"Wicki-wiyeah! Welcome back to our neon wonderland, babies!" The view was that of a room that only had some illumination granted to it from the fireplace in the middle of the room. Even in that fireplace, it was artificial, having neon flames rather than real ones. A tall, cloaked figure stood nearby the fire, his body obscured by his black trench coat and a black fedora. "Bet you were expecting Chris, weren't ya? Too bad, so sad, he ain't doing the re-re-recap for this season, you're stuck with your pal, C.K.! Try not to miss the man too much, I gotta feelin' you'll be seeing him at the end of this one. That out of the way…l-l-layust time on Total Drama: Neon City– we had our big debut, baby! Chris and Chef hid themselves somewhere in the city that sleeps during the day and parties hard during the night, awaiting the arrival of twenty-two new dreamers! Some of 'em ain't seemed too wild, looking at folks like Leo and Bec, but we've definitely got some party animals with those folks like Cherry! And don't even get me started on the complete wackadoos…is Gerald really talkin' to somebody, or's he just batshit? Guess we ain't gonna find out until he's ready to explain! Dreamers were split into two teams, Team A-Side and Team B-Side, each consisting of eleven! Heheh, can't say I expect any of them to have amazing teamwork from the get go, but we'll see what happens! Everybody, pop a squat and get yourself a drink, we're diving right back into our party right now!"
The neon moon started scratching itself like a record, eventually spinning wildly out of control while the sound meter around it went wild. A beam of neon light shot down into the ground below, bringing the view past a rooftop that had Chris and Chef standing atop it, as well as the cloaked figure of C.K.. The trio were laughing to themselves as the beam passed them by, and they soon disappeared from sight.
"B-b-break it down, dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," a car burst from where the beam of light had landed, revealing Atlas driving while Bec was in the passenger seat with him. The duo grinned the same grin at the camera as they passed it by, with another car following behind in their wake.
"The highlife's been on my mind," the second car was veering off the road wildly, being that of Jhin, who was too busy eating a tree branch that she had found to be focused on the road she was driving on. She ended up crashing through the wall of a building, revealing a nightclub full of people.
"You asked me where I wanted to be, and now I'm right here, can't you see?" Leo stood near the now open hole in the wall, his jaw practically dropped to the floor, but he was soon shoved aside to safety as Jhin drove right back through it. He looked to see that Gwendolyn had saved him, and looked about ready to tear him a new one.
"I wanna be famous!" Over at the bar, Cherry was downing a shot of liquor and proudly heading off to the dance floor while Amanda just stared at her own shot glass, turning her nose up at the very scent of it.
"I wanna live away from the sun," the camera panned up from the nightclub to the next floor, which was much more of a lounge that had a couple contestants sitting on couches. Eli had himself posted on one of them, sitting back and covering his ears while Suzie started explaining the entire lore of Among Us to him.
"So pack your bags, 'cause the party's begun!" On one of the other couches, 3V was downing an entire flask of some sort of liquor while Elward watched her in some sort of dumbfounded trance, eventually pulling out his own futuristic looking flask but accidentally pouring his drink all over his one working eye.
"Daylife's no way to live with nothing to gain, it ain't no claim to fame," far back in the corner of the room, Henry and Heath were hiding themselves from everybody else, but Heath's hand slowly raised up with Jean-Paul rattling his wooden jaw, startling the two of them so much so that they got up and ran right into each other, falling to the ground with a joint thud.
"I wanna be famous!" Giselle popped out of a closet from the same corner of the room, wearing a playboy bunny suit and putting on a flashy display, but when she saw that the two boys were unconscious, she fell to her knees and started screaming at the sky.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na!" The next floor up from the lounge seemed to look like a sort of laser tag arena, where Gerald was frantically running away from Morgan, who was firing her laser gun at him. Her shots entirely missed, but one must've struck Allan, as Gerald stopped running and started to cry, holding the invisible friend's body in his arms.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Marshmallow ecstatically ran right through where the two of them were, flailing her arms and screaming in delight while a confused Edward followed after her, shrugging his shoulders when he looked at the camera.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" At the upper ground of the laser tag arena, Bailey and Eliza were firing at each other, but the lasers stopped coming at Bailey after some time, and she looked up to notice that Eliza had completely passed out on the floor. The cold girl looked at the camera helplessly before tossing her laser gun up into the air. As it came sinking back down, it fell into the neon fire on top of the tallest skyscraper, directly in between Garfield and Zayden, who were having a stand-off while the other contestants sat around them and whistled. Chris, Chef, and C.K. stood over at a podium near the hyperspace tube and snapped in unison for a neon sign to flash on the screen with the words "Total Drama: Neon City."
It was definitely still incredibly late at night, as the moon was still visible and the streets were still primarily dark. Of course, the neon was there to give it that breath of life, and the beats pouring out of the open windows of nightclubs all along the city were adding to it. But for now, the highlife was on the streets, with twenty-two vehicles driving around wildly in pursuit of Chris and Chef, or at least some sort of clue as to where the duo might've been hiding. Suzie had taken herself off of the main streets, however, instead driving through any alleyway that she could manage to squeeze herself into.
"Oh, I probably should've mentioned it before, but I guess it slipped my mind!" Chris's voice came calling through the stereo in Suzie's car, getting some of her attention, though the bulk of it was still on the alleys she was trying not to crash in. "You'll find a bunch of neon totems throughout the city! Each totem is gonna have a button on it. You press the button, a holographic arrow will flash above it and point in the direction that you'll need to head from where you are to find us! That's all I've got for you guys, so get back on it already!"
"Oh, so it's just like an objective marker in a video game? Psh, this is gonna be way easier than I thought! …As long as Gerald and that Allan don't try to stab me in the back while I'm snooping around." Suzie narrowed her eyes and glanced from side to side, not noticing that one of the totems was right in front of her until she crashed head on to it and went flying right through her windshield. She went splat against the wall of a building a little ways ahead, slowly sliding down on it until she flopped on her back on the ground.
"Urgh…just like a bird flying into a car window…" Despite the aching in her bones, Suzie shot up from the ground pretty quickly, shaking herself off and running to the neon totem that she crashed into to press the button on it. "It's really weird that this thing is stronger than the car, but I guess it really got coded as an impenetrable surface. Says to go…west from here? Okily dokily!" Ignoring her injuries, the gamer girl hopped back into her car and started to back away from the scene of her accident.
"Hm…oh, right! We can talk to the other teams through our radios!" Suzie smirked and wiggled her fingers before pressing the team-chat button on her stereo system, causing it to beep with a red light flashing on it. "Guys, guys, I went and found one of those totem things! There's no imposters on this channel, are there?"
"Just tell us what the totem said, would you?" A grouchy boy's voice came out through the radio, not one that Suzie really recognized.
"Yeesh, okay! It says that it's west from…uh…somewhere on Blitz Street! Nearest corner is Blitz and Flash! Geez, these names are really lazy." Suzie sputtered her lips, finally getting back onto the road to see that Eli was driving past her on his motorcycle.
"By the way, lady, you're on the wrong station. Thanks for the tip, though!" Eli snickered and drove by, his voice coming both from himself and Suzie's radio. The gamer girl embarrassedly turned her team-chat button off and glanced at the camera while blushing.
Confessional - Suzie
"W-well…it looks to me like I was the imposter on the wrong channel, huh?" Suzie looked entirely embarrassed of flubbing that up already, as she couldn't maintain eye contact with the camera anymore. "I-it's not the end of the world, though! It's only one tip…I'll just have to not press that button anymore until I can figure out how to fix this thing."
"Tsk, tsk, talk about tripping before you even started running! Ah, well, we're bound to have a heap of screw ups with so many people competing for a big prize!" C.K. snickered to himself while Suzie kept on driving down Blitz Street, "Maybe the other B-Side members won't be so disappointing."
"H-hey, I can hear you!"
"Buwuh? Girl, this is a private channel, how are you hearing me?"
"Talk about lucking out without even having to try," Eli kept on driving west, as Suzie's little snippet had told him to, and he noticed Bailey's truck just a little ways further up the street. She was probably driving as fast as she could, but considering that he had a motorcycle and she had a truck, it really didn't take him too much time to catch up to her. As he slowed a bit to drive alongside her, he noticed that she was shivering, even with the car being practically orange from the heat. "Pretty nice of your teammate to go and give my team a tip so early, hu?"
"W-w-what?" Bailey gave Eli a side glance, her hands trying their best to fight against the immense wave of shivers that she knew was coming for her. The boy looked back at her, confused about what it was that was making it so cold when it was considerably warm for a late night. She looked like she was studying him, her eyes looking up and down at him in a way that sort of made him feel uncomfortable. "...You look really warm."
"Eh? What's that supposed to mean?" Eli found himself more confused with the girl, whose gaze started to soften.
"...N-n-nothing, you just look warm, that's all." Eli was all too weirded out at this point, and sped ahead so that he wouldn't have to deal with Bailey acting so strange. She was left to sigh to herself, slouching slightly forward in her seat.
Confessional - Bailey
"Something that I always t-t-tend to notice is people that look really warm…I-I-I always feel more comfortable when I have a few of them around. S-since I have a hard time keeping warm myself, I usually hug one of them and that d-d-does the trick." Bailey shivered some more before attempting to give herself a hug, but there was no noticeable change in her shivering. "S-see, it's not the same if I d-d-do it myself."
"Man, this is the most driving I've ever had to do in…ever! I'm getting really sleepy, too," Leo yawned, fanning himself with one of his hands as his tired eyes glanced about at the street signs, all of which seemed to be blending in with the rest of the neon. He hadn't noticed, but his car was starting to swerve from side to side, mainly due to him being so exhausted. "M-maybe this wasn't such a good idea…"
"Pst, Leo!" Zayden's voice started coming through Leo's radio, alerting the boy and getting him to snap back to attention. "I'm right behind you…are you doing alright up there?" Leo reached down to his team-chat button, pressing it so he could talk back to the cone-wearing boy.
"I'm alright, just a bit tired, I guess. A-ah! No need to worry about me, though!" Leo looked a bit embarrassed from the sudden attention, and Zayden pulled around so he was driving alongside him, clearly worried for his well being.
"Well, I've got a couple energy drinks if you're really tired. Just, uh, you know…don't really count on sleeping too well after the challenge is all done." Zayden smiled and tossed a can over to Leo, who happened to catch it with one hand pretty easily. The babysitter smiled slightly at the motherly boy, at least until someone else started speaking through the radio.
"Boys, I get that you're trying to flood this channel with icky gooey grossness, but we're all trying to not have to eliminate someone tonight if you could maybe stay focused on that instead." They recognized the sassy voice as Morgan, both of them quickly turning off their team-chat and driving on ahead, with another car quietly trailing behind them.
"J-just stay quiet and they won't notice that they're leading me to water, right?" Heath nervously looked at Jean-Paul, who was sitting completely still in the passenger seat of the car. "R-right, it's too dangerous to talk to you while I'm driving. I just hope that nobody notices…they won't notice…they won't…right?" Again, the puppet wasn't talking or moving, and Heath just whimpered and continued to follow the other two boys.
Confessional - Heath
"I've had Jean-Paul for…well, a really long time. We're sort of inseparable. The only issue is that I've never…really had much luck with talking to other people. He's definitely the one that's got the people skills of our little duo…" Heath propped Jean-Paul up so that he was facing the camera.
"Nyaha! That's exactly it, my shy buddy! I just wish that we could go talk to the others, I wanna make a whole bunch of new buddies for us!" Jean-Paul did a funny dance while Heath silently giggled behind him. "It's all alright, though! If we follow 'em, we'll be able to make new friends after we steal the win from under their noses!"
"Can't even start with some dancing yet, they've got us still driving around. Ooo, those hosts sure know how to tease." Cherry gave her fuzzy dice a flick as she sped down one of the main roads, not paying much attention to the signs; they were essentially all just a bunch of blurs anyways. She started whistling while she drove, with another vehicle starting to honk loudly behind her. "Someone's itchin' on their horn, aren't they?" She took a glance up in her rear view mirror, but whoever it was was gone by now. "Hm…well, I don't remember poppin' any happy pills, but maybe I did."
"LADY YOU ARE TAKING UP THE WHOLE ROAD!" The honking came from the side of Cherry's car this time, and she turned to see Jhin glaring at her. The madwoman wasn't sitting up normally, though, she had herself seated on the dashboard, hands on the wheel grabbing from the wrong side, and one of her legs somehow managing to get down to the gas pedal through all that mess.
"...Love, I'm half sure that's not how you're supposed to drive, but maybe I'm the one that's been doing it wrong this whole time. I've never been known for being the best listener…or rule follower, for that matter." Cherry teasingly stuck her tongue out at Jhin, who just widened her eyes and stared at her all crazylike.
"Listen here, you! I know exactly what you're trying to do! Woo me over with that sexy stare! Well, it isn't gonna work, I can stare way more sexily than you can!" Jhin closed her eyes for a second, slowly opening them and fluttering her lashes as she lightly tugged on her bottom lip. "Don't you wanna fall under my spell, Cherry? I promise, I won't bite…mu- ACK!" She wasn't paying attention to where she was going and swiftly veered into a lamp post, with Cherry chuckling at her misfortune.
"Little note for ya, love…if you have to try to be sexy you aren't actually being sexy." The party gal flipped her hair and continued further down the road until she eventually came across one of the neon posts that Chris had mentioned before. She parked pretty close to it, hopping over her door rather than opening it before strutting over to press the button. The arrow pointed north from where she was standing. "North, huh…? What street was I on again?" She started to look around for the nearest street sign, only to find that it had been crushed by the fallen lamppost from Jhin's accident. "...Oh, just lovely."
Confessional - Cherry
"Would it've paid for me to give some more attention to the names of the places I was driving through? Maybe…but I'll pass another sign at some point. Let's just hope I actually take a gaze at it this time around." Cherry snickered to herself as she continued to speed down the street, passing right by the wreckage of Jhin's accident. "Eh…I'm sure she'll be just fine. Not my job to care about the other team, anyways."
Confessional - Jhin
"Urgh…you think you can keep me down, you lamppost? Oh, I'll show you a thing or two!" Jhin pounced from her seat in her dilapidated car, grabbing the remnants of the lamppost and throttling it back and forth repeatedly before picking it up and chucking it off into the distance. She dusted her hands off and spit on the ground in front of her, "That oughta teach you to get in my way!"
"Hu…hu…" Henry breathed heavily through his mouth as he drove through the streets, still clearly frazzled from having to go to this brand new place and meet all the new people. As far as he could tell, he was alone where he was right now; there weren't even that many lit up parts or signs on the sidelines. After some point of driving, the whole area was entirely dark, leaving him with only his headlights to follow. "W-where…did I take a wrong turn somewhere?"
"U-um…" Henry gulped nervously as his headlights started to flicker, though he turned them on to the high beams so they were at least a little brighter. He hadn't noticed any signs that said he was leaving the city or anything like that, but he thought that he might've missed something in the midst of his driving. He slowly reached his hand down to turn on his team-chat button. "U-u-uh…guys…I think…I'm…l-lost."
"Good fucking grief, how'd you manage to go and do that?" Gwendolyn barked through the radio, causing Henry to whimper to himself. "...Are you fucking whining? Bitch, you get yourself lost and now you're whining because I called out your idiocy? You've got to be fucking joking!"
"I-I…like…big women…" There was complete silence on the station after Henry said what he said, taking a few seconds for someone to finally speak up and end the awkwardness.
"...Guys, it says to go South from the center of the roundabout with Hectic Road, Thistle Street, and Viper Lane…but I've got someone following me." Edward mumbled into his end of the radio while he drove through the roundabout, taking a look in his rearview to see that Gerald wasn't too far behind him in his yacht. "...Who in the hell brings a yacht to the streets?"
"You sure this is the right way to go, Captain Allan? Ah, who am I to argue with your judgment, you've never been wrong about anything like this before! Oh, maybe we should go a bit faster though, right?" Gerald stared at the empty helmsman's seat, giggling excitedly after a good load of nothing happened. "You got it, captain! Full speed ahead!" The crazed boy pushed the throttle all the way up, causing the yacht to tug along even faster than before. The scraping noises got violently loud, alerting Edward almost immediately. Luckily for the childlike man, he was able to swerve out of the way before the yacht crashed into him, but it was still nerve-racking. He pulled to the shoulder of Thistle Street, watching the yachet as it passed by.
"...Some people are legitimately crazy," he grumbled to himself as he nonchalantly pulled out a permanent marker from his shirt pocket and started writing some words down on his left forearm.
Confessional - Edward
"I've always had this habit of scribbling on things, but it's not like a bloke's got enough paper to be scribbling on at any given time. I turn to using my own arms…can wash off something if need be." Edward held up his arms to show the mess of words that were scrawled about, none of them making any logical sense whatsoever. "Anytime I start stressing, I turn to scribbling. It's distracting enough, I'd say. Mum always liked that quirk of mine."
Confessional - Gerald and Allan
"Allan's basically me, but ten times better at everything imaginable! I'm okay with people, but he's way better at talking to them! I'm not too bad at cooking up some grub, but anything he makes is practically a five star meal!" Gerald chuckled as he "patted Allan on the back," staring at the camera with his innocent eyes. "Situational awareness is definitely another one of his strong suits…he was basically screaming at me that there was a guy we were about to crush but I didn't even see him!"
"This just isn't fair! Momma wants to spend more time with all her new teammates and get to know them better! I just wanna coddle someone, is that too much to ask?" Giselle groaned loudly and slammed her forehead against the horn of her steering wheel, sending out this loud blare that echoed throughout the streets. She pulled her head back up soon enough, watching as one of the other cars pulled up nearby her. It wasn't someone on her team, though, just Marshmallow drinking a five-liter bottle of sugary soda while using her knees to drive. "You…should probably focus on the road, lil baby."
"Glug, glug, glug," Marshmallow didn't respond, or even try to for that matter, at least until the very last drop of that soda went down the hatch. She pulled the bottle away from her lips, tossing it into the pile of bottles that was forming in her backseat before taking a look at Giselle with a confused stare. "Huh? But the road's not going anywhere, why would I bother staying focused on it? I can see why my dad likes drinking and driving so much!"
"...Lil baby, I dunno if that's what you think it is," Giselle seemed genuinely concerned as Marshmallow loosely shrugged her shoulders with a dopey smile on her face. "But ignoring that…you came to drive alongside momma! That could only mean one thing…ah, you wanna be my special little girl!"
"I don't know what that is, but people always told me that I was special anyways. Also I'm little, and a girl, so I guess I am all three of those things already." Marshmallow loosely shrugged as she reached over to her passenger seat to grab a handful of her namesake and toss each and everyone into her mouth, chowing down on them slowly and purposefully.
"...Momma's gonna have to teach you not to eat so much sweets, though…they're gonna rot out those pearly whites of yours." Giselle still seemed pretty worried about Marshmallow, but the sugar lover seemed to be wholly indifferent to this.
"The doctors said I'm a weird case that can't handle eating a bunch of regular people foods, so I'm only really allowed to eat sweets! I get myself a pretty big tummy ache if I try to put anything other than a sweet treat in my mouth." Marshmallow gave her belly a pat and started to speed past Giselle, waving at her as she drove away.
"What a strange lil baby…n-no need to worry, though! Momma's gonna smother you with all her love…ooo, you're gonna have so much fun nuzzled up in my breast." Giselle closed her eyes and cooed as she rocked an imaginary baby back and forth. "Rockabye baby, momma is here. Momma won't leave you have nothing to fear!" She chirped in her sing-song tune, opening her eyes again to find that she had somehow gotten herself into an underground tunnel, which still had a plethora of neon lights in it. "O-oh! How did we end up down here?"
"You were zoning out while you were driving. I tried telling you but you were too busy saying something about smothering a baby with your breasts." The only other vehicle in the tunnel happened to be that of Amanda, who was staring blankly at a puzzled Giselle. "I think it's not good to let babies see your breasts unless it's your baby, you could really get in a lot of trouble doing that."
"Red baby, momma wasn't talking about a literal baby, more like a term of endearment." Giselle giggled, but her laughter faded away as she noticed that Amanda still wasn't quite getting what she was trying to say. "I'm gonna drive away from you know…all that staring is creeping momma out…" The wannabe MILF drove on ahead, with Amanda blinking a few times as she reached into her pocket to grab a hold of her coin from before.
"I didn't think I was staring…should I apologize? I should apologize. I should apologize. She's…very far ahead now. I should apologize later." Amanda continued muttering to herself, clutching onto that coin and taking the left path that forked from the main tunnel ahead, ending up in a clearing with another one of those neon totems. The sight of it made her wince, and she grabbed a pair of red-framed sunglasses from her glove box to put them on and soften the blow a bit, soon parking and getting out of her car.
"It's so bright…it's so bright…" Amanda whimpered as she slowly started to shuffle towards the totem, not looking at it as she did. She reached around blindly to press the button on the top of it, quickly glancing at it and immediately looking away. Normally, that type of glance wouldn't provide much information at all to anyone, but it seemed that she got exactly what she needed. She hurried on back to her car to press the team-chat button in it. "We go up from the service tunnel. It's not underground."
Confessional - Amanda
"I don't have good social understanding, as I've been told. That's why Giselle got creeped out by me staring at her. I stare a lot, not because I mean to stare, it's just a habit. I overanalyze things sometimes, I've heard." Amanda had her coin out in her hand, flipping it while she was taking some oddly sporadic breaths, "I…like my coins. They help make me not have to worry about getting too upset. I…like my coins." After a few flips, her breathing seemed to return back to normal, and she put her coin back into her pocket and continued driving through the tunnel.
Confessional - Giselle
"Momma is in the game for getting a special baby that she can share her bed with every night! I wanna kiss them goodnight…on the lips…and all over their everything." Giselle started to drool, blushing like a madwoman before sucking her spittle back into her own mouth. "I-I'm sure that I'm gonna find somebody to be that baby for me soon enough…though I've got my sights set on a few in particular."
"Talk about perverted, am I right? Ain't nothing wrong with that, though! Hell, I'd let her mommy up on me if I wasn't a min- I mean…get back to watching the show!" C.K. suddenly sounded really embarrassed about something, but it wasn't really clear what that was.
"Just look around for totems, look around for totems, they aren't animatronics, you've got nothing to worry about, Eliza. I don't think I've passed on this block yet…and none of my teammates have found any totems yet…okay, just need to find some totems, no biggie." Eliza let out a drawn out yawn as she turned a corner to head up an incline. The incline was pretty steep, and it eventually turned into a downhill slope that led into an area with a plethora of Chinese decorations of sorts. It was odd, as the neon had been replaced with more rustic lamplights that were hanging overhead. Nonetheless, it seemed like even this part of the city was still awake and partying, just in their own way.
"I don't get it…is this still the Neon City? It looks more like Chinatown to me…" Eliza let her eyes wander around the scene as she had started driving a bit slower, noticing that there was a sign overhead that read "Welcome to Chinatown." "...Oh…I didn't know that this place would have one of these, but that's pretty cool. Wait a second, is that…" Eliza narrowed her eyes and looked dead ahead to see 3V getting tossed out of a bar and landing right on her butt. "...What's she doing in there?"
"Oh, fine, I'll just get my drinks in elsewhere! Pfft, who would've thought they'd care at all about me already being tipsy? I'm tipsy, not wasted!" 3V shook her fist at the bar before heading back to her motorcycle, finding that Eliza had pulled up next to it and was waiting for her there. "Huh? Oh, hey pizza lady! I was pretty sure that I called you a few days ago…and that you already delivered my order…but I won't complain about a second pizza for free!" The drunkard happily held her arms out and waited for Eliza to hand her a pizza, but that pizza never came.
"What are you doing going into random bars…we're in the middle of a challenge, aren't we?" Eliza rubbed the back of her head nervously, not wanting to attract too much attention to herself. "I-I just think that we might have better chances if we're actually driving around the city and looking for those totems."
"...Huh? Oh! Haha!" 3V reached down and slapped her own knee with her prosthetic hand, "I knew I was forgetting about something when I went to sit down for a drink! Yeah, yeah, I was supposed to tell you before, but I found one of those totemy things! I kinda got distracted when I saw this uh…Baji…Buju…whatever, I can't pronounce that!" The drunkard annoyedly pointed at the sign above the bar, which read "Can't Baijiu Love." "Anyways…the totem was just around the corner, but it was pointing…uhhhhh…up at some angle. So probably…they're up on a roof or something?"
"On one of the rooftops…okay!" Eliza nodded at 3V before she turned on her team-chat to repeat what she had just been told.
Confessional - Eliza
"I'm not exactly the best when it comes to maintaining myself due to certain…circumstances…b-but I know that I sure don't wanna let my boss down and lose so early! He said this would be a good chance for me to get a break from all of my trauma, so I'm gonna fight until I can't fight anymore!" Eliza held a thumbs up to the camera before devolving into a massive yawn. "...I-it'll be good when we can finally get to our new beds, though…i-if I can even fall asleep in them.
Confessional - 3V
"How many beers have I had tonight? Uh…maybe…twelve? Not enough to really get drunk, but I'm starting to buzz." 3V stuck her tongue out as she grinned from ear to ear. "Hey, don't blame me for dippin' into the sauce, you would too if you looked like a toasted cyclops! It's okay, you can laugh! People get way too worried about offending people these days, just laugh everything off, yeesh.
"On a roof somewhere in the Chinatown District? Man, if only I knew where the Chinatown District was!" Atlas chuckled as he sped down one of the main roads, looking around at each sign that he passed by, trying to glean some information from them, but not really seeing anything about a district anywhere. "Man, this is gonna be a lot of stuff to remember, haha! Guess the plan's just gonna have to be to drive around until we end up there one way or another!"
"Hey, hey!" Atlas could hear the vague noise of someone shouting behind him, and when he checked his rearview, he saw Garfield pulling up to him. It took the politician wannabe a little while to catch up to the football player, but when he did, Atlas noticed the horribly grim look on his face. "Y-you can't keep going down this way, man! I know we're not on the same team or anything, but I couldn't live with myself if I let you go down there!"
"H-huh? What's wrong with going this way? It looks like any other part of the city to me." Atlas started to slow down his driving speed a bit as he looked ahead, noticing that the lights seemed to change colors a bit up ahead, being a more warm mix of colors than the usual cool colors.
"One of our guys was going down this way earlier, talking about the lights changing and everything. He went dark in the middle of talking to us on the radio!" Garfield let out some obnoxious tears that probably wouldn't have fooled anybody else, but Atlas seemed to fall right for them.
"T-that's horrible! I can help look for him in the-"
"NO! A-ah…I mean…the best help that you could do is making sure that nobody else goes down this way for me. He's my teammate, so as the leader of the team, I have to go in and get him on my own! I promised I would keep all my teammates safe and sound, after all!" Garfield now had a much more heroic look on his face, bringing a tear to Atlas's eye.
"So…heroic…so brave. You got it! I'll make sure nobody else comes down this way…godspeed!" Atlas swiftly did a u-turn on the road, heading back in the direction that he was initially coming from while Garfield sped on ahead. Once the football player was out of sight, the wannabe politician started snickering, his snickering devolving into more of a maniacal laughter as he drove on into the Chinatown District.
Confessional - Garfield
"Yeah, yeah, I know…how'd I learn that tidbit 'bout the totem in Chinatown? Well, let's just say that a certain cyborg with overgrown hearing aids really loves putting his radio on the highest setting." Garfield snickered to himself as he drove through the streets of Chinatown, taking in the scenery as he passed it all by. "As far as tricking Atlas goes…dude's a jock. Made enough sense to me that he'd fall for something so obviously wrong. Him and Elward better hope that the rest of the team doesn't learn about my little espionage after I score my team the win tonight. Can't say I think their own team would be too thrilled 'bout it."
"Oho, man! That guy really is a piece of work, ain't he? Hey, I dig it, gotta have someone that knows how to use the people to real amp these things up to eleven!' C.K. laughed evilly over the view of Garfield driving around.
"So c-creepy…so dark…" Henry gulped nervously as he drove throughout the darkened part of the city that he had wandered into, his bright lights still not doing much of anything for him. It was incredibly silent, as well, as his voice seemed to echo about every single nook and cranny, coming back to him even louder than before. "U-ugh! I need to get out of here! Which way is out? How did I even get in here in the first place?" Henry started whimpering until he saw another set of lights in his rearview mirror. He snapped his head around to see an ambulance pulled up behind him, with Gwendolyn's head sticking out of it. "U-uh oh…"
"You're a complete fucking idiot, you know that, right? You probably have to ask your mom how to get under the covers every time you try to go to bed!" Gwendolyn pulled up alongside him, both of them coming to a complete stop as she stared him down and berated him for his insolence. "Just think about what would've happened if I didn't come here to rescue your pitiful ass! You might've gotten hurt and bled out and died, wouldn't be too happy with yourself then, would you? You fucking idiot, Henry!"
"Gw-gwah…y…you're so tall and big and scary…" Henry whimpered some more, trying to make himself look smaller and weaker so that Gwendolyn might leave him alone, but that didn't seem to do the trick at all.
"Oh, don't you try and hide yourself from me! This is your mess that you've made and now you get to deal with me rubbing your face in it! For the love of, just fucking follow me out of here! We've got a challenge we're supposed to be doing right now, and you just sitting here in the dark isn't doing anything to help anyone." Gwendolyn grumbled and turned her ambulance around, with Henry slowly doing the same. At that time, her radio flared up with someone speaking out of it.
"Team, this is your captain speaking, just tapping in to let you know that the hosts are secluded somewhere in the Chinatown District! Heh, found the whole lot of Team B-Side scouring the place, so I could maybe use a hand or three over here." Garfield sounded as cocky as ever, but Gwendolyn didn't have anything to say, but Morgan certainly did.
"Oh, here you go again, proclaiming your damn self as the captain that nobody wanted! The world doesn't need a muscular Guy Fieri as a leader, they want someone hot, like me!" Gwendolyn groaned as the two of them bickered, slamming her fist down on her radio.
"Shut the fuck up already! Just stop! You two sound like a fucking married couple! Just keep looking for the damn hosts and keep your face holes shut!" The radio went silent after that, and Gwedolyn continued to slowly lead Henry out of the darkened part of the city.
Confessional - Gwendolyn
"I seriously can't handle any of these fucking people, they're all so goddamn pitiful! I was hoping I might have some non-moronic people on my team, but clearly that was too much to ask for! Ugh, what the fuck ever, I could give less than two shits about it." Gwendolyn grumbled to herself as she drove, though she didn't look at the camera, she kept her eyes on the road.
Time had passed since Eliza first told her team about 3V's discovery in Chinatown, and plenty of the players had taken a B-line right to the district in search of more totems. The people of the district locked themselves inside their homes and business, with the commotion on the streets being far more hectic than they had anticipated dealing with at all. It seemed like the only two cars that weren't in the district at all actually belonged to the duo of Atlas and Bec, who were still parked by the outskirts, though nobody was driving towards them to enter the district.
"Yeesh, I expected more people to be coming around here…guess they all figured out about the danger and went to flock to wherever Chinatown is." Atlas leaned back in his seat, resting his head against his arms while glancing over at Bec, who was parked right next to him. The clayshaper did a similar motion, ending with him lounging in that same relaxed position. "You know, thanks for at least coming here to play guard with me. I'm more of an offense player, I was getting kinda bored working on interception."
"Aha, no problem my friend! I don't like to be the one to defend, either, but in a case like this, well, it feels almost like a sworn duty!" Bec grinned widely, his teeth sparkling while Atlas chuckled at his enthusiasm. "Though, I do find myself with some questions about this…are we not posted outside one of the entrances to Chinatown right now? I remember seeing it on a map earlier...Vex Road going southbound goes right into Chinatown."
"Huh?" Atlas' eyebrow cocked up as Bec offered him this new information, giving him some time to think about it. He glanced behind him, taking note of the color-change that he had spotted earlier, with the colors going from the typical neon to a few warmer hues. He stared and stared, with Bec staring with him, the two slowly turning to face each other with blank looks on their faces. "...Hey, Bec?"
"Yes, my friend?"
"...I think that guy from the other team maybe was lying when he told me it was dangerous up ahead."
"...I think that is a very reasonable conclusion to come to."
"...Welp," Atlas cracked his knuckles, each crack echoing loudly, even amidst the already loud noise that buzzed from the city. Without a word, he reached his hand down to his gear shift, putting it into reverse before wildly spinning around and speeding back down the path to Chinatown. Bec grinned as he watched him drive away, reaching for his own gear shift to do the exact same reverse technique. With the addition of those two, everybody was now in the more rustic district of the city, closing in on their search for the hosts.
Confessional - Bec
"Hello, my friends! I'm not much one to enjoy the gossip, but I do love to say hi to all of the people back home! Hello, people back home!" Bec grinned at the camera as he sped down Vex Road, finally crossing the border into Chinatown. "Atlas sometimes…he has lapses in his judgment when it comes to the goodness of other people. I cannot fault him for this, I'd say that I'm the exact same way at times! Ah, it is a shame that someone is already taking advantage of his kindness, though."
"Geez, did we wander back into ancient history or something? What happened to all the fun neon lights and crazy signs? This is so boring!" Elward groaned as he sped through Chinatown on his motorcycle, hunting down more of the totems but not having any luck. For some reason, there wasn't really anything bright and popping to stick out in the warm atmosphere, just endless amounts of Chinese lanterns. "Man, you would expect to see these things sticking out like a sore thumb, but there ain't a single one of them here!" Elward started to slow his bike until he came to a complete stop, letting out a sigh and slouching forward on his bike.
"Well…it may not be so easy to see what I'm looking for, but I think I've got a solution that might help me pick up on it another way." Elward grinned as he reached his hands up to his ear devices, pressing in the center buttons on each of them and causing a holographic HUD screen to flash in front of him.
"Hello, Elward! How can I assist you?" The AI voice that was programmed into his devices was chipper and vaguely feminine, bringing a smile to his face when he heard her speaking.
"Yeah, HAILEY! I'm gonna need you to tune out all noises except for the humming of neon. That won't be too much for you, will it?" Elward looked confident as the HUD flashed a smiley face at him.
"Of course not, my master~!" The AI sounded extraordinarily flirtatious as she spoke, with Elward blushing ever so slightly. Her screen started to load up a bit, with a few messages popping up to say what noises were being canceled out. When she was done, Elward could no longer hear anything other than some distant whirring, and a message flashed on her screen that read, "All noises have been tuned out, including voices. Don't hesitate to activate me again when you're ready to-"
"THANK YOU, HAILEY! I THINK I HEAR SOMETHING NOT TOO FAR OFF FROM HERE!" Hailey had a woozy look on her screen from being screamed at by Elward, who tapped the buttons on his ears again to retract her back into the devices. With all the noise but the whirring canceled out at this point, he got back to driving, heading straight in the direction of the annoying noise, a grin on his proud face.
Confessional - Elward
"HAILEY IS A LITTLE AI THAT I PUT TOGETHER SOME TIME AFTER I BUILT MY BROTHER! I HAVEN'T MADE A BODY FOR HER YET, BUT THE PERSONALITY IS ALL WORKING OUT PERFECTLY!" Elward was still shouting obnoxiously, with him being deaf to everything around him but that noise. "HER NAME STANDS FOR HANDMADE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LADY FOR ELWARD'S YOOSE! YES, I KNOW USE DOESN'T START WITH A Y! I COULDN'T THINK OF A GOOD Y WORD, OKAY!?"
"Yo, man, ain't no need to be yellin' about all that. This is supposed to be a chill vibes station, not the burn victim ranting channel."
"GUYS, HEAD TO THE DRUNKEN JADESTONE! I FOUND A TOTEM OUTSIDE OF IT THAT'S POINTING STRAIGHT UP!" Elward's voice blared out through the radios of the other members of Team B-Side, but he was shouting so viciously loud that even members of Team A-Side that were driving around the district heard what he was saying. One such member that picked up on it was Morgan, mainly because she was already near where the pseudo-cyborg was. A smirk popped onto her face as she saw him wandering around the totem pole, staring up at the roofs in search of the missing hosts.
"Leading me right to the prize that I'm looking for? Talk about makin' it too easy for your gurl to get her credit! Heh, I'd love to see the look on my brother's face when he hears that my team won the first challenge and not his!" Morgan cackled to herself as she parked near the totem and jumped out of her car, strutting towards some of the buildings. She watched Elward as he aimlessly wandered around, his height not giving him any sort of advantage in his search. "Man, that other team ain't even trying, are they?" The cheerleader shook her head at him before cracking her knuckles.
"See, everybody knows that the best way to get a crowd riled up is with a classic cheer routine." With grand bravado, Morgan took in a deep breath before shouting at the top of her lungs, "Give me an 'N!'" No response came from the first letter, but it didn't seem that she expected to get anything. "Give me an 'E!' Give me an 'O!' Give me an 'N!' What does that spell!?" She cuffed her hand around her ear, waiting for a response to come when finally…
"Neon! Ah, dangit, man!" Morgan recognized the voice as that of Chef Hatchet, and noted that it was coming from the top of a building about three doors down from where she was posted currently. She grinned widely and started booking it towards the building just as more cars were parking, with one car parking right in front of the building, that being the car of Garfield, who jumped right out to join her.
"You again, frosted tips!? Ain't you seen that I got this building all handled on my own!? Go find your own place to check!" The cheerleader hissed as she pulled the door open and ran inside, with Garfield following after her and completely ignoring her warning from before. "Boy, do your ears not work or something? I said to beat it!"
"Oh, relax, would you? Everybody knows that teamwork is key in these trying times! Think of me joining your search as some added security…we don't want any of the members from the other party thinking they've got this win in the bag." Garfield spoke cockily as always, with the two of them starting to run up the stairs in the back of the building. As they ran up them, he heard the door opening from the main room, with several other contestants, some from each team, coming in through them. "Would you look at that? Pays to have two of us on the same team ahead of the game."
"Oh, just shove it already!" Morgan snapped back at Garfield, who shrugged as the duo continued up the many flights of stairs, so many other contestants following after them, just much further down. "First win is in the bag, this was almost too easy! …Hey, you hearing that?" A confused stare popped onto Morgan's face as she looked up at the ventilation system, hearing some odd rattling coming from it. Garfield narrowed his eyes at it as well, not sure what the noise was.
"...I do believe I am hearing that. What is– woah!" The vents started bulging out horribly, like something massive was traveling through them at impeccable speeds. It was going all the way up to the top of the stairs, eventually going through the exhaust that went to the outside of the building, likely on the roof. The two "leaders" of Team A-Side glanced between each other, looking worried before they ran up the stairs as fast as their legs could carry them, pushing the door to the roof open to be greeted by an odd sight.
"Oh, would you look at that! A whole party is here to greet us!" Chris spoke from the beach chair that he was sitting in, still sipping on his martini while Chef was currently buried under Suzie's car, groaning in pain. Morgan and Garfield took note of the exhaust, which had been completely busted open from the car shooting out of it. Suzie jumped out of the car, looking down at Chef on the ground while tapping at her chin.
"Ooooooof! Maybe I should've been paying more attention to where I was venting…" Suzie looked a bit embarrassed as more members of each team came to the roof to see her standing over by the hosts, everyone finding themselves pretty full of shock at this point.
"I think it goes without saying, but for our first challenge of the season…Team B-Side has won!" Suzie got even more flustered when Chris announced her own team's victory, noticing that both Garfield and Morgan were glaring beams at her. They could only stand and simmer for a brief moment, though, as Atlas pushed through them like swinging doors, running up to his teammate and scooping her up to hold her above his head like some sort of trophy.
"That's what I'm talking about, Suzie! MVP, MVP, MVP!" Atlas chanted loudly, with Bec being the only one to join in at first, but soon enough, the voices of Gerald, Giselle, 3V, and Elward chimed in, even with Bailey clapping her mittened hands together for the flustered girl.
"Now, since Team B-Side won, that means that Team A-Side is going to have to eliminate someone tonight…but I think we're in for a bit of a tour and some explanation before we get to any of that fun stuff." Chris got up from his seat, tossing his martini glass right off the roof and dusting his hands off to grin widely. "You're all gonna love this: hop back into your vehicles and meet me and Chef at the Neon Nights Hotel. It's the centerpiece of the city, your cars will have directions built in, so none of you should get lost. And Chef," the host glared down at his partner, who was still moaning and groaning. "Stop being so lazy, it's a horrible first impression on these guys!"
Confessional - Suzie
"I-I never really expected to be the reason for us winning the first challenge, especially after I accidentally messed up earlier by getting on the other team's radio station. I-I won't complain about the praise, though, it definitely makes me feel like an All-Star by Smash Mouth." Suzie grinned at her own dumb reference, still facing some residual blushing from getting cheered for earlier.
Confessional - Atlas
"That's what I'm talking about, let's go, Suzie! Man, I just love seeing these team players pulling through and helping us score a comeback!" Atlas reclined in his front seat, smiling proudly at the camera. "Game day rules: we go out and celebrate after a big win! Suzie's getting the pick of where we go, of course!"
Confessional - Garfield
"Team B-Side is full of, to be completely blunt, morons and oddballs. The only unfortunate thing about that is a lack of predictability. How was I supposed to know that Suzie would drive through the building's vents?" Garfield shrugged his shoulders, looking mildly annoyed by the loss. "I know I have nothing to worry about in this elimination, neither does Morgan for that matter, so it's just trying to pick out the weak link from there."
Confessional - Morgan
"Man, that frosted tips bitch went and ruined everything! Sure, he technically didn't cause them to win or nothin', but Imma gonna be pissed about it either way!" Morgan crossed her arms and huffed, a strand of her purple hair falling in front of her face before she blew it away. Alas, it fell right back after she did that, getting a frustrated groan out of her.
"Defeat always stings, don't it? I find it fun to watch people reacting to their own loss, always brings me joy! 'Specially when we've got folks like Morgan around to be extra pouty 'bout it!"
The drive to the hotel wasn't all too long, but for the losing team it did seem like some sort of march to their own execution, dragging on to no end. Nevertheless, Team A-Side and Team B-Side both seemed to show up at the same time, with Chris and Chef miraculously getting there before any of them. As contestants got out of their cars, they were quick to take note of the giant hotel, which easily stood up taller than any other building in the entire city. It was to the point that the contestants almost couldn't see where the building came to an end, leaving some of them to marvel in its wonder.
"Imagine jumping off of that puppy," Jhin licked her lips in anticipation, with a few of her own teammates looking at her with abundant worry in their eyes. "What? Oh, don't tell me none of you have jumped off of a roof before!"
"W-why would you want to jump off a roof at all? That seems so dangerous…" Heath whimpered while Jean-Paul seemed to force himself up into the air, the boy's arm just being tugged along with him.
"That crazy girl seems like a lot of fun, Heath! We should make friends with her!" Jean-Paul started to run mid-air, giving Heath quite the struggle in holding him back so he didn't just run right off of his arm.
"Alright, people! You know we normally do this kinda thing before the first challenge, but Chef and I thought that it might be a good idea to shake things up. You know, don't give you any breathing room before you're tossed right into a challenge!" Chris smirked as he started to walk towards the contestants, all of whom were staring at him with some mixed expressions. "It looks like it worked out in our favor, cause man, watching you guys out there…it was really something great."
"Heheh, watching that blue-haired girl crash and splatter against the wall was pretty funny," Chef snickered while Suzie hid behind the rest of her time to hide her embarrassment.
"I imagine you're all pretty tired at this point, so how's about we head inside the hotel and get this show on the road so our losers can figure out who they wanna get rid of, eh?" Chris looked as devious as he could as he spun back towards the entrance of the hotel, walking to it with the excited Team B-Side and the miserable Team A-Side following after him. Once everybody made it inside, they were greeted with the most massive hotel lobby that one could ever imagine, with a full bar-restaurant combo on the left side. It was bustling with other people that weren't a part of the show, but seeing all the people partying brought a grin to Cherry's face.
Confessional - Cherry
"Losin' on the first day ain't too much a lovely thing, but with all this partying going on, I can't say that I'm all too irritated about it." Cherry sat on the hood of her car with a mixed drink in hand. She took a sip through the crazy straw in it, her eyes going wide with tears starting to well up in them. "This is…the most divine drink I've ever tasted…I don't ever wanna leave this place!"
"So, this hotel is going to serve as our homebase of sorts! Each of you is going to be given a key card, each key card belonging to a room on the tenth floor for Team A-Side or the eleventh floor for Team B-Side. Chef, if you would," Chris snapped his fingers at Chef, who rolled his eyes and walked over to the contestants, giving each of them a key card. Morgan stared at hers for room six on the tenth floor and sneered as Garfield smirked and waved around his key card for room seven. On the other team, though, Atlas and Bec were excited to see that they got the card for rooms one and two on the eleventh floor.
"Don't you maggots go losing those key cards, they cost us a whole lot of money to get them for this whole season. For some reason, they came out of my paycheck. Damn producers won't let me have anything, I swear," Chef grumbled, finally finishing passing out the card to room eleven of the eleventh floor to Gerald.
"I get to share my room with Allan, right? I didn't see you guys with a key card for him," Gerald seemed a bit worried, but got a dismissive nod from Chris that reassured him.
"When we're not in the middle of challenges, you're all free to explore the city and each of its districts! Right now we're in the Heart District, it spans throughout the center of the city. There's also the Chinatown District, as you've seen, the Golden District, where all the casinos and such are located, the Gourmet district, the place in the city that's got better food than you ever could've dreamed of eating in your whole lives, and the Nightmare District! I won't explain too much 'bout that one, but I do think our pals Henry and Gwendolyn took a trip there earlier, heheh!"
"I-i-it was definitely something of nightmares," Henry quietly whimpered until he was delivered a swift punch to the back of the head from an annoyed Gwendolyn, which knocked him flat to the ground.
"Once we call you for a challenge, though, your cars will be given directions on how to get to the meeting point. We're gonna be running all around this city, so don't get too used to sticking in one place. You'll all have a few minutes to get settled into your rooms, but as far as things go for Team A-Side…you'll be meeting us up on the roof in fifteen! Don't think we've forgotten about your humiliating defeat earlier!" Chris grinned, with the members of Team A-Side sighing together. "Feel free to discuss who sucks enough to deserve getting out before they can even really start!"
Confessional - Amanda
"We won't be staying in one place all too much…that's not such a good thing for me. I try to keep calm for the most part, but things that change so frequently can get my head spinning." Amanda flipped her coin as she stood next to her car, watching the other cars that were driving by on the road. "I can do it…I think I can do it. I always feel the urge to try new things like that, but when I actually try it usually ends…poorly."
Garfield stood outside of his room, waiting by the door for Morgan, who was still rummaging around in her own room. He whistled to himself, watching the rest of his teammates wander into their own respective rooms. Eventually, the cheerleader came out of her room, looking as annoyed as ever with the loss, and even more annoyed when she saw him waiting for her there.
"Oh, great, I can't go a minute without frosted tips trying to annoy the piss out of me." Morgan grumbled and walked right past Garfield, though he started to follow her with a winning smile on his face.
"I do have a name, you know," Morgan ignored Garfield's point, and he shrugged his shoulders. "I guess that part's not too important to you, huh? Doesn't matter much to me, I just figured I'd come find you before we both do something stupid."
"Ha! As if I'm gonna do anything stupid…I take it you know that I'm gonna be voting for your bitch ass so now you're coming to plea with me?" Morgan smirked and looked back at the man, who just smiled at her. "Spit it out already, boy. I don't wanna waste more time dealing with you than I already have to."
"I figure you're pretty sensible, yeah? A sensible woman wouldn't go wasting her vote on a teammate that can clearly handle themselves, would she?" Morgan just looked unnamused by Garfield's spiel, and seemed like she was ready to keep walking. "Hey, say what you will, but you all found out about the hosts being in Chinatown thanks to my lil' espionage that I , and I kept the football player on the other team from even going in the district for half the challenge."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever, don't matter to me. You're annoying and I'd prefer not having to deal with your sorry ass around me all the time." Morgan smirked and turned around to cross her arms, "Guess you'll just have to deal with getting sent home first."
"You don't think the team's gonna send me home first, do you? I mean, just comparatively speaking, you haven't been all too much a pleasure to be around from everyone's point of view. And, not for nothing, but I've definitely got better skills for rallying people. I could have ten votes to one in this little 'election,' but I don't want to get rid of you. Why waste our efforts against each other when we're the two most competent people here? Might just mean we lose more and more when one of us falls. I mean, you were the one that almost won this challenge for us, so clearly you're not useless. Says a lot more about the rest of our…pretty expendable team."
"Well…at least you know that I'm the top bitch on the team…guess you're not a total idiot," Morgan glanced back at Garfield, who had a warmer, much calmer look on his face, "Alright, I'll bite…what were you thinking about."
"Simple thing, really…our team would've done better if we wouldn't have to worry about little rescue missions and the like. We cut out our weakest link and focus our efforts better next challenge. Having a third party around is more so a pain, anyways," the duo stared at each other for a moment of silence before Morgan finally sighed.
"Yeah, whatevah. Just don't expect this to mean that you and I are friends…or allies or nothin'. I'm still gonna be gunnin' for your sorry ass the second you slip up." The cheerleader started walking off, with Garfield deadpanning to grin at the camera.
Confessional - Garfield
"It's pretty obvious that the main candidates on this team are Morgan and myself, shame though that we aren't on the same party. This just means that the rest are third parties…we really don't need 'em around, and they ain't gonna win." Garfield leaned back in his seat as he took a gulp of a draft beer, "Anyways, I don't need her on my side to thrive, but I do need her to understand the basics of this race. Seems she got that through her head for now, at least."
Confessional - Morgan
"Man, that frosted tips bitch always finds new ways to piss me off. I hate when people try to use all their annoying points and facts to get me to listen to 'em!" Morgan slammed her fist down on her dash before taking a deep breath, "Whatevah, I ain't his cronie or nothin'. I'm in the game for myself…I'm just making sure that I won't have any issues too early on."
"You'd think they'd have an elevator going up past the eleventh floor…these past eight flights of stairs have effectively killed my feet." Leo groaned as he forced himself up the stairs, being towards the back of the team where Zayden, Henry, and Marshmallow were. Zayden looked to be pretty nervous, a contrast to how he was when they interacted earlier. "Zayden? What's wrong?"
"Oh, nothing…the crippling realization that we have to send somebody home tonight is finally crashing down on me." Zayden forced up a smile on his face, though Leo could see through its shakiness all too easily. "We should really just eliminate me first, it wouldn't be fair to anybody else if they got out here."
"I wouldn't say that…and why would we wanna eliminate you anyways? You're really nice!" Leo gave a smile back to Zayden, who seemed to look a bit more genuinely happy after the compliment. "E-even if your sense of style is questionable, I don't think anyone would want you gone for that."
"Heh, what can I say, I know exactly how to dress myself!" Zayden smirked and did a little twirl, his arm accidentally hitting Henry and sending him cascading down several flights of stairs. "U-uh oh! Don't worry, Henry, I'm coming!" The horribly dressed boy ran after his fallen teammate, leaving Leo and Marshmallow together.
"I wonder why he dresses like that, anyways," Leo scratched his chin in thought until Marshmallow popped right up in his face, holding up a bag of her namesake. "A-ah!"
"Want one? Chris told me that they aren't handing out marshmallows for the safe contestants, so I had to bring my own stash! They're almost as sweet as cake! Ahhhh, I love cake…" Marshmallow swooned as she thought about the dessert, but before Leo could even respond to her, she started shoveling the marshmallows into her mouth like a ravenous beast. Further up ahead, Eli and Edward were walking together, with Edward scribbling on his arms again, but not looking down at what he was writing.
"...Any particular reason you're doing all that?" Eli cocked an eyebrow at the boy, but he just sort of side-eyed him and kept his mouth shut, continuing on ahead a little bit faster. "...Yeesh, you try to make small talk and people just ignore you."
"Hey, I think we're finally at the top," Cherry yelled back to her team, as she was the first one to reach the top of the stairs. There was a single door in front of her, which she aggressively shoved open before stepping out onto the roof. The other ten members of the team followed her to be greeted by the sight of the new elimination ceremony. There were swivel chairs set up around a firepit, which had an artificial, neon fire blazing in it. There was a fancy looking podium nearby, which Chris and Chef were standing by, and a tube at the edge of the building.
"Welcome to the elimination ceremony, Team A-Side! You like it? Really fits the vibe of this crazy city, being on top of the tallest roof and all. Come, have a seat everybody!" The contestants slowly made their way to the fire pit, each of them sitting in a different swivel chair. Cherry made herself comfortable, chuckling when she saw Amanda helplessly trying to keep her seat from spinning at all. Morgan and Garfield sat next to each other, glancing at each other with the politician wannabe grinning while the cheerleader rolled her eyes.
"So, here's the situation…you each cast a vote for whichever teammate you don't want hanging around anymore. We tally up the votes to decide who's safe and who's going buh-bye." Chris snapped, and Chef held up ten coupons in his hands, waving them around for all to see. "If you're safe, your name will be called and you'll be given a drink ticket, good for one drink at any bar or club in the whole city. Heh, you'll definitely need it after the stress of losing a challenge. As for the dreamer that doesn't get a ticket, well…they'll be taking a tip to the Hyperspace Tube of Losers!" Chris gestured to the tube behind him, which lit up with neon lights all around it.
"The tube will beam the unfortunate loser up and out of here so we won't have to deal with seeing their sorry face around here anymore. With all that out of the way, feel free to cast your votes!" Chris grinned as he saw the teammates looking between each other.
Confessional - Morgan
"Man, stupid frosted tips and his stupid logic," Morgan annoyedly stamped a picture of somebody, but it was hard to see who it was.
Confessional - Gwendolyn
"Maybe don't be such a fucking idiot during the challenge and people won't vote for you, dumbass," Gwendolyn growled and stamped Henry's picture.
Confessional - Henry
"Hm…" Henry looked between the pictures of Gwendolyn and Cherry, a wobbly, awkward smile on his face when he looked back at the camera, "I-I…you know…agh…b-big women…"
Confessional - Zayden
"Um…yeah! This makes enough sense to me!" Zayden smiled excitedly as he stamped the picture of himself.
"Alright, looks like we've got all our votes in! I'm seeing a few different names here, so that at least makes things interesting." Chris snickered as he shuffled the pictures of everybody in his hands before tossing them behind his shoulder, straight into the hyperspace tube which sucked them up and away like a powerful vacuum. The sight of it definitely startled a few of the contestants, though it seemed to get a few others grinning. "Let's kick it off with our fellas and ladies that didn't get any votes! Marshmallow, Amanda, Cherry, Gwendolyn, Eli, Leo, Garfield, annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd Edward! Guess you did good enough to not get yourselves in any trouble tonight."
"Interesting…very interesting…" Edward mumbled and started scribbling on his arms while staring right at Chef, who placed the drink ticket in his ruffled mess of hair. It got him some confused glances from others, with Eli rolling his eyes at him.
"That leaves our bottom three! Henry, Morgan, and Zayden!" Henry started shivering and frothing at the mouth when the realization struck that he was in the bottom bunch, with Morgan gritting her teeth and balling up her fists. Zayden, on the other hand, seemed to be pretty pleased with this, as he had a huge smile on his face. Leo was a bit weirded out by this but didn't say anything. "Zayden, buddy, you only went and got yourself one vote, so you're in the clear."
"Oh…that's just…great…" Zayden sighed, his smile fading as he reluctantly took his drink ticket from Chef, who looked just as confused as Leo at this point.
"So, Henry and Morgan, it comes down to you two!" Chris smirked and pointed right at Henry, who jumped a bit from being startled. "Henry, you're really weird, dude! Not to mention the fact that you wandered out into the dark earlier and needed Gwendolyn to come rescue you! Cost your team some resources in the middle of the challenge." The host then moved his hand to point at Morgan, who glared right back at him. "Morgan, to keep things blunt, I don't think there is a single person on this team that you've made a good impression on! That, and you arguing with Garfield, who was trying to help you in the challenge, might've cost you guys the win. Since, you know, you got distracted by him."
"I ain't got distracted by nothin', bitch! That freak on the other team literally drove her car through the vents of the building, how could I predict somethin' like that!?" Morgan hissed while Chris waved his hand at her.
"Yeah, we get it, the whole 'I didn't do anything to deserve being in the bottom two' spiel. Do you know how many times I've seen it and dealt with it? More than you can count," Chris took the final drink ticket from Chef, waving it in front of the two that were still up for elimination. "So, this ticket can really only go to one person tonight…and that person is gonna be none other than…" Henry's shivering got worse and worse while Morgan's eye began to twitch, the two just hoping that he'd reveal it already.
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"...Morgan! Henry, my man, it's time for you to skedaddle!" Chris passed the final drink ticket over to Morgan, who seemed relieved, but still pretty pissed about being in the bottom two in the first place. Henry whimpered and got himself up from his seat, almost tripping over himself as he started to make his way over to the tube. "Any last words before you go? Any regrets? I'm sure we all would love to hear what you have to say about this shocking revelation, weirdo!"
"I-I regret not…you know…" Henry waggled his arms around, gesturing at Cherry and Gwendolyn, who both looked at him in a shared confusion. "L-ladies…large…"
"...Riiiiiiiiight…well, that was definitely worth asking you about!" Chris gave Henry a huge pat right on the back, shoving him into the tube, which lit up brightly, so bright to the point that nobody could see the boy anymore. They could, however, hear his scream, which faded out fast. When the light finally dimmed, the boy was no longer there, though a pair of brown boxes was left in his place, grossing out some of his former teammates. "Anyways…the rest of you can feel free to settle yourselves back in your new digs or go out on the town! The city basically lives during the night, so it might be better to go to bed when the sun starts rising!"
Confessional - Garfield
"Weird way for the fog to settle," Garfield grumbled as he wiped away the fog on his car window, which looked like it had been drawn in to have a masquerade mask on it. "Anyways…I couldn't let Morgan just sail freely through this, her belligerence is pretty annoying. I rallied the team alright, but the stories they got did vary a bit. It'll teach her not to be so against agreeing with me, from my point of view. I tell ya, this game is fallin' right into my hands already!"
"Garfield seems pretty sure of himself already, sometimes that cockiness ain't the best thing to have about ya, though! Don't matter to me, either way, I'm just in it for the spice and excitement of it all! Ladies, gents, everyone in between, we'll see you all next time!"
Votes: Henry - Amanda, Cherry, Garfield, Gwendolyn, Marshmallow, Morgan; Morgan - Edward, Eli, Henry, Leo; Zayden - Zayden
22nd: Henry Yates, the Socially Awkward Kid
Team A-Side: Amanda, Cherry, Edward, Eli, Garfield, Gwendolyn, Leo, Marshmallow, Morgan, Zayden
Team B-Side: Atlas, Bailey, Bec, Eliza, Elward, Gerald and Allan, Giselle, Heath, Jhin, Suzie, 3V