*Last time on Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert...*
Following last night's council, the eleven remaining survivors have stripped away from their remaining teams and were merged into the ultimate Super Stars Tribe, located at the heart of the Jagged Rockies. Additionally, Alexa informed them of the Jury: a role with an unknown use that all survivors eliminated from that point onward would possess. The last thing he mentioned was that Exile Oasis was no longer going to take place after every challenge, officially ending the twist.
At the final tribe, the survivors split into three groups and bonded with one another, strengthening relationships and forming new ones. In the midst of this, Kirby and Meta Knight had a private, one-on-one chat, revealing that they had been in cahoots since the beginning of the show and that they would protect each other as best they can.
The next day, the survivors were informed that, much like in the first season, most challenges from a certain point would take place far from the main area of the show. For the first of these challenges, they took a warp pipe over to Sherbet Land: a blisteringly cold wasteland with an icy lake in the middle. The challenge was to collect as many coins as they could within five minutes; the person with the least amount of coins faced elimination from the challenge, and this would repeat until three people remained. Those three people would receive the challenge's only prize: temporary immunity.
Towards the end of the challenge, Jotaro was forced to use an ability he had been hiding since the beginning. This ability was none other than Star Platinum: The World, which allowed him to momentarily stop time and collect just the right amount of coins to stay safe and receive his immunity alongside the incredibly lucky Spy and the skillful Kirby.
At tribe, most opportunity to discuss elimination had been wasted on the discussion of Jotaro's incredibly powerful ability. Other than that, there was a massive lack of unanimity, with few people confident over their safety.
When Tribal Council came around, the survivors answered their questions given by Alexa and voted. After an incredibly split vote with a total of six people with at least one vote, Tails was the one to greet elimination with three votes, and just like that, he left Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert as the first Jury member.
The following morning, an event Alexa had been noting and planning in his book for a long while came into fruition. Every eliminated Survivor, barring the rule-breaker Papyrus and the Jury member Tails, were all rounded up at the Cacti Paradise to participate in the Comeback Gauntlet: a series of trials that would show which one of them was worthy of returning to the show and joining the Merge tribe.
In the first section of the Gauntlet, a poll submitted by the ten remaining members of Super Stars was used to see who had the weakest social game out of the eight. With Macho Man and Johnny scoring at the bottom, and with Patrick just losing to K Rool in terms of total likability, the three of them were swiftly eliminated and removed from the Comeback Gauntlet.
In the second section, the five that remained went through an arduous obstacle course; the first three to complete it would move on to the final section. During this, K Rool's level of threat to the well-being of Gordon, Waluigi, and Squidward resulted in him being forcefully taken down by Alexa's staff crew. Whilst he slept in the dust of the other four contestants, Gordon's massive screwup in the platforming section resulted in Squidward beating him and securing the final spot to move on to the final section of the gauntlet.
This final section was abrupt and to-the-point, with Alexa admitting to the other two that ROB was much more worthy of rejoining than them. Whilst they were disappointed over this true statement, they were given a consolation prize of joining Tails in the Jury, where they would show up at every Tribal Council before playing an important role in the mysterious Finale.
This is it! The Finale draws closer and closer with each episode. Who will be eliminated next? What crazy challenge is in store for the Super Stars tribe? All and more will be answered in this episode of Survivor Crossover: Dry Dry Desert!
Super Stars: Day 21
Survivors: Phoenix Wright - Luigi - Meta Knight - Little Mac - Princess Peach - Spy - Kirby - Engineer - ROB - Jotaro Kujo - Samus Aran.
"Yaaawn..."
Phoenix woke up in the comfort of his own tent. His sleeping pattern had gone bizarrely inconsistent. Sometimes he'd wake up before everyone else, and other times he would wake up last. On this particular day, he felt groggy, weak, and tired, though he didn't feel the urge to go back to sleep whatsoever. In order to try and wake himself up, he exited his stuffy tent and into the heat of the morning desert.
He pried both sides of the tent's entrance away from him and silently crawled out. The only other person that was awake was ROB, someone he was on good terms with. The robot had placed himself underneath the shelter.
"Oh, hey ROB," he greeted unenthusiastically. "I've never felt more tired in my life. I don't even feel like going back to sleep, either!"
The robot was a little confused as to why Phoenix would greet someone who he hadn't seen in ages as if they were life-long acquaintances, though he shrugged that oddity off and responded. "That may occur if the quality of your sleep was especially poor. Hopefully, the feeling will reside within ten to fifteen minutes, if not sooner. In order to speed up the process, I recommend hydration."
"Well, let's hope that works," obeyed Phoenix, fetching himself a bowl of water. He took a gentle sip, and...
*PFFFFFFT!*
The water expelled from his mouth in an instant. The lawyer quickly shook his head with disbelief and laid his eyes on ROB, his pupils focusing on him like security cameras. "Wait, wait, WAIT! You were eliminated AGES ago. What are you doing here?!"
"I... was confused as to why you didn't notice sooner, though the effects of drowsiness appear to be more drastic than I thought," said ROB. "Perhaps it would be best to round up the entire tribe so I can explain it to you all at once?"
Phoenix scratched the back of his head, hesitantly nodding. "S-sure thing!"
"The second my brain clicked and I realized that ROB being there made no sense, I immediately felt a lot better in terms of fatigue. I guess the cure for sleepiness in the morning is sheer confusion!" - Phoenix Wright.
He felt bad over waking people up prematurely, but Phoenix knew that ROB explaining it to the whole tribe now would be a lot less of a pain than explaining it every time someone woke up and noticed it for themselves. He went into every tent and slowly shook the person's arm, gently telling them that something very important was outside.
Afterward, he sat beside ROB as the half-asleep others exited their tents one after the other. Eventually, after five minutes, all of them had left the comfort of sleep and picked up on ROB's presence for themselves.
"What the hell..." Spy gazed at him. "So, this is what you were talking about: this pile of scrap is in our tribe?"
"I thought I'd never had to see ROB again after I got him eliminated. To see him back is both bizarre and a little bit worrying, but I'm not too sure if a robot is complex enough to have a thirst for vengeance, so maybe I'll be fine." - Spy.
The robot gave a high-pitched beep. "Greetings, everyone. I had Phoenix gather you all here so I could tell you all at once: Alexa has allowed me to return to the show."
"Whaaa?!" Luigi gasped.
Shock coursed through all of them, even if they had already assumed the fact before the confirmation. Regardless, several emotions went through their heads. There was now more competition for immunity in challenges, and they were aware of ROB's abilities and strengths. Luckily, none of them feared ROB from a social perspective, as he was the most neutral survivor of the bunch.
"Looks like we still aren't in the top ten," Jotaro commented.
"Indeed," said ROB. "Might I ask what happened whilst I was gone?"
Little Mac began explaining the key things to the robot, counting each of them with his obscured fingers. "Waluigi accidentally screwed up the challenge that happened after your elimination and got eliminated. Papyrus then eliminated himself on purpose so nobody else would be, and Tails bit the dust last night, which sucks."
"I see. I did hear from Alexa that Papyrus did break the rules, so to hear that it was on purpose is interesting," he said, tilting his head to the left. "Might I ask what he did?"
Phoenix had gone back to drinking his water, casually describing the scenario to ROB. "He punched Alexa in the face, which I believe he deserved."
"Oh." ROB stiffly tilted his head back. "That must have been quite the sight."
"You can say that again," Mac said. "Anyhow, was it a tight win, or did you kick their butts?"
He paused and whirred loudly, processing the question as he replayed the events of the challenge in his head. "I got first place in all three sections of the gauntlet, so the victory was flawless. Additionally, Squidward and Waluigi were with me in the final section, and although neither of them received the invitation to rejoin like me, they were given a great prize as compensation for their loss."
"A prize? Sounds interestin'." Engineer rubbed his chin. "Mind tellin' us what that is?"
"Both of them are now members of the Jury, alongside Tails."
For a second time, water was ejected from Phoenix's mouth, streaming onto the dry sandy floor as he sat there, jaw unhinged like a snake with surprise. "J-Jury?!"
"Well, that's a bigger shocker than seein' you back here," admitted the Texan. "I think we all suspect that the Jury will prolly be pickin' one of us to win the show in the Finale. With that in mind, Squidward and Waluigi will be addin' two more votes onto that, so here's hopin' most of you were on their good side when they left."
Little Mac hissed with disappointment, patting Jotaro on the back. "Sorry JoJo, Waluigi called you a cheater nearly every day. As soon as he catches wind of your ability to stop time, then he'll never vote you!"
This time, it was ROB's turn to face utter disbelief. "It appears you missed out on something else important, from what I just heard."
"Oh right, I forgot to mention that," he apologized. "JoJo is a nickname we call him now. Kirby sorta started it by trying to pronounce his name, and it kinda went from there!"
"Poyo!" Kirby confirmed with a smile.
Meta Knight groaned. "I think he was asking about Jotaro's ability."
"Shoot, did I not mention that either?" Little Mac rubbed his cheek with shame. "We recently learned that JoJo has the ability to completely stop time for a few seconds, and ever since that point, we've pretty much all agreed to vote him the second he doesn't win immunity in a challenge... if that happens."
ROB gave a startling beep and slowly strolled backward. "Fully stopping time is something I never thought could be achieved, let alone by a mere human."
"A mere human with a mysterious, powerful ghost looming behind him," added Samus.
Even for a robot with mental capabilities that not even a human prodigy could achieve, he had a difficult time processing all of this information at once. Jotaro's Star Platinum: The World had especially caught him off guard. After it was ingrained into his memory, he carried on moving backward until he tenderly collided with the bench behind him. From that point, he gazed at his ten tribemates and spun his limbs around in a full circle. "I think I've heard everything important now. I'm excited to get back into the challenges, and I'm hoping I can manage to win despite my long absence from the show."
Peach smiled cheerily. "Well, good luck to you!"
"So many people could have returned; I'm so glad it was ROB! We were great friends before he moved tribe and got eliminated, so it'll be nice to resume where we left off. Maybe we could even look out for each other's backs, but I wouldn't go as far as to start a full alliance with somebody. The risk is far too high for my liking, and I'm in a comfortable spot with the others anyway." - Princess Peach.
Spy then yawned, covering his mouth with his hands. "What an awful time to wake up at. I don't feel like sleeping, yet I'm incredibly tired!"
Upon hearing the Frenchman's distress, ROB thought about how Phoenix managed to get his similar problem cured.
"Hey Spy."
"Hm?"
"I initially forgot to mention this, but Alexa wanted me to tell you that you are to attend Tribal Council for elimination immediately," he claimed. "The reason being: he discovered that the time you purposefully lost the challenge for your team was actually against the rules of the show. So, in order for him to bring fairness to the game, he thought it was better late than never to punish you with your elimination."
At that moment, the mercenary had shattered. His eyes widened, his lip quivered violently, and he choked on his own spit. Was it really going to be over, just like that? No grand elimination, no build-up, just an instantaneous elimination delivered by someone who wasn't even involved in the production of the show. Spy placed his hands on his head and trembled.
"...Just kidding," ROB revealed. "Hopefully that scare should have given you the jolt of adrenaline needed to get rid of that fatigue you're feeling."
One after the other, the others surrounding the two began bursting out laughing. Starting with Little Mac, and then followed by Engineer, Phoenix, Luigi, and even both of the girls underhandedly chuckled under their breaths.
"Very funny," he said, returning to his calm but cold demeanor. "With your childishness out of the way, I'm willing to make everyone here breakfast, because I can't go much longer without something to eat."
"Poyo..." agreed Kirby, his eyes dim with hunger.
"Poyo poyo poyo. Poyo, poyo poyo. Poyo, poyo..." - Kirby.
Spy moved over to the clay cooking pot and added enough food for ten people, ROB being left out for obvious, robotic reasons. He then looked at the different seasonings and spices that the old Power Flowers tribe won a while ago and cursed them. "If it weren't for these, I wouldn't feel as hungry!"
Reluctantly, Samus couldn't help but agree with Spy. "I've gotten mostly used to the food finally tasting edible for a while now, but at the time, I wished I had never won the prize at all. They make you look forward to eating even more, and before you know it, food is the only thing on your mind."
"That sounds awful," admitted Peach. "I've luckily haven't felt that, and I hope that I never will!"
"Even Alexa's rewards are cursed," scoffed Jotaro. "I suppose the best solution would be to have those who want spices add them to their own dishes. That way, you won't be mixing it into everyone's meal, and those who suffer from the feeling Spy and Samus described won't have to eat them with their meal."
Little Mac wrung his bulky gloves, licking his lips. "So we can customize our own dishes with our seasonings of choice?!"
"Please don't use too much, Mac," pleaded Peach. "I imagine there are still plenty of us here who would like to use them, myself included."
As their consensus came to be, Spy filled the cooking pot with water and placed it down to heat up over the fire. He walked back over to the others and sat down. "Well, what shall we do whilst we wait?"
"I hope it's not more simple talking. I want something a little more interesting for once!" Little Mac rubbed his chin. "Oh, I got an idea. How about we play Truth or Dare!"
"Do I look fourteen years old to you?" Spat Samus.
"Pssh, you act like it..." He whispered to himself. "Come on, it'll be fun!"
Luigi, whilst intrigued, declined the offer. "I'm-a scared of what kind of dares I'd be given."
"Alright, fiiine. We'll just do truths," said Mac. "Not like we can do much in terms of dares anyway."
Meta Knight adjusted his mask, confused. "What even is Truth or Dare?"
"Truth or Dare is a game that requires at least two players. You may either ask a "Truth", in which you ask them a question they have to be completely honest in answering, or you tell them to perform a "Dare" of your choice. If the latter is going to be removed, then it's simply just people asking each other questions about themselves, which is a much more sensible way to pass time," ROB described.
"Well, in that case..." Samus nodded with approval. "I guess I am willing to be asked a few questions."
Peach clasped her hands together and smiled. "Well, I guess I'll start! Little Mac, you're a celebrity, right?"
"Hmm. I guess you could say that."
"What's the biggest misconception people have about you?"
Little Mac clenched his bicep. "Well, people tend to think I'm a pretty violent person because I'm a World Champion Boxer, but I'm definitely not like that! I keep all the punching in the competitions. Since I answered it, I get to pick someone to ask a question to, and I choose... Phoenix!"
"Huh?"
"What's the most embarrassing thing you've done... in court?"
As Phoenix ironically became flushed with embarrassment upon hearing the question, Spy immediately answered it for him. "Being a lawyer is probably the most embarrassing thing he's done. Defending the scum of the Earth for his paycheck is something that must be done with shame."
Luigi removed his cap and scratched his head. "Is he even allowed to-a tell us about it?"
"Depends on what it is! Do tell, Phoenix," the Engineer beckoned, getting ready for his impending chuckle.
After a few deep breaths, Phoenix thought of one. He had a couple, but the former, for some reason, stuck out to him the most. "I once had to, err, cross-examine a parrot."
The reaction for quite a few of them had three stages: the first stage was confusion; the second stage was an eruption of laughter, and the third stage was straight back to confusion.
"Why did you have to cross-examine a parrot?!" Little Mac asked through hysterical tears.
Meta Knight looked around and whispered under his breath. "He had to "Cross-examine"? What does that even mean?"
"I had nothing left to use for the case!" He rationalized. "I've had to cross-examine a lot of weird things. From radios to spirits, but the parrot takes the cake for most embarrassing... anyway, it's my turn to ask a question, right? I'll pick, um, Samus!"
She raised an eyebrow, staring at him from the opposite side of the table. "What's the question gonna be?"
"Unlike Mac, I'm not going to go harsh," he promised. "Hmm... if you were to win, what would you do with the money?"
Samus placed a finger on her chin, shortly thought of any ideas, and shrugged. "Sorry to give you a boring answer, but as with most money I earn, I don't always know what to buy with it. I'll probably use it when something I need appears, or in case any of my ship parts get damaged or destroyed."
Engineer admired the sound of her lifestyle. "Sounds like you're a pretty busy gal."
She nodded. "That's a pretty big understatement, but if I found time to participate in a show like this, then it isn't too bad. Anyway, Jotaro..."
"...Hmm?"
"You're aware of how much of a target you are right now, correct?" The bounty hunter checked. "Do you really think you're going to win?"
Jotaro folded his arms and adjusted his hat. "It depends on what challenges are thrown at us from this point. Star Platinum: The World will greatly benefit from physical challenges, but mental ones aren't usually affected in my favour by stopping time for a few seconds. If I ever don't win immunity, then I won't bother bargaining either. I'll fully accept my defeat."
"There's always a very slim chance that Spy could go out inside of me if I were to miss out on immunity. Those chances are too slim to take, however, so there's really nothing I can do even if I were to fight beyond my loss. But it's not like Spy will live much longer after my own elimination. That is if he's even present to my elimination." - Jotaro Kujo.
"How chivalrous," admired Peach.
The Stand User glanced at her before gazing back to the table. "Better than a tantrum, eh?"
"Well, it's-a time for you to-a ask someone else a question, JoJo!" Luigi beamed, excited to someone as introverted as Jotaro ask a question.
As expected, he had to take some time to think before he could ask one, but eventually, he pointed to Luigi. "I'll ask you one."
"Oh, okay!" The plumber obliged. "Let's-a hope it's not anything serious..." He thought.
"I have the impression that you and Peach know each other a lot. Is this true?" Jotaro examined.
Whilst this was directed to Luigi, it was partly directed at the princess as well. Both of them didn't bother trying to hide the fact, even if it would raise countless suspicions of an alliance between them. "We're pretty good friends!" He truthfully confessed.
Engineer propped his chin using his hand, eyeing them. "Not sayin' you're in an alliance," he started, confirming what Luigi had feared, "but you two are prolly gonna have each other's backs for as long as you're both here!"
"Everyone on this show has had friendships, Engineer," debated Peach. "In fact, there likely is or was someone here that you wouldn't dare to vote."
"..." Dell thought about his alliance partner Tails. Then, his eyes lifted back up, and a defeated smirk of acceptance spread across his face. "Ya got me there. Anyhow, it's your time to shine, Luigi!"
Unsure of what he meant, Luigi raised an eyebrow. "Huh? O-oh! Yeah, heheh, sorry..."
A few seconds of waiting later, and he decided to target ROB for his own question.
"ROB!" He called. "Just what kind of-a robot are you?"
Grateful to see people curious about him and his origins, ROB gave a detailed explanation. "I'm not too sure over the exact origins of me and my kind, which you may perceive as ridiculous when you take my abilities into thought. However, the only thing I can go off is that my kind is modeled off of some sort of toy. My family makes are all called ROB like me. The name itself is an abbreviation for Robotic Operating Buddy."
"A bunch of semi-sentient robots like you with the same name? Isn't that a little confusing, even if you are robots?" Quizzed Phoenix.
"It's not confusing for me, but I imagine it'd be confusing to anyone else; living beings thrive off of physical identification. Regardless, identifying which ROB is not a problem in the present, nor will it ever be a problem in the future," he vaguely proclaimed.
Little Mac scrunched his face with confusion. "Wait, what's that supposed to mean?"
"I am the last of my kind," he said dimly, shutting his eyes.
The boxer immediately felt sympathetic for the machine. "Jeez... that's rough."
ROB's eyes opened back up, a quiet beep was dispensed. "It wasn't a great experience. Anyway, with the fire as blazing as it is, I'm sure the food should be nearly done. I'll ask one last question, then I'll dish up for everyone."
"A robot that feels any form of emotion was bizarre enough, but sadness and grief? What an... eerie creation. I've not seen anything like it in my life." - Spy.
He honed in on Meta Knight, attempting to mimic a pointing motion with his clunky, stiff arms. "Meta Knight. This last question shall be directed at you."
"Very well," he acknowledged. "Let's hear it."
"As a galactic warrior, where do you reside?"
He locked his eyes on him and answered the question. "I come from a planet known as Pop-Star, and I specifically reside in Dreamland."
"Poyo!" Bellowed Kirby.
"Yes, alongside you," he added.
Little Mac folded his arms. "Pop-Star? How far away from the Solar System are you? In fact, how did you even get here-"
"-Well, that was the last question, right?" Checked Spy. "You better get dishing up, because I'm starving!"
ROB obeyed the command, drifting off to the clay pot to dish up today's first ration of food.
During and following their meal, the survivors thought heavily about what tomorrow's challenges would bring. Last night had been a total nightmare for them, nobody who hadn't won immunity felt any form of safety, and the elimination was down to the bare wire. Who knows if the next elimination would have the same level of intensity, especially now that ROB is back with them after many days of absence. Who will win? Who will go out next? Only time will tell...
*TO BE CONTINUED*