Hawaiian Counter-Punch
By Asher Tye
Disclaimer: I don't own Total Drama, be it Island, Action, or World Tour. This story is being done purely for fun, not profit. If someone says I'm selling this for money, they're a dirty, rotten, no good, liar. If you give someone money for this… Well you're rather foolish aren't you since I'm putting it here for free, huh?
Author's Note: And here we go, the final chapter of this little story, at least if you don't count the epilogue I plan to do. Hopefully this ending will be a satisfying one for all those fans out there who, like me, did not see their favorite character win.
Alejandro's arm wrapped around the shoulders of the triumphant Heather as she smiled from her mat next to her completed dummy. The Queen Bee smirked over at Cody who looked somewhat disappointed as he stood with an armless Heather mannequin. Trent and Harold gave their friend a consolatory pat on the back as Chris walked up.
"Well it looks like congratulations are in order," the handsome host said, though Heather snubbed his gesture. Chris gave the female finalist an annoyed look. "Glad to see you're not letting victory go to your head." Then he turned to Cody. "What can I say Codester, this just wasn't your event. But don't feel too bad. As they say, it ain't over until the last man's standing."
"Enough of this love-fest!" Heather bellowed. "Let's get on with this so I can claim my million."
"What, ya got somewhere else to be?" Chris countered. "It's the last episode and you're in the lead. Why not have fun with it?"
"Has he met Heather?" Cody whispered to Harold, causing the uber-geek to snicker. Soon, after Cody had completed his mock-up of Heather, Chris led the two teens towards the foot of Killawaya. Both craned their necks skyward. The volcano was much taller up close than off in the distance.
"All right, the rules here are simple," the sadistic showman began to explain. "The two of you are gonna race up Mount Killawaya. You can take any route you want, but some paths are more dangerous than others, and quite a few are impassible. First one who reaches the top with their sacrifice in one piece and gets it into the lava takes home the big prize… ONE MILLION DOLLARS!" Chris gave a huge grin as he raised his arms up in celebration. "The second one up I'll give the name of an excellent plastic surgeon, just in case they want to change their face to avoid the humiliation." Heather turned to Cody.
"If you want tips on what your new face should look like, just come see me after the show. I should be feeling very generous then." Cody wasn't listening to the mean girl, instead looking about the base of the volcano.
"Where's everyone else?" he asked. "I thought you said they'd be participating in this event."
"Good eye," Chris answered. "The peanut gallery has been let loose upon the mountain, free to set up their own special surprises to trip you up or help you out."
"Wait, what if they destroy our dolls?" asked the Queen Bee.
"Not to worry. They've all been instructed that your sacrifices are off-limits. No Touchy. All you have to do is keep the things in one piece." At that point a sly look crossed the aged star's face. "You two, on the other hand, are fair game, so you might want to be careful who you blunder into." The sheer bluntness of this statement startled the two contestants. "Now then, on an earlier episode your teams all competed in special contest, the prize for which was intended to help you in this challenge. Team Alejandro won this handsome wheelbarrow. Too bad he's no longer competing. Cody, your team won you this super-cute baby carriage. Push it in good health. And Heather, your team won, well, squat." The dark haired beauty glared. "But since Al decided to throw his burly biceps behind you, I suppose we could let you use his advantage to carry your fake Cody." Without a word Heather grabbed her scrawny sacrifice by its skinny waist and lifted it with one hand.
"I don't think that will be a problem Chris," she smugly said.
"Okay then. Since you won the last challenge you get a two minute head start, starting… NOW!" Tucking the wooden boy in her arms, Heather was off like a shot, favoring the easiest path to cover as much distance as possible with the time she had. Behind her Cody stretched his legs, warming up for the challenge of his life. After the prerequisite two minutes finally expired, Chris signaled it was time for him to get moving. Pumping himself up, the gap-toothed geek hefted his Heather doll onto his back… and was promptly crushed underneath it.
"Woah! What happened here?" Chris asked as he ran over to the teen, concerned that he was about to lose any sense of drama for his finale. Quickly he inspected the wooden effigy that now lay atop of the brunette. "Man, that is some solid construction," the host commented, knocking on the solid trunk as Cody rolled the mannequin off him. "Dude, you know you could have just used dried wood or something less… heavy." Indeed, though the doll had been made out of debris wood, it had not been old debris.
"Harold!" Cody growled as he thought about the only person he knew that would think a wooden dummy that was going to be thrown into a volcano needed to be built to last. Grabbing its ankles, the skinny teen dragged the heavy doll over to his baby carriage. With a triumphant cry, Cody managed to heft the doll up onto his prize, only to let out a despairing cry as the flimsy carriage was crushed beneath the weight.
"Wow, that thing was just useless, wasn't it," Chris commented. "Better hurry before Ms. Sunshine gets too far ahead of you." Desperate, Cody grabbed hold of the broken wheels of the baby carriage, jamming the axels into the pineapple head. Fortunately the fruit was a young specimen, hard enough to take the abuse without breaking apart. Lifting the wooden feet, the geeky competitor began to pull the doll behind him a he raced up to catch up with Heather, huffing and puffing all the way.
Now alone, Chris turned to smile at the cameras.
"Well ya gotta hand it to him; that kid doesn't give up. But will it be enough to get him to the top? And what surprises await both of our competitors on their trek? I'm gonna go set up for the end of the race, but you guys should all enjoy the action, courtesy of our Total Drama Cameras."
'It's hot. Man it's HOT,' Cody thought as he pressed onward, the ambient heat of the volcano already causing him to sweat. Of course all the running he'd been doing didn't help much. The brunette wasn't even sure how far he'd gone; only that he was moving upward, which was a good enough direction for him.
Killawaya shook a bit, rumbling with geothermal energy. For a moment Cody wobbled about, his balance lost as the earth under his feet moved. Shaking his head, the brunette continued onward. Somewhere up ahead was Heather, and if he wanted to win the prize, Cody had to catch her.
"Ah!" the tech-geek cried as a chunk of ground near him erupted in a jet of hot gas, only to be plugged up as a small stream of magma began to flow out of the hole. A quick hop carried Cody over the liquid rock. "This is getting way too hot for comfort.
"You're telling me, bro. My headband soggier than when it's in the washer," Tyler said as the jock suddenly appeared on the path before the gap-toothed geek.
"What are you doing here?" he asked as Tyler crossed his arms.
"What's it look like Code-Man? I'm here to stop ya from making it to the top of the volcano." A sudden laugh escaped Cody's lips.
"Ha, that's a good one Ty. You almost had me fooled there," he said as he attempted to walk past the red suited sporto. Immediately Tyler got in his way, bouncing the smaller boy backward and sending him crashing to his butt. "Hey!"
"Dude, I'm on Heather's team. I can't just wimp out, even if I don't like her," the buff teen explained. "Now stay put and we can just wait for the challenge to end."
"Oh that ain't happening," Cody said as he stood again. Tyler, not naturally a mean person, did not press his attack, opting to simply be an obstacle for the older boy. Thinking quickly, and knowing he didn't have the time to overpower the other brunette, the nerdling grabbed hold of his doll and ran to the mountainside. If Tyler insisted on closing the easy way off, Cody would just have to take the direct route to the top. Grunting in frustration at the stubbornness of his quarry, Tyler also began to climb. Though his larger hands and feet made finding purchase to support his weight harder, the jock's fitter body was able to make the climb much faster. Very soon he once more blocked Cody's progress.
"Come on Cody, you know you can't beat me climbing any more than blocking," the jock pointed out. He really didn't want to be responsible for the smaller boy accidentally hurting himself.
"You may be right about that?" Cody admitted as he clung to the mountainside, looking back down at the path. "But I bet I can beat you at falling." So saying the scrawny teen released his grip, dropping back to the ground. The impact caused him to lose his balance a bit, falling backwards yet again, but ultimately doing him no harm. Quickly the seventeen year old took off, dragging his mock-up behind him. Realizing he'd been outmaneuvered, Tyler let go of the rock too, bending his knees as he dropped to absorb the impact. Unfortunately, the unlucky sporto had wedged his foot into its hold too tightly, a fact which caused his fall to turn into a tumble.
"Ouch!" Tyler yelled as he landed face first back on the path.
"Are you all right Tyler?" Cody asked, having stopped when he'd heard the crash. A million dollars or not, he wasn't going to just leave an injured man behind.
"'M all right," Tyler called weakly, raising a thumbs up to indicate he wasn't seriously hurt. Satisfied, Cody continued onward.
Heather was fuming. Fuming and hurting. It had been good going for the first two minutes, she hadn't seen any of the others at all, save for Tyler who'd said he was going to block off Cody. She'd honestly hoped they'd decided to leave well enough alone.
Then she'd seen the sign. It had been one of those warning indicators to tell people which way to take up the mountain. On the wood someone had crudely written "Danger" next to an arrow pointing left and "Free Donuts" next to an arrow pointing right. Heather looked down both paths. Left had a rather smooth incline, while the right was craggier and thinner. Chuckling to herself, the popular girl took the left path, calling out to Owen how lame this little trap was.
As it turned out, the trap had been Gwen's.
At the top of the smooth incline, the path suddenly dropped off, as Heather found out all too well when she did too. Screaming and cursing as she tumbled down the rocky slope, she couldn't help but hear the Goth-girl's laughter. With a furiousness that would have made a mountain cat proud, Heather scrambled back up, intent on hurling her pale rival down the same slope as revenge. Of course Gwen had had the sense to not stick around, but that mattered little. She'd already cost the Queen Bee precious time.
A loud "Ouch!" in Tyler's voice told the raven-hair she would soon have company of the geeky variety if she didn't hurry. Quickly she ripped the sign out of the ground and tossed it away. Even if he didn't walk himself off the ledge like Heather had, Cody would probably waste a few minutes checking the right path, something he wouldn't do if he thought "Owen" was trying to point him in the other direction. Carefully she moved onto the narrow path.
'It has to be safe, right?' Heather thought to herself as she walked the path. 'I mean, they wouldn't let people use it if it wasn't, right?' She looked over the edge. It wasn't very far down, at least not yet, but the mistress of mean also wasn't interested in having to make it back up here again.
Soon the path widened again and Heather no longer had to hold onto the cliff as she moved.
"It seems Heather's still in the lead, but a tumble down the mountain has given Cody a chance to catch up. Will Miss Mean be able to keep ahead of Mr. Nice? Especially with what's coming up in front of her," Chris announced as his helicopter flew past. Inside the cockpit, Heather could just make out Gwen, blowing a raspberry at her.
"Just you wait weird Goth girl!" Heather yelled back, shaking her fist. "This isn't over yet!" Re-energized, the Asian-Canadian began to sprint ahead, determined to make it to whatever the next obstacle was going to be. That's how she made it to the part of the path overlooking the fork she'd gotten stuck in. Cody had apparently arrived there too and, like her, had taken the left path. The difference was that, before the sudden drop-off she had suffered could take the tech-geek; he grabbed hold of the rope.
Yes, there was a rope, lowered down to him courtesy of DJ who was currently lying flat on the path ahead of Heather. The Queen Bee growled as she watched her opponent tie himself and his sacrifice to the line. She sped up as DJ began to pull the lighter boy up, kicking the muscular football player as she passed him and causing him to yelp and release the rope. The raven-haired beauty smirked as she heard the pained cry of Cody tumbling back down, but she didn't stop. It wouldn't take DJ long to recoup his loss after all.
It was then that something beautiful appeared. Justin stood on the path before her, a smile on his face, and a tiny speedo on his body. It was quite obvious that this was a distraction meant to stall, a fact that didn't stop her from slowing down as the teen model began to flex in the bright Hawaiian sun. The heat of the volcano had caused a sheen of sweat to appear, which in turn caused his bronze skin to sparkle like gold. For a few brief moments, the million dollars was driven from Heather's mind, along with every other thought she could have.
A loud squeal broke the spell as Justin was tackled by Katie and Sadie. If Heather had been stunned, the two BFFs had completely lost control thanks to the hunk's stunning good looks were currently tugging his arms off as they each tried to hug him all to themselves. Shaking off the stunning image, Heather continued onward quickly.
It wasn't long before the next obstacle presented itself, one that made even Justin's hotness seem cool in comparison.
A river of lava flowed before her, blocking the path like… well, like a river of lava. On the other side Chris stood smiling.
"Hi there!" he called slyly. "Bet you're wondering what's going on." As he spoke, the Queen Bee noticed the scaffolding that had been built across the lava, several heavy objects hanging from, tied by ropes to a rock by which stood four of the eliminated contestants. Underneath the scaffold were several flat rocks jutting out of the liquid rock, obviously the mode by which she was supposed to cross. "You didn't really think we were gonna let it be this easy did you? The object here should be obvious, but I'll explain anyway."
"Of course; no one loves the sound of your voice more than you," Heather muttered.
"It's simple. Use the rocks to make it across the lava without falling in or losing your sacrifice. Of course the trip won't just be a hop, skip, and jump." LeShawna and Harold quickly appeared, both holding out a pair of machetes. "These two graciously volunteered to help out in this competition by selectively dropping items down upon your pretty little head. Won't that be fun?"
"Ahem!" the nearby Alejandro coughed, knowing a stall tactic when he saw one. Chris wanted drama, and a killer lead did not make drama. The host favored the fallen mastermind with a sour look.
"And of course, to even the odds, Alejandro and Lindsay here will be trying to stop them. And vice-versa once the little guy gets here."
"Oh this is gonna be so sweet," LeShawna said, giving her machete a test swipe through the air. "I'm gonna flatten you, you skanky little-"
"You'll understand if I can't allow you to do that," Alejandro said as he interposed himself between the urban goddess and the ropes. LeShawna let out a laugh.
"Oh, ho-ho-ho don't think I won't go through you with a smile on my face Casanova," she said as she charged forward swinging.
"Maybe, but will you go through her too?" The Latin lothario pulled Lindsay next to him, knowing full well that his opponents were not as ruthless as they would pretend to be. Satisfied that the situation was well in hand, the ruthless raven-hair prepared to continue her trek.
"Oh you gotta be kiddin' me!" Cody cried as he suddenly appeared next to her.
"Code-man, you finally made it," Chris called. "Let me just explain what's going on."
"Have fun with that geek-face," Heather called as she hopped over to the first rock. Cody watched her go, a sinking feeling in his stomach. Balance was not his strong suit, and he didn't think he was going to be able to hop the distances between the stones and carry the mock-Heather.
"Come on, Scrawny, you're wasting time," Duncan announced as he seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Beefy hands grabbed Cody by the arms and bodily carried him away. For a moment the gap-toothed geek feared he was about to become a missing person, with his picture on milk cartons and everything. Then he noticed Noah and Eva moving about a giant board balanced on a rock.
Well, Eva was moving the board. Noah was standing at the center, an eye closed as he used his hands as a sight to aim the board.
"A little to the left. A little more," he said as the female bodybuilder gave a controlled push. "Perfect!" the brainiac declared as he hopped off. "Okay, Duncan, we're ready for him."
"Uh… What's going on?" Cody asked as he and his sacrifice were deposited at one end of the board.
"What's it look like? We're helping you across Chris's little river of fun," the sarcastic one responded before looking up. "Okay Big Guy, you're up!"
"You got it little buddy! BONZAI!" A dark shadow fell across Cody as he looked up to see Owen diving off the rocks above. How the group had managed to convince the acrophobic teen to do this was not nearly so pressing a concern to the brunette as where he was going to land. With a crash Owen slammed onto the raised end of the board and, for the second time in his life, Cody was airborne without a plane.
"AH!" he wailed as he sailed over the horizon, his four supporters watching with smiles on their faces.
"Not a bad job pointdexter," Duncan said as he clapped Noah on the back, much to the bookworm's annoyance. Still this was a time to celebrate, and he wanted to bask in the appreciation.
"Getting someone like Cody up and over was a piece of cake, we just had to aim it right for the thermals," he responded. "And half the credit for that goes to Eva for getting the aim right." The girl in question gave a smug smile, which quickly faded as she thought of something.
"Uh, guys, we did a good job getting him going, but did anyone actually think about how he'd land?" she asked. As this realization dawned on the three boys, their own smiles began to fade as they watched the other teen's body arc through the sky. A sharp intake of breath and a pained expression followed as they witnessed his not so graceful landing.
"I'm okay," Cody feebly called from somewhere in the distance.
Heather had watched her opponent sail by with a hint of annoyance. Now Cody was in the lead, even if only for a little while. A part of her hoped that he had suffered an injury in his landing; nothing serious, but a sprained ankle would be most welcome. Quickly she jumped forward as a piano came crashing down, taking out one of the rocky steps as it splashed into the molten lava. LeShawna had apparently been able to get past Alejandro for a bit to cut one of the lines, though now the Spanish competitor was trying to wrestle the machete from her hand. Harold was trying to get past Lindsay, and having trouble figuring out where he could put his hands without causing his girlfriend to scream at him.
Despite this, the Queen Bee did manage to make it over the rocky pathway, only having to dodge two more objects, the second of which, a cage, had actually succeeded in making a rather nice bridge between two distant rocks for her. As she made her final leap, a tanned hand reached out and grabbed onto her own. Alejandro quickly pulled her to safety, and into an embrace. For a few brief moments, their faces drew closer together as they stared into each other's eyes.
"You… you have to get going," Alejandro said before either teen could get too caught up in each other. Heather shook her head, clearing the cobwebs from her mind as she got her game face on.
"You're right. I don't have any time for this… nonsense," the Queen Bee said with determination. Grabbing hold of her sacrifice, Heather headed off at a brisk jog, leaving behind a smiling Alejandro.
"Dude, that seemed kinda cold," Harold said as he watched the raven-haired girl run off.
"That depends on your definition of romantic, my little amigo," Alejandro replied.
Elsewhere, Cody was pulling himself out of the small, teen-shaped crater he'd made upon impacting with the mountainside. His vision was swimming slightly, but no more than it had during the numerous times over the course of season he'd impacted with hard surfaces headfirst. Shaking off the dizziness, and spitting out the soil that had invaded his mouth, the gap-toothed geek looked around for his sacrifice.
"Score!" he cried as he found the wooden effigy lying nearby, "the wheels didn't even fall off. That's one tough dummy."
Confession Cam – Harold
"We all know Cody's pretty tough for a meek little guy, right? I mean, he got mauled by a bear and bounced back in, like, a few weeks." Harold explained to the camera. "So I figured if we made the effort and built the dummy to last, we could just kinda, you know, catapult 'em both up the volcano and that would negate any lead Heather got." Harold sat back as he crossed his arms, smiling at the camera. "Strategy. Ya always gotta think two steps ahead, even on the last step."
Grabbing hold of the ankles of his sacrifice, Cody once more began to wheel the thing up the volcano, pleased to see the path had become a straight shot upwards.
'I'm home free! All I need to do is keep my lead and that million dollar prize is all mine! Talk about a good day,' he thought happily.
"Hold it right there!" yelled a voice that sent shivers up the brunette's spine.
'So much for that thought," Cody realized as he spotted Courtney stomping towards him with an angry look on her face, and a rather troublingly large mallet in her hands.
"I'm not letting you win this," the C.I.T. threatened. "But I'm willing to be reasonable. Just drop your doll and step away so I can smash it. Then Heather will win and you don't have to be in a body cast again." To be fair, the high-strung girl gave her quarry a full five seconds to make up his mind before swinging her mallet. With a hard pull, Cody just managed to get the faux-Heather out of the way, leaving only volcanic rock to be smashed.
"Hey! Chris said you guys aren't allowed to attack our dummies!" Cody protested as he dodged another swing.
"Oh please," Courtney retorted. "It took me three seasons, but I finally figured out Chris's stance on rules. He doesn't care if we obey them or not, just so long as whatever we do creates drama for his show." Another swing, another dodge. "And what I'm doing here, taking a potshot at the nerdy underdog, that's the stuff drama's made of."
"What is your problem!" the brunette yelled back. "You're seriously gonna try to injure me just to keep me from winning a million dollars?" He yelped as the mallet slammed down near his feet.
"I gave you an out," the exasperated C.I.T. pointed out, "but you had to be totally unreasonable again, just like at Wawanakwa. If you'd just done the right thing and given me the million then, none of this would be happening now." As if to punctuate that word, Courtney swung at Cody's legs, hooking the mallet behind his legs and yanking them out from under him, causing the older boy to fall back onto his sacrifice. Grinning mercilessly, the demented damsel lifted her mallet, fully intending to crush both.
"Hey! Nutso C.I.T. girl!" yelled a voice that distracted Courtney, causing her to look back. Further up the volcano sat Sierra in her wheelchair, a fierce expression on her face as she looked down upon the scene unfolding. "NOBODY tries to flatten MY CODIKINS!" With that declaration, the uber-fan grabbed hold of the back of her wheels and, with a mighty surge of Codrenaline, yanked them forward. The sound of rubber squealing on rock was deafening before the chair shot forward at ludicrous speed. Like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming car, Courtney was unable to react, save for widening her eyes as Sierra slammed into her, knocking her away from Cody and sending both women into a crumpled heap.
"Sierra!" Cody called, getting up and running over to his friend. Though neither ex-contestant looked particularly well off, Sierra proved to be a bit more resilient as she smiled at the object of her affections. "Are you crazy, attacking her like that?" the brunette asked. "You're already in a wheelchair, do you want to be crippled for life?"
"If I hadn't, I wouldn't have deserved to be called your number one fan," the bald girl explained with a smile, "to say nothing of being your best friend." Then her looks became serious. "Besides, I couldn't just let this witch rob you of the prize."
"It's not worth it if I get my friends hurt to win," Cody pointed out. He was quite surprised to see his former wife giving him an annoyed look.
"I'm the one who chose to do it not you," she pointed out. "It's sweet that you care, but this is only not worth it if you decide not to continue competing." Once more the smile returned to Sierra's face. "Now hurry up before Heather catches up."
"But…"
"I'll be fine. Chris will be by to pick me and Courtney here up soon. You just concentrate on getting up to that crater." Seeing that his friend was resolved in her decision, Cody gave a short nod, his face gritting in determination. The first rule of being a ladies' man was to never let a lady down after all. Now he had no choice but to win. Grabbing the sacrifice's legs, he began his trek up the volcano's incline.
Just as Sierra had predicted, Chris did indeed make use of his helicopter to pick up the two teens, the same as he had all the other helpers. Now the assembled peanut gallery stood to one side of a rim of Mt. Killawaya's crater, all sweltering from the heat rising from the fiery pit. Sweat fell from each of their bodies as hairdos wilted, and they all looked quite uncomfortable. Or at least they would have if they hadn't been glaring angrily at their host.
Chris McLean also stood at the rim, not a drop of sweat on his brow, nor as single follicle of perfectly quaffed hair drooping from his head. The reason for this was simple, as the celebrity entertainer was standing between two industrial sized fans as they blew air on him that had been chilled by two massive blocks of ice.
"Brrr. Ya know, a cup of hot cocoa would really hit the spot about now," McLean quipped to his two interns, both of whom were struggling to get a fresh block of ice into place before it melted. The two put upon men joined the ex-contestants glaring at their boss, a fact that warmed the sadistic man's heart better than all the cocoa in the world ever could. Suddenly, he became aware of a new noise coming up over the sound of the whirling fan blades, a sort of wheezing, gasping sound that was starting to get on his nerves. Turning his head, the host with the most saw a figure making its way to the rim.
"Too hot, too hot," Cody wheezed as he pulled the Heather-doll behind him, almost collapsing as he finally made it to the top of the volcano.
"Cody! My man!" Chris yelled amid the cheering from Team Cody (and Lindsay, who'd forgotten she was on Team Heather). "Looks like you're the first one to make it up here. Good for you!" he congratulated, ignoring the perturbed look the geeky boy was giving him as Cody noticed the host's makeshift air-conditioning system. "Now all ya gotta do is get Wooden Heather there into the lava, and you get a 'cool' million." As he said this, Chris held up a silvery suitcase that had been sitting beside him, ostensibly the container for the sought after prize money.
Fighting his exhaustion, Cody pulled forward, dragging his cargo behind him as his friends cheered him on. Finally he made it to edge of the crater, a quick look over of which revealed that, yes, the volcano was quite active and quite full of lava. Happily he righted the doll he'd been carrying, standing it on its feet.
"Finally, this nightmare is over," Cody declared as he prepared to push his sacrifice over the edge.
"Not so fast," Heather said as her hands suddenly grabbed the brunette from behind. The startled geek was flung to the ground as Heather, disheveled and dirty from her own journey, stood over him with a scowl.
"I will…" Heather began as she performed a leg drop right between Cody's legs.
"Ah!" he yelled as on the other side of the crater the male members of the peanut gallery all winced in sympathy. Even Chris and Chef let out gasps of sympathetic pain.
"…lose…" the Queen Bee continued, dropping her elbow into her opponent's stomach.
"Eey!" Cody squeaked as his internal organs were forced to shift their positions in his body.
"..this TIME!" concluded the raven-haired girl as her forearms crashed into the gap-toothed one's ribs.
"Oof!" he gasped as the air was driven out of his body.
"It took me two whole seasons to get back my shot at the win," Heather stated as she stood up again, satisfied that her foe was incapacitated enough that he couldn't stop her from winning, "I'm not going to lose it to anyone!" Grabbing the Cody-doll she'd left behind, Heather marched back to the rim of the volcano, standing right next to Cody's own mock-up of her. Being far too savvy to trust the wind, the Queen Bee knocked the wooden effigy back down so it couldn't accidentally fall into the lava. With a triumphant smile on her face, she lifted her sacrifice and prepared to win.
Over where he lay, Cody moaned as he clutched his pained body, wondering when he'd become the universe's punching bag. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the situation about to unfold. More importantly, he spotted a way to stop it. In knocking over the older teen's sacrifice, Heather had inadvertently placed its head within striking distance of its owner's feet. Fighting back the pain of his cramping stomach muscles, Cody kicked his legs with all his might, striking the pineapple. The force of the blow was enough to send the Heather-doll over the edge, just as the real Heather dropped her Cody-doll at the same time.
Twenty-seven sets of eyes raced to look over the edge of the pit as the two sacrifices fell, neck and neck as gravity pulled each towards the lava. Struggling, Cody pulled himself over to watch as well. For a few moments, it appeared Chris would have to come up with a new tiebreaker, when Mother Nature herself decided to intervene.
As though channeling the natural luck of its namesake, the Cody-doll's falling arc took it too close to a rocky outcropping inside the fire pit, its citrusy head smashing against the hard stone and shattering as its wooden body began to tumble uncontrollably. The impact also caused the effigy's descent to rapidly slow.
Only a minute later, an audible "ploop" sound was heard, followed closely by a second "ploop."
From her perch, Heather stood frozen, her mouth agape as she watched the scene unfold. Cody too seemed frozen where he lay, looking over the edge with wide eyes. Then, adrenaline erasing the pain he'd been feeling only a short while ago, the brunette rose to his feet and raised both of his arms high, his hands forming two "V" shapes as he claimed his victory. Beside him Heather fell to her knees.
"NOOOOO!" she wailed as from the opposite side applause erupted from the peanut gallery. With a huge smile on his face, Chris McLean walked over to the former competitors, the silver briefcase in his hand.
"And the winner of Total Drama World Tour is… CODY!" he announced clapping the gawky teen on the back, and accidentally knocking the air out of him for a minute. Quickly the new millionaire recovered, his youthful face taking on a huge, toothy smile as he watched Chris open up the briefcase to display his winnings. Though not naturally a greedy person, Cody couldn't help but grab hold of a few of the bills and rub them against his smooth face, as though to make sure this was not some heatstroke induced hallucination. Replacing the money, and allowing the host to snap the case shut again, the young winner claimed his prize, hugging it to his narrow chest.
"This is so cool!" he finally said. "Everybody back home is so going to freak when they see this."
"Hey!" called out a husky voice as two elderly men wearing sarongs similar to Chef's and loud shirts appeared. "You idiots were just throwing pineapples into the volcano, weren't you?"
"Don't you know pineapples cause volcanoes to erupt?" the second man huffed out. Everyone gave the two blank stares as this was clearly news to them. "Didn't you people read the signs?"
"Oh those things," Chris said, rolling his eyes. "They were really ruining my shot, so I put the human wall there to cover them up." Making a collective realization, the twenty-two contestants that had formerly be cheering stepped aside and turned around where, indeed, they found several signs warning against the folly of tossing pineapples into the active volcano. As if waiting for this cue, Mt. Killawaya suddenly gave a violent shake, startling everyone. Gripping his prize money, Cody stepped back from the edge, unwilling to end this season as a roast just when he'd won.
'Oh this is just spectacular. I finally win the game and now we're all gonna die. Can life get any more unfair?' That was when he noticed a rather pungent aroma coming from behind him. Curious, the tech-geek turned around, and his eyes widened at what he saw standing before him.
Ezekial.
In truth, Cody had thought the homeschooled teen had been left behind on the train to Mexico. That was, after all, the last place Alejandro and Heather had claimed to have seen him. How he would have found his way to Hawaii was anyone's guess. And yet, here he stood, in all his groady glory, his sickly green skin almost gleaming in the glow of the lava. At first the prairie boy's eyes didn't seem to be focusing on anything in particular, as evidenced by the fact that neither one was looking in the same direction.
That ended in an instant as both pupils snapped forward, staring most disconcertingly at the object Cody was gripping to his chest. This did not go unnoticed.
"Uh, hey Zeke, buddy," Cody said, smiling uncomfortably as he took a step back. Ezekial growled as he took his own step forward. "You remember me, right? Cody; from back on the island." Another growl escaped the deranged competitor's lips and again Cody stepped backwards. "C'mon man, the game's over. We can all go ho… YIPE!" Without warning, Ezekial pounced, leaping into the air to knock Cody over as he grabbed hold of the briefcase, yanking and pulling as he attempted to wrest it away from the older boy. And he might have succeeded, if Cody in turn did not have a veritable death grip on the case. Even lacking raw physical power, the gap-toothed geek was tenacious, and he wasn't about to just relinquish the prize he'd worked so hard for. The two teenagers struggled, Cody trying to escape as Ezekial tried to pry the case away from him. In all honesty, it seemed as though the two were fairly evenly matched, neither one willing to suffer a defeat at the hands of the other. Becoming furious, the prairie boy employed his feet to give him additional leverage, bracing them against Cody's stomach and face.
This proved to be the clincher.
"Blah!" Cody screamed as he released the briefcase to grab hold of his nose and mouth. After weeks and weeks of surviving in the Total Drama Jumbo Jet's cargo hold and not being able to bother with personal hygiene, the homeschooled teen's feet had become absolutely rancid, with a horrific smell even one of Owen's power farts couldn't have overpowered. As Cody reeled from the stench that had been shoved under his nose, Ezekial took complete advantage, yanking away the briefcase and leaping away.
A look of unbridled glee filled the deranged boy's olive colored face as he began to dance about with his prize, inhuman sounds of happiness escaping his lips as he hugged and caressed the case. Recovering from what he could only classify as an unfair biological attack on his person, Cody noticed that his assailant was doing his victory dance dangerously close to the edge of Killawaya's crater.
"Zeke, be careful!" he yelled, trying to warn the demented prairie boy, but in his euphoria over having apparently captured the prize, Ezekial heard the warning not. Only a step or two later, the rim of the rumbling volcano gave way under his weight, and down the Zeke did fall, still clutching the briefcase. Cody scrambled back to the volcano's edge, joined almost instantly by Chris, and watched as Ezekial landed in the lava, his face terrified as he sank beneath the rapidly rising molten rock. Even as he sank, the homeschooled teen tried valiantly to protect the prize money, holding it up even as his face sank beneath the lava.
"Huh-huh, wow," McLean laughed rather cruelly before looking down at the World Tour Winner. "Sucks to be him, doesn't it?" Another violent tremble rose from Killawaya as the lava level got inexorably closer to the top of the crater, several fiery rocks shooting into the air.
"Um, guys," Cody called to his friends, "I think we should probably lea…" A glance over at the other end of the volcano crater indicated that the peanut gallery had not needed to be told this bit of information, as evidenced by the still spinning signs that marked their hasty egress. "Hmm," the brunette huffed; just a little perturbed that no one had waited for him. Then he turned back to the host. "Chris, we need to get out of here before…" Needless to say, the cowardly Chris was no longer anywhere remotely near the erupting volcano. For a minute or two Cody simply stood there, as though unsure what to do next. This confusion was broken by the return of the voice in his head.
'RUN YOU FREAKING MORON!' Like a shot the seventeen year-old was off just as the lava began to spill over the top of the volcano, running as fast as his top of the line, ultra cool sneakers could carry him. It took him less than a minute of high-speed running to catch up to fleeing teens.
"Cody man, glad to see ya," Owen huffed as he saw the brunette. "We were getting worried when we noticed you weren't with us."
"Yeah, I noticed by the dust clouds you all left behind," Cody snipped back.
"Less talky, more runny," Noah screamed in panic as he noticed the rapidly approaching lava. The flaming rocks Killawaya had shot into the air only moments ago were returning to Earth, striking the ground and leaving smoking craters as the former competitors dodged them.
"You realize of course," Alejandro pointed out to his partner, "that you losing does not mean you still don't owe me for all the help I gave you."
"Yeah right. AH!" Heather shot back, ducking as a rock nearly struck her head. "Just try cashing in on that."
Meanwhile, on the refurbished and repurposed Boat of Losers, Chris watched as the twenty-two teens made it safely to the water before the lava could cook them all, a chuckle escaping his stubbly lips. With a satisfied smile on his face, he turned towards the camera.
"Well, looks like that's a wrap for this season. But don't worry all my loyal fans, we'll be back next season for an all new game. Probably with a brand new cast too 'cause, let's face it, these kids are probably gonna get cooked. Ha-ha." Nearby, the still frowning Chef merely shook his head at the tasteless joke, causing Chris to give him an annoyed look. "What? It's funny." Brushing off the bad-tempered co-host, McLean turned back to the camera. "Well, for me, Chef, and everyone here at Total Drama World Tour, this is your host Chris McLean signing…" Suddenly, the sound of screaming came to the handsome host's ears. For a brief moment, he thought the fleeing contestants had gotten hurt or something, and silently cursed that there wasn't enough tape left to record it, but a quick look over the edge of the boat revealed nothing to be amiss with the treading teens. On a hunch he looked up to see something rocketing through the sky. For a moment, Chris thought this to be simply another rock, but as it got closer, he realized how familiar this particular rock looked.
Apparently even the volcano had been unable to stomach the wretched creature Ezekial had become, having spit him out rather violently. The boy was still on fire and screaming, but he'd apparently regained enough of his senses to aim his descent right at the Boat of Losers. Realizing what was about the happen, Chris hastily got out of the way. For a moment, time seemed to slow down.
"YOU SUCK MCLEAN!" Ezekial yelled as he passed the handsome host, flipping him off just before he crashed through the deck of the boat and out through the bottom. As a fountain of water erupted from the hole and the Boat of Losers began to slowly sink beneath the waves, the annoyed look returned to Chris's face.
"I really don't like that guy," he commented as he went under, the laughter of the castmates ringing in his ears.
Commercial Break