The episode opens with the contestants eating breakfast. They are now sitting at two separate tables, one for the Martians and one for the Comets. Scott and LoLo are throwing their food at each other across the table, making growling noises and sticking their tongues out at each other. Ruby is attempting to talk to Hanzo, and Marty is attempting to talk to Ruby.
"So, Hanzo, how long have you been a ninja?" Ruby asks, smiling. Hanzo doesn't answer, but he does turn to look at her politely, to show that he's not ignoring her.
"I've been to the future," Marty says, leaning on his elbow so he's facing Ruby completely. She doesn't seem to realize he's talking to her though, and tries talking to Hanzo again.
"Okay, maybe you can answer a yes or no question. Hmm, have you ever been to Japan?" After a moment, Hanzo nods his head once. "Wow!" Ruby says excitedly. "That's so cool. I've never been, but my family's from there. I'm hoping to go there someday soon! Maybe if I win this game, I can take my whole family there."
Marty clears his throat, and actually gets Ruby's attention. "I went to the future, there were no ninjas there."
"You went to the future? When?" Ruby asks, interested. Before Marty can answer, Ruby's attention gets taken away again. Hanzo tosses an apple into the air and takes out a ninja star, slicing the apple into pieces will it's still in the air.
"Wow!" Ruby says. "Did you learn to do that in Japan?"
Further down the table, Emily and Johnny are watching the other three. "Hey, do you wanna place bets on who gets the girl in the end?" Emily asks, smirking and raising an eyebrow.
Johnny looks confused. "What do you mean? You mean Marty and Hanzo? You think they're fighting over Ruby?" Emily rolled her eyes.
"Obviously. Every time Marty gets Ruby's attention, Hanzo does something cool to make her look at him, and vice versa. So who do you think is gonna win her over?"
Johnny watched the three of them thoughtfully. "Well, Marty's pretty cool, but he probably got into Ruby's bad books when he pulled that stunt with the hoverboard."
"I agree. I think Ruby's into the strong, silent type."
On the Martian side, Leo was looking shy and frightened. Both of his friends were on the other team.
Henry looked around for a place to sit after being served by Chef, and decided to sit next to Leo. He felt bad for the little guy. "Hey Leo," Henry said, placing his plate down on the table. Fabrizio followed, taking a seat on the other side of the table.
"Oh, h-hi!" Leo said, trying his best to smile. He wasn't very good at making friends because he was so timid. "How are you guys? Are you happy about the team arrangements?"
"We're good!" Fabrizio said. "I'm pretty happy about our team, all the winners so far have been on the Martians so far. So we're looking pretty strong! The only person on our team I have a problem with is Gary."
"Um, who's Gary?" Leo asked curiously, glancing down the table. He already knew everyone's names, and he was pretty sure no one was Gary. Maybe it was a nickname though.
"Gary's sitting right over there," Fabrizio explained, pointing to an empty seat.
Henry and Leo exchanged a look. Then Leo said, "I don't think I like Gary very much either!" He grinned and winked at Henry.
Jericho was moping into his breakfast. He really missed Emma. Lilly and Luna were patting his arm and trying to cheer him up. "It's okay, Jericho, when we get to the finals you guys will be re-united! And you know, absence makes the heart grow fonder!"
"We were just getting to know each other! It's not fair. I can't believe she was the first to go. This game sucks."
He face planted into his dish, getting porridge all over himself.
Scarlett and Jamie were sitting on the opposite end of the table from them. "He blames us for voting her off," Jamie said, staring at Jericho from afar.
Scarlett rolled her eyes. "If it was just us who voted for her, she'd still be here. It was probably unanimous, that girl was a liability! I hope he doesn't cause problems for the team, though."
Jamie nodded in agreement. "We'd better win whatever challenge we get today. I hate losing, and I've lost three times in a row now!"
Scarlett agreed, but before she could say anything, Chris McLean entered the room. Everyone immediately stopped talking.
"Hel-lo campers!" Chris called out happily. "I hope you've all eaten your fill, because I have got quite the challenge in store for you! First things first, everyone put these on." He threw space suits to everyone. The Comets had blue and the Martians had red. The space suits were a lot like wetsuits for scuba diving, tight-fitting with a large white utility belt around the waist, which had a laser gun on it and things like rope in the pouches. The helmets of the space suits were like upside-down fish bowls, with tubes attached to oxygen tanks that the contestants wore like backpacks. Leo nearly fell over from the weight of the tanks.
"So, you're probably wondering what we're doing! Well, today we're going to be landing on an unexplored planet! We're going where no man has ever gone before! I'll tell you more when we land!"
The campers all rushed to the window to see the ship land on a bright green planet. When they broke through the cloud coverage, they could see a planet that was a lot like the Earth, but the grass was red, the sky was orange, and there was green smoke in the air.
"Is that air poisonous?" Henry asked.
Chris McLean grinned. "Of course! That's why we're wearing our space suits!"
"Cool!" LoLo shouted. "Are there extra-terrestrials?"
"You'll see…" Chris said ominously. He and Chef led the campers off the space ship. Chris's space suit was black, and Chef's was purple. "Okay, campers! Time to tell you what our challenge is!" They were standing in the middle of a field of blue grass. There was a giant plant at the far end of the field. "This is a simple game. All you have to do is get your team's flag and bring it back to this spot where I'm standing!"
The campers all glanced around suspiciously. There had to be a catch, the challenge was simply too easy. "What's the catch?" Emily finally asked, putting her hands on her hips.
Chris grinned. "You know, I could tell you, but that would be too easy! Martians, you guys have to get the red flag, and Comets, you have to get the blue one! Go ahead, start running!"
The contestants all warily left the start line. Rather than rush off, the Comets had a team huddle. "Okay," Ruby said, automatically taking the leadership position. No one tried to stop her. "We know that Chris is definitely hiding something from us. So we should approach the problem in waves. Scott, Marty and Emily are the strongest. Hanzo and I are the fastest. LoLo and Johnny, your skills aren't really applicable to this challenge, so you guys can be the distraction. LoLo and Johnny will go first, running up to the big plant, which will probably try to kill you. So your job is to stay alive and keep it occupied. Then Scott, Marty and Emily will run up and fight it, or whatever threat appears, while Hanzo and I use our speed to grab the flag and run it back home. Sound good?"
Everyone agreed. They joined their hands together in the middle and cheered their team name, then LoLo and Johnny started to run toward the plant.
Meanwhile, the Martians had decided to take advantage of the other team's slowness. They all charged together toward the big plant. Henry was the most cautious team member, and he stopped several feet away from the big plant. The rest of the Martians gathered behind he. He picked up a bright yellow rock from the ground and cautiously threw it at the plant.
With a horrible scream, the plant uncurled its tentacles. It wasn't a plant at all: it was like a giant octopus, a huge space monster with about a hundred arms all spreading out like tree branches from a central body that was round and a bright acidic green colour with bright red splotches. There were hundreds of shiny black eyes spread in three rings, one on top of the others, circling the creature's body.
The monster was clearly angry about being disturbed. Two of its arms reached out and grabbed the two closest campers, Henry and Scarlett. The two campers began kicking and yelling. The plant's arms were sticky everywhere they touched the contestants' skin, an unpleasant feeling and also a factor that made escaping almost impossible.
"Nobody panic!" Jamie shouted, although it was already too late for Scarlett and Henry. "Guys, we just need to keep calm and find its weak spot! It could be anything, fire, water, or a spot on its body! Try poking it in the eye, Scar!" Scarlett tried to get at one of the creature's eyes, but every time she got close it would suddenly pull her away and shake her.
"It's no good, I can't reach!" Scarlett shouted back. Leo, Lilly and Luna and Jericho were all trying to figure out how to help Henry, whose face was turning blue from how hard the monster was squeezing him. Fabrizio was nowhere to be found.
Johnny and LoLo had reached the monster. They were hoping that they could pass by the monster unnoticed because the other team was doing a pretty good distraction job themselves, but the big creature had enough eyes to see them coming, and enough arms to reach toward them and almost grab them, too. "How are we supposed to distract this thing?" Johnny asked, exasperated as he ducked another arm. "It's like, the ultimate multi-tasker!"
LoLo laughed loudly. "It's awesome! I wonder of it comes in a smaller size, then I could take one home as a pet!"
"That would not be awesome! Look, it's practically strangling Henry over there!"
LoLo made a face. "Well, if he wouldn't be so dorky, the monster would probably like him better!"
While she was talking, an arm snuck up behind her and grabbed her by the ankle. It swung her up into the air so that she was dangling upside down. "Whee!" She shouted, laughing as the blood rushed to her head. "This is fun!"
Johnny grimaced. "I'm on my own with the distraction thing, I guess. Gosh, what on Earth could possibly take its mind off of eating us?"
Johnny got hit by an idea like a bolt of lightning. "Duh! The thing that will stop it from eating us is eating something that tastes even better!" He started searching through the pockets of his suit, but there was no food in any of the utility belt pouches. "I'm gonna have to improvise," he muttered to himself, and then he ran as fast as he could into a nearby bush. He found a few berries, some fruits, some roots that looked good. He was going to make the best alien salad there ever was!
Jamie had used some of the rope from her utility belt and a stick from the ground to make a slingshot, and was aiming for the eyes of the big creature. It was difficult to aim it right so it would hit an eye and not one of her captive teammates.
Jericho, Lilly, Luna and Leo had decided to try out Jamie's other ideas, and Leo had taken a water bottle from one of his pouches. He had packed it there earlier in case he got thirsty. He aimed it as the monster and squeezed a jet of water at it, but the minute the water came into contact with the atmosphere of the planet, it exploded. Luckily it wasn't a big explosion, but it knocked Leo back. It also attracted the attention of the monster, which shot out an arm and took advantage of Leo being knocked down. Leo was lifted up to join Scarlett and Henry. "Hey guys," he said dejectedly. For some reason he was beginning to feel that he wasn't going to be the hero of the hour during this challenge.
"Hey!" He yelled to Jericho, Lilly and Luna, who had just found a box of matches in one of their pouches. "Hey, guys, don't light a fire! We have no idea if the atmosphere of this planet is flammable, or how it will react to fire! It's not worth the risk!"
"I guess he's right," Jericho said, putting the matches back in his pocket. "What are we gonna do, then?" He asked Lilly and Luna.
Luna smiled. "Well, we do know how water reacts… and we know it causes a little explosion. I think we can find a way to use that to our advantage!"
Jamie wasn't paying attention to her teammates, still determined to hit the monster in the eye. She has managed to make it angry by hitting it in the forehead and the stomach, but now she thought she had it figured out, the exact angle necessary to get the creature in one of its shiny black eyes.
She lined up the shot, and to her excitement she hit a bull's eye. "Yes!" She whooped with excitement, punching the air in victory. She didn't notice that the monster hadn't even reacted until it reached out to grab her. With a yelp of surprise she rolled to the left and dodged the blow. "Oh, for goodness' sake!" She shouted. If its eyes weren't vulnerable, what part of it was?
Scott, Marty and Emily had arrived at the party. Rather than dodging the monster's arms, they were fighting back against them. Emily was the master of an incredibly powerful high kick, Marty used his hoverboard is a weapon to knock back the monster's assaults, and Scott used his whole body, cross-checking and slapping away the arms as they came at him.
When Emily raised an eyebrow and asked how Scott had learned to fight, Scott laughed. "I play lacrosse!" He replied happily, and took another arm down by body checking it.
"Johnny, where are you? We could really use a distraction right now!" Marty called out as the giant creature began to focus more on the Comets than the Martians.
Right on cue, Johnny emerged from the bushes. He was carrying a gigantic piece of bark that was piled high with sliced fruit, chopped roots, and mixed berries over a pile of huge leaves. He trotted toward the monster carefully. At the sight of the food, all of the monsters' eyes swiveled toward the young chef. Johnny nearly fainted in fear. But the monster didn't attack him. It dropped the campers it had kidnapped and one of its arms reached out to grab the bark plate. Johnny let it go and yelled to his team, "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's get that flag!"
The Comets cheered and ran toward the place where Chris had told them the flags were. But as soon as they drew level with the monster it shot several arms out and blocked them like a goalie. "Ouf!" They shouted one by one as they were caught in the stomach. They retreated again.
Although the monster wasn't attacking them since it had been fed, it still wouldn't let them get through.
"Good try, anyway, Johnny," Emily said, clapping her friend on the back.
Lilly, Luna and Jericho were about to try making the monster run away by scaring it with an explosion when Fabrizio suddenly showed up. He was at the top of the monster.
"Fabrizio, get down!" Lilly shouted. "You're in the way of our plan!"
Fabrizio shook his head vigorously. "No, Gary, it's not going to work!" He shouted back. The Martians all exchanged worried looks. "I have the master plan, Gary!"
Before anyone could reply or try to stop him, Fabrizio slid down the monster to one of the many arms. He straddled it like a tree branch, and for a minute it looked like he was just climbing a tree as he moved down from one branch to the next.
Then he did something nobody expected. He reached under one of the thickest arms… and started tickling.
The monster started to make a strange gurgling sound. All of his arms fell limp around him, and his body started to shake. Fabrizio was making the big monster laugh. The ground began to tremble at the force of the creature's laughter.
As the contestants laughed, Ruby and Hanzo suddenly ran past at a ridiculous speed. "They're gonna get their flag before us!" Scarlett yelled, and all of the campers started running at once (except Fabrizio, who was still distracting the monster).
Thirteen campers all raced past the monster to get their flags.
But when they got past the monster, they found there was only one flag. It was partially blue and partially red.
"Chris McLame!" Emily screamed at the top of her lungs. "You said there would be a flag for each team!"
Chris's voice shouted back from all the way at the other end of the field, "I lied!"
The campers all glared at each as they gathered around the flag.
"Our team distracted the alien, so our team should get the flag," Jaime said, stepping forward.
"That's not how it works," Ruby replied, but Hanzo stepped forward before she could. He reached for a silver handle in his utility belt beside the laser gun and pulled it out. He pressed a button on the side, and a blue light blade activated.
The contestants all gasped in surprise. Ruby clapped her hands in excitement. "Good idea, Hanzo! We'll have a duel to see who gets to take the flag!"
Scowling, Jamie drew her light saber, too. It was red, to match her space suit. "This is stupid. But if that's how you wanna play it, fine. I warn you, though: I've seen the Star Wars movies like a hundred times each."
Hanzo seemed unfazed. He leveled his sword at her, and she crossed it. Then, as if on some invisible signal, the two started the duel by simultaneously lashing out at each other. Their sabers met, creating a shower of sparks. Hanzo feinted left and then swung right, but Jamie was expecting this sleight, and met his blow easily. She retaliated with a flurry of blows in rapid succession that Hanzo was forced to defend himself from rather than taking the offensive. Jamie was strong enough to force him back several steps, and it looked like Jamie had the upper hand.
Then Hanzo turned the battle around by drawing backwards, and performing a somersault jump to get onto Jamie's other side. Jamie whirled around quickly to protect her exposed back, but she was a second late, and Hanzo's saber burned her hand. She shouted in pain, and was forced to switch her light saber to her other hand. With an advantage like that, Hanzo made relatively short work of the battle. He imitated Jamie's earlier strategy, letting one blow after another rain down on her. She was forced down onto one knee by the onslaught, and while she was weak Hanzo knocked her sword to the side. His own weapon hovered at her throat.
"Alright," Jamie said, a bead of sweat running down the side of her face. "You guys get the flag. If you can keep it away from us!"
Ruby darted forward and grabbed the flag, leading a huge string of campers yelling and running toward the finish line where Chris was waiting. Members of the Martians body checked members of the Comets and members of the Comets jumped on the backs of the Martians. Everyone was shouting and laughing, playing roughly, knowing that the Comets had already won the challenge. Ruby was so fast no one could catch up to her, not even Hanzo.
"The winners of this challenge are the Colossal Comets!" Chris announced as Ruby crossed the finish line. Both teams joined her at the finish line, all out of breath but no one feeling in a bad mood, even though the Martians had to vote someone out later.
Hanzo approached Jamie, silent as always, and offered her a hand to shake.
"No hard feelings, mate," she said, shaking his hand firmly.
The campers loaded back onto the space ship SMS Wawankwa and flew back into space.
Author's Note: Hope everyone enjoyed this chapter! Leave a review saying who the Martians should vote out! The sooner you review, the sooner the next chapter will be posted! All of the confession cam reviews you guys left will be posted in the next chapter.
