"Last time on Total Drama Level Up: Our teams competed in their most strategic challenge yet during an intense game of capture the flags. Things were looking up for the Red Mushrooms and their losing streak when they won the first part, earning them valuable tools to use in part two. Unfortunately for them, yet another squabble between Lee Lee and Kyle cost them not only some flags, but also the game! Meanwhile, Lance and Jacques forged a sneaky final two alliance, also roping Kusa and Ellie into their plan. And apparently their work paid off, since the Yellow Ghosts clutched the win! At the gilded joystick ceremony, it came down to the bitter rivals, but once again Kyle was spared elimination as Lee Lee was the one sent packing. Can the Red Mushrooms finally stop losing? How will the new alliances formed by Lance and Jacques influence the game? Will Billy find out about the Beautiful People's alliance? All that and more, right here right now on TOTAL... DRAMA... LEVEL UP!"
*** Opening Credits ***
The scene opens in the male's trailer for the Red Mushrooms at night, sometime after Lee Lee's elimination. Zane, Lukas, and Lincoln all snore away, snoozing peacefully. Kyle, however, stared at the ceiling, a thoughtful expression as he seemed to struggle getting any sleep.
*** Confessional: Kyle ***
"Look, I'm as happy as anyone to see that wretched Lee Lee finally gone from the competition, but I'm not too proud to admit that even I was surprised to see her go over me. Liam, Mandy, and Taylor had all legitimately screwed up in challenges, but since I'm certain they viewed both Lee Lee and myself as in the wrong this time, I thought that was it for me. Clearly they made the right decision, but... I fear that I must start proving myself better than these peasants and a worthy asset to the team, otherwise I'm not sure I can survive another ceremony."
*** At the winner's trailer ***
"Two wins in a row!" Morella cheered as the Yellow Ghosts enjoyed a bit of a party in the living room, a steaming pizza on the table surrounded by two liters of soda and cups. "We are on fire, guys!"
"Hey, careful now," Caleb pointed out, cup of soda in hand. "You wouldn't want to jinx us."
"Jinx shminx," Lance added. "We've got the most wins so far, we have the most people left on a team. We're on a bonafide role. Not like those Mushroom guys, amirite?"
"On one hand I do kind of feel sorry for them," Deborah continued, having just finished a slice of pizza. "But on the other hand it's nice to keep the team unified for so long. Well, except for Nathan, poor guy."
"His sacrifice must have been what led us to victory," John said. "Thanks to him, everything is now going just according to keikaku." John raised his cup in the air. "To Nathan!"
"To Nathan!" Many of his teammates cheered along, raising their cups in the air with him. Some broke off into friendly conversations, and others dug in to more pizza, while Lance continued to give Deborah a side-eye after her comment.
*** Confessional: Lance ***
"It's been a while now since I asked Deborah if she wanted to be in an alliance. Now that I've got this alliance thing sorted out with slick, and the other two, I was kinda hoping she woulda accepted by now. That way we'd have half the votes on our team squared away, and I'd have more allies than Jacques going into the merge just in case. But it's like she's up and forgot about the offer completely!" He sighs, leaning back into his chair. "Oh well, I guess it isn't too much to worry about as long as we keep winning. For now."
*** In the Bomber's Trailer ***
Morning had come for contestants, and the girls from the Blue Bombers were preparing for the day. Lexi stretched, moving over to the sink, presumably to brush her teeth.
"Geez, it's felt like it's been over two bloody years since we last had a challenge. Chris better have something good for us already." Rather than brush her teeth, Lexi just hocked a loogie into the sink, repulsing Rowan nearby.
"Um, gross much?" Rowan noted as she tried to return to putting on her makeup for the day. "Ever heard of manners?"
Lexi snorted, giving her a smirk while returning to her bed. "Sorry, love, you seem to have me confused with someone that can be arsed caring about em."
Elsewhere in the room Riley and Iris exchanged a look as their two teammates continued to bicker.
"Not sure which one I consider ruder," Riley mused, speaking low enough so only Iris could hear while Lexi and Rowan argued. "You?"
"I-I'm not sure I'd be able to make friends with either, honestly."
*** Confessional: Iris ***
"I'm not trying to be rude, of course. Lexi has been really good in challenges! And Rowan... well, she hasn't hurt in them. I-it's not like I've done particularly more than her so I'd not really be in a position to criticize her." She drummed her fingers along the table nervously. "But I'm just not a fan of the noise. Rowan and Lexi are such big personalities, and they clash so harshly that these arguments get kind of crazy. I don't know how I'd survive if Riley wasn't there to keep me company."
*** In the food tent ***
Everyone was eating at their respective tables, business as usual. Many of the Red Mushrooms, save for maybe Lincoln and Alice, were looking grumpy over their continued losses. There was an air of determination to them, or nervousness in Kyle's case, to bring their A-game for the next challenge. The Bombers and Ghosts, meanwhile, felt a bit more laxed, everyone chatting it up in their respective groups.
"And so that's how I won 'Most Handsome' in the yearbook that year, as if there was ever any competition," Ryan said, finishing off the story he was telling. "So then-"
Suddenly, the room was caught off guard from the sound of some sort of high pitched war scream from above. Everyone looked up just in time to see, of all people, Izzy burst through the roof of the tent. Her feet landed on Ryan's head, driving his face into the day's gruel. She jumped off of the boy, somersaulting in the air and landing at the front of the tent.
"And Izzy sticks the landing!" She cackled to herself. "Nailed it!"
Everyone stared at the Total Drama veteran, utterly caught off guard and bewildered. Ryan groaned as he lifted his face from the table, frantically trying to wipe it clean. Xilier was eventually the one to break the silence.
"Uh, why is Izzy here?"
"A good question, Xilier!" Chris emerged from who knows where, standing next to Izzy with his classic cheeky grin. "As you might have gathered, she's today's veteran cameo. Which means it's challenge time!"
There were some cheers, a few groans, and especially steeled looks from the liked of Andrea and Jacque. Chris handed Izzy a large bulging sack, struggling to lift it. She, however, lifted it with ease, even draping it over her back casually like she was Santa or some shit.
"What is she doing here? Why, she's going to be hiding these beautiful boys." Chris held up a small wooden Chris head, not unlike the immunity idol from past seasons. "She's going to be hiding 100 of these Chris Heads all over the film lot! And I do mean the ENTIRE film lot. You see, today we're going to be tackling Open World games, which plop you down in a huge map and just let you go do whatever you want! More specifically, we're drawing from games that have you go out and find a ludicrous amount of items."
"Ah, Collectathons," Riley noted, nodding her head. "Those are some of my favorites."
"This should be relatively straightforward. The team that has collected the highest amount of these things by the end of the challenge wins. And because it's double elimination day, that means the other two teams send someone packing!"
Izzy cackled mischievously, running out of the tent with sack in hand to begin her Chris Head hiding. Chris put away the example he had used, instead holding up a photo of a GOLDEN Chris Head.
"She's in charge of hiding all of the 100 Chris Heads for this challenge. However! I myself personally hid this golden Chris Head somewhere on the set as well." He chuckled, tucking away the photo. "It doesn't count towards the challenge, however, it will function like the Chris Head immunity idols you all will be familiar with from past seasons. If you find it, you can use it to save your butt at one Gilded Joystick ceremony. All votes against you become null, which comes in handy if you're making enemies."
Billy gave a suspicious look to Rowan, unbeknownst to her. Everyone else looked lost in thought, all obviously enticed at the idea of having the Golden Chris.
"In the off chance someone doesn't find it today you can always go looking for it afterwards, but I figured this would be a good time to let you kids know about it. Now then-"
"Done!" Izzy suddenly appeared next to the host, handing over the now empty sack as he recoiled in surprise. "All hidden."
"Y-you're done? Already." He eyed her suspiciously. "All 100 heads hid throughout the movie lot thoroughly."
"Ayup! Hid them in every nook and cranny all over," she confirmed.
"That shouldn't be scientifically possible," Aden noted, Iris nodding in agreement.
Chris shrugged. "That's Izzy for ya, what can I say. Players, you have five hours to comb the movie lot for as many collectables as possible. Once again, the team with the most heads wins. Begin!"
*** Confessional: Trevor ***
"An immunity idol, eh? Now that's got my name written all over it." He snickered, rubbing his hands together. "The more power the better, ya know?"
*** Outside the food tent ***
The teams were all spread apart in small huddles, each having been given a little bag to store their found collectables. A lot of people scanning the surrounding area, looking out for Chris Heads while others talked.
"This should go without saying, but we need to split up to cover as much ground as possible," Zane reasoned to his team. "By spreading out we can maximize the amount of heads we can find. It's our best bet to beat the numbers."
Most of his teammates nodded along in agreement, though Kyle seemed a bit more hesitant. "But what if we find heads that we can't reach on our own? Wouldn't it be better to be in groups to make retrieving them easier?"
"I don't know if you've noticed, but we're kind of dealing with a handicap here," Lukas shot back, pointing at the other two teams. "We have the smallest amount of people. We can't afford to group up when we could be covering more ground."
While still not fully convinced, Kyle had no choice but to sigh and nod in agreement. "Very well. I suppose I can see the logic in that."
"We're expecting you to pull your weight in this challenge," Andrea said bluntly, giving the rich kid a determined look. "Do not make us regret voting off Lee Lee over you."
Kyle recoiled, wanting to curse her out for talking down to him like that, but knowing better than to further rock the boat more than he already have. "Well, let's get to it then."
With that, the Red Mushroom members all ran off on their own in different directions. The Yellow Ghosts had seemingly just finished a huddle of their own, breaking off into groups of two in the forms of Jacque and Ellie, Kusa, and Lance, John and Deborah, Caleb and Clara, and Annara and Morella. Billy noted the strategies from both teams, turning back to his teammates.
"So what's the plan? Should we go in groups or individually?"
Riley tapped her chin, thinking over their options. "If we split up that does let us cover the most potential ground. Buuuut, knowing Izzy she probably put these things in some hard to reach spots. It won't do some of us any good if we find a head but can't do anything to get to it."
"So... what, some of us go in pairs and others go solo?" Ryan asked.
"Exactly!" Riley grinned. "So, someone like Garrett or Billy can probably do just fine going solo since they can probably do some hardcore climbing easy. But someone like Aden? Eh, not so much." She elbowed the aforementioned engineer playfully. "No offense."
Aden chuckled, shrugging it off. "Eh, none taken. You're not wrong."
Lexi frowned, glaring at the looks Aden and Riley were giving off. Sliding in between the two, she patted Aden hard on the back, nearly toppling him over. "Right, right, great strat then, I can take the shrimp along with me then to have another set of eyes."
Riley blinked in confusion, Iris scooting up next to her. "W-well, if that's the case I'd feel a lot better about searching partnered up."
Rowan and Ryan exchanged a nod, both already having realized they wouldn't be much of a good solo searcher, silently having agreed to accompany one another. Trevor, Billy, and Garrett meanwhile all seemed comfortable going out on their own to search.
"Guess that settles that, then," Trevor reasoned, rubbing his hands together. "It's about damn time we took back the winner's trailer, so let's smoke these clowns!"
Their plan solidified, everyone broke out in their own way, be it in a pair or solo. As her and Ryan ran off in their direction, Rowan took a look at Billy running away, shooting a sneer his way.
*** Confessional: Rowan ***
"Obviously I want us to win this stupid thing so I can enjoy a spa day again," Rowan commented, not actually sitting in the chair as she was instead searching the confessional trailer for a Chris Head. And wouldn't you know it, she even found one tucked behind a row of games on the shelf. She smirked, tucking it away in her bag before turning back to the camera. "But it's a double elimination day and I'm fully aware that it's more likely we're sending someone home. I want to vote off Billy, he liked hanging out with that annoying Rowley kid. But Garrett thinks it's a bad idea for some reason. Some crap about how he actually pulls his weight or something."
She scoffed, doing a hair flip. "We have to get rid of these losers at some point, may as well make it sooner rather than later."
*** In the movie lot ***
Morella hopped along cheerfully, glancing around for Chris Heads and not really finding anything of note due to her lack of focus. Annara trailed along behind her, taking a more careful approach to how she looked around the area. Turning around with a grin, Morella watched some birds flying overhead curiously.
"So can you ask the birds where the heads are?" she asked.
Annara blinked in confusion, glancing up at the birds as well. "Um... I can't TALK to animals, I just know a lot about them." She smiled as one of the birds flew by, chirping peacefully. "You have to be passionate about them when you want to care for animals as a career. But yeah, so even if I know how to calm down a bear, I can't actually talk with animals."
Morella nodding along in understanding. "Darn, that's a shame. That would have made things a whole lot easier." Suddenly she grinded to a stop, spotting a Chris Head sticking out of a gutter from one of the nearby buildings. "Ooooh, found one!"
Without a second thought she ran off towards the building, Annara blinking in confusion as she tried to catch up. "Hold on, wait for me!"
Nearby, meanwhile, Aden and Lexi had arrived back near the trailers, figuring that there was likely something hidden in the area had it not already been found.
"See anything on your end?" Lexi called out from underneath one of the loser trailer's. Aden was peering under the other, using a handmade flashlight to scan the area.
"Afraid not," he answered, pulling himself up once he was certain there was no collectables hidden underneath. "Totally empty."
Snickering, Lexi emerged from under the trailer she had searched, a Chris Head in hand. "Seems like you need to pick up the pace then, mate."
The light engineer grinned at his ally. "Hey, great job. I guess checking under these was a good hunch, eh?"
Lexi snorted, turning away to spit as she pretended not to care about the compliment. "Yeah, yeah, I AM pretty great. Enough mucking around, we need check the winner's trailer next." She pushed Aden along roughly, catching him off guard and tripping him up.
*** Confessional: Aden ***
"So Trevor thinks Lexi might like me or something?" He rubbed the back of his sore neck. "Well if that's the case she sure has a funny way of showing it. Not that I don't think she's cool, kind of cute too, but I get some mixed messages from her. Half the time I can't tell if I can trust her or if I should be scared that she's gonna shove me into a locker."
*** In the movie lot ***
Clara was giving Caleb a boost up to the top of the tram that the contestants has rode on the first day. They didn't know if there was a head up there or not, but since they found the thing they figured it was worth a shot.
"So, uh, what's homeschooling like?" Clara asked, trying to keep her mind occupied as she not so subtly stared at Caleb's butt as he climbed up. "Do you like it?"
"It's alright, I guess," he replied, pulling himself up and beginning to scan the top of each of the tram cars. "My folks are really good teachers. Other kids in the neighborhood tell me I need to get out more, though."
"Other kids?" Clara asked as she began to look under the seats of the tram cars, wondering if any girls were included in the aforementioned group of kids.
"Yeah, I still get out to ride my bike and head to the mall sometimes, so I see some other kids around," Caleb continued, finding no Chris Heads. "They're pretty nice. I do kinda wish I went to public school sometimes and got to hang out with people my age more often, though."
Just as she searched under the driver's seat of the trolley, Clara had located a Chris Head, smiling and tucking it away into her bag. "Well I guess that makes being here all the more fun then, right?"
There was suddenly a yelp as Caleb had tripped, falling off the top of the trolley and hitting the ground. Clara gasped, rushing to his side, only for him to pop back up, chuckling awkwardly. "Heh, yeah, it's pretty great. You guys are pretty awesome, so it really makes this a nice change of pace for me."
Dusting himself off, Caleb scanned the horizon, eventually pointing off towards a building that previously housed the Platformer challenge. "Come on, let's keep moving!"
He jogged off, Clara following behind and sighing dreamily.
*** Confessional: Clara ***
"Ok, so MAYBE I have the teeniest tiniest bit of a crush on Caleb. I can't help it, though! He's just so nice, and funny, and smart. Well, book smart at least. He does seem to be kind of oblivious any time I hint at wanting to date him... or any time I flat out ask him about dating. I'm not sure if he even knows how dating works... but that's ok! I'm sure I'll get through to him sooner or later!"
*** In the movie lot ***
There was the sound of a Western movie-style guitar strum, showing a Chris Head perched at the top of a light pole. To the right of the light pole stood Garrett, cracking his neck and snorting with intensity. To the left of the pole was Lukas, glaring back at his rival and cracking his knuckles. A tumbleweed rolled through the scene as the two stood across from each other, occasionally darting their eyes at the Chris Head before looking back at the other.
"Two of us and only one of it," Garrett said to break the silence, forming a cocky grin.
"Wow, hey, I didn't know you could count." Lukas gave an equally cocky smirk back. "Proud of ya, man."
Garrett replied with a bit of a scoff chuckle wombo combo. "Oh, so you got jokes? That's almost as funny as you thinking you can beat me to getting that Chris Head."
Locking eyes, the two sized each other up. Lukas spat to the side and Garrett rolled his neck. Finally, after what sounded like the caw from a crow above, the two took off in a run towards the light pole. Garrett was slightly quicker, reaching the pole first and getting a jumping start, only for Lukas to tug him back down and attempt climbing himself. They went back and forth fighting to get the other off before eventually giving up and simply trying to climb to the top faster than the other. Both reached out for the Chris Head at the same time, making it so neither grabbed it and instead knocked it down to the ground.
"Now, Kusa!"
Suddenly, both Garrett and Lukas were surprised by the sudden voice of Lance, looking off to the side to see the source standing there. Meanwhile, Kusa ran at the fallen Chris Head, swiping it up and bagging it before running off, with Lance laughing and following after. "Thanks for the free collectible, guys!"
Lukas and Garrett stared off as Lance and Kusa ran away. The two exchanged a look before turning away and both murmuring grumpily.
Elsewhere, John was digging through a bush, hoping and failing to find anything of note. Frustrated, he stood up and leveled a glare at the shrubbery. "Baka," he spat at the bush, turning his head away. Nearby Deborah chuckled, scaling a detached leg leftover from the giant TDA monster robot they had found behind one of the buildings with other props. "Stop being so tsundere to the foliage, John. It's not gonna find you collectibles any faster."
Hitting a snag in the prop leg, Deborah slid back down to the bottom, landing on her butt. Huffing, she got back up and began her climb again. John approached, watching with a bit of concern. "Do you want me to help, or?"
"No no, it's fine," Deborah replied despite once again sliding back down to the bottom after her foot lost its placement. "Keep checking around the are for more Chris Heads, I've got this thing covered."
Not convinced, John watched as she continued to slide down due to the struggles of trying to scale the large robot leg. Not wanting to argue, John returned to searching the bushes and such, the sounds of Deborah struggling and slipping continuing in the background.
*** Confessional: John ***
"Tumbling down, tumbling down, tumbling down." John shook his head, arms folded. "I mean, I think Deborah is super cool. It's great to have a fellow anime fan here to talk to. But when she really sets her mind to something, she gets really stubborn and doesn't seem to like accepting help. She got like this when we really got into building during the Simulation challenge too. It's good to be driven, obviously, but she kinda overdoes it sometimes, ya know?"
*** In the movie lot ***
Trevor whistled happily to himself, tossing a Chris Head up and catching it over and over, eventually tucking it away in the bag as he walked away from the Gilded Joystick stage. As he turned a corner, he came face to face with Jacque and Ellie as they had just approached the area. Trevor gave them a cheeky grin and nod.
"Sorry, folks, if you were coming here to check for Chris Heads I already gave the area a once over." He shook his bag to show his point, a few Chris heads clanking around inside. "Too slow, I guess."
Rolling his eyes, Jacque just walked by while Ellie stuck beside him, giving Trevor a cautious look. "Right, because we should totally take your word for that. Plus it's fairly possible you may have overlooked something."
Shrugging, Trevor walked off. "Suit yourself, more time wasted by you means a better chance for my team. Laters." He gave a bit of a casual hand wave, walking off elsewhere. Ellie joined Jacque on the stage, inspecting the curtains while Jacque checked the podium.
"Something about him makes me uncomfortable, but I can't quite place it," Ellie said quietly, not wanting to be rude but feeling she needed to get that off her chance.
"Probably because that all black everything makes him seem like a creep," Jacque added. "At the very least, it doesn't do him any favors. He doesn't ACT gothic so I don't know why he dresses like it."
"I guess we all need a favorite color," Ellie suggested, moving to the bleachers to search. "Or lack of color, in this case."
As Jacque began moving over to one of the gilded joysticks, he noticed a squeak coming from a loose floorboard on the stage. Curious, he knelt down and checked the floorboard, finding out it could be moved away. After doing so, he discovered a Chris Head underneath. "Ha! Waste of time my butt."
Meanwhile in another portion of the lot, Kyle was having more trouble with the Chris Head he had found. It sat at the top of a fire escape, but unfortunately for him the ladder leading up to it was too far off the ground to use. He jumped and jumped, trying in vain to reach the ladder to pull it down, but to no avail.
"Curses." He grit his teeth. "Looks like groups WOULD have been a good idea. Imbeciles." Looking around for something to help him up, he noticed as two interns were driving a forklift to who knows where. Seeing his chance, the rich kid jogged over.
"Excuse me, you're servants for Chris, correct?" he asked the two interns, getting confused expressions in response. "Might I commandeer your forklift for the time being to assist me in this challenge?"
"Sorry, dude, helping contestants goes against our contract," a chubby male intern wearing glasses answered.
"Plus they need this forklift at building 13-C to help with the next challenge's construction," the other intern, a lanky female, added.
Kyle frowned, looking back at the ladder and knowing damn well there was no way he could get up to that ladder on his own. Then suddenly, an idea. Reaching into his pants, Kyle whipped out his big, thick wallet, and pulled two crisp hundred dollar bills out of it. "If that's the case, how about I RENT the assistance instead?"
The two interns blinked, exchanging a look, pondering what to do.
*** Confessional: Kyle ***
"It's as my father used to tell me," he said proudly, arms folded and smug grin. "There are few problems in this world that can not be solved with money."
*** In the movie lot ***
"Come back here, ya dumb feather-brain," Lincoln called as he ran after a crow that was gripping a Chris Head in its talons. The bird and boy happened to run past Riley and Iris, the former who watched the chase in amusement while the later had yelped and jumped back when they had passed. Riley noticed the reaction, raising an eyebrow.
"You alright, Iris?"
The jitterbug gulped, taking a breath to calm herself before nodding. "Y-yeah, they just startled me is all. I've been told I'm easily spooked before." She chuckled awkwardly. "Is it obvious?"
Riley chuckled back, patting her friend on the shoulder. "Let's just say I'm really worried for your mental state whenever we reach the horror genre episode." Iris' eyes went wide and she began to shiver. "But don't worry! I'm gonna be there for ya whenever that challenge comes. We'll kick its butt no problem."
"If you say so..." Still off put at the idea of a horror challenge, Iris chose to just focus on the challenge at hand for the time being. After a bit of scanning, she noticed the entrance to a ventilation system at the bottom of one of the buildings. Thinking the vent grate seemed to be oddly loose, she raised an eyebrow and approached the scene. "Hey, I think I might have found something."
Riley joined her, tugging lightly on the grate and making it fall off with ease. The gamer girl stuck her head and arm into the vent, and when she came out she was now holding a Chris Head. "Score! Way to find those sick Easter eggs, Iris!"
Flustered, Iris just replied with more awkward chuckling dismissively, the two continuing their search. Elsewhere, Rowan and Ryan were standing under a tree, looking up in frustration as the could see a Chris Head perched on a high up branch.
"I could give you a boost up," Ryan offered, getting a glare from his ally for his efforts. "What? You can't expect me to climb up there, I could get splinters all over my beautiful body."
"And it's ok if it happens to ME instead?" Rowan snapped, moving her glare to the high up collectible. "Just... let me think for a minute. Thee's gotta be an easy way for us to-"
"Hey guys!" The two looked to the side to see the sudden source of the voice. Rowan's expression continued to sour once she could see that it was Billy, jogging over to join them. One under the tree, he could see the Chris Head they had been debating over. Unaware of the stink eye he was getting, Billy simply grinned. "Hey, sweet find! Here, lemme help you guys with that."
Picking up a nearby pebble, Billy sat down his bag and held the pebble as if he was a pitcher holding a baseball. Getting a read on the wind, he took a breath and lined up his shot before chucking the pebble straight at the Chris Head. The rock hit its mark and the collectible came down, Ryan catching it before it hit the ground. "Thanks!" The model nodded to his teammate.
"Anytime," Billy replied, tipping his cap at the two before jogging off elsewhere. "Good luck out there!"
As Ryan tucked away the Chris Head, he jumped back a bit when Rowan gave off a loud groan. "Ugh, he is the WORST. He is so eliminated if we don't win today."
"For... helping us?" Ryan asked, confused and scratching his head.
"No." Rowan huffed, flipping her hair and ignoring the part about how Billy HAD helped. "Because he's just so sickeningly nice. You know how this game goes, if you underestimate the nice ones, they win the game anytime. Plus it never hurts to get rid of a physical threat early."
"But, wouldn't it be better to do that AFTER the merge since he comes in handy for the team?"
"You ask too many questions, Ryan," Rowan grumbled, tugging him along in the opposite direction Billy had gone. "Come on, let's keep looking."
*** Confessional: Ryan ***
"Look, I'm fine voting how Rowan wants to vote, anyone else being eliminated instead of me is good in my books. All I'm saying is MAYBE we don't need to be so quick to eliminate Billy. I feel like getting rid of him sooner rather than later could hurt us." Eventually he shrugged. "Oh well, she's calling the shots, I guess. As long as me, her, and Garrett are here, I guess it's fine."
*** In the movie lot ***
A montage followed of everyone running around and retrieving collectibles. Andrea had gone diving in a small lake made for a set, nodding in satisfaction when she found a Chris Head wearing a tiny pair of goggles underneath the water. Morella popped her head out of a dumpster, attempting to hand a grimy Chris Head that had been hidden within to a reluctant Annara. Alice had found a small, recent made shallow grave that when dug up provided a Chris Head. Garrett had decided to circle back around and check the food tent, grinning when he found a Chris Head hidden underneath a pile of dirty dishes. Eventually enough time had passed and everyone had made their way back to the food tent entrance where Chris was waiting, with one notable exception.
"Where in the heck is Kyle?" Xilier asked, looking around and seeing no sign of the rich kid. "Did he get lost?"
"I mean, I doubt that his haul will make much of a difference for us, assuming he even found any," Zane added. "But if he wants to give a reason to be the next elimination then I guess that's his problem."
"I've been informed that he is indeed on his way," Chris cut in, grinning at the players. "So we'll save your team for last. Blue Bombers, empty the contents of your bags and let's see how many you got."
Nodding, the members of the Blue Bombers stepped forward, their bags showing varying amounts of thickness. Trevor's seemed to be the most full, but everyone seemed to have at least a few. The dumped the Chris Heads on to the ground in a pile. Izzy, who had been there the whole time, quickly looked over the pile and smiled. "21 Chris Heads!"
"Not too shabby," Chris replied, narrowing his eyes. "But something tells me it won't be enough. How about it, Yellow Ghosts?"
"I'm thinking you're right," Lance answered, stepping forward with the rest of his team as they dumped out their own pile. Izzy did a quick look over once again and whistled.
"36 Chris Heads!"
Chris laughed, watching various looks of dejection befall the members of the Blue Bombers. "Welp, looks like the Bombers are definitely booting someone tonight. Red Mushrooms, shall you be joining them once again?"
The various members of the Red Mushrooms looked around at each other's bags, quickly realizing that the combined contents within wouldn't even touch the previous score. Disappointed, they poured out their pile and Izzy confirmed the results. "15! We got ourselves a winner!"
The members of the Yellow Ghosts jumped up and cheered, exchanging high fives while the Red Mushrooms just seemed done with everything at this point. "Indeed we do," Chris added. "And that winning team is-"
"WAIT!"
Suddenly, everyone looked off into the distance with various degrees of shock. It was Kyle, riding atop a forklift being driven by the same two interns from earlier. Over his shoulder was a hefty back that appeared filled to the brim. Once he was finally at the area, the interns lowered Kyle down and he struggled to move the bag over to his team.
"For small wooden heads they are deceptively heavy," he commented, casually pouring out his haul into his team's pile. He had by far brought back the highest amount of collectibles from any team. Izzy counted them as they fell from the bag, nodding when it was finished.
"Well, with his 28 Chris Heads, that brings their total to... 43!"
Gasps were exchanged among everyone. Even Chris was taken back, looking at Kyle in disbelief. "You found more than everyone on the Blue Bombers combined! Dude... how?"
"Money talks, McLean. Money talks." He folded his arms, giving a smile and wink to the interns on the forklift next to him. "After a few hundred dollars to each, your interns were so kind as to let me not only borrow their forklift, but also consult the tapes to know what locations the heads were in."
"That's goes against your contracts," Chris barked at his interns, both of whom seemed uninterested as they counted their wad of money. "It's against the rules."
"Perhaps for them, but I don't recall you giving myself a rule saying that I couldn't buy help from the interns," Kyle pointed out. "Therefore I did nothing wrong."
Gritting his teeth, Chris sighed and rubbed between his eyes. "Yeah, you do have a point. I'm not happy about this, but I do admire your tenacity. But you two." Chris pointed at the two interns. "Are SO fired."
The two exchanged a look before both shrugging and backing out of the scene on the forklift. "Eh, good riddance, it was more money than we were ever going to make keeping this job all season," the female intern pointed out before they were gone. As they left, Alice had snuck up next to the host.
"So..." Alice looked up. "Does that mean?"
"Yes." Chris sighed. "Your winners for this challenge, surprisingly, are the Red Mushrooms."
It took the members of the team a second to register that. But once the realization hit, they all erupted into cheers. Finally, the elimination streak was broken. They would NOT become the new Team Victory for now. Without warning, they hoisted Kyle up on to their shoulders and paraded him away from the scene.
"W-wait, put me down you plebeians, I detest heights," he scolded his teammates, Chris now turning his attention back to the other teams. The members of the Yellow Ghosts were dumbfounded, unaware of how to comprehend going from challenge winners to losers so quickly.
"Welp, the Red Mushrooms aren't sending someone home, finally," Chris continued. "So that means both of these teams will be doing it! I can't wait to see who you kids want gone."
Laughing to himself, Chris turned and walked off, leaving the members of the Bombers and Ghosts to marinate in their failure.
*** Confessional: Lance ***
"Ok, no, HOW is this fair exactly?" He glared at the camera, arms folded. "We had the challenge won and Kyle gets to just buy his way to the win? Where the hell is the logic in that? If I'd have known we could just payoff someone to find out the locations, me or Jacque would have just stolen McLean's wallet and done that with his money."
*** Outside confessional ***
As Lance stepped out of the confessional trailer, the aforementioned Jacque was waiting for him, leaning his back against the wall and looking disgruntled. "So... what's the plan? I'm trying to think of who the biggest liability the team has, but I'm drawing blanks here."
"Yeah, I don't know, man." Lance sighed, thinking over the options. "No one really beefed it in particular today so we don't have an obvious scapegoat."
"Hm." Jacque rubbed his chin, staring off in thought. "How about John? I can't even understand half the things he says sometimes anyway since he's always talking about that anime crap, and he hasn't been particularly great in challenges."
Lance shook his head. "True, but he IS always hanging around Deborah lately. She still hasn't answered my offer to form an alliance from a while back, so if she ends up accepting we could get John on board as a bonus vote."
Jacque quirked an eyebrow, wanting to point out how this was the first he was hearing of Lance's alliance offer to Deborah, but said nothing else about it. "Alright, well that doesn't leave us with much to work with. Morella, Clara, Annara-"
"Someone call for me?" The two stopped, turning to see Annara coming around the corner of the confessional trailer, smiling sweetly. "I was just coming to give a confessional and thought I heard my name."
The two boys blinked, not really sure how to respond to the situation. Thinking quick, Lance chuckled and put an arm around his ally. "Oh, haha, yeah. Jacque here was just telling me about who all on the cast he thinks is cute."
"Dude!" Jacque elbowed the thief in the side. Looking over at Annara, she seemed taken back, blushing. "Ignore him, he's just being a jerk."
Trying to keep the bit going, Lance smirked and shook his head, motioning at Jacque and then giving Annara a wink. Annara blushed harder, stumbling to open the confessional trailer door. "O-ok, well, um, sorry for interrupting you guys. I'll just be... on my way now!" She quickly shut the door behind her, allowing the duo to breathe a sigh of relief and move back towards the trailer.
"Seriously, THAT was the cover you came up with?"
Lance shrugged in indifference. "It was the best thing that came to mind. More importantly, though... do you think she heard anything else before that?"
Jacque came screeching to a stop. He glanced back at the trailer, eyes narrowed. "I don't know. She didn't seem too suspicious, but she might have been putting on a front."
The two exchanged a knowing look, picking up the pace as they returned to their trailer. Meanwhile near the food tent, Garret was stomping his foot down, trying his best not to raise his voice.
"Hell no we shouldn't eliminate Billy, are you crazy?" He glared at Rowan, who gave him a stink eye back for his troubles. "He's been one of the most useful people on this team. Shoot, I'm pretty sure he found more Heads today by himself than anyone else. More than you two found for sure."
"And just what is THAT supposed to mean?" Rowan stepped towards Garrett, Ryan feeling the need to preemptively get between the two to prevent a scene. "Just who's side are you on?"
Garret clenched his fists, needing to take a deep breath to calm himself down. "Look, I AM with you guys. All I'm saying is that it doesn't make sense to eliminate someone that pulls their weight for the team like he does when there's better candidates. Like what about Iris? I don't think she's really done much of anything other than hang around Riley. I'm pretty sure Billy doesn't even have an alliance."
"Well he pissed me off by associating with that dumb prankster kid," Rowan said back, seeing her ally roll his eyes in response for the weak reasoning. "But most importantly, not only is he a physical threat, he's also way too nice. He might not be in an alliance NOW but people will sure want him to be sooner rather than later. We need to strike now while we can."
"Or we could, you know, target the person who very obviously IS in an alliance that does less," Garret shot back.
With a huff, Rowan turned around and walked off. "I know what I'm doing, Garrett. I'm going to go ask Lexi to get her on board with the vote. If you really ARE with us, then you'll vote for Billy."
His mood soured once again, Garret gave a frustrated yell, pointing at Rowan while he faced Ryan. "Just who does she think she is trying to act like the boss of us like that? It makes no sense."
Ryan shrugged, stepping away from his ally. "Well, I do think she has a point. I don't want to have to deal with Billy in the merge. I'd rather get rid of him now and be done with it. I don't think we really have to worry about dealing with Iris."
The exhibitionist also walked off towards the direction Rowan had went, leaving Garrett to stare on in dumbfounded confusion.
*** Confessional: Garrett ***
"Am I really the only one with any sense on this alliance? I mean, really?"
*** Near the Gilded Joystick ceremony ***
Both teams reluctantly made their way towards the stage, varying looks of frustration and nervousness among them. Garret frowned, hands buried in his pockets as he lingered near the back. Suddenly, Billy crept back to where he was, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Psst, Garret."
"What?" Garrett whispered back, not wanting to face Billy with him knowing how the votes would fall.
"So like, I know you said to keep things on the down low over the whole Rowan alliance thing, but considering how we're up for elimination I decided to go tell Iris and Riley to vote for her." He looked forward at the girls. "I figured they seemed pretty cool, don't think they're the types Rowan would get roped in, so between them and us that's probably enough to vote off Rowan!"
Garrett sucked in a breath, clenching his fists as he felt conflicting emotions on how to respond. "Dude, I don't-"
"Elimination time, players!" Chris cut the conversation off, the group having arrived to the eager, waiting host. "I love me a good double elimination. Yellow Ghosts, since it's been so long since we last saw you here, how about you join us first?"
Disappointed and angry, the ten teens filed into the bleachers, retrieving the voting device from beneath their seats. Lance and Jacque exchanged a side eye, before each giving a nod to Kusa and Ellie respectively. The others all seemed none the wiser, all looking fairly nervous that they be the ones getting the boot. Upon Chris' command, everyone placed their votes before putting back the voting devices.
"Interesting. VERY interesting." Chris read over the results, chuckling to himself as Chef handed him the plate of gilded joysticks. "Well, you guys should remember the drill. When I call your name, you get a joystick. The one who DOESN'T get one of these gets to meet the bad end of our sling shot. The joysticks go to... Caleb!"
The homeschooler pumped his fist victoriously. "Clara!" The wannabe bride squealed in excitement, exchanging a high five with Caleb. "Deborah, Jacque, Ellie." Everyone continued to be thrown their joysticks with varying reactions of relief. "Kusa, John, and... Lance."
After Lance had caught his symbol of immunity, it had dawned on Annara and Morella that they were the remaining two. Both gasped, exchanging nervous looks between each other and the final joystick Chris held. "Fitting, you both were paired up today, and now you get to be paired up in the bottom two." He laughed, just succeeding in making the girls all the more nervous. Annara broke out into a sweat while Morella began shaking.
"The final joystick goes to... Morella."
Gasping in relief, the joystick landed with a thud in the girl's hand. Annara's jaw dropped, stammering to find the proper words. "B-but why? I didn't even do anything wrong."
Trying to think back over the events of the day to figure out why she had been targeted, she suddenly remembered the odd encounter with Lance and Jacque. "Wait a minute..." Just as she began to turn and face the two sketchy lads, Chef came in to drag her off towards the slingshot.
"Yes, yes, we're very sad to see you go, yadda yadda yadda," Chris said halfheartedly, waving her away dismissively. "But we have another elimination to go through, so adios!"
"But wait, I have something to sa-" Cut off by Chef placing her into the Sling of Shame, Annara's sentence trailed off into the night as she flew far away from the movie lot. The job done, the Yellow Ghosts left the bleachers, allowing the Blue Bombers to take their place.
"And now for round two!" Chris grinned, looking over the team. "Which one of you wants to join Annara on the slingshot express? I for one, am eager to find out. Get to voting, losers!"
The beeps and boops of the players voting on the devices filled the bleachers. Some seemed nervous, Billy and Rowan looked determined, and Garrett gave an annoyed guilty sigh as he tucked away his device. When the voting was done, Chef handed the results to the host.
"Interesting." Chris chuckled to himself, preparing the tray of gilded joysticks. "VERY interesting. Looks like we had a close one. Let's get down to it, then. Joysticks go to... Aden. Garrett. Trevor. Ryan."
The four dudes caught their immunity symbols, Aden looking relieved and the others not phased.
"Riley, Lexi, and... Iris!" The former two both gave little whoops of excitement while Iris took a big sigh of relief. Billy and Rowan locked eyes, the former frowning and the later sending a glare back his way.
"Well, well, well. Back in the bottom two again, Rowan?" Chris laughed. "Trying to give Kyle a run for his money?"
She snarled, but didn't stop glaring at Billy.
"And Billy! Wasn't your buddy Rowley up here last time? Are you trying to follow in his footsteps?"
Billy rolled his eyes, but continued to stare down Rowan.
"Welp, regardless, only one of you kids can be safe and avoid a trip on the Slingshot Express. And that person is...
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... Rowan!"
Giving a smug, satisfied "Hmph," Rowan gladly caught the final joystick, Billy sinking into his seat in defeat.
"Well Billy, looks like that's three strikes." Pretending to be an umpire, Chris pointed at the Sling of Shame dramatically. "Yeeeeeeer outta here."
Sighing in disappointment, Billy took the time to say goodbye to any of his teammates that were sticking around to see him off. Once the others were gone. The last to approach him was Garrett.
"Look, man, I'm sorry. I-"
"No need to apologize," Billy cut him off, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I already know."
"You do?" Garrett raised an eyebrow.
Billy nodded, looking off to the side. "Yup. It had to be Aden."
"... Aden?" Garrett asked, even more confused.
"Yeah. I knew Rowan could probably have Ryan, Lexi, and Trevor on her side, but I was hoping Aden wouldn't be the same." He shook his head in disappointment. "Guess I was wrong. And five votes beats four, we were doomed from the beginning."
Garrett blinked, pondering if he should tell Billy the truth or not. Ultimately he decided it would be adding insult to injury, so he let it be. "Well, for what it's worth I truly don't think you deserved to be eliminated."
"Thanks, man!" Billy was finally getting dragged off by Chef towards the Sling of Shame. "Good luck out there."
Arms folded, Garrett watched as Billy was shot off into the sky, his yell becoming distant. He looked to the side at his teammates walking away, stopping on Rowan walking with Ryan. Rolling his eyes, he sighed in disappointment. "Tch. What a waste of an elimination."
Slumping off to join his team, Chris stepped into frame with his trademark smile. "Looks like Garrett isn't too happy with the elimination! How will this affect the Beautiful People's Alliance? Can the Red Mushrooms continue riding this newfound momentum? And just who will be next to join Annara and Billy in Loserville? All of that and more, next time on TOTAL... DRAMA... LEVEL UP!"
Votes:
Annara: Lance, Jacque, Kusa, Ellie
Jacque: Deborah, John
John: Annara, Morella
Morella: Caleb, Clara
Billy: Rowan, Ryan, Garrett, Trevor, Aden, Lexi
Rowan: Billy, Iris, Riley
Remaining Contestants:
Red Mushrooms: (Andrea, Zane, Alice), (Lukas, Xilier, Lincoln), Kyle
Blue Bombers: (Rowan, Ryan, Garrett), (Trevor, Aden, Lexi), (Riley, Iris)
Yellow Ghosts: (Lance, Kusa) (Jacque, Ellie), Caleb, Clara, Deborah, John, Morella
25th: Billy
26th: Annara
27th: Lee Lee
28th: Rowley
29th: Taylor
30th: Mandy
31st: Liam
32nd: Piper
33rd: Nathan
Author's Note:
And like a phoenix rising from the ashes, the story returns from the dead once again. I'ma keep it real with you, chiefs. For quite sometime I was hovering on the thought of just taking the easy way out, holding the L, and canceling the story, just doing a quick "closure" chapter that explained how the remaining events would have played out. After all, I have other things I want to write, and there really isn't much of an audience for an SYOC fic, especially one where I've gone so long without an update. But then I remembered how infamous these types of stories are for going unfinished. Like shit, a solid 75 percent of the stories in this fandom are SYOC fics it seems, and maybe like what, a fifth of those get completed? If that? I want to try and put in the effort. I do enjoy writing these characters. I like the storylines I have planned. Even if maybe five people are reading this max at this point, I'll try to push through. I think it should get really easy once the merge comes.
On that note, let's talk about this chapter. So in the past I've made it a point to give every character at least some sort of line or scene to try and spread the love. But the result was a lot of characters not making an impact with those sparse moments and people only really taking notice of big players like Andrea or Lance. So since I feel like I've decently shown pretty much everyone on the Red Mushrooms, while members of the other two teams have struggled finding their identity, I kind of put the Red Mushrooms on the back-burner this chapter. Knowing that they weren't going to eliminate someone, I kept it to mostly just Kyle, who needed exposure due to him winning the challenge for his team, and Lukas, who needed to appear for one of Garrett's scenes. Trevor was also mostly benched this chapter for similar reasons. I think Garrett was the focal point of the chapter for the most part, seeing his conflicted feelings on eliminating Billy, and thus showing disgruntlement with his alliance. I also enjoyed the moment with John and Deborah, and I'm trying to make Deborah more fit her stereotype now. Hopefully the scenes with our less developed characters helped them show their identity a bit more.
So Annara and Billy. Most people assumed Billy's time was up, and Annara likely isn't much more surprising. Neither really did anything to particularly warrant their early eliminations other than me just not having any long term plans for either. Billy's elimination was easy, but for Annara I kind of had to make a reasoning for her elimination on the spot. I ultimately decided on the Lance and Jacque scene where they booted her on the chance that she might have overheard their scheming. For the record she didn't hear them, it was the wrong place at the wrong time, but that was enough to seal her fate. Our thieves couldn't leave any potential loose ends.
So before I sign off there's a big thing I wanna touch on. That big thing being the fact that I recently suffered an accidental purge of a lot of my documents. You know how this website's doc manager has a 90 day expiration for documents? Well stupid me, I forgot to update most of my docs within a timeframe, and I lost a fair amount of stuff. Now thankfully most of it was old stuff I didn't really need anymore, and my main doc with a lot of my planning and such for future stories was still safe (and I've since saved it to a more secure backup that won't expire). But one important doc I DID lose? The planning doc for this story. This... was a big factor in what almost made me quit the story and call it a loss. I had both the elimination order and genre lineup planned out how I wanted it. I've now had to go back and re-do the elimination order, and while it should be very close to what it was, there's at least one elimination I know was going to be post-merge originally, but when trying to redo the order, I couldn't fit it anywhere else other than pre-merge. I honestly don't remember how my original version of the order was supposed to be. I know I have everything for this portion of the story still the same, and all the main important post-merge spots are the same, but it's still a bummer to lose my original plan. But the big thing that burned me was losing the genre/challenge and cameos order. It took me a bit to plan that out and I honestly can't begin to remember most of it. A few notable genres that HAVE to take place at certain chapters such as Horror, Fighting, and Shooters I remembered exactly, along with their cameos, but all of the blanks are having me at a loss. And that includes the next episode, lol. So I've done my best to make a new list of genres, and I'll decide on cameos as I go.
On that note, the next episode's genre? Stealth games! Not sure if the plan was originally for it to be Stealth, but it is now. So for those of you still with me, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I hope you look forward to the next.