Chapter 36

Gwen hated to admit it, even in her mind but she felt somewhat glad to be back on the Total Drama Jumbo Jet, even if she hated the show and its host. Perhaps because she glad to be back amongst friends, Avatars and fellow contestants. The threat of Nebula hung in the back of Gwen's mind as she tried to sleep and get some rest after a long day. The cake that had been provided at the end of the last challenge was long gone thanks to Gwen's 'husband' who was sprawled out across the ground, covering in cake icing.

Owen was snoring out loud from his spot on the floor and Gwen was glad he wasn't sleep walking like that one time during the Awake-A-Thon challenge during the first season. If he started walking naked around the first cabin Gwen would have high tailed it out of there and hit back in the cargo section of the plane.

'If not for the fact I hate this show and its host with every fiber of my being I'd almost feel like I'm home.' Gwen smirked.

'Now we can concentrate on locating the Avatar of Nebula.' Andromeda pointed out.

'Well, let's see...if Nebula's Avatar wasn't anyone who was kicked off while I was gone we've got the rest of the group here.' Gwen thought it over. 'To be honest, any one of them could be an Avatar and not know it.'

'Let's start with a process of elimination and work it out from there.' Andromeda suggested.

'All right...' Gwen took a deep breath. 'Ezekiel, Duncan, Alejandro, Owen, Cody and Heather. If I was a rogue spirit who would I pick...'

The first people that came into her mind were Alejandro, Duncan and Heather. The three of them were devious and smart enough to make it through all the challenges and possibly hide Nebula at the same time. She knew Duncan and Heather well enough but at the same time she didn't know much about Alejandro aside from the fact that he's injured a few of her friends and caused a number of eliminations since he first appeared on the show.

'Good reasons but are you sure you are not biased against them?' Andromeda asked.

'Okay, you have a point there.' Gwen reluctantly agreed.

She glanced at Owen, wondering if it was even possible for him to be devious in any way. He can be a little scary when provoked but only Heather has ever been able to make him that angry. Cody...to be honest Gwen wasn't sure if he was capable of hating anyone since he was too nice to even tell Sierra he wasn't interested in her. And then there was Ezekiel...

The home schooled boy who had been kicked off the show in the first season for making a sexist comment and was now back on the show but had shown little to no improvement in his social skills.

'If a person naive enough than it's possible for a spirit like Nebula to take advantage of them.' Gwen thought it over.

'Especially if he has no idea what he's getting into.' Andromeda continued. 'You believe him to be the Avatar of Nebula?'

'Well, you're right when you say I might be biased with Heather, Duncan, and Alejandro but I am right about how devious they are. At the same time I know that Owen and Cody might be capable of being dangerous if the situation calls for it but at the same time there's no way they could become an Avatar without someone noticing. Kurt and the others found me the day I became your Avatar and you all coached me through the event so my mother wouldn't think I'm depressed or suicidal. Cody's been out with the Drama Brothers and being stalked by reporters while Owen was doing those commercials so it's impossible that no one wouldn't have noticed them acting oddly.' Gwen reasoned. 'Alejandro is new, Heather only interacted with Total Drama and anything outside of her normal life through her blog, Duncan hid from the press during his big break up with Courtney and Ezekiel lives out in the prairies. Those four are the only ones who don't have a solid alibi.'

'True. The same cannot be said for anyone who was eliminated. Tyler and LeShawna were on several shows, Izzy was the lead actress in several movies, Harold was part of that band with Cody, Courtney was concentrating on her school work as well as her custody battle with Duncan over that pt raccoon, Sierra was feeding Celebrity Manhunt gossip on the show, Lindsay was imprisoned in France before she was bailed out, Bridgette was rarely seen without being in the company of her boyfriend, DJ was with his mother nearly the whole time, and Noah was working for Chris.' Andromeda listed all the others. 'And if Noah was the Avatar he wouldn't have met you at the library since the Stalker in the Stars wishes to hide from us.'

'And since Noah's back at Playa Des Losers by now which is under surveillance Nebula couldn't make a move without someone realizing what he's up to.' Gwen finished. 'So the Avatar of the Stalker in the Stars is still on this plane.'

'And we know where to look.' Andromeda finished.

Gwen nodded as she stood up from her chair.

It was time she locates the Stalker in the Stars before something else happens.

Xxx

Th sun rose up indicating that it was morning, wherever they were heading to. When the plane finally landed Gwen and the others were greeted with what Gwen believed to be an awesome place for once.

'No way.' Gwen thought with widened eyes.

"Ni hao everyone. Welcome to China! A vast country rich in history, culture, innovation, and delicious sausages." Chris began. "Our first challenge is torn from the pages of her rich history. In eight million B.C. King Dim Sum led a battalion down this very great wall."

The wall he was speaking of was in fact the Great Wall of China.

'He does realize that eight million B.C. was when the Dinosaurs were still alive?' Andromeda asked.

'Don't bother, Andromeda. It's not good to strain his brain with something as trivial as facts.' Gwen snickered.

"We've provided a selection of vehicles to race to our mystery destination. They're first come, first serve. It's the Chinese Way." Chris continued.

The vehicles Chris spoke of consisted of a donkey, a skateboard, a pogo stick, roller skates, a tricycle, wooden sandals, and a unicycle.

"Ready...Set..."

The contestants were all ready to run, waiting for Chris to tell them to go.

But suddenly Chris's phone rang, playing the Total Drama Theme Song.

"I better get this." Chris answered his phone. "Mclean here. Yeah, I'm trying to do a show here."

"Do we go or what?" Heather asked impatiently.

"Yeah." Chris continued.

"Yeah we go?" Alejandro asked.

"Yeah can we do this later?" Chris asked, looking at his fingers.

"So we go now?" Duncan asked.

"Okay, fine..." Chris stopped as the contestants ran past him, tired of waiting for him to answer. "Hey! Who said you could go? Yeah well there a few things I was going to warn you about, but...forget it."

Chris laughed evilly as he wondered how they would survive this one.

Xxx

"Here Gwen!" Elliot called out.

She tossed the pair of roller skates at Gwen while she grabbed the tricycle.

"Thanks Elliot." Gwen took her boots off and slipped the roller skates on. "Hey, where's Dawn?"

"She probably took a shortcut." Elliot hopped onto the tricycle.

"No I didn't."

Both girls turned around and watched as Dawn passed them on the unicycle. "As a true master of balance the unicycle is my best choice. See you at the finish line."

"We'll see about that!" Gwen grinned as she stood up with the roller skates on and raced after Dawn.

"Hey! Wait for me!" Elliot called out as she peddled away on the tricycle.

"Hey! That's mine!" Heather shouted at Elliot but she was too far away to hear anything.

Xxx

"Duncan, you know I think of you as my bromigo, right?" Alejandro asked as they stood in front of the bicycle and skateboard.

"Yeah so? We going to wrestle over this or what?" Duncan gestured to the bicycle.

"If you want it, it's yours. I will have to unfortunately ride this skateboard..." Alejandro said regretfully.

Duncan smirked as he jumped into the bike and sped off. "Later!"

Alejandro smirked as he picked up the skateboard and twirled it in mid air before putting it on the ground and sped off on it.

Xxx

Confessional: Alejandro

"A small price to pay for Duncan's loyalty. What I forgot to mention is that I won a gold medal at the South American Skate Olympics."

End Confessional

Xxx

Heather turned around to look for something else, spotting Cody on the donkey while Ezekiel had the pogo stick.

"Oh come on!" Heather groaned.

Looking down she saw the very last thing left for her was a pair of wooden sandals.

"Ow! Ow! Ow!" A second later she was wearing them and she found out they really hurt her feet.

Xxx

Duncan and Alejandro raced down the path, seemingly acting friendly but secretly trying outdo each other.

"Nice speed there, buddy." Duncan remarked.

"Gracious. I hope gravity is also your buddy on this steep climb." Alejandro remarked.

"Thanks. Hope your wheel doesn't lock up and land you on your face." Duncan said as he managed to pass Alejandro.

At least for a second before Alejandro passed him and he had his eyes closed and he didn't even look like he skateboarding at all!

Duncan threw a dark look but noticed something ahead. "Whoa! Hey bro, what's that?!"

Alejandro jumped over it and vanished around the corner.

"Yo!"

Duncan looked up to see Chris in a helicopter hovering of the wall with a loud speaker. "Want to know else the Chinese invented?"

Duncan learned the hard way when his bike made contact with object.

BOOM!

Xxx

Cody watched the explosion on his donkey. "It's okay, Ace. Now can you just give me a little more gas."

He got his wish but it wasn't what he wanted as the donkey let out some gas from his rear.

Cody sighed. "Well this is not good."

Xxx

Alejandro thought for sure he was in first place but when he looked up ahead he was greeted with the sight of the three secret Spirit Avatars ahead of him.

As if that was not enough a familiar voice called up from behind me. "Thought you lost me, eh buddy?"

Duncan peddled right past him, forcing Alejandro to speed up. "Glad your okay, pal."

"You're shoelaces are untied!" Duncan called as Alejandro passed him again.

Alejandro scoffed. "They're boots! Nice try."

"Ugh!" Duncan managed to catch up to him as they went up rather long hill in road. "Who needs to try?"

"Not me!" Alejandro replied. "Bet you I will past the girls first!"

He sped up, gaining on the three Avatars.

"Oh yeah?!" Duncan sped up too.

Gwen looked behind to see Alejandro and Duncan catching up to them. "Watch out, girls! We've got company!"

Dawn and Elliot looked behind to see Duncan and Alejandro gaining up on them.

"Oh no you don't!" Elliot grinned as she sped up on her tricycle. "This race is mine!"

Xxx

Confessional: Elliot

"Mom always said I had a bit of competing streak in me. But losing to Alejandro?" Elliot stuck her tongue out at the camera. "No way am I losing to that creep!"

End Confessional

Xxx

They were nearing the finish line when they all heard a loud roar.

"What was..." Duncan's eyes widened in fear. "THAT?!"

Up the wall climbed a giant red monster that looked like a...

"DRAGON?!" Everyone shouted.

It was a large red Chinese dragon with smoke coming out of its nostrils.

'Chris went and bought a giant robotic dragon?!' Gwen thought. 'How in the hell does he pay for all this crap and still have a million dollar prize money?!'

The dragon roared again as it climbed up the wall and chased after the contestants.

"RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!" Duncan screamed.

"I agree!" Alejandro as they both sped off.

"And they like to believe their bad boys." Elliot scoffed.

"They're not wrong to run." Dawn pointed out as flames came out of the dragon's nose. "That dragon might not be real but it's still very dangerous."

"She's got a point. You might went to peddle fast, El!" Gwen said as she sped down the path on her roller skates.

"Hey! No fair!" Elliot peddled after everyone else.

The dragon chased after them, breathing fire out of its mouth as it let out another war.

Xxx

Chris laughed as he used his remote control the make the dragon chase after the contestants. "Don't you just love Chinese myths!"

Xxx

Kurt chuckled as he watched the show on his television. "I wonder how they'd react if a real dragon showed up?"

Xxx

'I swear if murder wasn't illegal I'd take my sword the next time I saw Chris and...'

"There's the finish line!" Elliot shouted.

Gwen's thoughts were caught off as the finish line came into sight. Everyone sped up as the dragon loomed over them with flames coming out of its nostrils again.

"SPEED UP!" Gwen shouted.

The dragon let loose one final blast of fire that was mere inches from them before they made it past the finish line.

"Whoo!" Elliot shouted happily as her tricycle came a stop. "FIRST PLACE!"

"Excuse me? I came in first place!" Duncan protested.

"I am afraid that the victor of this race is me." Alejandro smirked.

"What show do you guys think you're on?" Chris asked as he walked up to them. "There's no prize for finishing first!"

"WHAT?!" They all shouted at the same time.

"If you had waited for me explain the rules, I would have said whoever makes it across the line before the gong is sounded gets to join me for a very special lunch, aka the next challenge!" Chris explained.

'Of course.' Gwen thought and sighed.

"WHOA!"

They all turned around to see Heather run across the finish line just as there was a banging sound on the gong.

'Cody, Owen, and Ezekiel didn't make it.' Gwen noted. 'Great, no way for me to figure out if either of them is Nebula's Avatar.'

Xxx

The contestants were now seated at table with a long white cloth as Chris walked up to them with the cameras on them.

"To win today's challenge, you'll have to eat more than everybody else at this totally awesome Chinese restaurant."

Chris would have continued but Cody spoke up. "Who doesn't love wanton? Last New Years, I ate about a thousand of the..."

"Except this is the world's most authentic Chinese restaurant. You'll be enjoying a real food delicacy. Deep fried grass hoppers, corn pow larvey..."

Chris would have continued but Alejandro interrupted him by struggling to hold back his vomit.

"You okay, bra?" Duncan asked, sitting next to Alejandro.

"Pfft, I'm fine! Where I come from we eat fried guinea pig. This is...ugh...nothing." Alejandro said with a nervous smile.

Chris would have continued but his cell phone rang again, forcing him to answer for the second time today. "Yo, it's Mclean here. Yeah, I'm trying to do a show here."

"If it's Courtney, tell her she's a loser." Duncan called, laughing.

'Unbelievable.' Gwen rolled her eyes.

Xxx

Confessional: Alejandro

"I've been dreading this entire competition, because my body is like a temple. And what temple keeper would contaminate this."

He ripped off shirt to show his chest to the camera.

End Confessional

Xxx

Chef came up to the table with a bowel of food for each contestant.

"What is it?" Elliot looked disgusted by the strange food.

It looked like a bowel of gray sandwiches.

That was when the bell rang, meaning it was time to sing. Chris was dressed in a blue Chinese robe with red linings, a fake beard, and a head dress.

Chris: A little Chinese lesson for you, manman chi means enjoy your meal

Alejandro, Heather, Gwen, Duncan, Dawn, and Elliot: Manman chi, it's no raw deal

"Is it roasted eel?" Elliot asked.

"It's donkey meat! Local delicacy!" Chris replied.

Everyone covered their mouths while Heather shouted. "EWW!"

"ACE! Where are you?! Fart if you can hear me!" Cody cried out from the loser bench.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" Dawn shouted, making everyone jump back from the sound of the anger in her voice. "HOW DARE YOU MURDER AN INNOCENT CHILD OF EARTH AND CUT HIM UP TO BE EATEN?!"

Her hair seemed to come to life as it waved and twisted around her head, like the snakes on Medusa's head. She pushed the table to the far side of the table.

"I refuse to partake in this cannibalism!"

With that said Dawn walked over the loser table where Cody, Owen, and Ezekiel were waiting. Gwen looked down at her food, sighing in resignation before she slowly started eating.

'I'm sorry, Dawn.'

"DONE!" Gwen and Elliot said a moment later.

"Done!" Heather showed her tongue.

"Bacon double cheese burger. It's a bacon double cheese burger..." Duncan repeated as he chewed his food. "DONE!"

Alejandro just finished swallowing his food and his face turned an unhealthy shade of green. "D-done!"

Chef handed the next batch of food and this time it was a bowel of...moving worms.

Chris: Manman chi means bon appetite.

Alejandro, Heather, Gwen, Duncan, and Elliot: Manman chi, what do we have to eat?

"It's still moving its feet!" Heather gagged. "It's hundreds and hundreds of disgusting little feet!"

"Live meal worms. Local delicacy!" Chris answered.

"EW!" Elliot shook her head as she closed her eyes.

A moment later Gwen finished her foot but not without cost as her stomach felt upset and she felt dizzy. "D-Done."

"DONE!" Duncan showed his tongue.

"Done!" Elliot called out, after managing to force the food down. "Sorry Dawn!"

Heather in the meantime tried to keep the vomit down but Chris noticed it right away.

"Heather, you're out. Loser bench!" Chris pointed at the loser table.

Heather glared as she stood up and puked in his face. Everyone laughed as Chris recoiled in disgust while Heather walked over the lose table.

"D-d-d-done." Alejandro just barely swallowed his food.

Chef brought out the next batch of food that looked like roasted starfish.

Chris: Manman chi, its dinner for four

Alejandro, Gwen, Duncan, and Elliot: Manman chi, we've got room for more

"I think I'm nearly done for." Duncan held up his meal.

"Starfish on a skewer. Local delicacy." Chris laughed.

'There isn't anything about this that's delicate.' Gwen thought.

Gwen and Elliot both ate the food as best as they could. The one thing Avatar training didn't prepare you for was having a strong stomach from disgusting food. Gwen had a strong stomach from not throwing from all the gory things she sees on the horror movies she likes so much. However Elliot seemed to be having more trouble and was just barely hanging on.

"D-d-d-GAH!" Alejandro finally caved in and threw up all the junk he had been fed.

"Bacon...bacon..." Duncan was the one who caved in next.

"Duncan, Alejandro, you're both out. Loser bench."

Duncan spat out his starfish and walked over the to the loser bench. Chef brought the last two bowels with some kind of green slime.

"Yeah, we don't even know what it's called. It ain't right, whatever it is." Chris shrugged.

Chris: Manman chi, don't get the squirts

Gwen and Elliot: Manman chi, we'd rather eat our shirts

Elliot didn't have the chance to try because as soon as the smell hit her nostrils she fell over and puked out everything she had eaten in the last ten minutes.

Gwen looked around, seeing everyone else had thrown up except her. "Uh...I don't have to eat this, right?"

Xxx

The group was back on the plane, in the elimination room.

"Wow. Today's elimination is quite a shocker." Chris walked into the room.

'He does this just to mess with us.' Gwen thought as everyone but her, Dawn, and Elliot looked uneasy.

"Gwen has immunity so she's still in the game." Chris announced, throwing a bag of peanuts at Gwen. "Everyone else is fair game."

Xxx

Confessional: Alejandro

"I am pretty sure I am safe because of my alliance with Heather and Duncan. I have to admit though, with her friendship and immunity, Gwen has become a major threat now. I can only hope that I will be able to reach the next round to stop her."

Xxx

Confessional: Heather

"Gwen's a major threat now. If I want to get to the finals I have to make sure she's on my side now. But for now I'll take the chance to get rid of Alejandro."

Xxx

Confessional: Duncan

"Sorry, bro, but in this contest it's every man for himself."

End Confessional

Xxx

"Elliot and Dawn, you're both in too." Chris tossed two peanut bags at the girls.

"Duncan." Duncan caught his peanut bag.

"Cody."

"Ezekiel."

Now only Heather and Alejandro were left.

"Well isn't this a surprise? Heather, nobody likes you and Alejandro, I'm sure a lot of people would love to see you take the drop of shame." Chris said with a grin. "Too bad though...that this challenge doesn't count!"

"WHAT?!" Everyone shouted.

"I made it a reward challenge. So Alejandro who had the most votes is safe." Chris explained.

'You schmuck!' Gwen thought with a glare.

"Well that's it for today's episode. What will happen on the next round? Find out next time on Total...Drama...WORLD TOUR!"

With that the show ended for today.

Xxx

When the cameras turned off Gwen instantly cast a Dimension Seal Method so she could speak to Dawn and Elliot privately.

"Oh my god! That food Chris made us eat!" Elliot gagged. "I'll never be able to eat without wanting to throw up every again!"

"He made his fame off of the death of Mother Earth's children! I wish I could have blasted him to bits for that!" Dawn had a rare look of anger on her face.

"Girls, girls!" Gwen spoke up. "As much as I'd like to agree with the both of you on how much we hate Chris we have more important matters. Like figuring who Nebula's Avatar is."

"You have an idea of who it is Gwen?" Elliot asked.

"Well, I thought it over and the most likely suspects might be Alejandro, Heather, or...Ezekiel." Gwen replied.

"How'd you come to those conclusions?" Dawn asked with a confused look.

"Well, ever since the second season ended we've all been very popular. Popular enough that people asked about us, blogged about us, and some of us went to be on TV. Izzy was an actress, DJ had his cooking show, LeShawna and Tyler were on reality shows, Cody and Harold were in band, Courtney and Duncan spent their time fighting in public places, and the same can be said for Bridgette and Geoff. While we know next to nothing on Alejandro other than the fact that he's evil and that he's a new guy so there's no way of knowing that he didn't come into contact with Nebula. Ezekiel lives in the Prairies and even with his new popularity its way out there so he might have been tricked and given his social skills it wouldn't be a long shot." Gwen said with a guilty smile. "And Heather, she's spent most her time on her blog bashing anything she doesn't like about the show, mostly me. She doesn't have friends at her school, her relations with her friendly is somewhat strained from what her brother tells me over the emails, and she avoids contact with the media."

"You sure it's not biased by your hatred of her?" Dawn asked.

"Maybe but I have Andromeda with me who is completely objective and non-biased in this." Gwen replied. "I mean, what do we know about Alejandro? Who likes Heather enough to know her routine or ever care enough about what she does in her spare time? And Ezekiel...even with his popularity he still lives way out there."

"She has a bit a point." Elliot gained a thoughtful look on her face. "What about Duncan? Or Cody? Are you sure they couldn't have come into contact with Nebula?"

"Well aside from his fights with Courtney and the custody battles, Duncan took his frustration out by...being creative and ended up spending a month in juvie before the season started. Someone in there would have noticed Duncan acting differently. We all know that becoming an Avatar can cause people to act strange as they adjust to it. Cody was doing community service with the Drama Brothers after that..." Gwen shuddered. "Pool Party Incident so he couldn't have become an Avatar without gaining attention. Someone close to him like Trent, Harold, Justin, or even Sierra would have noticed he was acting weird."

"Her thoughts on this seem reasonable and rational." Luna commented from Dawn's bracelet.

"Indeed." Lancelot agreed. "At least now we have prime suspects."

"But how we do draw Nebula out?" Elliot asked.

"By putting him in a situation where he has to reveal himself. He will not wait long if he believes his Avatar has been compromised." Andromeda answered. "He will reveal himself if he believes he has been found out and in the process he will be vulnerable in the short amount of time before he tries to escape. That is when you strike."

"And hopefully we won't have to contend with Black Star or anyone else who might affiliated with the Red Marauder." Gwen nodded. "Most of the cast has been eliminated at this point so it'll be easier for us to keep an eye on everyone. So let's stick close to our prime suspects while watching the others for any sign of strange behavior."

"And when they act strange we can figure out if they are Nebula's Avatar or not before something bad happens." Dawn continued.

"And take them down." Elliot grinned. "Finally! We're catching the bad guy!"

Gwen smirked at her friends before releasing the Dimension Seal Method.