Welcome, one and all, to the second half of the cliff hanger!
As I'm sure quite a lot of you are eager to see massive amounts of violence (especially between two certain people), I'll skip the formalities and get right to the important stuff!
As always, comment, review, suggest, and request down below!
Onward!
Chef Hatchet strolled through the forest with a slight spring in his step as Mitchell and Trey trudged behind him, clearly not happy as their clothes continued to drip with water. The cook and his lackeys stole through the forest, Chef diving behind bushes and rocks and leveling his blaster at anything that so much as moved as Mitchell and Trey lumbered behind him, tripping over logs and rocks and cursing loudly when they got a face full of mud, wet leaves or, in Trey's case, an unlucky banana slug.
"You two suckers see any of them other players?" Chef asked gruffly after walking for a while and coming to a low cliff that overlooked a bubbling stream.
"If you mean other than a flying turtle, than no." Mitchell said absentmindedly, picking thorns from his arms and palms; he would have set himself on fire to simply disintegrate the pesky pricks in his skin or dry himself, but with so much around him that could easily catch fire, the risk was too great. Trey was fine with this turn of events, as he had had enough fire to last him a life time; the smell of cooked flesh that followed him wherever he went and the nasty looking burn on his hand was evidence enough.
Unfortunately for both boys, Chef had not been kind enough to uncuff them, much to their annoyance, claiming that it would make running away, should they find someone before him, all the more difficult; this greatly creeped both of them out, especially when Chef them his signature grin that struck terror into their hearts and would haunt their nightmares for weeks on end.
Chef frowned and grumbled under his breath, pumping his blaster and ready to fire it when ready. He sniffed the air again, taking in the hundreds of scents and picking out the ones that were useless to him. Amongst the hundreds of them, he eventually managed to pick out a certain scent that intrigue him: the smell of cologne. And not just Chris's, not this one was different.
"I'm coming for you, Pretty Boy." he chuckled darkly as Mitchell and Trey shared nervous glances.
Confessional
"Okay, can I just say that he has issues? And I don't mean your normal issues," Trey corrected himself, for once not distracting himself with his precious guitar. "Someone call the nut house and get him into a straightjacket already!"
End Confessional
"Are you sure this'll work?" Alan whispered anxiously.
"Positive," Maurananei answered. "That BEEP! can't shoot what he can't see." she smiled.
"Good, because can I just say that I think we dug this thing inside of a fire ant nest!?" Alan rasped harshly, furiously scratching his arms, legs, and butt.
"That was the whole point. Ain't no way Chef's gonna risk getting bitten by these bad boys." Maurananei grinned, gesturing to the many, bright orange ants that crawled over her skin without her jumping or being uncomfortable in the least.
"So how come they only seem interested in biting me!?" Alan exclaimed before Caroline and Maurananei shushed him.
"Must be your fancy perfume," Caroline deduced.
"It's cologne!" Alan gripped.
"Same thing," Caroline grinned. "I could try asking them to not bite you, but I can't speak to insects. Too simple minded to even try to communicate with." The trio, still chained together, were hiding in what Maurananei called a fox hole (not to be confused with a foxy hole). Unfortunately for Alan, Maurananei had instructed them to dig it right in the middle of a large fire ant nest to deter Chef from finding them, but the insects seemed only interested in torturing Alan as he desperately tried not to give away their position.
Maurananei meanwhile, was thinking. Here she was, stuck in a fox hole with two members of the opposite team. Sure, she had grown close to them as friends, but this complicated how she could possibly win the challenge for her team. Sure, she had no issue with dragging them around as she was far stronger than both of them combined, but they were still enough to slow her down and possibly alert Chef, who would not care whether they were on opposite teams or not.
This also got her thinking about the two people she was currently stuck in a hole with. She saw Caroline like the sister she never had and was ready to protect her from everything the world had to throw at her, and this included getting back at Kiko; hundreds of cruel and sadistic thoughts ran through her head about how she could possibly torture her. Then there was Micheal; she had no beef with him at the moment, but she was seriously ticked at what had happened last challenge. Whether he was involved in the whole scheme was unknown to her, but she figured this was not the case; having a police officer for a father figure had its perks.
Alan was another story. In the previous days, when the season was still young and they were as clueless and as gullible as newborn babies, albeit dangerous babies, she would not have hesitated to snap Alan over her knee like a twig had she caught him making goo-goo eyes at her or staring at her private areas. But Alan had changed in the coming episodes, becoming less annoying and learning to control his perverted personality to the point where it hardly existed. She found she enjoyed the times they had spent together, cracking jokes about Chef's cooking and coming up with nasty nicknames and pranks for Chris. She truly felt she could be herself around him without actually scaring him. Sure, there were times even she admitted she was frightening, but they had worked around those issues will little problems. And even better, she had found she was more calm around him and less likely to break something over someone's head, though if that person had been Chris, no one would have cared.
The sound of crunching leaves caught her attention and she turned her eyes upwards, hoping she wouldn't see a pair of threatening black boots under gray pants and stained apron. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw she wasn't even close as a pair of large, purple feet with two clawed toes stomped by, the sound of brush being crushed and trees being destroyed echoing through the woods. "Geez, when did Micheal become so temperamental?" she wondered quietly.
Unbeknownst to Maurananei, it wasn't Micheal who was having a happy tromp through the woods over head. Far from it actually. This shape-shifter was on a rampage, destroying everything in sight and in her way as she made her way towards the beach, a good mile or so away from her current position. It didn't matter though; to her, trees snapped like twigs, rocks were crumbled like wads of paper, and any unlucky animals to cross her path were tossed aside like rag dolls.
In her mind, Kiko was better than anyone else on the island, as far as she was concerned. Why was she wasting so much time running and hiding from some crazy cook with a little water blaster when Chris McLean, host of the show and owner she was currently on and the only thing that stood between her and a million dollars; she could almost feel the crisp dollar bills in her fingers, the looks of shame on her fellow contestants as they witnessed her greatest victory. But that wasn't the only thing on her mind. She had plans for when she won the money. Kiko had originally been planning to use the money to buy herself a huge mansion, make several successful investments and live out the rest of her days in the lap of luxury, becoming the world's richest person.
But now that she had the Animatrix on her person, the most powerful and adaptable weapon in all of the cosmos, in all of existence even, new thoughts began to twist through her mind. She saw entire cities up in flames, helpless against her assault and conquest as one by one the countries of the world fell before her, swearing their eternal allegiance to her for fear of being crushed. She would rule with an iron fist, and anyone that opposed her would be swiftly dismembered by herself for all the world to see. But why stop there? There were samples of alien DNA in the Animatrix, meaning that there was life beyond her rein. She soon send out her newly made troops and conquer their worlds, one by one, spreading throughout the galaxy like a disease until it was hers! She would rein supreme for all of space and time!
Then again, Chris wasn't the only thing standing in her way. There were the other contestants, but they were absolute weaklings compared to her. No, the only that stood in her way with an actual chance of stopping her in her tracks was the original wearer of the Animatrix, Micheal himself.
If only finding him wasn't so hard.
Frustrated, Kiko tore a tree out of the island's grid with her four, well muscled arms and snapped it over her knee like a twig, crushing the pieces together with ease before throwing the remains into another stand of trees, obliterating them in a blast of splinters and wires; how Chris wasn't aware of his island's imminent destruction was beyond her, but she didn't care. The unlimited power of the Animatrix coursed through her veins, slowly maddening her mind to the point where the clear line between human and animal was blurred. She neither one, nor the other, but some sickening combination that beyond anyone's, even Chris's, horrific imagination.
Wilson groaned and picked his face up out of the mud, wiping as much as the filth from his face as he slowly climbed to his feet. His clothes, simple as they were, were absolutely covered and drenched in mud. There was mud on his shirt, mud on his shoes, mud on his pants, mud in places he didn't even know could have mud! To make things worse, he felt a single tickling sensation all over him, as something squirmed around in the muck that covered his skin. He shuddered and pulled himself out of the mud, trudging through the forest and collecting leaves and pine needles onto his sticky skin.
He sighed. Why was he having such a hard time fitting in around here, in this place? Was it because he was the only normal one there? He didn't have an super powers going for him. He didn't have fire powers, super sonic lungs, shape-shifting abilities, super strength, nothing. So why did Alan fit in so easily with everyone when he didn't? It wasn't because he was one of the new contestants thrown into the game at the last second; Paul fit in perfectly, as if he had been there since the beginning.
With a second sigh, he crouched down at the edge of a river bank, dipping his hands in and simply letting the current wash the muck from his hands until they were clean enough to work with. He then scooped some water in his cupped hands and splashed it on his face, muddy water dripping from his blonde locks and disturbing the river below as he cleaned himself up. It wasn't until he gave up on hand washing and was about to jump in altogether did he notice something strange. Quirking an eyebrow, he bent over the edge of the river bank and waited until the water stilled enough that he could see his reflection clearly. And what he saw shocked him.
Instead of him, his actual self, there was the face of a stranger starring back at him with cunning eyes. He was tall and wiry, his limbs barely having any muscle on them and seeming to just be nothing more than bones with skin over them. His fingers long and bony as they reached up to his head to tilt down his red brimmed top hat, as if greeting Wilson. He wore a dark maroon undertaker tailcoat and a pair of black pants with a purple vest that didn't exactly cover his entire midriff. A red cummerbund was strapped around his waist a a pair of white spats over his black shoes; his top hat had a human skull under the shade of a red feather, dozens of beaded necklaces and strings of crocodile teeth looped around his neck.
Wilson frantically looked an explanation for the anomaly, glancing behind him to see if there was someone, anyone who was behind him that met his reflection's description; there was no one. Wilson gulped and shakily turned back to the reflection, which was still there, and gulped nervously.
"W-who are you?" he stammered, not quite expecting an answer. And yet, an answer came.
"Ah, so the boy finally sees," the reflection hummed. "Quite simple, Wilson, I am you and you are me. Simple as that."
Wilson shook his head in disbelief. "B-but . . . but how is that even possible?" he stammered
The reflection rolled his eyes and grumbled before explaining. "You remember Mike from Season 4 of this sorry excuse for a reality show?"
"T-the one with m-multiple personalities?" Wilson gulped.
The reflection nodded. "Correct, boy. In simple terms, I'm another side of you, as you are another side of me. And trust me, boy, I am very real." he chuckled darkly, twirling a crystal ball-tipped staff around in his fingers with little difficulty.
"Are you the reason why I don't fit in with everyone else here?" Wilson asked nervously.
The reflection gave him a malicious smile. "That's right, he can be taught! My, aren't you clever?" he chuckled. "Yes, my few appearances have distanced all of the other players in this so-called game of Total Drama. All but one," he added before putting in an after thought. "Speaking of, I should probably see her. We have much to discuss."
"What do you mean you- GAH!" Wilson startled before unbearable pain coursed through his body as he felt his mind slowly slip through his fingers, slowly, ever so slowly, sinking into an oblivion from which he could not escape from. His entire body trembled and shook as incredibly painful changes occurred; Like some nightmarish werewolf transformation, Wilson painfully grew taller, his legs becoming thin sticks and his arms growing long and wiry. His skin slowly began to darken, turning into a chocolate brown as his fingers became bony and his nails longer and unkempt. His hair was slowly sucked back into his head until it was little more than black fuzz around his scalp, his eyes glowing an odd purple color. The most dramatic change however, were the changes in his clothes. His clothes changed into a dark maroon undertaker tailcoat and a pair of black pants with a purple vest that didn't exactly cover his entire midriff. A red cummerbund was strapped around his waist a a pair of white spats over his black shoes. As if that weren't creepy enough, a black top hat with a large red feather over a human skull magically appeared on his head and a long cane tipped with serpent holding an orange orb in its jaws appeared in his hands. Several tailsmen and bead necklaces appeared around his neck, the largest of these being once that had crocodile teeth run through the string. With the transformation complete, Wilson stepped back out into the light, a completely different person.
"Ahhh, much better," the man sighed with relief. "And please, the name is Serphonus." he added to no one in particular, ignoring the screams of fear that he could just barely hear in the back of his mind.
"Run! Run for your life!" Paul wailed.
"Get back here, ya worthless pond scum!" Chef Hatchet bellowed, water pistol over his shoulder as he charged after Toni and Paul with Mitchell flying behind him and Trey hanging on for dear life. Having taken pity on the poor boy, Chef had given Trey a heat-proof glove to wear over his chained hand so he would no longer suffer should Mitchell decided to heat things up. The pair were flying on a hunk of rock Mitchell had raised out of the ground with his limited earth bending abilities, something Trey never knew Mitchell could do.
While not necessarily running, Paul was scared out of his wits. In fact, he was sure he had wet his pants so many times in the past hour, that he would no longer be able to wear the pair of underpants that he current wore ever again; he and Toni had been running for their lives for the past hour with Chef Hatchet and company on their heels. Just when it seemed they were in the clear and could stop to catch their breaths, the crazy cook always appeared out of nowhere, ready to soak them to the bone with his blaster of mass destruction.
With her boyfriend on her back, Toni raced through the woods before breaking out onto the beach, mentally cursing herself for picking a form that was such an easy target to hit. Not that Chef had managed to hit the large African Elephant as it fled the scene, but there was a first time for everything. Toni let out a loud trumpet that scattered all the birds in the area as she thundered down the beach, slowly weaving to the left and right to avoid Chef Hatchet's blasts as he came after her.
"The lake! Go for the lake!" Paul yelled, pointing with a finger towards the lake and yanking as hard as he could on the chain that bound the two of them together, a heavy metal collar around the pachyderm's neck. Toni followed Paul's lead and fled towards the water, trunk raised above her head as the waves slapped against her sides. Before long, all that was left of her was the tip of her trunk above the surface and the very top of her back, leaving Paul completely exposed. Thinking quickly, Paul focused his mind and felt every cell, every molecule in his body become see-through, invisible to the world as he and his love made their way to the buoy with the flag on it, Chef Hatchet none the wiser.
Or so they thought.
"Eat it, suckas!" Chef roared as he soared over the water, his strong fingers digging deep into Mitchell's rock as he squeezed the trigger on his water pistol; Mitchell stood behind him, directing the boulder forward with a helpless look as Trey dangled from behind, screaming as he held his guitar with a white knuckle grip.
Faster!" Paul screamed in panic, instantly giving away his position as Chef tightened his finger on the trigger, blasting a jet of green stained water at the elusive meta-teens that had managed to slip through his fingers for so long. Paul was instantly covered from head to toe in green, looking like some bizarre space alien as Chef blasted Toni's back as well, ending their time in the game. With a pain rumble, Toni headed back to shore, Paul making rude gesture's at Chef that he ignored.
Although he blasted Paul again when he got to insulting his mother.
Chris loved his job.
Sure there times when he hated it; when the contestants refused to do as he told or wanted them to behave; when the interns were all in the hospital (or worse) and the cappuccino machine was broken; even when his best friend and co-host Chef Hatchet refused to work because he never got his oh-so-precious pay check. But all in all, Chris McLean loved his sadistic job as the breaker of the world's next generation of teenagers, putting them through agonizing challenges and tests that pushed them to the brink of insanity to make himself famous.
Oh, how he loved the fame.
He loved it when screaming fans, desperate for his attention, came to line the red carpet just to see his handsome face, loved it when hundreds of reporter's cameras lit up the sky like Christmas lights, all vying for his attention to ask questions about him, to see himself recognized by the world as one of its greatest celebrities. But most of all, he loved the wealth his job came with. Before, he had no idea that it was possible to have a solid gold hot tub with a built in 90 inch flat screen TV with the world's most expensive video game console and its rarest chocolates served to him on a ruby studded plate.
The host returned his steely gaze back to the dozens of TV screens that sat in front of him, their screens showing different scenes from around the island. On one screen he saw Paul and Toni washing up on the beach, Paul saying several rude things at Chef. On another screen, he saw Maurananei and Caroline try to silence a screaming Alan as millions of fire ants bit into his vulnerable skin; and in his nether regions too. On a third screen, he saw Wilson quietly strolling through woods, not a care in the world; Chris thought he noticed something different about the boy, but ignored it. On a fourth screen he saw Anuok having a 'conversation' with a bizarre creature not of this world.
Chris immediately frowned upon seeing that. Out of all the contestants under his thumb, he had hoped Micheal would cause the most destruction, inflict the most pain, impose the most fear. And he had. On Chris.
No matter what Chris tried, the watch-wearing hero never fell for it. The sadistic host nearly gave up before Kiko had turned on the cast, stealing Caroline's boy right from under her nose for the entire viewing world to see! Talk about ratings!
The host was so busy imagining the many awards he would receive for the season, that he didn't notice his bottle of sparkling water sitting on the desk in front of him start to shake slightly. The water in the bottle vibrated with a steady rhythm that was usually only matched with very large, very heavy feet that belonged to some sort of horrifying creature or creation.
Chris never sat it coming. One minute, everything was nice and quiet inside the little beach hut he had set up on the beach to watch the competition, and the next thing he knew, the bamboo walls and grass thatch roof had been blown to smithereens, a dark shadow cast over accompanied by very bad breath. Chris was about to turn around and give Micheal a piece of his mind about wrecking private property before his eye caught something on a screen; Micheal was still talking to Anuok. And Toni was still with Chef, shouting incredibly rude things about his mother that seemed to actually make the big, tough cook break down and start crying like a little kid who had his lunch money stolen from him in the most painful way possible.
Out of options, Chris slowly turned around in his seat, shaking slightly as he starred up at one very big, one very tough, and one very angry Nisilaha. Her chest heaved in and outwards as she breathed heavily, her hot breath pouring out of her mouth like a waterfall and washing over Chris's face, ruining his beautiful complexion as little bits of saliva dripped from her mouth.
"Oh, uh, hey there!" Chris said nervously. "So, uh, how ya been?" he chuckled.
"CHRIS!" the Nisilaha roared, grabbing the little man in all four of her arms and easily heaving him off the ground, holding him over her head as she glared at him. "GIVE KIKO MONEY!" she bellowed.
"Wait, Kiko? Dude, what the heck happened to you?" Chris asked, now not the slightest bit afraid. "Looks like someone got hit one too many times with the ugly stick!" he joked, Kiko's four eyes narrowing. "Where's all this hatred coming from, huh? Can't take anymore humiliation to your oh-so-precious person?" he cracked, Kiko grinding her teeth upon hearing the words. "Or is it because of the time you somehow got turned into a freak of nature?" Chris chided, somehow missing Kiko's furious expression.
"KIKO WANT MONEY NOW!" the Nisilaha bellowed, tightening her grip on Chris's throat as his face turned blue in color. "GIVE KIKO MONEY!"
"Maybe . . . I c-can interest you . . . in a membership at the McLean . . . Spa?" Chris choked out before Kiko had finally had enough and chucked Chris across the beach and into a palm tree. The host groaned and dropped to the ground, a coconut dropping down from above and on his head. The Nisilaha bellowed and hefted up a large beam from the remains of the hut before chucking it into the forest beyond the beach, a large tree sparking with electricity before catching fire; Kiko ignored the damage and ran back into the forest, determined to cause more damage.
Maybe then Chris would listen to reason. Her reason anyway.
"I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" Alan cried in agony. Before any o the girls could stop him, the ex-pervert jumped free from the fox hole and straight into the open, running as fast as his legs could carry him. Considering he was still chained to Maurananei though, and she was easily four times stronger than he was, he didn't get very far.
"Pull yourself together, man!" Maurananei yelled, yanking Alan back and slapping him across the face. "This is war, Private! I repeat, this is war!"
"Technically, it's a crazy version of hide and seek with Chef Hatchet." Caroline corrected.
"SAME THING!" Maurananei shouted. She was about to continue yelling at Alan, using some of the many confusing speeches her father had given her when he was disciplining her, when something caught her attention. She paused in mid-ranting to sniff the air, a very familiar smell reaching her nose; she had smelled it several times in the past, mostly when she had taken up smoking as a habit just to annoy her Dad; she had stopped after a couple weeks though, but she would lock that scent away in her mind for the rest of her days. Especially when she learned there had been a massive explosion down at the nearby gasoline factory, when some moron had accidentally thrown a lit cigarette near a barrel of the flammable liquid.
"Caroline, Alan, do you trust me?" she asked in a low, hollow, quiet voice.
"What!?" Alan managed to grunt between scratches.
"I said do you trust me!?" Maurananei repeatedly more angrily; Caroline and Alan both nodded their heads, Alan glad that the movement had managed to shake a few ants free from his head.
"Then hold on!" Maurananei yelled as she suddenly burst through the roof of their fox hole and dragged her fellow prisoners with her just as their shelter erupted into flame, red hot fire licking at the dry leaves and twigs like starving wolves on a carcass; Alan and Caroline watched the fire with wide eyes as Maurananei put on a grim expression, looking behind their now destroyed hide out to see a good section of the woods on fire. No matter what could have tried, they would not have been able to put out the quickly spreading fire.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but we have to warn Chris," Maurananei sighed wearily. "Something's wrong, and I think I know who's responsible."
"Mitchell?" Caroline guessed.
Maurananei shook her head. "Good try, but no." she said, pulling on Caroline's handcuffs and easily hauling her onto her shoulders. Alan took the hint and jumped into Maurananei's arms as she took off into the forest, the fire licking at her heels as it quickly began to engulf everything it came across like some horrific monster with a bottomless pit for a stomach. And yet, something walked through the forest of flames, alive and unaffected by the burning inferno as it walked to the edge of the fire to stare after Maurananei's disappearing form.
"It seems Kiko has made a good impression," Serphonus chuckled darkly, a blood aura surrounding his wiry form and keeping the red hot flames at bay. "And one by one, their heads 'ill all be mine."
Micheal hated his life.
Ever since he had found the Animatrix, he had seen the world through a million different eyes and had unimaginable power at his finger tips; speed, strength, agility, stealth, flight, he had experienced it all and never got tired of it, of feeling the watch force his body to change into something it never should have been and grant him powers he never had before.
But he also hated it. Ever since he had found the Animatrix, he had experienced unimaginable amounts of pain and torture course through his body when his foes had been lucky enough to catch him; the scars that littered his body were proof enough. Another thing he hated was how he never seemed to be able to relax for more a few hours before some maniac with a whole pile of screws loose tried to go and take over the world, forcing him to teach them a lesson or two the hard way. He found it nearly impossible to keep up a social life, and his grades were just above failing.
And now, he and Anuok were surrounded on all sides by searing flames that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere, turning the tranquil forest into a burning death trap. But despite all the craziness and insanity the Animatrix had brought him, he wouldn't have traded it for anything in the world. Even when he was in danger of being burnt to a crisp like a little cocktail weenie.
Then again, he was practically unkillable at the moment. How could something kill him when it couldn't even catch him? Normally, he didn't like showing his odd, alien transformations since they often brought fright from other people and seemed to make challenges unfair in some cases. But for once, he was happy that he had purposely selected the beyond fast form he was in right now; it certainly helped when he was trying to outrun a raging inferno with Anuok in hand.
What concerned him though, was how the fire started in the first place, as it was quickly getting out of control. He highly doubted Mitchell would ever be that careless with his powers, and Maurananei didn't seem like the one to purposely start a fire as big as this. Caroline was too innocent, Trey didn't play with fire, and pretty much everyone else was unlikely a candidate as much as they liked Chef's cooking: impossible.
The advantage of being a Velocidadian was that not only was he incredibly fast, so fast that time actually seemed to stand still in his eyes when he was running, but he could also think at superhuman speed. And as he zipped through the burning woods with Anuok in his arms, silently praying that she would live, he began to realize several very unfortunate things about a certain someone.
Not only had this certain someone driven him to the brink of depression and insanity, as well as turned his time on the island on its head, she had also followed a very certain pattern comparable to that of past Total Drama villains. Sneaky, questionable, lazy in challenges, conniving, rude, and an all around horrible person who had their eyes only on the prize money.
Kiko.
And now that he realized it, she had been acting suspicious for the past couple of weeks. She was shifty and much more suspicious of people than usual, especially after she had kissed him in front of Caroline on international television; her hand. Her left hand had been hidden from view whenever she was with the main group, always hidden behind her back or shoved deep into her pocket out of sight.
At the same time, his Animatrix had been acting up during the past few weeks. Thankfully, it hadn't been going haywire during the challenges, but there were times when it seemed to be on the fritz. On several occasions he had been more lucky to survive a severe crash landing when the Animatrix timed out in mid-flight. And then it hit him like a freight train.
Kiko was the reason the Animatrix was acting up. She had somehow stolen a part of his own Animatrix to somehow make her own. She had started the raging inferno around them that threatened their lives. And if Micheal was correct, they were all in serious danger.
"God, save us all." he whispered under his breath as he zoomed towards the beach.
Chris McLean, contrary to popular belief, had actually had some pretty bad days. There was the time he had been thrown off the dock at the end of season one, having his fame and popularity ruined on the Aftermath Show at the end of season two, being arrested at the end of season four, losing Wawanakwa at the end of the All Stars season, and even nearly losing Pahkitew to an insane Scarlett.
None of the previously mentioned events however, compared to what was happening to him now. Not only had he nearly had every bone in his body broken by an insane, shape-shifting teenage girl, but his hair was messed up completely beyond repair. And to make matters worse, five of his super-powered contestants were currently yelling at him at the top of their lungs. Well, four of them were anyways; Anuok was actually making rapid hand gestures that Chris could only assume were were insults, curses, and other things that were meant to hurt his feelings in the verbal tense.
"Hey!" Chris cried, trying to get the contestant's attention without success. "Hey! HEY!" he screamed at the top of his lungs, finally getting the contestant's attention. "Thank you! Now then, I am very aware of what's going on right now." he announced sorely, rubbing his aching skull and nursing a large bump on his head.
"You better have a good excuse for not telling us about this!" Maurananei snarled, jabbing a finger at Chris's face.
"Of course I do," Chris frowned. "Just imagine the ratings we'd get for this episode!"
Maurananei snorted like a very ticked off bull and grabbed Chris by the neck, hoisting him up into the air and throttling him; nobody made any move to stop her. "Our lives are in danger and all you can think about are ratings!" she screamed.
"Our lives have always been in danger," Alan pointed out. "Just never so severely." Maurananei frowned at his point, but reluctantly dropped Chris to the sand and folding her arms over her chest.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't slice you in half." a Velocidadian hissed, rolling forward and jabbing a pointed claw at Chris's chest, putting a little pressure on the digit to emphasis his point.
"You can't really do that." Chris said smugly.
"Dude, you have no idea what I am capable of," Micheal growled, smacking Chris over the face with his tail. "And if Kiko's got a copy of my Animatrix, then I hope you've all written your wills." he stated.
"Are we gonna die?" Caroline whimpered. Micheal turned his head to stare at her, his eyes unblinking and never moving as he studied her, as if trying to poke and prod through her thoughts to figure out how she might react to what he might say.
"Very probably," he admitted grimly, shaking his head. "Does anyone have any idea how this happened?" he sighed; immediately, all eyes turned to Chris. And for once, he was willing to spill his secrets. Either he was feeling generous, realized the gravity of situation, or was intimated by the five pairs of eyes that glared at him and promised death, it didn't matter.
"Okay, okay! Geez!" Chris griped, picking himself up and brushing sand off of him. "Kiko tricked Zelda into making a bootleg of your oh-so-precious watch for her own nefarious purposes! Happy?"
Deadly silence followed before a purple and black blur shot across the sand and pinned Chris to the ground, a long tail wrapped tightly around his throat and squeezing him tightly as it yelled at him. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT YOU'VE JUST DONE!?" Micheal screamed at the top of his lungs. "YOU JUST DOOMED THE ENTIRE HUMAN RACE AND POSSIBLY ALL LIFE ON EARTH!"
"It . . . can't be . . . that . . . bad!" Chris choked.
"You have no idea what power the Animatrix holds!" Micheal yelled, slapping Chris across the face. "With it, a person can destroy entire cities, slaughter millions without breaking a sweat, even obliterate a planet if they wanted to!"
"Is it really that bad?" Caroline whimpered.
Micheal whipped his head to stare at him again, his furious expression softening a bit as he answered. "You know that several of my forms are not of this world, right?" he asked.
Caroline nodded.
"Lets just say that it contains the DNA samples of some very powerful animals," the Velocidadian explained. "And now we're all doomed thanks to this BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!" he added, kicking Chris in his family jewels before climbing off of him.
"Isn't there like an off button or something?" Alan asked.
Micheal shook his head. "The only way to beat Kiko is knock her out and tear the Animatrix right off of her."
"B-but, it doesn't c-come off, right? It's permanent?" Caroline asked before realization dawned on.
Micheal nodded. "Yep. If we succeed, Kiko's gonna be one hand short. Not that I'll feel sorry for her." he added under his breath before turning to Chris and putting on a stern expression again. "Now listen here, you BEEP! BEEP! You're going to tell us if there is anyway to stall and/or defeat Kiko now, or I will literally skin you alive before international television. Starting with your 'oh-so-precious' face." he threatened, doing a perfect imitation of Chris's whiny voice.
Chris frowned; normally, he was not one to give in to such demands. More accurately, he was usually the one making them, making other people's lives miserable while he made his own luxurious and comfy. But now, with the lawyers breathing down his neck, the possibility of losing yet another island, and the very real threat that he would not live to see his next birthday thanks to the incredibly irritated teenagers before him, he was willing to make exceptions.
"Fine," he said with mock annoyance; deep down though, he was relieved he was most likely not going to receive anymore damage to his person. "As you all know, Pahkitew is artificial. There are mutliple entry points into his bowels, of which most are inaccessible due to Kiko's temper tantrum." he cast a look to the distant raging inferno. "Once you're in, you'll have to make it past the security systems and killer robots to make it to the control room to activate the island's main security system."
Anuok scribbled something down on one of her last remaining sheets of paper and held it up for Alan to read off of. "Uh, Anuok wants to know if there are any other nasty surprises you've failed to mention." he informed them.
Chris shook his head. "For once, I'm tellin' the truth. All you gotta do is get past all the stuff the last cast had to get by when Scarlett went insane. Now, if there is nothing else to take care of . . ." he trailed off. Before any of the teens, even Micheal, could stop him, Chris pulled out a small remote control and pressed the ominous red button on it. A large, metal claw descended from the sky and grabbed the back of Chris's shirt, yanking him towards the heavens and into the depths of a large helicopter. "What are you losers waiting for? Go save my island!" Chris yelled through a megaphone before flying away.
"I really hate him." Maurananei grumbled, absentmindedly giving Chris the one-finger salute before turning to the others. "You mind getting this thing off of us?" she asked Micheal, holding up both her wrists to show him the handcuffs. The Velocidadian nodded its head and, with two quick swipes of its sharp blades, it severed the chains bonding Maurananei, Alan, and Caroline together.
"Good luck, dude." Alan said to Micheal.
"With what?"
"Fighting Kiko?" Alan suggested. "There is no way the rest of us stand a chance against her!"
"Oh."
"Speaking of super powers," Maurananei grumbled under her breath annoyed that the subject was brought up. "Where are the others anyway?" she asked before realization dawned on them all, glancing towards the fiery forest behind them.
"Why do you hate me, universe? Why?" Micheal griped before speeding off.
Chef had suffered through many horrible things in his life.
Possibly being involved in the Vietnam War, losing everything he owned and being forced to sell non-quality hotdogs by the bus station, being forced to demonstrate challenges on Total Drama, even having his arm broken by a feral Ezekiel.
Being trapped in a raging inferno with four super-powered teens screaming their heads off however, was not on that list. One thing was sure however, he was not willing for it to be his last either. "Would y'all just shut up!?" he yelled at the top of his lungs, a noise that sounded very much like a ticked off grizzly bear; immediate, the teenagers stopped bickering.
"That's it, Chefy! Show 'em who's boss!" Izzy cried over his ear piece. "And while you're at it, use your squrity-gun to blast the fire!" The burly cook did as was suggested and pumped his water pistol, spraying a jet of water over the flames; it was fruitless however, as the fire simply swept back over the spot he had just finished. Before long, he was out of water and very annoyed.
"What do we do?" Trey asked, giving a small yelp when a bright ember wafted past his face and missed his nose by a millimeter.
"Are we all gonna die?" Paul worried.
"We're not all gonna die," Toni reassured him grimly. "Mitchell will probably live through this, considering he probably started the fire."
"I did not! Mitchell exclaimed, his head suddenly burst into hot flames. "Why won't you stop saying that!?"
"Because you're the Walking Bonfire," Toni pointed out. "I'm not trying to be mean here, but if anyone were to be suspected for starting a massive forest fire, it would be the dude would roast marshmallows over his burning toes."
"Girl's gotta point." Chef grumbled, not usually one to agree with people or even teenagers; Mitchell huffed and pouted as the flames continued to rage around them, getting closer and closer to them as they ate their way through the dry leaf litter of the forest floor. The air became thick and heavy with smoke as the group simply stood there, completely out of ideas on how to escape.
"Wait a minute," Toni realized. "Can't you just absorb the flames or something?" she asked Mitchell.
"I dunno. Worth a try!" he chirped happily.
"You are all too calm and happy to be in a situation like this." Chef muttered to himself as Mitchell took a running leap and cannon-balled into the ocean of flames, quickly morphing into his Pyronite form before the flames could incinerate him. The others waited with bated breath, their fates held entirely within Mitchell's hands; Toni would have gladly flown them all out of the raging inferno, but she didn't have any form big enough to carry all four of them out unscathed, and if Trey even attempted to blast their way to freedom with one of his sonic screams, the fire would only grow bigger with the massive amounts of oxygen fed to it.
"Woo-hoo!" Mitchell's triumphant voice came from the sea of fire. Everyone turned to see the boy covered from head to toe in magma rock skin, his head nothing more than a mixture of hot rock and crisp flames that sparked and spat out stray embers every now and then. The flames had parted before him like the Red Sea, defying the laws of nature as they bent to Mitchell's will. The Pyronite raised his hands to the sky, his fingers bent into claws as the flames were sucked by an unseen force towards Mitchell, pulled free from their meals of charred wood and burnt grass as they swirled around Mitchell in a fiery tornado.
"Remind me not to get on his bad side." Chef mumbled to Trey.
"Dooley noted." Trey agreed with awe, silently thanking the heavens that his guitar had been spared from being turned into a buffet for the fire. It was then that they were all bluntly aware of a loud sound coming through the crisp flames, something sounded distantly like a cross between a three year old girl having a temper tantrum and an angry elephant; before Mitchell knew what had happened, a pine tree came swinging through the air, catching him in the gut and slamming him to the ground, pinning the Pyronite underneath the tree as the flames that coated his body exploded outwards and back out into the forest, freshly catching fire once more.
"Darn that shape-shifting freak o' nature!" Chef cursed, just as a large claw came down from the sky and grabbed the back of his apron, hauling him towards the heavens as he screamed in panic.
"We're doomed!" Trey wailed.
"Any particular reason ya just saved me from being smoked bacon?" Chef asked Chris as he sat down in the cock-pit of the helicopter and took hold of the controls; the unlucky intern who had previously been piloting the aircraft had mysteriously disappeared under suspicious circumstances, though a faint scream of fear that seemed to get farther and father away with every passing second until it was gone altogether.
"Yeah, because your contract doesn't cover an untimely demise, unlike the contestants," Chris told him. "Also, Kiko's gone absolutely and completely insane with power."
"Ah, Chris Man, I didn't think you- WHAT!?" Chef startled, nearly crashing the helicopter into the ground before he managed to regain control. "Chris Man, don't do that!"
"Sorry, dude, but it's true. Ms. Uber-fan managed to get her grubby hands on Micheal's freaky watch, and is gonna destroy the island unless I hand her the million bucks!" Chris explained with frustration. "Side note, I am not giving her the million!"
"Didn't expect you to," Chef grumbled with a small smile. "So, we're pretty much leaving the suckas to die again?"
Chris shrugged. "If they manage to boot the security system up, then they may or may not live. Either way, imagine the ratings!"
"You do realize we'd have to start the season all over again, right?" Chef asked.
"Whatever!" Chris said with a tone that sent shivers down Chef's spine. "Either way, this is gonna be fun!
"Can't argue with you on that one." Chef agreed, bumping Chris's waiting fist.
Trey instinctively went for his bass, playing an earth-shatter cord on his guitar and let out an ear-splitting wail. The sound wave traveled across the ground in less than the blink of an eye, kicking up burning twigs and leaves as it slammed into an upcoming figure, knocking them to the ground and dazing them slightly before they managed to recover.
"Kiko will crush you like eggs!" an angry female Nisilaha roared, clenching two of her four fists.
"Wait, what the BEEP! is going on!?" Paul exclaimed upon seeing the hexapodal alien threatening to tear them limb from limb for unknown reasons.
"I dunno, but she just tried to crush with a tree," Toni frowned. "And I am not about to take that lightly!"
"Wait! Before you do anything, can you break us lose? I'd rather not be barbecued to the side of an elephant . . . or whatever you plan on turning into." Paul begged.
Toni gave him a small smile and focused on an image in her head; it was a form she had only used once, and even then she had wanted to turn into it. It was beyond her how Micheal could stand to turn into something so horrific, so vile, so savage and still, somehow, retain his humanity. She felt her bones grind and groan as they were forced to shift, her organs expanding and disappearing as the case may be. Toni felt her face shove out into a short muzzle, the skin around her mouth vanishing back into her face with a sicking sucking sound as the bottom teeth sharpened into wicked sharp fangs that curved up over the top jaw. Muscles piled themselves on top of her chest and back as her skint turned a pale white, her arms and legs thickening as they bent into different positions than before. A loud tearing sound managed to be heard over the crackling of the flames as her clothes were ripped off of her expanding form, a long, reptilian tail sprouting out from the base of her spine. A row of spikes rose out from Toni's spine as her fingers turned into blood red claws, her white skin turned black and red around the back face as her eyes divided into a second pair; she felt a pair of organs appear around her lungs, connected to the row of gill-like slits on either side of her neck.
"Gah!" Paul winced as the Lagarbuini let a savage snarl escape her caged teeth. Before Paul could stop her, Toni opened her jaws and bit down on the chain connected to Paul's wrist and her neck, shaking her head like a dog before the chain finally snapped and fell free.
"Thanks," Paul sighed with relief. "Now lets take of some business." The Lagarbuini watched with stunned amazement, its four slitted eyes widening in shock as Paul suddenly vanished into thin air, as if somehow being the victim of a mad magician's disappearing act. Her sensitive nose however, told her that her lover was still standing in front of her, just invisible to the naked eye; one would have to have some kind of built in sonar or heat vision to see him, and even then his camouflaging abilities put the greatest chameleons and octopuses to shame.
Mitchell meanwhile, was occupied from underneath the large pine tree, pinned just right so that he could watch Kiko and Toni battle each other. With a loud hiss, the Lagarbuini pounced upon the Nisilaha, tackling her to the ground and digging her razor sharp fangs into the flesh on her shoulder. Kiko bellowed in agony and shoved up on the alien predator's throat, thrusting her legs into its gut and pushing it off of her. Before the angry, four-armed alien could attack the large animal, something pounced on her and wrapped itself around her neck, squeezing tighter and tighter as her face jolted back and forth with every invisible punch. Her face started to turned a light shade of blue from lack of oxygen, and Mitchell thought for a second that Kiko might actually be defeated right then and there if she had hadn't managed to grab hold of her invisible attacker and pry him off of her. Mitchell could just make out pained yells as Kiko wadded Paul up into a tight ball and chucked him at a burning tree, eager to see him burn; her didn't come true when Toni managed to snag Paul out of the air and set him on the ground with her prehensile tail.
The Lagarbuini hissed angrily and sucked in a deep breath through its cage of teeth before expelling a disgusting, yellow-colored gas from the gill-like slits on her neck. The cloud quickly encased her and Paul, their forms fading as Kiko snarled and rushed at them, ready to crush them to bits. With angered yells, she jabbed her fists forward and gave a swift kick before cupping all four of her hands together and slamming them downwards; she missed every time, and when the cloud of gas vanished, there was nothing there. A loud whistle met her ears, and Kiko whipped around to see Trey, Mitchell, Paul, and Toni standing together before they all charged forward.
Despite being outnumbered, Kiko actually grinned as Trey raised his guitar over his head like a club, as Paul faded out of existence again, and Mitchell summoned burning coals in his hands, as Toni snapped her serrated jaws, she didn't feel the least bit afraid. She quickly raised all four of her arms over her head and slammed them into the ground, creating a small tremor that knocked the advancing teens to the ground and toppled nearby trees like dominos.
"Now, I will crush your skulls like-" Kiko started before a black and purple blur came out of nowhere and rammed her right in the chest, shoving her back a couple feet and slamming her into the trunk of a large tree. In less than the blink of an eye, the blur delivered six dozens jabs and thrusts to Kiko's armored skin before lashing out with his whip-like tail and knocking her to the ground; the Animatrix timed out seconds later, and Kiko returned to the world, groggy and dazed.
"Dude, Micheal! Is that you?" Trey breathed with relief upon seeing the Velocidadian standing over Kiko's fallen form; Micheal's own Animatrix timed out, and Micheal was finally revealed to the world. He looked much more haggled and worn out than last seen, his skin covered in dirty scratches and cuts, his eyes having a distant and tired look. It seemed he had aged a dozen years since last seen, but there was still that burning fire in his eyes.
"Get out while you still can," Micheal instructed them without even acknowledging Trey. "Get into the island's mainframe and activate the security system. I'll keep this BEEP! busy until then."
"Dude, we aren't just gonna leave you here!" Paul protested angrily. "I am not about to take being turned into a human bowl lying down!"
"Paul, think it through," Mitchell sighed wearily, extinguishing his flaming exterior. "He can change into animals, she can change into animals. He can change into freak aliens, she can turn into freaky aliens. Can you turn into either?"
Paul was silent.
"That's what I thought," Mitchell hummed. "Now lets get out while the going's good."
"Yeah, um, one small problem with that," Trey said calmly before exploding. "WE"RE SURROUNDED BY FIRE ON ALL SIDES!"
"Oh, that's easy," Micheal said without concern. "Just blast more fire at it."
"WHAT!?" Trey roared. "EVERYWHERE I SEE THERE'S RED HOT FIRE THREATENING TO BARBACUE ME ALIVE! WE DON'T NEED MORE FIRE!"
"Yes you do," Micheal reassured him. "If you apply more heat to the fire, it will quickly burn out. Believe it or not, I have a few fire forms inside this thing." he gestured to the Animatrix. "Now go. I think she's coming to."
The boys were about to protest some more before Toni had finally had enough and wrapped her tail around them both, hauling them up in the air and onto her back, Mitchell climbing on as well. With one last look that Micheal guessed was supposed to mean "good luck" the Lagarbuini took off through the burning forest, Mitchell blasting fire from her back to clear a way as Trey and Paul hung on for dear life. Micheal watched them go with a sad smile before turning around to face Kiko, who had managed to climb to her feet.
"This ends now." Micheal snarled, turning on the Animatrix and cycling through his available roster.
"Whatever you say, BEEP!" Kiko smiled sinisterly, turning to her own watch and cycling through the roster before slamming down on the activation button. The purple light engulfed, changing her body at the very core and forcing it into something it was never meant to be. She felt her bones grind and grow, her skin stretch and pulse, her entire body change into something new. By the time the purple light died down, she was now a very large Tyrannosaurus Rex, a loud roar of confidence escaping her massive jaws.
Micheal smirked and slammed his own activation button, not moving a muscle as the red light washed over him and did its work. He felt his body elongate and become segmented, stretching out to a good thirty feet. His arms bent in two more places as they hardened into insect-like legs before splitting into four extra pairs as random, curved spikes sprouted all along his back as his legs fused together into a tail with a clawed end. Micheal's face bulged outwards into a toothed beak as row after row after row of sharp teeth ran down his throat all the way to his stomach. A thick, red, spiked collar appeared around the gigantic, beaked worm's neck, completing the morph as the Golpgusanus a throaty roar.
Kiko charged forward, her jaws wide open and ready to catch Micheal in her gigantic jaws before Micheal slithered out of the way with ease, slamming his face into the dirt and disappearing down a long tunnel into the bowels of the earth. The dinosaur came to a halt, utterly confused as to where its massive prey was. A deep rumbling beneath her feet caught her attention, and she looked down just in time to see Micheal erupting out of the earth beneath her feet and catching her tail in his jaws. She roared in agony as the Golpgusanus shook its head like a dog and swung her around before letting go and swinging into a tree. The gigantic worm bellowed again, preparing to tunnel beneath the ground and catch its prey unaware for a second time when a beeping sound caught it attention; the Animatrix disk on Kiko's collar was blinking, a bright ray shooting out and sweeping all over his body, scanning him, before retreating back into the Animatrix and engulfing the in a bright purple light.
Before the Golpgusanus realized what was going on, a second Golpgusanus slammed into it, burrying both of them into the ground. For a few minutes, they slither across one another, trying to bit each other with their steel-bending jaws before Kiko managed to fling Micheal out of the hole and back out into the world of fire.
With a grunt, Micheal reached with a spiked leg to tap the Animatrix symbol on his collar, relaxing as the red light briefly changed him back into his human form before injecting him with another set of DNA. The process began with every hair on his body sucking back into his body, his arms becoming muscled and his fingers fusing together into a single, long, curved blade. The muscles on his chest and sides depleted until one could see his ribs as his a long tail sprouted from the base of his spine and his legs bent backwards. His face melted into a sharp point with absolutely no jaws at all. Instead, a flap opened up in his chest and a long tentacle with a sharp, hollow spike on the end slithered, dripping with some kind of venom. Spikes ran down from the creature's eyeless face and back as a thin membrane spread between the alien's wrists and hips, the transformation complete as another red collar aappeared around the Scythetoe's serpent-like neck.
The Scythetoe drove its pointed blades into the bark of a burning tree and scurried up the trunk and into the branches, watching the ground beneath for any sign of its enemy. A deep rumbling came from his right and he jumped free of the burning tree as Kiko erupted out the ground again, screeching at the top of her lungs and expelling a barrage of thick, sticky globs from her serrated jaws. The globs stuck to anything they hit and made a loud hissing sound as they ate away at the material like acid. The Scythetoe paid the acid balls no mind as it glided through the air on its membranes like a flying squirrel, gliding from tree to tree to avoid the deadly attack. The Golpgusanus screeched with anger before a second low beeping caught its attention and managed to glance down at the collar around it neck to the see the Animatrix scan the Scythetoe with a purple ray.
Micheal gave a low hum of fear as Kiko's Animatrix forced her to change back into her human form, the watch face glowing brightly on her wrist.
"Like the little trick?" she asked with a sadistic grin. "Anything you turn into, I can to! Sooner or later, you'll run out of forms and I'll have your Animatrix mounted on my mantel." she added with a malicious smile.
The Scythetoe gave a low growl before lunging at Kiko, raising his pointed blades and ready to slice her to bits.
"You know who I really hate right now?" Maurananei grumbled under her breath.
"Do their names happen to rhythm with 'Piccolo and Abyss'?" Alan asked with a smirk.
"What?"
"I just asked, are their names Kiko and Chris?" Alan rolled his eyes.
"You know me so well." Maurananei flirted with him, pinching his cheek before moving on. Alan flushed a dark red as he was yanked after Maurananei, still chained to her and Caroline through the negligence of their cruel and annoying host. The hallway they waked was dim, the lights overhead nearly turned off and only flickering every few seconds as a deep rumbling could be heard from somewhere beyond the walls.
"Where do we even go?" Caroline wondered; she felt a light tapping on her shoulder and she turned to see Anuok standing right behind her. The nervous girl yelped and jumped back a little, startled as Anuok scribbled something out on her notepad.
"Anuok says we need to continue on and then turn right, then left, left again, and then straight ahead until we find the control room," Caroline relayed to the others. "And um, something about getting ready to duck and cover at any given moment."
"Is it just me, or does it seem like we're going to die at any moment?" Alan whimpered upon hearing the words. A deep rumbling came to their attention as the ceiling trembled and shook, pieces of metal and wire falling free from above and raining down on them. The rumbling only increased further and got louder and louder until the ceiling above came crashing down just a few feet in front of the cowering teens. When the dust cleared, two massive animals appeared.
The first one looked like a massive, beaked worm with six pairs of legs up near its head. Curved spikes popped out at random intervals along its back, and its four, beady red eyes were filled with rage and anger. The second animal was much more strange, bearing resemblance to mostly a horse the size of an elephant. The beast had six legs tipped with sharp hooves and had deep grooves running down its neck and sides, the fleshy trenches fluttering open and shut like an extra pair of lungs. A sharp fan that resembled a mane ran down its long neck and a pair of whip-like antennae appeared on either of the animals's head like a pair of ears.
The six-legged animal, what Anuok claimed was a Hexcavalo (everyone was inclined to believe her as none of them knew a thing about Xenobiology) gave a throaty screech like that of a wounded bird and reared up onto its hindlegs, lashing out with the four front hooves and managing to land a couple blows to the Golpgusanus's face. And before any of the teens could figure out what was going on, the alien animals disappeared, the Hexcavalo bounding out of the hole that had been created from their battle, and the Golpgusanus burrowed through the side of tunnel after it.
"Anyone else hoping that this is all just some horrifying dream?" Caroline whimpered.
Maurananei was about to answer when a second rumble meant their ears. Expecting Kiko and Micheal to appear once more as another series of bizarre alien animals, the group ducked to the ground again, covering their heads and squeezing their eyes shut. And then suddenly, they were soaking wet and absolutely chilled to the bone. That, and they felt as if both a Hexcavalo and Golpgusanus were currently lying on top of them.
"I told you we should have turned left!"
"No you didn't, you said we should go right!"
"HIIIISSSSSSSSS!"
"Toni! Language!" Caroline scolded.
"What the-" Maurananei grunted, pulling herself lose from the pile of twisted bodies and limps to see Mitchell, Trey, Paul, and a seriously annoyed Lagarbuini lying on top of Caroline and Alan; Anuok stood a few feet away, cleaning her fingernails with her daggers.
"I'm starting to really hate you," Maurananei said with an annoyed tone upon see the mute girl unscathed. "And as for you, do you mind telling us what you're doing here?" she turned onto their new arrivals.
"Micheal sent us to give you a hand," Trey grunted, pulling himself free from the pile and then grabbing his guitar and yanking it out. "That, and he wanted to keep everyone else safe while he and Kiko beat each other senseless."
"A fat good of luck that did," Alan groaned, pointing with a twitching hand towards the gaping hole in the ceiling. "And why are we soaked?"
"We had to take a detour through the lake," Paul explained. "And let me just say it was not pleasant whatsoever."
"You have no idea." Mitchell grumbled, wringing out his wet hair as Toni climbed to her feet and gave herself a good shake. The large alien predator then focused on another image in its primitive mind; the changes soon began. Her tough hide softened and turned a dark mocha brown in color, the spikes along her vertebrae sucking back into the skin with a sickening sound as her tail curled back up into her spine. Her four legs cracked and bent back into opposite positions, the razor sharp claws dulling and softening into toes and fingers. The cage of teeth retreated back into Toni's face, the razor sharp fangs dulling and becoming flat as her lips returned. Her blood red eyes turned brown and rotated from the side of her head back to the front as the gill-like slits disappeared from her thick neck. Muscles become more sluggish than before as a full head of dark, brown hair appeared on her head. The final piece of the transformation was the addition of her clothes, much to everyone's relief.
"Now that we have formalities out of the way, lets get going while the goings good," Toni grunted, cracking her sore back. "I dunno how much longer Micheal and stall Kiko."
"I don't know how much longer I can stall her," Micheal gritted his skin as he picked himself up from a nasty fall and brushed himself off. He had managed to move the battle away the raging inferno towards the beach, where there was much more room to deal with.
"Ready to give up yet?" Kiko smirked.
"Not a chance!" Micheal snarled.
"Tsk, tsk," Kiko tut-tutted. "Haven't you ever heard the saying 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks'?"
"Yeah, well this dog's got more fight in him!" Micheal yelled, turning on the Animatrix and slapping the activation button without even bothering to look at which form he had selected. The red light engulfed him. His back broadened and expanding, his form becoming massive in size as his two arms suddenly became six, his fingers fusing together into two sharp claws as his body became segmented and his back became spiked and armored. A long tail sprouted from the base of his spine, becoming spiked and armored as four spikes appeared on the end. Micheal's legs split into a second pair, his toes molding together into three sharp talons as his face bulged out into a large muzzle. Four, sharp horns sprouted out from behind his gigantic jaws, his tongue becoming long and pointed as a hollow horn appeared above his sharp eyes. The final piece of the transformation to the large, dinosaur-like predator was the addition of the familiar spiked collar around his neck.
"That's new." Kiko gulped as the Centisaurus Rex bellowed and snapped its gigantic jaws just an inch from Kiko and missing. Before the small girl could do anything, a thick webbing shot out of the hollow horn on the predator's face, splattering all over Kiko and trapping hero the ground. The beast backed up and then charged forward, leaving gigantic footprints in the sand as it bared down its ensnared prey with a mighty bellow.
But once more, the universe did not smile down on Micheal. The now annoyingly familiar scanning ray panned out from Kiko's Animatrix and examined the Centisaurus Rex with a purple glow before the watch forced Kiko's body to change and contort into an identical alien theropod. The two predators, now wary of each other, circled one another, low growls reverberated in their deep throats. While Micheal had skill and more forms than Kiko, she had pure madness and the advantage of having the scanning mode on the entire time during the fight. With a loud roar, Micheal charged forward and rammed its head into Kiko's chest, pushing with all of his might and ignoring the scratching pain of Kiko's small arms and the repetitive movement of her jaws moving. With a final push, Micheal managed to shove Kiko off of him and sprayed another jet of webbing over her, tying her lethal jaws shut tight in the hopes of subduing her. However, the webbing only seemed in subduing prey and not members of the same species as Kiko easily broke free and clamped her jaws on one of his four thighs.
Micheal bellowed in pain and lashed out with his tail, managing to drive his four spikes into her armored back. But Kiko didn't left go and only sunk her teeth in deeper, pushing with her head and digging her massive feet into the sand until Micheal finally fell over on his side, unable to get up.
Confessional
"I hate to admit it, but I think I might be losing my touch," Micheal sighed. "Then again, most of enemies can't exactly change into the same forms I can."
End Confessional
A red light engulfed Micheal, returning him back to his human form. If gigantic, alien predators could grin, Kiko would have been doing it right then and there as she shot out a spray of webbing from the horn on her face, pinning Micheal to the ground and trapping him. Micheal groaned and looked up with a defeated expression as Kiko towered over him, saliva dripping from her haws as she savored the moment of assured victory.
Micheal didn't know what to do now. It seemed no matter what he did, it was never enough. No matter how many times he kicked evil's butt, it always kicked back harder than he had, forcing him to kick back even harder, continuing the eternal cycle. And now, he had finally slipped up, and about to be devoured by a Centisaurus Rex no doubt. But what Micheal found strange was that he was actually okay with dying. It wasn't like the world was going to miss him anyway; he had never become world famous for his feats (not that he wanted to), and was quite happy living a semi-normal life. Sure, his family and few friends would mourn, but he wouldn't be openly missed. And even if he was world famous, it wasn't like it mattered. He had no one special to care for, nor no one special to care for him.
"Come on," he surrendered. "Do your worst."
"How much farther?" Caroline panted, pressing herself against a wall as a flock of mutated starfish zoomed by, large, single eyes glowing a threatening red in the center of their bodies.
"I think (pant) we're almost (pant) there," Trey breathed. "Damn, why does Chris have to have such a twisted mind?"
"I swear, when this show is over, I am going to borrow Courtney's lawyers and sue Chris for everything he's got." Maurananei grumbled under her breath, noticing a sigh above her head that read 'Surveillance Room' and pointed towards the door right next to her. "Might as well as see how Micheal's doing." she said aloud, pushing the door open and dragging Caroline and Alan along with her. Blank screens greeted them in the dim light, the system booting up as it sensed them in the room.
"Welcome, Chris McLean." a mechanized voice responded to their presence. Maurananei ignored the voice and pressed a blinking button. With a low hum, the screens blinked to life, becoming static-like before eventually coming to their images, showing dozens of different images around the island; the burning forest, the rolling lake waves, Chris's helicopter, and finally, Micheal trapped underneath a massive Centisaurus Rex. And what seriously surprised Maurananei was that he wasn't doing a thin about it.
"What's he doing?" Caroline asked worriedly, biting her lip.
"Giving up, I think." Alan frowned.
"What?" Caroline whimpered.
"I said, I think he's giving up," Alan repeated, not noticing Caroline's worried expression. "As in, quitting, departing, throwing in the towel, relinquishing his rein, withdrawing from the challenge. Long story short, he's done." he listed off, earning a slap upside the head from Maurananei; Alan gave her a confused look before noticing tears starting to well up in Caroline's eyes.
Why was he giving up? Why was Micheal of all people, surrendering to a fate most would consider worse than death? Caroline bit her lip, remembering how depressed he had become after the music challenge, being to upset to even show up for the challenge, much to Chris's annoyance. And according to the rapid hand gestures from Anuok, she figured he had become even worse ever since then without someone else to keep him company. His fun spirit had faded away thanks to Kiko's wickedness, and she was prepared to take anyone who got in her way down with her, an act that absolutely horrified and disgusted Caroline.
Without thinking, she searched with panicking eyes until she found a stray microphone. She dashed over to it and snatched it up in her hands, starling Maurananei and Alan pulling them to the floor as she made sure it was hooked up to the intercom system before speaking into it.
"Micheal? Micheal!" she practically yelled into the microphone. She watched as the large alien predator startled and jerked its head back and forth in an attempt to find the source of the noise; Micheal, thankfully, was also listening, albeit with a defeated look. "Come on, don't give up! We're all counting on you!" she cried. Micheal now seemed to be listening. "You may not think it, but we need you! All of us need you! I need you." her voice croaked before she set the microphone down. She watched with pleading eyes as Micheal shifted and managed to free one of his arms as Kiko finally got over the mysterious voice and roared at Micheal, moving her head down to swallow him. By then, Micheal broke his other hand free and turned on the Animatrix, cycling through his transformations before coming across the one he needed and he slammed the activation button, injecting a new set of DNA into his bloodstream. Everything about him began to change in one single way: it got big. It got huge. It got enormous as Micheal's frame rocketed upwards towards the sky, dwarfing everything below him and even making the 1,001 foot tall cliff look like nothing more than a large pile of dirt and rock. His skin turned a pale, metallic white and four large, red thin blades growing out of his wrists and arms, fins sprouting from his waist, wrists, and shoulders. Four large, thin red crests rose up from his head, adding to his height. Hard, metal knobs grew out from the corners of his mouth and he could feel a pair of organs forming in his hands, filling up with a sort of corrosive acid. A pair of large, fingerless gloves appeared on his hands and a series of black, leather straps and shorts appeared on his person with the Animatrix on a belt.
"How do you like me now!?" the Titaninite bellowed, completely dwarfing the Centisaurus Rex beneath his three hundred foot tall frame. The island was almost nothing more than a large backyard to him now, with the trees acting like blades of grass and the hills like rocks. With a massive hand, Micheal reached down and picked up the teeny-tiny predator in his fingers, bringing her up to eye level and giving her a malicious look. But once more, fate did not smile down on him. A tiny beam of purple light shot out from Kiko's collar and scanned over his massive frame, pulling back into the Animatrix and blinking as it changed its wearer into the newly scanned DNA.
In a sudden flash of purple light, there was another Titanite standing across from Micheal, her crests forming what looked like an odd representation of pig tails and wearing a black and purple uniform that showed off her curves. "Winner take all!" Kiko roared, charging forward. Caaroline watched as Kiko tackled to the ground and swung her arms, slugging him across the face twice before cupping her hands together and slamming them down on his throat. Micheal buckled for a moment before he managed get his legs underneath her and thrust her off of him, pouncing on top of her and headbutting her in the skull.
"I gotta admit; he's got skill." Maurananei noted.
Far above the island, in a shimmering purple sphere that allowed him to observe the world undetected, Serphonus watched the battle between the giants as they quickly got into a shove match, neither one relenting or strong enough to outdo the other. It wasn't until Micheal faked faulting and managed to get under Kiko's guard to deliver a quick upper cut did things get interesting. With his opponent stunned, Micheal drove his massive fists into her chest and face, driving her back until he grabbed his head in hers and delivered a swift headbutt. The titan stumbled around for a few seconds as Micheal caught his breath before crossing her arms over his chest, a loud hissing filling the air.
"BEEP!" Micheal swore as he somersaulted backwards and ducked down low to the ground as a large blast of corrosive liquid blasted out from Kiko's wrists, spraying in a near horizontal line as she aimed for Micheal's crests; he ducked low enough just in time for the wave of acid to pass overhead, eating right through the tall mountains that surrounded them and sending tons of rubble and debris tumbling down their slopes. With an enraged bellow, Kiko charged forward, determined to end him as she tackled him to the ground. Micheal, having more experience, quickly used her momentum to roll back just enough to kick her off of him and send her flying. But the giant didn't stop there; he quickly ran after her falling form, crushing trees under him like blades of grass and giant boulders like pebbles, did he push off from the ground and into the air, doing a quick flip and slamming his foot down as Kiko finally fell to her, his foot connecting with her face and driving it into the bowels of the island. But Micheal didn't stop there. He grabbed hold of Kiko's leg and hauled her entire weight into the air, swinging her around and around.
Down below, Serphonus could just make out the tiny forms of the other contestants scurrying about like ants in the labyrinth of tunnels that twisted and turned beneath the island's surface. It seemed fitting to the witch doctor that looked like ants, absolutely helpless to the titans that stormed about above them, ignorant of their surroundings and unaware when they might meet their end. Serphonus watched as Micheal then slammed Kiko's weight into the ground, drawing back a fist and punching her in the face. With a grunt, Kiko reached up and wrapped her arms around Micheal's neck, squeezing her grip and pulling his face down to the ground in an attempt to choke him.
What the mad Titanite did not notice however, was that not only were she and Micheal in a very awkward position that would have raised a few eyebrows, but their Animatrix watch faces were touching, ominous and dangerous amounts of electricity and feedback pulsing and dancing all over the two behemoth's bodies. Two flashes of red and purple light suddenly engulfed the two titans and brought Kiko and Micheal back into the world, both teens attached to each other by the dangerously sparking watches on their wrists.
"Let go of me, you BEEP!" Kiko screamed as she pulled on her arm.
"Don't you think I would if I could, BEEP!" Micheal shot back. "The Bio-Feedback is too much for us to pull apart! And did I mention that this is all your fault!?"
"No, it's your fault!" Kiko yelled.
"Who was the one that made an incomplete copy of my Animatrix!" Micheal shot back before suddenly crying out in agony as the feedback from the watches got even worse, intensifying tenfold. To him it felt like someone had taken every single of his nerves and yanked them out one at a time with a pair of rusty pliers, dipped them in a vat of acid, and then put them back into his body with a hammer in the hands of the Incredible Hulk. And, much to Kiko's horror, he began to change.
His back expanded outwards, becoming more muscled and fat as his arms quickly bulked up to over-sized proportions. A loud, sickeing noise that sounded like tearing flesh came to her attention as a large octopus tentacle suddenly popped out of Micheal's body and began to thrash around widely. She watched horror as Micheal's right arm began to twist and convulse in directions it was never supposed to be as a red light engulfed the limp and a very annoyed cobra, attached to Micheal's shoulder, took its place, the limp reappearing beneath the angry reptile. He now had a pair of Nisilaha arms where his regular arms should have been, a long octopus tentacle poking out of his left shoulder, and a very alive cobra where his right shoulder should have been. A loud cracking sound filled the air as a Lagarbuini tail ripped out from the base of his spine, nothing more than white bone before flesh and muscle covered it, and Titanite blades tore through his wrists. A thick lion's mane suddenly sprouted around Micheal's no longer human neck and his feet tore his shoes to shreds, now a pair of powerful eagle talons. A sickening slapping sound met Kiko's as a pair of massive bat wings tore out of the flesh on Micheal's back, flapping widely as if they had a mind of their own; his jaw jutted outwards in a massive under bite as his human teeth became razor sharp angler fish fangs and a pair of elephant tusks slashed out from his cheeks. A pair of bloodied bull horns sprouted from his skull as his organs sloshed around in side of him and dozens of Golpgusanus spikes popped out at random intervals in his thick rhino hide.
And then it all stopped.
Micheal was now ten foot tall freak of nature, an absolute abomination to everyone around him. And the worst part was that Kiko was absolutely fine; not a single hair on her pretty head had been harmed, her precious eyes still human and full of intellect. She still had ten digits to grasp with, ten toes to walk with, no tail or massive wings to hinder movement. She was completely normal, while he had been twisted beyond recognition.
"NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" Micheal roared, slamming his large fists into the ground as the cobra hissed violently and the tentacle coiled into a tight fist. It was then through his sorrow and rage that he turned his gaze to Kiko, his sharp, hawk eyes narrowing upon seeing the normal girl; a low growl escaped the cage of teeth that lined his mouth. With loud bellow, he pounced onto Kiko, digging his talons into her ankles and pinning her to the ground by her shoulders. She desperately turned to her Animatrix, slapping it repeatedly with any success of activating it whatsoever.
"That won't work," Micheal growled, inching his head closer to her ear. "The Bio-Feedback's destroyed your precious watch." he hissed, driving his cobra arm into her neck and sinking the fangs into her flesh as she screamed.
"It should be expected, considering it was incomplete," he added, opening his jaws wide and shooting a jet of webbing out from beyond his teeth and trapping her to the ground by her wrists and neck. He then moved off of her and repeated the process to her ankles, thighs, and midsection, pinning her to the ground. "And considering you're too stupid to know the inner workings of such a complicated device, I will give one chance to tell me who is responsible. If you refuse . . ." he trailed off, opening his jaws wide and snapping them shut just an inch from Kiko's head.
Kiko's response was to spit in his eye, allowing a short amount of freedom as Micheal screeched and wiped the offending substence from his face.
"Wrong answer." he growled deeply, drawing back his fist.
"Hmmm," Serphonus hummed as Kiko's agonized screams for mercy rained over the island. "Perhaps I've made an alliance with the wrong person."
Maurananei's breath caught in her throat as she pressed herself against the wall of the tunnel, a flock of flying, mutated starfish zooming past, their single eyes all glowing an ominous red as sought to fire lasers at whoever dared to intrude the island's secret areas. Alan and Caroline hid behind her imposing figure, catching their breath as the world above them trembled and shook.
"Geez, it sounds like a war zone up there." Alan noted as a loud explosion came from down the hall.
"Up there? What about in here!?" Maurananei yelled over the noise, rushing the corner and dragging Caroline and Alan with her just in time to see Trey whack an android alligator over the ehad with his guitar and Mitchell to drive a flaming hand through a robotic bear's chest, tearing out wires and circutry and quickly diving out of the way as the droid exploded.
"Aw, I never get to have any fun!" Maurananei whined, just as a loud blaring sound took up and the world around them all began to flash red.
"I don't know what that means, but I don't like it!" Paul exclaimed.
"The lets get moving!" Maurananei roared, charging down the hallway with Alan and Caroline being dragged behind and the others racing after her, ignoring the alarms attempts to warn them of something. They raced down one hallway, another hallway, several more hallways until it seemed there was no end to the labyrinth of hallways traveling underneath the island's surface. More than once they came upon gaping holes in the ceiling that exposed them to the outside world that had been created by kind of massive creature; it didn't take much a of a genius to figure out who that was. After what seemed forever, they finally came across the door to the control room.
There was one slight problem though.
Confessional
"Can I just say that being handcuffed to someone like Maurananei is a horrible idea?" Alan groaned, rubbing his sore skull.
End Confessional
"It's locked!" Maurananei yelled with frustration, repeatedly punching the door with her fists they eventually began to bleed and Alan managed to convince her to stop; this didn't stop her from giving the imposing door one last kick and stubbing her toe in the process.
"Let me take a crack at it." Mitchell suggested, pushing past Maurananei and up to the door. Instead of repeatedly punching the door in the hopes that it would surrender its secrets to them or trying to hack the keypad like a normal person would have done, Mitchell merely summoned blazing hot coal into his hands and pointed them at the door, cranking up the heat so that door simply melted off its hinges and into a glowing red puddle of molten metal on the floor.
"Show off." Maurananei grumbled as she held her bleeding fists and stepped over the liquid metal and into the control room, met with dozens of blank screens that blinked to life upon sensing someone's presence.
"Welcome, Chris McLean." the computer's voice responded.
"Can I at least destroy the main frame once this whole mess is over?" Maurananei asked Anuok, who merely shook her head no. Paul pushed past the girls and over to the main control panel, cracking his fingers and then typing away at a furious pace. The group watched in stunned silence as Paul quickly sifted through the island's files and hacked into its mainframe without trouble, easily bypassing any fire walls and other attempts to stop him from entering. Within moments, he had found the code to activate the island's security system. Instead of selecting the code and pushing the starting button however, Paul dug around on the floor for a bit befo0re coming up with a monkey wrench in hand and slamming it into the control panel. The mainframe sparked for a few seconds giving a low groan and finally humming to life.
"Island Security System Activated." the computer announced.
"Why did you have to hit it?" Trey asked, confused.
"System was full of bugs," Paul shrugged as he sat down in a chair to rest. "They really need to upgrade their systems."
"I didn't know you were a computer genius." Toni smiled, pecking Paul on the cheek.
"There's a lot you don't know about me, babe." Paul smiled.
"So, what now?" Caroline asked worriedly.
"Now, we wait and hope things end well." Paul sighed.
Zelda groaned and blinked her eyes at the hazy world around her. Her lungs were on fire and her body suddenly jolted and bounced as she coughed heavily. Her entire body was sore, more than sore actually. Every single part of her ached to the full extent of the word, especially her hand; it felt like someone had dropped an anvil on it, and from the way it was swelling and pulsing, she could tell it was broken. Her head was pounding, and her vision was blurry at best. At first, she thought damage had been done to her eyes, but she soon felt her other senses come back to her; she could hear the crackling of hot flames, the smell of burning wood, the burning sensation that crept across her skin as the flames licked away at her clothing. With her one good hand, she quickly patted them out and tried to stand up.
She suddenly cried out and slumped back against the tree, her spine pulsing with pain as her legs refused to work. Her brilliant mind was racing, telling her that damage gad been done to her nervous system, the last blow to her spine cutting off all commands to her legs; she was paralyzed.
So this is how it ends, she thought, her lips too cracked and her throat too dry to even speak much more than a pained squeak or sickly croak. Barbecued alive inside of a giant wood oven. Not one of the worst fates I could have met, but certainly not pleasant, she added, hissing as a stray ember leaped on her bare shoulder. Can't say I didn't deserve it though. I betrayed Micheal just because Kiko claimed I owed her a favor, and I built her a copy of the universe's most dangerous weapon. God, what is wrong with me?
She licked her dry lips, wincing as her tongue ran over the rough flesh. Instantly, her lips were dried and cracked again from the sheer heat of the surrounding inferno; it was a wonder she wasn't already dead yet. Suddenly though, she was wishing she was. Tears started to fall freely from her eyes as she simply wished for her life to end. If she even managed to survive this mess, she would have nothing to go back to. Her only friends on the island would hate her for the rest of her days, her parents would be greatly disappointed in her, and if she even tried to go back to school . . . she wouldn't be able to handle all the hate her classmates would send her way. It seemed impossible that the daughter of a brilliant scientist could not have seen this whole mess coming, could not of found someway to make it stop.
A faint roar meant her ears, and she was thankful that she would be the first one to die at Kiko's hand, for she knew she would not be the last. Unless Micheal somehow managed to stop her before she went after the world that is. The thought of Micheal made her head throb again; he was going to be so angry when he found out. If he hadn't found out already.
"Zelda!"
She blinked her bleary eyes; now she was hearing voices. And not only was she hearing deep, throaty voices calling her name, but she was hearing what sounded like massive wings beating against the sky. How she was able to hear all of this beyond the crackling fire and snapping trees, she did not know.
"Zelda!"
Oh, when would these crazy hallucinations stop torturing her? She swore that the voice actually sounded like it would care for her, come to rescue her inside of punish her for her wicked deeds. When would it stop plaguing her, the fact that after all she had done, someone would actually take pity on her? She deserved to die, she was okay with that. She had nothing left to live for.
"ZELDA!"
She blinked her bleary eyes again and managed to tilt her head up far enough to see a large figure standing over her, a burning tree trunk in his first pair of muscled arms that he quickly tossed over his shoulder. A coiled octopus tentacle was sticking out of its left shoulder with the first half of a cobra jammed into his right shoulder. A pair of massive bat wings shielded his spiked back from the searing flames, his eagle talons dug deep into the earth as his Lagarbuini tail swished about. The face truly monstrous, nothing more than a cage of teeth, sharp tusks, horns, and glaring eyes.
"Zelda, can you hear me?" Micheal growled.
Zelda blinked; why was this strange creature of twisted parts concerned for her safety? Would it not rather see her burn? She managed to nodded her enough for the creature to understand. Without another word, the twisted mutant wrapped its tentacle around her waist and pulled in tight towards its chest, cradling with its muscled arms as it beat its wings to take to the air. Within seconds they were above the raging inferno, and Zelda could finally breath again.
"Who?" she managed to croak, wincing as her hand was painfully crushed against the mutant's thick hide; the tentacle reached down carefully picked up her hand by the wrist and set it across her stomach in a more comfortable position.
"Can't say I blame you for not know who I am," the creature gave throaty growl that sounded distinctly like words. "The Bio-Feedback from the Animatrixes changed me."
"Kiko?" Zleda croaked.
"Micheal." the beast corrected her.
"Why?" she asked as the cobra head came slithering down to look her over; Micheal noticeably got madder upon seeing her injuries through the reptile's eyes.
"Hey, as much as I would like to beat you senseless for doing something this stupid, I know Kiko's the real culprit," Micheal told her. "Doesn't mean I'm not mad though."
Zelda nodded and closed her eyes, her consciousness ebbing away. Micheal held her tighter, letting her doze off as he carried her away from the forest fire and to the island's bonfire area, the one place on the island that wasn't currently burning.
"The bonfire seems kinda pointless, considering half the island's on fire," Toni noted.
"Three quarters." Zelda corrected, barely more than a whisper; the girl was stuck in a wheelchair, her hand in a cast, several layers of bandages around her head, and a back brace keeping her aching spine in place. Kiko however looked far worse, covered in horrible looking scratches and cuts that went all the way down to the bone. Her face purple, black, and blue in color, her eyes swollen shut and her head having a few less teeth in it than before. Her legs were twisted at odd angles, and she was slumped carelessly over a log as everyone glared at her; her left hand was nothing than a bloody mess of torn muscle and bone, the skin completely gone.
Caroline took one look at the mess that was Kiko's Animatrix hand and promptly emptied her stomach contents all over the ground, doing a second time before finally stopping, Maurananei rubbing her back the whole time. The rest of the cast was seated on barrels and logs scattered about the bonfire area. Toni and Paul shared a log, Toni leaning into Paul's embrace as they both shit daggers at Kiko, not feeling sorry for the girl in the slightest. Caroline, Maurananei, and Alan all sat in a row, Caroline softly groaning and wiping her lips free of vomit. Mitchell and trey sat a good deal apart, Trey having had enough fire to last him a life time as Mithcell picked away at his fingernails. Wilson was completely silent, sitting far away from everyone and trying to look invisible as Micheal sat off to one side with Anuok, far too big and frightening by Chris's standards to sit with the rest of the contestants; Anuok had decided to keep him company, considering Caroline was still handcuffed to Maurananei.
"Well now, I think it goes without saying who's getting the boot tonight for destroying my island!" Chris yelled angrily. "All in favor of eliminating Kiko, say 'I'!"
"I!" everyone cried in unison, jamming their hands into the air.
Micheal then got up from the and lumbered over to Kiko, grabbing her shaking form as she screamed in terror, anger, fear, and rage at being eliminated. She thrashed around in the mutant's grip, but it did nothing to aid her in her escape as Micheal marched down the Dock of Shame of towards the Submarine of Shame to fire her out of the Torpedo of Shame and out of their lives altogether. Without even trying, Micheal climbed on top of the sub and punched a hole clean through, jumping down into the sub and causing it sink a little bit. The sounds of one-sided fight soon followed before silence. A loud explosion came from one end of the sub as Kiko was fired, screaming, off to the horizon, never to be heard from again.
"Uh, Micheal? Do you mind changing back in you?" Chris asked. "You're starting to give me the creeps."
"What, was the way I punished Kiko too violent for you?" Micheal asked with toothy grin that sent shivers down everyone's spines.
"Uh, yeah! The network won't let us show the footage of you doing that . . . stuff . . . to Kiko. It's too violent, man!" Chris yelled.
"Whimps." Micheal grumbled as he reached for red belt around his waist that kept a pair of torn, black shorts up. He slapped the Animatrix symbol on the buckle with knuckle and waited for the red light to wash over him, to force all the monstrosities that had grown on him to disappear, to be sucked back into the Animatrix and return him back to his human form. Seconds passed, and nothing happened. Then a few minutes. And soon a quarter of an hour without any results.
"I hate to break to you, but it seems you're stuck like that." Maurananei told him.
"Should've known. The Bio-Feedback was too great anyways." Micheal grumbled.
"I-I could try to fix your . . ." Zelda started before getting one good look at the stern glare from Micheal's piercing eyes. "Never mind." she squeaked.
"If anyone needs me, you won't be able to find me." he added as he spread his leathery wings and took to the skies, flying back over the forest as the fire began to fly down. Caroline watched him go, wanting to chase after him and tell him she was sorry for thinking he had intentionally kissed Kiko, to have him hold her and tell it was alright and that he still cared for her. But Micheal had eluded everyone of her friends for nearly a week without any sign of him; if he didn't want to be found, that was the end of that.
"Well, it seems things have taken turn for the strange!" Chris announced to the camera. "Will Micheal and Caroline ever get back together? Will Wilson be able to still be him? And will Zelda ever regain the trust of her friends? Find out next time, on Total! Drama! Pahkitew's Vengeance!"
Yo, Creaturemaster here! Sorry this took so long. There's just been one thing after another that's prevented me from working on this thing. And on top of my computer issues, this chapter nearly never happened.
And sorry if the last part of this story seemed a tad rushed. To put it simply, I had quickly gotten tired of this chapter, especially after my computer crashed twice and I had to rewrite everything I had made progress on. It's not fun, let me tell you.
Anyways, I'm out! Peace!