(Ferren Tribe)
"I'm not a happy panda right now. My best friend out here just got eliminated over the one we ALL know is trying to control us." Chloe folded her arms. "Why the heck would people actually WANT to keep Samantha over Anke? And it was so close, too! One vote and we would have gotten rid of Samantha!"
"Well, that didn't go as well as I had hoped." Tempo sighed.
"I really thought we'd have the numbers. Why would they keep Samantha?" Chloe asked.
"Believe me, Chloe. I'm just as stunned as you are." Tempo said. "But we need to find out who voted for Anke before we start accusing people."
"Yes, the others stabbed our alliance in the back tonight, but the last thing we want is to alienate ourselves by accusing the wrong people." Tempo said. "Tonight's loss was tough, but I don't want to get eliminated for overreacting."
Meanwhile, Erica was sitting in the shelter, looking a little disappointed. Riddle approached her. "What's on your mind?" He asked.
"Riddle, why exactly did we keep Samantha?" Erica asked. "I mean, it's obvious she's evil, so why not just get rid of her now?"
"Answer this, Erica: If someone is clearly not liked by the tribe majority and doesn't hold any power, then what would that make them?" Riddle quizzed.
"A free pass." Erica sighed.
"Correct. In addition, Tempo had an alliance with the two small girls, so wouldn't that make them a bigger threat in the long run?"
"Erica is a little upset that we didn't vote out Samantha, and she's probably more upset with the fact that it was a close vote and it could have gone either way." Riddle said. "I believe the decision to keep Samantha is good in the long run because we could get rid of her whenever we wanted to."
"I'm mad that it came down to one vote because I realize now that I could have simply changed my vote to Samantha and we would have gotten rid of her just like that." Erica moaned. "Had I known that Tomato was going to vote for Samantha, I probably would have joined her."
The smaller tribe of eight decided to go to bed. If there was a challenge the next day, they needed to be ready for it…
(Ventala Tribe; Day 7)
"I know we don't want to admit it, but a lot of people are intimidated here. Angela formed an alliance with two of our strongest players, which means it would be stupid to go after any of them this early." Danglars pointed out. "However, I want to try and get on Angela's good side to see if she'll vote for someone not on my alliance first."
"Uh…Hey, Angela?" Danglars asked as he approached his target.
"You need something?" Angela asked. "I'm in the middle of trying to find the wood that went missing."
"I was…Uh…Wondering if you'd consider voting for Fran-CINE or Corey if we go to Trial Council." Danglars said.
Angela paused, then looked at Danglars. "Why would I do that?" She asked.
"Because Fran-CINE doesn't do anything around here and, you have to admit, Corey talks everyone's ears off."
"Danglars approached me and asked if I would consider voting for some people I'm not targeting." Angela said, folding her arms. "He unfortunately doesn't realize that my goal is to take the strongest further into the game. I have to say that I pity him for aligning with the weaker players, because he seems fairly strong."
"Just think it over. It's not like we'd be losing anything important by voting out Fran-CINE, and you're way stronger than Corey anyway." Danglars insisted.
"How would you know that? We haven't had any real strength challenges, yet." Angela said.
"Uh…Um…" Danglars fumbled with his words.
"Danglars, you're relatively strong. I respect you for now. Don't ruin it for yourself." Angela warned.
"Got it." Danglars said as he sulked off.
Angela shook her head as she went over to where Amy and Brock were standing by the lake.
"What did he want?" Amy asked.
"Nothing." Angela said.
"Like I said, I respect Danglars for now. That doesn't mean I'll vote with him." Angela shrugged.
(Ferren Tribe; Day 7)
"Hey, Tomato? Can we talk?" Erica asked as she approached the older girl, who was standing by the lake.
"Sure. What is it?" Tomato asked.
"Why did you make the move to vote out Samantha?" Erica asked. "I thought you, of all people, would have opted to vote off someone giving you allergy attacks."
"Oh. Is that why you guys voted Anke out?"
"I'll admit that it's nice to have one-less person around giving me allergies, but I thought Samantha needed to go more out of the two." Tomato said. "It obviously didn't go that way, but I'm still glad that there's only two people here that will cause me to start sneezing. Maybe…Maybe I SHOULD go after one of them next…"
"So what are you guys doing now?" Tomato asked.
"Riddle's trying to pitch the idea of voting out Chloe next since she's the other weakest member of the tribe." Erica said.
"Will it work?"
"We've lost both Immunity Challenges so far. If it'll stop the streak, then I'm willing to try it." Erica shrugged.
Meanwhile, Riddle was sitting on a log, looking in thought. Gary took notice. "Something bothering you, Riddle?" He asked.
"I'm a little uncertain. Last night, I assured myself that keeping Samantha was best for the tribe." Riddle admitted. "Looking at what happened, I'm not sure now."
"I love puzzles, but not the ones that make me second-guess myself later on. I thought voting out a weak player would do us good, but now I'm thinking that it wasn't a smart choice." Riddle admitted. "Voting out Anke appears to have made my alliance enemies out of Tempo and Chloe, and even Erica is acting a little more-negative than I would like."
"Riddle, you told me yourself that we could vote Samantha out whenever we wanted, right?" Gary quizzed. "That makes her less of a threat, right?"
Riddle gave a nod. "Indeed, and the others were in a strong alliance." He admitted.
"There you go. Sounds like a good reason for me." Gary insisted. "Just don't think about it. You did what you thought you needed to do and I'm sure it'll pay off in the long run."
Riddle couldn't help but smile. "I appreciate that, Gary."
"It's in my nature to cheer up people that are feeling down. I mean, I can't remember that last time I was real mad about anything. I should know how to cheer people up." Gary admitted. "Others may be remembered for their scheming and negativity, but I want to be remembered for my friendliness."
(Ventala Tribe)
Brock watched as Zeg tried to make a fire. Since the tribe's flint was still useless, they were forced to let Zeg try and make without it, since he had claimed to know how to do it.
"You could teach us to make a fire, you know." Brock supplied.
"I know, but it's a difficult procedure." Zeg insisted. "I can't just teach you how to do it after one try."
"I'm a fast learner." Brock said skeptically.
"I want to make sure I'm the only one that knows how to make fire without flint. It'll make them want to keep me around." Zeg explained. "I know it's not much, but when you consider I accidentally shot the host, I need to take anything I can."
"Let's see…I think I need to do it this way…" Zeg mused. "Or was it…This way?"
As Zeg continued to work on the fire, Brock turned to the person sitting next to him, Corey. "Corey, you're a determined player, aren't you?" He asked.
"Ya kidding? Little ol' me once had to stay up fer three days so Ah could catch sum pervert bandits that were tryin' ta get into the house every night." Corey insisted.
"Uh…Why were they trying to get into the house?" Brock asked.
Corey's expression suddenly turned dark. "They were tryin' ta make off with mah little sister. When Ah finally caught them, it weren't pretty." She said.
Brock blinked. "So…Now for my initial proposition." He said. "How about an alliance?"
Corey brightened up instantly. "Sure thing!"
"I want to have a secondary alliance just in case the one I have with Angela goes south. If the others vote her out because of her negativity, then I need a backup plan." Brock explained. "Corey's one of the strongest people here, and she's friendly to boot. I don't see her getting targeted for a while, and this will give me the chance to join her should the time come."
"I like that Brock kid. He reminds me of mah kid brother back home: Headstrong, determined to please and full of energy." Corey said. "Of course, Brock's also got a bit more smarts than my brother does. I doubt Brock would run into a chicken coop covered in corn just fer the fun of it…Remember that, bro? Golly, that was hilarious!" She laughed.
Zeg continued to work on the fire as the others talked. He was so wrapped up in trying to make the fire that he wasn't hearing what was going on around him. "Oh! I think I got a spark!...Oh, wait. That's a shine from the sun…"
(Ferren Tribe)
"You want to join us for our next vote?" Tempo asked.
"Yeah. We need votes and we know YOU need votes." Samantha said. "Temporarily joining forces to whittle away at the majority alliance would be ideal, wouldn't it?"
"Yeah! It'll be fun!" Robert interjected. He was ignored.
"Since Tempo and Chloe are down a member in their alliance, this gives Robert and I the chance to move in." Samantha pointed out. "It's obvious that they don't trust me, but that's fine. Once we take out a couple of members of the other alliance, we'll go our own ways again. They should at least see the point in what I'm trying to tell them."
"If you think we're going to join you after you voted out my friend, then-" Chloe started before Tempo shushed her.
"Hang on, Chloe. Let's hear her out." Tempo said before looking at Samantha. "Look, even if we joined you, that still only leaves us with a tie."
"So we either need to be sure we can win a tiebreaker or go to Exile Island and find the idol hidden there." Samantha said. "Look, if it helps, this would be just for a while, until we get the other alliance to a manageable number."
Tempo thought for a moment. "Fine. We'll call a truce for now." He said. "But we don't decide on a target until we have a challenge."
"Fine by me. Glad we had this conversation." Samantha nodded as she and Robert walked off.
Chloe looked up at Tempo. "I don't like this." She said.
"Neither do I, but we're outnumbered at the moment." Tempo admitted.
"I really don't want to join forces with the person that voted out Anke, but like Tempo said, it's getting to the point where we don't have a choice." Chloe folded her arms. "I'm glad that the partnership is temporary, because as soon as it's done, I wanna vote out Samantha for what she did."
As they were walking away, Robert looked at Samantha. "You don't trust them, do you?" He asked.
"Of course not. They're planning to backtab me the instant we're through with the deal." Samantha said.
"Why would they do that if you offered to join them?"
"Because they're evil, Robert." Samantha replied casually. "You need to know who you're talking to when you talk to them."
"Why can't we all just get along?" Robert shrugged.
The two tribes, knowing that there would be a challenge the next day, went to bed when night hit. They felt that they needed as much energy as they could get.
(Ventala Tribe; Day 8)
"We're hoping that we're having a Reward Challenge today. We haven't won Reward yet and we could use whatever is offered." Amy pointed out. "I'm personally hoping that the Reward is blankets or some bags of rice. We could definitely use something like that around here."
"You thinking that we're going to have a challenge?" Amy asked Angela.
"I'm certain that we will be. We just need to hope that the challenge will benefit us." Angela said. "We've won all the Immunities so far."
"But not Reward. We could use a Reward win." Amy pointed out.
Angela paused, then nodded. "You're right. It would make life around here easier." She admitted.
Fran-CINE, sitting nearby, appeared to be in thought. Angela noticed this. "I hope you'll try your hardest in the challenge." Angela said. "No matter what type of challenge it is, we need to win."
"Whatever. Don't worry. I know that you people want to win these things." Fran-CINE shrugged. "Yeah, I'll try to win. I mean, that's what we all want, right?"
"I would certainly hope so."
"If it's a Reward Challenge, you know I'm going to try my hardest to win. Depending on what the reward is, I could use a little more fun with making life hard for everyone out here." Fran-CINE said. "Whatever the reward is, I hope it's something I can break or destroy. That would be a good show for me."
"We've got some treemail, guys!" Danglars announced as he walked into camp.
Kenal made his way over. "I don't suppose if it says anything about what type of challenge it is?" He asked.
"No. It's asking if we're good diggers." Danglars replied.
This seemed to make Zeg's face light up. "Alright! We've got this in the bag!" He said. "I can dig faster than anyone!"
"That's just you. How about the rest of us?" Angela asked.
"I'm afraid digging isn't something I'm good at. I may have to sit out." Kenal pointed out.
"Okay. We'll have to sit a second person out as well." Angela said. "We'll decide when we get there."
"Finally! Something I'm good at! I'll admit that my accuracy is poor because I'm half-blind, but my digging is second to none!" Zeg said confidently. "If the whole challenge revolves around digging, then we're sure to win! I honestly can't think of anyone that would be able to dig like me."
(Ferren Tribe; Day 8)
"So you're an excellent digger?" Gary asked.
"Yes. My special form is a mole, so I naturally got some extra digging abilities for it." Tomato rubbed her head nervously.
"I have to say that, while she's shy, Tomato's a pretty interesting person to talk to. I know little about her and where she comes from, so I just smile and nod while she talks." Gary chuckled. "I know that she's trying to impress people out here, so I'd like to give her the benefit of the doubt. Erica will likely see things my way, but the only real question is Riddle…"
Meanwhile, Riddle was off talking to Erica, trying to patch things up with her.
"I can understand how angry you must be, Erica." Riddle said.
"Of course. We could have gotten rid of Samantha and be done with it." Erica pointed out.
"Are you certain that going after Samantha right now is the best thing to do?" Riddle asked.
"Riddle, it's clear that she's evil. You're obsessed with puzzles; You should know this."
"I am. However, Tempo had formed an alliance with the girls and we needed to take down their numbers before they ganged up on us." Riddle reminded. "I do not wish to anger an alliance partner here, so I'd like to tell you the next phase of the plan."
"Which is?"
"We'll focus on Chloe next."
"Riddle told me what the plan was, and I'm okay with it. Samantha's a free pass, or at least that's what Riddle calls her, so we'll focus on taking down the opposing majority alliance first." Erica said. "That being said, I'm glad that we'll have Tomato on our side this time. If anything, it gives us a slight edge."
"Looks like we've got treemail." Chloe said as she approached the others with a letter.
"Reward or Immunity?" Riddle asked.
"Doesn't say. We've got a digging challenge ahead of us."
Gary smiled down at Tomato. "Now's your chance to show us what you can do." He said.
"I'm glad that we've got a challenge revolving around digging coming up. This will allow me to show my skills and prove to the others that I'm an asset." Tomato pointed out. "I just hope that we don't have any real competition in the digging department on the other team…"
(Reward Challenge)
The Ventala Tribe stood on their mat, which was near one of the beaches of the island. The Ferren mat was again empty.
"Before we start, let's bring out the Ferren Tribe." SSBFreak said as the opposing tribe walked into view, showing that a certain small monkey girl was no longer with them. "Anke was voted out at the last Tribal Council."
Overall, the Ventala Tribe looked indifferent. No one looked real surprised at the outcome as the Ferren Tribe stepped onto their mat.
"Welcome to today's Reward Challenge, everyone. Here, we will see how good you are at finding things in the sand." SSBFreak said. The large beach behind the host was expansive, and people were guessing that whatever they were looking for was buried in the sand there. "In the sand of the beach, there are eight emblems for each team buried. The object is simple: Find all eight of your tribe's emblems before the opposing tribe does the same. However, if you find an emblem, you aren't allowed to go back to find another. Everyone searching needs to find an emblem. The first team to collect all eight of their emblems will win Reward, which is a large mattress, big enough for the entire team."
The two tribes looked amongst each other. They could use a mattress…
"Ventala, you have two extra people this time." SSBFreak said. "Who will be sitting out?"
"Kenal and Kendall." Amy said.
"Okay. If you're all ready, we can begin right away."
The sixteen players that were participating got ready to run.
"For Reward, Survivors ready…" SSBFreak said. "…Go!"
The sixteen contestants raced past the host and onto the beach. They jumped into the sand and started digging, trying to find the emblems they were looking for. It quickly became chaos as everyone was scrambling to find the emblems hidden in the sand.
It became obvious fairly quickly that Tomato and Zeg were the best diggers of the bunch and were digging at an accelerated rate, covering much more ground than anyone else. They burrowed their way through the sand, moving onto another location to look before anyone else was even close to moving on.
Zeg dug a hole in the sand at least a foot and a half across in a matter of seconds, not noticing that Tomato was digging just as fast. Of course, no one else digging seemed to notice them either, and the only ones that did were SSBFreak, Kenal and Kendall.
"I didn't think those two would be such good diggers." Kenal pointed out.
Kendall gave a shrug. "It's just digging." He reasoned.
It didn't take long at all for the two fast diggers to find what they needed. Although both of them emerged from the sand with an emblem at the same time, Zeg was a faster runner than Tomato and beat her to the mats. Nevertheless, they both scored for their teams.
"Zeg and Tomato bring both teams on the board." SSBFreak announced.
"We can't go out there again to help the others?" Tomato asked.
"No. You're done."
Tomato sighed as she and Zeg watched the others continue to go through the sand.
"I found one!" Brock cheered as he leapt out of the sand, holding an emblem. He raced over to the mat and stood with Zeg.
"Ventala leads 2-1." SSBFreak explained.
"Pick up the pace! We need to find those emblems!" Samantha directed.
A few seconds later and Tempo managed to find an emblem for his tribe, but as he was climbing out of the sand, Mongo found an emblem as well.
"Eat dirt, prettyboy!" Mongo jeered as she flew past the surprised Tempo on the way to her tribe's mat.
"Ventala leads 3-2."
Angela managed to dig out an emblem, only to see that it was one of Ferren's. Angela quickly buried it again and moved on to another spot. "There has to be some around here somewhere." She mused to herself.
Angela wasn't the only one having problems with the challenge. Several of the others were constantly going to new places to dig after coming up empty with the place they had chosen. All anyone could do at this point was hope they found some emblems soon.
Riddle managed to locate an emblem and inspected it. "It appears that this emblem carries my tribe's colour." He said with a smirk as he got out of the sand and rushed over to his mat.
However, as Riddle was doing do, both Angela and Corey found an emblem and climbed out of the sand themselves.
"Way ta go, partner!" Corey cheered Angela as the two women rushed to their mat together.
"Glad that's done." Angela noted.
"Ventala increases their lead to 5-3."
This left Amy, Fran-CINE and Danglars digging for Ventala while Ferren still had Samantha, Chloe, Robert, Gary and Erica searching. With the amount of emblems decreasing, people were getting frustrated at how they weren't finding anything yet.
"Brock, who do you think will win?" SSBFreak asked.
"It could go either way, even though we're winning." Brock replied. "I don't want to get too confident, because the tide of a challenge like this can turn at any point."
"Tomato, you and Zeg finished that pretty quickly."
"My other form gives me natural digging abilities, and I'm sure Zeg's a natural digger himself." Tomato explained. "I was honestly hoping for a challenge like this."
"I found one! Freaking finally!"
Everyone turned to watch as Samantha emerged from the beach and ran over to her mat with one of her emblems.
"Ferren scores, but they still trail 5-4."
"Come on! How is it this hard just to find an emblem in the sand?" Chloe muttered.
"Any luck, yet?" Danglars asked Amy.
Amy stared at him flatly. "Would I be standing here digging in the sand if I found an emblem?" She asked.
"Uh…No?"
"Good answer."
Fran-CINE was actually putting effort into the challenge, if only for the opportunity to use the Reward to have fun with her tribe. That being said, she still hadn't found anything yet, but she kept searching.
Suddenly, Gary managed to stumble upon one of his tribe's emblems. Grabbing it and getting out of the sand, the older man ran over to his mat and stepped on.
"Ferren ties the game 5-5."
"We caught up! We're still in this!" Gary said.
"Not likely. Look." Tempo said, pointing towards the beach.
Everyone turned and saw both Amy and Fran-CINE running towards the mats, each with an emblem. The two red girls got onto their mat and scored two points.
"Never mind. Ventala takes the lead again 7-5."
This left Danglars facing off against Chloe, Robert and Erica all by himself. Needless to say, Danglars was starting to feel pressure.
"Come on! Just one more!" Amy called out.
"Don't screw it up!" Mongo said. The others in her tribe looked at her flatly. "What?"
The remaining four players continued to dig in the sand, trying to find the last emblems. The tension was thick and everyone on both teams was hoping that their players would find the emblems first.
Suddenly, Erica managed to find an emblem. The green-haired girl rushed off the beach, but only made it a few steps towards the mats when she heard another voice.
"I've got it! I've got it!"
Erica looked back and saw Danglars getting out of the sand and racing towards her with his tribe's last emblem. Erica managed to beat Danglars to the mat, but it hardly mattered.
"That's it! The challenge is over!" SSBFreak announced. "Ventala wins Reward!"
The Ventala Tribe cheered as Danglars grasped his knees in relief.
(Later…)
"Congratulations on winning Reward, Ventala. Your reward, the large mattress, will be sent to your camp and will be there when you get back." SSBFreak said to the winning team. "In addition, you can now send one of your own to Exile Island for a day. Who is going?"
"I will." Kendall volunteered.
SSBFreak looked at the losing tribe. "Ferren, I don't have anything for you today. Hopefully, you'll be able to pull things together for the Immunity Challenge tomorrow." He said. "You can all head back to camp."
(Ventala Tribe)
"We completely rocked that challenge and it was a challenge that I was leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else in! Maybe now people will see me as an asset to the team." Zeg said happily. "The only thing that bothers me is that Tomato girl on the other tribe. She can apparently dig just as fast as I can, and that will make her a tough rival to beat."
"Wow. That's a big mattress." Brock said as he saw the mattress sitting in the shelter.
"Well, I guess it's supposed to be big enough for ten people." Danglars scratched his head. "Still, we'll be needing that."
"Yeah. Ah dun really git much sleep if Ah don't sleep on somethin' soft." Corey said before starting another story. "One time, mah little brother dared me ta sleep in the chicken coop fer the night, but Ah couldn't git ta sleep until Ah used a chicken as a pillow."
Brock blinked. "Uh…How did that go?" He asked.
"Well, Ah think the chicken was okay with it…That is until Ah tried ta fluff it." Corey rubbed her head.
Angela shook her head as she looked at the shelter. "It's good that we won the challenge, but it could have been close." She admitted. "If we didn't get that lead at the start, we probably would have lost."
"Look. The point is that we won, right?" Fran-CINE asked, looking bored.
"Yes. I guess that's the main thing."
"I don't care about these challenges, but when I heard what the reward was, I wanted to try and help win it just so I could torment these fleshbags even more." Fran-CINE said with a smirk. "But now that we have it, here's the biggest question: Should I light it on fire, tear it to shreds or something completely different?"
"Do you think Kendall will find the idol out there on the island?" Zeg asked Danglars.
Danglars gave a shrug. "We can always hope. If he finds it, he'll tell us." He replied.
"Would we need the idol if he finds it?"
"I don't know. We'll need to pay better attention."
"With Kendall on Exile Island, we need to hope that he finds the idol out there. We know it's a long shot, but if we get outnumbered, it's our best chance." Danglars admitted. "Of course, we don't really know who we would target if we got the idol, but at this point, we'll probably take any option we get."
(Ferren Tribe)
"Well, we lost the challenge…AGAIN. Seriously, we've only won ONE challenge so far and it was a Reward Challenge." Erica rolled her eyes. "I blame the fact that the bunch of us are so dysfunctional, but then again, I have no idea what's going on at the other tribe. They just seem more coordinated than us."
"Seriously! Why can't we just WIN something?" Erica asked.
"The bigger question is what's keeping us from winning the challenges in the first place." Riddle folded his arms.
"If you ask me, I think it's because whatever strengths we have, the other team has bigger strengths." Erica said. "I mean, look at Tomato. She dug real fast, but the other team has that mole!"
"Yeah. I…Wasn't really expecting any opposition when it came to digging." Tomato said sheepishly.
"Honestly, how could you have taken so long?" Samantha asked Chloe. "All you needed to do was dig!"
Chloe narrowed her eyes. "The challenge came down to pure luck!" She insisted. "You can NOT blame this on me!"
"I'm sure you're just saying that to get yourself out of this." Samantha folded her arms.
"Like anyone would believe YOU!"
Gary quickly got in between the feud and held the two apart. "Look, we're all on the same team here. We don't want to get even more-dysfunctional than we already are." He explained. "That's probably why we keep losing."
Samantha narrowed her eyes. "I know you're just taking her side, Gary." She said. "That's not a smart move."
With that, Samantha turned and walked off, Robert following her loyally.
"Gah! So much for that. I was trying to make Chloe lose it so we could have a potential goat for the future, but Gary chose that time to step in." Samantha folded her arms. "If he wasn't so unbelievably strong, I'd try to get rid of him so I'd have an easier time taking the target off my back."
"Why did you get mad at her?" Robert asked confusedly as Samantha sat down on a rock. "I mean, I was still digging at the end as well."
"I know, and that's why I singled out Chloe." Samantha said with a smile. "I want to try and get attention off of you so they keep you around."
"But…I thought we were aligned with her."
"Just for now. As soon as we cut all ties with the alliance, we're voting her out." Samantha said. "Not you know why I wanted to help you back there."
Robert instantly brightened up. "Oh! That was nice of you, Sammy! Thanks!" He said.
"Don't mention it. Seriously."
"Isn't she a great friend? She was trying to help me when I didn't do as well in the challenge!" Robert said brightly.
(Exile Island)
"So this is Exile…"
Kendall looked around the island he had been left on. Seeing a shelter provided nearby, Kendall walked over and sat down underneath the ceiling of it.
"Time for me to get to work." Kendall said as he grabbed some nearby sticks.
"To be frank, I don't care about the idol yet. I don't need it; Not yet, anyway. No, the reason I wanted to come here was so I could work on a FAKE idol." Kendall admitted with a smirk. "I need to get the better of my tribe-mates, and I think a fake idol will help me do it."
Kendall strung the wood together, forming a necklace. "Okay. Not bad if I do say so myself." He said. "Well…Now what? I don't feel like searching for the real idol now that I've made this…"
The lanky chimp paused in thought, weighing his options. Suddenly, he gave a smirk. "Oh, this is going to be good." He said as he raced off to find more material.
It didn't take long for Kendall to find what he needed. In the blink of an eye, he was back under the shelter and doing some more construction work.
"After I made my fake idol, I figured, why stop there? I constructed a SECOND fake idol, and I intend to plant it here for the next sucker that comes here." Kendall said with a smirk. "I'll plant it in an easy to find spot and write a fake note. It shouldn't take me long to do."
Kendall finished work on his second idol, this one looking more like an idol than a necklace. Taking some of the flint he had been provided with, Kendall started writing on it, trying to make his message sound legit.
Kendall inspected his idol and smirked before looking around the island. "Now where should I hide it?" He asked himself.
Eventually finding a hiding place for his idol, Kendall went over to the treemail box and put his handmade note inside it with the real one. "Hopefully, no one will be the wiser." He said.
Night eventually rolled in. Everyone knew that there was an Immunity Challenge the next day, and they needed to be ready for it.
(Ventala Tribe; Day 9)
"Okay. We've got a challenge today and we know that we gotta win it. Of course, I don't really trust half of these people to carry us all to the end, so I need to step it up." Mongo pointed out. "But man. I just hope we aren't in for another physical task. That bald guy the other team has is a stone wall!"
"I think it's going to be a physical task." Mongo said. "It's been a while."
"It's only been a couple of challenges." Kenal supplied.
"That's long for this show! We're going to have another physical challenge and the other team is going to screw us over!" Mongo said, holding her head in frustration.
If Kenal had eyes, he would have blinked in confusion. "Uh…If I'm being honest, you aren't making any sense." He said.
"Don't you start with me!"
"I'm…Pretty sure Mongo means well, but she just has the tendency to say what's on her mind, and that could be a severe curse if said at the wrong time." Kenal said. "I'm just thankful that she's apparently smart enough not to talk like that around Angela. There's no telling how far one of Mongo's talks would set her off…"
Meanwhile, Angela and Amy were talking by the shelter. Angela looked around for something, or rather someone.
"Where's Brock? I haven't really seen him with us a whole lot." Angela said.
"I think he said he was going to try and get us a few extra votes." Amy supplied. "Why? Did he tell you?"
"No. No, he didn't." Angela said darkly.
"I don't like it when someone goes behind my back to do some planning on the side. If Brock is indeed trying to get us some more help, then I'll let it slide this time." Angela said. "However, this doesn't change that he's still trying something without telling me. I need to keep an eye on him."
"We've got treemail!" Zeg announced as he entered camp with a letter.
"What challenge are we up against?" Amy asked.
"It's wondering if we're any good at puzzles." Zeg said.
"See? Not a physical task." Kenal said to Mongo.
"It COULD have been." Mongo said, folding her arms.
"I was actually hoping we'd have another physical challenge. I wouldn't mind having a rematch against Gary. He's really strong for a guy his age." Amy said. "Still, I know that neither of us are going anywhere for a while, so at least I would have future challenges to look forward to."
(Ferren Tribe; Day 9)
"Could you tell me why Samantha singled me out after yesterday's challenge?" Chloe asked as she and Tempo walked along the lake. "The last I checked, SHE came to US."
"Because she doesn't intend to stick with us after everything's said and done." Tempo replied. "After this temporary alliance is over, she'll likely come gunning for you."
Chloe narrowed her eyes. "Like I'm going to let THAT happen."
"Samantha's already trying to throw me under the bus and we've only just joined forces. What kind of stupid idea is that?" Chloe asked. "Thankfully, Tempo and I already know this, so maybe if we can get rid of Samantha before she has a chance to sell us out later, then we'll be in a good spot."
"I'll be frank; I don't like Samantha and I don't think anyone else here does, with the exception of Robert." Tempo pointed out. "However, the other alliance outnumbers us and we need her vote. But she knows that and intends to use it to her advantage. She thinks she can get away with talking down to us now, but we'll get her back later."
"So what do we do now?" Chloe asked.
"Do our best in the Immunity Challenge and try to avoid losing." Tempo said. "We can't afford to put ourselves at a greater disadvantage."
"I know."
Meanwhile, Riddle was walking over to the treemail box, alone for once. The green alien appeared to be in thought.
"Throughout the game, I've been asking myself questions, such as if I'm making the right decision in choosing to boot Chloe next." Riddle said. "I know my alliance outnumbers the other at the moment, so what's stopping me from just getting rid of Samantha? Gary reminded me, and that's because she's a free pass, but to this day I'm still second-guessing myself. I never do that."
Riddle reached into the treemail box and pulled out an envelope. "The Immunity Challenge." He said to himself. "Very well."
Riddle returned to camp and announced that treemail had arrived. Everyone quicly gathered around him.
"What're we gunna do today?" Robert asked excitedly.
"It's…Wondering if we're good at puzzles." Riddle said before smirking. "Finally. My kind of challenge."
"Aw. I was never any good at puzzles." Robert said, his ears drooping. No one was surprised.
"I'm a little worried. I always hated puzzles, especially those puzzles with the five-hundred pieces. How is anyone supposed to get anywhere with those?" Robert asked.
(Immunity Challenge)
The two tribes emerged from the jungle and walked into a clearing. Quickly spotting their mats on the ground, the teams walked over and stepped on, hoping to get the challenge over with.
"Before we begin, let's bring out Kendall, who is returning from Exile Island." SSBFreak said. Kendall casually walked in from the side and joined his team as the host continued. "Welcome to your next Immunity Challenge. Here, we will see how good you are at solving a difficult puzzle." He said. The two tribes saw two large puzzle areas on a man-made wall, with two red dots, two green dots and two blue dots surrounding the frames. "The goal of this challenge is to connect all of the dots surrounding the frame of your puzzle, and you have to match the colours, so you have to connect the red dots to each other and so on. To connect them, you need to use the pieces provided, which consist solely of lines pertaining to the three colours. Some are straight, some are bent and there are some pieces where two different colours intersect. All of the pieces are in the right place, so all you need to do is figure out which way the pieces go. Whoever connects all of the dots the right way will win Immunity and be safe from Tribal Council."
The two teams exchanged glances, knowing that this challenge would be a real rough one if they didn't know how to do it properly.
"Ventala, you have two extra people. Who is sitting out?" SSBFreak asked.
"Fran-CINE and I will." Brock said.
"Okay. If everyone else will approach their puzzles, we'll start."
Everyone else walked over to their puzzles, quickly noticing that they were angled so they didn't have a view of their opponents' field. Nevertheless, they got ready for the challenge.
"Okay. For Immunity, Survivors ready…" SSBFreak said. "Go!"
The sixteen participating players quickly went to work on their puzzle, wondering where they should start.
"Focus on the red line first." Riddle suggested.
"Are you kidding? The red dots are the furthest away from each other!" Samantha pointed out.
"The dots that are closer are always the hardest to connect." Riddle assured.
"We'll go with it for now." Gary said. "Now, look at the square in front of one of the dots."
The team looked at the piece and saw that the line was L-Shaped, meaning that there were two directions the line could connect.
"Which way does it go?" Chloe asked.
"Let's try moving it this way for now and see if we can go anywhere with it." Gary said as he turned the piece, connecting the dot.
Meanwhile, the Ventala Tribe was trying to connect the blue dots, the two dots that appeared closest together.
"Maybe this piece goes this way." Zeg suggested, turning a piece.
"That doesn't leave us with a possible way to connect the dots." Kenal replied.
"You sure? Maybe it's just gotta go a bit longer."
"Look! We're getting nowhere!" Mongo said. "Can't we just move onto a different line?"
"I agree. If we waste too much time, then we'll fall behind." Angela nodded.
"Hang on! I think I've got this!" Zeg insisted.
The Ferren Tribe was continuing to work on their puzzle, but was also running into some problems.
"Oh, crap! I think we made a mistake at the start!" Chloe said. "Look!"
"She's right. We can't connect the dots like this. We've run out of space." Tempo agreed.
"Go back to the first square and try going in the other direction." Tomato suggested. "That has to be where we made our mistake."
"We need to act fast! The other team has a lead!" Erica urged.
Gary, the tallest of the team, rotated the first square so that it was facing another direction. "Where do we go from here?" He asked.
"The next two panels are straight lines, so they're easy." Riddle pointed out. "But we've got an intersection of two colours coming up."
Meanwhile, the Ventala Tribe hadn't made much progress, and that was because they were still working on the one line.
"Zeg, this is taking too long! We need to move on!" Danglars urged.
"Just a minute! I've almost got it!" Zeg said.
Angela growled. "We don't have time for this. Let's just move onto another colour and let Zeg handle this one." She insisted.
"Sounds like an idea, partner." Corey nodded.
Leaving Zeg to work on the first colour alone, the rest of Ventala moved onto the next colour.
"Okay. This one here is easy to start with." Kenal said, pointing out one of the other coloured lines. "The only thing connected to the dot is a straight line, so it can only go one way."
"Both teams are working hard, but they've both run into some problems." SSBFreak said before turning to the two non-competing players. "How do you two think this will end up?"
"With challenges like this, you never know." Brock shrugged. "I mean, I'm really hoping that our team can win, but at the moment it looks close."
"The tides change in the blink of an eye." Fran-CINE reminded.
"I know. That's why I'm hoping we pull off the win."
Meanwhile, the Ferren Tribe had just managed to complete the red line, connecting the two red dots. The team had by now moved onto the green dots.
"Where do you think this square would go?" Robert asked.
"It's an intersection with the blue line. Where do you THINK it's going to go?" Erica asked flatly.
"Uh…"
"You know what? Never mind." Erica said as she rotated the square and put it into place.
"What about this turning piece?" Tempo asked. "Up or down?"
"Look ahead of it. If it goes up, it'll collide with the red line." Samantha pointed out. "Turn it down."
Meanwhile, not a lot of progress had been made on Ventala's side. Most of the tribe hadn't gotten very far on the line they were working on while Zeg was still trying to piece the original line together by himself.
"I think that piece is going the wrong way." Kendall pointed out.
"It can't be. If it goes the other way, we won't have the right set of pieces to connect." Angela insisted.
"Whereas if it goes the other way, it will end up going straight into the top of the frame!"
The Ventala Tribe froze as they looked at the line again. "Oh, crap! He's right!" Danglars stated. "We made a wrong turn early on!"
Angela growled. "I hate this! I hate making these kind of mistakes!" She said as she backtracked.
Zeg examined the line he was working on. He only had a few squares left to connect, but he was wondering how to take the path.
"If I take this way…No, that won't work…" Zeg mused. "What about this way?"
The Ferren Tribe was moving surprisingly-well. They looked well on their way to connecting the two green dots and showed no signs of slowing down. In fact, they were looking rather excited that they were doing it so fast.
"And…That's it! The green line's done!" Chloe said.
"That just leaves the blue line. That was the shortest distance between the two dots, right?" Gary asked.
Riddle nodded. "Indeed, but look at this. There are two intersections with blue lines going AWAY from the target dot." He pointed out. "Even though it's the shortest distance to the dot, expect the line to be the longest."
"This shouldn't take too long." Gary noted as he went to work. "A lot of the work's already done."
Back on Ventala's side, the first line, the green one, had just been completed. Zeg was still working on the red line alone and everyone else was moving onto the blue one.
"This piece goes this way." Corey said as she turned one of the squares.
"No way! That piece leads nowhere!" Mongo insisted. "It goes the other way!"
"How d'ya know that?"
"Look at it!" Mongo pointed out. "It's going in the complete-opposite direction!"
"Girls, we're getting nowhere as it is!" Amy pointed out. "Can we PLEASE just move on?"
"She started it!" Mongo accused, pointing at Corey.
"What'd Ah do?" Corey countered.
"We need to get this done before the other team can-"
"We're done!"
Everyone on Ventala stopped and hesitantly looked at the other team's puzzle. Indeed, the Ferren Tribe had managed to complete all three coloured tracks and connected all of the right dots.
"That's it! The challenge is over!" SSBFreak announced. "Ferren wins Immunity!"
The Ferren Tribe cheered at their first Immunity victory. On Ventala's mat, Brock looked disappointed while Fran-CINE looked rather neutral.
(Later…)
"Congratulations on winning your first Immunity Challenge, Ferren. You are all safe from elimination and will be around at least a few more days." SSBFreak said as he turned to the losing tribe. "Ventala, for the first time, I'll be seeing you all at Tribal Council tonight, where you will vote one of your own out of the game. Now you need to ask yourself who you think is holding the tribe back the most, but I'll give you the rest of the day to figure that out. You can all head back to camp."
(Ventala Tribe)
"Well, I made it just over a week without losing Immunity. That's pretty good, but I guess it had to end eventually." Brock sighed. "Now we need to decide who to vote out, and I want to make sure Angela's the one in charge here. That way, if the choice comes back to bite her, it'll be off the shoulders of Amy and I."
"Amy tells me you've been talking to Corey." Angela said, a little suspicious. "Trying to get another vote?"
"Uh…Yeah. Sorry I didn't come to you earlier about it." Brock said. "The opportunity just came up and I wanted to take it."
Angela paused. "That's fine. I'll let it slide, but does this means that she'll vote with us?" She asked.
"Yeah. Corey's good for the vote, and I think Fran-CINE will vote with us so long as we don't vote for her." Brock shrugged.
"That's fine. She's not the target, anyway."
"I think Angela's trying to think things too far. I mean, I think she's got good survival skills, don't get me wrong, but her suspicions about Brock may ruin her." Amy said. "It I wasn't here to tell her otherwise, she may think that Brock's planning something behind her back."
Meanwhile, the other major alliance was trying to plan things out. So far, they hadn't been having much luck.
"We know they're gunning for one of us, but we don't know who." Danglars folded his arms.
"Gee, Sherlock. What tipped you off?" Mongo rolled her eyes. Danglars ignored her.
"Maybe this might help." Kendall said as he pulled an idol from behind his back.
"Where did you find that?" Mongo asked, wide-eyed.
"Where was he KEEPING it?" Danglars asked, a little weirded out.
"So Kendall pulls out this idol that he says he found on Exile. While it's great that we have it, it'll only help us once." Danglars pointed out. "Once we use it, we need to make sure one of us is sent to Exile next so we can find it again."
"I dug it up on Exile Island." Kendall said. "If we can figure out which of us the others are targeting, I'll give the idol to them and they'll use it."
"But…You think we can do that without the others noticing?" Zeg asked.
"I'll need to be quick and it needs to be done while one of them is answering a question." Kendall pointed out. "If I can do that, we're good."
"Sounds like a plan, then." Kenal nodded.
"I hope this works. If we use the idol with the wrong person, then it will have been a complete waste." Zeg sighed. "Still, I'm hopeful that Kendall can pull this off without a hitch."
(Tribal Council)
The ten members of Ventala walked into Tribal Council with their torches. Going over to the stumps provided, everyone sat down as they waited for Council to commence.
"Welcome to your first Tribal Council, Ventala. In a moment, you will be voting one of your own out of the game as your tribe's first casualty." SSBFreak said before asking some questions. "Corey, how's life at your tribe?"
Corey grinned. "Aw, it couldn't be better! I got a big lake so we can go swimmin' and there are a lotta trees around so we can git some food!" She explained. "Man, so far, this is kinda like life back home! Ah mean, there was this one time where-"
"Moving on." SSBFreak said as he moved to the next person. Corey continued to talk. "Amy, how is everyone getting along?"
"For the most part, it's not that bad. I think we're the stronger tribe overall, but even still, the other tribe's got Gary, someone we wouldn't have expected to be as strong as he was." Amy replied. "However, there's one thing going on that's been getting on our nerves lately."
"Care to elaborate?"
"How about you ask Angela? She seems to like talking about this subject."
"Uh…Okay. Angela, what's Amy talking about?"
"There's a saboteur in our group and is tampering with everything we've got! Our flint is ruined, our fire pit got destroyed multiple times and a lot of our fruit gets ruined!" Angela replied. Corey was still talking. "I don't know who's doing this, but they'll be sorry when I get a hold of them!"
"Angela, NONE of us know who the saboteur is." Brock reminded. He didn't get an answer.
"Zeg, you guys have won most of the challenges up until now." SSBFreak said. "Why do you think that is?"
"I think that we just received some challenges that benefited us more. That and we appear to be better coordinated." Zeg responded. "We just lost this challenge because we ended up with a challenge we didn't excel at."
"Dude, you spent the entire challenge on ONE line." Brock reminded.
"I knew I was almost done it!" Zeg insisted.
"Kenal, do you feel at a disadvantage with only one arm and limited mobility?" SSBFreak asked. Corey was still talking, but by now, everyone else had stopped listening.
"Actually, I think I've shown that I can be an asset. I know I do things a little differently, but the bottom line is that I can still do most things anyone else can." Kenal reasoned.
"Angela, how do you think the vote's going to go?"
"My alliance is voting for Zeg because he held us back at the challenge." Angela folded her arms. As Angela was talking, Kendall slipped Zeg the idol. "Plus, he's completely dangerous with anything sharp."
"Anything to add, Zeg?"
"It's not my fault I'm half-blind, you know." Zeg reminded. "I told you right off the bat."
"Um…Mongo, what's your feelings on the vote?"
Mongo gave a shrug. "As long as it isn't me." She said simply.
"…And the pipes weren't even that clean! Ah mean, how d'they expect me ta-" Corey said before Brock, sitting beside her, tapped her on the shoulder. "Oh. Uh…Are we done?"
"Yes. It's time to vote." SSBFreak nodded. "Amy, you're up."
Amy got up, left the hut and went over to the voting table to cast her ballot. The red fox girl wrote a name down and put it into the urn.
Kendall gave a smirk as he wrote a name down. "Time for me to kick things into gear." He said as he voted and left the table.
Danglars approached the table and wrote a name down. "I hope this works." He said as he put his ballot into the jar.
Zeg scribbled a name down and showed it to the camera. "Out of the opposing alliance, you're the weakest." He said, having voted for Brock.
Kenal hovered over to the table and used his claw to grab the pen and write a name down. Satisfied, he left the table.
Mongo looked a little bored, but she wrote a name down anyway. When she was done, she put the vote into the jar and left as quick as she came.
Angela looked determined as she cast her vote. "We need to whittle away at the weak." She said as she put the vote into the urn.
Brock wrote a name and turned his ballot, revealing that he had voted for Zeg. "Believe me, it's nothing personal." He apologized as he voted and left.
Fran-CINE quickly wrote a name down and cast her vote. "I wish the vote could be with someone stronger, but this will do for now." She said as she left the table.
Corey was the last one to vote. She wrote a name down, placed her ballot into the jar and left, thankfully without saying a word.
Once all ten people had voted, the host left the hut to fetch the urn and returned with it moments later. "When I read the names, the person with the most votes will be asked to bring forward their torch and leave Tribal Council immediately." He said. "It's time to-"
"Hang on!"
Everyone looked at Zeg, who was holding the idol. He approached the host and handed it over. "I've got this idol and I'd like to play it." He said.
"No way!" Amy said. Angela growled.
However, upon inspecting the idol, SSBFreak looked at Zeg. "Zeg, this isn't the Hidden Immunity Idol." He said.
This took Zeg, as well as most of the others, by surprise. He looked at Kendall, who appeared to be just as shocked as he was. "But…Kendall said he found it on Exile!" The mole insisted.
"I did!" Kendall retorted.
"It must have been planted. This one's a fake." SSBFreak said as he tossed the fake idol into the fire. "Zeg, do you have the real one?"
"N-No. I don't." Zeg said as he returned to his seat.
"Okay. If the real idol isn't going to be played, it's time to read the votes…" SSBFreak said.
"…First vote; Zeg." Zeg looked down.
"Zeg." "There's always the tiebreaker." Kendall supplied to Zeg.
"…Brock." Brock's eyes widened in surprise.
"Zeg. He leads 3 to 1." Zeg bit his lip.
"Brock." Brock held his breath.
"…Brock. It's tied at 3."
"Zeg."
"Brock. We're tied at 4." The two contestants looked at each other nervously.
"Zeg." The contestants waited for the last vote, which they thought they knew. "…Last vote, and third person voted out of Survivor: Central Hub…"
"…Zeg. You need to bring me your torch." SSBFreak said.
Zeg's eyes widened. "But…It was supposed to be five-on-five!" He insisted. The other people that supposedly voted with him looked just as shocked. Nevertheless, Zeg grabbed his torch and brought it to the host.
"Zeg, the tribe has spoken." SSBFreak said as he extinguished Zeg's torch. "It's time for you to go."
"Watch your backs, guys. Someone's not telling the truth." Zeg warned as he left the hut and walked out of sight.
Once Zeg was gone, SSBFreak turned to the remaining Ventala players. "If tonight's vote showed anything, it's that you can't assume a vote will go the way you want. In this game, anything can happen, and I'm guessing Zeg found that out the hard way." He explained. "Seventeen of you remain, and rest assured, we've only just started. Many more will fall, and remember that only one can win. You can all head back to camp."
The nine remaining Ventala players stood up, gathered their torches and left Tribal Council. Bringing up the rear, Kendall looked to be in shock of what happened to the vote. However, in his mind, he was glad that the vote ended the way it did, just as he planned. Now it was time to start pointing fingers…
"I'm shocked that I got voted out the way I did. I thought for sure there would at least be a tiebreaker, and if it was a fire-making one, I'd win easily." Zeg lamented. "Oh, well. I guess you can't win them all. I managed to last for a week and a bit, so that's pretty good when you consider I'm a half-blind mole."
Voting History:
Zeg – Amy, Angela, Brock, Corey, Fran-CINE and Kendall
Brock – Danglars, Kenal, Mongo and Zeg
Author's Notes: And Zeg is the third to fall. He was interesting to write for and was a good short-term character, but I knew I wouldn't be able to get a lot of mileage out of him when I cast him, so I tried to get as much out of him as I could before he got the boot.
