Once again, the girls were woken up early by the always professional voice of Drake shouting in everyone’s room, “Rise and shine, girls! It’s time for the final midweek challenge! Head to the foyer so we can head off! That goes for all you returning assistants as well!”

~~~
Undisclosed Location

    Once again, the contestants had been blindfolded and lead to their modified bus. The ride was slightly longer than the previous one, but it’s not like they were able to tell. Just like last week, the were lead off the bus when they arrived by a group of security guards, and formed into a line. Just like last time they had traveled, Drake announced, “Alright everyone! You can take off your blindfolds!”
    The girls pulled their blindfolds off, and were greeted to a completely different site than they had been two weeks earlier. Rather than a large office building, they were standing outside of a truly massive stadium. At least, it would be a massive stadium, if it weren’t for the fact that the building was still under construction.      
    “Welcome girls, to the Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium. In just eight short years this stadium is going to be the site of the Magic Olympics, followed by the Summer Olympics a year later. But for today, its going to be the site of your final midweek challenge. Once again, we have a special guest hosting our competition for today, so I would like to welcome, the always amazing, and world record holder for 400m Air Sprint, Michelle Phillips!”
    From the sky, a woman with a truly impressive set of white wings crashed down, doing the stereotypical hero’s landing. She stood up, revealing that she was nearly just as tall as her impressive wingspan, which folded inwards, hugging her body. She took off her flight helmet, letting her long brown hair flow out as she addressed the contestants, “Hey everyone. Let’s head inside!”

    The inside of the stadium looked about just as impressive as the outside. That is to say, that with a few more years of hard work, it looked like it would be a wonderful stadium for both olympics to be held in. At the very least, it appeared as though the track component of the stadium was complete. A green field of synthetic grass about the size and shape of a football field sat in the dead center, covered on all sides by a thick red clay field. The white lines chalk lines dividing up the clay field into their various setups for competition.
    “So, today’s challenge is going to test you out in two separate ways. Today, we’re going to test how well you all work in a team environment, and how physical your teams are with these bad boys,” Michelle walked over to a blue bin that was conveniently placed nearby. Opening it up, Michelle pulled out what appeared to be two rather androgynous looking legs. The only major difference between it and a normal leg was that it had its largest toe set in the middle. “Today, each team of two will be doing one of the longest running sports in the magic olympics: The Three-legged Relay!”
    “Thanks Michelle, I can handle the explanation from here,” Drake said, as Michelle handed a leg to Jill and Saffron. “As Michelle has said, your challenge today is the Three-legged 4 x 100m Relay. Of course, since their’s only three of you on each team, we’re going to make it a 3 x 100m relay to keep it fair. It’s similar in many ways to how your standard Olympic relay race works, but rather than passing a baton around, you’ll be attaching and passing this leg. In standard racing, the professional runners have a passing point of about 2 meters to detach, pass off, and reattach the leg. Of course, since none of you are anywhere near that level, we’ve increased the acceptable range of taking off and putting on the leg to ten meters behind and in front of each runner’s starting positions.”
    “You all have an hour to change, warm up, and figure out your game plans,” Michelle smiled at them, “May the best team win!”

~~~
Practicing

    After the girls had all changed into their sports wear, (which was provided by the show. All adidas branded shorts, sports bras, and tank tops) each team split up with some extra legs to start practicing their game plans.
    “Okay, have you ever used one of these before? Maybe in a gym class or something?” Cammie asked.
    “No. The school system my parents sent me to were really strict about making sure nobody used any magic,” Jill was eyeing the third leg trying to figure out how she was supposed to attach it to her pants.
    “Okay. You’re extremely lucky that they make these things enchanted for the actual Olympics then. So, what you’re going to do is just hold it where you’d expect a third leg to go and it should attach automatically,” Cammie explained, demonstrating as she went. When she held the third leg in front of her crotch, the leg and her pants seemed to morph until it looked like she had been born with the third leg, it having shifted skin tones and length to match up to her other legs. Cammie subconsciously adjusted her stance, setting up her legs in a tripod stance.
    Jill followed along, and watched as her extra leg did the same. “So, are these races really done barefooted?”
    “Yeah. It’s about the only thing from the initial version of the three legged relay that’s still the same as when it first started. Back then, there weren’t any of these cool enchantments on the third leg, so you’d have to aim for having four runners that had a similar build below the waist so that you didn’t completely screw your team over. There were also a lot more disqualifications back then, because it wouldn’t morph your clothes, so you had to hope it didn’t accidentally disconnect or cause your clothes to rip. You don’t have to worry though, the clay is enchanted to be easier on your feet. Now come on, let’s get a couple of laps in so you can get the feel.”

    As Cammie, Ophelia, and Jill did all this setup stuff, the other team had went straight to running laps. “So Holli, did you have to do these races in school?”
    “Oh no. Magic was much less well none back when I went to school,” Holli huffed, she had not run in a long time in all honesty, “There were a couple of YWMA’s around where I lived, and they always ran a sort of mock magic olympics each year. My parents actually took me to one once, but I don’t remember much from it.”
    “Okay. What about you Leela?”
    “Sadly, my school system only started offering the magic athletics curriculum after I left for college. I had a boyfriend who did the hammer throw where you toss your head instead of a weight for our track and field team though. He tried to get me to do it once, but I always got too dizzy and would throw my head in the wrong direction.”
    “Okay. Well. In that case, I think that it’s probably going to be best if you’re in the middle Holli, Leela can start us off, and I’ll be the anchor, since I used to run this race all the time back in middle school.”
    “Sounds good to me,” Saffron said.
    “Alright,” Holli agreed.

    “So, when you’re running with three legs, there’s generally two schools of thought,” Cammie said, turning around and running backwards to explain this to Jill, who was struggling in properly using her three legs to move, shifting all to often to a weird amalgamation of her normal run, where she pivoted from her left leg to her right and center leg. “most people who run like you are currently feel its easiest to shift to a stance where you alternate your two outer legs and then your inner leg, so that it’s more like a gallop.”
    Jill stopped running for a second, mentally preparing herself to try and match up what Cammie had just explained to her. She started slowly by leaped forwards, doing her best to jut her middle leg outwards and her outer legs backwards. When she landed in this triangle pose, she pushed off with her back legs, using her middle leg like a javelin to fling her outer legs forwards. When she landed yet again, she bent the knee of her middle leg, sticking it forwards and returning to her starting position. She slowly repeated this method, gaining speed and managing to get into a pretty quick rhythm. “Okay. Yeah. This feels pretty weird. But also much more stable than what I was doing before,” Jill commented, “What’s the other method?”
    “Well, it’s basically what everyone else is doing. You just time it so that you always have one foot on the ground,” she turned around, pointing to her feet, and Jill watched in fascination as each leg effortlessly would come down for their step.
    “That looks way too complicated for me,” Jill said, not sure how she would even begin trying to match Cammie’s movements.
    “And that’s fine,” Cammie turned back around, “At the end of the day, it doesn’t seem as if these competitions have really mattered. So just do your best, and hopefully we’ll win!”
    Ophelia jogged up behind the two girls, having lapped them since they began, “Have we figured out what order we’re going to go.”
    “I don’t know,” Cammie said, “do you think you could outrun me?”
    “Why don’t we find out?” Ophelia grinned, running off.
    “Hey! No fair!” Cammie laughed chasing after her.

~~~
The Race

    “Ladies and Gentlemen! It looks like we’re in for a great race today. I’m Drake Bordignon and here with me is my co-commentator, famous magic athlete and world record holder, Michelle Phillips.”
    “Hello!” Michelle responded back.
    “So Michelle, what do you think of today’s race?”
    “Well. I don’t think it’s going to be pretty, but I’m sure it’s going to be a great race nonetheless.”
    “For those of you just listening to us in the background, todays three-legged relay is going to be between Jill’s and Saffron’s team of assistants. It looks like Saffron’s team is going to go Leela, Holli Saffron, while Jill’s is going Jill, Ophelia, Cammie. Who are you rooting for Michelle.”
    “Well Drake, I’m going to remain impartial… But if I had to choose, it’s probably going to be Saffron’s team. The simple fact of the matter is that running with three legs can be extremely difficult for beginners.”
    “That sure is true,” Drake said. “Well, enough speculating! Let’s start the race!”

    A crew member in a ref’s uniform walked up to the starting line, pointing his race pistol in the air and fired.
    “And they’re off! It looks like Leela has gone off running, while Jill has started trailing behind using a weird galloping sort of motion to run.”
    “Yep. Like I said Drake, Jill is clearly a beginner. And while she’s managed to get the easier form of running down, it could never compare to a true three-legged runner.”
    “Well. It looks like Leela has passed off her baton to Holli now and-
    “Wow! Jill managed to pass off her baton to Ophelia and she’s taken off like a rocket, easily catching up and passing Holli!” Michelle interrupted.
    “Yep! But she’s slowed down drastically to pass off the leg to Cammie!” Drake catching a bit of Michelle’s excitement.
    “And look at that! Holli has managed a perfect pass to Saffron. Just like the pros!” Michelle grinned.
    “It’s neck and neck going into the last leg of the relay!”
    “They’re in the home stretch! It’s so close!” Michelle shouted.
    “And the winner is… Saffron! By a toe!” Drake cheered.

~~~
Outside the Stadium

    “Congratulations Saffron, you and your team have won the final midweek competition!” Drake said, handing out counterfeit gold medals to all the members of her team. On one side was a golden number one, while the other had the ANGA logo on it. “Michelle, tell her what’s she won!”
    “Well, in addition to each of you getting a free, year long subscription to my various magical gyms, with multiple locations spread out across the country, you’ve also won a prize to be determined by the viewers at home!” Michelle grinned, passing each of them a certificate that would act as the voucher.
    She was about to fly off, when she spotted Drake’s look that told her that she was forgetting something. “Oh! I officially announce this last midweek competition over!” She said, putting on her flight helmet and flying off.

    To Jill: “You better listen to Ophelia as it could end up being your downfall.” -quad2

    I was going to listen to Ophelia! I don’t know where you got the impression that I wasn’t going to listen to my friend!

    To Ophelia: “Did you run that magic enhancer by the producers? I know it's just to even the odds, but it could cause problems like Cammie's stopwatch almost caused.” -FlexibleAnatomy

    I did indeed check with the producers. According to them, as long as the enhancer is completely out of her system by the time she performs, Jill’s usage of the enhancer is allowed due to the same reason she was allowed to use my potions to help her magic reserves before hand.
    If you’re worried about this being too much of an advantage for Jill, you really shouldn’t. Honestly, her magic reserves are still so low that even if she were allowed to use the magic enhancers during the performance, she would still be woefully underpowered in comparison to Saffron. Based on how large her magic reserves were when I first saw them, the only other contestant’s larger than hers is Holli’s, and she’s been doing magic longer than any of us. If I had to make a guess, I’m pretty sure that Saffron has been doing magic since before she was even able to talk.

    To Jill: “Congrats on a full and proper flattening! I'm amazed you got the hang of it so fast.” -FlexibleAnatomy

    I don’t know if I would call two weeks fast. But then again, I don’t really have a good frame of reference for how quickly it’s supposed to take to start being able to do magic on others.
    Back home in the Flat Pack, it was really only about two people who would go around and do magic on all the other members. Neither of them really liked to talk much about how they got started. Honestly, I don’t think they were really all that interested in the club, because they rarely showed up to our meetings when we wanted to go do non-magical stuff. I think they were either there for the experience, or because they were friends and one of them has a massive crush on our club president.
    Anyways, I think I’m going to need to be able to do a lot more than just flattening to win this competition. So here’s hoping that Ophelia’s potion works its magic so that my show is more than just flattening them both.