The buses making their way towards the drama tower were slightly above average. Chris and Don had spared all expenses so the majority of the returning cast, (the ones who cared enough.) were forced to sip flat sodas on air-conditioned school-buses. Mike didn't mind though, as long as he had Zoey by his side and his friend Cameron right across he would've gladly returned to the show on an Amish wagon in two-hundred degree heat. The same could not be said by Gwen who complained the whole time over.
"I can't believe you dragged us back here Mike!" Gwen groaned pressing her face into the window.
"Oh come on Gwen, it's only a reunion, besides we were promised a two-week cast party." Mike said doing his best to cheer her up. "And Don promised to keep Chris and Chef in line."
"Someone we`ve never met is promising to keep a guy who should be serving a life sentence for hundreds of accounts of attempted murder in line? Okay Mike, okay." Gwen said rolling her eyes and resting her face into her left hand.
"I`m with Mike honey, this two week vacation is exactly what we need." Cameron said taking her free hand and rubbing it, causing Gwen to calm down.
The two had been more or less dating for a bit after the conclusion of All-Stars and were even trying to pick a college they could get into together. Almost twenty years old the two had barley shared kisses let alone anything sexual, mostly due to Cameron living in Winnipeg while Gwen lived in west Toronto, still they somehow managed.
"Ugh it's freakin humid in here!" Heather screamed from the seat behind Gwen and Cameron, she was using Alejandro as a leaning device as she had her back to him and was leaned against his shoulders.
"Please Mommacita this is nothing, you should visit Spain during the summer." Alejandro said flipping his hair, "It's nothing but sweat, manly and womanly."
"I can't believe we have to share a bus with you two." Zoey said rolling her eyes.
"We should be the ones to protest since your boyfriend went psycho-diablo on us last time and tried to kill us!" Alejandro protested.
Mike looked down at his feet, he felt really bad about how he let himself go and failed to stop Mal from trying to hurt people. All-Stars had given him a lot of grief, he lost a lot of friends at his old high-school, they were okay with him having MPD but were wary of Mal coming out and trying to kill people. He couldn't nesscicarily blame people for giving him weird looks, but he still had a bit of a grudge against people confusing him for his counter-part.
"I said in multiple forms on multiple occasions I`m sorry!" Mike said as sincerely as possible.
"Yeah I know…but I just don't like to travel with people who`ve attempted to end my beautiful life." Alejandro responded with a sly grin.
"Oh that's why you aren't travelling with Heather who shoved you down a volcano." Zoey said sarcastically with a bright smile.
Alejandro pushed Heather a little who responded with a flurry of arm slaps that made him laugh a bit. Finally the buses arrived at a massive white pillar with the Total Drama logo on top. The teens exited the bus and stared in awe of the massive pillar. They then wretched in disgust as Chris and Chef exited the building both with giant evil grins on their face.
"Welcome victims!" Chris said rubbing his hands together, "Did you miss me?"
"NO!" Yelled ninety-nine percent of the former contestants.
"Yes!" said Owen before everyone shot him a death glare.
"Yes, yes welcome back former contestants." Don said coming from behind the two and exchanging nasty looks with Chris. "My friends…welcome to the Total! Drama! Reunion! I`m your host, quite literally this time, Don and welcome to the custom made Total Drama Towers! Made entirely with our syndication money!"
"Ugh dude don't tell them that until later." Chris scolded, shoving him and getting shoved back.
Everyone had a worried look on their face but ushered themselves inside regardless. The main hall was luxurious with walls made of sparkly cobalt, and great waterfalls cooling the room. The interns who worked thanklessly on the show were now being forced to carry all the luggage and bringing it into the various rooms on the upper floors. Each former contestant was given a map of the place. Mike looked it over, the food court was the entire second floor, while the fifth floor was the men`s sleeping area and the girls slept on the seventh. Curiously Mike found himself looking at the thirteenth floor and being attracted to the words Master-Control. His left eye twitched and he could hear the crackling of flames in his ears.
"Mike?" Zoey asked tapping his shoulder and shocking him out of his daze.
"Zoey…oh sorry about that, hey…look at that separated by gender…just like the shows." Mike said with a nervous chuckle making Zoey raise a brow then smile and hug him.
"Okay everyone you must be famished, well follow me to the elevators and let's head up to the second floor for…the FEAST!" Don said as everyone trampled over him and gunned the elevators.
Mike and Zoey were joined in the elevator by Cameron, Gwen, Scott, Chris, Chef, Alejandro, Heather, Sierra carrying Cody and some Ridonculous race contestants, the goths and the father/son team. Crimson and Gwen started chatting it up, complementing each other's gothic attire in mundane disinterested voices. Meanwhile Chris was giving Mike a rather dirty shit-eating grin.
"Can I help you Chris?" Mike asked annoyed.
"Oh I was just wondering when the mountain king would greet us with his presence." Chris said with a poisonous grin.
Mike growled and balled up his fist wanting to punch Chris's lights out. The others save for the goths backed off a bit, Dwayne dragging Junior back especially.
"Uh…not to bother you but…that other personality isn't going to come out is he?" The dad asked sounding very worried.
"Ugh NO!" Mike snapped at them, "Mal is gone! Just like my other personalities, gone, gone, GONE! So quit bugging me about it mom!"
"Woah…mom?" Chris asked with a chuckle, very much satisfied with how he made Mike snap, "That was easier than I thought."
Gwen responded to Chris` prodding with a shot to his nuts, causing Junior to laugh. Mike realized what he just said and turned towards the door and placed his forehead against it sadly.
"Hey come on Mike it was recorded on live TV, you`ve got irrefutable proof that Mal is gone and will never bother you or anyone else again." Cameron reassured him grabbing his arm gently.
Mike looked back and smiled at Cameron, it was a small and sad smile but it was definitely a signal saying 'I`m okay'. The doors opened up and everyone exited save for the goths and Mike who was trying to leave when he felt Crimson and Ennui staring at him.
"Uh…hi?" Mike said nervously.
"For what it's worth I liked Mal he was very…Tartarus." Ennui said emotionlessly.
"Yeah we were rooting for him. He`s the reason we joined the show…and the chance to get to see the darker part of the world." Crimson said taking Ennui`s arms.
"Oh um…yeah I was rooting for you guys to win the race too." Mike said, lying through his teeth.
The goths nodded and left as Mike shook his head in sadness. He joined the big party everyone was having, picking away at some of the food that was being served. While Zoey caught up with some old friends and made a positive impression on the Pahkitew/Ridonculous contestants Mike failed to do the same. Partly because his other personalities made it hard to really bond with anyone besides Cameron in the season he competed in, Brick was really nice but he was trying hard to hold it in when some cute girls came by. Everyone else had seen All-Stars and needless to say they were a bit wary of Mike, after all as far as they were concerned he still had MPD and could flip out into his most violent personalities at any moment. To be fair they didn't see him hitting the restart button and blowing up Mal`s tower then defeating him, how could they it was in his mind. Though he was starting to get very annoyed with people getting freaked then finding an excuse to leave. Others meanwhile wanted to meet Mike's other personalities but were disappointed when he told them he couldn't summon them and left. Mike went over to the punch bowl and sulked when Zoey came up to him with two other people.
"Mike, its Devin and Carrie from the Ridonculous race!" Zoey said over-enthusiastically as she introduced the rather nervous couple to her boyfriend. "Oh my god, I was so rooting for you guys to get together and get the millions! I`m glad you guys got at least one of those two."
"Yeah and hey it's been going great ever since right Devy?" Carrie said patting him on the shoulder.
"Oh yeah she is a thousand times better in the sack than Shelly ever was!" Devin said then gasped and covered his mouth as Carrie glared then shoved him.
"Ah…I see that's still a sore spot." Zoey said blushing.
"And I see Devin still acts weird when he`s nervous." Mike said helping him up.
"Oh come on it's not like I accidently call out Shelly`s name every other time we make love…oh I did again." Devin looked at Carried who hissed and kicked him in the knees before walking away.
"Trouble in paradise?" Zoey asked Devin as he grabbed his knee.
"Oh…I don't know sometimes I bring up Shelly at the wrong time because…I just can't get over her, it's been two years and…I…she never told me why." Devin said wiping a tear from his eye. "But you know what I have a wonderful girlfriend and it's time to get her back."
Devin ran after Carrie as Zoe placed her head on Mike's shoulder.
"Mike you think that`ll be us one day?" She asked.
"Unless you have any evil ex-boyfriends I should know about…maybe." Mike said playfully, kissing her forehead.
Zoey playfully swatted his shoulder back as another couple, Jasmine and Shawn from Pahkitew Island, approached them full of smiles.
"Hey guys, say aren't you the winner of the season after ours?" Mike said to Shawn.
"Oh yeah, and our gun-shop/cage-fighting training-school/flower-shop and survivalist training compound has never been more…in debt." Shawn said looking down at the floor as Jasmine grabbed his shoulder.
"It's only four grand Shawny." Jasmine said then smiled an embarrassed smile, "Well aside from that life's been great, how about you guys?"
"Oh a little touch a little go and some nightmares." Mike said staring into space.
"But mostly TLC and getting together at alt-rock concerts." Zoey said kissing Mike on the cheek.
"Speaking of places were massive crowds of people gather you two have got to come with us to Necrocon 2017!" Shawn said excitedly. "It's on October thirty-first and the director of Shaun of the Dead is totally gonna be there!"
"Shawn it's in Tokyo, we don't have travel money remember?" Jasmine reminded Shawn as he frowned.
"Yeah, well…yeah." Shawn said in defeat, looking down.
"Hey its fine there's always next year am I right?" Mike said trying to be comforting only to get and estranged glare from Shawn.
Suddenly the lights dimmed as Chris, Chef and Don walked into the middle of the room carrying Microphones.
"Ooh I be they`re gonna announce the new contestants for either Total Drama season six or Ridonculous Race season two! Or both!" Mike said excitedly while Zoey shot him a nasty look.
"Welcome back campers, racers and victims!" Chris said to the collective groan of everyone. "I hope you guys are gonna have fun for the next two weeks because it`ll probably be the last time any of you feel special!"
Everyone just looked confused, some worried others were either disturbed or apathetic to Chris trying to be ominous.
"Due to the sub-par ratings from the unwatchable-run I wonder why?" Chris said smugly to Don who folded his arms and glared at him with a tear in his eye. "The producers have cancelled the Total-Drama franchise."
There were some cheers some boos and some indifference to the news. On the one hand, a lot of people relied on the show for relevancy, while others were finally glad no one else would be subjected to the abject horror of having to embarrass yourself to make a million.
"However over the course of the next two weeks you all will be giving the reunion tour/speech shtick while you`re on vay-cay, In addition to all the questions there will be interviews for new franchises and what have you, meanwhile I am holding auditions for my feature length film. Chris McClean in…Turk Bombastic, the ultimate Zombie killer!"
"Oh yeah sounds like a real winner, anyway, all season one contestants better rest up because tomorrow and Tuesday the original twenty-two that started it all will be answering behind the scenes questions to the public." Don said with a sparkling smile.
"Man there was no pizazz in that at all!" Chris said angrily, "I can see why they won't renew your contract."
"You know what let's take this to the gym McClean!" Don said slipping up his right sleeve.
"Yes lets!" Chris said following him to the elevators.
"Uh since they`re bein idiots, you`ll find the keys to your shared rooms on the second and third floors, male and female respectively." Chef said, "Six person per room and you`ll find lists with all your names on it and a number next to each of your names. Now relax or whatever no one cares."
Some of the former contestants shrugged and walked upstairs while Owen continued to pig out and some of the other contestants stole what he wasn't eating. Mike rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. He was really hoping to get another chance at the show since Mal ate up his screen-time and ruined his reputation. He wanted to make new friends, come up with strategies and becoming a person people could like and appreciate. Well at least he had a nice room to sleep in…maybe.
"See you tomorrow?" Zoey asked, rubbing his arm.
"See you tomorrow." Mike said kissing her on the forehead and heading to the second floor.
The room Mike had to share was fairly luxurious. It lots of puffy blue bedding, a mini-fridge full of sweets and sodas. And five random roommates. Owen, Devin, Duncan, Leonard and Scott of all people.
"Oh great I get to share a room with the guy who tried to feed me to a shark and injured me." Scott said sitting on his bunk and staring daggers at Mike.
"I suppose me telling you I got over my MPD won't do any good." Mike said solemnly.
"Whats MPD?" Scott asked.
Mike face-palmed as Leonard popped up behind him with a crystal ball.
"Can I help you?" Mike asked.
"I can see the aura of the dark lord inside of you!" Leonard said dramatically waving his hand over the crystal ball.
"Can you see this?" Mike said giving him the middle finger.
"Nice one Mal!" Duncan said with a chuckle then yelped when Mike threw the crystal ball at him, it busting against his head.
"I need some air!" Mike said storming out the room.
"Did you really see a dark aura inside of him?" Owen asked overly curious about Leonard's proclamation.
"Oh come on Owen you know he`s not a real wizard right?" Devin said regretting asking the question.
"I saw a tower where his heart should be and a shadow growing in his mind!" Leonard said dramatically making Lightning bolt noises scaring Owen.
"Stupid Duncan! Stupid nerd! Stupid show!" Mike yelled as he entered the bathroom and looked in the mirror, panting heavily.
He turned on the faucet and began splashing cold water in his face. It was happening again, the same things that happened when he was a kid, and in juvie. His alternate personalities were constantly causing him problems, whether it was Vito getting him into street fights, Manitoba landing him in awkward situations with girls, Svetlana…well she actually won him a bunch of prizes and Chester just made things slightly awkward as opposed to getting him in trouble but Mal…that guy was definitely the worse, landing him in juvie, costing him friend after friend and the things he did when locked up…it wasn't nearly as bad as what he did to land them in the pin.
"It's over now, I just…I just need a thicker skin is all." Mike said, turning off the faucet.
He looked up in the mirror and freaked out falling down. The mirror was surrounded in flames and spikes in the center of it was Mal, looking down on Mike with a rather sinister smile on his face. He stretched his limbs and cracked his neck in a perfect three-hundred and sixty degree circle.
"Ah I missed this, me looking down on you, you trembling in fear on your knees in front of me." Mal said with a chortle. "You`re probably wondering how this even happened."
"Uh yeah I killed you, people don't come back from that." Mike said standing up.
"You idiot all you did was once again weaken me, hitting me with that shield after hitting that reset button." Mal said with a scowl, "I`ll admit I was having so much fun I didn't even realize what you were doing, my overconfidence was my downfall, as it is with every great villain. Oh well, at any rate since I was the dominant personality when you hit the reset button it only made me weak then your little shield made me vanish but much like the time before that all I had to do was lay back and wait, wait for the right moment to come back and now is that time!"
"Why now…the reunion!" Mike said with a horrible realization. "No some of those people are my friends!"
"Some so I assume everyone else is fair game?" Mal said snarkily. "That reminds me I`m only interested in hurting some others, well others I just want to…love."
"Love…oh god no that's worse!" Mike said getting in Mal`s face.
"Yes down there I was lonely, and I didn't realize just how pretty Zoey was." Mal said wistfully, "Among her there are so many other pretty people and thanks to Vito we`re very cute also, at least some people in my fandom think so. And after all I only want to hurt those that hurt us."
"LIAR!" Mike yelled.
"Have it your way." Mal said reaching out and touching Mike`s face, freaking him out and making him step back.
"How are you…?"
"Mikey, don't you get it, I`ve been in hiding for a long, long time, and in that time I`ve been doing some research. I`ve fed off your insecurity, your paranoia and of course your anger, every time someone took a shot at you or looked at you in fear, I was there to eat it all up. Now, oh now I've gotten everything I need." Mal said squeezing his face, "And while I play, you`re going to learn a little something. You`re going to learn the most important thing, I am you, and you are me, we are one…we are Mal."
Mike removed Mal`s hands from his face then shrieked in horror when he realized he was in the mirror and Mal was in the bathroom.
"Thanks Mikey, adieu for now." Mal said fixing his hair for it to resemble Mike`s.
"Mal I`m gonna AHHHHHHHH!" Mike fell down a psychological trap hole and found himself chained to a slab in the shape of Mal`s face, trying to break free.
"Mmmm now that he`s gone, I think I`ll go play with Zoey." Mal said mimicking Mike`s voice, "Now then…necklace not bracelet, and don't, let me repeat DON'T hurt Cameron. Even if it's really, really, REALLY tempting."
Mal stepped out of the bathroom and was about to whistle when he saw Don heading towards the elevators with a suspicious look on his face.
"Hello now." Mal said slowly following him, "Little mouse where are we going?"
He looked at the numbering atop the elevator doors and saw the box heading towards the very top of the tower. Mal gave an evil chuckle and took the next elevator up to the top floor. When he exited he noticed the entire floor was smaller than the others. There was no one on the floor and several doors, including one that said MASTER CONTROL in bright red. Mal chuckled and tried to open the door, it was surprisingly unlocked and he walked in and ducked behind a row of computers as Chris, Chef and Don met up and sat down.
"God I can't believe we`re doing this!" Don said face-palming.
"Look man I did us all a favor when I convinced the produces to cancel the new seasons." Chris said with an evil grin. "Now we got two million dollars to get out of the country and hide."
"I don't want to hide!" Don said slamming his fist into the table, "I want to continue my career, but I also don't want to get caught committing fraud with you, so now I`m in this horrid positon so thank you Chris thank you so much!"
"Oh come on its just a little fraud, it's not like it should be illegal anyway." Chris said smugly.
"Fraud…oh this I must hear, time to separate a sheep from the herd." Mal said picking up a computer mouse and chucking it to the north side of the room he was in.
"What the…Don you locked the door right?" Chris snapped.
Don reached into his shirt and pulled out a gun and cocked it then went to the door and checked it.
"Fuck! It's unlocked!" He yelled.
"Well check that noise!" Chris barked at him.
Don walked over and grumbled something under his breath about wanting to shoot Chris and checked out the noise. He found the mouse and bent over to pick it up and found himself kicked in the nuts by Mal. Don fell over and rolled onto his neck, Mal scooped the gun out of his hand and aimed it at his head.
"On your feet." Mal ordered.
Don did as told and Mal shoved him back over to Chris and Chef who put their hands up in fear.
"Mike! Come on man I was joking earlier!" Chris yelled in fear.
Mal smirked then whistled in the halls of the mountain king, making Chris' eyes widen when he realized who he was yelling at.
"Mal! Baby you`re back! Aw I missed you!" Chris said trying to give him a hug as Mal looked back angrily.
"Sure you did, now tell me about this fraud." Mal said teasingly squeezing the trigger.
"Uh well…the three of us may have again may have, skimmed out on the winnings for the last few season, you know taken a bit of the pie for ourselves." Chris said with a nervous grin.
"Ah, I see so that would explain why Shawn and Jasmine were complaining about money earlier and why you were able to escape the law." Mal said cocking the gun, he then looked behind the three and saw a control panel with lots of monitors, TV screen and DVD recorders. "Ah the master control, very nice. Well I think Cupid is going to have some fun with this."
"Cupid?" Chef whispered to himself.
"Yes I`m going to have so much fun playing with my new toys." Mal said licking his lips, he then looked back at the hosts and cocked the gun again pointing it at the three. "Look at you three, three toys that I don't like. I`m going to throw one of you away and break the other two."
"Uh what do you mean by break and throw away?" Chris said shaking.
"Yeah that's super vague." Don said also shaking.
"You know I kinda liked Ridonculous Race." Mal said with a smile.
"Oh well thank you." Don said wiping his brow.
"I liked the show, you sucked." Mal said pulling the trigger and blowing his head off.
Chris and Chef screamed then writhed in pain when Mal shot out both their knee caps. Mal grabbed the two bleeding idiots and dragged them to a closet and locked them in.
"Try not to bleed to death, I`ll feed you if I remember where I put you." Mal closed the door and chuckled at their screams of pain. He walked over to the monitors and licked his chops at the sight of all the sleeping characters, some sneaking out to canoodle and make out with one another. Mal spotted Zoey sleeping in her nightie snoozing away as her cleavage heaved. "Mmm, time to play with my favorite doll."
He set the monitors to record and headed back to the elevators.