Total Drama: Battle of the Generations

by StayOuttaMyShed

After rebuilding the Jumbo Jet, Chris is ready for another tour around the world, this time with competitors from all three generations! Can Scott earn his team's trust? Will Shawn and Jasmine dominate the competition? And the Drama Brothers are back together? It's an all out battle for supremacy!

13. Total Drama Goes Bollywood

"Previously on Battle of the Generations," Chris narrated. "Beth felt the heat from putting her and DJ in the danger zone, and the big guy decided to step up and actually become strategic! Amy flirted around with the likes of Lightning and Brick, but kept striking out with whatever she tried. Once it was challenge time we stopped by tropical Samoa, taking in the rich culture and making the contestants really become one with the island. By forcing them to split off and finish a bunch of different crap to earn the island chief's approval."

Clips played of the various challenges, focusing on the victories. "Team Radioactive was able to dig deep and score themselves a win, while Team Old School faced the chopping block thanks to Cody's crappy art skills. Beth tried her best to get Leshawna on her side, but the best she could manage was convincing her to force a tie. It was close, but Cody ultimately won the Battle of the Nerds and Beth met her maker! Now we're creeping up on the halfway point to the competition. Will Leshawna stay loyal to Trent and Cody, or can DJ convince her to switch sides? Will Amy continue to strike out with every boy she flirts with? Can Team Radioactive ride the momentum from their win to avoid elimination? Let's sit back and find out, right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

*** Intro Credits ***

To change things up, the episode was going to open on some of the contestants genuinely enjoying themselves rather than any drama. First class was lively with Team Radioactive enjoying the fruits of their labor. Lightning had the music blasting, Anne Maria was shaking her groove thing, even Dawn was helping herself to some top of the line organic snacks. Brick was giddy seeing his team in such high spirits and clinked a glass full of (probably non-alcoholic) grape juice to get their attention.

"If I may, I'd just like to give a toast! I know things have been looking rocky for us lately, but we really dug deep in that challenge and I think we've grown tremendously as a platoon!" The four of them clinked their glasses together.

"Agreed, I think our time in Samoa was a significant stepping stone for us." Dawn smiled at the jock in particular. "Especially for Lightning, I believe it was quite the enlightening experience for him."

Normally a star athlete like him would enjoy being the center of attention, but calling out that he had something he needed to grow on wasn't something he needed them dwelling on for too long. "Pssh, the whole squad carried their weight. Brick dug deep for that fire twirling, and you chicks got done like crazy fast!"

Anne Maria sipped on her beverage, shrugging it off like it was no big deal. "I'd have been stuck wrapping stuff up in leaves longer but that dude with the big fro helped me out. Probably wasn't the smartest move for him, but hey, at least the guy didn't have to worry about getting voted off."

Voted off... that gave Dawn pause. Team Old School going to elimination was potentially worrisome. Theoretically DJ should have been safe, he finished before anyone else after all, but if he found himself on the wrong end of an alliance situation there was a non zero chance he could be a target. "Hmm. If you'll all excuse me, I think I'd like to go check in on how Team Old School is doing."

"Oh yeah?" Anne Maria smirked. "Why's that?"

Before she could answer, Lightning assumed it was a question for all of them and jumped in. "Probably because she wants to make sure DJ didn't get cut, right? But they'd have to be stupid to vote bro off, you don't kick off a guy when he finishes fist! If they know what's what the definitely got rid of skinny dude for sure."

Dawn gave her teammate an annoyed scowl. Was it seriously so obvious that even LIGHTNING could pick up on it so easily? She huffed in frustration and stormed off. The athlete seemed confused, so Brick just chuckled and patted him on the back.

"Yeah I'm guessing a lesson on tact is in order next."

*** Cockpit Confessional: Dawn ***

"I suppose there's no use in denying it at this point." She sighed. "It is indeed DJ that I've formed a bit of a crush on."

"We already knew that," Chef grumbled from the pilot's seat.

"And I don't recall asking for your input," she shot back, perhaps a bit more snippy than intended. "It's strange, while I've certainly been attracted to people before, this is the first time I think it's actually left me a bit flustered. I suppose there's just something different this time, I truly feel like I've met a kindred spirit with him. His appreciation for nature, his genuine kindness... and he's certainly attractive. I usually tend not to focus on superficial aspects like that but I'm finding it hard to ignore in this instance."

The cook chuckled to himself. "He's also a big ol' wuss!"

Dawn turned to glare and perhaps feeling her icy stare shooting daggers at him, his tone got more serious. "Look, I've had to work closely with the guy before when I tried to strike up a secret alliance with him. So here's some advice. Man's a goody two shoes mama's boy that's chivalrous to his own fault. No matter how much he may or may not like you back, he ain't gonna make no first move. He ain't got that dog in him. You wanna try and make things happen, you're gonna have to take the lead and be stern with him. Tell him straight up how it is and make sure he listens!"

Dawn paused for a moment, digesting that info. All things considered, it seemed to line up with what she could already tell from DJ's aura. Her annoyed glare turned into a surprised smile. "That may actually prove to be useful advice. Thank you, Norbert, I really appreciate it."

Chef laughed and waved it off, not noticing her silently leaving. "Ah don't mention it, I'm rooting for-" Suddenly he realized what she had said. "Wait, how do you know that name?!"

He turned around but she was already gone. "Hey get back here, I ain't done talking to you!"

*** Outside Economy Class ***

As luck would have it, soon after leaving the confessional Dawn found herself bumping into DJ in the jet's hallway. She perked up upon seeing that he was, indeed, still airborne. "Greetings, DJ. I hope you're holding up well after the elimination ceremony."

The brickhouse smiled back, but noticeably weakly. "Well the good news is I'm still here. Bad news is Beth's not. She was pretty much the only real ally I had left on the team so I'm looking at a pretty rough spot right now. She tried to get Leshawna to vote with us but all that wound up happening was her throwing the vote so it'd go to a tie."

"Hmm. Well that's at least better than if she had just voted for Beth outright, isn't it?" Dawn pointed out. "It certainly sounds like she had made some sort of progress with Leshawna. Perhaps you could finish bridging the gap to earn her support in case your team has to vote again?"

Well it wasn't like he wanted to deal with yet another elimination, if only that damn Team Explosive would stop avoiding losing so many times. "Yeah, that's what I'm holding out hope for. My plan is to try and talk to Leshawna sometime soon and convince her that it's better for the both of us if we work together. She's been tight with Trent and Cody this whole time so it'll be tough, but I gotta try, right?"

Looking down at his companion he was starting to get an idea. "Actually, I was about to go bounce some talking points I'm thinking of using on her off of Chef, but he may wind up just ignoring me. Wanna lend me an ear? If it's no trouble, that is."

She beamed happily up at him. "Of course, I'd be happy to help."

While those two began going over DJ's plan, elsewhere in economy class a different potential relationship was seeing a development. Or rather, Cody was looking on in deep thought as he met Sammy's gaze. The two exchanged a wave and Cody returned to his seat. Something was definitely on his mind.

Same was true for Trent, though for him he was focused on the vote they just survived. Him and his bandmate had been on pretty much the exact same wavelength all season, he knew they voted together. And there was a tie, so DJ and Beth probably both voted against Cody. Hard to blame them considering his performance in the challenge, but still. What bothered him, though, was the fact that it was a tie in the first place. That meant Leshawna didn't vote with them. With either pair. Cody was in serious danger of elimination in a tie breaker like that, why on Earth wouldn't she-

"Psssst, Trent. You got a sec?"

Cody knocked the guitarist out of his daze and he tried to put the ceremony out of mind for now. "Yeah man, of course. What's up?"

The tech geek darted his eyes around and kept his voice to a low whisper so only the two of them could hear. "I think it's time you gave me... The Talk."

Trent's eyes went wide. "Er, what kinda talk are you thinking?"

"Uh, a dating talk? The heck did you think I-" He shook it off, it wasn't important. "But yeah, the date talk. I want to get your advice on how to not mess this up, I wanna try and make my move."

Oh thank goodness, it's just that. Trent sighed in relief. "You really think you need advice for that at this point? Do you even realize how many fan girls you have?"

"Unfortunately yes, I think you of all people should know from all the horror stories I've told on the tour bus. There was a lot of stuff that didn't even make it to air in World Tour. Want me to remind you of the sock incident with Sierra?" His friend suddenly tensed up and vehemently shook his head. "Didn't think so. This is different. Something, you know, legit? I think me and Sammy have a really good bond forming, but I have no experience on how to do this without dropping the ball. You on the other hand..."

"You say that like the world didn't get to see me drop the ball with Gwen live on TV. She seems to really like you, dude, you'd have to go pretty out of your way to somehow mess it up." Ah hell, now Cody was giving him the puppy dog eyes. Trent couldn't stand it when he whipped those out. "Fine, fine, I'll give you some pointers. Not like we have much else to do for passing the time anyway."

*** Confessional: Cody ***

"I came inches away from getting eliminated in that tie breaker. If Beth would have beat me, I'd be gone and I wouldn't have gotten any closure with Sammy. This isn't like my dumb crush on Gwen or... whatever you want to call everything that happened with Sierra. I think this could be the real deal, so I'm not about to let there be any regrets. Who knows what could happen if her team or mine go to elimination next, so I'm going for it!" He looked to the side nervously. "Harold pulled it off, right? So I should just follow his lead. Well, the romance part at least. I'd rather avoid the whole winding up in a wheelchair thing, been there done that."

*** In Economy Class ***

Of course that just left one more team to check in on, not that things were particularly lively for Team Explosive. The six of them were starting to feel like they were in a sort of limbo, they were the only team with significant drama within themselves, yet at the same time they had somehow managed to avoid elimination since Shawn was cut. Beardo and Sugar looked at the situation in a glass half full kinda way, for Jasmine and Amy it was glass half empty, while Dave and Sammy were somewhere in the middle. Whatever the case, they largely just sat in an awkward silence. But the pageant queen could only take that for so long.

"Say, Davey boy, you still talking to Sky these days?" If she was picking this particular subject matter out of pure curiosity or specifically to get under the guy's skin was anyone's guess. "Y'all probably had a hoot talking about everything from that finale, didn't ya? Maybe make you and that Keith feller throw down for the right to date her!"

Dave narrowed his eyes but wouldn't meet Sugar's gaze. "I haven't spoken a word to her since Pahkitew Island and I have zero interest to ever do so. If I had to wager a guess, I'd assume the feeling is pretty mutual."

"Oh. Guess that must suck for y'all then. But hey, maybe it ain't all bad! Maybe she's got like a sister or something you could date instead." That idea seemed to amuse her for some reason, putting her deep in thought. "What do you guys reckon her kin would be named anyway? Ground? Water? Maybe Sand?"

Former flame of the girl in question didn't look amused at the train of thought. "She could be named Lava for all I care, it'd just mean being near Sky anyway and making things awkward. No thank you to that either."

Beardo has been making sound effects to accompany each of Sugar's suggested names, ending on a sizzling skillet for Dave's. The germaphobe gave him an annoyed glare and he stuck his hands up defensively. "Heh, sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood."

"And you know I hate those sound effects," Dave pointed out. "So why the heck would it lift my mood?"

"No need to be so grumpy about it," Jasmine spat. "Bloke's just trying to pass the time."

Now it was Amy's turn to jump in. "You're one to talk about being grumpy, you've had a stick up your butt ever since Italy."

"Gee, I wonder why that could be."

Sammy sighed, uninterested in participating in any of this. By now she was well aware that trying to dispel arguments between her sister and best friend were fool's errands, and she wasn't about to involve herself with Sugar provoking Dave's relationship baggage memories. This was just gonna have to run its course, so for now she excused herself to go sit literally anywhere else. Or perhaps more specifically next to someone else.

"This seat taken?" she asked, popping a squat next to Cody. Thankfully him and Trent had been keeping their volume low, seems she didn't realize they had just been talking about her. Her crush tensed up and quickly tried to compose himself after an elbow from Trent.

"Yeah, for sure." He paused and shook his head. "Er, I mean yeah you can sit here, not that the seat's taken. Heh."

Trent raised an eyebrow at his friend's lack of rizz but it got a giggle from Sammy. "Thanks. It just gets exhausting listening to... all of that so often. Things any better with your team?"

"Well I'm still here!" He chuckled awkwardly. "But er, I almost wasn't. Had to compete in a tiebreaker that got way too close for comfort."

Seems this was gonna be as good an ice breaker as any. Trent gave a subtle nod to his friend and did one of those fake yawn and stretch things. "If you don't mind I'm gonna go take a walk and clear my head. I'll leave you guys to it."

With a wink towards his bandmate Trent took his leave. On his way out he met Leshawna's eyes and paused. Trying to get a read on her was tough, he could tell she didn't want to talk about the ceremony. Eventually she looked away and he wasn't interested in pressing the issue for now, so Trent kept walking. The eating quarters were nice and empty for now, so he pulled up a seat. At some point along the way he had grabbed his guitar, so he tried strumming a tune to pass the time.

"Tch, I know she has to play her own game. It's not like I'm mad at her or anything, I just wish she would have been straight up with us instead of letting Cody get blindsided with a tie." Realizing he was talking to himself, he laughed it off and focused on his playing. Nothing helped clear the mind quite like getting into the zone on his guitar. He could just think over things in peace. Would Cody successfully ask out his crush? How was Harold's injuries healing up? Could Justin-

"Sounds nice, watcha playing?"

He stopped, looking over to find Amy of all people now sat beside him. Why? He hadn't the faintest clue. He tucked the guitar away and raised his eyebrow. "Uh, nothing in particular. Just trying out some potential new tunes I guess. Can I help you?"

"Ugh, I got tired of listening to Jasmine, she just doesn't know how to let something go." Which was true, though she mostly left because she noticed Trent walking away and saw an opportunity. "So I thought I'd take a walk and I was drawn to the sound of your guitar. You don't mind an audience, do you?"

"Well it'd be weird if I did considering the whole band thing and all," he deadpanned, not buying the innocent act. "But why are you REALLY here?"

Huh, a tough nut to crack, eh? Well Amy could work with that, maybe the chase would be fun. "Do you really need another reason? I mean come on, you're all alone out here with just you and a pretty girl and you're questioning things?"

"Pretty girl?" Trent snickered, now catching on to what her motive must be. "So you followed me out here to flirt?"

Amy's expression fell and she stared at the guitarist in disbelief. "Ok seriously what is with guys here and sucking the romance out of the air by calling attention to it?"

Trent scoffed. "Yeah, sure was a lot of romance going around when this is like the first conversation you've ever had with me. Not that I don't know who you are or anything, though. You DO realize people still watch the show even if they're not competing on it, right? As in I know what your whole deal is?"

She blinked, not following. "What's your point? You know I'm a super hot girlboss, what else is there to get?"

"Yeah I was thinking more the gaslight portion of the trio," Trent mumbled, shaking his head. "I don't know, maybe the whole emotionally abusing and bullying your sister thing? Ring any bells? You strike me as one of the most unpleasant people to ever compete on the show, you really think I want to pursue a relationship with someone like that? And people used to call ME crazy."

The cheerleader glared in offense. "Now wait a minute, you can't-"

He just put a hand up to cut her off. "Amy I can not stress this next point enough. I really don't care. I've been doing this band thing for a while now and I got my superficial date any hot girl that crosses my path phase out of my system really early on. I'd rather not have to deal with this anymore going forward so I'll nip this in the bud right now. I have zero interest. Heck, there's negative interest if anything. So please don't waste either of our time."

She glared at the musician, stewing in rage. But Trent was unbothered and just went to tuning his guitar.

"Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go back to playing. If you're going to sit and listen I can't stop you, but I don't have any interest in talking."

Yeah, somehow the idea of getting a private concert wasn't so appealing to her anymore. Amy stormed off and true to his word Trent just resumed strumming his instrument.

*** Confessional: Trent ***

"On one hand that was probably harsher than I'm used to being. On the other hand?" He shrugged. "I kinda don't care."

*** The Next Day ***

Thankfully the other interactions hadn't been as disastrous as Trent and Amy's. Both DJ with Dawn, and Cody with Sammy were able to enjoy each other's company and spend most of the night talking. Jasmine was also able to enjoy a rather peaceful night, for reasons she didn't know the mean twin wasn't in a talkative mood when she had returned to economy class. And as for the rest of Team Radioactive? Shoot, they were well rested and in high spirits.

A new day was upon the contestants and they were tolerating their grueling breakfast, pun intended. Beardo was very slowly making progress on his meal, making whining dog sounds as he toughed through it. Chit chat was shared and things remained relatively peaceful... until Chef barged into the room dragging a large basket next to him.

"Aaaaand here we go, right on cue." Dave sighed. "What, Chris couldn't be bothered to get out of bed this time so he's got you doing the work?"

Normally Chef would have a stern comment for some sass like that, but this kid in particular probably wasn't going to like what they had in store next so he just ignored it instead. The large man sat cross-legged behind the basket and whipped out a unique reed instrument, the pungi. He started (poorly) reciting a low humming tune from the pungi and slowly the basket started to open. Chris gradually rose from the container, swaying his body like a hypnotized snake. The fact that he had the restraint to otherwise be dressed in his normal clothes and not be clad in full turban and sarong was a shock for most.

Once Chef's song was done and Chris had removed himself from the basket, Dave sat there with crossed arms unimpressed. "I think I'm more upset at your lack of proper research if anything. You do realize snake charming is illegal in the country and has been for decades, right?"

"Hey now, let's not jump to conclusions here," the host defended. "I haven't even said where we're going yet!"

He was met with various unamused leers.

"Alright, sheesh, yes we're going to India. Don't blame me, blame my research team! I've got better things to do than look up silly things like laws before we enter a new country. You gotta admit, I pulled off the snake act pretty well."

"I really don't think that's the bragging right that you think it is, mate," Jasmine pointed out. "Just means you're a naturally slimy bludger."

"Have an intern look up what that means so we know if it has to be censored or not." Chris whispered to his co-host before turning back to the contestants. "Anywho, I know you guys are dying to know what we're gonna be doing today! Downright giddy even!"

Silence.

"That's the spirit! So first thing's first, before we get started I'm gonna need you guys to each pair up with one of your teammates."

Obviously that was just going to raise questions, with Amy voicing the obvious. "Aren't you gonna, like, tell us what the pairs are for?"

Chris grinned devilishly. "Of course I am! I'll tell you... right after you've made the pairs. It's more fun that way. Now chop chop, time is money!"

Annoying as the lack of information may be, there was no use arguing over the matter. So the contestants did as they were asked. Jasmine and Sammy wasted no time linking up, with Beardo and Sugar pairing up soon after. Obviously that left Amy and Dave together by default. Lightning and Brick were quick to team together, but Dawn and Anne Maria had no qualms with also being a duo. Finally was another obvious pair in Trent and Cody, leaving DJ with Leshawna. A free excuse to talk to her one on one so he can try to convince her to vote with him? That suited the brickhouse just fine.

"Interesting, very interesting," Chris mused as he looked over the various pairs. "Cool! Now before I get into the challenge details let me just do one more little thing first..."

*DING DING DING*

Instantly everyone was at attention and on edge. The usual whines and groans over a song rang out, with others even scrambling to finish their food since they were still mid-breakfast.

"Seriously, right now?" Leshawna protested, gesturing at her bowl. "I ain't even done eating... whatever this crap is."

Chris waved off the complaints. "Relax, relax, we're not actually doing any singing... yet. The reason I'm playing the tune now instead of when the song starts is because it's not meant to blindside you all this time. Instead, the song is actually going to be a major part of the challenge!"

That got everyone to ease up a bit, though now their curiosities were piqued.

"So how's that gonna work?" Anne Maria asked. "Team with the best singer wins?"

"It ain't that simple," Chef mumbled. "He told you what country we're going to, but he didn't say WHERE in the country."

"Right you are, dude," Chris followed up. "We're gonna be touching down in Mumbai! Formerly known as Bombay, aka the home to Bollywood! Believe it or not, Hindi cinema is actually the biggest center in the world when it comes to producing movies, even more than America. The town is crawling with a bunch of aspiring actors looking to get their big break into showbiz. Sucks to be most of them since not everyone can have actual talent like me! And while Bollywood joints like to pull from all sorts of different genres, there's one thing more associated with their movies than anything else. Their bombastic and earworm inducing musical numbers!"

Chef nodded and mumbled a sound of agreement. "So today y'all are gonna be performing your song in front of a legit Bollywood film crew. International market is gonna use it for commercials to advertise the season or something."

"Network is looking to make a big push into the Indian market with this season, the songs kinda help with that," Chris explained. "Anyway! That brings me to the pairs. You're gonna work together with your partners to prep for the performance. What you'll wear, what you're gonna be doing during the song, all that junk. The film crew is then gonna vote on how you suckers did! When the votes are tallied, we then distribute points. The best ranking team gets 7 points, second best gets 6 points, and so on."

"Doesn't that give Team Explosive an advantage since they have an extra team compared to us?" Leshawna pointed out.

Chris laughed. "Gee, it's almost like you guys should try avoiding going to elimination or something, it helps you out down the line! By all means if you wow the crew enough you can still beat Team Explosive, you just gotta work for it."

Everyone mumbled amongst themselves to soak all the info in. Team Explosive was in high spirits thanks to their extra pair, though it helped that the likes of Sugar and Beardo were already confident in their singing abilities. Likewise, the Drama Bros duo was just as eager to show what they had, though Leshawna and DJ were less excited. Team Radioactive weren't about to squander the boost in energy first class had afforded them. Even if they lacked professional singers they'd still try to make it work.

"So obviously the team who rakes in the most points wins first class," the host continued. "As for the team who ranks dead last, you should all know what happens to them by now. We'll be touching down near Film City soon, so finish up your meals and look sharp!"

The hosts left the contestants to their own devices, some talking over potential plans for their upcoming song and others just resuming their meals or conversations. Something was bothering Sugar, though.

"Film City? Didn't he say we was going to Mummy Eye or something?"

Dave rolled his eyes. "Mumbai is the actual town itself. Film City is a massive studio, they shoot a bunch of movies and TV shows there. They actually renamed it sometime ago but it's for the best that we didn't have to hear Chris butcher pronouncing Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari."

Sugar blinked a few times in silence. "That's the new name? I reckon people just say the old one because it's easier to pronounce then." Dave wasn't amused.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"Huh, I guess I actually have a bit of a South Asian homefield advantage. Never thought having to endure countless movie nights from my parents would actually help me out in a challenge, but here we are. I've seen more than enough musical numbers to know what we need to bring to the table and win this easily." He looked out the window, reflecting on everything. "Hopefully Team Old School loses again and actually follows through on eliminating Cody this time. Why the heck did they save him when he did the worst last challenge? If they're that stupid they deserve wiping themselves out."

*** Film City, On Set ***

Eventually the cast had been released into Film City and guided to points of interest. Namely where they could find various props and wardrobe options, though they were free to explore and see if they found anything that would make things better for their performance. Soon enough everyone was scattered about and divided into their pairs, each with their own idea of what to do. Some were more confident than other, such as Cody and Trent who found themselves perusing the instruments section of the props to pick something appealing.

"So do you think we actually have a shot at this?" the nerdier of the duo mused while looking over some drums. "I mean, obviously there's no question on our abilities but being two pairs against three is rough."

"Have you actually been listening whenever Sugar or Amy open their mouths during any of the songs?" Trent shivered. "I think we'll manage just fine. We just gotta do what we do best and trust that DJ and Leshawna will pull through. People might start calling us hack frauds if we somehow botch a challenge actually based around singing."

Somehow Cody wasn't convinced, flashing back to his narrow tie breaker escape. "Speaking of which, have you had a chance to talk to Leshawna yet? She's been real quiet since the ceremony happened."

No kidding, she's only had like one line this whole chapter! Trent shook his head. "Nah, she didn't seem up to it last night and I didn't want to grill her over her decisions when they're her's to make. It's not like we were ever officially an alliance or anything, just friends. She WAS paired up with Beth last time after all, voting for her may have been like admitting that she thought she messed up herself."

While not intentional, the mention of messing up just reminded Cody of his failure at his own challenge. Trent noticed his friend slouching his shoulders and decided to change the subject. "Hey, we all have our off days, don't worry about it. I'll talk to her after the challenge if we have to, alright? But enough about the downer stuff, how'd things go with YOUR talk? You and Sammy decided where you wanna go on a first date when the season is over?"

Cody chuckled nervously, twiddling his thumbs. "Er, heh, about that..."

The guitarist stared silently into Cody's soul. It was a knowing look, one of harsh judgement, annoyance, perhaps a twinge of disappointment.

"I-I mean it really was a great talk! She's awesome spending time with. It's just that I sorta... kinda... chickened out when it came to actually closing the deal." His bandmate inched ever closer, his harsh gaze sending a shiver down Cody's spine. "Next time I talk to her I'll do it, honest!"

Trent's eyebrow shot up. "That so? A'ight, bet."

Not giving the geek any time to react, Trent grabbed him by the ear and started dragging him away. Any protests or complaints would be ignored, he had to find what he was looking for. Thankfully, Sammy and Jasmine were just a few rooms over looking over wardrobe options.

"Tch, they're making it hard for me to find something that fits a shiela my height," Jasmine noted, rummaging through some extravagant costumes that were mostly far too small for her tall frame. "How's it going on your end?"

"There's so many," Sammy replied, nearly drowning in a sea of fabric. "All these colors, all these different patterns. It's kind of overwhelming picking out just one to wear. You think I could get away with wearing different stuff for different verses?"

Before Jasmine could reply, the pair were interrupted by the Drama Brothers barging into the room. Or rather Trent subtly pushing Cody in and blocking him from running away. With both girls looking at them, the tech nerd had no choice but to proceed. The Aussie exchanged a confused look with her partner and picked up on Cody's nervous expression.

"You alright, mate?"

"Actually we're in a bit of a pickle," Trent answered before his friend could try and weasel his way out of this. "There's a cool looking guitar back in the other room that we really want to use, but it's high up and I can't find a ladder anywhere. If you don't mind, think you could come help me out?"

Jasmine blinked in confusion. "Er, you DO realize this is a competitive challenge, don't y-"

Subtly Trent tried to motion with his eyes the true intention for needing to draw Jasmine away. He tried using his gaze to motion from Cody to Sammy, then back to the tech geek, waggling his eyebrows. She was in a relationship and was surely rooting on Sammy's end for the couple to become a thing, would he be able to break through to her? It took a brief moment but eventually she caught on. Trying not to smile, she sighed and followed Trent's lead.

"Fine, fine, I'll help you out. I reckon Cody can stay here and give Sammy a second opinion on the outfits in the meanwhile." She glanced over at Sammy, then back to the boys. "We can't take long though."

Trent nodded appreciatively and patted Cody on the back. "Hear that, dude? We won't be too long. Better hurry up and get to giving Sammy that second opinion."

With one last serious look at his friend, Trent took his leave with Jasmine following. Sammy smirked in amusement as Cody cautiously approached, mustering up his strength so he could look her in the eye.

"Look, Sammy, before we talk about the clothes thing, I have something I want to-"

"Do you want to go out with me?"

Cody paused, flabbergasted at what he just heard. "I-... huh?"

"Do you want to go out with me?" Sammy repeated, smiling nervously. "I mean, I've kind of got the feeling you like me too but you still hadn't asked yet and since we're here alone right now I figured this might be my best chance to ask."

The geek's jaw was dropped. All that pressure from Trent, all that build up to finally get the courage to bite the bullet, everything he had mentally mapped out... only to get beaten to the punch? He groaned into his hands. "Dang it, I was JUST about to finally ask you!"

And like a weight being lifted off of her, the nice twin could finally let out a relieved breath. She giggled and ruffled Cody's hair. "Well that's what you risk if you take too long! So is that a yes?"

"Of course it's a yes, I'd be stupid if I didn't say it!" He joined in on the laugh, shaking his head in disbelief. "I'm just sorry I didn't ask you earlier."

She waved a hand dismissively, though it did give her an idea. "Well if you wanna make it up to me, how about we hang out once the challenge is over? I know the plane isn't the BEST date spot ever but we can make it work."

Cody got a dorky grin. "You bet! Only problem is I don't really know where we could go for privacy. Even if one of our teams win, I don't think we're supposed to just freely sit around first class with each other."

Sammy rolled her eyes playfully. "The cargo hold should be pretty quiet and secluded. Maybe we could do a 'zombie check' for old time's sake?"

Damn, he didn't think of that. Had she been secretly planning this out for sometime now? Whatever the case, he nodded enthusiastically. "Sounds like a date then! Wish we could hang out now but, you know, dumb challenges and all."

"Tell me about it." Noticing that Jasmine and Trent were arriving back, Sammy pretended like she was focusing again on the outfits. "Well thanks for the input, good luck to you guys with the song!"

Cody hobbled over to Trent and the boys took their leave. The guitarist gave him an expectant look, so the shorter guy flashed a discreet thumbs up. Trent grinned proudly and punched him in the arm as a silent congrats. Likewise, Jasmine was unable to hide her sly grin upon rejoining Sammy at the clothes.

"So how'd it go?"

"Oh you know, just having a nice talk with my boyfriend is all," Sammy said, acting nonchalant.

"Hmph, I'm sure, ya cheeky devil." Jasmine chuckled and surveyed the outfits. Oh right, there was still a challenge going on. "Welp, back to work then. Lets pick you something out that's gonna knock Cody's socks off. Sound good?"

Sammy blushed and nodded in agreement, while a few rooms over Trent was already grilling Cody for details, busting his chops over getting beat to the punch. As jovial as their mood was, things were a bit more awkward over with DJ and Leshawna. The duo was practicing some dance moves and DJ was... unsure, to say the least, that they'd be able to pull out a win if Team Explosive were bringing their A-game. At the very least, potential elimination was something they had to prepare for. Meaning he very much needed to capitalize on this one-on-one time while he had it.

"Alright, strategic DJ time. You can do this," he whispered to himself for encouragement, getting psyched for what comes next. Just remember big guy, what would Courtney do? He faced his teammate head-on with a smile. "Let's take a breather for a second, we should probably go ahead and get our wardrobe sorted out before we lock down what kinda dancing we're doing. Wouldn't want to commit to a routine when we're wearing something that makes it uncomfy, right?"

"Worried you're gonna wind up with some ripped pants?" Leshawna snickered and turned off the nearby stereo. "Sure, I could use a quick break."

DJ took a breath to compose himself. "While we're doing that, you mind if I talk to you about something? It's, uh, related to the game."

His partner's expression fell, but she sighed in acceptance. She figured she's be hearing from him or Trent soon enough anyway, no reason to decline. "

"Didn't take you for the type that likes talking about that kinda stuff."

He chuckled. "Believe me, I don't, but at this point it's either this or resign myself to being the next one out. May as well finally show up and take things seriously, you know? Beth talked with you about not voting with Trent and Cody last time, right?"

"Well yeah, she wanted me to vote Cody out." She eyed him up skeptically. "Did y'all have some kinda alliance or something?"

"Courtney was the one to form it, but yeah." He averted his eyes for a moment due to the awkwardness. "She uh, sorta felt it was a necessity since it looked like Harold, Trent, Cody, and you were gonna be impossible for us to survive a vote against."

Leshawna folded her arms. "It wasn't like some big official alliance against y'all or something."

"Sure, but it would have been an unspoken thing where the four of you work together anyway," DJ pointed out. "Let's be real, if Harold hadn't got injured then Courtney would have been the next one out for sure. Then me or Beth, and the other leaving immediately after. None of y'all would have voted against each other when there were other options. And it'd work out evenly, at four it would have been you and Harold on one end, Trent and Cody on the other."

She looked off to the side saying nothing. There was no use denying it, dude had a point.

"Which is totally fine! I'm not like, mad at y'all or anything, that's just how the game goes. But one things led to another now, and I really think it's time we started reevaluating things. Tell me something, say something goes wrong this challenge and we go to elimination. I get voted off, right? But what happens if we lose the next challenge after this one too?" DJ gave her a serious look. "Who'd be voted off next?"

Leshawna was still silent for a moment, but nodded in agreement at what DJ was implying. "The boys wouldn't turn on each other, they'd vote for me. That's only IF we lost two more times in a row tho-"

"Girl, we were both on Team Victory, it can happen. You and me know better than anyone that it can't be ruled out." Alright, now to enter the next important talking point. "And even if y'all DO all make it to the merge, think about what could happen then. Cody and Sammy have been like PB and J together. He ain't gonna want to vote her off, and Trent isn't gonna piss off his bro for no reason. Add in the fact that she could also be bringing along Jasmine as a tight ally..."

Damn, that would make her what, the FIFTH wheel? The ghetto girl's eyes widened a bit in surprise. Just what in the world had gotten into this dude to be spitting all these facts? "So, what's the play here then? You're saying I should just rip the Band-Aid off now and make an alliance with you instead?"

"I mean... yeah?" DJ chuckled awkwardly. "Look, I know it may sound like a jerk move on paper, but this IS a game after all. You gotta do what's best for you to try and get that bag. Trent and Cody would understand, they wouldn't take it personally. And heck, at best this is just gonna put me in a tie breaker if we lose again anyway, so all this could be me blowing hot air for nothing. But at least this way we're giving it an honest shot."

He could tell she wasn't fully convinced, even if she was understanding of his perspective. Time to try and close the deal, just like how he practiced with Dawn! "This is the fourth season for both of us, right? We did pretty good in Island, Action didn't really pan out the way we hoped it would, and World Tour... speaks for itself, right?"

"Mhm," Leshawna mumbled, glaring off to the side. "Damn Alejandro..."

"So if I were a betting man." He paused and looked at the nearest camera. "Which I ain't! Don't worry, Momma! But yeah, IF I was, I'd wager you're feeling a lot of what I'm feeling this season. I'm tired of being an afterthought, tired of people not taking me seriously, tired of the idea that I'm just gonna roll over and do nothing while the bigger personalities get to ride to the finale. Who says this can't be MY turn to be a finalist! Or YOUR turn! Any of that sound like it's hitting close to home?"

Honestly, Leshawna couldn't help but laugh in disbelief. All of this coming from someone like Courtney would have made sense, but DJ? Guess this game could continue to surprise her even after all these years. Still, while his points were solid, the idea of Cody linking up with Sammy in the merge did bring a counterpoint up. "One thing, how do I know you won't find yourself with someone else come merge time that you'd rather keep over me?"

DJ blinked in surprise, unsure who she even had in mind, but thought fast. "Then we'd find a fourth member to link up with you so everything stays fair. Sound good?"

He stuck his hand out, trying to mask his inner nervousness. The conversation went pretty much beat for beat how he and Dawn had practiced, would she be convinced? Leshawna stared at the hand for a while, letting everything digest properly. On one hand, she didn't want to make Trent and Cody feel betrayed. On the other, maybe DJ was right and they wouldn't take it personally. She really did want to give winning a genuine shot this time, and she couldn't do that if she was being on the receiving end of another Team Victory situation. Eventually she made a decision...

... and shook his hand. "Fine. I don't know what the hell's made you so savvy all of a sudden, but I ain't complaining."

"A million bucks is a pretty good motivator for change," he replied with a relieved grin, finally able to let out the breath he'd been holding in. "But let's get back to it. It'll save us some stress if we just win and don't have to worry about the ceremonies."

Leshawna nodded. "I hear ya. I'm gonna run down the women's wardrobe then and see what they got, you check out the men's selection. We'll meet back up in 20. Sound good?"

"Sounds good," he confirmed. Leshawna jogged off and DJ started searching for his destination.

*** Confessional: Leshawna ***

"Tch, I guess I should have caught on that the game's getting serious now with the way Beth approached me last time." She folded her arms and sighed. "I still can't believe DJ of all people is the one asking for an alliance, but he brought up too much truth for me to turn a blind eye. Trent and Cody are my friends and all, but I ain't about to get third wheeled out of a million bucks for them. DJ ain't the backstabbing type, I think I can trust him to be a solid ally. But I got my eye on him, the moment him and Dawn get too chummy, I'm making sure I got that second ally to make sure it ain't the same story with a different crew!"

*** In Film City ***

Because the studio was so large, it was pretty easy to get lost in the halls. DJ had passed by multiple sets in mid-shoot, Beardo and Sugar experimenting with some instruments, even Dave preparing some headgear. Eventually he could hear the boisterous voice of Lightning coming from somewhere down the hall.

"Yo Brick, check out this scarf! Think it fits for the show, Lightning's kinda feelin it!"

Ah, good, just the room he was looking for! DJ rounded the corner... only to find his path blocked by Amy lying in wait.

"Hey big guy, your partner go missing?" Not like she was going to let him answer, this wasn't about Leshawna. "That's so crazy, me too! Wanna take a walk with me so we can look for them?"

"Uh... no?" To say he was confused would be an understatement. "I didn't lose Leshawna, we're just both getting our outfits ready. No need following her into the women's room, right?"

He tried walking around the mean twin but she shifted positions to keep him blocked. "Well that's good, it saves us half the trouble. I could really use some help finding Dave, though. This place is so big, so many rooms, a bunch of sets. I could really use a big strong man to help me out..."

DJ blinked once. Twice. Three time, trying to wrap his brain around what was happening. Had he even exchanged any words with this girl all season? Was someone pranking him right now? He looked around for the hidden cameras but all the cameramen for the show itself were around so that was pretty much fruitless.

"I, uh, saw him getting some headgear earlier so he's probably still doing that. He was just down that way." He jutted his thumb behind him down the hall and used the momentary distraction to slip past Amy. "I gotta get back to work, hope you find him though!"

And he just waltzed on into wardrobe as if Amy hadn't just dropped a flirty comment towards him. The cheerleader stared off in disbelief, mouth agape. Lightning was one thing, guy was an idiot. And apparently Brick was gay? So whatever, no dice there. But between Trent's vitriol and DJ's lack of any reaction even a confident ego as solid as her's was starting to have its doubts. But then again, her lesser sister was able to catch a boy's attention. Surely she'd be able to too, and this time with a hot one!

"... maybe he's just so focused on the challenge that he's being oblivious. Yeah, yeah that's it." She composed herself and regained her confident aura. "I'll just hit him up again when this is over."

"Hit who up?" a new voice said, somehow immediately behind Amy. She jumped back with a yelp, and hey speaking of aura it was Dawn! "I certainly hope you aren't planning something physical."

A shiver ran down Amy's spine. Something about just talking to this weirdo gave her the heebie jeebies. "Yeah, no, as in flirting with a guy not literally hitting someone, duh."

"Ah. Well if your romance life is as superficial as your aura lets on, I'd feel truly sorry for the unfortunate soul on the receiving end." She either didn't notice or didn't care about the twin's offended reaction. "Though somehow I doubt you'd have much success with the boys of this cast."

Was that a bet? Amy scowled and flipped her hair to the side defiantly. "Hmph, what would you know about what I can and can't pull off? You'll be the one looking stupid when I have DJ wrapped around my finger before the day is over."

Dawn's expression changed subtly from stoic and uncaring to deadly serious. Amy would need to choose her next words very carefully. "DJ?"

"Yeah, he seems like the only decent options left. Especially now that he's not stuck hanging around that gross nerd a bunch. Just watch, give me one hour after the challenge and-"

"That's not a good idea, Amy." Dawn suddenly cut in, inching closer to the Explosive member. "In fact, it's a terrible idea. Disastrous even."

The cheerleader folded her arms. "Oh yeah? Says who?"

"Says me." She scooted ever closer. Amy tried taking a step back, but the moonchild followed so that no distance was put between them. "And you should take care to listen to me if you don't want to look like a fool."

"What are you-"

"You're not DJ's type. In fact, he detests vain people such as yourself." Dawn tilted her head to the side, now uncomfortably close to Amy and piercing her with a menacing leer. "If you were to ask him out, things might start looking bad. You could wind up hurt, Amy. Do you want that? You may look like a fool on international television. Do you want that? DO you want that, Amy?"

She didn't dare respond, just stare at Dawn in a mix of fear and confusion.

"No. I didn't think so." A smile crept its way through as Dawn observed Amy back away slowly. "So leave. Abandon the idea. Right now."

Amy didn't need to be told twice. With her permission to escape, the mean twin turned around and booked it down the hallway to get as far away from her as possible. Dawn was satisfied with her work, grinning proudly, though once she was gone it started setting in that she might have gotten a bit too intense. The camera panned over slowly to reveal Anne Maria standing behind her, eyebrow raised.

"So... you think she got the message?"

Truly in what must have been a rarity, it was the moonchild's turn to tense up at someone else's sudden appearance, her face turning a crimson red. "I believe so, yes. And I'd appreciate if we both moved promptly along from this and never spoke of it again."

Anne Maria smirked, taking note of Dawn's refusal to meet her eyes. It was rare seeing her so flustered. "Eh, if you ask me it was some hot girl material right there. But if you don't want DJ knowing you went off on a bitch, I ain't go no reason to spill."

"I thank you for that. Truly." She sighed and led her partner elsewhere. "Let's get back to it then."

*** Confessional: Dawn ***

The girl's head was buried into her hands, once again that bright glow of red. "Dear Mother Earth, WHY am I letting this influence me so significantly? You don't even need to read DJ's aura to know he wouldn't give a loathsome bully like Amy the time of day. So why did I still let that trigger a jealous reaction in me? Sound as Norbert's advice may be, perhaps it's for the best I just focus on the challenge for now before I make a fool of myself."

*** Confessional: Chef ***

"That AIN'T my gosh darn name!"

*** In Film City ***

Since his own partner was currently missing, Dave had found his way to Beardo and Sugar and was trying to teach them how to dance Bollywood music video style. An uphill battle since the beatboxer's movements were stiff and awkward, while Sugar was going for some sort of line dancing approach.

"No no no, you've got to sway your hips like this," the germaphobe protested, doing a little shimmy for demonstration. "Do it again!"

There was zero change, Sugar just shook her groove thang however she pleased while Beardo attempted to get his head in the game by humming the tune for Tunak Tunak Tun. Unfortunately he couldn't quite match the movements that Dave was making.

"For two people who actually LIKE to sing you guys don't really have any rhythm, do you?" Dave was about to make them start over, but all three paused when they noticed their teammate stomping into the scene. Her partner was too annoyed at her absence to notice the clearly pissed off scowl. "There you are! Where the heck did you wander off to?"

Not in the mood to talk, the cheerleader stormed past the group and looked for something to blow off steam with. Unfortunately for her, Sugar caught a glimpse of her scowl and pieced together a theory.

"You strike out with another one of them fellers?" She chuckled when Amy snapped back to send her a dirty look. "Guess so! Can't be as bad as what happened with Trent, right. What did pretty boy say about you again? That you were-"

Amy stomped up to her ally, having to exercise what bit of restraint she had left to not pounce on the larger girl. Perhaps Sugar was just trying to get a bit of friendly banter in with her. To her it didn't matter, the sting of defeat was too fresh and she was much too bitter to feel up for joking about it. Seeing a potential cat fight about to break out, Beardo let out a siren sound effect and forced himself between the two.

"A'ight break it up, we don't gotta start a scene! We're all teammates here, right?" Amy moved the glare his way and he chuckled nervously. "Uh, I t-think me and Sugar are gonna go keep practicing our dance moves somewhere else. Like, a few rooms over. Dave just come holler if you need us."

Sugar shrugged innocently and followed after her partner. Her mood seemed jovial as ever, it was unlikely she would have taken Amy's hissy fit seriously until she actually made a move. Dave stood to the mean twin's side, trying to decipher what he had just witnessed.

"What was that about striking out?"

"Drop it."

It was rare to see an ice queen like her so flustered. Dave thought that perhaps he was truly concerned for his partner, though in reality he was likely just worried that her being out of it would be a hinderance for the upcoming challenge. Either way, she needed to be calmed down.

"Look, if you need to talk about it with someone, I'm all ears" he offered. "I don't mind-"

"WHERE DOES SHE GET OFF THINKING SHE CAN TALK TO ME LIKE THAT?" Amy's fury erupted into a banshee screech. She picked up one of the nearby potted plants and tossed it wildly in a rage. Dave just narrowly ducked out of the way in time. "Next time she even THINKS about trying to tell me off, I'll really let her have it!"

The germaphobe cautiously approached his teammate, going in for one of those reassuring shoulder rubs. "I know, I know. Sugar can be in her own world sometimes, but you can't-"

"This isn't about Sugar, you idiot." She slapped his hand away and huffed off. "It's that stupid hippie girl from the other team."

"Dawn?"

Amy rolled her eyes. "I guess? You think I actually take the time to remember these loser's names? Whoever she is, all I was doing was trying to flirt with DJ and suddenly she comes in out of nowhere to try and make me look dumb! Who the hell does she think she is? Better yet, who the hell does she think I AM? She has a lot of nerve sticking her nose in my business."

"Ah." Well the good news was she didn't seem to actually be too mad at her own teammate? Still, things would be a lot smoother if Dave could get Amy to get over it. He racked his brain for a moment, looking around at the set they'd soon be doing their music video in. "I don't really have the full context about what's going on or what she did to piss you off, but if it's got you so mad maybe we can get a little payback?"

Now he had her interest. She quirked an eyebrow and composed herself a bit. "Go on..."

"You remember when I suggested you guys should sabotage B, right? It worked like a charm and we got him kicked off." He'd ignore the part where they still lost the challenge and supposedly would have lost someone had the vote not been a tie. "Maybe we should do something like that again. We mess with Dawn's pair, get them to screw up during the performance, and their team loses for sure. It's not like a bunch of bumbling meatheads like Brick and Lightning are gonna rake in a bunch of points to compensate. And if you're them, who would you rather vote off? Tough as nails Anne Maria, or someone who looks like a light breeze could knock them over."

Amy looked Dave up and down. He wasn't wrong, but him being the one to point out Dawn's twiggy stature was amusing to say the least. Still, guy was talking her language. "Getting that weirdo kicked off WOULD make me feel better... alright, I'm in! Congrats, you just trumped Sugar in being the better ally. At least you're actually suggesting something useful."

Dave smiled. Feeling appreciated was rare for him these days, he'd savor it where he could.

"Leave it to me, we'll get this sabotage prep done real quick then finish up rehearsing. Just follow my lead." As the pair walked off to find some tools needed for the foul play, Dave's mind wandered to Sugar's grilling that had kick started all of this to begin with. He tugged at his collar, whistling nonchalantly. "And you know... if it's a relationship with a guy that you're looking for-"

"Don't push your luck," she hissed, pushing him forward.

"Fair enough." He sighed.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"In retrospect I'm kind of shocked we've been able to avoid elimination for as long as we have. It's made things a bit too quiet here on my end. If I'm going to make people back home take me seriously, I need to start making more moves. Things go well, and I'll earn some more respect around here. And hey, if something goes horribly wrong, it's Amy that's taking the blame since she's the one feuding with Dawn." He got a sort of sinister grin. "I call that a win-win."

*** In Film City ***

Sometime later once prep time was over, everyone had gathered around for the music video. Since things tended to be unpredictable and wacky once the singing started, a picturesque outdoor set with a town façade had been chosen for the contestants to stretch their legs. Everyone was dressed up in different brightly colored outfits to match the location, with the girls wearing the likes of lehengas, saris, and blouses. For the men they wore sherwanis, achkans, or jodhpuris. Dave had even opted to wear a pagri. If you don't feel like Googling any of this don't worry, point was that they were all looking spiffy.

While the usual Total Drama approved cameramen were around, they were also joined by a large Mumbai film crew. Some even had clipboards out to take notes, while others had their eyes glued to the nearby monitors that would be displaying the video. With all the lighting, film grade mics, and more it was feeling much more official than their usual improvised song numbers.

"Almost feels wrong to be doing this with so much of a heads up," Leshawna noted while adjusting her sari. "Anyone know what we're supposed to be singing about anyway?"

"Glad you asked," Chris suddenly announced, watching in with the crew alongside Chef. "Remember that this is for a commercial that's going to be used for advertising the show. So with that in mind, you guys should really hype yourselves up and make Total Drama sound as enticing as possible! Suspense, danger, romance, whatever you think is gonna hook viewers into tuning in."

Cody and Sammy exchanged a look at the romance suggestion, both giggling. Her sister similarly shared a laugh with Dave, though that was after glancing over at Dawn. She was never gonna see it coming...

"One minute," a member from the Mumbai crew announced.

Chris was in the middle of passing popcorn to his co-host when he suddenly remembered something. "This is probably redundant at this point, but for the sake of tradition..."

*DING DING DING*

Game faces were on. Lightning and Brick exchanged a chest bump. Trent radiated confidence that could only come from a professional musician in a singing competition. Amy grinned wickedly, while Dawn raised an eyebrow as something started to feel off.

"Lights," the crew member spoke up once again. "Camera, and... action!"

---

Song Start!

"Come Watch Our Show." Parody of "Let's Groove," by Earth, Wind, & Fire

[A funky, almost disco-esque beat played as the sun rose in the background. Shrouded in darkness, the contestants were lined up in the town square now with a new piece to each of their outfits. Roller-skates. Beardo was in the center and the first to have the sunlight shining on him, forcing him to lead in the song.]

"To-tal Drama's on, tune in and watch.

To-tal Drama's on, this show's topnotch.

To-tal Drama's on, come down and see.

To-tal Drama's on, can't miss TV."

[By now the entire cast was bathed in light and subtly grooving to the music. Synth and brass echoed in the background, bits of percussion and electric guitar starting to leak in. Once Beardo's intro was done, the music swelled into a more upbeat poppy tune. Most branched off into their respective pairs and danced around on their skates. Beardo would briefly keep up repeating his portion, but Sugar circled her partner to kick off the pre-chorus.]

"Come watch our show! Listen to the song.

There's nothing better on. So come and watch our show!"

[Beardo and Sugar began syncing up their dance moves, earning a discreet side eye from Dave nearby as they let loose and grooved in an unorthodox hip hop-esque way that didn't really fit the flow of the song. Still, they were clearly having fun. Jasmine and Sammy rolled past and the camera followed them.]

"It's the show, that's got it all. There's drama, drama, draaaamaa.

The title, says it right there. Such drama, drama, draaamaa.

[The friends sung in unison, moving around gracefully despite passing nondescript silhouettes depicting the likes of a fist fight, a couple kissing as someone else watches in secret, and someone literally being stabbed in the back. Jasmine used her strength to lift her friend up and twirl her around. Sammy's outfit was a bit more revealing than what she was used to, something that Cody took notice of as the duo passed him. Trent quickly shook him back to his senses.]

"Juicy romance out the wazoo, it's all here. Cooome watch.

Hookups, cheating, dudes getting dumped, it's scandalous. Coooome watch."

[Cody zoomed past a collage of familiar scenes remade in paper mache while doing his song. One that resembled Geoff and Bridgette kissing in Action, another was the infamous Gwen and Duncan confessional kiss, finally was Ella's heartbroken reaction to Dave friendzoning her.]

"It's nooooot just mush. There's fights that hit like a truck

Our boooones will break. And it's aaall, caught on camera for you to watch, yeah!"

[Next was Trent moving around effortlessly while strumming an electric guitar. His set of scenes passed were more focused on brawls and injuries. Harold punching Duncan, Leshawna slapping Heather in the alps, Scott in the trauma chair, Owen being hit in the face with Chef's manifesto. Cody was now playing backup synth and the Drama bros both showed off their experienced dancing in full force.]

"Gross out food, making us puke. It's nasty, nasty, naaaasty.

Check it out, see for yourself. It's nasty, nasty, naaaasty."

[Anne Maria and Dawn were next on the scene, showing off various Styrofoam props that resembled food from challenges over the years. Lightning's frosted maggot, the bunion soup with nails in it, expired Juggy Chunks, the prison food. More curious though was how on edge Dawn immediately looked. Every once in a while her eyes would go wide and she'd suddenly jerk Anne Maria and herself into another direction. The Jersey girl was clearly confused but couldn't do much else since there was a song to focus on. Once the two were finally out of the area Dawn finally seemed to relax until she looked back at Brick and Lightning now rolling into frame.]

"Want the funny? We've got your back! Guaranteed, you'll laugh.

Groin shots, slapstick. Gaseous galore, we've got it all. You'll laugh."

[As Brick sung it looked like originally they had just planned going by little standees displaying each of his talking points much like previous pairs. However as they rolled past each area Dawn had jerked herself and Anne Maria away from, something seemed to take them by surprise. A bit of oil making Brick fall, mousetraps snapping him out of nowhere, a blast of fire that singed his unibrow. At the word 'groin' a bowling ball inexplicably missed hitting his foot but somehow bounced off the oil and hit his crotch instead. Somehow still singing through the pain, a stink bomb cloud nearly made him pass out with only a slap from Lightning keeping him lucid.]

"You'll laugh at our pain. It's fine, we probably will not die.

We'll get maaaauled by these beasts. And we'll keep coming back for more."

[Lightning managed to sing despite the obvious concern by everything Brick was going to. Soon enough both boys were finding themselves pelted with trash or being jolted by electricity. For the mauling line they were supposed to pose in front of some elephants but something seemed to have irritated the creatures and they chased the boys away.]

"Wait, there's more! How bout some tunes? They're groovin, groovin, groooovin.

This season, you'll hear us sing. It's ear worms, ear worms, eaaaaar worms."

[While Lightning and Brick worried about not dying, Dave and Amy rolled into shot while singing in unison. They exchanged a look, Amy seeming annoyed that it wasn't Dawn taking the sabotage, but Dave looking satisfied with his work. Their dancing was the closest to resemble the choreography that you'd see in a typical Bollywood musical number.]

"Round the world, pushed out a plane. We're fallin', fallin', faaaallin'.

New locations, never the same. Go worldwide, worldwide, woooorldwide."

[Sugar and Beardo joined in with the singing, doing their more bombastic dance moves that got annoyed looks from their teammates. Amy and Dave glared until the two finally relented and matched their more traditional motions.]

"Pick a fav, hope they win, or get sparred, better pray for them.

Or they'll lose, and fall out, of a speeding plane."

[Speaking of weird looking dancing, DJ was up for starting the bridge while his partner danced behind him in a way only Leshawna could. 24 Chris McLean standees were set up in front of him and with each breath he'd toss a bag of peanuts at one to send it tumbling down.]

"One can win, no one else. It's a million buuuucks.

Total Drama... is on!"

[As Leshawna sang she joined her partner in pelting the standees with nut packets, quickly whittling it down to just one left standing. She started repeating the "Total Drama is on" line a few times while DJ sang backup, mirroring Beardo's lines from the intro.]

"Come watch our show! Yeah, by now you know.

Go grab the remote. And tune in to our show!"

[Sammy sung the first line of the pre-chorus while Jasmine took the second. In the background DJ and Beardo alternated between doing bits of the "To-tal Drama's on" intro. The girls continued exhibiting surprisingly in sync dancing while circling around Trent and Cody playing their instruments. Once they were done it was time for a horn solo, curtesy of Brick, though he was keeping one eye open to watch out for any incoming hazards.]

"Chris McLean, hosting the show. With drama, drama, draaaama.

What else can, we really say? There's drama, drama, draaama."

[Dawn and Anne Maria covered the chorus again, which spelt bad news for the horn player. Try as she may, Dawn only had time to get her and Anne Maria out of harm's way. Brick and Lightning kept rolling into the path of various traps before she could reach out to stop them. One would be hit with eggs, the next a pissed off cat with sharp claws, the next a plank of wood. By the end of it all Brick was just straight up flattened under a piano, Lightning hurrying to dig him out of the rubble.]

[As the song slowly went to an outro, various pairs took turns repeating renditions of the chorus for a last bit of brownie points. Trent and Cody on their instruments, Dave and Amy with their faithful dancing, DJ and Leshawna getting their groove on. Team Radioactive, while still singing, were now too busy grouping together and making sure Brick survived to the end of the song.]

---

"Aaaaand cut!"

The Bollywood film crew immediately crowded around to deliberate on results while Chris and Chef looked on bemused. "Nice work out there, dudes! I especially liked Brick and Lightning's strategy of beating the snot out of themselves to really drive home the whole slapstick appeal, good stuff."

Lightning blinked in confusion. "Uh, WAS that what we were doing out there? That'd explain a lot."

Brick responded with an incomprehensible happy gurgle.

"What the heck was all of that anyway?" Anne Maria piped up. "I mean, it was ONLY happening to us! Where did all that crap even come from?"

"I have a few theories," Dawn said, giving a stern glare Team Explosive's way. "I sensed sudden spots of negative energy during the song, but unfortunately I was only fast enough to stop us from crossing its path. I'm truly sorry that I couldn't get you out of the way in time, boys."

Always full of wisdom, the cadet acknowledged her with a pained thrum.

"A'ight contestants, the results are in," Chris announced, gathering everyone around for the announcement. "And it was a CLOSE one. Seriously, each team even had a pair that got ranked in the top 3! Results were all the way over the board with this one."

Riding the high of watching his sabotaging work so well against Brick, Dave chuckled and pretended to brush dust off his shoulders. "Told you guys showing off authentic Bollywood dance moves would do the trick. If all of you would have just listened to me we'd probably ALL be the top 3."

"Nice confidence there, Dave! Would really be a shame if someone did something to put a dent in it." Not missing a beat, Chris turned to face a different explosive pair. "Totally unrelated but, Jasmine and Samey! You girls were popular for your super sweet dancing and seamless chemistry, BUT it wasn't enough to beat the other top contender teams. So it looks like you guys ranked 3rd!"

He'd give a few moments for the germaphobe to realize he hadn't even cracked the top 3 and despairing over it before continuing. "Trent and Cody, you wowed the crowd with your instrument skills and professional level singing! However, you were missing a bit off that pizzaz to get you the highest amount of points. 2nd ain't bad though."

The recently formed couple exchanged smiles over their high placements, though Trent looked a bit disappointed over not securing first.

"Which means Dawn and Anne Maria were actually the ones to get the full 7 points! Seems the crew thought you guys looked, moved, and sounded awesome. We're not really sure what was up with all your erratic movements, but whatever the case the crowd thought you oozed star power!"

"Tell me something I didn't already know," the Jersey girl boasted, applying a celebratory coat of hairspray. Her more peaceful teammate just gave a neutral smile.

"So now that you guys know who on your teams didn't screw up today, let's get down to business. The pair that scored 4th locks in our First Class riders this time around. Thanks to them their team is safe and sound tonight, and that pair is..." Chris paused for dramatic effect, pointing out a finger and hovering it back and fourth between all remaining duos. Eventually it landed on... "Lightning and Brick! Which means Team Radioactive wins first class again!"

Genuinely surprised all things considered, Anne Maria and Dawn embraced in excitement. Lightning cheered and held his hands up victoriously, though that allowed Brick to fall like a sack of potatoes. To his credit, he managed to squeak out a victorious murmur despite his state.

"WHAT?" Dave and Amy yelled simultaneously.

"The crowd's spoken, they didn't think the singing was too great but they loved the entertainment Brick and Lightning brought by taking all those hardcore stunts on! Hehe, yeah, stunts. Let's go with that. Can't go wrong with making your audience laugh to rake in some points."

In other words, the punishment from the sabotaging actually worked in their favor. The mean twin gave her partner a scowl, him just chuckling nervously.

"So obviously Team Radioactive scored 11 points total. Our losing team scored 8 points while the mid middling morons got 9!" Ah, sweet sweet dragging things out for added suspense. The host surveyed the remaining three pairs with a sadistic glee. "DJ and Leshawna! Obviously you dudes got your work cut out for you, it's both of you compared to two whole other pairs. However, if you guys ranked 5th, it means you're safe and Team Explosive loses. But if either one of their pairs are 5th, it's back to elimination for you guys! If you're curious, the crowd liked your enthusiasm, singing was ok, but the dancing... yeesh."

Leshawna glared in contempt. Was her boyfriend seriously the only one on the whole planet that could appreciate her amazing dance skills? DJ was feeling the sweat.

"As for you explosive dudes, the crowd actually really liked Beardo... but Sugar was their least favorite out of everyone. Hated her singing, hated her dancing, hated her outfit, hated her everything!"

"Y'all ain't got no taste," aforementioned pageant queen screamed at the film crew, tossing a shoe. "This is why the pilgrims won!"

Chris opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it and shook his head. Maybe the best call was to just move right along and not acknowledge what was wrong with she just said. Yeah, probably the right call. "Anyway, Dave and Amy. The crowd didn't mind your singing, they liked your attire, and they'd normally appreciate your dance moves that felt straight out of a Bollywood flick, but they didn't really think it fit for the song you performed. Maybe if it had been an Indian pop song or something-"

"How was I supposed to know it wouldn't be?" Dave protested. "It's BOLLYWOOD, why wouldn't it be a song that'd fit?"

"Save it for someone who cares, brah." Chris chuckled in amusement. "But enough stalling. Since DJ and Leshawna's placement is the deciding factor we'll go ahead and reveal their placement. And they... came in... not last place... that was Beardo and Sugar by the way... yes they hated Sugar's singing that much... but anyway... they... got-"

"Boy if you don't hurry your ass up!"

The host ducked a shoe this time thrown by Leshawna. "Hey! Sue a guy for wanting to milk the sweet sweet tension, geez. Now I don't feel bad saying that you guys came in 6th! Amy and Dave got 5th, meaning Team Explosive is safe! Team Old School, you guys got a date with the Boot of Shame!"

Groans echoed out from not only the losing team but even members of Team Radioactive. Seems even the winners were raring to see Team Explosive finally kick someone off again. But haters be damned, most of the team would celebrate their 2nd place finish. All except Sammy, who looked on at her boyfriend in concern. As everyone started to disperse, she approached Cody and offered a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"Hey, it's gonna be alright. We're gonna have that date, remember?"

Cody perked up a bit but a cloud of doubt was lingering in the back of his mind. Could he truly promise that it would happen? "There's a good chance I'm going to be put in another tiebreaker, Sammy..."

"Which means there's a good chance you're going to WIN another tiebreaker," she reassured him, smiling confidently. "It'd be me doing one against my sister if our team lost. I would have kicked her butt, so you're going to kick butt too. You've got a date to look forward to, use that as motivation."

He couldn't help but smirk, turning a light shade of red. "Yeah. Yeah! I AM gonna kick some butt. I mean heck, if it has to be related to the challenge like it was last time, that means it'll be singing related. I can win that easy."

"Despite how little you sang back in World Tour, right?" Sammy giggled and pulled him in for a hug. "I know you can do this."

For the time being, the two would enjoy their moment, but others had to get to work. Trent caught Leshawna's eye and gave a knowing nod. They needed to talk, and soon. DJ wouldn't miss a beat though, soon he was at the girl's side. A strange bit of static flickered across the screen.

"So, we still good for this vote?"

Leshawna faced her teamate. "-#&!/"

"I gotcha," he responded. "For what it's worth I'm thinking the vote should be for ?!-~"

"[[[[[[]]]]]?"

Meanwhile nearby, 244569420110378675309-...?

*** C0nfe22i0nal: D?!- ***

...

Audio crackled and popped in a glitchy high tone, gargled static making whatever was going on incomprehensible. Eventually the static changed to shades of scarlet and violet before the screen went completely dark. An elaborate Pokémon reference or something more sinister? Who knows. For a few moments there would be nothing but silent blank nothingness. No audio, no picture, nada. But eventually, the screen flickered back to life, showing an extreme closeup of Chef.

"Is it working?" Chris' voice echoed behind him.

"Think so," the larger man grumbled. He stepped back, revealing that they were in the elimination ceremony room. Chris tapped his foot impatiently behind his podium while a confused Team Old School sat on the bleachers. A few interns crowded around the camera and tested a few more things.

"You're telling me EVERY SINGLE ONE of our hundreds of camera all went kaput just like that?" Chris seethed. "All at once?"

Chef shrugged. "Apparently? Tech nerds say they went out pretty soon after the challenge ended."

A beat passed, Chris' eye twitching as the info sunk in. "Which means we lost HOURS of footage between then and now?"

Well that he didn't know, so Chef looked to a chubby intern for the answers. The overworked employee whispered something in his ear and he sighed in relief. "Nah, they should be able to recover the footage in time for editing the episode. They were rolling, something just... went wrong with em I guess."

"Oh thank goodness." Chris' usual upbeat demeanor started to return, though there were still concerns. "But this is the only one working right now?"

The chubby intern nodded.

"Well we don't need anything potentially juicy from the other teams getting missed while things are rebooting." Time to whip out a tried and true classic! From out of nowhere the host produced his megaphone, Team Old School just barely plugging their ears in time. "Team Explosive and Team Radioactive! Due to technical difficulties, I need your butts down at the elimination ceremony pronto! Look on the bright side, you can sit in and watch someone get kicked off. You'll be able to return once we have the cameras up and running!"

Oh yeah, speaking of the vote maybe he should be prepared for that. Due to all this cameras fucking up nonsense, Chris had yet to even look at the votes! He peered at the passports, but had been working on his poker face so as to not give away what they revealed. Instead he merely chuckled and looked over the various interns.

"Well what are you waiting for? Get the cameras back to working! Time is money, people!"

As the interns filed out, the other two teams started to trickle in. Some annoyed, others confused, and a few curious about what was going down. They crammed into the bleachers to the best of their ability.

"This is weird," Leshawna noted, her teammates nodding in agreement. "You'd think the cameras would be the first thing they'd make sure is always working no matter what."

"Totally." Trent felt something a bit ominous in his gut about all this but shrugged it off. "Guess it's not our problem, though."

Once everyone was seated, Chris could whip out the tray with three barf bags at the ready. "Huh, maybe it's a bit cramped but I'm kinda liking this change of pace! Maybe I should let the other teams sit in on all ceremonies going forward. Just for funsies, ya know? But enough about that, let's talk turkey! Team Old School continues to suck eggs, so now one of them gets to take a dive. The good news is you guys have a 75 percent chance of it not being you. The bad news? 25 percent says that you're screwed."

Team Old School weren't the only ones nervous. Dawn and Sammy both looked on in concern for the guys they were supporting. Beardo was hopping the Drama Bros would make it out unscathed. Anne Maria knew what a robbed queen Leshawna was, wouldn't be fun to see her leave.

"First one to get a barf bag full of peanuts is... Leshawna."

A few eyebrows in the crowd shot up, some confused glances, others that felt they saw it coming.

"And also sitting pretty is... Trent!"

Sammy sucked in a breath, but remained optimistic. Her boyfriend could do this. Dawn meanwhile uttered a silent prayer to Mother Earth to give DJ strength.

"Which leaves us with Cody and DJ," Chris announced. "Codemeister, welcome back to the bottom two, I'm sure you missed it after your fun duel against Beth. And Big Deej! I know you've been pretty safe so far this go around, but I'm sure this is still familiar for you. You were in the bottom two, what, EVERY single time with Team Victory?"

The gentle giant glared back defiantly. "And I wound up safe every time until I was the last one standing."

"Sure, if you ignore the fact that Harold quitting saved you the one time, and you tried to throw it another." Chris chuckled and glanced at the nerdier teammate. "Plus Cody made it all the way to 3rd place that season, so if it's the one you wanna compare stats on..."

"Just get on with it already," Cody complained.

Usually Chris would have a snarky comeback, but he was excited to get things rolling. So he shrugged and held up the final puke packet. "One barf bag left, two dudes vying for it. Who's it gonna be, whoooo's it gonna be? The final... barf bag... of the night... goes to...

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... DJ."

A chorus of gasps rang out across the crowd. Even the safe boy in question was too shocked to grab his peanut packet in time, it bouncing off his head. "It... wasn't a tie?"

"Nope! No tie, Cody's just done like dinner, the votes don't lie."

Just as shocked as the others, Leshawna shook off the blindside enough to ask the first thing on her mind. "How's that even possible? Shouldn't it have been 2 to 2?"

Chris raised his hand and was about to speak when suddenly an out of breath Chef barged into the room.

"The cameras... they're all... back on again."

"Perfect!" The host gave the nearest camera a sinister smirk. "Yo editors! I think now's about when you should put in what all led to this, yeah?"

---

*** After the challenge ended ***

Things flashed back to the earlier scene immediately after the results of the challenge were announced. Sammy had just given her boyfriend a pep talk while Trent exchanged a knowing nod with Leshawna. DJ joined his teammate, nervous about the coming ceremony.

"So, we still good for this vote?"

Leshawna faced her teammate. "Yeah, I got your back. No use going back on an alliance immediately, ya know? I really ain't looking forward to having to tell Trent it ain't happening, though."

"I gotcha," he responded. "For what it's worth I'm thinking the vote should be for Cody. Nothing against the guy, but if it's something physical like it was last time it's my best bet."

She nodded in agreement. "Makes sense. Just make sure you don't underestimate that stringbean! He'll take the win from you if you're not careful. Better bring your A-game."

While the two of them continued to banter and speculate on what the tie breaker may be, they failed to notice a figure behind them finally moving around a corner, their eavesdropping done. Once the coast was clear and he was sure no one could hear him, Dave caught his breath and started to brainstorm. So half the team was voting for Cody, eh? He could work with that. Scenarios raced by in Dave's mind, ideas he could use to take advantage of this and help make a desirable outcome. If he could rope Amy and Sugar into this, with just a bit of convoluted scheming...

"Yeah, that'll work." He smirked to himself.

*** Confessional: Dave ***

"So the force Dawn to get voted off plan didn't go exactly as I envisioned it. I should have known things would be dicey with this being a challenge involving judges. Even if that plan was a dud, who's to say I should stop there? I think Amy's going to like what she hears."

*** Outside the Jumbo Jet ***

Speaking of the evil twin, her and Sugar had just finished putting up their Bollywood outfits. The pageant queen was in relatively high spirits, but Amy? Knowing that not only was Dawn NOT in danger of elimination tonight, but she was also enjoying the luxury and comfort of first class? When it should be AMY sitting pretty in there right now? Even the lack of elimination wasn't enough to stop her from stewing in her own rage.

So needless to say, she wasn't the most enthralled when Mr. Botched Plan himself popped up and motioned them away from anyone else's earshot. "What do you want, Dave?"

"Look I know the Dawn sabotage wasn't my best work, but I think we should try one more thing before the ceremony. It'll be worth it, I promise."

Sugar chuckled in amusement. "You gonna try to convince Dawn to quit or something?"

"We're putting a raincheck down for getting out Dawn. We'll make it happen, just not tonight." He glanced over at Amy and grinned. "But what if... we got out your sister's boyfriend instead."

Amy's eyes shot open. "Keep talking..."

"I overheard something really juicy." He peeked around to make sure they weren't being listened in on themselves. "DJ and Leshawna? They're voting for Cody. Sounds like they're expecting it to be a tiebreaker too, with Cody and Trent voting against DJ."

"Ooooooh, I getcha." The country girl smiled. "We're gonna rig the tiebreaker so DJ wins!"

"... no, not that. We don't even know what that would be or how we could go about rigging it." He held a finger up for a dramatic pause. "What we CAN do, though, is trick one of the band guys into switching their vote. And if those two don't vote together..."

"The two votes against the dork is enough to send him packing," Amy finished, unable to contain her wicked grin. "So that sounds good, but how do we make it happen?"

Alright, time to lay out the plan. This was gonna earn Dave some respect for sure! "It sounds like Trent is gonna try getting Leshawna alone to try and convince her to vote with them. While he's distracted doing that, we can strike. It's going to take a lot of moving pieces, though. Sugar, how close does Beardo feel to you?"

Huh, didn't expect to hear his name come up for the plan. "He trusts me just fine, I reckon. I don't think the boy ever had much friends so he's pretty much latched on to the idea that we're cool as a cucumber."

"Perfect. And Amy, do you think you could make a big yelling match happen with you and your sister?"

"What, are you kidding? I could do that in my sleep."

Oh yeah, it's all coming together. "Then we should be able to pull this off. Here's the plan..."

*** On the Jumbo Jet ***

"You're sure there's nothing I can say to change your mind?"

Leshawna leaned against the wall and sighed. "Trent I'm sorry, but no. It's my bad that I didn't give you guys a heads up last time, but I'll be straight up here. I'm voting for Cody. I've gotta do it. You and me both know that if I just voted DJ off and we lose again, I'M the one getting kicked off next time."

Trent racked his brain for something to retort, but there truly wasn't anything to say. He wasn't just gonna lie and promise to vote with her against Cody next time if it came to it, she had a point he couldn't deny. "I... I get it. It just really sucks that it's come to this."

"Agreed. But hey, Cody gets the chance to defend himself in the tiebreaker, right? Maybe he can pull off the win and none of this winds up mattering." She shrugged. "Either way, my hands are tied."

While this conversation was wrapping up, something malicious was brewing elsewhere on the plane. As per the plan, Amy and Sugar waited in economy class where Cody and Sammy were too wrapped up in their flirting to suspect any foul play lurking. DJ and Jasmine had excused themselves elsewhere so as to give the couple some privacy. Finally, for things to be pulled off seamlessly Beardo couldn't be in the room when things started. So Dave had called him out to the nearby hallway for a totally genuine and not at all distracting talk.

"Listen, I just want to apologize for snapping at your about the sound effects." Dave's acting wasn't half bad, so his tone seemed genuine enough for the beatboxer. "You see, I've got this hearing sensitivity and loud noises just kinda set me off. But I know they're kind of your thing, so I didn't mean to put you down over them."

"For real? Ah don't worry about it, man!" Beardo was positively giddy, here he thought this dude hated him! "I've been trying to cut back on em, but I guess they're kind of a coping mechanism, ya know? They just sorta come out. Sorry that it sets off your hearing thing."

The germaphobe had been watching the entrance to economy, waiting for his signal to go back in. "Hmm? Oh, right, it's no problem. You know, I'm sure you get this a lot, but how DO you pull those sounds off anyway?"

"Lots of practicing, mostly. Having a vocal coach helps." Beardo chuckled. "You'd be surprised what you can pull off when you learn how to really utilize your voice! I realize that might sound kinda ironic since I struggle talking to people at first, but-"

Suddenly the sound of two banshees screeching at one another blared from within economy class. Beardo was too startled to notice Dave's smirk, he'd never heard people yell at each other before with such vitriol and intensity. "What the heck is that?"

"I don't know, it sounds pretty serious," Dave replied, putting on his best fake concerned tone. "Maybe we should check it out and see if they need help?"

The boys entered the room only to immediately have a suitcase thrown into them. Amy and Sammy were locked into a screaming match that had quickly escalated to expletives and throwing things. What the argument was even about was hard to tell, it was as if the mean twin was making a fuss over nothing and pressing the right buttons to force her sister to clap back. Ready to step up, Cody was by his girlfriend's side and defending back just as loudly at Amy's hatred, also having to hold Sammy back to prevent her from jumping into a full on cat fight. Sugar meanwhile was staying out of the argument, but was likewise restraining Amy. In truth neither villain actually intended to escalate the argument any further, but they needed to make it look convincing. Once she noticed the boys standing there, Sugar gasped and slid up to them.

"Thank goodness y'all are here. Dave, hold Amy back while I talk to Beardo, would ya?"

Sugar pushed him into the battleground without warning and Dave did as planned, making it look like he was really struggling to keep Amy out of striking distance.

"The heck are those two so angry about?" the beatboxer asked.

"Ain't got a clue, you know how they like to go at it like cats and dogs. But it sounds really bad this time." Sugar moved the two of them out of earshot from the scuffle and pretended to look on in concern at Dave's struggle. "Look, scrawny boy don't seem like he can hold Amy back long so I gotta make this quick. Once they started getting real bad, Cody freaked out and told me something. Asked if I could go find Trent to tell him about the vote. I guess he wants to vote for Leshawna and Trent don't know it yet? He was gonna tell em himself but who knows how long those two are gonna be fighting and he ain't leaving Samey's side. He asked me to go tell him, but it looks like I'm gonna be stuck holding Amy back too."

Dave mused have hammered this script into her head a dozen times to make her go over it all without a hitch. Thankfully he seemed to be buying her acting. "You've talked to guitar boy a few times, right? You reckon you could pass on the message for him instead?"

Beardo stammered a bit, going wide eyed. Heck of a lot of responsibility to dump on the dude all of a sudden. "You're sure Cody really said that? You'd think they'd want to vote for DJ since she's closer to them..."

Darn it, she needed to hurry this up. Trent was gonna be walking this way any minute now. Amy intensified her yelling to signal that Sugar was cutting it close. "Of course I'm sure, he told me himself! Said she'd be easier to beat in a tiebreaker. You got my promise on this, just go let Trent know. Alright?"

He took a look at the yelling match, then back to Sugar. He gulped but nodded. "I'll tell him."

Sugar smirked and wordlessly went back to Amy's side, joining Dave with the restraining. It wasn't long after he left that Beardo wound up running in to the guitarist. They weren't far from economy, so the screaming match could still be faintly heard.

"Amy and Sammy are going at it, it's real bad," Beardo answered, noting Trent's puzzled expression. "Actually, I was just looking for you. Cody wanted me to pass on a message since he's busy keeping Sammy back. Something about wanting to vote for Leshawna tonight."

The musician's eyes shot open. Where the heck did that come from? "Instead of DJ? You're sure he said that?"

He nodded. "Something about thinking she'd be easier to beat in the tiebreaker than him. He was gonna tell ya but now he's got his hands full with that."

Hmm, something felt weird. He needed to see for himself. Trent peeked into economy, confirming that there was indeed quite the spectacle going on with his bandmate restraining his girlfriend. And Amy was so heated that she needed TWO people to hold her back? Sheesh. Still, this seemed like a pretty spontaneous decision for someone like Cody. He returned to Beardo, eyebrow raised. "And you're promising that he really wanted that?"

Beardo hesitated for a moment. If he heard it from Cody himself it'd be one thing, but he was trusting Sugar on this one. She wouldn't lie to him about this... right? He'd have to trust her. "Yeah, it's what he said."

Suddenly the intercom flickered on. "Team Old School, get those votes in ASAP, it's ceremony time soon!"

Trent looked at Beardo, then towards economy, finally at the intercom. On one hand he didn't really want to vote off Leshawna next, but... on the other hand she told him herself that she was willing to vote for his buddy. "Alright. If that's what he wants."

---

With the flashback over, the scene returned to the elimination ceremony and Chris smiling for the camera. "So yeah, that's what happened!"

Silence filled the room, the shock of Cody's elimination still settling in. Lightning finally spoke up. "Bro what do you MEAN that's what happened, you just sha-stood there without showing us a dang thing!"

"It's only important for the viewers to know, I don't need to show you guys anything."

Trent was fuming, his normal calm and collected attitude giving way for heavy breathing and slight shaking. He caught on pretty quickly that he had been duped, but just to confirm it... "I know what happened. Cody, who did you vote for?"

Still blindsided over the results, the tech whiz had to collect his thoughts before he could speak. "Uh, I voted for DJ obviously? No offense to him obviously, it was just sort of my only option."

"Thought so." The guitarist's head snapped towards the human soundboard, giving him an intense stare full of rage and betrayal. "Care to explain yourself, Beardo?"

"Wh-what?" Realization finally dawned on him that something had gone terribly wrong. If Cody actually voted for DJ... oh God. He looked around in a panic, staring at Sugar desperately for answers. She was silent. "I'm just as confused as you are, man! I got no idea what just happened."

"So you're just going to keep lying, huh?" Trent shot up and pointed at him accusingly. "Because I remember pretty freaking well what you told me before I put my vote in."

Suddenly Sammy stepped between the two, giving the guitarist a stern look. "This can wait. We have to see Cody off first. THEN we'll get our answers."

Both looked to see Chef dragging the boy in question towards the open hatch, Chris at the ready with the Boot of Shame button. Thinking fast, the nice twin charged at her host while he wasn't looking. She staggered him back, but more importantly caused him to drop the remote. Before he could react she tossed it behind the bleachers. "We are getting to say goodbye to him whether you like it or not!"

"Alright, sheesh, you don't gotta be so extra about it!" Irony was not lost on Chris for him to be the one saying such a thing. He snapped a finger and motioned for an intern to go retrieve the button. "Make it quick."

Trent had pulled his friend in for a noogie, trying in vain to mask his frustration with the situation. "Sorry this happened, man. It's gonna get lonely up here without you and Harold. Tell him I said hey, would ya?"

DJ and Leshawna also lingered by to offer a fistbump and hug respectively. They didn't really know what to say, sure they had willingly tried to get Cody eliminated, but they weren't expecting things to go down like this. All they could do was not talk about it so as to not potentially add insult to injury.

Then there was Sammy, who didn't miss the smug grin coming from her sister. Somehow she had a part in this, she could just feel it. But she had to be strong. She had to control herself for just a few more minutes before blowing up. Instead she thought spiting her twin was in order, so she pulled Cody in for a surprise kiss that got some amused cheers from the crowd.

"We're still having that date the next time I see you, got it?"

Cody was in a trance for a moment, swooning from the smooch. But then he remembered he truly was about to leave and straightened up. "Totally! I'll take you somewhere awesome, it'll be my treat."

Sammy grinned. "Hmm, I don't know. I'll be a millionaire by the next time you see me, it could be my treat too."

"I guess we could always-"

Before he could continue the sickening thud of the Boot of Shame connecting with his cranium rang out and Cody was sent tumbling down. Thankfully he had managed to put a parachute on beforehand. As soon as he was gone Trent's sour expression returned and he resumed giving Beardo the stink eye. Sammy, though, took a few moments to fully process everything. Finally a bit of happiness in this game, something going her way, the boy she was crushing on making it official. And now he was gone before they could even enjoy one day as a couple. A few tears rolled down her face, but she refused to sob. She was far too pissed for that.

"You did this, didn't you?" Sammy turned her piercing gaze towards her sister. "That stupid random argument you started... that had to have been part of this. Admit it!"

All eyes were on the evil twin now. She flinched at all the attention but wouldn't back down. "Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Your lame-o boyfriend is eliminated either way, so what are you gonna do about it?"

That's all she needed to hear. The smug satisfaction in her tone told the story. Sammy exchanged a look with Trent and the two marched towards Team Explosive. "You... you... you catty, miserable, hateful fu-"

Suddenly a pause symbol appeared in the middle of the screen. A zoom out and the perspective now found itself in the cockpit with Chris and Chef on either side of a monitor. Seems it was now later in the night, long after the fallout to Cody's elimination had passed.

"Aw come on man, you paused right as it was getting good," Chef protested.

"I know, right! I could watch that fight back over and over again, that was great! Buuuuut I think the episode is already going long enough as is." Chris grinned at the camera, fully aware of what he was doing. "They really let each other have it, eh?"

"Oh yeah." The larger man chuckled darkly. "That was one for the record books. You just don't get juicy drama like that much these days."

"Right you are, my dude. As a matter of fact, I bet the viewers wanna see what all went down. Like what all do Amy and Samey wind up saying to each other?"

"Can Beardo explain himself to Trent?" Chef added.

"And just where the heck did Anne Maria find that popcorn?" Chris finished, smiling in satisfaction. "Well I guess they're just gonna have to tune in next time to find out!"

Both men shared a laugh, arms around each other as they reveled in the audience's frustration. "Aaaah, no one does clickbait quite the way you do, man."

"Darn right they don't! So we'll see you guys next time and pick up where we left off. Right here on TOTAL... DRAMA... BATTLE OF THE GENERATIONS!"

Voting Confessionals:

"I have NO idea how Sammy has put up with her sister for so long. That chick's a nightmare. Anyway, hopefully Trent was able to convince Leshawna to vote with us, but if not... well, I've already won a tiebreaker already, right?" He stamped the brickhouse's passport.

On the flip side, DJ gave Cody's passport a stamp. "No clue what Chris is gonna throw at us, but I'm not gonna underestimate Cody. I'm coming at him in this tiebreaker full force, so he better be ready. Momma didn't raise no quitter... the, uh, times I quit in Action and tried to in World Tour don't count."

"Tch, sorry about this twiggy boy. I know Harold would have wanted to keep you safe if he had the chance, but this is my game to play." Cody's passport was marked. "Good luck in the tiebreaker... but I am rooting for DJ. If he wins I'm safe as can be next time. If there is a next time. God I hope there ain't."

"Well if she's willing to send Cody home I guess she can't take it personally if he chooses her to go against in the battle instead of DJ." Trent was hesitant but eventually stamped Leshawna's passport. "You got this bro. One tiebreaker win down, what's another one for the pile?"

Votes for Cody: 2 (DJ, Leshawna)

Votes for DJ: 1 (Cody)

Votes for Leshawna: 1 (Trent)

After the Boot of Shame:

Cody was pretty glad Sammy wasn't around to hear this since he was screaming his lungs out. Sure Chris forced them to fall out of the plane from time to time when arriving places, but something about the disorientation that the sudden boot added into the mix made things truly terrifying. He finally found enough sense to pull the handle and deploy his parachute.

"I... still don't really know what happened. Like, I kinda picked up that Beardo did something and Trent didn't vote the same as me, but how did that even work? Seriously though, did fate seriously have to do this to me the MOMENT I made things happen with Sammy? Guess I emulated the way Harold did things a bit too closely."

Was he hurt? Angry? Kinda relieved to be out of the dangerous game? Trying to focus on the upside of now having a girlfriend? Maybe a bit of everything. "Well, I may not have done as good as I did in World Tour but all things considered I think I can live with that. Now I guess I just sit back and root for Sammy and Trent."

Suddenly he crashed through a roof back at Film City, landing in one of the many wardrobe rooms. Thankfully the fabric broke his fall, mostly, and he stumbled into the hallway clad in a swanky new getup that had him looking like a film star since the turban and sunglasses were masking his usual nerdiness.

"Ah, there you are," a film director called out from nearby, grabbing Cody by the arm. "We've been looking everywhere! Come on, we have to film the scene where you jump over a flaming bus on your motorcycle."

The geek blinked in confusion. "Uh, I think you have the wrong guy."

"Haha, very funny. Now hurry up, we're behind schedule." He continued dragging Cody along, with the Drama Bro giving the camera a concerned look before it faded to black.

Remaining Contestants:

Team Old School: DJ, Leshawna, Trent

Team Radioactive: Anne Maria, Brick, Dawn, Lightning

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

Elimination Order:

14th: Cody

15th: Beth

16th/17th: Courtney and Scott

18th: B

19th: Shawn

20th: Dakota

21st: Rodney

22nd: Harold

23rd: Izzy

24th: Staci

Author's Note:

Hooray for not taking over a year to get a chapter out. This still took longer than I would have liked since I ran into some personal matters to deal with... and also a new Pokemon game, but for me this is downright punctual. That being said, I'm gonna jump right into working on the next chapter since I'd really love to get it done before the end of the year. It's going to be the final chapter for this arc of the story, then it's time for the 2nd Aftermath. I was planning to write a What If or two for my new story in between this chapter and the next (go check it out if you haven't for a look at my scrapped Revenge of the Rejects story, btw), but I'll likely just hard focus on this final BotG chapter of the arc.

Moving on to the chapter content itself, there is... probably a decent amount to say regarding this chapter's elimination. So first, the other stuff! India is obviously another one of those locations that WAS visited in RR, but I really liked the idea of a Bollywood chapter that took advantage of this being a singing episode so I kept it in. Regarding the challenge I have two notes. First, the song parody was originally going to be of "Tunak Tunak Tun" by Daler Mehndi. To line up with the location I was going to take a crack at writing a famous Indian song, and I chose that because of its meme notoriety. Back in the day it was popular as a bait and switch video, basically the Indian version of a Rickroll, so I'm sure it would amuse people. The problem? When I sat down to write the parody of it I hit a wall HARD. I was having no luck trying to make a parody of the song flow. I struggled enough as is making a parody of "A Cruel Angel's Thesis" for the Kyoto chapter, but this song was just way too difficult for me to make a good parody out of. Eventually I had to make the hard decision to abandon it. And while thematically an easier to parody Indian song would make sense, I didn't want to potentially waste too much time. So I hit up my list of backup songs and picked out something I could vibe with for the chapter. Yes I have a list of songs in case something else doesn't work out, I'll mention what all is in there near the end of the story. I like EW&F, it's a song I could envision a lot of these characters fitting into easy enough, so I rolled with it.

The other note is that originally this was going to be a two-part challenge. After Team Radioactive won the music video, the others were going to square off in essentially a sequel to the TDA challenge where Izzy and Duncan compete on performing the better film scene. The teams would plan a scene for the film crew to watch and the more popular one would be safe. Team Old School were gonna do some sort of crazy action sequence, while Dave was going to have Team Explosive basically do an over the top soap opera kinda drama, utilizing things like calling one of the twins an evil clone, Sugar being revealed as Beardo's long lost ex-lover, etc. Team Old School would still lose. It was gonna be an amusing challenge, Team Explosive's scene especially, but I eventually decided to drop it to cut down on bloat. It wouldn't ultimately change much about the chapter and I wanted things this time to be more about drama and interactions anyway, so I let the music video be the only challenge. As for next chapter, it's back to the Unites States for us!

Now then... Cody. I have a complicated viewpoint of the guy. I like the character, I really do, but if you were to put a gun to my head and tell me to name what I think is the most overrated character in the Total Drama fandom, he's probably my answer. Maybe it's because I specifically look through the fandom via the lens of a fan fic author. If you take umbrage with me calling him that, I ask you go to the TD section and sort by favorites. Look past all the Duncney stories and what do you find? Piles upon piles of Cody focused fics. Not saying all of those stories are bad or anything, I hear good things about many of them, but my point is that the Codemeister isn't exactly lacking in the love from this fandom. It especially confuses me because it feels like a lot of people don't like to depict Cody as the relatable lovable dork that he is, instead he gets the eye roll worthy Gigachad treatment being shipped with anyone and everyone, often all at once. I get that it's a projection thing for silly fan fics, but why hype up a perfectly enjoyable character only to use him in a way that's nothing like what makes the guy relatable to begin with? Never understood it. As a result, while I felt he was a worthy member of the cast, I planned to boot him pretty early.

But then I decided to give him a chance. As I said, I DO like Cody, just find his reputation in the fandom overrated. So I decided to give him his fair shake and try out what I thought would be a more realistic ship storyline for the guy. I'm fairly happy with it and hope his elimination is an enjoyable surprise for some. I specifically paced things by showing the vote results earlier than some of buildup to hopefully surprise a few more people. But now that we've reached this point, I'm left thinking I still kind of fell into the trap of hooking up Cody and using a ship with him as a means to draw in more viewers, didn't I? See, originally he was going to be eliminated in... Kyoto. That's right, he was gonna get Harold's elimination. I doubt anyone remembers it but during that chapter I said I wound up switching his elimination with someone else's. Welp, here it is. I'd imagine Cody fans wouldn't have been happy about the blatant reference to his TDI injury elimination being done again, but that was the plan.

I know this AN is long already but if you're still reading, let me leave you with the original plan. Harold was gonna get this far, right? But how would that change things for everyone? Well here's the thing, despite me being a certified LeHarold fan... originally they were gonna wind up just staying friends. Instead, I was going to do Harold/Sammy. Yup. The ship storyline was largely gonna be similar, the two start interacting in a challenge, get to talking, and wind up hitting it off only for the villains to cause his elimination here. But this would mean an additional storyline for Leshawna. She'd turn down Harold early on but then would have to face her conflicting feelings of seeing him move on to someone else as a storyline. If it felt like Leshawna was kinda getting shafted in screentime during earlier chapters, welp, it's because of this story being changed to Codammy and me forgetting to fill the void for her someway else. Codammy is already a somewhat popular ship for her so I realize Harammy would have been more risky, and perhaps that's part of the reason why I wound up switching the geeky boys around on top of already doing plenty with Harold in Underdogs, but there ya have it. I'm curious to know what people may have thought of this scrapped idea. Prefer that I went with Codammy? Wish I would have went the less safe route? Let me know your thoughts on everything this chapter (pls) and hopefully you'll be hearing from me again soon.