Nicky Haugh: Thank you as always!
Critica7: You're probably right about Gwen. With the merge hitting, I got to spend more time with individuals instead of teams. Glad you approve of Sugar, her strategy, and her comeuppance. We'll just have to see about getting him some good helpers, hm?
WeirdAlfan101: Well, it's not like I could tell you who the real final two was. That would've spoiled it. Okay, I'll mark you down for Team Cody.
The Legendary Dragon Reaper: Glad to hear you approve of the final two. I will be doing an alternate ending, so sit tight for that.
Acosta perez jose ramiro: Yeah, Chris is pretty loose with rules unless he specifically outlines something to give the challenge structure.
AnonBrowser: Okay, so you're Team Shawn, but wouldn't mind Cody winning? Interesting. And yeah, there will be an alternate ending like last time. Thanks, but I can't entirely take credit for the idea of hiding the statuette in the hotel. It has appeared in the background there on the actual episodes, so it wasn't too much of a stretch to have Chris twist it into a wild goose chase. Your idea about the lake was a good one too since I could picture Chris making someone dive for it. As I've said before regarding Sugar's elimination, it might not be as poetic as her canon elimination where she is shown to have no talent, but the thing with the diamonds is a cute quirk of this project as I didn't intend for it to turn out that way. Lalala, can't hear you over shipping Leogar. Yeah, Trent deserved better after Action.
Guest: Okay then, another one for Team Shawn.
SideshowJazz1: Nice to hear I wrote Sugar with the intended reception in mind getting through. Funny thing you should mention the helpers... and don't worry about the balloons, I've got an idea about how to take care of them.
Omni Spectator: Keep those fingers crossed then.
Phenomenal Ultra Instinct: Okay!
That British Guy: Nope, she had a chance, but Shawn wasn't going to let that slide.
SilentSinger948: Interesting thoughts on Sugar's involvement in canon. I disagree a little, seeing as she was responsible for Ella and Jasmine leaving. Yeah, it was great showing that Cody has what it takes to be part of an all-star cast. You bring Team Shawn up to three!
Joel Connell: Glad you enjoyed Gwen's elimination being more dignified, and I hope you enjoy the finale since you don't mind either guy winning.
Perfectlove990: Interesting predictions for helpers. You'll have to read and see if you're right.
Bruno14: Wow, that's a long review. For now, I'm going to say thanks for reviewing all the episodes up to this point, and I'm glad that you approve of the cast I chose for this version of all-stars. Yeah, Fangren's idea was so great that I wanted to do it too. Enjoy the finale of part two!
Thunderdragon453: Right now!
With reviews answered, let me remind everyone that a TVTropes page for Cast Swap exists, and is always looking for improvements and additions so if you have any, go over there and add them. Now, let's start the finale! It's computer geek versus zombie hunting geek. Who will win? Who will lose? Will anyone be ready to say goodbye to Camp Wwanakwa? Not me!
Disclaimer: I do not own Total Drama, or anything within the franchise. I only own a Total Drama DVD and some shirts.
Episode 13- The Final Wreck-ening
The final episode of the season opened with a shot of the island.
"This season on Total Drama," Chris began to narrate as footage from the season started to play, starting with the two teams standing on the beach with their baby carriages for the first challenge. "Fourteen competitors returned for another shot at one million dollars," he said as the contestants were shown leaving the helicopter from their introduction in the first episode. "Your favorite heroes and villains battled for supremacy in our most painful, grueling challenges ever!" Footage from the pancake challenge was shown, followed by bits from the boat race and the leechball challenge. "But it was the betrayals that cut the deepest." Sugar was shown stealing Gwen's diary, and then Jasmine and Shawn were shown having their falling out. The next clip depicted Gwen and Duncan's break-up. "Gwen dropped Duncan, Alejandro got the drop on Heather, Jasmine and Shawn dropped their friendship, and Sugar dropped a lot of drama bombs on everyone by repeatedly sabotaging their gameplay!" Sugar's many acts of breaking things during challenges was shown.
Shawn was displayed winning the previous challenge by getting Sasquatchinakwa back to Chris first, followed by Gwen and Sugar both being flushed. "In the end, Shawn won the penultimate challenge, and Gwen and Sugar took a ride in the Flush of Shame."
The footage finally cut to the present, where Chris was standing on Wawanakwa's dock in his Total Drama Action tuxedo. "After twelve killer challenges, we're down to our final two players! Who will take home the million dollar prize?" Chris gestured to Chef, who came into frame when the camera zoomed out and held the case with the prize money. He apparently held the wrong side because the money fell out of the case. "Aw, dude…" Chris groaned while Chef gave a sheepish smile. Straightening his bow tie, Chris got back to business. "Ahem, will it be Cody?" Chef's side of the screen, the right half, was taken up by an image of Cody with a heavenly cloud background. "Or the smelly conspiracy crazy known as Shawn?" Chris's half of the screen was taken up by a picture of Shawn, which had stink fumes and flies moving around in the background. "Find out right here, right now on the season finale of Total Drama All-Stars!"
(cue intro)
When the intro finished, the show faded in on Cody sleeping peacefully in a grassy plain. His eyes fluttered open, and he sat up, looking around in confusion.
"Whoa, where am I? What happened to the island?" The geek wondered out loud.
"Cody!" He turned at the sound of Sierra calling out his name. She came running over a nearby hill.
"Sierra? Where are we? What's going on?" He asked her, getting to his feet.
"What are you doing just standing around?" Sierra replied frantically, ignoring his questions. "Shawn's ahead of you now. If you don't catch up to him soon, you'll lose for sure." Taking Cody's hand, she pulled him back the way she came.
"Shawn's ahead of me in what?" Cody inquired for clarification. When Sierra pulled him over the hill, he gasped.
The case containing the million dollars was on a tall pedestal with stone stairs leading up to it, and Shawn was already up ten steps of what Cody thought was around one hundred. At the bottom of the staircase were the rest of his castmates along with Shawn's. They seemed to be split into sides, though. His fellow original cast members plus Alejandro were standing to the left of the stairs while all the newbies except Shawn were standing to the right.
"Go!" A forceful shove from Sierra took him out of his observations. "Before he gets too far up."
"Oh, right!" Cody ran towards the staircase, running between the two groups of cast members.
"Go, Cody!" "Make us proud, Cody!" "Yay, Casey!" He heard various cheers from the left.
"Move faster, Shawn! He's right behind you!" "You better take the nerd down, you weirdo!" "Shawn, Shawn, Shawn!" Voices from the right shouted.
Cody darted up the stairs just as Shawn had hit his twentieth out of one hundred. He wanted to go faster, and somehow he did. Slowly, the gap between him and his fellow finalist got shorter and shorter. Cody was about to catch up at the fiftieth stair when the ground started to shake.
"Wh-wha?" Cody stammered, still running. Looking ahead, he saw Shawn cross the fiftieth step and a huge crack began to form in the staircase. He desperately tried to cross the halfway mark when the crack opened and a giant crevasse between the two halves of the staircase formed. The geek was so caught off-guard by the change that he tripped on the forty-eighth step when he was about to try and jump the chasm. Flailing his arms, he tried to grab the fifty-first step. For about a second, he managed to grasp it, but his grip failed him and he fell into the chasm.
Screaming, he fell to the ground painfully. Moaning in pain, he noticed a pair of high-heeled feet approach him. He looked up to meet the face of who the feet belonged to.
"Nice going, dweeb," Heather shouted at him, anger in her tone. She pointed up where Cody had fell from. "He already won!"
Cody rolled himself over to see, and somehow he could see Shawn's form clearly at the top of the staircase. How had he gotten up there so quickly?
"Woohoo! The million dollars is mine!" Shawn cheered, waving the case around joyously. "The money belongs in my hands more than it does in Cody's!"
He heard footsteps approach, and spun his head around to see who it was.
Gwen stared at him with tears threatening to flood her eyes. "Cody, how-how could you lose to him?"
"Gwen, it's not- it's not what it looks like," Cody tried to assure her.
From the shadows, Owen appeared with a very uncharacteristic frown on his face. "Great job losing to a bunch of newbs, dude."
Before Cody could comment, Chris was next to appear, shaking his head. "I know. Such a bad performance of one of the cast favorites. I don't think we'll ever invite him back on the show again."
"Please," Cody pleaded, getting on his knees. "Give me another chance. I wasn't ready. I was-mph." Cody's begging ceased when he felt his teeth fall out and onto the ground.
"Cody's a loser," chanted the rest of the original cast, coming into view as he tried to pick up the fallen teeth. "Cody can never win. Cody's a loser. Cody can never win. Cody's a loser. Cody can never win."
Fumbling to pick up his teeth under all the creepy chanting, Cody couldn't think of anything else to do other than curl up into a ball. No sooner than he scrunched his eyes shut…
"Gah!" Cody sat up in his loser cabin bed, panting heavily. Taking a quick glance around the cabin only he occupied, he realized that it was all a dream. Laying back down with a heavy breath, he calmed down. "Just a nightmare… just a nightmare…"
(Confessional- Cody)
"That was the worst dream I've had in a while," Cody lamented, his elbows on his knees and his hands cradling his face. "It's different from the bear nightmares, but it's still one of my worst dreams." Sighing heavily, he did his best to sit tall and confident. "Up until now, I thought I had a chance to win. But after that dream… I wonder if I'm even going to be a tough opponent for Shawn to beat."
Speaking of Shawn, a whistling sound could be heard in tandem with rushing water from the spa hotel. The camera zoomed in on the spa hotel, and cut inside to one of the bedrooms, where a cloud of steam was drifting in from the open bathroom door. A hand twisted the faucet, and the shower water stopped running. The same hand grabbed a nearby towel then Shawn's beanie, which was on a nearby hook, just like the towel.
The towel draped around his waist and his signature beanie on his head, Shawn continued to whistle as he exited the bathroom into the bedroom proper. Stopping his whistling, he raised one arm and took a deep smell of his armpit. Apparently pleased with the smell, Shawn sighed contently.
"You smell that," Shawn told himself, staring out the bedroom window at the nearby woods. "That's the smell of someone making his dreams of a zombie bunker come true."
(Confessional- Shawn)
"Going into this all-star theme, I figured the competition was going to be extra stiff compared to last time," Shawn stated, fully dressed during this confession. "Along the way, I had to deal with liars, manipulators, strained friendships," as Shawn voiced his list, Sugar was shown, then Alejandro and Heather, followed by Jasmine and Sammy when the former and him were bickering. "And a whole bunch of other stuff. It all comes down to this. One more person to beat, and I'm a big leap closer to my goal. Cody has played this game one more time than I have, which means he has more experience than me. And considering how close he was to the money the last time he played, I bet he's going to be out full force this time around. This might be my greatest opponent yet."
When the static from the confession cam cleared, the loudspeakers were shown.
"Good morning, finalists! Meet me in the forest clearing, and get ready to diet- sorry, typo- get ready to die!" Chris announced cheerfully as he always did.
A flash cut showed the two boys walking through the woods to their challenge location.
"Thanks again for, you know, bringing me to the finale with you," Cody said gratefully with a hint of awkwardness.
"No problem. I mean, between the choice of going into the finale with you or Sugar, it's no contest," Shawn replied, a kind smile on his face. "I mean, sure I probably could've taken Sugar for an easy win, but it just wouldn't feel right, you know? I want a real fight in the case I win so later on I can say I worked hard for my win. You get me?"
"Yeah, I get that. I wouldn't feel right keeping Sugar here while Gwen was getting the flush, either." Cody got a perplexed expression on his face after a moment, and leaned in close to Shawn to sniff. "Did you- did you actually shower?"
"Sure did," Shawn boasted. "Thought it seemed right for a special occasion. What do you think?"
(Confessional- Cody)
"I think he should've done that ages ago," Cody remarked in the privacy of the outhouse. "I'm pretty sure I saw at least five skunks and six raccoons around here faint from his smell yesterday afternoon, and that was after he picked up the stench of sweaty sasquatch and egg yolk he brought back from the challenge."
(Confessional- Shawn)
"I honestly don't really see the point of freshening up because I doubt there will be time to shower or clean water to use when the zombie apocalypse comes." Shawn shrugged. "Whatever. I'll be back to masking my scent from the zombies in another three to six weeks, depending on what I end up doing."
Chris and Chef greeted the boys in the clearing with a giant purple tarp covering something behind them.
"Congratulations on making it to the finale," the host praised. "It's something you'll regret for the rest of your lives, which will likely be rather short since this challenge is so vicious, so brutal, so savage," Chris emphasized with every close up of his face. Cody couldn't help but gasp at the possible threat to their lives. "That our lawyers said we had to change it."
Cody sighed in relief at that bit of news. "So, you made it less dangerous?"
"No," Chris replied with a cheeky smile, "but we told them we did." Chuckling at his own cleverness, he turned towards Chef for a high five, raising his hand high. "High five?" When Chef didn't immediately comply, he frowned curiously.
"People are gonna die," Chef answered his unspoken question.
"Yeah," Chris agreed, jabbing his thumb towards the two finalists. "Those people."
This time both Cody and Shawn gasped in horror.
"Combatants, choose your weapons," Chris told them, pulling back the tarp to show a wall of assorted weapons, including the spiked mannequin leg that Sammy rejected in the previous season finale and Mr. Coconut of all things. "What'll it be? Meatball bazooka? Bow and blood-tipped arrows? A leechball gun? A slingshot, or- why is an oven mitt there?" He trailed off on the choices when he noticed that one of these were not like the others.
Embarrassed, Chef jogged over and took the mitt off the hook. "There was an extra hook."
Shawn wordlessly picked up the leechball gun while Cody went for the slingshot.
A flash cut showed the finalists with their new weapons. In addition to his slingshot, Cody had a pouch of pellets at his hip, bringing to mind the African safari hunt from season three.
"Now that you've got your weapons," Chris informed them, "you'll need them to pop these balloons." He motioned to a collection of orange balloons that were tied down to pieces of metal probably heavier than they were. "Each one contains a previously flushed all-star."
"Seriously?" Shawn spoke up, rather incredulous. "Can they even breathe in there?"
"I don't know," Chris shrugged. "Ask our interns. They filled them."
The camera swerved over to the mentioned interns, who stood beside helium tanks and waved to the finalists silently.
Without waiting for further questioning, Chris continued to explain. "You have thirty seconds. Any all-star you shoot down becomes your helper." Taking out his air horn, he prepared to signal them to begin. "And, go!" He pressed down on the air horn.
Cody and Shawn immediately raised their weapons, and started firing at the balloons. Having been a while since either boy had used their chosen weaponry, they both struggled to hit a balloon.
After several missed shots, Shawn got his first.
POP!
"Whoa!" Beardo yelped as he fell to the ground.
Seeing that Shawn had gotten one, Cody attempted to step up his aim, coming slightly closer to hitting a balloon but still not getting any results.
POP!
"Agh!" Sugar yipped, crashing roughly.
"Shawn has picked up Beardo and Sugar!" Chris announced before shooting a stern frown in Cody's direction. "Cody, you might want to start trying."
Realizing he was running out of time, Cody frantically slung pellet after pellet. In rapid succession, he popped two balloons without any real effort at aiming. Unfortunately for him, neither Gwen nor Sierra, his most preferred options, were in the balloons he popped.
"Ah!" Heather and Alejandro both screamed, their balloons having been right next to each other.
Chris's air horn sounded once more, and Chris called, "Time's up!" Just as he was about to formally announce Cody's selections, his cellphone rang. Pulling it out of his pocket, he looked at the ID trying to reach him. "Huh. It's the lawyers, probably calling about the whole 'putting them in balloons' thing. I'm going to let it go to voicemail. Let's go!" Tucking his phone away, he motioned for the finalists to follow him as he walked away.
(Confessional- Cody)
"If the challenge is as bad as Chris claims it is, I'm glad I didn't pick Gwen or Sierra for this. Alejandro and Heather can take a little punishment. After everything those two have done over the years combined, they deserve it," Cody remarked in regards to his chosen helpers. "At least everyone else is safe, if you can call being trapped in balloons tied down to heavy weights that."
(Confessional- Shawn)
"Am I upset that I didn't get Jasmine and Sammy as my helpers?" Shawn inquired to the camera then dismissed it with a wave of his hand. "Nah. Considering I had no way of knowing who was in which balloon, the odds of me picking them was really low. Besides, Beardo's a cool guy. I can count on him to help me out in a pinch like this." Tapping his chin, he looked up thoughtfully. "Sugar, on the other hand, might slow me down with as difficult as she is."
Alejandro and Sugar were shown getting up from the bushes they had fallen into after their balloons were popped, and Heather came into view as she rose to her feet, rubbing her aching back as Sugar soothed her butt and Alejandro massaged his head.
"Alejandro and Heather," Chris declared as the four helpers joined him and the finalists in the clearing, "you will be helping Cody. Beardo and Sugar, you're on Team Shawn. But, the four of you are here as helpers only, meaning you can't win."
The camera zoomed in on Alejandro and Heather merely smiling at him. This had Chris confused.
"Meaning no money," Chris said slowly, trying to emphasize as if they didn't understand him.
The pair simply continued to smile in his direction, momentarily sharing a warm smile between each other.
"Zero money, plenty of pain," Chris found himself reiterating, and becoming increasingly annoyed by their lack of reaction. Picking up his megaphone, he shouted at them, "Heather, can you hear me?!"
A megaphone to the face certainly prompted a reaction.
"Yes, Chris, I hear you," Heather snarled, glowering at the host. Putting on her smile again, she calmly explained, "Alejandro and I are fine with the rules." Alejandro grinned at her, silently agreeing with her explanation.
Chris gasped in shock. "Oh no, are you two… dating?!"
(Confessional- Alejandro and Heather)
The villainous couple sat in the outhouse, Heather perched on her lover's lap with his arm around her waist.
"We figured out that when there isn't game show money in the way, we're actually a pretty happy couple," Heather said.
"Of course, we do appreciate each other's competitive fire and manipulative tactics," Alejandro added.
"And now that we're eliminated and have put the stuff from season three behind us, we can finally be together," Heather stated, looking warmly at her boyfriend.
"Which I'm certainly pleased about," Alejandro said, staring back. "Ever since I saw you on the first season, my heart has burned for you."
"And ever since I figured out you were manipulating the others on the plane, I've been interested in you."
"I love you."
"I love you."
Grinning coyly at each other, the couple moved to kiss, but just before their mouths could meet, someone was heard knocking on the outside wall of the outhouse.
"No! Get out!" Chris demanded, to the surprise of the wide-eyed couple. "That is the most disgusting thing that has ever happened in there."
Insulted, the pair scowled to themselves with Heather crossing her arms, indignant, and Alejandro keeping his arm around his beloved's hip.
"Uh, what about the others?" Cody asked as a shaggy-haired intern drove Chris, the finalists, and their helpers to the next part of the finale. He and his helpers sat in one cart of a trolley while Shawn and his helpers sat in the one behind theirs. Instead of sitting in her own seat, Heather chose to sit on Alejandro's lap, much like she did in the confessional- most likely to spite Chris interrupting their private time.
Chris swept the concern aside. "Relax. Their balloons are tied down. Even if a breeze were to pass through, they're not going anywhere." Moving right along, Chris went back to the challenge at hand. "Cody, Shawn, this season I've come up with something really danger- er, I mean, special. Yeah, special for the both of you."
Nobody looked convinced at his fumble of words that the challenge coming up wasn't going to be near deadly.
The trolley came to a stop, and Chris gestured with his arms grandly. "Say hello to the final challenge of Total Drama All-Stars, the Moats of Doom!"
The camera zoomed out to show a tall, four-tiered structure. The bottom tier glowed green due to the visible toxic waste. The second tier glowed red, the third tier was tinted blue, and the fourth tier didn't have any sort of glow, but it did have a castle-like shape on top.
A four-way split screen showed the finalists and their helpers gasping in shock. Alejandro and Heather were together in the top left with a yellow background; the upper right had Shawn against green; Cody took the bottom right with a background the same purple color as Sierra's hair; and Beardo and Sugar were seen in the bottom left with a blue background.
"Each level has a sliver of safe-ish ground where you'll find tools to help you survive the insane dangers that await you in each moat," Chris elaborated over a pan-up of the moats. "The first moat, at ground level, is filled with toxic waste. You might want to avoid falling in, unless you want to go to the prom with a mutant." A tiny fly was seen buzzing into the green moat, and coming out a gigantic fly. The camera panned up to the second moat that had been giving off the red glow. "Moat number two is boiling hot lava!" The fly that had just come out of the toxic waste had flown up to the second tier, and its rear caught fire when it flew too close to the bubbling lava. Screaming, the fly flew up to the third moat. "The third moat is just plain old swamp water, but what lies beneath will definitely kill you." The fly reached the water moat, and landed in it to douse its flaming butt. For a moment, it sighed in relief, only to be snapped up inside the mouth of Fang.
Beardo and Sugar gasped again at the dangers of the moats they were going to help the finalists get across.
(Confessional- Sugar)
The pageant queen twirled a strand of her curly blond locks around a finger casually. "You know, being stuck in a balloon like the others that weren't picked is sounding really good right now."
The finalists and their helpers, along with Chris, had gotten out of the trolley and were now standing side by side for Chris to continue explaining the challenge.
"Cody, Shawn, if you somehow survive all three moats, you must say goodbye to your helpers and go it alone as you storm the castle. Take your life in your hands as you fight your way past the mad king," Chris explained further.
The mentioned mad king was just Chef wearing a prop crown and royal cloak, standing atop the small castle on the fourth level of the moats.
"I am the mad king," Chef stated in a stilted manner, and poured himself a cup of tea from a thermos.
"If you get past the mad king, and find the strength to pull the Sword of Victory from the stone, you are the Total Drama All-Star," Chris finished, the sword's handle shown glinting in a spotlight. "And the winner of one million dollars- subject to all applicable taxes and other offsets required by law."
The finalists and their helpers stared in disbelief at their final task.
Chris prompted them with a smile, "So? Excited?"
Beardo raised his hands in objection. "I'm usually the quiet guy around here, so when I say that this challenge is completely insane, you know it's that bad. Maybe even worse."
"Seriously!" Shawn protested incredulously. "The lava was pretty bad on season three, and I knew that just from watching it at home. Half of us were in danger from toxic waste just last season. With the two most lethal substances from both seasons involved in one challenge, you have to come up with a whole new word for how crazy deadly this is for us."
Alejandro was shown staring into blank space. This concerned Heather, who looked at him with a worried frown.
"Alejandro?" She asked, waving her hand in front of his face. "Alejandro?" She snapped her fingers in front of his eyes, startling him. "Are you okay?"
Shaking his head, Alejandro recovered. "Si, sorry. Lost myself for a moment." He averted his gaze, only causing Heather to look at him with more unease.
Rather amused at everyone's varying reactions to the final challenge, Chris addressed the camera. "Everyone's freaking out, and the challenge hasn't even started. Will anyone survive the final challenge? If yes, who will be our king? Find out right after the break here on Total Drama All-Stars!"
The show faded to commercial on a far shot of the island.
When the show faded back in, Cody and Shawn were standing on either side of the moats with their helpers by their sides. Cody was seen on the left, Shawn was on the right, and Chris stood halfway between them. On the tiers of the moats, wooden ladders could be seen on each side, obviously giving each finalist a way up to the next level.
"Good luck, Shawn!" Cody called out from his side, the camera cutting to him and his helpers on their side. Alejandro and Heather were in the background while he was in the fore, the charmer frowning at something off-screen while keeping an arm looped around his girlfriend's waist. Heather continued to look apprehensively at her boyfriend, putting a comforting hand on his chest. "May the best man win!"
"Yeah, same to you!" Shawn hollered back in a similarly framed view. Behind him, Beardo and Sugar were eyeing the first moat. After returning Cody's encouragement, Shawn frowned, pulling out his clipboard full of blueprints and gazing at them. "I really hope it's me, though," he said quietly to himself before stashing the blueprints away again in his orange vest.
"On your marks," Chris declared through his megaphone, and the finalists and their assistants got into a starting position. "Get set… go!" He aired his horn, signaling for the final challenge of the season to begin.
The young men and women took off in a sprint. Shawn was seen reaching his edge of the first moat, the toxic waste bubbling ominously.
"It's too wide to jump across," Shawn observed, assessing the situation with a careful glance.
As he tried to figure out what to do, Beardo noticed and picked up some nearby bamboo poles.
"You think we need to use these somehow?" the human soundboard inquired. "Like using them as stilts to walk across?"
Shawn shook his head. "Toxic waste eats away at nearly everything. It'd probably dissolve them before we got halfway to the other side."
Sugar tapped her foot, looking at the poles in Beardo's hands before looking down at her blouse. She smiled rather cheekily as a thought came to her. "Fellas, I think I've got an idea."
A flash cut switched to the other side of the moat, where Cody and Heather were staring at the moat.
"You just had to pick me as one of your helpers," Heather complained, giving Cody the stink eye. "Nice work, Cody."
"You weren't exactly my first choice, either," Cody snapped back, putting his fists on his hips and glaring back at his twice former teammate. "Just be grateful you're not still in a bubble like the others."
As they bickered, Alejandro found a pair of bamboo poles just like Shawn's several feet further away from the moats than the others were. "Hello," the charmer said with a curious tone, and attempted to bend one of the poles into snapping in half. After two or three tries, the pole still didn't break to his interest. "Not bad." Picking up the other one, he carried them back to where Cody and Heather were still arguing.
"You're such a dweeb! How did you even get this far-?" Heather ranted.
"Unlike you, I still have a chance! The least you could do is-!" Cody snapped at the same time.
"Mi amor, amigo," Alejandro interjected, "please… We can use these to get across." Holding one out for Cody to take, he sized the geek up and down. "How good are you at pole vaulting?"
Cody's eyebrows shot up with alarm.
Back on Shawn's side of the moat, the poles were staked into the ground and a thing of white elastic fabric could be seen attached to it and stretching backwards away from the moat.
"This has to be one of the top ten weirdest things I've ever done," Beardo quipped as he pulled the fabric back, Shawn seated in it. "If not top five."
Standing a few feet behind the boys, Sugar absently patted her blouse. "It's just my bra. Don't be weird about it. Now, a bit more… a bit more…" She motioned for Beardo to pull back closer to her before holding her hand out in a halting gesture. "There. Let him fly!"
"Please don't die and turn into a zombie," Shawn muttered to himself, scrunching his eyes shut. "Please don't die and turn into a zomb-aaah!" He let out his signature scream as Beardo finally released his grip from the impromptu slingshot.
His scream didn't last long as he slammed into the rock wall containing the second tier of the moats on the other side of the toxic waste. Slowly falling off the wall, he crashed on the small platform of ground below next to one of the earlier seen ladders. He groaned miserably in pain.
"You okay, brother?" Beardo hollered from the starting side.
"I am never being slingshot ammunition again," Shawn moaned where he laid.
Cutting to Chris, the host announced, "Shawn has crossed the first moat! Shawn is in the lead! Cody, you might want to get your butt in gear!"
Holding the pole Alejandro had given him, Cody got into a starting position. "Working on it!" Running forward, he planted the bottom end of the pole against the edge of the moat's rock ledge, and made a big leap up, using the pole to give him the momentum needed to fly over the waste. Just barely landing on the edge of the same platform Shawn was on, Cody quickly wind milled his arms to avoid falling backwards into the hazardous liquid. He fell forward on his face, and groaned in pain with his butt sticking in the air.
"Good job, Cody!" Shawn called from his side, having gotten up, only to have his encouragement literally crushed by Sugar landing on top of him. "Agh!"
Pumping both fists, Sugar cheered, "Woohoo! Made it! Come on, let's head up to the next one!" She got off Shawn, and walked over to the ladder to begin climbing.
Getting to his feet again, Shawn looked across the moat he had just cleared. "What about Beardo?"
On the other side, Beardo was trying to pull himself back far enough in the makeshift slingshot to launch himself across. "You go on ahead! I'll catch up!"
Shawn gave a nod of approval, and moved to follow Sugar up the ladder.
A flash cut took the scene back to Alejandro and Heather, who had yet to get over.
"What are we supposed to do?" Heather demanded, looking at the one pole left after Cody's had fallen into the waste during his vault. "There's two of us, and only one of these."
On his way up to the next level, Cody shouted over his shoulder, "I don't know! Come up with another idea! I'm going ahead so Shawn doesn't get a lead." Saying no more, he climbed up.
Alejandro glanced at his girlfriend, shrugging. "Perhaps there's a thick log we could ride across. Something thick would give us time while the waste ate through it. Come, I think I saw some that might work over here where I found the poles." They walked away from the moats, attempting to form an idea.
Another flash cut showed Cody reaching the second level of the moats, panning over to Sugar waiting for Shawn to finish the ladder.
"Welcome to level two! All tied, and no one's died!" Chris updated through his megaphone. "Yawn!"
While the final challenge was going on, things were happening back at the remaining tethered balloons.
"There's got to be some way out of here!" Gwen panicked inside hers, pounding at the rubbery confinement. "Chris knows how much I hate being in cramped spaces like this!"
"What do you propose?" Scarlett sarcastically inquired, rolling her eyes even though the action would go unseen by who she was speaking to. "It's not like any of us have a tool with which we can escape."
"Not to mention we're running out of time," Topher added from his balloon. "If they pull that sword while we're still trapped in these things, we're all screwed."
In his balloon, Owen's stomach gurgled ominously, causing the season one finalist to attempt soothing it by rubbing his hand over it in circles. "Oh boy… I knew smuggling that can of beans in here for a snack was a bad idea. I think I'm gonna…"
Toot!
Toot!
Toot!
Toot!
TOOOOOOT!
POP!
With a mighty blast of flatulence, the extra air Owen added to his balloon was enough to stretch the balloon beyond its intended size, and popped open, dropping the food lover into the bushes below.
Thudding loudly on the ground, Owen sat up in a daze.
"Brothers of beans, that was crazy!" He cried out before realizing what had happened. "Hey, I'm out of my balloon! I farted my way out!" Chuckling to himself, he said, "Classic Owen!"
"That's great, farty pants," Duncan remarked from his balloon, making Owen look up in his direction. "Now, let the rest of us out!"
"Yeah, remember what's going to happen?" Sammy checked in another balloon a few feet away from the punk.
"Hurry!" Sierra added, pounding a fist on the inner side of hers. "If we help the crew, we might have time to help Cody and the others after they crown a winner!"
Jumping up, Owen ran over to the nearest balloon and tugged on the tethering rope to bring the balloon and its occupant down to his level.
"Don't worry, guys! I'll set you all free!" He started fiddling with his fingers at the balloon's knotted end.
Chris stood at the side of the moats, listening to a lawyer shout at him over his cellphone.
"Relax," Chris drawled in response. "We made sure to tie the balloons down, and they have plenty of air." As the lawyer continued to yell, an intern handed Chris a cappuccino, which Chris gladly took and sipped from as he listened. "Well, my optometrist tested that, and it turns out my hindsight is actually quite bad!" Growing annoyed as the lawyer didn't get off his case, Chris tossed his cellphone away without a care and an unapologetic 'Oops!'
His phone fell into the toxic waste, sinking away with a hiss and a thin trail of smoke.
On the lava level, Beardo had joined Shawn and Sugar, and was holding the wooden ladder steady as Shawn used it like a bridge to cross the lava. Sugar had gotten a hold of Cody, and held him high over her head. Cody flailed and yelped in her grasp. Noticing this, Beardo looked up from what he was doing, and glared at his temporary partner.
"Sugar, what are you doing? Put him down!" Beardo ordered as if he was telling off a child for doing something they weren't supposed to be.
Sugar rolled her eyes at the demand. "Oh fine." She did put him down, but not on the same level they were standing on. The pageant queen threw him back down to the first level, thankfully down to the patch of ground Shawn had landed on after his brief slingshot ride.
"Ow!" Cody shouted in a pained voice.
Shawn had been halfway across the ladder turned bridge when he heard the commotion and happened to witness Sugar's act of malice. This moment was long enough for the ladder to catch fire from the bubbling lava.
"Shawn, the bridge!" Beardo returned his attention to the ladder the moment he saw it alight.
Not needing to be told anymore, Shawn returned his focus to the task at hand and reached the other side of the moat. Safely pressing himself against the wall near the next ladder, he watched as Beardo stood up and approached Sugar.
"Girl, that wasn't right," Beardo lectured the girl, who scoffed at him.
"What, you're gonna shove me back down there to teach me a lesson or some bull?" Sugar retorted in a sassy tone.
Beardo's glare deepened into a scowl.
Down below, Cody sat up and rubbed his head, but paused when he heard sounds of a scuffle.
"Hey, cut that out!" Sugar could be heard screaming.
"Let go of my hair first!" Beardo shot back. "Ugh- stop! We're gonna fall!"
Looking above him, Cody gasped sharply and darted to the side when the fighting pair was heard screaming and soon fell down where he had just been laying. He stared at them with wide eyes as they groaned painfully in unison.
Watching them for a moment, Cody soon remembered that he was in the middle of a challenge, and scrambled back to the ladder he had used to get up to the second level. Ascending as fast as he could to make up for lost time, he was surprised to see Shawn still standing on the platform across the lava.
"You didn't go up? You could've been at the third moat already," Cody pointed out to the conspiracy nut.
Shawn shrugged at the geek. "Eh, I haven't approved of anything Sugar has done all season. It only seemed fair to wait until you got back up here. Now that you are, I'm moving on. See you up there!" Giving Cody a wave of his hand, Shawn turned towards his ladder and started climbing.
Cody looked thoughtfully at the moat in front of him. "I could do what he was doing, and use my ladder to make a bridge like he did, but that wouldn't leave Alejandro and Heather a way up to come help me. I need another way across." Doing a quick glance around, he noticed the only thing within reach was a pink pogo stick. "A pogo stick? Really, Chris?"
Now reclining in a lounge chair with his cappuccino, Chris responded through his megaphone, "Keep in mind that not all these items were tested for safety, and by not all, I mean none. Each one is a death trap waiting to-." Before he could finish the reply, the thin intern girl with braces approached with a backup cellphone, which had the lawyer on the phone again. Listening in, Chris asked, "Should I reword that?"
It took a little while, but Alejandro and Heather finally found a log thick enough for their idea to cross the toxic waste moat. Heather sat in the hollowed out middle like it was a boat, and Alejandro stood on the back, using the remaining pole they had on hand to propel them across. Nonchalantly, the charmer whistled a tune as if they weren't riding a log through potentially deadly hazardous waste.
Grunting, Shawn pulled himself up to the third level.
"Shawn has reached level three!" announced Chris. Shawn pumped a fist at his achievement. "Cody better spring into action!"
Cody bounced up and down on the pogo stick reluctantly, gaining more and more air every time he bounced. "Sierra- made- this- look- so- easy!" When he felt he had achieved a desirable height, he made a risky leap from the pogo stick, abandoning it to the lava below, and luckily landed on the edge of the third level, once again with his face in the dirt and his butt directed at the sky. The geek groaned once again at his misfortune.
Down at the ground level, Alejandro and Heather reached Cody's ladder up to the second level, and noticed Beardo assisting Sugar with walking, one of her wedge heeled feet held up. Moments after Alejandro and Heather disembarked their log boat, it and the pole that had been acting as a paddle both sunk into the waste.
"What happened to you?" Heather wondered, staring at the odd pair.
"I think I sprained my ankle in that fall when this fuzzball yanked me down with him," Sugar answered, shooting a scathing scowl at Beardo, who returned it with an equal frown. "I'm gonna be out of the pageant game for weeks because of this! You have any idea how many wins I could wrangle up in the time it's gonna take this to heal?"
As Heather made her way up the ladder, Alejandro gave a helpless shrug of his shoulders. "A sad tale, but we are not on the same team, so we must leave you." Smirking, he followed Heather, both enjoying Sugar's misfortune and the view he got from following his beloved's ascent.
"Dang," Beardo let out a low whistle, "do all you villains have to be so cold?"
"Just shut yer yap and help me up that stinkin' elevator. If we show that nutty friend of yours I can still help, he might give me a cut of the money when he wins," Sugar barked.
"Debatable," Beardo muttered under his breath, but aided Sugar over to the ladder regardless.
While the final challenge approached its climax, Owen had nearly every other all-star out of their balloon. Duncan, Gwen, Sammy, Sierra, Topher, and Jasmine all stood by as Owen released Scarlett last.
Jasmine did a quick head count, mumbling, "Cody and Shawn both got two helpers… which leaves… five, six, seven, eight! That's us all told," she confirmed for the group, nodding to herself.
Rubbing her arm nervously, Sammy asked, "What do we do now?"
"We need to warn the crew what's going to happen once that sword is pulled and to gather at the Dock of Shame," Jasmine answered, taking charge.
"The rest of you can do as you'd like," Scarlett sniffed disdainfully, already walking away. "The only life I value is mine, so I'm going to immediately make my way to the dock."
"We didn't expect you to give us a hand anyway!" Topher retorted loudly before turning to address Jasmine. "Lay it on us."
"Okay, we're going to pair up. Gwen, Sierra, you two head to the spa hotel and warn anyone in there to get out pronto," Jasmine said, pointing to the loner and the blogger.
"You got it," Gwen agreed while Sierra eagerly bobbed her head.
"Duncan and Owen," the explorer said to the punk and the food lover, "go track down the production camp and alert any of the crew hanging around there, quickly."
"The food there is usually pretty good," Duncan commented, elbowing Owen for emphasis. "Owen can probably sniff it out in seconds."
Inhaling deeply, Owen processed the scent and pointed in the direction Scarlett went. "The good smell coming from that way should be the spa hotel, which means that the good smell coming from the other way," he pointed in the opposite direction, "should be the production camp. Let's go!"
The two young men hustled off on their assignment.
"Sammy, Topher, you're both with me since we have an odd number. We're going after our friends at the challenge," Jasmine said to the remaining two without a mission.
"I just hope we're quick enough," fretted Sammy.
In contrast to the worried cheerleader, Topher excitedly rubbed his hands together.
"This is totally going to steal Chris's thunder. Let's crash a finale!" The aspiring host declared. The five all-stars agreed, and split up for their tasks. Gwen and Sierra ran in Scarlett's direction to the left, and Jasmine's group went to the right just as Owen and Duncan had done a few moments prior.
Shawn and Cody stood on the edge of the third moat, watching Fang's dorsal fin zip back and forth in the water. Both boys appeared apprehensive at the thought of crossing while the land shark was involved.
"Well, at least we don't have to worry about falling into something that could kill us," Cody said, trying to make light of the situation. "We just have worry about someone trying to kill us."
Shawn glanced around. "I'm not seeing any tools left for us to use, but it looks like there are some rocks big enough for us to jump across." He pointed to a few flat-faced boulders poking out of the water halfway through the moat. "What we need is for our helpers to distract Fang while we make our move."
Cody glanced over his shoulder back down at the second moat. "What's taking them so long anyway?"
"Ugh, Cody better give us a cut of the money after all we've gone through to help him with this stupid challenge," Heather complained, getting off the ladder.
Alejandro popped over the ladder's edge, and joined the queen bee on the second level. "I'm sure he'll reward us appropriately for our assistance. He was put on the heroes' team, so he must have some integr-gah!" The moment he spotted the lava, he went stiff and wide-eyed. The camera cut a few zoomed-in shots between Alejandro's eyes and the bubbling lava, the look on Alejandro's face seeming more haunted with every switch.
Noticing her boyfriend's sudden pause, Heather touched his arm lightly. "Alejandro?"
Alejandro didn't respond, and continued to stare at the lava. A shimmering transition brought forth a replay of Alejandro sliding down the volcano's path in Hawaii on a giant ice cube, followed by his stop on the beach, where the first generation of contestants plus Blaineley ran him over, and then the lava overtaking him and the camera filming him. Another shot of the lava was shown, this time from a camera directly in the flow's path and the lava overtook it head-on.
"Alejandro, you're really freaking me out right now," Heather said, the flashback ending and showing her trying to shake him by the shoulder. "What's wrong?"
"La lava duele," Alejandro murmured in shock, "la lava duele."
"Yes, that's lava," Heather confirmed, looking at the fiery substance. "But what does that have to do with- oh!" The realization struck her as if she had been hit by a truck, and her expression became remorseful. "Alejandro, it's okay. I'm here. I won't let it hurt you." Gently, she took his head by the chin, and made him stare into her eyes. "Look at me. You're okay. Nobody's going to be burned today."
"Lava hurts, Heather," he told her softly, "lava hurts so much."
Heather nodded in understanding. "I know, but you know how lightning never strikes the same place twice? Lava doesn't burn the same person twice. Not if I have anything to say about it. You with me?"
At last, the haunted look in his eyes disappeared, and he smiled warmly at her. "I'm with you."
The two villains solidified the promise by sharing their second kiss. With their first kiss being unexpected at the time, the fact they both thought about it this time made their second one much greater.
Having listened below the ladder, Beardo sighed, "Aw, who knew villains could be so sweet?"
Sugar, having the opposite opinion of the human soundboard, gagged. "Blegh, those two make me want to upchuck last week's breakfast."
Still on the third moat's edge, Shawn and Cody also witnessed the kiss.
"Even though I hate Alejandro and am on neutral ground with Heather," Cody remarked to his opponent with a small smile, "I hope they last together a really long time."
"Guess it goes to show even baddies like them can find love," Shawn agreed before sighing, "now I wish Jasmine was here so I could kiss her."
Alejandro and Heather completed their kiss, smiling at each other afterwards and enjoying the moment. Unfortunately for everyone, Chris didn't have the same sentiment.
"That's it!" The host roared, showing up at the second level with his jetpack and alarming the happy couple. "This is the finale! It's about pain and betrayal and pain! Not hugs and kissing! Pain!"
In an act of defiance, they kissed once more, this time Alejandro taking the extra step to dip Heather.
Sugar seemed to catch onto their intention, because she quickly pecked Beardo on the cheek, to his bewilderment.
Cody and Shawn shared a look, watching the extended kiss. They seemed to be thinking the same thing.
"I don't swing that way," Shawn confirmed, "do you?"
Cody shook his head. "Nope, regardless of what some fans think." Clearly thinking of certain moments that people took the wrong way, he rolled his eyes.
Chris hovered back with his jetpack, an expression of extreme outrage apparent under his helmet. "That's it! New rules- anyone who gets the sword out of the stone wins the million dollars!"
That got the happy couple's attention.
"Anyone?" Alejandro clarified. Not five seconds later, he dropped Heather and started to run for Shawn's pogo stick from the other side, only to trip as a result of his girlfriend grabbing his leg.
"Oh no you don't!" Heather snarled competitively.
Putting his hand to his head, Beardo sighed while helping Sugar up the ladder. "Here we go again…"
Chuckling, Sugar commented, "Now that's more like it!"
"Yeah," Chris agreed with Sugar, "this is much better."
Cody and Shawn exchanged another glance.
"I guess we're on our own now," said the geek.
"That's fine. I work better solo anyway," Shawn confirmed, metaphorically tipping his hat to Cody. "See you up top!" Jogging away, Shawn returned to his side of the moat as Cody hurried over to his.
Alejandro and Heather were still roughhousing, the latter somehow having grabbed a fistful of the former's hair while he tried to shove her away. Nearby, Sugar watched the fight as Beardo was the last to arrive on the second level, pulling up the ladder to use as a bridge like before when he helped Shawn.
"Hoowee, it's like a private show. Wish I had some caramel corn for this," Sugar stated gleefully.
Up on the third moat, Cody jumped onto one of the boulders in the moat, and found Fang immediately circling him, even rising out of the water to show off his menacing teeth.
Cody quickly put his hands up in defense. "Hey, you don't want to eat me. I was part of the deal that let you have that meat buffet a few days ago." He pointed behind the shark at Shawn. "Go after him. He's swimming in your waters."
Fang followed Cody's finger, and let out a deep growl.
Shawn, who indeed was swimming across the moat, froze at being caught while Fang wasn't on his side. "Oh come on…" Letting out his familiar scream, he swam further down the moat as the shark gave chase.
Having avoided a shark attack, Cody allowed himself to chuckle.
Alejandro and Heather managed to disentangle from each other, and split off with their own plans. The charmer ran for the remaining pogo stick while the queen bee hurried over to the ladder bridge Beardo had just crossed, shoving Sugar to the ground in the process.
"Ow!" Sugar yelped when her bottom hit rock, and rubbed the afflicted area with her hand. "Don't you know it's rude to shove people that are hurt?"
Quickly mounting the pogo stick, Alejandro started to gain air. After a few expertly performed bounces, he jumped to the third moat, abandoning the pogo stick to the lava much like Cody had done.
Shawn, who had reached the platform with his next ladder, prepared to fend himself against Fang, but the preparation turned out to be unnecessary due to Alejandro landing on top of the threatening Fang and sending himself and the shark into the water.
"Wow, thanks!" Shawn said in stunned gratitude.
Alejandro surfaced, spitting out water and sneering at the conspiracy nut. "Don't thank me. I had no intention to land where I did."
Beside the charmer, Fang surfaced, growling at him. He let out a scream, and started swimming away as Fang pursued him back Cody's way.
Much like Cody, Shawn chuckled once he was out of danger's way. Looking over and seeing Cody starting to ascend his ladder, Shawn reached for his own and started climbing.
On the other side, Beardo arrived at the third level, only to have Heather push him aside so she could get up as well.
"Move it, suspenders. I have to get up here before Alejandro does," she snapped at him.
Casually, Beardo pointed at the moat. "I don't think you have anything to worry about." Proving his point, Alejandro swam by moments later, screaming in terror as he attempted to escape Fang. Heather smiled with wicked interest.
(Confessional- Beardo)
"These people are crazy," Beardo stated with a shake of his head. For a moment, he almost seemed disappointed before a growing smile put the thought out of mind. "I'd be lying if I said I didn't enjoy being around these guys. A moment with this cast is never boring. You have to agree with that."
The show quickly cut to commercial break, and faded back in with a split screen showing Cody and Shawn, on the left and right respectively, climbing their ladders at roughly the same pace.
Ultimately, Shawn was the first to reach the top of his ladder, and was the first to duck under Chef's infamous pasta blasts.
"Whoa!" Shawn gasped sharply. Moving quickly as the rounds were fired at him, he jumped onto the final level of the moats, the only one of which that didn't have a liquid obstacle but solid ground. Keeping low, the conspiracy nut dove behind a small boulder for protection.
Sure that Shawn would stay put for a moment, Chef turned to check on the other finalist. Cody grinned the moment he peeked over the edge and spotted the sword. His moment of delight was cut short by Chef shooting at him. Not wanting to be shot off the ladder and back down into Fang's territory, Cody jumped off onto solid ground, and made a running slide to a cover boulder like Shawn had.
"Ooh, some impressive maneuvers from both Shawn and Cody," Chris commented, flying up pointedly to Chef. "And unimpressive shooting from Chef."
Not one to let his aiming be criticized, Chef shot a pasta blast at Chris point blank, eliciting a 'Gah!' from the host as the blast downed him.
"Hehe! Nice shot there, Chef!" Cody chuckled, getting the cook's attention. The geek was peeking out from behind his cover and smiling at him. "He really had that coming- ah!" His eyes going wide, Cody ducked back as Chef fired at him.
"Aw thanks, kid," Chef sincerely thanked. "At least somebody appreciates my-!"
"Got it!" Shawn hollered, followed by the sound of a 'shing!'
In an extreme close-up, Shawn's sleeved arm could be seen holding up the sword from the stone against a shimmering background, showing off the weapon in a victorious glint.
"I did it! I won! Yeahahaha!" Shawn cheered.
Chris came over from where he had been shot with pasta, carrying the case containing the prize money and some chunks of pasta on his shoulders that he swept off as he approached. "Shawn wins the million dollars!" announced the host.
Taking that as a sign Chef stopped firing, Cody stepped out from behind his rock and clapped his hands. "Great job, Shawn! Congrats!"
Splat!
Cody's congratulations ceased when he cringed at the sound. The camera cut back to Shawn and Chris, the former's face caked with pasta. Atop the castle, Chef was chuckling to himself.
When he saw everyone staring at him, he coughed, "I was just cleaning it, and it went off."
Wiping the pasta off his face, Shawn turned as he noticed the once-helpers all arriving at the top level.
"Congrats on winning, brother," Beardo said, the only one of them willing to say so. Sugar hobbled over on her good foot, and glared fiercely at the conspiracy nut. Alejandro carried Heather in his arms, both of them soaking wet. Strangely, neither of the happy couple were all that upset about his win.
Chris's backup cellphone rang in his pocket, and he fished it out to answer. "Ugh, it's the network…" Knowing it was probably important, he flipped it open. "Yes? Uh huh, uh huh… okay! Done!" Hanging up, Chris beamed at the six young men and women. "They are so happy that they want to go straight into a new season with an all new cast!"
Before anyone could react to the announcement, the ground began to shake and they all glanced at the stone the sword had been pulled from. It began to splinter.
"Um, what's going on?" Chris asked, looking just as scared as he did when Ezekiel had kidnapped him.
"Get down! The island's going to sink!" A familiar Australian voice yelled out, seemingly enhanced by a megaphone.
Shawn looked over his shoulder in the direction the voice seemed to be coming from. "Jasmine?" Hurrying over to the edge, he looked down and saw Jasmine's little group of herself, Sammy, and Topher standing by the toxic waste moat. Jasmine held Chris's favored megaphone in hand.
"Chef used a fracking machine to make the moats!" Jasmine explained loudly enough for those on the top level to hear.
Sammy glanced at Topher with a raised eyebrow. "Can you even say that on TV?" Topher shrugged his shoulders, indicating he didn't know the answer to that question.
"A fracking machine is a hydraulic drill," the explorer continued saying into the megaphone, "which you can't use on an island this small! It's too dangerous!"
"Why?" Chris questioned, his eyes wide with terror. "What could happen?"
As if to answer his question, water spouted out of the stone's sword hole like a geyser. To avoid being hit, Chef retreated to a corner of his castle.
"I'm guessing that's why!" Cody yelped in fear.
Sugar made an oddly calm sound of understanding, like whenever someone explained something simple to Lindsay. "Ohhh… that's what she meant by the island was going to sink."
Beardo, Shawn, and Cody ran and embraced each other in a panicked hug while Alejandro clutched Heather, and Chris, Chef, and Sugar were left alone. Everyone screamed as cracks formed in the foundation around them.
Down below, Jasmine dropped the megaphone and wrapped an arm tight around Sammy and Topher. "Brace yourselves!"
At the Dock of Shame, Scarlett stood off to the side as the other former all-stars herded the butler from the spa hotel and all the interns they could find onto the wooden platform.
"I think that's everyone from the crew," Gwen said.
"But what about Cody and the others?" inquired Sierra, typing on her new backup phone.
As the loner was about to reassure the blogger, everyone went quiet when they noticed the Sasquatchinakwa join them on the dock, walking towards the Flush of Shame with a newspaper rolled up under his furry arm and whistling a happy tune.
"Is it seriously going to do that now?" Duncan scoffed, his unibrow raised in disbelief.
Owen looked between the purple sasquatch and the others, a frown on his face. "Um, do you guys feel that?"
Before anyone could reply to Owen and the Sasquatchinakwa could reach the giant toilet, a geyser of water similar to the one from the stone at the Moats of Doom sprouted out. The former contestants, the interns, and even Sasquatchinakwa all screamed in fright. Only the butler maintained his composure, and simply took out a violin to play a somber song.
Elsewhere on the island, various other geysers erupted. The confessional outhouse was blown sky high but intact. Water spewed out from the mine's various holes. Geysers formed in the woods too, and all the animals scrambled for safety. One particularly nutty squirrel held up a sign depicting the end of the world and gave off a kooky laugh.
The campgrounds started to flood. The loser cabin was first to have its windows shatter and the doors blow off their hinges.
"Not the cabin!" Owen cried out in despair.
Next was the mess hall.
"Not the mess hall!" Owen exclaimed, this time even more anguished than the first time.
Then the spa hotel finally couldn't take on any more water, and it overflowed out the second floor balcony.
"Not the spa hote-," Owen stopped himself and thought for a moment. "Actually, I never spent a night in that place so I don't have any fond memories of it. Eh, guess that can go." Dismissing that last one, he went back to panicking and clutching his friends.
Except for the butler, everybody and every creature on the island was screaming for dear life.
It wasn't long before the whole island went under in one big splash, as seen in one last far shot of the island itself.
Debris floated in Lake Wawanakwa. Chef managed to grab a duck-shaped floating ring, and sipped from a thermos he had on hand. As he floated away, Alejandro and Heather surfaced nearby.
Sputtering out water, Heather's fury finally arose. "Cheated out of a million bucks, again!" She pounded her fists in the water to vent her aggression. "I hate this show!"
"But," Alejandro interjected before she could rant further, a smile on his face. "At least we have the best consolation prize of all- each other."
"Great," she grumbled not unkindly. "Just great."
Being a shark, Fang easily survived Camp Wawanakwa's sinking, and surfaced beside the villainous couple. They started to scream as he showed off his many teeth threateningly, only for a piece of debris to clock him in the head and make him sink back under. The pair looked in confusion at the source of the sudden rescue.
"Finally! I had enough of that bitey little thing," Sugar complained, sitting on top of the loser cabin's roof as the cabin itself floated along in the lake and tending to her leg. Also with her was Shawn, Cody, and Beardo.
"You're welcome, by the way." Shawn said to the villains they had just rescued.
"Climb on up," Cody beckoned them. Alejandro and Heather quickly did so, not people to reject a much needed rescue.
"Looks like everybody else made it out okay too," Beardo mused, spotting the rest of the season's cast along with the crew floating along on fractions of the Dock of Shame.
Nearby the finalists and their former helpers, Chris rode along the side of the confessional outhouse, clutching Shawn's prize money and waving to the camera.
"Well, that's it for our very first all-star season, but don't worry. We're coming back with a brand new cast," he announced before putting a finger to his chin, clearly thinking. "And, I guess, a new island too." Chuckling to himself, he concluded, "Until next time, I'm Chris McLean, and this has been Total Drama All-Stars!"
The show was about to close out on a zoomed-out frame of Chris and the former contestants floating in the lake when the former Boat of Losers drove by with Sasquatchinakwa and all the island's animals aboard it.
Honk! Honk!
(Alternate Ending)
The show quickly cut to commercial break, and faded back in with a split screen showing Cody and Shawn, on the left and right respectively, climbing their ladders at roughly the same pace.
Ultimately, Shawn was the first to reach the top of his ladder, and was the first to duck under Chef's infamous pasta blasts.
"Whoa!" Shawn gasped sharply. Moving quickly as the rounds were fired at him, he jumped onto the final level of the moats, the only one of which that didn't have a liquid obstacle but solid ground. Keeping low, the conspiracy nut dove behind a small boulder for protection.
Sure that Shawn would stay put for a moment, Chef turned to check on the other finalist. Cody grinned the moment he peeked over the edge and spotted the sword. His moment of delight was cut short by Chef shooting at him. Not wanting to be shot off the ladder and back down into Fang's territory, Cody jumped off onto solid ground, and made a running slide to a cover boulder like Shawn had.
"Ooh, some impressive maneuvers from both Shawn and Cody," Chris commented, flying up pointedly to Chef. "And unimpressive shooting from Chef."
Not one to let his aiming be criticized, Chef shot a pasta blast at Chris point blank, eliciting a 'Gah!' from the host as the blast downed him.
"Hey, don't say that, Chris!" remarked Shawn, getting the cook's attention. The conspiracy nut was peeking out from his cover, and smiling at him. "He'd do great at shooting at zombies- ah!" His eyes going wide, Shawn ducked back as Chef fired at him.
"Aw thanks, kid," Chef sincerely thanked. "At least somebody appreciates my-!"
"Distraction while I win?" Cody hollered, followed by the sound of a 'shing!'
In an extreme close-up, Cody's sleeved arm could be seen holding up the sword from the stone against a shimmering background, showing off the weapon in a victorious glint.
"I did it! The money's mine at last!" Cody cheered.
Chris came over from where he had been shot with pasta, carrying the case containing the prize money and some chunks of pasta on his shoulders that he swept off as he approached. "Cody wins the million dollars!" announced the host.
Taking that as a sign Chef stopped firing, Shawn stepped out from behind his rock and clapped his hands. "Not bad, Cody!"
Splat!
Shawn's congratulations ceased when he cringed at the sound. The camera cut back to Cody and Chris, the former's face caked with pasta. Atop the castle, Chef was chuckling to himself.
When he saw everyone staring at him, he coughed, "I was just cleaning it, and it went off."
Wiping the pasta off his face, Cody turned as he noticed the once-helpers all arriving at the top level.
"Congrats on winning, brother," Beardo said, the only one of them willing to say so. Sugar hobbled over on her good foot, and glared fiercely at the geek. Alejandro carried Heather in his arms, both of them soaking wet. Strangely, neither of the happy couple were all that upset about his win.
Chris's backup cellphone rang in his pocket, and he fished it out to answer. "Ugh, it's the network…" Knowing it was probably important, he flipped it open. "Yes? Uh huh, uh huh… okay! Done!" Hanging up, Chris beamed at the six young men and women. "They are so happy that they want to go straight into a new season with an all new cast!"
Before anyone could react to the announcement, the ground began to shake and they all glanced at the stone the sword had been pulled from. It began to splinter.
"Um, what's going on?" Chris asked, looking just as scared as he did when Ezekiel had kidnapped him.
"Get down! The island's going to sink!" A familiar Australian voice yelled out, seemingly enhanced by a megaphone.
Cody looked over his shoulder in the direction the voice seemed to be coming from. "What?" Hurrying over to the edge, he looked down and saw Jasmine's little group of herself, Sammy, and Topher standing by the toxic waste moat. Jasmine held Chris's favored megaphone in hand.
"Chef used a fracking machine to make the moats!" Jasmine explained loudly enough for those on the top level to hear.
Sammy glanced at Topher with a raised eyebrow. "Can you even say that on TV?" Topher shrugged his shoulders, indicating he didn't know the answer to that question.
"A fracking machine is a hydraulic drill," the explorer continued saying into the megaphone, "which you can't use on an island this small! It's too dangerous!"
"Why?" Chris questioned, his eyes wide with terror. "What could happen?"
As if to answer his question, water spouted out of the stone's sword hole like a geyser. To avoid being hit, Chef retreated to a corner of his castle.
"That's why!" Shawn yelped in fear.
Sugar made an oddly calm sound of understanding, like whenever someone explained something simple to Lindsay. "Ohhh… that's what she meant by the island was going to sink."
Beardo, Shawn, and Cody ran and embraced each other in a panicked hug while Alejandro clutched Heather, and Chris, Chef, and Sugar were left alone. Everyone screamed as cracks formed in the foundation around them.
Down below, Jasmine dropped the megaphone and wrapped an arm tight around Sammy and Topher. "Brace yourselves!"
At the Dock of Shame, Scarlett stood off to the side as the other former all-stars herded the butler from the spa hotel and all the interns they could find onto the wooden platform.
"I think that's everyone from the crew," Gwen said.
"But what about Cody and the others?" inquired Sierra, typing on her new backup phone.
As the loner was about to reassure the blogger, everyone went quiet when they noticed the Sasquatchinakwa join them on the dock, walking towards the Flush of Shame with a newspaper rolled up under his furry arm and whistling a happy tune.
"Is it seriously going to do that now?" Duncan scoffed, his unibrow raised in disbelief.
Owen looked between the purple sasquatch and the others, a frown on his face. "Um, do you guys feel that?"
Before anyone could reply to Owen and the Sasquatchinakwa could reach the giant toilet, a geyser of water similar to the one from the stone at the Moats of Doom sprouted out. The former contestants, the interns, and even Sasquatchinakwa all screamed in fright. Only the butler maintained his composure, and simply took out a violin to play a somber song.
Elsewhere on the island, various other geysers erupted. The confessional outhouse was blown sky high but intact. Water spewed out from the mine's various holes. Geysers formed in the woods too, and all the animals scrambled for safety. One particularly nutty squirrel held up a sign depicting the end of the world and gave off a kooky laugh.
The campgrounds started to flood. The loser cabin was first to have its windows shatter and the doors blow off their hinges.
"Not the cabin!" Owen cried out in despair.
Next was the mess hall.
"Not the mess hall!" Owen exclaimed, this time even more anguished than the first time.
Then the spa hotel finally couldn't take on any more water, and it overflowed out the second floor balcony.
"Not the spa hote-," Owen stopped himself and thought for a moment. "Actually, I never spent a night in that place so I don't have any fond memories of it. Eh, guess that can go." Dismissing that last one, he went back to panicking and clutching his friends.
Except for the butler, everybody and every creature on the island was screaming for dear life.
It wasn't long before the whole island went under in one big splash, as seen in one last far shot of the island itself.
Debris floated in Lake Wawanakwa. Chef managed to grab a duck-shaped floating ring, and sipped from a thermos he had on hand. As he floated away, Alejandro and Heather surfaced nearby.
Sputtering out water, Heather's fury finally arose. "Cheated out of a million bucks, again!" She pounded her fists in the water to vent her aggression. "I hate this show!"
"But," Alejandro interjected before she could rant further, a smile on his face. "At least we have the best consolation prize of all- each other."
"Great," she grumbled not unkindly. "Just great."
Being a shark, Fang easily survived Camp Wawanakwa's sinking, and surfaced beside the villainous couple. They started to scream as he showed off his many teeth threateningly, only for a piece of debris to clock him in the head and make him sink back under. The pair looked in confusion at the source of the sudden rescue.
"Finally! I had enough of that bitey little thing," Sugar complained, sitting on top of the loser cabin's roof as the cabin itself floated along in the lake and tending to her leg. Also with her was Shawn, Cody, and Beardo.
"You're welcome, by the way." Shawn said to the villains they had just rescued.
"Climb on up," Cody beckoned them. Alejandro and Heather quickly did so, not people to reject a much needed rescue.
"Looks like everybody else made it out okay too," Beardo mused, spotting the rest of the season's cast along with the crew floating along on fractions of the Dock of Shame.
Nearby the finalists and their former helpers, Chris rode along the side of the confessional outhouse, clutching Cody's prize money and waving to the camera.
"Well, that's it for our very first all-star season, but don't worry. We're coming back with a brand new cast," he announced before putting a finger to his chin, clearly thinking. "And, I guess, a new island too." Chuckling to himself, he concluded, "Until next time, I'm Chris McLean, and this has been Total Drama All-Stars!"
The show was about to close out on a zoomed-out frame of Chris and the former contestants floating in the lake when the former Boat of Losers drove by with Sasquatchinakwa and all the island's animals aboard it.
Honk! Honk!
(Bonus Clip)
As if the show was just on break, the clip started fading in to show the former contestants and the crew floating aimlessly in the lake on their makeshift rafts, even if said makeshift raft was previously a cabin. Everyone sat in bored silence, several of the cast and crew slumped against each other in exhaustion.
After a few moments, Beardo broke the silence by groaning, "Man, this is taking forever. How much longer until we get help?"
Sierra typed on her backup phone, it apparently still in working condition after the island's sinking. She chuckled lightly, "Don't worry. According to the messages on my phone, we should be getting help right about… now."
HONK! HONK!
Everyone's heads sprung up attentively as they all stared in the same single direction.
A large yacht, much like the one the original cast appeared on in their short cameo at the beginning of the fourth season's first episode, drove up next to them and anchored down.
"Arrgh, mateys overboard!" A wild, feminine voice called out in a terrible rendition of a pirate accent. "Again, Owen? I might need to start charging you for how many times I've had to fish you out of the brink!" Breaking character, the voice guffawed.
Sammy beamed up at the boat. "It's our friends!"
Appearing behind the yacht's railing was Izzy, Eva, Max, Amy, Beth, Dave, Leshawna, Lindsay, Geoff, DJ, Bridgette, Tyler, Katie and Sadie, Rodney, Ella, Justin, Noah, Harold, Sky, Trent, Courtney, Leonard, and Ezekiel. Izzy was wearing a pirate costume; Eva, Max, and Amy all had their usual frowns; Dave looked slightly happier than he was when he helped Beth pick up Beardo in China; DJ stood behind Geoff and Bridgette as they held each other beside Lindsay and Tyler doing the same; Noah stood in front of the whole group as the leader of the rescue; and Ezekiel stood at the far left end of the line, looking less green than before with tufts of brown hair starting to grow back on his head and a IV drip attached to his arm.
Noah clapped his hands once. "Okay people, let's do this one more time, and hopefully never have to do it again. We've got a lot of people to pick up."
The all-star cast, along with the interns, all pumped their fists in the air and cheered at finally being rescued.
A flash forward showed the deck of the yacht, where various drifters were being helped onto the boat and handed towels to dry off. Bridgette and Leonard were shown helping Sugar with her knee, though Leonard was mostly pretending to cast spells while Bridgette did the actual work. Shawn and Cody couldn't help but personally look after Ezekiel, the former wanting to know for sure that the formerly feral boy wasn't going to turn into a zombie and the latter doing so out of his previous concern for Ezekiel getting medical aid. DJ and Ella took it upon themselves to serve the crew food and drinks. Sitting off to the side, Dave and Sky appeared to be having a peaceful chat despite their murky past together.
Also off to the side were Duncan and Courtney, who stood at the railing and looking over the lake.
After a few moments of silence, Duncan glanced over at the former counselor in training and sighed. "I'm sorry… about everything that happened on the plane. I shouldn't have done it, and even though I had a reason for doing it, I can't use it as an excuse. I'll never be able to make it up to you, but I hope that you can forgive me and we can be in the same room again without being at each other's throats." He looked at each other with genuine remorse. "What do you say?"
Taking a deep breath, Courtney closed her eyes and exhaled before she turned to face him and opened them again. "Duncan, what you did was the worst. Even worse than what Sky did to Dave." She pointed to the pair in mention without looking. "It's true that it's exhausting being so mad at each other, and it would do my stress a lot of good if we could get that to stop. We have a lot of the same friends, and I'd hate to hurt them all by making them choose between hanging out with you or me. For their sake, not just mine, I forgive you." Holding up a finger before he could reply, she continued, "but I'll never forget. Understand?"
"Absolutely," he answered immediately and seriously.
Apparently satisfied, Courtney nodded to herself and returned to looking at the lake. "It's going to be really weird with the island gone. It's had a huge impact on all of us."
"Yeah," agreed Duncan as he also looked where the island used to sit. Then, apparently thinking something funny, he smirked and reached into his pocket. "Good thing I kept a souvenir."
In his hand was Chris's still stolen wallet.
Courtney couldn't help but snort in an amused way. "You're such a criminal."
"And you're such a princess," he retorted, still smirking.
Putting Chris's wallet back in his pocket, Duncan continued to stare out at the lake with Courtney while the cast rode the yacht to shore, ready to head home before Chris inevitably roped them all into another round of total drama.
Shawn- 1st
Cody- 2nd
Sugar- 3rd
Gwen- 4th
Jasmine- 5th
Alejandro- 6th
Topher- 7th
Sierra- 8th
Sammy- 9th
Duncan- 10th
Heather- 11th
Beardo- 12th
Scarlett- 13th
Owen- 14th
At last, Part Two has come to an end. As much as I wanted Cody to win, I felt that the way the episode played out meant for Shawn to win officially. I also wanted it so there wasn't only one person from the second generation to have won a season. Rest assured, Cody's nightmare won't become reality. He made a great effort, and he might've lost, but his friends are going to sit him down and comfort him over his loss instead of tossing him aside because he lost to a newer player. I know the diverging point isn't that creative, but I couldn't figure out a more interesting way to alter the course and still transition into the island's disappearance nicely.
I ran a bunch of potential helper combos in my head. I settled on Alejandro and Heather for Cody because I wanted to show them as a couple not competing, and I thought it would be an interesting twist to have the final three of the third season working as a team instead of against each other like back then. I also took the opportunity to show how Alejandro would react to lava if he ever came close to it again because I'm positive that he would be traumatized after being burned so badly he ended up in the Drama Machine. The canon episode just skipped over Aleheather crossing the lava moat so the helpers could be at the top level of the moats with Chris, Chef, and the finalists. When I settled on Beardo and Sugar, my original intention was for them to slow Shawn down with their lack of athletic skill while Alejandro and Heather allowed Cody to keep up despite his own lack in athletics. That didn't go as I thought it would. The episode kinda just wrote itself, and Beardo and Sugar ended up being a huge help and kept Shawn in the lead most of the time. For those of you unsatisfied with Sugar's comeuppance last episode, hopefully her ankle getting busted so she can't compete in pageants for a while will satisfy you.
Going in, I thought this finale was going to be shorter due to the absence of the subplot within Mike's mind, but this turned out to be my longest chapter in the project so far. The subplot with the other all-stars not involved in the challenge turned out really well. I'm especially proud of taking the disgusting use of Owen's gas in the canon episode and spinning it around so that Owen ended up being the one to save the other all-stars and pop balloons instead of inflating them. The balloon thing was awful, and one of my goals with this finale was to give that part a better ending, just like I did with Ezekiel back in the 100th episode celebration.
Final bonus clip! Without intending to, I made the bonus clips come full circle. The first one of TDAS- Cast Swap edition started with a boat containing Izzy and Eva picking up Owen out of the water, and the last one did the same thing, but with a bigger boat and everyone else involved too. One by one with each bonus clip, each all-star was rescued, and in the last one, they all were rescued together. Since this is the last bonus clip as well as the last time we'll be seeing the first and second generations in this project, I took the time to wrap up a few lingering things. Ezekiel is on his way to recovery, and will be for quite some time. Dave appears to have gotten over the issue with Sky, and Beth bringing him along while she picked up Beardo probably had something to do with that. The one drawback of not including Courtney in the all-star season was being able to resolve her and Duncan's problem until now. After Gwen pointed out what he and she did wrong to Courtney and broke up with him, Duncan's had time to reflect and come to the conclusion that Gwen was right and he owed Courtney an apology for how he treated her in World Tour. Tired of being angry with him, having mended her friendship with Gwen, and not wanting to cause friction with their other friends, Courtney accepted it, but made sure he was aware of how damaged the bridge between them was. They are NOT going back to the way they were before the love triangle fiasco, but they now have opportunities to get somewhere near that.
Apologies for this taking so long. I ended up spending two weeks screaming about DuckTales like I predicted, and then I had to come to terms with Friendship is Magic ending mostly in ways I didn't like. Don't get me wrong, the final two-parter had some good stuff, but a certain twist and ultimate punishment made it a tad difficult to accept. Then there's the very LAST episode, which had character design changes I didn't care for and put characters in positions that didn't make sense to me. I can't even listen to the final song without trying to overwrite canon with my headcanons. At some point, I decided I wanted to get Part Two done before we entered 2020 and the start of a new decade. Now that Part Two is done, I look forward to starting Part Three. It's certainly going to be interesting trying to incorporate Scott's strategy into Pahkitew Island's challenges, and play with Dawn's nature-linked abilities on an artificial island.
Two final things, first is please sign the petition that I can't link to have Net Flix pick up Total Drama so we can have more seasons with our favorite cast of cartoon teenagers. Second thing is to review in the box below, and remember, reviews are awesome! Enjoy the holidays, and I'll see you next time with the start of Pahkitew Island- Cast Swap edition!