"Haha, yeah-yuh! What's up, babes? You miss me? Your main man sure as hell missed you!" C.K. had himself sat down in a chair near the artificial fireplace in his little room, swirling around a mug of some fizzy liquid of sorts. "Hey, though, don't y'all be worrying about how much I missed ya, cause we're getting right back into it now! L-l-layust time on Total Drama: Neon City– our lovely teams were sent on a manhunt to find Chris and Chef somewhere hidden in the massive city that I call my home! Challenge was straightforward enough, with some little tip totems around to give the contestants an idea of where they might be! Led to some fun times, like Suzie splattering herself against the wall and Atlas letting Garfield trick him into sitting still for a solid ten minutes or so! Man, I will never get enough of gullible people being gullible! We found out that 3V isn't a total useless drunkard, she just doesn't really think straight when she's on the sauce…to no shock. I wonder what she'd be like sober, if we ever get to see that happen. The end of the challenge seemed pretty clear cut as a win for Team A-Side, with Morgan and Garfield both racing towards the finish ahead of everyone else, but Suzie whipped out a little trick that…defied all laws of physics. Chris took the winners and losers to their new dwellings for the time being, and Morgan and Garfield had a little chat about who to vote for in the elimination ceremony! After some arguing that finally reached an agreement, the team sent Henry home for just being too weird. Can't blame 'em on that one! But that party's long gone, and a new one's just on the horizon! Who's gonna flop and drop this time around? Let's get right into it to find out!"
The neon moon started scratching itself like a record, eventually spinning wildly out of control while the sound meter around it went wild. A beam of neon light shot down into the ground below, bringing the view past a rooftop that had Chris and Chef standing atop it, as well as the cloaked figure of C.K.. The trio were laughing to themselves as the beam passed them by, and they soon disappeared from sight.
"B-b-break it down, dear mom and dad, I'm doing fine," a car burst from where the beam of light had landed, revealing Atlas driving while Bec was in the passenger seat with him. The duo grinned the same grin at the camera as they passed it by, with another car following behind in their wake.
"The highlife's been on my mind," the second car was veering off the road wildly, being that of Jhin, who was too busy eating a tree branch that she had found to be focused on the road she was driving on. She ended up crashing through the wall of a building, revealing a nightclub full of people.
"You asked me where I wanted to be, and now I'm right here, can't you see?" Leo stood near the now open hole in the wall, his jaw practically dropped to the floor, but he was soon shoved aside to safety as Jhin drove right back through it. He looked to see that Gwendolyn had saved him, and looked about ready to tear him a new one.
"I wanna be famous!" Over at the bar, Cherry was downing a shot of liquor and proudly heading off to the dance floor while Amanda just stared at her own shot glass, turning her nose up at the very scent of it.
"I wanna live away from the sun," the camera panned up from the nightclub to the next floor, which was much more of a lounge that had a couple contestants sitting on couches. Eli had himself posted on one of them, sitting back and covering his ears while Suzie started explaining the entire lore of Among Us to him.
"So pack your bags, 'cause the party's begun!" On one of the other couches, 3V was downing an entire flask of some sort of liquor while Elward watched her in some sort of dumbfounded trance, eventually pulling out his own futuristic looking flask but accidentally pouring his drink all over his one working eye.
"Daylife's no way to live with nothing to gain, it ain't no claim to fame," far back in the corner of the room, Henry and Heath were hiding themselves from everybody else, but Heath's hand slowly raised up with Jean-Paul rattling his wooden jaw, startling the two of them so much so that they got up and ran right into each other, falling to the ground with a joint thud.
"I wanna be famous!" Giselle popped out of a closet from the same corner of the room, wearing a playboy bunny suit and putting on a flashy display, but when she saw that the two boys were unconscious, she fell to her knees and started screaming at the sky.
"Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na!" The next floor up from the lounge seemed to look like a sort of laser tag arena, where Gerald was frantically running away from Morgan, who was firing her laser gun at him. Her shots entirely missed, but one must've struck Allan, as Gerald stopped running and started to cry, holding the invisible friend's body in his arms.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" Marshmallow ecstatically ran right through where the two of them were, flailing her arms and screaming in delight while a confused Edward followed after her, shrugging his shoulders when he looked at the camera.
"I wanna be, I wanna be, I wanna be famous!" At the upper ground of the laser tag arena, Bailey and Eliza were firing at each other, but the lasers stopped coming at Bailey after some time, and she looked up to notice that Eliza had completely passed out on the floor. The cold girl looked at the camera helplessly before tossing her laser gun up into the air. As it came sinking back down, it fell into the neon fire on top of the tallest skyscraper, directly in between Garfield and Zayden, who were having a stand-off while the other contestants sat around them and whistled. Chris, Chef, and C.K. stood over at a podium near the hyperspace tube and snapped in unison for a neon sign to flash on the screen with the words "Total Drama: Neon City."
"Dum-da-dee-dum…" Leo hummed a pleasant tune as he sat on his bed in his hotel room, currently working on stitching what seemed to be a jacket, one made entirely of green and yellow fabrics. He smiled at his own work, not quite noticing where his needle was going when he accidentally jabbed himself in the thumb with it, letting out a soft yelp. "Oh! I did it again…" The seamster lightly whined as he set his work aside, looking down at his bleeding thumb with a nervous look on his face.
Confessional - Leo
"I have a few fears…well, a bit more than I think is the norm for everybody, but one of those is blood. It's not the worst thing I could see, that would be real, human bones, but still…I can't help but get a bit squeamish when I notice blood." Leo avoided looking at his thumb as he sat in his car, blood dripping into a little dish that he had under his hand. "N-normally when I prick myself I'll just wait for it to stop and dump the dish out without looking at it. I know, I know, I'm a wimp…"
"Somehow hearing that Leo's afraid of blood and bones doesn't really surprise me in the slightest. Dude's definitely the type that got shoved in lockers during high school. Hell, maybe he still gets shoved in lockers nowadays."
"Don't look, don't look, don't look…" Leo mumbled to himself as he left his room, stepping out into the hallway and taking a B-line straight towards the bathroom so he could wash it off. In the midst of him not paying attention to his surroundings, he ended up bumping right into somebody on the way. Whoever it was was way bigger than he was, as he ended up falling right onto the ground while they remained standing. He shook his head and looked up to see Zayden standing over him and smiling at him. "Z-Z-Zayden! Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"
"Oh, no no, there's really nothing to worry about…here, let me give you a hand there." Leo was going to get up on his own, but Zayden reached down to him and helped him right off the ground and back onto his feet, giving him that warm smile like always. It took a second for him to realize, but he saw his thumb was bleeding, and he frowned at it. "Your thumb…what happened?"
"O-oh, that? It's nothing, just a little accident when I was doing some sewing in my room, happens all the time!" Leo laughed dismissively, but as he remembered his thumb bleeding, the laughing faded and he started looking a bit sick. Zayden's frown worsened as he started to rummage around in his potato sack, pulling out a small box that had pink, flowery bandages in it.
"I'll get it all taken care of," Zayden smiled and stared Leo right in the eyes as he knelt down to work on bandaging up his hand. He could see the queasiness in Leo's face, and did his best to reassure him. "It's not that bad…say, what were you sewing? I bet it's something pretty neat if it's anything like the clothes you're wearing now."
"W-well, I was making myself a new jacket, yeah…I like to make my own clothes instead of buying them, just something I find more fun, I guess." Leo took a few deep breaths, trying not to look too much like a wuss while Zayden was still working on his thumb. "I like to switch up what I'm wearing now and again, so I was making a green jacket with yellow sleeves."
"You do rock those colors pretty well, so I can't say that's a bad choice. My style's a bit more odd I'd say, I don't know if I'd look like the same person if I switched things up!" Zayden let out a soft laugh as he got up from his knees, once again towering over Leo. "Well, you're all bandaged up! Just be a little more careful when you get back to it, yeah?"
"Y-yeah, I will," Leo got some red in his face from the embarrassment, which seemed to make Zayden frown again. The cone-wearing boy looked around a second before smiling and running right into a nearby wall. He hit it hard, wobbling backwards before falling on the ground at Leo's feet. This wiped away all of Leo's embarrassment as it was replaced with worry for his teammate. "Z-Zayden! Are you okay?"
"Oh, me? I'm definitely fine, a bit embarrassed about just suddenly doing that, I guess! Heh, I'm a bit of a klutz if you hadn't figured it out already!" Zayden slowly pulled himself up from the ground, smiling widely at Leo who was just relieved to see that he was alright after that big hit. "Maybe I'll have a bump on my head later, but that'll just teach me not to be running into walls like that! But, hey, you go and get back to work on your jacket! I wanna see it when it's all done!" Leo softly nodded to his teammate, a smile of his own forming before he started running back to his room.
Confessional - Zayden
"So, my older sister is pretty infamous for being the most unbearable person in…well, pretty much the whole world. She's always attracted attention and gotten people upset with her because she thinks being liked is being hated and vice versa. Because of that, I took it upon myself to be outrageously ridiculous and embarrassing in public…not just for her, but for everyone!" Zayden smiled at this revelation, gesturing to his own wacky outfit. "I could care less about people making fun of or laughing at me, I'd really rather it be me than anyone else, anyways!"
Morgan stared at her reflection in the mirror that was hung up on the wall in her room, working on applying her makeup. It seemed she was just about done with the last bit, her mascara, when she suddenly got a knock on her door. She didn't say anything at first, just glaring a bit and continuing to work on her makeup job. All was good for about twenty seconds, but then the knocking came again, this time being a bit more aggressive than the last.
"Gimme a minute, I'll be right out!" Morgan shouted before rolling her eyes at her own reflection. She got back to doing what she was doing, soon mumbling to herself, "Seriously, a bitch can't even get to enjoy her private time without some douchebag trying to shoot their shot." Again, that knocking came, only this time it was ridiculously loud and obnoxious. She let out an aggravated groan and set her mascara down on her desk, angrily strutting over to the door and pulling it open. "WHAT!?"
"Woah, snappy, much?" Atlas chuckled as he leaned against the doorway. Morgan took a second after she saw that it was him, but then went to slam the door shut in his face, though he stopped it with his hand before it closed all the way. "Haha, come on now, Morgan! Can't you just let your older brother stop in and check on you every now and then? I gotta make sure you're having just as much a good time as I am, haha!"
"Yeah, well, I'm not, so shove off and go hang out with your boyfriend or whatever it is you do." Morgan, again, tried to get that door shut, but Atlas just wasn't letting it happen. She couldn't fight back all too well against it, considering just how built he was in comparison to her.
"Bec? Man, I wish he was here to hear you say that, he probably would've gotten a pretty good kick out of it!" Atlas gave Morgan a booming chuckle, annoying her more, but then he dropped the laughter and got this really serious look on his face. "Say…just out of curiosity…you haven't really been hanging around that Garfield guy too much, have you?"
"Bitch, why are you gettin' all in my business? Does it even matter if I been hanging out with him or not? Mind ya damn business!" Morgan glared at Atlas, but that look on his face wasn't wavering whatsoever, "Ugh, I hate it when you wanna act all big and macho about stupid shit like this! Why can't you just let me do whatevah I wanna do and leave it at that?"
"Garfield's no good…dude's a liar with a pretty hefty ego. I get that I'm not the boss of you or anything, but I'll be damned if I let my little sister hang out with some punk like that. What happens if he throws you under the bus or tries to get you in trouble with the rest of your team, huh? Guy was messing with me during the last challenge, probably hoping that my team caught me lacking." Atlas glared at the seventh room's door, knowing well that Garfield was behind it.
"Bitch, that's just cause you're too damn stupid to see when something's obviously not up to snuff! You didn't even know what sarcasm was until your senior year of high school– and you still take a few seconds to figure out if people are using it or not!" Morgan got all worked up, trying to get Atlas to shoo away, but he was firm as ever. "I'm gonna do whatevah the hell I want, and you'll just have to deal with that! If I hear you whining to me about who I should and shouldn't be hanging around again Imma blow a fuckin' gasket." The brother finally took a step back, letting his sister slam the door. He let out an annoyed sigh, not even noticing that Bec was standing right next to him.
"Atlas, my friend, you are seeming quite tense! Did you need a shoulder rub? Us clay shapers are known to be pretty good at giving those!" Bec smirked as he cracked his knuckles, each one letting out a horrible popping noise. "Aye! I wasn't expecting that to be so rough…I guess I don't know my own strength!"
"I think I'm good on the shoulder rub…I just wish Morgan would at least hear me out when I come to her about these kinds of things." Atlas groaned and started walking down the hall, back towards the elevator, with Bec following after him. "I mean, you know that I spend most of my time talking to other people, I know when someone ain't acting right!"
"Ah, yes, you do have quite renowned people skills…I aspire to get to that point, some day. But this is the issue with siblings…they will always want to argue, no matter what it's about! Maybe it's just best to let Morgan sit on it for a bit, she might come around to your advice sooner or later." The duo got into the elevator, with Atlas pressing the button for the main lobby.
"Yeah…yeah, you're probably right."
Confessional - Atlas
"Morgan's always kinda been like this ever since my parents adopted her…always wants to fight with someone 'bout something. I still love her more than anybody else in the world, but man it does get on my nerves sometimes." Atlas rubbed his temple annoyedly.
Confessional - Bec
"I've recently been starting to go to the gym with my good friend, Atlas! He suggested that I start out with some lower sets and routines to begin my bulking journey, but I've insisted on doing the same as he does!" Bec weakly smiled as he cracked his back, which let out a huge noise, even worse than his fingers did earlier. "Let me tell you, I have never been in more excruciating pain in my entire life! But it's all worth it in the end!"
"Haha, man I didn't expect that bartender to get so pressed about a stupid joke! You really can't say anything these days!" 3V snickered as she and Giselle were escorted out of one of the many bars across the city, with the perverse mommy covering her face to hide her own embarrassment, ironically. The basketball player glanced back at her teammate with a goofy grin on her face, "Don't tell me that you're upset about that joke, too! A little bit of humor is good for the body, you know."
"I-I know that, but you asked the Indian bartender if he was going to shit in the street after his shift was over." Giselle moved one of her hands away from her face to uncover her embarrassed eyes. She saw that 3V was snickering at the joke when it was brought up again, and it just got her all red in the face. "3V, you can't go saying that stuff to people, it's just…rude. Besides, I'm French-Indian, so I really don't care for that joke."
"You're also French!? Blech!" 3V made a vomiting gesture while Giselle just annoyedly deadpanned and started walking off to her car. "Oh, come on, I'm just teasing you! I could care less if you like shoving slimy frog legs in your face hole, or whatever other holes you might wanna shove 'em in. All I care about is whether or not you're fun to hang around! Like…uh…well, it's pretty fun to watch Elward fail at doing things when he's getting all cocky. Atlas and Bec are pretty fun. Gerald's a bit weird, but I like 'um."
"I'm just saying that some of the things that you're saying are pretty hurtful to other people." Giselle got in her car, hoping to slam the door shut, but sadly remembering that there was no door to slam shut from when Eli knocked it off of her car. She let out a sigh and glanced up at 3V, who somehow now had a beer in her prosthetic hands. "Don't worry, you can still come sit in momma's lap while she plays with your hair, but you really need to watch what you're saying in front of the others." Those words were all that 3V got from Giselle before she drove off from the bar, leaving the basketball player to shrug and look for her next bar to visit.
Confessional - 3V
"See, when you're missing two of your limbs and you look like a bunch of rust on the bars to a prison cell, you learn that life isn't life if there isn't something funny in it. People can make jabs at me, I'll make jabs at them, yadda yadda, let's all just have a fun time!" 3V giggled and took a swig of her beer while she leaned back against her motorcycle. "God, I hate all this political correctness nowadays…it's just no fun."
"HAILEY, what did I eat yesterday for…well, I guess this is breakfast in this place, since it's about six at night already. So yeah, what was my 'breakfast' yesterday?" Elward pressed in the button on his ear device, causing HAILEY's holographic screen to flash up in front of him with her smiling face on it.
"Hi, Elward~! Yesterday at this time? You ate sausage and hashbrowns, the kid's sized portion at Kadachi's Kravings. You only ate half of the portion and you brought the rest of it back to the hotel." HAILEY smiled innocently before seeing the embarrassed look on Elward's face, "I-I mean…you ate three adult size portions of sausage and hashbrowns and brought back a quarter of one of them to save for later! Y-yeah, that was it."
"...Well, that's good to know. I'm about to go out again, and I don't wanna order the same thing twice. Thanks, HAILEY!" Elward grinned before pressing the button on his ear devices again, heading from the door to his room to the elevator down the hall. As he got into it and started going down to the hotel lobby, Eliza's door slowly opened, revealing the horrified looking pizza delivery girl.
Confessional - Eliza
"E-Elward's got a robot inside of him!? T-this is like work all over again!" Eliza started to hyperventilate in her car, eventually grabbing a paper bag and bringing it to her mouth to try and help calm herself to whatever extent she could. When she finally pulled the bag back down from her face, she looked deathly pale, as if she had seen a ghost. "R-robots…animatronics…AI…any of those things, really. I just…I can't do it…I can't. I'll just try to stay away from him as best as I can…I'm here to win this show, not to wimp out because of some silly f-fear."
Confessional - HAILEY
"My master is very self conscious about his height, even if he's taller than quite a few people that are here. Being under five feet tall is an issue for him…but not for me~! He's still my master, and I still l-l-l-...really enjoy being his AI!" HAILEY smiled at the camera nervously, trying to hide her infatuation.
"Wait, the robot lady can just jump into this channel whenever she wants!? Well…alright, I guess that makes sense. Nothing that can be done about it, really."
"You're such a fucking dunce sometimes, I don't understand how you can just so easily trip over nothing like this!" Gwendolyn shouted down at Marshmallow, who had spilled a whole bucket of jelly beans all over the floor when she tripped over a crease in the carpet. The yelling obviously attracted attention from some of the other members of the team, who poked their heads out through their doors to see what was happening. The candy-lover looked like she was just about to cry, with how vicious Gwendolyn's yelling was. "Un-fucking-believable, imagine if you twisted your ankle from that! What would happen then, huh?"
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…" Marshmallow sniffled and pulled herself off of the ground, taking note of Gwendolyn's harsh expression before bursting into full on tears. She sobbed and knelt back down to the ground to pick all of her jelly beans up while her angered teammate watched her in disappointment. "I-I'll take care of it, please just stop looking at me like that!"
"Alright, that's it," Zayden huffed as he came walking out of his room, with Leo, Eli, and Edward all watching from the same spot on the sidelines. Gwendolyn glanced over to see him stomping towards her and Marshmallow with an agitated look on his face, something that just seemed to annoy the doctor even more. "I seriously don't understand how you get your kicks by berating your teammates, it's ridiculous. Here, Marshmallow, I'll help you with that."
"Tch," Gwendolyn sneered while Zayden got down on the ground to help Marshmallow pick up the jelly beans. "If I just let people make these idiotic mistakes then we're bound to slip up again, just like last time. Marshmallow can learn to not be such a klutz with her jelly beans, which she shouldn't even be eating in that quantity anyways. She doesn't need you to help her correct her mistake, either."
"We already lost last time, you cussing everyone out for accidentally tripping in the hall isn't helping! Everybody can make mistakes or slip up, so why should you have any authority over who is and isn't allowed to?" Zayden and Marshmallow finally cleaned up the mess, with the sweets lover scurrying off to hide from Gwendolyn, who still just looked annoyed as ever with the poorly dressed boy. "Look, just chill out a bit, alright? I'm sure we're all tense in this new place with all these strangers, so just relax and try to enjoy yourself or something."
"Whatever," Gwendolyn crossed her arms as Zayden walked away from her, joining the three boys that were watching the incident go down before all of them headed to the elevator together. This just left the doctor alone in the hall, continuing to cross her arms in her annoyance, when she suddenly felt something around her waist. She couldn't really tell what it was, until she looked down to see the frigid figure of Bailey giving her a tight hug. She wasn't entirely sure what to think at first, and ended up just blurting out the first thing that came to mind, "...Aren't you supposed to be on the next floor?"
"N-n-no one on my floor looked warm enough…b-but you, well, you're really warm. I-I'm sorry, I can stop if that's what you want…" Even with only Bailey's eyes being visible behind her massive hat and scarf combo, Gwendolyn could tell that she was nervous. The doctor paused for a moment, staring at the ice cube with a blank expression.
"...What's the matter with you, eh? Why are you shivering when it's seventy-some degrees in this hotel? Maybe turn the fucking AC off when you go to bed and you won't wake up with the sniffles." Gwendolyn was certain that this deathly chill came to Bailey from some dumb mistake that she had made, but was surprised to see her shaking her head at her. "What do you mean 'no?' No, as in you're not gonna turn the AC off? Sounds like you're just a fucking moron at that point."
"No…n-no, as in I slept with the heat cranked up to ninety last night. It wouldn't go any higher." Bailey reached up to her scarf with one of her gloved hands to tug it down a bit, exposing more of her pale, bluish skin. "Y-you know how most people that have Raynaud's just get it in their hands and feet? Well, the doctors f-f-from my home said that I've got a rare case where it's all over my whole body, so…I-I just can't get warm like everybody else. It's like I'm-"
"Cold-blooded." Gwendolyn let out a drawn out sigh before scooping Bailey right off of the floor and cradling her in her arms while walking down the hall. The freezy pop blushed immensely as she was carried, having not expected this result at all. "Don't know why you chose me as your heat lamp, but whatever. I guess it's better than being an imbecile and walking into a freezer or something.
Confessional - Eli
"Gwendolyn's pretty hot, so that's cool or whatever, but I don't much care for the attitude. I was chilling on the couch in the lobby downstairs and she said, 'I better not hear you complaining about your heart failing you when you're eight hundred pounds from all your slacking.'" Eli grimaced as he rested his arm against his steering wheel. "First of all, I'm not even close to being that big. Second of all, I was busy thinking strategy! Naturally, I wouldn't want to be doing anything that could distract me in the middle of that, so I just laid down! Huff."
Confessional - Bailey
"I-I-I didn't expect Gwendolyn to be so willing to help me out with my issue…b-but I knew it was going to be a good idea to at least talk to her about it, since s-s-she's a doctor and all. A-a-and I was right…" Bailey wrapped her arms around herself as she blushed profusely, "...She was really warm."
Confessional - Gwendolyn
"I can't stand…anybody on my team, really. You'd think there would be at least one of them that knows how not to be an idiot, but nope, they all do stupid shit. Cherry's liver has got three more good years on it, Amanda's gonna get hit by a car trying to grab a nickel from the middle of the street, and that ink is going to leak through Edward's skin soon enough." Gwendolyn crossed her arms and exhaled deeply from her nostrils. "Sure, that's only three examples, but I can go on. Gar-"
"Yowza! That hot momma sure comes with a whole lot of bite! Hey, at least the ice cube seems to enjoy the spice level."
"He's still driving around in that yacht…I don't know, I think it's kind of weird…" Heath glanced over from the driver's seat of his car to see that Jean-Paul was sitting in the passenger with a complete stillness about him. The puppet master was quick to get his eyes back on the road, where he was slowly trailing behind Gerald, who looked to be talking to Allan, per usual. "And he's talking to…Allan, again. It's just silly. I guess I can't say much, since I'm here talking to you…heh…heh…" Heath nervously laughed for a moment, but when Jean-Paul's neck suddenly spun so that he was staring right at him, the laugh was cut short.
"Say, what's that supposed to mean? I'm your best pal, ain't I? You don't think I'm really real, that's it, isn't it? You're a bad friend, Heath! Bad friend, bad friend!" Those two words seemed to play on repeat, with Heath getting this horrified expression on his face before he rubbed his eyes to see that Jean-Paul was back in his normal sitting position, not looking at him at all.
"J-just my overactive imagination getting to me, I see…guess that's on me for playing around with you so much." The puppet master let out this deep breath of relief and looked back at Gerald and Allan once more, "We…we could probably do with making friends with some of the others. Okay...we can try making friends with them...Gerald and Allan, I mean. They seem fun enough."
"Yo, yo, yo! I hope all you dreamers ain't got yourselves too comfy, cause the big man wants y'all getting to the next challenge destination! Bada-boom!" C.K.'s voice blared out through Heath's radio, followed by a pinging noise that seemed to usher in a neon, holographic arrow above the hood of his car. "You guys got your directions all uploaded into your vehicles, y'hear? Better get there quick, Chris ain't known for being the patient type, wickiwizah!"
Confessional - Heath
"Jean-Paul…he's just a puppet. My mother gave him to me so long ago…so, so long ago. He's helped me when I didn't have any friends as a child, but now…well…I'm twenty-one. I'm too old to be thinking that a puppet is my only friend." Heath sighed and looked over at the still body of Jean-Paul, "...It's odd, though. Even with him being an inanimate object, he seems to get full control of me when I'm using him. I don't know how to explain it, though."
Some people got to the destination that the vehicles had directed them to a lot sooner than others, but for some odd reason, even the earliest arrivals were sitting outside in confusion. They were each parked in an open parking lot, one that was right in front of Thunderstrike Tower, a decently tall building not too far off from where the Neon Nights Hotel was. As the final arrival came to the lot, that being a rather tired looking Suzie, the remaining twenty-one found themselves all exchanging confused glances.
"Uh…yeah, am I missing something here? The car told me to hightail it to this lot, but the hosts ain't here." Garfield sat himself down on the hood of his car, looking a bit peeved as he stroked his chin. "Guess these things are already busted, huh?"
"Or maybe you just wasn't looking where you was s'posed to look, frosted tips." Garfield glanced over at Morgan to see that she was pointing at the one neon arrow that remained. It was right behind him on the hood of his car, pointing directly up to the very top of the building. When everyone else caught wind of it, they all started shoving into the building, with Edward and Eli lagging a bit behind the rest of the group.
"Eh…all this going up stairs and everything is starting to get on my nerves. I preferred it when we were just driving around during the last challenge." Eli shrugged before resting the back of his head against his forearms while walking. Not to much surprise, Edward was right back to scribbling on his own arms, but even with his teammate trying to see what was being written, it all just seemed like gibberish. "Alright, I'll bite. What's with the arm graffiti?"
"Graffiti?" Edward slowly shifted his gaze to look at Eli, just seeming stumped as to what he meant by that. "It's a habit, chum. Like 3V and her drinking…probably a bad habit. Is that all?"
"I guess the next question would be me wondering why you get so pissy anyone tries to talk to you. Not really good teamwork on display, there." Edward's expression made it clear that he didn't much care for the criticism Eli was giving him.
"I'm not around to make friends with anyone, I'm here to win. Why do all the blokes in these shows think bonding and friendship is so important, anyways?" Edward shrugged and walked into the lobby, with Eli trailing right behind him. While the rest of the contestants had already started heading up the stairs, the short fellow started walking to an unassuming door, pressing a button by the side of it to reveal that it was an elevator. "...And it looks like you won't have to worry about much more stair climbing. How about that?"
Confessional - Eli
"Edward…he's that classic shota character in every show, 'cept he isn't really cute or even funny, just weird. Whatever, I don't really care about that…I can stand his company, at least. He doesn't seem to make any remarks about me being 'too lazy.'" Eli shrugged his shoulders, "Besides, I figure if I don't hang around him that nobody will. Not that I care or anything, but he seems like the type to do…drastic things if everyone's his enemy. You all know what I mean."
Confessional - Edward
"Eli…I know I wrote it down somewhere…" Edward looked between both of his forearms, reading bits and parts of random words to connect them together. "'Eli won't leave me alone. Possible alliance?' Hm, so that's what I was thinking then…interesting…very interesting…"
"Ugh…these stairs…they're…they're killing me…but we finally made it!" Atlas was leading the pack to the rooftop, opening the door so that everyone could see that Eli and Edward were already up there, standing before Chris and Chef. Everyone was equally shocked, to say the least, many of them finding themselves at a loss for words. "B-but…how did you guys…?"
"Elevator," the duo spoke in perfect unison, the dry tones of their voices seeming to blend together, which startled most of everyone, though Bec started clapping for some odd reason. The conversation to-be was cut short, however, by Chris clearing his throat loudly.
"Hey, you guys all remember that part where this is my show and we're about to do a challenge that's getting stalled by all your talking? I sure remember!" Some moaning and groaning came back to Chris from the contestants, but as he always was known for, he ignored it. "Anyways…contestants, welcome to the neon skyline, population: us! Hope you brought your best dancing shoes, and maybe some bungee cords, cause this one is gonna be a real doozy! Chef, if you would so kindly press the magic button."
"Man, it ain't no magic button…it ain't even a button, it's a lever!" Chef gestured to the lever that was sticking up from the roof in between him and Chris. The latter just annoyedly waved his hand at his co-host, who grumbled back at him before begrudgingly pulling the lever. Nothing happened at first, and there was just more confusion from the contestants, but then the roof started to rumble a bit. In a few moments, these odd-looking neon floor tiles seemed to light up around the perimeter of the roof, forming a massive expanse of area that presumably could be walked on.
"Oh, it's even more beautiful than I imagined!" Chris awed at the sight before shaking his head and clasping his hands to look at the contestants again. "Right, then! I mentioned dancing shoes and bungee cords…both important things here, since you'll be dancing on that neon floor! You know…above the ground!" A good collective of the contestants gasped while both Chris and Chef seemed to snicker together.
"That's right, maggots! You go til' you drop…literally! Those tiles will know when your rhythm is starting to fail, and the second it does, the tile below you will vanish into thin air!" Chef rubbed his hands together evilly while he stared right at Marshmallow and Leo, who were quivering where they stood. "It ain't all bad, though…there's a net underneath that'll catch you before you go splat. You just might pass out while you're falling, though!"
"Yeah, see, we wanted to have no net there so you guys could just fall all the way to the bottom, but the producers said that wasn't really a good idea so, you know." Chris sighed, sounding a bit disappointed that he wasn't allowed to just let the contestants fall to their death. "But yeah, this is a last team standing sort of challenge! Each teammate will have to go out and dance on the floor at the same time, so don't think that you'll be getting any breaks! Now, before we get started, do we have any questions?"
"This isn't a question, more so a statement…I ain't fucking doing that." Gwendolyn annoyedly crossed her arms and leaned back against the roof access door while the other members of Team A-Side gasped. "No amount of money in this world is going to convince me to do some stupid stunt like that. If you all wanna get yourselves killed, you can be my fucking guests."
"Oh, what a shame…looks like Team A-Side is gonna start out with only nine contestants to their name while Team B-Side's got a full eleven!" Chris snickered and plopped himself down into a beach chair that somehow appeared in the middle of his monologue about the challenge. Meanwhile, most of the members of Team A-Side were glaring at Gwendolyn, who seemed pretty indifferent to their hateful looks.
Confessional - Gwendolyn
"Yeah, no, fuck that. I'm not doing anything idiotic like that…I'd basically be asking to get myself killed." Gwendolyn seemed…a bit off. Sure, her words were on point for how she usually was, but her attitude and the way she was speaking almost sounded like she was nervous? Maybe scared? "Too many people will go and do stupid stunts like that and get themselves killed without a thought as to what they're leaving behind. It's…it's just ridiculous. Fucking ridiculous."
Confessional - Cherry
"Talk about a party foul…Gwendolyn sure does know how to kill the mood, doesn't she?" Cherry groaned and rubbed her forehead, glancing out through her window to see Gwendolyn's ambulance not too far from where she was parked. "Doesn't matter to me, though…since I'll undoubtedly take this challenge by storm. I've danced for hours on end before, I'll be able to do it now with no issue."
"The confidence is just the thing I like to see! And Cherry…man, she's just so hot! Look at her! Hubba hubba!"
"Remember, dreamers! You have to keep on dancing, cause the second that you stop is the second that you drop!" Chris and Chef laughed maniacally as the twenty contestants that actually decided that they would compete in this challenge slowly approached the building's edge. They all looked to be pretty nervous, but before anyone could even say anything, Jhin suddenly leapt out onto the neon floor, landing perfectly on her toes and twirling around like a ballerina.
"This is like jumping off a roof with no consequences! Bahahahaha! I love this!" The maniac screamed out loudly before ending her twirl and cartwheeling across several of the tiles. With her already having taken the first step, the others figured it was time for them to as well, and they joined her on that floor. Of course, a lot of the contestants seemed outwardly nervous to even be on that floor, but the rhythm was coming pretty naturally to others. Cherry was one of them, who was shaking her rear from side to side with more swank than the rest of the contestants combined.
"Oh, this is going to be too easy, loves. I almost feel sorry for the other team." Cherry snickered and opened her eyes to see Amanda hopelessly wobbling around on top of several of the tiles, all of which were disappearing. She seemed to be fast enough to keep herself from falling, though the helpless noises she made made it pretty clear that she was horrified. The party gal sighed and started to shimmy closer to her from where she was. "Amanda, love, if you're going to struggle that much, just tap your feet and snap your fingers."
"Feet…tap?" Amanda groaned and glanced down at her feet before being met with the overwhelming brightness of the floor below her. It stunned her enough to get her to stop moving, and the tile collapsed from underneath her, causing her to fall and plop down into the net below. Cherry slapped her hand against her face, dragging it down as she still shook her butt to keep herself going strong.
"Yikes! Already down to eight people on Team A-Side!" Chris laughed to himself while he and Chef tapped their martini glasses together. "Guess this one's gonna be pretty clear cut, right?"
"Clear cut that my idiotic team is going to die first, yeah," Gwendolyn spoke up from right behind the two, startling them enough so that Chris leapt up from his chair and landed in Chef's arms. His martini glass fell on the ground and cracked into many pieces, which only annoyed Gwendolyn more than she already was. "Great, you clumsy dick. You know those glass shards could've slashed any of us when they spread, right? You two better not move when I clean this, if either of you gets cut, oh I fucking swear!"
Confessional - Cherry
"...I didn't expect the rest of my team to be a bunch of gits when it came to the dancing scene, but I guess not everyone's got what I got." Cherry took a deep breath and looked up from her car to see Amanda completely passed out in the net right above her. "...This is going to be a long night."
Things didn't look to be going so well for Heath, who already felt himself getting more and more wobbly by the second. Sure, he was able to do a mildly interesting tap dancing routine on those neon tiles, but with him holding onto Jean-Paul the entire time, it was easy to see that he wasn't going to last much longer. Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to see Gerald, who somehow was standing completely still on a tile, clapping his hands as his only source of motion whatsoever.
"Haha, yeah, Allan! You're easily the best breakdancer I've ever seen in my entire life! Boy, imagine if I had those wicked skills!" Gerald laughed so hard that he snorted, looking a little embarrassed after he made the noise. "W-whoops! Hey, guess we know which of the two of us would be better at cosplaying as a pig!" The boy kept on laughing, causing him to snort some more while Heath slowly let himself dance towards him. It seemed that Jean-Paul was leading the way, as he had mentioned in his confessional before.
"Hey! Hey you! Snorting boy!" Jean-Paul's jaw chattered as he spoke to Gerald, who spun around a couple of times before realizing who was talking to him. With a gasp, he squatted down to get at eye level with the puppet, in awe that he was even speaking to him. "Why are you looking at me like that!? Doesn't your mom teach you that it's rude to stare?"
"Hm…oh, she might've, but I honestly forget everything my parents taught me because I get taught a whole bunch of different things by Allan instead! Are you seeing his sick moves right now? That's a learning experience, just watching him bust it down!" Gerald gestured to the clearly empty tile, but when Jean-Paul opened his mouth to say something, Heath quickly covered it with his hand. "Go Allan, go Allan!"
"...H-h-he…really…he…dance…he…he dance…dance he…dance…" Heath tripped over every single word he tried to say, feeling so utterly embarrassed of himself that he stopped moving. Jean-Paul started shaking his head at him, and even Gerald seemed a bit weirded out by his lack of communication skills. Allan must've stopped moving at some point, too, as both the tiles they were standing on collapsed underneath them and they all fell into the net below, landing near Amanda, who was awake and huddled up off to the side.
"Please don't touch me. Thank you." She scooted further away from them, leaving Gerald to just remain confused by Heath's failure at common conversation.
Confessional - Heath
"Oh…I'm just not good at talking to anybody unless Jean-Paul has schmoozed them up first! I'd say I'm almost as bad as Henry, but I don't randomly talk about the types of women I like in every conversation." Heath tried to hide his shame with his cape while Jean-Paul sat on his back. "There goes any chance of me and Gerald being friends."
Confessional - Gerald and Allan
"..." Gerald stared blankly at the passenger seat of his yacht before nodding his head slowly, "I completely agree, Heath was really throwing off your rhythm there. I guess maybe he was just so stunned by your moves that he was literally speechless. Well, that's to be expected in the presence of such an amazing dancer!"
"You know, it's a good thing I'm half wasted right now, or I would probably be shitting my pants!" 3V drunkenly slurred her words at Giselle, who blushed and turned away from her while she continued to do a provocative dance that almost looked like it was teetering into the territory of striptease. The drunkard herself was sort of just moving her body all over the place in a wild pattern with no rhythm, but even with no rhythm it seemed to be good enough for the tiles to keep her afloat.
"S-saying you're going to shit yourself…only babies shit themselves. A-and even if you were my special baby, that would be a big no no from momma." Giselle started to dance away from 3V, but she was suddenly grabbed by her and pulled back into a drunk version of the classic tango dance. "O-oh my! You're putting your cold hands all over me like this…y-you must really wanna get in momma's pants, right?"
"Wha-? No, why would I be trying to do that, that's gay." 3V shook her head and let go of Giselle finally to start her random shimmying and shaking again, leaving the now belly-dancing MILF wannabe to frown. "Oh, don't get so upset, I'm sure someone would wanna have sex with you…probably. You've got better chances than I do, eh?" The amputee laughed obnoxiously as she ragged on herself, only making Giselle more upset. Meanwhile, not too far off from where that duo was, Suzie was doing a dance that almost resembled an emote from a popular video game while Marshmallow was literally doing the stanky leg. Morgan watched them from a good ways away, shaking her head in disappointment as she danced like she was in a nightclub.
"Ain't anybody around here know how to actually dance? Man, watchin' all these people is just givin' me a headache." The cheerleader grumbled, turning her attention away from those two to see that Atlas and Bec weren't too far off from her, both of them having their eyes one her as they did a shockingly similar disco routine. "Oh, for cryin' out loud, would you two just buzz off?"
"Family problems, eh? Makes sense, considering the two of you are in a heated competition for a big heap of cash. Ten million dollars has a lot of tension around it and all." Morgan saw that it was the smooth-dancing Garfield that was talking to her, and just huffed while she continued to dance. "Say, is that Bec guy like a part of the extended family or something? Seems like he never leaves Atlas' side to me."
"Ain't you got someone else to be buggin' right now? I don't think you got much right saying anything about anyone spending too much time with someone else when you won't leave me the fuck alone, frosted tips." Morgan glared at Garfield, who simply shrugged and smiled as he danced closer to her.
"Hey, we already know that we both work great together, I'm just taking advantage of that opportunity while it presents itself. Besides…seems like big bro doesn't want you around me. Maybe he'll get distracted and flop if he sees us together, yeah?" Morgan looked annoyed, not because what Garfield had said was stupid, but because it was shockingly accurate to how Atlas behaved. "Don't worry, I won't get handsy or anything. This is strictly us dancing near each other to try and get someone on the other team out of the runnings."
"Yeah, whatevah, I get it. Either way, I don't want you-" Morgan stopped when she saw how Atlas was looking at her, smirking before looking back at Garfield. "You know, you right. My brother ain't gonna know what hit him when he falls down into that net. Guess you get to stick around my fine ass for a bit longer then, frosted tips."
"Again, I have a name," Garfield's smirk wavered a bit as Morgan just blankly stared at him. "Alright, alright, beggars can't be choosers and all that." The two continued to dance with each other while Atlas watched, gritting his teeth in annoyance.
"See, this is exactly the type of thing I'm talking about…that dude is shifty as all hell, but my sister's letting him chill with her during every challenge. Next thing you know, they're gonna be all buddy buddy outside of the challenges, too!" Atlas huffed from his nostrils, with Bec cocking his head in wonder before making the same huffing noise.
"Atlas, my friend, perhaps we shouldn't be so focused on them during this challenge? It will surely lead to us screwing up sooner or later, no?" Atlas didn't seem to really be listening to Bec, who still kept on smiling at him. "Ah, I understand you are upset, but maybe it's just because your sister is hanging out with a boy and you feel a need to protect her?"
"This ain't like that at all, Bec. If she was hanging out with someone like that, it's cool, it's whatever, but I just know he's up to no good. There's zero good intentions behind those eyes, I'm telling you."
Confessional - Atlas
"Yeah, so, I feel like my sister's just doing this stuff on purpose at this point. She knows I don't want her hanging around Garfield, but she's doing it anyways to get on my nerves." Atlas slouched in his seat, looking annoyed as ever while he tossed a d-six from hand to hand. "Maybe I'm getting too worked up about something that isn't that major, but he…he just isn't right. I've never gotten this type of feeling about someone before, I usually get along with pretty much everyone."
Confessional - Garfield
"Having an easy way to knock one of the other team's players out of a challenge is pretty nice, but I've gotta be careful with it. Can't have Atlas getting in so much trouble that they eliminate him the first time they lose…I need him around as a scapegoat of sorts." Garfield whistled while he wrote something down in a fancy looking journal. "It's just like allocating your own teammates; you have to use the other team as you see fit. Bend the game to its knees on your own terms, so to speak."
"Hmmm…" Chris peered out at the neon floor to see a few more contestants finally stopping and dropping from all the dancing they were doing. Eli and Edward were pretty quick to fall, coincidentally at the very same time, and Marshmallow and Suzie didn't last much longer themselves. 3V had bumped right into Giselle, knocking both of them over and causing them to fall, with Elward just getting too tired at some point and crashing. This left a lot less contestants still dancing. "Guess the dreamers have a lot more fight in them than we initially figured."
"Cherry, Garfield, Leo, Morgan, Zayden from Team A-Side…Atlas, Bailey, Bec, Eliza, Jhin from Team B-Side. Huh, looks like things are actually all tied up. Not bad, not bad," Chef took a big sip from his margarita, tossing the empty glass behind him only for it to be caught by Gwendolyn, who stormed back to him and placed it in his hand.
"Don't fucking throw your glass cups all over the place, you oversized buffoon!" The hosts whimpered as they were berated by Gwendolyn, and the camera panned back over to the floor to show the remaining ten dancers still going at it. It seemed that some of them were starting to get pretty tired, while others looked like they had energy to spare. In that moment, another voice started to echo over the playing field, that being the familiar one of a radio host.
"Yeah, yeah, baby! Looks like you dreamers are having a crazy time dancing up in the air! I can't even tell which of yous is gonna flop and drop next, but I can't wait for it to happen!" C.K. chuckled loudly, his voice grabbing the attention of the remaining ten, all of whom were looking around for the source of it. "Tell you what, babes, it's actually a pretty special point in the episode now…C.K. Swing, baby!"
"C.K….swing?" Eliza looked confused while her body tiredly forced her to continue doing a lazy line dance. "W-what does that mean?"
"Y'all ever watched the show before? You must remember World Tour and the Air Aboards! Each of those babies had plenty of music, and in a season where the central theme is music and the night life, how could we even try to be an exception to that! Here's the dealio!" The strange looking moon that hovered in the sky started spinning wildly like a record, with a loose beat playing in the background. "Each of y'all that's still in is gonna jump on into singing this sick track! You don't sing, your tile will collapse! Gotta keep y'all on your toes!"
"S-sounds like it could be f-f-fun…" Bailey seemed a bit more eager than the likes of Morgan and Garfield, as she clapped her mittened hands while she was doing some sort of Finnish folk dance.
"That's right, ice cube! Now, the beat's boutta pick up, so none of y'all better miss your cues or you're gonna stop and drop, drop, drop! Yeah-yuh!" With a loud booming noise, C.K.'s voice fizzled out, replacing itself with the sound of a funky track while the final ten exchanged nervous glances.
"Now, how are we even supposed to figure out when our cues are, you prat?" Cherry groaned until she realized the camera was centering its focus right on her. "She says she's no good with words, but I'm worse. Barely stuttered out a joke of a romantic stuck to my tongue."
"Weighed down with words, too," The camera slid on over to reveal Jhin, who was still somehow maintaining her ballerina spin from before as she sang, "Overdramatic. Tonight, it's 'it can't get much worse,' vs. 'no one should ever feel like-"
"I'm two quarters and a heart down, and I don't wanna forget how your voice sounds!" Garfield sang slightly out of tune, getting Morgan to laugh at him from how badly he sounded.
"Th-these words are…these words…ah, man, I can't! You really bunked that up fr-" The tile beneath Morgan and Garfield suddenly opened up, causing the two to plummet to the net below while she screamed, "-ooooooooooooooooooooooooooosted tiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiips!" This brought the total of players still dancing down to eight from ten, with each of those eight just looking entirely nervous, especially Atlas and Bec, who were the next two to find themselves in the focus of the camera.
"Dance, dance! We're falling apart to half time," the iconic duo sang together, adding a bit more swank into their disco routine by exaggerating their hand motions a bit more than before.
"Dance, dance! And these are the lies you love to lead!" Zayden did some odd variation of the moon walk, but inevitably ended up tripping over Leo's foot, landing on his back on one of the tiles before going down and bringing the number down to seven.
"D-dance, this is the w-w-way they'd love!" Bailey picked up her folk dancing in fear that the tiles might collapse, but they luckily stayed intact underneath her as the camera passed her by to go to Eliza.
"Dance, this is the wwwwaaaaaaaaaaay they'd love!" The pizza delivery girl suddenly jumped up in the air, landing on her head and spinning around like a break dancer.
"Dance, this is the way they'd love if they knew how misery love me-e-e-e!" Leo was the final one to sing when the song cut out, leaving the remaining seven dancers all moving about. "T-that wasn't so bad, right?"
"L-look out!" Eliza screamed out as she spiraled out of control towards Jhin, the two colliding and crashing to the floor, which was quick to open up underneath them and dump them down. This only left five people still dancing, with Team B-Side still well in the lead of things.
Confessional - Eliza
"A-alright, so I might not be the best when it comes to things like dancing and all that, but I think I still put up a pretty good fight! Maybe I shouldn't have tried to do that spin move at the end there…I think Jhin's really mad at me now." Eliza gulped nervously before she flashed a weak smile to the camera.
Confessional - Jhin
"Hmph," Jhin grunted before holding up a picture of Eliza and shoving it into her mouth, chewing it up and swallowing it before opening her mouth and sticking out her tongue to reveal that nothing was left of that picture.
Confessional - Cherry
"Seeing all these other people dancing…oh, it's just an eye sore. Most of them wouldn't last five minutes at one of my typical pubs." Cherry's own annoyedness was amping up, as she was clearly starting to get tired, despite her best attempts to stay well awake during the challenge. "It would also be a help if we didn't have a daft cow refusing to dance."
So spicy, I think my ears are burning just from hearing her say that! Hey, serious question, y'all think I got a shot with Cherry? Be honest!"
"Alright, leafy boy, it's just you and I left on this dance floor, the other team's only got one bloke up on us. How are those feet feeling?" Cherry glanced over at Leo, who looked utterly exhausted from all the movement. He was still dancing up a storm, but even with him doing that, it seemed clear cut that he was going to fall any minute now. The party gal snapped her finger at him to get his attention, "Hey, none of that tired prattle! We've gotta keep grooving til those three can't groove anymore, you got it?"
"Y-yeah, I'm hearing you, but my feet weren't made for dancing this long at one time…I'm really getting tired." Cherry rolled her eyes at Leo's complaining, making him even more nervous of failing. He started to pick up his feet a bit more, just as an attempt to keep himself from falling while taking a look at the three players left on the other team.
"Bec, I gotta say, I'm really impressed with how long you've kept this going! I've never really taken you for the moving and grooving type, but you're still going strong!" Atlas managed to work in a little round of applause for his friend in the midst of his routine, getting something of a bow back from him.
"What can I say, my friend? You're really inspiring me to be on my best here!" The duo kept going strong together, meanwhile, Bailey, the one that was an outlier from the rest of the group, was really starting to shiver where she was standing.
"G-g-guys…I…I can't keep going, all the wind and cold air…it hurts…really bad…" Atlas and Bec looked over to see the immense trembling coming from Bailey while she tried to maintain her folk dance. Try as she might, she found herself unable to keep it up, and instead focused her efforts on dancing back towards the roof, which she climbed onto and immediately ran over to Gwendolyn to wrap her arms around her. "S-so cold…"
"...You made a good choice coming back here," Gwendolyn blankly stared at the four remaining dancers while she gave Bailey a gentle pat on the back.
"Aaaaaaaaaand the two teams are all tied up with only two dancers left on each side! Cherry and Leo or Atlas and Bec? Which duo is gonna outlast the other?" Chris rubbed his hands together as he eagerly awaited the next contestant to collapse.
Confessional - Bailey
"I-I-I really didn't want to just call it quits there, I was having a lot of fun…b-but I could tell that something bad would've happened if I didn't run back to the roof." Bailey was huddled up in her truck, covered in a bunch of blankets while she sipped from a mug of hot cocoa. "P-plus, Gwendolyn made me this hot chocolate so I could warm up even more. I-i-it doesn't really do much, but the thought is nice."
Confessional - Gwendolyn
"I'm glad to see that Bailey had enough common sense to run out of that challenge before things got to be too dangerous for her to handle. Gives me a minimal amount of faith in humanity…though I'm sure one of those other imbeciles will tear that away soon enough." Gwendolyn rolled her eyes while she swapped out her gloves for new ones, since the old ones were covered in hot chocolate stains. "...Bailey was shivering a lot when I gave it to her, so she spilled a bit on me. …No harm done."
"Man, they're still going out there! Makes me wanna just run out there and knock 'em all down myself!" Chef grumbled annoyedly, but before he could get up from his seat to do what he had threatened to do, Chris held his arm out in front of him, using the other to point out at the playing field.
"I wouldn't bother! Looks like we're about to get another victim to the neon floor! Look a little Leo, there!" Chef glanced over to see that Leo was barely able to move his feet anymore. He tried his best to stay moving, but even with the menacing gaze coming from Cherry that normally would've threatened him enough to keep him going, it wasn't enough. His feet eventually planted firmly on the ground, and he passed out before the tile under him even gave out. Nonetheless, he still plummeted down to join the other flopped contestants, leaving only three still in the runnings. "Haha! Leo's down and out, so it's just Cherry, Atlas, and Bec left!"
"Bollocks," Cherry cursed and picked up her energy a bit, watching while both Atlas and Bec seemed to be slowing down. She smirked as she watched them both wobbling a bit where they stood. "Oh dear, it seems you two have lost the plot, haven't you? Won't be long 'til it's lights out for the both of you, and I'll still be getting my groove on!"
"What's she going on about?" Atlas groaned, the second he looked up from the ground that he was staring at proving to be fatal for him. He was in between two of the tiles, and the one further back faded from behind him, causing him to teeter forward. In an attempt to keep himself afloat, he started running, as if he was headed for the end zone. Needless to say, he wasn't really focused on where he was headed, though Bec saw him well and clear.
"A-Atlas, my friend, you're going to run right into-" Bec started running after Atlas, but it was too late, the football player was already way far away from him.
"Hold on a moment…he's not coming for me, is he?" Cherry squinted at Atlas, then realizing that he was barrelling right for her by no intention of his own. She let out one scream of fear before he collided right into her, tackling her through the floor and taking her down to the net below with her. This only left Bec on the neon floor, which started to fully solidify underneath him while he just stopped and stared in shock.
"Well done, Bec! You managed to stay dancing the longest, which means that Team B-Side has won yet another challenge!" Chris clapped loudly for Bec's victory, with Chef even joining in on the applause.
"Y-y-yeah, good job, Bec," Bailey did her best to encourage her teammate, who was still completely in disbelief about the win.
"A-ah…thanks…" Bec slowly walked back to the rooftop, seeming to be deliberating what had just happened as he did.
"Did you guys hear that?" Chris leaned over the edge of the roof, shouting down at the many contestants that were trapped in the net below. "Team A-Side lost! You guys gotta eliminate another teammate tonight!" The host delightfully cupped his hand around his ear to listen to the melodic groans coming from the dazed members of Team A-Side. "Haha, I just love hearing that noise!"
Confessional - Cherry
"Bollocks! Bollocks, bollocks, bollocks!" Cherry slammed both of her fists down on her dashboard, huffing as she glared at the camera. "I'm not one to get so easily worked up over a challenge, but this is just a load of pot! Gwendolyn sits it out because she doesn't want to get hurt and I do the best, but lose to someone knocking me over? It's just a bunch of daft prattle."
Confessional - Leo
"Ugh…that was so exhausting…I didn't want to keep dancing that long, but Cherry was getting really heated about the challenge. Guess dancing's really important to her or something." Leo sighed and stretched his arms out, "Guess we're losing another teammate, then…I wonder what everyone's thinking?"
Confessional - Bec
"...I won the challenge. I outlasted Atlas…I outlasted Atlas!" Bec suddenly started to laugh before punching a hole straight through his windshield. "DAMMIT! Get a hold of yourself, that was such a stupid slip-up! Years of work will prove to be for nothing if you keep doing things like that!" The agitated boy looked at his reflection in the rear view mirror and took a deep breath. "No, no…relax, buddy! You'll get this down in no time! Your bro believes in you, after all! You believe in you!"
"...Never imagined somebody would be so upset about being the reason their team won a challenge…what do you guys make of all that?"
It was still deep in the night when the contestants from Team A-Side met back on the roof of the Neon Nights Hotel, most of them feeling even more exhausted from having to go up another giant set of stairs to get there. Leo was practically still asleep, his head resting in Zayden's lap while the cone-wearing boy himself faintly blushed at just the contact. Cherry had her arms firmly crossed while she glared at an unassuming Gwendolyn, who was just cleaning a bonesaw that she nonchalantly brought with her. Amanda was flipping her coin furiously, still being a bit frantic from the heat of the challenge, with Edward and Eli staring at her, both a tad impressed by the speed at which she flipped that thing. Morgan and Garfield initially sat next to each other, both looking exhausted and annoyed, but even more so when Marshmallow took it upon herself to sit between the two with an even bigger bag of marshmallows than the one she had brought to the last elimination ceremony. Chef and Chris were both at the podium again, though Chef was the one holding all of the drink tickets this time around.
"Gotta let you maggots know that I'm disappointed in your dancing skills! Only a solid three of you knew a lick about what you were doing out there. You oughta be ashamed!" Chef puffed steam from his nostrils while Cherry annoyedly glanced at him. "Anyways…you lost! Because you lost, you had to vote to get rid of one of your teammates! That teammate's gonna strut their stuff to the tube behind me and Chris here, and then it's gonna be no more neon for them, capiche?" A few of the contestants weakly nodded at Chef, who held the drink tickets up high. "Leo, Marshmallow, Morgan, Garfield, Eddy, Eli, Amanda! You're all safe!"
"Oh, thank goodness," Leo let out a sigh of relief as he retrieved his drink ticket from Chef, though he only did so by reaching his tired arm out. He didn't get up from Zayden's lap or anything in the process.
"What's this about, then? How haven't I gotten my ticket already?" Cherry's glare at Chef worsened while Gwendolyn glanced over at her.
"Maybe you shouldn't have been so intense about wanting everyone to risk their lives on that floor if you wanted to be safe, hm?" The two women glared at each other while Zayden just smiled innocently.
"Zayden, again…you didn't do anything. You're safe," Chef gave the horribly dressed boy his drink ticket, getting an annoyed sigh back from him. "Oh, don't be too happy about it! Ungrateful maggot…that just leaves you two ladies! Gwendolyn, you ain't even got yourself out on the floor for a second before you gave up on the whole challenge! Cherry, you were getting way too heated about dancing, according to your teammates. I'd say you were just heated enough!"
"Thank you!" Cherry was glad that Chef at least was on her side of things, though Gwendolyn rolled her eyes at her.
"It shouldn't come as any shock to anyone that our leaving contestant tonight is Gwen! That's what you get for not competing!" Chef passed the last ticket over to Cherry, not saving any breath for suspense or anything like that. The doctor seemed a bit agitated as well as dumbfounded, while Cherry just happily took her ticket.
"This is my treatment for being the only right-minded individual on the team? I'm eliminated!? That's a crock of shit and you know it!" Gwendolyn stood up, holding her bonesaw out like she was ready to attack Chef when Chris suddenly stepped forth, getting between the two of them.
"You didn't let Chef finish what he was going to say, Gwendolyn!" Chris snickered as the girl lowered her guard a bit. "Sure, you're out of the competition, but after some competition, we figured that, well, better than sending you out of the city, we should just put you to use elsewhere! It would pay to have a medical expert on duty while we're in this dangerous city and all!"
"Y-you can't seriously be saying that…" Zayden and some of his other teammates as they dreaded what Chris was going to say.
"That's right! Doctor Linelife will be staying in the Neon City to take care of all your ailments and injuries! We'll even be giving her her own room on her own floor, so I guess you won't have to deal with her as much." Almost Gwendolyn's entire former team groaned while she just crossed her arms and glared at them.
"Would you all shove it? You should be grateful that I'm being kept around…knowing you guys, one of you would be dead if I just up and left." Gwendolyn snarked while the others just slowly started to leave the rooftop.
"Contestants really can be such a drag…and ungrateful. Oh well!" Chris snickered and turned to face the camera, "There you have it, everyone! We lost someone, but not really! Hey, can't get rid of the cast's number one hottie too early, right?" The host continued to snicker, but he got a slap to the back of the head from Gwendolyn, which knocked him flat on the ground.
"...We'll see you morons next time, just beat it already. Fucking pricks." Gwendolyn glared at the camera as all the light started to fade out.
C.K. Swing Songs: Dance, Dance - Fall Out Boy
Votes: Gwendolyn - Cherry, Amanda, Eli, Edward, Garfield, Morgan, Marshmallow, Leo; Cherry - Gwendolyn; Zayden - Zayden
22nd: Henry Yates, the Socially Awkward Kid
21st: Gwendolyn Linelife, the Harsh Doctor
Team A-Side: Amanda, Cherry, Edward, Eli, Garfield, Leo, Marshmallow, Morgan, Zayden
Team B-Side: Atlas, Bailey, Bec, Eliza, Elward, Gerald and Allan, Giselle, Heath, Jhin, Suzie, 3V
