A/n: I was going to update this yesterday, but I was too busy reading fanfics to write them. Oops.
At least I remembered today!
Enjoy!
There were now only four unfortunates left, with three floors to go before the winner was decided. It was at this point that Sherlock realised he had no idea what the final task was supposed to be. Having the same set up as the one used in these challenges made no sense and wouldn't even work. Then he remembered that he still had to get through the next two rounds, and that he should probably cross that bridge when he came to it. Besides, all would undoubtedly be revealed when he got there, so there was no rush.
The next challenge found them back at a wall again, though this one seemed decidedly more sturdy than the one previous. Again it was hard to guess the nature of the challenge, but he doubted it would involve wall re-assembly, even with the circular holes that seemed to run through it.
Sherlock was disappointed to find that he wasn't the saboteur, yet again being left to stand in uncomfortable silence while one of the others had something, as he had neither watched the show nor been a saboteur he had no idea what this was, said into their ear by The Voice, who reportedly helped you. 'Figures that she'd only help you to fail...'
"Unfortunates," The Voice chimed in on cue, "this is Snake Attack. To pass, you must avoid the python. Let the challenge begin... now."
The saboteur selected and the challenge instated, all that was left was for someone to volunteer as the one to try shoving their arm into the 'snake infested' wall.
It came as no great surprise that everyone was none too keen of the whole snake idea. The silence continued as the four sent glances around, trying to work out who to make the volunteer here.
"I'll do it," Greg offered, "if no one else wants to."
Nobody argued against his suggestion, so he moved towards the wall and observed it closely, "So, which do you think I should try first?" He asked, glancing back to his team members.
Sherlock firmly folded his arms. He didn't like guessing. He'd already guessed today despite not having done so for years (except for that one time when he was trying to work out John's middle name, but even then it had been an educated one.) and wasn't going to guess again on a task. The rest of the team could just deal without him.
It came as little surprise that Jim was more than willing to put his opinion out into the open. He suggested the middle, causing Greg to momentarily frown before sticking his hand in. Surprisingly, he managed to touch the other side unhindered. 'Well that rules out him then.' Sherlock hoped, at least, that his previous thought was true, and wouldn't just turn out to be some other tactic from Jim, who would also have been extremely unlucky to be picked twice in a row, although Sherlock assumed that this was possible.
When it was decided that John should go next, the short boy started stuttering out a half-hearted excuse before sighing and giving in. He still refused to take a guess, so replaced Greg on the snake avoiding front. A pointed glance to the others signalled that he was open to suggestion and he stood there awaiting further instruction.
"Let's go for the top one."
Greg was quick to jump on Jim's suggestion, nodding in intense agreement. John turned back to the wall, decision made. Then he rolled the sleeve of his jumper up before trying the top right hole. He took out his hand quickly after a few seconds, seeing that it was now covered in what appeared to be black ink. He shook it in disgust before taking his place in the line again.
"I am not doing that again, and you cannot convince me otherwise." John stated, crossing his arms in a Sherlock-esque show of defiance to accentuate the point, making sure not to get any of the black liquid on his clothes as he did.
Greg took this as an opportunity for him to take back over, going towards the wall. As he waited for the official verdict on which row to choose.
"How about the top left one?" John suggested, clearly unsure (and still a bit miffed over the ink).
"I don't think it actually matters which one we go for on the row, it's either top, middle or bottom." Jim said, with a slight condescending edge to his tone.
"Fine, but we can still go for the top row!" John said, talking loud enough this time for Greg to hear.
Greg sighed quietly. Of course they would pick the correct one again. He'd have to do something about this before he lost and got 'trapped'. He put his hand into the wall and reached right to the back, pulling it out again and turning to the three others to display this with what he hoped was a convincing smile plastered on his face. Sherlock gave the expression a look of slight doubt, but failed to mention anything out loud.
"The snake is on the bottom row." The Voice intoned with her usual helpful information. With this is mind and (unfortunately for him) nothing else he put his arm into the closest hole on the bottom row.
"Oh." He said this aloud in realisation of his mistake, silently cursing his own sheer stupidity and lack of forethought.
When Greg withdrew his hand, covered in the black substance ('perhaps paint' Sherlock thought mildly) a few seconds later, even John gave him a flat look. It seemed that even to the average eye such behaviour was considered just a little too obvious.
"What?" Greg asked, sounding as though he took offense from their accusatory glances. On the inside however, he was resigning himself to the fact that he would be going out this round. The Voice yelled in his ear, encouraging him to shift the blame and speaking with increasing urgency. He sighed. "Might as well finish this up quickly then." He poked his arm into the snake hole after being told which one it was, surprisingly enough being 'bitten' by the 'snake' when he did this. They were then politely informed by The Voice that they had failed, much to their obvious complete and utter shock. Then the vote commenced.
"Can't we just skip this bit?" Sherlock asked impatiently, "you know that we know that Gavin's the saboteur."
At this, he received three blank looks.
"Uuh," Greg said awkwardly, "I... I'm not called Gavin."
"Oh." Sherlock seemed entirely unconcerned by this revelation. "Was it Gary? Gerald? Gaston? Gringotts?" he asked, guesses being more and more ridiculous with each try, to which Greg responded with a shake of the head.
"No. Actually, it's Greg" Greg explained, smiling slightly at the mistake. For a genius Sherlock could sure be stupid.
"Yes, that. Anyway. Can we go to the next floor now?" He asked, rather rudely.
Even The Voice sighed at his actions, before saying the obvious, "Greg, you're trapped!" that was accompanied by the mandatory evil laugh.
And then there were three.