Survivor - Kodai Island

Chapter 29 - Day 22 Part 1

Thanks for all the reviews last chapter. (Actually, that was the most reviews I got for one chapter since like, chapter three I think? So thanks a lot!) I can tell that a lot of people were shocked that Dark Lord Ganondorf got blindsided in a 6-5-2 vote. Despite Sumasshu being in a very bad situation, they still came out on top despite it being nine against four. If Mewtwo didn't flip, Bowser would have had Ganondorf's place, so now we get to see how far Bowser will get. I bet it was already entertaining for some of you to see Mario and Bowser actually working together, let alone making the biggest move of the season thus far. (Also, yay! Wolf finally flipped!)

So, now what? If Wolf and Mewtwo are now with Sumasshu, that means that the alliances are tied with six members each. ...Uh oh. Looks like things are getting ready to heat up here. We'll see what happens for now, because this chapter is going to cover up to the first post-merge Reward Challenge.

~KF


Senshi

Night 21


"..."

The remaining twelve castaways returned to camp, placing down their torches against a large tree one-by-one, with Lucario the Pokemon carefully transferring the individual immunity necklace to the tree. It was just a matter of moments before quite a few people were to speak.

"So yeah, my first Tribal Council…" Pit said with a nervous laugh. "...Absolute disaster. That whole Mario vs Bowser thing was all for nothing. I thought there were gonna be a few votes on Mario and a heck of a lot of votes for Bowser. That argument turned out to be completely pointless when it came to the vote... I don't... I don't know what to say right now. Lemme go back to my tribe..."

Wii Fit Trainer chose to sit by herself in one of the corners of the shelter in order to keep her composure, despite having the energy to call out the ones who flipped at that tribal.

"I can understand Sumasshu writing down Ganon at that tribal. But according to my math, two people from my alliance flipped when they weren't supposed to. I really thought Koopa was going home. When Master Hand read those votes, it was between Mario and Bowser, then mostly Bowser, and then all of a sudden it just rained down on Ganondorf. This was not the team's plan, and I am very disappointed."

"Okay, can anyone tell me what Ganondorf did?" Ike suddenly said in front of everyone. "Seriously, I'd like to know what did he do myself."

"Same." Bayonetta said with a roll of her eyes. "I mean, just... wow."

"Well, he's physical and he had the potential to try and run the show." Donkey Kong summarized. "Not even counting that, due to the circumstances, Ganon was the only option we had. It's rather difficult when you're against nine people."

"Well, fortunately for you all, I am not mad at all due to obvious reasons." Link admitted. "All I wanted to know is who flipped and why."

"Wolf and Mewtwo." Lucario answered within no time at all. "I have remembered who each and every person was supposed to write down tonight. Mewtwo changed his vote from Mario, and Wolf changed his vote from Bowser."

Silence.

"...Why?" Silence breaker Pit was the first to ask.

"Like DK said. He's physical and too threatening to keep around." Wolf folded his arms. "I did what I had to do and I did it."

"...But..." Within a blink, Pit was now facing Mewtwo. "Why did you vote for Ganon? Everyone on this tribe knew that you were pretty close with him."

"I had to get rid of him at some point, anyway. Now was the perfect time to do so..." He defended himself. "Supposed I knew I could not have beaten him if I had a shot at the final Tribal Council?"

"...Can I speak with you for a moment?"

Link received the attention from the other eleven castaways to watch him eye Mewtwo with an irritated look. "Can I just speak with you personally?"

"And Wolf, I want to have a few words with you, too..." Bayonetta folded her arms at the lupine.

-/-

"Why didn't you tell me about the Ganondorf plan? You know we weren't fond of each other that much. I would have voted with you."

Link and Mewtwo ended up standing near the woods.

"How was I supposed to know?" Mewtwo questioned. "You could have pulled off a Mario and Bowser and actually joined forces with the split vote plan... Oh wait a mintue... You two did just that, despite voting for two different people. By the way, Wolf knew that you were writing down Bowser, so he didn't trust you anymore."

"...What?"

"So, yeah..." Wolf chortled. "Me and Mewtwo pulled the trigger, and we ended up pulling the biggest blindside of the season thus far. This is definitely one for the books, haha. Shocked that I jumped ship with Mewtwo of all people? Oh Lylat, yes. Having any regrets? Heck no."

The pointy-eared castaway was seen standing by the fire near a disappointed Ike.

"Hey, don't give up. Okay? Weren't you always the one that 'fights for his friends'? We don't need you of all people to not keep your head up."

"I would have told Link and Ike about it, since they were my boys since the first tribe swap, but... no. It's kind of hard to trust someone after they have went after my number one ally twice."

While Link and Ike were by the fire, Wolf was getting ready to make his way from the beach to follow Bayonetta before the lucked out castaway himself approached him, with the biggest grin on his face. Koopa attempted to hide his snicker, yet he simply could not. Wanting to jump out of his scaly skin proved to be too much for him to hold it in.

"What did she tell ya?"

"I am so thankful to still be in the game." Bowser said. "Wolf and Mewtwo did what they have to do and saved my tail. Not only did the vote go as planned, but after twenty-one days, I am no longer on the bottom. Sure, it came with a price by now being in the same alliance as Mario, but that doesn't matter. If anything, it was all worth it!"

"I think she was ticked off at me, but she didn't show it that much at all." The mercenary elaborated. "She just wanted to know why did I do it and I said that I'm not waiting until the last minute to make my move. She was the only reason to why I didn't flip last time, so I had to rely on Mewtwo of all people. The guy told me that she was getting too close with Ganon, anyway."

Bowser's right eyebrow went up. "Wasn't Ganon close with him, too?"

"That's what I assumed, but apparently not. That's not the point, though." He had the desire to discuss future plans. "Even though you guys may not be on the bottom, not one of us is at the top. We just made it six against six now, and we gotta do something about it. Let's just start by getting rid of some of these Tatakai people here. But we all need to work together, because it's going to be hard work."

"Unfortunately, there's an even bigger cost to not being on the bottom anymore. We're now in a potential rock drawing situation to where it's six against six. I don't care who goes home next, but as long as I... uh, the six of us all leave the next tribal together, then I'll finally get my big break in this game. And if... I mean, when we get our way, Ike, Bayonetta, Link, Lucario, Wii Fit Trainer, and Pit can all kiss their games goodbye."


Day 22


The next day, it was time for the first post-merge Reward Challenge. Perhaps it was something that could have temporarily distracted the castaways from the blindsides, deception, and alliances, especially when it came to the reward itself. Besides, any opportunity to stretch one's legs, other than working around camp, was everything that one would have highly anticipated.

So at the challenge, there were a series of obstacles that were followed by a large chair with ropes tied up to it. Up above were three rows of numbered bags ranging from one to thirty, with two tables that stood near the end, one being for each team of course. And since it was a red vs blue season, those two colors represented the obstacle course from start to finish.

"Alright, you guys ready to get to today's reward challenge?" Master Hand asked.

"You bet."

"Let's do it."

"I'm ready."

"Come on!"

"Okay, so clearly people are ready for it." The host of Survivor concluded with a slightly humorous tone. "For today's challenge, three people from each team will head over to a series of obstacles. Each time, that same person will be in a chair, to which five people from each team will have to pull up to retrieve all thirty bags in numerical order, with one person collecting ten bags at the time. Once you have all thirty bags, you will untie each one to reveal a lettered tile that will help you solve a Survivor puzzle. First group of six finishes wins reward. Wanna know what you're playing for? ...The winning tribe will head out on a yacht..."

With one simple statement, a few jaws were already dropped. A ride off the island for who knew how long was enough to push them over the edge.

"...and after twenty-one days of Survivor, I know that having your first shower after a while is totally necessary."

A shower to go with the reward, might as well have sent Bayonetta, Wolf, DK, and Ike off the cliff, say they were to actually win of course. The quartet of survivor were already celebrating in their own individual way.

"Once you all get cleaned up, you will then enjoy a taco feast. I know it's worth playing for."

That was it. More enough to make everyone skydiving. The more eager ones could never contain themselves by jumping up and down in anticipation. Obviously, it required their best efforts to win, no matter what it took.

"Here's how it's gonna work. We're gonna randomly draw for captains, and those captains are not only going pick the players for their team, they will also decide which person will be in a certain position of the challenge. So that means, one of the two captains will be the hero for the day. You can only make the right decisions. That being said, we'll draw for captains and we'll get started."

-/-

"Alright, we have our two teams." Master Hand confirmed with a 'nod'. "Ike is a captain of the red team. He chose Link, Pit, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Wolf. Wii Fit Trainer is a captain of the blue team. She chose Lucario, Sonic, Bayonetta, Mario, and Mewtwo. Wolf and Sonic are going to be going through the obstacles first for their respective teams."

In typical Survivor fashion, he lifted a finger in the air to prepare the final twelve Survivor contestants. "Here we go. Playing for a taco feast reward on a yacht. Survivors ready? ...GO!"

Wolf and Sonic took off, with their teammates simultaneously cheering them on. Their first objective was to nimbly over the first obstacle, a slightly inclined it, before leaping over five bars in whatever way they could, before finally high stepping over a series of bars in order to make it to the chair with a final sprint. If there ever happened to be a Survivor show solely based on challenges, the one that Wolf and Sonic were facing currently would have been great for practice to do well.

Yet at the moment, it was the latter in the spotlight. Everyone, including the opposing team, were completely stunned at Sonic the Hedgehog's performance.

"Sonic is once again flying through a challenge!" Master Hand observed. "He's really proving what he's made of in this!"

"Don't give up, Wolf!" Link used both hands over his mouth to call. "Speed isn't everything!"

Nonetheless, the blue blur was at least almost a dozen seconds ahead of the lupine, promptly hopping in the chair to pull a lap bar over himself for obvious reasons, unless he had the desire to fall out and injure himself on the ground after being lifted by his tribemates.

"Sonic is already working on the first ten numbered bags!"

In contrast, Wolf was only halfway through the high-step obstacle. Yet to his advantage, he happened to be quite skilled with the legs, so hopefully it would not have been that much of a problem for him, in spite Sonic blazing through the entire obstacle course as if it was what he did for a living.

By the time his opponent made it to the chair, Lucario, Bayonetta, Mario, Wii Fit Trainer, and Mewtwo were already pulling Sonic high enough, with him reaching bag number three.

"The red team knows they have a bit of time to make up if they want the lead right now!"

"Guys, don't be afraid to just drop me to get the bags at the bottom row and when I'm done here." Sonic shouted to his teammates. "I don't care as long as we win in the end."

"No!" Wii Fit Trainer was not exactly in agreement to that plan. "We shall not risk for injury when you get close to the ground!"

Sonic sighed heavily as he continued with his task. Being on day number twenty-two on Kodai Island, it was one's best interest not to argue with Wii Fit Trainer, unless the opposing person was determined to get his or her point across. Yet for Sonic's case, it was not worth it. With many seconds passing, he at long last reached number ten that at the very top row . With his teammates running forward to lower him, the Senshi member grabbed all ten bags at once, racing over to drop them on the wooden table where the puzzle was soon to be solved.

"Blue team's good!" Master Hand called as Bayonetta raced back to the start of the obstacle course in order to begin her turn.

"Wolf is still working on those bags, but you can see the huge effort in his team!" Master Hand said, now watching O'Donnell grabbing bag number ten, which gave the cue for him to be lowered own. Blue haired physical player, Ike was running back to the start of the challenge to go next. He actually desired to make his way through first instead of Wolf, yet to the team, Wolf had more speed in comparison.

"Bayonetta's heading for the chair while Ike is just now starting the obstacle course!"

"Okay, pull!" Wii Fit Trainer barked out orders. "Pull! Pull! Pull! Whatever you do, do not stop pulling those ropes! Pull! Pull!"

"BE QUIET!" The patience of Mewtwo was already wearing thin. Perhaps having Wii Fit Trainer of all people as the captain was not the best idea. However, the picking for captains was a game of chance. There was nothing anybody could have done different, since they were unfortunately unable to change the past, like most people wished in real life.

"Bayonetta now working on fourteen while Ike is now getting in the chair! They need to work fast if they wanna catch up!"

"Teamwork, guys!" Donkey Kong on the other hand would have been a much better choice for blue team's captain. The team still needed to catch up to the leading six, but at least they were beginning to close the gap.

"Bayonetta now has numbers eleven through twenty! She's making two runs!"

Great. Another opportunity for the red team to catch up, much to the opposition's dismay, especially Sonic. Based on the fourth immunity challenge when they game began, losing was never exactly his forte. Winning was everything. If there was no win, no reward at the end. And of course, it happened to be that exact scenario. Regardless, it was simply an extra five seconds of Bayonetta making a second trip. Though every second mattered, he knew the amount of time it took for the puzzle to be completed based on viewing previous seasons. Those five seconds could have been completely irrelevant for all he knew.

Nonetheless, it was not the case at the moment. By the time Ike placed down his bags, he looked to see him being only a couple seconds behind Bayonetta as they were sending out their third person, which was Lucario.

"Go Lucario! ...Go Pit!" Master Hand pointed. "We're nearly neck and neck!"

Fortunately for the latter, Pit ended up catching Lucario during the last part of the obstacle, with both being in the chair about the same time as a result. It was official. The blue team's lead had all but evaporated. Oh well. At least Sonic gave them a big boost.

"It's all about working together trying to get your teammate up! Work together!"

"Keep pulling!" Ike and his teammates were now dragging their feet in the sand, pulling as hard as possible just so that Pit was able to reach number twenty-two. "You got it, Pit?"

"Got it! Bottom row!"

"Okay go back! Go back!" Wolf hollered. Due to his group being stronger physically, it was what caused them to suddenly be in the lead, now being one number ahead.

"And just like that, red is working on twenty-seven while blue's stuck on twenty-six!"

"Go down! Down! Down! Down!" shouted Wii Fit Trainer as Lucario pulled up bag twenty-six. "Okay, up! Up! Up! Up! Up! Up!"

"SILENCE!" The more she commanded him, the angrier Mewtwo got.

In the end, in spite of their lead being lost, Lucario made one trip to drop the remaining ten bags of tiles on the table, not too long after Pit.

"Both teams are good! Unpack those tiles and start working on the puzzle!"

"Okay, six word phrase. Let's go!" Wii Fit Trainer, Mario, and Mewtwo worked on the puzzle for blue, with Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Link being the puzzle solvers for red.

"Should we start with the big words first and see what we can make of them?" Link questioned the two. "I figure once we get those out the way, maybe we can make major progress here."

"Okay, we can try that." Donkey Kong instantly agreed, flipping tiles over. "But just so that we can all remember, three of these tiles will be blank, so we need to get rid of those to avoid any distractions.

"So, how many letters do we need to use?"

"...Twenty-seven…" Link briefly stared blankly at Bowser, turning back to count the first set of spaces grouped together. "Okay, so let's see what letters we have here..."

Mario's fingers popped up one-by-one, words immediately popping in his head while spelling them out loud. Mewtwo simply held a fist beneath his chin eyeing the puzzle. Though one would assume that he was doing next to nothing, in reality, he was applying himself to multiple tasks in his head. Besides, at least he was not Wii Fit Trainer taking advantage of herself being captain, still barking out orders to them. But based on them doing their own thing, neither of them listened. The ones that were involved in the physical portion of the challenge were paying more attention. Yet, what else could they have done? Simply stand there and complain how hot it was that day?

"See if the word 'changing' has seven letters in it" She suggested.

"Did it ever occur to you that other people might be trying to stay focused?" Unfortunately for Mewtwo, his train of thought had to be interrupted some time. Not even it could handle Wii Fit Trainer's antics. "In order for us to solve the puzzle first, they may need to actually think first… 'Changing' is an eight letter word, which by the way, I already thought of."

"And we'll be thinking for quite some time." Mario said folding his arms with a head shake. None of his words that popped up worked either. "This could go on for a while…"

30 Minutes Later…

"Smashing?"

"That has eight letters, Bowser…"

"Fighting?"

"Same as 'smashing'…"

"Brawling?"

"...Bowser, please… Eight letter words aren't going to work here…" Link performed an eye roll.

At that point, everyone was beyond tired of the puzzle to the point where people were guessing random words, constantly wiping sweat from their foreheads, and quite a few beginning to receive minor headaches of the whole situation, even Ike and Sonic, who were now sitting on the ground, the latter being with Bayonetta.

Even a couple of the ones that were not physically working on the puzzle were writing down letters in the same.

"C'mon, guys!" Wii Fit Trainer, however, was clearly not one of those people no matter the predicament. "We can't just stand here all day! We have a shower and tacos on the line!"

"Master?" Mewtwo suddenly turned to the gloved hand of the show. "Are we allowed to swap out a person with someone else for this challenge?"

"Can't do it." He shook, as if the hand was a live head. Then again, if given a choice, a hand shaking as if it was normal was in fact, less creepy than the latter option.

"Curses…" Mewtwo muttered under his breath with a glare.

"We're wasting time!"

"Say, how about instead of you shouting at us, we can actually try to make some progress to show everyone that we're getting somewhere?" asked Mario.

"That's why I keep saying we can not just stand here-"

"Do you know what the word 'thinking' means?" Mewtwo raised his voice. "We shall not seem as if we're all idiots by simply placing letters all over as if we do not know what we are doing. It is our best interest to face the puzzle with a more methodical approach."

"But that doesn't mean that we can't just test some words out!"

"Mewtwo and Wii Fit Trainer might never go out with each other on a date." Master Hand noted.

"Clearly." a frustrated Mewtwo responded.

Meanwhile with the red team, they were in a similar situation. It was as if both teams sat around on the sand for an entire thirty minutes doing absolutely nothing and are just now standing up to being working on the puzzle.

"Chanting?"

"No…"

"Speaking?"

"No..."

"Watching?"

"Bowser, come on..."

"Thinking?"

He sighed.

"...Knowing?"

"..." That was when Link actually took that word into consideration. "...Okay, it might not be it, but anything is worth a try at this point. C'mon, let's put this word together."

That word was put together right away.

"...Okay, so where do we go from here?" DK scratched his head, still in a confused state.

"...Maybe we should try the word 'knowing' in a sentence…" Link guessed. "Knowing how… Wait that's three letters. This second word has to have four. ….Knowing when?"

Bowser was already grabbing the right letters to place them down in the spaces.

"Red team seems to be making some progress." Master Hand observed, indirectly warning the other team.

"Curses again…" Mewtwo complained.

"Okay, gimme a two letter word…" Bowser began snapping his fingers rapidly while eyeing the remaining spaces, his right hand on his hip all the while.

"To."

"On."

"...DK spoke first. Sorry, Ike."

Blue haired male shook in frustration and disappointment.

"And besides, it doesn't make sense." Pit added. "Knowing when… on?"

"Look," He defended himself. "we have been out here for over half an hour. I'm getting desperate here, and other people are, to. I mean, look at Mewtwo and Wii Fit Trainer!"

Those two plus Wolf watched as said two castaways refused to put their argument to a rest. Well, on the bright side, at least Mario was one of those people that did a rather good job playing the peacekeeper card, even though the arguing quickly resumed almost every ten seconds.

"Okay…" Link stared. "Knowing… when… to… four letters."

"That's hard. I'm just gonna skip that altogether and put the word 'the' right here, because in this part, it has three letters." Bowser said making his move. "'The' is a more 'first guess' kinda choice, anyway. I mean, what other choice do we have, you know?"

"How about 'have?'" Donkey Kong cocked his head to the right. "That's four letters, right?"

"It would work, but there's no 'V' here, and it wouldn't make that much sense." Link replied. "There are quite a few letters that appear more than once, though. 'L', 'G', and 'R'."

"Alright, think of something that has two 'L's in it and make sure it's a four letter word." Wolf stood from his spot on the mat.

"Hmm..." Donkey Kong was now rubbing his finger beneath his chin, snapping a finger nearly a moment later. "Pull…"

"Red team seems to be getting very close if they're right!" Master Hand noticed, the trio all of a sudden racing to put down letters.

"Okay, 'Knowing when to pull the….'"

"...Pull the what?" Wolf raised his hands up to his shoulders.

"It's seven letters…"

"...So, what can you pull that has seven letters in it?" Pit inquired. "Is it something you shoot?"

"I have experience with a blaster myself." O'Donnell informed, suddenly widening his eyes. "...Wait a minute... Is it...?"

"...Help me unscramble this word!" Link motioned to Bowser and DK. "Two 'G's and two 'R's…"

The ones that were sitting down on the mat on the red team wasted no time standing up one by one.

"WE GOT IT! WE GOT IT!" Bowser's hands were high in the sky.

"Say it!"

"KNOWING WHEN TO PULL THE TRIGGER!" yelled Donkey Kong.

"...RED TEAMS WINS REWARD!"

Not even looking at them celebrate, Mewtwo's head was completely turning away, tossing a tile to nowhere he cared about. Sonic kicked some of the sand surrounding him out of irritation.

"Alright." Master Hand said after everyone was calmed down. "Here's how it's gonna work. You all will be taken on a beautiful yacht where you will have a fresh shower before you feast on tacos with all the fixings. You will also enjoy soft drinks and cocktails."

Bowser loudly clapped his hands. "Yeah, oh yes! Keep it coming, baby!"

"Alright. The yacht will be here shortly. Ike, Wolf, Pit, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Link, grab your stuff and head out."

Watching them leave, Bayonetta showed a great look of jealously. "Hopefully I'll get another chance to shower on Survivor. I'm getting dirtier by the day, so now I have to spend the rest of the day being annoyed."

"Blame her..." Sonic, who was putting his gloves on, pointed his head at a certain fitness trainer.

"Wii Fit Trainer, Sonic, Mewtwo, Mario, Lucario, and Bayonetta, got nothing for you. Grab your stuff and head back to camp."

"Clearly, there is no one else to blame other than Wii Fit Trainer." Mewtwo shook his head, finding her efforts in the challenge to be absolutely atrocious. "Everyone that has exited this game obviously has more intelligence than she does. She has the smartness of a shoelace and she was supposed to be sent packing back on day three. The only reason to why she still exists in this game is simply because of pure luck. This is not the first time she has cost a team a challenge. A little confrontation is what she needs back at camp. I am disgusted..."


Looks like we're about to see another argument take place next chapter. Based on the pair involved, it will be certainly interesting!

Anyway, after I posted chapter 28 last week, I accidentally ended up posting it on the 27th chapter at first last week. Thankfully it wasn't too long after I noticed, and according to traffic stats, only four people saw it that day, so I had to make quick edits while constantly posting updated versions, all thanks to the unedited chapter being fortunately stored in Google Docs (where they auto save documents by the way). As of now, I'm up to the challenge portion, and some of the dialogue is changed a little, but nothing major. Nonetheless, at least it is safe to say that this will never happen again.

So aside from that and the challenge, it seems that the alliances are official. Six against six. Hopefully something will happen at tribal that will break a potential deadlock vote. Nobody wants their game being ruined by simply picking the odd colored wrong to go home. Yeah, that's what happens when a tie occurs twice at a Tribal Council.

Questions:

1. Will it be a 6-6 vote next Tribal Council? Is someone about to flip again?

2. If it's not going to be a deadlock vote, based on the game changing move that was made last time, who might be going home next?

And in regards to the poll, Sonic and Wolf are now tied in first place with six votes, with Mario, Donkey Kong, Samus, Bayonetta, and Bowser all right behind with five. So if you haven't voted already, go vote on the poll on my profile and I will see you all next week!