[center][b][u]QUANTUM COLLAB SECTOR XI:[/b][/u] [i]Ocean's Eleven (minus George Clooney)[/i]

[b]Summary:[/b] "Boogity boogity boogity! Let's go racin', boys!"[/center]

Ryuu gulped when the announcement was made. Mercy announced the rules of the game. With that said, he felt worried about the so-called "item hunt." Just what would he have to hunt? There was the possibility that he would suddenly have to pick up a pencil. How the crap would he find a [b][u]PENCIL[/u][/b] here? How would he find [b][u]SUNGLASSES[/u][/b] here? He totally had no idea how to find pencils and sunglasses...

...That did not belong to him, of course. What would he get? Just what on Earth would he get? A demon charging towards his face again? Or maybe...

[i]Anedine.[/i]

Ryuu suddenly let his hands crash against the sides of his head, his face making up an extremely complex expression. With that said, he was quite... red. A little. And that was because of his plasma... right?

The otaku ducked. He took a deep breath. He heard the countdown going "3, 2, 1," but during those three seconds, he felt his adrenaline rise. It was as if someone kicked him in the nuts. Actually, he would have preferred it if someone did kick him. With a powerful dash, Ryuu let his skirt flow across the air, revealing his stinking awesome polka dot boxers, before charging toward the net with a slide. He nearly screamed due to how he felt a conveniently well-placed stone hit his nuts.

Now he really did not like the idea of something kicking his nuts anymore.

Still, Ryuu slid, letting his tears scream through the air. His dress was already getting torn by the sheer [s]weight[/s] power he was applying in moving. The otaku found the slippery slope, however, to be a serious pain.

Lily watched as the boy left, her smile fading. So much for that... She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath and walked on, just watching. Her head perked up when she heard Mercy speak, reminding her of her entire purpose for being here. Deciding to try and wait again, she walked up to another girl who was quite obviously prepared to give an onslaught (Carmen) and stood next to her, a calm expression on her face. At this point, she was perfectly fine with just watching. 

[b]"Hi..."[/b] Lily spoke softly, a bit shy now. She was unsure of whether she wanted to try and make conversation or just stop trying.

Brako stood there, looking up at the course, his eyes trained on it, his expression blank. He heaved a heavy sigh as the others began to race off. He shook his head slowly, and made his way under the net, sliding along as well as he could. He wasn't really putting in all that much effort so it took a bit. His dress kept getting snagged. In the middle of the net, Brako stopped and stared down at the dress that kept causing him so many problems. He blinked before smiling and bending down toward it. With a firm hand, he pulled at the material and ripped some of the dress off. Content with himself, he continued and made it through the net. He glared up at the 'slippery slope.' before finally beginning his accent up it. Because of his slow pace, most of the girls didn't even notice him and he made it up with.. relative ease. He did fall a few times, bruising his knees. 

He'd feel that in the morning. 

Seven didn't much bother to listen about rules and things to do. The only thing he really card his to make through everything and find the item on the paper. Seven watched as the other students ran well maybe he wasn't sure he was too busy scratching his cat ears with his foot. He wasn't even looking at the right way he was busy looking at a seagull eating something... weird. He wanted to wait first of the other to go, maybe because he might beat them to quickly or that he thinks. "This is to easy..." He said gleefully as he licked his paw...hand thing. He turned around to see some contestants running off, he still waited until he was last... even lying on the sand and napping for a moment. Seven laughed how the image of some students were already getting hit with balloons filled with paint. He stood up and stretched a bit. The weird old guy in a pink dress hasn't moved yet... "...weird old man" he side commented until he sprang to action, but he didn't run like a normal human... he ran like the wild cat he was. All on fours he ran with great cat speed even though wearing that pink belly dance outfit. He noticed the net thing and smiled happily. "Just like hunting..." He crawled down, moving with great speed. Flexibility was a great cat like ability for him to have. 

He passed by a guy in the wedding dress, a bunny suit, (more character who are going through the net) Soon enough he was out of the military net and did a back flip until he was doing a hand stand in front of everyone still at the net. His skirt went down due to gravity so his underwear... well... he wasn't wearing any... he was showing his...gender...Seven made a childish face and smirk. 'Thank you Vanessa for giving me this outfit' He had to thank her later for the very movable outfit. "Keep it up guys, you are slow! Like slugs.. see you in five months!" He taunted them until doling one more backflip then continued with the competition. He even reached the slop thing, he smirk as he fixed his position like a lion preying and then started to climb up very quickly. 

" Go Alistair!" Cyber cheered out for Alistair very happily but inside he wished to get this over with and get some free grub. He was already mad due to Lily ended up walking and talking to another lady. He just sighed but gave out another fake smile and continue to cheer for Alistair. 

Carmen looked on as the competitors began their long and arduous journey through the obstacle course. She wasn't sure who she would root for...she figured Ara would be a logical choice because she dressed him, but as he got into the net and began ripping up the dress she quickly changed her mind and decided to root for nobody. She frowned as he frayed the bottom of the dress, disappointed that that nice dress was about to go to waste. She couldn't [i]really[/i] blame him because it would be pretty much impossible to keep something like that dress in pristine condition in an [i]obstacle course[/i], but...she was Carmen and she was going to blame him anyway. She noticed the old man she had dressed climbing the slope and decided not to pelt him with paint balloons...it just didn't seem right. When the cat person from the student center arrived at the slope way ahead of everyone else, Carmen released three balloons in brutal succession straight at him down the slope...at the very least it would give the rest of the guys a chance against the more nimble cat guy. Plus it was fun.

As she finished throwing the balloons, an unfamiliar girl came up to her. She seemed calm and even shy - but she was gorgeous. Carmen wondered if she'd been here the whole time and the two had just never crossed paths or if she was new. In any case, she looked forward to meeting her...and getting her to open up, of course. She was actually surprised when the girl said a soft "Hi" instead of nothing, and was happy to respond. Turning to the girl (as the rest of the boys were still a while off yet), she responded with a bright smile. "Hello! I don't recognize you...have we met? My name's Carmen!" she offered as she extended her hand to offer a handshake.

Lily blinked at the bright smile and the even brighter greeting. She certainly hadn't expected it. A small smile grew on her lips at the girl, getting her hopes up again but what could the angel do? She had to try, right? She watched the girl's hand as it came out to shake hers. With a gentle hand, she reached out and took Carmen's, smiling warmly. [b]"It's nice to meet you. I'm Lily."[/b] She spoke, her voice still soft and warm. [b]"I don't think we've met before. I haven't met many people here yet."[/b] She continued, sounding like an awfully shy girl. Which, she really wasn't. She was just a bit put off for that day Normally, she was more open and outgoing, if not sarcastic. But, this day had put her in a bit of a bad mood. She wasn't angry, just... put off.

Grumbling to himself the whole time (obviously not being a very good sport), Ara finally made it through the net obstacle. He had kept having to pull the lower half of his dress up because it snagged against a part of the net or just started to trail behind him from moving forward. In fact, it snagged again at the edge of the net as he got up. Clicking his tongue, Ara grabbed the hem and pulled it to the side to get it free. He sighed, looking at the people in front of him. "Tsk. This is why I wanted something easier to move in Carmen." Then noticing the guy who was revealing quite a bit below the belt, he shook his head in wonder. [i]'Does that even count as having the whole outfit on?'[/i] He thought as he ran up to the slippery slope.

Luckily for him, this was actually not too bad to move through. As long as he kept the dress lifted high up, it seemed that he would be able to climb up without too much trouble but... Ara cast a dubious glance towards the sidelines. Something told him that he as probably not going to get away with an easy ride for much longer.

Darwin sped through the rickety bridge not giving a damn as his dress flapped in the wind. It was actually very refreshing. He finally found a table with some weird numbers on it. He really should've listened to the rules.....ah well. He grabbed a piece of paper with the word 9 on it, wait no, it was a NUMBER! He chuckled again and ran off looking for something blue and adorable.wait no.....he was looking for something ADORABLUE. 

It appeared as if he would have to work his way up this wall afterwards, as that's what the others were doing. so he quickly skimmed up, having little to no problem, wings fluttering slightly behind him he stopped at the top, realizing he had actually gained a little distance on the others, not much as he was still behind, but he was certainly closer. he came to the bridge, He heard a voice calling out his name and did a quick bow to miss Cyber before heading out on the bridge, again he didn't have much trouble and was quickly catching up with everyone else, as his wings continued to flutter slightly behind his as he walked, keeping him roughly straight most of the way, he stumbled toward the end but managed to regain his footing and got to the other end to the table. he grabbed a paper marked '10', he flipped it over and read 'a feather' he thought for a second and almost laughed at his thought, he put the paper carefully in a pocket of the pinafore.

Ryuu smashed his face with a massive palm, simply grumbling to himself, "Of [b][i]course[/i][/b] my freaking dress would kick my own a-s."

With that said, he stared at the lower portion of his dress. He suddenly got a beautiful idea.

Reaching out for the dress, he gripped it tightly. But he was not going to discard the dress itself. No, he was going to actually [b][u]IMPROVISE!!![/u][/b] Right at this moment, Ryuu felt like a freaking genius. He wondered why Obama did not recommend this method of running with a dress to all women in his country. Or people with dresses in general.

Ryuu suddenly tore nearly two-thirds of the lower portion of his dress. He then pinched two parts of the cloth before tying it around his neck. And all of a sudden, viola!

Ryuu earned a pink, frilly cape! With a satisfied grin, the otaku literally stormed up the slope, now satisfied with how his dress was affecting him. His polka dot boxers were not something he was embarrassed about. With that said, he screamed like an insane maniac yearning to kill some unforgivable rival. The sunglasses-wearing... student(?) charged out of the slope, paint plastered on his left torso, eager to complete the race as soon as possible.

Chris took in a deep breath as the count down was called. She smiled and booked it for the net, sliding under with ease, well, that is until she collided with someone. Without stopping to see who it was, Chris steady herself again and booked it for the end of the net. Within about a minute, she was out and on the slope, climbing up. She had cuts and a few bruises now but she ignored them, nothing she hadn't had before.

Crash hadn't taken too long to reach the end of the net, after working out a good routine he had begun to move faster literally popping out the other end a few moments after Ara, he scrabbled to his feet completely bypassing the half naked guy as he pegged it for the slippery slope, gripping a rope he tugged it testingly before leaning back a little and beginning his ascent, not even entertaining the thought of looking to the sidelines he had barely got a third of the way up before a balloon collided with his face splattering him in neon pink paint and knocking him spare, he barely kept a hold of the rope as he fell sideways the paint from the balloons flying here there and everywhere was making the slippery slope even more of a pain to get past, hearing Mercy's hysterical laughter he was positive half of the balloons that hit him where from her. He found the only way he could get up this thing was pulling himself up purely by his arms as his feet struggled to get a foothold. He made it over finally practically flopping over the edge like a fish landing on his feet, he wiped paint from his face now sporting neon pink, green, yellow and orange paint he was practically dripping with the stuff. "I really should learn..." He muttered to himself, jogging across to the rickety bridge. 

For an old man, it didn't take Brako long at all to get to the table with the pieces of paper. In all honesty, he knew the girls would pity him and not pelt him with anything. His hands hurt from the rope and his... 'princess' dress was in shambles but he didn't care. He made it up here. Time to get his piece of paper, get his item and... leave this game. With a determined expression, Brako reached in the box and pulled out a piece of paper. Slowly, he unfolded it. 

Some say they saw Brako's face that day. Some say he was in shock, others say he simply cried. To this day, we still do not know what paper the VP pulled.

As Brako came down from the other side of the tower, Maria stood at the end to watch him. She raised a brow at his expression and grabbed the paper as he walked by. She blinked for a moment before busting out in laughter. 

Paint-filled balloons ready in her arms, Kathy basically threw balloons at anyone that wasn't Chris or the vice-principal. After dragging 'him' over to the race, she felt guilty about hitting Chris with anything and Brako was... Well, as tempting as it was, the good student inside of her just didn't seem to let her aim anything at someone that high up on the school ladder. She was clearly playing some favourites here, but that as her choice right? She did aim one or two balloon at Crash, but soon the majority of it became aimed at a certain brown-haired individual in a wedding dress that was nowhere near its original colour anymore.

The wedding dress just seemed to be soaking up the paint like a sponge. Clicking his tongue, Ara momentarily stopped the ascent up the slippery slope to rip the lower half of his dress and tie the ripped portions a bit higher up near his thighs. It looked a little strange, especially since his swimming trunks were now peeking out from underneath too, but at least he could actually move around better. After spitting out some of the paint that had gotten into his mouth, he gritted his teeth and finished with the second obstacle. Going to the rickety bridge, he began to make his way across as he tried to catch up to the others.

Darwin chuckled maniacally again and practically took off from the ground. He knew what he must do. He ran off in his fancy burlesque dress towards the crowd of girls.

he then walked past the desk out onto the beach. he had to look around before he saw what he was looking for. he slowly walked over to the large creature that had tried to kill him earlier "Hello Lion" he then turned to his friend "Hello Little Feather, do you mind if i ask you a favor? I apologize for just leaving you earlier by the way" he smiled, clasping his hands in front of him.

With a mighty leap, Ryuu landed outside of the slope. He then put his all in running like crazy, his eyes screaming "I'm going to kill you all if you get in my way." With that said, Ryuu literally tripped and rolled on the rickety bridge before finally reaching the tables. With that said, he really did not know what was coming up. After what he went through, a demon did not sound like a bad thing to find. That would give him an excuse to actually have [b]his[/b] kind of action-packed fun. With anxiety swirling in his head, the otaku snatched his paper, anticipating something he could take on with his fists...

Seven laughed even more as this competitors were going a head o of him, he gave a small smirk and then he climbed even faster passing by the others. Due to his speed he was gladly enough to not get hit by the paint balloons. He was enjoying this game, he loved seeing people suffer in a way, it made him more interested in a lot of....things... Then he ran fast towards the next obstacle of.. playground for him. He sped through the old like bridge, dodging the foam like matrix style...even passing by a weird guy who looked like a homeless super hero... Running like a cat he finally reached to the tables where he notices papers. He grabbed one and opened it.. his eyes were shocked.... his nightmare was getting to him....

Carmen was sure she had heard the name Lily somewhere before, but couldn't put her finger on it. Dismissing it as deja vu, she returned the warm greeting. "That's ok. There's no rush!", she said, responding to Lily saying she hadn't met many people yet. She was about to continue when she glanced back at the slope and saw it being overrun by crossdressing guys. "Um...excuse me a moment?" she said as she wheeled around, noticing that her first onslaught had grazed competitors she hadn't been aiming for. The Kathy girl had arrived on the scene to assist with balloon throwing, so Carmen had to make a quick decision. Turning back around to Carmen with two more balloons in her hand, she outlined her plan of action to Lily. "Somebody needs to operate the foam cannons over at the bridge before the competitors get there...and they're almost there! Feel free to join me...I'll be right back hopefully!" And with that she didn't just run, but sprinted to the foam cannons. The competitors certainly weren't going slow so she couldn't either. Jumping behind the first one, she trained it towards the competitors at the bridge, first finding Crash in a bunny suit, already soaking with paint. Of course that didn't mean "show mercy", as she unloaded the foam cannon as soon as he reached the bridge. Next came her beloved bride in his [i]ruined[/i] wedding dress, who she still insisted on blaming him for. As penance, she unloaded on him as well. To her dismay, two of the competitors had already crossed the bridge. There was nothing she could do after that as it was an item hunt, so she maintained her post, unloading at anyone who had the misfortune of reaching her bridge.

Chris grumbled as people, one by one, passed her on the slippery slope and the ladder rope part. She hated heights, she always would. If it weren't for that, she'd up there with the others. Instead, she pulled up the rear, slowly... painfully, making her way up to the top.

Ryuu froze deathly still. His eyes were locked on his paper, for the otaku had accidentally retrieved a forbidden artifact. The hand carrying the paper trembling a little, the sunglasses-wearing student gulped, only letting out a quiet,

"[i][b]A [u]GIRL[/u]...?![/b][/i]"

The otaku suddenly screamed, clutching his head as if the end of the world was nigh. Ryuu- a student who seriously had problems when it came to dealing with three-dimensional women, a brat who only knew how to study and how to fight stuff, an otaku that enjoyed staring at flying women wrecking havoc upon random protagonists- had been chosen to find a good ol' lady and enter the finish line.

With his scream gone and over with, Ryuu calmed himself down, thinking to himself,

[i]Listen up, Ryuu! You must put faith in yourself! Sure, you can't see Andromeda [s]or Anedine[/s] anywhere right at the moment, but there's [b]ALWAYS[/b] a chance that a woman would actually be generous enough to follow you![/i]

The sunglasses-wearing otaku reminded himself with the one phrase his father constantly told him,

[center][i]Keep faith in yourself![/i][/center]

Ryuu immediately began to search for a woman. His eyes pulsing small amounts of plasma, making him look like a homeless super villain now, the otaku began to search for a woman he could rely on. Or someone who could just tolerate with running alongside a dude with two-thirds of his skirt being used as a cape.

Lion turned to Alistair lifting an eye ridge at him, as Little Feather gave the boy a warm smile she was about to ask why he had abandoned the race when he spoke before she could. "Hmm? No I don't mind" She assured him. "Don't worry about it, you had a race to get to" She added with a quick shrug. "What do you need from me?" She asked her cheeks coloring ever so slightly now he was back in her presence. 

Crash had barely made it up to the start of the bridge when a jet of foam hit him square in the chest knocking him back onto his butt, he spluttered and batted at it with his hands...which didn't help at all. He scrabbled forward onto his hands and knees just able to resist the bubbling stream and barely pulling himself upright as he waited for the foam jet to redirect to someone else as soon as it did he thought himself in the clear and leapt onto the bridge. [i]Agile, quick as a flash...if only[/i] Crash's tactic for this obstacle was to crawl along it on his hands and knees, at a ridiculous speed. Like a turbo fueled baby, he luckily still had his bunny ears on...he had to remember to thank her for the ribbon, she'd been right...He hoped keeping low would keep him out of the line of the canons as he neared the end of the obstacle, he was aware Carmen was the one who had hit him in the first place. 

His world dropped...his ears drooped, tail not even wagging... on the piece of paper it says... [b] Ocean water [/b] ...."Water..." ...."water..." "WATER??!! FUCK THAT GODDAM SHIT!!" He threw the paper on the floor and started to crush it, like a little bug. "NO FUCK THAT SHIT!! OF ALL THE THINGS OCEAN WATER!!? WHO IN THE HELL WROTE THIS?!" He screamed out as his rage was filling him. It was easy to get a feather or a shell but ocean water... 'Who the hell thought of that!!?' It was an easy task to get but one thing though... water. He hissed loudly and wanted to kill something quick. His fangs were even showing but even though he was showing anger and rage he was still very afraid... He looked at the ocean... all he can see was a trap of endless suffering... but one thing he had to do was to win... once he plays a game or a competition he has to win... no matter what. Seven took a deep breath, picked up the paper and charge for the ocean, of course his eyes closed and fear racing after him. As soon enough he was getting lazy and droop down until reaching the shore. His split cat tail was like a dog between his legs and he was shivering. 

" I can't do this..." He droop down on the sand and grumbled like he gave up to easily. He looked at ocean and gave a pathetic mewl of defeat... " I hate you..." But then the ocean decided to help him in his little treasure hunt... A GIGANTIC wave came by and like it was smiling sarcastically crushed the sad little bakeneko where he was at. "...Fuck...my....life..." Were his final words until getting smashed by the huge wave. Seven was super lucky to survive oddly but he was drenched in ocean sea water. 

Kathy had been busy aiming at quite a few people with the balloons at the slipper slope, so she was a little late in getting to the cannons near the bridge. Luckily for her, she seemed to have made it in time for the main target she was after anyway. Letting Crash go (figuring he probably had enough of a handicap compared to most people with his usual clumsiness), she aimed the cannon at Ara's legs and waved at him with a smile on her face. She wasn't [i]always[/i] all that nice to everyone, and a bit of innocent fun like this seemed like just the right way to get back at someone.

Unfortunately for Ara, someone seemed quite happy to aim the foam cannon at him. "Wagh!" Letting out an odd yell in surprise as the foam suddenly clipped him right in the face, he stumbled around for a bit before he pushed the foam away from his eyes and looked around. Carmen. Figures. Dress him up in the worst outfit for the competition, then aim the cannon at him. He yelled over to the sidelines, "I have good memory! I'm going to take revenge on you hat-loving Carmen!!" After giving her a cheeky wave, he continued on along the bridge... Only to be hit by another jet of foam, this one aimed almost strategically at his legs. Tripping down to his knee, he quickly snapped himself out of it and got back up. He looked again at the side lines to see a girl with rusty red hair waving at him with a friendly smile. He rolled his eyes. Yeah, he probably should've seen that one coming too.

Alistair smiled "i need to find as feather" he pulled out the paper to show her, with a grin he asked "would you mind if i used you?" he wasn't aware that that could be taken horribly wrong either.

!KATHEH!" he shouted as he approached her. Darin had only met her once.....and that was during the battle. "I need you for the hunt!" He laughed and jumped up and down. "Come with? I promise to not hurt you...." He chuckled and held out his hand. "I need to turn you blue....like a smurf or something even cuter!"

One of Ryuu's ears grew larger, as Ara, someone he really wanted to punch in the face for not cooperating properly, shouted, "I have good memory! I'm going to take revenge on you, hat-loving [b][u]Carmen!![/u][/b]"

The otaku immediately thought to himself,

[i][B]IT MUST BE A GIRL?!!?!?!!!!?!?!?! ZOMG, THIS MIGHT BE EASY-[/b][/i]

...

...

[i]...Waaaaaait a second. If I recall correctly, she's that one girl with the trumpet, right? That... trump-girl. Yeah. Still, uh... I don't really know her that much, but I don't really have much of a choice right now, either.[/i]

Ryuu suddenly jerked his head toward Carmen, his eyes flashing like a freaky monster from [i]Cloverfield[/i]- or whatever that thing was called, anyway. The student wearing sunglasses charged toward her, ignoring everything that attempted to distract him for some mean reason. It took him a while to run, but nevertheless, he finally stopped in front of the woman. Thankfully enough, his eyes stopped shining like crazy, though he was panting heavily. Reaching out for the girl, the otaku seethed,

"[b]FORGIVE ME, RANDOM CITIZEN!!![/b]"

With that said, Ryuu grabbed Carmen, roughly putting her in a bridal carry, before beginning to make his way back. The otaku had his paper underneath one of his hands, which did not fall off thanks to Carmen's body.

" Why..." Seven moaned and shivered as he was drenched in cold ocean water from the gigantic wave that hit him. He tried to shake it off, licking even his skin like a cat trying to dry himself. "I have to be dry..." He grumbled out as he tried to dry him self off. But he realized something... ocean water... he has ocean water now well... with him now... He smirked even though he hated what happen to him... " I better get something good out of this..." He grumbled out as he ran back to where the tables were at, still twitching and shivering from the cold water. He was sneezing, hissing and complaining how he hated water but he was so close to winning and maybe after that he can dry himself at the sun. Seven finally reached the table but of course being a sour little kitty cat. " There ocean water!" He shouted as slammed a piece of soggy white paper on the table and he instantly tried to dry himself with his tongue.

Little Feather tilted her head to the side, looking at the piece of paper he showed her. She lifted a hand to her hair reaching for the feather braided into her hair, unsure of how she was supposed to give it to him. Lion's ears pricked up at Alistair's words apparently hearing something entirely different he grumbled loudly though this time not forming any words. "Oh..erm of course, where would you like me?" She asked patting Lion's head and moving over to Alistair so he could take her with him. 

Crash stumbled towards the item table grabbing a piece of paper, and peering at it, his expression was barely visible through the gloop on his face. Foam was spewing forth from his sock cleavage and clinging to his hair and side as well. [i]Heels?! Are you kidding me?[/i] He spun on the spot looking around wracking his brain for an answer, who would wear heels on a beach...[i]Liightbulb![/i] He pushed off into a run bee-lining for the nearest chest and rummaging through it like a possessed lunatic clothes and accessories flying everywhere until he reappeared with one black stiletto and a completely different pink heeled shoe, not giving a rats ass he leaned on the edge of the chest jamming his feet into them, he went to step forward end up doing a chicken impression as he wobbled dangerously arms flailing he tried to take a step forward though this action provoked a 'bambi on ice' response as his ankles twisted in ways they were not supposed to. "How do they do this?!" He complained, falling forward onto his hands, though this gave him an idea. Holding the paper in his mouth and with a grunt of exertion he flicked his legs up into the air above him so he was doing a handstand, the next step was walking on his hands which was stupidly difficult on the soft ground, he was lucky he only had a short way to go, he walked his way across the line at record speed, falling onto the ground in a crumpled heap the other side he exhaled now covered in sand as well as paint, he held his piece of paper in one hand as he attempted to wipe himself down but only really succeeded in smearing all the colors together. 

Finally free of obstructing foam being fired at him, Ara just ran across the rickety bridge and to the item tables. By now the only 'white' left on him was some of the foam still clinging to the side of his face and legs. He wedding dress he wore was dyed in an array of colours and didn't really resemble the formal attire it had original started out as anymore. Grabbing a piece of paper, he raised his brow slightly. [i]'Guess it is something fairly easy to find at a beach.'[/i] He thought. Now an interesting option would've been to grab one of the girls waiting at the sidelines because most of them were in swimwear, but there was an easier option.

Running to the chests from before, he rummaged around for some. He noticed that Crash was also doing the same, which made him curious to know just what the red-haired guy saw on the piece of paper. But getting back to his own task at hand, he found a pair of pink bikinis in the chest. [i]'... Thank goodness Carmen didn't decide to give me this one.'[/i] Breathing out a sigh of relief, he grabbed onto the swimwear in the same hand he held the crumpled piece of paper and began running for the finish line.

Carmen was having a grand old time blasting the poor competitors with foam, and all was well. What she did not expect in the slightest was for one of the competitors - one that she had never met - to come running towards her, but as she glanced to her right that's what she saw - the burly tall guy from the dodgeball match running at her with a fetching pink ensemble partially covered in paint. She completely turned to face him in surprise as he ran, and had half a mind to turn the entire cannon towards him as well, but was more curious than anything. As he got closer, and stopped in front of her, Carmen did nothing except raise one eyebrow as usual. When the man made an outburst that sort of...but only somewhat...explained his intentions, Carmen knew that something more was afoot, and soon found herself in the hands of the guy, like a groom holding a bride, and heading down towards the end of the course. In a weird juxtaposition of moods, she didn't even raise her voice in reaction. She let herself fall completely limp in full damsel-in-distress fashion and looked up at the man's face, asking simply and with a hint of playfulness: "I take it this is part of the competition then? Are you pleased with your prize?" With a slight smile she let her head go limp again.