This trip through the spiralling tunnel of colours, despite the addition of both Manolo and Maria (who were both riding on Cloudy with Star and Marco), was actually pretty chill. It was fairly quiet amongst all of us. No insults, no playfully banter, just the noise of the portal and the memories flashing in each segment. I breathed a sigh of relief as I could finally get a break-

"Is it just me…", Steve (who was gliding on his own with his Elytra) brought up, snapping me out of my thoughts, "Or does it feel like this is just a bit… too easy…"

"Yeah", Majima, who was riding with Zombossin the cockpit, added. "Normally shit hits the fan pretty quick…"

"We all start tumbling…" Hilda adds, sitting next to Vanellope on Ralph's back.

"And then we crash", Jenny groaned.

I thought about it for a moment, looking around at my friends. "You guys are right, but maybe we're just lucky this time. Our trips through these things don't always have to end in disaster."

I heard mumbles from the others, but Manolo and Maria looked over at me with questioning looks. "What should we worry about, exactly?" The musician asked.

"Well…", Gladius, who was cruising next to me, Jenny and Maple, pondered, "There's a lot, but it mainly is like sailing across the sea. Rough waters, storms, losing your way… just stuff like that."

Maria's face twisted into an unsure look. "A part of me is starting to regret this…"

"It's okay, Maria", I said happily, "We've all made it this far, so there isn't anything to worry about."

"That's right!" Zomboss shouted out proudly, earning an eye roll from Majima. "With me around, there is nothing to worry about…" Zomboss trailed off when one of the lights on his console started beeping. "Wait, I'm picking something up…"

"What is it?" Marco asked.

"It looks like some sort of EMP blast…" The Zombie started pressing different buttons, looking for the cause.

Jenny suddenly shuddered, and I looked down at her in concern. "Are you okay, Jenny?"

"I'm f-fine", she said, her voice glitching a little. She shuddered again, and this actually shut down one of her booster jets.

"Gladius, what is happening?!" Alfur cried.

"Oh lord, I remember!" He screamed. "This is because of a dying star that's escaped a universe! Brace yourselves!"

Just then, a powerful blast came up from behind us, forcing us forward at crazy speeds and into a jumbled ball. I dug my way through the pile and poked my head out, only to see us barreling towards the exit.

"Just once…" I whined. "JUST ONCE!"

~X~

We were spat out of the other end, all of us screaming as we fell, heading straight down. As I tumbled, Gladius quickly made his way next to me and forced himself into my grasp, and I was quick to use my free hand to save Steve and Majima while Maple jumped onto my shoulder. Galacta Knight quickly rescued Manolo, Maria and Zomboss, and Ralph hugged all the others close as he plummeted like a meteorite. We all chased after him as he crashed through the roof of a warehouse, landing on a pile of mattresses. Ralph was quick to recover, letting Vanellope, Hilda, Twig, Alfur, Star, Marco and Jenny all go, and the rest of us all landed and rushed to their aid.

I quickly helped Jenny up, and she let out a shaky sigh. "You okay, Jenny?" I asked.

"Yeah, I'm better now", she said, giving me a reassuring smile. I smiled back, and looked over the others. Everyone was in one piece. Although Zomboss seemed distracted.

"Has anyone seen my cockpit?" He asked.

We all said "No" simultaneously, and Zomboss let out a frustrated sigh. He pulled out what looked like car keys and hit the lock button. A car beep echoed high above us, and we all looked up to see the pod falling right down at us.

"Duck and cover!!!" Steve screamed.

"Shit!" Majima swore as he grabbed Hilda and dove behind some miscellaneous crates. We all did the same just as the pod crashed down, ripping through the mattresses and kicking up tons of dust and feathers. We all coughed, fanning the dust away from our faces, but when that didn't do anything, Jenny just revealed her fan blades and blew everything out of the building. We all looked at the crashed pod, and while it was unharmed, the mattresses were completely shredded, and there was a small crater in the floor. Zomboss carefully walked over and pressed the lock button again. The pod innocently made a lock sound, so Zomboss pressed a different button on the clicker, making the pod fold up into a storable size. As he put that away, the others began to shuffle through some of the nearby open boxes.

Majima pulled out some empty mascot costumes, Steve pulled out some fake swords, Ralph found a clacker board, and Twig sniffed out some uniforms that had a Staff tag on them. Manolo and Maria looked into their nearest box and pulled out a guitar from a box full of instruments.

"What is this place?" Maria asked, spinning around to face the rest of us while Manolo compared his guitar with the one he found.

"We must be in a movie lot", I deduced, "Which explains all the props and costumes." I looked up at the hole we left in the roof. "This must be a storage place."

Vanellope darted her head around rapidly, finally locking her sights on a door. "Well, let's go check this place out! I want to see if they have anything for racing movies here!" She dashed over to the door, the rest of us running after her to keep her from potentially, accidentally getting security involved. She swung the door open, but I quickly grabbed hold of her and pulled her out of the doorway before anyone could see her. "What the heck, Glasses?!"

"Vanellope, we could be trespassing!" I hissed at her. She crossed her arms and pouted, not really wanting to admit I had a point. However, the near dead silence outside made me think otherwise. Carefully, we all slowly walked through the door and into the fresh air. Luckily, the door opened to a small alleyway between the warehouse we were in and another one. I looked to my right down the outdoor corridor, and walked to the end of the alley. I poked my head out, and it was silent. We all walked out into the open, and found it strange how there wasn't anyone around. I put Vanellope down, who just glitched onto Ralph's shoulder.

"Where the heck is everyone?" Ralph asked.

"I don't know…" I said. I spun around and looked up, seeing a tall artificial mountain towering over us. "Holy crap…"

The others all turned around and looked up at the peak, all of them dumbfounded. "What the heck is this place?" Manolo asked.

"Well, this is the future for you two, for starters", Gladius started, "But…" He soared high above and spun around a bit before coming back down. "…Okay, I was going to say we were in an abandoned movie lot, but it appears there's someone driving a white tram to the front gate, where a group of people seem to be waiting."

"Well, let's go see what all the hubbub is about", Steve said. He was the first one to start walking towards the entrance, the rest of us following close behind. It was a bit of a trek, but soon we reached the entrance as the group of people boarded the tram, and the driver took them into the movie lot. We all hid behind some nearby bushes as they drove by. One of the passengers, a large boy with blonde hair, turned around.

"Izzy, run!" He called out. Still standing at the entrance was a slender girl with chaotic orange hair whistling innocently at the gate. The boy lightly hit his hand on his forehead. "I mean Kaleidoscope."

This actually got Izzy's (Or was it actually Kaleidoscope?) attention. "No one leaves Escope behind!" She pounded her chest like she was Tarzan, and dashed after the vehicle, did a triple flip, and landed into the seat next to the boy. I motioned for the others to follow carefully after them.

"Welcome to the set of Total. Drama. Action!" The driver happily announced, pointing at a camera that was held by a crew member, who was riding his own cart to keep in line with him. "This season's hottest reality show will be shot here: on an abandoned film lot!"

One of the passengers, a blonde girl with a blue bandana, gasped happily. "Does this mean we're going to be in the movies?"

"No", the driver, who I could tell was the host, said, "It means you're gonna be on TV. And don't interrupt me!" He leaned in, holding his finger under her nose. "Ever!" He flicked the poor girl's nose.

"Oops, sorry." The girl said as they drove off. The others went to follow, but I stopped them by holding a hand up.

"What's wrong, kid?" Ralph asked.

I let out a sigh. "I don't know anything about this place except one: We are in the cartoon Total Drama, an animated reality show. The contestants? Hormonal teenagers…" We all subconsciously shivered, something most of the others were confused about.

"So? What's the big deal?" Majima asked as he lit his lighter to fire up a cigarette. "We got a bunch of shithead teenagers running around, so what? Considering everything we've dealt with, I'd rather deal with a spoiled bitch crying how jackass #675 dumped her for a goth crybaby rather than an endless army of magical, rainbow pissing unicorns." We all gave him shocked looks. He just scoffed back. "Jeez, all of you need to grow a pair…"

"Right…" I continued as the yakuza took a puff. I shook my head and continued my train of thought. "Look, biggest take away is that these kids are volatile, there are cameras everywhere, and-"

"There's cameras everywhere?" Majima said in sudden realisation. He slowly moved his one visible eye to one that was pointing right at us. Majima sheepishly put the cigarette down and carefully stomped it out as we all carefully backed away.

"What are we supposed to do?" Jenny whispered, none of us taking our eyes off the camera as it stared back.

"We get back to the warehouse", I whispered back. As quietly and quickly as we could, we made our way back to the warehouse we crashed into. Luckily, there still wasn't anyone around or in it, so we slipped back in without drawing any attention. We then decided to set up our base "camp" in the back, as far away from the doors as possible. Ralph, Jenny, Steve, Majima, Manolo and Maria all tag teamed carrying boxes and other props to keep us hidden from any cameras, which was what me and the others were most concerned about.

As the girls, Twig and Marco set up our sleeping arrangements, me, Zomboss, Maple, Alfur, Galacta Knight and Gladius all brainstormed what we could do.

"Anyone have any ideas?" I asked. I was met with frustrated silence.

"I'll take that as a no."

Alfur, resting on Gladius' hilt, hummed in thought. "Maybe there's some way to disable the cameras?"

Maple began to nod rapidly in excitement, only for Gladius to dash that solution. "No. If we shut the cameras down, it'll raise too much suspicion, and the crew will investigate. We need a way to tamper with them that doesn't raise any red flags."

Zomboss hummed, peeking through an opening in the wall of boxes at a camera. It wasn't facing us, and didn't move at all for the past hour. I watched as Zomboss reached into one of the boxes and pulled out a blonde wig. I could see the gears turning in his eyes as he used his super genius status to his advantage.

"It seems you have thought of something, Zomboss?" Galacta inquired.

"Yes", he said, "But it'll need some setup. And…" He shivered. "And… I need some… he… help."

Galacta and myself shot him with flat looks.

"Look, I know how we can solve our problem", he continued.

"So what do we do?"

"Basically, I need to hack into that camera, and I should be able to access them all. Two problems: I need a satellite dish installed and aimed at the nearest cell tower, and I'll need some help plugging in this USB", he held up the pocket sized storage device, "into the main computer that runs all the cameras. All of that should let me get access, and I can erase any footage that would be compromising to us."

I shot up with determination. "I'll help you with the USB, Zomboss."

The Zombie leader nodded. "Galacta, you and Gladius deal with the satellite. And take Alfur with you."

Maple hopped up and looked up at Zomboss with puppy dog eyes. The expert in Thanatology gave an over dramatic sigh. "Fine, you can join me and Caleb, you useless weed…"

Maple bobbed happily, prancing over and climbing onto my shoulder. I gave him a smile and a pat, only for a red wig to be thrown into my face. I sputtered and look down at it, only for a black fedora to smack me in the face right after.

"We're gonna need disguises to get by", Zomboss said as he continued to dig through the box of costumes, "That way we can slip by like the crew that are around."

I let out a frustrated breath, but I did as I was told. I put on everything Zomboss threw at me, and before long we were both dressed up like staff. I looked myself over, looked at Zomboss, and flashed him a thumbs up. He was dressed in a blue button up shirt and matching baseball cap, dark blue jeans, the blonde wig, and glasses (which had to be taped on because of his obvious lack of ears). He returned with less enthusiasm, but still was happy. Maple hopped onto my shoulder, and the three of us left our hideout just as Ralph and his group finished. Maria watched us walk by, doing a double as we passed her.

"What are you two doing?" She asked.

"Heading out to hack the cameras", I told her, walking backwards for a bit before returning to the task at hand. Mister and Misses Sanchez were obviously super confused, so the others were obviously gonna have to sit them down and explain things.

When we got to the door, Zomboss put a finger to his lips, and both me and Maple mimicked a motion of zipping out lips shut. The Zombie scientist then slowly opened the door, but he only opened it the tiniest bit before we saw two staff standing at the end of the alley. They were facing away from us, but this really complicated things. Zomboss carefully shut the door with a worried look.

"What are we going to do?" I asked as quietly as I could.

"I'm thinking!" He hissed at me. The both of us stood there though for a moment, before I noticed Maple was gone. "Where's Maple?"

Zomboss was just about to shoot out a theory when we heard two loud bangs. We both shared a look and went outside, only to see Maple dragging the two staff away from prying eyes and behind a dumpster. We both stared at him with flabbergasted expressions, only for Maple to beam up at me, pull out a good length of rope from the trash, and curl it up around himself. He used his whip to point at himself, then extinguished the flame and completely camouflaged as a standard bunch of rope.

Both me and Edgar could barely comprehend what happened.

"Did he just…" I said in a cracked voice.

"But I just…" Zomboss said exactly the same way.

We both just decided to just drop it and move on. I picked up the disguised Maple, and the three of us went on our way.

~X~

The movie lot was a lot bigger than I realised. It was taking a long time to try and find wherever all the cameras connected together. It was exhausting, but we had to do this. As we wandered around, we'd hear occasional loud stomps, roars, and screaming. The two of us were completely confused, but when we reached a beach set, we saw what was with all the loud noises first hand.

All the contestants were running at us, while being chased by a 15 story tall monster. None of them seemed to really notice we were right in their path, but the two of us instantly went to run away. The contestants eventually lined up with us, and it didn't take long for our presence to be noticed.

"What's up with you two?" A boy with a green mohawk and skull shirt asked, breathing heavily because of all this cardio.

"New… employees", Zomboss lied, "Just got a bit lost is all!"

"Whatever!" The girl with straight black hair and maroon top snapped. "As long as you two don't get in my way, then I won't need to throw you into the gutter!"

"Seriously Heather!" The goth girl spat. "You already make our lives hell, you don't need to bully the interns too!"

"Can it, weird goth girl!!!" Heather spat back.

Me and Zomboss both shared blank, wide-eyed looks before the blonde boy from before ran up next to us. "Hey, my name's Owen!"

"Caleb", I said, readjusting the 'rope' that was in my hand.

"George", Zomboss said, gripping onto the lid of his hat tightly.

The monster chasing us let out another fierce roar, which made me wince. It was then I noticed two of the contestants, the girl with the blonde ponytail and blue sweater and the bot with pink unbuttoned shirt and cowboy hat, were locking lips and making out on one of the many beach towels.

"Uhm, I don't think this is the kind of action Chris had in mind", the mohawk kid said, jabbing a thumb at the hormonal lovebirds.

"This is insane!" Zomboss screeched, "How is this legal at all?!"

"You white and… uh… green boy", the girl with black ponytail and shirt with apple logo said, "Really shoulda watched the first season."

"Definitely wishing I did now!!!" I cried as my flight reflexes kicked into overdrive, my legs bolting ahead of the group. I took a sharp turn away from the group. No one else followed but Zomboss, and the monster stayed locked onto the larger group, filling us with relief. We both took massive breaths, finally able to relax.

"I… regret… all… of… this!" Zomboss growled through laboured breaths.

"I… agree", I said, hand against a wall as I tried not to puke. "If this… becomes… the norm… We are… so screwed!"

"Let's just… get going…" I nodded in agreement, and the two of us continued on our way with our nerves frayed. We walked along just the two of us for a bit, before we came across a bouncy castle next to two trailers. I was about to ignore it when I saw Heather, the blonde couple, the blue bandana girl and Izzy all in there.

"What the heck?" I said out loud. I walked over to them, holding the bundle of rope close. "What are you guys all doing here?"

Heather scoffed, whipping her hair. "What do you think?"

I leaned back a bit cocking an eyebrow at her. Zomboss walked up to my side and tapped my shoulder. I looked at him and he made a motion towards a nearby tent.

"Well, I have to go, so enjoy the rest of the challenge!" I shouted as we dashed off. We slowed to a walk as we finally approached the tent with screens that showed all that the cameras saw, which oddly seemed to focus on the monster that was chasing the rest of the contestants. Sadly, someone was blocking the way. It was a very large, muscular man with a chef's hat, wearing a full body motion capture suit. He overdramatically stomped in place, and I quickly realised he was the one controlling the monster.

We both ducked away. "So, what do we do?" I asked quietly.

Zomboss rubbed his hand on his chin in thought. "Hmmmmmm….." He pondered. Then he came to an idea. "We wait"

I shot him bugged-out eyes. "WHAT????" I hissed.

"Look, we can't do much else to a guy like him without Majima, Jenny or Ralph", Zomboss hissed back, "So we either blow our cover, or we wait for everyone to head to sleep."

I stared at him silently for a moment, thinking over what he said. I looked down at Maple, who was looking up at me through the rope. I sighed, and was about to nod when I saw something. I looked over to the right and saw another crew member head inside a small building, and for a brief moment I could see a bunch of screens.

"I don't think this tent is it, George", I whispered. He gave me a weird look as I walked towards the building. I carefully opened the door a crack, and the three of us peeked inside.

It was what we were looking for. A collection of monitors rested together (far more than the amount in the tent), showing everywhere across the movie lot. I shot Zomboss a quiet thumbs up, and I closed the door. We walked casually over and hid around the corner, waiting for the one crew member to leave. It didn't take long till he did, and we both slipped in as stealthily as we could.

I closed the door behind us, and as soon as it clicked closed, Maple jumped out of the rope and landed on the floor.

"Maple, keep watch", Zomboss said, "Caleb, help me out with this."

I nodded and joined his side as Maple scurried over to the screens, eyeing all of them carefully. Zomboss then pulled out the USB and plugged it into the main PC tower, quickly beginning to mash away at the main keyboard. One of the screens, one that for some reason showed the very room we were in, turned black with green text. As Zomboss typed, more text began to show up.

Not taking his eyes off the screen, he reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a walkie-talkie, handing it to me. "Caleb, contact the team setting up the satellite."

I nodded and clicked the on button, making the speaker crackle to life. "Hey guys, can you hear me?"

There was a moment of silence, then… "We can hear you loud and clear, boy boy", Gladius responded, "The dish is nearly set up, Galacta just spent some time camouflaging it so as to not raise suspicion."

"That's good", George said, "Now, I need you to try and line the antennae with the building we are in. Do any of you have any sort of way of tracking us?"

There was some shuffling heard, and the pocket radio blinked to life again. "I did catch you two head into one of the warehouses", I heard Galacta said, "So you want me to point the device there?"

"Yes!" Zomboss suddenly said, making me jump a bit. "I'm nearly done on my end. Once you guys aim it, have Alfur crawl inside the opening at the base. The on button is in there."

"Why there of all places?" Said elf asked.

"When you live with a bunch of zombies that love to touch everything, you need to take precautions…"

There was a pause. "Touché." The walkie-talkie clicked off, and I passed it back to Zomboss. He stuffed it back into his pocket and returned to typing out commands.

"Caleb, try to unplug a cord from that camera and plug it in here", the scientist said, pointing at the camera, then the PC tower. I nodded and did as I was told, pulling a chair up and unplugging the camera. I carefully pulled just enough of the cord and plugged it into the tower, and just then the screen with the commands swapped colours. "We're in!"

I watched intensely as Zomboss worked away, typing out endless strings of text for minutes on end. I was beginning to worry we were gonna get caught, but just as that thought entered my head, Zomboss slammed the enter key, and everything went back to normal. He quickly pulled the USB out, and I was quick to fix up the camera. Maple quickly went back and rewrapped himself in the rope, and we left the room as fast as possible.

As we ran through the movie lot, Zomboss spoke up. "Once we get back, I can set up our own makeshift system like there's, all the cameras accessible."

"Nice!" I cheered. Maple quickly let their whip out for a moment, twirling his whip around. However, we all froze when we saw the host himself, the name Chris coming back into my memory because of what Duncan said earlier, walking towards us.

Zomboss shoved the USB into my hand and pushed out of sight. "Get this back to the others. I'll distract this guy."

I gave him a determined nod. "Catch you later?"

Zomboss nodded back, and I ran off, Maple cradled in my arm. I held onto the USM tightly as I dashed through the movie lot, avoiding all crew, cameras and contestants that crossed my path. Soon enough, I reached the warehouse, and quickly opened it. I stepped into the familiarity and closed the door behind me, quickly ducking into the base.

It was almost like the forts I'd make with blankets and pillows, only much larger. There were multicoloured cloths hanging above, star and heart lamps to provide lighting, and large bean bags scattered about. I saw, at the back side of the base, was a wall of older TVs, with Gladius and Galacta adding the finishing touches. I quickly shared my disguise and rushed to the screens, taking a seat in the old office chair they found.

"Caleb, what's going on?" Jenny asked as I rolled closer. I leaned down and looked over the very dust PC tower that was set up.

"Zomboss had to go and distract the host", I said, not looking away from my task, "But he was able to hack into the cameras, so I'm gonna try and find him."

This caught all the attention of the others, who all formed a crowd behind me, curiously watching as I began to get everything set up. I quickly plugged in the USB, turned on the tower, and waited for everything to boot up. One by one, the screens blinked to life, the soft hum of the static filling my ears. The screens began to reflect the ones inside the main security room. I quickly scanned them all over, and soon saw Zomboss carrying around some camera equipment. I quickly reached over and snagged the walkie-talkie from Galacta and clicked it on.

"Zomboss, what the heck happened?" I asked into the speaker.

I watched as Zomboss reached into his pocket and pulled out his walkie-talkie. "Yeah… things got out of hand. Chris, being such an idiot, though I was one of his actual interns, so now I'm being forced to perform manual labour."

I heard someone snort behind me, but I ignored it and focused on my friend. "Well, I got the USB plugged in, and I can see you on the cameras."

The Zombie overlord and began to look around, and when he locked eyes on to the camera, he waved. "Once I'm done with all this busy work, I'll head back to base, erase any compromising footage, and help get some better stuff set up there. Until then, I'm signing off." I could see him flick off his device and continue on his way, so I did the same, letting out a sigh as I leaned back in the chair.

"Well, I'm glad things are running smoothly", Steve said in a happy tone.

Majima let out a gruff scoff. "Yeah, sure, whatever you said."

The group dispersed at that, except Manolo and Maria, who both hung by closer to me. I looked at them, giving them a concerned look.

"What's going on, you two?" I asked.

Manolo sighed. "We're both just overwhelmed. All of this is a lot to take in…"

I nodded and spun the chair to face them. "Wanna talk about it?"

Maria then hummed. "It's just… I guess knowing we are just so small compared to just… everything. We've talked a lot with the others while you and Zomboss were out, and it's just so weird seeing and hearing all of the stuff they have at their homes, and how different they are from ours…"

"And this being our future", Manolo added, gesturing at all around him, "Just shocks us. These electric boxes, the more advanced lights, the sounds… all of it is a lot to take in."

I nodded. "Yeah, I totally get it. It was overwhelming when I ran into each of the others in their own worlds, but I had them by my side, so I had back up for when I was overwhelmed."

Manolo gave a soft smile and nodded. "Yeah. Still, who knows how far we are from home…"

"You two will survive", I said, a massive smile plastered on my face.

Maria brought me into a hug. "Yeah!" She let me go, then shot out of her chair. "I'm gonna go and talk with Jenny more. She's honestly pretty cool."

She walked off, leaving both me and Manolo by ourselves. So for the next few hours, me and him happily chatted, eventually being joined by Gladius. It was actually chill for once, and considering everything we went through so far, we all deserved it. Soon, after plenty of waiting, Zomboss had finally returned, carrying a small box. I watched with curiosity as he pulled out the type of microphone you'd normally see at a receptionist desk.

"I've hot wired this thing to only register through this earpiece", he pulled out a Bluetooth earpiece and stuck it where his right ear would be. "This way, we can chat without needing to use those crummy radios."

I nodded. "And those?" I pointed at the two speakers he brought with him.

"Better sound quality on your end", he said flatly.

I hummed slightly, leaving Zomboss to do his work. He had explained he had to remain disguised as an intern, as crew were given their own trailers on the lot, so he had to go there after he finished setting all this up. Alfur, surprisingly, actually was willing to accompany the scientist during this time. While Hilda was sad to see her friend go, he promised her that he would return (Plus Zomboss was threatened to keep him safe courtesy of Jenny, Ralph and Majima).

After a few more hours, it was finally night. I was absolutely exhausted, so I didn't spend much time waiting for the others to head to sleep, so I just bid them goodnight and was out like a light.

~X~

And so ends another part of this massive adventure.

If you couldn't guess, this newest arc is set in the world of Canadian cartoon hit, Total Drama. Specifically, the second season Total Drama Action. Why did I choose this to be part of my story?

I am in a TD FanFiction server, and I wanted to have something TD related so they would read this (joke)

Anyway, thank you for making it this far! I missed saying this, but thank you so much for getting this story to 1100 hits on Ao3! That means the world to me!

(Legit I was crying when I saw the number hit 1000, thank you so much)

Up next: More hyjinx at the Movie Lot, including some of our friends almost ruining a challenge.

~Caleb~