stuck with my gut instinct to leave them in the lurch.”
“Yes, but that’s not who you are, honey,” Rosa said, rubbing his shoulder. “I still do think you did the right thing, even if it did cost us the race. Besides, as they said, they did come close to recovering. It was just the Yield that killed them.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“What do you think of the ones who put you out of the race in the first place?” Cid asked.
“Oh, we could not be more disappointed in Ma and Zell,” Freya replied. “We’d thought they were sweet, noble people who wouldn’t think of harming other teams just to get ahead. Sadly for us, we were wrong. Wrong and blindsided.”
Fratley added, “Ma and Zell are just as ignoble as Dona, if not worse. Freya and I do not see ourselves being friends with them after the race.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Dyne said. “They’re ‘ignoble’ just for using a tool of the race legitimately? That doesn’t make any sense.”
“That’s right,” Celes said. “If Ma and Zell thought for a moment that they were in danger of going home, then I think they did the right thing to use it. Granted, I wish they had just Yielded Dona and Barthello so we’d at least know for certain that they wouldn’t be winning, but they had no way of knowing for sure who was still behind them. Hell, Granddad and I like Brahne and Garnet a lot, but had we made it that far and were in the bottom with them, we wouldn’t have hesitated to use the Yield on them if it’d keep us in. Ma and Zell did the right thing.”
Freya and Fratley exchanged a glance before nodding at Celes at the same time.
“You’re right,” Freya said. “You’re absolutely right, Celes. Ma and Zell did what they had to in order to stay in the race. And given that on our best day, we were much stronger than Dona and Barthello, they were right to try and get us out while they could, even if it was more due to a case of mistaken thinking.”
“We will have to tell them we forgive them the next time we see them,” Fratley said in agreement.

Later, after Freya and Fratley had unpacked in their new quarters and had rested up for a few hours, the eight racers left the hotel and headed for the station. There, they boarded the next available ropeway car and rode it down to the town below, North Corel.
Once there, they disembarked, walked through the small town of tents, and headed off down a path consisting entirely of railroad tracks on the northeastern end of the town.

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Barret and Dyne sat in front of the camera with their hotel room as the backdrop.
“After Freya and Fratley had gotten some rest, we went down to North Corel an’ walked along the Mt. Corel path nearby,” Barret said. “We jus’ wanted to do a little something to relax from all the pressures of being stuck in that spooky hotel.”
“Really, the best thing about that walk was that we all got out of the damn Gold Saucer for a few hours,” Dyne said.
“Hell, yeah!” Barret said. “We’d been there for days without a chance to get out and do something new, and I tell ya, me ’n’ Dyne — and Cid, Celes, Cecil, ’n’ Rosa, too — were gettin’ tired of just having the attractions to turn to for fun.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

As the eight racers walked along the tracks, talked turned to Freya and Fratley’s experience on the third leg.
“By the way, you guys are looking so much better since we saw you on the last leg,” Rosa said to Freya and Fratley. “The last time we saw you both, you could barely move on your feet without limping.”
“Not to mention Freya got amnesia after that accident,” Cecil noted.
“Ah, yes. That,” Freya said. “Luckily, at the Pit Stop, we got a lot of much-needed medical attention and got most of our injuries taken care of. I also managed to recover from my temporary amnesia while we rested.”
“The only really bad thing was that we lost our leaping advantage,” Fratley said. “We were advised against doing that since our leg bones hadn’t fully started knitting. A pity, because had we been able to do that, that might have saved us when we raced Dona and Barthello to the Pit Stop.”
“Well, you were able to do that,” Freya reminded him. “I could’ve sent Dona and Barthello packing had I been able to, as well.”
“Shucks,” Cid said. “That’s too bad. For both of you.”
“Yes, it is,” Freya said. “Uh-oh.”
“What?” Celes asked.
“Don’t look now, but there is a big bird in front us,” Freya said, pointing to a large bird that resembled a giant quail. “It’s coming right toward us.”
“That’s a cocatolis!” Barret said, aiming his gun-arm. “Mine!”
He shot the monster point-blank in its chest, and it fell over dead.
“Ooh, nice shot,” Dyne said.
That’s when another cocatolis arrived, and it was Celes’s turn to dispatch it. One swing of her sword, and it was dead.
“Easier than killing monsters in our world,” she said.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes sat in front of the camera, with Mt. Corel as their backdrop.
“Before anyone knew it, our walk through Mt. Corel turned into a short contest to see who could defeat the most monsters,” Cid said. “Barret, Dyne, and Celes all bagged some cocatolises. Cecil nailed some seed-shooting creatures. Rosa killed about eighteen bombs. And Freya and Fratley teamed up to take down at least fourteen zuus. I stayed out of the whole thing since I’m not really one to take part in fighting. I’m more of a spectator, myself. I don’t know why the whole contest happened, but it did.”
“I think the answer is simple,” Celes said. “Everyone was so frustrated to have been eliminated as early as we were and we just wanted to get what disappointment we had left out of their systems. At the time, it seemed like the best way, although I did somewhat feel sorry for the monsters we took out our frustrations on.” She paused for a second. “Somewhat.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

After the monster-killing contest was over, the teams went back to the Ghost Hotel and relaxed in the lobby. There, talk quickly turned to the eight teams still left in the race.
“Well, that was a nice little outing,” Rosa said. “But now that we’re back here, all I can wonder is, who’s on the way here next?”
“Yo, now that Freya ’n’ Fratley are here, like I thought, my vote goes to Biran and Yenke again,” Barret said as Biran and Yenke’s picture appeared. “How they got through four legs already is beyond me.”
“I’m picking Brahne and Garnet,” Dyne said as a picture of Brahne and Garnet came on the screen. “Garnet’s pretty cool to have carried Brahne as far as she has, but their time’s gotta run out eventually.”
“I’ll say Biran and Yenke,” Cid said, agreeing with Barret.
“So will I,” Celes said. “Either them or Ma and Zell.” Ma and Zell’s picture flashed by on the screen next.
“I am simply going by whom I want to see out next, and that would still be Dona and Barthello,” Cecil said as Dona and Barthello’s picture popped up on screen.
“I’ll join in on guessing Biran and Yenke,” Rosa said.
“I want Dona and Barthello to get eliminated next,” Freya said, “but I will agree that either Biran and Yenke or Brahne and Garnet will be next instead.”
“Wait,” Fratley said. “You predict all of these teams that have hit the bottom at least once, but why do Zone and Watts always somehow sneak by in your predictions?” Zone and Watts’s picture came on the screen next. “Intentionally, they try and stay right in the middle of the pack and go unnoticed, which is a good strategy, at first, but could go terribly wrong if they keep doing it when there are too few teams left. Besides, Zone has his stomach issues, and he just lets Watts do every Roadblock. He could be out of Roadblocks in no time.”
“Good point,” Cecil said. “Okay. I think that could kill them, but more than likely not for another couple of legs.”
“I agree,” Rosa said. “If Zone does make Watts waste all of his Roadblocks, though, they could be in serious trouble once Zone is stuck with the rest of them and they reach one he can’t do.”
“Eight teams left,” Cid said, “and anyone of them could end up here next.”
“Guess we’ll find out who it is soon enough,” Rosa said.

Next up: eliminated team number five!

Feel free to comment!

[Dale]

Hey, everyone! Now, how about a look at what happened when eliminated team number five showed up?

Barret, Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, and Fratley enjoyed a nice game of dodgeball in the lobby of the Ghost Hotel, which, surprisingly, they’d been okayed to do by the hotel manager. They were on two teams of four players, one member of each of their racing teams on each team. Barret, Cid, Cecil, and Fratley were on one team. Dyne, Celes, Rosa, and Freya were on the other team. The game was fairly easy for Barret’s team. They won hand-ily by taking out Dyne and the girls in just less than three minutes.
“Ha! That’s anotha game for us, Dyne!” Barret called to Dyne.
“No fair!” Dyne called back. “You’re the team with all guys! My team’s got all the women on it!”
This set off Celes, Rosa, and Freya a bit.
“What is that supposed to mean?” Rosa demanded of him, glaring icily at him.
“Yeah, Gun-Arm,” Celes said, glaring just as icily. “Enlighten us.”
Freya said nothing, but sent him a look just as icy as the other two women’s.
“Uh . . . um . . . I . . . sorry,” Dyne said. “Didn’t mean to upset you. I was out of line.”
“That’s more like it,” Freya said. “Apology accepted.”
“Whew,” Dyne said, heaving a sigh of relief. “Dodged that bullet. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, and all that.”

The ropeway car arrived in the Gold Saucer’s ropeway station later on, and the fifth eliminated team stepped off it. They walked into the park, their faces hidden from the cameras and only their bodies showing. Said bodies seemed to be wearing suits.
In the meantime, the four eliminated teams, their dodgeball game behind them, waited in the lobby to see who was coming.
“So who’s comin’ in here in jus’ a few minutes?” Barret asked the assembled group. “I’m still thinkin’ it’ll be Biran ’n’ Yenke.” A picture of Biran and Yenke appeared on the screen. “Who y’all think?”
“I’m picking Brahne and Garnet,” Dyne answered as Brahne and Garnet’s picture appeared next.
“Biran and Yenke,” Cid said. “It’s gotta be.”
“I think it’ll be them or Ma and Zell,” Celes said as Ma and Zell’s picture appeared on the screen.
“I have my fingers crossed that it’s Dona and Barthello,” Cecil said as Dona and Barthello’s picture came on screen next. “Then, I can finally give them an earful for screwing us over. And then, I’ll kill them both!”
“Stop that,” Rosa said, pulling out her compact mirror and holding it up to Cecil’s face. “I’m sticking with my choice of Biran and Yenke, too.”
“Biran and Yenke or Brahne and Garnet,” Freya said, “though I, much like Cecil, hope to see Dona and Barthello arrive here next.”
“I remain with my prediction of Zone and Watts,” Fratley said as Zone and Watts’s picture flashed by. “Staying in the middle pack can only work for so long before it gets too dangerous.”

—————————————————————Freya & Fratley: Interview—————————————————————
Freya and Fratley sat in front of the camera, their room in the hotel as their backdrop.
“We got word that the fifth team eliminated, the team eliminated after us, was coming in today, so we were waiting anxiously in the lobby for that team to arrive,” Freya said. “We were joining in the little game of predictions that the other teams were playing, something they’d apparently done prior to finding out about each elimination.”
“It really is quite exciting, wondering who’s going to show up in this hotel next,” Fratley said. “I think we were all in agreement that either Brahne and Garnet or Biran and Yenke showing up would be no huge surprise, but all of the other teams showing up would be.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

That’s when the door swung open the next team walked in. The camera panned up to reveal the faces of the newest additions to the Ghost Hotel: Reno and Rude.
A collective gasp was heard from all eight eliminated racers as they just stared and stared and stared at the two Turks, who were walking into the hotel lobby.
“What’s up, fellow losers?” Reno said, raising his hand high in the air in greeting.
“Hi,” Rude said.
Finally, Barret, Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, and Fratley all let out a loud “Oooooooohhhh!” of shock and astonishment at this reveal. Not one of them expected to see Reno and Rude there at all.

———————————————————————Reno & Rude: Interview————————————————————
Reno and Rude sat in front of the camera, a hotel room as their back-drop.
“A big ‘yo!’ to those out there in TV Land,” Reno said. “We’re the fifth team eliminated from The Amazing Final Fantasy Race. Much to our surprise and to the surprise of everyone already here in Elimination Station.”
“The looks on their faces said it all,” Rude said. “They did not expect to see us here, at least not in the early stage of the race. Our elimination was as big of a surprise to them as it was to us.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“This is . . . wow,” Cid said. “I — I have no words.”
“This is a huge surprise,” Fratley said. “A really huge surprise.”
“Yeah, we got that from the looks on your faces,” Reno said. “Enough chitchat, though. I’m sure you’re waiting for our story.”
“Yes, please,” Celes said. “Do tell.”
“Well, it’s like this,” Reno said. “Me and Rude got some bad luck from this slow dragon taxi called a Flammie-Taxi. It dropped us all the way back to last place.”
“Yes,” Rude said.
“Yeah, and then, we wound up on a train way behind the other teams headin’ for this place called Twilight Town,” Reno continued. “When we got there, we found out there’d be a U-Turn, and, long story short, we got hit by it after the bunny woman and the pretty boy used it on us.” A picture of Fran and Balthier flashed by on the screen as he said that. “We did a pretty job of trying to recover despite doing both Detours, right, Rude?”
“Yes,” Rude said. “Unfortunately, at the Roadblock, two teams relied on a secret alliance no one had known about to ensure both of their teams got it done before Reno could finish it.”
“Which two teams were those?” Freya asked them.
“One you’d probably expect, one you wouldn’t,” Reno replied. “Dona and Barthello were the first, Brahne and Garnet were the second.”
This brought looks of shock to each of the other teams’ faces. Especially Cid and Celes’s faces.
“Amazing,” Celes said. “I’ve suspected there’s a lot more to Brahne and Garnet than meets the eye, and that only confirmed it to me.”
“Trust me. There definitely is,” Freya said. “Once, Garnet put sleeping weed in my drink and a few of my friends’ drinks just so she could sneak out of Lindblum Castle with Steiner. She’s much smarter than she looks.”
“So that’s when you guys got eliminated?” Dyne asked the Turks.
Reno and Rude both nodded. “That’s when we got eliminated,” Reno confirmed. “We got so damn close to surviving, too — just two minutes behind the seventh-place team. We got eliminated yesterday, either late in the morning or early in the afternoon, and flew back into this world just this morning.”
“Damn,” Barret said. “I still don’ like you two, but even I’ve gotta admit, that’s a rough way to lose.”
“Tell me about it,” Reno said with a sigh.
“We’d rather not think about it right now,” Rude said.

After Reno and Rude had unpacked and rested in their new hotel room, the ten eliminated racers all left the hotel in the Ghost Square and went to the arena in the Battle Square.

——————————–———————————Cecil & Rosa: Interview——————————————————————
Cecil and Rosa sat in front of the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“Reno and Rude needed to blow off some serious steam after losing so early, so we took them to the Battle Arena to let them fight some monsters for awhile,” Cecil said.
“I think fighting those monsters and killing them made them feel better in no time,” Rosa said. “They each went through eight rounds of battles, and before long, both of them were smiling.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Reno went up first into the Battle Arena, which he entered through a small flight of steps, and ran in to fight some monsters supplied by the Gold Saucer itself. As Rosa said, he fought in eight different rounds, with the monsters getting tougher and tougher as he fought through them. He completed the whole fight in about seven minutes.
After Reno was done, he emerged from the arena, walked back down to the main landing, and high-fived Rude as he climbed the steps next to try his luck.
Rude went through eight rounds just like Reno did, killing all the monsters that showed themselves. It was then that he was in a state of euphoria as he beat them all in at least five minutes, just faster than Reno.
The whole time, the other teams had watched them on a small monitor as they showed what they had. All of them were very impressed with their abilities.

———————————————————————Reno & Rude: Interview————————————————————
Reno and Rude sat in front of the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“I think that trip to the Battle Arena was just what we needed,” Reno said. “Losing the race so damn early sucked some serious ass, especially because Rude and I expected to be on the race much longer than we actually were. In fact, part of me feels like we still are. I’ll need time to detox and get the rest of the race out of my system before I’ll fully be comfortable here.”
“He pretty much said all I have to say,” Rude said with a very slight shrug.
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

With the teams’ outing complete, they returned to the hotel and sat down to a meal cooked for them by some members of the hotel’s staff. And, as usual, talk turned to the teams still in the race.
“So,” Cid said as he started to take a bite of some steak he’d helped himself to, “who do you all think is on the way here next?”
“Damn, we’ve had five straight eliminations in a row, man,” Barret said in reply. “I think the next leg will be a non-elimination one, and then, the leg after that, I think it’ll be way past time for Biran and Yenke to show up here.” Biran and Yenke’s picture popped onto the screen. “How many lives do those guys get?”
“I’m gonna stick to Brahne and Garnet,” Dyne said as Brahne and Garnet’s picture appeared. “Garnet’s amazing to have stuck it out for this long, but why the hell is Brahne still there?”
“It really is amazing that Biran and Yenke are still in the race,” Cid said in agreement to Barret’s statement. “I’m calling them next.”
“Me, too,” Celes said. “That’s all I have to say.”
“I still want Dona and Barthello to come here next,” Cecil said as Dona and Barthello’s picture flashed by, “and this time, I think they will.”
“I’ll echo the ‘get Biran and Yenke here quickly!’ sentiments,” Rosa said firmly. “They’re due.”
“I’ll again say either Brahne and Garnet or Biran and Yenke,” Freya said simply.
“I want to stick with Zone and Watts,” Fratley said as Zone and Watts’s picture appeared, “but . . . are they still doing that ‘middle of the pack’ strategy of theirs?”
“Naw, man,” Reno answered. “Apparently not. They actually won the last leg.”
“Oh, really?” Fratley said. “In that case, I’ll predict whomever barely survived the leg.”
“That would be my choice — Brahne and Garnet,” Reno said. “Brahne can’t keep going on for much longer. Garnet’s hot and all, but I think their time’s gonna be up.”
“Yes,” Rude said, deciding to go with Reno’s prediction.
“These last three eliminations have been such a surprise,” Celes said. “I don’t see how anything — anything — could top the surprise of you two showing up here today. But I guess we’ll have to see.”

Next up: Eliminated team number six!

Feel free to comment.

[agent0042]

I've read a couple of them so far, I'll read more soon. It's nice to have more content related to the race to read. I've never really had a chance to watch the Elimination Station segments for the actual The Amazing Race, so this is kinda fun to read.

[Dale]

All right, folks! Let's look in on what happened when eliminated team number six showed up!

Up in the Gold Saucer, in the Ghost Hotel of the Ghost Square, the five eliminated teams relaxed happily. Barret, Dyne, Cid, Reno, and Rude all sat in the lobby, swapping man stories of their sex lives, while up Cecil and Fratley just enjoyed some drinks at the hotel’s bar.
Meanwhile, up in Cecil and Rosa’s room, Celes, Rosa, and Freya all talked amongst themselves.
“You know, I don’t mind the boys,” Celes said to the two women with her. “I don’t. But sometimes, it’s just better to be away from them. Since we’ve been here, the more men that’ve come, the rowdier things have gotten with them.”
“I know what you mean,” Rosa agreed. “There are seven men and just the three of us women here. We need some more female company, pronto.”
“Yes, some estrogen to balance out the testosterone would be greatly appreciated,” Freya concurred. “One of the all-female teams coming in next wouldn’t make me cry.”

Later, the ropeway car arrived at the station and the sixth team eliminated disembarked, their faces hidden by the cameras and only their lower halves being shown. One of the bodies was large and moved slowly, while the other was smaller and more slender and moved fairly quickly.
Meanwhile, the five eliminated teams sat in the lobby and waited to see who’d be showing up.
“Any minute now,” Barret said. “Who y’all think’s comin’ in? I still think Biran ’n’ Yenke are showin’ up.” A picture of Biran and Yenke popped onto the screen.
“First of all, Barret, I’m surprised you were wrong about no one being eliminated for awhile,” Dyne said. “Second of all, I’m staying with my pick of Brahne and Garnet.” Brahne and Garnet’s picture appeared on the screen. “I like Garnet, but she can’t carry the burden that is Brahne forever.”
“I still do think Biran and Yenke are going to be walking through that door,” Cid said.
“Yeah, me, too,” Celes said. “It just seems right that they show up at about this point in the race. Brute strength should only get you so far.”
“I’m still hoping for a Dona and Barthello arrival,” Cecil said as Dona and Barthello’s picture flashed by on the screen next. “Enough said.”
“Biran and Yenke,” Rosa said. “It’s amazing they even got to the sixth leg to begin with.”
“I think either Biran and Yenke or Brahne and Garnet will come in,” said Freya. “It really is a tossup between the two teams.”
“It is,” Fratley agreed, “but I do think it’ll be Brahne and Garnet who walk through the door.”
“Yep,” Reno said. “Me, too.”
“Yes,” Rude agreed.

———————————————————————Reno & Rude: Interview————————————————————
Reno and Rude sat in front of the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“So despite what Barret thought, we found out the sixth leg did see another team eliminated,” Reno said, “and we were all waiting to see who it’d be.”
“We were hoping it’d be one of the weaker teams,” Rude said. “Biran and Yenke and Brahne and Garnet had gone a lot farther than either of their teams deserved to, so if one of them didn’t show up, I was gonna be mad.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

At that moment, the door opened up, the newest arrivals walked in, and the camera panned up to reveal their faces: Brahne and Garnet.
Although nearly all of the waiting racers had expected it, and quite a few were very relieved to finally be seeing them there, they still gave the Alexandrian mother and daughter the applause they deserved.
“Hello, everybody!” Brahne shouted joyfully.
Garnet just waved at the group.
“Hi! How are you both?” Celes said, going up to Garnet and giving her a hug. Despite her bright-sounding greeting, there was a hint of sadness in her voice.
“Really disappointing to see you here,” Cid said, hugging Brahne and just barely turning his head in time for her to kiss him on the cheek. It was definitely better than the alternative.
“Only a matter of time,” Reno said with a smirk.
Rude nudged him in the side, surprisingly unimpressed by his rude remark.

————————————————————Brahne & Garnet: Interview—————————————————————
Brahne and Garnet sat and faced the camera, a hotel room as their backdrop.
“Hello out there!” Brahne said excitedly. “We’re the sixth team eliminated from The Amazing Final Fantasy Race! Pretty much to no one’s surprise, apparently.”
“Yes, I think they quite expected it for awhile,” Garnet said. “Our team has spent most of the race in the back of the pack, so to finally be eliminated and here in Elimination Station definitely didn’t seem to be all that surprising to any of the other teams eliminated before us.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Cid and Celes led Brahne and Garnet over to where the other teams were waiting and had them sit down.
“So what happened?” Celes said. “How did you both end up getting here?”
“It was a really bad day,” Garnet said, “though we were still running our last leg fairly smoothly. We had to first search through this place called Sunset Hill for one of the Seven Wonders of that place. But each team could only claim one wonder, so if we didn’t go quickly, we’d be left with ones that would be harder to find and reach. We finally left the task in sixth place, only in front of the Ronso.”
“We actually made it back to being pretty near the front,” Brahne said, “since there was a Fast Forward that at least four teams went after. While all of them did that, we directed an undersea concert at the Detour. We were told we left that task in fourth place.”
“Everything just went to pot at the Roadblock, though,” Garnet said. “It was a physical task, but I all but forced Mother to do it, anyway, and she lost us so much time struggling to run up a long path, search for a thread belonging to me, cut it, and run back. So much time, we left the task just in front of the Ronso again. We thought we could beat them in a footrace to the Pit Stop, but Mother just ran out of gas. We were eliminated in about the late morning two days ago and just got here this afternoon.”
“Aw, I’m sorry to hear that,” Celes said. “So sorry.”
“And I’m sorry, too, darling,” Brahne said. “If I could’ve given it a little more in that last sprint, we would’ve had it.”
Garnet shook her head. “No, Mother. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have tried to get you to do that Roadblock. I should have done it. We might have avoided that footrace if I had.”
“Still, it’s just — just —” There was a pause as Brahne suddenly burst into tears. “I — feel — so — awful! I — can’t — believe — the — race — is — over!”
Garnet hugged her mother to comfort her. “It’s okay, Mother.” She then turned to Cid and Celes. “Sorry to wind up here like this. We let the APBA down, and Fran and Balthier are still in the race, while we’re here.” A picture of Fran and Balthier appeared on the screen.
“Hopefully, they’ll still lose,” Cid said. “Here’s to hoping, at least.”
Celes nodded in agreement.

Later, after Brahne and Garnet had been shown to their room and had been given time to unpack and settle in, Celes paid them another visit, along with Rosa and Freya.
“You know, as upsetting as it is to see you two here, we’re kind of glad, too,” she said.
“Really? Why’s that?” Garnet asked.
“Simple — we’re just glad to finally have more girls here,” Rosa answered. “Listening to the men talk about manly stuff hasn’t exactly been our idea of fun.”
“There are still more men than women,” Freya said, “but now, there aren’t that much more.”
“I’m actually glad there are so many men,” Brahne said. “Including three loves of my life I never thought I’d see again!”
“Of course you are, Mother,” Garnet said, rolling her eyes.

The next morning, the six eliminated teams boarded the ropeway car and rode out of the Gold Saucer. They went down to North Corel, walked out of the town through the southeastern exit, and boarded a waiting airship. Once on the airship, they flew only a short distance to what appeared to be a small town by the ocean.
Once at the town, the teams got off the airship and were led into the city by an unseen member of production.

—————————————————————Cecil & Rosa: Interview——————————————————————
Cecil and Rosa sat in front of the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“We all left the Gold Saucer together, went down to North Corel, and got on this airship that flew us all the way over to this lovely coastal town, Costa del Sol,” Cecil said. “Production was treating us to a day at the beach. A little reward for bearing the hotel for as long as we had.”
“And it was just what we needed,” Rosa said. “All the fresh air, sunshine, and cool water definitely helped us unwind even more than we already had.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

The twelve racers were led to a beach on the far end of town, where all of them laid down beach towels given to them by production, and then most of them ran for the water. Only Barret, Dyne, and Cid stayed behind and lay down on their towels. Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, Reno, Rude, Brahne, and Garnet all enjoyed the surf.

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Barret and Dyne sat in front of the camera with their hotel room as the backdrop.
“We’d have gotten in the water with everyone else if it weren’t for our gun-arms,” Barret said. “Didn’t wanna risk the water jammin’ ’em or anythin’ like dat.”
“I wouldn’t have minded wading it, to be honest,” Dyne said. “But either way, we did watch everyone else in the water. They seemed to have a good time. And most of the girls looked pretty hot in the bathing suits they were given. Most of them.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Celes, Rosa, and Garnet wore very nice two-piece bathing suits that easily fit their forms and showed off their features beautifully. Due to her difference in species, Freya wore a one-piece bathing suit that, while not the best of choices for a Burmecian, still made her look pretty good.
Brahne, however, showed herself to be the most frightening-looking of the women. She’d chosen to wear a two-piece bathing suit like most of the other women, but instead of showing off any beautiful features, it showed off nothing but fold after fold of her fat, blubbery body. Much of her skin seemed to sag and hang down, and it just wasn’t pretty.
Many, many people — eliminated racers and regular beachgoers alike — stared at Brahne, transfixed at the horrible sight before them. Little kids screamed and cried as they held their mothers or fathers, some teenagers let out screams of fright and ran off the beach, and men and women alike simply lost their lunch, vomiting right where they stood.
Among the ones vomiting were Cecil, Freya, Fratley, Reno, and Rude, while Rosa and Garnet merely came close to it.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes sat in front of the camera, part of the beach as their backdrop.
“Brahne absolutely should not wear a bathing suit in public ever, ever again,” Cid said, looking sickened, which was a hint the interview had been taped only a few minutes later. “At least not a two-piece. You think you have seen disgusting? You ain’t seen nothing yet.”
“There were about forty people on that beach when we got there, including all twelve of us,” Celes said. “Upon sight of her body, there were only nineteen.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

After Garnet told her mother to get covered up, order was finally restored to the beach, and the teams begin to finally relax and have fun. While Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, and Garnet all either swam or just splashed around in the waves, Reno and Rude got some surfboards and went surfing, catching any big wave they possibly could.

—————————————————————Freya & Fratley: Interview—————————————————————
Freya and Fratley sat in front of the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“After the pandemonium Brahne had caused was finally over, everyone started to enjoy themselves so much more,” Freya said. “Most of us swam, while Reno and Rude went surfing. Their maneuverability was pretty good, I have to say.”
“Things were okay for those of us in the water,” Fratley said, “but a lot of awkwardness was coming for those on the beach.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

After getting covered up, Brahne noticed the three men lying back on the beach and decided to take full advantage of that and walked over to them.
“Hello, boys,” she said. “Would any of you hot men like to rub me down with some suntan lotion?”
Barret, Dyne, and Cid all looked at her, then at each other. Then, they played rock, paper, scissors, with Barret and Dyne getting paper and Cid getting rock.
“I swear somehow or other, you cheated,” Cid grumbled, getting up and squirting a bit of suntan lotion onto his hands and rubbing it on Brahne’s back.
Brahne, by this time, was sitting down between Barret and Dyne and putting an arm around each of them, looking the happiest she’d been since her and Garnet’s elimination.

————————————————————Brahne & Garnet: Interview—————————————————————
Brahne and Garnet sat and faced the camera, the beach as their backdrop and both of them still in their bathing suits.
“Our trip to the beach was practically a godsend,” Brahne said. “I had been so upset since we got eliminated, it was all I could think about. But spending some time alone with my big-muscled men and my Ciddles made things all better. I think the sting of our ouster is long gone.”
“I’m glad to hear that,” Garnet said to her mother. Then, looking at the camera, she said, “I still need some more time to get over it, though. I do feel largely responsible for us being here and think it’ll take a long time before I really move past it.”
Brahne looked at her daughter. “You know I don’t hold our elimination against you, darling.”
“I know,” Garnet sighed, “but I still do.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

After the day at the beach was over, the twelve racers packed everything up and returned to the airship to fly back to North Corel. And as they flew, talk among them turned to the race and the six teams still in it.
“So, guys,” Barret said, “there’re still six teams left. Who’s gonna be out next? I think we’ve got a non-elimination comin’ at last, but then, we’re finally gonna find out Biran and Yenke got booted.” A picture of Biran and Yenke appeared on the screen.
“Biran and Yenke,” Dyne agreed. “It’s finally gonna be time.”
“Biran and Yenke,” Cid said.
“Biran and Yenke,” Celes echoed with a nod.
“Biran and Yenke should be out next, no doubt,” Cid said. “But I still want —”
“— Dona and Barthello to get eliminated next. We know,” Rosa said as Dona and Barthello’s picture flashed by on the screen. “Frankly, I’m sticking to wanting Biran and Yenke out next.”
“It has to be the Ronso,” Freya said.
“I do wish it’d actually be the Ronso,” Fratley said, “but they are honestly as resilient as oglops. It’s almost like nothing can get rid of them.”
“Biran and Yenke had better be the next ones to go,” Reno said. “They are pretty much the only dead weight team left.”
“Biran and Yenke,” Rude concurred. “There are six teams left in the race. I think the two of them are, by far, the weakest.”
“As much as I love them so,” Brahne said, “I do think they have the best chance of getting eliminated next.”
“So do I,” Garnet said. “I’ll agree with the predictions of them going next.”
“The two of them have managed to squeak by so many times before,” Celes said. “It’ll be disappointing if they do it again.”
“If there’s any God,” Reno said, “they won’t.”

Next up: Eliminated team number seven!

[agent0042]

So, Dale, can we expect to see one of these soon for Zone & Watts?

[Dale]

One with them and one for the non-elimination leg are both due. But I've been busy with school over the past few months. And it doesn't help that I couldn't really get an idea for the non-elimination episode. But now that school will be behind me soon (at least for winter break), I'll be doling them out. Just stay tuned.

[Dale]

All right. FINALLY, a new installment after so long! I had writer's block for months thinking of a decent enough activity for the eliminated teams to do, but at last, see what happened when the six eliminated teams found out there'd be no seventh one. At least not yet!

Up in the Gold Saucer, in the Ghost Hotel of the Ghost Square, the six eliminated teams kicked back and relaxed. They were a bit bored, having nothing to do at the moment.
Eventually, a few of the men, while sitting in the lobby downstairs, got very ready and started roughhousing. Barret jumped onto Dyne, and the two of them started wrestling, with Cecil and Fratley finding themselves joining in just a few seconds later. Reno and Rude just stood to the side, smirking and betting on who’d win out of the four. Cid just sat and watched while drinking a soda.
And upstairs, the women all sighed, knowing by now that this was the norm.
“Just give the men nothing to do,” Celes said, “and look at what happens down there.”
“Yeah, there’s nothing very interesting at all,” Rosa agreed. “Just two men betting on four other men rolling around the floor wrestling each other, each of them working up a sweat.
“You don’t say!” Brahne said, pushing past her as she ran out of her and Garnet’s room and ran to the top of the stairs to look down. “Ooh! This is my first really lucky day since our elimination!”
Garnet sighed. “That’s very typical of you, Mother.”
“Ooh! Ooh! If any shirts come off, may I have them, please?” Brahne called down to the wrestling men, all of whom were too busy with their little free-for-all to hear her.

A bit later, after things had calmed down, Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, Reno, Rude, Brahne, and Garnet all sat down in the lobby and waited for Barret, who was in the hotel’s item shop talking to an unseen production member.
Then, Barret walked in and sat down next to Dyne.
“So?” Cid said. “What’d he say?”
Barret shook his head. “Nope. No one this time. Like I thought, the seventh leg was a non-elimination leg.”
“Well, that sucks,” Reno said. “I was kinda hoping we’d hear from the next team out by now.


————————————————————Brahne & Garnet: Interview—————————————————————
Brahne and Garnet sat and faced the camera, their hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“It wasn’t that surprising, but we found out that no one was going to be coming in or calling in, as the seventh leg of the race was a non-elimination leg,” Brahne said. “No one was eliminated. All six teams are still in it.”
“Which means our alliance, the APBA, will have to wait at least a little bit longer to find out if Fran and Balthier will get eliminated before the end,” Garnet said as a picture of Fran and Balthier flashed by on the screen. “Although Biran and Yenke seemed to be on borrowed time at the time of our elimination.” Biran and Yenke’s picture then flashed by.
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“All right, so we’ve got no team comin’ in or contactin’ us,” Barret said. “So now what, people?”
“Whatever we do, I just hope it involves getting out of this place,” Cecil said. “We’re stuck here, in this tiny hotel, most of the day with nothing else to do. We haven’t been out of here since our day at Costa del Sol. I want to go out and do something!”
Everyone just fell silent for a moment.
“Oh, wait a second,” Reno said. “You guys like to gamble?”
“Oh, I love to gamble,” Cid replied.
“Good,” Reno said. “Then follow me. I know what we can do.”
The eliminated racers followed Reno out the front door of the hotel and headed down to the various gravestones marking paths to each of the other sections of the Gold Saucer.
Reno chose the one marked “Chocobo” and braced himself as a small trapdoor opened beneath him. Then, the other eleven people followed suit as they all joined him.
All twelve racers popped up in the Chocobo Square of the Gold Saucer, which looked like a giant plaza illuminated by lights. Reno led them up some steps to the front door of a building labeled “Chocobo Races.”

———————————————————————Reno & Rude: Interview————————————————————
Reno and Rude sat facing the camera. Their room in the hotel was their backdrop.
“Hey, I’m a gambling guy,” Reno said. “What can I say? I was in the mood to gamble, so I took everyone out to the Chocobo Races to bet on a few races.”
“Good chance we’d all be losing our money by the time our trip was over,” Rude said. “The chances of actually winning a bet there are too damn slim.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“So we’re betting on the races that chocobos are going to be running?” Freya asked curiously. She looked at Fratley, who shrugged, having no idea what was going on.
“It’s easy,” Reno said. “You just bet on either one chocobo to win, or two chocobos to take whatever two places you wanna throw out there. Like so.” He approached the clerk and said, “Hey, man. Put me down for fifty GP on the yellow and white chocobos to finish first and second.”
“Ah, the full perfecta bet,” the clerk said. “Very good.” He looked out at the group. “Any other takers?”
“I’m game,” Cid said. “60 GP on the green and white chocobos coming in . . . first and third.”
“All right,” the clerk said. “Anyone else?”
“Um . . . I shall bet 40 GP on the yellow and blue chocobos to win and place,” Fratley said. “That means come in first and second.”
“Yes, I know, Mr. . . . Funny-Looking Rat Thing,” the clerk said, putting down Fratley’s bet. “So another perfecta bet. Who else?”
“200 GP on the blue chocobo. To win.”
The group gasped and turned to see that it was Brahne who’d made the bet.
“I know a winner when I see one,” Brahne said. “I’m going to bet on him.”

—————————————————————Freya & Fratley: Interview—————————————————————
Freya and Fratley sat in front of the camera, a corner of the Chocobo Races building serving as their backdrop.
“It was certainly ambitious to see her bet that many of her GP on one chocobo,” Freya said. “Especially when one considers that production gives each of us 400 GP every three days and expects us to make it last.”
“We were going to feel really sorry for Brahne when she lost her bet,” Fratley said. “We only hoped there’d be no tears this time.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

No one else had any bets to offer, so the betting was closed, and all six eliminated teams were directed to a viewing screen to watch the upcoming race.
All twelve racers saw six chocobos standing at a starting line, waiting for the signal to start running. And once it was given, the jockeys riding them gave it all they had to pass and stay in front of one another as they seemingly ran through different settings and places for the next few minutes.
By the time the race was over, one chocobo and jockey made it across the finish line first.
“No damned way,” Reno said. “Her bet won?!”
Brahne screamed giddily and ran to the clerk to collect her prize.
“Congratulations!” he said to her. “You get your GP back, plus those of everyone else who bet, giving you a grand total of 350 GP!”

—————————————————————Cecil & Rosa: Interview——————————————————————
Cecil and sat facing the camera, their hotel room as their backdrop.
“Brahne winning her bet was the shocker of the day,” Cecil said. “Not one of us could believe that she’d actually picked a winner based on instinct.”
“We definitely think she’d just gotten lucky,” Rosa said. “That was the only way to explain. Or at least we thought so. . . .”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“Yippee!” Brahne yelled excitedly. “I do love gambling! Would you all care to try again, boys?”
Having lost all the GP they were willing to lose till their next refill, Cid, Fratley, and Reno all declined to bet again. So Brahne went ahead and bet again, this time on the green chocobo winning a race. She put down 100 GP on it.
A few minutes later, Brahne was collecting her 100 GP back, plus 300 more from other people who’d bet, so she had 400 GP. Added to the 250 GP she didn’t offer up, and she now had 650 GP.
After a successful bet on the yellow chocobo winning the third race, she then found herself with a whopping 1,100 GP.
After she bet on the white chocobo winning the fourth race, and saw it happen successfully, she upped her count to 1,800 GP, at which point she finally decided to call it a day.
Barret, Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, Reno, Rude, and Garnet all stared slack-jawed at all the luck that one person could be having.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes sat and faced the camera, part of the Chocobo Races building as their backdrop.
“Maybe it wasn’t luck, after all,” Cid said. “I mean, the woman correctly placed four winning bets in a row and racked up so many GP. This was no fluke.”
“I agree,” Celes said. “She must’ve had some kind of inside information or — or something.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“I . . . I don’t believe it,” Reno said.
“It’s like she’s got some sort of gift,” Rude said.
“Or just all the sheer dumb luck in the world,” Rosa remarked.
“Easy once you study both the chocobo and the jockey riding him,” Brahne said. “One look and I can call it pretty easily. Now, then. Anybody wanna head back to the hotel?”
Having decided that they’d seen all they were willing to see, everybody was perfectly willing to go back to the Ghost Hotel.
“I know who to call if I ever wanna try and get lucky at these races,” Reno whispered to Rude, who nodded with a smirk.

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Barret and Dyne sat and addressed the camera, their hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“Our day at the races wasn’t that long,” Barret said. “Seeing Brahne win so many bets was way more than we could take. So we left and went back to the hotel.”
“Yeah, and most of us hadn’t felt like gambling much in the first place, so it was probably better that way,” Dyne said.
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Once back at the hotel, the twelve racers’ talk turned to the six teams still in the race.
“Ey, you know what’s next,” Barret said. “Mainly ’cause the production guys want us to do dis. The only non-elimination leg’s done, so every leg’s gonna have an elimination from here on till the final three. Who d’ya think’s gonna be out next? This time, for sure, I’m bettin’ on Biran and Yenke.” Biran and Yenke’s picture flashed by on the screen again.
“Same,” Dyne said. “They can’t hold on forever.”
“I’m betting on them, too,” Cid said.
“I’m also picking them,” Celes said.
“I’m going to say they’re probably out next, too,” Cecil said, “though I am still waiting on Dona and Barthello to be eliminated.” Dona and Barthello’s picture flashed by on the screen at that moment.
“That would be nice,” Rosa said, “but I will call a Ronso elimination, as well.”
“So will I,” Freya said with a nod.
“I, too, will do so,” Fratley said.
“It is beyond time,” Reno said.
“As much as they’ve been like cockroaches, I’d like to see ’em here, as well,” Rude said.
“I adore them so much and want them to win,” Brahne said, “but I do think they’ll be here next. At least I can share my winnings with them.”
“I’ll close it off by predicting Biran and Yenke, too,” Garnet said. “They did only survive the sixth leg because of my mistake at the Roadblock. Every team left is far too strong and smart to make the same mistake I made.”
“Agreed,” Celes said. “But will the other teams stay stronger and smarter than the Ronso? It’ll be interesting to find that out.”

Next up: Eliminated team number seven! (This time, for sure!)

Feel free to comment.

[Dale]

All right! Now let's see what happened when eliminated team number seven checked into Elimination Station!

Up in the Gold Saucer, in the Ghost Hotel of the Ghost Square, the six eliminated teams unwound. The mood was much calmer today when it was compared to others.
Barret, Dyne, Cid, Cecil, Fratley, Reno, and Rude set in the lobby talking, while Celes, Rosa, Freya, Brahne, and Garnet all hung out in Freya and Fratley’s room.
“Ey, Cid,” Barret said, “who d’ya think’s the hottest girl in the race? Ei-ther here in Elimination Station or still in the game?”
“Really? You want me to answer?” Cid said. “I really don’t think that’d be very appropriate.”
“C’mon. It’s just us guys down here. Just us men. Spill. Who d’ya think’s the hottest?”
Cid looked at Cecil nervously and said meekly, “Rosa.”
“Rosa?” Cecil said. “Rosa?! Have you been ogling my wife?!”
“No, no!” Cid waved his hands in front of his face. “I’m just saying she’s the most attractive of this season’s women!”
Cecil grabbed Cid by the front of his clothes and picked him up off the floor. “Stop ogling my wife! You hear me? Stop ogling her!”
“Uh-oh,” Dyne said, turning toward the stairs. “Rosa? Rosa! Darkness alert! Darkness alert!”
“Oh, God.” Rosa came out of Freya and Fratley’s room and ran down-stairs. She pulled out her compact mirror and held it up to Cecil’s face. “Cecil, when are you ever going to learn to keep yourself calm?”
Cecil, after a few seconds, took a deep breath and was calm again. “Whew. Sorry about that, dear.” He looked at Cid. “And sorry to you, too.”
“That’s okay,” Cid answered, looking at Barret. “Just, uh, don’t ask me that question when he’s around again, okay?”
“You got it.”

Sometime later that afternoon, the six eliminated teams, after going upstairs, were called back downstairs, and came down in an interesting manner: in a straight line. They were lined up by team formation and by elimination order. Barret walked downstairs first, followed closely by Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, Reno, Rude, Brahne, and Garnet, in that order. Each of them, maintaining that order, took various places around the lobby.
A small table had been set up in the middle of the lobby. On that table was a small phone.

————————————————————Brahne & Garnet: Interview—————————————————————
Brahne and Garnet sat and faced the camera, their hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“Production called us down to the lobby because they’d heard that the next team had finally been eliminated,” Brahne said. “But they’d gone so far along the course, they wouldn’t be coming here. They would instead be calling in to let us know who they were.”
“We were all dying to find out who’d been eliminated,” Garnet said. “I was, in particular, because I really needed something to take my mind off my foolish error that got us eliminated.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“Who y’all thinkin’ it’s gonna be?” Barret asked the group. “I’ve still got my money on Biran and Yenke.” Biran and Yenke’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“I’m with you,” Dyne said. “I’m gonna be very surprised if they’re not the team that calls in.”
“I agree completely,” Cid said. “It’s time for the Ronso to be out by now.”
“Yes, I think so, too,” Celes said.
“So do I,” Cecil said, “though I won’t shed a tear if we hear Dona and Barthello’s voice on the other end of that phone.” A picture of Dona and Barthello flashed by on the screen.
“I’m going with the Ronso, too,” Rosa said.
“I am, as well,” Freya said.
“Indeed,” Fratley said.
“Yep,” Reno said. “Can’t wait for them and Dona and Barthello to be out. Once they are, then we’ll have a race.”
“It’ll be the Ronso’s time,” Rude guessed. “I’d bet my life on it.”
“My darling Ronso,” Brahne said, “though I hope not.”
“I actually hope so,” Garnet said. “If we find out they scraped by once more, I’ll be very disappointed.”
The phone finally rang, and Barret leaned toward it and put it on speakerphone.
“Yo,” Barret said. “Talk to us.”
“Hi, guys,” a voice on the other end said.
“It’s us,” a second voice said.
The other teams reacted with a mix of shock, surprise, disbelief, and, ultimately, disappointment upon recognition of the voices. The only one not disappointed was Brahne.
“Oh, man!” Reno said, disappointed.
“It’s Zone and Watts!” Garnet said.
Indeed, the screen cut to the camera on the other end of the line, revealing Zone and Watts sitting down on the edge of a large table in what appeared to be the war room of the Mosel Ruins, where they’d just been eliminated moments before.
“Yeah, it’s us,” Zone said. “Um, production wants us to tell you that we’re officially the seventh team eliminated from The Amazing Final Fantasy Race.”
“How you guys doing over there?” Watts asked.
“Fine,” Cecil answered. “But not really happy to hear your voices. We were actually hoping to hear —”
“Let us guess,” Zone said. “The Ronso’s? Dona and Barthello’s?”
“More the former than the latter,” Garnet said.
“We figured,” Watts said.

—————————————————————Freya & Fratley: Interview—————————————————————
Freya and Fratley sat in front of the camera, their hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“Zone and Watts were eliminated,” Freya said. “It was definitely a shocker for everyone. We all assumed they would be safe until at least the final four.”
“It was yet another reminder of how anything can happen in the race, and how anything can change when you least expect it,” Fratley said.
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“So what happened?” Brahne said. “Tell, tell, tell! How did my precious Ronso stay in another leg?”
“Ugh, don’t remind us of that,” Zone said. “Well, it started like this. We were doing a pretty good job at the Detour. But on the way to the Roadblock, we got U-Turned.”
“And just like that, you have my sympathies,” Reno said, remembering his and Rude’s own elimination due to the U-Turn. “Who did it?”
“Dona and Barthello,” Watts replied. “They were trying to either get back at me for calling Dona out on something she did to Reina and Faris at the Detour, or they were trying to split our alliance up.” Reina and Faris’s picture flashed by on the screen at that moment.
“I thought your two teams had an alliance,” Brahne said, “especially after that stunt they pulled at that train station in Twilight Town on Garnet’s and my final leg.”
“Yeah, it’s true,” Zone said, “though they kind of had to force us into one.”
“But wait, wait, wait,” Dyne said. “What did Dona and Barthello do to Reina and Faris?”
“Well, at the Detour, we were stockpiling patented inventions and adding up their ratings points until we got a thousand points,” Watts said. “Dona stole an item from Reina and Faris. I called her out on it, and she wasn’t the least bit pleased. I think we got U-Turned because of that.”
“Yeah, and after doing the other Detour — basically, inventing an item that was at least new to this city we went to, Peterny — everything went downhill. We had to run through a desert that I just didn’t have the energy to run through,” Zone said, “and after solving this puzzle with statues, we ended up in a footrace with Fran and Balthier, who’d fallen behind due to their Speed Bump.” Fran and Balthier’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“You’re kidding,” Cid said. “Fran and Balthier came in last on the non-elimination leg?”
“After missing a route marker and having to go back and get it, yeah,” Zone confirmed. “We only barely lost the footrace with them, and they were checked in fifth. We got eliminated just a few minutes ago. I guess ten or fifteen. Now, we’re calling you.”
“Aw, that’s too bad,” Celes said. “We really thought your under-the-radar strategy would help you.”
“Oh, we should’ve known it wouldn’t,” Watts said. “We weren’t as under the radar as we thought we were. It was probably our victory in Twilight Town that put us on the radar. That, and our alliance with Reina and Faris.”
“That’s a shame,” Rosa said. “But now that you two are out, who do you think’s gonna follow?”
“Like that’s even a question?” Zone said. “Biran and Yenke!”
Everyone on the other side burst out laughing, which puzzled the Forest Owls.
“We’re not laughing at what you said,” Garnet assured them. “We’re laughing because we’ve all been saying the same thing for days now. Except for Mother, we all want to see the Ronso gone soon.”
“It’s absolutely appalling they’ve lasted so long,” Freya agreed. “But in the meantime, who do you think is going to win? Who do you think will bring home the prize?”
“Reina and Faris or Ma and Zell, maybe,” Zone answered as Ma and Zell’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“I think Fran and Balthier could have a shot if they can avoid any delay points,” Watts said. “They’re pretty much the team to beat and could stay as such if they manage to shake off everyone else’s attempts at getting them out of the race before the final three. But even then, the only team left with a delay now is Reina and Faris.”
“Just so long as neither the Ronso nor Dona and Barthello win, I’m fine with however this race turns out,” Cecil said.
“Uh . . . yeah,” Zone said. “Dona and Barthello won this leg.”
“WHAT?! Those backstabbing, two-timing assholes won a leg?!” Cecil said.
“Losing temper,” Rosa said in a singsong voice, pulling out her mirror and holding it up to Cecil’s face.
“They did win one,” Watts said, “and I think they’re probably on the rise, too. They could win this, or at least make the final three, if they keep up their newfound good racing.”
“We . . . see,” Rude said.
“Well, good to hear from you guys,” Reno said. “See you guys soon.”
“All right,” Zone said. “Bye, guys!”
“Later!” Watts said.
They hung up, and the six eliminated teams all got up and filed out of the lobby.

About an hour later, the twelve racers headed out of the Gold Saucer once more and headed to the station, where they boarded the ropeway car that took them back down to North Corel below. They then walked through, then out, of the town, and found an airship waiting for them outside of it.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes sat and faced the camera, their hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“So after the phone with Zone and Watts, we left the Gold Saucer for the third time and boarded an airship that took us across the sea,” Cid said. “It took us right to Junon, where we’d actually been on the first leg.”
“We were going to have some time to look around the city and do some shopping if we wanted to,” Celes said. “Which was good. I felt great to have the chance to really get to see one of the great cities we’d visited before, but hadn’t gotten the chance to really see, since we were on the race and had to go fast.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Once landing in Junon’s airport, the six teams got off the airship and made their way into the town. They all admired the tall buildings and the view of the ground below.
At one point, they stopped and watched a group of soldiers performing drills in an alley. They seemed to have amazing precision in a lot of their motions.
Along the way, there were various shops the women had to stop and shop at, which left the men fairly bored as they were stuck waiting for them.
Of course, there was one shop that all the men liked stopping at a lot more than the women did. And it was a shop run by a man . . . but had lots of women waiting at the entrance.

———————————————————————Reno & Rude: Interview————————————————————
Reno and Rude sat facing the camera. Their room in the hotel was their backdrop.
“I’m a native of this world, so I’d already seen all there was to see in Junon,” Reno said. “But this place was one of my favorite places to go. Just because of all the hot women, of course.”
“The funniest part about it was the looks on the other guys’ faces,” said Rude. “I figured their jaws would drop off their faces at any second. As for Cecil and Fratley, I think Rosa and Freya were really jealous seeing them all set to drool over those women.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

The teams’ last stop was a bar, which Reno and Rude were really ecstatic to go to. While there, they ordered at least four beers apiece before an unseen production member had to cut them off.
After that, the day at Junon was declared over, and the teams were taken back to the Gold Saucer on the airship.
And as they flew, talk turned to the five teams left in the race.
“Awright,” Barret said. “Good enough day in Junon, I guess, but let’s get back to the race. Five teams are still racin’. Who’s gonna call in next? I think we’re all stickin’ with the Ronso, am I right?” Biran and Yenke’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“Yeah, let’s just save the usual one-at-a-time thing and just agree that they’re probably next,” Cid said.
“Them or Dona and Barthello,” Cecil said as a picture of Dona and Barthello flashed by on the screen. “But that’s more of me wanting them here, I guess.”
“You guess?” Rosa said.
“Well, let’s talk about who we want to see win,” Celes said. “We’ve never done that yet.”
“Good idea,” Barret said. “I think I want the kid and his mom to take it all.” Ma and Zell’s picture flashed by on the screen. “I underestimated them. They’ve already made it so far.”
“I think Ma and Zell or the two hot sisters would be my choice to win,” Dyne said as Reina and Faris’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“I think I’ll go with wanting either Ma and Zell or Reina and Faris, as well,” Cid said.
“I will, too,” Celes said.
“Ma and Zell were our early allies,” Cecil said, “so I’m throwing my full support behind them.”
“As am I,” Rosa said, “although Reina and Faris have a lot going for themselves right now. They’re the only team left with more than one win on a leg, if I’m understanding correctly. They won the leg we got eliminated on, and they won Brahne and Garnet’s final leg.”
“I think Ma and Zell would be my choice, as well,” Freya said. “They’d be a winning team few people would see coming.”
“I think Reina and Faris actually have more potential to win it all,” Fratley said.
“I kinda want the sisters to take it since they’re hot,” Reno said. “But since they’re turning out to be as strong as Rude and I thought we’d be, I am definitely rooting for them now.”
“I either want the sisters or Fran to take it,” Rude said as Fran and Bal-thier’s picture flashed by on screen. “Just Fran. Could take or leave Balthier, though.”
“I want my lovely Ronso to win,” Brahne said. “I’d be happy for years to come if I could see those hairy hunks cross that finish line first. Perhaps they’d share some of their winnings with me, or at least take me away on a romantic vacation for three with them. Oh, the possibilities if they did that.”
“Oh, gag,” Garnet said, looking sick. “I think I will be rooting for Ma and Zell or Reina and Faris, as well. They’re both stronger than I’d previously thought they’d be. And I just don’t want Fran and Balthier to win.”
“Well, the next leg only ends in a day or two,” Celes said. “We’ll find out if any predictions, if any, are affected soon enough.”
“What’s to be affected?” Reno said. “The Ronso are showing up here next, and that’s all there is to it.”
“If you didn’t just jinx that,” Dyne said.

Next up: Eliminated team number eight!

Feel free to comment.

[Dale]

And now, I'm officially all caught up, because here's what happened when eliminated team number eight checked in!

Up in the Gold Saucer, in the Ghost Hotel of the Ghost Square, the six eliminated teams lazed around, once again with precious little to do in their hotel digs. This time, all twelve racers lounged together in the hotel lobby.
“Yo, man,” Barret said. “How much longer we gonna be here?”
“Until production says we’re finally outta here, Barret,” Dyne answered.
“Yeah, but how long’s that?” Barret said. “Man, I’m tired of seein’ the same things day after day after day.”
“I know the feeling,” Celes said. “This was a nice place to visit, at first, but we’ve been here for weeks now, and this place is starting a little old.”
“I agree,” Brahne said, “and Garnet and I haven’t even been here that long. Every day, when I come downstairs, I get startled by that dead man on the noose. If it keeps up any longer, I think I might have a heart attack!”
“Sure it won’t be due to that huge ball of fat you call your belly?” Reno asked snidely.
Brahne looked at him so fiercely, she seemed to stare daggers. That made Reno look away from her kind of sheepishly.

Eventually, the six teams left the lobby and returned to their rooms. But sometime later, they were called back down, and just like the last time, they came down in a single-file line, walking in both team formation and elimination order — Barret, Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, Reno, Rude, Brahne, and Garnet.
Once again, waiting for them was the small table with the small phone on it. They all sat in various places around the table and phone.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes sat and faced the camera, their hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“We heard from production that another team had been eliminated, so we walked down in a line like some kind of ant-like automatons to wait by the phone and see who’d be calling in,” Cid said.
“It can’t be said enough who were hoping it’d be,” Celes said. “Everybody but Brahne was pretty much waiting to hear the Ronso’s voices on the other end.” Biran and Yenke’s picture flashed by on the screen on that moment.
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“So we all agree that Biran and Yenke are gonna be calling?” Barret asked the assembled group.
Everybody either verbally agreed or simply showed their agreement by nodding. Although Brahne looked hopeful that it wouldn’t be so.
The phone finally rang, and Barret leaned forward and pressed the button for speakerphone.
“What up?” he said.
There was a brief pause on the other side of the line, then somebody replying, “Hello, competitors.”
“Cheers,” a second voice said.
Eyes all around the room went wide in surprise, followed by utterances of shock.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Reno said.
“No, I don’t think ‘you’ is, Reno,” Rosa said.
“F-F-Fran and Balthier?!” Freya said, shocked.
The screen cut to a camera on the other hand, which revealed that, indeed, Fran and Balthier were calling in. They sat in a room below the top floor of the Walse Tower in the Fantasy 5 verse.
“Yes, it is we,” Fran said. “Ffamran and I are officially the eighth team eliminated from The Amazing Final Fantasy Race. At least that is what production wanted us to announce.”

———————————————————————Reno & Rude: Interview————————————————————
Reno and Rude sat facing the camera. Their room in the hotel was their backdrop.
“Finding out Fran and Balthier were eliminated . . . wow,” Reno said. “I don’t think anyone expected it. Especially not me or Rude. They were our biggest competition in the race up to when we were eliminated. After we got the boot, we thought they pretty much had the best chances of winning the whole thing.”
“I, for one, was very disappointed,” Rude said. “I’d been rooting for Fran, and only Fran, since we got out. Now, I don’t have anyone left in the race I like.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“This is a surprise,” Cecil said. “We all really thought you were at least bound for the final three!”
“So did we, to be honest,” Balthier said.
“So what happened?” Cid asked. “We’re all ears.”
“It was partly from having no equalizer,” Fran said. “We rode in meteors to Fantasy 5 and had to find a hidden chocobo corral, and I had to ride a chocobo around the world for the Roadblock.”
“She got really lost, too,” Balthier said. “We seemed to do our next couple of tasks well enough, but we were unfortunately delayed by the use of the Xing.”
“Oh, the pirate sisters used their delay?” Garnet said as a picture of Reina and Faris flashed by on the screen. “I really thought they’d save it for the penultimate leg.”
“We thought so, too,” Balthier said, “but only because the Xing is not all that powerful. We were surprised they wasted it the way they did. Especially since the team behind us, the Ronso, were only a few minutes behind us.”
“Were they in last?” Rude asked.
“Of course.”
“Figures.”
“What happened after that?” Dyne asked.
“We had to fly on wind drakes to our next task,” Fran said, “but we got lost on our way there. But we thought we had a good lead on the Ronso. It was to our great misfortune that we discovered that we were wrong. Biran and Yenke found a faster way to the next town of which we were not aware.”
“Hold the phone,” Reno said. “The Ronso actually thought for themselves for once?”
“It would appear so,” Balthier said. “After that, we fell so far behind all of the other teams, there was probably nothing that could save us. We just got eliminated about ten minutes ago.”
“Aw, sorry,” Rosa said. “We really thought you’d get farther along than that.”
“But we can tell you that we of the APBA are thrilled that you won’t be winning!” Brahne said excitedly.
“Oh, the Anti-Pretty Boy Alliance?” Balthier said. “Of course.”
“Still, can someone tell me why the hell Fran and Balthier are out of the race while those stupid Ronso keep racing on?” Reno said. “My God, you just can’t kill those guys! They’re like cockroaches! Big, hairy, horned cockroaches!”
“I concur,” Fratley said. “Those two have thrived merely on luck and the mistakes of others. How they reached the final four is beyond me. They do not deserve to be there.”
“Actually, I believe they do,” Balthier said.
“Here it comes,” Fran said, rolling her eyes.
“It’s true that Biran and Yenke are not the smartest of racers and have thus far relied mainly on their physical attributes to make it through the race,” Balthier said. “It’s also true that other teams have, luckily for them, been unfortunate enough to make one egregious error to trump all of their less serious errors.” He paused for a moment. “You would know, Garnet.”
“Just as I was starting to get over that . . .” Garnet shut her eyes tightly and looked like she felt really guilty again.
“Pay no attention to the louse, darling,” Brahne said, putting a supportive hand on her shoulder.
“However,” Balthier went on, “I believe what’s served Biran and Yenke well is their ability to learn fast. Yes, they are largely oblivious as to how to perform a task initially, but if they’re fortunate enough that someone is there to show them how it’s done, then they themselves can get it done quickly. I suspect even more quickly than anyone else could hope to. That is why I believe they are a strong team.”
“Um . . . okay,” Celes said. “So they’re able to learn how to do tasks they’re completely clueless about. That’s all well and good, but I don’t really believe that equals a strong team. And I don’t think that should negate their other mistakes for the first eight legs.”
“Neither do I,” Cid said. “You said it yourself, Balthier — they’ve gotten lucky enough that people have basically shown them how to do the tasks. At least every one of us learned how to do the tasks on our own.”
“Precisely what I relayed to Ffamran,” Fran said. “It is why the Ronso still being here confuses even me. I believe they are lucky more than strong.”
“It confuses all of us, really,” Freya said. “But in the meantime, who do you two think is next to go?”
“If the gods do not toy with us and actually give us some justice,” Fran said, “then Biran and Yenke will be next.”
“Or, on a karmic level, perhaps Dona and Barthello,” Balthier said.
“And who do you guys want to win?” Barret asked.
“I suppose Reina and Faris would be the most deserving,” Fran said. “This leg on which we were eliminated brought about their third victory. Although being in their own world likely helped them. But I personally believe Dona and Barthello could win the whole thing. They have started showing up as a stronger team than we previously thought.”
Cecil started to get mad at the idea of someone wanting Dona and Barthello to win, but Rosa settled him down before his dark side could start coming out again.
“I, on the other hand, am more torn,” Balthier admitted. “I believe the teams with the best chances are Reina and Faris and Ma and Zell.” Ma and Zell’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“So despite your championing Biran and Yenke’s abilities,” Rosa said, “or what abilities they have, you don’t think they’ll win?”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Balthier said. “Learning fast has worked for them, but it can only go so far. Even if they make the final three, I highly doubt the two of them have a shot.”
“Okay,” Cid said. “Well, production’s telling us we’ve gotta end this, so it was nice talking to you both. We’ll see you soon.”
“Likewise,” Fran said.
They hung up, and the six eliminated teams filed out of the lobby and headed back upstairs.

“Finally!” Barret said the next morning, walking into the lobby from the item shop of the hotel.
“What?” Dyne said. “What is it?”
“Good news,” Barret said. “Production’s finally movin’ us! We’re goin’ to End City today!”
The other eleven eliminated racers burst into elated cheers, happy to hear the good news.
“Yeah, so we need to get packed, ’cause we leave in an hour.”
The teams rushed up to their rooms to get packed.

————————————————————Brahne & Garnet: Interview—————————————————————
Brahne and Garnet sat and faced the camera, their soon-to-be-former hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“I think I will miss the Ghost Hotel a little bit,” Brahne said. “But I am very happy to be finally be leaving it and heading to End City. It’ll do me and probably everyone here some good to get a change of scenery.”
“I, for one, can’t wait to see where End City is,” Garnet said. “Hopefully, it’ll help me get over my elimination-causing mistake more easily. The hotel hasn’t been the right environment for me to heal from that.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

In their room, Barret and Dyne quickly threw everything they could into their suitcases that they could fit. They left no stone unturned. It was clear how anxious they were to finally be leaving.

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Barret and Dyne sat and addressed the camera, their hotel room serving as their backdrop.
“Ey, we were here the longest,” Barret said. “We’ve gotten so bored of this place, we’re more than pleased to be goin’. Wherever this End City is — and I think it’ll be back in Fantasy 10 — it’d better be a damn sight better to live in than this place.”
“I think anyplace would be a damn sight better to live in than here,” Dyne said. “The place is definitely well-coordinated, but I think a place with a warmer feel to it would be better.”
“Not to mention more comfortable,” Barret added. “It’s hard to feel comfortable when fake zombies are jumpin’ out at you all the time.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

After the teams had all gotten packed up, they carried their bags out of the front door of the hotel, saying goodbye to it for the last time. (Except for possibly Barret, Dyne, Reno, and Rude, who were locals and might stop in again after the race.) They headed for the ropeway station and headed down to North Corel, where an airship was waiting to fly them to the nearest spaceport.
And while in transit, talk turned, as usual, to the final four teams.
“Awright, people,” Barret said. “It’s down to the final four. Who d’ya think’s gonna just miss the final three?”
“Let’s be honest and skip the formalities,” Dyne said. “By far, Biran and Yenke deserve to miss it. Even with their being fast learners.” Biran and Yenke’s picture flashed by on the screen again.
The other racers agreed, including Brahne, despite her reluctance. “I really do want them to win,” she said, “but even I admit they’re in over their cute, horned heads. Especially if they’re up against Reina and Faris” — Reina and Faris’s picture flashed by on the screen — “and Ma and Zell.” Ma and Zell’s picture flashed by on the screen again.
“I agree, Mother,” Garnet said, “except for the wanting them to win part. At this point, the only team they could possibly beat out for the final three is Dona and Barthello.” Dona and Barthello’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“So who do we all want to win?” Barret asked. “I still want Ma and Zell to take it.”
“Still going with either Ma and Zell or Reina and Faris,” Dyne said.
“Same as Dyne,” Cid said.
“Me, as well,” Celes said.
“Ma and Zell,” Cecil said.
“Same here,” Rosa said, “but I won’t mind a Reina and Faris win, either.”
“I do believe Ma and Zell have the best chance,” Freya said. “Although hearing that Reina and Faris won their third leg makes me reassess that very thought.”
“I think Reina and Faris should and will win,” Fratley said.
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Reno said.
“With Fran out, the sisters are the only team I’d be even remotely satisfied with,” Rude said.
“Well, I just said I wanted the Ronso to win,” Brahne said, “but barring them, then I would like to see girl power prevail in Reina and Faris winning the race.”
“Oh, so would I,” Garnet said, looking sick. “I am betting on Reina and Faris or Ma and Zell winning, as well. Though at this point, I’d take anyone who isn’t the Ronso.”
“In all fairness, the final three should ideally be Ma and Zell, Reina and Faris, and perhaps Dona and Barthello,” Celes said, “with the whole thing being between Ma and Zell and Reina and Faris in the end.”
“Yes, but I think that if one of those teams gets eliminated,” Fratley said, “then the other team — the one that goes to the final three with Dona and Barthello and the Ronso — will win, because they’ll have no huge competition left.”
“Agreed completely,” Reno said. “It’s gonna be a rough couple of days waiting to see who makes that final three and who doesn’t.”
“And we’ll find out once we arrive in End City,” Garnet said. “Wherever that is.”

Next up: Eliminated team number nine, the final eliminated team!

Feel free to comment.

[agent0042]

Thanks, it was fun to read the newest installments. My favorite thing was probably Queen Brahne and her crazy luck at the chocobo races-- there was just something really amusing about the idea. I think we're all curious about the end city-- only a couple of legs to go now!

[Dale]

Well, as soon as the last elimination occurs, we'll find out. Assuming we finally get episode ten up and posted.

[Dale]

All right, people! Let's see what happened when eliminated team number nine, the final team eliminated, checked in!

Out in the ocean of the Fantasy 10 verse was the island of Kilika, which came complete with a small, beautiful town set on the water, as well as a large gate overlooking it all. This gate led to the island’s woods, which then led to its temple.
A large spaceship flew down and landed outside of the town, and the camera suddenly showed twelve sets of feet disembarking. Then, it panned up to reveal the faces of Barret, Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, Reno, Rude, Brahne, and Garnet, all of whom were being welcomed to town by a local man, whom production had hired to meet them.
“Hello,” the man said. “Welcome, eliminated teams of The Amazing Final Fantasy Race, to Kilika.”
“Thank you,” the twelve eliminated racers all said as one.
“Let’s get right down it,” the man said. “I’m supposed to lead you all to your temporary quarters. Follow me.”
The six teams followed the man through the town. He led them to the town’s inn, walked them inside, and pointed them all up the stairs past the check-in desk.
“Up there,” the man said. “First door to the left. Room should be big enough for all twelve of you, considering it’s a suite.”
The teams all thanked the man again, then headed upstairs.

—————————————————————Barret & Dyne: Interview—————————————————————
Barret and Dyne sat and addressed the camera, a room in their brand-new suite serving as their backdrop.
“We jus’ arrived in End City,” Barret said, “which turned out to be this beautiful island town called Kilika back in Fantasy 10. We’ve only been here a couple of hours, but I’m already relaxing much more than I was back at that damn Ghost Hotel.”
“Oh, me, too,” Dyne agreed. “There is fresh air, sunshine, a lot of atmosphere, and the smell of ocean water all around. Everything the Ghost Hotel didn’t have. I could get used to living here really easily. Too bad we’re only here a day or two, though.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

Once in the new suite, the teams immediately marveled at the already-better accommodations — long, soft couches, soft, carpeted floors, windows with actual light coming in through them, bright rooms, and best of all, no fake zombies.
After taking a few more moments to admire things, they all headed off to different rooms to unpack their things and take a rest after their long flight across the galaxy.

Later, after all the teams had rested, they filed into the large, loungelike living room of the suite, Barret leading the way, followed by Dyne, Cid, Celes, Cecil, Rosa, Freya, Fratley, Reno, Rude, Brahne, and Garnet. They all took seats on couches or chairs and looked at the table set in the center of them. The table that had a phone on it.

——————————————————————Cid & Celes: Interview——————————————————————
Cid and Celes sat and faced the camera, their room in the suite serving as their backdrop.
“Production woke us all up to let us know that the final team had been eliminated, and that the final three had been decided at last,” Cid said. “So were eagerly waiting to see who was the last team to hear Gippal’s bad news. We had no idea who it’d be.”
“Although there was definitely a team we wanted to it be,” Celes said, “and I don’t think any of us — save for Brahne — would be able to take it if it wasn’t that team.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“So who y’all think it’s gonna be?” Barret asked.
“Well, I think we’re in agreement of who we want it to be,” Dyne said. “The Ronso.” Biran and Yenke’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“Definitely,” Reno said. “Those two made every mistake in the book, yet still somehow made it to the final four. I don’t think they should make the final three.”
“Certainly not,” Cecil agreed. “But as much as I would like to hear Biran and Yenke’s voices when that phone rings, I’d like to hear Dona and Barthello’s voices even more.” Dona and Barthello’s picture then flashed by on the screen.
“Of course,” Rosa said, rolling her eyes. “We’ve heard that for weeks now.”
“I know they technically shouldn’t make the final three,” Brahne said, “but I love them so much, it’d make my day to find out they did make it.”
“Well, it’ll be very interesting when we finally find out,” Freya said.
The phone rang at that moment.
“Which will be right now,” Fratley said.
Rude nodded and looked at Barret. “Pick up the phone.”
Barret nodded, leaned forward, and answered the phone. He put it on speakerphone for everyone to hear. “Hello?” he said.
“The moment of truth is coming,” Garnet said quietly as she and the others all waited for the voice on the other end to answer.
There was silence for fifteen seconds as no one answered.
But then, finally, someone said, “Hello, hornless goatlings who get eliminated before Ronso!”
“Hornless! Hornless!” another voice said.
The teams didn’t even need to figure out who it was. Once the sounds of the voices had been heard, there was a loud chorus of happy cheers for a full minute before everyone (save for Brahne, who just looked depressed) was able to calm down.
“About time!” Reno yelled loudly. “Biran and Yenke are OUT!”
Sure enough, the camera cut to the other end of the line, where Biran and Yenke sat in the lobby of what appeared to be a motel — the motel in Dryfield, where they’d just been eliminated moments before.
“Ronso call to say we ninth and final team eliminated from Amazing Final Fantasy Race,” Biran said. “Hornless racers cheer long time. You sound happy to hear from Ronso.”
“You love Ronso that much?” Yenke asked.
“What?!” Barret said. “Hell, no! We hate you guys! We’re happy to finally find out you guys got eliminated!”
“Oh,” Biran and Yenke said at the same time, both of them suddenly looking very sad.

——————————–———————————Cecil & Rosa: Interview——————————————————————
Cecil and Rosa sat facing the camera, their room in the suite serving as their backdrop.
“Biran and Yenke’s voices came through the phone,” Cecil said, “and we were all so excited. Because we knew that the team that was probably the most incompetent one in the entire race had finally been eliminated.”
“They had gotten lucky so many times and managed to escape elimination in spite of a large number of elimination-worthy mistakes,” Rosa said, “so it was very good to find out that their luck had finally run out.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“All right, all celebrations aside,” Cid said, “tell us what the hell happened. How did we finally get what we’ve been wanting to happen for weeks and weeks?”
“Well,” Biran said, “this leg have lots of puzzles. Roadblock have puzzle. Detour have puzzle. Fast Forward have puzzle. Even task before Pit Stop have puzzle. But Ronso bad at puzzles.”
“Whoa, wait a sec,” Reno said. “There was a Fast Forward?”
“Yes,” Yenke answered. “Dona and Barthello get it.” A picture of Dona and Barthello flashed by on the screen.
“Ah, I can see why someone would want to go for it,” Rude said. “Four teams left? Final elimination leg? Whoever won it gets into the final three pretty much automatically.”
“Yes, and Ronso go for it along with Hair-Horn and his mommy” — a picture of Ma and Zell flashed by on the screen — “and Dona and Barthello. But Ronso give up when we realize we not good at solving puzzles. We go to Roadblock, which also has puzzle, and Yenke only get out because he copy Pink Hair’s puzzle.”
“You mean Reina?” Celes asked.
“Yes. Reina. And after that, Ronso go to Detour, and we choose one that not have puzzle. But it based on luck, and Ronso have bad luck finding numbers to combination of box that hold clue. We stuck far behind teams after that. Get to final task, which also have puzzle. But Gippal call us to Pit Stop before we even start trying to solve it. He eliminate us. We eliminated just fifteen minutes ago.”
“Sounds like you finally met your match, sweeties,” Brahne said. “It’s been apparent since the Upper Lands that mental tasks aren’t your strong suit at all.”
“All of us except for Mother could not be happier to find out you’re out, though,” Garnet said. “It’s amazing you managed to last as long as you did. We all thought you got farther than you two deserved.”
“Hornless summoner!” Biran gasped. “She . . . glad we out?”
“We thought she root for Ronso!” Yenke said.
“After all you did to me the entire race?” Garnet said. “Did you really think I’d root for you to win after all of that?”
Biran and Yenke looked each other, looking even sadder now. “Well, uh . . . you still hornless! You all still hornless!”
“Hornless! Hornless!” Yenke taunted.
“Yeah, yeah,” Reno said, waving off the insult dismissively. “We heard all that before.”
“And Ronso still make it farther than all of you!” Biran added.
“Now, that’s uncalled for!” Reno said.
“All right,” Freya said. “Before anyone gets too angry, let’s all calm down and ask the Ronso one question we’re supposed to. Who are you two rooting for now that you’re out?”
“Ronso not decide,” Biran said, also calming down on his and Yenke’s end. “All three teams left so strong in different ways. Ronso could be happy with any of them winning.”
“Yenke think Pink Hair and Purple Hair have best chance,” Yenke said as a picture of Reina and Faris flashed by on the screen. “They win most legs so far.”
“But Hair-Horn and his mommy have strong member in mother. They not get so far without her there. And Dona strong summoner, and Barthello big like Ronso. Make for good work in tasks that need muscle.”
“In end, Ronso not know who Ronso really want to win.”
“I see,” Dyne said. “Well, we’ve gotta cut this call short now, but hey, thanks for calling. And thanks for making our day. See you guys at the finish line!”
“And say hello Zone and Watts and Fran and Balthier for us,” Garnet said.
“We will,” Biran said. “See hornless goatlings at finish line!”
“Hornless! Horn —”
Yenke got cut off as Barret hung up the phone.
“Well, I guess we have our final three,” Cid said.
“Out of the final four,” Celes said, “it’s pretty much what we expected.”

—————————————————————Freya & Fratley: Interview—————————————————————
Freya and Fratley sat in front of the camera, their room in the suite serving as their backdrop.
“The final three teams are Reina and Faris, Ma and Zell, and Dona and Barthello,” Freya said. “It is a very interesting final three, indeed. All of them have run solid races, for the most part, and deserve to win in their own right.”
“I think any of them can take it all on the final leg,” Fratley said. “It’ll be interesting to see which one of them does.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“Whoa,” Reno said. “Can you guys believe this final three?”
“Not a bit,” Cid said. “Honestly, none of them I expected to see reach the final three at all.”
“Who’d you think would make it there, sweetums?” Brahne asked him, making eyes at him.
“Reno and Rude, Fran and Balthier, and Zone and Watts,” Cid replied, “but as we all know now, not one of them made it there. Three teams you could normally call underdogs turned out to be stronger than we all thought and made the final three instead.”
“This has definitely been the season of the underdogs,” Barret said.

———————————————————————Reno & Rude: Interview————————————————————
Reno and Rude sat facing the camera. Their room in the suite was their backdrop.
“It’s really hard to say who’s gonna take the whole thing,” Reno said. “You’ve got the sisters, who’ve won the most legs and are pretty balanced out, but aren’t really great at anything, just good. Then, you’ve got Ma and Zell, who aren’t that good physically, but are very good at mental tasks. At least when Ma’s there to do them.”
“Then, there’s Dona and Barthello,” Rude said. “Dona’s dead weight most of the time, so they have to rely on Barthello’s physical strength a lot. Dona does do well with mental tasks, though. When she contributes, that is. And that’s not often. Basically, pros and cons for each of them.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“Well, it’s clear Reina and Faris are the strongest of the three teams,” Celes said, “but we’ve seen before that sometimes being the strongest team doesn’t matter in the end. Yuna and Rikku more than showed that last season when Shinra and Rufus beat them in the end.”
“Right,” Rosa said. “Even the strongest teams can get tripped up at one point. That could happen to them.”

————————————————————Brahne & Garnet: Interview—————————————————————
Brahne and Garnet sat and faced the camera, their room in the suite serving as their backdrop.
“I don’t have any real problems with any of the final three,” Brahne said. “Not even Dona and Barthello. I could be happy with any of them winning. Though it’s clear to me Reina and Faris and Ma and Zell seem like the two most deserving teams.”
“Gee, I don’t really care about who’s stronger or weaker or who’s deserving or who’s not,” Garnet said. “This is a race. A race with a finish line. The winners will be the first team to cross that finish line. Whichever team manages to get themselves across it first, that team deserves to win the most. Past performance doesn’t matter to me at all, at this point.”
————————————————————————End Interview————————————————————————

“So let’s all get it out,” Barret said. “Who do y’all wanna see win? I still hope Ma and Zell take it.” Ma and Zell’s picture flashed by on the screen again.
“Ma and Zell and Reina and Faris deserve it the most,” Dyne said, “so I am firmly rooting for either one of them to win.”
“I agree with that,” Cid said, “though I give Reina and Faris the slight edge for one reason — they’re the only one of the final three teams never to be in the bottom two once during the race.” Reina and Faris’s picture flashed by on the screen again.
“I am throwing in my lot behind the sisters for the reason Grandpa just said,” Celes said.
“I think it could go either way between Reina and Faris and Ma and Zell,” Cecil said. “I hope it’s one of their teams. Just because I do not want Dona and Barthello to win.”
“Ma and Zell or Reina and Faris winning wouldn’t make me cry,” Rosa said. “Not one little bit.”
“I think that Reina and Faris will win,” Freya said, “and at this point, I want them to.”
“I do, too,” Fratley said.
“Same here,” Reno said. “Rude and I only root for strong teams, and we think the sisters are just that.”
“Yes,” Rude said.
“Well, now that my Ronso are out,” Brahne said, “I’d like to return to the girl power I mentioned last time and hope that Reina and Faris win the race.”
“I am betting on either Reina and Faris or Ma and Zell winning, with the edge going to Reina and Faris. Though if Dona and Barthello could win a puzzle-based Fast Forward, they might have a chance if a puzzle comes up on the final leg, too.” Dona and Barthello’s picture flashed by on the screen.
“This is it,” Barret said. “They’ve come a long damn way to get this far in the race.”
“And we’ve waited a long damn time to find out who wins,” Dyne said.
“In just a couple of days,” Celes said, “we’ll see exactly who it is.”

Next up: the eliminated teams reunite with the final three teams!