Right, let's keep moving. Thanks for reviewing, Gage the Hedgehog, StarHeart Specials, SuperKitty4789 and GIANTPANDAMAN.

Another break was good. While Courtney and Lindsay took their reward, I hung out with Duncan again.

"So, were you going to propose an alliance with Courtney or something?" he asked curiously.

I laughed. "No, I was going to propose she vote herself off. Of course I was going to, you moron! But not an all-for-one and one-for all alliance. Basically, it goes like this – if she can help me without hindering her chances of winning, she does and vice versa, and we don't vote each other off. But I'll try to be nice to her for the next challenge and then ask her."

To be fair, the next challenge had to be one of the most boring, and simultaneously the most fun I'd had on the movie lot so far.

We were woken up early as usual, by a scream. It turned out to be Chef in a pink dress, tied up. And Batman attempted to rescue him.

Well, it was Chris dressed up as Batman, actually. Manbat, I guess – Batman's evil twin. But the rope he swung in on didn't hold out, and he got his hair messed up. Ooh, what a disaster.

"Um, is anyone going to tell us what the heck is going on here?" Courtney snapped.

"When I feel like it!" Chris said crossly, smoothing his hair down. "And now, I feel like it! Today's challenges are inspired by the superhero flick!" And as for waking us up early, apparently his excuse for that was that evil never sleeps, so we couldn't risk it either. Well, okay, I hope I catch Chris asleep someday to prove him wrong.

According to Chris, we all had to do three things: Have superpowers, save people, and wear tights. Oh well, at least I was a girl, so I was used to tights. We went to get our clothes on and brush our teeth, and made a stop at the confessional.

"Superheroine, huh?" I grinned. "I like the sound of that. But superheroines can be super villainous, right? This superheroine may not be a villain, but she's gonna be vicious! And I just got a good idea..."

Our first challenge was to create our identity and costumes, out of spandex and a bunch of junk. We would be judged on our superhero's names, costumes, originality, and superpower.

Oh, and Chef – sorry, I mean, Pythonicus – and his sidekick cat would try to sabotage us as the supervillains.

"Any questions?" Chris asked.

We all raised our hands.

"No? Perfect! And...action!"

I grabbed a roll of black material and kept it on me as I looked through the junk. I found spiky red talons and a sparkly pink headband (okay, pink wasn't in my plans) and I decided they would have to do.

I kept an eye out for the supervillains as I cut and sewed. Once I was done, I got dressed and looked into the nearest camera. I only got enough time to swing my tail, claw at the camera, and hiss before Chris called for time.

The eight of us stood behind the curtains, each waiting our turn. Beth came out first, wearing logs on her arms and legs.

"State your name and superpower." we heard Chris say.

Beth muttered something we couldn't hear.

"You're a superhero – act like it!"

This time, we could hear Beth. "I am Lumber Woman! And I can talk to plants!"

"Seriously? What do you talk about?" Chris mocked. "The best brand of fertilizer? That's worth a whole three points."

Justin's costume was a sad weaker echo of Beth's. "I am Timber Man! And my superpower is..." Just wood chips. He said something about also floating and making fire.

But Chris wasn't impressed. "Lame. Two points."

Harold had better luck. He was wearing a red and white costume. "I'm Captain Alberta!" His superpower was to use a burrito to create a burning gas that was actually pretty effective at disabling a supervillain. Chris gave him seven points.

Duncan point-blank refused to wear spandex and just glued an eye to his forehead, calling himself the All-Seeing Eye, who could see the future. He predicted Harold learning a painful lesson, and punched him.

"Even I saw that coming." Chris said in a bored tone. "Two points."

Courtney was actually pretty good. "I'm the Human Cricket!" She'd glued gold-painted pieces of metal to her legs.

Chris laughed. "And whatcha gonna do, chirp us into submission?"

"Actually..." Courtney put plugs in her ears and began rubbing the metal together, making everyone block their ears. She got eight points.

I let Leshawna go before me. "I'm Super-Aqua Chick!" She had water bombs, which got her seven points.

Finally, it was my turn. I walked towards Chris. "I'm Queen Claw!" I announced, adding a hiss. "And my red claws..." (the talons I'd found) "...can hang onto anything and scratch anyone into blood loss. Oh, and as for my tail..." I swung the long black tail I'd made out of spandex, and stretched it far enough to almost, but not quite, hit Chris in the face.

Chris flinched, but he grinned. "Okay, I gotta say I like the style." I hated the way he was looking at the form-fitting cat suit I was wearing (complete with the tail, and little black ears on a headband). "Nine points! And an extra one for having two superpowers – so that's ten points!" (No, I wasn't copying Catwoman – she was a supervillain, and she didn't have my same powers).

I came equal with Lindsay, actually. Chris couldn't choose between us, even though Lindsay was just a new version of Wonder Woman, and said that her superpower was that she wondered a lot. "Oh, and I have an invisible jet right here! Or did I leave it over there?"

"You and Stephanie win!" Chris announced. "I loved Wonder Woman as a kid! Ten points!"

"What?" Courtney cried. "What about originality? Wonder Woman's already a superhero! And Stephanie's clearly copying Catwoman!"

"Oh, I'm sorry." Chris said sarcastically. "Is this your show? Oh, no, no, it's my show, which means I make the rules."
"Actually," Courtney said, "I think my lawyers make the rules."

"Possibly, but I'm still the judge of the contest. And I deem Lindsay and Stephanie both winners, which mean they get an advantage in the next challenge."

Courtney tossed a smirk our way. "You may have won the first round, but we'll see who comes out on top."

As she walked away, Lindsay winked at me, then gave a huge dramatic gasp. "Courtney just stepped on my invisible jet!"

Chris bought it. "Courtney, minus two points for stepping on Lindsay's jet."

"Can I have a ride?" Harold asked.

"And me?" I added.

"Sure!" Lindsay smiled. "Who wants a ride in my invisible jet?"

"I do!" That was everyone except Courtney.

Next, we had to do an obstacle course – superhero style. We would jump from a height on a trampoline, over a buildings backdrop and onto a mattress. Then we would try to catch a woman, a.k.a, a bag of potatoes in a dress that Chef dropped out a window, and then cross a power line while Chef threw stuff at us. Whoever did it fastest won. And Lindsay and I each got ten seconds taken off our time!

Wonder Woman 2.0 went first. She managed the trampoline and mattress all right, but didn't manage to catch the bag. "Whoopsie. Sorry, lady."

"Not such a Wonder Woman now, huh?" Courtney yelled.

"You've got issues." Chris told her.

Lindsay didn't manage to get across the power line without falling. But me? Well, I did better. I got over the building, caught the woman (but accidentally sliced the bag open) and crossed the power line, but it took me over a minute!

Harold, or Captain Alberta did a lot better, even incorporating his superpower to get over the backdrop. He caught the bag in mid-run. "There you go, ma'am. All in a day's work for Captain Alberta!" And he not only crossed the power lines without falling, but got to the end, landing on his feet. Even I hadn't managed that, and I was supposed to be part cat!

One by one, everyone else went. Beth and Justin were pretty hopeless. Leshawna did okay, except for hitting the building on her first try and losing time going back to try again. Duncan was pretty good, and Courtney made it all look easy.

Finally, Chris gave us the results. "While Captain Alberta did a surprisingly good job, even incorporating his, uh, superpower, the winner of the second challenge and invincibility is...the Human Cricket, with thirty seconds!"

"Yes!" cheered the Cruelly Competitive Cricket, and started rubbing the metal on her legs again.

"Don't make me change my mind, Courtney!" Chris yelled, blocking his ears. Courtney stopped, but you could tell how happy she was.

So that night, us girls all discussed who to vote off. Well, Lindsay, Leshawna, Beth and I at least.

"I wish we could vote off Courtney!" Lindsay sighed.

"Girl's got game, that's for sure." Leshawna remarked.

I nodded. "Yeah, and that makes her a major threat. But who are we going to vote off instead?"

"I say we vote off Duncan." Beth suggested. "He's super strong and much as Courtney would hate to admit it, it'd probably kill her."

"Kill two jerks with one stone? I like it." Leshawna said. She and Lindsay agreed. "But there's only four of us! We might not be able to do it on our own!"

I considered telling them I wouldn't do it, but decided against. I kept chopping and changing, not sure if I wanted Duncan to go or not. One moment I thought I would vote with the girls, the next I'd decide to vote for Justin, if by any chance Courtney and the other boys had voted for him.

Beth went off to try to convince someone else to our side.
But that night, we all voted electronically, as usual. My finger hovered between Duncan, Justin, Duncan, Justin...I closed my eyes and stabbed my finger at one of the two boys. I didn't know which.

Chris threw us all Gilded Chris awards as usual. I had one, Courtney had one, and so did Lindsay, Justin and Harold. Beth had one. That left the last two.

"And finally..." Chris said... "...Duncan!"

Beth, Lindsay and I gasped, staring at our eliminated friend. "Leshawna!"

"You guys voted for me?"

Then suddenly, Harold was on his knees in front of his goddess (yeah, I've heard him calling her that) almost in tears. "I'm sorry!" he blubbed. "I didn't know if I could trust you, but I made a mistake! A big mistake!"

As he cried, Leshawna's face softened. "Aw, honey pie, don't you worry." she soothed. "I made a mistake once too: Don't hate the player, hate the game."

"Do you forgive me?" Harold asked.

Leshawna gave him a hug. "Come here, sugar baby. Leshawna's got a whole lotta love."

"Okay, okay, enough with the warmth and affection." Chris snapped. "Time for the Walk of Shame."

So the girls and I didn't get to give her a hug goodbye, but we called our goodbyes as she left. Harold, too, called out once again that he'd miss her.
"Aw, I'll miss you too, baby." Leshawna told him. "And I'll be rooting for you. You just make sure you stand up for yourself, you hear? You kick Duncan's butt!"

At that same moment, Duncan said "Hey, Harold, what's that in your pocket?" Then he kicked the poor guy and ran off, laughing.

I chased after my delinquent friend, screeching "Get back here, All-Seeing Nothing! Queen Claw has a little piece of advice for you!"

Duncan stopped running just before we reached the trailers, turned around, and said softly but dangerously "Oh yeah? What is it, Queen Claw?"

I let a smile spread over my face. "Scratching is far more effective than kicking." I burst out laughing, and Duncan did too.

"You're so gonna pay for mocking my tactics." he teased.

"Oh yeah?" I said back. "You gonna kick me too?"

"Well, I don't kick little girls. You on the other hand..." Duncan laughed again and just gave me a light shove. "'Night, Stephie."

But little did I know, that I would have to show my skills in combat later on. And that day was coming a lot sooner than I would have imagined.

What does Stephanie mean? Here's a hint: Tying with Lindsay for the first part of the challenge will have an effect.