The cast's next challenge went about as well for the Bass as the previous one.
Duncan and DJ proved incapable of beating Heather and Cody up the cliffside, costing them the first point.
Geoff's trust in Bridgette's cooking, combined with her ability to pull through, allowed them to tie the score when Trent and Katie failed.
Owen and Lindsay managed to emerge victorious in the first third of the third challenge, leaving Wally bruised and Gwen apologetic.
Wally's experience with the trapeze, courtesy of Robin's past in the circus and express need to share it with all who knew his secret identity, and Bridgette's faith allowed the duo to laugh, joyous and unharmed, when Heather fell into the pond of jellyfish.
Unfortunately for the Bass, however, giving Izzy the navigator's position on the toboggan race cost them the winning point. She abjectly refused to direct Duncan properly, causing them to crash multiple times on the way down, much to the red head's enjoyment.
This lead Duncan to come a swift decision as to who the guy's alliance should be voting off.
This also lead Wally to his current choice of action.
After losing the day's challenge, Izzy, after a rather spectacular toboggan crash, required a new set of her 'Total Drama Island Approved' clothes, having miraculously avoiding serious harm in the process.
Gwen and Bridgette, hoping to delay the inevitable Bonfire Ceremony, elected to join her as she made her way back to the cabin, Gwen offering the halfhearted explanation that she needed to touch up her makeup to politely excuse themselves.
It was as Izzy was casually undressing herself in the relative privacy of the cabin that there was a knock on the door. Upon hearing this, Izzy unthinkingly walked over and opened said door before either Gwen or Bridgette could stop her.
"Hey, girls, can I talk to you for- whoa!"
Wally's head, which had initially been focussed behind him to see if anyone was baring witness to his current acts, turned around mid-sentence, his eyes being automatically drawn to Izzy's unbound breasts as they came into view and effectively rendering him speechless.
A nanosecond later, faster than even Wally could follow, Bridgette had grabbed Izzy by the shoulders and thrown her away from the door as Gwen slammed the wooden barrier in Wally's astounded face.
"Izzy!" Bridgette hissed, scandalized, "You can't open the door when you're naked!"
"Are you trying to give everyone on this island a free show?" Gwen asked, hurriedly throwing the nude girl's clothes towards her, just as the sounds of frantic apologies began filtering in through the door. "Get dressed!"
A few moments later, once Izzy was suitably dressed, Bridgette reluctantly made her way over to the cabin's door, opening it once Gwen nodded her approval.
"-so, so, so sorry," Wally spluttered, a hand covering his eyes and his cheeks stained so red that his freckles had disappeared, "I swear I didn't mean to see-"
"Wally," Bridgette cut him off sternly, arms crossed tiredly, "It's not your fault Izzy answered the door in the buff."
Carefully spreading his fingers, allowing one eye to peek through, Wally cautiously checked the room to be sure that everyone was now clothed, as well as searching for any signs of rage being directed towards him.
"Sorry," he offered again, just to be safe.
"No big," Izzy shrugged, seemingly unconcerned, as Gwen stepped forwards.
"Did you actually have a reason for coming here?"
That reinvigorated Wally's scattered thoughts, causing him to straighten as he immediately rechecked the area outside of the cabin for eavesdroppers.
"Can I come in?" He asked, stepping over the threshold before an answer was given, closing the door behind him as his paranoia demanded.
Turning back to face his female teammates, Wally sighed deeply, "I need your help."
"With what?" Gwen asked, eyebrow cocked cautiously.
"I need your votes tonight," he told them, "Or you three are all kinda screwed."
Eying Wally with scrutiny, Izzy said stiffly, "Excuse me?"
Noting that Gwen and Bridgette looked similarly annoyed, Wally immediately elaborated.
"What I mean is," he stressed, "That Duncan's formed a guy's alliance. DJ and Geoff are hesitant, but they're gonna cave and, face it, the three of you don't stand a chance if the four of us start voting together."
"And here I thought you were the nice one," Gwen said irritably, "Why tell us?"
"Look, Duncan plans to eliminate Izzy tonight, followed by you, Gwen. Then, once he doesn't need Geoff's vote, he'll probably go for Bridgette."
"Still doesn't explain why you'd tell us," Gwen pointed out.
"And what does Geoff have to do with me?" Bridgette asked, honestly perplexed.
Wally glanced sidelong at Gwen, silently asking 'seriously?', before continuing as though he hadn't heard her.
"Frankly, this whole 'alliance' thing doesn't sit well with me," he explained, "Plus, if it works, I'm stuck facing Duncan later in the game. So I wanted to give you guys a chance to save your respective bacons."
"How?" Izzy asked, breaking the silence she had maintained throughout the conversation.
"Vote off Duncan tonight," he told them, "We get rid of him, the alliance folds, and we can get back to playing this game like it's supposed to be played."
Izzy nodded calmly in acceptance, with Gwen and Bridgette hesitantly sharing a glance behind her.
"And what if this is some sort of trick?" Gwen asked eventually.
"Come on," Wally sighed, "Bridge, you trusted me to catch you on the trapeze, right? And Gwen, you trusted me when we were buried alive, didn't you?"
Both girls still seemed hesitant when the group heard Chris and his megaphone announce that it was time to vote.
"Just... trust me now," Wally told them softly as he turned to leave, "Otherwise, well... I'd hate to see Duncan get the better of you guys."
Once the voting was complete and the Killer Bass had assembled for the Campfire Ceremony, Chris began to deal out the marshmallows with practiced ease.
"Geoff. DJ. Bridgette. Gwen. Wally."
For a moment, Chris paused, allowing the audience to soak up what he considered to be dramatic suspense... despite the fact that neither of his remaining contestants were giving him much of a show, both slouching calmly in the seats, completely at ease with such certainty that the other would be kicked off.
Unfortunately for Duncan, only Izzy's confidence was justified.
"Izzy."
The punk's eyes snapped open, horrified by what he had just heard. That horror however, upon seeing Izzy cheerfully chow down on her marshmallow of effective invincibility, turned quickly to anger as his mind performed some simple arithmetic.
Wheeling around to face the remaining three males of the Bass, he growled, "Which one of you backstabbers sold me out?"
Geoff and DJ flinched away from the angered teen. Wally, however, smirked, giving a small wave.
"Nice knowing ya, Duncan," he bade the other boy farewell, "Should've listened to Geoff. Alliances are bad ideas."
"I am gonna pound you into mince mea-mmph!" Duncan's tirade was cut short by large burlap sack being thrown over him by the camp's titanic cook, who carefully hoisted the squirming thing over his shoulders, carrying it down to the Dock of Shame even as it swore obscenities and retribution towards a certain red head.
"You know," Wally said, once his threats began to fade in the distance, "I think I'm gonna miss him."
Izzy spared him a pointed look.
"Well," he amended, "Not really. The guy snored like a chainsaw!"
The loud rapping at the door slowly brought Wally reluctantly to the waking world. This, after weeks of Chris rudely waking him with sirens, megaphones and anything else he could think of, was actually rather pleasant. That didn't mean he was getting up though.
"Ugh," he grunted, rolling over and digging his face into the wonderfully soft pillow, luxuriating in the silk sheets supplied by the island resort he was currently enjoying.
Over the course of the past week, Chris had instigated three more days of fun filled and barely legal challenges, leading to the elimination of two of the remaining campers and Wally's currently enjoyable situation.
The first was Gwen, the sole pessimist of the Killer Bass, whose general irritation at anything approaching a good mood simply got to enough of her teammates to have her voted off.
The second was Trent, for the simple reason that, of the remaining Gophers not already under Heather's thumb, Cody and Owen were far simpler to manipulate.
The third challenge had begun with Chris abolishing the teams, reassigning the cabins for a 'Boys vs. Girls: Brunch of Disgustingness!'.
As the name implied, this was an eating challenge.
An eating challenge... with Wally and Owen placed firmly on the same side.
An eating challenge with Wally and Owen firmly on the same side and highly motivated to win the two-day stay at a 5-star island resort (with its own all-you-can-eat buffet).
As I'm sure you can imagine... there was no contest. Like, at all.
The forever ravenous duo with the indiscriminate appetites and iron stomachs to match licked each and every dish that came their way clean and forced the so called 'food' down the gullets of their more reluctant teammates. DJ may have thrown up once or twice and a few tears may have been shed... but it still counted. Technically.
As Chris had ponied up and sent the boys to the resort, Wally was now finding himself growing irritated that his promised first morning of luxury was being rudely interrupted.
Groaning as he burrowed himself further into his sheets, hoping vainly that the irritant would give up and leave, the knocking persisted, swiftly continuing until Wally's annoyance outweighed his natural laziness.
Throwing off his covers, Wally idly scratched his bare chest as he rose to his feet. Stumbling sleepily, he made his way to the door.
"I'm coming, I'm coming," he muttered accursedly, his hand reaching the doorknob, wishing that the intruder would just give it up already.
A sharp flick of his wrist and Wally jerked the door open, his superhuman reflexes barely allowing him to catch a brief glimpse of golden colored hair before he found a pair of shockingly familiar lips attaching themselves to his own.
His body reacted automatically, with his arms encircling the body before him and his hands searching through familiar curves, rushing from her (for she was most definitely female) hips, up her sides, and soon finding themselves latched to her face, oh so very reluctantly pushing her away from him so that his eyes could confirm what he already knew.
"Artemis," he breathed, taking in the sight of her tanned skin and stormy grey eyes, framed by golden bangs with a smirk gracing her features.
"Hey Wally," she grinned softly, "So... can I come in?"
"Artemis," Wally said softly, shock overriding much of his higher brain functions, "What are you doing here?"
She grinned at him again, before brushing past him and into the room.
"You remember how I go to Gotham Academy? The go-to prep school for snooty rich kids? Believe it or not, but I did actually manage to make a few friends and... well, it turns out that I know people now."
"People like...?" He asked, closing the door behind him as he turned back inside.
"People who know people," Artemis grinned, "Turns out that one of the girls in my homeroom has a cousin who works for 'Total Drama Island'. He's been feeding her updates since the season began and, well, when she found out that I was the Artemis who was dating that Wally she started passing them on to me."
"So," she continued, "When she found out that you and the boys had won yourselves a trip to an island resort, well... did you know that Bruce Wayne recently purchased this particular chain of hotels?"
Wally grinned triumphantly, "I guess you must've figured out my message."
Artemis scowled, "It took me a week to realize that Dick Grayson was flinching any time anyone said his name... just like Robin. I felt like such an idiot! All that time and I never figured it out!"
"Don't feel bad, babe," he shrugged, "The only reason I ever found out was because he, y'know, told me."
"Yeah, but you never went to school with him. He is such a troll!"
"Whatever," Wally dismissed, crossing the distance between them and embracing her, brushing her hair softly,, "Babe, you're here."
She chuckled into his chest at his affection, "I missed you too."
Breaking their embrace, Wally asked, "How's everyone else been?"
"They're fine, for the most part," she told him, "We're all rooting for you."
Wally smiled, "Well, duh."
"What can I say?" She shrugged, "Team loyalty's a thing with us. They say 'hi', by the way."
"So, uh," Wally eyed Artemis's pure white outfit, which matched perfectly the uniforms worn by the hotel's attendants, "What's with the getup?"
"Well," she smiled, "I couldn't show up here as a guest, 'Total Drama' booked this whole resort solid for you guys. So... Dick hooked me up with a job as a masseuse."
Wally smirked, shifting his shoulders with an exaggerated wince, "Really? Because, y'know, after all those physical challenges back on the island, I am just so tense."
Artemis's smile morphed into a perfect mirror of Wally's smirk. Slinking over to the bed, she patted down on the covers pointedly.
"Well, we'll have to fix that won't we?"
"Well, somebody certainly looks happy," Cody commented slyly at dinner, watching as Wally cheerily piled food onto his plate with a serene smile on his lips, "That must've been one hell of a massage."
"Cody, my man," Wally stated loftily as he sat amongst his friends and teammates, "You have no idea."
"Must've been awesome!" Giggled Owen, before rubbing his neck awkwardly, "Where can I sign up for a massage like that? 'Cause I've got this crick in my neck that you wouldn't believe."
"Hmm? Oh," Wally shrugged, honestly not really sure given that Artemis had shown up on his doorstep without prompting, "Y'know. Just ask the front desk for a massage. They'll take care of it, I guess."
"Take care of what?" Geoff asked, as he too sat amongst the boys, his own plate laden high with foodstuffs.
"Massages," DJ informed his open-shirted friend, "The spa treatments here are just phenomenal. Just look at what they did to my alligator elbows!"
"That's nothing," Geoff scoffed, "You should see what they did to my nails!"
"You got your nails done?" Cody asked uncertainly.
"Yup," Geoff told him proudly, "The manicurist told me that the chicks really dig a guy who can get into all that spa stuff."
"Hmm," Cody mused, "Maybe I should check this thing out."
"Ooh, me too!" Owen excitedly agreed, "Maybe we could all do it together? Huh, Cody? DJ? Geoff? Wally?"
"Count me in, dude," Geoff told him, as DJ nodded his affirmation. "The manicurist told me that I should probably get my chest waxed while I'm here too, just to really make sure I look my best to hook Bridgette in."
"What the hell," Cody shrugged, "Not like any of this is being recorded."
"Thank God for that," Wally agreed.
"What about you, Wally?" Owen asked, still exuding cheer, "Guys' day at the spa?"
Wally smiled hesitantly as he nodded, "Sure, but I'm having another massage tomorrow afternoon. I wanna be completely and totally at peace before we get sent back to the Island and Chris starts trying to kill us again."
Raising their glasses as one, the boys gave out a hearty "Hear, hear!" in honour of their freedom (however temporary) from the devil McLean.