In his own room, Chris was just waking up and stretching his arms out, quickly hopping out of his bed after. He walked on over to a mirror in the corner and opened it to show a medicine cabinet, one which had the usual medicine cabinet items, like a toothbrush, some headache medicine, oh, and a makeup kit. He grabbed the kit, staring at it in confusion as he tried to think of why it was there before having a sudden realization and shoving it right back in there.
"Last time on Total Drama: Space Station," Chris started, frantically shifting gears from the tired mess that he was not even two seconds ago, "We got to take a break from the action up here and went back down to Earth to visit our favorite group of losers at the Playa Des Losers. Some people were having a great time at the resort, but some of the others did nothing but spark more drama while they were down there. Maggie and Thomas were up to something shady, but that shouldn't really come as much of a surprise to anyone. Taylor started fighting with another one of the girls at the Playa, this time the other girl being Dusty. Liz tried to drop a hair removal bomb on an unsuspecting Luna, but she ended up slipping off of the roof and spilling it on herself, causing her to get temporarily bald before she used some other wacky potion to fix her mistake. In an homage to an episode in our very first season ever, Dana held a little challenge for the losers, putting them into groups of three, excluding the murderous Thomas and the spiteful Crustacean, and forcing them to play a trivia game! Rules were simple, you represented a random astronaut that was still in, and the group with the least points would see their astronaut join them at the Playa. It was a close call between Sebastian's group and Dusty's group, but in the end, Dusty proved that she just wanted to get on Liz's nerves over and over again, and their astronaut, Flint, was brought to the resort, where he met a super pissed off Thomas. Bummer for that dude, right? We're down to the final four, and things could not be more intense! Who will be the next competition drop out? Find out tonight on 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.
In what used to be the Guppies' hall, Archie and March found themselves knelt down to the ground as they played some sort of board game. March had an intense look on her face as she debated what do with her piece, while Archie just gave her a blank stare. She eventually moved her piece two paces in one route, with a confident smirk residing on her face now.
"Ha!" she crossed her arms and leaned back in a cocky manner, "I'm so gonna win this one, Archie!"
"Right," Archie rolled his eyes before rolling the die on the board.
Upon getting his result, he scanned the board and looked at his piece, moving it the five paces forward that he was allowed and landing on a jump spot which landed him three paces away from the end of the board. March looked down at it in disbelief, with Archie now having that cocky smile on his face.
"What was that about winning?"
"Ah! Shut up! I can still win if I...if I..."
"Yeah, I dunno about that, March."
"Ooo, you're too good at all of these mind games!"
"I don't know if I'd called rolling a die and moving a piece a mind game. It's more or less just a game of chance."
"Well, then you're smarter at chance and stuff!"
"That's not really how chance works..."
"Maybe it is and you just don't know that you're super good at it."
"...March, what? It's chance...it's like...completely random."
"One's completely random is another's...uh...um...totally designed to happen!"
"Whatever you say. It's your turn, by the way."
"Oh, yeah!"
She picked up the die, shaking it in her hand vigorously before dropping it down to the board, having it land on a one. She looked down in defeat, sliding her piece forward one pace while Archie stifled a chuckle.
"You need to move another ten spots to win. Still wanna keep going, or do we call it quits here?"
"I'm no quitter! I keep going to the end!"
"Alright..."
Archie smirked smugly and rolled the die, which inconveniently also landed on a one. He slid his piece forward to the spot before the exit, only to find out that it was another jump spot, this one sending him all the way back to the beginning. He stared at the board in absolute disbelief while March clapped her hands excitedly.
"Oh! Oh, oh, oh! Looks who's in the lead now! Take that, chance!"
"Man, this game really is...eh..."
"Looks like somebody's upset cause he's gonna lose."
"Nah, I'm not upset about that. But there is something that's been bugging me this whole time."
"What's that?" March rolled the die, getting it to land on a six and sending her piece forward that many spaces.
"Well...this whole 'weak link is out' rule really bugs me."
"Ohhhh, yeah I was thinking the same thing."
"I mean, think about how many people lost this game because of unfortunate circumstances caused by that."
Archie rolled the die, getting a five and moving along to another jump spot and making it to the same place as March's piece. The girl grumbled to herself a bit when she noticed it, rolling the die again to land on a three and moving up to that very same spot that sent Archie back to the beginning. She let out a sigh, sliding her piece all the way back while her friend rolled it again. As it struck the board, it landed on a four, and as such, he won the game.
"Looks like I won this game of chance," the victor said with a smirk, "Maybe you'll win next time, yeah?"
"Yeah, yeah," she rolled her eyes at him, standing from her seat, "I'll definitely get you in the next one, that's for sure!"
She was quick to grab all of the pieces, and the board itself, packing all of it back up in the box it came from. Grabbing it, she stood from her seated position on the floor and turned to face her door. Archie stood as well, stretching his arms out and yawning.
"Only the four of us left, huh?" Archie sighed as he thought about it. "I'm starting to think that plotting against Tony isn't going to get us anywhere. Dude's too quick witted."
"What!?" March turned back in disbelief that he could be saying such a thing, "Come on, don't say that! Tony's a big...a...a butthead! We can totally beat him in a battle of wits."
"I dunno if calling someone a butthead is very fitting in a battle of wits."
"Well, he is though."
"Yeah, I know...I don't know, maybe we'll figure something out."
"We will! No doubt about it!"
March smiled her usual happy smile, which calmed Archie's worries a bit.
Confessional
"Being in the final four is something I don't think I could've ever dreamed of doing when I first got here," Archie rubbed the back of his neck as he spoke, looking away from the camera, "I mean...I barely spoke to anybody...I was super abrasive...it makes no sense to me that the people I met here spent so much time putting up with that. Damien, March, Jianne, Natt...but you know what? I'm grateful for it. The friends I've made here are some I know will last a lifetime."
"Is Archie saying some sweet stuff in there?" March giggled, covering her mouth with her hand, "He's a real goofball sometimes, especially when he gets all gushy like that. I think its sweet, though. I haven't been the best friend to some people here...but I'm glad that I got to meet Archie along the way! He's super unique and cool!"
Confessional End
While the two were playing their game upstairs, Gretchen was in the cafeteria alone, playing her guitar in between eating spoonfuls of Chef's slop. It was as disgusting as always, but with things getting this intense, it was hard to avoid having an enormous appetite. The co-host watched her from the kitchen, shaking his head before coming out to sit at the same table with her.
"What's up, Cheffy?" she asked, playing a shrieking chord on her guitar and causing him to cover his ears.
"Agh!" he glared at her, "Don't do that, crazy girl! I'm trying to sit down and have some pleasant conversation with you, and you gotta go and pop my ear drums for no good reason!?"
"Sorry, dude, but...you know, I'm kinda rehearsing here. You should've expected to hear some wicked guitar playing."
"Can't you- ugh, whatever. Look, you need to slow down with the stress eating. How can you expect yourself to be able to deal with the oncoming challenges if you just eat yourself into a pit?"
"Huh? Why do you care what I'm doing, aren't you supposed to be super rude to me and whatnot? You know, really make me regret existing or something, yadda yadda."
"I could do that, but I don't really feel like it. Chris is better at that kinda crap anyway. Sometimes seeing you guys all stressed out like this gets to me. We're all people, after all."
"...That we are. You're not gonna get in trouble for being nice to me or anything, though? Like, Chris won't fire you over this?"
"You kidding me? Nah, the viewers eat this sort of bonding up. I usually poll higher on the popularity boards than Chris does because I'm not afraid to break character every now and then."
"I see...well...this whole final four thing has got me in a whirl. My songwriter's block has gotten even worse since the merge, and I don't even know if I can finish the piece I was working on now."
"Have you considered shooting your ideas to someone else? You know, bounce 'em off them and see what they think?"
"Well, I've thought about it, but I don't know who to do that with. Archie is pretty busy all the time, not that he would be interested, March is nice and all...but man, she's not the brightest. She may just say everything is good and call it a day. And Tony? Yeah...no."
"What about me? I've been around for a long time, some relaxation in between the challenges would be nice."
"You sure? I mean, I've got the time, but I don't wanna bug you or nothing."
"Nah, it's all good. What do I do besides make slop for y'all and sit on my ass?"
"You know...you're actually a pretty cool dude. I mean, getting to talk to you and being completely real and level is neat."
"Thanks...but you know, I'll be right back to my regular self when we're doing challenges and such. I've got a role to play here, and all."
"Oh, yeah for sure."
Gretchen held her fist out to the co-host, who bumped it with his own fist after the two had shared their moment.
Confessional
"Chef is definitely a lot cooler to be around than Chris," Gretchen smirked, proud to have been the one that he decided to talk to, "I mean, he at least seems to care a little bit when we're in danger. Unlike that arrogant asshole who's in charge of the whole show. Ugh, how did someone like him end up getting this position?"
Confessional End
And then, there was Tony. He spent most of his time in his room nowadays, knowing that all the others on the station hated his guts. Did he care? Not really, he was simply doing what he had to do to make it further. He was aware of what this type of game was, and despite being hated for believing that he needed to backstab to increase his chances, he went on with his business. As he lay on his bed, he pondered what he should do with his free time. With the others all hanging out with each other, he usually found himself bored with the lack of entertainment. At least when there was a larger group of people he could somewhat blend into a normal conversation without someone telling him to screw off. He let out a sigh of annoyance, getting up from his bed and looking around his room, noticing that he still had some leftover chemical mixtures from Liz. They were all unlabeled, but each one of them was a bright color, from red to yellow to green. He smirked at them, tucking them away into his coat pocket before the loud speaker suddenly erupted with Chris's voice.
"Attention, final four astronauts!" he called to them, "Meet me and Chef in the main lobby in ten minutes to hear the details on your next challenge...for real this time. Oh, and March? Stop painting flowers on my door! If I have to make those interns clean up your mess one more time, I'm gonna flip."
In front of Chris's quarters, Zach and Amelia could be seen scrubbing the door with soaped up rags. They both let out an annoyed sigh before noticing March walking towards them on her way to the lobby. They immediately started to glare at her as she did, causing her to look away awkwardly as she quickened her pace.
"Sorry!" she apologized loudly, rushing away from them as quick as she could.
"Can't believe we have to clean up her mess," Zach complained. "Don't we already have to deal with enough of Chris's nonsense?"
"Clearly not," Amelia sighed, "This isn't befitting for stars like us! We should be in that competition, not them!"
"Yeah...we should, shouldn't we?"
Amelia looked over at the boy, noticing that a devious grin had crawled onto his face. He tapped his fingers together in a villainous pyramid while he thought to himself, piquing her interest.
"Alright, spill it, Batguy. What are you thinking?"
"Well, you know how Chris does those backhanded deals with losers sometimes? Like, 'if you stop so and so from doing this, I'll let you back in the game?' That sort of thing."
"Yeah, I've seen him do that in a couple of season. Redemption challenges for those losers, or whatever. Why does that matter to us?"
"Oh, I don't know. It's just that I thought...maybe me and you could screw with the final four in this next challenge. Ruffle some feathers and cheat some people out of the game. Surely if we caused enough drama, Chris would let us compete."
"Oho! I like that idea! Sometimes your silly, little boy brain has good ideas, eh?"
"My genius big boy brain, I think you mean. Anyway...why don't we ditch this graffiti and instead cause a ruckus today? Show the viewers who really deserves the spotlight here! I bet we could even make the finale if we did that!"
"Uh, duh? Why would I say no to such a brilliant plan?"
"Wonderful! Alright, Amelia. Today, we're chaotic allies, but soon? We'll be rivals in the grand finale of Total Drama: Space Station! You can bet on that!"
The two began to cackle maniacally, each of them tossing their rags away and running off towards the lobby.
Confessional
"Zack is a dunce, for sure," Amelia mocked her partner in crime, "But even someone like him can have a great idea every now and then. Seeing it through? That's a whole 'nother question, but he can definitely help me get in the competition before Chris sends him packing for disrupting the game."
"And my plan is in motion!" Zachary cheered for himself, "Amelia will grab any opportunity for fame, no matter how ridiculous it may seem. I'll have her cause some mayhem, and then when all is said and done, I'll 'catch' her and expose her to Chris! Surely, this will grant me his favor, and he'll have to put me in the game! It's too perfect!"
Confessional End
The final four did as instructed, heading to the lobby to be greeted by Chris and Chef. Gretchen winked to Chef, who returned the gesture, causing Tony to shoot in intrigued look at the two of them. March and Archie played rock, paper, scissors against each other, with March winning most of the rounds, causing the poet to look down at the ground, ashamed of his poor performance. Meanwhile, in the ceiling vent, Amelia and Zachary peered down at the group, snickering very quietly while they watched.
"So, astronauts," Chris started, trying to hide a somewhat embarrassed look on his face, "How does it feel to be in the final four? Pretty good, right? I mean, I'd imagine it'd be pretty cool."
"Uh...yeah, it's nice, I guess," Tony answered, a bit confused about what Chris was doing. "You okay, man?"
"Me? Psh, yeah! I'm great! Couldn't have a worry in the world, haha!"
"Okay, something is definitely up with you," Gretchen prodded into his business. "You're acting like you just crapped yourself in front of your high school crush."
"I am not, gosh! I just...remembered something...something kinda important that I forgot a while ago."
"Important?" March's eyes lit up, "How important are we talking?"
"Well, I mean...you all remember what happened with that whole alien dog debacle, right?"
"Don't even remind me, that was so annoying," Archie scoffed, "Having to deal with those guys poking around while we were trying to enjoy ourselves? No thank you, never again. Not to mention that that's the episode Damien...lost in."
"Riiiiight. That's the one alright. See, if you can recall, I was planning a pretty fun challenge for you guys that day, but it kinda got interrupted by those goons."
"Oh, yeah!" Tony nodded, "You said it was...uh...like a scavenger hunt or some crap like that, right?"
"Yeah. We took a bunch of personal belongings from everyone on day one and kinda hid them all around the station. Since then, they've been collecting dust."
"Wait, we were supposed to look for our things!?" March hissed a Chris, "Why would you guys do that!?"
"Relax. Everyone was supposed to get all of that stuff back a while ago, its just that...I was super angry that day, and I blew the challenge off entirely. I was supposed to do it the next challenge day...but you know, I forgot about it by then. In any case, I just thought of it right now...and I think it would make for the perfect final four challenge!"
"You're a conniving little-" Gretchen was quickly cut off by the host.
"That's right! There are twenty-two personal belongings stowed away somewhere on the space station! Nowhere is off limits in this challenge, not a single room! Here's our rules for the scavenger hunt: one, the person or people who get the most items for themselves will be crowned the winner of the challenge and get to relax in a super secret five star suite for the rest of their days on the space station! Two, the person or people who get the least items...will, of course, be our challenge loser or losers! You'll get to have a wholesome bye-bye ceremony as we send you back to Earth! Three, to cash in a point for yourself, you need to hand it over to Chef. I'll be watching the whole time, so don't think about trying to make a backhanded deal with him. If you find the item, but someone snatches it from you, that's fair game."
Tony grinned in an overjoyed state, knowing that this was just the perfect challenge for someone like him. The other three contestants shot a glare at him, annoyed that he may as well have just been handed a free ticket to the final three.
"Now, your items to find...Taylor's favorite bottle of vodka, and don't ask, I don't know how she brought it up here without getting caught, Nicolás' gameguy, Vicente's favorite rock album, Haley's hanging punching bag, Crustacean's framed photo of her and her friends, Sebastian's green hair dye, Damien's first acceptance letter, Benjamin's box of Spunky snacks, Jianne's violin rosin, Dusty's...uh...something that will probably shock all of you, Liz's chemicals for causing eye, nose, and tongue irritation, Luna's favorite makeup pallet, Natt's personal moon rock that he stole in the middle of a challenge, Alex's exploring headlight, Thomas' broken glasses, we switched his item cause we thought it was funny, Alexis' signed poster from her favorite boy band, Anne's Book of Punography, Flint's lucky sock, Archie's picture of 'mama,' Gretchen's recording of her first live performance, March's first coloring book, and Tony's solid gold bar. Boy, that was a mouthful! All twenty-two of those need to be found and brought to Chef here by you guys!"
"You're a real jackass, you know that?" Archie glared at the host.
"Oh, I take pride in it. Now, let's get things started in...three...two...now!"
Chef blew a loud whistle, startling the four, three of which who were about to scramble immediately until they noticed Tony approaching the co-host while shaking his head in disappointment.
"Come on, guys!" Tony laughed at them, "You could've tried a little harder with some of these things."
He pulled the three vials from his jacket pocket, holding them out to Chef, who had no choice but to accept them. Chris was a tad astounded, but then again, he did hide them in Tony's room before the two started dating. He couldn't have predicted that to happen.
"Well...that nets one point for Tony! An early lead can be lost so quickly, though, so...good luck everybody!"
Now annoyed that they were falling behind already, the three set off in separate directions all at once, while Tony took in a deep breath, thinking for a second, and suddenly coming to a conclusion and laughing as he followed his sixth sense's guidance.
Confessional
"That Tony is always up to something shady," March crossed her arms angrily, "I can't believe he already found one of those things! What a jerkbag, am I right?"
"Tony, that son of a bitch," Archie grumbled, "He's almost as bad as Chris himself!"
"Leave it to Tony to find one of the items before the hunt has started," Gretchen rolled her eyes, "Dude's gonna find twenty of them on his own just so he gets to enjoy one of us being forced to leave."
"Don't hate the player," Tony chuckled as he flipped a coin, "Hate the game, baby."
Confessional End
Gretchen found herself looking through the expansive basement, trying her best to find something so she could match the point that Tony had already gotten. The only problem was that the basement was so big, and any item hidden in it could've just been hidden in plain sight, or even in a box. She checked the walls first, hoping to get some sort of hint at the least. On the other hand, Archie was up in the observatory, looking around where the seats were for on of the items, but having no luck. Not a single seat had a thing underneath it, nor was anything hiding in the corners and cracks of the room. March checked the auditorium, finding some comfort in the room that she spent so much time in. She looked through the rows of seats individually before eventually turning her attention to the stage, noticing that there was some rustling behind the curtain. Intrigued by it, she headed over to check it. Once her foot hit the stage, the rustling stopped, and two sets of feet could be heard running away frantically. She cocked her head in confusion.
"Hello?" she called out, expecting at least a 'hi' back. "Is anyone back there?"
No response came to her, and she shrugged her shoulders. She started towards the curtain, tugging on it to pull it apart and revealing a floor board that had been lifted. Beneath it, there was nothing but a single page, one that she recognized all too well from a coloring book that she once had used as a child. She picked up the page, looking at it intently and feeling a reminiscence of sorts. She sighed as the picture, which was of a flower, perfectly colored in the lines, resided in her hand.
"This can't be right...Chris said that we had to find the whole book, not just a page. Maybe someone was behind the curtain...and they stole the book! Tony! It's gotta be Tony!"
She raised her fist to the sky, waving it angrily.
"Tony, you're gonna pay for tearing my book!"
She stormed to the back exit of the auditorium, opening the door to hear a woman cackling not too far from where she was. Thinking about it for a second, she found herself incredibly puzzled. She was certain that Tony would be the only person cruel enough to do harm to her book like that, but the girl's cackle clearly didn't match his voice. The only other girl on the station aside from herself that she could think of was Gretchen, but Gretchen wouldn't do something like that. It was troubling, but regardless, she ran after the cackling girl, demanding an answer.
"Get back here and tell me why you ripped my book! Hey!"
While she gave her chase, Tony was searching some of the fallen contestants' rooms, having a feeling that there was more loot to be found in them. He went on his way to Thomas' room, getting some major treasure vibes from it, and opened the door to reveal the assassin's chaotic mess. His trash can still had that smoky smell from when he burned all of his evidence, which threw Tony off, but regardless, he continued on into the room, shutting the door behind him. As he looked around, he failed to realize that a now incredibly nervous Zachary was hiding behind the door when he opened it and was now exposed for all to see. Tony checked the bed, making sure to lift the sheets and everything to find the item that he just knew was in there. Meanwhile, Zachary was holding Sebastian's hair dye in his hands, reaching over to slowly and carefully open the door without making a noise. It creaked ever so slightly, alerting the conman, but when he turned, the culprit was nowhere to be seen.
"Must've been my imagination," Tony said with a sigh, before realizing that something was off about the door.
He walked over to it, paying close attention to the doorknob. Oddly enough, there was some sort of green dye on it, taking the shape of a hand print. He glared at it, recognizing the smell of hair dye immediately, and pulled a tissue from his pocket, opening the door with it to avoid getting it on his hand. He looked around the corners, noticing that someone had just turned the corner of the hall and was headed back towards the lobby.
"Alright, funny guy," Tony grumbled to himself, starting off towards where the culprit had gone, "You think you can just snatch what's rightfully mine? Ha! I'll show you that nobody steals a prize from me. Nobody!"
Confessional
"What kind of obnoxious-" March started, her face red with anger.
"Two-faced-" Tony continued, just as red.
"Jerk just does something like that!?"
"Come on, you have to be real messed in the head to just snatch something from someone like that. And that's coming from me! Well, whoever did it-"
"Is gonna pay when I find them! I mean, my book is really special to me, but they just didn't care! They tore it like it was a worthless newspaper or something!"
Confessional End
Aggravated that she hadn't found anything down in the basement, Gretchen made her way back upstairs, cursing to herself as she went along her way.
"Stupid challenge," she grumbled, "How are we supposed to find twenty-two small things like that in something as big as this?"
She scuffed the ground as she walked, glancing into each doorway when she passed them by. The old camera room wasn't of any help, only appearing to be completely empty as always. Nearby, the confessional was, and out of pure boredom, she entered it. She scanned the small room with a sigh, not expecting to get any sort of hint at all. When she couldn't find anything, she sat down on top of the toilet seat, sighing again.
"This is ridiculous! There's no way in hell that we can find-"
She cut herself off, looking at the mirror on the wall and noticing that it was slightly lifted, as if something was behind it. Out of curiosity, she pulled the mirror down to find a headband with a flashlight on the front of it. She grabbed it from its place on the wall, inspecting it closely and coming to the conclusion that it must've been the "exploring headlight" that Chris mentioned as Alex's item. A smirk grew on her face, as well as a sense of relief.
"Well, that's one down! Unless Tony's already got another item in his hands, the score should be tied now. Just gotta go ahead and bring this to Chef!"
She leapt up from her place in the confessional, running out of it and slamming the door behind her, causing the mirror to fall forward onto the ground, revealing that there was an acceptance letter taped to the back of it. Meanwhile, Archie was making his way downstairs from the observatory, upset that he hadn't found anything in there. As he walked down the stairs he mumbled to himself, thinking about how disappointing it would to have made it all the way to the final four only to fall due to a challenge such as this.
"Dammit," he grumbled to himself, punching the wall in his aggravated state. "This isn't cool, Chris...you shouldn't be taking these sorts of things anyways."
He clasped his hands around his face, trying to hide how annoyed he was as he stopped walking and just stood in place. As he did so, he failed to notice that, right above him, hanging by a weak rope of sorts, was a large, hard cover book. It dangled and spun around, not being supported very well by the miniscule rope. The boy punched the wall again, causing it to dangle slightly lower as the rope began to fray.
"Come on! Where am I supposed to find any of this stuff? Huh!? Give me a sign or something!"
Again, he punched the wall, this time causing the book to snap the rope, falling down and landing on top of his head, knocking him down and making him slide all the way down to the bottom of the stairs. He pulled himself up from the floor, immediately rubbing his aching skull before turning around to see what had struck him. He noticed the book on the staircase, and as such, he approached it, still rubbing his head all the way.
"What the hell was this doing up there?" he asked himself, bending down to pick it up, "'Book of Punography?' Hang on a second...wasn't someone's special item a book of punography?"
He opened the cover of the book, noticing a little note on the inside of it. He read along with the note, getting a better clue as to who owned the book.
"'Dear Anne, this book is really good for learning beginner level puns. You should try these on your friends when they're sad, it'll bring a smile to their faces. Love, dad.'"
Archie couldn't help but smile a little at the note, thinking about how sweet Anne was while she was around.
"So this is why she was always making those puns, eh? That's...pretty cool. Sorry to cash your book in for a point, Anne, but I'm sure you understand the stakes right now."
Archie closed the book, carrying it with him carefully as he started back towards the lobby.
Confessional
"Who would've thought that Anne was always cracking those jokes and making her silly puns to make people feel better?" Archie found himself smiling at the thought of it. "That's really-...hang on a second, what's this?"
Looking at the fallen mirror, he noticed the letter that Gretchen had left on the back of it. He grabbed it quickly, noticing that it had been addressed to a "Damien Parsons." He smirked at it, tucking it carefully into his pocket before standing from where he was sitting.
"And I guess that makes two finds for me. Maybe this challenge isn't gonna be so bad, after all."
Confessional End
Archie and Gretchen both passed each other by while they were on their way to the lobby, each noticing that the other had at least one item in their possession at the moment. Gretchen patted Archie on the back, who rolled his eyes.
"You've already got two of those things?" she asked, "That's pretty sweet! Where'd you find them?"
"Well, the book was up near the observatory," Archie started, rubbing his head again, remembering that it had fallen on him, "It was dangling from the celling above the staircase. I just kind of found it by accident. It...uh...fell on my head when I punched the wall."
"Bro, are you for real? That's hilarious!"
"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up."
"What about that letter?"
"Oh, that one was also kind of by accident. I was using the confessional, and I guess that someone pulled the mirror down or something. It was just taped to the back of the mirror. How funny is that?"
"It was on the back of the mirror...? Gah! I'm an idiot!"
"Huh?"
"I found this headband thingy in the confessional because it was behind the mirror! I pulled that stupid mirror down and I didn't even notice that the letter was on the back of it! Stupid, Gretchen, stupid!"
She smacked herself in the forehead a couple of times, causing Archie to chuckle a little. The two eventually made their way to the lobby, where the hosts were waiting, bored out of their minds. As they approached them, Archie noticed that they were playing the very same board game that he and March were playing earlier in the day. Confused, he felt a sudden need to ask them about it.
"Where did you get that game?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at Chris.
"Oh, we found it in March's room," Chris answered, not seeing anything wrong with having prodded into her room, "I figured we'd borrow it since, you know, you guys are making us wait, like, forever."
"You just went into her room and took something else from her!?" Gretchen growled at him, grabbing him by the collar and shaking him, "Why are you like this, dude!?"
"Heyyyyyyy!" Chris shoved her off of him, "No touching the merchandise! Great, I'm gonna have to burn this shirt now, since one of you gremlins put your hands on it."
"Oi, watch it. I'm not a gremlin, you manlet."
"Manlet!? Ugh, just give your stupid things to Chef or whatever and get out of here! You guys are so annoying, I swear."
Gretchen rolled her eyes and handed the headlight over to Chef, who gladly accepted it as he snickered at Chris's despair. He tucked it away in a tube that was behind him, one labeled with Gretchen's name. After that, he took the book and letter from Archie, putting them in his own tube. With that, he rolled the die for the game, getting a five, which conveniently sent him to the end zone of the game, causing Chris to stare at him with his mouth open in shock.
"Looks like I win," Chef nudged the host with a grin on his face, "And you owe me twenty bucks."
"Alright, whatever dude!" Chris grumbled, digging around in his pocket and pulling out a twenty dollar bill to hand over to Chef. "That's bogus, though."
"And I'm just gonna give this back to March," Archie interrupted, snatching the board game from the hosts and holding onto it tightly. "Learn to keep your hands to yourselves."
The two contestants started to head upstairs, leaving the hosts behind as they did so. While the two were walking up the stairs, they found Zachary running past them, and immediately gained a look of confusion as they watched him run past the hosts and through one of the hallways. Glancing back at each other, they shrugged, continuing on up the stairs until Tony ran past them as well.
"Get your ass back here and give me that dye!" Tony shouted after Zachary, who was now well out of sight, but green hand prints from where he had touched the walls and railings made it obvious where he was headed. "That's rightfully mine!"
The conman was quick to follow the same path that the intern took, knocking Chris over as he ran past him, with little regard for him being there. The host rolled his eyes as Chef continued to snicker at him before helping him up.
"Uh...what do you make of that, Archie?" Gretchen asked, trying to piece together what was happening.
"My guess?" Archie tapped his chin in thought, "That intern wants to dye his hair green, but Tony wants a point for the challenge. That seems like the obvious guess, right?"
"...I gotta be real with you, I don't think that's what's happening between them. Well, yeah to the Tony part, but why would that kid wanna have green hair? It wouldn't even look good on him."
"It was just a guess."
Confessional
"Something really is fishy about that intern with the dye," Gretchen thought out loud, a puzzled look on her face, "I can't really put it together, but I kind of want to know what's happening between him and Tony. Let's get to the bottom of this!"
Confessional End
Just as that had happened, March found herself standing before the door to the basement, panting from the running that she had just done. She was giving chase to the laughing girl from before, trying to get to the bottom of what was going on with her and why she ripped her coloring book so rudely. Reaching for the door knob, she was soon shoved out of the way by Zachary, who opened it in her place and slammed it after heading through it. She fell to the floor, her eyes wide from being startled like that, but she pulled herself back to her feet soon enough.
"Hey, what gives, man!?" she shouted her question at the door, but there was no response.
She dusted herself off, and heard another set of footsteps running up from behind her.
"Oh no, you're not gonna knock me down again!"
Turning around without paying attention to who was coming up on her, she kicked her foot at them with her eyes closed. Opening them, she noticed that it was none other than Tony, and her kick had landed smack dab on his balls. His eyes widened and he bit his lip, gagging soon after before falling to the floor in pain.
"Oh! Sorry To-...wait, you deserved something like that!"
"Why!?" he groaned, rolling around on the floor, "Why did you do that to me!?"
"Okay, sorry! Some dude just ran past me and shoved me into the wall, so I was on the defensive."
"Wait, some dude!?" Tony quickly hopped up to his feet, completely forgetting about the pain that he was just in, "Had a man bun? Canadian flag shirt? Looks super shrimpy?"
"Yeah, that's the one!"
"He was taking some of the items, that slimy bastard!"
"He was!? Ugh, I found some girl doing the same thing!"
"What the hell!? He headed down there, yeah?"
"Sure did."
"Whaddya say we go give them a piece of our minds?"
"I'd say that's a good idea...but we're not gonna suddenly become friends because of this."
"Wouldn't dream of it."
March rolled her eyes and opened the door, heading downstairs with Tony trailing close behind her.
Confessional
"Working with Tony?" March sighed, clearly annoyed by the predicament, "It isn't ideal, but let's be honest...a two on one brawl isn't very fair either. I mean, someone's gonna have to pull me off of them when I beat them up into next week."
"Me and March working together to stomp down some annoying interns, eh?" Tony thought about it and laughed, "What a weird pairing for something like this. I would've expected Gretchen to be in here or something."
Confessional End
Gretchen followed the trail of green handprints that went throughout the halls, trying to find out where everyone had gone, and ended up standing at the basement door, like her two competitors just a few moments ago. She thought about it for a second, cocking her head as she studied the doorknob with the green dye all over it. After a moment, she heard someone walking up behind her. Looking over her shoulder, she noticed that it was none other than Archie. They we're spending quite a lot of time together during this challenge, and it was a nice change of pace for her.
"Sup, dude?" she greeted him before turning back to look at the door knob.
"Oh, just checking out what you're doing," he replied, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly, "I mean...I've kinda got this theory going on right now."
"Oh yeah? Do tell, Mr. Poet Man."
"So...that guy had the hair dye, right? We know that's one of the items that Chris needs us to grab...so I was kinda thinking...what if they stole more than just that?"
"Go on..."
"What if they're just taking all of the items to try and get some weird sort of revenge on us? I mean, maybe they applied for the show, but never got picked, and because of that, they're trying to take out their anger on us. It makes sense to me."
"That's...actually probably what's happening. I mean, it would be on character for Chris to make some of the rejected applicants be interns."
"Yeah...should we go down there and check it out?"
"Yeah. I think March and Tony are down there already, I heard them shouting back here not too long ago."
"That could get messy...I mean, March might beat the snot out of them. Let's go make sure everything is alright."
As the two opened the door to the basement, Tony and March found themselves standing before the door to the interns' room, both feeling a little nervous. They glanced at each other, both sweating intensely. March let out a sigh, placing her hand on the doorknob and waiting hesitantly.
"So...we're really barging in here?" she asked, losing the confidence that she had not too long ago, "I mean...don't you feel like something really unpleasant is on the other side of the door?"
"Yeah, I'm getting that ominous vibe," he replied, gulping his fear down, "But we need that stuff, yeah? So we need to go in there."
"Alright, alright...here goes nothing."
March slowly twisted the doorknob, opening it and noticing the pile of items that needed to be found laying on one of the beds in the room. Finding some sense of relief, the two ran up to the bed, looking at the things and grinning before the door shut behind them. Their eyes widened, and they turned to see Zachary and Amelia standing behind them, the girl holding a revolver in her hands and aiming it at the two of them.
"W...what is that!?" March asked nervously, falling onto the bed in shock.
"This?" Amelia smirked as she waved the gun around, "Just one of the personal items from one of you guys. The cowgirl, I think."
"Why are you aiming that crap at us!?" Tony yelled at her, his teeth gritting, "That's a real gun!"
"Uh...yeah?" Zachary chuckled a little, "We knew that already."
"Zack, just let me do the talking," Amelia rolled her eyes at her partner, "You see...it isn't really fair that losers like you two get to be in this contest while we have to dwell in the basement, is it?"
"What are you talking about?" March questioned the girl's intentions, "Chris hires interns all the time...maybe you guys just didn't fit the bill he was looking for."
"Shut up! We're professional actors, okay!? We know damn well how to make a show like this pop, way better than you idiots do, at least."
"That doesn't explain why you're aiming an 'effin gun at us, lady!" Tony grew more and more aggressive as the scene played out.
"Well, we figured we could get a couple of you guys out and get in on the action ourselves," Zachary said with a smirk. "Who doesn't love people debuting near the end of the season, am I right?"
"So what, you're gonna shoot us!?" March felt tears welling up in her eyes, "That's fu# up!"
"Nah, we won't shoot you," Amelia laughed, "But we are gonna knock you out and send you packing. If you can't play, Chris will need to get some replacements, yeah? I think we could be good for that part."
"Sure, Chris'll let a gun wielding maniac and her crony into the show," Tony scoffed, "You know he's just gonna have Chef take care of you guys and send you packing."
"I don't think he will, actually. You see, if we just hang on to this handy dandy little tool, he'll give us whatever we want. That's just how the game is played, baby!"
"You're sick, you know that?"
"For once, I agree with Tony," March mumbled.
"Alright, alright," Amelia snapped her fingers at Zachary, who then grabbed a baseball bat from behind him and slapped it against the palm of his hand, menacingly, "I think that's enough chit chat already. Let's take care of these bozos, Zack."
"With pleasure!" the boy said cheerily, grinning ominously at them, "Time to say nighty night!"
The two began to cackle maniacally once more, with the contestants before them feeling more fear than ever. As Zachary took one step forward, the door suddenly swung open, slamming into the two of them and knocking them against the wall behind it, forcing them to kiss each other, much to Amelia's disgust. The sudden slam also forced them to drop the bat and the gun, which Gretchen stepped in and grabbed, tossing the bat to Archie before pulling the door back and glaring at the interns.
"Oh...uh...hi!" Amelia greeted the two with a nervous sweat forming on her forehead, wiping the Zack slobber off of her lips, "W-what's up?"
"What the hell is this!?" Gretchen shouted at them, pointing at the gun in her hand, "Why do you have a gun!?"
"It's...uh...just a prop?" Zachary suggested, trying to get them off of their case. "We're actors! We use props like that alllllll the time!"
Gretchen and Archie glanced between each other, sharing the same annoyed look that they got from having to hear the two lie through their teeth. Without a moment to spare, Gretchen placed the gun on the bed, turning back to the worried interns and grabbing them both by the hair, forcing them to headbutt each other, and knocking them out cold. She then dropped them to the floor, dusting her hands off before rushing over to March and hugging her tightly, with Archie soon joining in that hug.
"Are you okay?" she asked the artist, who was sniffling in fear still.
"That was really scary, guys," she mumbled, crying into Gretchen's shoulder, "You saved me..."
"Hey, don't worry about it," Archie tried to reassure her that things were alright, "Let's all bring these idiots back to Chris and let him decide what to do with them."
"O-okay..."
The three stood up from the bed, and Gretchen scanned the room, noticing that a lot was missing. The items that were just there a minute ago were all gone, and Tony was nowhere to be seen.
"Wait a minute...where did Tony-" she cut herself off, immediately gaining a furious look on her face, "Tony!"
Gretchen ran out of the room, leaving Archie and March by themselves to grab the interns. The rockstar ran as fast as her legs could carry her, storming up the stairs from the basement and bursting through the door. Her face was a pure red color as she continued to run towards the lobby, not letting anything slow her down as she hunted the conman down.
Confessional
"Using the chaos down there to escape and snatch all of the items!?" Gretchen cracked her knuckles in rage, "You've gotta be kidding me, Tony! That's a new low for you! I swear, you're gonna pay for this!"
Confessional End
Tony found himself heaving heavily, running as fast as his legs could carry him with the remaining eighteen items in his hands. It was a heavy load, for sure, but he was determined to earn the suite for himself, no matter what it took.
"Come on," he tried to get himself pumped up, though the running was incredibly draining, "Just a little bit further and I'll be at home plate, baby!"
"Tony!" Gretchen shouted as she turned a corner, seeing the boy in the distance, "Get back here, you asshole!"
"Ah! Leave me alone, Gretchen!"
He quickened his pace, squeezing onto the items as tight as he could, not letting a single one of them fall from his grasp. She gave good chase, coming up closer and closer behind him. He huffed and heaved as he saw the lobby come into his sight, knowing that he was almost there. Just as he entered the room, he felt a sigh of relief was necessary. He ran up towards Chef, with Gretchen close behind him, but suddenly, she tripped, falling onto her face and allowing the conman to make it to the co-host scot free.
"Here, take this stuff!" he said frantically, holding out the mass of items to Chef.
Though it brought a lot of displeasure to do so, Chef had no choice but to put the rest of the items in Tony's tube, causing both Chris and the conman to smirk smugly. The winning competitor glanced over at Gretchen, who was just looking up from the floor with a look of dismay on her face.
"Well, look at that!" Chris clapped his hands together, "It looks like the winner of this challenge, and the suite, is none other than Tony! Congrats, man."
"Why, thank you!"
"And by the looks of it...hm...Archie got two items...Gretchen got one...I believe that means..."
As the host counted the items, Archie and March entered the lobby, each dragging one of the unconscious interns along with them. Suddenly, without giving her a moment to enjoy the solitude, Chris pointed a finger at the artist with his devilish grin shining brightly.
"...March! You are the big loser of the final four challenge, so you'll be taking a one-way ride home to Loserville!"
"What!?" she blurted out, dropping Amelia onto the floor and causing her to wake up from the sudden drop.
"Agh!" Amelia groaned before jumping to her feet, "Watch what you're doing, you klutzy artist!"
"Oh, shut up! I've got no reason to be nice to the person who aimed a gun at me!"
"Oh, right...about that," Chris interrupted, "Me and Chef totally saw what was happening in the basement...so, like...you two can go in the escape pod with her tonight. We don't need you trying to futz things up even more now that we have a final three."
"What!?" Zachary screamed, waking up from his unconscious state and jumping out of Archie's grasp, "But, Chris! My man! Come on!"
"No buts," Chris stopped his complaining. "Now, Tony, you can head on up to your suite while we do our little elimination ceremony. Here's the key to the elevator, it's in the basement."
"Wonderful!" Tony cheered for himself as he caught the key that Chris tossed to him. "Gretchen, Archie, I'll see you fellas in the final three!"
Confessional
"Psh," Archie scoffed, trying to hide how upset he was, "What a dirtbag..."
"I can't believe it," March mumbled, hanging her head down low, "I lost..."
Confessional End
With the two internes being forced into the escape pod by Chef, March found herself dressed up in her lavender space suit, hugging Archie tightly. Gretchen stood nearby, looking down at the floor in disappointment.
"I can't believe you're leaving, too," Archie mumbled, thinking about all of the friends that he had lost due to elimination, "It's not right..."
"Hey, remember," she started, a cheery tone to her voice, "It's all about chance, or whatever! I just lost this game of chance!"
"It's all my fault," Gretchen muttered, "I could've stopped him and we could've all split the points and-"
"Hey, come on now! Don't let yourself get beat up over this! I just wasn't meant to win, and that's okay!"
"But-"
"Aw, come over here and get in on this hug!"
Gretchen sniffled slightly, rushing over to the two and joining in on the hug briefly before Chris grabbed March, dragging her towards the escape pod.
"Ah! You guys can do this, I just know it! Make all of us losers proud!"
Without anything else to say, the girl waved goodbye, being tossed into the escape pod with Zachary and Amelia. Quickly, Chef shut the hatch, pulling the lever next to the pod to send it away from the space station, leaving only the final three with their hosts.
Author Notes:
*Oh, poor March. Swindled by that crafty Tony and cheated out of a spot in the final three. She was originally supposed to make the finale, but my original elimination order changed a lot since I first made it. It sucks to have her go, but making it to fourth is an accomplishment on its own.
*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; 10th - Natt; 9th - Alex; 8th/7th - Alexis and Thomas; 6th - Anne; 5th - Flint; 4th - March
Review Responses:
Alexneushoorn - Big rip to Flint, totally got the crap beat out of him for doing the right thing. But hey, the dude's a hero, so he'll get tons of signatures on his cast for sure.
Zoryan El Muerto - Had to show that Benjamin could be useful in some sort of strange way for a brain challenge. He's a dummy for sure, but he's full of surprises.
Nobody245 - I totally didn't even notice that I did that, but that's actually really funny. I'm not opposed to returnees winning or anything, but Flint's arc was well over by that point.
In the Pod...
"Why do we have to ride in this!?" Amelia complained, being squished up against Zachary while March pushed them away with her feet. "This is so stupid!"
"You guys are assholes!" March yelled at them, "I don't know why you did what you did, but it was obnoxious!"
"I was supposed to be the star!" Zachary whined with a sob.
This would surely be a very long trip to home...