"Welcome back to The Ridonculous Race," Don welcomed as the cameras focused on him, "I'm at Adelaide Airport in Adelaide, Australia, where the teams from flight one will soon arrive and find their next clue. But in the meantime, let's take a look at the teams on flight three, who will be handicapped by the fact that they'll arrive a full hour before the teams on flight one."

--------

The cameras turned their attention to the inside of the third plane, in which were the Rappers, Trivia Teammates, Same Namers, Chef-Coworkers, Asian Grocers, and the Hockey Teammates. All of them felt the pressure to perform well, knowing that they'd be arriving well-after the other teams. However, some decided to use the extra time to socialize the best that they could with other teams.

"What've y'all been up to for the past few months?" Aaron asked to the Same Namers, "It's been a while since we've talked."

"True that," Ellie agreed, "It's been pretty good, I guess."

"How's Wesley?" Aaron asked.

"He's good; but him and I broke up like....six months ago," Ellie revealed.

~~~~~~~~

"Wesley is Ellie's ex-boyfriend. They were best friends before they started dating."- Cassie

"But after a year, we kinda got awkward around each other, since we've known each other for so long. And we started to hate each other a little bit, so we broke up. It was mutual, though."- Ellie

~~~~~~~~

"I'm sorry to hear that," Aaron replied.

"It's alright, him and I are still friends, but at least him and I know that we can't be in a relationship," Ellie noted.

"What about you, Aaron?" Cassie asked out of curiosity, "Any success in your love life?"

"I've got nothing," Aaron admitted, "I kinda got discouraged after Total Drama."

"What? No girl fans running up to you asking to be your girlfriend?" Ellie joked.

"Nah," Aaron revealed, "It's fine, though. Maybe it's not my time to find a girlfriend yet."

"Well, when the time comes, I'm sure the right girl will be there for you," Ellie assured, "I promise you that."

"Alright, if you say so," Aaron agreed, "Thanks, Ellie."

"No problem," Ellie replied, smiling.

--------

"While the teams on flight three wait for the plane to land, the teams from flight one make their way to the State Library of South Australia, where the Don Box is waiting for them."- Don

"C'mon!" Daniel ushered as he ran over to the Don Box and hit the button, "It's an All-In!"

"It says 'It's In The News'," Aiden read, having picked up his Travel Tip, "Huh?"

"For this All-In, teams will have to search the library for a specific news article, based solely on the headline. Each team gets a different headline, which is printed on their Travel Tips. We don't care how you do it, as long as you find the right one. Once they find the right article, they must show it to this local librarian, who will give them their next tip." *stands next to librarian*- Don

With that, the teams sprinted into the library, racing to find their newspaper articles. As soon as they walked past the lobby, they were all caught off guard by the lavishness of the interior. In front of them were dozens of polished, wooden bookshelves, stocked with thousands of books. As they looked up, they noticed that there were multiple floors, each with even more bookshelves, and separated by historically accurate balconies and railings.

"Anyone get a 'Harry Potter' vibe from this?" Ariana asked.

"A bit," Aiden agreed before grabbing his sister's wrist, "But let's go!"

~~~~~~~~

"We're both big fans of the Harry Potter series. Being here makes me feel like I'm in Hogwarts and I'm doing research for some sort of 'Wizard History' project."- Ariana

"I'm a Slytherin, and she's a Ravenclaw. Although, I doubt that we can play quidditch in here."- Aiden

~~~~~~~~

"What are we looking for again?" Ariana asked.

"We're looking for a newspaper article with the headline 'First Yacht Race Wows Crowd"," Aiden recalled, reading the Travel Tip.

"Is there a boat section in here?" Ariana asked, not anticipating an answer.

"Did you guys say boat section?" Olivia asked as she ran up to the Siblings with Lilliana in tow, "We're looking for it too."

"Yeah; our headline is 'HMAS Voyager and HMAS Melbourne Collide; 82 Dead'," Lilliana added.

"We're heading there too," Joesph agreed as him and Reynold joined the group, "'Royal Australian Navy engages Italian Navy' is our headline."

"I actually think that you two should start looking in the World War II section," Lilliana admitted, talking to the YouTuber Brothers.

"Now hold on, Lill; it wouldn't hurt for them to look with us," Olivia insisted.

"Ugh...whatever," Lilliana conceded, not in the mood to argue.

~~~~~~~~

"When will you let it go?"- Lilliana

"Why should I? We're friends, alliance members, and he doesn't mind being around me."- Olivia

"He's distracting you!"- Lilliana

"Calm down, sis. He hasn't wronged us yet."- Olivia

"Yet."- Lilliana

~~~~~~~~

"This way!" Reynold declared as him and Joesph ran towards a flight of stairs, prompting the other two teams to run with them.

"While the Siblings and YouTube teams race to the second floor to find their newspapers, the TD Lovers decide to stay on the first floor, where they happen to have a bit of trouble."- Don

"This library is way too f.......flippin' big," Amalia commented, self-censoring herself.

"Good job there," Daniel praised.

"Thanks," Amalia thanked, "What did our Travel Tip say?"

"It says: 'Baby Disappears From Uluru Campsite'," Daniel repeated, "I don't even know where to start."

"Hey guys..." Kaden whispered from between two bookshelves, "Follow us..."

Seeing no reason not to, the TD Lovers decided to follow the Acapella-ists, who, after walking through a few hallways, managed to bring them to a room called the 'Microfilm Room'. Daniel knew what the room was used for, and was glad that the Acapella-ists brought them there, but he couldn't help but be a little apprehensive.

"See?" Maddie asked as she showed them the computers, "This is a Microfilm Reader."

"We know," Daniel assured, "It's a machine that allows people to scroll through files and print out excerpts, including newspapers."

"This is our ticket to coming in first," Kaden assured, "C'mon; let's look for our newspapers."

"Shouldn't we be looking for the actual newspapers?" Daniel asked.

"It's practically the same thing!" Kaden assured, "C'mon! It's faster!"

"We appreciate the offer, but we're not taking that chance," Amalia declared as she pulled Daniel away from the Acapella-ists.

~~~~~~~~

"It's not that we don't trust them; it's just that we can't risk getting a penalty when we can easily avoid it."- Amalia

"One penalty can send you from first place to last. You saw the Vegans from season 1; it's possible."- Daniel

"Hopefully the Acapella-ists understand."- Amalia

~~~~~~~~

"Why would they not want our help? We're in an alliance!"- Kaden

"Maybe it's the Total Drama paranoia setting in. But we can't focus on them right now; if they don't want our help, that's fine. We'll just focus on us."- Maddie

~~~~~~~~

"Hey!" Hitoshi shouted as him and Sasha ran into the room.

"Wait, how did you guys get here so fast?" Kaden asked, "Weren't you on the second flight?"

"We took a train," Sasha explained, "We got here so much faster than everyone else on our flight."

"What's this?" Hitoshi asked, pointing to the microfilm.

"It's a machine that allows us to find our article in the library's database and print it out," Maddie explained.

"Is that allowed?" Hitoshi asked.

"It's fast, and that's what matters," Sasha declared as she ran to the computer, "Let's see: 'Sydney Opera House Opens'..."

"But that's not the point!" Hitoshi insisted, "We're supposed to find our newspaper in the library, not in a database."

"The database is in the library," Sasha noted, "And the clue said, 'We don't care how you do it, as long as you find the right one'. To me, that sounds like we can do whatever the f**k we want."

"Sasha can be a bit passionate about competition. She's always been willing to go in guns blazing and trying to take down the others from the start, which isn't how I like to play. But I guess I'm not in the right place to stop her."- Hitoshi

--------

"While the Acapella-ists and Poker Players look towards printing their newspapers, the other teams from flight two split up and attempt to search for their newspapers the old-fashioned way."- Don

"Any ideas?" Julianna asked to Emmie.

"Nope, none at all," Emmie admitted.

~~~~~~~~

"For two people who love to write, we don't actually read the news very often. Unless it's for a school assignment or something like that."- Emmie

"That's right." *reads book*- Julianna

"Although, we do spend a fair amount of time in libraries, although I can't remember the last time that we were in a research-oriented library."- Emmie

~~~~~~~~

"Well, our headline is 'PM Harold Holt Disappears After Swimming at Cheviot Beach', so maybe we should look in the Prime Minster section," Emmie suggested.

"Did I just hear "Prime Minister'?" Isabella asked as her and Melanie ran up to the two writers, "We're looking for the headline: 'John McEwen Sworn in as New Prime Minister'."

"What're the odds that our newspapers are literally a day apart?" Julianna asked, not expecting anyone to answer.

"I'd bet money on it," Emmie admitted, "C'mon! Let's go!"

"Lead the way, girls," Isabella allowed, resulting in the moms following the writers around the library.

~~~~~~~~

"We've been looking for an alliance, but there's always the fear that the team we align with will eventually betray us."- Isabella

"But the Online Writers...I don't think that they're evil-minded. They could be our first true allies."- Melanie

~~~~~~~~

"Hey, may we ask you two something?" Isabella asked.

"Go ahead; we don't mind," Emmie assured as she continued to run through the library.

"How would you like for the four of us to form an alliance?" Isabella proposed.

"Um..." Julianna muttered, slightly caught off guard by the offer, "Well..."

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Emmie answered, with the last statement being rhetorical, "Come along."

~~~~~~~~

"Are you sure that this is a good idea?"- Julianna

"Everyone else is doing it; we don't want to be the only ones alone."- Emmie

"No, I get that we needed an alliance, but why the moms? They don't look like they have any exceptional talents."- Julianna

"They're moms; I don't think they're gonna stab us in the back. They might just treat us like we're their children."- Emmie

"Yippee...." *goes back to reading book*- Julianna

~~~~~~~~

--------

"While the Online Writers plan to use an alliance to further their game, the Freerunners are planning to use something else to get ahead."- Don

"EXCUSE ME!!!!" Ariton screamed, causing his voice to echo in the open room, "DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE-"

Before Ariton could finish his question, Kailer shoved Ariton against a shelf and covered his mouth with his right hand. Even though it was clearly too late, Kailer wanted to stop his partner from getting them in any trouble. But before Kailer could scold Ariton, a serious-faced woman in her early-twenties began walking towards them. She wore a brown skirt with a yellow, buttoned shirt; she simply looked like she worked at the library. This was confirmed when she started speaking to them.

"Gentlemen, we're going to need you to quiet down; you're disturbing the other...." the woman began before suddenly stopping, having taken the time to look at the two men, "Y-y-y-y-you're.....Kailer Vierra..."

"Uh...yes! Yes I am," Kailer confirmed as he stepped towards the worker, "What's your name?"

"My n-name is An-Anya," Anya admitted as she slowly began fangirling, "I'm a h-huge fan! Why are you here?"

"Thanks! I'm here for a.....competition," Kailer thanked, not wanting to give away any information about the race, "Where do you know me from? Dance Moms? AUDC?"

"I've watched you since AUDC," Anya answered as she pulled out her phone, "Can I take a selfie with you?"

"Yes you can!" Ariton interrupted as he stepped in front of Kailer, "In fact, this could be good for all of us. We need a newspaper from 1965 about Indigenous Australians voting in Queensland: if you can find that for us, Kailer will kiss you in your selfie."

Without hesitating, Anya nodded in agreement and ran off to obtain the newspaper, leaving the Freerunners to reflect on what just happened. While Ariton was happy about it, Kailer was shocked, and almost disgusted by what his partner did.

~~~~~~~~

"I still can't believe you did that!"- Kailer

"Chill out, it wasn't that bad." *faces camera* "If you don't know, Kailer is upset that he's famous."- Ariton

"I'm not upset that I'm famous, but I don't want people to treat me differently because of my fame."- Kailer

"Dude, we're never going to get the chance to do this ever again; we have to use your clout to our advantage!"- Ariton

*covers face and groans*- Kailer

~~~~~~~~

"Here it is!" Anya declared as she handed Ariton the newspaper whilst pulling out her phone, "Please?"

"Alright..." Kailer agreed, doing his best to smile, "I'll kiss you on the cheek, but nothing more."

"Yay!" Anya cheered as she raised her phone and allowed Kailer to kiss her while she snapped a picture, "Thank you so much!"

"It was my pleasure," Kailer assured before turning to face Ariton, "C'mon!"

--------

"Having used Kailer's clout to their advantage, the Freerunners head straight to the librarian to grab their next tip, joining the Poker Players, the Acapella-ists, the YouTuber Brothers, the YouTuber Sisters, the Faraway Friends, and the TD Lovers in a race to the next Don Box."- Don

"Thank you, Sheila," Nathan thanked as he received the Travel Tip from the librarian.

"You're welcome," the librarian replied with a happy expression.

"You know her?" Hailey asked as Nathan read the tip.

"No; that's just some Aussie slang for ya'," Nathan explained, "We need to get to the Adelaide Oval."

"The Adelaide Oval is a sports arena located in the parklands. It's commonly used for soccer, rugby, and tennis, but is most known for housing cricket matches. The teams must take a taxi to the arena, where they will find the Don Box that will give them their next Travel Tip."- Don

"Let's go!" Olivia insisted as her and Lilliana exited the library, shortly followed by the other six teams, "We need a taxi!"

"There's one!" Lilliana pointed out as she began waving her hands in the air, "Taxi!"

"Actually, I think there's a bunch of them," Joesph noted, "One...two...three....four....four of them!"

The seven waiting teams felt lucky that there were several taxis ready to serve them. But it was no coincidence that they were there; once the taxis pulled up to the library, the six teams from flight three jumped out and raced into the building. Without any time to socialize, the seven exiting teams took their places in the taxis: the TD Lovers & the Freerunners traveled together, the YouTuber Brothers & the YouTuber Sisters traveled together, the Acapella-ists and the Poker Players traveled together, and the Faraway Friends had the fourth cab to themselves. This left twelve teams remaining at the library.

"Gotta get the clue!" Vincent exclaimed as he obtained a Travel Tip from the Don Box, "We have to find a newspaper article about Australia's first liver transplant."

"How in the hell are we supposed to find newspapers in this big-a** library?" Jessalynn commented, "Seriously."

"Excuse me..." Isabella requested as her, Melanie, Emmie, and Julianna stepped past them, Travel Tips in hand, "Coming through..."

"Hey!" Za-Wink called out, "How do we find the newspapers?"

"It's easy!" Emmie claimed, "Just find the newspaper section!"

"What?" Melanie remarked, "There wasn't-"

"Just go with it..." Julianna insisted, interrupting Melanie in the process.

~~~~~~~~

"There wasn't a newspaper section; but they don't have to know that. The longer that they take to find their newspaper, the better it is for us."- Emmie

"I mean, it sucks that we have to lie to them, but we need all the help that we can get."- Julianna

~~~~~~~~

"Just to be clear: we didn't want to lie to the others; that was all Emmie and Julianna."- Melanie

"I don't see why they lied; and Julianna was really eager to do it."- Isabella

"We can talk to them about it after the leg."- Melanie

~~~~~~~~

With the Cheerful Moms and the Online Writers done with their All-Ins, the six last-place teams ran into the library to start their All-Ins. Most of them broke off onto pacts; the Hockey Teammates, the Same Namers, and the Trivia Teammates ran up the polished, wooden stairs, while the Chef-Co-Workers & Asian Grocers ran straight into the main area, hoping to find some sort of directory. The Rappers were the only duo without a group; with their alliance members already gone, they were left alone.

"Now what?" The Core asked, visibly confused, "Where do we start?"

"Beats me," Za-Wink admitted before taking a hit from his vape, "Maybe we should ask the Poker Players for help."

"They ain't here; there's no way," The Core claimed as the Siblings ran past them, towards the entrance, "Hey!"

"Yes?" Aiden asked as him and Ariana turned around.

"Have you seen a Russian chick with pink hair around here somewhere?" The Core asked.

"Sasha? Her and her partner left a while ago, I think," Aiden admitted, "Sorry."

"C'mon bro!" Ariana insisted as she grabbed Aiden by the shirt collar and pulled him towards a nearby cab, "Taxi!"

~~~~~~~~

"Look, I get that it's a competition, but we had enough time to help them out."- Aiden

"We don't have time to waste on last place teams; we fell far back ourselves. I think we were in......tenth, at that point. We couldn't afford to slide back any further."- Ariana

"But what about alliances? They could be good allies."- Aiden

"They're in last place for a reason; we don't need them dragging us down with them. But for people like Daniel & Amalia, they can survive without help, which makes them capable allies."- Ariana

"Fair enough, I guess."- Aiden

~~~~~~~~

"With over half of the remaining teams on their way to Adelaide Oval, the teams still at the library are racing to find their newspaper articles and stay out of last place."- Don

*Shows shots of Courtney furiously looking through stacks of newspapers, of Betty accidentally dropping a textbook onto Tristan's left foot, of Travis urgently pushing Matthew through the library, and of the Rappers & Asian Grocers running into each other*

"Watch where you're going!" The Core insisted as she got up from the ground.

"Sorry!" Jason apologized as Robin helped him to his feet, "We're in a bit of a rush."

"Join the club!" Za-Wink offered rhetorically as him and The Core stormed off in anger.

~~~~~~~~

"It's the truth! We're rushing!"- Jason

"After almost being eliminated last episode, we realized that we needed to step up our game if we're going to have any chance at winning."- Robin

"But we also know that we have to talk to the other teams, maybe even make an alliance. If we can find a team who'll have our backs, we'll be in a good spot."- Jason

~~~~~~~~

"While the Asian Grocers are looking for an alliance, three of the other last-place teams are trying to work together to find their newspapers."- Don

*Shows shot of the Trivia Teammates, the Same Namers, and the Hockey Teammates standing by a computer*

"Honestly guys, I think it'd be faster if we just split up," Aaron insisted.

"No guys, I know what I'm doing," Vincent assured as he continued scrolling through the library's website on a computer.

"There's probably thousands of books here!" Darren noted as he looked around at his surroundings, "We're wasting time standing here, aren't we?"

"This library is divided into sections," Vincent explained, "What do our newspaper articles have in common?"

"Um...they all deal with the 16th Summer Olympics," Ellie answered as she looked over the three teams' Travel Tips.

"Exactly; the 16th Summer Olympics were all in 1956," Vincent noted as he kept his line of sight at the computer screen, "So if I can just figure out where the newspapers from 1956 are located, we should be able to find all our articles."

"That's actually really smart!" Cassie praised.

"Don't praise him..." Jessalynn whispered.

~~~~~~~~

"I'm not totally against working with other teams; if another team is willing to throw themselves in front of a bullet to save us, that's fine. But Vincent picked the two worst teams to align with. We have the Hockey Teammates who are sure to be arrogant, and we have the Same Namers who are just followers. I saw them on Total Drama last season; neither one of them knew how to play the game well. Why couldn't he pick a team like the TD Lovers? At least we wouldn't have to worry about carrying them around." *rolls eyes*- Jessalynn

~~~~~~~~

"The Ridonculous Race seems like a show suited for us; we have to work together in challenges and we have to run all around the world; no problem."- Ellie

"But like any competition show, it's good to have an ally or two. If there's anything that we learned from Total Drama, it's that we can always use a loyal ally."- Cassie

"I knew that we had to align with Aaron & Darren; we know that Aaron is a genuine guy, so we should be able to trust them. And they're athletic, which is definitely good."- Ellie

"But we wanted to have some 'book smart' allies too. So when Vincent came up to us and pitched an alliance between the four of us, plus Aaron & Darren, we had to say yes."- Cassie

"I mean, they're trivia players; they should be smart. And as long as the six of us can get along and watch each others' backs, we all should be here for a while."- Ellie

~~~~~~~~

"It looks like the lines are being drawn in the sand between teams. Will this three-team alliance last long? Will the last-place teams ever get out of the library? And what will the teams have to do at the Adelaide Oval? Find out when we return on: The Ridonculous Race." *winks*- Don

--------

A/N: I'm still trying to figure out how I want the story to be written considering that the format is so different compared to Total Drama. If anyone out there has any advice or ideas for how it could be written, I'm always willing to listen. Either way, thanks for reading!