The secret lair of Chris McLean, which few people knew was under a lone water tower in the middle of a large field, was bustling, more than ever before. Of course, there was Chris, as well as his five hooded compatriots, but there were three additional people in the lair, each of them tied up and blindfolded so that they couldn't see what was going on. Dana, Aaron, and Ivy, the key personnel to the show, had no idea what had happened or how they ended up tied up like they were, and they were horrified…well, at least Aaron was horrified. The others seemed to be a bit more angry, to say the least.
"Man, this is just too good!" Chris clapped his hands together, still bearing the metallic suit that he had been seen in so many times prior. "You kick me off the island before I get a chance to show off the amazing hosting skill that everybody loves me for, I'll show you not to forsake me like that ever again!"
"I'm gonna guess by the arrogant tone of your voice that you're Chris McLean? Figures, I had a feeling you were gonna try to do some nonsense like this sooner or later." Dana giggled to herself, ticking Chris off.
"You could at least pretend to be scared! I'm about to bounce you guys all off of the island, just like you did to me, and then I'll be in charge of the season!"
"Uh…don't you already have a season rolling around the corner or something?"
"Oh, oh, yes we do!" One of the hooded figures stepped forth, sounding incredibly excited at the mention of the other season. "We queued things up properly so that Lost City would begin after the finale of Scrap Island!" The man dropped his cloak to the ground, revealing himself to be Poseidon, famous for working with Olympus TV. He had purchased some rights to the Total Drama likeness to show Lost City on his own platform. He was dressed…well, quite interesting to say the least. He had a full set of, what looked to be, viking armor, complete with a red cape and a massive hammer in one hand. "We offered to help Chris with this to boost relations, no hard feelings, Miss Starshine!"
"Sir, I really don't think you should be blabbing about who you are. Chris made it clear that he didn't want the crew here to figure out who all of us are." A woman stepped forwards, dropping her own cloak to the ground to reveal the serious look on her face. Amphitrite, Poseidon's assistant and general right hand woman. She kept people in line at Olympus TV, and had a well known infatuation with her boss, who was a bit too much of a ditz to realize. She was dressed in a peculiar manner as well, having a bulletproof vest over a black tee shirt, with black pants and combat boots to match the fit. On her back, there was a quiver full of arrows that looked to be a bit more complex and modern than a typical arrow. In her hands, a combat bow, one that fit her grasp perfectly.
"Man, y'all talking about not revealing who you are and then stepping forward to introduce yourselves to the camera." Another man stepped forth, this one much bulkier than most of the group that was behind him. Out of pure accident, his cloak got caught on something, ripping off of his body and revealing him to be Chef Hatchet, Chris's beloved co-host from the very start of Total Drama. "Aw, man! Now you guys made me do that!" He wasn't an exception to the interesting outfit rule, his suit being comprised of blue, red, and white. It seemed to fit him well, and the material was resilient looking. In his hand, he had a large, circular shield. The shield itself had the American flag on it, curiously, considering that he was Canadian.
"Oh, we're all introducing ourselves now? This is fun, I can introduce myself, too!" A tall boy stepped forth, grabbing his cloak and chucking it into the distance. He had a huge, dumb smile on his face, though this was no exception to how he usually was. Yes, indeed, this was Benjamin…a contestant from Chris's side of Total Drama. "Benjamin H Dot Crusoe Anfather the Third- oh! I mean, the Untouchable Bulk!" Benjamin was painted entirely green, his ginger hair being the one exception to the. He sort of looked like a reverse carrot as he was at the moment. Oddly, the only piece of clothing that he was wearing was a pair of purple shorts that…well, had seen better days.
"Hmph, everyone here is showing themselves by accident…I'll show myself simply because I don't care to remain anonymous." The final hooded figure stepped forth, dropping his hood down to reveal a familiar face. Thomas, another contestant from Chris's side. He was well known for how he tried to assassinate Chris during the events of Space Station, so seeing the two in the same place was always a bit odd. He wore a sleek, black suit that covered most of his body, all except for his head, actually. He seemed to be dressed as a spy of sorts, a look that he owned well. "Chris, I do have to say, I have some opposition to this plan of yours. I only agreed to help you should you not harm the kid…considering she is roped up, you'd better hope that I don't find any rug burn on her."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. See, the thing is, I really don't care about threats from an assassin who got thwarted by a simp and his queen." Chris and the rest of the group chuckled a bit at the jest, causing Thomas to sigh.
"Whatever, I'm going to get some fresh air, then." Thomas hopped from platform to platform, eventually reaching the one that had the ladder on it. "If you need me…well, maybe just don't need me, 'kay?" Chris groaned while the boy climbed up the ladder, but waved him off.
"Who cares if he goes off like that? We don't need him at this point! We've already got who we need wrapped up! The show is officially mine!" Chris started to laugh like a maniac, with the other four watching him as if he was quite insane.
The camera suddenly flew into the sky, being struck by a massive chunk of debris and knocking it back to the ground, only to be picked up by a cute, blue and silver striped robot with one wheel that it used to move.
"Dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," the robot pointed the camera at Theodore at a cafeteria table, pounding down energy drinks like a champ, his eyes twitching from the caffeine while Larida looked concerned for his health.
"You guys are on my mind," at a nearby table, Ronnie was arm wrestling Mitchell, winning easily and slamming him straight through the table, causing Celeste to run over and start screaming at the powerhouse.
"You asked me what I wanted to be and I think the answer's plain to see," the robot wheeled its way out of the cafeteria, showing a junkyard with Vernon scribbling something down in silence and Ivy looking over his shoulder to peek at it, until Blaster popped out of one of the garbage piles, scaring him and making his papers fly off into the sky.
"I wanna be famous!" Vernon ran after his papers, leaving Ivy behind in confusion, eventually passing by Margaret and Daniel as they were making out while surrounded by four intense looking mafia thugs, one who spotted the camera and chased after it.
"I wanna live close to the sun," the robot wheeled away from the mafia goon, passing by Zane and Bunny, the latter who was bugging the boy by holding a mic up to his face, which he tried to shove away.
"So pack your bags, cause I've already won," Fridge carried Caleb on his shoulders across from Aaron, who had Dana on his own shoulders, the two up top slapping at each other as the robot passed by.
"Everything to prove, nothing in my way, I'll get there one day," as the robot continued to roll around, it finally made its way out of the junkyard and to the remnants of Cali-Tokyo, where Buck was attempting to profess his love to Yves, who was all flustered by the gesture.
"I wanna be famous!" Nearby, atop a pile of rubble, Brittany was making fun of Valerie, who let out a sigh and pushed her off the pile and onto the ground.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," near the pile, there were some barrels of toxic waste, which inspired Mitzy, who scribbled something down on a blank sheet while Alice was absolutely appalled by the sight.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" CJ was being chased by a massive and terrifying robot with six legs and two clawed arms, which then noticed the robot with the camera and chased after it, causing it to drop the camera.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" The camera feed cut to the aftermath stage, showing Calvin trying to kiss Max, who, out of embarrassment, belched right in his face.
The two were soon shoved aside by Capone, who rolled his eyes at them, while Sunny, next to him, waved happily to the camera with a huge smile on her face. Maggie popped up between the two of them, an acoustic guitar around her back, hugging them both tightly and snickering while the camera panned out to show the whole cast sitting in the risers, with the little robot sitting next to Caleb, and Franchesco standing off to the side with a glare fixed on Maggie.
Fridge was taking his morning stroll through the Squirrels' hall, looking to make more friends, just as Caleb had told him to previously. He hadn't yet talked to anyone, considering the shock of what happened the other day, with the robot and all that. He looked at the rooms, scratching his chin as he read the names. "Hmmm…eenie, meenie, minie…this one!" The friendly giant rushed over to one of the doors, knocking upon it, loud and obnoxious, of course. It took a moment, but the door did eventually open up to reveal the contestant that dwelled within it. "Hey, Brittany! Friendleb told me to go and make some friends, so I figured I would start with you since we're already friends! Pretty good idea, right?"
"...Fridge…Caleb meant to make friends with the contestants on the team that you don't already know. Why don't you try talking to Teddy? He loves to talk about himself, so as long as you listen, you'll have no problem finding a friend." Fridge turned around to look at the other doors, trying to see which one had Teddy's name on it, though he seemed to be having a hard time with the task. "...Fridge, it's the door that says Theodore on it."
"Theodore? I thought you told me to make friends with Teddy, not Theodore?" Brittany slapped her palm against her face, groaning as she did. "Hey, you learned that from Friendleb! He does that a lot when he's talking with me!"
"Somehow that doesn't surprise me…anyways, I'll just take you to the door so you can talk to him, I don't have time to fool around." Brittany grabbed Fridge by the hand, dragging him behind her as she walked to Teddy's room. She knocked on the door a few times before letting go of him. "I'm going back to my room now. You just talk to him and let him know you want to be friends, okay?"
"Yes. ma'am!" Fridge saluted Brittany, although he swung his hand towards his head so quickly that the motion caused him to knock himself to the floor. She groaned again, seeing just how pathetic he was being, but instead of helping him some more, she went right back to her room, slamming the door shut behind her.
"I swear, sometimes it's like that guy doesn't even have a brain in his head. Why Caleb wanted him in our alliance is still a mystery to me…should've gone with Ronnie if he wanted a powerhouse." Brittany sighed, shaking her head as she walked to her desk, where there was a jewelry box right on top of it. "It doesn't matter, though…he can be as dumb as he wants and we'll still beat everybody else. Especially…" She opened the jewelry box up, revealing a small object…one that looked like a mushroom. "...Now that we have two of the three idols!" She took the idol in her hand, holding up proudly while laughing like a maniac.
Confessional
"Done making friends with Teddy! Did you guys know that he's a famous streamer? He made sure to tell me all about his streams and when he does them!" Fridge chuckled to himself, "I ended up subscribing to his stream for a year! I know, a hundred bucks is a lot of money, but supporting my new best friend is a good enough excuse for me!"
"Where'd I find the idol? Well, obviously I'm not just going to tell you…" Brittany scowled at the camera for a brief moment, but she soon lost the scowl and replaced it with a grin. "Ah, what the heck? I ended up finding this in that big pile of dirt from the cooking challenge, just a few days ago! I hate getting my pretty little hands dirty like that, but it was so worth it!"
Confessional End
Ronnie had himself situated in the gym, as he usually did. He cracked his knuckles as he stared a punching bag down. There was nothing out of the ordinary about the punching bag, all except one little thing: a picture of Chris McLean taped onto the front of it. "Mess with me and break our deal, see where that gets you, old man." The boy sent his fist flying towards the punching bag, right onto Chris's perfect jawline. The picture tore a little from the blow, but that wasn't enough to satisfy him. "You wanna taste another one? I know you do!"
Ronnie continued to slam his fists against the punching bag, picking up the pace and eventually turning the picture to a bunch of shredded up bits. With one final, powerful punch, he sent the punching bag flying into the wall. He took a couple deep breaths before reaching for his water bottle and taking a big swig from it. "I ain't done with you yet, old man…I'll be back for more, later."
"Bravo, bravo!" A boy could be heard from the entrance to the gym. Ronnie turned to see Thomas standing there, clapping his hands slowly with a smile on his face. "You know, I've wanted to shred Chris to bits before, it's always a pleasure to see somebody else sharing that interest with me."
"Who the hell are you?" The athletic boy set his water back down to the ground, picking up a towel and wiping the sweat from his brow. "I ain't never seen you around here before…you another crazy man, like the dude in the big robot?"
"Big robot? Not sure what exactly you're talking about, but no…you have seen me before, after all. Perhaps it's the fact that I took that cloak off?" Thomas shrugged his shoulders and Ronnie put two and two together, realizing that this boy was one of the figures that was working with Chris in the shadows. "Ah, I see that frown, you're remembering! That's right, we've worked with each other without properly meeting. Thomas Weiß, at your service."
"Yeah, it clicked…you're that guy that tried to kill Chris up in space or whatever. Couldn't do that right, makes you kinda shitty at your job." Thomas frowned slightly, though he didn't let the insult get to him. "So, what? You trying to kill me now? I ain't gonna let your skinny ass take me down."
"Nah, no one wants you dead. If there was money in it for me, maybe I would consider it." Thomas finally left the doorway to enter the room, seating himself down on a bench. "I figured I would just let you know about what's going on at the lair. Chris finally got his hands on Dana…well, Aaron and the intern, too."
"So? What's that supposed to mean to me?" Ronnie grabbed the punching bag from where he had knocked it to, setting it up so he could keep wailing on the unrecognizable picture of Chris.
"Hm…not sure. It does mean that he's going to get rid of them soon, and I guarantee you that, once he puts himself in charge, he'll disqualify you for backing out of the alliance. You care about winning, don't you? Makes sense to me that you wouldn't really wanna get removed from the game." Thomas checked his nails as he spoke, hardly looking over at Ronnie. Even still, he didn't need to look at him to understand that he was having that realization. "Chris loves to get rid of people for stupid reasons, I'm sure you've seen him do it several times."
"...Yeah, I seen it." He stopped punching the punching bag to take a seat, looking right at Thomas. "So, you're suggesting we rescue Dana and get rid of Chris again?"
"Maybe I am, maybe not. Who knows, you could still be eliminated for sneaking around Dana's office and helping Chris kidnap her…but when Chris takes the lead, you'll definitely be eliminated. Seems like a pretty clear cut deal to me."
"So, it's either get eliminated for sure, or maybe get eliminated anyways?" Ronnie crossed his arms, a stern look on his face. "Those odds are complete crap…" The look on his face suddenly started to shift, eventually ending up as a cheeky grin. "And I love it when odds are complete crap!" He stood from his seat, walking over to Thomas and looking down on him. "Yeah, I'll show Chris a thing or two and get Dana back here. Gives me all I really need out of this show…putting that washed up son of a bitch in his place!"
"Sounds good to me. Of course, the tech that they've got in their hands right now is just a bit complex. Gonna take a lot more than just brute force to take him down a notch." Thomas looked down at the suit that he was wearing, which was equipped with similar tech to that of Chris himself. "Meh, maybe you'll find a way. I could care less."
"Man, cut that crap. If you didn't care, you wouldn't have come to find me and tell me about this." Ronnie shook his head at Thomas, who looked up at him with an innocent smile. "I don't care why you did it, though…all I care about is getting my revenge on the guy. You don't just back out of a deal like ours and walk home scott-free."
"Whatever you say…oh, but you will probably want to do something like this." Thomas reached into his pocket, pulling out a walkie talkie of sorts and pressing a button on it. The button turned the speakers on throughout the building, as could be heard from the sudden noises of feedback. "Yo, contestants, we got a challenge starting right about now. I'd definitely start heading to the water tower in the middle of the empty field if I were you. Don't wanna lose the challenge and a teammate, blah blah, you get the gist." The assassin stopped pressing the button before tossing the walkie talkie off to the side.
Confessional
"Chris never let me meet any of the people in the cloaks, I just saw them hanging out in the lair each time I went. Probably could've figured that some of them would be contestants from his seasons…whatever. All that matters is that I'm gonna pull him out of that tin suit and knock him down a few pegs." Ronnie punched the palm of his hand with a huge grin on his face.
Thomas sat down, whistling to himself nonchalantly before taking a gander at the camera that was before him. "...Eh? My reasons? Pfft, I don't need to give reasons for the things I do, that information is all classified." The boy seemed to be a bit offended by the very accusation that he cared about Dana's well being.
Confessional End
The teams eventually came to gather around the water tower, where they were met by Thomas and Ronnie, who were already there well in advance. Ronnie avoided eye contact with his team, all of which were confused to see him there. The assassin looked over everyone, making sure that not a single contestant was missing from the group. "Eh, looks to me like everyone is here. Good, that works out fine."
"Uh…who are you?" Valerie cocked her head at the mysterious boy, having not seen or heard of him before. Brittany, on the other hand, was trembling a bit as she saw him, recognizing him for some odd reason. The sight of a fearful Brittany was amazing for Valerie herself, who couldn't help but giggle a bit. "...Actually, it doesn't matter who you are…I like you already."
"Valerie, don't be an idiot! That guy isn't just some teenager! He's an assassin!" The crowd gasped at Brittany's statement, many of them backing up a bit…excluding those who weren't afraid, such as Margaret, Valerie, Caleb, and Zane. "When Dana made me go to that space station with her, he was there! He tried to kill Chris McLean."
"Guilty as charged!" Thomas chuckled at her, clearly not worried about his identity anymore. "I could sit here and tell you guys that I'm not here on business all day, but I'm almost certain that it's not really gonna click with any of you. That's fine by me, I don't need you to trust me. You can see for yourself that what I'm saying is true in just a moment."
"In just a moment? What are you on about?" Zane raised an eyebrow at the boy out of curiosity. Thomas shrugged his shoulders, a grin still on his face.
"Well, I'm only here because Chris McLean was trying to take over the show, of course. In his efforts to do so, he kidnapped some people so he could send them off of the island." There was a bit of murmuring in the crowd, trying to figure out who was kidnapped. "Come on, it's not that difficult to guess. Dana, Aaron, and that intern. Anyone close enough to a hosting position was snatched up so he could start running the show here."
"He kidnapped Ivy!?" Vernon was greatly taken aback by this, but his concern was quick to shift to anger. "Well, we have to find her and get her back! Tell us where she is!"
"Ya know, a show without Ivy doesn't seem like a half bad way to go." Buck grumbled to himself before reaching into his pocket to pull out several pictures of him in his room. "She keeps bringing these to me…we all figured it was Jay that done it before he got arrested, but they still keep on coming!"
"Not to mention the weird wood carvings that she hands to us when she 'finds' them!" Margaret reached into her own pocket, pulling out a carving of a guitar pick. "She's seriously just trying to make us lose sleep over this stuff…unluckily for her, I can't be intimidated so easily."
"I never asked if you guys liked the hosts or the intern, I simply told you that they were kidnapped by Chris, and that we need to get them back." Thomas shrugged his shoulders again, clearly not unnerved by those who didn't seem to care so much about the issue at hand.
"...We need to get them back? I don't know, wouldn't it just be easier for us to let Chris do what he's going to do?" Celeste looked between the other contestants to see if anyone agreed and saw that quite a few people were nodding.
"Maybe it seems like that, but I know a lot more than you do…and since you all came here, he's going to think that you don't want him in charge. You know what that means?" Thomas waited for a response from anybody, though no one spoke up. With a groan, he continued, "It means that he's not going to want you here on the island, either. He'll replace you all with a new cast…a cast that he knows isn't going to go against his word."
"He wouldn't do that! …Would he?" Mitzy was certain that Chris wasn't all that evil, but she hadn't met the man outside of a brief moment at the very beginning of the show.
"He most certainly would do that. Dude only cares about himself…that's kinda why I was hired to kill him a while back. So, here's the deal. You can all go back to your rooms and let him get rid of the hosts, or you can try to get him out of here." There was a bit more murmuring from the crowd before they all stepped forward again, not wanting to be kicked off of the show. "Yeah, that's kinda what I thought. There's five of them hiding in the water tower…well, underneath it. Oddly enough, I've got five lassos with me."
Thomas reached behind his back, revealing the five lassos that he mentioned. He tossed them out into the crowd, respectively ending up in the hands of Caleb, Brittany, Ronnie, Yves, and Vernon. "It won't be difficult to get them out of the tower…in fact…" He grinned before walking to the hold in the ground, where the ladder was. "Hey, Chris! Paparazzi is out here to get a photoshoot with the soon to be new host of the show!"
"They are!?" Chris shouted up from beneath the tower, his excitement showing through his voice. "Tell them we'll be right up there! This photoshoot is gonna be the best one that paparazzi will ever get in their lives!"
Thomas looked back over to the contestants, still grinning at the brilliance of his lure. "So, you've got about thirty seconds before the five of them get out here. The goal is to lasso them all up so they can't keep fighting back…then we save Dana and get these suckers out of here, sound good?" There was even more murmuring than before, though not a single contestant protested against the plan. "Wonderful!"
Confessional
"Ha! I got one of the ropes! This means that the creepy dude figured I was a good enough leader to be in charge of a lasso! …No, he didn't pass 'em out at random! I got this because he specifically meant to throw it at me, you dumbass!" Caleb clutched onto the lasso like it was the only thing keeping him safe while he was hanging off a cliff.
"So, I get to have one of these ropes? Makes sense, anyone would let a pretty girl, like myself, take charge in a situation like this!" Brittany admired her own reflection, going as far as to place her lips on the mirror and "kiss herself."
"I'm going straight for Chris…he's the one that crossed me and all." Ronnie gripped onto the rope, the anticipation mixed with anger creating a unique look on his face. "You hear that, McLean? You're going down!"
"...Of course it ended up in my hands, rather than Buck. He would definitely be better to deal with this than-...but as long as I keep helping him, he will be safe." Yves looked down at the lasso for a moment before looking back up at the camera. "I dare just one of them to try and get near him…I'll lasso them so good that they'll regret it."
"Gotta help Ivy…gotta help Ivy…" Vernon shut his eyes tightly as he held onto his lasso, trying to encourage himself the best that he could.
Confessional End
Chris came shooting up from the hole in the ground, his rocket boots making it all too easy for him. Following close behind, there was Chef, Amphitrite, and Poseidon, all of which had to climb the ladder on their own. As they looked around the field, they came face to face with the group of contestants. "What!? This isn't a paparazzi, this is just the bozos that are competing in the show! Thomas, you tricked me!"
Chris turned to see Thomas, who was still by the ladder, although he was tied up in a lasso. "Sorry, Chris, they caught me and…well, you know how the story goes. 'Take us to your leader or we'll beat it out of you.' Brr, such brutal tactics."
Confessional
"Gotta admit, tying himself up to make it look like we forced him to do this was a pretty good idea. Gets him well out of trouble while we deal with the rest of the mess here." Zane chuckled a bit, shaking his head. "It's a shame I could never be sneaky like that…seems like a good tactic, but the lying part just ain't for me."
Confessional End
"Ugh! Alright, you may have taken down one of my guys, but you won't stand a chance against the rest of us! Chrisvengers, assemble! …And then disassemble so we can deal with them all at one time!" Chris started to propel himself forward with his rocket boots, though he suddenly stopped when someone grabbed him by his foot. "Ack!" He looked over his shoulder to see Ronnie with that game face from before still on. "You again!? Let me go!"
"No way, old man! I'm about to teach you a lesson!" Ronnie started using all of his might to pull Chris back towards him, though the host had another idea in mind. He pressed a button on his wrist, one that said "Overdrive" on it. This caused his rocket boots to start propelling even faster, and he soared through the sky, with Ronnie still holding on tightly to him. The contestants and Chris's gang watched the two as they flew away, only to see them land on the top of the water tower.
"...Hm…well, that definitely throws a wrench into things, doesn't it?" Poseidon used his hammer to scratch his chin, completely missing that there was a rope flying his way. Amphitrite gasped as she saw it, pulling an arrow out from the quiver on her back and firing it through the rope, splitting it into two. She looked over to see that the one who had tossed the lasso was none other than Caleb, who now had a horrified look on his face.
"U-uh…that actually wasn't me! That was…um…well, it was…" Caleb scanned the area around him, eventually landing his eyes right on Margaret. "It was her, yeah!" He threw the rope at the mobster, who caught it out of instinct. Before she could chew him out, he scrambled away, hiding behind Fridge.
"I swear, that little bug is gonna bite off more than he can chew some day." Margaret groaned before she started to fix a new lasso to the end of the rope. When she finished, she looked back up to see Amphitrite staring her down, ready to fire more arrows whenever. "Alright, tutz, you think you can stroll in here and get us all kicked out of the show? Well, let me show you how the Diablo family deals with intruders, like you!"
"Sir, it's best if you keep a good distance behind me while I deal with this child. If it's rope you want, it's ropes you'll get." She reached into her quiver, pulling three arrows out, each with tips that looked like capsules of sorts. She fired one at Margaret, though the mob boss was quick to roll out of the way. The arrow flew right past where she was, heading right towards Fridge and Caleb. The two gasped, grabbing onto each other in fear of their lives…until the arrow suddenly opened up into a net, which wrapped around them and squeezed them together tightly.
"Ack! Fridge, your hands are on my ass!" Caleb blushed brightly and screamed at his overly muscled friend.
"Sorry, Friendleb, they're stuck! It's like you have super glue on your tushy or something!" Caleb struggled and writhed in the net, only to turn around entirely, which made it look like he and Fridge were spooning. "Is that any bett-"
"SHUT UP!" As the two boys continued to struggle in the net, Margaret was running from Amphitrite, who was chasing her with another net arrow ready to fire at her.
Confessional
Caleb's face was bright red and his arms were crossed, he looked as peeved as he always was, though it was much more embarrassment than anything else. "You producers better take that part out of the final cut! I will end you if I watch it and see that! You hear me!?"
Confessional End
"Well, it looks like Amphitrite has got her hands full with that girl in the snazzy clothes. Oh, that means I should help!" Poseidon tapped his hammer against his chin some more before pointing it at the crowd, specifically at Bunny and Mitzy. "You two seem like you could use a fun rabble rousing! I should warn you, I'm reeeeeeally good at rousing rabble!"
"Who even says rabble rousing anymore? Maybe I should take a picture of this guy and put it on my blog! 'First live dinosaur sighting!' What do you think, Mits?" Bunny had her camera ready in her hands as she turned to see what Mitzy was thinking.
"Well…I guess we could try to take care of him. Vernon, you got that lasso ready?" Mitzy glanced over her shoulder to see where Vernon was, only to discover that he had disappeared from where he was previously. "Ah! Where did Vernon go!?"
"Agent Ford?" Calvin piped up, being pretty close to the two girls. "Well, he was mumbling something about Agent Harett, then I blinked, and bam disappeared! It was kinda weird to see that happening because-"
"You might wanna pay attention, bud!" Poseidon had run over to the kids, ending up right next to Calvin. Before the agent could react, he tapped him with his hammer, sending a static shock through his body which caused him to tingle a whole bunch. His hair stood up on end, and he fell to the ground, a goofy look on his face. "The power of the mighty Poseidon! Lightning at my very fingertips!" Poseidon held the hammer up proudly and gestured to it with his free hand. "There is actually just a pair of socks and some bunched up carpet in here…the static shock is really good for knocking people out without really hurting them! So, you guys wanna try it out? I promise, it's safe!"
Mitzy and Bunny were taken aback by Calvin just getting knocked out so easily, but they didn't run. Mitzy gained a determined look on her face as she reached into her pockets, pulling two yoyos out of them. She rolled them back and forth, showing that she had some pretty good skill with them. "I may not be as good as my friend is, but she's shown me a thing or two! Let's wrap this…no, that's no good. Looks like this will end in a tie? Nah, that's not any good either."
"Oh, how about this! This'll be over in a flash!" Bunny proudly held up her camera, though Mitzy was more focused on coming up with a yoyo based tagline. "Mits, how about we deal with the guy first before we worry about saying something witty, 'kay?"
"You're right! Let's make sure this villain doesn't hurt any more of our friends!"
"God, you can be really cheesy sometimes," Bunny mumbled before shaking her head.
Confessional
"What? Saying something witty is a part of the superhero bit! You can't just beat the villain, you have to say something that makes it seem like you had no doubt that would put a stop to them to begin with!" Mitzy spun the yoyos around as she spoke, eventually knocking herself on the head with one. "Yowch!"
Confessional End
Vernon had managed to scoot past the rest of the group, lasso still in his back pocket while he descended down the ladder to find out where Dana, Aaron, and Ivy were being held. As he touched down on the rocky platform below, he saw them, seated over by the wall of computers. "Ivy! Don't worry, I'm gonna be right over there! I just gotta-" As he took a step forward, he failed to realize that the ground consisted of these rocky columns, there was no solid floor. He overstepped the platform, causing to slip forward. "Woah!"
Vernon just barely managed to catch the next platform over, slowly pulling himself up onto it. He huffed and puffed from the energy that it took out of him to pull himself up. "Don't worry…I'm almost there!"
"Woah, woah, woah!" Benjamin leapt onto one of the platforms, having appeared from out of nowhere. As he landed, the ground trembled, causing Vernon to lose his balance while he was trying to stand back up. "Chris told me that if anybody came down here, I would have to get super angry and rough 'em up! You can't take these three back, or he'll get really mad at me!"
"Mad at you? Well, that's just silly! You're easily twice his size, you could totally beat him up if he got mad at you!" The songwriter managed to pull himself back up to his feet, though he was still a bit shaky due to the uneasiness of the whole ground itself. "Look, I just wanna get them and get out of here…p-please don't make this any harder than it has to be!"
"Sorry, buddy! The Untouchable Bulk doesn't talk with enemies, he crushes them!" Benjamin leapt from the platform he was on to another one of them, causing another quake. The first platform that he was on crumbled from the pressure of the jump, soon disappearing entirely. Vernon gulped at the sight, seeing only four platforms between him and Benjamin on one side, with ten platforms between him and the hostages.
The songwriter leapt to the next platform in line, landing sloppily and almost slipping again. The platform behind him didn't shake or tremble, but Benjamin was quick to jump another platform, busting the one that he was just standing on. "Dude, you're insane! If you keep jumping on all the platforms like that, they're all gonna break!"
"And then you won't be able to rescue the hostages! I know, I'm really a genius when it comes to thinking ahead of things. Uhp, here we go again!" The green fellow jumped to the next platform, destroying the previous one and making the gap between him and Vernon even smaller than before. At the very sight of this, Vernon gasped, starting to jump towards the next few platforms much faster than before.
Confessional
"Seeing Vernon act all heroic is pretty cute, not gonna lie." Ivy twiddled her fingers while she thought about the boy, eventually letting out a soft sigh.
Confessional End
Chef looked around, seeing that the bulk of contestants that still weren't under attack were members of the Squirrels. Zane, Valerie, Teddy, Yves, and Buck were all bunched together, with Zane and Yves taking the front of the group. He grinned a scary grin before throwing his shield at them like a frisbee. The bulk of the group gasped as they saw it coming, ducking down as quickly as they could to avoid getting hit, although there was one of them that wasn't paying attention.
"Check it out, Teddy Bear Nation! It's a really hostile takeover situation up in TD world right now!" He was recording himself on his phone, with his back turned to the action. "Huh? Is that some sort of frisbee or something?" He narrowed his eyes at his screen, which showed something flying behind him at crazy speeds. It eventually hit him right on the back of the head, knocking him flat to the ground before flying back to Chef's hands.
"Ah! Teddy!" Valerie scrambled over to Teddy, lifting his head up so she could see if he was okay. He was breathing, just knocked out with a bump on the back of his head. She frowned at the sight, though the frown soon shifted into a clever grin. She fell forward, laying on top of him as if the shield had hit her as well. Since Teddy was out cold, he had no way to get her off of him.
"Okay, okay, so he's got a flying frisbee of death and destruction on his side. I s'pose I could maybe put something together to knock that crazy disk out of the sky, but I'd need…" Buck let out a yawn, stretching his arms out as he did so. "I could maybe…I could…just take a little teensy nap here…" Without so much as a glancing blow from the shield, Buck fell right asleep, landing next to Valerie and Teddy, which just left Zane and Yves together.
"Heheh, you kids don't stand a chance against me! That's right, I've got experience on my side!" Chef launched the shield at them again, though they continued to duck under it, so it simply came back to him without hitting them. He wasn't going to give up until he knocked them all out, so he threw it again and again. The two contestants kept ducking under the shield itself, trying their best to stay safe from its wake.
"Alright, we need to think of a way to get ourselves out of this situation. You got that lasso from the ginger boy, maybe we could-" Zane tried his best to come up with a proper plan in the moment, though Yves was clearly not even listening to him, as she started to crawl closer towards the co-host. "Yves! Now is not the time to be disagreeable with me, we need to work together to take him down!"
"As if I would work with you! You're probably thinking of a way to get me kicked out of the game by making me look like the bad guy, or something!" Yves continued to crawl towards Chef, leaving Zane further behind, at least, until he started to crawl along behind her. "I can take care of this on my own, thank you very much!"
"You're gonna get yourself hurt if you try to do it on your own! Please, just let me help you and we can handle it together!" He tried crawling even closer, only for her to snap the lasso at the dirt in front of him, bringing him to a sudden stop in his tracks.
"I don't need your help! I never needed anybody's help before, and I certainly don't need anyone's help now!" Yves had a glare fixed on her face, one that spelled danger. Zane got the message loud and clear and he was just about ready to back off until Chef threw the shield again. He gasped as he saw the trajectory of it, which was headed straight for Yves. As quick as he could, he got up from the ground and rushed ahead, stopping the shield with his own body, though it knocked him flat to the ground.
The shield bounced off of the boy, landing back in Chef's hands and leaving Yves alone to deal with the aggressor. She continued to crawl, looking back at Zane with confusion on her face as she passed him by.
Confessional
"Why do I feel like someone was licking my face while I was passed out?" Teddy groaned as he wiped his cheek with a washcloth. "Is that…normal?"
"That thing sure hits like a truck…man, just look at that lump!" Zane pointed to his forehead, which had a large red bump on it. "Not gonna look so pretty while I wait for this thing to heal, eh?"
Confessional End
Margaret continued to run away from Amphitrite, who was still chasing her down with her bow and trick arrows. Each time she fired one, a net flew out of it, just barely missing the mob boss with each and every shot. "Come on, I know you can do a lot better than that!" Margaret shouted over her shoulder at the woman, letting out a victorious chuckle before one of the nets struck her arm, wrapping it up so tightly that she couldn't move it. "Oh, crap! You really can do better than that! Well, unfortunately for you, lady, I'm not gonna let you land another one of those!"
The mob boss suddenly stopped running, choosing to turn and face her opponent. She had a cocky grin on her face, something that Amphitrite didn't quite understand. "You're smiling at a time like this? I'll give you some points for being daring, I suppose. In any case, I can finish you off now." Amphitrite reached behind her back to grab another arrow, but as she reached around in the quiver, she found that there wasn't a single arrow left. She glanced over her shoulder to see the empty container, and gulped nervously.
"So, what was that about finishing me off? Ah, you know what, I don't wanna hear another peep from you." Margaret swung the lasso around, whipping it towards the lady and squeezing her up tight in it. She tugged on it, pulling her all the way over to where she was standing. "Let it be known that nobody can take down a member of the Diablo family!"
"Right, whatever…can't you at least set me down so I don't look like some sort of victory prize or something." Margaret shrugged her shoulders, dropping the woman to the ground before walking over to Fridge and Caleb, who were still tied up in the net from before.
"Margaret! Finally, you're here!" Caleb looked up at the girl with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Now, get us out of this net already!"
"Hm…you know, I could, but I think this sight is pretty funny." The mobster sat herself down in the grass, grinning as she watched the two boys struggling.
"I'm not joking! Get us the hell out of here!"
"Yeah, yeah, maybe in a few minutes or so. You two really do make an adorable couple, you know that?" Margaret laughed obnoxiously as the two continued to struggle, having no intent to set them free from their net prison.
Confessional
"What? Shouldn't I be allowed to enjoy some free entertainment for all my hard work there?" Margaret snickered as she waved a picture in front of the camera. The picture, of course, had Caleb and Fridge on it. "I think I'm gonna keep this one framed!"
Confessional End
While Margaret had finished dealing with Amphitrite and her rain of arrows, Poseidon was still giving plenty of trouble to Bunny and Mitzy, both of which were finding themselves in a bit of a pickle. He swung his hammer towards Bunny, who ducked under it, only for him to quickly turn and swing it at Mitzy, who had to leap back to avoid being touched by it. "See? This is a lot of fun! I can see why you contestants would wanna do these challenges all the time!"
"This guy is totally crazy!" Bunny was breathing heavily from all the movement she was doing. She looked over at Mitzy, only to see that she was equally exhausted. "We'd better think of something, quick! I don't know how much longer I can dodge that hammer of his!"
"I know, I know! I just need time to think! Think, Mitzy, think! What would the hero do in this situation?" Mitzy thought deeply to herself, trying to pull inspiration from the comics that she wrote up. Eventually something came to mind and her face lit up. "Bunny, throw your camera into the air!"
"Eh? I mean, alright…it better not break, though!" Bunny tossed her camera up into the air, which drew Poseidon's attention to it.
"Oh, this is a new move! Never seen anybody throw something up there before!" He focused on the camera as it started to fall down, lens aimed at him. Mitzy took the opportunity to send one of the yoyos flying towards the camera. She perfectly hit the capture button, which caused the camera to snap a picture, with the flash on, of course. The brightness of the flash caused Poseidon to stumble back a bit, covering his eyes so that he wouldn't get them damaged. While he stumbled back, Mitzy swung her other yoyo around him, tightening the string until it had him secure. Because of this, his hammer touched against his own thigh, shocking him greatly and causing all of his hair to stand up. He fell to the ground with a thud, knocked out cold.
Mitzy sat down in the grass with a big sigh while Bunny caught her camera, happy to see that it hadn't broken, miraculously. "And…" Mitzy huffed before looking over at the incapacitated man and grinning. "...That's a wrap!"
"Ooo, that was witty! Well done, Mits, well done!" Bunny clapped her hands together cutely and softly. "Not to mention, I got a nice embarrassing photo of the guy out of this!" She held up a photo, one that showed Poseidon with a startled face from the flash going off. "Heh, yup! That's a keeper!"
Confessional
"Bunny may not be a true hero or anything like that, but she was an awful great sidekick today!" Mitzy had a huge smile across her face, one that was quite unusual for her, considering how upset she had been reading up to this day. "It feels so good to be the hero, don't you think?"
Confessional End
Vernon continued to leap from platform to platform, with Benjamin chasing after him like a madman. He looked back for a brief moment, only to see that the giant boy was jumping right towards his own platform. He gasped and fell back onto his butt while Benjamin landed. "This was a really fun chase! I would wanna play some more, but I think Chris would get mad at me for wasting time and whatnot. Oh well, it was fun while it lasted, right?"
"U-uh…" Vernon fumbled over his words as his eyes scanned the room to try and find a possible solution to the problem at hand. As he looked over at the ladder, he noticed that Celeste was scurrying down it, holding one of the nets that Amphitrite was launching at Margaret. "You know, who cares what Chris says! We could totally play around a little bit longer!"
"Uh…I dunno about that. I'm pretty sure that he would just get mad at me. He really does get mad at me over everything, like an abusive dad!" Benjamin chuckled for a moment, at least until something hit him in the back. He looked behind him to see the net that Celeste had thrown at him laying at his feet, while the girl herself was standing at the bottom of the ladder. "...Are you trying to play, too?"
"Um…if by playing you mean being a good distraction, then yes, I am playing!" Celeste smiled innocently before weakly pointing behind Benjamin. "Look at that!"
"Huh?" Benjamin turned around again to see that Vernon had scrambled to the platform that was connected to all the computers. He had his lasso ready in hand, and he threw it right to the green boy, wrapping him up tightly and tugging him over to the final platform. "Oh, man! You actually got me pretty good, there! But…you should probably let me go so I don't get in trouble."
"Oh, don't you worry…I'll let you go when we kick you off of the island." Vernon dropped the lasso, which still had Ben wrapped up tightly in it, and flashed a thumbs up to Celeste, who smiled back at him and waved. The songwriter walked over to the hostages, freeing them from their bindings. "Are all of you okay?"
The three of them stood up, disgruntled by what exactly had happened to them. "I think we're fine…those ropes were just a bit rough against the skin and all that." Dana stretched herself out, trying to shake off the tenseness that came along with being tied up. "Thanks for the save, though…I honestly didn't expect Chris to try and pull something like this."
"Ja, I zought zat he vas okay vith how ve vere running the show…talk about a sore loser." Aaron rubbed the back of his neck, secretly wishing that he wouldn't have to interact with Chris ever again.
"Man, those ropes were tight! I felt like my guts were getting squeezed out of my mouth!" Ivy chuckled before grabbing Vernon and pulling him in for a hug. "Thanks, Vernon."
"D-don't mention it!" Vernon blushed while Ivy hugged him, hugging her back tightly. Benjamin whistled while he sat on the ground, looking over to see Aaron and Dana standing over him with angry looks on their faces.
"Oh, hey! You guys are probably really mad, right? You should be more mad at Chris for that! I swear, it was all his idea! Though, I guess it wouldn't have been possible if that one contestant didn't tell him your whereabouts and schedule and all that." Benjamin paused for a moment, trying to remember the name of the contestant. "Bonnie, I think?"
"...Ronnie?" Dana looked up at Aaron with a confused look on her face before looking back at Benjamin. "You're saying that Ronnie told Chris…all that?"
Aaron grabbed his phone from his pocket, pulling up a database that had all the contestants in it. "Zis Ronnie?" He showed the picture to the boy, who nodded in response. "...Vhy vould he do zat?"
"I don't know, but I'm gonna find out once we all get out of here!" Dana had a vicious look fixed on her face, one that she hadn't ever shown before.
Confessional
"...Never seen her that mad before…like, ever." Celeste rubbed the back of her neck, choosing to avoid looking at the camera. "If I were Ronnie, I'd start running."
Confessional End
Yves was still crawling on the ground outside, trying to get close enough to Chef to wrap him up with her lasso. She had finally gained some good ground on the man, and was about ready to catch him, but when she swung the lasso forth, he threw his shield right at it, cutting it in half. Yves looked at the remaining rope she had, which wasn't even close to as much as she would need to fix a new lasso out of it. She looked back up fro the rope to see that Chef was now standing right in front of her, grinning as he looked down at her. "Well, you were definitely annoying, I'll give you that, girl. Unfortunately, you're run as a nuisance is up!"
The co-host got ready to knock her over the head with his shield, though he was suddenly stopped by a lasso gripping around him. It tightened up quickly, and he was pulled down to the ground. Yves gasped as she saw him falling, soon looking around to find out whoever it was that had thrown the lasso at him in the first place. Just a short walk off to the side, there was Brittany, who was chewing a piece of gum while she held onto the lasso. "Eh? Why are you looking at me like I did something super weird? I saved you because I don't wanna get kicked off the show, is all."
"...Right." Yves got up from the ground, running back to the other members of her team that had been knocked out. She passed by Zane first, stopping just before she got to the rest of the group. She looked back at him with a puzzled expression on her face, but soon shook it off before she continued back to the others.
Confessional
Yves looked down at the ground, not sure what to think of what Zane had done. She slowly looked up at the camera, opening her mouth to say something, though no words came out.
Confessional End
With five of the six members of Chris's group lassoed up, all that was left was for Ronnie to take care of Chris himself. The host cackled as he flew around the top of the water tower, not taking a single second to land. Ronnie gritted his teeth before sending his lasso flying at the host, though it was swiftly dodged. "There's no way I'm gonna let you stop my big return, dude! Just give up, and I may let you stay with the new contestants for helping me out. Sound like a good deal to you?"
"Nah, man, it don't. I know a thing about good deals…and that's that you don't stick to your end of the deal." Ronnie pulled the lasso back to him as he watched the host circle around him. "We had a deal before, a deal that you broke. And I'm damn sure that Imma teach you a lesson for breaking that one."
"How can you teach me a lesson when you can't even catch me? Just face it, you've got no way to get your hands on me! Since you don't wanna join me again, I guess I will have to get rid of you, just like all the others!" Chris continued to cackle while he flew, leaving Ronnie alone at the top of the tower. The athletic boy was truly out of his element…but being out of his element was his element. He took a deep breath before boasting a cocky grin. He started spinning around in circles, swinging the lasso around while he spun. Chris looked at him out of curiosity, "Are you seriously gonna try and hammer throw that lasso onto me? That's not gonna work!"
"Not even close, man!" Ronnie jumped up as high as he could, slamming the rope, which had reached top speeds, down into the water tower, causing it to crack from the blow. Water shot out in every direction, a bunch of it splashing on Chris. The host panicked as the water struck him, as his suit was soon shorting out entirely. He began to fall down from the air, but before he could, he was caught in the lasso, and pulled right back to Ronnie.
"H-hey, man! That was all just a goof, about kicking you off the island and everything! Seriously, I would never do that! Do I look like the kind of guy that would do something like that? I don't! Right?" Chris gulped nervously before Ronnie punched him right in the forehead, knocking him out cold. The competitive boy smirked at the sight, cracking his knuckles right after the punch.
"RONNIE!" Dana called up from the bottom of the water tower, bringing Ronnie's attention right to her. "WHAT'S THIS I HEAR ABOUT YOU SNEAKING AROUND IN MY OFFICE AND TELLING CHRIS MY SCHEDULE SO HE COULD KIDNAP ME!?"
"...Ah, shit."
Confessional
"Well…it may not be a great looking run, but you know what?" Ronnie glanced over at Chris, who was sitting next to him, still out cold. "...I'd say that proving this point was worth it."
Confessional End
The contestants, hosts, and Ivy all met back at the colosseum, where Ronnie and the six invaders were sitting on top of the trampoline. The anger on Dana's face was something that couldn't be matched by anyone. "I can't even say just how angry I am right now, words wouldn't be able to describe it! You almost got everybody kicked off of the island, and for what!?"
"Uh…well, you see, I actually made the deal so I could-"
"I don't even want to hear it! Just bounce, already!" Ronnie sighed as Dana yelled at him, jumping up as high as he could and slamming down on the trampoline, which sent all of him, and the other six, cascading into the distance. The host turned to face the other contestants. "Now, then…everyone, go back to the hotel. We have to get you well rested for the challenge tomorrow." She started to walk past the group, mumbling to herself all the way. "Two hostile takeovers in three days, I swear…"
Author's Notes:
*This is one that I thought should be obvious by the episode name. Ronnie got so caught up in wanting to keep his rival around, that he ended making a deal with the worst person to make a deal with. Lesson for everyone: never trust Chris McLean! Dude's only in it for himself. At this point, we are coming up close to the next aftermath. Max, CJ, and Ronnie will be there, as well as one more contestant after the next episode. Good time to start thinking up what questions you've got! Anyways, that's all from me! See you guys next time.
*Placements: No Placement - Chris; 22nd - Daniel; 21st - Larida; 20th - Mitchell; 19th - Alice; 18th - Blaster; 17th - Max; 16th - CJ; 15th - Ronnie