Chef was in a diving suit, walking along the ocean floor with a net in his hands. He looked around the darkened area, lighting it up with the headlamp that was on the suit. The sudden light scared off a good deal of smaller sea creatures, much to his dismay...or at least he thought it was because of the light. Out of nowhere, a shark came hurtling at him with its jaws wide open. He started to swim away as fast as he could, only for the shark to come closer and closer, eventually catching him in its mouth. It had a toothy grin on its face for a moment, though the grin soon left after the veteran punched all of the creature's teeth out. They shattered like glass, causing the shark to spit him up and whimper as it swam away. "Man, that was a close one! Chris, open the hatch, I ain't playing around down here anymore."
"Ugh, do I have to? You probably smell like fish and sweat...eh, nothing different than the usual." Chris snickered to himself while he sat in a submarine, opening the hatch to the drainage chamber so Chef could float into it. He did so, and the hatch shut after him, all the water draining quickly. He pulled open another hatch above him, climbing up through it to join the host before the submarine turned around and started heading back towards Atlantis. "Man, you really do smell like fish!"
"And you smell like washed up TV host, what of it?" Chef grumbled before shuffling over to sit down in a seat next to Chris. The host glared back at his co-host, though the glare was entirely ignored.
"Bah, whatever, who cares what you think, anyways? So, last time on Total Drama: Lost City," Chris interrupted Chef before he could even reply to his nasty remark. "The Crabs further proved that they just can't get along with each other...like, ever. I mean, seriously, it was hardly six in the morning and we already had Flint and Archie going at each other like rabid dogs. To be fair, toenail clippings aren't something you should share with someone else, but who am I to judge? Archie stormed off from the bickering, going to see his special lady, Jianne...but when she showed that competition is the most important thing in the world for her, he decided that he was better off without her. Ship sunk! On the plus side, we did manage to see a little bonding between Luna and Liz, always love to see the frenemies conniving together. We shot straight into the challenge, which Poseidon chose to be making an anime opening that would be judged by two resident weeaboos: Ji-Soon and Andrew. Flint tried to run the show for the Crabs, but Archie wasn't rolling with any of his plans, so he took matters into his own hands. As far as the Sharks went, after outing Anne as a closeted weeb herself, they elected her to run the challenge. It was slice of life versus parody, and unfortunately for Archie, his poetic gestures just didn't fly with the viewers, and he lost the challenge for his team. Lost his girlfriend and got eliminated on the same day, big yikes. The Sharks are up by one member, yet again, but will they be able to hold onto that advantage for long? Find out, right here, 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.
Vicente whistled to himself as he walked towards the Crabs' building, but as he got closer and closer to it, his whistling slowed to a halt. He grew more nervous when he stood in front of the door to the building. The boy let out a sigh as he reached for the doorknob, soon cringing and pulling his hand away. He turned to walk back towards the Sharks' building, only to see that Anne was standing right there, that typical perverse smile on her face. "Gah! What do you want, payasa!?"
"Papaya? I've never been called a papaya before," Anne scratched her chin for a moment before licking her finger. "I dunno, I think I taste more like coconut."
"Emphasis on the nut!" Bonnie's voice echoed from the distance, startling both of the two contestants half to death. "Sorry, force of habit!"
"Ugh, not papaya, payasa! It means clown!" Vicente rubbed his brow as he shook his head at her. "I swear, I feel like you're always stalking me around and...what are you doing?" He had looked back up to see that Anne was standing right in front of the Crabs' door, ready to knock on it.
"Oh, well, you know, I was just sitting here, listening to you go on and on about papayas and stuff, when I had this cool idea. 'I should totally go get Dusty in on this conversation, she probably loves papayas!' Pretty neat thought, if I do say so myself." Anne smirked at her brilliance, only for Vicente to grab her by the arm and tug her back to the Sharks' building with him. "This is, like, the opposite direction of Dusty. How am I supposed to wrangle her on out here if you drag me away like this?"
"Look, Anne, I get what you're doing, but you don't get that this just isn't an easy thing for me. Okay, I like Dusty-"
"Oho, I am so well aware of that, my fedora wearing friend."
"...Right. But the thing is...it's just...I can't really tell her that." Vicente looked down at his feet nervously, scuffing the ground a bit. "I would love to, but I've just got this overwhelming feeling that she'll just laugh it off...or something like that. Do you know how humiliating that would be?"
"I mean, yeah, that would be a little upsetting and all, but Dusty would never laugh at something that isn't a joke! She has a great sense of humor, and she's super duper sweet!" Anne crossed her arms and beamed, "And you're also a great dude, there's no way she would do that."
"You can try to reassure me all you want, but the fact of the matter is that I just...I can't do it." Vicente sighed, letting Anne's arm go while he drooped down. The smile from the comedian's face was quick to fade as she noticed just how unsure of himself that Vicente actually was.
"Gee...I'm sorry, Vicente, I didn't mean to make you feel like this and all that. I'll just leave you be...but I promise you, she wouldn't do that." She brought her smile back and patted the boy on the shoulder before skipping off into the distance.
Vicente stood there for a moment, mulling over what she had just told him when, suddenly, Bonnie rushed over to him, gasping for air from how far she had ran. "Horny lady? Are you okay? What were you running for?"
"Huff...huff…" Bonnie leaned up, taking in a huge breath before glaring at him fearsomely. "You like the girl with the huge ass! Why bother with her when I'm totally free? We could totally make out right now!"
"...Yeah, I think I'm gonna pass on that." Vicente awkwardly shuffled away from Bonnie while she threw her arms up in protest.
"Oh, sure, another boy rejects me to go after some hubba hubba lady, typical! You're gonna be sad you're missing out on all of this!" Bonnie gestured to her frame, though Vicente was already completely out of sight.
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"Poor Vicente...I didn't realize he doubted himself that much. I can still totally help him out, but the question is...how?" Anne tapped her chin while she thought about it, eventually smirking as an idea came to mind. "Actually, there is one way I could help him...I mean, I've got no idea what to do! Aw, darn!"
"I just wanna get some stud in my bed, is that too much to ask for?" Bonnie crossed her arms and pouted. "Vicente's got no idea what he's missing. I would be the best lover! I could...well, I don't really cook...but I could easily...eh, cleaning isn't my forte, either. Oh, well, I suppose I could...actually, I don't feel like being the breadwinner...whatever! I just wanna get some!"
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Amelia hummed proudly to herself while she brushed her hair outside of the Crabs' bathroom. Having gotten the one ally of her enemy felt all too good for her. Soon enough, Tony walked over to her, tapping her on the shoulder and grabbing her attention. "Oh, if it isn't the fallen conman...how does it feel to be all alone? I'm sure that's a feeling you know all too well, considering how you've been chasing away your girlfriend! How's the suit, by the way?"
"Absolutely ruined, but that's besides the point here. I've kinda come to the realization that...well, to be blunt, you've just got me beat." Tony shrugged his shoulders, letting out a brief chuckle. "I mean, I was sure that I was pretty smart, but you've just outmatched me something fierce. Kudos to ya for that, eh?" Amelia looked the boy over with a curious gaze, figuring that he was up to something.
"Alright, what are you trying to do here? I know you're clever, but I'm simply not going to fall for any of your nonsense."
"My nonsense? Heh, I'm not here to pull any nonsense! I just know when I've been beat, and I figured that it would be better to join ya than try to fight back any longer. An extra vote in an alliance is always a good thing to have, ain't it?" Tony smiled innocently, though Amelia wasn't having it.
"I don't know what your game is, but there's not a chance you'll be getting in my alliance anytime soon. In fact, I could sabotage the challenge tonight and pin it on you!" She grinned evilly, "Of course, the team already has such a low level of respect for you and all...I'm sure you screwing up would be the tipping point past the edge. Besides, I don't need you around when I have Liz on my side. She's all the brains I need, thank you."
"Aw, shucks...that sure would blow. Yeah, Liz is pretty genius, gotta give the little minx her credit." Tony's innocent smile soon seemed to gain a hint of malice to it. "The one little issue is that, well, just to be blunt...I'm severely more clever than she is." He reached into his pocket, pulling his phone out to show that he was recording the entire conversation. Amelia's eyes were quick to widen, and she aimed to swipe the phone from him, though he backed away from her. "Ah! This is mine, thank you very much!"
"I can't believe you, you little dirtbag! ...You know, actually, this is definitely something that you would do...but still!" She tried to snatch the phone from him again, but he tucked it right back into his pocket, bearing a grin on his face. "Alright, conman, what exactly is your goal?"
"My goal? Believe it or not...I think we should both focus on winning challenges. With this conversation, I've got a get out of jail free card, but the issue is that...let's be honest, how many people like either of us? We're the big bads in a land of goody two shoes...it seems to me that, if we lose, we'd make sense to boot if nothing went horribly wrong. The only way to secure the safety of either of us is to not sabotage each other, whether you like it or not."
"So, you're suggesting that we put our little rivalry aside to focus on the game? That's quite the pathetic move, in my eyes…" Amelia thought it over for a bit, sighing after a while. "But you're probably right about that. Sooner or later, the team will catch onto us being our conniving selves. It won't matter who has more allies when we both end at the bottom two over and over again. I can't believe I'm actually letting you talk me out of this…"
"Hey, it's for the best of both of us, isn't it? I'm sure you want that money just as much as I do, after all. So, instead of seeing what we can do to make our own team lose, we do what we can to secure the win." Tony put on a boastful smile, "It's a little unorthodox as far as my plans usually go, but I guarantee it's gonna be the ticket to the merge for both of us. So, I take it we have a deal, then?" He extended his hand out, that smile still on his face.
"...Fine...we have a deal." She took his hand in hers, gripping it tightly and pulling him close to her. "But know this, you greedy pig...the second that you try to cross me will be the end of you...I will guarantee it. Do you understand me?"
"Oh, yeah!" Tony waved her off and pulled his hand back from hers. "I get ya, one hundred percent!"
"Good."
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"Oh, poor Tony, he needs to learn to pay better attention when making a deal!" Amelia snickered as she held the boy's phone up, gasping as she realized the one she had in her hand was made entirely of cardboard. She growled as she balled it up and threw it at the camera.
Tony whistled innocently as he held his real phone up, "As if I would let somebody outwit me that easily, come on now, people! You know who I am!"
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Dusty was sitting in her bed, looking at pictures of her horse and smiling at them. She had them in a scrapbook of sorts, and she was flipping through the pages happily until she heard some maniacal giggling from behind her. "I swear, if that's you, Liz, I'm gonna mess ya up real good." She turned her head to see that it was actually Luna who was standing over her shoulder. "Luna? What're ya doin being all...weird and giggly and all that."
"Me? Weird and giggly?" Luna giggled some more, covering her mouth with her hand. "Ah, silly Dusty, I'm just being my regular joyful self, is all! Besides, Liz went to talk with Tony or something, she's not in here!"
"Well, that's a relief, at least." Dusty sighed as she closed her scrapbook, setting it aside on the bed next to her before getting up from her bed and immediately slipping on a banana peel and crashing down on the floor, hard. "Ack! Luna!? What the-!?" She got up quickly, noticing that Luna was running out of the room. She started running after her, but when she got out into the hall, she was nowhere to be seen. "Now, where in tarnation did that lady run off to?"
Dusty's thought process was soon interrupted by a howling shriek coming from the boys' room, followed by Liz running out of it and quickly making her way outside. Nicolás soon came out of the room, his face and glasses covered in soot. "Aw, man! What did I even do to make her angry?"
"Lil' Nick! What did Liz do to ya?"
"W-well, she offered me a cupcake, but the candle was a firecracker! It sorta blew up all over my face...I don't even know what I did to get on her bad side." The nerdy boy pulled his glasses off, rubbing the lenses on his shirt to get the soot off of them before putting them back on.
"I'm not sure, but I am sure about one thing. This Liz and Luna friendship is the worst thing that could've happened to this team." Dusty crossed her arms as she glared at the door that she saw Liz run out of. "I much preferred it when they hated each other."
"Y-yeah! I totally said that the other day...they're just so obnoxious as a pair. I wish there was something we could do about it, but they're around each other all the time now! How are we supposed to split something like that up?"
"That's a good question, my geeky friend...a real good question." Dusty soon started smirking devilishly, though Nicolás was unaware of what was so entertaining to her.
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"There's no way to split them up...so the easiest way to get them to hate each other is to let them spend more time with each other, of course!" Dusty had a proud look on her face, "I mean, it takes us a few minutes to get tired of them...I can only imagine how long it will be before they start getting on each other's nerves."
Nicolás wiped some of the soot off his face with his finger, soon licking it out of curiosity. He looked over at the camera as if it was silently judging him. "What? It may be burnt, but it still tastes like a cupcake!"
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Alex sat in the grass near the edge of the bubble, grinning to himself as he watched some of the fish going by. "Man, this really is an amazing opportunity for an explorer, such as mahself! To be able to gaze so closely at these gorgeous creatures in their natural habitat...heh, this is something Claire Grills wishes she could be doing right now!" He snickered to himself for a moment, soon stopping when he heard an odd humming noise from behind him. He got up and turned around, though he didn't see anybody or anything out of the ordinary. "Eh? Somebody there?"
Alex took a few steps from where he was, soon seeing a light blue flash pulsing from some dirt that looked as if it had been dug up by a landscaper who was having their first day on the job. He scratched at his chin before fumbling over to it, scooping some of the dirt off to the side. Therein layed the blue orb that had been spat at Zachary by the monstrous Zodgilla a week or so beforehand. "What...is this thing?"
He reached his hands down towards the orb, pulling it up from the dirt and looking at it closely. It soon flashed, putting him in a trance-like state. His eyes swirled as he held it, but he couldn't let go of it. As he stood there, completely helpless, Zachary noticed him from across the field. He gasped loudly, soon zipping his way over to him. "Alex!? What in the world are you doing with my special...rock-thing!? You should know better than to touch other people's stuff!"
Alex's eyes continued to swirl...it was as if he wasn't paying attention to his teammate in the slightest. "Hey!" Zachary waved his hand in front of his face, trying to get his attention, although it seemed to be to no avail. "You are being such an ass right now, I swear! Put my rock-thing down, right this second!" The actor pointed to the ground, and suddenly, as if on command, Alex dropped the orb. "...Wow, you sure had a change of attitude just now, didn't you?"
The explorer's eyes were still swirling as he stood there, not a single word leaving his mouth. Zachary tapped his own chin in thought before shrugging and burying the orb yet again. "If I were you, I would just forget all about this...it would just be better for yourself, that way. Got it?" Oddly, Alex nodded at Zachary, seeming to understand what he was saying to some degree. "What are you, a puppet? Pfft, real funny, guy. If you're my puppet or whatever, how about you jump ten feet into the air and do a backflip, landing perfectly balanced on your index finger?"
Zachary crossed his arms and smiled smugly, only for the smile to be swapped with shock as Alex bounded into the air, doing a backflip, just as he was told. He came down from the air soon enough, landing perfectly on his index finger, causing Zachary to stumble to the ground in fear. "A-ah! What's the matter with you!?" The explorer gave no response, his eyes still swirling while the actor pulled himself back to his feet. "W...why don't you just go back to whatever you were doing before you found my rock-thing?"
Again, like clockwork, Alex followed the command. He flipped himself up onto his feet, turning away from Zachary and making his way back to where he was sitting when he was watching the fish before. It was then that his eyes finally stopped swirling, and he went back to smiling as the deep sea creatures swam by. Zachary, still entirely bewildered by what he had just witnessed, glanced over at where he reburied the orb. It wasn't pulsing like it was before, and the ground lay undisturbed. Alex glanced over his shoulder, noticing the boy standing there. "Why, hello there, Zachary! You know, it's odd, but Ah feel quite glad to see you right now! How's it going, chum?"
"It's...fine. Just fine." Zachary raised a confused eyebrow at Alex, who could only chuckle back at him.
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"I have no idea what this thing is...but there's gotta be some good reason that it chose me as it's controller or whatever." Zachary now had the orb in his lab, staring at it as it pulsed, though the pulse seemed to have no effect on him. "I should use this to help people out...do a good deed every now and then. With great power comes great responsibility. I think that's what Arachnid-Man's uncle said to him…" A smirk suddenly grew on the boy's face. "Too bad I ain't Arachnid-Man!"
"Aye, Ah feel like Ah got clubbed over the head by a skateboard or something." Alex rubbed his forehead, groaning in pain. "What on Earth happened to me while Ah was watching all those fish? It's weird, but Ah really don't remember anything...maybe the pressure down here was just getting to me or something, Ah dunno."
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"Hey, divers! Guess what time it is?" Chris's voice came from the speakers all over Atlantis, much to everyone's dismay. "That's right, it's time for a challenge! All of you are gonna need to toss your diving suits on and meet me and Chef by the main entrance to the bubble. Things are about to get a bit wet!"
Gretchen groaned as she sat up in her bed, accidentally hitting her head on the bunk above it. "Ah, crap!" She hissed in pain, holding her hand against her now red forehead. "How is it that everytime Chris calls us for a challenge, something bad happens to someone? The dudes like a bad omen or something like that."
"Meh, I think we just associate the bad experiences with him and all that bologna." Taylor shrugged her shoulders before leaping off the top bunk and pulling Gretchen off of her own bed. "Nice shiner you got there...I can fix that right up!"
"Fix it right up? What are you-" Without letting Gretchen finish her question, Taylor grabbed a glass bottle from her own bed, pressing it against her forehead. The rockstar had a slight shock from how cold the bottle was, but the shock soon changed to relief. "That's actually...way better. Thanks, Taylor!"
"Yeah, yeah, no problem!" Taylor grinned, letting Gretchen take hold of the bottle as she leaned against the bed frame. "You know, anything for someone as cool as you are."
"Heh, it's odd to hear that coming from someone who is definitely way cooler than I am."
"Psh, you kidding me? You're a freakin' rockstar! That's literally the coolest thing you could be! The coolest thing about me is that I can ride a motorcycle. Besides, a lot of the music I've been blasting on my boombox lately is your stuff." Taylor winked at her teammate. "Gotta say, pretty solid stuff."
"Well...thanks." Gretchen glanced over to Taylor, letting out a soft laugh before settling to a small smile at her. The energized girl looked back at her with an even wider smile, though, after a brief moment, the two of them lost their smiles, and they were just staring at each other. Gretchen set the bottle down on her bed, just staring back at her, lost in the moment. And then...the two leaned closer towards the other, lightly kissing each other before suddenly pulling back, both blushing brightly. "A-ah! Well, that was certainly…"
"...Something…" Taylor finished Gretchen's sentence, and the two sat there awkwardly for a brief moment. She then pulled the rocker close, leaning back in to kiss her with more passion. The room was empty except for them, so there was no one to interrupt the moment.
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Taylor and Gretchen sat next to each other, both of them entirely silent, but with bubbly smiles on their faces. "That was totally cool," Taylor said softly, her voice cracking a little out of nervousness.
"Yeah...really cool." Gretchen mumbled back after her. The two chuckled nervously for a moment before looking back over at each other and getting lost in another kiss.
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The teams gathered at the entrance to the bubble, each of them fully wearing a diving suit, just as Chris had advised them to do beforehand. He and Chef were in their own diving suits, standing in front of the stairs to the submarine from earlier, gesturing for the group to start boarding. The contestants shared some nervous glances between themselves before heading into the submarine, one by one. When they all made their ways in, Chef and Chris entered, shutting the entrance to it tightly. Chef scurried over to the captain's seat, starting the rusty thing up before propelling out into the ocean's depths.
"Alright, divers! I know you guys have all been waiting for a challenge that actually has to do with an underwater theme, so we finally got something for you! What makes for a better challenge then deep sea fishing?" Chris grinned at the group, holding up two fishing rods before tossing them out, one per team. Alex caught the rod for the Sharks, while Natt got the one for the Crabs. "This challenge is mainly gonna rely on how good your teammates can lure a fish to the line, of course."
"So...you mean you're gonna have us act as bait for some fish that have probably never been seen by humans before?" Jianne glared beams through Chris's soul, though he really had no soul, so he was unaffected.
"Exactly that! Do you want a cookie for being right?" Chris held up a soggy sugar cookie, throwing it to Jianne, though it just splattered over the glass of her helmet. "Now, all jokes aside, the fish that we're looking for in this challenge aren't really much of a worry to any of you. The biggest worry you'll have is making sure your teammates don't scare the dang things away! Natt, Alex, you two are in charge of the fishing rods for your respective teams." Natt and Alex glanced between each other as they held the fishing rods in hand.
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"Fishing? Come on, Chris! You're practically handing this challenge to us at this rate!" Alex chuckled loudly, giving the fishing rod a few test swings. "Ah've done my fair share of fishing back home. Heck, Ah even came to this season with my lucky fishing vest! Sorry, Natt...you guys are toast!"
Natt glanced down at his fishing rod, sitting in complete silence as he analyzed it. "So...it's like playing on the Gintendo Bii?" He waved the rod around a bit, smirking slightly at it. "Heh...reminds me of Bii Sports. That Katt was so crazy to beat in the last levels of those."
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"Which leaves your teams in charge of the second part of the challenge. As I mentioned, you'll kinda act as bait, but what you're really doing is trying to reel in the rarest looking fish you can nab. Once both of you have caught your fish, I'll check to see which one is rarer. The rarest fish wins the challenge for your team, of course. And yes, Mr. Nature Guardian, we will release them afterwards." Chris glared at Alex, who rolled his eyes back at him. "Any questions?"
"Uh...yeah, I got one, actually! How exactly are we supposed to lure the fish in?" Damien asked the host as politely as he could, some of the others nodding, as they wanted to know as well.
"Well, that's a great question, Damien! Why don't you and the rest of the funky bunch try and figure the answer to that one out on your own, eh?" The host patted the boy on his diving helmet, getting a deadpan stare back from him. "Now, does anyone have any questions that aren't stupid?"
Flint raised his hand up high, causing Chris to groan before pointing at him loosely. "Um...there's not gonna be any crazy sharks out there, will there be?"
"There actually might be," Alexis shrugged as she answered the boy. "They like to tear cute, little boys like you limb from limb, not leaving anything that you could be identified by. Not even a drop of blood." She looked around to see horrified expressions from a good deal of the cast, including Flint, whose face had gone completely white. "What?"
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"Hey, I said he was cute, didn't I? Don't know why everyone is giving me such a hard time about this, geez." Alexis sighed as she slouched back in her seat.
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The group starting coming out of the submarine through the compression chamber, one by one. The only thing that lit the area up was a spotlight on the bottom of the submarine itself, giving them a good amount of space to see what was around them, although there weren't any fish in sight. "You guys can only catch one fish for your team, no redoes!" Chris spoke to them through a little speaker in their suits. "Once you're all done, the fishing rod will light up, letting us know you've got your catch! Good luck...and try not to die or anything. Well...at least not the people who are actually important, kay? Ha!"
Chris kept cackling to himself while the group split up to their own teams, huddling around the boys with the fishing rods. "Alright, Alex, you got any bright ideas about how we should go about this one?" Jianne asked the boy, who was looking around in the lit up area to see if he could find anything useful.
"Yeah, Ah think Ah've got a scrap of a plan forming in my head. Let's see here...the best way to lure in a fish would be to use the smallest one of us as bait, right?" The group mumbled in agreement, everyone soon shifting their attention to Anne, who was a bit taken aback by the suggestion.
"H-hey, guys! No need to string me up like some sort of icky worm!" She chuckled nervously, soon noticing an evil glimmer in Jianne's eyes. She hardly had time to react before the fishing rod's line was wrapped tightly around her waist by the self-loving girl. "Aw, man...I don't wanna be the bait…"
"Sorry, Anne, but some sacrifices have to be made for the team and all that jazz!" Zachary snickered to himself, reaching over to Jianne to give her a fistbump, though she completely ignored him. "Fine, whatever. Like a star like me would wanna bump knuckles with some commoner like you."
"Oh, I'll make you see stars, alright!" Jianne aimed her fist at Zachary, soon punching his helmet, only hurting her hand in the process. "Ugh! Whatever, just stop being such a pompous ass or I'm gonna kick your ass when we get back to Atlantis!" She quickly swam away from the team, seating herself upon a rock that was closer to the bottom of the ocean.
"Man, what is her problem?"
"Well, she and Archie did just split up not too long ago...maybe she's still a bit upset about that and all. I mean, I would be if I was in her place." Damien quietly suggested as he rubbed the back of his helmet, only getting an uninterested glance back from Zachary himself.
"You know, why don't I try talking to her while you guys work on the challenge? Maybe I can cheer her up with a little girl to girl talk?" Alexis smiled proudly, though she was shocked to see that her team was all glancing away from her awkwardly. "Hey, what gives, guys?"
"Well, you know, you tend to have an...adverse effect on other people...is all." Vicente mumbled, trying his best not to offend the girl, only for her to gasp in offense anyways. "I'm not trying to be rude or anything, but you just...you know, kinda mess things up...a lot."
"I do not! I can totally handle a girl to girl pep talk, no problem! I'll show all of you that I can do it, and then you'll be sorry you doubted me!" Alexis glared at her team one last time before swimming down after Jianne, leaving them all in the dust.
Confessional
"Doubt me, will they? Well! Fine! Let them be like that! By the end of the day, Jianne is gonna be feeling way better than she is right now, and it'll all be thanks to me!" Alexis grumbled to herself as she glared at the camera. "Besides, at least someone is actually trying to put some effort into cheering her up! I don't see any of those other bozos trying to do anything! Harumph!"
Confessional End
Natt kept giving his fishing rod some practice swings while his team watched him, everyone staying completely silent. A moment passed of absolute silence, when Flint suddenly raised his hand again. "Uh...Natt? Are you gonna tell us what we should be doing, or are you just gonna sit there swinging that rod around like you just started puberty?" Nicolás cringed at what Flint had said, showing his disgust on his face. "Oh, come on, that was such a good joke!"
"Of course you would think that's funny," the nerdy boy mumbled in response, only to feel something hit the side of his helmet and cause an echoing noise in it. "Hey, who did that!?" He looked to the side it came from, only to see Luna there, shrugging her shoulders innocently. He opened his mouth to say something, only for something to hit the back of his helmet, making it echo again. He shook his head and turned around to see Liz, who was smugly smirking. Her and Luna took turns throwing rocks at the boy's helmet, causing him to get quite dizzy before he started sinking to the bottom of the ocean.
"Consarnit, ya done knocked the poor boy out! I swear, y'all are worse than a porcupine in a bounce house!" Dusty groaned before starting to swim after Nicolás, grabbing him and pulling him back up to the team. Over by the Sharks, Vicente was watching her as she saved the boy, sighing to himself. Anne noticed him sighing, and frowned to herself, wishing she could help him out in any way at all.
"Can we just get on with the plan or whatever?" Amelia grumbled to herself before noticing a smirk on Tony's face. "You know, because we really need to win this challenge so we can pull back from our disadvantage and all! It would suck to be down two people again, wouldn't it?" The conman nodded back at her, only getting her to loosely glare at him.
"Yeah, Amelia's kinda got a point here," Natt looked over at the Sharks for a brief moment before looking back to his own team. "It looks like they're using one of their teammates as some sort of worm or something, but I'm sure we can do better than that. What's one thing we have way more than they do?"
"Attractive women?" Luna suggested, getting a blush back from Amelia and Liz, while Dusty stuck her tongue out at her.
"I was going to say brains...we've got way more brains on our side than they do. In fact, with Liz and Nicolás, that's pretty much all you need to win any mental competition. We can focus our efforts on that...if we were to make some sort of large net from materials we can find down here, we could lay it on the ocean floor and lure the fish into the net to catch it. Thing is, we'll need the two of you guys to put that together for us, though." Natt gestured to Nicolás and Liz, the former of which was loosely dangling from Dusty's arms still.
"You're suggesting that I work with that guy? The dude can hardly pull his own weight, how is he supposed to know how to compose a proper net out of materials from the seafloor?" The scientist waved Natt's suggestion off. "If we want to get anywhere, I'll have to be the primary force in making the net. I'll have Luna helping me out, naturally."
Natt shook his head back at Liz, "If we're gonna do this, we're doing it as a team. Nicolás is gonna be the one helping you with the net. Luna can work with the others on leading the fish to the net."
"I defy this type of dictatorship you're trying to run." Liz grumbled, only to notice that Dusty, Nicolás, and Flint were all glaring at her, as if she was the biggest problem in the world right now. "Fine...I'll play the good teammate this time around. But I'll get you back for bossing me around." Natt rolled his eyes back at her as she swam over to Nicolás. "You, you're coming with me."
"Man, why do I get stuck with the-" Liz glared at the boy intensely, causing him to gulp nervously before finishing his sentence. "U-uh, yeah! Sounds good, we'll do it your way, yep!" The scientist took him by his arm, tugging him along down the sands below so they could start looking for materials to build their net.
"As far as the rest of you go, you'll just have to work together to find a rare fish. It looks like the suits have a little headlight on them, so we can venture a bit away from the main lighted area. Just try to stay grouped up so nobody gets lost or anything." The remaining Crabs, outside of Natt, nodded back at him before they started swimming out into the dark, leaving him alone, floating in the ocean. He hummed to himself for a moment before his eyes suddenly widened. "A...ah...Tony!"
"Eh?" Tony turned around and looked back to see that Natt was waving at him to come back over. He shrugged and started swimming back to the boy. "First you cast me away, now you suddenly want me back? What is it?"
"Ah, well...I just...uh...can't really…" Natt shifted his glance down nervously, having a hard time getting the words out. "You know, I'm not so good at being left alone...is all. I always do better around other people."
"You're scared to be alone, eh?" Tony was about to make some rude remark when he suddenly recalled what Amelia was saying to him earlier about being left alone. "You know...that's fair. I'll stay up here with ya, sure. Just let me know whatever you need me to do and all." He shrugged again before Natt suddenly gave him a loose hug, much to his shock.
"...Thanks…"
"...Er, yeah...no problem."
Confessional
"Man, what happened to this kid to make him end up like this?" Tony rubbed the back of his head, a worried look on his face. "Seriously, I wouldn't wish that sort of fear on anybody...and it looks like this guy's got it real bad. And why do I even care? It's not my problem in the slightest! Eh, whatever, I'll be his buddy for now…"
"My fear has gotten a bit better since I started dating Anne and all, but after being separated from her this season, well, it's gotten a bit like it used to be." Natt rubbed his arm nervously, though fear could hardly be seen on his emotionless face. "I try to get better, it's just...really hard. No Anne around, nor is my family. I just don't wanna be alone…"
Confessional End
Alexis had made her way down to where Jianne was sitting, swimming up behind her and tapping her on the shoulder, only to be completely ignored. "Hey there, Jianne! You seemed to be a bit down, so I was wondering if you wanted to talk about what's eating at you?"
"No, buzz off," Jianne refused to look back at her teammate as she sulked where she sat. "If I wanted to talk about it with anyone, I would've asked them to talk to me first. Just go back to the happy little team and go along with Alex and his happy little plan...leave me alone."
"I could do that, but you're really going through it right now! What kind of friend would I be if I just left you to be miserable down here?" Jianne didn't even respond to Alexis, who sighed before getting even more determined to help her out. "Look, Jianne, you're too good for Archie! I know you guys were dating for a good while and all, but you definitely don't need him! You're better off without him and-" Alexis was soon cut off by Jianne snapping around, her face full of tears.
"I'm not too good for him, he was too good for me! He was one of the only people who cared about my selfish ass and I chased him away, just like how I do with everybody! Now, get the hell away from me and just go work on the challenge or whatever!" Alexis backed up a bit, seeing how distraught Jianne was, but rather than swimming back to the team, she crossed her arms.
"No."
"Excuse you?"
"I said no, I'm not going back to the team. If I did that, I would just be proving you right...but you're not right. You don't chase everyone away. You mess up sometimes, and it makes people upset, but you can't pretend that everybody hates you!" Alexis stepped closer to Jianne, who was looking away from her. She bent down, staring at her, face to face. "Now...I'm gonna sit here with you."
"...Whatever, do whatever you want." Jianne turned around again, staring off into the depths while Alexis sat down next to her. They sat in complete silence for a moment before the latter put her arm around her teammate's shoulder. "...I really fucked up, didn't I?"
"It's alright...everybody does once in a while. You just gotta move on ahead." Alexis looked over to see that Jianne's crying was getting heavier. She pulled her into her bosom, holding her tightly as she sobbed.
Confessional
"Archie really is a good guy...but Jianne and him just aren't something meant to be. Archie's super sweet and passionate, but Jianne is ferocious and wild." Alexis sighed, wiping some fog from her glasses. "She'll get past it...she always finds a way to come out on top, after all."
Confessional End
Nicolás and Liz scrambled around on the sea floor, both of them looking for what they needed to put together a net that Natt could use. Liz had her arms crossed as she looked behind, underneath, and on top of rocks, coming up with nothing special. "This is a fruitless search. All we're doing by looking around down here is wasting the team's time. I can't imagine you've found anything that's worthwhile."
"Well, I'm not sure…" Nicolás was standing before a plot of seaweed, holding his hand to his helmet as he thought for a moment. "We've got a lot of seaweed to work with, but the issue with that is that...well, it's easy to snap."
"Exactly. We would need some sort of reinforcement to actually make the seaweed into anything useful. If you haven't noticed, there is nothing special around here." Liz sighed, shaking her head at the boy as he started to pluck seaweed from its roots, ignoring her entirely. "Let me guess, you're going to try it anyways?"
"Not exactly...what if we just used the seaweed to reinforce itself? I mean, if we were to twist a couple of pieces around each other, you know, like rope…" He got quick to work, taking to pieces and wrapping them around each other tightly. "It makes it a tad more difficult to just snap it. If we were to add a couple more to the mix, we could end up with something pretty firm...I think?"
"Huh, didn't figure you for someone who would think outside of the box much. Sure, we could go along with that, but when the seaweed ends up snapping anyways, you can blame yourself for us losing." Liz snickered self-righteously while the boy sighed in response, continuing to wrap more and more pieces of seaweed together, regardless of her doubts. Meanwhile, back where Natt and Tony waited, the two of them looked around to see if they could find any of their teammates, although it was too dark to tell.
"I sure hope they're okay...I don't want any of them to get themselves hurt out there, you know?" Natt looked over to Tony, who shrugged at first. The conman opened his eyes to see the disapproval coming from his teammate, and groaned.
"You know, I'm sure they'll all be fine. I mean, Dusty has mad survival skills, at least. We can count on her to bring everybody back safely. So don't you worry about it too much, alright, bud?" Natt nodded back to him when Nicolás and Liz suddenly swam up to them, the seaweed net in their hands.
"Ah, you guys got it done, nice!" Natt grabbed the net from them, attaching it to the end of his line and letting it sink down to the ocean floor again. "Now, we just have to wait for the others to get back and we can-"
"Guys we found one!" Dusty could be heard shouting in the distance before she came swimming back towards the rest of her team, with Amelia, Luna, and Flint hurriedly swimming along behind her. "Where's that dang net at?"
"It's down at the ocean floor! Just guide the- JESUS CHRIST!" Tony was taken aback as he saw the fish that was chasing them was some type of massive, colorful anglerfish. The four of them swam towards the net, passing over it right before the fish did. Natt tugged on the rod, getting the net to close up around the fish, though it was fighting back something fierce, and it was almost slipping from his grip. "Hang on, buddy, I got ya!" Tony grabbed onto the rod with him, helping him tug it as hard as he could.
"H-hang on, guys! I'll help too!" Nicolás grabbed onto the rod as well, using all of the strength he had to help them out, though the fish was still fighting back intensely. Liz sighed to herself before joining them, and with all of them working together, they just barely managed to pull the fish in, causing the rod to light up a bright green color.
"We did it...we actually did it!" Natt cheered for his team, the rest of which was now swimming over to join them. "Nice job, guys!"
Confessional
"Yeah, whatever, I don't care about the team enough to be thankful for him congratulating us." Liz was having a hard time hiding the blush on her face while she glared at the camera. "You better not let anybody start thinking that I actually like having my team be thankful for me!"
Confessional End
After the first team had caught their fish, Anne felt as if she needed to pick up the pace a bit. She looked around to see if anything was around while she floated in the ocean, though she didn't really see much. "Man...this totally blows! I can't see anything down here!" She pouted where she floated before suddenly seeing a bright fish swimming at her. It was definitely larger than the one that the Crabs had caught, and it looked way more vicious. It started swimming past her and she grabbed onto it as tight as she could. "Hey guys, I got on- woah!"
The fish immediately started to thrash about, tugging Anne alone with it rapidly. Alex felt the tug of the line, and put a fierce game face on. Like an expert, he started to reel the line in, tugging on the rod intermittently so as to not let the line snap. "Alright, ya bugger, let's show ya who's the boss in this ocean! Team, get ready to hold this big one in place!"
"You got it, captain!" Damien happily shouted back to him as he and the others started bracing themselves...all except for Vicente, who just seemed to be entirely downed. Anne kept coming close to the team with the massive fish still somehow in her grasp. As she noticed just how close she was, she couldn't help but notice Vicente, in all of his sadness.
"Hm...oh, well, I suppose I could do that!" Anne started to shift more towards the boy as they reeled her in. "Hey, Vicente! Hold this, would ya?"
"Eh?" Vicente was taken aback as he noticed Anne putting the fish into his arms, much to his shock. He looked over to her to see that she had slipped free of the line, and had wrapped it around the fish itself. "W-what are you doing?"
"Sending you for a joyride, adoy!" She giggled innocently before snapping the fishing line with her glove, causing all of her team to gasp as the fish started to pull Vicente down into the water.
"Anne, you barnacle head!" Vicente shouted as he started getting carried away by the fish, only for Dusty to hear him.
"Vicente?" She piped up, looking around to see him drifting into the depths. "Holy guacamole! Vicente, hold onto yer butt, I'm coming to help!" She started swimming after the fish as fast as she could, grabbing onto the boy and noticing that the line was wrapped around him as well as the fish. "Aw, this is all tangled up, bad! I'll help ya out of here, I promise!"
"D-Dusty!" Vicente swallowed his nervousness down, looking her right in the eyes. "If this fish drags me to a watery grave I need to tell you that...crap, I really like you! I wanted to be able to take you on a date, something awesome! We could ride seahorses down here together, go collect pearls, or visit some cave full of squids and crap! I'm just sorry I couldn't tell you all of this before-"
Dusty blushed as she cut the line, letting the fish swim away and leaving her and Vicente floating in the ocean. "Ya...ya really mean all that? Not just talking from the high of possibly dying?" The boy blushed back at her, softly nodding his head. "W-well...I mean, sure! I can be really wild, though! Ya sure ya wanna tango with Dusty?"
"...P-positive," Vicente smiled at her through his helmet, only for her to pull him in for a hug as she started swimming back to the others with him in tow. It didn't take long for them to get back, and when they did, they noticed Chris floating between everyone in his own suit.
"Well, I was getting ready to judge the two fish and all, but it looks to me like Anne totally let the Sharks' fish go free! Kind of a clean cut win for the Crabs, in my eyes!" As the Crabs started cheering for themselves, Vicente couldn't help but look over to Anne with the widest smile she had ever seen from him. Of course, she gave one right back to him.
Confessional
"You know, it kinda blows, but I'm totally gonna get the big ol' boot for this one." Anne chuckled lightly as she rubbed the back of her head, but she didn't seem all too upset with herself or losing the challenge for that matter. "I can say that I at least did something cool while I was around, yeah? I mean, I'm sure Vicente and Dusty are pretty happy and all that! Besides, I made it really far last time around, I don't need two great seasons!"
"Anne really sacrificed the challenge for my sake today...that really takes some heart. I thought she was just an annoying goofball, but no...she's a real pal." Vicente looked a bit saddened by the events, though he wore a slight smile on his face regardless.
Confessional End
The Sharks all sat down in the enormous fish bowl, each of them looking at Anne, who was standing in front of the seats with a smile on her face. Chris's platter was completely empty of all the fish flakes, and she was the only contestant that hadn't gotten one, not too much shock or surprise to anybody. "Well, Anne, you totally sacked the challenge for your team. Alex definitely got a rarer catch, but you cut the line and let it be set free. And for what? To let Vicente and Dusty share some romantic moment? Blech, that's totally gross, dude." Chris stuck his tongue out and gagged loudly in disgust. "Alright, jokester, you got any funny last words for us?"
"You know, Chris, not this time. I think I got all my good last jokes out already!" Anne giggled a bit, Chris rolling his eyes at her before he stepped to the side, opening a clear path for her to jump down the water slide. She started skipping towards it, only for Natt to suddenly burst into the bowl, panting like no tomorrow while everyone turned to face him. "N-Natt? Why do you look like you just tried to chase Flint around a racetrack?"
Natt slowly walked towards Anne, taking in a deep breath to stop his staggered breathing. "We didn't get to see each other much, due to us being on opposite teams and everything. And now that you're leaving...well, I wanted to give you something as a parting gift." The boy reached into his pocket, pulling out a baggie full of water, one which had a clown fish in it. "You know...it reminded me of you."
Anne's eyes sparkled as she awed at the fish, soon looking up at him with the widest smile anyone of them had ever seen. "Natt...this is so adorable! I'm gonna name him Piccolo. For some reason, I feel like that's a great name for a clown!" She took the bag from his hand, holding it gently while he nervously rubbed the back of his head. She soon leaned up to kiss him, causing him to blush brightly. "Alrighty folks, this is your captain speaking! It looks like the S.S. Anne is going down! It's been a pleasure!" With that smile still on her face, Anne jumped back, soon falling down into the water slide and swirling out of sight.
"Way to ruin my awesome elimination ceremony with your cute, romantic gesture!" Chris jabbed his index finger into Natt's chest, only getting an eye roll back from the boy. "We're losing wholesome contestant after wholesome contestant on the Sharks here! When are they gonna gun for someone like Jianne or Zachary? If me and my ratings are lucky enough, never! Find out which of these sailors gets lost at sea next time on Total Drama: Lost City!"
Author's Notes:
*Well, it's always sad whenever I have to eliminate Anne, but sometimes the goofball just needs to roll out early. Of course, her arc with Vicente and Dusty was incredibly fun to write, but it's only fair that they get some more time around than her. I mean, considering that she was sixth place last season.
*And, yes, I totally did reference LordGemini's OC, Piccolo, in that elimination ceremony. Gotta love that clown.
*Votes: Anne - Anne, Zachary, Taylor, Gretchen, Vicente, Damien, Jianne, Alexis, Alex
*Placements: 22nd - Crustacean; 21st - Thomas; 20th - March; 19th - Benjamin; 18th - Archie; 17th - Anne