Ahoy there mateys! Ye have read Heather's red crystal corruption as she and her mateys play of the Team Change Battle. Let us see what ye do about yon situation and how they would stop yon corruption, in ye chapter of Total Drama: Running Time!
Aztec 13: This be the first serious battle of ye fic ye be reading right now.
(Okay, I'll stop with the pirate accent)
We see the group in the middle of a standoff with the now possessed Heather. Heather shakes her staff some more and her eyes glow fiercely. Kitty, MacArthur and Shawn were standing, Duncan and Owen were injured and Carrie and Mike were paralyzed
"Guys, what's going on here?" MacArthur said with worry.
Heather then dashes towards MacArthur and grabs her by the neck.
"Ach! Let me go now! Ach!" MacArthur yelled while choking.
Heather then throws MacArthur at Duncan and Owen, still on the ground. They crash into each other.
"What's wrong with her?!" Shawn exclaimed.
"I have no idea!" Kitty yelled.
Kitty then uses her arm cannon to fire at Heather. She was blocking and dodging with ease.
"Shawn! A little help here!" Kitty yelled.
Shawn uses his grappling hook to try and grab Heather. But Heather uses the rope to swing Shawn away.
"Waaaaugh!" Shawn yelled as he crashes into a pillar.
Kitty uses this opportunity to throw a ball at Heather. The ball hits and electrocutes her.
"Heather has now joined the Red Team!" The robot announces.
"Let's get out of here!" Kitty yelled.
MacArthur, Duncan, Owen and Shawn stood back up. Duncan and Owen picked up the still paralyzed Mike and Carrie and the group ran away from the scene before Heather woke up.
We then see the laboratory squad watching this play out.
"Ach, I told Kitty to be careful with the crystals, and look what happened." Scarlett said while facepalming.
"What should we do about it?" Zoey asked.
"We need to get them to take her staff away from her." Scarlett states.
"How do you expect us to do that?" Noah asked. "We can't exactly just waltz into the arena."
"You don't remember the drone?" Scarlett grinned.
"Oh, right." Noah blinked.
"But are we really gonna do it? This is Heather we're talking about." Eva states.
Everyone in the room glared at her.
"I'll stop talking." Eva shrugs.
"Wait, where is Scott?" Sky asked.
"I decided to let him out when I noticed something was wrong." Scarlety answered
We then see the Running Men as the get away from Heather.
"This is crazy! What has gotten into her?!" MacArthur yelled in a panic.
"I don't know, maybe there was something wrong with her Spirit!" Carrie said as she thought of something.
"Who knows, maybe she woke up on the wrong side of the bed or something?" Duncan was thinking of possible reasons why Heather is like this.
"I think I know what happened to her." Kitty said.
"Yeah? What?" Owen asked.
"One of the main things the Peacekeepers were investigating in the games was some sort of red crystal!" Kitty explained.
"Heather took one out of her pocket as she turned! Maybe that's what's corrupting her!" Duncan said.
"How exactly do you know that?!" Carrie asked.
"Well, last night, Scarlett told me about her and Scott's experience with the red crystal last year." Kitty explained what she knows.
"Those 2 encountered that crystal before?!" Shawn asked if he heard it correctly.
"Yeah, and Scott had been under its influence before." Kitty said.
"What does it do?" Mike asked.
"According to Scarlett, whoever is exposed to the crystal will be first sent into extreme fatigue. Then they'll be sent into a state of unconsciousness as the crystal takes hold of the body as dark energy fills their body." Kitty explains the effect of the crystal on whoever is exposed.
"I did not get a word of that." Owen states that he doesn't get it.
"So, what state is this?" Duncan asked.
"Right now she's possessed. But if this goes on any longer, she would be stronger. And there would be no way to bring her back." Kitty states.
"So, how are we going to bring her back?" Carrie asked.
"How about we knock her out again?" Shawn suggests.
"But won't that transfer the effects to us?" MacArthur asked.
"You really don't know much about the concept of dark magic, do you?" Duncan snarks at the concept.
"That won't happen." Kitty states. "Besides, the crystal is possessing her, so we need to remove it from her grasp."
"So we just take her staff to end this?" Duncan asked if that's how to stop it.
"Not her staff, the crystal." Kitty states.
"But she put the crystal on her staff." Owen states.
"Oh." Kitty said.
Suddenly, Heather was seen catching up with them. She runs up next to Owen.
"Ahh!" Owen yelled frighteningly.
Heather then elbows Owen towards Duncan, making the two drop the paralyzed teammates.
"Agh!" The two paralyzed grunted as they hit the floor.
"Okay, enough of this!" Duncan said, slightly frustrated.
Duncan then takes out his Spirit and inserts it into his watch.
-Spirit of Strength-
Duncan gave a flurry of punches, one of which hit Heather in the stomach.
"Heather! Can you hear us?! Wake up!" Duncan yelled.
Heather then gave a roundhouse kick. Duncan blocks it and shoves her away from him.
"Okay, melee doesn't work, how about ranged." Duncan said.
The ones still standing materialize their balls and begin throwing at Heather. Heather dodges a bunch and catches one. As she looks at the ball she has caught, a Blue Team ball hits her. She stumbles a bit, but handles it pretty well.
"Um, guys, I think she's getting immune to electricity now." Owen was worried when he saw this.
"Ah, great!" MacArthur yelled on hearing this.
"Then we attack head on!" Kitty smirked.
Kitty then inserts her Spirit into her watch.
-Spirit of the Wind-
Kitty takes out her katana and flies towards Heather. She slashes at her, only to be blocked by Heather's staff.
"Okay, she is stronger than I remember!" Kitty points out.
Kitty then blows a big gust of wind downwards, pushing Heather down to the floor and herslef high into the air.
"Batter up!" Kitty yelled.
Kitty then throws balls down at Heather. The balls make direct contact with her. This causes her to be disoriented a bit.
"Heather has now joined the Red Team!" The robot announced.
Heather quickly recovers and jumps up at Kitty still midair. Kitty eyes the staff Heather was holding.
"Aha!" Kitty smiled in seeing the staff.
Kitty tries to grab it, but was inturrupted when Heather spikes her down towards the ground, knocking her out.
"Kitty!" Carrie yelled.
"My turn!" Shawn yelled in determination.
Shawn then inserts his Spirit into his watch.
-Spirit of Ice-
Shawn then sends an ice pillar up to Heather and traps her in it.
"Do you think this will hold?" Shawn asked.
"It's ice, it would probably not hold for long." Duncan sarcastically states.
"Let's just get out of here and recover." Shawn states.
The group picked up the incapacitated of the group and ran from the scene as Heather struggled to get out.
We then see the laboratory group as they watch Scarlett control the drone as it draws closer to the arena.
"Ooh! When this is done, can I have my own crystal?!" Izzy was getting energetic.
"As we have said before, absolutely not!" Scarlett exclaimed.
"Eh, it was worth a shot." Izzy shrugged.
"It really doesn't." Noah raised an eyebrow at this statement.
"But how exactly are we supposed to tell them? Kitty needs a Protohack to communicate and she was just knocked out." Sanders points out what had just happened.
"Wait, when did that happen?" Scarlett asked in not know that Kitty was just knocked out.
"Just a second ago." Sky answered.
"Agh, so we better take the staff ourselves." Scarlett facepalmed again in hearing this.
They then see the drone nearing where Heather was. Right now, she was walking around the arena, finding more people to attack.
"Okay, we just bump into her hand at high speed and knock it out?" Noah asked if that was the plan.
"Yeah, pretty much." Scarlett states.
The drone then accelerates towards Heather. Just as the drone was about to hit, Heather then pulled the staff out of the way.
"Ah, crap!" Scarlett exclaimed.
Heather then impaled the drone with her staff, breaking it and cutting the feed from the laboratory squad.
"I really didn't think this through." Scarlett said while pinching her nose bridge.
We then see the Running Men catching their breath in another area of the arena.
"Okay, we need to find a way to get that staff." Shawn said in worry.
"Carrie, you have healing powers, can you do something about our paralyzation?" Mike asked about Carrie's healing ability.
"I can't move my arm to get my Spirit." Carrie states.
"I'll do it." MacArthur said.
MacArthur then reaches into Carrie's pocket and inserts it into her watch.
-Spirit of Healing-
MacArthur puts Carrie's arm on her chest. Carrie then takes a deep breath, and a green aura emanates from her hand.
"Okay then, I think that should do it." Carrie said in thinking that would work.
Carrie then manages to stand up, albeit slightly weakened.
"Now it's Mike's turn." Carrie said.
Carrie then walks up to Mike and places her hand on his arm. Her hands glow green again, and Mike is healed.
"Ugh, okay, I can actually move again." Mike grunted as he moved his body.
"Now Kitty." Carrie said as she turned to her friend.
Carrie then walked to heal Kitty. After a brief moment, her bruises were healed.
"Um, why isn't she waking up?" MacArthur asked in confusion.
"Just give her some time." Duncan said knowing she needs to recover.
Kitty then stirs up a bit and begins waking up.
"Ugh, that was quite the injury." Kitty said while clutching her chest. "Guys, how's the fight with Heather?" She asks.
"Well, we still haven't beaten her." Duncan breaks the news.
"We need to think of a plan guys." Mike states.
"Hmm, I think I already have one." Kitty states
"Really? That quickly?" MacArthur was surprised by Kitty's quick thinking.
"I don't know, the idea sort of just came to me." Kitty said.
"Okay then, what is it?" Carrie asked.
"Well…" Kitty then began explaining the plan.
We see Heather still walking her path as she looks for the other Running Men.
"Now!" Kitty yelled as she reveals herself from a pillar.
Kitty then flies at Heather and swings her katana at her. Heather blocks it with her staff. But as she was distracted, MacArthur popped out of nowhere and inserts her Spirit into her watch.
-Spirit of Lightning-
MacArthur took aim with her gun and fired lightning shots at Heather. The shots directly hit her, this caused her to stumble, but not electrocuted.
"Booyah!" MacArthur yelled.
Seeing this distraction, Kitty uses it as an opportunity to attack. She flies down and sweeps Heather's legs. Heather hits the ground, slightly dazed.
"Hold her!" Kitty signalled the others.
The rest of the Running Men appear. Shawn grapples onto Kitty's hand. She uses it to fly around Heather and wrapped her with the cable.
"Now you can't go anywhere!" Kitty exclaimed.
They grab onto Heather and make sure that she doesn't move and that her staff is high in sight.
"MacArthur! Do it now!" They all yelled.
"Ska-doosh!" MacArthur yelled.
MacArthur took aim one last time at the red crystal and fired a lightning shot. The lightning makes contact with the crystal and it shatters.
"Yaaaaaaargh!" Heather yelled as the crystal lost its hold on her.
Heather then passes out as shards of the crystal hit the floor. Luckily no one makes contact with the shards.
"Oh, phew, that was fiesty!" Duncan said.
"Okay, no one touch the shards!" Kitty warned.
"Yeah, we got that." Shawn states that they already know.
"So, what now?" Carrie asked.
"I guess Duncan and I should have a showdown. The game is almost over." Kitty suggests.
"I agree." Duncan agrees with the idea.
We then see a dark room, with holographic screens watch the game. We see a velvet colored couch and someone sitting on it. The details weren't seen as they wear a blue cloak and a white ceramic mask.
"This could be pretty bad for the plan." The figure said with a dry expression and voice.
A peach colored robot then pops up next to him.
"Game Master, we will have a team to retrieve the crystal after the game. What else do you want us to do?" The robot asked.
"Increase security in the laboratory." The Game Master ordered. "And keep an eye on the Running Men. One of them is probably part of one of our Groups of Interest."
"As you wish." The robot said. "Do you want to speed up construction of Project Gold?" It asked.
"Yes. And also ready up the DV8. Increase their energy amplifiers, I have a feeling we'll need it." The Game Master added.
"Yes, Game Master." The robot agreed.
"The winner of the second round of the team matches is... the Red Team!" The female voice announced.
"This should be a fun year." The Game Master said, seemingly grinning behind the mask.
Heather has now been released from the grasp of the red crystal, but now new mysteries have been uncovered. What is Project Gold? What is the DV8? And what goes on deep in the bowels of Tree City? Find out as you read the next few chapters.
Au revior!