Ice Cap Zone (Coastline): Day 2

Survivors: Dante - Scout - Knuckles - Phoenix Wright - Jean Pierre Polnareff - Kazuma Kiryu - Tails - Mr. Krabs - Princess Daisy - Tracer - Rodin - Miles Edgeworth - Goro Majima - Waluigi - Falco Lombardi - Nero - Sniper - Joseph Joestar - King Dedede - Glass Joe - Wii Fit Trainer.

After a rough night of sleep, the survivors rose awake to make their way down to the challenge area which took place at the southern coastline of the Ice Cap Zone. Waiting there for them was Alexa, brimming with excitement to see the third cast of money-hungry survivors participate in their first challenge.

"They say one of the best methods to wake you up is to experience a nice cold shock to your system," explained Alexa. "And considering you live in a place that commonly dips below zero degrees celsius, you better believe that you won't be arriving at these challenges tired, so you can at least thank the cold for that. Anyhow, welcome to your first challenge!"

The three groups of survivors stood around Alexa by this point, admitting that his words about fatigue were true; none of them felt too tired to compete, even those who didn't get much sleep. It seemed that a mixture of exposing themselves to the cold and trekking to the challenge area itself managed to get their systems up and running.

"Today's challenge is all about teamwork and coordination! And what better way to show that off than in a boat race across the ocean!" Alexa announced.

"Huh... I didn't expect us to be going to the ocean," Phoenix said. "Last I checked, most of the ocean was cut off by the map at our tribe."

"That's... a fault on my part," he grinned foolishly.

"Why am I not surprised..."

Alexa quickly moved on, sweeping his mistake under the rug. "But enough about that. I'll go into more detail on what this first test of teamwork is all about:"

*Each tribe will be placed onto their own boat that matches their tribe's primary color. Six of the members will have two oars by their side, which they will use to row their boat forward. However, the remaining member will act as the captain, who will stand at the front and carefully navigate the survivors through the ocean. The captain will be decided through a vote involving all members of the tribe. Obviously, a race with no obstacles would simply be boring, so there are plenty of small icebergs in place to spice things up!

The route is simple: upon leaving the coastline, you'll follow a set of buoys through the treacherous waters before eventually winding up at the coast of Paradise Isle: an island situated at the Southeast from where we stand right now. On the island reside the three tribe flags, and the first tribe to have their captain grab their respective flag will win the challenge!

With three tribes present, things will be a little different. The first two tribes to make it to grab their flag at Paradise Isle will win immunity, leaving the other tribe to attend Tribal Council where they must vote off their weakest link. However, first place will receive a special reward on top of their immunity, while second place will receive nothing more than their guaranteed safety. The prize for getting first place is a lovely set of fishing rods, as well as some flint to help you start fires."

"I've never rowed before," Glass Joe said, worried.

"Don't worry. It's not rocket science," Wii Fit Trainer assured. "Just make sure the oars are in the water and pull back. Keep doing that and we're sure to win!"

"You forget that the other two tribes have the same idea," Falco said sarcastically. "What we need is strength and endurance from start to finish. Thankfully, it seems like we got a pretty brawny tribe, just as long as claws over there doesn't snap his oars in two."

Mr. Krabs scoffed, raising his claws. "You'll be kissing these claws once they're responsible for us gettin' those fishing rods."

"Not in a million years, crusty."

"Just you wait, pigeon!"

Noticing their bickering, the other tribes felt a little more confident that their teamwork would land them immunity.

"Come on, we're a team! Arguing will get us nowhere," Glass Joe proclaimed.

Picking up on his poor attempt to calm the two down, Dedede smirked. "Eh, don't bother. All this argument needs is some popcorn for me to munch down on as I watch!"

"Survivors!" Alexa bellowed. "As I said before, one member of each team will be voted for to become the captain. They won't be doing any rowing, but they will be using their eyes and instincts to get their team to Paradise Isle as smoothly as possible, so cast your vote to whoever you think fits that bill! I'll hand out slips for you to vote on now."

"Who the crap wants to look at ice all day?" Said Scout. "I sure don't."

While he was avidly advocating for the basic role of rowing the boat, Majima was hellbent on becoming the captain.

"Hey! Remember what I said yesterday," he said. "I lead people for a damn livin'. So, if anyone else has me beat, then speak up now!"

"You sure you're fit to command?" Nero checked. "I've not known you long, but you seem batshit insane. I'd rather have someone like the old man take that spot."

With others seemingly agreeing with the idea that Majima's too crazy to fit the captain role, he decided to take his bargaining up a notch.

"I'll tell ya what. If I do crap as the captain and cost us the challenge, you can vote me off. No strings attached!"

Joseph rubbed his beard, slightly convinced by his promise. "That would save the drama of voting someone off. You sure you want to put that much responsibility on yourself?"

"Movin' a boat past some ice cubes ain't shit compared to what I've managed to do. I've started a buildin' project usin' people that knew nothin' about buildin'!" He said, grinning madly as he pointed to the boat. "I'll say it again. If we lose, then it's on me, and if it's on me, then go ahead and vote me out!"

"Worst case is that we lose and he goes out; best case is that we win and nobody goes out. Looks like I'm safe either way. I'm on board with electing this crazy bugger." - Sniper.

While the other two teams managed to establish who wanted to be team captain and who didn't, Team Manjari was more or less completely silent when it came to who wanted to be the captain or not. This lack of communication between them only spelled more trouble for their chances of winning.

As each team received a voting slip and a pen each, they silently cast their votes towards who they thought would be the team's best captain.

Alexa started off by tallying the Elbrass tribe votes:

"Out of the seven votes received, none of them went towards Scout, Daisy, and Polnareff. One vote went to Dante and Knuckles each, and two votes went to Phoenix. This leaves Kazuma Kiryu as the Elbrass captain with three votes in his favor!"

"WOO! CONGRATULATIONS KIRYU-CHAN!" Bellowed Majima from afar, gifting him with an obnoxious round of applause.

Kiryu was a little surprised to have gotten the role, though he didn't show much surprise on his face. Instead, he simply got on with it and accepted the responsibility.

"He's a little quiet for a leader, don't you think?" Polnareff asked, eyeing him.

"Possibly, but him saying he was a foreman at one point stuck with me," Dante shrugged.

Daisy raised her eyebrow. "What's a foreman again?"

"In short: a leader."

"Ooooh, that's why it stuck with you!"

"Bingo."

Polnareff nodded to himself, now having high expectations for Kiryu's leadership.

The next tribe to have their votes tallied was Denalo:

"For Denalo, only two people actually received votes. One of these two was Joseph, who only received one vote. Meanwhile, the other person was Majima, receiving a whopping SIX votes. Looks like his tribe were clear on who they wanted as the captain role."

Kiryu's eyes widened at the announcement as Majima eyed him with a sadistic grin.

"Well how 'bout that, Kiryu-chan. Looks like we'll be able to settle things sooner than I thought!" He yelled across the coastline, excitement radiating from his body.

He remained silent, more focused on planning the route he'd want to take his tribe through.

As that was going on, Alexa tallied the votes for Manjari:

"Manjari follows Denalo's pattern of having a more skewered set of votes. King Dedede, Mr. Krabs, and Glass Joe all received zero votes. Only one vote went towards Falco, leaving Rodin, Wii Fit Trainer, and Tracer to all receive two votes each. This means there's a three-way tie. Instead of usual tie-breaker methods that I'd use, I think that it's best if the three tied individuals attempted to solve this problem themselves," said Alexa. "After all, Manjari could use SOME team discussion."

Rodin held his hand up and shook his head. "I ain't interested in bein' the captain."

Already, him dropping out left Wii Fit Trainer and Tracer to argue for the spot amongst themselves.

"I'm not too bothered either. If you want to row then I'll gladly take the captain role, but if you want to be captain then I'll gladly row instead," Wii Fit Trainer offered. "It's completely up to you."

As Alexa's jaw dropped at how smooth things were going, Tracer folded her arms before nodding her head. "I think I'll do pretty well as captain."

"Then it's settled."

Upon shaking hands and settling on Tracer being the captain, Alexa began clapping slowly, full of awe. "Why couldn't you have been vocal earlier? If only half the tribe is willing to talk things out, then you guys have a serious problem. Step up your game now before it costs you the challenge, because even rowing straight ahead requires a lot of effort from everyone involved."

"Maybe if they weren't all grouchy from being at each other's throats, they'd have a better time cooperating," Knuckles mocked.

Seeing everyone pick up on his arguing with Falco slowly made Krabs more and more worried about staying around. As much as he despised the bird a mere day in, a petty rivalry with Wario was partially related to his elimination back in the first season, and with money on the line - a lot of it, no less - he couldn't make the same mistake.

"Now that all of our captains have been selected, let's not waste any more time. You have a long route ahead of you, and depending on the skill of your rowing, coordination, and captain, that route may take a long while. Now, let's get started. Survivors, proceed to your boats!" Alexa commanded.

The team walked further down the coastline until they were just a few inches above the wintry ocean. The boats from left to right were Elbrass's, Manjari's, and Denalo's respectively. The tribes entered their boat from back to front, leaving their captains to hop on last.

Regarding design, the boats heavily resembled a mastless viking longship, only much smaller and with a few creative tweaks. The main tweak was the wall at the front of the ship, only enabling the captain to directly see ahead, while those that chose to row could only see left, right, and behind. The structure also contained a single colored strip that wrapped around the boat, the color of the strip represented the primary color of the tribe.

"Good thing this boat has my-a lucky colour on it," Waluigi snickered, fastening his hat and clutching his two oars.

As Falco got cozy and prepared, he heard a familiar, annoying first call out from behind.

"Hey, err, Falco."

He peered back to see Mr. Krabs, turning his head back and groaning. "What is it?"

"I've been thinkin'. How 'bout we put all of this behind us and work together?" He smiled with abashment.

Though the bird didn't expect an offer from Krabs of all people, he still remained as cold as ever. "If it weren't for that featherweight boxer, you would be my first choice for elimination."

"Welp. I tried." - Mr. Krabs.

Alexa remained behind them. "Just look at them. Full of energy and ready to claim that immunity. It really could go either way, but I don't have high hopes for Manjari scoring immunity. Then again, Survivor Crossover is full of surprises," he said to the camera before speaking up. "SURVIVORS! On the count of three, you'll be rowing across the Ice Cap's ocean and towards Paradise Isle! The first two to make it will receive immunity, but remember that first place will receive some flint and fishing rods, so don't just settle for second!"

"Fishing rods and flint... if we managed to get that, then maybe we'll be able to start fires that don't last twenty minutes." - Phoenix Wright.

As the rest of the survivors clutched at their oars, awaiting their captain's first command, Alexa began the countdown.

"Three..."

"Two..."

"ONE... GO!" Bellowed Alexa.

"STRAIGHT AHEAD!" The three captains yelled at once.

Each of the rowing survivors pulled their oars back in response, propelling the boat forward slightly. They then circled back and pulled again, repeating the motion as the three boats left the coastline neck-and-neck.

"Keep goin' straight." Said Majima. "The others are gonna go around, which means we got an opportunity to get ahead of 'em."

"Wait, going around?" Thought Tails. "Where is he bringing us?"

As they continued rowing, they were quick to realize that the boat was going slightly to the left.

"Who the hell here doesn't know their directions?!" Nero cried.

"Wah... wah... wah..." Waluigi panted, rowing far differently than the others.

"HEY, YOU AT THE BACK!" Majima yelled. "PULL BOTH AT THE SAME TIME!"

His instantaneous outburst caused an immediate switch in the purple villain's behaviour, though he seemed to prefer his strange method over rowing in sync with everyone else.

As he adapted, the boat began going straight again.

"To the right a bit!" He followed up. "We gotta correct that dumbass mistake pronto, or we're going straight into the damn ice."

Majima's warning was accurate. His strategy was to follow a tight-squeeze route through the middle, leaving the others to go around and fall behind. It required perfect positioning, however, and as they attempted to veer to the right, he was appalled to see that the boat was now too far to the right.

"TO THE LEFT," he barked, growing more and more impatient. "You're all goin' too far to the damn right!"

Once again, the boat attempted to be corrected, but by time it stopped veering too far off to the right, it was too late. Thankfully they would fit through the slim route Majima had wanted them to go through, but they did so at a price:

*CRASH*

As the boat hit a particularly large boulder of ice, half of the rowing tribe jolted from the sudden movement.

"It's just a scratch, keep goin'!" He grinned. "And try not to get your damn oars caught on the ice. I don't have to babysit the left and right for ya!"

"Whether we win this or not..." Sniper muttered. "I'm not electing him for bugger-all."

The sudden noise even managed to catch the attention of Elbrass and Manjari as they rowed around the dangerous patch of ice.

As the split fork road came to an end, Denalo were surprised to see that Majima's crazy route had managed to put them in the lead. Behind them to their left was Elbrass, and even further behind was Manjari, struggling on coordination.

"Awww barnacles; we're behind!" Mr. Krabs said, picking up the rowing pace. "C'MON, HEAVE!"

"Can all of you row together?!" Ordered Tracer. "It's straight ahead for about five minutes, we have time to catch up!"

Falco grew frustrated at her command. "It's harder than you think to adjust to every idiot around you!"

"That better not include me!" Dedede growled from the very front of the boat. "I'm at the front, so everyone here should be adjustin' to my rowin'!"

"Well row slower. Nobody can keep up with you."

"If I row slower, we go slower! Ain't that how it works?!"

Wii Fit Trainer sighed. "If we row together at a slower speed, I bet we'll make more distance."

"How does that work?!" Dedede spat, his rowing becoming more and more inconsistent as he lost focus.

By this point, the Manjari boat was barely moving. Everybody was rowing at different speeds, and Tracer knew she had to fix this issue quickly.

"Okay okay. Everyone stop rowing!"

As most of the tribe stopped rowing, Dedede did not listen to her orders. "Are you nuts?!"

"Just listen to her!" Wii Fit Trainer said, frustrated.

With a premature taste of defeat, Dedede bitterly stopped rowing.

"Okay, we're going to correct ourselves. We're barely moving," Tracer said. "On the count of three, I want all of you to start rowing at a STEADY pace. Try and match what the person in front of you is doing. We'll catch up to them in no time!"

As they readjusted themselves, she swiftly began the countdown.

"One... two... THREE!"

Their oars hit the water at the same time as they all pulled back. Falco quickly matched Dedede's thankfully slower pace from behind, and from there, Mr. Krabs, Wii Fit Trainer, Glass Joe, and Rodin all quickly matched the same rowing. The boat began moving again, and fast, now achieving a speed that rivaled Denalo and Elbrass. The only issue was making a route good enough to catch up to them.

After a minute of synchronized rowing, Tracer gave her next command to her tribe. "They've both just turned a corner. Move to the right a little."

To their relief, moving to the right didn't screw up the rhythm that the six rowers had adopted, filling them back up with optimism.

Back at the front of the race, Kiryu's commands were concise and clear.

"Move to the right! There's an iceberg!" He said.

The tribe quickly responded to the command, shifting around the obstacle only to hear his next command.

"Move to the left!"

The boat shifted around the next iceberg in their path, and soon enough, they managed to make it back to the Denalo boat, returning to the neck-and-neck position they were at since the beginning.

"Ahoy, Kiryu-chaaaan!" Majima waved, brewing up a scheme in his head.

The current stretch they were in had a thick section of ice-infested waters on either side of them, acting as borders that they wouldn't be able to make across without slowing to a halt and getting stuck. The lack of shortcut opportunity annoyed Majima, but he was quick to notice that the Elbrass boat was incredibly close to the border between clear waters and icy hell.

With his plan now formed, he spun around to his team and pointed to their left, where the boat was. "Hey, turn to the left as hard as ya damn can!"

"W-what? That'll hit their boat!" Tails argued. "We'll both be slowed down."

"Hey! The captain's instincts are the captain's orders! And my instinct is to push their ship into the damn ice!" He roared. "So get the hell to work!"

"Finally, you're speaking my-a language!" Waluigi sniggered.

As the boat veered to the left, the members of Elbrass began to grow worried.

"GAAAAH! THEY'RE HEADING STRAIGHT FOR US!" Panicked Daisy. "ROW FASTER!"

Upon changing her pace, the ship only slowed down more and more, putting Kiryu on the spot as he watched the Denalo boat lock on to his own.

And sadly, before he could do anything about it...

*CRASH*

As the nasty thump jolted both boats from side to side, the Elbrass tribe experienced a greater hit as they slid between two large rocks on the side, preventing them from going forward. Meanwhile, Denalo's tribe quickly recovered.

"TAKE-A THAT, LOSERS!" Waluigi taunted, laughing wildly. "SEE YOU AT-A THE FINISH LINE!"

The two teams separated from one another. Denalo speeding down their path as Elbrass remained jammed in the rocks and ice.

After checking the boat's surroundings, Kiryu looked behind him to see Manjari catching up in the distance. Rowing backward was their only option, but with the left side having little room to row, it would be a challenge.

"Row backward!" He commanded.

The rest of the team obeyed his command relatively quickly, and before they knew it, the boat was beginning to shift out of the rocks and back onto the main course.

After fully unjamming themselves, the Manjari tribe were close to surpassing them, but as they came closer and closer, they slowed down more and more.

"What are they slowing down for?" Knuckles asked, peering behind him.

"Knowing how hostile those Denalo guys were to us, they're probably gearing up to fire a cannonball right into our ship," Dante joked.

It turns out that the real reason for their decreasing speed was, once again, the rowers screwing up their rhythm.

"Come on! Don't slow down now!" Tracer pleaded. "We're so close to passing them!"

"I wonder who's screwing up the rowing this time?" Said Falco.

Dedede huffed with frustration at the boat's decreasing speed. "This whole time I've fought myself to not speed up like we should be doin', so don't even think about blamin' me again!"

Not only were they now losing the groove that had caught them up to Elbrass, but members such as Glass Joe were beginning to grow exhausted.

While Manjari once again fought to keep themselves at a decent speed, Denalo sailed smoothly across the track. They had the occasional rock or iceberg to worry about, but at this pace, they would make it to the finish line relatively soon.

"You're not the most... sane person I know, Majima," Joseph admitted. "But I will admit that your crazy decisions might have just won us the challenge."

"It was about time that somebody recognized my ability!" He grinned. "We screwed Kiryu-chan and his crew up hard, and once you screw up the best of the best, nothin' can stop ya!"

"I'm just surprised that neither of our boats were damaged," Tails said. "But I suppose crashing into obstacles or other boats is something Alexa had in mind when making these."

Back at Elbrass's ship, they had fully recovered their speed back to how it was before, but it would take a long while before they got back to Denalo's boat.

"Well... I guess we aren't getting the flint and fishing rods," Polnareff groaned. "All thanks to that lucky stunt."

"Majima is impossible to read," Kiryu replied. "He caught us off guard at the perfect moment and won the challenge for it. That is, unless his tribe drops the ball before he can make it to Paradise Island."

Scout was still in shock over the incident. "The guy swerved his frickin' boat into us; we had no guard to begin with! And don't even get me started on yesterday..."

"I'm just glad we got no obstacles to avoid," Dante shrugged. "With Manjari on our tail, the last thing we want to do is have a random block of ice in the middle of our path slow us down."

"Judging by their speed... I think we don't need to worry about them for now," Knuckles said, peering at the slowing ship behind him. "It looks like it's about to stop moving altogether."

Though the ship had slowed down to a complete halt, it was a planned decision by Tracer. For the second time this challenge, she readjusted the rowing. Once again, Dedede started rowing, and his speed and timing was copied by the people behind him. Only this time, people didn't copy each other's rowing technique nearly as well as last time. For starters, a few of the survivors were a lot more tired than they were before, and the impatience of a couple more survivors made things even worse. To Tracer's relief, the boat was moving faster than before, but it was not enough to catch up to Elbrass.

This problem also began in the Denalo boat, with Waluigi's fatigue costing the boat some extra speed. If not for their distance, this would be bad news, but they were getting close to Paradise Isle by this point, and Majima fully expected a first-place victory.

Leaving the tight paths lined with icy obstacles that they had been accustomed to, the Denalo tribe were pleased to see that the stretch of ocean they were now in was void of any ice and rocks that forced them to go down one specific path. All they had to do now was follow the few buoys to their left, and they would arrive at the finish.

"This is the final stretch!" He announced. "ROW FASTER!"

As the tribe picked up the pace, Waluigi could hardly keep up, and his struggle was instantly noticed by Majima. Edgeworth also began struggling to keep up, but he forced himself to work at the same pace

"When I say row faster, I want your damn oars to hit the water!" Majima yelled. "Back when I used to lead my construction team, we had a damn-good motto: if ya wanna work: welcome. If ya wanna rest: get the fuck out. SO GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND ROW!"

His commands echoed down the ocean, holding enough unpredictable anger to whip anyone into shape.

"...But... it's-a... too... fast..." Waluigi uttered, his exhaustion drowned out by the strong ocean wind. Nonetheless, his rowing had improved tremendously, but he wouldn't last much longer.

Noticing an improvement in the boat's speed, all Majima could do was await his victory. He had bested Kiryu in the first challenge, and while he didn't care about the prizes, the glory of getting first place was enough to leave him satisfied.

Much later, the Elbrass tribe left the tight, ice-ridden paths and out onto the vast ocean themselves, leaving Manjari at dead-last.

"You think we have a shot at catching up to them?" Knuckles asked. "Can you even see them, Kiryu?"

"I can see Paradise Isle, and they look about five... maybe ten minutes away from arriving," he said. "Unless they screw up, our new goal is to defend second place from Manjari."

"Which will be a breeze," he replied. "They rowed so poorly that they stood still for nearly a full minute. If we lose to them, then we might as well eliminate ourselves out of shame."

Dante gave a grin and nodded. "Agreed."

Having arrived at Paradise Isle via his own means, Alexa looked out from the coast and noticed Denalo's boat, only a few minutes from arrival. He was then surprised to see Elbrass so far back, with Manjari completely invisible.

"Huh... for a first challenge, I expected it to be a lot closer," he admitted. "Oh well. At this pace, it seems like we already know which tribes will secure first, second and third place alike!"

As Denalo parked up at the coast of Paradise Isle: a small, snowy island with nothing of note on it other than the three team flags, they dropped their oars and climbed over and out of the boat, landing on the sandy beach. From here, all they had to do was make it to the flag, but it seemed as if the team were too busy celebrating to realize.

"GAHA! Thanks to my expertise, it looks like I'll be safe from being eliminated by all of you after all!" Majima beamed.

Edgeworth folded his arms. "I'd hardly call it expertise."

"Eh?! Then what was it then?!"

"I'd personally refer to it as calculated madness."

"Screw it. A compliment's a compliment," he said, sitting down on the sand. "Now all we need to do is sit back and wait."

Alexa raised an eyebrow from a distance, wanting to tell them that they still had a flag to grab. But at the same time, he was curious to see if Denalo was really capable of throwing away first place over a simple memory error.

Thankfully, he wouldn't have to witness such a dreadful outcome, as the second they sat down, Tails realized something was off.

"Wait a second..." He said, getting to his feet. "Aren't you supposed to grab the flag, Majima?"

After a pause, Majima stood up and gave a stretch. "You're damn right. That went over my head."

Though the race was still going for Denalo, their captain gently strolled down the beach and onto the main island terrain where the three flags were. His pace was so leisurely that it felt like he was mocking the two tribes he competed against. By the time he made it to the flags, he honed in on the Denalo flag and grabbed it with both hands, ripping it from the ground and lifting it high into the air.

"DENALO WINS THE CHALLENGE!" Alexa cheered. "Congratulations!"

Returning from the middle and back onto the coast, Majima spun the flag around in his hand. "That was too easy! Give us somethin' a little hotter, next time."

"Well, I personally expected things to be a lot closer, but it appears that the three tribes all have entirely different levels of coordination and stamina. Thanks to your captain expertise and your six teammates, you won this challenge by a long shot, but don't expect every challenge to be a cakewalk," Alexa advised.

Ignoring his advice, Majima simply picked up on his wording. "Expertise, you say? Well, Edgeworth, you heard the big man," he snickered.

Edgeworth sighed, unamused, as he went back to watching the Elbrass boat sail to shore. "Here comes Wright."

Elbrass parked up next to Denalo's boat and vaulted off and onto the shore, Kiryu running ahead to secure his team's flag.

"Frickin' unbelievable." Scout rolled his eyes. "We coulda won that if it weren't for you numbskulls crashin' into us."

"Well... I never said you couldn't do that," said Alexa. "In fact, I designed the boats around them being used as bumper carts. It's a shame only one collision happened!"

Waluigi stood up and pointed to the Scout, cackling with arrogance. "Yeah! Accept your loss, loser, and you better get-a used to it!"

Before Scout could snap back at him, Polnareff had taken equal offense to the villain's cockiness. "Why is it always the runt of the litter that ends up acting the mightiest?"

"Runt of the what-now?" Waluigi growled. "I'm nowhere near the weakest on-a my tribe! I held myself together from-a start to finish!" He said proudly.

A short pause followed his boast, then came the laughter. Scout and Polnareff were forced into hysterics as his own tribe held back their chuckling, Majima failing especially hard.

"Hit the bricks pal. I saw you row before you decided to nosedive into us," Scout revealed. "It was a frickin' tragedy!"

Waluigi gritted his teeth hard, seething with rage.

As Kiryu returned with his flag, Majima turned to him.

"Sorry about your loss, Kiryu-chan!" He pouted.

"It's fine. We'll live without flint and fishing rods," Kiryu said confidently.

Majima beamed at his optimism. "You're damn right you will!"

After a long... LONG wait for Manjari to show up, they finally did, painfully dragging the boat to shore, half of their members exhausted from the constant rowing.

As they crawled from the boat, Tracer sprinted over to her flag and ripped it from the ground. She then made the walk of shame over to Alexa, the other teams eyeing her cockily as they indulged in their guaranteed safety.

Alexa took the flag off of her and shook his head. "What a pitiful attempt from Manjari! At least you guys brought the boat back here in one piece, but if that were a contributing factor to winning the challenge, then maybe you wouldn't have been subjected to third place."

Survivors from Denalo and Elbrass alike gave a few chuckles over his mockery before he moved on.

"But now that the challenge is over, Denalo will return to their tribe with their prizes. As for Elbrass, they will also return to tribe, but unlike Denalo, they have nothing but safety to bring back to their tribe area. As for Manjari... you guys will-"

Dedede decided to hurry things along. "Yeah, yeah, we get it. We'll go back to the mountain, talk about who sucked, come over to Tribal Council and vote!"

The host folded his arms. "Not everyone here has done the whole routine before. Cut me some slack!"

"Well talk quicker, because the sooner I'm back in a warmish cave, the better!"

"Alright alright, if you insist on rushing things along, then let's get you survivors back to the mainland!" He said, patting the penguin's shoulder. "Oh, and I know we came pretty close to the building on the way, but the Tribal Fortress is located south of the Ice Cap lake, not far from where this team challenge initially began. And there's just ONE last thing I forgot to mention. You will only have thirty minutes to discuss an eliminee before heading down."

As the survivors took in this brief information, they were sailed back to the shore of Ice Cap before making their way back to their respective tribes...


Manjari Tribe: Day 2

Survivors: Mr. Krabs - Tracer - Rodin - Falco Lombardi - King Dedede - Glass Joe - Wii Fit Trainer.

Splitting off from the two winning teams, the Manjari tribe shamefully made their way up their mountain and to their tribe. By now, the night was beginning to take over, the blue sky becoming navy and the temperature dropping even further. They had very little time to discuss an eliminee, so they had to make every minute count. But unfortunately, not even five minutes in, all hell was beginning to break loose between two particular survivors.

"Me?! Not a chance!" Dedede roared with laughter. "And here I thought this would be a worthwhile discussion."

Falco kept his sharp gaze on him. "You were too fast and unpredictable for me to keep up with. It threw me off, so it threw Krabs and everyone else off!"

"Are you numb? I did end up slowin' down, just so you snails could keep up!"

"For five minutes."

"It was hardly five minutes!"

"So you admit to speeding up again."

"Erm, of course not! When I said it was hardly five minutes, I meant that it was for, well, the rest of the challenge! I get ya got some screws loose, but there's no way that could have gone over ya head!" Dedede said, chuckling to himself. "People really got no brains nowadays..."

Though he tried his best to lie his way out of his slip-up, nobody was having any of it. After a painfully long pause, Falco was back on his tail.

"I've never seen someone more full of it in my life, and that's a high bar to cross! What's an even higher bar to cross is somehow being a bigger threat to this team's ability to thrive in challenges than someone with a boxing record of one win to over a hundred losses!" He spat.

Offended by his words, Dedede marched over to him and stood over him. "Compare me to that pipsqueak good-for-nothin'-loser again, I dare you!"

Joe hung his head low at his words, though Dedede nor Falco seemed to notice. Meanwhile, the others grew concerned over the conflict between the two.

"What are you gonna do? Fight me and get yourself disqualified?" Falco grinned, furthering the king's rage. "Though then again, your win record in fights is probably more shoddy than Joe's."

His taunt threw all control overboard. Dedede cracked his knuckles as he geared up to strike him. "I'll show you my win record, just hold still!"

The bird rose his guard, ready to defend himself against the brute in front of him.

As he threw his punch, Wii Fit jumped between them and pushed his fist to one side before shoving him and Falco away, breaking up the fight before it escalated. "Are you two insane?!"

"He started it, so I'll do the honors of finishin' it!" Dedede roared.

"Have you two forgotten that you're still allies? Tribal Council is supposed to be a punishment that forces the team to make a difficult decision, but here you two are fighting like a couple of children!" She ranted. "Who cares if you did better in that challenge, because none of that matters if neither of you know how to be near one another without fighting!"

Though he wanted to stay under the radar, Krabs just had to agree. "The lass is right! We can't get that precious money without a team."

Tracer and Rodin also agreed, the former of which being especially vocal. "If I'm honest, we did rubbish because the rowers had no coordination. I was busy getting everyone to dodge the obstacles in front, but from what I saw, nobody bothered communicating with one another. It's why I had to readjust everyone's rowing by stopping the boat. If we want to win these challenges, then we have to be a team!"

"Thought stuff like that went without saying," Rodin said, twiddling an unlit cigar in his hand.

The two watched as the entire tribe was now seemingly against them. Dedede slowly realized that falling for Falco's attempts to provoke him had landed both of them in danger.

"From this point, their reaction will give us all the information we need on who to vote out... unless the both of them are just as stubborn as one another." - Tracer.

With an exhale of defeat, Dedede decided to give up. "Awww'right, fine! If it's to keep my butt in this competition, I'll show y'all just how much of a team player I can be! I'll pick this team up and carry it to the darn top!"

"That is, if you aren't eliminated tonight," said Rodin. "Because as much as you two try to make amends now, I doubt it'll be enough to save your sorry asses from the boot. It's just a matter of who."

Falco smirked. "So the choice is between someone that cost us the whole challenge, and myself. This should be an easy enough vote."

"Ye both sucked! I had a front-row seat to your rowin', and both of you rowed like idiots! Back in my day, if you were caught rowin' with that little grace, they'd throw ya overboard!" Krabs criticized.

"What does a measly old crab know about rowing?!" He lashed out.

"A lot more than you do, pal!" He replied. "Anywho, my vote goes to birdbrain over there!"

Confused, Glass Joe tapped on his shoulder. "Aren't they both birds?"

"Oh, right..." Krabs nodded. "The blue one!"

"They're... err... both blue."

Now annoyed, he elaborated further. "The slim one, then!"

Though Falco took annoyance to already having a vote against him, Dedede was simply offended over his description. "That better not be implyin' anythin' about my darn size, because I'm one-hundred percent muscle!"

"I'm not surprised that someone as stupid as Krabs is also voting for me. Thankfully the number of idiots that think I'm the bigger threat is low enough to have me survive tonight." - Falco Lombardi.

Changing the subject off of Dedede's insecurity, Wii Fit Trainer stroked her chin as she thought about who to vote for. "Does anyone else know who they're voting for? I sure don't."

"Don't ask me, love," Tracer exhaled with amusement. "This has me just as stumped."

"Nope..." Said Glass Joe.

"I might change my mind, but I got my answer," said Rodin. "But I'll save it for Tribal Council. A little tension hurts nobody," he added, cracking a cool smile. "It's not long now until we have to head down anyway."

And he was right. Only five minutes remained before they would have to begin heading down to the mysterious Tribal Fortress south of the Ice Cap Lake. They assumed that they would be taken down there unless they headed off early, so Glass Joe, Wii Fit and Tracer spent the last five minutes thinking about who to vote. Dedede had much less composure as Falco, but his potential raw strength was something Manjari didn't have too much of. They also thought back to before the challenge as well as their first day in the mountains, and how Falco and Dedede interacted with the team.

Eventually, they were forced to head down their mountain, across the snowy hills of Ice Cap, and to the Tribal Fortress...


Tribal Council: Night 2

Survivors: Mr. Krabs - Tracer - Rodin - Falco Lombardi - King Dedede - Glass Joe - Wii Fit Trainer.

The grey stone fortress stood out like a beacon in the night. Surrounded by an orange hue from the lights placed on and around it, the shape of the building was wide and cylindrical, almost medieval-looking. As they drew closer, they noticed that the entrance's door was aged and wooden, sporting rusted metal hinges. It was not a theme related to the Ice Cap region at all, but it definitely did its job of being a miserable, intimidating place to be.

Making haste, the survivors ventured into the building, leading them into a large, stone hall.

On the back-left corner of the room was a small cloth shelter, housing a small table and numerous slips of paper. Meanwhile, at the center of the room, individual stone stools were lined up in a neat semi-circle. At the far back in the middle was Alexa, sitting behind a large wooden desk. Behind him and his desk were twenty-one lit torches lined up against a wall. Above each torch was an iron plaque displaying the name of one of the survivors currently participating in the competition. Finally, an exit door was located on the back-right corner.

Ironically, the first thing to hit them upon entering the building was a wave of freezing air. It was much colder on the inside of the building than it was on the outside, which explained Alexa's especially warm attire.

"I hope you didn't expect a cozy, warm Tribal Council, survivors!" He cackled. "You guys are already shivering! Please take a seat on one of the twelve seats in front of you."

"That's the worst excuse for a seat I've ever seen!" Complained Krabs, bitterly sitting down on one of the stools.

The other survivors joined him, all of them but Falco sitting beside one another.

As they got as cozy as they could muster, Alexa began the Tribal Council.

"Welcome to Tribal Council! A place where your hopes and dreams of winning cash and a relaxing hotel visit have a chance of crumbling into nothing but dust and despair," he said dramatically. "Of course, some of you might feel very safe, but this is Survivor Crossover! Anything could happen. Anyhow, you guys are in here due to your... how can I put this lightly... ABYSMAL performance in the first challenge of the show. Your rowing was observed, and it was found that, while your captain did her best to both lead the rowers and dodge obstacles, the rowers were not good at synchronizing. Rowing may sound like a very simple sport, and with one person, it is! However, when there are six people that need to row at the same speed and strength over the duration of around two hours, then that's a recipe for disaster. Denalo and Elbrass seemingly had the coordination and consistent endurance needed, but you guys did not have either.

My first question will go to the captain of that challenge: Tracer. Surely you had a few moments where you were able to observe the rowing of your boat. Who would you say are the weakest and strongest links?"

The Briton rubbed her chin. "I'd say Rodin and Wii Fit were the best rowers. I dunno much about rowing, but their form and endurance were pretty good. As for the weakest, it's between Glass Joe, Dedede and Falco. Joe did pretty well in the first half, but he lost all of his strength pretty quickly. As for Dedede and Falco... they seem to be our hot topics for tonight."

"Hot topics, eh?" Alexa turned to them. "I assume that's your way of saying that they are the two candidates for elimination. Would anyone care to explain why that is?"

Before either of them could give their biased explanation, Wii Fit Trainer took it upon herself to explain. "Well, neither of them have been the most friendly towards a lot of the tribe from day one. Things also got out of hand when I was forced to break up their fight before things got physical not too long ago."

"Day two and people are already trying to kill each other? Man, this is gonna be an interesting month," he grinned. "Er, anyway, it seems like the tribe has a very important decision to make. Considering both Dedede and Falco are seen as threats to the team as a whole, you'll all have to pick which one gets to stay and potentially redeem themselves, and which one gets booted off."

Alexa then stood up from his seat and pointed to his right, where the cloth shelter was. "Over in that corner is the voting booth. One by one will I ask you all to enter and submit your vote. Though Dedede and Falco are the main candidates for elimination, you can vote anyone you want as long as they aren't immune or on another team. You can even vote for yourself, but I doubt any of you will end up doing that.

The first one that will be casting their vote is Mr. Krabs. You will have a minute to write someone's name down on one of the paper slips. If you fail to do so within the time frame, then the vote will become entirely random. So, without further ado... CAST YOUR VOTES!"

Krabs stood up and made his way to the voting booth...


Mr. Krabs: "He made enemies with me the first opportunity he could get, that's enough tellin' that he's no good for the team!" (Falco Lombardi)

King Dedede: "To think he tried to pin our loss on me like it wasn't entirely his fault! Him bein' too weak to keep up with me ain't my problem in the slightest!" (Falco Lombardi)

Falco Lombardi: "How much of an idiot do you have to be to blame everyone but yourself for not keeping up with your rowing? There's no way I'm going out over Dedede!" (King Dedede)

Rodin: "Falco might have rubbed everyone the wrong way, but I see more value in him than that bumblin' penguin. We'll live without the extra brawn." (King Dedede)

Tracer: "I'm probably making the wrong move here, but if there's only enough room for one talking blue bird, then I think I'd slightly prefer to have you gone instead." (?)

After Glass Joe and Wii Fit submitted their votes, Alexa retrieved the box of votes from the booth and returned to his desk.

"Well, this is it! In this box contains the conclusion of who will be the first eliminated contestant of Survivor Crossover's third season! I'll read out the votes one by one. Though this is seemingly between two people only, I wish good luck to everyone here. But enough talking... I shall now read out the votes!" He announced, taking the first slip out from the box and reading it aloud...


*VOTING TIME*

The first vote goes to... King Dedede. (Dedede rolls his eyes)

The second vote goes to... Falco Lombardi. One vote Falco, and one vote Dedede.

The third vote goes to... King Dedede. Two votes Dedede, one vote Falco.

The fourth vote goes to... Falco Lombardi. That's two votes Falco and Dedede. (Both of them glare at each other.)

The fifth vote goes to... Falco Lombardi. Three votes Falco, two votes Dedede.

The sixth vote goes to... King Dedede. Three votes Dedede, and three votes Falco.

"And the seventh vote goes to..."

As Alexa held his tongue for the sake of drama, Dedede and Falco swiftly became nervous. They had no idea who voted against them, and so this final vote could go either way. Despite this, both of them held a similar level of confidence that the vote wouldn't be cast towards them.

Unfortunately, one of them had to be wrong...

"FALCO LOMBARDI! At four votes to Dedede's three, you have been selected as Survivor Crossover: Ice Cap Zone's first eliminee!" Announced Alexa. "What a massive shame, but it had to be someone."

Falco, his mood completely soured by the results, aggressively turned to his team as he stood up. "Well then, looks like this team just signed its death warranty. The fact that I went out instead of the person that ruined the challenge for us says it all."

Dedede simply pointed to him and laughed. "Is that so? This team will do anything BUT fall apart without a weakling like you! Bwahahaha!"

As he dealt with the gloating, Alexa reached into a freezer built into his desk and pulled out an ice cube. "Well, Falco. Tribal Fortress has claimed you as its first victim, which means I'll be snuffing out your torch!"

The pilot raised his eyebrow as he watched the host walk along the wall to the right. "If you didn't notice. Every survivor in this show has a torch along this wall that represents them. When you get eliminated, your torch will be snuffed, confirming your elimination!"

Reaching Falco's torch, he took out the ice cube from his desk and plopped it into the torch, blanketing the intense orange flame and eventually snuffing it out.

The process really didn't mean much in the long run, but watching his torch fizzle into smoke and nothing more caused Falco to grit his teeth with agitation.

"Falco, when you're ready, leave through the exit door on your right. Unfortunately, your short time in Survivor Crossover has come to an end..."

With one last scoff of disapproval, Falco walked over to the exit and passed through it without looking back, leaving only six Manjari members remaining.

"And there he goes. After two rough days of making a few too many enemies, Falco's journey to win the cash and Luxorium Hotel stay has been cut brutally short. Let this be a lesson to perform better as a team, Manjari, or you'll be right back in this fortress in no time at all. But for now, you're free to return to your tribe! Goodnight survivors..."

Standing up from their seats, the six walked out of the building from the front entrance, returning to Mount Manjari.

It had only been two nights, and as tradition with Survivor Crossover, the survivors were already sick of being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Rations, even with fish added into the equation, were poor; the tents and shelter provided were awful at aiding them against the cold, and plenty of them had their share of people they would rather not interact with. Things were going to be hard, and even worse, things were going to get harder and harder as the days go by...


Falco Lombardi's Last Words: "Our tribe was doomed the second it was made, so it'll be fun seeing them crash and burn even faster with me gone. Maybe things might have turned around if Dedede, Joe, and Krabs were kicked out, but it's not like the others were anything special either. Oh well, it's not my problem anymore..."


VOTES

Falco Lombardi (4): King Dedede - Mr. Krabs - Glass Joe - Wii Fit Trainer.

King Dedede (3): Falco Lombardi - Tracer - Rodin.


REMAINING SURVIVORS

Elbrass Tribe (Green)

- Dante

- Scout

- Knuckles

- Phoenix Wright

- Jean Pierre Polnareff

- Kazuma Kiryu

- Princess Daisy

Denalo Tribe (Purple)

- Nero

- Sniper

- Miles "Tails" Prower

- Miles Edgeworth

- Joseph Joestar

- Goro Majima

- Waluigi

Manjari Tribe (Orange)

- Mr. Krabs

- Tracer

- Rodin

- King Dedede

- Glass Joe

- Wii Fit Trainer


Days until ?: 5