Author's Notes: Not much to say here. Mostly that I'd like to thank everyone who has read, reviewed, or is now following this story despite being up less than a day!
Also, this is our introduction to a few of the four teenagers not focused on much in the first chapter. I'll be curious to see how people think I handle those two teens.
Here's the second chapter of "Total Drama Raptured": Bearings and Beacon
For the longest time there was only featureless black. There was only silence devoid of detail. It was the whimper after the bang, that horrific bang that ruptured the Jumbo Jet.
The black and the silence still held sway over those who fate forced into the cold waters. For at least one of them, the silence was about to surrender its tight and willful embrace.
Taking the silence's place was a sound, a faint sound. Some crash in the distance. But that crash in the distance was soon followed by another crash, this one closer and louder. And then that crash was replaced by one louder and closer. And another that was louder and closer. And another. And another. And another. Until…the crash was directly above.
While the sound was that of a crash, the force cascaded against her skull.
It was water.
Moments later, a second current rolled its way onto the back of her head.
Hearing the crashing and feeling the water, the teenage girl put two and two together.
Waves.
Without any warning, the blackness was robbed of its grasp on the girl as her eyes opened. Though they were opened, the girl didn't truly see because she was instantly in the snare of a violent coughing fit. As her chest burned viciously, the teenage girl was able to cough enough that she eventually forced out what looked like foamy water.
After taking in a few massive gulps of precious and life giving oxygen, the teenage girl closed her eyes and muttered something under her still weak breath.
"Ugh…Am I…Am I dead?"
Her question was answered as she felt another wave lightly break against her back. She was not dead. The dead don't feel the salt of the sea caked onto their tattered clothes. The dead don't feel the sands as they ebb and flow through their fingers at the mercy of the stranger tides. The dead don't feel the rays of warm beaming from the sun on their face.
Unknowingly, the face of the waking girl helped the rays of the sun to warm it up faster. Its paleness, normally reserved for the faces of ghosts and the dead that the sea claims, was the reason. Subconsciously powered by the sun, the pale girl finally rose to her feet.
Despite her legs shaking at supporting her body's weight after the traumatic experience, the pale girl, the Goth, found that her tall black boots were sturdy enough anchors for her. Not worrying about falling onto the grains of sand, the Goth girl began to survey the land.
Gwen saw land describable only as waves of white sand bordering waves of blue water.
Having seen everything that one could hope to see of this scenery in a single second, Gwen decided to explore this beach of blandness for answers to what had happened.
For a length of time unknowable to Gwen, she saw no one, not a single solitary soul, as she observed the infinite and mundane drama of the endlessly shifting sands and seas.
But then, finally, Gwen saw something other than silvery sands and sapphire seas! And seeing what this new feature was, Gwen became filled with horror and rushed towards it.
Gwen rushed towards the object that had just floated ashore! Gwen rushed towards her!
It wasn't until Gwen was right next to the unmoving girl that she could recognize her. Proving her identity was easy, her mocha colored skin contrasted with the white sand.
Gwen's black eyes widened as the girl's name escaped her bright blue lips, "Courtney!"
Indeed, it was none other than Total Drama self proclaimed C.I.T. Although, under the current circumstances, the 'A-Type' teenage girl seemed like that she was going to R.I.P.
For once, the girl whose mouth never stayed shut wasn't talking now…or breathing.
After quickly checking Courtney's vitals, Gwen realized what she had to do right now.
Her pale hands forced themselves on Courtney's grey blouse, unintentionally feeling the mocha girl's breasts. But Gwen's aim was entirely different from what that description would suggest. The Loner's goal was simply wanted to get Courtney breathing again. But after a few compressions to Courtney's chest, there was no response and no change.
Very thankful there was no one else around, Gwen brought her lips down onto Courtney's. From their, with their lips locked, the Goth gave the C.I.T. needed oxygen. Neither girl, for reasons that are different but should be obvious, knew for how long.
As Gwen's lips remained locked on Courtney's, something had changed which the Goth didn't notice due to her focus on saving Courtney's life. Her life had already been saved!
Courtney slowly started to regain conciseness a few seconds ago. It fully came when her black eyes grew to an almost inhumanly great diameter in shock at what was happening.
Not understanding what was going on, not just about Gwen but anything else, Courtney shook Gwen off of her body in instinctual shock. Instantly after doing so, the C.I.T began to cough violently and like Gwen earlier she forced a fair amount of seawater out of her.
After a few minutes of heavy breathing and recovering enough to stand, Courtney finally spoke, though her voice was both weak and cracked from both exhaustion and shock.
"Gw-Gwen? Wha-what's going on here? And why were you kissing me!?"
While Courtney's attitude did rub her the wrong way, Gwen chose to be diplomatic since the C.I.T.'s reaction was very understandable and she felt like she would need Courtney.
"Yes Courtney, its me Gwen. I'm not sure where we are or how we got here. I only came to likely less than an hour ago. And I wasn't kissing you; I was preforming CPR on you. I'm sorry for making you uneasy, unless you'd rather be choking on seawater instead?" Gwen said, trying to be polite and reasonable but still have a little attitude slip in as well.
At first, Courtney looked kind of offended and it appeared as if she might start shouting. However, after a few seconds of thought, Courtney's facial expression softened greatly.
Sighing, Courtney answered with, "No your right. I'm sorry for overreacting. Thank you for saving my life. While I kind of wish that you did it in a different way, I am grateful."
Taking note of the pretty rare feat of Courtney actually being humble and admitting that she was wrong, Gwen smiled at the fact that Courtney didn't give her any addition flak.
"No problem Court. Anytime. I know you'd do the same for me. But if you do, try to make sure there isn't anyone else around, in particular any hormonal teenage boys."
"Can do. The last thing either of us need is more fan boys trying to get under our skirts."
"True but it's a lot easier for you to avoid that than me. You're not wearing a skirt." Gwen said with a smirk. Both girls laughed at this joke, thus reliving some tension.
After that, the two girls had a brief talk as Gwen said what little she knew. It didn't take more than three minutes. Basically knowing nothing, they began walking away together.
Once the pale Goth and mocha C.I.T. had walked for what they guessed to be a fair distance, the two once again started engaging in conversation as to their situation.
"This has to be some kind of poly from Chris. Only he would do something this idiotic." Courtney said.
"I'm not sure if your right but if you are, I wouldn't exactly be shocked by that at all." Gwen replied, truly torn about if even Chris would go so far as to destroy his own jet.
"Come on Gwen. Out of the two of us, you should be the one who assumes its Chris. Remember the episode where he tricked you, Duncan, Owen, and Heather into believing that your cabins had been washed away in a massive flood and you were trapped on a deserted island? Not only did he make you endure all of that but it actually meant nothing. Who was eliminated? A coconut, an inanimate piece of fruit, for crying out loud!" Courtney said, her voice slowly escalating to a minor shout at the cruel absurdity.
At first the only reply Courtney received was silence. Gwen wasn't sure how to answer. Yes, Chris was certainly a cruel enough bastard to do this sort of thing and he has pulled stunts along similar lines to this one several times in the past seasons of Total Drama. However, something in her gut that she couldn't put into words said that Chris had nothing to do with this. But then two points came up to counter the Goth's gut feeling. First, Gwen had the same feeling before when it did turn out to be a cruel trick by Chris. Second, if it wasn't Chris that blew a hole in the TD Jumbo Jet, who did do it and why?
Sighing in defeat at being unable to come off with a better explanation, Gwen answered with, "Ok Courtney. While my gut says it isn't Chris. I can't think of a better answer."
"Well I have no doubts in my mind. I'm on to you Chris!" Courtney shouted at the sky.
"Chef, dude! What the Hell happened!?" Chris exclaimed in total confusion and fright.
"Heck if I know, pretty boy. I was flyin' a-long just fine till the something attacked us." Chef said, just a worried as Chris but was able to hide his concerns far better than him.
Indeed, confusion and fright were the prevailing moods of those on the TD Jumbo Jet. After it started to go down, almost everyone was too panicked to do anything useful. Thankfully for the six contestants who were still on the plane when it crashed, Chef was able to convince Chris to spend some money on at least one safety feature that worked.
Said safety feature was a massive floatation device that resembled a giant lifesaver ring that had an equally massive head and neck like that of a duck's. While thankful that the lifesaver did its job, the black cook was confused why Chris chose to add the duck parts.
But Chef chose to let that slide for now, there were far more pressing matters right now.
"Boy! If this is all part of some cockamamie challenge I'm gonna smack you down!" Chef shouted, his normal tolerance for Chris' crazy stunts having reached its limits.
"Don't look at me man! I might like spiking up the ratings with needless endangerment but not at the expense of my jumbo jet. Do you think I'd have had a grand piano, a old wood burning stove, and a Jacuzzi if I intended to trash it at some point!?" Chris insisted.
As much as Chef hated to admit it that actually a lot made of sense when it came to Chris. The host had shown nothing but indifference for others and valuing of his possessions.
So, pissed off but unable to give Chris the thrashing he wanted to, Chef returned his attention to trying to reach out to somebody through the jumbo jet's radio system. But Sierra and Owen shouting in panic for Cody and Noah, respectively, made this difficult.
Unaware of the fates of those still on the floating and grounded (so to speak) Jumbo Jet, Gwen and Courtney continued to travel along the sands as they struggled to understand.
But then Gwen noticed something in the distance; another object came onto the shore. No, scratch that, it was two objects! It was two people being gently pushed by the tides!
Alerting Courtney about this, the two girls rushed towards the two new arrivals. When Gwen and Courtney reached them, neither girl was able to fully process what they saw.
They saw Cody and Noah, but that in and of itself wasn't the reason for their confusion. What was the reason was that they were holding each other in their arms and looking as if they were asleep. In other words, they looked like the fantasy that many fan girls had!
Gwen and Courtney looked at each other in greater confusion as that image set in. Neither of them had believed the fan girls that the two geeks were secret gay lovers. To them it seemed absurd to believe that based off of one little kiss to the ear while asleep.
The two stared at each other in silence.
Still looking at each other, Gwen and Courtney erupted into unrestrained laughter!
As the air around them filled with the music of their laughter, one of the boys was slowly entering the world of consciousness again. Noah was slowly starting to wake up now.
With the vision of his dark brown eyes becoming less and less blurry, Noah was confused. He didn't know where he was and more importantly, why there was laughing. Seeing Gwen and Courtney as the source of the laughter didn't sate any of his confusion.
But then Noah started to notice that his thin arms were wrapped around something.
Turning his head, the Bookworm's eyes widened to the size of massive dinner plates.
Noah, with an energy never seen in him before, frantically backed away from Cody while still lying in the shallow surf as if Cody were on fire or had caught a deadly disease.
Once Noah was a short distance away from Cody while still refusing to stand up, he did something which neither Gwen or Courtney could understand. They couldn't have known Noah's thoughts when he had been while he had been holding on the outside of the plane.
Noah flipped the bird to the sky almost manically while shouting loud and angry curses!
While stumped by Noah's behavior, this only made Gwen and Courtney laugh louder.
But then Gwen noticed something that made her stop laughing and feel fear once again.
Cody still wasn't moving…Cody still wasn't breathing!
"Cody!" Gwen exclaimed when she realized what this meant.
After Courtney and Noah became aware of this, they helped Gwen drag Cody to shore.
Despite their panic, they quickly deduced that the unconscious Tech Geek's lungs were full of water like Courtney's. He didn't have much time before he'd drown on dry land!
"Quick! Do either of you know CPR!?" Gwen asked in a hurried and fitting matter.
The two teens with brownish skin looked at each other in shock before answering Gwen.
"I'm sorry but CRP wasn't covered in my C.I.T. training." Courtney sadly admitted.
"Don't look at me. I'm not feeding into the yaoi fantasies anymore than I already have." Noah said.
After looking at Courtney with sad acceptance and Noah with angry scorn, Gwen turned her attention back towards the unmoving Cody. The Goth was in between a rock and a hard place. If she didn't do something, Cody would die. If she did do something, it would feed into his feelings over her and make them even greater than they already were now.
"First I had to do this with Courtney and now I have to it again to the boy with the hopeless crush on me. It's official. God hates me." Gwen muttered darkly in a low voice hoping to keep the others from hearing her before starting to give Cody mouth-to-mouth.
As Gwen's lips were being pressed against those of the person who wanted them most, Noah couldn't help but grow a massive smirk on his face. Despite Gwen's best efforts, the Know It All did indeed hear her bitter outbursts before she went to work on Cody.
Turning to Courtney, Noah remarked, "So, you and Gwen have already kissed, uh? I'm happy see that you've finally come out of the closet; lesbian relationships are wonderful. And what will be even better is the hundreds of fan-fictions from horny yuri fan boys."
Courtney was all but flaming red and shaking uncontrollably after hearing Noah's words. She was about to shout at him for being a disgusting and misanthropic pig as loud as she could (which was pretty loud) but something happened which distracted her from this.
Cody was starting to wake up!
As the Tech Geek forced the seawater out of his lungs through a series of violent coughs, he started to open his eyes. As the teal orbs began to observe what surrounded him, Cody began being frightened and happy all at once. He must have died and gone to Heaven!
He must have been! How else could there be a creature as lovely as the one above him? Nothing living on Earth could have such a perfect contrast of snow white and coal black!
"Am I…*cough*…am I in Heaven? Why else would…*cough*…there be an angel?" Cody said, not having recovered enough to realize what he was saying to Gwen.
For her part, Gwen was unable to figure out how to respond to that bizarre statement. Her face became lined by annoyance and clashing ideas about how to handle this situation.
Before she could make up her mind, Noah answered for her to the still lying down Cody, "No Cody, this isn't Heaven. Based off of what little I've seen, it bears more than a passing resemblance to Hell! And as for that angel comment, as flattering as that may be, I'm quite sure Gwen doesn't want to hear that sentiment from someone she hates."
Having recovered enough to understanding what was going on, Cody's expression became one of sadness and regret as he weakly said in barely more than a breath, "Oh…"
Seeing Cody's clearly hurt expression finally spurred Gwen into action as she shouted, "Shut up Noah! I do not hate Cody! And I never said I did!"
"Really? Then why did you hesitate to save his life by giving him mouth-to-mouth?" Noah asked, smirking as if he already knew the answer.
Gwen would have responded but she didn't because of Cody's reaction to Noah's words.
"Ma-mow-mouth to mouth!?"
"That's right Cody. Your dream girl's lips were all over yours for a while I'd guess. And what's even better is that Gwen did the same exact thing to Courtney's lips before that." Noah said, adding fuel to this fire that was quickly proving to be very entertaining.
For a few moments there was only silence. Noah was enjoying the looks on the other's faces. Gwen and Courtney were both starring daggers at Noah and were considering killing him. And Cody's head was spinning from the news of Gwen finally kissing him.
Oddly enough, it was Cody who was the first to be shocked out of his shocking state. While the news about Gwen was still make his head feel like a rapidly spinning top, he noticed something towering behind the other three teenage contestants of Total Drama.
"Uh…guys. What's that?" Cody said in confusion while pointing to something.
Snapped out of their differing types of trances by Cody's words, the other three looked.
They saw what appeared to be a lighthouse. But not any lighthouse they had seen before. Noah realized that it seemed to be based off of ancient descriptions of the lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Even though it was in the modern age, this was a lighthouse radiating that same kind of true classical majesty.
"Finally! A way off of this beach!" Gwen said, relived that they could finally be done with this endless awkwardness. If only she knew that what was to come would be worse!
Much, much worse!
"I agree. Come on guys, I don't want to be stuck here any longer." Courtney added before she along with Gwen and Cody began running towards the massive lighthouse.
Noah stood there for a few moments before following the other three at a slower pace. He did this because he was marveling at this impressive monument to who knows what. While doing so, he noticed something that didn't look proper for a simple lighthouse. Despite him not being able to get a good look at it, the Bookworm could have sworn that he saw two primitive missile launchers at the top with one to each side of the main light.
But even more than that, Noah couldn't wrap his mind around something else instead.
"How is it that none of us noticed the giant lighthouse that's only a few feet away?"
And there you have, the second chapter of "Total Drama Raptured"!
As you can likely guess, Gwen and Courtney were the primary focuses in this chapter. I point this out because for different reasons, these two are among the popular and polarizing characters from Total Drama. Therefore, it would be very easy to mess at least one of them up and have them be out-of-character. Hopefully, I've been able to avoid this so far and that I keep that the case throughout the story.
To those of you worrying, don't worry about Cody not getting enough attention. True he's had the least amount of coverage so far. But many of the biggest character moments and scenes that I have planned out involve Cody in one-way or another.
Anyway, the next chapter, which will likely be uploaded either later today or tomorrow, shows the Total Drama characters' first interactions with "Bioshock"!
Until then, please read, review, alert, favor, and spread the word!
