Episode 1: The Sweeper

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"Here we are at round two of our competition. We started off with twenty-four, and we narrowed the field down to twelve." SSBFreak explained. "We are one step closer to our grand prize of fifty thousand dollars."

"For a reminder, here's recap of the twelve people who made it past the qualifying round." Tinyrockt explained. "We have skateboarder Max Goof, tomboy Princess Daisy, our pair of daredevils Blue Monkey and Drake Sypher, tattoo artist Sybil Pandemik, military man Major Flak, mother-of-one Vanilla, painter Adeline, our two mechanics Slippy Toad and Keira Haggai, giant canine Muto and resident pain glutton N. Gin."

"However, we still need to progress through the competition, and that means that we need to cut the field in half again." SSBFreak pointed out. "Enter…"

The camera panned over a pool, where there were twelve podiums standing in a half circle. A large podium was in the middle of the half circle and had a sweeping arm attached to it.

"…The Sweeper."

"Here's how it works. The sweeping arm will start rotating with increasing speed and height with the intent to knock everyone into the water." Tinyrocket explained. "To avoid getting knocked in, our contestant have to jump over to sweeping arm and land successfully on their podiums ten feet above the water."

"The first six people to fall will be out of the competition, but that doesn't mean we stop." SSBFreak pointed out.

"That's right. The arm will continue until there is only one person left. That one surviving contestant will walk away with a one thousand dollar bonus." Tinyrocket said.

"Looks like the round is getting ready to start, so let's go down there and see how everyone's doing."

The camera panned around the pool, showing the twelve remaining contestants, each standing on one of the podiums in the water. In addition to their life vests, they were now wearing helmets, although the rocket stuck in the side of N. Gin's head was sticking out of the side of his helmet.

"So which of you guys is going to fall first?" Daisy asked with a smirk.

"I wouldn't be saying things like that, princess." Max pointed out. "That arm looks like it'll be hard for anyone to jump over."



"These podiums are hard enough just to stand on without that arm moving." Vanilla shook her head.

"Look alive, everyone! The arm is starting to move!" Slippy shouted.

Muto, on the first podium, crouched low and prepared to jump.

"And we're off! Round two is underway!" SSBFreak said.

"Muto's on the first podium, so let's see how this goes." Tinyrocket added.

Muto jumped up and managed to let the arm pass underneath him. Muto landed on his feet, surviving one rotation of the arm. Keira, N. Gin, Sypher, Blue, Slippy, Vanilla, Major Flak, Adeline, Max, Sybil and Daisy managed to jump over the arm (in that order) as well.

"It's hard to jump over that thing when it's going so slow." Blue noted as people continued to jump over the arm. "I'm just waiting for it to speed up."

"Easy for you to say!" Adeline called out from across the pool just after she jumped over the arm. "Your legs are long enough for you to just step over the arm!"

"Everyone's made it over the arm once, but it's only going to get harder." Tinyrocket said.

"Right, because with each additional rotation, the arm goes a little faster and raises a little harder." SSBFreak pointed out.

"This could be trouble for Adeline, our youngest contestant, and N. Gin, our shortest contestant."

"We'll see how it all pans out."

The contestants successfully managed to clear the arm a second time, but Adeline tripped over it. She landed on her podium and grabbed hold of it to keep herself from falling into the water. As everyone else jumped over the arm, Adeline pulled herself back up onto her podium.

"Adeline manages to hold on! Amazing!"

Sypher watched the arm after Daisy, the last in the half circle, jumped over it. "It's getting higher, dudes!" He noted.

The arm started passing by again and the contestants started jumping over them again.

"This is looking pretty good. No one's fallen into the water yet." SSBFreak said.

"Just look at Max clear the arm! He looks like he's been jumping over obstacles for years!" Tinyrocket pointed out.

"Well, when you're a skateboarder, you learn to jump over things." SSBFreak shrugged. "People like Blue and Sypher are used to stunts as well and Major Flak has been in the army for years."

"And then there's Slippy, whose springy jumps have been giving him the most air out of everyone here." Tinyrocket added. "I wouldn't be surprised if he survives to the end here."

Vanilla jumped over the arm again, but landed close to the edge of her podium. Vanilla managed to keep her balance and remain on.

"Vanilla almost goes, but regains her balance and stays in the competition."

"She is definitely the dark horse here. She got into the top twelve by just one second! I can only imagine how angry Scorch is right now…"

"Well, she's still hanging in there, and so are the rest of our twelve finalists. We're still waiting for someone to fall, so we'll make the arm go a little bit faster."

After several flawless rotations, the arm came around again. Muto easily jumped over the arm again, as did Keira. N. Gin jumped over the arm, but tripped on it and did a faceplant into his podium. The short scientist tumbled off the podium and fell down.

"Oh, that felt good!" N. Gin said just before falling into the water.

"And the Sweeper has claimed its first victim! N. Gin is down!" SSBFreak said.

"From one of the fastest times in the Preliminaries to the first one out on the Sweeper. Didn't look like he minded that much, though…" Tinyrocket noted.

"Well, with N. Gin out, we still need five more contestants to fall before we start our bonus round for the extra thousand dollars."

The arm continued moving as people jumped over it. Major Flak pulled off another successful jump, but Adeline,just behind him, wasn't so lucky and tripped over the arm again. As an unaffected Max jumped over the arm, Adeline grabbed her podium, but didn't have a good enough grip and slipped off, falling into the water.

"Oh! Adeline goes down fighting!"

"She looked like she could have pulled herself up again, but gravity was just too great."

"Okay. Four more." Sypher said to himself as the sweeper came around again. "Four more to go."

"Sypher's right. We need four more people to fall so we can have our final six."

"It may come sooner than we think. People are starting to look tired out there."

Indeed, the remaining ten contestants had been jumping for a good while and even the most physically-fit people were starting to tire out.

"How long have we been doing this?" Sybil asked as she jumped over the arm again.

"Someone's gotta be getting tired by now." Muto noted.

Muto and Keira jumped over the arm again. The arm passed over N.Gin's empty podium and Sypher cleared it again. Blue jumped, but was too early and the arm struck him in the knees, knocking the tall monkey off his podium.

"Blue goes down!"

Slippy was anticipating the arm and jumped, but the arm had slowed down due to the added resistance from Blue. Slippy landed on the arm and fell straight into the water."

"Slippy goes down!"

This had taken Vanilla completely by surprise, so the mother rabbit didn't even have time to jump. The arm struck Vanilla in the stomach and carried her until she hit her back against Major Flak's podium, causing her to let go and fall into the water.

"Vanilla goes down!"

Major Flak jumped over the arm but tripped over it. However, he managed to get a good grip on his podium and climb back up to safety.

"And Major Flak almost takes a dive himself, but he's safe!"

"Amazing! Just like that, three more people go down hard!"

"And now we just need one more person to fall before we start the bonus round!"

"SOMEONE had better fall." Keira said as she watched the arm come around for another rotation. "I don't know how much more of this I can take."

The arm continued to rotate around the half-empty podiums, but the remaining seven contestants still managed to jump over the obstacle and remain in the game.

"I think I might be getting too weak to continue." Muto panted as he barely managed to jump over the arm and still land on his podium.

"One more person needs to fall so we can start the race for the extra grand." Max pointed out.

"This is getting ridiculous." Sybil panted as she prepared to jump over the arm. "I'm getting too short for this…"

The arm came around the Sybil, whom jumped into the air. Her feet clipped the arm, throwing her off balance, but Sybil managed to grab hold of her podium and climb back up.

"Oh! Good recovery by the tiring Sybil!"

Daisy, right behind Sybil, jumped over the arm, but jumped too early and landed on the arm, throwing her off balance and making her land on her podium. Daisy tried to hold on, but she rolled off her podium and fell into the water.

"Daisy wasn't as lucky as Sybil, though! She's out!"

"And now we're down to our last six contestants, whom will now battle it out for the extra one thousand dollars."

The camera quickly alternated shots of Sypher, Muto, Keira, Sybil, Max and Major Flak, the last six players in the game, and all of them looked tired.

"This may not take as long as we think, because everyone's getting more and more tired the more that arm moves."

"Anyone can win the bonus prize, now."

The arm came around to Muto again, but the poor kobold was too weak to even attempt a jump and took the arm to the stomach. Muto simply let go and fell limply into the water.

"See what I mean? Muto's one of our more energetic players and he goes down like a sack of potatoes."

"Well, that leaves just five people left. Four more go and the last one standing leaves with an extra thousand dollars."

The five remaining players continued to jump over the arm as it rotated, getting even faster now. The five managed to clear the arm successfully again and prepared for another rotation.

"This is getting insane! How long have we been up here?!" Keira asked just before jumping over the arm again.

"I dunno. We don't have means to tell time up here." Sypher added as he jumped over the arm as well.

Major Flak managed to jump over the arm again. "It's probably been at least twenty minutes." He noted.

Max was going to add his two cents after he landed his jump, but while he was in the air, the arm hit him in the legs and sent him head-over-heels into the water.

"There goes Max!"

Sybil jumped into the air and landed on the podium, but landed too close to the edge and couldn't keep her balance. Sybil screamed as she fell into the water.

"And Sybil goes down right after him!"

"Three more left! Two need to fall!"

"Well boys, looks like it's just you two and me." Keira taunted. "Think you can keep up?"

"That's girl's amazing." Sypher panted to himself. "How is she still standing?"

Keira, Sypher and Major Flak continued to jump over the arm and managed to make it around two more full rotations. On the third rotation, Keira jumped over the arm, but like many before her, the arm clipped her feet, throwing her off.

"Oh, crap!" Keira shouted just before her face went into her podium. Keira bounced off and fell into the water, flat on her back.

"There goes Keira! We're down to our last two players!"

"Okay, soldier. You think you have a chance?" Major Flak asked as he watched Sypher jump over the arm.

"Just as good a chance as you, old man." Sypher taunted as he looked back, watching Major Flak jump over the arm as well. "Just try to beat me."

"I like your spunk, kid." Major Flak admitted as the two men waited for the arm to come around again. "But even if you're an athlete, I'm used to obstacles like these."

"You'd be surprised at what obstacles I've managed to avoid over the years." Sypher chuckled as he jumped over the arm again.

Major Flak jumped into the air, but he was unfortunately too late and he got his in the legs going up. Major Flak did a faceplant into his podium and tried to get a grip, but was too tired and slipped off, falling into the water.

"And that finishes it! Drake Sypher is our last man standing and wins the one thousand dollar bonus!" SSBFreak said.



Sypher cheered as the arm came around again. Turning around and jumping, Sypher landed on the arm in a sitting position and allowed himself to be carried around for a bit, cheering at his victory.

"As Sypher celebrates his victory, let's give a recap of our six finalists." Tinyrocket said.

First – Drake Sypher

Second – Major Flak

Third – Keira Haggai

Fourth – Sybil Pandemik

Fifth – Max Goof

Sixth – Muto

(Out)

Seventh – Princess Daisy

Eighth – Vanilla the Rabbit

Ninth – Slippy Toad

Tenth – Blue Monkey

Eleventh – Adeline

Twelfth – N. Gin

"Well, we have six contestants left, but we only have room in the Wipeout Zone, our final course, for four." SSBFreak explained.

"And to help with that, we move on to Round Three…" Tinyrocket added.

The camera showed a small pool with a floating platform in the middle, two different routes leading to shore. On the floating platform was a spinning, stationary device with six slots on it.

"Time to narrow the field again."