"What a night it is, what a night it is indeed, dreamers! It's nights like these that bring out the real beast inside of those folks that lock themselves inside a shell. In a city where there's no one to enforce the law, it can get a bit dangerous…you're all 'bout to get a glimpse of those dangers tonight!" C.K. kicked his feet up on his little table, pulling a remote from his cloak and pressing some buttons on it. The neon fireplace started to burn larger and brighter with each press of the button, and the radio host rubbed his hands together over its warmth. "Mm-mm-mm! This fireplace sure does hit the spot on a cold, rainy night like this one! But let's talk business, shall we? Specifically business that's already been conducted…l-l-layust time on Total Drama: Neon City– we got to check up with our favorite pair of redheads, who were totally not having a breakfast date whatsoever. That's right, you two, don't think I don't understand the implications of your little hangout! But far more importantly than all of that, we got to check up on Gerald…who woke up to find himself Allan-less! No Allan means no reason to keep on going, right? He did seem pretty distant for the rest of the day…didn't even answer Atlas when he tried to catch up with him in the hotel halls! We also got to see a lil' more romantic action goin' on with Zayden and the country's favorite femboy: Leo! Still can't believe that someone taped that poor thing to the ceiling like that…alright, it was a little funny! Our challenge took us down to Chinatown, where the two teams had to put together a hotpot that would feed and fill many hungry customers while also being delicious and true to the theme of the meal! Jhin managed to take the reins over on B-Side, stripping Atlas of all his responsibility as team leader, but there was still a whole lot of dysfunction. Things seemed to be goin' A-Side's way…until a jaded Gerald kicked his butt into hyperdrive, finishing the meal prep for B-Side. It looked like a pretty close call, but when Marshmallow was left alone with the hotpot for A-Side…let's just say she sugar bombed everybody! Sad to see the loli headin' out, but can't say it wasn't deserved! In any case, tonight's challenge is gonna be one that gets the blood pumpin', somethin' that no one can take it easy in! Come on in and join the wild party, dreamers…it's gonna be a doozy!"

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."

"Are you out of your damn mind, Redevon!?" The night had only just begun, but there was already a hefty amount of tension going on in Amanda's hotel room. She sat on the edge of her bed, holding her phone in her lap with the speaker on. She was completely silent as she stared at the screen; it seemed that she was getting a call from someone that she had named as Mr. Normandie in her phone. "I decide to catch up with that little reality show that you're on, only to find that you gave out trade secrets of the stock brokers to bloggers!? BLOGGERS!?"

"Please, stop yelling at me. I don't like it when you yell at me." Amanda's lip quivered ever so slightly as she moved her phone from her lap and onto the mattress. "I didn't think that it would really be a big problem. I was just telling them the things that I had taught myself about the stock trade…and I like helping people out. They seemed to be pretty happy when I told them, so that must mean that I helped them in one way or another."

"You helping people like that is going to diminish our jobs! If it was to anyone else, it would still be bad, but to bloggers…you have to know that they're going to post all that stuff all over the internet! Anyone will be able to do what we do!" The man on the other end of the phone call groaned, with the sound of something made of glass shattering right after. "I don't understand how you can be such a genius with the trade, but such an idiot when it comes to keeping our secrets to ourselves!"

"I'm not an idiot…" Amanda pushed the phone away from her even more, reaching into her jacket pocket to fetch her trusty coin. She started flipping it over and over again, staring at the motion of the coin to try and calm herself down. "I'm not an idiot, I'm not an idiot, I'm not an idiot."

"Oh, stop pitying yourself, you know damn well that you deserve this lashing! It's just a shame that you're so far away right now, or I'd really show you what for!" He only sounded more and more agitated by the second, and it was having negative influence on Amanda. She seemed to be entirely unable to focus on flipping her coin, and it fumbled onto the mattress. It bounced a few times before landing right next to the phone. "Are you going to say anything for yourself? No? This is just the type of thing I get for hiring one of you people, I swear!"

"...I don't want to talk to you right now. Please call me later." Amanda grabbed the phone before even reaching for the coin, ending the call before the man on the other end had a chance to get another word in. He immediately called her back, but she declined, tossing the phone onto her nightstand before heading for the door. When she pulled it open, she saw that Leo was just out in the hall, only a few feet from her.

"O-oh! Hey, Amanda! I got-" As he tried to speak to her, he noticed that she wasn't listening at all, and was instead storming off towards the elevator. She got right into it, leaving him alone in the hallway. "...Ah…m-maybe she just didn't feel like talking right now. I wouldn't wanna talk to me, either!" Leo chuckled to himself for a moment, but immediately started looking worried right after. He gulped nervously, looking around the hallway like he was looking for something specific before suddenly clapping his hands against his cheeks.

"Oh, I know what I can do! I just…have to hope that I remembered to bring along my vinyl supply." Leo had a newfound smile on his face as he started back towards his room, heading right into it and finally leaving the hallway empty.


Confessional - Leo

"So, u-usually when I see someone that I like really upset, I just try to make them something so they can be a little bit distracted from all of the bad! I…don't know a whole lot about Amanda…w-well, other than the fact that she likes staring at Cherry's butt…" Leo tapped his chin in thought before shaking his head with a faint blush across his cheeks. "I think she mentioned before that she collects coins, so maybe I could make her some sort of case or holder for coins! It's…a little out of my scope of operations, but I'll still give it a shot!"

"Ayo, lil' femboy! Anybody making out with you yet, or is all your cuteness still unclaimed?"

"W-w-what? I-I don't even know why y-you would a-ask that!" Leo's faint blush deepened into a mass of redness that outweighed every other color in his body.


"Say 'ah.'" Gwendolyn was in her office, per usual, albeit in the middle of an appointment with none other than the ice cube known as Bailey. She had a little flashlight in her hands, and she used its beam to get a better look down her patient's throat, checking for anything out of the ordinary. "All looks good to me…glad to see that you haven't done anything stupid to worsen your condition. Have you been using those heat pads that I gave you?"

"I-I used most of them at this point…I'm about to run out, I think." Bailey actually had her hat and scarf off for once, but the office was being kept at a blistering temperature that would've had anybody else sweating at this point. She didn't look to be anything other than fine, as her cheeks actually weren't blue for once. "They work like a charm! W-well, that, and Jhin's always rubbing all of her body heat off on me whenever we're out anywhere."

"Right, you and Jhin…how's that going? It's a bit harder for someone with schizophrenia to hold a proper relationship, from what I've seen." Gwendolyn rolled her chair over to her laptop up on the counter, and started clacking away at the keys. She was bringing up some page with more of those body warming pads that she had ordered before, scowling when she saw that the largest size pack was out of stock.

"W-well, I don't know if it would really count as a standard relationship or anything. She just…sorta started making out with me one day. Well, that, and she also comes to my room sometimes to cuddle with me…and she's always asking me how my day was…" Bailey thought to herself in silence with a mild look of confusion plastered on her face. "...On second thought, maybe it is a standard relationship…in that case, it's going good! She's just a bit aggressive sometimes, but that's okay."

"Just make sure she doesn't go overboard with the aggressiveness obviously. She doesn't have full control of what she's doing at all times, so just keep an eye open." Gwendolyn finally put the order through for the heat pads, swirling her chair around and sliding closer to Bailey. "She cracks me up sometimes. She's always going on and on about how she's going to marry me whenever she's in the office."

"She definitely talks about marriage a whole lot…" Bailey started giggling to herself, but soon enough, Gwendolyn was giggling right along with her. As the two shared in their chuckle fest, the ceiling suddenly caved in the middle of the room. A few ceiling tiles fell, as well as Jhin smack dab onto the floor. The doctor and patient turned to watch as the sudden intruder coughed up a lung and pulled herself up to her feet.

"You two would not believe the day I've had already! I was just crawling around in the walls, right? You know, normal Tuesday night for me…when suddenly– WHAM! I fell right into this room here! Good coincidence for me because both of my blushing brides are in here!" Jhin grinned before somersaulting towards the two of them, jumping up only to peck them each on the cheek once. Bailey's face got all red and she started to rub her cheek where it was kissed, while Gwendolyn just rolled her eyes. "So what's going on in here, anyways? Are you two on a date? Ha, gay!"

"But aren't you…n-nevermind. We're not on a date, we're in the middle of a check-up…or at least we were until you destroyed the ceiling." Bailey pointed up at the gaping hole in the ceiling, which got Jhin to turn around and scan the room like a cartoon character through a big looking glass. When her gaze finally happened upon the hole in the ceiling, she whistled loudly.

"Man, that's crazy! Wonder who put that there…a giant hole in the ceiling really doesn't go with this room's decor whatsoever!" Jhin cackled like a maniac before turning to Gwendolyn with this really serious look in her eyes. "Hey, Gwenny-poo. Don't let anything bad happen to that fuckin' ice cube or I'm not gonna give you anymore smooches ever!"

"I wasn't planning on doing anything bad to her, or letting anything bad happen to her for that matter." Gwendolyn started to talk more, but her words were only met with Jhin seizing the opportunity to smooch her right on her lips. In the doctor's confusion, the intruder started giggling like a schoolgirl and fleeing the room, leaving her and Bailey alone, once again. "...I hope that didn't bother you at all, I wasn't trying to-"

"No, no, it's alright…it doesn't bother me, at least. B-besides…" Bailey hopped up from her seat and started heading to the door to follow after Jhin. Once she got to the doorway, she glanced over her shoulder at Gwen again. "...W-who wouldn't wanna kiss you?"

"...Was that supposed to be a flirt? It's not such a good flirt if you're blushing more than I am." Bailey shriveled up where she stood, entirely red in the face as she slowly started to shuffle away from the office.


Confessional - Gwendolyn

"Now, I never had any romantic attachments before whatsoever…so suddenly having two different people that are trying to get in my pants is just…confusing. Well, I guess it's three if you count Henry, but he's been gone for so long by now." Gwendolyn started chuckling to herself, hardly noticing that Jhin was kissing the passenger's side window of her ambulance. "I almost forgot that that idiot existed!"

Confessional - Bailey

"...I-I've always felt a little odd about love and stuff…I guess I like being able to explore different things with different people, if that makes any sense." Bailey blushed as she twiddled her thumbs, also oblivious to Jhin giving her passenger window the exact same treatment as Gwendolyn's got. "I think Jhin is the same way, too. E-either way, I can't deny that I maybe have a…teensy tiny little crush on Gwendolyn."


"Oh, come on already, there's gotta be something up here about this place!" Garfield was still in his room for the time being, the curtains drawn with all the lights off so that the only source of light was his laptop screen. He was scrolling through a list of mayoral candidates and elects, but the more and more faces he passed by, the more annoyed he seemed to be getting. "This place is in Pennsylvania, right? Maybe that'll narrow the search down a bit more." He clicked away into the search bar, and while the number of people certainly diminished the slightest bit from his search, it was still quite numerous.

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me…" Garfield groaned, pinching the upper bridge of his nose before returning back to the search bar. "They'll show you hundreds of results for PA, but the second you look up 'Neon City,' you get nothing! I knew that that name had to be fake, that's the only explanation for this!" As he searched up "Neon City" in the bar again, just to humor himself, he was met with a screen that wasn't empty, but had one result. The picture wasn't of a person, though, it was just of some old-styled masquerade mask. He frowned at the result, but clicked on it to see what page it would take him.

"Better than nothing, I suppose…except it's not better than nothing because there's no name on this thing! How am I supposed to assume leadership of this city if I can't even figure out who's in charge right now?" Garfield started to curse under his breath as he scrolled through the page, trying to find anything other than "N/A" over and over and over again. He scrolled through personal life and got nothing, he scrolled through policies and got nothing, and he even scrolled through election information, and got another resounding nothing.

"Well, this has officially been the biggest waste of time that I've ever had to sit through. Maybe there isn't anyone in charge after all?" Garfield mulled the possibility over as he continued scrolling down the page, but when he got to the very, very bottom of it, he found that there was one single result under one category. "...Scandals? Uh, yes please! I need all the dirt on this mystery man that I can get!" A grin started to stretch along his face as he took to reading the page before him.

"As the sole founder of the Neon City, ? took it upon himself to really make the city its own by bringing along some mysterious contraption that would serve the city its supply of neon. When asked about this contraption in an interview by local press, ? refused to answer any questions about it, quoting that 'these answers would be falling on deaf ears.'" Garfield paused and stared at the page with a dull look on his face. He stared and stared before finally tossing his laptop aside.

"The only thing they have on this guy is that he didn't wanna answer some dumb question!? That doesn't help me at all, dammit!" The politician wannabe got up from his bed, grumbling to himself as he stepped over towards the window. With a deep sigh, he pulled the curtains wide open, revealing that his window was actually covered entirely in fog. "Great, I can't even see anything from here…" He started rubbing the window, trying to wipe away some of the fog, but it turned out that it was on the other side.

"Juuuuuuuust great," Garfield let out a long, drawn out sigh, but the sigh was cut short, as some large shadow passed right over the window. He couldn't quite see whatever it was, but just the vague outline of it. After it fully passed over, he turned his attention to one part in the fog that wasn't all fogged up anymore. Rather, it had a masquerade mask drawn into it…one quite similar to the one that had shown up on the website he was searching through. He could feel his heart rattling about inside of his chest frame and had no choice but to pull the curtains shut again.

"Yoooooohooooooo! Contestants, one and all, you guys had better be awake!" Garfield could hear the familiar voice of Chris coming from the speakers in the hallway. Even with his door shut tight, it didn't do anything to drown out his loudness, or obnoxiousness for that matter. "You know, cause we got another challenge for you guys to get to today! You'll wanna head right out to the front of the hotel for this one, you'll find me and Mister Grumpy Chef there!" His voice cut out from the speakers after his brief message, and the sound of other contestants from Team A-Side heading out of their rooms replaced it. Garfield took a deep breath, trying to ease his heartbeat as much as he could before finally leaving his room to join the others.


Confessional - Garfield

"Call me paranoid if you will, but there's no way that the mask on the website and the one on my window were just a coincidence. I've seen a lot of this thing in my day…back when I was in high school, running for student body, my opponent did everything she could to keep me from getting any dirt on her! Heh, too bad that didn't work out so well for her. Suck it, Florencia!" Garfield grinned cockily as he held up a picture of him wearing a sash that read "Student Body President" on it, standing next to a girl that looked ashamed of herself. "Anyways, I wasn't stopped then, and I won't be stopped now! Don't think your scare tactics will steer me away from claiming leadership of this city, 'Anonymous Mayor!'"


Pretty much all of the contestants had already gotten to the lobby of the hotel at this point, and were headed for the entrance in droves. One such drove featured Cherry, Morgan, and Zayden, with the party gal of the group watching Amanda, who was keeping quite some distance between her and everyone else. She frowned at the sight of her so far away from everybody, but didn't walk over to her or anything, she just stood and watched from a distance.

"I'm tellin' you bitches, this place is gettin' on my damn nerves! I'm in my room, tryna give myself an at-home pedi, when suddenly I got Chris's naggy-ass voice hollering at me to go outside!" Morgan pulled one of her feet from her shoes, hoisting it up to show that only two of her nails were painted while three remained untouched. Cherry rolled her eyes and looked away while Zayden just stared and frowned. "What? What's that look for?"

"I think that you should probably just leave the pedicures to the professionals…your paint job is sloppy." Zayden was delivered a swift slap across the face from Morgan, damn near knocking him to the floor, though he wobbled back into place like a wacky arm-flailing inflatable tube man. "Hey, don't shoot the messenger, I was just letting you know."

"I don't see why it's such a big deal, love…just finish painting your little piggies when you go wee, all the way home." Morgan looked just about ready to slap Cherry, too, but the party gal swiftly held up a pair of brass knuckles on her fist, pushing it right onto her chin. "You can knock Zayden down all you want, but don't toss stones in my corner unless you're ready for a boulder to be thrown back at you." Meanwhile, 3V was walking alone, beer bottle in hand, when Bec suddenly slid on over to her side.

"Ah, toasty friend! I was meaning to find you! See, I've been working on my impression of Giselle…I wanted to get your expert opinion of it!" Bec cleared his throat, ignoring the fact that 3V was already glaring beams at him. "Oh, look at me, look at me, I wanna be a MILF but I'm probably gonna wind up sad and alone for the rest of my life! Come here, everyone, be my baby!"

"Words cannot describe just how much I want to toss you off of the roof of the hotel right now." Bec snickered at 3V's threat, and he watched as she walked on ahead from him. It didn't take long for everyone to get outside, and while they had gotten used to what the city looked like normally, the sight they were greeted to was more so abnormal. Everything up until the main road was completely fine, but on that main road, there were massive, luminous rings that protruded from the ground. They all had a good distance between them, but they could be seen stretching far out onto the highway, going out even further than eyes could see.

"Alright, you beady-eyed babies! Get on over here to the parking lot and stand in a single file line before I make you drop to the ground and give me twenty!" Chef had practically snuck up on everyone, and they wasted no time in running from him and towards the parking lot. As requested, they stood in a single file line, watching as Chris seemed to be fixing something onto each and every one of their vehicles. Atlas opened his mouth to question it, but Chef suddenly started snarling at him, stopping his question before it could even start.

"Woowee! Sure took a lot of effort to nail down each one of those fancy hood ornaments…I'm thinking it's already time for my nightly martini!" Chris snickered to himself, with the contestants exchanging more confused glances. "I know, you're probably all wondering what I just put on your cars and such…and what's the deal with those big hoops on the road. Well, that answer is conveniently easy to spell out for you: it's for our next challenge!" The host started to pace in front of the line of contestants while Chef stood off to the side.

"See, there's apparently supposed to be this whole street racing tradition in the Neon City, something that everyone makes a big deal about…well, we decided to relieve the regular racers of their duties, and instead pass the challenge off to you guys!" Chris fetched a remote from his shirt pocket, pressing a button and bringing up a holographic map of the entire city. "The general gist is fairly simple to understand: those hoops are markers! They go all throughout the entire city, circling around back to this point! The hood ornaments you've been given keep track of the markers that you hit, like so."

"Come on already, dadgum marker!" Chef grumbled as he fiddled around with one of the hood ornaments, eventually bringing up forty red holographic lights above it. "There are forty markers! When you hit a marker, it will go from red to blue, so we'll know that you actually made it! Challenge is for each of you to complete the race and hit every single marker! Obviously, the first team to have all of its members complete the race wins! Now…get your butts in your vehicles and get to the starting line, maggots!" The contestants didn't waste any time, as they hurried off to their vehicles while Chef glared at them all the way.


Confessional - Atlas

"Well, I've never really had any experience doing full on street races or nothin'...but sometimes, me and the other guys from the football team would do donuts in the campus parking lot! That's gotta count for some sort of experience, right?" Atlas chuckled nervously before suddenly looking strangely upset. "...I'm just hoping that I won't mess this race up, like how I did the last time I was in a race. I'll definitely beat Eli, this time!"

Confessional - Eli

"I hope Atlas is done obsessing over me…it's just really weird to have some dude you don;t even know or really care about always talking about you." Eli scrolled around aimlessly through his phone before happening upon some random video. "Oh, I guess…Marshmallow's trying to be a Twitch E-Girl now. Sorry, don't think that's really gonna work out for you."

Confessional - Eliza

"So…this kinda seems like one of those old racing games that I would play with friends back home. It was one of those situations w-where I did so good that they didn't really want to play with me anymore." Eliza sounded upset, but she couldn't hide the little grin on her face. "M-maybe that'll be the same thing that happens this time around, and I'll just win faster than everyone else?"


All sixteen remaining contestants had gotten into their vehicles and pulled out of the parking lot, waiting and taking up all of the space in the middle of the road while they waited for the signal to go. Team A-Side had its members all on the leftmost side of the road, while Team B-Side was more to the right. This had Eli and Atlas pinned next to each other as they waited, and while Atlas grinned from his sports car, excited for this next race of theirs, Eli simply rolled his eyes and looked away. Jhin slapped a leather cap onto her head, as well as a pair of hefty goggles and let her tongue fly out of her mouth, like she was a dog sticking her head out of the window. Edward stared at the road, completely minding his own business until he heard the honking of the car next to him.

"...Hm?" The miserable guy slowly glanced out through his window, seeing that Garfield was right next to him. He mumbled to himself before he started to roll his window down, looking more annoyed with the interruption than anything else. "Anything I can help you with to get you to lay off the horn, bloke? You're really eating into my conversation right now."

"Oh, I was just going to remind you that you probably shouldn't let us lose this challenge. In case you forgot, you were one of the people really bringing us down in the past two challenges, so…just a good heads up for ya." Garfield smirked as Edward rolled his window back up, not looking all too bothered by this threat.

With that, a massive, holographic sign flashed above the road, with the word "READY" spread across it. Plenty of engines could be heard revving throughout the array of vehicles, even Gerald's yacht…somehow. After about three seconds, the word changed to read "SET," and contestants started to lean back in their seats, getting ready to finally start zooming. After another three seconds, the word finally changed to "GO," playing a loud horn noise and signaling the teams to start driving. Immediately, Morgan, Cherry, Eliza, Atlas, and Bec took to the front of the troop in their sports cars, passing through the first of the many hoops on the road and speeding past them before anyone else had even gotten quite close to them. The next group of people that passed through the hoop were the three on their motorcycles: Eli, Elward, and 3V, being all followed by the people who had cars that were in good shape, AKA Amanda, Bailey, Leo, and Zayden. After them, it was the troop of…well, shitboxes, so Edward, Garfield, and Jhin…leaving Gerald in his yacht at the very back of the line.

"Allan…come back…Allan…where did you go…?" Gerald wasn't even focusing that much on the road, as he stared at the empty seat next to him. He ran his hand over the seat's leather, sighing as he felt absolutely nobody there. He passed through the first hoop, but didn't seem to have any change in emotion from doing so, as he just kept driving and rubbing his hand all over the seat. "...Someone must have kidnapped you…that's the only reason that you would be missing for this long. I'll find out who, Allan…I'll find out, and I'll make them pay…" Meanwhile, further ahead of the curve, Elward was making a sharp turn on the highway, just managing to squeeze past the rest of the motorcycles. However, he couldn't see where the next hoop was.

"Eh? Well this is just ridiculous, how am I supposed to know where to go if none of the hoops are nearby?" Elward grumbled and slowly reached a hand up from one of his handlebars towards his earpiece, pressing down the button and causing HAILEY to flash in front of him with a big smile on her face. Her hair was normally done up in a bun, but this time around, it had been let down, showing off how wavy it was coded to be.

"Hello, master~! Is there something that I can help you with today?" HAILEY seemed as cheery as ever, and she was obviously bobbing her head from side to side, showing off the way that her hair looked.

"Yeah, I'm gonna need you to pull up a full map of this race course so I know where the next hoops are. I can't tell where I'm supposed to go at this rate!" Elward griped, not noticing the change in her appearance, which caused her smile to waver the slightest bit.

"Ah…b-but, master, I think that all of the vehicles are predisposed with maps of the city. If you bring it up, it will likely be marked with the locations of the hoops. I-is there maybe something else that you need me for?" HAILEY looked hopeful, and even bobbed her head a slight bit more to try to get him to notice her hair.

"Uh…no, probably not. Why do you keep shaking your head like that? Are you having a seizure or something?" HAILEY's holographic lip quivered as she retracted her own screen, getting a shrug out of Elward, who didn't really see what the big deal was. He looked around at the buttons near his radio, finding one that looked like a destination marker and pressing it. This caused a holographic map to flash out of his motorcycle, showing where the rest of the hoops were on the map. "Alright, now this is what I'm talking about! Let's go!"


Confessional - HAILEY

"I don't understand, I thought I was making the right steps by changing my look a little, but master didn't seem any more interested in me than usual. I've been spending all of my downtime analyzing the internet to understand what makes men click and become more attracted to a person, but nothing's working!" HAILEY's pixelated face started dripping with her holographic tears, "If it's not something that I'm doing wrong, then it must be that there are too many other attractive people around! Maybe…I have to get rid of them first so that he'll notice me?"

"You know, I don't think I understand Elward, either! Sure, sure, HAILEY is just some robo-screen thing that lives inside his ears or whatever, but lil' man, that's still a lady slobbering all over you! You could probably make her a body or something…you know, just putting it out there."


A few minutes had passed since the start of the race, but even the furthest ahead had still only found the fifth hoop. The city was always massive, and in this case, that was something that all of them dreaded. Who knew how long it would go on for at this rate, anyways? The very lead of the group was Atlas, though Morgan, Cherry, Eliza, and Bec weren't far behind them at all. They could even see the motorcycle group behind them, but beyond that, they had no clue where the rest of their team was. The football player had his foot stomped down all the way on the gas pedal as he turned a curve, going so fast that his car almost hit the median.

"Oh-ho, man! That was a pretty close one…I should slow down…" Atlas paused for a moment, thinking about how dangerous it could be if he kept going at the pace he was at, but even with another hard curve coming up, he couldn't force himself to slow down at all. His grin started to waver, too, as all that he could think about in that moment was getting humiliated by his loss and near-elimination just a few challenges prior. "Ah, dammit! Can't believe I'm letting just one loss affect me so much! You're better than that, Atlas, come on!"

"Sounds like that challenge is really weighing on you, brother!" Atlas didn't glance at his radio as he heard C.K.'s voice protruding from it, he just kept his eyes on the road ahead of him. Though, even with him trying to focus, the road all started to blend together, looking like a blur that he was just zooming through. He passed through the sixth hoop and hardly noticed, and the sixth soon became the seventh with just how fast he was going. "This was exactly the type of thing that I was waiting for tonight, the thrill of a real highway speed race!"

"I don't know if I would say it's thrilling, I'd probably just say that I have to win, no matter what. Gotta prove to my team that I can still be a top dog, that they can still rely on me! Seems like they haven't been looking to me so much for guidance anymore…it feels weird, man!" Atlas' wheels screeched as another tight turn came up, and sparks started flying from his car's backside. He could hear a slow, piano melody starting to build up around him as he drove, but he still didn't look at the radio.

"I hear you, brother! It's times like these that you really gotta put forth your best, show us all how you're really feeling. So I would say, ain't no better time for a C.K. Swing than right now, baby! You seem like you got plenty on your mind to put into words, so have at it, and don't you dare pump those brakes!" C.K.'s voice faded from the radio and the piano melody started getting louder, with Atlas narrowing his eyes as he passed through a blur of light, which happened to be the eighth hoop. He slowly swallowed a gargantuan lump in his throat and reached one hand up from his steering wheel to wipe some sweat from his brow.

"And my eyes get low in that all-white truck, I can barely see shit…and my eyes get low in that all-white truck I can barely see…" Atlas's voice didn't sound entirely pretty, but the emotion was there, the emotion that made it sound like he was choking up on each of his words as he drove straight through a roundabout, his car practically leaping off of the central island and landing on one of the roads ahead, with more sparks scattering all over the pavement behind him.

"What's that idiot doin' up there? That bitch gon' get himself killed if he keeps driving like that!" Morgan gritted her teeth as she started speeding up to pass Cherry, Bec, and Eliza, attempting to catch up with her brother. Even with her coasting through that same roundabout, he was already well ahead of her.

"U-uh…Atlas? I don't want to cost you your l-lead, or anything, but maybe it wouldn't be the worst idea in the world to just slow down a little bit…?" Eliza's voice chattered as it came through Atlas's radio, but he just absentmindedly turned his volume knob all the way down to nothing, completely ignoring her. Back in her own car, she was waiting for a response, but ended up getting nothing, and started worrying more because of it. "A-Atlas? Come on, just a little bit, you can still have the lead without being so dangerous."

"And I overflow like mercury…glowing with uncertainty…" The drums started to come into the song, and the melody got faster, and Atlas couldn't help but try to match the new pace, pressing down on the gas so hard that it was scraping the floor of the car. His eyes looked all too zoned on the road as the neon lights he was passing made it look as though he was zooming through some sort of warp tunnel. "Circles at the Chevron…I might be forever gone…" Suddenly, the lights started to lessen, as a work tunnel was coming up ahead of him.

"Atlas, friend! I'm not usually one to be so worried about anyone who knows how to handle themselves, but I think that Eliza might actually be right this time! You are going quite fast, any faster and you might crash!" Bec shouted into his radio, even though Atlas couldn't hear a single word that he was saying. He frowned when he got no response sent back to him, and murmured under his breath. "And if you crash, I'll have to crash, too…"

"And my eyes get low in that all-white truck, I can barely see shit." For some reason, Atlas could see roadblocks all ahead of him, even though none of them were actually there. He just scowled, drifting to the side until he slid onto the wall of the tunnel, driving so fast that his car managed to cling onto it without falling. "Hit the gas like you wouldn't believe it, thank God I was always healing. In a time so slow I was thinking 'bout life, rearranging pieces. Speeding up on that all-black demon, going west, I don't got no reasons."

"What's that cheeky bastard up to? I'm all for chasing a thrill, but he's going to get himself killed going that fast." Cherry clicked her tongue in thought as she started speeding up, pulling alongside Morgan. Both of them had their windows down, and the party gal could see that the cheerleader actually had a look of worry on her face for once, as opposed to her standard "uncaring bitch face." "Morgan, love? Any idea what your brother might be trying to do by going that fast?"

"I don't know, bitch! I'm tryna catch up to him to get him to slow down, but that motherfucker's kicking his shit into nitro or some shit!" Morgan's voice cracked slightly, and Cherry could tell just how worried she was. The two started speeding up together, with Bec and Eliza not too far behind as they all watched him pass through a hoop that was in the service tunnel.

"I was throwing stones at Hercules, throwing them so perfectly! Circles at the Chevron, I can't be forever young!" Atlas noticed that the tunnel was coming to an end, but he didn't slide down from the wall, eventually shooting out of it and maneuvering his car midair so it landed on its wheels when it got back to the open road. More sparks flew and rubber burned, but he didn't care in the slightest, he just kept on going. "Empty choir, operated from above– my voice will be their voice until I'm free. My hands will be their hands until I'm free…" With the beat finally coming to a close, one would imagine the football player would slow down, but he hardly did that as he drove right over an open drawbridge over a river, landing perfectly on the other side, leaving the rest of the contestants well behind him.


Confessional - Atlas

"I don't really know what was coming over me other than the feeling that I really needed to make sure I finished this first. What kind of leader am I if I can't carry the team?" Atlas wiped some more sweat from his brow before untying his bowtie, pulling it off, and unbuttoning the top two buttons of his dress shirt. He was breathing so heavily from all of the adrenaline that was coursing through his veins. "I'd say I got a good distance between me and everyone else, but I need to make sure that I keep that lead!"

Confessional - Morgan

"I am about to beat that dumbass so badly that he's gonna think he did something to upset our momma! Can you imagine what would've happened if he up and missed one of those turns? I'd be picking up bits and pieces of him all over the city!" Morgan shouted angrily, but with her eyes welling up with tears, it was obvious that her shouting was coming from worry, not anger. She wiped the tears from her eyes, sniffling slightly as she glared at the camera. "That bitch drives me up a damn wall sometimes…"

Confessional - Bec

"On one hand, Atlas driving so fast and accidentally destroying himself in the process would be…a mild benefit to me. Without him around, someone would have to take his place, after all!" Bec beamed before suddenly looking really annoyed and slumping forward with his head slamming against his steering wheel. "On the other hand, I just know that seeing him drive straight into a wall would make me do the exact same thing. I'll have to work harder to adopt this headstrong attitude of his…"


"Oh, come on, you've gotta be kidding me…" Eli suddenly slowed to a halt as he, 3V, and Elward drove up to the part of the city with the drawbridge, noticing Eliza, Cherry, Morgan, and Bec all stopped in front of it. Well, Bec was trying to drive up the bridge, but it had gotten so high at this point that it was making that quite impossible to do. Eli groaned, watching as a freight ship was passing under the bridge. "Getting through this is gonna take forever, the lackeys are gonna end up catching up with us before this stupid ship even passes through all the way."

"Uh…maybe this isn't the best option…but I think we could probably just drive through the water. I mean, we can swim through water, why wouldn't we be able to drive through it? Seems like common sense to me." 3V pulled up right next to Eli, letting out a little, semi-drunken burp while she started watching the ship with him. Soon enough, the people that were driving fully functioning cars pulled up to the scene as well. Most of them drove up indiscriminately, though Cherry noticed that Amanda's car was rather far from everyone else's.

"What's this then, love?" Cherry fixed her lips in a pout as she maneuvered her car around everyone else, pulling up alongside Amanda's to see that the investor had a jaded look in her eyes as she sat back and stared at the ship. "Amanda, you look like someone's really soiled your mood…this challenge that bad for you, is it?"

"...Don't talk to me…I'm gonna get in trouble if I talk to you…" Amanda didn't even look over at Cherry as she uttered her miserable sounding words. The party gal was a bit confused by this, but shrugged and started to head back to where she was before, which is when Leo seized the opportunity to follow after her.

"D-did Amanda actually talk to you, Cherry? I saw her earlier, but she just ran past me when I was trying to talk to her…" Leo frowned as he glanced back at Amanda's car.

"She didn't prove much more for small talk than she usually is, if that's what you're wondering. Not like it's my position to really care about that at all, nor yours. Instead, we'd both be making better use of our time focusing on the competition." Cherry rolled her eyes and started filing her nails, still waiting for that ship to pass through. She scowled as she saw that it was only about halfway through at this point. "Bloody hell…how long will it take for us to get back on track with this race?"

"W-well…at least if we're all stuck here, then nobody else is going to make it to the finish line before us…" Leo nodded his head before Cherry suddenly scowled fiercer, remembering that there was indeed someone that had already gotten to the otherside. At the same time, Chris and Chef were sitting just outside the hotel, sharing their martinis together, as they typically did when the contestants were in the middle of challenges like this.

"I gotta say, it's pretty nice for us to not have to worry about what they're doing until they get back. Just means that this is going to be the easiest challenge night for us, ever!" Chris snickered as he clicked his martini glass against Chef's making a satisfying "tink" sound before he took a large swig of the drink within it. "The only thing that could possibly ruin this is if they somehow already started finishing the race, but I don't think that'll be too much of an issue!"

The two hosts laughed together before they heard the loud roar of an engine headed right towards the hotel. They noticed Atlas screeching to a halt right after the last of the hoops, skid marks left all over the road from the path that he had driven along. Chris was flabbergasted to see him back so fast, to say the very least. He got up from his chair, setting his glass aside as he marched over towards Atlas' car. The football player pulled himself out of the driver's seat, sweating horribly and breathing pretty heavily.

"Y-yo…I'm pretty sure…I'm pretty sure I got 'em all…man…that really took the breath outta me…anybody else here yet?" Atlas started fanning himself off while he watched Chris skeptically looking over his car.

"No, no one else is here yet, dude. But I seriously doubt that you managed to hit all of the hoops on the way here, you must've missed at least one." The host laid his hand upon the hood ornament that was added to the car earlier, causing the hologram to flash up in front of him. Lo and behold, each of the once red lights had turned a bright blue color, indicating that Atlas did actually complete the whole course. Chris was somehow even more astounded while Chef got up to join him, scratching his chin.

"That's the fastest I ever seen someone drive a course that big in my whole life, and I've seen plenty of street races! Me and the boys in service used to have our fun with 'em back in the day!" Chef snickered, patting Atlas on the shoulder, "Not bad, maggot! You just have to hope that the rest of your team makes it here before A-Side does!"

"Well…as long as I got here first and showed the team that I'm still someone that they can look to for leadership, that's all fine with me." Atlas chuckled nervously, wiping some of the massive amount of sweat droplets from his face while Chris raised a confused eyebrow at him. "E-eh? Why are you looking at me? Did I do something wrong?"

"Well, it is just a teensy tiny bit weird that you would think this example sets you as a leader. I mean, you're all done with the challenge while your team is out there, floundering around without you for guidance." Chris shrugged with a smirk on his face as he and Chef started walking back to their seats, leaving Atlas standing there with an utter look of disbelief on his face.


Confessional - Atlas

"I was so busy thinking about how I needed to beat Eli to show everyone that I could still be a good leader that I didn't even think about how my team might be lost out there! Man, what is up with me lately?" Atlas slammed his face against his steering wheel, causing a loud, blaring horn to erupt from it. "I got enough faith in them, though! There's just no way that they'll manage to lose this challenge, I'm sure of it!"


"Oh come on already! Is this bloody ship just parked in the middle of the river or what? Get a move on, you sodding idiot!" Edward shouted from the driver's seat of his car, as he, Jhin, and Garfield had finally gotten to the others at the drawbridge, with Gerald being the only person that was still behind everybody else. "For the love of…hurry it along!"

"Never expected you to be the type to have road rage, Eddy," Eli smirked as he looked over at Edward from his motorcycle, getting a confused look shot back at him. "What's the matter with you? Why're you making that face?"

"Why did you call me Eddy? That's something that a mum and pop would call their toddler." Eli rolled his eyes and Edward looked back ahead at the ship, noticing something that popped up in the corner of his eye. "...Hang on just a minute there…Eli, are you seeing what I'm seeing right now?" The bigger guy raised an eyebrow, looking out towards the river to see that there was something in there besides the freight ship. "...That can't seriously be…"

"Gotta…find Allan…this race is in the way of me finding Allan!" Gerald mumbled as he successfully piloted his yacht through the river, leaving everyone else stuck behind him. Needless to say, the rest of the contestants that were still racing were beyond astounded as he so easily made it past the roadblock that was keeping them there for so long now. He coasted right along to the dock on the other side, tipping the nose of the yacht up to hop onto it so he could get along to the road again. 3V slowly scooted her motorcycle back over to Eli, leaning towards him.

"Seeeeee? I said we should all just try driving through the water, and that's exactly what he did!" 3V was more than pleased with her drunken self while Eli groaned and rolled his eyes.


Confessional - Gerald

"I don't know why everybody was stopped at the bridge like that…they could all be helping me look for Allan, and they're just standing around like he doesn't matter!" Gerald slammed his fist down against the console of his yacht before taking a deep breath. "I knew that I couldn't trust any of them from the very start! They were all pretending that Allan wasn't even real, like they couldn't see or hear him ever! Well, I don't need them! I'll find Allan all on my own!"

Confessional - 3V

"See, I would like to think of myself as sort of a genius while I'm drunk. That's really when the best of my ideas come to me, anyways!" 3V nodded confidently before taking a swig of her beer, trying to ignore the fact that she was completely soaked and dripping water all over the place. She looked down at herself and pretended like it was no big deal at all. "Oh, this? Psh…uh…okay, maybe my motorcycle wasn't so good for the water after all."


The drawbridge was finally starting to come down, but Gerald was already well out of sight, and 3V did eventually manage to get across, ignoring the fact that she almost drowned about three times in the midst of her trying to cross it. Back at the finish line, Gerald somehow managed to get there second, fully confusing Chris, Chef, and Atlas alike. Nonetheless, the hosts walked over to check and see if he actually completed the course like he was supposed to just as the soaked 3V was pulling up behind him. And with the drawbridge fully down and ready to go, the rest of the contestants got right back on track to get the challenge finished with.

"Stupid…bitch brother…" Morgan gritted her teeth, her hands clutching her steering wheel tightly as she sped up to take the lead of the group. The next part of the track that was coming up actually led her into a multi-level parking garage, which was completely full of cars. "This place is fuckin' packed! How the hell did the nitwit in the boat manage to even get through here!?" She grumbled, trying to maneuver around the cars so she wouldn't hit any of them as she headed onto the second level. Cherry, Eliza, and Bec were all behind her, not incredibly far from her

"Aye aye…I hope we don't find the wreckage of Atlas' car somewhere in here…" Bec glanced around the garage nervously with his fingers crossed tightly. When he and the other two sports car drivers made it to the second level of the garage, with Morgan, they saw that the cars weren't just filling the parking spots, but overflowing the level to the point that the cars made a makeshift maze. Morgan herself was having a hard time navigating through the cars, and the other three joining her didn't make it any easier.

"T-this is like…the hardest level in one of those racing games…there's no secret shortcuts or anything…" Eliza whimpered as she got stuck behind the other three sports cars. As the four of them continued to maneuver around, they heard the oncoming noise of more engines, two engines, to be exact. Pulling up onto the second level were Elward and Eli on their motorcycles. They just figured the two boys joining them would make it more claustrophobic, but were shocked to see that they were simply driving in between the tiny gaps that were left between each of the parked cars.

"Is this supposed to be some sort of challenge? Ha! Maybe it would be worse if I was driving some big, clunky car." Elward taunted the sports car drivers, easily making it through the maze that was hardly a maze to him and scooting along onto the third level of the garage, with Eli coming along not too far behind him. Morgan gritted her teeth and stepped on her gas, slamming into all sorts of parked cars and pushing them out of the way while denting her own car in the process.

"Morgan, love, I don't think causing plenty of collateral damages is going to do anything to make this challenge less annoying." Cherry's voice chirped through Morgan's radio, but just like her brother, she turned the volume all the way off, ignoring her teammate and slamming cars all over the place to pave the perfect path for her to drive through, giving a good path for the other three that were behind her as well.


Confessional - Morgan

"I don't have the time or the patience for all these dumbass tricks and traps that the dumb hosts set up, ya hear? I got a brother I'm s'posed to be kicking the snot out of once I find him, so who cares if I smash up a couple other cars in the process?" Morgan huffed and crossed her arms while her eyebrow started to twitch.

"Yeah, I for sure wouldn't wanna be Atlas right now! Homegirl's definitely about to show him not to worry her like that…oh! I oughtta get my ass in gear and cook up some popcorn so I got a snack while it all goes down!"


Eli and Elward took their advantage and rode it all the way to the finish line, with the sports cars just now coming out of the top of the parking garage, finding that they were now coming out onto a road that came to an immediate halt…leading them onto the rooftop of a tall building. They could see a couple of the hoops ahead were set up on the roofs, with Cherry and Bec looking to be the only nervous ones, while Morgan just grunted and floored it, leaping from roof to roof as fast as she could. Then, there was Eliza, who was studying the layout of the rooftops closer.

"Hm…oh…oh, I see now…that's just too perfect…" Eliza drove along towards the side of the building, eventually slowly driving off the side of it. Cherry and Bec both gasped at the sight, while Morgan just kept on storming ahead on the roofs, passing through the first of many hoops that she saw ahead of her.

"What is that, thirty or something? Can't be much longer 'til the end of this, and 'til my brother gets a real ass whooping!" Morgan stepped harder on the gas, leaping yet another roof when she noticed something alongside the buildings. Slowly rising up, there was Eliza's car, which was on top of some odd sort of hovering platform, which coasted her through the first hoop that Morgan had just passed. It went right overhead the cheerleader, leaving her behind. "What the hell!?"

"I-I knew looking for secret's on this course was gonna come in handy at some point or another! They always have at least one of them!" Eliza smiled as she leaned back in her seat, being able to just relax as she flew through hoop after hoop, inevitably coming to the end of the rooftops, where there was a road that led back down towards the main highway. She drove off of her little, floating platform, glancing in her rearview mirror to see the lot of cars that were chasing behind her, but so far behind.


Confessional - Eliza

"I have to admit…it actually feels nice to have my knowledge be useful in a challenge. I've sort of felt like I've been on the sidelines compared to everyone else so far, but this is just the sort of boost that I really needed to let me know that I'll be making it through this competition just fine!" Eliza smiled ever so slightly as she tapped her fingers together, a faint blush on her cheeks. "N-now I just need to make sure that I can get myself into a habit of doing this sort of thing."


As it was, Eliza had made it to the end of the track, joining the other five that had already made it while there were still a full eleven trying to get to the end. From Morgan's count, there were only supposed to be four hoops left after the bit on the rooftops, which made sense, as she saw that the hotel wasn't so far away at this point. She could see Atlas' car parked right outside of it on her way there, which started to fuel her rage all over again. She pressed the gas pedal down hard, like on the roof tops, skirting through the first hoop she saw and whipping around the winding path ahead of her.

"Whaddya know…looks like the rest of the racers are almost back now! Not bad, not bad…" Chris was just finishing his second martini at this point, wobbling a bit as he walked, since he was already tipsy. Chef rolled his eyes at the host while he was busy checking Eliza's hood ornament to see that she made it through all of the hoops, just like she was supposed to. Meanwhile, Morgan was passing through the second hoop on her route back to the finish line.

"He is so in for it the second I get out of this car, I swear it!" The cheerleader growled and pressed down on the gas as hard as she could, passing through the third and final hoop that led right to the finish line. As she pulled ahead and parked her car, many of the other contestants started to pass through the hoop and join her at the finish line. Cherry and Bec were first, not to any surprise or anything there. Then came Zayden, Bailey, Amanda, Leo, Garfield, Edward, and Jhin in that very order. Though, she ignored all of them, just jumping right out of her car and storming up towards Atlas. "Hey, dumbass!"

"U-uh oh…" Atlas tried to hide himself behind 3V, but Morgan just grabbed the drunkard and tossed her aside into a bush. 3V's legs twitched while she was lodged in the foliage, but no one came to her rescue while Morgan crossed her arms, tapping her foot against the ground as she glared at her older brother. "Haha, hey Morgan! F-funny thing about that race and all…uh…pretty exhilarating, wasn't it? Really got the blood pumping and all that!"

"Listen up, bitch…if you ever, and I mean ever try to pull some shit like you just did with how fast you were going in that race ever again, I'm going to kick the shit out your ass. You're getting off easy with a slap across the face!" Just as she said, Morgan slapped Atlas right across the face, leaving a bright red hand mark where she'd slapped him. Bec couldn't contain his evil snickering as he walked over to Atlas, who was now rubbing his stinging cheek.

"J-J-Jhin was the last one in the line…d-d-d-does that mean that we lost…?" Bailey looked nervous while an indifferent Jhin just strode up to her and cupped her butt firmly with both of her hands. The ice cube's cheeks lit up with an immense blush as she glanced behind her to see her girlfriend grinning like an evil, little imp. "J-Jhin, not now…"

"Can't help myself, had to help the cause by making your buns nice and toasty!" Jhin chuckled as she gave her butt a few good squeezes before Bailey whimpered and scooted a few steps away from her.

"Under any normal circumstances, yeah, you maggots would've lost the challenge! But the rule was that each of your teammates had to make it through all of the hoops and get back to the finish line all together!" The contestants murmured as they watched Chef walking through all of the parked vehicles with his hands clasped behind his back. He stopped right in front of Morgan's sports car, giving the hood ornament a flick to light up the holographic lights, showing that she had thirty-nine blue lights…and one, singular red light. "Morgan here didn't pass through all the hoops, so Team A-Side didn't win the challenge! Team B-Side wins!"

"But what!? Which one of those hoops did I miss?" Morgan had a frantic look on her face as Bec started sliding over towards her, looking cocky as ever.

"Ah, right, Morgan friend! Remember back in the parking garage, when you kept pushing all of the cars out of the way to make a path for yourself? I don't think you passed through the hoop on the third level!" Bec chuckled to himself while Morgan's jaw dropped. "Don't worry, don't worry, I'm sure your team would never vote against you for such a thing!"

"Yeah, they probably won't vote for you, lady!" Chris had downed yet another martini when nobody was looking, and was obviously a little more drunk than he was already as he wobbled towards the contestants. Some of them just seemed embarrassed by how much of a lightweight he was. "Funny thing about this challenge is that…uh…uh…um…oh, right! There's a special twist with the elimination in this one! You'll vote like normal, but the contestant you eliminate won't be going home…they'll be going to the other team!"

"Wait, what?" Garfield stepped forward, looking annoyed by this condition while Chris just grinned and waved him off.

"Yup! So, all of you A-Side people…meet us on the rooftop for the ceremony! Better pick wisely on who you wanna get rid of!" Chris snickered before falling on the ground, leaving Chef to groan and pick him up. The two headed inside, along with the members of Team B-Side, leaving Team A-Side to look between each other, all wondering what was going to happen next.


Confessional - Garfield

"It would make way too much sense for me to tell everyone to vote Edward out of our team, but the thing is…we kinda need that sort of fall guy on our side. If we lose another challenge, it'll be a super easy way out of having to get rid of a player that actually matters. Which means that it would be much better to vote for…" Garfield grinned as he stamped the picture of one of his teammates.


When the time came for Team A-Side to meet at the elimination ceremony, they found that Team B-Side was up there and waiting for them already, with only Chef at the podium, groaning from Chris being a drunken mess earlier. Morgan looked embarrassed as she sat next to Garfield, who was grinning from ear to ear. Amanda was silently staring at her own lap while Cherry chewed a piece of gum, paying her no mind whatsoever. Leo was focused on stitching something together while he sat, and Zayden was smiling as he watched him. Eli and Edward sat next to each other, per their usual, both of them scrolling about through their own phones.

"Listen up, maggots from both teams! A-Side, you guys lost the challenge, proving that you're the lesser team in this contest! B-Side now gets to take one of your teammates! They can all think of it as a replacement for one of the teammates that they've lost!" When Chef said the word replacement, Gerald glanced over at him with this nasty look in his eyes, but the co-host paid him no mind. "Because of this, there will be no drink tickets, since no one is getting eliminated!" He started pacing back and forth in front of the line of A-Side's contestants, with his hands behind his back in his usual, stern stance.

"As far as who is in the clear…Cherry! Leo! Zayden! Amanda! Edward! Garfield! Nothing for you six to worry about, which just leaves two, lowly maggots!" Chef turned to stand right before Morgan and Eli, the latter simply raising an eyebrow while the former blushed and glanced away from the co-host entirely. "Your team has decided that they don't want one of you around anymore! And as far as that person goes…Eli! You'll be joining Team B-Side, starting tonight!"

"Huh? But I don't…ugh, whatever, I don't care. Do I at least get to stay in my normal room?" Eli whined, and Chef rolled his eyes, shaking his head reluctantly. Morgan sighed in relief, and the lot of Team A-Side started getting up from their seats. Edward looked fairly worried about this shift in teammates while Eli slowly walked over to Team B-Side, where Atlas was waiting with an eager grin on his face.

"That's all for tonight, all of you! Now, get your butts back inside, you hear me!?" Most of the contestants scrambled along after hearing Chef yelling at all of them like that. He followed after them, leading them back inside, where they all started heading down the stairs. This ended up only leaving one person standing along on the roof…Gerald. He was staring at the door to go inside, his fingers twitching while he stared.

"...Replacement?"


C.K. Swing Songs: YUKON (INTERLUDE) - Joji

Votes: Eli - Morgan, Garfield, Amanda, Cherry; Morgan - Eli, Edward, Leo; Garfield - Zayden


22nd: Henry Yates, the Socially Awkward Kid

21st: Gwendolyn Linelife, the Harsh Doctor

20th: Heath Alghieri, the Puppet Master

19th: Giselle Gingersnap, the Wannabe MILF

18th: Suzie Venta, the Reference Queen

17th: Marshmallow Fulloff, the Connoisseur of Sweets

Team A-Side: Amanda, Cherry, Edward, Garfield, Leo, Morgan, Zayden

Team B-Side: Atlas, Bailey, Bec, Eli, Eliza, Elward, Gerald and Allan, Jhin, 3V