Episode 5: Turnabout Platinum!
*Last time on Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert...*
Following Squidward's elimination, Waluigi arrived back at the tribe following his trip to the Exile Oasis to greet his tribemates. Unfortunately for him, his own temper over the comments of a few survivors caused drama, resulting in Jotaro diffusing the situation, leaving a threatened and terrified Waluigi.
Furthermore, Little Mac arrived back from one of his idol hunts to announce that the Cacti Paradise was now void of idols. Whilst they thought nothing more of it beyond their acknowledgements, Phoenix rose a small suspicion towards Jotaro upon remembering that he and Little Mac went to hunt for idols a few days before.
As for Power Flowers, their day was rather eventless, the only things of note being the departure of Samus and King K. Rool.
When K Rool set out to search for idols in the Cacti Paradise at night, dismay struck as he came upon the sign that told him that the idol within the area had been found after a long, painful search for the advantage, causing him to return to the tribe with bitterness and disappointment swelling in his mind.
Meanwhile, in the Koopa Sphinx, Samus Aran finally discovered the idol she had been looking for after a long time of gruelling searching. Unfortunately for her, the discovery ended on a sour note, as Engineer caught wind of her finding the idol, and went back to the tribe to inform Super Shrooms over how she found the idol, painting a target on her back for when she would inevitably cross paths with the tribe in the future...
For the challenge, it was a quiz that rewarded one of the three Quizzers on a team who got the right answer to a random trivia question with an opportunity to double the weight of three Lifters, also in each team. Whilst it was relatively neck and neck for most of the challenge, Patrick screwing up two questions in a row resulted in Power Flowers losing all three of their Lifters from the overbearing weight, causing their third loss of the show. Spy was chosen to be exiled by Super Shrooms.
In Power Flowers, all seven members made the discovery that Spy had been pulling the strings on the alliance he had with K Rool, Samus, and Papyrus in order to blindside Samus. Whilst they couldn't eliminate him due to his exiled status, all of them had the mutual agreement that Spy was a big threat.
At Tribal Council, most members barring ROB decided to vote for Patrick due to his two screwups in the challenge. With sadness and slight relief, Patrick was eliminated...
Who will be eliminated this time? And what obstacles will the survivors face in the next challenge? All and more will be answered in this episode of Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert!
Exile Oasis: Night 8
Survivors: Spy.
The moonlight shone down onto the treetops of the "oasis", which more resembled a jungly island in appearance and nature. Little cracks in the canopy allowed small bursts of moonlight to enter the floor of the jungle, where Spy was slowly creeping through.
When a survivor gets the opportunity to enter the Exile Oasis, they are brought there via boat connecting the island and the rest of the desert and are stranded until early in the morning. They are given a tent, some food, some water, and a large torch they can use to navigate through the darkness of the island. So why would anyone bother looking through the island? It'd waste their energy, right?
That would be the assumption of all survivors that arrive there if it weren't for the sign adjacent to the tent. Whilst it was incredibly vague, its context was easy to decipher for most:
*Try and explore the Exile Oasis! There may be something special that's stranded on this island with you...*
To Waluigi and Meta Knight - two people who were stranded on the Exile Oasis in the past - it was obviously referring to an idol. Howbeit, Patrick wasn't particularly bright enough to catch the hint, though he spent an hour or so looking for this mysterious thing regardless.
As for Spy, he too had caught wind of the true meaning of the sign, and was in the midst of a search for the idol. It was definitely a difficult one to find, as the Exile Oasis was a very large place, and was dense in trees and shrubbery. Even with the challenge and chance of him finding it in mind, Spy stayed up for hours to search for some sort of advantage. He knew that Meta Knight was most likely eliminated, and with one less vote to help him with blindsiding Samus, he needed something as useful as an idol to secure his goals.
Just when all hope was lost, at 4 AM, a mere three hours before the sun would rise and he would begin his journey back to the tribe, Spy came incredibly close to finding the idol, though he himself was unaware.
It was tied against one of the low-hanging branches of a tree, the fact that this tree was far separated from the others was the only hint towards it containing the idol, but the mercenary failed to catch on to that hint.
When he approached the tree, the branch containing the idol was on the left side on the tree, but it was too dark from him to see unless he conveniently got close to it. To make matters worse, Spy planned to go to the right of the oncoming tree, completely missing the idol in its entirety.
As spy turned to go to the right of the tree, his eyes shot wide open:
*CRACK*
His foot had gotten caught on one of the tree's thin roots, causing him to trip over as his foot broke open the root, causing the audible crack to repeat throughout the isolated location.
As he fell down, he reached out for anything to halt his descent into the hard floor with his left hand, his right hand still gripping the torch.
Luckily he had tripped right in front of the tree, causing Spy to slam his palm into the trunk.
When he corrected himself back up, luckily without setting the forest ablaze, another noise caught his attention, this time it wasn't coupled with him tripping over:
*THUMP*
It came from the left of the tree, and he slowly, AND carefully, made his way over to the source of the sound. He imagined a twig, but he had a small, hopeful thought of it being an idol.
And to his surprise...
"YES!" He called out with joy. The Spy had found the idol, resting on the floor; it had most likely fallen off the branch due to his hand's collision with the tree. It was shaped like a mushroom and had a colour palette of purple and pink. Alongside this, evil eyes were painted on the lower part of the mushroom, making it look like a more corrupted version of a regular red and white mushroom you'd find in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Alongside it was a tag attached to it, slightly dirty from colliding with the floor:
*You have found the Poison Shroom Idol! This is the most powerful idol in the entirety of Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert. If you cast this idol, you will be able to make everyone on your tribe immune aside from two people, who will still be up for elimination! Use this wisely...*
The sheer power of the idol was now in the clutches of Spy, someone who's currently unaware of the anger that Power Flowers has towards him regarding the blindside he attempted to pull off. Whether they were against him or not no longer mattered, however, as with this idol, he would be able to save himself and target the person he wanted gone more than anyone else: Samus Aran...
Power Flowers: Day 9
Survivors: Papyrus - Meta Knight - Princess Peach - Spy - King K. Rool - ROB - Samus Aran.
"MY GOD... THE AURA HERE IS SO TENSE!" Papyrus remarked. "IS IT BECAUSE YOU'RE ALL WAITING FOR SPY'S ARRIVAL?"
"Mmhmm..." Samus nodded, and she had a stone-cold stare ready for Spy.
"ERM, HOW ARE WE GOING TO APPROACH THINGS?" He asked. "DO WE NOT TALK TO HIM ABOUT IT, OR ARE WE GOING TO DO THE OPPOSITE?"
Meta Knight pondered the question. "Well, we can't just ignore the fact that, with Patrick eliminated instead of me, Spy will have questions. Then again, if he has any advantage, being upfront about it won't be the best angle to approach him with."
"THEN WHAT ANGLE DO WE APPROACH FROM?!" The skeleton continued to poke at the warrior with questions.
However, before Meta Knight grew tiresome of the questions, K Rool angrily stepped in. "Isn't it obvious ya dolt?! We're gonna make up some excuse as to why Patrick was eliminated and not Meta Knight!"
"I've already come up with an excuse," Samus revealed. "If we consider he told K Rool, Papyrus and I that we had to get Peach, Patrick, or ROB on board in case one of us got exiled. Then we can tell him that we failed to convince anyone and that Peach, ROB and Meta Knight were voting for Patrick, so we decided to follow the majority."
"That plan appears to have no logical holes in it," ROB analyzed, before giving a beep. "Nevermind. I just ran a second scan, and there is one minor problem that we may face if we choose to give Spy this "excuse"."
Peach gulped. "And that is?"
"Why would Patrick, someone who is incredibly gullible might I add, not be convinced by a group of people approaching him and asking him to vote Meta Knight?" ROB explained. "It fails to add up one-hundred percent, at least from the perspective of someone hearing the excuse. My recommendation is that you tell them that Peach and I were with the starfish at the time, and you manipulating him in front of us would be too risky. You'd also have to tell him that you heard that we were planning to vote Patrick from Meta Knight, as we wouldn't tell you if we were right next to him," he recommended.
"Yes," agreed Meta Knight. "That's a good idea. Now, when the next Tribal Council comes around, we will be eliminating Spy. Though considering he is still a vital asset to our team, I don't want to purposefully lose this next challenge just so we can pull it off. We'd be a laughing stock, too, if we had our fourth lost before Super Shrooms had their second."
"Usually, I would stay silent about this, but everyone seems incredibly frustrated over what Spy did, so I don't have much choice other than to go along with this consensus and assist them in pulling off this backstab." - ROB.
"SPLENDID!" Cheered Papyrus, posing. "LOOKS LIKE OUR PLAN HAS COME TO ITS CONCLUSION!"
The six came to their agreement, their plan supposedly fool-proof. Though, one glaring problem that they forgot to consider was beginning to take place. That problem being that, what if Spy overheard their entire discussion?
Hidden behind the tent was the hot topic himself, overhearing the discussion from start to end. Spy felt very threatened overhearing that his team would pull off a massive blindside against him, though that feeling soon dwindled as he realized he could simply cheat death with the marginal power of the Poison Shroom Idol.
"Fools... you were so loud I could even hear your heavy breathing!" He thought to himself, before giving a small chuckle. Spy proceeded to slowly creep backwards about twenty-five metres, still angling himself so the tents would block his presence, then he began walking into the tribe as normal.
"Greetings, gentleman!" He waved to them all before taking a seat. "Now then, what did I miss?"
His personality was a little more optimistic and energized as usual, but most of them cropped it up to him getting a peaceful night's rest at the Exile Oasis.
He looked around, noticing Patrick was gone. "Ah, looks like the starfish didn't make i-"
"Apologies, Spy," interrupted ROB. "But I'm currently calculating our chances of winning the next challenge based on whether its a physical challenge, a mental challenge, or both. I tend to calculate better in silence, maybe somebody here should take Spy elsewhere and tell him everything that happened whilst I resume my calculations?"
Though the robot was actually telling a massive lie over how his calculations worked, his motivation for doing so was obvious to everyone but Spy.
"I'll tell him everything," said Samus, tapping his shoulder and beckoning him to follow her to a place away from the concentrating ROB.
"Wow, didn't know you had it in you to tell a big ol' lie, ROB," admitted K Rool.
Peach nodded. "Neither did I!"
After a minute of walking, Samus and Spy ended up next to the tents, and Samus began explaining what happened last night.
"Alright, we tried our best to eliminate Meta Knight, but ROB and Peach didn't want to vote for him due to how good he was in physical challenges. Patrick would have been a good target to convince if ROB and Peach weren't next to him at all times, so trying to manipulate him would be far too risky. We were then told by Meta Knight himself that Peach and ROB were voting for Patrick, so we went along with that instead. After all, he ruined the last challenge for us all," she justified. "Next Tribal Council will have Meta Knight gone."
"Possibly. Though there will be six of us next Tribal Council, as one of us would be exiled," warned Spy. "The chances of it being ROB and Peach are lower than the chances of it being K Rool, Papyrus, and... you," Spy suddenly gulped, realizing something crucial, but continuing anyway. "But don't worry, I'll do my best to convince Peach and ROB to vote for Meta Knight, maybe I'll throw in some lies..."
"Gah! I just remembered, what if Samus gets exiled next?! That means I would have to use the idol to put two people I don't care for as much up for elimination with my idol! I'm so foolish that I forgot to even think of that... I guess if I'm unlucky enough for that to happen, I'll have to put Meta Knight and ROB up for elimination. I was going to do Meta Knight alongside Samus anyway, and as for ROB, I utterly despise machines..." - Spy.
Samus nodded. "I see."
"So, now that we've both caught up on the plans, let's return to ROB to see these so-called calculations of his. Pssh, robots these days..." The Frenchman groaned. "I'm more accustomed to killer replicas of similar strength, not glorified trivia-bots."
"Who knew that I wouldn't be the only one who struggled with evil clones," Samus uttered under her breath.
They both turned to face their group and walked back, Spy cutting ties with any potential conversation with Samus in case ROB still "required the silence" for his calculations. Little did he know, however, ROB could calculate those percentages in seconds, let alone in a loud, bustling environment.
Upon rejoicing with the rest of the tribe, they both took their seats on the benches, basked in the shade of the shelter, and listened to ROB give out the percentages.
"If our next challenge is physical, our chances of victory would be... forty-two percent," ROB revealed.
"Merde!" Cursed Spy. "Even after getting rid of all of the deadweights, we're still disadvantaged?!"
The robot gave a hesitant beep. "I am afraid so. However, ridding the tribe of Johnny, Macho Man and Patrick seems to have done us some good, as our chance of victory is exactly forty-one percent."
"PHEW..." Papyrus gave a sigh of relief before his eyes popped out. "HANG ON, THAT'S NOT GOOD AT ALL!"
"Apologies, I haven't made my calculations before each challenge public until now. Even though we managed to win it, the third challenge had a very low percent mainly because of the over-abundance of... how do I put it?" ROB questioned, trying not to offend.
K Rool luckily filled in for him. "Idiocy?"
"Sure," the robot nodded, even if he didn't agree with the wording. "Anyway, to see our chances of winning the next mental-focused challenge climb dramatically is good, that is the point I am trying to make. Anyway, as for a challenge that would combine both, it would be shockingly low, at thirty-four percent."
Papyrus had his jaw drop. "WHAAAA?! NO WAY!"
"That's a shameful number," Meta Knight admitted, hiding his embarrassed eyes by peering downwards at the floor.
"If you want reasoning then look no further than Jotaro Kujo, Miles "Tails" Prower, and Dell Conagher, moreso known as the Engineer," said ROB. "Jotaro has the power, speed and precision of a superhuman thanks to his "Stand", which is a spiritual being that assists him in physical tasks. Engineer and Tails also have incredible IQs, making mental tasks a breeze. For example, Engineer nearly bested me, an AI, in the counting challenge. Coupled with those three are the others, which are all incredibly strong or intelligent themselves. We are outclassed in every angle," he explained.
Samus raised her hand. "Why didn't you tell us about these before?"
"Because I was afraid the percentages would kill team morale. However, after a chat with Peach yesterday, she finally convinced me to give these detailed statistics, as it would apparently encourage people to work harder." The robot hung his head low. "Apologies for not doing so earlier."
Papyrus shook his head. "NO, DON'T BE, BECAUSE NOW I GOT A PIT IN MY STOMACH FROM ALL OF THAT!"
"You have a stomach?" Asked Peach. "N-nevermind, what's important is that we take in these facts and use them to do better in challenges! We can't give up at thirty percent, because thirty percent isn't a zero percent. I believe this team can win this next challenge, maybe even by a long shot if we push ourselves to our limits! I believe in you all."
To many, the motivational words were what they needed to hear after three out of the four challenges resulting in their loss.
"I agree with the princess! If anything, overcoming them will be all the more satisfying..." K Rool grinned. "Then we can celebrate our victories like animals!"
"Literally, for some of us!" The Spy cackled, a few others laughed at his teasing.
For a while, the inner tensions that everyone had over the tribe's drama had gone away. Spy was no longer bothered over everyone planning to backstab him for the time being, and members like K Rool didn't bother grudging against Spy for the time being either. Peach had pulled them all together, and for a second, they were reminded that this was all just some silly competition and not a faction-creating war that would tear them apart...
Super Shrooms: Day 9
Survivors: Phoenix Wright - Luigi - Little Mac - Tails - Gordon Ramsay - Waluigi - Kirby - Engineer - Jotaro Kujo.
As Gordon prepped the meal, Kirby and Little Mac watched as the rest of the tribe played an incredibly tense game of Poker, betting their own small rations of rice as opposed to the chips that would be used in a regular game.
Phoenix, Luigi, Tails, and Engineer had folded, resulting in the showdown between the stone-faced Jotaro and the nervous Waluigi.
Five cards were on the table: a three of clubs; a king of diamonds; an eight of clubs; a four of diamonds, and a six of spades.
"Raise," said Jotaro.
"WAAAAH! A-AGAIN?!" Bellowed Waluigi, his teeth audibly chattering. Whatever hand Jotaro had, it must have been one that was somehow better than his four of hearts and his seven of hearts, which would result in a Straight hand.
"This time..." He paused, before shooting a glare at the terrified man in purple. "I bet the rest of my ration!"
With petrification, he shook his head. "N-no way! I fold, I fold!"
"Jesus..." Engineer shook his head, grinning. "Let's see this deck of yours then Jotaro, because you just won yourself nearly three portions worth of rice with whatever the hell is in your hand."
He turned over his cards, revealing a ten of diamonds and a nine of hearts.
Waluigi's jaw dropped, and the same could be said for everyone else. He had the lowest priority hand: a High Card. He had won so much out of bluffing alone.
"Holy Hell..." Gordon stared at his pathetic two cards. "Thank God I didn't participate in that."
"Same here... though these gloves make participating in card games really annoying," he admitted.
"Then take them off?" Asked Phoenix, forming a face that could only be described as a mix of the shock from Jotaro's clutch win and confusion from Little Mac's problem.
Little Mac shrugged before ignoring him, and before the lawyer could press him further, Gordon began dishing out the portions.
For once, the amount of rice was overflowing the bowl, and Jotaro ate it all in seconds in order to get his energy up. After all, he had been eating tiny portions for over a week, at this point.
Dinner was miserable for most. Gordon, Little Mac and Kirby had their usual portions as the others had slightly smaller portions due to the betting they had done in Poker.
"Next time, we're playing Chess..." Sighed Tails, finishing his portion within half a minute of receiving it.
"Agreed..." Nodded Waluigi, groaning between the few slurps of rice he was able to have before he was finished.
Phoenix, however, had a different thought on his mind. Jotaro being the spotlight had reminded him of the suspicions he was meant to confirm a couple of days back: Jotaro and Little Mac both went to the Cacti Paradise, Little Mac arrived back first, then the next time he set out, the idol had already been found. All of the evidence points to Jotaro having the idol, and he wanted to press the scientist over it, though he was well aware of how vague and stern Jotaro can be. For example, his bluffs alone had him win a game of Poker.
After everyone was finished with their food, they all spaced out a little bit, talking to one another in small, loosely connected groups of two or three.
Now was the perfect opportunity to press Jotaro, and Phoenix began walking up to him, mildly anxious.
"Hey, Jotaro," called Phoenix. "Mind if I speak with you for a sec?"
"...Sure," he nodded, standing up from the bench he was sitting on and walking with Phoenix until both were distant from the rest of the group.
He started from the beginning, "a long time ago, I heard that you and Little Mac went to Cacti Paradise in search of idols, right?"
Jotaro was already aware of the situation. "Yes."
"Looks like someone finally caught on to my idol. I'll have to play things stern and hope that his suspicions stay to himself. The last thing I want is to be blindsided when my strength and abilities already make me a massive threat." - Jotaro Kujo.
Phoenix continued, "I remember Little Mac coming back to. Now, when he went to go back to that same place, the idol had already been taken. Now, I want you to be honest with me here. Were you the one who found that idol?"
"I don't see the point in this," said Jotaro. "Though, if I really have to answer the question. Then I'll be honest and say no."
Suddenly, Phoenix saw a massive flash around Jotaro, and imaginary chains formed a barrier between him and Jotaro.
"Wha?" The lawyer thought. "What's going on?"
Jotaro raised an eyebrow, unable to see what Phoenix was experiencing. "Are you okay?"
Before things could get any weirder for him, three red and yellow locks appeared on the chain barrier, the symbols that were on them reminded him of what they were.
"Psychelocks!" He thought to himself, still giving Jotaro a blank stare. "These usually appear when people are telling lies. I almost forgot that I had the Magatama on me, otherwise I wouldn't be seeing these. It's unfortunate, but I won't be able to break any without evidence, and this isn't exactly the best place to get evidence from. All I know is that Jotaro DID get that idol. Looks like I'll have to keep that in mind if push comes to shove..."
"Phoenix!" Yelled Jotaro, clicking his finger right under his nose. "Stop day-dreaming!"
"Huh?! O-oh right, sorry, I sorta blanked there." He pulled a fake smirk, scratching the front of his neck. "Anyway, I'll believe you. It's not like there's much to gain out of knowing, anyway... unless you're planning to eliminate me?" He joked.
"Probably not..." The stand-user shook his head.
Phoenix gulped. "I don't like the "probably" in that sentence..." He whispered under his breath.
Both went back to the others and resumed whatever they had been doing prior. Whether that meant just talking or twiddling their thumbs. They deserved it after such a tense game of Poker, and also after winning yesterday's challenge too. Though none of them was thinking about the next physically demanding challenge they would have to do next, for the good of their morale...
*TO BE CONTINUED*