They stood atop the cliff, staring down at the water, a thousand feet below. Chris gave a gleeful grin. "I'll tell you what, Piper! This is your first Challenge! Because we don't have the budget to continue making new challenges, we are doing other ones again! How fun!"
Ana rolled her eyes "What fun."
"Exactly, Ana! And because you decided to open your mouth, your team goes first!" Chris exclaimed, his grin never leaving his face. "Good Luck!" The rest of the Mushrooms shot her a glare.
"The rules are simple. Jump off this thousand foot cliff. Land in the safe zone. If you don't, then I hope you're a strong swimmer, because sharks prowl. If you do not jump, then you are given a chicken hat and a penalty. The team with the most jumpers gets and advantage in the next part of the challenge. Well Mighty Mushrooms, get to jumping!"
Ana felt herself be pushed to the front of the line. She began to seriously doubt if her sass was a good idea. She wavered for a few minutes, before going, "I can't." Chris shrugged and plopped the hat on her head and she began the long hike to the beach.
The look Piper gave her was harsh enough to bake a potato in about 5 seconds. "Whatever. Outta the way!" Piper got a running start and leaped down toward the safe zone. He missed it by a foot. A shark came up ready for a meal. The Shark roared, Piper roared louder. Soon it was a one on one. Man vs Fish. Man won. He swam to shore making sure every other shark kept it's distance. Everyone, cheered and looked genuinely impressed, terrified, or some combination of both.
Confessionals
Douglas: Hell yeah! That's what I want to see! Piper will make a fine opponent in my field.
Ana: I couldn't jump. I'm not built well enough. Besides, we should still get the advantage. No one on the Crabs looks particularly prepared either.
Tetsuya: Well. I know who not to get involved with. Ever.
Piper: *Smiling* Sure showed that shark who's boss huh? *Proudly displays a necklace of shark teeth*
Top of The Cliff
While all this was happening, Bruce is in the woods, not to far, collecting leaves, for some purpose. "Bruce!" Chris called. "Your turn, dude."
"Coming!"
Bruce arrived.
"Alright Bruce just ho-why do you have a backpack?"
Before providing an answer,Bruce hopped off the cliff and fell halfway, before setting his plan into motion. Bruce pulled the strap of his backpack, causing it to open, and leaves to unfold. They made a magnificent parachute, landing him safely in the water. He boarded the boat and rode to shore.
Star wasted no time and dived off the cliff, giving no warning. Jody needed a moment to psyche herself up, but she jumped. Brady was shoved aside by Pauling. "What the heck's your problem Pauling?"
Confessionals
Pauling: I told you, I calculated everything. The conditions for that fanboy's jump was too good to pass up. So I took some liberty.
Atop the Cliff
Brady ended up chickening out, joining Ana in her long trek. This meant that it was time for the Killer Crabs to begin jumping. Douglas Rushed forward in a mad attempt to go first. He did a majestic swan dive, making him land face first with a loud *CRACK!* He ignored the pain, boarded a boat and left. Avarice's turn was next. "Give me a moment if you please, I need to work myself up." Th Crabs nodded in understanding and began encouraging Emily to go down. She did with ease. Avarice approached Chris and asked, "Listen man, I can't do the challenge, but uh, perhaps this could make you bend the rules?" Chris eyed the handful of bills that Avarice had produced. Chris smiled.
"Dude, I love ya. I got just the thing." Chris produced a small metal piece that attaches to Avarice's back. The bills were passed. And Avarice jumped.
Halfway down, from the back of his suit, the metal thing transformed into a small helicopter pack that carried Avarice into the sky. And allowed him to land once on the safe zone, and once on the beach.
"Chris, That isn't fair!" called up Emily.
"I only said you had to jump. I didn't say that you couldn't use anything you had with you."
Avarice gave them all that sly look of " I know what I'm doing".
Back on top of the cliff, Angela hopped down. Zola, shivering and shaking, leapt over the edge with two sticks. He stayed by the side of the cliff and used the sticks, scraping down the side of the mountain, screaming the whole way down. He scraped down close enough to the water to hop down. Sharks descended upon him, and you have never seen a person swim as fast as he did
Confessionals
Zola: Creative, misleading, and resourceful. Perfect.
Emily: Wow. That kid's got more skill in him than I thought. I've gotta keep an eye on him.
Bruce: Not as good as my parachute, but still impressive.
Atop the Mountain
Tetsuya was next to jump. He did not bring anything with him. He landed outside the safe zone and did not emerge from the water for a good minute. All the competitors looked into the water with feelings of worry and fascination. Tetsuya did emerge, but in a strange way. He seemed to be standing straight, arms crossed atop the back of a shark. He had a genuine smile upon his face as he got off the shark, gave it a pat on the nose and walked to his team while the shark returned to the depths.
Confessionals
Emily:*Speechless*
Piper: Wimp. He couldn't beat the shark so he befriended it. He's weak. Only the strong survive. He must go.
Star: Wow, he did that?! That's amazing! I can't believe it! He will make a fine ally! Diversity of skills is important after all!
Atop the mountain
Carrie was the only one still on top the mountains. She looked to Chris.
"Chris? I can't do this. Everyone else has jumped, we still get the advantage if I don't. I accept the chicken hat. Besides, my spirits don't like the look of those sharks."
"Fine just Go! I'm sick of your spirit speak."
Shore
The teams saw Carrie emerge in the woods, donning the infamous chicken hat. Her team shot a look of understanding, at least from Tetsuya, Emily, Angela, and Zola. The rest shot her a venomous glare.
Chris drove out in what looked like an ATV. He greeted the campers. "Congrats Campers! You've completed the first part of the challenge! The second part is delivering these two batches of supplies to your cabins and build yourselves…"
"A hot tub!" the campers all replied in unison.
"Right. Anyways! Killer Crabs, your team had the most jumpers, so you guys get wheel barrels. Mighty Mushrooms, you guys push the crates upward. Ready. Set. GO!"
The teams began the trek to the cabins, The Killer Crabs in the lead thanks to the wheelbarrels.
Douglas pushed the first all by himself. Emily and Avarice pushed the second, Zola and Carrie pushed the third, and Tetsuya and Angela pushed the fourth. Conversation blossomed from the groups. Douglas simply whistled as he pushed it along.
"So, Avarice… Clever use of a back copter. How'd you come up with it."
"Well, it's amazing what money can do for you. You can bribe the jury, you can buy your way to the top, and in my case, Get a mini copter. Magical isn't it?"
"I prefer to work for my money. I survive."
"Really? Hmph. People will always confuse me."
Emily rolled her eyes.
Carrie started to probe Zola. "So Zola, that was pretty resourceful of you. Did you come up with that idea?"
Zola took a moment to stutter out an answer. "W-well I saw that inventor kid do it so i thought, i could do something like that and have a significantly lesser chance of d-d-dying."
"Why do you stutter like that? Are you cold?"
"N-no I'm just nervous around people."
"What about spirits?"
"SPIRTS!? Where?!"
"Oh dear."
Confessionals
Carrie: The spirits can't seem to crack the case, but I know there is something strange up with that kid.
Zola: She's onto me. Isn't she? No matter I can make this work. Sympathy and all that. I must remember that this is a trick and nothing more. Even if she is quite pretty… No! I can't get distracted! I must make it. Play the underdog! Bide your time hide your strength.
Forest
Tetsuya and Angela began to chat.
"That thing you did with the shark was pretty cool. How did you do it?"
"Well… I've always been better with animals than people. People are mean and will let you down or abandon you when your back is turned. So I don't bother and instead just stay with animals. It's better that way."
"Oh. I didn't realize that this is the way the conversation was going. I thought it would be a simple, 'Oh I rubbed it's nose in the right spot.' or something."
"Well i did do that too."
He ran a hand through his oily hair, his eyes just stared blankly ahead, not interested in continuing.
Meanwhile, The Mighty Mushrooms were struggling with the labor of pushing crates through the woods. Piper and Star both pushed one alone. It took the combined effort of Ana, Bruce, and Pauling to push a third. At the tail end, Brady and Jody needed to work together to push the fourth. For them instead of small talk, was a grand, overarching tense silence. Each eyeing each other, debating who to send home if they lost.
The Killer Crabs were first to arrive at the cabins and begin construction. Tetsuya was sent into the woods to find water for the tub, along with Emily. The rest stayed behind and built the Hot tub itself. Douglas proved to be very useful as a builder and he got through quite a bit. Everyone was pulling their weight.
The Mighty Mushrooms were catching up and arrived a half hour later. Bruce immediately took charge. "Brady, go gather water from the lake near the center of the island. Go fast enough alright? The rest of you help me out on the tub, we can do this damn it!"
The two teams were neck to neck. The Crabs were working together and barely keeping ahead.
Bruce was leading the Mighty Mushrooms to catch up with the other team. Chris sounded the horn.
"Time's Up! Let's see what you've done."
The Crabs had a passable hot tub. The instructions followed perfectly. The Mushrooms however had an above average hot tub with one essential piece missing.
"Where's the heater?"
Bruce paled as he realized the mistake. He slumped his head in defeat.
"So Killer Crabs as a reward, you guys keep the hot tub for the rest of the summer. And Mighty Mushrooms, your reward is sending one of your own away. Campfire commences tonight!"
An equal amount of moans and cheers came from the campers. They split up to their own devices.
Zola went off to the Cabins, not entering, instead staying on the porch. Douglas strolled past him and dunked his head into the dirt. "Just stay outta my way shaky, And that includes on the way to the cabins, got that?!"
"Y-y-yes, Douglas."
Confessionals
Zola: Well at least my options of who i'll send home first have been narrowed significantly.
Carrie approached Zola on the ground. "Are you alright?"
"F-fine."
"Good. The Spirits have questions for you."
"W-wait what? I can't talk to spirits, they scare me. I can't deal with them."
"Of course you can. There is something odd about you. I will find it."
"You're one to talk of odd."
This continued for several minutes, but this was a battle Zola couldn't win. He soon found himself being dragged to the woods to talk to "nature spirits".
Meanwhile, Emily is in the woods on a simple brisk jog, which quickly turned to a race when Douglas appeared.
Tetsuya had slinked away to the side of the mess hall, sketchbook in hand. Angela sneakily follows him, passing Avarice, lazing about on his chair, wearing sunglasses that looked like they cost more than the cabin's land.
"Hi Tetsuya."
He jumped in surprise.
"Gah! Who said that?"
"It's just me, Angela."
"Oh." He went back to his sketchbook.
"What are you doing there?"
"Drawing some of my new friends, they're just over there." He pointed off into the woods.
"I thought you didn't like people."
"I don't" He clapped his hands and a snake came out of the woods with a beetle on its back.
"Oh."
"Greg, George. This is Angela. Angela this is Greg and George. Now you've met. Could you leave us alone?"
Angela thought for a moment. "Sure. See you around Tetsuya."
Confessionals
Angela: As much as I don't like talking like this, but… He seems to be portraying himself as the weakest link. Always alone. Not willingly socializing. If we fail… He won't have anyone to back him up.
On the Mighty Mushrooms side, they gathered in the Mess Hall to discuss who's going home.
"Alright. So we need to decide now. Let's list people most probably safe." Began Bruce.
"Piper, Jody,Star, and Pauling. I might be voted out because I couldn't get the hot tub done. Brady and Ana, you two are also on the line for not jumping."
"Well we should obviously vote Brady out this is his one time shot and he blew it." Piped in Ana.
"No offense, but I would rather have Brady with his muscle than you with your antagonizing." Jody responded.
"You can't vote me off! I am a strategist. He is a fanboy!"
Brady looked at the rest of his table and shrugged.. " I don't care. The honor of being involved is good enough for me."
"See?! He just said he didn't care! So we get him off and everyone's happy."
"We shall see. You're not helping yourself, either though. You just yelled at us. And I don't like it when people yell at me." Piper cracked his knuckles. "Besides I think I prefer Brady anyhow. Knowledge is better than sass."
The Elimination Ceremony
The seven campers all sat around a fire on logs around it as Chris approached holding a plate of marshmallows. "I hope you all know what's going to happen. I will hand marshmallows out to those safe from elimination. If you do not receive one, you board the Boat of Losers and never come back. Now then first person safe is… Piper!"
Piper smirked as he claimed his marshmallow.
"Jody" a small whop could be heard as she got the marshmallow.
"Star" She charged forward and devoured the treat.
"Pauling" The first smile she had given all day was soon drawn on her face as she picked he dessert.
"And Bruce." A sigh of relief came from Bruce as he exhaled the breath he didn't know he was holding.
Only Brady and Ana remained on the benches. Looks of not caring and extreme worry were plastered over their respective faces. "And the last Marshmallow goes too… Brady."
He shrugged and took the final marshmallow.
"W-what!? You voted off me?"
"Careful There. You're starting to sound like that skinny pale kid." Piper spoke up.
"How could you?"
"We prefer teammates that do not antagonize the host."
"Dock of Shame is that way!" Chris interjected.
Ana was delivered down by Chef. As the boat left her screaming could be heard for miles
"I'll get you! I'll get all of you I swear!"
"And with that, the first episode of our show has ended. But What will the next challenge be? Who is the next one being sent home? What is up with Tetsuya and Zola? Find out the answers to some of these questions and more next Time on Total Drama Rehash!"