EXTREME ENDURANCE: Alpine Challenge!

[Trey Fitty]

"Good evening ladies and gentlemen. This is reporter Alison Scott coming to you live from the Alps on the first day of the Alpine Challenge, sponsored by Extreme Endurance Energy Bars, and it looks like our contestants are almost ready! They're being given some last minute advice from the Challenge Marshall and their own coaches. It looks like the Marshall is giving them each a walkie talkie though, John, can you get us some news on the walkie talkies?"

"Folks, the Alpine Challenge is extremely gruelling, and also very dangerous, so the Marshal is handing out panic buttons. Should the contestants be unable to continue, but still be alive, they are allowed to push this button and a chopper will bring them safely out of the contest. Back to you Alison>"

"Thanks John. Yes indeed, the Challenge is very dangerous, the contestants in fact have full immunity from the law while competing, and will stop at nothing. In fact last year, in the Desert Challenge, half the contestants were killed by one man, Manson, who is in fact in this years opposition force.
And speaking of the opposition force, there goes their chopper now, taking them to the first checkpoint, where they will prepare their offensive on the challengers. John, can you give us some info on the opposition?"

"The Opposition Force is a group of previous winners who attempt to stop the challengers from reaching the final summit. They are not allowed to permanently maim anyone until the second last checkpoint, and not allowed to kill anyone until after the last. Thanks Alison."

"Thank you John. Well, it looks like they're ready to go, on their way to the first checkpoint, just over the next two mountains, and on their way to the final summit for the ultimate prize- A lifetime sponsorship from Extreme Endurance Energy Bars, as well as thier hearts' single greatest desire, so long as it can be provided by Extreme Endurance.
The expected average time to the first checkpoint is two days. We'll keep you posted. This is Alison Scott, goodnight."

 

[PmTick]

Semicolon and ! examined the panic button. "Look at it ! it's so bright and threating yet, beautiful." "Yes brother perhaps we shall use it as a hood ornament?" "Yes perhaps." Semicolon saw a news van not too far from his location, "Let me begin spreading our fame dear brother."

Semicolon apporached the van with a can of black spray paint. He began spraying a giant ";" on the side of the van. "It is beautiful, let us get ready for the race!"

Not too far away from the brothers, Leo DaVinci sipped the last of his expresso from a small cup. "When are we going to get this started? I've had twelve expressos and a Red Bull!! I'm pumped to start!!!"

 

[Dark Warrior]

Troy

Troy sat alone, going over his equipment. Having done it three times already, he was sure that he had everything.
Assuming he did, he looked around at the other competitors. They were all so... how to put it?... weird. He seemed to be the only half-normal one of the lot. He stood up, ready to face the challenge. His skis were strapped to his back, and the poles by his side. His bereta rested in its holster, strapped across his waist, and his combat knife hung from his belt. He breathed in the air, smiling.
"It's a good day to die." he decided, saying it under his breath, and started towards the place where the competitors were to meet before the start.

 

[poohlive]

Baer kneeled down in the snow, tightening the bolt against the bike contraption. He looked over the equipment once more, checking everything from food and water to extra clips of bullets.
"Hmmm," he held up a banana, "Nibbles?"
Craig strolled back from one of the judges, nodding his head furiously, "They said it was ok, if we could pull it off."
Baer shook his head, "If only we could pull it off. Oh well, the race is about to start, eh?"
"Yes, just a few more announcements, you know to make it all dramatic and shit."
Craig went over his own stuff, leafing through clothes and other supplies.
"Hey, where's Nibbles?"
"I was just trying to find him myself, he's not here."
Nibbles came running back up to them. A small chimp, who was bundled up from the snow. He looked like a crawling bundle of clothes. It jumped, landing in Craig's arms.
"Well, hey, there you are."
There was something in his gloved hand, a wrench.
"Oh no, he's started already."
Baer took a look at the direction he had come in. No other teams that way, just the group of helicopters that had brought them up there.
"Uh oh. Looks like someone's in for a rought ride back down the mountain, eh?"
Laughing, they set Nibbles up in his small side seat. He was contempt to stay there, at least for a while. No one told him it would be this cold. Both being from Canada, the two men were well adapted. In truth, they both had only t shirts and pants on.
The poor monkey was from Africa though. They had trained him for this competition in every aspect, except for the coldness.
The little clothing devil shook tremendously.
"Here you are," Baer handed him a banana.
"So, when are we starting again, eh?"
"Within the hour, just rest yourself. They'll get this under way soon enough."

 

[Lady_Siren]

Eve brushed her blond hair out of her eyes and she checked her equipment one last time. Everything seemed to be in order, she surveyed the other challengers. They all looked ok except for the two with the walking bundle of clothes. What the hell was that thing, she squinted trying to see but finally gave up. Grabbing her equipment Eve felt confident she could get through this. She was the adventurous type of girl. Always doing crazy and wild things, bungee jumping, parachuting and many others. Now this took the cake for crazy but hell what good was life unless your living it to the fullest. Taking a deep breath of mountain air Eve headed over to where the contestants were supposed to meet.

 

[Trey Fitty]

OOC: Lady_Siren, welcome to the challenge! Glad you got in before we started the race. Could you take a look at the casting call and post Eve (and her equipment) in there plz?
Thanx.

 

[Trey Fitty]

Alison: Well, it looks like things are getting well under way here on Mt. Haven, the starting point for the Alpine Challenge. Any time now the contestants will be starting the gruelling race to the first checkpoint on Atmos Mountain.

John: That's right. Atmos Mountain is so named due to it's overwhelming height. This is, in fact, the tallest mountain in the entire White Mountains Range. Atmos is just two summits South of Mt. Haven, the most direct route comprising of a steep slope down Mt. Haven into the treeline, up to a cliff on Mt. Crag, then from above the cliff a wide circle around the Crag summit and down to the Crag River. Over the river There is a long, medium gradient incline up to the checkpoint on Atmos. At this point the competitors will have really noticed there are no chairlifts.

Alison: Yes. And of course, there are easier but less direct routes to take. Only time will tell which path will be favoured in this challenge. But hang on a second, It looks as if someone is approaching the Marshall. Could this be another competitor?

 

[PmTick]

! laughed in anticipation, "The Atmos mountain range will be the perfect spot for our first tag, don't you think so ;?" "Of course my dear brother but we have to concentrate on hitting the checkpoint first." ! turned his attention to a light wooden contraption on the otherside of the starting line. "Dear brother look at that fossil!" "Do you mean the hideous vehical or the driver, red bull is so last year you kitch interior designer!" The two brothers laughed hysterically as Leo Davinci turned around.

"Was that supposed to be a joke tweedle-dee and tweedle- dummer? My great great grandfather's artwork will not only blast your piece of garbage away but his work was a lot better to." ; stood up, "Yes I suppose in the seventeen hundreds." The two brothers began to laugh again. Suddenly a splash of blue paint appeared on their vehical, ! was speechles but that didn't stop ; "My god dear brother look at this! How did this happen?" Leo waved his paintball gun at them, "Next time it's your ass!" Finally ! broke his silence, "My it's perfect!!! This is some of our finest work ever."

 

[Khadgar]

Hendel

Hendel looked up at the mountain and smiled. he adjusted his horn across his back and shouldered his pack, might as well get to camp he thought. Re-wraping the rope around his hand he started trudging up, carrying his skiis.

 

[Trey Fitty]

MARSHALL: Hendel, you only just made it. Get to your place!

Here we go...

Challengers, take your places!

Challengers ready...Challengers set... Challengers GO!!!

 

[poohlive]

Well, come on then, eh?"
Craig pushed his bicycle sled contraption until it had gathered some momentum, and then got on. Baer did the same for his invention. Off they were, barring down the gentle slope that was Mount Haven.
"Hurry up now, we've got no time for doddling."
Nibbles was now cowering in his little seat, afraid to even poke his head out. The banana, long since eaten, was trying to come back up. He wouldn't let it though.
Craig used his contraption like a scooter, occasionally putting his foot down to give him more momentum than the downward slop. Baer was pedalling fast though, and the small fan of snow behind him was almost comical if it weren't for the fact that he was gaining tremendous speed from it.
The race had begun.

 

[PmTick]

! and ; started to pedal, ; having never really exerted himself physically was soon panting. "I say dear brother ! instead of working harder, why don't we work smarter?" "What do you mean brother." ; caught a glimpse of Mr. Da Vinci bouncing up and down the hill. He reached into his pocket and pulled out what he like to call an onion special. "Ha ha, I say I think I'll use the yellow one first." "Good choice brother."

Vincent was pedaling away and working up quite a sweat. His legs seemed to move like an engine, having ingested all that caffeine. He took a deep breathe, inhaling the cool mountain air when suddenly he heard a glass shatter. The smell of onion and sulfter filled the air, causing him to hack and caugh. He gradually lost speed, having to take a break to compose himself. "Ha ha ha, how you like that one DaVinic?" "Fuckin ass!! I smell worse than rotten olive oil!!"

 

[Khadgar]

Hendel pulled his skii's along as he half assed jogged across the first climb untill it fell into a slight down. pulling on his skii's he was soon flying at a good speed down the hill and comming up over climbs with some difficulty. going by trees and frozen ponds.

Hendel's nose wrinkled "hokey stink wha the hell is that?!" there was an awful onion and burnt match-heads smell in the air.

"ugh, just keep going, the air will clear"

 

[Trey Fitty]

Several kilometres down from the starting point, too faint to be heard by the competitors, a beep rang out. For a few seconds nothing happened...
And then the landscape exploded, a flurry of snow rising a hundred metres into the air half a kilometre across the slope. Then the snow began to shift, sliding down at a breakneck pace toward the treeline, the noise rising to a defening crescendo of the mountain's soul. Then it hit the treeline, a megaton of snow crushing the tallest pines to the ground as if they were matchsticks.
When the terrible noise and most of the movement had ceased there was a new landscape barely visible through the mist of snowflakes resettling. Where the treeline had begun was now a terrible carnage of white, brown and green, mangled logs and treetrunks occasionally breaking the surface of the snow, before the gradient of the slope began to rise up again, supported by its own weight, above the treetops. Beyond the new wall of snow the forest continued down to the base of the cliff that was the foot of Mt. Crag.

From the top of the cliff Athena smiled. One little trick managed. That would at least slow down the opposition force time to prepare a welcome reception...
She turned away, thrusting a remote detonator into her pocket and spoke into a microphone on her lapel:
"Phase one complete. Lets get our little web ready, shall we spiders?"
An Austrailian accent answered- "Right you are 'Thena. Time to grab a couple trophies. Who feels like monkey-brain soup tonight?"
"Save it for the last stage, hotshot. Over & out."

 

[poohlive]

"Isn't that cheating?" Baer grimaced, seeing the sight ahead.
"This isn't exactly baseball, there are no rules."
"Yeah, but they couldn't have set that up unless they weren't at the starting line to being with, and..."
Craig gave him a hard stare, "Take it up with the judges att he end, for now we've got a river to find, besides, it won't slow us down that much anyway."
They had decided a while ago not to take the shortest route, but the easist, just to follow Crag river all they way up to Atmos. It would take them an extra hour, but considering the alternative, they looked like they would be perfect on time.
That, and it was a slow descent until the river, and then a slow ascent as well. Turning hard to the right as soon as the treeline there cleared up, Craig, Baer, and Mr. Nibbles were on their way to victory.

 

[PmTick]

! and ; heard a loud boom and screamed as the snow engulfed both of them. DaVinci, on the other hand, managed to get a breath of freshair and proceeded to speed up, just in time to see the snow engulf ! and ;.

He glided past them and noticed Athena on the mt. He fired a couple of shots toward her. A couple of them hit the sides of the snow bank but he didn't see the third one. Did it hit her? He wouldn't know until after the race.

 

[Trey Fitty]

"Hello and welcome to the Midday Sports Review. I'm your host, Greg McIntosh. First up is a our coverage of the long awaited Alpine Challenge, which just kicked off earlier. An avalanche has been unleashed by one of The Opposition Force, Athena. She seems to have dropped a number of remote explosives onto a large snowdrift from a helicopter, which she detonated not so long ago. As you can see in our footage, the avalanche has created a huge wall of snow down the mountain, resting at the new edge of the trees. A very cunning ploy to slow down the competitors, however it may prove to be her demise from all Extreme Endurance Challenges, including this one. We'll just zoom in a little... there. Two eccentric brothers calling themselves ; and !, have been engulfed in snow. As yet it is unclear if they survived. According to the tournament rules, should they be permanently injured or dead, Athena will be expelled from the Opposition Force and banned from all futre challenges. The Force is NOT allowed to maim or kill any challengers until the final two stages of the race. The Judges are still discussing this matter.
Athena also managed to escape shots fired by Leo Davinci, The challenger descended from the great Rennaisance genius himself.
We'll keep you posted on this story folks. And now to basketball...

 

[Trey Fitty]

OOC: Hey, what's up? no one playing anymore?

Oh yeah, and *bump*

 

[PmTick]

OOC: How do we figure out who will win the race?

 

[Khadgar]

Hendel

Hendel watched an ocean of snoe racing at him. his mind in a blur he skiied as fast as he could towards a small rocky outcropping. the snow flew out above him, his heart pounding as the white fluffy blanket whipped bits of tree down at him. he tasted blood. when the roaring in his ears stopped, he began stabbing at the snow above, caefully trying not to have it cave in on himself. after several minutes, he camne through to sunlight, and with that, he was off again, tredging up the hill. "thats it world, the next bastard you send at me is going down!"

 

[Trey Fitty]

OOC: We'll figure something out at the last checkpoint.

 

[PmTick]

Davinci realized he missed the girl but his eyes pointed to a new target. He aimed the paintball gun at Hendel, this time he was sure he woudln't miss. He fired two oranged colored balls at Hendel, this would surley clinch the lead for him.

Meanwhile ! and ; arose from the snow. "That was quite unexpected!" The pair proceeded to race through the hills, "Dear brother I do think we are in first?" "I'm not so sure brother. It's hard to tell with the avalanche and all."

 

[Khadgar]

OOC: uh, what happens if i'm hit with a paintball?

 

[PmTick]

OOC: Ummm you get dirty....maybe it smarts a little....could get in your eye if your not wearing goggles I suppose...

 

[poohlive]

Craig would stop from time to time, shooting at the larger trees. Since they had been on the river, which was no more than a huge block of ice, travel had been very smooth.
Of course, that's just because they were still going downhill. They could see where the V came up, and they would be going up, on ice.
Never a good thing.
Just in case anyone wanted to follow, they would have a dozen or so huge trees in their way. Except for that flying contraption, they would have to go around.
Baer growled at him, "Hurry up."
The tree arched dangerously to the side, Craig got on the snowbike and skidded downhill. The crash seemed to rumble in the valley they now travelled.
"Nibbles is freezing his tail off."
"Get him another banana, once we get up to the first checkpoint, we'll build a huge fire for him. Then, he can do his business."
Now, the fun began, as they pedaled ever harder up the mountain towards the first checkpoint.