Chris whistled to himself while he sat in his submarine with Poseidon and Amphitrite right by him. Out through the window, Chef could be seen in his diving gear, swimming through some rather murky water. It was really difficult to see what exactly was around him, so he was pretty much going into the water blind. "Hey, man…I dunno about this. This place is giving me the heebie jeebies, I wanna go back up into the submarine!"
"Listen, you big baby, you'll be fine! It's just a bunch of polluted water with garbage floating around in it, there's nothing to be afraid of." Chris spoke through the microphone of the submarine to his co-host, rolling his eyes before slouching back down in his seat. "Yeesh, I swear this sort of thing always happens with that guy." The host turned to rant to Poseidon and Amphitrite while, just outside the submarine, Chef was screaming as he was being chased by a mob of angry fish. "I ask him to test out a challenge and he gets all scared of things that probably aren't even going to happen."
"Uh…Chris, I don't think everything is safe out-" Poseidon tried to voice his concern about Chef, though he was quickly cut off by Chris.
"It's all fine, what's the worst that could happen? He gets a couple of fishies swimming near him or some seaweed brushes against his leg? Give me a break, there are a lot worse things that could happen. And another thing-" Chris went on to complain more, only for the co-host to slam against the glass, the fish mob biting at his suit while he was stuck there. The three looked at him, the only one not concerned for his well-being being the host himself. "...He's always interrupting me when I'm trying to do my intros!"
"Chris, you really are quite the messed up individual, you know that, right?" Amphitrite sighed before putting her diving suit on and exiting the submarine to go save the poor man. Chris rolled his eyes at her, only causing Poseidon to cross his arms and glare at him in disgust for his lack of concern about everyone else's safety.
"Anywho…last time on Total Drama: Lost City!" Chris turned to face the camera like nothing had even happened, with Poseidon still angry at him like before. "Things kind of got derailed when an uninvited guest locked me and the other hosts that don't matter as much as I do up in the room where we keep the money! He brought the money along with him, hoping to leave with no worries, only to bump into our contestants! He almost wooed them with a whole song and dance, but we were able to let the divers know he was a thief, and they started in hot pursuit to nab him and get the money back! He did run circles around them for quite a bit, but when Alexis showed her fiery rage that knew no bounds, she caught him, and might've killed him if it weren't for Bonnie freeing us just in time to save him from certain death. We found out his name is Jett, and he's gonna be tagging along to join the sequel to the season, despite everyone being against it. In any case, we're getting back to the real challenges now, which means that stakes are gonna be high! Only ten contestants remain, and one will fall tonight on this murky, terrifying episode of Total Drama: Lost City!"
The camera hovered over an ocean, quickly descending beneath the water and happening upon Atlantis, zooming in on the wreck of the Chris space station, where the host himself was on his knees, sad that there was an asteroid in his face, while Poseidon patted him on the shoulder and Amphitrite sighed in annoyance.
"Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," the camera quickly shifted over to the carnival zone in Atlantis, showing Natt and Anne on a large Ferris wheel, enjoying their time together until it suddenly fell out of place and rolled away.
"You guys are on my mind," down at the controls, Zachary and Amelia were revealed to be messing with them, laughing maniacally until Vicente came over and bonked both of them on the head with plastic baseball bats.
"You asked me what I wanted to be and I think the answer's plain to see," in one of the carnival tents, March and Luna watched Benjamin in awe as he rode a unicycle while bouncing on a trampoline, juggling bowling pins, and holding a torch with his teeth.
"I wanna be famous!" Tony tossed a frisbee at the wheel, causing Benjamin to fall on top of an unsuspecting Bonnie, and the torch to set his shirt on fire before the bowling pins landed on his head, which caused Liz to give him a thumbs up with an evil grin on her face.
"I wanna live close to the sun," out in the ocean, Alex was in his diving suit, trying to catch a sea monkey, but failing utterly, just like he had when it was a space monkey, while Dusty shook her head in disappointment, lassoing the creature back to them, but catching Jett instead.
"So pack your bags, cause I've already won," on the seafloor, Archie studied a squid closely until it shot ink all over his helmet's glass shield, which made Jianne giggle a little bit before wiping it off.
"Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day," not too far from where the two were, Damien and Gretchen ran away from a massive shark, which knocked them off to the side, showing that it was swimming away from Flint, who was throwing rocks at it while Alexis chased after him.
"I wanna be famous!" the camera switched gears to show a submarine, with arcade-esque machines in it that Taylor and Crustacean were fighting over.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," zooming into a "pod" of sorts near the arcade games, a virtual world that was full of immaculate fantasy aspects and monsters was shown.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Nicolás, dressed as a knight, was running in fear as blasts of dark energy were tossed at the ground behind him, each blast destroying part of the ground.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" the camera revealed Thomas, in dark mage garb, as the source of the blasts, floating in the sky and laughing maniacally until Maggie, dressed as a witch, flew over to him on her broom and tackled him to the ground, making out with him before he blasted the camera with one of the energy balls.
Afterwards, the whole group was seen on a nautically themed aftermath stage, which Sebastian and Haley were at the center of, glaring at each other while all of the contestants, accompanied by Maggie, who was hugging Thomas tightly, whistled.
Natt was wandering about through the halls of the fallen space station, his inner space geek admiring the craftsmanship and thinking back to the old days when they were competing on it. He shook his head, as he was starting to get lost in thought. He turned a corner, looking for Poseidon's office, and seeing the door wide open. He heard some mumbled talking from the room, and he listened as he came closer. "I know, that attitude of his really does get on my nerves…how could he not be concerned about his own co-host's safety? And the kids? Don't even get me started on how furious I would be if anything happened to them!"
"I'm well aware of you and how heated you get about things like this. I have always thought it was quite attract-...impressive, to have a boss that feels as strongly as you do about the safety of his contestants." Natt recognized the voices as Poseidon and Amphitrite, likely complaining about Chris and his obnoxiousness. The dull boy came to the doorway, knocking on the door itself to get the attention of the two of them.
"Huh?" Poseidon turned around, seeing Natt standing there brought a smile to his face. "Natt, my boy! We don't get many visits over here in the office, what's the occasion? You're wondering about the next challenge perhaps? Maybe you just wanted to chat some? Just let me know what's on your mind and I'll be sure to help in whatever way I can."
"You know, that's actually good to hear…I've been quite puzzled about this thing that I found a little while back when we were adventuring on that ghost ship." Natt dug around in his pocket, eventually pulling the Father Time card out from it and holding it up so that the two could see it. "Me and Nicolás did a little bit of research on the card, figured that Father Time meant Cronos…just wondering if you knew anything about this. You know, Poseidon, Cronos, all the mythology and such…"
Poseidon took one good look at the card and the color seemed to drain entirely from his face. He gulped nervously before adjusting his tie a bit, glancing towards Amphitrite as if looking for some sort of answer as to what he should say, although she knew nothing about the matter, as was evident by the puzzled expression on her own face. "Ah, well…you see that's actually…well, I'm not too sure I know anything about this Father Time or anything about his organization, so I'm afraid I can't really be of any assistance to you in this matter. Really sorry about that, my boy!"
"...It's an organization?" Natt tilted his head ever so slightly, picking that up from Poseidon blurting out his words. The man gritted his teeth, his eyes widening as he realized that he let that slip. "What kind of organization is it…?"
"Ah! Well, I mean, I do believe that would be a business card, correct? Most business cards are used to let people get in contact with certain organizations, so that must be the case!" Poseidon chuckled nervously, droplets of sweat forming on his forehead.
"But how does this look like a business card…? I mean, it does have the right shape and size, but there's no numbers, no address…just the words 'Father Time' and this weird symbol on the front of it." Natt looked down at the card before holding it out towards Poseidon so that he could get a better look at it. "Are you sure you don't know any-"
"You know…" Poseidon snatched the card from Natt's hand, immediately tucking it into his jacket pocket and clearing his throat. "I think I'm not feeling quite well today, perhaps we can carry on with this conversation another time?" Natt raised his finger and opened his mouth to speak, but Poseidon was quick to start urging him towards the doorway. "It was good to speak with you as always, hopefully when I'm in better spirits we can chat again!" Before the space geek could even say a word, Poseidon slammed the door, leaving him outside of the room while Amphitrite stared at him, questioning what exactly that was.
"It isn't like you to cut someone off in the middle of conversation, sir…what exactly is this Father Time thing and why has it gotten you so worked up?" Amphitrite approached the man, seeing that he was incredibly nervous. She blushed before wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. "You are aware you can tell me about anything, right sir?"
"I know that…I know…it's just a bit of a touchy topic for me. I know…a bit too much. Well, more than I would like to know, anyways." Poseidon sighed before looking down to see that Amphitrite was staring up at him with a worried expression on her face. "You're quite worried about me now, aren't you? I suppose it can't be helped…you were always so concerned for me. I couldn't ask for a better assistant."
"Sir…do you ever think I can be more than just an assistant?" Poseidon was a bit unsure about what Amphitrite was asking him as he looked down at her.
"...You mean like a promotion of sorts? I suppose you do quite the phenomenal job, and you definitely could use a pay raise for your efforts."
"No…sir. Nothing to do with the job…do you ever think I could be more than just an assistant…to you?" Poseidon paused for a moment, the point soon clicking in his head.
"I see what you mean now…I see…it would be incredibly unprofessional of me as your boss to-"
"Then I'll quit." Amphitrite spoke suddenly, the look on her face being a lot more determined than before. Poseidon was clearly upset to hear this, as shown in his expression.
"That won't be necessary…I would never want to lose…" The two paused as they stared at each other, no noise in the room outside of their own breathing. Amphitrite stood up on her tip toes to get closer to her boss's face before placing her hand against his cheek and kissing him deeply.
Confessional
Amphitrite sat still in the confessional, her face red as a ripe tomato. She was in complete silence, not sure what exactly to say about what had just happened. "Just be forward and let them know what you want…that was actually…quite amazing advice, Bonnie."
Confessional End
Alexis sat on her bed, narrowing her eyes as she stared across the room at Luna, who was glaring right back at her. The two girls definitely didn't like each other, but they were almost in some sort of weird standstill where neither of them knew exactly what to do to get rid of the other. It was then that Dusty bumbled into the room, whistling happily to herself before noticing how tense the air in the room was. She looked around to see the two girls, soon scratching her head in confusion. "Now, what in tarnation has got the two of yas like this? It's like yer locked in a standstill waiting fer someone to shout draw so ya can fire yer revolvers."
"Oh, nothing's wrong at all, Dusty…we're just having a staring contest right now, with a whole bunch of extra rules tossed in." Alexis smiled towards Dusty, blinking as she normally would without really thinking about it too much.
"...Well, if that's the case, ya just went and lost it. Ya blinked…and ya looked away from Luna." Dusty chuckled to herself before turning to leave the room. "Ya need to work a little harder on yer staring skills if ya ever wanna win any sort of staring competition, missy! I tell ya what, how's about me and ya practice sometime? Could be mighty fun!"
"Yeah, that sounds just great to me, Dusty!" Alexis kept on smiling while Dusty left the room, eventually shifting her gaze back to look at Luna, only to discover that she was missing from where she had just gone. "Great…where's she off to, now?"
Confessional
"Ever since the challenge in the trenches, things have been rather tense between me and Luna whenever we cross each other's paths. I know she wants me gone, but there isn't much of anything I can do to warn Amelia about her scheming…not that I'm all too worried about Amelia, anyways." Alexis adjusted her glasses while slouching back in her seat, clearly annoyed with the standstill she was in.
Confessional End
Back in the boys' cabin, Nicolás was rubbing some ice packs on the bruises he had gotten from Zachary's assault on him a week ago. They didn't hurt as much as they used to, but there definitely were times that the pain sort of flamed up. He hissed in pain as he pressed an ice pack against the largest bruise, that one being particularly painful whenever anything touched it. It didn't take long for another one of the guys to come into the room, that being Zachary himself. "Hey, Nerdy Nicky! Whatcha doin', man?"
The actor rushed over to see the bruises all over Nicolás' chest and side. The nerdy boy sort of shuffled back a bit to get away from the actor, still upset with him for the whole incident. "Oh, come on! Don't tell me you're still worked up over that little incident in the trenches, it was just a challenge! You know we gotta do what we gotta do to win those things when sudden death is the penalty for losing."
"I'm not upset about what you did to me, I'm upset about what happened with Jianne." Nicolás slid his shirt down, setting the ice pack off to the side and taking a step back towards Zachary with a glare fixed on him. "You knocked her out, and you still tried to beat up on her…that wasn't even close to a fair fight."
"I seem to remember you whining about this when we were in the middle of the challenge…that was right before I totally walloped you, right?" Zachary tapped his chin in thought, well aware of what had happened and making it quite clear that he was unbothered by it as a smirk popped up on his face. "As I said, it was just a challenge, we do what we have to do to win."
"If that was the case you would've just tossed her out of the trench…you were having fun, being the big man and beating on someone who couldn't help themselves." Nicolás' glare was getting even nastier by the second. It was something about Zachary that really brought out a whole different emotion in him.
"And that makes you mad because…why?" Zachary shrugged his shoulders before suddenly snapping his fingers. "That's right! You're always the guy who can't stand up for himself, aren't you? Heh…classic. Listen, nerd-o. You don't get far in Hollywood if you aren't cutthroat…and you wanna make sure that whoever tries to mess with you or get the role that you have your eyes set on will never do it again."
"Not all of life is just a Hollywood game! We're talking about real people that you're just…you're just…beating and degrading! How is that a game?" Nicolás clenched his fist tightly while Zachary leaned down towards him, turning his cheek to him.
"Are you going to do something about it? Go ahead…do whatever you wanna do. Show me that you're gonna do whatever it takes to stand behind that." The actor snickered while Nicolás kept his fist clenched. The nerd attempted to raise his fist, but he just…couldn't. He slouched down slightly, looking down at the floorboards while Zachary stood back up. "That's what I thought…you'd never survive in this industry. It's a cutthroat world we live in…you'd do well to remember that."
Zachary left the room, leaving Nicolás alone to feel like a failure. Meanwhile, just outside of the room's window, there stood Jianne, who had a puzzled expression on her face. She was a bit unclear about what had happened, but it was all starting to make sense to her.
Confessional
"That challenge in the trenches…where I couldn't remember anything. Zachary was trying to attack me…and Nicolás saved me back then." Jianne looked down at the floor, completely dismayed to hear this. "That's…the exact opposite of what I was told before." She paused in thought for a moment before slamming her fist right into the wall, punching a hole straight through it. She looked back up at the camera to reveal that her face was red with nothing but pure anger and hatred towards Zachary. "That slimy actor…he's gonna get what he deserves…no one can do that to one of my…friends."
Confessional End
It had been a good amount of time since the whole Jett incident…everyone knew that a challenge was coming up. They were just waiting for Chris to go and call it…and just like that, the loudspeakers flickered on. "Attention, divers! I hope you're ready to stop being so lazy, cause we're about to get you guys hard at work! That's right…we've got a challenge coming your way, right now! Everybody toss your diving gear on and hop onto the submarine!"
It didn't take long for the remaining contestants to get their suits on, and they each headed for the entrance to the submarine together. Once they hopped on board, they were met with Chris, who was standing right in the center of the floor while Chef sat in the driver's seat, still agitated from before when he was attacked by the fish. The show's host passed out a large sack to each contestant, the sacks being made in some clothlike material. "You know what really stinks? Pollution!"
"Was that supposed to be some sort of pun or joke, or do you actually care about the environment?" Vicente raised an eyebrow at the host, who waved him off for questioning him.
"I'll have you know that I care more about the environment than half the people that are preaching about how we need to fix it up!" The host smirked, clearly lying about this, but it didn't matter. "In any case, the challenge that we'll be having you guys compete in today will help with the damage that mankind has done to Earth's great oceans! You may notice that people just toss trash into the ocean like it's nothing, which isn't gonna fly with Mr. McLean, not one bit! Contestants, if you'd take a good look out the windows, you'll see the kind of mess that we've made."
The contestants did as instructed, looking outside to see that the water was a murky color that made it difficult to see anything. An occasional piece of garbage could be seen floating just past the window, but outside of that, it was pretty much just dark and dank. "Huh…you think people have ever thought to put a light down here or something? Maybe it would be easier to clean this up with a nice light so we could see everything." Benjamin smiled proudly at his dumbness, some of the others groaning at him.
"Anywho…you all see just how terrible it is out there, so someone is gonna have to do something about it! Lucky for us, we've got ten somebodies who are willing to do whatever it takes to stay in the game, so you'll be the ones going out there to scoop up that trash!" Chris snickered as he gestured to the bags that he had handed out to everyone. "You'll be using these bags here to stuff the trash you find out there into one place. Of course, the challenge winner will be whoever comes up with the most trash in their bag after thirty minutes out there. Don't worry…we've got scales to weigh the trash you've scooped up."
"So…that would mean that the contestant that gets the least trash is out of the game?" Amelia tilted her head at Chris, who nodded at the question, causing each of the contestants to start worrying about the stakes of the challenge.
"Luckily, there's a lot of supply out there to be picked up…it's just a matter of who will end up with the lowest sack weight. As far as things go for the winner…they'll be receiving a Fauxble Peace Prize!" Chris reached into his pocket, holding up a mockery of the real prize which seemed to have a golden wrapper around it. "This prize is actually just made of chocolate, but the gesture is still quite real! You are helping the planet, after all! Now, let's get you guys out there to start this thing!"
Confessional
"It's really not much of a prize at stake here, but I'm willing to do whatever has to be done to get Alexis out of my sight…even if it means cleaning up after other people's messes." Luna crossed her arms and turned her nose up at the camera, as snobby as she always was.
Confessional End
The divers began their descent into the ocean, leaving the submarine and Chris behind to split up in search of the trash that they were supposed to be cleaning up. It didn't take long for everyone to lose sight of each other, which only made the atmosphere of the ocean even more terrifying than it typically was. Vicente turned the light on his diving suit on, although it wasn't much help, as the murkiness dulled the light out quite intensely. "Dios mio…this is a lot more horrifying when you see it up close like this."
The reality TV pro kept diving deeper, his eyes scanning whatever he came across. With each tattered paper and plastic cup he found, he would toss them into the sack that Chris had given him. It did bring a lot of disgust to the boy as he saw what exactly was happening to the ocean. "People are really doing things like this without a second thought…that's despicable. At least Chris's heart is in the right place with this challenge…sort of.."
As Vicente kept swimming through the ocean, he eventually came across something that was glowing a bright blue color. The brightness of it was quite stunning to him, considering just how dark everything else around him was at the moment. Upon closer inspection, he realized that the glow was emanating from some sort of crystally shard. "I feel like I've seen this somewhere before…where have I seen this?" He reached toward the shard, pulling it towards him as he felt some weird pulsing coming from it. He looked around to see if anyone was watching before tucking it safely into his diving suit pocket, where the glow could no longer be seen.
Confessional
"I really do feel like I've seen this crystal, or at least some other crystal like this somewhere else." Vicente mumbled to himself as he held the crystal between his two fingers, studying it very carefully. "It…had something to do with Flint, I believe. Something about a mystery that really needed to be solved or something like that. It's gonna hurt my head if I think too hard about it, but I'll get to it later…"
Confessional End
Amelia swam through the ocean's depths, picking up whatever garbage she managed to come across before stuffing it right into her sack. She was annoyed with the fact that she was stuck with clean-up duty, but that was just the price to be paid for someone who wanted to win the five million dollars. She let out a sigh, soon reaching forward to grab a piece of trash, only for another diver to pop up right in front of her and startle her enough to make her scream. "Ack! Luna!? Why are you sneaking up on me like that!?"
"Sorry, sorry, I just felt that I should tell you something important about…well, it's about Alexis." Luna sniffled to herself, trying to appear as innocent and sad as she could, something she was quite good at. "You see…Alexis really doesn't like me, and she keeps doing these things that make me think she's going to get me eliminated. Do you think you could help me do something about her?"
"...You mean as in…something like a sabotage, am I hearing you right?" Amelia couldn't help but smirk, knowing that sabotaging the other contestants was something well in her area of expertise.
"I guess that's a way of putting it…I'd hate to go that far, but when she's clearly out to get me, it's the only thing that can be done, right?" Luna sniffled again, still looking as innocent as ever, although Amelia didn't seem to care about that all too much. The actress just seemed to be, well, excited, for some reason.
"Luna, my dear friend, all you had to mention was sabotage. There's nothing I want more than to make this competition easier for the two of us so we can make it to the finale, like we deserve!" Amelia clapped her hands before placing a hand on Luna's shoulder and smiling at her quite devilishly. "The only question is…how would we go about sabotaging her in a challenge like this? Steal from her bag so she can't get as much trash as us?"
"Well…I did think of a surefire way to make sure she can't get more trash collected than any of the other contestants…" Luna looked up at Amelia with a slight smile, and the two huddled together to discuss their awful plans of sabotage.
Confessional
"Amelia is quite the wonderful ally to have…she's willing to go an extra mile to make sure that no other contestant will reach the finale." Luna snickered to herself, a cocky little smile sprouting on her face. "It's not like an alliance with someone like Jianne, who wants a fair competition so she can prove she's better…or one with someone useless, like Natt."
"Alexis has never seemed to be much of a threat before, but it is true that she does weirdly seem to get other people on the chopping block for things that she does. This is quite the good move on Luna's part…" Amelia tapped her fingers together in a malevolent pyramid motion.
Confessional End
Dusty was going deep to the sea floor, trying to find where the densest, heaviest trash would make its way. As she got down there, her pitiful beam of light showed that there were various large objects, things like car batteries. The very sight of the stuff sickened her, and she swam down to start scooping some of them into her sack. "I can't believe the nerve of those city slickers, tossin' their dang ol' car parts into the ocean without a second thought. If I ever saw someone tryin' to pull something like that, why, I'd hogtie 'em right to the back of my horse and take 'em for a ride!"
Dusty raised her fist up in anger, directly punching something kind of squishy. The punch was followed by a loud "ouch," which echoed behind her. She turned around to see that Benjamin was hovering behind her, rubbing his aching gut with one hand while holding his bag in the other hand. "Geez, Dirty…you should probably watch where you're throwing those fists. Last time I wildly swung my fists around, I socked my eighth grade teacher right in the jaw! I got suspended from school and when I came back, they put a bubble around me so I wouldn't hurt anybody else."
"Well…maybe ya shouldn't be creepin' around like that. Ya dang near gave me a heart attack when you were howling in pain and all that." Dusty sighed before continuing to scoop the batteries of the seafloor, groaning more and more to herself about the people who had tossed them there. Meanwhile, Benjamin was picking up other assorted pieces of trash, eventually coming across something that was oddly familiar.
"Hey, I remember this thing!" The big oaf scooped up a large, colored rock from the seafloor, dusting it off with his elbow to reveal a smiley face drawn on it. "This was my pet rock from a few years ago! My dad always told me that it ran away and it wasn't coming back…I sure am glad to have you back in my hands now, Grimbo!"
"A pet rock that ran away years ago, just floating in the ocean like this?" Dusty giggled at the silliness of the suggestion before looking over to Benjamin. "Ben, ya know that rocks get subject to erosion when ya toss them in water, right? Yer rock woulda broke down a bit by now, that can't possibly be the same rock."
"Hm…nope, this is definitely Grimbo. He's not actually made of real rock, he's a bunch of plastic!" Benjamin covered the rocks "ears" when he said that sentence. "Just don't tell him that, I don't wanna break his heart. I told him he could follow his dreams when he was younger, and his dream was to live life as a rock! You know I can't just go and ruin that for him."
"...Right. Well, why don't ya put Grimbo in your bag fer safekeeping? Probably the best way to make sure ya don't go losin' him so soon after finding him again." Dusty kept on picking up her batteries, while Benjamin snapped his fingers and did as she said. When she was finally ready to start swimming back to the submarine, she realized that her bag had gotten rather heavy, and it was too difficult to swim up from where she was. "Come on, ya dang sack! We just need to go deliver ya to Chris so I can stay in the game!"
"Uh…do you need help picking that thing up, Dirty?" Benjamin started to swim back towards Dusty, who was struggling more by the second. She was turning red in the face with how hard she was trying to pull the bag up off of the seafloor.
"I'm just fine, thank ya very much! And stop calling me Dirty, my name's Dusty, consarnit!" The cowgirl was quite aggravated with the weight of the sack, and was trying her best, but it was clear that she was struggling too much with it.
"Oh, well, if you say so. I'll just keep digging around for garbage and leave you here." The doofus whistled to himself, swimming just past Dusty to start scooping up some of the batteries that she had left behind, putting them in his bag with ease. Once he had it filled up to the brim, he started to swim back towards the submarine, shocking Dusty as she knew that his bag had to weigh even more than her own.
"Hey, Benjamin, wait!" Dusty tried calling out to the boy, but it was a bit too late, as he had gotten far out of earshot on his swim back towards the submarine. She groaned to herself, looking back down at the sack she had before reluctantly taking a few of the batteries out of it so that she could start swimming back up to the sub. The whole way up, she had a guilty look on her face.
Confessional
"I can't believe I had to go and do somethin' like that…I wish Chris would give me more time so I could bring more of 'em up, but I swear, the second he sees me tryin' to go and do something good, he's gonna throw a dang hissy fit!" Dusty threw her arms up as she whined about the show's host. "At least with Benjamin comin' down there as well, we got a good chunk of 'em up off the ground."
"I love you, Grimbo!" Benjamin hugged his pet "rock" very tightly before holding it in one hand, staring it down maliciously, and pointing at it with his other hand. "Don't you ever leave my side again, you hear me!?"
Confessional End
Jianne swam through a cavern that she had found somewhere in a coral range. Her light didn't show much of the incredibly dark waters that were around her, but she got enough of a look around to know that she at least had some wiggle room to move about it. She picked up each piece of trash as she found it, determined to be the contestant that came back with the most trash of all. "Once I'm done in here, Chris may as well just eliminate everybody else! There's no way they'll even come close to the amount of trash I've got!"
"Hey, nice cave you got here!" Jianne turned around, her light beam clashing with another diver's. She recognized the voice quite well, that being Zachary's. She glared the actor down as he started swimming into the cave, scooping up some of the trash that Jianne had missed while whistling to himself nonchalantly. He looked up from what he was doing to see that Jianne was being rather quiet, although she did have a glare fixed on him. "What's the matter with you? As my arch nemesis, The Jokester, said in The Dark Warrior, 'Why so serious?'"
Zach laughed at his own blip, though Jianne still kept quiet, only seeming to annoy him. "Eh, I think I prefer you when you're talking a big game and wreaking havoc all over the place. What, you don't want me searching for trash in the same spot as you?" Still, no answer came from the girl that usually talked the most out of everyone. "...Okay, this isn't achieving anything. My agent always told me that communication is key…which is why I thought it was really weird when he dropped me for some other young actor and blocked my number."
Jianne kept on staring at the boy, his irritation now rising to a new high. He started swimming closer to her, crossing his arms as he did. "Are you seriously giving me the silent treatment? I didn't even do anything to you! If I were you, I'd start talking or-" Zachary went on to complain more, only for the girl before him to grab his arm and twist it behind his back. "Yowch, yowch, yowch! What are you doing!?"
"You may think I'm as dumb as a bag of rocks, and that I don't understand context clues enough to piece together the things that are going on around here, but I can guarantee you that I do." Jianne tightened her grip on the actor's forearm, causing him to yelp. "And let me make myself clear, if I ever catch you putting your hands on Nicolás ever again-"
"That's what this is about? Ha! Who'd have known that Miss Let Me Do It All By Myself would wanna take away the nerd's one chance to stop being such a wimp!" Jianne twisted his arm even harder, getting a much louder yelp out of him. "Look, all I'm saying is that if people like you keep babying him, he'll always be like this! In a way, me beating down on him is just helping him out, don't you think?"
Jianne paused in thought for a moment before throwing Zachary away from her, crossing her arms firmly after the fact. The actor rubbed his sore forearm, grinning as he looked back at the girl, but his grin faded once he noticed the look on her face. He sighed, grabbing his bag with his not sore arm before swimming out of the cavern. Some time after, another one of the divers fumbled into the cave, this one being Nicolás himself. He looked around a bit, hoping that he was along, but soon realized that Jianne was there, still as silent as before.
"Oh! Sorry, I didn't realize you were in here already! I can, um, go somewhere else if you wanna keep the cave to yourself." Nicolás turned to swim out of the cave, but he was quickly interrupted by Jianne calling out to him.
"Why do you wanna leave? Scared that I'm gonna embarrass you with how much trash I can collect in the same spot as you!?" Jianne moved over to the boy, blocking his exit and crossing her arms. "You are so on, twerp! Start collecting or I might beat you before you can even start!" Nicolás was a bit startled by her suddenly getting in his face, and he stumbled back a slight bit. He saw the look on her face, knowing that the competitive grin she was wearing was just another way to say "game on." He smiled ever so slightly before swimming down to the cave floor to pick up the garbage that was there.
Confessional
"Y'know, I never really thought about it, but I always seem to get along with the rough, overly competitive types. If you had asked me two years ago if I could even talk to a girl, I'd probably cry and run away." Nicolás blushed as he admitted his own fragility, but he was still smiling.
"I hate to admit it, but some of what Zachary says is…accurate. Nic'll only learn anything if he gets to stand up for himself…but don't mistake that for me letting him torment the poor kid, cause that ain't gonna happen!" Jianne pounded her fist into the palm of her hand while glaring at the camera.
Confessional End
Alexis swam through the open ocean, her bag already quite full with trash, although she was still filling it with more as she came across it. She hummed a tune to herself, the tune resembling a popular song from some boy band. After a bit of swimming by herself, she noticed that there was another diver in the distance, though they were quickly swimming towards her, looking frightened as could be. "Who is that over there? …Amelia?"
The other diver swam right up to Alexis, grabbing her by the shoulders and showing the frantic look on her own face. As expected, it was Amelia. Her bag of trash wasn't filled very much, but it definitely had something in it. "Alexis! You can't go that way, it isn't safe!"
"It isn't safe? What do you mean, I didn't see or hear anything dangerous around here." Alexis peeked past Amelia's head to try and get a glimpse of what was further down the path she was following, though her light beam didn't get very far through the murky water.
"Look, there were some really messed up fish down that way, you can't just go gung ho or they might swallow you up! I barely got out of there intact, I'm just warning you now!" Amelia continued to ramble on and on about the dangers that laid within the ocean's depths, keeping Alexis focused right on her. Behind the boy band lover, there was Luna, swimming as sneakily as she could. In one hand, the model had a rather sharp rock. She got close to where Alexis was, slightly cutting the fabric of the sack with her rock, causing some of the trash to spill out of it. She held her own bag underneath the torn one, catching whatever trash she could in it before swimming away. "You just have to trust me, okay!?"
"Yeah, sure…I'll just go somewhere else then." Alexis slid Amelia's hands off of her shoulders so she could pick another path to go down, though as she did, she noticed that her bag was lighter than it was before. She peeked down at it to see that trash was starting to pour out from the bottom, much to her shock. "What in the-!?" She looked back up to see that Amelia was swimming away with another diver right next to her. She didn't need a face to know that the other diver was Luna. "That dirty little- ugh!"
Alexis groaned, soon futzing around with the sack and trying to wrap it around itself in such a way to be able to carry her trash in it still. It was a flawed system, considering it did take away a good amount of space that she had available to hold the stuff, but it at least kept things in there. She groaned again before starting to swim out to replace some of the trash that she had lost. Meanwhile, Amelia and Luna reconvened further off in the ocean, each of them snickering at how they successfully duped the girl. "That was really just delightful! It went off without a hitch, too!" Luna kept snickering to herself before Amelia suddenly held her sack out towards her. "Huh?"
"You remember what I said I needed in return for helping with this plan, right? I need to win as many of these as I can, and your bag is packed to the brim with lots of goodies. I think we should switch bags." Amelia smiled devilishly, getting a sigh back from Luna who willingly swapped bags with her. The actress patted the model on the bag, that smile still on her face. "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"
"I suppose not…I'll still have to go back and find more trash. Knowing Alexis, I'm sure that she'll cook something up to try and keep herself in the game." Luna sighed again before diving back down into the ocean, while Amelia started heading back towards the submarine.
Confessional
"Yes, the plan worked just fine, but having to hand over what was rightly mine still sucks." Luna crossed her arms as she grumbled to herself. "It's fine…I won't have to rely on Amelia forever, anyways."
"I'm all fine and dandy with helping Luna, but an ally is only useful to me if they can pull their own weight. I helped her with her plan, so she can handle getting more trash for herself, seems fair, no?" Amelia held her hand in front of her mouth, giggling like the dastardly little imp that she was.
Confessional End
Natt was swimming a lot closer to the submarine than a lot of the others were, considering that he was still feeling a bit peculiar about what had happened before with Poseidon. The air of the whole room was off when he asked about Father Time, and being shoved out of the room by the man himself wasn't something he would ever have expected to happen. His bag of trash wasn't all the way full, but he got a decent amount of goods in it. He was mindlessly grabbing whatever he came across through his travels through the sea.
"Why would Poseidon not answer that question? It's not like I was interrogating him, I was just asking something simple." Natt thought to himself as he grabbed a plastic cup that was floating through the water. He shoved it into his bag, glancing over his shoulder to see a variety of other contestants already heading back into the submarine. Benjamin, Dusty, Amelia, Vicente, and Zachary all seemed to be satisfied with their hauls as they got to the finish zone. The space lover shook his head before looking back at the trash ahead of him and grabbing some. "I'll have to ask him again the next time I see him…people don't just get crazy like that out of nowhere."
As Natt kept picking up more trash, he managed to spot something out of the corner of his eye. Off in the distance, there seemed to be another submarine, one entirely unlike the one that they had arrived in. It was mainly black in color, but there was a splash of white on the side of it in the form of a symbol…the same exact symbol that the boy remembered from the card. There was no doubt about it, that symbol was for Father Time. He had to blink to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but as he opened his eyes, the submarine was entirely out of sight.
"Where did that come from…? And where did it go?" Natt paused for a moment as he stared off in the distance before looking back down to his bag. It had definitely gotten fuller than it was before, and he decided that the sea was getting to his head. He turned to swim back to the submarine, trying to shake the eerie feeling that he had.
Confessional
"This has just been a weird day all around…I'm not too sure what was going on with Poseidon, and now I'm seeing things." Natt rubbed his head to see if he had a fever, but he felt completely normal. "I really don't like what's going on around here…but I feel like, even if Poseidon doesn't tell me more…I'll be finding out very soon who Father Time is."
Confessional End
Poseidon sat at his desk in his office with Amphitrite rubbing his shoulders while he typed away on his laptop. He was still quite tense from the altercation with Natt earlier, but in a much different way. Amphitrite eventually spoke up amidst the quiet air in the room. "Sir-"
"You don't have to worry about calling me sir anymore…no need to be so formal." Poseidon slightly smiled back at his assistant, who blushed just from seeing him smile at her like that. She cleared her throat before speaking again.
"...Poseidon…I don't mean to drag that whole incident back to light, but I can tell that you want to talk about it with somebody." Amphitrite rubbed his shoulders a little deeper than before, trying her best to help fix the tenseness in them. "Who or what exactly is this Father Time? I've never seen you get like that before, so I can tell you know something about it."
"Right…I suppose we can talk about that, now that all the kids are out doing their challenge." Poseidon stood up from his desk, turning to face his girlfriend, a serious expression on his face. "Father Time is an agency…of sorts. It's run by a man named Cronos…people recognize him as Father Time from Greek mythology, but to me and my brothers, that would be…well, our father." Amphitrite could feel the weight behind Poseidon's words, she knew that it wasn't very easy for him to talk about this. "Father was always a bit messed up in the head…he used to run Olympus TV, but he always had this weird feeling that we were out to get him."
The man looked down at the floor, the reminder of his family really dragging him down. "He swore that we only wanted to work in the studios so that we could claim his position as CEO someday. We told him we never wanted that, but he wouldn't buy it. He eventually attacked my eldest brother, Zeus…things didn't go so well from there on out. Hades called the police to have him taken into custody so we could get him help, but he managed to evade capture. He's been missing since…and shortly after his disappearance, Father Time was formed."
"But what is Father Time? Is it some sort of rival TV production company?" Amphitrite hoped the answer would be such, but from the expression on Poseidon's face, she could tell that that wasn't the case.
"Far from that…I wish it was that simple. That card that Natt brought earlier…it's not a business card, it's a calling card. Something that the organization leaves at the scene of every crime. Their crimes in particular being…the assassinations of TV producers." Amphrite's face went pale as she heard what the man had said. She hoped it was a joke, but again, the expression Poseidon wore was a tell all. "If that card was found around here, we'll have to get out of Atlantis quickly. It's one thing for me to be in danger, but another thing entirely for the kids to be in danger. Who knows? He could be en route to us right now."
"W-what are we going to do? How are we going to get out of here? Our submarine is marked with the logo of our company!" Amphitrite started to panic until Poseidon grabbed her and pulled her in to embrace her.
"We'll have to call in a friend for this one. Luckily, I know just the lady that can help us…" The man looked over to his phone, soon reaching for it.
Confessional
This confessional room was a lot different than the one that everyone was used to. It was more of a darkened bathroom, and it seemed as if it was on a submarine, considering there was a window that showed the open sea beyond it. A boy stumbled into the room, cracking his knuckles before taking a seat and staring dead at the camera. He had an unmistakeable mug…the ginger hair, the red eyes, the mark on his eyebrow where he had been struck by a wooden plank…it was really him. "Guess who's back in town for a little visit?"
Confessional End
Chris and Chef sat in the submarine, watching while the contestants stood up to weigh their trash bags to see who was in the lead. Benjamin was happy to see that he had the highest weight thus far, but when he suddenly remembered that Grimbo, the pet "rock," was still in his bag, he pulled him out, causing the weight to sink down a few pounds. Chris narrowed his eyes at the scale, seeing the number dropping. "Well, Benjamin, you were all set for a nice, easy win, but it looks like whatever you pulled out of your bag knocked you right back down behind Amelia. The lucky actress is still in the lead!"
"Aw, nuts!" Benjamin sighed to himself, growing tired with Grimbo already and dropping him outside through the chute. He shuffled over to one of the seats, sitting down and holding his sad head in his hands while Dusty patted him on the back. Vicente sat down on the other side of Dusty, studying the crystal shard quite closely as he tried his best to remember it.
"Whatcha got there, Vicho?" The cowgirl leaned towards her boyfriend, resting her head on his shoulder to get a better look at it. "Looks real shiny."
"Yeah…not too sure what it is, but I figured I'd grab it. Who knows? It might be valuable…or important or something." He shrugged before tucking the shard back into his pocket and kissing Dusty on the forehead.
"Is that everyone? That's gotta be everyone, right?" Chris looked around to see nine contestants sitting in the seats, about to declare the loser before Alexis climbed up into the submarine from the chute. "Oh…I don't know how, but I guess I almost forgot about you. Are you here to show up with a million pounds worth of things and get Natt eliminated for it?"
Natt's eyes widened as he heard his name, and everyone watched closely as Alexis sadly set her bag down on the scale, revealing the weight to be…pitifully low. Chris opened his mouth to say something, only for the rigged knot on the bottom of the bag to burst open, allowing garbage to spill out of it, and the weight to go down even lower. "Well…I'm kinda used to you cheating other people out of the game, so it's a bit surprising to see you on the bottom end of things. Alexis, you're-"
"I know, I know…I'm out. You don't need to say it in front of everyone, geez…" Alexis sighed before taking a seat next to the now relieved Natt, immediately glaring at Luna, who was across the way.
Confessional
"Oh, goodie! I always do get what I want in the end, don't I?" Luna clapped her hands feverishly while giggling like a schoolgirl.
Confessional End
The contestants gathered back at the fish bowl, with Alexis standing right before the Water Slide of Shame with her arms crossed and her scowl fixed on Luna, who blew a kiss to her to taunt her. The other seven contestants stood together, watching as the accident-prone elimination master was forced to stand in the very spot of the people that she had previously gotten out of the game…by accident, of course. Chris whistled and dusted his hands off before pulling a medal out of his pocket. "Well, Amelia, you were the one that managed to collect the most trash today, so this Fauxble Peace Prize is all yours."
Chris tossed the chocolate delicacy to the actress, who inspected the wrapper right after she caught it, her eyes narrowing as she saw the expiration date. "This says it expired three years ago…why do you even still have this?"
"Hey, beggars can't be choosers. Just shove the chocolate in your pie hole or give it to someone else that might appreciate it a bit more." Chris crossed his arms and turned his head away from the ungrateful Amelia, who passed the chocolate to Benjamin, who ate the whole thing, wrapper and all. It took a mere three seconds for the boy's face to turn green, and he swiftly projectile vomited all over Natt, who was standing right next to him.
"Aw, dude…that's just nasty…I'm gonna go get cleaned up." The space lover groaned before leaving the fish bowl to go get himself cleaned up, while Benjamin shrugged his shoulders, feeling better already.
"Anywho…Alexis, you bit the dust in today's challenge when you came back with a ripped sack and no trash. Seems like you tend to have an issue with any challenges that involve carrying things in sacks and bags." Chris smirked, knowing all too well that this wasn't her own fault. "Is there perhaps anything you'd like to say now that you have nothing to lose? Maybe something to…I dunno, Amelia?"
"Eh? Why would she have anything to say to me?" Amelia looked over at Alexis, a little confused by what Chris had said. Luna, on the other hand, glared directly at Chris himself, knowing exactly what he was doing.
"You know…I don't think I do." Alexis shrugged her shoulders, the scowl on her face being wiped out as it was replaced with an innocent smile, confusing both Amelia and Luna even more than before. "I thought I would have some sort of speech for her, but eh, nothing important enough to waste my last words on."
Confessional
"Luna may have gotten me out here, thanks to Amelia just blindly listening to her suggestions…but that doesn't mean I need to do anything to help the girl. Seriously, forewarning someone that their one ally is planning to backstab them is one thing, but when that person is Amelia, it's a whole different story." Alexis shrugged again, that innocent smile still on her face. "I'll just let that alliance self-destruct…and I'll see them in the next aftermath."
Confessional End
"Well…uh…alright then. I thought we were about to have something fun to go out with, but I guess not." Chris let out a sigh before shoving Alexis back towards the Water Slide of Shame, causing her to stumble into it and slip all the way down to the Submarine of Losers. "Well, I guess the rest of you can go back to your rooms now. Nothing left from me."
The remaining seven contestants started on their way back to their rooms…seven? It was odd that there were seven out of nine, considering Natt was the only one that had left. Back in the boys' cabin, Vicente was sitting on his bunk, staring at the crystal that he had found while out in the ocean. It was still shining quite brightly, and he knew that he remembered it from somewhere. That's when a rumbling started from within a box under his bed. He raised an eyebrow at the box before sliding it out from underneath the bed and popping the top off, revealing many other crystalline shards that were glowing just as bright. "What the…?"
The reality TV pro got down to the ground, holding the shard in his hands to the ones in the box. All the shards suddenly seemed to magnetize together, fumbling around before forming an orb shape. Vicente, who was currently full of fear, stumbled back onto his bed, his eyes widening as he watched the sight. The orb began to hover in the air, soon displaying some sort of video on it. The video was one that showed some odd events…events that went down when everyone was swallowed by the whale. He could see Zachary holding the orb, singing and dancing as he froze an entire lake of stomach bile.
"What is going on here…? This has got to be some sort of prank!" Vicente got up to grab the orb, but immediately felt a burning sensation in his brain. It was as if all the memories from what had happened on that day were flooding back, when everyone else had forgotten them. He crumbled to his knees, holding his aching head and breathing slowly before looking back up at the orb. The only sight that could be seen was Zachary forcing Alex down the Water Slide of Shame. "Alex…Zach…what on Earth is happening here?"
It was hard to believe what he was seeing, but he remembered it all too clearly for this to be fake. Meanwhile, outside in one of the fields, Zachary suddenly felt a similar headache coming on. He fell into the grass and was slamming his head on the ground, trying to get the ache to stop. It wasn't until the orb crumbled into dust that the two boys came back to their senses. Each of them stood from where they were, each of them thinking the exact same thing. "...He knows."
Author's Notes:
*And we are down to our final nine competitors, poor Alexis finally bit the dust! I thought it would be fun to have Luna's sabotage resemble her original elimination in Space Station a little bit, with the tearing of the bag and everything. She was phenomenally fun to write in this season, and I can't wait for her in the last aftermath! Until next time, folks!
*Placements: No Placement - Sebastian, Haley, Jett; 22nd - Crustacean; 21st - Thomas; 20th - Archie; 19th - Anne; 18th - Alex; 17th - Taylor; 16th/15th - Liz/Tony; 14th - Flint; 13th - Gretchen; 12th - March; 11th - Damien; 10th - Alexis