Chris whistled to himself as he sat in his submarine, observing something rather colorful and peculiar through the window. It was a sight that would make any oceanologist weep tears of pure joy, that being an elegant range of coral that extended over hundreds of feet of the ocean floor. The color scheme was so vibrant and wild that it was a bit difficult to tell where each path was leading, which was exactly the type of thing that the host was looking for. He watched in delight as Chef wandered through the maze of coral, trying his best to get to the end, though Chris could see that it was nowhere close to where he was currently. "Keep trying, I'm sure you'll get there eventually!"
Chef gritted his teeth as Chris's voice played through the speakers in his diving suit. "Man, I don't wanna be testing out all these challenges for you! You stick me in murky water with a bunch of angry fish that slam me into a glass wall, and now you stick me in the belly of a rainbow that's got mad stomach disease! How am I even s'posed to get myself out of this mess?"
"Uh, I don't know, maybe just use your eyes to see where you're going and your feet to take you there?" Chris taunted Chef with the obvious answer, and the co-host rolled his eyes before walking off in a random direction, which Chris could easily see as the wrong direction. The host didn't say anything, of course, but he did snicker to himself, which Chef could hear through his speakers.
"Man, why're you laughing at me!? If you think it's so easy, why don't you get your sleazy butt down here and try it yourself!?" Chef stopped walking, turning to face the submarine from where he was standing and crossing his arms firmly.
"You know, I totally thought about it, but then I was like…why do that when I could just watch you do it and fail miserably at it?" Chef grumbled to himself while Chris mocked him, choosing another path to head down. "Ah…now, before I laugh myself to death…last time on Total Drama: Lost City, we had possibly our most dangerous challenge yet with it being a prom dance…where everyone of the contestants had to dance with none other than our lovely intern: Bonnie! Of course, some people had experience with the prom scene, at least Amelia and Luna did, so the dancing wasn't so difficult for them to get through. Others, like Jianne, took a more unorthodox method to their dancing to woo Bonnie over, which did seem to work. Then, there was Nicolás, whose dancing skills were more pathetic than anything he's shown us yet. We were pretty darn sure that he was gonna get voted out as the worst dancer, but when Benjamin showed how little remorse he had for outing Damien earlier on in the show, Bonnie decided it would be good for the big oaf to get a taste of his own medicine. With the second returnee out of the game, we are down to the final eight contestants! Which one of them will get lost and lose the game because of it? Find out on tonight's labyrinth-esque 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.
It was still quite early in the morning, so a good deal of the contestants were still sound asleep. Of course, there was always one that was up when the others were knocked out, and this time around, it was Jianne. The egoist had already finished her morning routine, and was waiting outside the door to the boys' cabin for someone to come out. She leaned up against the wall of the building, crossing her arms and tapping her index finger on her forearm while she waited. Eventually, the wait got to be a bit unbearable, though this was no shock, considering Jianne was never known for being patient. She got up from where she was leaning, ripping the door open and storming on into the cabin.
All was silent in the bedroom shared by the four remaining boys…well, at least until Jianne stormed up to it and started slamming her fist against it. The knocking was loud enough to sound like gunfire, and all the boys snapped up in their beds, each wondering what was going on. "Ah! We're under attack! Everyone run for your lives!" Zachary jumped out of his bed, gunning it for the open window before leaping out of it and landing head first on the grass outside. He was only sleeping in his boxers, and the view through the window just showed his bare feet poking up as if his head was stuck in the ground.
The other three boys were each screaming and panicking as they ran through the room flailing their arms like maniacs. It wasn't until Jianne kicked the door down that the screaming came to a halt. They each saw the anger that was present in her face, and they were all fearful of what was to come from her wrath. She breathed out steam from her nostrils as she stomped towards Nicolás, grabbing him by the hair and dragging him out of the room. "P-please don't kill me, I don't know what I did, but surely I don't deserve to die for it!"
Jianne dragged the nerdy boy all the way out of the boys' cabin entirely, tossing him to the grass and glaring down at him while he stared up at her with nervous eyes. "We were supposed to be chilling today and playing that game that you insist you're so amazing at so I can show you that I can beat your wimpy ass in it! Why aren't you ready to play? You're scared, aren't you?"
"W-what? You're talking about DnD, right?" Nicolás muttered his weak words, ushering in a slight nod of response from the furious being that stood before him. "W-well…I figured we were probably going to play after the challenge today, not before…"
"The challenge!? You think, just because we've got a challenge coming up, I'm going to let you off the hook? No chance! In fact, doing it before is better since you'll go into the challenge not wanting to lose a second time!" Jianne shrugged her shoulders with a cocky grin on her face. "Curse me for caring so much about keeping you in the game or whatever."
"I don't know if that would necessarily make me all fired up for the challenge or anything…and you don't really lose in DnD or anything like that…in fact, there really is only one player that any of the other players can consider their enemy. That's the dungeon master…they can really be quite terrifying." Nicolás pulled his wimpy self up from the ground, brushing off some of the grass and dirt as he could. "And if I was DMing for you…well, I would probably go easy on you, seeing as it would be your first time playing and all."
"You seriously think I need you to take it easy on me? Don't you realize how quickly I pick up on things when I'm really trying my hardest? I don't need you taking it easy on me! In fact, what's the hardest thing you can face in DnD?" Jianne leaned towards the boy, causing him to shrivel up a bit where he stood.
"T-that would be anything that's anything with a challenger rating of thirty…unless we start delving into the homebrew creatures…but yeah, CR thirty is the toughest challenge. The Barrasque is definitely the worst thing you can come across while playing." Nicolás shuddered as he spoke the name of the mighty creature. "Just saying the name reminds me of how many characters I lost to them in the past."
"Huh, sounds like the perfect challenge for someone like me!" Jianne cracked her knuckles as she kept on grinning that cocky grin of hers. "Put me up against one of those babies! I'll kick its ass so hard that it'll go crying back to its momma!"
"U-uh…well…if that's what you want to do, we can do that. I just don't want you to get upset when your character gets killed."
"Ha! As if I would get killed by some pathetic scrub Barrasque! If it does manage to kill me or whatever, I will accept defeat with grace…it's just an opportunity for me to get better, anyways!" Jianne chuckled proudly as she started stomping back towards the girls' cabin, and a slight smile formed on Nicolás' once terrified face.
Confessional
"Accepting defeat with grace…yeah, that really is something that I could stand to learn from Jianne." Nicolás kept smiling while he rested his hands on his thighs. He raised an eyebrow at the camera, almost like it had asked him a question or something. "Do I like her? Huh? Why would I? She's probably my closest friend, yeah, but I wouldn't wanna date her or anything."
"Eh!?" Jianne leaned towards the camera, glaring deep into the lens with utter intimidation emanating from her. "Do I like Nicolás!? Ha! Haha! That's a funny joke…how could I like him like that when he's practically my brother at this point? Sorry, you psycho shippers out there will have to pair some other dopes together!"
Confessional End
Vicente rubbed his eyes as he finally left the boys' cabin, exhausted from being suddenly woken from his sleep by Jianne and her nonsensical knocking. He let out a massive yawn while stretching his arms out, closing his eyes during the process. While they were closed, he was suddenly tackled to the ground, which he obviously hadn't expected to happen. "Ack!? Zach, I swear if this is-" He opened his eyes to see Dusty hovering over him with a big smile on her face. "Oh, thank goodness. I thought you were Zach for a moment…"
Dusty kissed the boy on the forehead before jumping up from the ground and grabbing his arm to pull him up with her. "Now, why would Zach go and tackle ya to the grass like that? I mean, ya just know that would look really weird…and probably would be pretty difficult to explain to the other fellas in there, right?" The cowgirl chuckled, Vicente blushing out of embarrassment as she did.
"Zachary can really be quite sporadic, I'll have you know!" The reality TV pro spoke up for himself, only getting more chuckles back from Dusty. "You really never know when he's going to do something crazy. One second, he's hanging out in the grass with some crystal ball, the next second, he's controlling a massive whale to swallow everyone so he can get rid of Alex without anyone remembering what happened."
"...Uh…that's an oddly specific hypothetical, Vicho. Did ya have a dream or something where something like that happened?" Dusty giggled lightly, not realizing just how serious Vicente was being. He didn't say anything, he just chuckled along with her, rubbing the back of his neck to play it off. "I shoulda figured ya were just goofing around. Anywho, ya think yer ready for the next big challenge comin' up today?"
"Not sure…I mean, at this point they've all been pretty intense. If we're continuing along the same trackpath, it could get pretty ugly pretty fast. Especially since everyone that's still in the game is definitely going to be putting up a crazy fight to stay in." Vicente paused for a moment and tapped his chin, "Well, maybe everyone except for Nicolás…and Natt. Neither of them seem like they've been giving it their all lately. Could just be me overthinking things and all that."
"Mmm, I dunno, I don't really pay too much attention to the two of them while they're in the middle of the challenges. Y'know how it is, gotta make sure I'm doing the best I can to save my own hide before I go worrying about someone else's." Dusty swiped her nose with her thumb with a grin on her face, her boyfriend smiling and slightly rolling his eyes back at her. "And that won't be an exception today! I never wound up getting this far last season!"
"Yeah, tell me about it." Vicente looked down at the ground, thinking about his horrible placement from the prior season when the speakers around Atlantis suddenly kicked up and interrupted the conversation the two of them were having.
"Yo, yo, yo! Divers, there's only eight of you left, and I was thinking it would be pretty sick if we could make that number smaller so I would have less liabilities to worry about around here! That's right, it's time for a challenge! We're heading out into the ocean, so each of you will have to suit up and get ready for a bunch of splishy splashy fun times! Be at the submarine in ten minutes!" Chris's voice was as snarky as ever before it ultimately cut out from the speakers. The couple glanced between each other before shrugging their shoulders and heading right back into their respective cabins.
Confessional
"Yeah, my run last season was…well, pitiful, to say the least. I still can't believe I let Tony trick me as easily as he did." Vicente slapped his hand against his face, blushing from the embarrassment of it all. "Then again, I guess he really was playing a whole bunch of people for fools up on the space station. I should consider myself lucky for not having to deal with it as long as some of the others did."
"Vicho and I got a whole lot in common, but one of the biguns is that we were both taken out by that nasty Tony and Liz combination. Sure, Liz didn't do much in Vicente's elimination…though she was a key part of that challenge." Dusty raised her finger to her lip while she thought about the challenge before. "Uh…in any case, those two rascals screwed us over, and now we get a chance to shine and show just how amazing we are when they ain't messing with us!"
Confessional End
Each of the contestants boarded the submarine before seating themselves in it. It shocked them before when there were only ten members left, and it was even more shocking now that there were only eight. Chris was seated in the pilot's seat, much unlike the usual where Chef was the one in charge of taking the lot to their destination. "Eh…? Why are you the one driving the sub…did you and Cheffy break up?" Luna teased the host, only for him to grab a fish from a nearby bucket and throw it at her. The creature slapped against the glass of her helmet and she gasped out of pure disgust. "How vile!"
Amelia giggled to herself as she saw Luna being attacked by the slimy sea critter, getting a glare back from her in response. "Oh, don't be so uptight. You do have to admit, it was a little funny." The actress continued to giggle before the host went and threw another fish, this one landing on the glass of her own helmet and startling her from the suddenness of it all. "Chris, you fiend!"
"Haha!" Luna laughed outrageously, accidentally snorting a bit before blushing and looking away in shame. Zachary raised an eyebrow at the two girls, a small smirk creeping up onto his face before Amelia glared at him and grabbed the fish from her helmet and tossed it at him, causing it to land smack dab in his lap.
Confessional
"Is it just me, or would Amelia and Luna be perfect for that type of sappy chick flick where the girls hate each other at first but then grow to love each other after a whole bunch of plot nonsense?" Zachary held up a picture of the two girls, one in each of his hands, and slapped them together as he pretended to make them kiss.
"Chris is perhaps the worst host in all of reality TV…but at least he pretty much treats everyone like garbage. Even if an icon like myself deserves to be treated better than this. I can't say I was much of a fan of the fish being thrown at me." Amelia grumbled to herself and crossed her arms while furrowing her brow.
Confessional End
Chris pressed an auto-pilot button on the control panel to the submarine before getting up from his seat and walked to the center of the vehicle to stand before each of the contestants. "Well, contestants, I know how much you like to enjoy me not tormenting you with these grueling challenges, but I just couldn't help myself! In fact, this challenge is so intense that the only reason that Chef isn't here right now is that he's still trying to complete his test run of it!" Some contestants shared a worried glance while Chris snickered to himself.
"The ocean is a massive place, as I'm sure you've all figured out by now if you didn't know before we came down here. That being said, the way that things are shaped and created down here pretty much have limitless possibilities when compared to the land!" Chris grabbed a pull string from the ceiling and tugged it down to pull out a diagram that showed a massive landscape completely made of bright and colorful coral. "Coral is of course one of the most immaculate and beautiful parts of the ocean, so we figured it would probably be a good idea for us to mess with it for a challenge!"
"Of course you would wanna do something like that to such a beautiful thing." Natt grumbled under his breath before facing the same fish face treatment that Chris had given to Luna and Amelia before. In a huff, he brushed the sea creature off of his face before ever so slightly glaring at the host. "Why do you have all these fish with you?"
"They come in handy when you guys get on my nerves." Chris smirked as he grabbed another fish from the bucket and threw it at Natt, whose eyebrow twitched slightly from annoyance. When the host realized that the bucket was now empty, he shrugged and tossed it aside, causing it to hit Nicolás right in the helmet, which caused it to ring. "Now, back to my talk about coral…we actually did discover a pretty huge range of coral not too far from Atlantis, and we just had to capitalize on it. Judging by the fact that Chef is still stuck in there, it seems to be the best type of place to have a good ol' maze challenge!"
"You're gonna dump us in the middle of a coral maze and call that a challenge?" Jianne scoffed at the host as she picked the bucket up from the ground and spun it on her finger. "I dunno, Chris, that seems kinda weak compared to the rest of the challenges you've had us compete in before. I might end up finishing five times before any of these chumps manage to beat it once."
"Oh, trust me Jianne, it isn't going to be as easy as a regular old maze! The fun thing about this coral is that, well, we've kinda rigged it so that it'll move around! You'll find that paths will close off from random coral sliding, rising, or dropping into place to block you off! There really is no set way to finish the maze, so even if you were to go through it several times, the way out would be different each time." Chris snickered at his own deviousness while the contestants got more worried about the challenge…except for Jianne who was itching for a challenge like this.
Confessional
"Now this is what I'm talking about! Most of the challenges Chris has us competing in just seem like lazy attempts to cheat certain people out, but this one is geared to cheat everybody out!" Jianne cracked her knuckles in anticipation, having a hard time not drooling from the thought of such a tough challenge. "I've been waiting for something like this since day one of the last season and now I've finally got it! Who knows what'll happen when we get down there?"
Confessional End
"Now, I know what all of you are thinking…what will the winner get for winning the challenge? That's an excellent question! Let me just find where I put that thing…" Chris ran back to the pilot's seat and started digging around through his things, tossing random bits and bobbles behind him before eventually holding up a peculiar sight. It was a crown, but it seemed to be made entirely of coral, though there were some gems embedded in its structure. "We found this thingy when we were futzing around in the maze, we figured we'd call it the Crown of…Neptune! Whoever wins the challenge, meaning whoever is the first to clear the maze, will get this crown as some memorabilia for their time on the show or whatever. You could probably sell it for a good price, too."
Chris shrugged before tossing the crown back to the front of the submarine. "But as far as things go for the last person to make it out of the maze…you'll be eliminated from the show, and we'll be left with our final seven! An elimination like that so close to the finish line has got to sting, so if I were you, I'd really try to get out of the maze as fast as you can!" The host didn't notice that the crown hit the auto-pilot button, and the submarine ended up sinking to the ocean floor…right at the entrance way to the maze. "Would ya look at that? We're already here!"
Confessional
"If I had a nickel for every time things went unintentionally well for Chris, I'd have no need for the prize money from the show." Vicente rolled his eyes as he leaned back in the confessional seat.
Confessional End
Chris stood right at the entrance to the maze, holding a starting pistol in one hand while the contestants lined themselves up in race formation. Each of them looked between each other, ready to go at the challenge with all their might. "Hm…I'm not sure if this pistol is actually gonna work while we're down here in the ocean. Lemme check." Chris pulled the trigger on the pistol, and it made no sound, of course. He shrugged his shoulders, "Well, no noise or anything…but the shot's still been fired so…GO!" As the host shouted at them, the contestants burst off into the maze, each of them running as fast as they could.
Of course, Jianne took the lead of the group, being so used to absolutely out matching everyone in most aspects of the physical challenges, though as she ran on ahead, she realized that Dusty was pretty close to where she was. She squinted her eyes at the cowgirl before starting to pick her pace up a good deal. Dusty, of course, was willing to take the challenge, and she started running faster to match Jianne's speed. "You really think you'll be able to beat me in a challenge like this without a horse to ride on?"
Dusty gasped while Jianne snickered at her own insult. "I do just fine without a horse, thank ya very much! I just hope for yer sake that ya won't have to stop mid-challenge to take a break and play the violin!" Jianne was the one gasping this time, soon gritting her teeth in anger while she was mocked. She was even blushing out of embarrassment for once…she did hate when people brought up that habit of hers.
"You better take that back right now before I-" Jianne tried to keep talking smack, but the two of them were so focused on arguing with each other that they both slammed face first into a wall of coral that they didn't know had risen in front of them. Of course, with the two challenge beasts suddenly stopped by the wall, this gave the other six contestants good time to adjust to their surroundings and break off into other paths, where they were able to get ahead of the two girls.
Confessional
"D-Dusty went and distracted me while I was trying to show off and do my thing! How am I supposed to show how much better I am than everyone else if someone else ends up winning the challenge!?" Jianne tugged on her hair in a rage before getting up from the seat and kicking the back wall.
"Leave it to my gut instincts to get me arguing with someone when I could be focusing, like I said I was going to do. Now I just look like a dang fool…" Dusty sighed and looked down towards the floor in shame.
Confessional End
Nicolás huffed in deep breaths as he wandered through the maze, not having the amount of stamina required to just rush through the maze like how Jianne would. He looked around from side to side to try and figure out which way he should go next, seeing a couple different paths available for him. "U-uh…uh…if I were her, which way would I go?"
"If I were her? You're seriously out her daydreaming about being a girl?" Amelia laughed proudly as she passed the boy by, taking the leftmost path. "Of course a pathetic boy like you would want to be as amazing as a girl is. I bet the girl you're talking about being right now is me!" The actress glanced over her shoulder with a teasing look only to find that Nicolás was completely ignoring her, looking as if he was pondering the meaning of life. She gritted her teeth and turned around, storming right back to the boy. "Are you even listening to me, you nerd?"
"Eh?" Nicolás looked up from the ground and over at Amelia, a plain look on his face. "Were you talking to me or something? I was kind of busy thinking about what Jianne would do in a situation like this." Amelia was disgusted to hear which of the girls Nicolás had in mind, and she smacked him upside the head. "Yowch! What was that for!?"
"Why would you want to be like Jianne? She's a complete mongrel…and a moron, nonetheless! If you really had as big of a brain as you're advertising, you'd wanna be more like me, a true queen!" Amelia gestured to herself with a big smile on her face, only for the smile to fade when she realized that Nicolás was back to ignoring her and thinking to himself. "You! I swear, if you keep ignoring me, I'll-" She attempted to intimidate the boy more, but some walls suddenly rose up around the two of them while the wall in front of them sunk down. Their path before was taken away, so there was nowhere to go but ahead. They looked between each other nervously before looking on ahead and starting down that path together.
Confessional
"Of course, I had to end up getting stuck with the nerd…why couldn't I at least have someone like Dusty with me? At least she's good when it comes to directions and running into things headfirst." Amelia groaned while she rubbed her forehead with her hands.
Confessional End
Zachary and Vicente were both on the same path as each other, each of them avoiding eye contact with each other as they both knew they would start getting too worked up. Eventually, they came across a dead end in the middle of their path, and they skidded to a halt so as not to slam into the wall like the two girls had before. "Geez, that was a close one! Guess we'll have to turn back so we don't fall behind." Vicente turned around to start his way back, only for Zachary to cross his arms and glare at him. "What's the matter with you, amigo?"
"You'd like it if I turned around and undid all the hard work I just did to make it here, wouldn't you?" The actor was adamant about not moving from the spot he was currently standing in, which only annoyed Vicente. "For all I know, you probably have inside information about the maze and you know when the walls are gonna move! So, you would only want me to go away from one place if it meant that it would get me stuck further behind everyone else."
"...Now, how would I have any inside information about the wall patterns? You and I both know that Chris hates each of the contestants equally, he would never share something like that with any of us." Vicente turned to face Zachary, glaring back at him just as intensely as he was to him. "If you wanna be like that, we can both stand here and let all the others finish the challenge before we even get any close to doing so! I wouldn't mind you getting eliminated here and now for your own insolence."
"Works for me! And it's bold of you to assume that you'll be able to beat me in a one on one…we both know I'm just better than you in every way. I mean, looks, fame, height…I got it all on you." Zachary went on to tease his rival more, but the ground around them started to shake violently. A wall rose up between the two of them, blocking them off from seeing each other while a path opened up behind each of them. Zachary turned around to see that he was standing next to Luna, who had taken a different path. "...Well, I didn't expect to swap that schmuck with you, but I'm not gonna complain. You're definitely going to be easier to beat than he will."
"How dare you doubt me like that?" Luna balled up her fists before turning to face the pathway that had opened up for them. "I'm willing to bet that I'll make it to the end before you even come close to doing so! What say you?" The model grinned and glanced back to see Zachary bursting past her in full sprint. Her jaw dropped out of astonishment before she up and ran after the boy, trying her best to catch up with him. "Wait a minute, you! Don't leave me here!"
Meanwhile, on the other side of the newly formed wall, Vicente had met with Natt, who was previously on his own. The two boys nodded at each other and shook hands with smiles on their faces. "I'm glad I found you in here…Zach was going to drive me insane if I got stuck with him and his nonsense any longer." Vicente sighed and shook his head before looking at the path ahead of them. "Guess we've gotta go down that way, huh?"
"Seems like the only option we've really got for the time being, but it's better than nothing." Natt shrugged as he started walking down the path, with Vicente close to his side. "You know, I feel like me and you really haven't spent much time together, even if we've been sharing the same cabin for the past few weeks."
"Well, you've always seemed to be busy whenever we've been in the same place. I figured you were invested in some trading card game, that was what it looked like you were always studying anyways." Natt had to think to himself about what Vicente was talking about, but it eventually clicked with him.
"Oh, that? Well, that was just some…interesting thing I found a while back, now. It was back on that pirate ship that Chris had us ransacking, remember that?" Vicente nodded while Natt brought up the challenge from the very early merge stages. "Yeah, just something I felt like messing around with. Haven't found out too much about it, but I'll keep prying into it for now." The two boys kept chatting and walking down their path while Dusty and Jianne got up from the ground, entirely sore from their sudden slamming into that wall.
"Ugh…that wasn't very pleasant." Dusty groaned while she cracked her sore back, sighing in relief when she did. "Look what ya went and did, distracting the both of us with yer crazy trash talking for no reason. The others are probably a lot closer to the end at this point."
"Well, 'how's 'bout ya stop yer bellyaching and just get on with it!'" Jianne taunted the cowgirl before looking ahead to see that the wall they had previously crashed into was gone, and a brand new path had opened up before them. "Huh, would ya look at that…this is just the kind of interesting thrill I was hoping for!" The egoist licked her lips and burst off down the newly opened path.
"Hey, don't ya go thinkin' ya can just run off and leave me in the dust! I'm gonna show ya that ya ain't all that when I beat ya!" Dusty shook her fist at the girl while she ran after her, and the wall that had just vanished from their path rose back up from the ground, blocking off the camera view of them.
Confessional
"I get a real bad knot in my belly when I think about getting trapped in this maze with the moving walls and whatnot, but I'm sure someone would come and rescue us if we were stuck for too long." Dusty thought to herself for a moment before groaning and slouching down. "Who am I kidding? Chris would never rescue us from this kind of danger…"
Confessional End
Vicente and Natt continued down their path, the reality TV pro leaning back slightly with his arms behind his head as they talked. "You know, even though I've been on more reality TV shows than Total Drama, I don't think I've ever made it this far before. I was averaging a middle ground, but in the top eight out of twenty-two…that's really high. And you, you're doing even better than you did last season, right?"
"Yeah, I was tenth or something like that last season. Who knows, though…we could be dead last at the moment and not even know it." Vicente winced a bit as Natt mentioned the possibility before slouching down slightly. "Just a possibility…we won't actually know what's going on until we make it to the end of the maze, you know."
"Speaking of the end of the maze, take a look ahead there." Vicente perked up as he saw a clearing ahead with no coral around it. The two boys glanced between each other, each grinning slightly before rushing towards the end. They stopped right before they cleared the maze, staring at each other. "Hm…only one of us can win the challenge, right? Why don't you take the first step out?"
"Meh, I don't need the crown. Go ahead." Natt watched as Vicente rose his hand to argue with him, but before the boy could say anything, he slightly shoved him out of the maze, soon following him out. Standing off to the side of the maze, there was Chris, who seemed a bit shocked to see that someone had already finished the maze.
"What the!? How did you guys finish already! That was supposed to be a tough one, you weren't supposed to clear it in record time!" The host threw his arms up in an upset fit before groaning and reaching for the coral crown. "Fine, whatever. Vicente, you were the first contestant to make it out of the maze technically, so you get the crown. If I find this on some re-selling website, I swear!"
Vicente grabbed the crown from the host while raising an eyebrow at the host in question. "Were you not telling us before the challenge that it would probably fetch us a lot of money if we re-sold it? You know what? I'm not gonna bother arguing with you, it's like arguing with a brick wall." The reality TV pro put the crown on top of his helmet, adorning it quite nicely.
Natt tapped his finger against the glass of his helmet as he looked around, confused by something…or the lack of something, rather. "Hm…Chef still hasn't made it out of the maze? You don't think something bad happened to him there, do you?"
Chris waved the boy off with his hand, essentially saying that Chef wasn't really that important. "He'll be fine, I'm sure he'll make it out of there in no time." Natt sighed at the host's nonchalantness.
Meanwhile, back in the maze, Chef was panicking as he ran around from direction to direction, trying to find out which path to take but not really having any luck. "I've been here already! Where's the end of this hellhole!? How do I get out of here!" The burly co-host crumbled to his knees and started slamming his fist on the ground, sobbing like an overgrown baby. "This is it for me! I'm gonna die in here, no more Chef Hatchet!" He continued to sob before he noticed two sets of diving boots stopped right before him. He glanced up from the ground to see Nicolás and Amelia staring down at him, each trying their best not to laugh at how pitiful he looked.
"Oh, how the mighty fall…perhaps you need a hand finding your way out of this place, Chef?" Amelia teased Chef as he got back up to his feet and cleared his throat pretending that he wasn't just freaking out. "Either way, the end can't be that much further now. I just don't want to deal with this nerd trailing behind me for much longer." The actress gestured to Nicolás with a head nod before continuing down one of the paths.
"I really wish she would just stop complaining, it's not like she knows where we're going." Nicolás groaned as he followed the actress, and Chef started to follow them as well. As the two men looked down the path that Amelia had just went down, they noticed her standing all the way out at the end of it…which was coincidentally the end of the maze itself. Rather than appearing excited, she seemed like she was pretty upset about something. They followed her to the end, stopping outside when they noticed the two boys that were already out there.
"I seriously can't believe he won this challenge…he doesn't deserve to wear that crown, I do!" Amelia pointed to the top of her helmet with a scowl on her face. Vicente rolled his eyes at her, unamused by how full of herself she was.
"Just be glad we got out of the maze already…I don't wanna ever go in another maze like that again." Nicolás shuddered, thinking about the shifting walls and the colorful paths that seemed to blend into each other after a while. Of course, Chef marched over to Chris, staring down at him with murder in his eyes. Chris whistled innocently before the co-host kicked him right in the groin.
Confessional
"YOWZA!" Chris held his hands over his groin in pain while he rolled around on the ground, wailing like never before.
Confessional End
"Would you stop going so fast!? This is totally unfair!" Luna hollered out to Zachary, who was still running away from her as fast as he could, trying to get to the end of the maze. Eventually, the actor turned a corner and the path closed off from a coral wall suddenly dropping down into place, making it so that Luna was unable to follow him. "UGH! How am I supposed to make it to the end of the maze when the paths keep changing and I have no idea where I'm going!?"
Luna kicked one of the coral walls, soon squeaking from the pain of actually kicking a wall. She bounced up and down on one foot while holding her other aching foot in her hands. It was then that the area around started rumbling, and the wall that she had just kicked shifted out of place and revealed the group of the others that had already finished the race. She was a bit stunned to see the exit just open up in front of her, but it didn't bother her, of course. With a grin, she took a step out of the maze. "Well, it looks like everything turned out perfect in the end!"
The model smirked to herself while the next diver burst out through one of the other paths that was currently open, that being Zach, who flopped down to the ground and was breathing heavily from all the running he had just done. He flipped himself over to look up at the ocean above him, raising his fists in victory before Luna hunched over him with that grin on his face. "W-what!? How did you make it past me when I was ahead of you all that time!?"
"Meh, I guess you're just not as amazing as you think you are, eh?" Luna snickered to herself while Zachary got up from the ground and glared at her. "Oh, don't get mad at me because you went too fast to stop and evaluate your surroundings. You should know better than that, Batguy."
"Now you listen here! Just because Batguy was known for his phenomenal detective skills doesn't mean that I-" Zachary started to rant, but he stopped when he noticed that Nicolás had finished the maze before him. His jaw dropped at the sight, and the nerd couldn't help but smirk ever so slightly at the sight of him like that.
"Hang on a minute…if Luna and Zach are here, that means that the only two that are left in the maze are…" Vicente thought to himself before his eyes went wide. "Jianne and Dusty!"
"That's right!" Chris got up from where he was laying on the ground, still holding his groin as he hobbled over to the group of contestants. "Jianne and Dusty haven't made it out of the maze yet, which means that only one of them is going to be safe from elimination tonight!" The contestants gasped at the announcement, and the host sunk back to the ground in pain.
Confessional
"I don't doubt Dusty and her abilities for a second, but having to go up against Jianne in any sort of one-on-one is never a good thing. I just hope the two are on separate paths or something…" Vicente tapped his foot against the ground nervously as he talked.
Confessional End
Jianne rushed down the path that she was taking with Dusty pretty close to her. The two girls glared at each other before a wall separated the two of them. The egoist let out a sigh of relief before the wall vanished between them and they were met with the sight of each other again. "Would you stop following me and go somewhere else? I already chose my path to the end of the maze, you can choose your own!"
"This is the only path available, ya nitwit!" Dusty rolled her eyes at the other girl as she kept running down the path, trying her best to ignore just how annoying she was being. "Geez, it's like yer treating just running in the same vicinity as each other like a dang challenge."
Jianne's eyes dilated as she heard the last word that Dusty had uttered. "Did you just say…a challenge?" The cowgirl realized the mistake that she had just made, but before she was able to even say anything, the egoist burst off at intense speeds unlike anything before. Even with her trying her best to keep up, it was no use, as she barreled out of sight entirely. It wasn't long before Jianne used this newfound speed to make it through the maze, dashing to the center of the other contestants that had finished already. She glanced around to see them all staring at her, her eyes going back to normal while she scuffed the ground with her boot. "Man, you guys all got here before me!? That's so lame…"
Vicente saw who had finished the race, and he looked down at the ground dejectedly while Dusty finally made her way through the maze. He glanced over at her, seeing the shock on her face rise as she realized that she was the last one to make it out. Chris got up from the ground again, hobbling over to Dusty with a pained grin on his face. "W-well, Dusty! As I mentioned before, the last person to finish the race would be eliminated tonight, and lo and behold…that person is you!"
"Fiddlesticks…" Dusty slouched down and sighed in complete and utter defeat.
Confessional
"Well, I can't say my run this season was the worst thing ever. I kinda had a gut feeling that something like this was coming 'round, too. Heck, it ain't too bad, though. Vicho's still in the game, he can do just as good without me around to pester him and all that. I shouldn't have called something a challenge to Jianne, too…that was definitely my downfall." Dusty sighed as she leaned against the back wall of the confessional booth.
Confessional End
The contestants met back at the fish bowl with Chris. Dusty stood right in front of the Water Slide of Shame. She let out a soft sigh, drooping down a bit while she stood there in defeat. Of course, Vicente walked up to her, placing her hand on her shoulder and giving her a light peck on the cheek despite the sorrowful expression on his face. "Well, cowgirl, gotta say, you had yourself a good run, but it's high time you giddy up on out of here! And, please, don't make us wrangle you up and throw you out quicker than a hound dog eating a bowl of raw beef. Go ahead and yee your last haw before we-"
"Alright, alright, darn' tootin'! I get it! Ya don't have to patronize me, ya city slicker!" Dusty snapped at Chris, causing him to hide behind Chef in fear. The co-host rolled his eyes and Dusty returned the kiss to Vicente. The two of them pressed their foreheads together before he finally broke away and returned to the remaining contestants. The cowgirl looked back at everyone else, nodding to them before diving into the water slide and slipping all the way down to the Submarine of Losers, which took her away from Atlantis.
Chris finally stopped hiding behind his co-host, whistling while acting like he wasn't just hiding in fear for his life before clearing his throat. "Well, now that the country girl is out of here, we're stuck with just seven of you guys! You know what's funny? Every single one of you has got it out for someone in one way or another! It always makes us wonder which of your fellow contestants you guys feel needs to get out of here the soonest."
Confessional
"Which one of us do I wanna get rid of right away? The answer's obvious, it's that prick, Zachary." Jianne cracked her knuckles, glaring right into the camera. "He would probably be my pick regardless of all the crap he's pulled, but after all the drama with Nicolás, it just makes me wanna kick his ass even more! Hell, getting rid of him is practically giving him mercy from me at this point."
"It's always tough to answer questions like these because you just don't wanna screw yourself over, but if Zach does somehow find out that I've said I want him gone, it really won't be the end of me. I'm sure the feeling is mutual at the moment, in any case." Vicente sighed as he held a picture of Dusty in his hand, looking down at it with a slight frown on his face.
"If I was able to eliminate one person over all the others…well, it would simply be Luna. She's outgrown her usefulness to me, and there's something inside of me that just makes me think that she's feeling the exact same way about me." Amelia shrugged her shoulders with a confident smile on her face. "Unfortunately for her, I won't be taken out so easily. Besides…the other five are hardly a worry for me."
"Amelia, Amelia…she was such a good boost up to this point, but it's clear to see that she's all in for herself. Don't get me wrong, I am too, but at least I can…but at least I…uh…whatever, I just want her gone!" Luna crossed her arms and looked away from the camera while blushing out of embarrassment.
"I really don't feel like saying I wanna get rid of anybody…but gosh darnit, that Zach is just the worst! I'm pretty sure the only reason he hasn't sabotaged me is because he wants to save me for last…he probably thinks that I won't be much of a challenge for him or something like that." Nicolás shrunk down in his seat, though his expression showed annoyance rather than trembling fear.
"Eenie meenie minie moe…I pick Vicente to go! Why would I want him gone sooner than later? Well…he definitely knows too much about me, and I don't like that!" Zachary held a thumbs down to the camera while sticking his tongue out. "Besides, how would any of the others be difficult for me to handle? I'd like to see them try to stand up to Batguy."
"Who do I want gone the most out of everyone…?" Natt glanced up from the broken pair of glasses that he was holding in his hands. He hadn't thought much about the question, which was evident from him stalling a bit on his answer. "I guess the easy, straightforward answer would be Zachary. He's definitely the most…well, obnoxious of the others. But, honestly? I think I'd rather figure out more about what's really happening around here before worrying about getting anyone eliminated."
Confessional End
"It's just something to think about, considering we are down to such a low amount of contestants at this point." Chris rubbed his hands together with a devilish grin on his face, eyeing over each of the final seven. "Plus, isn't it nice to think about how there's probably at least one person that wants you gone more than anyone else? I'm kidding, of course…I'm sure one of you has got loads of people just itching for you to slip up and get yourself outed. Guess we won't ever figure out which it's gonna be, though." The host shrugged his shoulders while the disgruntled contestants sighed in unison before leaving the fish bowl, with Chef following in suit. "That's right, only seven contestants left means that anybody could be on the chopping block! Fan favorites, public enemies number one and two, even the cripplingly pathetic could and probably should get out next! We'll just have to find out next time on Total Drama: Lost City!"
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Through the ocean depths, a submarine that was as massive as the titanic itself motored around, a set goal in mind. There was a symbol on the side of it, although it was just an "SS," so it was difficult to tell exactly what it meant. Within the main chamber of the submarine, Poseidon and Amphitrite stood before two shadowy figures, each of them vaguely feminine in shape, though it was definitely hard to tell from the dimness of the room. The only light was coming from red candles that were sticking out of cracked skulls; they looked real enough to the point that it was hard to tell if they were props or not. Poseidon gulped nervously as he stepped towards the figures, awkwardly rubbing his hands together. "Now, I do realize that we've never exactly conducted business with each other in the past, but with a situation like this on my hands, I felt I had nowhere else to turn. You're the only company around with a reputation for handling these sorts of things."
"Ugh…you realize I would have to actually, like, put effort into helping you for this, right? You're lucky I have connections with one of those contestants' sisters…there's no way I would help you any other way." The voice that spoke to the man had a rather dry tone to it, though there was a hint of familiarity mixed in there somewhere. Amphitrite was clearly upset with how nasty the girl in question was being towards Poseidon, but she bit her tongue, not wanting to cause any issues with the people they were going to for help.
"Please…you know that you would be helping them regardless. You just don't want to admit that." The other girl spoke up, her voice sounding somewhat less dry, but still dry all in all. This figure was a little bit taller than the other one, and it seemed like she was a little bit older as well. "I do wish you gave us a bit more notice on this, though…the kinks of the virtual world still haven't been perfectly worked out." The figure gestured to a set of pod-shaped structures that were on one side of the room. "There's this one glitch where random enemies can absorb other enemies and instantly hit the max level in the game…it's a shame Gordon isn't around, he would know how to fix it right up."
"Need I remind you that it was your idea to not bring him along? I said that you should bring whatever you need to make this work." The prior voice scoffed at the older girl, who soon pinched her cheek and caused her to squeak a shrill squeak.
"You said whatever, not whoever. And don't give me your sass…you're not taking this seriously for how very serious and dire this actually is." The older girl finally let go of the younger girl's cheek, and the latter rubbed her sore cheek with her hand, grumbling under her breath. "In any case, we should be reaching Atlantis shortly…we'll bring the kids with us and get everyone to safety. Even Chris and Chef can tag along, I suppose."
"Thank you…thank you so very much. I don't know what I would do with myself if any of them ended up getting hurt. Oh, I just wouldn't be able to sleep at night if that were the case." Poseidon let out a sigh of relief before sitting himself down in a maroon colored bean bag chair. He was a bit confused by the seating arrangements in the room, but he knew better than to question the girl that had offered him help in his time of need. "Now, if I'm right on timing…there should be only seven of the kids left by the time we arrive. I think Chris just finished up with the most recent challenge."
"Psh, whatever, I don't care how many of them you bring along. Just tell them not to touch my stuff." The younger girl crossed her arms and turned away from the director, soon walking out of the main chamber and leaving the two of them with the older girl.
"Well…I'll take the two of you to your room. The entire thing has an intricate lockdown system, so it's impenetrable once you've activated it. Should anyone follow us and get onto the submarine, just activate it." Poseidon and Amphitrite stood while the older girl started to lead them out of the main chamber. They followed her down a long corridor, eventually disappearing from sight into the darkness of the submarine.
Author's Notes:
*And the show's resident cowgirl has ridden off into the sunset! Dusty was fun to have in the season, specifically for the entertainment value in the pre-merge of the season, but she really struggled to find her worth in the merge. She stayed out of most major plots, and because of that, it wouldn't make much sense to have her outlast any of the other seven…every single one of which is involved in a major plot right now. In any case, she was still very fun to write, and I'll be excited for her in the aftermath when we get to it.
*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; 9th - Benjamin; 8th - Dusty