The crater where the hotel once was was quite the ominous sight to stand before for Aaron, but for Dana, it was something more so of a miraculous sight. Her typically emotionless face had a wide grin on it, and her eyes were shot up with bloodlust. Aaron glanced over at her and whimpered slightly at how excited she looked. He opened his mouth to say something, but stumbled backwards and fell on his rear when her head suddenly snapped to look at him before anything even happened. "Why, no, Aaron…I don't think I'm enjoying this too much."
"Aye…Miss Dana, you are quite scary in zhis new phase, you know zhat, ja?" Dana just stared at him with her evil eyes as he got up from the ground, wiping the dirt off of his rear. He sighed and looked back towards the makeshift campgrounds that had been set up in the rest of Cali-Tokyo's runes. There was a larger tent for the staff, and two smaller ones on the side of it, one marked with a rabbit and the other marked with a bear. "It's a good zhing ve only needed zhese tents for a few days…zhey are very uncomfortable."
"The apocalypse isn't supposed to be comfortable, you're supposed to push yourself to the very limit to see if you have what it takes to survive…which is why its perfect that this happened before the finale. These two are going to be at their undoubtable limits, so it won't just be an easy sweep for either of them." Dana snickered and started heading back towards the campgrounds, each step of hers coming in contact with the ground in a menacing manner that seemed to startle Aaron.
"J-ja…vell, vith how difficult zhe challenge you picked is, I doubt zhey vould have an easy time vith it regardless." Aaron stared off towards the expansive desert, though it was impossible for him to find what he was looking for with how massive it truly was. "Vell…ve'll see how it goes down vhen zhey get into it. I can't believe ve've actually made it all zhe vay to zhe end of zhe show…I zhink I'm getting a bit sad."
"It's okay to be sad when things are over, I guess…I'm not sad, though. I'm just excited to see the culmination of my perfect apocalypse…even if it's not the coolest thing ever, I can still appreciate the thought of humanity dwindling." Dana snickered and Aaron looked down at her in worry. "I'm kidding…whatever, in any case, I think it's about time we got this show on the road, don't you?"
"Ja…zhat vould probably be for zhe best." Aaron nodded and sat himself down on an empty oil barrel that was laying next to a fire near the campgrounds. Dana stood up next to him, being short enough to still lean against him as he sat.
"Last time, on Total Drama: Scrap Island," the host grinned an evil grin towards the camera, "There were only three of our survivors left on the island, so we figured it would probably be a good time to unleash the true apocalypse! We had them set to scale a tower full of deceit, puzzles, and dead ends with the goal of tossing an orb at the top of the tower into the ocean. Teddy lost his pants about halfway through, Valerie was perving on him the whole time, and Bunny kept getting beat down by everything that was thrown her way. Things seemed bleak for Teddy when he reached the top, but found himself unable to move under the wind pressure. Valerie set herself off to win the challenge, but Bunny suddenly pulled a sneaky flash attack with her camera to stun her so she couldn't get her hands on the orb. Sadly for Bunny, her camera was smashed to bits by Valerie…and she got a pretty rough beat down after that. At least until Teddy mustered the strength to cast the orb into the sea and bring down the reckoning of the apocalypse! Valerie was eliminated in a two to one vote, bringing Teddy and Bunny to our finale…the final bout in our apocalyptic wonderland. Who will be the last person left on this Earth? Find out, right now, on Total Drama: Scrap Island!"
The camera suddenly flew into the sky, but before it could get too high, a set of chains wrapped around it and pulled it right down into the sands of the desert. Aaron and Goth Dana could be seen driving a motorcycle wildly, dragging the camera through the sand before the chains unraveled and it suddenly went spiraling into the distance.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na," the camera had landed in the back of a decked out pickup truck that was spewing flames wildly from its exhaust pipes. Caleb picked the camera up, staring at it with a look of utter confusion before it was snatched right out of his hands.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Teddy revealed himself to be the one that snatched the camera from the chess player, as he was driving the truck and just had to do a sick intro for himself in the finale. The truck ended up crashing, and the camera flew out of the window, landing into a similar truck, though this one had a set of bunny ears on the top of it.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" The camera had fallen right into Valerie's lap, and she gasped from its sudden arrival, only for Bunny to snag it from her and glare into the lens. She chucked it right out through her window, but the air sent it flying back into her face and knocked her flat in her seat, causing her truck to crash into Teddy's. A big explosion went off from the two trucks, and soot covered the lens of the camera.
A hand wiped the soot away from the lens, and it was revealed that it was Teddy's hand. He and Bunny were standing together in the middle of the desert while the sun had fallen and the moon was out. Whistling could be heard in cue with the intro, and the view panned out to reveal that the rest of the former contestants were sitting on the sidelines and watching the two finalists.
The sun was absolutely sweltering as the day was finally brought upon the island. Despite the fact that the contestants were perfectly concealed in their tents, they still ended up feeling the horrible heat. Teddy tossed and turned as he lay on the ground in his tent, having chosen not to get in his sleeping bag to avoid the heat as best as he could. Eventually, it got to be too much, and he snapped up from the ground, his eyes drooping from lack of sleep. "Man…lost my pants and I'm still boiling alive! I can only imagine how Bunny is in that sweater of hers."
Teddy reached his hands behind his back and cracked it as best as he could before heading over to a makeshift sink that was primarily just a bucket and a small water pipe that was angled towards the bucket. He knocked his fist against the pipe, causing some water to flow out towards the bucket. Once the bucket got to be pretty full, he knocked on the pipe again, shutting it off. He splashed the water against his face, doing his best to get rid of the bags, but it really didn't seem to do much work for him. He tugged on his bags with his fingers and sighed annoyedly.
"Teddy Bear Nation would be turning away from their screens if they saw me looking this miserable…well, not much that can be done about it anyways." Teddy shrugged and set the bucket down on the ground before pulling his headband, shirt, and scarf off. He grabbed for a bar of soap that sat nearby, lathering it up in the bucket before rubbing it against his skin and groaning as he felt it against him. "This isn't even the limited edition TBN Bar Soap (Mint Flavored). How am I supposed to feel clean with such a subpar soap?"
Teddy groaned and chucked the soap at the side of the tent, though it seemed to bounce right back, hitting him in the chest and knocking him down to the dirt. He stared up at the roof of the tent with a scowl as the bar of soap rolled along his chest and eventually slipped off of him and fell onto the ground next to him. "Once this show is over, I'm taking a well deserved shower in my own home."
The YouTuber pulled himself up from the ground, but as he took a step towards the bucket, he slipped right on the bar of soap and crashed against the ground again. A bird that was resting on the top of the tent heard all the commotion going on inside and shrugged its wings before the bar of soap flew through the roof of the tent and hit it fast enough to turn it into a roast dinner. It fell through the newly made hole in the tent and landed on the ground, causing Teddy some astonishment.
"Huh…guess all those memes about slapping a chicken with enough velocity to cook it in just the one slap were really onto something. Neat." Teddy snickered and picked the bird up from the ground, taking a bite of it only for his eyes to widen and him to immediately spit it out. "Blech! This thing is dryer than the desert!" He rushed over to the water bucket and immediately started to shovel handfuls of water right into his mouth, looking quite like a madman.
Confessional
"We've been sleeping in tents for the past three days…you know, since the tower hit the hotel and knocked it down into the ocean. Normally I wouldn't have many complaints about roughing it for one night, but with it being three and there really not being any facilities to clean ourselves up…well, it's been rough, to say the least." Teddy pointed to the bags under his eyes and sighed. "It could be worse, though…I saw Bunny yesterday and her hair went full afro mode! She's still in mourning over her camera, so I guess she hasn't been working as hard on her looks. It's weird, though, she's like, high key cute with an afro."
Confessional End
Bunny was pretty sound asleep…at least until she heard all the commotion coming from Teddy's tent. She tried to cover her ears with her pillow, but it was of no use, as the thudding and the shouting managed to come through anyways. She groaned loudly and pulled herself out of her sleeping bag, revealing that she did indeed have an afro, and her pens and pencils that were typically stored in the buns of her hair were now poking out from random parts of the afro. "Only eight in the morning and he's already shouting at the top of lungs…"
The blogger stretched her arms out and got up with a soft yawn. She headed towards her own makeshift sink with a slouch to her posture as she walked. She got a glance of herself through a shard of glass that was sitting on the ground, and she could only sneer at how ridiculous she looked. She stomped down on the shard with her shoe, busting into many pieces and making it impossible for her to see anything in it. Seeing all the pieces of glass scattered around on the ground made her think about her camera, and she just paused as she stared at it.
"...Ugh…" She turned away from the sight of the glass and started rinsing her face with the water in her own bucket. About halfway through this process, she paused and stared at herself in the water, still displeased with how she looked. She reached up and started to pat down her hair as best as she could to get rid of the afro that she was sporting, but it really didn't do that much…outside of split it into two afros, ones on either side of her head.
"Stupid hair doesn't wanna agree with me today." She huffed and kicked the bucket of water over, only managing to spill it all over her sleeping bag. She looked back at it and sighed as she fell down to her knees. "...This had better be over soon, I can't take much more of this terrible island."
Confessional
"Valerie destroyed my camera in the last challenge…you know, the only thing that I really care about. I guess it serves me right for stunning her with it, but you have to admit that she's insane…I was just doing what I thought would be best. Doesn't matter now…that camera's gone and I'll never have it back, no matter what I do." Bunny sighed and stared down at the floor. "Was it worth it? No…no, it wasn't worth it at all. Even if I have the chance to win five million dollars, that camera was worth more than a lifetime."
Confessional End
Teddy and Bunny both managed to leave their tents at the same time, glancing over to see each other. Teddy smiled and waved slightly while Bunny rolled her eyes and looked away from him. He shrugged his shoulders, and the two started to walk towards the fire pit, only to stop when they noticed an unfamiliar girl standing in front of them. She was bouncing up and down, full of a chaotic energy that they hadn't seen from anyone that they had competed with. "Why, hello there, finalists!"
"Uh…hi?" Teddy raised an eyebrow at Rosalina as he looked her up and down, feeling a bit uneasy about the outfit she was wearing. "You look like you're some sort of weeaboo…you're not gonna start running around practicing katana tricks on us, are you? I already had my war with the weeaboo army after I insulted some popular anime on a live stream. I'd like not to repeat that whole ordeal."
"Kshsh! Of course I love anime, and I still resent the fact that you said My Hero College was overrated and all the main characters are boring, but that's beside the point!" Rosalina's eye twitched slightly, but she soon poofed off into a cloud of smoke, disappearing from sight. The two contestants stared at where she was just standing in bewilderment, only for her to pop up behind them and pull them into a hug.
"Ah! Let go of me, would you? I've got enough things to be worrying about without sweaty body pillow owners squeezing on me." Bunny glared at Rosalina, but the fujoshi refused to let her go, only hugging the two of them tighter than before. She sighed, eventually giving up all hope that she would escape her clutches.
"See, Dana told me that you guys were all sweaty and gross and nasty and that Teddy doesn't have any pants! As much as I would love for him to run around in front of all the boys with no pants on, she told me I have to give you guys a full makeover!" Rosalina squealed for joy, and the two prisoners of hers looked between each other in worry. "She said to make you guys look like badass apocalypse survivors…which, to be fair, I dunno much about. The only apocalypse anime I remember watching much of was Desert Brute! Pretty good, not enough boys kissing, but still pretty good."
"Uh…no offense, but I'm not sure I wanna trust you giving me a makeover…I think I would rather dunk my head in a bucket of acid." Teddy looked away from the girl, but her head seemed to stretch out towards him so that she was face to face with him again. He screamed for a second and fell to the ground, heaving deep breaths as she had just scared the lights out of him. "W-what the hell are you, lady!?"
"Me?" Rosalina snapped her head back into proper position and smiled like an innocent child. "I'm just your friendly neighborhood fujoshi! If I ship it, it must be true! And I wouldn't worry too much about how your looks will turn out…I already drew up some beta designs for the outfits! Wanna see? Too bad, I'm showing you anyway!" Rosalina pulled a sketchpad out from her chest, holding it towards the duo to show them a drawing where Teddy was making out with Ronnie and Bunny was standing off to the side looking angry. Teddy's face flushed red and Bunny smirked at the drawing. She reached to grab her camera to take a picture, only to remember that it wasn't there and sink down in sadness.
"So, you know that I know what'll be a good look for you guys, so why don't you just take a step right into my-" Rosalina dug around in her chest again and pulled out some baggy cloth. She spun around at hyper speeds to set it up, only to finally stop, holding her arms up to show that it was a small tent that had a sign at the top that read "Rosalina's Makeover Wonderland." "-Lovely little parlor and I'll get Bunny ready for the finale and Teddy ready for his all guys orgy!"
"I-I'm not going to any all guys orgy! I'm not going to any orgy at all!" Teddy shook his head in disgust and Rosalina shrugged at him.
"Was worth a shot! Oh well, come on in, guys!" Rosalina pointed to the entrance to the tent, and the two finalists just looked at each other awkwardly, not wanting to see the other dressing. "Oh, don't be so prude, you won't be naked in there or anything! The right to be naked in my parlor is reserved for two boys only!" The fujoshi jumped high into the sky before landing behind the two of them. She shoved them each towards the tent and dusted her hands off before entering it with them.
Confessional
"I really am a professional at what I do…I make art and I bring OTPs together! It's my calling…no, my destiny!" Rosalina stared off into the distance with starry eyes before shaking her head feverishly and looking back at the camera with a smile. "I know, some people think I'm overbearing, but you need to be overbearing if you're gonna help people realize who they really are…or who they're meant to be with for the rest of their lives."
Confessional End
After some time futzing around inside the tent, Rosalina came out with a pair of black gloves on. She let out a deep breath, wiping the sweat from her forehead before she ripped the gloves off of her hands and chucked them into the distance at the speed of light. She watched as they flew through the sky until they went out of sight entirely. "Alrighty! You two can show the world the amazing creations I've put together to the viewing world now!"
Rosalina watched the entrance to the tent as someone stepped out of it, someone tall and pale. Teddy's bags were completely gone from his face, and he seemed to be glowing from just how amazingly Rosalina had touched him up. His cyan hair had been gelled back, giving it a bit of a wind-swept look in contrast to the spikes that he typically had about it. She had hit him up with some face paint, a key prospect of any apocalypse survivor. He had one green striped going down from his forehead, through his right eye, and all the way down his cheek. There was a smaller green stripe that went up the center of his chin to his lower lip, and two green dashes that lined underneath his left eye. The final dose of paint on his body was a stripe that fully surrounded his neck, almost looking like a collar. Teddy was always the kind of guy to be doused in merch, but if he was ever dripping out, it would've been now. He was wearing a mulled green tee shirt, with a deep blue crop jacket on over it, the jacket left unzipped. His hands and forearms were covered by black, fingerless gloves. He wore a pair of dark green shorts with light blue bands at the waist and the ends of the legs, while he wore black boots with plenty of buckles on them. "I look…strangely cool. Huh…talk about an unexpected outcome."
"Yeah…definitely didn't expect anything like this." Bunny was the next to step out of the tent, looking a lot more cleaned up than she had before. Her hair faced the biggest change out of everything, with Rosalina dying it a few different colors. It was primarily a maroon color, though her bangs, which were swept over her right eye, were more of a neon pink to match Teddy's own neon hair. This was the first time her hair has been straightened, and it made her look like she belonged in Dana's goth friend group. She wore a pink stripe around her neck, again, to match Teddy's. Her outfit was bedazzled, like his, mainly being a pink tube top that had a red tank strap going to her right shoulder while it had a full black sleeve going on her left arm. She wore black fingerless gloves on both hands, and on her right arm, she was wearing a yellow sleeve, but it was unattached to her top. Her shorts were black with red bands at the waist and the middle of her thighs, where the cutoff was. In contrast to Teddy, her boots were tall and white, being laced up all the way rather than buckled. "...I never really imagined myself showing this much midriff…and the boob window seems a bit much, but whatever, could be worse."
"Uh…yeah, I agree, no reason for the boob window and the midriff." Teddy blushed and looked away from Bunny, who rolled her eyes at him. The two turned to look at Rosalina, who was sniffling and teary-eyed at the sight of her wonderful creations. "Well…you glamified us, I guess. What's up next, weeaboo?"
"Next? Well, I guess the others are probably getting a bit bored of waiting for you two, so you can head back to the staff tent to meet them all and see who your supporters are! Spoiler alert, I'm team Teddy, all the way!" Rosalina smushed herself up against Teddy, who was a bit uncomfortable by this. "If you win, you should totally give Ronnie a big sloppy kiss. I bet it would make the victory all the more sweet!"
"You know, I think I'm probably gonna pass on that, but…yeah, heading to the tent now, see ya later, crazy weeaboo." Teddy and Bunny started to walk to the tent, each of them sighing as they saw that Rosalina was following along with them.
Confessional
"Not that I have anything against any of my fans, but I can't say I particularly enjoy knowing that one of them is drawing smut of me…and with Ronnie, of all people! There's no way that Ronnie would be my OTP out of the guys here, it's an easy Daniel! Come on, we're both YouTubers, we both like to please our fans, yadda yadda." Teddy rattled off about ships before stopping and realizing what he was doing. "But I'm not into guys, anyways!"
"It's funny to watch Teddy get all flustered like this…I just wish I had my camera around to take a picture of it or something. Yeah, I know, I could probably buy a new one, but it's just not the same. That one was special." Bunny shook her head and looked back at the camera. "I never got to say my goodbyes to it…when Valerie was carrying us to the helicopter, the pieces weren't on the ground anymore. Guess the wind carried them away or something."
Confessional End
The group of three had made it to the staff tent, which was astoundingly quiet from the outside. Bunny and Teddy looked between each other before shrugging their shoulders and stepping inside to see all of the former contestants…as well as the new arrivals: Ivy, Sunny, Capone, and George. The group rushed over to the finalists, but it was odd…as they all seemed to shove Bunny out of the way and go right for Teddy. The blogger stumbled back towards the side of the tent, watching as every single person joined team Teddy right in front of her. "W-woah, guys! There's enough Teddy Bear to go around for everyone!"
"Teddy, man! You actually made it all the way to the finale, are you excited?" Daniel pulled his fellow YouTuber in for a hug, patting him on the back before letting go of him and smiling widely. "You don't even have to answer, I've seen how you've been promoting this event all over your channels."
"Yeah…no uploads on my favorite channel about it, but with the hotel gone, I presume there isn't much to be broken into anyways." Caleb shrugged his shoulders while Brittany leaned against him, refusing to look at Teddy. "Brit's on your side, too…she just doesn't like you. Luckily for you, she hates Bunny way more than she dislikes you."
"Yeah, whatever…not like I'm gonna actively support him or anything. I'm only over here because he's your friend, boo." Brittany bent down and kissed Caleb on the forehead, bringing a massive grin to his cocky face. Teddy blinked twice at the two, soon realizing what was going on.
"Oh! You guys are together? That's…great!" Teddy held a thumbs up to the two before turning his head around quickly and gagging. As he turned, he realized that Alice was standing right in front of him, her arms crossed as she scowled at him. "Alice! Uh…hey! You know, about that whole thing before, I wasn't-"
"Don't even bring it up…I'm over it. I know it wasn't your fault…Valerie's just insane." Alice sighed and shook her head. "In any case…I saw that you've been donating to helping preserve some of nature's wonders, so I figured I could show my support to someone behind the cause. Better than getting on the side of someone that smears our movement on her blog for giggles."
"S-so…everybody is here to support me on this? Like, not a single one of you wants to go support Bunny for this?" Teddy looked around to see everyone looking away awkwardly. He glanced over at Bunny, who was just silently watching where she was standing, over at the side of the tent. George then strolled over to Teddy, another face that he wasn't exactly familiar with.
"Teddy, my man! Huge fan, you know, subscribed to all your channels and all that. Let's just cut right to the chase here, buddy. You wanna win the challenge, I want you to win the challenge, and I can ensure you get that win. Tell you what, you promise me a cut of the cash, nothing major, maybe just four million or something, and I'll make sure that Bunny won't even come close to nabbing the win. I mean, I know what the challenge is gonna be…I can have it so she doesn't even get past the first part. Pretty sick deal, right?" George smiled up at Teddy, who frowned at him. The football player shrugged his shoulders and backed off. "Suit yourself, but my services are always up for grabs."
"Cheating is such a dirty tactic…not to mention that he doesn't even know who you are." Zane shook his head at George before looking over at Teddy. "I'm interested to see what you're going to be doing to ensure your win in the finale. What kind of strategy will you pull out? It's something that's actually exciting."
"You're always talking about strategy and what not, it's so boring! We should be talking about the victory feast that Teddy's gonna have when he wins!" Max stormed right up to Teddy, bouncing up and down excitedly while her mouth watered. "Is there gonna be turducken? I hope there is, that's one of my faves! Burgers, cupcakes, french fries, milk shakes, chips, you'll have all the works, right? Oh, tell me it's gonna be glorious!"
"You and food…well, as long as you don't go back to trying to force feed me, it won't be too bad." Mitzy shuddered as she remembered Max invading her room and force feeding her so long ago. "Teddy, congrats on making it all the way to the end. You've outlasted so many villains recently…only one of them is left in the way, now! You're making my heroic heart proud!"
"You are such a soap boxer, Mitzy." Margaret glared at the heroine, who rolled her eyes back at her. "No one cares about the hero villain crap, it's all just a crock of shit."
"Guys…" Teddy looked over to see that Bunny had left the tent. He groaned and shoved his way through the crowd, running after her and leaving all of the others behind.
Confessional
"Yeah, Bunny's cool and all, but I've been a pretty big fan of TBN for some time now. My interests are definitely childish sometimes, but who cares!" Sunny giggled while she kicked her feet. "I just like to have a fun time, is that so wrong?"
"Bunny? Teddy? I don't really care about supporting either of them, I just want to prank someone! Teddy seems easier to prank, so I figured I'd try to get at him…too bad the crowd made it too hard to get to him while he was in the tent." Capone held a bucket of strange brown liquid in his hands. "Someday, we'll unleash a pretty mighty prank. Someday…"
"I don't really care who wins, it isn't really important to me. I just wanna get some of that prize money if I can…I mean, hello! It's millions of dollars! What kind of sucker would just sit back and watch while someone else earns it?" George scoffed at the camera, "I can prove I'm just as deserving of that money as both of them are combined! Just like how I'm gonna show my dad that my cousin doesn't hold a candle to me!"
Confessional End
Teddy burst out of the tent and he was greeted by the sight of Bunny sitting on one of the empty oil barrels by the firepit. She was slouched forward, drawing in the dirt with a stick while she sat there. He walked towards her slowly before eventually sitting down next to her on one of the other barrels. She didn't even look up at him from where she was sitting, and just kept playing around with her stick. "Heyyyy…fella…no need to be so down in the dumps, you're in the finale! That means you're part of the best two contestants out of twenty-two!"
"Easy for you to be chipper when literally everybody wants you to win. Guess I should've been ready for this, though, considering I made everybody my enemy during the season." Bunny sighed and tossed her stick to the side before resting her head on her hands.
"Well…you didn't make me your enemy! I think me and you are still pretty good…I mean, you stole my pants, but that's not the end of the world. I think I'm supposed to be flattered that you ripped my pants off of me, actually!" Teddy smirked, but stopped when Bunny shot a glare at him. "Okay, my bad, not the best time for a joke, I get it. If it's any consolation, I think you've still got a pretty good shot of winning."
"You can keep the pep talking to a minimum, I know you just hand them out to everyone you see that's down in the dumps. You've done it for Valerie before, and you hate her. Who's to say you don't hate me and you're just trying to ease me up so I'll be easier for you to beat?" Bunny scoffed and looked away from Teddy again, leaving him with a frown on his face. "I've already accepted that if I win, no one will be happy for me. You don't have to try and cheer me up. Not like that's the worst thing I've got going on anyways…"
"Right…you're probably still upset about your camera." Bunny refused to turn around and look at the boy. She crossed her arms and he felt as if he had upset her more. "I wasn't trying to make you think about it…I get it, you know. I've always had a camera on me in case I need to make a spontaneous video, it happens."
"It's not the same…this would be more like if the first person to ever subscribe to one of your channels suddenly unsubscribed and deleted their account so you could never get them back. This camera has been with me for such a long time…it's not my first camera, but it was just special since it was a gift. And now it's gone…thanks to Valerie." Bunny sighed and looked back over at Teddy, showing just how upset she was.
"R-right…never talked much to my first subscriber, but they're still around. Username was HopSkipAndAJump, pretty weird if you ask me. When I did my first giveaway I sent something to them…can't remember what it was, but it came from an old tech shop I think. It's funny to think about how young I was back then…only fourteen, heheh." Teddy rubbed the back of his head before he noticed that Bunny wasn't amused by his story. "Right, sorry, trailing off about something that's not important."
"Whatever, it doesn't really matter that much anyways, does it? Point is, the camera just can't be replaced. I can get another one, but it's never gonna be the same thing." Bunny got up from her seat and stared down at the fire. "I would've at least liked to get the pieces before we left the tower so I could bury it or something, but oh well, that ain't happening."
"Yeesh…never seen you so upset before. I think I prefer to see you when you're making all the rabbit puns." Bunny stared at Teddy with a stale look on her face. "Man, I'm just not really good at cheering you up."
"Sometimes, people don't need to be cheered up, they need to be left alone to be sad. I wouldn't bother with me anyways…if some of your followers saw you trying to help out the terrible smear article writer, they'd throw a fit." The two sat there in an awkward silence before a large truck suddenly pulled up in front of them, running over the fire pit and putting out the fire. They were both startled by the truck's sudden appearance, and leapt into each other's arms out of fear of being hit by it.
The driver's side door to the truck opened, and a woman stumbled out of it, coughing up a fit. She revealed herself to be none other than Maggie, and she had a wicked smile on her face. "Howdy doody, finalists! Bet you're pretty stoked to see me, right? Who am I kidding, of course you're not, kuku!"
Confessional
"Perfect…just what this finale was missing, a maniac! I thought we already had it pretty rough with Dana, but now we've gotta deal with Maggie, too! This is just the worst turn of events…" Teddy rubbed his temple as he sat down, "At least I'm gonna look really good when I get tormented by her."
"I don't think I've ever met Maggie in person, but I did write an article about Starshine Industries keeping a criminal around as their COO. It got taken down pretty quickly…mainly because some of the pictures I got by sneaking around the company's building." Bunny smiled slightly, but frowned again as she thought about her camera.
Confessional End
Maggie groggily walked over to the two finalists, and the former and future contestants came out of the staff tent to see what the commotion was. "You guys are probably wondering where Dana and her meek buddy are, right? Well, they're over at first base for the challenge! They wanted me to come over here and make sure that you guys gave your little speeches and all that. Then I get to explain the challenge, all that stuff! Ooo, it's gonna be so much fun!"
"R-right…" Teddy looked nervous as Maggie grabbed a small box from her pocket. She grinned widely and set it down on the ground, soon pressing a button that made it project a hologram screen into the air. It showed the view of Dana and Aaron sitting on a massive pile of scrap in the middle of the desert. Everyone watched the screen closely, a bit astounded by how it was working. "Man, even I haven't gotten my hands on technology like that yet…they just give you guys the best things, don't they?"
"Pretty much! Teddy, you can go ahead and give your speech first, since you're clearly the more vocal…and the more liked of the two of you. Kukuku!" Maggie stepped aside, allowing Teddy to turn around and face the mob of contestants that were standing across from him. He smiled as he saw them, but when he looked to the side and saw Bunny looking miserable again, he lost the smile.
"Uh…hey, everybody! Yeah…I made it to the finale…came a pretty long way from losing in the very first episode of the prequel to this season, didn't I? Heh…well, I definitely wasn't going to let myself have another embarrassment like that." Teddy chuckled a bit, getting some chuckles back from the crowd. "I mean, anyone who's watched my videos knows that I don't just take those things lying down! If someone wants to make a mockery of me on YouTube, I bite back hard! Why would a reality show be any different?"
Daniel hollered loudly for his friend, causing Margaret to shake her head at him out of embarrassment. "Well, now that I've actually made it to this point, I've had to think pretty hard about what I'd do with the cash if I win it. I mean, I've done a whole lot, so I can't pinpoint just one thing I should do, but I can tell you all that you should be expecting more giveaways, more donations, more public events, and higher quality videos! I'm shooting to be the number one YouTuber in the world!"
"Worst to first! Worst to first!" Daniel kept on cheering on his friend before he noticed that a bunch of the others from the group were staring at him as if he had gone completely mad in the head. He blushed and looked down at the ground. "Yo, sorry, just a little excited, is all."
"I don't plan on changing anything about who I am because of the money, I'm still gonna be the guy that strives to be a man of the fans! I want my fans to be as happy as I am, and I think winning this show will be a big step in that goal for me!" Teddy held his fist high into the air before pointing up with his index finger. "So yeah, I'm gonna do whatever I need to do to truly complete the worst to first saga! Thanks for all the support, guys!"
Confessional
"Yeah, I've practiced my speech a whole bunch, but I ended up excluding a bunch of stuff…I dunno, I was getting kind of distracted from having to look at Bunny being so miserable the whole time. It just sucks, I could've stopped the whole camera thing if I was just able to get to the orb before Valerie even came close to it." Teddy sighed and grabbed a box from his back pocket, opening it to show that the pieces of the camera were in it. "If there was some way to fix it, I'd like to know…"
"Teddy and I have been pretty good friends for a while, so it just feels right to support him in this big endeavor. I'd love to see this underdog story of his really pay off…plus, Bunny really messed with Margaret a bit too much. She's pretty high up on her shit list now, so…" Daniel rubbed the back of his neck before shaking his head. "In any case, all I care about is being around to support my friend, so if that means that I have to make myself look like a fool, that's okay!"
Confessional End
"Wonderful speech, Teddy, truly moved me to tears." Maggie pointed to her face to show that she didn't actually have any tears on it. She shoved him aside, allowing Bunny to step up next to her. "Bunny, you get to have your turn at a speech now…not that anyone's gonna wanna listen to anything you have to say or anything. Just make it quick, kay?"
Bunny sighed and looked towards the crowd, all of which seemed to be preoccupying themselves on their phones or with something else. Some people were watching closely, at least Zane and Fridge were, but that seemed to be about it. "Well…yeah, I guess I'm in the finale too. I don't really think you guys wanna hear any speech from me, so I'll just keep it brief. If I win, I win. I'm gonna use the money for…I don't even know, expanding my domain? I had more plans before some recent events, but unfortunately…"
Bunny glared at Valerie, who rolled her eyes at her, "Those events kind of threw a wrench in my path. Whatever, speech is over, I'm done." Bunny took a step back, and Maggie snickered evilly while Teddy just looked upset to hear what she had said.
Confessional
"There's really no point in wasting my time on a speech that I don't want to give and the people don't want to hear, is there? I only enjoy making content that people actually want to read. Sure, my content definitely isn't the nicest stuff out there, but people still want to hear it." Bunny crossed her arms while she glared at the camera. "Ugh…sorry, I'm just gonna be bitter about this for a while."
Confessional End
"Well, your speech was certainly as entertaining as I'd hoped it would be! I mean, just look at all of your adoring fans!" Maggie gestured to the crowd, which Bunny just looked away from, as they still were hardly paying attention to her. "I guess it's okay, though, every finale is doomed to have the one likable contestant and the one that just happened to get there. Kuku…which means it's now officially time to move on ahead with the events if the challenge! It's a big one, so you guys had better be ready to buckle up…literally!"
Maggie fiddled with her remote, causing the hologram screen that she had put up to change its view to a map of Scrap Island. The desert was highlighted among the rest, and zoomed into, though it was so expansive that it was hard to tell where exactly everything was. The area that had been zoomed into showed some sort of makeshift stronghold that Maggie presumably put together in her free time…it definitely matched the look of something the crazy scientist would make.
"Here is the one final barrier to winning the five million dollars…you'll come to see that it's a fortress that's been built entirely of scrap, much fitting the vibe of the season, if I do say so myself!" Maggie snickered and pressed another button on her remote, changing the camera view to a look inside of the stronghold. It showed a massive army of robots within, the same robots that everyone had faced off against in the battle royale challenge. Teddy and Bunny both had their eyes go wide, as they remembered the pain that those things brought about the last time they encountered them.
"Within the fortress…we have our nice little 'zombie' infestation! Zombies really are pesky things, you can't seem to knock 'em down forever, so you usually just run…but if you were to have complete control of the zombies, I'd imagine it would be easier to survive an apocalypse…and to drown out any who stand against you, kuku!" Maggie changed the camera view back to an overview of the desert, and the fortress completely disappeared from sight.
"You'll need to find the fortress and destroy it to unleash your zombie army on this island if you want to win the big bucks, kiddos! Problem is…walking through the desert until you eventually manage to find the fortress and then having to try and beat it down with your fists won't exactly work well." Maggie shrugged her shoulders, soon pressing another button on the remote, which changed the view back to the scrap yard that Dana and Aaron were in.
"As you can see, our lovely host…and Aaron…are sitting in a scrapyard that we've got in the desert as well! There is scrap galore all over the yard…so I'd reckon you could probably fix yourself up a nice vehicle from all the beat up parts we sto-...were donated from junkyards all across the country!" Maggie tugged the collar of her sweater vest and looked to the side while the finalists narrowed their eyes at her. "So…first things first is building your vehicle! It'll really make traversing the desert a lot easier than just walking."
"And we're supposed to just know how to build a car on our own? That seems like something only Buck would know how to do." Teddy looked over towards Buck, who heard his name get called. The boy was lying on the ground, rather than sitting like the rest, and he snapped up, only to accidentally knock his head against Fridge's bicep and fall back to the ground.
"Oop! Sorry Buck! I was just flexing to show Ronnie my gains!" Fridge chuckled and flexed his bicep tighter than before, causing it to bulge at the skin. Ronnie was impressed to see how beefed up the boy was, but he lost this feeling the second he felt someone breathing on his neck. He turned to see Rosalina practically frothing at the mouth.
"Girl, you're weird as hell, you know that?" Ronnie got up from where he was sitting and moved to sit by Celeste, who nervously blushed and looked away. Rosalina put on a pouty face and reached into her chest to grab her sketch pad, immediately scribbling something rather NSFW down in it.
"Kukuku, don't be silly, Teddy!" Maggie patted Teddy on the back "lightly," which knocked him down to the ground. She rolled her eyes with a smile on her face. "Whoopsie daisy! Anywho, you're not going to build your cars alone, we've picked out two people that we know are going to be helpful to you in that regard! Of course, you'll each get one of the two! Teddy, your helper in this challenge is gonna be somebody that you know and love, but we also made sure that it's somebody that your competition sees as her worst enemy! Caleb, bring you and your pot of gold on up here!"
"I resent that comment…bitch." Caleb got up from his seat in a huff, but his temper simmered down when Brittany kissed him on the forehead. He turned into a blushing mess and made his walk over to Teddy, who was just now getting up from the ground. The two boys looked each other in the eyes with huge smiles on their faces. "Looks like the dynamic duo of the century is back at it again, eh?"
"Hell yeah they are!" Teddy pulled Caleb in for a bro hug, which turned into a normal hug…which then turned into a bear hug. Caleb's face turned blue from the lack of oxygen that was getting to his system.
Confessional
"I'm gonna be working with Caleb in the finale? It pretty much seems like they're just making things difficult for Bunny on purpose at this point. I mean, don't get me wrong, I wanna win, but it's not like Bunny deserves to be put at a disadvantage." Teddy shrugged his shoulders, looking a bit unsure about these circumstances. "Either way, I'm still glad to have him back on my side. Everyone saw the beatdown we dished out on the mad king a little while back…we really are the perfect duo!"
"I was initially told that I would be helping Bunny in the finale, but thinking back on it…that was probably just Maggie being an asshole to get a rise out of me. In any case, it's both good and bad for her that I'm on Teddy's side. It's good because she won't have me deliberately trying to ruin the challenge for her, but it's bad because I'm gonna make sure that Teddy gets this win no matter what!" Caleb snickered to himself like a crazed imp. "Checkmate, Bunny…checkmate!"
Confessional End
Bunny leered at Caleb, who stuck his tongue out at her in response while Maggie kept giggling like a schoolgirl. "Alright, alright, get ready for even more laughs and fun, cause we're gonna announce Bunny's partner! Again, we wanted to pick someone that we knew Teddy would identify as his worst enemy, and that…honestly could've been one of two people. Considering we know that Brittany would've definitely helped Caleb in making sure Bunny would lose, we had no choice but to resort to…dire methods. Valerie, you're up!"
Bunny's eyes went wide as Valerie got up from where she was sitting. She had her headphones in, as she was jamming out to music. She walked over to where Bunny was, staring down at her with a miserable frown on her face. "I guess that I ended up getting stuck with you…oh well…it gives me a good opportunity to get my revenge on Teddy for rejecting my undying love…" The miserable girl looked over at Teddy, still frowning. "We could've been such a power couple, but noooo…you find me repulsive."
"I find you insane, actually!" Teddy hid behind Caleb, who just looked confused, as he made for a better window than a door.
"Ugh, whatever, I guess I'll have to make it work." Bunny sighed as she rubbed her temple, glancing back towards the grinning Maggie soon after. "It still seems like Teddy has a bit higher of an advantage in this whole car building thing…"
"Hm, perhaps he does…which is why we gave you the helper that will better know how to handle the second task of the challenge: building a bomb to blow a hole in the fortress!" The finalists gasped while Caleb crossed his arms. Valerie snickered to herself, evil intent emanating from her eyes. The two looked to her to see how happy she looked about this part of the challenge.
"What can I say? When you're always getting bullied, you look things up…you know, just out of curiosity." Valerie continued to snicker, her evil gaze seeming to get more and more aggressive by the second.
Confessional
"Teddy got Caleb, and I ended up with Valerie…well, she seems really excited for the bomb building, so I guess that'll be fun at least…you know, if she doesn't decide to blow all of us up in the middle of it. Oh, I could write a really good article about that! I just need to take a-" Bunny froze in place as her hands grasped for her camera. She sighed and looked down at the floor. "How am I supposed to do my thing without my sweet baby with me?"
"What? Oh, I'm sorry that being bullied made me curious to find out all the ways I could enact my revenge. It's not like those people didn't try to kill me or get me to do it for them all those years…" Valerie crossed her arms and huffed while she looked off to the side. "I would never do it anyways, I was just curious…I'm too pathetic to pull off something like that."
Confessional End
Maggie whistled and headed back to the front of the truck, opening the doors up and gesturing to them. "You four can pile right on in! I'll be staying here with the reject pile, so you guys just have to drive a mile straight or so to get to the scrap heaps! I know that Teddy has his license, so don't even pull the 'I can't drive' excuse!"
"Huh? Why would I pull that? Wait…do you three not have your licenses?" Teddy giggled a little as he looked at the three embarrassed teenagers blushing. "You guys are all older than sixteen, you don't have your licenses? Or your permits, even?"
"My parents didn't love me enough to take me to get my permit test…or to teach me what I need to know…yeah…" Valerie rubbed her arm and looked over at Caleb, who was blushing and refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
"W-well…those bitches at the offices for that stuff wouldn't believe that I was old enough, even when I showed them my birth certificate! They said I must've faked it, but if I was that young, how would I be able to fake it!?" Caleb paused for a moment and then had a realization, "Oh, right…I guess I was always pretty smart, even when I was that young. You win this round, government bitches."
"I just never got around to doing the test or anything…I was always too busy chasing after my next scoop! Plus, I'm pretty fast on my feet, soooo…" Bunny smiled slightly, but lost the smile and traded it for a frown soon enough.
"Oh well…I guess I can just drive for us then." Teddy shrugged and got in the driver's seat of the truck, with the other three piling in on the side next to him. Once they had all gotten in the truck, they shut the doors, and Teddy turned the thing on. He started to drive away, and Maggie waved at them until they were far off in the distance.
"Well, now that they're gone…" Maggie turned to face the group of former and future contestants with a grin on her face. "I guess you guys are all alone with me now! That means I get to do whatever I-" It was then that she realized that everyone that was just sitting there had run away from the area, leaving only Sunny, who was smiling and waving. "...Want. Well, at least I got you, buddy!"
"That's right! We can always go hunt for the others, I bet it would be really fun!" Sunny got up from where she was sitting and walked over to Maggie, wrapping her arms around her neck and pulling her in for a hug. "It probably won't be really hard to find all of them anyways…looking at you, Fridge!"
Fridge was standing in the middle of the campgrounds, holding up an empty oil barrel and hiding behind it to the best of his ability, but it really wasn't doing that much for him. He dropped the oil barrel while blushing out of shock from being found so easily. "Darn it, I thought I really had a good hiding spot, but I guess nothing gets past you two!" The big athlete walked over to the girls, taking them both in his arms and squeezing them. "That was a fun game, let's keep playing!"
"A bit too many concussions came your way from those football practices, eh, Fridge?" Maggie grinned while Fridge innocently giggled and nodded his head in agreement…only he wasn't sure what he was agreeing to.
Confessional
"I do so love to mock people that can't understand that I'm mocking them, it just brings joy to my cold dead heart." Maggie grinned from ear to ear while she stared menacingly into the camera. "I'll also get an extra large heap of joy when people start blowing things up! Aren't explosions just the coolest things? I think they are! In fact, I know they are!"
Confessional End
There was nothing but pure silence in the truck as Teddy drove it through the desert. He awkwardly patted his fingers against the wheel and whistled to himself while slightly glancing over at the others. Caleb was the closest to him, and he was glaring at Bunny, who was sitting on the opposite side of Valerie and glaring back at him. Valerie, on the other hand, was lost in her world of music, which she was playing a bit too loud, as everyone could hear it blasting from her headphones.
"Uh…so…how's everybody's day going?" Teddy tried his best to spark up conversation, but Bunny rolled the window down and looked out of it to ignore him. Caleb scoffed at her and looked over to Teddy with a smirk.
"Guess the wild animal doesn't have any proper manners, she's just ignoring you and sticking her head out the window! How long do you figure it'll take her to stick her tongue out in the wind? I'm betting two minutes!" Caleb snickered, but Bunny reached over Valerie and slapped him on the back of the head, causing his glasses to fall off of his face. "Hey, you bitch!"
"Oh, did that hurt? My bad…I'll try to hit a little less hard next time. The soft spots on babies' heads really are sensitive…I'd hate to stunt your growth." Bunny lightly grinned at Caleb, but he slapped back at her. The two of them soon entered a slapping match with Valerie in between them. She did her best to ignore them, sitting there all wrapped up in her music, but when they knocked her headphones out of her ears, she couldn't help but get angry. She grabbed both of them by the hair and tugged them close to her.
"Listen here, you little shits! I'm trying to enjoy my music and mind my own business, and I just need you guys to leave me alone so I can do that! If you keep bothering me, I'm gonna chuck both of you out the window!" Valerie had fire blazing in her eyes, but the two brats were still smacking at each other. Teddy looked over at the three of them with a glare in his eyes.
"If you guys don't knock that fighting off, so help me, I'll turn this truck around! Then nobody gets to go to the finale challenge!" Bunny begrudgingly stopped slapping at Caleb and got back to her own devices, thanks to Teddy's taunting. The chess player grunted and grabbed his glasses from the ground, putting them back on his head before sitting back down. Valerie sighed and plugged her headphones back in. "Much better…you know, now that I think about it…if neither you or Valerie have your licenses, how are you gonna drive the car you make, Bunny?"
"Huh? U-uh…" Bunny paused for a moment, having not thought about how this may have been a detriment to her in the final challenge. She looked over to see that Caleb was snickering at her and blushed profusely. "S-stop laughing at me! I'm sure I'll figure it out!"
"Oh, sure! Sure you will! It looks like this challenge is going to be even more clear cut than I initially thought, right, Teddy?" Caleb grinned over at his friend before realizing that he was stopping the truck. He put it in park and unbuckled his seat belt. "Teddy, what the hell are you doing?"
"Huh? Well, I'm gonna teach Bunny how to drive, obviously!" Teddy smiled widely while Bunny and Caleb dropped their jaws in a joint wide-eyed stare at him. "Well, I want her to have a somewhat fair chance…winning when she's at a heavy disadvantage isn't really winning, you know?"
"Teddy, this isn't a video game or some duel, this is a challenge for five million dollars! I love you, man, but you're being fucking stupid!" Teddy shrugged and slid over where he was sitting, patting his hand on the seat for Bunny. She sighed and climbed over the other two people that were currently sharing a seat with her to join Teddy. Caleb could only scoff and turn the other way. "You're giving up an easy win, but whatever…"
"Alright, so you're definitely gonna wanna buckle up or it's gonna be a bit of a bumpy ride. This seat is big enough for the two of us, so I guess we can just share it!" Teddy buckled the belt over both him and Bunny, but made sure to be slid all the way to the window so that she could get a good handle of the controls without him in the way. Okay, so see the two pedals on the ground? Yeah, you're gonna wanna press your foot down on the left one, that's the brakes-"
Confessional
"Yeah, I've done a whole bunch of training videos and things on Teddy's Tutorials. It's another one of the big three channels, along with my main channel and TeddyGames! I've done bits on driving before, so it wasn't like this was a whole new subject for me…it just wouldn't feel right if I was going against someone who was basically a quadruple amputee in this challenge, you know?" Teddy smiled at the camera until Caleb opened the door to the confessional and punched him in the knee. "Yowch!"
"It's so embarrassing…having to be taught how to drive by the person I'm about to be competing against in this final challenge. Well…at least I'll know what I'm doing…I know that Caleb or Valerie definitely wouldn't have shown me these same pleasantries." Bunny sighed and looked away from the camera, her face completely red.
Confessional End
Fridge tapped his chin as he walked around the campgrounds, looking for wherever the other people may have run off to. As he wandered around, Capone sat himself down behind some debris, rubbing his hands together deviously while he snickered. "That's it, big guy! Just come a little closer and get ready to feel the wrath of my heinous pranks! A little closer…a liiiiiiittle closer…aaaaaaand…"
Fridge stepped forward and tripped over a rope, causing a net to scoop him up from the ground and hoist him in the air. Capone ran out from behind the debris, laughing like a maniac as he pointed towards the captive athlete. "Haha! How do you like them apples!? You just got yourself Capwned! I know, I know, it really must be a shock…you were just on the ground, and now-" The ropes of the net started to make some stretching noises, and before Capone was able to react, they snapped, and Fridge fell right on top of him, darn near squashing him flat.
"Heheh! Guess I found you, Capone! You really should've tried to hide better…I don't know why you would just run out into the open like that." Fridge shook his head as he got up from the ground. He stared down at the Capancake that he had made and scooped him up with one hand, setting him down on his feet. "Now's not the time to be laying around like nothing important happened, either! We gotta find the others so we can watch the challenge!" Fridge started running off in search of the others while Capone wobbled back and forth, inevitably unable to keep his balance and soon crashing against the ground.
While Fridge had already found one of the people that the trio was searching for, Sunny had her Sunshine visor on and was using it to scan the area around her, trying her best to pick out where the next person may be. "Come on, come on…there must be someone hiding around here somewhere…" As she kept studying the area, the visor was plucked from her head, leaving her dazed. "H-hey!"
The idol turned to see CJ, who was still bandaged up a whole bunch from his accident on the show a while back. He was studying the visor closely, his eyes red, indicating that he wasn't exactly sober. "Huh, man…this is like one of those things from that dragon anime with that Tofu guy. You know, he does the big bombo blast move and he eats beans when people attack him. Heheh…good show to watch when you're having a fun time with plants."
"CJ, that's not just a toy that you can play around with!" Sunny's expression suddenly shifted into a harrowing one that only succeeded in making the boy nervous. "The powers within my visor are too much for just anyone to handle on their own…your brain might get fried from the sheer awesomeness, and definitely not the radiation, no way."
"Man, my brain is already fried enough! Heh, it may as well be deep fried at this point! Imma put it on and see what happens!" Sunny sighed as the stoner put the visor on his head. The interface lit up on the inside with text that read "Wearer Not Recognized." "Huh? What does that mean?" Not even three seconds later, it lit up with a bright light that temporarily blinded the boy. He squeaked and threw the visor towards the ground, though Sunny dived and caught it before it got damaged. "Man, what kind of laser do you have in there!?"
"A super secret laser that you're not supposed to know about! Idols only!" Sunny giggled innocently and put the visor back on her own head. "Now, if I were you, I'd stop whining about the permanent damage to your retinas and I worry a bit more about getting back in time to watch the big finale, mmk?"
"Y-you got it, magic girl…" CJ groaned and rubbed his eyes before he spun a skateboard into existence out of literally nowhere. He started to skate back towards the campgrounds, leaving Sunny to shrug in confusion before heading off in search of the others.
This only left Maggie, who was snickering while she slowly walked in a crater of debris. The smile on her face was as creepy as ever, and anyone that dared to show their face was surely in for a rather painful greeting. "Helloooooo? Where is everybody? I just wanna have some fun at our little viewing party, is that too much to ask?"
Celeste quivered in fear as she had hidden herself amidst some of the debris and was trying to keep her noise level as low as possible so as not to alert Maggie of where she was hiding. She heard the crazed scientist's footsteps getting closer and closer, and she brought her breathing to a halt. The footsteps stopped right as they had reached the area that Celeste was hiding in, and without a second of warning, a hand reached into the debris and pulled the girl out into the open. "Found you!"
Celeste's face went so pale that she looked like a ghost had ripped her soul out of her body, leaving nothing but an empty shell. She fell unconscious in Maggie's arms…at least until Maggie shook her awake and she gasped. "O-oh…I'm sorry, I didn't mean to faint…you're just so terrifying, I think my brain told me it would be better to be asleep than to be looking at you…"
"I feel like I should take offense to that, but I'm actually quite flattered! Very well, frightened little baby! Go along and run back to the campgrounds while I work on finding the other rejects…the finalists would surely be sad if you guys weren't watching them in their big moment." Maggie snickered and dropped Celeste to her feet. The meek girl nodded her head before scurrying off a little ways away…but she stopped running and ended up vomiting from sheer terror a little ways away. "Ooo! Never made someone vomit without resorting to torture first…I guess I can put that on my resume!"
"I…I'm sorry…I'll clean it up…u…uh…" Celeste found an oil-soaked rage sitting in the debris and pulled it over to start cleaning up the mess she made, leaving Maggie to snicker while she walked away.
Confessional
"That Fridge is seriously unprankable! Even when you prank him, he doesn't seem to mind or he just miraculously gets himself out of trouble! Curses…I'll really need to make sure he gets what's coming to him sooner or later!" Capone snickered as he read through a large book that was titled, "Capone's Book of Pranks." It was a lot larger than your standard book, but this didn't seem to bother him, as he was deep into the pages at this point.
"Sunny is, like…super cool, man…I mean, she's got super powers, clearly! Her helmet thingy lasers you in the face, but she wears it all the time and never has any problems with it! Heheh…you love to see a powerful woman!" CJ chuckled, but his chuckle devolved into a coughing fit. "Erk…man, I think I need to get some more munchies…oh, wait…I ate 'em all the last time I was here…"
"I don't mean to be so squeamish, b-but…well…Maggie is Maggie…she can be a little too much to bear at times. I don't mean to be mean when I say that, but you guys have all seen her…she's quite scary. And that's coming from the girl that everyone thought was some sort of crazy yandere…yes, I've seen the fan mail…" Celeste blushed and looked away from the camera, "Sorry that I kinda failed on that front, too…"
Confessional End
As Dana and Aaron sat on their scrap piles, waiting for the finalists to arrive, they noticed that the truck was finally coming into sight. It was braking on and off, trying to squeak over to the scrap heaps without going too fast. Eventually, it came to a complete stop, and Valerie and Caleb stumbled out of the side door, each of them looking like they were about to throw up. Teddy hopped out of the driver's side, dusting himself off before holding his hand up to help Bunny down from the rather high drop. "See? For your first time, you really didn't do that bad!"
"You're just saying that to cheer me up…if I did a good job, those two wouldn't be so carsick right now." Bunny huffed and stomped off towards the hosts, with Teddy soon following after her. The helpers managed to pull themselves off of the ground and join them, but they still looked rather sick from the whole ordeal. Dana and Aaron hopped off of the piles that they were sitting on.
"Well…it looks like you guys finally made it…you only took an eternity to get here…sigh. Do I look like my complexion can handle this much sunlight?" Dana pointed to her pale face and Valerie nodded in agreement. "Whatever, it's really not so bad…you guys are here now, so I guess it's good enough. Anyways…the goal for you now is to start digging around to build your cars and bombs…"
"Ja…you can't leave zhe yard until you build zhe both of zhem, so don't even zhink about building zhe car first and taking zhe parts for zhe bomb vith you vhile you look for zhe fortress." Aaron glared at Caleb, who snapped his fingers in annoyance. "I knew at least one of you vas zhinking about it. Anyvays…zhe first duo to finish zheir builds vill be able to leave zhe yard in advance, giving zhem more time to search for zhe stronghold."
"Yeah, you don't really have a time limit or anything, you just gotta get the job done…I'm looking forward to watching you guys struggle to find the fortress, though…we did a pretty good job at hiding it, if I do say so myself." Dana lightly smirked, but the smirk only lasted a second before it faded. "Anyways, yeah…just go ahead and start building so we can get a move on with the challenge. I wanna see who the real bringer of the apocalypse is…" The contestants just stood there and stared blankly at Dana. "...That means go, dumbasses." The four of them then finally burst off towards the scrap piles, digging around in search of the parts for their builds.
Confessional
"Bunny driving was the worst idea that Teddy has ever had…and I've seen him have some pretty dumb ideas. He has a couple of deleted channels that just didn't fly…a bachelor rip-off was one of them. The girls had to impress him, but no one could see each other until the end of the interview. …Every single girl walked off when they saw him." Caleb shook his head, a grin on his face. "Guess that means I got more game than Teddy, eh?"
"I've been brought back to more giant piles of garbage…they really are so relatable, you know? We only get to dig around them for a while, but I'll make sure to cherish them while we're here." Valerie held up a small pile of scrap in her hands and smiled at it before glaring at the camera. "I know you're judging me…you'd better cut it out or I'm gonna get mad."
Confessional End
Bunny got into her digging session in one of the piles, where Caleb joined her. She tried to ignore his existence, but when it seemed that he was purposely tossing away scrap in her direction, she glared at him. "Could you maybe not do that? I'm trying to get parts, and you throwing things at me like an angry toddler certainly isn't helping."
"Oh, I'm sorry! I forgot that I was totally supposed to make sure things are going swimmingly for you! Yeah fucking right!" Caleb grabbed an empty can of soup and tossed it towards Bunny, though she smacked it away with her hand and kept on digging. "You can go ahead and try to ignore me, but I'll still do whatever I can to make this challenge a living hell for you! You don't deserve to win, anyways."
"Yeah, yeah, everyone keeps saying that and I've kinda learned to tune it out at this point. Just go and scrounge up some scraps for your daddy and leave me alone. I'm sure you want him to be happy with you so you guys can make another unboxing video, after all." Bunny grinned from where she was sitting, and Caleb went red in the face. "What? Did you really think that I wouldn't find out about that?"
"Y-you bitch! That video was supposed to be taken down already! I could've sworn me and Teddy deleted it right after the challenge was over, so there should be no way that you could know about it!" Caleb grabbed more scrap in his hands and started to chuck it at Bunny, though she just swiped it all with her hands.
"Come on, Caleb, nothing that gets deleted on the internet is ever truly deleted. That's like, one of the most basic laws of the internet. It's actually astounding that you didn't know that, considering that you seem to think you're such a brainiac." Bunny grabbed something incredibly heavy from the scrap heap, revealing it to be a rather large engine. It was astonishing that she was even able to carry the thing, and with Caleb throwing things at her, it certainly didn't make it any easier. "Would you cut it out already? The video being up there is all on you…you ruined your own reputation way better than I ever could, so congrats!"
Caleb huffed as he ran out of small scrap to throw and Bunny ran off to a clearing that she dubbed as her building zone. He mumbled to himself and went back to digging, grabbing some miscellaneous wiring and parts and bringing them to a different clearing, this one being Teddy's makeshift building zone. This left Teddy and Valerie at the other scrap heap, where they were also digging in search of parts. Teddy kept as quiet as he could while Valerie stared holes into the back of his head. "C-could you maybe not look at me? Kinda trying to focus here…"
"Hm? Oh, right…I forgot that I'm so repulsive that even me looking at you is enough to make you gag." Valerie looked back towards the scrap pile and pulled some metal axles out from it, holding them up with a grin on her face. "Oh, I do so love being stronger than all of you wimps…makes it so I can show off and bring a whole bunch of stuff back in one trip."
"You must be a real treat to your mother when she goes grocery shopping." Teddy rolled his eyes and kept digging, ignoring that Valerie was glaring at him.
"Yeah, as if my parents would ever consider me anything more than a curse on them. You already knew that they hated me…I mean, I told you so many times, but I'm sure you just weren't listening." Valerie continued to grumble and she pulled out two large tires from the scrap pile, now holding more in her arms than all of the people in the makeshift scrapyard weighed combined. "Welp, guess this is enough for the first trip. Not like you'll be able to bring close to this amount back with you anyways."
As Valerie started to head to Bunny's building site, Teddy stuck his arm deep in the scrap pile before pulling out a remote with a glowing red button. He stared at it blankly for a moment before realizing what it was. "Ohhh…this is probably to make the bomb go boom! Heh, I should make a channel where I just blow things up…TeddyDemolition, I'll call it!"
Confessional
"I wasn't really paying attention to whatever Valerie was saying…something about her parents and going to HuluWorld or something? Eh, it probably wasn't that important…I don't think anything she's ever said to me has really been that important." Teddy rubbed the back of his neck, "Or maybe I'm just a bad listener…psh, nah…"
"Yeah, I had no part in the mass amount of reuploads of the unboxing video, but it is really funny to see people smearing Caleb's ego all over the wall. It's been reposted so many times at this point, he'd never be able to get it taken down permanently, no matter how hard he tries." Bunny snickered as she held her phone up to the camera, showing that she was playing the video at that very moment. "Ah…this video really is a classic."
Confessional End
Maggie made it out of the crater that she had found Celeste in, and was now in search of somebody else, though she didn't really care who it was. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" The crazed scientist called out into the distance, and some scrap on small heap moved around, as if somebody was hiding in or around it. She grinned from ear to ear and ran right over to the scrap heap, jumping on top of it. "Haha! I found…you?"
At the bottom of the heap, Larida was trying to pull herself off of the ground, and only really made herself look helpless and pathetic with how hard it was for her to get up. Maggie sighed and slid down the heap to land next to her, soon grabbing her by the arm and helping her up off of the ground. "Oh, Larida…it never ceases to amaze me that you thought joining a show like this would be a good idea."
"N-now, wait just a minute, young lady! I may be slightly out of my prime, but I'm still just as good a contestant as any of the kids on the show are!" Larida crossed her arms and glared a motherly glare at Maggie, who raised her eyebrows and smiled. "What's that look supposed to be for? You don't believe me?"
"Oh, I would never doubt you, Larida…but your low placements in both seasons, and the fact that you're pretty much prone to any injury ranging from something accidental to a sudden hip combustion, well…that kinda tells me that you may not be so self aware." Maggie dusted her hands off and walked ahead a few steps before stopping and turning back to face the older woman again. "If I need to spell it out for you: you're pathetic! You're old, you're flabby, your son looks like a piglet…need I go on?"
Larida lost her confidence from before, frowning at Maggie's harsh words. "I-I'm not pathetic…and my son looks just fine, thank you!"
"Oh, yes, totally, people definitely don't think he looks pig-like at all. It's alright to be pathetic, though…not everyone is built to be a show stopper or a real game changer. Having you around as consistent fodder makes it easier for everyone else to get closer to the money prizes, anyways!" Maggie giggled and kept on walking while she waved back at the woman. "Maybe you should get into jazzercise or something if you wanna actually be able to do anything. Your aching hips will thank you!"
Larida shrunk down in defeat and started to walk back towards the campgrounds while Maggie cackled evilly and left the area. Fridge wasn't too far off from where the older woman was found, and he was still in search of someone when he happened to stumble upon Yves, who was ignoring his existence while she lay atop a conveniently cushiony surface that she had found. "Heheh! Looks like I found you, Yves! You get to go back and watch the show now!"
"I think I'm good where I am now, thank you." Yves didn't even open her eyes to look at the boy, which left him a bit perplexed. He wasn't used to being completely ignored like this.
"But…don't you wanna see what's gonna happen in the finale? It's supposed to be all bombastic and everything, you really don't wanna miss it!" Fridge giggled, but she still didn't open her eyes, nor did she respond to him. "Er…if you watch the finale, you might have a fun time, and since you seem like you don't have anything fun going on in your life, it might be worth it to try watching!"
"Huh?" Yves shot one of her eyes open, staring coldly at Fridge, who smiled innocently. "My life is plenty fun…just because I don't toss around a stupid ball and mix everybody's names up doesn't mean that I don't have fun every now and then. …I just am very selective with when I have fun. I can only have fun at certain times, and with certain people, doing certain things. If those certain people are unavailable? Well, the fun will just be held off, and I'll continue to hovel."
"Uh…I dunno, that sounds like you're kinda trying to make sure that things go your way all the time. Hovel means pout, right? So…you pout when people don't want to have fun with you? What was that thing that Maggie called you?" Fridge tapped his chin in thought, having forgotten the word completely.
"I'm not a sociopath…it's bold of her to accuse anyone of being anything like that, psh. I simply don't enjoy frolicking all the time, and when people ignore when I want to do something fun, I put it off and let them know that they missed their chance. It's simple." Yves scoffed at Fridge, but she soon noticed that his expression hadn't changed from the perplexed look from before. "This is just like talking to a wall…whatever, I'll go back to the campsite if you just leave me alone."
Fridge tried to answer, but Yves wouldn't let him, as she simply decided the conversation was over and left the area. He shrugged, and went about his business, not devoting too much thought to what had just happened. This left Sunny, who was standing high up on a pile of debris that she had found, looking for her next victim. The scanner in her visor seemed to help her see through some of the debris, and she identified someone's outline behind a dilapidated building. "Gotcha!"
With a mighty hop, Sunny bounded over the hill she was on, and landed right in front of Calvin, who was hiding behind the building. "Ah!" The boy stumbled back a bit, horrified that she was able to make that jump and not explode on impact. "A-are your legs okay!? You literally just jumped from about ten yards in the sky, that can't be good for your bones!"
"Oh, silly agent, when you're an idol, you learn that pain really doesn't exist. Just ignore it and smile and no one will bat an eye, not even yourself!" Sunny's legs were very clearly wobbling from the impact, but she kept a grin on her face as she ignored the pain. Calvin raised an eyebrow at her, but she didn't let him question her any further. "Now, we need you to scurry back to the campgrounds. Best buddy took the time to set up the hologram screen for you guys to watch the finale, so she'd probably be pissed if you guys didn't."
"I appreciate you coming to find me, Agent Noir, but I was under the impression that…Miss Devoe would be conducting more of her experiments while we were watching. I've seen what they're like, and I'd really like to not have to deal with anything like what happened to Agent Sallow…" Calvin shuddered as he recalled the horrible torment that Celeste endured while she was still competing in Mega Mechas.
"Psh, she would never do something like that on such a big day! Okay, well, maybe she was gonna ruffle some of your feathers, but you're a big boy, you can handle it juuuuuuust fine!" Sunny lifted her visor up and held a thumbs up while she smiled at Calvin. "See? You can trust my sweet face, I've been told I look very trustworthy!"
"...Ehhhhhh…I think whoever told you that may not have been so trustworthy themselves. I'll head back to the campgrounds, but if Miss Devoe goes on with any of her funny business, I'll make sure you won't find me so easily when I go back into hiding." Sunny giggled and Calvin began to walk away. When he was out of sight, she dipped her visor back down and looked on for another person.
Confessional
"Jazzercise really doesn't seem like a horrible idea…I'm really not taking good care of my body, and at my age, that could really be a death sentence. Well, I suppose I can dabble in something like that while I'm waiting for us to get into the next season…it can't be too bad, right?" Larida smiled nervously at the camera before some jazzercise music started to play in the confessional booth. "Oh boy…this is going to be a long ordeal…"
"So many people have been calling me a sociopath since the whole aftermath interview…the amount of mail from the fans that have been addressed to 'Miss Sociopath' has been quite insane. All it takes is a couple mistakes for everyone to demonize you." Yves grumbled to herself, her expression showing a lack of remorse for her actions. "Whatever, they'll all forget about it eventually."
"Agent Noir is quite the big name in the idol industry…her brother also competed on one of these seasons, Space Station, I believe? I suppose it's quite the popular family by now…yet she doesn't let that get to her head…I think. It's really hard to get a proper read on her…for all I know, she could be even more psychotic than Miss Devoe." Calvin looked a bit puzzled as he stroked his chin in thought. "Now that I've been recruited by a real agency, I need to make sure my skills are honed properly…"
Confessional End
The finalists and their helpers had been gathering up parts for some time now, and the piles that they had made in their own respective clearings had gotten quite large. Valerie dumped off some miscellaneous metal parts in the pile and wiped her hands on her pants. "Hm…guess that's probably enough for us to get started on the build. So…you want me to just put the bomb together already? It'll take me…five…ten minutes, tops."
"You really think you'll be able to build something as complex as a bomb in ten minutes? Even if you've researched it day in and day out, it's gotta take a lot longer than that." Bunny clearly doubted Valerie, but the miserable girl just chuckled and rolled up her sleeves before digging into the pile of parts and pulling out the things she decided she needed for her bomb.
"Oh, Bunny, you truly know nothing about horrible man-made creations. Your naivety will never cease to amaze me…just sit back and watch me make this masterpiece before your very eyes." Bunny continued to keep a skeptical eye on Valerie while she got to work on the bomb. She was definitely moving her arms a lot faster than Bunny was used to seeing her move, but she didn't say anything, as she just began to look through the rest of the parts to try and figure out how to get the car put together.
Confessional
"...Let's get this out of the way here and now, I don't like Valerie…at all. She's the one that took my camera out of this world…it's because of her that I don't have that special thing with me anymore. I mean, it was a gift, so…once I got it, I decided to keep using it instead of the old camera that I had." Bunny paused for a moment, "The circumstances of that gift are so odd, still, but it's nothing I want to get into right now."
"It's funny that Bunny got stuck with me after all that happened in the final three challenge…I mean, I'm a sick joke to whoever gets stuck with me, but it's an exceedingly hilarious joke when that someone is Bunny." Valerie was still tinkering with the parts to the bomb she was building while she smiled at the camera.
Confessional End
The sun was getting dimmer by the minute, but the contestants were still working on building their cars and bomb in Teddy's case. Valerie proved herself to be telling the truth when she said she knew her stuff, the bomb she made having been done for quite some time now. The YouTuber worriedly glanced over at Caleb, who was currently digging around underneath the car that they were putting together. "U-uh…it kinda looks to me like they're a little bit ahead of us, Caleb."
"Relax…they may have finished that crapfest that Valerie calls a bomb, but we're just about done with our car, which is definitely the more important part of the challenge. Just a little more tinkering to do and we'll be all set to move on with the next thing." Teddy sighed while Caleb dived back into his work. The finalist looked at the mess of parts that he had gathered for his bomb, though he couldn't really discern one from another.
"Man, why did it have to be building when neither me or Bunny is any good at building? Wait a minute…aha! I knew TeddyCrafts would have some more time to shine while I was on the show! For today's craft, we'll be building a bomb! Man, a video like that would get demonetized in seconds…and I'd probably be put on a watchlist." Teddy chuckled and shook his head as he cracked his knuckles and started to dig through the mess of parts. He pulled out a sack of gunpowder, not sure what it was. He opened it up and took a small sniff, almost immediately recoiling in disgust.
"Aw, man! That smells worse than my neighbor's dog! Sorry Mr. Sniffles, but you reek, man." Teddy reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled a clothespin out, which he snapped down on his nose to avoid taking in any more of the wretched smell that he was just introduced to. He set the gunpowder down and grabbed a couple of tubes, one made of PVC and one made of steel. "Man, I don't know which one of these is better for a bomb…uhhhhh…Caleb! If you wanted a bomb to do big damage, would you use metal or plastic for the casing?"
"Eh? Teddy, why don't you just not worry about the bomb and we'll work on it together later. If you build it and it ends up not working, that's not gonna get us anywhere!" Caleb shouted back to Teddy and sat up a little, hitting his head on the bottom of the car. "Ack! You stupid motherfucking piece of shit bitch cocksucking fucking son of a fuck!"
"Yeesh, you really got the mouth of a mechanic down pat. You should probably look into this as a career." Teddy teased the chess player, who rubbed the bump on his head while glaring at his finalist. "Alright, alright, I get it, only time for building and cussing, no time for fun."
Caleb opened his mouth to say something, but the day seemed to finally fade and slip entirely into night. It had become incredibly difficult for anyone to see what they were working on, even with the use of a flashlight. Dana walked over to the group, her pale skin shining in the moonlight wondrously. Of course, this effect caught everyone's attention. "Yeah…it doesn't really look like you guys are gonna get much done while it's this dark out. If I were you, I'd pack it up for the night and make sure you're well rested for the rest of the challenge tomorrow."
"Eh!? Bitch, I can see just fucking fine, just let me have Teddy hold the flashlight and we can get this thing done in under an hour!" Caleb rose from where he was lying and only managed to slam his head against the bottom of the car again. "Goddamned piece of shit bitch fucking horsecocked motherfucker!"
"...Yeah, no…you guys should all turn in for the night. I don't wanna get in trouble for you swearing every other word on a show that's supposed to be for teens." Caleb grumbled annoyedly and pulled himself out from under the car while Aaron came over to the groups and set down some sleeping bags for them. "Aaron and I have our own tent around, so we'll be sleeping in there. You guys can…well, enjoy the stars in the sky, I guess."
While the group of four was annoyed, Aaron and Dana headed to their tent, which looked to be a lot more luxurious than what they were stuck with. Valerie looked at her sleeping bag and let out a pained sigh. "Well…I've had to sleep on the ground outside before anyways, so this isn't much different than those times. I'll see you guys in the morning, if I even wake up…god, I hope I don't." The miserable girl tucked herself into her sleeping bag and fell asleep almost immediately, much to the astonishment of the others around her.
"I don't know how one person can…" Caleb stretched his arms out and let out a huge yawn. "Ugh…fall asleep so quickly. Usually it takes me, well…" He dug into his pocket and pulled a sleeping mask out, which he put on his head, covering his eyes up. "An hour or so…mom would have me at a set bedtime, but I could just never fall asleep. Fuck that bitch's rules, I do whatever…" He yawned again as he tucked himself into his sleeping bag. "...I want. And what I want is to…s…sle…zzz…"
Bunny and Teddy stared blankly as both of their helpers had fallen asleep in record timing. They looked at each other awkwardly. "W-well…I guess we'd better get right to bed, since those two are already knocked out. Can't hurt too much to make sure we're at our best for the rest of the challenge, right?" Teddy smiled at Bunny, but she rolled her eyes at him. His smile dipped down into a slight frown. "Well, I hope you get some good sleep at least. It'll be a fun time tomorrow!"
"Yeah, whatever you say. I may have only just learned how to drive, but I still intend to beat you in this challenge. Don't let the fact that you got Caleb on your side make you think that you're at some huge advantage." Bunny turned away from Teddy and got into her own sleeping bag, covering her whole body up so that he couldn't see her at all. He sighed and went over to his sleeping bag, getting in it as well.
Confessional
"I'm really trying my best to make Bunny feel a little less upset so she can go into the challenge with a smile, but it doesn't seem like anything is working. I don't wanna go up against someone who is miserable, I wanna go up against someone who's glad they made it this far!" Teddy smiled like a dweeb at the camera. "Seriously, this is like one huge collab video! Gotta make sure both of the content creators involved are in high spirits!"
Confessional End
It had gotten pretty deep into the night, but Bunny still hadn't managed to fall asleep. She tossed and turned in her sleeping bag, but try as she might, nothing seemed to knock her out. Eventually, she sat up in her sleeping bag, her face only looking annoyed as could be. "Stupid sleeping bags aren't comfortable at all! How am I supposed to chase down a scoop if I end up not sleeping at all?" The blogger cursed to herself in Japanese as she got up from the bag and stretched her back. "I guess I'll just go on a walk or something…that should…"
Bunny glanced over at the other sleeping bags, noticing that Teddy's was completely empty. She was completely overcome by curiosity. "Hm…guess a midnight scoop really never hurt anything. Let's find out what that loser is up to." She walked over to his sleeping bag, seeing a set of footsteps trailing off towards the back of one of the scrap heaps. She tapped her chin in thought before looking over at the building sites and realizing that he wasn't over there. "...He's not building, so where could he be?"
Bunny shrugged and began to follow the footsteps, curious as to where he may have gone. Meanwhile, Teddy was tinkering around with something behind the scrap heap. The parts in his hands were incredibly small, but he had a flashlight banded to his head pointed down at them so he could see what he was working with. "Come on, don't be so difficult! It would be so much nicer if I had the tools to work with here…"
"What are you doing?" Bunny popped up from behind the scrap pile, causing Teddy to let out a girly shriek and hid the pieces behind his back while he turned to face her. Her suspicions of him only grew and she narrowed her eyes at him. "What do you have behind your back?"
"Me? Oh, nothing! I was just…uh…looking at my garbage collection, yeah! I have a channel called TeddyHoards, I figured I would snatch some fine pieces up while I was here! Yup, definitely got some nice trash in this heap! I'll have to showcase them in my next video, heheh! You can go back to bed now, nothing to worry about!" Teddy smiled nervously, but when Bunny leaned towards him and stared into his eyes, he lost the smile and began to sweat in a mad fever.
"I don't believe you…you're a bad liar. Trust me, I know a thing or two about telling the difference between bad and good liars." Bunny tried to get a peek behind Teddy's back, but he scooted back a bit to hide what he was working with even more. She was starting to get angry with him, and she huffed at him. "I'm not gonna go back to bed until you show me what you've got! You should know that I'm a reporter that's always determined to get to the bottom of things, I don't stop just because someone tells me no! Even if it's the cops!"
"That's nice and all, but you still can't see it!" Bunny started to grab at Teddy, trying to climb over him while he was doing his best to keep her away from what was behind his back. "H-hey! Stop that, you crazy lady!"
"Show me what you have!" The two continued to struggle with each other before Bunny finally managed to knock him back a bit. There, on the ground, she saw the bits of her camera that had been destroyed by Valerie. She gasped, her eyes going wide. "Y-you…give me those!"
"N-no! I have to fix it!" Bunny grabbed for the pieces, but Teddy grabbed them in his own hands. The two tugged back and forth, each trying their hardest to pry them away from the other. In the midst of the struggle, Teddy noticed some engraving on the one shard of the camera's chassis. They continued fighting over the pieces, but he only managed to pull back that one piece, while she got the rest. He read the bottom of it, "HopSkipAndAJump…?"
Teddy looked up to see Bunny flaring up with anger. She snatched the last piece from him while he just stared at her in complete confusion. "Alright! Fine! You got me! You gave me the stupid camera, I was your first subscriber!" Her eyes seemed to tear up as she shoved the camera's pieces into her pockets, still glaring at him. "Are you happy? Do you feel accomplished with what you've done!?"
"I-I don't get it…why would you bother with me back then…?" Bunny paused while Teddy stared up to her in question. She looked around a bit before leaning against the scrap pile and looking away from him, her arms crossed. "Bunny?"
"I was always in tabloid clubs and any sort of group that had to do with making articles and getting stories. Back in the day, YouTube wasn't really a big thing like it is now, but we had some theories about it…mainly that if one YouTuber managed to accumulate a high enough following, they would begin acting like a regular Hollywood star, treating other people like trash that should worship them. I couldn't pass up an opportunity for an article like that…" Bunny sighed, still not looking at Teddy. "So, I found a YouTuber that had nothing…he was a dweeb, his videos were dumb, and he had no subscribers. Nothing. His videos got maybe one view a week…if that."
Teddy sat in silence during Bunny's revelation, his mixed expression showing that he wasn't sure what to think about this. "Well, I figured I would kick start the process by being his first subscriber. I commented on every video, shared them on a whole bunch of websites, told my club members to watch it…I got the word out pretty good. It didn't take long for you to hit your first million, which is when I expected you to start slipping up and acting like a cult of personality. But that's not what happened…"
Bunny dug her hands into her pockets, pulling out the piece of the camera that had the engraving on it. "You decided you were going to do a big event for your first million subscribers, which involved a giveaway to your first subscriber. You saw that all of my liked videos, outside of yours, were videos of old polaroids getting restored. I guess that gave you the hint about what I was into…so you went to some local shop, got a nice polaroid engraved with my username, and had it sent my way. Of course, I thought it was a publicity stunt for the longest time…there's always something…some alternative motive behind seemingly good acts. But as your subscriber count just continued to rise, and you showed nothing but love to your following…I just couldn't find anything worth smearing you over."
She finally turned to face him, her eyes watering while her lip quivered. He was taken aback by the sight of her looking so miserable. "You had your fights with people that were calling you out over stupid things, but it wasn't like making a post on any of that was going to be good for me. And when I kept using the camera, I realized just how special it was…you couldn't have gotten some twenty dollar piece of crap, it was a great camera! I was hanging onto it all this time…so it just can't be replaced. It was special for that reason, and now it's gone. Go ahead, stroke your ego…your rival in this finale is the person that helped you rise to fame."
Bunny just continued to sniffle and stare at Teddy while he blankly stared back at her. He eventually got up from the ground and walked over to her, staring down at her from his towering height. She looked up to see he was boasting a huge smile, which she had expected. "I…I can't believe I'm actually getting to meet my first subscriber! And you really held onto that camera…just because I gave it to you?" Bunny slightly nodded, and all Teddy could do was wrap his arms around her in one of his classic bear hugs. "I can't believe it…I really can't believe it…"
Bunny was stunned by the hug, and she just stared off into the distance while he hugged her. Eventually, she fell into the hug, burying her face into his chest. "I'm sorry I got the camera broken…I didn't want anything to happen to it ever…but I messed up…"
"You know…I can always take you to that shop and we can get another one engraved for you. Sure, it won't be the exact same one…but they have some good quality pieces of equipment there! Heck, I got most of my stuff from that very shop, so you gotta believe they put quality first!" Teddy pulled back from the hug slightly, only for Bunny to pull him back in, still burying her face against him. He just smiled and closed his eyes. "I'm honestly honored…I figured you would've retired it some time ago."
"I would never do that…I may be cruel, but I'm not entirely heartless. You went through so much to see what I would like, and even personalized it for me…no way I would just toss it out after a little while." Bunny sniffled and pulled her face back, showing that her eyeliner was smudged a bit. "Though I definitely caught some ridicule from the other people in the clubs…didn't matter though."
"That's really sweet…hey, you know, we should probably really get to bed now…we're gonna be exhausted if we don't get any sleep before the morning." Bunny nodded, and the two broke from their hug. They started to walk back to the sleeping bags, keeping silent for a little while, at least until he looked down at her. "Hey…do you think you'll be able to smile for the rest of the challenge? After all, you went through so much to get to this point."
"You know…I just may be able to manage that." Bunny slightly smiled and wiped some of the tears from her face. Teddy smiled back at her, and the two of them went to the respective sleeping bags.
Confessional
"Man, I never would've figured that Bunny would be my first subscriber! She doesn't really give off the vibe of someone that's a part of the Teddy Bear Nation, but I'm all for it! I'm really finding that a lot more people than I initially imagined watch my content…it's pretty cool to be able to meet so many fans! Fans are great, but they're even greater when you get to build a bond with them, you know?" Teddy beamed with a proud smile, this form of happiness being far greater than his typical brand of happiness.
"Yeah, I guess the cat is all out of the bag, so everyone can make fun of me for helping him out. 'Oh, she's not a cold-hearted bitch after all.' Yeah…definitely gonna lose some fans over this, but it doesn't bother me too much." Bunny had a small smile on her face while she looked down at that one shard of her camera. "Can't believe he actually took the time to get the pieces while we were about to die…just goes to show that I made a mistake by targeting him."
Confessional End
The sun started to rise, and the light shined down hard on the face of Ronnie, who was trying to sleep as he rested against some debris. He eventually opened his eyes in a squint, the light hurting his retinas. He raised his arm up to block the light out so he could adjust to the daylight, and he looked around to see that he was still out of sight for the time being. "Man…slept like a guy with a rock in his shoe…in fact…"
Ronnie pulled one of his shoes off, dumping it upside down to pour tons of tiny pebbles out of it. He deadpanned at the camera before slipping his shoe back on and getting up from the debris. "Whatever, man…I'm just glad that psycho bitch ain't plucking the hair from my arms no more." He let out a tired sigh and cracked his back before turning to come face to face with Sunny, who was wearing her visor and grinning at him. "Ah, shit!" He stumbled back a bit, managing to catch himself before he fell down. "What is it with you bitches and the wacky ass headgear!?"
"Wacky? I don't think it's wacky, I think it's quite cool…and convenient. My adoring fans can't lie." Sunny giggled and stepped towards Ronnie, tapping her finger against his chest. "I think you've had quite enough time dancing around in the sun…you can head back to the campgrounds. Trust me, it's better than waiting around for best buddy to find you…she'll definitely make the trip a lot more painful than I am!"
"Girl, whatever…I was done messing around in the boonies, anyways." Ronnie grumbled and started walking back towards the campgrounds, keeping his head down as he walked. "Only one day left of this nonsense and then…" He grabbed a flier from his jacket pocket, looking down at it to reveal that it was a brochure for a college. "...Imma have to figure out how to start paying for tuition. Well…can't really be that bad. Just need to get myself a nice gig that'll pay the bills."
Ronnie stuffed the brochure back into his pocket and kept on walking, thinking to himself about what kind of job he was going to end up taking. As he did this, Vernon and Ivy were sitting in the middle of the wreckage from the giant robot attack so long ago. He was playing some chords on his acoustic while she kicked her feet and listened to him, a smile on her face. "You know, it'd be great if we could have some sort of duet, but I feel like my type of music and yours don't mesh so well."
"Eh? Whaddya mean, people mishmash genres all the time." Vernon chuckled and set his guitar down, "I mainly write slow ballads and cheesy love songs, but I'm sure you could toss some screamo into that mix." Ivy had a skeptical look on her face while he picked his guitar back up. "Hey, believe me or not, it can totally be done. We just need to figure out the best way to incorporate it, y'know?"
"Ah, yes, cause everyone would love to hear a song with slow guitar and lyrics that are all like, 'YOU OWN MY HEART!'" Vernon was honestly taken aback by how powerful Ivy's scream was, and he looked utterly stunned. She blushed and looked down at the ground. "Er…sorry, I forget that that kinda thing can really be a bit frightening when you're not expecting it."
"No no, it's cool…I think if I tried to do something like that with my voice, my throat would cave in on itself. Just goes to show that you're way more talented than I am." Ivy blushed even more while Vernon brushed his hand against her cheek. She looked up at him with a goofy smile on her face, and it wasn't long before the two leaned in to kiss each other…at least they tried to, but Maggie popped up right between them with a grin on her face as they both ended up kissing her on the cheek.
"Hoho! I guess that means I'm the spaghetti from Lady and the Tramp!" The couple screamed, each of them falling backwards while Maggie used her top to wipe the saliva off of her cheeks, still grinning like a maniac. "You guys should really know better than to show any PDA, you're basically asking me to come harass you!"
"Y-you can't just do stuff like that, Maggie…that's totally not cool." Vernon got up from the ground and walked over to Ivy to help her up, each of them glaring at the mad scientist while she simply shrugged it off.
"Say what you will, but you know that's gonna be put in a funny moments compilation sooner or later. Anyways, you two lovebirds should probably go to the campgrounds. Seriously, if you stay around here making out for any more time, I may just have to tase you!" Maggie burst out into laughter, with the couple staring at her in confusion. She snapped out of the laughter, now holding a taser in her right hand while staring at them with menacing eyes. "...I'm serious."
The duo took the hint and made a run for it while Maggie snickered and tucked the taser back into her pocket. On their way to the campgrounds, they passed by Zane, who was humming to himself while he kicked a stone in front of him. He had his arms behind his head, and was leaning back as he walked. "Honestly, not a bad day for a walk…wonder how mom's doing right now? I'll be home soon enough to check on her…"
Zane kicked the rock a bit further, and it managed to hit Fridge in the shin. The athlete snapped around where he was standing, looking around to see Zane. "Huh? Oh, sorry Fridge…guess I wasn't really paying attention to where I was kicking that thing. My bad."
"Oh, no worries at all! I was just taking a standing nap, you only woke me up. Better you do it than some wild animal that wants to make a meal of me!" Fridge let out a hearty laugh while Zane just blankly stared at him. "You know, you should really go back to watch the finale! I think it would be a lot of fun for you!"
"Fun? Maybe not fun, but it's definitely interesting to get a closer look at the strategies of the finalists. It'll help me start the base of my game plan for next season. You know, I need to figure out the proper allies, who I should avoid, all that sort of thing." Fridge didn't really look like he was paying attention, and Zane could only chuckle. "I should've figured that you wouldn't really understand the whole strategy thing."
"Heh…yeah, I'm not too big on thinking about things like that. That's why I always let Caleb handle that sort of thinking when we were working together." Fridge patted his bicep with a smile, "I'm more so the muscle of the group, you know?"
"Yes, I'm quite aware of that. Not that it's a bad thing to have some bulk behind an alliance…it definitely helps make things a bit easier. Caleb definitely wanted to cover all of his bases, but he pulled in far too many people that wanted complete control over things." Zane shook his head, "Rookie mistake. In any case, I'm not going to bore you with this talk anymore, it's probably really putting your brain to work to understand what I'm blabbering about."
"Yeah…it's a good workout, though! You need the gains for your brains, after all." Zane laughed at Fridge's stupidity. "I just wanna make sure that I'm working out every muscle, I don't wanna favor one over the other."
"Good idea, Fridge…good idea." The strategist turned his back to the boy and started his walk to the campgrounds, waving back at him all the way over.
Confessional
"I've had some part time jobs before, but since I don't have the patience for the idiots that I need to serve…well, they've never ended up working out for me." Ronnie shrugged, "It ain't my fault that some people are too dumb to understand simple concepts like return policies and expired coupons. I'm sure I'll find a good gig sooner or later, but I really wanna get something where I don't need to worry about pleasantries…"
"Maggie's really annoying…she puts a damper on the whole 'minding my own business' thing. Seriously, she always gets in the middle of everything…it's just so annoying to deal with, you know?" Vernon sighed before shaking his head, "Anyways…Ivy's screaming thing is really impressive. I don't know how long she's been working on perfecting that art, but it's definitely had a nice payoff."
"Me and the girls have been together for so long, I can't even remember when we started doing all our music. We were definitely young…I think our first practice was probably when I was nine? Something like that. We've come a long way from practicing in my mom's garage, though." Ivy smiled and held up a picture of her with Becky and Olive. "Look, Becky's almost smiling in this picture!"
"I've had to put some thought into what I want to be doing on my break time from the show, but I think I should stick to something where I can give back to my community. Poverty ain't pretty, so it would be nice to be able to make sure everyone's got a nice meal and a warm place to sleep every night." Zane had a smile on his face, one a lot more genuine than what he had been known for.
Confessional End
Back at the scrap heaps, the two finalists and their helpers were right back at work, with Valerie and Bunny trying to get the rest of their car done while Teddy and Caleb had turned their attention to the bomb that they were building. Dana and Aaron sat on the sidelines, watching them with interest. "Wow…they're actually working pretty hard on this stuff…it looks like Bunny's in higher spirits than she was yesterday, too…pretty cool, I guess."
"Ja, it's nice to see both of zhe finalists so excited for zhe finale…I can't help but feel a bit sad zhat ve vill be missing out on zhis action until zhe next season. It's become a part of my routine…I don't zhink I'm ready to just go back to vater…I can only imagine he vill have a lot to say about all my blunders on the show." Aaron meekly looked down at the ground while Dana scoffed. "M-Miss Dana?"
"You worry too much about what that old fart is gonna think about you…I say don't let it bother you, it's really not worth your time. Who cares what he thinks? He doesn't know anything about anything…" Dana looked a bit upset, and Aaron smiled lightly at her, patting her on the shoulder. "Ew…affection. Keep your cooties to yourself, guy." The co-host chuckled, and Dana could only roll her eyes and look away to hide the fact that she was smiling as well.
While the two shared their moment, the others were still working on their builds, and getting closer and closer to the end of them until… "Got it!" Caleb snapped up from the ground, holding the finished bomb in his hands. This caught the attention of Bunny and Valerie, who were still trying to finish the car. "Come on, Teddy! We can get a nice head start on looking for the stronghold now!"
"You got it, buddy!" Teddy shot up as well, waving to Bunny with a smile as he headed to the driver's seat of his car. She waved back at him, leaving both Valerie and Caleb to stare at their respective finalists in suspicion. Without much delay, Teddy and Caleb began to zoom off in their car, leaving Valerie and Bunny in their dust.
Bunny kept working on the car while Valerie walked over to her with her arms crossed. "What's got you all smiley and happy? Why are you so happy to see Teddy today when you were annoyed with him yesterday? He didn't buy you over to his side, did he?"
"Huh? No, nothing like that…I didn't know it was so wrong to just be having a friendly competition." Bunny didn't look up at Valerie, as she was more so focused on the rest of what she was doing…at least until Valerie put her foot down in front of her, blocking her view of what she was working on. The blogger sighed and annoyedly looked up at her helper. "You're supposed to be helping me, not making it more difficult for me to do the challenge. If you could move out of the way, that would be just peachy."
"You do realize that Teddy will do anything it takes to ease you up into letting you give him the win, right? This is the finale…you guys are competing against each other for five million dollars. Not really the best time to be all friendly with the enemy." Bunny shrugged and moved around Valerie to get back to her work, but she got in her way again. "You just need to keep your head in the game so you can actually win."
"You know, I'm aware that he 'broke your heart' or whatever it is you say he did, but I think I'm pretty focused on working…the only thing in my way right now is you, who isn't helping me at all." Bunny snatched a small cap and tightened it around a valve before getting up from the ground. "And, by the way, we're done now. Just get in the back of the truck with your bomb and stop questioning me." Valerie glared as Bunny jumped into the driver's seat of the car, soon getting in the back, as she was instructed to.
Confessional
"Teddy has definitely done something to get Bunny to ease up a bit, and I'm not about that. When she was being upset about everything before, it was just fine, but she's all jovial right now…that's what's gonna help him win. And I'll be damned if that heartbreaker is gonna get five million dollars. It doesn't matter, though…I'll just make sure that things go swimmingly for us." Valerie punched the palm of her hand, glaring at the camera intensely.
Confessional End
Teddy was busy driving while Caleb fiddled with the bomb in his hands as he sat in the backseat. The chess player was shooting a suspicious glare the YouTuber's way, which he eventually noticed, but decided to ignore. He kept ignoring for a few seconds, but the awkward silence and staring was getting a bit too much for his hyperactive brain to handle. "Alright, I'll bite, why are you looking at me like I just shanked Brittany. I swear, I never shanked her, I've only thought about it a couple hundred times or so."
"You were being all smiley and friendly with that bitch on the other side. Any particular reason you were wasting your time and energy on sharing smiles and waves with each other? Not to mention the driving lesson yesterday…" Caleb set the bomb down and focused on Teddy, who kept smiling and focusing on the desert road ahead. "Well? Any explanation, or are you just gonna keep smiling like a doofus?"
"Hm…well, the doofus route seems like it would be awfully fun to keep going down, but I take it you're just gonna get more annoyed, so I guess I can handle an explanation. I just want to make sure that Bunny knows that, just because we're competing against each other, it doesn't mean we have to be enemies." Caleb glared fiercer than before, clearly not liking that explanation. "Hey, you were the one that asked me for an explanation, don't get all cranky at me just because you don't like it."
"Bunny is the epitome of enemy, Teddy! She's just…evil! There isn't a friendly bone in that girl's body! You realize that she's likely manipulating you, right? She does it all the time!" Teddy frowned slightly, but still kept driving. "I'm just trying to warn you, because the moment you let your guard down is when that bitch is gonna strike. She may be named Bunny, but she's as venomous as a snake!"
"Eh…if she wants to backstab me she can go ahead and do that, but I really don't see any issue with anything I've done. I know you don't like her, but you're dating Brittany and I've been tolerating her…kind of…so you can at least exchange that same favor to me." Teddy went back to smiling while he looked ahead at the road. "Man, this stronghold really is well hidden…it's probably gonna take us hours to find it."
"The Brittany thing is different…she's my girlfriend. Bunny is just the bitch that you're facing off against in the finale. It's not even remotely close to being the same thing." Teddy narrowed his brow, looking in the rearview mirror to glare back at Caleb.
"I would appreciate it if you stopped calling her a bitch every five seconds." There was some silence that the two boys shared before Caleb groaned and turned around to pout. It was then that he noticed something coming up from behind them, something that was getting closer by the second.
"Looks like we've got company, Teddy!" Teddy looked back through the mirror, seeing that the other car was headed towards his own with spikes lining every side of it. His eyes went wide and he pressed his foot down hard on the gas, causing the car to accelerate so fast that Caleb flew into the front seat from the back, splatting against the windshield. "Ack! You could've given me a warning if you were going to pull some stunt like that, you dick!"
"Sorry, man, but those spikes just spell danger…and I don't remember there being any spikes on the car the last time we saw it." Teddy kept on speeding as fast as he could, but the other car managed to catch up to him, riding close alongside of him to reveal that Valerie was the one in the driver's seat while Bunny was hogtied in the back. "V-Valerie!? Why'd you tie her up like that!?"
"Oh, just a little insurance to make sure she doesn't try to hand you the win or anything. What can I say…I just really want you to lose the competition. I'm sure you understand, heartbreaker." Valerie rammed her car into the side of Teddy's, piercing the back door with one of the spikes. The two boys gasped as Valerie pulled her car away, successfully ripping the door right off the hinges. "Sorry I gotta be so violent, but…well, I'm really not."
"Teddy, fucking move this piece of shit already!" Caleb pulled himself off of the windshield and buckled up in the passenger seat while Teddy kept pressing down on the gas as hard as he could. Despite his efforts, Valerie seemed to stay right on his tail, and just kept ramming him with every chance she got.
Confessional
"Bunny may be one crazy bitch, but Valerie is fucking insane! If those spikes pierce through the front door…fuck, I don't even wanna think about what'll happen!" Caleb looked a lot more frazzled than usual, but he took a deep breath and settled down a bit. "R-relax, Caleb…we just need to find the fortress and toss the bomb at it…it won't be that hard…we just need to make sure we don't get fucking skewered halfway through our drive!"
Confessional End
Back at the campgrounds, things were starting to get a bit more bustling than before. Everyone that the group had managed to find was huddled by the holographic screen, watching closely while Valerie chased Teddy down in her car. Zane rubbed his temple and sighed as he watched it all going down. "You try to teach the girl to strategize and she translates that to become a psychopath that puts spikes on a car and tries to kill everyone in a five mile radius."
"To be fair, Valerie was probably one of the people that you should've not tried to help…she's kinda cray cray, man." CJ chuckled, his eyes still red as ever as he dug his hand through a bag of knockoff munchies. He took a bite of the salty snacks, but was clearly displeased with the taste. "Blech…this just tastes like someone was making cardboard clippings while thinking about munchies. No thank you."
The skater boy tossed the bag aside, and it was quickly caught by Max, who rushed into the area from out of nowhere. She dumped the snacks into her mouth and swallowed them all down in one gulp, astounding everyone in the vicinity. "Mm-mm! I do love me some Munchos!"
"Y…you…the bag wasn't even labeled, how did you manage to tell what kind of knockoff they were?" CJ perhaps looked the most astounded of everybody, his eyes shot wide open while he just stared at her in complete disbelief.
"Hm? Well, I remember the name of every snack I've eaten, no matter if I eat it all the time or if I only ate it once." Max giggled and patted herself on the gut before Calvin walked up to her and gave her a hug. She pecked him on the cheek, "I got a little carried away when I was hiding out there, though. I kept scrounging for scraps like some sort of Woman Versus Wild person! Fridge only found me when I mistook his shoe for a burger…don't ask how it happened, I don't know either."
"The scent of good food has an allure unlike any other." Celeste nodded her head, getting an odd look from Ronnie.
"Girl, ain't no way that Fridge's sweaty gym shoes smell anything like good food. Probably smells like trench foot and nothing else." Ronnie kept grumbling as he side-eyed Max, "Weird ass lady putting a man's whole ass shoe in her mouth, that shit's nasty."
"Say what you will, but what happened happened, and I definitely don't regret it! At least, I didn't regret it until I got a mouthful of shoe. The taste wasn't really the killer there, but the texture was just awful…which reminds me…I'm gonna have to buy him a new shoe." Everyone stared at Max in complete astonishment while she blushed. "I-I told you guys before that I don't spit anything out when it goes in my mouth, I always finish every meal!"
"You ate Fridge's whole shoe…and didn't stop a single time to think about how that may not have been the best snack for you?" Zane couldn't help but burst out into laughter, holding his sides as they ached from his laughing fit. "Max, that is just too good! Calvin's dating a whole comedian, I tell ya!"
Max and Calvin glared at Zane, but before they could say anything back to him, another person suddenly joined the party, screaming and shouting all the way. "Alright, alright, you got me, just don't joke about things like that!" Maggie could be heard snickering in the distance while Alice brushed herself off, clearly annoyed. She looked ahead to see that everyone was staring at her. "Uh…any particular reason you guys are staring at me? It's rude to stare, you know!"
"Everyone's been going on and on about how they got got, you might as well let us know what happened to you, Miss Tree Hugger." Capone was still a bit bruised up from Fridge crushing him the previous day, but he wasn't wobbling where he stood anymore…at least.
"Hmph! Well, I'll have you know that I was trying to safely relocate any of the plants that I found out in the ruins of the city! They needed to be moved closer to the outskirts to avoid being smashed by debris and killed!" Alice crossed her arms and glared back at the fallen cityscape. "Maggie found me out there and started joking about just scooping up the plants and incinerating them. We need plants to keep our Earth healthy and clean, people!"
"Heh…looks like Maggie's getting to be a bit better at playing jokes on people. Before, all she would do is psychologically torment people, so this admittedly is much better." Capone sniffled and wiped a single tear from his face. "It really does make me proud to see what an amazing influence I've been on her and all."
The next person to join the group was George, who was whistling all the way over there. Everyone turned their attention to him, which only got him to cock his head at them. "Can I help you fine ladies and gents with something? Haven't had this many people staring at me in confusion since I got my first quarterback position. Heh…they doubt me, but I'm no schmuck."
"Did you end up getting caught like the rest of us? You don't seem like you recently ate someone's shoe or had someone threaten to set fire to everything you hold close to your heart." Vernon chuckled a bit, but when Alice shot him a glare he stopped, rolling his eyes. "Yeesh…"
"Ah…well, nope. I just didn't let myself get caught. I saw a whole bunch of other people getting swatted one after another, and figured it would be best if I walked back without any of the humiliation. Granted, it was pretty funny to watch Max eat Fridge's shoe, but I had a feeling that Sunny was coming to find me, and considering how aggressive she was with the others she's found…yeah, decided that was gonna be a hard no."
"Lucky you…hey, at least you guys didn't have to kiss Maggie on the cheek. That was the most embarrassing thing to happen for sure." Ivy blushed and looked down at the ground while Vernon soon joined her.
"That was the most embarrassing? Maggie told me that I was in dire need of some exercise and called me pathetic…she also said my son looked like a pig! He does not!" Larida looked up to see that everyone was avoiding eye contact with her, causing her to get flustered. "M-my son does not look like a pig! He's a handsome young man, and I won't tolerate you guys telling me otherwise!"
"Truth hurts, old lady." George shrugged lightly and Larida crossed her arms, glaring sternly at him. His mouth fixed into a frown and he rubbed the back of his head. "Man, don't go staring at me like that…makes me think I disappointed my own mother." Larida didn't say anything, as she just kept glaring at him, each second of this hateful gaze damaging his pride more and more. "God, okay! I take it back, he doesn't look like a pig! Geez…it's like a laser beam got shot through my chest."
There was some awkward silence in the aftermath of Larida's motherly glare until the next person joined the group…this one being Awol, who wasn't even initially with the group when they came to root for Teddy. He looked as if he was lost, which was evident by the look on his face when he saw everybody else. "Huh? How did I end up here…oh well, nice to see you all again!"
"Weren't you supposed to be still at the aftermath stage with Franchesco?" Capone narrowed his gaze at Awol, who was currently looking around at the scenery, trying to figure out his bearings. "Hello? I'm talking to you, dude!"
"Oh? Uh, right! Well, I was at the stage with Franchesco for a little while, but then I saw a mouse rummaging around behind the curtain so I had to follow it! I was on its trail for a good long while…I think it ended up running somewhere along the beach, but at that same time, there was a splash in the water! I figured that it dove in and started to swim away, so I kept following the splashes, which ended up landing me here." Awol chuckled innocently, "Turns out, the splashes were just seagull droppings hitting the ocean, so I was just being a fool. Anywho, I just wandered around and checked the place out and what do you know? I'm here now!"
"Dude, you can't stay put for the life of you, can you? Hard to believe Dana's letting you be an intern next season…doesn't she think that she'll lose you somewhere?" Awol shrugged and looked around at everyone that was sitting down, waving at them politely before he was shoved to the ground by Margaret, who looked as infuriated as ever. Daniel was hiding behind her, twiddling his thumbs sheepishly.
"That'll definitely show Sunny not to taunt me like that! I can't believe she had the nerve to run her mouth like that, doesn't she know who I am?" Margaret huffed and crossed her arms, getting even angrier when everyone started to look at her. "Do you baboons have a problem with me? I don't have the patience for more annoying yappity yap."
"I mean, I would appreciate it if you could quiet down a bit…you're being too loud, and I'm trying to watch what's happening on the screen." Yves pointed at the hologram, which caught Margaret's attention. She looked over as well, and her eyes glistened with excitement as she saw the one car ramming against the other.
"Oh, man! Violence! I love violence, count me in!" Margaret happily hopped onto one of the empty oil barrels, staring like a kid watching Sunday cartoons. There was some silence before everyone looked over at Daniel for an explanation. He shrugged his shoulders and sat down next to her, his eyes widening in utter horror.
"W-what the hell!? What does Valerie think she's doing, someone could get really hurt if she just keeps going at him like that!" Daniel got up in a panic, looking around frantically to see if there was anything he could do, only to realize that there was no way to reach the desert quick enough. He started to make a run for it, but as he ran, his wrist was grabbed by someone. He looked over to see Buck staring at him blankly. "B-Buck! Let me go, man! I have to go help him!"
"Nah, man…for some reason, I get a feeling that he ain't gonna be the one getting hurt in that whole mess. Call it a hunch, but I think he and Bunny are gonna make it out of there just fine…" Daniel pulled his arm back from Buck, glaring at him, despite the fact that Buck was still just staring at him emptily, like before.
"I don't need your hillbilly hunches right now, I need to know that Teddy's gonna be alright! I need to do something, I need to…" Daniel fell to his knees, breathing heavily to the point that he was starting to hyperventilate. Buck reached his hand out towards him, but Margaret rushed over and smacked it away. She knelt down to the ground, taking Daniel in her arms and holding him tightly.
"Daniel, Daniel! It's okay! He's gonna be just fine, you don't have to worry about anything bad happening to him!" Daniel sobbed into Margaret's shoulder, startling everyone else in the area. This behavior wasn't anything like what they were used to with him…as they more so saw him as the happy face that never stopped smiling, no matter how bad things may have seemed. "I know you're worried the same thing that happened to your parents is gonna happen, but it won't, I promise…"
Daniel continued to sob, and Margaret looked back at the others and ushered them to leave the duo alone for a bit. Everyone went silent and Buck joined the rest of the group, ending up sitting down next to Awol. The slender intern cocked his head at the inadvertent one, "You seem a lot less upset than usual…that's a good thing! I mean, you were really a mess before."
"...Huh? Upset? Oh, right…kinda forgot about that…been talking to Chuck and the rest of the gang a lot more lately…oh, ya don't know Chuck!" Buck suddenly beamed with an unexpected happiness, looking up at Awol. "Chuck's a real stand up guy! He's always been there for me when I needed someone, even if my brother told me he maybe wasn't the best person to be fooling 'round with. Guess I got a knack for drawing in trouble makers, heheh…"
"This Chuck does sound like a pretty good person…if he was able to help you out a bit, that's certainly a pretty big feat. Well, I'm glad you've found someone to help, it was really rough to see you when we first met." Buck chuckled and rubbed the back of his head, and Awol chuckled back at him. The two sat there laughing amongst themselves…until Rosalina rose from the ground behind them, breathing heavily while she frantically scribbled something down in her sketchpad.
Awol turned his head around when he felt the fujoshi's hot breath, not at all startled by her sudden appearance. He noticed that she had her sketchpad, and, of course, his curiosity overcame him in a matter of seconds. He moved around to get a peek at the book, only for his curious look to fizzle out and be replaced by shock and horror. He moved back to where he was originally, Buck looking up at him out of curiosity. "S-sometimes…curiosity really does kill the cat."
"Huh? What's so bad about a couple scribbles?" Buck was now the one full of curiosity, as he took his turn to look at the drawing, only to be met with the exact same feeling that Awol was just overcome with. The boys sat next to each other, just staring off into the void with no discernable emotion other than "pained."
"Y-you guys are really helping build my OTP database up even more! I already had pages worth of Buck stuff, but I'm gonna have to dedicate a whole sketchpad to him at this rate!" Rosalina wiped some drool from her chin before getting her things together and heading over to an oil barrel that wasn't too far off from where they were seated. She made sure to stare directly at them as she continued to sketch her horrifying drawings.
Mitzy finally made it all the way back to the campgrounds, and she was met with the sight of people sitting in saddened silence, Daniel sobbing like a maniac, Margaret consoling him, and Buck and Awol staring in dismay as Rosalina continued to draw viciously detailed NSFW of the two of them. She looked around at everyone for a moment before finally opening her mouth to speak. "...What in the name of daring heroics happened here?"
"God, Mitzy, you are such a nerd!" Capone groaned loudly at her, and some of the other members of the group sighed at her. She was taken aback by the harshness of his sudden response, but just shrugged her shoulders and sat down, as she realized how futile it was to argue. This all left one person still out there in the wasteland, at least outside of the group that was hunting everyone down. As luck would have it, it seemed like she had finally gotten caught.
"Would you guys put me down!? I'm not just some object that you can put your hands all over! Let me go, or I'm telling daddy! He'll sue you!" Brittany struggled and squirmed while all of Fridge, Sunny, and Maggie held onto her, making sure that she couldn't escape. When they got back to the campgrounds, they tossed her to the ground. "That's much better! I can't believe you had the gall to grab me like that…do I look like some loser that can be touched like that?"
"Hm…I dunno, but you definitely do look like some loser that still calls her dad 'daddy,' even if the two of you aren't on speaking terms." Maggie giggled at Brittany's expense while the mean girl flushed up with red and looked away from her. "In any case, we managed to get the group all back together…finally. It only took hours of searching."
"Yes, painstaking hours of searching." Sunny nodded in agreement, finally taking the visor off of her head. "Now, all we need is everybody else…and it looks like they're just in time." The idol pointed off into the distance to show that the truck that the finalists drove to the scrap heaps was headed back to the campgrounds. It came to a halt, and Dana, Aaron, and Jackson poured out of it. The security guard looked annoyed as he wiped some sweat from his brow.
"It's hotter than Hades' scalp out here…can't believe we haven't set up a cooling booth or something." Jackson moaned and groaned until Dana flicked him on the nose with her finger. He lightly glared at her, but almost immediately lost his aggression. "Ugh…alright, I'll shut my pie hole and just watch. That's what you want, right?"
"Indeed." Dana nodded once and Jackson sighed, soon taking a seat with the rest of the group and setting his eyes on the screen. Dana stood next to him, watching the screen closely and cocking her head to the side. "Eh…? Did they add spikes to their car when we weren't looking? I don't remember it looking like that when they left the scrap yard."
"Er…I suppose zhat must be vhat happened, as I don't recall zhem being zhere before, either." Aaron stroked his chin and leaned in to watch the chase a bit closer. "Interesting…I wonder how Caleb und Teddy are going to handle zhis sticky situation…"
Confessional
"I've never seen anyone draw such a thing of me before now…I can't say I'm a huge fan of it, either." Awol gulped nervously before looking up to the camera. "I-I suppose that if it helps her express her creativity, it can't be too bad, but…well…I'd just prefer to not know about its existence. I guess it's my fault for trying to look at what she was drawing, though…"
"Man, that Rosalina is always drawing me butt ass nekkid, it's really messed up! I don't go 'round drawing all the girls nekkid and making out with each other! If I did, I'd probably get thrown into a furnace or something!" Buck had an exasperated look on his face as he leaned against the back wall. "Anyways, yeah! Me and Chuck have been talking a whole lot more…gonna meet up with him and the rest of the fellas when the show's over. Figure it might be good to get back to my roots for a bit. Maybe do some reflection."
"I've gotten really used to being called a nerd and a dweeb by the others, they just don't really have the same appreciation for justice and heroics as I do. It doesn't really bother me that much anymore…besides! I found out that they wanna make a movie based on Kat Kradle! They said they'd be talking with me a bit more about the details later, but either way, I'm still super excited to see that someone appreciates my work!" Mitzy beamed…at least until the lightbulb at the top of the confessional fell down on her head and shattered. She snapped up from her seat and pointed off into the distance. "Evil forces of nature, you can't just drop lightbulbs on people and get away with it!"
"Ugh, why is it so dark in here!?" Brittany groaned and got up from her seat to put a new lightbulb in the fixture above her. "There! That's much better! All my haters are always trying to turn off my spotlight, they're just a bunch of jealous babies, I tell you! Anyways…that Valerie had better not lay a finger on Caleb, or I'm gonna make her regret ever signing up for this show! Not like she deserved any time in the sun, anyways…she's a real wretch…and an eyesore."
Confessional End
Back in the middle of the desert, Valerie was still ramming her spiked vehicle against Teddy's trying to run him off the road at this point. The YouTuber was getting more and more nervous by the minute, as his car was starting to slow down from the immense damage that was done to it. "C-Caleb, I don't know how much longer I can keep going, she's hitting us pretty hard!" After he said those words, Valerie slammed into the side of his car again, ripping the driver's side door right off. "Ack! What do we do!?"
"U-uh…we…we…slam your foot on the brakes!" Caleb suddenly blurted out his answer, and without any question to his authority, Teddy did as he was told. The car came to an abrupt halt while Valerie kept speeding off into the distance.
"Huh!? Oh, no they don't! If they think they're gonna get away from me that easily, they've got another thing coming!" Valerie was looking behind her to see where the boys were and not paying attention to the road ahead of her, which is the exact moment that the car careened into a dune in the sand, getting stuck tightly with no hope to move around anymore. She kept trying to reverse, but it was no use. "Dammit!"
"Haha! We got her off our tail! I knew that braking unexpectedly was gonna work out for us! Alright, Teddy, go ahead and speed off again! I think I see the stronghold not too far ahead!" Caleb pointed off into the distance at a large structure that was coming into sight. He waited a few seconds, only to realize that the car wasn't moving. He looked over at Teddy in confusion, seeing that he definitely was slamming his foot on the gas. "Dude…did you put it in park or something? Let's get a move on!"
"It's no use, man…I think the car's given up on us. Val did hit us quite a bit with that death machine, so I'm not that surprised…" Teddy groaned and took his foot off the gas, rubbing his forehead. "Here I was thinking we were actually going to make it out of that mess…now we're just stuck here with a heap of junk. Guess we'll have to make the rest of the journey by foot."
"Walking to that fortress all the way from here!? Are you insane!? That sounds like a surefire way to get leg cramps!" Caleb flared up in the face, but as he went on to complain more, Teddy was suddenly ripped out of the car and tossed to the sands. "Teddy!"
Teddy rolled around in the sand for a bit before he came to a stop, looking up to see that Valerie was the one that pulled him from his car. "Valerie!? Give it up, already! Your car crashed, ours is busted, just go help Bunny make it to the fortress and we can end this challenge!"
"Oh, I am helping her…by making sure you can't get there first! You thought you were really slick, trying to talk to her and ease her into a false sense of security so you could get the win, but there's no way I'm letting you do that!" Valerie walked over to Teddy and stepped down on his chest while he stared up at her helplessly. "I'm gonna keep you pinned right here, just like this…we'll see what happens when-"
Caleb ran up from behind Valerie, whacking her in the back with a part that he had taken from the damaged car. She was silent for a moment before turning around and glaring at him. She slapped him across the face with the back of her hand, knocking him right to the sand with no contest. Teddy's eyes went wide, "Cale- ack!" Valerie pressed down on the YouTuber's frame harder than before the second that he tried to struggle away.
"Let me ask you something, Teddy. Do you think your little chit chat is really enough to make Bunny feel any sort of sympathy for you? Sure, at first she may have leaned towards it, but after some reassurance from me…and a little bit of brute force…I'm sure that idea has been knocked right out of her head. I bet she's running to the fortress right now, leaving you in the dust." Valerie shook her head and took her foot off of Teddy's chest, letting him get a breath while she started walking to his car.
"W…what are you…?" Teddy started to slowly pull himself up from the sand while Valerie dug around in his car, pulling the bomb that he and Caleb made out and studying it closely.
"Man…this really is some shoddy craftsmanship. Even if you could make it to the stronghold, I don't think that this would be able to get the job done. But, you know, just as an added security measure…" Valerie ripped one of the wires on the bomb in half, soon tossing it far behind her and causing it to detonate in the sand. The explosion kicked up a lot of sand, and Teddy's jaw dropped. "You already lost, so you may as well just sit down and watch the five million slip away from you."
"You're really going through all of this trouble because I didn't want to date you!? You're a total maniac, Valerie!" Teddy managed to get back to his feet, glaring dead at the crazy girl while she just shrugged and smiled at him. "You can't just play it off like it's nothing, you're straight up wacky!"
"Wacky? That's a fun word…odd for this situation, though. Guess you really do try to be a goofy persona, even down to the end of things. Oh well, no skin off my bones…being called wacky doesn't really sting, and watching Bunny win the five million that easily could've been yours makes me feel really happy." Valerie chuckled a bit until a rock was thrown at her side. She angrily rubbed her side and looked over to see Bunny was running towards her while throwing more rocks at her. "What are you doing, idiot!? Just go win already!"
"You stupid bitch! You lost the bomb when you crashed the car!" Bunny kept throwing rocks at Valerie, though she blocked them all off. When the blogger finally made it to where the rest of the group was, they were left to wonder where the bomb had ended up. "It's gonna take hours to find the bomb! Even if I wanted to let you be insane and have your fun over here, I wouldn't be able to!"
"Well, maybe if you weren't going soft in the middle of the challenge, I wouldn't have had to resort to such desperate measures. Just keep scrounging around…like you say, you always find-" In the middle of Valerie's sentence, an explosion set off, right by the death machine of a vehicle that had careened into the dune. There was a brief pause before she looked back at Bunny, her eye twitching. "...The bomb was in the car and you wasted the time to run over here and throw rocks at me? Are you stupid?"
"I'm not stupid, I'm just not a psychopath like you are!" Bunny crossed her arms while Valerie shoved her back, her anger getting a hold on her again. She reeled her fist back, ready to punch her in the face, only for Teddy to rush in and block the blow. It knocked him back a bit, and definitely knocked a few of his teeth out, but they seemed to regrow at phenomenal speeds…a nice perk of his mutation.
"Ugh…I forgot about all that radiation you soaked in. Too bad you couldn't actually get a cool power, you got stuck with some lame one that doesn't really matter. Sorry for punching you, I guess…I'm losing my temper again." Valerie plopped down on the ground, frowning while she stared off at the flames that were left in the second explosion's wake. "Guess nobody is gonna win the challenge, now…there's no bombs to do it with."
Bunny and Teddy paused, looking between each other as they both came to the realization that…Valerie was actually right. With the bombs gone, they had ended up in this loop where they couldn't actually win the challenge.
Confessional
"Man, Valerie really had to screw up the whole finale…because of her, nobody's gonna win the five million dollars! Man…I should've figured something like that was going to happen. I mean, it's Valerie…she's always trying to cause problems for everybody else." Teddy sighed and looked down at the floor, though he did manage to bring a bit of a smile to his face. "You know…it sucks that no one is going to win, but it's nice that me and Bunny got to talk about the whole camera thing…some moments make being at a total loss worth it."
"Well, I was so close to getting a whole fortune, only for Valerie to make sure that it couldn't happen. Talking to her is like tiptoeing around landmines…one wrong word, and she flies off the handle! She just does whatever she wants and there's no stopping her until she calms down." Bunny took a deep breath as she stared at the camera, trying not to explode in anger. "I guess it's not the end of the world…me and Teddy are definitely going to go to that tech shop when the show is done. That camera was worth more than five million, so getting it back…or at least one coming from the same person is close enough to getting the money."
Confessional End
As the three accepted the fact that the challenge had no way to finish, Caleb started to groan and get up from the ground. He got hit pretty hard by Valerie, but, despite this, he still managed to get to his knees. Teddy looked over at him and gasped as he saw him. "C-Caleb! Just lay down and relax, man…we'll get picked up by the hosts soon enough, you don't have to worry about trying to fight back against Valerie. She's done with her tantrum, anyways!"
"Tantrum? I…alright, fair enough, I guess it was a tantrum." Valerie sighed and went back to staring at the ground in defeat.
"Yeah, maybe a little more than a tantrum…you know, considering that you literally attacked every single one of us." Bunny hissed at Valerie, who sunk down where she was sitting even more, trying to avoid eye contact. "It doesn't matter, the challenge is done, no way for anyone to win, we may as well just sit around and be useless until they come and get us. Anybody got any interesting stories they can tell me? I'm itching to put something new on my blog after this is done…and when I can get back to a computer, at least."
Caleb slowly raised his hand, pointing directly at Teddy's messed up car. "...The…parts…under the hood…throw 'em at the fortress…it'll make for a pretty big explosion…" With those words, Caleb fell forward, passing out in the sand. Valerie rolled him onto his side so that he wasn't directly breathing in the sand, but she didn't seem to have the motivation to get up and cause anymore problems. She looked over at the finalists and shrugged her shoulders.
"I guess I forgot that engine parts are pretty flammable…and explosive. Oh well...turns out, there is a way to win this challenge after all." Valerie watched as Teddy and Bunny gasped, each of them making a break for the hood of the car. They lifted it up together and started to pull parts out of it, getting their hands full before they both started to run off into the distance, right for where the stronghold was. Valerie sighed and patted the unconscious Caleb on the shoulder.
Confessional
"Damn it all! That Valerie really smacks hard! The last thing I was expecting was to get backhanded like some disobedient ho, but here we are!" Caleb rubbed his jaw, which was a bit red from the slap he endured. "Man…I can only imagine the havoc that Brittany is going to wreak upon Valerie when she notices what she did to me. Hehe…that's gonna be one hell of a cat fight, and I'm all for it! Granted, it would be even better if Margaret was in the mix…I just like watching her attack people, it really is pretty funny!"
"Well…that's two challenges in a row that my freakouts have ruined something for myself or for someone else. Look, I just can't help getting this angry…it's just like high school all over again. People just ignore how I feel about things, or they don't listen to my advice, whatever the case, it always ends up getting pretty badly screwed up." Valerie sighed, shifting her miserable gaze to the floor. "The time off of the show is definitely gonna be good for me…I'll get to find some sort of outlet for all this anger that I'm stuck dealing with…I really don't wanna keep screwing things up like this."
Confessional End
Teddy and Bunny started to push through the desert, though the harsh winds and the sand flying right at their faces definitely wasn't helping them in their journey. Teddy looked ahead and a chunk of sand flew into his mouth, causing him to gag a bunch before spitting it out as best as he could. Bunny giggled at his misfortune, and he rolled his eyes at her. "You're laughing now, but if a bunch of sand just flew into your mouth, you wouldn't think it was so funny."
"Oh, right, sorry sorry, nevermind the fact that that totally would've made for a good gag reel on one of your exploration videos. 'Teddy Bear here to explore this massive des-ACK!'" Bunny burst out into laughter, which proved to be contagious, as Teddy was soon laughing alongside her. The two kept walking ahead, the fortress getting closer with each step they took, yet still seeming to remain a massive distance away from either of them. "You know, it sure would be nice if we still had our cars, but somebody had to go and ruin that for us."
"Yeah…that's what we call a Valerie moment. You know, she flips out over something small and decides that it's reason enough for her to rampage like a wild boar." Bunny giggled at Teddy's joke, but laughed even harder when he started mocking a pig squeal. "REE REE, I'M ON A RAMPAGE!"
"You're gonna make me pee myself if you keep that up!" Bunny hunched over slightly, her eyes tearing up from how hard she was laughing. Teddy chuckled to himself, but the moment he let his mouth open, more sand flew right into it, causing him to gag more than before. Bunny laughed while he spit up all the sand, eventually finding it so funny that she fell to the ground and dropped the parts that she had brought with her.
"Urk…my throat's gonna be raspy for the next month, dude! It's like getting some sand in your shoes at the beach, only worse because it's in my body and I physically cannot get it out." Teddy shoved one of his hands in his mouth, barely able to reach it a few inches in. "See? Can't even get my fingers close to the inside of my throat!"
"PFFFT!" Bunny slammed her fist against the ground, laughing so hard that she started to hiccup. The second that first hiccup came out of her, she blushed, and Teddy was now the one laughing like a hyena. "H-hey! A case of the hiccups is never funny, no matter what- hic- the situation!"
"Right, and a sandy throat is a total laughing matter." Teddy and Bunny shared a stern gaze before they ended up breaking from this and falling into immense amounts of laughter again. Bunny hiccuped here and there, and before long, the two had fallen to the ground together, laughing while they stared up at the clouds in the sky. "Man, even with Valerie going on her little freakout, I still have been having a lot of fun in this finale. What about you?"
"Can't say it's as terrible as I initially thought it was going to be. I mean, after our talk last night, things definitely started getting- hic- better." Bunny smiled while she looked up and saw a cloud that resembled some shape to her. She pointed at it, getting Teddy to look over it. "Look at that! That one totally looks like a Teddy Bear!"
"You know, it kinda does!" Teddy grinned at the cloud passing by before his eyes shifted to look at another cloud that was soaring overhead. He pointed at that one, his grin growing even wider than it initially was. "And take a gander at that one! It's definitely a bunny, it's got the big floppy ears and everything!"
Bunny tilted her head to the side and nodded in agreement, "Yep, I totally- hic- see it! Kinda funny that those clouds resembled us so closely, don't you think? Guess this really is the perfect day for me and- hic- you to be finalists!" Bunny kept watching the sky as two more clouds flew overhead, though her eyes went wide as she saw what they were, and her hiccups seemed to resolve themselves. "Is that…"
"B-Buck and some guy we've never met banging each other? I think it is…what kind of crazy cloud person is making these weird shapes, man?" Teddy leered at the clouds above, only for the camera to pan all the way up to show that Rosalina was somehow on the BuckXAwol cloud, giggling like a maniac as she sketched in her sketchpad.
Confessional
"What can I say? My sketchpad really works in mysterious ways! I just draw things, and they magically come to be! Surely this is a sign that Buck and Awol are totally gonna hook up with each other…I mean, it's literally written in the clouds!" Rosalina turned her sketchpad around to show her drawing, though, for legal reasons, the view of what it was was obscured completely.
Confessional End
Maggie stared deep into the hologram, her brow twitching in annoyance while she watched the two finalists giggling while they laid in the sand. "This is a load of phooie! They're supposed to be trying to make a big boom explosion on the fortress so we can find out who gets to keep the prize money! Someone really should do something about them, I don't wanna be stuck watching a bunch of lollygagging for the rest of the finale!" Maggie huffed and puffed while Sunny patted her on the back.
"There, there, best buddy…you know, if you're getting bored watching them, you can always watch Fridge trying to will his shoe back into existence. It's quite funny, if I do say so myself." Sunny gestured to the massive boy, who was holding his left foot up in the air and staring down at it intently. Maggie raised an eyebrow at the boy as she watched him have his moment of complete redundancy. "See, it really is quite funny to watch him doing this."
"It's not funny! I'm gonna need that shoe if I ever wanna go back home and play more football! Cleats like that are really expensive! That's what my dad tells me every single time I wreck a pair of them." Fridge went back to focusing on his foot, completely unaware that most of the others around him were watching him. "Man…he's gonna make me do a lot of chores to get this shoe replaced."
"Er…sorry about that, Fridge! I really didn't mean to go and eat your shoe, but, in my defense, it definitely was a real tasty morsel. Seriously, texture bad, taste…pretty good." Max licked her lips while she stared at Fridge's remaining shoe, only for him to start running away in fear that she may get hungry and decide to eat that one. "Oh, come on! I'm not gonna eat the other one! …Who am I kidding, Fridge, get back here and give me that shoe!"
Fridge kept on running, and Max ran after him, leaving Calvin to shake his head while chuckling. Alice was taken aback from how easy Calvin seemed to be taking this, not at all bothered by the fact that his girlfriend was literally eating shoes and trying to eat more. "You don't think that she may have a bit of an eating problem if she's willing to eat shoes to avoid starvation? Food is one thing, but shoes aren't food."
"Hey, the girl's got an appetite larger than life, who am I to judge? Anyways…I think we should all get back to watching the screen, because it looks like Teddy and Bunny have gotten closer to the fortress!" Calvin's shouting got everyone's attention, and he pointed dead at the screen. They all leaned in and began to watch with their eyes practically bulging out of their skulls.
Confessional
"I really want this show to get on the road already…the whole car chase made Daniel really upset, and I have no doubt he just wants to see Teddy and hug it out or something. I dunno, those guys show their affection in weird ways." Margaret sighed and looked back at the camera, seeming to show a lot of concern…for the first time ever. "Danny's folks got taken out of the world by a pretty nasty car crash…messed him up pretty badly. He doesn't really like seeing anything dangerous with cars, so we've been doing our best to avoid it. You know, I don't want my boyfriend freaking out and ruining my reputation. …Who am I kidding, that ain't the reason we've been avoiding them. I love the guy, and I hate to see him having to relive the worst memory he's got."
"I'm glad that no one ended up getting too badly hurt in that scuffle, but Valerie is getting a stern talking to the next time I see her! It simply won't do to have any of my children attacking the others, I won't have it!" Larida crossed her arms and huffed at the camera. "I'll have to let her know about a few good ways to handle her anger issues…because beating people up definitely isn't the way to go about it."
"Not gonna lie, watching Valerie bitch slap the shit out of Caleb was funny as hell. Dude wasn't even expecting, he just ran up behind her and wham! Slapped right across his damn jaw! Bet he's gonna be feeling that in the morning!" Ronnie slapped his knee, letting out a burst of laughter. "You know, Valerie would make for a good heel in wrestling…if she stopped loathing herself at least. She's definitely got the muscle for the job, and she can be scary as shit when she needs to be."
"Valerie is so getting steamrolled when I see her! Nobody just slaps my Caleb across the face like that and gets away with it, she's gonna face my wrath!" Brittany clenched her fist in a fiery rage.
"Hello? Oh…hey." Mitch sat in front of the camera, waving slightly. He was dressed differently than before, seeming to have nice clothes on that made him look like he was working in an office on a casual Friday. "Yeah, it's me…figured I would stop by here one last time before the season was over with, you know? I already got started on my next set of books and…well, no surprise, but I think I made the right call by deciding to leave the show. Don't get me wrong, I love to be around my friends, and the paranoia that came around when they were with me was never as bad as the paranoia that comes when I'm alone, but…well…it's a really good gig! I just wanted to swing by and say my goodbyes to everybody…I know I once said that I should avoid the confessional as much as I could, way back in Mega Mechas, but something about this being that last time that I'll sit in it makes it…well…nostalgic. Total Drama…thanks for bringing me along for the ride. I'll make sure to have my series made out to you guys." The paranoid writer smiled at the camera and waved, trying his best not to look sad in front of the viewing world.
Confessional End
Bunny and Teddy marched the rest of the way to the fortress, eventually stopping right before it and staring at the gates. They glanced between each other, each of them with their arms full of the parts that they had dragged along with them on this massive desert trek. "Well…looks like we've finally made it. You know, the second that the fortress bursts open, one of us is no doubt gonna be zapped by the robots." Teddy shuddered where he stood, "Can't say it's a feeling I'm really looking forward to…I definitely had enough of it the first time around."
"I agree…those things bite worse than fire ants! I've been bitten by fire ants more times than I'd like to admit…and it was always for the sake of something really stupid." Bunny chuckled for a brief moment before sighing and looking back up at Teddy. "Well…since it's just about to be over, I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you that you're really the only reason that I had any fun while I was doing this challenge."
"You know, I had more fun than I could've imagined because of our chat last night, so the feeling is mutual. Of all the options I could've got for a co-finalist, I'm definitely happy that I ended up with you." The two just stood there smiling at each other before Teddy let out a soft sigh. "I guess we should probably go ahead and try to bust this thing open. You ready?"
"You betcha!" Bunny snickered and the duo turned to face the fortress, each of them reeling their arms back before chucking the bits from Teddy's engine right at it. There was a massive explosion that kicked up a huge cloud of dust that kind of obscured everyone's vision. A crowd of robots burst out from the stronghold, rushing towards the finalists with evil intent. It took a while, but the cloud eventually cleared up, revealing…
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…that they were holding Teddy up into the air like their king while Bunny lay down in the sand, unconscious from them having rushed her and zapped her. The YouTuber's heart was racing, and he reached into his pocket to pull his headband out. He read the words that were displayed all over it over and over again. "Worst to first…worst…to first…" He looked up at the camera, tears in his eyes, and thrust his headband high into the sky, letting the sun shine down on it and display the words "#WorstToFirst" brighter than ever before.
Author's Notes:
*And with that, Scrap Island has come to its end. To all the members of the #WorstToFirst party, congratulations, your man really stuck through to the end and proved that all that merch wasn't just for show. Writing Teddy and Bunny together in the finale was actually a lot of fun, considering that they have some similarities in the way that they are very prevalent on the internet, but in very different ways. Plus, they really do make for some cute moments when they're being friendly with each other. All in all, I enjoyed writing it, and I hope you all enjoyed reading it!
*Placements: No Placement - Chris, Ivy; 22nd - Daniel; 21st - Larida; 20th - Mitchell; 19th - Alice; 18th - Blaster; 17th - Max; 16th - CJ; 15th - Ronnie; 14th - Celeste; 13th - Zane; 12th - Buck; 11th - Margaret; 10th - Vernon; 9th - Mitzy; 8th - Yves; 7th - Fridge; 6th - Calvin; 5th - Brittany; 4th - Caleb; 3rd - Valerie; 2nd - Bunny; 1st - Teddy
*And now, I give you the alternate ending where Bunny wins!
Bunny and Teddy marched the rest of the way to the fortress, eventually stopping right before it and staring at the gates. They glanced between each other, each of them with their arms full of the parts that they had dragged along with them on this massive desert trek. "Well…looks like we've finally made it. You know, the second that the fortress bursts open, one of us is no doubt gonna be zapped by the robots." Teddy shuddered where he stood, "Can't say it's a feeling I'm really looking forward to…I definitely had enough of it the first time around."
"I agree…those things bite worse than fire ants! I've been bitten by fire ants more times than I'd like to admit…and it was always for the sake of something really stupid." Bunny chuckled for a brief moment before sighing and looking back up at Teddy. "Well…since it's just about to be over, I guess now is as good a time as any to tell you that you're really the only reason that I had any fun while I was doing this challenge."
"You know, I had more fun than I could've imagined because of our chat last night, so the feeling is mutual. Of all the options I could've got for a co-finalist, I'm definitely happy that I ended up with you." The two just stood there smiling at each other before Teddy let out a soft sigh. "I guess we should probably go ahead and try to bust this thing open. You ready?"
"You betcha!" Bunny snickered and the duo turned to face the fortress, each of them reeling their arms back before chucking the bits from Teddy's engine right at it. There was a massive explosion that kicked up a huge cloud of dust that kind of obscured everyone's vision. A crowd of robots burst out from the stronghold, rushing towards the finalists with evil intent. It took a while, but the cloud eventually cleared up, revealing…
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…that they were holding Bunny up in the air, as if she was their royal empress, while Teddy was stuck laying in the sand, unconscious from a rather rough zapping that he fell victim to. She stared blankly off into the distance for a moment before reaching into her pocket and grabbing something, holding it close to her chest. With a smile on her face, she looked down and read her username off of the piece of her camera. Her eyes welled up with tears, and she victoriously held that lone bit of camera into the air, as if it were some sort of trophy. She didn't have much of anyone backing her up in the finale outside of Teddy, but with how everything went, she couldn't help but feel like she had won a lot more than just five million dollars.
