Episode 14 2/2: Live and Let Climb!
Last time on Survivor Crossover: Tropics...
Cloudblots, a rare natural phenomenon involving the bright sky of the Tropics being completely covered in thick, dark clouds, had occurred and affected everyone on the island.
Papyrus managed to nab the one-hundred point jackpot from the Roulette through sheer luck, boosting his chances of escaping the last place on the Leaderboards.
For the challenge, the survivors arrived on Mount Kapela, an incredibly tall mountain which they had to scale for the day's challenge. Not only that, but there was a twist, that twist being that whoever got last place on the race would be eliminated from Survivor Crossover next, eliminating the need for Tribal Council for tonight...
Who will succeed in this challenge? Who will fall? All will be answered in this second part of Episode 14!
Mount Kapela: Day 28
As they exited the glistening, fine beach and ran into the dark, nature-filled forest, there was a dirt path that was laid out right in front of them. It was full of bends and turns that could easily be skipped with a little shortcut to shave off a few seconds of the race.
The survivors weren't surprised when they saw that Sonic was no longer visible; he had left them in the dust due to his unmatchable speed, and the hedgehog had a cocky grin on his face as he zoomed through the forest to make it to the bottom of the mountain.
In a distant second place was Captain Falcon, whose speed and endurance was also rather impressive. He sprinted ahead of everyone, not caring much for the possibility of running out of stamina, even if he was aware of how it could bite back at him later in the race. Behind him was Samus and Wii Fit Trainer, head-to-head and constantly shifting between third and fourth place as they overtook one another.
Mario was right behind the two girls, deciding to take the slow and steady strategy so he could conserve his energy for the more demanding climbing sections of the race. Nonetheless, he didn't want to drag too far behind, which was why he decided to stay ahead of the two at the very end of the competition: Papyrus and Reigen.
Reigen had a similar strategy to Mario, not using his full potential just yet to conserve stamina, whilst Papyrus was running as fast as his bony legs could take him, and that speed wasn't all too impressive. However, his endurance was surprisingly decent, and he hoped that it would carry him far in the race.
Sonic hadn't been running for too long when he finally reached the end of the forest, the green trees above his head as well as the beautiful, rare flowers around him quickly grew less common as he sprinted out, following the dirt path onto the mountainside's entrance.
He quickly took a harsh stop upon seeing a sign that was bolted onto the rocky side of the mountain:
"To the left of this sign is a path that is about mostly climbing with barely any running, and to the right of this sign is a path that is mostly running with a little bit of climbing. You may choose your path..." The hedgehog read out. "Hmm, asking a hedgehog that's all about running forward to take the boring climbing route? Naaah, I'll pass on that one, sign."
Sonic proceeded to turn right as he began running up the path, which wrapped around the mountain like a spiral. He knew that nobody had even exited the forest yet, so he slowed down just a little to take in the beautiful scenery around him. He could now see the forest from above, and the natural scenery nearly
distracted him from the challenge in its entirety. However, he ended up snapping out of it after a minute before speeding up the path.
Eventually, he reached the ladder that Alexa had been talking about, which would lead to the first checkpoint as well as Section B.
"I haven't even touched my water yet!" Sonic shook his flask, hearing the water splash about. He then decided to quickly guzzle most of it down to keep hydrated as he began steadily climbing the ladder to the second section...
It had been a few minutes, and Captain Falcon had high hopes that he would make it out of this shabby forest, as the scenery was beginning to prove itself to be boring. He wanted to get to that mountain and quick.
To check how far ahead he was, he turned his head, sacrificing a little bit of his speed in the process.
Samus was a few meters behind him, and Wii Fit Trainer was lagging behind her, though still visible. He might have been able to see somebody else behind those girls, but he didn't want to spend too long looking in case he went headfirst into a tree.
Unfortunately for Captain Falcon, just as he had that thought and turned back to face forwards...
*WHAM*
His face slammed into the rough, grimy bark of the trees around him, causing all of his momentum and progress to suddenly halt.
Dazed, he quickly shook his head to regain focus, seeing that Samus and now Wii Fit Trainer were ahead. He may have accidentally brought a mild headache upon himself, but he knew that he could easily reclaim his position in the race.
Without turning behind him to check if there was anyone on his tail, for obvious reasons, Captain Falcon sprinted forward in an attempt to catch up to the two...
Whilst those three were having a close race with one another, a similar event was going on between Reigen and Mario, with Papyrus lagging far behind and observing the conflict.
Mario originally noticed Reigen catch up to him, and since there was a lot more of the race to go, he didn't think much of it. However, when he noticed that Reigen purposefully began running directly in front of Mario to screw over his speed, probably as an attempt to show off or mock him, Mario began getting annoyed.
In response, the plumber ran past Reigen, though had the courtesy to not go directly in front of him, to show the "Psychic" that it wasn't a mutual rivalry. Whilst Mario thought him being the bigger person would pay off, he visibly frowned when Reigen pulled off the same shtick again. This time it was personal, and he was going to get back at him.
For the next minute or so, Papyrus slowly caught up to Mario as he was slowly lagging more and more behind Reigen, who was growing more confident in his ability to make it out of the challenge alive as he caught a glimpse of Falcon in the distance.
However, as he took Mario off of his mind, the Italian in red dashed over and slid forwards with his feet out, kicking Reigen in his calf, which caused him to lose balance and plummet onto the cold forest pathway. He steadily got to his feet as Mario was now far in front of him, and Papyrus managed to sprint past him by time Reigen's speed was back to its origin.
Sonic finally reached the top of the tall rope ladder, taking a tiny breather as he looked at his surroundings. Behind him was a beautiful glance at the island's scenery around him, as well as the pristine, glimmering sea. In front of him was a white flag: the first of two checkpoints in the race, as well as the entrance to a cave that was nearly pitch-black if not for the uselessly dim torches that were plastered along the wall.
Drinking the rest of his flask, Sonic wandered over to the flag, his eye catching several water-filled wooden buckets next to it. He was assuming that he would be filling his flask with the contents of these buckets, and he did so patiently, not caring for the possibility of someone overtaking him. After all, he had overtaken them ages ago, he had time to kill.
After filling it, he ventured into the mountainous caves, beginning the second section of the race before, to his knowledge, anyone was even close to finishing the first.
The caves of the mountain were much different compared to the oceanic caves of the challenge he participated in a few days ago. For starters, it was a lot darker overall, and the temperature was strangely cooler than the other ones he explored. Another big difference was how the ground beneath him was completely flat to compensate for the extra darkness, and the torches along the walls, whilst being useless for navigating anything else, were to show people where the walls were located in case they crashed into them by accident.
The hedgehog took it a little slower due to the darkness, wanting to try and keep track of where he was at, as this cave was described to be maze-like.
His first gut instinct was to turn left sharply into one of the three pathways he was presented with, which was also the narrowest path...
Samus was now ahead of the race, barring Sonic. She managed to escape the forest and onto the mountainside, where she would begin traveling upwards to the ladder. When she came across the sign that explained the two pathways, she skimmed across it and jumped onto the right path, running up the mountainside.
Wii Fit Trainer followed next, and she slowed down a small bit in order to read the sign in front of her. The option was to climb for the rest of the section on the left pathway or to run for the rest of the section on the right pathway. After minimal thinking time, she decided on following Samus, turning right and also running up before it wasted her any more precious time.
A few seconds after her, Captain Falcon arrived, quickly stopping and turning his head to see if anyone was coming up, and to his surprise, he saw Mario in the far distance.
He turned to the sign, once again offering the two options to him, and he decided on taking the left pathway, as his hypothesis was that the more physically-demanding route would be the shorter or more rewarding one. With pace, he began leaping up large steps on the mountainside, his face getting coated with dust from the rocks in the process, which caused him to irritably grimace.
Although they had taken different paths, Captain Falcon was still technically behind Wii Fit Trainer and Samus, though if this path paid off, then he would likely be ahead of the two once again.
Reigen and Papyrus were both far behind the rest of the competition. Reigen was behind due to being tripped up by Mario and losing all of his speed in a flash, and Papyrus, directly in front of the "Psychic", was simply not fast enough to catch up to Mario, causing him to stay at the far back. Even though his running speed wasn't all too impressive, he did have decent endurance, so he didn't plan on slowing down from fatigue any time soon.
Arataka felt insulted that he was at the far back of the race, even losing to Papyrus in his position. Although he had the trip coming to him via karma, and he acknowledged that, he still vowed to beat Mario in the race, which became a pipe dream once the plumber had disappeared from his sight.
He felt a burst of energy surge through him, and he ran quickly past the skeleton that was barely overtaking him, not bothering to glance at him as he went past. Reigen knew that his chances of elimination were high if he was this far behind in the race, so he decided to use some of his pent up energy to speed past Papyrus and catch up with Mario.
Papyrus felt insulted as he was overtaken, though the skeleton couldn't do much about it. He attempted to take a short-cut, which would save him a few seconds and also surpass the foe in front of him at the same time, but as he did so, he tripped on a stubborn tree root and lost a lot of his speed, luckily not falling over.
The stakes felt high between the two, and they weren't even close to finishing the race yet, not even close to finishing the first section! Both knew that the early-game in this challenge would affect them as far as the very end of the challenge too, so even if Reigen wanted to conserve his energy for the later sections, he had to at least catch up to Mario so he wasn't going to fall too far behind. After all, with the second section sounding like a labyrinth of luck, anyone can win or lose this challenge.
Reigen grew surprised as he saw that the trees and shrubbery of the forest came to an end, as the dirt path guided him and the determined monster behind him to the split pathway of the mountainside, with Mario taking a sharp left in plain sight.
As Mario took this sharp left, he began springing up the rocks and steps of the mountain. It was seen as shocking to Papyrus, gawking at him from a distance, that somebody like him could simply hop up from rock to rock without a breather or any recoil from such an energy-draining task. He almost felt inspired by such skill, that he would try and replicate it himself by going to the left path when he got there.
When they both arrived, however, Mario had disappeared from sight, and they decided to make their quick decisions on which path to take.
Although he didn't notice the right path when he got there, Papyrus was still fixated on going through the same path that the plumber had made, and he began climbing up the rocks, quickly yet vastly inferior to Mario's ultimate capabilities.
Reigen, however, decided on going to the right path, as it looked far easier than the left path, even if he thought that the left path would likely be much more rewarding. He didn't want to drain ALL of his stamina so early on in the challenge.
Samus and Wii Fit Trainer ran up the mountainside. Wii Fit Trainer ran formally, kicking her legs back as she was swinging her arms rhythmically. The wind would have tackled her body and her momentum if it wasn't so mild thanks to the weather. Samus ran a little more desperately, though on the inside she didn't feel any form of desperation in her at all, she just looked like she was at the final mile, though she was only getting started on the race...
It was difficult to not pay attention, but Wii Fit Trainer took long gazes at the beautiful scenery around her and the spiraling pathway she was taking. She could even spot the boat that they arrived on!
To her surprise, however, a massive plain black helicopter came flying upwards, seemingly out of nowhere, scaring her so much that she glued herself to the wall out of fright. What was even more shocking was that she saw that Samus showed little interest in the giant vehicle's presence or the roaring of the blades, and instead, she just continued running up as normal.
Getting her act back together, she continued running up, now a lot further behind Samus than she was before, which was a little disheartening, but it wasn't too problematic in the eyes of the fitness trainer.
They continued speeding up the mountain, nearly to the rope ladder that would lead them to the second section of the race.
Captain Falcon continued pulling himself up the rocky steps before jumping to the next one, forming a rhythm-like pattern as he slightly adjusted his clothing in the process. Nothing would stop the racer now, though that was only his thought.
Whilst climbing upwards and feeling that he was near to the ladder, he heard the grunts and faint noises of somebody behind him. The person's voice gave it all away: it was Mario, and he was almost caught up with Captain Falcon despite the great distance between the two prior.
He panicked as he climbed up quicker, wanting to guarantee the plumber getting to the second section before him by getting onto the ladder first, which would render him impossible to overtake.
Mario continued to hop upwards, the plumber having the same goal as the racer, which was to get to the ladder first. Almost like he was showing off, Mario performed three consecutive hops in a row, each one taller and faster than the last. Before they knew it, they were right next to each other.
However, with all of his might, Captain Falcon made one last jump upwards, and to his surprise, he had made it to the top of the left path, the ladder right in front of him.
"Sorry Mario!" He cackled as he grabbed onto it. "Can't overtake me now..."
As he mocked him, one last attempt to overtake him was made as the plumber jumped up and over Captain Falcon, grabbing onto a section of the rope ladder above him.
When he did so, all cockiness drained from Captain Falcon's face. Mario delivered his cocky smile back to him as he jumped up the ladder, the grumbling racer following suit.
Upon looking down below them, the two of them were surprised to see that Wii Fit Trainer and Samus Aran had arrived after them, and the two girls quickly latched onto the rope ladder for themselves before climbing up quickly.
Sonic took another right into the spiraling tunnels of the mountain as he took a small sip from his flask. For some reason, trying to see through the darkness was beginning to hurt his eyes as if he was staring into a bright light. This strain on his eyes was annoying, especially when he realized that he had no idea whether he was making progress in the cave or not.
After another left turn, the hedgehog found himself in another large room with several branching tunnels. At first, the hedgehog took another groan, as he was yet again put into ANOTHER situation where he had to make a choice. However, upon a second glance, his eyes lit up to find that one of the branching paths had a bright hue emitting from it. He ran over to his path, thinking that it'd be some form of freedom from the darkness.
To his dismay, Sonic looked down the tunnel to see the first checkpoint, which meant that he was back where he was initially. With a heavy heart knowing that his progress meant nothing, Sonic ran down the pathway he recently came through to retrace his steps and choose a different path, hoping that it would lead somewhere new.
As he ran back off, Mario hopped up and over the ladder, reaching the first checkpoint of the race. He quickly refilled his near-empty flask with water using the water buckets before running into the dark caverns.
Captain Falcon was right behind him, his completely empty flask was refilled quickly and brashly as he followed the plumber into the second section of the race.
Samus and Wii Fit Trainer then proceeded to finish climbing the ladder as they hopped up.
"Woah, those caves sure are dark..." Admitted Wii Fit.
"Nothing you haven't done before," Samus remarked as she filled her flask before running into the caves.
"Already? You'll lose all of your energy doing that!" She warned. "I'm going to be taking a couple of minutes off from the race."
The bounty hunter spat at the warning. "Have fun getting eliminated!" She exclaimed from afar as she was quickly enveloped by the darkness of the second section.
"Tsk, I won't get eliminated," she grumbled, taking a couple of stretches in between drinks of water.
"NYEH... HEH... HEH!" Papyrus had sweat dripping down his forehead as he looked at the murky sky. "IF IT WEREN'T... FOR... THE WEATHER... I'D... BE A FRIED SKELETON... HEH..."
The skeleton had been climbing for a while now, and he was only beginning to regret taking this pathway. His endurance was rather high before, but climbing up rock after rock and using his whole body was slowing him down.
He felt determined, yet miserable doing this, though all of that turned around when he caught a beautiful, holy glimpse of the rope ladder ahead. "JUST A LITTLE MORE CLIMBING AND I'LL BE UP THERE IN THE BLINK OF A HUMAN EYE!" He thought.
Regrettably, he also caught a not-so-beautiful and a not-so holy glimpse of someone climbing up the rope ladder, that person being Reigen Arataka himself, the person he had been racing head-to-head prior to splitting into different paths.
"OH NO YOU DON'T!" He denied out loud, speeding up his climbing as he practically scraped his body along the dry rocks, eventually reaching the top.
With accomplishment, he shot both of his arms into the air with excitement shortly before hopping onto the ladder and climbing up.
Reigen darted his eyes downward at him and felt relieved, knowing that he was still ahead, and now by a long-shot.
He waved to him with mockery as he continued climbing up, the chilly air making the whole race a lot more bearable. Otherwise, he'd still be on the floor panting before he even got to the mountainside.
When the businessman reached the top, he saw Wii Fit Trainer resting next to buckets of water.
"What are you doing laying around?" He asked, filling his flask up with water. "There's a race to win, but if you're going to take one for the team then I'll be quite thankful..."
"I'm taking a break! You're going to run out of energy if you push yourself all at once. Ever heard of the Tortoise and the Hare?" She asked, raising her eyebrow frustratedly.
He nodded as he folded his arms with similar frustration, sliding his flask back into his pocket. "Oh come on, you're bringing up that story? Who decides to take a nap at the finish line? It's an unrealistic story that teaches a stupid moral."
"It's a metaphor!" Wii Fit Trainer barked back.
"Metaphor or not, it's not going to help you out here," he tutted. "Anyway, if you excuse me, I got a race to win. And another thing, Papyrus is almost up here too."
Reigen proceeded to run into the cave as she winded back a little more.
"When Papyrus gets up, that is when I start racing again," she said to herself.
Around one more minute passed before a glove appeared on the top of the ladder, proceeded by another, then the rest of Papyrus.
"NYEHEHEHEH! LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE ALL OUT OF STAMINA, MEANING THAT THE GREAT PAPYRUS WILL NOT BE THE LAST ONE TO FINISH!" He taunted.
Wii Fit Trainer proceeded to glare, stand up, and run directly past him as he gawked with horror.
"NOOO, I JINXED IT!" Papyrus whined. "OH WELL... BETTER START THIS NEXT SECTION BEFORE I FALL EVEN MORE BEHIND..."
Samus had journeyed down a very narrow path that led her to a large room with decent brightness, at least compared to the cave's entrance. She could see multiple bats hanging down from the ceiling, just barely visible.
Two ladders were presented to her: a thin, rope ladder with bulky wooden rungs, and a thick wooden ladder that was bolted against the cavern walls. Both ladders went to different pathways, making her groan as she was given yet another choice to make that could make or break her entire run on this challenge.
The bounty hunter decided to go with her instincts and choose the weaker, less stable looking ladder, thinking that the riskiest one would lead to the best outcome. She then carried herself up until she reached the top, which was a long, dark and narrow stone corridor with several twists and turns.
With a sigh of frustration, she ventured down said pathway...
Captain Falcon went down a similar narrow pathway, though the main difference between this one and the one Samus went down was the lighting: this narrow path had NO lighting whatsoever, not even a very dimly lit torch on the wall, it was just complete darkness.
He held his hands out to ensure that they would hit the wall as opposed to his face, he didn't want it to take another battering, not after colliding with that tree earlier.
Sooner or later, Falcon was grateful and excited when he saw light at the end of the path. Though this light was the typical torches he had seen along the walls of the cave's entrance. Nevertheless, light was light, and he didn't have to worry about injuring himself in a tight dark space.
After reaching the end, he was greeted with a very tall ladder made from thick, coarse rope. He proceeded to begin climbing it, yet he couldn't see what was on the top...
Mario's path was rather different. Not only did it lead downwards into the mountain, but it was a very wide path compared to the thin-width tunnels that the others had decided to take. It was poorly lit like with most of the cave, yet Mario could see where he was going and where he wanted to go.
During his travels, two torches to the right of Jumpman caught his attention. These two torches were identical to the other torches aside from one glaring difference: their color. Instead of a red-orange hue radiating off of the lights, these two were completely white in color.
Out of nothing but curiosity, he walked over to these torches, bringing up multiple theories in his head as to why these two torches were different. He decided to investigate more, and to his surprise and luck, he found that another branching tunnel was between these two oddly colored lights, a very small yet big enough tunnel.
It was a very dark tunnel, but the odd torch here and there managed to help guide him along this specific tunnel. In contrast to the original pathway he was traveling down, it also sloped upwards a small bit, leading up into the mountain as opposed to down. This felt like progress, as he didn't expect the elevators to be located lower into the mountain.
When Wii Fit Trainer entered and began the second section of this grueling challenge, Papyrus followed right behind. She decided to unknowingly go down the same path that Samus had gone down, which was towards the right.
As she went down the cramped path, she heard shuffling behind her, causing her to turn around and look at Papyrus, who had followed her.
"Ahem..." She coughed forcefully. "Why are you following me?"
"I THINK YOU'LL FIND THAT YOU'RE THE ONE FOLLOWING ME!" He exclaimed. "I USED MY CLASSIC "RIGHT IS RIGHT" JUDGEMENT TO DECIDE WHICH PATH I SHOULD TAKE! SO MOVE ASIDE, PLEASE!"
"No way!" Wii Fit denied. "I was here first, you aren't squeezing past me. Mentalities like that won't help you out anyway."
"OH REALLY?" He scoffed. "I SHALL PROVE IT!"
After entering the large room with the two ladders, Papyrus began walking to the thick wooden ladder on the right. "THIS IS A PERFECT OPPORTUNITY TO PROVE THAT MY THEORY IS ALWAYS RIGHT! I SHALL PICK THE LADDER ON THE RIGHT!"
"Then I'll pick the one on the left, in that case." She folded her arms. "I might as well play along..."
Wii Fit Trainer then proceeded to hop up the thin rope ladder as Papyrus slowly managed his way up the bulky wooden one...
Not too long after starting his climb, Captain Falcon finally made it to the top of the ladder, and the curiosity in his face quickly shifted into a deep and maddened look as five more tunnels were presented in front of him. Another choice, and a large one at that.
"Come on! That ladder just leads to more cave? Lame..." He folded his arms. "Well, I guess I should have known that this cave wouldn't be so easy to escape. Now the question is which tunnel leads to that elevator..."
After rubbing his chin and using his usual strategy: gut instincts, to sus out where to go next, he decided to venture down the middle pathway...
Mario lightly bumped against the tunnel walls as he grew more annoyed, this was the third time he did that in this narrow cave, and it was clear that the torches weren't as helpful as he had initially thought.
"Owie!" He cried as his nose bonked against the wall yet again. "Grrrr..."
He started to keep his arms out again to try and prevent any more nasty bumps, though navigating through it was still a nightmare.
When he came to another torch, this one caught his eye similar to the last two he found. The color of it was white, whilst the usual torch colors in the secret tunnel were the usual orange-red hue. The fact that he found this tunnel in the first place due to the torches indicating its presence caused the plumber to feel the walls around it for any extra secret.
Even if it seemed obvious that he would find something, Mario didn't expect to find yet another tunnel, but he found to quickly eat his own words as his right hand slipped and found a very small hidden tunnel directly underneath the torch.
"A secret within a secret? Mama mia..." His levels of disbelief were in overdrive, though he quickly crawled into this tiny tunnel, hoping that it would lead to the elevator...
Wii Fit Trainer journeyed down her pathway, still finding Papyrus's words to be amusing to her. She wasn't one for calling out naivety, but saying that the right side will always be the correct side because of wordplay was just too foolish not to ignore, at least to her.
The tunnel she was traveling down was nothing too special. Just a linear, boring corridor that was as poorly lit as the other rooms she had been to already.
However, she caught a glimpse of something in the distance, a girl in a light-blue suit and a blonde ponytail heading down towards her. Was that Samus?
Unfortunately for the both of them, the corridor wasn't big enough for Wii Fit or Samus to simply move to the side so they could both go through. The situation appeared rather grim until Samus spoke up.
"Well, might as well tell you, otherwise you'll probably not get out of my way," said Samus. "The path I went through leads to a dead-end, so unless you want to stall your chances of winning even longer than you already have by 'taking a break', then I advise you head back quickly."
"Sheesh, how rude!" The fitness trainer thought, silently turning away from her as she made her way out swiftly.
She then thought of the dreadful outcome where Papyrus had been right all along. She doubted it, but planned to check it out just in case.
They re-entered the large room with the two ladders as she made her way down safely. However, she noticed that Samus wasn't following her down at all. Was she scared that the ladder would break?
Her question was answered as her eyes widened with pure astonishment, watching as Samus jumped from the top of the ladder they were traveling down to the bulky wooden ladder.
Naturally, such a risky move to her life caused Wii Fit Trainer to wince at the act, but when she regained her focus, Samus had made the jump perfectly, and moved into the path Papyrus had gone down.
She felt envious, but didn't let it get to her as she scrambled down the ladder she was on, and up the ladder, Samus jumped to in order to make sure that she wasn't slacking too far behind...
Papyrus twiddled his thumbs as he walked down the wide, decently lit corridor. He had been walking for a while now and was even getting bored, and was also too fatigued from the climb earlier to run.
"HOW LONG IS THIS TUNNEL?!" He cried. "THE END BETTER BE GOOD!"
Almost as if the mountain had been waiting for him to say it, the skeleton found that the tunnel was coming to an end, causing his eyes to brightly light up with hope as he exited his path and entered a large room.
He took a long gaze from the very left of his view to the very right, and towards the right were the seven elevators he had been looking for, easily visible thanks to bright lights accompanying them.
"OH MY GOD!" He gasped, noticing that none of the elevators had been taken yet. "I AM THE FIRST ONE HERE?! I DID EVEN BETTER THAN SONIC! THIS CALLS FOR A VICTORY POSE..."
Papyrus gave an accomplished pose as he fluttered his cape behind him, holding a smug yet satisfied look on his face, almost like he was giving silent thanks to a cheering audience.
When he opened his eyes, however, he noticed that Mario came scurrying out of a small hole and entered the room.
"Papyrus?!" He gazed at him, then to the elevators. "Wow... I-a did it!"
"YOU HAVE DONE SO INDEED. CARE TO TAKE PART IN MY VICTORY POSE?" Offered Papyrus.
Mario declined. "I'm-a sorry, but there's still one more section! I gotta get to the finish line before Sonic does."
The plumber ran up to the water buckets next to the checkpoint flag, adjacent to the elevators, filled up his flask, and stepped onto one of the elevators, gradually going up more and more as Papyrus gawked at the mechanism.
"IMPRESSIVE MACHINERY, ALEXA..." He remarked. "NOW, TIME FOR ME TO GET THE FULL EXPERIENCE!"
With glee, Papyrus entered the elevator next to the one Mario had taken, rising upwards in the same way...
Reigen continued running through the pathways, he felt as if he was beginning to go insane as he recognized the ones he hadn't even been to before. He had been stuck here with little progress, and the fact that he had winded back up at the beginning of the section several times was only making things worse.
He finally decided to check out the tunnel on the very right, the desperation to get out that he was facing caused him to temporarily develop the same "right is right" mindset as Papyrus.
After running down this tunnel, he came to the giant room with two ladders that many survivors had already ventured through, and he caught a glimpse of somebody's legs, assumed to be Wii Fit Trainer's, as they went down the pathway on top of the right ladder.
"Another person? This has to mean something!" He concluded happily as he climbed up the ladder. "I may not be a real psychic, but I know I won't be the last one to the top of the mountain!"
Captain Falcon had tried the middle and right pathways, both of them being fairly long only to lead to a grim dead-end. Now he was beginning to become desperate to escape the cave, and he ran down the final path: the one on the left.
It was the same typical tunnel as the other two, with no indicators to show it was different. Even if he expected Alexa to be evil enough to have all of the paths lead to dead-ends, he was already going down this path, so he was officially committed to it.
He rubbed his eyes, which soon grew sore as he stared into the darkness of the cave, and continued moving forward. He hadn't been here for too long, but like the last challenge he was in that involved going through a cavern, he got sick of it quickly.
Towards the end of his expedition in the left tunnel, his eyes widened, his jaw dropped and his body slumped with disbelief. Even if he had a hunch that it would be a dead-end, he simply couldn't handle seeing it right in front of his face. It was barely visible, but there was a rocky wall right in front of him.
Out of anger, the racer decided that the only way to take out his anger and betrayal on the cave would be to slam his fist against the wall with denial, yelling an audible "NO!" right before striking it.
When he did, however, he went right through it, which sent him tumbling over and onto the cold stone floor of the cave.
For a small moment, he was bemused at what had just happened, but after quick thinking, he realized that the wall was not a wall, but a curtain.
He looked back, the curtain swinging back and forth. Then he looked to the front only to find the real end of the tunnel.
Captain Falcon knew this had to be something good, so he ventured down and entered a large room. With a quick glance to his left, he saw the seven elevators, two had been taken. Next to them was the checkpoint flag alongside the water buckets.
"I'm finally out!" He grinned, rushing to the water bucket and refilling his flask. "Don't wanna drink too much though, the last thing I need is to go to the bathroom during a race..."
As he walked onto the elevator, it slowly began moving upwards, the last thing he saw was Samus Aran running into the room, which caused him to give an accomplished look. He suspected that Mario and Sonic were likely the two ahead of him, though he prayed that Sonic was still lost in the mountain's maze-like cave system...
Samus dashed into the room holding the second checkpoint and went for the buckets of water, making it her priority to refill her flask to the brim. Once that was done, she swiftly analyzed how many elevators were left before walking onto one, slowly being pulled up.
Wii Fit Trainer also managed to enter the room right as the bounty hunter stepped on the elevator, she got giddy when she saw the checkpoint flag, but also disgruntled over the fact that Papyrus had been proven right all along. With gusto, she filled her flask with water, stood on her elevator and sat down as it began to pull itself up.
For the next couple of minutes, the room was empty, the rustling of the elevator chains being the only audible thing in the room, barring cave ambiance.
After that small interval of time, Reigen entered the room, noticing that only two elevators remained. He obviously assumed that the only one still left in this labyrinth of a cave was Papyrus, and merrily filled up his half-empty flask with water from the buckets before standing on the elevator and resting...
At last, the long elevator wait was over, after a couple of minutes of waiting, of course. Mario and Papyrus were both out of their elevators and embraced the outside world once more. However, the moody Cloudblots were no longer there, and instead, the beautiful cascading sunlight had replaced it.
It was a bit confusing as to how all of the clouds disappeared at first, but they soon found out that they hadn't, as looking down to their left revealed that those clouds were beneath them, which just showed how high of an altitude they were at.
"FRESH AIR!" Papyrus breathed it in.
"You can-a breathe?" Mario asked, soaking it in.
"WELL, ERM..." Papyrus decided to change the subject. "THERE'S A RACE TO BE DONE, BYE-BYE PLUMBER!"
He began running past and away from the plumber, down the rocky dirt path of the mountain.
This was the final section of the race: nearly the top of the mountain, with cold temperatures and rocky terrain being the new obstacle that they had to face.
Wildlife such as birds or small critters were extinct from this portion of the island due to the conditions, though it still looked naturally beautiful to the two, who were racing one another around this final section.
Mario ended up catching to Papyrus before passing him, gesturing him a peace sign using his two fingers as he began jumping up the rocks, which would act as the bulk of this final section.
Papyrus groaned with despair. He had lots of trouble with these before, and now the whole section is going to be dedicated to it? He was beyond bummed out. This didn't stop him from using all of his energy to climb up as fast as possible... though even that was vastly outmatched by Mario...
Captain Falcon's elevator ride finally ended, and he took one long look at his surroundings. He could see that Mario and Papyrus were far away from him, climbing rocks at an altitude much higher than the one he was at now. Similarly to those two, he got confused when the moody weather disappeared before realizing that he was just above them.
The racer sprinted along the path and hopped onto the rocks, hooking them with his gloves as he pushed himself up high, clinging onto the next part of the terrain and repeating. Though he couldn't jump high enough to match Mario's pace in this section, he was quickly catching up to Papyrus due to his extra strength and endurance.
Papyrus noticed that he was gaining on him and quick, and his eyes almost flew out of his sockets as he clambered up the rocks slightly faster as one last yet futile effort to not have Falcon overtake him, but alas, the unfortunate had happened, and he was now third place in the race.
"W-WELL, FIFTY POINTS IS STILL PROMISING..." He uttered under his breath before raising his voice. "NO... IT'S MORE THAN PROMISING! IT'S FIFTY POINTS MORE THAN EVERYONE BEFORE ME."
His optimism picked up as his pace quickened, though his posture and mindset were much more relaxed and content, as he was happy with this outcome. Albeit he didn't do the math in his head of what his new total would be...
The next few to arise from the second section consisted of Samus Aran and Wii Fit Trainer, both took their time in the elevator to rest, and as a result, were very energized and ready to complete this final stretch.
Wii Fit Trainer still had her break from earlier payoff, as her pace was exactly on par with Samus's speed. The only disadvantage she had over her was that she was already behind Samus, and was unaware of her climbing ability. Heck, she didn't even know how well she was going to do in the oncoming climbing part of this section herself!
When that worrying moment came to be, Samus leaped from rock to rock, a little slower than what Wii Fit Trainer had expected - which was unrealistically fast in hindsight - but still competitively quick.
The fitness trainer was surprised to find out that her climbing was actually slightly quicker than Samus's, which made her believe that if she maintained this speed without any screw-ups, then she would hopefully overtake her! Even with this goal in her mind, she was still aware that, in order to earn any points from this challenge, she would have to overtake yet another person to seal third place. She suspected Captain Falcon or Mario.
Whilst they were beginning to become close together due to Wii Fit Trainer's superior stamina and skill in raw climbing, Samus scoffed. At first, it was assumed that the scoff was directed towards her for getting so close, but on a second glance, Wii Fit Trainer was shocked to see Papyrus far ahead yet coming up quickly. She had quickly forgotten that Papyrus managed to make that right turn earlier, and was ahead of her. Luckily for her, she seemed to be catching up to the skeleton with ease, which made the opportunity for third place a lot easier.
They had been climbing for a total of ten minutes or so when the two girls saw it: Mount Kapela's glorious peak. They wondered how they would get to that point, but Alexa did mention one final race up some steps to reach the finish line. It didn't matter just yet, they were still focused on overtaking the skeleton to get him out of the way...
A few minutes prior to them discovering the peak, Reigen exited the caves via the elevator and took in the view, though it wasn't long before he began sprinting faster than ever before, dreading but accepting the challenge of climbing up the steep and jagged rocks to supposedly reach the top. He definitely wasn't going to get in the top three, maybe not even the top five, but at least he would defeat Papyrus!
After a few minutes of running, he came to the rocks and jumped up, a very amateur and slightly unorthodox climbing routine occurred as he hopped up each rock and clung onto the next. He felt a little inferior to the others in a way, but he knew that his sharp wits and cool-headedness would be enough to score him a victory if he was lucky and smart enough about it. This was the only major obstacle in his way, as of now.
He didn't see anyone in the distance, maybe his eyes had tricked him into spotting Wii Fit Trainer during his climb but he wasn't too sure about that... things looked grim for his chances of getting fifth, though as he repeated in his head over and over again, he'll at least make it out alive, and soon as the Sole Survivor!
Captain Falcon was just about to lose sight of Mario when the plumber stopped his climbing and turned to the left, naturally causing him to also turn to look at what Jumpman was staring at, and that thing was the final stretch to victory. This wasn't a long section, but it definitely felt triumphant nonetheless...
A large stone staircase, made to look like it had eroded and became overgrown over time, even if they knew that Alexa likely got his employees to model that look a few days prior to this challenge.
On the very top of the staircase lay Alexa, holding and waving a large, white and black checkered flag in his two hands.
Mario glared with concentration before beginning his final run up the stairs, Captain Falcon pulled himself up the rocks, beginning to get tired from all of the workouts he had been presented with today, though he knew that he couldn't give up and let the Italian plumber get those extra points!
When he finally got to the bottom of the staircase, Mario was around a quarter to a third of the way to the top, and Falcon broke out into a sprint, much faster than Mario's, but it was likely going to be a very close match between the two...
Sonic, still stuck in the cave, had zipped around carelessly in an attempt to find the exit. It was so frustrating, and without seeing another single soul there, he felt like he was going to lose the whole thing, which would be a very pathetic way to go out.
However, right before all hope was lost, the hedgehog found the same curtain dead-end Captain Falcon had found earlier, and the hedgehog was bright enough to realize that something felt off about the supposed "wall" of the cave, causing him to push through it and discover that it was a curtain.
"Knew it!" He smirked, dashing through to the end of this hidden tunnel before smiling at the checkpoint and elevators, albeit his smile was killed by the fact that only one elevator remained...
"It can't be too late, right?!" He asked himself as he dashed into the elevator, not bothering to refill his mostly-empty flask.
When discovering how slow the elevator traveled upwards, Sonic decided to do a more risky yet rewarding maneuver, which was wall-jumping up the elevator shaft's walls to reach the top quicker...
"I'm not going to be last!" He promised to himself as he wall-jumped up with pure will-power bustling in his body...
Wii Fit Trainer beamed brightly as she finally accomplished her goals, which was overtaking Samus and Papyrus. All she had to do now was keep that lead and get third place, which would be a difficult task. Not to mention her body was beginning to ache from all of the climbing.
She gazed upwards at the bright sky as her eyes caught the stone stairs: the final stretch. It was a relief and also a feeling of excitement, as she was sick of Mount Kapela and everything about it, from the moody mountainside she scaled, to the grim and painfully dark tunnels, to the tiring and exhausting high-altitude peak she was climbing.
Samus noticed the steps not too long after, and Papyrus, not too far behind, was disappointed by seeing the exit, which meant that his opportunity to overtake them was gone. At least he beat the two before him, right?
Following another minute or so of climbing, the fitness trainer reached the bottom of the steps, observing Captain Falcon and Mario who were nearly to the top up ahead...
Mario was slightly ahead of Captain Falcon by now, but the racer continued to pick up the pace in order to beat Mario and claim first place for himself. The plumber wouldn't let up, however, as he put his absolute all into jumping up the stairs to keep his momentum.
He panicked as the final ten steps had them head-to-head, it was all down to this...
Captain Falcon gritted his teeth before giving a warcry as he leaped up the stairs faster than ever before, causing him to overtake Mario.
However, his stamina quickly drained at the last second, which slowed him down just enough so Mario could retake his position and clear the final few steps with one perfectly timed jump.
Mario crossed the finish line first, with Captain Falcon barely coming second.
"MARIO WINS THE WHOLE CHALLENGE ALONGSIDE ONE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY POINTS!" Alexa applauded, his staff joining in as the plumber cheers. "CAPTAIN FALCON WINS SECOND PLACE AND ONE-HUNDRED POINTS AS A RESULT!" He added as Falcon grumbled to himself.
The plumber cheered over his own success, but also decided to hop over to Captain Falcon, holding out his hand to show his sportsmanship. "That was-a close one, Falcon!"
Despite his bitterness towards his lost, he still cracked a grin before energetically and powerfully latching onto his foe's hand, shaking it with vigor.
After the handshake, they gazed down only to see Samus and Wii Fit Trainer around a quarter of the way up the stairs, Papyrus was also clambering up to the bottom of the stairs in the distance.
Wii Fit Trainer attempted to keep her lead, but she severely underestimated Samus and her durability, as the bounty hunter quickly overtook her and kept taking the lead further and further away until Wii Fit Trainer gave up on trying to secure third place.
It was a hard to swallow pill, but her chances of receiving ANY points were null.
Papyrus followed after them, using his hands and legs to travel up the stairs, like a crawl, and although he was a little slow, it was a lot less risky approach as the chance of tripping in that formation was very low.
Reigen caught a glimpse of Papyrus half-crawling up the final staircase, and he was beyond shocked. Who could possibly catch up to him? He decided to list off those who definitely wouldn't be behind him: Sonic, and only Sonic. The good thing was, whoever was behind him would probably be unable to catch up to him, making his safety almost guaranteed.
He finally reached the bottom of the stairs and gazed at the top to see Alexa cheering for the neutral Samus and the joyous Wii Fit Trainer alongside Mario and Captain Falcon. This meant one thing: he had to get up the stairs and quick, because Sonic was likely still trapped in those tunnels...
The businessman made a break for it, Papyrus was almost up the stairs at this point, and he was being cheered on by the others.
"You think Sonic's going to overtake Reigen last second?" Captain Falcon nudged Mario's arm.
"He's-a certainly fast," the plumber stated before slowly shaking his head. "But when I-a looked around, I didn't see him anywhere!"
This alibi caused him and Wii Fit Trainer to silently cheer, their biggest threat was now gone, meaning that it was going to be smooth-ish sailing from this point.
Papyrus finally reached the top of the stairs, huffing and puffing despite not having a respiratory system in any way, shape or form.
"I DID IT, FIFTH PLACE!" He jumped up and down joyously.
"Good-a job," congratulated Mario.
"Nothing to write home about since it's a pretty bad score, but at least you're safe!" Captain Falcon grinned, patting his shoulder.
Alexa clapped. "Good job, Papyrus!" He said. "HOWEVER, out of Reigen Arataka and Sonic the Hedgehog, who will be safe, and WHO will be eliminated?!"
At this point, Reigen was almost half-way up the stairs, still no sign of Sonic whatsoever.
"A-am I going to win this?" He thought to himself.
He then hit halfway, then was at the final third, then the final quarter, then the final fifth and sixth, he was getting incredibly close to the end...
Sonic blasted out of the elevator shaft and zoomed through the path, climbing and hopping from rock to rock as within a few seconds he caught a glimpse of the peak of the mountain, with Reigen almost to the top.
"I gotta get there, and quick!" He exclaimed loudly, zipping up the rocks even faster than before.
The survivors who had already won were spectating the hedgehog, some secretly cheering for him whilst others were cheering for Reigen.
Reigen wasn't aware of Sonic's arrival, and only ten steps remained. Weakly, he climbed up the stairs, a gleam of hope in his eyes and a smile appearing.
Now only eight steps remained, and with each of these steps he grew more and more confident...
Whilst he thought about winning, Sonic finally showed up at the bottom of the staircase and got into a position to speed up the stairs.
"Here we..." He held his breath and closed his eyes, momentarily focusing... he then shot his eyes back open, releasing his breath and yelling. "GO!"
Before Reigen could even hear Sonic's cry in the distance, the hedgehog dashed right in front of him and stood on the stair in front, wagging his finger.
"No hard feelings, bud," he said, before jumping up and boosting into the finish line.
"Wha..." His eyes widened. The first emotion that came was shock, as he wasn't aware of how quick Sonic was, to have him arrive before his words were something he never thought was possible, especially from a hedgehog. Next was annoyance, being taunted last second by someone who was infinitely more skillful than him in physical challenges. The final emotion was then dread, as the fact that he lost the entire show kicked in...
"SONIC CLAIMS THE LAST SPOT!" Alexa announced. "Which means... Arataka Reigen has been eliminated from Survivor Crossover..."
Reigen sighed, his entire game was over in the blink of an eye, and he finished climbing the last few steps, his shoulders slightly slumped.
"Well, good game," he admitted. "I didn't think my elimination would be because of this, but I had a good run. There's always next time!"
"Next time indeed," Alexa nodded. "Reigen, you may have lost this challenge, but just know that you were a fierce competitor. You had a very down-to-Earth personality that is hard to come across, and although you had your hiccups, you attempted to be strategic, and you may have been able to get to the Finale if you managed to beat Sonic. We'll all remember you as the Lucky Seventh Place, and don't forget that you're going to become a Jury member!"
Arataka gave a slightly smug grin. "You better! I did a lot better than all of those before me, after all."
Suddenly, a helicopter that had been resting on the peak of Mount Kapela began humming, the blades beginning to spin rapidly.
"There's our ride, survivors!" Alexa whistled, beckoning them onto the helicopter.
"W-what about me?!" Reigen asked, raising his eyebrow offendedly.
The host gave a chuckle. "You'll be escorted down the mountain by some staff before being taken away via the boat at the bottom. Don't worry, scaling down this mountain isn't as painful as scaling up it!"
"Still is painful..." He groaned. "Well, if that's what needs to be done, sure."
"Goodbye Reigen!" Wii Fit Trainer waved from the helicopter.
Sonic stuck his thumb up at him before waving to him.
The other survivors decided to show him some level of sportsmanship, whether it be a wave or a "goodbye!"
"WAIT!" Papyrus yelled as the helicopter began to take off. "REIGEN, WILL I BE ELIMINATED NEXT?!"
"Huh?! I can't hear you!" Reigen yelled back, looking confused.
The skeleton spoke up, this time much louder. "I SAID: WILL I BE ELIMINATED NEXT?!"
Reigen raised an eyebrow as the helicopter turned off of the peak and into the sky. "I don't know what you're saying! Anyway, bye everyone!"
They all shot one last goodbye as Papyrus sat down, disgruntled at the lack of an answer.
As the helicopter lowered into the clouds and disappeared from sight, Reigen shook his head playfully. "Heh, I knew exactly what he was saying all along..."
He began walking down the mountain, alongside a couple of staff to help guide him...
Tribal Council: Night 28
Albeit it was no longer taking place for tonight, Alexa crept down the pathway and entered the area, all of the torches had been blown out, aside from the continuously lit torches of the survivors, shoved at the back.
Alexa walked over to these torches and grabbed Reigen's from its stand, snuffing it and hearing the gentle hiss as the flame died down.
"Only six left to go..." He said to himself, smirking...
Arataka Reigen's last words: "Survivor was a workout, and I didn't bother spoiling to myself on who was going to win as a Psychic, because that would've been boring! Good to know I made it far, though deep down I knew that, next to a hedgehog faster than sound or a plump Italian that's infinitely more athletic than I am, I never stood a chance at winning..."
IDOLS
Idol of Attacking - Wario. (USED)
Idol of Defense - Captain Falcon. (USED)
Idol of Mirroring - Wii Fit Trainer.
Idol of Curses - Samus. (USED - CURSE HAS WORN OFF)
The Revival Idol - Mario. (USED)
REMAINING SURVIVORS
Laau Haupa (Yellow Team)
- Mario
- Papyrus
- Samus Aran
- Wii Fit Trainer
- Captain Falcon
- Sonic
Make sure to check out the character poll on my profile page to see who you want returning for Survivor Crossover 2! ^_^