In a room that had never been seen by any of the contestants before, Chris could be seen surrounded by bookshelves while standing next to a table that had stacks of index cards for each contestant. A little nametag for everyone could be seen near the stacks, set out neatly for everyone to see. Chris motioned his finger in front of his mouth, uttering a "shhh" noise, though no one was around.
"Last time on Total Drama Space Station: the final fourteen contestants started out their day with an awkward breakfast while the remnants of the previous challenge still lingered. No pair was more hostile to each other than Archie and March though, who were having the hardest time trying to make up and forget about it. Jianne was totally mad about that, she called them children or something. Weirdly, Liz and Tony had become a lot more...friendly with each other out of nowhere, which shocked both Dusty and Gretchen, the cowgirl being super aggressive about it. When it was time, everyone made their way to the teleporter and had to get dressed up as gladiators before heading to an oxygen filled colosseum on Mercury! There, we let them in on the games they would be performing in order to earn my favor! We also banished the voting system...so if ya lose, ya lose. The first game was a battle royale between the whole group, the favor winners being Tony and Anne, who also got the rights to the money their merch makes on day one. Oh, and Liz totally kissed our least favorite conman! Imagine that. The second game was a team chariot battle, which led to some wacky events. Flint and Dusty's teams kept going after each other, Luna and Liz kept attacking each other, despite being on the same team, and getting mad at Alexis for trying to focus on the challenge. Weirdly, even though those three were super damaged, they somehow all struck the chariot of Jianne, March, and Archie and broke it down, leaving those three to partake in the final game: a runaway from our crazy Chef lion! In the end, Jianne found herself in Chef's clutches after trying to help her friends, and was sent home in a massive tear-jerking moment. What a shame. March and Archie then made up in her honor, and Tony and Liz officially started dating, so there was some good, I guess. It's time to quiet down and get ready for a lot of pain in this challenge. Who will be the second to succumb to post-merge losing? Find out, now, on this silent episode of 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.
Natt, Anne, and Dusty were walking together through the Bio-Dome, an area that everyone had become familiar with at this point. Everyone wanted to know how much money did Anne and Tony get, exactly, but there was no way to find out other than just asking the question, plain and simple.
"So, Anne!" Dusty broke the silence of the three just walking, "What were yer merch sales like? Did you make a whole lot?"
"Oh, yeah," Natt thought about it, "I meant to ask that, too."
"Oh, well," Anne scratched her chin. "I made like...I think...eleven thousand dollars?"
"Holy guacamole!" Dusty shouted, darn near having a heart attack after hearing the massive amount of money. "From just day one!?"
"Yeah, it was something like that."
"That's insane," Natt added, "Imagine getting eleven thousand dollars for winning one challenge...Chris is gonna regret that, for sure."
"Oh, well. It's just money!"
"I guess yer right, but eleven thousand," Dusty still awed at the crazy number, "I can't imagine what I'd do with that kind of money..."
"Makes you wonder what the winner is gonna do with five million, right?" Natt asked, thinking about it himself.
"Well, I know what I'd do!" Anne chimed in, "I'd totally use a bunch of it to build my own comedy club! Oh, and then I could buy a big house with lots of gag traps in it!"
"That's so like you, Anne," Dusty chuckled, "I'd do something nice for my ma, I think she deserves it. Maybe get us a nice home where there won't be any perverts or tornadoes...I hate tornadoes."
"What about you, Natt?"
"Huh?" he snapped out of his trance-like thoughts and returned to the conversation. "Oh...uh...I...I don't know, I never really thought about it. You'd have to give me some time to really rack my brain."
"Understandable," Dusty replied, "It is a lot of money, after all."
Confessional
"There's a lot of things that I could do with five million dollars," Natt started, clearly deep in thought again. "I think it would be nice to do something for my family...and Anne. But what? It's too much to think about, gah."
Confessional End
While they walked around in the most natural room in the station, Tony was hunched over a table in the cafeteria while Liz rubbed his back and Gretchen watched the two out of curiosity.
"Uh...so, Tony," Gretchen started, trying to pry into what was causing his mood, "Did you get your prize money?"
"Sh," Liz didn't let him answer, "He doesn't want to talk about that."
"Five dollars," Tony mumbled, his eyes welling up with tears as he thought about it. "Not five thousand, not five hundred, five! The number after four and before six! How could that happen...there has to be a mistake."
"Well, Chris did say it would be better for the more popular players," Gretchen awkwardly added, which made him wince.
"Ouch! That stings."
"Aw, it's okay, Money Bags," Liz said before kissing him on the cheek.
"Liz, we're gonna have to have a talk on how to properly give someone a pet name later," Gretchen chuckled at the name she called Tony.
As the three went on, in came Archie and March, both of which were miserable again after having lost another friend to elimination. They sat at their usual table, but couldn't help but feel the dread of the empty seats around them.
"She's really gone, huh?" March asked, finding it hard to smile like she usually did.
"Yeah, she is," Archie choked between his words. "It's always gotta be our friends that have to go..."
"Sure seems like it...but hey, we can still do this! We just have to think about them and know that when this stupid show is over we'll get to be with them again!"
"You're right. It's just-"
Archie was cut off by Flint suddenly running up to their table and standing on top of it, gathering their attention immediately.
"I know you're all sad," Flint started with a bravado that couldn't be backed up by anything he had done ever. "But come one, people! Friends can be replaced! Just look at me, I'm the Flint Goldenrod! I'll totally be your new friend and we can crush everybody else, especially my old teammates, who betrayed me! Whaddya say?"
"Uh...no."
The two got up from their table, walking away from it by themselves until Flint, who couldn't take a hint, ran back up to them and walked with them.
"Come on, this is a once in a game show lifetime opportunity! We could definitely make this work. I can even pretend to be Jianne, ahem, 'Oh, like, me me me, I'm great, I work with you guys to make myself look better,' pretty spot on right?"
Without a moments notice, March slapped him across the face, causing him to rub it in pain.
"Don't ever do that again," she glared at him intensely. "That's not even close to what she's like."
"Buzz off, Fly," Archie grumbled as he and March left Flint, who still seemed pretty confused and shrugged.
Confessional
"I'm sure they'll come around!" Flint laughed it off, "But man, that March sure can slap someone silly. I think I've got a welt on my face!"
Confessional End
The other four contestants were in the auditorium, three of which were watching the fourth, Luna, model some dress or something. They were only loosely paying attention to her, as they were more invested in talking to each other. Alexis, on the other hand, was just watching Thomas closely and barely paying attention to the conversation at hand.
"I still think it's cool that Chris let you come back," Thomas said to Alex, "You'd think he would've been angry at you for not letting him eliminate you normally last time."
"Oh, yeah he sure was!" Alex remembered the elimination, "But he said something about ratings or something. People love our dynamic, I guess."
"Neat. What about you, Alexis? Why'd he bring you back?"
As he looked to Alexis for an answer, she found herself lost in thought entirely as his question just stayed unanswered and she sat there quietly.
"Alexis?" Alex waved his hand in front of her face, trying to get an answer out of her, but nothing came from it.
Finally, Thomas tapped her on the shoulder, which caused her to leap up from her seat and squeal. Both of the boys shared a concerned glance as her breath grew fast and she came back to reality.
"What!?" she asked while panicking.
"We...uh...were asking why Chris brought you back to the show?" Thomas answered her, not dropping the look on his face.
"Oh...that. I don't know, he said I could be a good source of entertainment or something."
"I see."
"You guys are the worst audience ever!" Luna shouted, throwing random fancy looking clothes at all three of them. "How am I supposed to pour my heart out into modeling these outfits for you if you aren't even gonna pay attention?"
"Je jure devant Dieu, tu es un petit canard ennuyeux."
"Oh, I know you didn't just say...whatever you said!"
"Note to self," Alexis started, "Luna doesn't know French."
"Uh, yeah I do? Better than you, stupid!"
"So speak some French right now," Alex dared her.
"Uh...no!"
Luna was quick to run off of the stage, bringing whatever outfits she had left up there with her as the other three laughed at her.
Confessional
"Laugh at me, will you?" Luna grumbled to herself. "I'll show you that I know French! Stupid translator and his stupid pack of losers."
"Luna is an interesting one," Thomas noted, "But not very gifted in the brain, if you know what I mean."
Confessional End
Suddenly, the loud speakers came on with a bit of feedback, which, of course, grabbed everyone's attention. They knew exactly what was about to happen.
"Well, good morning contestants!" Chris greeted with a hint of evil to his voice, "We're gonna need all of you to go into the room directly across from the Bio-Dome for the debrief on your next challenge. Oh, and if I were you, I would totally bring some earmuffs. Just in case, you know?"
Chris's voice disappeared as soon as it came on, leaving the contestants wondering what their next challenge could possibly be. Natt, Anne, and Dusty turned around from where they were walking to get back to the entrance.
"What do you think it is this time?" Anne asked, full of curiosity.
"I'm not sure, but I don't remember a room being there before," Dusty thought about it.
"You're right, there never was one across the hall before," Natt pondered it, "What do you think it is?"
"A ranch!"
"I don't think it's a ranch, gonna be honest with you," Anne let down Dusty lightly, but the cowgirl was still convinced that it was a possibility.
"Definitely a ranch!"
"Sure, you can think that all you want," Natt added as Anne giggled a little.
Meanwhile, the remaining three in the cafeteria were rising up from their own seats to go to the mysterious room that nobody knew about.
"It's gotta be a laboratory," Liz suggested, "I haven't seen one yet, but what space station would be complete without one?"
"Nah, definitely a treasury," Tony replied, his mouth watering as he thought about the money that could be in the room.
"Yeah, right," Gretchen dismissed the idea, bringing Tony back from his trance. "It's a recording room, a duh. Where else would we go to record our big hits?"
As they exited the room, they were met by Flint, who was standing at the doorway.
"You're all wrong, actually," he interjected, though they only loosely payed attention to him. "It's actually a track room."
"Isn't there already a gym and a pool?" Liz asked, "Why would they also need a track room?"
"Why would they need it? Man, are you stupid or what? They need it so I can hone my skills!"
"I think that only pertains to you, dude," Gretchen shut his idea down.
"And a recording room doesn't only suit you?"
"He has a point," Tony noted as he nodded his head, "But I'm still banking on it being a treasury."
Archie and March, who were heading to their rooms, now had to turn back around to head to whatever the room was, and also found themselves wondering what it could be.
"I don't know," March started, "Maybe like an arts and crafts room? That'd be cool."
"Maybe it's just a room with no lights on and we have to play laser tag or something," Archie replied, half joking.
"That would be awesome!"
"Well, I was just-"
"I love laser tag!"
"Right..."
Finally, the four in the auditorium started making their way out of the room they were in, which was also relatively close to the secret room.
"Any ideas to what this room is?" Thomas asked, "I think it could be an archery range."
"That'd be cool an' all," Alex replied, "But I'd like to guess it's a room for rock climbing!"
"Unlikely," Alexis shut the boy's idea down, "It's a room dedicated to boy bands. There's gonna be posters everywhere...what a paradise!"
"Haha!" Luna laughed at the three mockingly, "You're all wrong!"
"Then what do you think it is?" Thomas questioned her.
"A throne room for moi! See, I can speak French!"
"Woah, so French."
"Are you mocking me?"
"Of course not, Luna!" Alex cheerfully pitched in, "He's obviously saying you're great at it!"
"Hmph, whatever."
After a long time of walking and waiting, the group finally made it inside of the room to discover a library, with but one index card filled table and an odd screen above it on the wall.
"A library?" the group asked in unison.
Confessional
"Books are cool," Natt started, "Could've been a zero gravity room or something, but yeah. Books are nice."
"This is lame," Anne complained, "None of these books are even gonna be funny!"
"Well, it's no boy band altar," Alexis sadly stated, "But I do like reading, I guess."
"Boring!" Flint shouted, "This room gets a big zero points from me."
"How curious," Thomas had a calm smile on his face, "I wonder what sort of books lie in here."
"Well, this is right wacko!" Alex was in awe from the room. "I've never seen a library that big before!"
"Not interested," Tony brushed the room aside, "Books aren't gonna help me get money, why should I read them?"
"I guess I could still model in a library," Luna thought out loud, "But I don't think anybody other than old people go to libraries anyway, soooo..."
"Do you think they have any books on how to get your mixtures to stop exploding?" Liz asked, "I'm asking for a friend."
"Ah, darn," Dusty sighed, having hoped for something else. "There goes my hopes for a ranch."
"Man, how am I supposed to perform in a library?" Gretchen questioned, "Don't you have to be quiet in them?"
"I guess that's alright," Archie murmured, "Though I think March really wanted that laser tag."
"So...no laser tag?" March looked defeated.
Confessional End
Chris finally approached the group from the sidelines, bringing a rolling podium with him and setting it up right near the table. He had a fancy tuxedo on as he made his presence known, causing the contestants to wonder what he was going to make them do now.
"What's with the getup?" Gretchen asked him, kind of laughing at his look.
"Okay, rude, first of all," Chris replied, offended, "This tux was super expensive, dude. And second, it's all in relation to this next kicker of a challenge!"
"In a library?" wondered Alexis, "How intense could a library challenge be?"
"We're getting there. So, a long time ago, there was this game show that took place in a library. Basically, each person would pick a card, with someone getting the punishment card, which meant they had to spin a wheel to see which punishment they would get. But, the catch was that they had to stay quiet no matter how horrible the punishment was. Well, this challenge is gonna be kind of like that, as a sort of homage!"
"You're gonna torture us and not let us scream?" Thomas questioned the premise.
"Exactly! Except, there'll be no wheel. We'll randomly pick one of you to start the challenge, and then move clockwise around you with who goes next. You'll notice that there are stacks of cards with your names in front of them at this here table, those will be your seats for the challenge."
"I have to sit next to Tony?" Dusty complained, "No fair."
"Hey, shut it," Liz hissed at her.
"Oh, I'm in between Natt and March," Thomas noted, "Interesting, but not complaining."
"Great," March started, "Flint's on my other side."
"Aw, yeah!" Flint cheered, "Me and the Marchster!"
"Looks like me and you buckaroos are on one side together!" Alex said to Alexis and Liz.
"Sure does," Alexis replied, "Pretty good placements."
"Oh, look!" Gretchen saw who she was next to, "You're my seat buddy, Archie!"
"Fantastic," Archie mumble, not all too thrilled to be seated next to the rockstar. "And Anne on the other side. How wonderful."
"Heehee!" Anne giggled as she sat down and definitely didn't put a whoopie cushion on Luna's chair, which was on her other side.
Luna sat down, and the noise was heard, which gathered all of their attention and caused her to blush.
"That was not me!" she protested, "It was stupid Liz!"
"Stupid?" Liz chuckled, "At least try with your insults, you're getting boring."
"So, Chris?" Natt called to the host, "What exactly do we have to do to win?"
"Great question!" the host was excited to reveal the challenge's reward as he rolled over to him on the podium. "The reward for today is a burlap sack!"
"Huh?"
"The burlap sack is yours to fill with any books you find in this library that you want. They're all expensive and rare, so keep 'em, sell 'em, I don't care! But, you can only take what fits in the sack itself, nothing extra."
"That's cool and all, but you didn't really answer his question," Gretchen interrupted.
"Oh, how could I forget? You all see the screen above you, right?"
Chris gestured to the screen, which had thirteen columns, each named after one of the contestants in alphabetical order. There was a danger line near the very top of the columns, which concerned everybody.
"This screen is here to show you your highest volume!"
"Highest volume?" March asked.
"Yeah, basically, your highest volume is marked as the loudest noise you make. If you sigh, it'll only fill up about ten percent of that column. Your noises don't stack, either, so if you're high up on that bar, you're free to talk normally with no worries."
"Okay, cool, I guess," Thomas didn't know what to make of it.
"Now, the danger line is exactly at the ninety-percent mark for everyone. That means you're getting too close to the deep end."
"The deep end?" Flint gulped in fear, "What happens then?"
"The first person to reach one hundred percent on the screen...will be eliminated!"
"Oh, schnap!" Anne snapped her fingers as the others gained a look of fear on their face.
"On the other hand, the challenge winners will be the contestants with the lowest percent on their bars. Yes, there can be multiple winners for this one."
"Sweet!" Dusty cheered. "I'm after you, books!"
"So, now that you're all seated, we can finally pick one of you to start the game. Oh, and no potty breaks or nothing once it starts!"
"Yeah, yeah, get on with it," griped Tony.
"Without further ado," Chris pulled out his device and pressed a button. "Your first punished contestant is..."
The group watched intensely as Chris's device cast to the screen above them, pictures of each of the contestants flashing on the screen before it finally slowed down and stopped on none other than...
"...Alex!"
"Ah'right, let's do it!" Alex cheered, which caused his bar to immediately rise up to about sixty percent, which struck fear into him and everyone else around him.
"I did mention that it records your highest volume!"
"Right, right," Alex was much quieter when he spoke this time.
He grabbed for his first index card on top of the pile, and flipped it over in front of everyone to reveal a picture of a space monkey on it.
"Haha, what does that mean, Chris?"
"Ah, how ironic for you, the person who was eliminated in that challenge to get the space monkey card. It means you'll have to spend a minute in a cage with one of the monkeys!"
"One pesky minute? Ah'right, I can do that."
Chef, from seemingly nowhere, came wheeling out a large cage, which had a curtain draped over it. He tugged the curtain off to reveal a massive gorilla-like beast with blue scales and fur on it and pure red eyes. Alex gulped when he saw the creature, and very slowly inched towards the cage.
"His name is Brutus!" Chris excitedly said, "Have fun with him!"
Before Alex could even continue to speak, Chef shoved him into the cage and locked the door to it. He accidentally bumped into Brutus right away, gulping as he backed to the door again and the beast looked him up and down. Some of the others averted their eyes, though others, like Flint, watched intently.
"Uh...nice monkey?" Alex nervously spoke before the creature grabbed him by the leg and started flailing him around, hitting him against the cage walls.
"Alex," Thomas whispered to his friend from the table, raising his own bar to a minimal five percent. "Don't scream. Just remain calm."
"Ah can't hear you, ah!" Alex yelped as he hit both the side of the cage and the one minute mark of his dare.
His bar raised to seventy percent as Chef opened the door to the cage, Brutus tossing Alex out like a moldy apple and causing him to land perfectly in his chair again. Chef then took the creature away from the group.
"You okay?" Thomas whisper asked his friend, not raising his bar anymore than its current height.
"Phenomenal," Alex replied, his eyes spinning.
"That was awesome!" Chris applauded the gorilla and Alex, "Now, onto Alexis!"
Alexis tried to relax herself before grabbing her card, not uttering a sound in doing so. She quickly flipped it to reveal a picture of a horseshoe. The group looked at it in question before Chris found himself chuckling again.
"Oh, man! Chef, you shuffled these amazingly!"
"Appreciation?" Chef looked confused, "Well, thanks, Chris."
"The horseshoe punishment is quite simple. You'll have to stand on the target on the floor, here next to my podium, and have Chef throw horseshoes at you until one of them stays hooked onto either one of your arms or legs. Simple enough, right?"
Alexis nodded, though she looked incredibly frightened as she headed over to the target and stood atop it. Chef stood about ten feet away from her, with horseshoes piled up next to him.
"Aaaaaaand...go!"
Alexis closed her eyes in fear, preparing for the worst before he threw the first of his horseshoes, which perfectly landed on her wrist like a bracelet. She slowly opened her eyes to see the horseshoe their and the bewildered looks on everyone's faces.
"Oh...right," Chris sighed in disappointment. "I forgot that you've got unnatural luck. Whatever, next!"
Alexis sat back down as Liz reached for the top of her own pile. She pulled out a card that had a picture of headphones on it, which, once again, confused the group.
"Oh, Liz, I hope you like bass boosted dubstep music!"
"Huh?" she asked, quickly covering her mouth after as her bar raised to twenty percent.
"Chef's going to bring you headphones which will play only bass-boosted dubstep from it. You can't take them off until your next turn!"
Liz glared at Chris as Chef brought the headphones over and placed them on her head. Immediately, the noise started to affect her. Though the others couldn't hear it, it was screaming in her ears, which caused her to slam her head on the table. Her bar quickly rose to fifty percent from that noise, which shocked the group.
"Wait," Anne started quietly, raising her bar to fifteen. "Us touching things counts as noise?"
"Only if you do something like what she just did. Walking and picking cards doesn't count towards your noise level."
"That blows, Chris," Flint mentioned, raising his bar to thirty as he could barely control his speaking voice. "Oh, what the hell?"
After he complained about his bar raising, it rose another five, causing him to quiet down.
"Next up, Luna!"
Luna rolled her eyes as she grabbed one of the cards from the table, revealing a picture of a worm.
"Perfect for a beauty model, such as yourself! Chef, bring on the worms!"
Luna's eyes widened as Chef dropped a platter of worms directly on top of her head, along with a bunch of dirt, which he started rubbing in like shampoo. She couldn't help but squeak, raising her bar to eighty percent and scaring the lights out of her. She was forced to endure the rest of the worm punishment silently, though at least Liz was too preoccupied to laugh at her pain.
"Chris, that is so inhumane," March noted, raising her bar to twenty.
"I know, isn't it awesome?"
Chef finally finished kneading the worms and dirt into her hair, completely ruining it and causing her eyes to twitch in anger.
"That's pretty epic. Anne, you're up!"
Anne grabbed a card from her pile, showing everyone the picture, which was of a needle. Natt looked a little concerned, though only Anne could see the emotion.
"Perfect, everybody loves acupuncture! Chef will be administering your treatment with over three hundred needles that, like Liz, you have to keep in until your next card! Don't worry, he totally knows what he's doing."
Chef snickered as he approached Anne with the needles, causing her to gulp in fear as he started sticking them into her back. After a couple minutes of careful placement, she started to resemble a pincushion to everyone else, though she barely moved or spoke because of all the needles.
"And next is Archie!" Chris cheered while Archie grabbed for a card.
The boy flipped it over, showing a picture of milkshake, which intrigued the group.
"Oho, boy! Chef thought of this one himself, it's gonna be great!"
Chef walked over to the table with a blender that he placed in front of Archie. He dumped a scoop of ice cream, a piece of salmon, two onions, and a hamburger into it, blending it up before pouring it into a shake glass, complete with a bendy straw. Tony gagged at the sight, raising his bar by five percent.
"You have to drink that whole glass without taking a break from sipping it. No gagging or you have to start over!"
Archie sighed, raising his bar to twenty percent from the aggravated noise before taking a big swig from the glass, emptying it rather quickly and shocking the other people around him. He gagged as he set it down, but otherwise was fine. Chris himself couldn't help but gag at the sight, but he shook it off.
"Well, that was disgusting. Gretchen, you're up!"
Gretchen nervously grabbed a card from the top of her pile and flipped it over. The picture was of a bottle of eye drops. She looked to Chris for an explanation.
"Shampoo eye drops! Chef's got a bottle of shampoo the size of a bottle of eye drops, and you have to keep your eyes open as he pours the entire bottle into your eyes!"
The contestants all cringed as they heard the premise of her card, Gretchen remained silent for the time being as Chef approached her. She leaned back, opening her eyelids as best as she could as the others looked away and Chef started to drop the shampoo in her eyes. She slammed her fist on the table almost immediately.
"What the f !?" she shouted, raising her bar to the danger zone and hitting ninety-five percent. "F , f , f !"
"Oh, so close to losing it there, Gretchen! Guess we'll just have to swing back around to you and see if you fail next turn!"
"What the f ever, this hurts like a mother..."
"Yeah, yeah. Tony, you're up, bud."
Tony smirked as he grabbed a card from the top of his pile, flipping it to reveal a picture of a shredder.
"Oh, we specifically designed that one for you, dude. Chef!"
Without further ado, Chef wheeled out a paper shredder and set it right next to Tony. He then taped the boy's eyes open, forcing him to watch what he was doing.
"Chef's got a stack of one hundred dollars, in singles of course. You have to watch him shred each dollar in that stack!"
"You wouldn't!" Tony barked, raising his bar to seventy.
"But we totally would, though. Go ahead Chef."
"Roger," Chef answered before sliding the first bill through the shredder.
"No!" Tony's yelp raised his bar another ten percent, being slightly louder than before.
The other contestants rolled their eyes at him, knowing that he was getting off way too easy in comparison to some of the others. After a couple of minutes, the punishment was said and done, and chef poured the shredded bits onto the table in front of Tony, causing him to panic and try to piece them back together.
"I can make this work...I just have to...have to..."
"Oh, shut yer yap, Tony!" Dusty smacked him on the back of the head as her bar raised to thirty from her loud talking.
She grabbed for her own card, revealing a picture of a magazine.
"What even does this mean?"
"Oh, something that you definitely won't like. Chef, bring the magazines."
Chef wheeled the shredder away, and returned with a stack of magazines, which he handed out to all of the boys, including himself and Chris.
"What are you getting at here, Chris?"
"These magazines prominently feature your mother, who, as you know, is a famous swimsuit model."
"And?"
"For one whole minute, you have to watch all the boys here look through the magazines and make comments about her!"
Dusty gritted her teeth at the host, but Natt, Archie, Tony, Thomas, and Alex all pushed their magazines forward, clearly not interested in what was in the magazines.
"Come on, guys! Just try to be exciting, at least. Oh well, at least Flint's doing it."
Luna, surprisingly also grabbed one of the magazines.
"I, of course, must see how this 'model' measures up to me."
"Woah, she's got huge-" Flint was cut off by Dusty.
"SHUT IT!" the shout raised her bar to ninety-five, just like Gretchen's.
A minute had finally passed, and the four who were actually looking at the magazines set them down on the table, Luna blushing brightly and refusing to look anyone in the eyes.
"What's a matter with her?" Flint asked.
Thomas whispered something to March, who then whispered that same thing to Flint.
"Oh, snap!" his bar raised to fifty.
"Quit it!" Luna griped at them, "I will not tolerate you telling secrets about me. Next card!"
"That's my line!" Chris whined.
Natt grabbed a card from the top of his pile, flipping it to show a lipstick container. Chris immediately started to laugh at him, which caused him to cock an eyebrow, though he made no sound.
"Luna, can you do us a favor and give Natt a makeover?"
"Uh, yeah I can? With pleasure, he needs it."
"Stop squeaking, mousey," Anne glared at her.
Luna rolled her eyes and grabbed a tray of different makeups from Chef, heading over to Natt. She sat on the table in front of him, looking at her "canvas" very carefully before starting to do different things to him. It took her a solid ten minutes, which made everybody bored, except for Liz, whose pupils were now stars as her mouth made dubstep noises out of the forced noise. Tony looked a little upset about it, but didn't say anything.
"I'm finished," Luna said as she hopped off of the table.
Natt looked much less pale than before, and the bags under his eyes were gone completely. He couldn't see his own face, but the shocked expressions on everyone else's made him think that she had done something horrible.
"You know, I was kinda hoping you'd make look like a clown or something," Chris mentioned.
"Why would I botch something I'm working on?"
"Whatever, you ruined this one."
"Yeah, he looks okay, or whatever," Anne mumbled, "I like him how he is."
Natt smiled at the comment.
"Oh, boohoo, Anne," Luna rolled her eyes as she sat back down on yet another whoopie cushion, causing the jokester to giggle. "So childish."
"Next up is my main man, Thomas!" Chris gestured to the translator, who smiled at the introduction before grabbing a card to reveal a picture of some tweezers. "Oh, man, that one sucks, dude! Chef has to pluck at least ten of your eyelashes. Chef!"
Chef walked over to Thomas, who still had a calm smile on his face as he went to pluck the first lash. Some of the contestants were in awe of how he could possibly maintain a face like that while this was happening. After the tenth, tears had forced their way out of his eyes, but he was still smiling, creeping the others out at this point.
"Okay...you did it, dude. Are you okay?"
Thomas nodded, wiping his eyes to clear the tears out.
"Alright, I guess...March, you're up!"
March grabbed a card, sitting anxiously as she flipped it over to unveil a picture of Dusty.
"Is that me?" Dusty asked, slightly confused.
"Sure is! March here has a horrible fear of horses...which you love! For the next minute, you have to tell her all about, and show pictures of, because I know you have them, your horse, Georgie!"
"I don't wanna scare the girl!"
"You don't do it, you lose right now."
"Ugh...I'm sorry, March."
Dusty walked over to March, who was already going pale from the tension. The cowgirl sat on the table in front of her, pulling out a wallet to show her the pictures of her horse, which made her scream and raise her bar to ninety. Archie looked a little upset as March literally cried in fear at the sight, and Dusty was clearly just as upset about it as he was. The minute eventually ran out, and Dusty hurried back to her seat.
"Well done, guys. Well done. Now...Flint!"
"Pfft," Flint shrugged the challenge off. "How bad could it be?"
He grabbed his care, revealing a picture of a mousetrap.
"Explain that one, Chris."
"Oh...pretty simple. Chef, set up the line!"
Chef walked through the library, placing mousetraps all over the ground and causing some of the group to question it with a slight fear.
"Flint, you're an excellent runner and all, however, I don't think you could run so well if it was barefoot across a massive line of mousetraps! Be careful though, if you miss one, you'll have to turn around and get it."
"Uh...e-easy peesy..."
Flint stood at the start of the line, tossing his shoes off to the side. Chef then blew a whistle, signaling him to start running down the line. As trap upon trap snapped on his feet, he winced in pain. The group watching him couldn't help but feel some of the pain that he was feeling, turning away to avoid looking. He missed one, causing him to groan in pain and head back to it and snap it on his foot. He eventually made it to the end of the track, with his feet completely covered in bruises from all of the mouse traps.
"That...that sucked," he said, looking up at his bar to see it balanced at an eighty from the various pain noises he had made.
Confessional
"This has got to be the worst challenge, ever!" Gretchen griped as her eyes were still burning. "That Chris is gonna get his, I swear."
"Note to self," Alex started, cracking his knuckles and back, "Never mess with a gorilla in the wild!"
"That was absolutely disgusting," Archie gagged as he spoke, "Who even thought those would be a good combination?"
"No...horses...no," March shook in fear.
"My runners are absolutely ruined!" Flint complained, "How am I supposed to maintain my skill with feet as bruised as these?"
"Makeup is annoying," Natt noted, "I feel like my face is covered in a layer of powder."
"Flint's gonna get a massive knock to the head later for that comment of his," Dusty mumbled aggressively.
"Not too bad," Thomas shrugged it off, "I've had worse happen to me."
"Thank you, luck," Alexis was relieved that she didn't get it as bad as the others did.
"This challenge is so not funny, Chris!" Anne pouted.
"My poor hair...it's ruined," Luna cried in the confessional.
"Money...money...money...money," Tony was stuck on repeat like a broken record.
"Bzzzt sup a bzztz bbss krcchhh!" Liz's head twitched to the beat of what she was saying.
Confessional End
"Alright everyone, it's time for the second round of the challenge!" Chris started excitedly. "Your second card will have two images on it, which the contestant on your right gets to choose from. Whichever they choose is the punishment you get, so let's hope that everyone takes it easy on each other...or not! Alex, pick a card!"
"Oh, boy," Alex picked a card to reveal the two pictures as a cat and a rake. "Whatcha think, Flint?"
"Hm," Flint pondered it for a moment. "The cat, I suppose."
"Good choice, Flint!" Chris applauded the boy as Chef brought a terrified looking cat into the room. "Alex, say hi to your new hat you have to wear until your next turn!"
"How do ya figure that cat'll stay on my head that long?" Alex asked as he took his fedora off.
"Oh, she will," Chef answered with a cackle.
He place the cat on Alex's head, which immediately dug her claws into his scalp and caused him to yelp, though his bar didn't raise any higher than it already was.
"Have fun with that one Alex," Chris continued, "Oh, and try not to move too much or she'll dig deeper into your noggin! Now then...Alexis!"
Alexis grabbed a card and flipped it over, holding it so Alex could see it without moving too much. There was a picture of a taser and a rosebush.
"The...the...roses?" Alex answered.
"Perfect! Chef's gonna bring in a rosebush that has one tulip in the center of it. You have to reach in, and pull out, that tulip! Good luck staying quiet for that one."
Alexis looked over at the bush that Chef wheeled over to her, which was extremely thorny and painful looking. She kneeled on the ground in front of it, slowly reaching her hand in and digging around for the flower. The other contestants tried not to watch as she hit some of the thorns in the bush.
"You know, I totally told you guys that you could talk as long as you stayed under your current volume level. No need to make this so awkward."
The group glared at Chris, getting him to retract his statement.
"Fine, whatever, be boring. I don't care."
Finally, Alexis retrieved the tulip with only a couple of scratches to her, returning to her seat very quietly and not raising her bar from zero at all, which made Chris somewhat angry.
"Gah, you people and your trying to win these challenges, laaaaame! Liz, you're done listening to music."
Chef lifted the headphones off of Liz, who still found herself making dubstep noises despite the fact that the headphones were gone now. Some of the contestants laughed at her as she grabbed her next card, showing it to Alexis, who saw a picture of a cymbal and the other, a squirrel. She pointed to the cymbal, not knowing any better.
"Oh, man! She's really gonna hate this after the punishment she just had to go through, Chef!"
Chef brought a pair of cymbals over to where Liz was sitting, confusing everyone who thought that he was going to have a drum set instead.
"Chef will now perform Liz a wonderful sonata, using only these symbols."
Chef spread his arms as far apart as he could and crashed the cymbals together on Liz's head, which made the dubstep immediately disappear from her head, but make her shriek, which raised her bar to eighty. He continued to do this several times over, but her other screams couldn't match the noise of the first one. When he finally finished "playing," her eyes were spinning, which caused Tony to glare at Chef.
"Alright, Luna, it's your turn!"
Luna sighed and grabbed a card, flipping it over and showing a picture of a fire hose and a fire hydrant. She rolled her eyes as she slid it over to Liz, who tapped on the hose.
"Of course you would," Luna mumbled.
"We know how you love your hair and makeup, Luna. Now that we've already ruined your hair, what do you say we do something about the rest? Chef, bring in the hose!"
Chef wheeled in a large hose, which no one was sure what it was connected to. He grinned as he turned on the water, sending it at Luna, full blast, knocking her off of her chair and somewhat cleaning her hair while the makeup on her face washed off.
"Ugh! I feel naked, Chris! How could you guys?"
"Eh, you look better without it," Gretchen mumbled.
Luna's eyes perked up and she blushed as if she had just received a beauty award.
"Oh, my! This all natural look does suit me, doesn't it?"
"Bro, what?" Gretchen looked confused, thinking that she had just given her a slight compliment, nothing more.
"Thank you, Gretchen, for appreciating beauty at its finest!"
"Uh...you're welcome, I guess."
Luna giggled as she sat back down in her seat, Gretchen simply looking away, confused.
"Next," Chris regained everyone's attention, "Is Anne! Chef, you can remove those needles now."
Chef obliged, pulling each needle out of her, which made her gasp, though she smiled after.
"That honestly felt pretty good," she said, "I wanna do it again."
"Nope, can't do it again. Next card."
Anne looked defeated as she grabbed the next card in her stack, which had a picture of a hook and a picture of a hockey puck. She sighed as she gave it to Luna, who immediately picked the hook with a malevolent smile on her face.
"Oh, man! The hook is great, you simply have to be hoisted into the air by a large construction hook until either your next turn, or you fall. We'll see which one happens first."
"Have fun, Annie!" Luna waved to her as she mocked her.
"It's Anne, dummy," the comedian replied as Chef, who somehow had a small crane in the library, hoisted her into the air by her shirt.
It took all of ten seconds for her shirt to rip and her to fall to the ground, causing some of the group to gasp as she rose from the ground.
"Ugh, that hurt."
She looked around to see that a lot of them were looking away from her, including Natt, whose face was redder than anyone else. Only few remained glancing her way, mostly girls.
"What?"
"Your shirt ripped, Anne," Dusty mumbled.
"Oh, man...I love that shirt."
Anne looked down to see her shirt, in two, on the ground in front of her. She crossed her arms over her chest immediately and sat back down.
"Chris, I'm gonna kill you in a very slapstick way later."
Natt quickly took his own shirt off and tossed it to her, leaving himself shirtless as she put it on.
"Oh, how romantic!" March gushed at the sight.
"Whatever," Chris rolled his eyes. "Let's keep the ball rolling people! Archie, your turn."
Archie sighed as he grabbed his next card and, without even looking at it, gave it to Anne. The jokester looked it over for a bit, thinking hard about which to pick before making her decision.
"Ice cube!" she said with glee, causing Archie to cock his eyebrow.
"Huh?" he asked, taking the card back to see pictures of an ice cube and a fire.
"The ice cube punishment, huh?" Chris scratched his chin. "that one should be easy as long as you're not a baby, come along Chef!"
Chef wheeled in a cart full of ice with a large scoop. Without a moment's notice, he quickly shoveled a large scoop of it into Archie's shirt, causing him to shiver immediately.
"Now, Archie, everytime you spill some ice, Chef will pour another scoop in, until your next turn. I'd hold it all in pretty good if I were you."
Archie nodded, shivering so much that his teeth chattered.
"Now, onto Gretchen!"
Gretchen sighed as she picked her card up, showing it to Archie as a picture of a guitar and a picture of a defibrillator.
"T-t-the g-g-guitar," Archie managed to say, though he dropped some ice from his shirt, which ushered Chef to pour another scoop in.
"Perfect for Gretchen! Chef, bring in her guitar!"
"Wait, my guitar?" Gretchen asked, fearing what may happen now.
Chef sure brought in the guitar, holding it up for all to see. He held it right in front of Gretchen's face, causing her to glare at him before he suddenly ran a nail across the paintjob on it, completely ruining it and causing her eyes to go wide. Everyone expected a scream, but they were met with something else instead as she grabbed her guitar from him.
"That..my dad got me this guitar...why?" she looked down sadly as she held it tight, which made some of the others feel a shared sadness with her.
"Uh...I was hoping for some more anger, but I guess existential dread is okay, too," Chris awkwardly added. "Okay, Tony, you're up again."
Tony carefully picked his card, flipping it over in front of Gretchen, who didn't even look up and instead just tapped one side with her finger. The card had a stove burner on it as well as a matchbox, and she had chosen the burner. Chef gladly placed a small tabletop burner in front of Tony, placing a beaker with several gold coins in it on top.
"No...you can't be serious," Tony bit his fingernails as the burner turned on.
"Let's see how well you deal with something more precious than dollar bills being destroyed, eh?"
Tony was forced to watch as the coins slowly started to melt, which made him whine in agony. Unfortunately for Chris, his bar didn't raise any higher than what it was at. The two hosts sighed as Chef poured the molten gold into a sink nearby, causing it to drain down and disappear.
"You guys are real bas #$, you know?" Tony grumbled at them.
"Yadda yadda, go on Dusty. Pick a card."
Dusty nodded and picked her next card, placing it face up on the table for all to see the feather and the lasso on it. Tony immediately lost his sadness and grinned at the one picture.
"You know what's great about this?" he asked Dusty, who rolled her eyes at him and didn't respond. "I know that one of these is gonna lead to something horrible for you, someone told me what gets you kicking. I choose the feather."
"Excellent choice, my money grubbing friend!" Chris cheered as Chef brought a very large feather to the table. "Dusty, I hope you aren't ticklish, because Chef's going to tickle you with this feather for a whole minute!"
"Enjoy it!" Tony added maniacally.
Dusty's eyes widened nervously as the others seemed unaware of why she was so upset.
"I don't get it, it's just a-" Thomas was cut off by Dusty.
"BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" she howled in laughter as Chef tickled her stomach with the feather, breaking the one hundred percent on the bar quite easily. "Make it stop, make it stop!"
Her pleads were answered, and Chef stopped. She managed to wipe some of the laughter tears from her face to notice some of her friends looking at her miserably.
"What happened?"
"You...you lost," Anne answered, sadly.
"What...what!?"
She looked up at the screen, noticing that her bar was full before dropping her jaw.
"But...but..."
"No time for buts!" Chris interjected, "You've got an escape pod to catch! As far as the winners for this challenge, both Natt and Alexis didn't make any noise, so you guys get the reward!"
Chef tossed two burlap sacks to the contestants, Alexis feeling somewhat of a déjà vu when she caught hers.
"Chris, this isn't fair!" Dusty begged him to change his mind, "Tony had it out for me!"
"I seem to recall that you actually started it with him, he didn't really do anything to you until you smacked him upside the head," Chris smirked as he reminded her.
Confessional
"This is so dumb!" Dusty complained, "That stupid Tony has done it again, ruined another person's chance at making it to the finale. I'm never forgiving him for this, never."
"Well, what do you know?" Tony smugly spoke, "I actually get benefitted for somebody else attacking me! How crazy is that?"
Confessional End
The group found themselves in the escape pod room, Dusty in her suit, getting ready to leave. Anne hugged her tightly before retuning to Natt, who was still shirtless from the challenge earlier. Gretchen and Liz approached the cowgirl, both ready to pay their respects.
"Looks like you're riding out of this one, huh?" Gretchen asked, very upset. "It was fun getting to meet you, though."
"Yerself as well," Dusty nodded, "Don't worry about me though, I'll be fine. It's all that Tony's fault that I got eliminated, anyways."
Liz looked away after hearing the sentence leave her mouth. Gretchen gave her "pardner" a hug before returning to the group. Liz stayed by while the others started to leave and Dusty got into the pod.
"This is goodbye, then?" Dusty asked her.
"Quite...I just thought I'd let you in on something, while you're still here," the scientist smirked a little.
"What's that?"
"You see...I had never had an issue with you...until lately. You seemed to take offense to my relationship, which, let's be honest, is none of your concern. I had planned to bring you to the final four with me, my beloved, and Gretchen...but you're a fool. You can't realize when you're overstepping your boundaries."
"Wait, what are you going on about?"
"I'm saying I cut you loose. I told Tony all of your weaknesses after you started protesting our relationship. You mean nothing to me anymore. Now, if you'll excuse me...I've got nine other contestants to eliminate so I can have my ideal finale. Goodbye, Dusty."
"Woah, you can't-"
Dusty was cut off by the door shutting and the pod itself being sent off into the distance. Liz simply smiled and waved.
Slightly later on, Natt and Alexis, the former who now had a shirt back on, were in the library together, picking out their books and such. The room was awkwardly silent, and remnants of the challenge stayed out and reminded them of the horrible day.
"Hey," Alexis tried to break the silence, "You know, I need to apologize about something."
"Huh?" Natt asked, not looking over.
"Well, earlier in the season, when I was getting eliminated, I tried to get everyone to vote for you and I said you were a freak. I'm sorry about that, I really am."
"Cool. I completely forgot about that 'til now, but you apologized so that's cool."
"Really?"
"Yeah, sure. Well, I'm done here. Have fun with the rest of the books."
"I will!"
Natt left the room, and Alexis continued to grab books. As she got her last one, the lights suddenly shut off. All that could be seen amid was her own eyes, and one singular blue eye in the corner of the room. As she panicked, the room suddenly lit back up, revealing that she was alone, and her bag was gone.
Author Notes:
*And the rambunctious cowgirl that we all know and love has met her demise at the hands of Liz and Tony. Dusty was so much fun to have in this story, especially due to her headstrong nature, which is why it makes me sad to eliminate her.
*Still working on that other big project, it does take a lot of time to get things together in between writing the episodes, though I've got some help, now. Once again, once it is ready to be revealed, I will tell all about it.
*I went back and added Jianne's "In the Pod" because I totally forgot to do it before. Speaking of which, I would like to, at some point, go back and add both those and some more depth to the earlier episodes when possible. That may not happen for a good while now, but I will try my best to get it done.
*Placements: 22nd - Taylor; 21st - Nicolás; 20th - Vicente; 19th - Haley; 18th - Crustacean; 17th - Sebastian; 16th - Damien; 15th - Benjamin; 14th - Jianne; 13th - Dusty
Review Responses:
Musical-Total Drama Nerd - Hm, yeah, I wonder? How much does she know about our boy, Thomas. If I was to guess, I'd say she at least knows his favorite color and maybe something else.
BadLuckAE - I know, a lot of people were hoping for Jianne as a finalist, but it has sadly failed to come true.
Candela Monsoon - Nobody could've possibly expected it, at least I didn't think anybody could. Liz and Tony are very different from each other, but I suppose anything can happen.
In the Pod...
"Liz!" Dusty shouted back at the space station, though nobody could hear he.
She banged against the glass, still having somewhat of a sight of Liz waving at her.
"I have to warn the others about her...oh, my phone thingy!"
She started to dig around in her space suit, looking for it, but coming up empty handed.
"What in tarnation?"
As she almost lost sight of Liz, she could see the device in the devious scientist's hand.
"Oho, I swear when I get my hands on you and Tony I'm gonna-"