AMR4 - Week 3 Challenge

That certainly was an exciting finish. The sparkling robot with the hidden agenda managed to trounce the competition this week, skipping to the finish line first with the pint-sized Puck perched precariously on his shoulder. Well done, Gyrobo! Perhaps Mr. Bennett might have won if he hadn’t been Yielded by Nathan Peterelli. I suppose I’ll have to ask the Watcher.

The loser this week is West, who didn’t even cross the finish line. I’d send out a search party but I just don’t have the time. Ah well, maybe next year.

Before we get started with the instructions this week there is one piece of housekeeping I have to take care of. It seems like someone lost another mutant partner again. The Blob appeared to have some sort of sever reaction to the alien radiation, perhaps because it was mixing with the nearly toxic levels of Twinkies already present in his stomach. As his current coma-like state does not appear to be the direct fault of Jan however, there will not be a time penalty imposed at the start of this leg. But she does need a new partner. Though this is highly irregular, a mutant contestant whose team was eliminated early this season has “insisted” on returning. If I don’t let him back in the race, he has threatened to resume his genocidal campaign against human-kind. Jan – meet Magneto. Good luck.

The starting point for this leg of the race is Ice Station Zebra. At the station each team will find a work bunker fully equipped to assemble a rocket which will then be used to take the players to the Starcore space satellite. It is there that the teams will find the instructions for the Detour for this leg of the race.

A Detour presents a choice between two tasks, each with their own pros and cons. Once a task has been completed, the contestants must then race to the Pit Stop. In this Detour, the teams must choose between Talk and Walk.

In Talk, each team will be given a near light speed shuttle. It seems that the aliens whose ships crash landed at the North Pole want to know why their crafts were being disturbed by humans. The teams will meet with representatives of the aliens and make first contact, the goal being to avoid an interstellar war and the possible destruction of the Earth. In other words, you might want to try diplomacy.

In Walk, the contestants must don spacesuits and jetpacks so that they can talk a walk outside Starcore. Apparently some thick black goo has been discovered adhered to the exterior near the hatch and initial scans find that it is made of the same substance as the alien Symbiote race which Spider-Man's enemy Venom belongs to. Each team must take a sample of the goo and bring it back into a seperate self-contained quarantine area of Starcore. Once there, one of the members of the team must allow themselves to merge with the Symbiote so that we can find out what their intentions are. Each lab is equiped with high-pitched sonic stunners to render the Symbiote immobile should it prove hostile. The somic stunners haven't been properly tested yet, but the government assures me there shouldn't be any problem.


Once the tasks are completed, you will then make your way back to the command center of Starcore, the Pit Stop for this leg of the race. Good luck everyone! And remember, as I always tell my students, no one likes a loser.