"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated, his tone returning to its usual upbeat demeanor. "We touched down in Istanbul for a multi-team heist with twice the stakes on the line. That's right, double elimination! Each team had their own drama to deal with, be it the lack of trust with Team Explosive, half of Team Old School hatching a plan to prevent a tie, or Scott hankering for a chance to clear the air with Courtney. That last one wound up being costly, because our former villains turned hot and cold couple found themselves captured. Along the way they did rekindle their romance, but at the cost of losing their teams the challenge. Hope it was worth it!"

"Thanks to that, Scott AND Courtney got voted off, because Ms. CIT's own ally didn't follow their plan and prevented even a tie from potentially saving her. Way to go, Beth, I'm sure that won't come back to bite you." He chuckled mischievously, the perspective switching to him and Chef in the cockpit. "15 contestants remain airborne. Can Team Radioactive overcome their numbers disadvantage? Are DJ and Beth screwed now that Courtney's gone? Will Amy and Samey repair their relationship and become loving sisters? Kinda doubt that last one. But tune in to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Intro Credits ***

Following the double elimination ceremony, things started immediately in economy class where an air of awkwardness filled the area. On one side we had a grumpy Lightning and flustered Dawn, with Brick and Anne Maria just chilling in the meanwhile. On the other side Leshawna was gossiping with the Drama Bros duo about what just went down with Scott and Courtney. But on that note, DJ was staring at Beth with the biggest confused look he could manage.

Eventually the stare of judgement was too much for the wannabe to handle and she scooted close to DJ so she could whisper without being heard by anyone else. "Come on, DJ, I'd expect a look like that from someone like Courtney, but you?"

"You can't blame me for being confused, girl," DJ mumbled back, his tone stern but still trying to sound understanding. "Can't you tell me what happened?"

"I messed up, ok?" Beth sunk her face into her hands and groaned. "I really really REALLY didn't want to vote for Leshawna, and since I thought I convinced her to change her vote I thought it'd just force a tiebreaker instead."

The gentle giant furrowed his brow. "But if you HAD got her to switch votes, then we would have been able to keep Courtney here for sure."

A finger went up like Beth was about to retort but nothing came out. Any response she could give either didn't make sense or likely wasn't good enough to explain why she'd make such a poor game move. The judging look from the gentle giant became too much and eventually she sighed. "Ok, you're right, I messed up! I just really didn't want to be the reason Leshawna went home, you know?"

Beth looked out the jet window deep in thought. "It feels like people don't take me seriously in this season, it's like I may as well not even be here! But she really helped cheer me up and made it feel like I DO belong here. I don't know, I guess I just thought it would work out even if I didn't fully go along with the plan."

DJ listened to the defense carefully, visualizing himself in Beth's shoes and truly trying to see where she was coming from. He could see her point, some reassurance like that when you're down on yourself must be nice. He was all too familiar with getting labels like that following his poor performances in TDA and TDWT. But even then...

"Look, I get it. It really sucks having to vote nice people off, especially when they help you out like that. But this ain't our first rodeo, Beth. We should know by now that to win this thing sometimes you just gotta vote those people out. You wanna win, right? That means Leshawna has to get voted off at some point. I don't think she's the kind to take a pure game move personally."

The wannabe seemed almost aghast at DJ making actual game talk. He almost even sounded like the fallen CIT! "Courtney was right, at this point we're not in a great spot. Now that she's gone, right now if we lose again it's gonna be either you or me. If we wanna prevent that we either have to keep winning or figure out a way to convince one of the others not to work together. We wouldn't have that worry if she was still here. See what I mean?"

Once again, Beth had no proper comeback. Instead she merely hung her head. "You're right. I'm really sorry, DJ, I messed things up for us big time."

"Don't beat yourself up about it. It was a bad move but we're not out of the game yet." DJ placed his hand on her shoulder reassuringly, trying to lift the mood with a smile. "We'll just figure something out. We've got to."

*** Confessional: DJ ***

"A'ight, look, I know what some of you are probably thinking. Since when in the heck has DJ been the type to think about this game strategically? He's just supposed to be the boring nice guy that stands to the side!" He folded his arms and glared in determination. "Well darn it, this is my fourth season on this show and I don't wanna be that guy anymore! I don't know, I guess knowing I could go next if we lose again is lighting a fire under my butt. Maybe it's knowing how preventable it was to at least make it a tie instead for Courtney Whatever it is, I don't want to go home with a whimper again! Beth's the only ally I have right now, time to start putting in work and figuring out how I change that."

*** End Confessional ***

Elsewhere in the jet was first class. Occupied once again by Team Explosive for what must have felt like the 20th time this season. Good times for them, not so much for the rest of the cast. And yet, somehow not everyone in the winner's cabin could just sit back and enjoy themselves. Jasmine's leg was twitching at record speeds, to the point where it was even keeping Sammy awake next to her.

"I don't remember you being this on edge after our wins last season."

The Aussie looked down at her friend, only then noticing her frantic movements and calming herself. "Sorry. I hate that we can survive a bloody double elimination and I still don't feel like I can relax."

Sighing, the nice twin glanced off towards her sister. "Yeah, for real. Part of me just kinda wanted to get this dumb tie breaker over with. I'm ready to get Amy out of here myself and the sooner the better... but it would be pretty dumb for us to not try and win challenges, right?"

"Shawn would think I've lost my marbles if he knew I so much as humored the thought. Ugh, if only that drongo Rodney would have just took the hint and not taken the fall for her. Then she'd be long gone and we wouldn't keep having this conversation." Was she changing the topic slightly to escape the shame of the throwing a challenge idea entering her mind? Who knows. "Remind me to give him a walloping next time we see him."

"Hopefully that won't be until after the two of us are done with the finale." Sammy smiled at the thought. "Either way, we shouldn't let this stress us out. Trust me, I have more than enough experience letting Amy ruin my days, we should just keep our minds on something else so we don't give her the satisfaction."

Now it was Jasmine's turn to smirk. "Easy for you to say, mate. You still have your boyfriend in the game, mine's been eliminated. If you weren't here I'd probably be going kooky."

Somehow she saw that kind of comment coming, and even then Sammy still couldn't hold back a slight blush. "Pssh, we've just been having friendly talks, that's all. Cody isn't anything like that with me."

The Aussie leaned forward and jabbed her friend with her elbow. "Yet."

"... Yet."

While the friends giggled and Jasmine grilled Samey for more gossip on the budding relationship, the camera panned over to show the rest of the team. Beardo and Dave were in their own seats isolated from the rest of the team, the former snoozing and the later getting some grub at the snack bar. But on the opposite end of the room was Amy, leering over at her sister with an unimpressed scowl.

"What's got Sparemy feeling so happy all of a sudden?"

"Well we did win for like the millionth time," Sugar suggested, poking her head through the seats behind Amy and giving the cheerleader a startle. "You couldn't get this kinda pampering back on the island! ... or maybe they're all chatty about that pathetic wimpy boy your sister's been getting flirty with."

It took all the strength Amy could muster to prevent herself from throwing up at the mental image. "Oh my barf! You're telling me my sister has been flirting with... DAVE?!"

The pageant girl just gave her ally a blank look, followed by laughter. But then she noticed her expression wasn't changing. "No, darn it, she's been flirting with that Cody twig from the other team. You really ain't noticed it yet?"

Amy rolled her eyes and leaned back, digesting that info. "You think I willingly pay attention to what my less interesting sister does in her spare time? I'd rather literally die."

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"OMG, she can NOT be serious with this. I mean really, Cody? She had to pick a nerd out of everyone here?" She huffed and folded her arms. "I mean, I guess only a desperate dork would actually show any interest in her, but still. It's like she's trying to give ME a bad name by association . I know she only got on the squad because she's in my shadow, but she's still a cheerleader. Cheerleaders don't date ugly people! Ugh, guess I need to show her how it's done so people don't think bad taste runs in the family. Hopefully one of the other teams has a decent enough guy, Dave and Beard Guy aren't gonna cut it."

*** End Confessional ***

What better time than breakfast for Amy to survey her options? It was the next day and she stood near the back of the eating area, paying little attention to the gruel on her tray and more focused on what boys she had to pick from. With Cody written off, that left only four options remaining. But honestly? She could work with this. Brick was probably at the bottom of her preference list, but she made a mental note that the guy was giving off bottom energy as it was anyway. At least he was kinda cute in a messy kind of way.

DJ was easy on the eyes, but she noticed that he was talking a lot to some ugly nerd girl on his team. Were they a thing? Perhaps not, but if he was the type to willingly hang out with nerds then that would just defeat the purpose of showing up her sister's taste in those types. DJ having the baggage of bad taste in friends could be a deal breaker.

Which means Trent and Lightning were left. Hmm, the hunky musician was tempting. Especially with the whole being famous thing and all. Amy could see the social media hits on their selfies rolling in now. But ugh, same problem as DJ. There he was chatting up Samey's gross boyfriend. What's it with these people and taking pity on the less attractive? Was this some sort of charity work? Whatever the case, the fame factor at least kept him more viable than DJ. But for now? That narrowed things down to one last prime target...

"Alright, soldiers, obviously losing Scott had put us at a disadvantage as the team with the least amount of cadets remaining," Brick monologued to his team's table, Dawn listening patiently while Lightning and Anne Maria seemed unamused. "But I remain optimistic that the four of us can become a well oiled machine going forward! As such, I think it'd be a good idea to map out a plan so-"

Apparently that last talking point got a raise out of Lightning, who loudly snorted and shook his head. "Plan? Lightning don't need no damn plan. The only plan we should have is let Lightning do what he does best and everyone else stay outta his way! Y'all can just sha-ride my jersey tails once I'm done doing the work for us."

Brick blinked in confusion. "Uh, you mean coattails?"

"Lightning said what he said!" The jock huffed and took an aggressive sip of water.

"Come now, Lightning, I know you're upset about the last challenge but you shouldn't take it out on us," Dawn piped in. "We all made a good effort, it was Scott's slip up that forced a loss. And he's gone now, so-"

"So nothing! Lightning don't care about 'good efforts,' he wants WINNING efforts." Another huff followed by an angry spoon full of cereal. "It don't sit right with me that y'all are fine just settling for good. If you ain't trying to win, you ain't on the same page as Lightning. If you ain't first, you may as well be last!"

"So true, bestie," said Amy. Wait. Amy? Sure enough, the mean twin suddenly appeared and sat down next to Lightning. "Like ugh, what kind of losers wouldn't want to enjoy first class, am I right?"

Anne Maria narrowed her eyes at the cheerleader. "You get lost on the way to your table, blondie? Or did they get so fed up with ya that they kicked you out?"

Amy leered back, but was restraining herself enough so as to not make a scene. For now at least. "Um, no? They're just all super lame, I'm tired of spending more time with them than I have to. This table just seemed more... appealing."

She scooted a bit closer to Lightning, getting an eyebrow raise from Brick. Dawn meanwhile had just been staring her straight in the eyes the entire time. "My goodness, your aura... it's rare to see one so alarmingly black, let alone mixed in with those hues of orange and green. You've been showered with attention from a young age and yet it seems even then that it's not enough for you? What a troubled soul."

Not really knowing how to respond to that, Amy stared back for a moment before trying to brush it all off. "Wait, are you saying I'm just here looking for attention? OMG, you guys have it all wrong. I just wanna , you know, hang out and junk. Especially with you."

For a moment she tried to feel up Lightning's biceps but quick as a flash he jerked himself away and looked down in confusion. "The heck you doing trying to touch The Lightning?"

"Uh... checking out your muscles? Duh."

Wrong answer. Lightning just downed the rest of his food and stood up forcefully. "Un-sha-lievable! Is there some kinda dumb blushy crushy disease going around making people act a fool? First Scott and Courtney, then Dawn apparently goes and starts crushing on someone, now this? What's next, are Brick and Anne Maria gonna start swapping spit outta nowhere?"

His two teammates shared a quick look, both coming to the mutual answer of no without having to exchange words. Dawn meanwhile was flushed and a bit annoyed over being zeroed out. Would people just give her a break already?

"Well it ain't affecting Lightning! No distractions, no time for that crap. I ain't letting nothing get in my way until I got that championship ring secured." His stance vocalized he then stormed off to be anywhere that wasn't here.

"I don't think they give us those if we win," Brick yelled after his teammate, though it went ignored. He then noticed Amy just looking on in shock. "Er, sorry about that, I hope you weren't crushing too hard on him. He seems to be pretty anti-relationship right now, so if you were going to ask him to go steady with you, it's probably barking up the wrong tree."

"Which means save your breath," Anne Maria added, smirking a bit at seeing her so quickly turned down. "It ain't gonna happen."

Amy scoffed and flipped her hair, playing it off like she didn't care. "If I wanted a lesser woman's input I would have just asked my lame-o sister."

Unamused, the Jersey girl glared at her for a silent moment. She then whipped the hairspray bottle out at record speeds and sent Amy to the ground in a coughing fit. Brick and Dawn held their breath and watched in mild amusement while the mean twin got assaulted by the spray cloud.

*** Confessional: Anne Maria ***

"She really thought she did something there, huh?" While touching up her poof, she took the time to also inspect her fingernails. "Better hope she doesn't try to give me any lip again, for both of our sake. I don't need the tan coming off my knuckles after I throttle her."

*** Back on the Jet ***

Since the near death by suffocation scared her away for now, Amy crawled her way back to her own team's table. Against her better judgement, there was a part deep inside Sammy with the tiniest bit of concern for her sister's wellbeing. "You ok?"

"Do I look ok, you idiot?" Now aware that her sibling was nearby, Amy was now' ''accidently''' aiming her coughs towards Sammy. She took the hint and scooched away out of the splash zone. Jasmine just shook her head.

"I'd say it was worth a shot, but well..."

Unamused by all of this, Dave sighed and looked around for their host. "Where's Chris? Isn't it about now when he should come storming out in some borderline racist outfit and tell us where we're going?"

On cue Chris came waltzing into the room, looking annoyed. He was notably just in his regular attire. "Well sue me for having some fun this season! I had a really cool outfit planned this time, but if you guys are gonna be little spoil sports then you don't deserve to see it!"

"Boy, just cut the crap and tell us where we're going already, we don't care," Leshawna called from nearby.

The host glared back at her. "Geez, you kids are raring to go more than usual today. You act like it's been a while since the last time you got to do something. Over a year or something even!"

Chef joined the fray, giving the camera a knowing look, and held up a map of what looked like two big islands with a few much smaller islands between them. "We're gonna be landing in Samoa! We'll be doing things on one of its bigger islands, Upolu. And to make this challenge tick we're gonna be rubbing elbows with a genuine tribal chief from the island. So you maggots better be on your best behavior!"

Cody, realizing he had yet to do anything this episode, perked up at the details. "So, are they gonna like, be judging our challenge performance or something? Maybe guiding us to some crazy location?"

"Well I was gonna give you guys a rundown before we landed," Chris scolded, still looking pouty. "But since you're all so darn antsy to get the challenge started, I guess we'll just take care of that down on land. Chef, if you would?"

Suddenly Chris clung on to Chef's arm with a wicked grin. The larger man sighed but still whipped out a remote with a large red button. One click later and the plane was now flying sideways with the nearby emergency door shot open. One by one the contestants were sent careening into freefall, their screams echoing through the air. Another click and the jet was flying normally again. The host cackled in satisfaction.

"Ha! That's what they get for sassing me!" He stood there. Blinked. Blinked again. Looked around and remembered how high up they were. Then doubt started crawling in and he looked at his partner in mild concern. "We were above water when we did that, right?"

Chef shrugged.

*** Somewhere in Upolu Island ***

Soaking wet and thankfully not dead, the contestants had been corralled to a very safe and not at all stressful location. The top of an over 50m high waterfall. As soon as Chris and Chef joined the scene everyone was on guard for anything that might send them flying over the edge.

"Nice view, eh?" Chris grinned at the contestants. "This here is Fuipisia Falls. We had an abundance of waterfalls to choose from with this joint, but apparently this one's a big hit with the tourists. Believe it or not, we don't actually need you chumps jumping off it for the challenge, but hey, if any of you are so inclined we have cameras ready to catch the wipeout."

Trent and a few others cautiously peered over the edge. It wasn't as if they couldn't handle the drop, the show had well conditioned them for that by now. But he wasn't exactly raring to go for another fall. "Yeah, I think I'm good."

Chris shrugged. "Suit yourself. Chef here is gonna give you guys a rundown of the rules. Pay attention, because the difference in numbers between the teams is gonna give some of you more to think about."

His partner grunted and stepped forward. "Alright, maggots, listen up! The locals here are real big on tradition. They live by Fa'a Samoa, a way of life they've been keeping up for thousands of gosh darn years. Main thing that y'all gotta know is that respect is important to them. Respect your elders, don't be selfish, and know the importance of family."

Dominic Toretto gave a knowing nod. "Ain't nothing stronger than family."

"So today you lot are gonna be working to earn acknowledgment from the Matai, a tribal chief," he continued to explain while the intruder was escorted off the premises. "We're giving y'all four ways to try and do that. First up, tattooing! Tattoos are important to a lot of these Polynesian cultures, impress the big dog with your art skills and you're set. Second, you could try and step up for a game of Kilikiti. You heard of cricket? Well this is the Samoan spin on the game. Do good in it-"

"SPORTS?" Lightning suddenly yelled, damn near salivating at the mere prospect of athletics being an option for him.

"Yes sports, now shut your darn mouth! Hmph. Your third option is performing a traditional Samoan dance. But this ain't yo momma's normal dance, this is the Siva Afi. Aka? A fire knife dance! Try not to cut your limbs off. Or set yourselves on fire. Or both. Finally, you can try and prepare a meal using their traditional hot coals stove method, the umu."

Cody snickered to himself. "Heh, umu. More like uwu."

Next to him was his bandmate glaring. "I don't even know what you're referencing but for some reason I feel like slapping you."

"And here's the kicker," Chef yelled, somehow still not done with the explanation. "You fools gotta have at least one person do ALL of the options. Ain't no taking the easy way out like making everyone just cook or something. You wanna truly earn some respect? Show the chief that your team can do anything the island throws at y'all!"

An unimpressed Amy scoffed. "What makes this chief guy think he's such a big shot anyway? He should be the one begging for MY respect, not the other way ar-"

She cut herself off when suddenly the chief made his presence known, walking past the contestants and sizing them up. Dude was tall, ripped, long black hair, and tribal tattoos running down his arm. Seems Amy liked what she saw, so she promptly shut up.

"You were saying?" Chris taunted, chuckling. "So, since they're down to four that means everyone on Team Radioactive has to tackle one of the options solo. They have less people that need to earn the chief's acknowledgment, but they're going at everything themselves so there's less room for messing up. Meanwhile, Team Old School gets to have one pair on a task, while Team Explosive gets two pairs."

"Huh, so there's upsides and downsides to having more or less people on your team. That's surprisingly balanced coming from you," Beardo noted.

"I know, I impress even myself," Chris boasted, as if it was him who designed the challenge and not an underpaid writer. "Alright, you should know the drill by now for these kinds of challenges. Figure out who's doing what and we'll let you guys watch a demo of your respective task."

One could assume they weren't going to have much time to choose, so each team quickly gathered for a huddle.

"We've gotta make this count since we're all going at it alone," Brick pointed out the obvious for his squad. "Let's think over where each of our strengths lie and from there-"

"Lightning's doing sports."

The athlete wasn't going to budge on the matter, may as well rip that band aid off for the rest of them from the start.

His cadet teammate raised a hand to retort. "But we didn't-"

"Doesn't matter, don't care. Lightning does the sports. It's an easy win, you should be happy about it! I'm the one that's going to be doing all the work."

Dawn sighed and placed a hand on Brick's shoulder. "It's fine, I don't think he'd fare much better with any of the other tasks, this is what he was going to be left doing regardless."

"See? Even Scary Girl agrees!" Lightning flashed his teammate a grin, not noticing her lack of appreciation for the name calling. "And Lightning don't care what the rest of you do, just pick something y'all ain't gonna screw up on."

"Well guess who's already won us a first class ticket through her bomb ass cooking." Anne Maria pointed her thumbs towards herself. "You're looking at her! Umu schmoomoo, this'll just be the same story different place."

The aura reader blinked, thinking the prospect over. She wasn't opposed to cooking herself, but the idea of Anne Maria doing tattooing or knife twirling... "Yes, I think that's for the best as well. Personally, I'd like to think I'm well in tune with my artistic side so I'd quite enjoy trying the tattoo."

"Which would leave me with..." Brick gulped.

"If you're ok with that," Dawn replied. "I think I could manage the knife dance if you wouldn't be comfortable with it."

"No no, I'll do it! It's for the good of the team, after all!" He chuckled nervously. "I'm sure it'll go just fine..."

His teammates all cast worried glances.

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"Well the good news is that we practiced rifle spinning drills fairly often in boot camp. So I'm not going in blind for this sort of thing." Unfortunately he still felt a pit of dread at the bottom of his stomach while looking out the window. "The bad news is that I'd imagine a flaming blade is, well, a fair bit different than twirling around an unloaded gun."

*** At Fuipisia Falls ***

Meanwhile, Team Old School was having a deliberation of their own. Seems they wanted to start with the obvious.

"First thing's first, DJ should do the cooking again. It just feels like a given, right?" Trent looked around at his team. Everyone mumbled in agreement. "But that's kind of the only no brainer for us. Any takers on anything else?"

"I don't really like my chances with the flame dance or cricket game," Cody offered. "You know, injury prone and all that. I'm not the best artist around or anything, but I think I can handle the tattoo. I designed a bunch of our t-shirts after all!"

"No, you sketch the ideas and then we commission an actual professional to make the design itself." Still, it wasn't like Trent expected to do any better with it. Or at least, he didn't like his bandmate's odds doing one of the other choices. "But that's fine. Anyone el-"

"I have fire twirling experience," Beth suddenly pipped up. Finally, a chance for her to show off one of her genuine skills! "I mean yeah, I twirled batons and not knives, but it's still experience!"

"Didn't you almost set Wawanakwa on fire showing us that back in the day?" Leshawna pointed out. "I don't want you going out there and getting yourself cut, and I don't think the chief guy is gonna want you burning the joint up."

Beth blushed a bit but stood her ground. "That was ages ago! I've gotten way better at it over the years, so this should be no problem."

It was then that DJ realized they had a potential opportunity on their hands to help win their teammate over to their side and away from the Drama Brothers. Nothing better to help move things along than bonding over a challenge. "If you're worried for her, you could always join her for the challenge. We gotta double up somewhere, since the knife thing might get complicated it probably helps to have a partner for it to learn with."

Leshawna quirked an eyebrow. "I guess I don't mind, but I was kind of expecting to get down and dirty doing the cricket match. You sure you wanna stick beanpole over here on it?"

Trent scoffed in offense. "What's that supposed to mean, you think I can't do it? I've totally played cricket before, I can handle it no problem."

Huh. Well that worked. Maybe it was the spirit of Courtney trying to implant strategy in the back of his mind, maybe it was his momma calling out to him, perhaps it was even just his gut. But it looks like DJ successfully pulled an idea off. Maybe this whole become strategic thing was gonna work out after all! He shared a smirk with Beth and the perspective switched to our third team.

"You guys sure about this?" Beardo asked his team. "My pizza came up short last time."

"This one ain't about beating the others doing the cooking, it's just about ensuring you get the chief's approval," Jasmine explained. "Your pizza was fine, mate. You'll do fine cooking this time too."

"I ain't never played no grasshopper back on the farm, but it sounds like a hoot!" Sugar chuckled to herself mischievously. "And I reckon it beats some wimpy dancing or boring drawing at least."

Somehow the idea of leaving Sugar to do something she had no experience with wasn't an appealing idea to the Aussie. "Actually I was gonna volunteer for that. I've played the game plenty of times. Maybe not the Samoan version, but it can't be too different."

"What, would you rather have her drawing or flinging knives around?" Dave pointed out. "Why don't you both just do it? We gotta have a few pairs, so..."

Jasmine looked primed to object but Sugar beat her to the draw. "Works for me! So long as I get to do the fun challenge I don't care. But what's our other team gonna be?"

Next to her was Sammy, emotions swirling as she felt conflicted. Gosh this was going to suck, but it's for the good of the team. She'd just have to keep telling herself that. Time to get this over with... "Actually, I was thinking me and Amy could do the fire dance thing together."

The rest of her team, Amy included, seemed taken back by the suggestion. Her meaner twin chuckled. "You really think I WANT to work with you one on one?"

"Believe me, I'd rather team up with literally anyone else," her sister glared back. "But we've worked together on countless cheer routines before. We have the best skills for this kind of challenge and it'll be easier if we're helping each other out."

Obviously her twin wasn't going to be so easily convinced, so Sammy thought quick. "Plus if you have me to upstage, it'll probably impress the hot chief guy twice as much."

Amy's eyes lit up. "Hmm, tempting. I guess it DOES beat drawing on someone's gross back or whatever."

"Totally not helping right now, you guys realize that leaves me with the tattooing by default right?" Dave shuddered. "What if I get some kinda disease being near that needle? Who KNOWS where it's been?"

"You're not the one getting doodled on by it, you'll live." Jasmine didn't expect her wimpier teammate to fare any better with the other tasks, it was the best bet they had for him. Hopefully the choice wouldn't come back to bite them...

Sometime later the groups were each gathered in different little areas to watch what they'd be doing in action. The tribal chief had brought various locals along for demonstration purposes. The twins, Beth, Leshawna, and Brick could watch in shock and awe as talented performers showed off their fire knife twirling skills. For another example, different villagers allowed Dawn, Dave, and Cody to see their tattoos up close and personal before they then got to see one being made in real time on a teenage islander.

"So hypothetically what happens if we get one of these wrong?" Dave mused while taking mental notes of the example. "I mean these things are sorta permanent, right? Aren't they going to be mad if we mess it up?"

"Oh, don't worry, the tattoos you'll be doing are way too important to the Samoan culture for the chief to trust you with inking their own people," Chris explained, grinning off to the side. "I'll be the one providing you guys with your canvases!"

He whistled and suddenly out marched a line of scrawny malnourished interns. Conveniently none of them had any pre-existing tattoos to interfere with the work, plus were about the same age as the local getting his tattoo done. Yet for some reason none of them seemed particularly enthused about their situation.

"If you mess up, no worries, you just move on to the next intern and try it again!" The three of them looked slightly disturbed at how casual he was with offering up his worker's skin for slip ups and waved a hand dismissively. "What? You'll be leaving the interns with screwed up tats one heck of a unique souvenir! They're totally down for it, don't stress."

*** Cockpit Confessional: Dawn ***

"While Chris' cruelty is to be expected, as far as I know the interns aren't forced to work for this show. Yet each of their auras reek of misery. It begs the question of why anyone would willingly subject themselves to such a job when they know it's only going to bring them pain and despair?"

"They do it for the clout, sister," Chef explained wisely from the pilot seat. "Putting Total Drama on your resume is a hell of a conversation starter. Not to mention the social media hits! We had a guy test the gliding challenge in Columbia and he snapped some dope pics up there. I'm sure the banger numbers they pulled in is helping their hospital recovery feel a bit more cozy."

"Cozy," Dawn repeated in deadpan. She gave the camera an unnerved glance. "I suppose that's one way to describe it."

*** At Fuipisia Falls ***

Meanwhile, DJ, Anne Maria, and Beardo watched a local woman demonstrate how to prepare an umu plus what ingredients they'd have to work with. The process involved hot coals, wrapping things in banana leaves, slathering stuff up in coconut cream, then covering it all to cook with more leaves. The brickhouse was smiling intently, downright giddy to try this new way of cooking out for himself. As for the other two...

"I don't know about this one, chief," Beardo mumbled to himself in between bouts of reciting the tense music from the end of a Metroid game when Samus has to escape the imminent explosion.

"You too, huh?" the Jersey girl added, startling him a bit. Seems he didn't realize the others could hear him. "Like geeze, do these guys not know how to use a normal oven? It's WAY easier!"

"H-heh, yeah. Plus using leaves instead of pans? What's up with-"

"Shh!"

DJ gave the two a curt glare then went back to enjoying the demonstration.

Over with the kilikiti group, the four players were being treated to watch a quick game featuring some of the more athletic locals. As far as setup went they had a concrete pitch with both batters and wicket keepers at each end. In the field was quite a bulk of players, much more than a standard game of cricket would have. The competitors were having fun, some singing, even dancing whenever an enemy batter got out. Lightning and Sugar had picked sides to cheer on, watching intently and seemingly forgetting they should be studying. Trent and Jasmine meanwhile were calm and collected, just giving their full attention for the coming game.

"Come on now, hit a gosh darn homerun," Sugar yelled.

"This ain't baseball, mate, it doesn't work that way," her teammate chided.

Next to her Trent chuckled. "Seems like you've got a handful. You sign up for doing this with her or get stuck with it?"

"Bit of column A, bit of column B." She sighed, returning her attention to the game. "Obviously I'm not rapt to get stuck with her, but I reckon it's for the best if it means I can talk some sense into her if she starts playing wrong. I reckon it should all balance out. Not trying to sound cocky, but I'm a bit of a cricket beast back home."

"That right? Think it'll make a difference with the twist on it?"

Jasmine nodded confidently. "Looks like the main difference is they put a bloody lot of people in the field compared to normal cricket, I'm guessing that speeds the games up a bunch. But they seem to take this more casual than Chef made it sound like, so it's nothing I can't work around."

Trent nodded along, taking the time to size up who his performance was getting stacked up against. Jasmine probably was a beast, but hopefully Sugar's incompetence would hold them back some. As for the pro athlete, on paper the challenge was a match made in Heaven, but still... "Lightning, you ever play a game of cricket before?"

"Nah, just heard of it," he answered, too engrossed in the game to look away. "Ain't never got to sit down and watch a game before this."

"Oh?" Jasmine perked up and exchanged a smirk with the guitarist. "So you might struggle learning the ropes of it?"

Lightning scoffed. Him? Struggling with ANY sport? Time to educate these fools. "Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a 22-yard (20-metre) pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striking the ball bowled at the wicket with the bat and then running between the wickets, while the bowling and fielding side tries to prevent this (by preventing the ball from leaving the field, and getting the ball to either wicket) and dismiss each batter (so they are "out"). Means of dismissal include being bowled, when the ball hits the stumps and dislodges the bails, and by the fielding side either catching the ball after it is hit by the bat, but before it hits the ground, or hitting a wicket with the ball before a batter can cross the crease in front of the wicket. When ten batters have been dismissed, the innings ends and the teams swap roles. The game is adjudicated by two umpires, aided by a third umpire and match referee in international matches. They communicate with two off-field scorers who record the match's statistical information."

"Forms of cricket range from Twenty20, with each team batting for a single innings of 20 overs and the game generally lasting three hours, to Test matches played over five days. Traditionally cricketers play in all-white kit, but in limited overs cricket they wear club or team colours. In addition to the basic kit, some players wear protective gear to prevent injury caused by the ball, which is a hard, solid spheroid made of compressed leather with a slightly raised sewn seam enclosing a cork core layered with tightly wound string."

Not giving the others time to pick up their jaws, he added one more tidbit. "Of course since this is a bit different it's got wicker keepers on both ends of the pitch instead of just one, plus it looks like they allow bigger field teams. And I guess they ain't wearing any of the usual gear, Lightning can respect that."

With that explained he could enjoy the game in peace with no care for the weird looks the other three were now giving him.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"What? You best believe Lightning does his homework when it comes to sports! Just because I ain't played it don't mean I don't like hearing about it. Lightning ain't played a lick of Pato all his life, but I can still tell you all about how crazy they go for it over in Argentina!" Boy just stared at the camera for a while with a goofy grin, as if this should have been no surprise to anyone. Then he started scratching his head. "Ya know, I remember a bunch of my teachers telling me my grades would have been better if I payed as much attention to math or whatever as I did to sports. Well it's their fault for making it so dang boring, math time is time I could have spent learning how to sumo wrestle!"

*** Near Fuipisia Falls ***

Now that the demonstrations were done, the challenge was fully underway. The chief along with Chris and Chef took their seats to watch the kilikiti games since it'd be the most active ongoing thing to judge, but the others all needed to just have an intern call Chris on a walkie to send them over for a check. Interns lined up to face the music for their tattoos, Dawn seeming to have the biggest line. Cooks began to prepare their umu, with DJ trucking along peacefully while Beardo and Anne Maria struggled. Finally, the fire knife group was having a time mapping out the performance they'd be putting on. Brick barely even wanted to go near the knives, and the twins were deep into an argument over which cheer routine would lend itself best to spinning blades of hellfire. Comparatively, the Team Old School girls were looking like a well oiled machine.

"OH SH-" Leshawna dived out of the way as one end of the flaming knife came flying down at her head. Perhaps well oiled machine was putting it generously.

"Hey, that wasn't bad, you got a lot more rotation than the last attempt," Beth cheered on from nearby. Unlike the others, she was a natural. The way the dance worked was that the knives were attached at one end of a rod. It wasn't quite a baton but it was similar enough to where Beth got the hang of things relatively quickly.

"Easy for you to say, you took to that thing like it wasn't nothing." The sister with 'tude tried out a slower, more careful spin, but after a few seconds she lost the rhythm and it clanked to the ground. "I should have just let you do this solo and gone for the cricket game or something."

"Ah don't say that, I think this works out perfectly!" And not just because this bonding time would hopefully make Leshawna more susceptible to voting against her boys. "Sure I can twirl the knife good, but that's about it. I have no idea how to make the actual dancing part work. But that's way more your style! I can teach you the fundamentals, and you help make our performance actually click!"

Leshawna quirked an eyebrow. "That's... actually a good point. Tch, why's it gotta be on fire though? Was throwing around a big ass knife on its own not good enough for em?"

Nearby with the twins, Sammy getting her sister to see reason was proving about as easy as pulling teeth. "Would you please just listen to me? It's simple, you have better balance than me so you should be the one standing on top for the finish."

"Like, normally that's what I'd be doing anyway but you expect me to trust you throwing that knife straight up at me?" She scoffed. "Yeah, totes not falling for that one."

"You say it like I would trust you with throwing a deadly weapon at me anymore than the other way around," Sammy deadpanned. "I'm used to being in the bottom of the pyramid, I've got the upper body strength to handle it. I do better with cheering while handling weight than-"

"WEIGHT? Did you just call me fat?!" Her sister glared back twice as hard as she had been.

"No!" Sammy groaned into her hands, then looked Amy over a few times with a scowl of her own. "But you know what? Now that you mention it I-... I think you've been packing on too much sweets in first class!"

And in a flash Amy tackled her, kicking off a wrestling match that the pedestrians watched in great amusement. Brick meanwhile shook his head and went back to mapping out a gameplan for how he was gonna make this work.

Not faring much better was Dave, nervously looking back and forth between the bare back of an intern and a reference picture for the tribal tattoo he'd be applying. Every once in a while he'd draw a tiny bit more, but his obsessive nature wouldn't allow him to proceed any further without double or triple checking each move. The state of the interns weren't helping much.

"Good lord you reek," the germaphobe complained. Trying to focus was proving easier said than done when he didn't have some hand sanitizer to offset whatever germs this dude's back was carrying. "When's the last time you washed off, when we were in Ireland?"

"You think Chris actually gives us a shower to use?" the intern replied in a gravely voice. His bored tone quickly made way for a yelp as he felt the tattoo pen carelessly scrape against his torso. Seems the news of just how bad his canvas' hyenine really was could be enough to make Dave flinch. He then dropped the machine on the intern's back all together, too focused on trying to wipe the filth off his hands.

"Ew ew ew, that is so-" Dave peered down. The intern's back was now covered in random violent lines of ink. There was no saving this tattoo. "Oh come on, look what you made me do! Ugh, can I get a new intern over here?"

The lanky dude left, replaced with an equally generic beanpole of an intern. His replacement was instantly nervous seeing what he was getting into but he figured his best bet was to just stay quiet and not deter Dave's focus. Nearby Cody watched the ordeal and chuckled. His progress was slow and steady, but it was coming along well enough.

"Dang, starting over already? Well I guess it could be worse, you could have been nearly done." The Drama bro shrugged. "Not that I'm complaining if you want to take your time finishing. No offense."

"It's not like you're that far ahead of me," Dave grumbled, leering over at Cody's progress. "We got stuck with the dumbest challenge. It'll take ages for any of us to finish."

Suddenly Chris, Chef, and the tribal chief appeared, marching by the boys and paying them no mind. Dave and Cody gawked as the trio made their way over to Dawn's work area.

"Alright Dawn, this better be good. Trent's cricket game was just getting good." Chris stood aside and let the chief do his work.

Miraculously, Dawn's intern already had a full tattoo wrapping all around his torso. The chief inspected the ink thoroughly, fully expecting a sloppy job full of errors and poor artistry. But to his shock, that wasn't here. The detail? Immaculate. The linework? Breathtaking. Resemblance to their local tattoos? Uncanny. Somehow he was met with a tattoo you could tell had care and respect put into it, and it was done in record time.

Bewildered but nonetheless impressed, the chief gave a thumbs up. Dawn smiled while the boys dropped their jaws.

"Huh, good hustle!" Chris clapped and pushed the intern off to go get back to work. "And in one go too, nice. Now let's get back to that game."

Dave and Cody silently exchanged a look. Then they both picked up their needles and furiously got back to drawing, both their interns wincing. Chef trailed behind Chris and the chief, suddenly remembering that Dawn now had nothing to do.

"You can roam around and see how the others are doing if ya want, just don't interfere in the challenges. If not, there's some chairs and stuff back at the waterfall, you can hang with the other guy that finished."

Dawn quirked an eyebrow in surprise. "Oh? Someone else finished already?"

Flashforward a few minutes later and we find DJ lounging on a chair near the top of the waterfall, sipping from an exotic beverage. On his lap was some leftovers of his umu made meal, a taro and veggie dish laced with coconut cream. His ears perked up at the sound of someone approaching and he waved. "What's up, Dawn! Figured I'd be seeing you done sooner rather than later."

Smiling at her newfound company, she took a seat next to the brickhouse and nodded. "I must say it's a nice change of pace to have a challenge that's actually fun for once. I've always been fascinated by the tattoos from countries where they carry such cultural significance, though you might find that surprising just looking at me."

DJ waved a hand dismissively. "Nah, I think you could totally pull a tat off if you wanted to. Me personally, I think they're cool but I know momma wouldn't approve of me getting one." Perhaps not wanting to open the window for a deep dive into his struggles with his mother's wishes, he promptly changed the subject. "So how was Cody doing back there? Think he's doing ok with it?"

"He seemed to be making decent progress though I think his finishing will take significantly longer than mine," she admitted. "And how about Anne Maria? Her aura always radiates confidence but I'm not so sure how easily she'll take to the umu's cooking method."

"Well..."

Over at the cooking station Beardo flinched as Anne Maria let out another frustrated yell. It distracted him enough to let his own potential dish slip out of its banana leaf and fall to the coals below. Watching his food burn up past the point of no return, he imitated the Super Mario Bros sound effect for losing a life.

"Can a girl get a dang skillet or something? This stupid leaf cooking ain't doing it for me." Her pleas were met with silence. "Ugh!"

"Heh, I, uh, guess it wouldn't be much of a challenge if we could just cook things normally, right?"

Anne Maria rolled her eyes. Captain Obvious, much? "Well whateva, I could deal with it being tricky if DJ didn't zoom through this like it wasn't nothing. You'd think the guy was used to cooking like this."

"Well he's basically a pro chef, maybe he's dipped his toes in cooking with coals before." Since he had to start over anyway, Beardo started surveying his potential ingredients. DJ went for a veggie dish and soared right through, now he was starting to doubt his own meal idea. "Uh, hey, if you don't mind me asking what kinda meal are you making?"

The jersey girl gave him a cautious leer. "If you copy me I'll throttle ya. But uh, I was trying to make this pork and chicken dish, maybe add in a bit of banana to shake it up a bit. You?"

"I'm feeling a seafood kinda vibe," he mumbled, imitating some underwater gurgling sounds and bubbles popping. "I got some fish, a bit of octopus, maybe a bit of lobster thrown in. But now I'm kinda worried it might be too, er, fishy. Maybe it needs some veggies or something?"

"Eh, if you think you had a good thing going it'd be dumb to change it up." She shrugged and got to work trying to wrap some meat in the banana leaves. "Assuming you can actually get the stupid things wrapped up to begin with."

Hmm, yeah the fish was easy enough but the lobster and octopus was proving a bit awkward for his unexperienced leaf crafting to suffice. But maybe there was another way even if they didn't have pots and pans to work with. Humming the Jeopardy theme to himself, Beardo kept scanning the supplies until his eyes landed on some coconuts. Suddenly, he let out a ding.

"Hey, I think I got an idea. Wanna help me out and we can both try it?"

Anne Maria raised an eyebrow. "You sure it's smart to be helping the enemy? Pfft, whateva. I ain't getting nowhere with this so count me in."

*** Confessional: Beardo ***

"... A'ight yeah, just handing out hints to someone on the other team probably ain't the best play when it could be the difference between winning and losing. But I couldn't help it! It's been weird enough adjusting to coming out of my shell and talking to groups, being alone with a girl and talking to JUST her is a whole other level." He chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sure my team will cut me some slack... right?"

*** Throughout Upolu Island ***

Montage time! Intense tropical drum music accompanied a series of clips as the competitors made attempts on their challenges. On the Kilikiti side of things, Trent was first up to bat. He swung for the fences and sent the ball flying, but it was caught by an islander on the other team before it could hit the ground. He snapped his fingers but overall took the fault pretty well. Next was Jasmine, who hit the ball with impressive precision and made it bounce along the ground safely while she crossed the pitch. This was in stark contrast to Sugar, who swung wild and ferociously. The ball avoided getting caught before it hit the ground but rather than just run across the pitch Sugar just tried hitting each corner of the field as if they were baseball bases. Jasmine face palmed.

But of course once Lightning had his turn he struck the ball far enough to send it flying wildly into the trees. And once a teammate was gearing up to take his swing, reserve balls thankfully being on standby, Lightning shoved him away and took the bat instead. Just to show off to the chief his batting skills a second time. Elsewhere, the tattoo duo was hard at work drawing. Cody had called the chief over for inspection, but after a quick once over he was met with a thumbs down and a new intern. Dave let himself get distracted while eavesdropping on his enemy's results, leading to a nasty botched line. He cursed and motioned for a new intern to take this one's place.

Finally it was time to check in with the fire knife dancers. Brick was going for a rather intense military drill sort of routine, but despite having a good rhythm going he miscalculated one spin and wound up singing his pants. He abandoned the show to go find some water to jump into. Next up was Team Old School. Beth was killing it with her twirling, really putting those years of baton spinning to use. Leshawna meanwhile was taking it slower but emphasizing her dance moves more. The two tried to synchronize as best as they could but they weren't quite there yet. Instead they bumped into each other and had to jump out of the way when the collision sent their knives flying into the air and plummeting back down. Last was the twins, but their routine quickly devolved into a farce. Each tried to upstage the other with what they felt would be a better dance to match their knife spinning. After one butting in too many, Amy shoved her sister back with the rod. Sammy wouldn't be deterred and pushed back with her own. Soon enough both sisters were essentially dueling, thankfully sticking to just shoving each other with the rods themselves and not swinging the flaming knife ends at each other. The chief exchanged a bemused look with Chef while Chris munched on some popcorn.

"You're SURE we don't need some kinda security watching those two to make sure one doesn't wind up shanked?" Chef asked as the three of them marched into the umu cooking area.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, it's just two sisters that hate each other's guts wielding some bladed weapons. What's the worst that could happen?" Chris wasn't going to give him time to answer that. "Beardo! Anne Maria! You guys got something for us to try or do you wanna keep wallowing in DJ's shadow?"

Anne Maria cracked her knuckles, stepping aside to let the chief have a taste of her meal. "Keep talking smack and I got something to wallow you with right here."

She had prepared a meat dish with chicken, pork, and lamb with a bit of toasted banana on the side. While the food was presented on banana leaves, the actual cooking had been done utilizing some busted open coconuts. Her and Beardo found it easier for themselves to cook with, plus it would hopefully add a bit of flavor since they were already using coconut cream as cooking oil. The beatboxer meanwhile had prepared his seafood dish as intended. A few different fish, octopus, and some steamed lobster.

There was a long tense pause, both hopeful competitors waiting in anticipation. Until finally, the chief burped and flashed two thumbs up.

"Looks like you're both good to go! Hey, maybe Team Radioactive won't suck eggs for once." Chris chuckled to himself. "But that's up to Lightning and Brick."

On that note it was time for the three men to return to the Kilikiti field to watch the teams try playing defense, so they took their leave. Anne Maria seemed confused about something, but that would have to wait. Beardo shuffled over, breathing a sigh of relief.

"Thanks for the help, those things can be a pain in the neck to crack open on your own."

"Using the coconuts was your idea, bub, I should be thanking you." She shrugged it off. "Then again I'm pretty great so yeah, you're welcome. Now don't take this personal but I gotta blow this pop stand. The poof needs a few new coats after being around all this heat and I gotta go see what's taking Lightning so dang long."

In the uber jock's defense, no one had qualified from the Kilikiti group yet. With the casual vibe the game took, coupled with having to change out for the three different teams showing their skills, it ensured things were drawn out. A fact Lightning was all too aware of while he stood waiting, tapping his foot impatiently.

"Break time's over! Where the heck that lazy chief at?"

"Dude chill, they'll get back when they get back." Trent pointed a thumb back at some of the tired players. "We've already been going at it for a while, it was about time for a break anyway."

"Ya know what big forehead dude? You're right!" Well he didn't appreciate the shade, but Trent raised his eyebrows in surprise. Had he managed to make Lightning see to reason? "We HAVE been going way too long. What's the damn hold up giving me my pass? I've smoked all you fools on the pitch, I should have been cleared by now!"

And that would be a no. Trent rolled his eyes, tuning the jock out and instead glancing over at what Team Explosive was doing.

"Girlie you can tell me it ain't the same sport all ya like, but the fact that you're saying I should try and catch the ball before it hits the ground? Sounds a loooot like baseball to me." Sugar folded her arms.

Jasmine pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know, I know, just... ok so maybe it's a BIT like baseball but that's not the important-"

"Oh! If you don't want me out in the field then do you reckon I could try bowling? I can hit strikes like nobody's business!"

"Just because the position is called the bowler doesn't mean you handle it the same as-" Seeing that the hosts were returning, Jasmine thought quick and sighed. "Fine, that might work out. Just don't treat it like you're out literally bowling, you need to try and throw the batter off guards, curve the ball and whatnot."

Sugar smirked and scooted closer. "You mean like throwing a baseball?"

"... yes, like throwing a baseball."

Upon the chief's return all the teams lined up to hear who'd be first up to play. Or at least that was the plan until Lightning pushed his way to the front of the crowd.

"Yo, chief dude, how about we just cut to the chase and let me go before I embarrass the rest of these dudes anymore?" Did he need a flex to be convinced? Lightning flexed his biceps in case he needed the extra assurance. "I mean, come on! You already know I'll sha-smoke defense just as much as I did offense! Your time's important, right? Why waste it?"

Silently the chief narrowed his eyes at Lightning, letting him stew in the anticipation of his decision. Then he just snorted and walked past the jock, pointing at Jasmine and Sugar's team instead. Any loud objecting Lightning threw out was swiftly ignored and disregarded.

"Team Explosive, try not to suck out there," Chris added. "Looks like the peanut gallery came along to watch in case any of you make a joke out of yourselves."

Indeed, it seemed DJ, Dawn, Anne Maria, and Beardo had all arrived to spectate the performances. With leftovers of the three cook's meals to pass around it was starting to feel like a genuine festive kilikiti game. Naturally Chris and Chef helped themselves to some of the food despite not being offered any.

"Don't listen to him, y'all are gonna kill it," Beardo cheered on, providing ample ambience to make it feel like a genuine stadium game despite them being in the middle of a tropical forest. Cheers from a packed crowd, cow bells, vuvuzelas, even those meme deejay airhorn sound effects. The chief looked at Chef in confusion, who could only shrug.

"We don't know how he makes them noises either."

For what it was worth, the over the top noises were effective at amping the girls up. Jasmine took a ready stance and Sugar flashed the enemy batter a toothy grin. The country girl made for a surprisingly competent bowler, while it took some getting used to even her first throws nearly duped the hitters. Whenever they came near Jasmine she ran into action and tried to catch. First was a dud, then she passed the ball to a teammate who hit the wicket in time before the enemy was done running. Finally, she was able to catch a ball before it hit the ground. Her and Sugar both cheered, with the later holding her arms up like she scored a touchdown.

"Yeeee haw, way to catch them baseballs!" Jasmine was so hyped up from the victory that she didn't even correct her. "But you ain't having all the fun! Watch and learn, sister."

Sugar took a nice big snort then hocked a loogie on the ball, presumably to put a little extra stank on it. She locked eyes with the enemy batter, taking note of his stance and guessing what way he'd probably try to swing. Taking her time, she slowly winded up and watched for a weak point. Watching... watching... bingo. Sugar bowled the ball to the side and applied a spin to make it curve the other way. It was too late for the batter, he had already swung the initial direction with no chance to correct himself mid-swing. In a flash the ball shot past him and into the wicket. The bails came tumbling down and the girl's team cheered.

"Good on ya, mate." Jasmine laughed, impressed and amused. "Heck of a bowl."

A whistle suddenly rang out and the players turned to see the chief watching them intently. He looked at Sugar, then Jasmine, then around at the other players. After deciding whatever it was he needed to see, he turned to Chris and gave a thumbs up.

"Jasmine and Sugar advance," the host confirmed. "Halfway done for Team Explosive."

Beardo whooped and cheered for his teammates while the others politely clapped. Well, most of the others.

"Hold up, ref, their defense was alright but Sugar's batting was crap! You're gonna give them a pass before me with that mediocre hustle?" He huffed in contempt. "Put Lightning in the game and I'll show you how it's REALLY done."

Once again the chief just silently stared at him for a bit before instead turning to Trent's team and pointing. And yet again he'd ignore any objections.

"Music man, you're up," Chris called.

"You got this, Trent!" DJ clapped in support. He'd offer more if he could, but he didn't have any sound effect prowess.

Unfortunately for Trent he lacked Jasmine's athleticism or Sugar's raw grit. These locals doing the batting were more experienced and playing to the best of their ability. But darn it he was gonna try his best. Time after time he'd chase a ball but just barely miss throwing it towards the wicket in time to bowl out the runner. Nonetheless he kept pushing himself while his teammates offered words of encouragement. Finally after about a dozen tries, he passed the ball to a teammate who successfully got the runner out in time.

Despite this only being his first success, Trent pumped his first victoriously. "Yes!"

Yet again the whistle interrupted the match and the guitarist froze up, fearing that perhaps he did something wrong and got his team a foul. He felt the tribal chief's icy stare, watching him, judging him. All he could offer as a nervous chuckle, hoping for something that wasn't too serious. Eventually the big man once again faced the host and nodded in approval.

"And would you look at that, seems Trent has cleared his challenge too!"

Any celebratory pop off the guitarist was enjoying with DJ quickly became background noise when Lightning stormed up to the hosts in a fury. "No way! Letting them newbie girls pass is one thing, but that boy was flopping out there! He got one good throw outta, what, sha-hundred? You really wanna reward bad gameplay like that?"

"Boy?" Trent mumbled, his tone tinged with offense. "I'm the one that's older than him..."

Needless to say the Team Old School duo didn't want to stick around just so they could listen to more complaining, so they decided to leave and go check on how Beth and Leshawna were doing. Beardo, Jasmine, and Sugar had already done so to go make sure Amy and Sammy hadn't killed each other yet. Anne Maria glanced at Dawn and sighed. They really didn't have time for this...

"Who cares what's up with the other teams, big guy! Just shut your yap and put your money where you mouth is!"

Dawn would jump in with a more gentle approach, clapping in support. "We believe in you, Lightning!"

The jock was unimpressed with the cheering. "Sha-duh you should believe in me, it's SPORTS!" Still, the unamused chief was motioning to the pitch for Lightning to finally take his turn, so he relented and jogged out to get into the zone. "A'ight, stand back and watch how a pro does it!"

He was like a man possessed out there. Each time a ball went flying, Lightning was there to catch it. Even if the balls went too high where the average man couldn't hope to reach, he merely needed to jump good. If the ball went flying to the other side of the field he hauled ass on over there and caught it despite there being other players who were closer. Heck, at multiple points he would even knock his teammates out of the way so he could grab the ball instead. Even the batters who hit low and made the ball roll weren't safe, he could just pick it up and bowl the runner out by hitting the wicket with pinpoint accuracy. Heck since he still hadn't been told to stop yet at one point he just straight up pushed the bowler out of the way to bowl the enemy out himself.

Finally the chief had seen enough and blew the whistle.

"Finally! Lemme guess, you got so caught up watching perfection do his thing that you forgot to call it earlier." Lightning kissed his bicep proudly. "Well I can't say I blame ya. Come on girls, let's go watch-"

Suddenly the chief held his hand out to stop Lightning in his tracks. Dude looked one part annoyed, another part disappointed. He shook his head and gave the jock an enthusiastic thumbs down.

"Ooooh, tough break! Looks like Lightning has still yet to pass," Chris confirmed.

Lightning's jaw dropped in an instant. "I-... WHAT? I played every single thing perfectly! Caught every ball, hit every wicket, scored every point. The hell do you MEAN I don't pass yet?"

Once again the chief just shook his head, strolling off to really give him time to simmer in the sting of defeat. Chris and Chef followed after, the later glancing back with a steely glare. "How about you try and figure out why you're still not cutting it while we go check in on the tattoo stringbeans. Then when we get back, you try it again!"

Well rather than think about it, Lightning seemed to just shut down completely. Once they were gone the athlete just fell to his knees and stared at the ground in bewilderment. "It doesn't make any sense..."

Clearly this wasn't looking good. Anne Maria and Dawn came to their teammate's side for support but he didn't even seem to notice they were there. As he replayed each of his plays back in his head, Lightning couldn't spot a single flaw. He truly played flawlessly. So why in the world was he denied the victory he felt he had earned?

"Alright, yeah, you were playing like a beast out there. Definitely better than any of the others who passed," Anne Maria reasoned. "So it's gotta be deeper than that. You messed up on something else OTHER than having to play good."

"But what else matters?" Lightning asked incredulously. "It's SPORTS!"

Dawn tapped on her chin and hummed in thought. Looking back at the other team's performances she recalled Trent's determination despite not having the skills everyone else had, trusting in the rest of his teammates to help him with the game instead. Jasmine allowing Sugar to play the position she wanted and their reactions to each other bowling out an enemy. Meanwhile Lightning was shoving his teammates out of the way just to show off. Then it all clicked for her.

"Lightning, if I may, I think I have a theory as to why the others passed and you didn't. Remember what we were told before the challenges began, about how much the locals value respect and acting as a unit?" He didn't seem to be following so she'd have to put it in more obvious terms. "I think the problem is you've been playing too selfishly. You're so caught up showing off your own skills that you're making the game unfun for everyone else. Meanwhile Trent, Sugar, and Jasmine took to cooperating quite well despite their varying skill levels."

Now that she understood, Anne Maria would add her two cents. "In others words, you're playing too much like an asshole. When they get back try being more of a team player. Support the other bozozs and all that jazz."

Lightning blinked in confusion. "But... why should that matter? If Lightning is getting the points who cares if it's all just him or not?"

"Because to this culture the game is more than just mere sport, it's about bonding and community," Dawn pointed out. And yet, the athlete still seemed confused all while the chief was on his way back. Fine, maybe she needed to put it more in a way that would get through to him. "Lightning just... LISTEN to us! We're telling you this is what you need to do, so you're going to go out there and DO IT. Listen to us and go be a TEAM PLAYER! If the ball isn't coming to you, just trust in the others, treat it like you're the one watching the game instead of being in it. Whatever suffices for you, just DO IT!"

Anne Maria and Lightning both looked at their teammate in shock. Only when the trio of Chris, Chef, and Chief returned did they finally snap out of it.

"No dice on Dave and Cody, but they're getting there." Chris snapped his fingers. "Alright, let's try it again Lightning!"

Dawn was still giving him a determined expression so Lightning sighed and picked himself up. "Fine, I'll do it your way. But this better work, or it ain't Lightning's fault if we lose!"

Their teammate stormed off to the pitch and Anne Maria scooted closer. "Where the heck did all of THAT come from? I didn't know your voice got that loud."

She tried to play it off nonchalantly but couldn't hide a faint blush from embarrassment. "Ah, well he's very bull headed, Lightning holds his own opinion in such high confidence that it takes quite a bit to break through to him if he's in the wrong. I thought perhaps talking to him as if I was a coach might help."

"Huh. Smart." The Jersey girl glanced over at the pitch, then back at the chief. "Well let's just hope that gave him the memo or we might have to vote him off..."

Moment of truth. Obviously Lightning wasn't feeling as confident knowing he wouldn't be giving this his 100 percent effort, but if Brick had tried to hammer anything into his head all these episodes in a row it was that maybe giving teamwork a try might be worth it. And so, he played. If the ball flew towards him you knew he'd still jump into action to catch it, but he tried to be less forceful throwing it when he had to take shots at the wicket. But more importantly, he let his teammates do their own things too. If he was nowhere near the ball, he let the ones that were go for it. Sometimes they failed to bowl out the enemy in time and it took every ounce of his willpower to not chastise the teammate when it happened. But with Dawn and Anne Maria's cheering and guidance from the sidelines, he'd just politely clap and hold his tongue.

But then something interesting happened. When his teammates did get the job done and bowl out opponents without his help, he felt oddly hyped up. As Dawn had suggested, it was as if he was watching the game unfold on TV rather than him being there, and seeing his team succeed was getting louder and louder reactions from him. Woops, cheers, fist pumps, the works. Soon Lightning was full blown popping off not only when he bowled an opponent out, but when his teammates did too. All capped off when one teammate passed him the ball from nearby, setting him up beautifully to hit the wicket before the runner could reach safety. Could he have ran and got that ball and still hit the wicket without their help? Probably. But something about the cooperation to make the play happen got him more excited than anything.

"Sha-yeah, that's what I'm talking about." Lightning ran over to the team member and jumped in for a chest bump. He was in the middle of dapping them up when the familiar whistle sounded off.

Everyone stood at attention, waiting with baited breath. The chief looked at Lightning, then his Kilikiti teammates. Next he glanced over Dawn and Anne Maria. There was no way Lightning figured out what he was doing wrong in such a short timeframe on his own. Dude had help. Meaning he actually listened to his team and put their suggestions into motion...

He held out the thumbs down... before quickly turning it up and nodding in approval.

"And Lightning qualifies," Chris announced. "Took him long enough."

To his credit, Lightning wasn't going to leave his teammate hanging. He finished dapping bro up before he went over to double high five Dawn and Anne Maria.

"Not too shabby, big guy," the later congratulated between hair spraying. "Told ya you should trust us."

"And did I detect hints of joy and excitement in your aura when you were watching your teammates succeed?" Dawn added. "Perhaps what Brick's been telling you all this time about the benefits to cooperating with others holds some merit after all, hm?"

Lightning wasn't about to admit that he was wrong just yet, so thankfully he could use that to change the subject. "Hey, speaking of the guy we should go make sure he's doing alright. First class is all ours if he can finish before the others. Let's go!"

He jogged off, forcing the girls to trail after him.

*** Confessional: Lightning ***

"Look, I ain't admitting that I was wrong or nothing like that. I WAS the star kill-a-cricket player out there and ain't nobody denying that! But... yeah, I guess it's also kinda fun watching your team do good too. Which is why Brick better nail this thing, all that playing I did deserves a first class rest!"

*** At the Fire Knife Area ***

Quite the crowd had amassed to watch the dangerous dance demonstrations. Once the Team Radioactive trio plus the hosts arrived, it was pretty much everyone except Dave and Cody. No pressure on the performers or anything, yeah? Conveniently all three seemed primed to show off their skills, but it looked like Beth and Leshawna would be going first, with the twins standing in line next. Brick took up the rear, whispering words of encouragement to himself.

Perhaps sensing how fucking long this chapter was shaping up to be, Chris motioned for things to begin. "Alright, Beth and Leshawna, try not to maim anyone in the process, yeah? Or at the very least, make sure I'm safe. Show us what you got!"

Some traditional Samoan drum music started up at first, with Beth taking the lead and spinning the flaming knife around wildly. She did a few basic tricks, tossing it up and catching it, swinging it around her body, tossing it under one leg to catch with the other hand. Suddenly a record scratch sounded and the music returned with an R&B type beat mixed in with the drums. Leshawna now joined Beth and the two synchronized their spinning. Beth was going a bit slower now so her partner could keep up but the slower pace better matched the change in music. Leshawna was grooving and schmoovin, much more emphasizing the dance part of the act while Beth focused on crazy spinning tricks. Their dancing was awkward but they were confident and having fun with it so that didn't seem to hinder them. Leshawna would toss their knife at Beth and she would briefly juggle them before tossing it back. For their unexpected finale, they opted for something a bit risky but eye catching. Which is to say, Beth now tossed her rod at Leshawna, but rather than catch it to throw it back the larger girl instead booty bumped it. A move they greatly had to practice to ensure the handle was hit rather than the knife itself. Still, it got a good reaction from the crowd who cheered as the two flourished and struck a pose once their routine ended.

"That... was so... fun," Beth managed to get out between her heavy breathing.

Equally out of breath, Leshawna chuckled nervously. "That damn well better have won because I don't think I can pull that off a second time."

Thankfully for the girls it did indeed work out. The chief smirked and clapped in approval.

"Team Old School passes the test," Chris yelled. "Now they're just waiting for Cody to finish! But this ain't about him right now, let's move on with the show. Amy and Samey, think you can tie things up for Team Explosive?"

Amy looked primed to make some sort of quip about her sister being the one it hinged on, but Sammy cut her off with a stern glare before she had a chance. "We'll do more than just tie it up. We'll-"

"Steal the show," Amy finished, not about to let her have all the glory. She smirked and the nicer twin rolled her eyes, but nonetheless took her position.

The start of their performance was very much just like a classic cheer routine. Except the pom poms were replaced with flaming knife rods. Still, they led the crowd along with cheers to the beat of the drums, spinning their knives around at a slower pace than Beth but still at a good rate. Sometimes they would pass their knife to the other sister and do a cartwheel or midair somersault. They'd then be tossed their knife back and catch it mid-stunt. Next they'd try vaulting off of each other while continuing their spinning, which looked dangerous but the sisters had it down to a science. Finally, Sammy would kneel down and allow Amy to stand on her shoulders, standing up to show off their balance and coordination. The nice twin would toss a knife up for her sister to catch, while Amy would drop one in turn. Sammy would catch it and they'd continue the routine, getting ooo's and aaa's. And for the final stunt, Amy was given both knives and spun one in each hand. She jumped down into Sammy's waiting hands, vaulting off from her sister and letting one knife go mid-air. Sammy caught it and posed in time to Amy's own pose upon landing.

Once again the crowd cheered, many on Team Explosive shocked to see the twins so in tune with each other. For a challenge or not, seeing them work together almost felt unnatural. But no one could deny what a spectacle they put on. Including the chief, who quickly flashed a thumbs up in approval.

"And the sisters nail it! Team Explosive now ALSO just needs their resident nerd to finish a tattoo," Chris confirmed.

Meanwhile the sisters caught their breaths as they recovered from the adrenaline of the routine. They looked at each other, perhaps begrudgingly impressed with the other's performance. Or at the very least, satisfied enough with passing that they wouldn't say anything.

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"Yeah, as much as I hate to admit it Amy really is a great cheerleader when she actually applies herself. But hey, maybe she's saying the same about me right now?"

*** Confessional: Amy ***

"Did you see how great I looked out there? Ha! As if there was ever any doubt how good I was. We should just all thank everything that Sparemy didn't somehow mess it up for us."

*** Confessional: Sammy ***

"... yeah, probably not."

*** At the Fire Knife Area ***

While the two girl pairs were soaking up the admiration and cheers from their teams, Brick was left nervously darting his eyes around as he tried not to panic. He had no partner for his routine and didn't have anything overly flashy planned. Having to follow those acts with something vanilla might not cut it at this rate. "Darn it... darn it! I knew I should have tried to go first."

"Brick my man, all eyes on you now," Chris announced. "No pressure or anything but all three of your teammates have already qualified so if you pass you guys win first class! But if you don't that leaves you viable to get passed up by Cody and Dave. Not a good option if you want to avoid being eliminated!"

"I could figure that much out myself, thank you." The cadet sighed and tried slapping himself a few times to psych himself up. "Alright, showtime soldier! You can do this! So what if you don't have these fancy cartwheels, or juggling, or butt bouncing... just some good old fashioned hard work and grit will get the job done! Definitely..."

So maybe he wasn't the greatest at psyching himself up, whoops. Nonetheless, he took a big gulp and marched out for his performance. Things started well enough. For his routine he'd be envisioning his flaming knife as a rifle and go through one of his best rifle spinning drills. As such this involved a lot of him tucking the rod under his arm after spins, letting the flaming knife get dangerously close to his clothes. But he just tried to not think about it, continuing to twirl the weapon around, even maneuvering into an impressive helicopter spin above his head. However, he slipped up a bit when tucking the rod in after that stunt and had to quickly correct himself. With a rife that was usually no biggie. But with this, the error caused the knife to ever so slightly brush up to his shirt. The good news was that it didn't cut Brick himself, just the shirt. The bad news was now his shirt was on fire.

"Mayday, mayday!" Brick stop dropped and rolled, abandoning his act to quickly put the flame out before it engulfed his whole shirt. His teammates cringed out of worry, though the others looked slightly relieved since this was a good sign for their chance at First Class. The chief shook his head.

"Tough break cupcake, best hope those twiggy boys aren't done by the time you're ready again," Chef taunted. The hosts were about to leave to go check in on the tattooing progress, but Brick quickly scrambled to his feet and picked the flaming knife back up.

"WAIT!" Once he had heir attention again he tried to compose himself. "Sir, I'm ready to go, I just had a slip up. Give me one more try before you leave, will ya? I'll finish the whole thing this time."

Chris was intrigued at the idea. One half because he wanted to see the full routine, but on the other hand because he wouldn't mind seeing an even more crushing wipeout. However, he wasn't fully in control this challenge. He looked towards the chief. "Your call, dude."

Much like Chris, the chief was conflicted. On one hand, the kid took his shot and failed. Why give him another go immediately after dropping the ball? Then again, he had to respect the determination and since they had yet to be called it didn't seem like the tattoo boys were ready anyway...

"Ah for Pete's sake just let the guy do it, won't ya?" Anne Maria suddenly piped up. "What's it gonna hurt?"

"He's willing to give it his all, I implore you to let him prove that he's capable," Dawn added.

Lightning cracked his knuckles and tossed his hat into the mix. "Brick you got this, it's easy street! Your team's backing you up and that includes The Lightning, so you pretty much won already!"

Hearing his team cheering him on, especially Lightning shockingly contributing, was all the more drive to make the cadet feel ready. Not about to let wardrobe mess with his routine this time, he even tossed his shirt off. Inadvertently this just made him look all the more fitting for the fire knife dance since locals tended to do it shirtless. Thankfully for him, the chief was a big anime fan. The team cheering him on in a power of friendship moment? Ripping the shirt off as a form change? Shoot, now he had to see what the kid had in store. So he sat down and motioned for the show to continue.

"Guess that answers that." Chris chuckled in amusement. "Alright Brick, take two!"

The routine was restarted, Brick marching forward and spinning his knife in militaristic sort of rhythm. When he came to a stop and intensified the spins he started to get more daring with it. The rotations got faster, he would toss it higher and higher into the air, he'd spin with just one hand and alternate between the two. After completing the helicopter spin that previously tripped him up, he tried out a more flashy move. He let the rod drop to his foot and kicked it back up. Then he started up the alternating single hand spins but even faster than before. What was even more notable, Brick wasn't even watching. He stared forward with a steely expression, he had done this routine with a rifle so many times that he could just do the motions without watching his hands or the knife. After getting a good crowd reaction from his extended no looking routine, he then finished up with some behind the back and unorthodox arm motions to show his proficiency spinning the knife any which way. He tossed the knife up as high as he could one last time, caught it in one hand, and saluted with the other for his finishing pose.

There was a brief bit of silence that struck dread into his heart, but then it gave way to uproarious applause. While maybe not as flashy as the other two performances, the precision and intensity was more than enough to still please the crowd. And it looked like the chief agreed, since he clapped along and nodded in approval.

"Guess that decides it, then! Team Radioactive takes first class!" The announcement got those four cheering even louder but in turn brought the others to a stop. "Which means it all comes down to who can finish this dang tattoo first. Seriously, what is UP with those two, Dawn finished hours ago!"

"Time to go lay the pressure on those fools," Chef added, cackling mischievously.

With the hosts leading the way, Team Old School and Team Explosive followed after to go give their teammate their support. Most of them anyway. As for the winners, they didn't seem in an hurry to go watch.

"Tch, forget that noise. Lightning's gonna go play more Kilikiti while we wait! I don't care which of em loses, all I know is it ain't us!"

"Ya girl feels like catching some rays near that waterfall," Anne Maria added. "Might just take a dip if the water's right."

"I'd love to take a stroll through the island's natural beauty while we have the free time." Dawn looked over at her still shirtless teammate. "How about you, Brick? I'd say you've earned some relaxation."

The cadet chuckled. "I'll catch up with you guys in first class. I gotta find where my shirt went, but after that I still wanna offer Dave and Cody my support! Enemy teams or not, I can say firsthand having the pressure on you isn't the most fun."

His team didn't have any objections so they all went their separate ways to relax. Brick looked around but was having a hard time finding his garment. It was only when scanning the ground that he suddenly happened upon a pair of legs. Looking up, he found Amy holding his shirt. Seems watching a guy spin around a flaming blade while half naked wasn't a bad way to get someone's attention.

"Looking for something?" she asked, though not immediately giving the shirt back. "I gotta say, that was some impressive work up there."

"Thanks! You and your sister put on a heck of a show too." He reached out for his shirt but she pulled it back.

"Why rush to put it back on?" She grinned coyly. "It looks pretty good this way. I didn't know you were so toned under there."

"Heh, yeah they keep us on a pretty strict exercise regime during basic training so-" He paused as it suddenly dawned on him what was happening. "Wait, are you flirting with me?"

Amy pouted. "You're not supposed to just call it out so casually, that takes the fun out of it."

Now it was Brick's turn to frown. Aw geez, how to get out of this? He rubbed at the back of his head awkwardly. "Ah, about that. How should I put this... you remember earlier when I said you were barking up the wrong tree trying to flirt with Lightning when he's anti-relationships?"

"Uh, yeah?"

"Well this is kind of like that, but now you're barking up a different kind of wrong tree..."

Amy stared at him long and hard for a painfully awkward few seconds. But soon enough it all clicked and she groaned in frustration, chucking the shirt at Brick's face. "UGH, you've got to be KIDDING me! You better not tell anyone about this!"

She stormed off and he looked at the nearby camera, eyebrow raised. "Well I mean, we're being filmed so..."

*** Confessional: Brick ***

"For the record, I'm just as open to forming something with a lady as I am with a man. But I had to figure something out to make Amy lose interest. I've seen her season and know for a fact she isn't my type." While sitting there he got a flashback to an infamous moment from his original season, furrowing his unibrow. "And I know you guys have all seen what Dawn claims my type is! But there's a darn fine line between having a strong personality and just being a bully. No thank you, not interested."

*** At the Tattooing Area ***

A row of interns with botched tattoos watched on in contempt while Dave and Cody inked away at their latest projects. Most of the failed attempts were curtesy of Dave, but mostly because he would stop and start over much sooner than any of his opponent's failed attempts. This time though he had managed to get about 75 percent of the way done. Which was good in theory, but Cody was putting on finishing touches.

"Just a liiiitle bit more and I'll be ready for a check," the tech geek mumbled.

"No need to call for one," Chris suddenly yelled, waltzing into the area with Chef and the chief in tow. "We're here and ready whenever you need judging."

The germaphobe raised an eyebrow, confused. "What, you guys wouldn't rather wait around at the cricket of knife stuff?"

"About that..." McLean stepped aside to show the remainder of the boy's teams behind them. And also Brick. Amy was notably looking extra ticked off but said nothing. "You two are the last ones standing, Team Radioactive already won. Now it's a race to not get last!"

"You've gotta be kidding me..." Dave looked down at his incomplete canvas, then back to Cody. His heart sank upon seeing the last few details being drawn out on the opposing intern.

"In that case, I'll take a check now!"

Silence filled the clearing while the chief inspected Cody's intern for any sloppiness. This was definitely the guy's best work yet, a lot of the linework and intricacies were given better attention... for the most part. Once he got to checking the intern's front side, the work got a bit iffy. Seems the geek had a hard time adjusting to this particular intern's gut and had to cut corners to try and keep himself on pace. But the shoddy work didn't go unnoticed by a professional. The chief held his fingers barely apart to indicate that Cody had been close but still shook his head.

"Whoops, looks like Cody has to start over!" Chris looked over at Dave and chuckled darkly. "Let's get ready for a hardcore all out TATTOO FIGHT!"

Intense rock music played over a mundane montage of Dave and Cody simply drawing on their interns. Nervous as they may be, the details were clearly important so they couldn't afford to rush it. The bystanders watched on, bored and impatient. DJ yawned and Sugar straight up dozed off while leaning against a tree. It was revealed that Chef was the source of the music, having pulled out his MP3 player to pass the time. Despite being far behind, Dave's slow and meticulous nature was giving Cody the chance to eventually catch up. No cutting corners this time, he was being as detailed as possible while doing it as quickly as possible. Soon he was a quarter of the way done. Then halfway. And then three quarters! Bit by bit he drew away at it until...

"DONE!"

Everyone looked up at Dave, Cody included. The germaphobe had broken out into a nervous sweat but grinned confidently as he presented his finished canvas for the chief to check. Once again every inch of the tat was inspected and admittedly things were looking good. Backside was up to snuff, both sides were on point. Last up to check was the intern's front and-

The chief looked at the intern. Then to Dave. Finally he glanced at Chris and slowly held out his hand. First the thumb tilted downwards, then upwards, switching back and forth until landing on... a thumbs up.

"And Dave does it, Team Explosive is safe!" Chris allowed the team to cheer, with only Sammy not fully enthusiastic since the victory came at the cost of Cody coming up short. He looked over the losing team and snapped his fingers. "Team Old School, that means you guys got a date with the Boot of Shame later. Be there or be square!"

Trent went to console his buddy while a dejected Leshawna walked off. Perhaps to cool off, or maybe to mull over the upcoming vote. DJ was wasting no time, though. He gave Beth a stern look and patted her on the shoulder. "You got this. Y'all bonded over the challenge, now you just gotta convince her to vote with us."

Well that was easier said than done. Gulping, the farm girl tried to ready her nerves. This conversation could be the thing to change the trajectory for the rest of the season.

*** Confessional: Beth ***

"DJ finished before anyone else so I think it's a pretty safe bet that Cody and Trent will vote for me. All it takes is Leshawna's vote and I'm done... ugh! I'm so stupid for letting Courtney just leave like that! But this former finalist isn't going down without a fight. I just hope I can break through to her, at least to give me a chance..."

*** Somewhere in Upolu Island ***

Leshawna trudged through the trees, stirring with inner conflict. Her and Cody had been tight all season, she couldn't just vote off her homeboy like that. But just look at her alternatives. The guy who finished first, or her own partner that she probably held back in a challenge she was already specially equipped for. Maybe if she had just helped Cody out instead of Beth it could have changed things. Maybe this was all her fault?

"Hey, Leshawna, do you have a minute?"

Huh, she didn't know someone had followed her. She turned to meet Beth and offered a bittersweet smile. "Sure, girl, I can talk. What's up?"

"You probably already guessed, but it's about the vote." Beth was a bit fidgety, tugging at her sleeve. "Look, I... I know you're good friends with Cody and Trent. You probably don't want to vote either of them off when you have other options."

She opened her mouth to respond but decided against it. Best to just let Beth say her whole peace before anything else.

"B-but I really want a chance to stay! I'm really proud of the performance we did, we were awesome! So I'm going to vote for Cody, I really hope you might at least consider it." Beth paused and decided to add one more detail. "A-and if not, maybe you could vote for DJ instead? Not to eliminate him but to make the votes a tie? Then it can at least come down to a fair and square tie breaker."

"... I'll think it over, yeah." As much as Leshawna wanted to help her out, she couldn't give a hard promise. Not just yet, she had to decide if that's what was best first.

Beth smiled weakly. She had done as much as she could. "Thank you. And no matter what happens we're still gonna be friends, right?"

"Tch, like you had to ask?" Leshawna offered the smaller girl a hug and after the embrace waved her goodbye. Now to spend the rest of the walk back deciding on where her vote was going. She looked up and sighed, feeling just as conflicted as ever...

Hours passed and soon the five Old School teammates found themselves back in the elimination area, the drama bros in the front row, Beth and DJ in the middle, and Leshawna watching cautiously from the back. Their not so friendly host appeared with the tray of four barf bags, watching over the crew with a sinister glee. Chef was on standby with the parachute, eager to get this chapter finished... er, I mean, elimination underway.

"Well well well, you guys had quite the safety streak going on after Harold and Izzy left, but now that Courtney's gone you decide to show up a second time in a row?" The host laughed tauntingly. "Maybe you just missed spending quality time with me. Can't blame ya, but it's a million bucks on the line, ya know?"

He got no response. Everyone just stared at him, their expressions cold and lifeless. They'd offer zero reaction to his asinine comments.

"Hm, tough crowd. Welp, guess we may as well get started then." He grabbed the first peanut pouch and tossed it at the guitarist. "Trent, your cricket skills could use some work but they were good enough to net you safety tonight. Equally safe is also... Leshawna!"

Unlike Trent, she was a bit less enthusiastic getting her symbol of immunity. She glanced down at those remaining without one and sighed to herself.

"And the penultimate barf bag goes to... DJ!" Another puke packet went flying, caught expertly by the brickhouse. He offered Beth a supportive grin which she returned. She and Cody both gulped, waiting for the moment of truth.

"Just like that, I only have one left to give out!" Chris turned to the geek first. "Cody, you being in the bottom two speaks for itself. Ya done goofed up big today not finishing your tattoo in time, which is the whole reason your team is even here in the first place."

He slouched his shoulders in shame.

"And Beth! Your spinning was good but your people skills may not be so much. Hard to win a personality contest on a team with pop stars, a buff hunk, and everyone's favorite robbed queen, am I right?"

Nerdy girl in question was unamused by the host's taunting. She just wanted to have the band-aid ripped off and see if she was staying or not. Meanwhile Cody came into the ceremony mostly confident, but was starting to get an uneasy feeling in his gut that something may be wrong. Both waited with baited breath, eyeballing the barf bag hopefully.

"Your team has cast their votes and made their decision. The FINAL barf bag... of the night... goes too...

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... nobody!"

Chris gave a hearty laugh, placing the peanut packet back on the tray. "At least nobody yet. We've got ourselves a tie to sort out!"

"A tie?" Cody asked, shocked. Beth breathed a sigh of relief. While she obviously would have preferred Leshawna just flat out voting him off with them, this was at least a second chance to earn her safety.

"Eeyup, a tie. Things were 2 to 2 to 1. So now the question is how we decide to break it. Chef! If you'd be so kind?"

Chef chuckled nefariously, opening the parachute to reveal it actually wasn't a parachute at all! Instead it was just a regular backpack full of a few things. Mostly balls, lots and lots of balls. But also inside was a wicket, which Chef erected on the ground in front of Chris' podium. Then he retrieved two big cricket bats from within the sack and tossed them the nerds way. Beth had the wind knocked out of her as he bat struck her in the gut, while Cody's bonked off of his head.

"We're gonna have you guys compete in a fast version of one of the challenges, and we didn't feel like waiting for you to finish cooking," Chris explained. "Plus you both have stringy nerd arms, so this'll be more funny to watch! Since the Samoans created their own spin on cricket, I've devised a version of my own. We'll call it Sudden Death Cricket! The rules are simple, the two of you stand on the other side of the room and Chef will start tossing cricket balls at you. Using your bats, you're both gonna try to hit your balls and make one strike the wicket. The first person who can hit the target gets to stay, the other is outta here. Sound good?"

Cody foolishly opened his mouth as if he was actually going to get a chance to speak.

"Good! Get in positions and get ready for the carnage!" Chris glanced over at the three bystanders. "Oh and uh, you guys might wanna brace yourselves in case any rogue balls come flying your way. I wouldn't trust these two to be the most accurate swingers."

Well they didn't have to be told twice. DJ, Leshawna, and Trent ducked behind the bleachers, poking their heads out but ready to tuck them back in if the coast wasn't clear. Chris meanwhile stood behind the safe wall of muscle that was Chef. Cody and Beth were both a bit nervous, but also both hyped up and determined to be the ones to stay. They exchanged a quick hand shake for good luck and took their positions.

"Alright, maggots." Chef drew his arms back and let the first two balls fly. "Play ball!"

The big man's throw were mighty and non stop. Most of the swings Cody and Beth took failed to hit their mark. Those that did sent the balls ricocheting all over the room, bouncing from the walls, to the floor, to even the roof. Chris' podium was knocked over, one of the lights were knocked out, Trent nearly took a blow to his forehead until Leshawna pulled him out of the way. Pretty much everything EXCEPT the wicket was getting pelted. One ball even somehow bounced out of the room, ping ponged all the way through economy class much to Team Explosive's bewilderment, winding up all the way in first class where it hit an unsuspecting Brick in the crotch. His teammate's crowded around, exchanging looks of confusion.

But eventually something was going to have to hit the mark with all this wild bouncing. One nerd swung for the fences, shutting their eyes and hoping for the best. The ball spun through the air and just barely grazed up against the wicket. Nonetheless, it was enough to knock it over and definitively decide the winner. Chef blew a whistle and the peanut gallery poked their heads out to gaze upon their champion.

"And it looks like... CODY has taken the win," Chris announced, the aforementioned geek panting heavily as he looked down at his bat in disbelief. The final barf bag was tossed at him but it just bounced harmlessly off his head. Beth dropped her weapon and fell to her knees in defeat. "Which of course means that Beth is the one going home!"

"That... was WAY too close for comfort." Cody looked at his fallen adversary and sighed in bittersweet relief. He was safe, but had to personally take down his foe by his own hands. "Sorry, Beth. You really had me on the ropes there."

She sniffled, trying her best to keep her composure. "It's ok, you had to try and stay safe too."

Trent was the first to approach the duo, giving his eliminated teammate a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. Though Cody honestly looked worse for ware what with all his heavy breathing. "Dude, are you gonna pass out or something?"

Seems Cody was going to need help getting back to economy class. Trent took the initiative to lead him back, while DJ came to his friend for comfort. "You tried your best, Beth. You really went out swinging. Er, no pun intended."

Leshawna bit her lip, feeling a tinge of regret at watching Beth's despair. Should she have just voted for Cody instead? She didn't deserve to get cut like this. "Sorry, girl. I just didn't have it in me to be the deciding vote to get out stringbean this time. But I did want to give you the chance..."

Beth forced a smile, even chuckling. She didn't want to be the one to seal Cody's fate with a vote? Sounded familiar. "I'll be ok. It's a bummer, but I'm more happy going out this way instead of just being voted off."

"How sweet," Chris cooed in a mockingly sweet voice. "Hope that sentiment helps cushion the fall for ya! We're burning daylight here, so get to stepping."

The farm girl narrowed her eyes but couldn't do much else to object. Chef tossed her a parachute and she approached the open door. Beth wasn't a big fan of heights so she opted to just stay facing the others and let the boot decide when she did the falling.

"Guess that's it then. Oh! And DJ, before I go let me tell you something." The brickhouse raised an eyebrow. "I don't know how you haven't realized it yet but you're totally being checked out by-"

Before she could finish the boot came swinging down and cut her short. Or kicked her short rather, sending her plummeting to the ground. DJ scratched his head, unsure what just happened.

"Huh, wonder what she was about to say?"

Leshawna folded her arms. "You really can be clueless, ya know that?"

But enough about all that. We flashed forward to Chris and Chef in the cockpit ready to do the usual signoff.

"I don't know about you but this felt like a heck of a long stop. Maybe we went a bit overboard with the challenge this time."

Chef shrugged. "Meh, I had fun. We swiped some good food, got to watch some ball games. I call that a win."

"Hmm, true. Maybe I should have pushed someone off that waterfall to bring it all together." Chris laughed mischievously. "Ah well, I'm sure I'll get a chance to later! And so ends another episode for these contestants. What'll I have in store for them next time we land? Will DJ figure out a way to improve his position by the time he finally gets a clue about Dawn? Has Lightning truly opened his eyes to the benefits of teamwork? And can the twins learn to coexist now that they've shown how well they work together if they try?"

"Doubt it," Chef mused.

"Same. But who knows what could happen? I guess you'll just have to tune in next time to find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

Beth stamped Cody's passport, trying to keep her breathing steady. "I guess this is the moment of truth, huh? Hopefully Cody being the one to not finish was the last thing I needed to win Leshawna over. But if not... well, I guess that's what I get for not helping Courtney when she needed it last time."

With a heavy sigh Cody cast his vote against Beth. "I really screwed up today. Honestly it feels kind of unfair to be voting for anyone else when they all passed. But I'm not a quitter so it was either this or DJ and he finished first. Sorry, Beth."

"I might just be screwed if Beth couldn't pull this off, so let's hope it all works out." He stamped down on Cody's face. "And hey, if I can be the last man standing in a disaster like Team Victory, I'm sure I can figure something out for this too."

Leshawna's eyes darted between Beth and Cody's passports. She hovered her hand over the tech geek's face, coming inches away from voting him out... but ultimately deciding to stamp DJ instead. "I ain't gonna choose between which of my friends I want to eliminate. So I'll let the tie breaker do the deciding for me. Good luck y'all, hope there ain't no hard feelings no matter what happens."

As for Trent, he was short and to the point casting his vote against Beth. "I know it sucks but what am I gonna do, vote my band bud out when I know he's always gonna have my back? Sorry Beth, I don't have much in the way of options."

Votes for Beth: 2 (Cody, Trent), lost tiebreaker

Votes for Cody: 2 (Beth, DJ), won tiebreaker

Votes for DJ: 1 (Leshawna)

After the Boot of Shame:

Beth flailed her limbs for a while, damn near screaming her head off, until she finally remembered the parachute. Once that was safely deployed she could finally stop fearing death long enough to talk to the camera. "Darn it! I really did try my best and it still wasn't enough. All I could do was make Leshawna NOT vote for me, and even then I couldn't beat Cody at some stupid cricket!"

She pouted for a while but slowly floating down was a good way to make her think over her whole journey. Eventually she sighed in acceptance. "But I guess even influencing her vote itself was a win, and that tie breaker was close. I guess this is a bit of karma for me not giving Courtney the same chance I just had. Still wish I would have won, though! Hopefully DJ can figure something out. I'd hate to see him following right after me."

After enough plummeting she finally landed in some running water. The landing took her by surprise but she smiled at the relatively smooth dismount. "Hey, a not painful landing! My luck's turning around already!"

Suddenly it sounded like the water ahead of her was getting loud. REALLY loud. Sure enough, a simple turn of the head would reveal that she was actually at the top of the Fuipisia Falls from earlier and was rapidly approaching the edge. Rather than desperately try in vain to swim away or grab on to something, Beth just sighed and resigned herself to the inevitable. "Yeah, that sounds about right..."

With a loud echoing scream, she tumbled over the waterfall to make a big splash below.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: Cody, DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, Brick, Dawn, Lightning

Team Explosive: Amy, Beardo, Dave, Jasmine, Sammy, Sugar

Elimination Order:

15th: Beth

16th/17th: Courtney and Scott

18th: B

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Author's Note:

Ah hello again, been a few weeks since we spoke last eh? Hm? It's been longer than that? Huh, I didn't notice. I kid of course, and I intend to explain what's taken this chapter so long but I also know that likely the majority of readers don't really care about all the nasty business and just want to hear the details on the chapter itself. Or you know, they just skip these ANs entirely. So I'm gonna get all the usual stuff out of the way first and THEN talk about the hiatus. Oh by the way, you may notice the Columbia chapter has been retitled. I never really vibed with the title I had for it originally, and thankfully Disney somewhat recently released a topical movie taking place there. So the chapter title was changed to a reference to Encanto. This is very important information you guys needed to know.

Right then, so had it not been for the delay this was originally intended to be a sort of breather chapter. At least as far as drama and stuff goes since we were coming off losing two of the big pre-merge characters in Scourtney. Hence Beth being the victim this time. Poor Beth, I'd like to think I'm more of a fan of her's than most because hot damn do some people in the fandom do her dirty. However, she's someone multiple readers seemed to be anticipating as an upcoming elimination and for good reason. Originally not even on the cast and only dropping in to fill what was at first Bridgette's spot, I didn't have much story lined up for her outside of being part of Courtney's resistance against the Drama Bros steamroll. That fact sort of gave way to making the whole "feeling like she isn't being taken seriously" storyline and I did actually originally consider her to be out in the early merge instead. But at some point I lost the elimination order and had to remake it, and for whatever reason once I was done I had one less spot in the merge than I expected. Someone had to be bumped down to pre-merge and, welp, she was the unlucky winner. I do hope she at least brought some entertainment and the tie breaker was inserted to make her elimination more exciting. Last chapter originally had a tie breaker of Courtney vs Leshawna but not only do I think this chapter benefits more from having the tie breaker, Beth not voting with Courtney sort of sets up a justification for her loss here.

On to the location, why choose Samoa for our first foray into Oceania? Most of you may be shocked at the answer, but those that know me will be wholly unsurprised. It's because of pro wrestling! I'm a big wrestling fan and there's actually quite a few prominent wrestlers to come from Samoa. Including an especially notable family that includes The Rock as part of it. That family has multiple wrestlers active in WWE today with the main member being their current top star. He and his family play characters revolving around Samoan bloodline and the respect it involves, which is where the inspiration for the challenge comes into play. Aforementioned top guy even goes by "The Tribal Chief," so he's who I had in mind with that character. I guess you can search up Roman Reigns if you need a visual for the chief in the chapter. As for next chapter, we're gonna be visiting Asia.

Going more in depth on the challenge, I... admittedly probably went overboard a bit because hot damn this chapter wound up long. In theory I thought this would just be like the county fair and Istanbul challenges, but I guess I underestimated just how much I wanted to pack in for stuff like the Kilikiti games or the fire knife dances. Ah, and if anything sounded complicated like what the "fire knife rods" or the umu stoves look like do feel free to look them up. I had the official Samoan tourism website pulled up for research far more times than I'd like to admit this chapter. There's a lot of little moments throughout this one I'm really happy with so even if it's a beefy chapter I hope it was fun to read. That being said, next chapter is likely going to go lighter on the challenge and heavier on the character interactions which will hopefully make it less bloated. And on that note, NOW let's talk the hiatus and such.

Ok, so, genuinely in my defense for the first few months after last chapter I do have a good reason for why I wasn't writing. I accumulated a minor spine injury that long story short was giving me intense pain that went down my back all the way to my foot. Those months where the pain was at its worst was hell and there was no way I was being productive with anything. Sitting was painful, standing was painful, I was useless. I still do have spine problems but bit by bit it's gotten less painful and is now more of a numbness when it pops up. Annoying but manageable, and I hope as I get healthier it'll gradually just go away. But of course the delay was more than just some months. So what explains the rest of the hiatus? Prepare to roll your eyes but it was that ol' son of a bitch, loss of motivation and writers block.

The spine pain really did a number on my motivation and getting back into the swing of things was way rougher than I anticipated. I also felt like I was getting busier as the insanity from Covid times started letting up. It may be easier for younger readers to say "why not just keep writing?" but keep in mind fic writing can only be a hobby for me. It only gets done when I have free time between work and any other personal commitments I may have, and when I have free time there's a good chance I may want to play video games, maybe watch a series or movie. I recently watched Breaking Bad for the first time, that shit was lit yo. But yeah, I do love fic writing but thanks to the motivation being kicked out of me from my spine pain it's just been a struggle getting back into the swing of things. I'd been chipping away at the chapter for a while now though and I think the news about the new Total Drama season cast was the thing to fully push me to finish the fight. By the way if you're curious, Axel is my current favorite of the cast from what little we know.

So there's my story. Satisfying or not, that's the truth. Will the next chapter take as long? Shit I hope not, but as I've said before this is an ongoing struggle for me. But I honestly reeeeeeeeeeeally hate getting reviews that are just "when next chapter/bro you still alive" so here's my plan going forward and something I'm going to implement to hopefully cut down on that a bit. First thing's first, next I'm putting out the first chapter of "What Could Have Been," my What If style story. As mentioned before, the chapter is a rundown of what would have been Revenge of the Rejects. Most of the chapter is done and I've been sitting on finishing it for a while because I didn't want to upload it in the middle of a hiatus and have it flooded with "Ok cool, where's BOTG tho?" reviews. After that it's back to focusing on BOTG with new stuff for the What If story whenever I feel like it. And now for the big one for anyone who wants to know on a given week if I am, indeed, active. I'm going to implement on the top of my profile a "Writing Status" message that will mention if I've been writing that week and if I am, what on. At the end I'll mention when the message has last been edited. (So for example, when I put it on as I write this it should read "Writing Status: Finished BOTG chapter, WCHB next. Edited 10/28). Even if I'm in the middle of a rut, I'll try to at least keep this status updated at least every other week or so to confirm for you guys that I am, indeed, still around and will get something out eventually. It could be in a week, a month, who knows. Hopefully soon!

Right then, that's all for now. Long winded AN I know, but I'm aware people wanted their explanation for the long hiatus. I'll try my best not to let this BS happen again. Until next time, keep an eye out for "What Could Have Been" and the Revenge of the Rejects rundown coming soon, and I'll see you in the next one.