Authors Notes: Howdy y'all. It's only been two months since my last upload! A new record that will hopefully be broken!
Just going to save my breath until we get to the end of the chapter!
The episode began by the black screen slowly fading into the animation of the Jumbo Jet flying overhead southeastern Europe before Chris began to start his introduction, "Last time on Total Drama World Tour: Greece! Hey, it was ruined before we got there." Footage played of Noah and Gwen walking through the ruined Odeon, "Here, Noah learned from Gwen that Duncan promised to tell Courtney about their kiss, while Gwen learned from Noah that he wasn't so sure that Duncan would actually follow through. And speaking of which, hehe…" The footage cut to the scene of the delinquent knocking Sierra back to save Courtney, "Duncan saved Courtney from friendly fire in Sierra. Yikes, better hope Gwen doesn't see this footage, bro."
The camera skipped ahead to Duncan and Tyler talking in Economy class, "And speaking of fire, this is where things really started to heat up! With the Amazons nabbing immunity, this left our fearsome foursome back to elimination where Duncan cut a deal with Tyler to ditch Noah… which almost blew up in his face when the jock gave Noah a head ups about it." Footage jumped back in time to where Duncan was getting whipped by Chef repeatedly for not singing, "Yeah, this wasn't his best day."
"Next, Noah cooked up a story to Tyler about Owen colluding with Heather to make Lindsay lose the tiebreaker all the way back in France, and said that he'd vote for Owen with him." Noah and Tyler were shown hashing it out in economy class, where Tyler was gripping his hair in panic. "But in the end, Tyler kept his word to Duncan and voted for Noah, causing a tie where he put two to two together that he got duped. And boy was he not happy!" Tyler was shown red in the face, yelling at Noah as everyone else looked on, "Buuuuut no one went home, leaving everyone to marinate in awkward soup for at least one more challenge."
The scene cut to Chris sitting shotgun with his pilot attire on, "Who's going to get knocked out of orbit this week?" The camera cut back far enough where it now showed Chef in the pilot's seat reading a newspaper, "Get ready to believe, right here on Total!" It cut back again to show the front windows of the plane, "Drama!" Yet again to show the plane flying straight in all its' glory, "Woooorld Toooouuuurrrr!" Finally, as Chris sang the final two words, the camera zoomed back far back enough where not only the entirety of the plane was in view, but a fair bit of the sky as well, with the full moon shimmering.
The shot opened up by fading from a black screen to the Jumbo Jet soaring against a starry night sky. It then cut to Heather seated at the bar in First Class, before panning over to the trio of Cody, Sierra and Courtney sitting by each other on the golden recliners. The tech geek was fiddling with his candy while the fan girl on his right was busy making a paper version of him with scissors. The C.I.T was sitting across from him, eying the two with suspicion while scribbling down some strategies in her notepad.
They all did this for a couple more seconds before Cody gasped and pointed, "Gwen!" Courtney turned in her seat and gasped as well. Sure enough, Gwen had walked through the curtains to First Class, but looking damn near exhausted. Her eyes had bags and her makeup was more than a little runny.
Cody and Courtney got up and ran towards her, "Are you alright?" The C.I.T immediately took charge, butting the tech geek out of the way and leading her friend over to another set of recliners. "I didn't see you come back here to sleep last night, but when I woke up I assumed you just had gotten here late and then woke up early for breakfast."
"Y-yeah!" Cody interjected, catching a glare from Courtney as the trio found a separate set of recliners. As Gwen took a seat, he continued, "I, uh, am usually caught up with Sierra stuff, but even I noticed." His expression softened considerable, "Are you okay?"
Seeing his look of concern caused Gwen to feel a stab of guilt, but she shook it off with a lie, "I'm fine, just got caught up in my book and fell asleep in the cargo hold. No big deal."
Both Courtney and Cody arched their eyebrows at the story, not looking totally convinced.
Confessional: Cody
The geek held his chin with a sigh as he sat on the toilet, "It sucks not being able to showcase the patented Codemeister charm to Gwen with Courtney always in the way and Sierra being… Sierra. I think somethings really bothering her…" He shrugged his shoulders. "Well, whatever happened hopefully during the challenge I'll have time to talk to her. Ever since Alejandro got booted Team Chris seems pretty darn dysfunctional, and Sierra and Courtney's recent spat yesterday will have them busy arguing with each other so I can get to Gwen. And with whatever went down between Tyler and Noah, I don't think we're going to have to try that hard to win todays' challenge."
End Confessional: Cody
Confessional: Gwen
"I admit that wasn't my greatest performance," Gwen rubbed her eyes before continuing on, "I did fall asleep in the cargo hold, but I was waiting there because I thought Duncan would show up. Like, with Chris telling me that he did talk to Courtney, I thought he'd at least give me a heads up if he revealed us yet. Especially with whatever happened between Noah and Tyler… and Owen… and Duncan himself too I guess." She sighed, covering her eyes again, "Plus I thought Noah would have come back to the cargo-hold to regroup and tell me what was going on. Because he totally voted for Duncan even though he told me he'd vote for Tyler. So much for that plan…" Once she uncovered them though, her tired pair were replaced with determination. "I've given both of them enough time. I'll just tell him today that if he doesn't tell Courtney by the end of the day, I will. And I'm going to get Noah to tell me what the hell went down last night."
End Confessional: Gwen
While the trio by the recliners were talking, a watchful eye in Heather was keeping tabs. She was sitting by the bar, lips pursed while maintaining a neutral expression as the thought.
However, thinking about strategy got interrupted by something far more annoying, "Ugh!" Sierra had sat down a few stools for Heather, eying the three with a hardened gaze, "Why does my Cody-wody keep being so nice to Gwen!"
The Queen Bee was about to roll her eyes, coupled with telling the fan girl to 'shove it' but then a plan formed in her mind. She faintly smiled, spinning around on her stool before looking at her nails, "Duh, he's been pining for Weird Goth Girl ever since the first episode." She glanced to Sierra, maintaining her nonchalant façade, "You're telling me that you know Cody's belt size but not that?"
Sure enough, just as Heather cast her hook, she got a bite. Sierra swiveled from her stool to face the Queen Bee, "Uh, double duh, but if you were a real Total Drama super-fan you'd remember that he set up Gwen with Trent in episode seven. He must be over her!" The fan-girl swiveled back, putting her gaze on the trio, "R-right?"
This time, Heather really did roll her eyes. Really, sometimes this game was just too easy. "He stopped trying to get with Gwen because of Trent. Don't you know the reality show math? Weird Goth Girl plus Cliché Guitar Dweeb equals Cody backing off. But ever since last season when Trent went nine crazy, or whatever, she dumped him." The Queen Bee smirked, "So Weird Goth Girl minus Cliché Guitar Dweeb equals-
"Cody liking Gwen again!" Sierra clasped her hands over her mouth, horrified. She slapped her forehead, "How could I not see this!? I'm the creator of Codipedia for heaven's sake!?"
"What?"
Heather immediately regretted asking as Sierra quickly pulled out her laptop and shoved it into her face. What greeted Heather looked to be a clone of Wikipedia… but Cody-fied. "See!" Sierra pointed with her tan finger. "I already have a six-hundred thousand nine-hundred and eighty-two articles pertaining to anything and everything related to Cody!"
The Queen Bee pushed the laptop away, "Ugh, quit it! See, this is exactly your problem. You're too in his face all the time." She gestured towards the trio, specifically Cody and Gwen, "Gwen barely gives him the time of day and he's drawn to her like Beth was to mismatching colors. Maybe if you'd start being mean to him, he'll come around."
"Mean to Cody!?" The fan-girl gasped. "That sounds like the hardest thing in the world…"
Heather put her hand on the girls' tan shoulder with a smirk, "Don't worry, I'll help you."
Confessional: Heather
She stood up with her arms crossed, looking particularly proud of herself, "This is what I like to see: tension! And it has nothing to do with me! With Tyler finally standing up to Noah's oversized forehead plus Sierra attacking Courtney yesterday, I have never felt so safe." She sits down, grinning, "And now if I," she pauses for air-quotes, "help Sierra with Cody, I can gain her trust. And with her insane knowledge of the cast and my sane knowledge of them, I will finally find out what's up with Noah and get revenge on him for getting rid of Alejandro!" She stands up triumphantly, her arm thrusted into the air.
Silence passed for a second before the Queen Bee turned pink, "I mean, not like I care that Alejandro's gone. Psh!" She blew a strand of hair out of her face, crossing her arms again, "But no one is going to try to run this game except me. Now that Tyler's totally against him, Noah's time will finally be up."
End Confessional: Heather
Confessional: Sierra
"Don't worry, I know Heather is just helping because she's transparently trying to manipulate me," Sierra stood up, giggling into her hands. "It's actually kind of cute when she thinks I can't notice." She puts her hands on her hips, her face growing semi-serious, "But I do think she has a point about my Cody-kins. And Heather is, like, the queen of mean. It may be hard, but I'll do anything to get him out of Gwen's poorly moisturized clutches!"
End Confessional: Sierra
When the static ended the camera returned to the trio of Cody, Courtney and Gwen sitting by the recliners. After Gwen revealed (or lied) about where she was last night, the trio was just making awkward small talk until a faint rumbling could be heard from one of them
"Oof," Cody murmured, clutching his stomach. "I knew I ate too much of those extra caramel bars…" The geek rose from his seat, trying to mask his uncomfortableness with a suave grin, "I gotta take care of something really quick, see you ladies in a bit!" He dashed out of First Class, full steam ahead towards the bathrooms.
As soon as the geek was out of earshot, Courtney rolled her eyes and huffed, "Finally, I thought he'd never leave…" Her eyes wandered over towards Gwen once more, now with a more analytical mindset. The goth was looking off in the direction Cody darted off to, but soon enough began to yawn and rub her eyes.
The C.I.T's expression softened, and she put her tan hand on the girls' pale one, "You don't have to lie to me."
Gwen jerked her hand away, spinning back towards her, "What? I didn't lie to you."
"Gwen. " Courtney put her hand on the goths' leg. She smiled. "Duncan told me what happened."
Immediately Gwen felt like she was hit with a bolt of lightning. Or drank seventy expressos.
She jumped to her feet, "He did!?"
Though the goth immediately stopped short, as when she jumped up she saw Sierra and Heather at the bar staring at her, confused over her outburst.
She felt a Courtney's hand on her shoulder, "Let's move to someplace… more private."
Gwen nodded, and the two girls walked slowly back to the front of First Class, away from the bar. While not a far journey at all, the goth felt she was walking in slow motion as her mind was scrambling to find out why on earth Courtney wasn't trying to chuck her out the window right now.
Despite that, she couldn't help but feel butterflies in her stomach. The same butterflies when Trent picked her up during the finale of Total Drama Island, and the same as she felt when Duncan had first kissed her in the confessional.
He kept his promise… Duncan did it.
Soon enough, Gwen and Courtney arrived at the front of the compartment. Far away from Sierra and Heather, what they found was the curtains that were the entryway to First Class and a golden colored couch next to it.
As the two sat down, Gwen wasted no time for questions, "How did you-why are you… why aren't you angry, though?"
Courtney looked at her as if she was speaking an entirely different language, "Well… it's not ideal so to speak, and I wasn't exactly pleased when he told me about you two. But after our talk yesterday I kind of expected as much from how defensive you were being towards him. And I realized it was really out of line for me to question you about him."
Gwen blinked.
The butterflies in her stomach morphed into moths.
What?
"Sorry," Gwen held up her hands, "Can we just back up for a second. Just so I know that we're on the same page. What exactly did Duncan tell you."
Courtney pursed her lips and looked to the ceiling, "Well, it was about half an hour before his teams' elimination ceremony. He caught me when I was just about to go through the curtains to the bathroom," Courtney gestured with her head to curtains behind her, "And he told me that he needed to get something off his chest…" She chuckled, shaking her head, "Oh my god, Gwen, at first I thought he was about to say that he was breaking up with me on me or something, but he told me about what happened between you, him and Noah after London."
The moths were rapidly dissolving into toxic acid.
What the hell.
"And that was?" Gwen bit her lip.
"Come on, Gwen." Courtney crossed her arms, putting one leg on her knee. "He told me that he walked into the confessional to see you kissing Noah."
Gwen's slack jaw became the slack-est slack jaw in the history of slack jaws.
"What?" she hissed out a whisper.
Apparently Courtney didn't hear her, as she was continuing on, "He said that you begged him not to tell anyone about it, which honestly explains why he didn't vote for Noah at the London ceremony." She shrugged her shoulders. Gwen was still shell-shocked, locked in a frozen trance.
Why on earth would he lie…
"Look," Courtney placed another hand on her shoulder, warping her back to reality, "Just… forget what I said about Noah yesterday. Just… be careful okay? I honestly can't even believe I'm saying this but you're probably my closest friend in the competition ever since Bridgette left. I don't want you to get hurt." Gwen tried to respond, but her mouth felt like cotton so the C.I.T continued, "And I know you're probably pissed at Duncan for breaking his promise, and honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you were angry. Just know that he cares about you too."
And with that final explanation taken care of Courtney rose from the couch and headed back to the main trio of recliners, eager to rest up for the next challenge, and leaving Gwen in a hurricane of confusion.
Though what both girls didn't know, was that beyond the curtain, a certain teammate was crouching near the wall, absolutely flabbergasted.
"Gwen and… Noah?" Cody repeated to himself, his slack jaw now rivaling Gwen's from earlier.
Both geek and goth could mutter only this at the end of Courtney's explanation, and even quite a few minutes before they regrouped with the rest of their team.
"How could this have happened?"
The camera cut to white before the shot reemerged onto Economy Class, where Team Chris was licking their wounds from their two-time loss.
Among many other things.
The shot showed first Owen and Noah on the leftmost side of the bench. The bookworm nursing his black eye he received from the previous episode with an icepack while the blonde was nervously nibbling on his Olympic medal he won. As Owen glanced behind his back, the camera followed his gaze and landed on Tyler and Duncan, seated on the far opposite side of the bench, where the jock was venting his frustrations to his new alliance-mate.
"I'm serious," Tyler crossed his arms, "The guy's a jerk with a capital G. I'd never lie to anyone like he did to me. He deserved two whips to the-"
"Cool it with the whip talk." Duncan grunted. The punk currently had a bunch of Band-Aids on him from where Chef whipped him yesterday in addition to the black eye Courtney gave him from the wrestling challenge.
Tyler winced in sympathy, rubbing his shoulder, "Oof sorry guy, I guess I have been complaining to you a lot." The jock sighed, putting his elbows on his knees and propping up his head with his hands, "It's just, I've never been so mad at someone before… but." He quickly glanced back to his other two teammates before continuing, "I'm not quite sure if I should be this angry."
Duncan blinked, "Are you joking? Last night you told me that twerp lied to your face about your girl getting setup by Owen and now you're feeling bad for being angry about it?"
"I'm still totally mad at him." Tyler held up his arms in defense. He let them down and looked down to the floor, "I thought we were friends but he treated me like crud." He shook his head, "Nuh-uh, man. Noah and I are through."
Duncan rolled his one good eye, "Glad to see your little breakup stuck. So what are you talking about then?"
Tyler shifted in his seat to face him before explaining, "Well, I know for a fact that Noah lied to me about who he was voting for but I still don't actually know if he was lying about what Owen did. He could have been sincere and was just throwing him under the bus to save himself." He began to twiddle his thumbs, "Because if… Owen did what Noah said he did… I kind of want to vote him off instead of Noah."
The punk looked past Tyler's shoulder and caught a glimpse at Noah. His nostrils flared, "I've known Owen for a lot longer than both of you. There's no wayhe'd work with Heather to get rid of Lindsay."
"I don't know, dude." Tyler spoke up, "Didn't he work with Chris last season to-
"Hey," Duncan poked the jock aggressively in the chest, "That was different. His parents were bankrupt."
"But Alejandro told me that-
"I don't care what Al-e-whatever said to you. Drop it." Duncan spat back darkly.
Tyler winced and scooted back, about to drop the subject. Yet as he going to, memories of his talk with Alejandro roared back in his mind, "You're not the boss of me, Duncan." He knocked away the delinquents hand. "And you can't make me trust Owen."
Duncan paused, more than a little caught off guard. Outside of what happened last night, he never seen this side of Tyler before. For once, he put his own hands up in defense and tried to de-escalate the situation, "Let's just cool it here." Tyler's aggressive posture vanished as the delinquent continued, "I'm sorry for getting so defensive about Owen. Look, I'll talk to him during the challenge and get to the bottom of this."
"R-really?" Tyler shook off his previous demeanor completely and smiled, "Thanks man, that would actually make me feel a bit better to know." He paused, "But, uh, what if Owen just lies to you?"
The punk crossed his arms with a wolfish grin, "Remember how he cracked to Gwen about the guys' alliance on the Island? Believe me, if he's hiding something I'll get it out of him."
Tyler chuckled, "Oh yeah, I remember watching that back at the playa." He then looked down while rubbing the back of his neck, "But, uh, sorry for almost blowing up at you a second ago."
"Pffft." The punk blew air out of his mouth and put his hands behind his head with his classic bravado, "I was acting like a dick so you stood up for yourself. Good job."
Tyler couldn't help but feel a bit proud, "Huh, I guess I did." He looked up to the ceiling, smiling, "Thanks Alejandro…"
"Huh?"
"Er, nothing!"
Confessional: Tyler
He was sitting up, looking mighty reassured, "I can't believe I'm saying this, but Duncan's actually not that bad once you get to know him. He is a jerk, but at least he is towards your face and doesn't try to set you up behind your back…" He begins to trail off, before shaking his head. "Nuh-uh, I can't bother feeling guilty over how I yelled at Noah last night. From now on, it'll be Tyler-time for the whole way through to the finale, baby! To the extreme!" He jumps up from the toilet but knocks his head on the ceiling and falls to the ground with a grunt. "Woohoo… yowch."
End Confessional: Tyler
Confessional: Duncan
The punk sat with a bemused look on his face, "Kudos to Tyler, going from the wimpiest jock in the world to someone who can stand up to himself. Makes him a way better person to team-up with in the game and a helluvalot less annoying to deal with." A smirks begin to form from his lips, "Now all I have to do is prove to him that Noah's story about Owen was full of bullshit and I can finally start things off right with Gwen." His smirk suddenly vanishes, and a weighty sigh replaces it.
"I know she's going to be pissed with what I told Courtney. But when I was about to tell her what happened between Gwen and I…" He shook his head, "I couldn't. It's just a headache I can't deal with if Noah is around. So I blurted out the first thing I could think of. He crosses his arms, his signature wolfish grin returning, "It's not like I have to worry about competition from Noah. And after I talk with Owen during the challenge I'll get him onboard with Tyler and I and he'll be gone." He pauses, his unibrow raising just a tad, "And then I'll tell Courtney…"
End Confessional: Duncan
As Tyler and Duncan were busy letting their newfound bromance blossom, Noah and Owen were quite a bit more worried over on the other end.
"Uh…" Owen started to say, twiddling his thumbs as he did so. Noah looked up from his book and the big guy continued, "So… what's the plan for today? Tyler still seems to be pretty peeved at both of us…"
"Just stay clear of him and Duncan for right now." Noah looked down quickly back at his book to hide the guilt from his face. "During the challenge I'll try to find a way to talk to Tyler and straighten this whole misunderstanding out."
Even though he couldn't see it, Noah could tell that Owen had a wary look on his face. "R-right. And that misunderstanding would be…"
This time, Noah couldn't help but look up from his book at his friends' eyes. He inwardly winced, "Owen, I never intended for you to possibly get eliminated last night."
"Yeah, but you never said what happened-"
"I have to get ready before the challenge." The bookworm turned and stood up, already facing the curtains that divided Economy from the hallway. He took a few paces forward before pausing at the threshold, turning his head, "I will fix this, Owen. Trust me."
"Of course, little buddy, I trust you." Noah turned back his head and proceeded to walk a few more paces before adding, "But uh… are you going to see Gwen hehehe…"
Noah paused at the threshold of the curtains, "Owen, we-"
"Aw, don't play coy with me Casa-Noah…" Owen covered his mouth with his hands, giggling through them.
Feeling a rare moment of levity in the midst of a depressing situation, Noah merely smiled to himself and turned away as he walked, shaking his head as he did so.
Confessional: Owen
The normally chipper blonde sat on the toilet with a look of defeat. Looking down to the ground, he began to speak, "I just don't know what to do…" He sniffles, "Tyler said that Noah wanted to get rid of me… but why would he believe that? A-and now Noah's telling me I can't talk to him or Duncan about it… even though Duncan is my friend. B-but Tyler's my friend too and…oof." He draws a hefty sigh, and a moment of silence fills the air, with only the backup feed of the camera breaking it. "I just want everyone to get along. Ever since Izzy left things have been going downhill…"
Owen looked back up to the camera, a small smile on his face, "I guess I am a little happy about Gwen and Noah though. Or…" He chuckled, "Gwoah."
End Confessional: Owen
After a white flash, the shot changed to show Noah walking down the hallway. His head was down, fingers pinching his forehead to distract from the mind shattering headache that he was experiencing. Nearly two days of talking to Gwen in the cargo hold and now trying to console Owen throughout the night after Tyler's dramatic blowup at the both of them during their teams' elimination ceremony caused fatigue to catch up to the bookworm, and quick.
That, coupled with the urgent dilemma Noah was facing of how on earth he was possibly going to get out of the mess he put upon himself in addition to the guilt that was seizing him over how he was going to explain this to Owen after this was all over caused a tight knot in his stomach.
The camera panned over to the other end of the hallway to show Gwen walking down it as well. Her head was down too, fingers pinching her forehead to distract from the mind shattering headache she was experiencing. Nearly two days talking to Noah in the cargo hold and trying to console herself throughout the night alone waiting for Duncan caused fatigue and anxiety she hadn't experienced since the Trent debacle during the tail-end of her run in Total Drama Action.
Oh, and a smattering of downright hurt she was feeling over Duncan lying to Courtney to her and Noah of all people. Let's not forget that…
Both cynics were so knee-deep into their own dilemmas that they didn't notice the other was walking in front of them, until…
"Ouch,"
"Oof,"
As they were both leaning forward, the foreheads of Noah and Gwen were the first to collide with one another before both recoiled back, grasping their heads. After a few seconds, both shook of their dazed states, their eyes growing wide as they saw each other.
"Hello?" Noah could only mutter out in shock.
"Hey…" Gwen offered back, warily. There was so much she wanted to say to him, to ask him, that instead of posing it thoughtfully she blurted out, "Duncan told Courtney that we-
Suddenly, what felt like an earthquake (or air-quake) seem to pummel the ground that they were both standing on, tripping the goth off balance and falling on top of the bookworm. Gwen saw Noah's face turn bright pink as she laid on top of him, and she could feel her face flare up in heat as well. Her breasts were pushed up against the bookworms' chest, and both were too exhausted and shocked to do anything but stare at one another as the plane kept shaking around them.
"Attention potential crash victims! Please remain calm, our auto-pilot is testing some equipment. Snacks in the common area if you don't believe me and want a last meal!" Chris's voice blared over the intercom, waking Gwen from her dazed state.
She jumped to her feet, dashing away with a curt, "Sorry," under her breath.
Noah leapt up to a standing position to. He looked in the direction Gwen ran for a few moments before shaking his head, darting after her.
The camera cut to the common area with a close zoomed in shot of a bowl of fruit on a table. The sounds of sirens were ablaze as the shot zoomed out to show Owen picking up a banana with Courtney and Noah standing to his left while Tyler, Cody, Sierra, Heather and Gwen stood to his right, "You call these snacks!? We're all gonna die-ie-ie-ie!" He cried before throwing the fruit into his mouth, peel and all.
While Owen was busy having a panic attack, the late arrival in Duncan finally made his way from the right side. He looked nervous but shook it off and walked over grinning at Gwen, "Looking 'specially pasty this mornin'."
Gwen jerked her head towards her punk in surprise her eyes wide as plates. Before the punk could say anything more, she narrowed them, "Drop dead."
She turned away, preparing to march to the other-side in the room in a huff but the punk grabbed her by the arm, "Look, I know I screwed up but if you just let me explain-"
"In the hallway, now." Gwen grabbed Duncan by the arm and and yanked him. She led him out the door of the dining area to the hallway that led to it before saying, "What the hell Duncan!?"
Duncan held up his hands in defense, not wasting a minute to explain what happened, "About a half an hour I went up to First Class to tell Courtney about us. But when I was about to…"
"Yeah, she told me you said that I kissed Noah!" Gwen whisper shouted. Her voice faltered, "Are you that scared of her that you made up a lie like that at the last second?"
"What?" Duncan frowned, "No way! Look, I was about to tell her when I remembered that during the fallout of all this we're going to have to deal with Courtney and Noah. But listen to me, before I talked to her I just managed to get Tyler on board to dump him in the vote. Why the hell would I tell Courtney so that dork could get Tyler on his side?"
"Then why did you promise me you'd tell her two days ago in London?" Gwen glared.
Duncan opened his mouth to speak but paused. He shook his head instead, "Alright, that's on me, but-"
"This is all on you, Duncan." Gwen jabbed her index finger into the punks' chest, "The purpose of telling Courtney was to make things right with her, not about strategy in the game." Her gaze narrowed even further, "Which is what, by the way? Keep leading her along like this until you somehow get rid of Noah? Are you going to try to throw your challenges too?"
"Quit it!" Duncan knocked the goths hand away from him, "Look, I don't know why you've gotten soft but I came so close to the million last time and I'm not going to let some guy with an oversized forehead ruin my chances! So yeah, maybe I will throw a few challenges so that runt will be off the plane!"
Gwen snorted, "Oh don't even try to pull the sore-loser card on me, Duncan, or that you even care about the competition. You wouldn't even be here if Courtney and I didn't find you. Plus, you and I both know you had no hard feelings for Beth when she beat you."
The two of them simply glared at each other for a few seconds as Duncan prepared with another comeback.
But he didn't get to fire it.
"Uh, what's going on?" Cody poked his head from out the door and
Duncan and Gwen both glanced at each other before the punk relented, "Nothing," He grunted, walking through the door and over to the other side of the room.
Gwen simply stared at him with disgusted bewilderment, "What the hell is his problem…"
"Uh, Gwen?" The goth blinked, seeing Cody standing mighty awkwardly in front of her, "Are you, like, okay?"
"I'm fine, Cody. Duncan's just being an asshole." Gwen kept her focus on the delinquent as he sauntered over to Tyler, who was strangely starting to do pull ups on one of the metal bars. She shook her head, trying to give him a smile, "Let's just focus on the challenge, okay?" She spotted Courtney near the center of the table and side-stepped the tech geek to go over towards her, leaving him to sigh.
What she didn't notice was Noah watching the goth as well from the other side of the room, as well as two others,
"Ugh!" Sierra turned her nose up in disgust.
Heather, who was now next to her, rolled her eyes, "Just, forget about Gwen right now." She waved her hand away, before a devious look on her face emerged, "Cody will get over her soon enough if he notices you flirting with someone."
"You mean how like you got jealous when Alejandro started to flirt with Leshawna and Bridgette?" Sierra crossed her arms now, leaning in with a Chris-like grin.
Heather glared at the towering fan-girl, "Ugh, barf. Just do it!" She shoved the fan-girl a few paces forward where the taller girl caught a glimpse at what was going on near the two of them.
"You can't make a parachute out of banana peels, Owen." Noah drawled as his friend was busy trying to tie together various peels on the floor.
"Izzy, did it once!" Owen protested, fiddling with the discard-able parts of the fruit at a breakneck pace.
"Izzy also said she dated the reincarnation of Benjamin Franklin in Pre-K," Noah shook his head, "Can we not base what we need to do in a life or death situation on her, please?"
Before the blonde could reply, Sierra ran up behind Owen and started twirl her finger on his shoulder, "Aw, that's such a good idea! I can help you weave them together!"
"Oh, uh, thanks Sierra!" Owen nodded his head with a beaming smile.
"No problem!" The fan-girl turned back to Heather, holding her hand up with a thumbs up sign.
The Queen Bee put her hand to her head and drew out a deep sigh. She kept shaking her head for a few moments before a newfound foe entered her gaze.
"Are you trying to get Owen to file for a restraining order on Sierra as well or what?" Noah walked up to her with a bemused smirk.
Heather rolled her eyes, "Awfully confident are we? Doesn't your whole team hate your guts right now?"
Noah's amused smirk turned to a frown, "What are you-"
"It must suck that your little alliance is on the frays too." She quickly gestured to both Duncan and Gwen, standing at opposite sides of the room, "And that Duncan doesn't care anymore about the dirt you had on him to force him to vote with you in the first place."
Noah's eyes widened, "How did you know I had dirt on him?"
Heather folded her arms with a smirk, "I didn't. You just told me."
The bookworm, caught off guard and silently cursing himself for being so foolish, was about to make a retort before the lights in the dining area were snuffed out, covering them all in a shadow of darkness, with the camera only making out the white eyes of all the contestants.
Suddenly, as if to break the tension (or maximize it) a lone fart was heard from near the center of the room, where all the eyes glared to where Owen was standing. "As the dark is my witness that was not me."
While several would normally contest that rather dubious claim, the plane lurched forward with another bout of rough turbulence. The shot then (breaking all laws of Canadian television) went to outside the plane where two flying saucers were shown blasting the plane with lasers. After a few more seconds, the Jumbo Jet began to sputter black smoke out of its turbines and the saucers flew off as the aircraft began to drop like a rock. With the contestants' screams echoing loudly, the plane was plummeting nose first to the earth before another laser from the left side of the screen hit the Jumbo Jet.
But instead of ending the lives of all the cast and crew on board, it stabilized the plane, turning it back upright before dropping it fight feet from the ground.
The shot then went inside the plane again to see Owen still screaming his head off before Sierra shoved an apple in his mouth, "It's okay, cutie-pie, we're safe!"
Owen ceased screaming, now munching the apple Sierra gave him with a smile, "Aww, thanks Sierra!"
Seeing all this go on, Noah rolled his eyes and sighed. Yep, it was going to be a long night.
The camera centered on a shot of the full moon before descending down to show Chris wearing a military helmet and aviators, standing in front of the rest of the contestants. "Welcome to the coolest, extraterrestrial-ist, place in the world: Area Fifty-Two!"
"Fifty-Two?" Gwen put her hands on her hips, "Area Fifty-One is where all the cool alien stuff is."
"This show is so broke that we have to fake an area now?" Duncan asked incredulously, earning a chuckle from Tyler.
"Nope! This is Area Fifty-Two while that is Area Fifty-One over there," Chris pointed behind the cast to a boulder with glowing white light seemingly around it, "We're just inside the border and I can prove it." The host cupped his hands to his mouth before calling out, "Duncan! Tyler! Will you be so kind as to switch your places in the lineup for me?" Both boys looked at each other with confused looks, but shrugged their shoulders and complied with the request. Chris smirked darkly, "Perfect. Now as I was saying, we're just outside the border… except Tyler!"
As soon as Chris finished his sentence, a red laser came from the left side of the screen and began to zap Tyler continuously. The jock yelped in pain, rising into the air a fair bit from the continuous stream of laser fire and contorting himself into all sorts of positions like he was Denzel Crocker.
Chris pulled out a walkie-talkie, "Thanks for the laser show, colonel!"
As soon as it began, the red laser dissipated and Tyler collapsed to the ground on his back with a groan, coughing up black smoke.
"It's nice to have friends in Area Fifty-One places," Chris chuckled before narrowing his eyes, "That was for shoving me last night, Tyler. Don't cross me again, ever."
"Oh no!" Owen gasped, "Tyler are you o-
Noah cut him off, grabbing him by his arm as the fatboy was just about to run off to help, "Remember to keep your distance until I get a chance to speak with him." He whispered.
"But he's hurt!" Owen shook out of his weaker friends' grasp in a rare-act of defiance and whispered back, "And you won't even tell me why he's mad at us!"
Noah's eyes widened, caught off guard by his large friends' unusual bluntness. Though both of them soon dropped the subject once they saw Tyler was already being helped.
"Thanks." The jock groaned as he clasped Duncan's hand before coughing up a billow of black smoke, "I feel fried…"
The punk smirked back as he pulled Tyler to his feet, "Like chicken?"
"Aw come on guy-"
"Listen up space cases." Chris cut the jock off as he began to explain the challenge. He stood next to a large monitor which depicted a rough map of the surrounding area, consisting of a large circle with '51' on the right and the terrain surrounding it on the left, "The Five-One is the most tightly protected military base in the world. Which, is going to be so much fun… for me." The shot switched to show the wary and nervous faces of the players before Chris continued on.
"Part One," the monitor showed the emblems of the two teams move around the large boulder towards the border of the base, "break into Area Fifty-One without getting shot, gassed, plasma rayed or otherwise killed. The place is guarded by elite black-ops soldiers so if anyone does get all exploded their untimely but hilarious demise will be blamed on a freak," Chris held up air quotes and snickered, "Weather Balloon accident."
"Part Two," The shot centered on the circular Five-One on the monitor before transitioning to a slow panning shot of exterior of the facility, "Each team must find a genuine functioning alien artifact inside Area Fifty-One's infamous black-box warehouse. The place is full of broken alien junk; you need to find something alien that still works." The camera cut to Chris and the monitor, which was now showing one of the many doors of the compound, "But, be careful; the warehouse is loaded with booby traps."
As Chris was busy explaining the second part, Noah couldn't help but cast a glance towards Gwen, curious as to what she was about to tell him before the Jumbo Jet nearly crashed. The goth saw him, and mouthed 'later' as the host started the last part of his explanation.
"Part Three," The monitor showed both teams' emblems travel back towards the left of the screen until they both converged each other forming a checkmark symbol, "The winning team must bring back their working artifact back to Area Fifty-Two intact. Last team back faces elimination, and do not get caught over there. Rumor has it that trespassers get a memory wipe and are transferred to an alien colony where they either became slaves or food." Most of the contestants rolled their eyes at Chris's shtick, save for a whimpering Owen, "You have until dawn. Go!"
And with that, the nine competitors sprinted forth into the dessert.
Aside from the sound of their shoes as they ran on the rocky ground, Team Chris was awash with awkward silence ever since the four boys began to jog towards the glowing light Chris had pointed out to them at the start of the challenge. The normally talkative Owen was keeping his head down near the back of the pack next to Noah, who was too preoccupied thinking about what Gwen needed to tell him then to think about any strategy for the task at hand. Near the front, Tyler was focused on the challenge while Duncan was struggling to figure out how he could get Owen alone to sort this whole feud out. But as the four kept steady pace, the glimmering light from the compound grew brighter and the punk sprang into action.
"Okay, we should split up and scout for points of entry," Duncan called out, slowing his pace so he was next to the person he wanted to partner with, "Owen's with me."
Noah blinked, but before he had time to object the punk had already grabbed his friends arm and pulled him farther ahead of himself and Tyler. Both the jock and the bookworm exchanged an awkward glance before skidding themselves to a stop. About thirty seconds of silence passed before Noah broke it, "Tyler-
"I don't want to hear it," The jock huffed, turning away with his arms crossed and eyes closed.
Noah sighed, walking around to try to face him again. Yeah, there was no way to lie himself out of this. Time to come clean, "I'm not going to bullshit you: I lied. About everything." Tyler's eyes opened, shocked that Noah would be so blunt about it, "There was no alliance between Heather and Owen to take out Lindsay in France; I made that up so the votes would get split."
Noah waited for Tyler to respond, but as the jock continued to just give him a wary look, he continued on, "I know what I said might've been harsh, but just imagine if you were in my position. Just minutes before the ceremony you took me aside and told me that you teamed up with Duncan to get rid of me. What was I supposed to do? Just do nothing about it?"
After about another thirty seconds of silence, Tyler finally spoke up, "I knew that Duncan was going to chew me out for telling you. But I did it because I know how much it sucks to get blindsided. And I wanted to make sure that we were friends still." He narrowed his gaze, "You should've had better sportsmanship and not try anything sneaky even if you know you might go in a tiebreaker." He looked to the ground and sighed, "Lindsay did..."
Alejandro didn't seem to show any sportsmanship when he got booted.
Noah thought but wouldn't dare say out loud. He tried to change tact, "Look, I'm not trying to convince you not to be angry with me or whatever. I just want to ask you two things: please don't throw the challenge to kick me off. And please do not tell Owen what I told you and not hold this whole thing against him." Tyler's expression softened for a moment as the bookworm continued on, "I shouldn't have lied about Owen."
Tyler took a moment to take all of that in before finally responding, "I wish I could believe you…"
Noah blinked, "Excuse me?"
"Ever since Alejandro told me about all those stuff Owen did, and remembering how he came back and screwed Harold in the Film-Lot…" Tyler shook his head, "Plus you could just be lying to me right now to protect him. Nuh-uh, I can't feel comfortable around him anymore, no matter what you or Duncan say."
"But Alejandro was lying to you-
"And I would never throw a challenge to kick anyone off, man." Tyler had already turned around and put his hand above his eyes, trying shield himself from the brightness of the lights from the compound in order to look for any entryways, "Speaking of that, we should probably be looking for a place to get in. The girls, and, uh, Cody, have been kicking our butts…"
Noah looked at him with bewilderment before he resigned with a sigh, "Fine."
As Tyler and Noah were hashing it out, Duncan had led Owen to small boulder near the perimeter of the compound. Both took in the long electrical fence surrounding it and ducked down so the searchlights couldn't hit them.
The punk whistled, "And I thought juvie had tight security."
"Or Chef's fridge…" Owen chuckled before he bit his lip, "Y-you don't think there's actually aliens inside that place, do you?"
Duncan clasped his hand on the big guy's shoulder and smirked, "We handled Chef as an alien. Anything else will be easy."
Owen giggled, "Haha yeah, I remember!" He scratched his head, "Gosh, we've been on the show for so long now…"
"Yeah," Duncan shrugged. The two stayed silent for a moment and looked at the compound before the punk spoke back up, "I'm guessing Noah told you what he told Tyler to piss him off?"
The big guy turned white and looked down to the ground, "He-he actually didn't yet."
"Come on man, don't bullshit me."
"No, I'm being totally honest!" Owen held up his hands in defense. "I really wish he would've, I kept asking him. But all he told me was to focus on not spending anytime with you guys until he got a chance to talk to Tyler first to straighten out the misunderstanding!" His emotional dam finally breaking, Owen grabbed his hair and begin to hyperventilate, "I just don't know what to do, Duncan! Ever since Izzy left everyone has been so mean! Noah was mean to Al, Al was mean to Noah, Noah was mean to you, you were mean to Noah and now Tyler's being mean at both of us except that Sierra was kind of nice to me today for some reason even tho-"
Duncan grabbed both of his arms and yanked them away from his face, "Settle down, big guy!"
The blonde blinked, scooting a bit away from Duncan, "Er, sorry. I kind of got a little crazy back there."
"It was like Izzy left a little piece of herself on you before she left," Duncan chuckled. He tried to change the topic, and remembering something he was wondering about earlier followed up with, "What happened with you two anyway? Courtney told me she hit her head or something?"
Owen nodded solemnly, "Really hard, the whole Jumbo Jet fell on both of us!" He looked to the side, "I just feel so guilty about it cuz Noah convinced me that it might be better if we broke up, and I was just about to before it happened." Duncan narrowed his eyes as continued on, "And when I woke up in the infirmary Izzy got all super smart and told me that we weren't compatible anymore and just… left."
"Chris let her quit?" Duncan now rolled his eyes, "Dude hired an army to track me down…"
"Well the real army took her, but it doesn't really matter now." Owen slumped his shoulders and leaned his stomach on the boulder, "She's gone and I don't even really know if she got back to her Izzy-self or is still like a super smarty pants." He looked back up at the delinquent and sniffed, "Or if she even wants to be with me anymore if she is back to her old self…"
Duncan rubbed the back of his neck with an awkward grimace as Owen continued to whimper. This is not how he expected this conversation to go at all. What the hell could he say to this?
"Sometimes people don't know what they got until they lose it," Duncan finally spoke. "Once Izzy realizes how good she had it with you, she'll come around. Trust me."
Owen looked up from his stupor and scratched his chin, "Huh… kinda like with you and Courtney?"
The delinquent nearly choked on his own saliva. He spun back to face the big guy and glared, "What the hell does that mean?"
Owen hadn't expected that reaction and began to look downwards, "Uh, I don't know. I mean, when she came back last season, you were telling us guys' you didn't want to get back together with her. But even when you guys were always fighting," He smiled, "You always got back together in the end. Cuz' like whenever you were apart, deep down you really missed each other..."
The punk narrowed his eyes instinctively, trying to process what his friend was saying in his mind. He tried to change the subject, "Sure?" Duncan shrugged his shoulders, "I'm not good with this touchy-feely crap." He shook his head, "Let's try to figure out how to get inside. The girls have been kicking our asses and I want to finally spend a night in First Class."
Owen's eyes lit up, "Oh you'll love it! All the freshly baked cookies you can eat!"
"And sexy stewardesses to look at," Duncan wiggled his unibrow.
The blonde chuckled for a moment before scratching the back of his head, "Uh, you said that Tyler told you what happened between him and Noah, right?"
Duncan's eyes widened. This was the whole reason he had pulled Owen aside before; how could the conversation have gotten so off track that he would forget that? "You want me to tell you?"
"Noah said I really shouldn't ask you, but…"
"You shouldn't listen to what that dweeb says," The punk grunted, "He screwed you over big time." Owen gasped but Duncan didn't want to delay it anymore, "He told Tyler that you-
"Hey did you guys find anything!" Tyler called out, interrupting the punk. He dashed up to the two in front of a lagging Noah before crouching down behind the boulder. Duncan rolled his one good eye, biting back a swear but decided to drop it. He still had ample time to tell Owen later on.
"They're less searchlights here than where you two were before, we can sneak across." Duncan explained.
"If we don't get blown apart by landmines," Noah deadpanned.
Suddenly, all four guys noticed a rabbit coming from just out of frame, bouncing effortlessly across the barren terrain towards the compound.
"I think it's safe to cross," Tyler smiled confidently. But just a single bounce later, a red laser fired from somewhere near the compound and zapped the poor creature, turning its fur black and leaving it to cough up smoke
"I-I'll be on the plane!" Owen nervously chattered.
Before any of his troops could second that motion, Duncan spun around and snapped his finger with a reassuring smirk, "Listen up, I have a plan."
The camera centered on Team Amazon, who were standing at the precipice of the perimeter on the other side Area Fifty-One's main compound.
"Ooooh, some kind of security vegetable patch," Heather drawled. She suddenly looked down and to the side, narrowing her eyes, "Cody! Get your clammy hands off of my leg!"
"I'm not touching your leg?" He held up his arms to his sides as proof. As if to backup Cody's answer, a hiss was heard from near the ground and everyone froze. Looking down, all gasped when the saw a bright orange lizard wrapped around the Queen Bee's leg. The group sprinted away screaming before skidding to a halt when they saw that the lizard that was chasing them seemingly launched itself into the air with a fiery blast.
"Since when do lizards fly?" Heather gasped.
"Everyone freeze," Gwen maintained an awkward pose as she stood, not risking even the slightest movement, "we are on a mine-field."
Sierra, who was precariously perched on a wobbly Cody, narrowed her eyes at the goth, "Way to lead, Gwen."
Before the goth could reply, Courtney shot a glare the fan-girls' way, "I was clearly leading."
And again as she was about to, Heather chimed in, "We're wasting time, someone do something!"
Then a chime quite literally, uh, well, chimed.
All the Amazons groaned as Chris flew in from out of frame on his jet-pack as the black and white musical note symbol appeared on the bottom right corner of the screen. Gwen groaned in exhaustion, "Anything but that…"
Their host flew closer to them with a smirk, "What would you rather do? Sing a song or tap-dance on a mindfie-"
*Bzzt-Bzzt-Bzzt*
Chris blinked as a generic ringtone and buzzing sound could be heard from his pocket.
"Oooh!" Sierra clapped her hands above a struggling Cody, "Chris is getting a phone call!"
Heather frowned up at him, "Shouldn't that be silenced when we're literally filming?"
"Can't, it's a work phone the producers gave me for emergencies." Chris grumbled, reaching into his pocket and pulling it out, "What do those vultures want now…" As he clicked the receiver and put it to his ear, Gwen and Courtney both glanced at each other and shrugged, "Yo! It's McLean." The Amazons could only hear the faintest of static from the phone as Chris was being briefed on what went down, "Wait, missing from the hotel? For over twelve hours!? Normally I wouldn't care, but this kid was dynamite in the ratings! Plus, isn't his father like the Ambassador of Spain? Dudes family probably has tons' of super fancy lawyer's that would probably put Courtney's to shame!"
"Hey!" Courtney glared, "I resent that!"
"Uh, you don't even know what he's talking about?" Gwen gave an incredulous look to the C.I.T.
"Dear god I'm about to collapse!" The lone male cried in agony under the weight of Sierra ("Sorry, Cody!")
"Shut. Up!" The Queen Bee snarled at the three of them. Her head spun back to Chris with an inkling on who he might've been referring too.
"Send one of those cadet chicks back on the first flight to Toronto when they come for pickup?" Chris repeated into the receiver, "Yeah, I'll get on that. But, hey, I'm not technically liable if anything goes-agh, okay, okay!" Chris put the phone back in his pocket and revealed a nervous face, "Alright, new plan. Sing, don't sing, I don't care. I have to go back to the plane to monitor a… situation."
"What situation!?" Heather almost ran towards Chris before she remembered she was on literal bombs that could blow her to pieces, "Does it have to do with A-"
"Mind your own beeswax!" The host cut her off before rocketing off, with not another word to the five remaining gob-smacked competitors.
About thirty seconds of silence passed before Cody hollered, "What the heck just happened!?"
Courtney turned and sent an annoyed look his way (though the tech-geek couldn't see it), "We don't know. Let's just get off this mine-field."
"But we can only do that if we know where the bombs are!" Cody yelled, "And we don't have anything to… oh I have an idea!"
Courtney snorted with a condescending smirk, "If I couldn't think of anything yet, you definitely didn't."
"Don't doubt the Codemeister," Cody grinned and dove into his pocket. Once his hand re-emerged, it was filled with the last pieces of candy their team won all the way back in New York, "Watch!" The geek flung his treats in various directions. Nothing for happened for a few seconds, and a few of the girls thought that Sierra had finally cracked the boys' sanity, but lo' and behold he managed to hit his mark and explosives to the right and the left of them went off, leaving a straight shot out of the field.
As the Amazons took this opportunity to run and escape the minefield, Gwen looked to Cody and smiled, "You found the way out and sacrificed your candy to do it!"
"Don't worry doll, I gotcha." Cody flashed a gape tooth grin at his crush, still floundering underneath Sierra.
The Amazons kept running out of frame, with only Heather stopping for a moment to look back to where Chris had rocketed off to. Turning back around, the Queen Bee shook her head and sprinted off.
The shot returned to the four boys on Team Chris, now standing behind a much larger boulder carrying decent sized rocks in their hands.
"Remember," Duncan held up his rock in one hand as he instructed the other three of his plan, "throw the rock and run in the opposite direction… now!"
Noah, the person on the end, used both of his arms to chuck the rock with a grunt to the left while he dashed to the right. As the soaring rock was soon blown to smithereens' by the red laser, the braniac dove behind another boulder. Noah sat up and nodded his head, indicating that he had made it.
"Now!" Duncan yelled out, signaling to Tyler that his time had come. The jock threw it as hard as he could to the left and ran full speed to the right… and barreled into a cactus. The punk bit back a curse before hollering, "Owen, go!"
The big guy, still a little jumpy, clung to his rock and ran to the right, with a high pitched wail and his eyes closed, "AAAAAAAHHH!"
Noah saw this and leapt to his feet, "Owen, you have to throw the rock or you'll get hit by the laser!"
Owen's eyes shot open with a gasp. His gaze locked to the rock in his hand and tried to spin around to launch it. Unfortunately, one of his shoe laces was untied, and as he tried to pivot his right foot landed on his left shoes' lace which jerked him back towards his original direction as he threw the rock with all it's might… directly at Noah.
"Cruoof!"
Before the bookworm could know what was coming, the large rock spiked against his torso, causing him to be blown off his feet and out of his hiding place behind his boulder. His butt skidded him to a stop a few feet out, but by then he looked to be down for the count.
"Noah!" Owen leapt into action, running to his friend with newfound adrenaline like he was sprinting towards a plate of freshly baked brownies.
But unlike his victory in Total Drama Island, he couldn't make it in time.
Mere moments before he could aid his friend, a red laser shot out from the compound and collided with Noah, causing the boy to be flung into the air and over the electric fence before crashing back down to the ground, "Just put me out of my misery already…" He instantly regretted those words, as a tube popped up from the ground and changed direction so it was now over him before it started to suck him in just as he went into unconsciousness.
The tube retracted and now he was in the ground, with the dumbfounded trio of his teammates looking on.
"Little buddy no!" Owen ran right up to the electrical fence.
Duncan widened his eyes, "Wait you don't have to-"
And yet again, it was too late. In a comical change of tone, the big guy was climbing over the electric fence, "Oof! Yowch! Haha! That tickles! Okay now it doesn't! oof! Noah! Great chutney this hurts! Yikes! Oof! Ouch! Yeesh-"
As Duncan had his hand in his palm, Tyler tapped him on the shoulder and awkwardly pointed to an opening in the fence that the two could walk through. Duncan shrugged and the two proceeded to walk inside the complex as the big-guy finally got his way to the top of the fence before falling and crashing back down, "D-Did I make it over?"
"Somehow…" Duncan grunted, motioning Tyler to help him get Owen back off so they could continue their challenge into the complex.
While Cody's path led them in a more roundabout way towards the mind-field, Team Amazon were still moving at a pretty decent clip towards the main compound of Area Fifty-One.
Courtney was at the front of the pack, leading the way with her eyes locked onto the compound as it grew closer and closer with each passing step. In the rear, strangely, Sierra had put some distance with Cody and was running alongside a newly distracted Heather while Gwen and Cody made up the middle of the group.
Both remained in silence after the whole minefield fiasco until the latter finally decided to break it, "Gwen, uh, are you doing alright?"
"Hm?" The goth shook her head as if she was deep in thought before turning towards the geek with a wary glance, "Uh, considering we almost got blown apart a few minutes ago, not really."
"Besides that, though." Cody seemed to find the gusto to try to get to the heart of the matter, "Ever since London you've seemed kinda distracted."
The goth continued to look warily at the geek, not sure how to respond. To be honest, with Heather breathing down her neck and Sierra guarding him like a hawk, she hadn't have talked to Cody as much as one would think during this season. Before Duncan returned, she was practically always with Courtney, and in the past three days when he did come back, she was either talking to him or Noah in addition to the C.I.T. She didn't know if this was just another one of Cody's poor attempts to hit on her, a friends' genuine concern, or both.
Then her heart leaped into her throat.
How much did Cody really know what was going on?
"Cody," Gwen pursed her lips as she ran, trying to find the exact right words, "Just tell me what you think you know."
Cody's eyes widened a fair bit, not expecting the goth to be so blunt. But then again, she was Gwen. The tech geek looked a bit and sighed, "When I came back from the bathroom before, I sort of heard what Courtney said to you. How Duncan told her about you and… Noah."
"Oh." Gwen grunted out while her mind began to race. What the hell was she supposed to say now? She refused to go along with Duncan's bullshit lie for whatever dumbass strategy he planned to do to get rid of Noah. But what was the alternative, just lie to Cody? He'd see right through it. And the other alternative… tell the truth?
Honestly, that tempted Gwen. She hadn't even had a full conversation with Duncan (not counting their abridged one before the challenge) since the night he had gotten back in London. In Greece he had essentially ghosted her, not giving her information on what he planned to do with Courtney and kept her waiting all night at the cargo hold. He and Noah both did.
And she was so goddamn tired.
But…
"I know you're mad at Duncan for telling Courtney about it, so you're probably pretty mad that I know… hehe…" Cody let out a humorless chuckled.
"Oh, don't get me even started on Duncan." Gwen muttered, rolling her eyes. Better not to confirm or deny, "I'm not mad at you Cody; you were just at the wrong place at the wrong time." She cast a sympathetic glance towards his directions, "I know we haven't gotten to talk much this season, but I'm sorry. I know that must've hurt for you to hear."
"Oh it was brutal." Cody sighed, "But with Sierra on my tail this entire season, I guess kind knew subconsciously it wouldn't really work out between us. Heck, I haven't had a chance to have a private conversation with you all season. It's just-" He shook his head, "Noah? I mean, heck, I would've expected anyone, even Duncan. But Noah?"
"Cody-
"And you don't have to explain to me why, I get that." Cody held up his hands, "But-
As he began to stammer, a stab of guilt went through Gwen's heart. She knew she wasn't obligated to, but she couldn't help but feel a little bad at not checking in with Cody after all these weeks, even with Sierra breathing down his neck. And now he just trying to make her feel better and know what was wrong and she knew she had to shut him out.
But maybe not entirely…
"Cody, listen." Gwen grabbed the geeks hand as they ran together. She hated how cheesy this was, but now Cody was all ears (and beat red) as the goth continued on, "You don't deserve to be brought into this crap right now. What's going on between Duncan and Noah… it's just so messy and shitty right now; it's like what happened with Trent times ten. I wouldn't want to put you through any of it." Cody simply stared at her gob-smacked, "Just know that Courtney doesn't even know the full story of what went down, but that I'm going to try to make things right and soon everything will come out." Gwen's eyes widened herself before shaking her head, "Just… when it does," She squeezed his hand a bit tighter, "Don't totally hate me. You were one of the few people on the show that was kind to me during the whole Trent bullshit in Action. I feel like I'm going to need you in my corner again."
As Gwen finished with her rambling, Cody slowly nodded her head, "Of course, Gwen. I would never abandon you- OOF!"
Gwen and Cody, both locked in deep conversation, were not paying to what was in front of them which was a giant boulder that Cody collided with when they were locking arms. This caused Gwen to spin out, as the sudden force of Cody stopping acting like a twirl of a fingers which caused the goth to zip around like top.
She landed on her back, with her head also thumping against the hardened gravely ground as she could only hear the vague voices of her teammates screaming as they ran towards her.
Then, all she could hear was loud sizzle and see bright red as a magnitude of scorching hot pain seem to flare up in her entire body before an explosion. Now feeling lighter than air for some reason, Gwen opened her eyes to see herself flying through the air on the other side of the fence of the compound before crashing into the ground and fading into unconsciousness.
"Gwen!" Cody and Courtney cried in unison. The C.I.T and geek both ran up with Sierra and Heather not far behind to see a tube launch itself from the ground before positioning itself above the now unconscious goth, sucking her up into it before retracting back into the earth below.
In a blink of an eye, she was gone.
"No, Gwen!" Cody yelled again. "We gotta go save her, we gotta-"
He was cut off by Courtney grabbing his collar, and yanking him towards where she was running. "This way! I see an opening!" And both of her friends made a mad-dash as a lukewarm acquaintance in Sierra and enemy in Heather followed.
After a white flash, the camera slowly panned over to the main building of the Area Fifty-One compound. It stayed on the shot for a good thirty seconds before cutting to a large door, where a group of burly black-ops soldiers were jogging out the door. As the large men ran out of frame and the door was slowly beginning to close, Heather popped up behind the corner and quickly ran over to catch it with her foot, leading the rest of the Amazons inside.
"Looks, like we beat Noah's team here," Heather muttered. She was about to close the door until-
"NOAH!" Owen ran through the doorway and slammed the door (and Heather) to the wall as Duncan and Tyler followed him inside with wary looks.
As both teams walked forward and took in their surroundings, the view switched to one of the security cameras' perspective, showcasing the cast in a red tint before an unexpected voice rang out, "Will these dummies make it out alive?"
The view switched again to show Chef seated at a desk with a monitor with the cast on screen, looking annoyed at the camera and speaking with a monotone voice, "Will Chris tell me where the heck he's gone off to so I don't have to host this stupid show in his place? And where are scrawny kid and creepy girl? I don't know; they don't pay me enough to care. But don't touch that clicker, cuz' we'll be back real soon on Total!" The view zoomed out where a part of the landed Jumbo Jet was in view, "Drama!" It zoomed back even farther, "World Tour!" A U.F.O flew over the Jumbo Jet and zapped it with a beam a few times before flying off, "Dagnabit! Don't make me come up there, now!"
Authors Notes: How'd you guys like it? Honestly, I'm a little mixed.
This chapter deals more with setup on things that will happen later, and I was immensely struggling with fitting in a song for boyfriend kisser. Tyler singing one about Noah betraying him never really sat right with me, so I changed it to Sierra fake-singing about her pretending to be over Cody but oh my gosh that was turning out so horribly. Hopefully the little juicy bit about Alejandro made up for it :)
Also I feel like I made Duncan a bit too cranky here, but you guys gotta remember that him and Gwen and Noah have all been running on like no sleep for the past three days, lol.
I also hope that the Duncan lie about Gwoah was clear. Please tell me if it doesn't or if you're still confused.
Don't really want to overly elongate these Authors' Notes but I hope you enjoyed this! Have a great day! :D
(I am so exhausted, oof, haha...)
-ewisko