"Oh, no. This is not good, not good I tell you! We're-we're-we're gonna starve, and….and thirst to death, or whatever the word for that is, and…and drown, and die, and suffocate, and probably get attacked by some…evil bugs or something, and all the germs, and rabies, and tetanus, and the water is probably contaminated, and a wild animal will eat our corpses, and then another animal will eat that one, and then there's just an epic chain of death, but it doesn't matter because we'll already be dead inside the first one, and oh man, Vert, we're gonna die!" Spinner cried.

"Spinner. Calm and quiet down." Vert commanded. "Look, we'll be fine. We just need to find food, shelter, and water. This is just for a few days, alright? Piece of cake."

"O-okay…" Spinner uncertainly agreed. "How about that cave?" He suggested, pointing.

"Works for me." Vert shrugged. "Let's go check it out."

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Man, this really sucks." Stanford grumbled, drawing circles in the sand with a stick.

"Why?" Agura asked absentmindedly, trotting back and forth across the tropical beach with leaves, wood, and other items she had scavenged.

"We're stuck in some BattleZone, who knows where, with no way to survive! And worst of all, you're here!" Stanford snapped. Agura rolled her eyes.

"Stanford, did you even look up from that thing you're drawing….that kinda resembles a unicorn…" Agura murmured.

"It's my brother, Simon, but close enough." Stanford rolled his eyes, turning around. "If you want me to look at the BattleZone, I'll look at the…."

Stanford's jaw dropped.

He turned to Agura excitedly. "WE GOT THE TROPICAL BEACH BATTLEZONE?" Agura nodded smugly.

"YES LAWD!" Stanford shouted in triumph, tearing off his shirt and stomping it into the sand. "Sage must have glitched; this won't be torture after all!"

"Heh, we'll see about that…" Agura grimaced as she shielded her eyes from the blinding white paleness.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Hey, Tezz!"

"Tezz…."

"Tezzy-Wezzy? Wake up my wittle Tezzy-Wezzy!"

"Hello? Tezz? Anyone home in that freakishly overgrown and not to mention genetically altered Russian brain of yours?"

"Ugh…Yo, Tezz! Hmm...Yo, Tezz-dawgity-dawg-dawg bro? Time to wake up, my brother from a different moth-…Wait…my brother from not the same mother…that's not it either…Tezz dawgy-dawg, time to wake up brah! Wake up and smell the BattleZone, my brother from….Ah, screw it. TEZZZZZ!"

"Huh-gah-what?" Tezz shot up, colliding foreheads with AJ.

"Ah, your head is hard…" AJ groaned, rubbing his temple.

"Well, your cranium is no hydrogen-choloroxide atom either." Tezz muttered.

"Dude, English!" AJ pleaded. Tezz glared at him in annoyance.

"Ouch."

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Aw, man, this BattleZone sucks…" Zoom pouted, glancing around the deserted city. The BattleZone reminded him of the second one they had been in; the BattleZone that had once housed a hive of Sark. Fortunately it was destroyed, but with all the tech, what would they do for food?

"Think of it this way. With all this technology, we might still be able to find a BattleKey, or even create a portal!" Sherman consoled him.

"We could go back home!" Zoom exclaimed, already relishing the thought of a large jalapeno pepper pizza at Zeke's.

"Ex-actly." Sherman grinned. "Come on, let's take a look around."

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"BAD IDEA, VERT! BAD. IDEA!" Spinner screamed as he sprinted away from the cave.

"HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW THERE WAS A BEAR IN IT?" Vert demanded, risking a quick glance behind them.

"Uh…THAT'S NO ORDINARY BEAR!" Spinner shrieked as the beast snarled, gaining on them by the second. "RUN, FOO! RUN LIKE THE WIND! RUN LIKE AN INNOCENT HUMAN TRYING TO ESCAPE A BLOODTHIRSTY BEAR MUTANT! RUN LIKE…a…aw, man I'm tired!" He gasped.

"SPINNER!" Vert cried in exasperation. "SAVE YOUR BREATH YOU IDIOT!"

"Oh, I'M an idiot?"

"YEAH, AND A THIEF, TOO!"

"I AM NOT!"

"YOU STOLE MY-"

"THAT DOESN'T MAKE ME A THIEF! IT MAKES ME A GENIUS!"

"A PHYSCOTIC ONE!"

"….Eh, I can work with that!"

"JUST, RUN! I'LL GET YOU BACK LATER!"

"Pch, yeah right! You can't beat the Master!"

"Wanna bet?"

"Yeah, I do!"

"Well, I don't!"

"Hey!"

"Oh, shut up, Spinner! Or do I need to make the bear do it for you!"

"Wh-OH NO! You wouldn't!"

"Survival of the fittest…"

"Okay, y'know what? I DON'T NEED YOU!"

"Well, FINE! You were only slowing me down!"

"FINE! I'M GOING THIS WAY!"

"Good! I hope the bear follows you!"

"Well, I hope it doesn't! Besides, I'm too scrawny to make a meal! I'm hardly an appetizer! What you want," Spinner pretended to speak to the bear, "Is a nice, meaty entrée like Vert, now that is some fine eatin'!"

"Spinner!"

"SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST! Ha! See what I did there?"

"Oh, I see it, alright!"

"E-NOUGH!" Sage boomed from their com-links. A portal appeared in front of both of them, (Spinner had never really separated from Vert from fear of being left behind), and they ran right into it, finding themselves back at the Hub.

"Wh-what happened?" Spinner groaned once he recovered his breath. "And Vert, will you please get off of me?" He wheezed.

"Eh….nah." Vert grinned to himself, wriggling around on Spinner's back.

"Vert." Sage commanded icily. Vert blushed, standing.

"Vert, Spinner, I'm incredibly disappointed in you." Sage began. "Vert, the leader of this team, for goodness sakes! Honestly, you both fell far below my expectations. Turning on each other in not even three minutes!"

"Sorry, Sage…" Both muttered, school-child fashion.

"I should hope so." Sage sniffed. "Now, since you could not complete the challenge, it is time to tell you what's at stake."

"A-at stake?" Spinner gulped. "There was a prize? Why didn't you tell us?"

"I didn't want you to fake your success in order to get out of chores. FOR THE MONTH." Sage said pointedly.

"THE MONTH?" Spinner cried. "Why the month? It's like, the FIRST! Aw, man, Vert, the whole mo-o-n-n-t-t-h-h-h…" He sobbed.

"It's just chores, Spinner. At least there isn't a real consequence." Vert nudged the bawled-up pile of Spinner that was clinging to his leg.

"Oh, there is…" Sage murmured in devilish glee. "Follow me." She gestured slyly, guiding them through a door.

"Ha, hehe, hmm….what's this, Sage?" Vert chuckled nervously, trying to edge past her and out of the room.

"This is your 'real consequence'." Sage gestured to the white-padded room.

"B-but this looks like the inside of an insane asylum!" Spinner protested, clutching his head. "I'm…going….CRAZY! AGAGAGAGAHAHGAGAHAGAHAG!" He garbled, pretending to bash his head into the padded wall. Sage bit back a grin.

"If you cannot even use simple teamwork in a BattleZone, you must learn to apply it in a more…controlled, environment." Sage explained.

"Like the crazy house?" Spinner stated flatly, momentarily relieving his head from the bashing. Sage simply smiled, swinging the door shut behind her.

Heehee…..I'm really tempted to change the genre to 'horror'…

Y'know. For them.

"Well, this sucks." Vert shrugged.

"It won't after I KILL YOU!" Spinner shrieked, lunging at Vert.

"AGH! WHAT FOR?" Vert screeched.

"LEAVING ME FOR BEAR FOOD!"

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

"Y'know, this really isn't so bad." Stanford shrugged, laying back on the beach, shirt off and jeans ripped into shorts.

"Yup, it's the life." Agura sighed, reclining next to him in her 'newly redesigned' T-shirt and shorts (with the extra fabric from previous jeans and jacket tossed aside).

"I think we could live here without killing each other." Stanford remarked. "You know, if we had to."

Both glanced at each other, considering this.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Aw, man, Stanford, you still got it…" Agura pretended to wipe a tear from the corner of her eye.

"Thank you, thank you." Stanford bowed. Although most of the team, themselves included, had figured Stanford and Agura would be the first pair to crack, they had no clue as to the duo's true relationship. Sure, they had their battles, some more intense than others (such as this afternoon's), but when it came down to more serious things, they could easily stow the insults and work together as teammates. 'Siblings,' was the perfect description for the dynamic pair, and they wouldn't have it any other way.

And this particular case was a matter of pride; a quality both had plenty of, and it was a fair bet to say that they both planned on boosting it by winning this challenge as well.

"But seriously, should we make shelter or something?" Stanford commented, fanning himself.

"Probably…" Agura admitted. "…Five more minutes."

"I second that."