Another mysterious room made an appearance, this one completely empty except for twelve, of what seemed to be, virtual reality headsets. Like the previous challenge, the headsets were labeled with the names of the remaining contestants. Chris tossed each one on, appearing thrilled to see whatever was on the inside of them, before tossing them each back to the ground. Suddenly, the cords shorted out, zapping all of the headsets, and causing Chris to look over nervously, before shrugging it off and leaving them be.
"Last time on Total Drama Space Station: thirteen top contestants remained after the first person made their exit from the merge, and tensions have never been higher. These people want to win, but could they really do that to sacrifice the friendships and bonds they made up to this point? For some of them, probably. When we announced our next challenge, everyone was excited to see what the new room we added could be, only to all be let down when they discovered it as a library! It wasn't just any library, though. It was the perfect torture room for these unlucky thirteen. Some contestants, like Alexis, got off easy, while others, like Alex, were abused throughout the whole challenge. Poor dude isn't gonna be feeling anything in his upper body or scalp for the next week! Luna showed that she's got some sort of soft spot for swimsuit models when she got to look at Dusty's mom, and Anne showed that she gets angry if you accidentally destroy her shirt and cause her to go topless in front of the others. It wasn't my fault, dudes, it was that stupid hook! Anywho, when Tony got to pick Dusty's last punishment, he chose the perfect thing for her, death by tickling, which caused her to break her sound limit and lose the challenge, getting booted out in thirteenth place! Too bad, so sad. Oh, but she didn't get to leave before learning the horrible and villainous truth about Liz, who let her boyfriend know about Dusty's ticklish weakspot. We're about to get funky in this out of this reality challenge coming up, who will come out on top? Who will fall flat and take their leave? Will somebody end up murdering Alexis? Find out, right here, only Total Drama Space Station!"
As the opening starts, the Chris space station is revealed and quickly zoomed into, showing cameras all over the corridors and traveling through them and reaching the captain's chambers, where Chris is shown. He shines an evil smirk before the camera zooms past, showing outside of glass in his room.
"Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," the lyrics start while Alex is shown in his orange spacesuit, trying to befriend a space monkey, which, in its scaly, grotesque, but somehow still fluffy appearance, swims through the empty space away from him. Slightly to the left of him is Natt, in his black spacesuit, clapping unenthusiastically.
"You guys are on my mind," the camera pulls back inside, showing the cafeteria where Gretchen playing her guitar on top of one of the tables, while Jianne covers her ears, disapproving of the noise.
"You asked me what I wanted to be, now I think the answer's plain to see," Thomas is seen peering into the captain's chambers, before turning to smile and wave at the camera. The camera slides over quickly, showing Luna and Liz shaking hands while crossing their fingers behind their backs, each with a sneaky smile across their faces.
"I wanna be famous," Damien is seen on a stage, performing in his own little play, before the door to the room is opened by Benjamin, causing the former to stop what he was doing.
"I wanna live close to the sun," Dusty is by the pool, showing March, who is clearly mortified, pictures of some horses from back home.
"So, pack your bags, cause I've already won," Taylor is lounging by the pool as Nicolás jumps in, splashing water on her and causing her to start yelling at him.
"Everything to do, nothing in my way. I'll get there one day," Haley and Sebastian are seen together in the gym, both looking away from each other while whistling awkwardly.
"I wanna be famous," Vicente is seen on the other side of the gym being chased by several interns with cameras.
"Na na na na na na na na na," Chef is seen in the kitchen, inspecting the astronaut meals in their small packages, and opening one labeled, 'popcorn,' causing the room to fill up with popcorn and Anne, just outside the kitchen door, to laugh hysterically. Chef then bursts out of the room and starts to yell at an unsuspecting Flint, who then realizes that he has similar, 'popcorn,' bags in his hands.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous," Alexis is seen tinkering with a control panel, in the dark. The lights then flicker on and she gives a thumbs up before the camera pans over to Archie in the observation room, where the lights flicker off and he lets out an annoyed sigh.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous," Crustacean is seen in the same room, clipping a wire on a control panel and bringing the lights back on, before the camera pans up to show the galaxy, panning back down after to reveal Tony among the other contestants, showing them some fake watches with a huge smile on his face as they are all seen whistling in chairs with Chris in a room full of escape pods.
All was silent in the space station, at least, near where the contestants were sleeping. The hall that the Penguins had originally was completely quiet, not a single one of them had woken, while one person was just waking up in the Guppies' old hall. To the shock of everyone, it was Luna, though completely makeupless through and through. Her hair was disheveled and her eyes were dark, almost as if she just didn't care for anything anymore. She only had on blue sleep shorts and a white tee shirt on, showing that she had put no effort at all into her appearance. As she slowly dredged from her room and towards the downstairs, March came out from her own room, yawning, but looking like she normally did. She saw her old teammate heading off into the distance, but had a hard time recognizing her from the distance.
"Uh," March scratched her chin, trying to put it together in her mind. "Who are you?"
Luna turned around, the miserable look on her face leaving quite the impression on March, who had never seen her like that before.
"Ay caramba! Luna!?"
"Yeah...it's me," she mumbled with a tone that suggested she had seen better days.
"You look terrible!"
"Gee, thanks."
"I didn't mean like that, I just meant you look like you're sick...are you alright?"
"I just didn't do my makeup or hair or anything...that's all I am to everyone here anyway."
Luna turned away from March, continuing down her path and mumbling to herself.
"Hair and makeup, hair and makeup, no one could love you Luna, you're just a bunch of hair and makeup."
"Luna, stop it," March rushed over to her, putting her arm around her shoulder, though it was shoved off quickly.
"Don't touch me, I'm a miserable lout."
"No you aren't. Here, come with me!"
"Whyyyyy? Just let me go be alone."
"That's not the March way! Leave no friend behind!"
March quickly grabbed her hand, pulling her back towards her own room.
"Sigh...whatever."
Confessional
"Okay, I'll admit," March started, rubbing her arm awkwardly, "I don't have the best relationship with Luna...she can be super abrasive, like, all the time. But she just looks like she needs some help."
"I can't recall a time I was actually friendly to little miss pumpkin pie," Luna said, her face looking even more miserable than before. "I don't see why she cares about what's wrong with me. Liz was right, that's all there is to it."
Confessional End
The two sat on top of March's bed, the owner of the room brushing Luna's hair and getting it be neat, just like how it was before.
"What happened, Luna?" she asked as she brushed, "Why are you so upset? You usually don't let the little things get to you."
"I'm just a piece of art with no meaning," Luna muttered coldly.
"Okay, well that was deep, but untrue! Here, turn and look at me."
Luna slowly turned to face March, her eyes still dark as if she hadn't slept a wink the night before. Her freckles were much more visible than usual, with her makeup not being there like it normally was.
"You know, I think you look better without all that on. You have a cute face."
"I look like a zombie, you liar."
"I'm anything but a liar, Luna! I learned my lesson from lying before."
"Whatever."
Luna tried to get up from the bed, but March pulled her arm and made her sit back down. The model sighed as the happy-go-lucky girl started to annoy her.
"Let me go."
"Not until you tell me why you're upset."
"Are you really gonna make me do that?"
"Yep!"
"Wonderful...because I would love to do that."
"Then go on!"
"I was being sarcastic."
"Ohhhhh...well, don't! Just start explaining."
Luna let out a sigh and rolled her eyes, though March wasn't shaken from her determination that she'd be able to help her. In the other rooming hallway, Alexis was just waking up from her slumber when she went to go open the door to her room, finding it couldn't open past an inch, being blocked by something.
"What the?" she started pushing harder, with little success.
Finally, she rammed her shoulder into the door, knocking the item to the side as she fell face first onto the floor. She quickly got up, checking to see if her glasses were broken. After discovering that they were alright, she let out a sigh of relief, before turning to face the object in horror. It was her bag of books, her reward for the last challenge everyone took part in. She took a quick look through the books, discovering all of them to be there and unused, though one was missing from the roster. She couldn't quite remember what it was called, but she knew it was important to have. After moving the bag to her room, she went to one of the other doors, knocking on it until it opened.
"Bro, what do you want?" Flint asked as he rubbed his tired eyes.
"I...uh...had a good idea!" she answered, thinking of what to say as she spoke. "I think me and you should work together to help each other, you know? Keep each other safe from the challenges...and other things around here."
"An alliance?"
"I guess you could call it that, yeah."
"No way, José."
"But why?"
"I know your type, your gonna say we'll be in an alliance, but then bam! Two challenges in, you betray me to help yourself."
"I would never-"
"Save it, princess. I know that game all too well!"
Without another word, Flint slammed the door in her face, causing her to panic and run to the next door she thought of, knocking on it rapidly until she got her next response.
"What's up?" Natt asked as he opened the door to his room, seeing her in the hall.
"H-hey! I was wondering, you know, maybe you, me, and Anne could probably work together and...form like a group or something?"
"Eh, I don't know about that. Those mostly end in betrayal...and I know Anne wouldn't betray me, sooooooo."
"I would not betray you!"
"You never know. Anyway, it's too risky for that this late. We'll have a huge target on our heads if we all start working together. Some of these guys just are too evil."
"But...I..."
"Sorry, Alexis."
With that, Natt shut his own door, leaving Alexis alone in the hall.
Confessional
"Great, now multiple people think I'm trying to use them!" Alexis held her head in her hands, looking somewhat nauseous. "This is perfect! Ugh!"
Confessional End
Elsewhere, Archie had made his way downstairs already, having expected March to be out of her room already, but only to notice she wasn't. He'd figured he would just head downstairs without her for now, and catch up with her later. As he left the main lobby, headed towards the auditorium, he was met by Anne, who had a purple and orange Hawaiian shirt on rather than her usual red and green, which had, of course, been destroyed recently.
"Oh, hey, Archie," she nodded to him as he passed her by.
"Hey," he said quietly, continuing on his way.
"What's up?"
She quickly ran up to him, bothering him slightly, but he could live with it.
"Stuff."
"What kind of stuff?"
"I don't know, just stuff."
"That doesn't sound very exciting at all."
"Who said it has to be exciting?"
"Hm...well, no one, I guess. Anyways, can I go with you on your journey to do 'stuff?'"
"Um, no?"
"What!? Why not?"
"We barely know each other...like at all. I'm not comfortable with hanging around everybody here."
"But I'll be nice, I promise!"
"No. I said no and that's that."
He quickly stormed off, leaving Anne standing sadly by herself.
Confessional
"I have no problem with the comedian," Archie started, "But she doesn't really know boundaries all too well. She just kind of does whatever she feels like, so it gets annoying at times."
"Archie looks so sad all the time!" Anne sounded apologetic in her voice, "I need to help him be happy! It's my duty to make people laugh, no matter what!"
Confessional End
More and more people started to rise from their slumber and meet with each other. Tony, of course, spent his time with Liz, knowing that nobody else wanted anything to do with him. He sat on a rolling chair in a science lab of sorts while she played around with her mixtures and specimens.
"What're ya making?" he asked, reclining in his chair.
"Acne enhancer," she replied quickly, adding some other liquid to her mixture and swirling it.
"Why's that?"
"Huh?"
"Why're you making that?"
"Oh, to use on Luna. Wipe that pretty look off of her face."
"Sounds pretty neat."
"It is, isn't it?"
She turned around, smiling at him.
"I had the idea the other day when she said something about how much it would kill her if she suddenly got some zits. I wanna see how she reacts when she's covered in them."
"That's great, babe. By the way, it's on fire."
"Yeah, super gre- wait, what?"
She turned back to see her mixture burning with the steam from it rising into her face. After the steam cloud vanished, she coughed a whole lot, revealing that her face now had zits galore on it.
"Uh...Brains?"
"What?"
"You kinda...got a little something on your whole...everything."
He tossed a nearby mirror to her, allowing her to take a good look at her own face and scream.
"Hey, it's alright."
"My experiment wasted on my own face...this was meant for Luna, dammit!"
"You two sure have it out for each other, what's that all about?"
"Uh...I don't remember the whole ordeal, honestly," she started to mix some different chemicals in a different tube while she spoke, "I think she was planning to blackmail me or something. Doesn't matter now, I clearly have the upper hand on her always."
"Clearly. What now? Acne remover?"
"Yeah, this one is much less flammable than that."
"Neato. By the way, explosion."
"Explosion?" she looked down at her mixture to have it explode in her face, getting rid of the acne, but leaving soot all over her. "I see. Wonderful."
Tony rose from his seat, walking over to her and wiping it off with a nearby towel. She blushed as he did so, kissing him on the cheek after.
Confessional
"I was never really a ladies man," Tony said, flipping a pure gold coin with his right hand. "They usually were turned away by my hobbies...I'm sure you know what I mean. But Liz is an interesting one, she knows pretty well that I can be pretty greedy, yet she's still interested in me. Who woulda thought?"
"Tony's so good to me," Liz muttered with a look of infatuation plastered on her face, "He doesn't even make fun of my height, isn't that great?"
Confessional End
Alex was starting his day in his joyful attitude, making sure his fedora was on his head before heading out of his room and walking over to Thomas', knocking on the door. It took about thirty seconds for Thomas to actually come to the door, which Alex wasn't sure why, but he was used to it by now.
"G'day to you, broski!" Alex gave Thomas a fist bump as they met.
"Morning...what's up?" Thomas asked, holding something behind his back.
"Just getting ready for whatever wacky business Chris'll put us up to today! Whaddya got behind your back there?"
"Uh...a book."
"A book? Neat-o! What's it about?"
"Cameras and stuff, like setting up security cameras," Thomas revealed the book, knowing that Alex wouldn't think much of it.
"Lights, Camera, Protection? Title sounds a bit cheesy, mate."
"Eh, yeah, it does. I was just looking into setting some up around my room...I think someone's trying to pry into my business or get the jump on me or something."
"Yikes! Well, that for sure ain't swell. Ah'll give you a hand, if you need it. Ah know you're pretty capable, but it'll go by faster with the two of us."
"Well, I have to get the parts for the cameras and everything, but that would be cool."
"Ahright! Now, wanna swing on down to Chef's luncheon? Ah'm starving!"
"Sure, why not?"
Thomas tossed the book to his bed, the two of them walking together away from the room after he shut the door. The force from tossing the book knocked a false cover off of it, revealing that it was a complete fake, and showing a much more interesting name underneath. Though...only Thomas could understand, it was entirely in German. Throughout the halls, the speakers suddenly flared with noise. Chris's voice came from them, letting the contestants know exactly what was about to happen.
"Everybody, it's challenge time!" the host announced loudly, "Make your way down to, what used to be, that camera room from the fly challenge, we've got something really special for you all!"
Gretchen, who was with Natt, rolled her eyes after hearing Chris's voice.
"How wonderful, we gotta do this again," she mumbled.
"Yeah," Natt looked puzzled about something. "There is one thing I don't get, though."
"What is it?"
"Shouldn't this next challenge be outside? Didn't Chris say that we'd switch between inside and outside every challenge?"
"Wasn't the last one on Mercury or something?"
"No, it was in that library. Remember?"
"Oh...right. When Chef ruined my guitar."
"Yeah...we'll have to see what he's up to when we get there, I guess."
"Guess so."
As the two were about to turn to go down the stairs, March ran past them, eyes wider than ever, and not even stopping to say hello.
"That was odd," Gretchen noted.
"You wanna see something even more odd?" Natt asked her.
"Sure, hit me with your best shot."
Natt gestured down the hall at Luna, who looked the same as before, just with her hair a bit neater. She sighed as she looked at the ground, still miserable.
"What's up with you?" Natt questioned her, though she didn't answer, she just kept walking.
"Man, things are really strange today."
"Sure are. Let's get to that room now, I wanna see what's going on."
As the contestants all reached the aforementioned camera room, March immediately ran to Archie, hugging him very tightly and out of nowhere. He looked down at her, a little startled by the sudden embrace, but hugged her back, feeling her shiver as if she was terrified.
"March?" he asked, though she never looked up at him. "What's wrong?"
"I messed up...I messed up big time," she said nervously.
"What did you do?"
"I-"
March cut herself off when she noticed Luna entering the room and standing off to the side with the look of dread on her face. The model slightly waved to her, though she didn't really look her way.
"Did Luna do something to you?"
"No...yes...kind of...I don't know!"
The last of the contestants made it to the room, noticing Chris standing by the headsets that he was testing earlier on. He smirked at them as they noticed them, some of the group immediately knowing what they were.
"Virtual reality, Chris?" Thomas asked, a slight smirk on his face.
"Indeed it is, Thomas!" Chris replied, "You've got a good eye, my friend."
"Why VR, though?" Natt questioned the host, "I thought our next challenge was supposed to be outside of the station."
"It technically is! These here are the most state of the art VR headsets that are currently available. Unfortunately, you can only get a hand on them if you've got connections, which, luckily, I do! So, when you guys put these on, you'll notice that you can do more than just see and hear a virtual world, but you'll smell everything, taste everything, and feel everything!"
"Woah, that's pretty cool for you, Chris," Gretchen noted, though still upset about her guitar.
"They've all got our names on them, what's that about?" Tony asked.
"That has to...or should I say, had to, do with the challenge! Your challenge today is that each of you will be going into a personalized video game world, each one different from the others in a manner of ways. You'll have to learn the game's mechanics and work your way through the level that was designed to finish the challenge. And of course, the first of you to finish will win a special reward, that reward being...you get to keep the headset! That's right, you may never see a chance like this again in your lives, so you'd better try hard. It comes with so many games that you'd never have time to beat all of them."
"Alright, that's cool, but...what was that about 'had to?'" Flint thought back to the beginning of Chris's explanation.
"Ah, right. So, you see, we had each of these modeled after what type of game we thought would be the best fit for you, but we've run into an issue. Somebody totally blew a fuse, wonder who that could've been? Definitely not me when I was tossing them around carelessly. Anyways, you'll find that your world has been swapped for someone else's! You'll be greeted by your headset by a different name than your own, too. Oh well, I'm sure you'll all figure it out just fine. Oh, and one more thing. The last of you to complete their level...will of course lose the challenge and be eliminated right away! You've got one tutorial level to get yourselves used to the controls! Have fun!"
Chris walked off to the side, leaving the group of twelve to look into the odd pieces of equipment on the ground.
Confessional
"Leave it to Chris to mess a challenge up before it's even started," Liz mumbled, annoyed. "What a wonderful host."
"Chris truly does too much for us, what a great man!" Thomas seemed overjoyed about the challenge.
"Video games, huh?" Luna sighed, "Woopee, I totally love video games."
"This is gonna be a jolly time!" Alex cheered. "I could totally snag this win!"
"Oh, I hope mine is funny!" Anne started, "Wait...it'll be switched though...hm..."
Confessional End
Natt was the first to put his own headset on, immediately hearing a loud AI voice in his ears.
"Welcome, Luna!" it said briefly. "Entering tutorial level for Ultimate Runway Models."
"Oh, great," he muttered, "This is gonna be a real joyride."
He was followed by Anne, who stood next to him with hers on.
"Give me something good!" she chanted, waiting to hear her introduction.
"Welcome, Thomas!" the voice said to here. "Entering tutorial level for Target in Sight."
"Huh? Wazzat?"
Next up was Flint, barely able to contain his excitement.
"Come, athletic games, please!" he crossed his fingers.
"Welcome, Tony!" he heard, "Entering tutorial level for Empire of Gold."
"What!? Lame!"
"Oh shush," Liz hissed at him as she put her own on.
"Welcome, Alex!" it said to her, "Entering tutorial level for Teamwork Dreamwork."
"Teamwork? I'm gonna be with-"
"Welcome, Flint!" a headset said, "Entering tutorial level for Teamwork Dreamwork."
As Liz had just finished booting up into the colorful platformer world, she noticed the other person next to her, immediately gasping at the sight.
"Luna!? Why, Chris!?"
"As I said before," Chris replied, "They shorted out. It's not my fault it's like that."
"Wonderful," Luna said under her breath, "Just peachy."
"Alright, my turn!" Alex said, tossing the headset on.
"Welcome, Liz!" his headset said. "Entering tutorial level for Civilization Wipeout."
"Civilization...wipeout?"
"This is getting really interesting," Thomas added as he put his own headset on.
"Welcome, Gretchen!" it greeted him. "Entering tutorial level for Star of Guitar."
"Of course, he did say these were custom tailored for us. Wonderful choice for Gretchen, Chris."
"I wonder who I actually ended up with?" Gretchen asked as she put hers on.
"Welcome, Archie!" it said. "Entering tutorial level for Brutal Knockout."
"Uh...oh...oh my."
"Huh, that's kinda cool," Archie mumbled as he donned his.
"Welcome, March!" he heard, enjoying that he got the name of a friend at least. "Entering tutorial level for Imagine Painting."
"I should've expected that, I guess. Put yours on, March."
"O...okay," she said meekly as she put her headset on.
"Welcome, Alexis!" it said, "Entering tutorial level for Fangirl Marathon."
"What does that mean?"
"Oh," Alexis blushed, "Maybe something about...I dunno, boy bands or something."
She placed her headset on her head, waiting to see who she got.
"Welcome, Natt!" she heard the name, interested to see what he could've gotten. "Entering tutorial level for Star Shot."
"Star shot? Like a space game?"
"Looks like I'm the last one," Tony said as he put his headset on.
"Welcome, Anne!" it greeted him, to which he sighed, "Entering tutorial level for Not Funny Enough."
"Great, that's great."
"Alright, now that you all are booting into your worlds," Chris spoke, finding it hilarious the way that some people got certain games, "Go ahead and play your tutorial...though I should let you know, it sends you straight to the final level right after you beat it. You gotta finish both to win this challenge, so good luck!"
Confessional
"This is interesting for sure," Anne mentioned, not really sure what her game was about, "Maybe it's about archery or something? You know, targets in sight or something?"
Confessional End
"Alright, let's take a crack at this," Alex said, looking at his surroundings.
He noticed himself in a lab coat and with a crazy wig, rather than his signature attire. He was also placed in a lab room, which had two cabinets on the walls, a sink, and several beakers and test tubes on a table, and a map of the world.
"Greetings, Doctor Spring," a robotic voice echoed in the room.
"Ah, right. Liz's game."
"Your task is to create a toxin strong enough to wipe out civilization. For this first toxin, you'll only need to mix two chemicals, each of which can be found in the cabinets behind you. There are five types of chemicals in the game, categorized by color. Red, which causes inflammation of the lungs, though combining it with blue will cause it to act as an antitoxin. Blue causes frostbite, but only if it isn't combined with red. Yellow causes blindness, but combining it with black creates a cure-all. Black causes severe bone decay, but if it's not mixed with yellow. Lastly, white, which does nothing unless mixed with one other color at a minimum, but it's unclear what it could cause. It could be beneficial to their survival, so it's a high risk chemical. Now, create a powerful toxin. Remember, the same color can be used multiple times."
"Uh...ahright, Liz is a messed up gal. Let's see here..."
He turned to the cabinets behind him, opening them to take a look at the colors he had to chose from. Yellow and blue were currently the only options for him, so he grabbed both. He quickly returned to his table, pouring the yellow in first, followed by the blue, stirring them together to create a mixture that fumed.
"Interesting..."
"Congratulations, doctor," the voice had returned. "You've created a toxin that caused frost bite and blindness. With everyone suddenly going blind, they couldn't make their way to hospitals to cure their frostbite. You successfully wiped them out."
"Somehow hearing that doesn't make me feel to excited at all."
"Are you ready to proceed?"
Two large buttons appeared in front of him, a yes and a no. He quickly pressed the yes button, causing them both to disappear and the room he was in to turn dark as a new area booted up.
"This last level...Ah wonder how bad it could be?"
As he waited, the room suddenly lit up, with twenty cabinets scattered throughout the room, three different tables with at least thirty different test tubes and beakers on them, as well as a massive list of new instructions regarding how to create the toxin.
"Here we are, doctor," the voice returned. "You need to create a very specific type of toxin to make it past this level, that being one that causes hair overgrowth. Read your instructions carefully to get it done, and you'll complete the game."
"What in the blazes!? How am Ah supposed to deal with all this new stuff?"
"Good luck, doctor."
The voice had disappeared, and Alex was left flustered and alone. Nearby, Tony himself was having a hard time with his game. He was dressed as a clown, standing up on a stage in front of several other people, trying to see what would make them laugh.
"And so I said, 'Hey! That's my wallet!'" he joked to the viewers, though the joke was poorly received and they threw tomatoes at him. "Oh, come on! How am I supposed to raise the Laugh-O-Meter to five starts if you dirt-for-brains don't laugh at anything!?"
"Tip Time!" a silly sounding AI voice said, "Try being funny!"
"Oh, f %& off. What if I used some props? You guys like props, right?"
Tony grabbed a pie from out of nowhere, throwing it at one of the crowd members and causing it to splatter all over their face. He received a round of boos and some more tomatoes thrown at him after the stunt.
"You guys wouldn't know comedy if it hit you with a bus!"
As if by some magical coincidence, he was struck by a random bus bursting through the wall, causing him to fly off of the stage, respawning dead center soon after.
"Oy, vey."
As he was playing his game, Gretchen was finding problems in her own world. She was dressed as a martial artist as a werewolf with bladed arms stood across from her on a dangerous looking bridge in the middle of the night.
"How am I supposed to beat you!?" she screamed as the beast shot a fireball from its mouth and at her, which she dodged, but only barely. "That tutorial only showed me how to block and punch!"
"I will destroy you!" taunted the beast as it shot another fireball, this one hitting Gretchen and reducing a lifebar, which appeared above her, though with Archie's name and face, to zero.
She fell to the ground in defeat as the monster roared a mighty roar. About ten seconds later, she "respawned" from her "death," looking angrier than before.
"You're a real jerk, you know that?"
She assumed a fighting stance as the beast ran towards her, immediately picking her up and tossing her off of the side of the bridge.
"Bwahaha! You lose!"
Another ten seconds passed and she respawned once again, still looking like she was ready to rip him to shreds.
"Chris, when I get out of this challenge, I swear..."
As she continued to get her butt handed to her, Natt was trying to make the most of a modeling job that he had no idea how to successfully do. As he selected his model and had her walk down the runway with the outfit he picked, which was mostly black, the three judges sat at a table and gave her a one out of ten score.
"You said to make the colors match," Natt groaned. "They match, they're the same damn color."
"Not enough color!" one of the judges said with a look of disappointment.
"Needs more color," another said, shaking her head.
"Too much black," the third said.
The model, at this point, starting crying simulated tears as she ran behind the curtain.
"Wait, model number five, get back here. This isn't over. You judges are nasty, making her cry like that."
The judges simply were not programmed to answer that, as only being built with so many lines.
"Not enough color!"
"Needs more color."
"Too much black."
"Right," Natt sighed, slapping his own forehead. "This isn't real. Okay, sixth time's the charm."
He pressed on while Anne, who was next to him, gulped in fear as she found herself rapidly climbing many sets of stairs with a briefcase in hand. She was wearing a trench coat with a ski mask to completely cover her appearance, though she was nervously sweating through the mask.
"Oh gosh, oh gosh," she started to panic as she heard more footsteps behind her.
"Remember, agent," a voice came from the briefcase, "Avoid disguising yourself where anyone can see you."
"You've said that the past three attempts, I think I get it."
"Remember, agent: find a good vantage point before making the shot."
"I know, I know! Gosh, what does Thomas see in these kind of games? They're so stress inducing!"
"Hey, you!" a police officer shouted behind her, causing her to jump in fear before running even faster. "Stop right there!"
"I'm sorry! Please leave me alone!"
"Remember, agent: police officers can be fought off, but you need to hide the evidence quickly."
"Is there a way to turn you off? You are not helping!"
"Remember, agent: don't get snappy with me."
"What!?"
The shock took over her from the odd line, causing the officer to tackle her to the ground. She quickly respawned at the bottom of a tall building, right outside the main doors. A marker at another building said "your target is here," while she looked for a spot to disguise herself.
"This is messed up, Chris...super messed up."
She was so nervous about her game that she could be seen sweating like she was in scathing conditions. Near her, Luna and Liz were both having a hard time getting through their platformer adventure. The level that was laid out in front of them showed many different types of enemies to jump on, as well as traps and mechanisms that could only be deactivated by both of them working together, which they struggled to do.
"Luna, you need to pay attention!" Liz said, slapping the back of her head. "If I fall in the lava because you won't step on the button one more time, I'm gonna kick your a %!"
"Whatever, Liz," Luna sighed as she started going through the level, slowly.
Liz went much faster than her, stepping on top of many different enemies and jumping from platform to platform to get through it, while her teammate just dredged on slowly, letting herself get hit by an evil looking lizard, and causing her to turn into a bubble that floated around, waiting to be popped.
"Again, Luna?"
Liz sighed, turning back to pop the bubble and saving Luna from death, and taking hold of her arm to drag her along through the level by force.
"I swear, if we lose this because of you..."
"You'll what? What's worse than losing?"
"I'll think of something when I can! Focus for now!"
The two went on in their insane level, Flint, who was nearby, having just as bad of a time as everyone else. He was in a fancy green suit with many gold pieces of jewelry strewn across his hands and arms, standing in a room with five other people, which were at computers, and trying to command them in the best possible way to make a billion dollars.
"No slacking, you five!" he gritted his teeth at them. "Sell all of our shares in that bad company, we need the money to pay the bills for this stupid building!"
"Selling all one hundred shares for GamePlace," one of the computer people said, "Earned two thousand dollars."
"Yes, we may make it through this month yet!"
"This just in," another npc started, "GamePlace stock now up to five hundred a share."
"What!?"
"Bills totaled to five thousand for this month," a third interrupted Flint's freak out, "We've gone bankrupt, Mr. Marmalade."
"Gah! Tony!"
Flint fell to his knees, screaming to the sky as the level reset and he found himself with only one person at a computer and five hundred dollars in pocket, the goal of one billion remaining on the screen. He rose soon after, taking a deep breath and getting ready to try again.
"Okay, you there. Funnel all five hundred bucks into GamePlace stock, I hear they'll be booming soon."
"Buying twenty five shares of GamePlace," the computer person said.
"Good, now we just-"
"This just in, GamePlace stock now down to five dollars a share."
"What in the- Sell the shares, get back what we can!"
"Selling all twenty-five shares for GamePlace. Earned one hundred twenty five dollars."
"Phew...now to just-"
"This just in, GamePlace stock now up to eight thousand a share."
"You've gotta be kidding me!"
"Bills totaled to two thousand for this month. We've gone bankrupt, Mr. Marmalade."
"My name is Flint Goldenrod! I don't even know what marmalade is!"
While Flint had his mental breakdown over the intensity of losing money, Archie found himself having the most difficult time possible with the art game. He had a beret on his head and the game kept referring to him as Madame March. He stood in an entirely blank space, resembling a canvas that had yet to be painted on.
"Madame March," the calm voice in the game started, "Please create the universe."
"I'm trying to create the universe, you're not making any sense!" Archie shouted at the voice. "Maybe if paint the big bang it'll make the universe appear?"
He tried to start painting a massive explosion, though when he finished, the game immediately shut him down.
"I'm sorry, Madame. This is a disaster."
"You're a disaster!"
The canvas reset itself, bringing Archie back to the beginning of the level.
"Madame March, please create the universe."
"This is a load of s#%$. I don't understand how even March could handle a dumb game like this."
Confessional
"March is an amazing artist," Archie nodded, "But come one, even something like that would be impossible for her to complete. I mean, if she actually could I'd be surprised that she wasn't a millionaire already, she could make some serious cash with her art."
Confessional End
Archie continued his struggle inside the art world, leaving March, who was next to him, trapped in a massive crowd of people listening to a popular boy band from South Korea. Their were waves of different girls around her, some even carrying weapons and mace, trying to keep her from moving up to the stage.
"Fight your way to the front, girl!" the AI for this game cheered March on as the other girls pummeled her into the ground.
"I can't, this is impossible!" March replied before getting hit by a baseball bat and knocked back to the general admission.
"Aw, better luck next time sweet thing!"
"No! I hate this game, I don't wanna play it anymore!"
With those words, Chris's face appeared in the sky in the game she was in, causing her to scream loudly.
"You can drop out if you want, but you would totally lose the challenge for doing that!"
"No! I won't, I'll keep going!"
"That's what I love to hear!"
Without another word, Chris's face disappeared from the sky. March rose up and returned to the gate to the play area, perking herself up before heading back into it.
"Alright...let's go you bunch of b #$%#s! Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that!"
She ran in, dodging other girls around her and swinging impressive punches at some of the others nearby. She started getting better, though there were others that still struggled with their games. Alexis was one of them, having been in a small fighter jet like spaceship, flying through the void of space and shooting down enemy space ships while getting blasted at herself. As she got hit over and over, the face of a turtle man appeared on the screen in front of her.
"Natt, jump to do a barrel roll!" the turtle guy said to her.
"Do a barrel roll this, do a barrel roll that," she started in an aggressive tone. "Why don't you do a barrel roll out of my face!?"
As she argued with the AI, one of the enemy ships dropped a bomb on her wing, causing her ship to crash into an asteroid and explode.
"Natt?" a squirrel girl called for the fallen ship, "Natt? Naaaaaaaaaaaatt!"
Alexis respawned at the beginning of her level, floating near a large asteroid that was surrounded by other ships like hers.
"I swear...I'm never gonna make it out of here. I'm doomed!"
"You're Doom?" asked an eagle man. "Natt's Doom!"
"No, that's not what I meant, I-"
She was blasted out of the sky by her own teammates, having called herself the main villains name by accident. She respawned again, even angrier than before.
"This is stupid. You hear me, Chris? Stupid!"
Confessional
"Why'd Chris have to go and mess up all the headsets?" Alexis whined, "I could be playing something that pertains to me right now, but nooooo, I'm stuck in this stupid space ship bullcrap game! Ugh!"
Confessional
Then, there was Thomas. Through the entire challenge so far, he had a calm look on his face while the others were exhausted, sweating, and disheveled. In his game, he had to sing, as well as play the guitar, without missing a note for either part. He was on a stage with three other bandmates while a massive crowd cheered him on. As he reached the end of his song, he grew slightly tense, knowing that he soon may escape from this hell of a video game that was clearly meant for somebody else. He played his guitar intensely, singing out perfectly as he did.
"I'm a freak and inhuman,
Trapped in a land of confusion.
And I just wanna scream
Let go of the world and come apart at the seams.
I just wanna shout
Take hold of my anger and let it all out.
I'll be lost within my thoughts until the end of time
I'll dig this ditch and never leave until I learn to climb."
Suddenly, the guitar part got much quieter and the other band members stopped playing with only about two lines left for him to complete his task.
"I...just wanna scream
Let go of the world...and slip into a dream."
He played his last chord, causing the audience to cheer extremely loud while his band mates patted him on the back.
"Nice one, Gretch!" the drummer said.
"Best guitarist ever!" added the bassist.
"Why, thank you guys," Thomas replied with a smile. "But I must go now, I'm getting a migraine from all of this."
He took his headset off, taking in his surroundings in the real world again. He realized that he was the only one who had completed his game thus far, Chris heading over to congratulate him for just that.
"Nice one, Thomas!" Chris applauded him. "You've won today, so we'll get this headset repaired for you so you can use it however you want."
"Thanks, Chris," he replied, rubbing his tired eyes. "I'm gonna take a nap though, that took the life out of me."
Confessional
"I must say, I have a deeper appreciation for Gretchen's skills," Thomas noted, looking extremely tired. "That was an exhausting experience for me, and she does stuff like that a lot, so it's really impressive."
Confessional End
Chris continued sitting and watching the contestants around him, waiting to see who would prevail next. He laughed as they all moved around hilariously, each freaking out in a different respect. March was the next person to pull her headset off, gasping for air and looking around her, coming to terms with the real world again.
"Well, welcome back!" Chris greeted her, though she didn't reply with anything but a grumble. "I'd say congratulations, but you're actually the second person to finish your level."
"Huh?" she was a little taken aback. "Who beat me?"
"Thomas did, actually."
"Oh...huh. I guess that makes sense. He's pretty good at...well, everything."
"Indeed, just like how you're pretty good at messing things up bigtime."
Her face went pale, immediately knowing what the host was talking about.
"How did you know that I-"
"Uh, dude? The cameras?"
"You have cameras in our rooms!?"
"Adoy, stupid."
"That's an invasion of privacy!"
"You signed your privacy away when you signed the release before the show."
"You're an a$%."
"I pride myself in my qualities, thank you."
"So...what are you going to do with that information anyways?"
"I dunno, probably air it later."
"No, you can't do that!"
"Yes I can."
"Well, don't."
"You telling me not to really makes me want to."
"Please don't do it, I'd rather tell them myself."
"Hm...I'm not sure if I should take your word for that...but if you did tell Damien and Archie it'd make for some nice drama."
"I'll tell them, please just don't show everyone..."
"I'll think about it."
As the two spoke together, Natt finally finished his own game, tossing his headset to the ground in a fit of rage.
"Dumbest video game ever," he grumbled, "Stupid models and stupid judges."
"And that makes three of you that have finished your games!" Chris applauded.
"Hey, Natt," March spoke shyly, "What was yours about?"
"I got Luna's game, it was some dumb model thing."
"L-Luna?"
March's eyes widened and she ran out of the room, causing Natt to question her and Chris to snicker to himself.
Confessional
"She's been acting strange all day," Natt noted, "Not sure what happened to her, but clearly it has something to do with Luna."
Confessional End
Natt stayed in the room, though the other two that had finished were nowhere to be seen. He sat himself down near Chris, waiting to see who the next to finish would be. Gretchen finally tossed her headset to the side, gasping in exasperation as she came back to life.
"Archie, you've got some messed up tastes, I'll tell you that!" she stretched herself out as she joined Natt at the winner's table. "So...March and Thomas are done too, eh?"
"Yeah, Thomas won."
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me."
"Yep, dude's great at everything," Chris butted in, "Way better than all of you guys, at least."
"Shut your trap," Gretchen hissed at him.
"Finally!" shouted Alexis as she took her headset off, noticing the others who had finished. "What? I didn't win?"
"Nah, we didn't either, though," Natt answered.
"Oh...then-"
"Thomas," Gretchen answered before she could ask.
"Oh, Thomas did...I see."
Alexis gulped in fear, causing the other two to cock their eyebrows at her.
"He kind of scares me...I was wondering if we could work together to maybe get him out?"
"How could you say something like that?" Gretchen asked, offended on Thomas' behalf. "He's never done anything wrong to us."
"Yeah, he's kind of a cool dude," Natt nodded.
"Sorry!" Alexis hurried to apologize. "I didn't mean it like that!"
"Yeah, whatever," Gretchen scoffed.
Confessional
"Things are turning out to make me look like a jerk, it's not fair," Alexis complained, "Thomas is crazy...but how can I prove that?"
Confessional End
Flint was the next one to complete his game, throwing his headset down to the ground and causing it to break into a bunch of pieces from the force and making Chris scream in sudden agony.
"Flint!" he cried out, "How could you, that thing was a prototype!"
"GamePlace up...GamePlace down," Flint kept repeating the words, as if in some sort of trance, as he left the room immediately, not stopping to talk to anybody who was still in there.
The next to finish was Tony, placing his headset on the ground and standing in the corner, watching as the rest continued to compete for safety.
"Natt, you're girlfriend has weird hobbies," he said, dreading his experience in the VR world.
"Well, your girlfriend is a crazy scientist," Natt replied coldly.
"She is indeed, that's my baby!"
"Well, looks like there's only...what, half of us left?" Gretchen asked, pointing at the others to count them.
"Sure is," the conman replied, "Anne, Liz, Alex, Luna, and Archie."
"Yep, things are getting down to the wire here!" Chris excitedly said, clapping as he watched the remaining five with pleasure. "I wonder who's gonna fail?"
"Not Anne," Natt quickly stated with confidence, "She'll make it out soon."
"Sure she will."
Chris snickered at the group while they started to worry for their friends that were still left inside the gaming world, the next to be freed of its clutches being Alex.
"Ahright, note to self," he started as he took his headset off, sweat dripping from his forehead, "Liz is one crazy wallaby."
Confessional
"Lots of people seem to think that Liz is insane," Tony chuckled at the thought, "She is, that's what makes her so great! She's definitely smarter than the lot of these bozos, anyways."
"Ah don't feel to good about wiping out civilization, even if it was just a fake civilization," Alex glumly said, "Leaves a pit in my stomach. How could Liz enjoy something like that?"
Confessional End
With only four people still playing their games, things got even more intense than they were before. Archie was still struggling to find whatever hidden meaning there was behind the "create the universe" task that he had been given, staring at a blank canvas as his brain ran wild.
"Come on, Archie," he said to himself, trying to put it together. "You can do this, you're a poet! You know the meaning behind words even if there isn't one."
He tapped his forehead with the brush he had been given, looking over at the different colors he was able to select from. He picked red at first, but immediately tossed it to the side, knowing that there had to be more than that.
"This is too much! How do I do this? How!?"
As he continued his struggle, Liz and Luna still were failing to work as a team, each trying to play for themselves, in Liz's case, or dredge along like a miserable failure, in Luna's.
"Come on, Luna!" Liz yelled to her partner as she hopped on top of a virtual lizard, causing it to disappear, "We need to finish this, the others may be close to done already!"
"Oh, well," Luna sighed as she spoked, barely jumping over one of the lizards.
"Don't you want to win?"
"What's the point? You're all just gonna hate me no matter what, I'm just a spiteful jerk."
"Be that as it may, we need to set aside our differences for now and conquer this! We need to move forward."
"If I do, will you leave me alone?"
"Sure, fine, whatever."
"Fine...let's do it then."
The two started to work better together while Anne had finally made her way to the top of her building, putting together a sniper rifle of sorts and searching for her target as the police ran up the stairs below her. She could feel herself getting more and more nervous as they came closer to her position, looking around frantically for the target.
"Come on, come on," she mumbled to herself, seriously in panic mode.
"Hey, you!" a police officer shouted as he burst through the door and started barreling towards her. "Stop right there!"
"Ah!"
In a panic, she leapt off of the building, forgetting that she needed to blast the target before returning to the ground.
"No, no, no!" she cried out, before realizing something. "Wait a minute...before I hit the ground..."
She looked around frantically, spotting the target in a building far off in the distance and taking her aim at it. Archie, in his own world, finally came to an epiphany of sorts.
"Hang on...what if...there isn't any hidden meaning?" he asked himself. "Take it as is, don't look any deeper...create the universe..."
He quickly started splashing buckets upon buckets of paint toward the canvas, making an odd painting slowly start to appear. The four of them were racing against each other at this point, trying to come out on top while the other victors, now all back in the room except for Thomas, who was in his own room, watched nervously.
"Come on, Anne," Natt crossed his fingers hoping for the best.
"You can do this babe!" Tony cheered for his girlfriend, alongside Gretchen.
"Yeah, Liz!" she added, "Whoop this challenge's butt!"
"Archie, please hurry!" March pleaded, worried for her friend.
Despite all of the cheering for everyone else, there was none for Luna. She had been left out of it once again, though it wouldn't have surprised her if she could hear it. Then, more headsets came off of people's heads. Anne was dazed, here eyes spinning as if she had been in a tornado of some sorts. Natt immediately ran over and gave her a big hug, knowing that she was safe. The other was Archie, who looked around, glad to see that he wasn't the last to take his headset off. March sighed in relief as her friend walked over to her, the two hugging tightly as the final two took their headsets off at the same time.
"Finished!" Liz exclaimed, "No thanks to you, Luna!"
"Whatever," Luna rolled her eyes.
"Well, isn't that something crazy!" Chris said, bringing all eyes focused on him. "It looks like Luna and Liz both made it out of there last, what a shocker."
"Yeah?" Liz asked, "What now? Sudden death, right?"
"Hm...nah! I think I'm just gonna send both of you home!"
"What!?" Gretchen and Tony screamed at Chris, clearly in a mix of sadness, shock, and anger.
"Oh...oh well," Luna shrugged it off.
"You can't do that, Chris!" Liz argued.
"I'm pretty sure I can," he replied smugly, "I am the boss after all."
Confessional
"That Luna cost me everything!" Liz screamed as she punched through the wall in anger, "I'm going to kill her!"
"It's over for me," Luna sighed, "Not that that came as a shock, everyone here hated me anyways."
Confessional End
The group met in the escape pod room, both Luna and Liz in their space suits, the scientist glaring at her rival that cost her the game. Tony and Gretchen hugged her tightly, despite the fact that she looked like she was ready to murder somebody.
"Babe...I'm sorry," Tony said, a hint of pure sadness to his voice, extremely unusual for him.
"Yeah, dude," Gretchen looked down at the floor in misery, "This blows."
"Thanks, you two," she replied, her voice hissing from the madness, "You two were supposed to go to the final three with me...but this brat ruined it! Luna, I hate you!"
"Eh, whatever," Luna rolled her eyes.
The model looked away from the crowd, ready to get in the escape pod when she felt someone suddenly embrace her out of nowhere.
"Huh?"
"Luna...I," March struggled to find what to say to the person that she hadn't treated as a friend until today.
"Why are you doing this? Still trying to prove that you like me?"
"I do like you! I'm sorry that we didn't treat you right before the end..."
"But March," Archie added, "She is kind of a jerk...like to everybody."
"She's more than that!"
"Oh, March!" Chris chimed in, "Shouldn't you be telling the others what you did today?"
"But...but..."
"While Luna's still here at least."
"What does he mean?" Natt asked, curious about what happened.
"You did something to Luna?" questioned Alexis.
March could feel all the eyes in the room landing on her, waiting for an explanation as to what happened earlier between the two. Luna looked a little confused about the situation, before coming to a realization.
"Oh...earlier," the model said, "I'll tell you what she did."
"I...I..."
"In fact, I can show you what she did."
"What do you mean?" Archie looked extremely confused by the whole situation.
"Just watch, she did this."
As the room watched intently, Luna grabbed March by the shoulders, pulling her in and kissing her, causing Archie's eyes to go wide.
"What the hell!?" he was unsure of what to say, or what Damien would think of this.
Luna broke the kiss, leaving March flustered and standing there as the model headed to the escape pod with Liz.
"That's what she did, but clearly I did part of it too, so don't go treating her any differently because of it."
"Look at Luna, ruining relationships," Liz snickered at her.
"Shut up Liz, you're dating a literal conman."
"At least he doesn't cheat on me with a skeleton."
"First you tell me too much makeup, now it's not enough makeup. How about you make up your damn mind."
"Haha!" Anne applauded, "That was a good one, Luna! Oh, wait...bad timing."
"Yeah, Anne...just joke about it later," Natt patted her on the head.
"Wait a minute," Liz suddenly noticed something. "Chris, there's only one pod? How are we supposed to leave?"
"You're both tiny, you'll fit," he added with a grin.
"I'm not tiny you son of a-"
Liz's anger was interrupted by the hatch to the pod shutting, and Chris pulling the lever, sending both of them away from the station and leaving a room full of awkwardness as everyone was unsure of what to say about March.
Author Notes:
*This is the first double elimination of the season, and maybe the only one, but who knows? How fitting for Luna and Liz to lose at the same time, considering that they just kept going after each other the whole season. Also, Liz spent all that time formulating how to get her, Gretchen, and Tony to the final three, but totally didn't think about the possibility that she may have to work with somebody who hates her for a challenge. So sad.
*Going back through and fixing some of the grammar and the story inconsistencies for the earlier episodes, some of the things I wrote legit made me cringe.
*Placements: 22nd - Taylor; 21st - Nicolás; 20th - Vicente; 19th - Haley; 18th - Crustacean; 17th - Sebastian; 16th - Damien; 15th - Benjamin; 14th - Jianne; 13th - Dusty; 12th/11th - Luna and Liz
Review Responses:
Nobody245 - And as soon as she joins them, she's suddenly ripped away! Poor Tony, though.
Alexneushoorn - Yeah, never ever going to torment Alex that bad again, he's too wholesome for that. Or will I? The world may never know...
BadLuckAE - Yep, too many antagonists for sure...which is why not only one, but two have taken their leave here. I wonder who could be next?
In the Pod...
"Luna, you're such a conniving little-" Liz was cut off by Luna looking around for something in the pod, and accidentally hitting her in the head. "What are you doing?"
"Um, isn't it obvious?" Luna replied with a nasty tone, "Looking for the tv remote or something, I'm bored of hearing you blabber."
"We wouldn't get a connection to cable up here...we're literally in space, you moron."
"Then what's this?"
Luna held up a remote of sorts in Liz's face, causing the latter to look at it in a puzzled manner.
"That could be for anything, but there isn't a tv in here!" Liz exclaimed, "It might open the hatch and kill us for all you know."
"Oh, well. Time to find out."
"No!"
Luna pressed a button on the remote, despite Liz pleading her not to. Suddenly, the glass screen on the pod lit up in color, showing some runway model show.
"What?" Liz was puzzled as her rival started watching intently.
"Sh! This is a good one!"
"Good grief."