Trigger warning: disconcerting sexual content
Inside the mansion, Rome strolled along the hall after climbing his way up the spiral staircase. This was the typical time for getting situated into your sleeping arrangements before going to bed and waking up at an ungodly hour of the morning. Regardless, Rome danced a jig while he walked, humming to himself and spinning around in circles. He was alone.
"Do-ba-dah-bee-bah, bow!"
Rome spun once more, losing his footing and stumbling towards a door he'd never opened before. "Whoa!" he yelped, falling against it, opening it up to find a small, dark surveillance room. The room was lit by several TV screens on the wall with a single person sitting in a chair, watching these screens. "What the?"
Instantly, the person spun around in their chair. Surprisingly, it was Chris, instantly placing his head of hair back on his head. Chris eyed Rome with his eyes as huge as pool balls.
"Rome."
"Chris. What is this room? Are these your private quarte-"
"It's nothing."
Rome gave him a confused look. "Did I just see you-"
"No, you didn't!" Chris snapped. "Maybe mind your own business?"
"Hey, man, balding happens to everyone eventually, or at least most people. It's nothing to be insecu-"
"Out! Get out, right now! Leave!"
"Okay! Okay! I'm going! Closing the door now!"
The sounds of Chris yelling for Rome to leave drowned out his responses.
"Creaking the door closed, going to bed, not talking to Chris tonight! You got it!" With the door closed, Rome took a deep breath. "This fucking show, man..."
Further down the hall, Zoey opened up the door to the girls' bedroom. "Hey, Rome. Is everything okay out here?"
"Hey, Zoey. Yeah, no need to worry about it."
"Okay then."
"Hey, Zoey?"
"Mmhmm?"
"I really like your hair. You know, the flower and the red and all that."
"Aw. You're very kind."
"No problem."
Confessional - Rome
"I always wanted to say that to her."
End of confessional
Shrugging off the strangeness of what had just happened, Rome turned and headed down the opposite side of the hall for the boys' bedroom. Suddenly, Mal appeared from the spiral staircase.
"Mike."
"Oh, hey, Rome!" he called to him, swiftly spiking back up his bangs. "I was looking for you, buddy! Say, would you do me a big, big favor?"
"Uh, yeah, sure. What's up?"
"I know this might sound weird," Mal formed a goofy Mike-esque smile on his face, "but, uh... would you mind sleeping somewhere else tonight?"
Beat.
Rome chuckled. "Yeah, that is a little weird. What, are you trying to make time to masturbate or something?"
"I- no, no, not at all. Man, why would you think that?"
Rome rubbed behind his neck. "Admittedly, bro, I don't know why my mind went down that rabbit hole. But what's the reason?"
"It's not important," Mal responded quickly. "Just do me this one thing?"
Rome shot him a look of confusion. "Uh, I mean... I don't know where else I can sleep, man."
Mal grinned and tapped Rome on the shoulder, departing from him to enter the boys' bedroom. "I'm sure you'll think of something, Rome. I'm sure you'll think of something."
Watching Mal shut the door to the boys' bedroom, the expression of confusion hadn't faded from Rome's face.
"Boy, today sure was intense, wasn't it?" Lindsay asked the other girls in her room. The ditzy blonde's eyes were glued to her nails as she filed them, sitting on one of the mattresses.
Heather approached her, snatching the filer away from her.
Lindsay's happiness melted into disappointment. "Aw..."
"Sure was, but I knew we'd come out on top."
"I'm really nervous for Harold," Zoey mentioned, sitting at the end of her bed with her legs dangling back and forth. "That must have really hurt. He landed right on top of one of those explosives."
"I wouldn't be worried about him," Heather replied.
"Is that because you don't like him that much?"
"Well, yes, but if I've learned anything about Harold by this point, it's that that nerdling can take a lot of damage. He was a punching bag in the first two seasons."
"Even as far as explosives go?"
Heather didn't answer immediately, instead filing away at her nails with Lindsay's filer. "Honestly, why are we even talking about Harold? We should talk about something more pressing, like, say, for instance... our hair."
Zoey scrunched her face in confusion.
"I'll start," Heather continued. "Zoey, is the red natural, or did you just think it'd be cuter than what you were born with?"
She didn't respond.
"Can I have my filer back, please?" Lindsay begged.
Suddenly, the door to their sleeping quarters opened.
"Rome, what are you doing here?" Heather demanded.
"Well," he chuckled. "Funny story, but, uh... you guys mind if I bunk with you tonight?"
Heather furrowed her brows, returning to her nail care. "Kinda creepy..."
"Yay!" Lindsay exclaimed. "Someone else in here that isn't Heather!"
"No problem, Rome, but are you sure everything's okay?" Zoey questioned.
Rome closed the door behind him. "Everything's cool, but when I say I'm a guy that enjoys his privacy, you should believe me when I say that apparently Mike really enjoys his."
Later that night...
With Scott, B, and Axel fast asleep in the cabin and Rome and the girls sleeping in the girls' bedroom of the mansion, Mal was still awake. The deceitful alter strolled through the pitch darkness of the halls upstairs. Finally approaching the girls' bedroom, Mal softly creaked the door open. Lindsay snored with a cloth covering her eyes and Rome slept sprawled out on another bed with the blankets in a discombobulated form around him.
However, Mal's attention was on something different.
Author's Note: Ahead is a sex scene where Mal wakes Zoey up and brings her into the boys' bedroom. There will be mildly graphic details, so if you aren't interested in reading that or comfortable with it, especially for the fact that it's Mal initiating the sex without Zoey realizing it isn't Mike, skip ahead down the page to the wall of period spaces.
Tip-toeing along, Mal approached Zoey's bed where she was passed out. With a menacing grin on his face, he uncovered her, taking her blankets completely off of her. He stared down at her body. In only her pajamas, he could make out her uncovered legs and stomach in the darkness.
"Zoey," he whispered. "Zoey, wake up."
Groggily, her eyes opened up. "Wha- Mike? What ar-"
"Shh..." Mal hushed her, placing his finger on her lips. Very quietly, he leaned down to kiss her aggressively on her lips, holding the curves of her waist as he bit her lip.
"Mike, what time is it?"
Mal continued, kissing and biting along her neck.
"Ow. Too hard," she whispered. "Mike, the others could wake u-"
"I need you to be very quiet for me," Mal ordered.
In that same moment, Mal reached his arms around the redhead and lifted her up over his shoulder. Zoey let out a soft giggle. Without making a sound, Mal slipped out through the bedroom without closing the door behind him.
"Mike, what's gotten into you?" Zoey wondered with amusement.
"I've waited a little too long to have you," he whispered back in his own voice, no Mike impersonation present.
Mal opened up the vacant boys' bedroom with a free hand and forcefully threw Zoey down onto one of the beds. She sat up and faced him with her big, brown eyes.
"Your voice is so deep..."
Mal tore his shirt off, instantly pressing Zoey down by her throat and climbing onto her.
"Mike, are we about to have- w-we've never done this before... Do you think we should take it slower?"
"Nope."
He slipped his hands around her sides to remove her pink pajama top. Next, he removed her bra from behind, throwing it to the side of the bed. Mal bit his lip, his eyes crazed as he stared down at Zoey's breasts.
"W-wait, Mike, wait."
"What?"
"Your shirt... Vito didn't come out... W-what- does that- does that mean something?"
Mal stopped for a moment, distracted from his lust by the fact that he hadn't even thought about keeping up the facade of Vito emerging without his shirt.
"U-uh... right. Wow, that's really strange..."
"Should we be worri-" Zoey cut off when Mal gripped her throat, bringing her inches away from his face.
His dark brown eyes brimmed with all the passionate evil that dwelled within his soul. Mal reached his other hand down to squeeze her breasts.
"Take my pants off. Now."
Nervous, Zoey politely obliged. "O-okay."
She reached his belt and unbuckled it, lowering his pants down to his ankles. "Mike, I-I don't think I've ever told you this... but I've never had sex before."
Mal's demented grin only grew wider. "That's okay, baby. Let me show you what getting fucked silly feels like."
Slightly put-off by his word choices, she didn't respond at first. "I mean... Well, I-I guess that sounds kinda fun..." she replied, her face red with nervousness as she rubbed the side of her neck.
The girl squeaked as Mal grabbed her by her arms and flipped her around onto her front. Raising her hips up, Mal ripped her pants down, following with her panties.
"You have such a fat ass, Zoey. Such a curvy girl..."
Just as nervous, she murmured, "Uhm... thank you?"
Mal yanked Zoey up against him from behind by her throat, murmuring in her ear, "I'm gonna fuck you so hard that your organs switch places."
The scene turned to almost pitch black, only with a view of the door to the boys' bedroom now. Next, we hear thumping beginning slowly, gradually becoming faster and much more aggressive. Quite gradually, Zoey began to moan, mostly grunting silently at first. Zoey's moans picked up as Mal continued with quite possibly his most evil act yet.
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- Episode 12: The Treasure Island of Dr. McLean -
"Previously on Total Drama All Stars! The campers got deep with an underwater scavenger hunt. Against all odds, Lindsay came out on top in the first challenge of the day. Scott's sudden fascination with June came to bite him and the rest of his teammates in their asses when he blew it big during the waterskiing challenge. Speaking of biting, Mike's completely family friendly alter ego Mal and B went head to head with their rattlegull turrets, eventually resulting in June taking a nice snake bite to the throat, and a less deadly bite to the arm for big ole' B. In the end, Harold 'took a dive' and ended up spending his evening in the infirmary alongside June while the Hippos snagged victory from the Vultures. Scott caught up with June in the infirmary, offering to vote himself off, until we eventually learned that in a shocking twist, she convinced Axel and B to vote Connor out. Sneaky! Will the Vultures man up before they're yet another man down? Let's hope not! There is nothing more entertaining than a man down!" Between fake coughs, Chris added, "Harold. More where that came from right now on Total... Drama... All Stars!"
The very next day, Harold awoke in a dark place. Barely awake, he let out a yawn, attempting to stretch out his arms. It was only at that moment did he realize he barely had any arm room whatsoever. Startled, Harold shook himself of his grogginess, noticing he was in a tiny, cramped space with so little room that he couldn't move his body.
"What the?"
Harold frantically peered around, trapped in a tiny, human-width, confined box.
"Hello? Mommy? Daddy?"
"Harold?"
This voice was quite muffled, coming from another cramped box directly to his left.
"June, is that you?"
"Harold!"
"What's going on around here? This isn't the infirmary! Unless it shrank while I was asleep... Yeah, I guess that could happen."
"Harold, we're trapped! We're trapped in a... we're trapped in coffins! We're locked in fucking coffins!"
"What? It can't be!"
Harold panicked, letting out a cry of fear. June shrieked, then he shrieked, then both contestants let out horrified wails of terror.
"No!" Harold cried at the top of his lungs, banging his fists against the top of the coffin with what little room he had.
To no avail, as the two teenagers were hopelessly trapped.
Confessional - Zoey
Zoey was silent at first, before letting out a long sigh.
"Wow."
Beat.
"Oh, man... So, last night after I fell asleep, Mike came into the girls' room and took me into his bedroom. He... well... we had sex for our first time. It was..."
The girl seemed at a total loss of words, still in a daze.
"It was completely unexpected. He just... He seemed to become a completely different person... N-not that he was another person, that is. I mean, the sex was good. Really good. But now that I think about it... something about it just didn't feel right. I-I mean, when Mike and I hung out while Total Drama World Tour was filmed, before I flew out to Niagara Falls to be an intern for a day, he just didn't seem... It was like that Mike just wasn't there. He was so... so forceful. Like he'd had it a bunch of times before... like this time wasn't such a big deal... but it felt like a big deal to me... I always thought sex would be more romantic. Honestly, that feels more ideal to me than... 'f-f-fucking me silly,' as he called it. W-without a stutter, I mean."
Zoey's eyes wandered away from the camera, as if millions of thoughts were running through her mind.
"Something about the chemistry just felt off. And then there was the moment that he took off his shirt... Vito didn't come out. I... I guess... I guess I just wish he'd have gone slower with me. We could have taken our time, kissed more, felt the energy together. But it all happened so fast..."
Confessional - Mal
Mal relaxed in his seat in the outhouse, satisfied with himself.
"Ah, yep, last night went just about as well as I planned it to. Watching Zoey dripping with water from the lake yesterday, seeing her strut around in her sexy little bathing suit... I realized right then that I couldn't do this waiting game anymore. I knew I'd love rearranging Zoey's organs. Bet Mike wishes he got the chance to have his way with that little bimbo first." Mal burst into laughter. "Oh, I wonder how Mike's taking it right now. God, just to see his face right now would be rich..."
End of confessional
Trapped in his membranous subconscious world, Mike screamed out to the sky in agony. He dropped down to his knees, banging his fists into the brainy ground below him.
"How could he do this?"
"Mike, you need to calm down," Chester murmured, sitting with his ankle still shackled into the ground, the same as Mike.
"He's evil! He took advantage of my girlfriend! Zoey! Zoey!" he screamed to the sky again.
"She can't hear you, Mike."
"She'll never hear me if I don't try! Zoey! Zoey! Zoey!"
"Mike! Give it a rest. Just try to contain yourself."
"That's easy for you to say, Chester! He took her virginity! He's trying to ruin my life! He's trying to steal her from me!"
"Don't you figure that girl's gonna wise up, kid?" Chester argued. "You really think Mal can be you better than you can?"
Still on his knees, Mike turned away from Chester, sniffling. Chester watched him with patience for a change. Mike finally turned to his alter, his eyes bloodshot with tears dripping down slowly.
"I don't know what to do, Chester. I don't think I can stop him..."
He couldn't hold back from sobbing. He rubbed his eyes with his forearms, wiping away the tears.
"I've been trying to keep him down for years... but he always springs back up..."
"Settle down, Mike. Come here. Come have a seat with me."
"He's gone too far this time!"
Chester tapped the ground beside him where he sat still, as settled as a monk. "Sit."
Mike finally obliged, sitting by his elderly alter with his foot sticking out, just at the end of its chain.
"I'm scared, Chester. I..." Mike weeped. "I don't think I can do it anymore. When it comes to a point..." He sobbed while Chester laid his hand on his back. "When it comes to a point where Manitoba has given up on me. When it comes to a point where Mal brings Zoey into the mix."
Chester rubbed his back.
"She's the love of my life, Chester." Mike caught his breath, staring up at the membranous sky to hold back his tears. "Without her, I'm nothing."
Chester took a deep breath. "I think you know just as well as me that that isn't the truth."
Mike was silent, his eyes locked to the ground. He was exhausted, all the fight stripped from him. His bloodshot eyes were vacant. Hopeless.
"You want this old man's opinion?"
Beat.
"Sure, Chester..."
"You're not giving up, Mike. I can tell you that right now. You don't have it in you." Chester paused. "You have fought, and you have fought, and you have fought even harder than that to keep this root from sprouting-this tiny, little man from infecting your life."
Mike didn't respond.
"Even if I'm wrong... even if you do surrender to this tyrant, I won't let you lay down your arms and give in. I'd fight you with every bone in my body, son. But I'll bet you I'm wrong. This time, you've got something that you never had before. You have Zoey, Mike. You have a wonderful person in your life that makes this roller coaster of a hand you drew worth it all."
At the mention of Zoey, Mike faced his old friend.
"I'd bet every breath I've got down to my last that this girl is worth enough to you that you wouldn't bow down to Mal if a million dollars a day came your way if you did. What kind of a man would you be if you let this monster walk away with your life? With mine, and Svetlana's, and the others? With the shot you have to live happily 75% of the time with the girl of your dreams?"
The words imparted from Chester began to make a dent. Through his tears, the beginnings of a smile formed on Mike's face.
"I'm an irritable old shit, Mike, but I wouldn't trade all the pesterments and craziness of this life for anything. And you know what? Neither would your lady. It's plain to see how much she loves you. So do yourself a favor, Mike. Stand up. Stand up and make your future self smile by listening to your heart. Your mind seeks rest, to finally let it all end. Your heart seeks Zoey, and ridding us of that whippersnapper forever."
Sniffling and wiping a tear from his eye, Mike stood with a smile on his face. Slowly, Chester staggered up to his feet. Mike held out his arms and gave his alter a hug.
"I love you, Chester," he said through tears.
"Yeah, yeah," Chester grumbled, hugging him back and giving him light pats on the back. "You're a good kid, Mike. I hope you remember that none of this is your fault."
The morning after the challenge that sent Connor home, and several contestants to the infirmary, Zoey awoke in a place separate from where she fell asleep. Blinking sleep from her eyes, she immediately realized something was wrong. Instead of a well-designed ceiling, the bright, blue sky shone above her. The scent of lake water flooded her nostrils, then she got up on her elbows and observed the sight of lightly rocking waves crashing up against a wooden raft. Around her, Mal, Rome, Lindsay, and Heather slept soundly.
"Huh? What the- Mike, wake up! Mike! Guys!"
Zoey got to her hands and knees, softly nudging the contestants around her awake.
"Please let me sleep in, Zoey," Heather grumbled, half-asleep.
"Heather, you need to wake up."
"Oh, jeez..." Lindsay peeped, sitting up and seeing nothing but lake all around her.
The island containing Camp Wawanakwa felt like miles away.
Mal sat up, a displeased frown on his face. "Damn you, Chris..."
"What's going on, Zoey?" Lindsay asked nervously.
For a split moment, the waves picked up, splashing water against the top of Rome's head, who had been sleeping near the edge of the raft prior. Near where he still slept, a wooden post with a golden Hippo emblem at the top was wedged into their raft. Rome spat out water, awakening abruptly.
"Wh- fuck! Wait, what is this?"
Heather got to her feet while Zoey held Mal, staring fearfully out to Camp Wawankwa, far, far away from them. "Did Chris seriously fucking strand us? Not again with this shit! I'm over it!"
"What a way to wake up..." Lindsay whined.
"Hang on, Harold's not here," Zoey noticed.
"Then he's in luck," Mal responded, nearly forgetting to use his Mike voice. He cleared his throat afterwards to avoid suspicion.
Confessional - Zoey
"As... 'fun'... as being stranded at sea is, I would have preferred a little something different to start the day off. I wish I could have talked to Mike about what we did last night... My mind just isn't set on doing challenges right now. This isn't gonna be fun..."
End of confessional
"Hey!" came a new voice in the distance. "Over here!"
"Is that Scott?" Zoey wondered.
The Hippos glanced off further out in the lake to see another wooden raft coming towards them, with B standing on the center of it and his teammates, Scott and Axel paddling vigorously at the sides. Like their raft, the Vultures' had a post wedged against the wood with a red Vulture emblem at its top.
"Leave us alone, would you?" Heather snapped back. "We don't need your help!"
"Bite me!" Axel yelled.
"What if we wanted your help?" B countered.
"Way to make us look weak," Axel muttered.
"Fat chance of that!"
"I don't know, Heather," Rome argued. "This could be one of those 'we all need to work together' sort of things."
"But it isn't!" came yet another new voice.
The cast turned to see Chef drive up in a mini powerboat with Chris clutching onto him from behind. The voice belonged to the host.
"Shit, Chef, slow down. Today's challenge is completely separate!"
"You care to explain where my bitchy teammate is?" Axel questioned.
"And where my scrawny one is?" Heather added.
"Yeah, about that..." Chris snickered. "Actually, today's challenge directly involves the two of them. Fight against the opposing team to make your way onto Boney Island. Once there, you'll be returning to the Fun Zone in a desperate attempt to dig up buried treasure! And by treasure, I truly mean Harold and June. Don't want them facing death by suffocation."
"Dig up?" Zoey echoed.
"Suffocation?" B.
"June?" Scott.
"'Two'?" Lindsay echoed. "Don't you mean three people?"
Chris paused. "No..."
The others were silent as Lindsay formulated the math in her mind. "Oh! Yeah, that is two people..."
"Make your way onto the shore of the spooky island first to earn an advantage. Get there second for a heinous penalty. Also, I'd be careful about the expedition. After the first Fun Zone challenge y'all did, I had Chef go back underwater near the island and plant some spare mutant eggs that you guys didn't find. Honestly, I don't have a fucking clue what those things could have grown into. Anyway, just something to take into consideration. Chef, let's bounce."
"Yes, master," Chef rumbled sarcastically.
"'Master', eh? Mmm... I think I like that."
"In hindsight, I think I hate it," Chef grumbled before revving the powerboat and heading off in the direction of Camp Wawanakwa.
"Well, so much for working together," Rome murmured.
Confessional - Mal
"Boney Island, eh? I think that's just the place I need to be to start turning my sights on sabotaging the Vultures. Hell, even one of my pitiful teammates if I feel so inclined. I'm keeping Zoey around for the easy alliance, not to mention how easy she is on the eyes. How easy she is, period." Mal chuckled. "Ah, but I digress. Now that I'm satisfied with my Zoey fix for the time being, it's about time to show the redneck, the fatass, and the musclehead just what kind of fire they're up against."
End of confessional
Scott stood up from his spot by the edge of the Vulture's raft and wrapped his hands around the base of their team's post. He gritted his teeth and groaned as he yanked it upright.
"What's your damage?" Axel asked.
"Just help me pull this thing out of here!"
"Someone's antsy to rescue June."
Scott paused, then returned to his yanking. "Actually, someone's antsy to get this challenge underway and win! Now help me, would you already?"
Axel crossed his arms, grinning at Scott with a sly look of disbelief and amusement.
Confessional - Axel
Coming down from laughter, Axel spoke. "He acts- he acts like B and I can't see how attached to her he is. Oh, boy. Damn, that shit's funny."
End of confessional
"We can use it as a paddle!" Scott groaned.
"Just give him a hand already, Axel," B murmured.
From the Hippos' raft, Heather noticed what they were doing. "Hey, yeah! Let's do exactly what they're doing! But faster!"
As Rome and Lindsay complied, Heather snapped her fingers in Zoey's face. The girl had been aimlessly staring out into space.
"Zoey. Why don't you help them? Right now."
"Oh, s-sorry, Heather."
The three grunted and tugged with all their strength as Axel, Scott, and B did the same on their raft. Mal stared over at the Vultures, analyzing them, as if debating his next move.
"You know, I'm sort of having some deja vu right now, Heather," Rome mentioned.
"Oh?" she replied, disinterested.
"Yeah. It's like I've already been on a team with a girl that was ordering everybody about all the time. Interesting, huh?"
Confessional - Rome
"Yeah, I don't really know where that came from. I'm just fed up with Heather's 'this is my alliance' attitude. It was much less infuriating when I watched it unfold with Lindsay and Beth on my TV."
End of confessional
"Oh, shut up!" Heather retorted. "And yank harder! The Vultures already have their post out!"
"Ow! Splinter!" Lindsay squeaked, gazing down at her finger with hurt in her eyes.
"Mike, can you tag Lindsay out?" Rome questioned.
"In a minute," Mal responded, not even turning to look at him. His eyes were glued to Axel using the paddle on one side of the raft with Scott and B on the other side. "I'm thinking about something right now."
Rome shrugged. "Sounds like a pretty standard human moment right there. Here, Zoey, just give it one more strong pull. Ready?"
"Yeah."
The two yanked it one more time. The post finally gave way to wedging out.
"Awesome. All right, I got it, Zoey."
She didn't stop.
"Zoey, I got it. Zoey-"
Unfortunately, she snapped the post in two as it came out from the raft. Nobody spoke. Zoey went red-faced in embarrassment, biting her lip and curling her foot around her other one.
"Whoops. Sorry. I, uh... I guess I didn't hear you the first time."
"It's fine," Rome answered, holding each piece of the post in his hands. "We can just have two little ones."
"No, it is not fine!" Heather interjected. "How are we supposed to get anywhere with paddles that small? We're better off getting in the water and pushing this thing!"
"We could still give them a shot."
"We also have two!" Lindsay added cheerfully. "Two is one more than one."
"That's right," Rome replied with a smile.
Heather scoffed. "Forget about it." She grabbed the posts from his hands and chucked each of them out into the water. "Let's just get in the water."
Rome stared at her in disbelief as she climbed down into the lake.
Confessional - Rome
"You know, it's moments like these that make me feel like I'm better off taking my chances as a lone amigo in the merge."
End of confessional
Axel paddled vigorously on his side of the raft, working up a sweat. From how much effort he exerted, the raft shifted to one side.
"Ease it up, bro," B called to him, "we don't need so much power on the one side."
"I'm just trying to put some distance between me and the goody-two-shoes team back there."
"Whatever. Ay, man, you notice Mike giving us some eagle eye shit back there? I don't trust it."
"Yeah, I did actually," Scott replied inquisitively.
B paused. "Was I talking to you, Scott?"
With the Hippos in the water kicking as fast as they could, pushing the raft along, the Vultures soon realized that they were losing the distance Axel worked for.
"They're getting closer!" Scott shouted.
"Wow, cool!" Axel remarked sarcastically. "Hey, Scott, why don't you ask B whether I should put some more effort in now?"
"Blow me," B rumbled.
Mere moments later, the raft stopped abruptly, jerking the three Vultures forward. B collapsed against Scott.
"Get off me!" the redneck snapped.
B's eyes widened suddenly, then he pointed behind Scott. The redneck turned around and screamed at the top of his lungs. The Vultures were face to face with a deadly leviathan. A massive kraken emerged its huge, scaly head from the lake. Its eye was just about the same size as B. As Scott screamed, a horrific gurgling sounded from beneath the water before the creature brought up five winding, tree-sized tentacles around the raft.
"Great, now it's pissed off, you little pissboy!" Axel growled from terrifyingly close by to the hulking, orange eye.
Moments later, and as Scott screamed and raced around in circles around Axel and B, Chef flew in above the lake in a helicopter with Chris. As Chris chuckled, Chef bore a malicious grin.
"Look, Chef! It's playing with them!"
"Big guy's got some tiny toys to unbox."
Down below from where the Hippos kicked, Zoey let out a gasp at the sight of it. "Oh my god! Just when I thought I was desensitized to mutant monsters!"
Mal eyed it and unveiled a devious grin.
Scott stared up with huge eyes as one of the tentacles lifted, gradually coming down towards him. "No! No, no, no, no! Leave me alone!" he cried, diving into the water.
The tentacle crashed into the lake after him, narrowly avoiding nicking B, then brought Scott up into the air, wrapped tight in its cephalopod. He let out a groan of annoyance. Water crashed against the sides of the raft, rocking the raft and nearly knocking B into the water.
"Fuck off!" Axel growled, striking against the kraken's eye and face with the post. "If anyone's strangling that dumbass, it's gonna be me!"
Further off in the lake, the Hippos assessed the situation.
"That looks messy..." Heather murmured.
"If we're really quiet," Lindsay whispered over the somewhat distant screeches of the monster, "maybe we can sneak by it!"
"Yeah, let's," Rome answered, contained panic in his voice.
The Hippos did the best that they could to ignore the desperate sounds of Scott screaming in the distance. As they pushed their raft along in the water, bubbles emerged from just behind them. The sound of something crashing out of the water startled them, then they screamed at the top of their lungs when they saw a familiar shark grinning at them.
"Fang!" Zoey squeaked.
The majority of the team scrambled over each other up onto the center of the raft. Lindsay shrieked, leaping into Rome's arms.
"Hey, Fang," Mal greeted it fearlessly.
"Jesus, Mike, what's gotten into you?" Rome panicked.
Beside him, Zoey and Heather were frozen in terror, potentially about to watch Mal get eaten by this devious creature.
Mal crouched down to meet the mutant. "I think you're mistaken, buddy. Scott's not here. But, hey, look over there!" He tapped Fang's shoulder and pointed over to where the kraken was dangling the three Vultures in the air. "He's having some fun with that sea monster. You wouldn't wanna let it have all the fun with him, would you?"
Fang let out a growl, its face beaming with malicious intent. In an instant, Fang reemerged into the water. Emerging bubbles from the water paved the way towards the Vultures' position. Mal watched the scene with evil amusement.
Confessional - Mal
Like he'd done before, Mal whistled the tune of In the Hall of the Mountain King.
End of confessional
"Fuck! Stop!" Axel demanded the kraken. "You're squeezing too hard!"
"It's gonna kill us!" Scott cried.
Next, Fang emerged from the water, headed straight towards them. Scott immediately noticed its treacherous eyes locked on him.
"No! Oh, god, no!"
"Scott!" B shouted, squeezed in the air by the cephalopods like the rest of them. "Take my hand! Quickly!"
"My hands are stuck by my sides!"
"Use some fucking strength then! Wriggle one out! You've got from now until Fang gets closer!"
Sweat streaming down the farmer's face, Scott gritted his teeth and growled with tension as he attempted to yank his arm from its moist, scaly confinement.
Fang swam nearer and nearer...
"Come on, Scott, this year!" B demanded.
"Almost... there!"
Scott finally yanked his arm out, reaching out to where B stretched his hand to reach. They were mere inches away from each other, the kraken holding them just a hair too far apart from each other. B made the same strained face Scott did, pushing himself further, yet still couldn't manage. To Scott and B, it was like each other's hand was a subway sandwich someone dangled out in front of you, just out of reach after going without food for two weeks.
"Reach, Scott, come on!" B bellowed.
Yet time was running out. The kraken snarled a menacing snarl. In the lake, Fang crept closer and closer...
Heroic Hippos - Harold (?), Lindsay, Heather, Mal, Zoey, & Rome
Villainous Vultures - Scott, B, June (?), & Axel