Chris stood inside of the bubble while he peeked out at the ocean through it, staring over at Chef, who was in full diving gear, bunching up a group of dolphins and tying them to an anchoring station on the ocean floor. There were twenty-one dolphins in total, each of them with either a Cosmic Crabs or Atomic Sharks' logo on the side of harnesses that were on their backs. Chef figured he had got them tied in to the best of his ability, and gave Chris a thumbs up. Then, one of the Dolphins managed to squirm out of its harness, soon helping the other dolphins get out of their own. They all swam off in different directions, and Chef scrambled to swim after him, leaving Chris to shake his head at his bumbling co-host.
"Note to self," Chris said as he raised a finger up in a matter of fact way, "Never send a war hero to do a host's job. Anyways...last time on Total Drama: Lost City; Thomas woke up the rest of the guys on the Atomic Sharks after having attacked Flint. This stirred up some nice drama between him and Papa Natt, who has some weird sense of responsibility for taking care of these weirdos. I woke up the rest of the divers, via the cymbals, mankind's best instrument. I mean, the way they cause that incessant ringing in your ears is just, mwah! The challenge was simple enough, I mean, your typical maze of a mansion needed to be navigated, and the map that the Sharks won in the previous challenge served as a bit of a guide for them. Oh yeah, and we dumped a bunch of electric eels all over the place. Things got dicey with the Sharks when Jianne refused to listen to Damien's suggestion about checking every room, and they split up the team so she could lead her own way, even though Damien found the exit door about two seconds later. Oh, and Benjamin got dragged away by Bonnie, the wannabe bride. The Crabs did some splitting of their own, in more ways than one! Thomas, Natt, and Flint separated from their team when Mr. Scary Assassin kept tormenting the running boy, so of course, Natt just had to stick up for him. And March and Luna...well, let's say that things didn't end up so well for them after a pretty big argument. In the end, the Sharks ultimately made their way out of the mansion first, and the Crabs lost the first elimination challenge. They ended up sending home the saltiest seafood on this side of the Marianas, Crustacean, for her nasty attitude, not only towards her own teammates, but the other team's as well. Which team will break through and win this next rambunctious rodeo of a challenge? Find out, right now, on Total Drama: Lost City!"
The camera hovered over an ocean, quickly descending beneath the water and happening upon Atlantis, zooming in on the wreck of the Chris space station, where the host himself was on his knees, sad that there was an asteroid in his face, while Poseidon patted him on the shoulder and Amphitrite sighed in annoyance.
"Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," the camera quickly shifted over to the carnival zone in Atlantis, showing Natt and Anne on a large Ferris wheel, enjoying their time together until it suddenly fell out of place and rolled away.
"You guys are on my mind," down at the controls, Zachary and Amelia were revealed to be messing with them, laughing maniacally until Vicente came over and bonked both of them on the head with plastic baseball bats.
"You asked me what I wanted to be and I think the answer's plain to see," in one of the carnival tents, March and Luna watched Benjamin in awe as he rode a unicycle while bouncing on a trampoline, juggling bowling pins, and holding a torch with his teeth.
"I wanna be famous!" Tony tossed a frisbee at the wheel, causing Benjamin to fall on top of an unsuspecting Bonnie, and the torch to set his shirt on fire before the bowling pins landed on his head, which caused Liz to give him a thumbs up with an evil grin on her face.
"I wanna live close to the sun," out in the ocean, Alex was in his diving suit, trying to catch a sea monkey, but failing utterly, just like he had when it was a space monkey, while Dusty shook her head in disappointment, lassoing the creature back to them, but catching Jett instead.
"So pack your bags, cause I've already won," on the seafloor, Archie studied a squid closely until it shot ink all over his helmet's glass shield, which made Jianne giggle a little bit before wiping it off.
"Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day," not too far from where the two were, Damien and Gretchen ran away from a massive shark, which knocked them off to the side, showing that it was swimming away from Flint, who was throwing rocks at it while Alexis chased after him.
"I wanna be famous!" the camera switched gears to show a submarine, with arcade-esque machines in it that Taylor and Crustacean were fighting over.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," zooming into a "pod" of sorts near the arcade games, a virtual world that was full of immaculate fantasy aspects and monsters was shown.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Nicolás, dressed as a knight, was running in fear as blasts of dark energy were tossed at the ground behind him, each blast destroying part of the ground.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" the camera revealed Thomas, in dark mage garb, as the source of the blasts, floating in the sky and laughing maniacally until Maggie, dressed as a witch, flew over to him on her broom and tackled him to the ground, making out with him before he blasted the camera with one of the energy balls.
Afterwards, the whole group was seen on a nautically themed aftermath stage, which Sebastian and Haley were at the center of, glaring at each other while all of the contestants, accompanied by Maggie, who was hugging Thomas tightly, whistled.
The two teams were gathered in the cafeteria, most of them gathered around a table, cheering loudly for something that Chef couldn't even see. He sighed as he went to approach the table, shoving some of the contestants out of the way to see that Taylor was currently arm wrestling with Benjamin. She yawned while she hardly tried to pin his hand down, just letting him tire himself out as he tried so desperately to win. He grunted loudly as he tried and tried, but eventually, she slammed his hand against the table, winning the match and standing up proudly, throwing her arms into the sky. "Woop, woop! Another victory for the Mad Russian!" She looked around at the rest of the contestants. "Which one of you saps is gonna take me on next?"
"Heh, I'll take you on, girl." Chef grinned as he shoved Benjamin aside, sitting down where he was before and slamming his elbow down on the table, causing a loud thud as he struck it. Taylor grinned back at him, sitting back down where she was and putting her elbow down on the table as well, taking his hand in hers. "Just know that these muscles ain't just for show; they pack a mean punch."
"You're going down, old man. I'll try not to beat you so bad that you keel over and have a heart attack. Just let me know when you're ready." As the two stared each other dead in the eyes, the rest of the contestants seemed to share worried glances among themselves.
"Ready!" Chef spoke up, and the battle had begun. Immediately, the two of them put all of their strength into their arms, their biceps bulging as they tried to pin each other's arms down. It let out a surprisingly powerful shockwave that knocked back the other contestants, causing them to fly towards the walls as if they were in some kind of anime. Both of the opponents were gritting their teeth and dripping beads of sweat unlike ever before.
"N-nani!?" Thomas gulped as he held on tightly to a pole that was in the cafeteria. "I've only seen raw power like this once before, and that was so long ago. No...it's impossible!"
"W-what is it?" Alexis weakly asked, being just as nervous about this battle as the assassin was.
"Their power levels...they are over nine thousand!" After Thomas let out that last word, the group heard a monumental thud from the table, and the high pressure shockwave stopped. They glanced back over to see what had happened, only for a massive dust cloud to obscure the view. Once it cleared, they could see that the table was completely shattered, and in the rubble on the ground, there was Chef, who was knocked out cold while Taylor stood victoriously, her fist in the air.
"She did it...I can't believe she did it, but she did!" Dusty smiled widely at the sight of the rubble, and some of the others who had flown out of the cafeteria crawled back in to see the results. "Taylor beat the unbeatable!"
"But look!" Archie pointed at the victor, who soon fell down to her knees. The group gasped at the sight as she came crashing down, eventually flopping down, face first, on the ground. "The battle really took its toll on her…"
"Taylor!" Gretchen rushed over to the girl, flipping her over and holding her in her arms as she looked down at her. "Are you okay, dude?" Taylor coughed up a whole bunch before turning to face the rockstar, flashing that cheesy grin of hers back at her.
"Well...I think I am now." Gretchen blushed brightly at the comment, glancing around to see that a lot of the others had gathered up together and were smiling at them and giving them many thumbs up. She looked back over to Taylor, who closed her eyes and started leaning up to her, puckering her lips. Gretchen slowly closed her own eyes, starting to lean down...when Chris suddenly burst through the door to the cafeteria.
"How's it going, divers?" The contestants immediately shifted their attention over to Chris, and Gretchen dropped Taylor back to the ground, though she quickly picked herself up, trying to look innocent. "Oh, come on! Why is it that everytime I look away from you maniacs that you pretend you live in some anime world? Do you know how much it's gonna cost me to get that table repaired? I mean, I won't have to pay anything to fix it, but Poseidon might be a little miffed about it! And you, Chef!" Chef quickly stood from the rubble, looking down at the ground, ashamed of himself. "Why do you encourage this stuff? What happened to being that big scary dude, from the first season?"
"Sorry, man, I was just having a little fun." Chris sighed at the co-host, walking over to him and slapping him upside the head with a rolled up newspaper.
"Having fun around here is gonna hurt your image, don't you forget that." He turned back to face the contestants. "Everybody, meet me by the entrance to the bubble in ten minutes, with your diving suits on. It's challenge time!"
Confessional
"That was, hands down, one of the weirdest things I've ever experienced on this show." Gretchen blushed as she rubbed her arm. "I mean, it was like I was in some kind of trance or something, I dunno. Ooh!" She instantly perked up as she pulled a little notepad and pen out of her pocket. "I could probably write a song about being in a trance like that! Man, I love having inspiration this early in the day!"
"I got so damn close to getting my victory prize!" Taylor groaned as she slammed her head against the wall. "Stupid Chris coming and ruining all my fun! At least Chef played along with that, I guess. Don't know why Chris gives him such a hard time for that stuff, though…"
Confessional End
Back in the Shark boys' room, the gents were donning their diving suits, and Zachary was having some issues with his. He noticed that it was just a bit too big for his slim frame, and when he got it all put on, he felt that he looked a bit ridiculous. "Well, well, this just won't do, not one bit!" The former actor shook his head before approaching Vicente. "You, plebeian, I will be switching suits with you now."
"What? No way, dude!" Vicente backed up a few steps as he continued putting his suit on. "You've got yours and I've got mine, we aren't trading them. Just go ask Chris or Poseidon for a new one if you're that worried about how yours fits you."
"I could do that, but where's the fun in that? I said I wanted yours, so I'll be taking it, thank you very much." Zachary stepped back towards Vicente, pushing him back until he was backed up against the wall. Then, he started to tug on his suit, despite his protesting. Damien and Benjamin awkwardly glanced between each other while the two had their scuffle, and Alex soon joined them, watching it all go down.
"Do you guys think we should do anything about this?" The explorer asked the friend duo, though both of them simply shrugged in response. "Yeah, me neither. Ah wouldn't wanna get in the way of...whatever this is." Eventually, Zachary managed to pry the suit from Vicente, taking his own off and passing it over to him.
"See, was that so hard?" Zachary grinned back at Vicente, who sighed in response before he started to put on the bigger diving suit. He started putting on the latter's suit, eventually realizing that it was just slightly bigger than his own. He grumbled as he pulled it off and threw it back at Vicente. "I've changed my mind, I want mine back!" Zachary held his hands out, waiting for his teammate to give him back his diving suit, only for him to be struck in the head with a rock.
Confessional
"Zachary is one big nuisance, I can say that much about him. I mean, he doesn't really have any regard for anyone but himself, and the dude's honestly a bit of a slob." Vicente sighed again, shaking his head as he thought about his obnoxious teammate. "Whatever, we won't be on a team together forever I suppose. Either one of us gets the boot, or we make the merge and don't have to work together anymore. Honestly, I'm fine with either."
"The nerve of that Vicente guy, am I right?" Zachary held an ice pack to his red forehead, hissing in pain from the cold touching the bump on his head. "A guy like that is anything but a team player. I'm out here trying to teach him the values of sharing, and he just throws a rock at me! Wait a minute...oh, he was just sharing the rock with me! I get it, he's learning! Well, he still could've handed it over in a nicer way than throwing it at my head!"
Confessional End
The teams gather over by the entrance to the bubble, as Chris had instructed them to, only to be met by the host himself, who was dressed up as a horse jockey. He had on a red and black plaid shirt, white capris, knee high white socks, and thigh high black boots. On his head, there was a red helmet of sorts, and in his hand, there was a riding crop. He paced back and forth in front of the contestants, many of which struggled not to laugh at his get-up. "You may have guessed it from my dazzling attire, but today's challenge will have something to do with, you guessed it, horseback riding! Except, instead of riding horses, you'll be riding dolphins!" Chris used the riding crop to point over at the gathered up dolphins outside of the bubble. "Each dolphin has a saddle, and on the saddle, a patch representing which team it's for. The goal is simple: you have to unanchor your dolphins, and race them-" he gestured over at a pole that was further away in the ocean, "-to that pole, and back."
"Racing dolphins? Now this is what I'm talking about!" Jianne grinned widely as she rubbed her hands together. "I've always wanted to show some of Earth's more intelligent species that I'm still number one, no matter what!"
"Hold your horses, you need to know one thing about these guys before you just go wild with trying to get them to listen to you. As Jianne mentioned, yes, dolphins are very, very smart. They're gonna respond a lot better to kindness and compassion than they will to orders being barked at them. Now, you probably don't wanna get carried away in the ocean by an angry dolphin, and I definitely don't want a lawsuit on my hands, so I'd be nice to my dolphin if I were you. The team that makes it back to the starting point with all its members first will win the challenge, and won't have to eliminate anyone at the end of the night! Crabs, you guys've got one less contestant to worry about, so you have a slight advantage here, don't blow it."
"Oh, please, we'll be fine." Liz waved the host off before looking over at the other members of her team. She saw Flint, who Thomas was shoving into the dirt beneath them, Nicolás, who was shivering nervously, and Amelia, who was clearing her throat over and over again while trying to get a good tone for some line she was trying to read from a script. "On second thought, we may need to be on our A-game for this."
"Sharks, just remember that the other team doesn't get along at all. Like, not one bit. They argue back and forth almost constantly. You could totally use this to your advantage." Some of the members of the Crabs glared over at Chris while the Sharks just glanced between each other. "Anyways, let's get you guys out there and get this Dolphin Derby underway!"
Confessional
"So, maybe I don't have that much faith in our team, but honestly, can you blame me? I mean, have you seen them?" Liz pulled out a diagram with all of her team's members and grabbed a pointer from her pocket, smacking it against the diagram. "Flint is practically always out of commission because Thomas is too busy bullying him, March and Luna are both too miserable to talk to anyone or focus on the game for that matter, Amelia is like an agent of chaos, Nicolás is the biggest wimp on the planet, Natt is too focused on trying to protect Flint from Thomas, and Archie is being played for a fool by my boo bear. Overall, that just leaves...me as the only one focusing on the game." She sighed as she folded up her diagram and tucked it away, along with the pointer. "This isn't going to end well for us."
Confessional End
The group had started to swim over to the dolphins, all of which were playfully barking at each other. Alex was brimming with excitement when he got over to one of his team's dolphins, and he started to pat it on the head like a dog. "Well, this ain't an experience most of the blokes down under could brag about. Ah'm gonna name you...Hercules!" The dolphin barked at Alex, who laughed in response. "Ah can tell me and you are already gonna get along just fine, Hercules!"
"Heh, making new friends already, eh, Alex?" Anne smiled over at him from on top of her dolphin. "I speak a bit of dolphin, so I'm having a pretty easy time getting this lil' lady on my side." Anne made a few dolphin noises, but she was cut off when her dolphin flung her off of its back, sending her flying into a nearby rock wall. "Ugh...I think I accidentally insulted her mother." She groaned as she started to swim back over to the dolphins, very slowly, but Natt soon came over to give her a hand.
"Nice wipeout, m'lady." The boy took a quick bow, making her giggle at him. She patted him on the head, well, the helmet at least. "Just make sure you research your dolphin dictionary before going and saying some crude things again, eh?"
"Oh, don't you worry, I keep one of those on me at all times!" She retracted her arm back into her suit, digging around in her pocket a bit before pulling up a small book that was actually titled "Dolphin Dictionary." Natt chuckled a bit as he saw the ridiculous prop, though they were soon interrupted by Jianne and Archie.
"Hey, lovebirds! Get your heads in the game, will ya?" Jianne shook her head at them, turning to Archie soon after. "Boy, I sure am glad we aren't like them. All mushy and gooey and obsessed with each other," she shuddered a bit. "Imagine how intolerable we would be!"
"Yeah, they are a bit self-obsessed aren't they. I don't know anybody who is obsessed with themself as much as they're obsessed with each other." Archie grinned at Jianne, who blushed and looked away awkwardly. "I'll see you on the racetrack, eh? You're so going down."
"Big talk for a boy who's about to get his butt handed to him by his own girlfriend." The two kept playfully grinning at each other while Dusty and Vicente game them some weirded out glances.
"Boy, those two sure do have some weird ways of showing their affection for each other, don't they?" The cowgirl nudged her teammate, who blushed before glancing away and rubbing his arm nervously. "Well, we'd best saddle up to win this challenge, eh? With a team as good as ours, I'm darn sure we'll kick the Carbs' butts!"
"Heh, y-yeah," Vicente mumbled as Dusty rushed over to her dolphin. He let out a soft sigh before going over to his and climbing on top of it. "Hey, dolphin? Dusty sure is something, isn't she?" He sighed to himself while the dolphin looked over at one of the other dolphins with confused eyes. "I mean, that attitude...that smile of hers...do you think I'd have a shot with her? Ah, who am I kidding, I'm talking to a dolphin. Sorry, buddy." He patted the dolphin on the head softly, causing it to bark up at him.
Confessional
"I guess the lack of sleep did make me kinda prone to talking to animals and inanimate objects. Really makes me look like a lunatic in front of everybody, eh?" Vicente let out a soft chuckle, which soon transitioned into a sigh. "Curse that Zach and Amelia for constantly badgering me with annoying phone calls night and day. I'll get back at them for it sooner or later."
Vicente's dolphin sat up in the confessional, shrugging its flippers while letting out a loud dolphin bark.
Confessional End
Everybody had gotten on top of their dolphins at this point, and were just waiting for Chris to signal them to start. Archie grinned confidently over at Jianne, who stuck her tongue out at him. Thomas punched the palm of his hand while staring over at Flint, who was shivering like he was out in the cold. Chris stared down at his watch, waiting for just the right time, and then, he fired a shot from a cork pistol. "Go!" And, just like that, the teams were off, with each of the twenty-one dolphins speeding off through the waters.
Tony took an early lead of the group, somehow, much to the astonishment of the other contestants. Alexis was just a small bit behind him, holding onto her dolphin for dear life as it swam at incredible speeds. "Tony, how the heck are you controlling that thing so well? Mine just seems to be doing whatever it wants…"
"That's a trade secret, tutz." He snickered as his dolphin sped up a bit. A closer look at him revealed that he had a stick with a fish tied to it. He was holding it out in front of the dolphin, and the fish was swimming as fast as it could to avoid being eaten. "See, you don't come up with plans like these if you don't have a brain like mine." He knocked his free hand on his helmet, continuing to snicker as his dolphin kept on swimming ahead.
Further back a bit, there was Alex, who had befriended his dolphin already and was going at a steady pace. "Ahright, Hercules! Let's keep at it and we'll totally win this challenge!" He patted the creature on the head, causing it to bark up at him again, which, in turn, made him chuckle. "You sure do have a lot to say, don't ya, ya little bugger?"
"Out of the way, the Killing Machine is coming through!" Taylor shouted from behind Alex, soon passing by him, and coming quite close to him and his dolphin. The duo glared at her, and they sped up a bit to catch up with her. "Oh, Alex! Whaddya want from me? Can't you see I'm busy with my super rad sea beast, the Killing Machine?" Alex looked down at Taylor's dolphin, noticing that it had a serious looking glare on its face, as well as many scars on it.
"You named that gentle sea creature the Killing Machine?" He scoffed at her and shook his head. "Ah think it would do you right to show a bit more compassion when you're in the presence of these creatures. Humans can be quite impressionable to these guys, so it's best that we show them that we aren't all insane and fueled by road rage, like yourself."
Taylor mocked the boy as he spoke, using her hand to mimic his mouth and sticking her tongue out at him. Eventually, she loudly groaned at him. "Look, buddy, buckaroo, bloke, whatever it is you want me to call you. I don't got time to be lectured about animals this and animals that. I'm busy trying to win the challenge here. And also, the Killing Machine is a totally bitchin' name. I think he likes it too, don't you buddy?" She pinched the dolphin on the cheek, and it only let out a grunt in response. Alex could only sigh at the sight.
Confessional
"Some people really don't learn that these beautiful creatures are precious, and require the most delicate of care! Especially ones like these, who are so intelligent." Alex let out a drawn out sigh, "Ah mean, could you imagine if the ocean was just full of a bunch of Taylors in dolphin form? The ocean is already scary, it would be way more scary if it were like that! Not to mention that they would all be day drinking…"
"The Killing Machine is totally my new best friend," Taylor's cheeks were a rosy red color as she held a solo cup in one hand, while her other arm was wrapped around her dolphin tightly, pulling it in for a hug. "And to any of you effed up pieces of shit who try to say that he's not, I'll totally beat you up! You wouldn't even last ten seconds in a cage match with me, I'm just that good of a fighter. You hear me!? You're going down!" She got up to attack the camera, but ended up slipping, and falling onto her head, with her legs sticking up in the air. "And that's just a taste of what's in store!"
Confessional End
Further back, towards the bulk of the group, several contestants were struggling to keep their dolphins on course. Luna slouched on top of hers, letting it slowly carry her through the waters while some of the other members of her team watched, feeling the secondhand sadness from just seeing her. On the other hand, March was just staring down at the ocean floor while her dolphin meandered about, also barely paying any attention to the challenge at hand. Natt let out a sigh as he approached her, tapping her on the shoulder from his own dolphin. "Hey, March?"
"What?" Her voice was low in pitch, and she didn't seem all too interested in actually talking to him, continuing to stare down at the ground. Natt sighed as he patted her on the back, doing his best to keep steady as his dolphin kept trying to speed up a bit.
"Look, I know you're really...not in the best mood right now...but you know you can talk to us if you need to. We can try to help you through this slump, I'm sure you'd do it for any of us, right?"
"Why would you guys wanna help me?" She slowly glanced over at him, though not really raising her head from its slumped position. "All I am is a cheater, and someone who can't take being called out for my own mistakes. I'm not even adding anything to the team, at this point." She let out a long, yet weak-sounding sigh. "I'll probably just get voted off the next time we lose a challenge, it's what's coming to me at this point."
"Hey, I mean, you know it's a mistake. At the very least, that's something, the acknowledgement I mean. Luna may have been...well, an asshole about how she called you out, but she was right about talking to Damien about it."
"I know...I know she was right about that part, but it's just hard to...face him, after all of that." She sighed again, but raised her head up a bit. "I want to apologize to him, I really do. And I know it was the dumbest thing that I've done, but...every time I find myself with an opportunity to do it, I just freeze up. Why do I freeze up? Why can't I just say what I want to say? Dammit!" March slammed her fists down on her legs, groaning in annoyance.
Natt kept looking over to her, not in a judging way, but in a caring way...well, at least with all the expression he could show. "I think it's because you don't think he's going to forgive you. And you know, he might not...but that'll be something you'll have to live with. You can always learn from your mistakes, but you can't expect others to forgive you for them."
"You know, you're probably right. And that's...well, really selfish of me. I know I can be better, and I want to be, but I just wasn't letting myself do the right thing." She sniffled a little, but put on a weak smile. "Thanks Na-" her words were immediately cut off by two dolphins, with contestants on their backs, passing between the two of them, and sending them spiraling out of control.
"Aw, what's the matter?" Thomas chuckled as he held Flint in a headlock, knocking on his helmet over and over again and making a loud ringing noise. "Can the widdle baby not handle some play time at the big boy table?"
"Ack, Thomas! You're making me smell the color orange!" Flint sniffed inside his helmet a bit. "Hang on a minute...that might just be blood in my nose. Does blood kinda smell like metal? You're a professional, always around the stuff. You would know! Ack!" Flint stopped talking when Thomas knocked on his helmet harder than before, making the ringing noise even worse.
Natt and March had finally steadied themselves, and were watching the assassin bully the poor boy. Natt shook his head at them, completely and utterly disappointed. "Someone really needs to do something about that guy...you think we maybe should've voted him out last time instead of-"
"Definitely not. I mean, she was just as annoying as Thomas is, right? Besides, Flint can take it! He's a tough guy, right?" She raised her hands to her helmet, forming a "megaphone" around where her mouth would be. "Hang in there, Flint! You got this!" Then, she leaned over to Natt, only to whisper to him. "Gotta be honest, I don't think he's got this."
Confessional
"While I am in a tremendous amount of pain right now, I also feel that my injuries are granting me some superhuman abilities!" Flint crossed his arms and smiled proudly with his eyes shut tight. "For starters, I can now have a nightmare on command! Bet you didn't think anybody could do that? Huh? I just have horrible nightmares and I'm trying to make it look like I'm doing it on purpose? Don't be ridiculous! What? N-no! Thomas is most certainly not in any of my nightmares, that would be crazy!"
Thomas whistled nonchalantly as he stared down at an apple that he had carved Flint's face into. After a brief moment, he crushed the apple in his hands, letting the juice and seeds drip down from his fist. "Tick tock, Flint. Tick tock."
Confessional End
Vicente was kind of lagging behind the rest of the contestants, in dead last with his dolphin. He kept petting it on the head as it swam forward, but he kept his eyes up ahead, on Dusty, who was riding her own dolphin like a pro. "Man, just look at her!" He smiled underneath his helmet. "I mean, she's so skilled with all of this stuff, I'm honestly a little jealous. You dolphins are pretty much as smart as us humans, right? Have you ever seen another dolphin that just made you feel a certain way?"
The dolphin looked up at the boy and barked a bit at him, causing him to let out a chuckle. "I wish I could understand you. I bet you'd have some fun stories to tell, eh? Me and you would be like two peas in a pod, no doubt. Heh, Alex is rubbing off on me a bit, huh? I'm talking to you, but you can't understand what I'm saying."
The dolphin's eyes shifted down a bit, and it seemed to have a bit of a frown on its face for a moment. Then, out of nowhere, it's eyes filled with determination as it started to push itself on ahead, going as fast as it could to pull Vicente up next to Dusty. She glanced over at him, that same contagious smile on her face. "Why, howdy, Vicente! Gee, ya sure caught up to me pretty quickly, didn't ya?"
"Haha, y-yup! But you know...it was all thanks to this guy." Vicente patted his dolphin on the head, smiling proudly down at him. "He's working his butt off for me!"
"They do say that dolphins are pretty smart. I hear they show that they understand people through gestures and stuff, too." Dusty giggled a bit as she noticed a bit of a smile on Vicente's dolphin's face.
"You know...I think I believe that. They sure are smart creatures." The two chuckled together as they pressed on down the track, with Liz and Luna not far behind them. Liz noticed that her rival was being as lazy as ever, not putting any effort into getting her dolphin on the right track of things. The scientist let out a sigh before pulling up next to the girl and snapping her fingers in front of her helmet.
"Hey, beauty for brains, would you pay attention to the challenge at hand before you hand the win over to the other team?" Liz looked a bit disgusted with the words she just said. "Note to self, leave the funny business to Anne."
"Oh, what does it matter if I focus on the challenge or not? It doesn't change the fact that I'm sad, does it?" Luna groaned loudly as she leaned back. "Why do you care, anyways? You could just use this as an excuse to kick me out of the game early."
"I could do that, but considering we don't have a single win under our belt yet, I would like to grab one. And you being miserable like this isn't helping anybody. I don't see why you're so upset about March, anyways. You two were a recipe for disaster from the start, considering how you have, oh, I don't know, nothing in common with each other!" Liz noticed that Luna wasn't even paying attention to her, and she angrily snapped her fingers in front of her helmet again. "If I were you, I'd go back to focusing on how much better you think you are than the rest of everybody. Weirdly, you were a better contestant that way."
With that, Liz sped on ahead, leaving Luna behind. She groaned as she leaned back forward, grabbing the dolphin's saddle by the reins and tugging on it, making the dolphin go a bit fast for her.
Confessional
"Man, I do so despise Liz and her constant nagging." Luna groaned again as she thought about the words Liz had said to her beforehand. "But...she may have a point. Ugh, I hate it when she's right about things! She's just...ugh!" She then slammed her head against the camera while groaning, causing it to slump forward and fall down to the ground.
Bonnie could be seen in the confessional, picking up the camera and wiping off the lens with a rag. "Stupid contestants and their stupid fits of rage, knocking over the stupid camera so I have to fix it. Don't they realize I'm busy looking at pictures of Benjamin in his underwear?"
Confessional End
Nicolás was struggling as he finally made his way to the pole, and had turned to start his venture back to the starting line. His dolphin was rather shaky, and the feeling made him a bit queasy as he held onto it for dear life. "C-come on now, nice dolphin." He gently rubbed it on the back as he held on. "L-let's just take it nice and easy back to the finish line, o-okay?"
The dolphin he was on barked back at him, misunderstanding his words and starting to go quite faster, getting a bit more hectic with its travel path than before. He couldn't help but let out a scream of horror as the dolphin went all over the place, in one of the most erratic paths of travel that one could imagine. "T-this isn't exactly what I had in mind!" He glanced back from where he ws, noticing that most of the other contestants were quite far behind him. "W-woah, we're that far ahead of everyone?" He nervously smiled, gaining a little bit more confidence as he fixed his posture. "That's right, we're awesome! We can totally do this!"
Meanwhile, not too far ahead of the nerd, Alexis was still just a bit behind Tony, though she was a lot closer to the ocean floor than he was. "Come on, just a little bit lower!" She spoke to her dolphin, expecting to understand her words, which, to her luck, it seemed to just fine. She got as close as she could to the ocean floor, scooping up something from the sand before her dolphin pulled her back up a ways. "Alright! Now, let's just see if my hunch was right!" She narrowed her eyes at the object in her hands, which was a rock of sorts. "Aw, man! This isn't a pearl, this is just some shiny rock!"
Alexis let out an annoyed sigh, tossing the rock behind her and continuing on ahead, not thinking much of it. Nicolás was getting quite confident in his abilities, and was now standing on top of the saddle, pointing ahead with a grin on his face. "T-that's right, press on ahead, my dolphin friend! Captain Nicolás fears no challenge! And, if I'm lying, let me be struck by a sign, here and now!" He let out a boastful laugh for a moment before the rock hit him right in the groin. His eyes immediately widened, and he suddenly barfed in his helmet, soon falling back down on his dolphin, causing it to slow down quite a bit.
Tony glanced back at the sight, shaking his head in disappointment. "Nice one, Alexis. Now that Flint ain't around, you get your kicks by bullying anyone you think is weak, eh?"
Alexis gasped before she furrowed her brow at the boy and crossed her arms. "Oh, you know that was an accident!" She glanced back to shout back to Nicolás, "I'm sorry, Nicolás, I didn't mean to hit you with that rock, it just kind of happened!"
"I'm liking this maniacal side of you, if I'm being honest. Makes me wonder where this you was back on the space station." Tony let out a loud laugh as he continued on ahead, leaving Alexis with a sad look on her face.
Confessional
"Everybody is gonna think I'm a massive jerk that just keeps on bullying other people, all because of a string of bad accidents! This isn't fair, I didn't mean to do any of these things, they just...I just…" Alexis slouched down and sighed, sniffling soon after. "I'm not a jerk like that...this isn't fair."
Nicolás was sitting very wobbly-like, slowly raising his finger up as if he was about to say something, only for him to end up barfing on the floor.
Confessional End
Damien and Benjamin were travelling together, as they typically did, each of them trying to show off just how skilled they were with their dolphin riding. "Oh, hey, hey!" Benjamin called over to his friend, pulling his attention to him. "Check this one out, I can do it with no hands!" He took his hands off the reins of the harness, crossing his arms proudly as his dolphin kept carrying him forward. Damien slowly clapped for him, grinning at him.
"Not bad, not bad. But can you do it with no legs?" The theater kid kept his hands on the reins, but pulled his feet up and letting his legs flail back as his dolphin kept on swimming. Benjamin's jaw dropped at the sight, and he soon started clapping rapidly. "Thank you, thank you. And, for my next trick, I will swim ahead while the dolphin rides on my back!" Damien chuckled loudly, but Benjamin just stared blankly at him, as if waiting for something to happen. "Whatcha waiting for, dude?"
"You said you were gonna have the dolphin ride on your back while you swam for it! I just gotta see that, that's a once in a lifetime sight right there!"
"Ah, well, I wasn't being serious about that...it was just a joke, buddy."
"Aw, man, I was really hoping you could actually do that!" Benjamin let out a sigh, before Zachary and Amelia passed between the two of them, each of them trying to tug each other off of the dolphins that they were currently seated upon.
"There's no way I'm letting someone like you get to the finish line before me, give up now while you still have the little amount of dignity you have!" Amelia grunted as she tugged on one of his legs, trying her best to pull him off of his dolphin. "You don't deserve the spotlight here, I do!"
"Jokes on you, the spotlight was never yours to begin with!" Zachary let out an exaggerated laugh as he shoved her as hard as he could. "You can't deserve something that doesn't belong to you, that's not how the world works!" He eventually shoved her hard enough to distance her a few feet from where he was, but she soon came right back over and shoved him back, knocking him and his dolphin into a rock wall.
"Haha, in your face, Zach!" She smiled at her own feat before turning to face back ahead at the racetrack. "Now, all I have to do is get back to winning the cha- agh!" She had hardly noticed where she was headed, and she crashed head on into a different rock wall, causing her and her dolphin to fall to the sand beneath them. Damien and Benjamin came up on the crash sights of the two of them, passing them by while whistling awkwardly, trying to avoid paying too much attention to what had happened.
Confessional
Zachary spat a tooth out into his hand, gritting the rest of his teeth as he looked at it. "That Amelia is way too competitive all the time! Seriously, what is her deal? All I want is the victory that I and my team so deserve, is that too much to ask for? I don't think so!"
"That bastard has gone too far, this time! I mean, seriously! Distracting me and making me crash into a rock wall like that? That was really uncalled for!" Amelia crossed her arms and put a pouty face on. "All I did was a little harmless shoving!"
Zachary and Amelia's dolphins sat next to each other in the confessional, each of them bruised up. One started crying while the other patted it on the back with its flipper, trying to console it.
Confessional End
Some of the contestants had already passed the finish line, namely Tony and Alexis, while Archie was gaining on them. He was in a prime racing position on the back of the dolphin, boasting a grin while he pressed on ahead. "We're almost there, and Jianne is nowhere to be seen. Guess we really are the better competitor here, aren't we?" He chuckled loudly, tugging on the reins of the saddle a bit and making his dolphin press ahead a bit faster than before. "The finish line is so close that I can almost taste it!"
"Do you think it'll taste good?" Jianne asked the boy, having pulled up on him suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere. He let out a shocked gasp as he saw her, noticing that she had her hands behind her back as she was smirking her devilish little smirk at him. "It's a shame that I'm gonna figure out how sweet victory is and you won't!"
"Oh, yeah? What makes you so sure about that, missy?"
Jianne continued to grin at him as she pulled her hands out from behind her back, revealing that she was holding a small squid. "Oh, because I came prepared to play dirty. Speaking of dirty…" She tugged on the squid a bit, causing it to spew ink all over Archie's helmet's glass. "See ya later, Archie!" She went on ahead as he frantically tried to wipe the ink off of the glass.
"H-hey, that's not fair! Dolphin, can you believe her? She just cheated to beat me! ...Guess that means she was just that afraid to lose to me, huh?" He kept on smirking, despite seeing Jianne pull past the finish line just before him. He finally crossed it, seeing Chris and Chef both there, wearing their own diving suits.
"Well, well, looks like we're finally starting to get finished with this thing. Oh, and look!" Chris pointed back at the track, causing the small group that was already there to look back at it. "We've got the rest of them coming right now!" One by one, the contestants started to pass the finish line, each of them seeming exhausted in one way or another. The hosts watched the line carefully, noticing that nineteen of the twenty-one had passed already. "Huh, we're missing just two of you? I wonder who those could be?"
Just then, Thomas and Flint came past the line, with the former still keeping his victim in a headlock and knocking on the glass of his helmet. The other members of the Crabs glared at him, knowing that this whole situation was his fault. "Well," Chris continued on, "I guess, since the Atomic Sharks got all of their teammates across the finish line first, that they've won the race! That's right, the Atomic Sharks win again!"
The Sharks started to loudly cheer for themselves while the Crabs kept on glaring at Thomas, who finally let Flint go free. "Ah, that was quite a fun challenge, wasn't it, team?" He glanced at his other teammates, noticing the anger that was coming from them. He smiled innocently, seeming to not care about it one bit. "Oh dear, did I do something wrong?"
"You know exactly what you did wrong," Natt leered over at the boy. "You better hope for a miracle, because, unless you get one, you're so out of here tonight."
"Aw, darn!" Thomas snapped his fingers, pretending to be sad about it. "I was really hoping I could stick around a bit longer! Oh well, I guess we'll just have to see what happens!"
Confessional
"Man, that guy really gets on my nerves!" Natt kicked the confessional door in a small fit of anger. "I just don't understand why he cares so little about the game, it just doesn't seem right for him."
"Thank God that's finally over and done with," Flint groaned as he slumped over in the confessional. "I almost thought for a second that Thomas was gonna kill me out there. And he wasn't even really touching me!"
Confessional End
It was already the second time that the Crabs were meeting Chris in the giant fish bowl, and, needless to say, there wasn't any less tension than the previous gathering, although most of the negativity was being shot at one person in particular. Thomas sat down in his seat, grinning proudly as most of his team stared him down, menacingly. In fact, the only members of the team that weren't staring him down were Nicolás, who was still throwing up, though into a garbage can this time, and Luna, who just plain wasn't paying attention to anything that was happening around her. Chris whistled while he shuffled the ballots in his hands, trying to get fancy with how he was shuffling, but accidentally dropping them all over the ground.
"Meh, I was never really one for card tricks anyways." The host cleared his throat before holding up the platter that was on his podium, this one with only nine packets of fish flakes on it. "Crabs, you've been here before, so you know the deal, but as always, I'm going to repeat it for the folks out in the crowd that have short term memory loss. You lost the challenge, wah wah, too bad, so sad, and now you're here, with me...again. Already. I mean, come on guys, you could try to function as a team just a little bit harder than that, right?"
"Well, maybe if it weren't for the fact that someone on our team was constantly trying to kill me, we would be able to get somewhere, wouldn't we?" Flint leered at Thomas, who merely shrugged at the comment.
"I could say that your words wound me, but let's face it, nothing you do can wound me." The assassin continued to grin, the hate from his teammates growing stronger and stronger.
"Love it, keep up the display for the cameras." Chris gave Thomas a thumbs up before clearing his throat again. "You've all voted to have somebody removed from your team for causing this loss of yours, and the results are in. I'll start passing out the fish flakes of safety to everyone who's safe...for now. The one of you miserable Crabs that doesn't get a packet of fish flakes will be doomed to take the Water Slide of Shame down to the Submarine of Losers, which'll take your sorry butt away from Atlantis for good. The first of you Crabs that's safe is...Natt."
Chris tossed the fish flakes over to Natt, who caught them and tucked them away in his pocket, getting some strange glances from some of the others. "What? It's just in case Anne gets some funny looking fish as a pet, or something.
"Next up, we've got Amelia and Nicolás." Chris tossed a packet over to Amelia, who skillfully caught it between two fingers and used it to fan herself off. On the other hand, the packet that he threw to Nicolás simply hit him on the forehead before falling down into his vomit receptacle. "Oh, that's vile, dude! But, going on, also safe are...March and Archie!"
"Well, obviously," Archie shook his head at the host, though when the flakes came flying towards him, he simply swatted them away.
"I'm still not sure what we can do with these fish flakes, anyways. I mean...Crabs don't eat fish flakes, they just eat straight up fish. Can we get a fish instead?" March joked, causing Archie to snicker a bit while patting her on the back.
"Our favorite pair of rivals, Liz and Luna." Chris continued before passing two bags over, one to each of the girls. Liz caught hers with a proud expression while Luna simply sighed before grabbing her own. "And, of course, the conman of all conmen, Tony!"
"Much obliged, my dear host!" Tony caught his own bag of fish flakes, though he simply tossed them away right after. "No use in holding onto those…"
Chris smirked as he noticed Flint's expression to shift quickly to worry, while Thomas didn't change one bit, looking as sure of himself as always. "I would like to say that this was a close one, just for the added tension, but in all reality, it was anything but that!" Chris held up the ten ballots, revealing that every single one of them had Thomas' name scribbled onto them. "Thomas, by a unanimous vote, you are out of here, my friend!"
"Unanimous?" Natt stood from his seat, rushing over to look over the ballots, seeing that all ten were indeed filled with Thomas' name, each with its own distinct handwriting. "But that makes no sense, why would you vote for yourself?"
"I've no need to explain myself or my methods to you, do I?" Thomas stood from his seat, patting Flint on the head as he did before placing his hand on Natt's shoulder, still grinning evilly. "Maybe I just didn't want anything to do with this show anymore. I mean, I'm sure you know that a killer like me has got other scores just waiting around the corner. I'll be seeing you, Natt."
Natt narrowed his eyes as Thomas turned to face the hole in the ground, whistling before walking over to it and jumping right in. Chris shuddered a bit, leaning over to whisper to Natt. "Man, that guy always gives me the creeps. Good thing we won't have to deal with him anymore, am I right?"
"...Right." Natt scratched his chin in thought for a moment.
Confessional
"I just don't get it, why would he vote himself off? It's not like the guy to do something if not for a very specific reason, I know that much." Natt stroked his chin, staring up at the ceiling as he did. "And in the last elimination ceremony, neither me nor Flint got a single vote. He must've voted for himself then, too, considering how shocked he was that he was safe. I get a really bad feeling about this…"
Confessional End
Thomas was swirling down the water side, still whistling, like before. Eventually, he fell into the submarine below...but this one was different. It was definitely darker in color than the one that the contestants knew as the Submarine of Losers, and it was a little more cramped. Not only that, but in the captain's chair, there was a person. The chair swiveled around to reveal the girl herself. Her dirty blonde hair was done in a messy updo, with strands all over the place. Her emerald eyes were covered by a black visor, one which had green light up eyes on it, which were happy, matching the grin she had. She was wearing a spaghetti strap black dress with sparkles all over it, and it was cut just above her knees, while she had on black, sparkly heels to match it.
"I can't believe you kept me waiting a whole extra three days!" Maggie stood up from the seat and whacked Thomas on the top of his head with a ruler. "Bad boy, naughty boy!"
"First of all, ow. Second of all, how was I supposed to know that the team was going to vote off Crustacean instead of me?" Thomas shrugged a bit as he walked towards her. "I mean, I was being as problematic as I could, but I checked, and only two other people voted for me."
"Oh, right...her. We got lucky that she conked her head on the way down, she could've found out about this and that would've been...messy, to say the least. "Maggie chuckled a bit, blushing while she thought about what could've been. "But I ended up dropping her back off at her home in Australia. Odds are, she'll think being on the season was just a fever dream. Nevertheless, I'm oh so glad you're here, my beloved!" She leaned up to kiss him on the cheek, making him blush a little as well. "You know who was not very fond of having to wait for your arrival."
"Right, him." Thomas let out an obnoxious groan before sitting himself down in the seat next to Maggie's. He pulled a phone out of his pocket, one that was sleek and black. "Why don't you get us en route to him, I'll call him up and let him know we're on the way."
"Rightio!" Maggie jumped up before plopping down in her seat, spinning it back around to face the controls. Soon enough, the submarine started off into the distance, with her in control. Thomas unlocked the phone, which had no background on it at all, opening the video chatting app, the only app that was on it. He called the one contact on the phone.
The video call went unanswered for a short while, but soon enough, somebody picked up. It was hard to tell what they looked like on the phone's dim screen, and the only light in the dark room they were in came from a cigar. "Thomas...I expected better punctuality of you, boy."
"My deepest apologies, sir. The fools back at Atlantis proved to be even more nitwitted than I expected them to be, but we're all settled now." The boy grinned at the screen, "We're en route to you now, sir."
"Good, very good indeed. Once you get here, I'll inform you of the rest of our plan. I trust that you and Maggie are as capable as she has led me to believe. For your sake, you'd better hope you are."
"Oh, we are, sir. I've only ever had one blunder in my whole career, after all."
"A blunder is still a blunder, boy. But, as all mistakes can be redeemed, a blunder can be redeemed, as well. Now...leave me to my own devices. I shall be seeing you shortly."
"You got it...Father Time." Thomas grinned as the video call cut out. Maggie continued to pilot the submarine, and as she did, the boy could only chuckle at the thought of the greatness of what was to come.
Author's Notes:
*I know, I know, another episode is done so soon after the last one. This one was a whole heap of fun to write, so I had no issue busting through it. And yep, Thomas is out of here, but he's up to some shifty stuff. I wonder what it could be?
*Votes: Thomas - Natt, Nicolás, Amelia, Luna, Liz, Tony, March, Archie, Flint, Thomas
*Placements: 22nd - Crustacean; 21st - Thomas