(a/n) wow its been a while since Ive updated. sorry about that. Ive been... I dont want to say busy. slothful or lazy are more appropriate terms. *shrugs* anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Episode 20: Cuffed Part 1

"Damn Lena, making people think I'm a pedophile." Chris grumbled as he made his way down the Dock of Shame for the morning recap shoot. "Could've told the court the truth and said that she forced herself one me, but no! She had to go and say we're in love. Now they're monitoring my every move… and this thing freaking itches!" He stopped briefly and rubbed his left shoe on his right ankle, but to no avail. The itch was under the strap of the tracking ankle bracelet that he was ordered to wear for at least a week. Long story short, if he went anywhere near the girls cabin, TDD needed a new host.

"Hey, Chris. How's house arrest?" Steve the camera guy asked as Chris walked up to him.

"Not bad enough that I won't risk getting more time by punching you in the face." Chris said. "Now let's get this over with."

"You got it, ya sick freak." Steve chuckled. Chris glared at him. "I mean boss." He quickly turned on the camera and Chris managed to force his signature grin, despite his current emotional state.

"Last time on Total Drama Dynamite… Yours truly was off island taking care of some business, so it was left to good old Chef Hatchet to host the challenge that day. And let me tell you, Chef doesn't mess around. For the challenge, Chef set five of his old military buddies loose to hunt down and capture the campers who were spread throughout the island. But they weren't the only obstacle that the campers had to face! That's right! Resident jerk Russell caused some serious trouble, stealing the other camper's only line of defense against the hunters. At the same time, everyone else was a little too distracted to really concentrate on the challenge. Ayame made Allister begin to wonder how deep his feelings for Dylan actually were; TJ and Kyra, having different strategies on how to win the game, made a little bet to see who would last longer; and it turns out that Penny has been acting as an informant to Tak and Nicholas about Payton's feeling for the two of them! No wonder this show is called Total Drama Dynamite… In the end, it came down to TJ and Russell as the final two, both racing to the exit point which was the Boat of Losers. Russell ended up winning, and TJ ended up in the water. But in a cruel twist by Chef Hatchet, by winning the challenge, Russell had also eliminated himself, going home with the worst consolation prized ever! TJ, having won his bet with Kyra and having come farthest in the challenge, got all the glory. And later that night Nicholas decided to be the bigger man and backed down from his competition for Payton's feelings with Tak. This allowed Payton to show her affection for Tak with an awe inspiring kiss in front of everybody.

"Today, we've decided to take the road of the cruel twist once again. What am I talking about? You'll have to wait and see. So stick around for all of the action today on Total… Drama… Dynamite!" the annual explosions went off, Steve shut down the camera, and Chris reverted to a scowling expression. "Good work, boss."

"Yeah, yeah." Chris grumbled, walking back down the dock. "If anyone needs me I'll be pressing my face against Chef's stove top to distract myself from this damn itch."

Steve turned his camera back on. "Wait for me!"

~LATER~

As sunlight broke over the horizon, the ten remaining campers filed into the Mess Hall for breakfast. Chef served up what he called grits but looked more like Lucky Charms without the marshmallows that had been boiled in water. Everyone sat around the same table, which they'd done every day since the last challenge. Chris was even considering removing the other table, but the campers doubted he would since that would cost money.

In the three days since the last challenge, Payton and Tak had become almost inseparable. They were almost always sitting close together, hugging, or holding hands, and yet they never seemed to get too mushy. After their first kiss the night of the previous challenge they'd had a long talk under the stars, sitting on the edge of the Dock of Shame. Payton had explained what Nicholas had done and, while he didn't understand why he'd done it, Tak was grateful for it. In just a few days they'd grown to care for each other deeply, beyond the mutual crush they'd had on each other before hand. Everyone on the island agreed that they seemed right for each other.

"They look cute, don't they?" Penny asked as she and Nicholas watched Tak and Payton laugh as they said something in unison.

"Yeah." Nicholas agreed.

"I kind of feel left out though." Penny admitted. "Now I'm the only girl left on the island that doesn't have a date for the after party." And idea suddenly crossed her mind and she glanced mischievously over to Nicholas.

"Oh no. Don't even think about it!" Nicholas said.

Penny half scoffed, half laughed. "As if! Like I'd ever consider going out with you!"

"Likewise." Nicholas agreed.

"Friends, then?" Penny questioned.

"Until fate deems otherwise."

They shook hands on it.

It was then that Chris entered the room from the kitchen. Strangely, his face was beat red. "Morning, campers!" he said happily, his eyes twitching every time a muscle in his face moved.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"Yeah, he actually did it!" Steve the camera guy said as he sat in the confessional outhouse. "Check it out! I got the whole thing on camera!"

He held his cell phone up to the camera, showing a video of Chris pressing his face against Chef's stove top (albeit, for no more than half a second) and screaming like a little kid being robbed at gun point.

~END CONFESSIONAL~

"Dude, what's wrong with your face?" TJ asked.

"The same thing that's wrong with yours." Chris retorted. "Now, who's ready for today's challenge?" The campers made a few grumbles of indifferent opinions, so Chris proceeded with the announcement. "Well, today we're once again bringing back a fan favorite challenge." He pulled a briefcase out from behind his back and opened it, revealing five shiny, new pairs of handcuffs inside. "If all the boys would come up and retrieve a pair of these?" Jason, TJ, Tak, Nicholas, and Allister all did so. "Now, please choose one of the girls to be your partner for the day."

Jason smirked and walked over to Sakura. Sakura smiled back and held out her wrist, Jason happily wrapping the metal ring around it and then did the same to his own. "You have the right to remain silent." Jason said. "Anything you say can and will be misconstrued as sexual innuendo and used against you in whatever joke I feel appropriate."

"Oh, I can't wait." Sakura responded dryly.

"Well, if you insist." Jason then pulled Sakura into an embrace and grabbed onto her rear end with his free hand. Sakura responded by pushing him away, but since they were cuffed together, this resulted in him falling onto the floor and her falling on top of him. Everyone else laughed as they got back to their feet.

"You are so going to get it for this." Sakura said to Jason.

"I hope so." Jason laughed.

TJ and Tak then proceeded to cuff themselves to Kyra and Payton. Ayame and Allister then teamed up, leaving Nicholas and Penny.

"Okay, now that we have out teams, let me explain the challenge. You're all going to go through a series of challenges, each of which will require your full cooperation with your teammate. The good news is that no one is going home today… the bad news is, the winning team has to pick two previously eliminated contestants to return to the island for a second chance."

This caught Allister and Ayame's attention.

"Also, just as last time, you will be offered the wimp key before each challenge." Chris added, holding up a skeleton key with he produced from seemingly nowhere. "So, your first challenge is in one hour. Until then, feel free to provide us with footage of you antics while cuffed together worthy of a montage." With that, Chris returned to the kitchen. It was only a few seconds later that the campers heard a blood curdling scream, causing them to exit the Mess Hall hastily.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"Steve filled me in on the details behind Chris's red face and that scream." Ayame said to the camera. "He even showed me the video… and I have to say, awesome!"

~END CONFESSIONAL~

Ayame pulled Allister away from the group as everyone exited the Mess Hall, taking him to the bonfire site so that they could talk privately. "We need to win this challenge!" she said to him. Allister didn't know how to respond and remained silent. "C'mon, Allister!" Ayame pleaded. "I know you feel for Dylan the same way I feel about Harper, even if you won't admit it."

"Ayame…"

"Please Allister? If you don't want to do this for yourself, then at least do it for me. Please?" Ayame begged.

Allister couldn't bring himself to speak.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"I know exactly how she was feeling. I miss Dylan so much I can barely stand it some times, even if we never officially had anything." Allister said to the camera. "My problem isn't that I don't want to bring Dylan back, it's that I've never been much of a fighter and I've always left people walk all over me… but then it hit me. That was the reason I came to the island. Not for the money, but to gain some self confidence."

~END CONFESSIONAL~

He sighed. "Look, Ayame. I'm not guaranteeing anything. But I promise that I'll try my hardest to win this."

Ayame smiled and hugged him. "That's all I'm asking." She said.

~ELSEWHERE~

"This sucks." Nicholas groaned.

"How do you think I feel about it?" Penny demanded from the other side of the bathroom stall door which Nicholas was leaning against. "I can barely reach the toilet seat like this!" Nicholas had his back against the bathroom stall because Penny had to go, and Penny couldn't quite reach the seat because she and Nicholas were handcuffed together. Nicholas jumped slightly when he heard Penny groan in frustration and stand up. "This isn't going to work!"

"Why don't we ask Chris for the wimp key?" Nicholas asked

"You think he would let us use it without any consequences?" Penny asked as she exited the stall.

"No." Nicholas said. "But he already said no one is going home today. I'm guessing the worst he can do is eliminate us from the challenge today."

"You realize this is Chris McClain we're talking about." Penny said, cocking an eyebrow.

"Really? I thought we were talking about Christopher Columbus." Nicholas said sarcastically. "Do you have a full bladder or not?"

"Fine, whatever." Penny said, leading Nicholas out of the communal washrooms to find Chris. "Feel like I'm about to explode anyway."

They found Chris inside Chef's kitchen, leaning back in a chair with a bag of frozen corn sitting on his face. Chef explained to them about the tracking bracelet and how Chris was causing physical harm to himself to distract himself from an itch underneath it.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

Nicholas and Penny both sat in the confessional outhouse laughing hysterically.

~END CONFESSIONAL~

As expected, Chris handed over the Wimp Key to them but they were automatically disqualified from the competition. Considering that they couldn't be sent home anyway, it was no big deal. The second Penny was un-cuffed she ran from the Mess Hall and made a beeline straight for the communal washrooms.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"Was it just me or could you hear her sigh all the way in the Mess Hall?" Nicholas chuckled to the camera.

~LATER~

Tak and Payton say on the edge of the Dock of Shame, Payton leaning into Tak with her head resting on his shoulder, the fingers of their cuffed hands laced together. Tak would've liked to have one arm wrapped around her shoulders or waist, but that would've been uncomfortable for her obviously. They were content, happy. It was almost a perfect picture. Then Payton chuckled about something she'd been thinking about. Curious, Tak looked down at her. "What's so funny?" he asked.

"Oh, it's nothing." She said. "It's just… well…" She lifted up her arm, pulling his up along with it. "There are only a few situations where I ever thought I'd be handcuffed at all… and being handcuffed to you, well…"

"Wait, let me guess." Tak interrupted with a mischievous grin. "Being cuffed to me is filling your head with nasty images and whatnot."

She elbowed him in the stomach lightly. "Sorry, Tak, but my mind isn't in the gutter." She lied.

"All right, all right." Tak said, raising his free hand in surrender. "Still, you'd rather be stuck with me than anyone else on the island, right?"

Almost before he'd finished speaking Payton had pushed him onto his back and rolled on top of him. "Does this answer your question?" she asked before leaning down and kissing him. They lay there for a few moments, embracing each other with their legs hanging over the edge of the dock. They wished that the reason they would have had to break apart was the need for oxygen, but instead their lips separated when Tak felt someone kick his head lightly. They looked up to find Jason and Sakura standing just above them.

"C'mon you two." Jason said. "As much as you must be enjoying the moment, it's challenge time."

"Great…" Tak and Payton groaned as they stood up and followed Jason and Sakura back to the Mess Hall.

"You know you're going to get it now, Jason." Tak whispered to the other boy.

"No thank you." Jason said. "I just stopped you from getting it. So I don't want anything you have to offer."

"Good one." Sakura said.

"I do my best."

They were the last to arrive at the Mess Hall. The two couples sat opposite each other, Jason and Sakura next to TJ and Kyra and Tak and Payton next to Allister and Ayame. Nicholas and Penny were there as well, but they were no longer cuffed together. "What's all this about?" TJ asked.

"I had to pee." Penny explained. "Chris would only un-cuff us if we willingly disqualified ourselves."

"Oh. That explains it." TJ said.

At that moment Chris walked out of the Kitchen, his face now covered in medical bandages. "Hll, cmprs. Rdy fr yr frst chllng?" he said, the bandages muffling his words so he could barely be understood. An intern holding some poster board walked out of the kitchen seconds later. He scribbled onto the poster board with a sharpy and then held it up, translating Chris's words. "Hello, campers. Ready for your first challenge?"

"Let's do this!" Ayame said enthusiastically.

"All right then!" the translator wrote down as Chris continued mumbling. "Then let's get started. Please follow me to the amphitheater." Chris led them there and they sat down on the bleachers. "Now then. For the first part of today's challenge, you all will be participating in a talent show. The rules are simple. Both partners must participate and whoever does the best job gets the first point of the game. Any questions? No? Good. TJ and Kyra, you're up first."

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"Okay, so I'm panicking." Kyra said to the camera. "I love him, but I have to admit that TJ doesn't have much talent except for throwing a wild party. Then I started thinking about what I can do. So, long story short, we were screwed unless TJ pulled a miracle out of his butt."

~END CONFESSIONAL~

"So, you got a plan?" Kyra asked as she and TJ stepped behind the curtain of the amphitheater.

TJ smirked. "Just follow my lead, baby."

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

Kyra once again sits in front of the camera in the confessional outhouse, only this time her clothes and hair are soaking wet and her hair is matted down over her face. She reached up and pulled a strand out hair out of the way of one of her eyes. "Did I say I love him? It's more of a love/hate relationship."

~END CONFESSIONAL~

When the curtain of the amphitheater rose the other campers were surprised to find TJ sitting on a unicycle with Kyra standing next to him, holding onto it for balance. "This should be good." The translator wrote as Chris mumbled. "Whenever you're ready."

TJ clapped his hands and an intern backstage hit play on a boom box. Circus music started playing and Kyra, in an amazing leap that left everyone watching almost speechless, jumped up onto TJ's shoulders. Unfortunately, that's when things went awry. TJ tried to start pedaling but, having not considered the balance issues that came with Kyra on his shoulders, he quickly lost control of the unicycle. Long story short, they ended up a quarter mile away in the lake. Chris was laughing hysterically through his bandages and held up a sign reading "FAIL."

Jason and Sakura were up next. They attempted to play a single guitar together, but with their cuffed hands that was easier said than done. The tried playing Ozzy Osborn's "Iron Man", but it ended up sounding more like the Jaws theme. Chris, unimpressed, once again held up the "FAIL" sign.

Payton and Tak were up next.

"So, what will you be doing for us?" Chris's translator wrote down.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"So it turns out that me and Tak don't really have any talents we can do together." Payton said to the camera, supporting her head in her hands and resting her elbows on her knees. "He had the idea for me to rap since he can DJ and I can sing, but I don't really care for rap so that idea went out the window."

~END CONFESSIONAL~

"Yeah, we're going to have to pass." Payton said.

"Will you be taking the Wimp Key?"

"No." Tak added. "We just have no idea what to do."

Chris shrugged and held up the "FAIL" sign again. "Ayame, Allister, please do something worth watching." He pleaded.

"Don't worry." Allister said.

"We've got this in the bag." Ayame added.

Ayame and Allister went behind the curtain. Within a few seconds music started playing, "She's Got Me Dancing" by Tommy Sparks, and the curtain began to rise. Fog rolled out from under the curtain as it rose and Ayame and Allister began walking forward once it was high enough. Together they danced to the music in perfect synchronization, almost making a mirror image with their movements.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"Personally, I'm no fan of dancing." Nicholas said to the camera. "But I have to admit that those two had skill."

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"They were simply amazing!" Payton said to the camera excitedly.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"I have to say," TJ said to the camera. "If I didn't already know he was into dudes, that dance would've made me question Allister's sexuality… Yeah. It was that good."

~END CONFESSIONAL~

As the music came to an abrupt stop Allister and Ayame froze, mirroring each other's body positions with their arms stretched out slightly, their heads flung back and their eyes closed. Everyone watching began cheering (including TJ and Kyra who had just returned from their swim) and Chris held up a sign with "Epic Win" written on it. Allister and Ayame smiled contently as they stepped off the stage.

~CONFESSIONAL CAM~

"Oh yeah, we're so winning this challenge." Ayame said with a sly grin to the confessional camera, Allister sitting beside her. "… Even if it kills us."

"Um, wouldn't that defeat the whole point of winning the challenge?" Allister questioned.

Ayame rolled her eyes. "Shut up! I'm on a roll!"

(a/n) for the record, I actually wanted to do another part of the challenge in this chapter but that wouldve taken me another week the way Ive been writing lately. so yeah. the better parts of the challenge will come next time around.