If Ciara hadn't known any better, she would have screamed when the entire Time Machine trembled like it never had before.
"GOOD GOD, WE'RE GONNA DIE, AREN'T WE?" Marshall screamed next to her. It was quite comic to see him act so scared when he was actually the biggest kid in the entire group. He clung himself to Alex, whose expression immediately turned into a quizzical one, and cried again, "I DON'T WANT TO DIE!"
"Shut up, we're not going to die," Liz snapped, huffing a little. She was sitting to Ciara's right, but the girls hadn't exchanged a single word since they had stepped into the Total Drama Time Machine a few hours — perhaps even days? — ago.
"To be fair, I think this is the closest I've been to dying," Xavier pointed out, his hands tightly grasped onto the bench he was sitting on. The Time Machine looked a lot like the Total Drama Jumbo did back in the day — there was a huge row of bunk beds right by the door, and their 'lounging area' was nothing but a few benches and a small cupboard where they had found a handful of peanut bags and two ripe avocados.
"Yeah, that's because you're a WASP," Florence grumbled before yelping out in surprise when the machine took yet another swift turn, causing her to butt heads — both literally and figuratively — with Xavier, who let out a snort.
"He's a wasp?" Nana asked confusedly, her tone meek but slightly steadier than when they had all first met each other.
"A White, Anglo-Saxon Protestant," Xavier replied before narrowing his eyes towards Florence. "Miss Social Justice Warrior here thinks she can look down on me just because I'm not part of a minority or a woman."
"Actually, I look down on you because you're a mini-fascist," Florence replied heatedly, her brow furrowing.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Luca said in a gentle tone, placing himself between Florence and Xavier. "Let's keep it cool, okay? We don't even know who's gonna be in our team yet — what if you two end up having to work together?
Both Xavier and Florence scoffed at once and crossed their arms, "No effing way."
"So anyway . . . " Shirley said as she peered through the window behind her. She could only see a sickly yellow mist that expanded and contracted into all sorts of shapes as they flew by. "Does anyone know where we're headed to yet?"
"I don't think so," Ryan mumbled, pressing his eyes closed. The constant movement was beginning to make him feel sick, but he tried his best not to look too affected by it. Luca, attempting to make his fellow contestant feel a little better, patted his shoulder sympathetically and told him about that one time when he went to Six Flags with his school friends on Senior Ditch Day and ended up vomiting his guts out after riding the sickest rollercoaster that he'd ever been on.
"Uh, I don't think we needed that, Luca," Adrian grumbled, shaking his head.
"I mean, he is trying to help," Sheila said, shrugging her shoulders. When Luca smiled at her, the girl grinned happily in response — until the Time Machine shook yet again and the expression on her face swiftly changed to a deeply nauseated one.
"Attention, passengers!" Chris said over the PA system only a few seconds later. "This is your captain speaking — God, I've always wanted to say that. Anyway, we'll be arriving shortly to our first destination, so I'd highly recommend for you guys to buckle up and get ready for landing, because it might get a little bumpy."
"More bumpy, you mean?" Sid snapped.
"How are we supposed to buckle up when we don't have any seatbelts?" Pearl added, even though all of them were very much aware that Chris couldn't even hear them.
"And remember — you're about to be divided into two separate teams, so you'd better watch out and act friendly around everyone unless you want to get voted off tonight!" The PA system beeped, signaling that Chris had finally switched it off, which had all twenty contestants grunting and complaining about how they hadn't signed up for this.
Amber glanced at Alex, who was sitting next to her, and whispered quietly, "D'you reckon we'll make it out of here alive?"
The boy shrugged and offered her a sympathetic smile. "We'll have to try our best, I guess."
The first thing that they saw once they stepped out of the Total Drama Time Machine was a ridiculously gigantic field surrounded by an oval-shape wall crammed with seats and people wearing what looked like white bed sheets wrapped around the upper half of their bodies and leather sandals that went up to their knees. They were all gleefully chatting and eating grapes together like one would right before a soccer match — which made a few of them realize the time they'd landed themselves into within a few seconds.
"Those are Ancient Romans, aren't they?" Ryan pointed out, an awed expression on his face. "They're wearing exactly the same outfits that we used when we did Julius Caesar back in school."
Chris furrowed his brow, but ultimately nodded. "Yes, you're right. We're in Ancient Rome, buddies!" A few of them clapped excitedly, which made the TV host laugh. "Now, don't act so happy — you're about to face a number of challenges that might cost you your lives. As I mentioned earlier, you're going to be split into two teams, and I'll so very kindly allow you to decide which half of the team gets to represent you during the first challenge, whereas the other half will have to participate in the second one. I will then pick those of you who have had more disastrous performances to participate in the third and last challenge, which will determine which team wins and gets to join me for a night in First Class . . . and which team loses and gets to vote one of their teammates to catch the Loser Capsule and go home at once. Understood?"
Most of the contestants immediately nodded in agreement. "Good," said Chris. He then coughed a little and placed a hand to his chest dramatically before saying, "All right. Team Screaming Vikings — Pearl, Xavier, Sheila, Alex, Florence, Marshall, Amber, Sid, Olivia, and Adrian! Which leaves the rest of you — Ciara, Calvin, Shirley, Milo, Luca, Nana, Julian, Kennedy, Ryan, and Liz — as Team Killer Samurais!"
"Oh my God," grunted Florence, shaking her head. "There's no way I'm teaming up with him." She jerked her thumb at Xavier, who didn't look all too pleased at the idea of having to deal with her for at least half of the show if neither of them got voted off first.
"No changes allowed, sorry!" Chris said merrily, a sneaky expression on his face. "Please put your differences aside and decide who's going to do what today. And if you don't . . . well, perhaps you might end up being the first loser, Florence!"
"I think we're gonna make a good team," Marshall offered sympathetically, a small smile on his face. Even though he wasn't much of a leader, he patted both Xavier and Florence on the shoulder and then added, "So who's gonna do what?"
"I mean, we don't even know what we're supposed to do," Pearl said, shrugging her shoulders. "I say we just randomly split into two smaller teams and then just try our best."
"That does make sense," agreed Sid, nodding his head. He then categorically added, "I say the girls do the first task and then us guys will do the second one."
"That's bullshit," Florence complained, crossing her arms. "There's no way we're letting you do that. Right, girls?" However, when she turned around she found that Pearl, Sheila, Amber and Olivia were all shrugging and nodding at Sid's suggestion.
"That could work," Pearl agreed, then smiled as she placed an arm around Amber's shoulder. "It's gonna be fun, isn't it?"
"Yeah . . . sure," Amber said quietly, her brow knitting. She wasn't used to making physical contact with people that she barely knew, but refrained from complaining about it just in case the other girl took it the wrong way.
"So that's settled then," declared Xavier before grinning with self-complacency at the way Florence was pretty much fuming at Sid. "Better watch out if you don't want to get voted off, Miss SJW."
"Fuck off," she muttered in response. She ultimately sighed and turned around to face the other four girls in the team. "Okay, so I guess we're going to have to do our best and prove all these heteropatriarchal bigots wrong, right?"
"I . . . guess?" replied Olivia.
"Come on, Flo's totally right," Sheila said, an amiable smile on her face as she squeezed Florence's shoulder. "Let's go get ready, ladies!"
Meanwhile, the Killer Samurais had swiftly divided themselves into two groups — Liz, Julian, Shirley, Calvin, and Luca would be the ones participating in the first task, and the rest were in charge of the second one — and were patiently waiting for the other team to finish planning out their strategy before Chris summoned them at the arena once again.
"So," the TV host had changed into a Roman toga that looked suspiciously similar to the murky yellowish bed sheets that the contestants had placed on their bunk beds only a few hours ago, and was now grinning broadly towards the camera. "Welcome again! Our contestants have finally decided who's going to participate in our first challenge. The other half of their team will be watching them closely from a very privileged position — " The camera zoomed into the ten contestants who weren't participating in the first challenge, all ten of them standing by the area where the slaves usually watched the races from with wry expressions on their faces, then zoomed back to Chris and the other ten contestants. "So yes, you may be wondering — what are they gonna do now, exactly? Well, for one — "
"Well, it's obvious that we're going to compete in a chariot race," Olivia pointed out matter-of-factly, a bubbly smile on her face in spite of the tone in her voice. "We're inside a Roman Circus, which means "circle" in Latin, so it's only logical that we — "
"All right, all right, shut it, Miss Know-It-All," snapped Chris abruptly. "Just let me talk, will you? Yes, you're going to compete in a chariot race. But there's gonna be obstacles! You know, real Roman-style ones, like poor Christians waiting to be eaten by lions, and giant Huns, and — "
"Actually, there's no historical proof of Christians being sent to death, at least not in a theatrical way," Olivia replied. "And about the Huns, they didn't really get any close to Rome until the year — "
Pearl swatted her hand against Olivia's mouth when she saw the look on Chris's face, and flashed an apologetical smile towards the TV host as her teammate attempted to make several protesting noises. "Sorry, Chris," she said ruefully. "Please continue."
The TV host, however, only did an exasperated sigh and tilted his head towards two flagrantly new golden chariots that were waiting for them right at the starting line. "Whatever, first one to get back to the finish line wins. Go."
The two teams cheered loudly and immediately set foot towards the chariots. The Screaming Vikings swiftly took hold of the reins and ushered their horse into action within no time, but the Killer Samurais had a little bit of trouble when it came to getting started.
"Well, who's in charge of what?" asked Julian as he hopped onto the chariot. "I say two of us take care of the reins, then one of us makes sure we don't bump into any of the obstacles and the other two just, you know, stand there in case something goes wrong."
"I can take care of the reins!" Shirley said happily. "My family had a bunch of horses when I was little, so I know how to handle them."
"I can help, too," offered Calvin as he fumbled with the collar of his shirt, which had begun to rip off as the boy tensed up with the upcoming challenge.
"I can take care of watching out," said Luca.
"All right then," Julian said. "Let's go!"
And with that, the five of them swatted the reins against the horse's back and ran off in an attempt to catch up with the other team, who were now facing the first obstacle — a very Roman-looking chef who was juggling with several pieces of fruit and tossing them against the chariots as the girls tried to dodge them.
"Careful!" Luca screamed as he held onto the side of the chariot, his expression all scrunched up in fear. He let out a yelp that was abruptly interrupted by an apple that flew straight into his mouth, which made the rest of his team explode with laughter. When he managed to spit it out, he scowled, "That wasn't funny."
"Oh, but it was," Liz chuckled. When Luca side-eyed her, the girl just shrugged and beamed at him with her nicest smile. "What?"
"Hey, let's keep it cool," Julian said from behind them, and gently placed a hand on Luca's shoulder with a friendly gesture — which immediately tightened as Shirley and Calvin attempted to make the horses run faster. As Julian held onto both Luca and Liz, he ultimately screamed, "Look! We're nearly there!"
"The girls are right behind us, though!" cried Liz as she glanced towards the other chariot — the Screaming Vikings had managed to get past Chef's absurd fruit-tossing routine, but had ended up gagging Olivia to stop her from pointing out several historical inaccuracies in their task and the way Chris had decided to use the Roman Circus.
"We're nearly there!" Shirley said gleefully as she patted one of the horse's back. "C'mon, guys! You've got this!"
And so all five of them yelled in delight when they were the first ones to cross the line, with the other five members of their team jogging up to them excitedly to celebrate as the Screaming Vikings scowled at each other disdainfully.
"So! The Killer Samurais have won the first part of the challenge!" Chris said, beaming directly into the camera as he usually did. "Who's gonna win the second one? Will the Killer Samurais win again? Will the Screaming Vikings' boys prove they're the better side of their team — don't you come frowning at me like that, Florence — or will they inevitably lose too? Who's going to get voted off? Find out now on Total . . . Drama . . . Time Tour!"
The Screaming Viking girls were now sitting next to the Killer Samurais who had competed in the first part of the challenge while the boys and the rest of the other team got ready for what was to come. Chris had handed them all sorts of gladiator uniforms, which had made Marshall and Alex feel visibly thrilled, and they had now flown to a nearby stadium that Chris had referred to as the 'Roman Colosseum'.
"So, I feel like I should point out that Chris's idea of Ancient Rome is very inaccurate," Olivia insisted, shaking her head. "People wouldn't just volunteer and become gladiators just because. They were generally Germanic slaves who came from the lindes and were kidnapped by Roman troops after their villages were ransacked and destroyed — "
"We get it, Olivia," Pearl huffed quietly as she rubbed her hands against her temples. "You've told us a million times."
"She really has, hasn't she?" Sheila nodded, sighing a little. She then elbowed Pearl with a half-smile. "Don't worry, hopefully the guys will earn us a First Class journey to wherever Chris is taking us next."
"Oh, I'm so not dealing with Xavier's smug attitude if they do win this challenge for us," Florence snorted. "I'd rather just . . . I don't know, lose."
"I don't know, let's just see how it goes," Amber said with a shy tone, which made Florence's glum expression soften a little.
Next to them, the Killer Samurais whooped as the five members of their team who were to compete in the second part of the challenge jogged up to Chris, all dressed up as gladiators already.
"Gosh, Ryan does look sort of cute in that gladiator outfit, doesn't he?" Shirley said, a rather dreamily tone in her voice.
"Duh, yeah, he's real cute," Liz agreed, nodding a little — which had Luca and Julian sharing a glance and huffing a little. "Milo does look a little lost, though."
"I feel like he's trying to reenact Gladiator or something," Calvin chuckled as he fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, which had begun to rip out after their last challenge.
"All right, all right!" Chris said, grinning broadly at the ten contestants who were about to face his latest challenge. "So, we're in the Colosseum. Here's where gladiators fought against each other and also against all sorts of deadly beasts and bloodthirsty creatures brought directly from the confines of the Empire — "
"It does depend on what era we're in, though!" Olivia cried out. "The Empire began with Octavius, all of the Roman history prior to that was the Republic and also the — "
Pearl covered the girl's mouth with her hand when she saw the frown on Chris's face. "Sorry, pal."
"Anyway . . . " The TV host said as he turned back to the other ten contestants. "You're all going to fight all sorts of creatures now — and also each other! We obviously couldn't arrange getting actual creatures out for this, so instead you're just going to have to avoid Mr. Chef here, who's going to try and catch all ten of you, and also try and 'kill' all five of your opponents. Last team standing wins! Good luck fellas!"
Chef, who was now wearing a massive tiger onesie, stepped onto the arena as the members of both teams eyed each other and held onto their fake swords fearfully. The first one to move was Ciara, who quickly trotted up to the edge of the arena and hid behind a statue. Nana, perhaps a little too impulsively, jerked her sword at Marshall, who immediately yelped in pain — even though the swords were made out of plastic, the girl had hit him quite hard on the stomach.
"Hey, don't do that!" the boy said.
"Marshall, you're out!" Chris said, jerking his thumb towards the bleachers. The boy ducked his head and jogged towards the part of his team that was sitting there, who met him with comforting pats on the back and comments on how he had done really well in spite of everything.
Meanwhile, back in the arena, Alex had attempted to poke Nana in return, but the girl had swiftly run away from him and was nowhere to be seen. Chef, in the meantime, had trotted up to Kennedy and was now chasing the girl around as Ryan attempted to fight him off, which only made Chef feel more annoyed and ultimately had both of them disqualified.
"You did a good job, though," Shirley said comfortingly when Ryan took a seat next to her. The boy grinned, which made Shirley do an even broader grin and had the rest of the boys rolling their eyes at how sickly sweet they were beginning to act.
"Ouch!" Adrian complained back in the arena when Milo poked him with his sword. "Watch out, you nerd."
"Hey, don't call him that!" Ciara complained from behind her statue. When Adrian frowned in confusion, the girl bolted out of her hiding place and poked him yet again with her sword. "You're out!"
"Whatever," Adrian said, rolling his eyes. The other two high-fived each other as the thespian left the arena, frowning and complaining about how they had both partnered up against him.
"Gosh, this is so intense," Liz said as she observed the fighting closely. Milo was now trying to dodge Chef's fake claws, and in the meantime Sid and Ciara had engaged in a one-to-one combat. Nana was still nowhere to be seen, and Xavier and Alex were too busy looking for her to realize that both Milo and Sid had been disqualified from the fighting in less than two minutes.
"So it's only the three of them left!" Sheila noted anxiously, drumming her fingers against her lap. "Oh my God, I wish I could Insta this."
"Uh, I think the strange little girl is missing too, though," Florence noted as she observed the fighting closely. Alex had just knocked Ciara out, and the girl was walking back to the bleachers with a sulky expression on her face — but the boy couldn't relish on his victory for too long, because Chef lurched towards him only a few seconds later and had him disqualified before Xavier could even react to his absence.
"Hey, so does that mean I've won?" The boy said proudly, his arms rising in delight as Florence huffed and shook her head.
"Uh, there's still one other contestant left, Xavier," Chris noted, a funny expression on his face. "Just you wait."
Xavier frowned in confusion, only to feel a painful stab a few seconds later as Nana reappeared and dug her fake sword into his back. Xavier yelped out in pain and frowned as the Killer Samurais leaped up from their seats and cheered at Nana, who had just helped them win the first challenge.
"Aaaand the Killer Samurais have also won the second part of the challenge, which means they're the first winners of the season!" Chris said gleefully as all ten of them ran up to Nana and gave her a massive group hug. The Screaming Vikings, on the other hand, were huffing and scowling at each other yet again. "They've earned themselves a very comfortable First Class trip to our next destination, whereas the Screaming Vikings will have to vote one of their team members off and have them go home. Stay tuned to find out who's leaving and who's staying!"
The Screaming Vikings were sitting in two rows of five right in front of Chris, who was now holding nine Colosseum-shaped cookies in his hands.
"Okay, so," Chris said, a dramatically somber tone to his voice. "The votes have been cast. The decisions have been taken. All ten of you have voted off the person you loathe the most in your group — and now someone's going to go home and never come back. Ever." All ten of them rolled their eyes. "But for now, the first cookies go to — Marshall, Pearl, Sheila, Alex, Amber, Sid, Adrian — and Florence," each and every one of them grabbed their cookies and munched them happily — only to find out that they were stone-cold and a bit rancid. Chris, on the other hand, eyed the two remaining contestants with a funny expression on his face. "So, Xavier, Olivia — one of you guys is going to go home in a matter of minutes."
"It so can't be me," Olivia said defensively. "I've literally been helping you all understand how Ancient Rome worked all day long!"
"Yeah, sis, that's the problem," Sheila mumbled under her breath.
Xavier, on the other hand, shrugged his shoulders and flashed a cool smile towards the rest of his team. "I know I could have worn this challenge for you guys, but it's totally okay if you decided to vote me off because I didn't."
"Ugh, why does nobody see that he's faking it!" Florence asked in a shrill voice.
"Hey, shush it you two," Chris said, frowning. He then glanced back towards Xavier and Olivia and said, back to his somber tone, "All right, so — this is it, kids. You have both been voted off by at least two of your fellow contestants — but one of you earned themselves a few more votes and therefore will be the first one to go home. So that being said, the last cookie belongs to — "
" — Xavier."
The boy grinned as he caught the cookie and pocketed it, while Olivia's expression fell.
"But — but that's not fair! Like, at all!" She whined. "I mean — who voted me off? Why? I was being helpful?"
"Girl, you were being the exact opposite of helpful," Pearl said, patting her shoulder with a sorry expression on her face. "It's nothing personal, all right?"
"Yeah, it's just that you were being effing annoying," Adrian added, rolling his eyes.
Olivia sniffed a little, but ultimately nodded. "All right. I — goodbye! 'Tis been such a pleasure to meet you, my fellow contestants."
"Yadda, yadda, yadda," Chris shook his head as he dragged the girl towards the door, where the Losers Capsule was already waiting for her, and then proceeded to push her inside it as the girl wailed and waved goodbye to her teammates. "Stop being so dramatic, please." When he closed the door behind her, the Losers Capsule got lost in the sickly yellow mist that surrounded them, and Chris sealed the machine's door and then flashed yet another smile towards the camera. "So that's that for now! We've got our first loser, and the Killer Samurais are currently enjoying a very relaxing bath back in First Class. So yes! Where will we be headed to next? Who's going to win the next challenge? Who's going to lose? Who's going to go home next? Find out soon enough on . . . "
"Total . . . "
". . . Drama . . . "
". . . Time Tour!"
So that's it for now! Sorry it took me forever to get this written — I had midterms and also celebrated my birthday this week, so I've been sorta busy as of lately. But I'm back! So yeah, hope you enjoyed this chapter — please let me know what you think via review! :D